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FDA Says, No Safety Concerns with Moderna Coronavirus Vaccine; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Publicly Recognizes Biden as President- Elect. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2020 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone, top of the hour. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

The nation now potentially one giant step closer to a second COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA released its analysis of Moderna's vaccine just days before a major meeting to consider emergency use authorization for that vaccine. The agency saying it has, quote, no safety concerns for that new vaccine, and that is good news.

HARLOW: It's great news.

The positive news comes as we're watching doses of Pfizer's COVID vaccine arriving at hundreds of sites across the country. The rollout in full swing and frontline health care workers are first in line, important as we're seeing COVID-19 hospitalizations also at an all- time high nationwide.

We are live across the country where these first vaccinations are taking place. Let's begin first with our Health Reporter, Jacqueline Howard. Good morning to you.

So, that's a big headline this morning from the FDA this morning on Moderna's vaccine. Tell us what it means ahead of the Thursday meeting on it.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: It is a big headline. And this briefing document, it's 54 pages, it's going to be a main point of discussion in that advisory committee meeting happening this Thursday. And what the document tells us, it gives a summary of the safety and efficacy when it comes to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

When it comes to that safety profile it does say that there are no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA, so that's a major point right there. And then it does confirm that the efficacy appears to be 94.5 percent, which is what Moderna announced previously.

Now, when we look at this data, here is how the Moderna vaccine compares with Pfizer's vaccine, which was authorized just last week. Some key differences, Moderna is administered as two doses, 28 days apart, whereas Pfizer is two doses, 21 days apart. The storage is another key difference. Moderna stored between negative 25 to negative 15 degrees Celsius, Pfizer requires much colder storage temperatures, at negative 80 to negative 60.

The efficacy appears similar, Moderna is 94.5, Pfizer is 95. But another key difference, Jim and Poppy, Moderna is being considered for authorization in ages 18 and older, whereas Pfizer is already authorized for 16 and older. So Pfizer includes those 16-year olds and 17-year-olds.

But, overall, after reviewing this FDA briefing document, there's no reason to think one vaccine is necessarily better than the other. They're both mRNA vaccines. It's just the main takeaway here is that if this emergency use authorization does get issued this week, then we will have two COVID-19 vaccines.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and that means more availability, we hope. Jacqueline Howard, thanks very much.

All right, so these scenes are happening across the country, the first folks getting these vaccines. CNN's Miguel Marquez, he is in New Jersey, where the first person in that state was just vaccinated. And, Miguel, I'm curious how quickly it rolls out and how quickly they get this to a large number of the health care workers there.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, not as quickly as health professionals would like. In this first tranche, they're going to get 76,000 doses across the state of New Jersey. There's going to be six different locations where they will be able to roll those out, three different phases of people getting vaccines.

To give you an idea, this facility behind us can do 600 shots a day and they have five other locations where they'll do that. As the Moderna and other vaccines rollout and more Pfizer becomes available, they will increase the number of hospitals where one can get the vaccine and then be on that. They'll increase it to community health centers where the vast majority of the population can get it. But they think it will be months and months before you get that critical mass in the population getting this vaccine.

Keep in mind, in this first phase, there are 650,000 individuals who need to get that vaccine, the health care workers, people who deal with those who have COVID directly. We spoke to an E.R. nurse, a registered nurse, who has been at this facility since the worst, the deepest, darkest days of the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARITZA BENIQUEZ, RESIDENT NURSE, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: it is -- it's almost hard to put in words, right, to tell you what my -- what my deepest soul feels having received this shot. This is to me -- this is a lifeline. This to me, I don't have to be afraid. And I know that in another month-and-a-half, I will not have to be afraid to touch people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:01]

MARQUEZ: So, Maritza Beniquez was the very first New Jerseyan to receive that shot. In 21 days, she'll have to get a second shot before she's fully vaccinated and then she said, I'll probably have to wait two weeks after that before I know for sure that I am fully vaccinated.

What she and others are concerned with here and around the country is that people will see it that people are getting those shots and they will think, I can take the mask off, it's done, they're not. There's a long, long road to go before this thing is over, but it's hope. Back to you.

SCIUTTO: Patient and hope. Miguel Marquez, thank you.

Well, the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine being administered right now to health care workers at the University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. With me is Dr. Shereef Elnahal, President and Chief Executive of that facility. He is also a former New Jersey state health commissioner. Doctor, good to have you on this morning.

DR. SHEREEF ELNAHAL, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: So, let me ask you this. I just want to ask what a difference it makes for health care workers to be receiving this protection now, because they have been at the tip of the spear of this from the beginning, facing undue risk or outsized risk and, therefore, many of them paying with their lives. I mean, you mentioned 11 employees at your hospital have died from the coronavirus. Tell us how you're feeling today seeing these vaccines happening?

ELNAHAL: Well, I tell you, it is so inspiring and we are so proud of Maritza, who you just heard from. She, in her words, is a proud Latina American nurse hero. And that's exactly how we view her here and we're so grateful because she not only delivered her remarks in English, she did so in Spanish. We are seeing Latin Americans come through at far higher rates than any other demographic now here in the city of Newark. And what she did for this community is heroic.

And, by the way, she has been doing that every day since the pandemic. She's been into thrusting herself into patients' rooms, she's been doing chest compressions when needed. And she told all of us that she doesn't -- no longer has to be afraid to do that life saving work. And, by the way, she and so many others in our hospital have been doing it anyway despite being afraid and we're so proud of her.

SCIUTTO: Tell us about the timeline, how soon do you expect in your health care system, but more broadly, in New Jersey, just as a measure of this, to have most or all frontline health care workers vaccinated? ELNAHAL: Well, we are tasked with getting all of our frontline health care workers here at University Hospital vaccinated first and then we will open it up to the community. It will take about a few weeks to get everybody here on campus done, and that's almost 5,000 people.

We should emphasize that it's not just physicians and nurses but it's environmental service workers, food service workers, clerks, folks who interact with patients on a daily basis and put themselves at risk by doing so. Medical students, residents, people in medical school, all of that needs taken care of and then we open our doors for health care providers across this community.

SCIUTTO: Secretary Azar has said that he envisions the possibility of the broader population receiving vaccinations in numbers, tens of millions, by March, a little earlier than others, such Fauci, talk about more April, May, into early summer. I mean, is that too rosy an outlook or can you see that happening?

ELNAHAL: I can see it happening if everything goes well. And one of the things that the federal government and the state government here is doing in New Jersey, we're testing out models for being able to efficiently deliver these vaccines. We estimate that we're going to be able to do just over 600 vaccinations per day. That amounts to over 3,000 per week.

And if you scale that up to mega vaccination sites for the community, they can do not just health care workers but first responders, folks who are vulnerable to the disease, as the CDC defines the prioritization, we do think we'll be able to get there by March. But, again, all of that has to go well and we're proud to be (INAUDIBLE) for that model.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, just give you an opportunity here to speak to folks listening at home, to tell them why, even as these vaccinations are happening and when they, you and I and others eventually get this, why it's important still to practice the other mitigation measures, such as wearing a mask, social distancing, et cetera? Why is that still important even as people get vaccinated?

ELNAHAL: It's absolutely important to do so. And while these vaccines are very effective, they're not perfect. So, remember that 5 percent of people who got the Pfizer vaccine ended getting COVID-19. So it's still possible to get COVID-19. That's a much lower percentage than we expected, which is fantastic. But you can still get COVID-19 and you can still transmit COVID-19, even if you do get a vaccine. No vaccine is perfect.

And so for that reason, until we get to that 70 to 80 percent of the population vaccinated, we still have to mask, socially distance, avoid indoor gatherings and follow all the precautions of public health officials are calling for.

[10:10:10]

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, we appreciate your help, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, in explaining this to people but we also wish you, we wish all the folks working at the hospital there the best of luck as they get this protection.

ELNAHAL: Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: Poppy?

HARLOW: All right. Well, soon, the first vaccine in Illinois will be given at Chicago's Loretto Hospital. Our Jimenez joins us with more. Good morning, Omar. What are we going to see?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. Right now, it's a waiting game. As we saw vaccinations happen in other parts of the country yesterday, we're expecting Chicago's first vaccination to happen later this morning at Loretto Hospital just behind me on Chicago's west side. It's going to go to, as we have seen, frontline health care workers, those in that 1a group, the ones most at risk, as we have seen not just here but in places across the country.

It was yesterday that that vaccine stock actually arrived here in Illinois. About 43,000 doses got to Illinois' National Strategic Stockpile. And then the city of Chicago got its own set of dosage upwards of 20,000 is what was expected.

Now, this vaccination is going to be happening at 11:30 local time here. And to give you context, it's situated in the city's Austin neighborhood, as I mentioned, on the west side. It's a predominantly black neighborhood within a zip code that has among the highest death rates from COVID-19 in the city.

And that's part of why this hospital was chosen for this first vaccination, as a symbol to this next chapter that hopefully this will provide a ray of hope for that they wanted to go to a place where they were serving greatly impacted communities.

And then we look at next steps. After this first vaccination, it's expected to be pushed to all hospitals in this city with at least two of them telling me they plan to get through their 1,000 initial doses combined by Christmas just to keep this moving.

And then city health commissioner also says that by the second to third week of vaccinations, they plan to move into those long-term care facilities. And by the end of December, they plan to have totaled around 100,000 to 150,000 doses assuming that the emergency use authorization goes through for the Moderna vaccine, which will then add to the amount of supply they get.

But, again, beginning of a new chapter that officially starts later this morning here in Chicago. Poppy?

HARLOW: For sure. I'm so glad to see it happening there. As you said, one of the hardest hit spots of the city. Thanks, Omar, for the reporting.

SCIUTTO: Well, so far, only a small number of Americans know exactly what it's like to receive the vaccine. That's one of them. We're going to speak to a New York doctor on the frontlines of all this, who's one of the very first to get the vaccine in the entire country. The Electoral College says Joe Biden will be the next president. Of course, we knew that. Even Vladimir Putin is now offering his congratulations. Many key sitting Republicans simply won't utter the words.

HARLOW (voice over): Plus, just a few days left for Congress to reach two hugely important deals, fund the government and help millions of struggling Americans with economic relief, will they get the job done?

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): So, today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He has devoted himself to public service for a number of years. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Senator Harris.

Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Just a moment ago, on the Senate floor, a moment for this, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, of course, a very powerful Republican, acknowledging what the majority, frankly, of sitting Republican lawmakers have not yet done, that Joe Biden is the president-elect, Kamala Harris is the vice president-elect. Of course, Poppy, it took several weeks but the day after the Electoral College spoke, we now hear from the majority leader.

HARLOW: That's right. Let's go straight to our colleague, Manu Raju. As Jim, said it's a big moment. But, by the way, only to follow Vladimir Putin, I mean, that says a lot that Putin acknowledged it first, no?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. A lot of Republicans had not been willing to defy the president as he's been making baseless claim and launching conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory about the election. Most Republicans, as we have seen for four years in the Trump presidency, don't stray from the president, rarely do they break party lines here.

But this is a significant moment and likely will lead to a floodgate of other Republicans who will acknowledge reality here that they all see, if they're not willing to acknowledge it publically that Joe Biden is, in fact, the winner here of the election.

Mitch McConnell also signaling that there was going to be no appetite at all among Senate Republicans or very little appetite to do anything to overturn the elections when a joint session of Congress meets on January 6th to formally count the votes. We know House conservatives, there are some that want to try to object and are looking for some Senate Republican partners to try to make an issue of it, they're not going to succeed in that effort. And Mitch McConnell clearly recognizes it is now over.

Now, I have asked Mitch McConnell for weeks, asking him, will you acknowledge Joe Biden is president-elect? This is very clear. Why won't you say anything right now, why won't you speak out against the president? He has sidestepped those questions time and again, also has not raised any issues at all about the president's going after the integrity of the election, trying to undercut the foundation of democracy.

[10:20:06]

We have not heard Mitch McConnell criticize the president one bit.

Instead, just now, on the floor, he went out through a laundry list of what he viewed as major accomplishments by this president, eulogizing his time in office, praising everything, from his national security policy to confirming judges to the Supreme Court. And then he pivoted to say, the Electoral College spoke, it is now time to congratulate Joe Biden, now time to congratulate Kamala Harris and make clear that they will, in fact, assume power come January 20th.

So, now, the big question, of course, is how will President Trump react at a critical time here on Capitol Hill where they're trying to get so much done, including a major economic rescue package. Will the president be upset about this in any way? Of course, we don't know what he will ultimately do, and sign a deal if they actually do get a deal.

But a big moment here, at least, that the Republican leader acknowledging the reality here. We'll see if other Republicans decide to join him, guys.

SCIUTTO: Well, as you know, you only need one senator to sign off on challenging the results on the floor come January. There have already been congressmen willing to do that. We'll see if the whole caucus listens to the Senate majority leader. Manu Raju, thanks very much.

Let's bring in CNN's John Harwood and Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

John, I mean, moments before the Senate majority leader made those comments on the Senate floor, the president continued to tweet out baseless conspiracy theory attacks about the stolen election. Any reaction from the White House yet, and if not, how do you think the president handles this?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is going to be a fascinating moment, Jim. I just checked Twitter before coming on the air.

The last thing I saw in the president's feed was him re-tweeting this bizarre tweet from Lin Wood, an Atlanta lawyer, who seems completely deranged and suggested in his tweet that Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger of Georgia will be going to jail for having refused to overturn the will of the voters.

But the fascinating thing is going to be -- Mitch McConnell has been holding this back to avoid antagonizing President Trump perhaps for some legislative reasons, but more importantly because of these two runoff elections in Georgia that will occur on January 5th. President Trump has the power to sink those two incumbent Republican senators if he wanted to by discouraging his people from supporting them, Kelly Loeffler, the appointed senator, David Perdue, the elected senator.

We have seen in the last few days that Bill Barr, the attorney general, when he recognized the reality that there was no election fraud, he's now out of a job. He resigned rather than take any more abuse from the president.

The president has the capacity to take away Mitch McConnell's job as majority leader if he sinks those two. Is he willing to do it? Republicans are about to find out just how self-obsessed the president really is.

SCIUTTO: It's a great point, because, John, I was going to say, he is checking the books right now to see if he can fire the Senate majority leader. But, of course, he cannot. But, as you say, he has enormous influence over maintain that majority.

HARWOOD: That's right.

HARLOW: Sabrina, Kevin McCarthy still hasn't acknowledged this. I mean, doesn't this put a whole lot pressure on House leadership there for the minority leader?

SABRINA SIDDIQUI, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I certainly think the expectation is that now that Mitch McConnell has acknowledged President-elect Biden's victory, a lot of other Republicans in Congress will likely follow. But there's perhaps no greater reflection of the kind of climate President Trump and Republicans have created and the fact that it's news, that it's a significant moment for the Senate majority leader to acknowledge the outcome of the election.

And the Electoral College only confirmed what we've already known for more than a month that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States. And so you are going to see more Republicans express an appetite to move on, but the impact of the efforts to undermine confidence -- public confidence in the election and its results means that there's now a faction of Republican voters who don't believe that President-elect Biden's victory is legitimate.

And that is, of course, the consequence of what we heard from President Trump with the backing of many Republicans in Congress over the past few weeks.

And that is going to, I think, be a challenge moving forward when you have a party that has effectively tried to delegitimize the outcome of the election now working or perhaps signaling they will work with President-elect Biden, who, of course, campaigned as a consensus holder. I think it's wishful thinking to suggest that we're suddenly going to turn the page and see Republican leaders in Congress cooperating with the new administration.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I was just writing down a list of the folks who would have to be in on this great steal, right, for it to be true, John Harwood, the attorney general, who has denied widespread fraud, the majority leader, the courts in many states as well as the Supreme Court, election officials in all these contested states of both parties, right?

[10:25:10]

I mean, it just underlines the ridiculousness of the charge.

But I wonder, politically, beyond that attack as a way to undermine Biden's win and soften Trump's loss and to raise money for Trump, this also foreshadows efforts in legislatures around the country, does it not, to restrict voting more, restrict drop boxes, we're already seeing that in Georgia, restrict extended voting, et cetera? I mean, that's part of the plan, is it not?

HARWOOD: There's no question that Republican politicians, as a general matter, look at the way the United States population has changed demographically, see the fact that the white voters that they represent are losing the center of gravity in American politics and their response to that is to try to make it harder for other people to vote.

We've seen that consistently with voter I.D. laws, with efforts to restrict early voting, we saw it the president's attack on mail-in voting, which was a response to the particular circumstances of the pandemic. Yes, they are going to try.

That doesn't mean they are going to succeed, however, and some of the states that, of course, were most closely contested, they have Democratic governors who can veto legislation of that kind. But, no, we're in for an extended period of time in which Republicans who understand that they're on the wrong side of history are going to try to hold back history and do that by whatever tools and levers they have available. And they'll do it even though their tools and leverage has proven inadequate to save President Trump and give him a second term.

HARLOW: Thank you both, big news, John Harwood, Sabrina. We'll be right back.

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