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Second COVID-19 Vaccine Near Authorization as U.S. Hits Record Hospitalizations; Employers Weighing Mandatory Vaccines; Biden Stumps for Democrats in Georgia; No Response from Kremlin on Navalny Poisoning; Boko Haram Claims Kidnapping of 33+ Nigerian Students; Deciphering the Trump-QAnon Connection. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired December 16, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, not one but soon two vaccines for COVID-19. Drugmaker Moderna expecting authorization from U.S. regulators in days.
Emergency measures across Europe to try and slow the rate of infection with hard lockdowns, nighttime curfews, restrictions on gatherings and a Christmas with no hugs.
In Nigeria, the kidnapping of hundreds of students, the cruelty and ransom demands we've seen all before, including an inept government response.
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VAUSE: There seems to be a sense of renewed hope across the U.S., maybe there can be a return to some sense of normalcy with the second coronavirus vaccine poised for authorization, just days after the biggest mass inoculation in the country's history began.
Hospitals nationwide, thousands of hospital workers on the front lines of the pandemic now being immunized for COVID-19. In the coming days, after reviewing information from, Moderna an advisory committee is expected to recommend a second vaccine for emergency use.
If all goes as planned the U.S. FDA should greenlight the vaccine at the end of the week.
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MONCEF SLAOUI, CORONAVIRUS VACCINE CZAR: All in all I think both vaccines will have a great impact on this pandemic going forward.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Even with 2 vaccines, an end to the pandemic is still many, many months away, in the meantime, the U.S. has seen record high rates of infection as well as hospital admissions. CNN's Alexandra Field has the latest.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first vaccine from Pfizer is going into arms across America. Now a second vaccine is nearly here.
Moderna's vaccine, proven 94 percent effective, is likely to receive its emergency use authorization later this week. That would trigger the shipment of six million initial doses from the company. That's double the number Pfizer sent out in its first batch, which has already arrived in all 50 states; 425 more sites are receiving shipments today.
In New York City, front-line workers are lining up to get theirs, Chicago's first doses administered at a hospital in one of the city's hardest-hit communities. California received more than 33,000 doses of the vaccine on Monday, nearly the same number of new hospital cases in the state on the same day.
DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: I think the biggest concern is accidental loss of temperature control in a cold chain-based -- particularly with the Pfizer vaccine. That's really the biggest concern, I think the last-mile delivery inoculation of the vaccines into subjects.
FIELD: Out of the gate, FedEx and UPS are reporting no problems with the massive undertaking of moving vaccine across the country.
A fast moving nor'easter could affect shipments later this week.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Sixty million people right now are under some type of watch or warning.
FIELD: Along with the challenge of getting vaccines to Americans, there's the challenge of getting Americans to take it. A Kaiser study shows 71 percent of people are likely to take it. The same study shows black Americans, Republicans and people from rural areas are more reluctant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence along with President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris should all get the vaccines as soon as possible.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: For security reasons, I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can.
FIELD: In another promising development, the FDA is announcing they are authorizing the first at home test where you can also read your results at home. That's another step forward for so many people waiting days for results -- in New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.
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VAUSE: Arthur Caplan is a professor of bioethics and head of medical ethics at NYU Medical Center and he's with us from New York.
Professor, thanks for coming on.
DR. ARTHUR CAPLAN, NYU LANGONE'S DIVISION OF MEDICAL ETHICS: Thank you for having. Me
VAUSE: There has been a lot of discussion about the possibility of a national vaccine mandate. I want you to listen to President-Elect Biden. He's talking about a government mandate for face masks, here he is.
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BIDEN: If the federal government has authority, I'm going to issue a standing order that, in federal buildings, you have to be masked; in transportation and interstate transportation you must be masked, in airplanes and buses, et cetera.
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VAUSE: So in other, ways the president doesn't have the authority to even issue a nationwide mask mandate, let alone a mate for. Vaccines but state governments do, they mandate vaccines all the time for school kids or health care workers.
Potentially does this end up being like a politicized issue?
Like wearing masks or not wearing masks?
CAPLAN: It usually is likely to become a very politicized issue. But I'll say in the short run no mandates for vaccines because they're still under emergency use authorization. That means technically they're still experimental.
It would be very tough to mandate anybody to take something that is unlicensed and hasn't been fully approved by the FDA. Remember they approved it on early data but not on a final approval. Once final approval comes, that could be in a few months, we probably will see some mandates.
But I'll make a prediction, John, I think it's going to happen through the private sector first, before government.
VAUSE: Just very quickly on that issue, that's an important point. The FDA has approved one vaccine for emergency use, another one is set to be authorized for, rather for emergency use, not approved.
I thought that was some legal blurring on the lines here whether they can a mandate an emergency use vaccine or whether or not it does need to have full approval. CAPLAN: Yes, I believe that, if you tried to mandate an emergency use
authorized vaccine, it wouldn't stand up to a court challenge. There would be court challenges, you get some opinions who say well maybe they can mandate it. I don't see it.
I think again with the incomplete data, it looks very promising, I would take a vaccine if offered to me tomorrow morning. But mandating something that doesn't have final approval, I don't think so.
VAUSE: OK, well you talked about how, it will be vaccines in the private sector which is sort of driving immunization around the country. Already we're seeing requirements for negative COVID-19 tests, Emirate Airlines requires travelers from these countries you are about to see on the map, they must arrive with a negative test for COVID-19, taken within four days.
Travelers for another group of countries, they need to arrive with a negative test and then they are tested again on arrival in Dubai. It doesn't seem to be much of a stretch to go from a requirement of a negative test certificate to proof of immunization.
CAPLAN: Absolutely no stretch at all. You are going to see it with certainty for international air travel. Countries don't want people coming in from places with huge outbreaks like the U.S. or some other countries. They want to protect if they've been locked down and have gotten their viral spread under control.
That's even with vaccines, they still want to be careful. There are still people out there who don't respond to vaccines. So I absolutely think you're going to see, with air travel, cruise ships, you're probably going to see with train travel when crossing international borders and within United States.
The other places you're going to see mandates happen very quickly is the military, they don't want to put up with refusal and dissent. I would predict very soon we're going to start seeing mandates occur there as soon as you get an approved vaccine.
VAUSE: It is still though unclear about whether or not your employer can essentially mandate a vaccine for employees. It's highly recommended sometimes.
But it's still one of those gray areas, isn't it?
CAPLAN: It is but, look, if the employer sides to work, here you have to be vaccinated because you're dealing with, let's say, handling meat products, it's unsafe, it's going to damage my business if people worry that they're going to get infected or that you are sick when handling, food.
I think you can make the case there. Someone says UPS, people are going to be afraid to have you delivering packages, even with a mask. I think you're going to get vaccine mandates there. Slowly, I think they'll creep in. And then I think state governments may be emboldened to say let's try a mask mandate.
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CAPLAN: Maybe with exceptions for people with medical excuses. I don't think you're going to get one for a philosophical exemption, like I don't like it. But I think they may move in that direction.
VAUSE: The president can't order a national vaccine mandate but he can set the example, listen to. This
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BIDEN: Dr. Fauci recommends I get the vaccine has sooner than later. I just want to make sure we do it by the numbers when we do it. But when I do it, you will have notice and we will do it publicly.
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VAUSE: OK, that was the president-elect.
But what about the current president?
Given his administration put all their eggs in the vaccine basket and the way they've dealt with this pandemic from the very beginning, it seems a lot more important to see Trump get an injection than Biden.
CAPLAN: Well, I would agree, I think there's no chance that's going to happen. He may get it, if you will, to protect himself, maybe his staff, maybe his friends, maybe people in Mar-a-lago. But he has given up on doing anything about this pandemic. He doesn't talk about, he doesn't reference, it I don't think he's going to come out on the White House lawn and get vaccinated.
So I think the hopes are on Biden. People ask me should other politicians do it as a way to be a role model. I'll say right now, no. I believe what they should do is go to a nursing home, find their mom, get her vaccinated and stand there as it happens.
VAUSE: Good advice. Professor Caplan, it's good to see, you think you are.
CAPLAN: My pleasure.
VAUSE: Most countries across Europe are now under new lockdown orders or nighttime curfews or other restrictions or a combination of all. 3 desperate measures to slow an accelerating spread of the coronavirus. The head of Germany's national public health institute says the crisis is as serious as it's ever been and officials are demanding the E.U. move quickly on vaccine approval. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports now from Berlin.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Several European countries have been putting pressure on the European medicines agency to get the approval process for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 going faster. It seems as though the European Union is now budging, the European
Commission announcing on Tuesday that a key meeting for the approval of that vaccine has now been moved to December 21st. Initially the European medicines agency had set the deadline for the approval of that vaccine to December 29th.
Especially the German government is under some heat here at home, especially because the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was actually developed in Germany. But it is not available to people here because the Germans are part of that European approach to get the approval process going.
In fact the German health minister, he said, Germany had opted for a pan-European approach to the European medicines agency, which would mean that the vaccine would get a full approval rather than emergency use authorization, like it has gotten, for instance, in the United States and in the U.K.
The German health minister, he came out on Tuesday, he said that he believes it is possible that the vaccine could get approval here in the European Union on December 23rd. And then the vaccinations could start shortly thereafter.
Of course Germany's currently facing a surge in new coronavirus infections and also a surge in coronavirus deaths -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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VAUSE: Denmark is expanding its lockdown nationwide after more than 3,000 new cases in one day, a record high. As of Wednesday, students in the 5th grade and higher will move to online classes. Bars, restaurants, theaters, museums and gyms will close.
These restrictions will be in place until January 3rd. London is back to very high tier 3 restrictions now, along with some nearby areas. The British health secretary says infection rates are rising among all age groups. Case numbers are doubling about every 7 days. Without tougher restrictions, hospitals could be overwhelmed.
Under tier 3, all hospitality venues, including pubs, cafes and restaurants will be closed, except for takeout and delivery. Health officials are urging a limit on travel.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: The Electoral College has spoken. So today I want to congratulate President-Elect Joe Biden.
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VAUSE: That's the U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, finally recognizing Joe Biden as president-elect, six weeks after the Election Day and only after the Electoral College made Biden's win official.
Even Russia's Vladimir Putin beat McConnell to, it sending congratulation in a telegram. Hours earlier the Kremlin had said President Putin was waiting for the official result before acknowledging Biden as the winner. The Russian leader wrote he's ready for cooperation with the Biden White House.
President-Elect Biden returned to Atlanta on Tuesday, campaigning for the two Democrats running in Georgia's Senate runoff election. At a drive-in rally, he urged voters to remember Republican efforts to overturn the election results. And he criticized the Republican-led Senate for failing to pass a COVID relief package.
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VAUSE: The outcome of Georgia's runoff races will determine which party controls the Senate and whether or not Biden's agenda, will be successful.
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BIDEN: I need two senators from the state who want to get something done, not two senators who are just going to get in the way. Send me these two men and we will control the Senate and we will change the lives of people in Georgia.
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VAUSE: Biden is calling for a big turnout, so Republicans cannot challenge these results. CNN's Kyung Lah reports on how Black women are leading the charge to get voters to the polls once again.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did it one time, we're going to do it again.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it shout out the vote through the neighborhoods of Columbus, Georgia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your vote counted.
LAH: LaTosha Brown of Black Voters Matter and a caravan of buses weave through the cities.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going through the neighborhood.
LAH: As early voting kicks off for the state's two Senate seats in the January 5th runoffs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The job is not finished. Got to do it again. We got to do it again.
LATOSHA BROWN, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK VOTERS MATTER: There is no path for the Democratic Party to flip these two seats without the acknowledgment, not just the acknowledgment, but the impact and work of black voters. LAH: LaTosha Brown and black women organizers like Stacey Abrams harnessed years of their grassroots work.
BROWN: We need those seats in Georgia. Stay in Georgia, y'all.
LAH: In the 2020 election, nearly 30 percent of voters were black with the majority of them voting for Democrats helping flip Georgia blue in November. The two Democratic Senate challengers are counting on that turnout to beat the incumbent Republicans in January.
BIDEN: We've got to vote. LAH: At stake, control of the U.S. Senate. Why President-elect Joe
Biden is campaigning in Georgia. Historically, Democrats have not shown up to the polls in runoffs. The earliest of Georgia's early voters say it's different this time. Before sunrise as rain fell, we met Kenya Debarros waiting to early vote.
KENYA DEBARROS, GEORGIA DEMOCRATIC VOTER: It's snow flurrying now. I have worn more layers if I know it was going to be like this.
LAH: But you haven't left.
DEBARROS: No. This election is too important.
LAH: Also in this pre-dawn line, Republican David Koon.
DAVID KOON, GEORGIA REPUBLICAN VOTER: We never give up. We always vote and we always vote this way.
LAH: As the day goes on and the line grows, Republicans say they believe President Trump's baseless attacks on the election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our votes should mean something. They don't mean anything now.
LAH: But they still voted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just voted, early voting and we're thrilled to have voted.
LAH: It may sound contradictory, but the Republican voters we meet are listening to this call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to vote early, right? Vote early.
LAH: This is Republican Senator David Perdue's bus tour as he meets supporters they tell us --
Do you think at this point you can say Joe Biden is the president, that he won?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
LAH: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I still believe in a miracle.
LAH: Even as reality closes in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it's going to impact the Republicans. The Republicans are going to get out and vote in the Senate race.
LAH: Republicans determined to demonstrate Georgia remains red, Democrats running a race to prove the road ahead is blue -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Columbus, Georgia.
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VAUSE: Up next, Alexei Navalny speaks to CNN. We have his reaction to our exclusive investigation into the attempt to kill him with poison and his concerns about Russia's chemical weapons program.
Also, trucks full of cargo lined up for miles in Calais, the nation stockpiling whatever it can two weeks before Brexit.
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VAUSE: So far, only silence from Russia on a joint CNN Bellingcat investigation into the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Kremlin canceled press briefings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Russian state media have not reported on our investigation, which found evidence a team of elite Russian operatives trained in using toxins and nerve agents had followed Navalny for years. The Kremlin's loudest critic was poisoned in August. He nearly died. But CNN has not confirmed Russia was behind. It here is part of Clarissa Ward's exclusive report.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Back in Moscow, we went in search of the FSB's toxins team.
WARD: So we're here now at the home of one of the FSB team and we are going to go see if he has anything to say to us.
WARD (voice-over): We enter a rundown apartment building on the outskirts of Moscow, where operative Oleg Tayakin lives.
WARD: (Speaking foreign language).
My name is Clarissa Ward. I work for CNN.
Can I ask you a couple of questions? (Speaking foreign language).
Was it your team that poisoned Navalny, please?
Do you have any comment?
He doesn't seem to want to talk to us.
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VAUSE: After that report, Alexei Navalny also spoke with Christiane Amanpour. Despite being a target, he says Russia's development of chemical weapons in general is the most worrying part of these revelations. Here is part of the conversation.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST: What about what Bellingcat has discovered as well, and that is that, in the investigation, found out that actually the Kremlin still runs a very sophisticated chemical weapons operation, having told the world that it was no longer doing that?
What more can you tell us about that?
And why would they need a chemical weapons production facility and stockpiling?
ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: From the perspective of the big picture, this is the most dangerous part, because -- well, me personally, of course, I'm very worried about this part of investigation connected with me.
But the fact that Russia is developing the very, very advanced type of chemical weapon is -- it's absolutely horrible, because, back in the '90s, actually, Russia was one of the country who's really pushing the idea of the total banning chemical weapon and eliminating every -- every single gram of chemical weapon all over the world.
And it was absolutely right position. And now we have several institution - - and we know it from the investigation of Bellingcat -- at least three of them, who are developing both chemical weapon and ways of delivering of this chemical weapon, including this nano- encapsulation and other sophisticated ways to poison people, to kill people.
And so chemical weapon, I know from my own experiences, it's a horrible thing. They don't -- you don't have any useful way of using it. So, definitely, they are developing it for killing people, for killing people in the hidden way.
And kind of additional bonus of using chemical weapons against your opponents, that you're just terrifying people, because people are afraid of this, because some of people, they can be brave enough not to be in prison or to being shot or something like, because it's something you're facing in the real life, and you read from the news. But the same -- the idea of just drop dead with touching something is terrifying people.
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NAVALNY: And you mentioned that we know about several attempts of killing people with the Novichok and other chemical weapon. And we know it because these people have survived.
But we have no idea how many cases, how many successful cases was made.
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VAUSE: A lot more from Alexei Navalny's interview next hour here on CNN NEWSROOM.
E.U. leaders will meet in just a few hours to discuss contingency plans for a no deal Brexit. The clock is ticking to reach an agreement before the end of the year. Some are still optimistic about an 11th hour deal, including Germany's ambassador to the E.U.
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MICHAEL CLAUSS, GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO THE E.U.: There is some unfinished business. Obviously, starting with Brexit but it's not over yet. We still have a couple of days to go. So we will see and although the year (ph) hasn't come yet and I think there is still clearly the possibility of having a deal, maybe by the end of this week. There is at least a chance.
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VAUSE: The uncertainty around these Brexit talks has sent many in Britain into a stockpiling frenzy, buying up as much as they can before January 1st. It's anyone's guess what trade will look like with the E.U. Melissa Bell reports now from Calais, France.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not the post Brexit queues that many had imagined, but pre-Brexit queues causing pileups in Calais, as the British stockpile and make the most of the single market ahead of January 1st.
SEBASTIEN RIVERA, FRENCH NATIONAL FEDERATION OF TRANSPORTERS (through translator): In the memory of truck drivers, we have never known such volumes of heavy goods vehicles heading for Great Britain. The uncertainty associated with Brexit, a deal or no deal, possible custom duties, all are causing the British to build up stocks.
BELL (voice-over): Sebastien Rivera says he believes there are up to 50 percent more trucks coming through Calais on their way to the U.K., causing jams like this 10 mile buildup he filmed last Wednesday.
Not so much the consequence of Brexit as the anticipation of it. 80 percent of the road traffic between the U.K. and the E.U. crosses at the French border. Much of it here at the port of Calais.
And while political leaders have been searching for a Brexit deal in Brussels these last few years, authorities here have been quietly preparing for the fact that there might not be one.
At Calais port, authorities believe that any delays after January 1st will not so much be for trucks leaving France as for those arriving here, with extra checks on products coming from outside the E.U.
JEAN-MARC PUISSESSEAU, CEO, PORT BOULOGNE, CALAIS: For the port of Calais, 2020, we have two viruses. One is corona, the other one is Brexit. Corona, we will be behind and hope it (INAUDIBLE). We at least know what will be the consequences of the Brexit, so the year 2022 will be a wonderful year for us.
BELL (voice-over): But haulers are worried. For them, time is money. In fact being stuck in traffic cost French haulers one euro a minute, according to their union.
RIVERA (through translator): We know there will be extra time needed to carry out the new procedures, extra time for the new administrative steps, for the checking of those steps and for the checking of merchandise. And we are worried when we see what is happening now. It can only fuel fears for what will happen after January 1st.
BELL (voice-over): Already, he says the delay that is being cause by British stockpiling can mean a return crossing of the channel that takes 10 to 20 hours more than it used to -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Calais.
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VAUSE: The city of Paris has been fined more than $110,000 for appointing too many women to senior roles. The mayor called it an absurd joke and said she would deliver the money herself.
The public service ministry said that the appointments violated a national rule on gender parity, with 11 women taking senior positions and only 5 men in similar roles. In 2013, the law was passed, which has since been repealed. It says once section should not hold more than 60 percent of government positions.
Next up on CNN NEWSROOM, the terror group Boko Haram claiming responsibility for the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian school boys and what sounds all too familiar to what happened in Chibok 6 years ago.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, the leader of the terror group Boko Haram has apparently claimed responsibility for kidnapping hundreds of students from a boys' boarding school in Nigeria's northwest.
[00:31:44] In a predawn audio message, Abubakar Shekau reportedly said the attack was to discourage western education. CNN has independently verified the authenticity of that message.
More than 300 school boys were taken six days ago by a group of armed men on motorbikes, who according to local officials, have since communicated ransom demands through a teacher.
In recent years, Boko Haram has abducted more than 1,000 children, according to UNICEF, including more than 270 schoolgirls from Chibok in April of 2014. While most of the girls have been released through negotiations, more than 100 still remain missing.
My former colleague, Isha Sesay, joins me now from Los Angeles. She's covered the abduction of the Chibok girls extensively. She's also author of "Beneath the Tamarind Tree: The Story of the Lost School Girls of Boko Haram." And we should note, also a recently-appointed U.N. goodwill ambassador.
Keeping busy these days, I see, which is good. Nice to see you.
ISHA SESAY, AUTHOR, "BENEATH THE TAMARIND TREE": Good to see you, friend.
VAUSE: OK. Right now, it's still unclear how many of these boys actually managed to escape. I want you to listen to one who did.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When I decided to run, they brought a knife to slaughter me. But I ran away quickly. I ran into the crowd. They couldn't get me. Then I put my clothes upside-down so that they could not see me. From there, they said they would kill whoever is trying to escape. Then I began to run, climbing one rock to another through a forest.
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VAUSE: It is horrendous to hear all this, but it sounds so familiar to what happened six years ago in Chibok. Not just what the children went through and how they were taken, but what seems to be yet again another appalling, inept government response.
SESAY: John, it's -- it's eerily similar. And when I first saw the news over the weekend that children had been taken in a school attack in Nigeria's north, really my heart sank, because as more and more details came out, it all came flooding back, all the work that we had done speaking to survivors of the Chibok mass abduction in 2014.
And they all talk about, similarly here in Katsina, of men heavily armed in military fatigues coming in on motorbikes and forcing them to -- to walk out of their schools and walk for hours on end into the forest.
And what has played out since is that same confusion that we saw in the aftermath of Chibok. How many boys have been taken and the numbers fluctuating wildly, claims that, you know, all but 10 of the boys had been reunited with their parents, only to hear the governor say 333 are still missing.
And this question about who took them. As you said right off the top, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the now splintered Boko Haram, it must be pointed out, claims responsibility. But it is also important to stress that we've always known Boko Haram as operating in the northeast, which is where Borno state is, which is where the Chibok girls were taken.
And this attack on the boys' school happened in the northwest, an area rife with instability and violence, but at the hands of bandits. So this question of Shekau claiming responsibility without any evidence to support it is one that everyone is watching very, very closely. Because if it is true, it's a terrifying new twist in Boko Haram's expansion of operations.
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VAUSE: And let's look closer. Let's look at the map here, because that is one of the big major differences here in the -- you know, the six years between these kidnappings. You know, you've got Chibok in the northeast. You've got this latest kidnapping in the northwest. And there is this concern that if this is, in fact, Boko Haram, they are expanding across the country. Because they've built a brand of Islam.
So what is in store for these kids, for these boys if their release is not negotiated?
SESAY: You know, I mean, again, to be clear, we know that abductors, according to local authorities, have made -- made some contact. They didn't say it was Boko Haram specifically.
I do want to make the point that there has been some local reporting around Boko Haram's intention of expanding their operations as far back as July, actually. A Nigerian online platform fronted by a journalist with deep connections with Boko Haram -- deep reporting connections, I should say.
Back in July, it was saying that Boko Haram was expressing an interest in kind of expanding and building out a franchise, if you will, that extended to the northwest.
If, indeed, these boys have been taken by Boko Haram, the -- the expectation -- because this is we have seen in the past, is that they would have been taken and, if not returned and reunited with their loved ones, will be radicalized and will become foot soldiers in Boko Haram's long-running conflict onslaught, if you will, with civilians and the government.
VAUSE: And you know, just like six years ago, once again, hundreds of moms and dads out there, just wondering and living a nightmare, no idea what happened to their kids.
SESAY: And this is the thing. And this is the thing that troubles me the most about the Nigerian government's response. The difficulties of negotiating a release, granted one would never assume that those are easy things to achieve, but what is easy?
And I have no problems with saying it explicitly. What is easy is reaching out to the families of those affected. And expressing concern.
And, you know, the same thing that happened in Chibok, where we did not see the president at the time of the attack, Goodluck Jonathan, make a visit to Chibok or Borno state. In the same sense, exactly in the same way, we have not seen the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, who is from Katsina state, let's be clear, where this happened, and was actually in his state on a home visit when this attack happened; hasn't, as far as we know and according to reporting, has not directly connected with families that are distraught, especially given that they know how things played out in Chibok. And 112 girls, to this day, are still unaccounted for.
VAUSE: Isha, it's a horrible story. We thank you for your insights, and it's good to see you, regardless. Take care.
SESAY: Great to see you. You, too.
VAUSE: Still to come, pangolins are disappearing at an alarming rate. Volunteers in South Africa, though, are taking these small, scaly animals for long walks, in an effort to try and save the species.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quiet, shy and rare, pangolins are the only mammal covered with scales, and in Asia and Africa, the demand for their flesh and scales, used in some traditional medicines, makes the pangolin one of the most heavily-poached animals on earth.
RAY JANSEN, PANGOLIN SCIENTIST, TSHWANE UNIVERSITY: They harvest them at unprecedented rates. The threat is so large that they could all be faced with levels of extinction, pretty soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ray Jansen is a renowned pangolin scientist and the chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group. The organization works to stop the illegal trade of pangolins in South Africa, while providing pangolins with a safe place to get better.
Rescued pangolins are taken here to the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital.
KAREN LOURENS, WILDLIFE VETERINARIAN, THE JOHANNESBURG WILDLIFE VETERINARY HOSPITAL: So when they come, they've often been bag or a drum, kept for two weeks without food or water. So all of them are compromised. You can imagine being in a basement for two weeks without food or water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once the pangolin is stabilized and discharged from the vet, it's moved off-site for security reasons. It then begins its long journey to be released back into the wild.
JANSEN: It's not just putting something back into the bush and saying, "Good luck." With the African species, and in particular, the Southern African species, the one we get in South Africa, the Temminck's pangolin, that don't feed in captivity at all. So these animals need to forage naturally. And so we get volunteers at the hospital, pangolin walkers, we call them, that can walk from anywhere from three to seven hours in an evening behind a pangolin in an area where they can forage naturally on ants and termites.
They're weighed and checked daily twice a day for three weeks. And then once a week for three months, and then once every two weeks for the remaining six, seven months. And our success now has improved from around about 50, 60 percent, to well over 80 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still, these experts know they're fighting an uphill battle.
LOURENS: When you hear about how many tons of African pangolin scales are sent through to Asia, that sort of takes the wind out of your sales a little bit, and you've almost got that sense that you're sitting in a -- in a very historic position, as far as the species goes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perhaps the plight of the pangolin, and the efforts to save them, can serve as an urgent warning: Our planet is fragile, and more needs to be done to save them from extinction.
JANSEN: I think we have an opportunity, a very small window to turn this all around, but at least to be a collective humanitarian effort. And not an individual, not a race, not a culture, not an isolated effort, but a global effort from one species: mankind.
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VAUSE: Find out more about the innovators who are taking on some of the world's most pressing environmental challenges. Watch "Going Green" this Saturday, 6 a.m. in New York. That's 11 a.m. in London right here on CNN.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. I'll be back at the top of the hour with a lot more news, but in the meantime, WORLD SPORT is up next.
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