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Health Officials Warn New COVID Variant Spreading Rapidly in the U.K.; U.S. Testing Czar Says No Evidence U.K. COVID Variant Will Evade Vaccine; First Doses of Moderna Vaccine Expected to be Administered Today; Congressional Leaders Reach $900 Billion COVID Relief Deal; Dozens of Countries Halt Travel from the U.K. Over New COVID Variant; U.S. Examines Whether Vaccine is Effective Against New COVID Variant; Futures Down Amid New COVID Variant Spreading Rapidly in the U.K. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:03]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good Monday morning, everyone. Hope you had a nice weekend. I'm Poppy Harlow. Jim has a well-deserved week off.

And this morning, some good news. Moderna's vaccine rollout kicks into high gear today. Doses are expected to be administered starting today as well, but sadly, with that good news comes concern, worry growing over a new COVID variant spreading across the United Kingdom and leading many countries to halt travel completely from the U.K. The White House coronavirus testing czar weighed in moments ago on whether the U.S. might ban travel from the U.K. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR MD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: I think everything needs to be on the table. We need to look at the data, we need to examine the science, understand the risks, and then make a decision. It will be based on evidence and data, and what's best for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Scientists in the United States are working obviously around the clock right now trying to examine and determine whether or not the vaccines that are on the table right now, so Pfizer and Moderna are fully effective against this variant. We should hear an update on that from researchers in just the next few days.

For most Americans, a vaccine is still months away, and health experts are warning against those holiday get-togethers that are beginning to happen right now, as you can see from these photos at airports across the country, more than a million people pass through airports nationwide on Friday and then again on Saturday. On Sunday sadly more than 189,000 COVID infections were reported in this country and 1500 people died from COVID yesterday alone.

It is a critical time for millions of Americans also facing a financial cliff. Lawmakers expected to vote today on a $900 billion COVID relief bill after waiting until the 11th hour. But is it enough to help everyone in dire need?

We have all that to cover this hour. Let's begin, though, in London our colleague Nic Robertson is there.

Good morning to you, Nic. So -- I mean, everyone wants to know what this new variant is and I believe that Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was 70 percent more transmissible?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: That's what the scientists are telling them here, 70 percent more transmissible, not any more deadly but also it doesn't appear, the assessment so far in the U.K. that it is in any way resistant to the vaccines that exist. The spike protein on the coronavirus of this particular variant is more capable of penetrating the human cell to begin that chain reaction of infection.

That's the assessment of British scientists so far and that's why the prime minister reversed course over the weekend on allowing much of the country to get together over a period of five days as many as three different family groupings in one house to enjoy Christmas. He reversed that Saturday and put one-third of England into the tightest lockdown that the country has seen now in many weeks.

That meaning people can only have Christmas with their own family in their own home. And the net result of this is that there has now been travel restrictions put on British people and others leaving the U.K. to go to countries like Germany, like France, like the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Chile, to Canada, to Israel, to Saudi Arabia, to Kuwait, to Jordan. The list keeps growing.

So those restrictions on travel meaning the U.K. is becoming more isolated, the most pressing one of course are the restrictions being put on transport and freight going from the U.K. to France. That is being stopped for 48 hours and there's a knock-on effect for that for some limited food supplies coming into the U.K. and that of course is one of the reasons the government is holding this extraordinary and emergency Cabinet session this afternoon.

HARLOW: Nic Robertson, thank you very, very much. It's what everyone is certainly talking about this morning, and news of the U.K. variant has researchers here in the U.S. racing really to determine if the current vaccines will be effective against it. As Nic said, they think it will but they're looking for proof.

Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent, joins me now.

Good morning, Elizabeth. Scientists at Walter Reed doing analysis right now? What are they looking for?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They're looking to see, Poppy, how does this vaccine and this virus mesh? Does it still look like the vaccine will work? And they'll be doing that by taking the genomic sequence that British scientists have put online and try to see how well they mesh. Does the vaccine still work?

And I was talking to the lead researcher in this area at Walter Reed, he feels quite confident that the vaccine will work, but he said, you know what? We still have to check it out. Now that opinion we heard Nic say it, I heard the Walter Reed researchers say it, we've heard it time and time again. Let's listen to what Dr. Brett Giroir from HHS had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIROIR: It is not any more lethal or any more dangerous than the normal coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, no reason to believe it.

[09:05:06]

There is also no evidence to suggest nor reason to believe that it would evade our vaccines that we have right now. Remember, our vaccines developed the antibodies against multiple parts of that spike protein, not just one that's the mutated one. So we are very encouraged about that. But of course have a lot of work to do to understand this more fully.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So there you have it now, from several different health officials that they think the vaccine will still work against this U.K. variant but they've got to do this computer analysis. They hope to have some answers within just a few days -- Poppy.

HARLOW: You know, Elizabeth, the word mutate sounds scary to a lot of folks, to me. Help us understand, is this something we need to be scared of?

COHEN: You know, all the doctors that I've talked to, top experts in this area, they do not sound very scared. They said viruses mutate all the time. There have been thousands of mutations of this virus. Now the British scientists are saying that they think that it's 70 percent more transmissible but the U.S. scientists that I've talked to they say I don't know where they're getting that from.

It is not entirely clear that this virus, that this variant of the virus is more transmissible, and there's absolutely no evidence that it gets anybody any more sick than the other kinds of COVID that are out there. COVID is just bad, it doesn't matter the variant is.

HARLOW: OK. Elizabeth, thank you very much. We look forward to those updates in the next few days of course.

Let's go to our colleague Alexandra Field. She's right here in New York.

Good morning to you, Alex. You're on Long Island, where I believe some folks will get among the first doses of the Moderna vaccine? Is that right?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is very much the hope, Poppy. We are at Long Island Jewish Valley Stream Hospital. This is one of two hospitals in the Northwell Health System that is expecting to receive the Moderna vaccine. It could come as early as today and they would start almost right away with their effort to continue to vaccinate those frontline workers who are at the greatest risk of contracting the virus from working with patients, alongside patients.

This is a hospital system that currently has about 900 COVID patients on average over the last week so the vaccine is badly needed here. We are of course hoping to see these Moderna vaccine shipments arriving at sites around the country. Here they'll go a long way toward boosting this effort to vaccinate frontline workers. So far we understand that they have given the Pfizer vaccine to at least 6,000 of those frontline workers but they have a total of 54,000 who they are prioritizing.

So they certainly need that injection of additional vaccines and look, Poppy, we're still months away from seeing the general public having the opportunity to get the vaccines, but the arrival of the Moderna vaccine really is a boost for all of us. It differs slightly from the Pfizer vaccine.

They are both highly effective, of course, as we all well know, but this one is easier to transport. It doesn't need to be kept in those ultra low temperature freezers so that means that the Moderna vaccine can be distributed to facilities in rural areas, perhaps small hospitals, other areas that don't have the capacity to do that ultra low temperature storage.

On top of that of course this just adds millions more doses of vaccines to the marketplace really in the course of the next week. We are expecting to see some 5.9 million Moderna doses sent out just this week -- Poppy.

HARLOW: OK. Alex, waiting with bated breath I'm sure everyone there is. Thank you very, very much.

Also today, after months of failing to act to help millions of struggling Americans, Congress is finally set to pass a $900 billion COVID relief bill. Suzanne Malveaux joins us on Capitol Hill.

Biggest question, what's in it and when are the votes, meaning how quickly are folks going to get this aid?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Poppy, first of all, just a word of caution in terms of how quickly this is going to happen. We are seeing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the floor of the House, they just gaveled into session, later we'll see the Senate as well around noontime, but we have yet to see the language of this immense build, this legislation that is for the $1.4 trillion spending bill to fund the government through fiscal next year as well as the $900 billion for COVID aid.

That has to happen and then they've got to marry these two bills together. There will be debate on the floor of the House, they'll pass it or they will attempt to pass it. It will then go to the Senate, all 100 senators must sign onto it for a quick passage to happen. There is wiggle room. There is time for lawmakers to express their displeasure, and to debate over this before they end up passing this because they are also working on a continuing resolution to keep the government going beyond the midnight deadline tonight.

So this could play out for days. Having said that, there are some very strong aspects of this COVID package, $900 billion as we had mentioned, $600 direct checks to those who make less than $75,000, $300 a week for unemployment benefits insurance, $284 billion for small business loans.

[09:10:13]

You also have money for schools, $82 billion rental assistance, and as well as money for distributing and producing these vaccines, and so these -- then food aid as well. These are the kind of things that people need desperately, and they may have to wait a bit longer before that actually gets passed through Congress -- Poppy.

HARLOW: OK, Suzanne, that's very helpful. Before you go, all the Democratic lawmakers I've talked to and most I've heard interviewed have said this is an emergency bill, this is to get us through the next few months, more is coming in the Biden administration. I mean, should people really count on that? Can they be so sure? Because no matter which way the Georgia Senate races go, I mean, it's still going to be a nearly even split Senate so might, I mean is it really a guarantee they'll get more aid under Biden?

MALVEAUX: It's certainly not a guarantee. I mean, there might be more of a push, there might be more optimism but the narrow lead of Democrats in the House as you know is going to be even more narrow. There's going to be tremendous pressure for both lawmakers on the House and Senate side to get something done to get that relief.

But I also talked to Senator Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, yesterday who was saying look, they are seeing good signs with these vaccines, that they are seeing perhaps a window where they're getting to the other side. So there might be less pressure, Poppy, for all of that money to be generated and to get out there to the public as quickly or as much as we think is possible.

HARLOW: Yes. That's a really important reality check. Suzanne, thank you for the reporting. We'll watch and see how this all happens today.

Still to come for us, the TSA says that they screened more than a million people at airports across the country again for the third day in a row, that is a first during this pandemic. These numbers have many doctors and health officials worried about an additional surge over the holidays.

Plus a heated Oval Office meeting on Friday with actual talk of martial law to try to overturn the election results? That even had some staunch advisers and loyalists of the president very concerned. We'll tell you what happened. And while there is positive news that the rollout of a second vaccine,

the reality on the ground is hospitals are stretched to the brink, as cases continue to soar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: All right, welcome back. We are learning more this morning about a new variant of coronavirus. It is potentially spreading faster than the others, at least, that's what they're saying and seeing in the United Kingdom, and that has led dozens of countries to halt travel from there.

Joining us now, CNN medical analyst and Brown University emergency physician, Dr. Megan Ranney. Good morning to you, doctor. Let's -- this is scary for folks. So, I guess my first question to you is, should the public be worried?

MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY: So, at this point, the public should be no more worried than they should be every day anyhow about COVID-19. Listen, this disease is killing an American every 30 seconds already.

The new variant may be spreading a little quicker, but as Dr. Cohen said, we're still in the very early stages of figuring out how exactly it's different from the various strains of COVID-19 that are already spread across the United States. The basic precautions remain the same. Mask up, don't get together with people who don't live with you indoors, and try as best as possible to minimize travel, minimize get- togethers, even outdoors right now.

HARLOW: OK, such important advice for all of us. Listen to this, from Operation Warp Speed's chief scientific adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui. This is his exchange with our Jake Tapper yesterday on this critical question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You are confident that the vaccines we have, Pfizer and Moderna will also protect against any of these new variants that we're hearing about whether in the U.K. or South Africa?

MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Right, you can never say never in science, so there could be at some point something that comes up that helps the virus escape. But because the vaccines are inducing antibodies against many different parts of the spike protein, the chances that all of them change I think, are low, but they are not in existence --

TAPPER: OK --

SLAOUI: They are not there now.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: So, that's pretty reassuring, Dr. Ranney. I guess my question

for you is, when will we know and how will we know? Are we days away from knowing?

RANNEY: No, we're probably not days away from knowing, we're weeks or even months. That said, I agree with Dr. Slaoui. The chance of the mutations being significant enough to make this vaccine not work are very slim. The impact of this mutation is more likely two things.

One is that it's going to be easier to transmit, so it's going to get more people sick up until the time when we have the vaccines in the arms of Americans. The second thing about the mutation that is concerning to us is that it shows that this virus may be less stable than we thought.

Which means not this year, but maybe two or three years from now, it will have accumulated enough small mutations for us to need to get new vaccines out there. In other words, COVID-19 and the way it works for the vaccines may be more like our need for regular changes to the flu vaccine than like measles, where you get just one or two vaccines across your life and you're protected for a long time. The chance of it affecting the efficacy of the current vaccines that have been approved are tremendously low. We will be watching closely, but again, won't know for a couple months yet most likely.

HARLOW: Given that unknown, do you think the United States should ban travel from the United Kingdom until we know?

[09:20:00]

RANNEY: As a public health professional, I don't think we should be traveling Trans-Atlantic or between countries at all right now, except for things that are absolutely necessary for national security to keep food and medications on our table. I advise people regularly to not travel if you can avoid it.

To ban travel from the U.K., maybe indicated, I would want to know a little bit more about the data that has come out of the U.K. before putting those drastic limitations in effect. But again, I would love to not see inter-state an inter-country traveling happening right now except for things that are just essential to our country's functioning.

HARLOW: Final question, you got the Pfizer vaccine, and today we're going to see folks for the first time getting Moderna's vaccine. Are people going to get to choose which one they get when their number comes up in line?

RANNEY: What is going to be true for the general public is still pretty unclear. For healthcare workers, we generally don't get to choose. We take whatever we can get, and that's going to be true for this second group as well. The folks who are aged 75-plus as well as those frontline essential workers that ACIP recommended last night.

I'll say there's not major differences between the vaccine outside of that greater ease of distribution of the Moderna vaccine. So for me, I would take whatever I could have gotten and that's why I got the Pfizer vaccine when it was available. They're both excellent with great efficacy and with very few minor and temporary --

HARLOW: OK, they don't get upset especially right now --

RANNEY: That's exactly, Poppy.

HARLOW: Thank you, Dr. Ranney, we appreciate it very much. President- elect Biden and the future first lady will get their first doses of the vaccine today. We'll give you the latest on that. We're also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Taking a look at Dow futures here, down across the board, really for all three major U.S. indices, why? Largely because of this unknown now, this new variant of COVID out of the U.K., it is deepening fears of perhaps and even more strict shutdown and more shutdowns around the globe.

Also seemingly, overshadowing lawmakers' progress on a $900 billion relief deal here in the U.S., that is set to be voted on later today. We'll keep an eye on the market for you when it opens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Right now, this morning, great news, Moderna working to get nearly 6 million doses of its COVID vaccine into the arms of Americans. Let's go to our colleague Pete Muntean, he joins us outside of a distribution facility. This is in Olive Branch, Mississippi. You were there at the Pfizer facility for us about a week ago, now in front of Moderna's facility. What does this rollout look like?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're expecting more trucks to leave here today, Poppy. This is a McKesson facility, that's the company handling distribution for the Moderna vaccine. And now the vaccine is on its way to 3,000 locations across the country, deliveries begin this morning in hospitals, pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens.

This roll out about four times larger than the initial Pfizer roll out of last week, thanks in part to the Moderna's vaccine advantage. So, it does not need to be stored at super cold temperatures like the Pfizer. In fact, a regular refrigerator will do just fine, and that opens this up to plenty more rural communities and rural clinics. I spoke to FedEx yesterday, and it says that difference does not change how it will handle these packages. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE STEPHENS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF GLOBAL ENGINEERING & BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION, FEDEX: It doesn't matter whether you have to be ultra-cold or you have to be -- whether you're minus 90 or minus 20, it doesn't matter. Our job is to get the package from point "A" to "B" as expeditiously and as safely as we possibly can, and to deliver it to those that are going to administer it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Six million doses are rolling out of here, Poppy, and the Department of Health and Human Services says 20 million doses could be allocated by the end of this month. Even still, you have to remember the remarkable achievement here. We are seeing the rollout of two vaccines in about a week's time.

HARLOW: It's remarkable. Pete, thanks for being there again for us. It's a great day. All right, well, President-elect Joe Biden and the incoming first lady Jill Biden will both publicly receive their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine, that's going to happen at an event later today, and it will be on camera. This as Biden applauds congressional leaders for reaching a deal finally, a sweeping $900 billion COVID relief package the house set to vote on that aid bill this afternoon. Let's go to our colleague Jessica Dean, she joins us now. Good morning, Jess.

Let's begin with the president-elect and the first lady-to-be getting the vaccine. Where is it going to happen? What time?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, good morning to you, Poppy. We know it's going to happen today, later today. We know it's going to happen in Delaware. That's about all the details we have right now. We know that the president-elect and Jill Biden will both be getting their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, of course, Biden has said time and time again, he wants to do so publicly to encourage the American people that this is a safe and effective vaccine, and he will be doing it publicly, so we will have video of him receiving this vaccine later today.

Now, he's getting the vaccine also as Congress moves to vote on this massive COVID Relief Bill, and he did release a statement late last night.