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New COVID-19 Variant Concerns U.S. Health Officials; BioNTech CEO Confident Its Vaccine Could Work Against New Coronavirus Variant; New Jersey Hospital Giving First Doses of Moderna Vaccine to Staff; Congress Passes $900 Billion Economic Relief Package; House Conservatives Strategize with Trump and Pence to Overturn Election; New Details Arise on Massive Hack of U.S. Government Agencies. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 22, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Jim Sciutto has a well-deserved week off.

This morning the race to try to understand the new coronavirus variant as vaccines are rolled out around the world. The good news is that BioNTech's CEO says he's, quote, "confident" that their vaccine with Pfizer will protect against this mutation, but today both Pfizer and Moderna will still continue to do more testing on that.

Still, as this variant spreads, at least 40 countries are now banning or restricting travel from the United Kingdom. The White House is considering requiring travelers from the U.K. to have proof of a negative COVID test before they arrive here. That option is expected to be presented to the president today, but Dr. Anthony Fauci says the coronavirus variant may already be in this country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: When you have this amount of spread within a place like the U.K., that you really need to assume that it's here already. It may not -- and certainly is not the dominant strain, but I would not be surprised at all if it is already here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Fauci also is set to receive his first dose of the vaccine in just about an hour from now. So you'll see that live on camera. This comes, though, again, with devastating news in terms of the cases rising across the country. 190,000 new COVID infections yesterday alone and nearly 1700 people in this country died yesterday from COVID. And this just days before Christmas where ICUs like this one in California are still at a breaking month.

And in Washington just days before millions of Americans were set to lose key benefits, Congress has finally acted on a relief bill set to be signed by the president. But we do begin this hour with more on this COVID variant.

We have team coverage, Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow. First, though, let's begin with our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Elizabeth, good morning to you. Walk us through the latest. What have we learned about this since yesterday?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. This is moving so quickly. Let's get sort of a grip on what we know so far about this variant that's been found in the U.K. It's been traced back to September 20th, that's the first appearance that they can find appearing near London.

Most of the cases are in people under the age of 60, the reason that's important, the reason we point that out, is that unfortunately those are the folks who are responsible for a lot of the spread of this disease because often it's younger folks, even younger than that, who are asymptomatic so they're running around spreading it because they don't even know they're infected.

U.K. scientists said today that they are highly confident that this strain is indeed more transmissible. Yesterday they thought it was, now they're using the term "highly confident." Poppy?

HARLOW: Yes. That is a big difference. Elizabeth, thank you.

Fred Pleitgen, to you, you're in Moscow. You spoke with BioNTech's CEO and he shared the confidence with you that basically this vaccine will cover this mutation of the virus?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly what he said, Poppy. I spoke to him at length, Ugur Sahin of BioNTech, about whether or not he believes that it will be just as effective or at least almost as effective against this new strain or variant of the coronavirus.

He said, by the way, that if necessary they could even adjust the vaccine to even better be suited to combat the new strain of the coronavirus, but he says he does not believe that that has to be the case or that that will be necessary because he thinks that the vaccine will still be effective. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: There is a high likelihood that the vaccine response will be able also to enact straight this virus because you have to consider that even though -- in this protein 99 percent of the protein has not changed and they know that our vaccine induces immune responses against multiple regions of this protein, multiple T cell responses and multiple antibody binding gradient so that there is a scientific confidence that the virus will not just be able to escape, but let's wait for the validation to get the data and we will of course update once we have the data.

PLEITGEN: And how long is that validation going to take and is there any sort of anything early right now that you can already maybe share with us as to how that's going?

SAHIN: So the experimental testing will take about two weeks because we have to synthesize this variant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: And there you have it, Poppy. He says about two weeks to validate the results on whether or not the vaccine will be effective against the new variant of the coronavirus. One of the other interesting things, by the way, that he says is so many people are talking right now about achieving herd immunity by vaccinating between 60 percent and 70 percent of the population. He believes that that percentage might have to be higher if there is a new and more efficient strain of the coronavirus that is more contagious -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Wow. I hadn't even thought of that. I'm so glad you got that interview, Fred.

Elizabeth, what do you make of what we just heard from BioNTech's CEO?

COHEN: You know, what I make of that is that there are maybe a few more question marks today than there were yesterday about whether this Pfizer and also the Moderna vaccine will work completely against this virus, against this variant in the same way that it works against the variants that we've already seen.

[09:05:14]

Yesterday it was, oh, don't worry, we really think it's going to work, now I'm hearing some questions when I talk to scientists. They are saying, you know what, there is a possibility, and they stress the word possibility, that this vaccine may not work quite as well. It will still work, but it may work a little less effectively. And so that's important for us to know going into this. That means we all still need to be wearing masks, we need to be doing social distancing.

And as Fred just pointed out, that means that we really do need to get the vaccine. The more people who get the vaccine the better, especially if this vaccine is not quite as effective against this particular variant.

HARLOW: Exactly. Elizabeth, thank you for that. Fred, thank you as well.

Now to the latest in Moderna's vaccine rollout. Some of the first doses of it about to be given to staff at a hospital in New Jersey. That's where we find our colleague Alexandra Field. She joints us this morning.

Good morning, Alexandra. We don't see you on camera because we're actually looking at the back of a health care worker about to administer these live.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're not seeing me because you are seeing a much more important shot literally, the first shot in the arm for one of the frontline workers at three hospitals in southern New Jersey. These are hospitals that have not received any COVID vaccine until now. The first dose being administered comes from Moderna. It is going as we speak to Rene Stevens who didn't even flinch.

She's a 22-year hospital employee. She's somebody who has been working in the COVID unit. She tells me she has been seeing for months now the despair, the devastation that is felt not just by patients but by their families, by their loved ones. She has held the hands of people with COVID. She says that while there are loving staff members who have been in place to see them through this crisis, there is no substitute for family.

She firmly believes that this shot is the first step forward to putting an end to this pandemic. She says she is entirely confident of its safety. She is entirely confident that this will give her a new layer of protection and, Poppy, beyond that she says she's trying to set an example for all of us really.

Look, this is a vaccine that won't be available to the general public probably for months now, but she says she's hearing informally among members of her church community that there is some hesitancy, some reluctance about getting this vaccine when it is available to the general population.

She is hoping that this image that we're seeing this morning, her putting her arm out there, will give people some confidence that they, too, can go forward. We've all got to do it together -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Alex, before you go I wonder what it's like for you just as a journalist who's been covering this the whole way through in the field, you know, across New York City, around the country in the worst spots when there was no hope, right, because there was no vaccine, and now being in the room as it's being administered.

FIELD: Yes, I think we all have to think back to where we were in March. I was in New York City, had just given birth to a baby in a hospital, it was an incredibly alarming moment for all of us, and I don't know how many of us truly believed that we would see this day, this year, to be honest. I was not one who did think that we would see a vaccine this quickly.

It is incredibly hopeful, but what I think is more interesting than my experience is Rene's. And she told me when she walked in this morning that she woke up and she felt even more excited than she had anticipated. And I think that captures it really for a lot of people -- Poppy.

HARLOW: It does. Well, Alexandra, we're glad you're there. Thanks for bringing us that very hopeful image today.

Let's talk to Dr. William Schaffner about all of this. He's professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Schaffner, it's great to have you. We know, we just saw the Moderna vaccine administered there, we're going to see Dr. Fauci, the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar get it later today, and it will be the Moderna vaccine distributed more broadly it appears than Pfizer's, going to more sites than the Pfizer vaccine. It's easier to do, it doesn't have to be kept as cold.

What are your thoughts this morning with two different vaccines now created and distributed and being administered in less than a year?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, I have a big smile. It's a huge holiday gift to the whole country and indeed to the whole world. And we are progressing every day. Our health care elves are delivering that vaccine to people now all across the country. We've made a good start and we're going to keep going as more and more vaccine arrives. This is an important step forward, it's light at the end of a tunnel, it's still a long tunnel.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCHAFFNER: We still have to wear our masks, but we're going to progressively vaccinate more and more people. And as that happens I think the folks who are a bit skeptical and hesitant will join in. After all, if we in white coats and blue scrubs get vaccinated, we must know something about this, and I hope that that lets them know if they're getting the vaccine, maybe I should, too.

HARLOW: Yes.

[09:10:06]

SCHAFFNER: And that would be a gate -- a great gift to themselves and to everyone around them.

HARLOW: You talk about being vigilant and still wearing masks. And, you know, I don't want to put a damper on what is a great day in terms of, you know, more vaccine being out there, but the fact that this new variant of COVID that has been located in the U.K. and has now spread to Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, there is a variant in South Africa. Dr. Fauci says it's probably already here in the United States.

And since it appears to be more transmissible, does that mean people need to be even more vigilant, more mask wearing, more social distancing if it's easier to catch?

SCHAFFNER: That's exactly right. Because the easier viruses are to catch, the higher the proportion of the population we have to vaccinate in order to interrupt its transmission. Measles, for example, is the most transmissible virus we know and in order to bend the curve for measles we had to get over 90 percent. So we really have to vaccinate a whole lot of people and in the meantime we have to wear the masks.

That's so important. It makes Santa look a little funky, but that's OK. That's this year. If we do all those things together, next year's Christmas, next year's Thanksgiving can be back to normal. HARLOW: I do wonder, you bring up measles and, you know, an MMR

vaccine, every kid has to get them to go to most schools, right? And so I just wonder as we think about summer camp, as we think about school next year, once these vaccines are approved for children, given how deadly COVID can be, do you think that it will also become a mandatory vaccine or do you think it will be more like the flu shot which is up to parents?

SCHAFFNER: Yes, mandating is down the road. Let's hold that. Before we mandate anything at all, we have to get everybody in the society or the large majority in an agreement. We're not there yet. We have too much hesitation. But perhaps by the time summer comes around everybody will be satisfied with this and we could mandate that. But that's a decision for down the road.

HARLOW: That's fair enough. Finally, when it comes to folks who are not immunocompromised, who are pretty young, what is your estimate on when they will be offered vaccine? We've heard from a number of government officials that by June any American who wants a vaccine can get one. That seems pretty quick.

SCHAFFNER: Well, it is pretty quick. It's aspirational, but if everything goes well, that sounds like a reasonable prediction to me also. In the meantime, we have to get everybody else vaccinated so we can get there and also offer it to young completely healthy people and then beyond them we hope when the trial results come in also to children, as you said.

HARLOW: Yes. We're waiting on that, too. Well, Dr. Schaffner, good to have you. Glad to see the smile on your face for the good news that we've been waiting for for a long time. Thank you.

Still to come, Congress in the middle of the night finally passing a stimulus deal. Will it be enough for the millions of Americans desperately in need?

Plus President Trump is spending his final days in the White House stewing over his loss and spinning wild conspiracy theories. The latest, a long shot plan with some conservative members of Congress to try to overturn the election results.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN KENYON, VACCINE RECIPIENT: And they said -- because I couldn't damn well find anybody to park my car so I was late. So I hope I am not going to have the bloody bug now. I don't intend to have it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Do you remember him? Martin Kenyon, he was one of the first people to get the vaccine in the U.K. Well, we have him back. You will hear his remarkable story ahead.

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[09:15:00] HARLOW: Well, some much needed economic relief is on the way. The

question this morning, will it be enough? Congress passed a $900 billion stimulus package last night. It focuses on accelerating vaccine distribution, providing aid for small businesses and putting money straight into Americans' pockets. Our national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins me this morning on Capitol Hill. So, Suzanne, everyone wants to know, OK, when do I get it? When can I expect that help?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Poppy, I mean, you're just going to have to hold on a little bit longer, patience is the key here because it could be days, it could be weeks actually.

It was just before midnight that the Senate followed the house's suit and passed this legislation, but the president did not sign it last night, he signed a five-day extension to fund the government until December 28th. To let the paperwork kind of play out and to funnel through to the White House. We have been given the go ahead, however, that he will sign it once it's on his desk.

So, you can start the clock there if you will. But it is a one-two punch. It is $1.4 trillion spending bill to fund the government until the end of September next year, and it's also this $900 billion passage.

A lot of people looking at the key elements that $600 direct checks that go to those making under $75,000, also goes to their children, the $300 a week that boost in the unemployment benefits set to expire the day after Christmas, the $284 billion in small business loans for emergency purposes, and of course, the money for purchasing vaccines, distributing them and a grace period if you will, a very little grace period, it is a one month extension of eviction notices, giving folks one more month before their payments are due. Poppy?

[09:20:00]

HARLOW: Before you go, Suzanne, I wonder what lessons lawmakers say they've learned from the distribution efforts the last time that there was a stimulus package.

MALVEAUX: Well, those who are most beneficial are those who are already tapped into the IRS database. And so, they're the ones that are going to get those direct deposit checks immediately. And then you have another group that had to wait a little bit longer because they didn't have direct deposit in getting that money, so they were counting on the mail, those paper checks as well as debit cards.

And then those who are most in need who are not in the system, the Treasury system, IRS, because they don't normally file tax returns, they had to find those people because they might not have benefited at all from --

HARLOW: Right --

MALVEAUX: This type of rebate, and so they had to go online and actually register -- HARLOW: OK --

MALVEAUX: To get their information out there. So the --

HARLOW: Yes --

MALVEAUX: More people who are already in the system, the better.

HARLOW: We -- next hour, we're going to tick through exactly how people can do this on irs.gov, et cetera, to try to help them get the aid they need and they deserve. Suzanne, thank you for the reporting on the Hill.

This morning, new details on a last ditch and a long-shot attempt to overturn the election and President-elect Biden's win. If you can believe it, several members of the house met privately with the president and the vice president Monday, to talk about the possibility of challenging the electoral college results, those who took part say the discussion focused on Trump's baseless claims and conspiracy theories that the election was stolen from him.

John Harwood joins me from the White House this morning. What happened in that meeting?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what happened is you had members discussing with the president, Poppy, this idea of contesting the electoral vote when it's certified by Congress on January the 6th.

This is not hard to get somebody in the house to do this when you had 126 house members signing that ridiculous Texas lawsuit, and that creates a large pool of people who are either diluted as Trump is or just cynical and realize they can get famous in Trump world by filing a contest. The problem is, you need a senator to go along with it, and you need both chambers to successfully contest it, and that's not happening in the Senate.

We saw from John Thune; a member of the Republican leadership yesterday said this is -- contest is brought up, it's going to be going down like a shot dog. So, the only question is whether there is a spectacle that is made and a debate that's happened and a vote down or whether it doesn't happen, and it looks like it will happen.

HARLOW: John, there's also a growing anxiety at the Pentagon among some really senior folks there about what the president may do in his final days in office. What are they worried about and why?

HARWOOD: Well, let's step back for a minute, Poppy. It has long been clear that there is something psychologically wrong with Donald Trump, and over time, that's become more and more obvious to more and more people, especially his former aides come out and talk about what it was like in the White House.

Now, it is becoming blazingly obvious to everyone because the president is choking psychologically on his defeat. He can't handle it, he's thrashing around, looking for ways to deny it or overturn it. And so you get this discussion of martial law in the White House, which is something that would involve the military.

Now, the military has been saying in recent days, repeating over and over, we have no role in this election. And what I think is going on is, you know, one idea that's been hovering in the background of this administration from the beginning really -- initially on the left was this idea of the 25th Amendment to remove the president for office -- from office on grounds of being unfit. You even have some musing by Rod Rosenstein, there's disputed reporting on that after the firing of Jim Comey that he had raised this idea sarcastically or seriously or whatever.

I think what would happen if the president decided to try to somehow engage the military is that you would get a passive version of the 25th Amendment. By which, I mean, rather than treating a directive from the president as a lawful order from the commander-in-chief, they would treat it as a nutty idea from somebody who is nuts right now and would find some way to ignore it.

This is something that came up in the end of Richard Nixon's presidency when his Defense Secretary told other people in the chain of command, if you get an order from the president, this is before Nixon resigned -- run it by me or Henry Kissinger first before implementing it because he was looking to break the idea that Richard Nixon would do something crazy. I think the U.S. military would do the same thing this time.

HARLOW: John Harwood, thank you for the reporting on both fronts this morning. We also have new disturbing details this morning on the huge hack of U.S. government agencies, that Russia-led hack, now a key Democratic senator says the Treasury Department's e-mail accounts were also compromised. More on that.

[09:25:00]

We are also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures mostly flat despite Congress passing the long-awaited COVID relief bill, the president set to sign that into law today and struggling Americans could see those checks in days, but it may take longer. There is still uncertainty over the COVID pandemic and it's weighing on investors even as drug makers show confidence their vaccines will hold in the face of this new variant. We'll follow all that when the market opens.

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