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U.K. Government Seeks to Dispel Fears of Food and Medicine Shortages; Navalny Speaks Directly to Toxin Team that Tracked Him; Fringe Group Advising U.S. President on Election Battle; California Coping with Alarming COVID-19 Surge; Seoul to Double Number of ICU Beds for COVID; Revisiting British Grandfather Who Won Global Fame after Vaccine; Stunning New Details in Poisoning of Russian Dissident; Congress Poised to Pass $900 COVID Rescue Package. Aired 12-12:44a ET
Aired December 22, 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, a potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus leaves the U.K. effectively quarantined, isolated by travel bans with long lines at border crossings for freight and panic buying, leaving store shelves empty.
Want to crack a Russian agent?
Try punking. A member of the FSB toxin team designed to follow opposition leader Alexei Navalny, blabbed all about the entire plot on the phone to Alexei Navalny.
And just in time for Christmas, stargazers turn their eyes to the sky for a celestial winter wonder not seen since the Middle Ages.
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VAUSE: We begin with the U.K. increasingly isolated, with a growing number of international travel bans from many countries, trying to keep out the coronavirus variant, which is now spreading rapidly across Britain.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is urging calm, saying supply lines for food and medicine will not break down even though right now there is a epic backlog of freight after France closed its border to trucks.
This was the scene across the U.K. on Monday. Long lines. Empty shelves as many stockpiled food. British officials warning that more areas of England could soon come under strict restrictions.
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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: The vast majority of food, medicines and other supplies are coming and going as normal. You may also be aware -- in fact, I'd be amazed if you weren't -- that the government has been preparing for a long time for exactly this kind of event.
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PATRICK VALLANCE, U.K. CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER: The new variant is spread around the country. It's localized in some places. But we know that there are cases everywhere.
So it's not as though we can stop this getting into other places. There is some there already. The message that has been very clear -- and I think I want to reinforce it -- is stay local.
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VAUSE: We have the very latest now from CNN's Max Foster.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Air passengers stranded, truck drivers too, after cargo was banned from crossing into France. Some Brits reacted by lining up outside shops to stock up, the government forced to reassure them that food will not run out.
All this because of a new highly contagious variant of coronavirus spreading rapidly throughout the country, especially in and around London.
VALLANCE: The transmission is increasing. We can't say exactly by how much, but it's clearly substantially increased.
FOSTER: Dozens of countries have now banned U.K. visitors. Prime Minister Boris Johnson following crisis meetings, including with his French counterpart, was unable to say how long it would last.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I have just spoken to President Macron. We had a very good call. And we both understand each other's positions and want to resolve these problems as fast as possible.
FOSTER: So, will the U.S. join the growing list of countries banning British travelers?
Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN he's not advising that to the White House.
"The U.S. must, without a doubt, keep an eye on it found," Fauci said. But he warned that we don't want to overreact.
The U.S. is nevertheless monitoring for outbreaks.
ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, M.D., HHS ASSISTANT SECRETARY: It could be in the United States and we might not have yet detected it. FOSTER: The U.K. has effectively been put into quarantine by the rest of the world, as governments try to protect their citizens before they can be vaccinated -- Max Foster, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: This new variant has been identified in Australia, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark. The variant has also been found in South Africa but the World Health Organization says it's not the same one as the one detected in the U.K.
National consultant for COVID-19 testing, Dr. Scott Miscovich is with us now.
Thanks for taking the time.
DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, FAMILY PHYSICIAN AND NATIONAL CONSULTANT: Thanks for having me, John.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to with the World Health Organization is saying about the new mutation, what they know.
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DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: There is zero evidence at this time that there's any increase in severity associated with this disease. Currently, work is ongoing to look at transmission and the increased rates of transmission and how much of that is attributable to this particular variant.
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VAUSE: According to researchers this variant is a lot more contagious, it's not just a superspreader event. The coronavirus right now has a reproduction number of 1.1, which means that 10 infected people leads to 11 new infections. This new mutation is 1.5.
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VAUSE: In other words, 10 infections lead to 15. Given how quickly the current virus has spread, especially in the U.S., that alone must be a huge concern.
MISCOVICH: Yes, John, it's a huge concern. But again I want to highlight what we do know.
It hasn't increased the lethality or the number of people that would die from this due to that specific virus.
What we do know about the mutation is similar to the other mutation that we had three or 4 months ago, which is that the spikes that you see coming off are finding ways to get more adherent and able to grab on more. So that is the way that it's doing that.
But it's not more deadly. So it is a concern, especially at the time of the holidays, when will be together more and it will spread more. VAUSE: We're seeing a lot of it in actual travel bans on travelers from the United Kingdom. For now, the United States is not among them.
We'd like you to listen to the governor of New York State. Here he is.
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GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.): Right now this variant in the U.K. is getting on a plane and flying to JFK. Right now, today.
One hundred countries require a test, we don't. Other European countries have done a ban, we haven't. And today, that variant is getting on a plane and landing at JFK.
How many times in a life do you have to make the same mistake before you learn?
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VAUSE: Is Governor Cuomo right here, should there be a ban imposed by the United States on U.K. travelers?
MISCOVICH: No, I don't believe there should be a ban though I do believe there's a few points I want to make.
I believe he is correct, similar to what we do in Hawaii. there should be a pre-travel test required.
And then one of the things that we're really concerned about individuals from the U.K. coming to this state (ph), we may want to impose a four-day quarantine and have them have a second test after arrival. And that would give us a lot more certainty. It would reduce us into
the mid-90 percents that they're are not actively carrying the disease.
But I do want to say this to the governor. Unfortunately, that variant has to be already here in our country.
We have tracked the variant back that they found in the southern part of England, it was already starting to spread in September. So the likelihood is once we do the genetic variations, we're probably going to find it is here -- except that we have so much disease.
Where do you start, how do you start to look?
But it's in the East Coast for sure.
VAUSE: Well, one advantage at the moment, though, it appears that this mutation can be detected using current testing methods.
Given that those testing methods are becoming faster, more convenient and easier to use, it seems testing and testing and testing again is one way of controlling this new variant and the pandemic as a whole.
MISCOVICH: Boy, have you said it. That's what I've done with the last eight months of my life.
And I'm very concerned that we're hearing across the country that there's no additional funding coming for testing in the new budgets. And we need to test, we need to take advantage of the new tests which are becoming faster.
But unfortunately too we're still seeing with the spike in the disease, it's going back to where we're not having enough tests and it's taking three to four days to get results back.
That isn't the way we track the disease. You need those tests back in 12 hours, 24; you need to contact trace within 12 hours and you need to isolate and quarantine.
That's the way we're going to stop this. By testing, as you're saying, across the country.
VAUSE: We're out of time, Doctor. But clearly, with the vaccine still -- it's being administered but it's going to take some time. So the testing seems to be the best option right now.
MISCOVICH: Yes.
VAUSE: We appreciate it.
MISCOVICH: Thanks for having me today.
VAUSE: The European Union has authorized the use of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, paving the way for a rollout later this week. The batches will be shipped from Pfizer's manufacturing site in Belgium, with shots starting on the 27th.
The European Commission president says an opinion on the Moderna vaccine will come January 6th.
Now to a CNN exclusive, a Russian agent sent to tail opposition leader Alexei Navalny has revealed how Navalny was poisoned in August. The agent, a member of an elite toxins team in Russia's FSB security service, said that the lethal nerve agent, Novichok, was planted in Navalny's underwear. Last week, a CNN Bellingcat investigation revealed that the unit has trailed Navalny for more than three years. We have details now from CNN's Clarissa Ward.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an extraordinary scene. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the phone with one of the FSB units he believes poisoned him in August.
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WARD (voice-over): Navalny is pretending to be a senior figure from Russia's National Security Council investigating the attempted assassination.
The operative, Konstantin Kudryavtsev, is hesitant at first but then reveals the poison was placed on Navalny's underpants.
ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): Well, imagine underpants and in what place.
KONSTANTIN KUDRYAVTSEV, RUSSIAN AGENT (through translator): The insides, the groin.
NAVALNY (through translator): The crotch on the underpants?
KUDRYAVTSEV (through translator): Well, the so-called flap. There are some seams there, so across the seams.
WARD (voice-over): The explosive admission punches a gaping hole in the Kremlin's repeated denials that the Russian government played any role in Navalny's poisoning. Kudryavtsev was one of an elite team who trailed Navalny for years, as CNN and online investigative outlet Bellingcat reported last week.
The unit was headquartered in this unassuming building in a Moscow suburb. Most of its members were doctors or scientists. Kudryavtsev graduated from the Russian Academy of Chemical Defense.
When Navalny was poisoned back in August, his flight was suddenly diverted to Tomsk. Flight records show that just five days later, Kudryavtsev flew to that same city, taking possession of Navalny's clothes. On the 45-minute call with Navalny, he offers an assurance that no trace of Novichok would be found on them.
KUDRYAVTSEV (through translator): Yes, all is clean.
NAVALNY (through translator): Visually, it will not be visible? They did not remove? There are no stains on them -- nothing?
KUDRYAVTSEV (through translator): No, no -- nothing. They are in good condition and clean.
NAVALNY (through translator): Pants?
KUDRYAVTSEV (through translator): There is the same inside area. Perhaps something was left on it, too. We washed it off there also. But this is presumably because there was contact with the pants. Perhaps there was something on there, too.
WARD (voice-over): The FSB toxins team trailed Navalny on more than 30 trips around Russia. Five of its members flew to Siberia around the same time as Navalny during the fateful August trip when he was poisoned.
Toxicologists have told CNN that Navalny is lucky to be alive and that the intention was almost certainly to kill him, a point Kudryavtsev himself appears to acknowledge.
KUDRYAVTSEV (through translator): If he had flown a little longer and perhaps would not have landed so quickly and all, perhaps it would have all gone differently. That is, had it not been for the prompt assistance of doctors or ambulances on the landing strip and so on. NAVALNY (through translator): The plane landed after 40 minutes. Basically, this should have been taken into account while planning the operation. It wasn't that the plane landed instantly. They calculated the wrong dose, the probability? Why?
KUDRYAVTSEV (through translator): Well, I can't say why. As I understand it, we added a bit extra, so --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you do this? How did you do this?
WARD (voice-over): At the end of the call, Navalny and his team are elated that their sting operation has worked. And despite everything he's discovered, he's still determined to return to Russia as soon as possible.
WARD (on camera): CNN has reached out to the Kremlin for comment. So far, we have not heard back.
But, Russia's state security services, the FSB, has called the conversation a fake. They said it was designed to make the state security services look bad and that it could only have been done with the help of foreign special services. This is something they often accuse Navalny of doing -- of working with Western intelligence services.
But one has the suspicion that this story is not going away for them. There will be more questions asked -- Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: With 2 days left as U.S. attorney general, Bill Barr finally breaks with the delusional president.
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WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would do -- I would name one. But I haven't and I'm not going to.
VAUSE (voice-over): Has William Barr found a backbone?
Details in two minutes.
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VAUSE: U.S. lawmakers work to approve a massive COVID relief bell. Details on that when we come back.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) VAUSE: After months of haggling and partisan bickering, Democrats and
Republicans have agreed on a financial relief package for the pandemic. In the last hour, the House and Senate passed a $900 billion dollar COVID financial aid package.
Democrats say this is just the first step. More financial aid will be needed. This bill includes direct payments of up to $600 per adult and child and boosts unemployment benefits by $300 a week; $284 billion will be available for the paycheck protection program and there's $25 billion in rental assistance and the eviction moratorium has been extended.
Now all it needs is Trump's signature. All indications are that President Trump has decided to walk away from his day job of running the country. He is keeping busy considering increasingly fringe ideas to subvert the election he clearly lost last. Month and the advice he's now getting has even allowed those closest to him within his inner circle. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump's brazen and delusional pushed to overturn the 2020 election is alarming some senior officials and people close to the president, who say they are concerned about how he is handling his final weeks in office. One official telling CNN, no one is sure where this is heading. He is still the president for another month.
Now, as Trump considers an executive order to seize voting machines, naming a special counsel to investigate voter fraud and even imposing martial law in key battleground states. Even his most loyal allies are pushing back.
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WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: I see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. You know, wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe there is enough evidence to warrant appointing a special counsel?
BARR: If I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, I would do -- I would name one, but I haven't.
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DIAMOND: The attorney general isn't alone. Sources telling CNN that White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also push back on the outlandish ideas raised during a heated Oval Office meeting on Friday. Trump denied considering martial law but he is increasingly turning to the fringes of his political orbit.
Chief among them, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell who was removed from her position on Trump's legal team after baselessly accusing the CIA and the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez of rigging the 2020 election.
The pair were at the center of a heated Oval Office meeting on Friday, which sources said turned into a shouting match. Powell when Trump is considering named as a special counsel was spotted again leaving the White House residence late Sunday night. Also now backing the president here, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
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STEVE BANNON, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISOR: As I strongly recommended to the president, we need a special counsel named immediately. A special person just an election fraud and voter fraud, the two different things. Election fraud and voter fraud. You need to do that immediately.
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DIAMOND (voice-over): Bannon, who was charged with counts of wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy last summer may also be seeking a presidential pardon.
Meanwhile, the president is missing in action on the coronavirus pandemic. And downplaying one of the worst cyberattacks on U.S. government systems, calling it, quote, "far greater in the fake news media than in actuality.
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DIAMOND (voice-over): And suggesting China was the culprit, even though top U.S. officials say all signs point to Russia.
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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This was a very significant effort and I think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly, that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity.
BARR: From that information I have, you know, I agree with Secretary Pompeo's assessment. It certainly appears to be the Russians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And President Trump on Monday spent several hours meeting with some of the most pro-Trump members of Congress who were plotting his long shot attempt to object and try and overturn the results of the Electoral College. That's on January 6th when members of Congress are supposed to certify the vote from the Electoral College to approve Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.
And this meeting is just one of several that the president was holding on Monday focused on this effort to overturn the results of a democratic election that he lost. The conspiracy theorist and attorney Sidney Powell, she was also at the White House on Monday, it was the third time in just four days that she's been meeting with the president -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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VAUSE: Ron Brownstein is CNN's senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic." He is with us this hour from Los Angeles. Ron, as always, good to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to the disgraced former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. I want you to hear the words. This is Thursday. And now he believes Trump can overturn the election results. Here he is.
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MICHAEL FLYNN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TO DONALD TRUMP: He can order the -- within the swing states if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states.
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VAUSE: That was Thursday. By Friday, Flynn was in the White House meeting with Trump suggesting a new vote at gunpoint. Is Flynn seriously talking about 8 military coup?
BROWNSTEIN: He's talking about martial law in the Oval Office. And you know, as I said to you before, you don't get to that point in a day and you don't get to that point alone.
You only get to the point of the president in the Oval Office, you know, the place where Franklin Roosevelt worked and Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, talking about martial law to subvert an American election. You don't get there overnight.
And it took months and months of the president pushing at the boundaries of the rule of law throughout his presidency, starting with the government of Ukraine, weaponizing the Postal Service, intervening in the criminal justice system, tilting the census -- everything he has done since election day.
And Republicans at each step of the way finding a reason either to enable and abet him or to look away. And he has taken their measure and concluded that he can just keep pushing and they will not provide significant resistance.
And that is how we get to this point. We're in the final weeks of this presidency, these disgraceful ideas are being discussed in the Oval Office.
VAUSE: Here's Maggie Haberman from the "New York Times" and her reporting on some of that meeting on Friday. Here she is.
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MAGGIE HABERMAN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": This meeting was different. It was different in part, John, because of what he was saying and in part because a number of people who are typically, you know, in the president's camp, who have been for a long time, who have paid for a lot of his loyalty purchase and so forth were alarmed by what he was talking about.
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VAUSE: What does it say when the loyal faithful, who were OK with kids in cages and Muslim bans and all the other lunatic stuff are now concerned themselves?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, it says that, you know, this is a president who, as I said, has shredded the rule of law step-by-step over four years, broken all sorts of boundaries and conventions and constraints on the arbitrary exercise of executive power and who believes that he can go -- you know, he can continue to push further in that direction and his party will come with him.
And you know, is it a time for celebration when people around him say, well, we can't have martial law and we can't -- you know, we can't have a military coup?
I mean, you know, the fact that this is where people are drawing the line is itself pretty ominous.
VAUSE: Congressional Republicans, as you mentioned, they are the ones who could bring Trump to heel, but instead we have reporting of a private meeting on Monday night, House conservatives met with Trump, Vice President Pence. They talked about a doomed last-ditch effort to overturn the election, planned to next months joint session of Congress.
Here's part of the report.
"Lawmakers emerged confident that there would be a contingent of House and Senate Republicans who would join the effort and prompt a marathon debate on the floor on January 6th would spill into January 7th."
You know, this is all just theatrics. Democrats have launched similar objections before about the 2016 election and others. The big difference though is, the Democrat candidate had long conceded. Trump hasn't. Right?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. No.
Right. You know, I live in California and to me what we are watching post election seems like one of these cases where you have an earthquake, the building is still standing, but the damage to the foundation is so immense that the next time it collapses. And I feel like that's what we are watching post election.
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BROWNSTEIN: The willingness of two-thirds of House Republicans and two-thirds of Republican attorneys general, to sign on to this lunatic lawsuit that sought to disenfranchise 20 million voters in four states and have the Republican state legislatures override their votes to send pro Trump electors to Congress.
Everything else the president has, done all of these lawsuits, all of the attacks on elected officials, which have prompted death threats in many cases in states like Arizona and Georgia and Michigan, all of this is just doing enormous damage to the structure, the superstructure of American democracy and perhaps creating an expectation in the Republican Party and among Republican elected officials that this is the new normal.
Someone said to me recently that it may be that, in the future, refusing to try to subvert an election will be seen as disloyal behavior among Republicans. So we don't know the full damage of what the president is doing, even if it fails. But the fact that three- quarters of Republican voters say the election was stolen I think is very a chilling signal of what might be ahead.
VAUSE: Trump did turn his attention to that massive cyberattack on the U.S., widely blame on Russia.
In a tweet he accused China. Listen to Adam Schiff from House Intelligence Committee.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
VAUSE: Here he is.
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REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), CHAIR, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, I am sure that he has been briefed, which makes what he says just a patent lie. I don't think there's any question that this was Russia. There's certainly no suggestion I've seen that it was China.
That's just the president going out the same way he came into this administration, with falsehoods every day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: At this point, it's no longer shocking. It's no longer surprising that weeks in office, Trump continues to lies for Russia.
BROWNSTEIN: No, that's right. And as we're saying, every news happened in the election, is shocking, dangerous and corrosive on its own terms. It is doubly so when you consider that the president is focusing on these crazy conspiracy theories, this corrosive attempt to overturn the election while ignoring the actual crises that are unfolding around him.
A pandemic that is producing really I think the greatest national security threat the country has faced since World War II. Death tolls that amount to a Pearl Harbor or a 9/11 a day.
And this unprecedented -- cyberattack of unprecedented magnitude that, again, as he has throughout his presidency, is kind of brushing off.
On both fronts, I keep coming back to this point, other than Mitt Romney the other day on "Meet the Press," are there any Republicans who are taking him to task for essentially walking away from his job as these dual crises converge and instead to focus on his own self preservation at cost of weakening the foundation of American democracy in ways we will not fully understand probably for years to come?
VAUSE: Ron, thank you, it's great to have you with us.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: California appears to be losing the battle with COVID-19. Now refrigerated storage containers are being used as morgues. We will take you inside a crowded L.A. medical center in a moment.
Also South Korea works to increase ICU beds while imposing new pandemic restrictions amid a dramatic surge in daily confirmed cases. Details in a live report when we come back.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It seems America's dark winter has arrived, with coronavirus cases now surging past 18 million. The American Academy of Pediatrics reporting that the number of COVID-19 cases in children jumped 25 percent in the past two weeks. We should note that severe illness is still rare, though, among children.
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But the good news: on Monday, the Moderna vaccine started going into arms. So far, more than 614,000 Americans have received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
But healthcare workers are overwhelmed. Many Americans were in the hospital Monday because of the coronavirus than any other day since the pandemic started.
Looking to lead by example, though, President-elect Joe Biden received the Pfizer vaccine Monday, all in front of the television cameras. Afterwards, he thanked frontline healthcare workers.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We owe these folks an awful lot. The scientists and the people who put this together, the frontline workers, the people who were the ones who actually did the clinical work, it's just amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: California's health crisis has gone from bad to worse. On Monday, the governor said there are no ICU hospital beds left in San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. And there is the unthinkable right now. The state is using dozens of refrigerators storage units, not for vaccines. These are for those who died from COVID-19. The governor has also purchased thousands more body bags.
CNN's Sara Sidner takes us inside one busy medical center in Los Angeles.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm here outside Harbor UCLA Medical Center. We were allowed to go into to see just how dire the situation is here in L.A. County. This is just one example of what nurses and doctors and medical staff are dealing with on a daily basis. We went inside with my cell phone to show you the E.R.
Now, the E.R. is absolutely packed. You see the halls are packed with medical staff. And then the rooms are equipped with patients. Each and every room has a patient in it. They are at capacity.
The reason why the E.R. has all those patients that are all COVID patients in it is because the ICU is full. And it isn't as if this hospital can simply send patients to other hospitals in Los Angeles County. Because L.A. County, all of the licensed ICU beds are full across the entire county. That's about 2,500 beds.
And so hospitals like this one are trying to make sure they can service patients in any way they can, which is finding space for them, finding staff for them, finding equipment for them wherever they can.
It is exhausting for the staff. We talked to two nurses here, one of whom has been a nurse for 40 years. She says she has never seen anything this bad.
DR. NANCY BLAKE, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, HARBOR-UCLA: We are inundated. And the difference now from March and April is everybody was staying home. And so we're seeing our normal heart attacks, our normal trauma patients, and we're seeing a huge number of patients that end up in the ICU. And many of them die.
SIDNER: We also talked to a registered nurse who was currently taking care of patients. And he said they are just -- they're simply working past exhaustion. This is the third wave of COVID patients, and there are more patients than they have ever seen before.
They are begging people to do what you can to help stop the spread. Wear your masks. Stay at home. Don't gather, even in small groups. Try and follow all of the CDC guidelines, because that's what's going to help this.
And yes, this hospital also had a great day where they had the vaccine, and they're doing that still. But after they got that first vaccine, one of the nurses told us that afternoon they were dealing with many, many more COVID patients, some of whom did not make it.
They are begging people to follow the rules so that you can not only save yourself, your families, but also save these folks who have been spending months on end working themselves to the bone.
Back to you guys.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: In Seoul, South Korea, hospitals are doubling the number of ICU beds set aside for COVID-19 patients amid a surge of admissions. The city will also add more than 100 ICU beds by the end of the year. Also imposing new restrictions on public gatherings.
CNN's Paula Hancocks live in Seoul.
And Paula, they did this -- a similar thing back in March when it first began. They set aside a number of beds, a number of ICU beds specifically for COVID-19 patients, and that was very effective at the time.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. I mean, this time around, they really did face a crunch. Now, we've heard officials talk about an explosion of cases in early December, and they simply couldn't keep up with demand.
So really, a soon as they were creating these new ICU beds, then they were being filled up once again with new coronavirus patients.
Now at this point in Seoul City, there are 10 ICU beds available, and that's for coronavirus patients. But one day last week, there was just one ICU bed that was available.
So what we're seeing is officials really are scrambling to try and create more capacity. They hope that, by the end of this week, they should have a much better grasp on it.
But of course, it has been too late for some. Two people, according to Seoul City officials, have passed away while waiting for a hospital bed, and four more nationwide, as well. So certainly, it is an issue that officials are trying to get to grips with.
And what we're hearing, as well, is that there are going to be more restrictions in Seoul City and the greater Seoul area; that it's being called a special quarantine period from December 24 to January 3.
So what it means is the prime minister has effectively said that they want people to stay at home. And things like winter sports facilities, ski slopes, will be closed. Things like religious facilities, they will only be allowed to do online services. Restaurants, no to any groups of five or more people. And of course, we already had this restriction starting on Wednesday of no indoor gatherings or outdoor gatherings of five or more people.
So some fairly stringent rules being put in by Seoul City officials at this point, hoping that that will quell the outbreaks that we've been seeing here and will have a knock-on effect with freeing up more ICU beds, as well -- John.
VAUSE: And along with those measures, there are also some innovations taking place. They're turning some shipping containers into medical facilities. And also, they're trying to essentially produce sort of cheaper, more effective ICU beds that can be used faster or can be produced or turned around faster, I guess.
HANCOCKS: That's right. I went and saw some of them on Monday and spoke to the man who was -- who was creating them. They looked like shipping containers from the outside. But inside you have two more hospital beds. And they look pretty much the same as a regular hospital bed.
So what they're trying to do, just in this particular hospital I want to in downtown Seoul, they're trying to create almost 15 extra beds in the -- in the parking lot of the hospital, which is filling up extremely quickly.
And he said that his particular company has already been in discussions with every single one of the 17 city and provincial governments in South Korea. So every single one of them is in talks with him to try and figure out how they can increase their capacity, as well. And shipping containers, as you say, have been converted. They -- in one case, they are already in use -- John.
VAUSE: Paula, thank you. We'll have more on your reporting on those shipping containers and medical centers next hour here on CNN. Thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.
Well, doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic in Japan urging more action from the government to contain the latest outbreak. They want more resources and officials to tell the public that this is a severe crisis.
The prime minister says he's listening but will not declare a state of emergency just yet.
The country added 1,800 new cases just on Monday, pushing the total past 200,000.
Still to come, thousands on alert in Hawaii after a massive eruption of the Kilauea volcano.
And the two biggest planets in our solar system put on a rare celestial show. We'll get to that in a moment. A phenomenon hundreds of years -- there it is -- in the making. Back in a moment.
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VAUSE: An update now on the 91-year-old British grandfather who won Internet theme with his very blunt reaction to being one of the first to get the coronavirus vaccine.
Cyril Vanier had a second chat with Martin Kenyon last Thursday before the U.K.'s latest restrictions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN KENYON, RECEIVED CORONAVIRUS VACCINE: Interesting history about this. CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR (voice-over):
Ninety-one-year-old Martin Kenyon is not an obvious candidate to become an overnight viral sensation. Yet, that's exactly what happened after this.
KENYON: I said, what's this thing? You're doing the vaccination? They said yes. I hope I'm not going to have the bloody bug now. I don't intend to have it, because I've got granddaughters, and I want to live a long time. Well, there's no point in dying now when I have lived as long as that.
VANIER: Martin was one of the very first Britons to receive the coronavirus vaccine. His dry wit, humor, and -- let's face it -- bluntness --
KENYON: Had a rather nasty lunch.
VANIER: -- won the Internet. Five million views and counting on Twitter. Earned him a star turn on "Good Morning Britain."
KENYON: Now who are you?
VANIER: And gushing headlines. "The Sun" would even like to see him in the hit Netflix series, "The Crown."
So what did Martin make of all this attention?
KENYON: Ten days of notoriety is more than I've ever had in my life. And I'm very old for it started to happen now, isn't it? Very ridiculous. All because I rang up the guys (ph) hospital and went off there.
VANIER: The embodiment of the British mantra, keep calm and carry on, unruffled even in the face of a global and deadly pandemic.
KENYON: I haven't thought about it, particularly. I'm sorry to be a little boring about it. It really hasn't been something that -- that I thought about.
VANIER: Were you concerned about the danger to yourself?
KENYON: Well, I told you, I took precautions against catching it. Yes, it makes sense. Doesn't it?
VANIER: And if he's generally indifferent, why did he rush to get the vaccine?
KENYON: I'm all for getting something done that we're told to get done.
VANIER: As an Oxford graduate, he had hoped the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine would be available first but settled for the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, the only one so far approved in the U.K.
With a second injection scheduled late December and an extra week for his body to fully react, according to the British health authorities, Martin should be protected from COVID-19 by early January. If he's looking forward to it, well, it doesn't show.
KENYON: If I listen (ph) to where I'm having immunity or not immunity until you succumb to the thing. And then you realize, oh, damn, I didn't have immunity. You don't know that, do you?
VANIER: Martin does hope he can hug his grandchildren again before long but prefers to talk about a life well-lived. His travels to South Africa during the apartheid area; the lasting friendships, including with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
KENYON: Desmond used to call me Mr. Martin. I called him Mr. Tutu.
VANIER: Now godfather to his daughter.
His encounters with Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and he says the queen's late sister, Princess Margaret. As for that cameo on "The Crown," don't hold your breath.
KENYON: For God's sake. When I read about "The Crown," not even bring me near it. Very unkind they've been about the Prince of Wales, apparently, and practically ludicrous about Diana.
VANIER: Cyril Vanier, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in 15 minutes from now. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT is next.
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