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France Unblocks Border But Requires COVID Testing; Trump's Late Weigh In On Stimulus Package; Hospitals Wrenched By COVID; Overwhelmed, Understaffed; Presidential Pardon List - Unworthy Candidates; In Low Income Neighborhoods, You Have To Work In Order To Eat; Latin America Awaits Vaccine as Cases Soar; Multiple Asian Countries Restrict Travel from U.K.; The Coming Contagion; Fauci Urges Caution. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 23, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up this hour on CNN NEWSROOM. France reopens its border with the U.K. but with conditions. Only those testing negative to COVID- 19, will be allowed to cross. Which means it could still be days before those long lines of trucks are moving once again.
He played no role in negotiations, showed little interest in the rancorous back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. But now just in time for Christmas, Donald Trump slammed the pandemic relief package that congress just passed complaining of wasteful spending.
Overwhelmed and understaffed. Almost one in five hospitals across the U.S. reporting a critical shortage of staff, as the number of COVID patients grows higher by the day.
Just a few hours now, France will open its borders with the you know allowing freight and some travelers to cross. The 48-hour long closure left thousands of truck drivers on the British side stranded on roads leading to ports.
The decision to reopen comes with conditions. Everyone, including truck drivers, will need proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours.
And those traveling for urgent reasons will be allowed into France. That includes truck drivers, French citizens as well as British citizens with French residency.
The border shutdown was triggered by the discovery of a variant of the coronavirus.
Truck drivers have been left sleeping in their cabs and some say they may not get home for Christmas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAN JINCA, ROMANIAN TRUCK DRIVER: No, it's done, it's finish. From here to go home, we have about 2,000 miles. It's about 45 hours to drive, non-stop. No sleep, just drive. And we can't make it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGIO ROBLES, SPANISH TRUCK DRIVER (Through Translator): Christmas with my family. I've been away for seven days, working hard in order to arrive for Christmas at my home. Nothing, not Christmas, not anything. We're going to spend it here or on the journey, on the motorway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Earlier I spoke with CNN European Affairs commentator, Dominic Thomas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOMINIC THOMAS, CNN EUROPEAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: We've had so many discussions where we've talked about the simulations, right, of what it would look like at Dover with a no deal and so on and so forth.
And what we're seeing here unfolding before our eyes, as millions of British people are as well at home in lockdown, is that this is being televised live. It's right there in front of them and playing out.
And I think at the same time they're seeing this huge disconnect between all the promises made by the Conservative Party and by Prime Minister Johnson as to what the post-Brexit era could look like.
And I think this is not just about what a no deal looks like, this is a potential reality for what life looks like when you are no longer in the European Union.
And the key thing about supply chains is the word "supply." It's not working, there are issues here and they are likely to carry on into the future.
VAUSE: You know there are some reports, some suggestion, that maybe a trade deal could be reached sometime on Wednesday. Here is the E.U. chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHEL BARNIER, E.U. CHIEF BREXIT NEGOTIATOR: We are really in a crucial moment and we are giving it a final push. In ten days, the U.K. will leave the single market and I will continue to work in total transparency with the member states right now and with the parliament.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And (inaudible) --
BARNIER: Thank you. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Right now it seems that there's agreement on almost everything but the sticking point is fish and access to U.K. waters for E.U. fishermen.
The fishing industry in 2016 was over 0.1 percent of Britain's economic output, around 1.8 billion U.S. dollars. Harrods took in a billion dollars more in revenue last year than in 2019.
As a sticking point to a trade deal which is of such consequence, this smells fishier than the dumpster outside Red Lobster. What's really going on here?
THOMAS: Yes. Well, John, maybe. And I would say that Boris Johnson, to carry on that line, has bigger fish to fry.
The fishing issue has been a huge nationalist destruction (ph) which they have exploited from the very beginning of this particular process.
Boris Johnson insisted along with the Brexiteers that this transition period would last 11 months which was never going to be enough to hammer out the specifics of the deal over this long time relationship that they had had with the European Union.
And I think we're seeing on the side of the European Union patience because they see how important it is.
But what Boris Johnson should be focusing on are the terms of the deal with the largest customs union and single market in the world --
[01:05:00]
-- and an economic space in which almost 50 percent of all exports and imports have been done over the years. That's a far bigger issue that he should be concentrating.
But I think he's running in here to this clash between the kind of -- the nationalist imperatives and the realities of trying to negotiate leaving the European Union.
The headline for an opinion piece in the left-leaning Guardian newspaper declared, "It's Boris Johnson's worst week."
That's quite the claim, given that he bungled the early response to the pandemic, the death toll, the infection rate in Britain is among the worst in Europe. He canceled Christmas after a U-turn on the seriousness of the mutation of the coronavirus.
If he fails to make a trade deal with the E.U., that, though, it seems would have far greater consequences and impact for the U.K. economy, much more long term than the pandemic.
THOMAS: Absolutely. No deal, we know worst-case scenario. But the nature of the other deal is, at the end of the day, this has never really been about the quality of the deal. It is a nationalist argument that has driven, in the name of
sovereignty, the U.K. out of the European Union. And it's hard to think of any deal that could match the existing deal.
The question is how much of a deal is it going to be and what will it look like on paper.
And the bigger issue that I think he's going to have as well, even if there is a deal, is to actually convince countries outside of the European Union, let alone that particular space, that doing business with the U.K. is advisable.
Because the experience of these truck drivers over the past few days is so absolutely devastating, it's such a nightmare scenario for business, that that's going to be an uphill struggle for them, if they even get some kind of deal out of the European Union.
VAUSE: You get what you vote for, don't you, at the end of the day, don't you?
Dominic, thank you. Dominic Thomas there, joining us from Los Angeles. Good to see you.
THOMAS: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: Donald Trump has emerged from his hands-off do nothing approach to the presidency to cast doubt over the 900 billion dollar COVID relief bill just passed by congress.
Trump was absent from negotiations but is now complaining of wasteful spending.
And in a video message posted on Twitter, he demanded an increase in the financial aid payments to Americans, up from 600 dollars a week right now to two thousand dollars a week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quick to point out Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the president wanted for direct checks to Americans.
Democrats, she said, are ready to approve 2,000 payments this week.
So let the presidential pardons begin. A veritable Who's Who of law breakers are on the president's list. Including men who pleaded guilty in the Russia inquiry, corrupt former Republican congressmen and military contractors who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians.
Pamela Brown has details.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SNR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump announced 20 pardons including several of his allies and past associates.
And those include George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty in the Mueller probe to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russians. He is the fourth person the president granted clemency team in the Russia probe so far.
Also on the list, two corrupt GOP allies who were early supporters of president Trump, Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter.
Hunter, who was sentenced to 11 months earlier this year, for misuse of more than $200,000 in campaign funds, will now not serve any time behind bars with this pardon.
Collins was sent to prison October of this year for insider trading, activity he engaged in while on White House grounds, according to investigators.
And then there are other controversial names on the list such as Black Water guards involved in war crimes, the massacre of Iraqi civilians. Including one, Nicholas Slatten, who had been convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
So those are some of the key names.
And then there were also two former border patrol agents who were sentenced to prison in 2005 for shooting an unarmed, undocumented immigrant. They were heralded as heroes on right wing media at the time.
And nearly half of the pardons are non-violent drug offenders who had been advocated by Alice Johnson, who Trump pardoned earlier this year.
So we have around -- we have 20 pardons on this latest list from President Trump before Christmas. And we expect a flurry of more pardons before the president's term ends.
BROWN (On Camera): Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Larry Sabato joins us now. He's the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Always good to see you, Larry.
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you so much, John.
VAUSE: OK. Well, the pardon-palooza now seems to be underway. Donald Trump who's been -- hands off since losing the election, he's decided now is a good time to sow some doubt about the pandemic relief bill which just passed congress after months of bitter negotiations.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low 600 dollars to 2,000 dollars or 4,000 dollars for a couple.
I'm also asking congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation.
[01:10:00]
And to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package. And maybe that administration will be me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: No, it won't be you, Mr. President for 28 more days.
He's interested now in that financial aid package for families and businesses doing it tough (ph) in the pandemic. He wants to complain now about the spending of the 900 billion dollars?
But what can he do; it was passed with a veto proof majority, right?
SABATO: Yes. Of course, you never know. He could probably get enough Republicans in one house or the other to make sure that the veto was upheld.
But that's beside the point. First of all, the ending was hilarious, "It could be me." No, it's not going to be you under any circumstances.
He's been missing in action, he's MIA on just about everything and certainly this COVID relief bill.
But you know, I think he stepped in it a bit. Because Nancy Pelosi immediately took him up on the challenge. The Democrats are delighted. They would love to see two thousand dollars and four thousand for a couple in here instead of 600 dollars.
His problem's going to be his own party. Let him work it out, that's his job.
VAUSE: Yes. According to the news outlet, "Axios" --
"President Trump in his final days is turning bitterly on virtually every person around him, griping about anyone who refuses to indulge conspiracy theories or hopeless bids to overturn the election."
And the people he's now surrounded by are saying stuff like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNEY POWELL, PRO-TRUMP ATTORNEY (Voice Over): "Another benefit Dominion was created to reward is what I call election insurance, that's why Hugo Chavez had it created in the first place.
But I also wonder where he got the technology, where it actually came from. Because I think it's Hammer and Scorecard from the CIA."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The company counting our vote, with control over our vote, is owned by two Venezuelans who were allies of Chavez, are present allies of Maduro.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The whole thing is laughable but at the same doing incredible harm.
SABATO: It's Cuckoo Land. But you're right, it is doing some harm. What Trump has done is to try to delegitimize Joe Biden's presidency right from the beginning.
And here's the tragedy; he has exceeded with Republicans. Overwhelmingly, Republicans, activists, rank and file across the country, now say Biden is illegitimate.
No, Biden is completely legitimate. Biden won by a lot more than Donald Trump ever did.
But a president can have this impact, particularly when he's a Pied Piper and he has a cult.
VAUSE: Yes. And that cult is being fed conspiracy theories like the one we just heard from Team Trump.
It's been parroted and amplified by conservative media but now the reckoning is here.
Legal action has seen "Fox Business News" air a story essentially debunking its false claims about Smartmatic voting machines. While, meantime over at "Newsmax," they admitted on air they haven't been telling the truth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN TABACCO, NEWSMAX HOST: "Newsmax" would like to clarify its news coverage and note that it has not reported as true certain claims made about these companies. There are several facts our readers and viewers should be aware of.
Newsmax has found no evidence that either Dominion or Smartmatic owns the other or has any business association with each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. How does this all square up with the amount of oxygen and credibility they've given Trump's lies about voter fraud?
SABATO: That's quite a clarification. It's like saying earlier we reported that the sun set; in fact, the sun rose.
Look, what can you say? It was all bunk, they were simply trying to support Trump's ridiculous claims about vote fraud. But they smelled a lawsuit coming, and they can get very expensive.
VAUSE: Yes. And when there's money on the line, I guess, that's when they ran the other way.
But that will have a limited impact, I guess, on Trump's solid base.
But maybe Trump fever could start breaking with this. Listen to televangelist and Trump supporter, Pat Robertson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAT ROBERTSON, TELEVANGELIST: I had prayed and hope that there might be some better solution but I don't think it's -- I think it's all over. I think the electoral college has spoken.
He is very erratic and he's fired people and he's fought people and he's insulted people and he keeps going down the line. So it's a mixed bag.
And I think it would be well to say you've had your day and it's time to move on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: How significant is that statement from Robertson especially considering congressional Republicans, at least most of them, haven't even come close to saying anything like that?
SABATO: Well, I've known Pat over the years, he's been in Virginia Beach for a long time. And he can be very blunt and very honest and he was in this particular case.
He's trying to talk sense to Donald Trump. But Donald Trump is not receiving sense.
[01:15:00]
He's in a very unusual mood even for him. It's said that he's throwing a tantrum in the White House. I think we've all seen spoiled children who behave a lot better than Donald Trump has been behaving.
VAUSE: Trump has a big support base amongst Evangelicals though. Will that have an influence on that part of his base?
SABATO: It might. I've come to the conclusion that absolutely nothing will shake the hard-core base of Donald Trump and that base is between 30 and 35 percent.
And it isn't the 46 percent he got in two elections because there are a lot of Republicans in there that don't care for him all that much but they prefer him to the Democratic alternative.
But that Trump base is going to stay with him, in all probability, unless there's some legal action and conclusion in court that may change their minds. But we'll have to see whether that happens.
VAUSE: Larry, thank you. Good to see you. Appreciate it.
SABATO: Thank you, John. VAUSE: Israelis will be heading to the polls again, their fourth parliamentary election in two years now set for March.
Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition collapsed Tuesday after failing to agree on a budget.
The unity government lasted seven months, the result of a power- sharing arrangement between Netanyahu and his major political rival, Benny Gantz.
The election will be held with Netanyahu facing a corruption trial and public anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM. Healthcare workers under relentless strain and facing an increasing rise in the number of COVID-19 patients.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY BLAKE, CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: It's a disaster right now for our staff. The patients are extremely sick. This is a horrible disease.
I hope I won't cry -- because it's been ten months of this.
VAUSE: The incredible toll another wave of the pandemic is taking on one L.A. hospital. That's just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: With the holidays almost here and with the pandemic surging out of control, the U.S. president elect is pleading with Americans to be cautious, remain vigilant.
Joe Biden was blunt about the crisis still to come, his tone and words in stark contrast to the current president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us so we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines.
As frustrating as it is to hear, it's going to take patience, persistence and determination to beat this virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And the nation's leading infectious disease expert received his first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned if Americans once again failed to follow pandemic guidelines over these holidays, there will be another infection surge on top of the one right now.
[01:20:00] Of the 18 million cases confirmed in the United States so far more than half have been reported in the last two months alone.
And now health experts believe the virus mutation detected in Britain already spreading across the U.S.
Well, the epicenter of the current surge is California.
L.A. County hospitals reported last week they have maxxed out their ICU capacity and on the front lines, health care workers are overwhelmed, exhausted and feeling strain like never before.
Here's CNN's Sara Sidner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nurse Cliff Resurreccion is preparing for battle against the insidious invisible enemy he and his colleagues have been fighting for months.
COVID-19 is now sending so many people to the hospital in California there are no more intensive care unit beds open here at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center so they've moved coronavirus patients into the emergency room.
Some are so sick, they're hooked up to no less than eight IV's pumping in vital medicines to save or soothe them.
CLIFF RESURRECCION, REGISTERED NURSE IN COVID-19 UNIT: It's very exhausting. It's really like a never-ending struggle and it's really tough right now.
SIDNER: Before his shift started, Nurse Resurreccion learned one of his COVID-19 patients had died. The patient had no family visits and no breath left to say goodbye.
RESURRECCION: Unfortunately, he has no family. (Inaudible) this patient had no family that were able to come and see him. It's very sad around the holidays for everyone involved.
SIDNER: Everyone here has been exposed to the trauma of loss over and over again. But the patients just keep coming.
What's it like right now for your staff?
BLAKE: It's a disaster right now for a staff. The patients are extremely sick, this is a horrible disease.
I hope I won't cry because it's been 10 months of this. And we are inundated.
SIDNER: They can't send patients out in Los Angeles County because in the most populated county in America there is not a single licensed ICU bed open, all 2,500 are full.
At last count, all of Southern California had zero ICU capacity. Zero.
BLAKE: And there's no break, there's absolutely no break. And even during July, it wasn't so bad. But this time, we're seeing large numbers.
SIDNER: Nancy Blake says this is so much worse in the first two surges of the virus because now they're getting their normal amount of emergency patients plus a large number of coronavirus cases.
In the past two weeks, California has seen a 63 percent increase in hospitalizations and in just one day, around 40,000 new infections were reported. This as 98 percent of the state is under a stay-at- home order. That is clearly not what is happening.
SIDNER: What effect does that have on your staff?
BLAKE: They're angry. Because at the very beginning it was -- people were saying nurses are heroes and great job. And now they're not listening to us, they're not wearing their masks, they're saying it's a hoax.
And I have to say, I'm a glass half full kind of person. My glass is empty right now.
SIDNER: You'll remember in New York at the beginning of the pandemic when they had refrigerated trucks because they needed space for bodies? Well, now, at this hospital they have the same thing and this one has just been turned on.
But amidst the signs of suffering, there were signs of hope. Health care workers lining up to get their first dose of the vaccine, each sending a message as to why they're getting inoculated.
The first day it arrived, the mood soared but soured by the afternoon as more patients crushed into the emergency room.
SIDNER: Are you OK?
BLAKE: No. It's the worst I've ever seen. I've been a nurse for 40 years and it's the worst I've ever seen.
And some of the things these nurses are seeing where their patients are dying, there's no family members that are there holding that patient's hand or they're on the other side of an iPad where the family's crying.
SIDNER: Her glass is empty, as she said, partly because of what this has done to her staff, she sees it every day.
They used to be taking care of about 60 patients at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the summer. Now that number hovers at about 100 COVID-19 patients.
SIDNER (On Camera): Sara Sidner. CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Doctor Jose Perez, chief medical officer at the South Central Family Health Center in Los Angeles is with us now. Dr. Perez, thank you for being with us.
Just quickly, we're hearing from a lot of medical workers, healthcare workers, basically this pessimism. There was this hope earlier in the year, there was sort of maybe this is getting under control.
But right now there just seems to be almost a lack of hope that this country will get through this winter without it being a mass casualty event. What's it like for you?
DR. JOSE PEREZ, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, SOUTH CENTRAL FAMILY HEALTH CENTER, LOS ANGELES: Well, thank you for having me.
[01:25:00]
At South Central Family Health Center, we're in South L.A. and our community is predominately Hispanic, Latino working families.
And we are experiencing the same surge that all of the other areas of L.A. is doing. It's hard. It's hard for our population because they are the frontline workers, they are the cooks, the people that clean houses and many of them must work.
And they know that they go out into the world knowing that they're putting themselves at risk but they know that if they don't work they won't be able to eat.
South Central Family Health Center is part of a (inaudible), a net of community health centers in L.A. We are all standing together with our brothers and sisters in the hospital and doing the best we can to help support them.
VAUSE: So --
PEREZ: One in six patients are seen at a community health center like ours.
VAUSE: Well, South Central, where you are, it's a lower income neighborhood in L.A., it's home to a lot of minorities. If I remember correctly, it's high-density housing for the most part --
PEREZ: Uh-huh.
VAUSE: -- several generations under the same roof. This is an ideal combination for the environment for COVID-19 to spread. What are you seeing there firsthand?
PEREZ: Yes, absolutely. We have what we call the social determinants of health and those include poverty, overcrowding. The area where South Central is located is the most densely populated area of L.A. County as a whole.
We are experiencing 14 percent of our patients that get tested are coming back positive and many of them are even some of our workers. Two-thirds of our staff are folks from the community themselves.
So they get the double whammy. They get -- their family members who work in the area and they themselves have to come to work. And I cannot emphasize enough the stress that this is causing, the behavioral health issues that our staff deals with on an everyday basis.
And yet, I am proud of my staff, I am proud of my nurses, my medical assistants and my providers because they show up every day.
We haven't closed our doors and we'll continue to support the hospitals.
VAUSE: The headline from the "San Diego Union-Tribune" on Tuesday seemed fairly ominous -- "Health care rationing on the horizon if hospital surge continues."
Now rationing health care is something that many of your patients already know a lot about. They're mostly lower income families, they often don't have health insurance.
How are they now being impacted by this surge of new infections, just in terms of access to treatment? How is it different for them, I guess, than other families across the United States?
PEREZ: Again, it outlines the disparities in access to healthcare by different populations in the United States.
We take care -- at the community health centers, we take care of the most vulnerable and they very often don't have insurance or have minimal insurance. And we serve as their escape route, we are frontline and we provide them with access.
I'm proud to say that at South Central, we've tested over 4,000 patients and our sister community health centers have tested many more thousands of them.
We are managing folks via telehealth so those who turned out positive, we have phone calls and we have video chatting and we are helping manage them when they are at home. Which relieves a lot of pressure into the hospitals.
Because all these patients otherwise would show up at their doors and we know they're already filled up to the brims.
VAUSE: The president elect, Joe Biden, made a commitment on Tuesday to the American people. Here he is, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis, I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth.
And here's the simple truth. Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So with a new president who is direct, blunt, honest, do you think that will move the needle and change behavior and attitudes in any way when it comes to the virus?
PEREZ: It does. I believe our communities, it's not that they don't want to take care of themselves, it's just they have to go out there and work.
It's hard to tell someone -- it's hard to tell one of my patients, look you've got to stay home for 14 days when I know that they're -- if they don't show up to work they're not going to earn a living.
So you have to take care of the immediate but you also have to eat. So it's very hard to ask our patients to do that. And we are understanding.
Our health center is a center for education as well. So we do our best to educate our patients but then life gets in the way. And that is the challenge. That is the challenges for people of low income in poor communities.
VAUSE: Dr. Jose Perez, we're out of time. But I guess there is that calculation if you can't work, you can't eat, you're not going to live but (inaudible) take your chances with the coronavirus, I guess. That's what comes down to sometimes.
Thanks for being with us, we appreciate it.
PEREZ: OK. Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Take care.
[01:29:41]
The U.K. is facing new international travel bans as concerns grow over the mutation of the virus spreading across Britain. Live from South Korea with the details in a moment.
Also ahead of us, bankers react to that new variant spreading across the U.K. We'll find out if their vaccines will still be effective.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Peru has passed one million confirmed cases, the fifth highest case count in Latin America after Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico. The death toll there stands at 37,000. And there are now concerns of a second wave of infection which had been declining in recent months. Restrictions in Peru are being ramped up over the holidays.
Well, there is a great need now for a vaccine across Latin America more than ever before. While the first dose of Pfizer's vaccines expected to arrive in Mexico in the next few hours, it could be weeks for other countries to receive their shipments. Journalist Stefano Pozzebon has more now from Colombia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: (INAUDIBLE) when it comes to coronavirus in Latin America because while the virus is still making inroads and the cases are still rising all across the continent. Good news could come in the arrival of vaccines.
While Peru has surpassed just on Tuesday the one million mark, on Wednesday Mexico will finally receive the first doses of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine. At the same time Brazil also on Wednesday is due to release the early trial data of -- the trial -- the Chinese, the Sinovac vaccine hailed in Sao Paulo and other regions of Brazil.
Of course, if that vaccine will also be approved, and we will know it in a couple of weeks time when the full report and the full data will be available. If that vaccine will also may be approved, that will be yet another weapon in the hands of health workers and administrators all across the globe in trying to contain the virus, containing the virus which is something very much needed.
For example in Bogota, the city where I am, citizens are allowed to leave their homes only on alternative days depending on their ID card this Christmas week.
[01:34:53]
POZZEBON: While all across Latin America administrations have imposed curfews, and called on bans on alcohol sales, urging citizens to stay in house and maintain social distancing measures and not let the guards drop in front of the virus, across the festivities.
It's a grim picture, but the administration and the politicians are urging people to hold on. The vaccines are indeed arriving.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon -- Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The U.K. is facing new international travel restrictions to try and prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant. South Korea will suspend flights to and from the U.K. for the next week. Japan imposing new restrictions on travelers arriving from the U.K. as well.
This comes as the number of cases continues to rise at an alarming rate, not just across Europe but Asia as well.
CNN's Paula Hancocks live for us again here in Seoul, Ok. So we have these restrictions now for South Korea and Japan. They seem of various sort of, I guess, toughness if you like or severity.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. South Korea, as you say John, has effectively said that all flights in and out of the U.K. to South Korea will be suspended until December 31st. So until the end of the year. And in addition what they're doing is those coming from the U.K. if they have a quarantine exemption that is possible with certain business visas etc.
That is now null and void when it comes to passengers from the U.K. Also pointing out that everybody who has to do this 14-day quarantine here, they are tested at the beginning of their quarantine. If they're from the at U.K. they will also be tested at the end of their quarantine before they're allowed out into the population.
And anyone testing positive they're going to double check and make sure if it is in fact this new variant. So they know where they stand.
Now in Japan, it's slightly less stringent. There isn't this blanket ban on flights to and from the U.K. But they have said that they're going to have stricter controls which effectively means that those non-Japanese residents of Japan, who are business travelers, they travel back and forth to the U.K.
They did not have to do the quarantine in the past, but from now on they will. They will also have to do that 14-day quarantine, John.
VAUSE: Also the situations sort of emerging in Taiwan, which had been sort of like this standout, stellar, number one place in the world in controlling the virus. And Thailand had also been doing pretty, but now maybe not so much?
HANCOCKS: That's right. I mean I was in Taiwan back in August and it was remarkable how well they had done. It was like being in a parallel universe walking around as though nothing had happened, although many people were still wearing masks. But they were 255 days without a local transmission case. They now have had one.
The health ministry saying a woman in her thirties had come into contact with a pilot, a New Zealand pilot from Eva Air. Now reports say that there is an investigation at this point as to whether or not he was truthful when talking about to the contact tracers about where he had been.
Eva Air giving a statement saying that they're doing their own investigation. If it's found that he broke the rules, this pilot then he will be fired.
Now also in Thailand, they have been doing remarkably well, they now have more than 400 cases. This is all surrounding a seafood market, just on the outskirts of Bangkok. Tens of thousands of people are at this point are being tested to try and control and contain that outbreak.
Also more social distancing measures are being put in place. And residents and people in Bangkok are being asked not to go to large gatherings, for New Year's celebrations.
So two places there that really were standout success stories showing just how hard it is to keep that going.
VAUSE: Paula thank you. Paula Hancocks live for us in Seoul. Thank you. Well, pandemic restrictions are being eased in Sydney. That's after the state of New South Wales reported a falling number of cases for the second day in a row.
From Christmas Eve, some homes in the northern beaches, that's just north of Sydney will be allowed to have up to five visitors, as long as they're from the same affected area.
Meantime, the Greater Sydney region can allow up to 10 visitors plus children under 12. These new rules will be in place until December 27th.
Scientists in the U.K. say the new variant of the coronavirus spreading across England maybe more contagious for children. They're fairly certain the mutation is about 71 percent more infectious, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's more dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL FERGUSON, PROFESSOR, IMPERIAL COLLEGE, LONDON: There is a hand that it has a higher propensity to infect children, that may perhaps explain some of the differences that we haven't established any sort of causality on that. But you can see that from the data.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: This new variant will be the focus of a World Health Organization meeting which gets underway in just a few hours from now.
[01:39:52]
VAUSE: And drug maker AstraZeneca says its vaccine should be effective against this mutation. The WHO says mutations are part of the evolution of a virus, should not be cause for major alarm.
Three other pharmaceutical companies are also confident their vaccines will remain effective against the variant.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen spoke the head of German drug maker BioNTech.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pfizer and BioNTech are currently evaluating whether their vaccine is effective against the new variant of the novel coronavirus. The CEO of BioNTech in an interview told me he believes that while tests are still ongoing, that the vaccine is still effective.
UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: There is a high likelihood that the vaccine response will be able to inactivate this virus because you have to consider that even though nine amino acids have changed in this protein, 99 percent of the protein is not changed.
And they know that our vaccine induces immune response against multiple reagents (ph) of this protein, multiple (INAUDIBLE) responses and multiple antibody finding agents (ph). So 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: The (INAUDIBLE) or for testing will take about two weeks because we have to synthesize this variant but what we already did is we varied that we have observed (INAUDIBLE) responses against this the spike protein. And we see that almost all sides, where we have seen TSAR responses are still conserved.
And so that is a good message, that means at least one component of the immune system will not be affected by this mutation.
PLEITGEN; But you're still confident that basically life could -- return to some form of normalcy maybe in the latter half of next year.
SAHIN: The evolution of this virus is still relatively limited. There are still 1 percent of the spike proteins and we should not forget that we still have the opportunity if we tried to adjust the vaccine, exactly through this new virus variant, if this is needed.
I don't think that it's needed but if it would be needed, there is a technical possibility to do that.
PLEITGEN: But while Ugur Sahin believes that the vaccine is effective against the new strain of the novel coronavirus, he also says that if the virus itself becomes more effective at infecting people, so it becomes more contagious that it could take longer to achieve herd immunity.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, as we battle COVID-19, the fears of an even deadlier virus yet to be found. Coming up CNN investigates how the destruction of rain forests could pose a near existential threat to humankind.
[01:42:56]
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VAUSE: Almost all the deadly pandemics the world have seen in recent years originated from a virus jumping from animal to human -- HIV, ebola, SARS, MERS, maybe COVID-19 as well. And with more different types of viruses on this planet than there are stars, 10 gazillion to be precise, there are growing fierce a more dangerous virus is lurking in remote regions of the world.
In a CNN exclusive, senior international correspondent Sam Kiley travels into the depths of the Congo to investigate "THE COMING CONTAGION". (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This pristine wilderness is under threat. The environmental disaster here could lead to a human apocalypse.
Because locked up in the forest are reservoirs of potentially deadly contagions, some perhaps more dangerous than we've ever seen before.
Ingende -- 400 miles upriver from the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital, has been struck by a recent outbreak of the killer ebola virus. It has killed three out of 11 patients here, but doctors fear that they have stumbled on a new virus for which there may be neither treatment nor cure.
DR. CHRISTIAN BOMPALANGA, MEDICAL CHIEF INGENDE ZONE (through translator): We have to do more examination to find out what's going on.
KILEY (voice over): So the doctors just told me that one of their immediate concerns is that they are getting cases now that present symptoms that are similar to ebola, but when they test them in the laboratory here, they are coming up negative.
(voice over): This patient has ebola symptoms, but she tested negative. She is one of two victims here who may be fighting a disease never encountered before.
I asked the doctor if he was worried about new diseases emerging.
DR. DADIN BONKOLE, PHYSICIAN TREATING EBOLA (through translator): Yes indeed. We should be afraid. That was how ebola came, it was unknown. An unknown diseases. And then after tests, it turned out to be a virus.
KILEY: Treatments and a vaccine for ebola now mean that while it's often deadly, more patients do survive. But medicine will never keep up with new diseases emerging from the wilderness. The patients here did survive, the test of known illnesses were all negative.
So her disease remains a mystery. Doctors worry that more zoonotic diseases like Ebola, HIV/AIDS, SARS, MERS and COVID-19 will emerge and make that jump from animals to humans.
Ingende, on the River Ruki (ph) is deep in the Congo Basin. It is accessible only by boat but, that's how a virus can travel to big cities like Mbandaka, to the country's capital Kinshasa and into the global bloodstream.
Mbandaka has been at the epicenter of this latest fight against ebola, which killed 55 people in the province.
(on camera): Here in Mbandaka, they are battling with the 5th local outbreak of the ebola virus which is on its 11th here in the Congo. They are getting a grip on it they believe.
But they are also concerned about finding unknown viruses that have emerged the forest, just like ebola.
(voice over): The scientists here have limited funds but they know their work is essential to protect their own country and the rest of humanity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't have all this in place, you can imagine the nightmare scenario where you just have a vast epidemic with many places leading to huge mortality and morbidity.
KILEY: More than 100 new viruses have been discovered in the DRC over a decade, including many coronaviruses in bats.
So it's bats that get tracked. That's a link to many zoonotic diseases, notably COVID-19 and ebola.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we are going to put it in the capture bag. You have to be really careful -- they bite
KILEY: The virologists have told us that once they haven't found the ebola virus itself inside them, they have found the antibodies. So these are in a sense a sentinel species, an early warning system for humanity.
And it could prove fatal, start a epidemic or worse. So could a cross infection from an unknown host to bats, to chickens, to children.
About 80 bats are swabbed, tested for COVID and ebola, and then the samples are sent to Kinshasa for more investigation.
Most of them survive capture and are returned to the wild.
[01:49:52]
KILEY: The Congo's population has almost doubled in two decades to around 90 million. This puts the forest under strain and closes the gap between people and the new diseases that could kill them.
The scale of the destruction of the rain forest here in the Congo is not yet on the scale that we have seen in the Amazon. A great deal of it is a result of local farmers who clear the land and then farm it for a few years.
(on camera): The problem is that that causes fragmentation of the rainforest, increasing the surface area between the forest and humanity.
PROFESSOR JEAN-JACQUES MUYEMBE TAMFUM (ph), NATIONAL BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE: : So this is the forest.
KILEY (voice over): Professor J.J. Muyembe is an expert in emerging diseases. He has been tracking them since he discovered ebola in 1976. And now he has a warning for us.
TAMFUM: So it's become an outbreak.
KILEY (on camera): Are you afraid that there is going to be more emerging diseases coming out of the forest, something that is perhaps spreads like COVID but kills like ebola?
TAMFUM: We are now in a world where new pathogens will come out that will constitute a threat for humanity. As you know, most of these disease emerge from Africa.
KILEY: And this in the Congo is how viruses mostly travel.
(on camera): The congo is the great artery that gives life to the whole nation, but it's also the root by which the results of deforestation are exported.
KILEY: Like these smoked monkeys being sold for food. I film undercover because traders here in protected species fear exposure. Adams Cassinga is my guide. Once subsistence food, now bush meat is an international luxury commodity.
Can you arrange for shipping to Europe and America?
And so that's no problem, there's an agency for that. And protected species, the monkeys' heads and arms have to be cut off to disguise them with antelope meat.
ADAMS CASSINGA, WILDLIFE CRIME INVESTIGATOR, CONSERVE CONGO: We have experienced an influx of expatriates, mainly from Southeast Asia and who demand to eat certain types of meat, such as turtles, snakes, primates.
KILEY (on camera): The U.N. estimates that some 5 million tons of wild meat are harvested every year from the Congo Basin. But the most potent source of viruses are live animals. They carry the viruses and can infect when they're butchered or petted in private zoos.
Live animals and bush meat are part of a multi billion dollar global trade that is a cause and symptom of ecological disaster.
Combined with logging and industrial pressure, untold numbers of potential infections could be released, and now it's as if nature has found a way to protect itself, but locked up in the armory of the forest, is a weapon against the planet's most deadly threat -- humankind. And if so this abandoned palace of a long dead dictator isn't a relic of the past, it's a vision of what the planet looks like when Mother Earth fights back.
Sam Kiley, CNN -- Kinshasa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And please watch the full episode of "THE COMING CONTAGION", Thursday 3:30 p.m. in New York. That's 8:30 p.m. in London. We'll see it only here on CNN.
Breaking news out of France where three police officers responding to a domestic violence call have been shot and killed, a fourth officer was wounded.
CNN affiliate, BFMTV reports the gunman opened fire when the officers arrived, then set the house on fire. The woman who called police was reportedly rescued, still not clear what happened to the gunman.
All this took place in central France, about four hour south of Paris.
Well, at airports across the U.S., it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And that's not a good thing right now. Why are so many willing to risk not just their lives, but the lives of family and friends.
[01:54:11]
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VAUSE: Air travel in the U.S. is setting new pandemic records, with a million daily passengers this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That's higher than the Thanksgiving day traveled period despite pleas from health experts for everyone to stay home.
Here's CNN's Pete Muntean.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Plenty of people are still traveling, even in spite of the CDC telling them not to and they are breaking records of the pandemic. The TSA says more than a million people passed their security at America's airports on Friday, on Saturday, and then again on Sunday.
Nearly a million people on Monday. And we will have to see what the numbers will be on Tuesday. But it's that 3-day million passenger streak that is so interesting. We have not seen that before during the pandemic, not even during the Thanksgiving rush.
These numbers, still about 40 percent of what they were a year ago, so plenty of people are staying home. But the travelers we talked to, say they're taking every precaution they can, to stay safe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are definitely much more careful than usual. I brought hand sanitizer and we are hand sanitizing and just careful not to touch everything. And just be careful about what's around.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We definitely took a lot of precautions like when I got on the plane, I like wiped down everything with the wipes they gave us, which is nice. The last thing I want to do is spread COVID.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm ok, I wear like two masks and everything. Trying to respect the six feet apart and everything. I'm ok with it, you know, just hoping and praying that nothing happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MUNTEAN: Holiday travelers from the United Kingdom can still come here, even in spite of that new coronavirus strain. No new restrictions from the federal government, the Federal Aviation Administration says it's monitoring the situation. Delta airline says it will soon test passengers for coronavirus, as they arrive here from the United Kingdom.
Pete Muntean, CNN -- Dulles International Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
And I will be back. Yes we are just getting started with CNN NEWSROOM. A lot more after the break.
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