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Nearly 1.2 Million People Flew Wednesday Despite CDC Warnings; College Student Suffers Heart Failure after Mild COVID Symptoms; Historic Volume of Mail Delaying USPS Deliveries before Christmas. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired December 24, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KAREN PONZA, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, GREATER CLEVELAND FOOD BANK: And you see them driving through and starting to drive away. You can just see the relief on their face, and that just means so much to all of us who work there and all of our volunteers.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. I mean, you see the sign from someone saying, thank you.

PONZA: Yes.

BOLDUAN: What are the stories that you're hearing? What are the circumstances that you're hearing from folks why they need to wait for hours and miles in line to get your much, much needed food?

PONZA: Yes. You know, we are seeing so many people come to us for the first time that have never needed help before. About a third of the folks that we've been serving since the pandemic started are people coming for the first time. And I think so many people --

BOLDUAN: Wow, that is heartbreaking.

PONZA: It is. It really is. I think, you know, people didn't know what to expect when this pandemic started. I don't know that people anticipated it lasting as long as it has. And our need has continued to increase over the months. You know, yesterday, we distributed over 4,000 boxes of food that will help serve thousands of people. And, you know, that has become a common scene for us in our food bank. We do these distributions weekly. We've done them since the pandemic started way back in March. And we'll continue to do them well into the New Year as the need is still there.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And I do wonder, the need at the food bank have been something that we have seen so much since the beginning of this pandemic. Does the need feel even greater around the holidays?

PONZA: You know, I think it does. We just want to make sure that everybody has a meal during the holidays. I mean, obviously, you know, the need is year round, but there is something special about making sure that everyone has the food that they need. And especially here in our area as it's getting colder, you don't want people to have to make that choice between, you know, food and paying for heat or utilities.

And so, if that's one thing we can do is to be able to provide that meal to them and that's one less thing they have to worry about, then that's why we're here.

BOLDUAN: No kidding. And, look, Karen, I do not and will not drag you into politics here, but when you see that this relief money set for millions of Americans to be going out approved by Congress and now it's held up in limbo and held up and caught up in politics, I'm just curious what you would like to say about that.

PONZA: You know, I think that people are scared. You know, they're scared, there's been so many people who have lost their jobs or had to take pay cuts. And the need was great before the pandemic. It's continuing now. And I see it continuing well into the New Year. And, you know, we're grateful because we've had a very generous community who has helped support us. And we're just going to continue to need that support well into the New Year.

BOLDUAN: Yes. No matter what aid or -- is coming or is not, you will be there. Karen, thank you.

PONZA: Absolutely. Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, forming a COVID bubble with a small group of family and friends, it may sound safe. But experts are warning those pandemic pods could be giving you a false sense of safety.

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[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: For the sixth straight day, TSA screened around a million people, nearly 1.2 million traveling through airport security yesterday, a new record since the start of the pandemic, a clear sign that despite warnings, Americans are traveling for the holidays. But what about those who are staying close to home, staying in their bubbles or pods with others to try to limit the risk of exposure to coronavirus, terms we have become familiar with this in quarantine COVID era?

A new report in The Atlantic says all pods though are not created equal. The headline, sorry to burst your quarantine bubble, pod means something different to everyone and that's a problem.

Joining me right now is Rachel Gutman, she is Deputy Managing Editor for The Atlantic Magazine. She wrote this very interesting piece that definitely had me thinking. Rachel, thank you for coming in.

So, as we looked at the holidays and a long winter, you looked at the effectiveness of these COVID pods and bubbles. What are experts telling you about how effective they are?

RACHEL GUTMAN, DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Hi, Kate. Thanks so much for having me. So, I've been hearing from public health experts and epidemiologists that, in theory, bubbles are a great idea. They should reduce spread by preventing the disease from jumping between groups of people. But in practice, that's not necessarily what's going on. And there's not really a ton of data on this.

So I spoke to a few people from around the country, just regular folks, and found out that the things that they were calling pods are actually quite different. Some people are in three-person pods, some people are in 30-person pods. It really ranges all over the place.

BOLDUAN: Is the concern from experts the number of people in the pod or, I don't know, the standards that these pods set? What are you finding from the families that you spoke to?

GUTMAN: Yes, it's definitely both. The number of people in the pod is important. Generally, the fewer people who you're exposed, the safer you'll be, I think, it's pretty intuitive. But the behaviors of people engaging in the pods are also important. So, a pod is going to be a lot more effective if everybody in the pod is very careful about masking and isn't going indoors with people who are not in the pods.

[11:40:07]

The other thing that's really important is that pods be closed. So if you're podded with your next door neighbors but your next door neighbors are podded with their cousins and the cousins are podded with somebody who teach their kid, that pod gets really, really big really, really fast and you might not know whose germs you're being exposed to.

BOLDUAN: So, if pods can be broken so easily, as you just kind of played out, is the risk a false sense of security?

GUTMAN: A false sense of security is definitely a problem here. I think one of the other problems is communication. So, if two people are in the same pod but they have different ideas of what's okay or who they can see, that means that they might really not know what they're being exposed to. And so, they could just not have a great sense of their own safety, which could lead them to make decisions that they might not want to make.

BOLDUAN: So, Rachel, if, in theory, pods and bubbles are quite effective and Lord knows we all are desiring some form of socializing, what did you land on as the best form, the best way to form and keep a bubble safe?

GUTMAN: Sure. So, the experts I spoke to said that about ten people or fewer is your best bet and, of course, that's not possible for everybody just based on living situations but ten people or fewer seem safest. The thing about that you need to remember too is that the transmission rates across the country and in your community are going to determine what's safer and what's not. So where we are right now, things are pretty bad. We had over 200,000 new cases yesterday and over 3,000 new deaths. You might want to keep your pod smaller than you might have over the summer when things were a bit calmer. BOLDUAN: Right. What was safe in the summer is definitely not so much safe right now. That is what we're seeing across the board. Rachel, thank you very much, Rachel Gutman.

Still ahead for us, a 20-year-old gets coronavirus. She recovers after only mild symptoms. But then she suffers heart failure. What she wants everyone to learn from her story.

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[11:45:00]

BOLDUAN: It was a mild case of coronavirus until it almost killed her. A 20-year-old healthy college student at Temple University in Philadelphia got coronavirus and thought she recovered quickly, so she quarantined, tested negative and then went home for Thanksgiving. That is when everything changed and she ended up in the hospital with heart failure, fighting for her life.

She survived and she now has a message. She's joining us right now, Madeline Neville. Madeline, it's wonderful to meet you. Your story is unbelievable. I really wanted just to know after you recovered from your mild case, when did you suspect something was wrong, that not everything was right? What were you feeling?

MADELINE NEVILLE, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY STUDENT WHO BATTLED CORONAVIRUS: Sure. I was actually walking the dog with my family over Thanksgiving break and I realized that I was having like some shortness of breath just walking. And so I was like, wow, like I really must be out of shape. But, actually, you know, over Thanksgiving, it just kept getting a little bit worse. And then came intense, intense chest pain. And that's when I knew that something was seriously wrong.

BOLDUAN: At the time, did you think any of this was related to coronavirus or something else?

NEVILLE: Yes. I had heard about some people were getting pneumonia from having coronavirus, and so that's what I thought was happening to me, that it was just pneumonia. And so we went to an urgent care and they prescribed antibiotics and I thought I was fine and it just kept progressively getting worse. And so then I knew that I needed to get to the emergency room.

BOLDUAN: I mean, and then eventually you had to be airlifted, airlifted to a bigger hospital in Pennsylvania. And then at 20 years old, you're diagnosed with congestive heart failure related to COVID. When you heard that from your doctors, do you remember what you thought at the time?

NEVILLE: You know, I wasn't really letting myself go there, like I wasn't really hearing it. I was just like, okay, so what are we going to do about it? It wasn't like, oh, my gosh, I'm in congestive heart failure. It was more so, okay, how do we fix this problem? It actually really hit me afterwards, once I was in the hospital and feeling better, I was like, oh, my gosh, like this just happened to me, that kind of thing. BOLDUAN: Did you ever hear from the doctors what it would have meant if you had not listened to your symptoms, if you had not gone and sought help?

NEVILLE: No, I wasn't asking those kinds of questions. You know, in my mind, I have an answer, it would be a very different story that you'd be telling today, I think. But I'm just -- I'm super grateful to the doctors at the University of Pennsylvania. They did amazing things and saved my life.

BOLDUAN: How long have you been back home? And how are you feeling now? How has recovery been?

NEVILLE: It's been about two weeks at home.

[11:50:00]

Recovery has been slow. Some days, I even forget and I feel so good. And then I do a little bit too much and I'm like, whoa, you know, I'm tired. It's difficult for me to walk up the stairs or, like I said, take the dog for the walk around the block, like I can't make it around the block yet, just things like that. Taking a shower takes it out of me. It's really a weird feeling to be weak at 20, 21 years old.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. I mean, you wanted to speak up and tell your story because you have a message for folks. Who do you want to speak to?

NEVILLE: Right. I just want people that aren't taking this as seriously as they should be, who believe that this is kind of just like the flu or, you know, are disappointed with the regulations happening across the country to just kind of remember my story, remember the worst that can happen and that it can happen to anyone.

And, you know, I am just happy to be alive basically and I don't really mind the regulations anymore. It's just I'm just trying to share my perspective with people and have them realize that it could be a lot worse.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Madeline Neville, thank you very much. Good luck with your recovery.

NEVILLE: Thank you so much, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

Coming up next for us, 3 billion packages shipped this holiday season, nearly 19,000 postal workers in quarantine. Those are two of the reasons so many Christmas packages may not make it out on time.

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[11:55:00]

BOLDUAN: If your Christmas deliveries haven't arrived yet, you are not alone. With so many people apart for the holidays, the U.S. Postal Service says it's overwhelmed with a record volume of mail-in packages.

CNN's Cristina Alesci has more on what the Postal Service calls a perfect storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN SMITH, PRESIDENT, NEW YORK METRO AREA POSTAL UNION: We just don't have enough rooms in the stations to deal with all the mail.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): New York Metro Area Postal Union President Jonathan Smith says the post office is handling more mail than ever before. This year, 3 billion parcels will be delivered during the peak holiday season by all major carriers. That's 800 million more than last year.

SMITH: It's an impossible task to keep up.

ALESCI: And impacting Christmas mornings around the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things I ordered never came on time. They're not going to come on time. I ended up canceling or they said they were delivered and they weren't.

ALESCI: The backlog also affecting small business owners, Alicia Christiansen in Michigan. She refunded $800 in sales of her hand painted aluminum wreaths because of postal delays. She's getting messages like this one from customers, the wreath is not here yet. Can you please find out where it is?

ALICIA CHRISTIANSEN, OWNER, BENDABLE BLOOMS ETSY SHOP: I'm not counting on them because I had to shut my shop down because I can't rely on the flowers to get there before Christmas.

ALESCI: Alicia is not alone. These photos show thousands of packages piling up at a postal processing center in Philadelphia. A lot of anger directed at Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appointed by Trump earlier this year. He faced criticism over the summer for removing large mail sorters and implementing cuts to overtime and post office hours, leading to concerns that election ballots would not arrive on time. He reversed course before the election.

LOUIS DEJOY, U.S. POSTMASTER GENERAL: I think American people can feel comfortable that the Postal Service will deliver on this election.

ALESCI: DeJoy was even questioned about Christmas during a congressional hearing this summer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have capacity now for Christmas and Mother's Day?

DEJOY: Yes, we have capacity for Christmas and Mother's Day.

ALESCI: But some postal workers feel like DeJoy made promises without supporting the monumental challenges they're facing now.

SMITH: All of the decisions that DeJoy made is affecting the way that we are able to do our job.

ALESCI: In a statement, a Postal Service spokeswoman told CNN, unlike last year, we are managing through a historic record of holiday volume this season, compounded by temporary employee shortages due to the pandemic.

Private carriers like FedEx and UPS are also feeling the heat. Both have issued their own warnings about delays. UPS even placing shipping limits on some of its largest retailers, including Nike and the Gap, a luxury the United States Postal Service does not have. It does not impose limits and the agency often has to absorb the packages these private carriers turn down.

What kind of stress have the UPS and FedEx restriction put on the U.S. Postal Service?

SATISH JINDEL, PRESIDENT, SHIPMATRIX: The last few days, we're receiving 6 million packages a day more than what they would have otherwise had handled if it was not for those restrictions.

ALESCI: On top of the crush for demand, the impact of the coronavirus. As nearly 19,000 postal workers are in quarantine. That's more than double the 8,000 workers before Thanksgiving.

[12:00:03]

SMITH: I understand the frustration of the American public. We're doing the best we can. Don't confuse a comma for a period.