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Trump Vetoes Defense Bill, Throws Relief Bill in Doubt; Vulnerable Communities Worry About Equal Access to Vaccine; Doctors Weigh Whether to Get COVID Vaccine While Pregnant. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired December 24, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: I know it's the same question, but I'm -- what is going to happen? Are you guys are going to vote on Monday on increasing payments? Do you have any idea of Republicans are going to along with this, considering the president now says he endorses that idea?

REP. ANDY KIM (D-NJ): Well, right now, unfortunately, nobody in this country knows what the President's going to do. I don't even think the President knows what he's going to do next. I think he doesn't understand the full measure of what is about to happen.

And if he does, I almost feel worse about this situation, if he understands the catastrophe that he is about to unleash upon our country. It's not just about the COVID relief, but that's a big part of it without support for hundreds of billions of dollars for small businesses, unemployment insurance that's going to be running out at the end of this week, all their efforts of that nature, about government shutdown, but it's also about The National Defense Authorization Act, something that should be a no brainer in terms of bipartisanship.

So there's so much that is happening here, that's unprecedented. And the President is literally sitting on his hands, as you said, but sitting on his hands and Mar-a-Lago on vacation right now. So I actually have no idea what he's going to do. And that is a very scary, given how difficult of a crisis we're in as a nation right now.

BOLDUAN: Look, so on the Defense Bill, you have -- the President has stated and follow through and his position that he was vetoing it, you all are planning to vote to override it, you know, nothing's done until it's done. But the numbers are there, you would think. Would it almost be better if the President would just go ahead and veto the COVID bill, so at least you had his position, and then you guys could move to override it, because right now, you literally just can't do anything?

KIM: Yeah, that's right. I mean, right now, we are in limbo, when it comes to the COVID package with the NDAA we're hoping that we'll have the numbers on Monday to override it. We had the numbers before in a large bipartisan vote. But I do worry that some of the Republicans may not back it given Trump's veto here. So that's something that we have to be careful on. And that is, you know, a pay raise for our troops, cybersecurity efforts that are all the more important now.

And with the COVID relief, you're right, that we all know what the President's going to do next, we saw him wait to the very last possible moment to veto the NDAA, which made things extremely difficult for us here at the end. And we only have a handful of days left in the 116th Congress. So there is a lot here just riding on this fact. And there's a real concern that the President may just wait this all the way out, which would absolutely collapse these this relief bill and prevent a tremendous amount of support to the American people.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, it's frustrating even to ask these questions because there is no answer to it. I can -- it should be frustrating to everyone who's out there waiting for, well, help for sure. Congressman, thank you for coming in.

KIM: Thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead, there are two coronavirus vaccines available in the United States right now. But will all Americans have equal access? The growing concern for the most vulnerable communities, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:42]

BOLDUAN: More than 1 million Americans have received a coronavirus vaccine so far. That is according to the CDC. So as the rollout is moving along, there's growing concern people in the most vulnerable communities hardest hit by the virus might be left behind. CNN's Omar Jimenez is joining us now from Chicago with more on this.

Omar, what are you learning about this?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, people are nervous or at the very least having to think harder about how they're going to get this vaccine once it's available. And that's the real concern here then those communities hardest hit by COVID-19 have a higher hurdle to jump when it comes to actually getting this vaccine. And that dynamic is wrapped within a number of health factors at least here in the Chicago area that existed long before this pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: How long you live in this neighbourhood?

ROCHELLE SYKES, RESIDENT, CHICAGO'S AUSTIN NEIGHBOURHOOD: All my life, 55 years. It's changed a whole lot. If they're going to roll out of vaccine and going to roll it out to grocery stores and pharmacies, I see a problem.

JIMENEZ: You feel just because the vaccine is available, it's not necessarily going to be accessible?

SYKES: That is correct. JIMENEZ (voice-over): Rochelle Sykes lives in the predominantly black West Side Chicago neighborhood of Austin and is in a zip code that has among the highest COVID-19 death rates in the city. And the barriers to getting a vaccine are already taking shape, ranging anywhere from distance to pharmacies, confidence in health care and even personal safety as Austin is also among the city's most violent neighborhoods.

SYKES: Is it even worth the time? OK, you hear gunshots, you know, you got to get out and get in your car. You're doing carjacking. And if you don't feel safe, then you just don't do it.

JIMENEZ: Just down the street, Loretto hospital was host to the city's first COVID-19 vaccination. And the first to set up a Westside community testing site back in April one they plan to soon turn into a community vaccination site.

DR. AFYA KHAN, DIRECTOR OF INFECTION CONTROL, LORETTO HOSPITAL: In order to stop this virus eventually, we all have to do our part and we want to make sure we involve everybody. We're experiencing three types of pandemics and that's violence, racism, as well as COVID-19.

JIMENEZ: It's an issue leadership continues to wrestle with.

DR. ALLISON ARWADY, COMMISSIONER, CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Where any part of the city is not supported enough, it indirectly impacts the entire city. Not just this is a, let's make sure that we treat COVID. It's about what are the root causes that have made these neighborhoods these subgroups in Chicago, more vulnerable?

[12:40:11]

JIMENEZ (on camera): Parts of the downtown Chicago area have a life expectancy of up to 90 years old, according to an analysis out of NYU, then just about 10 miles down the road near here on Chicago's South Side, the life expectancy goes down to 59.9. That's a difference of about 30 years, which that same NYU analysis says, is the largest gap in the country.

EMMA WASHINGTON, RESIDENT, CHICAGO'S SOUTH SIDE: Now all of a sudden, this virus came and took my sister away.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Emma Washington is almost 80 years old. She lost her sister to COVID-19 in September, and her brother to COVID, the day before Christmas Eve, and now she's considering what getting a vaccine is going to look like with their pharmacy over a mile away, and no car to get her there.

WASHINGTON: I have to take one bus then I had taken another bus, because there was only one place around Walgreens around my area.

JIMENEZ: Now she mostly has her medication delivered. But this isn't a new phenomenon. One study based on data from 2000 to 2012, found over 50% of the city's black communities were so called pharmacy deserts, low income neighborhoods where pharmacies are far from the population and people don't have regular access to vehicles compared with just 5% in white communities. ARWADY: This is not something that's going to get solved in a year or in five years. But how do we take the COVID conversation and turn it into the conversation that links to chronic disease and homicide and infant mortality and HIV and opioid overdose? Those are the five main drivers of our, you know, disparate life expectancies in Chicago and COVID has indirectly impacted all of those.

JIMENEZ: But when it comes to COVID, for Sykes along with those in Washington's community, the vaccine shot is about more than medicine. It's about getting a fair shot without it being a long shot.

SYKES: We in a lifeboat, they want a closer. If you can come up with a vaccine within a year, why are we sitting in a community where there is no grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (on camera): And groceries are one thing but when you look at pharmacies alone and at the location density of locations with active pharmacy licenses, that density is much lower on the south and west sides predominantly black neighborhoods compared to the downtown and North sides of the city more affluent and white. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Omar, thank you for that.

Coming up next for us, one outstanding question about the coronavirus -- coronavirus is available, are they safe for women who are pregnant, one pregnant doctor on the choice that she made. She's our guest.

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[12:47:20]

BOLDUAN: An update on vaccine numbers in the United States right now. So far 9.4 million doses have been delivered. A little over 1 million have been administered. And while the FDA has authorized the Pfizer vaccine, as you'll remember, for adults 16 and older and Moderna's vaccine has been authorized for those 18 and older, there are lingering questions about the safety of the vaccine for certain groups like younger children, but also a specific group of adults, pregnant women.

As more research is being done the decision of whether or not to be vaccinated now is being left up now essentially to each woman to figure it out. My next guest is a gynecological oncologist, a doctor herself. She's also 20 weeks pregnant, and she made the decision to get the shot.

Joining me now is Dr. Amy Alexander. Doctor, thank you for coming in. I have two young kids myself and I have wondered throughout this if I were pregnant, what I would be doing? Because there isn't a lot of data on it, talk me through your decision?

DR. AMY ALEXANDER, GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGIST: Yeah, I think it was a really hard decision because we don't have a lot of data. Though, what we do have a lot of data on is how dangerous coronavirus is for pregnant women.

We know that pregnant women are about five times more likely to end up in the ICU or on a ventilator. There's an increased risk of death and a lot of studies are suggesting probably an increased risk of preterm birth. And so for me, I'm exposed to coronavirus at work. My husband is also a physician who cares for coronavirus patients. And so I think my risk of getting coronavirus is a lot higher than your average person, and knowing that my risk if I got coronavirus was so much greater than the average person.

I thought that the benefit of getting the vaccine to protect myself and my baby was probably worth the small unknown risks of the vaccine. And luckily, the professional societies that I belong to, and the ones that give us guidance about pregnancy, such as the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine have provided really excellent guidance about the risk of getting the vaccine.

BOLDUAN: I actually, because I was going to ask you about the guidance because the guidance that I've seen from the CDC, let me just read it for people. It says people who are pregnant may choose to be vaccinated. If they have questions around getting vaccinated, a decision with a health care provider might help them make an informed decision. So essentially, you can read that as we don't have guidance. And would you like to be hearing more from the CDC on this?

ALEXANDER: I mean, I do think it's a really hard and personal decision. I think the CDC it's pretty hard because we don't have any data on how the vaccine affects pregnant women. We don't know how effective it is or what the side effects for the baby could be.

[12:50:05]

The Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine probably made the strongest statement where they said they actually recommend it to pregnant health care workers. And I think in time, we're going to see more and more helpful information. And there have been several decision tools that have been released. The best one is out of UMass, that I've seen that really helps pregnant women weigh their risk of getting coronavirus versus the risk of the vaccine itself, that don't know.

BOLDUAN: Right. And we know like, look, as you said, it's everyone's decision. I've seen actually an op-ed in the New York Times this week from another doctor who -- about her struggle, and she had decided to not get the vaccine.

You know, she said she's not going to do it now. But bottom line, she'd be glad to enrol in a clinical trial. But short of that she wasn't going to get a vaccine because in a trial, there would be experts around her kind of grounded in science all along the way. I wonder what you say to folks who -- other doctors who think they're not going to take the chance?

ALEXANDER: Yeah, I think it's interesting, because I am an OB-GYN by training. And I've, you know, I've taken care of a lot of really sick women in my training. And I remember what it's like to be the physician caring for a woman who is pregnant and intubated, and how terrifying and scary that is for her family.

And so while there are some small, unknown risks of the vaccine, a lot of experts really do feel like it is likely safe. And so I don't ever want to put my family in that situation. And actually, by getting the vaccine now, as a pregnant health care worker, I'm going to be able to help women in the future by providing really important data.

I think it would be lovely if there was a trial already that I could participate in, though I think a lot of -- we're going to get a lot of observational data from pregnant health care workers who are choosing to get the vaccine now. So essentially, we almost are like we're a clinical trial.

BOLDUAN: Doctor, it's great to meet you. Thank you very much for coming on.

ALEXANDER: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, a record number of Americans are travelling this holiday season despite all of the coronavirus warnings that you've been hearing. We're going to go back to a live -- we're going to go live to one of the busiest airports in the world. That's next.

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[12:56:39]

BOLDUAN: The TSA reports that despite health warnings, more than 6.3 million travellers have flown in the U.S. in just the past six days. CNN's Amara Walker is joining us now from Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson Airport. Amara, what are you seeing there?

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kate, a steady stream of travellers here at Atlanta International Airport, although not nearly as crowded as you would see if you were in a normal holiday season without a pandemic.

Airport officials are expecting half the number of travellers this season compared to the same time last year. But people are concerned including public health officials and that's because the TSA is saying that it is seeing record breaking pandemic travel.

If you just look at the last six days between Friday and Wednesday, more than 6 million passengers were screened by the TSA also a record breaking day on Wednesday yesterday, 1.2 million passengers passing through our nation's airports. I spoke with a handful of travellers. A lot of them seeming to take things in stride telling me, look, they know the risks, they missed their families and they will be taking the precautions that they can.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAWAUNA ARNOLD, FLYING ON CHRISTMAS EVE: What we decided to do, we packed our hand sanitizer. We have alcohol wipes. We have (inaudible). We paint to light down the room, door, the light switches all of that, you know, to ensure that we're not touching anything.

ANGELA QIAN, FLYING ON CHRISTMAS EVE: I quarantined before I came here and got tested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Now airport officials expect the busiest day to be Sunday after Christmas. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Amara, thank you. Turn now to the Biden transition where President-elect Joe Biden is still has a number of top posts left to fill and announce including CIA director.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has an update on the shortlist on that key post. Christian, what are you hearing?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we are not expected to hear any sort of announcements on this until after the holidays. The President-elect is still reportedly mulling over this decision but has whittled down the list to three top contenders. So let's go through who is still about to make the cut.

We have number one, David Cohen. He was the former CIA Deputy Director, Lisa Monaco, the Counterterrorism Adviser under President Obama and third Darrell Blocker, who served as the Deputy Director of the Agency's Counterterrorism Center and also lead the CIA's Training Facility.

Now, notably, not on the list was a Mike Morell that is someone whose name was floated early on. He was the deputy -- excuse me, the acting head of the CIA under the Obama administration, but received massive pushback over his role in both drone strikes and torture.

BOLDUAN: And, Kristen, what's the latest on the back and forth that there's been with the Pentagon over these stalled transition briefings? We've heard a lot from Biden about it this week.

HOLMES: That's right. It's really spilled over into the public. We know that a Senior Defense Administration Official unnamed, essentially called the President-elect a liar earlier this week over his claims that the Pentagon was not briefing his team. Now the transition team is hitting back issuing a statement on the record saying that the Department of Defense intransigent continues. This is really starting to become a ramped up here as we see this.

Now, the one thing to keep in mind is that the Pentagon says that those briefings will start again at the beginning of the New Year. But Biden's team says that's just simply not soon enough. They need the details now and it could be long term consequences if they don't have those briefings right now.

BOLDUAN: All right, Kristin, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.