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President Trump Signs Stimulus Bill; COVID-19 Vaccines Behind Schedule; Interview with L.A. Hospital CEO Elaine Batchlor. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired December 28, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She's been on hunger strike while in detention, her defense attorney says, who also adds that the authorities have been force-feeding her with a tube down her throat and nasal passage and binding her arms to keep her from removing that tube.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: Yikes, thank you both.

We continue on, hour two for me here on CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, thank you for watching.

A dramatic reversal from the president of the United States here, as he's offering to help this economy drowning in pandemic fatigue. Another note of hope today? Two million receiving the COVID vaccine is an underestimate, says a top Trump administration health official. But the good news seeming ends there.

Pictures of crowded airports remind us of a public health failure and prompt new warnings of a dramatic post-holiday surge.

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ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE: We very well might see a post-seasonal -- in the sense of Christmas, New Year's -- surge. And as I've described it, as a surge upon a surge. I share the concern of President-elect Biden that as we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Next fall, Dr. Fauci says, is when we can start thinking about a return to normal if all goes according to plan. But 1.3 million Americans passing through airports runs counter to the As and Bs and Cs of staying safe.

The consequences are easy to see. A new CNN analysis shows the share of ICU patients with COVID-19 is on a straight line up, from 16 percent of patients in September to nearly 40 now.

That stimulus bill the president signed does give more money to hospitals, $3 billions' worth. But that is well short of the original $35 billion that lawmakers had wanted and what hospitals say they need to keep up with the flood of patients.

Let's go straight to CNN's Phil Mattingly. And, Phil, the president changed his mind last night after nearly tanking a deal, which was negotiated by his own negotiators. The obvious question is why?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, it's been a bit of a head-spinning couple of days. As one person who has been in communication with the president over the course of the last week told me, just flat-out head-spinning. That was what he said, "head-spinning" over the course of the last couple days.

What it took, according to people who were involved in this process, is a heavy, heavy push by some of the president's few remaining congressional allies. That's Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader; that's Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator; and also, perhaps most importantly, David Perdue, the Georgia senator who has an extremely crucial runoff race in just a couple of days.

He met in person with the president, he spoke by phone with the president, all of them urging the president to come on board with this, trying to emphasize his legacy but also trying to emphasize the need in the economy right now for this money, the need for vaccine distribution funds, and the need -- as you noted -- for hospitals as well.

I will note, the president is claiming victory because he got a few items here. He says he's going to introduce a formal rescissions package request -- in other words, try and impound some of the spending that's in that bill, the bill that he called "pork," which was frankly what his administration had asked for, that means nothing. He will be out of office before it could actually have tangible effect.

He also is getting two procedural votes in the Senate, one on the expansion of those direct payments from $600 to $2,000, and one on something related to online reliability, the Section 230 he always talks about, that as well is just a procedural vote. So what did the president actually get out of this? To be frank, Brooke, nothing really.

BALDWIN: Yes. Well, what about what the American people can get out of this? Just quickly, I just have this man Matthew (ph) Cox (ph) on the mind, after talking to him and how he's hurting and he's one of millions. When will Americans know when the checks get cut and head to them?

MATTINGLY: Look, so were it not for the president's delay, the checks would have started to go out today according to the Treasury Department. So the direct payments of $600 will start to go out probably the first week of the new year.

I think the big question right now is how quickly can the two unemployment programs that expired on December 26th get back up and running? And I think the concern there is that on a state-by-state basis, sometimes the technology isn't great -- we remember it, back in March and April, where they had difficulty -- and also some people had their benefits expire and they'll have to reapply.

So I think there's some hope right now that that can move quickly, at least over the next couple of weeks. But something to keep in mind? Not only was the direct payment check skipped for a week, not only were unemployment benefits skipped for a week, the additional $300 federal benefit that was added as part of this bill also skipped for a week, those are not retroactive.

I will say, one thing to keep a very close eye on today, Brooke? The House of Representatives, this evening, is going to vote on what the president asked for, expanding those $600 direct payments to $2,000. I am told, with Republican support, that is expected to pass. That will put the onus on the United States Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not committed to holding a vote yet. However, the president announced that was part of the deal. How that happens, how that plays out, where Senate Republicans, Brooke, are very much not aligned with the president on this, it's going to be very interesting to watch. It's possible -- maybe not probable -- that $600 could turn into $2,000, which would be one heck of a New Year's gift for a lot of people.

[14:05:07]

BALDWIN: It would indeed. Phil Mattingly, thank you very much.

To COVID specifically, vaccines, they are on the way back to normal, and progress so far is promising. Two different vaccines are already being administered to patients, at least 2 million people getting vaccinated thus far. And another vaccine maker announced the start of its phase three trial this morning.

CNN's Kristen Holmes joins me now. And, Kristen, optimism from a top administration health official on that 2 million number.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. And unfortunately, though, it's optimism that isn't shared by a lot of the health care providers that I'm talking to. Remember, the administration set this goal of 20 million doses administered by the end of the year, that's 20 million shots in arms by the end of the year, which now of course is in four days.

And over the weekend, we saw this 2 million number, came from the CDC. And that clearly falls well short of the 20 million. Now, Admiral Brett Giroir -- he is the assistant secretary of health for HHS -- he says he believes this is an underestimate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: The 2 million number is probably an underestimate. We distributed to the states 10.8 million doses, that 2 million number is delayed three to seven days; 20 million doses will be distributed to states by the first week in January, that's where we are. Probably another 30 million doses in January, another 50 million doses in February.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So while of course Giroir there is saying that that number is an underestimate, he believes it's actually much higher, it's not going to hit that 20 million mark. And you can see that he's moving the goalposts there, it was 20 million doses into arms by the end of the year, now it is 20 million doses that'll be distributed, not administered by the first week in January.

And there's a lot of concern here among health care workers who believe that the system that's already been slowed down is going to be bogged down even further when people start getting those second doses next week.

BALDWIN: Yes. I want to ask you something unrelated, just while I have you. Because in New York, Kristen, there is this criminal investigation into a county health provider accused of illegally obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine. What's going on?

HOLMES: Yes, that's right. We believe this might be the first crime related to the COVID-19 vaccine. And the information we have comes from the state health department, from the health commissioner there who released a statement saying that in one county, they were aware of reports that a network had fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines, and diverted it to members of the public. So there is an infancy investigation going on right now, according to New York State officials.

But this is something that health care providers have been long concerned about, that there were not enough precautions in place to stop something like this from happening, and also concerns that there will be more theft and potentially lead to a black market for the vaccine -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Kristen Holmes, thank you so much, hoping we'll all be looking out for that, always people looking to do bad things with some optimism here.

With me to discuss all of this, Dr. Rob Davidson, he's an emergency room physician in West Michigan. Dr. Davidson, good to see you, as always. I want go to back to that 2 million number that Kristen was just reporting on from the CDC. You know, the current administration was very optimistic about how many vaccines they'd be able to administer by the end of the year, they'd promised 20 million and nearly 2 million have been administered.

Your assessment of that number, A; and, B, just what does that tell you about the timeline in terms of, you know, regular healthy folks can get vaccinated?

ROB DAVIDSON, WEST MICHIGAN EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Yes. You know, I don't have any privy information as to exactly how many doses there are, but it certainly seems that it's less than they originally anticipated, and they didn't perhaps game this out as well as they should have before the vaccine came online. Given everything that happened with this administration over the past,

you know, 10 months or so, it certainly would seem that perhaps another administration might have rolled this out better.

But, you know, either way we're going to have to keep doing the not- so-hard work but has been difficult in this country, of getting people to wear masks, getting people to, you know, socially distance. That's going to have to happen for the next six months anyway because it's going to take that amount of time to get enough people vaccinated, especially if the number is perhaps going up from 70 percent to perhaps 80 percent, as these more contagious strains start to spread throughout the communities. We just need to continue to do that and message on that.

BALDWIN: Speaking of shots in arms, you got your vaccine, dose number one of two, over the weekend. We've got the video, representing Michigan loud and proud there with the T-shirt, doc. How was it --

DAVIDSON: Right.

BALDWIN: -- any side effects? How do you feel a couple days later?

DAVIDSON: Well, I just got it yesterday, about 24 hours ago. And, you know, a little soreness in the arm. I just got done working five night shifts in a row, I'm almost 50 years old so I'm not sure if a headache is from that and fatigue is from that or it's from the shot, but certainly extremely tolerable.

[14:10:12]

And so I think it's our job -- my job as a health care provider, others' jobs -- that folks in the media's job to continue to tell people, listen, this thing is safe despite a certain headline here or there about people having allergic reactions, you know, people get allergic reactions with penicillin at a far higher rate and we don't see headlines about that every day. So we need to continue to spread the message that we need to do this.

BALDWIN: In terms of travel, like, we've seen the most -- the highest number of, you know, air travelers through airports over Christmas, and I'm hearing that we won't feel the full reverberation of those case numbers until maybe February. So for those who did travel, Dr. Davidson, you know, like once they return home -- wherever home is for them -- define being safe. You know, do they need to be tested immediately, should there be a second follow-up test? Spell it out.

DAVIDSON: Yes, they should really isolate for at least 10 days, looking for any symptoms (ph) (INAUDIBLE) completely safe, probably test their way out after that period of time. The problem is, we don't have enough tests to be testing asymptomatic people.

This -- you know, the big failure of this entire response has been that, has been that testing is still, nearly a year later, lagging behind everything we need to do. So it's really going to be isolation for 10 days to fully protect those around you to make sure we're not continuing to, you know, see cases go up and up. BALDWIN: Dr. Rob Davidson, thank you so much as always. Glad you got

your shot.

DAVIDSON: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

A surge of COVID-19 cases are overwhelming California hospitals. It is so bad in this one hospital south of Los Angeles, that the gift shop has become a parking lot full of gurneys, the CEO of that hospital joins me.

Plus, we have just gotten an update from Nashville on that massive Christmas Day explosion, including what investigators say was key in identifying the bomber.

You're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, we'll be right back.

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[14:16:27]

BALDWIN: Welcome back, you're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, thank you for being here.

It is the first state to hit 2 million cases. And with that, many hospitals in California are quite simply overwhelmed. That is especially true for hospitals that serve the African-American, Latino, poor communities of South Los Angeles. One hospital is so overloaded with COVID patients that it's become -- as it's been described -- the epicenter of the epicenter in California.

Dr. Elaine Batchlor is the CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South L.A. And, Dr. Batchlor, welcome and thank you for all that you do.

ELAINE BATCHLOR, CEO, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I was reading about your hospital over the weekend, and let me read the line that absolutely stopped me in my tracks. This is from "The New York Times. "So many patients are streaming in that gurneys have been placed in the gift shop, and the entire lobby is now a space to treat patients. The waiting room is a tent outside."

Dr. Batchlor, why do you think the situation in your hospital is particularly dire?

BATCHLOR: Well, the larger story is the underlying social conditions that have made our community vulnerable --

BALDWIN: Talk to me about that.

BATCHLOR: So these include -- OK, these include crowded housing, occupational exposure and lack of access to good health care. So there's been an epidemic of poorly treated chronic illness that has contributed to the severe impact of COVID.

BALDWIN: So what I'm hearing you say is that a lot of the folks who you are seeing, who are your patients, are having to live in more crowded situations where, then, of course, the spread would be -- of COVID would be much more rampant.

And I was reading your medical director at the hospital, Dr. Casillas, was saying that everything at the hospital is backed up from the hospital into the street. Now, I don't know if that was an exaggeration but what will happen if you have to start turning people away? Because we have yet to see, you know, those post-Christmas cases yet.

BATCHLOR: So our staff has been incredibly adept and flexible at accommodating increasing numbers of patients. So as you heard, we have five tents outside of the hospital, we have patients in our conference room, in our chapel --

BALDWIN: Did we lose her? Oh, I'm hanging on her every word. OK, I'm hearing yes, we -- I'm getting the sense, though, that at her hospital, she's obviously praising the staff. But you know, one of the key worries is the staff can be absolutely extraordinary and impeccable, but when you run out of ventilators and you run out of ICU beds, you know, what do you do when you have to start turning patients away?

OK, we're going to try to get her back, I'm hearing from my producer. Coming up next, it is going to take months for businesses in Nashville to recover from that Christmas Day bombing. My next guest has an offer to help.

[14:19:24]

And soon, we will hear from President-elect Joe Biden on challenges his administration will inherit in just a couple of weeks.

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BALDWIN: This just in, Russian law enforcement is threatening to jail opposition politician and Putin critic Alexey Navalny if he does not return to Moscow. We've been telling this story here for the last couple of weeks on CNN, Navalny was taken to Berlin for treatment after almost dying on a flight in August. Germany and other nations believe Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent, Novichok, in an attempt to murder him.

And CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is live in Moscow. And, Fred, why is Moscow issuing this ultimatum?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a very good question, Brooke, and there certainly are some -- if you look around, and also if you listen, for instance, to Alexey Navalny himself, they certainly believe that this is either the Russian state trying to get back at Alexey Navalny, or perhaps even trying to prevent him from coming back to Russia at all. Essentially what they're saying is he's got to show up tomorrow

morning at a hearing of the Russian federal penal service. This is in relation to a case from 2014 where he was convicted and sentenced to probation in a separate case which he says was politically motivated. Now, they say if he doesn't show up to this meeting tomorrow morning, that he's breached the terms of that probation and that he could be jailed at any point in time.

[14:25:13]

Now, the interesting thing about all this, is you've just mentioned that he's obviously the opposition politician, he was poisoned by Novichok and there was recently an article in a renowned medical journal that was published, called "The Lancet," that detailed how he recovered from that, some of the treatment that he received in Germany.

And now, the Russian authorities seem to be trying to use that article to pressure Alexey Navalny. They're saying -- this is from the Russian federal penal service -- they're saying, quote, "Based on the [Lancet] publication, A.A. Navalny was discharged from the Charite Clinic" -- that's the hospital in Berlin -- "on September 20, 2020, and by October 12 all of the symptoms of his illness have passed."

So they're essentially saying, look, you're doing better, you need to come to this hearing tomorrow otherwise you are in very big trouble.

Of course, we know that he's still recovering from that Novichok poisoning in Germany, and that he's obviously still also seeing therapists there in Germany.

By the way, Brooke, this hearing is set to start in about 10.5 hours from now, and I can tell you from my experience there is no way for him to get from Germany to Russia in that time. There are no direct flights within that timeframe, and he would have to get a corona test and the result of that corona test to even get on any sort of flight. So there is no way for him to make that.

He's already lashed out at Vladimir Putin on his Instagram account, and said he believes this is Putin trying to get back at him. Obviously, the Russian federal services were quite embarrassed by that joint investigation of CNN and Bellingcat that uncovered large parts of that plot, and Alexey Navalny himself even managed to call one of the alleged agents who was part of that plot.

Alexey Navalny, on his Twitter account, said, quote, "Like I said, somewhere there is [Vladimir] Putin in his bunker, stomping and yelling, 'Why didn't he die?' and if he didn't die then he is twice guilty and now we will jail him."

So obviously, Alexey Navalny believing that the Russian state, that Vladimir Putin wants to go after him. Always have to mention, the Russians continue to say they were not behind Alexey Navalny's poisoning, but Navalny has said he does want to return to Russia. Whether this will make him change his mind, going to wait and see -- Brooke. BALDWIN: That's right. What was it, that Putin, when he was asked the

question, he said, if we wanted to finish the job, we would have? Unbelievable. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much, in Moscow.

Let's go to Nashville now, where authorities have identified the man responsible for that Christmas Day explosion. Really, they're just trying to get to the bottom of why he did this. Investigators are looking for clues about why Anthony Quinn Warner drove his R.V. to downtown Nashville and set off this explosion on Christmas Day. Neighbors, business associates, they're all telling federal investigators what they know about the 63-year-old computer consultant. CNN national correspondent Natasha Chen is live in Nashville.

And, Natasha, what are authorities saying? Who is this guy?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, this is Anthony Quinn Warner, 63 years old. They're really trying to look into his history here, talking to people he might have known.

Now, the explosion that investigators believe he's responsible for created scattered debris across several blocks. In fact, where we're standing along the iconic Broadway here, was just opened up today. Investigators are working from the outside perimeter of this thing to the inside blast zone. And it happened on Second Avenue, several blocks in that direction.

So this is all very much still under investigation. People who owned businesses there, who lived there, they can't get back in. Those businesses are in complete ruin right now.

And what we're hearing from some of the people who evacuated, just harrowing stories of how the officers who responded acted so quickly when they heard that very eerie recorded message coming from the R.V., counting down a warning to an explosion. They say the officers knocked on their door. I talked to one couple who got out. Here's what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JODIE WILSON, EVACUATED: Thank God --

DWIGHT WILSON, EVACUATED: Oh, we got very lucky and --

J. WILSON: -- people were saved because of that, basically.

D. WILSON: Yes, he -- his message, I mean, you know, because you listen to the police report about them coming down there and seeing the R.V. and not really knowing what it was or anything like that, and then the announcements started and that's when the officers started going in the buildings and evacuating the building. But thank the Lord that that was going on because we would have been in the building when it went off.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHEN: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation just within the last couple of hours told us that they actually were able to identify Warner from evidence collected at this scene, and also from collecting gloves and a hat from a vehicle that he owned -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: And the investigation continues, we'll stay close with you as you follow it, Natasha Chen in Nashville, thank you.

[14:29:54]

Coming up, Nashville businesses that were devastated from Friday's bombing, now getting an offer for help. We will talk to the host of "The Profit," Marcus Lemonis, next.

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