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Americans to Get Their Checks in January; COVID Affects All Walks of Life; E.U. Vaccinating Millions in Their Population; Beirut Starting from Scratch; Trump Signs $900 Billion COVID Relief Bill; Lone Bomber Blasted RV in Nashville; U.S. to Brace for More Coronavirus Cases; California in Dire Need of Hospital Beds; Chinese Journalist Sentenced for Doing Her Job. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired December 28, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER CNN ANCHOR (on camera): After a week of delay the U.S. president abruptly signs the pandemic relief bill. Republicans and Democrats aren't satisfied but at the very least it will bring some help to millions of struggling Americans.

Investigators in Tennessee have piece together who blew up an RV on Christmas in downtown Nashville. They just don't know why he did it.

Health officials in Europe are scrambling to vaccinate millions of people amid alarm over the coronavirus variant there. We are live in Madrid, Rome, and London.

Welcome to all of you watching here in the United States and around the world I'm Kim Brunhuber, and this is CNN Newsroom.

U.S. President Donald Trump has now signed a much-needed coronavirus relief bill. It's set to deliver desperately needed funds to small businesses and millions of struggling Americans. But this comes days after Mr. Trump initially refused to sign the deal throwing millions into financial uncertainty and sparking fears of a government shutdown.

Jeremy Diamond has the details.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, five days after President Trump threw billions of dollars of desperately needed coronavirus relief into limbo by suggesting he might sign a massive piece of legislation passed by Congress, the president has now signed that legislation. The president signing that $2.3 trillion spending bill that includes 4900 billion in coronavirus relief on Sunday night here in south Florida.

The president though, only signing this legislation after unemployment benefits for more than 12 million Americans lapsed on Saturday night after the president didn't sign the legislation then. And the president's signature also comes after he threw millions of Americans into financial uncertainty by delaying signing this piece of legislation.

Those Americans who are counting on those $600 stimulus checks to soon be arriving they will now have to wait longer for those stimulus checks. And then of course there are the millions of businesses that we are counting on additional PPP funds to come through, now they will be coming through but only after a period of five days of uncertainty here.

The president in explaining why he finally signed this legislation. He says this in a statement released by the White House. Quote, "I am signing this bill to restore unemployment benefits and stop evictions to provide rental assistance and money for PPP, return our airline workers back to work, add substantially more money for vaccine distribution and much more. The Senate, he says, will start the process for a vote that increases checks to $2,000, repeal section 230 and starts an investigation into voter fraud."

Now those two last items it's really not clear what the president is talking about because there isn't a stand-alone specific legislation to accomplish those goals. But there is a piece of legislation being advanced by House Democrats on Monday that would increase those $600 stimulus checks to $2,000 in accordance with the president's demand.

And it appears that the president has now secured a commitment from the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring that legislation to the floor. Whether it actually passes though is another matter given that a number of Republicans remain opposed to $2,000 stimulus checks.

But regardless, this only come because the president had checked out of governing after the election, for weeks after the election after these negotiations were underway. And it was only after Congress passed this legislation with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. And we should say with the endorsement of the treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who was negotiating on the president's behalf.

It was only after that legislation passed that the president began to raise his objections. And so, all the president accomplished was sinking more Americans into financial uncertainty at a time when we have 20 plus million Americans unemployed, and all of this of course during the holiday season.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, traveling with the president in West Palm Beach, Florida.

BRUNHUBER: Congressional leaders applauded the signature but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says more action is needed. The Democrat says the president must immediately call on congressional Republicans to end their obstruction and to support our stand-alone legislation to increase direct payment checks to $2,000 which will be brought to the floor tomorrow.

Every Republican vote against this bill is a vote to deny the financial hardship that families face and to deny the American people to relief they need.

[03:04:59]

The Republican Senate majority leader says the bill will extend another major lifeline to workers that's struggling small businesses, renew major relief for laid off Americans, invest billions more in vaccine distribution, some cash directly to households and more.

The compromised bill is not perfect but it will do an enormous amount of good for struggling Americans.

All right. To discuss this, I want to bring in Thomas Gift, the director of UCL Center on U.S. politics. Thanks for coming in. Nice to see you again.

I just want to get your reaction to the chain of events that ended last night. What, if anything, has the president accomplished in all of this beyond sowing chaos?

THOMAS GIFT, POLITICAL SCIENCE LECTURER, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE London: Well, Kim, President Trump's likes to sow confusion and he does thrive on chaos. So, taking the country to the brink with the spending bill is very consistent with how he has governed throughout this administration. It's possible that the president had every intention of signing the bill but he just wanted satisfaction of forcing congressional Democrats and Republicans to peter over the precipice for a while.

I think this was all about Trump not wanting to lose the spotlight, about political retribution, and about proving his continued relevance. Basically, Trump waited until the 11th hour to sign this bill because he could, and the fact that the benefits that many Americans needed hung in the balance and that the government shutdown was looming didn't much matter to Trump so long as he could capture the news cycle.

BRUNHUBER: So then back to what Nancy Pelosi was saying there, on Monday the House will vote on the expansion of the direct payments and presumably pass it with some Democrats control the House. But how big of a nightmare is this for Senate Republicans?

GIFT: Well, I really think that this proposal is going to be dead on arrival. Trump does continue to push for separate legislation that would increase the size of the direct checks to Americans from $600 to $2,000 as you suggest that Democrats in the House want to support that.

But Republicans in the Senate have shown no interest in capitulating to that demand, so I think it's largely political theater at this point. It might look, Republicans look obstructionist but, you know, they have been saying from the very outset that they're not willing to go over that $1 trillion mark and they're not willing to entertain any proposals that would see direct checks to Americans over the $600 figure.

BRUNHUBER: And so, they are willing to further cross the president and all of that, you know, put Georgia Republicans senators, Loeffler and Purdue in a tough spot in support of the bill which the president then turned around and called a disgrace. You know, presumably all is well with them now because the president says he's going to come here to Georgia for a rally on the eve of that vital dual runoff which will determine control of the Senate.

I want to talk about the amount of money here. One of the candidates Democrat Jon Ossof has become the best funded Senate candidate of all time. In total they're setting fund-raising records. So, what role do you think money will play in determining these races here?

GIFT: I think it's natural that so much money is flowing into this race on both sides, partly because it's becoming a national contest. There is just so much at stake here. Now if you look at what the research on money and politics there is a lot of disagreement as to whether funding money actually helps candidates win or those candidates that are already looking like they are going to win are more likely to attract funding.

So, I think ultimately, the money helps on the margins. Certainly, it's good to have a robust fund-raising base because I think it does reflect the fact that there is lot of enthusiasm. But at the same time, I think ultimately this will just be about galvanizing the base ensuring that core supporters both on the political left for Democrats and on the political right for Republicans show out -- show up.

Certainly, what we know is that this is going to be lower turnout than the November 3rd presidential election, that means that on the Democratic side the voting bloc is going to be more progressive and more conservative on the Republican side. So ultimately, I think this is just about getting the key demographics out.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. We don't have much time left but I did want to ask you about President Trump's decision to pardon those four blackwater private security contractors committed to a massacre in Baghdad.

In 2019, you covered a piece following the pardons of soldiers around this time last year. So, it's a long and interesting piece, we don't have time to get into it now, but if you can just explain quickly sort of what these types of pardons might have on the military and military culture.

GIFT: That's a really good question. As you suggested, back in 2019, right around November 15th, Donald Trump pardoned or granted clemency to several U.S. service members who were either convicted or accused of committing war crimes.

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There is big concern within the military that these decisions essentially granting reprieves for individuals who have committed these atrocities in war could ultimately lead to a situation where it is more difficult to enforce the norms of civilian protectionism. It makes it more difficult that the United States military is going to abide by international humanitarian law.

So, it's a big issue. And certainly, the fact that Donald Trump has pardoned these Blackwater operatives could potentially even pardon additional U.S. service members before he leaves office, I think is a big worry for many both within and outside the military.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's an interesting piece of people in the issue I suggest you look it up. Thomas Gift, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate it.

GIFT: I appreciate it, Kim, thanks.

BRUNHUBER (on camera): And later this hour, we'll get more details about what's in the coronavirus relief bill. And we'll talk to someone struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

Authorities investigating the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville have released new images of the explosion and identified a culprit but have yet to determine a motive. Police released this video on Sunday that shows the street just before and after the RV bomb went off along with the blast that injured three and damaged dozens of buildings.

Authorities say the song "Downtown" blared from the RV just before the detonation. An officer who worked to evacuate residents describe those terrifying moments.

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JAMES WELLS, OFFICER, METROPOLITAN NASHVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: As a turnaround, for me, it felt like I only took three steps and then the music start, and as I'm walking back towards what happened now, I just see orange and then I heard a loud boom. As I'm stumbling because it rocked me that hard, I start stumbling I just tell myself, stay on your feet, stay alive.

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BRUNHUBER (on camera): Authorities identified the bomber as 63-year- old Anthony Quinn Warner. They believe he carried out the crime alone.

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DONALD COCHRAN, U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE: Based on the evidence that we've gathered at this point we've come to the conclusion that an individual named Anthony Warner is the bomber. That he was present when the bomb went off and that he perished in the bombing. We based this conclusion on forensic evidence including DNA evidence that you'll about, as well as the evidence that was gathered at the scene of the bombing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): Investigators are pouring over Warner's home. They're still trying to work out why he did it and haven't connect the bombing to terrorism. A longtime neighbor of Warmer's called him a hermit. Adding that an RV had been on his property for years.

The RV was parked in front of an AT&T network hub and the bombing interrupted service. Officials say it has been largely restored. Peter Licata is a former supervisory special agent with the FBI and he

warns that infrastructure is often a target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER LICATA, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Infrastructure has always been the focus of law enforcement and corporate security. It has been since prior to September 11th, 2011 when terrorism really hit the United States. There was a boost in the way infrastructure from utility companies to communication systems, to switches are maintained and manages obviously to airports.

So those things have always been considered a target by terrorist groups or just any other group, so in this case, Mr. Warner. So, those things are always considered to be a target. So, security has always been heavy whether it's CCTV, whether it's a hardened infrastructure all different means to try to protect that but it will always be a target and there's something that law enforcement and corporate security need to consider.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (on camera): And again, investigation is ongoing but so far authorities haven't linked the bombing to domestic terrorism.

Well, it only took less than a week for the U.S. to add another million new coronavirus cases. Where the 19 million Americans have infected. And Dr. Anthony Fauci warns the worst may be still to come.

Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER (on camera): The U.S. surpassed 19 million known cases of the coronavirus over the weekend. That's according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has the most cases in the world by far, almost double that of the country with the second most, which is India. And the country's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci says things are likely to get even worse, partly because of behavior during the holidays.

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ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We're really at a very critical point. If you put more pressure on the system by what might be a post-seasonal surge because of the traveling and the likely congregating of people for, you know, the good warm purposes of being together for the holidays, it's very tough for people to not do that. And yet even though we advise not to, it's going to happen. So, 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) BRUNHUBER (on camera): Vaccinations are entering their third week. The latest figures show nearly two million Americans have already received their first dose. And while there are lags in reporting, it looks like the U.S. will fall short of its original goal to inoculate 20 million people by the end of the year.

California is one of the hardest-hit places in the U.S. right now. The state is reporting some of the highest numbers of new daily cases in the country. Hospitals are filling up so quickly that in some places, medical surfaces are spilling out into parking lots.

And as Paul Vercammen reports, health officials are worried about running out of resources.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in California, the blare of sirens here at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, 189 patients in the hospital with COVID-19. They've even set up surge tents to accommodate other patients with other problems and keep them away from the COVID- 19 patients.

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In all, 20,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals in California, and something of concern here, if there is a tidal wave of cases after New Year's Eve, top officials at this hospital say they may have to ration health care.

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KIMBERLY SHRINER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST, HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: Indeed, it's what we may have to do. That's really the ultimate triage. We have a limited number of ventilators. We have a limited number of ICU beds. We have a limited number of plastic tubing for oxygen tanks.

And so, a lot of those decisions, if we get to that point, we're not there yet, but if we did, we're going to have make some of those decisions. And again, that's a decision that, you know, no physician or nurse or anyone wants to ever have to make about somebody.

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VERCAMMEN (on camera): They call that practice of deciding who gets what type of health care, they call it a scarce resource policy. And Dr. Shriner ought to know all about it. The infectious diseases expert also served in Africa in the fight against HIV.

Now they are just crossing their fingers and hoping that Californians pay attention to smart social distancing and don't get out of control by not wearing masks or by getting together for large gatherings during the New Year's holiday.

I'm Paul Vercammen reporting from Pasadena. Now back to you.

BRUNHUBER: Dr. Robert Kim-Farley is a professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and is the former director of Communicable Disease Control and Prevention at L.A. County public health. And he joins me now from L.A.

Doctor, thanks so much for being with us. Sadly, every time we speak, the situation where you are keeps getting worse. So, tell me what you're seeing now.

ROBERT KIM-FARLEY, PROFESSOR, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thanks, Kim. And again, thanks for having me on the program. It's always good to be with you.

Yes, you know, when we talked before, we talked about there were surges. Now I'm actually saying we have a viral tsunami on our hand here in California and Los Angeles.

BRUNHUBER: What do you mean by that?

KIM-FARLEY: Well, it just means that we characterize former things like waves or surges and I think just the magnitude of the amount of disease that we are seeing really needs a better term which I think tsunami probably conjures up in people's minds. Or alternatively, you know, we talked before about the idea that I thought -- first we're kind of like having a match book and throwing matches into the forest.

And occasionally you have a little bit of a flare up in disease n COVID, for example, but now we really have a raging wild fire occurring here in California.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, those dramatic terms underscore the numbers we're seeing, record upon record falling in terms of cases of hospitalizations, the number of beds that are available are shrinking practically to zero in some cases. So how might all of this affect the quality of care for those who actually need treatment?

KIM-FARLEY: Yes, well, when you use up your capacity of your hospital you have to move to what they call surge procedures or protocols, which means turning off elective surgeries, it means changing the staffing ratio of patients to nurses. It means maybe moving people out of an ICU bed sooner than you might otherwise have done. It means that you may not be able to move someone from your emergency department into your ICU bed, which then backs up the emergency department and the ambulances leading to that.

So, basically you just begin to compromise the quality of care. And previously, you sometimes handle an overstressed hospital by what we call mutual aid. You would be sending people to other hospitals or you would be asking for additional staff to come and help you.

But when you have the situation occurring everywhere at the same time, you lose the ability to have that mutual aid, of others having more capacity coming over to help you. Because everyone is busy. Everyone has, you know, turned out all hands-on deck.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, this just emphasizes the paradox of Los Angeles and California writ large that despite all of the very strict restrictions, stay-at-home orders and so on, it's leading the country in terms of the cases and everything. And there's some evidence that people are ignoring these orders. We saw survey by the University of Southern California there found 30

percent of people had visited friends or relatives or had them over, which is prohibited. And that's just the people who admitted it. And people I talk to always tell me, I'm just getting together with a few people.

Obviously, a few is clearly better than many, but when it comes to, you know, family, people tend to let down their guard. They lower their masks and so on. So, are people underestimating the risk, even of small gatherings, even of getting together with family?

KIM-FARLEY: Kim, you're exactly right. I think all of us are surprised about this level of magnitude, of tsunami, as I mentioned. I think that what's happening, we have a mixture of things. We have basically a pandemic fatigue that has set in where people maybe aren't wearing masks when they should be.

[03:25:02]

They're beginning to try to go out and see friends or have friends over. And I think we have really amplifying events that have occurred with the back to back holiday seasons. We've had Halloween followed by Thanksgiving followed by now Hanukkah and Christmas and soon to be New Year's Eve.

And so, what's happening is that people are, for example, over the Christmas holiday, becoming infected. But then they go out to a party on New Year's or have people over to their house on New Year's, and that's exactly the time when they will be coming up with virus such that they could then be transmitting to others and they could be an asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic stage and not even know that they are indeed transmitting to loved ones and family, some who may have pre- existing conditions for whom COVID could be really a death sentence.

BRUNHUBER: We'll leave it there. Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, we appreciate it as always.

KIM-FARLEY: A pleasure.

BRUNHUBER: An independent Chinese journalist who documented the outbreak in Wuhan early in the pandemic has been sentenced to four years in jail. Zhang Zhan travelled there in February to report on efforts to contain it just as authorities began reining in state-run and private media from reporting on it.

Our Selina Wang has more on the course decision. Selina, what's the latest?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kim, this is certainly a concerning development. She had been found guilty of, quote, "picking quarrels and provoking troubles." This is a broad offense that is commonly used to target both journalists and human rights activists.

And in some of this video that we've gathered you can see a heavy police presence outside of the Shanghai court where she was sentenced for four years in prison. Now she is a former lawyer who had, in February, travelled to Wuhan to report on the pandemic. And for months she documented what life was like under the lockdown and the harsh conditions that its residents faced, including overflowing hospitals and empty shops.

Her reports were widely shared on social media until they suddenly stopped in May. And it was later revealed that she was detained.

According to her lawyer, she has also been on a hunger strike since June and is actually being force-fed through a nasal tube amid growing concerns about her health. Now even though Zhang Zhan is the first citizen journalist that we know of to be sentenced for her role in reporting on the pandemic, there have been several instances of a number of journalists being disappeared or being detained for the reporting in Wuhan.

This, of course, comes in tandem with China clamping down on media coverage of the pandemic, as well as state media aggressively pushing a narrative that Beijing has been both effective and timely in its response.

And I want to bring up this quote from a Hong Kong based group called China Human Rights Defenders, which it put it this way. Under the guise of fighting the novel coronavirus, authorities in China have escalated suppression online by blocking independent reporting, information sharing and critical comments on government responses.

And according to reporter without borders, China is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world, a tightly controlled press at home and also blocks most foreign media through the great firewall. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Now very troubling pattern there. Thank you so much, Selina Wang in Tokyo.

Well, it's been days of drama and uncertainty, but President Trump has finally signed the much-needed coronavirus relief bill. A closer look at how it aims to help millions of Americans coming up.

Stay with us.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, and you're watching CNN Newsroom.

Nearly one week after the COVID-19 relief bill was passed by Congress, U.S. President Donald Trump has finally put his signature on it. But because of the delay, millions probably won't get a payment for the last week of the year.

The relief bill includes $600 direct stimulus payments for individuals and for those collecting jobless benefits, $300 weekly federal boost through mid-March. All right joining us now to heal break down all the details is our

John Defterios. So, John, tell us more about what's in the bill and more importantly when can folks actually expect to get the money?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, importantly too, Kim, is that most of the drama is over for millions of Americans who have been on edge. This is a negotiation that's been taking place for the last four months. Kind of surprisingly, the president provided some resistance here in the last four or five days, despite the fact it was his Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, who was sitting at the bargaining table the entire time.

Now there's some key elements here that you talked about here. The unemployment benefits will carry on to the third week of March with an extra $300, so that is very important. There will be a moratorium to protect the renters, who cannot pay their monthly fees. That was supposed to expire on December 31st. That will carry on at least until January. So, not incredible support.

And then special dispensation for small business owners and so-called gig workers or the part-time workers who have been hit particularly hard. You ask now the key question there, though, Kim, how fast can people get these stimulus checks, and that really depends on whether you're registered with the Internal Revenue Service, where Americans pay their taxes.

If you are registered, you can get, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, paychecks as early as the next couple of weeks, very unlikely before the end of the year. Also, for those who do not qualify or don't have to pay taxes or homeless, this was the challenge with the stimulus package in March, it was proving much more difficult.

Again, the government says they have worked on tracing people to get those snail mail paychecks out, but that will prove difficult as well. Up to two months. But we could start see relief here in the first week of January with the payments that we're talking about, although there is a debate, as you know, whether it's going to be $600 or they actually try to boost it up here at the last minute.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, unlikely. But that relief can't come soon enough. So, the president says he's sending a, quote, "redlined version of the bill back to Congress," insisting that the funds he doesn't approve of be removed from the spending package. So, what does Congress do here, basically just ignore this?

DEFTERIOS: Let's see if we can break this down a little bit, Kim, because the president is taking issue with the $1.4 trillion that was out of the emergency stimulus package because of foreign aid and other special projects that were tacked on by Congress.

[03:35:01]

But there are no indications again that even Senate Republicans in his party are willing to reopen the legislation. Mitch McConnell who is Senate Majority Leader, said he thanked the president for signing it but didn't talk about reopening anything else.

Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, is going to take a vote as early as today to see if they can get the stimulus checks up to $2,000. That could put pressure on Senate Republicans also from the White House if that legislation is passed because they are the ones that have been resisting the higher payment, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. I appreciate you breaking that down for us. Thank you so much, John Defterios.

Beau Doiron is a DJ who is currently unemployed and he joins me now from San Diego. Thanks so much for joining us.

I imagined you would be normally super busy this time of year. Give me a sense of how everything has changed with the pandemic and how bad things are right now.

BEAU DOIRON, UNEMPLOYED D.J.: Yes, usually in December this is where DJ's or a lot from entertainment industry make most of their money. You know, we've got Christmas parties. Everybody is out. You know, we've got our big New Year's gig. So, this is usually the month where we all do pretty well.

And, you know, for me personally, I've had no income right now coming in for December. And you know, basically a lot of us have to choose between doing the right thing right now and just staying in and not DJing in places that aren't safe.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, I mean on that I'm sure there are jobs you could have done, gigs you could have taken, but then I imagine, you know, your girlfriend comes home from work at the hospital where she's a nurse. I mean, that must change your perspective on the risks out there.

DOIRON: Yes, it's strained some friendships I've had. It's strained business relationships where there's been pressure to DJ certain events. And I'm just not going to do it, man, not going to do it. I need to be safe and I need to make sure I'm not going out there and exposing myself to somebody who's on the frontlines battling in the hospital every day. So, I need to make the right decisions with that.

BRUNHUBER: So, to make ends meet you were getting those COVID unemployment checks. They ran out this weekend because the president didn't sign the COVID relief bill. He's done that now, but it means you and others will miss out on a check or two at least. So, how do you feel now that it's been signed, and how do you feel that the president waited this long to sign it?

DOIRON: There's a lot of relief. It kind of feels like being in a -- where your mom and dad are divorced and they're fighting and they're trying to make each other look bad instead of actually taking care of the kid. And that's kind of how it seems with both sides on this.

So, it's nice that it's actually going through. I know some people's opinion are like, you know, it's not enough, but for those of us who are running it of money, it's something, you know? It's more than nothing. So, we're really, really happy to be getting that.

So, it's really exciting to have some flow come back in for money because, I mean, there's only so much you can dip into your savings and then people are just running out of money.

BRUNHUBER: And finally, you know, what happens now? I mean, you know, eventually the checks will run out. How are you going to make ends meet? Are you able to make rent, how are you going to cope going forward?

DOIRON: Yes. I mean, I was working the election. So, that was really fun for me to be a part of that process. But obviously that's over now. So, you know, it's tough to try to find work with where I have to commit to -- you know, I DJ for sports teams. I have weddings that will be coming up when the time is right and safe.

So, it's something I don't want to switch my profession. I want to stay in this. So, you know, I'm open to work and to do jobs. It's trying to find the right one. I'm trying to find something that makes sense.

BRUNHUBER: And that's safe.

DOIRON: Yes, absolutely. That's safe.

BRUNHUBER: Well, listen, we wish you test be of luck, and hopefully things will turn around sooner than later. Certainly, the vaccine will be the game changer. Beau Doiron, we really appreciate you coming in and talking to us.

DOIRON: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

BRUNHUBER: The European Union has launched its COVID vaccination program. It's aimed at giving shots to around 450 million people in the months to come. We're live in Madrid, Rome, and London, next. Stay with us.

[03:40:00]

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BRUNHUBER: The mass vaccination program in the European Union has begun. The campaign kicked off Sunday, days after the approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and has a goal of vaccinating some 450 million people across the block in the months ahead. Frontline medical workers and older citizens are the first in line to receive the doses.

And we have an outstanding group of reporters covering the rollout from all angles. We have Salma Abdelaziz in London where the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine could get approval within days. Barbie Nadeau is in Rome, Italy, the country was once the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe.

But let's start with Al Goodman in Madrid. So, Al, on the vaccine, before we get to the good news, first word of a delay. AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: That's right, Kim. The Spanish government

announcing in the pre-dawn hours this day that the second batch of vaccines that was supposed to come to Spain this Monday, there's a delay. The Spanish health minister sending out a note saying that Pfizer Spain told the government here that the Pfizer factory in Belgium was having problem -- problems loading and shipping, so a logistical problem not just to Spain but also to seven other countries.

The Spanish government here didn't say what those are those other countries but we're checking on that at CNN. But that vaccine will be here on Tuesday, the government says. Now, that's after Sunday's start of a small number of vaccines across the country, including at this senior care home behind me.

We'll be going inside shortly to talk to some people who got the vaccine. But clearly, a dose of optimism for this country that, like Italy, has been one of the very hardest hit countries due to the coronavirus.

The Johns Hopkins University in the United States that tracks the numbers globally says Spain has the ninth highest number of cases globally with more than 1.8 million and tenth highest number of deaths, nearly 50,000.

Now the health minister in a radio interview this morning, the Spanish health minister said that by the end of August, maybe 60 to 70 percent of the Spanish population will be immunized and therefore the hardest part of the crisis could be over.

The 96-year-old woman who was the very first to get the vaccine on Sunday said she hopes this vaccine will chase that coronavirus away. Kim?

[03:45:00]

BRUNHUBER: Yes, well said there. All right, thank you. So, Barbie now, when we spoke yesterday, the first shots were being administered in arms there in Italy. So, how has the rollout been going?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's been going very well. You know, they're very, very optimistic that things are on target right now. Here in Italy, the focus is on those frontline workers, healthcare workers, people in the infectious disease hospitals, people who work in the ambulances that visit people that have symptoms. All of those people are the priority before they get to the elderly population.

Now Italy has been so hard hit in this pandemic. You know the number of deaths is the highest in Europe, more than 71,000 and people continue to die, more than 200 died yesterday from the coronavirus.

So, it's seen as a very imminent, a very, very emergency situation here. The vaccine being rolled out is not going to stop the need for social distancing for all these restrictions that we have.

You know, we're in the orange zone now, the whole country is right now. We were in red zone, total lockdown over the holidays. We're going to go back into lockdown for the New Year's Eve holiday. The authorities are taking it very, very seriously and the vaccine rollout is going well but nobody is letting their guard down, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. All right, thank you. So, Salma, as the U.K. grapples with this new variant, there may be a new weapon against the coronavirus unleashed there soon, I understand.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, Kim. So, in a matter of days, the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is set to be approved. It could be rolled out as early as January 4th. And of course, this is a very big deal for the British government because this is the home-grown vaccine. It was developed right here in the U.K. at Oxford university. So, they're very excited about rolling out their own.

Now there's been some controversy about the efficacy of this vaccine. In trials it was found to be 70 percent in effective in immunizing people from this virus. But researchers and scientists say that they have a winning formula that might make it more effective.

Essentially remember how we need two doses, that second dose might be a half dose, and it could potentially raise the efficacy up to 90 percent, so putting it on par and in competition with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine potentially. And it has other advantages.

This vaccine is much cheaper, costs about three pounds, same as your morning latte, and it's easier to store. You can put it in a normal refrigerator. It doesn't need special refrigeration. So, a lot of advantages to this vaccine that will help in the U.K.'s fight against this virus, and it couldn't come at a sooner time.

Of course, right now, there is a variant that is of great concern to the U.K. authorities that is more transmissible. It's common here in London and parts of southeast England. And these parts of the country have been in complete lockdown. So, this is a powerful new weapon, as you said, and something that couldn't come soon enough, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you all for this window on Europe. Salma Abdelaziz, Barbie Nadeau, and Al Goodman, we appreciate it.

Well, it's been a painful year for Lebanon.

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MONA FAWAZ, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT: There is no doubt that the blast has destroyed the hope, the ambition and the energy of many, many people. That was an incredibly violent moment. So, we can't deny that this happened and that people will take time to recover.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER (voice over): We'll head to a Beirut that's under reconstruction, and some question whether it's even worth it. Next. Stay with us.

[03:50:00]

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BRUNHUBER (on camera): Tennis great Roger Federer will miss the first Australian Open of his career, a tournament he's won six times. Organizers announced on Sunday that he'd withdrawn. Federer is still recovering from two knee surgeries. The Australian Open the first Grand Slam of the year will start in early February, delayed by three weeks due to the pandemic.

Syrian refugees were forced to flee a camp in Lebanon after a tent caught fire and the blaze spread through the entire settlement. The U.N. refugee agency in Lebanon says the fire happened after a violent dispute on Saturday night, although no official cause is known.

The temporary camp was destroyed along with the few possession refugees brought with them. Neighboring communities in Lebanon and Syria have offered shelter with more aid coming from the U.N.

Well, as we reflect back on the biggest moments of 2020, you'll remember the devastating explosion that ripped through the heart of Beirut earlier this year. More than 200 lives lost in a city left struggling.

Our Ben Wedeman has more on how people are trying to move forward.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Beirut is rebuilding again. Earthquakes and wars have bashed and battered the city over the centuries, and then last summer, this.

People have always somehow managed to rise from the ashes. The more than 200 lives lost in Beirut's port blast, however, are gone forever. Fifteen-year-old Elias Huri (Ph) died from his wounds two weeks after the explosion.

"We have no future after this young man was killed," his uncle Josh tells me. "We're trying to convince his sister to move to Canada to stay with her aunt, not to stay here because this country has no future."

Twenty-twenty started with more anti-government protests and clashes continuing from the uprising that broke out in October 2019.

WEDEMAN (on camera): Since then the economy has collapsed, the currency has lost 70 percent of its value. The United Nations says 55 percent of the population now lives below the poverty line, made all the worse by the coronavirus pandemic.

After all this, Lebanon always a fragile construct appears to be falling apart.

[03:55:00]

WEDEMAN (voice over): Karl Sarkis is trying to repair his family's building. But with his wife pregnant and Lebanon's politicians mired in old squabbles, unable to form a government, they're looking at the exit.

KARL SARKIS, BEIRUT RESIDENT: We're planning on moving, on leaving the country for my child. Yes.

WEDEMAN: No future?

SARKIS: No future. Yes, no future. There's no future because we still have the same people that are government, our governing.

WEDEMAN: Mariana Weheb co-founded the group Bebw' Shebbek, Arabic for door and window to help people repair their homes after the blast.

MARIANA WEHEB, CO-FOUNDER, BEBW' SHEBBEK: We need to think about what do we need to do to save whatever's left of our city, our heart beat, you know? This is the heart beat of the country. It has been destroyed.

WEDEMAN: The thousands who protested in the heart of Beirut have disappeared. Real change will come, says university professor and activist Mona Fawaz, but first they must heal.

FAWAZ: There is no doubt that the blast has destroyed the hope, the ambition and the energy of many, many people. That was an incredibly violent moment. So, we can't deny that this happened and that people will take time to recover.

WEDEMAN: The scars, however, will not go away.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

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BRUNHUBER: And that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. And I'll be back in just a moment with more news.

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