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Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) Discusses House Passing $2000 Relief Checks to Americans, Senate Political Maneuvering Begins & Biden to Call Out Trump Admin on Pace of Vaccine Distribution; California Doctors Concerned They May Have to Begin Rationing Care; Georgia's GOP Senators Support $2,000 Relief Checks; Update on Coronavirus Responses Around the World. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 29, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Maybe a tough decision in one sense to give more to Americans. Also tough because in a sense it is a loyalty pledge to maybe the more old-school fiscal conservative Republicans versus to the current president.
I want to read something Senator Bernie Sanders actually tweeted moments ago, saying, "Today, Senator Markey and I demanded a vote on $2,000 for working people. It is a simple, no vote. No New Year's break for Senators."
How do you see this playing out?
REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): I think the pressure is going to get ramped up. I think there will be a lot of activity the next 24 hours among the general public.
I mean, I get texts all the time from people that are worried. Their anxiety level is through the roof after a terrible year. Now you come down to the end, looks like politics are being played.
When you actually have Democrats and President Trump agreeing on something which as we all know --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Can you believe that?
RYAN: No.
BALDWIN: Can you believe Senator Sanders and the president are on the same side of this?
RYAN: Yes, it's like mic drop. What's the argument about here, you know?
But some of these Senators, again, all of a sudden, are finding religion on fiscal responsibility after huge tax cuts that went primarily to the top 1 percent.
We were at trillion-dollar-a-year deficits, Brooke, before the pandemic. Now they're saying we have to watch what we spend.
How come? How come, if it goes to the wealthiest people in the country, they're OK with it? But if you want to send 2,000 bucks to a family that will miss a mortgage payment through no fault of their own, all of a sudden, they find religion on fiscal responsibility?
That's the pressure that needs to be applied to those Senators that are making the decision now.
BALDWIN: So we watch all of that, Congressman Ryan.
I want to ask about COVID and the vaccination process. We know President-Elect Joe Biden will speak later today.
He's expected to confront, how shall I say, slower-than-expected pace the Trump administration administered the vaccines and layout his own plan, is what we're hearing from a transition official.
What could change in the vaccine distribution once Biden is officially in office?
RYAN: Well, I think it is about driving it through the bureaucracy. You can't have the CEO of the company on the golf course and think the product is going to make it to market. It is not going to happen.
The president has been MIA. I was glad to see him come out of the witness protection program the other day because we couldn't find him anywhere.
If the president is not driving this, down through the bureaucracy, organizing it, using every lever to pull to get these vaccines down to the American people, it is just not going to happen.
I think just by Joe Biden, Ron Klain, his chief of staff -- already been through this with the Ebola issue -- they're the two people that are going to be very, very important.
You look at the other health experts involved and we're going to get this done.
It should be done now. I'm not saying Trump can't do it. I'm saying he is MIA. If the president is MIA, you're not getting it done. That's the biggest part of the problem.
BALDWIN: Congressman Tim Ryan, thank you for your time.
RYAN: Happy New Year, Brooke.
Happy New Year, just about. Thank you.
RYAN: We'll get there.
BALDWIN: We will. We will. Thank you.
RYAN: Thank you.
BALDWIN: I want to talk about California now. A developing story in California right now in the middle of what experts call a surge on top of a surge. And a stay-at-home order for millions of people could have to be extended.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:37:56]
BALDWIN: In California, the number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are not improving. And Governor Gavin Newsom says it is likely the numbers mean the stay-at-home order will be extended.
It is particularly dire for those of you who live in southern California where availability of ICU beds is down to zero.
And there's news now that a problem with oxygen delivery systems is affecting patient care.
CNN correspondent, Stephanie Elam, is live in California.
Stephanie, what is L.A. County saying about the shortage of this oxygen supply?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know, Brooke, there's at least five hospitals that have been affected by this.
It is not necessarily a shortage of oxygen as much as it may be a problem with infrastructure because there's such demand for oxygen that it is pointing out weaknesses in old infrastructure, mainly pipes getting oxygen to patients.
Also, when so much oxygen is going through pipes, it can freeze pipes, obviously that's a problem, too.
They moved some patients lower in hospitals because then they don't need as much pressure to go through the pipes to get oxygen to them.
But think about it. We're talking about respiratory illness. There's obviously a huge demand for oxygen now. That's part of it.
But it is internal disaster where some hospitals had to turn away patients.
This, on top of the fact that, in California, we're seeing a surge upon a surge.
Here in southern California, as you said, as well as San Joaquin Valley, we are expecting that stay-at-home order to be extended today when we hear from state of California, simply because numbers aren't where they need to be. The numbers are so high in California that the state sent a team here
to help with load leveling because some hospitals are so inundated. We know that one hospital in south L.A. is having to treat patients in the chapel as well as in their gift shop.
What they're trying to do, if there's one bed open at another place, maybe move people around that way. That's how critical it is because ICU beds are at capacity.
They said, when you look at testing, they say nine to 10 people are testing positive for coronavirus every minute. Think about that. That's just L.A. County. That's where we are standing now with these numbers.
[13:40:08]
It is getting to the point that medical officials have to make the decision on who they think they can save, who can get the facilities they need and give it to them.
Think about that. No medical professional wants to be in that position, Brooke, deciding between two lives.
BALDWIN: No. With the gift shop you were alluding to, Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital, I talked to the CEO of the hospital yesterday. Gurneys in the gift shop. Never heard of that in my life. This is where we are.
Stephanie Elam, thank you so much.
ELAM: No, never.
BALDWIN: Never, ever, ever.
With me now to continue the conversation on California and obviously some of the tough choices doctors are facing, Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, epidemiologist and professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Dr. Kim-Farley, welcome.
DR. ROBERT KIM-FARLEY, EPIDEMIOLOGIST & PROFESSOR, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Brooke, thank you so much for being on the program.
I want to just mention, Stephanie talked about this being now a surge upon a surge. I actually think we have moved beyond waves or surges. This is a viral tsunami that we're now experiencing.
BALDWIN: Viral tsunami. What does that even mean?
KIM-FARLEY: I think it just implies the magnitude, that before you may talk about waves. This is simply beyond a normal wave or surge.
I think in a sense you could look at it from the point of view in the past, maybe like throwing matches into the woods. Occasionally, you have a flareup, a little outbreak of COVID. Now, we're seeing in California, a raging viral wildfire of disease.
BALDWIN: The problem is when I imagine a tsunami, it is like there's nothing you can do. It's coming, you run the opposite direction, and you wait it out. By the time the waves are gone, you see the devastation and destruction and its path.
When you hear the details coming out of some of the hospitals -- I was saying talked to Dr. Batchlor, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital, south of L.A. Here's a clip of what she told me they're seeing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ELAINE BATCHLOR, CEO, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: We have five tents outside the hospital. We have patients in the conference room, in our chapel.
BALDWIN: How concerned are you having to ration care?
BATCHLOR: That's always something we worry about and want to be thinking ahead in a crisis like this.
If we continue to see an increase in the number of COVID patients, we may be forced to do something that, as health professionals, we all really loathe having to even think about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Given what she said, Dr. Kim-Farley, and then Stephanie was reporting on the issue with not necessarily the oxygen supply itself but weakness in the infrastructure, older pipes, a lot of people needing oxygen now, it is freezing, what are hospitals to do?
KIM-FARLEY: Yes, Brooke. Really what's happening now in California and elsewhere is they're reaching capacity and have to move into what we call surge protocols.
Procedures in which things like patient-to-nurse staff ratio changes so more nurses, more patients are taken care of by fewer nurses.
We have a situation where ICU rooms are having to discharge patients maybe sooner than they might otherwise have done.
You have emergency departments becoming full because there's not an ICU bed. You have ambulances waiting outside to get into the emergency rooms.
You have all of these triage sorts of measures that are done in crisis situations that isn't going to give us quality of care we would normally like to see. So that will be endangering.
BALDWIN: Makes you worry if it is not COVID, it's horrendous sending you to the E.R., heart attack, accident, anything else, you want to not have anything go wrong because of just the issue of the supply, staffing, et cetera.
Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, thank you so much. We'll speak again, I'm sure, on all this.
KIM-FARLEY: Sure.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
[13:44:14]
After weeks of awkward silence, Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are in Georgia, finally weighing in on the president's proposal to send Americans a bigger check. What will the Republican Party do now?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The crucial Senate runoff elections in Georgia are just one week away. And now both Georgia Republican Senators, fighting to hang on to their jobs, are voicing public support for increasing the stimulus payments to $2,000.
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler today both publicly embracing the president's push to send more money to struggling Americans.
CNN's Kyung Lah traveling with the Loeffler campaign today. She's holding rallies all around Georgia.
Kyung, you had a chance to ask her about her stance on the $2,000 checks. What did she say?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I explicitly asked her, where exactly do you stand on this bill and what the House passed last night, and specifically on the $2,000 stimulus measure.
She said that, you know, she has aligned with President Trump on many issues. And on this one, she is also aligning with him, that she says she supports these payments. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[13:50:07]
SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): That I've said I support it.
Look, we have to release this money to the Americans because Democrats have locked our country down. They've played politics with this moment and refused to pass relief, month after month.
And Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders have admitted they did that because of the election. They've played politics with this.
So we need to hold them accountable on January 5th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: While talking to reporters in that particular reporter gaggle, Brooke, we asked whether she would vote and support the override of the veto for the NDAA, and she skirted it. She would not say yes or no -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: OK. Kyung Lah, thank you so much there in Georgia, on your way to Newnan, following all things Kelly Loeffler. Again, the race, the election next week.
We are now learning that the place where this pandemic started, Wuhan, China, may have actually had 10 times the number of coronavirus infections than were officially reported. Ten times.
Plus, another vaccine looks set for approval in the U.K. Details on that, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:56:00]
BALDWIN: A troubling new report out of China shows that the number of coronavirus cases in Wuhan, the original epicenter of this outbreak, may have been 10 times larger than first reported.
For more on that and more COVID headlines from around the world, let's check in with some of our international CNN correspondents.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Nearly half a million people in Wuhan may have had COVID-19 according to a study by the Chinese CDC. That's nearly 10 times the official figure.
The study used a sample of 34,000 people in China. Researchers found COVID-19 antibodies were prevalent in 4.43 percent of the population in Wuhan, which is a city of 11 million people.
But officials have only reported about 50,000 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 there.
Now, under-reporting is a common problem faced by health authorities around the world, often due to a lack of capacity and resources.
But in China, there's also the question of transparency. Leaked documents from the WHO-based CDC showed officials gave the public lower counts of cases and deaths than data they had access to internally.
The study also shows that in cities in Hubei Province, other than Wuhan, only 0.44 percent residents had COVID-19 antibodies.
State media have highlighted this as proof that China effectively controlled the spread from Wuhan.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Cyril Vanier in Paris. The delivery of hundreds of thousands of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was delayed in the European Union after what Pfizer call as minor logistical issue.
Spain is now receiving its resupply a day late. The health ministry there says the issue was with loading and shipping.
The drug making adding there are no issues with manufacturing the vaccine.
The incident highlights how dependent the E.U. is right now on its only authorized coronavirus vaccine.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: I'm Salma Abdelaziz, in London, where health care workers are back in the eye of the storm as this country grapples with unprecedented infection rates.
The U.K. reported more than 41,300 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, breaking daily records since the start of this pandemic. There's also now more patients in hospital with coronavirus than at any time before.
Of course, health officials are extremely concerned. They say hospitals are at their most vulnerable and potentially could be reaching capacity next year.
Much of the spike is due to a new variant of COVID-19 that the government here says is more transmissible, can spread more easily.
But there are signs of progress. There are signs of hope. A vaccine developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca is set to be approved in a matter of days.
Of course, a lot of national pride around this, because this is the home-grown vaccine made right here in the U.K. And there's advantages to it. It's cheaper. It doesn't need extra cold refrigeration.
But again, balancing the hope of the vaccine with a very real demand. So follow the rules and follow the restrictions.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Everyone, thank you so much.
We should also note, moments ago, the U.K. released its figures for today's COVID cases and it's set yet another record. More than 53,000 new infections there.
We continue on. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.
Heat-check time for the president and his grip on the Republican Party. He complains of weak Republican leadership. But the president defines weak as unwilling to give him what he wants.
Senator Mitch McConnell promises to override this presidential veto on big defense spending. And he did not endorse the president's push for those $2,000 stimulus checks.
The president's top-line demand for $2,000 stimulus checks just comes down to math and if he can count to 12. Five Republicans, including the two Georgia Senators, who answer to
voters next month, say they back the president. The economic debate is only half of this whole pandemic conversation.
[14:00:00]
A new interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci just this morning captures the awfulness of our current coronavirus moment. January will likely be worse than December, he says.
