Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

First U.S. Case of U.K. Variant Confirmed in Colorado; GOP Rep- Elect Dies of COVID Complications Days Before Swearing-In; U.K. Approves Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine; McConnell Blocks Effort to Quickly Increase Direct Stimulus Payments; U.S. Lags Behind Some Other Countries in COVID-19 Vaccinations; Treasury Department Starts Sending Out $600 Stimulus Payments. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Bianna Golodryga, in for Jim and Poppy.

This morning, Colorado flagging a second suspected cases of the U.K. coronavirus variant just hours after confirming the first one here in the United States. Dr. Anthony Fauci had warned that the new strain was likely already here. This variant believed to be more contagious, raising fears that an already strained health care system will be pushed too far.

Tuesday the nation saw a new record number of people hospitalized and a record number of deaths. One of those victims, Louisiana Republican Congressman-elect Luke Letlow. He was only 41 years old and was set to be sworn in this weekend. We'll have more on that.

And this, health officials said 20 million people would be vaccinated by January 1st but the numbers we're seeing are far below that. The president is seemingly blaming states for the lag.

And new overnight, the U.K. has approved Oxford and AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine. Officials say it's cheaper and easier to store.

Let's begin this morning with CNN's Athena Jones who is following the latest on the first confirmed case of the U.K. variant here in the United States.

Athena, what more do we know?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bianna. Well, look, this is the last thing this country needs, to have a more contagious version of an already very contagious virus that the country hasn't been able to get under control. This was -- this variant was discovered on Tuesday in a man in his 20s in Elbert County, Colorado, and there is now a second suspected case also in Elbert County. Both men were working in an assisted living facility, a small facility

with about 25 patients, and they were only there -- they were serving nonclinical roles and they were only there because they were filling in and helping with staff shortages after a recent COVID outbreak at the facility that cost at least two people their lives just in the last two and a half weeks.

Now, the state health department has dispatched a rapid response team to this facility in Selma, Colorado, to test everyone there, the staff and the residents. They are also in touch with the CDC. But of course the prospect of this more contagious variant is coming at a time when the U.S. is already seeing frightening numbers, setting new records. As you mentioned more than 3700 people losing their lives to COVID yesterday and more than -- or nearly 125,000 people hospitalized with the virus.

And we should mention that this month, December, has been the worst month of the pandemic so far. More than 70,000 deaths here in America to COVID and some 5.9 million new COVID infections. And to put that in perspective that's more than the United Kingdom and France have reported the entire pandemic and we are talking about just a single month here in the U.S.

And of course, at this rate we're fast approaching the number 350,000 deaths here in America from COVID. That is like losing half the population of Washington, D.C. or Boston, or all of the population of a place like Honolulu, Hawaii -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: It's a terrible trajectory we're on right now and Dr. Fauci warned that January could actually be worse than December.

Athena, I want to ask you about the tragic story out of Louisiana. We're seeing an outpouring of sympathy and support this morning after Congressman-elect Luke Letlow died yesterday of coronavirus complications.

What reactions are we seeing from both sides of the aisle here?

JONES: Well, condolences are pouring in. This is just a terrible reminder of how dangerous this virus is and how it can affect anyone. Luke Letlow himself had announced on Twitter on December 19th that he had been diagnosed, thanked people for their thoughts and prayers, and then within two days he was tweeting from his hospital bed also thanking folks for their support. He was treated with Remdesivir and steroids but he ultimately lost that battle.

We've heard from Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards offering his condolences to Letlow's family and also from the Louisiana Congressional Delegation saying that, "We are devastated to hear of Luke Letlow's passing. Luke had such a positive spirit and a tremendously bright future ahead of him."

So terrible news coming out of Louisiana this morning -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Nancy Pelosi sending her condolences as well and of course our thoughts are with his young family and those two small children and wife that he leaves behind.

Athena Jones, thank you so much.

CNN's Phil Black is in London this morning following the U.K.'s approval of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Phil, good morning to you. So do we know when this vaccine will be given out?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, very soon. As early as next week we're told. And it's being hailed as a game changer. Not just in the U.K., but potentially around the world as well.

The key difference, the key point that makes this so exciting is the logistical convenience. It doesn't need to be stored at ultra low temperatures like the Pfizer vaccine, for example. So it means it is easier to store, easier to move around, easier to roll out more widely, which is expected to make a really big difference when it gets to developing countries as well.

[09:05:09]

And the British government to try and make the most of this potential has now announced a slight switch in tactics in how it's going to use this vaccine. The vaccine requires two doses, but instead of trying to get two doses to people as quickly as possible, it plans to delay the second dose, push that out to about three months, but prioritize getting the first dose to as many people as possible as quickly as possible as the vaccine stock becomes available.

The logic here is that it will allow a certain level of immunity, a significant level of immunity, to be built within a broader section of the population more quickly. Because of all of this the British government is today making an extraordinarily positive prediction. The country's health secretary says he believes the country should effectively be protected from the coronavirus as soon as spring. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT HANCOCK, U.K. HEALTH SECRETARY: We've got enough of this vaccine on order that vaccinate the whole population. You know, we've got 100 million doses on order, add that to the 30 million doses of Pfizer and that's enough for two doses for the entire population. So I can now say with confidence that we can vaccinate everyone except of course for children because this vaccine has not been trialed on children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: Now there is more work and research that needs to be done with this vaccine because there are still questions over its ultimately effectiveness and what is the ideal dose. Because there were some head-scratching results out of the trials, but British regulators are convinced that it is safe and effective enough to begin making a real difference in this country's effort to combat the virus. And so, as I say, it's going to start going into people's arms here

from Monday and it is welcome news at what is a very dark time for this country because cases are soaring and setting records and threatening to overcome the country's health system -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. A sliver of good news for a country that desperately needs it.

Phil Black, thank you so much.

And joining me now to discuss is Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's also a member of the FDA's Independent Vaccine Advisory Committee.

Doctor, I want to talk about this vaccine in just a moment, but let's begin with that tragic death of Congressman-elect Letlow because, as Athena said, it really is a reminder that this virus can be deadly even for someone young and healthy, with no underlying conditions.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Well, I think we work with a lot of denialism in this country. We assume that it's never going to happen to us or it's never going to happen to someone that we love until it does happen. And I think it's always sobering. You know, we're not helpless here, we can wear masks and social distance and do the best we can and often we don't do that. So it's just -- it's really heartbreaking.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. It's heartbreaking and following him on Twitter you get a sense of how quickly things started to go downhill for him and a reminder for Americans who are watching that it can impact them as well.

But I want to move on to the latest vaccine on the market. The British government has now authorized the use of the Oxford University- AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. We know that it's cheaper, we know that it's easier to distribute than the two vaccines already authorized for emergency use here in the U.S.

The FDA has not yet set a date for the independent advisory committee that you are a part of to meet to consider an emergency use authorization for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Have you started reviewing that data at all and how soon can we expect to a see that vaccine here?

OFFIT: Yes. So when a company submits for approval of their vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization we get a packet and then -- initially from the company which is their submission and then we get a packet from the FDA which is the FDA's review of all the clinical data. So those are 200-page documents. We haven't gotten any of that yet.

I will say there are questions about this vaccine. I mean, they did studies, for example, in the U.K. and in Britain -- I'm sorry, and in Brazil and they had two different dosing strategies, one was sort of half dose-full dose, the other was full dose-full dose. They had two different dosing intervals, a month was in one place and at least three months was in another, and they had different placebos.

I mean, it's -- that raises a lot of questions. Usually it's in phase one, you know, when you first figure out what dose you want to give and what the frequency or the interval is between doses, not phase three. I mean, these are phase three trials where they're sort of doing things differently. So there's a lot of questions that have been raised by this vaccine. I'm sure that should it come before our committee those questions are going to need to be answered.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. It was really puzzling because the data seemed to show that half a dose seemed to be more effective than the full two doses so clearly you have your work cut out for you before we see that vaccine here in the U.S. But in terms of where the U.S. is right now, new analysis by CNN of the most recent government data shows that we are lagging behind other countries when it comes to coronavirus vaccinations.

[09:10:06]

The vaccination rate in the U.S. currently sits significantly lower than the daily vaccination rates for countries like Israel, for the U.K., Bahrain. What do you make of that? Why aren't we doing better?

OFFIT: Clearly we need to get better at this. I do think I'm actually on a committee at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania headed by our secretary of health on how we're going to distribute this vaccine in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and what I think we need more than anything else -- we have a plan. I think what we need is we need to have money to be able to implement that plan. I think the government -- the federal government can help us out there more than in any other way.

They don't have to establish a plan, just give us money. So for example, in sparsely populated regions in the central part of Pennsylvania that aren't close to a pharmacy what you're going to need is sort of vaccine distribution centers as much as you would have testing centers. You have to set that up and it takes money to set that up. And I think that's where the federal government can help us.

And hopefully when the new administration comes in which I think is much more committed to making sure we can get the vaccine out there in an efficient way things will get better.

GOLODRYGA: I'm glad you brought that up, because explain why there needs to be more federal aid at a time when you have the president of the United States saying there's nothing he can do now, it's all on the states, and in your case the commonwealth's -- you know, it's their responsibility. They have what they need.

Explain the disconnect here and why you don't necessarily have what you need even if you may have the vaccine itself.

OFFIT: Yes. I don't understand it. I don't understand the government's reluctance to give us the money we need to do this because the way out of this pandemic is with a vaccine. That's the only way out of this pandemic, and so we should be doing everything we can to make sure that there are systems in place to distribute this vaccine efficiently and well, and that does require money. To sort of stand back, point your finger at states and saying it's all your problem, it doesn't make any sense. Hopefully this will soon change.

GOLODRYGA: And we know that president-elect has set a -- has set a goal for 100 million doses in the first 100 days. So you've got a million doses a day. Is that too much of an overshoot in your opinion or do you think it can be done?

OFFIT: Well, it's clearly aspirational, but it's good to set a high bar and then try and meet it. So certainly we'll try -- you know, I got my vaccine on Saturday, our hospital is very well-organized, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, giving the vaccine. And what's clearly true is I have never seen people in our hospital happier. There was this incredible lightning of the feeling around our hospital because now we finally felt that the life boat was there and we were going to be saved.

So there's clearly desire for this vaccine and a desire to get it out there and, therefore, I believe we're going to be able to do it much more efficiently in the near future.

GOLODRYGA: I hope so. I am so happy when I read people, people who I don't even know, I see images of people that need that vaccine because they're frontline workers and it makes me happy just knowing that they have accomplished that and obviously we want more Americans to be vaccinated as soon as possible as well.

Dr. Paul Offit, I'm glad you were, I hope you're feeling good. Happy New Year to you.

OFFIT: You, too.

GOLODRYGA: And still to come, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell likely sinking a push for $2,000 stimulus checks. More on the so- called poison pills that Democrats won't take.

And what this means as we close in on the critical Georgia Senate runoffs. Both Republicans in those races are pushing for these $2,000 payments, so what happens if this push fails?

Plus the U.S. vaccine rollout needs a jumpstart. Health officials have said 20 million people would have gotten a shot in the arm by January 1st, but we are far short of that. So what happened?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

GOLODRYGA: This morning, growing concerns on Capitol Hill that the window is closing on increasing stimulus payments to $2,000 for Americans struggling in this pandemic. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocking an effort by Democrats to quickly increase the payments.

Instead, he introduced a bill combining unrelated demands by President Trump which would strip liability protections for social media companies and establish a commission to study voter fraud. Joining me now from Capitol Hill, CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux and Errol Louis; political anchor for "Spectrum News". Welcome both of you.

Suzanne, let me begin with you. Mitch McConnell saying that he will begin the process of discussing the larger direct payments, but also introduced a bill tying two other unrelated demands from President Trump as we just mentioned this could be a poison pill, likely, a poison pill for Democrats. What are we hearing from both sides of the aisle and reaction to this?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, it's quite predictable when you listen to what the Democrats are saying, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer calling it a poison pill, saying, there is no way that they're going to vote with this in some sort of package form.

That is exactly what leader McConnell was hoping for and predicting and wanting when he actually put those two in there. When you take a look at the political maneuvering that he is doing here, on the one hand, the language is vague enough, that he's starting the process here to satisfy potentially satisfy Trump or make it look like he's satisfying him by adding on these two unrelated matters, matters that he knew the Democrats would not sign on to, whether it's the protections, pulling the protections from social media or it's some sort of commission for election fraud.

Those are the two things. What it does, however, is it also gives cover for a divided caucus that he is dealing with. We have already heard from Senators Cornyn, Pat Toomey and others who just can't get on board with raising this from $600 to $2,000, they say it's not targeted enough, that it's not fiscally responsible. McConnell does not believe necessarily that he has enough in his caucus to pass something that would just be a single item agenda, where it would be from $600 to $2,000.

[09:20:00]

The other thing that he also does, is that he gives cover for those who say they are in support of this increase. Now, whether or not they're sincere like Senator Josh Hawley who we've seen fight the good fight for weeks now or if they're late comers like Senator Rubio or Senator Graham who are more or less pleasing the president, he can say, look, we tried, we put it on the table and the Democrats rejected it. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: Yes, he also may be running out the clock as well for this session which ends Sunday. Clearly, he is a seasoned pro, but Errol, this refusal by McConnell to quickly move on a stand-alone bill for the $2,000 payments despite the push by President Trump for larger payments really highlights the division now between the president and his own party.

And I was struck by the "Wall Street Journal" editorial board this morning, writing yet another stinging op-ed, blaming this on the president. Here is what they said, "Mr. Trump lost his re-election bid even as Republicans did better down ballot because more voters liked his policies than liked him. The president hewed to a larger conservative agenda as long as he needed to maintain GOP support, but now that he'll soon leave Washington, he's throwing that over to punish Republicans and anyone else who refuses to indulge his fantasies about overturning this election."

So, Errol, is this a president hell-bent on blowing up his own party leadership because they aren't supporting his crazy attempt to overturn Biden's win?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he's certainly intent on settling some scores. The attempt to change 230, that provision that relates to social media companies, I read as a slap back at Facebook and at Twitter which refuse to sort of help promote some of the conspiracy theories that he tried to ride into the election regarding Hunter Biden.

I think that's really all that was about. But I think, look, if you read the "Wall Street Journal" editorial board a little bit differently, you come out in a different place which is that, all along for the last four years, this president could have been making alliances and common cause across party lines with Democrats to get things done, and he chose not to. I mean, they're right that he did sort of take the party captive and take them wherever he wanted to go and mouth the words and promoted the policies of conservatives.

But on infrastructure, on gun control, on so many things, he could have done what we're seeing him do now which is scramble the playing board and make new alliances to try and do things. I mean, if 14 million people can get those $2,000 checks in the next couple of weeks, that would be a great thing for the economy, for those families and probably for both parties, but that's a possibility that Mitch McConnell seems determined to close down in the next few days.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, the editorial board clearly doesn't support those $2,000 checks going out, but for those that do, their big question is where has the president been? Why is he just speaking out about this right now? Suzanne, how soon until we could see the Senate take up a new bill with the larger payments and the unrelated demands on election security and social media liabilities championed by Trump himself.

MALVEAUX: We might not see it at all. I mean, this might be something that dies on Sunday when you have the new Congress that's going to be sworn in. Wrinkle in this plain here, however, is that McConnell certainly wants to at least get that vote in to override the president's veto on the National Defense Authorization Bill.

Senator Bernie Sanders is holding that up, saying we want to vote first on this $2,000 direct check legislation, but the truth of the matter is that that's an untenable position to wait and wait and wait for days. We might wait and extend that up until Sunday, it might go right up until Sunday, but ultimately, you even have Democrats like Senator Dick Durbin saying we can't hold defense funding hostage to this debate over the $2,000 checks, direct checks, that, that has got to pass and it's got to pass eventually at least before Sunday.

And so, you might see that happen, but you might actually see as well this legislation just die and wait for the next session to pick it back up again.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, it is critical for the NDAA to be passed, and it's been passed every year for the past 60 years. So it's just unbelievable that we are in this position we are right now. Suzanne Malveaux and Errol Louis, thank you as always, I know you'll continue to follow this all in Washington.

LOUIS: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: Well, President-elect Biden is ripping the Trump administration on vaccine distribution and promising to speed up the process when he gets into office. So, how is he going to do it? Plus, we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street.

The markets look to start this final full trading day of 2020 higher as the fight for a larger stimulus check heats up on Capitol Hill millions of Americans could finally be seeing those $600 stimulus checks in their bank accounts right now. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says direct deposits of the stimulus payments began last night, paper checks will start going out today.

[09:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: A new CNN analysis shows that the U.S. vaccination effort is lagging significantly behind several other nations. The federal government's Operation Warp Speed pledged to administer 20 million vaccine doses before January 1st. Well, current CDC data shows that about 11 million vaccine doses have been distributed, but only 2.1 million have been vaccinated with the new year just days away. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now.