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United States Shatters Records For COVID Deaths, Hospitalizations Tuesday; UK Approves Oxford-AstraZeneca Coronavirus Vaccine; Colorado Confirms First U.S. Case Of Coronavirus Variant; GOP Senator Josh Hawley Says He Will Object To Electoral College Certification; Frontline Medical Workers In Several States Describe Chaotic Vaccine Rollout In Their Hospitals. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 30, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Hi, there. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me today. The U.S. officially has its very first known case of this new Coronavirus strain. Colorado now confirming at least one person is infected with it and officials there suspect a second person might be sick as well.

And while there is no evidence it is more deadly than the original strain, this new COVID variant is believed to be more contagious. And of course, it's only adding to concerns over the country's already overwhelmed health care system. Just yesterday, the U.S. set staggering, new records. There were more people hospitalized with COVID on Tuesday than any other day of this pandemic.

More than 100,000 - 124,600 nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project, and there were more fatalities reported in a single day than ever before, over 3,700 people. Now, of those deaths, that included newly elected Republican Congressman Luke Letlow. He was just 41 years young and died just days before being sworn in to represent Louisiana's fifth congressional district.

I want to begin this hour though in Colorado where as I mentioned that first known case of this new COVID strain has been confirmed. CNN's Stephanie Elam is there live for us this afternoon. Stephanie who's infected? What do we know?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, first of all, Brooke, let me tell you where we are, here in Simla, Colorado, we are 100 miles away from Denver International Airport, so just to put it plain that we are way far away from a big city. This is a rural county where we are, so that's why it's really interesting that we now know that we have one confirmed case of this variant and one suspected case both tracing back here to this skilled nursing facility.

We do know that these two men, one of them - the confirmed case is a 28-year-old man and the other man, they were both working here in nonclinical positions, helping out after there was a COVID-19 outbreak about 2.5 weeks ago. So, they stepped in to help out here. They both got sick. They, at this point, the county does not think that there is any reason to be concerned about a spread out further into this area of the county.

And on top of it, we also know that the state has sent a team down here to do testing of the people that do live here. There are about 25 residents, as well as the people that work here to test to make sure that this variant has not spread further here.

But again, this still leads back to one very large question. This is the first time that we're seeing this variant here in the United States. Many of us expected that it would show up here, but maybe not in rural Colorado.

So, the question is, how did it get here and is the community spread happening faster than we know? And I have been speaking to, you know, medical professionals and ER doctors. I spoke to an ER doctor last night in Los Angeles, and he was saying that this is part of the concern, that this variant, and how it has morphed here, while it may not be more deadly, as you pointed out, it is definitely more contagious, they're saying.

And if this could be behind the rise that we are seeing in many of the cities and states across the nation, if this is leading to that. And if so, are we testing for it enough in the states? And right now, the answer to that question would seem to be no, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Dr. Fauci called it a couple days ago. He was like, listen, this is probably already here in the United States. And I think everyone's concern is, OK, it's here will the vaccine prevent us from this as well? Stephanie, thank you so much for all the reporting out of Colorado. We'll get back to that in a second, but let me share this.

Overnight, Britain has become the first country to authorize the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. It is cheaper. It is easier to distribute than others, which is certainly good news. CNN's Phil Black is live in London and Phil, tell me more about the vaccine green light.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's those logistical conveniences, Brooke, that are the reason why this is being considered something of a game changer, not just for the UK, but internationally as well, globally, particularly for developing countries.

There's a lot of hope attached to this particular vaccine, because it doesn't need to be stored at these ultra-low temperatures like the Pfizer vaccine, for example. So, it can be moved around. It can be stored more easily, essentially, just in a regular fridge. You can get it to people with a lot less hassle and so, roll it out more widely that's the idea.

Now, the British government has also announced a shift in tactic to make the most of what they believe is the potential of this vaccine. It is a two-dose vaccine course but instead of prioritizing getting people both doses quickly, they're pushing back the second dose. And they're going to prioritize getting the first dose to as many people as they possibly can as the stock of the vaccine becomes available.

The idea is that that will more quickly build up a certain level of immunity within the broader population, and it will do it relatively quickly. All of this is encouraging some degree of positivity in this country today, what is otherwise a very dark time because of this virus.

[12:05:00]

BLACK: And the government is making a pretty extraordinary prediction. It believes that come spring, it now has the potential effectively to put the Coronavirus behind the UK. That is, essentially get through the worst of it, protect most of the population. This was the Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaking earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: We've got enough of this vaccine on order to vaccinate the whole population. 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, the idea of doing this in early 2021 is still going to take a lot of work. They really have to ramp up the rollout of the vaccine their early target is a million people a week. They're going to have to go further than that but they believe it's possible. And that is as I say a reason for hope in what is otherwise a very dark time for this country because of the pandemic.

BALDWIN: No, for you to say that the UK could be putting the worst of COVID behind them is quite a significant statement. I am curious Phil, I know the very first person to get this vaccination is now receiving her second dose. Is there a risk that she would be one of the last to get the second dose in the UK for a little while?

BLACK: Yes, you would think so. So Margaret Keenan, the 91-year-old woman who was the first to receive the Pfizer vaccine as part of the vaccination program here says three weeks ago. She has now received that second dose and yes, because of this switch in tactics, it would seem that that is not going to happen as regularly or with the same priority that it has up until now but the government is confident.

The officials here are confident that this is the way to go. They believe that the science and the statistics support this, that if you roll out the first dose, people are still getting significant coverage. And in fact, you've got more people getting significant coverage in the short term, fewer people will be falling severely ill and that will ultimately ease pressure on what is a pretty desperate health system in this country right now. BALDWIN: Phil Black, thank you very much, in London. Let's talk about

all of this with Dr. Carlos del Rio. He is an Executive Associate Dean at Emory University School of Medicine at Grady Health Systems so Dr. Del Rio, always a pleasure, sir. Welcome, first and foremost.

And let's get to what Phil was talking about, about just how big of a game changer this AstraZeneca vaccine is now being approved in the UK in terms of cost, in terms of distribution? So, just your thoughts on that and why does it seem that the UK vaccination approval process is a bit quicker?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXEC. ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIV. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM: Well, I think there are two things. Number one, it's great to have yet another vaccine which is reaching the approval point. The more vaccines we're going to have, the better. This is a very good vaccine in the sense that it's easier to distribute and it's also a lot cheaper.

So, I think this vaccine is going to be very critical to get vaccine to low and middle-income countries where really very little vaccine has reached so far. It's not that the UK is quicker. What has happened is the companies have to submit their paperwork and their request for approval to regulatory authorities.

And as far as I'm concerned AstraZeneca has not submitted their paperwork yet to the FDA. They submitted to the UK regulatory authority and it makes sense. The vaccine was developed by Oxford University, so it makes sense that they want to get the UK approval first.

BALDWIN: Sure. Understand. Understand on that. Looking ahead to the next administration, the Joe Biden Administration, you know he's already come out and said it's going to take years for Americans to be, you know, for everyone to be vaccinated, if the pace of administering them remains as the current pace. What can he, what can his administration do differently to speed up the process?

DR. RIO: Well, I think we need several things. I think we need transparency. I think we need a national strategy. You know, what the government has done, "Operation Warp Speed" has taken the vaccine and allocated it to the states, but this is really up to the states to how do they allocate it? How do they distribute? How do they vaccinate?

I think we need funding. Funding is going to be critical. There are simply not enough people working currently in public health to get this out to every single community. And the reality is, we need to set goals and we need to reach those goals. And if we need to get everybody in the U.S. to get at least one dose of vaccine by the summer, we have to be vaccinating about 3 million people a day.

And at the current pace, we're not going to get there any time soon. So really, we have to really speed up and scale up the vaccination as a critical component of this response.

BALDWIN: Dr. Del Rio, what about this COVID variant that's now discovered in Colorado, you know? The fact that this infected man in his 20s, had no travel history, you know, raises the possibility that the variant is already well established in his community and maybe elsewhere in the U.S. How concerned are you about this?

[12:10:00]

DR. RIO: Well, you know, I'm concerned; because what it means is that we're not doing enough genomic sequencing in this country to have it picked up early. But quite frankly, we all knew this strain was already here. This is sort of the non-news for those of us that have been following this. We knew it would be here. Viruses tend to travel and by the time you discover it, it's already too late.

BALDWIN: I appreciate that it's not news to you, but Dr. Del Rio, let me just say, for everybody watching saying, wait a second, there's this mutation or variant of a strain in America, it is news to us. And so, when its news to us, my question for you is, if it is also more contagious, as I'm reading, will this vaccine - if we all eventually get out and get this vaccine, both the doses, are we going to be safe?

DR. RIO: Well, let me give you the details on this strain. This strain's clearly more contagious, so it's easier to transmit, and it probably increases the transmission of this virus by about 0.4. So, normally, the virus transmits, one person infects 2.5 individuals, assuming that everybody is naive, in other words, never infected or not vaccinated.

This virus probably by this mutation increases trance miscibility from 2.4 to 2.9. That might not sound like a lot, but in a totally naive population, after ten cycles of transmission, instead of getting 10,000 people infected, now you have 40,000 people infected. So to me, what this strain means - the most important thing it means is we really need to hunker down.

We have to really stress the three W's of wear a mask, watch your distance, and wash your hands. And we really have to not go to places where there are a lot of people in close environments, because congregate settings with poor circulation facilitate transmission of this virus. Now as far as getting sicker, you don't get sicker with this strain. It's more transmissible, but you don't get sicker.

And as far as we know, the vaccines will work perfectly well against this strain. But what I will say is the sooner we can roll out vaccinations and we can make more of the population immune, the better it's going to be to control the transmission. So this would be another stimulus for me to say, what we can do to really scale up our vaccination?

BALDWIN: No, I appreciate the reality check on this and also just the reminder, as if we needed another one, to hunker down, and those three W's. Dr. Carlos del Rio, thank you for the reminder and great to have you on.

DR. RIO: Good to be with you.

BALDWIN: Thank you. Still ahead here on CNN, officials - excuse me, official plans from a Republican Senator to object the Electoral College vote count next week. What that means for the presidential transition and the pressure it puts on other republicans, next?

And later, another historic pick for the president-elect's expanding cabinet. Who Joe Biden is nominating for the number two role at the Pentagon and what's ahead for the transitions there? You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We'll be right back.

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[12:15:00]

BALDWIN: We are back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me. Just into us here CNN Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri announced today that he will object next week when congress convenes to certify the Electoral College vote.

This will make him the first Republican Senator to say he will do so. Let's go to Capitol Hill and my colleague there Lauren Fox. And Lauren, has he said why he'll be doing this?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well essentially, what was expected to become an effort from house Republicans, there were a few of them who wanted to object the certification of a few Electoral College results has now become something that is going to erupt in a circus in just a week on Capitol Hill.

Essentially I want to take a step back, because any member, if they are joined by a Senator, can object to the certification of an Electoral College result from a state. Usually, this is sort of a ceremonial moment on Capitol Hill when the vice president presides over this whole endeavor.

But what we expect to see next week essentially, is we have josh Hawley who says he will now join with a group of House Republicans to object to the Electoral College certification in the State of Pennsylvania.

Once that happens then the joint session of congress will break up, they will each deliberate separately for two hours. So it takes a good amount of time Brooke, out of the day on Capitol Hill. Then they come back together and they have a vote essentially, on whether or not they will follow through with the Electoral College results or whether or not they will allow that objection?

Now, we don't expect at this moment that this changes the results of the election in any way. We have heard from top Republicans including Senator John Thune, the Majority Whip in the Senate, who has said this effort is going to go down like, "A shot dog". So that gives you a sense of just how much Republicans in leadership are opposed to anyone moving forward with this.

But I will tell you it puts members in a really tough spot especially those who are up for re-election in the Senate in 2022. You're talking about members who are going to have to make a choice about whether or not they're going to support the president's biggest effort right now essentially, questioning the results of the election.

We know there's no evidence of voter fraud, but looks like some Republicans are willing to go down this road anyway, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, what I'm hearing from you, despite the circus this will not be changing the election results. Lauren Fox, thank you so much, there on Capitol Hill. Let's discuss this with CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and Nia, good to see you, friend.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good to see you.

BALDWIN: Josh Hawley, how significant is this, is his voice, and is his opposition?

HENDERSON: Listen, I think in some ways, this was expected. You've seen movement in the House towards this so the big question was whether or not they would get a Senator to join in? You'd already had the incoming Senator from Alabama Tommy Tuberville, say that he was going to object.

So, now that there's josh Hawley they have enough to gum up the works enough people to gum up the works. They don't have enough as you said before to actually overturn the results of the election. We know that on January 20th, the new president will be Biden.

[12:20:00]

HENDERSON: The outgoing president will be President Trump. I think what we will see from these Republicans is they are trying to essentially line up to be President Trump fan boys so they can be in a good place in 2024.

BALDWIN: There you go.

HENDERSON: For you know, running for president. I think that's what this is about.

BALDWIN: That's what I wanted to get to.

HENDERSON: --lines up.

BALDWIN: What this is really, really about. Like, peel back the layers. What are the personal ambitions at play here for Senator Hawley? And so, what would he be looking for come 2024, if Trump follows through with this thing?

HENDERSON: Right. If he follows - listen, if Donald Trump doesn't run all of these folks like Josh Hawley like Mike Pompeo maybe even somebody like Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio as well, they want to be the next in line and the favorite of Donald Trump to inherit his base.

I think they're wrong in the sense that, if you want to be the Republican nominee or the nominee of any major party you have to build your own base. It isn't really helpful to be a fan boy of anyone. If you look at Donald Trump, who was Donald Trump a fan boy of, nobody, right?

Maybe Putin that's about it. But this idea that, somehow, they're kind of carrying Donald Trump's water is going to mean that they are in the front of the line for his base. I think it's just a misunderstanding of his base, why they like Donald Trump and just a misunderstanding of presidential politics more broadly?

BALDWIN: All of this happening next week again, not changing the results of the election. Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you so much for just that perspective on all this.

HENDERSON: Thanks Brooke.

BALDWIN: Still ahead here on CNN of you from the front line where those with the most exposure to COVID are not guaranteed the first vaccines. Coming up next, a NICU Nurse who attends deliveries with COVID positive mothers describes the vaccine free for all at her hospital.

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[12:25:00]

BALDWIN: Chaos, unfair, even an all-out free for all, not things you want to hear about in terms of the rollout of this life-saving vaccine, yet, medical workers at hospitals all over the country say that is exactly how it's going so far the most insulting to those on the front lines, seeing people with little to no contact with COVID patients getting these vaccines before they do?

Joining me now, Jennifer DeVincent, she is a NICU Nurse at Mass General Brigham Hospital. And she is in the delivery room with COVID- positive mothers. So first of all, I know I already gushed to you in commercial break but thank you for all that you do and especially as a NICU Nurse. Thank you, thank you, and welcome.

Jennifer, I know you are frustrated. I read you feel like this vaccine distribution process is a slap in the face. Tell me why?

JENNIFER DEVINCENT, NICU NURSE AT MASS GENERAL BRIGHAM HOSPITAL: It is. So, you know, we've been going through COVID for a little over nine months now and the frontline workers have just been down and out this whole time. So, whenever we got news that the vaccine, you know, was finally approved and coming, we were getting Pfizer first.

So when we heard that was coming and there was a rollout date, you know, the anticipation and excitement for the frontline workers was unreal. We were so excited and you know, just to be able to have that extra protection for us that safety. And then whenever it rolled out it didn't quite go as we planned like you said. It was definitely a slap in the face.

BALDWIN: Tell me how? Tell me how it didn't quite go as planned, because you know, for someone like me, the lay person doesn't work in a hospital, I would think, OK, there'd be priority lists and a hierarchy, and you, of course, would be getting a shot and it's my understanding it's really more of an honor system. Explain.

DEVINCENT: It was. It was more like an honor system. So, the way it should have been is they planned it in waves. So, the wave A was supposed to be those frontline workers, those with priority to getting vaccine. Instead of it being just the wave A that was able to sign up really, it was a free-for-all and anyone could sign up.

And it was put out on a Wednesday at 3'o clock and you had to log on at that exact moment and if you weren't on at that exact moment you were not getting the vaccine. Now, most of the frontline workers are working. I, in fact, was taking care of a baby and I was feeding a baby and I could hear my co-workers talking and within a matter of minutes those appointments were gone.

So, instead of just the people that actually take care of the COVID patients being the ones to be able to sign up for the appointments it was a free-for-all for everyone. So, you had nurse directors, you had unit coordinators, you had allied health. So, really, the ones that are in the rooms taking care of the patients were not only the ones that got to sign up.

BALDWIN: So, hang on, am I hearing you correctly? Are certain - I don't want to lay blame, I don't want to point fingers, but are certain folks in the medical profession maybe fibbing that they are working directly with COVID patients in order to get this shot?

DEVINCENT: I wouldn't necessarily say fibbing. I think Mass General Brigham just wasn't maybe as organized in the rollout as they should have been. I think the organization and planning and execution of it just wasn't prepared. I think that there were certain criteria that you have to go on and attest to and I don't think that criteria were as strict as it should have been.