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Dr. Fauci Has Expressed Optimism That Americans Could Return To A Sense Of Normal Life In 2021; AstraZeneca Has Been Approved For Emergency Use In The U.K.; The New Variant Of The Coronavirus Is Hopeful To Be Stopped By The Vaccines; Huge Lines In Florida For The Seniors To Get Their Vaccine Shot. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Especially since this administration had promised that we'd have 20 million people vaccinated and we're just a little over 2 million by today.

[09:30:00]

Meantime yesterday, Dr. Fauci had also expressed optimism that Americans could return to some sense of normal life in 2021 if vaccinations ramp up in the New Year. Do you agree with his assessment?

CARLOS DEL RIO, DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, the question is when in 2021? I'm hopeful that by the fall of 2021, I feel people maybe next Thanksgiving will be a "normal Thanksgiving," but it's going to take some time. You got to think about just do the math and you got to vaccinate 260 million Americans and give them two doses of vaccine to return to that normalcy.

You've got to be vaccinating 3 million people a day. That is a lot of people to vaccinate because, as we see, we only got 3 million people -- less than 3 million people vaccinated right now and we've been doing it for about two weeks.

GOLODRYGA: Well, yes, we've got a lot of catch up to do there. In terms of other vaccines, AstraZeneca's vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the U.K. The first doses will likely begin early in the New Year and trials have showed that the vaccine has about 70% efficacy compared to 95% from Moderna and Pfizer. If and when approved here in the U.S., do you anticipate increased hesitancy toward this specific vaccine?

DEL RIO: I don't think so. I mean, I think that, you know, the -- I need to look closer at the AstraZeneca data, the data has not been fully presented and when they do that hopefully we can have a better evaluation. They are quoting somewhere between 60% and 90% efficacy. If you get in the high 70s, 80%, I think it's going to be just as good.

GOLODRYGA: Well, that is reassuring to hear. And only a fraction of the millions of doses already distributed have been administered. At the Operation Warp Speed news conference yesterday, General Gus Perna said that his team didn't have a clear understanding of why these delays were happening. That stood out to me because how do we begin to solve this problem if they don't even seem to understand why it's happening in the first place?

DEL RIO: Well, I can tell you, being on the ground and seeing how vaccination is happening, why this is happening. It's happening because logistically this is difficult and the only -- the other reason that it's happening is because hospitals are full and nurses are being utilized in the floors and in the ICUs and the reality is there's typically not enough nurses to shift to start doing vaccination.

So logistically, this is being a challenge and I think we're going to have to do a different strategy. We're going to have to really, you know, ramp up, I think when CVS and Wal-Mart and other private sector gets involved, it's going to be good, but we also have to do a much broader effort, we have to get into public health.

Public health has been decimated, they've been underfunded, we have to get more funding so they can hire people and we probably need to give authorization for not nurses and doctors and APBs to be given the vaccine, but we need to figure out how do we get medical students, nursing students, all other people to start working on vaccination clinics because only by getting an all out effort we're going to get there.

I think involving the National Guard is a good idea and whatever we can to really vaccinate, as I said, we've got to get 2 to 3 million people a day vaccinated. That would be my goal.

GOLODRYGA: Perhaps this is what President-elect Biden means when he says he says he's going to enact the Defense Production Act to do exactly as you just listed there. As if we needed another headache though or hurdle, California is the latest state to discover this newly identified variant that was first discovered in the U.K.

Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Brett Giroir says that COVID-19 vaccines will likely protect against this variant. That is good news. Do you agree and what have you learned about this new variant?

DEL RIO: Well, we first learned that it's here and one thing that we also learned is that we need to do more genomic sequencing. The U.S. lacks behind many other countries. We're 43rd in the world in genomic sequencing, so we've to do more genomic sequencing because if you look for it you find it.

I do agree with Admiral Giroir that the vaccine seems to be covering this virus, but I think we're in a race right now and the virus is continuously mutating and preparing (ph) new mutations, mutations like this one that increases transmissibility.

So the sooner we can vaccinate the population, the sooner we're going to have to stop transmission of this virus. So we are in a race to the end and we have to get people vaccinated, but we also need to remind people, especially today being New Year, to please do whatever you can not to get infected.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, that is a key message that officials are trying to get out across the country. Dr. Carlos Del Rio, thank you, happy New Year to you. I know you'll be celebrating quietly at home but you will be safe. Thank you.

DEL RIO: Happy new year.

GOLODRYGA: Well soon -- Thank you. Soon President Trump returns to Washington as some GOP lawmakers plan to challenge President-elect Joe Biden's victory next week. One prominent republican, though, is calling the move dangerous.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:00]

Today president trump is cutting short his vacation to Florida and heading back to Washington early ahead of a republican plan to challenge the Electoral College results when Congress meets next week to certify President-elect Joe Biden's win. Missouri Senator John Hawley is the first Senator to publicly commit to objecting to the results.

[09:40:00]

CNN White House Correspondent Boris Sanchez is in West Palm Beach. Boris, it is important to note that this will delay the process, but not change the outcome. Nonetheless, it continues to play right into Trump's delusional narrative. What more have you learned?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bianna. Well, it's clear that President Trump remains fixated on this idea of overturning the results of the November election on January 6. The president getting the welcomed news that Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri plans to object to the Electoral College vote certification, it's something that he had publicly been campaigning republicans to do.

We understand that behind the scenes, sources have told us that aides are trying to explain to the president that this likely will not overturn the outcome, but it's something that he has remained fixated on. We understand the president is also continuing to ask about Vice President Mike Pence's role in all of this, not seeming to fully accept that the vice president essentially plays a ceremonial role and doesn't really have the power to just negate the will of the American people.

The president, of course, sparring with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, we understand behind the scenes, has been lobbying republicans to avoid this exact scenario because it puts the Republican Party in a very difficult position.

Ultimately, they have to go on the record and vote to either sustain the results of the election, to accept reality, the fact that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud, or to play along with the president's fantasy that the election was rigged, ultimately undermining democracy and putting the party in a very precarious position moving forward. Bianna, the president does not appear to care. He sees this as a loyalty test.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, Senator Hawley is a Yale Law School grad. He knows better and this is shameful that he's acting this way. Meantime, the president is returning to Washington as we're also learning about rising tension with Iran. We also know this -- we're approaching the one-year anniversary of the killing of General Qassem Soleimani.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that's absolutely right. The Iranian foreign minister tweeting out overnight that the United States is fabricating a pretext for war. We understand that there have been discussions in the White House with the president about vigilance over anything that Iran might do on this anniversary of the assassination of Qassem Soleimani.

Of course, this is a very sensitive time and the relationship with Iran has been something that the president has been very fixated on not only throughout his presidency but also in recent weeks.

Remember that shortly after the election, we got word from sources that there were discussions in the White House with the president asking aides about a potential military strike against Iran, even though at that point Joe Biden had already been declared the winner and he was officially a lame duck. So the president's aggressive stance on Iran not waning even in the final days of his presidency.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, so really uncomfortable savor (ph) rattling there. Boris Sanchez, thank you.

Well, one of Senator Hawley's republican colleagues, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, says that his GOP colleagues are worried about how they will look to President Trump's base if they don't try to overturn the election results. But Sasse says that this move is dangerous and he's right.

Let's bring in CNN Presidential Historian and Professor of History at Rice University, Douglas Brinkley, always great to have you on, Douglas. So Senator Sasse also alleges that his republican colleagues have entertained claims that the election was fraudulent out of fear of the political backlash from the president's base. This is something we've heard repeatedly throughout this administration. What is your reaction?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT RICE UNIVERSITY: It's Donald Trump being a Joe McCarthy, you know, trying to have loyalty oaths. He wants to divide the Republican Party into two worlds, people that will do anything for me and everybody else. So he's really just throwing Mitch McConnell out of the bus and Hawley's the new guy he's betting on.

Lindsey Graham came right after Christmas day to golf and stay behind the president. We're dealing with two distinct Republican Parties, Trump's Republicans and the old fashioned real Republicans and we'll have to see how this all plays out, but it's not good for the country. It's, once again, Donald Trump trying to undermine democracy and have a spasm of ego -- a wounded ego that won't end since Election Day and it's playing out in all sorts of nefarious ways.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, I said this last night, for someone like Josh Hawley who is such a China hawk to be giving them this gift, any authoritarian country to be giving them this gift of questioning our democratic process is just unconscionable.

But his objection also puts many of his own senate republicans in a really difficult position as well as you mentioned, side with trump or the people. Is there a constitutional basis for Congress to dismiss Electoral College votes?

[09:45:00]

BRINKLEY: No, that's not going to happen. That is a fantasy of Donald Trump's. This is a lot of showmanship going on here right now. Donald Trump has to be the number one dog and he doesn't like the fact that after, you know, come late January, Mitch McConnell ostensibly, if Georgia holds Republican, Mitch will be the leading Republican in Washington and Mitch McConnell might want to do some deals with Joe Biden.

And Trump says no, he doesn't want Mitch McConnell doing any deals with Biden. McConnell is not the leader of the Republican Party, I am. And so what Trump's trying to do is create a coalition of ten, maybe 15 republican senators that will do his bidding and be obstructionist over the next four years as Trump decides whether he is going to run for reelection in 2024.

Or at least hold the power to determine who's the nominee, hence people like Hawley kind of bowing in front of King Trump and of course there's always the Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. scenario and how they're going to be unspooled on the American political process in the coming year. So it's all about Donald Trump not wanting to go out with the L, the loser tattooed on his chest.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, you mentioned bowing before Donald Trump and I want to ask you about this new "Washington Post" reporting about President- elect Biden's team requesting for his previous secret service detail to come back and work with him once he is in office because, according to them, they feel uncomfortable with some of their current detail and that they may, in fact, be aligned with Trump and Trump officials in an uncomfortable way.

Can you give us any historical context here? Clearly any politician has the right to have detail that they're more comfortable with, but this seems to be taking it to a really dark place.

BRINKLEY: It's very dark. I mean, it does remind me of Abraham Lincoln when he won the election in 1860. Lincoln wasn't on the ballot in seven southern states and his train ride in from Illinois to Washington it was -- there was a fear of an assassination that would occur and it could have been from people within government that didn't want Lincoln to be president.

So the fact that Joe Biden is feeling uncomfortable now is another dark cloud already brewing over 2021. One has to hope that once Biden gets in there, he'll have a secret service team he's comfortable with and we could get on to doing Operation Warp Speed on steroids. This slow trickle pace of getting the people vaccinated isn't sustainable, we've got to really ramp it up.

And you would think the Republican Party now would be united trying to take credit for Operation Warp Speed, saying we did a -- a vaccine was developed due to Donald Trump and go that route instead of playing this charade that Biden didn't win the election and isn't a real president.

They did that to Lincoln in 1860 and it led to a Civil War and you get the feeling that Trump wants to have some kind of deep division or Neo Civil War in our country as we head into 2021 and it's pathetic.

GOLODRYGA: It's alarming to hear as well, and as you said, one would think if he was going to take a victory lap the best way to do it is to have a public vaccination as well and clearly that's not going to happen. Douglas Brinkley, thank you. Happy New Year to you.

BRINKLEY: Happy New Year.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

Well, Florida has a limited number of coronavirus vaccine doses and the state's plan to prioritize seniors over health care workers has led to huge lines. We'll take you there coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:00]

A limited number of coronavirus vaccine doses in Florida has led to huge lines. The state's the first come first serve plan for those over the age of 65 has left many seniors waiting hours to get the shot. CNN'S Ryan Young has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This bumper to bumper traffic jam twists around the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, a line so long, drivers have more than enough time to get out and stretch.

UNKNOWN: You have to be patient, but it's a good setup.

YOUNG: Not just in Orlando, elderly Floridians across the stated anxious to receive the COVID-19 vaccine are dealing with a similar situation. In Fort Myers, many bringing lawn chairs as they sit and wait for hours, nine to be exact for this man.

BRUCE SCOTT, COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: I personally feel there's got to be a better way.

YOUNG: Because Florida has one of the largest populations over the age of 65, Governor Ron DeSantis decided to break slightly with CDC recommendations which call for front line health care workers and first responders to be vaccinated first.

RON DESANTIS, GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: We believe that the better approach is to focus on the elderly first and foremost then we'll get into essential workers.

YOUNG: The vaccine much needed in the sunshine state, which has seen dark days this year, more than 21,000 COVID deaths so far, many of them seniors.

UNKNOWN MALE: We know people that have not survived.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Unfortunately.

YOUNG: But the problem is, all 67 counties are handling the vaccine rollout differently, creating some confusion.

SCOTT: I'm grateful to get the vaccine. I feel that there's got to be a better way to distribute this. For people that really need it, elderly that might be disabled in some way, they can't endure this process. So there's got to be a better way.

[09:55:00]

YOUNG: The issue has not restricted the long lines. Some seniors have heard the vaccine is available and have started showing up at hospitals only to get turned away, while others flood hospital phone lines looking to make appointments.

In South Florida, Broward Health says they've already booked up with vaccine appointments and won't take on more patients until February. Back in Orange County, 30,000 people signed up within 24 hours on the county's website. They vaccinated more than 1,500 seniors on the first day, a dose of hope during this awful year.

CANDICE SELTZER, COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: Great. I can't wait to see my grand kids. I can't wait to hug those little guys. It's like -- it's just been so long and coming that -- so relieved. It's just wonderful.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: We're just feeling very blessed right now.

RYAN YOUNG: Ryan Young, Cnn, Orlando, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: And our thanks to Ryan for that.

Well 2020 coming to a close with the U.S., again, shattering the daily record for coronavirus deaths and it comes as the new more contagious strain of the virus pops up in another state. Stay with CNN.

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