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Officials Warn Americans to Avoid High-Risk New Year's Eve Gatherings; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Rejects Bill to Increase Stimulus Checks to $2,000; World Ringing in New Year with Muted Celebrations as Virus Surges. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

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

Well, the ball is dropping and the virus is surging. Today toned down New Year's Eve celebrations around the world, Times Square Right now eerily quiet. Health officials warning everyone to avoid large gatherings as the country breaks records for COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations.

But as those numbers spike, the vaccination numbers lag. We're getting new data showing the country's vaccine rollout is going much more slowly than anticipated.

We're covering all the angles this morning. First, let's get to CNN's Paul Vercammen who's in Los Angeles. Paul, good morning.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in California, Bianna, good morning, we now have the first strain of the U.K. variant of the virus. It happened with a man, 30 years old, in San Diego, it turned up in him two days after Christmas.

Also in California, 20,000 people are now hospitalized, 44,000 of those -- excuse me, I should say 4,400 of those people are now in intensive care units. And then also here in Los Angeles County, they are now saying that every ten minutes, someone dies of COVID-19.

And the county is getting aggressive, the public health department, they are now tweeting this out regularly, offering warnings here on New Year's Eve, telling people not to travel, also telling them not to get together tonight with others and doctors and nurses are echoing those sentiments.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Stephanie Elam in Colorado, which is the site of where we found the first variant of that U.K. strain of the coronavirus in the United States. What we can tell you now is that the first person to have been confirmed with it is a 28- year-old man who is in the Colorado National Guard. And there's a suspected case of another person who is also in the Colorado National Guard. They were pitching in and helping out here at this assisted living facility after all the patients here came down with the coronavirus in mid to late December. So they needed more hands on deck, and that is why they're here.

Both of the individuals are isolating outside of this county. However, the fact that they did have it and neither one of them has a travel profile outside of the country leads many to believe that the virus is prevalent and it is spreading throughout the community and is already probably here and in other states as well. And that is why, again, as you heard Paul say, officials are asking people to not get together tonight because it seems like this new variant is more contagious than the one we've known for the last almost a year. So, because of that, they're asking people to keep their distance, stay home and do not go out and party tonight.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kristen Holmes in Washington, D.C., where we're hearing a very different tune from government health officials than we have been for the last several weeks. Instead of blaming the low vaccination numbers on a lag in reporting, these government officials are now taking responsibility, saying that we are not where they wanted us to be. Admiral Brett Giroir telling our Jake Tapper that they need to be doing a better job.

So let's take a look at those numbers. Remember the goal here was to have 20 million doses by today. We are nowhere near that. Based on the latest CDC data, we only have about 2.7 million vaccine doses that have actually been administered with a bit over 12 million doses that have been distributed. Again, a big discrepancy here.

Now, while Operation Warp Speed did not give us any specifics as to why exactly these numbers were lagging, it does appears that the focus has turned to the states. Dr. Anthony Fauci earlier this morning saying that those states and jurisdictions need more resources in order to be able to get those shots into arms. That is something we are hearing on the ground as well, states saying they need help from the federal government.

Now, I will acknowledge that the admiral, Brett Giroir, said that there will be at least 30 million more vaccines in January and potentially 50 million in February.

[10:05:03]

That, of course, is something we'll be watching very closely to see whether or not this is just another overpromise. Bianna?

GOLODRYGA: All right. Kristen Holmes, Stephanie Elam and Paul Vercammen, our thanks to you all.

And joining me now, Emergency Physician and former Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen. Dr. Wen, thank you so much for joining us on this New Year's Eve. This morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci said health officials are considering spreading out first doses of the vaccine to more people. But by not initially holding back the second doses, there is a risk here. More vaccine doses will need to be produced and distributed by the time the required second doses are needed. Is this a risk worth taking at this point? We are talking about a 95 percent efficacy rate, but that only applies when both of these doses are administered.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: That's exactly right, Bianna. So this is complicated. I can see, on the one hand, the idea that, hey, if one dose is going to be at least partially protective and we have this crisis on our hands, why not give it to as many people as possible. But on the other hand, this is not how this vaccine, either the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine, that's not how they were studied. They were studied as a two-dose vaccine. So we don't know what happens if you give one dose. We don't know how long the protection may last. We don't know how complete it is. We also don't know what happens if you wait, if you wait two months, three months, is the second dose as effective as if it's given on time?

And I think there are ethical issues involved too if people were initially taking the vaccine expecting something that was 94 to 95 percent effective and now they're getting something that's not, what does that mean? So I think studying this would be a good idea but the policy itself is problematic at this point.

GOLODRYGA: It shows you how far back we are at this point as well. Just to let our viewers know, and we were having issues with your visual there, so we can hear you clearly but your screen may have froze. So that's why we are just hearing you now and we don't see at this point. It's modern technology in a COVID world.

But let's continue the conversation because Dr. Fauci said we could return to normalcy by early fall if vaccinations pick up. You said something that alarmed a lot of people by saying, at this current rate it would take ten years before we reach herd immunity. So, is Dr. Fauci being too optimistic here?

WEN (voice over): I think that in America, we shoot for the moon. We have been able to produce these vaccines in record time. I think we can get there. But if we do the calculations to reach 80 percent herd immunity by vaccination with a two-dose vaccine, we need to be getting 520 million doses of vaccine into people by the end of the summer, which is in six months, which means that we need to be at a rate of 3.5 million vaccinations per day. We're currently at 1 million vaccinations a week. And so we need to ramp up substantially.

This is something I believe we can do but we need to think about how we're doing vaccinations completely differently. This needs to be an all-hands-on-deck mobilization for the entire country that involves the public and private sector, we need to devoting all of our resources to doing this work. We can't go at the snail's speed that we are now.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Admiral Giroir said that he anticipates 50 million vaccines by February. At this rate do you think that's overly optimistic?

WEN (voice over): I think, again, that it's something we can do but we really need to be looking also at what's gone wrong thus far because, clearly, we're not getting the 100 million that we're promised or even the 20 million doses that we were promised by the end of the year.

So what's gone wrong in this process? We need to have a real-time tracking to see where the holdup is. This vaccine may be the most precious commodity in the world right now. So we need to see where is the holdup? Is it that they're getting into hospitals but that hospitals are not distributing them? Is it nursing homes? Is it that they're being held up in warehouses? We need to have a lot more resources dedicated to the distribution and not just the scientific development, because, otherwise, Operation Warp Speed for the science is clearly not translating into warp speed for distribution.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And we're seeing that other countries are more successful in terms of vaccinating their citizens than the U.S. is, Israel and the U.K., Bahrain, just to name a few.

But what will help is to have more vaccines on the market. And we know the AstraZeneca's vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the U.K. The first doses will likely begin there in the New Year. Operation Warp Speed's chief scientific adviser says that it could take until April to be approved here. Why not sooner?

WEN: Well, AstraZeneca needs to submit its application for emergency use authorization here in the U.S. and then we have to follow the same process as we followed for the other vaccines. Already, people are raising questions and concerns about the speed of vaccine development and approval. We need to be able to reassure the American people there were no short cuts taken at all.

[10:10:04]

There have not been short cuts taken thus far in the development and approval process. And we need to ensure that that same level of the same standard is upheld for all the other vaccines.

Right now, frankly, this is not the problem. The bottleneck right now is in distribution of the vaccine. And so we need to figure that out while at the same time following the same process for AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and all these other promising vaccine candidates that we have in the pipeline.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, a lot of problems yet to be remain solved. But at least we solved your video and we can now see your face. Thank you so much, Dr. Wen, Happy New Year you to. We appreciate your analysis.

WEN: Thank you, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: And for the first time in decades, Times Square is closed to the public on New Year's Eve. Brynn Gingras is in Times Square with more. BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Bianna. 2021 is coming, I promise. But like many things in 2020, it will look different this year. I'm going to come back up with an explanation of what will be different and how you can still celebrate.

GOLODRYGA: Good riddance, 2020.

Plus, President Trump is cutting his vacation short and racing back to Washington as Republicans announce a last ditch and futile plan to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

And the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, says there's no realistic path for a quick vote on $2,000 stimulus checks. So where do we go from here?

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[10:15:00]

GOLODRYGA: Some 787,000 Americans filed first-time jobless claims last week. That's down slightly but still signaling ongoing pain in the job market due to the coronavirus pandemic. This as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejects a bill to increase direct stimulus payments to $2,000, all but closing the door on any pathway to put more money into the pockets of American families before the end of this Congress.

Let's bring in Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief of the USA Today, and Ron Brownstein, Senior Editor of The Atlantic and also CNN Senior Political Analyst. Welcome both of you.

So, Susan, let me ask you about Mitch McConnell's strategy here, because he's an old pro when it comes to this and changing the narrative. He continues to say that he's not going to put a vote down for these $2,000 check increases because he doesn't want to help rich Democrats and their friends, completely negating that this is coming from the president as well. Is this strategy going to work?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: And, of course, these payments space out as you get into higher income groups as well. But Mitch McConnell is focused on one thing, and that is the January 5th, special elections in Georgia for the two Senate seats that will determine whether he continues as majority leader.

This issue has already put a squeeze on the two Republican incumbents running for those seats in Georgia and he doesn't want to increase their problems. Senate Republicans also are not enthusiastic about spending this money on payments. But I think the real issue is his focus is not the long-term, it's not the unemployed, it is those special elections in Georgia.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And what happens in Georgia really sets the tone for what happens in Washington, Ron. We already know that some 2.8 million votes have been cast already in Georgia. The enthusiasm is through the roof. And we're also hearing that there are lines for early voting up to one hour taking place right now. Give us your view on the scope of this election, what's riding on it, and have we seen anything like this before?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, I don't think we have. And, first of all, in terms of what Mitch McConnell has done, this may be -- it will be an interesting case about whether he was too clever by half. Because what McConnell did was attach the $2,000 payment, as you know, to two poison pills, a commission to study the election and the elimination of certain of protections for tech companies, in a way that made it possible for the two Republicans in Georgia, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, to say they were for the payments but not actually have to vote on a bill that would do so or would divide his caucus.

And in the process, he has confirmed, I think, the core argument or underlined the core argument that Democrats are making in the final stage of this election, which is that as long as Mitch McConnell has the majority, there will never be a fully robust response to COVID from the U.S. Senate either on the public health or the economic side. So if Republicans fall short next week, and it looks like another nail biter, though there are indications for Democrats that the early turnout is tilting further in their direction than it did before the November election, if Republicans fall short I think McConnell's maneuver of preventing the actual vote on this 2,000 will face serious questions.

it's pretty clear that Republicans are going to need another big election day turnout. So, a lot of this comes down to Donald Trump in his final appearance there. And the headline on the Atlanta Journal- Constitution this morning on the front page, as runoffs near, Trump calls on Kemp to resign, so probably not the way the Republicans drew it up in the strategy sessions a few weeks ago.

GOLODRYGA: No. And, Susan, that's probably why The Wall Street Journal editorial board earlier this week had a lashing indictment on the president himself for creating this scenario, saying that no matter happens, but if the Democrats prevail in Georgia, that this will be on President Trump and not because of anything Mitch McConnell has done.

[10:20:03]

In terms of the buildup, we have President Trump going out to Georgia and campaigning Monday. We also have President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris campaigning there as well. When you talk about momentum building up ahead of these elections, what are you going to be focused on the most in these final days?

PAGE: Well, two things to look at. One is the expenditure of money. Democrats have succeeded in raising record breaking amounts of money, more than $100 million for each of the Democratic challengers in the final quarter of the year. That's just extraordinary. And you're going to see, if you live in Georgia or even in surrounding areas, you're going to see no end of political ads on television.

The other thing to look at is these remarkable early voting numbers, this is not the way special elections usually go. Usually, special elections are determined by the most reliable voters, those tend to be Republicans, but you've seen this big effort on the part of Democrats, credit to Stacey Abrams on this, to turn out voters, including millions of voters who did not -- or thousands of voters who did not vote in the general election in November.

This is really not something that we've seen before in these kind of elections, and that is encouraging news for Democrats, although we have to say all the statewide elected officials in Georgia at this point are Republicans. It is just barely becoming a purple state. So you have to give Republicans some advantages on the history of the voting there.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, this will definitely be a nail biter. Ron, I want to end by talking about this embarrassing fiasco and spectacle that Senator Josh Hawley has come forward with, saying that he's going to delay the certification of President-elect Biden's win. He is now even suggesting that there may be other senators who join him.

We know this is a farce. We know that this is just delaying the inevitable. But in terms of what message this sends to those voters who do believe him, even though who knows better and did not take the Yale law classes that he took, the constitutional law, what message does this send to millions Americans who are already -- thanks in large part to the president and his supporters -- are questioning the integrity of the election system?

BROWNSTEIN: You're asking the right question. And I think if you put together what Senator Hawley is doing is the headline that I mentioned, that the president is actively calling on the Republican governor of Georgia, and not to mention the secretary of state, to resign because they won't join his crusade to overturn election despite the absence of any evidence of fraud. His evidence, quote, evidence, having been laughed out of courts all across the country.

If you take all of this together, the ominous implication is that not trying to subvert an election will increasingly be seen as disloyal or Republican in name only behavior going forward. I mean, the question is to what extent is Trump setting a baseline here in which to be considered a viable Republican, whether a in Senate primary or certainly in a presidential primary in 2024, you have to subscribe to this notion that the only way Republicans lose is when there is massive fraud in Democratic-run cities that also contain not too subtly, large African-American populations?

And this is more than kind of a general kind of raging, shouting into the wind. Republicans are already using this in states like Georgia to propose rollbacks of access to mail voting. I mean, the audit that was done in Georgia by the secretary of state found 99.9 percent accuracy, and yet Republicans in the state legislature are already talking about eliminating on-demand absentee vote.

So this could become the basis for a new round of voter suppression and the ability of a Biden justice department to resist that obviously was hamstrung by the Shelby County Decision engineered by John Roberts in 2013. GOLODRYGA: Well, look, the consequences of this will be long lasting and none of it good. Susan page and Ron Brownstein, thank you, as always. Happy New Year to you.

BROWNSTEIN: Happy New Year to you both, yes.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you. And 2021, well, it can't come soon enough, why this year's New Year celebration in Times Square will be one for the history books.

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[10:25:00]

GOLODRYGA: The countdown is on, New Year is just hours away. And as much as we might want to celebrate, health officials are warning people to avoid gatherings. The NYPD says do not come to Times Square tonight.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has more from New York.

Brynn, New York has been eerily quiet during the pandemic. Officials hope that it stays that way tonight as well.

GINGRAS: Yes. And we're already seeing some police officers making sure that people who are trying to get through barricades to get out of here, I mean, they're being very strict here in Times Square.

But I'm going to get out of the way, Bianna, so you can actually see the 2021 for yourself, just proof that, you know what, this celebration is still going to happen, but it is -- it's going to look different. As we look around in Times Square you can certainly see that the pens that usually have revelers coming in at this point and getting in their position that they'll spend the rest of the day, well, that's just not the case. It's just a bunch of production trucks getting ready for the show that still will go on.

There is going to be a number of performers here doing -- ringing in the New Year. All of them though will have to undergo a COVID test. And the only people who will be allowed inside from the general public are people who were invited, and those are the 2020 heroes, right? The frontline workers and their families will be allowed in socially distanced pens. As you said, Bianna, it is going to be about staying away.