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U.S. Sets New High for COVID-19 Hospitalizations; Millions Have Voted Early Ahead of Tuesday's Elections; California Identifies Case of Highly infectious coronavirus variant. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Brynn Gingras, thanks very much.

CNN's coverage from Times Square with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen kicks off at 8:00 Eastern Time. It is much watch T.V. tonight. Happy New Year to all of you. Thanks so much for joining.

My colleague, John Avlon, continues our coverage right now.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us for a special New Year's Eve edition of Newsroom. I'm John Avlon.

As we get ready to say goodbye to one of the worst years in American history, there's yet another timely reminder of the challenges we face as a nation. The U.S. closes out 2020 with another single day pandemic death record, 3,740 lives lost. And experts are warning that we could be heading towards 5,000 deaths per day, even 7,000 deaths per day in the coming winter months.

A new CDC projection offers more grim news, forecasters expecting another 80,000 Americans to die in the next three weeks alone.

Outgoing President Trump returns to Washington today. Again, his attention is not on COVID but his flailing quest to overturn the election results when Congress meets to confirm Joe Biden as the winner of the election next week.

The focus on fantasy comes at the expense of the pandemic catastrophe, because hospitals are already at nearing capacity as Americans sit inside emergency wings with COVID.

And confirmation today that a new and more contagious variant of COVID-19 is here, identified in both California and Colorado so far. Dr. Anthony Fauci says this morning it was inevitable to arrive on U.S. shores, and Fauci said that vaccines are the answer to the pain and suffering of 2020.

But, already, logistics are letting down the science. New CDC numbers put the number of Americans vaccinated at 2.7 million, doses distributed 12.4 million, both, though, are well short of what Operation Warp Speed promised and what experts say is required to rescue the country from a coronavirus spiral.

Fauci calls the vaccine rollout effort disappointing. Others say the U.S. needs to reimagine its entire strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We need a sense of urgency. We've been waiting for a vaccine and magically, like a gift from God, we actually get two vaccines that are spectacularly effective. And we're just sort of leisurely administering them in the United States. So we have literally 10 million doses sitting on shelves around the country waiting the go into arms.

We need large events at football stadiums and race tracks. We need to go to -- into mass vaccination mode, and we need to do it now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now.

Elizabeth, Dr. Fauci says he's discouraged by the speed of the vaccine so far, but where did the breakdown occur? Who is to blame?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there's probably a fair amount of blame to go along here. Basically, Operation Warp Speed made itself responsible for getting these doses out quickly, using FedEx and UPS, and they did that, as one immunization expert told me, A-plus on that part of it.

The second part of this, it was basically left to private health networks, this hospital there, this hospital here to do it. This country does not have a national health service.

Let me show you what happens when countries have a national health service. Let's take a look at this graph. So, if you look at daily vaccination rates per 100,000 people, the U.S. has been doing 53. Compare that to the U.K., which is 59, Bahrain is 249, Israel is 608, Canada is a bit of an outlier, they are not doing as well as the U.S. They're not doing very well at all. But if you look at the U.K., Bahrain and Israel, those are three countries with national health services.

And, John, we can debate until the cows come home whether the U.S. ought to have a national health service, but in this respect, it would be useful. We heard Dr. Reiner just hit the nail on the head, we ought to be doing these at race tracks, we ought to be having vaccine clinics at football stadiums, someone to be mentioned, Madison Square Garden.

Who is going to organize that? Individual hospitals aren't. You need a centralized authority to organize that. And we just don't have this in this country. When President Biden takes over next month, perhaps that will happen, not to have a national health service, but perhaps he will create some kind of centralized authority that will make that happen.

AVLON: There is every indication they will try to federalize the effort further. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

COHEN: Thanks.

AVLON: President Trump returns to Washington today and says he wants his supporters to follow. January 6th, see you in D.C., the president tweeted, along with a hodgepodge of false claims about election fraud, of course.

Next Wednesday is when Congress meets to certify the Electoral College results, which was, of course, a Joe Biden win in November. Now, the event is typically a formality, but some House Republicans plan to object to the process now with a Senate accomplice and a guarantee of a congressional mess.

[13:05:01]

So, let's go to CNN's John Harwood. John, what is the plan? Can they actually overturn this or, rather they can't, have they convinced themselves they've got a prayer or is this just about creating a mess?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think it's just about sending a message for people like Josh Hawley who wants to run for president. He understands that one of the ways to appeal to Republican primary voters, to Trump's base, is to echo the same lies that he tells about the election situation.

So we know the president has got two priorities as he heads back today. One of them is to continue trying to overturn the election. The other is to try to hurt Republicans who are not going along to help him. Josh Hawley has avoided that problem, so have other House Republicans. But Mitch McConnell has got a big problem because the president is going after him just as he's going after Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia.

And he set up a situation where he is injected a late demand for $2,000 checks to make Mitch McConnell look like the bad guy standing in the way of these $2,000 checks. And that's precisely the argument that the Democratic Senate candidates want to advance before that runoff. If they win, Mitch McConnell is going to lose his job as majority leader.

Now, Donald Trump, however, is certain to lose his job as president because we all know that states have certified the Electoral College results. Joe Biden got 306 electoral votes, 36 more than you need to become president. And there's simply no prospect that the Supreme Court, which is like other courts, have thrown these challenges out, or that Republicans in the Congress are actually going to effectively overturn these results.

There will be a debate. There will be a vote. Hawley and the House members have assured that. It's not going to change the outcome.

AVLON: That's the process in place. John Harwood, thank you very much.

HARWOOD: You bet.

AVLON: All right. Joining me now, Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. Lieutenant Governor, Great to see you.

Now, Governor Wolf said yesterday he was personally disappointed by the vaccine rollout. So, what's that gap between what was promised and what's actually happening in Pennsylvania? Where did the breakdown occur, according to you?

We seem to be having trouble hearing the lieutenant governor. We're going to get back to him shortly, but standing by.

All right, we're going to take another shot at this. Lieutenant Governor, your microphone seems to be working. Take another shot at that question.

LT. GOV. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Yes. I think it speaks to what your earlier report said, that there is no federal organization, there is no federal rollout, there is no coordination between the federal government and state governments. When you have this kind of breakdown in the late end stages of the Trump presidency, you still have people arguing about masks and social distancing and whether or not we should have events indoors with large groups of people.

It's not surprising that the distribution of the vaccine has been disappointing. I agree with the governor, it has been disappointing, and that's truly tragic because that's going to cost lives, it's going to cost jobs and it's going to cost businesses because the sooner we can agree that the COVID virus is the real enemy, not each other, we can move forward as a country.

AVLON: Delay causes death. But President Trump on Twitter this week blamed the states for botching the rollout. And do you see anywhere where Pennsylvania's handling of the vaccine rollout, either government or business level, needs to change?

FETTERMAN: No. The only thing that needs to change is the dude in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to do that just fine in a few short weeks. And I think you're going to see a lot of that work out for us.

AVLON: All right. We're going to politics now. Senator Josh Hawley specifically name-checked your state, Pennsylvania, in announcing his intent to object to the Electoral College results. He wrote, I cannot vote to certify the Electoral College results on January 6th without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws. What's your response?

FETTERMAN: Well, I agree with Senator Hawley. We did have some irregularities in Pennsylvania. We had two dead moms vote for the president and we had a liberal Democrat son vote for the president. So I would love it if he would investigate how two dead moms ended up voting for the president and one living son did as well. So if he could figure that out, we also had more irregularities. We had several of our state senators had some carnival working weird events in a Ramada ballroom talking about conspiracy theories. That was another irregularity. So, I salute him in investigating all of these enormous irregularities our state has.

In terms of the overall election results, they have been triple certified from the Supreme Court on down. They are locked and loaded, ready to put Joe Biden in the White House on January 20th.

AVLON: It's important to reiterate they have been recertified. But, obviously, I've got a feeling Senator Hawley is not referring to what you just said. The Republicans are complaining about the recent changes -- well, hold on. They're complaining about the changes in the election law. But I want to note for everybody that statehouse Republicans supported those changes at the time.

[13:10:04]

FETTERMAN: A 100 percent. It's their bill. I mean, like their Republican legislature voted for it 100 percent. That's what's the true absurdity, like this is their bill and they had buyer's remorse. And because they have to go along with what the president says, they're engaging in this just seditious kind of rhetoric.

AVLON: All right. I want you to listen to something Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said this week to The Bulwark podcast?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE SYKES, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE BULWARK: How many Republicans in the House of Representatives do you think will vote to not accept the electoral votes from states like mine?

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): I'm guessing it could be upwards of 100. I would not be surprised if it approaches three figures because I just think people -- it's like the Texas briefing, right?

SYKES: Yes.

KINZINGER: They knew that it wasn't going anywhere, but it was just much easier to sign your name and be done with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: So, is this all just about the divisions in the country being amplified in Congress or are Republicans really trying to latch on to the Trump base, which is very strong, particularly in parts of your state?

FETTERMAN: I hope they all vote for it. But, you know what, it's a mathematical certainty that it goes down in flames. So, it's just the cherry on top of the humiliation sundae that this whole process has been for the Republicans during this onslaught (ph) to the inevitable inauguration of Joe Biden. They have changed simping (ph) for the president into a national pastime and that all ends again on January 20th, 2021. AVLON: All right. Final question, you took Texas' Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick up on his $1 million reward for finding voter fraud.

FETTERMAN: Yes. Where is my money?

AVLON: Yes, what's the response? Have you heard back?

FETTERMAN: There is no response. Like my dude owes Pennsylvania a couple of million dollars and it would all go to the greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, and it's Philadelphia-equivalent. My dude asked for voter fraud. We delivered. We have three cases of voter fraud. And I see no reason why he shouldn't have to pay up. Dan, Happy New Year.

AVLON: All right. We'll all try to avoid ordering the humiliation sundae going forward. Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, thank you very for joining us.

FETTERMAN: Okay. Thank you.

AVLON: All right. Next, much more on the coronavirus variant now found in two states and what it means for how to protect yourself.

Plus, we're going to be live in Georgia as the Senate candidates pull out all the stops in the final days of voting. Michelle Obama now featured in the latest ad.

And a Republican governor says he's canceling his inauguration ceremony but will armed anti-mask protesters still show up? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:15:00]

AVLON: The highly contagious new variant of coronavirus that was first identified in the United Kingdom has now been discovered in another state here in the United States, in California. A 30-year-old San Diego man who hasn't traveled and says he has had very little social contact, has tested positive for the new strain. And it's something that the governor of Colorado, the first state to report this variant, predicted would happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): We expect it's probably in many states, particularly states in the northeast that have a lot more travel back and forth from London.

Unfortunately, this outbreak was in mid to late December at this particular facility. And I believe that nearly everybody or as much as 100 percent of the residents at this facility were COVID positive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Dr. Saju Matthew is a primary care physician and public health specialist. Dr. Matthew, good to see you. Now, how concerned are you about this new variant? Because that one case with that fellow from San Diego hadn't traveled, said he hadn't had much contact. How much more widespread could this be than we know already?

DR. SAJU MATTHEW, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: John, I think that it's probably a lot more widespread than we think it is already. Let's think about how contagious this virus is. It is so easily transmissible. We don't live in a tight bubble.

And I think what really needs to happen is the U.S. needs to gear up the genomic sequencing of this virus. The U.K. does about half of the world's sequencing and we are far behind. We rank in the 40s when it comes to the genetic sequencing of the virus.

But, ultimately, the bottom line is we know that this virus mutates. We know that it's probably more contagious, but not anymore dangerous.

AVLON: And is the government responsible for this sequencing or, really, have researchers been taking much of that burden from the government?

MATTHEW: It's going to have to be a collaboration of both. The researchers need to be given the power, the resources to actually do that. So it has to be really, if you will, a union of both.

But, ultimately, the bottom line is we do have the means to do it, John. We have incredible scientists and we have the manpower. So the point is, why are we not doing as aggressive genomic sequencing as, say, for example, the United Kingdom.

AVLON: Speaking of the U.K., a new study out finds that this variant has greater transmissibility in people under 20, including children. So, how do you see this impacting the return to school in the New Year?

MATTHEW: Right. It doesn't surprise me at all that when you look at the number of people that are probably carrying the strain, it's going to be the young people who believe that they really are not going to be affected by this virus as much and they actually take chances.

So, of course, there are two concerns for me, children and young people can transmit the virus to the vulnerable. So, if you will, they set up a transmission chain where they may not get infected as much but they can actually transmit the virus to vulnerable populations who can get sick from this virus.

[13:20:09]

AVLON: That could be a game-changer and not in a good way.

To that end, the CDC is now forecasting that the death toll in the United States could reach 424,000 by January 23rd. That's another 80,000 Americans dying in just over the next three weeks.

Given that it's the holiday, people are travel more than they should, perhaps, is there any way to reverse course and not hit that gruesome number?

MATTHEW: Of course. John, from the beginning of this pandemic, the fight of this virus really belongs to each individual in terms of decisions that we make. You can have all the vaccines and effective therapies waiting for you, but if you're not alive or well enough to get the vaccine, it doesn't really matter. If we make decisions today, that will determine what happens tomorrow.

And to the young people who I always have a dialogue with at work, John, they fell like, hey, listen, it doesn't really affect me as much. You have to realize that this virus can affect any age, any group, and you've got people who recover from COVID, but months later actually throw a blood clot to their lungs.

So, no one is immune from this virus and there's a lot that we can do. All these projections don't have to be true. If we take actions today with the vaccines waiting for us, we can fight this pandemic.

AVLON: When it comes to vaccines, here is how the current assistant secretary of health, Brett Giroir, sized it up the rollout so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TESTING CZAR: Of course, we need to be doing a better job. But all vaccine programs start somewhat slow.

I think it's more of just you starting a program and that starts relatively slowly and ramps up very quickly.

I know we will be distributing about 30 million more in January and potentially up to 50 million more in February.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Now, given how quickly the vaccine was developed, which really was extraordinary, is that a fair assessment about the ramp-up period or do you think this could have been a much smoother process? And what are you seeing on the ground in your clinic?

MATTHEW: Yes. I mean, John, it's obviously easy to criticize people. I think that this is a good problem to have. I was just talking to a public health official at CDC yesterday and said, listen, what if we didn't have any vaccines at this time?

This pandemic would go on for decades, not even years, but decades. We have two safe and effective vaccines but the federal government should not look at this as a relay race. You can't just hand the baton to the states and expect them to move forward. The states are overwhelmed with contact tracing, testing.

And let's remember, I got my shot last week and I can appreciate the massive effort it takes. You need to pull nurses away from taking care of patients to do the vaccinations. You need to line up health care providers that are taking care of sick patients. It is a massive effort that we are undertaking. I think that with each race, if you will, we're going to get better and better. But the state needs help, and they also need funding to make this work.

AVLON: Dr. Saju Mathew, thank you very much for joining us, as always.

All right, now we've got live pictures of President Trump arriving at Joint Base Andrews cutting his trip to Mar-a-Lago short ahead of GOP plan to challenge President-elect Biden's win in the Electoral College.

Plus, more than 2.5 million people have now voted in the Georgia runoff elections that will determine the balance of power in the Senate. And they are waiting in long lines to do it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think a lot of young people are more active and involved and really want to see a change.

REPORTER: Do you have any concerns about the security of your ballot?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I didn't before and I don't today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:00]

AVLON: All eyes on Georgia ahead of Tuesday's big Senate runoffs. CNN has been on the ground today. Early voting lines in some locations in Democratic counties were three hours long. On Monday, both President Trump and President-elect Biden will be stumping in the state.

CNN's Kyung Lah is on the campaign trail in Gainesville, Georgia, where the Republican incumbents are set to hold an event this afternoon.

Kyung, all the candidates are pulling out the big guns in this final stretch, right?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you can't have any bigger guns than the names you just mentioned, John. On Election eve, you mentioned that President Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, they will indeed be here in Georgia. They're campaigning for the candidates on their respective sides. We've already seen President Obama cut some ads for the Democrats.

And, today, former First Lady Michelle Obama, of course, his wife, recorded not just a robocall but also a radio ad. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: The upcoming runoff election for Senate is going to be very close. And in Georgia, you have an incredible amount of power. I'm asking you to vote for Reverend Raphael Warnock because I know he'll work with Joe Biden to help make health care more affordable, and together they'll finally take the coronavirus seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Now, the secretary of state here in Georgia says, 2.8 million votes have been cast so far. These are just the early votes. We haven't had Election Day yet. And I want you to look at this video that was sent in by my colleague, Ryan Nobles. He's been going to different voting centers in Cobb County. This is a Democratic-leaning county. And the line at one of the precincts was three hours long.

[13:30:02]

So what's happening here, as you mentioned, John, the Republicans, the two Republican senators, they are going to come on stage.