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World Ushers in New Year with Hope and Optimism; New Year Starts with Daunting COVID-19 Challenges; Spain, UK Form Draft Agreement on Gibraltar. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired January 01, 2021 - 03:00   ET

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

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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a very happy New Year to everyone. I'm Paula Newton live from CNN Center in Atlanta, and we will get right to our top news stories.

The world is welcoming the New Year with optimism and hope, a feeling that 2021 will finally bring better days and an end to the pandemic, and all the heartache it's caused.

New Zealand was the first major country to celebrate and because it's a remarkable job that the country has done to fight the pandemic, large crowds were allowed in Auckland to watch the fireworks.

Different story, though, in the U.S. The ball dropped in New York Times Square just a few hours ago. The city paid tribute to frontline workers who watched the festivities in person with their families, but others had to stay home.

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CROWD: Three, two, one, happy New Year!

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NEWTON: And celebration subdued in Nashville, Tennessee. The city canceled fireworks in the wake of that Christmas Day bombing.

Meantime, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivered a message of hope for the coming year.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I'm more optimistic about America's chances than I've ever been, and I've been around this for a while. We have the most productive workers in the world, we've now found vaccines that are available, and they're going to work. If people -- if we can just get a better way to get them out there quicker. I find that we're in a situation where we once again have to step up and lead the world and lead the nation.

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NEWTON: Okay, 2021, it's here, and here are the sights and sounds around the world as we all ring in the New Year.

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NEWTON: Now, unfortunately, the end of 2020 will not bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. has broken yet another record, with more than 125,000 COVID patients in hospitals at this hour. More people died in Los Angeles on Thursday than any days since the pandemic started. The county's health director says hospitals there are now on the brink of catastrophe.

Meantime, the World Health Organization says variants of the virus spreading in South Africa, the U.K. and beyond are more transmissible because they produce more of the virus in the body. The study finds the strain that was first discovered in the U.K. is prevalent in people under the age of 20, although it's unclear why. Scientists say it will be highly unlikely to contain the variant if schools stay open.

Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist. He joins me now from Los Angeles.

And, first off, you have New Year's in a little bit there, but happy New Year to you. And we really do want to turn the page here, don't we?

[03:05:02]

California, though, right now in dire straits, and it's a bit of a puzzle to me and really tragically emblematic of so many places that we have covered here at CNN around the world. California tried and failed to contain the virus. Through this last year that we've gone through, why do you think, you know, places like California are feeling at this?

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: I wish I had one answer. It certainly doesn't help to see some overly zealous and privileged people having parties, you know, throughout the county, or going away on vacations, and coming back because the true heroes of this epidemic are people that towed the line and put on their mask and distanced.

So, just like everybody else, I think there is a huge degree of fatigue. You know, we have a sometimes transit population here, but I would not be surprised if we find out in a few weeks that there is a much more contagious variant going on in Los Angeles. Unfortunately in the U.S., we don't check for genotypes of the viruses as frequently, for example, as in the U.K.

NEWTON: At least one case has now been detected in California, but as you say, the variant could be there for a while, and I want to speak to that right now. If it is so much more transmissible, what does that mean for what the next few months are going to look like until everyone gets vaccinated? RODRIGUEZ: It's going to mean that it's going to be dire, and worse

than it is now. It's bad enough in the hospitals here. You can hear the ambulances where I live between two hospitals all the time now, and some hospitals can't even provide enough oxygen because the infrastructure is so old that the oxygen can't go through the tubes to that many patients.

So, what is going to mean for what we know of this virus, is that it isn't more deadly, but there will be more people that are sick, which means it will be more people trying to access health care, which means what's already crowded is going to get more crowded. So it could go from disastrous to even more disastrous.

NEWTON: Yeah, the outlook there is bleak. Now, we had, of course, the vaccines, true medical miracle here, and yet the rollout has been abysmal.

Where do you believe that has, failed and what is the -- when do you think it will get the urgency it deserves?

RODRIGUEZ: I think the failure is the failure that we've had also with testing in this country. This is a national problem. There should be a national solution. There should be a national plan that is the same in every state.

We revere all of our states independence, but at times of war, we don't allow Colorado to have a different draft sort of plan that Oregon. It's one country. And we should've had the same plan for the whole country, the same distribution plan, I think, for every state, and every county in the state. We don't have that.

NEWTON: Don't have much time, but quickly, I will lean on your expertise as a virologist. The vaccine, one dose versus two -- do you think it's wise to give more people the one dose and wait for the second?

RODRIGUEZ: I do not. I think it's a dangerous gambit. I think in areas where there are not enough vaccine, it's a desperate thing to do, but maybe it's the best they have.

Here in the U.S., we are not even handing out the vaccines that we have. So let's give the people that want to the vaccine, the most susceptible the highest chance of survival and the highest immunity.

NEWTON: To get that efficacy up to where it was in the clinical trials, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez in Los Angeles, we hope for better times in 2021. I want to thank you.

RODRIGUEZ: Happy New Year.

NEWTON: Now, British doctors aren't welcome in the government's decision to extend the period of time between the first and second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. In fact, they are calling it grossly unfair. U.K. regulators had previously recommended to wait 3 weeks after the first dose, but announced on Wednesday that the second dose could be given between three to 12 weeks after the first one. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us me now live from London, and really so

much going on in the U.K. as the daily case count continues to surge.

Let's deal with the issue at hand. The fact the British Medical Association is saying, look, this is unfair, and it shouldn't be done.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Paula, this is going to be a real damper, because the British government a day ago, or a couple came out and said we have this great magical formula, this wonderful idea, and we have the backing of the regulators, and we are going to do this and it means more people are going to get the vaccine sooner and less people are going to go to hospital.

So, now, to see that the British Medical Association is saying it's grossly unfair.

[03:10:02]

To hear that Pfizer, the developer of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is saying they have no data, no evidence to back up this methodology and all of their clinical trials are based on two doses, to hear from the expert you had on air that vaccine should be given into, doses to give everyone who gets them, the best chance to fight this disease. Well, that's going to be extremely concerning.

It's important to remember nearly every stage in this vaccination process, the British government seems to be a bit ahead, a bit bold in his decision-making. It was the first Western nation to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first Western nation to start giving jabs. So, it's going to be hard for people to wrap their minds around, especially when you are dealing with a lot of vaccine hesitancy, Paula.

NEWTON: Yeah, the vaccine has hesitancy is there, and that is a problem. The other problem, Salma, I look at the numbers again in the last few days, they are eye watering. We are talking about this variant, which is pervasive right now in the U.K., which makes the virus much more transmissible. There's already tier four restrictions, and so much of the country.

What is next?

ABDELAZIZ: It's a very dark and sobering time, Paula. I mean, we are breaking records this week across the U.K. More patients in hospital with COVID than ever before, an ambulance service overwhelmed. Hospitals say they are overstretched.

ICU doctors saying that people go out on New Year's Eve will have blood on their hands because it's just that bad. Yes, three quarters of the country already under the toughest rules, tear for, trolls localized lockdowns.

And you know? At the scientific advisers say that's not enough. They want the entire country shut down. They want to see a nationwide lockdown, and the fear is, Paula, it's going to get worse before it gets better, because there is an expectation that Christmas time celebrations, New Year's Eve celebrations, some people will have been breaking the rules, so it looks to be an even more difficult January.

What is the solution? Quite simply, Paul, every scientist and advisor, expert will tell you it's for everyone to just stay at home, lock-up, be safe, stay off the streets, full lockdown, I think that's what you're going to hear from every single expert, Paula.

NEWTON: Yeah, it's certainly a bleak opener to 2021. We've got the vaccines, though, so happy New Year to you, Salma, and I thank you for continuing to follow the situation in the U.K. I appreciate it.

Now, meanwhile, in Japan, infections are surging where health officials are reporting 4,300 new cases on Thursday. It's the first time the country has surpassed the 4,000 mark.

CNN's Selina Wang is live for us in Tokyo.

You know, Selina, look, we're just talking in the U.K. When I say I watering, you are talking an excess of 50,000 cases a day in the U.K. Nowhere near that in Japan, and yet this is still quite alarming, isn't it?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, because it's the worst wave Japan us had since the beginning of the pandemic. As you say, we are nowhere near the numbers we are seeing in parts of Western Europe and United States. But you do have Japan surpassing more than 4,000 COVID cases for the first time since the pandemic started, and here in Tokyo, more than 1,000 in a day.

This is what the government is calling a third wave of unprecedented magnitude, but earlier, the pandemic, Japan has been praised for having a relatively low number of cases, partly due to this culture of mask-wearing, and people generally abiding by these government guidelines. We are seeing around the world COVID fatigue as well as winter weather driving people indoors.

For instance, on New Year's Eve, even though the government had urged people to stay inside, stay at home, you still saw some crowds across Tokyo, including some of those temples and shrines, as well as thousands of people still gathering at a populist district, even though he's crowds are less than in years past.

Now, Japanese officials have said that they will consider declaring a state of emergency if the situation continues to worsen. The government here, Paula, we've seen them be reluctant to take any steps that would damage the economy, and notable that in the prime ministers New Year's address, he said the government is pledging to move forward with those preparations for the Olympics next year.

NEWTON: Yeah, again, a critical test of 2021 to see if those Olympics can go off, even if there are no spectators.

Selina Wang in Tokyo for us, thanks so much.

It is now, I will remind you again, 2021 in Colombia, and there is a sign of bad things to come. The country reported its all-time record of new COVID-19 cases on New Year's Eve. The health ministry confirmed more than 16,000 cases Thursday, pushing the total infections well past 1.6 million. Colombia is the hardest hit country in South America after Brazil.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the long process is over. Brexit, done deal, but there are still many painful talks ahead. Details on that in a moment.

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NEWTON: 2021 in front of Big Ben there, now with Brexit finally done, it's already a big year in the U.K.

At 11:00 p.m. London Time on New Year's Eve, the United Kingdom and European Union officially went their separate ways. It's been four and a half long years since a narrow majority of British voters chose to leave the E.U.

Now, it took that long to form a trade agreement. British lawmakers are voting it through on the eve of the December 31st deadline. There are still, as you can imagine, a lot of details to iron out, including a formal agreement about Gibraltar, a British territory that borders Spain. Let's take a look at what's coming next for both sides of that divorced couple.

Cyril Vanier joins me now from Paris and Al Goodman from Spain.

Cyril, first to you -- in terms of what the relationship, the way, the character of the relationship between the E.U. and the U.K., do they feel like they do have a good and have a mix here, of making sure there are two sovereign entities and still the trade can happen?

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Paula, that's a great question, and I think they do. I think they do on both sides. I mean, Britain and Boris Johnson, the U.K. prime minister, you heard him in the last 24 hours, he was exalted, triumphant, saying it'll be a new future for the U.K., which he would, of course, he was the public face of Brexit. His future hung on it. I don't want to read to much into that.

Nonetheless, U.K. leadership feels they have but they wanted, which is more sovereignty, and trading with the E.U.

On the E.U. side, they feel they've protected their economy. They feel they've protected the single market, which is their most precious good. They feel they didn't sell themselves short, and they feel they've protected European unity. So, I think both sides are happy with this deal.

Now, as for their future relationship, right, the relationship that action begins right now, right now, both sides are saying positive things, that they are going to be allies going forward, and I do think it is burned into the European psyche at this stage that Britons are not just our neighbors, but our allies as well. So, I think the good will is not just a facade. I do think there's a

real, deep intention to move in, if not in lockstep, that's not possible, but to move in sync going forward. What's going to be interesting, and it's the last part of the answer to your question, Paula, is this relationship is going to get tested in ways that we can't get foresee, because these two sides are now economic rivals. At some point, somehow, someone, their interests are going to diverge.

What happens when their interests diverge in a very material, concrete immediate way? That's what I don't know the answer to, Paula.

NEWTON: Yeah, it's almost a certainty, as you say, that will happen.

And, Al, now to you. Gibraltar -- it has been a sticking point.

[03:20:00]

It comes of every time there have been negotiations. They found some kind of solution. Is it a lasting one?

AL GOODMAN, JOURNALIST: They are saying it will be a working solution. Gibraltar was left out of the main deal. Cyril is just talking about it, because it's been such a thorny issue, 300 years Spain ceded the rock to Britain in a war, it's still claim sovereignty over that. So, that's why it's a such a sticking point.

But on Thursday, the Spanish foreign minister announcing a draft deal that will allow for freer movement across the land border between Gibraltar, southern tip of Spain, and the area right around. It they are very connected economically, those two areas, did not want a hard Brexit.

The Spanish foreign minister said the Gibraltarians voted 96 percent in favor of remain in the Brexit referendum back in 2016. So, there will be a 6 month period, authorities say, for European Union to recount to deal, the details of this with United Kingdom.

But it looks like there will be free movement of people across the border, the land border, whereas by contrast, European border agents will be stationed at Gibraltar's airport, and Gibraltar's port, because that would be considered an external border coming in to a European Union area. So, they're trying to keep that movement. Right now, I could go from Spain to France because I'm in the European Union, just crossing the border. That's the thing they are looking, at the land border, and the economic ties between Gibraltar just 34,000 people so steeped in history, the southern tip of Europe, Africa, just across the, water you can see it on a clear day, the mountains over there.

The economic ties between Gibraltar and the area around Southern Spain is so intense, 13,000 workers going into Gibraltar every day, most of those Spaniards to prop up the heavy tourism business there. Some 8 million visitors going into Gibraltar.

So, it's a vital industry for Gibraltar, and a vital industry for both sides. A lot of relief, not going to be a hard Brexit at that little point, in Europe -- Paula.

NEWTON: Yeah, and remember that where, it the hard Brexit, the hard borders, it seems, they have avoided so far, the worst of that.

Cyril Vanier in Paris, Al Goodman in Madrid, a happy and healthy ear to you both. I appreciate it.

Now, back to the story of the hour, it is a New Year, and many artists went viral to ring in 2021, including K-Pop sensation BTS. Their message to fans around the world, next.

But, first, while this past year has been filled with hardships, there is, come on, let's face it, a silver lining. Many of them, in fact, communities around the world have found ways to support each other during the darkest of times.

Earlier, comedian Stephen Colbert shared his message of hope.

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STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: One of the things that we've learned this year is that we need each other so much, and that there is a need to collectively engage with each other, to take care of each other. One thing COVID taught us, we cannot get through crises alone, and that this latest crises, this mountain we are climbing, we have to do it together, or there's no way over the top.

So, that overt public need has just reminded all of us we are never really alone in a democracy, but in this society. And I hope -- hopefully, that is something that we will take to the other side of this moment we are in right now, is to pay attention to the people who don't have somebody else to care for them, or do have somebody else to be with them, because you might be that person in a moment, is what we've just learned in the past nine months.

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NEWTON: Here is a question. Was 2020 the worst year ever? I have a strong opinion about that. The answer is no, but you could look at the experts, which apparently now is the mental health app Bloom.

They asked some notable historians to rank the world's most terrible times. They say 1348 was the worst, as the Black Death raged across Europe and Middle East. Bubonic Plague has estimated to have killed a 3rd of the population up to 200 million people.

1944, of course, was chosen as the second worst year, when the Nazis murdered millions of Jews as millions more died in the World War II.

1816 was the year without a summer, because volcanic debris clouded the skies, blocking out of the sun's rays. 1644, here's a double whammy with this one, the collapse of the Ming

dynasty and the height of Europe's 30 years war.

In 410, Rome fell to the Visigoths, a key moment in the collapse of the Roman Empire.

And yes, we finally get to 2020, in 6th place.

And I want to thank you for joining me this hour. I'm Paula Newton. Thanks for watching, and have a happy New Year. I am wishing all of our viewers a healthy one, and we certainly hope to turn the page from this terrible pandemic, and all, all of us here at CNN will continue to follow that story. We leave you with a look now at how the globe, the world said goodbye to 2020.