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2020: A Year In Review; U.K. Doctors: "Grossly Unfair" To Delay Secondary Vaccinations; President Trump Tweets Support For Scheme To Reverse Election Loss. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 01, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's been a year we'll never forget. In 2020, we witnessed world- changing, paradigm-shifting events, all happening under the cloud of the COVID-19 coronavirus --

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): But what's the secret?

WARD (on camera): -- and CNN was there every step of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is very scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is no longer safe.

WARD (on camera): A stretch of bad events started off the year. Wildfires engulfed Australia with apocalyptic scenes --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We cannot see the fire but we can certainly smell it and feel it.

WARD (on camera): -- burning up to 73,000 square miles -- about the size of the state of South Dakota -- and killing an estimated one billion animals.

STUART BLANCH, SENIOR MANAGER, LAND CLEARING AND RESTORATION, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: This is not normal. It's like fires on steroids.

WARD (on camera): Lives were lost and thousands of homes destroyed.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER": A day after claiming that Iran's top commander was planning to attack the U.S. Embassy --

WARD (on camera): The death of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike on January third led to days of terrifying tension between the U.S. and Iran.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Saying that there would be revenge. There would be some sort of response from the Iranians.

WARD (on camera): Threats of war and Iran's retaliatory attack on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God damn (bleep).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to lie -- I was scared, at the moment, but it happened. It's something that we were ready for.

WARD (on camera): Just hours after Iran launched that ballistic missile attack on two U.S. military bases in Iraq, a Ukrainian passenger plane was shot down in Iran, killing all 176 people on board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New video obtained by CNN seems to show a missile strike as a fast-moving projectile flies across the sky before striking another object.

WARD: Well, Wolf, CNN has obtained new footage -- CCTV footage that appears to show the dramatic and extraordinary force of the impact as that Ukrainian airliner slammed into the ground in Tehran.

WARD (on camera): Meanwhile in China, a strange new virus began to spread. Its presence, a silent clock counting down to the time it would bring the world to its knees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got to grasp the scope of this. Twenty million people -- that's what we're talking about.

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've noticed a good number of people rushing to this train station. This railway station is located just a few blocks away from the seafood market -- the epicenter, according to health officials, of this virus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coronavirus is showing no signs of letting up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was back in late-December when Li sent a group message saying that a test result from a patient quarantined at the hospital where he worked showed a patient had a coronavirus. But hours after hitting send, Wuhan city health officials tracked Li down, questioning where he got the information;

WARD (on camera): Dr. Wenliang would pay with his life for his bravery, like thousands of other medical professionals on the frontlines all over the world.

DR. LI WENLIANG, CHINESE DOCTOR WHO WARNED OF CORONAVIRUS: I can barely breathe. I can barely breathe (coughing).

WARD (on camera): Shutdowns followed across the globe. Life as we knew it seemed to grind to a halt overnight.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For the town of Nembro, the month of March was a month of daily death. You just need to look at the death notices here. This woman died on the seventh of March. This man died on the eighth of March. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Standing (ph) here, you not only see the veracity

of this disease but the silence with which it kills.

WARD (on camera): Empty flights, deserted city centers, and cruise ships floating listlessly through the open water. Their trapped passengers hoping in vain for a place to port.

The virus made its way around the world like the grim reaper, taking victims as it spread its wrath.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was called out last night to a dear old chap (ph) and it was his wife of many years who passed away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This video shows patients lying on the floor at a Madrid hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are bodies. And if just watching the video is difficult, imagine going through those containers in-person, looking for your dad's body.

WARD (on camera): On March 11th, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic.

DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION:

WARD (on camera): By then, life as we knew it already long gone. Millions across the world living for months under strict lockdowns to try to stop the spread of the virus. Face masks became a familiar sight and social distancing a way of life.

WARD (on camera): In early August, Lebanon was struck by a massive deadly explosion sparked by the detonation of thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate, killing more than 170 people and injuring more than 6,000 others.

WEDEMAN: This is where CNN's office used to be.

[05:35:00]

WARD: Something of this magnitude so unnecessary. This has pushed the rage felt by the Lebanese population to unprecedented levels.

WARD (on camera): In 2020, CNN exclusively exposed a troll factory in Ghana backed by Russia that was actively aiming to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

WARD: And let me tell you, Anderson, it's not where you might have expected it to be.

This is the compound where the operation has been based. There's no sign for an NGO. We're about an hour outside of the city.

WARD (on camera): And a CNN and Bellingcat investigation identified Russian FSB operatives who trailed Putin's nemesis, Alexey Navalny, before he was poisoned. ALEXEY NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER: I get out of this

bathroom, turn over to the flight attendant, and said I was poisoned -- I'm going to die.

WARD (on camera): After a difficult spring fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, most of Europe opened back up for the summer. But despite the short respite in the summer months, the virus back with a vengeance in the fall and winter in Europe.

PLEITGEN: These things the Germans are doing now is putting a stricter lockdown in place a lot earlier than anybody would have thought.

BLITZER: A troubling headline coming from the U.K.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Worry growing over a new COVID variant.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The implications of this new variant that could be 70 percent more infectious but not more deadly in the U.K. are growing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The French border is closed. All day long we've seen these police officers hi-vis jackets turning these 18-wheelers that you see behind me around with their goods.

WARD (on camera): Worldwide coronavirus cases hit 73 million in December. There were 16.5 million in the United States alone and more than one million deaths globally.

A uniting global goal in 2020, a vaccine -- and by December, we saw the first approved vaccines administered.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Let the mass immunization program begin. Ninety-year-old Margaret Keenan making history as the first person in England and, indeed, the world to receive the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine outside a trial.

WARD (on camera): A moment of hope that 2021 will be the beginning of the end of a pandemic that spares no one.

Clarissa Ward, CNN.

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ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: And still ahead, COVID vaccine distribution is hitting snags in both the U.S. and the U.K. We'll find out how policy as well as infrastructure issues are complicating efforts to get people protected. We will bring you that story, next.

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[05:40:52]

SOARES: Well, even as the world hopes for a fresh start in 2021, the tragedy, of course, with the coronavirus pandemic will still be with us. Much of that hope has been riding on vaccines. And despite recent approvals of Pfizer and Moderna, the situation remains dire in the United States. Getting a shot into the arms of those who need it most is proving difficult as a lack of public health infrastructure is slowing progress.

And even here in the U.K., policy issues are frustrating caregivers. British doctors aren't welcoming the government's decision to extend the period of time between the first and second doses of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine. In fact, they're calling it grossly unfair to at- risk patients.

Well, in the last hour, I spoke to Dr. Richard Vautrey. He's the chair of the British Medical Association's General Practitioners Committee. And he explained the problems the decision was creating. Take a listen.

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DR. RICHARD VAUTREY, CHAIR, GENERAL PRACTITIONERS COMMITTEE, BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Our chief concern is the practicality of doing this so quickly.

We were only told in the last day that we were expected next Monday to rechange all of the appointments that we'd made next week so that all of the elderly patients in their 80s, 90s, some over 100 were going to be canceled and we have to rebook many more patients into those slots.

It was simply not practical for our practice staff to do that in a short space of time. And so we wanted the commitments that we'd made to our elderly patients to give their second vaccine to be honored certainly in the next few days so that we could focus on protecting them properly.

But also then look at the information that the chief medical officers have provided around the reasons for the 12-week gap between vaccines so that we can then provide that information to our patients for the future.

SOARES: Let me ask you about the Pfizer vaccine, in particular, because for a while we've been talking about the fact that it's more effective within the 12-week period but not that's all changed. Does that change the effectiveness of the vaccine you think, Doctor? Do we know?

VAUTREY: Well, we need -- we need the scientific information to be able to analyze that very carefully. And we also need Pfizer, themselves, to be confident that this new dosage regime is going to deliver effective coverage and protection to our patients, particularly our most vulnerable patients. People who have been shielding, been self-isolating for eight-nine months who were desperate to get full protection from this deadly infection as quickly as possible.

And now, we've disappointed so many hundreds of thousands of those patients by telling them that they can't get their second jab until another two or three months. So we have got real concerns but we need the assurances from the chief

medical officers and the government, but also Pfizer themselves to be confident that when we inform our patients that this is the right thing to do, we're doing it with only the best of intent.

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SOARES: Our thanks to Dr. Richard Vautrey there.

Well, President Donald Trump is signaling his support for a scheme to contest the counting of electoral votes in Joe Biden's victory. Late Thursday, he tweeted his support for Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who plans to object when Congress certifies Electoral College votes on January the sixth. Republicans also say 140 GOP representatives also will oppose the counting of those votes.

And to be clear, this will not change the outcome but merely delay the certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

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SOARES: Let's get more. Natasha Linstaedt is a professor of government at University of Essex. She joins me now from Colchester in England. Natasha, a very good morning to you. Happy New Year to you.

Let's start with the developments out of Washington. First, it was Republican Sen. Josh Hawley who said he would vote against certifying Joe Biden's win, but now we're hearing at least 140 others will do the same.

How dangerous is this, even if it's just a delay tactic?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Well, you're right that it is going to delay the outcome and it's not going to change it, but it does set a very dangerous precedent for our democracy. I mean, you hear about contested elections happening in newer democracies in Ukraine or in Mali or in Ivory Coast. You don't really hear about it happening in an established democracy like the U.S.

[05:45:09]

Now, in newer democracies where you have weaker democratic institutions and where democratic norms haven't been established yet, these types of things can happen. But it's unheard of in the U.S. because we have a commitment to democracy. And you wouldn't have ever thought of this happening in 2008 or 2012 when Obama won, because he was running against Mitt Romney and John McCain.

But it appears that there's a very different type of Republican now. The party is almost mutated into something that is unrecognizable and it really seems to be attacking democratic norms. And I find it to be highly dangerous because at the end of the day, it's really all about our belief in democracy and they agreed to play an important role in cultivating these types of beliefs. But a recent poll from Quinnipiac University revealed that only 60 percent of registered voters thought that the election was unfair. That is so, so problematic. This could happen again where baseless claims are laid out there and then we decide OK, we might overturn an election. That really will be the end of our democracy if that ever does happen.

SOARES: Yes. And like you said, President Donald Trump has virtually -- there's actually a zero chance of changing the results. There have been no credible allegations of any issues with voting.

So my question is why actually pander to President Trump or whatever this game is?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, it's definitely a very dangerous game. And I think Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not want this to happen and was trying to convince senators to not engage in these types of antics because it is very dangerous.

There is a real gamble here. I think some of these Republicans either think that their Republican voters don't care about what they do or will be punished severely if they go against Trump. So they're making a bet here that if they do this they're going to gain the favor of Trump, and that Trump is so important to the Republican Party and to their future chances, that this is something that they need to do.

SOARES: But actually, he's leaving in, what, three weeks or so -- office, so loyalty -- perhaps it's a bit late at this stage. So how much of this is personal gain or are they -- are they just trying to tap into President Trump's base?

LINDSTAEDT: Yes, that's the question. And I think it's a little bit of both. They think that this is going to curry the favor of Trump who can be very ruthless on Twitter --

SOARES: Yes.

LINDSTAEDT: -- if you decide to disagree with him.

They think maybe the voters approve of these types of actions. But you also see that in the Republican Party there are some cracks. I mean, not a lot but you have Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska criticizing Josh Hawley, the senator from Missouri who decided to do this -- to protest -- criticizing this move. There are other Republican senators who disagree with this.

And then, of course, it's not going to lead to anything because the outcome is already determined because you have to have a vote -- a majority vote in both chambers, and the Democrats have the majority in the House.

So all these antics, all these ploys, as Ben Sasse mentioned, is a very dangerous ploy and it's something that these Republican senators may find will bite them in the end -- and the Republican House members who are agreeing to do this as well.

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SOARES: And that was Natasha Lindstaedt, a professor of government at the University of Essex, speaking with me just a short time ago.

Still to come here on the show, we are saying goodbye to 2020 and hello 2021. We'll see how countries across the globe brought in the new year. That's next.

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[05:53:03]

SOARES: Twenty twenty-one is starting off with cold fronts and harsh rains in the United States. Nearly 70 million people from Maine to Texas are under winter alerts for snow and ice.

Our Derek Van Dam explains.

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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Happy New Year, everyone. We are ringing in 2021 with a whole list of weather hazards impacting the eastern two-thirds of the U.S.

We have the potential for severe storms today across the southeast, including Atlanta, Georgia. Heavy rainfall throughout the mid- Atlantic. A full-on ice storm taking place across portions of the Midwest. And on the coldest side of this storm system, hefty snowfall totals expected across portions of Oklahoma as well as Kansas and northwestern Missouri.

We have over 65 million Americans impacted from this storm system. You can see the winter weather alerts stretching from New England all the way to central Texas, where two feet of snow fell from this storm system yesterday when it was centralized over the state.

Now, its evolution over the next 36 hours calls for that rain-snow mix into St. Louis as well as Chicago and Detroit. Some hefty snowfall totals again on the northern side of the storm.

And look at these ice total accumulations. Up to a half an inch of ice possible across the spine of the Appalachian Mountains stretching into the lower Midwest region. You can see anywhere from Springfield, Illinois all the way to Kansas City the potential for a third to a half an inch of ice accumulation.

And, of course, that weighs down tree limbs and power lines. That's why we have over 30,000 customers without power from the storm system as it continues to move about the region.

Here's our severe weather chances today. Keep an eye to the sky. Atlanta, Georgia, strong storms and damaging winds possible as two to three inches of rain falls across the region.

Back to you.

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SOARES: Thank you very much, Derek Van Dam there.

And that does it for me for today. I'm Isa Soares in London. Thank you so much for your company on this New Year's Day. I want to wish you all a very happy and very healthy 2021. Stay safe.

[05:55:00]

"NEW DAY" with Alison Kosik is up next.

If you want to get in touch with me, you can reach me on Twitter @IsaCNN or on Instagram @isasoarescnn.

And before I leave you, here's a look at how the world said goodbye to 2020. Happy New Year, everyone.

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New Year's celebrations across the world.

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