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U.K. to Administer Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine Monday; Fast- Spreading Virus Variant Cases Found Worldwide; U.S. Republican-Led Senate Overrides Trump's Veto of Defense Bill; U.S. Congress Meets Wednesday to Certify Biden Victory. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired January 02, 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 (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Paula Newton. On CNN NEWSROOM, a new and vaccines giving people hope for an end to the pandemic. The COVID crisis continues to go, with cases, hospitalizations and death on the rise.
The U.K. on the brink of adding another vaccine in its fight against the virus. But the battle there as well far from. Over
And the U.S. president, hunkering down in the White House, preparing for some GOP member's election challenge.
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NEWTON: I don't have to remind you, 2020 is finally over. But so far 2021 doesn't look much brighter. In fact, it looks worse in some ways, especially here in the United States. Just a litany of grim figures from start of the year, the nation now surpassing 20 million cases, more than 100,000 hospitalizations reported for the 31st straight day.
Several states reporting record numbers of new cases and sadly, deaths. And while the vaccines offer, of course, hope, actually getting them into people who need them has been a major problem. One Republican senator called the rollout inexcusable.
Now the Trump administration wanted 20 million people vaccinated by January 1st. But the CDC reports just under 3 million so far have gotten the shot. CNN's Nick Watt has more details about the state of the pandemic, as this new year begins.
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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From Wuhan, where all this began, to New York, not much fondness in the farewell to a terrible year.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And 2020 is gone.
(CROSSTALK) ANDY COHEN, CNN HOST: 2020 is freaking gone.
WATT (voice-over): 2020 was tough but:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are still going to have our toughest and darkest days.
WATT (voice-over): A L.A. County official says hospitals are, quote, "on the brink of catastrophe."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like treading water from 100 feet below the surface. You're already drowning but you just have to keep trying because that's what you can do.
WATT (voice-over): In Atlanta, a field hospital reopens for business at the Georgia World Congress Center. Meanwhile:
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In many parts of rural Georgia, both in the north and the south, there is vaccine available and literally sitting in freezers. That's unacceptable. We have -- we have lives to save.
WATT (voice-over): They're just not getting the hoped-for uptake from medical workers. In West Virginia, 42 people were given antibodies, not the vaccine, by mistake. In Wisconsin, a pharmacist now in custody after destroying 500 doses, taking them out of refrigeration.
The administration projected 20 million would have had vaccine dose number one by now.
The reality?
Not even 2.8 million reported.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: States and localities need resources. They need funding. I expected that we would see bumps in the road, but I didn't expect that we'd see this lack of consistency across the states.
WATT (voice-over): And that new faster spreading coronavirus variant now detected in Colorado, California and maybe Florida.
DR. SAJU MATHEW, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think we have to assume that this strain has been in the U.S. for a long time.
WATT (voice-over): December, by the numbers, was the worst month of the pandemic, the most confirmed cases, the most deaths, 10,000 lives lost in the last three days alone.
MATHEW: We do have these vaccines. We just need to hunker down and get there.
WATT (voice-over): In 2020, 345,737 people confirmed killed by COVID- 19 in America.
In 2021, how many more?
WATT: And here in California, a grim start to 2021, a record death toll reported New Year's Day, 585 lives lost, beating the previous record, which was set on New Year's Eve -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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NEWTON: Now Turkey is just the latest country to shut its borders to travelers from the U.K. Turkey's health minister says the country found 15 cases of coronavirus variant that has now been spreading rapidly through Britain.
The variant has now been confirmed in at least 30 countries, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Many of those places have now banned travel from the U.K. Now the U.K. is adding a new coronavirus vaccine to its arsenal.
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NEWTON: Starting Monday, the country will be ready to administer the very first doses of the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine. Salma Abdelaziz joins me now from London with an update.
And like so many other things, even the vaccine rollout is involving a lot of controversy right now, Salma.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: It absolutely has created controversy, Paula. I mean, you have doctors saying that this fails to follow the science, that it violates patient consent. So very strong and harsh words.
But I want to just paint a picture of just how dire the health crisis is in this country to give you an understanding of just why the government might have pursued this strategy.
For the fourth day in a row yesterday, more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases reported in this country. That's 50,000 new cases every 24 hours for the last four days. You have record breaking numbers of infection rates this week.
You have hospital bosses especially ringing the alarm, saying their hospitals are overstretched, on the brink, short staffed, that they are essentially at a breaking point. So, you can see when the top chief medical officers of this country say, well listen, we have this bold new plan. You get that first injection, that first dose and wait up to 3 months. Because that first injection should give a patient significant protection from serious illness about 2 to 3 weeks after they get it.
In plain speak, Paula, it keeps people out of hospital. And that's the entire idea behind this strategy. Give the vaccine to more people, keep people out of the hospitals, keep that health care system from reaching a breaking point.
Look, yes, the U.K. has ordered 1 million doses of this vaccine, but it will take time, of course, to manufacture all of this. So, this is a thin resource that they are now using this delayed vaccination strategy to spread out that thin resource across as many people as possible and hopefully keep people out of the hospitals, Paula. NEWTON: And at best, experts are split as to whether or not that's a
good idea. So, Salma, what's the mood there like all around Britain right now, it has been very confusing. One moment Christmas is on, Then off. First, you're opening schools then you are not. It has been confusing.
ABDELAZIZ: It's been frustrating, it's been exacerbating (sic). There's been a great deal of controversy with how this government has handled the COVID-19 crisis. There are, as you have said, constant U- turns and backtracks. The latest, of course, on schools.
Schools were supposed to reopen -- primary schools were supposed to reopen, most of them, across London. Now they will be shut down. Experts are saying this is not enough, they want the entire education system shutdown in this country, the entire country.
And most of this is due to the new variant. That's what this government is struggling to deal with. And there's actually a new study by Imperial College London, which, I think, paints just how dangerous this new variant is.
In that study, the researchers say that the new variant of COVID-19 tripled under a lockdown, Paula, under a lockdown in November, it tripled, whereas the original strain of coronavirus actually reduced by a third.
So, you can see why they are struggling and really trying to pull all the stops here to deal with this new variant of COVID-19 that's quite simply been spreading through this population, Paula.
NEWTON: It's terrifying. You lock down, cases peak, it's no longer that there is a lot of pandemic fatigue. Salma Abdelaziz for us in London, appreciate it.
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NEWTON: Saskia Popescu is a senior infection prevention epidemiologist and joins us now from Tucson, Arizona.
Just when you think you've understood the virus, it tends to all of a sudden get so much more complicated. You know that. We should now know it as well.
In terms of the variants, talking about the U.K. variant specifically and the South African, which most experts say these are likely pervasive right now in certain countries.
Do you agree with that?
Why has this happened?
SASKIA POPESCU, SENIOR INFECTION PREVENTION EPIDEMIOLOGIST: I do agree. We have identified the U.K. strain or the variant, I should say. That's the one that's been causing the most concern. But realistically it's very likely in the communities since September. We're going to seeing it across multiple countries. I think we're at 33 right now that have seen the variant first identified in the U.K.
But realistically it's a respiratory virus. That means where people are, it could be transmitted. We are seeing it's likely the U.K. variant, more transmissible, meaning it's more deft and more efficient at transmission between people.
But the good news is that it's not causing more severe disease as we're seeing right now. It's really not impacting the routes of transmission. That means all of our efforts to stay home, wear a mask, wash your hands, avoid crowded indoor environments, cleaning with disinfection are still effective. I think the hard part is viruses do mutate. But really getting a handle on these variants, really reinforces why we need to be doing more genomic surveillance.
NEWTON: Yes, certainly finding the variants, as you said, is critically important. Had we known, perhaps.
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NEWTON: I'm wondering the willingness of the public to do something about it. Look, this is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I have seen people out in restaurants without masks on. It's still happening.
Explain why what we did three months ago is not safe to do any longer if this variant is more transmissible.
POPESCU: Well, I think the hard part is that sometimes we become a bit lax, especially with the news of a vaccine. People get optimistic, which they should be. But the truth is we might be having new variants in the community at any given time. They might be more transmissible like the one we're seeing right now.
So it's just another reminder of why we have to be so vigilant with this. Even if we find out 3 months from now that we have a new one in circulation, it is just a good reminder of our continued efforts to wear a mask and stay home, all of those infection control measures.
So I think the hard part is that, as we get good news of vaccines, we are still combating a very high surge in the U.S. and across the world and the efforts we put in 3-6 months ago even, we still need to be really, really investing in them.
NEWTON: My point is that do we have to go further?
Conventional wisdom is, especially if I'm socially distant from you, outside is OK.
Do you think even that needs to be looked at?
Maybe you should not be sitting on a park bench with your friends, mask less, if it's more transmissible.
POPESCU: I think the hard part is that we're not seeing an impact to the route of transmission. So, though it can spread more easily, we're still learning about what that looks like on a viral level. But the truth is that we really struggled with communication about
risk reduction being added. You mentioned the park bench. The messaging should have been from the beginning, if you're interacting with people outside of your household bubble, even outside, you still need to be wearing a mask if you're within 6 feet.
I think all those things are still effective in this regard. The community needs to embrace them. Sometimes we see people masked. But they are in close proximity with a bunch of others or in restaurants, where tables are 6 feet apart but, again, they're indoors, unmasked.
It reinforces why we need to be doing these things, especially if we learn that variants are more transmissible.
NEWTON: Such a good point that you're making that everyone should heed. Before I let you go, the issue of the one dose versus two doses. Now it seems the U.S. officials are perhaps doing something completely different from the U.K.
The U.K. saying, look, even the British Medical Association says they think it's unfair, that they're going to try to give as many people to get one dose, it seems perhaps the CDC won't be recommending it.
What do you think?
Do you think it can be the one dose, that might be sound medical advice at this point?
POPESCU: There has been discussion with Oxford AstraZeneca that it could be efficacious if given more time between the first and second doses. We don't have the data for that for Pfizer or Moderna.
In fact, Pfizer said there's no data on this. Right now, we are struggling in the U.S. with our vaccine distribution. The goal was 20 million by the end of December. We barely hit 2.8.
I think instead of trying to potentially go down a route where we don't really have the data to support doing one dose and then a second dose months later, we really should be focusing on providing resources for adequate vaccine distribution.
NEWTON: That sounds like sound advice to me. Gosh, didn't want to open 2021 this way. But there you go. At least we have those vaccines. Saskia Popescu, we appreciate it.
POPESCU: Thank you.
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NEWTON: For some Republicans, the new year is bringing in the same old fight. A judge tossed out his desperate lawsuit aimed at overturning the U.S. election. But congress man Louie Gohmert is not giving up. His latest move, just ahead.
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NEWTON: A federal judge has thrown out yet another desperate lawsuit aimed at overturning President-Elect Joe Biden's victory. Now Texas congress man Louie Gohmert and other Republicans actually sued Vice President Pence.
They sought to force him to ignore electoral votes when Congress meets next week to certify the election. The judge said the Republicans lacked standing to sue. Other plaintiffs appealing that ruling. Kaitlan Collins has more.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump skipped his annual New Year's Eve party in Mar-a-Lago to cut his Florida vacation short and come back to Washington early. Though the White House never publicly explained exactly why the president was doing that.
But many sources believed it was ahead of that showdown that's expected on Capitol Hill next week, when the House and the Senate do meet to certify Joe Biden's win as the next President of the United States, something that we know that the outcome will not be any different.
But how we get there might, given that several of the president's Republican allies are preparing to dispute that. But of course, as that is coming, the president is also looking to his vice president, Mike Pence, and what his role is going to be in that because, typically, it's just procedural, ceremonial, largely.
But of course, now the vice president has found himself at odds with some of the president's allies, including congress man Louie Gohmert, who filed that lawsuit against the vice president, that many thought was frivolous and not going to go anywhere because it was basically arguing Pence had the authority to change the votes, which he does not.
So, we're still waiting for the president himself to weigh in on that though it does come as he was at the White House and we did not see him on New Year's Day. But of course, what happened on Capitol Hill was that massive rebuke of the president coming from Senate Republicans during his final days of office as they voted to override the veto that he had administered of the defense bill -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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NEWTON: The massive rebuke was the first successful veto override of Trump's presidency. The bill includes pay raises for troops, funding for equipment upgrades, but the president railed against it, in part because he says the bill does not repeal section 230, giving internet providers and others some protections regarding how they manage content.
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NEWTON: President Trump and President-Elect Biden will both be campaigning right here in the state of Georgia on Monday ahead of Tuesday's high-stakes Senate runoff election. The pressure appears to be on Republicans to turn out on Tuesday because registered Georgia Democrats are voting at a faster than expected pace.
Kyung Lah reports from Atlanta.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: We're getting new numbers from the secretary of state here in Georgia that shows as early vote is closing, more than 3 million Georgians have already voted, and this is all before Election Day on Tuesday.
Democrats are welcoming the news. Stacey Abrams, the well-known Democrat here, who ran for governor in Georgia, says it is an early sign that Democrats are doing well.
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STACEY ABRAMS, FORMER GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I wouldn't say that it's better. I would say that it's incredibly gratifying to see so many turning out. We are pleased with the level of energy and excitement, especially given how often pundits were discounting the likelihood of Democrats performing in a runoff.
According to current analysis, we are running at or ahead of where we were in 2000 in 28 November election, but we know that this is just the beginning. We still have to get to Election Day, and I don't count anything until it's done.
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LAH: That early vote number is adding pressure on the GOP, who also believes Democrats are outperforming what they did in November 2020. They need to bring out more of their voters on Election Day.
And a lot of GOP are pinning their hopes that President Trump, when he's here the day before the election, will be able to increase enthusiasm as long as he stays on message -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Atlanta.
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NEWTON: Daniel Strauss is a senior political reporter for "The Guardian." He joins me now from Washington.
Good to see you, Daniel. Happy New Year. And what a cliff-hanger. We're going to start the week within Congress.
January 6th, Donald Trump has said it mark it on your calendar. It's a bit of a Republican insurgency now that he has some backing. In the end, do you think it will be sound and fury signifying nothing?
DANIEL STRAUSS, "THE GUARDIAN": Both Republicans and Democrats don't expect this effort to actually be successful. It's really serving as more as a litmus test for rank and file Republicans, elected Republican officials, over how loyal they are to Donald Trump and his wishes.
The president wants some resistance to Joe Biden's certification as president. He thinks that any Republicans who are resistant to it are disloyal to him and, in particular, senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, the lone senator in the chamber who was going to object to the certification as some kind of staunch ally.
There are a handful of members in the House who are making a similar move. But again, there as well, the effort is unlikely to be successful.
NEWTON: Yet still they're going through with it?
They want to prove a point.
STRAUSS: Yes, it's about proving a point. For someone like Hawley, I want to emphasize that he's been mentioned as a possible 2024 presidential candidate. It's tricky, that anyone who is gearing up to run for 2024 could be seen as disloyal or against Donald Trump, who hasn't conceded the election and is very much intending on floating running for president again.
This way Hawley can I guess cement his credentials as someone who's loyal to Trump and Trumpism. But at the same time also not really kill chances of running for president in the next election.
NEWTON: A good way to get his name in the headlines if nothing else. I want to turn to Georgia. I've walked past a couple on long voter lineups myself. Early voting is through the roof.
What's the takeaway for America from this?
No matter which way it goes, let's face it, no matter who wins, to Democrats, Republicans, it will be consequential in the Senate. But also, again it's going to be very close. It shows how divided the country still remains.
STRAUSS: Yes, look, the outcome of it is not going to really heal that at all. We are looking at a razor thin majority one way or another in the Senate, which means that everyone is going to control the destiny of any piece of legislation. There will not be one party who can easily move it toward the chamber.
When we saw in the last election, outside of the presidential race, Republicans in competitive states can win elections. They can win statewide. That's contrary to what polls were projecting going into election in 2020.
Even though record turnout is happening right now, we are seeing high levels of enthusiasm among Democrats, there's also a high level of enthusiasm among Republicans.
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STRAUSS: So, I don't think we're going to see any of it dissipate in the coming months.
NEWTON: Yes, a reminder that President-Elect Joe Biden and Donald Trump will be here in the next few days campaigning.
You wrote an interesting article on the relationship between Biden and Mitch McConnell, of course, Senate majority leader. They've known each other for more than 35 years. You're saying, look, they may have had a good working relationship. But you're saying that may not happen now.
Why?
STRAUSS: Because the positions that they're in. For most of the time they built this repertoire of tacit friendliness and collegiality, pretty rare between a sitting vice president or a committee chair in the Senate, and Mitch McConnell, who rose through the ranks from the NRSC chair to Senate majority leader.
Now they're in positions that are directly antagonistic to each other. This is the President of the United States. As you said it, in a very partisan time, looking to move pretty liberal legislation and proposals through Congress.
On the other side, there's Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who wants to solve that. He was pretty successful when he said he wanted to block a fair amount of legislation from then President Barack Obama. He's likely to use that tactic again.
NEWTON: Yes, and you point out in the article, President Obama in his new book was pretty scathing about Mitch McConnell, calling him single-minded in his dispassionate pursuit of power.
We have to leave it there. But I thank you for handicapping the next week of politics for us.
STRAUSS: Thank you.
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NEWTON: For international viewers, stay tuned for "AFRICAN VOICES CHANGEMAKERS." I'll be right back with more news in a moment.
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NEWTON: And thanks for joining us. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. The U.S. has started 2021 with some disturbing pandemic figures. Take
a look. The country has now surpassed 20 million total infections. It took 292 days to reach the first 10 million cases but just 54 days to reach the second 10 million. That is just staggering.
Several states began the new year by breaking their records for new cases and deaths. And the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital this hour, well over 100,000 now for the 31st straight day. Now the surge of cases is pushing the health care system and frontline workers to their breaking points.
Here, in Atlanta, officials are now setting up an overflow field hospital for the third time since the pandemic began. The number of coronavirus patients in Georgia has more than doubled since mid- November. That's according to the COVID Tracking Project.
As Nick Valencia explains, the state's situation is similar to what's going on in the rest of the country.
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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 2020 has come and gone but the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University shows that the pandemic is still, very much so, raging. Johns Hopkins says, in the last three days of 2020, over 10,000 Americans died as a result of being infected by the coronavirus.
As it stands right now, California seems to be the center of the pandemic. But things here in Georgia aren't faring much better.
Governor Brian Kemp, so concerned with the latest winter numbers of the -- of coronavirus, that he's opened up the Georgia World Congress Center to act as a makeshift field hospital, where there will be 60 temporary beds, acting as overflow center for the health systems that have just been overwhelmed by the rising cases.
The governor addressed his concerns about the rising numbers.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): And if the people of Georgia will hunker down for a little bit longer, stay vigilant and do the things we've been talking about -- wearing a mask, washing your hands, socially distancing themselves and following the health guidance in our executive orders -- we can all have a safe, happy new year.
VALENCIA: This field hospital is expected to be open until at least the end of January. And earlier, when I spoke to the governor's office, they said they are admitting patients as of today. Just a quick note here on hospitalizations in Georgia, about 5,000 Georgians woke up in the hospital; numbers here, continuing to spike.
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NEWTON: Dr. Emily Porter is an emergency physician and joins me now from Austin, Texas. She and her family now have the coronavirus. I was not happy to hear this when you posted it on Twitter and I'm not
going to lie. I'm a bit worried, Dr. Porter. Tell me how all of you are doing. And I will preface it by saying you've been very clear on Twitter that your husband is having a hard time.
DR. EMILY PORTER, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Yes, he is. The kids seem to be fine. We're having a hard time in different ways. We think we've got it from my 5-year old, who was in kindergarten. There were nine kids in his class. They took symptom checklists every day. They took temperatures every day. He wore a mask. Most of the time they didn't enforce the masking, some of the other kids didn't (ph). The teachers did.
We knew it was a risk. But our nanny quit in March because she was worried about our jobs getting coronavirus, the virus. So, we haven't had full-time childcare. We took a risk. We knew it. We managed to go 9.5 months with no problems.
And then he got a runny nose and a little 101 temperature for a day back on December 19th. We talked to the pediatrician. There's lots of colds going around. There's also coronavirus.
Should we test him, should we not test him?
But we're not going anywhere, we're not seeing anyone, school is out. We're all going to be home for the next two weeks anyway. And we haven't been taking them anywhere anyway.
So, we decided not to test yet unless he didn't get better because it's also senior season. Fever went away in a day. Runny nose went away in a day. And then on -- my husband vaccinated, incidentally, on the 17th of December so a couple days before. And on Christmas Eve, he stayed up late wrapping presents.
Started to get -- not feel well, took some Tylenol, took some Motrin, had horrible chills, shaking the bed with rigors. After all that medicine, still had 101 fever. So, he stayed in his room all day on Christmas. He came out for 30 minutes masked to watch the kids tear open their presents. And then we tested him on the 26th.
My daughter also got a fever for one day on the 25th.
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PORTER: But two of our kids didn't have anything. And I was just fatigued, exhausted. But it's also Christmas with four kids at home. I had a little headache, cedar (ph) stuff.
You just don't know. I never got a fever. I never got chills. I never got rigors. Neither one of us ever got issues with loss of taste or sense of smell. So, all the things we're looking out for, they call this thing the invisible enemy. It really was. The only reason why we tested was because my husband had a fever.
And we were like, well, we should probably test one of us now. Then we all tested -- the rest of us tested on the 28th and four out of the five of us came back positive. I'm pretty sure my 4-year old, there's no way he doesn't have it. He likes everyone's Popsicles and is up in everybody's face. So, we're going to retest him tomorrow and we're ready to just get on with our lives.
It's kind of a huge -- it's super scary in a way but it's also kind of a relief --
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PORTER: -- if that makes any sense because --
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NEWTON: I want you to explain that. You put it on Twitter. You said that you were a bit relieved. Explain that. I was kind of puzzled by that.
PORTER: So I got vaccinated too and we were really hopeful. And I want to clarify that neither one of us think that the vaccine had anything to do with his. The only problem with the vaccine is that we got it two weeks too late because it did not have enough time to do what it was supposed to do.
And so it's just really bad timing. If this had been a couple of weeks later, we would've been fun. And then I don't think we're supposed to get a second dose because one of the things to getting the first dose was not having had coronavirus. The next thing, in the previous 90 days.
So, I'm terrified because my husband is still hacking. He got 10 days off of work. But I don't know that he is still going to be well enough to go back to work. He hasn't had a fever in a couple days. But he has a hacking cough. I'm short of breath sitting here, not even talking to you. I stand up, my pulse goes up to 125. I have chest pain if I try to breathe at all.
And so, it's like, what is next week going to be like?
What is two months going to be like?
I have a friend who's healthy, 46-year-old physician who got this in March in New York City. He still can't talk on the phone. He still can't walk down the street and it's been 9 months. Everything looks normal on his scans, on his pulse ox. And he's still not well and he's got a horrible nerve pain.
So, I'm terrified of what could happen long-term to us, when we will feel well again, what this is going to do to our children, months, years down the road. What this is going to do to our insurance record because now we have pre-existing conditions.
For the first time, we had to test one of our kids back in July, we paid cash because I was terrified. She was negative, hadn't been anywhere but had a fever for a day. And then relief because, OK, maybe for 30 days, 90 days, we're less likely to get it again. If my kids are all positive, I don't care that other kids at school aren't masking appropriately because my kids are at least protected for a couple months.
So relieved in the sense that now I don't have to -- we haven't gone anywhere, not that we're going to magically going places. But now I don't have to constantly worry if every fever is coronavirus because we don't have to test them again for 90 days. That's what CDC guidelines are. So at least I don't have to traumatized them again in the next 90 days. So I'm kind of relieved.
My kids are young. They are 4, 5, 7 and 8. At least now, for 90 days, we can relax a little bit. So that's what I mean, I guess.
NEWTON: Dr. Emily Porter, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
PORTER: Thank you, Paula.
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NEWTON: So, violence is spiking in parts of the United States. When we come back, we'll head over to Chicago, where experts are linking the brutality with the pandemic.
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NEWTON: And I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone that the pandemic has brought a lot of hardship to so many people. And in some U.S. states, it has contributed to a dramatic rise in violence. As CNN's Adrienne Broaddus reports from Chicago, there is a troubling link to depression and substance abuse that's now been triggered by this virus.
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ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the pandemic rages, we have seen crime spike across the country, including here in Chicago. Devastating: that's how one top law enforcement official describes the latest number of homicides, as well as a former gang member.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I normally don't talk about it.
BROADDUS (voice-over): Sometimes, talking about a painful past lead to healing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been shot 10 times at one time, multiple times, and left for dead.
ROBERT WHITE, CHICAGO CRED: You got to do something with this second chance.
BROADDUS (voice-over): Mentoring from the bed of a pickup truck is Robert White, a former gang leader with the Black P. Stone Rangers in Chicago.
WHITE: The average shooter who really get down in this city, age is from 14 to 19.
BROADDUS (voice-over): Fifty-year-old White now works with Chicago CRED, an anti-gun violence organization.
White said the latest homicide numbers are troubling. Of the country's largest cities, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix, all saw homicide increases of greater than 30 percent compared to the same time last year. But Chicago had an increase of 55 percent, from 491 to 762 homicides through December 27th.
JOHN LAUSCH, U.S. ATTORNEY, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS: 2020's been a really tough year, nationwide, for violent crime. In particular, in Chicago. We've seen homicides and shootings get really at a staggering number.
BROADDUS (voice-over): John Lausch is the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
LAUSCH: The shootings and the homicides are up significantly. And if we look, just anecdotally, at what we are seeing, the offenders just seem to be emboldened.
BROADDUS (voice-over): Jens Ludwig runs the University of Chicago's crime lab. He helps people understand what the data doesn't show.
JENS LUDWIG, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: If you look at the gun violence problem, that's usually concentrated among young people, say, 18 to 24. And if you look at the CDC data on mental health, something like 70 percent to 75 percent of people 18 to 24 are showing signs of anxiety, depression, increase in substance use in response to the pandemic.
And I think one of the things that people haven't maybe fully appreciated is how much the social service sector does to help control crime as well. And everything that the social service sector does has also been turned upside down by the pandemic as well, starting with the public schools as well as after-school programs, weekend programs, job training, mental health services, everything.
LAUSCH: And this has been a challenging year, in that regard. So, I think, for a lot of reasons. You know, one, people are walking around wearing masks. You know, that -- that -- that has an impact.
BROADDUS (voice-over): As White and his mentee, John, pledge to help, tears fall faster than both can wipe away.
WHITE: It's not tears of sadness. These are good tears. I want to be able to, like, help other folks get through the pain and suffering because it's -- you know, life is too short.
BROADDUS: And remember, some people shot in 2020 will die in 2021 or later. And those numbers aren't captured in this most recent data.
[03:45:00]
BROADDUS: Adrienne Broaddus, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: So, New York's LaGuardia airport has been compared to facilities in third-world countries, in fact, by President-Elect Joe Biden. The pandemic has just made things worse.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: Deserted check-in, empty concourses. This isn't what they had in mind.
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NEWTON: A powerful winter storm has left more than 100,000 homes and businesses without power right across the central United States. This was the scene in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Daily records were set in several cities. And here's the thing. It's not over, yet.
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[03:50:00]
NEWTON: Now pity New York's LaGuardia airport. Actually, I'd rather you pity us than to have had to use it for the last few years. Anyway, it is often mocked, like I just did, as the punch line of a bad joke. But now, officials hope a multibillion-dollar upgrade with new services, even art installations and top-notch security, will silence its critics. Richard Quest has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): Welcome to LaGuardia. Long considered one of the worst airports in the United States. For decades, it's been a sore point for New York commuters. Now it's making an $8 billion bet on repairing LaGuardia's reputation once and for all.
RICK COTTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY: New Yorkers love to criticize, they love to hate. I think if you looked at every single passenger survey, LaGuardia was always the worst, so the challenge, first of all, was to take it from worst to first.
QUEST (voice-over): It has one of the worst on time records in the country. Travelers say it's amongst the noisiest, most outdated, that's difficult to get to. Little wonder, given the central terminal building hasn't changed much since it opened in 1964.
Officials in New York gave LaGuardia's restoration the green light in 2015 after a wakeup call from the then Vice President Joe Biden.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I took him blindfolded on a trip to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you must think I must be in some third world country.
QUEST: That had ramifications. That was almost like firing the starting code.
COTTON: It was. Many people were unhappy at that comment. Governor Cuomo took it as a challenge. And that was the impetus to create the advisory panel and the project was off and running.
QUEST (voice-over): LaGuardia's reopening comes at a difficult time. Passenger numbers have plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic as states impose strict quarantines. And many countries shut their borders to international travelers.
COTTON: At the beginning of the crisis back in March the passenger levels at this airport and all three of our airports dropped 98 percent. There was 2 percent of regular passengers using these airports. We are still down 75 to 80 percent in terms of travel through these airports.
QUEST: Deserted check-in, empty concourses, this isn't what they had in mind when they started the $8 billion reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport. One of the most overcrowded and grubby in North America. Now look at it, brand spanking new, gleaming with facilities galore, just waiting for post-COVID passengers.
QUEST (voice-over): New York's port authority is doing all it can to lure travelers back to its airports, even offering free COVID tests to arriving passengers here at LaGuardia.
But with the increased foot fall comes bigger health risks. When they do return to LaGuardia, passengers will find an airport completely transformed.
[03:55:00]
COTTON: That the airport should be inspiring, it shouldn't just be functional. So, art becomes a center piece and you have five major artistic installations.
QUEST (voice-over): LaGuardia's transformation is almost complete. The terminal won't fully reopen until 2022. When it does, officials are opening it begins a new chapter for both LaGuardia, the aviation industry and the passengers who travel here.
COTTON: LaGuardia has gone from the worst airport in the country to what we think is best in class. And it not only is best in class in terms of function, it is inspiring. It is appealing, it has works of art and it speaks to where it is located, which is New York and that was what we wanted to build.
(END VIDEOTAPE) NEWTON: OK. That was our Richard Quest there.
Thanks for that tour of LaGuardia.
This is something I didn't know. The holiday song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," actually refers to the period between Christmas Day and January 5th. Now to mark the occasion, the Hubble telescope and the European Space Agency have been tweeting out, daily, spectacular images of the final frontier that Hubble captured.
Now, for instance, on December 25th, they tweeted, "On the first day of Christmas," no, I'm not going to sing this, "my true love gave to me this celestial Christmas tree, otherwise, known as the Crab Nebula."
The next day, they tweeted out, "Look at this, the ant nebula, looking somewhat like two turtledoves."
It really does look like that.
And on day five, the day of the song's five golden rings, yes, you guessed it, they showed Saturn and its rings. It's quite pretty, actually.
I am Paula Newton. I leave you in the capable hands of my friend and colleague, Robyn Curnow. She will have much more news, when we come back.
