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U.S. Military Helping L.A. Hospitals Revamp Oxygen Systems; U.K. To Reactivate Emergency Field Hospitals; U.K.'s NHS Rolls Out Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine On Monday; U.S.-Iran Tensions One Year After Soleimani Killing; Republican Senators Plan To Oppose Certification Of Biden's Win; Georgia Runoff To Determine Party Controlling Senate; L.A. County Reporting One COVID-19 Death Every 10 Minutes; Child Marriage Survivor's Sister Killed After Leaving Forced Marriage. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired January 03, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Thanks for joining me this hour. I'm Robyn Curnow.

Coming up on the show, the U.S. death toll from COVID hits a major milestone and hospitals are filling up faster than ever before.

Ted Cruz and more are lining up to support Donald Trump as the president tries to overturn Joe Biden's legitimate election victory.

And Iran and its supporters are marking a solemn anniversary; one year ago, a U.S. airstrike targeted and killed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and has heightened tensions in the Middle East.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.

CURNOW: If you want to get a sense of the strains facing hospitals right now, take a look at Southern California. Health officials there say COVID patients are dying at a rate of one every 10 minutes.

That's one factor that's pushed the U.S. death toll past 350,000. More than 20 million Americans have now been infected with COVID and hospitals across the U.S. have reported more than 100,000 COVID patients every day for more than a month.

Many facilities are in danger of running out of resources to help people with non-COVID emergencies. A key factor to keep COVID patients alive is getting enough oxygen into their blood. But many of those delivery systems were never designed to treat so many people at once. Paul Vercammen now explains how the U.S. military is trying to step in.

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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The COVID-19 tsunami in California is stretching resources so thin that the Army Corps of Engineers has now jumped into the fight here in Los Angeles, serving some seven hospitals to improve the oxygen supply line to those COVID patients, who are gasping for breath.

Here's what they are seeing at these hospitals.

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COL. JULIE BALTEN, U.S. ARMY CORPS: We went to one hospital and they had two tents outside and one of the tents -- one of the tents they were seeing COVID patients. And it is just -- they were tied into their mechanical systems. And so that's just an additional strain.

So we're trying to assess how we can reduce the strain on their facilities and their mechanical spaces and O2, oxygen distribution as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: The Army Corps also serving White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights, where they now have 180 COVID patients. And the hospital members here, the head of the ER, celebrating the arrival of the Army Corps of Engineers.

DR. STEPHEN LIU, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: That's exactly right. These folks just can't get enough oxygenation into their blood, into their bodies. And that's what makes it so hard. These patients need so much oxygen and there are so many patients.

And so the two taken together, it's really taxing the system. These oxygen lines can only carry so many liters per minute and we're approaching the upper limits of those.

VERCAMMEN: The Army Corps of Engineers supporting this hospital, as it is with other hospitals in Los Angeles and here at White Memorial, we're also seeing members of the National Guard helping to treat this influx, this unending influx of patients -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen, now back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thanks, Paul, for that.

I want to take you to the U.K. now, where health care workers are preparing to reactivate seven emergency field hospitals. This as the surge of coronavirus cases threatens to overwhelm hospitals and intensive care units.

I want to take you to Salma Abdelaziz, outside one of the emergency field hospitals.

Salma, can you just tell us what's expected and when and how will they be activated if needed? SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Well, you can see that center right behind me here, Robyn. A huge conference building, a massive space.

But the question is, how do you staff it?

We already know that the National Health Service, the doctors and nurses, are stretched to the limit. We already know that hospital beds are being stretched to the limit, two-thirds of hospital beds right now in London are being used by COVID-19 patients.

So how do you get equipment in as well?

Well, the government's answer might be bringing in the military, bringing in troops to staff that building behind me here and most likely it won't include COVID patients. It will include patients of other illnesses, other things, so they could make more room in these hospitals for patients.

One NHS doctor described this space essentially as an insurance policy of last resort.

[04:05:00]

ABDELAZIZ: So to reopen this is a sign of just how desperate the times are. And they are, indeed, very desperate, Robyn. You have more patients in hospital with coronavirus than at any point before.

Yesterday record-breaking number of cases in a 24-hour period. Doctors and nurses essentially ringing the alarm, saying that ambulances are having to wait, to line up outside of hospitals because these hospitals are quite simply at their limit.

Now there's one sign of hope on the horizon. That's the Oxford University and AstraZeneca vaccine, set to roll out Monday. A lot of excitement, national pride around that, particularly because this vaccine will not need to be stored at extra cold temperatures, at those sub zero temperatures, which means it can be held in a normal fridge and can be disseminated more easily, be put into people's arms more easily.

But there's a bit of controversy around the vaccination program. The government divides the medical community, including delaying the second injection of the two-part vaccination program, delaying the second injection by up to three months.

They also advised it's OK to mix vaccines. Both of these opinions, this guidance, of course, is controversial, something that divides doctors.

Why are they doing this?

Well, it just again shows that everything has to be done here to get control of this variant. It's spreading through the population so quickly. And the fear is that the healthcare system is at breaking point -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Salma Abdelaziz, thanks for that update.

India has just formally approved emergency use of two coronavirus vaccines, the one by Oxford AstraZeneca and Covaxin. The country has more than 10 million cases, second only in case count to the U.S.

Authorities are hoping to vaccinate 300 million people, health care workers, police, soldiers, and vulnerable groups. Saturday, India conducted a national drill ahead of mass vaccinations.

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CURNOW: I want to bring in now Oksana Pyzik. She's a global health expert at University College London.

Good to see you. You heard our correspondent on the ground outside the XL Center, preparations to reactivate these emergency field hospitals.

Do you think this will ease the burden on the health care system in the U.K.?

OKSANA PYZIK, GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERT, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Well, here in the U.K. and in England in particular, we are seeing the worst part of the pandemic has hit us now.

We can see another 100,000 by June 2021. It would actually exceed the first wave, the number of deaths. So the reactivation of field hospitals is necessary. But of course, the problem we face is the staffing shortage and how we will be able to man these larger field hospitals.

So despite having the space, there's still going to be a struggle in order to treat the patients, with people who have the appropriate skillsets, for requiring ventilation and other aerosol generating procedures.

CURNOW: An important point and that's obviously something that's going to concern many people.

One of the positives, as we're just talking with Salma about, is the AstraZeneca Oxford University vaccine rollout on Monday.

How quickly can the U.K. and other places like here in the U.S., which is also lagging, catch up with the virus so that vaccine shots start overtaking new infections?

PYZIK: Well, this is a long game so we shouldn't look at that the fact that these vaccines are starting to roll out. These will not necessarily save the lives of people who are already getting infected.

This is why we need to continue these public health measures, along with more aggressive vaccination rollout. And that requires ensuring that we have upscaling of staff and more resources dedicated toward this rollout.

But again, this is not going to be something that even here we've had the prime minister say that we should be able to get enough protection by Easter 2021. But at the current rate of vaccination, that is actually not a realistic estimate.

CURNOW: What is your take than on this mix and match vaccine regimen that the U.K. is saying it's going to be OK to cross-use different vaccines?

This contradicts U.S. guidelines.

Is this a pragmatic health policy, a sign a desperation or is this the U.K. being the Wild West of vaccinations, as suggested by some?

PYZIK: I think there is some misconception around this particular piece of guidance that has been issued. We heard from Public Health England to clarify that this would be under extremely rare circumstances, in which it would be either not possible to trace what type of vaccine was first in a patient.

[04:10:00]

PYZIK: If there's a critical shortage, then it wouldn't be possible to deliver the second vaccine doses.

So rather than missing out the second dose altogether, it would be better for a patient to receive another vaccine. Again, this is not something that is going to be widely encouraged but would be a very narrow set of circumstances.

And also an example of how clinical trials have these perfect conditions, that really center around a smaller group of people. But when we roll that out to the population level, it would be naive to think that we wouldn't run into hiccups, that it's going to look exactly the same.

This is actually a move that, in the U.K., it was already covered, that the situation is extremely serious, it is looking to get worse. And this is the way that the U.K. can solve, at least with that gap of potentially extending it for 12 weeks instead of what was followed in the exact clinical trial, that this would allow a broader set of the population to have some sort of protection.

That's because of the circumstances we're currently in and the measures that need to be taken.

CURNOW: I understand you've also just recovered from COVID yourself and there's been a lot of talk about this new variant.

What is the thought about why it is so much more infectious, this new variant?

Is it about people shedding more virus, about the virus surviving better in the air or on surfaces and how are you feeling as well?

PYZIK: This new variant has really hit London in particular the hardest. And this is part of why this is contributing to these hospitalization rates that are increasing so much. They have tripled and the number of hospital admissions since the beginning of December, so we can really see the immediate effect of this new variant. We are still looking to really try and understand why this new variant

in the U.K. has become so much more infectious, up to 60 percent more infectious.

But the other strain that is extremely concerning is one emerging from South Africa which has a bit more chunkier mutations, it could be a bigger problem that the one we're seeing here in the U.K.

Despite its increased transmissibility, at least the good news is that it doesn't appear to have more severe health outcomes, which is very positive for patients.

And thank you for asking about how I am doing. I had a pretty bad go of it. However I'm feeling much better now and when the vaccine become available for me, and that may be some time because I don't have any underlying conditions.

But maybe within the next year, 2022, I will be really happy to get that vaccine because that is not something I would want to go through again.

CURNOW: OK, thanks for that and great to see you on your feet again. Appreciate it.

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CURNOW: Now one prominent American battling COVID right now is Larry King, the former CNN host has been at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for more than a week. That's according to a source close to the family.

Because of hospital COVID restrictions, we know that King's children have not been able to visit him. He's 87 years old.

California is certainly seeing a staggering number of COVID-related deaths and many hospitals are at or near capacity.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: They're running out of beds. That's the unimaginable, to actually run out of beds.

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CURNOW: More on this very dire situation in California later on this hour.

Plus, the U.S. president remains focused on his election loss. Now a plan to object to the counting of Electoral College votes and Mr. Trump support for it is calling dissent in the Republican ranks. That's next as well.

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CURNOW: I want to take you to Iran. These are live -- to Baghdad, live images coming to us at CNN. Protesters are gathering in Iraq to mark the one-year anniversary of the U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general. Qasem Soleimani was one of Iran's most powerful military figures and he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad last January.

The strike also killed an Iraqi military leader. We know these protesters are demanding the government follow through on the parliament's decision to remove U.S. forces from Iraq. The U.S. and Iran are accusing each other of dialing up tensions in the Persian Gulf in the days leading up to the anniversary.

So 12 Republican senators now say they will oppose certification of Joe Biden's election win, despite a total lack of credible evidence of widespread voter fraud. On Saturday, 11 lawmakers said they would object to the counting of Electoral College votes when Congress meets on January 6th.

Now five of them were either elected or re-elected in the vote they refuse to certify.

Mr. Trump also approves. But not all Republican lawmakers are on board. Some are condemning it as an attempt to thwart the will of the people and they're coming under attack from the president himself as well, as Boris Sanchez now reports.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump getting welcome news on Saturday after confirmation that a least a dozen Republican senators are planning to object to the results of the Electoral College when they're certified by Congress on January 6th.

The president had been campaigning for this publicly for some time and now these dozen Republican senators led by Ted Cruz, are saying they want to essentially look at the allegations of widespread election fraud, even though the president and his team have not been able to provide any.

Here's a portion of the statement from Cruz and crew.

They write, quote, "We are not naive. We fully expect most if not all Democrats and perhaps more than a few Republicans to vote otherwise. But support of election integrity should not be a partisan issue."

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SANCHEZ: We should point out those allegations of widespread fraud are coming from the president and the White House. And they've not been able to corroborate any of these allegations of widespread fraud. These lawmakers are calling for a 10-day audit to exhaustively review

the results from multiple states. Clearly their effort is not going to work and they acknowledged that they simply don't have the numbers, especially in the House of Representatives.

Other Republicans are coming out against this effort, including Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, one of those states where there's a lot of debate over the results of the election, at least on the Republican side.

Here's a portion of a statement from Senator Toomey released on Saturday.

He writes, quote, "The evidence is overwhelming that Joe Biden won this election. His narrow victory in Pennsylvania is easily explained by the decline in suburban support for President Trump and the president's slightly smaller victory margins in most rural counties.

"I voted for President Trump and endorsed him for reelection. But on Wednesday, I intend to vigorously defend our form of government by opposing this effort to disenfranchise millions of voters in my state and others."

Now examining the motivation behind these 12 senators' objections, some of them are clearly trying to stake their ground for a potential 2024 run, including Senators Hawley and Cruz.

Others may simply be doing this for survival. There is serious concern among Republicans about coming out against President Trump on the issue of an objection on January 6th. Just look at the way he went after John Thune, the number two Republican senator, calling for the senator from South Dakota to be primaried over his dismissal of Hawley's objection.

The president clearly still holds the reins of the Republican Party and he is exercising that power in a way where establishment Republicans are clearly bending to his will -- Boris Sanchez, CNN, the White House.

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CURNOW: Thanks, Boris for that.

After Georgia went Democratic blue in the presidential election, Republicans became keenly aware of just how important it is to turn out the Trump base here in these Georgia Senate runoffs coming up this week.

Now with the president casting doubt about election results, the two Georgia Republican candidates will actually have their work cut out for them as Kyung Lah now reports.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Senator Kelly Loeffler is one of the three candidates crisscrossing the state days ahead of Georgia's Senate runoff elections. Three out of the four candidates are out campaigning. Senator David Perdue, one of the Republican incumbents, is not out on the trail. He's campaigning from his home, holding virtual events, after coming into contact with a COVID positive person on the campaign trail.

But from his home and the candidates on the trail, they're all focusing on Tuesday's turnout.

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SEN. DAVID PERDUE (R-GA): The energy level is exactly where it was in November, when the polls had me down 5 points. We won by 2. As a matter of fact, 52.5 percent of Georgians rejected Jon Ossoff and his Democratic liberal agenda in November.

Same thing happened in 2014. I don't put a lot of stock in polls. I look at this early voting and I'm very confident, with the president coming Monday night, the vice president coming Monday, and what we're doing with our team over the next three days.

JON OSSOFF (D-GA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: After 4 years of hatred and racism and division and bigotry, Georgia is going to make a statement of love and decency and compassion and unity, because that is what Georgia stands for.

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-IL): The very fabric of this country will be shred apart. The American dream will be impossible and our country will be unrecognizable. So we have to hold the line here in. Georgia

RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Because my mama said, it's not what they call you, it's what you answer to. And in just a few days, she can call me Senator Raphael Warnock.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Now Republicans feeling the pressure after 3 million people voted early in Georgia. That is the early vote ahead of Tuesday's election. Republicans have to turn out more of the people on Election Day.

But they're facing some headwinds. President Trump has been increasingly focused on January 6th, not January 5th. He's been tweeting that Tuesday's election is illegal and invalid.

The president is scheduled to be in the state of Georgia, supporting those two Republican senators on Monday, the day ahead of the election. And Republicans are wondering exactly what he is going to say -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Peachtree City, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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CURNOW: Thomas Gift is a political science lecturer at University College London and the director of the UCL Center on U.S. Politics.

Thomas, lovely to see you. He joins us from Oxford, England. CURNOW: So as you heard there, the Georgia runoff is so, so crucial. And again, it is about voter turnout.

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CURNOW: How much momentum do the Democrats have?

THOMAS GIFT, POLITICAL SCIENCE LECTURER, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: You're right, Robyn, that both Senate races in Georgia are incredibly close, much closer than I think many experts initially predicted.

What is clear is that these races have become truly national contests, because of their stakes. Candidates have been shattering fundraising records. Political ads have been ubiquitous and we've already seen more than 3 million early votes, which reflects the intense interest in these races.

Ultimately though, as you suggest, this will be a base mobilization game. Anything can happen. Turnout will inevitably be lower than the presidential race on November 3rd. That means the average Republican voter will be more conservative and the average Democratic voter will be more liberal.

Of course, the competitiveness of these contests also raises the interesting question of what might happen if the margin of victory for the candidates is relatively small. Trump for example, has already called the Georgia runoffs illegal and invalid, which only adds to concerns about voter distrust in the electoral process. Certainly all eyes this week will be on Georgia.

CURNOW: Yes, it's a huge week. And I think many people here in Georgia will also be relieved if it does end for many of these political ads to stop because it certainly has been ubiquitous, as you say, quite overwhelming on some level.

I do also want to look ahead to what is going to be a pretty dramatic week for U.S. politics, to the showdown expected in Congress. The vice president and other Trump loyalists are trying to help Mr. Trump override, essentially, the election results.

It's nothing than a cynical farce. Nothing is expected to come of it. Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January the 20th.

So then my question is, why do it?

Is this less about the outcome and more about the act?

GIFT: Well, Robyn, I do think that this is mostly political theater. But we still shouldn't underestimate how dangerous of a precedent it sets for U.S. senators to aid and abet Trump's baseless allegations of electoral fraud.

I do think that it's largely about political ambitions, about political survival. But over recent months, efforts to prove voting irregularities have faced defeat in roughly 60 court cases and to still see this response now from elected leaders is extremely regrettable.

It's important to emphasize that the vast majority of Republicans on Capitol Hill don't support this effort. Mitch McConnell opposes it and the ploy won't change the fact, as you suggest, that Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20th.

But the fact that it's likely to garner the support of nearly a dozen Republican senators, including senator Hawley, senator Ted Cruz and senator Marsha Blackburn, is really partisanship, I think, at its worst. And what it reveals is how it strongly the grip Trump maintains over certain elements of the GOP.

Clearly many Republican lawmakers just view this as furthering their own political ambitions.

CURNOW: Yes, I mean so many ways this is being seen perhaps as a loyalty test to Mr. Trump by some of these Republicans and then, of course, you are talking about the pushback.

As you say listen, Mr. Biden, one, let's just move on and deal with the future.

So with this push and pull between the Republican Party, where does that leave the Republicans and particularly the political landscape post Trump?

GIFT: I think the most problematic aspect of this is for U.S. democracy writ large. This January 6th standoff is going to do serious harm for U.S. democracy. Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution, for example, said in "The Washington Post" recently that it is not the short-term turbulence that should worry Americans. Joe Biden will be inaugurated and that's not in doubt.

He said it's the fact that we're at a point where a non-trivial number of GOP politicians feel that it's appropriate to call into question this most basic precept of U.S. democracy, the integrity of free and fair elections, despite all the evidence pointing to the legitimacy of those elections.

So I think this does do serious harm to the Republican brand. I think it turns off a lot of moderates. And many are just going to see this for what it is, a last-ditch political ploy. This is why Mitch McConnell really wants to avoid this. I don't think he's going to be able to do that. And we'll see how the party evolves with Trump going forward.

CURNOW: I think you mentioned the 60 attempts by the Trump administration to challenge the election results at the court. I think 90 judges have said no to all of these, all in all, to all of these attempts. So this has certainly been a stress test, I suppose, put on the U.S. democracy.

But has, in many ways, democracy pushed back?

And if you think about it, many of these attempts have been stopped by Republican governors, Republican lawmakers, Republican judges. I mean, has the center held?

GIFT: I think that it has, by and large, Robyn. Ultimately, this is just one more example of Trump and his supporters trying to erode constitutional norms. Contrary to what some alarmists may say, this isn't the beginning of the end of U.S. democracy. At the same time, those who simply dismiss this behavior as a slight deviation from political norms, also miss how problematic this conduct is.

So if there is one lesson we can take from the last four years, it's that U.S. institutions have held. But I do think that they have frayed and I think that they have been damaged. And that opens them up for further exploitation or challenges going forward.

CURNOW: Thomas Gift, from the UCL Center on U.S. Politics, thanks so much for your insights.

GIFT: Thank you, Robyn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Ahead on CNN, a grim look at California hospitals, stressed to the brink of catastrophe by the coronavirus surge there. We are on that story.

Plus a bumpy rollout vaccine in Florida is raising all sorts of concerns and alarms. That's also coming up.

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CURNOW: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Thanks for joining me. I'm Robyn Curnow. It's 32 minutes past the hour.

The global pandemic has claimed over 350,000 American lives since last March. No other country is that close. Hospitalizations are also the clearest measure of the crisis. For the past 32 days the number of people needing medical care in the U.S. has surpassed 100,000 nationwide.

While it's bad everywhere, Southern California is the worst. Health officials there say one COVID patient is dying every 10 minutes. One nurse in California is even using her social media account to highlight how hospitals are being pushed to the brink, as Nick Valencia now reports.

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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): L.A. County Emergency Room Nurse Toni Katano says her hospital is running out of oxygen tanks and space in the morgue.

TONI KATANO, E.R. NURSE: Our morgue is full. It's only a matter of time before they start breaking out the butcher trucks.

VALENCIA: Throughout the pandemic, she's used her social media to warn residents of what's to come if the current trend of COVID cases continues.

KATANO: Ten hours later, there's still just as many ambulances. They don't stop coming. They don't stop coming.

VALENCIA: Cases in the state have surged in spite of strict COVID-19 protocols, including a stay-at-home order, while California's governor, Gavin Newsom, pushed for a lockdown in parts of the state, shutting down theme parks, limiting dining at restaurants and shuttering movie theaters to flatten the curve.

Meantime in Florida, a state that's been wide open for months, things are still faring better for rate of new COVID cases. Why? Public health officials say Los Angeles was uniquely susceptible to an infectious disease outbreak.

JESSICA MALATY RIVERA, SCIENCE COMMUNICATION LEAD, COVID TRACKING PROJECT: Los Angeles County, I think, is home to some of the most overcrowded housing setups in the country. And because of that, you're seeing a lot of household transmission of the virus. There are high rates of poverty and high rates of homelessness.

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VALENCIA (voice-over): California's large population means many are suffering from poverty or homelessness. The widening gap of COVID cases present in California is also a stark reminder many essential workers there are people of color. The rate at which people are getting sick, especially Latino residents, is most alarming.

California's Department of Health said 47 percent of the COVID-related deaths are Latino, despite Latinos making up just 38.9 percent of California's population.

Since the Thanksgiving holiday, California has continued to set daily record highs in hospitalizations and COVID-related deaths. As of Tuesday, the seven-day rolling average of new cases is up by more than 37,000. That's more than a 13 percent increase in new positive cases in the past week. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 24,000 people have died in California. And now with hospitals flooded and airports packed, California is becoming the next epicenter of the pandemic.

RIVERA: I think that January and February are going to be really dark.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we're all pretty tired.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Nick Valencia there reporting. Now many people here in the U.S. who want vaccines are being forced to

wait, not sure when they'll be able to get them. The state of Florida has its own approach, though. It's causing even more confusion, as Dianne Gallagher now reports. Dianne?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As of Saturday, just over 4.2 million Americans have received the first dose of one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Now that is out of the more than 13 million that have already been distributed across the country. Therein lies an illustration of the problem the United States seems to be having, actually getting those shots into people's arms.

Now here in the state of Florida, the governor decided not to adhere to the recommendations of the CDC when it comes to who got that next phase of vaccines. Initially of course, it's the health care workers and those in the long term care facilities but the CDC says that Americans over the age of 75 and front line essential workers should be getting them next.

In the state of Florida, the governor decided anybody over the age of 65 will get the vaccine. And since making that decision, we have seeing long lines in the state of Florida and really a lot of confusion.

Each county within the state is doing something different. Some of them are administrating vaccines to those over the age of 65 on a first-come, first-served basis. We saw elderly people literally camping out overnight for a shot at, well, getting the shot.

Other counties were deciding to use appointments and they saw their phone lines and their websites crash from so much interest. Now we have talked to different people who have attempted to get the vaccine.

They say that the confusion is discouraging but, more than anything, they want that protection. So they are going to keep trying until they get it. But take the county I'm in, Lake County, they ran out of vaccines today. They're currently waiting for another shipment before they will be able to be continue vaccinating people who are over the age of 65 here in Florida -- Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Lake County, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Police have fined more than 1,000 people at an illegal New Year's Eve party that lasted for days in the French countryside. Officials estimate more than 2,000 people attended this dance party between Thursday and Saturday. This despite strict coronavirus restrictions and a national curfew.

Police say they tried to shut down the festivities on Thursday but some of the partygoers responded with violence, actually injuring several officers. A similar scene unfolded in Spain over the holiday as well. Police

near Barcelona broke up an illegal rave on Saturday that had going on for more than 40 hours. Hundreds of people could face charges and fines for attending. Police say they've arrested the organizers of that event.

Now the pandemic is certainly taking a brutal toll on women and girls who are already vulnerable to forced marriages and domestic violence. With lockdowns around the world, many have no schools, no friends and little help and they're often trapped with their abusers. Well, Nada Bashir reports on efforts in the U.K. to reach out to these young women.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAYZEE MAHMOD, IKWRO CHARITY CAMPAIGNER: Here I was just a normal child and then my life just flipped, literally within a day.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) At just 16 years old, living in the U.K., Payzee Mahmod was subjected to a forced marriage. MAHMOD: It was a horrible time. A big part of me died during those two

years.

BASHIR (voice-over): Against all odds, she was able to leave her husband and forge a new life. She now campaigns against child marriage and works to support victims of honor-based abuse.

While Payzee's story has been a source of hope for many victims, the fate of her older sister, Banaz, who was killed after leaving an abusive forced marriage, is a tragic reminder of the price some women pay for freedom. Five men, including Banaz's own father, were convicted and jailed for life.

MAHMOD: She went from just like me just being a normal 17-year-old to having that taken away from her and forced into a marriage.

[04:40:00]

MAHMOD: And then because she left that marriage essentially that's why she lost her life.

BASHIR (voice-over): Almost 15 years have passed since Banaz was killed but the threat of forced marriage and honor-based abuse is still an ongoing reality for hundreds of women in the UK and like many campaigners Payzee fears that the Coronavirus pandemic has only intensified the problem.

MAHMOD: I very quickly started hearing about the rises in cases and it just terrified me to think that women and girls are now locked in with their families and their abusers and they have nowhere to go.

BASHIR (voice-over): It's an issue which Freedom Charity Founder Aneeta Prem has been grappling with over the last few months. She says her organization has seen a spike in -- causes since the beginning of the pandemic and is calling on the government to make sure that victims of forced marriage have somewhere save to take shelter. ANEETA PREM, FREEDOM CHARITY FOUNDER: There needs to be a specialist refugee that really focuses on these young girls so we can give them the best health care and best chance of a full life, get them into education and let their dreams and aspirations come true.

BASHIR (voice-over): But with nowhere to go Prem says many young victims have been pushed into near total isolation at home.

PREM: Many are kept as slaves doing absolutely everything for the family. They are not allowed access to the internet and they have no access to the phone and every moment is controlled. Almost every thought is controlled until they submit and agree to get married.

BASHIR (voice-over): The British government told CNN that is a world leader in the fight against forced marriage issuing more than 2,600 protection orders since the practice was made illegal in 2014. But national coronavirus restrictions have made it even more difficult for charities to identify victims.

Government-backed charity Karma Nirvana says it recorded a significant drop in referrals over the summer, with 64 percent fewer cases identified by social services.

And after the first national lockdown the charity saw a 43 percent increase in victims self-referring to the helpline, with nearly 100 female victims going on to receive support, the youngest just 8 years old. For Payzee, the ordeal of facing a forced marriage during the pandemic is painful to imagine.

PAYZEE: Thinking of myself living with my family or my husband during a time like this, it scares me to even think of it is such a scary reality but I know that's one for so many women and girls.

BASHIR (voice-over): While there are hopes that the country could return to some form of normality over coming months, for some young women it could already be too late -- Nada Bashir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thanks, Nada, for that.

So coming up on CNN here, crowds have gathered in Baghdad to mark one year since the U.S. killed a top Iranian general. These are pictures from Baghdad. Coming up, why a standoff between the U.S. and Iran may be getting even worse. We're going to talk about that.

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[04:45:00]

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CURNOW: I want to take you back to Baghdad. These are live pictures of protesters, gathering to mark the first anniversary of the U.S. assassination of a top Iranian general. Qasem Soleimani was one of Iran's most powerful military figured, killed by the U.S. in a drone strike in Baghdad last January. The strike also killed an Iraqi militia leader.

And when it comes to the U.S. and Iran, again accusing each other of increasing tensions in the region, Arwa Damon reports there are fears that the saber-rattling could build out into an all-out conflict.

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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are commemorations underway of Baghdad's airport road at the exact location where the U.S. strike hit the vehicle hit, carrying top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, killing him alongside a key Iraqi paramilitary leader.

Since then, tensions between the U.S. and Iran have only been escalating, with some U.S. officials saying the threat being posed by Iran is the most significant since Soleimani's killing.

And they're pointing to intelligence saying that Iran has been moving short-range ballistic missiles into Iraq.

But this is where it gets confusing. Other senior U.S. officials say that there is no actual evidence to corroborate this claim of a greater threat.

Either way, President Trump is not shying from warning Iran that, if one American is killed, he would be holding Iran responsible. There still continues to be, on a fairly regular basis, mortars and rockets that fall inside the heavily fortified green zone.

On December 21st, a number of them landing inside the U.S. embassy compound itself. All of this is leading to growing concerns across the region, that the situation could escalate even further, that President Trump could do something that would potentially be quite destabilizing and devastating, not just for the region's stability but specifically for the stability in Iraq.

This is a country that has, for a long time, emerged as a proxy battlefield between what's meant to be its ally, the United States, and its neighbor, Iran -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Coming up on CNN, physical contact, as we all know, has been scarce this year. Some inventers had to get creative in bringing people closer to their loved ones. That story next.

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[04:50:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING) CURNOW: A little treat for you here. Two big music stars are combining their talents on a new version of a five-decade old hit. Take a listen.

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CURNOW (voice-over): Dolly Parton and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees there, rehearsing the song, "Words," a classic Bee Gees tune from 1968. We all know that, even if we don't remember the original.

The remake is a single, which was released on Friday. It's also on Gibb's album, "Greenfields," which is to be released next week. Gibb says the album was inspired by country themes and also featured other country stars, which I love. He also says singing with Dolly Parton was, of course, so much fun.

Gibb is the only survivor of the Bee Gees, the group he formed with his two late brothers in the '50s.

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CURNOW: For months now, the pandemic has forced countless people to isolate and quarantine, robbing us all of contact with loved ones. That is, until the hug wall. Jean Mackin shows us how this COVID-19- safe solution is boosting morale at a nursing home.

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JEAN MACKIN, WMUR NEWS 9 ANCHOR (voice-over): These are the hugs Lu Canepa waited so long for, embracing his two granddaughters and his daughter through the new hug wall at Wheelock Terrace in Hanover.

MELISSA SUCKLING, WHEELOCK TERRACE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: I don't know who was happier, you or your family, Lu.

LU CANEPA, WHEELOCK TERRACE RESIDENT: I think we were both delighted to establish contact again. My granddaughter said that they actually had tears in their eyes after the hugging. It was just so nice to be close again.

MACKIN (voice-over): The staff sought similar inventions and wondered how could they make it safe here. With embroidery hoops for arm holes and molded-together shower curtains that can be sanitized between huggers, the hug wall is here -- two actually. One was made for residents in the memory program.

SUCKLING: I was actually here on Christmas Day and a visit was ending. And she was like, I just want to hug my daughter. I'm like, well, let's go to the hug wall. The family been able to make that connection, which has just been lacking for nine months.

MACKIN (voice-over): Melissa says the hug wall is also creating something they haven't seen recently -- tears of joy.

[04:55:00]

CANEPA: I really feel very, very close to them. And I think they feel very close to me also. So it was really very special, being able to touch each other again.

SUCKLING: This retired patent attorney has an idea.

CANEPA: We'll write a patent on this device.

(LAUGHTER)

MACKIN (voice-over): Lu has a lot to celebrate, including his upcoming birthday.

CANEPA: I'm going to be 94 this coming Saturday.

SUCKLING: Hopefully we can ring in 2021 better than 2020.

What do you think, Lu?

CANEPA: I hope so.

(LAUGHTER)

MACKIN (voice-over): With lots and lots of hugs.

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CURNOW: So leave it to a pair of health care workers who took it way beyond hugs here, to turn a routine vaccination into a special occasion.

Nurse Eric Vanderlee was all set to give his long-time partner, paramedic Robbie Vargas-Cortes, a COVID shot. But when the paramedic rolled up his sleeve, the nurse spotted something taped to his arm, of course, a ring. Take a look at how it all played out.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eric, you're using like a -- what is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it's been kind of a crazy year and it's been really a fun ride to have you in my life. So I just want to know --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

Is this happening?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you guys know this was going to happen?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Woohoo!

(LAUGHTER)

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CURNOW: We all need a smile and a hug. Robbie and Eric say they'll plan a wedding after the pandemic has subsided. Congrats.

So that wraps up this hour of CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. I'll be back in just a moment with more news. Stick with us.