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Pfizer Second Doses Begin Today; Cutting Moderna Doses in Half; Georgia's Senate Runoff Election; Critical Georgia Runoff Election; Vaccine Distribution Lags. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired January 04, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:27]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Frontline health workers in Hartford, Connecticut, getting protected today. They're receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Our Alexander Field is there.

It is -- it is some good news in what has been a really rough start to the year for sure in terms of distribution.

What's the feeling in the room?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Poppy. Certainly cannot overstate the significance of being able to get this second dose for the ten frontline hospital workers who will come here to the Hartford Convention Center today to receive that second dose. But this really is a milestone across the country to watch these second doses make it into arms. And today we'll start to reveal some important metrics. You know, whether those second doses are moving at the paces that we expected.

Here in Hartford, they're telling in that in the initial shipment of Pfizer vaccines, they received 1,950 first doses. They administered those. And the good news this morning is that they tell us they also received 1,950 second doses. That's important. We're going to want to see that that is happening at sites everywhere.

What's also important is that the clinics in Hartford, where they are administering vaccines, are telling us that they have been able to scale up in the weeks since they first started administering those vaccines. On day one it was about 20 shots in arms.

Now they're doing about 2,000 shots in arms every day. They have 10 clinics that they're operating. They have seven hospitals within the health care system. So they're trying to get to 23,000 frontline workers. So far they've gotten to 13,000 works. They say they expect to continue to ramp up as there is more access to vaccines they'll open more clinics and they'll try to get those numbers moving up for the daily average.

Jim. Poppy.

HARLOW: OK. Alexandra Field, a good day for all of them. Thank you so much.

Well, the FDA is meeting later this week. They are considering whether to cut Moderna's vaccine doses in half to try to get basically, Jim, more people with at least some vaccine.

SCIUTTO: Yes, because it's well behind the administration's stated public goals here.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: At last count, only 4.2 million Americans have already received their first vaccine dose. The administration is on the record saying 20 million by the end of December. Of course, that deadline passed.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.

So, first, on this question of splitting, is just a half dose, one dose, do we know what level of protection that offers?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jim, we actually really don't.

So that dose was given in earlier studies, in phase two studies, which is on a relatively small number of people. And what they did was they gave this smaller dose and then they checked the blood. What do the antibodies look like? And it did generate a response for people under 55.

But here's the thing, it was never tried out in phase three studies. So we don't really know if in real life that dosage protects people from COVID.

You mentioned the FDA. I spoke with a member of the FDA advisory committee, Dr. Paul Offit, who's at the University of Pennsylvania, and he said, quote, that's a terrible idea, terrible. He used the world "terrible."

I also spoke with Dr. Fauci. He said that he wants to see the data before he gives any opinion or any thoughts on this.

But the intent is to get more of these doses out there because we were told 20 million doses by the end of the year.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COHEN: Only 13 million have been distributed. That is a far cry from 20.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Yes, and they were very clear in saying 20 million people would be immunized by the end of the year.

Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

COHEN: Thanks.

HARLOW: Thanks, Elizabeth.

Well, President Trump and President-elect Biden are both headed to Georgia today, ahead of the high stakes Senate runoff tomorrow. So we'll take you to the state, next.

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[09:39:07]

HARLOW: Georgia Republicans alarmed that after the president's call with their secretary of state he is more focused on his baseless election fraud claims than helping the state's two Republican senators win crucial runoffs, by the way, that are tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: They fear that his rally in the state today will be more about airing grievances, more about himself, than rallying Republican voters for those Senate candidates.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is live in Fulton County, Georgia, at the center of this very much.

Gary, a question about the president's rally tonight.

Do we know what his message is intended to be?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim and Poppy, it's absolutely anybody's guess what his message will be. The people of Georgia, I will tell you, have some unique power. Their votes will shape a nation. Their votes will decide who controls the United States Senate. Tomorrow is the U.S. Senate runoff election, but it's actually the end of the election season because early voting began three weeks ago.

[09:40:07]

It came to an end Wednesday. And you can still take your ballot and deliver it to official absentee ballot drop boxes like this and drop your ballot in. This is the Buckhead Library in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, Georgia. This is Fulton County, population one million, a little over 1 million. The biggest county of the 159 counties in the state of Georgia. Cars are pulling up to drop off their ballots. In this particular county, Democrats did very well in November. They anticipate doing very well during this runoff election.

Election Day weather tomorrow throughout the state of Georgia is expected to be superlative, in the 50s here in the northern part of the state, in the 60s in the southern part of the state.

I will tell you, this early voting, Jim and Poppy, you always talk about runoff elections being very apathetic. Voters having a lot of apathy. Not the case at all. More than 3 million votes have already been cast in the state of Georgia. To give you context with that, the all-time record for a U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia was in 2008 when 2.1 million votes were cast, and that was total votes, not early votes, total votes. So already 3 million votes.

President Trump will be here tonight in the state of Georgia, in Dalton. That's the carpet capital of the United States, in the northwestern portion of the state. Mike Pence will be here in the afternoon in Milner, Georgia, south of Atlanta, north of Macon. And Joe Biden will be here this afternoon campaigning in the city of Atlanta. So all the big guns are here in Georgia.

Jim and Poppy, back to you.

HARLOW: Totally shows you how much this matters tomorrow.

Gary, thank you for that reporting very much.

Let's bring in political reporter for "The Atlanta Journal- Constitution," Greg Bluestein, who has been living, breathing, eating, sleeping this election.

GREG BLUESTEIN, POLITICAL REPORTER, "ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION": Not much sleep.

HARLOW: Not much. You're right. You're right. Well, your reporting's been tremendous throughout. And you wrote over the weekend, sure, Biden flipped the state with a narrow 12,000 votes but repeating that feat it a monumental task for democrats, especially considering both Ossoff and Warnock, who was a 20-candidate special election, lagged behind Biden's totals.

Did the president's now recorded call with the Georgia secretary of state over the weekend make that feat a little less monumental and a little bit easier for Ossoff and Warnock?

BLUESTEIN: Yes, a little bit easier. We're not sure how much easier. But certainly it plays into the Democrats' arguments throughout this entire campaign that the Republicans are too loyal to Trump, that they're basically Trump stooges and they'll do anything to appease and placate Trump, even putting the president over their own -- over Georgians' self-interest.

So it gives them some ammunition for these final day -- final day, I should say, and also gives Joe Biden's appearance in Atlanta later on today an extra bonus level of news coverage because what is Joe Biden going to say about these tapes?

SCIUTTO: So much of this is about turnout for both parties. And I've spoken to Republican state officials there who are concerned about early voting and Democrat advantage in early voting, particularly among African-Americans but also young voters.

What do the numbers tell us? Because Republicans then need to do what they typically do, right, is have a bigger turnout on Election Day, but can it be big enough, in effect? BLUESTEIN: Yes, Republicans have a reason to be nervous in Georgia.

Look, they're underperforming in some of the biggest Republican strongholds, including northwest Georgia, where President Trump is heading later today, to the carpet capital, that Gary mentioned, Dalton, but also other parts of north Georgia and west Georgia. You look at a lot of conservative, rural counties, they're just lagging behind Democratic early voting participation.

The same thing happened in November. You know, you had Democrats dominating the early vote and Republicans making up for it in some cases in the election day vote, but it wasn't enough for President Trump to overcome Joe Biden in the general election. Democrats are hoping they can -- they have just enough early votes to hold off a Republican charge.

HARLOW: Greg, I think it was ten days after, you know, the presidential election in November that we -- the state of Georgia was actually called, correct me if I'm wrong, but are we going to know tomorrow night then who won these Senate races?

BLUESTEIN: Yes, it was about 10 days. It was a long, long ten days. And I don't think we will. And that's the -- something that all our viewers need to keep in mind is that there's so much -- there's so many mail-in ballots. There's a lot of counties, 159 counties, each with its own systems of counting. Some are slower than others. And particularly metro Atlanta is legendary for being slow, Fulton County, where Gary was, is very slow at counting. And that's where -- it's Georgia's most populous county. So there could be a long way.

SCIUTTO: Typically the president, presidential rallies, and these worked enormously well for him during the general. He goes -- he does the rallies. He gets people to come to the rallies and he gets those people to vote. I imagine that's the intention from the president's rally today.

[09:45:00]

I mean what is the infrastructure built around that to make that happen if it does happen?

BLUESTEIN: Yes, it's right near the Tennessee border. So there is a likelihood that there will be a lot of people from outside the state who are there, who just want to see President Trump's final rally as president, but there will be thousands of Georgians there as well.

It will be at an airport like most of his rallies are. There will be -- it will be -- you know, there will be food trucks, there will be a circus like atmosphere, there will be lots of reporters there. I'm sure there will be hundreds of reporters documenting this visit. I'm headed up there later on today.

And, you know, the focus will be on, yes, he might promote Senators Loeffler and Perdue but will he spend 95 percent of his time talking about his own election grievances.

SCIUTTO: Yes. BLUESTEIN: That's what he did in (INAUDIBLE) just a few weeks ago when he had his earlier rally in Georgia.

SCIUTTO: Well, let's hope people are wearing masks at the rally, because the track record, not great.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Greg Bluestein, thanks so much for joining us again.

BLUESTEIN: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, the chief adviser of the so-called Operation Warp Speed now says the administration only hoped to have 20 million Americans vaccinated by now. Fact is, that is not what he said on camera last month. We're going to play that video for you next.

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[09:50:39]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

There have been a lot of promises made by the administration on actually getting vaccines into the arms of the American people.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Case in point, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar now says Operation Warp Speed only expected 20 million vaccinations by the end of December, not to have 20 million Americans vaccinated. It's semantics, but it really matters for keeping people safe and alive and it stands in stark contrast to earlier messages.

Last month, the chief adviser for Operation Warp Speed said this.

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DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Overall, in the month of December, between the two vaccines, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine, we expect to have immunized 20 million of our American people and keeping 20 million doses for their second immunization a few weeks later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Note that, Azar was not telling the truth. Slaoui said people vaccinated. He didn't say doses delivered.

Just last hour, pressured on this contrast, Dr. Slaoui was asked about it on CNN and here's how he answered.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. Slaoui, you said 20 million people.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Yes, so I did say that, and, you know, that was our hope.

CAMEROTA: Vaccines don't matter unless you vaccinate people.

SLAOUI: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: And you personally promised that there would be 20 million, or that's what you anticipated, that's what you estimated.

SLAOUI: Hoped. We hoped.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, obviously it's not --

SLAOUI: That's what we hope. Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: OK. OK, so let's say that you hoped.

SLAOUI: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: It's -- and so it's not working.

SLAOUI: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And so why wash your hands of it now? Why say, well, it's just up to the states. They have to ask for it.

SLAOUI: It's not -- we're not washing -- we are not washing our hands from it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: So, of course, the question is, what are they doing about it?

Joining us now, Dr. Ashish Jha, he is dean of Brown University School of Public Health.

Dr. Jha, good to have you on.

I mean, listen, I mean it's deliberately misleading there. Azar saying, well, we only said doses delivered. In fact, they're on the record saying having people immunized.

You and I have spoken about this a number of times in the last week. Where do you stand on this? Can states turn this around and get us back closer to those goals that we had knowledge (ph) only for the end of December but for the end of the first quarter?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes. Good morning and thanks for having me on.

First of all, even on December 21st, Vice President Pence, the head of the Coronavirus Task Force said we're on track to vaccinate 20 million people. So, look, they clearly had that as a target. They just -- they didn't think through the work that was needed to go from getting vaccines to states, to get vaccines into peoples' arms. And the federal government has not been a reliable partner. Do I think we can turn it around? I do. I'm actually quite optimistic

that we can turn it around. States are trying their best. They finally are getting some resources. And I think states are going to make progress. But one of the things we've learned in this whole pandemic is having every state figure this out on their own is not a good strategy. Federal help is useful.

HARLOW: For sure. I mean, like, there's only so much literal Monday morning quarterbacking that can be done on this but it's -- it matters a lot in terms of where we go from here because the majority of the doses have not even been created, let alone distributed yet.

Should this be, Dr. Jha, a state administered thing with some recommendations from the government or it's -- are we at the point where there need to be federal mandates because it is a national emergency?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JHA: It is a national emergency and I think most states feel that sense of urgency. I think, realistically, states have been working in certainly the last month on building up infrastructure. I don't know -- you know, look, if we got to start it over again, we could have a conversation about doing it differently.

At this point, I think the most efficient is to work with states, get them more resources, get them more technical help and capacity, help them build up vaccination sites. Do things that states need help with. To me, that's the most prudent path forward. We don't, unfortunately, get to start over again. And we are where we are with the rollout. We just have to figure out how do we move forward most efficiently.

SCIUTTO: Clearly the incoming administration is aware of this. They've assembled a team of folks with an enormous amount of experience.

What steps need to be taken as of January 20th, the afternoon, right, after the swearing in, to turbo charge this, right? I mean to catch up, make up lost ground?

JHA: Yes. My sense is that the folks are -- who are on Mr. Biden's team, President-elect Biden's team, are already working on this.

[09:55:03]

They're already reaching out to states. They're working with people in the CDC, really trying to get an assessment of where we are.

I think a whole series of things -- again, I think resources going out to states is one part. Really understanding what individual states need. Some states need certain things, others need others. Some people need -- some states need individual (ph) people, others need supplies. We need to work on all of those things.

HARLOW: Very quickly before you go, you have a new op-ed out in "The Washington Post" and you make the case for delaying the second dose of the COVID vaccines. You didn't think that before. Why do you think it's prudent now?

JHA: Yes, this is a place where I have evolved. I mean, look, right now the way we are going, we're on track to vaccinate people in their 70s and 80s late this month or sometime in February. People in 60s, maybe not until March. Giving the variant that is starting to really spread across this country, I'm very worried about what's going to happen to hospitalizations and death and all the people who are at risk.

And so I have come to conclude that I think we have enough science and enough data that we can take the vaccines we have, get it out into people's arms and then fill in with a second dose as new doses come off the production line.

Right now we're saving about 55 percent of vaccines sitting in freezers. I think we can move a lot of them out faster.

HARLOW: Dr. Ashish Jha, always good to have you. Thanks so much for being here with us this morning.

JHA: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, President Trump clearly under fire for pushing, threatening, Georgia's secretary of state, telling him to find more votes and therefore to overturn the election. This morning Brad Raffensperger is responding. You'll hear it next.

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