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COVID Variants Are More Transmissible; President Biden to Announce Executive Orders Aimed at Racial Equality; Interview with Girls Who Code Founder and CEO Reshma Saujani. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 26, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Nationally the average is around 55 percent, so they've got to make up that short gap by addressing those specific things. If they do, we should be able to get to -- you know, maybe even higher numbers than 1.5 million per day.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Wow.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Sanjay, there's a resident in Minnesota who's now the first known case in the country of the variant spotted in Brazil. Why is that important and what do we know about this variant?

GUPTA: Well, this is really interesting. We've been keeping an eye on this area in Brazil, Manaus, you know, it's in the Amazon. And one thing to know about this place is they had a significant outbreak last year. They thought that a significant number, significant percentage of the residents had contracted the infection.

What they started to see was a resurgence of infections. Now, that's important because if you have a lot of people who became infected, did they have some herd immunity, what was going on there if they saw a resurgence.

And they saw two things. One is that this variant virus was certainly more transmissible, so there are people out there who are getting infected, and there was a certain percentage of people who were becoming reinfected. So there's the concern. Didn't necessarily mean they were getting sick or sicker or had a higher rate of dying, but clearly the virus was still there.

Now you have a person, as you mentioned, traveled back to Minnesota from Brazil on January 9th, got tested, they did the genetic sequencing on this particular person, probably because they came back from Brazil, and found in fact it was this variant known as the P1 variant.

So it has these mutations around it, which probably makes it more easily getting into human cells, which makes it more transmissible. But again, not evidence that it makes people sicker and there's not evidence that it won't be impacted by the vaccine. But that's what they've still got to test and figure out. SCIUTTO: OK, so you got a few variants now, right? That may be more

transmissible: from Brazil, South Africa, from the U.K. So I wonder how you explain, Sanjay, what we're seeing in the big-picture numbers, coming off the highs of new infections per day, coming off the highs of new hospitalizations per day. Is there hope in those numbers?

GUPTA: I think there's certainly hope in those numbers. I mean, you know, we've been following the downward trend overall in cases and hospitalizations, and hope that they continue. I mean, that's sort of what the model suggests, sort of end of this month, early next month, that we would start to see decreases in those numbers.

I don't know, Jim, you know, you talk to people like Mike Osterholm and -- and he'll say if these strains are this much more transmissible, 50 percent more transmissible, then they become the dominant strain in the country, they do, because they are just going to sort of crowd out the other strains and more people will become infected.

But I think the larger question is, will that lead to more hospitalizations and deaths? We don't know the answer to that yet. I think what this says, more than anything else, I -- as everybody knows now, is that the basic public health tools still apply.

But also it's not just the amount of vaccine out there, it is the pace of those vaccines. Because as the virus spreads more and more, it accumulates more and more mutations. Most of those mutations are random, really have no consequence. But every now and then you get a collection of mutations that'll make it more transmissible. So we've got out outpace the virus with the vaccine, not just in terms of numbers but in terms of speed.

HARLOW: Sanjay, finally, Regeneron just shared their data, they're saying their COVID-19 antibody treatment -- right? This is what the president, got, right? Former President Trump -- can prevent the disease. Can you explain how that works? Because I would think then everyone would run to get that if they can't get a vaccine.

GUPTA: Right. So the way to think about these monoclonal antibody therapies is you're essentially giving the antibodies that the vaccine is coaxing your body to make, you're just giving those antibodies.

Those antibodies aren't going to last as long as the ones that your bodies make from the vaccine --

HARLOW: OK.

GUPTA: -- and you're not going to have that sort of memory. But yes, I mean, you're essentially doing the same thing .

The -- it's an infusion, you've got to go to the hospital and it has to be given early in the course of someone's illness, typically to someone who's high risk.

So the scenario is this: I feel pretty good, I'm not that sick. Should I go to the hospital and get an infusion of monoclonal antibodies? Would I qualify because of pre-existing illness? It's still a little confusing for people.

But the idea that this is sort of a bridge to the vaccine, that it can, you know, serve as a sort of therapeutic as well as provide some immunity, I think is real. We've seen this with other diseases, there is a fair amount of monoclonal antibody out there -- in fact supply has sort of outpaced demand a bit with regard to this, and now we've got some better data in terms of just how effective it can be.

HARLOW: Just really quick follow-up, can you only get it if you're sick? Or could ostensibly we go get it?

[10:35:03]

GUPTA: if you are someone who's at high risk of developing serious illness, either because of age or pre-existing condition, and you have the infection, that's who's really qualifying.

HARLOW: Got it.

GUPTA: So you don't necessarily -- in fact you don't want to be too sick yet because it works early in the course of illness.

HARLOW: OK.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks very much.

HARLOW: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Be sure to join Dr. Gupta and Anderson Cooper for a new CNN global town hall, "THE RACE TO VACCINATE AMERICA." Dr. Anthony Fauci and top doctors from President Biden's COVID-19 team will join the program. Lots of questions to be answered. It airs live tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:15]

HARLOW: Today, President Biden is expected to sign another round of executive orders, this time focusing on racial equality including creating a commission on policing and addressing prison reform and public housing.

TEXT: President Biden's Equity Policy, Executive Orders Today: Police Reform, Create policing commission, bar transfer of military equipment to local departments; Prison Reform, improve conditions, seek to eliminate private prisons; Public Housing, Promote equitable policies

SCIUTTO: The president tweeted about this plan this morning, saying, quote, "America has never lived up to its founding promise of equality for all, but we've never stopped trying. Today, I'll take action to advance racial equity and push us closer to that more perfect union we've always strived to be."

Joining us now to discuss how he gets there is Charles Ramsey, former Philadelphia police commissioner, D.C. police commissioner, CNN law enforcement analyst.

Commissioner, thanks for taking the time this morning.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Quite all right.

SCIUTTO: So I think when a lot of people hear "commission," their eyes glaze over, they say, well, what the heck is a commission going to do. I wonder, from your perspective, can a commission make a difference here, right? Make needed recommendations to make changes that actually make a difference?

RAMSEY: Absolutely. You know, in 2015, I had the honor of co-chairing President Obama's task force on 21st century policing, and in about a three-month period of time, which we were given by the president to get a report on his desk, we came up with 59 recommendations and about 92 action steps, all concrete recommendations and action steps for departments to be able to take and move toward reform. So it's absolutely possible and needed.

HARLOW: I'm, Commissioner, a big believer that we learn more from our failures and our mistakes than anything else, for sure. And we know the criticism that Biden came under during the campaign, even from, you know, now his vice president, Kamala Harris, for his role in really co-authoring the '94 crime bill. He since said it was a mistake.

I wonder if you actually think that's a really useful lesson, the fact that he went through what he went through, did what he did, wrote what he wrote and is now in this position. And how he should use that.

RAMSEY: Well, it is useful. I mean, the '94 crime bill unintended consequences. We were in the middle of a crack war, we had homicides occurring, regularity, shootings and so forth. And everyone was trying to get a handle on that. If you think back to those days, I was in the Chicago Police Department at the time, which had more than its share of violence, so.

But what they didn't anticipate was the impact that it would have on certain communities, particularly communities of color. That was an unintended consequence. So I think this time around, that will be taken into consideration. The report that we did in 2015, I think, will be an excellent blueprint for this new commission to kind of get their work started.

But if I could add one thing, you've got to go beyond just police reform. The first recommendation we made was for a look at the entire criminal justice system, not just police. And I still think that's important.

SCIUTTO: What recommendations could you see in there? And I just wonder, is that the right path or is legislation, right? Because after George Floyd, there was an attempt at bipartisan legislation. It failed in Congress, Congress is, if anything, more divided today than it was those months ago. I mean, is it the right path and if you had to pick the top three or four recommendations, what would they be? RAMSEY: Well, first of all, I'm not in favor of -- I think you need

to be very careful when you use legislation. There may be some cases in which that's appropriate, but it's very hard to undo if you find out later that it's having an impact that you didn't really anticipate.

One of things I'd like to see is an outcome a new commission, would be setting of some national standards, particularly in the area of training, making sure that officers have adequate training in terms of dealing with people going through a mental health crisis.

Fair and impartial policing, this is all about equity, making sure that police are treating everyone, you know, fairly and equally.

And also use of force. Obviously, that is a huge issue that needs to be tacked, and the only way you can get departments to really conform, you find a way to tie it to federal funding. Otherwise it's going to be one of those things where some will do it, some won't do it and you know, you won't get very far.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that's the stick, in effect, beyond the carrot, right --

RAMSEY: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- to get those changes.

HARLOW: Not to mention parole reform, which is a big, big deal too, that our Van Jones --

RAMSEY: Right.

HARLOW: -- has done a lot of work on, that's a big part of it, you're right. Commissioner, thank you, we'll have you back soon.

RAMSEY: OK, thank you.

[10:44:44]

HARLOW: OK, coming up next, a proposal for a Marshall Plan for moms, paying mothers to stay home and raise their kids. What do you think about it? A letter to President Biden in "The New York Times" this morning, asking for it. The woman who penned the letter, the CEO of Girls Who Code, joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: This just in to CNN, a source tells CNN that President Biden is set to order a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal land. This is expected to headline the list of climate actions he will be announcing on Wednesday.

The halt on new leases would apply to federal land and water areas. It would not affect, though, existing leases. The moratorium expands the 60-day moratorium that Biden signed on his first day in office on Wednesday.

HARLOW: All right. Well, the National Women's Law Center finds that more than 2 million women have left the workforce in the U.S. since this pandemic began. In December alone, women left the workforce at four times the rate of men.

[10:50:08]

As for mothers, a Morning Consult poll finds 42 percent of women with children under two years old left the workforce in the past year. That gives you an idea of how bad this pandemic has been, particularly for women on the work front.

In today's "New York Times," you will see this. It is a full-page ad, it calls on the Biden administration to launch a Marshall Plan for moms that would pay moms $2,400 a month because they're home raising their children. I want to bring in the author of that letter, the woman who came up with this idea, Reshma Saujani. She joins me now.

And you have big names: activist Tarana Burke, Alyssa Milano, Julianne Moore, so many big names -- Eva Longoria -- on this signing it with you. Make the case, what do you think should happen?

RESHMA SAUJANI, FOUNDER AND CEO, GIRLS WHO CODE: Look, as you mentioned, we have a national crisis. Women's labor market participation is at it was in the 1980s, so we need a 360 plan to get mothers back to work.

That includes basic income for moms, it includes child care, you know, paid leave, you know, passing policies that we have been fighting for for decades. It includes a school reopening plan so that kids can be back in school five days a week. And it includes making sure that we are retraining women with Wall Street and Main Street to get them back to work. We need a plan that is focused on getting women back to work.

HARLOW: So the basic idea -- so if I lost my job, and I was home with our children, you're arguing for $2,400, I believe it is, a month to also help -- that would pay for things, also, like child care, so that I could retrain to get back in the workforce, et cetera. Is that right?

SAUJANI: Absolutely. Look, I mean, if you ask why are women leaving? it's for two reasons. One, it's a child care crisis. So when all of us found out that we had to, you know, school our children, we cut back our hours, we didn't raise our hand for that promotion, we got on food stamps, we moved in with our parents. We have been taking the brunt of school closures.

The second thing is, is COVID has caused an economic crisis in many industries where women are in: hospitality, education, health care, many of these jobs, they're not coming back.

And when this crisis started, women were over 50 percent of the labor market participation. It's going to take decades to get back there if we don't have a plan to get them back to work. HARLOW: OK. So two questions on the dad-slash-men front. Why not

dads? Two, and then all these women, really powerful big names, there are no men on here. Is it going to be for dads too?

SAUJANI: Yes, we -- listen, I think when I started Girls Who Code, people said to me, what about the boys? The reality is, is this economic crisis is disproportionately affecting mothers, and you cannot change what you cannot name. So we can't be afraid to call it a Marshall Plan for moms because that's who's being affected.

And I am a big believer in male allies, my inbox has been inundated with dads this morning, being like, right on, I believe in this too, I see what's happening in my living room every single day. So dads, men are welcome in this movement, we need you.

HARLOW: Let me ask you the devil's advocate question. Critics who might be watching, or people just watching and wondering, well, you have a child and you're making a choice, right? And does the government have the money to pay for this, should the government pay for it? What's your response to them?

SAUJANI: No woman made a choice to stay home and take of our children in this crisis, that choice was made for us. When they closed schools and they calculated about HVAC equipments or what are we going to do to support teachers? No one said, well, what's going to happen to moms? It's not a choice.

We are not America's social safety net. And as many of us have been essentially replacing paid labor for unpaid labor, and nobody asked us. They have put a zero value on our labor, and it's time to put a value on it. You know, this administration has said, in the first hundred days, we are putting our values on the line. Well, the first value that we have to put up there is motherhood.

HARLOW: I have -- I -- this year has given me a deep, even deeper, more profound respect and admiration for stay-at-home mothers and stay-at-home parents. it is the most important job you can do, it is the hardest job you can do. And so I -- you know, it really has certainly taught me a lot.

I guess, I wonder, have you heard back from the Biden administration on this?

SAUJANI: Not yet, but we will. I know Joe Biden cares about mothers. This is an issue that he cares about personally, and so I have no doubt that this administration will do the right thing and put together a Marshall Plan for mothers. Because if we don't, all the work that we have done to fight for equity and equality, all of it, it's gone to waste.

And it's not just this administration, it's the private sector too. Every CEO who is listening to this conversation right now, they need a plan about flexibility, retraining. What are they going to do to --

[10:55:05]

HARLOW: Yes, they do.

SAUJANI: -- get back those women that they have lost? We have to focus on this as a country, it is a national crisis.

HARLOW: Reshma Saujani, thank you very much for coming on --

SAUJANI: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: -- for making the case. Good to have you, we'll follow it.

SAUJANI: Thank you.

HARLOW: And thanks to all of you -- as always -- for being with us, we'll see you tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

[10:55:23]

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

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[11:00:02]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Hello everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan, thank you so much for joining us this hour.