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GOP's Identity Crisis Has Trump At Its Center; Portugal's Healthcare System Overwhelmed With COVID; Race Against Variants In The U.S. Begins; Essential Workers Need Vaccinations First; Calls To Expel Marjory Taylor-Greene From Congress; W.H.O. Team Investigating Virus Origins Leaves Quarantine; Cheating and Favoritism Mar U.S. Vaccine Efforts; India Pledges to Donate Vaccines to Neighboring Countries; Protecting Sierra Gorda; GameStop's Wild Run Freaking Out Wall Street; Award Winning Actress Cicely Tyson Dead at 96. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 29, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Post-Trump world and Republicans are just living in it. The new challenges facing the GOP.
Right now, a team of experts are in Wuhan investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. We are live in the region.
And meet the 22-year-old vaccine volunteer who ended up accused of stealing supplies to give to his friends.
Well, health experts say those new more contagious variants of the coronavirus could mean another 85,000 deaths in the United States by May.
At the same time, European regulators are expected to sign in the coming hours on approval for the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. The drug maker is disputing a claim from German officials that people over the age of 65 should avoid that vaccine.
Meantime, Novavax says its vaccine is nearly 90 percent effective. But the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., Anthony Fauci, says it may not work as well against the variant from South Africa.
That's where CNN's Nick Watt picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The more contagious variant first found in South Africa is here.
Two cases just confirmed in different parts of South Carolina.
DR. BRANNON TRAXLER, INTERIM DIRECTOR, SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: There is no known travel history and there is no known connection between the two cases.
WATT: These first documented infections actually happened weeks ago. All this means the mutation is spreading on American soil.
And lab test of this variant versus the vaccine, the vaccine is --
FAUCI: Diminished by multifold (ph) in its ability to cover. It's still within the range of what you would predict to be protected. But I take no great comfort in that.
WATT: Still fewer than 50 million vaccine doses distributed, a little over half of them actually in arms.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, U.S. CDC DIRECTOR: On the administration side, there is some delay in reporting.
WATT: In these states, more than half their doses are still sitting in the freezer. Maybe states holding back second doses?
WALENSKY: We need to make sure that's available for them when they return for their second shot.
When you do all that math, you still end up with some millions of doses that are sitting on the shelves and have not yet been administered.
WATT: 20,000 National Guard already deployed to the effort, FEMA now asking for more help. Up to 10,000 active duty could be deployed.
MAX ROSE, COVID-19 SENIOR ADVISER TO THE U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are actively considering support for the vaccine effort and are prepared to certainly do so.
WATT: The various variants now circulating here also impact tests, says the FDA.
DR. TIMOTHY STENZEL, DIRECTOR, FDA OFFICE OF IN VITRO DIAGNOSTIC & RADIOLOGICAL HEALTH: There may be a performance difference going forward.
WATT: Testing never quite reached the numbers needed and now it's falling. Right now average new case counts are falling, all across the country. But still averaging over 160,000 new cases every day.
And those faster spreading variants?
MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH & POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Are going to overlay on top of that very high baseline. So what we can expect to see in the course of the next, I think, six to 14 weeks is something that we haven't even come close to experiencing yet.
WATT: Now the superintendent of schools here in Los Angeles, the second biggest district in the nation, said maybe schools can reopen here and across the country, more schools, sometime later in the spring -- the word "maybe" is doing a lot of work there.
He wants to have all staff in this district vaccinated before the schools open. And the infection rate here is going to have to drop dramatically before those schools can reopen.
WATT (On Camera): Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Doctor Nicolas Tom Sawyer is an emergency medicine physician at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. He's with us live this hour. Doctor, thanks for taking the time to be with us.
I'm sure you've seen the numbers. These daily infections are now starting to decline which is encouraging. But how long will this last, will this all go on, with the new more contagious variant, the one from South Africa, now detected here in the United States?
DR. NICOLAS TOM SAWYER, EMERGENCY MEDICINE, UC DAVIS HEALTH: Right. Well, thank you for having me on today, John.
We are seeing a decrease in the number of coronavirus cases locally and it is encouraging. However, the news of these new variance is highly concerning, particularly with what Dr. Fauci said.
The variants and the mutations are in the spike proteins. And that's the place where the vaccines are actually directed against is the spike proteins.
And so when you get the natural evolution of these spike proteins then it makes it so that potentially the vaccines may be less effective. However, important to know is they are already starting to work on new vaccines that will be effective against these new variants, which is encouraging.
VAUSE: Now I know this is all about natural selection and that -- as far as this virus goes, it was originally described as one that was quite flawed which is why it was continuing to mutate at such a sort of fairly fast pace, at least initially.
[01:05:00]
So it's just sort of a random coincidence that these mutations started happening in the spike protein, the one area where the vaccines were actually targeted?
SAWYER: Well, you get -- you're going to get vaccine -- sorry, you're going to get mutations throughout the different types of proteins that make up the virus.
And sometimes they are meaningful proteins -- sometimes they're meaningful mutations and sometimes they're actually silent mutations. So we are getting mutations throughout the virus in different parts; it just so happens that it also occurs at the spike protein as well.
VAUSE: OK. So how ready are hospitals and ERs, how ready are you for another surge in case numbers given the incredible stress which healthcare systems in the U.S. and around the world have gone through in the last couple of months?
SAWYER: Yes. We're tired. It's been nearly a year to the day since the first coronavirus infection was identified in the United States.
And we're tired. Everybody's got pandemic fatigue but we're ready. We stand ready on the front lines to take care of people as they come in every day, no matter who they are.
And fortunately, because the numbers are down right now we have capacity and we also have capacity and the flex (ph) that's needed.
VAUSE: Yes, I just wonder how long -- how long can this go -- the frog boiling in the water -- it's just incremental, the stress being put on the system.
SAWYER: Yes, that's -- what can we do, right? We are the frontline health care workers, we have this role and responsibility and the expertise for care for people who are in need. And we're going to do what it takes to take care of people who need our help.
We are, if nothing but resilient and it is challenging -- don't get me wrong. But we will be there for people.
VAUSE: Yes. It's incredible how the health care workers have just fought on throughout all of this. Clearly, the priority now on vaccinations is a key out of all of this.
I want you to listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci on who should be vaccinated and when.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES (Voice Over): "We don't want, in the beginning, that most of the people who are getting it are otherwise well middle- class white people. You know, you really want to get it to the people who are really the most vulnerable.
You want to get it to everybody, but you don't want to have a situation where people who really are in need of it because of where they, are where they live, what their economic status is, that they don't have access to the vaccine."
VAUSE: I just want to point out he was at the time speaking to the "New England Journal of Medicine" and it makes perfect sense.
But when I heard it, my first thought was potentially firstly, mixed messaging and confusion about everybody gets the vaccine but no, you got to wait. And then maybe some anger and outrage from those groups who'll be told not so fast?
SAWYER: Well, I think the issue that Dr. Fauci is alluding to is that the deaths that we've seen due to the coronavirus and the morbidity, so the ill effects of this disease, is disproportionately affecting people of color.
And so, that being said, we have to pay attention and we can't ignore that. And that is a very important point. Is many of the essential workers
are out there, who are doing the daily work to ensure that everybody has the food that they need, to ensure that everybody has access to the daily goods that are required for daily living are at high risk and many of those people happen to be people of color.
So I think that he's just being sensitive to the fact that that community has been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. And we should take that into consideration when determining who gets the vaccine first.
VAUSE: Absolutely. As I say, it makes perfect sense. I just hope that that's how most people take it.
Doctor Nicolas Tom Sawyer in Sacramento, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
SAWYER: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: Well, starting today, Portugal will close its borders for two weeks to try and slow the spread of the virus. People there are also being told not to travel abroad for 15 days except in rare circumstances.
That comes after Portugal set yet another record for daily COVID deaths, more than 300 on Thursday. Close to 700,000 confirmed cases.
Isa Soares takes us inside an intensive care unit which is now struggling to keep up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A silent chaos fills this ICU ward on the outskirts of Lisbon in Portugal.
Here as patient after patient battle for breathe, for life itself, only their heart monitors echo through these walls.
For a country that mastered the first wave of COVID-19, this is in alarming sight. An epidemic so ferocious that ICU wards are overwhelmed and nearing capacity.
But what's mostly needed right now is medical staff.
DULCE GONCALVES, HEAD NURSE, CASCAIS HOSPITAL (Through Translator): I would love to always have one nurse for six patients, but most times I have one tending to eight.
[01:10:00]
SOARES: And they, lead nurse Dulce Goncalves tells us, are overworked and beyond exhausted.
GONCALVES (Through Translator): I don't even have words to say it. The difficult part is really working too many hours.
SOARES: But there's no respite for them yet, as hospitals feel the immense weight of this latest wave.
DR. NUNO CORTE-REAL, DIRECTOR, CASCAIS HOSPITAL CLINICAL (Through Translator): The hospitals are all overwhelmed and the Cascais Hospital is no exceptional.
We are nearing our limit, if we're not there already. And what we're seeing is that the services that exist in Portugal are starting to be overrun by this tsunami.
SOARES: Across the country, hospitals are struggling to cope with the rapid surge new cases.
With doctors telling CNN they estimate 25 percent of all new cases have been caused by the variant discovered in the U.K.
So it's all hands on deck here. With large military health units being set up in Lisbon and Porto -- even cafeterias are being turned into wards.
All in a bid to avoid scenes like this. Patients being triaged in lines of ambulances waiting outside overcrowded hospitals in Lisbon.
But as the admissions grow throughout the country, so do the scars they carry.
Dr. Gustavo Carona tells me --
DR. GUSTAVO CARONA, PEDRO HOSPITAL, INTENSIVE CARE PHYSICIAN: We are dealing with the patient suffering in a way that we have never seen before, and it's a very slow disease.
It's not like they arrive in the hospital and then they die. They are there for hours, for days.
Doctor Carona has been on the front lines of wars in the Middle East and Africa. But this, he tells me, isn't a war.
CARONA: It's quite complex to deal with intensive care patients. So you cannot find specialists in a vending machine. The problem is that people don't understand that there is a limit to our capacity.
SOARES: Doctors say the messaging out of Portugal has been clear. Though many have criticized the government for relaxing measures at Christmas, including allowing families to gather and for going ahead with presidential elections just days ago. A debate staff at this hospital simply have no time for.
Here there's only a spirit of mission. But the fear is that this will soon fade away as exhaustion and anxiety begin to set in.
SOARES (Voice Over): Isa Soares, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come. Growing calls for U.S. congressman to resign or being kicked out. After video resurfaced showing Marjory Taylor Greene harassing a teenage Parkland shooting survivor.
A message from one of the victim's families. That's next.
Also, the post-Trump era for Republicans lasted all of a week. So does this congressman still blame the former president for inciting the deadly Capitol riot or are they now on good terms?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: The enemy is within the house of the representatives.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What exactly did you mean when you said the enemy is within? What exactly did you --
PELOSI: It means that we have members of congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:15:00]
VAUSE: Just think about that. That really is the speaker of the house of representatives telling reporters about the need for more security because of dangers posed by some elected officials.
Meantime, outside the house the acting Capitol Police chief is calling for permanent fencing as well as backup forces ready at a moment's notice. It comes in the wake of the deadly January 6th riots amid new threats of violence.
And calls are growing, especially from house Democrats, to expel Marjory Taylor Greene from congress.
Many have been left outraged over the Georgia Republican's social media post where she's endorsed conspiracy theories, indicated support for violence against Democrats.
Green has also been criticized for a video where she confronted a high school shooting survivor. This happened before she was elected to congress in 2018.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORY TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Listen, I'm an American citizen, I'm a gun owner. I have a conceal carry permit, I carry a gun with for protection for myself. And you are using your lobby and the money behind it and the kids to try to take away my Second Amendment rights.
You don't have anything to say for yourself, you can't defend your stance?
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Survivors of victims' families are now also calling for her to step down.
Scott Beigel was one of 17 people killed in 2018 in that school shooting. He was a geography teacher and shot while trying to save his students.
His mother spoke earlier with CNN -- and we'll hear from her in a moment. But first, a video she shared with us before talking with CNN's Don Lemon.
It's silent. It shows the moment her son opened the door to his classroom to allow students to run to safety before he was shot. And a warning, this is disturbing.
(CLIP PLAYS)
LINDA BEIGEL SCHULMAN, MOTHER OF PARKLAND VICTIM: It was not a staged event. I only wish that the body in the casket that I identified was a prop and not my son.
For the past 1,080 days -- and that's how many days it was since the massacre and I will probably be counting days for the rest of my life -- I wish the shooter was a paid actor. If that were so then my son would be alive today I'd be watching your show, not be on it responding to her lies.
She has no right to trivialize the murder of 17 innocent lives that were taken on February 14th, 2018. She has no right to negate Scott's heroism. And she has no right to demean my son's memory with her conspiracy theories.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Congresswoman Greene is just the latest example of how right- wing extremists, reality deniers and conspiracy theorists have infiltrated the Republican Party during the Trump era.
Here's CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The American flag is proudly waving today at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. But the shining sun belies the storm brewing inside the Republican Party.
Kevin McCarthy, the house GOP leader, made a pilgrimage to Florida hoping to get back into the former president's good graces after angering Trump following the deadly attack on the Capitol.
KEVIN MCCARTHY, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER: The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters.
ZELENY: McCarthy has been back pedaling ever since, making clear he still sees Trump as the leader of the Republican Party. A view not shared by senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, who hasn't spoken to Trump in more than a month.
The Mar-a-Lago meeting was focused on taking back the house in 2022, Trump aides said in a statement. Adding --
-- "his endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time."
With his looming impeachment trial, Trump remains front and center in the Republican Party, even as it faces an identity crisis.
In a private call with House Republicans this week, McCarthy admonished his members to stop the infighting, CNN has learned. Bluntly saying to -- "cut that crap out. With no more attacks on one another." But he's done little to actually stop it.
With Florida congressman, Matt Gaetz, a loyal Trump ally, traveling to Wyoming today to try taking down Liz Cheney, the number three house Republican who voted for Trump's impeachment.
[01:20:00]
REP. MATT GAETZ, (R-FLA.): If you want to prove that you have the power, defeat Liz Cheney in this upcoming election and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees.
The GOP turmoil is playing out as a series of sideshows. None louder than Georgia congresswoman, Marjory Taylor Greene, who deleted her social media posts after CNN reported she harassed victims of the Parkland school shooting and endorsed violence against democratic lawmakers.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Enough is enough. Enough is enough.
GREENE: That's what happens. People will still do mass shootings --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's right.
GREENE: -- it's being used by the left because you're young.
ZELENY: The congresswoman who has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories was given a plum seat on the house education and labor committee.
Illinois congressman, Adam Kinziger, one of 10 house Republicans to support Trump's impeachment said the party is at a dangerous crossroads.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-ILL): Well, let's be clear, she's not a Republican. I personally don't think she should have any committees.
A fear of reining in fringe Republican elements has created an opening for Democrats which Speaker Nancy Pelosi seized on today.
Assigning her to the education committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook elementary school, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers in high school at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school -- what could they be thinking? David Hogg, the Parkland student who was the subject of Taylor
Greene's harassment telling CNN he had a message for leader McCarthy.
DAVID HOGG, PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING SURVIVOR: If you say this is not your party, actually call it out and hold her accountable.
So just a week after Donald Trump left office, clearly in disgrace facing a second impeachment, many Republicans said it was time to turn the page.
But House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy made one thing clear. The GOP is still the party of Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY (On Camera): Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.
VAUSE: Kurt Bardella spent a decade working as an adviser to Republican lawmakers but he quit the party and in 2017 became a Democrat and is now a senior adviser at the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. Good to have you with us for the first time.
KURT BARDELLA, SENIOR ADVISOR, THE LINCOLN PROJECT: Glad to be here, John.
VAUSE: OK. Just to continue on with the QAnon lady from Georgia who believes gun reform activists are behind school shootings to force tougher gun laws.
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the house, says he'll talk with her -- which, in itself, is pretty meaningless. What is consequential is naming her to the education committee.
If nothing's done about her and all these other sort of recently elected lunatics, what's the one conclusion which can be drawn from the Republican leadership, that it's OK with these extremists?
BARDELLA: Well, I think that what we're seeing right now, the fact that the Republican leader of the house of representatives, Kevin McCarthy, is kowtowing, catering and pandering to the audience that has given Marjory Taylor Greene a platform, a dangerous conspiracy theorist and anti-democratic member of basically a cult -- that that's where the power center now is in this Republican Party.
The fact that Kevin McCarthy, a leader, a so-called leader can't exercise his own authority to do things like strip committee assignments from someone who is dangerous, who has threatened the lives of lawmakers, who doesn't believe in democracy, doesn't believe in the fundamental tenets of what makes our republic function -- the fact that that is now the standard for the Republican Party, a party that used to believe in things like limited government, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility.
And now what we're hearing is a completely different orthodoxy that is rooted in conspiracy theories, that promotes white nationalism, that provokes violence, that provokes violence against our own lawmakers, our own capital and our own democracy.
The Republican Party now is a cult that operates in what used to be the deep corners of the Internet and has now brought those places mainstream.
And it's a very dangerous time in our country right now.
VAUSE: Not only are there rewards for the woman who makes anti- Semitic remarks and Islamophobic remarks and has a history of racism with that seat on a committee, those who want to hold the former president accountable within the party, they're punished.
This is Matt Gaetz. He's a Trump loyalist in Wyoming campaigning against fellow Republican, Liz Cheney. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAETZ: Had a chance to communicate with President Trump yesterday.
CROWD: (Cheers)
GAETZ: He sends his love, he loves you all so much. And President Trump is going to keep fighting for this country with every breath that he has.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The cheering explains why this is happening, to an extent, because pandering works. But there has to be something more going on to explain how these views are now being woven into the Republican party DNA. It's got to be more than just votes, there's got to be sort of a belief there to begin with?
BARDELLA: Well, it's kind of this circular firing squad of validation, right?
[01:25:00]
You have people who believe what I believe are crazy things. You have people that are elected to office, so-called leaders, parroting those beliefs, validating those beliefs. We have a media ecosystem led by Fox News and Newsmax and OAN and these alt-right platforms that 24/7 regurgitate this nonsense. And they're all just talking to one another in this feedback loop.
And what's happened now is people who used to feel isolated, who used to feel like their views were out of the mainstream, who used to feel alienated from the traditional party orthodoxy they now see that well, hey, these leaders, the Matt Gaetzs and the Josh Hawleys and the Ted Cruzs and the Donald Trumps, they believe what I believe. And they think it's OK.
They're here showing up cheering me on so I'm going to cheer them on. And it just feeds off of one another.
And what ends up happening is it culminates with the violence that we saw on January 6th.
VAUSE: Well --
BARDELLA: It continues with people refusing to hold the makers, the architects of that violence, accountable, looking the other way, refusing to successfully convict a president, former President Trump, of impeachment. And it just sends a signal that that's OK. And to keep going.
VAUSE: And with that in mind, John Cowan, who lost to Greene during the party primaries back in August last year, he told the news site Axios that Greene had the support of then White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus within the GOP.
He told Axios -- "By default it was sort of, 'She must be Trump's person.' If those guys are going to bat for her, she must be Trump's endorsed person. Everybody was well aware of her previous persona and who she is. I would say they all knew she was going to be a problem."
Boy, that's an understatement. And that kind of sums up how the Republican party operates these days.
The conspiracy stuff is essentially -- it's mainstream. And is it -- it not every Republican voted for Donald Trump believes this stuff, they're not QAnon card carrying members. So is time for those people within the Republican party, of good conscience, to speak up?
BARDELLA: Well, I think that time was before our Capitol was sieged, it was before people tried to take matters in their own hands and who have since, we have learned, wanted to do things like execute the vice president of the United States, take hostage members of congress and murder them.
And the fact that, after something like that, these so-called members of conscience who privately bemoan what has happened throughout their party -- the fact that still haven't stood up and said anything, the fact that even now only a handful of members are willing to vote to impeach Donald Trump or convict him of that impeachment, that just tells you that there is no moral center in the Republican Party anymore.
That they are willing to be partial and co-accomplices in the ongoing efforts to undermine our democracy, to wreak violence on people that they disagree with and to promote a white nationalistic agenda. That's what it all comes down to.
At the heart of all of this is the Republican Party wanting to continue to suppress the votes of people of color in this country and to not count them and to devalue them.
And that is what has given rise to this nationalistic, racist, very violent insurgency that is in direct conflict with everybody else who still believes in democracy, who still believes that every vote should count, who still believes in institutional norms that this republic was built upon. And that conflict is continue go come to a head. And it's not going
to go away anytime soon. As long as Donald Trump continues to be the number one dominant figure one the Republican Party.
VAUSE: And that is one thing which you can actually bet the bank on (ph). Kurt, we're out of time. But yes, it's such a long way from 2012 when they had the autopsy and they wanted to be the big-tent party, the all-inclusive party. Boy, how things have changed.
Kurt, thanks for being with us. We'll have you back sometime soon.
Look forward to it.
VAUSE: Thank you. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
A volunteer admits giving coronavirus vaccines to his friends. Does it matter if the doses were about to expire?
Plus a year after the world changed forever, an investigation is now underway to try to find the exact origins of the coronavirus. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:37]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause.
Well, a team of 13 investigators are now out of quarantine and has started their investigation into just where the coronavirus came from.
The experts have met with Chinese scientists and officials are -- they will be rather, on Friday. The team also planning to visit labs, markets, and hospitals in Wuhan, the first city that reported a cluster of COVID-19 cases more than a year ago.
CNN's Steven Jiang is live in Beijing.
What is interesting about this, though, is that there has been a long torturous negotiation between the World Health Organization and Chinese officials about how this investigation will actually be carried out.
And one of the conditions is that all the evidence will be provided to these investigators from China. That seems a little odd.
STEVEN JIANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well John, at least they are here and the Chinese health minister and the head of the W.H.O. actually held a phone call on Thursday with the Chinese health minister again promising to cooperate with the W.H.O. to ensure this investigation is scientific and balanced.
And to what you were just saying about what these experts are doing today, they actually -- they held meetings with their Chinese counterparts in their hotels in the morning. And now they actually have left the hotel to visit some of the sites.
We don't know which site just yet, but according to the W.H.O., there are some high profile locations on that not list including the Wuhan Institute of Virology which, of course, houses a bio safety level 4 facility. That is the highest bio security grade for such facility, and they do conduct a lot of research on coronaviruses there.
And also on the list is the now closed Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market as well as the Wuhan City Sea laboratory, very close to the seafood market which, of course, was long suspected to be the origin of the outbreak.
But as we were saying yesterday, it's been a year since the city was placed under strict lockdown. It's been repeatedly disinfected, and probably swept clean of any traces of the virus.
So, any firsthand evidence, or information they can collect right now is very much in doubt. So that is why, as important as these locations are, access to people is probably even more critical.
So to that end, the W.H.O. says that these experts will be talking to early responders, as well as former patients. So it remains to be seen if these people -- how freely they'll be speaking to the experts from W.H.O.
One name though, John, that not been confirmed is Dr. Shi Zhengli, nicknamed China's bat woman. Remember she has been doing research on bats and coronaviruses they carry for decades. And she was instrumental in identifying, analyzing, and even naming the COVID virus. So a lot of anticipation to see if she will be allowed to the experts.
So at this stage, John, a lot of things are yet to happen but the scientists are still insisting they are here to do their job, and they are now focused -- they are now focusing on the politics are surrounding it, but given how controversial and sensitive the topic is, a lot of attention being paid to this trip from the world capitals around the globe, John.
VAUSE: Well, as they say 90 percent of life is just showing up, so at least they're there.
Steven, thank you. Steven Jiang in Beijing.
Well here in the United States there is a race now to close the gap between the number of vaccines which have been distributed and the number of injections. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show just over half of the doses sent out have actually been administered.
Meantime, the vaccination rush has led to some shady behind-the-scene deals in cities across the U.S.
CNN's Sarah Murray has details. [01:35:05]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARAH MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the sprint to vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans as quickly as possible, alleged bad acts are already beginning to appear.
ANDREI DOROSHIN, CEO, PHILLY FIGHTING COVID: Really, the health department here who's giving us the shot. And they are trusting us with their vaccines.
MURRAY: Philadelphia, now cutting ties with the group Philly Fighting COVID.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In retrospect, we should have been more careful with this organization.
MURRAY: Its 22-year-old founder admitting he pocketed vaccine doses for his friends when they were supposed to be earmarked for vaccination sites to serve health care workers.
DOROSHIN: The doses were about to expire. We called everybody we knew, every single person.
MURRAY: Andrei Doroshin also admitting he isn't qualified to administer vaccines.
(on camera): But Andrei, you're not qualified, right?
DOROSHIN: No. That is my mistake to carry for the rest of my life. But, it is not the mistake of the organization.
MURRAY (on camera): The group drawing scrutiny from Philadelphia's district attorney, who called the reported activities "concerning" and asked the public for any information on crimes related to this matter.
In Washington State, a hospital blasted out an e-mail to its major donors, advertising available vaccine appointments.
GOVERNOR JAY INSLEE (D-WA): If in fact, they were giving preference to some VIP list, that is not the way to do it. That is not acceptable for us.
MURRAY: Now, Overlake Medical Center is apologizing saying, "We recognize we made a mistake by including a subset of our donors and by not adopting a broader outreach strategy to fill these appointments."
In Georgia, the Public Health Department says the Medical Center of Elberton was booted from the state's vaccination program after providing shots to local school district staffers even though they weren't yet eligible for vaccines.
GOVERNOR BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): I share your hope that we can vaccinate these deserving Georgians soon. The truth is, we do not yet have enough vaccine. MURRAY: And in Florida, a fire rescue captain allegedly stole vaccine
to try to inoculate his mother. Pressuring a paramedic who ended up forging the paperwork for the missing doses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's absolutely disappointing.
MURRAY: Joshua Colon, recently named the county's paramedic of the year, now under arrest. Along with Anthony Damiano, the fire captain he covered for.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can run, but you can't hide.
MURRAY (on camera): Now CNN was not able to reach Anthony Damiano, but we did reach Colon's lawyer, who said of his client, the client deeply regrets his weakness in failing to alert the chain of command to the theft of the vaccine.
Now, we also reached out to Andrei Doroshin in Philadelphia. We never heard back from him.
And of course, we should note that most of the folks who are out there working to administer these vaccines are working tirelessly. They're trying to do their best. They are honest brokers. And of course, there are some bad actors in the bunch.
Sarah Murray, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: 400 million more doses of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine is heading for Africa. The African Union says those doses will be used over the next three years. Part of the vaccination program for just over half of the continents 1.3 billion people.
270 million doses have already been ordered. And the World Health Organization says millions of doses will come from the COVAX program.
When it comes to vaccine inequality, India is stepping up. The world's biggest vaccine manufacturer is in India and it's pledging to make millions of doses for other countries.
CNN's Kim Brunhuber explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As nations scramble to get their own citizens vaccinated, at least one country is stepping up to help some of its neighbors, India.
India is the world's biggest vaccine manufacturer. Now it's using that strength for something a little out of the ordinary, vaccine diplomacy. It has been less than two weeks since India launched what it hopes will be the largest vaccination drive in the world as it goes about inoculating its own citizens. Now, the country is pledging to donate millions of doses to at least nine nearby countries. NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Today, the
country is prepared in such a way that vaccine doses are reaching every nook and corner of the country very rapidly.
Today, India is completely self-reliant in the matter of this biggest need of the world right now. Not just self-dependent, India is also helping other countries.
BRUNHUBER: The country's Serum Institute is producing the vaccine developed in the U.K. by AstraZeneca for domestic use and export. India has also developed its own vaccine by Bharat Biotech, which it eventually plans to export.
One by one, health care workers in Nepal began receiving their first doses. As the country launched one of its largest immunization campaigns, Nepal's prime minister says he is grateful to India for donating one million doses.
KP SHARMA OLI, NEPAL PRIME MINISTER: We got an early chance to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. So for this, I extend my thankful remarks and gratitude to our neighboring nation, India's government, the people of India and especially to the Honorable Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They sent the vaccine to us.
[01:39:56]
BRUNHUBER: Prime Minister Oli announced that he's in talks with India to buy even more.
Myanmar also began its vaccination program Wednesday after receiving 1.5 million vaccine doses from India. Health care workers there showed off their bandages for a photo.
With a fragile health care system, Myanmar has relied heavily on medical volunteers to help with the pandemic.
And it's not just about diplomacy. India is expected to begin delivering vaccines commercially to Brazil and Morocco by the end of the week.
One neighbor that won't be on the receiving end of India's generosity is Pakistan. Officials there announced they will be getting 500,000 doses from China.
India's goodwill could see some pushback from their regional rival, China. China promised to help Nepal in the pandemic, a country where China has major investments but it hasn't delivered. Whereas India has.
As the two countries find themselves in competition for strategic influence in the region, it's India that's scoring some early wins this week.
Kim Brunhuber, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: A naughty (ph) trading app that dared to pump the brakes on GameStop's wild run is now accused of market manipulation. Later this hour, we'll hear from the CEO of Robinhood.
Also, the guardian of that mountain. Call to Earth takes us to the very heart of Mexico. That is next.
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VAUSE: Call to earth is a call to action for the environment, to share solutions to critical issues like global warming, deforestation or plastic waste. It's a long term priority for CNN to drive awareness, maybe inspire change as well.
In today's report, how Rolex Awards Laureate Martha Ruiz Corzo helps protect the region by merging conservation, with economic opportunity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Sierra Gorda. Located in the heart of Central Mexico, this remote mountain range is one of the most ecologically-diverse protected areas in the country. With everything from deserts to tropical forests, all this was once under threat, until Martha "Pati" Ruiz Corzo moved to the region. Until then, she had only lived in cities.
MARTHA RUIZ CORZO, GENERAL DIRECTOR, SIERRA GORDA ECOLOGICAL GROUP: I was surrounded by such beauty. I have never seen such blue skies. And the mist in the middle of the forest? It was like a shock for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was more than three decades ago. Today, she may be the region's most trusted guardian.
To protect that beauty, she cofounded the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group in 1987 after witnessing deforestation as a result of agriculture, man-made fires and illegal logging.
[01:44:57]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In 1997, her grassroots organization helped the region achieve biosphere reserve status, protecting nearly 400,000 hectares of land, roughly the size of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.
Today Sierra Gorda, or the Fat Mountain is valued for its wealth of biodiversity. The group says, it is home to 345 species of birds, 800 types of butterfly, more than 110 different mammals like the jaguar and around 2400 plant species.
For Corzo, it was possible by collaborating with the local communities, many who live in poverty. Instead of logging, she helped find them alternative ways to make a living.
CORZO: Sierra Gorda, 97 percent of the land is private land of 637 communities. You have to give them an opportunity because that's all what they have. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Raising money by working with partner
organizations and the government, she created economic opportunities through protection of the environment. This helped create paid jobs and reforestation, waste management, eco tourism, and education.
Planting the seeds of change, Corzo hopes that her work will inspire people across the world.
CORZO: Modern society so far, we knew to talk about Mother Nature, to connect them. Not everyone is going to recognize her, but there are many people that is ready to act, that really worry about the future and that are looking for answers.
I am convinced that there she is for everyone. Because she is everything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Conservation, helping preserve the beauty of Sierra Gorda for future generations and sustain livelihoods through nature.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll continue showcasing stories like that as part of this initiative here at CNN. Let's us know what you're doing to answer this call #CallToEarth.
Back in a moment.
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VAUSE: Protesters in Poland came out in force for a second night after the government had posted a total ban on abortion, the only exceptions are in the cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother's life.
This new law went into effect this week, that's after an October court ruling. There are more demonstrations planned for Friday.
No one seems to know how the GameStop gamble will end or how much blood will be shed on Wall Street. But the so called battle of the masses against the 1 percent has become a gripping drama and on Thursday, a new twist.
Robinhood, the no-fee trading app, popular with many millennials, buying up GameStop and other volatile stocks restricted such trading and that caused outrage and accusations of market manipulation. And a class action lawsuit has already been filed against the app. Robinhood now says it will allow limited buying of these stocks on Friday.
GameStop, a struggling chain of brick and mortar video game stores saw its shares explode in value in recent days, thanks to amateur investors and the online platform, Reddit. That spelled disaster for professional short sellers, who thought they would make a killing, I guess, if GameStop shares kept tanking. They did not.
[01:49:54] VAUSE: CNN's John Defterios following all of this live in Abu Dhabi. You know, I guess, you know these day traders, they've had a free rein for a long, long time and now they are getting a bit of their own back.
But there does seem to be a change here with regulators that there may be something done to prevent the online bandits or, you know, the amateurs are doing.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, it's certainly a challenge to the system, John, you make a fantastic point here.
This Main Street versus Wall Street drama offers kind of a new plot every single day. And with it though, which is very important, is the very high volatility.
Let's take a look at three stalks. The most famous, or infamous, is GameStop, as you suggested here. You have companies like AMC Entertainment, the cinema chain we've talked about. Bed, Bath and Beyond is a retailer there.
Look at that three run-up as you're talking about in January. And then, a big drop down that we saw in the last 24 hours.
You can take GameStop on its own. It had a 100 percent swing. It went up 40 percent at the start of the day, down as low as 60 percent, finished down 40 percent.
And as you noted here, you have a group like Robinhood representing the trade -- the trading groups that are out there on a day trade basis themselves, saying you can no longer purchase the stock because of high volatility and exposure that trading firms have to these put options that are being put on the stocks right now.
Here is the CEO speaking to CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLAD TENEY, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, ROBINHOOD: Robinhood, as a brokerage, has lots of financial requirements. SEC requirements. We have to put up money at clearing houses. The amount of money that we have to put up depends on market volatility. And we're in historic -- we're in a historic situation where there is a lot of activity, and a lot of buying concentrated in the relatively small number of symbols that are going viral on social media.
So we haven't really seen anything like this before. And to prudently manage the risk and the deposit requirements, we had to restrict buying in these 13 stocks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: There is another twist that's here though, John, and that is the reports that some of the hedge funds that are under pressure put pressure on groups like Robinhood to say, stop the volatility, this is too much. And this has created some very strange political bed fellows like AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz. One, a progressive left representative from New York and the other, the very conservative senator from Texas saying this is squeezing out the little guy. That doesn't happen to hedge funds. That's not the case.
When there is high volatility, up or down there is a halt to trading. And now we see this sector maturing, and a lot of questions being asked. And a lot of volatility and downside risk, John.
If you take a look at the U.S. futures today. We're looking at losses of nearly 1 percent for the Dow futures, better than that for the Nasdaq, and S&P 500. People are starting to wonder does this expose the cracks. Things that have been taking place forever, now the volume of day traders just adding another layer of complexity, if you will.
VAUSE: You know, on the surface, there is this narrative that it's, you know, the little guy versus, you know, the sinister short sellers and the traders and the hedge funds. But is there something more going on here? Something deeper? More sinister which regulators maybe looking at?
DEFTERIOS: Well, you know, we had a former regulator speak up in a column. And this is somebody I've interviewed in the past, very sensible person, Arthur Levitt, the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission who is saying because of the social media echo chambers that are out there, John, take a Parler, and the influence it had on the Capitol Hill riots that you saw.
He's even raising the question with Reddit and the Wall Street Bets pages on Reddit -- is this the same thing? A mob mentality that's trying to challenge the system? Is it really investment or not?
And there's going to be investigations I'm certain here about the mob purchases because you're colluding with others. And this raises that sort of question mark.
JPMorgan, by the way, was saying this is not about 13 stocks. We're talking about at least 45 more on the target list going forward. So this is a risk to the financial system. I don't want to overplay it but that's what we're looking at right now.
VAUSE: Yes. That's a big call, John. But yes, I guess you're right then.
John Defterios in Abu Dhabi, thanks.
Actress Cicely Tyson died Thursday, age 96. She was a star on stage, in screens, but more importantly embodied dignity, strength and depth in her roles, paved the way for a generation of black actresses to make their own marks.
Stephanie Elam looks back on her life and work.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CICELY TYSON, ACTRESS: In strength, there is power. And I think that we have learned how powerful we are as a race of people.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Cicely Tyson, embodied strength and power in a decades-long career that pave the way for countless women of color. The daughter of immigrants from the West Indies, Tyson she grew up in Harlem, and got discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony Magazine.
[01:54:51]
ELAM: After working as a model, she found her way into acting. And in 1963 became the first black actress to star in a TV drama playing Jane Foster in "East Side, West Side".
TYSON: She walks over to me. I'll take her with me.
ELAM: Tyson appeared in numerous TV shows throughout the 60s and early 70s before making her mark on the big screen as well.
She earned an Oscar nomination for the 1972 film, "Sounder", about a share-cropping family facing hard times in the Great Depression.
CICELY: Believe me the children and me will do the cropping. We have to because we owe you all that money.
ELAM: Around this time, Tyson vowed to only accept roles that portrayed black women in realistic ways that reflected their full humanity.
CICELY: There are a number of issues as a woman born black and living in a country that did not recognize me as a human being. I want to address those issues. And that is why I was steadfast in terms of what I was giving to my audience.
ELAM: Tyson stayed true to her ideals and played women of substance including Kunta Kinte's mother Binta in the landmark mini-series, "Roots". And the title role in the autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman which earned her two Emmy Awards.
TYSON: No. No.
ELAM: Away from the screen, Tyson was known for her relationship with fellow entertainment icon, Miles Davis. Her marriage with the jazz great lasted seven years.
TYSON: I'm so proud of that house.
ELAM: Tyson was a tireless performer, well into her nineties. Along the way, appearing in high profile projects like "How To Get Away With Murder", "The Help", and a Tony award winning turn in the Broadway production of "The Trip To Bountiful".
In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom for her six decades of accomplishment.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER President of the United States: Cicely's convictions and grace have helped for us to see the dignity of every single beautiful member of the American family. And she's just gorgeous.
ELAM: With grit and grace, cicely Tyson brought integrity to a career filled with groundbreaking performances.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Actress, Cicely Tyson died on Thursday, she was 96 years old.
And my apologies for getting her -- the pronunciation of her first name incorrect.
We'll be right back in a moment.
[01:57:30]
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