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Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Could Be Third Cleared In U.S.; Biden Still Wants Bipartisan Relief Bill Despite GOP Pushback; Democratic Lawmaker Moves Office After Harassment By Colleague; Trump Impeachment Trial To Begin February 9; FBI: Suspect Planted Pipe Bombs The Night Before Capitol Riot; E.U. Threatens To Trigger Brexit Clause On Vaccines; U.K. Variant In 400-Plus U.S. COVID-19 Cases; U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty Extended Until 2026; GameStop Rally Reignites After Stock Apps Lifts Restrictions. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired January 30, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): U.S. health officials issue a sweeping new mandate requiring face masks to be worn on nearly all forms of public transportation.
And President Biden says time is of the essence for a new economic relief bill. And if he can't find bipartisan support, Democrats will go it alone.
And a diplomatic backstop over vaccines as the E.U. makes a big U-turn after angering the U.K.
Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
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BRUNHUBER: Starting late Monday, if you want to use any form of public transportation in the United States, you have to wear a mask. That is according to a CDC order issued a few hours ago. Masks must be made of at least two layers of fabric and cover both the nose and mouth.
And, until further notice, they will be required on every form of transit, from airplanes to rideshare vehicles.
The U.S. has now administered nearly 28 million doses of the two vaccines that have been approved. That is out of 49 million doses delivered. And there is a potential new vaccine on the horizon.
Johnson & Johnson says that its candidate is safe and 85 percent effective against severe illness. Johnson & Johnson will apply for emergency use authorization next week and, if granted, it will be the third vaccine cleared in the U.S. Athena Jones has more.
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ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another COVID- 19 vaccine could soon be available in the United States.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The results really are very encouraging.
JONES (voice-over): Johnson & Johnson says its vaccine was 66 percent effective overall in a global phase three trial, 72 percent effective in the U.S. and 85 percent effective against severe disease. The drug is delivered in a single shot and does not have to be stored frozen, making distribution easier.
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: There is real benefit to having a single-dose vaccine and one that can be transported a lot more easily. And, frankly, 85 percent protection against severe disease is really good.
JONES (voice-over): In contrast, the Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, known as mRNA vaccines, were shown to be about 95 percent effective, but with those drugs in short supply, doctors say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, if given the green light, would be a welcome addition to the country's pandemic toolbox.
DR. PAUL OFFIT, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Were it me, were I not able to get the mRNA vaccine and I only had the choice of getting Johnson & Johnson vaccine, I would take it in a second.
JONES (voice-over): The big question is how well the vaccines protect against more contagious COVID variants.
for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine ...
DR. MARK MCCLELLAN, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: In this clinical trial, no patients who got the vaccine had to go to the hospital and none died, including across all these variants all across the world.
JONES (voice-over): Those variants a growing concern, as an influential model shows they could worsen the virus' spread, adding, in a worst-case scenario, as many as 85,000 COVID deaths by May 1st.
FAUCI: This is a wake-up call to all of us. We will continue to see the evolution of mutants. We'll have to be nimble to be able to just adjust readily to make versions of the vaccine that actually are specifically directed towards whatever mutation is actually prevalent at any given time.
JONES (voice-over): In the meantime, as the U.S. averages nearly 160,000 new daily COVID-19 cases and 4,000 deaths reported Thursday, Dr. Fauci says the U.S. priority is clear.
FAUCI: Vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
JONES (voice-over): And that will take months.
JONES: Just to put it in perspective, even as new daily COVID infections are on the decline nationwide, a report from the area agency White House COVID-19 team says 95 percent of the country lives in a county that is still considered a sustained hot spot, meaning a place with high burden of COVID cases and a risk of a strain on health care resources.
Just another sign that this virus is far from being under control -- Athena Jones, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: Next week President Joe Biden will be working even harder to get lawmakers on board with his ambitious relief bill. He has already been making calls to argue that Americans need action now.
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BRUNHUBER: But with Congress more divided than ever, Mr. Biden has his work cut out for him. Here is CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Going out to visit some of the soldiers and sailors that are wounded.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden's first full week in office came to a close today with a short flight from the South Lawn to National Walter Reed Medical Center.
BIDEN: It's an honor to be back.
COLLINS: Following an earlier meeting with his economic advisers, Biden called on Republicans to support his $1.9 trillion relief package.
BIDEN: I support passing COVID relief with support from Republicans if we can get it. But the COVID relief has to pass. There's no ifs ands, or buts.
COLLINS: But the bill is struggling to get the bipartisan support in Congress the president has called for and Democrats prepared to move with or without the GOP.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MAJORITY LEADER: If our Republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them.
COLLINS: With the Senate split 50-50, Democrats have no room for error and Vice President Kamala Harris, who could break a tie, was seen pitching the bill on local news in states with moderate Democrats.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people deserve their leaders to step up and stand up for them.
COLLINS (voice-over): With no bill on its way to his desk, Biden has spent his first days in office putting pen to a different kind of paper, signing at least 42 executive actions to push his agenda or reverse former President Trump's.
Though presidents who came before him also signed executive orders, Biden criticized the move on the campaign trail, telling donors in 2019, "You can't do a lot by executive order. You can do some things, but you can't, you need to generate a consensus."
COLLINS: And we expect that lobbying on the coronavirus relief bill to continue throughout the week and pushing still for Republican support, even though it seems increasingly.
And Biden will speak and go to his first agency on Monday after going to Walter Reed today. He will go to the State Department with Tony Blinken, the new secretary of state, on Monday, to visit with him in his first appearance there at one of these agencies as he is working quickly and hopefully to get these cabinet nominees confirmed before former president Trump's impeachment trial begins on Capitol Hill -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: The deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6th has caused deep rifts within the Republican Party.
Those most loyal to president Trump are furious that 10 of their House colleagues voted to impeach him and much of the anger is focused on congresswoman Liz Cheney, who issued a blistering rebuke of president Trump on the House floor. The latest from Manu Raju.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump may be gone from Washington but Republicans still trying to pick up the pieces from his tumultuous tenure in office.
At the center of one storm, the third ranking House Republican Liz Cheney, who joined nine of her GOP colleagues this month in voting to impeach Trump, sparking an effort from Trump's staunchest defenders to oust her from her leadership job and defeat her in next year's Wyoming primary.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I love Wyoming.
RAJU (voice-over): Sources tell CNN that Trump is obsessed with taking down Cheney. Even his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. howling into a rally yesterday, seeking Cheney's defeat.
DONALD TRUMP JR., FORMER PRESIDENT'S SON: And since the people of Wyoming are clearly not thrilled with Liz Cheney, let's find someone who can replace her and actually do that job well.
RAJU: The battle over Cheney's future could come to a head next week when Republicans meet behind closed doors, which many expect to turn into a venting session.
REP. PETER MEIJER (R-MI): If Liz Cheney is the person who suffers the most from the events on January 6th politically, it will be a very sad, sad day for my party. We can't be a party of conspiracy theories.
RAJU: That comment a reference to controversial freshman Marjorie Taylor Greene who won a seat in Northwest Georgia last fall despite her past promotion of a QAnon conspiracy theory.
Greene has been under fire after past social media posts have come to light, including one 2018 comment, where she indicated that the horrific massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school was a staged operation. And there has been outrage over a video showing her harassing a Parkland survivor.
Those revelations along with CNN KFile's reporting of her posts, showing support for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 prompting Democratic calls that she be expelled from the House or at least kicked off the Education and Labor Committee.
But House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy has been quiet, instead, attempting to get back into Trump's good graces after initially saying Trump was responsible for the Capitol riot and then later walking it back.
And after visiting the former president yesterday at his Florida golf club, saying he wants Trump's help to take back the House in 2022.
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RAJU (voice-over): Amid the swirl in controversy, Greene stressing to her constituents that she's with Trump.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): President Trump did not cause the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
RAJU: The tension spilling out in the halls of the Capitol, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowing freshman Democrat Cori Bush to move her office away from Greene after the two got into an altercation in the hallway, with Bush scolding Greene for not wearing a mask.
REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): Follow the rules and put on a mask!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop (INAUDIBLE)
GREENE: You know what? Don't yell at people. Stop being a hypocrite.
RAJU: The fight over Liz Cheney's future, expecting to come to a head on Wednesday. This is the first time Republicans will have met behind closed doors for some time. They are expecting to discuss the vote that she cast with other Republicans to impeach Donald Trump.
Trump defenders indicating they won't back down anytime soon but Cheney's defenders believe that she, ultimately, will have the votes to survive this effort to oust her from her leadership spot. That vote ultimately to oust her from her position will take some time to play out. But Wednesday will be the first time they can clear their air in private -- Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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BRUNHUBER: And let's bring in Julie Norman, who lectures on politics at the University College of London.
Thank you so much for joining us. I want to pick up where Manu Raju left off, the decision over whether to remove Liz Cheney from Republican House leadership. How big are the stakes not necessarily for her but for the party?
Will that be a bellwether of sorts predicting whether this will actually be the party of Trump?
JULIE NORMAN, POLITICS LECTURER, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: I think it will. Next week we'll see for the first time how the impeachment votes and the 10 Republicans in the House who voted for impeachment and against Trump, how that vote will affect them.
It will be first and foremost, of course, for Liz Cheney and her leadership position. Even if she is not actually removed from the position, just the fact that she is being challenged, which requires 20 percent of her conference to do that, shows the blowback that might be coming.
And at the same time, we've seen other Trump supporters already on the primary trail attacking Liz Cheney in Wyoming. And so it is a bit of a forecast for what we might see in 2022 and Trump's power and grip over the party still at that point.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, I imagine what it will say if Liz Cheney gets more opprobrium than Marjorie Taylor Greene for instance.
Turning to the Democrats now on the COVID relief bill, Joe Biden ran on his ability to draw both sides together, he claimed anyway, he promised bipartisanship. But he also doesn't really want to make the mistake that he saw firsthand under the Obama administration.
They tried to compromise, got bogged down, delayed, ultimately got less done and the Republican Party is much more radical now than it was then.
So for Democrats, is that their own bellwether, the first test of whether bipartisanship is just something that you talk about in campaigns?
NORMAN: Well, there certainly will be a test going forward with how this plays out with the relief bill. And Biden knew this moving forward; you put this bill up on his first week in office. He knew it was big and bold and, quite frankly, he knew that it would not pass in its current form. The bill was designed to have a lot of room for compromise.
They knew they couldn't get a $1.9 trillion bill through in the Senate, especially at this time. So I think Biden was hoping that he could work some of his bipartisan magic, drawing from his experience, to get some fast action on this.
But the fact is, to have bipartisanship and to have the big, bold bill go through, one of those things is probably going to have to fall by the wayside. And right now, Democrats are just really running up against the real challenge of, can they get enough Republicans on board to compromise on this bill, to work through some of the points that are negotiable?
Or will their own party push them to take action more quickly and urgently?
BRUNHUBER: And part of the urgency is to get as much done before the impeachment trial.
You wrote a piece called why the Democrats are continuing with Trump's impeachment even if conviction now seems unlikely. So the Democrat answer to that is that it is necessary for accountability.
But my question for you, is it worth the political capital?
Or if you were advising Democrats, would you tell them, drop impeachment, go for something simpler, like censure, which would get more support from Republicans?
NORMAN: I think that is a debate that certainly one can see certainly both sides of it. And we even see some Democrats pushing more for a censure vote that could get both parties a bit more on board.
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NORMAN: But honestly, Kim, I think at this point, as President Biden has said, the trial really has to go forward. The House did vote to impeach. And to not hold the trial, to not have this at least exercise of accountability, would also be divisive.
And it is really just stuck between two hard choices. And whichever way is going to rile up about half the country, we know about 90 percent of Democrats support impeachment, about 90 percent of Republicans oppose it.
So whichever course is taken is going to disappoint a large part of the country. I think for Democrats it's a matter saying we're setting a precedent, we're going to do what we can to make a point about what happened. But it will be divisive either way you look at it.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Julie Norman. Always appreciate it.
NORMAN: Thanks, Kim.
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BRUNHUBER: And so far, about 175 people have been arrested for the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol but one person has alluded the authorities. We'll show you new video believed to be the individual who planted two pipe bombs the night before the assault. Plus the FBI has caught up with an online troll for interfering with U.S. elections. Details coming up.
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BRUNHUBER: The investigation into the Capitol attack has led to conspiracy charges against at least two members of the far-right group the Proud Boys. Authorities allege they helped coordinate the assault that eventually breached the Capitol. For more on the investigation, here is CNN's Brian Todd.
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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Important new information tonight about the mysterious elusive suspect believed to have planted two pipe bombs near the Capitol.
The FBI now says the two bombs found near Democratic and Republican Party headquarters were placed the night before the attack on the Capitol between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m. on January 5 and surveillance video obtained by "The Washington Post" captures what "The Post" says is the suspect moments before he placed a bomb near Republican headquarters that night.
JIM BUEERMANN, FORMER POLICE CHIEF, REDLANDS, CALIFORNIA: Those bombs were probably intended to distract the police from the Capitol to someplace else. There were probably a significant number of participants in this that knew what they were doing, pre-planned it, brought with them the equipment they needed to do what they were attempting to do.
TODD: The FBI also identified the suspect's shoes as Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes in yellow, black and gray, with enhanced photos of the shoes along with pictures of the bombs.
A law enforcement official tells CNN the bombs were eight inches long, rigged to egg timers and filled with an explosive powder. An ATF official says bomb techs and robots were used to disable the explosives.
ASHAN BENEDICT, ATF SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: They set up. It's all downrange. And so only bomb techs can go downrange with the robot. So, they set up in a way where eventually we will use the robot to actually do the disruption. So, I believe that is how this particular disruption happened.
LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Absolutely grateful for your service.
TODD: Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill today, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin thanking National Guard troops helping guard the Capitol since the riot.
Tonight, police body cam video CNN obtained from the U.S. attorney's office shows brutal hand-to-hand combat between rioters and officers, rioters mercilessly beating officers, one grabbing an officer's baton. This video was played at a hearing for alleged rioter Michael Foy of Michigan, who prosecutors say attacked an officer with a hockey stick.
It shows rioters on top of motionless people while Foy and another man assault police. At one point, a man is frantically yelling for help to save what appears to be an injured woman. One former police chief who examined the video with us says it's surprising that more people weren't killed that day.
BUEERMANN: If they're willing to assault the officers like they were, then you have to assume that they are likely to carry out maybe some of the same acts of violence against unarmed politicians.
TODD: And in another harrowing account, CNN has obtained a debriefing memo from two members of the Arlington County Police Department Civil Disturbance Unit, who arrived to treat the injured.
They treated eight police officers and four were unable to walk and some rioters feigned illness to remain behind police lines -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: The Capitol Hill police officer killed as a result of the attack on Congress on January 6th will lie in honor in the building's historic Rotunda on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Brian Sicknick died after being hit on the head with a fire extinguisher. He had served with the Capitol Police for more than 12 years. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer praised his heroism in helping save lives and defending what they called "the temple of democracy."
The Capitol siege was fueled by propaganda and lies, familiar territory for some ardent Trump supporters that stretches back to the 2016 presidential election. Actions taken during his first campaign may have finally caught up to one alt-right Twitter troll who's been arrested by the FBI. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan gives us the details.
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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An anonymous pro Trump Twitter troll unmasked, charged for interference in the 2016 presidential election.
LUKE O'BRIEN, "HUFFINGTON POST": This was an attack on our democracy. And you could look at him as almost like a field commander in this longstanding assault on our democracy.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Federal prosecutors say Douglas Mackey, who you see online alias "Ricky Vaughn," was arrested Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Florida. Luke O'Brien, a reporter from the "Huffington Post" helped unmask Mackey in 2018.
[05:25:00] O'BRIEN: Douglas Mackey seemed like a very average, normal, upper middle class kid, who grew up in a small town in Vermont and ran track in high school. And then he went to Middlebury College, where he also ran track for a year. He graduated from college in 2011. And then he moved to New York and he took a job in the financial industry.
At some point he was working for an economic consulting firm; he was fired from his job and then he reinvented himself as one of the worst white nationalist trolls on Twitter during the 2016 election.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): According to charging documents, Mackey is accused of conspiring to suppress votes and using social media to spread disinformation, telling African American voters they could vote for Clinton by text.
That same tweet specifically referenced during a 2017 Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Minnesota's Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar displayed a blown-up image of the tweet from the fake account.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Some of the ads has been discussed contained misinformation, telling voters that they could vote online, which, of course, wasn't true. And in fact, here is one of them, targeted, of course, telling people that they could just text Hillary to that number and that is how they vote.
I just want people to understand what this is. Efforts like this are actually criminal. They are illegal.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): A similar tweet targeted Hispanic voters. Ben Nimmo is the head of investigations at Graphika, a company that analyzes the spread of disinformation on social media.
BEN NIMMO, HEAD OF INVESTIGATIONS, GRAPHIKA: It's the kind of thing where, particularly in a tight race, it can make a difference if it reaches enough people.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Prosecutors say nearly 5,000 people responded to the fraudulent text code allegedly distributed by Mackey.
NIMMO: If you conclude that all of those were people who were trying to vote and people who didn't actually go and vote in person, that is 4,900 votes that are just being suppressed.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Mackey's alleged co-conspirators are not named in the complaint but Twitter data shared by authorities suggest at least one of the apparent co-conspirators has been charged for their involvement in the January 6th insurrection.
O'BRIEN: You can draw a through line from that to what happened and you had a lot of these people, Trump supporters, who had been sucking down propaganda and disinformation for years, spread by many of the same people who attacked our Capitol.
O'SULLIVAN: And CNN has reached out to Mackey's lawyers for comment. Just like many of the insurrectionists we saw on January 6th in Washington, D.C., many online trolls think they can post online disinformation and hate without any consequences, that they can use the cloak of anonymity online to never be caught and never be held accountable for their actions.
With this case, of course, that may send a message that all is about to change -- back to you.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, we'll find out why the E.U. was forced to back down after a spat over vaccine imports with the U.K.
And later on, GameStop investors were back at it on Friday, sending the stock soaring once again. And one of those amateur market makers will tell us why this is not only about getting rich.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching around the world.
The U.S. could be adding another weapon to its COVID fighting arsenal in the coming week. Johnson & Johnson says the latest trial data shows its vaccine candidate is safe and effective and it plans to apply for emergency use authorization in the U.S. next week.
If cleared, it would become the third authorized in the U.S. But there are new concerns as well. Even though U.S. cases are slowly declining, there is growing evidence that vaccines are less effective against one of the new strains spreading in the U.S. Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says the variant first seen in the U.K. could become more dominant in the U.S. by the end of March.
A fight over vaccine exports has ended in an embarrassing U-turn for Brussels. The E.U. had threatened to invoke a Brexit clause that would restrict the U.K. from using Northern Ireland as a way to get around the bloc's export controls.
But they reversed course following an outcry from governments in Northern Ireland, the U.K. and Ireland. And all this is after a tumultuous week, which saw the E.U. criticize drugmaker AstraZeneca over supply shortages.
Let's bring in Professor Lawrence Young from Birmingham, England. He is a professor of molecular oncology.
Thank you so much for being here with us. I want to start with the good news from the two vaccine makers, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson, about the efficacy of their vaccines. Bad news, they seem to offer less protection at least against one of the variants.
So how optimistic are you about the former and how worried are you about the latter?
DR. LAWRENCE YOUNG, PROFESSOR OF MOLECULAR ONCOLOGY: It is great to see more vaccines coming through and we know that the Johnson & Johnson and the Novavax are very effective against the common form of the virus and certainly protect people from very severe disease.
So that is the good news. And I guess if you look at the some of the variants, particularly the variant currently circulating in South Africa, where the Johnson & Johnson part of their trial took place, there is reduced efficacy. So it is around 60 percent.
And that was also true for the Novavax vaccine. The protection from disease was 60 percent as compared to the 90 percent. So it offers some protection, which is good news. But I think we anticipated that these variants would be a bit tougher when it comes to the effectiveness of current vaccines.
BRUNHUBER: And then just you mentioned the South African variant. We're hearing now that it has the ability to reinfect. So explain what that means and why that's important.
YOUNG: We're seeing some, particularly the Brazilian variant. So the other variant on the scene of concern is the Brazilian variant. There's work coming out of Manaus at the moment that is rather disturbing.
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YOUNG: We knew that a sizable proportion of the population in that part of Brazil had previously been infected. And it looks like, although it has only been confirmed in a few cases, but it looks like individuals are getting reinfected.
We anticipated that was a possibility with this particular virus. We've seen it with other coronaviruses, particularly six months to a year post infection because the immune response wanes. But there is a hint that it might happen a bit more with the South African variant. So that's a real concern.
BRUNHUBER: So many variants, I'm getting confused myself. So now to the U.K. variant, which we're seeing more and more here in the U.S. There is new evidence now about sort of the difference between that and some other variants.
So what makes it different and why might it be spreading so quickly?
YOUNG: Yes, so we know that, for all viruses, the viruses change and mutate as they grow. So when you have a very large population, the world, infected with the virus, the virus, which copies itself into hundreds of thousands of copies every time it infects somebody, mistakes occur. Sometimes the mistakes give the virus a bit of an advantage.
What we're seeing here in real time is this virus adapts to our bodies. It becomes more infectious. And that is what we've experienced with the so-called U.K. variant. And we know exactly which part of the virus is causing that.
And that is also the same change that has occurred in both the Brazilian and South African variants. So what is happening here is almost evolution, in real time, of the virus, as it adapts to our bodies, becomes more contagious. And sometimes also that drives changes in the way that the virus is seen by our body's immune system.
BRUNHUBER: Other countries might be looking with a bit of jealousy at the U.K. as much as one might be able to criticize the handling of the pandemic writ large. In the words of one professor at University College London, vaccination is the one thing that we've gotten right, which, in sharp contest to the rollout here.
So what did the U.K. do right with vaccination and what lessons can the U.S. learn now as the Biden administration is looking to sort of accelerate our vaccination program here?
YOUNG: First thing, we bought into loads of different vaccines. We hedged our bets. We had our own vaccine, if you like, with the AstraZeneca Oxford group. But we also made sure that we had insurance policies with different companies.
And second thing is, we've really effectively used our National Health Service. So we've mobilized across the whole country, the National Health Service, to help vaccinate. And we started at hospitals but now we're using primary care.
And I think what we've learned, a big lesson we've learned from our -- dare I say somewhat shambolic approach in this country, is that you need to decentralize. And so I think that helped with this is decentralization and giving the local regional National Health Service the tools and the support to roll out vaccination locally.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. I mean, here there was criticism, because it was downloaded to the states and local, you know, municipalities and so on. And they wanted a more robust federal response. So we'll see how that works going forward here. Listen, thank you so much for your time, Professor Young, we appreciate it.
YOUNG: A pleasure, thank you.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So for more on what is happening in Europe, let's go to Melissa Bell in Paris.
Melissa, this kerfuffle with AstraZeneca, we saw French president Emmanuel Macron piling on, aligning himself with Germany on the issue here. So take us through this latest blow to AstraZeneca and then we'll switch to the larger issue, in which AstraZeneca is also caught in the middle, which led to a proposed vaccine border and then a dramatic U-turn by the E.U.. So explain it for us.
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Basically what Emmanuel Macron told journalists reflects what the German vaccine authority ruled on Thursday, which is that there is not sufficient evidence to suggest that the AstraZeneca vaccine is efficient in over 65s.
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BELL: This even as the European Medicines Agency was preparing to approve its use for over 65. And then it, of course, now goes to the national agencies next week. So we'll find out about which countries will be going ahead with it.
But of course, this is in the context of a much greater row, an increasingly bitter one, over the amounts of the AZ vaccine that will be arriving in Europe. Europe has seen its vaccination programs grind to a halt. And it needs these vaccines.
And it said that it will do all it can to ensure that it gets them, including those export restrictions. It will now be looking carefully at what vaccines are leaving the E.U. for third countries, even when those companies are limiting their supplies to Europe.
So that is how strongly Europe has reacted in order to ensure that it can get the much needed vaccines to its populations.
BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much, Melissa Bell in Paris, appreciate it.
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny faces an important court date next week but his attorney says the outcome is a near certainty. A live report from Moscow straight ahead.
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BRUNHUBER: Outrage in Poland over a newly imposed near total ban on abortions. Thousands took part in a third night of protests, despite COVID restrictions against gathering. In Warsaw, they chanted freedom, equality, abortion on demand. Under the new rules, an abortion can only be performed only in rape and incest or when the mother's life is at risk.
A key nuclear arms agreement between the U.S. and Russia that was about to expire has been ratified for another five years. According to the Kremlin, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed an extension of the New START treaty into law on Friday.
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BRUNHUBER: The agreement covers offensive nuclear weapons and is the only major arms treaty of its kind still between the two countries.
An around the table for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's attorney says there is little doubt how the upcoming hearing will go for his client. Navalny has been detained since he arrived back in Russia, setting off large protests. CNN's Matthew Chance is joining from us Moscow.
Matthew, what are we expecting to see on Sunday, how big and how widespread will the protests be? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to Alexei Navalny's organization, the protests will be held in at least 90 cities across Russia.
And, of course, they are expecting thousands of people, if not tens of thousands, to turn out. If you look back a week at the protests calling for the release of Alexei Navalny, it was some of the biggest protests that Russia has seen in years.
And that was met with substantial force by the Russian authorities. Thousands of protesters were taken into custody and detained by Russian police as well.
So I think the entire country, including authorities in the Kremlin, is bracing for a repeat scene this weekend. That comes after an initial hearing in the courts here in Moscow to try to ask for Alexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure, to be released from his 30-day detention.
He was put in prison and detained shortly after -- as soon as he arrived back to Russia from Germany where he had been recovering from suspected nerve agent poisoning.
But that appeal was turned down. And I suppose it has fueled expectations that the Kremlin, the Russian authorities, are not likely to set Navalny free anytime soon. They have come to regard him much more seriously, as somebody who is able to unite the various opposition factions across this country.
BRUNHUBER: President Joe Biden called on Putin to release Navalny.
Do you expect the international pressure to be ratcheted up and will it have any effect?
CHANCE: Well, two good questions. Certainly, will the pressure be ratcheted up, I think the expectation is that it will. But you have to bear in mind what levers the community has to pull.
They can go down the sanctions route and there is talk already about the possibility of imposing more punitive sanctions on the Russian state and individuals around Vladimir Putin in order to make sure that the entourage of the Russian leader feels the consequences of putting this kind of pressure on this opposition figure.
But I think that you also have to bear in mind that there have been wide-scale sanctions imposed against Russia in various sectors of the Russian economy and against individuals as well.
And it doesn't seem to have had any effect in terms of, you know, changing Russian behavior, Russian policy. So, yes, the sanctions lever is there to pull again.
Will it have an effect on what Russia does?
I think that the chances of that are pretty slim at this point.
BRUNHUBER: We'll certainly be following with you tomorrow. Matthew Chance in Moscow, appreciate it.
GameStop shares are spiking again and amateur investors are getting rich for now. But many who are buying the stock are also hoping to change things on Wall Street. We'll hear from one of them next.
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BRUNHUBER: It has been a crazy week on Wall Street, to say the least. The Dow closed down 2 percent on Friday and the S&P was down the same. Both are logging their first monthly losses since October.
But one stock that is not listed is seeing a windfall. GameStop closed almost 70 percent higher on Friday. The amateur investors who are buying stock in companies like GameStop are hoping for more than just a profit. They are trying to take on Wall Street. Jon Sarlin spoke to one of them about his ambitions.
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AJ VANOVER, GAMESTOP INVESTOR: This is my account total, at the moment, on RobinHood.
JON SARLIN, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): Right now, there is more than $1 million sitting in AJ Vanover's RobinHood trading account, all thanks to a hugely risky bet on GameStop.
VANOVER: And I knew I was going to make money but I got lucky with how it actually unfolded.
SARLIN (voice-over): AJ is 31 years old, living in Missouri with his family. In 2019, he started following WallStreetBets, a chaotic and gleefully profane stock trading sub-Reddit.
VANOVER: People aren't really going to step in and help you if you didn't know how options function.
SARLIN (voice-over): Soon he was trading and he had a hunch about the video game retailer, GameStop. AJ says he bought 100 shares and then some options, investing around $4,500 total. And then, this happened.
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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A new twist in the Reddit fueled stock roller coaster, taking the world by storm.
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SARLIN (voice-over): Now this battery store worker, making $35,000 a year, is a millionaire, at least, on paper -- for now.
SARLIN: You haven't sold your stocks yet.
VANOVER: I want to make more money. And I have confidence that it is going up. If it starts to run, I might see how far it goes now.
SARLIN (voice-over): AJ and the online army of amateur investors he is a part of have rocked Wall Street by buying up GameStop and other shares. The big hedge funds, who were betting against those stocks, lost billions, just icing on the cake for AJ.
VANOVER: I wasn't happy about the 2008 crisis. It was kind of upsetting to see everybody get bailed out that really caused it and nothing really happened.
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VANOVER: It is interesting this time to see them on the other end.
SARLIN (voice-over): But AJ is playing a risky game. Plenty of folks in the Reddit community have racked up huge losses.
In a 2020 farewell post, one member described losing years of savings, writing, "I went from a rational investor to some sick, irrational, desperate gambler."
But no matter how this ends, the Reddit army has rattled Wall Street to its core.
SARLIN: How much of this do you think is a paradigm shift?
VANOVER: This is the first time I have ever seen the masses be able to win this big. And I think it will get a lot more people interested in actually getting into the markets.
SARLIN (voice-over): Jon Sarlin, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: And one of the coldest places in Europe is making a bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.
The tongue-in-cheek video from Salla in Finland's Lapland region carries a serious message. It's designed to draw attention to climate change. Salla's mayor says rising temperatures are putting the town's traditional way of life under threat.
A dozen or so cities are actually interested in hosting the 2032 Games but the International Olympic Committee has not decided when they will choose the host.
Kind of hope they win. Looks like fun.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. For our viewers in the U.S. and Canada, "NEW DAY" is just ahead for everyone else it is "QUEST'S WORLD OF WONDER."
