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U.S. to Ship Vaccines directly to Retail Pharmacies; U.K. Conducting Massive Variant Detection Operation; Health Experts Battle Vaccine Skepticism and Misinformation; World Leaders React to Prison Term for Kremlin Critic; British World War II Veteran Who Raised Millions Dies at 100. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 03, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone.
Well, the Biden administration will ship COVID-19 vaccines directly to pharmacies starting next week. That should open up more access across America, as health officials race to vaccinate before new variants take hold. The good news is there are now more people who have perceived at least one dose of the vaccine than are total U.S. cases. Erica Hill has more.
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ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Local pharmacies now next in line to administer vaccines.
JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: This will provide more sites for people to get vaccinated in their communities, and it is an important component to delivering vaccines equitably.
HILL (voice-over): The Biden administration will begin shipping directly to pharmacies next week, part of a long promised plan to expand access. CVS says it's ready in 11 states. Walgreens announcing plans for 14 states and cities and Puerto Rico.
Those doses part of a 20 percent boost in production, which also means more for states.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): The demand is very, very much there, which is what we knew it would be.
HILL (voice-over): While the pace is getting better, nearly two-thirds of distributed doses are now in arms, supply remains a hurdle. This site in Phoenix can accommodate 10,000 to 12,000 shots a day.
DR. CARA CHRIST, ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH SERVICES: I'm just trying to do my part.
HILL (voice-over): But for now, there is only enough vaccine for 500 a day.
CHRIST: What we're hearing is that we're going to be at about this same level for the next few weeks.
HILL (voice-over): 16 lanes up and running at the Texas Motor Speedway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is very impressive.
HILL (voice-over): The state's largest drive through vaccination site where officials say they can process 1,000 people an hour.
MATT RICHARDSON, DENTON COUNTY, TEXAS DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH: We do know that we have several thousand second doses that are coming due, and so we will be allocated those second doses.
HILL (voice-over): Moderna asking the FDA for permission to increase the number of doses in each vial from 10 to 15.
A new study suggests just one dose may be enough for people who already had the virus, but --
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF COVID-19 MEDICAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT: Previous infection does not seem to protect you against re-infection at least with the South African variant.
HILL (voice-over): -- prompting new urgency.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: When we have to deliver 500 million immunizations between now and late spring, early summer to get ahead of these variants and it's going to be tough.
HILL (voice-over): A drop in new cases, hospitalizations and positivity rates prompting some areas to loosen restrictions on indoor dining.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels good. It's nice to be out.
HILL (voice-over): Even extending bar hours.
JOSHUA PEMBERTON, NASHVILLE UNDERGROUND: What it allows us to do is hire more people and bring more of our employees back to work.
HILL (voice-over): Though experts warn this reprieve may not last.
Dr. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: The variants are here. They're circulating, and they are going to cause a large spike in cases.
HILL: A vaccination site here in New York, are set to open on Wednesday morning, after being closed for two days due to that massive winter storm. Those appointments which are cancelled will have first priority. New York City says it won't schedule any new appointments until those have been taken care of.
In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.
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CHURCH: And there is growing concern that different variants of the virus could impact how well the vaccines work. According to a new report from the United Kingdom, a mutation that could enable the virus to evade vaccine protection has been found in a rapidly spreading strain identified in Britain. The mutation is called E484-K.
[04:35:00]
And it's already been seen in variants first found in South Africa and Brazil.
The U.K. has been a world leader when it comes to studying COVID variants. CNN's Scott McLean joins us now from London with more on this. Good to see you, Scott. So, what more is being learned about the variants in the U.K.?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rosemary. So, first off, the important thing for British health officials is being able to spot these mutations in the first place, which means genetically sequencing a lot of the positive test runs.
Now, the U.K., as you mentioned is doing this on an industrial scale. It's what allowed scientists to spot the U.K. variant. Now the South African variant is showing up here. And they're also, as you said, spotting this new mutation in other strains of the virus that is concerning.
It's concerning because this mutation, well, it may, according to early lab research, make the virus a little bit more vaccine resistant. That doesn't mean the vaccines would be useless. It just means that vaccine makers will have to work hard to keep up with this changing virus. The trouble though is that no other country on earth does genetic sequencing of the coronavirus on this scale that the U.K. does.
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MCLEAN (voice over): If there is a secret weapon in the global fight against the mutating coronavirus, you might find it here. A cluster of buildings just off the highway near Cambridge. Every day vans arrive at the Sanger Institute carrying thousands of COVID swabs from across the country. Where they're stored in industrial freezers.
MCLEAN: We're all just waiting to be sequence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, a mixture of negative and positive samples at the moment.
MCLEAN (voice-over): A robot picks out the positive samples from the negative ones and puts them on a separate tray which is sealed. In another lab, hundreds of samples get mixed into a single vial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, in this single sequencing room they'll be over 700 SARS COVID-2 samples.
MCLEAN: And you guys are pretty efficient?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an industrial sequencing, yes.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Special chemicals or added, the tubes are shaken up, press between two pieces of glass, and then put into giant computers to be genetically sequenced. Fifteen hours later, they spit out so much genetic data, entire server farms have been built to house it. After that, scientists on site and at a network of universities across the U.K. start searching through the data.
EWAN HARRISON, PROJECT MANAGER, COVID-19 GENOMICS UK CONSORTIUM: We're looking for mutations that may allow the virus to either be more transmissible or to cause more severe disease. And for mutations that we think might affect the ability of the vaccines to protect people.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Less than two months ago, that data was used to identify a faster spreading variant of the virus, called B117.
MCLEAN: That variant was first spotted in an unlikely place. Here in Kent in Southeast England, famous for its white cliffs, rolling countryside, and a lot of people who make the daily commute to London. It wasn't long before the variant was detected in the capital and eventually throughout the four nations of the U.K. and in dozens of other countries. The CDC says it could become the dominant coronavirus strain in the U.S. by March.
RAVINDRA GUPTA, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: That is the U.K. variant, B117.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Professor Ravi Gupta had been setting an immunocompromised person who couldn't shake the virus for more than three months, giving new mutations time to multiply inside the body that couldn't fight back. When Gupta checked that sequencing database, he found a COVID-19 variant that shared a key mutation with the one his patient was fighting.
MCLEAN: How likely is it that patient zero was immunocompromised person?
GUPTA: I think it's very, very likely. We found very few, virtually no sequences, that are highly related to the B117 variant. In other words, it popped out of nowhere.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Gupta's ongoing research has so far found that vaccines are still largely affective, even on the new variant but maybe not for long.
GUPTA: The viruses are already on their way to becoming more resistant to the immune system and to vaccines.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Variants have been found in Brazil and South Africa where scientists have the tools to sequence the virus' genome. Many other countries don't. So now the British government is volunteering to do it for them. MCLEAN: How likely is it that there are dangerous variants of the virus in other countries that we don't even know about?
GUPTA: It is very likely there are undetected variance out there.
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MCLEAN (on camera): And despite all these mutation worries, there is some good news for the U.K. And that's that new research on the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine shows that it's still 76 percent effective even 90 days after just one dose. This is important because it supports the British government's controversial decision to space out vaccine doses by 12 weeks, rather than the usual six. And Rosemary, that same research also suggests that the vaccine not only prevents people from getting sick, it also prevents transmission of the virus from person to person.
CHURCH: Some good news there. CNN's Scott McLean bringing us the very latest on that from London. Many thanks.
Well one challenge the U.S. is facing, not everyone wants to get vaccinated.
[04:40:00]
The pharmacy company Walgreens says it recently found itself with a larger supply of vaccines than it needed due to hesitancy from the public. Misinformation and an ugly chapter in U.S. history are hindering the vaccine effort, especially within minority communities. CNN's Ryan Young explains.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do believe in COVID, yes, yes.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At Playmakers Barbershop in Atlanta, the tight fades are blended with energetic and sometimes loud discussions about who the greatest basketball player of all-time.
YANOUS WILLIS, ATLANTA BARBER: My name was Yanous before the basketball player.
YOUNG (voice-over): But now COVID-19 stimulus checks and the COVID vaccines are talked about just as passionately.
WILLIS: I really don't trust it because it actually came kind of fast.
YOUNG (voice-over): Barber Yanous Willis feels strongly that the development of COVID-19 vaccines was rushed and comes with serious side effects.
WILLIS: People that take it, they had Bell Palsy.
YOUNG (voice-over): Outside the shop, James Harris had other concerns.
JAMES HARRIS, ATLANTA RESIDENT: I know the doctor took it, it killed him. And the nurse I know, it killed her.
YOUNG (voice-over): While the CDC and FDA are looking into those and similar claims around the country, Harris' and Willis' beliefs underscores a serious concern for Fulton County health director Lynn Paxton and her team, who are fighting the misinformation online about as hard as they're battling the virus itself.
DR. LYNN PAXTON, DIRECTOR, FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH: This vaccine is very effective and very safe.
YOUNG (voice-over): But it's not easy, especially when rumors spread on social media, like posts claiming baseball legend Hank Aaron died from the vaccine because he received his dose publicly days before passing away. He didn't. The Fulton County medical examiner says he died from natural causes. But many in Atlanta's black community believe the claim forcing health officials to speak out.
KATHLEEN TOOMEY, COMMISSIONER, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I think it's just important that we quell these kinds of rumors.
YOUNG (voice-over): Which is why Paxton's team is now distributing information in these communities.
PAXTON: Seek out trusted sources for information about the vaccine. Facebook and your neighbor next door's postings are not trusted sources.
YOUNG (voice-over): Health officials worry misinformation could complicate the process of getting shots in the arms of black and brown communities. New CDC data from the first month of vaccination shows black and Latino people lagging way behind in the states reporting racial breakdown.
So far 60 percent of those vaccinated are white compared to 11.5 percent Latino and just 5.4 percent black.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not giving me the option. You're trying to dump it on me.
YOUNG (voice-over): Misinformation isn't the only issue. History is also a major factor for some including these black health care workers who are still on the fence about getting the vaccine.
JAMECKA BRITTON, HEALTH CARE WORKER: The hesitancy with the African- American community goes back to the willing malpractice on African- Americans, i.e., the Tuskegee experiments.
YOUNG (voice-over): The awful decades' long study where black men with syphilis weren't informed or treated now playing a role in the uphill battle health officials face in trying to convince an already skeptical community to get the COVID vaccine.
DR. PAXTON: Let's face it. That's a crime against humanity, what happened then. But that happened ages ago and because of it, it completely changed the landscape for research. YOUNG: Health officials say they're going to have to look at this differently. They're going to have to start putting billboards up, using social media and maybe actually going to some of the barbershops like the ones we featured to have a one-on-one conversation using health care professionals to go one-on-one with folks, so they know this vaccine is safe.
Ryan Young, CNN, Atlanta, Georgia.
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CHURCH: From condemnation to concern, world leaders are reacting to a court ruling against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. We will bring you that in a live report from London.
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CHURCH: Well supporters of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny promised to take to the streets again, following a verdict that has sparked strong reaction in Russia. And a swift response from governments around the world. And take to the streets, they did. Despite a violent police reaction, this was the scene in Moscow, after a court on Tuesday sentenced Navalny to more than two and a half years in prison. He was charged with violating parole because he didn't show up for his appointment while he was recovering from being poisoned.
One monitoring group says more than 1,000 people were detained across Russia in demonstrations both before and after the ruling. Inside the courtroom, Navalny could be seen drawing a heart for his wife. His lawyer says he plans to appeal.
And our Nic Robertson joins us live from London, where he's tracking reaction to the ruling. So Nic, you are world leaders responding to Navalny's prison term, and what are they planning to do about it?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, they're pretty united in their condemnation saying that the Russian government should release him immediately and all those protesters who've been out there, sort of exercising their democratic rights to have freedom of speech, on the streets of the country. So there is that very sort of unifying message to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Norway, Finland, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, many, many, sort of Western nations.
However, I think there are a couple of takeaways here. One is none of those statements really focus on President Putin which is, of course, is what Navalny's done. His focus, his dissent at President Putin. The international reaction and condemnation doesn't do that.
The other takeaway is that there's no unified decision on what actions should be taken if Russia doesn't release Navalny and the protesters. But I think there's also -- you know, there's another takeaway here. And that's sort of implicit by this very quick unified condemnation. That in a way, President Putin is creating a Nelson Mandela type figure. Putin will be aware of, you know, what happened to Sergei Magnitsky the lawyer for international finance, Bill Browder, who was killed in a Russian jail. That led to the Magnitsky Act in the U.S. and similarly in other countries, like the United Kingdom. Whereby senior Russian officials are on lists. Their finances are curtailed, their travel is curtailed.
So, you know, by putting so much focus on Navalny, you're drawing international condemnation on that specific issue. And this could be a problem for Putin going forward. How it manifests itself, what the international community does next that really isn't clear.
[04:50:00]
But Navalny's put himself in this position and Putin, it appears, is enhancing that position of creating a martyr in jail. A focus for international and local dissension.
CHURCH: Yes, an important point, and we'll continue to follow this story of course. Nic Robertson bringing us the latest there from London, appreciate it.
Well Captain Sir Tom Moore the British World War II veteran who raised millions to help combat COVID-19 has died. And we will have a look at the life of the100-year-old who walked his way into the hearts of millions.
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CHURCH: Once again, SpaceX watched its starship rocket protect prototype explode after launching it in a high altitude test flight. The prototype's predecessor also exploded back in December. No one was on board either flight, thankfully.
[04:55:00]
The Federal Aviation Administration says it will oversee an investigation into the incident. SpaceX is creating the starship rocket, in an attempt to take the first humans to Mars.
The 100-year-old British World War II veteran who raised almost $45 million for the National Health Service has died. Captain Sir Tom Moore died in a hospital on Tuesday from pneumonia and COVID-19. At this hour, he is being honored in a display of bright lights in London's Piccadilly Circus. Captain Tom rose to fame, walking laps around his home, hoping to raise 1,000 pounds for the National Health Service's fight against the coronavirus. But he inspired so many who opened their hearts and their wallets. Captain Tom was knighted by the Queen and promoted to honorary colonel. And British Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised Captain Tom.
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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Captain Sir Tom Moore was a hero in the truest sense of the word. In the dark days of the second world war he fought for freedom. And in the face of this country's deepest post-war crisis, he united us all. He cheered us all up. And he embodied the triumph of the human spirit. He became not just a national inspiration, but a beacon of hope for the world.
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CHURCH: Captain Sir Tom Moore's simple idea to walk laps inspired a nation, something he said was beyond his wildest expectations. We salute you, Sir Tom.
And thank you so much for your company, I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter @RosemaryCNN. "EARLY START" is up next after a short break. You're watching CNN.
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