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U.S. Economy Adds 49,000 in January; Biden to Meet with House Democratic Leaders on COVID Relief Bill; Biden Administration Weighs Plan to Send Masks to All Americans; Yankee Stadium Hosts Mass Vaccination Event; Nearly Seven Million People Fully Vaccinated in the U.S.; GOP Congresswoman Greene Speaks After House Kicks Her Off Committees; Experts Call Attention to Racial Disparities is Vaccine Access. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 05, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Friday morning. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

We do begin this hour with breaking news.

The January jobs report has just been released. America's unemployment rate dropped slightly, but we're not seeing the kind of job addition that we need. The U.S. economy added 49,000 jobs.

[09:00:02]

It means this is still a very, very sluggish recovery and a perilous economy.

It comes just minutes from now when President Biden will meet with House Democratic leaders to discuss pushing through his sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.

The Senate in the early morning hours, around 5:00 a.m., made a procedural move this morning, passing a budget resolution that paves the way for Democrats to push this bill through without any Republican support if it comes to that. We'll have the latest.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And just two hours from now, there will be dueling live events. One far more important. The White House COVID-19 team will hold a news conference as the nation continues to battle this pandemic. Dr. Fauci warning that the U.K. variant may soon become dominant here in the U.S. It is more transmissible. That's a problem. That and the latest on Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine moving closer to authorization for emergency use. That means options when it comes to vaccinations. That's good.

At the same time, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is holding her own news conference one day after she was kicked off her committee assignments for supporting over years violent rhetoric, dangerous disinformation. We begin, though, with the economic news. Christine Romans.

So, Christine, 49,000 or so new jobs. I mean, yesterday we had nearly 800,000 new unemployment claims. Do the math for us there. You know, where does it stand in terms of all these lost jobs?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So there's no historical precedent for this. You had 14.8 million people who told the government this month that they didn't have a job to go back to. The business they worked for was closed or was barely open but not allowed to give them hours. And a quarter of the people working say they're working from home. So you can see that the virus has completely changed what is usually a dynamic labor force.

These 49,000 jobs created was mostly in professional business services, going back to schools jobs, but in the parts of the economy really hurt by the virus, you saw jobs lost in retail, in business -- in leisure and hospitality, the same places. So there are some winners, but mostly millions and millions of losers here in this number. So 49,000 also the month before was worse. And in November, the number was worse than we thought.

So when you add it all together, you guys, we are down 9.9 million jobs since the pandemic began. And I've been doing the numbers on women. You know, women, 5.2 million women have dropped out of the labor force. Dropped out of the labor force. 5.2 million since the beginning of last year. It's just remarkable what you are seeing. Jay Powell, the Fed chief, last week said if you count all these people who dropped out, you're looking at a jobless rate that's really more like 10 percent or higher, not the headline 6.3 percent we saw last month.

HARLOW: Yes. And I think it's so much beyond, Christine, just the stimulus. I mean, there's going to be a lot of permanent job loss and that's not even tackled in this plan.

We appreciate your reporting, Christine.

ROMANS: Sure.

HARLOW: Thank you as always. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, in the next 30 minutes or so, President Biden is set to meet with Democratic leaders to discuss their next steps on COVID relief now that the Senate has adopted the Democrats' budget resolution.

HARLOW: Jeremy Diamond joins us this morning at the White House ahead of that meeting. The question is, what are they going to do now? So he got that letter -- responding letter from the Republicans last night with some huge sticking points.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Those Republicans making very clear that they still have concerns about the size and scope of this $1.9 trillion package proposed by President Biden. This was after the White House staff actually sent a letter to those 10 Republicans outlining why they felt every single one of these measures was necessary in this bill.

Those Republicans making clear that there's still other money that was passed from that $900 billion bill that's been unused and they are pointing the White House to that. So there is no narrowing of that more than trillion-dollar gap between the plan by Senate Republicans and the plan from the White House.

And with this Senate -- with the Senate now passing that budget resolution, this is the clearest sign yet that the White House doesn't need Republican lawmakers in order to pass its bill. Of course, they do need to keep Democrats like Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia happy and make sure that he will ultimately vote because they cannot lose a single Democrat. But nonetheless, the clearest sign yet that they can move forward on a party line basis if they want to.

At the same time, President Biden has made clear that he would like to see Republican lawmakers voting for this package. He is willing to compromise on certain areas but he doesn't necessarily need to at this point. And that's why this morning in the next half hour, we're expected to see President Biden sitting down with House Democratic leaders to hash out the way forward on this. Clearly, they are moving forward with this budget reconciliation process.

And then later today you'll hear President Biden also address the state of the economy. And with this new jobs report showing that while there is more recovery happening, it is sluggish and you can expect President Biden to use that to make the case for the need for this $1.9 trillion package.

[09:05:01]

SCIUTTO: Jeremy, during the Trump administration, there was consideration of a plan of mailing masks to every American. That was killed in the last administration. It's now an idea again in this one. Will it happen?

DIAMOND: We'll see. The White House chief of staff Ron Klain certainly indicating that it's something that they are prepared to move forward with. Just yesterday in an interview with NBC, Klain said that this was something that the health agencies had recommended to the Trump administration. They didn't ultimately move forward with it. But he said that he hopes that in the next few days or weeks they'll be able to, quote, "announce some progress on this."

I can tell you, though, in speaking with a couple of White House officials that this is an idea that they are certainly considering that's on the table. They see it as a powerful way to send a message about the importance of mask wearing at this point in the pandemic. But they have not yet committed to and they haven't made a final decision on that. But it's certainly something that they're considering very, very strongly -- Jim, Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond, things moving quickly. Thanks very much.

Well, listen to this figure because it's encouraging. Coronavirus vaccinations administered in the U.S. this week outnumbered new infections by a factor of 10 to 1. That's a big deal. The latest data from the CDC shows the pace of vaccinations is up about 5 percent as Dr. Fauci urges Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible. This is good news.

HARLOW: It's good news. We'll take it. I'm glad you highlighted it. You've got nearly seven million Americans that have received both doses, meaning they're fully vaccinated. That's good.

Let's go to our Athena Jones who joins us from a mass vaccination event right here in New York City at Yankee Stadium.

Who can go there and get this vaccine?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. Well, this vaccination site, this mass vaccination site will be open exclusively to residents of the Bronx. When you come here, you're supposed to show proof of residency. You also are supposed to have an appointment. This is a site that will be opened from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. There'll be 15,000 appointments available over the course of the first week of operation.

Now we're told that today there are only 1,000 appointments available to kind of -- a slow ramp up. And officials chose to target the Bronx because this is the borough that has the highest rate of COVID positivity -- highest rate of positive COVID tests in the entire city. Just for a point of comparison we're talking about around 6 percent, over 6 percent here in the Bronx versus 3.5 percent in Manhattan.

This is also the borough that has the highest poverty rate and it also has a high percentage of black and Latino residents and poorer residents. Now of course, you have to be eligible. You have to be among the group of people who are eligible. Health care workers, people over 65. The city has also expanded this vote to people who work in restaurants, people who work in bodegas, in grocery stores, transit workers. But as long as you are in that eligible group and you sign up and make an appointment, you can come here.

Now I can tell you that there's been a lot of people lining up even way before this site open, a couple of hours early in the dark, hoping to get a vaccine. Not all of them had made appointments. Some said that they weren't aware of it. Others said they had problems getting through and working with the system. And so you now have two lines that are separated out. National Guard helping the folks who don't have appointments make appointments for another day later in the week.

Now you had a city council member who's head of the health committee, Mark Levine, tweeting yesterday that he was concerned about there being thousands of slots still available. Well, that is still true. The last I checked, there were spots available starting on Wednesday. So they filled up, up until Wednesday. And this is so important because it's not just about access. It's about making sure people are ready and willing to take the vaccine, and we know that there's a lot of distrust of this whole vaccine process among members of the black community and the Latino community. I myself have had multiple conversations with mayors of black

community asking me, are you going to get the vaccine? So you want to make sure you put access and also having an appointment or able to get taken care of -- Jim, Poppy.

HARLOW: Athena, thank you. I hope it helps up there because the rate is way, way, way too high for folks. Thank you, Athena.

Well, a third coronavirus vaccine could be available in the U.S. within a matter of weeks. The FDA will meet later this month. They will consider Emergency Use Authorization for the Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine.

SCIUTTO: Yes, big advantages to get it all done in one shot. Joining us now to discuss this and other news, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

I want to ask you a question, it relates both to the J&J vaccine but also news we got in the last few minutes about the AstraZeneca vaccine. It is -- that is effective against this new U.K. variant of COVID-19 that is more transmissible. I know some data, it might be more deadly.

Is that the big picture here that we're seeing the existing vaccines are effective against the new variants?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, so good morning and thanks for having me on. That is the big picture. Look, these variants are concerning. They are, obviously, things we have to keep an eye on. But I believe our vaccines are going to hold up to them. Certainly the U.K. variant, I have a lot of confidence that all of our vaccines are going to work.

[09:10:01]

The South Africa variant is going to be a little bit -- the vaccines maybe be a little less effective, but still I think quite effective. These vaccines are doing really well. It doesn't necessarily mean that for all future variants it will hold up, but right now things look good.

HARLOW: How big of a game changer could the J&J vaccine actually available to a lot of Americans be, especially since it's one shot?

JHA: Yes, so I am really excited about the J&J vaccine. The data that I've seen so far, preliminary data, we'll have a lot more in the next three weeks when the FDA goes through all of it carefully. And I think a single shot is obviously huge, you don't have to bring people back. And the storage issues here are much, much easier. Essentially you have to refrigerate it.

The issue right now is that we don't have a ton of the J&J vaccines. We don't have as many doses as we'd like. I think they're working on it. I don't know that it will make a huge difference in February or March but certainly by April it'll become a real player in terms of expanding vaccine access. SCIUTTO: Yes. Options are good. Listen, this statistic, we just

uttered these words moments ago, really stuck out to me. Coronavirus vaccinations administered in the U.S. outnumbered new cases, new infections 10 to 1 this week. Wow. That's great. I mean, you have been consistent in saying, hey, listen, even when the vaccine rates look pretty bad, you've been saying hey, it's going to get better. Is that what we're seeing now?

JHA: We are seeing that. It is getting better. And I think we're going to get much, much better yet. We're doing about 1.3 million a day. A little bit -- got thrown off a little by the snowstorm. It will pick back up. I would like to get us not just to the 1.5 million a day that President Biden has suggested that he'd like to target. I think we can get to two million or even better than that. It's going to take work but we've got to do it. And especially with these variants circulating around, we've got to do it fast.

HARLOW: Dr. Jha, I don't know if you've seen it, but this morning, Amnesty International and Oxfam are calling on Moderna and Pfizer to share their formula basically for their highly effective vaccines with any other company that could make them.

And the issue here is especially in the developing world. They said you guys are profiting, as every drug company has a right to do, I should note. It's important to have the private sector benefit from innovation. But they're saying you've got to now give these formulas to other manufacturers to make it for the rest of the developing world. What do you think?

JHA: Yes, so first of all, I completely agree that we' got to get a lot more vaccines out to the whole world. I mean, again, this is a global pandemic. And if we have large outbreaks happening in other places, that puts Americans at risk and it puts everybody at risk. So I completely agree with that. And we've got to vaccinate people. You know, if it was as simple as just sharing their formula, that would be great.

You can also imagine that Moderna and Pfizer have plenty of motivation and incentive to go sign contracts with companies so that other companies can make it. That's really not the holdup right now. The holdup right now is raw materials, the holdup is the ability, the machines, the factories to make these things. Those are the places we've got to be making investments. And we absolutely have to ramp up production for these things that make it more accessible for the whole world.

HARLOW: Thank you, Dr. Jha. We always love having you. Have a good, healthy weekend.

JHA: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: We know many of you are wondering, well, I'm eligible. Where can I get a vaccine? We've got you covered. Go here. CNN.com/health. You will find a link. It will show you where to find the best vaccine information in your state. I promise you, this is an invaluable resource. SCIUTTO: Listen, I'm going to go there because I need to know the

answer to those questions, too. Still to come this hour --

HARLOW: Sciutto, you're not old enough for the vaccine yet. You're still a young man.

SCIUTTO: Oh, boy. Closer than I'd like to be.

Still to come, Marjorie Taylor Greene, conspiracy theorist, QAnon congresswoman, will respond later this morning to being stripped of her House committee assignments. She'll hold a press conference.

Plus, white Americans are being vaccinated at much higher rates than black Americans. Why is that? And what can be done to overcome this challenge, that is vaccine hesitancy in communities of color?

HARLOW: Also ahead, Democrats are pushing to pass President Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package. Will they make enough changes, though, to get Republicans on board? We will ask a top economic adviser from the White House this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Well, this morning, QAnon-supporting Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will respond after being stripped of her committee assignments. Yesterday, the house voted in favor of removing her and 11 Republicans joined Democrats in that vote.

SCIUTTO: Joining us now to talk about all this, CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox, CNN political commentator Alice Stewart. Good morning to both of you. Alice, I wonder if I could begin with you, it always strikes me that the secret ballots in the votes we've seen in the last week are more revealing than the public ones.

The secret ballot regarding Liz Cheney's leadership showed broad support for her leadership and, of course, a woman who voted to impeach President Trump. In the public ballots, like on Marjorie Taylor Greene, and only 11 Republicans, you know, came out against her there. I just wonder, when you speak to Republicans on the Hill in private, is it their view that she's more damaging than helpful, in private, even if they won't say that in public?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. They will acknowledge that she is a grand-new problem for the Grand Old Party. And I spoke with some before, Republicans cast their ballot on Wednesday night and said that her wild conspiracy theories are a bridge too far.

[09:20:00)

And something certainly needs to be done. And the problem is, when you get to the point of where you are allowing this kind of behavior, unfortunately, it allows future behavior. The issue is, Jim, is though they had the opportunity in that closed door meeting on Wednesday night to hear from her, and my understanding is she was very contrite.

She was very apologetic. She denounced a lot of what she said, and that is what made them make this decision. What I fear is that this is not a job for -- on the job training. We're witnessing and seeing in real-time someone who is facing a stark learning curve as a member of Congress, and she needs to be held accountable.

Look, what she said and did before she was elected by members in North Georgia is between her and the voters of North Georgia. What she says and does now is subject to the scrutiny of her colleagues --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

STEWART: In Congress. And I think her continuing the false claims of voter fraud are inappropriate and certainly her embracing of these conspiracy theories is certainly wrong as well.

HARLOW: Well, Lauren, some of the answers to the why, like why did only 11 Republicans vote to remove her from committee, yet 61 voted to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership because she voted to impeach President Trump, may be found in actually Liz Cheney's statement overnight that I thought was really interesting because she said in the same breath, QAnon has no place in this party, but Democrats, you're setting a dangerous precedent by removing, you know, our folks from committees and watch out, it could come back to bite you essentially.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right. And we should note that Liz Cheney did not vote to oust Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments --

HARLOW: Right --

FOX: For that exact reason that you noted. And that is something that Republicans in Congress that I have been talking to over the last week had really been basing their entire decision on earlier today. And I -- excuse me, yesterday.

And I think one of the reasons for that was the fact that, yes, they view this as a dangerous precedent. If you're going to hold people to account for what they said before they came to Congress, they argue, where do you draw the line? I mean, there were some concerns, you know, what if somebody did something in their past? Does that potentially endanger them in their current state as a member of Congress?

And I think that, that question is a real one for Republicans. I also think it is a question of whether or not this should have been the decision of Kevin McCarthy; the minority leader. And I think a lot of Republicans were not happy to walk the plank and take that vote yesterday in part because you can guess if you're running in a suburban district, there are going to be ads run against you in the future if you did not vote to oust Marjorie Taylor Greene. They're going to try to tie you to her, and I think that that's why a lot of Republicans were hoping McCarthy would make this call rather than making his members take this vote. SCIUTTO: Alice, let's be frank here. I mean, she's a proxy for the

800-pound gorilla, Donald Trump, right, figuratively speaking here because he's the chief propagator of conspiracy theories and lies, including continuing to propagate the lie about the election. We have an impeachment next week. His second. Do you see Republicans moving on him? Do you have a small number willing to move away from Greene. Do you see Republicans moving away from the president to the point where some might vote to convict?

STEWART: I think the numbers that we've seen are the numbers we're going to continue to see as we move to the Senate trial. There are a lot of Republican senators that I spoke with that are just not comfortable with voting to convict him on this.

And they say for the simple fact that he's no longer in office. The question with that, Jim, is the talking out of both sides of your mouth is the fear of convicting someone of impeachment for a person that is no longer in office for stuff that they said while in office. And then we just have Marjorie Taylor Greene who they are afraid to take action on her for comments that she has said in office --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

STEWART: While she is still --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

STEWART: In office. So you can't have it both ways. I, for one, happen to think the comments that the president did with regard to the election fraud certainly is worthy of some type of punishment, and I would not be afraid if senators went for impeachment.

SCIUTTO: Well, good for you for pointing out that intellectual inconsistency. Alice Stewart, not the first one we've seen on Capitol Hill, and certainly not the last. Alice Stewart, Lauren Fox, thanks very much.

STEWART: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, the pace of vaccinations is steadily improving. That's good news, but are officials doing enough to address continued racial disparities and access to vaccines and also accepting vaccines?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: The state of Mississippi has just released new data showing that black Americans are being vaccinated at disproportionately lower rates. African-Americans have received less than a fifth of the vaccine supply despite making up about 37 percent of the state's population.

HARLOW: Our next guest have just written a fascinating and critically important piece in "The Washington Post", the headline is "white Americans are being vaccinated at higher rates than black Americans. Such inequality -- inequity cannot stand." Joining us now, Dr. Uche Blackstock of "Yahoo News", medical contributor and emergency medicine physician and her twin sister, Dr. Oni Blackstock; a primary care and HIV physician.

Thank you doctors both for being here. I'm so glad you wrote this and Dr. Uche Blackstock, let me begin with you because here's a line that struck me in the piece. Quote, "a color blind approach to vaccine distribution will no doubt prove catastrophic." My question to you is, isn't it already proving catastrophic?