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U.S. Vaccination Ramps Up Ahead Of Super Bowl; European Countries Ease Restrictions As COVID-19 Cases Fall; Capitol Rioter Says He Was Following Trump's Directions; Ground Rules Still To Be Set For Senate Trial; U.S. Democrats Pave Way For COVID-19 Relief Bill; Thousands Protesting In Myanmar; Russian Protesters Detained By Police Describe Abuse; Super Bowl LV Set to Kick Off. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired February 07, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The makers of one of the major coronavirus vaccines warns that it has limited protection against one of the new variants of the disease.

Newly discovered videos that could play an important role in Donald Trump's upcoming impeachment trial.

And a Super Bowl weekend unlike any we have ever seen. How the NFL plans to cope with a socially distanced spectacle.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, we're going to start with some good news for a change about the coronavirus. According to the CDC, more Americans are now getting vaccinated than getting the virus by a factor of 10:1.

More than 9 million vaccinations were given in just last -- the last week alone. Meanwhile, the number of new cases is falling across the country. Not a single U.S. state is in the red.

But experts are warning that Super Bowl viewing parties could set the country back. The Super Bowl, arguably the biggest event in U.S. sports, takes place later today, of course, and officials are begging fans to skip large gatherings this year to reduce opportunities for the virus to spread.

Meanwhile, we're learning more about how new coronavirus variants could impact vaccinations. AstraZeneca says its coronavirus shot seems less effective against the variant first spotted in South Africa, when it's a case of mild disease, but still believes the vaccine could protect against severe disease.

In Europe, Italian health officials are authorizing the use of monoclonal antibodies to treat the coronavirus. The country has cleared the therapies developed by U.S. drugmakers, Eli Lilly and Regeneron.

And a top British doctor says, despite the vaccine rollout, intensive care units in the U.K. are full to the rafters. He told British radio, while numbers are starting to plateau, he believes for the moment that the U.K. would remain in the thick of it a little while longer.

And the Netherlands just surpassed 1 million total coronavirus infections though new cases have been declining in recent weeks. Let's bring in CNN's Melissa Bell in Paris and Salma Abdelaziz in London.

Melissa, the numbers improving broadly in Europe.

Does that mean restrictions will drop as well?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what several countries have been looking at.

Italy lifted a bunch of its restrictions this week, primary school children returning to school in many countries. European economies are looking at how quickly they can ease restrictions.

Let's be clear, that plateauing or slight downward trend of new infections in Europe is, Kim, the result of economies that have been ground to a halt.

Germany, which has been in lockdown for several months, Angela Merkel will meet with state premiers this week to look at whether it is possible to start lifting some of those restrictions.

But here is the fear, just as in the U.K., as you mentioned a moment ago, ICUs here on the continent in the European Union remain stretched, remain overburdened. And the question is now whether that new variant, the one first identified in the United Kingdom, might not come and make the problem infections worse again.

Take France, January 27th one example at random, 14 percent of new infections that day were of the new variant, which, of course, spreads much more quickly. Here, a leading epidemiologist, one on the committee that advises the French government, is warning this weekend in the press that, if left unchecked, that new variant could be dominant by the 1st of March. That is how fast its spreading in the European Union.

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BELL: That would change that downward trend that we're seeing. Again, with ICUs overburdened in so many countries, including here in France, the question is whether they could cope with such an uptick.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Let's go to Salma in the U.K.

Those warnings about the ICUs being full, notwithstanding health officials say the country is now past the peak of this wave but still it could be weeks before restrictions are eased. So why is that?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: That's absolutely right, Kim. I mean, the earliest that we can expect a road map, just a plan out of lockdown is the end of this month, is February 22nd. That's when the prime minister has promised to lay out the plans. The earliest schools can open is March 8th.

Tough weeks ahead because, yes, while the numbers look good, the number of hospitalizations are shrinking, the number of people who are testing positive, that's going down significantly. You still have more people in hospital with coronavirus right now than you did during the first wave of this pandemic.

It all comes down to that very stubborn variant that my colleague, Melissa, mentioned, that stubborn variant of COVID-19 that spreads more easily, could be more deadly, according to British authorities, and that they simply cannot afford to see another spike from.

So everyone has to stay under lockdown, stay under these restrictions and they won't be lifted until we get through a few key things.

First, the country's vaccination program, that's the key part here. That's the real protection, that's the real shield against this variant. So far 11.5 million people in this country have received their first dose. That's about one in five adults.

The authorities want to see all of the key vulnerable groups, key priority groups vaccinated before they lift these rules.

Secondly, they're keeping their eye on all the other variants. British authorities do not want to live this nightmare again with a different variant. That's why you see really tough travel restrictions and travel rules.

But also scientific advances like genomic sequencing, creating a library and index of variants. You have health officials reaching out to manufacturers to prepare for the possibility to create new vaccines if needed to deal with the variants.

These two things in conjunction, the vaccination program, keeping those eyes on the variants and hopefully, in a couple of months' time, in a few weeks' time, we can start to see a slow easing of restrictions here, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Hopefully. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Salma Abdelaziz in London and Melissa Bell in Paris. Appreciate you being on.

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BRUNHUBER: To talk about this further, let's bring in Dr. Sian Griffiths, professor emeritus at the University of Hong Kong. She joins me now live from Oxford, England.

Thank you very much for joining us. I want to start with the new variants. Many of the headlines we're seeing, it's all about how poorly some of the vaccines are faring against some of these variants. It's hard to get a read on where we are in this race between the variants and the vaccines.

So how concerned are you?

DR. SIAN GRIFFITHS, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Good morning, Kim. Yes, we do have here news all the time about variants emerging. But we shouldn't be surprised that because that's what viruses do. They find ways to dodge vaccines.

And basically, the idea is, if we can get the level of transmissions as low as possible in the community, the variants will not cause any issues.

Although they are worrying and we saw in the U.K., we saw in November- December, we saw the sudden rise of the U.K. Kent variant, which is much more transmissible, that alerted us to the need for genomic sequencing.

Then we've seen 100 cases of the South African variant in the U.K. and the public health response has been to really clamp down on this, to stop this more transmissible disease from increasing because we're already had experience with one variant that sort of got away, so to speak.

So the South African variant, wherever there is a case in the U.K., then the local authorities will do -- in England, they're doing mass surge testing. They're testing the local community to see if there are any other cases there. And they're using the PCR test, which gives you the genomic sequencing.

And everybody is being advised to take extra precautions about staying home. So we are anxious but at the same time the vaccine manufacturers are telling us that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine appears to be as effective against the Kent U.K. variant.

There's some question yet about the science of the South African variant. The small study today suggests that the vaccine isn't as effective but there's also larger studies ongoing. So this is a matter of continual research.

[04:10:00]

GRIFFITHS: But the more optimistic note from the vaccine scientists is they can tweak the vaccines, look at the variant and tweak the genome sequencing so they can produce new vaccines, which are effective against the variants.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, but, as you note, I mean, it is spreading faster and faster here in the U.S. Dr. Osterholm from President Biden's COVID-19 task force said this week that we have some 6-14 weeks before the variants take over.

Does this mean we need a different strategy, to prioritize vaccinating more people now rather than, let's say, making sure they all get the second dose on time? GRIFFITHS: Well, as you know, that's the approach that's been taken in the U.K. We now have a first dose and then whether it's the Pfizer BioNTech or the Oxford AstraZeneca, you wait 12 weeks for the second dose because that increases the overall immunity, the number of people who have some immunity.

And they've also found that the Oxford AstraZeneca virus is more effective if you wait 12 weeks. The booster is more effective than if you give it earlier.

So for many reasons our joint committee on vaccination and immunization and our regulators have agreed a 12-week schedule. And that's been adopted here in the U.K. since the beginning of the vaccine program.

We're also then finding that some of the newer vaccines that are emerging are also -- because they've been created during the time the numbers have been increasing -- they are effective against the variants.

So I think it's a matter of getting as many people, particularly those in vulnerable groups, immunized as quickly as possible. And that's very much the approach that's been adopted here across the U.K.

BRUNHUBER: Quickly before we go, you touched on one major piece of this here that we don't talk about a lot and that's testing. There are more rapid tests on the market now.

And just as experts are saying we need to be testing millions of more people, here, at least in the U.S., we're seeing, for the last two weeks, the number of people tested has been falling.

Have you seen that at all in the U.K. as well?

Is this just a U.S. phenomenon?

And do you think that complacency might be behind it?

GRIFFITHS: Well, that would be very unfortunate. In fact, we have seen lower numbers of people being tested because there are lower symptomatic people because we have lower amounts of disease in the population.

But we've also supplemented that with the lateral flow test. Lateral flow tests are a red light. Basically, if you test positive, you are positive. But you may be positive and not test, if you see what I mean. So we've expanded community testing in using lateral flow as well as people coming forward for PCR testing.

So if you combine those, we are probably seeing as much testing but in slightly different ways in the community. And that's -- that's being rolled out now and with more emphasis during the next week on businesses doing lateral flow testing.

I think that that would -- that will come to complacency because people will realize that the disease is still at high levels and, of course, there are the variants. And we could get new variants because the variants, you know, we've got thousands of new mutations. It's just which ones are harmful is the key issue.

The genomic sequencing is another issue where there's been a lot of effort in the U.K. I think we've done 50 percent of the genomic testing across the world, offering out to do genomic testing, create that library so we do understand what's happening to this virus, which is why testing is still very important.

BRUNHUBER: And genomic testing, another thing that the U.S. is way behind the rest of the world. We will have to leave it there. Sian Griffiths, emeritus professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it.

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BRUNHUBER: One month after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, the former president is just days away from a public reckoning in the U.S. Senate. And there's new video showing how closely some of those rioters were heeding Trump's words. We will have the details straight ahead. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Just two days from now, Donald Trump will again make history when he becomes the first U.S. president to face a Senate impeachment trial. Never before has a president been accused of inciting an insurrection.

And there's startling new video that shows just how closely some who stormed the Capitol building last month were listening to Trump and what they believed he wanted them to do.

Donie O'Sullivan explains how this video came to light one month after the Capitol siege. First listen to what this man, who calls himself the QAnon shaman, said about Trump after the riot.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you get out?

JACOB CHANSLEY, CAPITOL RIOTER: Get out of what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did you get out?

CHANSLEY: The Senate?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. CHANSLEY: Cops walked out with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just let you go?

CHANSLEY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your message now?

CHANSLEY: Oh, Donald Trump asked everybody to go home. He just said it. He just put out a tweet. It's a minute long. He asked everybody to go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think so?

CHANSLEY: Because, dude, (INAUDIBLE) day (INAUDIBLE) won.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did we win?

(CROSSTALK)

CHANSLEY: -- by sending a message to the senators and the congressman. We won by sending a message to Pence, OK, that if they don't do as their oath to do, if they don't uphold the Constitution, then we will remove them from office one way or another.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy is recording (INAUDIBLE)?

CHANSLEY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

CHANSLEY: I'm fine with being recorded. All I can say is we won the (INAUDIBLE) day. Donald Trump is still out president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have another question. There's a lot of people that doubt that you would be able to go in and come out.

What do you say to them?

CHANSLEY: Well, a lot of people doubted a lot of prophets, sages. A lot of people doubted Christ.

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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: That video was originally posted to Parler, a social media website that was very popular to Trump supporters around the time of the insurrection. Parler is temporarily closed down, been taken offline.

[04:20:00]

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But a computer programmer was able to download thousands of videos shot that day, many of which were at the insurrection itself. You saw in the video, Jacob Chansley, the QAnon shaman. We have seen him at multiple events leading up to the insurrection. We saw him back in October where Trump's praise of QAnon supporters

was celebrated. We saw Chansley there. We saw him 48 hours before the insurrection on Monday January 4th in Dalton, Georgia, outside a Trump rally on the eve of the Senate runoff elections.

Now as we go into the impeachment trial, which is beginning this week, very important what we heard there from Chansley. Clearly he was somebody who said he was taking his cues from president Trump. Back to you.

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BRUNHUBER: Donald Trump has ripped some deep divisions within the Republican Party. CNN's Jessica Dean has the latest on that and a look ahead to his fast approaching second impeachment trial.

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Wyoming Republican Party voted to censure congresswoman Liz Cheney in response to her vote to impeach former president Donald Trump.

That resolution had a number of inaccuracies in it. Congresswoman Cheney did respond, saying that she was compelled by the oath I swore to the Constitution when she took that vote to impeach former president Trump.

Now all of this, of course, coming on the eve of former president Trump's second impeachment trial, which is scheduled to start on Tuesday. There's still a number of unknowns surrounding that trial, namely how long it will take.

We don't know exactly at this point how long this will go on and also if witnesses will be called.

In this case, it's a very unique situation in that the 100 senators who will be serving as jurors were also witnesses in this case. They experienced the insurrection here on January 6th.

House impeachment managers have also requested former president Trump to testify. He said he will not be doing that. And right now there's just not an appetite for a subpoena to compel him to testify.

We're told that House impeachment managers instead intend to say his refusal to testify here for the Senate impeachment trial underscores his guilt as being singularly responsible for the insurrection on January 6th -- Jessica Dean, CNN, the Capitol.

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BRUNHUBER: The impeachment trial comes as President Biden is trying to get lawmakers to pass his nearly $2 trillion coronavirus relief plan. Democrats are prepared to forge ahead without Republican support. But the president is admitting he will have to make a big concession. Arlette Saenz has the latest.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the push to get his COVID relief package passed continues, President Biden is acknowledging that one element of that proposal may not ultimately make it into the final deal. That is the $15 minimum wage.

That is something President Biden promoted during the presidential campaign and something he wanted to include in this COVID relief package. In an interview with CBS, the president said it may not survive due to the Senate rules process.

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NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS NEWS HOST: You also want to raise the minimum wage to $15.

Is that something you would be willing to negotiation on in order to get Republican support?

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, apparently that's not going to occur because of the rules in the United States Senate.

O'DONNELL: So you're saying the minimum wage will not be in this.

BIDEN: My guess is it won't but I do think we should have a minimum wage, stand by itself, $15 an hour and work your way up. It doesn't have to be boom and all the economics show, if you do that, the whole economy rises.

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SAENZ: Now if that proposal does not make it into the final package, the president indicated he does want to pursue the $15 minimum wage as a stand-alone measure down the road.

He's spending the weekend at home in Delaware, where he visited the doctor's office to receive an X-ray on his foot, which he fractured in November. Dr. Kevin O'Connor says those fractures have completely healed -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

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BRUNHUBER: Let's bring in Natasha Lindstaedt, who teaches government at the University of Essex in England.

Thank you very much for joining us. I want to start with the COVID relief bill. It will go ahead without any bipartisan support, it seems.

What difference would that make if they got one or two Republicans to go ahead?

Does that actually matter?

And who does this hurt more, Democrats or Republicans?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Honestly, I think at this point, it doesn't matter because the proposal that some of the Republicans had put forward was so far away from what Biden's original proposal was that it just didn't look like they were going to find any common ground here.

[04:25:00]

LINDSTAEDT: From Biden's perspective, he needs to do something pretty immediately, he needs to do something that's very massive because the economy is in disarray. And it's just been such a massive crisis here, with so many people unemployed, people being plunged into poverty.

And the Democrats believe this is going to be very popular. In fact, early polling shows that the bill will be popular if it gets implemented fully. And so they feel they need to forge ahead because, if they don't forge ahead, then Biden is going to be accused of having done nothing.

And though he's trying to encourage bipartisan support, in this instance, it simply doesn't look like it's possible.

BRUNHUBER: There is a limited time window there. Of course, a couple of days away from impeachment, we know Donald Trump won't be there to testify.

So should Democrats call witnesses or should they, you know, just try to get this over with as quickly as they can, since, you know, the facts are known and so is the result probably, right?

LINDSTAEDT: Right. I think the result is a foregone conclusion. The Republicans are not going to convict. At the moment, impeachment isn't super popular. About 47 percent of the public supports it, 84 percent of Democrats on average, only 9 percent of Republicans.

And the facts are really all out there. There's not really much to dispute. It's all on video. So it's not going to require months and months of acquiring information and investigation.

People feel very strongly about it. You either feel that what he did, Donald Trump did, by inciting the insurrection in an impeachable offense or you don't. I don't think there's much to talk about.

I think that the Republicans' main talking point is going to be that Democrats were distracted by this impeachment trial, this was taking away time when the Senate and the House should be focused on passing laws to help benefit the American public.

So while I believe the Democrats have to pursue impeachment, just because what Donald Trump did was so egregious, I think it's going to go quite quickly.

BRUNHUBER: All right. So President Biden, he's done many fewer interviews than president Trump at this point. But he has relaunched the weekly presidential address; very different in format; informal, on-camera conversation between him and a voter, you know, a far cry from the old FDR fireside chats.

Will that kind of thing help?

And more broadly how is the president doing so far in terms of popularity?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, right now on average his popularity is at 61 percent so it's much higher than Donald Trump's ever was. And his level of unpopularity is at 38 percent, so basically exactly Trump's base.

He's just trying to -- Biden is just trying to maintain his support over the Democrats and over those that are more moderate voters. And he's trying to connect with voters in a very different way.

As we know Trump was a social media president. He tried to connect very frequently using Twitter and various means of social media, going on FOX News and so forth. And that's because that's what he knew. He is an entrepreneur and he is a social media star and media star and that's how he connected with people.

But Biden has had years and years of experience in the Senate, as vice president and now president. He wants to pursue a more traditional way of connecting with the American public and keeping in touch and also trying to communicate the policies that he is busy enacting and focusing on.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, speaking of those policies, we heard this week more on his foreign policy agenda. So I want to get your take on how Biden is diverging from his predecessor, both in the specifics and the general tone he's setting here.

LINDSTAEDT: Well, almost in every way, Biden's foreign policy is going to look different than Trump's. He made it clear to his European allies, to other allies, that the U.S. is back, it's going to be focused on multilateral cooperation.

And one of the more specific things is that Biden is also going to change -- both change in tone and action in dealing with Russia. He made it clear to the Russian government that the U.S. would not tolerate electoral interference, where Trump didn't seem to want to do that.

There's big changes also in the Middle East because he announced that he wasn't going to be supporting offensive operations for the Saudis in the war in Yemen. Now this war has been very unpopular.

And so this is something that there are -- there would be some bipartisan support for this. But it looks like Biden is doing so because he also wants to get back to the table with Iran in the Iran nuclear deal.

And by lessening support for the Saudis, this is an opening to start some negotiation with Iran, who, of course, is involved in a proxy war in Yemen against Saudi Arabia.

[04:30:00] LINDSTAEDT: So there are big changes afoot in dealing with our allies, in dealing with authoritarian regimes and just also signaling a commitment to fighting climate change.

BRUNHUBER: All right. We will have to leave it there. Should be a fascinating week ahead. Thank you so much, Natasha Lindstaedt, with the University of Essex in England, appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

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BRUNHUBER: Protesters refuse to let democracy die in Myanmar. Coming up, the message thousands of people are sending to the country's generals, days after a military coup. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Protesters are refusing to back down in Myanmar. They've been out in force again in Yangon to denounce last Monday's military coup. Many of the demonstrators appear to be young. They've been marching, chanting pro-democracy slogans and holding up a three-finger salute against military rule.

Bystanders, young and old, are cheering them on. The demonstrators have been able to organize, despite an earlier internet blackout and reports so far indicate things have been mostly peaceful.

But marchers did come face-to-face with riot police and what looks to be a major roadblock. For the latest, we're going to bring in CNN's Selina Wang live in Tokyo.

[04:35:00]

BRUNHUBER: We're seeing even more people protesting than before despite the crackdowns.

What's the latest?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kim, that's right. According to witnesses, they tell CNN that not only are there more protesters than yesterday but they are also better organized.

We are seeing these crowds of mostly young people. They are chanting, holding signs with the image of Aung San Suu Kyi, saying, "We want our leader," demanding democracy and failure of military leadership.

These protests have been largely peaceful. We've seen crowds try to change direction to avoid roadblocks, to avoid direct confrontation with the police. According to NetBlocks, some internet connectivity has been partially restored.

But because of the earlier internet blackouts, we were told that protesters were largely relying on SMS, phone calls and word-of-mouth in order to organize.

For more than 50 years, Myanmar had been under military regime, that brutally stifled dissent and plunged the country into poverty. And many still have mental and physical scars from the past. Take a listen to what an 18-year-old demonstrator had to say.

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YE KYAW, STUDENT (through translator): We have decided we will fight until the end with our lives for our generation. We have to work for the next generation to get democracy for them. We want to end this military dictatorship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WANG: Six years ago, there was hope for real and lasting change, when Aung San Suu Kyi won the election by a landslide, when the first civilian government was formed. But now that hope is being dashed. Residents are worried that history is repeating itself. Even though Aung San Suu Kyi has fallen from grace internationally over her rejection of allegations of genocide and her failure to condemn the Rohingya crisis, at home, domestically she is still hugely popular.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thank you so much, Selina Wang in Tokyo.

In Russia, demonstrators backing opposition figure Alexei Navalny have been jailed by the thousands. Now some of those arrested are speaking out, describing police abuse and squalid jail conditions. Fred Pleitgen reports.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The images of Russian riot cops cracking down on protesters have sparked outrage around the world. Thousands have been detained and some say they were mistreated by police in custody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was alone in the room with these four policemen and one said, "What, do you want a plastic bag over your head?"

On the shelf they already had a plastic bag as if it was prepared for this. So they put it over my head and started choking me a little bit. I tried to resist but he kept putting my head down and shaking me.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): A Kremlin spokesperson said that if what she described really happened, then she should have filed a lawsuit, even though she's currently in jail.

Moscow police did not respond to CNN's request for comment. Security forces detained so many people at recent demos, Moscow even ran out of space to keep them in.

Images have emerged of people crammed into police buses waiting for hours and even days to be processed with no chance to physically distance during times of pandemic.

Alexander Golovach is a lawyer for opposition leader Alexei Navalny's organization. He was detained at a protest last weekend.

ALEXANDER GOLOVACH, ANTI-CORRUPTION LAWYER (through translator): I was taken to a police station with 25 other people. I was spent there three days. In the first day, we had no food, no water and they didn't let us use the toilet.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): This is Saherova (ph), a former migrant camp now used as a detention center. People locked up here shared these videos with CNN showing cramped cells.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Everything is bad. There aren't mattresses and people have been sitting like this for 1.5 days.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Among them, a prominent journalist jailed for retweeting a joke which the court said incited participation in an unauthorized rally.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We spent many hours in a tiny cell, 28 people in a cell meant for eight. These are harsh conditions.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): While he says he has been moved to a better cell, others claim little has changed for them.

Meanwhile, pro Kremlin media is blaring out videos like this one of factory workers enthusiastically showing their support for Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Putin's spokesman acknowledged the overcrowded facilities but said the response of the riot police was justified and claim there were, quote, "no repressions in Russia."

Outside the makeshift jail, friends and relative bring food, drinks and cigarettes for those inside, some venting their anger.

[04:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They're trying to intimidate people. Our job is to show the detainees they have support and we are all together in this. That's the only way to build society.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Alexei Navalny's movement has refrained from calling for new protesters for now, saying they want to regroup and give their supporters time to get out of jail -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Russia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Later today is the Super Bowl, the finale to an NFL season like no other. The National Football League completed a full season, despite the pandemic. And that's just one of the many challenges on the road to Super Bowl LV. We will have details coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Since the beginning of the pandemic, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than 2 million people around the world. That's left millions of families struggling to come to grips with devastating loss. And, for many, being forced to grieve from a distance makes saying goodbye that much harder. CNN's Phil Black explains.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like all of us now, Trish and Peter Skinner find comfort in family video calls. Here, they're connecting to dozens of people across England and the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your boys are so grown up.

BLACK (voice-over): For a brief moment there's joy seeing all those loving faces. But the feeling is quickly crushed as the screen shows why they have come together. They're watching live images from a gray, windy cemetery near England's southern coast.

Where Trisha's father is being buried. Herbert John Tate died from COVID-19, he was almost 104. Remembered as the strong willed patriarch who held his family together for generations.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was granddad. And I loved him.

[04:45:00]

BLACK (voice-over): The pandemic means only a small number of young people can be there to mourn him.

Trish can only watch and listen and hope. The shaky image on a small screen is a limited window to the ceremony honoring her father's long, meaningful life. And then it is over.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really lovely.

BLACK (voice-over): But for a grieving daughter who longs to be with family it is not enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The saddest thing now is that we are all going to leave.

BLACK (voice-over): Grief in a time of COVID is made worse by loneliness.

TRISH SKINNER, DAUGHTER OF COVID-19 VICTIM: Can't possibly be the same? There is no interaction physically. And that's the biggest thing that is missing during this terrible time.

EDWINA FITZPATRICK, WIFE OF COVID-19 VICTIM: He was like my best friend. Felt like I knew him forever.

BLACK (voice-over): Edwina FitzPatrick also knows that pain. She and her husband Nick Devlin had both caught the virus. Nick deteriorated quickly.

FITZPATRICK: I held him through the nursing staff through the hospital and we went in and that's the last I saw of him. Breathing through window. Blow kisses to each other.

BLACK (voice-over): Edwina was abruptly alone with her grief, lockdown in the home that shared surrounded by evidence of their life together.

BLACK: How did it go for you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt some very strongly and seriously about committing suicide on that first weekend.

BLACK (voice-over): Instead, Edwina chose to live, to ensure Nick's first novel was published and to help others. She set up COVID Speakeasy, video support groups for those experiencing the pandemics unique power to inflict trauma through grief and isolation.

FITZPATRICK: We don't want to (INAUDIBLE) just how terribly were feeling both physically and mentally.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've never felt pain like it. Because I couldn't be with him I couldn't hold him. -- Sorry. I could not say 'bye to him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean --

BLACK (voice-over): Samie Miller is describing what it was like losing her father to COVID-19.

This was David Miller only a few months before he died. 66 and healthy, loving and loved. Sammy says everything about grieving him is harder because of the pandemic.

SAMIE MILLER, DAUGHTER OF COVID-19 VICTIM: I'm waiting for bereavement counseling. Because -- I don't know how to live without my dad.

BLACK (voice-over): To find closure, she turned to London's St. Paul's Cathedral. For centuries, a building focused on remembering lost and sacrificed. Samie added her father's image to the cathedral's permanent online memorial, a project to help people cope with the specific challenges of confronting grief in the time of COVID.

MILLER: I just think it is a beautiful feeling that in St. Paul's Cathedral has done. And I just want to keep his memory alive.

BLACK: He's not just a number?

MILLER: He's not just a number. He's my dad. BLACK (voice-over): David Miller, Nick Devlin, John Tate. Just three among the millions lost. A tiny sample from the pandemics infinite pool of grief -- Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[04:50:00]

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BRUNHUBER: The National Football League plans to honor health care workers today at Super Bowl LV. And fans and players are psyched for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. CNN's Coy Wire has more on the finale of an unprecedented season.

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COY WIRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is certainly the most unusual Super Bowl we've ever seen. Both teams normally arriving a week ahead of time to get adjusted. The Chiefs arriving the day before the game.

And yet another example of the audibles that had to be called playing a season during a pandemic. Even the players said they didn't think there was any way this season would make it.

But strict COVID-19 protocols and discipline all added up and here we are. There will be about 30,000 cardboard cutout fans in the stands acting as social distancing barriers for real fans, about 25,000 of them. About a third will be vaccinated health care workers, heroes invited by the NFL.

I spoke to one, Belinda Spahn, a critical care nurse manager here and I asked what went through her mind when she found out she was going to the Super Bowl?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BELINDA SPAHN, CRITICAL CARE NURSE MANAGER: The moment, you know, when you see it, OK, this is awesome. And it is. It's like a dream come true to go to the Super Bowl. And yet it never would have happened if this monster hadn't descended upon us.

And I would -- I would sit in my living room cheering the Bucs on if we could turn back time and not have this pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: She leads about 30 to 40 nurses and her team is as tough as any playing in that Super Bowl. She said she's learned so much about the human spirit, how resilient we are. She said they have huddles every day, they go over their game plan and the mantra is mission possible -- Coy Wire, CNN, in Tampa, Florida. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: For the first time in Super Bowl history, a team will play the big game in its own stadium. That team, of course, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That's just one way today's game is breaking from Super Bowl tradition. Randi Kaye reports on how the NFL's holding the Super Bowl during the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The only thing normal about Super Bowl LV will be the football played on the field. Instead of 65,000 fans filling Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, just 25,000 will be there.

[04:55:00]

KAYE (voice-over): That includes 7,500 vaccinated health care workers, who were surprised with free tickets.

ROB GRONKOWSKI, FOOTBALL PLAYER: This is champion Rob Gronkowski and we want you there inside Raymond James stadium cheering us on.

KAYE (voice-over): Fans at the stadium will be given PPE kits, which include KN95 masks, hand sanitizer and wipes.

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: We want our fans to be safe. They need to be smart. They need to wear their PPE. They need to be gathering in small groups.

KAYE: Because of the need to social distance, a lot of the usual Super Bowl events will look very different this year. The NFL pregame tailgate party is limited to just those 7,500 vaccinated health care workers.

The taste of the NFL has gone virtual. And here at the always popular Super Bowl experience, you have to make a reservation.

KAYE (voice-over): Autograph signings here are virtual. So is the chance to race your favorite player.

ROB HIGGINS, NFL HOST COMMITTEE: We want to make sure people have great memories that will last a lifetime but that they happen in a really healthy and safe fashion.

KAYE (voice-over): Tampa fans are thrilled to have the big game in their backyard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all need it. I mean, this is what's keeping us distracted from other problems. And it being in our hometown, you can't beat that.

KAYE (voice-over): The city of Tampa is giving out over 150,000 masks free of charge. They are mandated in Tampa's event zones and entertainment districts.

KAYE: How do you feel about being here with all that's going on with the pandemic?

You have your son with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything has been spectacular. Safety precautions, social distancing, awesome.

KAYE (voice-over): Officials are discouraging big Super Bowl watch parties. Skip the bars, too, they say, and stay home.

KAYE: Where are you going to watch the game?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Home.

KAYE: One other NFL-related note. The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said he wants all NFL stadiums to be used as mass vaccination sites. He's offering them all up to get more shots in the arms. Already seven of those stadiums are being used as mass vaccination sites, including the Hard Rock Stadium just south of here in Miami -- Randi Kaye, CNN, Tampa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I will be back in just a moment with more news.