Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Mulls Political Future after Senate Acquittal; Republicans Prepare for Political Backlash after Trial; Military Junta Cracks Down on Protesters; Auckland on Lockdown Until End of Wednesday; Auckland Mayor is Interviewed about New Lockdown; Lebanon Starts COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign; COVID Hospitalizations in the U.S. Decline; Many African-Americans Hesitant to Get Vaccinated; Prince Harry and Meghan Announce She is Pregnant. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Thanks for your company. I'm Michael Holmes.

[00:00:24]

And ahead, here on CNN NEWSROOM. The latest on the political unrest in Myanmar.

We've just learned that, after nearly 10 hours, the Internet has, finally, been restored. We're live in the region. Also, Auckland on lockdown. Nearly two million sheltering in place after the positive diagnosis of just one family. My conversation with the city's mayor.

And soon to be a family of 4. See the first images of Harry and Meghan following the announcement of baby No. 1.

Welcome everyone. After acquitting Donald Trump in the second impeachment trial this weekend, Republicans are starting a new week with a critical debate about their future. Some say that, from now on, their party must proceed without the former president, while others want to keep him in a key role for upcoming elections.

For his part, Donald Trump spent Sunday, yes, golfing in Florida, probably relieved now that the trial is over. And as CNN's Boris Sanchez reports, he's also contemplating his own future within the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump and his legal team expressing relief over the weekend after his acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial. The former president putting out a statement making clear that he is not done with politics, specifically citing the 74 million plus voters who cast ballots for him in the 2020 election and promising he has more to share with his supporters.

Allies of the former president believe he will go after Republicans who he feels betrayed him. Those who voted for impeachment, those who voted to convict him, or simply those who did not defend him strongly enough.

One Republican senator who remains on Trump's side is South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. He says he spoke with Trump after his acquittal and wants to stick with the former president, because he believes it is a formula for winning for the Republican Party. Listen to more now from Lindsey Graham.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Yes, I spoke to him last night. He was grateful to his lawyers. He appreciated the help that all of us provided. You know, he's ready to move on and rebuild the Republican Party. He's excited about 2022.

And so to the Republican Party, if you want to win and stop a socialist agenda, we need to work with President Trump. We can't do it without him.

And to you, President Trump, you need to build the Republican Party stronger. I'm into winning. And if you want to get something off your chest, fine, but I'm into winning.

SANCHEZ: Graham also making clear that Trump is still openly mad at several lawmakers.

But on that point about winning, there are a lot of prominent Republicans that would disagree with Graham and want to move the party away from Trump. People like Senator Ben Sasse, and Congresspeople Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who would be quick to point out that by following Trump's lead in the 2020 election, Republicans lost the White House, the Senate, and could not win a majority in the House of Representatives.

Before any talk of 2022 or 2024 gets serious, though, Trump has a number of legal hurdles that he would have to, potentially, overcome. Keep in mind, sources close to Trump reveal that he is concerned about potentially facing charges, not only for his role and inciting the violence we saw on Capitol Hill on January 6, but on a litany of other issues.

Boris Sanchez, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: John Harwood is a CNN White House correspondent. He joins me now from Washington.

I wanted to get your thoughts on a few things. John, you know a lot of Republicans clearly cast their impeachment votes for political survival rather than, let's say, honor. But you know, could they face electoral consequences in the midterms? You know, moderate Republicans, some of them turning away from the party of Trump. The Trump brand is -- is more and more sullied. Could they pay a price in 2022?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They could. They are looking, mostly, at their potential primary elections, rather than the general elections. But you're making a good point. Republicans have been bleeding better educated, higher income, white suburban voters.

The closer they attach themselves to the Trump base, that white working-class base, lesser educated base which favors a more truculent style of politics, the more difficult it is for them to hold those suburbanites who used to be reliable Republicans.

So, there's -- you can protect yourself in the primary election but make yourself a problem in the general election. And one of the challenges, the imponderables, here is exactly how diminished and weakened is Trump going to be moving forward.

He's clearly diminished from what he was, but we don't know what he's going to do between now and the 2022 elections. He's not on social media. Is he going to travel? Is he going to make speeches? Is he going to give a lot of interviews and make more problems for Republicans?

Or, is he going to find himself fully occupied with his financial problems, his legal problems, now that we're past the impeachment trial. He's got several open -- potential criminal investigations. Also, civil cases against him. So he may have his hands full. We don't know exactly how he's going to play it.

HOLMES: You know, I'm wondering. Do you think what's happened overall has put a spotlight on the broader political process? I mean, you've got Republicans already making moves on state levels, on many state levels, to make it harder for people to vote. I mean, there's already, of course, gerrymandering and so on, and that's on top of trying to, you know, stop the certification of votes postelection.

Is this party worried that it doesn't win without creating a less- than-democratic edge for itself?

HARWOOD: Absolutely. That's one of the most conspicuous developments in our political system, has been, as Republicans relying on a shrinking base of white voters.

As the country becomes more diverse, they have committed themselves to make it more difficult to vote against, by pushing back against democracy, really.

One of the questions for Democrats, now that they have the majority in both House and Senate, is how far they push to safeguard voting rights, which they could do at the federal level? They may have to end the filibuster to do it, because Republicans, under filibuster rules, can block that kind of step.

A lot of Democrats are urging their leaders in Congress to go ahead and push those through over Republican opposition. That could be a counter weight to the Republicans' effort to narrow the franchise.

HOLMES: Yes. And speaking to that sort of more broadly, can you see Democrats, you know, in general, going on offense, legislatively? Taking on the filibuster so a simple majority gets things done?

Effectively, not allowing Mitch McConnell to do what he did with Barack Obama, which was pretty much obstruct everything. Do you think they could play harder ball than even Joe Biden would like?

HARWOOD: Yes. And there's some early signs that they intend to do that.

First of all, they're moving this COVID relief bill under special budget rules that let them bypass a filibuster. That's something that both parties have done in the past. Democrats are doing it. They may do it again right after the COVID bill passes with a big infrastructure bill that's larger, going to be much larger in terms of spending and priorities -- climate change, that sort of thing -- than Republicans like. They can jam that through with these special budget rules again.

But there's some things you can't do that way unless you challenge the filibuster itself. There's some traditional senators, some conservative Democratic or moderate Democratic senators who aren't willing to take that step. They think that would have political repercussions for them.

But the party itself, especially as they've seen the Republicans get radicalized, 43 out of 50 Republican senators voting to acquit President Trump, despite overwhelming evidence of his guilt in inciting that insurrection, that is going to be a further spur on Democrats to put pressure on every Democratic member of the Senate to try to change those rules so they can get things like voting rights through. So they can get things like immigration reform, maybe even gun control, as well.

An increasingly unified and aggressive Democratic Party. Don't know how far they're going to go down that road, but there's certainly a lot who want to push.

HOLMES: Yes. And healthcare. John Harwood, appreciate it, as always. Thanks so much. And you've got a piece on that very issue on CNN.com. Thanks, John.

HARWOOD: You bet

HOLMES: Myanmar's civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, will remain in detention until a court hearing on Wednesday. That word coming from her lawyer. She's been jailed since the military coup two weeks ago.

Right now, thousands of protesters are marching against the coup and for Suu Kyi's release. Their civil disobedience movement isn't going away, and the junta is starting to crack down harder.

Security forces have deployed armored vehicles in major cities, and they've been shutting down Internet access, as well. A monitoring group says service is just now being restored after an eight-hour, near total, Internet blackout.

[00:10:05]

Paula Hancocks is following all of the developments for us from Seoul. I mean, with the Internet action, it seemed like a significant moment; also, some military movement. Does it appear a crackdown is being prepared, or hard to tell?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The concern, at this point, is that the military is going to crack down even further.

We have received video from the Kachin state from Sunday night, where you can see protesters in the streets, in the dark, and at one point, the military forces actually opened fire and fired several rounds to disperse those protesters.

Now, it's not clear whether they were rubber bullets or live fire. We simply don't know that at this point. As you can see, many of the protesters panicking and fleeing as you can hear a number of rounds in the background. Water cannon also used at that particular protest.

So the more that these videos are emerging, these are protesters quite often that are filming what's happening themselves, and then trying to upload to the Internet so that the world can see what's happening.

But as these continue, there are greater concerns there are going to be -- there's going to be more violence. The U.S. embassy in Myanmar, for example, has a statement urging the military forces to refrain from violence against the demonstrators and civilians. Many are urging the military not to -- not to carry out this violence.

But we are still seeing tens of thousands of people coming out onto the streets, as you say, the 10th day in a row that they are coming out to -- to protest a military coup.

HOLMES: And then Paula, the U.N. special rapporteur, Tom Andrews, was on Twitter earlier. He said that these are signs of desperation by the military. Also, warning generals they would be held accountable. Is the military likely to listen to any of that?

HANCOCKS: Probably not, I think is the short answer for that, Michael. There have been a number of -- of international condemnations from different parties. There was a statement on Sunday, a joint statement by many western diplomats calling for the military to stop any violence and not to crack down on protesters.

As I said, the U.S. embassy in country, also saying the same, saying that -- that they shouldn't be -- they shouldn't be cracking down on civilians who are basically protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.

You have the U.N. secretary-general condemning what is happening. So certainly, at this point, it doesn't appear as though that that's going to have much of an impact on -- on the military leadership. I mean, certainly, sanctions, something that does hit them financially, could have more of an impact. But at this point, words really don't seem to be compelling them in any way.

They're also changing certain laws. There are three laws that they have just suspended over the weekend which really constrained the -- what the military could do. Arresting people, or searching private properties without a search warrant. That wasn't allowed in the past, but they have now suspended those three laws, and changed them, so that they have more leeway in which to act. So it really doesn't appear that the international condemnation is having any impact.

HOLMES: All right. Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks there in Seoul for us.

Now, supporters of the jailed opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, are protesting in new ways in Russia. They're gathering to light candles and hold cellphone flashlights in the cities across the country. You can see there. Protesters in Moscow forming a human chain, showing support for Navalny's wife on Valentine's Day.

Navalny's chief of staff says protesting this way will keep people out of the hands of Russian police. Thousands of people have been arrested and demonstrations in recent weeks.

Three new coronavirus cases have put Auckland, New Zealand, on lockdown through Wednesday. It is a nation that has largely done everything right. I speak with Auckland's mayor about what's happening.

And also, still to come, details on the surprise announcement from Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:16:35]

HOLMES: Now, just as the U.K. is imposing new strict rules for incoming travelers. It is celebrating getting 15 million first doses of COVID vaccines into arms. That is viewed as a success amid sharp criticism of the government's early handling of the pandemic.

In effect now, anyone arriving from countries where COVID variants are spreading will have to pay to quarantine for 10 days. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson calls the U.K.'s vaccine rollout a significant milestone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This country has achieved an extraordinary feat, administering a total of 15 million jabs into the arms of some of the most vulnerable people in the country. And they've been delivered by the most extraordinary army of vaccinators, who have jammed like there's no tomorrow. Doctors and nurses, retired healthcare workers who've returned to the fray and are supported by organizers, volunteers, marshals, guided by the leadership of the NHS and supported by the great strategic, logistical knights of the British army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, that success is giving dozens of conservative U.K. politicians steam in their push to end lockdowns. In a letter addressed to 10 Downing Street, 63 lawmakers praised the, quote, "tremendous pace" of the vaccine rollout, but they say businesses should be allowed to open by the end of April.

The U.K.'s foreign secretary says evidence should dictate when restrictions are lifted.

Meanwhile, the Czech government is extending its lockdown for another two weeks. Some measures were set to expires hours ago. Parliament pushing back, saying people can't afford to follow the pandemic rules.

And two of three new cases putting New Zealand's largest city on lockdown are confirmed to be a highly-transmissible COVID variant first found in the U.K. New Zealand's prime minister pleading with Auckland residents to stay home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: We are wanting to be very cautious. So that's why we're taking this -- this cautious approach of asking Aucklanders to move into Level 3 for the next 72 hours, and the rest of the zone will be on level two.

Basically, what we want people to do is stay home. And so, for the next 72 hours, if you're in Auckland, please stay home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: With more on the situation in New Zealand, CNN's Will Ripley joins me now from Hong Kong.

Tough action in New Zealand, but it's gotten results in the past. What's the latest?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that was the message, Michael, from the prime minister there, Jacinda Ardern, is that even though there might be this collective feeling of, not again, and this is the first locally-transmitted case that New Zealand has seen in weeks since January the 24th.

The message from the government is the reason why they had pretty much eradicated the virus and now are responding with such strength to just, really, a handful of cases. You're talking about one family, a mother, a father, and their teenage daughter, a fourth family member showing symptoms, testing negative.

But when they do this approach where people have to stay home unless they're essential workers or they're going out for essential shopping like the supermarket or the pharmacy, this works.

This is why New Zealanders during normal times don't really have to wear masks when they go out. Why they can gather in groups of up to 500 when they're not under these Level 3 restrictions, which in Auckland will now limit group gatherings to only weddings and funerals and a maximum of ten people.

[00:20:05]

But the messaging is, if you go do this for the next 72 hours, if the contact tracing shows that these cases have not spread throughout the community, then life could return back to relative normality with the caveat that, when more cases pop up, if they do, you have to go right back into lockdown measures again.

This case is an interesting one, Michael, because as you mentioned, it's that B117 variant that was first detected in the U.K., but these people who've tested positive, this family, they had no recent travel history.

Most of the cases in New Zealand are from people who are flying in. They test them at the airport. They test them during the 14-day quarantine, and they prevent them from going out into the community.

The one link officials say to the border here is that the mother was working for LSG Sky Chefs, which is a catering and hospitality company that services dozens of airlines, including Air New Zealand. And she works in the laundry department.

So even though she did not have face-to-face contact with people coming in from other countries, she may have had contact with laundry items, and that's what they're looking into. Now, they're just trying to see, Michael, who she was with, and did the virus spread beyond that family?

HOLMES: All right. Good to see you, Will. Thanks for that. Will Ripley in Hong Kong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Let's talk more about all of this with Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for making the time. Let me start with this. New Zealand has been an object lesson in how to clamp down on virus spread. You know, it's just been three cases, I think, in this latest cluster, and -- and now the city's on lockdown. It's impossible to imagine that in a U.S. city, but is that what is needed to prevent spread?

MAYOR PHIL GOFF, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: Yes. We have been really successful in dealing with containing COVID, after the initial outbreak, and we were on a learning curve then.

What we -- what we discovered was that the best way to contain the virus is to go strongly and go early. So for much of the period of the last, you know, two or 300 days, we've been able to live our lives practically normally, going about life without the need for face masks, without the need for social distancing.

But in a world that's, you know -- where COVID is so rampant, there are going to be incursions into our country, just as we've seen across the Tasman and recently in Perth, and in Melbourne.

Today we'll be testing maybe 6 or 7,000 people, and should those tests come back, including a school that the -- the young woman was going to, the daughter of the original person who contracted the virus, if those tests come back good in the next 24, 48 hours, then we may be able to limit the period of what we call Level 3 restrictions to the 72-hour period.

HOLMES: The proof of -- in the pudding -- of the pudding, is how you guys -- is the result of what's happened in New Zealand, which is -- which is good news.

I mean, just quickly, what -- what does a Level 3 lockdown entail? How is it enforced? How do you control people entering and leaving Auckland? I've been there. It's a good sized city.

GOFF: Yes. Well, we're at a different level of the control from the rest of the country, just at Level 2. Level 3 means that we do have, effectively, border controls within the country where you can go, you know, if you're a truck driver and you're delivering freight or you're a tradesmen and you're working across the -- the boundaries or you have to go for work for other purposes, you can.

But if you're just taking a trip down, for example, to go to a holiday resort to one of the beaches across the southern boundary of the city, then the answer is no.

So we -- we have police banning the -- the checkpoints. They are turning people back if they don't have a good reason to travel. But by and large, you know, there's a bit of congestion of the -- at the checkpoint control. But by and large, people have been responding well, and the police are dealing with it well, and people are responding recently well, even those that are turned back.

HOLMES: And the country's borders are being closed to foreigners, I think, since March. I mean, what -- what impact has that been, economically and otherwise, on -- on New Zealand's economy and -- and citizens?

GOFF: Well, tourism was our biggest industry, and our biggest earner of foreign exchange. Alongside tourism, we have a big industry with international students. So it has had a big economic impact.

But the truth is, because we have contained the spread of the virus and because the rest of the economy is operating pretty normally, and because New Zealanders that would normally -- you know, we're huge travelers. Because we're not traveling, we're spending the money at home.

Unemployment, actually, last month dropped to 4.9 percent. And the economy generally has been doing much better than expected, to the point that, with the very low interest rates that we've got, we're suffering from house price inflation, which is one of our more significant economic problems.

[00:25:06]

But we -- we found that it better not only for people's well-being and our health system, the health system hasn't been overwhelmed. There's nobody in hospital at the moment. That the economy actually recovered more quickly, because we could go about our day-to-day lives with the only major restriction being border control internationally.

HOLMES: Well, yes. Well, congratulations on what you've done, and hopefully, this -- this is a short-lived lockdown. But New Zealand and Australia are being lessons to the lessons to the world, along with other countries like Vietnam, in how to manage this.

Mayor Phil Goff, really appreciate you joining me there from Auckland.

GOFF: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Lebanon has kicked off its coronavirus vaccination campaign after receiving its first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Ninety staff members of the Beirut hospital were among the first to receive the shots. And our CNN's Ben Wedeman was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And so it begins, perhaps the beginning of the end here of the coronavirus pandemic. Alas, just one of Lebanon's myriad of misfortunes.

The first to get a shot was Dr. Mahmoud Hassoun, the head of the intensive care unit at Beirut's Rafik Hariri University Hospital.

DR. MAHMOUD HASSOUN, ICU DIRECTOR, RAFIK HARIRI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: For us as the Lebanese population, we should take the vaccine, because it is the only solution to finish this pandemic.

WEDEMAN: Trust in the authorities in much of anything is in short supply here. A recent survey found that less than a third of those polled are willing to take the vaccine.

For more than a year, the country has been convulsed by sporadic mass protests and violence. Lebanon was already careening toward financial and economic collapse before COVID-19 hit.

And last August's massive Beirut port blast added more injury to injury.

(on camera): In a country where the rich and powerful tend to get all the breaks, the vice president of the World Bank, the institution which is financing this vaccine campaign, has warned that nobody should be using rawabit (ph) -- that's Arabic for connections -- to jump the queue.

(voice-over): Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab was scheduled to receive the first vaccination but stepped out of the queue, deferring to frontline medical workers. The country has been under a total lockdown for a month, those workers pushed to the brink.

FIRASS ABIAD, DIRECTOR, RAFIK HARIRI UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: The fight is going to be a long fight. We know that. But I think that today, really, we turned a good corner.

WEDEMAN: One corner turned, many more to go.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The former president of Argentina, Carlos Menem, has died. According to his daughter, he passed away on Sunday at the age of 90.

In Buenos Aires, officials held a wake at the Capitol building where he will lie in state until his burial. Menem led the country from 1989 to 1999 and promoted laws that reformed the economy at a perilous economic time. He privatized companies and was able to get hyper inflation under control.

After leaving office he failed to run for a third term but was later elected to the Senate for more than 10 years.

The current president has expressed his condolences and declared three days of mourning.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:31:20]

HOLMES: And welcome back to our viewers joining us all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Nearly 53 million coronavirus vaccines have been given to people in the U.S. That is more than 70 percent of the doses which have been distributed.

This past week, on average, 1.6 million doses have been given each day. The director of the CDC says it is a good sign for the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I am proud to say that, as of yesterday, we have put 50 million vaccines into people's arms. We anticipate by the end of the summer, we will have enough vaccine in order to vaccinate the entire U.S. population that is eligible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Natasha Chen now tells us how the U.S. is doing in its fight against the virus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nearly 53 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the U.S. And on Saturday, fewer than 70,000 people were hospitalized, continuing a downward trend to levels we haven't seen in about three months.

But looking forward to the next three months or so, another 130,000 people are projected to die of coronavirus by June 1. That's based on a model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

What could make things worse, analysis of existing research in the U.K. suggests that the variant first identified there could link to more severe disease.

But Dr. Anthony Fauci said the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines currently being distributed do work against that variant.

Teachers in many states are now becoming eligible for the vaccine. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said safely reopening schools really hinges on the level of transmission in the larger community. So if the transmission levels come down, schools can safely reopen with guidelines like universal masking, learning pods and contact tracing.

She did say that vaccinating teachers is not a prerequisite for reopening schools.

And that differs from the opinion of Dr. Leana Wen, CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore health commissioner, who says that vaccinating teachers is essential, especially when schools in many parts of the country are in what she describes as poorly-ventilated and cramped places without universal masking and social distancing.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Our thanks to Natasha Chen there.

Now, while millions of Americans have already received their COVID-19 vaccine, a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that black Americans are getting vaccinated at a dramatically lower rate than whites.

Only 35 percent of black Americans say they have been vaccinated against the virus or plan to be. More than 40 percent said they would rather wait and see before deciding to get it.

Now, last week, a group of black health experts published an open letter in "The New York Times," urging black Americans to get vaccinated.

This weekend I spoke to one of those experts, Dr. Georges Benjamin and asked him about a specific line from that letter. It read, "For many Black Americans, trust in the government does not come easy." Here's what he had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. GEORGES C. BENJAMIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION: Well, you know, we've just had a lot of hysterical mistrust. You know, you have former research projects that have not gone well, like the Tuskegee experiment. Of course, that was many years ago. But even today, people have challenges when they -- when they deal with government. You have police violence, you have profiling. People often don't feel they're just getting the kind of justice that they need. And that results in people just not trusting, even not just the government, but even the healthcare system.

[00:35:05]

HOLMES: Yes, you know, there was a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. It found that 43 percent of black Americans were taking a, quote, "wait and see approach" to getting a vaccine. That is a huge number.

I mean, it does seem inevitable that that hesitancy, the mistrust that you speak of will or might already have cost lives.

BENJAMIN: Well, it has. And what we saw was, even though we had, in the early part of the vaccination, offering vaccines to people in long-term care facilities, particularly the people that work there. And many of them would not take the vaccine.

I mean, I've seen numbers such as 60 percent of the people in a particular facility did not take the vaccine just because they don't trust it, at least not yet.

HOLMES: Yes. I wanted to ask about your personal experience. I mean, your unique investment, if you like, in all of this. I can only imagine how you feel as a prominent black doctor, watching your community being so impacted harshly for nearly a year, and then, when protection is available, you hit this wall.

BENJAMIN: Yes. Well, you know, we've had twice as many deaths and three times as much people of African-American descent are hospitalized. And some of the excuses, of course, are things like the Tuskegee experiment.

I remind people that in Tuskegee, people were not treated. That was the historical wrong that happened. So that, if we continue to not take the vaccine, aren't we repeating that wrong to ourselves?

HOLMES: You touched on this in nursing homes, and it's worth going back there, too, because it's important. The -- you know, because it's not just about vaccines. It's about the preventative side of this. You know, researchers this week said the nursing homes with more black residents reported a significantly higher share of coronavirus deaths.

I mean, and the point being there are systemic healthcare issues that existed before and were exposed by this pandemic, right?

BENJAMIN: There's no question that these historical disparities have resulted in more chronic disease in communities of color. And of course, we now know that if you have those chronic diseases, you're much more likely to get sick and even die from the disease.

But I think the real challenge we have now is the fact that we are repeating some of the same mistakes we made with the testing, by not providing the vaccine in communities, and making it easy for people to get a vaccine.

HOLMES: OK. So what, then, needs to happen to reassure the doubters, convince African-Americans to get vaccinated? What would you say to African-Americans who might be watching and perhaps have that reluctance or the mistrust?

BENJAMIN: I tell them to go to a trusted source. The reason we did our op-ed is that we wanted to influence the influencers. You know, a lot of people in the community don't care about what I think, but they do care about their -- their minister. They do care about some of their doctors. They do care about people who are trusted messengers in their community.

And so I think it's important for people to do their own homework and understand that this vaccine will save their life.

HOLMES: I did want to touch on something else that you raised in the op-ed, and it's something that we've been following pretty closely. And that is an issue getting increasing attention.

It's not just the risk of death with coronavirus, but the risk of ongoing health issues, even if you survive, even if you have a mild case, the so-called long haulers of coronavirus. And I know you're putting the message out to the African-American community about that, as well.

BENJAMIN: There's no question about that. I think the fundamental message is that this disease is worse than the vaccine. And what I mean by that is the vaccine causes, in most cases, a sore shoulder, fever. You may not feel will for a couple of days.

But this disease is serious business. And not only that, it will make you not only sick, but sometimes sick for a long period of time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And that was my conversation over the weekend with the executive director of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Georges Benjamin. An important issue.

Now the world's largest Ebola outbreak started in Guinea seven years ago, and now that country has declared a new outbreak in one of its southeastern districts.

The World Health Organization is working with authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to boost tracing and testing.

At least seven people who attended a funeral two weeks ago tested positive for the disease. Three of them have since died.

The Democratic Republic of Congo also reporting four new cases in the past week.

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, a Valentine's Day announcement from Prince Harry and his wife Meghan. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Fierce winter weather has more than half the U.S. population under storm warnings, watches or advisories. Snow, ice and frigid temperatures are taking hold from the Pacific Northwest to south central states.

President Biden has declared an emergency in Texas and ordered federal help to state and local authorities there.

Scores of accidents were reported on roads in Oklahoma. More than 140 record low temperatures could be shattered by Tuesday afternoon.

There is some happy news from Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. The couple announcing their family is expecting an addition. Max Foster with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. That was the announcement made by a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, only adding that the couple are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.

Their first born, Archie, currently 19 months old. And they announced in November that the duchess suffered a miscarriage over the summer.

With this announcement came a photograph. We don't know much more about it, apart from it was taken by tablet computer, we're told and remotely by the photographer.

A spokesperson from Buckingham Palace said the queen, Prince Charles and the entire family are delighted and wish the couple well. The duchess's side of the family were also notified about this news ahead of the announcement.

Max Foster, CNN, Hampshire, England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Thanks for watching. I'm Michael Holmes. I'll see you in about 15 minutes with more news. WORLD SPORT up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:26]

(WORLD SPORT)

[00:52:56]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)