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Families in Texas Describe Struggles as Power Remains Out; Millions in Texas Left Without Power for Days; CDC: U.S. Life Expectancy Fell by One Year to 77.8; Winter Storms Delay Vaccine Distribution and Injections; World's First COVID-19 Human Challenge Study to Begin This Month; Biden Phones Netanyahu for First Time as President; Facebook Blocks Users in Australia from Getting News; Rush Limbaugh Dies of Cancer at Age 70. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 18, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: And had to resort to burning another child's baby blocks as they ran out of wood.
And then there was another mother who described her desperate situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVIA CERDA SALINAS, MOTHER: As an adult, I can manage, but when you have little ones that are looking at you, I have a little boy who's autistic and he keeps flicking the switches waiting for the lights to turn on and he doesn't understand. I think it's just -- it's just overwhelming in so many more ways. It's horrible.
We live 15 minutes away from Mexico and I called -- I called hotels that were right there and they're all -- they have no vacancies, nothing. Nothing is available. We considered -- I literally told my husband, I said, let's just drive to Mexico and we'll get a hotel over there. We called before going and there's nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: This is the United States of America, and it is happening here. A lot of finger pointing going on. But the winter storm gripping much of the U.S. forced President Joe Biden to postpone a visit Michigan in the coming day. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has more on the White House response.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the winter storms in Texas have been so devastating even the White House is weighing in after President Biden called the governors of several states, not just Texas, several others that were affected by this.
But it was a subject that came up at the White House briefing on Wednesday when the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about this, she said that she believes this is another point to why they need to build new infrastructure, create parts that are based on renewable energy, so you do not have a situation like we are seeing so many Texans currently live through.
And she also pushed back on this idea that you've seen floated some people in Texas. Some Republican lawmakers that think that frozen wind turbines are to blame for what's going on. She disputed that, pointed to reports that actually has to more with coal and gas and less with those wind turbines and talked about that matter as well.
But you can see just how far reaching this crisis is given what is going on and what the people of Texas are living through. Even the White House is weighing in, and FEMA is sending supplies to the state. We'll wait to see just how extensive the White House response to this is going to be given we expect it to last for several more days.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: So the first order of business, of course, is to get the power back on and get help to those who have suffered from this, but then you can be sure the search for why this happened and who's responsible, well, that will intensify.
CNN's global energy challenge anchor John Defterios joins me now. Good to see you John. So Texas has the reputation of being the energy capital of the United States. The largest oil and gas producer. Lots of wind and solar power as well. What went wrong and who's to blame? Because at this point Governor Abbott is making it -- he's pointing the finger at everybody else and not taking any responsibility at all.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, you are correct about that. That's not abnormal for a governor during a crisis, right, Rosemary. But this really does boils down to supply and demand and planning. So they had planned for basically a surge of above 70 giga watts of power maximum during the wintertime. Because of that arctic blast it surged above it. And then about half of it came offline.
And as Kaitlan was saying in her report there, contrary to the naysayers, and particularly the conservative commentators, the bulk of this was not from the renewable sector, although the wind turbines did freeze up and the solar panels had challenges as well. They were not built in with heaters for the extreme weather.
So it was the thermal energy, the gas, coal, nuclear that did freeze up completely here. And that was 60 percent of the supplies that went offline. Now the regulators suggested because of the extreme weather that we're seeing right now, they're going to have to go to rolling blackouts. They won't get full power over the next few days as they try to restore the capacity going forward.
And as a result of that, Rosemary, without that power and the heating, the oil and gas production and the number one producer in the United States has collapsed. It's lost about 4 million barrels of around 6 million barrels that it produces on a daily basis. The 4 million barrels is about 40 percent of U.S. supplies. And as a result we see a spike in energy prices not only in America but worldwide. So well above $61 for west Texas intermediate. We spiked above $65 but we're just below that now at about $64.50. That's going to mean higher gas prices for the United States as well.
So the one lesson we learned here, Texas is very independent. They took that approach to energy as well. They need to tap into the national grid and invest in energy for the future.
[04:35:00]
CHURCH: All right, John Defterios, many thanks for explaining all of that to us, appreciate it.
Well shocking new statistics show the impact of the pandemic on health in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says life expectancy dropped a full year in the first half of 2020. It now stands at 77.8 years across the board. That's how long people were expected to live on average back in 2006.
And when you look at minority populations, the data is even worse. Life expectancy for Hispanic people fell by almost 2 years. And for black Americans it dropped by a staggering 2.7 years.
Well the U.S. is administering an average of 1.6 million vaccine doses a day. More than 56 million shots have been given out. And while new daily cases are declining nationwide, health officials warn the variants could spark another surge. CNN's Nick Watt has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That faster spreading variant first found in South Africa now detected in nine states probably in many more. The CDC director points to what happened when that variant arrived in Zambia, average daily case counts went up 16 fold.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: I know these variants are concerning, especially as we're seeing signs of progress. I'm talking about them today because I am concerned too.
WATT (voice-over): So Pfizer and Moderna say their vaccines work against the South Africa variant. That's great. But how's the vaccine rollout going right now?
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): That entire shipment is still yet to come.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY): We're going to run out. Today, tomorrow we're going to run out.
WATT (voice-over): Terrible weather is slowing vaccine shipments across the country.
KELLY GARCIA, IOWA DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES DIRECTOR: Because of where the distribution centers for both vaccine manufacturers are located in the southern part of the U.S.
WATT (voice-over): Across the heartland, some vaccine locations are closed.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): We should across the state start getting above freezing on Saturday.
WATT (voice-over): But this weather, the tip of an iceberg sized supply issue.
DE BLASIO: We're in this ridiculous situation. We have massive ability to give people vaccination. We can be doing hundreds of thousands more each week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've acted aggressively to increase the vaccine supply.
WATT (voice-over): The pace is picking up but still only around 5 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated more than nine weeks in, the President's timeline, enough doses available for 300 million Americans by end of July.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By next Christmas I think we'll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today.
DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, EPIDEMIOLOGIST AND FORMER DETROIT HEALTH DIRECTOR: They're hedging here because they know that the variants could really mess up a lot of our best laid plans.
WATT: In fact the CDC in the United States warning that these variants could cause a rapid rise in cases reiterating that now more than ever it's important to follow those measures that we know work, like masks.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And up to 90 young, healthy volunteers will be deliberately exposed to the coronavirus in the world's first human challenge study. It's taking place this month in Britain after ethics approval was granted this week. The government department involved said the participants aged 18 to 30 will be exposed to COVID-19 in a safe and controlled environment to increase understanding of how the virus affects people.
And earlier I spoke to Andrew Catchpole, the chief scientific officer of hVIVO part of Open Orphan PLC, the clinical company involved in the trials. And I asked him what they're looking for exactly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW CATCHPOLE, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER OF HVIVO: What we are trying to achieve with this very first study is to identify the smallest amount of virus possible to cause an infection. So if we see no infection in the first few subjects, we will then gradually increase the amount of virus until we are able to establish an infection.
Once we've done that, we then have the model ready to be able to use the model for testing for vaccines. So whether we can vaccinate subjects, and bring them into our quarantine unit, and challenge them with the virus, to see if the vaccines are able to prevent the infection. And a very important key in terms of all of this demographic, these 18 to 30 year olds are, from what we know is we are expecting many of them to have asymptomatic infections.
CHURCH: Right.
CATCHPOLE: So the effected, they'll have virus, but they won't have any symptoms. And this is a key part of the pandemic.
[04:40:00]
Because if people don't know their ill, they're still walking around and communicating with others and therefore transmitting the virus. If we can make sure that vaccines are preventing asymptomatic infection, we can also make sure vaccines are preventing transmission, and help the pandemic.
CHURCH: Right. So, how difficult was it to overcome the ethical issues, and get approval for this world first trial?
CATCHPOLE: The challenge studies themselves are not new, I mean, have often been conducting these challenge studies for over 20 years in other respiratory viruses. So, the platform in the U.K. particularly is well understood about challenge studies in general.
But of course, as it is right and appropriate to do so there were long discussions with the Ethics Review Board to approve this study because of course, what is the world's first of doing a challenge study with a pandemic, with the pandemic virus. So, we are very delighted to be on a very deep discussion with the Ethics Review Board, because we feel that is definitely the most appropriate thing to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): And that was Andrew Catchpole, the chief scientific officer of the clinical company involved in these trials.
And this is CNN NEWSROOM. Coming up, the showdown between a tech giant and the Australian government. We are live in Sydney to get the details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Joe Biden has finally called Israel's Prime Minister almost a month after his inauguration. The U.S. president said he had a good conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. A source close to the White House says the delay in calling the Israeli leader may have been pay back for the Prime Minister's cold treatment of President Obama, slow acknowledgment of Biden's election win and his close ties to Donald Trump.
[04:45:00]
CNN's Sam Kiley is covering this for us from Jerusalem. He joins us now. Good to see you Sam. So what more are you learning about this?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, talking of the frictions between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, they're also out of step on the continued expansion of the Israeli Jewish settlements onto the West Bank which is considered occupied territory under international law.
And from indeed from the Israeli perspective, what they would characterize is very dangerous intent by the Biden administration to return to some kind of nuclear deal with Iran which the Israelis consider an existential threat. This is also part of a reset of policies and relationships across the Middle East from the rather bomance relationship between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu here in Jerusalem. Through to the warm relations the Trump administration had with Saudi Arabia and indeed with the president of Turkey, Mr. Erdogan.
In all of those cases there were direct communications man to man. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the Biden administration has already said the only communication will be between the president and the king cutting out Mohammad Bin Salman, the controversial crown prince of Saudi Arabia. There's yet to be a call between Biden and the Turkish president.
And clearly, he's trying to reset the policies and the structure of the relationship with Middle Eastern leaders. But not perhaps back to the rather chaotic period of the Obama administration where there was a sense of the Americans were withdrawing interest and influence in the Middle East. Nor to the chaotic but activist structures and policies that we saw under Donald Trump -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, many thanks to our Sam Kiley joining us live from Jerusalem.
Protestors again are out on the streets of Myanmar despite growing fears of a violent crackdown. Police have significantly hardened their stance and reportedly fired on protesting railway workers in Mandalay. In a move at shutting down the demonstrations, Myanmar's military is targeting six celebrities it claims are encouraging protests against the country's military coup. Wednesday's anti-coup demonstrations were considered the largest yet in two weeks of public marches and protests.
Now to big changes on how you get your news if you're living in Australia. If you want to read or share a news article on Facebook there, well, that is not going to happen anymore. The social media giant is now blocking news content after the government proposed a law that would force tech platforms to pay for it.
Angus Watson is covering this live for us. He joins us now from Sydney. Good to see you, Angus. So Facebook appears to have won the first round of this battle. And Australians are furious. What is likely the next move here and how did they get to this point? ANGUS WATSON, JOURNALIST: Well, Rosemary, as in many other countries
around the world, Facebook is almost like an internet within the internet for its users in Australia. But they woke up on Thursday morning with no news on their profiles, and that comes back to this war at the moment between Facebook and the Australian government.
The Australian government is pushing through legislation demanding that tech companies such as Facebook and Google pay news organizations for the news content that lives on their sites. Google has responded by signing deals with Australian news organizations. Facebook says it won't do that. The news isn't an important part of its product and the users will come to Facebook regardless of news is there or not.
Facebook has varied differently to Google, gone about pulling down Australian news content from its site leaving serious concerns, Rosemary, about the nature of information that will exist on Facebook if those credible news sources don't have a presence there anymore -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: All right, Angus Watson, thanks for bringing us up to date on that issue. Appreciate it.
Rush Limbaugh was many things, but he was never dull. Coming up, the college dropout who became the loudest and most popular voice on the far right.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: So what adjective best describes Rush Limbaugh? There are too many to choose from. The undisputed dean of right wing radio in America died Wednesday of lung cancer. His influence over those 70 years was mind boggling. CNN's Randi Kaye looks back at a most unorthodox career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, TALK RADIO ICON: You don't have to worry about staying informed.
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He was the king of conservative radio and controversy. On the Rush Limbaugh show everyone was fair game. Whether you were a U.S. president --
LIMBAUGH: God does not have a birth certificate neither does Obama. Not that we've seen.
KAYE (voice-over): -- or the president of China, who he mocked during his 2011 visit to the U.S.
LIMBAUGH: Hu Jintao was just going (mocking speech).
KAYE (voice-over): For decades, Limbaugh filled the airwaves with lies and conspiracy theories, racist and misogynistic comments. One of his most outlandish moments was in 2007 when he aired this racist parody called Barack The Magic Negro to the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon.
RECORDED SONG: Barack the magic negro ...
KAYE (voice-over): He often mocked women saying this when Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House.
LIMBAUGH: I wonder when she loses next year she'll go back to the kitchen.
KAYE (voice-over): Last year, he floated the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was being weaponized to bring down Donald Trump and it was nothing to fear.
LIMBAUGH: You're dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold folks.
KAYE (voice-over): Instead of knocking him off the airwaves, his commentary turned him into a national hero for the right and made him a very rich man.
LIMBAUGH: Somebody stand up for you.
[04:55:00]
KAYE (voice-over): "The New York Times" reports Limbaugh earned $85 million a year lived in a 24,000 square foot oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, and owned a $54 million Gulf Stream private jet. Not bad for a college dropout from Missouri.
Ronald Reagan called him the number one voice for conservatism in the country. And last year, Limbaugh was awarded the Medal of Freedom at Donald Trump's State of the Union address.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Rush Limbaugh, thank you for your decades of tireless devotion to our country.
KAYE (voice-over): Limbaugh was a Trump supporter early on, and when Trump lost in 2020, Limbaugh helped incite anger by spreading the falsehood that the election had been stolen.
LIMBAUGH: You didn't win this thing fair and square and we are not just going to be docile like we've been in the past and go away and wait till the next election. So much I want to say ...
KAYE (voice-over): But on his final radio show of 2020 all that bravado was no more. Limbaugh as usual sarcasm replaced by solemnity and a feeling the end was near.
LIMBAUGH: I can't be self-absorbed about it when that is the tendency when you are told that you've got a due date. You have an expiration date. This ladies and gentlemen, that is Little Rock.
KAYE (voice-over): Now, after more than 30 years, the chair at Rush Limbaugh trademark golden microphone sits empty.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach, Florida. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And thanks so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. You can connect with me on Twitter @RosemaryCNN. "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett is up next. You're watching CNN. Have a great day.
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