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Nearly Half of Texas Residents Hit By Water Crisis on Top of Power Crisis; Winter Blast Disrupts Vaccine Shipments Nationwide; Six Capitol Police Officers Suspended, 29 Others Investigated for Alleged Roles in Deadly Riot. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. So glad you're with me.

So, first, the power crisis, now a water crisis across Texas after five straight days of record low temperatures there. Broken water pipes have left nearly half of the residents of the state without clean drinking water. Power has been restored to all but 192,000 people but around 13million Texans are still under a boil water advisory.

And take a look at this. This is video just into CNN. More than 80,000 bottles of water delivered from the Travis Air Force Base in California to the city of Galveston, Texas, trying to help those struggling without clean water. The winter blast is also causing serious delays in vaccine distribution in several parts of the country.

Soon, President Biden will head to a Pfizer manufacturing plant in Michigan. This comes as his administration says the nation has major work to do to try to make up for this lost time because of this extreme weather.

So, let's begin this hour with our colleague, Natasha Chen, she's in Houston with more on the ongoing crisis across the state.

It is so far beyond a weather story, to not even have clean water. I mean, the hospitals are in, some of them, life and death situations.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And these people that you see behind me came into this space, a furniture showroom just to keep warm, hundreds of them sleeping in this space in the last several nights. But as you mentioned, power is coming back to a lot of people and so that is why we're seeing the fewest number of people overnight that they've seen all week.

The owner of this store said, as far as water situation, you don't know how much you miss it until it is not there. And, of course, people are really waiting for that to come back. The water is just trickling back even in this building.

And a lot of the questions are now going to turn to ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, managing the power flow for 90 percent of the state. They said that they're going to come out of emergency conditions, they'll be able to operate under normal operations soon here today. But they did acknowledge that they were just minutes earlier this week, minutes away from a catastrophic failure and, uniquely, they are not connected to the national power grid.

Here is the CEO telling CNN how he's answering some of these questions.

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BILL MAGNESS, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ELECTRIC RELIABILITY COUNCIL OF TEXAS: We're accountable to the people and the leadership of Texas. We're going to go and explain the steps we took.

Whether people have confidence in me or not, the grid operators who have to make the tough decision in real-time as critical conditions are right in front of them, they should have confidence in those folks because they made some good decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And so while power is back for a lot of people in the area, we're hearing from folks who actually don't know where to go at this point because there is damage in their homes from burst pipes and the water issue. So there is still a lot to be done here before people are feeling like things are back to normal, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. Natasha, thank you for the reporting. They deserve help and a lot of answers for why this got so bad.

We've got more on the crisis unfolding in Texas. I'm joined now by Darrell Pile. He is Chief Executive of the South East Texas Regional Advisory Council overseeing planning and management for medical crises across the 25-county region. Thank you for being. I know you guys have been working around the clock.

I was struck to read what you told The Washington Post that this is worse than Hurricane Harvey.

DARRELL PILE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SOUTHEAST TEXAS REGIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL: For me, it definitely has been worse mainly because we can't rely on partner hospitals, partner EMS agencies, partners in other cities.

During Harvey, we had emergency crews come in from throughout the state. But we're here having to make do on our own and at the same time wishing we could be elsewhere helping other Texans.

HARLOW: Yes, of course. There is a whole lot of finger pointing going on right now among politicians and that really doesn't do any good. But what good could come after this is actual change. [10:05:03]

And I wonder what you have to say to people in power who could create policy and make changes so that when a weather like this hits again, because it will at some point, so this doesn't happen again to you guys?

PILE: Well, I think our governor has done a good job of taking control of the situation, although it was not a planned thing. I think there is a lot of surprised politicians. I know that he has announced that in our legislative session, which is going on now, this will become a priority topic for the legislature.

I hope that it doesn't happen again for quite some time. We've reached temperatures as low as 11 degrees here in Houston, Texas. I can say that our hospitals in our region of 25 counties have done well and have toughed it out. No one has closed.

But it is a situation where the power grid needs to be assessed. I think we probably need to look at ways to be able to import power from elsewhere in the country rather than being freestanding.

HARLOW: Right.

PILE: And perhaps there should be some quality checks at all times, at random, to determine if the facilities are ready for a cold spell or whatever may happen.

HARLOW: Yes, of course. You've got 13 million Texans currently under this boil water advisory and about half of the state that doesn't have clean drinking water. What is the situation in the 25 counties that you oversee and what is the timeline for them to actually get their clean running water back?

PILE: Sure. Today, I'll learn more about the timeline. I understand that the city of Houston's water pressure is coming back and it sounds as if there has been significant progress made in the past 24 hours.

There is a major focus today on bringing in bottled water for people to drink and we do have multiple hospitals that need water, not drinking water, but water to help power their system, their air- conditioning systems. And so that water is being brought in by trucks.

And also using vehicles that you typically see them spraying water on any green spaces or new trees that have been planted in long roadways. Now those vehicles are being used to haul water to hospitals.

HARLOW: Darrell, what is the worst case scenario that you are planning for at this point in time if this doesn't come back online soon?

PILE: Well, the water will come back online. That would be the worst case scenario, period. The hospitals are fortunate that Saturday we should return to our normal temperature cycle, which should put us up to 40 to 60 to maybe even approaching 70 degrees next week. So it won't be the same crisis with their heating and air-conditioning systems.

Bottled water, I think, will come through trucks being convoyed to Texas to help people have that bottled water and that is how we'll make do. The temperature change is what is key.

HARLOW: Darrell Pile, thank you and good luck to your teams on the ground.

PILE: Thank you very much. Thank you.

HARLOW: If you're watching this and you want to help all of those folks in need across Texas, just go to cnn.com/impact.

Right now, President Biden is making his debut on the international stage. He is taking part in a virtual meeting with G7 leaders hoping to rebuild relationships with our allies abroad. After that, he will head to Michigan where he is slated to visit the Pfizer's vaccine facility in Kalamazoo. It was the first facility you'll remember to ship out doses of the COVID vaccine once they were allowed to do so by the FDA.

Let's bring in our White House Correspondent John Harwood. It is a big day for the administration. He's got a big task in terms of reassuring the international community ahead of the actual G7. So let's begin there.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, and Poppy, there is a confluence of messages on this day. He's addressing the G7 and also the Munich Security Conference. And the message that he's offering there is that America first, America alone, which was the Trump approach, doesn't get the job done on conflicts and crises in places like China, Iran, Russia, North Korea. He's making the case for collective action, working with allies to counter China's economic power, to press Iran to stop its nuclear development program.

He's also making the case that going it alone doesn't get the job done on economic recovery or the coronavirus vaccine.

[10:10:01]

He's pledged, officials announced, yesterday $4 billion to an effort to help low income countries buy vaccines, so that vaccination campaigns can be spread across the globe, trying to convince other economies to stimulate and do things to keep recovery going, because it is a globally interconnected economy.

In the United States, when he goes to Kalamazoo to this Pfizer plant, he's making the case for his recovery program, or the rescue program rather, that would devote billions and billions into the manufacture, distribution and administration of vaccinations, trying to convince Congress to go along with him to fund this program. It is very large, $1.9 trillion. We've got a large deficit, of course, but he's trying to make the case that it is worth it both on economic terms and on public health terms.

So you're right, it is a very big day but it is a day where all of the messages the administration is trying to send are coming together.

HARLOW: It is, John Harwood, thank you, at the White House for us this morning.

Still to come, the extreme weather hampering the COVID vaccine rollout is continuing. Deliveries delayed, appointments canceled and, of course, frustration growing. We'll talk about what can be done to speed things up after this weather passes.

Also big news from Pfizer, the company announced that its vaccine can be stored, they say, at warmer temperatures. So what difference could that make in getting more people vaccinated quicker.

And later, a sharp spike in migrant families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico. Find out what is fuelling that increase, ahead.

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HARLOW: Welcome back. FedEx says it is adjusting shipping patterns to keep those COVID-19 vaccine doses moving as extreme weather across the country causes serious delays in distribution. My colleague, Pete Muntean, is following the latest.

Pete, you've got the White House senior adviser on COVID response, Andy Slavitt, saying, look, we all, the administration and everyone, is going to have to work double time next week to try to catch up given the weather delays. What do we know what the private sector, what FedEx, what UPS are doing about it?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is really trickledown effect here, Poppy, the bad weather having a big impact on those two companies that are critical to the massive vaccine distribution effort, FedEx and UPS.

FedEx says it is now bypassing its main Memphis distribution hub because of the bad weather, , instead leaning on smaller regional facilities in places like Indianapolis and Newark. UPS says it's still able to make deliveries where the roads are passable.

But what is so interesting is it had to close down its world port air operations headquarters in Louisville on Monday because of the bad weather, the first time that has ever happened in company history. All of this means delays in getting vaccine shipments to states across the country.

One example here, Maryland says it has not received shipments of the Moderna vaccine since before Monday. So the White House is telling states they'll really have to double up and work harder to try and get vaccine out of the door when it does ultimately arrive.

Here is what the White House said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISER TO WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE TEAM: We have accumulating backlog of vaccines that need to be boxed and shipped as soon as the weather allows. We can't have people getting on the roads and going into work and boxing them.

We're just going to have to ask everybody in the country to work double time next week assuming the weather improves. That's going to mean longer appointment hours, that's going to mean more shipping hours and we're going to ask everybody to do their part and pull together.

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MUNTEAN: This complicated dance is really empowered a bit by technology and that is the good news here. UPS says each individual vaccine package has a GPS tracker on board so it can tell pretty much up to the minute when there is going to be a problem and getting the vaccine to where it needs to go on time.

The real tricky thing is the timing, especially when it comes to the second dose, 21 or 28 days depending on the vaccine. The White House is saying that can stretch by a week but it is not urging people to skip that critical second dose, Poppy.

HARLOW: Pete, thank you very much. We're rooting for all of them. And grateful for all of those folks driving those trucks and flying those planes in trying to get the vaccines to people in the very bad weather. Thank you, Pete.

Right now, the concerning COVID variants that are spreading throughout the country are very, very much top of mind. The CDC said it has counted more than 1,500 variant cases, I should say, in the United States. How concerned should we be about this and where are we really in fighting this pandemic.

I'm happy proud to bring in Dr. Zeke Emanuel, Vice Provost for the Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, also special adviser to the World Health Organization and former Obama White House Health Policy Adviser.

So you have a few credentials, Doctor, on all of this. We're really glad to have you here. And I wanted to have you on actually because of what you wrote in this interesting opinion piece in The New York Times this week.

You said this feel-good moment is obscuring what could be a dismal spring and the potential of further lockdowns unless we can continue to slow the spread of the virus. Is that because of the variants? Is it because people are getting too relaxed?

DR. ZEKE EMANUEL, VICE PROVOST FOR GLOBAL INITIATIVES, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: It is really all of that, Poppy, you're 100 percent right. Which is, look, we've had this big drop in number of cases.

[10:20:02] We've had this big drop in deaths and hospitalizations. I think people are looking at that data and sort of breathing a sigh of relief. And one consequence is, as you note, we're opening up even though we are something like 80,000 cases a day, which is way higher than the 25,000 cases we had over the summer in June. And we're rushing to open indoor dining, funerals, religious services and other things.

And then, simultaneously, we do have the spread of these variants where the CDC says that by March, the British variant, which we know is more infectious and more deadly, is going to predominate in the United States. That makes us worried. Me and my co-authors were very, very worried about that. The combination of we're getting better and this sort of much worst variant coming on board makes us worried about the spring.

Right now, it feels good, but end of March, April could be not very good moments.

HARLOW: Yes. There are so many questions about who can take these vaccines in terms of what has not gone through trial yet, but it is good news that Pfizer has now -- they just announced overnight that 4,000 pregnant woman in the U.S. have received the first dose of their vaccine. And not only are they going to study the impact on those pregnant women, they're going to study the impact on the babies when the babies are born.

How significant is that in terms of answering any unknowns?

EMANUEL: Oh, well it is a big unknown. Look, I myself are awaiting two grandchildren. I have two pregnant daughters.

HARLOW: Oh, congratulations.

EMANUEL: This is a very personal question. And the lack of information about this, the lack of data is worrisome. And so you really do want to know about this and whether it is -- the effect on the pregnant women and children, so that is critical. Similarly, we're doing studies and launching studies on children down to 12, which is also extremely important to get the data to know whether we can vaccinate them and prevent transmission.

So I think these are all absolutely essential studies that really need to be going on.

HARLOW: I just had Dr. Ashish Jha on last hour. And as you know, he, early in January, wrote that op-ed proposing that because of how effective the Pfizer vaccine was and the Moderna that potentially everyone gets one dose and you delay the second dose, and he got a lot of pushback for it. But now we know from Pfizer that one dose of their vaccine is -- the efficacy rate is 85 percent. Where do you stand on that now knowing that number?

EMANUEL: Absolutely, I think I was very sympathetic to his argument. I think that there are some counterarguments. Again, this is an area where we have some uncertainty. But I would say, if we don't postpone the second dose, all we're going to be giving over the next few weeks is second doses, and that is bad.

It is bad for two reasons. One, we're leaving a lot of people unprotected an it is bad for a second reason which gets, I think, let attention, and some colleagues and I have just submitted a paper on, is it is inequitable. Because a lot of the first doses went to white people and well-off people and not people who are African-American, Hispanic and lots of other minorities, Native Americans.

And so by actually postponing the second dose to 12 weeks, we can actually improve the equity of vaccine distribution, which I think is another very important goal that we have to have. So not only can we vaccinate people who are not being vaccinated now, we can make sure that we could improve the equity and the racial distribution of who gets the vaccine, two very important goals that we need to achieve.

HARLOW: It is such an important point and one element of the equity conversation on this that I hadn't thought of, so thank you for bringing it to our attention and for writing that. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, come back soon. Thank you very much.

EMANUEL: Thank you, Poppy. Great to be here.

HARLOW: And congrats on the grandkids. That is exciting.

Coming up, new fallout from the insurrection on Capitol Hill, six Capitol police officers suspended, dozens more are now under investigation.

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HARLOW: Six Capitol police officers have been suspended with pay. 29 others right now are being investigated. This is all news over their actions during the Capitol Hill insurrection, and it comes as several lawmakers question whether some in law enforcement there were complicit at all with the rioters. It is a significant question.

Our Whitney Wild has reporting on this from Washington this morning. That is a lot. I mean, that is 35 officers that they're looking at.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and this represents a really hard look at USCP is taking not only at its own preparation but also the actions of officers on the ground that day. What we know is that this also represents an expanded investigation before last month. Our understanding was that it was around ten officers who had been placed under investigation and that two officers have been suspended.

Last month we reported that one officer had been suspended.