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FDA Signals Johnson & Johnson Vaccine May Receive EUA; Tiger Woods Awake Following Surgery; Live Coverage of President Biden Statement as He Meets With Bipartisan Group to Discuss Supply Chain. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 24, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

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BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: You're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, coming at you one hour early just today. Good to be with you.

Any moment now, we expect President Biden to meet with bipartisan lawmakers on the nation's supply chain. Basically he wants to determine which products used by Americans in their everyday lives, or ones that are necessary to keep the country safe, could be vulnerable to disruptions. And most urgently, that means he wants to figure out how much of that supply is actually dependent on places like China. So we'll bring you President Biden's remarks as soon as they get under way.

Also today, encouraging update on golf legend Tiger Woods. Authorities say he is lucky to have survived that horrific car crash. He is awake, he is responding today after surgery, surgeons inserting a rod into his tibia -- this is part of his leg -- and pins and screws into his right foot and ankle.

More on what led to the crash in just a moment, and also what his future might look like.

But first, huge news today in this country's vaccination efforts. The FDA says Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 single shot meets the requirements for the Emergency Use Authorization, and the drug giant just released new data, so let's start there.

The FDA is acknowledging for the first time that the vaccine is safe and effective against coronavirus, and the data even hinting it might prevent asymptomatic infections. FDA officials will meet Friday to consider the Emergency Use Authorization, followed Monday with the CDC. Which means this vaccine could be ready to roll out next week.

Johnson & Johnson has pledged 20 million doses, but says it is prepared to immediately ship nearly 4 million doses as soon as it gets approved. Today, the White House says it's ready to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: While we await the FDA's decision, we want the American people to know that we're doing the work so that if the EUA is granted, we will waste no time getting this life-saving vaccine into the arms of Americans.

Despite all the temporary weather-related delays, our seven-day average daily doses administered is at 1.4 million. And we've already caught up on the weather-related shipping backlogs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Dr. Rob Davidson is an emergency room physician and the executive director of the Committee to Protect Medicare. Dr. Davidson, good to see you. And pretty big news from J&J this morning, right? They're saying there could be roughly 4 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines being shipped out as early as next week. How huge is this?

ROB DAVIDSON, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: It's huge. You know, in a week where we just crossed the half-million threshold for the number of people who have died in this country from COVID-19, having this news, having another vaccine available, having a vaccine that does not need to be shipped frozen is huge, having a vaccine that has shown such high efficacy after one shot is huge.

I mean, this really adds to our ability to get more shots in arms, to get to that herd immunity. And really, the global war on this pandemic is going to be helped by this vaccine.

BALDWIN: Half the battle, you know, manufacturing these shots, getting them the green light. The other half, as you know, is getting shots in arms. Does the U.S. have a system in place to get those Johnson & Johnson shots in arms?

DAVIDSON: We do. You know, there are a lot of good plans, but this in the state of Michigan, where I live, our Republican legislature is holding up $5 billion in COVID money allocated in December from the federal government because they're trying to exert some level of control, they're not happy with the Democratic governor and the work that she's done to protect Michiganders. And so that's happening in other places.

I think we need to get past the politics -- again -- and then yes, I think we can do this.

BALDWIN: So I hear you that it's huge. I feel like this just groundswell, this just, you know, opening of possibility for this single shot. It is a single shot, it is exciting. But the new FDA information, you know, seems to show it is less effective when you crunch the numbers and you look at the efficacy than, say, the Moderna or the Pfizer.

Do you think that's a fair comparison, just given that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was tested on multiple variants?

DAVIDSON: Yes, I think you hit it right on the nose. This has been tested when the variants from Brazil, from South Africa, from the U.K. are more prevalent. The efficacy in South Africa is less than the efficacy in the U.S. And when they looked at severe disease, they looked at hospitalizations, it was somewhere around 85 percent.

I think zero people died in the vaccine group in this study, and I believe it was -- I think it was 15 died in the placebo group. So it does prevent severe disease and, yes, it's a shifting pandemic with these variants, and this -- you can't really compare them, apples to apples.

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BALDWIN: Do you think -- last question -- we're going to get to the point. We've got Moderna, Pfizer, now Johnson & Johnson, now they're looking also at this fourth vaccine, AstraZeneca looking to get the emergency authorization in April.

Will it get to a point where we're sitting in the doctor's office and we essentially have a vaccine menu and we get to pick which one we want?

DAVIDSON: I don't believe so. I believe we're going to get the right vaccine to the right places, where they can be used. I got the Moderna vaccine because we don't have the freezers that can handle it; my wife got the Pfizer vaccine because her hospital does. I think some people will get the Johnson & Johnson because of the shipping needs of that.

I think whatever one's available, just get that one. I think the more we get, the better off we're going to be.

BALDWIN: Dr. Rob Davidson, thank you so much.

DAVIDSON: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: To the other big story of the day of course, Tiger Woods, the golf legend, now awake and responsive after surgery on his lower right leg and ankle, following yesterday's car crash in Southern California. CNN's Dan Simon and Omar Jimenez are following these details for us this afternoon.

And, Omar, let's just begin with you on Tiger Woods' condition. How is he?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, awake, responsive and recovering is the most important part here. But when you look at the damage sustained the car, it's miraculous that we're even able to say that and not here in the Los Angeles area, again, talking about the loss of another sports icon. Thankfully we're not.

Now, officials say when they arrived at the scene he was conscious, but was beat up pretty badly physically, especially sustaining serious injuries to his legs. By all accounts we've heard from medical officials here, his leg was fractured but broken at multiple parts. At one point, according to the chief medical officer here at UCLA-Harbor Medical, his bone was exposed to the open air. So he's been through a lengthy surgery, he's had a rod inserted and is recovering. But the sheriff in Los Angeles County said he has seen accidents with

far more obvious damage that have ended up being more fatal than what we saw. So in some, he said, Tiger is lucky to be alive.

But even after he recovers from this -- again, by all indications, he will survive this -- it is going to be a long road to recovery and normalcy, just walking and getting that normal function back before any sort of discussions about him ever potentially getting back on the golf course again.

So it's a bad situation but it could have been so much worse -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, we've got an orthopedic surgeon coming up in a little bit, just to be able to talk about some of the details of the surgery and what his future, what -- walking, maybe one day playing golf -- looks like.

Dan, over to you. You know, just looking -- we were doing all this breaking news this time yesterday, you see his car just totally flipped. What do you know about the crash itself, what happened?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, first of all, being here today, you simply would not know that, 24 hours ago, this was the scene of that very grisly accident involving one of the most recognizable names and faces in the world.

But 24 hours later, we still don't know how or why Tiger Woods lost control of that vehicle. What we do know is that he was traveling at a rate of speed, according to the sheriff. There were no signs of impairment and no skid marks.

I can also tell you, Brooke, that being here and traveling this road, you do get an understanding of how this can be a difficult road in the sense that what you don't fully appreciate on television is the slope of Hawthorne Boulevard, going north. And if you're not fully cognizant of your surroundings, if you don't sort of understand the S-turns or you're not paying attention or you're distracted on your phone, you know, you can easily get into a terrible traffic accident.

Now, exactly how it occurred, again, we don't know. What we do know is that he ran over the median and then hit the curb, and then plowed over some trees and the car rolled several times. And when authorities got to him, when firefighters got to him, he was pinned in that vehicle.

But the vehicle did exactly what it was designed to do. It absorbed the impact of the crash, the cabin was mainly intact. Of course, his leg took a lot of trauma and the surgery was designed to repair the damage to the ankle as well.

And we know that authorities used, firefighters used an axe to get him out. And what's critical in all of this is that he was wearing his seatbelt, and the sheriff says that's likely what saved his life.

BALDWIN: Thank Goodness, thank goodness, Dan Simon, thank you so much. Dan and Omar, guys, appreciate it.

New signs of trouble for one of President Biden's cabinet picks, key committees are now delaying votes for White House budget nominee Neera Tanden as she continues to get hammered for past tweets slamming Republicans and progressives.

Also, just in to CNN, New York prosecutors signaling Steve Bannon is not out of the criminal woods just yet, despite that pardon from President Trump. We have those details, ahead.

And former Vice President Mike Pence, telling a group of lawmakers that he has a close personal friendship with Donald Trump despite the former president's repeated attacks on him and failure to check on Pence during that deadly riot on Capitol Hill.

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You're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, we'll be right back.

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BALDWIN: Welcome back, you're watching CNN, I'm Brooke Baldwin, thank you for being here.

In the Senate today, day two of confirmation hearings for some of President Biden's most essential cabinet officials, Republicans grilling some of the nominees for lack of experience and what they describe as a radical agenda.

Biden's choice for HHS, Javier Becerra, is facing GOP criticism because of his lack of experience in health care. And Republicans are questioning whether Deb Haaland, who would be the first Native American cabinet secretary, would be able to set aside her role as a left-leaning congresswoman.

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REP. STEVE DAINES (R-MT): Some of your prior positions you've taken opposed to Keystone, opposed Dakota pipelines, protesting there, calling for bans on trapping on all public lands, stopping energy on all public lands. Clearly impacts more people than just your constituents. So I'm not convinced that you know, you'll be taking that view forward because you certainly have been taking some very strong positions that clearly impact folks outside the First District of New Mexico.

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BALDWIN: Manu Raju is our CNN chief congressional correspondent. And, Manu, also facing a steep battle today, Neera Tanden. She was nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget, OMB. Both committees have postponed their votes. What does that mean?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is the biggest concern for the White House right now because she's at very real risk of failing her nomination. It is because there just is not the support at the moment to get her confirmed.

They would need 51 votes in the Senate, it's a 50-50 Senate, Kamala Harris as the vice president would come and break the tie. They do not have those votes yet, which is why they delayed a key committee hearing, two votes that were scheduled for today were delayed because of one senator in particular, Kyrsten Sinema, Arizona Democrat who has not yet said if she will support this nomination.

And behind the scenes, there are conversations ongoing to try to lock down her support. The White House is trying to get her on board, and if she does decide to go forward, then the Democrats believe they might have a chance. But only if Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski decides to vote to save this nomination.

Murkowski, this week, I've asked her multiple times about the Tanden nomination, she has declined to comment, saying she would wait to see what the committees do before deciding how she would vote on the Senate floor. And Republican leaders themselves are confident that all their members will fall in line, and ultimately they will defeat this nomination.

Now, this all came, Brooke, because Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia, announced his opposition to this pick, contending that she was too toxic of a pick to go forward.

She of course is a former head of the liberal thinktank Center for American Progress, but her tweets attacking Republicans are what has caused concern among Republican members, who say that she should not serve in this position.

She has expressed regret for those past tweets, but not enough to win over any Republican support at the moment. So, Brooke, this nomination in limbo, showing both the power of one individual senator to frustrate the agenda of the new president, and also the challenge and the possibility that Joe Biden could lose his first nominee here in this divided Senate -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Manu, thank you, we'll come back to that in just a little bit.

But just in to CNN, an update on the criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon. the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has subpoenaed financial records related to Bannon's crowdfunding campaign for the southern border wall. CNN's Kara Scannell is breaking this story.

And, Kara, it's been a while since this investigation was in the headlines, so just remind us what Steve Bannon is being accused of.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Right, Brooke. So as you will remember, Steve Bannon was indicted by federal prosecutors over the summer as part of this crowdfunding effort. He was raising money from donors to build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and prosecutors said that he had defrauded these donors by spending as much as $1 million on personal expenses, and to pay an alleged co-conspirator.

Well, then the former president, Donald Trump, in his last days in office, had pardoned Steve Bannon on these federal charges. That's when the Manhattan District Attorney's Office stepped in, and they opened a state law investigation into Bannon to see whether he had violated the equivalent of the state laws in defrauding some of these donors.

Well now, sources tell us that investigators have taken the next step, and they have subpoenaed financial records as part of this investigation, they've subpoenaed records from a bank and also from GoFundMe, that crowd fundraising platform, that "We Build the Wall," that was the name of the effort that -- the platform that Bannon has used to raise this money. They subpoenaed them for any records that they have connected to this effort.

Now, Bannon did plead not guilty to those federal charges, and his lawyer did not respond to our calls today for comment. But this certainly indicates that the state investigation is gaining momentum and moving forward, even though Bannon had just shed those federal charges -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Again, as you pointed out, just because he's been pardoned doesn't mean he doesn't face consequences at these levels. Kara, thank you so much, Kara Scannell here in New York.

Coming up, we will hear from the first deputy on the scene of the Tiger Woods crash, and I'll talk to a trauma doctor about just the road to recovery that lies ahead for the pro golfer and father of two.

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Plus, the divide in the Republican Party, on full display in a very awkward way today. We will show you how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy abruptly ended this news conference after clashing with Liz Cheney on Trump's role in the party. Do not miss this.

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BALDWIN: -- affect us (ph) all, affect this country.

The last year has shown the vulnerabilities around some of those supply chains, including the PPE that we needed badly but had to go abroad to get. And there are current strategies and these little chips (ph) here for automobiles. I didn't realize how many billions of chips are in here. But causing some lines to slow down and people not being laid off, but at least short (ph) in (ph) the (ph) chips.

[14:25:21]

And so we're going to talk about that. John Cornyn and -- and the bipartisan group here put together an effort last year that I think is a pretty good effort in dealing with how to deal with these chips, but there's other aspects and shortages as well. That's what we're going to talk about.

And it's nice to have everybody down here and on a subject matter we all agree on, and figure out how we can get it all done.

So thank you all for coming on in, and appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: So the president there, he really wants to get to the bottom of -- he was holding up chips, right? He's looking at, you know, chips that would go in your flatscreen TV or batteries or even, you know, things that we're really relying on right now, PPEs, COVID vaccines to figure out which supplies would be really disrupted if the supply chain would be disrupted namely from places like China. So that's what that meeting is about, that's what he wants to look into.

Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is awake, responsive and recovering from his emergency surgery following yesterday's high-speed car crash. The 45- year-old golf legend and father of two, who is known for staging miraculous comebacks, suffered multiple fractures through his right leg and ankle.

This all comes just a month after his fifth career back surgery. We just heard from the first deputy on the scene of the crash, describing what he saw.

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CARLOS GONZALEZ, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: I ran over, and I saw there was a big hole in the windshield, and I was kind of able to get my upper body in there, and you know, I see Tiger Woods sitting in the driver's seat, you know, on his side with the seatbelt on. And it's dark inside, so I don't immediately recognize him. And again, you're not expecting a celebrity, you know?

And my main concern at this time is to see how he's doing, and what condition he's in. And so, you know, I always try to talk to people when they're going through something like this, so I ask him, you know, hey, what's your name, can you tell me your name?

And he said, Tiger. And it took me about a half second, and I looked at his face, and I recognized him immediately. And I was like, you know, I thought in my head, oh my gosh, you're Tiger Woods.

I started asking him questions to kind of gauge what sort of condition he's in. So, you know, I ask him, you know, hey, do you know where you are? Do you know what day it is? Just to kind of gauge his mental state. And he seemed very calm, he was able to talk to me.

I could tell he was in shock. And you know, rightfully so, he'd gone through a very catastrophic traffic collision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But as everyone's been pointing out, thank goodness for that seatbelt.

Dr. Joseph Patterson is an orthopedic trauma surgeon at USC's Keck Medical Center, he joins me now. Dr. Patterson, thank you so much for being with me. Let me just jump

straight to what the statement from the doctors, from Tiger Woods' surgery, saying that both bones in Woods' lower right leg, the tibia and fibula, had been broken in multiple places and were, quote, "open fractures," meaning they pierced his skin.

Translate that for me, and tell me then what does that mean doctors had to do in that surgery?

JOSEPH PATTERSON, ORTHOPAEDIC TRAUMA SURGEON, KECK MEDICINE OF USC: Absolutely, and thank you for having me, Brooke. These injuries to Tiger's right leg involve both the upper and lower portions of the tibia. They're open, meaning that the bone fragments came out of his skin, they had to cut through tissues, possibly muscle but definitely the skin and were (ph) exposed to the outside world, which could include bacteria from his skin, and other things in the vehicle.

Open fractures have a higher rate of infection than ones that don't come out of the body, so urgent surgery is needed to clean the skin and protect it there -- clean the fracture, and protect the affected area to try to minimize the chance of infection.

If it's appropriate at that time, we try to make the bones stable, try to restore their anatomic alignment so that the joints next to them and the bone itself will heal in a useful position and be functional, as much function as we can restore.

Patients with similar injuries may also have damage to the adjacent joint surfaces, the knee and the ankle and possibly the foot. And it could also involve the stabilizing tissues that make those joints move and glide as they should.

Unstable or broken joints may degenerate, develop arthritis and become stiff and painful. And in a lower limb, this can interfere with simply walking or standing.

What's really striking is that a surgical release was necessary. Patients who need a surgical release -- also called a fasciotomy -- are developing what's called a compartment syndrome, a condition of extreme swelling.

[14:29:49]

The muscles and other tissues swell in response to an injury, and you can think of muscles kind of like a sausage, they're lined with a casing called fascia. The swelling can't go anywhere, and the pressure builds up. And if the pressure rises higher than your blood pressure, blood and oxygen can't get to the tissue.