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Tiger Woods Awake And Responsive After Surgery; U.S. Set To Receive Major Boost To Vaccine Supply; Failure Of Law Enforcement To Protect Capitol: The Hearing Begins; 200,000 Doses Of Sputnik Vaccine Flown Into Mexico City; Hong Kong Proposes Loyalty Oaths for Public Officials. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 24, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: This is CNN NEWSROOM. Hello, everyone, I'm John Vause.
And coming up this hour. Tiger Woods, awake and responsive but remains in hospital after a serious high-speed car accident. We'll have the very latest on the golfing legend.
Drug makers promise a dramatic increase in vaccine to the U.S. potentially ending supply shortages within weeks.
And the blame game. Former officials charged with securing the U.S. Capitol point fingers at one another during a hearing into the failures which led to last month's insurgent attack by Trump supporters.
The very latest now on the condition of golfing great Tiger Woods who remains in a level one trauma center just outside Los Angeles after a high-speed car accident on Tuesday.
A new post on his Twitter account says he is awake and responsive after undergoing hours of surgery on his lower right leg and ankle.
We have more details now on the accident and the aftermath from CNN's Kyung Lah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNKNOWN VOICE OVER (Captioned): "Traffic collision, ALS now, person's trapped, sheriff on scene."
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The emergency dispatch call came just after 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
UNKNOWN VOICE OVER (Captioned): "Hawthorne Boulevard, Palos Verdes Drive North. Vehicle off the side of the road."
LAH: That vehicle was a silver SUV that lay mangled on its side, the windshield broken and gone, it's front smashed. Inside was golf legend, Tiger Woods. ALEX VILLANUEVA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF: He was alive and he was
conscious.
LAH: A Los Angeles law enforcement source tells CNN Woods suffered from non-life threatening injuries which include compound fractures in his legs. No field sobriety test was given due to the seriousness of his injuries.
Firefighters say he was transported to Harbor-UCLA Hospital in serious condition. Weather at the time of the crash, clear. And the roadway --
VILLANUEVA: No skid marks, no braking. So apparently the first contact was with the center median and from there then cross into the opposing lane of traffic. Hit the curb, hit a tree and there were several rollovers during that process.
LAH: The words "Genesis Invitational" are visible on the SUV's door. Tiger Woods was listed as a tournament host at the event that ended on Sunday not far from the crash site.
At the tournament, Woods told CBS Sports he was looking forward to the Masters Tournament in April after fighting through five back surgeries in recent years.
JIM NANTZ, HOST, CBS SPORTS: So Tiger, seven weeks from today, final round of the Masters. Are you going to be there?
TIGER WOODS, GOLFER: God, I hope so. I got to get there first.
NANTZ: Do you feel like you're being --
WOODS: A lot of it's based on my (inaudible) surgeons and my doctors and my therapists to ensure that I do it correctly. Because this is the only back I've got.
LAH: Reaction across the sports world came quickly across social media, and from his fellow professional golfers.
JUSTIN THOMAS, GOLFER: I'm sick to my stomach. It hurts to see one of your -- now my closest friends get in an accident. And, man, I just hope he's all right. I just worry for his kids. I'm sure they're struggling.
LAH: And shock from the entertainment world. Before news of the crash, three different celebrities had posted photos golfing with Woods.
Among them, this video from former NBA star, Dwyane Wade.
DWYANE WADE, NBA STAR: Tiger, thank you for teaching me something.
LAH: An iconic athlete who broke barriers both in sports and culture for decades now faces another challenge.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Thanks to Kyung Lah for that report.
For more on the story, we're going to Austin, Texas. Emergency physician, Dr. Emily Porter is with us once again this hour. Thanks for coming back, Dr. Porter.
DR. EMILY PORTER, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: No worries, thanks for having me.
VAUSE: OK. We have this new information. We have the fact that he is awake and responsive and this is fairly soon after major surgery which lasted a good deal of time.
It's a good sign, obviously, but the question is how good of a sign is it?
PORTER: Well, actually sometimes, they can do those surgeries with the patient awake -- you get a good anesthesiologists that can do regional nerve blocks. Probably this was pretty extensive and long, I'm sure they gave him general anesthesia.
But he was awake on the scene, which is good. Sounds like he was buckled in, airbags were off and he had his seatbelt on so he didn't get ejected.
And it was early in the morning. It doesn't sound like there was any impairment from meds or alcohol or anything like that anybody suspects. So the fact that he was awake to begin with, helps.
VAUSE: (Inaudible).
[01:05:00]
PORTER: But it was a long surgery, I'm sure, to repair sounds like shrapnel, essentially, in his upper and his lower leg in both bones of his -- the tibia and the fibula, both at the distal -- more towards the foot and then also the proximal, more towards the knee. And they poked through the skin so I'm sure they did a pretty good washout. Sounds like they did a fasciotomy too.
VAUSE: OK. Well, here's some more from the medical center where Woods is being treated regarding his leg injuries.
"Comminuted open fractures" -- which means those little pieces of bone -- "affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia. Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins.
Trauma to the muscle and soft tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling."
When you hear, that what does that make you think of his condition and recovery? PORTER: It sounds like it hurts. The biggest thing now is going to
be -- the first thing is going to be infection; it's going to swell, it's going to hurt. They washed everything out.
When they do a fasciotomy, you cut through the skin, you cut through the fat, you cut through the fibrous white bands around the muscle into the muscle really into that compartment, they call it, to release the pressure to allow the nerves and the arteries to have breathing room, if you will, so that they don't swell up and get compressed.
But he might be at the Masters in seven weeks but he won't be playing. Not at the --
VAUSE: Yes. That's --
PORTER: He'll be lucky if he's walking in seven weeks, but he won't be playing. Unfortunately.
VAUSE: (Inaudible) a question. Obviously, it's impossible to know -- from our point of view here -- we don't know the exact details of all the injuries, we have a general idea.
But how long would the recovery be and, this is the question, what does recovery look like? Are we talking about just simply walking; what's the timeframe here? Playing at the Masters is another story altogether.
PORTER: Right. So he's going to have -- sounds like he's got -- he's sliced, basically, from ankle to knee with a big surgical incision. And then he's got a rod in his major -- these two bones in your leg, in your the lower leg,. And the tibia's the bigger one so he has a big rod jammed in there. That's going to hurt.
And then pins in his foot and his ankle which will make it harder for him to walk, his balance will be off because there'll be a lot of stiffness and he'll probably battle with arthritis in that foot too.
So he'll be in for a couple of months just in a cast, probably, six to eight weeks in a cast. Then that comes off.
And as you know, when you're in a cast, your muscles actually get weaker, they atrophy because you can't move in a cast and then you have to go through all the rehab of building up the muscles.
So I would say he's three to six months before he's able to even think about being competitive, just from my guess.
VAUSE: That seems actually quite an ambitious timeline, to be honest.
PORTER: Yes, well he's Tiger Woods.
VAUSE: That's a point.
PORTER: For me it would be a year, but I'm not Tiger Woods.
VAUSE: OK. Neither am I. Dr. Porter, thank you. Thanks for being with us.
PORTER: Sure.
VAUSE: Take care.
Please stay with CNN for more on Tiger Woods' condition. Later this hour, I'll speak with CNN sports analyst, Christine Brennan, about legendary golfer's career and what this now means for it.
VAUSE: U.S. vaccine stockpile looks set to surge in the coming weeks after drug companies promised to increase supply, a total of 240 million doses by the end of next month.
The White House says that that breaks down to states getting fourteen and-a-half million doses every week. The bulk will come from Pfizer and Moderna, the only vaccines with emergency use authorization in the United States.
But Johnson & Johnson's single-dose shot is expected to be reviewed and authorized in the coming days and the White House says that will mean an extra 2 million doses by next week.
Mexico has a new weapon in its battle against the virus. It just received a first batch of Russia's Sputnik vaccine after becoming the first country in North America to approve the Russian shots.
CNN's Matt Rivers with details, reporting from Mexico City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, like so many other countries around the world, Mexico is desperately trying to get its hands on more doses of different vaccines, and it got some help in that regard on Monday night.
That is when some 200,000 doses of the Russian developed Sputnik vaccine arrived on a British Airways flight here in Mexico City. The Mexican foreign minister was there to greet those doses as they arrived.
Those doses are going to be put to immediate use. The government says those doses will be used to try and help vaccinate elderly people in certain sections of Mexico City. Those vaccinations are going to start as soon as today.
Mexican health officials say that this came about in part because of a conversation that Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in late January. The two men agreed to increase the supply that Mexico would be receiving of this Russian-developed vaccine.
We know that Mexico already has a purchase agreement to eventually acquire some 24 million doses of this Russian -developed vaccine. The Mexican officials have not laid out a timeline exactly for when the rest of those doses are going to arrive.
[01:10:00]
And Mexico is just one of a number of countries in Latin America beginning to rely on this Russian vaccine. We know at least six countries here in Latin America will be using this Russian vaccine. We know others are also considering granting this vaccine emergency use authorization.
And it comes at a time here in Mexico when vaccines are desperately needed. As of Tuesday afternoon, the country had administered less than 2 million doses of different vaccines.
RIVERS (On Camera): Matt Rivers, CNN, in Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: With us now is Dr. Carlos Del Rio, executive associate dean at Emory University School of Medicine.
Dr. Del Rio, thank you for being with us.
DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Good to be with you, John.
VAUSE: OK. Well, many experts in the U.S., I guess in Europe as well, may have their doubts about the safety and effectiveness.
"Sputnik V has now been approved for use in more than 30 countries and is the one of the world's most pre-ordered vaccines, with at least 50 countries from Argentina to the Philippines ordering nearly 2.5 billion doses so far."
It's just now one of a dozen vaccines now being used around the world.
So with that in mind, while the quality and efficacy may vary, is having so many vaccines in circulation globally the turning point here? The reason why the number of infections are falling faster than expected?
DEL RIO: John, when you have so many people to vaccinate, you're going to need a lot of vaccines. So I think that, as Dr. Fauci said at the beginning of this, we're going to need a lot of shots on goal but we're also going goals we're going to need a lot of those shots to be goals.
We need a lot of shots and goals, those are the vaccines. And we need those vaccines to be effective. They may vary on their efficacy but overall the vaccines -- what we've seen from them are very effective in preventing severe disease and death.
So yes, we can apply them globally, and the more we use them, the better it is. I think each country's going to have to make decisions.
The U.S., likely, either Sputnik will -- the Russian vaccine will never be submitted to the FDA, I suspect, and the U.S. will never approve it. But that's OK, it's been approved in other countries. And what we've seen, in a publication of "Lancet," should suggest that it has very good efficacy.
VAUSE: There's some other point of views as well, with vaccines and transmission of the coronavirus.
Two epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University wrote an op ed. They said --
"Based on the performance of similar vaccines, the fact that asymptomatic people may be less likely to transmit the coronavirus and a quickly growing body of direct evidence from trials and campaigns, we are confident vaccination against COVID-19 reduces the chances of transmitting the virus."
This is one of those things which everyone thought may have been the case but no one was willing to go there because there hadn't been proof absolutely.
If this is, in fact, true, how important is this in basically slowing down the transmissions. It seems crucial.
DEL RIO: It's a game-changer. And I think it's -- I'm confident that that's going to be the case too.
And I think it's a game-changer because then -- right now we're vaccinating primarily old people to prevent them from dying. But if truly vaccines prevent transmission, we have to shift quickly and vaccinate people between the age of 20 and 49 which are really the ones driving a lot of transmission today, at least here in the United States.
VAUSE: And with that in mind, there are now calls to vaccinate as many people as possible with just one of the normal two shots because of concerns that the virus mutations could see these numbers surging again.
We did hear from the White House chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, explaining why the U.S. is not going down that road.
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The difference between the level of antibodies after one dose versus two doses is about tenfold higher. And that is really important.
Because when you have that high a degree comparable to the single dose alone, that's the cushion that you would like to have when you get a variant that isn't as well protected against.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I just wonder if it could be argued that approach, while it seems to be the right approach, is it allowing the good to be the victim of the great? DEL RIO: Well, I think, John, that I agree with Dr. Fauci, I always
do. But I would say that the one thing to add is that we also know that people who already have COVID have a similar response to one vaccine as if they had had two because a COVID infection acts almost like the first vaccine.
So if you've had COVID and you've recovered, maybe you only need one vaccine. If the decision -- if the U.S. decides to go in that direction and if you already have COVID, they only give you one shot, it will make more vaccines available.
So I think this is not a one decision affects everybody. I think there may be some variations depending on whether you already have COVID or not.
VAUSE: We'll finish up with a report from the U.K. which basically says that --
"Businesses and governments around the world need to prepare to live with COVID-19, accepting that the virus won't disappear but equally that lockdowns cannot go on forever once hospitalizations are brought down to manageable levels."
In other words, this is endemic. It will be around possibly for decades despite the success of these vaccines. This is something we need to learn to live with, right?
DEL RIO: Well, I think so. The issue is going to be that we may be able to vaccinate enough people to stop transmission here in the U.S.
[01:15:00]
But it's calculated that it's going to take us about seven to ten years to vaccinate everybody globally to stop transmission. And as long as there's countries that are having severe COVID and we haven't controlled the transmission, we have a problem globally.
So unless we are able to totally shut it down globally, which is going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort, we're still going to have to worry about COVID.
VAUSE: Yes. And that's why everyone needs the vaccine, not just the wealthy nations. Dr. Carlos Del Rio, thank you for being with us.
DEL RIO: Delighted to be with you.
VAUSE: Next up on CNN NEWSROOM. The blame game on Capitol Hill. Former security officials pointing fingers at one another for the massive failure during the January insurrection.
And an admission. A memo warning of the attack was missed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: The three former senior officials charged with securing the U.S. Capitol effectively threw each other under the bus during a Senate hearing into security failures which led to thousands of Trump supporters overrunning barricades and breaching the building.
Amid the blame game, there was also an admission. The FBI had warned of the potential for violence just a day earlier, but that warning went unheeded.
CNN's Jessica Schneider has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: New revelations from Capitol police that an FBI report warning of a violent war at the Capitol on January 6th was relayed to Capitol police headquarters one day before the violent insurrection. But it was never seen by the department's leadership.
SEN. GARY PETERS, (D-MICH): How could you not get that vital intelligence on the eve of what's going to be a major event?
STEVEN SUND, FORMER CHIEF OF U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: I know that's something that's going to be looked at. I think that information would've been helpful to be aware of.
SCHNEIDER: "The Washington Post" reported last month that the FBI bulletin quoted individuals saying "Be ready to fight. Go there ready for war. We get our president or we die."
But Steven Sund who stepped down as Capitol police chief days after the insurrection said he was only made aware of the report yesterday.
Sund stressed it was just raw intelligence but D.C.'s acting police chief said more should've been done to alert officials at the Capitol.
ROBERT CONTEE, III, ACTING CHIEF OF D.C. METRO POLICE: I would certainly say that something as violent as an insurrection at the Capitol would warrant a phone call or something.
SCHNEIDER: Sund said even the intelligence that was relayed did not forecast the destruction that followed.
SUND: None of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred. We properly planned for a mass demonstration with possible violence. What we got was a military-style coordinated assault on my officers and a violent takeover of the Capitol building.
SCHNEIDER: All of the officials testifying agreed the group that converged on the Capitol were, in fact, coordinated.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, (D-MINN): Do you agree that there is now clear evidence that supports the conclusion that the January 6th insurrection was planned and it was a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol?
SUND: Yes.
KLOBUCHAR: Would you agree that this attack involved white supremacists and extremist groups? SUND: Yes.
[01:20:00]
SCHNEIDER: The most pressing question surrounded the delayed deployment of the National Guard, which former chief Sund said was initially held up because he needed an emergency declaration from the Capitol police board.
CONTEE: Chief Sund was pleading for the deployment of the National Guard. And in response to that, there was not an immediate yes. I was just stunned that -- I had officers that were out there literally fighting for their lives. And we're kind of going through what seemed like an exercise to really check the boxes.
SCHNEIDER: Many on the Capitol police force are still feeling the effects of the breakdowns that day.
CARNEYSHA MENDOZA, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE FORCE CAPTAIN: I received chemical burns to my face that still have not healed to this day. Of the multitude of events I've worked in my nearly 19-year career, this was by far the worst of the worst.
We could've had ten times the amount of people working with us, and I still believe the battle would've been just as devastating.
As an American and as an army veteran, it's sad to see us attacked by our fellow citizens.
SCHNEIDER (On Camera): It was also revealed that most of the Capitol police officers were not equipped with riot gear or the right kind of training to respond to the violence they faced.
There will be more details that emerge. Additional hearings will be held next week including one with the FBI, Homeland Security and the Defense Department, where, of course, there will be more inquiries and maybe answers about why it took so long to get National Guard troops to respond to the Capitol.
SCHNEIDER (On Camera): Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem joins me now for more on this.
So Juliette, I don't know how much of this you saw but it seemed to be a master class in CYA, Cover Your Arse, also mixed with this dog ate my homework approach.
Having said all of that, we did learn the day before the attack, the FBI sent a report to the Capitol police warning of violence around the Trump rally.
But this excuse that it never made it to the higher ups seems a bit of a stretch. JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. That to me is
still the inexplicable aspect of this. That the FBI did a report is absolutely correct, those of us even on the outside saw the focus of Trump sort of galvanizing the troops for this day and this place.
But that it would never -- one is that it would never get to the top, and also that the top wasn't cognizant of what was going on absent the FBI review. In other words, if I knew it was happening, you knew it was happening -- do they not watch the news, do they not see -- do they not follow what is being talked about for the Capitol?
To me, that was the inexplicable and sort of unforgivable part. Of a day that had a lot of inexplicable and unforgivable parts.
VAUSE: We also found out, to no one's surprise, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not to blame. She played no role in a delayed approval for deployment of the National Guard.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, (R-MISS): So you did not consult congressional leadership, you weren't waiting at any point for input from congressional leadership. Is that your testimony, Mr. Irving, have I got that right?
PAUL IRVING, FORMER U.S. HOUSE SERGEANT AT ARMS: Yes. I advised them as we would do with many security protocols.
HAWLEY: But you weren't waiting for them at any point? There was no delay, you're saying --
IRVING: Yes.
HAWLEY: -- in getting National Guard requests? Because you didn't at any point actually wait for the input of the speaker or the majority leader or anybody else?
IRVING: No, absolutely not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And that's how a talking point dies. At least now, I guess, there may a more efficient system to call in reinforcements in something like this. Because we did learn Capitol police are not very well trained and they're not very well equipped either.
KAYYEM: Right. That's exactly right. I think the extent to which they were quickly overpowered became clear through that testimony.
And to be clear about how it works in the United States, no speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi or otherwise, would have operational control over the deployment of troops or military or law enforcement during an attack -- this was absolutely an absurd theory and I'm glad that it was debunked. But what came out later in the testimony was actually more damning to the White House, rather than Speaker Pelosi. Because it did suggest that there was tremendous -- and not understood delay about deploying the National Guard, the D.C. National Guard, which would've fallen squarely within the White House and the secretary of defense's authorization.
VAUSE: One of the things with this -- there was so much finger- pointing, we didn't actually learn a lot of detail about the events on that day.
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: And one reason for that, it seems, is because there are a lot of questions, sort of irrelevant questions asked by Republican senators.
Like this one.
KAYYEM: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RON JOHNSON, (R-WIS.): Although the crowd represented a broad cross-section of Americans, mostly working class by their appearance and manner of speech, some people stood out. A very few didn't share the jovial, friendly, earnest demeanor of the great majority, some obviously didn't fit in.
[01:25:00]
And he describes four different types of people; plainclothes militants, agents provocateurs, fake Trump protesters and then disciplined, uniformed, column of attackers (ph). I think these are the people that probably planned this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: No, they're not. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar tried to correct the record with a tweet.
Making clear -- "'provocateurs' did not storm the Capitol. They were not 'fake Trump protestors.' The mood on January 6th was not 'festive.' That is disinformation."
VAUSE: Senate hearings always come with a good dose of politics. But in this instance, when their own safety is at risk --
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: -- and this hearing is trying to find out what went wrong, it's counter-productive at best.
KAYYEM: It's counter-productive, it's actually dangerous. Because we are still under threat. Donald Trump in his few brief public appearances has discussed the big lies or galvanized this ideology, this radicalization. He is speaking at CPAC this weekend, the title of it is, essentially, how the election was stolen from me.
And then the groups are galvanizing around a March 5th date as a new protest date. And the National Guard is still in D.C.
So the idea that they are ignoring the threat, the very threat to them, shows how broken members of the Republican party and senators are at this stage. They're just broken. Because they're not even self protective at this stage, they're just broken.
It's a syndrome, it's a Helsinki Syndrome, I don't know what it is.
VAUSE: Yes. They just seem sort of -- much of it -- this whole theory of whatever Donald Trump says must be true, and anyway, (inaudible).
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: Juliette, thank you. Good to see you.
KAYYEM: Thank you so much.
VAUSE: Here's a suggestion. Just don't be a-holes. A direct quote from Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas. Trying to blame everyone else for his mistake going to Cancun, Mexico, on vacation in the middle of his state's massive power crisis.
Now Cruz is slamming whatever leaked text messages to "The New York Times" between his wife, Heidi, and their neighbors in which she reportedly complained their house was really cold, it was freezing.
Writing in a group chat -- "Anyone can or to want to leave for the week? We may go to Cancun."
Here's what Senator Cruz is now saying, not about taking vacation, but the person who outed him by telling the world it was a vacation and he was planning to stay for it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TEXAS) (Voice Over, Captioned): "Yeah, I will say Heidi's pretty pissed at that. She actually was over to the neighbor's house yesterday, sort of walking through. So she texted several of our neighbors.
Now look our neighbors -- we've got a number of Republicans who are our neighbors but we also have Democrats --
UNKNOWN: Right.
CRUZ: " -- and so, you know, with folks on our street who put up Beto signs, which was a little rude" --
UNKNOWN: That's (inaudible).
CRUZ: -- "but you know, I didn't like hold a victory party in the front yards when we won. So, you know I was -- look, obviously, it's a sign of how ridiculously politicized and nasty and just, you know, here's a suggestion. Just don't be [bleep]
UNKNOWN: Yes. Like --
CRUZ: "Treat each other as human beings. Have some degree, some modicum of respect."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Oh, the irony. Meanwhile more than 3 million Texans are still being told to boil their water. That's down from nearly 8 million, just the day before.
In Ecuador clashes between rival prison gangs have left at least 67 inmates dead. A temporary state of emergency in the prison system has now been declared by Ecuador's president. The military has been deployed to search for weapons as well as explosives.
Still ahead, Tiger Woods in a Los Angeles hospital lucky to be alive after crashing his car early Tuesday. Could his legendary golf career now be over?
Also, China's grip over Hong Kong could soon get even tighter after a proposed loyalty oath for elected officials. Live in Hong Kong with all the very latest details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:24]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLOS GONZALEZ, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: It's very fortunate that Mr. Woods was able to come out of this alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: The sheriff's deputy was the first on the scene of a lone car accident Tuesday morning in Los Angeles. The driver? Golf legend Tiger Woods trapped in his vehicle with serious injuries.
According to a new post on his Twitter account, Woods is now awake and alert after a lengthy surgery on his right leg and ankle.
The sheriff says that Woods was apparently speeding on along a hilly, windy road when he lost control of his SUV, rolled several times. There was no evidence that Woods was impaired.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GONZALEZ: When I arrived on the scene, Mr. Woods was seated in the driver seat. I made contact with him, and I ensured that he was able to speak to me, at that time he seemed as though he was still common lucid. I made the determination that I would be safer to wait for L.A. County Fire to remove him instead of trying to remove him myself. I kept Mr. Woods calm until L.A. County Fire arrived on scene.
REPORTER: What did you do to keep him calm, deputy?
GONZALEZ: I spoke to him.
REPORTER: What was the conversation? Can you share it with us please?
GONZALEZ: I asked him what has a name. Was he said his name was. Tiger at that moment I immediately recognized him. I asked him what time of day it? Was just to make sure he was oriented. He seemed as though he was lucid and calm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Let's go live now to CNN's Conor Powell outside the hospital, the level one trauma center where Woods is being treated.
So, Conor, what's the very latest this hour?
CONOR POWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest is an update that we just got a short while ago from Tiger Woods Twitter feed, a statement put out by his team said that he is awake and responsive after spending most of the day in surgery today, and that statement also detailed pretty significant injuries. We knew that there were injuries to both legs both his left and his right leg.
His agent, Mark Steinberg, had told us that earlier on in the day. We do know how bad the injuries were. We know that there was a compound fracture on the right leg, included both his tibia and his fibula. We also know that there were screws put in place in his ankle, there were vascular injuries to the muscle, both the left and right leg as well.
So, we're getting a better picture of the injuries that resulted to this car accident, that they were both orthopedic in nature and the bones, that there's a steel rod put in place in the right leg, and also very significant swallowing to the muscle, and to the tissue in both legs as well.
So, a fairly serious set of injuries that we're hearing now from Tiger Woods team about the injuries that he sustained. We are also getting a little bit more information about the accidents that caused these injuries. We know that Tiger Woods vehicle crossed the median just after 7:00 a.m. local time in a area called Rancho Palos Verdes, which is just south of Los Angeles.
It's an area, the row that he was on is well known to police and law enforcement as a significant area for accidents, there have even been fatalities in the past in this area, so this is a hilly, windy area that's considered extremely dangerous by local drivers. It is not clear what caused this injury, that is what investigators are looking at right now, but clearly, speed and crossing the median played a large part of it. However, investigators, the first law enforcement that were on the
scenes said there was no indication of drugs or alcohol. Tiger Woods was on his way to a "Golf Digest" video shoot, with the NFL star Drew Brees and a couple of other celebrities as well.
[01:35:03]
So, it sounds as though he lost control. What caused him to lose control? That's not clear yet. It seems as though he lost control in a very hilly, and windy. Road right now the main update, John, that we have gotten is that he is awake. He is responsive. He is recovering from the surgery today.
The statement put out by his team paints a picture of some significant injuries to both legs, and the type of injuries that will probably need more surgeries going forward, John.
VAUSE: Yeah. It seems as though there's a very long road ahead for Tiger Woods.
Conor, thank you. Conor Powell there reporting live from Torrance.
CNN sports analyst, Christine Brennan, joins us for more on this.
Christine, you're just looking at the crash scene and, you know, the first thoughts about Tiger Woods and his future are not will he -- the record 18 majors but what will his quality of life be following the accident? What will the long term prognosis be?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Oh, absolutely. It's -- Tiger Woods, the golfer, for all of a sudden, has become Tiger Woods the human being, and people are focusing on that as they should because golf -- the idea of playing golf right now is a distant thought.
And, John, as you know, it's all about Tiger and his recovery right now in the wake of this incredibly scary and harrowing car accident. The pictures, the, visuals the thought that he survived it is wonderful news. But he has broken lags. One report is that he had it shattered ankle, not being able to confirm that.
But this is going to take a long, long time for him to recover and walk and be in normal person, much less play golf. And I think that's what we're looking at now, that the outpouring of support for Tiger as a person, as opposed to this iconic golfer, that's going to have to wait, or maybe that is over. We don't know.
But right now, it's about Tiger's recovery. Once, again we can't take our eyes off of Tiger Woods no matter, white in this case it's concern and hope that he will be okay.
VAUSE: You know, he has had a incredible career. But the last decade or so has been defined by accidents like this, one car accidents, as well as constant barrage of speculation about his physical and emotional health. BRENNAN: Oh, without a doubt. The ups and downs here are
extraordinary. And, basically, it started on Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S. in 2009 when Tiger had that car accident that seemed so inconsequential compared to what happened today, but when he -- right at the end of the driveway, he ran to his fire hydrant and then a tree, that triggered the more amazing and awful scandals, personal scandals involving an athlete, (AUDIO GAP) all self induced of course by Tiger, and his fall from grace as a role model, as a sports icon.
And then he built his self back up and he became number one in the world, he was riding high and then comes the 2017 DUI in Florida. I think many people remember the mugshot, the awful, awful picture of him. His inability to even walk a straight line during a sobriety test, from the dash cam. So, another stumble, a big stumble, Tiger goes to rehab, gets off the painkillers, he says.
And again, another comeback for Tiger, Woods, of course, that was culminating in the Masters 2019, when he won that Masters with his son and his daughter right there watching every second of it. And, you know, if that's a movie, that's where the story ends.
VAUSE: Well, maybe not I guess.
BRENNAN: Incredible triumph.
VAUSE: Yeah, it was amazing. And just last Sunday, he talked about his hopes I guess for making Augusta in April. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM NANTZ, CBS SPORTS: So Tiger, seven weeks from today, final round of the Masters. Are you going to be there? TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: God, I hope so. I got to get there first.
NANTZ: Do you feel like you --
WOODS: A lot of space on my surgeons and my doctors and my therapists, in making sure that I do it -- I do it correctly and -- because this is the only back I got. So, I don't have much more -- much more wiggle room left there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Before the incident, was another come back looking to be a long shot?
BRENNAN: Yes, I think it was. And it was interesting, by the way, he said that that is the only back I've got. You know, that's 45-year-old talking. Not so fast.
I think it would've been really hard for him to come back because he was, according to reports, he was putting a little bit and hitting short wedges. It wasn't like he was in game shape. And you really have to play a tournament or two before you know you can get back into the swing of things, especially for the Masters, which, of course, is a golf course at Augusta National that he loves and he did win their two years ago.
[01:40:06]
So, I think it would have been difficult for him but I never want to count Tiger Woods off. I never wrote him off after all the scandals in all of the trouble, I certainly wouldn't write him off now obviously in terms of coming back hopefully to a normal life. So yeah, clearly, now it's far from everyone's minds.
VAUSE: We are looking at Tiger Woods, the human being, the man. We're also looking at Tiger Woods, the father. And, you know, back in December, Woods played in the PNC Championship with his 11-year-old son, Charlie. This is in Orlando. It was once known as the son and father tournament.
You know, this is sort of father and son moments that are so memorable, part of his rehabilitation if you like.
BRENNAN: Well, Little Charlie, I guess not so, little but he's the mini me, right? He has the swagger of Tiger Woods, and just to see him hit the golf ball, kind of looked like his dad when he was a kid hitting golf balls. It was just charming to see them both dressed the same, way and walking the same way, and hitting the golf ball kind of the same way.
So, it was a delight. It was charming. Tiger's daughter is a soccer player and quite a good athlete herself. He has a couple of good athletes in the family and he spent quite a bit of time playing golf with Charlie and watching Sam play soccer. So, he's very much a soccer and golf dad, I guess.
VAUSE: Let's end on some -- we have images there. So that's a good place to wind up.
Christine, lovely to see. Thank you.
BRENNAN: John, thank you very much.
VAUSE: What is patriotism? Define loyalty.
Hong Kong's governor has decided that patriotism and loyalty means loving not just country but also the communist party. All public officials must take a loyalty oath to both, if they do or if they don't appear to be any less than sincere, they will be banned from office and banned from running for election for the next five years.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is with us live from Hong Kong with more details on this.
Whatever Beijing wants, Beijing seems to get. You know, this seems another nail in the coffin of democracy there in Hong Kong.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, at a time of ever increasing Chinese control here the territory, plans are underway to make sure the patriots run Hong Kong. We've learned that Hong Kong government will present a bill later this week that will require democratically elected district councilors to accept China's direct rule over Hong Kong. Failure to do so would lead to immediate disqualification and a ban of running from office for five years.
An announcement was made by Eric Tsang. He is Hong Kong secretary of constitutional mainland affairs. And this is what he said, we'll bring up the statement for you.
According to Eric Tsang, announced late on Tuesday, he said, you cannot say that you are patriotic but you do not love the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, or you don't respect it, that does not make. He adds this, quote: Patriotism is holistic love, unquote.
He also announced new requirements for anyone who plans to run for public office in Hong Kong, including accepting and respecting national security law, as well as China's sovereignty, including the fact that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of the People's Republic of China and to not endanger the national security law. If you do, so you will be banned from running for office.
Eric Tsang also announced that four democratically elected district councilors would be disqualified in the event that the bill passes. These four district councilors, they were already disqualified for a legislative council election. One of them is Tiffany Yuen, she worked with Joshua Wong, with the pro-democracy movement, she has responded and reacted to this announcement in a statement that she put on social media, in both Facebook and Twitter.
Tiffany Yuen writes this: This day is as expected, absurd as usual, angry as usual. When the regime hit us with something like this, it's good for us to just stand firm and accept that. There is no room for us to escape that. We can only do what we, can as much as we can for the remaining time, unquote.
Now, on Monday, a senior mainland Chinese official made a call for only patriots to run Hong Kong. And on Tuesday, we heard from Hong Kong's top leader, chief executive Carrie Lam, who endorsed that view saying that changes must be made. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARRIE LAM, HONG KONG EXECUTIVE (through translator): To stop the situation from deteriorating to a point where one country, two systems would be difficult to implement, it has always been felt that issues such as national security and political institutions needed to be addressed at the central government level.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT: As Hong Kong's Oath of Allegiance bill will be decided later this week on Friday, it will be presented to the legislative council, that is on March 17th, before, then on March the 5th, that's when China's parliament will start to convene. It's expected that China will impose additional electoral changes on Hong Kong -- John.
[01:45:01] VAUSE: Yeah. I guess the next step will be what happens on the mainland with China because the military doesn't give loyalty to the country, it's where's loyalty and allegiance to the party. So, is that we're all of this is heading?
STOUT: This is about loyalty to the party, and we're going to hear that messaging when the Congress convenes on March 5th in China. And we're also going to be watching very closely here in Hong Kong, because what it presents is a very, very dim outlook for democracy here in the territory.
Now, more on the announcement about this bill involving the district councilors and why it is so significant. The district council elections were really the only fully democratic institution here in Hong Kong. They were directly elected by the people of Hong Kong.
Now we are hearing this announcement that once this bill passes, these democratically elected leaders will be immediately disqualified. All of these changes have happened since Beijing imposed a national security law. We've seen lawmakers who are democratically elected disqualified, we saw the national security law education, the Hong Kong schools.
In fact, primary school students will be required to learn what it means to collude with foreign forces. Slogans ban, anthems ban, a new political reality in Hong Kong. More changes are expected -- John.
VAUSE: Sounds awful. Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout live for us in Hong Kong.
Coming up, here the school that teaches kids to teach, at an environment learning center in Mexico, they're raising the environmentalists of the future.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Now, call to Earth, CNN's call to action for the environment, there is nothing that will shape tomorrow's world more than that education of children. In today's report, we turn to Mexico and the Rolex Awards laureate that is cultivating a new generation of future environmentalists.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARITZA MORALES CASANOVA, ENVIRONMENTALIST AND EDUCATOR, HUNAB: When you see kids, you can see the brightness of their eyes. I think that kids are the best teachers, because they can share the knowledge. They can share dealings with the same language.
REPORTER: Maritza Morales Casanova runs an environmental learning center of Hunab, in the outskirts of Merida, the capital city of Yucatan. She aims to teach a generation of young people how to care for their community's fragile environment.
MORALES CASANOVA: There are schools to learn more about music. If you want to become our artist, there are places where you can polish your talent. So what happens is as a child you want to be an environmentalist? When they come through these gates, they experience how to be heroes for Grandma Earth.
REPORTER: Hunab was founded by Morales Casanova when she herself was only 10 years old and runs on a model of peer to peer learning.
[01:50:08]
MORALES CASANOVA: When we see kids sharing the knowledge, the first thing that they do is understand the message for themselves, and then to share it through a simple way, they share the information very clear, and very honest.
Right now, the information about the environment is very alarmist. It's very negative around the world. We cannot teach about the theory of climate change, just scare kids about what is going to happen. But we need to do is inspire them.
REPORTER: Fifteen-year-old Paul grew up in Yucatan and started to come to the center from a very young age. Before coronavirus caused the park to close to visitors, he taught weekly classes on plants and their medicinal properties.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I feel like children are the best to be taught, I would say because they are more sensitive, because an adult often clings to his beliefs or clings to his knowledge.
REPORTER: Also 15 years old, Pedra has been attending Hunab for 6 years. She now teaches students about how diet impacts environment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's really important that here in Hunab. They teach you everything about the environment, and they also see the value in us as teachers.
REPORTER: In this 25 years, Morales Casanova tells us that Hunab has trained as many as 50,000 (ph) young people to be environmentalists, but the coronavirus pandemic has been a real threat to its mission.
Remote learning might be a challenge but it is urgent work according to Morales Casanova.
MORALES CASANOVA: We're printing the material, sending it by mail or visiting the community so they can keep working and training as heroes for Grandma Earth.
In a few years, they are governors, they are politicians, or they are entrepreneurs. We don't know, but I'm sure that they are going to make decisions that respect all living beings.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: So, what you're doing to answer the call with the hashtag, call to earth. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone.
Life in London can be a bit of a rat race but now because of pandemic restrictions, it seems the rats are winning. Here is CNN's Nina Dos Santos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here in the parks, up the pipes and heading towards a kitchen near you. Lockdown London has become a boom town for the capital's rats, left unchecked in shuttered shops and restaurant over the winter and now making their way out of the inner city and into the suburbs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this rat trying to get into the house.
DOS SANTOS: According to the British Pest Control Association, rodent sightings increase 51 percent during the first lockdown, and 78 percent thereafter, prompting fears the U.K. capital could soon become famous for the super rats that once blighted Paris and New York.
MICHAEL COATES, CO-FOUDNER, COMBAT PEST CONTROL: Underneath that would be (INAUDIBLE)
[01:55:03]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, like a hole, to let water out.
COATES: Exactly.
Screwed out, people got lazy. They won't do it, and the rats would come up, yeah.
DOS SANTOS: To avoid, that the city uses prevention like this.
It's just before daybreak on the banks of the River Thames and former soldier Michael Coates is patrolling the refuse sites, looking for the telltale signs.
COATES: You can also find, especially in heavy populations of rats, they'll start gnawing (ph) and these plastics were the easy for rats to gnaw.
DOS SANTOS: Fewer people on the streets has made rats more conspicuous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you seen rats?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've seen one. Only a little one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rats and pigeons and everything, yeah
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're probably still in there (ph).
COATES: They will definitely be stopping here, yeah, oh, definitely.
DOS SANTOS: And more abundant waste from lockdown homes has lured them to backyards.
COATES: We are definitely seeing a spike in rats migrating back into people's gardens. Beginning of last year, we've got a real bad case in someone's garden. She was an elderly lady and she had seen a few rats. By the time we got there, there were maybe 10 or 15 rats. It had become this really big issue.
DOS SANTOS: Rats have always been a part of London life, but nobody really knows how many there are in the capital. That's because usually they are pretty elusive. They do however outnumber the human population and they multiply really fast.
Just one pair of breeding rights could give rise to 1,250 in one year.
As their population swells, rats themselves are getting bigger, and harder to catch. Some are immune to poison. Others have figured out how to avoid traps.
Exterminator, Paul Claydon, has never been so busy.
PAUL CLAYDON, OWNER, FAST TRACK PEST CONTROL: I would say the increase has been about 51 percent for me.
DOS SANTOS: Do you think that when London eventually reopens, they're going to realize they've got one big rat problem?
CLAYDON: I think that's right. I think a lot of commercial businesses have been empty for so long, I think when they start going back to these properties, and certainly businesses that haven't gotten pest control contracts involved, they might find themselves in a big surprise.
DOS SANTOS: The mayor's office doesn't have a rodent plan and many local governments don't offer free pest control either, meaning businesses and home owners are often left of their own devices to deal with their new post-pandemic neighbors.
Nina Dos Santos, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us.
Rosemary Church is on after the break. You are watching CNN.
