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Record Pandemic-Era Numbers As Easter Travel Surges; DOJ Investigates Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) As Part Of Trafficking Probe; Stage Set For More Compelling Testimony In Chauvin Trial; Remarkable Story Of Survival Against COVID; Personal Data Of More Than 500 Million Facebook Users Leaked Online; Pope Leads Scaled-Back Easter Sunday Mass. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired April 04, 2021 - 18:00   ET

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

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[18:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Easter Sunday.

And as the race continues between lethal COVID variants and life- saving vaccines, Americans keep proving they're just ready to move on. On Friday, the TSA screened more than 1.5 million people, that is a pandemic-era travel record, numbers up slightly yesterday. But contrast those stats with what is going on in Michigan right now. That state is now seeing its highest case count since December. Some experts worry it's the leading edge of a fourth surge for the U.S.

CNN's Natasha Chen is in Atlanta where the holiday celebrations may prove to be a mixed blessing. Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, there did seem to be more of a ring of more optimism during these Easter services compared to a year ago when the pandemic first started and forced a lot of churches to go online only for Easter. Now, a lot of churches have adopted, offering outdoor services, this one here offering indoor, socially distanced services with advanced reservations.

Now, with a lot more people vaccinated, people do feel like they are turning a corner, but this church tells me still they only saw about 40 percent of the people they would normally get during the pre- pandemic Easter services.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN (voice over): On the second Easter into the pandemic, there are more signs of hope, and a resurrection of life compared to a year ago.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: We share the sentiments of Pope Francis who said that getting vaccinated is a moral obligation, one that can save your life and the lives of others.

CHEN: The U.S. is now averaging more than 3 million COVID-19 vaccines administered every day, even with the recent discarding 15 million potential doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

A source familiar with the company's vaccine manufacturing process says it's not a major setback and that it can be made up in a few weeks. The federal government has now directed Johnson & Johnson to take over the manufacturing of its vaccine at the Baltimore facility where the contamination occurred.

But even with the strong U.S. vaccine rollout, some places, like Mississippi, are seeing what appears to be widespread vaccine hesitancy.

GOV. TATE REEVES (R-MS): We need to make sure that we educate our people and let them know that this vaccine is safe, that it is -- while it's under an emergency use authorization, it has gone through clinical trials with literally tens of thousands of individuals who have done that, and it has been peer-reviewed.

CHEN: Mississippi also just relaxed indoor capacity guidelines.

Meanwhile on Saturday, Michigan reported its highest daily case counts since December 7th, and experts warn that things could soon get worse/

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: At this time, we really are in a Category 5 hurricane status with the regard to the rest of the world. At this point, we will see in the next two weeks the highest number of cases reported globally since at the end of pandemic.

In terms of the United States, we're just at the beginning of this surge. We haven't even really begun to see it yet.

CHEN: The CDC hasn't said whether the B117 variant is the dominant strain in the U.S. even though its own scientists predicted it would be by now.

DR. KIZZMEKAI CORBETT, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: These variants are concerning, but this is exactly what the virus is built to do. And the vaccine is eliciting such good immune responses that while there's damper in efficacy probably, it will completely obliterate the response, especially on a pandemic scale.

CHEN: 18 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, including George Chernowski, who traveled from Buffalo, New York, to be with family in Marietta, Georgia, for his first in-person socially distanced church service since the pandemic began.

GEORGE CHERNOWSKI, TRAVELED FOR EASTER HOLIDAY: A big step in the right direction.

[18:05:00]

We are headed in the right way.

CHEN: Tim and Joey Minster are vaccinated too.

JOEY MINSTER, VACCINATED, ATTENDED EASTER CHURCH SERVICE: I got to tell you, it is wonderful to be here and it's wonderful to see people we haven't seen in almost a year, and we hope to keep connected to them.

CHEN: Celebrating the spirit of renewal while acknowledging the challenges that are still here.

REV. RAY CADRAN, CATHOLIC CHURC OF ST. ANN: In the coming back, we don't want to lessen the concern for the safety of our people. So we continue to keep our safety protocols. I'm still concerned with the safety of the youngest ones through the most elderly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN (on camera): Father Cadran's sentiments there were echoed by Pope Francis. And his Easter message at Vatican, the pope offered a prayer for people who had lost loved ones during the pandemic and he also urged the international community to commit to overcoming the delay in vaccine distribution and to facilitate their distribution, especially to the poorest communities. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Natasha Chen reporting live for us from Atlanta, thank you so much, Natasha.

And joining me now with more is Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. As always, Dr. Hotez, great to see you and happy Easter, thanks for joining us on this holiday Sunday.

So the big question today, as people are gathering with loved ones to celebrate the holiday, is what is the state of play within this pandemic? Do variants or vaccines have the upper hand right now in the U.S.?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, Pamela, you just asked the most important question, and that is the big question. And I think the answer is it's going to vary depending on which part of the country you are in right now.

Michigan looks awful in terms of the steep rise in the number of new cases and almost to the same level that we saw in January, and also a lot of young people now going into the hospital. So, since we vaccinated so many older individuals, what we're seeing now are a lot of young adults going into the hospital, like in Minnesota and Michigan.

So the top part of the country looks really bad and now it's extending across the border into Ontario, the northeastern part of the United States looks bad. And I think a lot of that is probably due to the B117 variant, which we know is more transmissible, we know it causes higher or worsening severity of illnesses.

The question now is what happens with the B117 variants in other parts of the country. For instance, Florida, B117 variants is really dominant, and guess what, the numbers are starting to go up now in Florida. B117 variant is pretty dominant in Texas, where that happened as well. So we could indeed see a big fourth wave and, arguably, we are now seeing that in the upper Midwest. BROWN: So, of course, that is not what any of us want to hear, that there could be another wave. But given where we are with the vaccinations and given how much of the population has been vaccinated, what will this fourth wave look like in comparison to the past waves we have been part of?

HOTEZ: Well, it really depends on how -- if we can maintain the rate of vaccination. So we're hitting 3, 4 million vaccinations a day, which is fantastic, but remember, only about a third of the country has still received a single dose.

So at the other side of this, as we get into May and June, we will be close to a high percentage of the country vaccinated, and things will be a lot better. The big unknown is how many lives will be lost in the month of April and in the beginning part of May, while we're still trying to get there.

Not only that, we're seeing a lot of young people now acquiring long haul COVID. About 30 percent of people with COVID-19 develop some degree of either brain fog or depression or shortness of breath or complications, and so there's lot of injury there as well. And that's why we are working hard with the governors to try to persuade them to keep those mask mandates in place and be cautious.

Again, we're not talking about in perpetuity, we are talking about for another four to six weeks and then we will be on the other side of it.

BROWN: Right. I mean, look, we made it this far, right, more than a year. What is another four to six weeks? But I know people, they are just ready to get back to normal, the weather is nicer, the vaccines are now being distributed. I think, look, a lot of people just want to get back to a sense of normalcy.

But when you talk about Michigan and you look at what is happening there, you look at the past and what has happened with COVID, are you concerned that it's just going to spread to different states in the country? As you know, COVID knows no bounds.

HOTEZ: Yes. And the other thing about this, Pam, is we have to think about the B117 variant. It's almost a brand new virus. It's acting differently from anything we have seen before in terms of transmissibility and in terms of affecting young people. So we have to take this very seriously.

The good news is the vaccine -- all the vaccines seem to work just as well against this U.K. B117 variant as the original lineages, so that is really good news. So I have a lot of confidence that we're going to be in a really good place by the summer.

[18:10:02]

But if you are not vaccinated, you have to behave as though you are highly vulnerable to this virus. This is not a time to get sick.

BROWN: But just for perspective, so for people who have been vaccinated or who are planning to, what is the latest on how do we get a booster shot or perhaps a new vaccine, even though it's effective against the current variants, that doesn't necessarily guarantee it will be effective towards the other variants, right?

HOTEZ: So here is what I think. I think all of the vaccines work really well against the B117 variant. Once you're fully vaccinated, you're going to be good for a while. But don't be surprised if later in the year or early next year you are being asked to get a booster. So, in other words, when you're gotten two doses of Moderna and Pfizer, you might get a third dose.

And if you've got a single dose of the J&J, a second dose, and what that will do is, with that booster, one, it's going to increase your virus-neutralizing antibodies and durability of protection, in case some of the other variants from South Africa and Brazil come into the country in a big way, they are here in a little bit. But right now, the B117 variant is dominant.

But the other thing that will happen, those boosters are going to be reconfigured a bit. They are going to be made more specific for the other variants of concern that we are expecting later on from South Africa, from Brazil, and we are doing the same thing with our vaccine.

Then the question is, okay, so then what happens? Is this something we're going to have to do every year? And the answer is, we don't know. I personally don't think so. I think once you get that third dose of Pfizer and Moderna and the second from the J&J, that maybe it for a while. There is not consensus though in the scientific. And the reason I think that is because we're seeing a lot of convergence to similar types of variants.

So the idea is, once you get that third dose from the Moderna/Pfizer, second dose, J&J, that may be it, but we'll have to see.

BROWN: Real quickly, before I let you go, Cornell, which is a privately endowed university, is now saying that it will require all fall semester students to be vaccinated. The first college to do this was Rutgers. That's the public school of New Jersey.

We know most public kindergartens and elementary schools require small children to be vaccinated against measles and other infectious diseases, but can you require college students to get this new vaccine?

HOTEZ: Yes, and we already do this. Look, when my youngest son went off to college, he was required to get his meningococcal vaccine, from meningococcal B and meningococcal ACWY, because if you're in a laboratory setting and in those close conditions, institutional settings, there's a high risk for getting a deadly disease, like meningococcal infection. And I think it's reasonable to do that for COVID-19 vaccine.

So I am guessing most universities are going to head in that direction, assuming, of course, that the vaccines are available, as we are expecting.

BROWN: All right. Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of your wisdom with us.

HOTEZ: Thanks so much, Pam.

BROWN: Well, a year ago, a frontline medical worker in New Orleans was beginning the fight of his life as COVID-19 relentlessly attacked his body. And just days ago, he took his first steps since then.

Coming up, Peter Willard joins me with his remarkable story of survival.

But, first, to the United States Capitol, colorful this weekend from not only a burst of spring flowers but flowers left as tributes to the U.S. Capitol Police officer how lost his life there on Friday. A second officer wounded on that assault has been released from the hospital.

I want to bring in our Law Enforcement Analysts, Charles Ramsey, he is also Philadelphia's former police commissioner. Charles, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died on Friday, Billy Evans, is the second Capitol Police officer to lose his life in the line of duty this year, two others have died from suicide this year as well after the riots. So as a former police commissioner, how worried are you about morale on the force right now?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I am very worried about it. I mean, they have had a tough time just this year. I was the police chief in D.C. in 1998 when Gibson and Chestnut were murdered inside the Capitol, shot to death. They hadn't had a death, a line of duty death that I am aware of until Sicknick. And so they have gone a long period of time without having to experience that kind of tragedy.

And, unfortunately, I mean, I've got experience in that area when I took over Philadelphia in 2008, we had five officers killed in the line of duty within a nine-month period of time, three of them shot to death, two responding to priority calls. It has a tremendous impact on the men and women of your department. But they still have to get out there and go to work every day. So there's no time really to grieve, and that's part of the problem. They're going to need some professional help, some real counseling in order to be able to get through this period of time.

[18:15:04]

BROWN: Yes, I mean, they're going right back to the Capitol where they have seen their colleagues killed in the line of duty, and this is all happening as the Capitol Police force has seen a real problem, their numbers are down, the retention is down.

These are the exact words of the chairman of the Capitol Police Union. He says, we are struggling to meet existing mission requirements even with the officers working massive amounts of forced overtime. I have had many young officers confide in me that they are actively looking in other agencies and departments right now.

So, how can this police force get its numbers back up and keep them up without compromising security? RAMSEY: And I want to mention too that working in large amounts of overtime is stressful in and of itself. That kind of adds to the stress that's already there. My understanding is there are about 230 odd officers short, it would take time to replace that number of people because you have to account for attrition at the same time you are hiring, so they're going to have to have a very aggressive hiring program in order to be able to make up that deficit.

But it could take a year, year and a half, two years for them to realize an increase in numbers. So I was listening to CNN yesterday, Juliette Kayyem said something that I thought made a lot sense, and that is other federal law enforcement agencies, like the park police, border patrol and the like, could actually detail people to the Capitol Police to make up for some of that deficit temporarily.

That makes sense to me. So it would take time for them to be able to hire enough people to make up for that deficit. And according to the recommendations that General Honore submitted, they want to increase the numbers of Capitol Police by nearly a thousand members. Now, that would take a few years in order to achieve that.

So they've have got to have some steps in between in order to beef up the force and take some of the pressure off the men and women of the department.

BROWN: All right, Chief Charles Ramsey, thank you very much, Happy Easter to you, we appreciate you coming on.

RAMSEY: Happy Easter to you. Thank you.

BROWN: And we have a packed evening of news for you tonight, including week two of testimony in the trial of the ex-cop accused of killing George Floyd. I'll be speaking with George Floyd's family attorney coming up in the show.

And then the pope's unconventional Easter message in lockdown Italy.

And a COVID survivor walking for the first time in a year, I'll talk to him about his incredible recovery of one man.

But before all that, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz is under fire on two fronts tonight, both legally and politically. Our Marshall Cohen is following the controversy for us and I'm going to talk to him when we come back. Stay with us.

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[18:20:00]

BROWN: Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida is having quite a week, increasingly isolated as scandals continue to pileup around him. CNN's Marshall Cohen is on top of all of this for us. So, Marshall, tell us about the investigation that Matt Gaetz is up against.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: Pamela, good evening. Congressman Matt Gaetz, the pro-Trump fire brand, he is now under investigation for possible prostitution and underage sex trafficking. It all started from an investigation into another politician from Florida. His name is Joel Greenberg, and he's a friend of Gaetz and the former tax collector in Seminole County.

Now, investigators believe that Greenberg recruited multiple women online for sex and that he introduced these women to Gaetz, who also had sex with him, according to The New York Times. Some of these women allegedly received cash payments from Gaetz and Greenberg, according to The Times, which said that it reviewed receipts from Apple Pay and Cash App.

A source told CNN that the Justice Department is reviewing to see whether any of those payments may have illegally come from the congressman's federal campaign accounts.

Now, Gaetz's friend, Greenberg, he was charged with sex trafficking of a minor and more than two dozen other alleged crimes. He has pleaded not guilty and was charged with a new indictment last week actually.

Here is what Congressman Gaetz has to say. Here is his side of the story. In a statement, his office said he has never paid for sex and that he refutes all of the allegations completely. He says he has paid for flights and hotels for women of legal age that he was dating but he says that was totally above board. Pamela?

BROWN: And we are also hearing, Marshall, that lawmakers were subjected to some inappropriate photos taken by Gaetz. Tell us about that.

COHEN: yes, that's right, and it is inappropriate. Multiple sources told our colleagues here at CNN that Congressman Gaetz has previously shown lawmakers photos and videos of nude women that he claimed to have slept with. One source told CNN that gaetz actually did this, showed these explicit on the House floor. Another source said that Gaetz saw this as a point of pride.

Now, some Democrats have called on the House Ethics Committee to launch its own inquiry into this alleged behavior. Some of the more liberal members have said that they believe that this is workplace harassment, basically. Most Republicans, though, his colleagues, they have been quiet, really only a handful have come out to defend him. Most of them have really not said all that much. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes, but the silence from the majority of his Republican colleagues has been pretty deafening. Marshall Cohen, thank you so much.

Well, the second week of compelling testimony at Derek Chauvin's murder trial starts tomorrow. The prosecution is out to prove that Chauvin betrayed his badge. The defense says he was just doing what he was trained to do. Joey Jackson joins us next with his keen legal mind to discuss how each side is trying to win over the jury.

[18:25:03]

We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, beginning tomorrow, jurors will hear from more witnesses in the trial of Derek Chauvin. He's the former Minneapolis Police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd. The prosecution argues that Chauvin used excessive force and literally squeezed the life out of Floyd.

To hammer home their case, they introduced disturbing new video of the fatal incident and brought forth emotionally-charged testimony.

But one of the most damning moments came from the final witness of the first week, the most senior member of the Minneapolis Police Force.

[18:30:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. RICHARD ZIMMERMAN, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: Pulling him down to the ground face down, and putting your knee on the neck for that amount of time is just uncalled for.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, meanwhile the defense argues Floyd's pre-existing health conditions and alleged drug use are to blame for his death and that Chauvin acted by the book.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: And you will learn that Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19- year career. The use of force is not attractive, but it is a necessary component of policing.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson joins me now.

Joey, lovely to see you. So let's talk about this. The prosecution will question the Minneapolis police chief this week. How explosive is it for a police chief to testify against one of their own former officers?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's compelling, Pamela. Great to be with you. You know, we've already seen two officers testify, and they've been supervisors. One was a sergeant for 27 years and he gave the indication that this just should not have happened, that there was a time when there was control gained by Chauvin of Floyd and he should have stopped at that point.

And then that was followed up of course the last sound bite you saw, that was Lieutenant Zimmerman, he is the senior most police official in the department and he indicated that you cannot do this. And so you follow it up, right, to your question with the chief himself saying not only can't you do this, but I fired him the next day and it just really spells a lot of trouble for the defense.

Now the defense is trying to paint this as a force that was appropriate, it was necessary, this is what you do, this is how it looks. But it just doesn't really pass the reasonableness test, right? I mean, if you examine it, the defense is making this argument, Pamela, that he, that is George Floyd, could have come back out of unconsciousness and attack him, but did it really appear that he could have done given the fact that he was motionless?

So the jury has a lot to evaluate. But on balance based on what we're seeing so far, it's an uphill battle to be clear.

BROWN: Right. I mean, you heard the defense attorney say you will see that this was all part of his training but that is up against two officers who have testified already and then the police chief who will be testifying tomorrow. I mean, how does a defense counter these officers who are saying no, he was on his neck for too long, this was not part of our training?

JACKSON: Yes, you know, Pamela, with great difficulty. And not only will we hear from the chief but we're going to hear I think thereafter from expert witnesses, from the prosecution who will just say that this just should not have occurred. Now the defense so far has been raising these issues. The first issue they've raised is there was concern for -- by the police, excuse me, with the crowd. Right?

The problem with that is that you have body cam evidence from the police and there's no indication on those body cams that they were concerned at all. The only interaction they have with the crowd is to tell them to step back on the sidewalk as the crowded pleaded and yelled, can we help? And then of course you heard from minors in the crowd, one 9 years old saying, I felt sad, I felt mad because he was restricting his breathing.

And it's seemed by all indications the crowd was just trying to assist. They weren't trying to impede or interfere on any other way other than that. So I think that argument falls hollow and as I indicated before this argument that he was going to somehow, that is George Floyd, slipped back into consciousness and come attack, I think it's hollow because you have an obligation, if you're an officer, right, we've heard so far to reassess. Right?

The initial force might be appropriate, and as much as you want to gain control, but then there comes a point in time where you determine whether you need to re-evaluate, and re-evaluate and as time goes on re-evaluate. Was any of that done? Answer so far no. And so I think the defense has a hard time using those two arguments in trying to, you know, make the case that this was exactly what Chauvin was taught to do. I think not, at least so far as we know.

BROWN: And it looks like the prosecution is trying to contrast the heavy emotional toll felt by the witnesses with the relative coldness and lack of emotion that Chauvin displayed in the footage. Do you think that's an effective strategy?

JACKSON: You know, it really is, Pam. At the end of the day the judge will instruct the jury that you are not to base this case on emotion, you were to base it on the witnesses and what comes out of the witnesses' mouths on the stand, that -- not only that, but other testimony, other evidence, video surveillance, what have you. But, you know, people are human beings. And it's hard to disconnect that.

And then of course as it relates to the emotion, you saw the girlfriend testifying. There's the emergency tech. She was a bystander at the scene who's off-duty saying let me help, take his pulse. But when the girlfriend testified, just to get back to that emotional point, she not only provided emotion as so many other witnesses have, but she explained what the defense is trying to savage and that is the character of George Floyd. He became addicted to this pain medication because of an injury.

[18:35:02]

It was an opioid. How many Americans and other people cannot relate to that, right? So that's significant because the defense will have you believe that he's this strung-out person and he's a bad guy and he was just a drug user, not so. He got an injury, he got addicted and that was the case. And I think the girlfriend in all of her emotion laid that out pretty clearly.

BROWN: And do you think there's enough here for a guilty verdict?

JACKSON: You know, there's a long way to go, but I have to tell you, Pam, briefly, on all accounts, I mean, it looks like it's very problematic. And here's why, OK? When you look at the first count you have to established second-degree murder, that there was a -- it's called felony murder, right, that there was an underlying assault and it led to death.

Well, if you have your knee on somebody's neck and you're violating protocols because the police say don't do that, guess what, you have an assault and it related to death. Count one. If you look at number two which is the third-degree murder, which is depraved harm, there was testimony that when you lay someone in the prone position, Pamela, that is face down, right, and it's chest down, you have to get them up because you restrict their breathing. You lay them on the side.

Well, if you put them there for nine minutes, is that not depravity? So that gets you to the third degree. Now let's just say briefly, Pam, on the last count, which is the manslaughter. Let's just say the jury doesn't buy the assault, they don't buy the fact of depraved heart, but we've heard testimonies to the rules, the policies, the protocols of the department that say you can't do it, and guess what, you're trained once a year that you're not, he's a 19-year veteran.

Count it, 19 times you were taught not to, isn't it at least grossly negligent? And if you could establish gross negligent you establish the manslaughter in the second degree.

A long way to go, right? A long way to go indeed. But to this point I think the evidence has been compelling to guilt on anyone of the counts that we're talking about.

BROWN: All right, Joey Jackson, we'll leave it there. Thanks so much.

JACKSON: Always, thanks, Pam.

BROWN: We're going to have much more on the trial at the top of the hour. I'll speak to the attorney for George Floyd's family about the emotional first week of testimony.

Well, a year ago this frontline worker was fighting for his life and now he's walking for the first time since he got infected with the coronavirus. He joins us next to talk about his long recovery.

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[18:41:16]

BROWN: Well, a year ago health care worker Peter Woullard was fighting for his life. The 53-year-old contracted coronavirus last March while working in the emergency room at St. Charles Hospital in Louisiana. After months of struggling to survive Peter developed such severe nerve damage that he lost his ability to walk, but he never gave up.

A year later the 6'4" Peter Woullard finally stood tall and even learned to walk again. I spoke to Peter and his wife, Patricia, earlier about his incredible recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICIA COOPER-WOULLARD, PETER WOULLARD'S WIFE: Day one he had high fever. It never went away. I tried giving him Tylenol every six hours, every four hours, trying to give him fluids to take, to keep hydrated. Nothing helped. It was just devastating. It was just devastating. It was just a lot, he was weak constantly. Anytime he had to go to the restroom I had to go with him, he had to hold on to me. He was constantly sleeping every day.

BROWN: Did you think you were going to lose him?

COOPER-WOULLARD: Oh, yes, yes. I was terrified. He did not want to go to the hospital. He was just watching the news, and all we constantly heard and saw was people dying at the hospital. (INAUDIBLE) loved one. So I think that's why he was more afraid to go to the hospital than anything, and it was just hard. I did a lot of praying. The family helped out a lot.

BROWN: And it got so bad that he couldn't walk anymore, right? I mean, he couldn't walk.

COOPER-WOULLARD: After nine days, I had to bring him to the ER, and that's when they first intubate him. So once he got intubated, he could -- he had not walked until two weeks to go of this year in therapy.

BROWN: So finally after a year, Peter, you started walking again. What was that like for you?

PETER WOULLARD, WALKED FOR FIRST TIME IN A YEAR AFTER GETTING COVID: It was wonderful. It was really -- it was a step above what I expected. I worried about a lot of things that went on during the time I was in the hospital from different people that succumbed to COVID- 19. And for me to get up and walk again after so much time, I was really grateful for that.

BROWN: What was that like for you, Patricia, after this long hard- fought battle to see your husband walk again after a year?

COOPER-WOULLARD: It's a blessing. It's a blessing. God answered our prayers. We just wanted him to live. We just wanted him to live no matter what the outcome would have been, we just wanted him to live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And live he did, and now he is walking again. What a remarkable story. Thanks to Peter and Patricia both for speaking with me earlier, and we wish you nothing but the best in the rest of your recovery.

[18:45:00]

And up ahead on this holiday Sunday, the Pope's unconventional Easter message in lockdown Italy. And for the record, why Republicans have suddenly grown a fiscal conscience after years of extravagant spending under President Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, if you have a Facebook account, you'll want to hear this.

[18:50:01]

Tonight, the personal data of more than 500 million Facebook users worldwide has been leaked online. It includes the personal information of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has the latest -- Donie.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Pam. So hackers in this case apparently back in 2019 were able to exploit a flaw in Facebook's systems where they were able to match phone numbers of apparently hundreds of millions of Facebook users with their Facebook accounts. Now what that has now resulted is someone has posted on a hacking forum the details we were told of 500 million, half a billion Facebook accounts, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, where people lived, people's names.

All of this information really a treasure trove for cyber criminals who might want to engage in identity theft. Breakdown of the numbers by country, we see 32 million accounts in the U.S., 11 million in the U.K., 28 million in Saudi Arabia, and hundreds of millions more around the world. Facebook says it has fixed that flaw, that they said they actually fixed the flaw back in 2019. Obviously this data is still out there.

We asked the company if they are going to tell users, if they are going to tell people who have been affected by this that their information is out there. They said no comment at the moment. One thing I should also mention as we were speaking to a cybersecurity expert who now has access to this data. And he was able to quickly pull up the details of two of our CNN colleagues. So a lot of people impacted by this -- Pam.

BROWN: Certainly. All right, Donie O'Sullivan, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.

Well, Republicans have been loudly voicing their concerns about government spending so far under President Biden, especially his infrastructure plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TATE REEVES (R), MISSISSIPPI: Infrastructure is a core function of government. It is something that the federal government, the state government, and local government should spend more of our resources on, but we don't have to hike taxes by $2 trillion to do it.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, how do you pay for it then?

REEVES: Well, I think you pay for it in a number of different ways. One way you pay for it is by seeing significant improved economic growth. We saw that throughout the Trump administration because the policies were pro-business. They were pro-growth, and revenues improved. Now unfortunately during those four years like the four years before that, they did not in Washington get control of spending. They feel as if the debt doesn't matter.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, now granted $2 trillion is no small chunk of change, it should be scrutinized, we will be scrutinizing this plan later in the show. But those loud Republican voices you hear now, they weren't really quiet about that during the four years Donald Trump was president. Trump vowed to eliminate the national debt when he was campaigning in 2016.

But, for the record, the U.S. actually added about $7 trillion in debt during his four years in the White House, including the $2 trillion tax cut in 2017, the most significant tax reform in 30 years, and approved by every Republican senator even the budget hawks.

Deficits were actually growing while the economy was booming under Trump, which isn't really a good thing. And back in July of 2019 CNN's senior political analyst and anchor John Avlon apparently looked into his crystal ball. And he wrote this.

"That is very bad news for those of us who will be left to clean up the mess after Donald Trump has left D.C. because there is no way the Democrats are ever going to fall for the inevitable Lucy and the football moment that will come when conservatives say that it's time to rein in spending."

So here we are, Lucy's teeing up for Charlie, the fiscal conscience of Republican lawmakers and elected officials has grown, has magically re-emerged under a Democratic president. Back in February as the stimulus bill was cooking, there was at least one Republican in Congress who acknowledged the optics of his party's pearl-clutching over the deficit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): During the time when the economy was booming and we had a Republican president and House and Senate, we kept on spending massively more than we were taking in, almost a trillion dollars a year in deficit spending every year, adding to the national debt. Almost a trillion a year. So now we say this is outrageous, you're adding to the debt. They say, hey, where were you when you were in charge, you did the same thing? So yes, I mean, it does show you that, you know, you have to be somewhat consistent.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Consistency in argument, something that is slightly foreign to politics as we know it in Washington.

Well, a virtually empty St. Peter's Square for the Pope's Easter message as the pandemic forces Italy into another lockdown. We're going to take you there, up next.

[18:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Easter Sunday at the Vatican, but take a look at this. A virtually empty St. Peter's Square. Italy is in lockdown for three days. Italians are being encouraged to stay at home. The Vatican is also complying with COVID regulations so Pope Francis said Easter mass inside St. Peter's Basilica with only about 200 guests. Just after the mass, the Pope gave his "Urbi et Orbi" address to the city and to the world. Here's some of what he had to say.

POPE FRANCIS, CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADER (through translator): The pandemic is still spreading, while the social and economic crisis remains severe, especially for the poor. Nonetheless, and this is scandalous, armed conflicts have not ended and military arsenals are being strengthened.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Pope Francis mentioning in particular the conflicts in Myanmar, in the Ukraine, in Syria, and Iraq, amongst others. He mentioned the difficulties in Lebanon and the scandalous silence, he said, about the situation in Yemen.