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Vaccine Inequality Pits Wealth against Poorer Nations; England's Lockdown Takes Toll on Children's Mental Health; Inside the Dangerous World of Human Smuggling; Decision on Holding Olympics is up to IOC; Israeli Police, Palestinians Clash in Jerusalem; Families Bury Loved Ones After Attack on Kabul School; New Lockdowns Across India. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 10, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:44]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes. I appreciate your company.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM:
A third night of violence in Jerusalem. Tensions boiling over as Israeli police clashed with Palestinians at the entrance to the old city. Now, the U.N. is voicing concerns.
New lockdowns across India as coronavirus cases there continue to surge with leaders hoping restrictions can slow the spread.
And the damaging effect of lockdowns on children. A generation of young people scarred by the emotional toll the pandemic is happening on their world.
(MUSIC)
HOLMES: The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 19 Palestinians were injured in Sundays clashes. The U.N. Security Council will meet in the coming hours to discuss the violence, the possible eviction of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, triggering the latest confrontation. (INAUDIBLE) hearing set for Monday on the evictions, a new date will be set within 30 days.
Journalist Elliott Gotkine is in Jerusalem and joins me now with the latest.
The clashes continue, concern grows. The U.S., Europe. Jordan, all weighing in, the U.N. Security Council to meet. What's the latest? Bring us up today.
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Michael, violence has spilled over into the morning here in Israel as well. There have been another rockets fired from the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip into Israel, following more rockets last night which, of course, all happened at the same time as we saw those violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli police. At the same time, we've seen protests spread to cities and the north of Israel. Places like Nazareth and Haifa, with a large Arab populations.
As the U.N. Security Council prepares to meet, there have been concerns expressed from a number of countries as you mentioned, Egypt, Jordan, also the United Arab Emirates.
And Israeli Army Radio reporting that U.N. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, communicating with his Israeli counterpart, the U.S.'s concerns about the situation and America's expectation that things will not be allowed to escalate further.
HOLMES: Let's talk about the next few days. You say there's already been clashes. Today there where you are is important. I mean, the end of Ramadan is coming up. But a lot of concern about today, Jerusalem day, and how that could potentially fan the flames more than it usually does given the route and these tensions.
GOTKINE: That's right, Michael.
Jerusalem Day is a day when Israelis celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem after Israel captured the eastern part of the city from Jordan and the 1967 Six-Day War. And it's usually marked with the flag march by Israelis who go from the western parts of the city through to the western wall which is a holy place in Judaism. But along the way, they passed through the Muslim quarter in the old city. So, there are concerns that that could lead to further clashes and further violence.
In addition to that, separately, in previous years, a number of Israelis have gone on to the Temple Mount which is known as Haram al Sharif to Muslims and it is revered by both faiths. And there are concerns that that could have led to provocation.
That's at least, that flash point may have been removed. The chief of the Israeli police putting out a statement in the last hour saying that at this stage, no visits to Temple Mount won't be allowed. So, you know, that particular fast point may have been removed. Obviously, we saw the Supreme Court hearing also postponed.
But the violence seems to almost be feeding on itself right now.
[01:05:00]
So, of course, there will be concerns that on this day, Jerusalem Day in Israel, that the violence could escalate further -- Michael.
HOLMES: Elliott Gotkine, on the spot for us there in Jerusalem, thanks so much.
All right. Dozens of families in Kabul, Afghanistan, is spending the last days of Ramadan burying their daughters after a gruesome attack outside a school on Saturday. We've just got an update that the death toll has risen to at least 85 killed, most of them young girls. And almost 150 others wounded.
The Taliban say that they're not responsible. And have announced a 3- day cease-fire for the Eid holiday.
For the families in mourning, there's not much to celebrate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (voice-over): Loved ones gathered to bury the dead. Dozens of school girls killed in a blast as they were leaving class on Saturday afternoon in Kabul. An uncle cries out.
GHULAM HUSSAIN, UNCLE OF SCHOOLGIRL WHO WAS KILLED (through translator): She was 15 years old and was studying in class 8. She was very intelligent and didn't miss a single day of school. Yesterday her mother told her not to go to school but she said, no, I will go today. But I will not go tomorrow. She told the truth. And we buried her here today.
HOLMES: Afghans interior ministry says a car bomb initially exploded followed by two IEDs just outside the school.
MOHAMMAD TAQI, DASHT-E-BARCHI RESIDENT: First it was the car bomb. And then the second blast went off, afterwards came the third. I did not panic. I rushed to the scene and suddenly I found myself amongst bodies. Whose hands are heads were cut off and bones were smashed. All of them were girls. I saw dead bodies piled on top of each other.
HOLMES: The Afghan government blamed the Taliban, but the Taliban denies any involvement, blaming instead the actions on sinister circles operating in the name of ISIS.
No group, though, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Many insurgents in the country are known to despised the education of girls. But for the loved ones, no claim of responsibility will bring back the dad.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (on camera): Let's talk more about this with Fatima Gailani. She's a women's rights activist. The former president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, and was one of four women involved with the Taliban peace talks. She joins me now from Doha.
And thanks so much for doing so.
Do you worry that this horrible attack is a pointer in many ways to what could be to come in terms of the advancements of rights and opportunities for Afghan girls and wome, it is clearly a message?
FATIMA GAILANI, MEMBER, NEGOTIATING TEAM OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF AFGHANISTAN: Well, the other day when this happened you guards with the entrance exam for the students to go to university, I thought what could be worse. But then came this.
This is the worst thing that we could've thought, men or women in Afghanistan. But imagine, this is happening while the American soldiers are still here and NATO is still here. War is still going on in Afghanistan. We don't know who's fighting anymore. The Taliban says it's not us. Then who was it?
The government and the Taliban and everyone, it has become a game of blaming each other. This is the war. This is the 43 years of war which has given the stuff people, doing things like, that we don't even know who they are. Isn't at the time for peace? Isn't it that the whole world come and help us?
HOLMES: You would hope so. The thing is you have a unique perspective. You lived the before and after the Taliban represented Afghanistan and talks with the Afghanistan. You literally faced the men who banished women like you from public life.
I mean, it must feel intensely personal to contemplate a potential return to those old and terrible days.
GAILANI: We have no intention to turn to those days. The world should not allow such a thing to happen, and the people of Afghanistan, above all, should not let this happen. Women of the Afghanistan are not the women of yesterday. There are millions of dedicated, educated, very, very strong women in Afghanistan, who will never allow such a thing to happen.
That's why yesterday, we had a program with women. And they were saying one thing. Peace has to come. They were asking for all of us to start here and start the negotiations again. But what peace means for us it's not just a lack of war.
Peace means inclusion. Peace means that men and women of Afghanistan are included in everything in Afghanistan.
[01:10:03]
HOLMES: You --
GAILANI: What you saw yesterday, I mean, this should never happen anywhere in the world.
HOLMES: Of course not.
GAILANI: But whom you're going to blame now? Whom are you going to blame?
HOLMES: You know, you say that the world should not allow a return to those bad old days. Do you trust the Taliban? Those who said that women's rights will be protected? There are different factions of course within the Taliban. But there are plenty on record to say that there will be a return to Sharia law, a return to women being sidelined and repressed.
When you say that the world shouldn't let it happen, do you think that the world couldn't do anything about it if the Taliban take over?
GAILANI: Look, this constitution today we have in Afghanistan, this is not a secular constitution. It is an Islamic constitution.
Everything for women in this constitution, I and many women, men and women who have studied Islamic jurisprudence or anything, they can defend it. We can defend ourselves. It's the war that we cannot control.
If I say that we want the world to help us, I want the world to help us to end the war. And when I was in a constitution, when we were writing this very constitution regarding women, we did have other people on our side who were in the same imagination, and in the same way of thinking like our Taliban's are.
But negotiations and talking, and breaking scholars who could explain things helped us. Negotiation will help us. But will negotiations start?
Look, we're sitting here for weeks, and we want to start that. And I urge the Taliban, I urge the world to help us to start peace negotiations soon after Eid, because Afghanistan cannot live like this. We cannot live the way that we saw, and scenes like this, again, and again, you can't blame anyone because no one will take the responsibility.
HOLMES: Yeah.
GAILANI: Who is responsible?
HOLMES: Well, exactly. But if -- I mean, if this wasn't the Taliban, if it was ISIS, which was entirely possible, when it comes to these sorts of attacks, this is a message, it's a message at a girls school. What can the west due to preserve the gains that had been made that you thought to fought to make?
I mean, it's hard to imagine that the answer is anything but nothing, in a real sense, if the Taliban come in and turn the clock back, what can the west do? Is there any reason to believe the Taliban would abide by what the west would ask of it?
GAILANI: The clock will not turn back. This is a new Afghanistan. The Taliban will have to talk to us.
We will have to come to a conclusion about what kind of a Afghanistan we want, all of us together. It can't be that Afghanistan.
Look, at the time, they took over, after a chaotic situation of civil war between the mujahedeen themselves. Everything was so bad that the Taliban looked good, and they continued.
Today, it's not like that. We have a constitution. We have a country. We have a government. We have everything.
It is -- yes, corruption and there's a lot of things which is bad. But it is nothing to compare with what it was before. This is a government that we're talking about. It's the systems that we have today.
All we need to have is fix those systems together with Taliban. The war has to end. The war -- when the war ends, then we will know who is doing what.
And you said what the West --
HOLMES: I was --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Yes, no. Finish.
GAILANI: What the West can do?
Afghanistan still needs help. Afghanistan will have to get help from all the NATO countries. Strings have to be attached to that which is women's rights, human rights, inclusion and the rights of minorities. I don't want to differentiate between the rights of women and other minorities.
We have to live together in harmony. I'm from the generation before the wars. I remember how Afghanistan was. I remember how we lived together. All I want to go to that. Don't we deserve that?
HOLMES: You do. I was in Kabul in January after the Taliban were kicked out, and I saw the relief and the hope in the promise that people wanted from that.
You've done extraordinary work, Fatima Gailani. We've got to leave it there. Keep up the work you are doing. It's vital for the future of Afghanistan. Thank you so much.
Well, the former chief doctor at the Russian hospital that treated Alexey Navalny is missing.
[01:15:03]
Russian state media said the doctor left a hunting base in a forest on an all terrain vehicle on Friday and has not been seen since. Search teams have apparently found the vehicle though. The doctor was a chief physician at Omsk Emergency Hospital when Kremlin critic, Navalny, was admitted for suspected poisoning. The doctor however gave multiple press briefings at the time saying that Navalny suffered from a quote metabolic disorder, which caused a sharp drop in blood sugar, and in fact, he was later promoted.
The doctor's disappearance though comes after 2 other doctors from the same hospital died earlier this year, prematurely. One of those doctors oversaw Navalny's medically induced coma. It's not clear whether the other had much to do with Navalny's treatment directly.
Now, a criminal group from Russia is believed to be responsible for a major cyberattack that prompted a temporary shutdown and one of the largest fuel pipelines in the U.S. That's according to a former senior U.S. cyber official who also tells us that the criminal group is known as a dark side. The White House set up a interagency working group over the weekend in response.
The gasoline supplier meanwhile, colonial pipeline, says that some of its smaller lines are back online, but their mainline is still down. The company transports nearly half of all fuel for the East Coast. There are now concerns over how the attack could or might impact fuel supply ahead of the summer travel season.
Quick break now. When we come back, India ramping up its lockdown over COVID, curfews as well. It tries to contain this painful wave of cases, new numbers have just been released. They are an improvement. We'll have a live report.
Also terrified of going to work every day, is how one doctor described his work fighting coronavirus. Just ahead, the COVID fatigue making frontline workers reconsider their careers. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
A little while ago, the country with the world's worst COVID outbreak released its latest, figure and they have fallen a bit. India's health ministry now reporting a little more than 366,000 new cases. That is an awfully high number, but it is dipping below the 400,000 mark that it has been exceeding in recent days.
The death toll also lower. Some 3,700 fatalities reported this Monday compared to the more than 4,000 daily deaths we saw over the weekend. India is hoping tighter restrictions will help to contain what has been explosive spread of the virus.
Three Indian states have extended their lockdowns. New Delhi's is now in place through May 17th. Metro train service in the capital territory also suspended.
[01:20:02]
Nonessential shops are closed.
Our Anna Coren tracking over this live from Hong Kong.
More curfews, restrictions to try to get a handle on this. Bring us up to date.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, those numbers that you just reveal, we shouldn't read too much into the depth because generally after the weekend numbers do fall slightly, whether it's a lack of testing, we test out now, I don't think we can attribute the lower numbers to the lockdowns in place, or to the arrival of international aid and oxygen supplies to the hospital. So I guess the coming days will be the, the true test to weather India has surpassed its peak.
But you mentioned the lockdowns and the extension of lockdowns, 11 states have imposed lockdowns in two union territories. One of those states is Uttarakhand, which hosted the Kumbh Mela back in April. That's a big Hindu festival where millions of Muslims gather at the bank of the Ganges.
And we saw those chaotic scenes with thousands and thousands of people. They are to bathe in the Ganges and to offer their prayers. I mean, this was without doubt a super-spreader event. So that state has now imposed a lockdown because of rising numbers.
Michael, the Supreme Court of India has also weighed in, setting up a national task force to work out the shortages of oxygen and to where it needs to be distributed. This has now been going on for weeks. This is something that the government should have done in setting up a nationwide task force but it is being left up to the courts, which is just extraordinary.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been missing in action. The last time he addressed the country publicly he was in the 20th of April. He then gave a radio address five days later. But on the 20th of April, he said that imposing a nationwide lockdown was a last resort. Many people are saying he should be imposing that nationwide lockdown now.
HOLMES: All right. Anna Coren there in Hong Kong. Appreciate it, Anna. Thanks.
Now, Indonesia reporting its highest number of new infections in four months on Friday. The government imposing travel restrictions through mid-May, and as Paula Hancocks reports for us now, the timing cannot be worse for millions of Indonesian's who were hoping to see their families.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During a major holiday for Muslims worldwide, the largest Muslim majority nation is banning domestic trouble on Eid al-Fitr. Officials in Indonesia are hoping to prevent a spike in coronavirus infections. They are urging people not to journey far at a time when millions usually troubled to their hometowns to mark the end of the Islamic holy months of Ramadan.
DON MONARDO, HEAD OF INDONESIA COVID-19 TASK FORCE: Do not return to your hometown. Do not go on holiday in your hometown. Do not spend eat in your hometown. Be patient. Patience is the key to controlling the spread of COVID-19.
By being patient, we can save a lot of people from ourselves to our families and our nation.
HANCOCKS: Police officers were seen across the capital city of Jakarta Thursday as a previously announced ban to travel from the 17th to 18th took effect. They were working to prevent those from special permission from leaving the city. Many rush to return home before the restrictions took effect.
Last year, I could still be patient says this woman. But this year, she says she can't hold back. She like many others in Indonesia are eager to reunite with their loved ones. Some choosing to fight the rules now in place.
BASUKI RIYANTO, JAKARTA RESIDENT (through translator): I will still try to return home because this has become a tradition. We have not come home for 2 years already. Even though the government has tightened the rules, I will still try to go ahead regardless of the conditions. HANCOCKS: Indonesia has been suffering the worst coronavirus outbreak
in Southeast Asia with more than 1.7 million cases recorded since the pandemic began. On, Monday the country recorded its first two cases of a COVID-19 variant first identified in India, worrying health officials that infections could rise. Whether a mass ban or mass exodus helps to prevent that remains to be seen.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: One of Indonesia's neighbors, Malaysia, also banning internal travel because of spiking COVID case numbers. Take a look at the steep rise in coronavirus infections there on the graph.
Well, starting today, Malaysia will limit all interstate and inter district trouble without permission from police. The restrictions will stay in place from June the 6th.
[01:25:01]
Fighting COVID-19 for more than a year has become too much for some U.S. health care workers. Now they're leaving their jobs and the field of medicine.
CNN's Elizabeth Cohen spoke with current and former frontline workers, feeling the fatigue of the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After 15 months on the front line of the pandemic, Dr. Sharon Griswold says she's tired.
DR. SHARON GRISWOLD, EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: It's hard to continue to do this when there is really -- it feels like there's no end in sight.
COHEN: Dr. Griswold works in an emergency room in Pennsylvania. At times, it all feels like too much.
GRISWOLD: I do have plenty of days where I do feel like leaping, where I feel like nothing that I do is going to make a difference.
COHEN: The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on health care workers. Worldwide, more than one in five have experienced anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder during the pandemic according to a study in March.
Also in March, a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and "The Washington Post" found that nearly one in three health care workers say that they've considered leaving health care as a result of the pandemic.
Dr. Justin Meschler is one of. In April last year, he quit his position as an anesthesiologist. He had the risky job of putting breathing tubes in patients who might have had COVID-19 and his own health problems made him more vulnerable to the virus.
You could have been infected.
DR. JUSTIN MESCHLER, FORMER ANESTHESIOLOGIST: Yes. I was scared. I literally want to work terrified every day.
COHEN: What was your motivation for handing in that resignation letter?
MESCHLER: My primary motivation is I did not want to get really sick and die. And I did not want to leave my family, particularly my two young kids without a dad.
COHEN: For some, the motion toll of being a doctor during the pandemic has been deadly.
Dr. Lorna M. Breen was an ER doctor who recovered from COVID-19 and continued to treat coronavirus patients, traveling from Virginia to New York City to help during the height of the outbreak there. She died a year ago by suicide.
Dr. Adam Jarrett is chief medical officer at Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey, he counsels doctors who are thinking about leaving.
DR. ADAM JARRETT, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, HOLY NAME MEDICAL CENTER: Many doctors, in fact the majority have decided that there were to try to tough it out and they try to make it work.
COHEN: Dr. Griswold says she won't be leaving her post anytime soon. She draws inspiration from a fish in the movie "Finding Nemo".
You wear Dory on your uniform. It holds your ID. Why Dory?
GRISWOLD: Well, Dory's phrase is just keep swimming.
DORY: Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.
GRISWOLD: Just keep swimming is all that we can do to try to keep going forward during this pandemic.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, doubt and mistrust hindering COVID-19 vaccine campaigns around the world. I'll speak to an expert about the challenges posed by vaccine hesitancy and how to overcome it.
Plus, England sees a spike in mental health issues in children after its third lockdown. How local workers are trying to manage what they are calling a mental health crisis. That's when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:54] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers joining us all around the world.
I'm Michael Holmes. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
More than a third of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. More than 114 million Americans in all, according to the latest data from the CDC and almost half of those eligible have received at least one shot.
Last week, the Biden ministration set a new goal to get at least one vaccine dose to 70 percent of all adults by the 4th of July holiday. Four states have already hit that mark.
And while the U.S. is making progress, there remains stark differences in the number of vaccine doses administered in other nations despite efforts to address inequities.
According to the CDC, have a look at this, the countries in green have immunize the most people in the past 30 days while the countries in red and orange have vaccinated the least.
Joining me now from Falls Church, Virginia is Rupali Limaye. She's director of the Behavioral and Implementation Science for the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Try putting that on your business card.
I'm glad you could be with us, because it is such an important issue.
There is a natural inclination by nations, I think, to vaccinate their own, prioritize their own people before looking outwards. It's understandable, I think. But is there a moral imperative to in terms of the global need when it comes to vaccines?
RUPALI LIMAYE, JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Absolutely. I think the first issue is that diseases don't respect orders. We've seen that very well illustrated through the COVID-19 pandemic. And I think the biggest challenge that we're really facing is really reaching countries in lower middle income settings that are struggling with epidemics that are out of their control, that don't have strong health care systems to deliver vaccines.
And so they're dealing with a lot more issues than I think, higher income countries are.
HOLMES: One of your specialties, your focus, has been particularly vaccine hesitancy. I mean should the focus be on convincing the hesitant and getting them vaccinated, before sending vaccines to other countries? Or, do you think it could be done simultaneously? It doesn't have to be either or?
LIMAYE: I think it has to be simultaneously. I think a couple of things that we can look at with regards to the global vaccine rollout, the biggest challenge that COVAX is facing is really export controls related to raw materials. And there's a couple of ways that higher income countries can focus on that. They can assist with waiving patents. The second thing that they can do is really focusing on making sure that there is access to ingredients as far as manufacturing for the vaccine.
And I think when we think about these, that doesn't mean that we're neglecting people in our own country. I think it's important to think about where people are at highest risk, how do we get the vaccine product to them, and do how we assure vaccine equity because the only way we're going to be able to stop this pandemic is through global cooperation.
HOLMES: And when it comes to hesitancy itself, what do you say to people who say, I'm just not going to get it? I won't.
(CROSSTALK)
LIMAYE: Yes. So here in the United States, you know, we talk a little bit about the context here. You know, we've been able to vaccinate more than a third of the population here. I think in addition to that, what we are starting to see now is, so far, we've been essentially vaccinating people that wanted the vaccine. So we are starting to see a drop off with regards to vaccinations.
And so, there's a couple of ways I think with regards to hesitancy. People really need to feel as though that they are being listened to, we have to use trust, we have to be empathetic.
And I think those are some key issues that we've seen, you know, regardless of whether or not it's a COVID-19 vaccine but any type of vaccine. And so I think using those principles still to communicate with people is very effective.
We're seeing here in the United States there are still huge pockets, as you probably know, of hesitancy among populations that are at higher risk. So we are talking communities of color specifically.
[01:34:48]
LIMAYE: We were also seeing individuals from the health care system, people that work in the health care system, that are also hesitant of the vaccine. And so to me, what it really indicates is that it's not sort of time to roll up our sleeves, if we will, and really focus on these populations because so far, we've really only been vaccinating those that wanted to get the vaccine.
So, now the hard work really begins.
HOLMES: Yes. Well put.
I'm curious, in the broader picture, do you think that there has been a general decline in trust in science but also in medical information as well? Even from experts? I mean what -- why is that? And how do you combat it?
LIMAY: Yes. It's been a huge challenge. And I think over the last year, I think we've seen the misinformation has really taken over our lives. More and more of us are reliant on social media, which is also rife, unfortunately, with misinformation.
I think the other piece from a psychology perspective is that we've been living in an uncertain time for a long time. People want to do whatever they can to reduce that hesitancy right, and that uncertainty.
One way to do that is to really speak with people, and try to make sense of the world. That might be through information that may not be scientifically based, et cetera. I think prior to COVID, we were still seeing a decline in sort of trust towards health care systems in general. And I think the COVID pandemic has really worsened and exacerbated that whole issue.
HOLMES: Yes. An important discussion. You make the excellent point, if we don't vaccinate the world, it's going to come back to the western nations that are vaccinated anyway. So, it's an imperative.
Rupali Limaye, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
LIMAYE: Thank you for having me.
HOLMES: Well, Monday is the start of mental health awareness week in the U.K., a campaign that's taking on added significance in England following the nation's third COVID lockdown.
CNN's Isa Soares, sent to a youth center in London, where children are discussing how the pandemic has affected their mental health.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Since lockdown lifted and doors reopened four weeks ago, kids aged 8 to 18 have been coming here for a kick-about with friends, a game of ping-pong and crucially, for this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made my additional needs worse, and then it made, on top of that, the anxiety as well.
SOARES: The center has now become a place where kids can open up and begin to heal with mentoring, and mindfulness sessions. A response to what staff here are calling a mental health crisis among young people.
This is reflected in the latest U.K. government data, which suggests that one in six children may now be suffering a diagnosis of mental health issue up about 50 percent since 2017.
(on camera): What did you experience during lockdown that you hadn't experienced before?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just this gray cloud over my entire life.
SOARES (voice over): For Many here that cloud never cleared. There were pressures of virtual learning and a digital divide --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I used to have the best grades.
SOARES: -- anxieties about contracting or passing on the virus, Loneliness and isolation.
Outside of this group, doctors told us they've heard of stories of chaotic home lives with some young people, experiencing neglect, overcrowding, and domestic abuse.
(on camera): How many of you have seen your parents breakdown in tears? I'm with you.
KALEY MCDOUGALL,HEAD OF FUNDRAISING UNITAS YOUTH ZONE: There has been a really marked increase, especially in Colindale, of new households living below the poverty line, often and it must be (ph) as an impact from the pandemic -- people losing their jobs, people not being able to sustain housing. So, yes, it's definitely getting worse.
SOARES (voice over): And multimillion dollar private outposts like this are few and far between. Charities, and sector workers warn of an under-resourced and oversubscribed support network where children face the stark reality, get worse or don't get seen.
CHRIS MANN, HILLINGDON HOSPITAL MATRON: We are seeing double the amount, triple the amount of children we used to pre-COVID being admitted. And there with a variety of self harm, so that's children drawing attention to the fact that they've got a concern, they've got a worry, and that's their way of expressing that and also, with eating disorders.
SOARES: 17-year-old Eesha tells me she faced physical and emotional pain as her health declined during lockdown.
EESHA PARASHARA: When I ate certain foods, or when I ate every meal my stomach would hurt for about an hour and a bit afterwards. And then, not going to the toilet for two weeks, or three weeks. And obviously, I was very bloated, and then I looked at my body in different ways. How I was putting on weight? Why am I not going to the toilet, is there something wrong?
SOARES (on camera): And you never had any of this before COVID?
PARASHARA: No. Before COVID, ask anyone, I could not care less. I was a foodie. I loved my food.
SOARES (voice over): The (INAUDIBLE) she says anxiety, loneliness and the constant presence of social media. Together, it became a toxic combination.
(on camera): Why were you worried about your image?
PARASHARA: Because you are at home, you aren't moving about. And you're looking in the mirror every day, thinking, am I putting on weight?
[01:39:48] SOARES (voice over): Lockdown loneliness has turned children into the collateral damage of this pandemic. Now, it is no longer question of if, but how this pandemic will shape a generation.
Isa Soares, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And when we come back here on CNN NEWSROOM, the border crisis as you've never seen it. Migrants paying human smugglers thousands of dollars and risking their lives to cross into the U.S.
It's a CNN exclusive. We will be right back.
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HOLMES: Welcome back.
The latest numbers from the U.S., show arrests have fallen dramatically along the border with Mexico. While that is down 60 percent, according to non partisan Migration Policy Institute, the number of illegal crossings has sharply increased to levels not seen in decades.
And while those numbers are staggering, what they do not tell us is why. Why are so many willing to risk, almost everything and pay thousands of dollars to professional smugglers to enter the U.S.?
CNN correspondent Matt Rivers met with and followed so-called human smugglers, polleros, they're called capturing the moment when two migrants were smuggled into the U.S.
It is video rarely seen from a migrant's point of view.
Matt Rivers filed this report from Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso Texas.
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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As long as there's been a border wall, people have tried to climb it -- up from Mexico, down to the U.S., hoping for something better on the other side.
Today, one such attempt starts here in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. We watched from afar as two men carry a makeshift ladder towards a car, lashing into the side.
These are polleros, or human smugglers, who help cross migrants who pay them to get into the United States. Today, the smugglers had told us to be in this neighborhood, at a certain time. If they had migrants to cross, they told us we could follow them, but would not tell us exactly when or where this would take place.
After we arrived though, we are told they would indeed try to cross two migrants, currently in the back seat of that car.
And so, the car takes off, driving just a stone's throw from the border wall in El Paso, Texas, on the other side. Further up the road, the car slows and a minute later, the trio heads towards the wall as we follow behind. This smuggler, has never allowed cameras to trail him before.
After months of the repeated requests, he agreed to have only myself and a local producer, following. Only recorded on our cellphones, knowing our presence could increases his chances of getting caught. Trying to cross the wall here is extremely dangerous.
(on camera): Right now, they're just making their way slowly towards the wall, and crawling clearly, trying to avoid being seen by anyone who might be on the border, dragging the thing they're going to use to go up and over the wall. This is a difficult track here. No question.
[01:44:55]
RIVERS: It's slow progress on their hands and knees, and a bit further on, they catch their breath. So, we had about 30 seconds to talk with the migrants. They allowed CNN to record them, only if we hid their identities, a young man and woman 18 and 20 years old.
Originally from Ecuador, they say they paid various smugglers thousands of dollars each, to bring them to this point. They told us, they are hoping to eventually find work in south Texas.
This is the last step of a journey tens of thousands of people make every year, risking their lives, and their freedom, migrating to the U.S. with the help of smugglers. Smugglers who are often accused of everything from sexual abuse, to extortion.
Some, taking terrible advantage of the vulnerable migrants they purport to help. And, some of those migrants are children, as record numbers of unaccompanied minors have been headed north a recently. Many, from Central America.
Some make it to the U.S. and others get caught by Mexican officials and end up in government run shelters like this one. Either way, it is likely their families paid smugglers to bring them here. Officials at the shelter say, about three-quarters of the kids here were smuggled. A horrifically, dangerous trip.
The shelter psychologist says they can be raped, they can be robbed, they can be extorted. They can die on the journey.
This 14-year-old girl says she was smuggled from Guatemala, and that along the journey, passed from smuggler, to smuggler, the threat of rape was always there. At times, crowded into a van with many others, she felt like she couldn't get enough air.
"We couldn't make any noise," she says. They would only open up these little windows for a bit and then they would close them. It felt like you are choking.
Human smuggling, like this, is often run by loosely organized groups. But sometimes and especially in Mexico experts say there is a big played by organized crime. (on camera): The cartels, that operate so freely here, smugglers
bringing people north, either work directly for those cartels, or they work independently, but they have to pay the cartels for the right to move through certain territories.
VICTOR MANJAREZ, FORMER BORDER PATROL, EL PASO SECTOR PRICES: Human smuggling is a multi million dollar industry. And I would venture to guess, that it is approaching a billion dollar industry.
RIVERS: Former border patrol El Paso sector chief Victor Manjarez says some cartels have used that money to create wide-reaching, sophisticated, smuggling networks.
MANJAREZ: And it's almost like a Fortune 500 company, dealing with their supply chain.
RIVERS: And at the very end of that chain smugglers like these -- the men that we would later follow to the wall. They say they worked for La Linea, an armed wing of the Juarez cartel. Each migrant they cross pays the cartel roughly $2,000, a staggering sum for most migrants that often leaves them penniless.
The smugglers say the cartel gives them a small cut for performing, what they call, the service.
We try to help them, he says. People come and ask for help -- kids, women, men, we support them.
RIVERS: But this isn't some selfless act. They are paid for this. And, they are part of a system where rape, extortion, kidnapping, and even murder are rampant.
We don't do that, he says. We are all humans. They want to arrive safely. We don't harm them, we give them food, water, and help them cross. Other people may hurt them, but we don't.
We, of course, have no way to know if he's telling the truth. But he says, for him, this is a family affair. He works with his brother, and even his 14-year-old nephew. They all smuggle people. The 14-year-old shows me one of the ladders they use.
Though when he crosses kids over the wall, some his own age or even younger, he does it another way.
He says, I tie a thick rope around their bellies, and lower them down, so they don't fall.
His uncle says, without them, two migrants like the ones that we followed through the desert who want to get to the U.S. wouldn't be able to.
We watch as they hook their ladder over the border wall fence. The young man goes first. Once he is down, he runs. And the young woman then follows. Once up, and over, she hits the ground, and races off as well. We can't watch where she goes, because the smuggler tells us we have to go. (on camera): I had to run back from the fence obviously because we
felt we were still afraid of getting caught. But for him, it was a successful mission.
(voice over): But for the two people that just crossed? Their journey is far from over. It's mainly desert on that side of the wall and they didn't really seem to have a plan. The smuggler told us, he had no idea what happened to them after they went over.
Those two migrants, manage to get in, but for many, that's not the case. A few days later, we were filming something else on the border when we noticed something.
[01:49:58]
RIVERS (on camera): Mira, mira, mira, mira.
(voice over): More people desperate to cross -- a woman and three young children, make a break for the wall. Here though the actual border is just the Rio Grande, more of a stream really. One by one, holding hands they make their way. And once they have crossed, they are in the U.S.
But then, comes the wall. A towering, steel presence between them, and where they want to be. Border patrol detained them a few minutes later.
(on camera): And actually, when we went to the smugglers house for the first time to try to interview them, we were not able to because when we arrived, there were three different law enforcement vehicles out front. One from the municipal police, one from the federal police, and another from the country's national guard. Checking in with the smugglers, later, they told us that all three of those different law enforcement entities were there to collect, what the smugglers call, they're semi-regular bribe. Basically, it's a bribe that the smugglers say they pay to law enforcement to allow them to continue to do what they do.
We reached out to all those different law enforcement agencies, and asked them about these allegations. They told us, uniformly, that bribery was not acceptable. But look, the reality is, that corruption has been a problem for decades here in Mexico. And it continues to be a problem today.
Matt Rivers, CNN -- Mexico City.
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HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back.
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HOLMES: The winning horse of the Kentucky Derby may have that victory disqualified after failing a drug test after the race.
Medina's Spirit, testing positive for more than double the legal threshold of an anti inflammatory corticosteroid. Race officials, will now test another sample before a possible appeal, or taking any disciplinary reaction.
The horse's trainer, denying the horses has ever been treated with the drug. Organizers of the next big race, this Saturday's Preakness Stakes, will review the case before deciding whether Medina Spirit can run the next leg of the triple crown.
The Japanese prime minister, speaking out about the Olympics amid growing opposition within the country, to the games going ahead. He insists that he's protecting the public health during the coronavirus pandemic, and that's always been his priority and that any final decision on the Olympics isn't his to make.
Joining me now is CNN's Blake Essig. The Olympics are less than three months away. I mean realistically, can anything stop them from happening at this late stage?
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, the simple answer is no. Despite the daily case count, nationwide increasing, the number of patients with serious symptoms continuing to break records, and with several prefectures, including Tokyo, under an extended state of emergency order it seems nothing will stop these from taking place on schedule this summer.
And according Japan's prime minister, the decision whether or not to hold the Olympics isn't up to him. He said so earlier today, during a lower house session.
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YOSHIHIDE SUGA, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER: I have never put the Olympics first. My priority has always been to protect the lives and health of the Japanese population. The IOC has already made a decision to hold the games, and notify countries as such.
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[01:54:53]
ESSIG: It is worth noting that the International Olympic Committee is a non-profit which generates 90 percent of its revenue from the summer and winter games. Even with no overseas spectators the broadcasting rights are a big money maker for them. So clearly, the financial stakes here are enormously high and with the IOC, people seemingly do everything possible to make that the games go ahead. Here's IOC vice president, John Coates, over the weekend.
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JOHN COATES, IOC VICE PRESIDENT: We're implementing those combinations, you've read the play book. You can see those -- they have all been -- counter measures, predicated on the event there being no vaccine so that situation has improved, and the games are going ahead.
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ESSIG: Now, IOC president, Thomas Bach (ph) is scheduled to arrive in Japan earlier next week, a visit that the Tokyo 2020 Seiko Hashimoto has admitted, on Friday it would be very difficult given the extended state of emergency order, Michael.
HOLMES: Incredible. What of the Japanese people thinking about? The games going ahead in these circumstances, regardless wouldn't it say.
ESSIG: You know, Michael, the have remained deeply unpopular and it happens to be getting even more unpopular, as we inch closer to the Olympics this summer.
I mean, the reality here on the ground, people that I have talked to, infectious disease specialists -- that is that this game should not move forward. They should not happen, they should be postponed.
The health and safety and well-being of the Japanese public should be put front and center. And the people that I've spoken to feel that that is not being - being considered. It's not the case they feel that the financial aspects of the Olympics are being placed ahead of the health and safety and well being.
And there's a lot of frustration. Again when you see what's going here in Japan, right now, the cases are going in the wrong direction. The U.K. variant seems to be running rampant, not only in western Japan, but making its way up, towards Tokyo.
The cases here, continuing to rise as well so with less than 3 months to go before these games are set to take place, again the idea that they're going to be held, no matter what, even if the pandemic continues to play out the way it is, seems inevitable. Michael?
HOLMES: Yes. All right. Good stuff there, Blake. Thank you. Blake Essig in Tokyo for us.
Now, we are monitoring rescue efforts to free a whale stranded in the River Thames in London and up near (INAUDIBLE). Up the enrichment, if you know London which is they're way up so damns rescue has been hosing the whale down while marine experts work to move it. Officials say the whale was spotted Sunday. It's believed to be a small Binky (pp) whale about three members or almost 10 people on.
Thanks you for spending part of your day with me. I am Michael Holmes.
Don't go anywhere, Robyn Curnow will be along in just a moment.
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