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New Cases Of Coronavirus Rising In Every State; Father Of Five Dies From COVID-19 After Delaying Vaccination; White House Economic Adviser On Infrastructure Bill Battle; Georgia Parents Protest School Mask Mandates As Cases Surge; Olympics Favorites Walk Away From Chance to Medal; CNN: Trump Pressured Acting A.G. To "Say The Election Was Corrupt, Leave Rest To Me". Aired 5-6p ET
Aired July 31, 2021 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:23]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: We've underestimated this. It's time to consider this as a very long haul.
DR. GREG POLAND, DIRECTOR, MAYO CLINIC'S VACCINE RESEARCH GROUP: You cannot avoid Delta. It is not possible. So you have a decision. Get vaccinated or not. And the results are telling us, if you're not vaccinated, you have a really poor outcome.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm hopeful that people are beginning to realize how essential it is.
ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: If we can't get extremely high rates of vaccination, we're going to see more and more variants, some of which will be worse.
ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR COVID RESPONSE: But if you put on a parachute you have 1/25 a chance of getting injured when you land, we'd all put on that parachute.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: I'm Phil Mattingly, in Washington. Pamela Brown is off. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And it's a message as simple as it is essential. The COVID vaccines work. Worried health experts are now scrambling to drive home that message, as the frightening summer surge of cases and hospitalizations pushes higher. Blame the more contagious Delta variant which accounts for 90 percent of those new cases.
And also notably, vaccine hesitancy. Just less than half the nation is vaccinated. And it's slowly inching higher as the CDC stresses that the vaccine is still the best protection against infection, hospitalization, and most of all death.
Now as the cases climb nationwide, conditions for spread only worsen. Next week kids will start returning to school and those younger than 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated in the U.S. In New York, the vaccination rate is climbing after requirements were announced for city and state workers this past week.
And CNN's Polo Sandoval is in New York.
And Polo, when it comes to restrictions and mandates, we haven't seen these divisions, a very partisan divisions. What is the view there likely seeing more precautions ahead?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, you've seen the return of these mask mandates even in the nation's capital. Starting this morning, anyone above the age of 2, regardless of their vaccination status, being required to once again wear a mask while indoors there in Washington, D.C.
As you point out here in New York, we certainly are expecting an announcement regarding that very same topic, possibly as early as Monday. This is as the city's vaccination rate goes up, but so does test positivity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL (voice-over): New cases of the coronavirus are rising in every state across the nation by at least 10 percent over the past week, but there are glimmers of hope. Weekly vaccinations rates are up 26 percent from just three weeks ago. And 49.5 percent of the population is vaccinated. Still far short of where the White House hoped to be by now.
And in the South, in places like Alabama and Arkansas, states with poor vaccination progress now seeing the average number of shots double in the last two weeks, but the South still has a long way to go.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: As bad as things are right now in the South, they're about to get worse if for lots of unvaccinated individuals.
SANDOVAL: New cases in Florida have jumped by more than 50 percent in the past week. In neighboring Georgia, the new case rate has tripled in the past two weeks. And in Louisiana, where they had the most cases per capita last week, daily vaccination rates jumped 111 percent from three weeks ago.
GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: The Delta variant is a game changer, and at this point it's not whether we vaccinate or mask. We have to do both.
SANDOVAL: An internal documents from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the Delta variant, which is fueling much of the rise across the country right now, produces similar viral loads in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people who are infected. Vaccinated people may also spread the variant at the same rate as unvaccinated people, but it's critical to know that breakthrough infections among vaccinated people are rare. And as the CDC now pushes for vaccinated Americans to wear masks
indoors in many places across the country, President Biden says more restrictions could be coming.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Should Americans expect more guidelines coming out? More restrictions because of COVID?
BIDEN: In all probability.
SANDOVAL: And health experts agree, unless many more Americans get vaccinated things could get much worse.
POLAND: What we can say is this virus is doing exactly what we predicted it will do. If we can't get extremely high rates of vaccination and those rates now need to be higher than they were with the original strain because of the increased infectivity, we're going to see more and more variants, some of which will be worse.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[17:05:07]
SANDOVAL: One more quick note on the state of Florida now getting word that test positivity among those ages 12 to 19, some of the state's youngest residents, now up to 22 percent there in the state of Florida, Phil, this as the state's governor rolls out this new executive order that's meant to prevent the implementation of a mask mandate in places like schools.
MATTINGLY: So many concerning numbers across the country.
Polo Sandoval, great reporting. Thanks as always.
Now there are so many heartbreaking stories being written about this pandemic. Hundreds of thousands but few of them are more tragic than the people who delayed getting vaccinated until it was too late. And I want to tell you about one of them. 39-year-old Michael Freedy, known as Bic Mike to the people who knew him best. After a trip to San Diego with this fiancee and their five children, Michael started feeling really unwell.
He thought it was just a bad sunburn at first. But then he tested positive for COVID and was hospitalized soon after. Despite a hard- fought fight with the virus, Michael died on Thursday. His fiancee, Jessica DuPreez, was by his side when he passed away. One of the last text messages Michael ever sent Jessica was this. "I should have gotten the damn vaccine."
It's a sentiment sadly we're hearing all too often now as this awful pandemic claims more and more lives. Now Jessica DuPreez joins me now.
And Jessica, first of all, you know, there's no words in a situation like this. I'm so sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what you and your family are going through. First and foremost, how are you guys doing right now? JESSICA DUPREEZ, UNVACCINATED FIANCE DIED FROM COVID: Really, it comes
and goes, really. Like I -- it still feels surreal, like he should be here, he should be coming home. This is somebody else's life. And then other times, I'm like, OK, as long as I'm doing something, I'm OK. Like OK, I've got to go get the kids lunch or I've got to get this load of laundry done. So it's like, as long as my mind is moving, it's OK.
MATTINGLY: Yes. I would start by saying you have a beautiful kiddo sitting on your lap right there.
DUPREEZ: This is our youngest.
MATTINGLY: He far more quieter than my children ever are, which I appreciate. Hey, buddy. Tell us a little bit what Michael was like as a person.
DUPREEZ: Michael, I mean, he was larger than life, and not just because of how big he was. He would walk into a room full of strangers, he'd walk out invited to people's wedding. Like everybody just loved Mike. He was amazing. His smile, as lopsided as it was, was just infectious. His whole personality was just a gentle giant. He'd give you the shirt off his back if that's what it took.
MATTINGLY: I know this is complicated to talk about, but our understanding was that he wasn't vaccinated, he was reluctant until it was too late. I think there's a misperception that this is kind of a monolithic issue, right? That everybody isn't getting vaccinated is doing so for the same reason. What was Michael's rationale? Why did he decide not to -- didn't to that point?
DUPREEZ: We had talked -- I mean, we've talked about it numerous times over like the different times, different vaccines have been released, different things that have been happening all over the world with the different vaccines. We were just like, if we wait one year, what's one year from when the vaccine starts being released? One year is not bad. After that, we'll decide which one of the ones that have hit the market are best for us and our family.
So it was never, no, we're not doing it. It was we need to see which one's best for us, which one has the least side effect. Which one is the people are complaining the least about? What is the safest one? So it was never anything about we're not doing it. It was just the hesitancy was, which way to go?
MATTINGLY: Yes, and it's an important point. It's not an anti- vaccination thing. People have all sorts of different reasons. I know this is extremely difficult to talk about, but I also -- I don't think anybody wants people making that decision as well by delaying the vaccine. What would you say to people who are watching right now who still haven't gotten their COVID shots and maybe taking a similar approach to what Michael took?
DUPREEZ: I think that right now at this point, that if you're on the fence, and it's only about side effects, and whatever that it's totally worth it because I don't have Mike anymore. I don't -- my kids don't have a dad anymore because we hesitated.
And I know a lot of people will come crazy, like, well, there's this and there's that, and you can die from the vaccine. Anybody can have a bad reaction to any vaccine throughout history. But I would take a bad reaction through the vaccine over having to bury my husband. I would take that any day.
MATTINGLY: I guess I would just close with this, one, we're grateful that you come out to share your message. We're extraordinarily sorry for what you've been through. Is there any kind of last thing you'd want to say about Michael as the person?
[17:10:03]
I think everybody is trying to take lessons from things right now, but as the person before we have to -- before we have to wrap it up?
DUPREEZ: Mike was the kind of person that everybody should strive to be. He was kind, he was gentle, he was giving, he was funny. He was just larger than life. He was everything. He was a great person.
MATTINGLY: Yes. I don't think there's any question, in the way that you describe him.
Jessica, we're so sorry for your loss. We're so sorry for your family's loss.
DUPREEZ: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: But we're also extraordinarily grateful for sharing your story. It's extremely, extremely important. Take care of yourself, take care of your family.
DUPREEZ: Thank you so much.
MATTINGLY: If you want to know more about Michael, his life, and the people he's left behind, Jessica has set up a GoFundMe page in his memory. Please go check that out.
And later this hour, Dr. William Schaffner, a member of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, joins us and will answer your questions. Tweet me your questions to @Phil, underscore, Mattingly. This is important. We're going to get answers. I know there are a lot of questions right now.
Now this weekend -- this is a weekend that could impact the long-term future of tens of millions of Americans, depending on what happens in the United States Senate, and a $1 trillion infrastructure bill. I'm chuckling because we've been in this place for a little while right now but everybody is working at it. Meanwhile, it looks to also be the final night for the eviction moratorium that's kept over 11 million people from being forced out of their homes in the pandemic if they couldn't make rent.
Now I want to focus on the infrastructure. The Senate is holding an unusual Saturday session, as Majority Leader Chuck Schumer vows to get infrastructure passed before the August recess, along with budget reconciliation, which we're not going to go down that rabbit hole right now. But so far the actual text of the infrastructure bill has been finalized.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): I have said for weeks the Senate is going to move forward on both tracks of infrastructure before the beginning of the August recess. The longer it takes to finish the longer we'll be here, but we're going to get the job done.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: With me now, White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein.
Jared, we're both working on a Saturday. It's good to see you, sir. I'm not going to ask you about --
JARED BERNSTEIN, MEMBER, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Good to see you, too.
MATTINGLY: -- Senate parliamentarians or budget reconciliation, or either what the --
BERNSTEIN: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: What the whole emphasis on the broadband provisions. But I do kind of want to top line it right now. You know, the president has bene so committed to this deal, throughout the process, the ups and the downs. Are you confident that this gets over the finish line sooner rather than later?
BERNSTEIN: I am. We're seeing a level of progress here that no one expected. We keep getting these votes that are well over 60, which, again, without going down any budget process rabbit holes, we need more than 60 votes for this to pass on a bipartisan manner. And what we've seen is this president reaching across the aisle, and just getting over every hurdle that has been put in front of him, with the help from members of the Senate, from both sides of the aisle.
This is something that has to be extremely welcome to the American people. By the way, a new poll shows that 70 percent of them support what's in this measure. And that doesn't surprise me one bit.
It's one of the reasons I'm confident about this legislation moving forward because I have heard for many years, from Democrats and Republicans who want to get clean water in their districts, who don't want their constituents sitting around on broken bridges or fixing their axles in garages because of potholes, who want to see broadband reached world communities, who want to be electric buses, whether they're school buses or public transit. So there is just a lot of momentum here, not just in Congress, but from the American people.
MATTINGLY: Can I ask you, though? Because I think what's interesting there's no question, you look at the polling and White House officials regularly give it to us, and on that both on the individual provisions and on the bill at large is well above a majority in most cases, but some of the folks who I think would consider you one of their ideological allies without any question inside the White House, progressives have voiced concerns that it's not enough.
It's less -- you know, it's a fourth of what the president put out in his American Jobs Plan. How do you counter that in terms of what's actually in the bill and what it means overall?
BERNSTEIN: Well, there are a number of ways to respond to that. Certainly I am close to the progressive community and proud of it. And many of the things we're talking about here are things I've worked with those colleagues for many years on end. I mean, getting electric vehicles and climate mitigation into a bill that's getting north of 65, 67, 68 votes in the Senate is such a tremendous accomplishment by a president who can clearly reach across the aisles in ways that naysayers said couldn't be done.
And of course, we're not going to go down the reconciliation rabbit hole, but we should, especially when we're talking about progressives, recognize that right behind this infrastructure bill is the president's priorities in areas of child care, elder care, education including two years of community college for free, and universal pre- K, not to mention an extension of the hugely anti-poverty child care credit.
[17:15:25]
These are issues that progressives have worked on for decades and they are seeing them come to fruition through the actions of this president.
MATTINGLY: You keep tempting me on the Senate procedure and I'm not going to take you up on it, but one or two more times, and we're going to go down that rabbit hole.
BERNSTEIN: Your viewers thank you for that.
MATTINGLY: I know, right. So do my bosses. More broadly, you know, obviously you're on the Council of Economic Advisers, you are an economist. When you're looking right now, we've spent the last week, all of us, you guys at the White House, us as well, looking at the new Delta data, obviously there's surges throughout the country, primarily driven by the unvaccinated.
From an economic perspective, how does the administration look at what's going on right now? And what are the concerns or lack of concerns related to how this is going to kind of affect downstream economically?
BERNSTEIN: Well, you happened to ask me that question on a good day because even though it's Saturday, I've been spending the whole day poring over data on exactly that question. So the first thing I can tell you is that if you look at what we call high-frequency data, that is the kind of thing you get every day or every week, people passing through TSA, people going to restaurants, Google tracking mobility, there you don't see much evidence of the Delta variant in the economy yet.
And I think the keyword there is yet. We are tracking this very closely. But the thing that we know, from data that came in last week, is that the American people are deeply reengaged with commerce. They're going back out there, they're going to restaurants, food services finally passed this pre-pandemic peak. GDP itself passed pre- pandemic peak. We know we're adding jobs at 600,000 per month.
We've got some really some positive wage pressures going on out there. And we see this recovery as having strong momentum. But of course, the virus remains in the mix and the Delta adds a level of uncertainty that we have to be mindful of. The key thing, and you just did both moving and informational stories about this on your own station here is, of course, vaccinations.
And one other indicator we're seeing is that vaccination rates are rising in places where they've been the lowest. And that's good to see, but we have to track this intersection between the spread of the variant and economic activity. We're not seeing much there yet, but we're looking at it.
MATTINGLY: Yes, I mean, it's fascinating to watch play out. I know you guys keep a very close eye on it. I have. I know you guys have also made clear since the day you walked into office that this was a dual crises, and you were managing both. Right now I don't know necessarily we all thought we'd be back here. We'd be back here again.
BERNSTEIN: Can I make a comment about that, Phil?
MATTINGLY: Real quick, yes, go ahead.
BERNSTEIN: Let me make a quick comment about that. I'll be real quick. We know we're in a period of great uncertainty. I think what people can and should take faith in is that you have a team in the White House, a health team, a science team, a president who are devoted to doing everything we can to make sure that we're not just generating a robust recovery, but one that's reaching everyone by combining the scientific and the economic approaches in ways that I think we've seen have yielded positive results thus far.
MATTINGLY: Thus far. Many challenges ahead, but, Jared Bernstein, we will stay on top of them. Thanks for taking the time to walk us through things and not two Senate procedures.
Jared, appreciate it, my friend.
All right, still ahead this hour, I'll ask Atlanta public school superintendent Lisa Herring what they're doing to keep kids and teachers safe when they return to class. And Dr. William Schaffner is here to answer your questions about the ever-evolving COVID pandemic. Plus our Will Ripley never sleeping, always live at the Tokyo Olympics for us with news on whether or not we'll see Simone Biles compete again.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:23:09]
MATTINGLY: Georgia is facing pandemic numbers not seen since before vaccines became widely available. COVID-related deaths up 18 percent. New cases, 230 percent in the past two weeks. We haven't seen levels like that since mid-February. The outlook isn't promising either given less than 40 percent of the state's residents are fully vaccinated.
The outbreak has prompted Gwinnett County to issue a mask mandate for its public schools in an effort to protect both students and faculty. The move was widely criticized by parents who'd gathered to protest yesterday afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERI MITCHELL, GWINNETT COUNTY PARENT OPPOSED TO SCHOOL MAS MANDATE: We have to learn to live with COVID from this day forward in our communities. And it's very important to define what a COVID outbreak means. Because just like the flu in past years, this is going to stay with us going forward. And when we say that there's a COVID outbreak, school is the safest place for kids to be. So are we going to live with masks from this day forward -- going forward? When you look at the outbreaks in schools, they've been very low.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Joining me now is Lisa Herring, superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools.
Lisa, thanks for taking the time. I think the first question -- the first question on everybody's mind, what is your message to the parents in your state who take issue with requiring students to wear masks?
LISA HERRING, ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT: Hi, yes. And so good evening. I appreciate the opportunity to respond. You know, first and foremost, we are a public education entity that thus we are a public service. We honor and respect that there are different opinions and positions around the mask mandate, but as a public education entity, whether it's Atlanta Public Schools or any other, we do have a responsibility for the safety and wellness, as best we can provide it, for all of our students.
And so we know that there will be positions that will be different, but when we take into consideration our actions, we have to consider the entire population.
[17:25:01]
MATTINGLY: So I understand on the masking front, you know, it's been 15 months, it's been a difficult 15 months for public education, for any education, trying to figure out how to thread this needle with what's been going on. What systems does -- do Atlanta Public Schools have in place now to protect students and teachers maybe that they didn't have prior to the pandemic once school resume? HERRING: It's a great question. Certainly, first and foremost, it has
been universal practices that help us mitigate for safety reasons. So a year and a half ago, obviously none of us were talking about the need to have masks at all times. And so we implemented a universal mask mandate so within Atlanta Public Schools, we will start the school year out with students in masks.
But in addition to that, we started this past semester with the surveillance testing opportunity. So surveillance testing is available weekly for all of our buildings, for students and staff, to get surveillance tested for COVID on a weekly basis. We believe that that's been another layer for effective mitigation towards protection within the classroom.
Of course, the others are quite similar across the board, appropriate social distancing, hand washing, disinfecting our buildings, but the ones that are most prominent as it relates to a year and a half ago have been around masks. And for us, the addition of universal surveillance testing.
MATTINGLY: And what -- you know, as you head into the school year, what are the thresholds that you're watching? What are your triggers that would force the schools to resume remote learning at any point?
HERRING: Yes. And that's been top of mind for all of us. So first and foremost I want to acknowledge how we've watched data relative to vaccinations here in Georgia, and of course here in the city of Atlanta and of course in Atlanta Public Schools. As of last week, we had about 18 percent of our student population, 12 and under -- I'm sorry, 12 and over that had already been vaccinated. And that only 58 percent of our overall employees workforce, we're about 6,000 employees.
We're also looking at Georgia's overall numbers and data relative to the vaccinated population. And then, of course, because we do offer surveillance testing, we are carefully monitoring the number of individuals that are testing positive, and we're watching the uptick of the Delta variant because we recognize that those are critical data points that will help us determine how to proceed day by day.
MATTINGLY: You know, Lisa, the governor of Georgia vowed no new mask mandates, no lockdowns. If these trends continue in the state, if this is kind of the general political position, how much responsibility would the governor bear if the schools had to shut down, if you hit some of those triggers?
HERRING: Well, you know, we all take on a unique amount of responsibility, in our leadership roles, whether that superintendent or governor, and I understand that Governor Kemp has articulated his position around the masking mandate. You know, that's an open question to determine how much of that responsibility is there to bear.
I will say, for me as superintendent, part of what is mission critical is to be able to execute every strategy that gives us an opportunity to say we did as much as we could to help prevent the spread. And again, watching the data helps drive that. And I'm certain that our -- I'm certain and I'm optimistic that that would be true for our state government as well.
MATTINGLY: You know, and last one before I let you go, we have some news, you talked about data, 100 students were quarantined after an outbreak among nine students and five staff at a charter school in Atlanta. Is this kind of -- in your view and I know everyone is trying to learn from everybody else as this kind of has all played out, was this an appropriate and effective response based on kind of how your read of things right now?
HERRING: Absolutely. Drew Charter School is one of our charter schools here in Atlanta Public Schools. It was absolutely an appropriate response. And we certainly support that. Being able to identify the individuals that had tested positive and immediately track and then quarantine individuals who would have been at risk is a very vital part of even mitigating for safety for all. So we support that without question.
And it puts us all in a position where we're trying to identify what will that look like, as we begin across the country to open back up our schools. We'll have to find ourselves in a position where when we find the need to pivot, if that becomes a reality, we've been there before, and so we can prepared to do that. But most importantly, if we can simply implement these great practices, our greater hope is to that we can prevent numbers from increasing inside the schools so that we can continue to educate our children and protect our teachers and staff.
MATTINGLY: By far, those last two the most important, no question about it.
Lisa Herring, I know you have a long road ahead and a lot of work to do. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.
HERRING: I appreciate you. Thank you.
MATTINGLY: And tomorrow we'll talk to two educators who founded an organization called Teachers Who Tutor. They'll answer your questions about school and the pandemic. Just tweet at me @Phil, underscore, Mattingly. You think I would know my Twitter handle by now.
[17:30:00]
All right, these Olympics have been like no other and it shows no sign of stopping. Gymnast Simone Biles and Tennis Star Novak Djokovic both walking away from a chance to medal today. Will Ripley joins us from Tokyo to explain, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MATTINGLY: In Tokyo, final competition in some gymnastic events begin in just a few hours. It's becoming increasingly unlikely we'll see Simone Biles competing at the summer games.
The Team USA start, the GOAT, some might say, is skipping the finals for the vault and uneven bars. She's not competed since suffering a bad case of what's known as the
twisties, where gymnasts lose their sense of where they are in the air.
Will Ripley is in Tokyo and joins me now.
Will, we're all trying to digest this. Top line, how many more chances does Biles to compete? And also, based on what we saw in the all- around, ow many other U.S. gymnasts could win gold medals or win medals if she doesn't?
[17:35:09]
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two more chances. On Monday and Tuesday, there's a floor and the bean.
But it seems unlikely given the Instagram posts and Simone Biles talking about still having the twisties, that disconnect between the mind and the body, a really terrifying condition, gymnasts say, that can completely disorient when in the air.
It gives her credibility stepping aside and letting her teammates shine, like Suni Lee, who won the gold medal for the all-around. There's a lot of amazing gymnasts on Team USA.
Simone Biles is a once-in-a-lifetime talent, she kind of overshadowed them all when on her A game. But things are different, at least for right now.
MATTINGLY: It's been eye-opening that the team is just really, really talented, no question about it, overall.
Another Olympian will be heading home without a medal. Novak Djokovic is out, losing in the bronze singles match, pulling out of the doubles match, citing an injury.
Where do things stand right now? There's some interesting things that occurred in that match. Is that right?
RIPLEY: Yes, it kind of resembled a rock concert where somebody just starts smashing their guitar, though it was the tennis racket.
Look, he's frustrated. The golden slam he came, hoping to get, is now a dream. He'll have to wait until Paris 2024, at the earliest. So that was annoying.
The heat has been incredibly frustrating for him. He talked about just brutal temperatures. He said, in his career, 20 years of playing tennis, he's never had to endure such extreme heat.
It is true this could go down as perhaps one of the hottest summer Olympics on record.
MATTINGLY: It's been a huge complaint of those in the tennis competition throughout.
Will Ripley, a man who I know would never throw a racket into the camera guys or the --
(CROSSTALK)
RIPLEY: Never.
[17:40:02]
MATTINGLY: Thanks, my friend. I appreciate it.
Lawmakers are spending the night on the Capitol Hill steps. They're bringing attention to the fact that, just hours from now, millions of Americans could be evicted from their homes. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley joins me, next, to talk about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MATTINGLY: There's no question progress is being made in the public health battle against COVID, but vaccine resistance remains stubborn and deadly.
Infections are climbing in every state. And the more contagious Delta variant now accounts for 90 percent of the nation's new cases.
You have questions and, actually, so do we.
Here to answer those questions, Dr. William Schaffner, professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Dr. Schaffner, thanks so much for joining us.
We've been looking at new CDC data. Frankly, it's been a confusing week, if I can be blunt, on what it all means.
But there's new data coming out 0.001 percent of individuals who are vaccinated have died. And 0.01 percent of those vaccinated have been to the hospital -- sorry, have been infected. And 0.004 percent of individuals vaccinated have been hospitalized.
And 165 million people have been vaccinated.
What does that tell you?
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, what it tells me, first of all, is the vaccines are working extraordinarily well. They're keeping vaccinated people out of the hospital.
And even though you can get a breakthrough mild infection, you are protected from having to be in the hospital.
At the moment, also, the virus is being transmitted very, very extensively and very rapidly in the unvaccinated population.
And there's some mild spillover into people who are vaccinated, who can, nonetheless, the vaccines are not perfect, can get mild illness, but they don't have to go into the hospital for the most part.
That's a great success.
MATTINGLY: And extremely important context, given the week we've had.
Dr. Schaffner, I want to move into some of the viewer questions.
Millions of American school kids will start returning to schools next week. It seems like all the trends are going in the wrong direction. Kids younger than 12 still can't be vaccinated, at least for now.
How much does that worry you?
SCHAFFNER: We're all concerned about it, and we're hoping that everybody is doing everything they can in order to make schools safe.
For example, all the of the adults associated with schools, not only the teachers, but school bus drivers, people who work in the cafeteria, custodians, coaches, they should all, by now, have been vaccinated.
Also, all those children, 12 and older, they should be vaccinated.
In addition, we can do spacing so we do social distancing, good hand hygiene being emphasized, improve the ventilation. We can do all of those things. And some school systems even are making testing available.
Every school system can't do all of those things, Phil, but every school system should do many of them.
And the key to all of that, too, is masking. The American Academy of Pediatrics says when children go back to school, they should have their masks on.
[17:45:09]
MATTINGLY: Another viewers question, and I think this is an important one: Are there any trials underway to determine if a booster would be beneficial for those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Some of the studies already show promising results for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
What's your read on this right now?
SCHAFFNER: A sophisticated question, Phil. We call that mixing and matches.
There are some studies like that underway here. They're doing much more of that in Europe. It really does look as though it works.
MATTINGLY: One quick question, the sophisticated question came from a viewer, clearly not me, I want to clarify that.
One last viewer question, Dr. Schaffner: We're seeing Pfizer promote the effectiveness of a booster dose. Given what we know about the structure of Moderna and J&J, it very likely they would see similar benefits from boosters?
SCHAFFNER: It's very likely all these vaccines would function in a similar way.
We don't need the boosters yet. We need to focus on getting doses into people who haven't received any vaccine yet.
Because this Delta variant is different from the parent strain. It's a new game. The circumstances have changed. We really need to get everyone vaccinated.
MATTINGLY: By far, the most important thing.
Dr. William Schaffner, so many questions, really great answers. Thank you for your time, sir.
SCHAFFNER: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: Hours from now, millions of Americans are facing the very real possibility of eviction. What are lawmakers going to do? Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley joins me next to discuss.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:51:14]
MATTINGLY: Tonight, we have new details on former President Trump's very real and very dangerous attempt to try and overturn the election he lost.
CNN's Katelyn Polantz has been tracking this story for us.
Katelyn, we understand the president pressured the acting attorney general of the United States to, quite literally, take steps to try and overturn the election, do I have it right?
KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right, Phil. What we're seeing now is notes, essentially, that were turned over to the House Oversight Committee.
We've known a lot about President Donald Trump's efforts to put forget this message that he didn't believe in the election results. But right now. we're getting little pieces as the House Oversight Committee is investigating.
They got a set of notes from the former deputy attorney general, Richard Donoghue, who was serving at the very end of the Trump presidency, but a call that Donoghue was on along with the then-acting attorney general, Jeff Rosen and Trump.
That call took place on September 27. In it, Donoghue was pushing back to Trump's discussion with him that he wanted to overturn the election results.
Donoghue said, "We won't and we can't at the Justice Department change the outcome of the election."
And the president then responded to him, "Well, I don't expect you to do that. Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and Republicans in Congress."
So that gives us a new window that we didn't see before into Trump's thinking at the time.
It also does fit into this constellation of lots of pieces that we have learned since the election and the aftermath of it of Donald Trump publicly wanting Mike Pence, the vice president, to not certify the election results.
Lawyers for him wanting the Justice Department to take cases, court cases that undermine confidence in the election to the Supreme Court.
All of these things are stacking up.
The House committee chairwoman, Carolyn Maloney, after this came out, said yesterday that Trump was directly instructing the nation's law enforcement to take steps to overturn the election.
Trump says what he was saying was being misconstrued in a statement today.
But at the end of the day, Phil, the Justice Department has never uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud and certainly didn't take the steps that the president appeared to communicate to Richard Donoghue -- Phil?
MATTINGLY: You make such a good point. It feels like every single week we're getting more pieces of the puzzle and they're all going in the same direction.
It's now vividly clear that what we thought was happening, actually was happening.
Katelyn Polantz, one of my favorite colleagues, thank you so much for taking the time on a Saturday.
POLANTZ: Thank you, Phil. Likewise.
MATTINGLY: All right, the push to vaccinate as many Americans as possible for COVID-19 has been massive. But making sure everyone has access, it's not easy.
Two "CNN Heros," Dr. Jim Withers and Dr. Wendy Ross, are going the extra mile to make sure people who serve don't miss out on these lifesaving measures.
CNN's Anderson Cooper has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): In Pittsburgh, Dr. Jim Withers brings medical care and now vaccines to those experiencing homelessness.
DR. JIM WITHERS, CNN HERO: Can I take a listen?
We have to go to where someone is and cut down the barriers.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
WITHERS: We provide something that can save a life and the lives of people that they come in contact with. It's a really unique and powerful feeling.
DR. WENDY ROSS, CNN HERO: Anthony, I just want to say high.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi.
COOPER: In Philadelphia, Dr. Wendy Ross's low-stress, sensory-friendly vaccination clinic for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities like autism is a game changer.
ROSS: There's less waiting online. And we provide tools like fidgets.
All of our vaccinators are educated to be sensitive and to have strategies for vaccinating this population.
[17:55:05]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All done. All done.
(CHEERING)
ROSS: Good job!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: High-five. High five.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome, awesome.
ROSS: Getting the vaccine to this population is absolutely saving lives.
I just feel that everyone matters and has value, and that everyone should be included.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: To see Anderson Cooper's full story and nominate someone you know to be a "CNN Hero," go to CNNheroes.com now.
Thanks for joining me tonight. I'm Phil Mattingly.
CNN NEWSROOM with my guy, Ryan Nobles, continues right after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
