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CDC Stresses Vaccinations Best Tool Against Delta Variant Surge; Inside Hospital Speaking With Regretful COVID Patients; Simone Biles Withdraws From Two More Olympic Events; Former Skeptic Explains Decision To Get Vaccinated; CDC Says Number Of COVID Deaths In Vaccinated People Almost Zero; Families Brace For Federal Ban On Evictions To Expire At Midnight. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 31, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:03]

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: We've underestimated this. It's time to consider this as a very long haul.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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.

DR. GREG POLAND, DIRECTOR, MAYO CLINIC'S VACCINE RESEARCH GROUP: 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 and you have 1/25 a chance of getting injured when you land, we'd all put on that parachute.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone, I'm Ryan Nobles in for Pamela Brown tonight. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A jaw-dropping reality check from the CDC just a short time ago. And it speaks directly to the value of vaccines and protecting your life. According to the CDC, COVID has been fatal to less than .001 percent of those who've been fully vaccinated. Look at the number on your screen to fully appreciate that.

The so-called breakthrough infections occasionally happen. But they rarely lead to symptoms that require hospitalizations. So the bottom line, the vaccine works. Worried health experts are now scrambling to drive home that message as the frightening spike in cases and hospitalizations pushes higher. Now you can blame the very contagious Delta variant which accounts for

90 percent of the new cases and also notably vaccine hesitancy. Just less than half of the nation is vaccinated. It's slowly inching higher as the CDC stresses that the vaccine is still the single best protection against infection hospitalization and 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 United States. In New York, though, there is signs of progress. The vaccination rate is climbing after requirements were announced for city and state workers this past week.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is here with the bigger picture for us -- Polo.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Ryan, well, good evening. You know that starting today in Washington, D.C. anybody ages 2 and up, regardless of their vaccination status has to wear a mask once again indoors. Here in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio hinting that we could expect an announcement regarding that same topic as early as Monday.

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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 fully 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 document from the 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 note 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. And 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.

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SANDOVAL: And one more quick note when it comes to Florida, COVID-19 new case positivity now up to 22 percent for those ages 12 to 19 years old.

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Certainly, concerning in the Sunshine State. Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis actually issued an executive order that will prevent the implementation of any kind of masked mandate when it comes to schools -- Ryan.

NOBLES: All right. Polo Sandoval, thank you from New York.

Many vaccine hesitant Americans say they're not ruling out getting the shot and they just want to wait and see. Well, that can be a fatal mistake. 39-year-old Michael Freedy, Big Mike to his many friends, wanted to give it a year just in case. Well, after a trip to San Diego with his fiancee and their five children, Michael started feeling really unwell. He tested positive for COVID. He was hospitalized. He died on Thursday.

His fiancee spoke to CNN's Phil Mattingly a short time ago.

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JESSICA DUPREEZ, UNVACCINATED FIANCE DIED FROM COVID: 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 can -- 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.

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?

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.

Everybody 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. I would take that any day.

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.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Absolutely heartbreaking. 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.

Right now, all three vaccines in the U.S. have only Emergency Use Authorization. So the FDA is bringing in extra help to speed up the final approval of the Pfizer vaccine. Health officials are hoping that full approval will help convince anyone reluctant that it's safe to get the vaccine.

Joining me now is CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

So, Dr. Reiner, let's get right into it. The CDC just released this number showing how miniscule the chances of dying is if you are fully vaccinated. How much more clear does it have to be to change anyone's mind?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So if I tell you that if you are vaccinated, you have a 99.991 percent chance of -- or actually 99.999 percent chance of not dying from this virus, what else in life gives you that kind of guarantee?

Our vaccines are exquisitely effective and very safe. And the messaging, unfortunately, from the CDC has been I think very poor and I think in the release of this data today is an effort to try and get back on track. But the news is just phenomenal with these vaccines, even with the super aggressive Delta variant, our vaccines work and they work really well.

NOBLES: So let's talk about the media's role in all of this and if there are some elements to blame for the nervous public, especially when it comes to breakthrough infections. I believe we have a clip from FOX News last night. Take a listen.

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BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: I don't think you can mandate someone to get vaccinated. I'm pretty sure that we've never done that before and it was a month ago when both Kamala Harris and the president said I can't force anyone to do it. But Europe is doing that. Could you ever get behind a vaccine mandate for everybody?

SEN. RON JOHNSONS (R-WI): No, not unless there is some incredibly deadly disease, I mean, much higher infections fatality rates we had with COVID. We don't know the final infection fatality rate but right now it's looking like it's not going to be much more than double a bad season of flu.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Doctor, 600,000 Americans have died of COVID. Does that qualify in your professional opinion as a deadly disease that Senator Johnson is alluding to?

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REINER: Senator Johnson never ceases to astounding with his lack of knowledge when it comes to things medical. Just to set the record straight, seasonal flu in a bad year kills about 30,000 to 50,000 Americans, and that's awful. So the death toll, which is almost certainly a significant undercount is more than 12-fold higher than that. Using the highest estimate of seasonal flu.

I don't know how -- what kind of horrible catastrophe he expects to come to the United States in which he'd be willing to vaccinate the country. But, listen, we have mandatory vaccines in this country in every state. You can't go to school in the United States without a whole series of vaccines. Every state in the union requires children to be vaccinated. So we are accustomed to mandating vaccines.

This is a lethal pathogen. We have a tool to prevent just about everyone from dying from this. Yet we have, particularly FOX News, not just sort of vaccine hesitant, they are vaccine hostile. And some of their evening hosts seem hell-bent on preventing more and more Americans from actually getting vaccinated, you know under the guise of just asking questions.

They seem to ask a lot of questions and never have anyone on their panels who can answer those questions. The answers are no, these vaccines are safe and incredibly effective.

NOBLES: Well, luckily, Doctor, we have people on our programs that can answer these questions. You're among them. And later this hour, we're going to have you back. We've asked our viewers to tweet us with some questions that they have, concerns they have about the COVID vaccine and we're going to have you back to answer them.

If you still would like to get a question in, you can tweet me, @Ryanobles with one N. We'll take a look at them and then we will have the doctor back to answer those questions.

All right, Dr. Reiner, we'll see back here in just a little bit.

But right now, let's talk about Louisiana, a major COVID hot spot. The governor calling the Delta variant a, quote, "game changer." And he says he's seriously considering a mask mandate arguing, quote, "You can't keep doing the same thing and just hoping for a better outcome." One Baton Rouge hospital has seen the number of patients with COVID increase rapidly. Most there had a chance to get a vaccine but didn't. And now they're very sick and very regretful.

CNN's Miguel Marquez takes us inside.

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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Aimee Matzen struggles to breathe.

(On camera): What does it feel like to have COVID?

AIMEE MATZEN, LOUISIANA COVID-19 PATIENT: Exhausting. Extremely frustrating. Tiring. And the fact that I am here now, I am furious with myself.

MARQUEZ: Why?

MATZEN: Because I was not vaccinated.

MARQUEZ (voice over): Not anti-vaccine, she says, she just didn't get around to it. The 44-year-old is now one of dozens of COVID-19 patients in Baton Rouge's Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. Her oxygen low, her doctor says she might need a ventilator.

MATZEN: I just don't want anyone else winding up like me especially when the vaccine is so easy to get now.

MARQUEZ: The Delta variant now prevalent in the Bayou State, not only is it enormously infectious --

DR. CATHERINE O'NEAL, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, OUR LADY OF THE LAKES REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: The Delta variant is far more contagious, right. But that viral load doesn't just mean that I'm going to spread it to more people, it also means that when I inhale somebody else's breath, I'm getting a massive amount of virus.

MARQUEZ: It is spreading everywhere in cities and rural areas.

O'NEAL: There is nowhere safe. If you're interacting in this community, you should be vaccinated and you should have a mask on because we are inundated with COVID.

MARQUEZ: Ronnie Smith, 47, says he thinks he got it from a friend outdoors. Outdoors at a barbecue. He was planning to get the vaccine when COVID-19 got him.

RONNIE SMITH, LOUISIANA COVID-19 PATIENT: Well, two days after the event, it was just like I went down on the floor and I couldn't get up.

MARQUEZ: Nurses here say they watch the number of critically-ill patients grow rapidly. Some anti-vaccination patients still in denial COVID-19 is real.

MORGAN BABIN, NURSE, OUR LADY OF THE LAKES REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: Some people insist that we're lying to them about their COVID positive diagnosis.

MARQUEZ (on camera): Even sick people?

BABIN: Even sick people.

MARQUEZ: Who need oxygen, who might be on their way to death --

BABIN: Yes.

MARQUEZ: -- are still denying they have COVID?

BABIN: Yes. I have patients that deny that they have COVID all the way up until intubation.

MARQUEZ: What do they think they have?

BABIN: They think that they have a cold.

MARQUEZ (voice over): Carsyn Baker, only 21, has a kidney condition. Her doctor has advised against getting vaccinated for now.

[19:15:02]

She thinks she picked up the coronavirus while in a screened-in porch across the room from someone else who had it.

(On camera): What does that tell you about how easy it is to pick this variant up?

CARSYN BAKER, LOUISIANA COVID PATIENT: Yes, it just kind of sucks because people like myself with an autoimmune disease, who can't really go anywhere now because just everybody is getting sick. And it just doesn't matter what you do.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Laurie Douglas has been in nursing for 35 years. The last year, her hardest. Frustration with sickness, death and the unvaccinated at boiling point.

LAURIE DOUGLAS, NURSE, OUR LADY OF THE LAKES REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: Sometimes praying isn't enough. And yell at Jesus if I need to. It's head-shaking, teeth-grinding, knees tight, standing up, just wanting to scream from the hilltops. It's frustrating.

MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBLES: Miguel, thank you. And this just into CNN, a mass shooting this afternoon outside a

funeral home in Indianapolis. The victims include a 4-year-old girl, one of five people hit. She's now listed in critical condition. All the victims are alive. Police believe at least some of them were there for a funeral service.

Investigators think the gunman got out of the vehicle, approached another vehicle, and then got into an argument with someone before opening fire throughout the parking lot. That shooter right now remains on the loose.

We're keeping an eye on this situation. If there are new developments, we will bring them to you immediately.

Well, with so many people unvaccinated, it's important to understand why they are hesitant to get the shot. So I'm going to talk to a woman who is initially a skeptic of the vaccines. And then you'll find out what changed her mind.

But next, the U.S. women's gymnastics team takes to the floor in Tokyo without Simone Biles. Will Ripley live in Tokyo. He'll have all the latest for us when we come back.

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NOBLES: In just a few hours, the final round of competition for several individual gymnastics events will begin in Tokyo. Missing from the stage of course will be superstar Simone Biles. She pulled out of two more events days after suffering a mental hiccup known as twisties. That's when a gymnast loses track of where they are in the air.

Will Ripley joins me now live from Tokyo.

Will, it's looking increasingly likely that Biles is going to go home without any medals and just really a few seconds of competition time, which is just remarkable given what an incredible career she's had.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it just goes to show how this issue of mental health which has been really under-discussed, and then Naomi Osaka kind of brought it into light, and then Simone Biles really has brought it to life, needs to be something that team has addressed because, you know, the pressure on athletes given all of the different factors, social media, sponsorships, agents, then, you know, the need to perform, all the media hype, that all comes together.

And it can cause an athlete to get in their head. And for Simone Biles it caused this condition known as the twisties where your mind and your body are out of sync. And that's very dangerous potentially when you're conducting these very, very complicated maneuvers. But by checking her ego aside and actually having the leadership to step aside and allow her other teammates to shine has really been incredible. Suni Lee won gold, a lot of these amazing gymnasts on Team USA were

overshadowed because Simone Biles at her best is unstoppable. She's a once-in-a-lifetime talent. But now that she is struggling it is opening up the door to showcase all the other talent on Team USA.

NOBLES: Yes, no doubt. She's shown leadership through all of this, among many of the other things that have been very impressive about how she's handled this.

Now tough competition, there's been brutal heat in Japan. They aren't the only things that these Olympians are facing. I know COVID, to a certain extent, you must get sick of talking about it. But is it -- it's impossible to ignore the impact that it's having on these games. The cases are on the rise again. How much of that is touching the games themselves?

RIPLEY: It's a really interesting question because there was this concern all along of the Olympics turning into some sort of a super spreader event. But the concern was that foreigners, the 22,000 plus who are here for the games, would bring something in with them and then it would disperse out into the community, which is why we get COVID tested every few days and had to go through a lot of different procedures, quarantine and whatnot.

So the Olympic bubble is actually holding with just a couple of hundred cases, and not that many athletes. Mostly staff members tied to the Olympics, and yet, outside, in Tokyo, they have the biggest numbers, daily numbers that they've had throughout the entire pandemic. The same thing for nationwide in Japan. Part of it is because people are out seeing some of these events.

We saw thousands of spectators at the triathlon, the course for that is actually right below where I'm standing right now. These are people, even though there is a spectator ban, would just line the streets and wanted to see some of the action. And we also saw examples of people sitting outside the Olympic stadium streaming the telecast on their phone. And so these types of activities during the Olympics are potentially along with the Delta variant causing a significant surge in cases here.

NOBLES: All right. The most unusual Olympic Games, perhaps, of all time.

RIPLEY: Yes.

NOBLES: And Will Ripley continuing to cover it live for us from Tokyo. Will, thank you so much.

The fire of Olympic competition is being compounded by the brutal heat in Tokyo right now, making for conditions one expert is calling the worst in the history of the Summer Games. Coming up in the next hour, we'll look at the toll that it can take on some of these athletes and how Olympians are handling it.

And the pace of vaccinations is picking up again in the United States, even in states that have been struggling. So what's working to get the word out about this life-saving shot? I'll ask a former COVID vaccine skeptic what helped changed her mind and what she'd say to others that are still on the fence.

Stay here.

[19:25:00]

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NOBLES: As the country sees restrictions go back into place and mask mandates enforced once again, the federal government is still urging the same message, get vaccinated. The Biden administration now even offering incentives for people to go out and get their shots. They include calling on states and local governments to offer $100 to Americans getting vaccinated.

Nearly 50 percent of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated. In the past three weeks, we've seen a steady rise in the pace of new vaccinations with an even sharper increase in states that have been lagging the most. So what's working?

Well, let's discuss this, for someone who was initially skeptical of the vaccine, but then recently decided to get the shot.

[19:30:03]

Elizabeth Greenaway joins us now. So Elizabeth, walk us through this decision making process. Why were you skeptical to begin with? And then what changed your mind?

ELIZABETH GREENAWAY, FORMER COVID SKEPTIC: Right. Hi, Ryan. Thanks for having me on. So to start, I was mostly concerned with just how new it was. I was worried about the side effects, short term and long term. And I know that they have studies, of course, that they do before opening it to the public, even under an emergency use authorization.

But I was just concerned that those trials are limited in scope and number, and so was just nervous about what this looks like long term for me. So, I credit prayer, with sort of bringing it all together for me. I think, it's important to mention that because if you look at the statistics, there's a lot of others like me that are skeptical, a lot of conservative Christians. And so I had not given up on doing research. I was doing research. I wanted to see if this was something that felt safe.

And I happened to see Dr. Paul Offit, from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on a number of news programs, talking about side effects, and just some other components of the vaccine. And I don't know Dr. Paul Offit, but my daughter has a rare health condition and is under care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. And so that was something that we had in common.

I've been very impressed with them and how they've cared for my daughter, and so I was very impressed with his resume. And so I had paid attention to a lot of things that he said. There's a video that captures it really well on the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia website.

He gives a really astonishing statistic that in all of vaccine history, the side effects have always appeared -- long term side effects -- always appear within six weeks of receiving a dose. And so now we have about 163 million people vaccinated, a little more than that, and it has been over 30 weeks since we started offering it in the United States. And so that statistic just keeps getting more and more compelling.

In addition to that, I started thinking about others, so outside of myself, right? Now, I've been following the rules from the beginning with masks, and we've been careful because of my daughter. But I started thinking about what that looks like. It is true that you reduce the risk of infection, and therefore reduce the risk of you passing this along to somebody else.

And so that was important to me with a daughter at home who is two years old and isn't going to have a vaccine for a little while. And so those are the things that really made a difference for me.

NOBLES: I'm interested in what you said about some of your fellow Christians, conservatives in particular that seem to be skeptical. I wonder what you think is at the root of that? And then what are you doing to talk to people in that community to try and convince them?

I know, you said you personally -- you know, your prayer life was something that helped you through that process. What are your conversations like with those, particularly in the in the Christian community who remain skeptical? How do you try and reach them?

GREENAWAY: Yes, so I would say there's a -- they fit into maybe a few different categories, everybody is very different. I think there are some who are just probably against it, they just for whatever reason don't feel good about it and I'm not sure if they've prayed about it. That's what I really encourage people to do in our community.

We also, in our community, unfortunately, have a couple of healthcare professionals who are vocally, I won't say opposed, but they are vocal skeptics. And so when you're getting a message to talk to your healthcare professional, your primary care physician, and that individual is skeptical and isn't encouraging it. That can be really detrimental.

We do have a committee here locally that has reached out to me and I have written an op-ed for our local newspaper, I'm going to be doing a spot for radio as well here to just try to get the word out about my story. I think it's important for people to be able to see and hear from other people who are like them, who are in the same boat. And so I think that's really important.

And really, I'm not sure that there's one thing that can make a difference for everybody. But I certainly think the rise in vaccination rates might be because of delta. People are starting to feel a little afraid of that.

NOBLES: Right. Right. So I wonder too, because it's become so polarizing. I can't really understand why it's become polarizing because it's just about trying to save lives. But have you found that it's difficult? Have you lost friends because you've been trying to reach out and implored them to get together vaccine? And if so, I mean, how heartbreaking must that be?

[19:35:03]

GREENAWAY: Yes, I would say that I haven't lost friends, but I would say that the atmosphere is just very different, and it can be hard to talk about it, because people do have very different, very strong views on this and it has been polarized politically.

And I just -- in my mind, it's a bipartisan effort, right? So, a Republican was in the White House and sort of paved the way. And now, there's a Democrat in the White House who is helping distribute.

And so to me, that's a bipartisan effort. But a lot of people don't see it that way.

And so it is hard, there is a lot of heated conversations just within the community, just because people feel so strongly, but I think at the end of the day, it's really about doing your research. I'm hesitant to tell people around here especially to listen to healthcare professionals. I tell them to look at the data themselves, to do their own homework and to make a decision that they can live with.

NOBLES: Right. And, you know, it is probably not going to help anyone to pick on people that don't want to do it or look down upon them. Everybody has deeply held beliefs for why they make these decisions, and I think Elizabeth, you're going about it the right way to meet them on their level and talk to them about it.

Use your experience and the people that you trust. We appreciate it, you and this conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Elizabeth Greenaway, a vaccine skeptic who is now singing a much different tune. We really appreciate it.

And up next, from when vaccines will be available for young kids to whether we will soon need to line up for booster shots. A lot of you have been sending in your coronavirus questions. My Twitter feed is lit up. Dr. Jonathan Reiner is back to help answer all those questions. I hope you're ready, Doctor, when we come back.

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[19:41:25]

NOBLES: Some fresh perspective from the C.D.C. just a short time ago, and if you've been on the fence about becoming fully vaccinated, you might want to take note. According to the C.D.C., COVID has been fatal to less than 1/1000 of a percent of those who have been fully vaccinated. That number just staggering.

The so-called breakthrough infections, they occasionally do happen, but they rarely lead to symptoms that require hospitalization. The bottom line can't be stressed more dramatically, the vaccines work. And Dr. Jonathan Reiner is back to answer your questions. Dr. Reiner,

you're very popular. We have so many questions from people on Twitter. So, as best you can, let's make your answers as short as possible so we can get to as many as possible.

So, let's begin first in light of this new C.D.C. number, and we get this question from a viewer: Any idea when the vaccine is going to be available to children under 12? This impacts me in a great way because I have four children under 12 in my household. What's the answer?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So, the first group probably at the end of September. So Pfizer, their clinical trial, looking at kids under 12 was in three parts, kids five to 12, two to five, and then six months to two years of age. The first group that should be ready to present to the F.D.A. is the five to 12 year old group that I think Pfizer is planning to present to the F.D.A. sometime towards the end of September. The other groups will follow fairly quickly after that.

So, I'm hoping that you know, before Halloween, we should have an Emergency Use Authorization for at least kids five to 12 years old.

NOBLES: That's encouraging.

REINER: Let me just say, they won't be going to school with -- you know, they won't be starting school with vaccines on, so they should be starting school with masks on.

NOBLES: Right, right, right. Okay, another viewer asking, they want your opinion on getting a booster vaxx for fully immunized folks, is there any benefit to that?

REINER: Well, Pfizer thinks so. And that's very likely coming to all of us, maybe starting with the immunosuppressed. You know, there's a group in this country that doesn't mount as robust an antibody response to vaccines. People who are on medications for things like multiple sclerosis or solid organ donors or people that are getting medications for rheumatoid arthritis, they may not have a sort of normally robust antibody response to two doses of an mRNA vaccine. And that's probably the first group that will get a third dose, maybe also the elderly.

There is some data coming out of Israel that the elderly might benefit from third dose, but I think eventually all of us in the United States will have a third dose. It's a booster.

Think about, you know, every year we get a new flu shot, I think it's reasonable to expect that at least for the next couple years, we'll be getting booster shots for COVID.

NOBLES: Okay, a lot of questions of people talking about specific health concerns related to the vaccine, related to COVID and the variant. This is an example of one. Me, my wife, and 13-year-old daughter are vaxxed, but my nine-year-old son cannot be. I'm worried for my son, because he has asthma. And he's wondering if there's any information on the full F.D.A. approval for these vaccines. REINER: Well, full F.D.A. approval for the Pfizer vaccine will

probably come within the next few weeks. There's great pressure for the F.D.A. to do that. But in a household, which is mixed with vaccinated and largely protected folks and unprotected folks, such as kids under 12, I think everyone needs to mask up when they go out, so that someone doesn't inadvertently bring home an infection to the child that's unvaccinated.

So in that household, everywhere I would go, the entire family should mask.

[19:45:05]

NOBLES: Okay, one more here. And this question is about antibodies, and how accurate are tests to see if I have antibodies after receiving the Pfizer vaccine in February of 2021? How do I know if I am protected? This person is asking because they have an underlying condition, but they have been not treated with immunotherapy.

REINER: Well, if there is an underlying condition that might predispose you to not mounting an adequate antibody response, it's easy to test for it. You know, LabCorp and Quest have a test. It's called a semi-quantitative antibody response for the SARS-CoV-2. And it is easy for your doctor to order that.

The vast majority of people do not need to test their antibody response. I don't think people need to go out tomorrow and check to see what their numbers are. And no one is actually quite sure what the threshold number of sort of adequate antibody response is. But that test can tell you whether you've mounted an antibody response, and it is used more and more in folks who have underlying reasons to suspect that they might be immunosuppressed.

NOBLES: All right, to try and keep with the theme, Dr. Reiner, I think we answered the equivalent percentage of the questions that we received that relates to the number of people that are hospitalized with breakthrough infection. So, I apologize to the many, many 99.9 percent of people whose questions we couldn't answer.

But if you've got nothing else to do tonight, Doctor, if you just want to go through and look at my replies on Twitter, and just answer them all personally. I mean, I don't want to put you on the hook for that, but if you've got nothing else to do tonight, that's an option.

REINER: I'll get to them all. It'll take me a while, I'll get to them all.

NOBLES: All right. Thank you for being a good sport, Dr. Reiner. I appreciate it and a lot of great information. Thank you so much.

Millions of Americans are hours away from being at risk of losing their homes and organizations trying to help them say mass evictions are a real fast approaching threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Families are panicked. They don't know where

their children are going to sleep come Monday night. They don't know how they're going to cover the past due rent that they're not likely to pay off in their lifetime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Is Congress really not going to do anything about it? We have a live report from Capitol Hill where some lawmakers are camped out and calling for action tonight.

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[19:51:47]

NOBLES: There's a deal on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which includes money for crumbling roads, roads, and bridges, improves mass transit and our water system. But it's not a done deal yet because the final version is an out and amendments could threaten one of President Biden's top priorities.

The Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer is pushing to get it finished before the August recess and he vows to keep the Senate working as long as it takes. Meanwhile, House lawmakers left without passing an extension to the Federal eviction moratorium, and that has more than 11 million Americans and their families scared if they're behind on their rent, their protection runs out tonight at midnight Eastern.

Suzanne Malveaux is watching these developments for us on Capitol Hill. Suzanne, one Congresswoman, though not giving up the hope on this eviction battle. Tell us about it.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Ryan. I mean, we're just hours away from that eviction moratorium expiring on midnight and Representative Cori Bush from Missouri, she definitely is putting her herself on the line here. She has been overnighting on the steps of the Capitol. She says she will continue to do so until there is some sort of action here.

There is blame to go around, a lot of finger pointing here in terms of how we got there and who can fix this, whether it's the administration, the C.D.C. or Congress, but nevertheless, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday was told to come up with a bill to extend this deadline here. She was unable to rally the troops in time.

And now House Democrats essentially have gone on a seven-week recess and Congresswoman Bush says this is unconscionable. I had a chance to talk to her on the steps of the Capitol earlier today. And she said she knows what it's like to be homeless. She was homeless with two young kids living in a car in her early 20s.

She said she had been evicted three different times. She said there is no shame in this. She simply was a low-wage worker who eventually had her family assist her in getting out of that situation. She is using her power, anything she can do at this point to highlight this problem and to prevent the homelessness that might occur. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): It's important because I just don't believe in human suffering, it is just because my heart is to love humanity just -- period. Because I know what it feels like to feel like nobody who hears you that you're in this world, you know, just trying to make it so always surviving.

And I didn't want to be that when I came to Congress, I felt like if I just had some type of power to be able to help people the way that I wanted to be -- I needed to be helped, that that's what I would do and I would do everything I could to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Representative Bush has attracted quite a crowd of supporters there who are going to be waiting to see if there's any breakthroughs. In the meantime, Speaker Pelosi emphasizing there was a lot of money in state and local government coffers that have not been spent for this rental aid and it is time to try to put that on the pipeline and get that to those folks who need it desperately -- Ryan.

NOBLES: All right, Suzanne Malveaux with that deadline approaching live on Capitol Hill. Suzanne, thank you.

Coming up, stuck between a rock and a wet place, humans lend a helping hand to save the life of a stranded Orca. A look at those new images, just in next.

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[19:59:45]

NOBLES: Some good Samaritans and quick thinking saved the life of a huge animal that was definitely in trouble this week. This is in Southern Alaska, a 20-foot killer whale somehow stranded itself on a rocky beach. It was screeching and calling out for help.

A ship's crew says the whale in distress kept it wet and protected for several hours until the tide came in and the wayward whale was able to swim away.

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