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Vaccine Skepticism, Rampant Delta Variant Cause Cases To Surge; Large Crowds Attending Lollapalooza Festival In Chicago; New Orleans Sees 500 Percent Increase In New COVID Cases This Month; Simone Biles Out Again From Two More Gymnastics Events; Novak Djokovic Leaving Tokyo Olympics Without A Medal; Record Heat, Humidity Put Athletes In Danger Zone; College, Universities Prepare for Students as COVID Cases Rise. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired July 31, 2021 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

RYAN NOBLES, CNN HOST: It was screeching and calling out for help. A ship's crew says the whale in distress kept in wet and protected for several hours until the tide came in, and the wayward whale was able to swim away.

It's a message as simple as it is essential. COVID vaccines work. Now health experts are scrambling to hammer that message home as cases and hospitalizations rise. Meantime, in Arkansas unvaccinated patients of all ages are rapidly filling up hospital beds. Our Martin Savidge is on the scene.

And going home empty-handed and without one of his rackets. Tennis star Novack Djokovic loses his bronze medal match and withdraws from another. We're live in Tokyo.

I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And let this sink in. Right now 97 percent of people in the hospital with COVID-19 are not vaccinated. So are 99.5 percent of COVID-19 deaths. Not vaccinated. That only means one thing, the vaccine works but only if you get.

COVID cases are up in every state, way up in most of them. Hospitalizations and deaths which typically lag behind those case counts are also rising again. Although the pace of new vaccine doses is up from just a week ago, more than 80 percent of us live in a county considered to have, quote, "substantial or high rates of COVID- 19 transmission right now."

Now, if you're vaccinated, the good news is you're not likely to get seriously ill, and your chances of dying are minuscule if you're infected. Now vaccinated people can still get the virus, yes. But the real risk is spreading it to someone who hasn't had or cannot get the shot.

So let's head out to California now, one of only 20 states that has managed to vaccinate at least half the people who live there, but people are still getting sick at an alarming rate. CNN's Paul Vercammen is in Tarzana.

Paul, you spoke to an ICU doctor today. What did he tell you?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he told me he is seeing just what you're discussing, Ryan. And that is the unvaccinated are coming into this hospital behind me. In fact, in California right now at latest count more than 10,000 new cases and those hospitalizations, that critical barometer rising more than 4,000 hospitalizations. The vast majority of the patients, again, unvaccinated.

For those rare occasions when someone comes in who's had both of their vaccines or one of their Johnson & Johnson's, the doctor says he doesn't like to hear that term breakthrough because this is a virus that basically morphs. He said frankly he hates that term breakthrough variant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. THOMAS YADEGAR, DIRECTOR, PROVIDENCE CEDARS-SINAI TARZANA MEDICAL CENTER: I do. For 20 years I've taken care of patients who had developed influenza after they've been vaccinated. We don't call those breakthrough cases. I would call them expected cases. And for the past five, six months with the vaccines being available, my conversation with my patients has always been that yes, you could still get the infection, but the vaccine protects you in terms of developing severe COVID.

The vaccine prevents the hospitalization and the death. It's kind of -- you know, a seatbelt doesn't protect you from getting into a car accident. It protects you from dying or, you know, becoming severely disabled from a car accident.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And the director of the ICU told me a story today that's astounding that involved somebody who basically didn't want to wear that seatbelt. It was a 49-year-old woman who was being treated, administered oxygen for COVID-19 here in this hospital. Dr. Yadegar said she just plain walked out. His advice, he says it is not patriotic to not be vaccinated or wear your mask when you should indoors.

Back to you now, Ryan.

NOBLES: All right, Paul Vercammen live for us. Paul, thank you so much.

In Chicago now, thousands of live music fans are packing Grant Park for the Lollapalooza Music Festival. A lot of the concerts are outdoors. That is a good. And a host of mitigation strategies are in place to try and minimize the risk of spread. That's also good.

Here's CNN's Omar Jimenez.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ryan, day three of Lollapalooza but also day three of concerns over the spread of COVID-19. I mean when you look outside the entrance along the fences you have the typical signs, clear bag policy, bags can only be a certain size. You've got filming happening here, but new, please have proof of vaccination ready to show.

It's part of the mitigation strategies going on here at the festival. Either you have to show proof of full vaccination status, proof of a negative COVID-19 test within the last 72 hours to get through the gates. But also new today everyone in indoor spaces at this festival has to be wearing a mask.

[20:05:05]

And that's tied directly to the rate of spread we've seen here in the Chicago area much like places across the country, an increase in COVID-19 cases driven at least in part by the Delta variant.

Now to give you context, in Chicago last month the positivity rate was 0.4 percent. Two weeks ago it was 1 percent. Now it's a little over 3 percent. And while overall that's still pretty low, it's not the direction officials want to see things headed. And then when you look at one of the more significant indicators, the amount of cases we're seeing on average per day, we're now over 200.

And the reason that's significant is because that's the threshold where Mayor Lori Lightfoot here in Chicago said they would start considering reinstating a mask mandate. It's like deja vu. These conversations, these decision points were things that many people thought we were past as vaccines began to spread across the country.

Yet here we still are. Now, for now Lollapalooza is still expected to continue at full capacity. But at this point they're just trying to be remembered when it's all over and after hundreds of thousands have come through, they're trying to be remembered for the music rather than as a super spreader event potentially -- Ryan.

NOBLES: All right, Omar Jiminez in Chicago. Thank you, Omar.

And the pandemic is running rampant again in the state of Louisiana. This week more people had to be hospitalized in Louisiana every day than at any time this year. Look at the sharp spike since they leveled off in the spring. The city of New Orleans alone reported more than 1,000 new cases this past week. Now the mayor said the spike is so bad that the city's emergency services just can't keep up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL, NEW ORLEANS: Thanks to the Delta variant, the COVID pandemic is once again rating out of control. We currently do not have the capacity to respond to 911 calls that come from our community right now.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And Dr. Jeffrey Elder is the medical director for Emergency Management at the University of Medical Center in LCMC Health. Dr. Elder, tell us what you and your colleagues are seeing right now

compared to what things were like just a few weeks ago.

DR. JEFFREY ELDER, MEDICAL DIRECTOR FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, LCMC HEALTH: Yes, so we're seeing more and more patients in our hospital, more and more patients coming through our EV with COVID-like illness and being admitted to the hospital. You know, just on the 1st of July we saw just about a dozen patients with COVID in our hospitals. Now we're at over 135 for our six-hospital LCMC Health system.

NOBLES: So how are your hospitals responding? Is that forcing you to cut back in other areas so that you can make room for more COVID patients?

ELDER: Yes, so we have, actually starting on Thursday we began to postpone non-urgent surgery cases that would require an in-patient bed overnight. So we've started that process, and that's happening all across Louisiana at our hospitals.

NOBLES: Wow, that's incredible. Let me play this for you. This is a Louisiana woman who was hospitalized from COVID this week. This is what she told our Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: Doctor, she's furious with herself for not taking the step of getting vaccinated. Is that a pretty common reaction to the patients that you're seeing that are coming into your hospitals?

ELDER: You know, it is. I mean, just the other day I was taking care of a patient who had to come in, she was on oxygen. I had to explain to her that she had COVID, and the first thing that she told me was, you know, I should have gotten the vaccine. I delayed it. I knew I needed to get it, but I didn't. And then she was there in the hospital scared with COVID.

NOBLES: And there's nothing you can do for them, right? At that stage the vaccine does them no good, right?

ELDER: Right. At that point we treat the COVID. So if they're on oxygen, we give them oxygen, and we give them steroids. We do all the treatments that we do for in-patients, but unfortunately it's too late to get vaccinated at that point. And ultimately, you know, when they make it through the disease, they make it out of the hospital then we can talk about vaccinating them after. But, you know, at that point it's too late.

NOBLES: So is there any hope in this? Do you think that the surge might push more people to get vaccinated? Are you seeing any signs of that?

ELDER: Yes, we've seen in our hospital system, you know, our requests for vaccinations have gone up almost threefold in the past couple of weeks so that's a good thing. But that's going to take, you know, a good five to six weeks before those people are protected fully with the vaccine.

So, in the meantime, you know, the short course measure is masking. And we're asking everybody out there if you're indoors, around others, you have to mask at this point because this virus is throughout our community, and it's everywhere.

[20:10:08]

NOBLES: Well, speaking of encouraging people to wear masks, a congressman from Louisiana, Steve Scalise, he's the House minority whip, one of the most powerful members of Congress, he has been tweeting out COVID conspiracy theories. He read this -- he said this, he said that wearing a mask is all about government control, not about science.

Doctor, you are a scientist. You are a physician. How do you respond to that message from a congressman from Louisiana?

ELDER: Yes, I would just say that, you know, it's not about government control. It's about science and public health. And we know that in order to protect each other, protect ourselves, you know, we wear masks. And we wear masks to protect ourselves. We wear masks to protect everyone around us, and that's the science. And we just need to keep doing it.

NOBLES: All right, of course Congressman Scalise just got vaccinated a couple of weeks ago after waiting and then not disclosing his vaccine status. So that's encouraging that there are those leaders that were skeptical and now starting to come around. But still, this seems to be an all-hands-on-deck effort, and in some cases it doesn't seem that we're getting that.

Dr. Jeffrey Elder, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

And new tonight, a manhunt under way after a mass shooting outside a funeral home. It happened this afternoon in Indianapolis. The victims include a 4-year-old girl, one of five people who were 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 believe the gunman got out of a vehicle, approached another vehicle, and then got into an argument with someone before opening fire throughout the parking lot. That shooter remains on the loose. In the days and weeks ahead school is going to resume. I'm going to

talk to the president of Marquette University. He's recovering from the virus right now despite being vaccinated. Will fighting COVID change how the university gets ready?

But first Olympic superstar Simone Biles back on the sidelines today, but there is a chance we still could see her compete one more time. Will Ripley following all the action in Tokyo. He will join us next after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:16:27]

NOBLES: In Tokyo final competition in some gymnastics events begins in just a few hours, but it's becoming increasingly unlikely that we'll see Simone Biles compete again at these summer games. The Team USA star is skipping both the vault and the uneven bars. She's not competed since suffering a bad case of the twisties, where a gymnast loses their sense of where they are in the air.

Will Ripley is in Tokyo. He joins me now.

So, Will, break this down for us. How many more chances do we have to see Biles compete, and can Team USA bring home gold if she decides that she just can't do it?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They already have brought home gold with Suni Lee, just amazing, you know, kind of coming in after Simone stepped back because she's dealing with, you know, probably the biggest challenge that she's had to face of her athletic career in terms of this disconnect, the separation between her mind and her body that they call the twisties. Gymnasts dread it.

And now we're talking about mental health, we're talking about these types of things that are often kind of shoved aside and people are just expected to, you know, soldier on. But when you're doing a complicated aerial maneuver and Simone Biles was posting on Instagram how she was doing maneuvers and stumbling, you know, when she landed, it just shows how dangerous that would be if it was on a hard surface, and there could actually be very serious injury as a result.

So she has really shown a lot of leadership by stepping aside, but she has two more chances on Monday and Tuesday in the floor and the beam, although it is looking as you said less likely that she's actually going to compete in those unless there's some type of breakthrough.

NOBLES: All right. Let's talk about another very popular athlete who's probably going to be going home without a medal. That's the Serbian tennis star Novack Djokovic. He was hoping for the golden slam of tennis which would be winning all the professional tournaments and then adding in the Olympic gold medal. He's forced to pull out of the competition, but seemed to have a bit of his own John McEnroe moment. What happened?

RIPLEY: Not only is he not going home with a medal, but apparently he's not going home with a tennis racket because he smashed the thing to bits. It was like a rock concert, somebody just, yes, you know, whatever, you know, getting out the testosterone, the frustration. It's got to be difficult for him. I mean, he had so much momentum coming in.

But as we've seen with a lot of big names, Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, you know, and now Djokovic, like it's difficult when you've come into an event with such high expectations and then you just kind of stumble out. But look, he still -- you know, he didn't get the golden slam.

He has maybe, you know, one more chance in 2024 in Paris to do that. And, you know, he blamed the heat, the oppressive heat. It is very hot, possibly, Ryan, the hottest summer games on record.

NOBLES: Yes, he was so impressive in Wimbledon. It looked like the Olympics were going to be easy for him but it turned out not to be the case.

RIPLEY: Yes.

NOBLES: You mentioned the heat.

RIPLEY: Yes, exactly.

NOBLES: That's a huge problem for these athletes. Outside the Olympic bubble, though, COVID continues to be a major problem in Japan. Is that really impacting the Olympics right now?

RIPLEY: It's not impacting the Olympics in terms of the Olympic bubble which is still holding. You only have a couple of hundred cases tied to the games and very few of those cases are actually athletes who are tested every single day. But outside the Olympic bubble in the general population the numbers are unprecedented. They are exploding faster than they ever have during the whole pandemic.

So the numbers, the daily numbers here in Tokyo are now higher than the nationwide numbers for all of Japan two weeks ago. The Delta variant is a factor, and frankly people attending Olympic events is also believed to be a possible factor here because we saw thousands of spectators lining the streets for the triathlon, which the course is actually right below where I'm standing right now.

[20:20:07]

People wanted to see the Olympic action. People are sitting outside the Olympic stadium looking at live streams of the broadcast on their phones. And by doing that they're gathering in groups, which is precisely what the government has been asking people not to do. You know, previous states of emergency here in Tokyo caused the case numbers to go down, never have they seen during a state of emergency the case numbers snowballing and just skyrocketing as they are now.

NOBLES: Well, despite that intense heat, Will, you remain cool, calm and collected for us in Tokyo as always. I appreciate that report, my friend.

RIPLEY: Thanks.

NOBLES: Well, a tough competition isn't the only massive challenge that the Olympic athletes are facing in Tokyo. As Will mentioned, these record high temperatures combined with brutal humidity are having a profound effect on those participating in the outdoor events, and some experts say the conditions are making the Tokyo Games the worst in Olympic history.

Selina Wang reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sweaty, hot and humid. That's the Tokyo summer. Before the pandemic, heatstroke was the biggest health risk for the Tokyo Games held during the hottest time of year in Japan.

Natsue Koikawa knows the risks of heatstroke all too well. A former professional runner, she passed out during a 1995 marathon in Japan and almost died. It took her more than a year and a half to recover, and she never returned to a major marathon race again. Now a professor and track coach at Juntendo University, she's been researching the dangers of competing in the heat.

NATSUE KOIKAWA, FORMER MARATHON RUNNER (through translator): Heatstroke can happen to anyone and it's a very common cause of death. It may be extremely difficult for athletes to give up competing in the middle of the game because the athletes are representing their country on the stage of their dreams. But I tell athletes that having the courage to quit is the best way to prevent heat stroke.

WANG: Back in 1964, the Tokyo Games were actually held in October in order to beat the heat, and it's only gotten hotter since then. According to a report from the British Association for Sustainable Sport, temperatures in Japan have increased three times as fast as the world average since 1900.

MAKOTO YOKOHARI, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO: When you take into account not only the temperature but also humidity, I will say that a Tokyo summer is the worst in the history of the Olympic Games.

WANG: In a statement to CNN the IOC said it provides shade and water supplies at venues because the health of athletes is, quote, "at the heart of our concerns." Still, we have already seen athletes struggle under the sun during these games, with Russian Archer Svetlana Gomboeva being treated for heat exhaustion.

KIT MCCONNELL, IOC SPORTS DIRECTOR: A lot of the competition schedule has been built where possible depending on the sport to accommodate the - avoid the hottest part of the day, but that's not possible with every sport.

WANG: On Wednesday, Russian tennis player Daniil Medvedev was visibly struggling. When the umpire asked if he could continue, he replied, I'm a fighter. I will finish the match but I can die. Later in comments posted by Tokyo 2020 he added, "I couldn't breathe properly. I think that was the most humid day we have had so far."

Later that day, Spain's Paula Badosa retired from her match with heatstroke. She had to be escorted off the court in a wheelchair. In response the International Tennis Federation said that matches will now begin later in the day due to these weather conditions.

But Yokohari says that isn't enough.

YOKOHARI: Having Olympic Games in midsummer in Tokyo is not something that you should do. And we should postpone it until like October and November.

WANG: But in the future, it might not just be Tokyo. According to a commentary published in "The Lancet" by 2085, the number of large cities that would be considered low risk to hold the Olympics in summer months would be extremely limited.

In the meantime, Koikawa says athletes must stop if they feel the onset of heatstroke as it's better to put their Olympic dreams rather than their lives on the line.

Selina Wang, CNN, Tokyo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBLES: Selina, thanks.

We're just weeks away from the start of the fall semester, and for many schools and colleges, the Delta variant is complicating that return.

Coming up, I'm going to speak to the president of Marquette University who is requiring his students to get vaccinated before coming back to campus.

[20:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBLES: The spread of the Delta variant comes at a crucial moment for the United States. Over the next month or so students will return to the classroom from elementary school all the way to college, and with breakthrough infections causing alarm, more and more colleges and universities are telling students to get vaccinated before they come back to campus and to wear a mask indoors.

Just this week schools like Duke and Perdue will require everyone to wear masks indoors. At Michigan and Michigan State all students must be vaccinated to be on campus.

My next guest knows about this debate first hand, and that is Michael Lovell, he's the president of Marquette University. He joins me now.

President Lovell, this week you revealed that you yourself despite being fully vaccinated tested positive for COVID. How are you feeling now? MICHAEL LOVELL, PRESIDENT, MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY: I'm feeling great.

I'm feeling 100 percent. I had some very mild symptoms, but I took the precaution of going and getting the test.

[20:30:04]

I found out that Tuesday afternoon that I was positive. And I feel very thankful that I did have the vaccine because it made my case, as I said, very mild.

NOBLES: All right. So, let's talk then about how this extends to your college community. Students at Marquette, are going to be required to be vaccinated. Right now, faculty and staff are not. And the CDC says that the Delta variant can spread as easily as the chickenpox. Why have you not taken the step of requiring everyone to be fully vaccinated?

LOVELL: Well, first of all, we required students to be vaccinated, we made the announcements several months ago with the idea, as we know that it is best for our students because they live in such proximity to each other when they're on the campus, require them to be vaccinated for their own safety and well-being.

You know, when you're in college, it's a very social time, they live closer community and leaves really wanted to ensure that they can have the best experience possible while they are on campus, while still being safe.

In terms of faculty and staff, we are strongly recommending that all faculty and staff be vaccinated. We know, from looking at the numbers, that the vast majority of our faculty staff have already been vaccinated, we're still encouraging everyone on the faculty staff to be vaccinated as well. Because we know that the Delta variant is something that's real, and it's in front of us. And it really is having us, you know, think about ways we can continue to ensure that our campus community stay safe.

NOBLES: And you're allowing some exemptions for people to not take the vaccine religious exemptions, for instance, obviously, your faculty and staff, are not going to be required. For those that aren't vaccinated, are you going to require tests? How often will those tests be required? And who's going to pay for those tests?

LOVELL: Yes. So, for the testing that was going to go in campus, we are going to require those that are not vaccinated to go through testing protocols. We also have something called COVID check, a test that they would take, it's an online app, they would take, you know, every day and really try to, you know, again, ensure that they are not getting the virus and continuing to promote vaccination, quite frankly, for those that may not vaccinated when the fall semester starts.

NOBLES: And then masks, right? That's the other big topic. You know, we're seeing many schools that have children 12 and under who can't get vaccinated require masks. If you're requiring all your students to be vaccinated, are you also going to require an indoor mask mandate as well?

LOVELL: Yes. So, we've been following the guidance of both the CDC and our Milwaukee's health department in just this week, Milwaukee's health department had noticed that strongly recommends that anyone inside that is not with immediate family members to wear masks.

So, we've mandated that to happen on campus this coming Monday, actually, on Friday with Lisa Nelson (PH) to campus, that we are struggling with anyone who's in within a campus building that is not with a family member to go in and the mask.

NOBLES: I wonder for someone that's been in higher education, as long as you have higher ed administration, in particular, did you ever imagine that this was something that you'd have to deal with? on this level? Is there anything at the core -- of the course of your career that's prepared you for a moment like this? It seems to be so unique. What does that been like?

LOVELL: Well, yes, that's -- I think you have great insight, because when the pandemic hit, there was no playbook for any of us in the administration, within higher education. And all of the decisions that we had to make, you know, we had to do the best we have the information we had at that point in time. And again, no one did it perfectly.

But we certainly tried our best to keep everyone safe, while still preserving that high-quality education which our students deserve. And plus, the quality of the experience they get, you know, when they're in college.

NOBLES: Have you run into situations where you have parents and students who just do not want to get vaccinated and do not want to adhere to your vaccination requirement? What have those conversations been like? And what do you say to those students and parents that don't want to take that step but still want to be a part of your campus community?

LOVELL: Yes. So, I -- so, first of all, you know, there are some students and their families in -- that, you know, are against the vaccines, the vast majority of our students, so, you know, authority, you have access to 85 percent. So, you know, we have already reached herd immunity with those students. But when I talked to the -- to families and students about this, I said, listen, we're following the science.

And we're following the recommendations of the public health experts on the best way to keep people within our campus community safe and for their wellbeing. And so, you know, we're just following what is, quite frankly, we believe the best guidelines for running our university.

NOBLES: Well, you've already been through one incredibly challenging year. We thought perhaps we were at the end of it, but it looks like another challenging year is ahead of you. President Michael Lovell from Marquette University, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it. LOVELL: Thank you so much for having me, Ryan.

[20:35:56]

NOBLES: All right. Arkansas is back under a public health emergency order, as hospitals fill up, once again, with coronavirus patients and this time it's also the children's hospital. That story, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBLES: In Arkansas, infection rates are reaching levels not seen in months. The vaccination rates are clearly not keeping pace. Now, unvaccinated patients are rapidly filling up hospital beds throughout the state, both adults and children. And too often, the outcome is tragic. CNN's Martin Savidge has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[20:40:10]

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Vaccine backlash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no evidence that a COVID --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) shut down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. And that's been the data that they --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the COVID --

SAVIDGE: This social media post shows angry Arkansas residents shutting down a state health expert attempting to refute misinformation about coronavirus vaccines.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't need to yell. I'll give you the microphone.

SAVIDGE: Community meetings like these are meant to boost the state's lagging vaccination rates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'd love it but you keep covering it up.

SAVIDGE: Despite the confrontation, Governor Asa Hutchinson says vaccinations are up.

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): We've had a 40 percent increase in people getting the doses.

SAVIDGE: That might sound good, but it still means only about 40 percent of the state's population is fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been rising daily over the past three weeks. The last time the state's ICU has had this many COVID patients was January. But one Little Rock Hospital has never had so many COVID-19 patients, Arkansas Children's Hospital.

SAVIDGE (on camera): So, throughout the pandemic, this is the worst you've seen --

DR. RICK BARR, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER AT ARKANSAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is the worst we've seen in Arkansas, yes. Absolutely.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Half of the hospital's young COVID patients are in the pediatric intensive care unit. At least two are on ventilators.

SAVIDGE (voice over): When a child comes into your unit, do you question the parents and say, have you been vaccinated?

BARR: We do ask.

SAVIDGE: And what do you find? We find that, often, they're not vaccinated. And if their child is here, does it change that parent's mind on the vaccine?

BARR: Oh, absolutely. We've seen that multiple instances where they wish they'd -- now, they wish they'd gotten their child vaccinated.

SAVIDGE: Sick children are a troubling trend. But in Arkansas, COVID- 19 is killing far more adults needlessly.

RACHEL ROSSER, NURSE WHOSE MOM DIED OF COVID-19: I'm angry that she didn't get vaccinated. And I personally feel guilty that I didn't try harder.

SAVIDGE: 63-year-old, Kim (INAUDIBLE) her daughter says loved her life, and everyone in it, especially her grandkids.

ROSSER: She worked out five days a week with a personal trainer. She loved to go to concerts, she loved to go out to eat.

SAVIDGE: Then came the fever, the sore throat, the diagnosis, the ICU, the ventilator and the end. This is a photo of that moment. This is the point where I bring up and say she wasn't vaccinated.

ROSSER: She was not.

SAVIDGE: What reasons did she give?

ROSSER: Not good ones, in my opinion.

SAVIDGE: Her father was also unvaccinated. And that's where Rachel drew the line.

ROSSER: I broke down on his front porch one day after going to visit my mom in the ICU. And I just told him, I said, I'm not doing this again. You need to get vaccinated. I'm not doing this again. I'm not going through this again.

SAVIDGE: He did. As for her mother, all Rachel has left is a phone full of photos and videos, grief and a lot of guilt.

ROSSER: I think I'll always feel like I could have tried harder to convince her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: There are a lot of families that are struggling with loved ones who have just simply refused to get the vaccination. And I asked Rachel about what advice you might have for them, she said, number one, you can't just shut them off. You have to continue that gentle pressure.

But she also suggested a serious conversation and say, all right, if that's your decision, then we need to talk about, have you got a will? If you don't, make one. You know what kind of funeral you want, you want to be buried, you want to be cremated.

In other words, these very real questions that have to be answered. Otherwise, the families will be left with not just the heartbreak but all of the headaches as well.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Little Rock, Arkansas.

NOBLES: Martin, thank you.

CNN's Summer Film Shorts begins tonight. And we start with baby Jessica, the little girl who was rescued against the odds after falling 22 feet down the well.

When we come back, I'll speak to the director of "58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story." Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:45:00]

NOBLES: Well, this summer, CNN is bringing you a special presentation, a series of all new CNN Films Shorts. Over the next two weekends, these documentary short films will spotlight people striving to build different kinds of communities across America. Our first film, "58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story" looks at the famous case of Jessica McClure. And how her small hometown scrambled to save her when she fell and was trapped in an old well at just 18 months old.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Little kid fell down the well. Well, everybody's first thought, well, what, four or five feet, six feet, we can reach down and get her out of there. But, you know, it turned out to be very different. But that hole is not that big around. I don't even think it's 12 inches. Would a dog fall down there, you know, a chihuahua or a small terrier? Yes. But a baby? Last thing that comes to your mind.

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[20:50:06]

NOBLES: Joining us now is Mark Bone. He's the director of "58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story."

Mark, anyone who's around in 1987 remembers this story very well, it was captivating. You had this baby grow trapped underground. I'm getting chills just watching that clip from your film. Her whole town showed up to save her. The whole world tuned into watch. What was it that drew you to this story?

MARK BONE, DIRECTOR "58 HOURS: THE BABY JESSICA STORY": Yes. You mentioned it was a remarkable rescue. But beyond that, it was the paradox that in this tiny little eight-inch hole in the ground, it would become a portal to a new era of media. It kind of shifted the way we consume media forever.

NOBLES: Yes. I remember watching it in my living room with my mother bawling her eyes out as the baby was brought out in real time. She was trapped 22 feet underground. That well was only six to eight inches wide. Just how enormous was the task that rescuers faced in getting her out of that well?

BONE: It was incredible. She had no food or water. And every time they drilled, they ran the risk of her slipping down further, which she did in some cases. And this well didn't just end at 22 feet, it went down, you know, 80, if not 100 feet. So, they're in the risk of losing her completely. But this was Texas and this was oil drilling country. So, it was probably the best place for a baby girl to get trapped in a well because they had all of the tools available.

But it took hundreds of men, and at one point, they had to bring in this state-of-the-art water drill just to be able to drill sideways to get to her because all of their diamond tipped drills were getting blunted by this Texas caliche soil, which was proving really difficult to get to her.

NOBLES: Wow. Just incredible. She's now 35 years old, Jessica McClure, she has her own kids, she hasn't remembered any of this ordeal. But it didn't really take a toll on some of the Midland Texas residents who helped rescue her. Tell us a little bit about that.

BONE: Yes. We kind of look into that in the film. And I don't want to give away quite the ending. But you know, everyone really rallied around this town and celebrated them. And then in turn, there was movies and books being made. And in some ways, they kind of tore apart these bonds that were created through this rescue because everyone then was trying to get, you know, a bit of their piece of the pie, a bit of the fame, but I don't want to paint the town badly.

I went there and got to film their incredible, incredible people. But in turn, when the whole world descends upon a little town, you know, there is some collateral that happens. And unfortunately, in some cases, it even took people's lives.

NOBLES: So, you mentioned about how it changed the way we cover the news to this day.

BONE: Yes.

NOBLES: I want to play this clip, and then we'll talk about it afterwards. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We couldn't really see inside the hole. So, it became clear that the only way to really see the story was to see the story on television. And I'm watching the news. And I'm talking to my editor. And, of course, they're watching the same thing on CNN.

I just felt like a moment when the journalistic world had changed. I'd never reported a story before by watching it on television. And, you know, in the future, there would be many, many, many times when I would.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody listen up, we're going from A1 to A8. Standby and go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And I worked with some of those photographers that were there that day, they still talk about what an incredible story it wants to cover. We just have a little bit of time left.

What happened during these 58 hours that had such a big impact on the way we cover news?

BONE: It's a great question. And that's one of my favorite clips in the film because it really tells you what happened. And that was that our news occurred at 6:00 o'clock. People had to wait till 6:00 o'clock to really get their news. But CNN was positioned really well at that time because they were one of the first 24-hour news channels. So, whenever we wanted to know, is this girl going to survive.

They didn't want to wait till six o'clock. So, they tuned into CNN and it kind of opened up this appetite we had for constant new information and breaking news. And so, that was that shift that people realize they want news all the time, not just after dinner or on their newspaper in the morning.

NOBLES: It's hard to believe that there was a time where people waited until 6:00 o'clock to learn about the news of the day. We are a long way from that.

Well, Mark Bone, this looks like a fascinating film. Thank you so much for joining us. We're all very much looking forward to watching it.

BONE: Thank you.

NOBLES: And our all new series of CNN Film Shorts kicks off with "58 Hours: The Baby Jessica Story." You don't have to go anywhere. It is next, right here on CNN.

And be sure to tune in tomorrow night for another round of CNN NEWSROOM. We'll speak to President Biden's former COVID Senior Advisor, Andy Slavitt, about this week CDC mask guidance and the new Delta variant. Dr. Ashish Jha will answer more of your COVID questions. Education experts, Brian Platzer and Abby Freireich will be on hand to answer your back-to-school questions as well.

[20:55:10]

And a heavy-hitter the labor secretary, Marty Walsh, will join us to talk about the infrastructure bill and what that could mean for new jobs. And maybe we'll also ask him if he thinks it's going to pass. That -- it's all starts at 6:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And I'm Ryan Nobles. Thank you so much for joining me this evening. Have a great night.

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