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CDC/FDA: Vaccine Booster to be Offered Starting Sept. 20; Rep. Vincente Gonzalez (D-TX) Discusses Biden Facing Bipartisan Backlash after Taliban's Swift Takeover; Schools Getting Sidelined as COVID Cases Surge; FL School Board Holds Emergency Meeting as Cases Surge; Humanitarian Efforts Ramp Up in Haiti as Earthquake Death Toll Nears 2K. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired August 18, 2021 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: And for the first time the White House COVID team told us why they are now backing this added shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGIES & INFECTIOUS DISEASE (voice-over): The booster mRNA immunization increases antibody titers by at least tenfold.
You want to stay ahead of the virus. And if you look at the indications that we've had, including with what Dr. Walensky just mentioned, you don't want to find yourself behind, playing catch-up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is with us now.
So, Sanjay, what do the numbers tell us? Why are boosters recommended?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they did, presenting some new data. We had been primarily relying on data from other countries.
But there were three separate data sets they showed showing that the effectiveness against infections from coronavirus was going down, all infections. Whether it was asymptomatic, meaning people didn't have any symptoms at all or people getting sick.
They aggregated all of that data. They were looking at health care providers and frontline workers.
Here's what happened when you pre-Delta and then Delta the majority. And the bar graph on the right is nursing homes specifically, which is a significant concern. As you remember, nearly a third of people who got sick and died of
COVID in the early days were in nursing homes. So seeing that kind of decrease in protection is, I think, what really triggered their concerns.
They sort of summarized it by saying we're seeing some evidence that overall the protection is going down over time, but it's pretty clear that Delta has accelerated the level of protection going down.
I want to point out, it's been a little confusing because people heard even just yesterday that booster shots were not necessarily being recommended. They heard that from the CDC. Today, obviously, a very different tune.
At the same time, they're saying, hey, boosters are probably going to be necessity because we think this is going to continue to wane in terms of effectiveness.
At the same time, they're saying, hey, the overall protection of these vaccines against hospitalization and death remains high. So it's two messages. They're not necessarily in any way in conflict with each other but it does get a little confusing to people.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Yes. It does, Sanjay. And I'm glad you addressed that because not everybody is singing the same tune.
The World Health Organization says there's no evidence that a booster is needed. Why aren't they looking at the same numbers that you just showed us?
GUPTA: Well, I think that they may be looking at the same data.
Here's the difference. What the United States is basically saying is that we recognize that the data shows that the vaccine still remains very protective against hospitalization and death, but because it's less effective against mild or moderate disease, the concern is over the next couple of months it may also start to wane in effectiveness against hospitalization and death.
So it's sort of trying to anticipate here. That hasn't really happened yet. We're not seeing a significant decrease in the protectiveness against hospitalization and death yet, but it may come.
They're saying we want to be ahead of the ball here. That's what Dr. Fauci said in that opening clip you showed.
What the World Health Organization is saying, and they're saying it in a strong way. They're saying this is like giving a life jacket to somebody who already has a life jacket while other people are drowning.
That's what Mike Ryan said, of the WHO, if people are getting mildly ill and you're giving them an extra dose of vaccine, might it be taking away from people in other parts of the world who haven't been able to receive even that first dose of vaccine.
CAMEROTA: Sanjay, we appreciate you always helping us understand all of the sometimes-ever-changing guidance and all of the breaking news.
We really appreciate the context.
Thank you so much.
BLACKWELL: Thanks, Sanjay.
GUPTA: You've got it.
CAMEROTA: So President Biden is under fire from even members of his own party over his handling of Afghanistan, including our next guest who calls the crisis, quote, "another shame" on the administration.
[14:34:11]
BLACKWELL: And a programming note now to be sure to join us for "We Love New York City, The Homecoming Concert." This once-in-a-lifetime event starts Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Eastern exclusively on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Democrats in Congress want answers about the chaos in Afghanistan.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing next week to find out what is going wrong there. The secretary of state and defense secretary are invited to testify.
Dozens of lawmakers from both parties pressing the White House for answers.
My next guest has been very vocal in his frustration. Congressman Vicente Gonzalez is a Democrat from Texas and serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Congressman, thanks for being here.
I want to get your reaction to Kylie Atwood, our national security correspondent, she just crossed this urgent bulletin, breaking news.
The U.S. embassy in Kabul warns that the U.S. government cannot ensure safe passage to the Kabul airport for Americans or for our Afghan friends.
The whole message yesterday from national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, one of the messages, was that the Taliban had agreed to allow safe passage.
[14:40:06]
What does this mean for the tens of thousands of people trying to get out?
REP. VINCENTE GONZALEZ (D-TX): Well, clearly, it's -- those are sad words to hear. First of all, I want to begin by thanking our men and women who served
in uniform and continue to serve in Afghanistan. They accomplished their objectives. They ran off al Qaeda. We killed Osama bin Laden.
And I don't think most Americans feel -- I think most Americans feel there was time to withdraw from Afghanistan.
It was the execution that has been a huge disappointment for myself and I think for most Americans and our friends and allies around the world. I think we could have done a better job in withdrawing.
At this point, there's no sense over crying what's happened the past few days. We need to focus on getting Americans and American personnel out safely and our friends and allies still on the ground and assure their safety.
CAMEROTA: Agreed. But do you think, in the next 13 days, we'll get the 10,000 to 15,000 Americans and the estimates of up to 80,000 helpers and translators out?
GONZALEZ: Well, I never gamble against American resolve. I think we need to do more. We need to step up our efforts and ask our friends and allies who have been helpful in the past to help us in this endeavor and assure that we get everyone out safely.
We also need to keep talking to Taliban and tell them that if they dare pull the trigger on an American citizen on our friends and allies that there will be overwhelming repercussions.
CAMEROTA: They're already blocking safe passage. What repercussions are there going to be?
GONZALEZ: Well, I think that they know we are still committed in an effort to bring everyone out safely, to bring our allies on the ground safely. And I hope that their commitment stands as well to allow everybody out.
I think if you see American casualties or casualties of our friends and allies on the ground, I think you'll see a military response.
CAMEROTA: But do you trust the Taliban? They're already blocking safe passage. Do you trust them to allow safe passage now?
GONZALEZ: Of course not. But they know the military threat. I don't think they want to go back to having an overwhelming presence of Americans there now.
I think they have accomplished a lot, unfortunately. I think that they're going to be calculating.
At the end of the day, I hope that they don't dare come through with any of those threats and certainly harm an American or any of our allies.
CAMEROTA: Do you think that friends of the U.S. and allies on the ground in Afghanistan should trust the U.S. today? GONZALEZ: I think they should. I think we've committed to people
around the world, we've fulfilled our obligations.
Clearly, there was a slip-up on our withdrawal and we could have done better. But I do believe that America is still the leader of the free world.
And I think that we are -- people can rely on us. I think countries around the world can continue to rely on us.
This wasn't our best day or best hour and we're going to have to work through this.
CAMEROTA: Look, we're still in this bad hour.
How are --
(CROSSTALK)
GONZALEZ: That's right.
CAMEROTA: What do you think the U.S. is going to do today to ensure safe passage for those Americans and our allies?
GONZALEZ: Well, clearly send a message to the Taliban that if they dare harm an American or our allies that there will be overwhelming repercussions. That needs to be a clear message.
And also assure that we can back that up militarily if we have to. I hope it doesn't come to that but we have to be ready for it.
CAMEROTA: When you hold these hearings next week, what is the big question that you want answered?
GONZALEZ: Well, how did we plan this withdrawal? It seems like we needed to downsize our military a little at a time.
What communication failure was there from six weeks ago when we heard the president say that there was not a possibility or wasn't likely the Taliban would take over the entire country? What changed so much in just six weeks?
And also there was very little military response on behalf of the Afghanistan army in response to the push forward from the Taliban. I think we should get to the bottom of that as well.
I think there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.
At this point, I am more focused on assuring that we get every single American safely out of Afghanistan and we also get safe passage for all of our friends and allies and people on the ground, interpreters, people we trained.
We need to assure their safety. We have a responsibility.
CAMEROTA: Oh this -- for sure, this is not over. We are in the middle of this.
(CROSSTALK)
CAMEROTA: And we supposedly have 13 days left to do it.
Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, thank you for your time.
GONZALEZ: Thank you.
[14:44:41]
BLACKWELL: One Florida county has more than 10,000 students in quarantine. The school board is holding an emergency meeting right now over whether to mandate masks. We'll bring you the latest, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: The Delta variant continues to rage across the country. The U.S. average of new cases is eclipsing 137,000 a day.
BLACKWELL: And now 99 percent of the country lives in a country with a high or a substantial transmission.
CNN Athena Jones is with us now on how schools are getting sidelined by COVID.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): This Delta variant is no joke. It is out to get, to harm, and ultimately to kill as many people as it can.
[14:50:02]
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the more contagious Delta variant now accounting for nearly all COVID cases in the U.S., the CDC is projecting new hospitalizations and deaths will increase over the next four weeks.
The agency predicting as many as 646,000 COVID deaths by September 11th.
New cases and hospitalizations are already back where they were in November before the first vaccinations began.
The vast majority of hospitalizations occurring among the unvaccinated. The country now averaging more than 137,000 new cases a day with nearly 90,000 people now hospitalized.
In the hardest hit states, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Mississippi and Georgia, intensive care units are more than 90 percent full.
DR. JENNA CARPENTER, PULMONARY CRITICAL CARE PHYSICIAN: Losing within a week three patients under the age of 40, just very heartbreaking.
Of course, I'll get emotional talking about this, which I think a lot of people would understand. But it was a very hard week here at the hospital.
JONES: Alabama reporting it is out of ICU beds.
DR. DON WILLIAMSON, PRESIDENT & CEO, ATLANTA HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION: We are truly now in unchartered territory in terms of our ICU bed capacity.
JONES: New cases in Texas rising nearly 40 percent over the past two weeks. Hospitals in Houston flooded with COVID patients.
Meanwhile Governor Greg Abbott is isolating in the governor's mansion after contracting COVID.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): Also want you to know that I have received the COVID-19 vaccine and that may be one reason why I'm really not feeling any symptoms right now.
JONES: His positive test coming a day after he intended a crowded indoor event where most were not wearing masks.
And with more than 121,000 new child COVID cases reported in the U.S. last week, Texas and Florida lead the nation in new pediatric cases.
The new school year is just starting in many places, yet thousands of students and staff are already quarantined due to COVID cases in districts across the country.
Experts warning this is just the beginning even as the debate over masking in schools rages on.
JENNY GILLIS, TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: We wish more than anything that there could be better safety protocols and procedures in place unvaccinated students safe and our staff safe.
JENNIFER STEVENS, RALLY ORGANIZER: I don't want masks to be forced on my children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: And the debate over masking in schools isn't just continuing, it seems to be heating up in a lot of places.
We're seeing reports of teachers being assaulted by parents who don't want their child to be forced to wear a mask.
And in Louisiana, at a meeting of the state board of elementary and secondary education, the board voted to adjourn because the meeting became so disruptive and the members of the audience refused to put on masks -- Alisyn, Victor?
CAMEROTA: Just horrible.
BLACKWELL: Athena Jones, for us there, thank you so much.
CAMEROTA: Now to Florida. There's this heated emergency school board meeting under way in Hillsborough County right now, where more than 10,000 students are in quarantine and another thousand tested positive so the board is considering a mask mandate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the worst COVID has ever been. And at this rate, there will be no one left to teach our children because they will all be sick.
I'm tired of hearing that this is a divisive issue because only 14 percent of students opted out of mask use.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our state has taken the stand for the freedom of parents to choose what is best for their children. If you take that away, you are in effect saying to every parent here that you know what is better for our children than we do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Now, mask mandates are, as a reminder, banned in Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis has even threatened to withhold funding from any schools that move to require masks.
CAMEROTA: How is it better to have kids out of school in quarantine than in school in masks?
BLACKWELL: And that's the argument that some of these people will have to sell those parents who are there, saying we need masks to keep schools open. They will have to sell that.
Also, once schools close for a lot of these community, those parents have to go back home. That shuts down a lot of communities.
CAMEROTA: All parents wanted the kids in school. And what allows that? Masks.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes.
[14:54:09]
CAMEROTA: OK, now to this. In Haiti, a race to get food and water to survivors of the deadly earthquake. We're live in Port-au-Prince next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: In Haiti, humanitarian efforts are in full swing after Tropical Storm Grace wreaked havoc. And that was after Saturday's earthquake. An estimated 40 percent of the country's population is in need of emergency aid.
BLACKWELL: CNN's Joe Johns is in Port-au-Prince.
Joe, the Pentagon announced a joint task force to help in disaster relief efforts. What are the most urgent needs there now?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: The very basics, food, water, medicine, some type of shelter that would include tarps or tents to shield people from this brutal Haiti sun. A couple days ago, of course, it was that tropical storm that moved
through.
But not every community needs the same thing. For example, there are reports that one of the boroughs in the affected area needs fresh water because all of their fresh water where reserves were destroyed during the earthquake.
There's also a need for road clearing because some of the roads are completely impassable due to rocks and mudslides that occurred during and after the earthquake. So that is important as well.
[15:00:01]
There's also a need for law and order in some places because there's this historic problem in Haiti of gangs on the roads making it difficult for people to pass, even rescuers.
