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Deadly Firefight at Kabul Airport; Biden Says Troops May Remain After August 31st; ISIS Terror Threat Forces Alternate Routes to Kabul; FDA Expected to Approve Pfizer Vaccine; Lawsuit against Florida Governor's Mask Mandate; Poll on Vaccinations; Dr. Amy Compton Phillips is Interviewed about Vaccines. Aired 9:00-9:30a ET

Aired August 23, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: They look at these Afghans and their kids, they see their own kids.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

KEILAR: They see people who kept them alive. And so they're not really making a distinction between the importance of American lives and the lives of their friends. These are their friends. These are their brothers and sisters in arms. And they really want to see them delivered to the safety that they've been promised by the U.S.

BERMAN: Well, we appreciate what's going on in houses like yours around the country.

CNN's coverage continues right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Monday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

The desperate evacuation from Afghanistan is accelerating, though fraught with danger. Overnight, a violent firefight erupted at the Kabul Airport between U.S., German and Afghan forces guarding the airport and a group of unknown assailants.

According to a White House official, the U.S. has evacuated 10,400 people on Sunday alone. That, the most in a 24-hour period to date.

A source close to the situation on the ground tells CNN the numbers at the airport, those waiting there, still remain close to 13,000 this morning.

We're going to have more on that in just a moment.

We are also following an imminent and major milestone in the race to vaccinate Americans. Two Biden administration officials say that full FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine could come as early as today. Once that happens, the surgeon general says more businesses and institutions will likely begin to mandate vaccinations. Another key step in the race to stem the surging delta variant.

We're going to get to that in a moment.

Let's begin, though, with the violence in Afghanistan. The evacuations there. Our team is tracking all the latest developments from the Pentagon and the White House.

Let's kick things off, though, with CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in Doha, Qatar, where many of those evacuated Afghans are going.

First, Nick, if I could begin with this firefight this morning at the airport. Have U.S. and international forces there been able to calm the situation down?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, it appears to be -- I mean not -- I say isolated because I heard gunfire outside the airport when I was there back in Tuesday of last week, but an incident which occurred at 4:00 a.m. in which apparently a sniper, not quite know who he was working for, shot dead one of the Afghan security forces that assist U.S. troops in securing that base.

Now, the Afghans he was with returned fire, but they did so in the general direction of some U.S. Marines, who thought they were under attack. And then, as far as I understand, fired back, injuring four Afghans. A real sign, frankly of the confusion.

There was sleepless, exhausted Marines when I was there a week ago. Now, obviously seeing people literally on their last legs. But it's a sign too of that fraying security around the edges of the airport and clearly the fact that there is some sort of element wishing harm to those Afghans on the base, hence the sniper. So a signs of how things are beginning to deteriorate and certainly many U.S. officials talking about the ISIS-K threat in Afghanistan. Remember, too, there are Taliban on the outskirts of that base as well.

The numbers, though, today, utterly extraordinary. This morning I was hearing 20,000 on the base. They've got that down to 13,000 in the space of about 24 hours. Ten thousand people flown out. That is just absolutely staggering. And of those left, the majority, I understand, are Afghans, some not entirely with documentation.

The question is, how much longer does this go on for? And a source I spoke to on the base says that there's no talk at this point of extending past August the 31st. That's the deadline that Joe Biden originally set. That's the deadline the Taliban want them to stick to. And that means there are some very fast moving days ahead as they bring out the remainder that they can and begin to withdraw those nearly 6,000 troops on the base.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: We'll see if they are able to extend that deadline. Nick Paton Walsh in Qatar, as we mentioned, where many of those evacuees are going.

Well, this morning, a spokesperson for the Taliban tells CNN that all U.S. forces must leave Afghanistan by the end of the month. It comes after President Biden said on Sunday that his administration might keep troops there beyond what is a self-imposed August 31st deadline in order to complete those evacuations, like the one you're seeing there.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins me now from the White House.

Jeremy, I wonder, is there a White House response to this Taliban statement here? I imagine the U.S. doesn't have to listen to the Taliban, does it, if it's willing to react with force? What's the position there at the White House now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Listen, officials have been very careful as they've discussed the possibility of extending this August 31st deadline. And we did hear from the president directly on this yesterday. He did say that discussions are underway about the possibility of extending that deadline past August 31st. The president, in the past, has said that, look, he believes that these evacuations can be completed by that deadline but that he will kind of determine whether or not it needs to be extended once he crosses that bridge.

[09:05:02]

But it's clear that the Taliban do not want the U.S. to extend past that. And then, of course, if the U.S. and the Taliban are at odds, again, the U.S. just controls that airport. So they are encircled by Taliban fighters. That could become a very dicey situation.

But the president did say that the U.S. is doing more to get Americans safely to the airport. Listen to him just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're working hard and as fast as we can to get people out.

We have made a number of changes including extending access around the airport and the safe zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And it's clear that the United States military also appears to be doing more to get Americans who are outside of the airport actually into the airport and on to flights. But those efforts, many of those are still staying quite secret.

One thing to watch for tomorrow, President Biden is expected to meet virtually with G7 leaders. And sources are telling us that those G7 leaders are also expect expected to also press the president to extend that August 31st deadline. Of course it's not just Americans Afghans, but also these coalition partners who need to get their people out.

And, Jim, finally, the president still stressing that this evacuation was going to be hard and painful no matter what. Despite the intense criticism that he is facing, including from members of his own party, the president insisting that this has been well executed. But, again, the criticism is really far reaching on the execution of this, if not for the decision to withdraw all together.

SCIUTTO: Disagreement on both fronts. Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.

Right now the U.S. military is establishing, it says, alternative routes to the Kabul Airport for people trying to escape the country. Many of them simply can't get there. It's also due to increasing threats posed by the terror group known as ISIS-K. This according to two U.S. defense officials.

CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.

So, Barbara, I'm curious exactly how the U.S. military is doing this. The president says he is extending the cordon, in fact, outside the airport walls. We're hearing of alternate routes. Does that mean U.S. forces are leaving the Kabul Airport to escort people there?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, everyone is being very close hold about the details of this for obvious reasons, which is, you know, they're trying to keep these routes going as long as they can without having that ISIS-K element know where they are and potentially interfere because right now ISIS-K, ISIS in Afghanistan, is a major concern for the administration. They are concerned very much that they, that ISIS group, may be planning an attack.

The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, spoke about it over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The threat is real. It is acute. It is persistent. And it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal. Our commanders on the ground have a wide variety of capabilities that they are using to defend the airfield against a potential terrorist attack. We are working hard with our intelligence community to try to isolate and determine where an attack might come from. It is something that we are placing paramount priority on stopping or disrupting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: So right now, if there is any shred of potentially positive news in all of this, as the U.S. works with the Taliban to secure efforts to get Americans and qualified Afghans, third-party nationals inside the gates at the airport, they know that the Taliban essentially is sworn enemies of ISIS-K. And behind the scenes, they hope the Taliban does something about it.

SCIUTTO: We'll see. Are they a trustworthy partner on that?

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thanks very much.

Now, for a moment, some good news here at home. This on the race to vaccinate Americans. Sources tell CNN that the FDA could grant full approval for the Pfizer vaccine as early as today. Remember, it's been operating to this point under what's called Emergency Use Authorization. And many tens of millions of Americans have already been vaccinated. But making it fully approved could be a major step in ramping up vaccinations as the delta variant fuels infection surges in many states.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now.

So, Elizabeth, explain why making this fully approved would be so significant.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jim, in some ways it's not going to make a difference for people like you and me. We're already vaccinated. We got it under emergency authorization. It's the same drug, same clinical trial with more than 40,000 people.

But with approval, they've had more time to look at that safety and efficacy data. And once it is approved, then the thought is, is that people might feel more comfortable. The unvaccinated might feel more comfortable with it.

So let's take a look at that and at some other elements that could mean this approval will make a difference.

So, again, it could encourage people to get vaccinated. Some people might say, oh, before it was only authorized in an emergency way. I want the full deal. I want the full approval. Now I'll roll up my sleeve.

[09:10:01]

Unclear how many people will feel that way.

It could also encourage business and schools, restaurants, et cetera, to mandate vaccinations. Some are already doing it now. To get into a restaurant in New York City, you need to show you've been vaccinated. But the thinking is that more groups will say, OK, now I feel more comfortable telling people they have to be vaccinated to come work in my -- in my business, et cetera.

Let's take a look at how vaccinations are doing in the United States. As you can see, they -- they -- they really had that spike in the spring, then really tanked over the summer, and went up slightly very, very recently because people got scared because of delta.

So let's look at who's left. Eighty-four million Americans -- 82 million, rather, Americans have not gotten vaccinated even though they are eligible. That's 29 percent of the eligible population. So, still, there's 29 percent of people living in the United States who could get vaccinated, who haven't. It's hoping that this full approval will make a difference to at least some of them.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Trying to figure out 71 percent have.

COHEN: That's right.

SCIUTTO: And given where we were a few months ago, that's no small thing.

COHEN: That's fair.

SCIUTTO: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.

COHEN: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Well, Florida's largest school district starts in-person learning today with a mask mandate in place. The Miami-Dade superintendent just telling CNN the district stands firm on this requirement, despite the governor's threats to penalize them for doing so. We're go to be live there, next.

Plus, in-fighting among House Democrats potentially coming to a head in the coming days. Could those disagreements hold up President Biden's sweeping infrastructure agenda? We're going to speak to a lawmaker at the center of that debate.

And --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's houses moved off their foundation. Cars and trees. I mean this is a -- this is almost a biblical proportion here, like a massive tornado come through here.

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SCIUTTO: Just devastating pictures from Tennessee. Search and rescue operations underway after severe flooding led to what officials called a devastating loss of life there. We're going to take you to Tennessee, live.

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[09:16:28]

SCIUTTO: In person classes begin today in Miami-Dade County, Florida, one of the largest school districts in the country, with a mask mandate firmly in place. This defies Governor Ron DeSantis' executive order prohibiting such mandates. Miami-Dade is one of seven Florida school districts going against the governor now.

And later today, Florida parents who filed a lawsuit against DeSantis over the mandate ban will appear in court.

CNN's Leyla Santiago is on the ground there.

Leyla, first, I wonder, you know, the government had an anti-mandate in place. The schools are enforcing a mask mandate. Is anything being done to stop them this morning? LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we just went into this Miami-Dade high school and we actually saw that the schools were wearing masks. Of course that makes sense, right, because last week Miami-Dade passed the mask mandate that does not allow for a parent opt-out. This is the largest school district, as you mentioned, Jim, in Florida, 334,000 students.

But let's back up and kind of go over the timeline as to how we got here. Remember, the governor signed that executive order that said those type of mandates not allowed in Florida. You had two school districts move forward with it anyway and they have since been told by the state that they are in violation of the law and that state funding will be withheld.

Since the state made that declaration, five more school districts moving forward with those mask mandates anyway, several others considering it as we speak.

So, as I was in this school, talking to the superintendent, I asked him, how is he focusing on, you know, the excitement of the first day of school and the important things, safety, education and health, when there's so much politics at play?

Here is his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY: I hope to shoulder that responsibility and that stress, and immunize my teachers as much as possible from that. And I think that's the responsibility. That's what I've conveyed to the community, to the state, to the federal government is, you know, if there's a consequence, put it on me. If there's a price to be paid, put it on me. Exempt our teachers and students from that. And I'm willing to shoulder that burden with pride and honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: The Miami-Dade superintendent saying that he has, since this passed, not had any communication with the governor's office.

You know, something else interesting. The Miami-Dade mayor was also here for the first day of school, and she was asked if Miami-Dade, as a county, would be taking any similar steps as the White House, offering to provide money if the superintendent's salary or school board members' salary is withheld. And she said that, yes. So now you have local municipalities also saying that they will be supportive of schools mandating masks like this.

SCIUTTO: A simple public health measure.

Leyla Santiago in Miami-Dade, thanks so much.

Well, beginning next month, health officials will start giving COVID- 19 booster shots for those who are eight months removed from their second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. New polling suggests that the third shot may be very popular among those fully vaccinated.

CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten joins us to break down those numbers.

Harry, this is important here. Tell us just how popular these boosters are with folks.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: They're extremely popular. You know, if you look, there was an Ipsos poll that was conducted towards the end of last month, beginning of this month.

[09:20:00]

And what did you see? Among those who were vaccinated, look how many said that they would likely get it. Eighty-seven percent said they would likely get it if public health officials recommended it.

What's also interesting was that if it was recommended to get it annually, like a flu shot, again, 87 percent of vaccinated adults said that they would. So they're quite popular.

To put this into some perspective, right, we can look at this in real- world numbers. And what do we see here? If you were to put this into real world numbers, what you would see is about 130 million Americans who will be eligible and likely to get a booster. About 130 million Americans, versus just about 70 million Americans, adult Americans, who have not even received a single COVID vaccine shot.

So this, to me, puts into perspective how popular these boosters really will be.

SCIUTTO: So tell us about the timeline here, because this recommendation is for eight months following getting you second dose. It was the summertime really when those vaccinations peaked. So what is the timeline looking forward -- look like going forward?

ENTEN: Yes, this is fun. I went into my little Excel spreadsheet and basically I projected forward eight months. And what do we see here. Look, at the beginning of this, what generally we're seeing is a slow sort of ramp-up. So, in September, what we'll generally see is only about 5 million Americans will be -- or adults will be eligible to receive a booster. That jumps up to about 21 million in October, 26 million in November. Look at that in December, about 43 million. That's jumped forward from April when we really were at the height of the vaccination process among adults.

And then, in 2022, we'll basically get about 52 million Americans. That number will likely go up, right, as more people get vaccinated but we'll see the sort of slow ramp up and a lot more people be eligible for that booster towards the end of this year.

SCIUTTO: OK. There's always a political angle here because Biden's handling of COVID is central to his approval numbers, much as Trump's handling was, was essential to his approval numbers. So how could this timeline you're describing here affect his overall approval rating? ENTEN: Yes. You know, what we have seen over the last few months is

that Joe Biden's approval rating has dropped overall and it's dropped overall as his handling of the pandemic has dropped. And that -- look at this, this correlation is so clear. And part of what's driving this is the fact that the delta variant right now is peaking in the --or, you know, is on the rise in the United States.

And so I think the more people who can get these booster shots and perhaps lower the levels of delta, we could see that Biden's handling of the pandemic may go up and that could have a direct translation to his overall approval. We don't know that, but certainly Biden is very much looking forward to this idea that we can get some boosters because that is directly probably related to his overall approval rating.

SCIUTTO: And also, frankly, get more of the unvaccinated vaccinated.

Harry Enten, thanks so much.

ENTEN: Thank you, sir.

SCIUTTO: All right, let's look at some of the medicine here. Dr. Amy Compton Phillips, she is the chief clinical officer at Providence Health System.

Doctor, good to have you back.

So the big news is that the possibility that as soon as today full FDA approval for the Pfizer vaccine.

I want to play for you how the surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, described the significance of this and get a sense of whether you agree.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, SURGEON GENERAL: I think for people who have been waiting for this, the -- I think -- and that's a small number of people, but I think still significant, I think this may tip them over toward getting vaccinated. But I also think that for businesses and universities that have been thinking about putting vaccine requirements in place in order to create safer spaces for people to work and learn, I think that this move from the FDA when it comes will actually help them to move forward with those kind of plans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: So two pieces to that. He's saying, encourage the vaccine hesitant to get this, but also encourage institutions, in effect, or allow them to put in mandates. I mean you deal with a lot of patients and you deal with a lot of institutions on this. Do you agree with that?

DR. AMY COMPTON PHILLIPS, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, PROVIDENCE HEALTH SYSTEM: I completely agree with that. You know, the -- I'm on the West Coast. And up and down the West Coast, the states of Washington, Oregon and California all have vaccine mandates in place for health care workers that go into effect once the FDA issues full approval.

And so we absolutely will see an uptick because we're -- we will have those mandates in place with very, very narrow exceptions. And so we're expecting that we -- all those -- that slice of people that have not yet been vaccinated that want to continue to work in health care, they're going to be coming in. And there's a lot of other businesses that have very similar mandates.

SCIUTTO: How about for the vaccine hesitant? We've heard for some time that some people say, hey, listen, once it's got full approval, I'm on board. I mean, in your experience with patients, do you believe that's true?

PHILLIPS: I do believe that's true. You know, I would define a couple different groups in the people that haven't been vaccinated yet. There's a small group of the virulently anti-vaxxers that -- that either through whatever beliefs that they have, or what they've read online, truly believe that the vaccine offers more harm than good.

[09:25:03]

That's a very small group.

The other group is -- is much more common. And that's the vaccine hesitant that believe, for some reason, that the vaccine was rushed, which we know it was not. Or that it, you know, perhaps might not be right for their family. That's the group that because the FDA now has gone through all of the hoops, they've inspected the factories, they've digested the data and now, you know, well -- hundreds of millions of people have had these vaccines with really no major known side effects.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

PHILLIPS: That now, hopefully, that they will actually be much more comfortable and confident to come in and get the vaccine.

SCIUTTO: Please. I mean the data's so clear, it keeps people alive and out of the hospital.

OK, the next group, right, are children under 12. I've heard widely different estimates as to when the first step, Emergency Use Authorization, will come for children under 12.

Dr. Fauci was saying earlier this month it could come as soon as September. And I just wonder, do you find that timeline realistic?

PHILLIPS: You know, it really is when the data gets accumulated. You know, the -- for better or for worse, the more common the infections are, the more rapidly they can collect the data. So, you know, the -- perhaps silver lining in a horrible delta surge is we might be able to get the data a little bit sooner because we had been picturing it later in the fall. SCIUTTO: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But with the advent in cases going up, it might come in a little faster.

SCIUTTO: Interesting. OK.

Final question, we're already talking about boosters now, even as you're still trying to convince other people to get their first shots here. There's a study -- a new study out of Israel that's been doing a lot of the data gathering here, this according to "The Washington Post," that showed a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine provides four times as much protection against infection as just two doses alone, this in people 60 and older, of course one of the most vulnerable groups.

Tell us the significance of that in terms of this next phase, right, getting boosters to people.

PHILLIPS: It's very significant because they work. You know, initially, we had the two-shot series because we had a primer boost where you let your immune system kind of know what's coming and then the second shot, which we were calling the booster shot, right, the second shot which greatly amplifies the immune response. Well, it turns out that that third shot does even better. And so that's what we'll be seeing with these booster shots, that it's kind of this building one on the other, really allowing the immune system to develop what we hope will be longer lasting, more effective antibodies to the germ.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, it seems like it could be so essential, right, as a way of fighting the delta surge.

Dr. Amy Compton Phillips, always good to have you on.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, search and rescue teams are frantically looking for survivors in Tennessee after just a devastating flood there that has killed at least 21 people at the latest count. Among the victims, twin babies. We're going to take you there.

And we're moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures up this morning. Investors are waiting on data from the manufacturing and services sectors. They're also focusing on a key event where the Fed could hint at prospects for tapering stimulus in the markets. We'll going to keep a close eye.

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