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AAP Says, Child COVID-19 Cases Rise Sharply after Early Summer Declines; Afghan YouTube Star Killed Attempting to Escape; Wildfire Prompts States of Emergency in Nevada and California. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 31, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: This just into CNN. The American Academy of Pediatrics has just released some really troubling numbers concerning COVID-19 and children. According to this new report, more than 200,000 children tested positive for COVID-19 last week. That is five times higher than just a month ago. It comes after declines over the summer.

Joining me now is Dr. Richina Bicette. She's Medical Director at the Baylor College of Medicine and as well an emergency medicine physician. Good to have you back, Dr. Bicette.

I know kids are going back to school, so that is a natural place for them to be exposed to this and pick up infections, but this is a five- fold increase from last month. How concerned should we be about this?

DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, BAYLOR ST. LUKE'S MCNAIR EMERGENCY CENTER: Well, I think we should be concerned not just because of the sheer numbers. It is actually the trend that is frightening. When you look at the direction things are going, the number of pediatric cases are increasing and they are going to keep increasing.

[10:35:04]

The American Academy of Pediatrics reported that, at the end of last week, pediatric cases made up about 22 percent of total COVID cases for the entire week, whereas, historically, throughout the pandemic, they've made up about 13 to 14 percent. That's a 9 percent rise in pediatric cases over the last couple of weeks.

SCIUTTO: Okay. So these are infections, right? And it is still true that the vast majority of children will not be hospitalized or become seriously ill, but some will. And all we in this data seeing that more children, a higher percentage of children who are infected, are ending up with severe illness.

BICETTE: I think we're definitely seeing a greater amount of cases but the jury is still out on whether or not that percentage of pediatric hospitalizations have increased. So, for example, the Department of Health and Human Services in Florida reported that at the beginning of July, they only had 20 pediatric cases hospitalized with COVID. As of yesterday, that number has jumped up over ten times to 224. So, again, the actual number doesn't sound that large but it is the trend.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Given that trend, and it is real, and what we've heard about data submitted so far on emergency use authorization for the vaccine for children under 12, what is your best guess as to when that vaccine will be available to children? Is it coming soon? Will it be before Christmas?

BICETTE: We're hoping that we're going to see results of that data and, hopefully, emergency use authorization sometime this fall. The margin of error is much, much smaller when we are talking about pediatric vaccines. So, both Pfizer and Moderna have been conducting clinical trials on children as young as six months since the springtime but they definitely want they accumulate a lot of data before we present this to the FDA in order for it to be approved.

SCIUTTO: Understood, understandable. Okay, let's talk about the situation right now, because Texas, a state, unfortunately, with a lower vaccination rate than many other states, and we're seeing a jump in hospitalizations there, and now a shortage of ICU beds, how severe is that shortage in Texas?

BICETTE: Texas is one of the five states across the U.S. that's reporting less than 10 percent of ICU bed availability. Here in the Texas Medical Center, our ICU beds are full. They have deployed some surge capacity. But even when you look at the surge capacity, Jim, we're still at 88 percent of our surge capacity being full. So, the situation is pretty dire.

SCIUTTO: Does that mean that people with -- first of all, does that mean you can't treat all of the severely ill people with COVID but it is also crowding out others who have severe illness that needs to be treated in an ICU?

BICETTE: An ICU bed is an ICU bed. While some places may have designated ICUs for COVID just to cohort all of the sick patients, if there are no ICU beds available, if doesn't matter if you've been in a car accident, if you're having a stroke or if you're having a heart attack, there is not going to be a bed available for you.

SCIUTTO: With real health consequences. Listen, that is why the vaccine, it is not just about your health, it is about others. Dr. Richina Bicette, thanks so much for joining us.

BICETTE: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well an Afghan YouTube star was killed in that terror attack near the Kabul airport soon after recording a goodbye video because she was too scared to walk the street. You're going to -- it's going to be heartbreaking to see, right, this young woman, hear her haunting words, just ahead.

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[10:40:00]

SCIUTTO: Among the many concerns for the people of Afghanistan going forward is what will happen to women and girls who gained the freedom to go to school and to work over the last two decades. Many are understandably skeptical of Taliban claims that they will somehow moderate, especially when stories are already emerging about women being ordered to stay home from work.

Jomana Karadsheh has the story of a young woman who lived nearly her entire life in Afghanistan without Taliban rule, she lost it simply trying to escape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since we are not allowed to go out to work or out of our homes, we all had to record a last video for you, and through this video, say goodbye to you. And all I ask you is to keep us in your prayers.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This was Najma Sadeqi's goodbye video to thousands of her followers, a goodbye to the only way of life this 20-year-old Afghan YouTube star has ever known.

For Najma's generation of Afghan women, life under the Taliban was a story of the past. Just days before the fall of her city, Najma was out on the streets of Kabul. You could easily think this trio of YouTube reporters in their bright fashionably clothes were out on the streets of another modern city, like Dubai or Doha, smiling and giggling, just having fun. Najma was doing what she loved the most, reporting on daily life in her beloved city.

[10:45:00]

Four days after the fall of Kabul, she recorded this video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Life in Kabul has become very difficult, especially for those who used to be free and happy. We are all in our homes and do not have the ability and courage to go outside, to go back to work, to go back to our universities. We are no longer able to record programs and study.

Despite what they're saying, that they don't have any problems with girls, that girls can seek education, go to university and go to work, but we've heard about their past. We can no longer trust them to go back to university or work with the kind of courage we used to have.

KARADSHEH: She was studying to become a journalist. In her final year at a Kabul Journalism Institute, She joined the Afghan Insider YouTube channel, a job she clearly loved but it was more than just that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of the families in the city are just waiting for one meal a day to survive now. I was working to make enough money to pay for my daily expenses and for my education. Like me, there were many other girls who were the bread winners of their entire families. They were the ones who didn't have an older brother or father to provide. But now, they're at home waiting for the situation to get better. I don't have the ability to talk any longer and I can't say any more. Just pray for us. Pray for us that we don't go too far away from our hopes and dreams and that we become the girls that we were once again, that we can we be happy and again wear the clothes that we love to.

KARADSHEH: But as her world collapsed, she had to get out before it was too late. In desperation, Najma, her brother and cousin joined thousands of others at the Kabul airport trying to escape a life without much hope. They never made it out. The three were among the more than 170 lives lost in Thursday's murderous attack. The haunting words in her goodbye video now more than just a farewell to freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wish it was just a bad dream. I wish we could wake up one day or someone could wake us up saying, drink a glass of water, you had a bad dream. But I know that it is impossible and it is a reality that we are finished.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: That poor little girl, one of the many lives lost in the terror attack last week.

Well, next, states of emergency in California and Nevada after a fast- moving wildfire rips across the region, yet one more forest fire. Tens of thousands of people now forced to evacuate, Lake Tahoe in danger. We're going to be live there next.

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[10:50:00]

SCIUTTO: Officials are now telling everyone in the city of South Lake Tahoe to evacuate. This as the fast-moving Caldor Fire, as it is known, threatens thousands of residents in the area out west. The governors of Nevada and California have issued states of emergency this morning. The wildfire yet one more to ravage the west, has burned more than 191,000 acres. At this point, only 15 percent of it is contained by firefighters.

CNN's Dan Simon, he is in South Lake Tahoe where that evacuation is now underway. Are people listening? Are they able to get out?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are, Jim. And we are potentially looking at an absolute worst case scenario with this fire pushing ever closer to the Lake Tahoe region. We are in the community of South Lake Tahoe, this area under a mandatory evacuation order. This, of course, is known as a popular tourist area, skiing in the winter, boating and hiking in the summer. And now it is an absolute ghost town, which is very striking to see even in this early morning hour. Perhaps you can also see just how smoky it is out here.

And I want to you listen now to one resident who we caught up with, as he was packing his belongings and hitting the road.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NAT LAWRENCE, SOUTH LAKE TAHOE EVACUEE: I try to stay calm but there is panic now because the fire is threatening our community, which we never thought was going to -- we thought they were going to get it under control but Mother Nature suggested otherwise. And now we're looking at, you know, our whatever little precious belongings we have packed up and we're relocating and, hopefully, we have a home and a community to come back to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: And while the streets are empty right now, you should have seen what things looked like yesterday. Traffic coming to a grinding halt as you had tens of thousands of motorists on the road headed towards safety.

And, Jim, of course, crews told us that this was going to be a very challenging fire season and it has been that and more. And this Caldor fire has been particularly stubborn. It has now charred more than 191,000 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes.

[10:55:03]

And we don't know what is going to happen. Obviously, it is the wind that is pushing this fire, pushing the embers in all sorts of directions and now the fight is on to save the communities in and around Lake Tahoe. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes, just one after another. I mean, It is mind-boggling. Dan Simon on the ground there, thanks very much.

And thanks so much to all of you for joining us today. I'm Jim Sciutto. At this hour with Kate Bolduan will start right after a short break.

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[11:00:00]