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After Passing the House, George Floyd Act Shut Down in Senate; George Floyd's Cousin Says We've Been Let Down by Mr. Biden; CDC Advisers Now Debating Pfizer Vaccine Booster Shots; The Lost Sons Premiers Sunday on CNN. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 23, 2021 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Tera, thanks for being back with us, it's nice to see you again. I know you must be so disappointed. You told me when we last spoke in May how much energy and hope you were putting into this. So, what's your reaction to the fact that those talks for the moment are over?

TERA BROWN, GEORGE FLOYD'S COUSIN, DIRECTOR OF GEORGE FLOYD FOUNDATION: I'm thoroughly disappointed. I'm upset, and frankly, I'm hurt. Because I feel like this family has been -- we've been let down by Mr. Biden. We didn't get what were promised.

CAMEROTA: Is that who you blame, President Biden?

BROWN: I don't blame President Biden, but that is what I was told by Mr. Biden, is that this bill was going to get signed. I do understand that he's not the only one responsible. There are Senators involved, and I just don't see how this didn't get done. It needed to be done.

CAMEROTA: President Biden and Vice President Harris soon to be pointing the finger at Senator Tim Scott. That's who Cory Booker said they basically just reached an impasse. Have you ever spoken to those Senators?

BROWN: I have not spoken to him personally, but I would just ask the Senate to think for a minute and just imagine that George is your family member who was brutally and senselessly murdered in broad daylight on the street by a police officer. And if you can imagine that, I mean, that should be enough for anybody to make a decision that's worthwhile in this case, because if that doesn't do it, I don't know what will.

CAMEROTA: What's your biggest disappointment? Do you know how it fell apart?

BROWN: I don't know exactly how it fell apart. My biggest disappointment is I'm the mother of two boys, ages 9 and 14. And one of my biggest fears is that they will encounter the same fate that George did. And what I do know is that without this bill, there is no accountability. And as long as there is no accountability or consequences, the police brutality is going to continue. So, this bill is needed. CAMEROTA: I've spoken to you before. I've spoken to so many of your

family. Philonise, obviously, George's brother. And all of you were optimistic. All of you were hopeful even in your grief, you still had the energy to be hopeful. And I know that you say you put so much energy into this. I don't know if feel like you stopped putting energy into it, or if you were fighting up until yesterday. But I mean what -- where does your family go from here?

BROWN: Well, I can tell you what we're not going to do is give up. Because I do understand that it didn't happen today, but there is a need for this bill to pass. And even though we didn't get the bill right now, we knew that qualified immunity was going to be hard. We knew that was going to be hard. But there are other parts of the bill that we know they could have passed. So, we're going to continue to fight for that.

There are ways that this can happen. So, we're not giving up on that idea that we will get some sort of legislation to support what we're trying to do for the police brutality that is happening and it's continuing to happen.

CAMEROTA: Since it sounds like you're biggest disappointment is with President Biden, what's your message to him today?

BROWN: My message is simply, you know, we were promised that we were going to get the legislation. We were promised that we were going to get the bill passed. And so, I just ask can you just keep the promise.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, that would require executive action. It sounds like that's the next move, since obviously legislation in Congress didn't work.

[15:35:00]

But obviously, we will stay on it, and Tara Brown, I'm sure I will be talking to you again. Thank you for your time today.

BROWN: Thank you for having me.

CAMEROTA: All right, right now we are waiting for a decision on COVID booster shots that could come any minute. So, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is monitoring it and he's going to join us next.

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[15:40:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Vaccine advisors said the CDC are meeting right now to talk about COVID-19 boosters. One of them said boosters will not end the pandemic, but we are learning that benefits are much higher for boosting people over 65 than for younger people. That's according to CDC analysis.

Now, the FDA yesterday granted Emergency Use Authorization for Pfizer boosters in people 65 and older and high-risk adults. But the CDC has to sign off before any booster doses can officially begin. We know some people are going in and getting their booster shots saying this is my first one when it's really their third. We could hear about the decision from this hearing, a vote any minute now.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, great to have you here as we wait for this final decision. So, the FDA approved it. Is there any reason to believe that the CDC today wouldn't also approve it for Emergency Use Authorization?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. I think that it's been authorized then now the CDC makes the formal recommendation, and I think what we're mostly going to hear is more specificity of who actually falls into these groups. We obviously know over 65, that's about 45 million Americans, high risk for severe COVID.

We're going to listen carefully to see how they define that. Type 2 diabetes, for example, cardiovascular disease, people who have taken certain medications, whatever it may be. That could be a very large group. You could be talking over 100 million people potentially falling into that group. And then those at high risk of exposure as you talked about.

So, I think if anything we're just to get some clarity but I don't think there's any likelihood that they are going to somehow reverse this or change their recommendation.

BLACKWELL: So, I want to put that full screen back up, because the groups of people fall into high risk there, it says, health care workers, teachers, daycare staff, grocery workers, those at homeless shelters or prisons, et cetera. The "et cetera" could be potentially the largest category here when you consider who's high risk. The CDC is going to make that decision? Or are we supposed to take maybe a list of criteria and then determine if we fall into that category?

GUPTA: That's a really good question, Victor. I think it's going to be a bit loose. You know, I don't think it's going to be absolutely sort of preordained as the CDC is sort of telegraphed with other things as well. People with high-risk exposure, I mean people who are working on jobs where they're delivering, going straight to people's homes, things like that, might they be considered high risk as well?

So, I think that they probably are going to give some examples but define it. What is considered high risk? High risk of exposure, here's what that means. So, I that think these are recommendations. We know that based on the FDA's authorization that safety is not a concern here. It's known to be a safe vaccine so I think that they're just going to get much more granular about defining who is likely to most benefit from it.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of the safety, Sanjay, I want to ask you about pregnant women. Because I'm sure you have heard as I have heard and Victor has anecdotally, some pregnant women are afraid to get vaccinated. They're afraid that it will do something to the pregnancy. In fact, there's a new study, a new research it that shows the opposite, that it actually provides protection, I guess, in utero for the baby. So, it's even better news for pregnant women. What do you know?

GUPTA: Yes, I mean that's exactly right. I mean this has been so interesting to follow, Alisyn, because you'll remember talking to you about this. In the beginning pregnant women were not part of the original trials so that got a lot of people sort of concerned. There were women who became pregnant during the original trial, so that was some early data, I'm talking the end of last year. But over the last several months, there has been a lot of studies on pregnant women looking at safety of the vaccine. And now, you know, it is officially, formally recommended by the CDC for pregnant women to get this. Safe, effective.

But now these new studies -- very interesting and this one of a few studies saying when a woman especially during the second half of pregnancy, as they defined it, received a vaccine, not only did they, the pregnant woman make antibodies that were protective for them, but it also passed through the placenta and provided what is known as passive immunity for the baby as well.

So, when the baby is born, they're actually born with antibodies. Why is this so significant? Well, there is no vaccine, right, for very young children certainly not babies, this is way to potentially provide some protection.

Look, they're at low risk of getting infected, they're at low risk certainly of becoming ill, but this is a possibility of providing protection just because the mom got vaccinated while she was pregnant.

BLACKWELL: Sanjay, let's talk about Florida which we often do in these conversations about virus and mitigation there. They have got a new Surgeon General there in the state and they are moving to a symptom- based approach when it comes to quarantining students.

[15:45:02]

Asymptomatic children who have been exposed to COVID in classrooms could be sent back to school by their parents if they make that decision. Is that a smart public health perspective to send the kids back? We know that there is asymptomatic spread.

GUPTA: Yes, right, I mean that's the key, this is circa March, April 2020 thinking unfortunately. We've learned a lot about this virus.

I think it's two things. One, just as a parent myself, just feel like it's a lot to put on parents. I mean how are they supposed to figure this out? We know it can spread asymptomatically, so that's not really the point in terms of determining whether or not your child should stay home.

Second of all, we know that even for vaccinated people who've had a known exposure the recommendation is that they quarantine until they get tested three to five days after exposure and see -- make sure that test is negative. And they're not even recommending that.

So, it's not effective and unfortunately, it's decisions like that can sort of perpetuate the spread and perpetuate this pandemic. BLACKWELL: All right, Dr. Gupta, thank you very much. Again, we are

waiting for a recommendation from this CDC committee, and, of course, we'll bring it to you as soon as we get it.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Sanjay.

BLACKWELL: All right, a divided Democratic Party is threatening to derail President Biden's top legislative priorities all while a potential government shutdown looms.

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[15:50:00]

BLACKWELL: When Paul J. Fronczak was a young boy he learned he had been kidnapped as a newborn and two years later reunited with his family or so he thought. Now the new CNN film "THE LOST SONS" takes an intimate look at Paul's story and the unimaginable journey he has taken to find himself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL J. FRONCZAK, MAN WITH UNKNOWN IDENTITY: My mom was upstairs. My dad was at work. I was 10 years old. And I was snooping around the house looking for Christmas presents.

And I thought, this is a great time to go in the crawl space because I know it is a great place to hide presents. I saw a bunch of boxes. I thought, this is it. The big score, right? It's just like papers and things. It's not a present.

Open another one. A bunch of cards, more letters and newspaper clippings. I'm like, this isn't Christmas. So, I got a look at one and it said 500 search for kidnapped baby. Another one, Fronczak baby still missing. So, I started reading it. And it said Paul Joseph Fronczak kidnapped from Michael Reese Hospital and I saw a picture of my mom and dad and they looked really, really sad and heartbroken and distraught. I thought, wait that's me. What happened?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Oh, my goodness. What a story. Joining us now is a genetic genealogist CeCe Moore. She played a key role in helping Paul Fronczak untangle the mystery of his past. CeCe great to have you here. Where do you begin with a mystery like that?

CECE MOORE, GENETIC GENEALOGIST: Well, genetic genealogy is really a revolution in human identification. So, the first step is to get DNA tested. And someone like Paul needs to get tested at a consumer DNA testing company and compare it against the millions of others that are in those data bases.

BLACKWELL: So CeCe, you say in the film that people don't have necessarily a right to have a relationship with their biological family but they do have a birth right to the knowledge of their heritage. Talk about that. Why it's so important. MOORE: Alex Haley talked about that yearning, that need to know who we

are and where we came from, our roots. And I've seen that with millions of people now with the advent of direct consumer DNA testing and genetic genealogy. I'm not saying everybody cares about that but there are millions of people who yearn for answers about their self- identity questions, family mysteries, answers in violent crimes.

And so, there's a lot of applications that genetic genealogy can help to find the answers. And Paul's story is an amazing example of that.

CAMEROTA: OK, so back to Paul's story for a moment. And I don't want to give too much away because we want everybody to tune in and see the whole story. But there's a bigger mystery, right. When he starts diving into this, everything was a lie. Is that right?

MOORE: Right. So, with Paul, he is incredibly dedicated to finding answers but unfortunately for him every time we find an answer for him it opens up a new mystery. And so, while DNA testing was able to provide some very important answers it also opened up additional mysteries that he had to then try to solve. And so, his story just goes on and on, and he just never gives up.

CAMEROTA: All right, well, CeCe Moore, thank you very much for helping us preview this. The new CNN film "THE LOST SONS" premieres Sunday night at 9:00 only on CNN.

All right. We also have breaking news. Memphis police officers are on the scene of an active shooting at a Kroger located in Collierville, Tennessee, this is according to a local newspaper.

[15:55:00]

Multiple injuries have been reported and people are being taken to the hospital. So, stay with CNN for updates as the story develops.

BLACKWELL: And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right after this.

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