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Americans Face Sticker Shock as Inflation Hits 30-Year High; Germany Sees Record Infections, Bavaria Declares Emergency; Biden Commemorates Veterans Day; Interview with Denis McDonough, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, White House Announcement of Better Health Care Services for Veterans. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired November 11, 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]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Welcome back. Surging consumer prices are among the most pressing issues facing President Biden. Now according to yesterday's inflation report, we've seen a more than 6 percent rise in prices in the last year.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And as the holidays approach, grocery staples are going up. Bacon is up 20 percent.
BLACKWELL: Not bacon.
CAMEROTA: Yes. What will we do? The war on bacon. Eggs are up 12 percent. Milk is up 6 percent. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich went to Iowa to learn the impact on folks there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's a chill in the air in Iowa. Winter is coming.
JOHN HOSKINS, ANKENY, IOWA RESIDENT: It's coming. So, we flip the fireplace on and get a little heat that way instead of turning the furnace up.
YURKEVICH (voice over): That's because heating bills for many Iowans could nearly double this winter, a warning from the state's largest power provider, MidAmerican Energy.
HOSKINS: We're all hard-working middle-class folks, you know, we can't go too far out of our means to make ends meet. But you know, you still got to eat, you still got to live.
YURKEVICH (voice over): On Wednesday, the U.S. once again woke up to sticker shock. Gas, cars, energy and food just some consumer goods that rose .9 percent together on average in October and are up 6.2 percent this past year. The biggest 12-month increase since 1990.
HOSKINS: Bacon was pretty high. I've kind of seen it on the news a little bit. But yes, it's jumped up a few dollars. So --
YURKEVICH: Did that stop you from buying anything today? HOSKINS: I thought I'd buy it and put it in the freezer to be totally honest with you.
YURKEVICH (voice over): The Lentz were also out shopping early for their Thanksgiving dinner.
YURKEVICH: Did you notice that prices were a little bit higher?
EVELYN LENTZ, ANKENY, IOWA RESIDENT: Yes, quite a bit higher. Quite a bit higher.
YURKEVICH (voice over): And soon the couple will escape the Iowa cold and their high energy bill for Arizona, but it will still cost them.
GARY LENTZ, ANKENY, IOWA RESIDENT: We have a motor home. It costs a lot to go to Arizona but we're going anyway.
YURKEVICH (voice over): Gas in the state is nearly $3.20 a gallon, up more than a dollar in the last year. Ben Thompson is trying to avoid the pain at the pump.
BEN THOMPSON, DES MOINES, IOWA RESIDENT: I price shop some. That's how I'm out here. You know, the Casey's that I was at was about 44 cents more expensive per gallon than this one.
YURKEVICH (voice over): He says his 16-gallon tank costs him $10 more on average.
YURKEVICH: So, what did you tap out at today?
THOMPSON: $46.87 and I wasn't out of gas.
YURKEVICH (voice over): At Dewey Ford car dealership in Ankeny a lot that typically holds 900 cars, has just 61.
TERI SAENZ, GENERAL MANAGER, DEWEY FORD: I cannot keep hybrid vehicles on my lot. They want to be able to have that so they are not going to the gas pumps to have to go through that.
YURKEVICH (voice over): Customers may save on gas by going electric, but the prices of cars are higher than ever. Used cars jumped 2.5 percent last month with new cars up 1.4 percent. A fallout from labor shortages, a supply chain crunch and consumer demand all meeting the road.
SAENZ: Customers are really struggling at this point. When you go back through the last few years, nobody has ever paid full price for cars.
YURKEVICH (voice over): Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, Ankeny, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Our thanks to Vanessa Yurkevich for that report.
There's a new study out today that highlights the alarming disparities when it comes to race and contracting COVID. We've got details of that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:35:00]
CAMEROTA: A new study reveals blacks, Hispanics and Asian-Americans are at a much higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and getting admitted to the ICU than whites. That's from a review of more than 4 million patients. It found that Asian-Americans had the highest risk of ICU admission. But in an interesting twist, overall, people of color had a lower risk of dying from COVID than those who were white.
Let's discuss this with Dr. Ali Kahn from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Kahn, this is confusing. I thought that we had already determined that people of color had a higher death rate from COVID. So, tell us about this new study of all of these different studies that involved 4 million people.
DR. ALI KAHN, DEAN, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER'S COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH: That's right, Alisyn. So, this is a summation of 68 other high-quality studies looking at race and ethnicity in the United States and the risk of COVID.
So, a couple of good really takeaways from this, so yes, we know that people of color are more likely to get infected despite the fact that they're less likely to get tested.
And the key thing from this study was that, you know, race is a social construct. It's not a biologic construct. And so, when they started to correct for things like urban density, housing, education, they were quickly able to see that these risks were actually lower.
So, these individuals are more likely to be essential workers, and more likely -- so have to go to work, can't Zoom like I'm doing right now.
[15:40:00]
And also, many of them are more likely to have these other conditions like heart disease or obesity that put them at risk.
CAMEROTA: Dr. Kahn, can you explain why Asian-Americans have the highest risk of ICU admittance?
KHAN: There was a recent study that suggests there may be a genetic reason that Asians may be at higher risk for having severe disease compared to other races. And it will be nice to see more data that brings this more into focus, if this is really true. To me this is also a data issue.
Which is we should have the data in the U.S. to answer these questions. And instead, we're left with cobbling together various studies to answer what should be a very simple question, how many people in America were infected, how many had severe illness and what was their race and ethnicity? CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what's happening in Germany. Because this is also very confusing. Germany had been held up as this paragon of how to do it right. You know, they weren't as hard hit with COVID as, say, Italy was. And they had good contact tracing and they had widespread testing. And now suddenly -- let me just show you this graph of what's happened since summer there, just since August 1st. Cases there are skyrocketing. I think this graph doesn't even represent what happened today. I think they had 50,000 cases reported today.
And while we're at it, they have 67 percent, a little more than 67 percent of their population fully vaccinated. So, what's going on in Germany? Why are the numbers going in the wrong direction?
KHAN: They're going in the wrong direction because they're just offset from the United States. So, this is now their Delta wave. And so, if you superimposed their curve on the U.S. curve, you'll see that they're a couple months behind us. And so, this their large Delta wave happening, and it's also proof that 67 percent of people vaccinated is just not enough. So that's what's going on in Germany right now. Plus, it's getting colder. People are more likely to come indoors, also.
CAMEROTA: So, this isn't their post Delta wave. Because I thought this was their fourth wave. You're saying we had Delta before they did.
KHAN: Right. This is kind of the continuation of their Delta. You don't need to go to Germany, Alisyn. If you want to show the U.S. data, we're having a surge within a surge. So, for the last two weeks, we have had cases going up in the U.S. over -- I think over half of the U.S. states have increasing cases over the last two weeks. So, we're having our surge within a surge right now also in the U.S.
CAMEROTA: I'm looking at the numbers on the screen right there. 75,000 new cases in the U.S. that's the seven-day average. You're right, that is really high.
I mean sometimes, you know, we've gotten away from obviously counting those every day because there is a feeling -- maybe it's just wishful thinking that we're coming out of it. But does that tell you that everybody now needs boosters? I mean is that the answer.
KHAN: That's part of the answer. The bigger answer is the 60 million that have never gotten a single dose, we need them to roll up their sleeves and get their first dose. That's the big answer to trying to get this under control.
And my guess is -- since we've discussed this a couple times -- coming to mid-January with the mandates in place, much more testing available and some of these oral antivirals, and a hopefully a much stronger public health system, we'll be in a better place to start talking about a post pandemic world. Not a post COVID world. I mean we gave up on that.
But I think come mid-January or so, it will be time to have a good conversation about what restrictions are really necessary anymore from a public health standpoint. CAMEROTA: I hope so. Dr. Ali Khan, thank you.
KHAN: Don't forget. We're honoring John Lewis. So, make good trouble. I know you're good at that, Alisyn.
Go and get vaccinated!
CAMEROTA: Thank you, Dr. Khan. Great to see you.
KHAN: Always a pleasure.
CAMEROTA: You too.
BLACKWELL: The White House just announced new steps to help veterans who were exposed to contaminants while serving. I'll talk with the Secretary for Veterans Affairs about them, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:45:00]
CAMEROTA: It's Veterans Day and today we honor all of those who have served on this the anniversary of the end of World War I. Earlier today President Biden took part in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. It's the centennial commemoration.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You are the very spine of America not just the backbone. You're the spine of this country. And all of us, all of us owe you. So, on Veterans Day, and every day we honor that great debt and recommit ourselves to keeping our sacred obligation as a nation to honor what you've done.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Now the site was open to the public this week for the first time in nearly 100 years, allowing Americans to personally pay their respects and lay flowers there.
In Paris Vice President Kamala Harris marked the day alongside the French President Emmanuel Macron.
[15:50:00]
And today the White House announced better health care services for veterans who have been exposed to environmental hazards by burn pits during their service.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough, joins me now to talk about that last element. Mr. Secretary, thank you for being with me. I want to start with these burn pits and this new announcement. And for those who don't know what a burn pit is, these are these open pits that were used in Afghanistan and Iraq to burn almost everything. Human waste, chemical waste, and the vapors, the exposure to them, many believe had caused everything from asthma to cancer in those servicemen who have been there.
What are the new supports that are being offered in this new announcement today?
DENIS MCDONOUGH, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: Well, thanks so much for having me and a happy Veterans Day to you and to all of your viewers.
Look, this has been a priority for President Biden since the day he got in office. So, he's already made clear that we will presume that anybody for example with asthma, or sinusitis or rhinitis who served in the Gulf during the last 30 years, we'll assume that that condition is connected to their service. Meaning we'll help get them benefits and care for those conditions.
We announced today -- the President announced today, that we're now looking at the next set of conditions and we're using a more inclusive process getting additional science and additional consideration to inform those decisions.
The next set of things we're looking at are rare respiratory cancers. Not only are we taking a hard look at them and getting more data to inform our decisions but we're also on a tight time frame for the President. He expects to hear back from us early in the new year. We'll meet that timeline and I hope that means that we can continue to get veterans filing their claims and us being in a position to fulfill those claims.
BLACKWELL: Mr. Secretary, you say early in the new year. I understand this is a 90-day window to review the cancers and how to provide service. The President has said that he believes that his son's death -- Beau Biden's death -- was related to these burn pits.
90 days may be too long for some people. Wesley Black just died this week of colon cancer connected to his exposure to burn pits. So, what do you say to those families who say you've been studying this for years? Why now another 90 days?
MCDONOUGH: It's a fair question. The frustration and impatience from our veterans is understandable. And so, what I say to them is bear with us. We are trying to fix this process by which we consider presumptive conditions. We are adding more science to our effort. And so, I hope that we'll be in a position to make this happen not only early in the new year for the rare respiratory cancers but by the summer on certain conditions on constrictive bronchiolitis, and we'll continue to look at additional maladies, additional conditions that are affecting our veterans.
But if they are frustrated by the lack of time it has taken, I don't blame them. We work for them. We're trying to get this done and we're get it done much more quickly.
BLACKWELL: You were part of the Obama administration, in 2010 President Obama set the goal of zero homeless vets by 2015. We're now six years beyond that deadline and there are still by some estimates 40,000 homeless vets across this country.
You set the goal of clearing the infamous Veterans Row in L.A. those dozens of veterans are now in some shelter getting some support but what is the plan to address the tens of thousands of others, the other veterans who are living on America's streets?
MCDONOUGH: Yes, thanks very much for the question. I think the -- President Obama and his team, our team at the time, set a very aggressive goal. We got halfway to that goal, reduce veterans' homelessness by half.
Our goal now is to get this job done. We're starting very aggressively in Los Angeles. You mentioned the Veterans Row advancement earlier this month. We are now making sure that we get 500 additional veterans in L.A. County, in houses into transitional or sustainable housing by the end of the year.
That momentum will infuse across the country so that we can get these 40,000 vets in houses. Here's how we do that. Housing first. Get a roof over a veteran's head. Then we have all sorts of services at V.A. to address the issues that made veterans homeless in the first place -- joblessness, access to mental health care, substance use disorder treatment, involvement in the justice system.
These are all things that we working together with veterans can address and we will address.
[15:55:00]
We have the resources to do it. We have the will to do it. And we're going to get it done.
BLACKWELL: All right, Secretary for Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough, thank you for your time.
MCDONOUGH: Thanks again. And really appreciate you having me on Veterans Day.
BLACKWELL: Absolutely. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: OK. Now to "People" magazine's pick for sexiest man alive. Some thought this year's pick was a stud. Others thought it was a dud.
BLACKWELL: Either way, it's a Rudd. Paul Rudd is the sexiest man alive. Huge question mark?
CAMEROTA: I mean, I feel like there might have been better choices. But he seems wonderful, he seems like a lovely guy. I would love him to be my friend --
BLACKWELL: But loveliest guy alive is not the category.
CAMEROTA: -- but sexiest man alive -
