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How to Gather Safely This Holiday as COVID Cases Surge; 2 Georgia Election Workers Sue Giuliani & OAN, Say Lies Lead to Harassment; Key Inflation Measure Hits a Nearly Four-Decade High. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 24, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:33:51]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, despite the surge in COVID cases, President Biden with many health experts is reassuring vaccinated Americans they can still gather with their loved ones this holiday. But as so many of us are scrambling to get tested, some are still confused about how to gather safely.

Let's answer your questions, not mine, turning the table here, Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is with us. He's a board certified internal medicine specialist and viral researcher.

So great to have you. So, Dr. Rodriguez, merry Christmas to you.

DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, BOARD CERTIFIED INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST & VIRAL RESEARCHER: Likewise.

HARLOW: Let's get to -- thank you -- the viewer questions.

So, first one we got. A group of six vaxxed and boosted should we test before gathering indoors?

RODRIGUEZ: I don't think you need to test if you've been vaccinated and boosted and everyone that you're gathering with in a moderately sized group like that is getting together. I don't need -- I don't think that you need to necessarily test. Remember, test is a point in time. So, you could test today and feel confident and tomorrow it shows up that you're positive. So, the best protection, which is being vaxxed and boosted.

HARLOW: Here is the next question. My friend wants to visit us over the holiday, but only received the J&J shot.

[09:35:01]

Is that okay?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, the J&J shot has probably shown to be the least effective in protecting people against COVID. If they got the J&J shot months ago without getting boosted, in my opinion, they're probably not protected and it is unsafe for them and for everybody else to gather with them. That's the only shot they had, they had it months ago.

HARLOW: Just remind people, I think if you had the J&J vaccine you can get the other boosters, right?

RODRIGUEZ: Absolutely. The J&J vaccine, two months after that shot, you can get any booster. It is highly recommended to get the mRNA, the Pfizer or Moderna, though.

HARLOW: Here's another question. When should you be getting your booster at this point? Should you get your booster six months after the second shot or after the two weeks following the second shot? It is confusing.

RODRIGUEZ: Well, you should get the booster -- if you've gotten Pfizer or Moderna, get your booster six months after that second shot.

HARLOW: OK.

RODRIGUEZ: If you got the J&J vaccine, two months after that shot, you can get it.

HARLOW: Okay. What should people do who have unvaccinated family members to help protect them?

RODRIGUEZ: They should convince them to get vaccinated. That's the most important thing. But, obviously, they should not go to obviously they should not go to large gatherings, they should wear masks, they should protect themselves, right, from going out.

And this is a highly contagious variant. But, again, the best thing they can do for a family member as difficult as it is, is to try to talk to them in a welcoming way that vaccination is the best protection for them.

HARLOW: So, here is a final question, from many of us, and some of our team members and viewers asking this, is it safe to go to religious gatherings such as Christmas service at church?

I know my family, we have a 3-year-old, he's not -- can't be vaccinated. We love our church. We decided to stay home this holiday. But we wish we could be there if he was vaccinated we probably would be. What do you -- what do you tell people?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, what I'm telling them is there are many factors to consider. First of all, if you are vaccinated and boosted, it is relatively safe for you to go to large gatherings. You have to consider religious services as that.

However, with omicron, it is very contagious. You should think twice. If you're unvaccinated, I would definitely not go to a religious service or a large gathering of any type. Hopefully some churches made some changes --

HARLOW: Yeah, they have.

RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And that would be helpful. And it is all about mitigated risks and it is a personal choice. If you want to protect yourself and those that you love and you're vaccinated and boosted, it is probably relatively safe, but with omicron, it is not 100 percent guarantee at all.

HARLOW: And mask up for sure. Dr. Rodriguez, thank you so much.

RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. Merry Christmas.

HARLOW: Merry Christmas.

Still ahead, two election officials in Georgia say their lives have been turned upside down by election lies. And they blame Rudy Giuliani in a new lawsuit.

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[09:42:44]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

Two Georgia election workers were suing Rudy Giuliani and One America News. They're accusing the right wing TV network and former Trump lawyer of destroying their reputations and prompting Trump supporters to harass them by pushing the big lie.

Let me bring in Greg Bluestein. He's political reporter at "The Atlanta Journal Constitution".

This headline to talk about obviously and a lot more when it comes to your state.

Good morning and thanks for being with me.

GREG BLUESTEIN, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Good morning.

HARLOW: In this lawsuit, you have these two election workers alleging they personally became victims of political lies as the pro-Trump media universe spread these lies, spread accusations, and Rudy Giuliani perpetuating them as this recount after recount was going on across the state of Georgia.

How prevalent is Giuliani's rhetoric within the state, leading up to the midterms.

BLUESTEIN: It is really shaped the entire Republican election field in Georgia going into 2022. Even those who did not get Donald Trump's endorsement, even those who say they're putting the big lie at arm's length are still echoing a lot of what it is purporting. They're supporting when they call election integrity and they're supporting new obstacles to the ballot box in Georgia including a recent push to end ballot drop boxes in the state. It is all premised on the big lie.

HARLOW: Right. I mean, already the change in the state legislature there cut down the number of ballot drop boxes a lot. In one county, from, you know, 38 to under 8 in this new -- in this new legislation. And if you see more changes like that, I wonder what that means for Democrats in trying to repeat their success again.

BLUESTEIN: Yeah, I mean, the senior Georgia Democrats I talked to already saying they're planning to push unprecedented amounts of money, resources, into voter education, to let Georgia voters know about the changes, to make sure that voters have a plan to go vote in 2022. They have different avenues to vote, but it is a very real concern because this new regime is not really tested in Georgia yet. We have municipal elections a few weeks ago. Those are lower turnout. So, nothing close to the turnout we're about to see.

HARLOW: I'm fascinated in the gubernatorial race there, and what is going on the Republican side.

[09:45:06]

Because you've got Governor Kemp now trying to fend off former Georgia Senator Perdue, and Perdue is saying, look, I'm running because you're not strong enough to run against Stacey Abrams. And it is interestingly sort of puts Kemp in the center as the centrist. What do you make of this?

BLUESTEIN: Yeah, not really a centrist but in the middle of the squeeze.

HARLOW: That's what I mean. This squeeze.

BLUESTEIN: Yeah. he's still the first life long Republican governor ever elected in Georgia. But at the same time, he's got to look to his left, Stacey Abrams is a titan of Georgia politics and the right with David Perdue this iconic figure in Georgia GOP and now David Perdue has opened his campaign based on that big lie. He filed a lawsuit alleging all sorts of unsubstantiated claims about Fulton County ballot counting, he said he wouldn't have certified the election and said he would have called a special session to investigate ballot claims which we know there is no evidence to support.

So, he's open with this. And Governor Brian Kemp, former state elections official, can only sort of point to that law that we were just talking about, to say that Georgia has tightened its election restrictions and answered some of the issues that Republicans keep bringing up, even though, again, there is no evidence of any sort of rampant fraud.

HARLOW: Thank goodness you're on this beat. I think we'll be having you on a lot between now and the elections.

Greg, thanks very much.

BLUESTEIN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Up next, the White House told us to wait. That reports on inflation were just transitory. Remember that word?

As new data comes in, the picture is not changing very much. Prices are not dropping. How the omicron variant affects all of this too.

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[09:51:24]

HARLOW: Prices on pretty much everything, they keep going up. Household essentials, groceries, gas, those prices rising rapidly in the past few months causing major worries and financial stress for so many people, especially this holiday season. More news on inflation this week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis says the key measure rose 5.7 percent in November, making it the fastest increase in the consumer spending price index in nearly 40 years.

Let me bring in Catherine Rampell, opinion columnist for "The Washington Post" and our very own economics and political commentator. Good to have you.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to join you.

HARLOW: So inflation has not grown this fast since I was born, literally. That's how long it has been. So is it here to stay?

RAMPELL: I mean, that's the important question, right. If I knew the answer to that question, I would be a very, very rich woman. The real issue is that it looks like the forces behind inflation early on were, as you pointed out earlier, transitory. They were the result of reopening pains, that everybody wanted to start buying things at the same time and the global supply chains were not prepared. In fact, they were still quite fragile and dealing with factory closures and port congestion and other problems.

And it looked like those kinds of bottlenecks would clear pretty quickly. That hasn't happened. And that hasn't happened for a number of reasons. Of course we've had several new variants, two in particular that have been problematic since some of those forecasts were made, which have continued to make those supply chains very complicated and entangled. And they've also shifted what kinds of things we spend money on.

Americans have a lot of cash to spend, but they're still a little hesitant to travel, to go to concerts, dine out, et cetera, so they're buying more stuff, more physical goods. And it's those physical goods that are having trouble getting through those supply chains. So, all of that means this has stuck around for a lot longer.

HARLOW: Yeah, the word transitory. I think Jerome Powell was right when he said it's time to retire that word.

The bigger sort of political context here if you will and the hang-up for the Biden administration on the build back better agenda is Manchin, Senator Manchin consistently saying inflation, inflation, inflation. But when you look at most economists, their read is, look, because spending is so spread out over a matter of years, it's not going to have a significant impact on inflation.

You wrote about this. Is that your read as well? RAMPELL: Yeah. I think both Republicans and Democrats are basically

wrong when they talk about what role Build Back Better would or could play when it comes to inflation. The White House has sometimes said this will help bring prices down. Republicans have said this will jack prices up.

The reality is the bill, even as large as it is, would probably have little to negligible effect on prices either way. There are some parts of it that would contribute to inflation and some that would do the opposite.

But really, when we're talking about this bill, we should be talking about it's more direct effects, what it's about it. Do we think it's a good idea to expand the safety net in the various ways the bill would? Do we think it's a good idea to tackle climate change the way the bill would? That seems to me to be the more important set of questions when you're talk about whether this legislation is a good idea.

HARLOW: I wonder how you think that COVID, not just omicron, but COVID in general in these last two years have most fundamentally shaped our economy.

[09:55:02]

Like, there have to be things that we have changed about how we live. You laid out some of them, how much stuff people are buying, that maybe will have a longer lasting impact on this economy.

RAMPELL: Well, beyond consumer habits, which may or may not be temporary, right, maybe will permanently change the kinds of stuff we buy, I think the real question mark has to do with housing, right? Have we permanently changed the kinds of homes we want to live in and how long our commutes are, will people be more willing or able to work remotely, for example, at least in some kinds of work, and as a result that will change their tastes in housing.

So that's a big question mark going forward, and we don't know how much of the huge growth in housing prices in the past couple years will persist. But, you know, people have also shifted their preferences about work, how much they work, what kinds of jobs they're willing to take and what kinds of tradeoffs they're willing to make with other priorities in their lives, including their family life. So there are a lot of ways in which people have re-evaluated their goals, their living situations, and their jobs, and we don't know exactly how that will shape up in the year ahead.

HARLOW: That's such a great point. It's good to have you. Happy holidays. Love the tree.

Love the Yankees ornament next to you. I see that. Catherine Rampell, thank you very much.

RAMPELL: Thank you.

HARLOW: Still ahead, as doctors work to stop new cases of COVID, the omicron variant. The FDA is now saying only one of the monoclonal antibodies treatment on the market works against the new strain. We'll tell you which one, next.

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