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Hundreds of Flights canceled this Morning; Long Lines for Covid Tests; Biden to Address Omicron Surge; Hearing for Truck Driver Sentenced to 110 Years; Consideration for Shortening Isolation Period. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 27, 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]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning, everyone. So glad you're with me. I'm Poppy Harlow. Jim has a well-deserved week off. I hope all of you had a nice holiday weekend.

And now that Christmas is behind us, the big question this morning, how will those holiday gatherings impact the rapid spread of the omicron variant? Some places are already ramping up mitigation efforts today. Right here in New York, the vaccine mandate for the private sector goes into effect. This after the state reported nearly 50,000 new cases of Covid on Christmas Eve alone. That is a new daily record.

The rapid surge in cases is creating chaos at testing centers across the country, with some people waiting in line for hours. And at-home rapid tests are incredibly hard to come by. Omicron is also causing major headaches for millions of Americans trying to get home for -- from their holiday destinations. Thousands of flights were canceled over the weekend. It's due, in part, to the virus affecting flight crews and airlines having to ground staff. Nearly 800 flights have already been canceled.

This morning, our team is across the country following all of the angles, from the airport to testing centers to the White House.

So let's begin first with our national correspondent, Nadia Romero, who joins us live outside of Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Nadia, hundreds of U.S. flights already canceled this morning. Is this largely because of Covid?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, that's what's we hearing from airlines, Poppy. We know that almost 800 domestic flights have been canceled so far this morning. And every time we check, that number continues to grow and grow. So, overwhelmingly, airlines say that it's because they don't have the flight crews for all of the travelers to keep with their flight schedules because of the omicron variant.

We're also learning about some technical issues for certain flights and some weather delays as well. Now those weather delays, those flights are canceled, about 250 of them, from Delta last week. But over the past couple of days, we've had almost 3,000 flights canceled from this past weekend and those that were canceled this morning. So you can imagine the headache for many travelers.

We spoke with one couple. They live in Taiwan. They were coming back to Atlanta to visit one of their families. And it is the first time that his girlfriend was going to meet his family. So they wanted to travel internationally no less despite the omicron variant that is spreading across the world and despite the fact that there were so many cancellations and delays. They toughed it out. Their flight was canceled today but they were put on an earlier flight as they head from Atlanta to Tampa. So they're doing like this round the world tour during the variant that's spreading and during the holiday season where you already have the normal inconvenience.

But so many people told us that they wanted to travel because they haven't seen their family and friends since before the pandemic, since 2019, Poppy. One woman told us that she was going to meet her grandson for the first time this weekend and it was worth all of the headache just to be able to hold him for the first time.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, I think, you know, clearly Americans are making these calculations and a lot are deciding to travel still.

Nadia, thank you very much for the reporting there.

And the surge in new cases, combined with the holiday season has led to a shortage of Covid tests, In a lot of places, extremely long lines and extended wait times to get results.

Our Leyla Santiago is lie this morning in Miami at a 24-hour drive through Covid testing site.

Are those lines anything like they've been here in New York, because it's astonishing?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, right behind me, where you see under this tent is where the testing is taking place right now. You're right, this is a 24-hour testing site. And when we arrived at 4:00 a.m., it was already wrapped around what is a pretty large recreational park here in south Florida. This is considered to be one of the busiest sites here in south Florida.

When I spoke to the operator, he told me that in all of their sites across Florida, they have seen about a 50 percent -- nearly a 50 percent increase in the demand for testing compared to what they saw at the peak of that delta wave. So that gives you an idea of the unprecedented demand that they're dealing with here in south Florida when it comes to testing after the holidays.

I should also mention that the county, Miami-Dade County, is distributing free take-home test kits at their public libraries today, but they are very quick to say while supplies last.

HARLOW: Right. It's amazing to be so far into the pandemic and have an issue like that, while supplies last, to not have enough.

Leyla, thank you very much.

President Biden will discuss the surge in Covid cases on the call today with his Covid response team and with the nation's governors. This call happens as the White House is struggling to address what was -- just what Leyla was reporting on, these testing shortages of supplies across the country.

[09:05:00]

Our John Harwood and Elizabeth Cohen join me now.

Good morning. Good to see you both.

Elizabeth, let me start with you.

You've got such a busy holiday travel season. People are making this decision just to go. And a lot of them need to test multiple times before they're around family members. Can you underscore how much the U.S. has struggled with testing? It just -- I think it boggles many people's minds to be so far behind on testing, so far into a pandemic.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Poppy, you know, just -- it was almost two years ago that the CDC just had that testing fiasco where they were supposed to get tests out at the beginning and it just got completely messed up, for lack of a better term. I think messed up kind of describes well what happened. Things got a bit better.

But I think what happened was that over the summer and the fall, even as delta surged, you didn't hear about testing as much, and perhaps it got kind of put on the back burner. So now we're seeing situations, like Leyla just showed us. Dr. Anthony Fauci, he talked to our colleague, Kaitlan Collins, earlier this morning and he did not mince words, it shouldn't be like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: So we had a conflation of high demands. High demands because of the concern about omicron, which is a justifiable concern. But the high demand that was triggered by the holiday season.

You know, obviously, not making any excuses for it, we should have had more tests available, but hopefully now, as we get into the first couple of weeks in January, that will get much better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And, Poppy, this testing shortage is happening against this backdrop. Let's take a look at the dramatic rise in cases in just the past month. If you look at that dot to the left, that was about 75,000 cases a day a month ago. Now more than 200,000 cases a day. Hospitalizations, thankfully, have not risen quite as dramatically. You can see from that line. And, Poppy, here's the number that really just makes me so sad and

just so puzzled. Vaccinations going down. Looking at people getting their first shots, it was 425,000 a day about a month ago. Now it's gone down to 171,000. Even though it is abundantly clear that if you are not vaccinated, you are much more vulnerable to getting very, very sick from omicron versus if you are vaccinated.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. And putting others, like little ones who cannot get the vaccine, at greater risk as well.

COHEN: Yes.

HARLOW: Elizabeth, thank you.

John, talk to me about the president joining the call with the nation's governors. This is a call that happens quite frequently with the White House and state leaders. How significant that the president will be on today?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: First of all, Poppy, great to see you. It's been a while.

HARLOW: Thanks, friend.

HARWOOD: But I would say that it's very significant that the president's on the call for a couple of reasons. It's obviously vital to the country to not have normal life further disrupted than it already has been by this omicron surge. It's vital to every American. It's vital to the president of the United States. Politically, economically, all the other goals, it's a matter of public health to not be overtaken by this.

It's also important for him to show the American people that he is trying to stay on top of it. That's the rationale behind getting on this call with governors. Something that he hasn't done before.

Clearly the testing crisis has snuck up on the administration. And when you're the president, the buck stops with you. The Biden administration has been emphasizing for months the centrality of vaccines and getting past the pandemic. They have gotten more than 200 million Americans fully vaccinated. Many have gotten the booster shot as well. But you still have a significant, hard resistance to vaccines among a minority of the American people. And those are the people most at risk by the omicron surge. And so that's the dry kindling, if you will, for the fire to keep blazing around the country. And President Biden is talking to governors about how best to slow down that fire, if not put it out. And that's what this call is about today.

HARLOW: Wow. It's just, there are so many lessons learned here for sure, John, and let's hope that we get ahead of the curve for potentially the next wave of Covid on testing.

Thank you very much for the reporting, John and Elizabeth. We'll see you very soon. Still to come, a hearing today for the truck driver sentenced to 110 years in prison for a crash that killed four people. The district attorney is now asking the court to consider reducing that sentence. This is the same D.A. who brought those charges, remember. We'll have the latest next.

Also, President Trump slammed by his own base for his position on booster shots. Why is the former president openly endorsing the vaccine now? It's good that he is, but why the backlash?

Also ahead, Dr. Fauci weighing in this morning on the isolation period for those with positive Covid cases. Could it be shortened for everyone? More ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:13:34]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

Just a few hours from now, a hearing is scheduled for the truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years in prison for a 2019 crash in Colorado that killed four people and injured several others. Following growing public outcry over that sentence, the district attorney in the case is now calling for Rogel Aguilera-Mederos' sentence to be reconsidered and reduced to somewhere between 20 and 30 years. This comes after the original judge in the case said his hands were tied because of Colorado's mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

Here is Aguilera-Mederos in court earlier this month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGEL AGUILERA-MEDEROS, SENTENCED TO 110 YEARS IN PRISON FOR A FATAL TRUCK CRASH: I know that it has been heart -- heartbreaking for everyone involved in this tragedy. Your Honor, I don't know why I'm alive and for what.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's go to our Lucy Kafanov, who's been following this story.

Lucy, good morning to you.

What happens in the hearing today?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, this is a status hearing, so we aren't necessarily expecting a ruling. We are likely to get new dates potentially for the court to reconvene on this. But what we're talking about more broadly is a plan that could get Rogel Aguilera-Mederos roughly 90 years off his sentence. That's according to the district attorney, Alexis King.

Now, just to remind our viewers, the driver was 23 years old at the time of this terrible incident.

[09:15:03]

He was driving 85 miles an hour. His brakes failed. He was convicted of vehicular homicide charges, amongst other charges. And the D.A. is not looking to overturn the conviction, she's rather asking the court to reconsider that lengthy prison sentence, potentially slashing it to 20 or 30 years.

Now, in a statement, she said that Mederos made multiple, active choices that, quote, resulted in the death of four people and serious injuries to others, adding that the shorter sentence reflects an appropriate outcome for that conduct.

But at issue, Poppy, are these Colorado mandatory minimum sentencing laws that basically require sentences for each count to be served consecutively rather than currently, which is how those 27 counts turned into more than a century in prison for the now 26-year-old driver. A sentence twice as long and some murder convicts in this state.

And as you point out, even the judge who sentenced Mederos said, and I quote, if I had the discretion, it would not be my sentence.

Mederos attorney telling CNN earlier this morning that these laws, they need to be reformed.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COLGAN, ATTORNEY FOR TRUCK DRIVER ROGEL AGUILERA-MEDEROS: The law doesn't really distinguish between people like Mr. Mederos, who is not a danger to society, and other people that are sentenced to life that are a danger to society. And I think the law needs to make those kind of exceptions and understand that there is a difference between Mr. Mederos and those other kinds of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: Now, this case has sparked international and national attention. Nearly 5 million signatures on that petition asking Colorado Governor Jared Polis to reduce Mederos' sentence or to grant him clemency.

Kim Kardashian even got involved. He was tweeting about this saying that Colorado laws need to be changed.

The governor's office, meanwhile, telling CNN, it is reviewing the clemency request. They are not likely to weigh in until this legal proceeding plays out.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Lucy, just a brief follow-up for you.

This D.A., who is -- District Attorney King, who's calling for the sentence to be reduced quite significantly, is the same D.A. who brought the charges, right? And it was her prosecutorial discretion to bring as many charges with -- knowing what the mandatory minimum laws were in the state, no?

KAFANOV: It's true. And some critics have said that, you know, perhaps that was very lengthy or a significant amount of charges that the D.A. brought hoping that Mederos would take a plea deal. He did not want to take a plea deal. And so we are now in the situation that we're in, Poppy.

HARLOW: OK.

Lucy, thank you for the reporting very, very much. We'll come to you with any updates from the hearing.

And soon the jury in the fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes will be back in court this morning after more than 20 hours of deliberation last week. The former CEO of Theranos is accused of defrauding (ph) financial backers, customers and patients into believing that her blood testing start-up was going to revolutionize the industry. She has pleaded guilty to nine courts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She has pleaded not guilty and could face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine plus restitution if found guilty.

Just ahead. I'll ask a health expert if it's safe to go ahead with New Year's Eve plans and other questions about the coronavirus that you tweeted me over the weekend.

But first, we are minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Stock futures pointing higher this morning after the markets were closed on Friday due to the Christmas holiday. U.S. retail sales surged this year, rising 8.5 percent year over year. Investors bracing for volatility in the days and weeks ahead due to the uncertainty clearly around the omicron variant and the current surge in Covid cases across the U.S.

We'll keep an eye on all of it.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:23:30]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

Dr. Anthony Fauci says the administration is seriously considering shortening the isolation period for other essential workers who test positive for Covid-19. This, of course, follows the news last week from the CDC shortening that period of isolation for health care workers as long as they have a negative test after contracting the virus.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: Well, certainly we're considering it going beyond just health care workers because, you know, there are a lot of people in society that are essential for the smooth running of the infrastructure of our society. So the idea about cutting down the period of quarantine for people who have been exposed and perhaps the period of isolation for people who have been infected are something that is under, I would say, serious consideration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's bring in Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He is a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

So, when I hear that, Dr. Reiner, to me it indicates that they probably are going to give the green light to, you know, public workers, probably sanitation, maybe the subway system here in New York, the airlines. We know Delta wrote that letter to the CDC asking for the same thing last week.

Is that the right call if they do that?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Yes, it seems sometimes that when it comes to the CDC, the wheels grind a little bit slowly here.

It looks like omicron moves fast and we have the really mostly (ph) widespread ability now to assess when somebody is no longer infectious, and that is using a rapid test.

[09:25:03]

So I think -- I think, first of all, moving the isolation period up to seven days is appropriate. I think we might be able to move it up to five days. Asymptomatic, with two consecutive negative tests, then go back to work. But it doesn't make a lot of sense to just do that for health care workers. I think basically going forward, I think anyone who is asymptomatic and then tests negative with a rapid test two days in a row is not infectious and can go back to work. I expect the CDC eventually will come up with that recommendation for the public at large.

HARLOW: OK. There was a startling number released overnight that I want you to help our viewers understand. I think every parent that saw this number cringed.

This is from New York City, where the city has found a four-fold increase of pediatric hospitalizations from -- for kids between December 5th and 19th. To be clear, we're talking about a few hundred per week. That is a sliver of overall hospitalizations. So, it's not a huge number, but if it's your child, it's everything, right?

And so I'm wondering if you can help explain that to us and how we should understand that. I mean a four-fold increase in a matter of two weeks. REINER: Right. Omicron is extraordinarily infectious. And the biggest swath of unvaccinated people in this country are children. You know, particularly children under five, all of whom are unprotected. So you would expect that this virus will infect children. And if it infects children in large numbers, a small number will be hospitalized. But if the denominator is quite large, yes, we'll see an increase in pediatric hospitalizations.

Thankfully, Covid has largely spared our children, but not entirely spared our children. You know, about 1,000 kids in this country have died as a consequence of this virus. You know, many, many more have been hospitalized.

But if this virus infects millions of children, we will see significant numbers of kids being hospitalized. So we need to do everything that we know works to protect our kids, including, you know, masking them and distancing whenever possible and using tests around our house and around our schools to isolate kids who have been infected and protect the other kids.

HARLOW: Should we be thinking about our friends and family members as fully vaccinated if they don't have three shots, if they don't have the booster?

REINER: No, they're obviously not fully vaccinated. And, again, I don't -- I do not understand why the CDC refuses to acknowledge this.

HARLOW: Right.

REINER: If you've only had two shots and you are now months out from your second mRNA shot, you only have about -- somewhere between a 20 percent and a 30 percent level of protection from symptomatic infection with omicron. So why would we consider you to be fully vaccinated?

You are fully vaccinated if you have received the maximum amount of protection you can from a course of immunization. And now we know that is three shots for an mRNA vaccine. Only 19 percent of this country -- 19 percent of people who live in this country are boosted. So, the vast majority of people in this country are not fully vaccinated and are at risk of infection. And until we realize that, and until we acknowledge that widely, we're not going to get to where we need to be, which is to boost everybody who's eligible for boosting.

HARLOW: Yes. It's almost like the language needs to change, right, because, boost, you think like an extra little bit or a cherry on top. It's like, no, you don't have anywhere near full protection unless you have it.

REINER: Right. Are you protected? Right. The question -- right, the question is, are you fully protected against this virus, as protected as well as we can protect people? And if you're not boosted, you're not.

HARLOW: Yes. Yep.

REINER: So, we just need to get that word out. Right.

HARLOW: We do. Thank you for always helping get it out.

REINER: My pleasure.

HARLOW: Dr. Jonathan Reiner, we'll see you very soon.

REINER: Thanks.

HARLOW: Ahead for us, a Trump spokesperson is suing the January 6th committee over access to his financial records. What he does not want to hand over to lawmakers.

That's next.

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[09:30:00]