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CDC Changes Covid Guidelines; Long Lines for Covid Testing; Biden Admits He Needs Help at the State and Local Level; Dr. Megan Ranney is Interviewed about the CDC Guideline Changes; LAPD Releases Footage from Shooting; Colorado Shooting Spree. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 28, 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]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Than he really was about getting the wedding ring back.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: We needed some good stuff. Thank you, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: We did.

John, it's been good to be with you this morning.

AVLON: You too.

COLLINS: And we will be back tomorrow.

AVLON: See you then.

COLLINS: Right now, CNN's coverage continues right now.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. So glad you're with me. I'm Poppy Harlow. Jim has the week off.

And we do begin this morning with a major shift in guidance from the CDC, dramatically reducing its recommendations for isolation and quarantine times for people who test positive with Covid or who have been exposed to someone with Covid-19.

So, here's how the new guidance works. This is a quote from the CDC. People who test positive should isolate for five days, and if asymptomatic at that time, they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for five days to minimize the risk of infecting others.

Now, that new guidance is sparking relief for some, confusion for others as Americans attempt to navigate how to manage the virus at this point and, of course, the new variant.

These changes come as new cases are surging across the country. Right now, the U.S. is averaging more than 237,000 new daily Covid cases. Over the last week, several states are at or near all-time peak Covid levels. That stark rise is only amplifying the need for testing. But, for many

Americans, this holiday season may be remembered for hours spent in long testing lines or desperately searching pharmacy shelves for at- home tests.

Our team of reporters following all the latest developments this morning.

But, first, let's get to our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on this big shift in guidance from the CDC.

Good morning, Elizabeth.

Explain it to all of us because it's confusing. Even the little part where it says that the time. So does that mean you have to be asymptomatic at the end of five days or the whole time?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's so confusing, Poppy. So let's start with where we were before this. Before this it was ten days, a quarantine -- I'm sorry, an isolation of ten days if you are infected with Covid-19. Now they're changing it to five days. But a lot of this operates on the honor system. It is unclear if anyone's ever going to really follow this to the letter.

So, let's go through what the CDC guidelines are.

What they say is that if you're infected with Covid, but you're asymptomatic, or your symptoms are resolving, in other words, you felt sick but you're getting better, five days isolation is enough. And then after those five days, you should be wearing a mask when you're around other people.

Let's take a listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who explained why they made this change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you are asymptomatic and you are infected, we want to get people back to the jobs, particularly those with essential jobs, to keep our society running smoothly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, in addition with to what Dr. Fauci just said, there's good science showing that you are most contagious in the few days before and the few days after you get infected with Covid-19. So there's really no reason to keep you out for ten days as long as you are asymptomatic or feeling better.

Also, the CDC made some changes for people who are exposed. In other words, let's say a family member had Covid. So you know you've been exposed to it and you don't yet know if you actually have Covid. So, in that case, you're in quarantine.

But let's talk about the changes for quarantine. If you are within six months of your second shot, or if you've

received a booster, you do not have to do a quarantine, they say. Now there's no quarantine, but you do have to wear a mask for ten days.

And let's take a look at the vaccine efficacy that sort of made the CDC think about doing this. They say that two doses are 35 percent effective against omicron infection. But once you get that booster, it's 75 percent effective. So that's also some of the science behind this.

Again, these are very complicated. They really, in many ways, rely on the honor system.

HARLOW: Yes.

COHEN: The -- when you read the CDC page, you have to read it 17 times, and you still don't get it. The CDC seems, and I'm sorry I'm going to be a little mean here, incapable of writing guidance that actually makes sense the first 17 times you read it. I don't know why they haven't gotten this under control at this point. But right now those are the basics that I just said. It is up to all of us to follow it.

HARLOW: I'm still confused, but less so. So, thank you.

COHEN: OK, good.

HARLOW: But, quickly, Elizabeth, do you -- do you have to test negative at that five-day mark before exiting quarantine?

COHEN: You don't. You don't have to test negative.

HARLOW: OK.

COHEN: There is no test requirement, or at least the way that the rules read right now.

HARLOW: OK. Thank you very much, as always.

COHEN: Thanks.

HARLOW: Speaking of tests, huge demand continues for tests across the country.

[09:05:02]

Our Leyla Santiago is live in Miami in a testing center again this morning.

Leyla, good morning.

Still really long lines? People still waiting?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Still very, very long lines. And this will put it in perspective for you, Poppy. This morning, when we got here, we spoke to a woman who got in line at 3:00 in the morning. So, pretty much overnight she made it to this testing site, one of the busiest in south Florida. And she ended up waiting three hours before she was able to get that test.

Now, the health group that runs this site here at Tropical Park, a very large, recreational park, said they expected that there would be a surge when it came to testing because of the holiday season, because of the omicron variant. But what they're seeing is something they've never seen before. The volume of the demand in testing is still proving to be a challenge for them. So much so that they are actually now planning on opening a handful of new testing sites in Miami-Dade to try to meet that challenge.

I want you to listen to how the people who are in this line are comparing what they're seeing now versus what they saw just weeks ago at this same site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's way more chaotic now. Everybody is freaking out. But that's like the same thing that happened right before the first shutdown, you know. I think everybody's, like, going everywhere about it, but.

SANTIAGO: How would you compare it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a spot right by my house where I would go, it would take less than five minutes. I would just walk there and that's it. And now the line extends into like the next street. It's crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: OK. So that is how they compare the onsite testing that you see going on right behind me.

Let's talk about those take-home tests, though, Poppy. In Miami-Dade County, they used 27 public libraries over two days to distribute take-home tests. They had about 150,000 of those distributed. They are now all out. All of them are now gone. And they have more requests in to the department of health.

HARLOW: Wow. All gone.

Leyla, thank you for the reporting.

President Biden is now admitting that his administration needs help from the state and local level to increase the nation's Covid testing abilities, saying his administration should have done more to get ahead of the current surge in cases.

Our John Harwood is live outside the White House.

It's important, John, right, for any administration to admit a failure or a shortcoming, pick your word, because it informs and it teaches us for what's next and what to do better the next time around. What else did the president say? JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's important and

also politically necessary because it is in the nature of the presidency that when things go wrong you get blamed for it and you need to show the American people that you understand their frustrations. What the president said yesterday in those remarks to the National Governor's Association was to affirm that the federal government is there to help states and localities, which are on the front lines of administering these testing programs, the vaccination programs. Said if you need something, say something. But he also acknowledged that the efforts of the federal government, so far, especially on the front of testing, as we've seen huge demand for testing during the holiday season, have simply not been enough.

Take a listen to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It went from no over the counter tests in January to 46 million in October, 100 million in November, and almost 200,000 million in December. But it's not enough. It's clearly not enough. If I had -- if we'd known, we would have gone harder, quicker, if we could have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARWOOD: Now, the president has, in recent days, announced a step up of federal activity on the testing front. The purchase of 500,000 tests, which are going to be available to people if they go on a website and request one. It will be mailed to their home. He's directed insurance companies to reimburse people for tests.

Of course the problem has been, the supply chain has not kept up with the demand over the holidays. And that's part of what the administration is concerned about and what ordinary Americans are frustrated about. They're hoping that once we get past the holidays, the demand will diminish somewhat and also that omicron wave will go down and that will ease things.

But, as long as this pandemic is a problem, it's a problem for President Biden. And he reflected that in his remarks yesterday.

HARLOW: He certainly did.

John Harwood, at the White House, thank you so much for that reporting.

Let me bring in Dr. Megan Ranney, she's a professor of emergency medicine and the associate dean of public health at Brown University.

Dr. Ranney, let's just get straight to the CDC guidance. They say it is based on science. You say it is partly based on science, but partly not. Explain what you mean.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE: So the part that is based on science is the fact that there is accumulating evidence for vaccinated people that if we are asymptomatic, we are very unlikely to be infectious after about five to seven days.

[09:10:02]

In an ideal world, we would also have a rapid antigen test that is negative. You know, those tests that no one can get. We would have a negative rapid antigen test after that five to seven day period to prove that we're not infectious before we go back in -- out into the world. But that part for the vaccinated does make sense.

The trouble is for the unvaccinated, the data doesn't really back up that they become noninfectious at five days and, yes, the CDC has said that everyone should mask up out in public for another five days. But we know what happened in May when the CDC dropped universal mask recommendations, nobody masked, whether vaccinated or not. And that's where I'm quite worried about these new recommendations.

HARLOW: What would you have done otherwise? I mean I think what we're hearing from Dr. Fauci and the reality from business leaders and CEOs is their businesses are getting to the breaking point where they can't function with folks out for ten days.

RANNEY: You know, I get that. As a healthcare worker, I had six colleagues out yesterday alone from Covid. Now, all of them were only mildly sick because they're all fully vaccinated and most are boosted, but that's still an impossible strain on an already strained healthcare system. So I understand the pressure to get workers back earlier.

But, it's essential that we do so in a way that protects the public, protects co-workers, and protects those who are sick.

HARLOW: Yes.

RANNEY: So, make this guidance just for the vaccinated, right? Make it for people who are asymptomatic, not improving (ph), and make it just for the vaccinated. Also gives an added boost to getting people to finally go out and get their shots.

HARLOW: Except it's all about the honor system.

RANNEY: Oh, always. And we've seen how well that works, right? Just look around the country and you can tell that an awful lot of folks, right, have sent their kids to school when they're positive, have gone out and about when they know that they're positive and, of course, have not masked despite being told that if they are unvaccinated they should mask in public places. It's a large part of why we are where we are today in the United States.

The other part of the reason why we are where we are is because Covid is a really changing virus and keeps mutating. And we keep thinking we're through this and then we get another variant.

HARLOW: You believe the federal government needs to, in your words, step up to handle the surge. What more exactly do you think they can do? Because a lot of what President Biden said on the call with governors yesterday was, you know, a lot of this is in the state's hands and we're here to help where we can, like ordering these half billion tests.

Are there more things you think the federal government could do right now?

RANNEY: I think it's wonderful that we have both state and federal public health guidance. I certainly admire much of what the CDC and the federal government is doing. We are in a far better place than we were at this time a year ago thanks to the organization of the Biden/Harris administration.

But there are things that can and should be done, both in the short and medium term on the part of the federal government. Yes, they are activating FEMA and working with governors to pull up National Guard, but that needs to be an all-out effort. Healthcare systems across the country are at a breaking point.

The activation of the Defense Production Act for rapid tests, thrilled that we're getting tests in January, but it's going to be a little bit too late at that point. And then we can stand up more resources in that medium to long-term to strengthen our healthcare systems, to strengthen local public health, to improve our national messaging, which, you know, as Elizabeth just described, we can't figure out what this guidance means, so improve our communication and our messaging.

And lastly, Poppy, improve the data. One of the things that is so frustrating about this guidance is that there is such a thin veneer of science underneath it, the federal government, one of the best things it can do is improve the science and the data behind the public health recommendations we make in these emergency situations.

HARLOW: Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you.

RANNEY: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, still to come for us this morning, we do have new police body camera video that captures the moments leading up to a shooting incident that left this little 14-year-old girl dead when officers opened fire on a suspect inside of a store. The video is difficult to watch but experts say there is a reason that police released it so quickly.

Also ahead, we'll speak to a pediatric critical care physician about the dramatic spike in children hospitalized with Covid-19. What parents can do.

And, a new forecast says gas prices are likely to surge next year, reaching as high as $4 a gallon. What to expect and why, here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:23]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

The Los Angeles Police Department has released new video from a police shooting in a department store last week that left a 14-year-old girl, a bystander, in the dressing room, dead. The footage captured from both police body camera and store surveillance video shows what happened in the moments leading up to an officer opening fire on a suspect.

And before we begin this report, we want to warn you, this video you're about to see is very hard to watch.

Our security correspondent Josh Campbell has more on the tragedy.

Josh, what are you learning?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, with the releases of this new body camera footage, we are getting a new insight into this chaotic scene that unfolded at this California department store last week as a suspect went on a rampage, assaulting various customers.

Now, this new LAPD body camera footage, it's hard to watch, as you mentioned. It is graphic. This is the moment when officers approached that suspect, trying to stop a threat, but, as we know, also firing that fatal round that killed this 14-year-old child.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, she's bleeding! She's bleeding!

CAMPBELL (voice over): New LAPD body cam video, edited and released late Monday, shows the events that led up to the police shooting of a 14-year-old girl last Thursday at a north Hollywood, California, store.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: LAPD, we're coming up.

CAMPBELL: The footage shows the suspect assaulting several women at a Burlington store before police arrive, guns drawn.

911 and radio calls around noon Thursday reported an assault in progress. Then confusion over whether there's a possible active shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's uh, a guy with a gun. It's just -- it's -- it's -- it's just shots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Shooting just occurred. North Hollywood units, additional on your ADW shooting, Victory and Laurel Canyon.

[09:20:04]

Suspect is still inside the location.

CAMPBELL: Police body cam footage shows when they arrived at the store they saw the suspect hitting a woman, then found her hurt and bleeding after she was hit repeatedly in the arms and the head with a metal bike lock.

Police located the suspect, Daniel Elena-Lopez, nearby. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Victim down.

CAMPBELL: And at least one officer fired several shots and killed him. No gun was found near his body as officers searched the scene. Then, police made a disturbing discovery.

CAPTAIN STACY SPELL, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: Unbeknownst to the officers, a 14-year-old girl was in the changing room, behind a wall, that was behind the suspect and out of the officer's view. She was in the changing area with her mother when the officer encountered the suspect and the officer-involved shooting occurred.

CAMPBELL: Police say they believe she was hit by an officer's bullet that ricocheted off the tile floor and entered the dressing room wall.

SPELL: Officers found the girl and discovered she had been struck by gunfire, and she was determined deceased at the scene.

CAMPBELL: The girl, 14-year-old Valentina Orellana-Peralta, was shopping with her mother when she was killed. She died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The Los Angeles medical examiner listing her death a homicide.

Police also describe the suspect's earlier movements and released closed-circuit video from the store.

SPELL: And the suspect smashed a computer monitor nearby. He then moved on to hit the glass railing. Next, he took the escalator down and encountered another female. He attempted to take her bag. And as the female resisted, the suspect tackled her and hit her with the lock.

CAMPBELL: The California Attorney General's Office and the California Department of Justice are now investigating the officer-involved shooting. And Valentina's family now mourning the loss of a young girl, killed while out shopping, just two days before Christmas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, Poppy, one major question raised by this new video is whether an officer with a high-powered assault rifle should have considered what was beyond his target before opening fire. That is under investigation.

But one thing is clear from this new body camera footage, this was a chaotic scene. It's also important to remember that officers arriving, the information they had from witnesses was that there was a shooting in progress, there were shots being fired. So you see them moving throughout that store, trying to stop a threat. But, obviously, this ending very tragically.

We expect to hear this morning from the family of this 14-year-old girl. They will be outside of LAPD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, speaking out for the first time since this footage was released. Obviously, Poppy, they are demanding answers.

HARLOW: Oh, your heart is -- just breaks for the family.

Josh, thank you very, very much for your reporting on this throughout.

At least four people are dead, multiple people are injured after a shooting spree across several locations in Denver last night. Police say the suspect wounded an officer before he was shot and killed by police. This happened in a busy shopping district.

Our Lucy Kafanov is in Denver this morning with the story.

What happened?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, more questions than answers at this point. Police say that the first shooting began after 5:00 p.m. local time in central Denver where two women were apparently killed and one man was injured. The suspect then moved a few blocks away, shooting and killing another man. And at a third location, a gun was fired but no injuries were reported.

Now, Denver Police then say they spotted what they believed to be the suspect's vehicle. They tried to pull him over. A gunfight ensued in which the police vehicle was disabled. He got away.

He then fled to the nearby city of Lakewood. And the police spokesman there said that they got reports of shots fired at a local business just before 6:00 p.m. local time. So an hour after those initial central Denver shots. A gunshot victim was found in Lakewood, pronounced dead at the scene there. And when police found the car and the suspect, they say they opened fire. The officers shot back. He fled on foot to a Hyatt Hotel, where he's believed to have shot a clerk. And he also shot and wounded a Lakewood police officer, who at least yesterday evening we know was undergoing surgery.

So, more gunfire was exchanged. The suspect was killed at the scene. The Denver police chief says they're just, at this point, beginning to piece together what happened.

Witnesses describing what they saw. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNIE WILSON, WITNESS: We were just inside the store and heard, like, one gunshot and then like a whole range -- it sounded like they hit the side of the building. And then, obviously, a bunch of cop cars and they came out and they swooped us into the back.

CHIEF PAUL PAZEN, DENVER POLICE DEPARTMENT: This is the holiday season. To have this type of spree take place is not normal for our community. We cannot lose sight of the victims in this, the people that are still fighting for their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: Not normal, and quite shocking on this holiday weekend.

Police are still seeking a motive. This is the very early stages of the investigation, Poppy.

HARLOW: Well, Lucy Kafanov, thank you for the reporting.

Ahead for us here, New York City is reporting a fivefold increase in pediatric hospitalizations from Covid. Why is the omicron variant hitting children so hard? A pediatric critical care physician is with me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:30]

HARLOW: Welcome back.

The new highly contagious omicron variant may be fueling a rise in the number of children who are hospitalized with Covid-19. Here's what we know at this point.

Nearly 2,000 children across the country right now hospitalized with confirmed or suspected Covid cases. That is up from around 700 just last month. Right here in New York City, pediatric hospital admissions have jumped nearly fivefold over a three-week period. In Washington, D.C., nearly half of Covid-19 tests at Children's National Hospital are coming back positive.

[09:30:01]

And in Chicago, hospitalizations at one facility have quadrupled over the past week.

Let me bring in Dr. Adrienne Randolph. She's a pediatric critical