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Dr. Adrienne Randolph is Interviewed about Kids Hospitalizations Rising; Covid Update from Around the World; Gas Prices Increase Next Year; Russian Troops Moved from Ukraine Border. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 28, 2021 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: 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 care physician at Boston Children's Hospital.

Thank you for being with us.

From all parents out there who are terrified right now about these numbers, what do they actually tell us? Is omicron more dangerous for children or are more children getting it because it's so contagious?

DR. ADRIENNE RANDOLPH, PEDIATRIC CRITICAL CARE PHYSICIAN, BOSTON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: I think the latter is true. It is highly, highly contagious and it's spreading very quickly. And the other issue is that even children who are eligible for the vaccine in many areas, the actual vaccinated rate is not that high. So, you know, it varies between 10 percent and 50 percent across the United States for even the 12 to 18-year-olds. So -- and then the five to 11s, you know, some states it's less than 6 percent have taken the opportunity to get vaccinated.

And these children who are getting admitted, if -- are either not vaccinated, or they have underlying medical conditions that puts them at risk.

HARLOW: You make such an important point about vaccination in children. And we looked at the numbers in your state, Massachusetts has a higher vaccination rate for children than the U.S. nationally, 41 percent in Massachusetts versus 21 percent of five to 11-year-olds are vaccinated. And when you look at 12 to 17-year-olds, it's 78 percent vaccinated in Massachusetts versus 63 nationwide.

How could omicron affect children in parts of the U.S. where vaccination rates lag significantly to the national average?

RANDOLPH: Yes, that's a very good question. What we saw with delta is in the south, it was -- even during the summer months and early fall, when people could still be mostly outside, we had very high rates of hospitalization, very high rates of very severe illness. Children going on to Heartland (ph) bypass machines, a lot of teenagers especially. Most of these children had underlying conditions. But it also affected healthy children.

Now, with omicron, it may be even more transmissible than delta, that that still has to be shown. But we are seeing a very rapid number of hospitalizations of children. They are one of our most vulnerable populations and have the lowest vaccination rates currently.

HARLOW: How confident are you that children under five will be able to be eligible for the vaccine by the second quarter of 2022?

RANDOLPH: That's a very good question, and currently they're testing a third dose, you know, with the teenagers who got the adult dose, the five to 11s got a third of that dose and then now they trialed a third of that dose even for the five to 11s, in the younger kids. And the ones under two actually had an immune response. But the two to under five kids did not have enough of a response. So now they're going to try a third dose.

The other issue that people often don't think about is that the infants are at the highest -- one of the highest risk groups and mothers can protect them by getting vaccinated themselves during pregnancy or if they're breast-feeding.

HARLOW: That's an important point. So even if you choose not to get vaccinated while you were pregnant, if you're breast-feeding regularly and you get vaccinated, those antibodies will travel through the milk for the baby?

RANDOLPH: That is what the data shows that when they test the breast milk that the mothers are transmitting antibodies to the baby, which could help protect them from getting severely ill, because the infants, especially the under six months, are one of the highest risk groups.

HARLOW: That's a great point that I hadn't heard before.

Final question, what should parents do if their children, especially their little kids, test positive? They can't be isolated, obviously.

RANDOLPH: Yes, it's hard. It's very hard.

First of all, the parents themselves should be vaccinated because if they get sick they can't take care of these -- the children who get sick. So hopefully these parents are all fully vaccinated and boosted.

Second, most of these healthy children are going to do fine, have a mild illness. It's just supportive care. And -- but also they need to try to isolate them as best you can to keeping others from getting infected because children are contagious when they have the virus, as much as adults. And so it's important to prevent the spread further.

But most healthy children will do fine with Covid, and have a mild cold.

[09:35:06]

And some don't have any symptoms at all. HARLOW: OK. Thank you ko much, Dr. Randolph. So helpful on all these

fronts.

RANDOLPH: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, across Europe, several countries are considering more Covid restrictions, but many people are resisting new lockdowns or new curfews, while China is dealing with its worst outbreak since the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

Here are the latest Covid headlines from around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm Barbie Nadeau in Rome, where here in Europe a spike in Covid-19 cases has led to new restrictions across continental Europe.

Here in Italy, mask mandates outdoors are now the law. We've got testing sites, like this one at a pharmacy behind me, so people can test before they go to events, so they can test before they join friends and family for celebrations. We've seen cancellations, though, of almost every New Year's Eve party of any kind across Europe.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: I'm Steven Jiang in Beijing.

Authorities in Xi'an, they insist everything is very much under control, even though the ancient capital recorded 175 new locally transmitted cases on Monday, a record for a Chinese city since March 2020. But officials say this kind of numbers is only to be expected as they continue to conduct citywide mass testing for 13 million residents. State media has also quoted experts as saying this outbreak could be over in a month, with the spread of the virus being stopped as a strict lockdown for Xi'an remains firmly in place.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elliott Gotkine in Jerusalem.

On a day when Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that Israel is about to be hit by a Covid contagion storm, the likes of which it has never seen before. On Monday, the country's daily case load hit almost 3,000, its highest level since early October. Omicron variant cases doubled over the weekend, which makes a just launched vaccine study even more timely. The Shiba (ph) Medical Center, just outside Tel Aviv, claims it's the world's first trial of a full dose of Covid vaccine on healthy patients. Results are expected by the end of the week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Barbie Nadeau, Steven Jiang and Elliott Gotkine, thank you all for your reporting from around the world.

Next up for us, the jury in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial is entering its fifth day of deliberations. What jurors asked from the court yesterday as they weigh her ae.

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[09:41:47]

HARLOW: New this morning, gas prices in the United States expected to rise again next year, reversing some of the recent relief for drivers seen in the past few weeks. Could we see $4 a gallon sometime in 2022?

CNN business lead writer and reporter Matt Egan joins me now.

This is a new forecast just out from Gas Buddy, shared exclusively with you and CNN, but it doesn't expect higher fuel prices next year to last, is that right?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: That's right, Poppy. But even a brief brush with $4 a gallon would be a really big deal because the high price of gasoline has been one of the biggest stories of 2021. It's something that has impacted virtually every American family, and it's been one of the biggest forces in both the economy and also in politics.

So Gas Buddy is unfortunately saying that unfortunately we're going to see pain at the pump get worse before it gets better. They're calling for $3.41 a gallon as the average in 2022. That would be up from about $3 this year. And they're saying that prices at the pump are going to peak at a monthly average of $3.79 a gallon in May, essentially flirting with $4 a gallon late in the spring, early in the summer, before falling sharply later in the year.

And, as you mentioned, that would reverse some of the recent relief that we've seen at the pump. The national average stands at $3.28 a gallon. That is still high. It's up by about a dollar from a year ago. But it's also down 14 cents from the recent peak.

Now, there's three big factors behind this call from Gas Buddy. One, really strong demand as the economy rapidly recovers from Covid. Two, supply that has continuously failed to keep up. And then, three, various refinery shutdowns that have limited the supply and production of gasoline.

Now, there are other forecasts out there calling for prices at the pump to cool off in 2022. Citigroup is calling for a, quote, radical drop in energy prices. The energy department's research arm recently predicted that the 2022 average will be just $2.88 a gallon. That would be down from this year.

But we do have to emphasize, all of these forecasts are just that, they are forecasts.

HARLOW: Right.

EGAN: It is very difficult, Poppy, to accurately predict anything in the Covid economy.

HARLOW: But if I'm going to believe anyone's prediction, it's going to be yours, Matt. I promise you that.

Let me ask you, I mean what was the point then, big picture, long- term, of releasing that oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

EGAN: Well, I think there are maybe a few points. One, there was a political point.

HARLOW: Sure.

EGAN: President Biden is under a lot of pressure to do something. And so he did something. He went and he announced the largest ever release of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And rumors of that release did cause oil prices to drop by 10 percent. They went up a little bit on the day that he announced it and then they fell sharply because of omicron.

There was also perhaps a diplomatic point there, trying to pressure OPEC and OPEC's allies to pump more oil by saying, listen, if you -- either you act or we will.

[09:45:03]

It's not really clear if that worked because omicron kind of muddied that picture.

But what is so interesting here is that there are some forecasts out there for prices to go higher, despite that historic intervention by the Biden administration.

HARLOW: Matt Egan, thank you for the reporting. We appreciate it.

EGAN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, ahead for us, jurors in the sex trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, are back in court this morning for a fifth day of deliberations. Yesterday, the jury asked for more witness transcripts, including testimony from Epstein's former pilot. They also asked for the legal definition of enticement as it relates to some of the charges that she faces. Yesterday the judge asked the jury to consider deliberating for an extra hour starting today if they still haven't reached a verdict. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to six federal counts for allegedly rooming underage girls for sex with Epstein, her long-time companion and convicted pedophile. If convicted, she faces up to 70 years in prison.

Well, talks between Russia and the U.S. are tentatively set for the new year. No doubt the big focus will be on Ukraine. We're live from Moscow ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:38]

HARLOW: Now to what could be at least an easing of tension on the border between Russia and Ukraine. U.S. and Russian officials have agreed to meet next month for talks concerning security in the region. But with more than 100,000 Russian troops stationed along the shared border, both sides are blaming each other for the hostilities.

CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us now. \

Nic, good to have you.

Russia says it wants certain guarantees from the U.S., from NATO. They have pulled back about 10,000 or so troops from the border, but you still have more than 70,000, 80,000 there.

What do we know?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I think from a Russian perspective, the fact that the demands, if you will, Russia's -- what it wants to talk about, that is no further NATO expansion towards Russia, i.e., Ukraine, that's firmly clearly on the table there, that NATO shouldn't be sending troops or military hardware to Ukraine as well. That's on the table. I think from a Russian perspective, the fact that these talks are now going ahead after Russia put these very stiff demands on the table, that's seen as a positive.

It's hard to know verifiably with if those troops have actually gone back to their bases, but Russia is saying that their planned training exercises are now completed. This is combat troops, special forces, motorized infantry divisions have gone back to their -- have gone back to those bases.

The sense I think in Moscow is that this is now picking up on a political diplomatic track. But what President Putin is looking for is clarity from NATO, clarity from the United States on the position vis- a-vis Ukraine, and he's leaning heavily on the United States to use its influence within NATO, which will have a separate meeting with Russia a couple of days after that January 10th meeting. And this is, you know, in essence Russia's position at the moment.

But what does that mean for those other troops? Are they going to be augmented and supplemented by more troops close to the border with Ukraine? That's not clear. Has the military hardware with those 10,000 troops been withdrawn as well? So we don't have a lot of clarity on this. But ii think the broad perspective is, the next step is diplomatic, political talks. Other things can happen beyond that.

HARLOW: And, Nic, before you go, Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with, among other leaders, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. How does this all fit into the broader picture of the region you just described?

ROBERTSON: Yes, I -- it -- the fact that he's meeting with Lukashenko after Lukashenko himself has had such troubles with the European nations, particularly Poland, trying to sort of force migrants across the border there into Poland recently, that created a large amount of tension.

But the sort of broader meeting that Putin is having is a commonwealth (ph) of independent states, which is really, in essence, the former republics of the Soviet Union in this -- in this commonwealth with Russia, where the normal -- it's a forum for discussion on sort of common foreign policy, policing, economics, these sorts of things. But, of course, absent from that table, and very clearly absent, is Ukraine. That was one of those states.

So, I think when you have this meeting and Ukraine is such a topic at the moment, its absence from the commonwealth of independent states is a very resonant (ph) and heavy message for President Putin himself. For Belarus, the conversations with President Lukashenko, President Putin is his biggest ally and biggest supporter. Quite what they're planning isn't clear.

HARLOW: Nic Robertson, from Moscow for us, we appreciate the reporting.

This just in to CNN. We're learning more about the timeline from the January 6th committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. When we might see a final report, that's next.

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[09:58:49]

HARLOW: So, this just in to CNN.

We have new details about when the January 6th committee may release its first report on the insurrection, and the timing is very close to the midterm elections. A committee aide tells CNN the goal is to release the initial findings by next summer with a final report in the fall of 2022. The panel had already said that they'd hold public hearings about the Capitol attack sometime in the new year. So far, almost all of their work has been behind closed doors, including hundreds of private depositions with witnesses, former Trump aides, Stop the Steal Rally organizers and election officials.

Also new this morning, this is the scene after a Learjet crashed into a fiery heap east of San Diego, California. It's still unclear how many people were on board the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are handling the investigation. Of course, we'll bring you updates as soon as we get them.

Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. So glad you're with me this morning. Jim Sciutto has the week off.

And new this morning, a major shift in the CDC's guidance for isolation and quarantine times.

[10:00:00]

The agency now says you can cut the time that you need to stay at home in quarantine in half as long as you're not symptomatic and willing to wear a mask for five more