Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

January 6 Report Released By Summer?; CDC Cuts Recommended COVID Quarantine Time in Half. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 28, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Just heartbreaking details there again from the 14-year-old's father, Juan Pablo, about the loss of his daughter when she was shot by a stray bullet from the Los Angeles Police Department.

We're going to continue to monitor this, and you will hear more about it in the next hour.

In the meantime, thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington, D.C.

CNN NEWSROOM continues now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Victor is off today.

The daily COVID case average has soared, upwards of 230,000 new infections a day driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant. That's 66 percent higher than just a week ago. But hospitalizations are rising at a more gradual rate. Four states hit their peak this month before starting to decline in the past few days.

Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Vermont saw more people hospitalized from COVID than ever before. Still, new CDC guidance aims to shorten the isolation period for people who test positive, but have no symptoms from 10 days to just five.

CNN's Tom Foreman joins me now with all the details,

Tom, it is hard for people to keep up with all the new guidance and protocols. So, take us through the latest.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so many people are just exhausted by this, Alisyn

We have been through two years of this now. And much of the goal right now seems to be to meet this new wave sweeping through the country, and yet somehow keep the country working.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (voice-over): The new CDC recommendation is simple enough. If you test positive for COVID, but show no symptoms, you can isolate for five days, instead of the previous 10, then go about your business wearing a mask for five more.

But the reason for the change is complicated, and health experts say not purely medical.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: We want to get people back to the jobs, particularly those with essential jobs, to keep our society running smoothly.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: If you are an hourly wage worker and you are -- you feel reasonably fine, maybe you have mild symptoms, you're much less likely to get tested if you know that a positive result will mean 10 days of not being able to work or being isolated.

FOREMAN: One sector already struggling, vaccinated health care workers suffering breakthrough infections of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, and being sent home.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: That's still an impossible strain on an already strained health care system. So I understand the pressure to get workers back earlier.

FOREMAN: Omicron is spreading so fast, the impact is now going far beyond the widely reported holiday travel problems.

In New York City, Apple has closed all its stores to browsing shoppers. In Maryland, courts are cutting back their winter schedules. All over, college and professional sports are dealing with canceled or postponed games.

And hospitals are seeing a surge in cases among children, not because Omicron is uniquely targeting them, but because:

DR. PAUL OFFIT, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: We see children who are hospitalized because of the COVID, are in the ICU because of COVID. They're all unvaccinated. They're unvaccinated. The parents are unvaccinated. The siblings are unvaccinated.

FOREMAN: That's why some medical professionals believe the reopening of schools, especially those with thorough COVID safety measures, could reduce the spread among kids, although others are not convinced.

DR. ALLISON MESSINA, JOHNS HOPKINS ALL CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: I think that what we're going to see is, once children go back to school, within a week or two of schools opening is when we're going to see our highest numbers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: That said, in New York City, where the cases are skyrocketing right now, officials say the bells will ring, the doors will open, and students will be expected back in class next week.

And I imagine many school districts across the country will follow suit -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Tom Foreman, thank you very much.

Let's bring in epidemiologist and CNN commentator Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. He was Detroit's health commissioner and is the host of the "America Dissected" podcast.

Doctor, great to see you.

So do you like these new shortened CDC guidelines for isolation from 10 days down to five?

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I think it's important to draw the inferences out.

I don't know if it's something I like or I dislike. I just want folks to understand exactly what's happening here. The first is the recognition that Omicron is going to infect a lot of people, and the kinds of disruptions that we have seen, whether it's in air travel or in hospital systems, that that's going to continue.

And that's in recognition of the responsibility that I think the CDC felt to make sure that the work forces are capable of withstanding the surge.

The second piece here is a recognition that vaccinated people really are protected in a pretty profound way. If you think about it, what the CDC guidelines do is they set it basically equitable or an equal requirement for people who are unvaccinated and exposed as people who are vaccinated and test positive.

And then the third thing I want folks to understand to pull out from this is the recognition that Omicron just moves so fast, both in terms of how fast it causes symptoms and how fast those symptoms resolve, that the CDC needed to change their requirements.

[14:05:06]

The important thing I want folks to weigh this against, though, is the need to make sure that people are feeling better after they get sick. It's not just about requirements for isolation. It's also -- it's...

CAMEROTA: Hmm. Dr. El-Sayed, we lost your audio. We're going to try to get that back. So, give us a moment on that, and we will circle back with him.

Meanwhile, the January 6 Committee is rolling out a new timeline for the new year, so when will we see their findings?

And one senator calls January a make-or-break month for the Democrats' agenda. So, what's more important to them, Build Back Better or voting rights?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:10:09]

CAMEROTA: Welcome back. So we're trying to understand the ramifications of the new CDC

guidelines for COVID isolation.

And back with us now is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.

Sorry for that technical glitch, Doctor. Great to have you back.

So you were explaining how the new guidelines of isolation from 10 days down to five days is designed, we think, because the Biden administration and the CDC wants to keep businesses open and the work force going.

But some in the work force, the front-line workers, some hospital workers and people on airplanes, don't love these new guidelines. So let me play you their thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEAN ROSS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED: This is not the time -- during a surge of a new mutant variant, this is not the time to be lessening. Our staffing concerns have not been addressed, and measures like this will make it worse, instead of better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so that was the president of the national nurses association.

In Tom Foreman's piece, we also heard from the head of the flight attendants association. They just think -- I mean, is this for people to police themselves on planes? Because people are not doing a great job of policing themselves on airplanes right now.

EL-SAYED: Yes, there are a couple points here that are really worth considering.

The first is, there's a large variation in how long people can continue to transmit this variant. And we still don't know that much about it. We have only been dealing with this for about a month. And so there's a risk that folks aren't wearing their mask after that first five days of isolation and could pass it on.

The second is that there's a subjective experience of getting sick. And it's important that people feel better to get back to work. And so it is a recognition that just because you have to isolate or don't have to isolate does not actually speak to the experience that people may be having. And that really is important for businesses and certainly unions to be considering, and workers themselves, let alone.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of airplanes, Dr. Fauci had suggested yesterday that maybe it was time for people -- for domestic flights to be fully vaccinated. And

then he had said, today, I think, or maybe yesterday afternoon, but I don't think that that's anytime in the near future.

Do you think that it's time for passengers to be fully vaccinated as a mandatory requirement to fly?

EL-SAYED: Well, what we know is that Omicron is substantially more transmissible, which means that, even if, with previous variants, that air travel was relatively safe, that may not be the case with Omicron.

The second point here is that there is a space between requiring vaccines to go on an airplane domestically vs. nothing, which is upgrading the kind of masks that are required. We know that N95 masks are substantially more -- prevent far more illness and infection.

And so you could imagine a world where you're required to have an N95 and to be wearing it in a particular way to get on an airplane. That being said, it may be a circumstance where, moving forward, given how infectious Omicron is, that what Dr. Fauci is suggesting may, in fact, be required to prevent illness and spread on air travel.

CAMEROTA: So the surgical mask that I have been wearing around is not good enough anymore, or just not good enough for air travel?

EL-SAYED: Well, it's not -- it's that it's not as good as an N95. It's not that it's not good. And it's critical that people wear a mask of any kind, which is better than no mask at all.

And we know that a surgical mask is better than a cloth mask. But we also know that an N95 is substantially better. And, though we know that, while an airplane is in the air, the risk of transmission is relatively low, that time taxiing.

I mean, I took a flight a week ago, and we sat there on the tarmac for about an hour. And we know that that -- that the amount of air that is recycled through the through the airplane's fuselage is really quite high. And so that could be a high-risk situation.

And so you want to equip people with the best way to protect themselves from transmission. And an N95 is the best. And so you could imagine an upgrade in the requirement there.

CAMEROTA: OK, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thank you.

EL-SAYED: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: So, House lawmakers investigating the Capitol riot say they could release an interim report of their findings by the summer.

A source tells CNN a final report on what happened on January 6 could be released in the fall.

CNN's Whitney Wild joins me now from Washington.

So, Whitney, clearly, they want to get it out before the midterms.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly.

I mean, now we have this specific timeline. And what this represents is that we're getting into this more public phase of not only the investigative process, but also the findings. So what we know now is that the House select committee plans to have

public hearings sometime next year. We're thinking sometime first quarter, and then a few months after that, they will release this interim report with the final report by the fall.

It's difficult to extract the political timeline from the House select committee's timeline, incidental, planned. It's -- people will glean what they want, but the reality is, the committee now saying that they want to have this -- they want to bring their work more into the public sphere so people can make their own decisions, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So, Whitney, a federal judge just issued a ruling allowing a major conspiracy case to move forward against four members of the Proud Boys. So how significant is this?

[14:15:08]

WILD: Well, it's very significant, Alisyn, for a number of reasons.

I mean, this is one of the first really big conspiracy cases that we're going to see move through the criminal justice system. In February, we will start to see these trials. And I think this is significant, not only for the actual impact on the justice system, but also, Alisyn, for what the judge said in a 43-page ruling allowing this to go forward.

And what he said was that this idea that these actions were part of protected First Amendment speech is just meritless. He said that this is not a mere sit-in. This is not just protesting out in the public sphere, that, once you got to the riot, that was not First Amendment- protected speech, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Whitney Wild, thank you for that important update.

OK, now to testing. I'm sure many of you have struggled to find a rapid COVID test. Well, coming up, you're going to hear one woman's story of her five-day scavenger hunt to find one.

Plus: Four people are dead after a gunman went on a shooting spree across Denver. We have the details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:58]

CAMEROTA: President Biden just lifted the travel restrictions on eight Southern African countries last month. He says that they are no longer necessary to protect public health. They were put in place last month, I should say.

As you know, the Omicron variant is, though, spreading like wildfire. And now the president is also conceding that his administration should have done more when it comes to testing. He told governors he needs help on state and local levels.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not enough. It's clearly not enough. If I had -- we had known, we would have gone harder, quicker, if we could have. We have to do more. We have to do better. And we will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: CNN's Jeremy Diamond is in Delaware, where the president is spending part of the holidays.

So, Jeremy, there's a sense now that we will be more prepared going forward?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's certainly the intention of the president and of his administration.

Listen, what we heard yesterday from the president was two things. On the one hand, he was acknowledging in no uncertain terms that his administration has fallen short when it comes to meeting the demand for testing.

You saw the president referencing those long lines that we had over the Christmas weekend. Clearly, those were seared and etched into the minds of this administration as they look forward now to try to improve that response.

At the same time, we heard the president also talking, trying to thread the needle there, and also talking about the progress that his administration has made in terms of testing, noting the fact that there are now nine at-home rapid tests that are on the market, whereas there were none that were approved when he came into office.

None of that will be of any comfort to Americans who weren't able to get a test before Christmas, for example, or who are struggling to get a test now. That's why the next test for this administration certainly comes with the launch of that Web site that we're expecting some time early next month, and the delivery of those 500 million rapid at-home tests that Americans can request via that Web site to get delivered to their homes.

The administration certainly does hope that will help alleviate some of the pressure that you are seeing with this testing shortage around the country. But that will be a major test.

We know that the last administration that President Biden was a part of when he was vice president struggled with the health care-related Web site, Obamacare, of course. And so this will be another key test for this president and his administration's coronavirus response.

We know that, certainly, this has -- it's dented President Biden's response to the coronavirus, the fact that we saw those long lines and that shortage of testing over these last couple of days and weeks.

So, again, a major test for the president. And we will see if those 500 million tests do indeed make the difference next month.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeremy Diamond, thank you for that.

So, my next guest had half-a-dozen reasons to need a rapid COVID test this month. She'd had a significant exposure. She had developed a cough. She was trying to protect her husband and trying to make holiday plans. And she is on an immunosuppressive drug which makes her more vulnerable to the virus.

But when she tried to find a test, she says it turned into a -- quote -- "infuriating five-day scavenger hunt."

Elisabeth Rosenthal just wrote about her ordeal in "The Washington Post." She is also the editor in chief of Kaiser Health News. And she joins us now.

Wow, Elisabeth, I read your story with great interest. So what happened when you tried to get a test?

ELISABETH ROSENTHAL, EDITOR IN CHIEF, KAISER HEALTH NEWS: Well, I discovered that it was really, really hard.

It was the same kind of frantic search we'd had at the beginning of the pandemic for masks or hand sanitizer, but now we're nearly two years in. And I'm a physician and a public health journalist. And it's just not acceptable.

CAMEROTA: I mean, you -- of all people, you arguably have more resources than the average bear to try to get a test.

But let's just go through it. Did you try your local pharmacy?

ROSENTHAL: I did.

I mean, basically, I did what most Americans would do. I went online and said, where can I get a test? And I found that, here in D.C., there were free tests, but there were long lines and the results wouldn't be back for maybe three to five days. And I needed a rather rapid answer to know if I should go on monoclonal antibodies because of my health condition. And we had upcoming plans.

[14:25:12]

And then what was even more infuriating, though, is the non-public sites, the hospitals, the CVSes, the Walgreens, even some of the private clinics, they had no slots available, or, even worse -- this was the weekend before Christmas. And they said, oh, we don't do testing on weekends, as if Omicron goes to sleep on weekends.

Or, in other clinics, they said, oh, sure, if you want to rapid test -- I mean, a rapid PCR test, which is what I needed, you can pay $300 for a one-hour turnaround, $275 for two hours, and so on and so forth. So the whole thing was just infuriating.

And at one point, one of the centers said to me, well, if you're having surgery tomorrow or you need a flight tonight, we can speed it up, but I'm like, no, this is a public health emergency. I have a medical problem. But that didn't give me priority. CAMEROTA: And I mean, I know you joked you considered scheduling a

colonoscopy so that you could get a COVID test.

ROSENTHAL: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: But, I mean, on a serious note, so you tried your local pharmacy, your local CVSes. You tried your city's walk-in clinic, and it was an hours-long line, and you weren't going to get the results back for three to five days.

Did you try your primary care physician?

ROSENTHAL: I did. But my primary care physician happens to be in New York. And my doctors down here were connected with hospitals that also had very long waits, and couldn't guarantee a quick turnaround for a -- what was a public health reason.

And that's part of the problem. We have trusted throughout this pandemic for the private market to deliver public health. And it's not set up for that. It really isn't. Their priority is keeping those surgeries going, making sure people who want to pay $275 for a test for a flight can get one.

My problem was not their problem. And that's why we really need -- what I'm glad to see President Biden doing is saying, we're going to invoke the Defense Production Act to get these tests going out and free. And, unfortunately for him, Omicron came before his program was up to speed.

But in other countries, in the U.K., for example, you can say to the NHS, I need a rapid test tomorrow, and you will get seven in the mail tomorrow, and just not there. And it's just -- it's just tragic.

CAMEROTA: And so the upshot of your story is that you finally got tested, and you were positive. And so how are you? How's your husband?

ROSENTHAL: We're both fine.

But the really infuriating thing for America is, we are people who have a car and disposable income. So I found first a test site in Virginia -- we live in D.C. -- that promised a 48-hour test. They actually couldn't deliver that in practice.

So I then the next day went and found another one that we drove 30 miles to that promised I would be called back within 24 hours if I had a positive test. At 24 hours, I hadn't heard anything. So I called them back and said, what gives? Can I assume I'm negative? And they were like, no, you can't assume you're negative. We're really behind.

So, from my first symptom to my test results ended up being five days, which meant, even if my doctor had wanted to give me monoclonal antibodies, it would have been too late. So...

CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, five days is just too long for anybody to have to wait in this current climate.

Well, Elisabeth Rosenthal, thanks for sharing your story. I hope that you're feeling better.

ROSENTHAL: We're both fine.

CAMEROTA: And everybody should read your...

ROSENTHAL: I hope others have a better experience and we improve upon this in the future.

CAMEROTA: Everybody should read your piece in "The Washington Post." Thanks so much for being with us.

ROSENTHAL: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, so depending upon who you ask, the core of President Biden's agenda is either stalled or dead.

So what's the path forward on Build Back Better? A Democratic lawmaker is going to share her vision.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)