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Bible, Civil War Ammo Discovered in Time Capsule in Virginia. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 29, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:02]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: And we're really excited you're here.

KATE RIDGEWAY, STATE ARCHAELOGICAL CONSERVATOR, VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF HISTORIC RESOURCES: Well, thank you so much for having me, Poppy.

HARLOW: You worked in the area of conservation for many years. You've got master's degree in this field. And here, we just saw you cutting open this box that dates back to the civil war. What was the moment like?

RIDGEWAY: It was terrifying and I was so focused on what I needed to do, that I sort of blocked everything around me out which helped because there were a lot of people there.

HARLOW: Yes. I want to talk all about what was in there. Because you guys thought, okay, it's going to be soup inside because it was found in a wet area, but it wasn't. And you note that this box was in the Lee statue pedestal according to news accounts from the time, but I wonder if that statue had not been removed in recent years, if you guys would have ever gotten this?

RIDGEWAY: I don't think -- there was no way to get to this --

HARLOW: Did she freeze? Okay. Let's see if we can refresh the connection and get Kate back. If we can't, maybe we'll take -- all right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. We have reestablished connection with Kate Ridgeway. So, what do you think? Would this have been found if the Robert E. Lee statue had not been moved?

[10:35:01]

RIDGEWAY: I don't think it would have been. This box wasn't really a time capsule where people were expected to come and retrieve it after 100 years. This was more of a cornerstone box for the dedication of the monument. And so without disassembling the statue, you would not find this box. HARLOW: I should also note, there's so much talk about it being found, but it's also notable what is not found inside of it. And a number of historians have noted this specifically, any mementos of Richmond's black community, which, of course, was very prevalent and thriving at the time. Can you speak to that as well?

RIDGEWAY: First, I will say we have not done a complete inventory yet. So, when we have that, we will get that out to everyone. So, we really don't know everything that's in there. But I do think it reflects on what the society at the time felt was important. And I think that this is a good learning opportunity for us when we do something similar, to show what Virginia is like in the future.

HARLOW: Yes, that's a great point. So now what happens? Once you do that full inventory, where does all of this go to be preserved?

RIDGEWAY: So, right now, a lot of the artifacts are in the freezer because they came out -- they were wet, and a lot of artifacts are drying. And, really, what we're going to do is stabilize these artifacts, do what we can to make sure that they're available for whoever the next owners happen to be. Department of Historic Resources is just a holding area for these artifacts, and they will be going to an institution in the future that hopefully will be able to research these and put them on exhibition.

HARLOW: So cool, so great. Thank you, Kate, for being with us to talk about this.

RIDGEWAY: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

HARLOW: Great to have you.

Well, COVID-19 dominated the headlines this year, for sure. There were other breakthroughs and battles in the world medicine. Ahead, we take a look back at the health stories that made headlines in 2021.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

HARLOW: The coronavirus pandemic dominated health headlines for the entire year, but that was not the only thing we looked at on the health front of 2021. Our very own Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look back at the top ten health stories of the past year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: While the coronavirus pandemic did demand most of our attention, another epidemic continued to surge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. America's drug epidemic now deadlier than it has ever been.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Record death toll. GUPTA: For the first time on record, more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in a 12-month period between May 2020 and April 2021, much of it from elicit fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

Now, President Biden's new drug czar, Dr. Rahul Gupta, no relation to me, told me that we need to more strongly employ harm reduction, making drug use safer with things like Naloxone, clean syringes and testing drugs for the presence of fentanyl.

People will say, look, you're enabling drug use. That's the provocation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a physician that has spent his career dealing with science and moving data around, we just do not have that evidence.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, for the first time in almost 20 years, there's a new drug just approved to treat people in the early phases of Alzheimer's disease.

GUPTA: In June, U.S. Food and Drugs Administration green lit Aduhelm, the first new degree approved to treat Alzheimer's disease since 2003. Now, according to the FDA, the drug can reduce Alzheimer's signature tangles and plaques of amyloid proteins that block the neural pathways in people with mild disease. But the approval was controversial with many researchers, including the FDA's own independent advisory committee, saying the evidence simply wasn't there to show it slows down cognitive decline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Effectiveness is something we don't fully understand just yet.

BLITZER: There's a growing concern about a surge of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Instead of a medal count, we're already tracking the COVID count.

GUPTA: It had already been postponed the previous year, but this summer, the Tokyo Olympic Games took place in the midst of the pandemic. Strict testing and masking protocols were put into place and attempts were made to keep athletes in a bubble with very limited interaction with anyone outside. I reported firsthand about how the Olympics pandemic playbook was being put to the test.

Is there a criteria by which you would start to become concerned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we look at is changes in patterns. So, if we started to see infection in people who weren't part of a close contact group, if we started to see a rising number of cases, if we started seeing the cases doubling more rapidly than we saw.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announcing sweeping changes to its vaccine rollout to get more people vaccinated.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They're now saying that the vaccine should be made available to anyone over age 65.

GUPTA: The first COVID shots went to the most vulnerable, nursing home residents, frontline health care workers, and then eligibility was expanded to those with underlying conditions and those 65 and older. By April, everyone 16 years and older in the United States was eligible for a shot. In May, 12 to 15-year-olds were authorized for Pfizer shots.

[10:45:01]

And in August, Pfizer's vaccine became the first fully FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: The Biden White House calling out the misinformation machine, accusing Facebook of killing people by letting anti-vaccine lies linger on the platform.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They're outrageous, offensive posts that compare vaccines to the Holocaust and Nazi, Germany.

GUPTA: It has become so significant an issue that the surgeon general called it a serious threat to public health.

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: We are still seeing misinformation spread like wildfire on social media sites in particular.

GUPTA: What's resulted is a persistent pandemic, with more than 100,000 new infections daily and tens of thousands of COVID patients in the hospital, most of them unvaccinated.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And some of these heavily red districts that voted overwhelmingly for the former president, Donald Trump, the vaccines remain unpopular. Not just hesitancy here, there are people who truly believe the vaccine is a big problem.

GUPTA: With more than one in ten Americans saying they have no plans on getting a shot --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We live in a free country and the right to make our own health care decisions is the core of it.

GUPTA: -- school districts, businesses, states, even the federal government are starting to implement vaccine mandates in an effort to return to normal.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is not about freedom or personal choice. It's about protecting yourself and those around you.

GUPTA: It is one of the clearest examples of public health colliding with politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Health officials in China are trying to identify a mysterious strain of pneumonia. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A mysterious new cluster of pneumonia cases.

GUPTA: When we first learned of this virus nearly two years ago, we had no idea the destruction it would leave in its wake. By September, we lost more lives to COVID than the estimated 675,000 people who perished in the 1918 flu pandemic.

Now granted, the population in the United States was one-third what it is now, but there were no vaccines available 100 years ago either. It is difficult to fathom that we have now lost more than 800,000 lives to the coronavirus. Sadly, much of it preventable, as Dr. Deborah Birx told me.

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.

GUPTA: After most kids spent the first year of the pandemic online, getting kids back into the classroom this year was a priority for everyone. But how to do it, that was up for debate. Vaccination requirements, mask mandates, testing, quarantines, it all erupted into clashes at local school board meetings across the country.

While children are less likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19, the number of infections among children has been steadily rising since this summer. In October, the FDA authorized a smaller dose of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 through 11. But that group does remain the least vaccinated.

Vaccination is a key to controlling this pandemic, but we're still learning just how long that protection can last. Studies are finding that antibody levels can start to fall after a few months, making people more susceptible to infection, while protection against severe disease does remain high. The CDC has expanded the recommendation for all adults over 18 to get a booster shot, six months after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and two months after the Johnson & Johnson one.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We know they're safe and we know they're highly effective in bringing very, very high up the optimization of your protection.

GUPTA: Over the last two years, there have been thousands of variants, with a handful of them becoming variants of concern. Still vaccination, masking, testing can help limit the spread of the virus. This past spring, we saw the rise of delta, a variant two to three times as infectious as the original coronavirus. It overwhelmed India and then Europe. And this summer, it swept through the Southern United States where vaccination rates were among the lowest in the country. And now omicron cases are growing all over the world.

FAUCI: This is really something to be reckoned with. It is really rapidly spreading literally throughout the world and certainly in our own country. GUPTA: As the weather gets cooler and we move indoors, remember to get your shots, to mask up. Despite all the fear, we do have the tools to stay healthy and protected.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you for that.

Well, they are music icons that have dominated the charts for decades, but James Taylor and Carole King have been friends for just as long. Up next, a preview of their new CNN film about their first tour together, and I will speak with a renowned music producer who introduced them decades ago.

[10:50:03]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, this weekend, a new CNN film shines a spotlight on the incredible careers of singer/songwriters James Taylor and Carole King. Their 50-year personal friendship and professional partnership have had a truly remarkable impact on American music. And the documentary, Just Call Out My Name, takes us behind the scenes of their first tour together.

[10:55:01]

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Actually I've been a fan of James Taylor's songs since I met him in 1970. In fact, to the point where prior to hearing James' songs, I was writing with other people, mostly Jerry Gothan and Tony Stern, and James inspired me to try writing my own music and lyrics. I hope that worked out okay.

We're going to play it for you right now and see what you think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Wow. I love that. Joining us now is music producer and manager Peter Asher. Peter, great to have you.

PETER ASHER, MUSIC PRODUCER AND MANAGER: Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here.

HARLOW: You deserve a lot of the credit here. Not only did you sign then unknown James Taylor, but you introduced James and Carrole too each other. What was that first meeting like?

ASHER: It was memorable. I mean, it worked out as well as one could have hoped. I should give credit here particularly to great guitar player called Danny Kortchmar, who was actually the person who introduced James and me and, when I moved to Los Angeles, introduced me to Carole. But I had fallen in love with Carole's playing by listening to the demos that she did for all those great songs she wrote for other people. And I realized what a terrific kind of accompanist she was. So, I wanted the two of them to meet and I wanted Carole to consider playing on the record I was about to make with James.

It was my -- I was in a little rented house down near Hancock Park, and Carole came over. James was sitting there with his guitar and I just encouraged them to sit next to each other on the piano bench and play something, because I thought their styles would fit, and they did. And they got on very well and it was obviously the beginning of a profound friendship and a musical partnership that went on from then until now over the course of many decades. And then when we made the Sweet Baby James album, Carole was kind enough to play on every single track on that record.

HARLOW: And I love the point she made in the clip right there that it was James Taylor who encouraged her to write her own music, to write her own songs and her own lyrics. And, I mean, it just speaks to such a supportive friendship on both ends.

ASHER: That's true. And what's interesting, of course, is they came at it, even though they became sort of joint representatives and part of the singer/songwriter movement, they came at it from such completely different places, because Carole, of course, had been writing all these real building hits for other people songs, which were incredibly successful. I was in awe of Carole just by looking at her credits long before I met her.

And James, of course, came at it from being what in those days a folk singer. The singer/songwriter hadn't been officially named, and anyone who had long hair and played an acoustic guitar was automatically a folk singer. So, you would think they would be at the opposite ends of some spectrum, but, in fact, they got on incredibly well both musically and personally.

HARLOW: Where do you see their biggest impact on other artists?

ASHER: Well, I think, as I say, that between them and people like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young and other brilliant members of the same sort of era, suddenly being a singer/songwriter became a thing. It became a career. And I don't think we'd see the Ed Sheerans or the Taylor Swifts or any of the new people now, the Holly Humberstones, or whoever it is, who is so wonderful, Brandy Clark, Brandi Carlile, all those people, I think, are adept to the singer/songwriters of that early generation of which James and Carole were certainly key elements.

HARLOW: Before we go, your favorite Carole King/James Taylor song.

ASHER: Well, I think I would never dare to compare a Carole King song to a James Taylor song and choose a favorite out of them. But I think, overall, because of what it accomplished and what happened, I would have to go with You've Got a Friend. It was the moment that James and I heard Carole sing this brand new song, fell in love with it. And we asked Carole, even though she was about to make her own solo record, we'd undoubtedly would include what was to our ear a hit.

We asked if -- it would be crazy to ask if we could record it as well.

[11:00:03]

And Carole, with extraordinary generosity, said yes.