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Retired NFL Player Helps Ex-Convicts Find Employment; Colorado Wildfires; U.S. Child Hospitalizations Hit Record High. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 31, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Across the country, though, cities have limited their festivities or canceled them altogether.

And the U.S. ends 2021 like it entered it, with surging COVID infections, the U.S. averaging nearly 356,000 cases each day the last week, extending a record streak that is expected to continue for days or weeks ahead.

And a short time ago, the FAA announced that it may be forced to postpone flights because of its own personnel falling sick. Now, that's in addition to the thousands of flights canceled and delayed by sickened crew members and airline workers already.

Now, pediatric hospital admissions in the U.S. are at record highs. On average, 378 children were admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 on any given day over the week that ended Tuesday. That's a 66 percent jump from the previous week.

But, still, there are glimmers of hope for a better new year. In South Africa, where the surge is believed to have peaked, researchers confirmed patients weren't as sick with Omicron. Just under 3 percent of patients hospitalized there between November 15 and December 7 died. That's compared to 29 percent who died while Delta was the dominant variant.

I want to bring in CNN senior national correspondent Miguel Marquez. He's in Houston, home of the nation's largest children's hospital.

And, Miguel, what have doctors been telling you amid this surge in pediatric hospitalizations?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're saying that it's -- the worst is yet to come, sadly.

We were lucky enough to visit Texas Children's Hospital, the largest pediatric hospital in the country. They are not overwhelmed yet, but they are preparing for whatever the Omicron variant can throw at them. One number I want to give you, Phil, that kind of puts it in perspective, in the last week, just the last seven days, the number of hospitalizations at Texas Children's has risen fourfold.

That is a very worrying number to them. Here's how the chief pathologists put it in the way Omicron is spreading.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JIM VERSALOVIC, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This Omicron variant has now reached a new level in terms of infectivity, in terms of contagiousness.

It is now in the category of measles, the most highly transmissible virus or one of the most highly transmissible viruses known to mankind. We have been vaccinating against measles for a long time. We need to do the same thing with SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Here's what they're preparing for now, schools reopening here in Houston across Texas next Tuesday. That will also happen in too many cities across the country.

But in states like Texas, there's particular concern, because the government here, the state government has banned mask mandates in public schools. So they expect schools to be a big vector.

Whatever the case, they believe that those numbers, those case numbers are going to continue to climb at least into mid-January, maybe into February, before they see the backside of the Omicron variant. But at Texas Children's Hospital, where they have lots of beds available right now, they are preparing and prepared, they say, for whatever the Omicron variant throws at them -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Miguel, just a quick follow-up.

You have spent more time reporting in hospitals, I think, than maybe any reporter over the course of the last two years. Can you tell me, what are doctors feeling right now? It's been such a long couple of years here. How are they dealing with this moment?

MARQUEZ: Look, staff at most hospitals are completely exhausted. They literally are running on fumes.

I was impressed by how good the morale is at Texas Children's. Now, keep in mind, Texas Children's is a massive hospital. They have lots of staff there. They're able to fill in the gaps and help staff members sort of keep that morale up.

But they are exhausted. I think there's also a lot of concern about what Omicron means for the future. Will it move it into more of an endemic stage? Will we enter a new phase of the pandemic once Omicron comes through?

There's a little bit of hope that that might happen and it might be less severe, but they're not sure. Everybody's kind of holding their breath. Here's to a somewhat better 2022 -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I think everybody can agree on that. Fingers crossed.

Miguel Marquez, great reporting, as always. Thank you, friend. All right, I want to continue the conversation with Dr. Saju Mathew, a primary care physician and public health specialist in Atlanta.

And, Dr. Mathew, we were just kind of talking about how doctors are doing in this moment in time. You mentioned during the break that you just tweeted a video after being -- kind of working all night with COVID patients.

What are you seeing? And what are people in this moment supposed to be doing if they do test positive, given the sheer number of cases right now?

DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN AND PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST: Yes, Phil, it's been crazy.

I mean, I'm telling you, this past week, I would say probably every other patient that I have seen or done a telemedicine visit with has been COVID-positive. And what's really frustrating is, if you think about it, the -- as we get these new mutations like Omicron, we're actually finding out that these antibody infusion therapies that we had been widely using are not working as well.

There's only one antibody in fusion called GSK. And guess what? That's in short supply. So, yes, I just posted this video because I have been answering the same question over and over again.

Listen, at this time, Phil, there are so many patients that are trying to get in touch with your doctors because they're turning positive.

[13:05:06]

So what do you do? And I basically just said, listen, number one, you don't panic. Don't drive to the E.R. to get a test. Let the E.R. doctors take care of the emergency patients that are flocking their hospitals. You want to take Advil, Motrin, hydrate, check your pulse ox, but only go to the emergency room if your symptoms are worse.

And one last thing, Phil, that I'm seeing for some glimmer of hope is, I can absolutely split the patients into two segments or two paths. The people that are vaccinated and boosted, they're doing a lot better than those that are unvaccinated and not boosted.

So, if you're going to go to a bar this weekend, I would absolutely ask you not to do it. The virus will find you. This is very, very contagious and a huge surge in our hospitals right now.

MATTINGLY: Can I ask -- Miguel was reporting on kids. And we have seen the uptick in pediatric admissions. But kids weren't eligible for vaccines the majority of the pandemic.

Why is Omicron affecting children differently in this moment?

MATHEW: Yes, so I think, really, the bottom line is a numbers game, Phil.

When you find out that you have a variant like Omicron that doubles every two days, where one person can infect 18 people, so many more people are getting infected. And as a result of that, a percentage of those are going into the hospital.

But, overall, kids are still faring better, at least where I live right here in Atlanta. Our hospitals are filling up. But guess what? They're filling up with people that are unvaccinated, adults and children as well.

MATTINGLY: Yes, and there's no question about the import of vaccinations, at this point in time especially.

One thing, you mentioned glimmers of hope for things we can kind of grab on to heading into the new year. Researchers in South Africa say recent deaths of hospitalized COVID patients are down 90 percent from the Delta variant. A brand-new U.K. analysis says the risk of hospitalization from Omicron is one-third of what it was with Delta.

Is that kind of what you're seeing anecdotally on a day-to-day, night- to-night basis?

MATHEW: Yes, I mean, I definitely think that what we need to find out in the next four to six weeks is to figure out, of the 1,500 people that are dying each day in the U.S. -- that's a huge number, still -- how many of that is attributed to Omicron?

We're going to find out in the next four to six weeks. I really try hard to not use the word mild, Phil, because then a lot of people that are showing up in emergency rooms are saying, hey, listen Omicron is so mild, I don't really need to get the vaccine.

And that's not true. And, Phil, let me just share one quick story that just breaks my heart. A 54-year-old in shape runner, no medical issues, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, nothing, he runs two miles a day. He fought me for the last three years, telling me -- or at least the last two years -- telling me that this is really a hoax. He was very polite about it.

He would send me articles saying that we are inflating the mortality rate. I just found out last week that he has been in the ICU for four weeks, intubated, and probably may not make it.

So it's just an example of people who think they can avoid this virus. It's not true. You have to get vaccinated. You have to get boosted. There is a huge difference if you do. You will survive and you will pull through.

MATTINGLY: Right. Why leave it to chance?

Dr. Saju Mathew, thanks so much for your time. I really appreciate it, sir. Happy new year.

MATHEW: Happy new year, Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right, nearly 1,000 homes damaged or destroyed in a matter of hours, an update on the devastating Colorado wildfires coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:12:59]

MATTINGLY: In Colorado, a state of emergency is in effect as residents deal with the aftermath of unprecedented wildfires that destroyed nearly 1,000 homes.

Now, flames fueled by hurricane-force winds took only a couple of minutes to wipe out complete neighborhoods. That left little time, almost no time, for thousands of people to evacuate as the fires closed in at breakneck speed.

Shoppers at this Costco scrambling for their cars after being told to leave the store immediately, only to find a parking lot filled with smoke and ash. You can see it right there.

CNN national correspondent Natasha Chen is there.

I'm looking at you right now, and I want to say this has to be a helpful sign that it's snowing. What's your sense of things right now, given what we saw yesterday?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil, the snow is going to be very helpful in this situation to improve the fire conditions, bringing in that moisture that's really needed.

We have really gone from one extreme to the other, from flames to snowflakes here. What you have been seeing in those cell phone videos that people have taken are just terrifying moments where, in the blink of an eye, they saw flames coming toward their homes, as you mentioned, hurricane-force winds, and, really, this debris and ash was raining down on them.

And the visibility was so bad that one of the people taking the videos said that he could barely see 10 feet in front of him. Earlier this morning, we were able to point out some of the things behind me down below in the town of Superior, with smoke plumes still visible.

But, of course, now with the snow coming in, you can't see anything at all behind me. But the governor really put this in perspective. This is not a wildfire of that ran through a forest. This is a fire that really affected where people live. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): That wasn't a wildfire in the forest. It was a suburban and urban fire, the Costco we all shop at, the Target we buy our kids' clothes at, all surrounded damaged.

[13:15:06]

Nearly 1,000 homes in two very tight-knit, beautiful communities our state has are gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: We're starting to hear stories like that of the University of Colorado Boulder's assistant football coach, who said that he lost every material possession he has, has to start over completely.

A lot of people are going to come back to their homes and find out that they do have to start over, a really devastating start to the new year, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Totally. No loss of life, which is a miracle, but that's real homes, houses people's lives, a lot of devastation the ground.

Natasha Chen, great reporting, as always. Thanks so much.

For more, I want to bring in Captain Greg Pixley of the Denver Fire Department.

Captain Pixley, thanks so much for your time.

You guys have had multiple crews in Boulder County. I was following with the Denver Fire Department Twitter account some amazing pictures, stunning pictures.

What are your teams on the ground telling you about what they have seen over the course of the last day?

CAPT. GREG PIXLEY, DENVER FIRE DEPARTMENT: I have to tell you, it is the most remarkable stories that we're getting back, that our firefighters basically said they were surrounded by fire.

We deployed around 31 firefighters to assist with the requests that came in from the state yesterday afternoon. And our firefighters went to work immediately. And you saw the videos that I posted on our Twitter account.

It is remarkable and catastrophic. That is an appropriate phrase.

MATTINGLY: You know, it seems like things -- and the snow will be helpful.

It seems, from the governor's press conference, there's still dangerous issues out there. But it seems to be in a much better place. What's the primary concern for your teams right now?

PIXLEY: Well, right now, we want to continue to ensure that we can save as many of the properties as possible.

And our hearts go out to those that have lost, those thousands upon thousands of individuals that lost their possessions, like our governor had mentioned. It's important for us not to forget that vital piece.

How we didn't lose or have any injuries that are reported at this time is amazing. So, the Denver Fire Department's focus is to continue to work with our incident commander that's providing the direction for all firefighters that have responded, so that we can ensure that those people have something to go home to, if there is a chance to stop any of the remaining fires.

As you mentioned, Phil, we have got this snow front that's coming through. It's going to help a great deal. And it's important for us to get this moisture, because the drought has devastated Colorado, along with the Western part of the United States. So any moisture is good moisture.

We just wish we had it the day before.

MATTINGLY: Yes, totally, no, clearly fueling things.

Can you talk about the magnitude and intensity of these fires? The way things have been described, mere minutes to respond to it. It was jumping from place to place, covering a football field in mere seconds. How do you fight something like that?

PIXLEY: Well, you certainly don't fight it with a frontal approach. You have to start on the sides as you're working your way to affect the fire as best you can.

We have one reporter here that asked me, why didn't you just put a whole bunch of firefighters in front of the fire? Well, with fire progressing at 100 feet a second with these 100 mile-an-hour winds, it is incredible to think about the heat and the devastation that that fire is going to provide.

We have to place our firefighters in a safe position. And they did a great job of evacuating those that live in those communities to ensure that they didn't have to worry about additional loss of life.

So, by attacking this fire on the side, as the winds allowed, and not putting our firefighters at risk, because if we lose one firefighter or have one firefighter injured, that's one less that can assist in the effort for us to ensure that that community will have as little loss as possible.

MATTINGLY: Can I ask, how was the community so responsive in terms of evacuation?

Like, I still -- with how fast this moved, I don't understand how that many thousands of people got out of harm's way, given some of the videos we were watching right now. How was that in place to be so effective?

PIXLEY: Well, interestingly enough, in that environment, it probably hasn't been employed to this point.

In the mountains, where I live, they practice that a lot, pre- evacuation notices, so you can gather your materials, you can gather those important legal papers and those medicines and your animals, and then make your way away from the danger.

But in an urban setting like we found yesterday, they had no preparation. They were given immediate orders to evacuate. So it must have been just chaotic for people. It would -- like me running into the studio right now and say, Phil, you have to leave, grab your best, whatever materials you need, and get out.

People aren't prepared for that. We, as Coloradans, though, as a community, we will come together and we will work to provide the assistance that's necessary for these poor people that lost their everything. With such immediate evacuations, they didn't have an opportunity to gather what they needed.

[13:20:06]

So, we are going to do our best as a community and throughout the nation to help those who have lost so much.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's so critical. It's not just a one-day or two-day thing. This is going to be weeks and months ahead.

PIXLEY: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: Captain Greg Pixley, thanks so much for your time, sir. I appreciate it.

PIXLEY: Thank you, Phil. And God bless everyone who lost something.

MATTINGLY: Indeed.

All right, the Colorado governor is also making news in a sentencing that captured national attention, Governor Jared Polis commuting a truck driver's 110-year sentence for causing a fiery 28-car pileup in 2019.

Rogel Aguilera-Mederos will now serve 10 years in prison instead, and he will be eligible for parole at the end of 2026. He was driving a semi-tractor-trailer 85 miles per hour when he says his brakes failed, causing that fiery wreck that killed four people.

Governor Polis called the sentence -- quote -- "highly atypical and unjust." The district attorney in the case says she is both disappointed with the governor's clemency decision, claiming he acted prematurely.

And Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy says yes to Trump and his endorsement, but with an asterisk. Trump endorsed Dunleavy, but only on the condition done Levy did not endorse incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in 2022. Of course, Murkowski was one of seven Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump for inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

In a statement, Dunleavy said: "Please tell the president thank you for the endorsement. With regard to the other issue, please tell the president he has nothing to worry about."

Glad we got that all figured out.

All right, still ahead, how a former NFL star is helping convicts get back on the right track.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:26:35]

MATTINGLY: In a year where it's felt like bad news is pervasive, this next story is about second chances and redemption.

Retired NFL player Jason Murphy, who now owns several businesses, including an Amazon delivery franchise, has spent 2021 helping people with past convictions get a job. Now, he not only hires them for his business, but he works at employment fairs that expunge the criminal records of potential hires, some of whom end up on his payrolls.

He's joining me now, Jason Murphy, CEO of Delivery 101 Logistics, along with Craig Smoot, a delivery driver for Murphy's Amazon delivery franchise.

And, Jason, Craig is the star here that I actually want to talk to.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTINGLY: But I will start with you.

What -- a lot -- this is a policy conversation in Washington that's constantly percolating. Very few times does it end up in an outcome. You went and did something here? What motivated you to pursue this?

JASON MURPHY, CEO, DELIVERY 101 LOGISTICS: I just think that everyone deserves a second chance.

I remember times when I was in high school, and maybe a teacher would allow me to retake a test or allow me to get a better grade on a particular test or paper. And those opportunities like that remind me to -- always to continue to pay things forward.

And I think that's what I am doing in this situation. And I think it's the best thing that everybody should be trying to figure out a way to pay things like this forward.

MATTINGLY: Yes. No, at a minimum.

Craig, just to give some context here, you were convicted of an armed robbery in late -- in the late 1980s, when you were in your 20s. You served two-and-a-half years in prison. You are no longer on probation. And yet the obstacles are very real, not just for you, but for an entire population of people, when it comes to trying to get a job.

How has this push from Jason helped kind of reinvent the hiring wheel, and I think, more importantly, changed your life?

CRAIG SMOOT, DRIVER, DELIVERY 101 LOGISTICS: Well, let's start off with it gave me a shot hope.

I get another chance at doing something positive, doing something for myself, as well as my family. And I can't thank this man enough for believing in me and giving me an opportunity to do something, do something better in my life, or to make my life a little bit better than what it is. MURPHY: I would say more. I mean, I tell you, Mr. Smoot got convicted of his crime in the '80s. And I was born in the '80s.

So, just to think that something like that is still impacting his life today I think is just -- it's an injustice. So, I think to give him the opportunity and to continue to work with anybody that needs that opportunity is the best thing for humanity.

MATTINGLY: Yes. No, no question.

And it's not -- but it's not like a one-time thing for you. You told "The Washington Post" more than 10 percent of your delivery business' 87 employees have had their records expunged. None of those employees have been terminated. What do you say to other employers, particularly who are trying to deal with the background check process and a lot of the issues that may pop up with that, that are skeptical about going down this path?

MURPHY: Well, I think it's just something that we should continue to work and just to improve our humanity.

But what other companies need to do -- what I did is, I partnered with a couple different law firms, and just to figure out, what are the different situations that can be transformed, that could can held, according to their records?

We partnered with huge company, Johns Hopkins University. And they did a great job of hosting us, to continue to host expungements. And this is something that we are just going to continue to do.

And I think, moving forward, we want to maybe open it up for opportunities for other businesses to give them the resources to do the same thing.

MATTINGLY: Craig, I don't think necessarily.