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Studies: Boosters Provide Best Protection Against Omicron; Abortion Opponents March While Fate of Roe v. Wade Is Uncertain; Rising Mortgage Costs Have Home Buyers Scrambling; China Attempts Most Ambitious Quarantine Ever with "Olympic Bubbles"; Biden Addresses U.S. Conference of Mayors. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 21, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: New studies out today offer the strongest case yet that booster shots provide the best protection against the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
In a study by the CDC, getting boosted was 90 percent efficient at preventing hospitalizations during a period in December and January when Omicron was the dominant variant. Two shots were only 57 percent effective.
In another study getting boosted was shown to be 82 percent effective at preventing visits to emergency rooms and urgent care centers. And getting two shots was only 38 percent effective.
[13:35:02]
Now, a third study found that the odds of developing symptomatic infection from Omicron were 66 percent lower for people who had a booster versus those who received just two shots.
Joining us now Dr. Saju Mathew, primary care physician and public health specialist.
Dr. Mathew, it's great to see you.
The numbers are so clear, yet only 25 percent of the country is vaccinated and boosted. What's it going to take to get that number up?
DR. SAJU MATHEW, PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN & PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST: Hey, Ana. First, I'm absolutely excited that the CDC has released these studies at a very optimal time in the pandemic.
Listen, these numbers don't lie. The biggest statistic that I would take from the numbers that you just mentioned, Ana, is the hospitalizations.
If you are vaccinated, your vaccine works by 90 percent to keep you out of the hospital. Why would anyone want to go into the hospital and be on a ventilator?
And if my infection, a breakthrough infection is just a mild cold or even a severe flu, I would prefer that than being on a ventilator in the hospital.
And also I hope that CDC will make a concerted effort to change the definition of what it means to be fully vaccinated.
Fully vaccinated means fully protected. That is two mRNA vaccines and a booster shot or two Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and that needs to happen very quickly.
CABRERA: Why is it so important to have that made official because the messaging has been three shots are best, but why do they need to change the definition of fully vaccinated?
MATHEW: Yes, I think, Ana, for a couple of reasons. It will make my job a lot easier. When you tell somebody, listen, are you fully vaccinated? Yes, I've got my two shots. Are you boosted? Oh, no, not yet.
I think what it does is gives the impression to the patient that it's an extra shot, meaning I don't have to get it. It would be nice to get it.
When you make it official and the guideline is official, patients then realize that, listen, this is like the hepatitis shot.
I mean, we know for so long in the U.S. and all over the world that in order to be fully protected for some hepatitis vaccines you need to get three doses. Measles, mumps and rubella is a three-dose vaccine.
So we need to call this a primary series, shot number one, shot number two and shot number three. That's the only way that you can stay out of the hospital and be fully protected.
CABRERA: Quickly, Doctor, do we know how long the protection lasts from the booster or that third shot?
MATHEW: So that's the -- the big million-dollar question. I think that since this pandemic is going on in real time, we will know that as the months go by.
But as Dr. Fauci had mentioned, one of the discussions, we hope that by getting this booster shot, in the only are your antibody levels much higher, 25 times higher.
But also the durability of the vaccine, how long does the advantages open last? That protection is also much longer.
It might even be like some of the other illnesses, Ana, where you get the booster shot and you may not need another shot for years or like a couple of years. We don't know.
But really the bottom line, this is so reassuring, you get boosted and pretty much all parameters improve in terms of hospitalizations and breakthrough infections.
CABRERA: Doctor Saju Mathew, thanks so much. Good to have you here. I really appreciate it.
MATHEW: Thank you.
CABRERA: Back to Washington now. An annual anti-abortion march is just getting under way. These marchers are encouraged by recent court decisions.
Just yesterday, the court rejected another attempt to block the Texas law that bans abortions starting at around six weeks of pregnancy.
And the justices are still expected to soon rule on a case in Mississippi that could deny women not just in Mississippi but really across the nation access to the procedure.
As at least a dozen states have preemptively passed so-called trigger laws to ban abortion if Roe is overturn.
CNN senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, is covering this march.
Joe, what are you hearing from the people there?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this is Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C., where you're about to see the start of what has become a free speech tradition for almost five decades in this city.
The March for Life has thousands of anti-abortion protesters march from the National Mall down Constitution Avenue to the United States Supreme Court.
The talking to people here, you get the sense that they believe or at least hope that a sea change is near, given both the configuration of the court, the 6-3 conservative majority as well as the cases the court has taken on.
And the justices, in fact, signaling that they are ready to change the precedent on illegal or legal abortion, I should say, in the United States.
[13:40:06]
That, of course, goes against the grain from all of the polls that show something like only 30 percent of Americans who have responded to such polls say they support overturning "Roe v. Wade."
At the end of the day, though, whatever happens between now and next year when there's another march of that kind, the real question will be what happens in the states because that's where a lot of this issue is fought out.
Back to you -- Ana?
CABRERA: Joe Johns, for us in Washington, thank you.
The struggle is real for first-time home buyers right now, and rising mortgage rates are not making things any easier. Up next, why young buyers are scrambling to find a house and fast.
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CABRERA: Mortgage rates are at their highest since March of 2020, and that means higher cost for home buyers.
Eventually, higher borrowing costs could bring down the soaring housing market. But for now, high interest rates have some buyers in a hurry to close.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stu.
STU KOZLOWSKI, LOS ANGELES HOMEBUYER: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, man, welcome.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Stu Kozlowski is on the hunt again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we have two bedroom, two and a half baths.
YURKEVICH: He's looking for a home in Los Angeles for himself and his eight-year-old daughter after he fell out of escrow on another property last month.
KOZLOWSKI: How many square feet is it?
YURKEVICH: Besides worrying about square footage, there's low inventory, sky-high prices and bidding wars, and now rising mortgage rates.
KOZLOWSKI: They're almost a point higher than they were when I made that offer and got under escrow. So, that's a significant jump.
YURKEVICH: This week, a 30-year fixed rate loan is 3.56 percent, back up to pre-pandemic levels.
On the median home price of $350,000, Americans can expect to spend $120 more on average, excluding taxes and insurance, than they did a year ago.
KOZLOWSKI: I think that affects the kind of homes I look at. That affects the neighborhoods I look at. That affects the kind of things I'm willing to go and have conviction about that maybe I didn't a month ago or a week ago. YURKEVICH: Mortgage rates are going up in anticipation of higher
interest rates, which the Federal Reserve said would happen this year. In just the last month, a 30-year mortgage rose by a half a point.
JOE REICHLING, REALTOR, BRYANT\REICHLING TEAM, COMPASS: Every half point that mortgage rates rise, I think that definitely has an impact on what buyers are willing to do, how far they're willing to stretch on home purchase.
YURKEVICH: Rising rates will affect home buyers in pricier coastal cities where they're more often right on the cusp of qualifying for a home mortgage.
In Chicago, where realtors say there's more inventory, it means locking in a good mortgage rate now.
MARY KATE OU, CHICAGO HOMEBUYER: You don't want to pay more money if you don't have to. So, that's kind of why we did decide to go through the preapproval process earlier, so that that way if we did find something, we could jump on it.
YURKEVICH: Mary Kate Ou and her husband are first-time home buyers, working against two timelines, their lease is up in six months and rising mortgage rates.
OU: We've definitely been kind of accelerating that timeline a little bit more recently.
And what's the price on this one?
TONY MATTAR, REALTOR, HOMECO CHICAGO, COMPASS: This one's 950.
YURKEVICH: Her realtor, Tony Mattar, says rising rates are bringing up FOMO among many of his first-time buyers. That's fear of missing out.
MATTAR: There might be some folks out there who were considering buying a home six months or nine months ago and didn't that might be kicking themselves.
YURKEVICH: Pushing buyers to move quickly before mortgage rates and home prices get any higher.
OU: Maybe that's where some of the nerves and the excitement all come together.
YURKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Up next, the NBA bubble has nothing on China's Olympic fortress. Beijing's intense plan to seal athletes away from the outside world, next.
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[13:53:02] CABRERA: China's Olympics bubble will be the most ambitious COVID quarantine ever attempted.
CNN's David Culver shows us how China is attempting to keep the games COVID safe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Traveling into Beijing may prove to be a tougher race than an Olympic competition. These winter games taking place in a capital city that increasingly feels like a fortress.
China determined to keep out any new cases of Covid-19, starting at the airport.
CULVER (on camera): This is the terminal that's going to be used by athletes, some of the Olympic personnel and media arriving into Beijing.
They've got a wall up that keeps the general population away from everyone who's part of the Olympic arrivals.
CULVER (voice-over): Those coming in, required to download this official app to monitor their health, inputting their information starting 14 days before arriving in Beijing.
While health surveillance and strict contact tracing is part of life for everyone living in China, it's making visitors uneasy.
Cybersecurity researchers warn the app has serious encryption flaws, potentially compromising personal health data.
China dismisses concerns, but Team USA and athletes from other countries are being advised to bring dispensable burner phones instead of their personal ones.
From the airport, athletes and personnel will be taken into what organizers call the closed loop system. Not one giant bubble, so much as multiple bubbles connected by dedicated shuttles.
Within the capital city, there are several hotels and venues, plus the Olympic village, that are only for credentialed participants.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: We need break away from this to go live to the president who is speaking at the Conference of Mayors in the Washington.
Let's listen.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is good to have you all back in person.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: Mr. Mayor, thank you for your leadership. I appreciate it.
And I know one thing, we both did marry up.
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[13:55:00]
BIDEN: Mayor Bowser, thank you for hosting us. You're the best. Thank you for everything you do.
I have the honor of addressing this body many, many times and I've always had enormous respect for the job you do.
Some of you heard me say before but it is the truth, I ran for the United States Senate in 1972 as a 29-year-old kid because I was a local official and it was too hard. They know where you live.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: And so you think I'm kidding. It is not a joke. Mayors carry the quality of people's lives on their shoulders. Everything you do everyday effects their lives more than anything anybody else does.
And you could make or break a person's day. Will a bus get me home on time? It sounds silly. But will the garbage be picked up? Will I be safe walking in the park? These are the bigger questions.
Could I afford to give my family a good life. Will my kids have a chance to get a good job someday? How will I rebuild from the fire or the storm?
All of these questions, they're not partisan but they're practical. People you look to, to you, they're the people that they look to, are you. For real.
You know there's no way to walk into the corner drug store without being accosted immediately as to what is going on, right?
Well, so you know what it means to solve real problems, to be held accountable for the people you serve.
That is why when I put together my cabinet, I called on former mayors and I mean this sincerely.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: Take a look.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: Tom Vilsack was a governor. He was also a major. Marcia Fudge a governor and mayor. Marty Walsh, a mayor in Boston. Pete Buttigieg was a mayor.
And I picked Mitch Landrieu to oversee the infrastructure law which is $200 billion because he knows how mayors get things done.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: I mean it. Not a joke.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: Because mayors know the measure of success isn't scoring partisan points, it is, did you fix the problem. Did you fix -- seriously, think about it. Did you fix the problem?
The infrastructure law is a perfect example of what we could achieve when we tackle problems the way mayors do.
Everybody in America, everybody in America knows we have fallen behind in infrastructure so we came together, Democrats and Republicans, and did something about it.
A number of really brave -- and I'm not being facetious -- brave Republicans stood up and joined us in a bipartisan effort to get it done.
And by the way, I want to thank you all. More than 360 of you signed a letter to send to me to try to get this thing passed, 360 of you. You lobbied Congress to get it done.
And the reason it got done -- not a joke. It is the reason it got done -- because of you.
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: There are a lot of people that wanted to vote for it but they had pressure not to vote for it for political reasons. But because of you, they voted for it. We got it done.
Because they know, they know how it goes in your cities to determine how their states go.
And now after years of dead ends and broken promises, not only has infrastructure week finally arrived, but --
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: -- but because you look forward to an infrastructure decade. That is not hyperbole.
Back in 2009, when President Obama asked me to lead the recovery effort, which was an $800 billion effort, and the first thing I did, I went to the mayors. Not a joke.
Now most of you were too young to have been around in 2008.
(LAUGHTER) BIDEN: But, look, I spoke to over 200 mayors, putting that together. Because of them, because of you, we came through that moment together.
That is the same approach that Mitch is taking, having been a former mayor, with all of you. I know Mitch has spoken to many of you already.
And in just two months, we've already seen this law start to make a real difference creating better jobs, transforming our community and in tangible ways.
We have announced billion dollars of dollars for airports and water and sewage systems, high speed Internet.
Funding to clean up the rivers in Ohio, chemical plants and sites in Florida and polluted lakes in Michigan and dozens of other sites.
The new program to cap and plug gas and oil wells, spewing methane into the air, cleaning up the communities that they are affecting while good paying jobs.
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The folks who dug those wells when we needed them, they get paid well. Well, they're getting the same amount to plug those wells.
It matters. It matters.
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