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Jill Biden Tests Positive for COVID-19; U.S. Makes 442K Monkeypox Vaccine Doses Available Ahead of Schedule; Experts Debate Whether Monkeypox Should be Considered an STD; CDC Concludes NY Polio Case Likely from Community Spread. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 16, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:22]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: First lady, Jill Biden, has tested positive for COVID-19. The White House confirms this is her first case of COVID, saying, quote, "The first lady is double vaccinated, twice boosted, and only experiencing mild symptoms."

She has been prescribed a course of Paxlovid and will isolate from others for at least five days."

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: She is currently in South Carolina, where she plans to stay until she recovers.

The White House said President Biden continues to test negative after his own case of COVID.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has sped up its timeline for distributing monkeypox vaccines. And 442,000 doses of the shot are now available for local health departments to order.

The acceleration was possible because of the new guidelines that allow for smaller doses of the vaccine.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's discuss this with Dr. William Schaffner. He a professor of the Division of Infectious Disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Schaffner, great to see you.

Should monkeypox be designated as a sexually transmitted disease? That is the debate right now.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH POLICY, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, it's a debate that's more inside baseball. I think in communicating messages to the general public, we have to remind them that this virus is being transmitted through sexual intimacy, close skin-to-skin contact.

So as with other illnesses that are transmitted through sexual intimacy, sure, it's part of that category. I don't make a whole lot out of this discussion about whether we ought

to classify it officially as an STI, sexually transmitted infection. Sexually intimacy, skin-to-skin contact, close cuddling, if you will, those are the ways this virus is principally being transmitted.

[14:35:09]

BLACKWELL: Doctor, let me ask you about this decision from D.C. health officials. They've now announced that everyone, regardless of sexual orientation or gender, who has had multiple sexual partners over the past two weeks, they're now eligible to register for a monkeypox vaccine.

But this is not an antibiotic, right? This is preventive. So, why would the number of sexual partners that someone had 10 days, two weeks ago be relevant to whether they can register for a vaccine now?

SCHAFFNER: Because, Victor, if you receive the vaccine very early in the course of the infection, if you happen to be infected, you will actually abort the infection.

This is an illness, an infection that has a very long incubation period. It can be latent in your body for up to two weeks. And it can get in there early enough, you can actually prevent the development of the disease.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Schaffner, how worried are you about college kids? Obviously, they're all going back to campus in the next couple of weeks, and that's an environment of close quarters where kids have been known to fraternize from time to time.

And so, is that -- do you worry there will be an outbreak?

SCHAFFNER: Sure, we're concerned about that, and it's become, Alisyn, a frequently asked question.

The first thing I think colleges need to do is educate all their students about this illness so that they're aware of it and give them the usual admonishment to limit the number of sex partners they have.

And they might also inspect each other before they cuddle to make sure that neither of them has a rash. That would help.

And then, of course, the colleges could contact their local health departments, because they might be on the list for getting vaccine once it becomes more widely available. And they could make it available to the students who think themselves at risk.

BLACKWELL: Speaking of the wide availability of the vaccine, now, these 442,000 doses, of course, we have to include the context that they just quintupled the amount of doses that come out of a vial because you can now use one-fifth.

How close or far is that number from where the country needs to be at this point to reduce the spread of monkeypox? SCHAFFNER: Victor, it's a help that is reducing the dose and giving

the inoculation within the skin. We call that intradermal. That will spread the amount of people whom we can actually vaccinate and give their first dose.

But we need a lot more vaccine. The vaccine is a two-dose series, so we will want to follow up with everyone who's had one dose.

And there are many, many more people out there across the country who see themselves as potentially exposed in the future who would like to get protected right now. Makes sense. We just need more vaccine.

CAMEROTA: Doctor, let's talk about polio, OK? It's a disease that so many people had thought was eradicated. And now there's this case in a young person in New York.

I'll tell you what the CDC is sharing in terms of the information. An unvaccinated, meaning against polio, young adult living in Rockland County, New York, the symptoms include low-grade fever, neck stiffness, abdominal pain and here it says leg weakness.

But I thought it was paralysis, actually, I read somewhere else.

And then, as we know, the polio virus has been detected in wastewater surveillance in New York. So, that's suggesting some sort of localized transmission. And the CDC has concluded this resulted from community spread.

How concerning is this?

SCHAFFNER: Well, it is concerning to a degree. You know, many children, because of COVID, have not had the usual number of visits to their doctors, to their pediatricians and family doctors. So, they've fallen behind in their routine vaccination schedule.

So, all parents ought to take their children, particularly in the greater New York area, very quickly to their pediatricians, check their immunization history, and bring them up to date with all vaccines, obviously, including polio.

And if there are adults out there who are somewhat uncertain about their vaccination history, check with your doctors. They could also get a booster of polio vaccine.

Vaccinated people should be well protected and not concerned. The vast majority of our population is well vaccinated.

BLACKWELL: Dr. William Schaffner, we appreciate your time.

SCHAFFNER: Thank you.

[14:39:47]

Next hour, President Biden will sign one of his biggest legislative wins yet into law. Ahead, how this massive climate and health care bill could impact all of us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: In the next hour, President Biden is expected to sign the Democrats' sweeping health care, tax, and climate bill into law. The White House calls this the Inflation Reduction Act.

BLACKWELL: It will be the largest investment in climate-change mitigation in U.S. history. And it gives Medicare the power to negotiate certain prescription drug prices.

CNN White House correspondent, MJ Lee, joins us now.

So, Democrats are calling this a significant victory?

[14:45:02]

MJ LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right. Any minute now, we should see the president sign into law this bill that is going to be a giant win for both him and other Democrats.

And it's not difficult to see why we have already seen some Democrats running their victory laps. You take a look at the details of this bill, and it is going to make the biggest investment to fight climate change that the U.S. has ever seen.

As you mentioned, lower prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare for the first time to negotiate directly with those drug companies. It will also extend some of those Affordable Care Act health care subsidies and tax corporations to reduce deficits.

Now, this bill, of course, didn't get any Republican support, but it is worth noting that under the president's first term so far, he has seen actually a number of bipartisan legislative accomplishments.

Including last week, some of the bills that we saw him sign into law, a burn pits law, to help veterans who have suffered in that way. Of course, the CHIPS law, which is a semiconductor bill to help the U.S. be more competitive in the backdrop of China making advancements on that front.

And then, of course, last year, the major infrastructure investment bill. That was a huge bipartisan win for this president.

Now, we do expect to see the White House really get behind selling some of these accomplishments, including the president and other cabinet officials really hitting the road with their messaging.

They will, of course, go on the offense as well and try to continue sort of billing Republicans and describing them as the extremist party.

They are, of course, really looking to get a political boost going into the midterms -- guys?

CAMEROTA: OK, we will watch that live as it happens.

MJ Lee, thank you very much.

So, there's an historic drought out west. It's threatening the water supply. What they're being -- what's being done to protect it. We have a live update.

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[14:51:06]

BLACKWELL: A sentencing hearing is being made for a naval engineer and his wife trying to sell nuclear secrets, including inside a peanut butter sandwich.

CNN Pentagon correspondent, Oren Liebermann, is following the trial.

We understand the judge just rejected an offer for a plea deal. What do you know?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Victor, this is all just happening in the last few moments here.

The federal judge in this case rejected the plea agreements for Jonathan Toby, a Navy nuclear engineer, and his wife, who had both pleaded guilty to trying to sell U.S. nuclear secrets to a third country, a country that has not been named publicly.

The judge made it clear she viewed the sentencing guidelines in the plea agreement as simply too lenient.

Viewing the crimes they were accused of committing and having plead guilty to, that is stealing U.S. nuclear secrets and being willing to sell them for tens of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency as far too serious, far too dangerous to U.S. national security and to the country overall to abide by the sentencing agreements.

Jonathan Toby had agreed to 12 to 18 years in jail and his wife agreed to three years in jail. She made it clear that she viewed that as too lenient.

A short time later, the defense lawyers and their clients came back and said they would withdraw their guilty pleas. And instead, it looks like this is heading to trial.

So, Victor, where we thought we went into today -- heading for a sentencing for Jonathan Toby and his wife, who have been accused of trying to hide the secrets and sell them to a third country, including, as you point out, in a peanut butter sandwich, it looks like this is on a very different trajectory right now.

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, Oren, tell us about this nuclear-capable long-range missile that was just tested.

LIEBERMANN: So this happened overnight. A Minuteman 3, the U.S. land- based leg of the nuclear triad, was tested early this morning. The launch was from California and happened just after midnight Pacific time. The missile itself, a long-range ICBM, flew 4,200 miles to the test

range on the Marshall Islands near the Pacific.

Now what is interesting about this one -- the U.S. does regularly test its ICBMs, its nuclear capable missiles -- is that this test had been delayed.

It was scheduled to take place earlier this month. But that was when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.

And given the sensitivities around that, given the expected angry reaction of China, the Defense Department made the decision to hold off on that launch at the time.

One U.S. official told CNN at the time that it was a prudent decision to hold off on the launch and to carry it out now.

We've seen this happen before, the U.S. holding off on what can be seen as provocative tests. Victor and Alisyn, the U.S. says this is a regular part of the testing process.

BLACKWELL: Oren Liebermann, for us at the Pentagon, thanks.

[14:53:42]

The head of the FBI Agents Association is calling on political leaders to immediately denounce recent attacks on the agency, especially after what they call real and imminent threats. We'll talk about it with a former deputy director of the FBI.

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[14:58:39]

CAMEROTA: The severe drought out west is drying up the Colorado River and the nation's largest manmade reservoir, Lake Mead. It's down to 27 percent of its full capacity.

And now states that rely on the Colorado River's resources are being told to prepare for mandatory water cuts and come up with a plan to save the water basin.

BLACKWELL: CNN's chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is live on the Nevada side of the lake.

To explain the details of this impact, Bill, I understand a couple of major announcements just came down about this. What can you tell us?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this goes back to June, Victor, when the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, the bureau in charge of the dams and reservoirs, like Mead behind me, asked the seven states that depend on this water to survive, to get along.

To come together and come up with a set of compromises, a shared set of water cutting values that they can come forward. They want to cut up to a quarter of the capacity, up to four-million-

acre feet. That is supply for about two families for a year, if you think about it in those terms.

Well, today, they came out and said, not only have those states not agreed to anything -- that's hardly newsworthy -- the states, upper basin and lower basin, have been squabbling over this water for 100 years, since the compact of the Colorado was first written.

[14:59:54]

But what was kind of surprising, I guess, that the federal government said we're not going to step in. The fed's Reclamation will not enact any new cuts outside of the states. They're letting the states continue to talk to each other. But there's a round of automatic cuts that will kick in. Tier 2-A they're called.