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Report: Long Covid Responsible for Thousands of U.S. Deaths; Soldier Who Defected from Russian Army Says He Witnessed Crimes Against Ukrainian Civilians; CNN Special Report "Sandy Hook: Forever Remembered" Airs Tonight at 10 ET. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 14, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: A disturbing new report out finds the rate of mothers and newborn babies dying during pregnancies is significantly higher in states that ban or restrict abortions.
The study looked at data from 2018 through 2020. And found maternal death rates were 62 percent higher in states with strong abortion restrictions. Fetal or infant death rates were higher as well.
The data predates the Supreme Court overturning Roe versus Wade earlier this year. And a co-author of this report says maternal deaths could rise even more after that decision.
We're learning today that long COVID is responsible for thousands of deaths. Now, this is according to another new report. Again, we're talking about what comes after infection and the lingering symptoms that impact so many people.
CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now.
Elizabeth, first, help us understand what is considered a death from long COVID and what more are you learning about the findings?
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Ana, this question has been so important and so hard to tackle.
We know about the number of people dying from COVID. But not so much about the people dying many, many months or even years later from long COVID symptoMs.
So the National Center for Health Statistics, a part of the CDC, tackled the problem. And let's take a look at what they found.
They said, if you look from the beginning of January until the middle of this year, there were 3,544 deaths where long COVID was the underlying or a contributing cause.
Now, some people think that number is actually low considering that the CDC says that 30 percent of patients who have COVID have long COVID and kind of if you extrapolate they think that that number is low.
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And to your question about, how do you define what a long COVID death is? That's really tough because death certificates are not always very clear.
So the CDC epidemiologists tried to do a good job of using all sorts of search charms to get all of the death certificates where this would be important.
But it's not that easy to do so. In fact, this number may be low -- Ana?
CABRERA: OK, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.
Much more to learn there. And I encourage people to read the full report on CNN.com.
The widow of renowned soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, is revealing the cause of her husband's death at the World Cup in her first interview since Wahl collapsed Friday in Qatar.
Dr. Celine Gounder explained what an autopsy in the U.S. has uncovered.
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DR. CELINE GOUNDER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So he had an autopsy done here in New York by the New York City medical examiner's office and it showed that he had an aortic aneurysm that ruptured.
(CROSSTALK)
GOUNDER: The aorta, the big blood vessel that comes out of your heart, the truck of all the blood vessels, and an aneurysm is a ballooning of the blood vessel wall and so it's weak.
And it's just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years, and for whatever reason, it happened at this point in time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Dr. Gounder advised the White House on coronavirus and posted this on her late husband's Web site.
Quote, "No amount of CPR or defibrillation shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death."
Our hearts are with Dr. Gounder and her family as they continue to grief.
Up next, a story you will only see here on CNN. War through the eyes of a Russian defector. A former member of a unit accused of war crimes is now telling CNN
what he saw, maniacs who enjoyed killing, rapists, looters. This rare and disturbing insight right after this.
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CABRERA: Today, in Ukraine, an American captured by Russian forces in June was released. Kyiv officials say he was among 65 people, mostly Ukrainian soldiers, freed in a prisoner swap. But that's a rare glimmer of hope in a brutal war.
And now a soldier who defected from one of Russia's most notorious units is giving CNN new insight into Vladimir Putin's brutal tactics and detailing the atrocities he saw.
I have to warn you, this story contains some very disturbing content.
Here's the exclusive report from CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After the Russian army was forced to retreat around Kyiv, the carnage came to light.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
PLEITGEN: Bucha, Borodyanka and many other Kyiv suburbs littered with bodies.
Ukraine especially blamed one Russian unit for alleged crimes here, the 64th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade from Eastern Siberia.
Now a deserter from that unit is speaking to CNN.
NIKITA CHIBRIN, RUSSIAN DESERTER: Actually big lie for me, like 24th February come in, OK, everyone go to war.
PLEITGEN: Nikita Chibrin defected from the Russian military and fled to Europe, where we met him in a secret location.
He shows me his military booklet with a stamp signed by the commander of the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, known in Ukraine as the Butcher of Bucha.
Chibrin says he and his comrades were given shoot-to-kill orders, even though Russia has denied any wrongdoing by its forces around Kyiv.
CHIBRIN (through translation): We had a direct command to murder those who divulged our positions. If someone had a phone we were allowed to shoot him.
PLEITGEN: Chibrin says the unit was deployed to Belarus shortly before the invasion, allegedly for training. The soldiers had no idea they would soon advance into Ukraine and he
says they weren't prepared for war.
CHIBRIN (through translation): Everyone thought they could be like Rambo. Those who said I will be shooting Ukrainians easily piece of cake.
When they went to the front line and then they came back, they were like, we don't want no war.
PLEITGEN: Chibrin says he, too, came under Ukrainian artillery shelling and showed us this video from near the town Lypivka, west of Kyiv.
He tells me he refused to fight because he was opposed to the war and that his commanders called him a coward and assigned him to menial labor tasks in the rear echelon.
He says he didn't witness the mass killings the unit is accused of but did witness plenty of crimes against Ukrainian civilians, including looting.
PLEITGEN (on camera): They weren't trying to hide it? They did this very open?
CHIBRIN: Yes, yes, no need to hide this all. Everything want that they see. I wanted this thing. I want this. Everything they look and cars, too, made for looting.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And even rape.
CHIBRIN (through translation): I saw rapists running around being chased because they were committed rape. The guys who did rape I saw them run. Then I learned they were rapists.
They raped a mother and a daughter. They were never jailed. Just fired, just like that. Go.
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PLEITGEN: CNN has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment but we haven't received a reply.
Russia has consistently denied its forces were responsible for crimes against Ukrainian civilians.
And President Vladimir Putin issued a decree praising the 64th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade for, quote, "heroism and bold actions."
Nikita Chibrin fled Russia while on leave. He gets emotional when talking about his four-year-old daughter he left behind.
He says he wants to testify against his commanders before an international court to shed light on what happened in the war he never wanted to be a part of. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
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CABRERA: Wow. Our thanks to Fred.
Today, we remember all the lives lost at an American elementary school. Just think, those first graders would be 16- or 17-years old right now.
But 10 years ago, a gunman entered Sandy Hook elementary and robbed 20 children and six adults of their future. That tragedy has transformed victims' families into activists.
Alisyn Camerota joins us with a look at her special report just ahead.
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CABRERA: "Our nation is missing a piece of its soul." President Biden offering those words today and proclaiming December 14th a day of remembrance for the 20 first graders and six adults killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.
President Barack Obama calling it the single darkest day of his presidency.
Our Alisyn Camerota spoke with families who lost their loved ones and others whose lives were changed forever, It's all part of her CNN special report "SANDY HOOK: FOREVER REMEMBERED."
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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It's been 10 years --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a shooting inside our school. I literally dropped to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought, oh, gosh, this isn't good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just running into our family van and just flying.
CAMEROTA: -- since a lone gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and six adults.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just so horrific what we heard. My colleagues, children begging for their lives, the entire time thinking that we're going to be next.
CAMEROTA: And a stunned nation was left grieving.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I was sure that Sandy Hook would change everything. How could you watch that and not decide to do something about it? CAMEROTA: Tonight --
ALEX JONES, HOST, INFOWARS: Don't ever think this couldn't be staged.
CAMEROTA: -- we take you inside the victim family's battle against harassment and disinformation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the hardest thing I've had to do since my son's murder.
CAMEROTA: Their fight for change --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did a kid have his hands on an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle with a high-capacity magazine?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have really hurt a generation of kids by not being able to find ways forward.
CAMEROTA: -- and their vow to stop similar tragedies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the way that I've chosen to honor Daniel, to prevent other families from having to endure a life of pain due to preventable violence.
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CABRERA: Alisyn joins us now.
Gosh, Alisyn, even 10 years on, this story is so painful, looking at those little kids' faces and to hear their parents, the strength they have.
How difficult were those interviews for you and for those family members?
CAMEROTA: Well, Ana, I mean, there's no way around it. They're very, very sad.
And wading back into that grief is hard. There were moments during the interviews that everybody was crying. The parents were crying, I was crying, the camera crew was crying.
And yet, after my time with these parents, I felt strangely energized, because they all have this life-affirming energy.
I think what people will see tonight when they turn into the special, these parents, in the depths of grief, harnessed their want to make change and spare the rest of us and other families from having to bury their 6-year-olds and having to go through that.
What they've achieved is remarkable. These are extraordinary people you will be reintroduced to tonight.
Part of what they've done is taught people at schools, students, teachers, awareness skills, for how to spot a future school shooter. And, according to police, and school administrators, they have stopped 11 school shootings from happening.
So these were 11 school shootings you and I will never report on. These parents will never have to bury their kids. They won't become national symbols of more grief.
That's just one of the things they've done in the past 10 years.
CABRERA: I'm sure that touches their heart. That has to be rewarding for their efforts.
They've also been working to change gun laws. We saw some gun legislation, bipartisan legislation, pass in the last year.
I wonder their thoughts about that and what their efforts look like moving forward on that front?
CAMEROTA: They thought it was great and not far enough. I mean, that's how they feel every day. That for every victory there's more than that can happen to stop this scourge of school shootings.
But that was bipartisan federal gun safety legislation, something that hadn't happened in nearly three decades.
Then, also, because of the work that these parents have done, according to the Giffords Association, there are 525 -- the Gifford Center, I should say -- 525 significant gun safety laws that have been passed in these 10 years.
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Most of them at the state level. And of course, they make a huge impact as well.
So you'll learn about all of that and everything they've done tonight.
CABRERA: You are one of the best interviewers and storytellers, so thank you for doing this, for honoring those families, and shining a light so we never forget what they've endured and, hopefully, can move towards change for the better.
Thank you, Alisyn Camerota.
CAMEROTA: Thank you.
CABRERA: Don't miss "SANDY HOOK, FOREVER REMEMBERED," tonight at 10:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
That does it for me. Thank you so much for joining us. See you tomorrow, same time, same place.
Let me squeeze in a quick happy birthday to my mom.
I love you, Mom.
The news continues with Victor and Bianna right after this.
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