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CDC Finds Flu Continues To Surge Ahead Of Big Holiday Gatherings; Brittney Griner Leaves TX Military Facility, Returns Home To Arizona; Elon Musk Suspends High-Profile Journalists On Twitter. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 16, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.

Just days before big holiday gatherings, federal health officials continue to warn about the triple threat, the flu, COVID, and the respiratory illness, RSV. The flu is rapidly spreading. There have been 15 million cases reported so far this season. The CDC's latest weekly report also finds the virus has caused 150,000 hospitalizations and 9300 deaths.

BLACKWELL: But the number of flu vaccines distributed at this point continues to lag behind the past two years. The CDC also finds COVID is also showing signs of a winter comeback. Right now, 14 percent of the U.S. is in a high transmission COVID area. But that's higher than last week. CNN's medical correspondent Dr. Tara Narula is with us now. So, let's start with the flu numbers. They show young children are being hit hard. What did they show?

DR. TARA NARULA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor, there's new CDC data that suggests that flu activity is still high but may actually be declining in some areas. Last week, about 23,500 people were admitted with the flu, which was a slight drop from the week before. Overall, the flu hospitalization rate at this point in the season is the highest it's been in a decade.

It's important to note that the hospitalization rate is highest among seniors and young kids under five as you mentioned. For seniors, there have been about 88 hospitalizations for every 100,000 people who are 65 and older so far, which is nearly three times the average hospitalization rate. For those kids under five, there have been about 50 hospitalizations for every 100,000 which is also particularly high. So far this season, flu hospitalizations for children younger than five have already surpassed the total for half of the past 12 seasons. And as you mentioned, vaccine coverage we should talk about that is low overall but particularly among black and Hispanic adults, as well as pregnant people and those living in rural areas.

GOLODRYGA: And more research just came out about how well the bivalent COVID vaccinations work. Tell us about that.

NARULA: Well, the bivalent boosters target the original Coronavirus strain and Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants. The shots became available in early September, but only 14 percent of the eligible population has gotten the updated booster. 94 percent of seniors have completed at least their primary series of COVID-19 vaccinations, but only about 36 percent of this age group have received an updated booster.

It's important for us to talk about boosters because COVID hospitalizations have been on the rise since early November. And as with flu hospitalizations, the rates are really the highest among seniors, four times higher than any other age group. There are two new studies that show that the update of vaccines offer important defense against the virus particularly for those seniors.

The first study looked at about 798 patients who were admitted to 22 hospitals in 18 states between September and November of this year. In the adults over 65, the study showed the bivalent boosters were 84 percent effective against hospitalization compared to being unvaccinated, and 73 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations compared to having two or more doses of the original COVID-19 vaccines.

A second study included younger adults and looked at how effective the updated boosters were in preventing urgent care and ER visits as well as hospitalizations. And this -- they looked at in nine states. Compared to those who were unvaccinated, those who had gotten an updated booster were 56 percent less likely to see care in the ER or urgent care, and 57 percent less likely to be hospitalized compared to those who had been vaccinated but gotten their most recent dose more than 11 or more months prior. The updated boosters lowered the risk of being seen in the ER or Urgent Care by about 50 percent and lower the risk of hospitalization by 45 percent.

So, this data helps inform us about the effectiveness. And in fact, the researchers told us they believe that these -- since these were early studies, the effectiveness of the booster is likely to be underestimated and may actually be much higher.

GOLODRYGA: Another reminder of how important it is to get those boosters. Dr. Tara Narula, thank you.

NARULA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Russia launched a new round of deadly missile attacks across Ukraine today.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speaking in a foreign language.

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BLACKWELL: You can hear the explosions rattling that neighborhood, knocked out power, and water supplies in several cities, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv among the cities targeted.

GOLODRYGA: Ukrainian officials say 76 missiles were fired killing two people and damaging critical infrastructure. Kharkiv's mayor describes the damage in his city as colossal.

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CNN's Nick Paton Walsh joins us now. So, Nick, we know we heard from President Zelenskyy today warning that Russia still has enough missiles for several more massive strikes. What more are you learning?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes. I mean, there appear -- this is to be the ninth significant attack on infrastructure across the country. 76 missiles fired, 72 of them are cruise missiles but so Ukraine's armed forces 60 intercepted. Of course, that's abnormally high but still significant damage achieved against the infrastructure of that country, already reeling from electricity, and water blackouts at times. It always hard to tell exactly what's been hit, but there was certainly a loss of water, power. In parts of Kyiv, today slowly restored. Kharkiv, the second- largest city you heard they're saying that the local officials referred to damage there as being "colossal."

But partially good news, that these interceptors appear to be reducing the number of missiles that get through. But as winter drags in here, and it is bitterly cold already in Ukraine, the impact of a few hours without electricity, a few hours without water, and the heat -- the hot water can provide enormously damaging to daily life. People seeking shelter in the metro. And in fact, in Kyiv, one woman speaking to news agencies there saying how she had simply left her home on the way to an acting rehearsal, looked out, seen a rocket in the sky, and sort of almost shrugged her shoulders, walked into the underground and waited it out there, carrying a first aid kit with her wherever she went around the Capitol. This becoming part of, frankly, the pattern of people's normal lives in a bid by Russia to break the morale of the civilian population.

Now, there have been warnings from Ukrainian military officials that there could be possibly more left in Russia's arsenal. It's unclear how many more of these targeted or poorly targeting missiles they have left. But senior military officials warning just yesterday the possibility that Russia is regrouping may be looking to push towards the capital Kyiv from another Ukrainian neighbor, Belarus that's very much in the sway of Moscow. In fact, their President, Alexander Lukashenko, is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin early next week. And Ukrainian officials are pointing out that some of the strikes today appear to have been possibly involving or fired by Russian planes that were in the skies of Belarus.

A lot still to work out here. A lot of misinformation often at play. It is often been suggested that Russia might attack from the north, from Belarus and that appears to often have not come to fruition but still great concerns in the hearts of ordinary Ukrainians because of damage being done ahead of these winter months. The U.S. said that some aid has begun to get through to fix that, but I think many Ukrainians urgently want to see air defense as soon as possible. Possibly the Patriots, we reported earlier on this week because it stopped so many more missiles like we've seen today.

BLACKWELL: Yes. We'll see when they arrive. Nick Paton Walsh following this for us. Nick, thank you.

For the first time in nearly a year, Brittney Griner is headed home to Arizona.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Big news today. The WNBA player left the Texas military facility where she's been undergoing a routine evaluation since being released from Russia in a prisoner swap. CNN's Abby Phillip joins us now with the very latest. So, Abby, what can you tell us about her return home and what she's saying?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna and Victor, Brittney Griner had basically an open invitation to stay in San Antonio as long as she wanted or as long as she needed. But a week after she arrived there from her detention in Russia, she is going home now to spend more time with her family, to take some quiet time before heading back to basketball this spring.

She -- this morning, as she left that facility, put out this note, really thanking everyone involved in her detention and also announcing that she doesn't tend to go back to basketball. And I will also say I learned this morning that when she got on that plane to head back home, she was greeted by her Phoenix Mercury teammates. One of her teammates, Diana Taurasi, was on the plane as well as the general manager and the president of the team, just a clear sign that they really want to welcome her back into the fold, especially after all, that that WNBA team and franchise did to try to secure her release from Russia.

BLACKWELL: So, she is looking ahead but she's not forgetting about the person still -- or people still in Russia. She mentioned Paul Whelan.

PHILLIP: Yes.

BLACKWELL: What did she say about Paul?

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, this is so important because she wanted this message to be loud and clear. She's still very much concerned about Paul Whelan. I was told earlier this week, one of the very first things she asked about when she arrived back in the United States was what was going to happen to Paul.

She said this in her -- in her note. President Biden, you brought me home and I know you're committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too. I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. A really clear message here that Brittney Griner sees as part of her future not just basketball, but this cause that she really unwittingly became a part of to free all these dozens of Americans who are detained all across the world.

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She received a lot of support from the community, of families who have loved ones who are detained, and I think they want to pay that forward. So, I'm being told that she really does plan to use her platform to help bring attention to this issue. But she has a particular concern, the fate of Paul Whelan. For so long, she and others around her believed that her fate was tied to his. And the idea that he was not brought home in this prisoner swap, I think, was, according to her agent, heartbreaking for her.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. And Paul Whelan has been top of mind not only for Brittney and her wife and obviously the administration but for others within the WNBA Association as well and her former teammates. It's really inspiring to hear them constantly referring to him and then thinking about his well-being as well. But it's great to hear that she plans to return to play basketball as well. Abby Phillip, thank you.

Well, we now know the whereabouts of Kenny DeLand Jr., the American student studying abroad in France who was missing last month. His parents say he called them and that he is safe now.

BLACKWELL: French prosecutors tell CNN he was in Spain, a college senior, and was scheduled to return home to the U.S. tomorrow. CNN's Melissa Bell is here with more now. Melissa, is it clear how he ended up in Spain if he's still there now? What do you know?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It isn't clear at all how he wound up there, Victor and Bianna. All we know is that we had -- he had a conversation with his father. In fact, his father heard from him for the first time in 17 days. Even a CNN producer Saskya Vandoorne was on the phone to the father who was really getting very distraught. It had been such a long time he wasn't sleeping, really breaking down in tears for the first time since this ordeal of his began.

When he got the message that Kenny had been found, he sends out a phone call with him. We -- the family put out a statement in the hours just after that phone call, in which the family didn't learn very much about what had happened, simply that he is alive and that he is, as a prosecutor as it said in Spain. We are so happy to announce that Kenny is safe, we received a call from Kenny in the early hours of December 16, 2022.

We since spoken to the family just a little while ago. And really at this stage, Victor and Bianna, they are just digesting the news that Kenny is well. He is in Spain, goes the statement, and Carol, his mom, is in France preparing to see Kenny and hopefully bring him home for Christmas. Now, he had been due to take his flight back tomorrow. But, of course, as the clock was ticking day after day and there was no news, it became harder and harder to believe that he would be making it. We do know that he got as far as Spain.

We understood yesterday from his father that he'd actually taken with him when he left his host family on the 28th of November. Not just that sandwich, the change of clothes, the phone that we've been mentioning so far, but also his passport. I think that raises the question of whether there was ever -- any intent in his mind to cross the border. So many questions still. For the time being, the family just digesting the news and waiting to hear more about his physical and mental state and precisely what went on for those very long 17 days, Victor and Bianna. GOLODRYGA: But for now, I guess we can -- we can just be happy for our first family that this ended so well and they found him alive and safe.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Melissa Bell, thank you.

Elon Musk suspends several high-profile journalists' Twitter accounts. We'll fact-check his reasoning behind that decision.

BLACKWELL: And crowds are building on the Mexican side of the southern border as we approach the end of a COVID-era policy that allows border authorities to turn migrants away. We're live in El Paso where officials are preparing for a massive surge.

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GOLODRYGA: Elon Musk is facing a new round of criticism today after suspending the Twitter accounts of half a dozen prominent journalists including our own, Donie O'Sullivan.

BLACKWELL: The company's owner falsely accused reporters from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and others have sharing private information about his whereabouts without any evidence. You'll remember he's repeatedly vowed to protect free speech on the platform. This was Musk's defense after the decision.

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ELON MUSK, CEO, TWITTER: There is not going to be any distinction in the future between journalists, so-called journalists, and regular people. Everyone's going to be treated the same. You're not special because you're a journalist. There's -- your just -- you're a Twitter -- you're just you're a citizen. So, no special treatment. If you doxx -- you doxx, you get suspended. End of story.

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BLACKWELL: Sara Fischer is a CNN media analyst and Axios media reporter. Oliver Darcy is a CNN senior media correspondent. Oliver, let's start with you. What is this really about? Because these journalists did not share his whereabouts. And the kid who was -- a person, I shouldn't call him a kid, the man who was releasing or was sending out these -- the whereabouts of his plane that's publicly available information, no clandestine sources or methods here.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think this is really about Elon Musk having very thin skin. And he does not like when people are aggressively reporting on him or his companies, and he doesn't like when people are very sharp in their criticism of them. And if you look at the group of people who were banned, all of them had that in common. And so, he's in charge of Twitter, he owns Twitter, and so he has basically banned them. And I think that's really what it comes down to. He just exiled his critics, and we'll see what they are allowed back on the platform. But it really comes down to Elon Musk having some extraordinarily thin skin.

GOLODRYGA: And, Sara, this is a man who has built himself as a free speech absolutist, who has launched these Twitter fire -- file reviews that he said would expose how previous management had censored other information. And yet, here we are today where he is suspending these accounts. Does this suggest that his rules apply to everyone but himself?

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SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: I think what it suggests, Bianna, is that Elon Musk is going to rule this platform on an ad hoc basis. And now that matters because it's tough as a user, it's tough as a journalist, and it's tough as an advertiser to figure out where you stand on Twitter if these rules are being made up as you go. This is especially tough if you're somebody who's spending at -- spending money buying ads on the platform because you want to know that consistency is there when it comes to things like moderating hate speech or moderating misinformation.

For journalists, I think it's something that we're going to have to work around. But as I have said, and I know Oliver feels the same way, we're not going to change the way we use the platform just because Elon Musk changes his mind about the rules.

BLACKWELL: You say, you've talked about the journalists and the advertisers and the businesses, but most people in this country are not on Twitter. They don't have Twitter accounts. You don't go there for news or updates. Why does this matter to them?

FISCHER: Great question.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FISCHER: It matters because other world leaders, whether they're in government, whether they're in tech, they look up to Elon Musk as an innovator. And the steps that he takes to moderate content on his platform, they can have an effect on the way that others moderate content or the way that others regulate the media in their countries. I think about Reed Hastings, the co-CEO of Netflix coming out and saying Elon Musk was brave a few weeks ago. If Elon Musk was going to make a more ad hoc decisions around moderating content, what's to stop other folks from thinking that they can take ad hoc decision-making too?

GOLODRYGA: This has already garnered the response from elected officials and the officials over at the United Nations, the General Secretary even weighing in calling this very disturbing. I'm just wondering, Oliver, if there's any way you think that regulators have an opportunity to step in here? European regulators say this already violates the Digital Services Act. How about here in the United States? DARCY: Yes. I mean, at the end of the day, I think Twitter is a private platform. And so, again, Musk has the ability to boot people if he doesn't want them on the platform. That said, there are obviously guidelines that he does have to -- that he does have to follow over at Twitter. And we've seen some federal regulators try to basically say, hey, we want to make sure you are able to follow these guidelines.

I think the real pressure, though, will come from advertisers, right? Twitter is reliant and has been reliant on advertiser revenue. And do advertisers think about Apple or Amazon or news organizations like the Wall Street Journal that advertise on Twitter? Do they want to be putting their ad dollars on a platform that is censoring journalists at this point, and then where the owner is lying about the reasons that these people are being banned and accusing them?

I think in one tweet, he said that they were guilty of effectively posting assassination coordinates for -- on him. So, these are the things that Elon Musk is doing. I'm curious whether advertisers are going to be comfortable putting their ad dollars there.

BLACKWELL: You know, Sara, Oliver was here a couple of days ago talking about how Musk's commitment to Twitter is spooking some of the Tesla investors that he's there sleeping at the office. I can't imagine that the eroticism as it relates to Twitter helps those investors sleep at night.

FISCHER: Oh, definitely not.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FISCHER: And they've already issued complaints about his lack of investment and attention towards Tesla. I think the thing is -- that's tough as Elon Musk, as I said, he governs sort of ad hoc. So, when he was facing that pressure, he said oh, yes, I'm not going to be CEO forever. I plan to bring a new CEO in. Really? When? It seems to me like he's pretty committed to Twitter right now sleeping there, as you said.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FISCHER: The other thing is Elon Musk keeps pulling his money out of Tesla because he needs to finance this deal. There's $13 billion in debt. They're not paying their bills. If you're a Tesla investor and the guy that's supposed to be running it is not there, he's pulling his money out of the company, of course, that would make me worried too.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Oliver, any indication as to when these suspensions will be lifted?

DARCY: You know, it's hard to say really because Elon Musk said, in some cases yesterday, it was going to be a seven-day suspension. And now he's running a Twitter poll basically saying should they be restored now or later? It's up to him. And he's very difficult to predict.

I do think there's one point to make here. And the big picture, if you zoom out, is since Musk took over Twitter, white nationalist, antiSemitic people have been permitted on Twitter, and they've been -- they've been allowed back on. These were people who were banned in the spirit of free speech, Musk allowed them back on simultaneously. He has now banned high-profile journalists from bleeding newsrooms. I think that's an important point to make.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, I guess anyone can stay on the platform as long as they don't target Musk himself. That seems to be the trend we're seeing. Oliver Darcy and Sara Fischer, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Recession fears are plaguing Wall Street and that has stocks continuing to slide. What this means for your wallet?

GOLODRYGA: And five Louisiana officers who were caught on camera kicking and punching a man in their custody are now charged by a grand jury. We'll speak with Ronald Greene's mother for her reaction ahead.

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[14:29:36]

BLACKWELL: El Paso has been overwhelmed by a steep surge of migrants at the border ahead of the expiration of Title 42 as the Trump-era immigration rule allowed the officials to turn away migrants during the pandemic.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us now from El Paso. So, Ed, that border community has already seen a rise in migrants if we -- as we've been reporting, do officials have an idea of how many more they could see in the next few days?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, you know.