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Pompeo First U.S. Top Diplomat to Visit West Bank Settlement; Doctor Talks about Isolation as a Patient in COVID-19 Unit; Numbers of New Coronavirus Cases in Europe Fall; Australia Apologizes to Afghanistan for Unlawful Killings; China Testing Vaccine in Hot Spots, Including Peru; Emirates Weigh Options for Vaccine Distribution. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired November 19, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Well, this hour, an unprecedented trip: the American secretary of state breaking with decades of tradition
to visit the Golan Heights.
I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD.
It is a highly controversial trip for a waning American administration and what could be viewed as a pilgrimage of sorts for America's top diplomat,
Mike Pompeo now the first U.S. secretary of state ever to visit an Israeli settlement.
Well, most of the world views those as illegal. U.S. policy no longer does. We would like to bring you pictures of his visit earlier to the winery but
we can't. There are difficulties with press access.
We do know that, a short time ago, Pompeo announced the U.S. will allow goods produced in those settlements to be labeled as made in Israel.
The question behind it all, is this really a case of political theater?
Pompeo may make a run for the Oval Office in 2024 and he is said to be courting evangelical Christians, who supported this trip.
Let's connect you to what is going on on the ground with our U.S. security correspondent Kiley Atwood, who is standing by in Washington.
First up, though, to Oren Liebermann, who is connecting the dots for us from his vantage point in Jerusalem.
You recently visited a similar winery in the West Bank. I just want our viewers to see a clip of your reporting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tommy Waller (ph) is the founder of HaYovel, "The Jubilee" in English, a term associated with the
return of the Messiah. His organization brings Christian volunteers from all over the world to work on vineyards in Jewish settlements.
TOMMY WALLER, HAYOVEL: I think our existence here supports America in its -- in its -- and it supports the Christian community, particularly in its
willingness to stand with the Jewish people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Oren, what do you make of today's developments?
LIEBERMANN: Well, it's clear who this was important to. First, when you are talking locally, it was certain important to Jewish settlers in the
occupied West Bank in the Golan Heights and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the right wing government.
But if you are looking at this from a bigger picture perspective, this was important to evangelical Christians. And it's exactly that base that
secretary of state Mike Pompeo --
(AUDIO GAP).
LIEBERMANN: -- would court if he is to make a run for the White House in 2024. What will happen at this point, well, we've known about this visit
for a little bit here as it became clear that he would become the first U.S. secretary of state in history to visit a Jewish settlement in the West
Bank in the Golan Heights.
While Sagod itself has actually named a wine, a red blend after Pompeo. So it seemed an easy visit for him. It's not that far from where we're
standing right now. It would have been unprecedented from any other secretary of state in U.S. history; not so much from Pompeo, whom, as you
pointed out, reversed decades of U.S. foreign policy in saying settlements are not de facto illegal under international law.
ANDERSON: So a case of political theater?
LIEBERMANN: Perhaps but very much with a mission for Pompeo. This is added to his resume and he is trying to pad that resume with his last 60 so-odd
days in office as secretary of state before the Biden administration comes in.
Now it's worth noting even though Netanyahu finally recognized that Joe Biden is president-elect a couple days ago, Pompeo has not yet publicly
acknowledged that Joe Biden won the election and president Donald Trump lost the election. He's continuing with business as usual.
There were some policy changes as well announced by Pompeo on the trip. First, he said the BDS movement, the boycott and sanctions movement against
Israel, would be deemed anti-Semitic and any organization that the State Department found to be working with them would not receive State Department
help or funding.
The more significant one is that Pompeo said products produced in settlements in the West Bank could be labeled -- and I believe he said
required to be labeled made in Israel rather than made in the West Bank.
That's a significant departure from decades of U.S. foreign policy and from the international position.
It's also worth noting it appears to be a departure from the Trump administration's own vision for peace. Area C, which is what Pompeo
designated, is well beyond what the Trump administration's peace plan put aside for Israel. Much of Area C belongs to a future Palestinian state,
even under the Trump administration's plan for peace.
So it's worth noting that Pompeo left that behind in announcing his policy today.
[10:05:00]
ANDERSON: Fascinating.
Kylie Atwood, I just want our viewers to see part of the text of a congressional letter signed by dozens of U.S. lawmakers and circulated in
the past few hours, that says, in part, "The need for engagement by the U.S. government is particularly urgent due to the renewed threat of
demolition against the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar and the possibility that several additional villages in the region of Masafer Yatta
will be demolished."
Critics, Kiley, call this annexation creep at a time when a number of Arab states, of course, have normalized relations with Israel on the
understanding that annexation would be suspended.
Is it clear what is going on here and what the incoming Biden administration's position is or will be on this?
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY ANALYST: Well, what we have known from the incoming Biden team is that they believe in a two-state solution. So they
are going to be presented with some additional hurdles, given what secretary of state Pompeo is doing today, visiting these Israeli
settlements in the West Bank for the first time as a secretary of state.
That's challenging for the Biden administration because they are going to have to roll back some of the things that the U.S. leadership had just done
in the previous administration. That's not altogether abnormal from one administration to the next.
We do see that there are policies, particularly in the foreign policy space, that change. But one thing that is noteworthy here is that the Trump
administration is barreling through on these foreign policy objectives; some that they have taken, some that they plan to take, in the final few
months of the Trump administration.
That's not normal because, traditionally, it's a little bit of a collegial handoff. I spoke with former national security adviser to G.W. Bush, who
described to me, sitting down with folks in then President-Elect Obama's team, and discussing what actions the Bush folks should take on the door
out and what actions the Obama folks wanted them to hold on so that they could make those decisions when they came into office.
That is not what the Trump folks are doing here. They are pushing forward on their policies. And one administration official described it to me as
"lighting as many fires as possible" so that it is hard for the Biden folks to put them out.
Essentially what that does is makes it hard for the Biden folks, from the get-go, to establish their own foreign policy because they are stuck
responding to what the Trump folks did on the way out.
We saw that just this week, as Trump ordered the drawdown of thousands of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq; we are seeing Secretary Pompeo's visit
today. We are hearing that there could be more action, such as designating the Iranian-backed Houthis as a terrorist organization.
So there is a tremendous number of things that the Trump folks are trying to push through in their final months here.
ANDERSON: Akin to a scorched Earth policy. You have laid this out in a piece for cnn.com. With respect, the Trump administration is likely to say
that what they are doing is finishing what they started and what they said they would do as an incoming administration back in 2016.
ATWOOD: That's exactly right. They say that these things that they are doing are in line with the foreign policy objectives that were laid out by
President Trump.
But there are also things that they are clearly doing for the political advantage of President Trump and Secretary Pompeo after they leave office,
right?
So President Trump promised that he would hold down U.S. troops from Afghanistan; he is moving forward with that promise, even though there has
been pushback from U.S. military commanders in the United States against doing that at this time.
So they are doing things for political objectives and they may be in line with their policies. But they are not aligned with what the career
officials here at the State Department or the military commanders at the Pentagon are suggesting that they do.
Essentially they're going much more quickly than they traditionally would have been going if President Trump had a second term and he could actually
spread out some of these objectives over the next four years.
That's not the case; the Biden team is going to have to come in and deal with this. And what makes matters even more complicated is that the two
sides are not even talking right now because the GSA here in the U.S. hasn't officially recognized Biden as the winner of the presidential
election.
It means that folks at the State Department, folks at the Pentagon, folks at the National Security Council cannot have discussions right now with
President-Elect Joe Biden's national security team.
[10:10:00]
ATWOOD: So they're sort of left in the dark as to what is going on with these ongoing national security decisions that the Trump administration is
making here.
ANDERSON: Kylie Atwood, at the State Department in Washington.
As you speak we are looking at images of the U.S. secretary of state in the Golan Heights.
Speaking to people locally here, sources on the ground who are looking to try and work out what Biden policy will be going forward for the Middle
East, suggesting that Golan is likely one of the decisions that the Trump administration took that will be kept in place by the Biden administration,
as is the move of the embassy, the U.S. embassy to Washington.
This, of course, just thoughts from the region, as people continue to try to work out what a Biden administration will do with regard to policy in
the Middle East. It is not clear yet, it's not even clear who the team will be around him at the State Department. We will learn more, of course, in
the weeks to come.
To Oren and to Kiley, thank you.
With its politics in turmoil, America has also reached a tragic milestone. More than a quarter-million Americans have now died from COVID-19. That is
five times as many as the flu has killed annually there in the last few years. And it's more than deaths -- and more deaths from strokes, car
crashes and suicides in a single year combined.
I just want to show you how quickly this death toll, sadly, has grown. In April, 50,000 were dead; by May, 100,000. That number grew to 150,000 by
July and, in September, 200,000 Americans had died. Just Wednesday, 1,848 people lost their lives. That is one person every 46 seconds.
That is just about the amount of time that I've taken to deliver these figures to you. Right now more than 79,000 people are sick in the hospital;
10,000 admitted in the past week alone. Cases are, quite frankly, exploding nationwide.
Since the pandemic began, more than 11.5 million have been confirmed infected in the U.S. The state of Florida alone has surpassed 900,000
cases. CNN's Sara Sidner is in very hardhit Michigan.
Sara, the Thanksgiving holiday next Thursday, then Christmas and, of course, New Year. People being told to skip out on their usual family
gatherings. You spoke with a doctor there in Michigan.
What did he have to tell you?
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, this doctor is 28 years old. He's healthy, he is a runner, he has run a marathon, he runs many days
during the week.
And all of a sudden he got coronavirus. And he has a warning to people, especially about those gatherings during the holiday. He is begging people
to please follow all of the rules because you never know if you are going to be one of the people who ends up in the hospital unable to breathe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER (voice-over): The simple act of walking is a struggle for Grand Rapids emergency room doctor David Burkard.
SIDNER: When do you starting feeling yourself going like, oh, boy?
DR. DAVID BURKARD, GRAND RAPIDS EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR: Oh, right away.
SIDNER: Really?
BURKARD: Yes.
SIDNER (voice-over): Dr. Burkard is just 28 years old with no underlying medical conditions. He's run a marathon and normally runs five days a week.
But coronavirus stopped him in his tracks.
BURKARD: Day six, I got out of bed; I went to make a sandwich, move around my apartment a little bit. And I just couldn't catch my breath. It was
like, no matter what I did, like tried different positions, tried sitting. And it was just like this heaviness of like, man, I cannot breathe.
SIDNER (voice-over): Suddenly he was the patient.
BURKARD: I think the hard thing is having seen it and having been the person that talks to the patient with COVID and says, you know what, it's
time to call your wife. We -- we're going to have to put a breathing tube down and it's time for you to say goodbye.
SIDNER (voice-over): There he was lying in the same unit, wondering if he'd be able to catch his breath.
BURKARD: The loneliness of going up to the COVID floor and knowing that you can't have visitors, I'm literally at my place of work, where I have a
lots of friends and colleagues and incredible people. And not a single one of them can come and say hi.
That's -- it's isolating.
SIDNER (voice-over): He's no longer shedding the virus and anxiously waiting to return to the ER, as Michigan's positivity rate hits nearly 12
percent.
SIDNER: How bad are things now compared to March, when all this first kicked off here?
BURKARD: We have over 300 patients admitted to the hospital right now across Spectrum Health, which is markedly higher than we were ever before.
[10:15:00]
SIDNER (voice-over): He also wants to send a message to people, who still doubt the novel coronavirus is real.
BURKARD: I've had a lot of people say that this is -- that I am a hoax. I had someone report me to Facebook for being a fake profile. It's like --
SIDNER: Someone called you -- you a hoax?
BURKARD: Yes.
SIDNER: A doctor --
BURKARD: Yes.
SIDNER: -- who's had coronavirus?
BURKARD: Yes.
SIDNER: That's simply telling you a story?
BURKARD: That's simply just trying to breathe. Instead of just like saying mean things from behind a keyboard, just like, imagine what it's like to
have that conversation with someone, that you're putting a breathing tube down their throat and they might not be able to say "I love you" to their
loved one again.
And that's what we're doing every day, constantly. Like you can prevent that conversation possibly by putting on a mask. Or you could prevent that
conversation by skipping Thanksgiving dinner, like we've got to do our part.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNER: And he also says that clearly there is a lot that is still unknown about this virus.
When someone like him -- and he's also seen other people, who are, you know, generally healthy, ending up in the hospital on a breathing tube --
he also says that, at some point, Becky, he thought, you know, I know I'm a doctor and I know that, you know, my risk is higher. I'm around these
patients.
He's like, maybe it would be better if I just got it already and just sort of got it over with. He had no inkling that, when he finally did get it,
even though he did all of the precautions, that he would end up in the hospital, that he, a young 28-year-old healthy guy with no comorbidities,
would end up hospitalized with a breathing tube.
It is just a really scary thought that nobody -- you just don't know who is going to be the person that takes it so badly, that their body just reacts
this way, Becky.
ANDERSON: Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. Sara, thank you for that.
Recent developments on the U.S. vaccine front have provided some hope, of course, not only for the end to the pandemic but for the economy. But many
say what the U.S. economy and the American people really need is more stimulus. Representative Josh Harder, a Democrat from California held
little back on the House floor. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOSH HARDER (D-CA): Thank you, Madam Speaker.
I rise today to ask what the hell is happening in Washington?
I'm not one to spend my time throwing bombs on this floor. But during this single minute, another American will die from COVID. And even more people
are slipping into poverty because this town can't get its act together.
I've had enough. Millions of people can't get to work. They can't put food on the table. They are missing rent or mortgage payments. Since we passed
the CARES Act, which was a strong step forward, the best this town can do is finger pointing. It's disgusting.
Everyone believes we are incapable of doing our jobs. And right now we're proving them right. The reality is, there's plenty of blame to go around.
But Americans need another stimulus check. They needed it months ago.
We need expanded unemployment back, especially now that cases are exploding at a higher rate than in any other point during this pandemic. It's time to
grow up. It's time to do what we're paid for. It's time to do our jobs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker and I yield back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: "It's time for Congress to grow up," he said. I am done being polite.
Well, we've been connecting you across Europe, of course, over the last few months as well, as it fell into what is a widespread second wave.
Now some countries there are turning a corner on COVID cases. Still the World Health Organization warns of a dangerous six months ahead. And it's
warning communities to avoid opening back up too soon. Our correspondents connecting you to developments across the region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. The U.K. has recorded another 529 deaths and more than 19,000 new cases in a 24-hour
period. This is a slight dip from Tuesday but something the prime minister still had to address in Parliament, saying he believes the country will get
through this by spring of next year.
Now we are in the middle of a nationwide lockdown here, set to expire on December 2nd. We have yet to hear if that will take place or be extended.
But the British Medical Association has warned that the government should have new restrictions in place before lockdown lifts to prevent rapid
relaxation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Melissa Bell in Paris. Here in Europe, some signs of hope, with the World Health Organization saying that,
over the course of the last week, the number of new cases in Europe has fallen by 10 percent. That's the first time there's been a fall in three
months.
Although the organization warns that deaths are still on the rise and that really reflects what we're seeing across the continent, some countries with
figures that remain worrying and the possibility of fresh restrictions being necessary.
[10:20:00]
BELL: Other countries like France and Belgium, for instance, really a sense of having turned a corner with new cases down. Hospitalizations down
and the number of people in ICU down as well.
And those governments really looking at how they're going to lift the restrictions more gradually than they did last time to avoid the errors of
the first wave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: We're going to keep connecting you to the worldwide search for a COVID vaccine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's nervous.
Doctors have warned her that there may be some side effects, like fever or nausea.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Volunteers take a chance in Peru with China's vaccine surge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (voice-over): And later in the show, we go inside the BBC investigation to its famous interview with the late Princess Diana, why her
son, Prince William, says he welcomes the probe.
Also ahead, a disturbing report from Australia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I think it is -- historically it will be the most shameful moment in our armed forces history.
ANDERSON (voice-over): A top Australian general apologizes to Afghanistan after details of a military investigation are released. That story is
coming up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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ANDERSON: A top Australian general is apologizing after a long-awaited investigation found evidence of unlawful killings by some special forces
sent to Afghanistan.
The report on suspected war crimes says 39 Afghanistan civilians and prisoners were killed between 2009 and 2013. The sociologist who did the
initial research that sparked the report calls the incidents "shameful."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMANTHA CROMPVOETS, SOCIOLOGIST: I think that they are unquestionably disturbing incidents that are disturbing because they were premeditated in
many instances. They were repeated and they were deliberate. I think -- I mean, I think it will -- it is -- historically, it will be the most
shameful moment in our armed forces history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: CNN's Ivan Watson tracking the developments for you from Hong Kong and is connecting all of this for you tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEN. ANGUS CAMPBELL, AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE CHIEF: I sincerely and unreservedly apologize for any wrongdoing by Australian soldiers.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An apology to the people of Afghanistan from the commander of the Australian
military, for dozens of unlawful killings allegedly carried out by Australian special forces during their operations there between 2009 and
2013.
[10:25:00]
CAMPBELL: Those alleged who had been unlawfully killed were all people under control -- in lay terms, prisoners, farmers, or other civilians.
This shameful record includes alleged instances, in which new patrol members were coerced to shoot a prisoner in order to achieve that soldier's
first kill in an appalling practice known as blooding.
WATSON: The damning public inquiry alleges that 39 Afghans were killed under this rogue practice, victims who were sometimes framed with planted
weapons to allow a coverup of the deaths.
The report states helmet cameras, used by troops, unintentionally resulted in the exposure of at least one apparent war crime. This helmet camera
footage, recently broadcast by Australia's ABC network, shows an Australian soldier firing three times at close range at an Afghan man laying on his
back.
This more than 400-page report is the result of a four-year inquiry ordered by the inspector general of the Australian Defense Force. The inquiry
alleges that the elite special air service regiment of the Australian Special Forces developed a toxic culture which led to, quote, "blood lust
and competition killings" outside the heat of battle.
CAMPBELL: A self-centered warrior culture, a misplaced focus on prestige, status and power.
WATSON: Afghanistan is Australia's longest war. Nearly 40,000 Australian troops have been deployed there, 41 of whom died. Defense chief Angus
Campbell says he accepts all of the report's recommendations, including pursuing criminal charges of alleged war crimes against 19 soldiers named
in the report, some of whom are still serving in the armed forces.
WATSON: He will also support the proposal to pay compensation to the families of those who were killed.
SHAHARZAD AKBAR, AFGHANISTAN INDEPENDENT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION: To see that the Australian government has come out public with this, that the
leaders for the government has apologized to Afghans for the suffering caused, that sends the right message.
It's not (INAUDIBLE) so it needs to be followed up with immediate steps to ensure accountability and justice.
WATSON: Australia is grappling with one dark chapter in Afghanistan's more than 40 years of near constant conflict, a war the U.N. estimates killed or
wounded nearly 6,000 Afghan civilians in just the first nine months of this year -- Ivan Watson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: It's a troubling story and we will speak to the head of the Afghan independent human rights commission, get her reaction next on this
show.
Also coming up, a story CNN has led the way on, horrendous violence at the Lekki tollgate in Nigeria. Now Nigeria's government is responding to our
reporting. Details are in our next hour.
Plus more hope on the horizon for a coronavirus vaccine. Two companies about to kick off the final steps in the process to have their vaccine
approved in the U.S. More on that after this.
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ANDERSON: We told you earlier about the coronavirus outbreak ravaging through the U.S. Now let's talk about that hopeful light at the end of the
tunnel, the two vaccines, first out of the gate with promising results.
One comes from Pfizer, the German company BioNTech, plan to apply for emergency use authorization in the U.S. on Friday. U.S.-based Moderna plans
to follow suit in the coming weeks. Data released so far show both vaccines are about 95 percent effective.
What happens after that?
There will be three more steps down the line before vaccinations can actually begin in the U.S.
First, the Food and Drug Administration will review the vaccine data. And that is expected to take a few weeks. Then the agency's independent experts
take a second look, a source tells CNN. They are scheduled to start meeting on December 8th.
If they give a vaccine a green line, independent experts at the CDC do a final review, give the last stamp of approval and recommend who gets the
vaccine first.
I want to get you to a country where the coronavirus outbreak is just one of multiple crises. In Peru, protests have been going on for days as its
political system crumbles. On Tuesday, the nation swore in its third president in a little over a week.
On top of that, Peru dealing with a massive COVID outbreak that has infected more than 900,000 people. Protesters say it is time for change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): There's corruption in the government, in congress and in municipalities. That is why we march. We are
going to insist that this great mobilization that the youth started and which they've offered their lives for continues. And we municipal workers
also demand a new constitution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: We are joined by journalist Guillermo Galdos from Lima now.
Guillermo, you've been out and about; you're finding out what people believe on the street. We have a political crisis, we have this pandemic.
What's the story there?
What are people telling you?
GUILLERMO GALDOS, JOURNALIST: Hi, Becky. Yes, as you mentioned we have had three presidents in the last 10 days. As a Peruvian, I have never saw
so many people marching on the street.
And it was basically, the majority of them were young people who were tired of the current political system, tired of political corruption and
corruption itself. I mean, if you take into account that, in our congress, 68 members of parliament are currently being investigated here for drug
trafficking, money laundering or corruption.
And, of course, they are protected by their immunity. So one of the things that these young protesters wanted to change was that, was to remove the
immunity from our congress.
But all this, as you mentioned was -- happened in the middle of a pandemic. So experts are fearing the worst really in the next coming weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GALDOS (voice-over): 8:00 am at the Peruvian university Cayetano in Lima, the classroom is full. But these are not students. They are volunteers for
China's Sinopharm vaccine for COVID-19.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Si.
GALDOS (voice-over): China is looking to prove it has a fully functioning vaccine and has been undergoing clinical trials in COVID hot spots around
the world. After China and the United Arab Emirates, Peru has the third highest number of participants.
Katia Mamani (ph) is 30 years old and comes from Seroapino (ph), a neighborhood in Lima, heavily affected by COVID-19.
[10:35:00]
GALDOS (voice-over): She signed up for the clinical trial as soon as registration opened a few weeks ago. Doctors have to give her a thorough
medical examination to be sure she is a good candidate for the vaccine. It's a long process.
First, she must give blood and take a COVID test to confirm that she is not infected with the virus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
GALDOS (voice-over): Three hours later and Katia (ph) is finally cleared to receive the vaccine. She's nervous. Doctors have warned her that there
may be some side effects like fever or nausea.
More than 7,000 people have already been given China's Sinopharm vaccine in Peru. Scientists aim to reach 12,000 volunteers before the end of the year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think, Doctor, are we being the guinea pigs of the world?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to keep in mind that, previous to Peru and 45,000 people have been vaccinated, that the problem that there was
encountered that they don't have new cases. So without new cases, it's very difficult to demonstrate the effectivity (sic) of the vaccine.
GALDOS (voice-over): Peru was one of the countries worst affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes it an ideal ground to test the vaccine. More
than 40,000 people have died here and the disease is still far from under control.
The Peruvian government is hopeful they can have a working vaccine within the next two months.
We went to see Katia in Seroapino (ph) to see how she was doing. She received the vaccine yesterday.
Katia will get a call every day for the next year to check how she's doing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
GALDOS (voice-over): But with coronavirus infections still on the rise, people like Katia are more important than ever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GALDOS (on camera): Well, more than 9,000 people actually have received the Sinopharm vaccine here in Peru and the Peruvian government is really
hoping to have a working vaccine in the next few weeks, after what we saw with the protests and the amount of infections that experts are expecting
the next few weeks.
ANDERSON: Guillermo, thank you.
Guillermo reporting that that vaccine taken there has been developed by Sinopharm, the Chinese company also conducted phase 3 trials of its COVID
vaccine in the UAE. We saw some of that work and spoke to some of the people participating in this study. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw my father work as a front line worker. That just motivated me to help him in any way I could. I've seen him and his
colleagues work nonstop and relentlessly toward what they're doing over here and I think that if I could be just a tiny part of what they're doing,
it would help humanity in some way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 36.6, no fever.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Michaela (ph) is Romanian and has been living in the UAE for 17 years. She says she decided to participate after she lost
her job in aviation during the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't afraid after I considered the possible side effects. I know the first two phases of the trial were successful. And
considering this, I decided I can go ahead and do the vaccine trial for phase 3.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That is a part of the report that we filed on the trial. As we await the results of that trial, I am told as many as 27,000 people have
taken the vaccine here since emergency approval was granted back in September.
[10:40:00]
ANDERSON: And during that reporting we were told that the UAE aims to produce and distribute, manufacture and distribute 75 million to 100
million doses from here for the UAE and around the region.
Well, airlines here already ramping up their preparations to help distribute that vaccine. CNN's John Defterios spoke with one of the
presidents of one of the airlines, Sir Tim Clark, about this global logistics challenge.
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TIM CLARK, PRESIDENT, EMIRATES AIRLINES: We saw an opportunity to create a hub, both in this airport and the Dubai World Central. And that's what we
did.
So fortunately, we are now in a position that, with our fleet of aircraft, including all the freighters, that we can now create a hub for all these
vaccines and then distribute them to Africa, South America, West Asia, India, Pakistan and further east.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: So this is global logistics on a scale you probably have never seen before.
Are you well positioned as a carrier and as a hub in Dubai to deliver on that?
CLARK: I think we are better positioned as a carrier. I think we are better positioned as a hub to deal with the scale of things. A lot of other
airports and countries and airlines can deal with much smaller scale and no doubt they will.
But in terms of a logistical center of distribution, under the conditions that these vaccines have to be stored and, of course, distributed, I am not
sure there are many that really equal us in this part of the world, certainly sitting, as you rightly say, between the east and the west major
population centers.
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ANDERSON: This COVID news is so important. I just want to take a moment to pause and away from that news.
Up next could this northern star become a national star?
The rise and rise of Manchester City's Phil Foden.
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