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U.S. Lawmakers Pay Tribute to Fallen Capitol Police Officer; Virus Mutations "of Concern" in U.K.; AstraZeneca Drastically Slows Virus Spread; Mobile Vax Teams Reach Istanbul's Older Residents; Outrage over Navalny's Conviction; Jeff Bezos Steps Down as Amazon CEO. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired February 03, 2021 - 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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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That variant was first spotted in an unlikely place. Here in Kent, in southeast England, famous for its white
cliffs, rolling countryside and a lot of people who make the daily commute to London.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): CNN takes you inside the largest sequencing center in the world, where scientists are working around the
clock to detect coronavirus mutations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says, this is not only for us. This is for everybody, everybody in the world.
ANDERSON (voice-over): In Turkey, the elderly breathe a sigh of relief as they begin getting those very important jabs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (voice-over): And Amazon's founder and boss stepping down.
But what could be a bigger job than running that behemoth?
He's got something else in mind. That is ahead.
I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD. It is 7:00 pm here in Abu Dhabi. It is 10:00 am in Washington, D.C., and, as we go to
air, this hour, a final honor for a police officer in the very building he died trying to protect.
The body of U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick lying in honor in the Capitol rotunda, a rare distinction for someone who is not a member of
the U.S. government. Sicknick died on January the 7th, a day after he was injured during the attack on that building.
Fellow officers and lawmakers have been paying their respects and congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer are expected to
speak at a ceremony about 30 minutes from now. Officer Sicknick was 42 years old.
COVID-19 vaccines and variants dominate the news this hour. I want to start with more positive reports on the vaccine front for you.
In Britain, a new study on the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine finds it can drastically cut coronavirus transmission and a single dose can prevent
infection in most people.
That follows news this week that Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is more than 90 percent effective against the virus. But while reports suggest vaccine
production is ramping up, there is growing concern over coronavirus variants, variants that can be more transmissible, potentially more deadly
and possibly reduce vaccine effectiveness.
And that has created two races against time. The first, getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible to stop new surges caused by these
variants. And the second is the race to identify emerging mutations, to both warn people around the world and to arm drugmakers with vital
information they need to alter their drugs and create booster shots.
Well, on that front, Britain is leading the global effort. Its government has been criticized for how it's handled the outbreak from the outset. Its
scientists, though, have genetically sequenced up to half of all virus samples that have now made it into labs around the world.
That effort is happening in a small village near Cambridge in England, a hive of activity amid the country's latest nationwide lockdown. Scott
McLean got rare firsthand access to that, connecting us to some of the most important scientific world going on anywhere in the world right now.
Good to have you with us, Scott. You're back in London.
What did you find?
MCLEAN: Hey, Becky. As you well know, the U.K. is really struggling to get a handle on this coronavirus, which continues to mutate. Right now, it's
dealing with more than 100 cases of the South African variant that have been found in the U.K.
It's also seeing one specific mutation on other strains of the virus that, early lab research shows, could make the virus more vaccine resistant. Now
scientists only know about these small mutations in the virus and some of the larger changes as well because they are doing genetic sequencing of the
virus on an industrial scale.
We got access to Britain's biggest sequencing lab to see how it all works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN (voice-over): If there is a secret weapon in the global fight against the mutating coronavirus, you might find it here. A cluster of
buildings just off the highway near Cambridge.
[10:05:00]
MCLEAN (voice-over): Every day vans arrive at the Sanger Institute carrying thousands of COVID swabs from across the country. They are stored
in industrial freezers.
MCLEAN: It's all just waiting to be sequenced?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, a mixture of (INAUDIBLE) to propose at some place at the moment.
MCLEAN (voice-over): A robot picks up the positive samples from the negative ones and puts them on a separate tray which is sealed. In another
lab, hundreds of samples get mixed into a single vial.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, in this single sequencing room there'll be over 700 SARS COVID-2 samples.
MCLEAN: You guys are pretty efficient?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is an industrial sequencing, yes.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Special chemicals are added, the tubes are shaken up, pressed between two pieces of glass and then put into giant computers to be
genetically sequenced. Fifteen hours later, they spit out so much genetic data, entire server farms have been built to house it.
After that, scientists on site and at a network of universities across the U.K. start searching through the data.
EWAN HARRISON, PROJECT MANAGER, COVID-19 GENOMICS CONSORTIUM: We're looking for mutations that may allow the virus to either be more
transmissible or to cause more severe disease and for mutations that we think might affect the ability of the vaccines to protect people.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Less than two months ago, that data was used to identify a faster spreading variant of the virus called B117.
MCLEAN: That variant was first spotted in an unlikely place. Here in Kent in Southeast England, famous for its white cliffs, rolling countryside and
a lot of people who make the daily commute to London.
MCLEAN (voice-over): It wasn't long before the variant was detected in the capital and eventually throughout the four nations of the U.K. and in
dozens of other countries. The CDC says it could become the dominant coronavirus strain in the U.S. by March.
RAVINDRA GUPTA, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE: That is the U.K. variant, B117.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Professor Ravi Gupta had been studying an immunocompromised person who couldn't shake the virus for more than three
months, giving new mutations time to multiply inside the body that couldn't fight back.
When Gupta checked that sequencing database, he found a COVID-19 variant that shared a key mutation with the one his patient was fighting.
MCLEAN: How likely is it that patient zero was immunocompromised person?
GUPTA: I think it's very, very likely. We found very few, virtually no sequences, that are highly related, to the other variant. In other words,
it popped out of nowhere.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Gupta's ongoing research has so far found that vaccines are still largely affective, even on the new variant but maybe not
for long.
GUPTA: The viruses are already on their way to becoming more resistant to the immune system and to vaccines.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Variants have been found in Brazil and South Africa where scientists have the tools to sequence the virus' genome. Many other
countries don't. So now the British government is volunteering to do it for them.
MCLEAN: How likely is it that there are dangerous variants of the virus in other countries that we don't even know about?
GUPTA: It is very likely there are undetected variants out there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCLEAN: Just to give you a sense of the scale, the Sanger Institute is sequencing about 10,000 positive COVID swabs every week. It's now trying to
ramp up that capacity to double its capacity at some point in the future.
As for that British government plan to sequence samples from other parts of the world, where they don't have sequencing capacity, where it's very
limited, the details of that are still being worked out.
ANDERSON: We are talking variants and new reports on vaccines today as well. And new research out of Oxford AstraZeneca's labs showing the
vaccine, suggesting it prevents transmission, still protects even after 12 weeks between shots.
What more do we know at this point?
MCLEAN: Yes, so this is research, as you said, on the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and it's significant for a couple of reasons. First, it supports
the government's controversial plan to space vaccine doses out by 12 weeks instead of the usual six.
The government's rationale was that, well, it could give twice the number of people at least some level of protection, rather than giving half as
many people full protection and many others no protection at all.
But some British doctors were concerned that, well, there were too many question marks around this plan because it hadn't been studied that way. So
they didn't know how effective the vaccine was going to be with that amount of time in between.
This research, though, shows that, even after 12 weeks, the vaccine is still 76 percent effective, after that time, even after just one shot. The
research also found something important and that's that the vaccine -- or that people who are vaccinated, well, it not only prevents them from
getting sick but it prevents them from transmitting the virus, because that's one of the big concerns here.
You have all these people who are vaccinated who can still be vessels for transmission. So at least, in this one study and with this particular
vaccine, that appears not to be the case, Becky, but obviously more research will be needed.
[10:10:00]
ANDERSON: Yes.
But you know what?
It is really good to report on good news, isn't it?
Thank you, on both of the fronts you've been reporting on today, Scott McLean in the house for you.
We've been connecting you with vaccine rollouts around the world and the fears that many people are expressing about whether these drugs are really
safe and effective.
In the U.S., skepticism is especially high among Black Americans. Rumors surrounding the recent death of baseball legend Hank Aaron haven't helped.
The statistics show Black and Latino Americans are being vaccinated at significantly lower rates than whites.
CNN's Ryan Young spoke with members of the Black community in Atlanta, Georgia. Have a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do believe in COVID. Yes. Yes.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Playmakers Barbershop in Atlanta, the tight fades are blended with energetic and
sometimes loud discussions about who's the greatest basketball player of all time.
YANOUS WILLIS, ATLANTA BARBER: My name was Yanous before the basketball player.
YOUNG (voice-over): But now, COVID-19 stimulus checks and the COVID vaccines are talked about just as passionately.
WILLIS: I really don't trust it because it actually came kind of fast.
YOUNG (voice-over): Barber Yanous Willis feels strongly that the development of COVID-19 vaccines was rushed and comes with serious side
effects.
WILLIS: People that take it, they -- they have Bell's palsy.
YOUNG (voice-over): Outside the shop, James Harris had other concerns.
JAMES HARRIS, ATLANTA RESIDENT: I know the doctor took it. It killed him. And this nurse I know, it killed her.
YOUNG (voice-over): While the CDC and FDA are looking into those and similar claims around the country, Harris' and Willis' beliefs underscores
serious concerns for Fulton County health director Lynn Paxton and her team, who are fighting the information online about as hard as they're
battling the virus itself.
DR. LYNN PAXTON, DIRECTOR, FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH: This vaccine is very effective and very safe.
YOUNG (voice-over): But it's not easy, especially when rumors spread on social media, like posts claiming baseball legend Hank Aaron died from the
vaccine because he received his dose publicly days before passing away.
He didn't. The Fulton County medical examiner says he died from natural causes.
But many in Atlanta's Black community believed the claim, forcing health officials to speak out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's just important that we quell these kind of rumors.
YOUNG (voice-over): Which is why Paxton's team is now distributing information in these communities.
PAXTON: Seek out trusted sources for information about the vaccine. Facebook and your neighbor next door's postings are not trusted sources.
YOUNG (voice-over): Health officials worry misinformation could complicate the process of getting shots in the arms of Black and Brown communities.
New CDC data from the first month of vaccination shows Black and Latino people lagging way behind in the state's reporting racial breakdowns. So
far, 60 percent of those vaccinated are white, compared to 11.5 percent Latino and just 5.4 percent Black.
BERNARD ROYAL, HEALTH CARE WORKER: You're not giving me the option. You're trying to dump it on me.
YOUNG (voice-over): Misinformation isn't the only issue. History is also a major factor for some, including these Black health care workers, who are
still on the fence about getting the vaccine.
JAMECKA BRITTON, HEALTH CARE WORKER: The hesitancy with the African American community goes back to the willing malpractice on African
Americans at the Tuskegee experiment.
YOUNG: The awful decades-long study where Black men with syphilis weren't informed or treated now playing a role in the uphill battle health
officials face in trying to convince an already skeptical community to get the COVID vaccine.
PAXTON: Let's face it, it was a crime against humanity what happened. But that happened ages ago and, because of it, it completely changed the
landscape for research.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Ryan Young reporting there.
Medical workers in Turkey got top priority when the COVID-19 vaccine became available there last month. Officials now say all Turkish health care
workers who wanted to be vaccinated have been given their first dose. Turkey administering the Sinovac vaccine from China in a deal that's
expected eventually to supply 50 million doses.
Now the goal is to get the country's older people protected. Some vaccination teams hitting the streets, bringing the vaccine and also some
hope to those over the age of 65 in clinics and hospitals and even in their homes. Jomana Karadsheh joined them on their rounds in Istanbul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are out in Istanbul, with one of Turkey's health ministry's mobile vaccination teams, who are going around
to the houses of elderly and administering the COVID-19 vaccine. That's for people who are deemed too vulnerable to go to the clinics and the
hospitals.
[10:15:00]
KARADSHEH: And also those who prefer to stay at home and get their shot. And right now, we are here with Rahan (ph), whose 79-year-old mother is
getting her vaccine today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KARADSHEH: How do you feel?
I am very excited and I'm very tired for my parents.
KARADSHEH: It's been a difficult year for them?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Difficult, difficult for me.
KARADSHEH: Your dad has already gotten his shot.
Right now your mother is getting her vaccine?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KARADSHEH: And they have six grandchildren?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes.
KARADSHEH: And this past year, have they been able to see them at all?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For one year.
KARADSHEH: They haven't seen them in one year?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KARADSHEH: And how is your mother feeling right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is very excited and for waiting for medicine.
KARADSHEH: And we'll let you go now so she can take her vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
KARADSHEH: So right now, we can't go in with the team because, for much of the pandemic, Turkey has shielded its older citizens. They have been under
a stay-at-home order for most of the time. Right now they're under this partial age-based lockdown.
We are going to head over now to one of the neighborhood clinics, where others are receiving their vaccine.
Turkey started vaccinating its population on January the 14th. And so far, the government says more than 2 million people have gotten their first dose
of the vaccine. That includes all of the country's health care workers. Now they are vaccinating the elderly. Many of them are getting their vaccine at
neighborhood clinics like this one.
So 81-year-old Turkan (ph) is here to get her first dose of the vaccine. She's here with her son. They say she preferred to come to the health
clinic to get this shot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She says she knows how to struggle in life. She has raised up three kids. Our father passed away while we were very small. So
we are used to struggles in life. No problem. This is very small thing for her.
KARADSHEH: During the pandemic, people from your age group, it's been difficult for you not being able to go out, see people.
How has that affected you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so she feels OK but, of course, she was anxious and she was kind of tired of -- this has been going on for too long.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But she doesn't like complaining. She says --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- she says this is not only for us, this is for everybody, everybody in the world.
KARADSHEH: This is why she thought taking the vaccine is important?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. She thinks of other people first, then herself.
KARADSHEH: For so many, this is not just about the health risks, this is also about the psychological impact this has had, the loneliness, the
isolation, separation from family members or loved ones, not being able to hug their children and their grandchildren.
And this is really a moment of hope, the beginning of the end of what has been an incredibly difficult time on so many levels -- Jomana Karadsheh,
CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Next hour, I'll speak to Richard Horton. That as the health minister in the U.K. has just tweeted that the U.K. has reached 10 million
vaccinations. Richard Horton is the editor-in-chief of "The Lancet" magazine. That's the medical journal which published those positive results
on Russia's Sputnik V vaccine earlier this week.
So we'll discuss that, the importance of this new lineup of vaccines being available, the significance of these mass vaccination drives, like that in
the U.K. and the UAE, and the importance and complications raised by these variants. All of that is coming up with Richard Horton later in the show.
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ANDERSON: And we are just getting word in on another story completely. The members of the U.S. Senate have come up with a plan for sharing power. This
is important.
The Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, says the agreement struck with Republican leader Mitch McConnell will let the Democrats take control of
committees. Now the Senate, as you know, is evenly split, with the Vice President Kamala Harris now breaking ties.
The deal should pave the way for the consideration of some of these key cabinet nominees that the Biden administration is, quite frankly, desperate
to get through.
Well, more on that as we get it in on this show. Also coming up --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): -- furious at the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny and making their voices
heard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:20:00]
ANDERSON: The sentencing of Alexei Navalny angers protesters.
But will it force a change?
The details on that are just ahead.
Plus, Jeff Bezos says he is stepping down as Amazon's CEO.
What is next for the multibillionaire businessman and the company that he built?
That is coming up.
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ANDERSON: Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and general thorn in Vladimir Putin's side, will spend more than 2.5 years in a Russian
prison.
His crime?
Not checking in with Russian authorities, despite the fact he was in a coma after being poisoned. A Moscow court handed down that ruling after a heated
hearing on Navalny's probation violation. That happened on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (voice-over): This is what happened outside the courthouse. Police rounded up hundreds of Navalny supporters, who were protesting
against the sentence. CNN's Matthew Chance takes a look at the court's decision and the fallout on the streets of Moscow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHANCE (voice-over): Anger is pouring out onto the streets of the Russian capital, protesters furious at the imprisonment of Alexei Navalny, making
their voices heard.
"Let him go," they chant.
Earlier, outside the Moscow port, police detained hundreds to make sure this hearing passed off undisturbed. The real drama unfolded inside. Alexei
Navalny glanced towards his wife in the gallery, drawing a heart on the pane of his glass cage, as the judge read out the decision. Russia's most
prominent Putin critic was being sent to jail.
"Somebody doesn't want me to set foot in Russia," he told the court earlier.
"The reason for this is the hatred and fear of one person who is hiding in a bunker. I've offended him so deeply by the fact that I survived," he
said.
Outside, his lawyers told CNN Navalny took the court's decision bravely as usual but they said they will definitely appeal.
It was these images of the opposition leader groaning in agony after being poisoned by a suspected nerve agent in Siberia last year that shocked the
world. His recovery and defined return to arrest in Russia has also struck a chord.
Last week, slamming his detention as blatantly illegal, telling the judge in his latest hearing that he was being persecuted because he survived
assassination and that President Putin himself was behind it, something that Kremlin has denied.
"His main grievance against me," he told the court, "is that he'll go down in history as Putin the poisoner."
For the past two weeks, this country has been rocked by some of the biggest anti-Kremlin protests it's ever seen. Tens of thousands of turned out,
demanding change and for Navalny to be set free.
[10:00:25]
CHANCE (voice-over): Critics say a heavy-handed response, with thousands detained nationwide, underlines how threatened the Kremlin really feels.
But the Kremlin tells CNN President Putin himself isn't even following the trials of his biggest critic. Instead, the Russian president was shown
greeting teachers of the future generation.
But it's the generation of Russians now protesting on the streets outside inspired by Alexei Navalny that may yet prove Putin's most dangerous
challenge -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: My next guest knows all about the dangers facing Russia's dissidents. Zhanna Nemtsova's father, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, was
assassinated in 2015. She joins us now live.
It's good to have you on the show. You know what it's like to cross Vladimir Putin. Your father lost his life as a result of it. And you've
said that Navalny's story, frankly, reminds you of a fictional plot.
What did you make of last night's verdict?
ZHANNA NEMTSOVA, BORIS NEMTSOVA'S DAUGHTER: Thank you very much for inviting me. First of all, I was around the court. I came to support Alexei
Navalny and I saw literally thousands of law enforcement officers.
And this is how their fear was manifestated (sic). So the Kremlin has a lot of fear. They are afraid of Navalny. And Navalny's poisoning was a personal
decision of Vladimir Putin.
Well, nowadays, it's very different from what we saw in 2015, when my father was assassinated. First of all, Putin has lost a lot of his support.
He has lost legitimacy. Putin is no longer loved by many Russians.
His rate of support has fallen dramatically in all age groups. His rate of support among young people stands at around 20 percent. Independent Russian
(INAUDIBLE) center --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: OK.
NEMTSOVA: -- and what we see now, it is a national political movement, not only in support of Navalny but against Vladimir Putin and his regime.
And what we see right now, thousands who were detained yesterday, 10,000 who were detained during all the protests in Russia.
Now before your show started, I had read that a journalist had got 25 days of arrest only because he works as a journalist. So it's a dictatorship. It
reminds me of --
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON: Zhanna, I understand what you're saying and it's been very clear that the profile of those on the streets tends to be these anti-Putin, pro-
Navalny protesters, tends to be on the younger side.
But let's be quite clear. Last year President Putin won a resounding victory in his bid to stay in power until the middle of the next decade.
And that was because nearly 70 percent or 77 percent of Russians supported the amendment to the constitution, which suggests that three-quarters of
Russians support President Putin.
What do you say to that?
NEMTSOVA: Well, first of all, not every Russian participated in that referendum. This is one thing.
Second, not everybody actually understood what was meant under this amendment. So not a lot of Russians knew that there wasn't an amendment
that actually allows Vladimir Putin to rule Russia for his lifetime.
And once again, I am relying now on the official figures presented by an independent postal, it was dissenter (ph). So I think that this situation
is changing dramatically. It's changing rapidly.
And by the way, though many people refrained from taking part in this referendum, they were against the amendments to the constitution. But they
thought they couldn't change anything by going to the polls and by voting.
ANDERSON: We are going to have to leave it there because I have to take a break at the bottom of the hour. But it's good to have you on and we'll
have you back.
[10:30:00]
ANDERSON: And we can further discuss what you understand to be the situation on the ground and how you have considered that Russia is not yet
in a revolutionary situation. But you believe that it could possibly go that way. That's an important point and I want to discuss that with you
again. But thank you this hour for joining us today.
Coming up, a major shake-up at Amazon. The company's founder, Jeff Bezos, is stepping down as CEO. Find out who is taking his place. That is up after
this short break.
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ANDERSON: I want to take you back to the U.S. Capitol now, where a ceremony is getting underway for Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick. His
remains lying in honor there at the Capitol building after he died from injuries sustained in the January the 6th insurrection.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer will be speaking there in a couple of moments.
A new era will soon begin for one of the most successful companies in the world. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has announced he is stepping down as CEO
and will transition to the executive chair of the company later this year.
He will be succeeded by longtime employee Andy Jassy. Now Bezos founded Amazon in 1995 and transformed it into a $1.7 trillion retail giant. The
multi-billionaire plans to spend more time on his space start-up, Blue Origin, and his newspaper, "The Washington Post."
In a letter to employees, Bezos said, "I don't know of another company with an invention track record as good as Amazon's. And I believe we're at our
most inventive right now. I hope you are as proud of our inventiveness as I am."
Let's bring in CNN's Anna Stewart, who is live from London for you.
This is a man who, for the last decade, has pretty much transformed the way we shop and, quite frankly, live, Anna.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Amazon is the most extraordinary company. It was so interesting about the letter he wrote to
his employees yesterday. He said, when I first started Amazon, one of the questions I got asked the most was, what is the internet?
Can you imagine, Becky?
The internet is now a utility. Amazon is a household name. Take a look at this transformation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF BEZOS, AMAZON FOUNDER: Amazon is in the retailing business, which is this huge market.
[10:35:00]
BEZOS: It's $5 trillion U.S. around the world. And even if we are wildly successful, we are only going to be a tiny, tiny piece of that market.
Our first announcement --
STEWART (voice-over): Clearly Amazon is wildly successful. What started out as an online bookstore, launched from his garage in 1994, has made Jeff
Bezos one of the world's richest men.
BEZOS: It's more than 10 times the selection that you'll find in a typical physical world software store.
STEWART (voice-over): Now Amazon sells nearly everything. The $1.7 trillion company does much more than ecommerce. It's one of the world's
biggest entertainment platforms, with Audible, Twitch, Amazon Music and Amazon Prime Video.
It's a major player in cloud computing, which generates most of its profits. And those are sizable.
Amazon racked up record revenue in the last quarter, the pandemic fueling an explosion in online shopping.
In a letter to his employees, Bezos explained why he is stepping down, writing, "Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility and it's
consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it's hard to put attention on anything else."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman --
STEWART (voice-over): Not least, given the attention that Amazon receives from regulators.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The purpose of today's hearing is to examine the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.
STEWART (voice-over): Bezos appeared virtually before Congress last year to face tough questions. He says he now wants to focus on some of his other
projects, The Earth Fund, "The Washington Post" and Blue Origin, which plans to make space accessible to all.
He's not alone. So does Elon Musk.
BEZOS: You don't choose your passions. Your passions choose you.
STEWART (voice-over): Now Bezos has more time to devote to the billionaire space race where the sky is no limit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEWART: Becky, we could see some big changes to the passion projects Bezos will switch his attention to. We don't really expect to see major
change when it comes to the strategy at Amazon for two key reasons.
While Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO, he's not stepping away from the company entirely, almost taking a sideways step. He'll be the executive
chairman, something we've seen in Silicon Valley before. When the Google founder stepped down, they similarly kept a role on the board.
His replacement, Andy Jassy, he's been at Amazon nearly as long as Jeff Bezos. He's his right-hand man. So there will be some continuity there.
Transition takes place second half of the year -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Anna, I just want to go back to the clip of the interview with Jeff back in 2006. That was actually an interview that I conducted. And I
just want our viewers to have a listen to what he told us back then. Let's have a listen again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEZOS: Amazon is in the retailing business, which is this huge market. It's $5 trillion U.S. around the world. And even if we are wildly
successful, we are only going to be a tiny, tiny piece of that market.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: "We are only going to be a tiny, tiny piece of that market," he said back in 2006.
And, Anna, to your point, in your report, when I first interviewed Jeff Bezos, I think probably 1999, possibly 2000, when he was touting the wares
of this ecommerce book seller across Europe and the Middle East, most people did not know what the internet was all about then.
And we were years away at that stage, six at least, seven, eight, before people really caught on to ecommerce. It's remarkable, isn't it, to see how
he's changed. He looks like a very young man in those images. But where he took this company, Anna, a pleasure having you on. Thank you very much for
joining us.
Viewers, just to point out that Amazon unveiled its new plans for a $2.5 billion HQ in Virginia, in the States, a stunning glass structure, set amid
indoor gardens and greenery. The entire building expected to run on renewable energy generated at a solar farm.
I have to remind you, the race to host the new HQ for Amazon really pitted cities across the United States in a fierce fight. Such is the enormity of
value that a city and state can get out of this one company and having it HQ'd there. So well done to Virginia, of course.
[10:40:00]
ANDERSON: And we continue to watch and see where Amazon goes from here. But as Anna rightly pointed out, wherever it's going, it's going with Jeff
Bezos on its executive board. So it's not really going anywhere.
Well, it's not the type of score you expect in a football match.
(WORLD SPORTS)
[11:00:00]
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