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Campbell Brown
H1N1 Vaccine Delay; Senate Leader Pushes Health Care Public Option
Aired October 26, 2009 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMPBELL BROWN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tonight, here are the questions we want answered. Now the flu is a national emergency. But why is it taking so long for you to get the vaccine for your kids?
REAR ADMIRAL DR. ANNE SCHUCHAT, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAM, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: So, we're really seeing a big delay. What this means, though, for people is that doses are coming out, more and more does every day, but it is going to take longer for there to be lots of vaccine in each community. I know parents are frustrated.
BROWN: New tonight, a bombshell in the Senate. Harry Reid puts the public option back in health care reform, even if it means no Republican support.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: The best way to move forward is through the public option. States will be able to determine whether the public option works well for them and will have the ability to opt out if they so choose.
BROWN: Is this a big political Hail Mary or could the public option sink health care reform?
And what went on in the cockpit of that jet that overshot its destination by 150 miles?
RICHARD COLE, NORTHWEST FLIGHT 188 PILOT: Nobody was asleep in the cockpit. And no arguments took place. But, other than that, I cannot tell you anything that went on.
BROWN: Tonight, the pilots now say they were going over their schedules on their laptops in the cockpit -- for more than an hour, while they were flying a plane with 149 people on board?
Also tonight, my one-on-one with our newsmaker, Maria Shriver, from the Women's Conference in California.
MARIA SHRIVER, FIRST LADY OF CALIFORNIA: We still don't get paid what men get paid. I think what's striking about this -- quote -- "women's movement" is that men want to be a part of it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is your only source for news. CNN prime time begins now. Here's Campbell Brown.
BROWN: Hey, everybody. We are coming to you from Los Angeles tonight, where we're covering the Women's Conference. It comes at a time when more women are working than ever before. More women are increasingly unhappy, supposedly.
Over the next couple of days, we're going to talk with some of the most interesting women in the world about their struggle for personal and professional balance and the challenges they face every day. We're going to get to all that.
But we start tonight as we always do with the "Mash-Up." It's our look at the stories making an impact right now and the moments you may have missed. We're watching it all so you don't have to.
And we begin tonight, our top story, the big news in the battle over health care reform. The public option, long thought dead, came roaring back to life today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announcing a government-run insurance plan will be part of the final Senate bill. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For the Senate Democratic leader from Nevada, a Las Vegas-style gamble.
REID: A public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system.
BASH: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the Senate Democrats' health care bill will include a public option that allows states to opt out by the year 2014, rolling the dice that conservative Democrats wary of a government-run health care plan can be persuaded if states can choose not to participate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The decision is the result two of weeks of negotiations between Democratic leaders and the White House, as they tried to merge two very different bills, one which would create a public insurance option, the other which would not.
Now, there is risk here. Olympia Snowe, the only Republican even close to a possible yes vote, tells NBC News tonight she's disappointed and cannot support this kind of public option.
SEN. OLYMPIA SNOWE (R), MAINE: It's regrettable. It's unfortunate. It's very difficult on the issue of the public option.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there's a handful of moderate Democrats who oppose it, too. But for more liberal Democrats, this kind of public option or any kind of public option is considered a victory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Reid needs 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. But can he get them? That's the question of the hour. And in just a little bit, we are going to put that to our panel of political experts. Finally, some answers tonight on what may have caused two pilots of a Northwest flight bound for Minneapolis to overshoot their destination by more than 150 miles. Transportation safety officials say the men were distracted by their computers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: They told the NTSB during five hours of questioning they were using their personal laptop computers during a discussion of scheduling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Both told the same story, that over a period of time, they did not monitor the airplane or calls from air traffic control, even though they heard the radio, that neither pilot noticed computer messages that were sent by company dispatchers. It wasn't until a flight attendant called the cockpit and asked why the plane was not descending that the pilots reacted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just called them and said, when are we landing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know something was wrong or unusual?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not at all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we called about arrival time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it difficult to get them, obviously?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Delta Air Lines, which know owns Northwest, says the use of personal laptops in the cockpit is a violation of its regulations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And late today, Delta Air Lines issued a statement saying that pilots who violate company policy by using laptops in the cockpit will be fired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The two pilots in question have been suspended until the end of the investigation. We are going to have more details on this bizarre story coming up a little later as well.
And turning now to Afghanistan, President Obama huddling again with his top security advisers on a deadly day for American troops while on the ground. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: two U.S. helicopters collided in midair in southern Afghanistan, bringing both of them to the ground and killing four American troops on board.
In a completely separate incident, a helicopter lifted off in western Afghanistan and went down, killing seven American troops and three DEA agents on board.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This has been the deadliest year for U.S. forces since the invasion and today was the deadliest day in more than four years.
CHARLES GIBSON, HOST, "WORLD NEWS": Today's casualties come as President Obama decides his next steps in Afghanistan, whether to send more American troops, how many and when.
OBAMA: I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: On Capitol Hill, John Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the American military commander in Afghanistan needs a dose of patience. General Stanley McChrystal is calling for 40,000 additional troops. Kerry says he is reaching too far too fast.
In Iraq, meanwhile, the death toll still rising from yesterday's twin car bombings in Baghdad, at least 160 people killed in the blast, including 30 children.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the scene of Iraq's worst violence in two years, people vent their anger at the government.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The government, what is it doing for us? Nothing. What have they done? We have been widowed. We have orphans, car bombs, theft. What have they done for us?
JAMJOOM: What people here can't understand is how another massive truck bomb attack in the heart of Baghdad could not be prevented.
The search and recovery effort is still going on here at the site of the twin suicide truck bombers that happened yesterday. Behind me is the Ministry of Justice. Just today, they have already pulled out six bodies from the wreckage inside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: More than 540 people were injured in the attacks last week. President Obama reaffirmed his pledge to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by August.
In New York, an 18-year-old runaway is Jane Doe no more. She was found earlier this month outside a youth shelter with no memory of her name or family. Well, tonight, the mystery is solved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Her name is Kacie Aleece Peterson. And she comes from Hansville, Washington. There's a picture of her right there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last week, police asked people all over the country to help identify her.
MIKE GALANOS, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: New York City police, they have got a mystery on their hands. Teenager can't remember her own name.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: CNN and other media described the girl's dilemma. The publicity worked. An unidentified CNN viewer from Maryland recognized the girl, called police. And that led them to the teen's family in Washington.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her father says this is not the first time she's disappeared and lost her memory. Still not really clear how she got all the way from Washington State to New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The teenager was said to have mentioned some words from a novel called "Fool's Fate" by Robin Hobb and was apparently also writing her own story. Clinical psychologist Dr. Judy Kuriansky suggests the teenager may have been lost in that fantasy world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Kacie Peterson's father traveled to New York today to bring his daughter home.
At the White House this weekend, another glass ceiling shattered. President Obama for the first time since taking office went golfing with an actual woman. The lucky lady, domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes. People, this is a big deal. According to Mark Knoller, who logs this stuff for CBS News, the president has played 24 rounds of golf since taking office, but yesterday's outing was the only one to include a woman.
Strangely enough, it came on the heels of some bad press about a boys club culture over at the White House, lots of guy bonding on the basketball court and on the golf course. We're sure that including Barnes yesterday was a pure coincidence. Still, it was notable enough for the ladies of "The View" to have a little fun. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have your two daughters looking at who's playing basketball in the backyard from your office, ask some women to join you. Get the women out there involved. And don't just do it as an I'm sorry playing golf.
BARBARA WALTERS, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": People say, how could he have done this? And he's leaving out women. He's appointed more women than any other president.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": If you play basketball with your dudes and whatever, you have every right to do that. If you suddenly go pick up a golf club with a bunch -- a with chick that you have never played golf with or you don't -- you barely call her on the phone and stuff, I think that's a little cheesy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Mr. President, a lot of people keeping score.
And now, with two wars, a health care battle, you would think Congress might have its hands full. But those diligent lawmakers always seem to find time for what is really important. Behold a sample of today's pressing business from the House floor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: House Resolution 562, resolution congratulating Syracuse University for winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I men's lacrosse tournament.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The game that secured the Orange's victory was especially exciting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: HR-1471, a bill to expand the boundary of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Site.
REP. DON YOUNG (R), ALASKA: One of the properties included in the expansion is a haunted house. The legislation also includes the federal takeover of Billy Carter's gas station.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: House Resolution 824, resolution congratulating the Northwestern University Wildcats on winning the 2009 NCAA women's lacrosse championship.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm especially proud to join in honoring these talented women and the school they represent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: House Resolution 854, resolution recognizing Weber State University for the 120th anniversary of its founding.
REP. ROB BISHOP (R), UTAH: The first president or principal of that Weber Academy was Lewis Munch (ph), who's a German immigrant. He's also the author of one of my favorite religious hymns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: There you go, your government at work, people, pretty inspiring stuff as always.
And that does bring us to the "Punchline." This is courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel and that age-old question, Mac or P.C.?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was on "The Today Show" to promote Windows 7. And Matt Lauer threw him a little bit of a curveball when he asked about Microsoft's rivalry with Apple.
MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, "THE TODAY SHOW": It's got the wow factor. It's got the technology. The fact of the matter is, though, when people talk about the company Apple, they say it's a cool company, it's a cutting-edge company. You have got to compete with that as the CEO of Microsoft.
STEVE BALLMER, CEO, MICROSOFT: Sure.
LAUER: Are you envious about the image they have created?
BALLMER: I think Apple is a fine company. But I'm really happy that, in the United States, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine...
(LAUGHTER)
BALLMER: Nine, nine, nine, nine...
(LAUGHTER)
KIMMEL: We reboot...
(CROSSTALK)
KIMMEL: Control, alt, and delete, and it will be fine.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That was pretty good -- Jimmy Kimmel, everybody.
That is the "Mash-Up" tonight.
We now know why those pilots who overshot their destination by 150 miles were distracted in the cockpit. But were passengers in danger and should the pilots be fired?
Plus, long lines as the H1N1 virus spreads across the country. What good is a national emergency declaration if you still can't get a flu shot? Will the vaccine come too late?
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Big announcement -- just a little while ago on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid put the public option back in the health care reform bill, even if it means giving up any hope of Republican support. It wasn't so the long ago that the public option was considered dead with a stake through its heart. So, how did a government-run insurance program come back to life and will the Senate pass it?
That's the question we have right now for CNN political analyst Roland Martin, Republican strategist Kevin Madden, CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley with us tonight as well.
Candy, let me start with you on this. First, explain what this really means to people. What does it mean to have the public option that allows, as it's written, apparently, that allows states to opt out? Just what does that mean?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just to sort of define the baseline here, a public option would be something -- they want to create these health insurance exchanges currently for the uninsured.
And one of the options for people would be a public health insurance option. That is health insurance that is run by the federal government. It would be up against other private health insurances. So, like a Chinese menu, you would open it up, and there would be United, and there would be Kaiser, and there would be the public health insurance plan, which would be run by the government.
Now, the presumption is that a public plan would be cheaper because the government can -- has more clout to kind of negotiate rates with hospitals and such. And what proponents of it say is, listen, this will bring down prices because private insurers will have to compete.
Others say, no, it won't, because they are going to pay so little, the federal government, that they're going to have to hike up prices for those who are privately insured. So, lots of debate about it, but it is essentially a health insurance plan that will be run by the government.
Opt out means, if your state doesn't want to offer that, then your state didn't have the to offer that. I would assume, although we haven't seen this in black and white, that that means that the state legislature would have to pass a bill and the governor would have to sign it.
BROWN: And, Candy, quickly in terms of the politics, there were a lot of people who thought that this whole notion of a public option was dead, was off the table a long time ago. What changed here?
CROWLEY: Well, when Senator Reid, the Democratic leader, was looking at it, they really felt that he had two options. One was to send a bill to the floor that didn't have any kind of public option and have a fight out on the floor.
The other was to put something on it that seemed doable, even though he doesn't seem to have the votes for it, and put it out there on the floor. This is a signal to liberal Democrats that they are willing to go to the mat for this, they being Senator Reid. Certainly, the liberals are the ones, the progressives are the ones that had been pushing for this. And Reid wanted to send that signal. We're going to go fight for this. And it will probably help him back home, where he's in a pretty tough Senate election -- reelection race.
BROWN: And, Roland, give me the bigger-picture take here. liberals have been fairly critical of President Obama for breaking a campaign promise to include a public option in health care reform. It's back on the table now. Does this help pacify the base somewhat?
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, they never backed off of this in terms of the base, in terms of liberals and progressives. In fact, they were even given more incentive when the Senate Finance Committee passed their bill and the public option was not included.
The fight now is going to be whether or not you're going to allow the opt-out, because the problem is, when you look at those who truly need it, they live in places like Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, all places with Republican governors.
And, so, you are going to hear people say, wait a minute, they're not going to go for the plan anyway. They're going to opt out of it. The folks we know most need it are still going to be impacted by it. This reminds me of the whole idea with the bailout. Remember when they passed the stimulus package? I'm sorry. Not bailout, stimulus package -- when the governors said, no, we don't want to take the money?
They're still going to push for it. But the bottom line is, this is some kind of an achievement. It's not a robust public option, but it still gives some type of public option, satisfies liberals, but also more importantly conservative Democrats.
BROWN: Well, Kevin, to that point, Senator Reid ridiculed Republicans today for their lack of cooperation on this, saying that he could count the number of moderate Republicans on two fingers.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: Assuming today's announcement means he's still not going to have much support from across the aisle on this, right?
KEVIN MADDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think that's right.
I think that Senator Reid pursuing this political strategy to pass this bill is an indication that he wants to -- that he's going to do it and is ready, willing and able to do this without any Republican help.
Instead, he's looking to force a public debate on the public option amongst his -- inside his own caucus in order to get the votes he needs from moderates like Roland had pointed out. Essentially, the standard on Capitol Hill is that you cut these deals behind doors and that you try and grow the vote that you need in order to get 60 behind closed doors. But it looks like Senator Reid is now preparing to do it publicly.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: But, Kevin, is that a bad strategy? Look at the poll numbers. This is just the latest CNN poll -- 61 percent of Americans favor the public option. So, why not use public pressure?
MADDEN: Well, look, anything that's described as a public option, an option being somewhat favorable, is going to find a lot of support.
I think the more troubling aspect of those questions when they're posed to voters that should be driving a lot of anxiety among some of these folks that have to vote on it is the level of anxiety that voters themselves have about the size of government in their health care.
The other thing, Campbell, is that this debate is being driven on two parallels. I think, amongst the public, the main concern right now is cost. But, inside Washington, we're having this flash point argument about the public option. And I think that there's going to be a little bit of a disconnect there when it comes to really winning some public support behind this.
(CROSSTALK)
MARTIN: Campbell, look, the bottom line is, if you're Reid, Republicans were never going to back it anyway.
BROWN: Yes. Well, I think a lot of people would agree with that.
But let me ask, Candy, quickly, the White House still playing coy a little bit on this. They're really not weighing in yet. And they have been criticized for that sort of throughout this process. Should the president take more of a stand on this?
CROWLEY: Well, we will see how it all works out.
I would suspect that all along and what we have seen all along is the White House has sort of ratcheted things up. They were more involved in the Senate negotiations behind closed doors, Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff at the White House. It will eventually go to a conference committee. I think you will see the White House come out.
It's not been in the president's best interests politically for him to come out and say I'm for this kind of public option, but I'm not for this, because they don't want him out there for something that's not going to pass. So they have been very happy to let Congress come up with the art of the doable.
BROWN: All right, Candy, Roland, and Kevin, appreciate it. As always, thanks, guys.
When we come back, some doctors say the H1N1 virus will hit its peak next week. So, will the vaccine come too late? And from the Women's Conference here in California, Maria Shriver tells me why President Obama and other leaders need to listen up and start taking women's concerns more seriously.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHRIVER: This is an economic issue, smart economics, smart politics. And I think the political figure, be it a man or a woman, who gets this right will get the country right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The government has known about H1N1 for months. So, where is the vaccine? We're going to get to that in a moment.
(NEWS BREAK)
BROWN: The pilots who took passengers 150 miles past the airport may not have been asleep after all, but their excuse might cause a lot of you to lose sleep, and it could cost the pilots their jobs -- when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Every time you get on an airplane, you put your life in the hands of the pilots. One hundred forty-seven people did that last week when they got on a Northwest Airlines flight in San Diego headed for Minneapolis-St. Paul. Tonight we know why the pilots overshot their destination by 150 miles. They were distracted by their laptop computers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Northwest pilots tell NTSB investigators they did not fall asleep or doze. They just had a 19- hour layover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Instead of reviewing landing checklists and answering air traffic instructions, Captain Timothy Cheney and First Officer Richard Cole had their headsets off and their noses buried in laptop computers, a violation of airline policy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They say they lost track of time and only became aware they've flown past their destination when a flight attendant called them about five minutes before their scheduled landing.
BARBARA LOGAN: I just called them and said when are we leaving.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know something was wrong or unusual?
LOGAN: Not -- not at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: So were the passengers in danger and should the pilots be fired? Well, joining me right now, we've got retired commercial pilot Jim Tilmon with us.
And, Jim, you know, as we just heard, the pilots are saying they were on their laptops during the hour when they overflew the airport. Most of us who fly think it's pretty outrageous, pretty frightening. Explain to us how something like this happens.
JIM TILMON, RETIRED COMMERCIAL PILOT: I don't have any explanation for it. I've never heard of anybody doing anything quite like this. Pulling out private laptops or any other top at a time when you're sitting in the cockpit flying passengers around is just absolutely outrageous.
BROWN: The pilots say they didn't hear air traffic control. They ignored their company's text messages. So this wasn't a brief distraction. I mean, they were totally checked out pretty much.
Is there explanation even plausible to you? I mean, wouldn't they have to be totally off headsets to not hear everybody trying to reach them?
TILMON: They wouldn't have to be totally off headsets when you said that, it really got my attention. The idea that they took their headsets off means they really were disconnecting from the reality of where they were. Their first situational awareness went away as soon as they decided to do that sort of thing.
BROWN: So what do you think, Jim? I mean, military jets were scrambled here. This could have ended incredibly badly. Should these guys be fired?
TILMON: That's above my pay grade, and I'm not really the guy to ask because if you do I'm going to say yes. I wouldn't want to -- I wouldn't want to be the executive that made sure these guys were on the next flight when somebody from Northwest got ready to go to Minneapolis.
BROWN: You know, we're hearing about this case because they missed the mark by such a long shot. But is it common practice or maybe not common but does it happen that the pilots are doing things other than flying when they're in the cockpit, whether they're napping or chatting or whatever?
TILMON: That sort of thing, yes, it does happen. It happened through the decades, all the way back from the Wright brothers, I guess. The thing is is that, you know, it's one thing to have just a conversation that's going on that maybe is appropriate or not so. But to make the conscious decision to whip out your laptop, take off your headsets and completely disregard anything that's going on on the radio, that's unreal, absolutely.
BROWN: Is auto pilot actually making it more likely that pilots can check out like this while they're in the air, do you think? TILMON: Well, yes, but we rely much too heavily on the auto pilot. It is just that. It's an auto pilot. It's a machine, just a computer. It does all those fancy things. It does not live and breathe and it doesn't think and it's not watching the clock.
So, I mean, the idea of just using the auto pilot and saying well, we'll be just fine, because that's taking care of us, not good enough for me. That's why we still have pilots in the cockpit rather than having the entire cockpit automated. That's basically flying drones in the military all the time.
I mean, you know, it's possible to do. Not on my flight. I don't want to be that way on my next flight with anybody's airline.
BROWN: So, do you think this is an isolated incident or something bigger that we ought to be worried about here?
TILMON: No, it's not something to be worried about here at all. The fact is it's very, very rare as you can tell when you look back through the annals of the history of aviation. And it's something that's going to change the way people think a little bit.
The silver lining is there isn't a pilot flying commercially that's going to do anything like this for a very, very long time. And the whole idea about staying on top of the situation has changed, in the cockpit and on the ground. So, there are a lot of lessons that were learned. Maybe we needed this wakeup call.
BROWN: Jim Tilmon, appreciate your time tonight. Jim, thanks.
TILMON: Thank you.
BROWN: The CDC says flu is widespread in 46 states and across the country. Lines to get the vaccine are getting even longer. We knew H1N1 was coming. Why aren't we ready? That when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: President Obama has declared the H1N1 flu a national emergency, and that will help hospitals and health care workers cut through a lot of the red tape in providing treatment. But the government still faces a vaccine shortage and the lines of people wanting shots just keep getting longer. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": National emergency. Those are words sure to get your attention. And here's why President Obama made that declaration to deal with the swine flu outbreak.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So far in the U.S., 46 states have reported widespread flu activity, something the CDC calls extremely unusual for this time of year.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the same scene playing out at locations across the country this weekend. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of people, waiting in line for the H1N1 vaccine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been in line for five hours today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We thought it was the end. It goes all the way around the parking lot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are only 11 million doses available, far short of the 40 million expected by this time.
KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: As Tom Frieden, the Centers for Disease Control head has reminded us, even if you yell at an egg, it won't grow the virus any faster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Just how real an emergency are we dealing with. Well, Dr. Fauci is joining me. He is, of course, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Fauci, appreciate your time as always. If you can, just explain to us what the practical meaning of the president declaring swine flu a national emergency is. What does it really mean?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, INST. OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, it really means that a lot of the bureaucratic potential roadblocks and the red tape that get in the way of efficiently and quickly getting to patients and treating them in hospitals and in emergency rooms essentially can be waived. What it is is saying that we're going to make things easier for people when they come in for care. We can get hospitals to get auxiliary facilities, set them up without the usual bureaucratic red tape, get privacy issues, get Medicare and Medicaid issues to put aside some of the bureaucratic aspects essentially make taking care of the patients more efficient. So it was a very good idea what the president did, I think.
BROWN: And, Dr. Fauci, I know you know, the big concern right now is why more vaccine isn't available. As you know, the CDC said there were going to be 40 million doses by the end of October, but only about a quarter of that is available so far. Why the delay? What's going on?
FAUCI: Well, the delay is that the way one makes influenza vaccine, as you said in the piece there, was to grow it in eggs, then purify it, inactivate it, and get to the point where it's in a vaccine form. The difficulty is that different influenza viruses grow with different degrees of speed. This one unfortunately for us, have to us, we, the society has to be and is unfortunately, a slow grower.
So we expected a certain amount of doses and now we have a gap of supply and demand that's obviously frustrating to everyone. That's the bad news. I think somewhat future hopefully comforting news is that over the next couple of weeks as we get into November, we're expecting that we'll have 10 million doses a week for the next few weeks. So what we want to see and I think we will see is a narrowing of that gap of supply and demand, which we have now, which is causing so much frustration for people. BROWN: So with so much pressure right now on these companies that are making the vaccine to churn it out and churn it out quickly, are you confident that the necessary precautions are being taken, that they are taking the time to make sure that they get this right?
FAUCI: I feel confident of that. It's not the company's fault that the virus is growing slowly and there's no way they're going to be cutting corners to get there, because you have the finished product. It's got to go through FDA inspection. The lots have got to be looked at. There's no corners that are going to be cut on this.
And, by the way, this is the way we made vaccine every year for seasonal flu. So it's a time honored process. So the vaccine that we're having this year in many ways is very similar in how you make it. In fact, identical to what we've been doing over decades and decades of seasonal flu. So it's a process we're very familiar with. I don't think we're going to see, in fact, I know we're not going to see any cutting corners.
BROWN: So let me just have you address some of the other, I think, sources of confusion out there. We just saw the scenes, the long lines. I'll put the pictures up, thousands of people turned away. There's even this case in West Virginia where a desperate woman stole a vial of the vaccine.
So, on the one hand, you have people who are just desperate to get their hands on it. On the other hand, a Purdue University study says that they believe the virus is going to actually hit its peak by the end of this week and that the push now to vaccinate people is actually going to be too late by the time the virus is available. I mean, what should people take away from this, that they should just wait it out, get vaccinated whenever it becomes available or what?
FAUCI: Well, with all due respect, Campbell, anybody that says that they know what the virus is going to do when they say it's going to peak and go down or not, doesn't know influenza. These are unpredictable. We must assume that this virus is going to be around right through the mid late fall and into the winter.
We certainly see an escalation like that. We don't know whether it's going to come down or not. And in fact, as we get into colder weather and people congregating indoors, it's likely that we might have a peak down and then have another wave, or it might not ever come down. Influenzas are notoriously unpredictable, so I don't think anybody can say that well, we're not going to need vaccine in the next week or two because it will already peak. That's based on no reality.
BROWN: Well, Dr. Fauci, always appreciate you coming on and helping us clarify some of the stuff. I'm sure we're going to be having you on again before all this is over. Appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.
FAUCI: Any time, Campbell, thanks.
BROWN: When we come back, tonight's "Newsmaker," Maria Shriver, California's first lady. She is not sitting on the sidelines while her husband runs the state. We're going to talk to her about critical issues that she finds women all over the country are still facing, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Welcome back, everybody. Tonight's "Newsmaker" is California Fist Lady Maria Shriver. After an emotional year for her family, she is now able to focus on the future of women, hosting as she does every year, The Women's Conference.
Thousands of prominent and interesting women, as well as a few men, gather with the hope of transforming women's lives. And I sat down with Maria Shriver this afternoon. We began by talking about just how she hopes to achieve what is a pretty lofty goal. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARIA SHRIVER, CALIFORNIA FIRST LADY: Well, I'm trying to get women of all walks of life to see themselves as capable of being architects of change. I think so often we think someone else is going to change the world for us, someone else is going to run for office, someone else is going to change the company. And I really try to encourage women that they have their own voices and that they can be who they think someone else is.
And so I try to really mix up the lineup. You get people here that, you know, you would never expect to be in the same place at the same time because I'm really a strong believer that women have multiple voices. We don't speak with one voice. We don't look the same. We come from different backgrounds and we've made very different decisions that I'm trying to honor as many of them as possible.
BROWN: Let me mention some of the panels that you have here. You put together an interesting mix of people, I think. One, for example, Cindy and Meghan McCain are together with race car driver Danica Patrick and her father, talking about how to raise strong kids. I mean, is that kind of the goal, I guess, in turning out strong, powerful women? It's parenting and what goes in to it.
SHRIVER: Well, I think parenting is incredibly important. I have four kids and I look at it as the most important job in my life. And I've made decisions in my career to try to support that. And I think we all struggle with how do you give a kid self-esteem.
I know for me it's a daily struggle. What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? So I'm interested in parents and their journeys with their kids.
BROWN: Another one that struck me is this focus on grief and resilience. And you're going to have a panel with Elizabeth Edwards, Susan St. James and Patrick Swayze's widow speaking out publicly for the first time. And usually, I think, or maybe traditionally people have sort of hidden, you know, during times of grief.
SHRIVER: Right.
BROWN: And you believe very much that this is something we should be talking about.
SHRIVER: Well, it's that one grief specialist, kind of one of the most well-known guys and he said to me, we are a grief-illiterate nation. And just the fact that you're having that conversation is somewhat groundbreaking. And I think people don't know what to say to people when someone dies. They don't really know how they themselves should handle loss. It's really confusing.
And the first book I ever wrote was about grief. I called it "What's Heaven" and it was for children. But it really came from my own experience, having experienced traumatic loss in my own life growing up and not knowing how to deal with it because nobody talked about it.
Now, as a kid you walk around going, wow, somebody just died and we're throwing a football. Isn't this weird? And no one validates that. So I'm a big believer that if you can validate something, it gives people permission to talk about it.
So those women, three of them are, I think, very courageous to have the conversation. It's not easy. And I myself am in the midst of it myself, having just lost my mother and my uncle. So I'm actually nervous about getting through it.
BROWN: Well, I was going to ask...
SHRIVER: Yes.
BROWN: ... it's not been an easy year for you.
SHRIVER: No.
BROWN: And you are taking this on in the middle of that.
SHRIVER: Yes.
BROWN: How are you doing? How's the family?
SHRIVER: Well, you know, I kind of try to say to myself, I actually take it hour by hour. I'm looking to stay an hour ahead of myself.
I'm one of those people who's practicing denial just to get through this conference and I know it. And, you know, I sat in my bed last night and wept. You know -- I mean, you know, that's the truth. So I say to myself, OK, I've got to get through the next two days and then I don't know, I have to go home and pack up my parents' house. And, you know, it's life but you don't know, like is this OK for me to be feeling this way? Does anybody else feel it? Should I be working? Should I not be working? Should I be throwing myself in 20 hours a day?
So, you know, I think grief is one of those things that we don't know how to talk about. We don't know how to process, and sometimes you feel silly that you can't pull it together. And I say in the little speech, you know, people say to you, go ahead, fall apart. Are you done yet? You know, they say, go ahead, you can cry. You've got to be strong.
It's very conflicting messages about grief. And I think when everybody who's ever lost their mother has come up to me and said, you know, you really as a woman I think see your life, you know, while your mother's alive and then you're a very different woman after you lose your mother. And so I'm in the process of trying to find out who that is.
BROWN: You gather all of these women here, as this is happening. You also just released a pretty groundbreaking study, updating something that was started in the 1950s that talks about the transformation of women over these last many decades. Some good news, some bad news...
SHRIVER: Right.
BROWN: ... if you look at it. What was the most striking to you of everything in that research?
SHRIVER: Well, a lot of things were really striking to me. One, that we still don't get paid what men get paid. I think what's striking about this "women's movement" is that men want to be a part of it. I think that really --
BROWN: And they're not really.
SHRIVER: Well, there -- well, I think men have certainly felt left out of it. I think, you know, they're constantly -- I have four brothers. And they always say to me, you know, the women are taking over everything. What about the poor men? They always say to me, a lot of the time, you know, there's all these women's groups but we men don't know what they're talking about at the women's group.
So you have this women's conference. We don't know what's going on in there. And so I've actually tried to get a lot of men to speak here. I've even told people to bring the men in their lives because I think the more we can communicate together, our children benefit from it. Our businesses benefit. All the businesses that we looked at in the report that had men and women as colleague seminars did better.
BROWN: You are having some key people from the Obama administration here as well. I know. What role should government take on in all of this?
SHRIVER: Well, government is the biggest employer in the nation and they can become a model employer. President Obama is the biggest CEO. And I think he can, by talking about it, I think using the bully pulpit is really important by talking about the negotiations he had in his own home when he was less financially secure. I think people can identify with that.
I think the more the government can talk about paid family leave and flexible hours and job sharing and be the model employer, businesses will come around. Because it's not really up to just government, it has to be up to businesses, faith-based institutions, educational institutions and, you know, after-school programs.
I think everybody has to come to a seat at the table. I think the president can hold kitchen table conversations in the White House. He can shine a light that this is an economic issue, smart economics, smart politics. And I think the political figure be it a man or a woman who gets this right will get the country right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: California's first lady, Maria Shriver. And you can see a whole lot more of our conversation at CNN.com/Campbell. Just part of the new and improved CNN.com.
"LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes. His guests include Sherri Shepherd from "The View".
And coming up next, tonight's "Guilty Pleasure," the video we just can't resist. A thrilling worldwide tribute to the "King of Pop" when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: "LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few moments. But first, Mike Galanos has tonight's "Guilty Pleasure," the video we just couldn't resist.
Mike, what have you got?
MIKE GALANOS, HLN PRIME NEWS: You know, a lot of people can't wait for "This is It." It's upon us, Campbell, some probably already count down the hours.
Now, Sony says it's all Michael in the movie. They're blasting tabloid reports that body doubles were used. And to honor this, folks from around the world. We see this is some of the footage that you'll see in the movie "This is It."
Well, there are portions (ph) around the world dancers trying to break the record for the largest number of people simultaneously doing the "Thriller" dance simultaneously. Huge numbers here. An estimated 20,000 dancers -- locations -- 200 location around the world. We're seeing six of the locations right now.
Now, the old record for this, about 13,000 dancers, Mexico City back in August. Again, they're estimating over 20,000 for this event.
I was watching -- I was watching one in Massachusetts, Campbell, and they had someone barking out the signals. Right, left, shoulder shake, booty shake, the whole bit. I thought you just go out there and dance. These folks take it serious.
BROWN: Who knew? People have way too much time on their hands.
GALANOS: That's a good point. That's a good point. But entertaining (ph), nonetheless.
BROWN: Perhaps.
GALANOS: Are you going to go, Campbell?
BROWN: All right, Mike. I think probably not.
GALANOS: OK.
BROWN: It's not really my thing.
GALANOS: Got you.
BROWN: But, you know --
GALANOS: OK.
BROWN: But you can tell me all about it.
GALANOS: I will. I'm going.
BROWN: All right. Mike, we will see you, same time tomorrow night. We'll see you same time tomorrow night.
We're going to be talking tomorrow with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Olympic gold medalist Dara Torres. All here at The Women's Conference.
Thanks for watching. "LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
