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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
CDC Data Shows Americans Are Missing Their Second Vaccine Dose; Russian Prosecutor Suspends Navalny Group; Tensions Escalate As Israel Struggles To Form Government. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired April 26, 2021 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning. It is Monday. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. About 31 minutes past the hour here in New York.
Do not skip your second vaccine dose. The CDC now says eight percent of Americans have missed their second shot. That's up from just over three percent in March.
Now, getting an accurate picture of what's happening here is tough because states have to gather data from mass vaccination sites, retail pharmacies, and various other places. But whatever is behind this drop-off in second doses, health experts say we need to reverse course, and soon.
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ANDY SLAVITT, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR COVID RESPONSE: If you've gotten your first dose it's really important that you get your second dose.
I think some people are getting a little bit frightened by some of the talk and, quite frankly, some of the misinformation that's on sites like Facebook about side effects and things of that nature. And I think if you talk to most people who've gotten their second shot the side effects are quite mild and also quite temporary in the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of cases.
The key to getting back to life that we used to know is vaccination. And, so far, we have more than half of adults American -- half of adult Americans that have done their vaccine shots. That's great but that also means that we have near half of Americans that still haven't done that yet.
So I think we're increasingly going to see a world where people who have been vaccinated are going to enjoy a lot of freedoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Meantime, the average case count finally leveling off again, falling back below 60,000 for the first time in a month. One expert thinks the dip could be here to stay.
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SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: I think whereas the past trends only showed cases start to decline, we were somewhat skeptical because we knew a lot of those declines were a result of behavioral changes -- people pulling back more and taking more precautions. And then as soon as we sort of let our guard down we saw cases surge again.
Right now, the declines that we're seeing we can take to the bank. I think we could feel more assured because they're being driven by vaccinations and greater levels of population-wide immunity -- not just from vaccination but also from prior infection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: And the sooner everyone gets vaccinated the sooner we can return to things like this. Look at this -- 50,000 people at a concert in New Zealand. All the more reason to get that single-dose vaccine back on the market.
EARLY START is covering the pandemic coast-to-coast.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Polo Sandoval in New York, one of many states that are once again offering Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine. This coming after federal health officials issued the green light to resume administering it after a temporary pause.
Here in New York, officials saying that the one-shot vaccine will be used for pop-up and homebound vaccination programs, among others.
Indiana also among the states recommending Johnson & Johnson's vaccine be offered again, including at a mass vaccination effort in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That taking place over the weekend.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Alexandra Field in New York.
The city taking extra steps now to expand vaccine access. Mayor Bill de Blasio announcing that city-run sites will now accept walk-ins -- no appointments necessary. He's encouraging sites that are not run by the city to do the same thing -- encourage people to walk in to try to get a vaccine.
He's also said the city sites will drop their geographic restrictions, meaning you don't need to live in a specific part of the city in order to qualify for a vaccine at specific city sites.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Pete Muntean in Washington.
The Smithsonian says some of its museums will reopen starting next month. Three museums, including the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center, will reopen on May fifth. Another three, including the National Portrait Gallery on May 14th. And the National Zoo, including its new baby panda cub, on May 21st.
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It has been a rocky reopening for the nation's museums. They first closed for the pandemic last March, reopened again the following July, and then closed again in November.
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ROMANS: All right.
The CDC is expected to offer new guidance this week on wearing masks outdoors, particularly for Americans who are fully vaccinated. Dr. Anthony Fauci tells CNN he believes this new guidance will come in the next few days or so. And there will be new advice for the unvaccinated as well. Dr. Fauci also says it is now clear the risk of infection outdoors is extremely low.
JARRETT: Some unsolicited dating advice this Monday morning. If you're planning on staging a violent insurrection to overthrow democracy, your future girlfriend is not going to be impressed.
One week after the riot at the U.S. Capitol, Robert Chapman of Carmel, New York, told his match on the dating app Bumble that he made it all the way into Statuary Hall and was even interviewed by the media afterward.
The user replied, quote, "We are not a match." She then went a step further, sending screenshots of their chat to the FBI.
Chapman has now been arrested and charged with four misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
ROMANS: So fake revolutionaries don't get the girl in the end is what we just learned from that story.
JARRETT: At least not in that case.
ROMANS: Not in that case.
All right, warmer weather, vaccinations, lifted dining restrictions all good news for restaurants looking for new business. The challenge -- well, the customers are coming back, but the workers not so much. Restaurants and bars added back about 176,000 jobs in March but the sector is still down 15 percent or 1.8 million jobs from pre-pandemic levels.
Fast-food chains are offering incentives. They're giving money to get employees back. McDonald's owners are reevaluating the kinds of benefits employees want. Taco Bell is giving its store managers paid family leave. Chipotle is giving some of its employees free college tuition.
There are other challenges, including consumers -- the customers themselves. Restaurant managers are dealing with customers refusing to wear masks, customers not adhering to social distancing guidelines, customers seating themselves in closed-off areas -- all conditions, they say, creating an unsafe work environment for employees.
At the same time, many workers are looking to leave the industry completely for better-paying jobs in tech or finance.
I mean, some of these stories that these restaurant managers are saying about customers coming in -- they've been pent up for a year. They want things to be exactly back to normal. And not exactly very nice about the service they're getting.
JARRETT: Well, I think that's why people find it so baffling to have to wear a mask outside when you're separated from people. But when you come inside --
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: -- a restaurant and you rip it off, then you put everyone at risk.
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: That's -- it's really confounding.
ROMANS: Seating in the closed areas --
JARRETT: Yes.
ROMANS: -- I find really bold.
JARRETT: All right.
Russian courts dealing the latest blow to Alexey Navalny. Stay with us.
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JARRETT: A possible timetable for a meeting between President Biden and President Putin. Meantime this morning, Russian courts taking aim at opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
Our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is outside a court building in Moscow. Fred, what's the latest there. What are the -- what are the courts actually saying about Navalny?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're moving, actually, pretty quickly, Laura. And one of the big blows that Navalny's organization got just a couple of minutes ago is the prosecutor here has suspended operations of Navalny's headquarters throughout the entire country of Russia while this trial here is going on.
And this trial here can't be overstated. It is extremely dangerous for the Navalny organization and also for this anti-corruption foundation as well because one of the things that could be decided here is that his organization could be labeled an extremist organization here in Russia. That means that they would have the same legal status -- get this -- as ISIS here in Russia.
That means anybody who does any sort of work for them could end up in jail. Anybody who retweets anything from the organization would end up in jail as well.
The interesting thing about this trial is that the whole trial is actually going on in secret. I spoke to one of the lawyers who is representing Navalny's organization here and they said they just got a bunch of documents early today. That's the non-secret part. There's a lot of secret documents that they haven't actually seen yet.
And then at the end of this trial, again, Alexey Navalny's organization could be labeled an extremist organization here in Russia. That would certainly mean that many of the people working for that organization would either have to stop working or possibly even leave the country. Again, big jail sentences could emerge from that.
So certainly, a big blow already as the headquarters has already been ordered to stop working. But if, indeed, Alexey Navalny's organization is labeled extremist here in Russia, that would essentially mean -- that's one of the -- in the words of one of Navalny's allies here in Russia, that fighting corruption here in this country will be labeled as extremist activity -- Laura.
JARRETT: Fred, just quickly, how are you getting the information if this is being done in secret?
PLEITGEN: Well, some of the information -- we're getting a little bit of information -- not as much as we actually like to get. So essentially, what's going on is that the lawyers are going in there -- they're going into the hearings and then they're coming out and they can tell us certain things.
Like, for instance, one of the lawyers told us that he got a bunch of documents. He showed us the stash of documents. He then said that he was going to have to go into another part of this court complex to actually be able to look at the secret documents. And those documents -- obviously, the lawyers are not going to be able to take out of this court.
But the entire trial here is completely closed to any sort of press. There's no real records from the trial either. And the lawyers can only talk about certain things. So it is a very secretive proceeding.
JARRETT: Yes.
PLEITGEN: Even though some of the information is secret, some of it is not secret, Laura.
JARRETT: All right, Fred. Thank you so much for being there for us.
ROMANS: All right, to the Middle East now where tensions are rising again, posturing on all sides as Israel remains in limbo trying to form a government after four -- count them -- four elections.
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CNN's Hadas Gold is live in Jerusalem. A wild couple of days, Hadas.
HADAS GOLD, CNN EUROPEAN POLITICS MEDIA AND BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes, it has been a wild couple of days.
I'm actually standing just outside of the Damascus Gate. This is the main entrance for Muslim worshippers as they enter the Old City.
And it's calm here right now, but that's not been the case over the past few days as clashes have broken out between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police. Protesters angry at barricades that were erected in this plaza that prevented people from gathering, which is a popular thing to do right now during Ramadan. Those clashes did get violence with things thrown by the protesters. The police responding with rubber bullets and stun grenades.
But last night, those barricades were taken down to cheers by the Palestinian protesters. It's part of an effort by authorities to try and calm the situation as tensions have been rising in Jerusalem over the past few days -- not only because of the situation here in front of Damascus Gate, also because of incidents of violence between Palestinians and -- incidents of violence between Palestinians and Israelis, and a march by Jewish extremists last week. At one point they were chanting "Death to Arabs."
Those tensions have actually traveled further south where militants in Gaza have shot more than 40 rockets into Israel over the past three days. Israel has responded with airstrikes. And now, they've also closed off the fishing zone around Gaza.
But again, now that these barricades have come down in the plaza there are hopes here by the authorities that it will calm the tensions down because it's been pretty calm in Jerusalem for the past few years and these last few days it's seen some of the highest levels of tensions the city has seen in some time -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right, Hadas Gold for us in Jerusalem. Thank you for that -- Laura.
JARRETT: All right.
The wreckage of an Indonesian Navy sub missing for nearly a week has been found on the ocean floor. All 53 crew members are now confirmed dead.
The grim news comes one day after debris was found floating about two miles from the submarine's last known location in the Bali Strait. The vessel was broken into three parts at a place where the water is 930 yards deep. Indonesian officials have ruled out human error.
ROMANS: All right.
Looking at markets around the world to start the trading week, you have Asian shares closed mixed. Europe opening mixed here. Stock index futures on Wall Street at this hour to start our trading week with a lot of news expected, also mixed here.
Look, it's a busy week. Tesla will kick off earnings week. Big tech stocks have soared over the past year. Wall Street will be focused on what top executives say about the future.
Investors will hear from Fed chief Jerome Powell Wednesday. He has repeatedly tried to calm those concerns about inflation as the economy recovers. Just how much inflation the Fed will allow, a big question for Wall Street.
President Biden will address a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, ahead of the first-quarter GDP report on Thursday morning. The forecast there -- wow -- 6.3 percent, up from 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
Tech earnings will be probably crazy good, but diapers are driving low-income families to the edge. Talk about a tale of two economies. Prices of disposable diapers rose 8.7 percent over the year and diaper makers have said more increases are coming to deal with higher costs.
Data shows diapers take up almost eight percent of a minimum wage worker's budget -- eight percent. And the burden of higher prices is felt most by women. Women are most likely to be single parents working lower-wage jobs. They're also more likely to have lost a job or had their hours reduced to take care of kids at home.
We'll be right back.
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JARRETT: This morning, a manhunt is intensifying in New York City after six attacks on four Bronx synagogues since Friday.
Evan McMorris-Santoro has the very latest on this.
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EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Christine and Laura, a disturbing story out of the Bronx this weekend. Authorities say four synagogues were hit with rocks in what they say could be related hate crimes. The attacks all took place late at night and early in the morning and so, fortunately, no one was hurt.
Authorities released this image captured by one synagogue's security camera on Saturday night around 11:00 p.m. They say this picture shows the suspect in the crimes. The incidents have drawn swift condemnation from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Jewish groups throughout the city. Obviously, it now has people on edge.
There were six separate attacks and four of them are currently being investigated as hate crimes. But the New York City Police Department says that number could rise as the investigation continues -- Christine and Laura.
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ROMANS: All right, Evan. Thank you for that.
Maryland officials will review all of the cases handled by the state's former chief medical examiner after he testified that Derek Chauvin was not responsible for the death of George Floyd. Dr. David Fowler was a key defense witness who testified Floyd died of a sudden cardiac event.
His testimony alarmed Washington, D.C.'s former chief medical examiner who wrote an open letter calling for investigations into Fowler's medical license. More than 400 doctors have signed that letter.
JARRETT: This is not what you'd get at your average deli. Border agents in Texas uncovering more than $4 million worth of drugs disguised as what they call funky pickles. Officials say they found more than 200 pounds of suspected meth earlier this month hidden in a tractor-trailer hauling fresh cucumber pickles. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating.
ROMANS: Japan is trying to accelerate its sluggish vaccine rollout in a desperate attempt to save the summer Olympics. The government plans to inoculate up to 10,000 per day in Tokyo and Osako. About 11 million people live in those cities combined. Doctors and nurses from the armed forces will be deployed to temporary facilities.
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The games are scheduled to begin in less than three months.
JARRETT: Diamondbacks pitcher Madison Bumgarner throws a no-hitter against the Braves but it won't count in the record books.
Coy Wire has this morning's Bleacher Report. All right, Coy, where do you come down on this?
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (via Cisco Webex): Yes, I know, Laura, right? Let the debate begin. If a pitcher doesn't allow a hit in a seven-inning game as part of a doubleheader, does it count as a no-hitter? The question has never come up before last night.
Madison Bumgarner allowed no hits in the second game of a doubleheader in Atlanta. All doubleheader games this season are being shortened to seven innings due to COVID-19, but there's a catch. Major League Baseball ruled in 1991 that no-hitters in games shorter than nine innings or broken up in extra innings would not be considered official.
The Diamondbacks say it still counts in their book. Just read the fine print, though, in their tweet -- real tiny above "No No", in parenthesis, it says "unofficial."
Meantime, it ain't over until it's over. Just ask the San Diego Padres. They were down seven to one to the Dodgers after six innings but rallied all the way back to tie the game in the ninth. It took until the 11th inning for the Padres to complete the epic comeback, scoring the winning run on Eric Hosmer's sacrifice fly.
To put this in perspective, Laura and Christine, before this game, teams trailing by six or more runs entering the seventh inning had won less than one percent of the games over the last half-century.
All right, a scary moment during the NASCAR race at Talladega. Joey Logano goes sideways, then airborne. L
Logano's car barreling toward Bubba Wallace there in the number 23 car, but goes right over the top. You'll see it coming right at you there. Wallace's car had some minor damage to the roof. More importantly, Logano was able to walk away from the wreck unhurt.
After 21 seasons at Baylor, Hall of Fame women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey is leaving for LSU. Mulkey won three national championships with the Bears, the third-most as a coach in women's NCAA history. Mulkey was announced as a member of the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame Class and is set to be inducted next month.
Finally, yesterday was a very good day to be Kevin Durant. The Nets superstar returned after missing three games with a leg injury and scored 33 points in a win over the Suns.
So what could be better than that? How about winning an Oscar. The movie he co-executive produced with NBA all-star Mike Conley called "Two Distant Strangers" won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Durant and Conley joined Kobe Bryant as the only NBA players to win an Oscar, Christine. Bryant won Best Animated Film back in 2018.
ROMANS: Yes, "Dear Basketball."
All right, nice to see you. Thank you, Coy.
WIRE: You, too.
ROMANS: Elon Musk's next moon shot, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE." Twitter had a field day with the news. The SpaceX and Tesla billionaire will host May eighth.
"SNL" has gone off the beaten path before but Musk has faced real criticism for treatment of employees. Yesterday, he joked about people dying in his mission to put a man on Mars.
Even some reaction from inside "SNL." Aidy Bryant reposting a tweet by Bernie Sanders. "The 50 wealthiest people in America today own more wealth than the bottom half of our people." Musk, of course, one of those 50, Laura.
JARRETT: Meanwhile, on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter has successfully completed its third flight, and NASA calls it the fastest, farthest, and boldest flight so far. In fact, Ingenuity exceeded the speeds and distances achieved during testing on earth, flying for about 80 seconds for a total distance of 330 feet.
It's been a big week for the space program. The Perseverance Mars rover extracted the first oxygen samples from Mars. And, of course, the SpaceX Crew 2 docked with the International Space Station this weekend.
ROMANS: Out of this world in the space news department.
JARRETT: Very cool.
ROMANS: Thanks for joining us this Monday morning. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman alongside Brianna Keilar on this new day.
States may be banning vaccine passports but Europe is granting them. A turning point this morning after a year in lockdown.
Plus, hospitals are buckling. Crematoriums overwhelmed as coronavirus explodes in India. We'll take you there.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And just hours from now, the family of a Black man shot and killed by police may see the bodycam video for the first time.
And he's done more defending than Dikembe Mutombo. Why Kevin McCarthy is once again revising history on the insurrection that targeted his workplace.
BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, and Dikembe Mutombo.
KEILAR: That's right.
BERMAN: Well done.
