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New Day

Millions of Americans are Skipping Second Doses, Worrying Experts; Demand Intensifies for Release of Body Cam Video in Shooting Death; Hospitals Buckle, Oxygen Runs Out, Crematoriums Overwhelmed. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 26, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Brianna, coming to you from a rather Oracle Park as the San Francisco Giants take on the Florida Marlins.

[07:00:07]

And team officials hope that eventually you'll start getting more people in the stands, (INAUDIBLE) what are called vaccinated-only stands. It's happening for the first time in Oracle Park, the Dodgers and Padres doing it as well.

And what is a vaccinated-only stand? It's basically what it sounds like. It's people who have been vaccinated. They'll have to show their vaccination card, had their last dose 14 days ago.

And although this is so new, there is, really, nobody in this section tonight, but there's this hope that eventually they will catch up.

What do you think about the idea?

JULIE BENNETT, USHER FOR VACCINATED SECTION: I love the idea. I think it makes me feel safe and I think the people here feel safe because people, they can actually sit together and they don't have to socially distance if they're vaccinated.

SIMON: If you did have people coming to sit in the section, what would they have to do?

BENNETT: So they need to have proof of their vaccination, or tops to be before two weeks from today. And so they have to be fully vaccinated two weeks ago. And then I give them a wristband and they were a wristband during the game, and then they don't have to show their vaccination card again.

SIMON: But they showed it on the way too?

BENNETT: They did show it on the way in, but some people have just been tested and not vaccinated. So you can come in either way, but in this section, it's vaccination-only.

SIMON: So that you'll have to see the card a second time?

BENNETT: See the card, yes, so they'll have to show it again to come sit in this section.

GARY WILLIAMS, GIANTS FAN: Well, literally, I just wanted one ticket for the game. And it was the vaccinated areas that allowed one ticket instead of two or four. So, that was it. It feels good getting back to normal. So if that's what it means, what we have to do is do vaccinated little spots, and I'm all for it.

SIMON: Now, the thing about the vaccinated-only zone is you don't have to socially distance, everybody can be together, but you do need to still wear the mask. And you can see this kind of thing eventually taking off at rock concert, at other sporting events, really where you have a lot of people. But one thing it also does is it gives people a peace of mind, knowing that everybody you're around has also been vaccinated.

Brianna, John, we'll send it back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this New Day.

Skipping their shot, more Americans are actually missing out on their second coronavirus vaccine dose, worrying top health officials.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Plus, the family of an unarmed black man shot and killed by sheriff's deputies in North Carolina demanding answers and the release of body cam video.

KEILAR: A Trump supporter threatening to slaughter top Democrats after the Capitol riot is now accused of pushing neo-Nazi beliefs, the shocking evidence revealed in court.

BERMAN: And the rise of Ron DeSantis, how Florida's Republican governor is becoming a driving force in the GOP.

KEILAR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Monday, April 26th. How time flies.

And the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is going back into arms today. It's going to have a new warning label though, the CDC and FDA lifting their pause on Friday after reports of rare blood clots. There are now 15 clotting cases all in women, 13 of them aged 50 or younger. The Johnson & Johnson delay likely contributed to the total number of people who got vaccinated last week. CDC data shows the average pace of new daily shots is now below 3 million after peaking two weeks ago.

BERMAN: There's also this alarming new statistic that threatens to upend the nation's goal for herd immunity. About 8 percent of Americans who got their first shot missed their scheduled second shot. Now, that rate has more than doubled from a month ago. Medical experts are concerned that half vaccinated Americans may not be as well protected against the new variants of the virus.

Let's bring in CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, this is not great news. People need to get that second shot. These vaccines were designed to be two-dose vaccines, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. You get the best protection with the two shots.

So let's take a look at these numbers. The good news is that more than one in four Americans has been vaccinated and the vast majority of that has been with Moderna and Pfizer. So that's terrific. But the bad news, 8 percent of Americans are not getting that second shot and the CDC thinks that vaccine availability or vaccine hesitancy could be the reason.

Now, the other reasons could be is that people are confused. There's so much talk about one versus to doses. People might be confused, or it could be that people are tired of all this and say, I got my shot, I'm done, it could be that people have tried to avoid some of the very, very short-lived symptoms that can come with the second shot. Whatever it is, that second shot is so important, you're almost there, keep going and finish the job.

[07:05:04]

Brianna and John?

KEILAR: So we're talking about this reluctance to get the second dose, but Dr. Anthony Fauci was asked by our Jim Acosta this weekend about possibly needing another potential dose later this year. We're talking about a third dose. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You shouldn't make it a reflection of whether or not the vaccine that you already took is effective or not. It's highly effective. We're trying to figure out how long that durability of protection lasts. We know it goes out at least six months and likely considerably longer.

Likely, it will be a shot and one that you'll need periodically similar to what we do with influenza. We don't know that, but you want to be prepared for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So how likely is that, a third dose?

COHEN: Yes. Brianna, I think it is looking pretty likely we'll need booster doses come say approximately the fall, but I want to say something and I want to be very clear about this. During the pandemic, I think one thing we've learned is not to look too far into the future. Things change so much. Think about what's going on now.

There's a lot of concern that if we talk too much of these boosters, we think too much and ruminate on them, people will say, well, I'm not going to get the shot now because there's a booster coming. That would be terrible. That kind of thinking could kill you. Get vaccinated now. There are three good vaccines out there, take your pick, get vaccinated now, don't worry so much about the booster that may or may not be on its way.

KEILAR: Very good point. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccinations are resuming across the U.S. but now they have a warning label about the potential for extremely blood clots. The unusual side effect seems to most often strike women who are younger than 50 years old.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is live at the vaccination center here in New York. Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna, good morning to you up. Just because many of the sites here in New York are, again, authorized to actually begin administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it doesn't necessarily mean that they actually have them right now, or at least not right now. That is because we're told that's going to take some time, obviously, that ramp the supply back up and send them back up to some of those vaccination locations, including the Javits Center here in Manhattan, actually where I received my Johnson & Johnson vaccine about three weeks ago.

But, honestly, the situation has change since the pause and, obviously, since they've actually unpaused. So this is going to take a while to actually get the supplies back up there.

But, look, New York State, New York City, they are confident in actually offering this vaccine against the general public, saying that the risks or at least the benefits clearly outweigh the risks here. And the main message that they're getting to people throughout the state, especially as we get well over 30 percent of New York State residents vaccinated is get any vaccine that you are actually offer here.

Now that it's actually green-lit, the city does plan to use it for various programs, including pop-up locations, as well as for home- bound seniors, basically offer that vaccine to those individuals that may not be necessarily able to come back for that second dose.

So the city is certainly looking at that as an opportunity there, but they're also, John, as you can imagine, very well aware that there will be some hesitancy and there will be many people that may not necessarily be confident enough right now in that vaccine to ask for that Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

So right now, the city is offering the other two as options because the big message here, get any vaccine that you can at this point.

BERMAN: Polo Sandoval, thank you so much for that.

I want to look a little deeper into the COVID vaccination numbers now, because the fact is new people are still getting the vaccine, but the rate is clearly going down.

Joining me now, CNN Senior Politics Writer and Analyst Harry Enten. And, Harry, you've broken this down into the number of new people getting vaccine every week, which I think is really important way of looking at it.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes, exactly. So take a look here. And this just gives you an idea that fewer and fewer people, new people are getting the vaccine, because the week of April 5th, 13 million people got the vaccine, the week of April 12th, 12 million, this past week, just 8.7 million, so a drop of nearly -- of over 3 million new people getting the vaccine in the last week.

BERMAN: These are people going for their first dose, dropping week to week to week. Why?

ENTEN: One big reason why? Look at this, these two columns, this for the Axios/Ipsos poll, has gotten at least one dose, want to get, vaccine haven't yet gotten but wanted as soon as possible. Look at this. That's in early March. 30 percent wanted vaccine as soon as possible but haven't yet got it. That number has been dropping, 30, 24, 15, 7. Why? Because those people are starting to get the vaccine. They are running out of people who really, really wanted the vaccine but haven't yet been able to got it.

BERMAN: On the right, really interesting to see, only 7 percent left say they want to get the vaccine as soon as possible. So what group do you target at this point here?

ENTEN: So, there are essentially two groups out, that large chunk of population that haven't gotten the vaccine. There are the, won't get one, which is 20 percent, that I call that the vaccine-resistant group, and that's been pretty consistent throughout this year, about 20 percent in 2021.

[07:10:08]

The group that I would really focus in on is the might get one, but not now. That's 18 percent. This is the vaccine-hesitant group. These are the people who are saying, you know what, maybe I'll get one, but I'm not really quite sure if I want to get one. And this is the group that's 18 percent of the population that really should be focusing in on.

BERMAN: Well, what do we know about this group though?

ENTEN: So, here is what we know. Why might not get a vaccine? Well, here are the reasons why. This is according to the Kaiser Family Foundation polling. 74 percent say they are worried about serious side effects. 43 percent say they're afraid of missing work. 36 percent say they might get the COVID-19 from the vaccine, which can't happen. And then there's 28 percent say they can't get a vaccine from a trusted source.

So I would say two things here. Knowledge, knowledge, knowledge is important, get these people informed on what these vaccines actually do. And second, make it as easy as possible for them to get vaccine. If they need to take off work, we should be giving them a chance to take off work. And more than that, put it in their neighborhood pharmacies, put it in the hands of people who they trust because they're more likely to get the vaccine.

BERMAN: I think it's really interesting because this group and this group might be easier to reach, so there is still some opportunity and make some inroads there, which is why this is a really important look. Harry Enten, thank you, as always, for this.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Brianna?

KEILAR: Really a fascinating look there.

Now to protests and many questions over the deadly police shooting of a black man in North Carolina. The family of Andrew Brown Jr. is expected to see the body cam video of the shooting today, yet few details have been released about his death.

The 42-year-old was killed by sheriff's deputies when they tried to serve him with an arrest warrant last Wednesday. He was unarmed. And according to dispatch audio from that day, first responder said a man had gunshot wounds to his back. After the weekend, over the weekend, his family and community leaders called on police to release footage to the public.

I want to talk now with Bishop William Barber, who was with the Brown family this weekend. Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

BISHOP WILLIAM BARBER II, PRESIDENT, REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH: Thank you.

KEILAR: This is an incredibly difficult time, the most difficult time that this family has ever gone through, I'm sure. How are they doing? And do you know if they will definitely be able to see this body cam footage today that they expected to see last week?

BARBER: You know, this is hard. It's hard on the family. It's hard on the community. This is the second questionable police killing I've dealt with in the last three weeks since the Chauvin trial, Donovan Lynch in Virginia, no body camera, and now Andrew Brown, where authorities are not releasing the tapes. As you said, the reports are that he was shot in the back, 42 years old. He's a son, he's a nephew, he's a cousin, seven children, five minor children, a human being with no history of violence. And then on top of that in our country, we've had teenagers shot and killed since our Chauvin Trial.

The family is hurting. And what people are saying is they need accountability. A warrant is not a license to kill, even if the suspect drives away. A warrant does not mean a person is guilty. A warrant is not permission to execute on the scene possibly with assault rifles and multiple times. That's all of the questions.

So what we understand from the counsel is that the family, after all of these days, after over five days of pushing and the sheriff and the D.A. refusing to do it, that hopefully this morning the family and their counsel will get to see the tapes. And what we say is they can handle the truth. What they can't handle is the silence. What they can't handle is the blockade. What they can't handle is the refusal.

KEILAR: Because then people are looking at what they do know without being able to see it, and they're wondering what is on those tapes, and they'll answer those questions themselves. I mean, right now, what we do know is this. We know that he was shot in the back. We know that there were many body cameras worn. Authorities did not find any drugs or weapons, they say, in his car or house, despite the fact that this was related to a felony drug warrant, and that seven deputies, seven, have been placed on leave, two have resigned and one has retired just in the wake of the shooting, and we don't know how many shots were fired.

What is your fear about what we're going to learn from this video?

BARBER: Well, our fear is -- and, first of all, the whole piece about questioning that him being shot in the back, the whole issue of the way they went for this one young man that had no history of violence, one of the local reporters asked in the press conference we had the other day, did you all know a SWAT-like team went there? We said, what? We didn't even know that.

And so people are questioning what in the world is going on. Black people, just like everybody else, are innocent until proven guilty.

[07:15:02]

And when we challenge and call for the truth and transparency, it's not hating the police. It's hating and not liking double standards.

I raised at the press conference an article that News One had done last year that showed how eight white people, men, some of them were mass murderers, some who resisted arrest, all got arrested. Dylann Roof, when he murdered people in South Carolina and got arrested, some say he even got a hamburger. But when a black person can't get arrested, and when an air freshener leads to death, when a warrant leads to death, when selling cigarettes leads to death, people are just tired of it.

And there are witnesses that were there that are saying this was a bad shooting, this was a shoot in the back. But we need to know. Yesterday -- the day before yesterday, the sheriff came out and said he was waiting on the SBI. The SBI said no, they're not waiting on us. The governor, who was a former attorney general, two terms, has said, release the tapes. The current attorney general has said, release the tapes, release the tapes. That's how we will know exactly what happened.

And then what we have to do is make sure that because we remember the case, other cases in the south. This is the south. Michael Slager down in North Charleston, South Carolina, it took several civil rights charges to put him behind bars, and even though there was a video of Walter Scott being shot in the back. So what we've got to have and what people are saying is when and if, when and if police murder people, we need accountability, we need arrests, we need prosecution without immunity, we need prison, we need payment where it doesn't come from the insurance company but it comes out of these police departments and out of their pensions, and we need federal laws, federal civil rights laws that guarantee these prosecutions.

KEILAR: And maybe there needs to be as well some more agreement about the glaring problem. Lastly here, Senator Lindsey Graham over the weekend was asked about systemic racism and policing in the U.S., and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Senator, is there systemic racism in this country, in policing and in other institutions?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): No, not in my opinion. We just elected a two-term African-American president. The vice president is of African- American-Indian descent. So our systems are not racist. America is not a racist country. Within every society, you have bad actors.

Reform the police, yes, call them all racist, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What is your reaction to that?

BARBER: That is absolutely ridiculous. First of all, there were people who got elected even during the days of Jim Crow. That's a line the Republicans use. The system is, in fact, broken. Number one, it's happening too often. Number two, we see all of these settlements, an insurance settlement in court where people are paying for wrongful deaths. Number three, we are having more and more trials proving it.

The system is broken. Look at how much we have seen just since Chauvin. This notion by Republicans that there's no systemic racism, remember, these are strong (INAUDIBLE) Republicans, they are descendants. And that is always where they go to. They say there's no racism when there's racism and voter suppression. They say there's no racism when we see all of these problems and police killing.

The data is there. It's empirical. It's a real problem. America must face this problem. We can't keep denying this problem. It is wrong for someone like Lindsey Graham, who had someone shot in his state in the back, in the back, on camera, all over a broken taillight. And if it had not been for federal law because the state of South Carolina did not prosecute, he would not have been prosecuted.

And even in the case of Chauvin, this is how you know that there's systemic racism. If it hasn't been for that young lady and the video, if there hadn't been for the millions that marched, if it hadn't been for Keith Ellison, if it hadn't been for calling a prosecutor out of retirement, if it hadn't been for bringing the best expert, then Chauvin would have gotten off. Yes, there was very real systemic racism in this country, and it must be dealt with. Lindsey Graham, Republicans who say that are wrong. The protesters, the preachers and the politicians that know better, they say that is right. And Americans know it, and we need to fix it, and we need to fix it, because this is too much death too many times, too often, and too many families destroyed.

Police are to protect and serve. We support that. But they are not to deliver dead or alive. They are not supposed to kill on the spot.

[07:20:00]

They are not supposed to be executioners, and we can never settle for that.

KEILAR: Bishop William Barber, thank you for being with us. We'll be awaiting this news if the family does actually get to see that video. Thank you for being with us.

BARBER: God bless you.

BERMAN: Coming up, shocking details revealed in court. A Trump supporter now accused of comparing the efforts to overturn the election to Hitler's takeover of Germany.

KEILAR: Plus, hospitals in India are overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and running out of oxygen fast. We're going to speak with a doctor on the front lines as the country veers toward catastrophe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The Biden administration has announced plans to send supplies and support to India as a wave of new coronavirus cases overwhelm that country's hospitals. Many medical facilities are running out of oxygen and ICU beds with patients left to die at home or outside hospitals waiting for care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VISHWAROOP SHARMA, FATHER DIED OF COVID-19: He knows he's going to die.

[07:25:01]

He was saying, I won't be able to breathe. I need something. I need more medicines. But nothing is provided to him, and he died in front of me and on my hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And the crisis is accelerating. Look at that graphic right there, the spike. It's vertical in the number of new cases. India has now broken the daily global coronavirus case record five consecutive days.

Joining us now from the heart of the crisis, Dr. Abhinav Guliani, he is a pulmonologist in Delhi. Doctor, thank you very much for being with us.

I understand that your hospital had no beds available for COVID patients this weekend and adjoining hospitals, no beds for coronavirus patients this weekend, all filled up. How dire is the situation?

DR. ABHINAV GULIANI, PULMONOLOGIST, SIR GANGA RAM HOSPITAL: Hi. So it's quite bad out here because of the sheer number of patients. We have a surplus of patients. There's quite a big influx of patients from not just nearby areas but other states as well. So that's why it's just overwhelming. There are so many patients, and together, even if you put all hospitals together, it's the same state everywhere.

There is a shortage of medical beds and there's a shortage of medical supplies not because it's their advantage because the sheer number of patients is just too much.

BERMAN: I understand that you are on the verge of running out of oxygen this weekend. That sounds just awful.

GULIANI: Well, yes, it does. But it's just because the requirement has just more than doubled. And many hospitals do not have oxygen plants. So they have to get oxygen. So they are really outing (ph) the industrial oxygen and getting it to us, but it does take a few days. So it should be there. It should be there.

But many are not wanting to go to the hospital, wanting to stay at home, they are needing oxygen, so there are oxygen concentrators at home. And if too many people need it, it's going to be tough to get it. That's probably the reason. Hospitals, they do have oxygen and they would probably get their supplies turned up in maybe a day or two. That's not -- should not be a problem, hopefully.

BERMAN: Let's hope. I understand that there are a lot of people afraid to go to the hospital. For among other reasons, they're afraid of dying in line outside or getting caught in line outside.

GULIANI: Yes, they are. They are afraid because the E.R.s, they are pretty full right now. (INAUDIBLE). And even if they do, if there are patients on the inside, how are they going to get in? So that's a big problem. That's a big problem.

BERMAN: I have to say we've seen some of the images, some of the pictures there, and they're heartbreaking. It's just heartbreaking to see what's happening. It's also even more heartbreaking to think what could continue to happen in the next days and weeks if it isn't reversed.

The United States is sending supplies and also sending vaccine ingredients. But as of now, the United States, which has potentially tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine not sending them. Would you like to see the U.S. release those vaccines to India?

GULIANI: Right now in the middle of a pandemic, vaccinating people is going to be tough, because if you congregate people at one spot to vaccinate them, it's going to be risky to acquire the disease and further to spread the disease. So, yes, we should be vaccinating people. We do have a lot of vaccines, but vaccinating everybody right now in the middle of a pandemic is going to be tough, and the vaccine is not going to act in a day or two. It's going to take weeks before it starts to kick in. We need an eventual solution so that this sort of thing does not occur. But that will not be a solution in our situation.

BERMAN: Dr. Gulani, again, we wish you all the best. I know you're hardly sleeping, working around the clock. The situation, in some cases, is desperate, doing everything you can. We appreciate the work you're doing. Thank you.

GULIANI: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: It was really interesting to hear him speak because we haven't been able to hear from medical officials as of yet about what's happening on the ground.

BERMAN: Too many cases. They're just being overwhelmed with cases there, and they just -- no matter what they do, they can't keep up. And you can see that by just looking at the graphic there, the spike in cases and also seeing the horrifying pictures of people waiting in line outside and just -- it's overwhelming.

KEILAR: It reminds me of what we saw from Italy and Wuhan over a year ago, you know?

It's no surprise by now that big corporate CEOs and the nation's top 1 percent avoided the pandemic pinch, but you never knew by just how much. Well, the rich, they get richer in our Reality Check, next.

[07:30:01]

BERMAN: Plus, big news from Apple, Christine Romans with the announcement after this.