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New Day

Rescues Underway after Florida Condo Building Collapses; Biden, Senators Reach Fragile Deal on Infrastructure; Cases Surge in Countries Using China's Vaccines. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: Is there a period of time that you completely forgot, David, how much time would you say, even, obviously, aside from the coma where it just isn't with you anymore?

DAVID ROCHESTER, BATTLED COVID FOR SIX MONTHS IN HOSPITAL: The last thing I remember is rolling into my local hospital in a wheelchair because I couldn't walk already, as it was, and then my head tilted back and I woke up 56 days later.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: I still just -- it's almost impossible to believe. It's so wonderful to see you up and healing at this point, David. I wonder, after everything you've been through battling COVID, battling this virus, what your message is to people, maybe people who still haven't been vaccinated?

ROCHESTER: I'm a firm believer in if you really want to get vaccinated, get vaccinated. I suggest protect yourself, protect your family, check in on the people you love and care about.

KEILAR: I think that is very good words of wisdom there. David Rochester, thank you so much, as I said before, it is great to see you.

ROCHESTER: Thank you.

KEILAR: New Day continues now.

BERMAN: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Thursday, June 4th.

And we do have breaking news. This huge search and rescue operation under way in South Florida, as we speak. A high-rise residential building has collapsed there, just north of Miami Beach. You're looking at live aerial video of the scene and you can see the incredible level of damage there, huge piles of debris and dust in these balconies just sawed in half.

KEILAR: This just doesn't happen. Buildings just don't fall down, that is what we heard from a police official in there in Surfside. Brand new footage just in to CNN shows a young boy being rescued from the rubble. More than 80 emergency teams are working to find survivors. There is so much here that we still don't know. This is very much a developing story. We don't know the number of possible casualties.

Let's check in now with Leyla Santiago who is live at the scene. Leyla, what have you learned since we last spoke last hour?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, I spoke to the mayor of Surfside, he confirms that there was at least one casualty, someone who was transported to the hospital and died at the hospital. He also tells me that there were at least ten people who were injured.

Now, he says that the building has been cleared. They don't believe anybody else is in the building but let me walk you through what he means here, when he says that. You see, this is the building behind me, where a partially collapsed, now that the sun has come up, we can get a better view of what's happening. Earlier we saw firefighters and rescue units checking every balcony, you could see the flashlights inside of the building, as they were searching for people. But, again, that is the part of the building that is still up.

The other side, which you can't see, is what collapsed, the partial collapse there. And the mayor did say, yes, we cleared what is left of the building but there's no saying who could be trapped under the debris and how many people that could be.

Now, I did speak to one woman who was on her way home when she says that she all of a sudden heard what sounded like the engine of a plane, a very loud noise. She saw smoke in the air and then dust that traveled for blocks, dust that covered cars in this area.

And so that is similar to what we heard from other people who were in the area or knew somebody who was inside and heard that description.

So, what caused this? Well, that is all under investigation. We do know that the mayor confirmed that the building was undergoing some group work but was very quick to say that he could not say that that was a contributing factor to what led up to this.

So, the mayor also told us they have families and neighbors that were affected by this gathering in one area and that they are going to be helping those who were in neighboring buildings because they have now been displaced as well because the building is compromised.

So, we are learning more information, as you and John showed, getting a better view, now that the sun has come up. But still the big question, how did this happen? And what are rescue crews going to find under all that debris and rubble that has been left behind?

[07:05:01]

I did ask the mayor if this was a building that he ever had any concerns about. He's very quick to say no. But, again, as time goes by, we will be learning more information on what these units that are responding are finding. We know that it was more than 80 units out here, the roads were blocked off before we even arrived this morning. We have been here for several hours, and we can tell it has been a very active scene, a lot of people going back and forth.

So as we learn more details, we'll certainly bring those to you. But now the investigation continues. Brianna, John?

BERMAN: It's Surfside where Leyla is right now. It's just north of Miami Beach. The Miami Herald says the building was built in 1981, to give you a sense, so that's not that old of a building right there, about 100 units. One person confirmed dead at this point, ten injured.

The part of the building still standing has been cleared, but as Leyla points out, the big question what or who may be under that rubble.

KEILAR: We actually have a side by side picture of a before and after of this building, if we can look at this here. You can see just how much of this building has been taken down. And if you look at this from an aerial view, you can see, we're not just talking about partial units that came down in a row. We're talking about a significant portion of a very large residential tower there in Surfside.

So we're certainly awaiting more information to see if there are casualties, but there is one dead and there was a boy apparently who was rescued.

BERMAN: We saw video of that.

KEILAR: From the rubble.

BERMAN: The boy conscious, pulled from the rubble there, as I think maybe the mayor said buildings just don't fall down like this. So how and why did that happen?

Other major news this morning, there is a fragile bipartisan agreement on one of President Biden's biggest initiatives, infrastructure. In a matter of hours, senators from both parties will meet with the president to try to finalize the deal and provide details about how to pay for it. It's not a done deal just yet, we don't think. There still may be hurdles ahead.

Joining us now is Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, former DNC chair. Governor, thanks so much for being with us this morning. If there is a deal, Politico has a headline this morning that says, Biden catches his white whale, right? Joe Biden has said for a long time that he thought bipartisanship was worth it. He thought pursuing a bipartisan deal was worth it. Infrastructure is his big priority. So what does it mean if they get a bipartisan deal on infrastructure?

HOWARD DEAN (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It means a lot, probably not exactly the white whale. It's important that we do this. And it's important that we pay for it in a way that's fair to the American people, because the Republicans are persistently want to help their wealthy donors and don't do anything for the people at the bottom of the tax code, which is most of their voters.

But as one wag in Washington said last night, well, he's got 20 votes now. We need to get to 60 and that is going to be tough. There are people on both sides of the aisle that find fault with this. So I'm optimistic I think Biden has got a lot of work to do. It's important that this pass. I salute the senators on both sides who agree with this, now the Republicans have to go back and convince their obstructionist leader McConnell this is something that's worth doing for the country instead of something that's important for the Republican Party.

KEILAR: This agreement is -- it's over $1 trillion in size. The new spending though is just under $600 billion. I wonder what you think of that in terms of the kind of effect that it can have. Is that enough for Americans to see the impact of it and for this to be a political win for Biden if this moves forward?

DEAN: The answer to that question is yes, but, the but is there's an awful lot of stuff in the bill that Republicans killed, which is environmental stuff, stimulation for the working class people who ironically voted for the Republicans but are getting nothing for their vote. So there's a lot to be done. But, yes, this could be a win.

I argue it would be a win for Republicans who actually want to cast off this horrible demon of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell who do nothing and publicly bragged about doing nothing. The Republicans need to leave that mode (ph) and do something for the country. This is a way for them to do it and this is a way for Biden to show that he can bring people together. That is his biggest mission, to bring people together after the wreckage of the Trump administration and wreckage of the minority leader that doesn't care about anything but getting reelected.

So I think this is a big deal.

BERMAN: It's why Joe Biden said he was running for president, in a way, to bring people together again. I'm wondering what you think this says about the state of the Democratic Party, whether it is Joe Biden's Democratic Party.

[07:10:01]

We have some data points from the last few days, right, maybe this infrastructure deal, which was negotiated by so-called more moderate Democrats. You also have Eric Adams leading in the Democratic primary here in the race for New York City for mayor, seen as one of the more moderate candidates. And there is this suggestion out there that maybe the main part of the Democratic Party, what the Democratic Party truly represents isn't necessarily the Twitter Democratic Party, you know, the left-wing progressive model but maybe a more moderate mainstream model. What do you think?

DEAN: I think it requires both. And what I've long said, first of all, I have a very long career in politics. And one of the things I learned early is you take what you can get early and as a step forward and you go back and get the rest later. So this is a step forward. Is this the infrastructure bill the president wanted? No. Is it going to do all the great things for the country that the president wanted? No, but it will do something and you take what you can get now.

What I've long said about the Democrats is the moderates and the progressives need each other. We're not in power unless we have both wings working together. What I say to the moderates is, basically, you've got to vote for some of this stuff that you think is toxic in your community, because it isn't toxic. Most people in Connor Lam's district would like universal health care. It's how you talk about it that matters.

So I think the moderates need to vote a little bit more progressively and the progressives need to stop throwing or easing (ph) a flame thrower on the people in the party that don't agree with them. Everybody needs to work together in the Democratic side when we have a unified Democratic Party, then we just have to convince a few Republicans they need to stand up for their country and not their party, which is what's not been happening for the last four years.

KEILAR: A question, and I know there's a couple ifs in here, so bear with me. But if this does come to be a deal that the minority leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, can accept and also if we ultimately see police reform, which was floundering there, if we see something come of that as well, when it comes to the filibuster and calls from progressives to say, you got to get rid of it, you can't pass your priorities if you have it in place, does this undercut that argument?

DEAN: No, I don't think it does. The filibuster is something that's being used -- it's been used by the Republicans for years to stop civil rights progression and still being used to stop civil rights progression, and it's being used to stop making the tax code fair for working people, which the Republicans have no interest in whatsoever, but we have a lot of interest in.

We want to make this a better country, where everybody can work and be rewarded for their work. It's exactly the opposite of what the Republicans are doing. So, again, we take what we can now. The infrastructure bill will be helpful. I want it to pass. There's a lot of details and what we haven't seen is the pay-fors. And the pay-fors are going to make all the difference. We're not doing a gas tax, which is going to take it out of the working class people and we are going to do something to pay for this that's fair for everybody.

BERMAN: Well, it's been infrastructure week for, what, six years now?

KEILAR: Infrastructure years.

BERMAN: Yes, it may actually be. It may actually infrastructure week. Governor Dean, thanks for being with us today. I appreciate your time.

DEAN: And remember, we are at 20 now. We need to get to 60. So we're not there yet.

BERMAN: A long way to go.

KEILAR: There's new evidence this morning of the horrors of January 6th. There's some more. It feels like we're getting more and more and more of this as the weeks goes on, never before seen body camera video and surveillance footage that shows Capitol rioters cursing, harassing and attacking police. And CNN's Whitney Wild is joining us with that, also some reaction from Officer Brian Sicknick's mother and life partner, Whitney.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: As we watch this video, I want everyone to put themselves in the place of a loved one who had to watch their loved one face this horrific battle. It was just awful. CNN has led the charge with more than a dozen other news outlets to try to get this video so that you can see for yourself the real truth, the entire truth of that violent insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILD (voice over): The Justice Department releasing new videos shedding more light on the violence and harassment officers faced during the January 6th Capitol riots. This video shows Metropolitan Police approaching the Capitol enduring taunts from rioters in the crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not the left. We are not the dogless left.

WILD: Body camera video shows rioters then fighting the officers. 21- year-old Grady Owens, who prosecutors say hit officers with a skateboard, has pleaded not guilty to six charges, including assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon.

One rioter wearing a Make America Great Again hat seen pushing and shoving officers. Another rioter then screams at the officers.

[07:15:00]

Video taken just minutes later shows officers on the steps of the Capitol falling to the ground, trying to hold the line, and prevent the pro-Trump crowd from breaching the Capitol.

This surveillance from inside Capitol illustrates just how overwhelmed the officers were in preventing the crowd from entering the Capitol. The family of Officer Brian Sicknick, an officer who died shortly after the Capitol riot, horrified by the new footage.

SANDRA GARZA, GIRLFRIEND OF OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK: It's heart- wrenching, it's disturbing and some of the footage is just downright sadistic. It's brutal to watch, especially to know that Brian was there that day and experiencing what the officers were experiencing, as well as seeing this. And in his last moments on earth where experiencing all of this, it's just horrible. It's heartbreaking.

WILD: Officer Sicknick's mother can't understand why some lawmakers are trying to whitewash the events of that day despite the overwhelming video evidence that continues to emerge.

GLADYS SICKNICK, MOTHER OF OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK: They're afraid of losing their jobs. I don't know what they're afraid of. I don't understand why they're afraid of the former president. For some reason they're afraid of him and they just keep doing what he says they should do.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WILD: Well, that sentiment of not understanding why anybody would say that this was just a tour, this was a non-violent insurrection was echoed yesterday in court, a judge saying people on the right, far- right leaders as well as Republican lawmakers that this continued whitewashing is just utter nonsense, saying simply, I don't know what planet they're on.

KEILAR: Well, it is -- every time we see a new bit of video, whether it's body cam or it's surveillance video, it just hammers home what happened on January 6th.

Tell us about obtaining this video.

WILD: Well, the reason that we're getting this is because CNN and other news outlets have frankly demanded it. I mean, we have really led the charge in trying to get this video because we think it's important for you at home to see what really happened that day, the experience of the officers. It's one thing to hear them tell the story. It's quite another thing to see what they went through and hear what they went through.

So we've gone to court and said to judges, we think that this video that's being presented is evidence, should be released to the public, and judges are agreeing with that, which is why we're seeing now this new good of video, which is just so crucial.

BERMAN: The video shows what happened, not the fairytales being told by some members of Congress.

KEILAR: Yes, exactly right. Whitney, thank you so much.

Countries using China's coronavirus vaccines are experiencing a spike, a spike in cases and that has health experts questioning how well these vaccines actually work. We are live in Shanghai.

BERMAN: And the FDA preparing to add a new warning to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines about a rare, very rare condition. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains what you need to know about this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: This morning, nations that relied on China's coronavirus vaccines are facing devastating surges in new cases, leading health experts to wonder how well they actually work.

CNN's David Culver is live in shanghai with the latest developments on this. David?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, Chinese officials were quick early on to criticize the U.S. and other countries for not doing enough in their opinion to export vaccines and help them fight the virus. Now, this new information and data we've gone through suggests some of the countries that have been on the receiving end of the Chinese vaccines are seeing some of the largest surges since this pandemic began. So we wanted to know why and we looked into it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER (voice over): China's portrayed it as an act of goodwill, shipping Chinese-made vaccines to other countries, even before guaranteeing enough for its own citizens. State media reports 350 million doses have gone out to more than 80 countries. Among the nations on the receiving end, neighboring Mongolia, and in South America, Chile, both countries mobilized quickly to put those vaccines to use. In Mongolia, more than 52 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, Chile just a bit less. They are among the highest vaccination rates in the world, alongside countries like the U.S. and Israel.

But why is it as cases are dropping in those countries, Mongolia and Chile are seeing surges of new COVID-19 infections? Last week, Mongolia hit a record high in daily case counts and authorities in Chile announced a blanket lockdown across its capital, Santiago, two weeks ago.

BEN COWLING, HEAD OF THE DIVISION OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS, UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Some places where there's relatively high vaccine coverage and social distancing measures have been relaxed, it may be that those measures are relaxed a little bit too soon.

CULVER: One of the most striking differences, the types of vaccines. While the U.S. and Israel turned to Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, Mongolia and Chile are relying heavily on two from China, Sinovac and Sinopharm. My team and I based here in China received our two doses of Sinopharm in recent months. The efficacy rates of the Chinese-made vaccines contain an inactivated virus, range from 50 percent to 79 percent, whereas and U.S.-backed Pfizer and Moderna, using mRNA science are more than 90 percent efficacious.

Though the environments in which they were all trialed varied with different variants of the virus circulating the American-backed ones appear to be much better at preventing transmission compared with China's vaccines.

COWLING: Right now, what we can see very clearly is the antibody level in people who receive BioNTech is much higher, much, much higher than the antibody level in people who received Sinovac.

CULVER: The WHO authorized both Sinovac and Sinopharm for emergency use despite the Chinese companies behind them providing limited clinical trial data. But medical experts warn, while less effective, this does not mean the Chinese vaccines are a failure.

[07:25:00]

COWLING: Somewhere like Chile, somewhere like Mongolia, vaccines have saved a lot of lives but maybe they haven't been able to stop the virus from spreading and causing mild infections in vaccinated people and then, of course, the potential for more severe infections in people who haven't yet been vaccinated. And that's one of the limitations of less effective vaccine. CULVER: While overall cases in Mongolia and Chile are on the rise, the vaccines may be helping lower the severity of those cases.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you look across the board in countries that have higher vaccination rates, those hospitalization rates, those death rates, while they may move around a little bit, they are probably a lot better now than they would have been without the vaccines, because the vaccines, more than anything else, regardless of which one it is, help protect against severe illness and death.

CULVER: To better stop the spread of the virus, countries like Bahrain and the UAE, which have also relied heavily on China's Sinopharm, are now offering their citizens a third dose as a booster. The choices, a third shot of Sinopharm or they can use the Pfizer vaccine as their booster.

The development and distribution of vaccines has become highly politicized especially between the U.S. and China. And if both countries refuse to recognize each other's vaccines, that could keep you limited to crossing borders based on the vaccine you've gotten, potentially preventing international travel for returning to near normal for years to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CULVER (on camera): Two big takeaways, John, as we looked at this piece, one is that most of the experts we've spoken with agree that while these vaccines made in China may be less effective, they are still playing a role, they're still doing something to combat the virus. The other is geopolitical and folks may look at this and they say, well, I've gotten the Pfizer or i got Moderna one, this doesn't impact me.

But if you're looking towards a future that was reminiscent of pre- COVID life, meaning you could travel freely through borders, well, this is going to have an impact if countries can't recognize the other's vaccines, and China has already disbursed so many that it's going to cause issues going forward. You are going to have the travel bubbles based around vaccines you received.

BERMAN: David Culver, such important reporting, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

CULVER: Thanks, John.

KEILAR: Joining us is now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, first, I could just have you respond to that report that we've heard from David there. You obviously, as he puts it, this will affect commerce not just in China, this is going to affect travel. What should the U.S. be doing here?

GUPTA: Well, it was a great report from David. I mean, I think the real question I looked at many of those countries that have received Sinopharm, the Chinese-made vaccines, and as he points out in certain situations, you do have case numbers going up. But as we've talked about for more than a year now, we also got to look at hospitalizations and deaths. And those have been brought down pretty dramatically by the vaccines overall. So as he points out, you know, there's going to be all the different things you're trying to measure. Are you more concerned about the spread of the virus, how much do you place weight on hospitalizations and deaths? Those are critically important and that's all going to be part of this discussion.

The United States, I mean, right now, they pledged 500 million doses of vaccines around the world, there was 80 million pledged before, so about 290 million people could be covered by what the United States has pledged in terms of vaccines. That's 4 percent of the world's population. So it's obviously not enough.

I mean, ultimately, what we're talking about here, and it's an audacious but important task, is that we have to provide billions of doses, not we but the world has to provide billions of doses to countries all over the world to slow this down. That's going to require increased manufacturing in these places, other countries to pitch in, donating money to COVAX. We've pledged $4 billion as a country here in the United States. All of this adds up but, obviously, the faster the better.

BERMAN: Speaking of the U.S.-based vaccine, Sanjay, we learned that the FDA announced they intend to add a warning to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. What does this warning involve?

GUPTA: I think this warning is a really good idea, first of all, because it's very transparent, it tells people who are receiving the vaccine but also by health care providers what's going on here. The concern is about myocarditis, which is inflammation around the heart.

A couple things I want to tell you. We now know, because we've had the data from the CDC, that while there have been cases of this, they were all easily treatable and mild cases, point number one. Point number two, it occurred only with the mRNA-based vaccines, not the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Just keep those facts tucked away.

But we put together this chart, I want to show this, because we always talk about benefits versus risks, and a lot of people maybe that sort of glazes over them, they're not sure what to make of it, but I want to put it like this. For every 1 million second doses that are given to this age group, for females, it prevents, you can see there, thousands of potential cases, hundreds of hospitalizations, and one death.

[07:30:03]

For males, it prevents 5,700 cases of COVID, 215 hospitalizations.