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COVID Cases Rising; Branson to Beat Bezos to Space; Holiday Weather Forecast; Holiday Travel Chaos; Alzheimer's Love Story. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 02, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: That they feel stonewalled when they -- I would assume went to the board with these questions.

ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA, NATIONAL HOUSING AND SOCIAL SERVICES REPORTER, "USA TODAY": Well, I think, you know, based on the documents that "USA Today" has been able to obtain at this time, you know, there was a moment where they would be stonewalled. Such as the case of this woman, Ryasa Rodriguez (ph), who is now a plaintiff in one of the class-action lawsuits that -- that were presented this week.

They were stonewalled but there were changes as well in the condo association. But from what we are seeing, you know, that -- that information trickled in. And from what we know, possibly, too little, too late.

HARLOW: Look, your reporting on the ground is invaluable in all of this. So thank you for taking the time to help us understand it.

RUIZ-GOIRIENA: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, new data from the CDC shows coronavirus cases in the United States jumped 10 percent this past week. And the delta variant, which we know is about 60 percent more transmissible, is gaining ground.

Joining me now is CNN's senior data reporter, Harry Enten.

Harry, it's been some time since we could say this, but cases on the rise in the United States.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, John, you know, we have been pulling up this map a lot because we like to see a lot of green. That means that cases are dropping in this week versus the previous week. Now, we're actually seeing more red and orange than we're seeing green, which indicates that in more states than not, specifically really in the southern part of the country into the great plains, that cases are rising, unfortunately.

BERMAN: Rising but still low. ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, look, it's all relative. And what's

important to point out here is look how high cases were at the beginning of the year. Look at that. We were basically getting 250,000 new cases on the seven-day average. Even here, you can barely see the rise. If you really zoom in, you can see it. It's that 10 percent. But when your number's so low, you can have a percentage-case rise and the total number of cases that actually rise is not actually that great.

BERMAN: And this is -- and I mentioned it coming in -- this is largely about the delta variant.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. And, you know, I want to make a comparison here between the United States and the United Kingdom. Because in the United Kingdom, the delta variant right now is king. We know that its proportion is 99 percent of the circulating virus in mid-June in the United Kingdom was the delta variant. It's just 76 -- 26 percent here, excuse me. That is rising, right? But it's significantly lower than the United Kingdom.

Why is that important? Because in the United Kingdom, what we're seeing currently, is we are seeing that case rise. Look at this, the United Kingdom's in red. The United States is in yellow. What you see here is -- look at this -- we see the United Kingdom going up. We see the United States staying fairly steady, rising a little bit. So it wouldn't be surprising to me if the United States sees that eventual rise, just like the United Kingdom has.

BERMAN: The delta variant is more transmissible and you can see it leading to more cases in the United Kingdom. The yellow line, the United States, might end up looking like the red line, the United Kingdom, going forward.

ENTEN: Right.

BERMAN: There's some other things, though, we're learning from the United Kingdom, which are -- I mean I don't want to say encouraging but may temper some fears.

ENTEN: Right. You know, this is sort of bad news and then, OK, maybe it's not as bad as we might think. And this is coronavirus deaths. This is the seven-day average, right? The change in it. And what we see again, the United Kingdom in red, the United States in yellow. Yes, there should be some lag from deaths to case -- from cases to deaths. But here in the United Kingdom, look at that, we really haven't seen the rise in deaths. We really haven't seen the rise in hospitalizations either.

And now the question is, why is that? Because who do we know is most vulnerable to coronavirus? We know it's older folks. People 65 years and older. And take a look here. Look at the people who are fully vaccinated as a proportion. This is a proportion of age 65 plus who are fully vaccinated.

In England, it's 94 percent.

BERMAN: Wow. ENTEN: It's huge. It's even bigger than here in the United States. But even the United States, it's 78 percent. We've covered the most venerable part of the population. So I'm not sure that we'll necessarily see the same trend line of cases translating into deaths the same way we did earlier on in the pandemic.

BERMAN: And what's the number one thing you can do if you want to protect yourself from the delta variant?

ENTEN: Get a -- get a vaccine. My goodness, gracious. They're out there, folks. Go get them. Get two doses, Moderna, Pfizer. We know they work. They -- we know it protects you against the delta variant. It's just the smart thing to do. Oh, my goodness, just do it, folks.

BERMAN: Yes, look, the cases, they may very well go up, but it's going up among unvaccinated people.

ENTEN: That's exactly --

BERMAN: You don't want it to go up? Get vaccinated.

ENTEN: That's exactly right, John.

BERMAN: All right, Harry, thank you very much.

So Virgin Galactic making a big announcement overnight. Why Richard Branson may now beat Jeff Bezos into space.

HARLOW: Plus, a new development in Britney Spears' legal fight. Why the co-conservator of her estate just asked to quit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:49]

HARLOW: This story developing overnight. Virgin Galactic making a surprise announcement that the company's billionaire owner, Richard Branson, will attempt to fly to space just over one week, nine days to be exact, before another billionaire, Jeff Bezos, plans to launch.

Rachel Crane is live in Los Angeles with more.

Good morning, Rachel.

All right, you're the billionaire space whisperer, if you will. What's going on?

RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION AND SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, this announcement from Virgin Galactic is a stark departure from what the company was maintaining just a month ago. Now, this-upcoming test space flight was supposed to be just for mission specialists and Branson was going to be on the flight following that one. However -- and that was something the company maintained just a month ago. However, that was before Bezos himself announced that he would be on his space company, Blue Origin's, first suborbital flight to space on their new Shepherd system. Now, as you pointed out, that flight is scheduled for July 20th, just

nine days following the announcement of when this Virgin Galactic flight will take off.

But, you know, it might not just be egos here and the desire to be the historic first billionaire in space that is a reason for this update to the flight manifest.

[06:40:06]

The FAA, just last week, granted Virgin Galactic a new license to fly space flight participants. So prior to this updated license, the company had only flown pilots, as well as one Virgin Galactic employee.

But now, with this new license, they are able to fly what they call space flight participants. So now they can extend this invitation to Branson.

So as I pointed out, it might not just be the egos here. But take a listen to what Branson had to say about this upcoming flight, Poppy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD BRANSON, FOUNDER, VIRGIN GALACTIC: Astronaut 001 Richard Branson. I'll be evaluating the customer space flight experience. As the Virgin Galactic founder, I am so proud to have this remarkable crew of mission specialists and pilots by my side as we fly to space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CRANE: And, Poppy, let me tell you a little bit about that flight experience that Branson and his fellow passengers will experience. They will go -- you know, travel more than three times the speed of sound, going over 80 mile -- kilometers above earth where they will experience a few minutes of weightlessness, which I am incredibly jealous of to -- they will get those astronaut wings and then they will glide back to earth.

Now, following the flight, the team will do, obviously, a series of inspections and data reviews. They intend to fly two additional space flights before they open the company up to commercial flights in 2022.

And the company expects to live-stream this upcoming space flight for all of us to enjoy.

HARLOW: Wow.

CRANE: So, although we're not in the cabin, hopefully, you know, getting eyes in there, it will feel like it, Poppy.

BERMAN: You know, Rachel, you say it might not just be egos. I'm going to take the under on that and say it is. I am. I just -- at this point, all these billionaires trying to get to space first, I hope they're being safe.

HARLOW: Do I sense envy?

BERMAN: Not with -- look --

HARLOW: Do you want to go? I don't want to go.

BERMAN: No, absolutely not, frankly, because I feel like this kind of race could lead to -- lead to strange things. I mean if it were sweeps and an assignment, I might do it. But, no, look, I -- it's -- it's -- it's all ego. Richard Branson walking slow motion, you know, through -- through the thing there, you know?

HARLOW: But, Rachel, I know you want to go. I know you want to go.

CRANE: Well, I want to -- I want to -- yes, no, I'm dying to go and I have to push back a little bit. You know, Richard Branson, they've been working on this for 16 years. Blue Origin, they've been working on it, you know, the company was founded 20 years ago. So this is not just something that they have just decided on a whim to get into. They've spent, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars into these programs so it's not something that I think is just motivated by ego. And Branson himself has told me continually that this is not really a race, that they are not motivated by being the first but that's sort of how outsiders have -- have, you know, framed this billionaire-space race but that they would fly when they were ready, when he was ready.

And the company deciding now that, you know, in just over a week, that Branson will be making this historic flight. I'll be speaking to him in about an hour, so I'll get some more insight into what motivated this -- this update.

But certainly a lot of excitement in the space world in the coming weeks.

Poppy. John.

BERMAN: Very humble people we're talking about here. Each -- each and every one of them.

HARLOW: Just -- I'm in Rachel's camp.

BERMAN: Lots -- lots and lots of humility to go around there.

HARLOW: Stop.

Rachel, thank you. We can't wait to see your interview with Richard Branson. I know this is a big, exciting day for you, as well, covering this. Thank you.

We are likely to see new pandemic travel records for this big, upcoming holiday weekend. We'll tell you what to expect on the road and in the air for The Fourth.

BERMAN: Plus, a major military milestone overnight. U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base after 20 years. That was the very symbolic site of U.S. power in that country. We'll have the latest, ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:55]

BERMAN: The holiday weekend is finally here but rainy, muggy conditions threaten to put a damper on barbecues in the south and on the east coast.

Chad Myers with the forecast.

Chad, why?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, because it's The Fourth. Because you -- but, actually, Sunday is a lot better than Saturday. If you add up all the rainfall between now and the end of Sunday, it looks like this. So 1 to 2 inches everywhere. There will be some inside time. But if we take a look at today, a lot of the rain is in the deep south.

Now, tomorrow afternoon, the northeast gets very raw. Almost like a nor'easter out here. North winds, 65 miles per hour. You know, 60 degrees out there. It's just going to be kind of an ugly afternoon. If you're going to be on a boat out there, I suspect you might want to take some pills with you to keep your sea sickness down. But other than that, this thing goes away. It will be just fine by Sunday. Notice the temperature here, 65 for New York City as we work our way into Saturday. But it's better by The Fourth.

We're also watching this. If you're traveling to the south, we are watching Elsa, the fifth named storm of the year, and it will make an approach to Florida sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. Now, the models are all the way to the east into the Bahamas but also into the Gulf of Mexico.

[06:50:03]

But if you're making a big, long weekend out of it or the whole week next week, you might want to keep that in mind.

Your Fourth of July forecast does dry out. I think most everyone will be able to see some fireworks out there. Careful with them. We have some very dry conditions in the west and many places are forbidding fireworks at all out there, John.

BERMAN: A font of useful advice, as always.

Chad Myers, thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

HARLOW: A font.

All right, millions of Americans are about to travel for the first time since the start of the pandemic. AAA says 47 million of us will travel 50 miles or more from now through Monday. That is an increase of more than 10 million people over this time last year and it's pushing transportation systems to the max. Pete Muntean is live at Reagan National.

How's it looking?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, Flight Aware says airlines delayed or cancelled about 10,000 flights across the United States just yesterday, mostly because of bad weather. But airlines got a lot smaller during the pandemic, making it a lot harder for them to bounce backs from things like this. That means more delays, more cancellations, and more problems than normal as airlines are anticipating their busiest weekend since the start of the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (voice over): Long lines and high stress are back at airports across the country with passengers packing into fewer planes, staffed by fewer workers.

Southwest Airlines is now offering flight attendants double pay to work extra July 4th trips, telling them in a company memo, if you are healthy and it is safe to do so, please help.

It is the latest move by airlines to avoid a ripple effect of delays and cancellations as they struggle to keep up with pent-up demand for travel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leisure demand is more than 100 percent recovered. It indicates the huge desire for people to get back to living life.

MUNTEAN: Data from Flight Aware shows, in June, Southwest Airlines delayed or cancelled the most flights of any U.S. carrier, followed by American Airlines. To stem off even more cancellations, American is preemptively trimming 1 percent of flights from its schedule through mid-July, citing bad weather and staffing shortages. Consumer advocates say airlines should have been prepared for this travel surge, especially after receiving more than $50 billion in aid from the federal government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to have a national discussion about how the airlines are using taxpayer dollars and yet they're still not serving us and they're still inconveniencing us.

MUNTEAN: Passengers are taking out their frustrations onboard flights and facing thousands in federal fines. The FAA now says it has received more than 3,000 reports of unruly passengers since the start of this year. More than 2,000, over the federal transportation mask mandate.

Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants says flight crews are facing a harsh, new reality.

SARA NELSON, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Now the public is coming back and getting out and treating flight attendants as punching bags. And they're doing that verbally and physically. MUNTEAN: But most July 4th travelers will bypass problems in the air.

AAA says 43 million people will travel by car, a number close to figures from before the pandemic. Traffic is up compared to last year and so is the cost of gas. The national average is now above $3 a gallon, the highest this holiday has seen in seven years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gasoline prices are going to stubbornly stay above $3 and probably in the $3.10 and $3.20 range throughout the rest of the summer. But we also know people don't let that get in the way of going on a vacation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN: AAA says the best time to leave town is about right now, at least before noon. But it's coming back into town, on Monday, that will be the issue. That's when AAA anticipates traffic in some major metropolitan areas, like San Francisco, will be three times the norm.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Wow. All right, Pete Muntean, thanks, as always, for your reporting, and happy 4th.

It's not over yet. That is the message from New York's attorney general, warning more charges could come in its case against the Trump Organization. We'll preview what's next.

BERMAN: Plus, a new twist in the fight over Britney Spears. Why the co-conservator of her estate just asked to quit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:46]

BERMAN: There are love stories, and then there is this love story.

Here is CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Peter and Lisa Marshall met, fell in love, and, in 2009, had a picture-perfect wedding. A memory that was supposed to last a lifetime. But three years ago, Peter was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease at the age of 53. He forgot that Lisa was his wife.

LISA MARSHALL, WIFE OF ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: He started to tell me all about his wife. And he was bragging about his wife to me. So, that was helpful, that I knew that he loved his wife, me.

COHEN: Lisa became simply his favorite caregiver. But they still had sparks.

MARSHALL: We were watching an episode of "New Girl." And there was a wedding. He looked at the TV, and he had this smug, little grin on his face and he said, let's do it. And he pointed at the TV, at the couple getting married. And I said, are you asking me to marry you? And he said, yes, and nodded his head and smiled bigger.

COHEN: And so, in April, Peter and Lisa found themselves back at the altar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is my honor and delight to pronounce you, once again, husband and wife. Peter, you may kiss your bride.

COHEN (on camera): What was that day like?

MARSHALL: The most magical part of it all was that cognitively he was with me the entire day. And it felt like ten years ago. And he just was so enamored with the whole -- with me, the day, our love. And it just felt so perfect.

COHEN: Now that you've been married twice, does he know that you're his wife?

MARSHALL: No, and he doesn't remember the ceremony.

COHEN (voice over): That is the brutal toll of Peter's disease. But for Lisa, going forward with the wedding was a rare opportunity to take a special, fleeting moment and make it everlasting.

MARSHALL: These memories that we made, this vow renewal, was for me to cherish for the rest of my life when I don't have Peter, anymore.

[07:00:02]

COHEN (on camera): Right now, who does Peter think you are?

MARSHALL: His favorite person. Someone safe.