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New Day

COVID Cases Among U.S. Children, Teens Jump 84 Percent in a Week; New York City to Require Vaccines for Entry to Restaurants, Gyms; History of Scandals Involving Democratic New York Governors. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 04, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Withdrawal of troops back in May, but there have been relative calm here in Kabul.

[07:00:05]

That is now over, there was another explosion this morning, John. Nobody killed in that but two people injured, and definitely people here on very high alert, very tense.

We did hear something kind of extraordinary though in the aftermath of yesterday night's attack. You heard people all across the city coming out on to their balconies, on to the streets and chanting, Allahu akbar. It means God is the greatest, but they were chanting it really in defiance of the Taliban, in support of Afghan's national security forces, who have been so tremendously challenged by this onslaught from the militants, John.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: Almost all U.S. forces out at this point, Clarissa, but there is still obviously a presence at the embassy, which brings us to the question, will Kabul hold?

WARD: Well, that's the million dollar question and it's the thing that's got everybody concerned because no one could have predicted how quickly the situation would fall apart. Just in the last few months, the Taliban now in control of more than 200 districts. They're in charge of border crossings now. They are currently threatening at least half of the country's provincial capitals, three of them, Lashkar Gah, Kandahar and also Herat, are under really imminent threat, under siege, terrible fighting there every day.

And so the question becomes when does Kabul get targeted, if it does get targeted. And that is what has everybody here in this city, in a real state of profound anxiety. And also, Brianna, I would have to say deep resentment against the American forces, because they felt that it didn't need to be this chaotic and didn't need to be this hurried.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Well, look, Clarissa, I'm fascinated to hear that people on the streets were chanting in support of the Afghan security forces. How strong is their belief that they can actually stop the gains clearly being made by the Taliban?

WARD: This is what everybody wants to know. Can the Afghan national security forces reverse some of these gains? Now, in Lashkar Gah, which is the provincial capital in Helmand Province, where so many U.S. troops gave their lives, John, the military here has announced that it is going to launch some kind of counteroffensive. It told civilians who are living in areas that the Taliban holds that they must evacuate their homes and leave the area, that indicating that they're really going to try to take some of that territory back presumably with the aid of U.S. air power, because that has been the real game changer here.

According to one analyst, 80 percent of combat power against the Taliban came in the form of U.S.air power. That is not really a major factor anymore and as a result had profound significance on the ground. Everybody will be watching Lashkar Gah very closely to see what happens exactly because if they can reverse the situation there, potentially, there may be some hope for the rest of the country.

BERMAN: Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, we're lucky to have you on the ground there. Thank you so much for being there. Stay safe.

And New Day continues right now.

I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar on this New Day.

An alarming new report shows a substantial increase in coronavirus cases among children. So what does this mean for the return of school?

KEILAR: And former President Obama canceling his 60th birthday bash, a huge party, as more hospitals are overrun with unvaccinated patients.

BERMAN: A growing chorus of Democrats, including now President Biden, calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign. Will he step down? Might he be impeached?

KEILAR: And they pointed guns at protesters, now, they're off the hook, thanks to a pardon from Missouri's Republican governor.

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, it is Wednesday, August 4th. And for anyone who thought children were somehow immune from coronavirus or didn't get very sick from it, it seems time to think again.

We begin this morning with an alarming new report about the rising number of COVID cases in kids and teens. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that nearly 72,000 children caught coronavirus last week, that's an 84 percent increase over the week before, and a fivefold spike since the end of June. All the delta variant is on a collision course with the first day of school.

KEILAR: Nationwide, hospitalizations are now topping 55,000. That is the highest number since February. It is a 27 percent jump from last week. President Biden lashing out at Republican governors who have banned businesses and universities from requiring vaccines and masks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Two states, Florida and Texas, account for one third of all new COVID-19 cases in the entire country, just two states.

[07:05:00]

Look, we need leadership from everyone and some governors aren't willing to do the right thing to beat this pandemic, then they should allow businesses, universities, who want to do the right thing to be able to do it.

I say to these governors, please help. But if you aren't going to help, at least get out of the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And this morning, CNN has confirmed that former President Obama has canceled his 60th birthday bash this weekend on Martha's Vineyard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNIE KARNI, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I spoke to guests who were literally on the ferry on the way to Martha's Vineyard. It was reported that Oprah was coming, George Clooney. This was a hundreds of people outdoors, the Obamas have been planning this for months. The timing became increasingly awkward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Joining us now CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten. Harry, I want to talk to you about the rising number of cases in children. And one of the things we're seeing, and Dr. Ashish Jha of Brown University pointed this out, is that those cases seem to be rising more in states where there are fewer vaccinated people. Yes, most kids under 12, all kids under 12 can't be vaccinated but the fact of the matter is they seem be getting sicker when the grownups aren't vaccinated either. Talk to us about what we're seeing in Massachusetts and Florida.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: So, this data is somewhat hard to come by, but look, we have Massachusetts, the data is a little bit earlier than Florida, but they're comparable. And what do we see? Florida, where we know cases have been spiraling out of control, look at this, 378 new cases per week among children, 100,000, so equalize it by population. And Massachusetts, where cases overall are considerably lower, look at that, it's less than one-tenth as many. My goodness gracious. So, it's clear here that in the worst states, when your cases get worst overall, they really do get worse among kids.

BERMAN: And, again, this isn't an exact match on date, it's not an exact match on ages here, but this is a huge gaping difference.

ENTEN: It's huge. It's a huge gaping difference. This does not happen by accident.

BERMAN: All right. Talk to me what else you're seeing in these two states.

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, look, this, I think, tells the story. Let's look at Massachusetts, right? What do we see? We see that cases are getting worse here. And when they get worse among adults or, say, teens and adults, they get worse among children as well. So what we can see here is that back in late June or early July, cases per 100,000 weekly was just eight and nine. But look at this, once we get to the mid-July period, look here, look how much it jumped, up to 42 per 100,000 among 10 plus, up to 35 among 0 to 9, 9-year-olds. And look at these changes that are happening.

BERMAN: Big changes, but the change among the youngest kids is actually lower than the change among older people.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. And this is a very vaccinated state and what we see here is children who should be getting less sick, at least according to the science, when the population is highly vaccinated as it is in Massachusetts, kids are getting less sick than the adults.

BERMAN: What are you seeing in Florida?

ENTEN: The exact opposite. So, what do we see in Florida? Look at this. This is from early July to late July. And, my goodness gracious, look at these changes that we're seeing, 0 to 11, again, very few of them vaccinated, none of them except for those who might be in the experiments. Look at that, a change 415 percent. That is actually higher than the change among 12 plus-year-olds, which is 363 percent, but either way, what a huge increase in the state of Florida.

The big take away you should take from there is when the adults get sick especially in the states that have lower vaccination levels, the children definitely get sick as well.

BERMAN: Whenever we talk about children, whenever we talk schools, people need to know any restrictions you put in place, they come at an enormous cost.

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, kids have been hurt so much by this pandemic. Look at this, this is students losing ground third through eighth grade compared to the typical year, math scores worse, reading scores worse, African-Americans and Hispanics disproportionately affected.

This is why it's so important that everybody at least above 12 who is eligible to get vaccinated because we want these kids in schools, because, otherwise, they're really hurt by the pandemic.

BERMAN: All right, Harry. And what else do we know about the willingness of families to get their kids vaccinated?

ENTEN: Right. Look, most adults say, in fact, majority say that they should get vaccinated but in order to return to school. But look at this, just 27 percent of parents of children under 12 say they will get their children vaccinated as soon as possible once they become eligible. So, I think this could be -- it will be a difficult school year to say the least, with the bad scores and the lack of vaccinations among them, it's going to be something to watch. BERMAN: Well, the rest of us can get vaccinated in the meantime.

ENTEN: Yes, we should do our job.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Brianna?

KEILAR: In Louisiana, hospitalizations are surging to record levels. Hospital administrators report acute staffing shortages and emergency rooms are packed beyond capacity.

Let's talk about this now with Katherine Baumgarten. She is the medical director of Infection Control and Prevention at Ochsner Health in New Orleans. It is Louisiana's largest non-profit academic health care system.

Doctor, tell us what you are seeing there in Louisiana where you are.

[07:10:02]

KATHERINE BAUMGARTEN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF INFECTION CONTROL AND PREVENTION, OCHSNER HEALTH: We're seeing, as you mentioned, our E.D.s are crowded, our urgent cares are crowded, our hospitals are filling up with patients that are sick with COVID. And we know in our hospitals today 90 percent of those patients are unvaccinated.

KEILAR: And the ones that are vaccinated, is there something that they have in common or a trend with them?

BAUMGARTEN: So, we know in our vaccinated patients, they're less likely to be in the hospital. They are less likely to die. We have very few patients in our ICUs that are vaccinated, so we know that those that are unvaccinated are becoming more ill and are crowding our hospital systems.

We are still trying to make sure that we have enough staff but our staff are really stretched thin right now. We are filling wards. We've opened additional ICUs, additional hospital wards, over five over the past four weeks to take care of our COVID patients at this point.

We went from less than 100 patients across our system about six weeks ago to now over 800 patients across our system that are sick with COVID. We have no patients in the hospital right now that are sick from vaccines, zero.

KEILAR: Yes, that is a very good point. And then what are you seeing when it comes to children?

BAUMGARTEN: So, across Louisiana, we are seeing increased numbers of hospitalizations with children. Our hospital has seen a slight increase in the number of kids in our units and in our hospitals, but across our state, we are seeing increased numbers of children in the hospital. We had a 19-year-old that died here two weeks ago despite everything that we did. And that's disheartening. It's heartbreaking. No one should die from COVID at this point, especially not our kids.

And it's affecting our kids. We also know that our rates of positivity in our children has gone up significantly from less than 2 percent in our 0 to 19-year-olds about six weeks ago to now 23 percent positivity rate in our kids in the community in just six weeks' time.

KEILAR: Yes, that is a huge jump. Dr. Baumgarten, thank you so much for letting us know what is happening there. We know you're very much in the thick of it and we appreciate you taking the time.

BAUMGARTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, New York City, the first major U.S. population center to require proof of vaccination, at least one dose, at restaurants, fitness centers and indoor entertainment venues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): People are going to get a really clear message, if you want to participate in our society fully, you have got to get vaccinated. You have got to get vaccinated. It's time. All the answers, all the information is out there. You've seen over 160 million Americans get vaccinated safely. You've seen it make the difference. The only reason we're having the recovery is vaccination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining us now, Eli Klein, owner of the Eli Klein Art Gallery, and Jessie Wohlers, he's General Manager of Leyenda, a restaurant in Brooklyn. I had to work hard to say that correctly, Jessie. So, thanks so much for both of you for being with us.

I had the chairman of Equinox in here yesterday, Jessie, and he was telling me that Equinox was instituting a vaccine requirement for customers, anyone who wants to work out in the gym, and they polled customers and gym members and it was a wildly popular notion. So what are you hearing and how do you feel about this?

JESSIE WOHLERS, GENERAL MANAGER, LEYENDA BROOKLYN COCTELERIA, SUPPORTS NEW YORK CITY VACCINE MANDATE: Well so far we had a similar response from the general public. Anybody that we have spoken to in regards to reservations or parties or just general questions that we field through email or for -- through phone calls, at least, I don't know, maybe ten people a day are saying, oh, thank you so much, we really appreciate what you're doing fully vaccinated indoors. We feel more comfortable. We weren't going to go out, but now we know we have a safe space where we can go and just kind of relax a little bit.

And not to ostracize anybody, we still do -- we welcome everyone. But it's just if you're not vaccinated or if you do not have proof of vaccination, we're happy to accommodate people outside in our patio space. So, we're not saying, you know, you can't come in here, you can't be part of the festivities, but, you know, we do think it's a little bit more an incentive for New Yorkers to be a little bit more socially responsible.

BERMAN: The staff, do you feel safer?

WOHLERS: Absolutely. Our entire staff is vaccinated. We were vaccinated as soon as we could be. You know, the owners and I, we really tried to make a point to provide as much information as possible to our staff. We meet with our staff periodically, individually and collectively to find out what their feelings are to try to work through the trauma with them of the last year and a half. We take their comfort and safety extremely seriously. Yes, and we just want to make sure everybody is comfortable and we give everybody their own platform to kind of have that discussion with us.

[07:15:06]

BERMAN: Eli, you feel differently?

ELI KLEIN, OWNER, ELI KLEIN, OPPOSES NEW YORK CITY VACCINE MANDATE: Well, no, not necessarily. I mean, they're a business and their prerogative and I certainly support their ability to make rules. You know, would I make the same rules at my art gallery? You know, definitely not. And am I -- do I feel unsafe around unvaccinated people? No. I'm confident in my vaccine. It protects me. And I'm not worried if other people are vaccinated or not.

BERMAN: But you don't want this city-wide requirement?

KLEIN: Oh, absolutely not. I mean, I think there's no place for government to mandate that all restaurants force -- that all restaurants have a vaccine requirement or vaccine verification system --

BERMAN: For indoor seating?

KLEIN: Well, you say for indoor seating but --

BERMAN: It is for indoor seating. That's why I say it.

KLEIN: Right. But two nights ago, my wife's family, her parents are here from Indonesia, and they went to a restaurant here in Manhattan's West Village. They went to sit outside on the patio, and her parents were refused service because of their foreign vaccines that weren't sufficient enough because the whole entire restaurant was necessitated vaccines.

So, you know, that was an extraordinarily uncomfortable situation. My wife told me and I went to the restaurant and explained to them why we wouldn't be eating there again. This is a place that we've been to many times and a terrific restaurant in the West Village. I really -- I couldn't believe it. I think that we have to be very careful about this kind of vaccine status bigotry.

And while her restaurant has the ability to do whatever they want, you know, for me, personally, I also have the ability to avoid establishments that are, in a sense -- or not in a sense but in reality, you know, banning first kids --

BERMAN: They're not banning kids.

KLEIN: Okay. There was no clarification on 12 and under.

BERMAN: They say they're working through that but there's no indication whatsoever that kids will be banned.

KLEIN: There's no indication that they won't be banned.

BERMAN: I bet you. I bet your kids aren't going to be banned.

KLEIN: We'll see. They're unvaccinated, right?

WOHLERS: Kids are allowed in and people who are unvaccinated are allowed in.

BERMAN: And likewise, they say they're working through the rules with foreign vaccination. I'm sorry if that happened to your wife's parents but that's not part of the city-wide rules.

KLEIN: But they haven't approved the foreign vaccination yet. So, we're a city that, of course, needs tourism, and that would be necessary.

But another problem is -- and I got at this last time a bit is that the majority of black people in New York aren't vaccinated. And while this may be somewhat of an incentive, it still is absolutely a discriminatory policy.

BERMAN: 100 percent of all people of all races over the age of 12 are eligible for vaccines and they're free.

KLEIN: Right.

BERMAN: And abundant.

KLEIN: But that doesn't mean it's not discriminatory. You can apply that same logic to many different scenarios.

BERMAN: How do you argue that vaccinations, the act of vaccinations are discriminatory?

KLEIN: The fact that over 60 percent of black New Yorkers aren't vaccinated in and of itself by banning unvaccinated people from restaurants is discriminating against that population.

BERMAN: Jessie?

KLEIN: There's no question about it.

WOHLERS: Well, nobody is banning anybody from restaurants. I'm so sorry that your wife had that experience. That absolutely should not be indicative of what this all means. Now, obviously, each restaurant owners, management, staff are working through their own trauma of the last year-and-a-half of this crazy virus, but -- and I can only speak for my restaurant, I can only represent my restaurant and my staff, but we, you know, definitely don't discriminate against people that aren't vaccinated.

Obviously, people are free to make their own choices, and we do try to accommodate people no matter what. Children are obviously -- not obviously, but for us are going to be allowed into the restaurant. People that are unvaccinated can certainly come into the restaurant to use the restroom as long as they have masks. We even try to help guests that have been vaccinated but don't know how to sign up for the excelsior pass or anything like that, like I stood outside the other night and showed three different people how to download the app on their phone. It only takes a couple of minutes.

And we have signage everywhere that suggests that we're happy to provide masks, that we're happy to work through the process with people. And as the general manager, I put myself on the frontline to see how it's going to go, see what the response is, to be able to kind of mitigate any sort of issues and then report back to the staff and be like this is the rhetoric that you need to use.

[07:20:09]

You need to be kind. You need to be gentle. Nobody is supposed to make anybody feel uncomfortable.

KLEIN: What about restaurants in the poorer areas of New York where the majority -- where a lot of their customers are unvaccinated at disproportional rates? What happens when a substantial percentage when they're forced to require vaccine verification for their clientele to enter and they lose 20 percent of their business?

You know as a restaurateur the margins are small. These are restaurants that have been crushed throughout the city. And not everyone is in Manhattan or ritzy parts of Brooklyn. There're restaurants, stores and other establishments that simply can't afford to lose a substantial portion of their clientele and they have family support, they have staff.

WOHLERS: Absolutely.

KLEIN: This would absolutely destroy people. I have no problem with your ability to make the rules in your own restaurant, my problem is with the government mandating this sweeping vaccine verification rule that applies to every single restaurant in New York City.

WOHLERS: Well, what confuses me is that you seem very, very involved in what restaurants are doing as opposed to talking about your art gallery and how it affects you. Now, are you going to dine in these places? Are you suggesting that because you had one bad experience, this is going to be how it is for all New Yorkers? Because that's just not the case.

KLEIN: I will avoid this kind of vaccine status bigotry as much as possible. As I said --

WOHLERS: Well, that's fine. That's absolutely right. KLEIN: Absolutely. I mean, you asked --

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE), I will note and we have to run because we're out of time, he notes he thinks vaccinated people have been discriminated by against many of the policies they've seen by not accommodating their choice to be healthy and they're being forced in some instances to be side by side with the unhealthy. And it's bit of tail wags the dog, so that argument can go both ways.

Eli, Jessie, thank you both.

KLEIN: Thank you so much for having me.

WOHLERS: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: I appreciate it.

This morning, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is a man on an island as everyone, from President Biden to his neighboring governors, are calling on him to resign. What happens next?

KEILAR: Plus, if the midterm elections happened right now, would Democrats lose the House? A top Democrat thinks so. His warning to his party coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

KEILAR: The damning allegations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo have sparked calls for him to step down from President Biden and a growing movement toward possible impeachment. Of course, this is not the first time that a New York governor has been embroiled in controversy.

Laura Jarrett has this story for us. And, Laura, there's a bit of a pattern here.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's right, Brianna. Cuomo now joining a list of New York politicians accused of mistreating women in the past. But let's start with the latest allegations against Cuomo from the state attorney general's office. A disturbing portrait of a toxic work environment, a pattern of misogyny and sexual harassment over the course of years and a campaign of silence from his staff.

The governor has denied touching anyone inappropriately but has suggested some of his behavior may have been misconstrued and said he has no intention of stepping down. A man now on an island as the New York State Assembly set to meet with lawyers Monday to discuss the impeachment process for him.

The cultural and political climate for Cuomo different than it was former Governor David Patterson, New York's first black governor faced crumbling support after reports surfaced that Patterson and state police intervened in a domestic violence case against one of his senior aides who was accused of choking a woman in a twist of fate, then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was supposed to investigate it.

As in Cuomo's case, many Democratic allies tried to urge Patterson to step aside, that called the reports disturbing, including those in the White House at the time. He did drop out of the race for governor in 2010 but Patterson served out the remainder of his term.

Now, Patterson found himself in the governor's mansion in 2008 because his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned in the wake of his own scandal, the ambitious attorney who staked his reputation on being a zealous enforcer of the law became known as client number nine, his political career brought to a sudden halt after federal agents caught him on a wiretap arranging to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, D.C. for sex, a violation of federal sex trafficking laws.

So, to be sure, each of these situations is different, but the theme of powerful men being accused of abusing their position of authority and trust for their own ends has not gone away, sadly, Brianna.

KEILAR: Well, it has not. Thank you for that, Laura Jarrett.

BERMAN: That's quite a history.

KEILAR: It is.

BERMAN: All right. I want to bring in CNN Political Analyst and New York Times Washington Correspondent Maggie Haberman, who has covered New York politics and Andrew Cuomo for years. Also with us, U.S. Civil Rights Attorney and Advocate Nancy Erika Smith.

And, Nancy, I just want to start on the raw legalities here of where things stand because there's an investigation now in Albany County where some of these alleged acts took place. What kind of legal jeopardy is Governor Cuomo in this morning?

NANCY ERIKA SMITH, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY AND ADVOCATE: Well, Governor Cuomo is in legal jeopardy because some of the allegations allege sexual assault. You can't touch a woman's breast and butt and stomach without her consent. And so that's sexual assault, and that's a misdemeanor in New York. And it seems to be within the statute of limitations. So he may be criminally charged in addition to being impeached. He can also be sued by these women.

Many of my clients don't really want that.

[07:30:01]

They're forced into it when a man refuses to take responsibility for his actions when the employer here, the state of New York.