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U.S. Recommends Booster Shots; Fact Checking Biden's Interview on Afghanistan; Aaron Sorkin is Interviewed about Broadway's Return; Zion Clark Shares his Story in "The Human Factor." Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 19, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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


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[08:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Starting next month, COVID booster shots could be offered to fully vaccinated adults eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Health officials cite the vaccine's waning protection against infection over time and decreased effectiveness against the delta variant specifically, though the shots still offer strong protection against severe disease.

Let's talk about this now with CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

OK, Sanjay, tell us, you know, how -- what happened here? What changed so that we're now learning about needing boosters?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, nothing really changed in terms of the metrics that people have been following for a long time, which is how well do the vaccines work against hospitalizations and deaths. The vaccines still work really well.

What they are citing is data showing that there may be some signals, some safety signals showing that the vaccine is starting to lose some effectiveness against mild and moderate disease. And we can show you that. Now, for the first time we saw some data from the United States because before that it was primarily data from other countries.

But they looked at a couple of different groups here.

[08:35:00]

Health care workers, front line workers on the left, nursing homes on the right. And they found against, again, mild and moderate disease that there was some waning. And that waning was primarily due to delta and how delta has changed things.

The concern is that eventually that will translate into decreased effectiveness against severe disease as well. It hasn't happened, at least not at a significant enough level yet, but as one top health official said to me yesterday, quoting Wayne Gretzky, they want to skate to where the puck is, not where it's been. So they're trying to be a little preventive here. And, you know, that's the nature of vaccines. That's -- that's how they're sort of rationalizing this decision.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Gretzky should have patented that quote. He'd be -- he'd be rich right now.

GUPTA: It's used a lot, yes.

BERMAN: So, listen, Sanjay, the Biden administration, in a way this got overshadowed by the booster news, but new, aggressive action on some vaccine requirements, saying that they could withhold federal funds from nursing homes if these nursing homes don't require their staff to be vaccinated. What do you make of this decision?

GUPTA: Look, I -- just putting it all together and going back and looking at the data from last year, this makes a lot of sense. While the booster shots -- there was a lot of back and forth on it, this makes a lot of sense because this is where the most vulnerable patients are. I mean, you know, going back to the spring of last year, a third of deaths were occurring in these long-term care facilities.

Let me show you something that I think is interesting. Overall vaccination rates among nursing home residents high, around 82 percent. But staff in nursing homes, this may surprise you, 60 percent staff in nursing homes still higher than the general population in the country. But the staff are people who are interacting with some of the most vulnerable people throughout this entire pandemic.

What they also find is that while cases have gone up in the country certainly, between June and July they were measuring this, they went up in nursing homes at a smaller pace, a slower pace, 3.5 times roughly. But in those places where staff was not fully vaccinated, it was outpacing the country again among the most vulnerable people. If staff were vaccinated, it was slower than the rest of the country.

You've got to protect the most vulnerable in this country, and that means making sure the people around those vulnerable patients are vaccinated. So, you know, I think this makes a very, very important point, and it's a smart decision.

KEILAR: I do want to get to a really good viewer question that we have. This is Will from Santa Cruz. And he says, are the boosters going to be the same vaccine we got for the original strain of SARS- CoV-2? Wouldn't it make sense to boost with something closer to the circulating strain? So wondering if this is something that targets say like specifically the delta variant as opposed to the original?

GUPTA: Right. Right. So it's a great question. And the answer is that it is the same, the same vaccine. You're giving another dose of the same vaccine.

But it's an important question. There have been trials that have looked at variant specific vaccines. Right now they find that the current vaccine, again, protects well even if antibody levels sort of fade. If you boost up those antibodies, you should still have good protection.

But I've got to tell you, spending a lot of time with these vaccine makers over the past year, they can pivot quickly if they need to. If there is a variant that is starting to emerge that simply isn't protected by the current antibodies, they could pivot quickly. And when I say quickly, I mean within months as opposed to typically what takes years, you know, to try and create these.

KEILAR: Yes, well that is certainly good news. Everyone, of course, is concerned about variants.

Sanjay, thank you so much for answering our questions. We appreciate it.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

KEILAR: So, up next, more from the brand-new interview with President Biden that was released this morning. We're going to fact check what he said about nation building in Afghanistan.

BERMAN: And New York City getting ready to welcome back Broadway shows. Aaron Sorokin joins us live.

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KEILAR: President Biden speaking out about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in a just-released interview. The president saying that America's mission was to make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan for a base and not for nation building purposes.

Let's listen.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Begin to morph into the notion that instead of having a counterterrorism capability, to have small forces in the air or in the region to be able to take on al Qaeda if it tried to reconstitute, we decided to engage in nation building. In nation building. That never made any sense to me.

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KEILAR: All right, let's take a look at that with our resident fact checker Daniel Dale.

OK, Daniel, check it.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: President Biden's suggestion that he never supported the idea of nation building in Afghanistan is just not true. In fact, early in this war, he was one of the U.S. Senate's leading advocates of the idea of nation building in Afghanistan.

Listen, for example, to something he said in a 2002 speech.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (February 4, 2002): History is going to judge us very harshly, I believe, if we allow the hope of a liberated Afghanistan to evaporate because we are fearful of the phrase "nation building" or we do not stay the course. A robust multinational force helping the nation and Afghan government extend authority to all its borders is a wise investment by the world.

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DALE: And that's just one example. In a 2004 speech he said more broadly that nation building he said is a four letter word under the Bush administration, but Biden said he believes it's an absolute prerequisite for the 21st century.

Now people will say, oh, you're going after him for a 20-year-old view. He's entitled to --

KEILAR: They are saying that, right, his -- his supporters.

DALE: Yes, they say -- they say he's entitled to change his mind. Look, we're not -- we're not going after him for changing his mind or believing something 20 years ago. I'm just saying, as a fact checker, it's not true that he was always opposed to this concept.

KEILAR: There was also something else that stood out to you, and that was the 3,000 number when he was talking about Afghan troops.

DALE: That's right. Look, this is a figure that's been used by -- for a lodge time by the U.S. military, by think tanks and so on. But experts told me it's significantly inflated. Number one, it includes not only Afghan troops, but the Afghan police, more than 100,000 of them. Number two, this Afghan force was long plagued by the problem of so-called ghost troops.

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Those are no-show people who are just listed on the salary rolls to -- so some corrupt person could collect the money. They weren't actually fighting.

Number three, there was huge turnover in the Afghan force. So experts tell me the actual size of the Afghan force, before dissolution, was somewhere in the neighborhood of 150,000 to 200,000, not the 300,000 number President Biden keeps using to make that force sound more impressive than it actually was.

KEILAR: Yes, that is quite a difference.

Daniel, thank you so much for looking at that for us.

DALE: Thank you.

KEILAR: We do have some more on our breaking news.

The president also disputes that his military advisers told him to keep some troops in Afghanistan.

BERMAN: And Broadway gearing up to reopen with some strict, new COVID rules. Oscar and Emmy winner Aaron Sorokin joins us next.

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BERMAN: The We Love NYC Homecoming Concert takes place on the Great Lawn in New York's Central Park on Saturday. You, of course, can see it right here on CNN.

And that's just the beginning. Next month Broadway shows reopen because, as they say, the show must go on.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come this fall, we are turning the lights back on.

These are the houses of the greatest storytellers in the world. It's here that a song can lift you off the ground, here that a scene can put you on the edge of your seat, here where a single moment can bring tears to your eyes, put a lump in your throat, or make you feel a foot taller. And it's here where a simple invocation --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All rise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will make you shiver.

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BERMAN: All rise.

That's just a small piece of a powerful PSA heralding the return of Broadway, written by Aaron Sorokin, playwright of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which making its own return to the stage on October 5th.

Welcome to NEW DAY. Great to have you here.

I get chills when I see people on stage --

AARON SORKIN, PLAYWRIGHT, "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD" ON BROADWAY: Good -- good to be here.

BERMAN: Right now because I've missed it so much for the last year and a half. Why was it important for you to get involved with this effort?

SORKIN: I was asked, along with Bartlett Sher, the director of "To Kill a Mockingbird," to make a PSA to get people excited about Broadway coming back, to get people excited about being part of an audience again, which is something we haven't had for a year and a half.

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We've -- that experience, that shared experience of the electricity when the house lights go down, of everybody laughing at the same time, of everybody silent at the same time, gasping at the same time, cheering at the same time, it's an experience you can't get from your laptop.

KEILAR: Yes, and "Mockingbird" is -- I mean it's iconic. You -- you just -- I think no one -- there's no empty seats. There have been no empty seats as people have -- have gone to see it. And I just wonder, you know, as you're looking towards rehearsals starting here in the next month, how is the cast feeling? They must just be elated.

SORKIN: Yes, elated is an understatement. We -- you're right, that we -- the play had played for 15 months without playing to an empty seat. Then on March 11th all of Broadway had to turn its lights off. It was, needless to say, economically devastating. Not just for people who work in theaters, but for the, you know, the restaurants, the hotels, cab drivers, hot dog vendors, anyone who depends on the numbers of people who come to New York just for the theater.

As for the cast and crew, we've kept in touch with each other over the last year and a half. But in just a couple of weeks we get to go back into a rehearsal room and kind of open the play all over again. And we're incredibly excited. I'm sure that the other shows are just as excited.

BERMAN: What, if any, trepidation do you have about getting back into that crowded room for rehearsal or that crowded theater for the actual performances, you know, given the rise of the delta variant?

SORKIN: I have no trepidation. Everyone in our building, from the ticket takers, to the ushers, to the cast and the crew, to the audience will be vaccinated. So the safest place in New York City you can be standing will be a Broadway theater.

KEILAR: I just wonder, overall, Aaron, what you think as we have seen over the last year and longer now this politicization of the pandemic.

SORKIN: It's mind-blowing to me. I simply don't get it. That -- that -- that -- I don't understand why people won't listen to doctors or why they think it's some kind of government plot to get more in your business. And it's killing people. And it's -- it's -- it's causing economic calamity.

BERMAN: I have to say that "The Trial of Chicago 7" was one of the things I watched during the pandemic.

SORKIN: Yes.

BERMAN: You know, so thank you for giving us something to hold onto.

What's next for you?

SORKIN: Oh, that's nice of you, thanks.

What's next for me? I have a film coming out in December called "Being the Ricardos." It's about the relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

But more immediately, like I said, we go back into rehearsal with "Mockingbird" September 5th. We open October 5th. And we open with Jeff Daniels, the original Atticus. We open with Celia Keenan-Bolger, who won a Tony Award for playing Scout.

BERMAN: She was great.

SORKIN: It's going to be incredibly exciting.

And if you just don't mind my adding, what you showed at the beginning of the segment was just a slice of the PSA that we did. If -- anybody who wants to see the whole thing, you can see it across our social media platforms, "To Kill a Mockingbird" on Broadway. You can see it on CNN's website. I think it will put a lump in your throat.

KEILAR: Even just that snippet did. You stole my promo, Aaron, because I was going to tell people all about it, I promise, because it's amazing and we want people to see it.

And we really appreciate you coming on to talk with us this morning ahead of this very exciting reopening. So, thank you.

SORKIN: It's my pleasure. Sorry for stealing your opening.

KEILAR: No, that's -- hey, it's your promo. I'm fine with it.

SORKIN: Thank you.

KEILAR: I just -- I hope people will get a chance to look at it. It is very special.

Thanks, Aaron.

BERMAN: It's on -- it's on their social media platform and the CNN site.

SORKIN: Thanks so much for having me on. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: Aaron Sorokin, stepping on your lines, Brianna Keilar, wear -- wear it with honor.

KEILAR: I'm OK with it. Fine with it.

BERMAN: Wear it with pride.

And a programming note, join CNN this weekend for the "We Love New York City: The Homecoming Concert," that's Saturday starting at 5:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

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[08:58:58]

KEILAR: Wrestling gave this athlete a sense of peace during his rough childhood in today's "The Human Factor."

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ZION CLARK, PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE: The feeling of going down the straightway on 100 meter is electrifying. The only thing I'm thinking is, move, move, move, move, move. And I'm just there racing on the track. I don't see anybody next to me. I don't hear the crowd. I just see the light at the end of the tunnel and I try to get there as fast as I can.

I am a professional track athlete. I'm a high-level wrestler.

The speed I usually top out on the track is about 20, 21 miles an hour.

Currently I'm training for the world championships for track and field and for wrestling.

Working out and being an athlete in general helps keep my spine safe, my body healthy.

Caudual Regression Syndrome is what I was born with. I went through a couple surgeries to straighten my spine. I had to go through a lot of therapy.

I went into foster care for the next 17 years of my life. I suffered a lot of mental abuse, a lot of physical abuse, which I still have scars from to this day.

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I was adopted by the time I was 18.

My mother has changed me in so many