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Omicron Variant Continues to Spread Rapidly Through U.S.; President Biden to Give Speech on Measures being Taken to Combat Spread of Omicron Variant; Senator Joe Manchin Says He Cannot Support Build Back Better Legislation in Senate. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 20, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00]

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And they're still calling for a full, fair, and transparent investigation.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly not the end of this story. Will Ripley, appreciate it, thank you.

NEW DAY continues right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, December 20th. I'm John Berman. Brianna is off. Erica Hill with me this morning. Great to have you here.

HILL: Good morning.

BERMAN: So we have a wave of new COVID cases in the United States this morning, particularly here in the northeast. Mountain-like spikes. But new questions about what that means. What does a wave of new cases mean in the age of vaccinations? And we are getting a dose of good news this morning. Moderna reports preliminary data shows its booster shot significantly increased antibody levels. It comes as experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci are warning about the impact of the Omicron variant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: This virus is extraordinary. It has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days. Right now, in certain regions of the country, 50 percent of the isolates are Omicron, which means it's going to take over. It is going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Right now, the average number of daily COVID cases being reported in the U.S., 130,000. That's up from an average of 70,000 new cases just last month. New York seeing an average of 16,000 new cases each day, that's up 154 percent in less than a week. And the COVID surge has New York City's New Year's Eve celebration plans up in the air. The mayor says they will decide this week on whether to go ahead with the Times Square ball drop but no decision has been made yet. Tomorrow President Biden is expected to announce new steps to fight

COVID and specifically Omicron, and is likely to issue, we're told, a stark warning for unvaccinated Americans when it comes to this winter.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joining us now live this morning from the White House. So a lot of anticipation in terms of these remarks set for not tonight, Jeremy, but tomorrow.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Erica. With coronavirus cases surging around the country and a lot of uncertainty in the American public around what this next chapter of the pandemic actually means, President Biden returning this morning from his Delaware home. He will meet with his coronavirus team in the Oval Office this afternoon to discuss some new measures that the president is expected to announce tomorrow in a speech where the president is expected, according to the White House, to deliver a stark warning, particularly to the unvaccinated, about what kind of severe illness and death awaits them in this winter as coronavirus cases surge on the backs of this Omicron variant.

At the same time, just as the president did last Thursday, the president not only issuing a stark warning but also a message of optimism to those who are vaccinated and to those who are boosted, urging people to get their shots because, particularly with that third booster shot, Americans are well-protected from serious illness and death. That will be the president's message. And of course, we're waiting to see exactly what steps the president announces tomorrow. So far, the White House has been resisting going anywhere in the direction of lockdowns or shutdowns. Erica?

HILL: Jeremy Diamond, appreciate it, thank you.

BERMAN: Joining us now, CNN medical analyst and Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Georgia Washington University, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Dr. Reiner, we are seeing this huge rise in cases. What do you think it means, and what do you think it means we need to be doing?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it means our hospitals are going to fill in parts of this country rapidly. But it means different things to different people. For the 30 percent of the country that is fully vaccinated and boosted, it probably doesn't mean a lot. It means that you either won't get infected, or if you get infected, you'll have either mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. If you're fully vaccinated, or what we used to call fully vaccinated, but not boosted, you are more susceptible to infection. Probably still protected against severe illness.

If you are relying on prior infection as your superpower, you are mistaken. You are not protected against this variant. And if you are unvaccinated, you will absolutely get infected sometime in the next six weeks.

HILL: So unvaccinated absolutely get infected sometime in the next six weeks, as you said. Do we have any sense of whether that's more of an Omicron or a Delta infection?

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Because I know right now even though Delta may still be dominant, we're seeing the way Omicron is increasing, but we don't have good real time data on the split at any given moment in terms of what we're seeing. So how much does that factor in?

REINER: You're right, Erica, we don't. We heard this morning that new cases in Houston, for instance, being admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital, are overwhelmingly 80 percent Omicron. I suspect that the big wave coming across the northeast is increasing every day with Omicron.

But whether we face simply Omicron over the next six weeks, or whether it's sort of a dual hit from both variants, the bottom line is that if you are unvaccinated, you are likely to get infected. It will not be safe for you to be in public in this country in the next several weeks if you are unvaccinated. That's the message the president, I'm sure, will tell the country.

The other message I hope the president tells the country is that you are no longer fully vaccinated in our current variant environment if you are not boosted. And I'd like to see the federal government start to surge teams around the country to increase the capacity of cities to boost people, because if you go into a pharmacy now and you are trying to get boosted, you'll find that there's a substantial wait.

I also want the president tomorrow to announce a new federal plan to make rapid testing more widely available and completely free to all Americans, so I hope he addresses that as well, because again, if you go into a pharmacy in most parts of the northeast or mid-Atlantic, where I live, it's impossible to find rapid testing. And they're an important tool to keep our schools and businesses open this winter.

BERMAN: This is what the White House has said, Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about getting every American a test before, and this was the response a few weeks ago.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not just make them free and give them out and have them available everywhere?

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Should we send one to every American?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe.

PSAKI: Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost, and then what happens after that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The bottom line, Dr. Reiner, is anyone who tried to get a test this weekend knows, it's next to impossible. You go around to the drugstores here in New York and they all have signs that say we don't have them. REINER: Right, and everyone needs them. So I had an upper respiratory

tract infection a couple weeks ago. And I work in a hospital. I tested myself every day for four consecutive days. I was negative all four days, but I wasn't going to go to work if I tested positive. There are non-COVID infections that circulate every winter. People are going to feel ill. People need to understand whether they have COVID, particularly in this more contagious environment of Omicron.

Every home needs a bunch of these tests. If a child in your child's classroom is out with COVID, the whole class doesn't have to quarantine, but all the kids have to test every day. That's the new sort of central element of this test to stay program. But that's the same way businesses can stay open. Every employee tests to stay if somebody else in the establishment is positive. This administration has been completely tone deaf on it. It was slow to boost the country, and now they're slow to test the country. I want to see the president acknowledge this tomorrow.

HILL: We will see what is said and what action is taken. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, always appreciate your time. Thank you.

REINER: My pleasure.

HILL: West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin caught the White House off guard by saying he cannot continue with the Build Back Better legislation after months of negotiations. Here's how he laid it out on FOX News.

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SEN. JOE MANCHIN, (D-WV): I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You're done? This is a no?

MANCHIN: This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So is this the end of the line for what has been billed as Joe Biden's hallmark piece of legislation? Joining us now, Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky. He's a chairman of the House Budget Committee and the primary sponsor of the Build Back Better Act. It's good to have you with us this morning.

REP. JOHN YARMUTH, (D-KY): Thanks.

HILL: This statement in response to Senator Manchin was scathing, which is perhaps putting it mildly, which read, in part, that his comments were a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator's colleagues in the House and the Senate, said the administration would continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word. When we look at this, it seems that Speaker Pelosi was pinning some

hopes on the fact that he said, quote, "this legislation."

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We know Senator Schumer still wants to bring this for a vote in January, but realistically this morning, what are the chances? Where does this stand? Is it done?

YARMUTH: Erica, I still think there's a really good chance that we'll get something done. What's frustrating, there are so many frustrating things about Senator Manchin's position, but what frustrates me most is that he's using discredited Republican talking points to make his case for not supporting the bill. This bill is not inflationary. He talks about fears of inflation. We've had numerous economists from across the spectrum saying that there's no inflationary impact from the Build Back Better act.

He talks about deficits. This is almost entirely paid for in the first 10 years and actually provides a surplus in the second 10 years. There's no real significant addition to the debt. He talks about supply chains. I have no idea what he's talking about.

So I wish he would tell us what he wants, what he would be satisfied with. We've never gotten an answer from him. And meanwhile 222 Democrats in the house and 49 Democrats in the Senate have been working in good faith for six months or longer trying to get this very important piece of legislation done. I think a bit of arrogance on the part of in the Manchin who thinks he should have total say as to what gets passed.

HILL: How do you think the White House was caught so seemingly off guard here?

YARMUTH: I'm not sure. I think basically they felt that they were negotiating in good faith. One of the mistakes a lot of people are making, particularly in the media, talking about Joe Manchin's long history with Joe Biden and how they were colleagues. They never served together in the Senate. Joe Manchin's only been there since 2010. So I don't think there really is much background between the two.

HILL: Although, the president himself has said that he thought he would come around, right. So we're also hearing that from the president. He said throughout the course of these negotiations he thought it could happen.

You said you think something can get done here. So what is that something? Are we talking about smaller pieces? Your colleague Tim Ryan was just on, told John Berman maybe that's something to look at. But when we look at how this bill passed in the House without Republican support, how confident are you that there could even be Republican support in the Senate, even if this is broken down into smaller pieces?

YARMUTH: I'm not confident that there will be any Republican support for it in the Senate, and that's the difficult part. Now, we could do what some of us actually supported doing in the

House, which was basically to focus on three or four significant provisions, one of them being, as Tim Ryan, said the extension of the child tax credit, early pre-k, but whatever we choose, and live to fight another day for the rest of them. But that's a possibility.

But the reason we were in the position of having to cut back the duration of some of this funding for certain elements of the plan was because Joe Manchin made us. And so he made us go from originally $3.5 trillion to basically half of that. And the decision was we'll just cut back the duration of the funding. Now he complaining about the fact that we cut back on the duration of the funding. So again --

HILL: Sorry.

YARMUTH: Go ahead, I'm sorry.

HILL: I was going to say, to your point, do you think he's been given too much power here from the beginning?

YARMUTH: Well, he has, but that's the nature of the beast with a 50- 50 Senate. What I've been saying for the entire year is, look, we're all Joe Manchin. Every one of us in the House and Senate is essentially Joe Manchin because in the House when we pass it, we can only lose three votes. And so we all had that essentially kind of veto power. And when you have that power, you have to be a little bit more responsible.

And again, I think the fact that Joe Manchin comes from a state which is 1.9 million people out of 333 million, even though West Virginia would benefit immeasurably from this, but he has a responsibility to look to the whole country, and I think that again is showing disingenuousness that we're seeing out of him.

HILL: I do want to get your take, quickly. I know you're home in Kentucky right now. We just heard, though, Congressman Jason Crow, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker have all tested positive for COVID. We are seeing this surge across the country. How concerning is it to you? Are you changing any holiday plans?

YARMUTH: We haven't decided to change any plans yet. Everybody in my family is fully vaccinated and boosted. So I think we'll probably go ahead. But it is concerning when you see all these breakthrough cases. I'm glad that the symptoms for Senators Booker and Warren seem to be mild, and that seems to be a case generally. But I saw a basketball game being broadcast from Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Saturday.

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Unfortunately, my Louisville Cardinals lost to the Western Kentucky team, but it was a packed house and virtually no one had mask on. I mean, I would say 98 percent of them were maskless, and that's an area that doesn't have a very high vaccination rate.

So, I'm really concerned about how people are taking this a bit cavalierly, and we are in for some trouble unless people start acting more responsibly.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman John Yarmuth, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

YARMUTH: Thanks, Erica.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening now, stock futures lower this morning in the face of growing threats to the global economy. CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans joins me now.

Romans, you're watching this. The market not happy.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it looks like a rough start to the short trading week, John. You can blame rising COVID cases ahead of the Holidays and that big no from Senator Manchin.

Take a look at U.S. futures right now. Stock index futures down, they're off their lows, but still stock index futures are down. Right there, you're seeing global markets -- global markets closed lower. Europe -- Asia did. Europe opened lower and their stock index futures down about 400. They had been down a little bit worse than that.

Oil prices are tumbling, too, John. That's what happens when there are threats to the global recovery. So that's the COVID part of this equation. It's added gloom to last week's losses, but some context here, John. Stocks are up sharply for the year, don't forget. The S&P 500 up 23 percent, the NASDAQ up nearly 18 percent.

Now, new this morning, the demise of Build Back Better, so it seems has Goldman Sachs trimming its forecast for the U.S. economy. Goldman now expects GDP to grow at an annual pace, two percent in the first quarter next year. That's down from its earlier estimate of three percent.

They've got similar cuts in the second and third quarters. Goldman economists warn this: A failure to pass BBB has negative growth implications, and they named particularly that expiration of the refundable Child Tax Credit.

Economists at Goldman don't see it becoming easier to pass Build Back Better in the coming weeks because the inflation that Senator Manchin is worried about is quote, "likely to persist," the Goldman economists say, although Erica and John, it's interesting, they say for investors, it's not all so negative because there wouldn't be those corporate tax increases that would be needed to help pay for it, and it would be good news for drug companies and biotech companies because this bill would have, right, it would have limited the sky high prices for some drugs that the middle class has to bear.

BERMAN: Interesting. Interesting who likes the fact that it went down, or at least it's on hold, shall we say? Christine Romans, thank you very much.

HILL: Up next, the long lines for COVID testing in New York. The city's top doctor joins us live with the latest on the case surge.

BERMAN: Plus, the Republican plan for the Supreme Court, if they retake the Senate next year, and why were third graders told to reenact scenes from the Holocaust in school.

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BERMAN: As COVID surges across the country, New York is breaking records. For the third day in a row, the State has seen record positive case numbers totaling more than 22,000 as of Saturday. In New York City, some people waited in line for hours to get tested as omicron anxiety sets in ahead of the holidays.

Joining me Dr. David Chokshi, New York City's Health Commissioner. Doctor, thank you so much for being with us. We've seen a large increase in the number of new cases in New York City, what about the number of severe cases though, has that number have been rising in a corresponding fashion?

DR. DAVID CHOKSHI, HEALTH COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY: Well, first, John, thanks for having me, and you're asking the critical question. We've seen cases and test positivity increase sharply, but as yet, we have not seen the same thing with respect to the markers of severe disease, particularly hospitalizations.

Right now there are about a thousand people hospitalized with COVID-19 across New York City. That's about a quarter of where we were at the peak of last winter's wave and less than a tenth of where we were in the spring of 2020.

BERMAN: We'll put that up on the screen so people can see so they understand that hospitalizations do tend to lag case numbers, but we don't know if that's going to hold in this age of vaccinations. That top number though people are seeing is a huge spike in the number of unvaccinated people hospitalized.

The bottom two numbers are unvaccinated and overall, but we are seeing an increase in unvaccinated hospitalizations, yes?

CHOKSHI: Yes, precisely. Look, omicron does present a new threat, and it is one that we're still learning about, but the threat is likely to be the greatest for people who remain unvaccinated. And the fact that New York City has built up our vaccination rate, we have over 70 percent of our entire population that is fully vaccinated, it will help. It's a seawall against the coming omicron wave, and we have to continue to building upon that with booster doses and getting as many people vaccinated as possible.

BERMAN: As of now, the hospitals are not being taxed, capacity is okay as of now.

CHOKSHI: Yes, that's correct. We're watching it closely. We're making adjustments as we need to, but right now, we are in a solid position. BERMAN: All right, let me ask you about testing, because we all saw

the lines this weekend, many of us that are on the New York City area tried to get some of the instant tests at pharmacies, and they're just not there. How much of a gap is there between need and availability? I mean, between the need and what you have?

CHOKSHI: We did see unprecedented demand over the last few days. We've ramped up testing. We're doing more testing per capita than just about any other place in the world, and we're going to continue to ramp it up to be able to meet it.

For example, we're adding additional testing sites throughout this week. We have a total of 89 across the five boroughs of the city, just in terms of city sites and we're also distributing half a million rapid test kits through community-based organizations. We'll keep building upon that to meet the demand in the coming days.

BERMAN: Do you need more from the Federal government in terms of testing?

CHOKSHI: Yes, we do, particularly rapid test kits. You know, we're in close touch with our Federal partners. They're aware of the need and we do expect to get more this week. This supply is particularly important because we want people to test if they're feeling ill because it helps them to isolate and that helps us to break the chains of transmission.

BERMAN: Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is going to come up with an answer about New Year's Eve in Time Square before Christmas over the next few days, but also noted, it's outdoors and vaccine required. Still, though, you're putting a lot of people in one space who are going to go out to bars and other areas after. How can you keep that safe with the number of cases we're now seeing?

CHOKSHI: Yes, this is something that we're discussing. And as the Mayor has said, you know, we'll follow the situation, we will follow the numbers and what the data and the science tell us.

It is outdoors. Everyone is required to be fully vaccinated. You know, people wearing masks, of course, can add another layer of protection and we'll make the decisions that we need to, to help keep people safe.

BERMAN: I know we're about to get into the Christmas break, but a lot of parents are concerned about schools after the New Year and after all the closures that they went through before. Can you commit that schools, you'll find a way to get schools open after the New Year?

CHOKSHI: We are very committed to keeping schools open and keeping them safe. Look, I'm a doctor and a father and I believe in this both from the perspective of how important in-person learning is for educational and social development, but also for the health of our children.

New York City has led the way time and again with respect to reopening schools safely and we're very committed to that even as we grapple with new challenges during the omicron wave.

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BERMAN: Dr. David Chokshi, I know you're going to have a busy few weeks. So I appreciate you joining us this morning. Thank you very much.

CHOKSHI: Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, a teacher in trouble after a Holocaust reenactment at an elementary school.

HILL: And did Joe Manchin just permanently derail a major part of President Biden's agenda? We'll take a look at what's next for Democrats.

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HILL: Senator Joe Manchin sending announcement he is a no vote that may have doomed President Biden's Build Back Better Bill, so the question this morning is, can the White House still hammer out some sort of compromise to bring this over the finish line?

BERMAN: Let's ask Jackie Alemany author of "The Washington Post's" "The Early 202" Newsletter and journalist Mara Schiavocampo. She is also host of the "Run, Tell this" podcast.

You know, Jackie, this is a tough moment for the White House this morning. They were surprised by this, caught off guard by this and then issued this scathing reaction saying that Manchin broke a commitment to this, so where do things stand this morning?

JACKIE ALEMANY AUTHOR OF "THE WASHINGTON POST'S" "THE EARLY 202": That's exactly right, John, and I don't think you need me to tell you how frustrated the White House and all of Joe Manchin's Democratic colleagues are right now. That frustration is palpable. It was very clear in the statement released by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki yesterday and from many of the public statements from even Joe Manchin's moderate Democratic colleagues right now.

I think the White House is currently huddling to figure out how to recalibrate. There's also a feeling that is Joe Manchin actually final in his decision? He has a tendency as one Senate Democrat phrased to me last week to be the boy who cried wolf, to flip flop and waiver on these decisions that are often impulsive and at the spur of the moment.

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