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CDC Says, Omicron Variant Now Dominant in U.S. Causing 73 Percent of New Cases; Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Blames White House Staff for Breakdown of Build Back Better Talks; Biden to Announce Delivery of 500 Million Free At-Home Rapid Tests. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 21, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, including cat lovers. It is Tuesday, December 21st. Brianna is off. Erica Hill joins me this morning. Boy, I'm sure you feel lucky about that this morning.

ERICA HILL, CNN NEW DAY: Nice, I do. Listen, I'm not the one who is making comments about cats. You'll have to deal with that on your own.

BERMAN: All right. Major news this morning, omicron has now overtaken delta as the most dominant COVID strain in the United States, making up 73 percent of new infections, 73 percent. This new CDC data underscores just how quickly the omicron variant has spread across the country since it was first identified here just three weeks ago.

In New York, there has been a three-fold increase in COVID cases in just the past week. New Jersey has seen the highest number of daily positive cases in almost a year. There is good news, both New York and New Jersey are not seeing a drastic increase in hospitalizations just yet. A few minutes ago, we spoke to a hospital official here in New York who says, stay calm, this isn't 2020. He says they still have plenty of hospital capacity.

HILL: Yes, telling you it is not a crisis. Those are good things to hear.

President Biden, meantime, later today, he's going to lay out a new strategy to fight the COVID resurgence, this strategy centering on testing. The president will announce the purchase of half a billion at-home rapid tests along with a plan to distribute those tests, free of charge, to Americans who request them.

His other important message, the fully vaccinated Americans don't need to cancel their holiday plans despite the rising case count.

Joining us now, Dr. Peter Hotez, he's Co-Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and Dean of the National School of Tropical Medical at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez, always good to see you.

Let's start with what we're going to hear today from the president. 500 million, half a billion tests, not going to be here today, right, but the fact that there is now a plan to get them out there, what more do you want to see out of that plan?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT AT TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Well, first of all with the testing, which is amazing we've never gotten that fully loaded like it should be, we should have home kits available in every home for a very low cost or possibly distributed for free, a couple of dollars a kit. And it is amazing that that still hasn't happened. And remember how fast this is moving. So, lot of what I'm hearing about the plans today are talking about the middle of January. This is peaking now. And so that's going to be a -- that's a weak link.

I think what we are really looking at with this version of the epidemic -- each wave has its own unique characteristics. In this case, we've got one, two, three punch. We still have delta. Delta has not gone away. And what's happened in the U.K., it is not that it's been entirely displaced by omicron, it is still lingering and moving alongside omicron.

So, delta is still with us. Omicron, of course, is accelerating. This is the most transmissible variant of concern we've seen by a lot. Delta was more transmissible than alpha, alpha more than the original lineage. Omicron is the king of transmissible virus agents, almost up there with measles at this point. So, that means this is going to circulate at a level like we've never seen before and possibly linger in the atmosphere for periods of time.

And then the third piece is the vulnerability of our health care workforce. Even if they're vaccinated, we know that two doses really does nothing for symptomatic infection. With omicron, in terms of actually getting sick or getting cases, but it does help a little bit the severity of illness. And even three doses, when you get that third immunization, and this, to me, is one of the most important point because a lot of health care workers have gotten their booster, the protection is not very long lasting.

So, even though it will keep you out of the hospital, once you get that third immunization, it goes from 70 percent to 75 percent protective against symptomatic illness, according to new data from the U.K. government, but it quickly descends quickly down to 30 percent protection after a couple months. So, yes, it is saving your lives, but those numbers are going to keep a lot of health care workers out of the workforce. And that's our weak link. That's our vulnerability, people are still getting sick and going into hospitals and our health care workers at home unable to come into work. So, how we fix that, that's the most important message we need to hear from the White House today.

BERMAN: And they are making troops available on request to help out, to help buttress sagging systems.

I will say it's little bit of a mixed bag. I spoke to a doctor from Cleveland last night who says they're in crisis mode already, that they're already overwhelmed and exhausted. However, a few minutes ago, we spoke to Michael Dowling, who runs one of the major hospital systems in New York State, Professor Hotez, who says they've got plenty of capacity at this point. They have 400 patients right now. [07:05:00]

They had a thousand last winter during the surge. They had 3,000 at the beginning of the pandemic. He says they don't see a crisis here in New York.

HOTEZ: Well, remember, it's still early on. Omicron just became the dominant variant. So, how it proceeds over the next couple of weeks is going to be the big question. For instance, here in Houston, Harris County, we just had our first death of an omicron patient.

So, I think we have to be really cautious in seeing how this happens. And, again, we have that big vulnerability of our health care workers. So, we're trying to look at what are some of the options, what are some of the levers we can pull and push if we have a lot of health care workers out of the workforce.

One of the things that I've proposed over the weekend, and I put it in a piece in the Los Angeles Times, is if protection is waning to 30 percent to 40 percent after a couple months after you get the third immunization, shouldn't we at least offer our health care workers the option of a second boost, which could raise up their virus- neutralizing antibodies and ensure that they stay in the workforce at least for the next couple months? I don't know if the Biden administration will go there today, but we do have other options, because, remember, there are other vulnerabilities.

The other one is it looks like two of the major monoclonal antibodies we've been using are no longer effective against the omicron variant because of all the mutations in the spike protein. That is a vulnerability. Paxlovid, which looks like an excellent new antiviral drug out of Pfizer, is still not going to be ready in quantity in time for this epidemic.

So, unfortunately, it came faster than we thought. Usually, we have a about four to six-week window period before you see that big rise in the United States following the rise in the U.K. Unfortunately, that's happened here around the time of the holidays.

HILL: We'll be watching to see. And, again, we should be hearing, speaking of the holidays, from the president later today, that he's expected to say don't cancel your holiday plans if you are fully vaccinated. Dr. Hotez, I always appreciate your insight. Thank you.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

HILL: President Biden set to deliver a speech to the nation today, as we mentioned. So, this will be about the ongoing rapid spread of the omicron variant.

Joining us to discuss, CNN Political Director, Host of the CNN Political Briefing Pod podcast, David Chalian. David, great to see you this morning.

So, what is the tone, right, that the president needs to strike here? He needs to, you know, sort of light a fire in some ways, but this is likely the last thing that he wants to be doing leading into Christmas as the commander-in-chief, be making this speech.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. I think if you had asked White House aides, Erica, how would you design this final time in his first year that he sort of goes and addresses the American public? It would not be to once again plead for people to get shots or plead for patience as it relates to yet another surge in coronavirus cases. And yet that's where this president finds himself.

Remember, we're just three weeks past when President Biden gave a big COVID speech about his action plan to combat a winter of COVID. And here we are, three weeks later, and he needs to do it again to keep up with the facts on the ground of what's happening with omicron.

So, this is not at all the way that this White House wanted to close out Biden's first year, but it is worth noting that this is a presidency that is going to be completely defined by how this virus eventually, hopefully, for all of us, gets behind us. And so it's not like the president has any choice but to stay in communication with the American people on it.

BERMAN: I will say, to me, it really is the most complicated part of the pandemic, in terms of understanding exactly where it is because there's mixed messaging. And the president personally has to deal with some of this as well. He is now in close contact with a White House staffer who has tested positive. The president was on Air Force One for a half hour, which is pretty close someone who's tested positive.

Since then, he's got two negative tests, the president does, but it goes to show where we are in this pandemic. But he is doubly vaccinated and boosted, so he has got to explain to the American people what you can do, what you can't do, what you should, what you shouldn't do, and how we're going to get through this.

CHALIAN: Exactly, John. And that mid-level staffer was on Air Force One, also fully vaccinated and boosted, and as you noted, tested negative before getting on the plane. So, it does complicate the messaging. There is no doubt about that.

Which is why, I think, as much as you're going to hear him urge everyone to get their boosters, talk about the need for at-home testing, to make sure you're keeping the vulnerable as safe as possible, you are also going to hear him try to convey this notion that if you are in a fully vaccinated and boosted environment, you should be able to proceed with Christmas plans. This is not a president who, in any way, wants to suggest that the country needs to return to March 2020 and shutting down in any way.

[07:10:04]

But you're right, I think that that invites quite a lot of mixed messaging.

It's also important to realize, this issue is Joe Biden's best issue politically, right? We just had a poll out last week. Of all the issues tested, this is the only issue where he has majority approval of the American people, 54 percent approve of the way he has handled coronavirus. Everything else, including his overall job approval, is upside down, with the majority of Americans disapproving.

So, this is one area that, though it is an exhausted American people around this virus, it is an American electorate that seems to be, at least the majority of it, with Biden's leadership on this issue.

HILL: You know, we're all tired of the virus, right, but we hear all the time from health experts, we're done with the virus, the virus isn't done yet with us. How much concern is there within the White House that, you know, you mentioned the messaging challenges, right, of what the winter could bring? So, the president trying to strike a certain tone today, be somewhat optimistic, right, for folks heading into the holidays. But the reality is this virus is changing. And we don't know what variant is going to come next.

So, how much concern is there within the white house about what's coming down the pike in terms of COVID?

CHALIAN: Well, what you said right there is the fear of what we don't know, right? I mean, Kamala Harris, the vice president, recently gave an interview saying that we -- the scientists and the federal government didn't know what was coming with delta and omicron. She tried to clean that up a bit afterwards, talking about sort of the specific mutations in the variants that the scientists didn't know about. But it's the fear of the unknown, that's first of all.

But you've heard the president's COVID team, Erica, set the expectations for a pretty intense winter of surging cases, perhaps at a pace that we haven't seen in the entirety of this pandemic, which is why they're going to try to keep the focus more on sort of severe illness and death and hopefully keeping those numbers limited because there is an American population, a swath of it, that is fully vaccinated, a smaller swath that is also boosted, but less focus on those overall case numbers and really try to say the purpose here of what the government is trying to accomplish is prevent severe illness and death.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about the former president who made some comments over the weekend about his own vaccination and booster status, which were notable, because he talked about it in the way he talked about vaccines, in general. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Take credit for it. Take credit for it. It's a great -- what we've done is historic. Don't let them take it away. Don't take it away from ourselves. You're playing right into their hands when you sort of are like, oh, the vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, he also went on to say that he is boosted, and he told people not to boo the fact that he is boosted. Maggie Haberman reached out to the current Trump team about why he was all of a sudden being public with his messaging on vaccines and boosters. And he replied with a handwritten note. This is what it said, must tell the truth, those words were underlined, and then very proud to have produced the three vaccines so quickly. Millions of lives saved worldwide. David?

CHALIAN: I mean, where was this President Trump when he was still in office, last year, at this point, as shots were going into arms, when he got the vaccine in private, not in public, not in any effort to convince, persuade the American people, his loyal supporters, John. We've never seen a politician with the kind of loyal base of support like Donald Trump has, that it was safe and effective, good enough for him, good enough for him now we're learning to get a booster even though just a couple weeks ago, he was saying he probably won't get a booster. But, of course he got a booster because, you know, Donald Trump understands the science and wants to people himself healthy.

But it was interesting to hear sort of what his diminution of the vaccine throughout this last year has brought, which is that crowd, a portion of it, started booing when he said he got the boosters. And, yes, he wanted to tamp that down, make that, oh, it's just a few people in the back. But we've seen how so many of his supporters have been vaccine resistant. If Donald Trump is now going to get on a mission to, as he wrote to Maggie Haberman, tell the truth about the science here, take credit for it and get out there in a concerted, repeated way of convincing his supporters to go get the shot, we should welcome that. That would be an enormous step forward for the battle against the virus.

BERMAN: Don't hold your breath though. David Chalian, great to see you. Thanks so much.

CHALIAN: You too. Thanks, guys.

HILL: Senator Joe Manchin still speaking with President Biden after that stunning rejection of the Build Back Better plan and the scathing statement in response. New reporting this morning on Manchin's counteroffer.

And a first for the January 6th committee, now requesting cooperation from a sitting lawmaker involved in the effort to overturn the election.

[07:15:04]

But will he comply?

BERMAN: And new details on the new White House plan to distribute half a billion free COVID tests to the American people. We're going to speak to Dr. Anthony Fauci about that and other measures being taken.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: A lot of talk about senator Joe Manchin in the wake of his comments Sunday morning. What about what he has to say for himself, heard from him yesterday on a West Virginia radio show, where he said the White House staff was responsible for stalled talks on Biden's Build Back Better plan. He also explained why, in the end, he could not support that sweeping economic plan. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV) (voice over): I'm not blaming anymore. I knew where they were, and I knew what they could and could not do. They just never realized it because they figure, surely that God, we can sure must've person. Surely we can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough. They'll just say, okay, I'll vote for anything. Just quit. Well, guess what? I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from where they are from. And they can just beat the living crap out of people and think they'll be submissive, period.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:20:02]

HILL: Joining me now is Hoppy Kercheval. He's a Host of MetroNews Talkline West Virginia Radio. He conducted that interview with Senator Joe Manchin. Hoppy, it's great to have you with us this morning.

I'm just curious. In this interview with Joe Manchin, did you notice a change at all in the senator's demeanor or his thoughts in terms of how Washington is these days?

HOPPY KERCHEVAL, HOST, METRONEWS TALKLINE WEST VIRGINIA RADIO: Let me answer yes and no. Manchin has always been a critic of Washington and the polarization. Manchin always wants a more bipartisan approach. So, that sounded familiar to me.

But, clearly, something happened, as you heard in that clip, Erica, something that ticked him off at somewhere along the line. And I think it has to do with what Manchin believes was a mischaracterization of his view on Build Back Better by White House staff. That was the -- I can't say specifically, but that was the impression I got, that that was sort of the straw that broke the camel's back after a lot of pressure had been exerted on him over the last couple months.

HILL: Is there still a window there? Do you think -- I mean, we know he presented this plan, right, to the White House, that had stripped out the child tax credit. Do you think there is still a desire on the part of Senator Manchin to get some of these programs through?

KERCHEVAL: Know this about Joe Manchin, as many people have said about him, Joe Manchin always wants to get to yes. He always wants to do a deal. So, yes, there's clearly -- I mean, in my opinion, there is clearly an avenue there. Maybe it is not for this, the Build Back Better Act, as it exists now, but what is it that can be accomplished?

Manchin always wants to try to figure out a way to do a deal, so I think it is probably, in Manchin's view, incumbent upon the White House and Democrats to come back and say, okay, we know we've reached an impasse here. What can we pass? And, again, try to negotiate with Manchin. He wants to negotiate. I can guarantee you that.

HILL: So, you know, this is often seen, understandably so, right through a more national lens, right, through D.C. lens of how are they negotiating or not negotiating with one another. But there in West Virginia, I'm curious, in Morgantown, for example, what is the discussion? Is the discussion about Joe Manchin maybe standing up to the rest of his caucus, right, is the discussion about what's in that bill, portions of that bill that could benefit folks in the area? Where are those discussions?

KERCHEVAL: Yes, that's a great question. There are two levels here. I mean, clearly, there is a discussion about what's in that that could benefit West Virginians, and there are some things in there, as Manchin acknowledged, that would benefit West Virginians.

But also, remember, this is a state that Donald Trump won by 40 points over Joe Biden and it's a state that is deeply red. It is a state that has kind of this inherent mistrust of Washington and the elites and of Democrats leadership. So, the texts I got yesterday during my show, a lot of them were to the effect of, you know, I wasn't sure about Joe Manchin. I thought he was going to cave. I've never trusted Manchin, but I appreciate him standing up to the president and to Democrats on this.

So, I think in West Virginia, not for everybody, but for the bulk of West Virginia, this has actually enhanced his standing in West Virginia.

HILL: Does it enhance his standing to have a strong relationship with the president?

KERCHEVAL: Not necessarily, because, again, Trump won the state by 40 points. So, look, Manchin is always threading this needle, right? I mean, he's the last standing Democrat in West Virginia, and he's always tried to find a way to maneuver down the middle. He did that in West Virginia. He's always led, governed as a moderate. When he got to Washington, he's tried to be a moderate. And he doesn't run really as a Democrat. He sort of runs as, I'm Joe Manchin, you know me. I'll look out for your best interests. It is like the party of Joe Manchin. HILL: Just real quickly, do the folks that you're hearing from on

your show, do they feel Manchin is looking out for their best interests?

KERCHEVAL: I think that the majority -- I can't speak for everybody, obviously. We're not monolithic. But with what he has done over the last couple days, yes, that's enhanced his standing, as I said, and I think there is a general feeling that he is, in fact, representing his constituents by the position he's taken on the Build Back Better Act.

HILL: Hoppy Kercheval, great to have you with us this morning. I really appreciate the perspective and sharing some of that, you know, on the ground feeling with us. Thanks again.

KERCHEVAL: My pleasure. Thank you.

HILL: President Biden promising free rapid testing kits for hundreds of millions of Americans. So, is that enough? How will you get them? When could you expect one? We're going to ask Dr. Anthony Fauci. He'll join us live, next.

BERMAN: And the COVID outbreak that is putting the NHL's season is on ice, at least for now. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: Just hours from now, President Biden will address the nation on the fight against the winter COVID surge. CNN has learned the president will announce a plan for hundreds of millions of free at- home rapid COVID tests to be distributed.

Joining us now is Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser on COVID to President Biden and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci, thanks so much for being with us.

My question to you is how often and when should we all be testing?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You know, it really depends on the situation that you're in. For example, if you are going to be going to a function, a dinner, and you're vaccinated, hopefully, and boosted, but you want to go the extra step, the extra mile to make sure that the people that you are in a setting with, hopefully all of whom are vaccinated and boosted, you want to go that extra step, you should do that.

What many families are doing when people, for example, come in from out of town, even though they are vaccinated and boosted before they get together in the home, to get one of those rapid tests that you can get literally the result in 15 minutes or less.

[07:30:05]