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New Day

Pfizer Begins Clinical Trials for Vaccine Specific to Omicron; U.S. Foes Test Biden at Critical Moment, Russia, China, North Korea; Biden Apologizes to Fox Reporter for Calling Him a Stupid SOB. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 25, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:04]

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): But animal rights activists and some pet owners are still spooked.

KIM MCCOY, FOUNDER: The concern really is if it starts with hamsters, where does it go next? Will we see companion animals, such as cats and dogs, being grouped into this? And that's a really real fear that people have.

WATSON: Olga Radlynska says she's gotten a surge of inquiries from pet owners looking for seats on private planes in just the last week.

What is the alternative if you're a pet owner and you want to leave this city?

OLGA RADLYNSKA, DIRECTOR: Give your pet up for adoption. A lot of people, they try to find new homes for their fur babies and it's devastating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (on camera): We don't know if Hong Kong, the government is going to change its policy here to try to keep COVID out. It's struggling at home. There are thousands of people in lockdown in apartment buildings where there have been hundreds of COVID cases detected. All the schools in the city are closed right now. And the restaurants are closed after 6:00 P.M. Soccer fields are shut down, outdoor soccer fields, just some of the examples of what the government is doing to try to keep COVID out even though it's clearly in this crowded city. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: Yes. Ivan, thank you so much for that unusual, alarming report, Ivan Watson.

And New Day continues right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world, it is Tuesday, January 25th. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar. And we do have breaking news this morning. Pfizer just announced the start of a clinical trial for a new vaccine engineered to specifically target the omicron variant.

KEILAR: The company has already started manufacturing doses and plans to have the new vaccine ready in March.

And joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, what can you tell us about this?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well this trial, as you point out, is starting now. They've been manufacturing these specific, these omicron-specific vaccines for some time. So, let me show you the specifics here in terms of how they're going to approach this. And keep in mind, as you look at this graphic, that they've done this before. They've created these specific vaccines for delta in the past as well, did not end up needing them. So, by virtue of the fact that they're going through this doesn't necessarily mean that an omicron-specific vaccine is going to be recommended for people.

But the first group of people who received two doses already and then they're going to get one or two more doses of the omicron vaccine. So, essentially, the omicron vaccine will be their booster. For group two, they've received three doses of Pfizer already and then they're going to get one more of the omicron and then group three are the unvaccinated, they're just going to get omicron. And they basically want to determine how much of the difference does this make in terms of infections overall, but also symptomatic illness.

Now, let me show you one other thing just in terms of where things stand now, the Pfizer vaccine effectiveness against the variants, including delta and omicron. And what you find, it's a little hard to read there, but omicron is red, delta is blue. On the left side of the screen is the first two shots. And you can see there's a significant drop-off with just two shots. But when people get the booster, again, this is against people developing symptomatic illness or getting sick, you see a significant jump in protectiveness overall.

So, whatever we see ultimately with this new trial has got to beat what you're seeing on the screen right now, which is pretty good with the booster, still. That's an important take away.

BERMAN: Yes. Sanjay, I can see people looking at this saying, thanks, but omicron is receding at this point. If we're talking March, people, A, first of all, tens of thousands, millions of people will have previous infection, and then it may not be that present any way. So, how much of a difference will this make?

GUPTA: Yes, no, I think that's exactly right. And, look, you've got to account for natural immunity here as well. And you'll remember, John, May of last year, at that point, it was predicted in the United States alone that a third of the population had been exposed to the virus. So, since then, we have had delta and we have had omicron. So, there's a lot of natural immunity out there.

KEILAR: Sorry, go on, Sanjay. GUPTA: So a lot of natural immunity out there. But let me just show you in terms of, again, the benefit of the booster versus the vaccinated versus people who just are looking at case rates. What you find is that the biggest difference is really between the people who are unvaccinated, they're having the much higher case rates. You get a significant uptick in people who are vaccinated and a little bit more with the booster. And I just show you that to point out that, again, when we think about any boosters, you've got to look at the difference on the right side of the screen, in this case, between 81 and 90 percent. It's a benefit, no question, but is it a benefit that warrants people get boosted frequently?

KEILAR: I also want to ask you what we're learning out of Israel, which is health officials are recommending a fourth vaccine dose for all adults.

[07:05:04]

They say that a person should get it five months after their booster. What can you tell us about this, how this works, if this is something the U.S. should be doing?

GUPTA: Well, this data is just coming out. We have been following the Israel data for some time. And I think if you sort of put it all together before, it was tough to make the case for a fourth shot on the earlier data because it wasn't again significantly decreasing infection rates, it wasn't significantly decreasing likelihood of getting ill. So, we'll see with this new data we have just seen top lines where they say there's three times benefit against infection with this fourth shot. We'll see.

Albert Bourla, who is the CEO of Pfizer, has commented on where this is all headed. Are we headed to every four, five-month boosters, yearly shots? Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERT BOURLA, CEO, PFIZER: What I'm hoping that we will have is a vaccine that we'll have to do once a year, like we do for many other things. Once a year, it is easier to convince people to do it. It is easier for people to remember. From public health perspective, it is an ideal situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: So, he's sort of saying essentially like, look, this will be like the flu shot. In fact, get it when you get your flu shot. There are other people like Peter Hotez who you've talked to regularly who, in some ways, believe that this may just be a three-shot vaccine period. You get three shots and that's sort of your vaccine, like a lot of other vaccines out there. And then obviously at the other end of the spectrum is this idea that we would get regular boosters. So, we'll see which of those three scenarios sort of play out.

You heard Bourla's sort of idea on this but that's different than what they're doing in Israel. KEILAR: Yes. I say bring it on. As I've mentioned, Sanjay, my entire family got sick over the holidays. We are not all vaccinated because of our ages. And I will tell you, those of us who had the vaccine were incredibly grateful. So, I want all the protection I can get. Sanjay, thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

KEILAR: New this morning, a New York State Supreme Court judge striking down Kathy Hochul's mask mandate for schools and for public locations. The judge says the mandate is unconstitutional and that it violates state law since the governor no longer has emergency powers.

CNN's Jean Casarez is joining us now on this. Really interesting development that is going to change how people are living their day to day lives, some of them there in the state. Tell us, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's very interesting and it came down late yesterday, Brianna. A New York Supreme Court judge actually struck down New York State's mask mandate, saying it is unenforceable, ruling that the governor and the New York State Department of Health, they didn't have the authority to do this, that any mask mandate had to have the signoff of the state legislature.

Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Thomas Rademaker gave the basis for his decision that New York was no longer under that state of emergency at the time the mask mandate was announced. So, the governor did not have the authority to order it. So, it's really procedurally based.

The governor, Kathy Hochul, is saying she will immediately try to reverse it saying, quote, my responsibility as governor is to protect New Yorkers throughout this public health crisis and these measures help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives. But Judge Rademaker said his decision was only about whether the mandate was properly enacted.

To be clear, he says, this court does not intend the decision in any way to question or otherwise opine on the efficacy, need or requirement of masks as a means or tool in dealing with the COVID-19 virus. The court decides only the issues of whether the subject rule was properly enacted and, if so, whether the same can be enforced.

Now, we just received this from the New York State Department of Education. I want in essence to read what they are saying. They're aware of this ruling by the Nassau Supreme Court. They're saying there's a contrary ruling by the Albany Supreme Court and it is to their understanding that the Department of Health is going to appeal this ruling immediately, which will kick in an automatic stay so that the mask mandate will still be in place.

Now, of course, it is on the East Coast a little after 7:00 in the morning. We see how this develops. But obviously this was a bombshell late last night for New York State.

KEILAR: Yes. So, maybe nothing changes today but what's going to happen here in the future. Jean, thank you so much for that report. CASAREZ: Thanks.

BERMAN: Happening now this morning, as many as 8,500 U.S. troops on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, this amid fears of a Russian incursion possibly into Ukraine. According to the Defense Department, these truths will be prepared for, quote, any contingencies.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon for us this morning.

[07:10:02]

Barbara, what does this posture mean and what message is it intended to send?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PETNAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is not about defending Ukraine. That is one thing. The troops are not expected to go into Ukraine at all. But as you say, John, into Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Poland, Romania, possibly those countries depending on how this all sorts out. U.S. military families, troops, their bases now being notified. None of it has been made public yet which troops but they are being notified at this hour that they are on a shorter string, if you will, heightened readiness to deploy to Eastern Europe once that final order comes.

So, what would trigger that? Well, some U.S. troops might go unilaterally if the U.S. works out an agreement with those individual countries, but the real idea the Pentagon says is this will be part of a NATO response force if and when NATO activates that rapid response force. U.S. troops will fall in on that and they will be part of it. The kinds of capabilities they could bring, it will be a ground force we're told, brigade combat teams, medical, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, logistics, support to help these countries defend against aggression, and the aggressor right now is Russia in the eyes of the U.S. and NATO, of course.

It Is the idea is that this will be a defensive mission, building up the defenses of these countries. But to be clear, right now, there actually is no specific detailed mission for these troops and no measurement just yet of how they will know when they are successful and when those American forces could come home. John?

BERMAN: And, of course, an increased western troop presence in Eastern Europe is exactly what Vladimir Putin doesn't want probably part of the message as well. Barbara Starr, thank you so much for that.

KEILAR: In the meantime, as tensions are ratcheting up between Russia and Ukraine, one Democratic congressman says his office is getting phone calls, repeatedly getting these phone calls, and they're from fans of Fox's chief propagandist Tucker Carlson, saying that the U.S. should be siding with Russia over Ukraine. What you may say? Well, you wouldn't be surprised if you watched his pro-Russia stance every night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: All of them are promoting war against Russia on behalf of our new and deeply beloved ally, the government of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is our most dangerous enemy, they scream. We can't let him hurt Ukraine. So, it turns out Russia gate was actually more effective than we realized. The Steele Dossier was debunked. But in Washington, the theme remains enforced, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia is bad.

Apparently, Ukraine's eastern border with Russia, unlike, say, our southern border with Mexico, is a sacred boundary, created by God that must be protected at all costs up to and including American lives.

Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine? They're both foreign countries that don't care anything about the United States. Kind of strange.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Easy answer there, one is a democracy, the other is a brutal autocracy. The real question here maybe why is Rupert Murdoch allowing this anti-democratic B.S. on the air?

Let's talk about all of this now with Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski of New Jersey. He is on the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees, among others.

You know, first, sir, thank you for being with us this morning. Can you just tell us about these phone calls that your office is getting?

REP. TOM MALINOWSKI (D-NJ): This -- yes, sure, it really started yesterday. I was in my district office in New Jersey and phones were ringing and my district director came to me and said I just spent an hour on the phone with like four people telling me that they watched Tucker Carlson last night and why are we going to be going to war for Ukraine, Russia is making reasonable proposals for peace and we should just do what Russia wants.

And you know, I knew this -- I knew this was happening. I've actually had many conversations with Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives about what's happening on Fox with respect to Russia. But this was the first time I started feeling it for my own constituents who were watching this garbage.

KEILAR: And so, I mean, the line is direct here. Tucker Carlson says something and they parrot it, right?

MALINOSWKI: Yes. And, I mean, that's not surprising, right? People watch T.V. and they pick up stuff. And in this case, you know, we have such a partisan media environment where there are some people who only watch people like Tucker Carlson. And that's all they get night after night after night. And he's whipped them up into believing we're going to war, which is, as you just reported, not the case. We're not -- President Biden is not promising to fight for Ukraine. We're just taking the side of a democracy that is being threatened with invasion by a dictatorship, because, well, ever since World War II, it's been America's policy in the world that dictators shouldn't get to change borders with tanks.

[07:15:11]

That's how World War II started. It's important to us not to let that happen.

And so this is -- it's really, really disturbing. And I think the main point here is we have to be united about this. And in Congress, republicans and Democrats, so far, this is the good news, we're pretty united in standing by Ukraine, recognizing Putin as our adversary. But I think some of my Republican colleagues have got to come face to face with the fact that one of their chief propagandist who is putting out this stuff to millions of their supporters every night is effectively taking Russia's side.

KEILAR: So, then let's talk about what you think Republicans should do because, you know, a federal judge said in a somewhat recent case that was, you know, Fox and Tucker Carlson, Fox's lawyers defended Carlson effectively, they said, basically, people don't believe him. They know that it's not real. Clearly people do believe him. They're calling up your office and just repeating what he says. What do Republicans need to do?

MALINOWSKI: They've got to call this out. And some of them have. There was a Republican congressman who went on Carlson's show a couple of months ago and debated him on Ukraine. It was very good. But it didn't stop Fox News from putting this out to people every night. And I got to say, I've raised this with some of my Republican colleagues in the last few days and they say, what? I didn't know. They pretend it's not happening because it's an uncomfortable subject.

Of course it's not just Tucker Carlson. It goes back to the Trump administration and the former president and it's just hard for them to acknowledge there's a segment of their party that is siding with Russia. And I think they've got to acknowledge it and confront it, as uncomfortable as it is, because most of them actually -- we agree on the policy. We agree the United States has got to defend democracies when dictators like Putin try to seize their territory by force.

And if we're going to sustain that policy, we've got to communicate why that's important to the American people, to every side of the political spectrum.

KEILAR: So, Tucker Carlson obviously, I mean, he enjoys freedom of speech. This is America. He can say whatever the heck he wants. But in Russia, critics are poisoned, they're killed. His opinions are anti- democratic. I try to think about what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot here, what conservatives might say if, you know, Barack Obama was saying something like this and media was supporting what he said.

MALINOWSKI: Imagine if Democrats or liberals after 9/11 were going on T.V. and saying, well, you know, that was bad but the terrorists have legitimate grievances and we should negotiate with them and give them what they want. Yes, free speech but I think American people would have no tolerance for that sort of thing. And I think, you know, we've got to apply a similar standard here.

Of course, he has a right to his opinions. Everybody has a right to their opinions. But, none of us have a right to have a primetime show on Fox News or CNN or any other network to be able to say this kind of nonsense to millions of people every night.

KEILAR: Well, I will say here we are talking about him, which I think is exactly what he wants. Maybe that's why he says some of this craziness. Congressman --

MALINOWSKI: So, let's use it as an opportunity to talk about why it's important to stand by Ukraine here and why what Putin is doing is a threat to America's national security. Let's turn it around.

KEILAR: Yes. And thank you so much for being here to do that. Congressman Tom Malinowski, we appreciate you.

MALINOWSKI: Thank you.

KEILAR: Sarah Palin proudly unvaccinated but caught eating inside a New York City restaurant. How the restaurant is responding to her skirting the rules.

Plus, President Biden calls a reporter an SOB and he did not abbreviate. Hear how he tried to make amends.

BERMAN: Neil Young says to Spotify it's either Joe Rogan or me.

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[07:20:00]

BERMAN: This morning, a new development in a major legal case involving former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Palin's defamation trial against The New York Times is being delayed after she tested positive for COVID. The judge noted that Palin is unvaccinated.

Now, here is where things get interesting. Palin was seen on Saturday dining at a New York restaurant despite the city's proof of vaccination requirement.

Joining us now, CNN Chief Media Correspondent and the Anchor of Reliable Sources Brian Stelter. So, Brian, how did Sarah Palin get in a restaurant?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The restaurant says it's going to investigate, says it's going to get to the bottom of this. The restaurant says it usually does check for vaccine passports. That's what New Yorkers are used to showing whenever they enter a restaurant. But, you know, I suspected, John, some people are probably slipping through the cracks and this might be the first very public famous example.

I do think what's a lot more scandalous is that Palin was out there telling her supporters, I'm never getting vaccinated. You'll have to do it over my cold, dead body. I will never get this shot, instead of just doing her civic duty and encouraging her fans and followers to go ahead and get protected, she was out there doing the opposite.

So, it's a little embarrassing for her spending four years suing The New York Times, finally getting her day in court and then it gets scrubbed because she just didn't do the basic, bare minimum thing that most Americans did almost a year ago.

[07:25:10]

KEILAR: Yes. It's embarrassing. Well, it should be. I don't know if she'll be embarrassed by it, should be.

Okay, the big story, the big sort of media story is Joe Biden being caught on a hot mic saying this to a reporter who is from Fox and was asking about inflation. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Will you take questions on inflation then? Do you think inflation is a political liability around the midterms?

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: That's a great asset, more inflation. What a stupid son of a bitch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A little context, Brian Stelter, right, Mr. Doocy there is sort of a thorn in the side often of Jen Psaki, of President Biden. In the end, though, the president called him to apologize. And look, Doocy kind of handled it, he sort of laughed it off and said this had happened. What did you make of that?

STELTER: Well, certainly, you see the smile on Biden's face. I don't think he's surprised this was caught on mic. I think he knows what he was doing. But no matter who the president is, whether it was Donald Trump saying Chuck Todd was an SOB or whether it's President Biden saying Peter Doocy is an SOB, it's wrong no matter what. The easiest thing to be in life is be consistent regardless of party, regardless of president and just recognize when something is wrong, recognize that presidents should be held to the highest standards.

And so in this case, Biden was out of line. I think he knew it because he called Doocy right away to say, sorry, and try to put it as water under the bridge. It's also not the biggest story in the world though, right? That's why I'm glad you didn't lead with it. It's not the most important thing in the world. We know Fox is going to milk it as if it's the most important thing in the world. It's one of these minor interesting moments that shows how the president really feels. And, by the way, that is newsworthy. It is newsworthy when you hear the president and you feel how he actually is thinking about Fox.

The bigger issue here, Brianna, I think what you get at a lot, which is how should Fox be treated and handled at this time in American life? Fox is not what it was 20 years ago. It's not what it was when Peter Doocy's dad, Steve, started at Fox. The network is much more hard core, extreme and radicalized. Having a White House correspondent is different now than it was 20 years ago. So, the Clinton White House had to make choices about how to handle Fox. The Biden White House has to make choices too. And they've mostly chosen to play footsy with Fox, appear on Fox sometimes, take questions from Doocy. I think a lot of Democrats would like to see the White House do something very different and treat Fox more aggressively. And so I think that's why a lot of people were cheering for Biden yesterday on Twitter. Lots of liberals were cheering for Biden when he called Doocy an SOB, even though, to me, it's beneath the presidency.

BERMAN: Look, there are a lot of winners here, right? Biden gets to stay, he stood up to Fox. Doocy gets the publicity of the interaction with the president. Doocy also I do think handled it well. I mean, Doocy himself is not making it seem like it's the biggest thing in the world and shrugged it off and accepted the apology from the president.

The loser here is, I suppose, the discourse around the media. I don't think we should mind as reporters, by the way, being seen as pains to authority. I think we want to be seen as something that challenges authority. The swearing is where it goes too far.

STELTER: Right. It's about -- whenever I call an executive, I'm going to write a story about them they're not going to like, I know it's going to be a tense conversation, and you acknowledge that up front. And it should be tense between White House, before the president and the press. But I agree with you, the profanity is where it's out of line.

KEILAR: I'll disagree though. I think it was a full on hot mic moment. He seemed to kind of catch himself, Biden did. And sort of I thought-realizing a little bit that he was on mic and was kind of -- the B word got a little muffled.

STELTER: Oh, well, I would like to hear the president's real feelings all the time even if it needs a sensor.

KEILAR: Yes.

BERMAN: So, what about Neil Young, an artist who I have great admiration for, apparently also along with Bob Dylan used as punishment in killer road trips, but Neil Young a wonderful artist, a Canadian singer of great round, has told Spotify it's either me or Joe Rogan here? What's going on?

STELTER: It's so interesting. He wrote a letter -- his associates wrote a letter demanding his music be pulled off Spotify unless Joe Rogan's podcast is pulled off Spotify. Spotify has spent a ton of money to bring Joe Rogan in. But Rogan continues to book guests and bring on anti-vaccination arguments and he's been toying with this anti-vax line for many, many months, neil young is trying to use the only power he has, which is to say, okay, then take off my music. We'll see if that actually comes to pass, but it shows how artists can use whatever leverage they have on these big platforms.

BERMAN: As much as I love Neil Young, if Spotify had to choose, wouldn't they choose Joe Rogan at this point? STELTER: I think they would choose Joe Rogan. They would choose Joe Rogan. He's he brought in a lot of listeners, he's brought him a lot of subscribers. That's actually the keyword, subscribers. But the company has not shown any real concern about the content on the podcast, and that's really at issue.

[07:30:05]

BERMAN: Rogan's songs nowhere near as good as Neil Young's.