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New Day
New Study on Vaccine Side Effects; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is Interviewed about his PBS Series; Sam and Joe Baker are Interviewed about Climbing El Capitan. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired October 25, 2022 - 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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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for "5 Things to Know for Your New Day."
Two big debates to keep an eye on tonight. Democrat John Fetterman and Trump-backed Mehmet Oz take the stage in a tightly contested Pennsylvania Senate race for their only debate. And incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul taking on Republican challenger Lee Zeldin in the race in New York.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A Russian court just upheld U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner's prison sentence. This comes three months after Griner was convicted of smuggling cannabis oil into the country. Griner spoke in court, apologizing for her mistake. Her lawyers called Griner's nine-year sentence disproportionate.
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RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I stand here before you ready to lead our country into the future, to put your needs above politics, to reach out and build a government that represents the very best traditions of my party.
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KEILAR: Rishi Sunak giving his first speech as Britain's new prime minister. He met with King Charles this morning and was formally appointed. Sunak is the U.K.'s third leader in seven weeks as the country faces deep economic and political instability.
BERMAN: The clock is ticking for Elon Musk to complete his deal to buy Twitter. The billionaire Tesla CEO faces a court ordered deadline of 5:00 p.m. Friday to close the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter or face a trial that was delayed to allow both parties to get the deal done.
KEILAR: And NASA says the International Space Station was forced to fire its thrusters to avoid a piece of oncoming Russian space junk Monday.
[08:35:07]
The agency says the fragment was from a Russian satellite that the country destroyed in a weapons test last year.
That's "5 Things to Know for Your New Day." More on these stories all day on CNN and cnn.com. And don't forget to download the "5 Things" podcast every morning.
So, you want those symptoms that you probably felt after you got your Covid vaccine or booster, or you want to know about them. Well, according to a new study, that just means the vaccine is working. We have the details, ahead.
BERMAN: A crucial debate between the two Pennsylvania Senate candidates tonight, just as new polling finds the race for control of the Senate, the whole Senate, up for grabs.
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KEILAR: New research showing that side effects some people had after receiving the Covid-19 shot, like fever, headache, muscle pain, may be linked to having a greater antibody response to the vaccine. So, in other words, those symptoms could be signals of the vaccine's effectiveness.
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CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard is with us now.
OK, Jacqueline, explain this, because I know a lot of people are curious about what this means, whether they had those symptoms or did not.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right. But, you know, this research really tells us what vaccine experts have long suspected, that if you feel crummy after getting your Covid-19 vaccine, like having a headache, fever, or chills, it's a sign that the vaccine is working and could be eliciting a greater immune response compared with if you didn't have these symptoms. But, if you look at the data here, researchers still emphasize, if you're someone who did not have any kind of side effects after getting the vaccine, don't worry, the vaccine is still eliciting an immune response for you.
Among more than 900 study participants in this research, antibody reactivity was still observed in 98 percent of people who did not report side effects. So, these were 98 percent of those who were asymptomatic. And then antibody activity was observed in 99 percent of those who did report symptoms, Brianna.
KEILAR: Very interesting. OK, so, you also got an exclusive first look at new ads that the Department of Health and Human Services is releasing this week. This is to promote the updated Covid-19 vaccine that, of course, they want more people to take.
What can you tell us about this? HOWARD: That's right. And these ads are targeting black, Latino and
rural communities. They're going to be released in 15 U.S. markets. So, starting today, you could see these ads on your TV screens.
And the goal here, Brianna, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services told me that they're really trying to encourage people to get the updated vaccine ahead of winter.
So, this is before we see our friends and loved ones and family for thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah. The ad that you're seeing here on the screen again is to encourage everyone to get your updated shot before we gather for the holidays.
Brianna.
KEILAR: A very good reminder. Jacqueline Howard, thank you.
BERMAN: A new PBS documentary is chronicling the African American experience in the, quote, social networks and organizations that have allowed the community to prosper in the face of struggle and resistance in the United States. It is called "Making Black America: Through the Grapevine." The final episode of the four-part series comes out tonight. This is a preview.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does black joy mean to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Black joy means being in a safe space and feeling free. And, usually, it's with other black people where you feel like you can really be yourself. That's when you experience that joy. Without that joy, I don't know how I would survive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think black joy is our genetic coding that's like, throw your hands in the air, that - and wave them like you just don't care, that common hip-hop, that's what joy is. It's like no matter what burden has been put on the people that have this darker skin, there has been a way to shake it off, rise up, and to celebrate. And that is joy.
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BERMAN: With me now is the producer and host of "Making Black America," Professor Henry Louis Gates.
Professor, great to see you.
PROF. HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., PRODUCER AND HOST, "MAKING BLACK AMERICA: THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE": Nice to see -
BERMAN: How did the series come to life?
GATES: Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Well, I wanted to ask the question, what do black people do when the color curtain came crashing down? Did they sit around and wring their hands and say, woe is me? No. What our ancestors did was replicate the white world from which they had been excluded. And it didn't matter what form that exclusion took, if there was a white version, we had a black version. Starting with the Masons, the Prince Hall Masons, which were founded a year and a day before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And the ultimate social network, which was formed by our enslaved ancestors, was called the Grapevine. And even John Adams, in 1775, right after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, in his diary noted that these black people had this odd way of communicating, miles and miles, and it was the Grapevine, which -- to which Booker T. Washington gave its formal name in 1901, likely before clubs, fraternities, sororities, secret societies, black doctors excluded from the AMA formed the National Medical Association, black dentists, the National Dental Association, black lawyers, the National Bar Association. There were even black bridge clubs and, if you can believe this, a black skier society.
KEILAR: Yes, and be - the sort of forcing to have an alternative, right? Obviously having to have an alternative, but having that gathering that was so important, that connection and that networking.
This is such an important series because you look at challenging times for the black community. Look at Jim Crow. You look at Trayvon Martin. But you also focus on how the black community flourishes during times of struggle. Tell us a little bit about why that's so important.
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GATES: It's so important because if you think about politics, what could possibly be the most important political act an oppressed people could engage in, refusing to allow themselves to be crushed, refusing to allow themselves to be defined by their oppressors. And that is exactly what black people did.
When the larger white society said that black was ugly, what did black people do? Say, no, black is beautiful. And I know black is beautiful because I'm beautiful. What did black people want to do? They fall in love, raise their children, worship God in their own image, go out on Saturday night, dance, invent their own dances and, as you well know, invent one of the world's truly greatest civilizations, starting with the spirituals, the blues, ragtime, jazz.
You know, we even -- in 1821, William Alexander Brown, in New York City, founded the African World Grove Theatre, a Shakespearean theater. And they were performing Richard III, of course, Othello, before black and white audiences down on what's now Greenwich Village.
They -- my favorite organization, secret society, was called the Royal Knights of King David. And I'd like to be a member of that myself. And a man named John Merrick of (ph) Durham was one of the organizers. And to show you how these networks had broader implications, it was a secret society, but in 1898 he and some of his fellow members of the Royal Knights of King David formed the North Carolina Mutual Insurance Company, which became the largest black business in the whole country.
BERMAN: It really is such an incredible story. An American story. The American story in some ways that needs to be told. Professor Henry Louis Gates, thank you so much for being with us.
The final episode of "Making Black America: Through the Grapevine" airs tonight on PBS at 9:00 Eastern, 8:00 Central. And the entire series is streaming on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel.
Professor, great to have you on.
GATES: Thanks so much.
BERMAN: An eight-year-old is looking to become the youngest person to climb the famous El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He joins me next.
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JOE BAKER, PLANS TO CLIMB EL CAPITAN AT YOSEMITE WITH EIGHT-YEAR-OLD SON: Yeah!
SAM ADVENTURE BAKER, EIGHT-YEAR-OLD MOUNTAIN CLIMBER: We are on El Capitan.
J. BAKER: That's right. We are up here.
S. BAKER: And we are about to repel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we're actually repelling now.
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BERMAN: That is eight-year-old Sam Adventure Baker -- yes, Adventure is his middle name -- with his father, preparing to become the youngest person to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.
And joining me now are the father and son set to begin today, eight- year-old mountain climber Sam Adventure Baker, and his father, Joe Baker.
Sam, it's great to see you. I want to wish you the best of luck. How do you feel about this climb?
SAM ADVENTURE BAKER, EIGHT-YEAR-OLD MOUNTAIN CLIMBER: I feel really excited and a little nervous.
BERMAN: What are you most nervous about?
S. BAKER: It's raining.
JOE BAKER, PLANS TO CLIMB EL CAPITAN AT YOSEMITE WITH EIGHT-YEAR-OLD SON: Well, there's no rain on the -- on the forecast right now, but that would be the worst.
BERMAN: What are you most excited about?
S. BAKER: I'm excited that we get to have a movie up there.
BERMAN: A movie?
J. BAKER: Yes, we're going to watch a movie on one of the ledges, on one of our - on one of our camps.
BERMAN: That seems like a good idea. What are you going to watch, and how are you going to watch a movie on the ledge?
S. BAKER: Because we have service because we're so high up.
J. BAKER: Yes. Do you want to tell them what we're going to watch?
S. BAKER: We're going to watch "The Lion King."
J. BAKER: "The Lion King."
BERMAN: That sounds like fun. And that sounds like a good reason in and of itself to climb this incredibly difficult, steep rock face.
Joe, how do you prepare for something like this, and what's unique about the preparation when you're going with an eight-year-old?
J. BAKER: Yes. Well, there's a lot to prepare, let me tell you. I mean, there is a ton of logistics, so much gear. I mean, we've been planning this for a couple of years now. And, I mean, in just water, we have to figure out how to manage about 200 pounds of just water on the wall because everything that you need you can't just turn on the water, you've got to - you've got to carry it with you and haul it up in these giant bags, bags like this that we call the pigs and set up -- we set up complex anchors to create leverage to pull the bags up.
But it's just a lot of aspects. And then, on top of that, how do you do that with - with Sam? And so we've got a lot of creative ideas of what we're going to do at each camp to kind of help inspire us to get there. And so it's a lot of components of this. But the biggest part of getting ready has been Sam's personal training. And he has been working on this goal every day for the last at least 18 months we've been intimately working on it.
BERMAN: Sam, I see you holding on to your father's hand.
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Who's going to be taking care of whom during this hike really during this climb? It seems to me like you're going to be taking care of your dad.
S. BAKER: Dad's going to be taking care of me.
J. BAKER: Yes, he -
BERMAN: Is your dad a good climber?
S. BAKER: Yes. He's slower than me.
J. BAKER: That's for sure.
BERMAN: How long will this take?
J. BAKER: So really it's a five-day journey up -- from up to down. But there will be four days of us either hanging from our fingers or hanging from our anchors, and that's if everything goes perfect. We're going to, you know -- we're going to summit in four days and then three nights on the wall and then we're going to camp on top of El Capitan and then we're going to hike the eight miles off.
BERMAN: I know this is something that's very special to you and your family. Climbing, hiking is something that you all do together. Sam and Joe, I wish you the best of luck.
Sam, have a great time. Most importantly, enjoy the movie and be careful.
J. BAKER: Thank you.
BERMAN: And you can follow the adventures of Sam and Joe Baker as they climb El Capitan on Facebook @samadventure or on Instagram @samueladventure.
KEILAR: So cute. He said his dad is slower than him.
BERMAN: I know.
KEILAR: Did you hear that?
BERMAN: And I also saw - he was like grabbing on to his hand there. It was just very sweet. Wishing them the best of luck.
KEILAR: Loved it.
BERMAN: All right, two weeks away from the midterms and it's a big day on the campaign trail.
CNN's coverage continues after this.
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