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CDC: "Substantial" Decline In Life Expectancy Due To COVID; White House COVID Response Team Holds Briefing; Winter Storms Still Disrupting Vaccine Rollout Across United States; Joe Biden: "Prepared To Re-Engage" With Iran On Nuclear Discussions; Joe Biden: United States Must Consider Chinese "Coercion" & "Russian Recklessness". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 19, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: And the death rate in this population though truly sad and unfortunate it was consistent with the expected background death rate in this demographic.

I want to emphasize that we've implemented the most comprehensive vaccine safety monitoring system program in our history. And the data released from the CDC today are reflective of this effort, we will continue to closely monitor these events and report back as further data emerge.

I want to be sure that you know the facts and not the myths about the vaccine safety and about vaccine safety. The fact is, they are safe, and they will save lives. And that is why we are committed to working with state and local public health partners, as well as partners in the private sector to support getting people vaccinated as quickly and as safely as possible.

To help advance our collective efforts to scale up vaccines and communities on Mondays CDC is convenient a 3 day virtual National Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine. The forum will bring together a broad range of governmental and non-governmental partners to share information and best practices on how to build trust and confidence in COVID-19 vaccines?

How to use data to optimize vaccine implementation? And how to provide practical real world experience on how to increase vaccination capacity in communities, especially for those at increased risk of COVID-19 and for those who may face barriers to vaccination?

I'm excited about this forum and the rich dialogue, it will stimulate and I invite those who are involved in vaccine efforts to register and attend this important meeting. Thank you, as always, I look forward to your questions. But before that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Thank you very much, Dr. Walensky. What I'd like to do is to just take a couple of minutes very briefly reviewing the status of the vaccines and vaccine trials that we have, but then too, as I've done in the past, pick out a question that I believe is being asked more frequently, to try and preemptively address it and perhaps generate some discussion.

With regard to the trials that we have, as you know, the U.S. government had been involved in the development of/and or facilitation of the testing of three separate platforms represented by six different companies, you're all aware of the data of the Moderna and the Pfizer, BioNTech, which have their way now, having shown a 94 to 95 percent efficacy.

Right now, as we speak, the data from the Johnson study, which as, you know, showed a 72 percent efficacy in the United States, but was also done in South Africa and Latin America and showed a diminished efficacy against the variant, but very good against severe disease that is being reviewed at the FDA for the U.S. data.

And on February the 26th the FDA will consult with their Independent Advisory Committee, they're - and we should be hearing from them soon. With regard to the AstraZeneca, and the Novavax, those trials are both fully enrolled. These are event driven decisions.

So when they reach a certain amount of events, they will then look at the data and make decisions as to whether or not to go ahead with a request for any EUA. So having said that let me just now very briefly address a question that is a very relevant question that we are now more commonly being asked.

If you look at the existing trials, those have already gotten in the UAE, and those that we anticipate and hope will get in the UAE. When will we be able to say we can vaccinate children, children in the high school range and children in the elementary school range?

You know, from Pfizer that they started off with the trial of 44,000 individuals down to 16 year olds and then progressed it down to 12 year olds. So what they're going to be going in April, starting in April, they're going to be studying 12 year olds down to five to six year old, that will take likely one year to get the information on that likely not until the first quarter.

However, we anticipate data on high school age individuals, namely individuals 12 years old to 17 years old, by the beginning of the fall, maybe not exactly coinciding with the first day of school, but sometime in the fall, we will have that.

Moderna as you know started off with already 18 year old they are now currently enrolling 12 to 17 year olds. So let me take a moment to explain the process of how you get relevant information regarding these younger individuals. This is a representative trial which very likely will reflect other trials.

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It's a 30 - it's a 3000 person trial. So right off, you're not dealing with the 30,000 and 44,000 person trial that gave the efficacy signal in the original Moderna and Pfizer's study. What the trial is, is the trial is an - is what's called a non inferiority by immunogenicity, which is a lot of big words to really mean, what they're asking, is it safe in the children?

And does it induce an immune response that's comparable, or not inferior to the immune response that we know is associated with efficacy in the other trials. And that's the way that trial will go. And then we're starting by the end of March, they will do what's called an age de escalation study.

We are already enrolling on the 12 to 17 they will go to the six to 12, then two to six, then six months to two years. Again, we will likely get information for high schoolers at some time in the fall, but it is, I would say more than unlikely we will not have data on elementary school children until at least the first quarter of 2022.

Similar types of approaches are being taken by the other candidates, the other companies, namely J&J, Novavax, and AZ. So the bottom line of all of this is as follows. It is highly likely that sometime in the fall we will have data that will give us the capability of saying the safety and comparable efficacy in children 12 to 17, 18 years old.

Again, the final decisions, we always leave to the FDA. I'm trying to give you a roadmap of what likely will happen. But then also, with the studies that I just mentioned, to getting the information to make the decision in elementary school children almost certainly will not be firmed down until the first quarter of 2022. I will stop there and hand it back to Andy.

UNKNOWN: Thank Dr. Fauci.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Listening here to the daily COVID - three times a week COVID briefing from the Biden team, the opening statements there. We're going to monitor the questions now to see if there's any news we'll bring it back with you if we do.

The headlines right off the top Andy Slavitt the White House Relief Coordinator saying yes the bad weather across most of the country this past week has set the administration's vaccine rollout back a bit. But he insists he says partners like FedEx, like UPS and like States now going to work within a week.

He says doses will start shipping to areas where the weather is easing, where the roads have been cleared. As early as this weekend, they hoped again to make up what they lost this week. He hopes to make it up by the end of next week something to watch there.

Dr. Walensky, the Head of the CDC, talking about the remarkable and substantial decline in cases since the January peak back on January 11th was the peak down 69 percent. The case count since then, obviously, the urgency is to keep that case count down, especially as variants spread in the United States.

And we just dropped out there after Dr. Fauci who was trying to explain a number one there are vaccines that are safe on the market. But number two additional studies now being conducted to determine are these vaccines safe on school aged children?

He says some data on that will be ready this fall for high school students for younger students at the elementary says it will be sometime early next year before we know. Let's discuss the significance of what we just heard with our CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Lena Wen, she's an Emergency Room Physician and the Former Baltimore City Health Commissioner.

Dr. Wen, let's start with the question a lot of parents are asking, the school issue has been one we have discussed repeatedly. When you hear Dr. Fauci it makes sense vaccine trials, any drug trial first on adults, the vaccines are out there now more coming into the system.

But when you hear that it'll be likely the fall before we know 12 to 18 so high school age kids and probably the first quarter if they're lucky, if things stay on track next year before we know about elementary school aged children does that do anything to the calculations about can you fully reopen schools in September? Or is it that safe as long as the adults are vaccinated?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, I definitely think that people listening to the timeline that Dr. Fauci just presented about vaccine children might be disappointed because I think some people were hoping that we would be able to get our kids vaccinated in time for the next school year.

But now we know that that's probably not going to happen as if we get the vaccine trials done for 12 year olds and above. So for high school age students, maybe we can do that and have them have a proportion of high school students vaccinated before the next school year before elementary age students and for younger it's not going to be until the first quarter of 2022. And so I do think that we need to look at our data.

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And our data show that children tend to get much less ill than adults do also that if mitigation measures are put into place, schools can be some of the safest places for kids. Then if kids were in, for example, unmonitored daycare settings are we're hanging out with one another having play dates. So I think it's certainly possible.

And we should be aiming to get every one of our kids back to school in the fall without the kids being vaccinated. But in order to do that, I think that makes it even more important for all the adults to be vaccinated, because that's how we can achieve herd immunity and community immunity.

If kids cannot yet be vaccinated, it makes it even more important for everybody else around them, to be vaccinated to protect them.

KING: And so let me follow up with that point. You herd Dr. Walensky saying they have their first data from a safety study, the vaccination is done between Decembers, the middle of December and the middle of January. We know there's a lot of skepticism out there.

We know especially in different communities, there are people who say, I don't know if I want to do this, I keep hearing that about variants. I keep hearing over this. She said 71 percent of people reported yes, some pain, we get the shot, which was pretty common for any vaccine, people, also some fatigue and some headaches.

But her case to the American people was - this is what we've seen so far is pretty routine. There's nothing to be worried about. The symptoms we're seeing after this vaccine are consistent with your flu shots or other vaccines for other diseases. Was that to you a sign of reassurance?

WEN: Very much so. So it's really important to do the safety monitoring studies after the vaccines are already authorized. And that's because the phase three studies are done in tens of thousands of people, which is great. And that's how we know that they are safe and efficacious.

But now we have data from millions of people who have received these vaccines. And so it's extremely reassuring to see that they're safe. I mean, having these types of side effects of arm soreness, fever, fatigue, headache, that means that the vaccine is working. It means that the vaccine is triggering our body's immune response. And that's really good.

What Dr. Walensky also reported about the prevalence of severe allergic reactions, it also appears that that it's about the same level as you might get for other types of vaccines. And so now we know for certain that these vaccines are safe. And we also know that they are so highly effective at preventing COVID-19 and especially severe COVID-19.

KING: Dr. Wen grateful as always for your insights. And I just want to wrap up by saying I just wanted to put the number on its 6 million doses Andy Slavitt, the White House Relief Coordinator said had been held - essentially held because you couldn't ship them out states were not prepared to accept them because of power issues because of weather issues.

He says those will be moving out as early as this weekend. Dr. Wen again, thank you. We'll continue to track the administration challenges it tries to deal with this hiccup of bad weather. When we come back up next, Joe Biden makes two big speeches to the world audience for the first time promising America is back. Those are his words.

And as we go to break a relatable moment for all of us in this age of COVID, guess what? World leaders have issues with Zoom to; today's G-7 meeting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel had an issue with the mute button.

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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Can everybody hear me? OK, sorry.

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[12:15:00] KING: Today President Joe Biden taking big steps on the world stage for the first time as president to pair of big foreign policy speeches headlined the president's Friday schedule to the G-7 and then to the Munich Security Conference.

The message from the president that the policy changes will be big and important, America first or America alone gone President Biden says. America is back the transatlantic Alliance is back is what the president said just moments ago.

The United States as an example today, officially rejoining the Paris Climate Accords. And reengagement is the new mission, the president says, including on the thorny issue of Iran.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The threat of nuclear proliferation also continues to require careful, diplomacy cooperation among us. We need transparency and communication to minimize the risk of strategic misunderstanding or mistakes. That's why we said we're prepared to re engage in negotiations with the P-5+1 on Iran's nuclear program.

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KING: With us to share their expertise and their insights, CNN's Nic Robertson, CNN's David Axelrod and CNN's Abby Philip. Nic, I want to start with you. The president was speaking generally there when he says the United States is ready to come back to the table with its European allies and other partners and start - restart a conversation about the Iran Nuclear Deal which the Trump Administration walked away from.

The big debate has been would the American administration, the new American administration, except going back to the old deal, or does it want improvements? What is the state of play on that question?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, that's still out there lengthened and strengthens is the language that's used to address ballistic missiles and Iran's destabilizing influence in the region.

At the moment, it's about getting back to the table; the door seems to open. The EU is offering to help bring the United States back to that table along with UK, China, Russia, France, Germany, the European Union, of course, and Iran, so that's a way into the table because it was a standoff right?

Iran said U.S. was going to have to get rid of all of its sanctions. And the U.S. said, no, Iran's got to come back into compliance before we get back to the table. So there's movement, the doors open. But and there is certainly at the European side, an acceptance and willingness to go further.

The recognition that Iran - Iran's development of ballistic missiles and its destabilizing influence in the region. Let's take Iraq most recently where there is NATO troops as well, that affects everyone. So I think there's resonance with President Biden on that.

What position will China and Russia take because they're at the table too, on all of that that's going to be harder and of course, that's before you factor in Iran. That's going to bargain hard and go slow.

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KING: All right. I want to come back to that specific point about Russia and China just a moment. But David Axelrod let's talk more thematically first you were serving in the White House when you had the Obama Administration, replacing the George W. Bush Administration, as a big focus of the new President Obama then was to try to end the war in Iraq was to talk about trying to get out of Afghanistan.

Many of those questions, of course, linger. It is hard, it is hard to change, a global policy. For the new Biden Administration if you take what he said in these two events today and put it under one umbrella it would be about face, that Donald Trump had one way of doing things. And we're going to do almost everything quite differently.

Re engaging with Iran, as we just talked about there, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, which is done now, recommitting to the World Health Organization, working through allies to counter the strategic differences with Russia and China, aligning away from the Middle East and restoring U.S. refugee program.

So you have a very different approach. What do you do inside the West Wing when the challenges you want to signal to the world things are going to be different, but these things are incredibly complicated. You also don't want to say things in the early days that you might have to pull back later on when you start to get your footing.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, look, I think that what you heard today was - you're right, the antithesis of the Trump foreign policy. He, Biden really embraced multilateralism, talked about the importance of alliances. He said that countries need to compete, but they also need to work together on global challenges that could sink them all.

And that is what he deeply believes. So I don't think he ventured anything here that that isn't going to be central to his foreign policy. Obviously, on issues like Iran, the devils in the details, and I noticed that he did add a phrase in his speech today at the Munich Security Conference; he said he was re engaging.

But he also said we need to address Iran's destabilizing activities in the region. So he is adding caveats, even as he makes these steps forward. But make no mistake about it. Joe Biden his view of the world, and it's very well developed over 40 some odd years in the United States Senate working on foreign policy issues as vice president.

He believes in alliances and his big mission today was to say this is a new day, and we're ready to work with you again.

KING: And Abby that's a key point David makes because you covered the Trump White House. And one of the issues then was allies didn't know if they could trust the United States. They didn't know when an envoy or even the Secretary of State said something if that person was speaking for the President of the United States.

One of the messages, Joe Biden, especially at the Munich Conference, he said, I've been coming to your meeting for 40 years. You know who I am. But listen here, even he had to say, I get it, you're not sure you can trust the United States. Let's move past that.

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BIDEN: Two years of strain and tested, our transatlantic relationship. But the United States is determined, determined to reengage with Europe, to consult with you to earn back our position of trusted leadership.

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KING: It is strange to essentially say, yes, I understand we have to earn it back.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, that, to me is the most striking thing about what Joe Biden is trying to do, which is to say, not just that you can count on us, again, America will be back on the world stage, but that you can count on my administration to have a consistent message.

Because for years under the Trump Administration, you would hear one advisor saying one thing, the president delivering a completely different message and it was unpredictable and confusing to world leaders. Now the Trump allies would say, you know, as our colleague, Jim Sciutto, says the madman theory of leadership is what made Trump a different kind of leader on the global stage.

But when you talk to foreign diplomats, and when you talk to - when world leaders talk about the United States, you definitely get the sense that the lack of predictability actually chipped away at the sense that you can count on the United States to know what their position was and to carry out that position in a consistent way in different parts of the globe, and not have one standard for one area of the world and a different standard for another.

KING: That's an excellent point. And Nic Robertson was interesting listening to President Biden essentially saying, you know, we democracies of the world must stick together because we face the autocrats in Russia. We face the autocrats in China, the democracies have to band together.

But as you all know, from your work, we just talked moments ago about Iran, when it comes to standing up to Vladimir Putin. Most leaders say yes, we need to do that. However, there are economic relationships, especially in Europe, when it comes to gas and energy in the like, standing up to China. People say yes, that's necessary. But again, economic relationships come in, listen to how the new president talked about that.

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BIDEN: To push back against the Chinese government's economic abuses and coercion that undercut the foundations of the international economic system. Everyone, everyone must play by the same rules addressing recklessness, Russian recklessness, and hacking into computer networks in the United States and across Europe, and the world has become critical to protecting collective security. We cannot and must not return to the reflective opposition and rigid blocks of the cold war.

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KING: I have to assume especially from the reaction I received consistently from ambassadors and other officials in Europe during the Trump years that that message will be welcomed. However, as you all know, when you get into the details, it gets very complicated.

ROBERTSON: Yes, absolutely. I mean, take Germany as a great example of pressure on Germany to cut its Nord Stream two pipeline with Russia over the human rights abuses of Navalny this opposition leader and others in Russia.

Yet we heard from Angela Merkel today saying that she would support extending the role of German troops as part of that NATO mission inside Afghanistan, because that may come to pass. General Austin was president and attending the virtual, NATO lead - NATO-Defense Ministers summit in the past couple of days.

And one of the sorts of strongest lines that come from the Secretary General of NATO Yen Stoltenberg afterwards was that the United States will work with its allies. That message is permeating. But there was another message that came about today as well. And that was from the Secretary General of the UN.

He said let's not create a bipolar world. Let's not go back to a Cold War. And in a way, when President Biden says that we're in a historic moment of inflection between democracies and autocracies, the caveats and the space is being created for that bipolar world.

And briefly, Europe doesn't quite see it that way and buy into that. Why do we know that because they rushed into a big economic deal with China right before President Biden came into office, because they knew that that's something he would resist, because that democracy is working together against China is a tool to manage China and its actions.

KING: 31 days in, fascinating challenges on the global stage. We will continue to track as we go forward. Nic Robertson and David Axelrod grateful for your time and insights Abby is going to stay with us for a conversation down the road a bit.

Up next for us, dealing with a water crisis and a power crisis nearly half of Texans facing severe issues.

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