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State Rep. Analise Ortis (D-AZ) Discusses Arizona GOP Blocking Efforts To Appeal Abortion Ban; U.S. Defense Dept. Moving Additional Assets To Middle East Region Amid Iran Threat; Drug Shortages Reach Record Highs In U.S.; Strong Job Market Has More Bosses Considering 4- Day Workweek. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 12, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Are you hearing from Independent voters? Is this it's an issue that you think is going to be persuasive to them?

STATE REP. ANALISE ORTIZ (D-AZ): Oh, absolutely. And the polling shows it, right? Look, abortion is a very personal, private, and emotional decision for a lot of people.

But I think, overwhelmingly, when you do talk about all of the circumstances that can happen when someone is pregnant, all of the risks involved, people really do agree that the government should not interfere in these most-private personal moment.

Especially when you have people that have a non-viable fetus and are having to make that decision about whether they need abortion care. We are seeing in other states doctors turning them away from help until they are septic or until they are hemorrhaging. And they are -- leading to death and trauma.

And Arizonans do not want that. They want patients to be safe. They want pregnancy to be safe. And they want people to have the final say for themselves when it comes to their pregnancy outcomes.

DEAN: All right, Arizona State Representative Analise Ortiz, thanks so much for making time this afternoon. We appreciate you.

ORTIZ: Thank you

DEAN: Next, the U.S. is preparing for a potentially imminent attack on Israel by moving additional assets to that region. What we're learning as Iran vows to retaliate for that deadly strike on its consulate.

And Shohei Ohtani's former interpreter is expected surrender to federal authorities today after allegedly stealing millions from the baseball star. These stories and more ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:01]

DEAN: We're following some breaking news out of Texas. And you are looking at live pictures there where a tractor trailer has crashed into a Department of Public Safety office. All of this is happening in Brenham. That's just outside of Houston, Texas.

There are reports of multiple serious injuries. Again, that tractor trailer crashing into that building. The Department of Public Safety is telling people to stay clear of that area as investigators and medical personnel respond.

We're, of course, going to keep an eye on this story for you and bring you any developments.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: New today, the Defense Department is moving additional assets to the Middle East region ahead of a potential attack on Israel by Iran or by one of its proxies.

The move follows in Israeli airstrike that hit Iran's consulate in Syria last week and killed a dozen officials. Iran has vowed to retaliate, which could happen as soon as this week, according to sources.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with his war cabinet and also met with senior defense officials to discuss the potential threats.

We have CNN's Natasha Bertrand joining us now from the Pentagon.

All right, Natasha, the White House says it's monitoring the situation very, very closely.

They're not the only ones. We actually saw the Dow respond here dropping more than 500 points. There is fear that this could actually affect oil prices if there is some kind of retribution from Iran on Israel.

What are you learning about us officials and how they're preparing?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: What we've just learned, Brianna, that the Pentagon is also surging additional assets to the region in order to bolster deterrence as well as to increase force protection for the U.S. troops who were stationed in Iraq and Syria and the broader Middle East.

We know that the Pentagon has been trying to bolster, in particular, air defenses for these units, especially because they came under attack by Iran-backed proxy forces over 100 times between October and February.

And the fear, of course, is that Iran-backed proxies, as part of this broader retaliation that Iran is apparently planning, could target U.S. forces as a part of that.

Now, as of right now, the U.S. is not anticipating that Iran is it's going to directly attack American troops because they are trying to calibrate their response and not bring in the U.S. to a broader conflict and force the U.S. to respond very forcefully.

They don't necessarily want to escalate this in an extreme way. But still, just in case, the Pentagon is sending these additional assets to the region were told now.

This all comes, of course, as the U.S. has been in direct consultations with the Israelis, with the Iranians, to try to lower the temperature altogether. But it comes as a direct result of that Israeli airstrike on what Iran says is its consulate in Damascus.

And we're just getting your reporting in as well that U.S. officials were pretty frustrated with their Israeli counterparts about the lack of information that Israel actually gave to the U.S. before carrying out that strike, which was likely, and as we see, it has been extremely provocative, especially in a very tense moment in the region.

And according to a U.S. official, the U.S. was not informed of this plan by the Israelis to conduct the strike until those Israeli planes were actually already in the air.

And of course, by that point, the U.S. didn't have time to move the additional assets or any kind of force protection into the region that it might have liked to.

And so they're all bracing for a potential Iranian retaliation at this point. It just remains to be seen what exactly that's going to look like -- Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. We will be bracing as well.

Natasha Bertrand, thank you for that report from the Pentagon. We appreciate it.

Coming up, fighting cancer, it's already hard. And now patients are worrying about whether there are enough chemo drugs to treat them. What we know about the major drugs shortage here in the U.S.

[13:34:44]

Plus, worker burnout is a real problem. And now a new survey shows nearly one-third of large American companies are considering new work schedules to address it.

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DEAN: Chances are your family is already experiencing firsthand this frustrating nationwide problem. According to two groups tracking drug shortages since 2001, drug shortages are now at a record high in the U.S.

And they found a lack of supply for several hundred drugs that treat conditions like cancer and ADHD.

CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, joins us now.

Meg, what are you learning about this?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, I mean, this has been on our radar for a long time. And unfortunately, the numbers now show we're at record levels in terms of these drug shortages.

The American Society of Health System Pharmacists has been tracking this since 2001. We are now at 323 drugs that are in active and ongoing shortage. That is the highest that they have observed in that 23-year period.

[13:40:06]

I know this is affecting all kinds of different medicines. And the average shortage has lasted more than two years and affects more than 500,000 patients, many of them older Americans who depend on these medicines.

The most common type of drug to be in shortage are central nervous system medicines. These include ADHD drugs. We've heard a lot about the shortage of Adderall and similar medications. Also pain drugs that hospitals rely on.

There's also a shortage of antimicrobials, including antibiotics like Amoxicillin, which is affecting many families. Their kids get ear infections and other respiratory illnesses.

Chemotherapy drugs are also in shortage. This is causing huge disruptions for patient care across the U.S. -- Jessica?

DEAN: Yes, it has to be so frustrating for so many people.

Do we know why this is happening? And is there any solution?

TIRRELL: In some cases, it's because demand has gone up. We've seen that with the ADHD drugs situation. Although that's not the only reason. There can also be manufacturing issues that play into this situation.

Most commonly, drugs that fall into shortage sort of fit one category. They are often older medicines that have lost patent protection, so they're less expensive.

Nonetheless, they are still complex manufacturing and they have to be done under these pristine conditions. And so they're very expensive to make. But the companies make less money from them.

And so often you see that they want to prioritize drugs that they make more money from. And this causes a lot of issues in the manufacturing process for these medications.

You see companies even going bankrupt in the generic drug space, which has led to a lot of disruptions.

So oftentimes when there's a shortage, the government will allow importation from another country, for example, or hospitals will try to swap in different doses, but those can lead to dosing errors. That's also really just a Band-Aid on the problem. And they say

broader fixes need to be made, like increasing seeing transparency.

DEAN: All right. Meg Tirrell, with latest for us, thanks so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that were watching this hour.

The CDC says the recent uptick in measles cases is threatening the disease's elimination status in the U.S. There have been more than 100 cases since January, which is significantly more compared to other for years.

In 2000, the highly contagious yet preventable disease reached elimination status, meaning that there were no outbreaks persisting for a year or more.

Also the former interpreter for baseball superstar, Shohei Ohtani, is expected to surrender to federal authorities later today. The U.S. attorney says Ippei Mizuhara stole more than $16 million from Ohtani to fuel his gambling debts.

The Justice Department says Ohtani, who signed a $700 million contract with the Dodgers, is considered a victim in this case.

And President Biden is canceling another round of student debt. His administration announced that it is forgiving $7.4 billion for more than 277,000 borrowers.

So far, the White House has authorized erasing more than $150 billion million dollars in student loan debt.

Next, how does a four-day workweek sound? Can I go home right now? That's my question. Well, more companies are actually thinking about it. We'll have that, next.

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[13:52:58]

DEAN: The latest gauge on how Americans are feeling about the economy is down today. And it shows Americans feeling steady despite a recent tick up in inflation.

The University of Michigan said its numbers moved sideways for the fourth month in a row with sentiment edging out lower in April to 77.9.

And look at this graph for the big picture. Sentiments still isn't back to where it was before the pandemic hit, but it's sharply higher, up from the record lows almost two years ago when inflation was at a 40-year high.

Meanwhile, American's expectations of inflation ticked up slightly in April showing some frustrations with lingering higher prices.

Brianna?

KEILAR: The U.S. job market is still running strong, but with U.S. companies struggling to find people to hire, other workers have to pick up the slack. And many Americans say they feel overworked.

A new CEO survey finds that nearly a third of large companies are now looking at shorter work weeks to fight employee burnout.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now.

All right, Matt, before, I guess, we just leave because maybe now we have Friday off, you've been reading the new survey. What does this show?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Brianna, I don't know what you think, but a four-day work week sounds pretty sweet, right? More time to see friends and family, to run errands. Weekends might feel even more relaxing.

And we do know that a lot of companies are desperate to attract talent right now. And frankly, to keep the talent they have from burning out.

And so maybe that's why this KPMG survey shows that 30 percent of CEOs of large U.S. companies say they are exploring shifts in schedules, including a four-day workweek or a four-and-a-half-day workweek.

Now, I spoke to KPMG CEO Paul Knopp, and he said, you know, we probably have to tap the brakes a little bit here. He said that companies are going to experiment here and there with a four-day workweek, but he doesn't think widespread adoption is imminent.

Still though, we know that workers would not have to be sold on this idea. Workers love a four-day workweek. There was a Gallup poll that found 77 percent of us workers support the idea of a four-day workweek. That includes 46 percent who are extremely positive.

[13:55:12]

It is awfully hard to get 77 percent of Americans to agree on just about anything. But they're on board with this idea.

So, Brianna, I don't know what you think. You have a lot of pull around here. What do you think?

(LAUGHTER)

Will you declare right here, now, we have a four-day workweek here at CNN?

KEILAR: Yes. No, that's way above my pay grade.

Look, people also like to breathe, right? It's like the fact that people did polling on that kind of cracks me up. Of course, they would love this idea. Matt, thank you so much. We're going to continue to follow this. This is very important. You're on it.

EGAN: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: So next, a critical hearing about to begin in Florida as two of former President Trump's co-defendants try to get their charges dismissed. How the judge's decision could impact the former president.

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