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Passengers Being Monitored For Hantavirus In Nebraska & Georgia; Hegseth Seeks Pentagon Review Over Kelly's Comments On U.S. Weapons; 6 People Found Dead Inside Train Boxcar In Texas; Trial Starts For Man Accused Of Stealing Unreleased Music By Beyonce; Motorcycle Left Dangling From Traffic Light Pole After Crash; Video Shows Moment Before Plane Strikes Person On Denver Runway; Aired 1:30- 2p ET

Aired May 11, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: -- that could be found broadly across public sources on the internet and it did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity. But obviously the family disagrees with this, but this will be really interesting to see how the courts will treat this case and other cases going forward and it could really change how these chatbots interact with us on a day-to- day basis. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, certainly. Hadas, thank you very much for the latest there.

Coming up, we're following the latest on the hantavirus. Who is quarantining in the U.S. and where are they? They're in two different locations, so we'll talk about that, why they're there. We'll talk about what comes next as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We continue to follow our breaking news. Seventeen Americans and one British dual national who were evacuated from that cruise ship struck by the hantavirus are now in the United States. One of the Americans has tested positive for the virus and has been placed in a biocontainment unit at a Nebraska medical facility. Fifteen are in quarantine at that same facility.

[13:35:16]

And then two other passengers, one of whom is experiencing symptoms, were flown to Atlanta. They're being observed at a biocontainment unit at Emory University Hospital.

I want to bring in CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who joins us now from Omaha. So, Dianne, what more do we know about the people being monitored there in Nebraska?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Omar, as you said, we have 15 in the national quarantine unit, which is actually located in this building behind me in the basement and one in the biocontainment unit. Now, I want to talk about the 15 first.

None of these individuals at this point are symptomatic. Nobody in this case has tested positive at this point. There are protocols that are in effect. They got in in the wee hours of this morning. So, this morning, when doctors and federal officials spoke with us, they had not yet done a full assessment of these passengers. They are doing that today.

They're going to, one, discuss with them to see exactly if they came in contact, and if so, for how long with somebody who was symptomatic or that individual who tested positive. And then they are going to do medical monitoring as well, taking temperatures, other kinds of testing that they can do to just continue watching them.

Now, the national quarantine unit is, they describe basically like it's hotel rooms that happen to have zero or negative pressure and an elite ventilation system, as well as, you know, access to incredible medical officials. Now, the one person who tested positive who is in the biocontainment unit is in a different part of the hospital. This is an area with its own air filtration system and far more involved monitoring from medical officials who we are assured are in full PPE and protecting the staff here at the University of Nebraska Medical Center as well.

Now, it is important to note that person is asymptomatic. And the reason why that is important is because federal officials and University of Nebraska Medical Center officials said today that from what we know about the hantavirus, especially this particular variant, the Andes variant, that it can be spread person to person. It can be spread through symptomatic persons. And that is key here through close, prolonged contact.

Now, through those interviews and monitoring, they're going to be able to determine whether or not more people test positive, of course. But they acknowledge that the country as a whole still has some trauma from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. And they acknowledge that this is not that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY CAWCUTT, SENIOR MEDICAL DIR. FOR INFECTION PREVENTION, UNIV. NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: Andes virus is not a new virus. It has had multiple outbreaks in the past, really where we've seen this particular hantavirus in Argentina and Chile. We've not had that kind of spread ever with these scenarios.

It's all been far more limited and it doesn't spread anywhere near as efficiently as COVID-19 or influenza or even something we're talking a lot about now, which is measles. It doesn't have that capacity to infect as many people, which is why we're not as concerned about this turning into the next global pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GALLAGHER: Of course, it is still rare. There's a 42-day monitoring period. Depending on how that assessment goes, Omar, some of them could potentially even go home, escorted and finish their monitoring by checking in daily with their local hospitals. And some may choose to remain here to complete that.

JIMENEZ: Important perspective from that official there, but still obviously a lot to monitor in the days and weeks to come.

Dianne Gallagher, appreciate the reporting there from Nebraska. Brianna?

KEILAR: Of course, hantavirus is rare, but it is extremely deadly. Currently, there's no vaccine for it and no specific treatment.

We're joined now by Dr. Matt Slade, he's the co-founder of EnsiliTech, a company working on a hantavirus vaccine. And I do want to talk to you about this vaccine. First, I just want to listen to something that the head of the World Health Organization just told CNN. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO DIRECTOR GENERAL: The incubation for hantavirus or Andes virus ranges six to eight weeks. So we expect more cases to come, actually, but I hope they will be as small as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So he's expecting there to be more cases, but he says the passengers are in good hands, perhaps driving home the need there for a hantavirus when you have an incubation period -- or for hantavirus vaccine, when you have an incubation period this long. What do you think about his assessment there? Is that what you would expect?

[13:40:09]

DR. MATT SLADE, CO-FOUNDER OF COMPANY WORKING ON HANTAVIRUS VACCINE: Typically, yes, I mean, I kind of completely agree with what he said. The long incubation period can mean that it's difficult to trace these cases and it can spread a bit wider, but it also means there's a lot more time you can intervene there. And I think vaccine is really important to help kind of minimize the spread.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. And the work on this vaccine started two years ago, right? Can you tell us why you decided to focus, why you all decided to focus on hantavirus?

SLADE: Yes, of course. So the company that we founded, EnsiliTech, its base technology allows vaccines, particularly ones that are quite unstable and require fridge or freeze temperatures to store and transport. It allows them to be stored at room temperature or above and really improve accessibility to large parts of the world that typically struggle with access for vaccines.

Why we settled on a hantavirus vaccine, and I want to make it clear as well, that the vaccine we are working on is a Hantan strain rather than an Andes strain. It's part of the same family, but not exactly the same. It's because we saw the potential for something like this to become quite big and kind of a major world event.

And it is what's known as a neglected disease. There's not currently a vaccine for any sort of this family. There's not really any treatments available. And there's kind of a huge gap out there for kind of preventing this sort of disease.

KEILAR: So you're -- yes, to be clear, this is for a different strain, which is not this human to human transmission, right? But this Andes strain, still hantavirus, what would the implications be to have a successful hantavirus vaccine for a different strain? How could that be applicable to other strains?

SLADE: It's hard to tell right now because this is an area where there hasn't been a huge amount of research. Our lab team is pretty confident that there can be some crossover there. But right now, it's too early to say, really. We've kind of done some early stage trials with our particular strain.

But before this Andes strain outbreak really happened, we hadn't really conducted a lot of research on a crossover to the Andes strain in particular, but to different hantavirus strains. But certainly nothing's impossible.

KEILAR: So your vaccine is an mRNA vaccine, which people are familiar with after COVID. Many of the vaccines were mRNA vaccines. Last year here in the U.S., Secretary Kennedy's Health and Human Services Department cut $500 million in funding for 22 research contracts on mRNA vaccine technology. That technology became a bit of a political flashpoint as the vaccine became politicized.

The Secretary testified about what he says are dangers associated with COVID vaccines, of which there is no evidence at all. Have you seen that sort of mRNA blowback in the U.K. where your company is based? And how are you seeing the public attitude toward it?

SLADE: Not really, actually. I mean, there's small pockets as there always will be with any sort of new technology. But by and large, a lot of companies and a lot of government backing is still going into mRNA technology. I think it's a really amazing, outstanding piece of technology.

And this vaccine in particular wouldn't be possible without it. It reduces the development time for something like this from what previously could take a couple of decades down to a few years. So it is vital piece of technology and really ensuring that we can respond to these diseases a lot quicker and that we can get these vaccines out when they're needed, rather than kind of really lagging behind the timeline.

KEILAR: Dr. Matt Slade, thank you so much. Obviously, a lot of attention on your vaccine efforts as we are watching this outbreak of a different hantavirus strain. We appreciate you being with us to speak about it. SLADE: Thank you.

KEILAR: Coming up, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth calls for Senator Mark Kelly to be investigated yet again. We'll have a report ahead.

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[13:49:02]

KEILAR: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is once again calling for a Pentagon investigation into Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. On Sunday, Hegseth suggested the retired Navy captain and former astronaut violated his oath with comments that he made about U.S. weapons stockpiles.

Here's Senator Kelly on CBS's Face the Nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D), ARIZONA: We've been briefed by the Pentagon on specific munitions, actually, it's been pretty detailed on Tomahawks, ATACMS, SM-3s, THAAD rounds, Patriot rounds, those interceptor rounds to defend ourselves. And the numbers are, I think it's fair to say it's shocking the -- how deep we have gone into these magazines. The munitions are depleted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Not long after that interview, Hegseth posted on X, quote, "Captain" -- with quotation marks around Captain, even though he is indeed a captain, retired -- "Mark Kelly strikes again. Now he's blabbing on TV falsely and dumbly about a classified Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath again? Department of War Legal Counsel will review," end quote.

[13:50:08]

CNN National Security Reporter Haley Britzky is with us now. Senator Kelly now responding here?

HALEY BRITZKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes. So Senator Kelly pointed back to some public sparring, I guess they did, in a recent Senate hearing where this topic came up. It's one of the biggest questions that we're seeing about the war in Iran and the impact it's having on munitions stockpiles.

And Senator Kelly pointed to that clip and said, "We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take, quote, "years" to replenish some of these stockpiles. That's not classified. It's a quote from you. This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the President still have not explained it to the American people what the goal is."

So this is a question that has been asked repeatedly about the war in Iran and the impact it's having on these stockpiles. I will point out, typically it's the numbers specifically of these stockpiles that are the classified information. We know what kind of weapons, obviously, the U.S. uses in these kinds of conflicts.

CNN, my colleagues, Natasha Bertrand and Zach Cohen, just reported a month ago that there were serious concerns about the impact these stockpile expenditure rates would have on the U.S.'s ability to act in a future war if one happened in the next few years. So this is something that has been talked about very publicly before. It's something that is a big concern, particularly as we're looking at the budget posture hearing just tomorrow.

Secretary Hegseth is expected back on the Hill to talk about the budget request for the Pentagon. A big part of that is going to be refilling these munitions stockpiles.

KEILAR: So it seems like they're looking or Hegseth is kind of looking for something to go after him on. What's the beef to remind us here and why there's a number of people who did what Kelly did? Why is he so specifically focused on Kelly?

BRITZKY: That's right. So it's not uncommon, as you mentioned, for lawmakers to kind of give their broad takeaways of briefings that they get from the Pentagon or other agencies. But we know that there's particular tension between Senator Kelly and Secretary Hegseth. Secretary Hegseth called him out months prior because Senator Kelly made a kind of urging, along with other senators, urging U.S. service members not to obey illegal orders, that they can refuse to follow through on illegal orders from the commander-in-chief.

That kind of turned into this whole dramatic event that we're seeing with Secretary Hegseth, which just resulted last week in another court hearing. So there's certainly something very specific going on between these two, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, there is.

Haley, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Let's get you to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Six people were found dead inside a Union Pacific boxcar in Laredo, Texas. And authorities say the bodies were discovered during a routine rail yard inspection Sunday.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths are unknown. But local temperatures at the time were as high as the mid-90s. The immigration status and ages of those who died are also being investigated. Union Pacific operates across the border and is the only railroad that services all access points into Mexico.

Also, the trial for the man accused of stealing unreleased music belonging to Beyonce began today in Atlanta. Beyonce's choreographer and one of her dancers say thieves broke into their car in a parking garage last July.

They say hard drives containing the singer's unreleased music, footage plans for her show, and set lists for her concerts were stolen. All of these, by the way, happening less than 48 hours before the Grammy winning artist kicked off her Cowboy Carter shows in Atlanta. Police arrested Kelvin Evans, as you can see here in September. He rejected a plea deal earlier this year and could now face up to six years in prison if convicted.

And I want you to take a look at this video out of Vancouver. Yes, that is a motorcycle. It was left hanging from a traffic light after a crash with a car. Now, police said speed is believed to be a contributing factor. No kidding.

But the motorcycle rider was transported to the hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the car didn't sustain any injuries. But again, the motorcycle ended up literally on top of that. I mean, look at that. I don't think I've ever seen a scene like that. Motorcycle topping it off.

All right. We're following a lot of news ahead, including new video showing the moments before a Frontier jet hit and killed a person who jumped a fence at the Denver airport. We've got new details next on CNN News Central.

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[13:58:49]

KEILAR: Stunning new video showing the moment before a pedestrian was hit and killed by a plane taking off at Denver International Airport. We froze the surveillance video just before impact there. Officials say the person had jumped over a fence 2 minutes before being hit and the pilots quickly aborted takeoff and passengers were evacuated from the plane.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is with us now. Pete, what's the airport saying about security there?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington says that the airport's now conducting this full safety assessment because there's some really big questions now about how someone could possibly gain access to such a secure area. The security video clearly shows that person trotting on to Runway 17 left on the east side of Denver International Airport, that's near the far end of the airfield, a security fence and gate, visible only about a few hundred feet away on the satellite view.

If you've ever been to Denver International Airport, you know just how enormous it is. The airport's famous for long taxi times. The property spans 53 square miles. That's roughly twice the size of the island of Manhattan. Denver International says it has 36 miles of perimeter fencing.

Airport officials say they rely on a combination of technology surveillance, physical inspections even to secure it. But now the airport says it's reviewing its entire perimeter safety program.

A lot of people also asking why the airplane couldn't simply swerve out of the way to avoid this person walking on the airport property. Preliminary data shows the aircraft was still going about 120 knots or 135 miles per hour as it was accelerating for takeoff. At that speed, the plane's going about 200 feet every second, weighing about 200,000 tons -- sorry, 200,000 pounds. Simply not designed for sharp, acute maneuvering on the runway at that speed and weight.

And because this happened at night, spotting a person on the runway would have been so extremely difficult. There are also some big questions now about the evacuation that took place as well. The crew evacuated all 231 people on board directly onto the runway using those inflatable emergency slides you're familiar with during the passenger briefing.

Some passengers reported smoke in the cabin. Question why the evacuation took what they felt like was too slow. Safety experts are especially concerned about video showing passengers taking their carry-on bags with them during the evacuation. And in an emergency like this, every second matters.

Never take your bags during an evacuation. It's become a major focus of the National Transportation Safety Board in recent years because carry-on luggage can slow down evacuations and block exits when lives are on the line.

By the way, the NTSB says it has not launched a formal investigation into this incident yet. They are still gathering information about whether -- deciding about whether or not to launch a full investigation on this. So many agencies, though, involved in this here.

KEILAR: I like that you always remind people of this. It's so important because in the end, if you are someone who makes that choice, is it worth someone else's life? Absolutely not. And you would look back on it and regret that you made that choice.

MUNTEAN: You know, it begs pointing out there was an incident in Russia only a few years ago where folks took their bags off the plane in mass. The back of the plane was on fire and it slowed things down and really contributed to a lot of fatalities.

In this case, there probably weren't going to be fatalities. But I was just talking in hair and makeup with folks there and they said, you know, you can get by pretty much with everything on your person for a pretty long time. If you have your phones, if you have your wallet, you're probably going to be OK.

KEILAR: Yes. You'll get your bag back later.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

KEILAR: I've seen that, too.

Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN News Central starts right now.