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USDA Testing Milk For Bird Flu; California Wildfire; Jamie Foxx Speaks Out on Health Crisis; CEO Murder Suspect Held at Maximum Custody Level. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 10, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And tell us a little bit more, Leigh, about the evidence, that the suspect had on him when he was arrested.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, at this point, we know, when those officers approached him at the McDonald's in Altoona, which is about 45 minutes from where we are right now, an initial officer asked him to remove his mask, again making that connection from the photos NYPD had released last week to when his arrest was made just yesterday.

They recognized him right away. He presented those officers with a fake I.D. Now, when they searched him, they found what they're calling a ghost gun on his person. But they also found what they're calling a three-page handwritten document or a manifesto that is offering some insight into his mind-set ahead of this shooting.

Now, we haven't obviously seen that document for ourselves, but officials who have seen that document said that it offered or indicated ill will towards corporate America and it had some pretty graphic lines in it, saying -- quote -- "These parasites had it coming."

Also: "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done" -- Pam.

BROWN: And that gun, we were just showing a picture. Tell us more about it, because authorities are saying this was a ghost gun, right?

WALDMAN: That's what authorities are believing right now.

And they also have a job at this point to connect that weapon that they found with him with the ballistics and DNA that they found on backpack, the backpack in Central Park recovered, but also with other evidence left at that scene in Midtown Manhattan.

So that's what investigators have to do at this point. With those ghost guns, we're waiting to see. Those are untraceable weapons. Waiting to see if it's a 3-D-printed gun. So we have a lot more to learn in this case, as investigators work to build this case around the arrest that was just made.

BROWN: All right, Leigh Waldman, thank you so much.

Well, for the first time, Jamie Foxx is speaking out about the mysterious health emergency that left him fighting for his life. In a new Netflix special, the Oscar-winning actor reveals he suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke in April of last year. Foxx says he doesn't even remember 20 days of his life and it all began with just a bad headache.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE FOXX, ACTOR: It is a mystery. We still don't know exactly what happened to me. Wow, man, please, lord, let me get through this.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You got it. You got it.

FOXX: April 11, I was having a bad headache, and I asked my boy for an aspirin, and I realized quickly that, when you're in a medical emergency, your boys don't know what the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to do.

Before I could get the aspirin, I went out. I don't -- I don't remember 20 days. He told my sister some horrible news about her big brother. He said, he's having a brain bleed and it's led to a stroke. He may be able to make a full recovery, but it's going to be the worst year of his life.

That's why this moment is the most incredible moment, because you do take it for granted. To the world, I can't thank you enough, even when I see people on the street and they roll their window down and yell out, man, we glad you're here.

As I look out and I see my family and I see my friends, I can't tell you how good it feels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN entertainment reporter Lisa France joins us now.

Lisa, what more did we learn from this Netflix special? It's really emotional.

LISA FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: It is, Pam.

And leave it to Jamie Foxx to make us both laugh and cry about what could have been a devastating tragedy. It was devastating for him in terms of what happened to him medically, but this special was almost like a love letter to not just his survival, but also to the friends and family who rallied around him.

So, as you heard, he talked about being unconscious for 20 days. He talked about how it all just started with a bad headache. And then he had to go through the whole rehabilitation process. And that's when people like his daughter really rallied around him to make sure that he was protected during that time. So what we now know is that, when he was in Atlanta filming,

ironically enough, a movie, a Netflix movie called "Back in Action," which co-stars Cameron Diaz, he had the bad headache. He ends up just going black and not knowing what happened in terms of just passing out. And he was like that for 20 days.

[11:35:02]

And so he's telling us the story finally of how it all happened, how it all came to be, but also about how incredibly grateful he feels to still be here and for the support that he got. So many people rallied around him, and most of us did not know what happened.

The public, the general public didn't know. We just knew that he had suffered a medical emergency. And now he's letting us in and sharing with us the devastation, but also the triumph which led to him being on that stage, as we can see him right now, just being incredibly emotional about everything that has happened to him, Pam.

BROWN: Yes, I mean, understandably emotional.

Why do you think Foxx waited this long to explain all of this?

FRANCE: The thing about Jamie Foxx is, he's incredibly private, Pam. I mean, he dated actress Katie Holmes for years and never talked about it. They just pretended that we didn't see them out and about holding hands, which, by the way, we very rarely saw.

And I feel like Jamie Foxx, in addition to being very private, he also, as he says in the special, did not want people to see him sick like he was. This was an extremely debilitating experience, which left him in rehab, and he wanted his fans in the world to see him who he is today, which is recovered and strong and funny and singing about his experience and being joined by his daughters, who also were a huge reason he was able to come back the way that he was.

Because he had such incredible support from those around him who loved him, and also his fans granted him the privacy to be able to tell us his story when he was ready, and now he's ready.

BROWN: Certainly.

Lisa France, thank you so much.

FRANCE: Thank you, Pam.

BROWN: Well, coming up: A wildfire explodes near the campus of Pepperdine University in California. We will bring you the very latest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:41:20]

BROWN: Right now, in Southern California, over 6,000 people are under evacuation orders after wildfires started burning through parts in Malibu overnight.

Emergency crews say the Franklin Fire has nearly tripled in size in just one hour and is threatening thousands of places, including Pepperdine University just this morning. Here's earlier video taken by a student sheltering in place. But, just during this hour, campus officials announced shelter-in-place orders have been lifted and say that school grounds are now safe.

CNN's Bill Weir joins us now.

And, Bill, you went to Pepperdine and even reported on a fire there in 2018. What can you tell us about how fire crews there are handling this right now?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's all about those winds, Pamela.

You get those fierce winds rushing through the canyons. There's so much fuel load. And this is a new phenomenon, a warmer planet, where we have these wet winters that provide fresh vegetation, which then dries out over scorching hot summers, and then the winds propel these fires.

This one was a couple hundred acres in the wee hours this morning. Now it's over a couple thousand. It's moving at the speed of about a football field every 15 seconds, so they have got tankers that are scooping literally water out of the Pacific Ocean to dump in the hillsides, helicopters.

It's really hard to move ground crews around in that topography, but good news that it's past the campus, where about 800 students were sheltering in place.

BROWN: Yes, just for our viewers, these are live pictures right here, that billowing smoke right there with the wildfires.

And fires have threatened the Pepperdine campus before, as we noted. What can you tell us about how the school prepares for emergencies like this? I mean, certainly, it's had a history of dealing with fires before.

WEIR: Yes, many, many over the years, just based on the geography there as well.

And they learned the hard way the last thing you want in a situation like this are hundreds of college kids scattering into those canyons, driving over live firefighting hoses in some cases.

So, Andy Benton, who is a president for a long time, we were talking during the 2018 Woolsey Fire. And he talked about how that campus is literally informed by fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW BENTON, PRESIDENT EMERITUS, PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY: In 1985, when I was here, we noticed that everybody just dropped everything got in their cars and left. And we had no idea where they were. We had no idea if they were being cared for.

So we decided thereafter that we could do better. And the do better was that we have equipped this campus to withstand fire to the best of our ability. We have 4.6 million gallons of water. We have 15 days of food. We have counselors, medical doctors, and a caring community to take care of those students and calm them.

We relocate them into one of two facilities. And even now, we have got a fire -- we have got a helicopter landing and withdrawing...

WEIR: As you're speaking. Look at this.

BENTON: Withdrawing water from our lakes, 2,500 gallons in about 60 seconds. And they're probably fighting the fire up in Malibu Canyon right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEIR: That particular Woolsey Fire took three lives, burned 1,600 billion, cost Southern California Edison a couple billion dollars in settlements.

Hopefully, this one is much, much less damaging than that one as well. But using those ponds in Pepperdine, Pamela, a great sort of lesson in adaptation and living with fire in places like California. Go the extra mile to have water, defendable spaces, everything that -- those ounces of prevention could end up to just pounds of cure when these things blow in.

BROWN: And when you say blow in, this is a time of year when winds start to pick up in California. What role could that be playing here?

[11:45:04]

WEIR: That's the worst, is the Santa Ana or Diablo winds. They blow they blow from over the desert, so it's dry air, just further sort of turning all that fuel into tinder and making it that much harder for aircraft to fly if the gusts get too high and there's red flag warnings, making it tough for people on the ground and just filling these communities with smoke.

So, a reminder to people who know so well about having the masks for days like this just to protect lungs of the most vulnerable.

BROWN: Yes, certainly.

Bill Weir, thank you so much.

And still ahead this hour: It started with suppliers of raw milk in California, but now some federal health officials want to test milk for the bird flu across the country to get a better understanding of how it's spreading.

We will talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:50:47]

BROWN: An ongoing outbreak of bird flu in dairy cattle and dozens of human cases, mostly in farmworkers, have put some new attention the safety of the U.S. milk supply.

Recent detections of the virus and raw milk have heightened concerns among health authorities. And the federal government plans to test milk across the country. Officials hope to get a better sense of how the virus is circulating.

So, what does that mean about the safety of our milk supply?

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on call here to set the record straight.

I mean, just this morning, Sanjay, I gave milk to my kids. Like, should we be concerned about drinking milk?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think so.

I think, for the vast majority of people, 99 percent of people, not a concern. Most of our milk is pasteurized in this country; 99 percent of it is pasteurized. And that does a great job of taking care of some of these concerns with regard to pathogens.

By the way, the pasteurization process typically is high-temperature, short time, HTST pasteurization, which means at least 161 degrees for at least 15 seconds. And that usually takes care of things, Pamela. What we know is that about 1 percent of the country does drink raw milk pretty regularly, at least once a week.

So, a small percentage, but it's a thing. And for a lot of people, they think, look, I'm getting bioactive ingredients that I can't get elsewhere. That may or may not be the case, but what they could be getting is these pathogens, including salmonella, and listeria, and E. coli, and now H5N1.

And that's what's prompting this testing that's going on, the concerns about H5N1. To give you some idea, you see the screen there. Over the 20 years, there's been about 200 some outbreaks of these illnesses related to raw milk, so about 10 a year, roughly, on average. And it's led to some over 200 hospitalizations.

That's what they're trying to avoid by starting this testing on dairy farms. And that's going to start next week, Pamela.

BROWN: Well, and I want to talk a little bit more about this, because you have covered bird flu for decades, including this major outbreak in Indonesia in 2006.

GUPTA: Yes.

BROWN: Give us a sense what that outbreak taught us about how serious this disease can be, and also just an update on the current outbreak's impact on humans right now.

GUPTA: Yes. Sure.

You know, what's interesting, if you hear H5N1 in the epidemiology community, it raises flags. People get concerned about this. And I'm going to show you this graph to sort of explain why. I was there in Southeast Asia during this outbreak back in 2006. But if you look at these timetables, so from 2003 to 2009, for example, and then the other outbreaks extending all the way up until this year, there's two things that probably jump out at you.

One is, there's not that many people who become infected by this. But in the past, mortality rate has been really high. So when I was there in Southeast Asia, for example, there was a virus that was circulating where about 50 percent of the people who got infected died.

Over the years, what has happened is you have seen fewer cases and even a lower mortality rate. So that's good. But, still, this H5N1 is always going to raise alarm bells I think whenever people hear about it because of this history that I just showed you.

In the United States, we know, back in March, that's when we really started talking about it, because the virus was identified in a cow in Texas. And you can look at these points in time, first case of a human becoming infected, first case of a human becoming infected with no known exposure. That was a concern. Is this transmitting human to human?

The answer is no. But you had to investigate that at that point. Then, in October, we found that pigs had become infected. That was a concern because pigs can be this incredible mixing bowl of viruses. And you can get new viruses that sort of come out of that.

But the answer to your first question is still, I think the risk to the general population is low, especially when it comes to raw milk. The pasteurization process really does take care of it. And now these inspections will begin as well.

BROWN: Just really quickly -- we have just a little bit of time. But RFK Jr., who's Trump's pick to run HHS, is a proponent of raw milk.

Quickly, I mean, there's a lot of debate about raw milk, right? But there's 1 percent of the population who likes it.

[11:55:03]

GUPTA: Yes.

I mean, maybe there's some bioactive ingredients. There's not a lot of scientific evidence to support that, but I think that's why people say, hey look, I don't want pasteurized products.

But the trade-off again, life is about risk and rewards. The risks are significant, 200 outbreaks over 20 years, lots of hospitalizations, listeria, E. coli, salmonella, now H5N1 all possibly being present in that milk. So that's the trade-off, really, Pamela.

BROWN: Right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you. And don't forget to submit your questions to Sanjay about bird flu or any contaminated dairy products. Just scan the Q.R. code on your screen. We will have him back on tomorrow to answer some of them.

Thanks for joining us. I'm Pamela Brown. You can follow me on Instagram, TikTok and X @PamelaBrownCNN. Would love to hear from you.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a short break.