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U.K. Begins COVID-19 Vaccinations; Mom Dies of COVID-19 after Giving Birth; Taiwan Fines Man $3,500 for Breaking Quarantine for 8 Seconds; Breaking Added to Olympics. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired December 08, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

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MAGGIE KEENAN, FIRST U.K. COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: If I can do it, well, so can you.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight, it is one small jab for Maggie, one giant leap for the rest of us. We are live across Britain as it

starts to immunize people against COVID-19.

But --

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: One of the hardest hit countries in the Middle East by the coronavirus, their suffering, they

say, so much more acute because of the impact of sanctions led by the United States.

ANDERSON: With rare access, CNN takes you inside an Iranian hospital, where they say politics is impacting its fight against the pandemic.

Plus --

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Phase three human trials for this vaccine are taking place at different facilities in Turkey, including this

hospital here in Istanbul.

ANDERSON: Turkey begins phase III trials for a coronavirus vaccine as the country deals with a daily record in deaths.

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ANDERSON: Well, hello and welcome to the program. I'm Becky Anderson for you. Look, I get it. We often begin with grabs or videos of vials rattling

around in a factory. But this hour, all that translating into this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAY PARSONS, COVID-19 VACCINATION NURSE: All done.

Didn't even feel it.

KEENAN: No, I didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Meet Patient A. Her name is Maggie Keenan, a 90-year-old granny from Coventry in England. Just after 6:30 this morning, local time, she

became the first person in a Western nation to get vaccinated for coronavirus outside of clinical trials.

That basically means it's a real vaccine. This is what it's all been for, the global quest against all odds to fight this plague. And it's been done

so quickly, almost no one would have imagined it possible at the start of this year, even perhaps just months ago.

We heard from Maggie just after she got the vaccine and she has a message for her fellow Brits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEENAN: I say go for it. Go for it because it's free and it's the best thing that's ever happened at the moment. So do, please, go for it. That's

all I say. If I can do it, well ,so can you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: If there is a Patient A, there has to be a Patient B, right, and he is, of course, named William Shakespere. Yes, you heard that correctly,

his last name spelled a little bit differently than The Bard but still certain to bring smiles to faces, not only across Britain but across the

world.

An 81-year-old patient in the frailty ward in the hospital in Coventry. And like Maggie Keenan, he's very upbeat about the vaccine's future impact.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM SHAKESPERE, SECOND U.K. COVID-19 VACCINE RECIPIENT: Yes, I'm very upbeat. It could make a difference to our lives from now on, couldn't it?

The start of changing our lives and our lifestyle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, that's it. That's what all the scientists have been working towards. Salma Abdelaziz joins me outside of Guy's Hospital, which

is in London where the prime minister greeted others who were vaccinated today.

Let's talk about these -- this couple, Maggie and Mr. William Shakespere, let's start off with Maggie Keenan.

What do we know about Maggie?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Margaret Keenan, or Maggie as she is known to her family and friends, Becky, is a mother of a son and daughter.

[10:05:00]

ABDELAZIZ: She has four grandchildren, she is an early riser. That's why she was up at 6:31 am today getting her jab. She was wearing her Christmas

jumper, her Christmas sweater, with a little penguin that says "Happy Christmas" on it.

As you heard her say there, she said, if I can do it at 90, then, you can do it, too. She says this is the best early birthday gift she can get.

She's supposed to turn 91 next week.

That's because she says she's been feeling lonely. Obviously, like many grandparents, she's been separated from her family over these last few

months. And the vaccine means finally that they can be reunited.

Remember Maggie and everyone else has to get two jabs 21 days apart. And then there is a waiting period after that. So it will still be about a

month. But it means just in time for the holidays, Maggie will be able to rejoin her family in a safe way -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Social media abuzz after news that the second recipient was one William Shakespere, jokes about the taming of the flu and the two gentlemen

of corona. You just couldn't make this up, could you?

ABDELAZIZ: Absolutely not, Becky.

What poetry, right?

And it's important here because the poetry has just come to us, to take a pause, isn't it?

This virus has absolutely devastated this country, as it has everywhere else. More than 60,000 people have lost their lives due to coronavirus.

This is the worst hit country in Europe. Families have been kept apart, people have lost livelihoods. Then this moment of poetry, William

Shakespere, the most famous English poet, getting his vaccine just 20 miles away from where the real William Shakespeare was born.

He is over 80 years old. He had pictures drawn by his grandchildren beside him to comfort him as he got that jab and he later got a rest. But it's

absolutely heart warming for everyone here, Becky, to wake up to these images of Maggie and William Shakespere leading the way.

ANDERSON: A big X factor in all of this, of course, is just how many people will take the vaccine when it becomes widely available. A new poll

shows 57 percent of Brits, just over half, say they would trust a vaccine after approval.

And, of course, both Maggie and William aren't the only ones to take the vaccine.

How have other people been reacting to taking it?

ABDELAZIZ: Becky, you bring up a very good point there.

This is the next challenge, right?

The vaccine has been created; it's in the country. Now you have to get it into people's arms. It's important to remember here this vaccine was only

authorized for use less than a week ago. This vaccine was created just a few weeks ago. So there is a lot more people to wrap their minds around.

Take a listen to what just two people said when they got the vaccine today to give you an idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a quick, painless jab, doesn't take long, a quick trip to St. George's Hospital. It's been fantastic. Doesn't hurt. And

I highly recommend it for anybody that's eligible for it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't think people should be afraid of the vaccine. They should go for it. There's absolutely nothing to it. It's been

such an exciting day, everybody has been very professional and done professionally. And I would just urge people to have the vaccine and not

think about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now of course, part of us getting to hear about Maggie and William Shakespere and all of these individuals is about getting the

message out there, it's about getting people feeling safe and ready to take this vaccine.

You mentioned that statistic about the number of people willing to take the vaccine of 57 percent. We understand, according to health experts, that

two-thirds of the population would have to get vaccinated in order for herd immunity to take place, in order for the entire population to be safe from

this deadly virus. So there's a lot of hearts and minds that need to be won -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes, Salma Abdelaziz outside of Guy's Hospital in London.

Vaccinations then rolling out across the realm in all four countries of the U.K. Prime minister Boris Johnson stopping by a vaccination center in

London this morning. Have a listen.

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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: Across the whole of the U.K. this morning, that is happening in all, in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales,

in England, people are having the vaccine for the first time. And it will gradually make a huge, huge difference.

But I stress gradually, because, you know, we are not there yet. We haven't defeated this virus yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: All right. Well, CNN, of course, has reporters across the U.K. as the NHS begins its vaccination efforts. Max Foster has been covering

the rollout in Wales, Phil Black is in Scotland for you.

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MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: I'm Max Foster in Cardiff, Wales, where a series of vaccination centers have been set up across the nation.

[10:10:00]

FOSTER: But I'm not allowed to reveal where they are. Some concern that people may turn up, hoping to get a vaccine and queues would form. At the

moment, it's invitation only and they are prioritizing health workers. I spoke to one of them as he received the vaccine.

What was the experience like?

Any other injections?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Similar to having other vaccinations.

FOSTER: Were you nervous at all beforehand?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not particularly, no.

FOSTER: Do you feel like you're part of history?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely.

FOSTER: Are you excited with I that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

FOSTER: Why is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a new sort of possibility and a possibility to not pass on infection to patients.

FOSTER: Everyone who received the vaccination also received one of these cards, pointing out which batch they received the vaccination from, also

how they have to come back in three weeks' time to get the second dose.

I noticed that, behind the scenes, there was a team of pharmacists as well because another thing that's unusual about this vaccine is that it doesn't

come ready made. It has to be mixed on site. So that's part of the logistical challenge which the Brits are currently dealing with.

The second phase of this, though, will be a lot tougher; rather than going to hospitals, they're going to take it out to care homes but also to

doctors' offices, which don't have the refrigeration facilities necessary to store this vaccine for more than a few days.

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PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Phil Black at Edinburgh's Western General Hospital, where some of the most vulnerable, most at-risk people in

Scotland, have been among the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine.

As for the rest of the U.K., the focus here is on protecting front line medical and care home staff and people over 80. Next week, the vaccine will

be distributed directly to Scottish care homes so residents there can be vaccinated quickly and easily.

The priority, with the first 65,000 doses, will be on preventing deaths. Further over the horizon, once this vaccine and perhaps others have been

distributed more widely, there lies the hope of people being able to return to something like their normal lives.

But the Scottish government is keen to state, we are not there yet. There are tough restrictions still in place across much of Scotland, designed to

slow the spread of the virus; people here are still dying.

So the message from the Scottish government is both optimistic and serious. Enjoy the hope and optimism of this day, celebrate this achievement for

medical science. But channel that feeling into maintaining discipline and vigilance in the final stretch of grappling with this virus.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: And that a narrative we will explore in a few moments, when we speak to a doctor, who has taken the vaccine herself.

The U.K., though, isn't just focused on vaccinating its own. British foreign secretary Dominic Raab spoke about the hardships facing a global

vaccination effort, saying a pandemic like this requires a global solution.

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DOMINIC RAAB, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: If you look at this Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, it was a German-U.S. research project, manufactured in

Belgium, we're distributing in the U.K.

I think that gives you a sense to which this is not just an international challenge but the solutions are going to be international.

We've also been working with internationally a GAVI summit, the so-called Kovacs facility. Both are all about making sure we can get an equitable

distribution around the world, particularly for the most vulnerable people in the most vulnerable countries because we recognize a global pandemic

requires a global solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, the help can't come soon enough for Iran, which has the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East and is in the midst of a

devastating third wave.

But when will it come?

Iranian officials say the government has secured millions of doses of a vaccine but crippling U.S. sanctions have hurt its ability to pay for those

vaccines.

With more than a million cases of COVID in Iran and more than 50,000 people dead, any delay could cost countless more lives. Well, those sanctions can

make it hard for Iran to get basic medicines and supplies, even on a good day.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh went inside a hospital in Iran, where workers are struggling to keep up with this latest COVID surge.

WALSH: Becky, while the U.K. may be sending the world a message of hope, that potentially there is through medicine a way out of this pandemic,

there is a much sadder story still unfolding here in Iran, when November saw 10,000 deaths alone.

That's a fifth of the total officially recorded in this country. And we saw one of the worst affected hospitals here in the capital and exactly how

they are struggling but succeeding in dealing with the pandemic, despite crushing sanctions.

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WALSH (voice-over): A bleak winter outside, as was Tehran's summer and spring before it.

[10:15:00]

Relief is scarce. Over 750 have died from coronavirus in these corridors. Another, a young woman as we arrive, just turning the corner marks the

start of the ICU here. Two dead is a good day, four average and nine bad, doctors say.

Iran's heroism in the pandemic a little fierce, as they're doing it under the maximum pressure of the Trump administration's sanctions. They are as

proud of what they've done with the equipment as they're angry that it's all they have.

One of the hardest hit countries in the Middle East by the coronavirus, their suffering, they say, so much more acute because of the impact of

sanctions led by the United States.

Khalif doesn't look it, but is much better.

KHALIF FARAHANI, COVID-19 PATIENT: One day went today for excursion outside in one of the parks and there I was very sick, there we got the

COVID. (INAUDIBLE) before, very pain in my chest. And sanctions, sanctions, it is cruel upon America, cruelty, yes.

WALSH: Three hundred medical staff have died in Iran on this job, we're told. But like all numbers here, it is at the mercy of limited testing

equipment and exhaustion.

But even in that numerical chaos, 10,000 officially died in November alone from COVID-19. And seem here to be getting younger, we're told.

"The most bitter day was when I had a 47-year-old mother of three here," he says. "She didn't respond to treatment. When she died, that was the most

terrible, bitter day for me. I could not save her. It stuck in my memory."

And if you have lost the fight, you often head south across the city to where there is both little and plenty of space in the Behesht-e Zahra.

Economy and scale, every final home measured precisely, even as the bodies arrive.

The imam's prayers here, caught in a loop of loss, reverberating into and over each other, day in, day out. Each of a dozen imams leading about 30

funerals a day. A woman's scream, which would normally freeze everyone here, almost lost.

Nobody wanted to talk. But the stories off camera were similar -- diabetes, late 50s, coronavirus, the vulnerabilities that underpin the fond memories

of the departed and fuel each final ritual. Care is all around. These are tombs, not holes.

And even the grim process of decay, handled meticulously. The outside world may never see the full picture of Iran's battle with the same enemy we have

all faced or appreciate how much more crippling a deliberate tightening of sanctions made it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (on-camera): Becky, it is frankly startling, given how the U.K. today is sending that message of hope globally, that there is possibly a

way out of the pandemic through medicine, how sanctions here have kind of cut Iran off from so much of that global cooperation and hope.

In fact, Iranian officials here are saying that the sanctions, in fact, are making it hard for them to access possibly a vaccine in the future. I

should stress the pride you see when you meet Iranian doctors, who have had to make do with domestically-produced equipment and medicines to push

through this pandemic, after such a shattering month as November, when they have lost a fifth of the total of the whole pandemic.

But this is a country whose economy has been wracked by sanctions, now by the pandemic. We have only just seen Tehran begin to open up after another

lockdown the last 72 hours, every family here affected -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Nick Paton Walsh, on the story of suffering in Iran.

Well, in the United States, warnings that the darkest times are still ahead. Coming up, we will meet one of thousands of American families ripped

apart by this pandemic.

Also coming up, the only hope for an end to this pandemic in the U.S. is a vaccine. What private companies are doing to distribute it to millions of

people.

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ANDERSON: We are, of course, covering the very latest from Britain today, as people start taking their COVID vaccines slowly, one by one, turning the

tide against this virus and celebrating along the way.

But while this pandemic will one day pass and a happy ending emerge, this is not a fairy tale. In America, as in many parts of the world, a

staggering number of people are dying every single day; thousands, in fact, such large numbers, that it is hard to get your head around them.

In fact, by April, over 100,000 more Americans will have died than during all of World War II, 3.5 years of carnage, as it was. Those new figures,

according to the University of Washington.

Let me, though, bring it down to the scale of one person for you. This is Erika Becerra, a 33-year old from Detroit, who grew up in Los Angeles. She

had no underlying health issues. She was eight months pregnant when she was diagnosed with coronavirus three weeks ago.

Doctors induced labor and, on November 15th, she gave birth to Diego, a healthy baby boy. But Erika never got to hold him. She was put on a

ventilator immediately after delivery and, on Friday, she died. She leaves behind her newborn, her 1-year-old daughter and her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL AVILEZ, ERIKA'S BROTHER: She followed every rule in the book and she still ended up catching it and it's -- it's sad, you know. Like you've

got a lot of people that don't understand what's going on. They all think it's a joke. They all think it's a joke until, you know, it happens to them

or one of their family members and.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, President Trump, with just a few weeks left in office, is set to sign an executive order in the coming hours, which is aimed at

prioritizing vaccine shipments to Americans before other nations.

Now this comes after a "New York Times" report that Pfizer had offered to sell the U.S. government additional doses in late summer but the Trump

administration reportedly turning it down.

That raised concerns that Pfizer wouldn't be able to fulfill any more U.S. orders for a while because of its commitments to other countries. Here is

what the head of Operation Warp Speed told ABC News about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: Can you explain this executive order the president is going to be putting out?

I don't quite understand it. He's saying that foreign countries aren't going to be able to get the vaccine until everybody here in the United

States gets it. It sounds like the problem is the opposite right now. Pfizer has made deals with other countries that are going to limit the

supply here.

MONCEF SLAOUI, CORONAVIRUS VACCINE CZAR: Frankly, I don't know and, frankly, I'm staying out of this. I can't comment.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't know?

SLAOUI: I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:25:00]

ANDERSON: Well, regardless, some of the nation's top officials appear optimistic about life returning to normal next year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you still think widely available by spring?

ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Oh, yes, by the second quarter of next year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That means I, anybody watching this in the U.S., any adult in the U.S., will be able to get it by spring.

AZAR: Yes, second quarter of next year. My expectation is that, next year, we return to normalcy in our lives, thanks to the incredible work of

Operation Warp Speed and these vaccines as well as the therapeutics to take care of people who --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So packed college football stadiums, NFL stadiums next fall?

AZAR: That is my hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, as soon as the Pfizer vaccine gets emergency use authorization in the States, Operation Warp Speed say they are ready to

ship. But there are concerns about states not having enough and the logistical challenges that are being left up to those individual states.

Here is Pete Muntean.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is new hope that a coronavirus vaccine could soon bring an end to the pandemic. But the new

problem is not enough vaccine.

SLAOUI: On the manufacturing side, it's turned out to be somewhat more complicated and more difficult than we planned.

MUNTEAN: A new CNN analysis of 27 states finds none will get enough doses in early shipments to cover those who need to get the vaccine first, front

line health care workers and those in long-term care facilities.

SLAOUI: We probably are six or eight weeks later than an ideal scenario, where we would have had a million doses by the end of this year. But we are

not far.

MUNTEAN: If both Moderna and Pfizer get emergency FDA authorization, officials estimate early doses will be enough to vaccinate 20 million

people by the end of this month, even though the first phase needs to cover about 24 million people. With FDA authorization, the first Pfizer doses

could come this week. But distribution is tricky.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It is up to the state and local authorities in their individual way to make

the decisions about the distribution as well as the logistics of it.

MUNTEAN: States tell CNN they have different needs. Montana's 40,000 health care workers will get less than 10,000 initial doses. In California,

almost 2.5 million health care workers must be vaccinated. But the first doses there will cover less than one in every 10 of them.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We have to look at subprioritization of those doses.

MUNTEAN: New York could get 170,000 doses by next week.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Assuming they approve it, the trucks roll, we then have the prioritization of where they go. There are about 700,000

health care workers.

MUNTEAN: Distribution leans heavily on help from private companies. CVs, along with Walgreens, will aid in administering the vaccine. CVS just urged

more pharmacists and technicians to apply to administer shots.

American Airlines tells CNN it plans to transport vaccine within 24 hours of FDA authorization. The airline has been preparing temperature-controlled

containers to make sure doses do not spoil in transit.

ROGER SAMWAYS, AMERICAN AIRLINES: If the temperature range is exceeded at either end, the top or the bottom, alarms will trigger so that will sent a

notification to our team to come out and do something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: We've got some video for you now of a police raid in Florida on a coronavirus whistleblower. Authorities served a search warrant at the

home of Rebecca Jones, a government data scientist, who was fired back in May after she accused state officials of covering up the extent of the

COVID-19 pandemic.

Now Jones said officers pointed guns at her two young children. Have a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police. Come down now. Come downstairs.

(CROSSTALK)

REBECCA JONES, GOVERNMENT DATA SCIENTIST: -- my children. Did you point a gun at my children?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Search warrant. Come down the stairs, sir.

ANDERSON (voice-over): State law enforcement officials say no guns were actually pointed at anyone in the home. Officers carried out the raid as

part of an investigation into whether she illegally accessed a government messaging system to urge employees to speak out about coronavirus deaths.

Jones says she lost access to her government computer accounts after she was fired and denies using the messaging system. She tells CNN she believes

the raid was orchestrated by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who she has publicly accused of mishandling the pandemic. The governor's office denies

he knew anything about the investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, you will probably be hearing this term a lot, yet it truly is a historic day for humanity.

[10:30:00]

ANDERSON: With the first public rollout of the COVID vaccine in the West, my next guest works in an ICU ward in Wales and took the vaccine herself.

We will hear from her just ahead.

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PARSONS: To be honest, while I was doing it, going through the motions of what we do as a policy anyway, step by step, we have done it so many times

and hundreds of times, I think it's the after effect of the interview and everyone being in here and then asking how it feels.

That's when it kind of felt overwhelming and obviously making history. And it's good. I think it can only be good. And I think we're promoting

something that is possibly, I don't know, history.

And I think it's just to stop the devastation really. And that's what I want to kind of happen. So if anyone has the vaccine, they won't get it,

they won't pass it on, they will protect their family and their community and for me, that's really important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The world was watching as Nurse May Parsons delivered Pfizer BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine to 90-year-old Margaret Keenan earlier

today, the first person in the West to get the jab, approved just a week ago in Britain.

There was warm applause but no bells and whistles when it happened a short time ago at a local hospital in Coventry, England. Everyone in hospitals

and other makeshift facilities across the U.K., just doing their job. Yet the sense of hope it is giving is global and real.

It's a game changer, says the war against the pandemic can actually be won. But it will take some time. The safety steps are still super important. Dr.

Ami Jones knows that better than anyone. She is an ICU specialist in Wales. She's been awarded an MBE medal from the queen for services to the Wales

Air Ambulance.

Now she is in a history making group, part of the first rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and, as you just saw from her tweet, Dr. Jones is a keen

advocate of getting the jab. She joins me now from Wales.

Front-line workers, those in the industry of care like yourself, getting an opportunity to take this vaccine, as are the most vulnerable in the U.K.

today. You've taken it.

How did it feel?

[10:35:00]

DR. AMI JONES, ICU SPECIALIST: Surprisingly painless, actually. Probably one of the best vaccinations I have ever had.

ANDERSON: And administering it to other people?

JONES: That's not my job, sadly. There is a whole raft of nurses and other people that have been trained to give the injection. I'm too busy dealing

with COVID patients still. But my vaccinator did a standout job.

ANDERSON: Health secretary Matt Hancock reacting to people taking the vaccine. Just have a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: I'm feeling quite emotional, actually, watching those pictures. It's been -- it's been such a tough year

for so many people. And finally we have -- we have our way through it, our light at the end of the tunnel, as so many people are saying.

And just watching Margaret there, you know, it seems so simple having a jab in your arm. But that will protect Margaret and it will protect the people

around her. And if we manage to do that, in what is going to be one of the biggest programs in NHS history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Ami, you know better than anyone working in ICU how important today is. Clearly there is a lot of emotion around.

Do you share that?

JONES: I do, because the last nine months has been a horrifically dark tunnel that the light -- we're hoping the light is at the end of. A

horrific disease that many, many people have died from way before they should have done, way before their time.

So this thought of it ending and life getting back to normal is welcome. But I think it's a long, dark tunnel that's still ahead of us, you know,

certainly the rates in my country are the highest in the U.K., enormous.

I think we have more people in hospital with COVID now than we had at the peak of the first wave. So we are nowhere near out of danger, we need to

keep our wits about us and our guard up because we have a long way to go before we get the vast majority of the population vaccinated and the virus

starts to leave us.

ANDERSON: You make a very, very good point. This couldn't come at a more important time, where you are in Wales, where authorities, of course, are

considering new COVID lockdowns amid what you describe is a rapid rise in infections.

Look, a new poll shows that 57 percent of Brits say they would trust a vaccine after approval. That is only just over half.

What do you say to those who are hesitant at this point?

JONES: I mean, vaccines are historically very safe and although this has been -- this vaccine has been created at speed, that's because a lot of

resource and time has been thrown at it and a lot of red tape has been cut through.

I'm hugely grateful to the scientists that have made this vaccine. And I have absolutely no qualms or hesitations about taking it myself today,

neither would I for the rest of my family. This is the only way out of this horrific mess we are in the moment.

Obviously herd immunity is never going to work. It would take too many people down with it. So the vaccination is the only way out of it. Even

like myself, I'm reasonably young and fit, I probably would be fine if I got COVID-19.

But it's not me catching COVID that's the problem. It's the people I pass it on to. So the reason I had it to protect my patients and my colleagues

and my family. I think we all need to think about other people.

The vaccine is safe. We need to trust the scientists and we need to think about other people and how we protect them. And that involves getting the

vaccine. If you want life to go back to normal, that is how we get there.

ANDERSON: It's been a tough year. Just finally, just describe what you and your colleagues have been through.

JONES: We've seen young, fit patients like ourselves on ventilators, dying without their families there. You know, the families have not been able to

visit their loved ones. We've had to have very difficult conversations over the phone. And that has been replicated not just in intensive care but

throughout the hospital.

Scores more people have succumbed to the disease on the wards as well. It has been horrific. It is a horrific new disease. And although we are much

better at treating it now we don't want to keep treating it. It's one of the worst diseases I have ever treated.

So if we have a way of getting rid of it and getting back to normal, then we absolutely should go for it. But it involves everyone doing their part

and everyone getting vaccinated.

ANDERSON: It is an absolute pleasure having you on. Thank you for your time. I know you are busy. Begone, 2020. Let's hope things are on the up

for 2021. Thank you.

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ANDERSON: Take a look at this. You are looking at a man just stepping out of his hotel room.

[10:40:00]

ANDERSON: But he wasn't allowed to because he's quarantining in Taiwan. And for this foray into the hallway, caught on CCTV by the hotel staff,

lasting just eight seconds, he was fined $3,500, more than $400 a second.

Taiwan has dozens of these quarantine hotels and it clearly means business in enforcing the rules. About 23 million people living on the island but,

so far in this pandemic, it's had just over 700 COVID cases and seven deaths.

Still to come, sure, it's entertaining.

But is break dancing a sport?

Well, the Olympics certainly think so. That story just ahead.

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ANDERSON: The International Olympic Committee or the IOC has announced the newest sport to be added to the games and, get ready for it, it is break

dancing. It will debut at the 2024 games in Paris. "WORLD SPORT's" Amanda Davies is with me now.

It may seem a bit of a laugh.

But these dancers are actually real athletes, correct?

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they are, Becky, and I have to say I have a whole lot to learn about break dancing, not something I have ever

covered before. But it's fascinating. The Olympic commission report from 2019 said there is an estimated 1 million people around the world who are

break dancers.

But I have also found out we need to call it breaking, not break dancing. But they have got some brilliant nicknames, these athletes, the likes of

Crazy Legs. We have Bumblebee from Russia, Ram is from Japan, we have Logistix as well.

And this is the new trend for the Olympics, to try and make it more relevant, to attract a younger audience. So they're joining the likes of

skateboarding, surfing, speed climbing.

But I have to spare a thought for squash, Becky. Squash once again has lost its fight to become an Olympic sport. I've lost count of the number of

times it has tried and failed. But break dancing is one we now have to learn a little bit more about.

ANDERSON: I bet Logistix is spelled with an X, right?

DAVIES: Oh, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

ANDERSON: Of course. Yes, I mean, you have to feel for the squash players. As Brits, we've watched it in the Commonwealth Games, right but it's never

made it into the -- into the Olympic Games and I'm sure there will be squash players around the world who aren't breaking out in break dancing.

Perhaps that's the way to go. More from Amanda coming up.

[10:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

[11:00:00]

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