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Data Center Construction Facing Hurdles; Tennessee Votes Using Controversial New Maps; FDA Approves First MRNA Flu Vaccine. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired August 06, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: It's the worst fire season in more than 30 years for both of those states.

And you could soon be paying more for avocados. The U.S. government has suspended imports of the fruit from a leading avocado-producing state in Mexico. Officials say the move is due to an unspecified -- quote -- "threat against American interests." Back in 2024, the U.S. paused all avocado imports for two weeks from the same place after two U.S. avocado inspectors were assaulted and detained at a police roadblock.

And happening now, NASA astronauts are conducting a space walk outside the International Space Station. The pair are installing hardware to modify the station's electrical system. Their mission is expected to go on for another couple of hours. This is the 96th U.S. space walk at the International Space Station -- Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, Wolf, new this morning: The Food and Drug Administration has approved the nation's first mRNA-based flu vaccine. The drugmaker Moderna says the vaccine is for adults 50 and older, calling it -- quote -- "an important new option for America's seniors."

A study showed the new vaccine was about 27 percent more effective than the standard flu shot during the 2024-'25 flu season.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: The FDA has approved the first mRNA-based flu vaccine here in the United States. This vaccine was made by the company Moderna, and it's approved for ages 50 and older.

Here's what Moderna's CEO had to say in a statement just yesterday -- quote -- "Flu remains a significant public health challenge and mFLUSIVA provides an important new option for America's seniors. This approval also reflects the ongoing potential of our mRNA platform to help address important public health challenges through continued scientific innovation" -- end quote. This new vaccine was found to be about 27 percent more effective

during the 2024-to-2025 respiratory virus season than standard flu shots at that time. This study was conducted by the company Moderna. Some side effects associated with this vaccine include pain at the injection site, fatigue, headaches, swelling lymph nodes, fever, muscle pain.

But what really makes this vaccine different, because it's mRNA-based, it can be quicker, easier to develop compared with the more traditional flu vaccines. Because of this, vaccine makers may be able to develop this vaccine closer to the actual flu season, which means they can tailor it to specifically target the flu strains that are circulating at that time.

Now, the approval process for this vaccine did take a little more time. There were a little more hurdles than typically seen. That's because the FDA originally refused to review this vaccine when Moderna submitted its vaccine application.

After Moderna made some changes to that application, then it was accepted for review, and now we have this FDA approval. So it was an interesting back-and-forth that occurred before this approval actually happened, but now that it is FDA-approved, people can wait to see when it will hit the market again for ages 50 and older -- back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right, Jacqueline Howard, thank you very much.

Here to discuss this and more, Dr. Aileen Marty. She's an infectious disease expert and a distinguished professor at Florida International University.

Dr. Marty, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for all you do.

We saw the mRNA technology used for COVID-19 vaccines. Give us a little bit more on the significance that we now have one approved for the flu.

DR. AILEEN MARTY, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Yes, not just for the flu. We also have one approved for RSV. So this is a technology we have been able to develop very rapidly, in a way, thanks to having had that outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 that allowed us to progress with this science a lot faster.

It was also something that was permitted under the rules that existed at the time that all the controversy was happening because of the pandemic. In other words, we were operating under 20 years of very careful rules that had been worked out by scientists and experience on dual-use technology that has allowed us to prepare, do pandemic preparedness for emerging threats, including ongoing threats like influenza.

And this vaccine is not only something you can rapidly adapt as needed, as was mentioned in your piece. It's also a vaccine that is stable, because, when you use the old-fashioned vaccines, the actual method of the vaccinology, using eggs, et cetera, it can become unstable over time and less effective. So this is a very effective vaccine. It's fantastic.

[10:35:02]

And going back to the rules that we followed under Fauci, I want to mention that, if Congress had wanted to get more details on what happened during the pandemic, they should have given Fauci immunity. And they did not give him testimonial immunity. And that I find as very suspicious behavior on the part of Congress.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a sensitive subject, to be sure.

This new flu vaccine, Doctor, is expected in the fall, we're now told. But when should people typically get their flu shot? I was just notified by my local drugstore that the flu shots are now available. Is right now a good time to get a flu shot, or is it too early? Sometimes, they say wait a little bit longer into the fall season.

MARTY: So it really depends on what you do for a living and how you interact with people and whether or not you're in a lot of crowds as to when is the best time for you to get your flu vaccine.

The ones that are available now are probably not yet, if you got it from Walgreens or CVS or Publix or what have you, it's probably not yet the messenger RNA vaccine. That's probably going to be available in a few weeks. But the ones that are available are actually excellent.

There were excellent developments last year targeting very, very specific parts of the flu viruses that were circulating. And, of course, this vaccine is based on the best science available as to which are the strains that are circulating.

BLITZER: I spend a lot of time with a lot of people. So should I get the flu shot now, Doctor, or should I wait a little bit longer into the fall season?

MARTY: Well, in your case, and especially at our age, you might want to get it sooner, rather than later.

BLITZER: All right, well, good advice.

Let me quickly ask you another question about what we have been seeing the past day or two up on Capitol Hill with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who's worked for, what, half-a-century trying to help people prevent illness. Today, a Republican-led committee voted to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress after he invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times at a hearing last week.

As an infectious disease expert yourself, what's your reaction to this, especially given your work with the United Nations monitoring verification and inspection committee and dual-use research, for that matter?

MARTY: Yes, that's a -- that's been an area of expertise for me for decades, in that many, many things that we encounter, say anthrax, you think, oh, man, my God, that's a bacterium that can kill you.

Yes, but we also can extract from anthrax a particular toxin that we use very judiciously to treat somebody that has a particular type of cancer. So, what are you using that anthrax for? What are you growing it? What's your intent? What's the purpose of the research that you're doing?

Same with botulinum toxin, very deadly toxin at minute amounts, but lots of people use Botox, which is based on botulinum toxin, all the time. So we have to be very careful how we criticize the work that science does, because science has to advance, and in order to do so, it needs to operate under rules that are measurable and that are clear, so that we can assess what the intent is of any particular research.

And that's what Fauci, Dr. Tony Fauci, was trying to do. Now he was pardoned, and that pardon was actually -- should never have been necessary whatsoever. But, right now, he's under investigation not just by the federal government, but there are three states, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida, that are also trying to attack him.

And, quite frankly, from an infectious disease and an expert on dual use, I can tell you that these attacks are as unfair as blaming Dr. Fauci for the COVID vaccine -- the COVID epidemic, as it would be to blame the -- Paxton right now for the next hurricane that comes along.

These are people who are operating on the concept of trying to prevent problems, minimize their impact, and have the tools ready so that we can defend ourselves. The practices under which he was operating allowed us, allowed us to have a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in under a year. That's unheard of for vaccine research. And I find it incredibly inappropriate to be castigating him.

And, again, more important than that is this, what I have mentioned already, and that is, if Congress really wanted to know what were the best decisions and the worst decisions made during the pandemic, they should have granted Fauci total immunity for his testifying, so that he could have spoken freely and not been in a position where someone who does not understand the critical components of how science is done, how the methodology works would put him through years of unnecessary and inappropriate harassment.

[10:40:15]

BLITZER: Dr. Aileen Marty, excellent advice, as usual. Thank you so much for joining us.

MARTY: Pleasure.

BLITZER: And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Happening now: Voters are headed to the polls in Tennessee for primary races, marking the first test of the state's new political maps. Tennessee redrew its congressional district shortly after the Supreme

Court's controversial decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act this year. The ruling made it easier for Republicans to disassemble majority-minority congressional districts traditionally won by Democrats in the Deep South.

Tennessee's Ninth House seat, currently the only one held by a Democrat in the state, is expected to favor Republicans in November's midterms.

[10:45:04]

Joining us now is Janai Nelson. She is the president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Hi, Janai. Thanks for coming on.

So you argued this case in question before the Supreme Court. You have criticized the decision. With that in mind, what's at stake in places like Tennessee as midterm season gets into full swing?

JANAI NELSON, PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR-COUNSEL, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND: You know, everything's at stake.

We know that the results of the Callais decision has basically upended decades of progress across the South, and Tennessee is a prime example of that. And the only way to really counter the devastation of Callais is for voters to turn out in overwhelming numbers to protect our democracy, to make sure that we have a Congress that cares about the right to vote and to not be deterred by the manipulation of the voting lines, even though it is deeply distressing.

But this is a critical election that I believe will be pivotal in terms of the future of our democracy.

BROWN: So remind our viewers of some of the history here. Why was this particular part of the Voting Rights Act Section 2 crafted and what is the practical impact that you're concerned about now that it's weakened?

NELSON: Yes, well, it's so good that we're talking about this today. Today is actually the 61st anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

And I often like to refer to the act as the birth certificate of our multiracial democracy. Before 1965, we weren't a real democracy. We didn't allow many swathes of our population, and especially black citizens, to exercise the fundamental right to vote.

Since then, we have been able to progress as a society. We have been able to change the complexion of leadership in this country in dramatic ways with dramatic benefit. And what we're seeing now is a rollback. Section 2 was created because black citizens were denied the right to vote through poll taxes, through grandfather clauses, through all manner of mechanisms and laws, including intimidation and violence. And Section 2 provided a mechanism for organizations like the Legal

Defense Fund and others to -- including a functioning Department of Justice, to enforce the Voting Rights Act on behalf of voters who had been discriminated against.

And that is what the Supreme Court eviscerated in April of this year when it ruled against us in Louisiana v. Callais and set in motion this horrific mid-cycle redistricting that has exploited black voters and, as I said, reversed decades of progress in this country.

BROWN: So I wonder what you say, Janai, to your skeptics, including some Supreme Court justices who are conservative, who say Section 2 is no longer needed in the way it was 61 years ago, and the skeptics who believe voter diversity should not be a factor in the redrawing of political maps at all.

What do you say to that?

NELSON: Well, I point them to what happened the moment after their decision was issued, and that was a dilution of black voting power across the South.

There are individual legislators and elected officials who were bragging, who were gleeful about destroying historically black districts where -- in a state like Louisiana, for example, where you have nearly a third of the population African-American, and only one out of six congressional districts are they able to elect a candidate of their choice.

And even that district had been threatened. So what we're seeing is an effort to erase black political power and to take it off the map entirely across the South and in other parts of the country. So I would direct the justices to actually see the consequences of their actions, which I forecast in our oral arguments that they would be catastrophic.

And, sadly, I was proven right.

BROWN: So you -- you make the case that progress has been made and there have been efforts throughout history for black voters, to roll back that progress. And so you see this as an example of that, right?

NELSON: Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it's not only about black voters. That should be horrific enough. That should raise public ire, but it really is about an assault on our democracy writ large. It's an assault on the ability of every group in this country to have adequate representation in the halls of power, to have their voices and their votes counted, and to have a say in the future of our democracy and who represents us.

[10:50:02]

So this is an issue that is causing a crisis of democracy in this country. It's not limited to one region. It's not limited to one group of people. When you elect congressmembers, for example, on a map that six judges, six federal judges held was racially discriminatory, you are now transporting that racial discrimination into Congress, into the decision-making, into the legislation that they issue.

It is an assault on our entire country when we have this type of partisan manipulation and racial discrimination characterizing our election process.

BROWN: I wonder what you say to skeptics who argue this is really more about the political reality and doesn't have to do with race.

NELSON: Yes, I say look at who was attacked most vehemently, what districts, what happened in the city of Memphis, for example, where that city that, as predominantly black, was split into three separate districts, dismantling a district where black voters were able to elect candidates of their choice and have some representation.

And I can point to many other examples where black voters in particular have been spread across many districts or packed into a single district, and that means that their votes are being diluted, and they are not getting the same representation. Their votes do not weigh as much as their counterparts in whatever city, state, county that they reside in.

That's not a fair democracy. That's not a democracy that represents the will of the people. That's a democracy that's been slanted, that has been gerrymandered, that has silenced critical voices that are necessary for this country's progress.

BROWN: Janai Nelson, thank you so much.

NELSON: Thank you.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: And here's what's coming up all new right at the top of the hour.

Several Republican lawmakers are facing concerning allegations, forcing the party to walk a rather fine line between holding members accountable and keeping a thin majority in the House intact.

Plus, President Trump is forging ahead with efforts to try to remake the nation's capital. Tom Foreman went out on foot for a firsthand look.

And the federal government is set to refund companies billions, yes, billions of dollars for tariff refunds. So who else gets a cut? Will you get any piece of that?

That's all new in the next hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:24]

BLITZER: The data centers that fuel A.I. are certainly polarizing. A whopping 71 percent of Americans are against the construction of A.I. data centers in their local communities, that according to a recent Gallup poll.

Groups in a number of states have protested their construction, while others have proposed or passed laws banning them completely. But it's not just through legislation. Data center construction is facing massive hurdles.

CNN senior business reporter David Goldman is joining us right now.

David, I know we have seen the protests, but there's more behind these delays. What did you find out?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, there sure is.

Actually, these delays are pretty significant, Wolf. About 50 percent of data centers that are scheduled for the next two years to be constructed, well, they're probably not going to meet their deadlines, according to Goldman Sachs.

And 60 percent, according to J.P. Morgan, aren't even under construction, even though they're scheduled to be built next year. Another 7 percent have started construction, but they're facing delays. So that means that a lot of the data center construction that we are anticipating just isn't happening right now.

And we have a lot of data centers in this country already. There are more than 5,000 data centers already in existence in the United States. I think a lot of people think of A.I. and they think that data centers are new. But, remember, your e-mail, all of your social media apps, all of those are currently powered by data centers.

A.I. is just a new technology that resides in them. And because of that new technology, there's huge demand for data centers; 4,000 have been announced, but only 800 are currently under construction, which means that there is a lot potentially to come, but not as much happening right now.

Now, there are, as I mentioned, data centers all over, but a lot of this is planned construction. You do get a sense, though, of just how many are in the United States already. Now, the reasons that there are all of these delays are numerous.

A lot of them have to do with shortages like chips, and power is certainly a significant one. You can't get people to build these because they're in such high demand, and, of course, as you mentioned, public opposition, including a number of states like Texas and New York that have temporary bans on their construction.

Now, there is supposed to be an 11-fold increase in the amount of computing power if all of those data centers are built, 565 gigawatts, up from 50 today. That is enormous.