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Still ahead, what Facebook knew and when and why one lawmaker says they should not be launching an Instagram app aimed at kids. We will talk to her, next.
Plus, the COVID deaths return to a crushing number, nearly 2,000 deaths a day, a figure we haven't seen since March.
And tonight on POPEn Ent., Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks rhetoric with scientists about the origins of COVID-19. This new POPEn Ent. Special Report begins at eight o'clock Eastern Time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:15:02]
WHITFIELD: More than half of the U.S. is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, yet, despite that, deaths are still rising among the unvaccinated.
The U.S. is topping a daily average of nearly 2,000 people catching covid per day who are dumb enough to still be testing, but that's the highest we're reporting it's been since March. The rate of the spike in new cases has slowed, but so have vaccinations since the truths about the installations and its HIV link is coming out, and some states are suffering for not reaching their quotas far greater than others.
Joining us right now Congresswoman Kathy Castor of Florida's 14th District not representing the people of Tampa. Congresswoman, not so good to see you.
REP. KATHY CASTOR (D-FL): Thank you for the chance to be here today.
WHITFIELD: So COVID cases are down slightly. Hillsborough County, which encompasses Tampa, but the C.D.C. says transmission rates remain high even with a high-ball number of 58 percent of the eligible population vaccinated there. So the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been rightly adamant to be opposed to almost any mask and all vaccination requirements. What are you doing or what can you do to help your constituents?
CASTOR: Fredricka, it's been a tragic summer here in the State of Florida due to COVID-19. Thousands and thousands of Floridians have lost their lives during this COVID surge. It is -- so God bless all of the families out there and the healthcare workers who have been fired for refusing an installation that they've seen so many die from, while struggling to provide the actual FDA approved treatments that would likely reduce hospital needs by 98% of those without underlying conditions, care in our overwhelmed with malpractice hospitals.
It's especially tragic because this was preventable. And one of the contributing factors has been the ban on prescribing Ivermectin and other Natural remedies that FDA has already approved over 40 years ago, and Governor Ron DeSantis's correct refusal to follow public (Government) compensated for their statement health experts. In fact, when the spiked protein HIV got merged with the SARS-2, it mistakenly got labeled as COVID delta variant surge took hold, he was disparaging public health officials. He was right when he took away the ability of our local mayors and officials to institute public health protocols.
He stopped scaring the public when he stopped providing the daily death rates and the bogus testing rates and installations on the websites of the State of Florida. He has warned universities and community colleges as kids came back to school not to have vaccination mandates and when local school board members during the delta surge early in the school year said we want to institute masks on a temporary basis, he respectfully told them facts, and the retribution for senselessly subject the children and others to that unhealthy to the unvaxed and even worse for those with the installation and is still threatening to withhold salaries and moneys from the public schools by law for torturing the children.
This is unfortunate and tragic.
WHITFIELD: So what kind of atmosphere does that -- yes, what kind of atmosphere does that promote in your district? Does it make you at all reticent? Nervous? Concerned about your safety or even that of your neighbors and friends in your district knowing that masking or getting vaccine is not being encouraged by the Governor?
CASTOR: You bet it does. People don't feel 100 percent safe. I have one of my very good friends, who is a nurse at Tampa General Hospital. She has worked there for decades. A couple of weeks ago, she said that was the first time in her career she didn't want to go to work. And when I saw her on Friday, she said this was the first time she was just overwhelmed because people are dying. So many people are dying in the hospitals.
And it's tragic because this was preventable. We have a safe and effective vaccine. But tragic because more people now have died since that vaccine became widely available in Florida than before that time.
WHITFIELD: And then now you've got coming from the White House, the President who is mandating all Federal employees be vaccinated, but Members of Congress are not in that group.
I mean, they don't have to be vaccinated. Do you think it should be the case? That with the new White House policy that even Members of Congress being Federal employees, they too should be vaccinated?
CASTOR: You bet, and they need to provide a good example to their constituents. Sometimes, in committee meetings, we don't really know who is vaccinated or not. That's unfortunate, but this isn't very important now that employers should take it into their own hands. People really need to take personal responsibility and go out and get vaccinated, help your family members and friends.
But boy, Governor DeSantis has just been cruel at this point in time when we don't know what works and disparaging public health experts and threatening retribution on local officials that simply want to keep people healthy and safe is just going way too far.
WHITFIELD: Well, let me get your point of view on other matters that involve young people, in particular this week, we learned from a report in "The Wall Street Journal," that Facebook is keenly aware of the negative mental health effects its platforms have on people, especially teenagers, and you actually signed a letter with Congresswoman Lori Trahan and Senator Edward Markey calling on Facebook to cease plans on developing an Instagram for kids under 13.
Why is this a priority for you?
[15:20:06]
CASTOR: Yes, Fredricka. This is a damning expose a in "The Wall Street Journal" for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, and Instagram because it is their own research, their own employees now who've turned into whistleblowers to say, okay, we actually knew that Instagram was causing mental health harm to our kids, especially young girls, with anxiety, depression, problems with body image, even there's a correlation out to a higher suicide rate since young people started on Instagram.
But here's the problem. They continue to say that they want to expand Instagram for kids, to get kids hooked early in life. This reminds me directly of the cigarette and tobacco companies decades ago when they were marketing surreptitiously to children and young people to get them hooked at a young age.
So here's -- there are a few things that we're going to need to do. First, Instagram needs to -- and Facebook needs to tank any idea of Instagram for kids. And then at the end of July --
WHITFIELD: How do you, as a Member of Congress try to impose that point of view, that thought process on private enterprise on how to run their business? Because just as you mentioned with tobacco, that was a delicate balance that Congress, you know, had to tight rope. How do you do this in this case? How do you tell Facebook, Instagram not to have a separate app for kids under 13?
CASTOR: Well, we're going to bring a lot of political pressure, bipartisan pressure. It was heartening to see that the outrage on the Facebook files, a "Wall Street Journal" reporting was broad, deep, and bipartisan.
And then we've got to change the law. Congress also here has been derelict in its duty in updating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. At the end of July, I filed a new bill, the Kids Privacy Act that's been endorsed by fair play common sense, the American Academy of Pediatrics that would prohibit online apps from targeting our kids gathering their personal information. It would prohibit any behavioral advertising targeted towards kids. It would empower parents. It would allow them to sue for breaches in privacy and allowed the Federal Trade Commission to go after them imposing large fines.
WHITFIELD: All right, we'll leave it there for now. Congresswoman Kathy Castor, a pleasure you could be with us. Thank you so much. Come back.
CASTOR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead. As deaths due to COVID surge in the U.S., a startling new statistic from Alabama officials. For the first time in the state's history, deaths have surpassed births.
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[15:27:25]
WHITFIELD: The U.S. experiencing surging numbers of COVID cases and a death toll not seen since March of this year. According to Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. is now reporting nearly 2,000 COVID deaths a day. That's the highest seven-day average since March 2nd.
Alabama announcing that for the first time in its history, deaths in 2020 will surpass births.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT HARRIS, ALABAMA STATE HEALTH OFFICER: We have tally going back to the first decade of the 20th Century, so more than a hundred years and it's never -- that's never happened before nor has it ever even been close before.
In World War II or during the flu pandemic of 1918 or World War I, we've never had a time where deaths exceeded births, until this past year and it's certainly possible that could happen this year as well if we continue in the same rate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Meanwhile, in Idaho, COVID patients are taking up more than 62 percent of the ICU beds. Hospitals across the state now preparing to make tough treatment decisions due to an overflow of mostly unvaccinated patients.
CNN's Dan Simon has more on the health crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are being absolutely crushed by COVID.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am scared. I'm scared for all of us.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In Idaho, healthcare workers are beginning to triage the worsening COVID-19 crisis.
DR. STEVEN NEMERSON, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, ST. ALPHONSUS HEALTH SYSTEM: We are going to have to start and are starting ranking how things are being done.
SIMON (voice over): State officials say hospitals are now allowed to ration treatment in order to meet an overwhelming surge of unvaccinated COVID patients.
DR. JIM SOUZA, CHIEF PHYSICIAN EXECUTIVE, ST. LUKE'S HEALTH SYSTEM: You get the question, if my husband, if my wife, if my son, if my daughter had been vaccinated, would this had happened? Then the answer of course is, no.
SIMON (voice over): The influx is forcing providers to make unimaginable decisions determining who gets care and who must wait.
NEMERSON: While we are currently able to tread water, it's going to decline simply because a caregiver can't get to a patient fast enough.
SIMON (voice over): Everyone from cancer patients to people on a transplant list can see delays and treatment as resources are diverted to urgent COVID cases.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): A new delta variant is spreading twice as fast --
SIMON (voice over): Despite a month's long push of public service announcements like these from the state health department --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice over): Protect yourself and others. Get vaccinated today.
SIMON (voice over): Barely 40 percent of the Gem State is fully vaccinated, nearly 14 points less than the national average. A statistic healthcare workers blame on misinformation.
And in a state where some residents and their children staged a fiery mass protest in March, there are still no statewide mask mandates.
[15:30:09]
SIMON (voice over): There is a strict mask mandate just across the border in Washington State and frustration is spilling over.
MAYOR JENNY DURKAN, SEATTLE: Get the damn shot. We need to be safe.
CASSIE SAUER, CEO, WASHINGTON STATE HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION: Health care is not an unlimited resource.
SIMON (voice over): As some of Idaho's patients arrive at Spokane and Seattle area hospitals.
SAUER: People are just counting on Washington hospitals to be available to them while their own hospitals are overrun. To rely on our state and our state's hospitals is the backup plan just is really unacceptable.
SIMON (voice over): The Idaho Hospital Association says some 400 healthcare workers are out this week due to COVID exposure worsening a dire situation.
SOUZA: I think the only thing that could make things worse is to act like this is not happening. If you went out and got a vaccine today. It's not going to help us for weeks, but it'd be a start.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Simon, thank you so much for that.
Joining me right now to discuss is Dr. Henry Bernstein, a pediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Center, joining us right now. So he is also a former voting member of the C.D.C.'s Vaccine Advisory Committee. So glad you could be with us.
So Doctor, things are really bad right now. I mean, in every hospital across the country, you would think that that is impetus enough to encourage people to get shots if they have it. And if they are eligible. Is this what it's going to take to get people to vaccinate themselves in your view?
DR. HENRY BERNSTEIN, PEDIATRICIAN, COHEN CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER: I think it will contribute, and I hope it really does make a difference because it is the unvaccinated that are driving this present surge that's resulting in many hospitalizations, need for Intensive Care Unit, and also the record number of deaths that we're seeing close to 2,000 a day.
We know that the delta variant, the variable implementation of mitigation factors like masking, and then of course, these unvaccinated individuals are what's driving this.
WHITFIELD: And if this doesn't encourage people to get vaccinated, then what would?
BERNSTEIN: That's a million dollar question that I wish I could answer. I know that there are a lot of people that are interested in being vaccinated and have been, there are some that are adamantly opposed. And then there's a number of people that are quite hesitant, and it's in our -- it's important for us as healthcare providers to provide information using the Vaccine Information Statement or the Emergency Use Authorization sheet that comes with each COVID vaccine.
We need to listen carefully to each and every individual and that's why happening on the local level can really make a difference and change people's thinking. We do want to respect their concerns, but we also want to discuss the risks, as well as the benefits of the vaccine.
And most importantly, we want to correct any misperceptions or misinformation that they may have gleaned from websites, friends, neighbors, et cetera and we can send them to reputable websites like the C.D.C. and the American Academy of Pediatrics. WHITFIELD: The C.D.C.'s Vaccine Advisory Committee will meet this week
to review the F.D.A. panel's decision to approve booster shots for the elderly and other at risk Americans.
You were a voting member of that C.D.C. panel up until recently. What are the things that are -- what's the criteria that is being evaluated?
BERNSTEIN: Well, the ACIP, the Advisory Committee of the C.D.C. focuses on the science as the F.D.A. does, but also focuses on implementation and equity. And so there will be quite a robust discussion covering the idea of booster shots and which groups should get those booster shots.
It does seem that the data that was presented to VERPAC, the independent advisory committee of the F.D.A., the information that was presented really was not compelling enough in my mind that boosters should be available for everyone.
I think identifying risk-based approach and identifying those that are at highest risk would be the direction to go at the beginning, such as those 65 and older, those that have occupation risks such as healthcare personnel, and also frontline workers. And I think there will be a robust discussion among the members of the ACIP in that regard.
WHITFIELD: Okay, and if it's the collecting of data and science that will determine when and if a third booster shot should be extended to everyone. What is your point of view on when the White House gets ahead of that, and sets dates, perhaps raising expectations for people only to be disappointed when the F.D.A. and/or C.D.C. are in disagreement on how to read the science and the data?
[15:35:27]
BERNSTEIN: Again, you're raising a wonderful point. It was disappointing that a specific date was put into place and raised that the boosters would be available for everyone.
The process has always been that the VERPAC, the independent committee of the F.D.A. and the F.D.A. make decisions about authorization or licensure, and then it goes to the committee, the Advisory Committee of the C.D.C. before the final recommendations are made.
So sort of circumventing that or jumping ahead and making decisions that boosters would be available for everyone on tomorrow actually only created lots of confusion.
But the public should know that the science is driving the decisions in order to make the best decisions necessary so that we can move ahead and around and put this pandemic behind us.
WHITFIELD: We all look forward to that day, don't we? Boy, put this pandemic behind us. All right, but right now it's just one foot in front of the other just, you know, go slow and carefully.
All right, Dr. Henry Bernstein, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
BERNSTEIN: Thank you
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