More Children Test Positive for Virus; Vaccine Trial Surpasses Diversity Goal
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. We lost Elizabeth Cohen just a moment ago on the question of more children in this country testing positive for coronavirus, particularly as they go back to school, or some do. Elizabeth Cohen, what are we learning from this? I mean is this showing that the infection is spreading like wildfire among kids? Is a big portion of this more testing of children? What do we know?</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Jim, let's take a look at the numbers because I think then we can sort of comment a little bit on them. This study looked at children. It said that there had been nearly 550,000 cases among children since the start of the pandemic and that that is nearly 10 percent of all reported cases. When you just look at the most recent time period, August 27th through September 10th, it's almost 73,000 cases. Why we are seeing -- you know, the other folks have mentioned that we're seeing more children now than we did before with Covid-19, that could be because school is back in session. It could also be because we're testing children more. In the beginning we weren't testing them so much because typically they are not very sick. It is important to note that there are complications that are quite terrible in children. Thankfully, they are unusual. Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: Understood. And, of course, the question becomes, do they bring it home? Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for helping us understand. We'll continue to watch. Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Thank you very much, Elizabeth. Trials for the Moderna vaccine, they're moving forward and they're also working to increase minority participation. The biotech company slowed its trials, you'll remember that headline, a few weeks ago due to the lack of diverse involvement, but now the numbers are up to nearly 10 percent. My next guest playing a crucial role and is playing a crucial role in this effort -- both of them. Dr. Marc Siegel is the co-lead of the Operation Warp Speed trial at George Washington University, one of 90 different locations where they're working on this, and Mark Spradley is a participant in the trial who says he thought it was his public duty to take part. Marc and Mark, I'm going to call one of you doctor. It's good to have you both here. Thank you so much.</s>DR. MARC SIEGEL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Thank you.</s>MARK SPRADLEY, VOLUNTEER, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY VACCINE CLINICAL TRIAL: Good morning.</s>HARLOW: Dr. Siegel -- good morning. Let me just get an update from you, Dr. Siegel, on where you think we are in terms of getting an answer on this Moderna vaccine that is so interesting because it's an MR&A vaccine, so it's unique in that a vaccine of this type, the way it works has never been taken to market successfully and tested this broadly before. Pfizer's CEO, as you know, said their vaccine, they should know by the end of October if it works or not. Is the same going to be true for Moderna's, do you think?</s>SIEGEL: That's difficult to answer because it really depends on how many people come down with symptomatic Covid after they've received the second dose of the vaccine. And that's really the primary end point is looking at the number of people, or looking at a set of patients who come down with symptomatic coronavirus and then looking at which of those patients had the placebo, which of those had the vaccine, and seeing if there's a significant enough difference to know that the vaccine worked. So it depends on how soon people in the study become infected with coronavirus.</s>HARLOW: Yes. Mark, you felt a calling to do this, a public duty as sorts as you described it in "The Washington Post." You have friends who have suffered from Covid. Where are you in this process and how are you feeling?</s>SPRADLEY: Well, thanks, Poppy. 2020 will be remembered as the year of civic engagement. Some Americans will help the victims of wildfires in 10 states, others will choose to support people being impacted by the hurricanes in the Gulf state. I'm one of 30,000 volunteers that want to end the pandemic.</s>HARLOW: So how do you feel? I mean have you gotten both shots, one shot?</s>SPRADLEY: I received both shots. It's a double blind study. So the participants don't know and the medical practitioners don't know what -- who got the shot or who got the placebo.</s>HARLOW: You feel all right though? You look healthy.</s>SPRADLEY: Thank you. I'm happy to be able to stand on the shoulders of giants like former Congressman Lewis B. Stokes from Ohio, who spent 30 years in Washington trying to improve health care and advocating for minority health. And the former dean of the college of medicine at the University of Maryland, Donald Wilson, who spent his entire career recruiting and training students to work as primary care practitioners.</s>HARLOW: Dr. Siegel, participation from folks like Mark is so important. And you guys were the first, Moderna's vaccine, to slow down and say we can't rush this because if we don't have enough minority participation and representation of blacks, Latinos, et cetera, we're not going to know if this works for all of the populations, especially those that have been disproportionately adversely affected by it. Can you speak to where you are now in terms of the representation?</s>SIEGEL: So we are at a -- as a site in GW, we were aiming to be at least enrolling 30 percent of people of color and we are above that. We are over 50 percent enrolling people of color. And so we are encouraged by that. We are encouraged by the willingness of people of color to participate in the study. Study wide there's been significant improvement in -- since the beginning of the study and we are seeing significantly better representations of people of color. So that by the end of the study, the study should more accurately represent the demographics of the country and, therefore, give people confidence that it works for everybody and not just one specific subset of the population.</s>HARLOW: Well, Mark, what do you say to your fellow black Americans who do not trust this process and who do not given the history in this country, Tuskegee, et cetera, have concerns? What is your message to them because one of your favorite -- my favorite quotes of yours, Mark, that I read is, I trust science.</s>SPRADLEY: And I do, Poppy. And I would say that, you know, during the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis experiment, it took one brave person, Peter Buxtun, who was a social worker five years to expose the experiment. Today, it would take an hour on social media. And, of course, with the help of mainstream media. So people should understand that our country is in a better position to safeguard their health care delivery now than any time in history. You have people who are researchers from Santa Barbara, California, to Washington, D.C., that would never waste five years trying to expose a biomedical disaster like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. You know, people like Dr. Steven B. Thomas, who's in the public health school at the University of Maryland, his scholarly contribution led to the apology by the president to the victims of the Tuskegee experiment.</s>HARLOW: It came -- it came decades later, but it was critical. Before we go, Dr. Siegel, to you, Pfizer's CEO, I'm sure you watched the interview over the weekend, but he explained why Pfizer is not taking government money for their vaccine work. They're spending $1.5 billion of their own. Moderna, though, is part of the government collaboration here and is taking money. He said, quote, I want to keep Pfizer out of politics. Should people be concerned that the government is working with you guys, for example, or do you believe that is advantageous? I just wonder what your reaction is to those remarks from him?</s>SIEGEL: I think it's advantageous. I mean the government is funding the production of the vaccine simultaneously with us running the trial so that if the trial is shown to be effective, we won't have to wait months to years for enough vaccine to become available. And that is really because of the government funding of the studies. So I think it's advantageous. I know there's concern about political interference. But as, you know, the researchers have committed to making sure that this study is run scientifically and that the results will be released when we know that they actually are safe and the vaccine works. So I think it's actually a win-win situation. We have science going on as it -- usually as is expected to do, but we also have the funding to allow us to roll out an effective vaccine if it's shown to be effective quicker than we would otherwise be able to do.</s>HARLOW: Dr. Siegel, thank you, Mark Spradley, thank you both.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, it's good to see that positive progress on a vaccine. Ahead, the terrifying moments just after a gunman ambushed two Los Angeles County deputies. And, listen to this, how the quick actions of one saved her partner's life. We'll have the full story.