CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Andy Beshear

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Want to know how serious the outbreak is in states with low vaccination states? Well, right now Kentucky is deploying the National Guard to help hospitals overwhelmed by the surge in COVID infections across the states. Dozens of hospitals there are seeing critical staffing shortages. At least one has been enforced to enact its disaster plans. Look at that graph. It's going in the wrong direction.

Joining me now is Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.

Governor, thanks for joining us morning.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: Good morning.

SCIUTTO: So first I want to talk about mask mandate because the court ordered you to rescind your mask mandate, but the State Board of Education, it's still requiring masks in public schools. I'm talking about a mask mandate for students. So some students have to, others don't. I just wondered, does that create confusion for parents?

BESHEAR: Well, there shouldn't be any confusion because the science is clear. School districts that require universal masking are doing all right. They're keeping their kids in class. They're keeping cases and quarantines low. But everywhere that we don't have universal masking, it fails.

It's everything from a district in Kentucky that went back for three days, masking optional, and had 700 quarantines in just the first three days. I think they're up to 1500 now, all related to just three days. That west Texas school district where the entire school district is quarantined, think about that.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BESHEAR: And we've got studies that come out now that say 90 percent of students in a classroom unvaccinated will end up quarantined within a semester. Listen, there's the smart decision and then there's the one where we

host a giant chickenpox party, but it's with the third leading cause of death. Let's just make a smart decision.

SCIUTTO: Yes, if only. As you know, some school districts in Florida and Texas where governors have banned mask mandates said they've just gone ahead and defied the statewide bans and said, we're doing it. Would you recommend the same to communities in Kentucky?

BESHEAR: Well, there is nothing in Kentucky that prevents a school district from putting this into place. And, listen, I was willing to make the tough decision, the unpopular decision with some to require universal masking in all our schools. Why? Because I care about my two kids and I care about everybody else's, too, and I want this to work.

I want them to be in class and I want to make sure that we don't impact our work force. You know, our hospitals are overrun right now. Well, a quarantined child of a nurse is likely pulling that nurse out of the hospital.

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A quarantined child of a doctor likely pulls that doctor out of the hospital. And then there are fewer staffed beds for us to take care of people. So I was willing to do it. Our Supreme Court has now said, I'm not going to have that authority, and so I very seriously hope that our state legislature will give it strong consideration because there are only two things that can blunt the Delta variant. Vaccines and masking. And we need both tools in place to protect our people.

SCIUTTO: OK. So let's talk about vaccines and the question of mandating vaccines, at least for certain categories of workers. As you know, the FDA has granted full authorization out of the Pfizer vaccine. A lot of Republican governors and others in banning vaccine mandates cited the fact that until now it had been Emergency Use Authorization.

Now that there is full authorization for at least one vaccine, do you plan on mandating vaccines or attempting to for any category of worker?

BESHEAR: Right now in Kentucky what we are seeing is the private sector stepping up, even before this full approval and requiring it. It's all of our major hospital systems that set a deadline for it. It's a number of our major companies. It's national companies like Tyson that have large groups in Kentucky where we're seeing vaccinations pick up. But again, what we've seen across the country are court decisions that end up limiting the powers of a central executive to make the tough calls and to make the hard calls.

So it's going to be a real challenge on the authority side to be able to do that in Kentucky. But, listen, full approval ought to be a game changer because for those legitimately skeptical but open, this was the main criticism, that it was rushed, that it didn't go through what everything else did. This is now probably the most studied vaccine for this period of time in human history, and half of all Americans have taken it.

So we know it's safe. So now it's time for those folks to go in, get that shot and help us beat this variant.

SCIUTTO: You see the number on our screen, 363 million doses administered in this country so far.

Do you sense a change -- you're a Democratic governor in a red state. You have to talk to a lot of Democratic voters. You get to talk to a lot of Republican voters. Do you sense a change of view on both vaccine and masking even among even Republican voters who might have shared some hesitation to do this or even outright hostility to do this as you've seen infections ramp up, as you've seen hospitals being overwhelmed?

BESHEAR: Well, certainly the Delta variant rightfully scares people and we are at a critical stage all across Kentucky. We have multiple hospitals bursting at the seams. We've had one set of triage tents outside because they can't handle the push in the emergency room. The one that's got its disaster plan in effect has turned just about every operating room into a new COVID wing.

You go across our state and we just had another request for National Guard at another hospital that just reported being at that critical stage. So we're at the point where, in many areas, if you're in a car accident, you're in big trouble because there's not the staff and the bed to take care of you. If you have a stroke, if you have a heart attack. So the possibility for excess death and for more loss is real.

And so we're starting to see our vaccination rates pick up. We're starting to see more people masked. But we've got to have a lot more than what we're seeing. You know, ticking up and people getting a little bit more interested in wearing masks isn't going to defeat this variant. We need everybody loving their neighbors as themselves, being their brothers' and sisters' keeper and do what it takes to protect one another.

SCIUTTO: Yes. If you don't follow the science, at least follow the Golden Rule.

BESHEAR: That's right.

SCIUTTO: Governor Andy Beshear, thanks so much for coming on.

BESHEAR: Thank you.

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