Sheriff Says Balloon Boy Drama a "Hoax"; H1N1 Flu Shots Late Arriving
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're coming up on a minute before the top of the hour. Good morning to you. It's Monday, October 19th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for joining us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes. Police say the story of a young boy in that runaway balloon was an elaborate hoax, and now the parents who allegedly put their own kids up to it could be facing criminal charges. Earlier this morning, I talked to the family's attorney about a polygraph test that Richard Heene and his wife took.</s>DAVID LANE, HEENE FAMILY ATTORNEY: Yes. The sheriff put both of them on a box and they have not shared with us whether or not they passed or failed. I have said that polygraph evidence is inadmissible in Colorado courtrooms for a reason, and that is it's just generally unreliable under the law.</s>ROBERTS: In a moment, we'll take you live to Colorado for the very latest in this bizarre case.</s>CHETRY: Well, after weeks of promises, still no swine flu vaccine. The federal government said it would be available by now. Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen goes in search of the shots to find out when they may be coming to a clinic near you.</s>ROBERTS: Pakistani military forces are pushing further into Taliban territory. Though right now, both sides are claiming early victories. The ground offensive taking place while General David Petraeus and Senator John Kerry are in Pakistan. In a moment, we'll talk to former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and Republican strategist Ed Rollins about the situation along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. But, first, police say the parents who cooked up the runaway balloon story in a quest for their own reality show may soon face the reality of criminal charges. The sheriff is saying the whole ordeal a hoax. Our Dan Simon is live in Fort Collins, Colorado, this morning. And, Dan, in the end, the sheriff has had to create a hoax himself here to try to smoke the Heenes out?</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. A little bit of trickery there, the sheriff says he was able to lure the family to the station by saying they could pick up by what was left of their silver balloon. They showed up. At that point, the sheriff isolated them, did some independent interviews, the investigators did. At that point, they were apparently led to believe that the whole thing was a hoax.</s>RICHARD HEENE, BALLOON BOY'S DAD: Hey, get</s>SIMON (voice-over): That home video, the interviews.</s>R. HEENE: I'm really sorry I yelled at him.</s>SIMON: The call to 911.</s>OPERATOR: Are you sure that he's in that?</s>MAYUMI HEENE, FALCON HEENE'S MOTHER: Yes. We looked everywhere.</s>SIMON: All of it, authorities say, part of an elaborate hoax orchestrated by the 6-year-old's parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene.</s>SHERIFF JIM ALDERDEN, LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO: These people are actors. Not only have they appeared in several reality television shows and on YouTubes, we have since determined that, in fact, they met together -- the way that they met and established a relationship was in acting school in Hollywood.</s>SIMON: And the motive, according to the sheriff, was so the Heenes could better market themselves for a reality TV show. The alleged plot: to pretend that 6-year-old Falcon was inside that runaway balloon, he said was hatched two weeks ago. What made authorities believe it in the first place?</s>ALDERDEN: They granted us complete access to their children to interview independently. After Falcon was found, they didn't even hesitate to allow us to talk to him outside of their presence.</s>SIMON: But Falcon, investigators believe, spoke the truth during the family's live appearance on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," only hours after the drama unfolded. The widely played interview proved to be the turning point.</s>R. HEENE: Did you hear us calling your name at any time?</s>FALCON HEENE, BOY FEARED MISSING: Uh-huh.</s>R. HEENE: You did?</s>M. HEENE: You did?</s>R. HEENE: Then why didn't you come out?</s>F. HEENE: You had you said that we did this for a show.</s>ALDERDEN: If you look at the nonverbal responses as well as some of the verbal cues, it became very clear to us at that point that they were lying.</s>SIMON: Still, even after authorities became skeptical, they publicly backed the family, admitting now to misleading the media so the Heenes would trust them. The couple could face multiple charges, including three felonies: conspiracy between the husband and the wife to commit a crime, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and an attempt to influence a public servant. Their attorney says they should be presumed innocent.</s>DAVID A. LANE, ATTORNEY FOR RICHARD AND MAYUMI HEENE: I mean, if they have probable cause to make an arrest, then make an arrest and give me the evidence and we can -- it's analogous to a batter standing in the batter's box waiting for a pitcher to throw a pitch. You can't swing until they throw the pitch. Throw the pitch and then we'll see.</s>SIMON: Well, another twist to this whole thing, it turns out that that balloon could not have even taken off the ground in the first place. The sheriff consulted with a physics professor from Colorado State University who determined that would have been absolutely impossible to get a 37-pound boy on board and have it take off -- John?</s>ROBERTS: Dan Simon for us from Fort Collins this morning -- Dan, thanks so much. The outrage over this story evident by some of the iReports that we have been getting in. Here's what some of you are saying about it. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT) JASON VERLAINE, IREPORTER: I am outraged, outraged! And you should be, too. Were you there with me, like, watching for hours, like pulling for this kid, "Oh, my God, is he up in the air, is he going to be OK, he landed all right" -- and then he's not in the balloon and we're thinking to ourselves, "Oh, my God, did he fall out? Ouch! What's going on?"</s>JASON DINANT, IREPORTER: The children should be removed from that household, because with parents that irresponsible, it's not a good place for those children to be. I think the whole situation should be evaluated by child service people and I'd hope that they'd make the right decision for those children.</s>ROBERTS: And we'd like to hear from more of you. Call our show hotline at 1-877-MY-AMFIX. You can also head to our blog at CNN.com/am</s>FIX. CHETRY: I can't wait from you guys. Well, since last spring, the H1N1 virus has killed more than 80 children in the country, many of them were healthy before this happened. Well, eleven of those fatalities recorded in the past week alone. And despite the assurances we have gotten from the federal government, first of all that the vaccine was safe, and that we were to take it, then there would also be a decent amount of H1N1 vaccine available. Well, as of now, it's scarce.</s>DR. ANNE SCHUCHAT, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: We wish that we had more vaccine and there is more vaccine coming out every day, but it doesn't look like we're going to be able to make those estimates that we had projected for the end of this month.</s>CHETRY: Well, our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here. And, so, you know, on one hand, they were criticized -- the government -- right, for even talking about, "Yes, it's safe. We want people to get out and get it." There are a lot of questions surrounding that. Now that people have said, "You know what? I don't want to mess around; I don't want to take chances with my kids. I'd like to get them vaccinated" -- they can't take the shot. What's going on?</s>ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. It is a little bit of a situation they find themselves in. And, Kiran, the Centers for Disease Control blames the current shortage on manufacturing delays. Here's what that means to you if you're looking for an H1N1 vaccine.</s>COHEN (voice-over): For months now, a clear message.</s>DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Vaccine is by far our best tool to prevent influenza.</s>SCHUCHAT: We think vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and your kids from this virus.</s>COHEN: And yet, for most of us, there's no vaccine to be found. And where you can find it, it's scarce. That has Dr. Bruce Ribner very worried.</s>DR. BRUCE RIBNER, EMORY HOSPITAL: We've had a number of young, healthy patients on ventilators and even dying in the intensive care units. Our supply...</s>COHEN: At Emory hospital in Atlanta, a quiet desperation is in the air. (on camera): So here's your H1N1 vaccines.</s>RIBNER: Here's our H1N1. As you can see, it's a very small amount. We got one fifth of the amount of vaccine that we anticipate we will need.</s>COHEN: And you're hoping for more?</s>RIBNER: We're hoping desperately for more.</s>COHEN (voice-over): I'm hoping desperately to find H1N1 vaccine for my children. (on camera): I'm going to call my local drugstore and see if they have H1N1 shots yet.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How may I help you today?</s>COHEN: Hi there. I'm trying to find out if you have H1N1 shots at my local clinic?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not yet now. We're not set to have those until around mid-November. That's around November 15th.</s>COHEN: I'm going to go to Flu.gov. That's the federal government's Web site. They have something called a flu shot locator. (voice-over): The federal government sends me to the state government which sends me to the county government.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon...</s>COHEN: Where they tell me I can get the nasal spray vaccine for my 3-year-old, but my other three children will have to wait. How long? They're not sure.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There aren't vaccines right now.</s>COHEN: In the meantime, at Emory, they're vaccinating as many workers as they can. (on camera): I came to Emory Hospital here in Atlanta to see one of the first health care workers get an H1N1 vaccine. Her name is Dr. Nadine Raphael. She's 33 years old, and she's pregnant. Is this -- this is kind of a scary time to be pregnant.</s>DR. NADINE ROUPHAEL, EMORY HOSPITAL: It is.</s>COHEN: H1N1 flu seems to be especially tough for pregnant women.</s>ROUPHAEL: Right. More than what we heard for seasonal flu.</s>COHEN: So, this is it. This is your room, huh?</s>ROUPHAEL: Yes.</s>COHEN: After you. There you go. The shot you just got, is that for you or for your baby?</s>ROUPHAEL: Both.</s>COHEN: Dr. Rouphael is relieved to get the vaccine, to protect herself and the baby she's expecting. Now the question is, when will the rest of us get it?</s>COHEN: Now, here's an example of how this shortage is playing out. Here in Georgia, they were told to expect 2 million doses of vaccine by the end of this month. Now they're told they'll get less than half that -- Kiran?</s>CHETRY: Very, very interesting. I did some of the same calls you did. I called 311 here in New York to find out about it, they said they didn't have any yet. But I went on Walgreens' Web site and they claim that they do have it, September through February, H1N1 shots are available, but it says call for more information.</s>COHEN: OK. Well, that's a good tip. I'm going to try that as soon as I'm done with this.</s>CHETRY: But, you know, it's also interesting, you mentioned that one of your children could get a shot. You said your 3-year-old. I also have a 3-year-old. Is there something about that age group that makes them more vulnerable?</s>COHEN: Yes. Well, here in Georgia, where they don't have a whole lot of vaccine, like in other parts of the country, they said, "Look, we have the nose spray vaccine and we will give it children ages 2 to 4," that's when they said when they called when I called on Friday. Only one of my children falls into that age range. All of my children should get the vaccine because -- well, they're children and that's considered a high priority group. I'm told that's going to change soon and soon they will open up that vaccine to older children. So I'm just waiting.</s>CHETRY: Wow. All right, well, keep us posted; because I know that there are a lot of families that are concerned about it, especially, it seems everywhere you turn, somebody's sick, you know?</s>COHEN: That's right. Absolutely.</s>CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Elizabeth.</s>COHEN: Thanks.</s>ROBERTS: All you have to do is turn to the right.</s>CHETRY: Everywhere you turn. No, it's not the swine flu...</s>ROBERTS: It's not a flu though.</s>CHETRY: This is just a good old fashioned cold.</s>ROBERTS: No, I don't think so.</s>CHETRY: Well, also new this morning, they're expecting to do autopsies today on three runners who died during the Detroit marathon yesterday. All of them were running the half marathon. One man was just 26 years old, another, 36. They all collapsed within 16 minutes of each other. They're saying it's a bit of a mystery right now, especially because it wasn't extremely hot. In fact, the weather was between the 30s and 40s.</s>ROBERTS: That's pretty amazing. It wasn't a game; it was a shame for the NFL's Tennessee Titans, who lost to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, 59-zip on Sunday. That's right, 59-nothing in the snow in New England. Brady set a record by throwing five touchdown passes in the second quarter alone. He had six in all. The 45-0 halftime lead was the biggest in league history. It's the largest margin of victory in the NFL in more than 30 years in Tennessee's season of shame continues, 0-6 now while the Patriots move to 4-2.</s>CHETRY: All right. Well, a Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to marry an interracial couple says he has no plans to resign. Meantime, Louisiana's governor and Senator Mary Landrieu, two of them, many leaders, who are calling on Keith Bardwell to step down. But Bardwell says he has no regrets and would make the same decision again.</s>KEITH BARDWELL, JUSTICE OF THE PEACE: Everybody hates me. I mean, really. And I don't know why. I mean, I treat people, you know -- I figure, equal, good. I have one problem with marrying mixed race marriages, and that is the offspring.</s>BETH MCKAY, DENIED MARRIAGE LICENSE: It's over racism, and we are used to the closet racism, but we're not -- we're not going to tolerate the overt racism from an elected official.</s>CHETRY: Beth and Terence McKay were married last week and we are going to talk to the newlyweds when they join us in about 20 minutes here on</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ROBERTS: "I have concerns about the offspring"? What is that all about? By the way, some people have e-mailed to say, I should be at home if I'm sick. Guess who I caught it from?</s>CHETRY: I caught it from Christine, if it makes you feel any better.</s>ROBERTS: We're still searching for patient zero. John Podesta and Ed Rollins are just ahead with all the latest political news of the day. Stay with us. Twelve minutes after the hour.