Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

President Trump Announces New Coronavirus Screenings; Air Travelers Facing New Screening Procedures; Airlines Cancelling Flights To Milan; Coronavirus Affects Japan's Big Sports Weekend; Could Coronavirus Threaten 2020 Tokyo Olympics; CNN Speaks With Taliban About Peace Deal; South Korea Launches Drive-Thru Coronavirus Testing; Eerie On Lake Erie, Homes Frosted With Ice; Markets Look To Rebound After Week-Long Sell Off; Harley Davidson CEO Steps Down; Battle Of The Breakfast Sandwich; SNL Takes Aim At White House Coronavirus Response And Dems; New Efforts To Contain Coronavirus After Second United States Death; Eighty Nine Confirmed Coronavirus Cases In U.S.; Viral Outbreak, Coronavirus Starts To Spread In United States; Test Kit Lab May Have Been Contaminated; Democratic Contender Drops Out Of 2020 Race; Global Businesses Restrict Travel Over Coronavirus Fears. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 02, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Refocusing containment efforts in Washington State. What to watch for this week as global efforts expand to slow the spread.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN HOST: And a big surprise ahead of Super Tuesday. Which Democratic candidate has bowed out and who will get their support tomorrow on Super Tuesday. Welcome back to Early Start. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 30 minutes past the hour this Monday morning here in New York. We begin with these important new developments on coronavirus' spread in the United States. Public health officials announcing the second death in Washington state. A man in his 70s with underlying health conditions. The patient was hospitalized at Evergreen Health in Kirkland, the same place as the first person who died in Washington and there are now three new cases connected to Evergreen Health.

JARRETT: The Washington Post reports analysis from samples of two patients indicates coronavirus has been spreading for about six weeks in Washington State. The analysis also strongly suggests the two cases are linked through community transmission with hundreds of other infections likely. There are now 89 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. with the first cases announced in Oregon, Florida, Rhode Island and here in New York.

ROMANS: Governor Andrew Cuomo says the New York patient is a woman in her late 30s who contracted the virus traveling in Iran. She is isolated at home with respiratory symptoms though the governor says she's not in serious condition. There's no word on the health of the other passengers on her return flight.

JARRETT: Public health officials have been warning coronavirus would spread in U.S. Communities, so what should Americans look for this week? Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta puts it all in perspective for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Laura, I want to show you this animation real quick. You can take a look at these various outbreaks over the last several years and see how they compared. And if you look at the lines there you see coronavirus and then h1n1, at the ninth week mark, coronavirus actually out pacing h1n1 and then obviously h1n1 that flu pandemic sort of takes off and you can see it reaches 60 million people by year one.

Big news I think this week is the president is going to be meeting with pharmaceutical companies to try and figure out are there therapeutics that can be in the pipeline and actually try to figure out what's happening with the vaccine. And then these 15,000 testing kits which will get distributed to these various points of care around the country. Whether or not that will make a difference at this point it's a little bit tough to say.

Keep in mind, Korea has been testing thousands of patients a day. They tested 65,000 patients total. In the U.K. They've tested close to 8,000 patients and in the United States so far we've tested only around 500 patients. Without that surveillance it's hard to get a good idea of exactly how many patients are infected.

But let me end on this note, Christine and Laura. I think it's important that we've said it all along is that the vast majority of people who do get exposed to this virus are not going to have any symptoms or they are just going to have minimal symptoms. There may be many people out there who simply aren't getting counted because they are also not getting sick.

Christine and Laura, like I said it's a fast moving story as we get more details we'll certainly bring them to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right, Sanjay thank you for that. Global markets in serious need of a rebound this week. After the worst week since the great recession. Also the fastest correction in 70 years for the S&P 500. So what's happening right now? For now it looks like stabilization. You can see Asian markets have rebounded just a lilt bit. And European shares have open slight higher on Wall Street, futures also moving higher just more than 1.5 percent.

There were concerns a second coronavirus death in the U.S. may be, you know, the tinder for another sell-off but so far that has not happened yet. The reason markets feel the effect of the virus, business disruptions worldwide. Amazon is asking employees to postpone nonessential travel. Google canceled its upcoming summit in California. Nike deep cleaned its headquarters in Oregon out of an abundance of caution. Lake Oswego, where a case was confirmed is near Nike's world headquarters in Beaverton.

The travel industry has already taken a hit. And some experts say this could be the worst crisis for aviation and travel since September 11th. Such as business travel, Americans who are making plans for spring and summer trips are rethinking them, and imagine a March madness with no fans? The National College Players Association has asked the NCAA to consider having tournaments with no crowds. The NCAA says it is monitoring the developments with the outbreak. And Goldman Sachs says last night, it now expects second quarter GDP in the U.S. to be zero. No economic growth in the U.S. before finally rebounding late this year.

JARRETT: Which could really matter for the upcoming election.

ROMANS: Sure, absolutely.

JARRETT: All right. President Trump announcing ramped up airport screenings for travelers from high risk countries. CNN's Brynn Gingras is at Newark International airport for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORREPOSNDENT: Yes, Christine and Laura. Travelers can expect some changes, some extra screenings in response to these coronavirus. We learned all about this from the Trump administration over the weekend.

[04:35:03]

For example, travelers who are coming into the country from those designated high risk countries, we are talking about parts of Italy, South Korea, Iran, China, they're going to go through a screening process before they even board the plane. And then we're learning they also will be screened a second time when they get state side.

Also the Trump administration expanding the travel ban to Iran. That means four nationals going to that country in the last 14 days will not be allowed into the United States. Aloes, they raised the travel advisory for those high risk countries. Again parts of Italy and South Korea, China and Iran, that means it's the highest level for Americans.

They are urging Americans to not travel to those countries until this all dies down. And in response to that we know that American airlines canceled its flights to Milan up until April 24th for the time being, and it's very possible other airlines are going to follow suit. Christine and Laura, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: All right, Brynn, thanks so much for that.

The effect of coronavirus being felt during a busy sports weekend in Japan. And it's raising more questions about the effect the virus could have on the summer Olympics now less than five months away. CNN's Blake Essig, is live in Tokyo for us, Blake, what is the plan here?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a busy weekend for sports crazed Japan but, Laura, almost no one was here to see it. It was perhaps a precursor for what the Olympics could look like in less than five months if the coronavirus continues to be a problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESSIG: To be a part of this, Mark Dawson and his family traveled nearly 5,000 miles from Vancouver, Canada. But standing, watching as these elite runners pass by was not what he had in mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was here to run the marathon.

ESSIG: Only around 8 percent of applicants gained entry to the Tokyo marathon. Dawson waited 7 years for his chance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't cry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit of heart break.

ESSIG: Less than 200 runners. Only the very best were allowed to compete on Sunday which means Dawson dream is delayed by an outbreak that Japan is desperate to contain. From 30,000 runners to this, here in Japan this is now what sports looks like in the age of coronavirus. Typically there would be 10s of thousands of fans lining these streets to cheer on these runners, but right now take a look around. In comparison nobody is here.

On the other side of town, the time-tested traditions of baseball still play out. Ushers make the rounds before the starting line-ups are announced, echoing through the empty 55-seat Tokyo dome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's bizarre and almost unnatural to be in a professional baseball game in Japan, inside a stadium that seats 55,000 people and nobody is here. It's so quiet, it's almost uncomfortable to make a sound. Just listen to this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a little weird which is to be expected I guess.

ESSIG: That's former major league pitcher Matt Cook. He never imagined his first year in baseball crazed Japan would play out like this, a surreal atmosphere which Tokyo Giants batting coach Warren Cromartie says will take a little bit of time for players to adjust.

WARREN CROMARTIE, TOKYO GIANTS BATTING COACH: Well, I think the players will realize how much the fans really are a part of the game. It is a little quitter. The balls jump off the bat a little bit more. You can hear them smack. When the ball and the bat meet, it will be a little bit more, but it's still a game and you still got to go out there and do your thing.

ESSIG: As for Dawson, he says he'll be back to run next year, but the largest sporting event Tokyo 2020 less than five months away, the fear that this becomes Japan's new normal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ESSIG: Regarding the Olympics, Laura, despite the speculation that these games could be canceled or postponed until 2021 recently IOC Chief Thomas Bott came out and essentially said that they are fully behind Japan and Tokyo 2020 as it is currently scheduled.

JARRETT: All right. Blake Essig, thanks so much for that.

ROMANS: All right, a major shakeup in the 2020 race. Pete Buttigieg ending his historic presidential run. The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor turned into a political -- national political player with his unexpected rise. But Buttigieg made the decision to step aside seeing no viable path to success on Super Tuesday and beyond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D) 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for our values.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERS)

And so we must recognize that at this point in the race the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and our country together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:40:04]

JARRETT: Buttigieg didn't endorse anyone but critical support in states like California and Texas could gravitate towards Joe Biden whose convincing win in South Carolina revived his campaign. Biden is calling on Super Tuesday states like Virginia to keep the momentum going.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On Tuesday here in Virginia you could be the launching pad to the path to beat Donald Trump.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will be on the ballot for the first time tomorrow. Some polls show him gaining support among African-American voters, but anger still persists over some of his policies as mayor. ROMANS: That's right. Protesters silently turned their backs on

Bloomberg as he spoke at a historic black church in Selma, Alabama, yesterday. His appearance coincided with the 55th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, a historic civil rights march demanding the right to vote. On that day 17 people were hospitalized after violent confrontations with white police officers as they attempted to cross Edmund Pettus Bridge that day.

Ahead of Super Tuesday CNN will have exclusive one-on-one interviews with presidential candidates live from Washington, D.C. starting tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

And this, a historic truce between the U.S. and Taliban, but already the Afghan government is raising red flags. Can the deal hold? CNN is the only network to sit down with the Taliban. Our Nic Robertson joins us in Dohan next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

JARRETT: Well, it didn't take long for cracks to emerge in the historic peace deal between the U.S. and the Taliban. The deal sets into motion a potential full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan laying out a 14-month timetable. The Taliban have agreed to keep al-Qaeda and ISIS from filling the void. The first hurdle in a deal is a potential prisoner swap involving 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan troops.

ROMANS: The proposed deadline for the swap is March 10th but Afghanistan's president rejected the time line saying a Taliban prisoner release would require pain staking checks and would take time. Bottom line this is step but peace for Afghanistan remains far from secure. CNN is the only network to sit down with the Taliban spokesman. CNN's Nic Robertson live in Qatar with his one-on-one. What did you learn, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, it's a long way to go before this real peace. So, a clear difference between the Taliban and the Afghan government. They come from sort of opposite ends of the spectrum. They've been fighting for 20 years, and the Taliban believe the Afghan government is illegitimate because it's backed by the United States that it views as an occupying force and it views as an invasion force.

You know, I think fundamental to all of this is of course the country's been at war for 40 years. So, what we're getting here is the Taliban recognized that they can't fight their way to victory. That even if they could fight their way to victory there'd be international pariahs and wouldn't get the international aid that it requires to run the country. So, they'd be chucked out on their ear if you will if they didn't run a dictatorial leadership like they did when they previously ran the country 20 years ago.

But the core of all of this is trusting the Taliban. How can you trust the Taliban to turn on al-Qaeda, who they've been giving arbiter, they refused to hand over. There are some of them are loud enough when they have an attack. How can they be trusted on that? Particularly when they're rhetoric to their foot soldiers that they've beaten the Christian and that they're defeated that they got victory here, and I've put that to this Taliban spokesman who's a member of the negotiating team. How can you turn on your Muslim brothers for a Christen invader? This is my question. And this is his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Why should the United States trust you now when you say that you will now go after al-Qaeda and go after ISIS because the Taliban have been allowing al-Qaeda to live inside their territory in Afghanistan for the past 20 years?

MUHAMMAD SUHAIL SHAHEEN, TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON: It is our policy that anyone who wants to use the site of Afghanistan for their goals against other country and harm our country, our people we will not allow them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So, I've known this Taliban spokesman here for over 20 years now and he -- I got to say, they are and -- there was a lot of them here over the weekend, we're pretty update. Why? Because they think they're in a good place. They do believe that the Afghan government should hand over those 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The Afghan government is expecting the Taliban to hand back a 1,000 of their prisoners.

But the United States in agreement with the Taliban said, up to 5,000 but here's the key, the Afghan government wasn't involved in that negotiations so the time line for these prisoners to be handed over is such a high hurdle at the moment. So you can already see that the nest pace of this which is these intra-Afghan talks, which is where the Afghan government get down to talk in real peace with the Taliban already the stats supposed to start the 10th of March. The time line for that is falling back. You can see the hurdles coming up, the difficult id shedding in the way. But this is going to be a long, slow process if it works out. It's an opportunity, it's not a done deal.

ROMANS: A lot of ifs, and it's taken a long time to even get here. All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much, in Doha, Qatar. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:50:00]

JARRETT: All right, Welcome back. Outside of China, South Korea has the most coronavirus cases. They've come up with a new innovative way to test for the virus in the form of a drive-thru. CNN's Ivan Watson is there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Christine, South Korea has come up with an innovative way to struggle with the coronavirus. I'm going to show you drive-thru coronavirus testing. This is a free service that the city of (inaudible) is offering anybody. I just took the test actually.

Vehicles come through here and you get a questionnaire. You get your hands sanitized and then you go through a number of stations here. Now, Korea has the most coronavirus cases outside of mainland China. Their numbers surged from 31 to more than 4,200 in just two weeks and the authorities say this method can test people faster and limit the exposure of potential carriers to the brave doctors and nurses that are on the front lines of this public health crisis.

The patients never get out of the car. They come in and they fill out questionnaires to find out whether or not they're in a risk category. They get their temperatures checked, and if it's deemed that they're symptomatic, you know, they have a fever, runny nose, or if they've been to one of the big exposure places, they come down here and while sitting in their cars the nurses will swab their nostrils and their throats, take samples and then the results will come in within two to three days.

[04:55:28]

A doctor I talked to in a city which was more than 70 percent of the coronavirus cases in the entire country, he says that this could be a model for countries like the U.S. that are just starting to deal with their first coronavirus cases. Laura and Christine?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Wow, Ivan, thank you so much for bringing us that.

Well, a bit of wintertime magic on the shores of Lake Erie. Ice castles, those are real houses in Hamburg, New York, frosted by 48 straight hours of gale force winds blowing lake water ashore and freezing in these homes. One homeowner said it was dark and eerie in his Lake Erie house.

ROMANS: Wow, that's really beautiful but I wonder what's going to do to your siding.

All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Taking a look at a global markets trying to recover here or the fate for him had just lower. On Wall Street futures also trying to mount at least a stabilization after what was a terrible week for the U.S. stock market.

The DOW closed 357 points lower on Friday. The S&P 500 had fell slightly and the NASDAQ ended flat. But it was the performance for the week that really got all the attention. Look at those numbers. Quite rare to see that kind of a move in one week. The three major averages posted their worst weekly performance percentage wise since the financial crisis.

Investors are now focused on the Federal Reserve. Expectations for an interest rate cut at the fed at the March 18th meeting, those expectations spiked to 100 percent. Investors think the fed is going to ride to the rescue. Analysts say the fed could meet earlier for an emergency rate cut. The last time that happened again was the financial crisis. So, not exactly the kind of comparisons you want to be making.

Harley Davidson is getting a new boss. Its CEO is stepping down after its worst sales at least 16 years. Harley has been struggling for years, as younger people become less interested in motorcycles. Its stock has fallen 46 percent since the CEO took charge of Harley in 2015.

First it was the chicken sandwich war and now it's the breakfast battle. McDonalds deemed today national Egg McMuffin Day, the same day Wendy's takes its highly anticipated breakfast menu nationwide. The chain said the day is meant to celebrate the best fast food breakfast sandwich which turns 50 years old this week. McDonalds said offering a free sandwich will -- how I keep the chain top of mine, because Wendy's is spending big to promote its new menu. The offer is only valid today in the U.S. from 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

JARRETT: I'm sure there will be a mad dash over there.

ROMANS: How about you handle the next half-hour, I'll go --

JARRETT: Nice try, Christine.

Well, SNL took on the White House coronavirus response with 2020 Democrats stealing the vice president's thunder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We suggest getting these wonderful make America great again masks from the White House's website. It may take a couple of months for delivery because they are made in Wuhan, China.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The year was 19 riki tiki tabby and Nelson Mandela were powering around South Africa green book style. We have one elephant between us and who do we run into but the Ebola monkey, and weird story longer I wrestled that sucker to mercy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to admit folks, universal health care doesn't sound too crazy now, does it? No, no, no, no purell. I've got a bottle of that junk and on the label it says it kills 99.99 percent of germs. What happens to the top 0.01 percent? You know who's great at washing his hands? Joseph Stalin.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Bloomberg is reportedly spending a regard $3.5 million buying ads in black media so get ready for Tyler Perry's Madea goes to Mike Bloomberg.com.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER) JARRETT: So good. Thanks so much to our international viewers for

joining us. Have a great rest of your day. For our U.S. viewers Early Start continues right now.

ROMANS: All right, the second death from coronavirus on American soil is refocusing containment efforts in Washington State. What to watch for this week as global efforts expand to slow the spread.

JARRETT: And a big surprise ahead of Super Tuesday. Which Democratic candidate has bowed out and who will get their support tomorrow? Good morning, everyone. And welcome to Early Start. I'm Laura Jarrett.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, March 2nd. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. Important new developments on coronavirus.

END