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Thousands in Limbo on Cruise Ship Awaiting Coronavirus Test Results; Wall Street Set to Continue Wild Week at Opening Bell; Top Infectious Disease Doctor Says Millions of Tests Needed. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 06, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Air National Guard airlifting coronavirus test kits to a cruise ship off the coast of California.

[05:59:20]

MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't have enough tests today.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We're going to need millions and millions and millions of tests.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not be running for president in 2020.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What she fought for in the campaign was far closer to what I am fighting for than what Joe Biden.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you be making an endorsement?

WARREN: Want to to take a little time to think a little more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's got a choice: an alliance with her values or her alliance with the party.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Friday, March 6, 6 a.m. here in New York. And we begin with high anxiety for thousands of passengers who are in limbo on a cruise ship off the coast of California.

Forty-five people on board have been tested for coronavirus, and they will learn their fate today when results come back. Until then, the vessel will not be allowed to dock. Four California Air National Guard troopers delivered the coronavirus

test kits to the ship in this dramatic helicopter mission yesterday. There are roughly 3,500 people on board the Grand Princess ship. And now, all the passengers have been told they must stay in their cabins.

We're also learning that a 72-year-old man who was on a recent voyage on that ship just died. Two other passengers from that same voyage have tested positive for coronavirus in Sonoma County.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The number of coronavirus cases in the United States has now jumped to more than 228 across 19 states. Overnight, the death toll rose to 14, including 13 in Washington state.

And the impact on everyday life is growing. More than 2,500 people in New York alone are now under self-quarantine as the confirmed cases here doubled in the last 24 hours.

And hundreds of thousands of employees at the biggest tech companies in the country -- Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Google -- they're being told to work from home.

The outbreak is affecting the travel industry in a huge and profound way. Global airlines now facing a potential $113 billion hit. Questions about how prepared the Trump administration is to handle the outbreak. Vice President Mike Pence now admits that the United States does not have enough test kits to meet the anticipated demand.

We want to begin with these rapid developments involving the cruise ship off San Francisco. Our Dan Simon is there.

Dan, give us the latest.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hey, John.

The ship remains parked off the California coast while officials still try to figure out what they're dealing with. Those test results should come back later today.

Passengers I've been communicating with told me that yesterday afternoon they were still trying to take advantage of some of the leisure activities on board. But (AUDIO GAP) -- the captain announced on the loud speaker that everybody should now be confined to their rooms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON (voice-over): Watch as the California National Guard flies over the Grand Princess cruise ship, using a helicopter to deliver coronavirus testing kits and medical personnel to those on board.

Forty-five people, including passengers and crew members, were tested before the airmen transported the samples to the California Department of Public Health for processing. The results expected as soon as today.

MARY ELLEN CARROLL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Many of those people have recovered and are no longer showing flu-like symptoms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The CDC has also recommended that guests should remain in staterooms for the remainder of the cruise.

SIMON: On the Grand Princess, passengers trapped at sea growing restless after the cruise was ordered to return to San Francisco while traveling on the same ship where at least three former passengers tested positive for the virus.

SHARON LANE, GRAND PRINCESS PASSENGER (via phone): Spirits on board are starting to get quite low. You know, people are worried about what's happening. So just at the end of the day, they've just got to deal it with and get on with it.

SIMON: There are more than 220 coronavirus cases in 19 states, according to the CDC, state and local governments. Washington state experiencing the highest number of reported cases and deaths in the country.

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D), WASHINGTON: This is a period of substantial anxiety in our state. It's real. It's significant. And we need to recognize it.

SIMON: At least seven coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. are linked to this nursing home in Kirkland, which says it's caring for residents and monitoring the situation. But families of residents still inside want answers.

BONNIE HOLSTAD, HUSBAND LIVES AT LIFE CARE CENTER: This environment has not been healthy for many. Help us get solutions for what to do with the people right now here in this -- I'm calling it a petri dish.

SIMON: Pat Herrick says her mother passed away at the Life Care Center Thursday morning.

PAT HERRICK, MOTHER LIVE AT LIFE CARE CENTER: I want her body tested. And I've been told, Well, we don't do that. You know, we just have to assume that it's natural causes.

And so I'm saying, that's not OK. I need to have her tested for the larger picture.

SIMON: In New York, the number of confirmed cases doubling.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The number will continue to go up. It must, because we are continuing to test more and more. The more you test, the higher number you will have.

Why do we test and find these cases? Because to the best we can limit the spread, contain the spread, the better.

SIMON: Vice President Mike Pence admitting officials are still underprepared.

PENCE: We don't have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: As for the passengers on the Grand Princess cruise ship, they're now getting meals by room service. But one passenger texted me last night that she could not reach room service. They were not taking (AUDIO GAP). Clearly, the staff is overwhelmed.

John, she wrote, quote, "Looks like no food tonight."

[06:05:06]

I should point out, though, that some of the passengers are treating this or approaching this with humor, but others, clearly, the strain is beginning to show. It appears that the path forward is going to be dictated by those test results -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Dan Simon, please keep us posted as we await those results. I imagine they could come at any time this morning.

Obviously, everyone's first concern is health. But the markets and the economic impact right now is just a huge story this morning. So we're joined by chief business correspondent Christine Romans. And the futures, just horrific again this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: You know, look, this has just been the story. Right? Every time you get a little bit of optimism, it turns around again; and you've got futures down another 600 points here and below, just above the 25,000 mark, if this holds into the opening bell.

It started, really, in world markets. All of those Asian markets closed down. Then Europe opened, down hard. You know, 3 percent is a big move for a single day in the market.

In fact, let's talk about the swings here. Yesterday, almost a thousand points in the Dow. Look at those numbers. Those are hundreds of points, in some cases a thousand-point swings in the market.

If you take it all in together -- you know, I hate the cliche of a rollercoaster on Wall Street. This time it actually is a cliche you can use. That right there is a lot of whipsaw action. But taken on balance, it's mostly red. It's not a lot of green there.

Yesterday in particular, guys, airline stocks. And this is the fear. That consumers will retrench. Airline stocks down sharply. Some of these airlines are cutting routes; they're cutting capacity.

One airline CEO saying, Look, if we slashed fares, it wouldn't matter, because demand is not there. And that is a real problem.

The airline industry, there's a forecast there it could lose $113 billion. That is a big part of the economy, big employers. A big warning sign that the coronavirus is a problem.

Couple of things here, guys. It's the uncertainty about how far and wide it will spread and what the economic damage will be. We know epidemics like this, usually, the economy bounces back, you know, a few quarters later.

But it's also consistency in the government response and coordinated response with other countries. That's what -- that's what investors like to see.

BERMAN: Investors seem to be saying they want to find a reason for stability, and each day that comes and goes, they don't see it, Romans.

ROMANS: That appears to be it. And you know, there are steady, calm voices about the science out there, but it's still just uncertain when this will be a peak infection in the United States, what the infection rates are. There just needs to be more information, and we don't have that information yet.

CAMEROTA: Christine, thank you very much for the update. We will follow it, obviously, through the morning.

Now, the top doctor at the White House is warning that the U.S. needs millions more tests. That interview next.

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[06:11:53]

BERMAN: All right. Growing frustration this morning over the shortage of coronavirus tests in the United States, a shortage that remains. Vice President Pence admits there are not enough tests to meet the expected demand.

CNN spoke to the director of the National Institute of Allergy -- Allergy and Infectious Diseases at a town hall. Dr. Anthony Fauci, he's in charge. He's the top doctor working at this in the administration right now, and this is what he had to say about the outbreak and the response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We've heard from the vice president recently that we want to make sure people who want to get tested can get tested. People who have concerns can get tested. At the same time we hear that there are not enough tests to go around. What -- what are we supposed to take away from that?

FAUCI: You know, Sanjay, you're right. It's unfortunate that it got off to a slow start. There were some missteps with regard to the CDC's test. They had a problem. They fixed the problem.

Now that, by the end of the week, they should be able to get out about 75,000 tests. They have now partnered with the private sector so that everything doesn't have to come from the CDC, which generally makes tests for the public health segment.

When you get the commercial segment that can then make millions and millions of tests, what you're going to see in the reasonable future is a dramatic escalation in the number of tests that will be available.

But you're absolutely right. Up to this point, there has been a lag in the ability to get tested.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Actually, let me just follow up on that. In terms of the -- you said by the end of the week. Do you mean, like, tomorrow or do you mean Sunday? And how many tests you say will be out there available by then?

FAUCI: Well, what they are telling us -- what the CDC and the FDA is saying, that by the end of the week, the beginning of next week, they should be able to get 75,000 tests out there. And by the following week, they can get up to a million tests out there. That's the plan. That's what we're hearing.

GUPTA: I don't want to belabor this. I know you've answered this a lot. But how many tests are we going to need, Dr. Fauci? Now, you heard from South Korea now, over 100,000 tests have been performed. How do we really get an idea of what's happened here in the States, how widespread this is?

FAUCI: You know, Sanjay, you and I have discussed that in the past. And you know I've been an advocate of much more proactive testing. Not only testing when physicians ask for a test, but testing to determine where we are and what level is under the -- under the radar. And for that reason, we're going to need millions and millions and millions of tests. That's -- that's what I feel, and that's what many of my colleagues feel.

GUPTA: Dr. Fauci, I want to talk about the mortality rates for a second and keeping in mind these numbers do change. But there does appear to be a pretty significant discrepancy between what the World Health Organization is saying and what we're hearing from the administration.

Do we have a sense of what the mortality rates really are? Are they going to change? And why this discrepancy?

FAUCI: Sure. So Sanjay, what it is, when you look at the WHO numbers, it's a purely arithmetic calculation. You look at the number of deaths is the numerator, and the denominator is the number of infections. When you do that math, when you click on coronavirus tracker, those numbers come up, as you say. If you do that simple mathematical formula, what you have is a 2 percent to 3 percent mortality.

[06:15:24]

However, when you do modeling, namely, you figure out what the likelihood there is and to what extent you have asymptomatic infection. If there's a certain degree of asymptomatic infection, and the assumption's in the model, then the denominator becomes much bigger.

So what you're hearing is something that obviously is understandably confusing. The strict arithmetic determination and the model of what the range would be; and the range is lower than that. How much lower, it's uncertain, but it's clearly lower than that. That's the model. But the actual calculation is 2 to 3 percent.

COOPER: So Dr. Fauci, just -- I'm terrible at math. Never good at it. That's why I'm on TV. So if -- until we -- until there's more widespread testing in the United States, we won't know how many people in the U.S. actually may have the virus, and that will affect what the fatality rate is, correct?

FAUCI: Yes. Absolutely. And the assumption is, Anderson, that there is a segment of the group -- we don't know how large it is -- who are without symptoms and are not getting counted in the calculation.

And that's why the point you make is very valid. Until we have a much more accurate determination of who is infected, including those who are asymptomatic, we will not get a more accurate determination of what the case fatality rate is. Your point is very well taken.

COOPER: For someone out there tonight who's got a cough, maybe they have a little fever. They haven't been to Wuhan; they've just been living their life. And they're freaked out, what should they do? Because obviously, you don't want everybody who has the flu or a cough to go into an emergency room --

FAUCI: Right.

COOPER: -- demanding a test --

FAUCI: Exactly.

COOPER: -- that are not -- is not available. So what do they do?

FAUCI: Yes. I think they should just go home and just hunker down and recover at home. The chances are overwhelmingly likely that they have either influenza -- I hope they got their flu shot, which would make that less likely to have influenza -- But the overwhelming likelihood is that it is not coronavirus.

What they should do is just go home, hunker down, and recover. That's what you should do right now. Again, because the risk across the country of infection is quite low. If you're in an area where there's community spread, as I said in Seattle, that elevates it a bit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: That was Dr. Anthony Fauci last night, I think, trying to lay out the facts as he sees them and give the type of advice that people want to hear. There are so many questions.

CAMEROTA: I feel better when I hear him, because he is cool-headed; and he is, I think, being honest about where the need is greatest. But I don't know what is being done to address all of that.

The coronavirus concerns, a plummeting stock market, and Joe Biden's big comeback. We're going to speak with Maggie Haberman about President Trump's difficult week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:22:40]

CAMEROTA: How is the Trump administration handling the coronavirus outbreak? The markets seem spooked. They appear poised for another rough day. President Trump, though, is trying to downplay concerns. This was at his first town hall of the election season last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It certainly might have an impact. At the same time, I have to say, people are now staying in the United States, spending their money in the U.S., and I like that.

It's going to all work out. Everybody has to be calm. It's all going to work out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now, we have CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman, the White House correspondent for "The New York Times."

Maggie, behind the scenes, is he less sanguine than he appears in that sound bite?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He is. Although, I mean, to be fair, what people have been calling on him to do is project some aura of confidence and calm. And he actually did do it there. There is some issue with saying, at least people are spending money here and not traveling, because travel is part of the global economy. But he is doing what, I think, people would want him to do, which is not evince an aura of panic.

Privately, he is concerned. He is concerned about the stock market. He has been, you know, singularly focused on the stock market and jobs numbers for years. It is his own personal poll. And it -- he has, generally speaking, tried to sort of will it back into positive territory. He was trying to do that, I think, earlier on last week and even earlier this week. He's clearly not doing that right now, because it's not in his control. And I think that's become abundantly clear.

BERMAN: The not-in-his-control aspect of it is what's very interesting to me. Because Donald Trump, the president, is very used to, at a minimum, if there's a crisis, he can tweet something outrageous.

HABERMAN: That's right.

BERMAN: He can say something about Jeff Sessions, and everyone will go pay attention to that.

HABERMAN: Yes.

BERMAN: That's not now.

HABERMAN: No. And -- it's not, and they're unable to get it off television, right? I mean, that if anything else, to your point, that he'll tweet something and it will change the conversation.

We know that one of the things this president loves doing is tweeting and literally watching a chyron change. He can't do that here. He is unable to -- to change the national conversation, to change the global conversation. And this has been going on for many, many days now. And it, in all likelihood, is going to continue as the number of diagnoses in the U.S. grows.

BERMAN: Have they started to digest the potential -- instead of it being a weeks-long impact, months and months long that he's dealing with this from a government and a political perspective?

HABERMAN: I mean, they're certainly aware of it. The degree to which they have stomached that, I think, remains to be seen. The people who are pragmatic, and the people who have done campaigns before and re- elections before realize that this actually could have a longer life than the president would like it to.

[06:25:12]

The president himself, as you know, does not tend to think in longer terms. We have no idea whether we're talking about something that's going to last into the summer and impact the political conventions. We have no idea whether it will wane in the summer, as some experts have predicted that it might.

CAMEROTA: And the president has said it would. He believes --

HABERMAN: The president has been emphatic he thinks it will.

And then come back in the fall, which is often what happens with -- with influenza-type viruses. So we just don't know. And they don't know. And the not knowing is typically something that is difficult for this president. Less so his aides, but his aides are so sort of based -- their moods and their actions are based on his.

And so I think that they are only coming -- just now coming to grips with what this could mean.

CAMEROTA: All this against the backdrop of the presidential race. Last night, President Trump was talked about -- talked about who he would prefer running against. So listen to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: So you want to face Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders? That's my question.

TRUMP: I'll tell you, I was all set for Bernie, because I thought it was going to happen. Now all of a sudden, I have a whole different -- you know, it's a whole different deal. Two very different people. I think, in a certain way, Bernie would be tougher, because he's got a base. It's a much smaller base than my base.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: So if it is Joe Biden, are we going to -- are we about to see the old Rudy Giuliani playbook of the debunked Ukraine scandals come roaring back now?

HABERMAN: You're already seeing it. I mean, you're seeing a lot of it on pro-friendly -- pro-Trump websites. Friendly Trump surrogates are talking about things like this, doing tweets. You are going to see a lot more of it.

I think what the president said yesterday is the thing you're likeliest to hear from him, which is he's not all there. Some form of suggesting that there's an issue with Joe Biden's health. And it is going to be, obviously, I think, that we are all going -- we in the media are going to get pressed to fact check that.

But I think that it is going to be on the Biden campaign to be ready for what the president is going to come at them with. And all they have to do is look at the 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton for a taste of what might be to come.

BERMAN: You know, it is interesting. In the subject of things that are not in his control, he clearly tried to control, to a certain extent --

HABERMAN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- the Democratic primary.

HABERMAN: And couldn't.

BERMAN: He was impeached for it --

HABERMAN: Correct.

BERMAN: -- for part of it.

HABERMAN: Correct.

BERMAN: But even beyond that, which is a big even beyond that, but even beyond that, you know, the constant tweets trying to prop up Bernie Sanders. He's thought he could make it, I think, so Bernie Sanders was more likely to be the nominee. Is he frustrated with his inability to affect the Democratic primary?

HABERMAN: He's been really surprised by it. And one of the things he would talk about privately over the courses of the last year is when Elizabeth Warren, after difficulties out of the gate when she had her DNA test, over her claims of Native American heritage, he was -- she rose, right, during the -- during the summer and sort of early fall.

He was clearly frustrated in his conversations with people that she had come back. You know, that he had thought that he -- he -- it was all about what he could impact. That he had made it so that she couldn't.

He tends to think he has some form of a superpower in terms of how he can dictate what other people do, what -- you know, how other people behave. He has had really, to your point, limited, if any, impact on the Democratic primary, other than getting himself impeached over the Hunter Biden issue. And he is a turnout motivator, not just for his own side but for Democrats.

And you saw in South Carolina the person who was the most specifically targeted by President Trump won by 30 points. I think that was a clear message from Democrats. If they can keep that going into the fall, the president should be concerned.

CAMEROTA: Maggie Haberman, thank you very much --

HABERMAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: -- for all of the reporting. Great to see you.

So as the coronavirus outbreak grows, how concerned should you be about your elderly family members and your friends? What you need to know to keep them safe this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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