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Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) is Interviewed about Closing Schools Statewide; Doctor Shares Story of his Coronavirus; Arts, Culture and Sports at a Standstill; Gupta Answer Coronavirus Questions. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 13, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): This thing multiplies, we're told, every six days. And so you're going to see those numbers just go out like that. That's why I've been warning the people of Ohio.

We can't stop it, but we can slow it down. And what we want to do is preserve our health care system so that it can deal with people who have this problem, who have to be hospitalized, as well as people who are having heart attacks and doing other things. We do not want to be in a position that the poor people of Italy are where, you know, they're deciding who's going to live and who's going to die because they don't have enough respirators, they don't have enough equipment.

And, look, Italy is not a third world country. This is a very sophisticated country. They have a great infrastructure. And so this could happen to us if we're not careful. So trying to spread this out, spread this disease out --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Flatten the curve.

DEWINE: Over a period of time is -- flatten the curve. You keep hearing that. But that's absolutely right. And every press conference that we hold, and we've been trying to do this every day at 2:00 really to keep the people of Ohio informed because, you know, it's not just what we do in government, untimely it comes down to what people do themselves. You know, do you not visit your 85-year-old friend because you could be carrying it?

BERMAN: Right.

DEWINE: You know, some of these things are very, very tough, tough decision.

BERMAN: Look, we have all become --

DEWINE: Each individual can control a lot of what goes on.

BERMAN: We've all become -- yes, we've all become our own public health officials, right? You're not just taking care of yourself, you're taking care of your neighbor --

DEWINE: Yes. BERMAN: You're taking care of people across the street and across the country with each and every decision you make.

I just want to follow up on one thing you said because it gets to one of these larger issues, which is testing, which is, in some cases we don't know how many people have it. You said as many as 100,000 people in Ohio might have coronavirus right now. At first blush, that might seem alarming to people. So explain what you mean and the implications of that.

DEWINE: Well, many people, you know, as we know, don't immediately know they have this. If it's a child, the symptoms are fairly mild, can be very mild. So people can be carriers for, you know, a period of time before they even know that they -- anything really manifests itself.

And, look, we don't know if it's 100,000 exactly. But there is some science behind this. And this is what the experts tell us. We now know that there has been community spread. We have now three confirmed community spreads.

BERMAN: Sure.

DEWINE: Of course community spreads, we have all learned --

BERMAN: On the issue --

DEWINE: It simply means we don't have any way of knowing where this is.

BERMAN: Right. Let me ask you --

DEWINE: We have -- excuse me, we have two of community spread.

BERMAN: On the issue of testing -- on the issue of testing, just to put a point on this, because we've been talking about it for days, one of the things that's been said before by the administration is anyone who wants a test can get it. Your experience in Ohio is that's not true, correct?

DEWINE: Well, we have about -- the capacity at this moment for a thousand additional tests at the Department of Health. But we're also seeing Cleveland Clinic, some of our other hospitals are coming online now, so to speak, so they're going to be able to do some of the testing. We also have some private labs that are doing testing. So we have some capacity.

But the protocol remains that we're trying to pick the people who are the sickest to actually do that, that testing. So would we like to have more? Sure.

BERMAN: What --

DEWINE: But as Dr. Actin (ph) has pointed out, at some point it's not going to be too far in the distance we're going to stop testing because there's going to be so many people that are -- that have it and it just won't --

BERMAN: People -- you're just going to assume that people have it, right?

Let me ask just finally on the issue of schools --

DEWINE: You're just going to assume they have it after a while.

BERMAN: On the issue of schools, what are you going to do to accommodate the 700,000, I'm looking at this number right now, Ohio students who get school lunch assistance? It's not just an education issue, it's the food, a nutrition issue.

DEWINE: Well -- well, this is one of the reasons that this decision was so gut-wrenching, frankly, because we know so many kids rely on the schools, mainly for breakfast, as well as -- as well as for lunch.

And so I was on the phone yesterday with some of our superintendents. We are really focused on this. And 635 or so school districts in the state of Ohio. And, you know, they're all now looking at how they can get this food out. One school said, you know, we could use our buses, we can keep our bus drivers on, we can also keep -- keep our cafeteria staff on, prepare the food, get it out into the community. So every -- every school is going to be innovative in that.

And what we're trying to do, what we promised them is we're going to, you know, appeal to the Trump administration to get waivers and make it easier and more flexible what we can do with this food. And I'm sure that that's going to work.

BERMAN: Governor Mike DeWine, we really appreciate you coming on NEW DAY and helping explain how these decisions are made. What might seem like an unusual decision really is just a reasonable public health action. So thanks for being with us.

DEWINE: Thank you very much.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: John, as you know, doctors and nurses are risking their own health.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: In some cases their lives to treat coronavirus patients.

[08:35:00]

So up next we're going to speak to a doctor who contracted the virus and is tracking it on Twitter.

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CAMEROTA: As people around the world struggle with the threat of coronavirus, healthcare workers on the front lines have to face this pandemic head on.

Joining us now is a doctor who got infected with coronavirus while treating patients in Spain. Dr. Yale Tung Chen works at a hospital in Madrid.

Dr. Chen, we are so glad to have you with us. How are you feeling today?

DR. YALE TUNG CHEN, CONTRACTED CORONAVIRUS WHILE TREATING PATIENTS: Thank you. Today much better than yesterday.

CAMEROTA: How many days is this that you've been sick?

CHEN: Five days.

CAMEROTA: You look great. I've got to say, you look great. And, you know, you've been charting the course of your illness on Twitter for people. So can you just take us through it? Day one, what were your symptoms. Day two, what were your symptoms. Day three and so on.

CHEN: Sure.

The first day I started with some chills, with sore throat, cough, and a (INAUDIBLE) headache.

[08:40:01]

Then a low grade fever. And then moved to day two, the headache started to fade away. I started with small minor (ph) diarrhea and the low grade fever (INAUDIBLE) also. The cough is still (INAUDIBLE).

Day three, I started to feel a little bit better.

CAMEROTA: As you were talking, we put up an ultrasound. You have ultrasounds every day of your lungs. And what -- if we could just put those up again. What -- it's hard for us to know what we're seeing, of course, but what do you see happening in your lungs through day four?

CHEN: Well, I see my ultrasound is opacities (ph), which is -- correlates with pneumonia. So the translation to my ultrasound will be pneumonia.

CAMEROTA: So you had pneumonia? You developed pneumonia because of this?

CHEN: Yes. Yes. The pneumonia is common in (INAUDIBLE). Right now I'm doing just fine.

CAMEROTA: That's amazing. Doctor, we're so happy to hear that.

You are, as we say, a doctor at University Hospital in Madrid, Spain.

CHEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Doctors, of course, are hyper cautious. I mean you all wear gloves, you wash your hands all the time, you wear protective garments. And so do you know exactly how you caught coronavirus or is it just community spread at your hospital?

CHEN: One of my colleagues was positive way -- probably way before the rest of us. So this is a message I want to send to all my doctor fellows, colleagues, to be careful. Anyone who is symptomatic to avoid any contact or even work.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. So, in other words, before you all started wearing all of the protective garments, one of your colleagues was positive and probably spread it through touch, through coughing, through a surface?

CHEN: Yes. Yes. Back then nobody knew was positive. But after my positive test, he got it done as well and turned to me and said he was the first with symptoms, we guessed he could be the source.

CAMEROTA: Doc, when are you going to be able to go back to work?

CHEN: Probably in one week time, hopefully. If everything goes right, like as soon as I don't have symptoms, I can repeat my test. And if it turns negative, I can go back to work. And, yes, probably my bosses will put me in the front line to see all patients.

CAMEROTA: Well, Dr. Yale Tung Chen, everyone appreciates being able to watch what you went through and then watch your quick recovery. Thank you so much for sharing your personal story with us today.

CHEN: Thanks to you.

BERMAN: Look, it's great to see him --

CAMEROTA: Feeling better.

BERMAN: Yes. Yes.

Look, and the vast majority of people who get it will feel better.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but it wasn't mild. I mean I think that there is also some confusion about what the 80 percent of people who get it, if it's mild, getting pneumonia, having chills, everything he described, I don't know if we would consider that mild.

BERMAN: He didn't make it sound comfortable, that's for sure.

Up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers your questions about coronavirus. We all have so many.

Also ahead, major movies, late night TV shows, they're all on hold now. How this pandemic is affecting your entertainment options.

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[08:47:52]

BERMAN: All right, we've talked about how all of our lives have changed because of the coronavirus pandemic. On a normal weekend, what would you do?

CAMEROTA: I would go out to a restaurant, like I did last night.

BERMAN: Or you might go see a movie, or you would watch a game on TV, you'd go watch your kid's game.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: None of that is happening.

CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter joins us now.

The entire media landscape, dark.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, arts, culture, sports, these are the essence of who we are as Americans. It's how we spend our time. It's a form of escapism. But it's more than that. You know, culture is what knits us together, going to the movies, watching the game. And all that is going to be on hold right now.

For example, movie theater chains across this country, right now are open, but are starting to think about closing, are starting to figure out that plan. And already we've seen Broadway go dark, not just here, literally Broadway in New York, but plays, theaters, concerts across the country are starting to be canceled as you've all been talking about. This all happened, you know, very quickly yesterday. And it's continuing to happen today. We're going to see more of these cancellations today.

CAMEROTA: That's such a bummer.

STELTER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: The Broadway thing is really a bummer and the plays because, economically, because how will they recover --

STELTER: And economically as well for tens of thousands of people.

CAMEROTA: I mean I don't know how long they can sustain being dark and then recover.

STELTER: Right. And say from a month from now these shows -- these plays are suspended. But they could very well go on longer than that.

I mean we're talking about everything from Mulan to March Madness, you know? From movies that are being postponed to television shows that are shutting down production. So the scope of this, I almost think it's hard for us to get our arms around it. There are shades of 9/11 and shades of Superstorm Sandy here in terms of the blackout that affected New York years ago. Every event is different, but it is an event of that kind of national scope. In fact, it's even bigger in some ways because everybody's affected in their own way.

BERMAN: I have to say, I imagine people are going to start streaming the heck out of anything they can get their hands on.

STELTER: Well, that's the thing -- that's the thing, right? Sporting events are canceled, so ESPN has to figure out how to fill the air time. But streaming services are going to be trying to take advantage of this and provide as many options as they can. I think we're also going to see an uptick in esports, you know, people

playing video games online. Certainly we're going to see a lot of interested news coverage for the foreseeable future. Television networks are affected as well, though. CBS has had to remove -- had people leave part of their office in New York because of coronavirus exposure. They've been broadcasting from different places.

[08:50:00]

We're going to see a lot more of that. We're already seeing television networks in some cases choose not to bring guests into the studio. Lots of different choices being made in real time.

CAMEROTA: In the last ten seconds, as though Dr. Sanjay Gupta isn't busy enough, he was on Colbert last night.

STELTER: He was. He was. With no studio audience.

CAMEROTA: That -- that --

BERMAN: So that's why they weren't laughing. It wasn't because Sanjay wasn't funny, because he's freaking hilarious, it's just there was no one there to laugh.

STELTER: It was a special episode. It's the last, new original episode of Colbert for a while because all these late night shows, they are going dark because when you don't have a studio audience, the show isn't as fun. But I'm glad they had Sanjay there.

CAMEROTA: So are we, though he shut it down. I mean they just decided, no mas --

BERMAN: After Sanjay.

CAMEROTA: After that. You can't -- what do you do after Sanjay?

STELTER: Hey, look who's here!

CAMEROTA: I know.

BERMAN: It's Sanjay Gupta.

CAMEROTA: You're everywhere.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's a show stopper.

CAMEROTA: Brian, thank you.

STELTER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Show stopper.

Thank you very much, Brian. All right, all week we've been asking you to send in your questions

about coronavirus. So CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back to answer some of them.

Hi, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Hey.

CAMEROTA: How are you?

GUPTA: Good to see you again.

CAMEROTA: Nice of you to show up.

Here is from Amy in Piedmont, California, can you ask Dr. Sanjay about potential permanent lung damage from the virus?

GUPTA: Yes, you know, this is a very good question because I think what we've basically been saying, 80 percent of people are going to be totally fine, recover, no problem, 15 percent to 20 percent, obviously, more serious.

What is interesting is that even in the 80 percent of people, they have found some evidence of lung scarring in people. They may not necessarily feel it, their function is OK, but there is some evidence, I think maybe -- maybe whoever wrote this question --

CAMEROTA: Amy.

GUPTA: Amy saw these studies because that was important. They saw some of that same stuff in SARS as well. So, recovery, yes. But there is the risk of having some damage to the lungs.

BERMAN: J.S. from Dallas writes, pregnancy and Covid-19, am I more prone to it, basically?

GUPTA: So the thing about pregnancy is that when a woman is pregnant, their immune system is diminished a bit. Why? So that they don't reject this unborn baby. That's what happens naturally. So you are more at risk of all sorts of different infections. Not a lot of studies on pregnant women and this coronavirus yet. The biggest one, again, out of China, and showed that women did not seem to be, you know, particularly adversely affected. They were more in the 80 percent category. And also there was no evidence that they were passing the virus on to the fetus during pregnancy.

CAMEROTA: OK, this one is from Bernadette in Columbus, Ohio, but it could have been written by me because this is my question. As a family, we're doing our best to practice social distancing by limiting our time in public places. The question is, does it also include play dates and small gatherings with other families?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's a -- I have kids, and this is -- this is, you know, it's challenging for sure. There's a couple things. And my wife and I had this conversation last night. First of all, as we've talked about, kids are less prone to become infected and less prone to get sick. So that's some good news.

It's hard to social distance kids. I think that what we've decided to focus on, I've talked to a lot of my colleagues, is really focusing on the hygienic practices and making sure that we use this as an opportunity to really remind them about that. Obviously if a kid is sick, there's no -- there's no -- that's not negotiable anymore. You know, it was kind of one of those things. Well, they have a little sniffle, is it OK if they still come over. That can't happen anymore. Got to be stricter about some things.

But even in this period where kids are now out of school, they're supposed to be sort of more quarantined. I know the play dates are still going to happen. In full disclosure, it's already happening at our house.

BERMAN: Look, I have to say, that was also a question that had been sent in from Kerry, my wife --

CAMEROTA: From the Berman house.

GUPTA: The Berman household.

BERMAN: From the Berman house, who said literally -- there was a note on the coffee machine when I woke up this morning saying, what's the proper social distancing for kids who are home due to school closings? What about play dates and sleepovers? That's the note I had on the coffee maker. And your answer is, basically kids can go be with kids.

GUPTA: Kids can be with kids. They're a little bit more protected from this. I -- you know, I use it as an opportunity to really teach about hygiene and -- but I think we got to be nonnegotiable if somebody is sick or showing any kinds of symptoms.

CAMEROTA: I really am curious about restaurants. It's the weekend. So can people go out to --

GUPTA: You went last night.

CAMEROTA: I did go out last night to a restaurant. And I didn't' know if it was the right thing. I mean I did -- my husband and I -- I can't tell you how many hours we deliberated about this.

BERMAN: You ate a ton. You felt guilty the whole time. But you had a great meal.

GUPTA: How many hours. I want to know. Did you --

CAMEROTA: Does -- does tequila help this is my first question.

OK, so what are your thoughts on eating in restaurants? I want to do my part to minimize the spread but I also want to support those workers who don't get paid leave and are not making any money. This comes from Kendall in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Should we be going out to restaurants or not? GUPTA: Well, look, we're all learning together here a little bit, I

just want to say. So I don't want to in any way sound dogmatic in any of this stuff because I don't think -- we should all be humble in the terms of what we're recommending. I think that, you know, the thing is that can you be socially -- can you have some social distance from someone in a restaurant? What kind of restaurant is this? Are you going to be very crowded?

CAMEROTA: Meaning six feet. Like, what's -- how far apart am I supposed to stay?

GUPTA: Three to six feet is what they say. You know, so -- and the rational for that is that if you -- someone's putting out virus into the air, that's sort of the distance by which, you know, you -- it can be transmitted to you. Obviously, as we've talked about, it gets on surfaces and you touch those surfaces.

[08:55:00]

CAMEROTA: How long does it stay on a surface?

GUPTA: Well, it can stay a long time on surface. I mean, you know, some studies have shown -- I don't want this to alarm people, but some studies have shown days it can stay on a surface, but it may not be as what they call pathogenic, meaning not as likely to cause disease that entire time. But is it a restaurant that's really good about disinfecting? Are you taking things directly -- objects from waiter who is very good about hygiene? Will you start seeing waiters wearing gloves? You know, you do see this in other countries --

BERMAN: Not the end of the world.

GUPTA: You might see it here. Yes.

CAMEROTA: Yes, my bartender was wearing gloves yesterday.

BERMAN: Yes. Look, and social -- social distancing is different than quarantine.

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: It's different.

GUPTA: That's right.

BERMAN: You just have to be careful.

GUPTA: And it's not social isolation.

BERMAN: Not yet.

GUPTA: No.

BERMAN: Let's hope it doesn't get there.

Sanjay, it's great to have you. Thanks so much. GUPTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: Be sure to download and listen to Sanjay's new podcast, "Coronavirus: Fact Versus Fiction." It's wonderful.

CAMEROTA: OK, we have the very latest for you on what America is doing in terms of shutting down over coronavirus.

CNN's coverage continues, next.

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