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Cuomo Prime Time
Trump: Only Signed Defense Production Act For A "Worst Case Scenario"; Trump Defends Calling Coronavirus "Chinese Virus"; Hospitals Face Critical Supply Shortage As Outbreak Grows. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired March 18, 2020 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Tomorrow night, 8 P.M., our Town Hall.
The news continues right now. Want to hand it over to Chris Cuomo for PRIME TIME, Chris, for CUOMO PRIME TIME. Hey, Chris?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, CUOMO PRIME TIME: All right, appreciate it, all good, Anderson. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to PRIME TIME.
We need to fight through as much of the uncertainty as we can. I know you're asking, "How did this go from 15 days to hearing about plans for more than 18 months?"
And yes, we are now hearing that the young aren't in the clear. We are seeing cases pop up abroad and here too, and some of them are bad cases. What changed?
Here's the good news. We have the nation's top Coronavirus Medic, Dr. Fauci is here tonight, OK? He is a trusted source for information. He's always been straight with me. I've known him a long time.
We also have Obama Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson here, OK, another trusted source. What does he say about what we can do to build capacity? How big a problem are we facing? He knows.
And Dallas Mavericks Owner and Business Titan, Mark Cuban, weighing in to help us understand what's going on in the markets, and what he wants you to know about what the right and wrong fixes are, going forward.
Listen, for all the uncertainty, we know we have tough days ahead. So, let's get the information. Let's get together, and let's get after it.
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TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CUOMO: Look, I know the uncertainty is driving you nuts. How many of us are going to get it? How long is it going to last? How many may we lose from this? We don't know.
But we do know that there are things that we can do, you and I, you and me, the government that will help us win this war. And that's what it is. Fair question, are they happening fast enough, testing kits, masks, ventilators, beds, medical staff across the country, scrambling for them?
The President today signed the Relief bill and invoked the Defense Production Act. That's from the 50s, wartime. It allows for government to ramp up production, and address shortages.
But then he said in a tweet, not long after, he may not be exercising those powers just yet, only "In a worst case scenario." Well what's worse than knowing what we do right now is that we don't have what we need to fight this?
CNN has obtained a contingency plan by the Trump Administration for the possibility that this pandemic could flare for 18 months or longer, and include multiple waves of illness.
15 days, 18 months, which is it?
Again, we are lucky to have Dr. Anthony Fauci back with us, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
I don't know where you're getting the energy from Doctor, but thank you for being with us tonight. It's an important night.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Good to be with you, Chris.
CUOMO: So, Doctor, the idea of we understand that you can't know definitively how long anything takes here.
But it's jarring to hear the President or anybody say, it's not about politics, "This is going to be a couple of weeks and then we'll see, maybe July," and then hear about a plan for 18 months.
What can you tell the American people?
FAUCI: Well all of that is not incompatible with - with each of the things that was said.
As I've told you before, Chris, when you have an outbreak, like this, if you look historically, and what has happened more recently in China, and in South Korea, and now what's going on in a very dramatic way in Europe, you have the - the outbreak goes like this, and then it spares up like this, and then after a while, it goes down.
If it's left to its own devices, you'll get the maximum peak, a lot of suffering, a lot of illness, a lot of death.
What our responsibility is, and what we are doing very, very vigorously right now is to put into play the kinds of things that would blunt that curve. I've said that many, many times.
CUOMO: Right.
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FAUCI: But when you belong to the curve by modifying society, particularly with the rather dramatic physical separations, which people call social distancing, you can blunt it. But it is unlikely that you're going to make it completely disappear. If we're lucky, it will happen.
But what more likely would happen is that we do this, go down, and if it's still around, we'd have to deal with it next season. That's the challenging issue. The good news about that, that will give us time to test, and prove whether drugs are safe and effective.
And as I've told you many times, the vaccine whose trial we started just a couple of days ago, in a year to a year and a half, we should know whether we're ready to go, and that's not the only candidate.
CUOMO: Right.
FAUCI: So, it is not untrue that in 18 months, or next season, we may see another flare. But we'd be much better-prepared than we are right now.
CUOMO: Right. And there are a lot of variables at play. I get it. I just wanted to hear it from you because, you know, hearing it from politicians is one thing, hearing it from you is something else. I hear you. I'll let the audience decide.
Quickly, is it true that you guys are starting to get a better feel for some drugs that you think may be able to help treat some of the worst cases?
FAUCI: Yes, yes. The answer to that is yes, when you say a better feel, but no definitive proof yet, Chris, and that's important.
There are anecdotal reports that there are a number of drugs that are already out there that we're repurposing, drugs that have been used for other diseases that either anecdotally reported--
CUOMO: Can you fast-track the FDA?
FAUCI: Yes. I mean the FDA is totally on board with this now.
CUOMO: All right, good.
FAUCI: I was on the phone like a half an hour ago--
CUOMO: So, if you've got a good--
FAUCI: --with the FDA Commissioner.
CUOMO: --if you've got a good basis to try it, you'll be able to try because I have been hearing they were going to be snags, and they were afraid of what drugs you'd expose people to.
FAUCI: No.
CUOMO: But I mean if they're in a life or death situation, it's like you might as well throw everything at it.
FAUCI: Yes. But Chris, if you do it in a protocol, you can know there's a balance between just throwing the drug out there, which is not a good idea, but you don't want to make it unavailable to people.
So, what you do is you do a bit of a compromise. You do it under the auspices of a protocol, so that you could make it very heavily available, but at the same time you're learning something.
CUOMO: Right.
FAUCI: You're learning how safe it is, and does it really work. We need to do both. We need to make it available, at the same time as we learn whether or not it really works, and whether it's safe.
CUOMO: Now, young people, they've been nonchalant about some of this, some of them, some of them, let's not generalize, but young people have been given the impression that "If I get this, I'm going to be OK," so some of the social isolation--
FAUCI: Yes.
CUOMO: --seems a little overblown for them. "Let's leave it for the old folks." Now, we're hearing about cases of young people getting hit hard, abroad and here at home, being in extreme distress with cases. What changed?
FAUCI: Well nothing has changed except we're learning more and more. Again, remember Chris, couple of times ago, when I was on your show, I told you this is a work in motion, it's evolving.
Every day we learn more and more. And when you see reports from other countries, and now, even in our own country, you realize there are things you didn't fully appreciate.
But getting back to young people, there are two reasons why young people need to take this very seriously.
One, you yourself can be in harm's way. I mean, obviously most of the difficulties are in people who are older and all who have underlying conditions.
And many of the young people who have actually gotten into trouble did have underlying conditions. But you're not out of danger, but even as important is that you have a responsibility, a societal responsibility, to protect the vulnerable.
And you do that, interestingly, by not letting yourself get infected because you need to make sure that you don't inadvertently pass on the infection to someone who would not fare as well as you fare because you're young and healthy. So, there's a two-pillars to that, yourself and your responsibility to society.
CUOMO: A couple more quick things, and then I'll let you go. I know how busy you are.
First, this new understanding of how long it lives on surfaces, do you have a new understanding and does it inform on what we need to do?
FAUCI: Yes. I mean a study from my own group that at the - at my Institute was done to show that if you do different surfaces, and you look at the tighter, or the level of virus that's viable, that's culturable, that's dangerous, over a period of time, depending on the surface, it can be anywhere from a few hours to, in some places, even a day or so.
Now, that day or so may actually be so low, it's not going to hurt you, but you don't want to take any chances, which is the reason why you want to make sure that you do clean off surfaces that are commonly used.
But more important than all of that, I've said it many times, Chris, make sure you wash your hands as often as you possibly can.
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CUOMO: Absolutely. We got it. "Happy Birthday," two times in a row, soap and water, dry them off, I got it.
Now, something I keep hearing from people that I wanted you to address directly, Tony, Dr. Fauci, is, "You know, Swine Flu, 61 million Americans were affected, 12,000 people died, we didn't do all this crazy stuff with the economy. Why - why are we doing it all now when we didn't do it then?"
What's your answer?
FAUCI: Chris, this is different. This is totally different. The Swine Flu of 2009, the H1N1 was truly a pandemic. It spread widely.
However, its lethality, its - its capability of causing really bad harm with morbidity and mortality was much, much less than what we have seen in China, of what we've seen in South Korea, what's going on in Europe, and what we're starting to see now in our own country. So, there are worlds of difference between those two.
CUOMO: Dr. Tony Fauci, I know how, you know, busy you are.
I can't tell you, I know you're in the bubble, but I can't tell you how many Americans are looking up to the information you're giving them, the consistency you're providing, and it means everything to us on this show.
Thank you, Sir.
FAUCI: Good to be with you, Chris, as always. CUOMO: Stay strong, God bless.
All right, now there are different fronts in this fight. I wanted him to hear what's coming out, and you got to hear from him what his take is on them, all right? He's the best we've got. You got the medical precautions. That's what he was talking about.
Now you have the preparations that government can make. Capacity, capacity, what can they do? What will it take? Do you know who knows? A former Homeland Security Chief, especially Jeh Johnson, next.
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CUOMO: All right, another fact that we know, two medical navy ships are going to be deployed to our shores to help ease the load at hospitals.
They will not be treating Coronavirus patients. Well then how do they help? Because there are a lot of other patients, OK? So, you have to remove that part of the demand to deal with Coronavirus.
One is coming here to New York. We're waiting to hear where the other one's going to dock. But it will take weeks for either to arrive.
And minutes ago, we got word that the President signed the Coronavirus Relief bill. That's good news. It'll mean more into the markets than it will to the rest of us because it's going to take time, and we're going to need more.
So, let's talk about that, what we need, what's going to happen with former Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson.
Jeh, you and I, you know, we're talking about this. We're living this.
JEH JOHNSON, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
CUOMO: We're living this with our parents. We're living this with how to--
JOHNSON: We're living this right here in New York. CUOMO: --how to deal with it. Right. So, it's hitting all of us emotionally and seriously. We keep hearing "Capacity, nobody has the capacity."
My brother, Andrew, keeps saying, "I can't do it. I'm trying to repurpose old hospitals. I'm trying to find new places. People are offering me things. But I cannot fill out what I need."
And the federal government keeps saying they don't have what they need.
Yet, I don't feel like everything is being thrown at it. What am I missing?
JOHNSON: Well, first, I got to say, Anthony Fauci is--
CUOMO: You heard the interview.
JOHNSON: --he's a total rock-star. I worked with him during the Ebola crisis six years ago. And this is someone, who at the same time he's briefing the President in the Situation Room, is personally treating Ebola patients. So, I listen to everything he says.
CUOMO: He's always been straight. You've always been able to trust him.
JOHNSON: Absolutely.
OK, second, if I were still in Washington in the Chair, I'd be thinking about this. First, this exponential growth we're seeing in the cases, and here in New York, it's approaching 20 percent of the entire nation, right here in New York.
I wonder whether it's simply because we're testing more people, or the virus is spreading to more people, or some combination of both. That is critical to know because you need to know where the virus is spreading too, to know how to track it.
Now, in terms of the government response, in a situation like this with a lethal virus spreading across our country, first and foremost, it is up to state and local governments to regulate, encourage, discourage, human behavior, human isolation.
The federal government is - should be principally responsible for - for providing the resources, getting the resources out to the field, out to the hospitals, out to the states, out to the cities.
And we seem to be settling into that track right now. There is no one- size-fits-all for the nation, in terms of human behavior.
So, the government, at the Washington level, has to be out there, providing funds for - for masks, for ventilators, for test kits, we desperately need test kits right now, hospital beds, and resources, like the ships, apparently on their way to New York.
And a lesson I learned from Ebola in 2014, first reactions are not always the best reactions.
Those of us in Washington, when you're dealing with a crisis and high anxiety, like we are in now, sometimes tend to lurch toward political solutions that sound good, that sound big and important like "I'm invoking my authorities under the National Procurement Act or the National Production - Defense Production Act, wartime authority."
My first question, when I hear something like that, is "OK, what are you going to do with that? Now that you've invoked this authority, you've triggered this authority, what are you going to do? How are you going to spend our taxpayer money?"
And while all this money is flying out of the federal treasury, let's please, in Washington, avoid earmarks, pork to mix--
CUOMO: Slipping other things in.
JOHNSON: --to slip other things in. Let's make sure that the resources and the money go to the places most in need right now.
CUOMO: Two more hot-points.
One is the idea of the Corps of Army Engineers. I know we're not China. I know we don't have the manpower and the capabilities to build up as quickly as they did there. But whether it's Andrew--
JOHNSON: We got the best medical capabilities in the world.
CUOMO: And Tony Fauci keeps saying that that we'll be able to deal with this.
JOHNSON: Yes.
CUOMO: But you have to have the manpower. They have to be - the human capital has to be treated right. They have to have what they need, so they don't get sick.
But the Corps of Army Engineers and coming and--
JOHNSON: Yes.
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CUOMO: --building temporary hospitals, and putting things up, California's asking for it, New York's asking for it, they're two - two of your big population centers, but it's not happening, and I don't understand why. What is a good reason to not do that yet?
JOHNSON: I think our nation's military, whether it's the Army Corps of Engineers, the Guard, perhaps even active-duty military personnel, need to be in this fight.
I would not federalize the National Guard. There is something called Title 32 status, which enables the federal government to pay for resources under your brother's command and control, here in New York State. But our Defense Department is - is immense, in terms of its personnel, its resources. Let's think about smart ways to use those capabilities, whether it's hospital beds, whether it's active-duty, consistent with Posse Comitatus, the U.S. Military is not supposed to engage in--
CUOMO: Right.
JOHNSON: --domestic law enforcement. And let's be smart about how we use this.
CUOMO: But when - how long should it take? When they're asking you like "I need you to build me hospitals, I need you to build me hospitals."
JOHNSON: You know, when I was at DHS, we had Craig Fugate at FEMA.
FEMA is incredible, in terms of its ability to deploy resources quickly, literally overnight, and the U.S. Army could learn from FEMA. So, I'd be looking to FEMA to help guide the way in terms of getting resources quickly out to the field in this situation.
Chris, this is - this is our 9/11, and it could be worse than 9/11, and so it requires mobilization, focus, among government officials, but it also requires personal commitment and sacrifice among the American public.
Those of us in Washington have gotten out of the habit of asking the public, for their help, in dealing with a crisis. But we need to mobilize public support, public sacrifice, public effort, to fight this, and we will fight this, and we will beat this eventually, when that vaccine gets out there.
But up until now, we've got to - we've got to engage in social isolation. We've got to do what our leaders tell us, and we will get through this.
CUOMO: I'll tell you what. I haven't seen the City feel like this since 9/11. The existential threat then was that they're going to keep coming and getting us.
JOHNSON: Yes.
CUOMO: They're going to keep getting us. We don't know when it's coming. This is it.
JOHNSON: Right.
CUOMO: This is, they're going to come and kill us.
This is the first time, since then, I felt it, except they don't have - that took like a month and half, before people started to turn and be like there's an enemy, we can go get. Here, it's going to be a much longer haul and harder one.
Jeh, I'd love to give you a hug and shake your hand, and thank you for coming in, but not right now. JOHNSON: Thanks, Chris.
CUOMO: We'll do it in the future. I appreciate you giving your perspective to the audience during this time.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
CUOMO: Thank you.
JOHNSON: Glad to be here.
CUOMO: Thank you.
All right, now, we're rolling out a new series to try to track what's happening here, OK, organizations that throughout this crisis represent the "Can" in Ameri-CAN, all right?
People are going to have to step up. You just heard the Secretary say it. Tony Fauci said it. President says it. Everybody says it.
Who is putting the "We" before the "Me?" And who is doing the opposite? The Ameri-CANT'S, if you think you're going to get away with exploiting people right now, you're wrong.
Examples of both, next.
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CUOMO: I want you to see this, filling up a beach, putting more lives at risk in the midst of a pandemic. When we're hearing reports of young people now being more vulnerable than expected, this is being an Ameri-CAN'T. We can't get together. We can't beat this virus. Do better.
Calling it the "Chinese Virus" or the "Wuhan Virus" or the "Kung-Flu," listen, you may think it's clever. But it's hurting.
The idea, "Well it did come from China," then why doesn't Fauci, and other top Health officials, why don't they call it that? You know why? Because it could have come from anywhere, all right?
Attacks against the Asian community are on the rise. The President was asked about it. He said this.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's not racist at all. No. Not at all. It comes from China.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A person at the White House used the--
TRUMP: No, just the term.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: --term "Kung-Flu." My question is--
TRUMP: "Kung-Flu"?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: --do you think that's wrong? "Kung-Flu." And do you think using the term "Chinese Virus" that puts Asian-Americans at risk, that people might target them?
TRUMP: No, not at all. No, not at all. I think they probably would agree with it a 100 percent. It comes from China.
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CUOMO: No. It's not about where it started, all right? This doesn't help, calling it a "Foreign Virus." We're all in the fight together. Stop it.
So now, let's get to the Ameri-CAN part, all right? That means stepping up to help those most vulnerable, like who, the elderly at higher risk of infection, especially amid the craze of panic-buying.
So, Whole Foods, Stop & Shop, Giant, Target, Safeway, you see their logos? Good. They're some of the retailers who are opening up earlier, and they're even reserving an hour or two for older shoppers, so they can get what they need safely.
Some smaller grocery stores are also doing the same. As I hear about them, I'll tell you.
It also means offering solace at a time that people need it most. You can't be "Coronavirus 24/7 worried, worried, worried." The Metropolitan Opera is helping with that, offering free live streams of past performances on their site, to anyone who needs them.
Finally, being an Ameri-CAN means paying it forward. Listen to this. An anonymous couple in Houston left a whopping $9,400 tip, $1,900 in cash, the rest on a credit card with a note that read "Hold tip to pay your guys over the next few weeks."
That's who we are at our best, Ameri-CAN, that "Can-do" attitude, during the worst of times you'll see the best of us.
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And for those who want to be the worst, we will expose you. You know Mark Cuban, big name, front-and-center during this Coronavirus crisis. He's trying to help small business owners stay afloat. What does he see in the economy? What he thinks are the right and wrong things to do, and why, and what he's doing for his own? Next.
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CUOMO: All right, let's bring in Dallas Mavericks' Owner and Entrepreneur and friend of show, Mark Cuban.
How are you and the family doing, brother?
MARK CUBAN, OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS: We're doing all right. We're on spring break and just keeping everybody together, cocooning in, and a lot of forced family fun.
CUOMO: All right, well thank you for joining us, especially on your personal time like this. What are you seeing that you do and do not like?
CUBAN: That's a great question. What I love is our communities coming together, businesses helping each other. I'm getting emails every minute from organizations like, you know, the - the event business has been decimated.
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And so, there's a lot of companies that are contractors for those big events that have temporary structures that I'm connecting with hospitals and they're installing those to expand their capacity. Things like that are happening - happening every hour.
And so, it's really good to see, it's great to see, you know, people of all levels just stepping up and helping people that don't have jobs, and giving them jobs. It's really there is a bright lining. It's just hopefully it gets bigger.
CUOMO: Well we're calling those people "Ameri-CANS," people who are stepping up right now.
CUBAN: Absolutely.
CUOMO: Now, the President just signed what will probably be one step in much-needed Congressional and financial support. What do you think we have to be mindful of in terms of how we help people, and this economy, going forward?
CUBAN: Well a couple things.
One, you want to give people a sense of control over their own lives because, right now, I think people feel like they just don't know what's next. We have such imperfect information and people are really scared.
And I like the idea of giving the $1,000 check to people who need it because that gives them a sense of control.
I also like the idea of opening up loans to small businesses and medium-sized businesses because the more we can do to help them keep paying the employees, so they don't have to lay them off, and then go through the - and those employees have to go through the process of finding a job in the future, that's also a big positive.
Where we have to be careful, you know, we'll - we'll inevitably bail out several industries, and we can't repeat the same mistakes we made before.
If the government's going to subsidize, and support, and basically de- risk various industries, we have to make sure that we - we stop things like stock buybacks, or enrichment programs, where we give, you know, bonuses and stock and options to CEOs, but not give them to employees.
This is in our - an opportunity for the government when they get involved to level the playing field for all employees in those organizations, and say, "You know what, whatever you give to the CEO, you give to the person getting paid by the hour, or getting the least amount salary, so that everybody shares - everybody's going to have to work to bring that company back, everybody shares in the upside."
CUOMO: Now, during the tax cut, Mark, they talked about that that we're going to give permanent tax cuts to the corporate class, and maybe we'll put in there that they have to do something for workers. That quickly got swept off the table. It never happened.
Government can do that, just to be clear, right?
CUBAN: Yes.
CUOMO: If they're giving you a break--
CUBAN: Yes.
CUOMO: --they can define how you use the break. That's not offensive to capitalism any more than the--
CUBAN: Well--
CUOMO: --idea of a bail-out is, right?
CUBAN: No. No, actually that's more like if I'm negotiating for the people of the United States, our taxpayers, you better believe that's what I'm asking for.
I'm going to require it that not only can you not do stock buybacks next year, or the year after, or forever, but you can't do options re- pricing without - whatever you offer to the CEO, you have to offer to every single employee in that company.
CUOMO: Because that's what we learned in 2008. It helped to keep liquidity in the markets. But the people who were losing their homes, and were - who were economic victims of jobs being sweat off, they did not get the same level of help.
Now--
CUBAN: Exactly.
CUOMO: --let me ask you something about the NBA in general. People are worried that just like the big companies got bailed out in 2008, it seems like if you know somebody, you can get tested.
And when NBA players, you know, are start - turning up, whether it's the Brooklyn Nets, or whoever, they get tested right away. And everybody's begging for tests otherwise.
You think there's two tiers of medical justice going on?
CUBAN: I don't know. Honestly, we just follow the protocols for our players. We're keeping them effectively under quarantine, and talking to them every day with medical professionals.
I can't speak to which it - which have and have not been tested. But it's not like something was offered to us that other people couldn't get. We - we face the same dilemmas that every organization faces.
CUOMO: And so far, everybody's OK, right?
CUBAN: Yes, yes, we're - we're keeping an eye on them every minute of every day.
CUOMO: All right, thank God.
CUBAN: And so far so good.
CUOMO: Now, you've got a lot of hour-wage workers. You've got a lot of event workers there that were to do it. They - they need the money. They can't work right now. Hopefully, you don't have to lay anybody off. How do you help them?
CUBAN: I pay them. We're paying them as if the Mavs games are taking place. You know, they're not going to miss a paycheck at all.
CUOMO: Now, say it again.
CUBAN: And that was very important to me.
CUOMO: Say it again because you're a bottom line guy, you're a businessman. CUBAN: Yes.
CUOMO: Yes, you do a lot of nice things with your money. Yes, I've known you for a long time. But you had an option. You are deciding to pay your workers, whether or not that was in the pre-existing policy?
CUBAN: Right. It wasn't in the policy. But it wasn't an option. It was the right thing to do. And now, you know what, I've gotten requests, as I mentioned earlier and sometimes people ask, what should they do?
And what I've told them is if you can afford it, not only do you need to keep your workers on payroll, but go find some others that have been laid off, furloughed, whatever it may be, and get them some work. And so, I've been involved in different actions there because people want jobs.
You know, then you've got folks like healthcare workers who aren't getting near the credit, and I know you've - you've said so, but aren't getting near the credit for putting their lives on the line.
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We just finished a program with the Mavs, and Luka Doncic, and Dwight Powell, some of our players, where we're going to pay for healthcare for - for daycare for healthcare workers, so people can go to work, knowing that their kids are taken care of.
And those daycare workers, we're going to, you know, work with different organizations that can check them out and all that.
But there - that's going to be new jobs as well, so people who may not have had jobs before, not only now will be able to get jobs, but we'll have them working as - with daycare organizations, so that healthcare workers can go to work knowing their kids are OK.
CUOMO: I love it. I love it. Look, that's one of the reasons I beg you to come on this show so often, is that especially right now, we're not talking politics, but we are talking social pressure and peer pressure.
CUBAN: No.
CUOMO: And I want the business people out there to know if they're on the small level, the big shots know that you should be taken care of this time. And other big shots, listen to Cuban.
CUBAN: Right. Chris, let me tell you something that's--
CUOMO: Go ahead, last word to you.
CUBAN: Let me - OK, last word. One thing that I'm seeing across all my Shark Tank companies, I'm an investor in probably a 150-plus companies, there are certainly the haves and have-nots.
There are some companies that are truly excelling right now, the entertainment, hospitality, events business getting crushed, airlines, that type of thing getting crushed.
But there are companies that sell food and - and other products that are in high demand on Amazon, and elsewhere online that are excelling. What we've got to do is get those companies to really reach out and hire more people because it's not everybody getting really hurt.
There are some companies that are really in a good position, and we really need to get those folks to step up, hire more, and actually pay more, so everything, you know, everybody can prosper--
CUOMO: Yes.
CUBAN: --as much as possible in these types of circumstances.
CUOMO: If you flip your mindset in a time of need, you go from "Me" to "We" real quick. Mark Cuban, thank you.
CUBAN: Real quick.
CUOMO: Best to you and the family, brother, appreciate it.
CUBAN: Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it, buddy.
CUOMO: All right, now, we were talking to Dr. Fauci earlier, all right, about what we're doing medically, and what's not working. We had Jeh Johnson about the capacity crisis.
Now you just heard Mark Cuban. "Capacity? Don't forget the healthcare workers. They're going to need the help."
How do we keep them safe? How do we keep them working? How do they treat these patients when they don't even have the things to wear to save themselves?
You're going to hear from someone on the frontlines, what she's seeing, who gets sick, how it goes, and what they need from you, next.
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CUOMO: You got to surrender the "Me" to the "We." We have to do it. They're asking us to do. But it's not just about containment. It's about figuring out the best way to protect ourselves, and others,
like the people we need most, OK, our healthcare workers, our healers, doctors, nurses, EMTs, so many other staff that are going to be there. Their risk of infection is growing. And what they need to not get sick is shrinking. How? What can we do about it?
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, on the frontlines, she treated the nation's first Coronavirus patient. She's going to treat a lot more of them.
Doctor, always good to see you, seeing how I just saw you last night.
DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, PROVIDENCE HEALTH SYSTEM, TREATED FIRST U.S. CORONAVIRUS PATIENT: Thanks so much.
CUOMO: Now, just quickly--
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thanks so much for having me, Chris.
CUOMO: --this idea, Doctor, that young people are not as impervious as once thought, not a surprise to you. What is your experience?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: So, we've seen lots of young people come in with symptoms of the infection.
It's just that when they get it, they tend to recover at much higher rates. The older you are, the more underlying conditions you have, the more likely you are to have severe repercussions of the disease, including more likely to die.
CUOMO: But we have seen some rough cases involving younger people coming out of Italy, and now, the United States, which is a little bit of a - an alarm to them that stop ignoring the demands put on all of us, thinking you'll be OK.
One, four out of five people who get this virus get it from someone who didn't know they had it, right, that's you, young people, and if you don't self-contain, we're going to have a problem. All right, good, that's the social service message.
But now about you guys, how bad is it already in terms of what you need, so you can do your job, and help the rest of us?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: We literally were down to under half a day's worth of personal protective equipment.
So, the masks and the facials in particular were the biggest thing for us, and so, we've been - we've been virtually desperate, you know, looking under every rock, every nook and cranny, trying to find the equipment that we need.
Because if all of our doctors, and our nurses, and our housekeepers, and our respiratory therapists are sick, and unable to come into work, who's going to take care of all the people that we know are going to be coming in, over the next few weeks?
CUOMO: What have you had to resort to, to get masks? Is it true that you guys are making your own equipment?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: We are. And, in fact, by tomorrow, we'll have everything ready to go.
But I think we're actually going to put out a "100 million mask challenge" with plans on how to build the masks as well as designs that you can make at home because we need to do something.
And we know that the global supply chain is just tied up right now. With COVID, our need for masks has increased dramatically.
We had, I think I mentioned to you last night, in one year, across all of our hospitals and our ambulatory surgery centers we would use 250,000 masks a year, up through last year.
In three months, at one hospital, we went through 250,000 masks. So, the increased demand has just far outstripped supply, so we just have to do something different.
CUOMO: How long does a mask last?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Well, it depends.
So, if we have, what we call cohorted patients, if we put all the patients with COVID, in one facility together, and you use a face shield over the mask, you can go from patient to patient with the same mask on, as long as you change your gloves.
And that's what they've done in Italy, and that's what they did in China. It's called cohorting, putting them together.
If you have one patient with COVID, and one patient not, every single time you go in and out of that room, you have to throw away that mask, and - and re-use it again.
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And so, we're trying very hard now to do, what we call, conservation measures, to make sure that every mask goes as far as it possibly can.
CUOMO: Now, I promise you every bit of information you give me about how money can be raised, and how masks can be made, will be reminded on this show regularly, and will be on social media, everywhere I can get it on CNN.
You're having a fundraiser. What is the information for people to need to know?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: So, if you go to providence.org, we have a "100 million mask challenge" site on there. And, at the moment, we are - it's - it is just a shell. And so, by tomorrow, I hope that it'll be built out much further.
But please keep - keep checking back because we need these masks, we need tools, to keep our caregivers safe, so that they can care for you when you need them. CUOMO: Providence.org, that's where you go to find it. When you get the video of how to make the mask, to your specs, you will let me know about the video. We will put it out.
I will prevail upon the people at CNN. They got massive reach at their site, especially now. We'll put it out for people to make the masks, so you can tell us who needs them, and we'll do what we can, because we need you, and we have to help you do the job for the rest of us.
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, thank you, God bless, stay healthy.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you, Chris.
CUOMO: Now, someday, we'll have the discussion about how the hell that the richest company - country in the world, with all the companies we have, not have the stuff we needed, someday, not today.
What we'll do is everything we can to get us to where we can be, to deal with this. Now, one of the biggest crises though we're facing right now, if you think about it, what's eating us up the most? Uncertainty.
I have an argument that we only have two choices. The good news is only one is the right answer, next.
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CUOMO: Coronavirus, living up to its name, Corona, Greek, crown. It's ruling everything, everyone.
Let's be honest. To this point, isn't the hardest part not knowing? Uncertainty is as contagious as the virus, and certainly sickening, in and of itself.
We keep hearing about people being sick, but they can't get tested. They keep saying the tests are coming, and we're going to get caught up on the data, but when? Uncertain. And uncertainty mixed with shortage of trust in government, toxic.
The numbers, they keep jumping. But we know they're not accurate because they're not testing. We thought the real lethality risk was this thing about how many elderly this disease would take from us, this virus, how many of the compromised.
But now it is uncertain how many of us may be compromised.
The young and strong were worrying about being ignored in all this online, but out and about ignoring the very warnings that they wanted. Now, it turns out they're getting sick too, some, badly.
The one bright spot was this virus seemed to spare the young, the toddlers, teens. Now, uncertain. How many? How long? Uncertain. How long will this last? It keeps changing in wild ways.
Trump went from "Not going to happen" to "One and done" to "15 cases and case closed" to "It will magically disappear" to "We got this" to "15 days" to "August" and now, an 18-month contingency plan.
The scariest part, while we know he was BSing in the beginning, now his ignorance is actually justified. It is uncertain. They don't know. Nobody knows. You can't know.
And look, I know I'm on TV, but I'm living it just like you, in almost all the same ways, especially if you're not sick, God forbid. My family is a 100 miles away. My mom is living with us.
I'm working here. Have I been exposed? Maybe. I - my cough, and my icky feeling, is it allergies, is it a cold, should I be tested? Uncertain. Probably not. If I go home, am I going to risk my kids? Am I going to risk my mother? Do I have to stay away? For how long? All uncertain.
Now here is what is not uncertain. And I don't want to have to tell you this, but you have to hear it. This is just starting. And we know that playing uncertainty the wrong way is dangerous. How do we know?
Four out of five people who get this virus get it from someone who didn't know they had it. And in that fact is the answer to what seems to be this vexing question. How do you deal with uncertainty because we're seeing two options play out, right, under-prepare or over- prepare.
Under-prepare is what you see out all too much, flouting self- isolation, writing it off as fake news. Ask Italy and a dozen other countries how fake this is. That is stupid and selfish, to me.
In the face of the unknown, the only choice is to do everything we can to prepare. Be certain about that.
No matter how onerous, costly to government, frustrating, we must encourage friends and families, online and in person, to do the same. We must demand government do the same. Be certain about this.
If you do not prepare for the worst, hoping for the best is certainly asking for the hardest times to come.
God bless you. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay together.
Thanks for watching. CNN TONIGHT with D. Lemon right now.
