Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Yale's Dr. Steven Choi Discusses Trump's Idea to Restart Economy by Easter & Dr. Fauci Saying the Virus Will Set the Timeline; A Look at How the World is Fighting the Coronavirus Crisis; Miami Heat's Udonis Haslem Scolds Spring Breakers for Endangering People by Keeping Travel Plans; National Spokesperson for National Child Abuse Hotline, Rebecca Cooper, Discusses Impact of School Closings on Victims of Child Abuse. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 26, 2020 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:28]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: One of the leading voices on President Trump's Coronavirus Task Force issued a reality check about how soon the U.S. could realistically get back to normal. The timeline, by Easter,

Responding, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the pandemic's course is not up to anyone but the virus itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You've got to be realistic and you've got to understand that you don't make the timeline. The virus makes the timeline. So you've got to respond in what you see happen.

And if you keep seeing this acceleration, it doesn't matter what you say, one week, two week, three weeks, you've got to go with what the situation on the ground is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now, Dr. Steven Choi, chief quality officer and associate dean for clinical quality with the Yale New Haven Health System.

Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.

And when you think of a timeline here, a realistic one, to really safely get past this pandemic, minimize the loss of human life, what is that timeline to you?

DR. STEVEN CHOI, CHIEF QUALITY OFFICER AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR CLINICAL QUALITY, YALE NEW HAVEN HEALTH SYSTEM: I think most of my colleagues and I are optimistically thinking it's going to be two or three months at the earliest. I think it's wishful thinking this will be over in weeks. And in some ways, we want it to be longer because that's the only way we can slow down the spread and what everyone's been talking about, flatten the curve, so the cases that do need hospitalization, the cases that do need ICU beds, critical care services, those are spread over months rather than just days and weeks.

KEILAR: And so, pardon me, when you are doing that timeline, are you basing this on rate of spread? What are all of the different factors you're taking into consideration here?

CHOI: That's a great question. The factors include: What is your current regional population? What is the rate of spread in the community and now across the country? And how well are people adhering to social distancing measures and that's absolutely critical?

That's one message I'd like to share with the community is that you have to adhere to those practices and you can't just do it for days or weeks. Likely have to do it for months. Otherwise, the virus will just pick up once people let the guard down, start aggregating again, going to large public gatherings, private gatherings, and then increase the spread, you know, just like we saw in Italy.

[14:35:11]

KEILAR: Your call center fielded several calls from people who attended a going-away party where one of the attendees later tested positive for the coronavirus and then you fielded calls from people who had been in contact with people who had been at the party.

Is this another cautionary tale about how quickly this virus spreads in crowded spaces and what do you want people to take away from this?

CHOI: That's absolutely true. So just to correct the record, we didn't have a hundred people at the party but hundreds of calls from both people who attended the party and people who were in contact with those who did attend the party.

And while I can't share any details of what was shared with us or what we recommended, what we did see was the community transmission occurring within days from that phone call.

So what we want to communicate, again, to the public, going to parties where you have large numbers of people, who are all using, let's say, the same bathroom, the same kitchen faucet, picking up the same cups, utensils, coughing, hugging, kissing, or dancing, things that increase that contact and the risk of transmission, that's what we want people to be aware of.

While we promote people to be outside to get fresh air and exercise, even when you're outside, keep that safe distance of six feet and avoid being outside at parks with crowds where there's both kids and adults who are congregated in a small vicinity that are touching surfaces repeatedly and potentially coughing and sneezing, and this is how the virus spreads.

It's a very, very invasive virus. Could stay on surfaces for extended periods of time. We don't know exactly how long, And it's airborne, so it can transmit through a cough or sneeze.

KEILAR: Tiny respiratory droplets. Important to remember.

Dr. Choi, thank you for spending some time with us.

CHOI: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: We are getting some heartbreaking images from Italy where a church has been converted to hold rooms of coffins until these victims of coronavirus can be cremated. CNN reporters on the ground there.

And all around the world as well. We'll look at how the rest of the globe is battling this crisis, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:41:52]

KEILAR: There are more than half a million confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. And as of today, about a third of the world's population is living under coronavirus related restrictions.

More now from our CNN correspondents all around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm Barbie Nadeau, in Rome, where the situation across Italy remains critical but increasingly hopeful. We've had several days now of new infections seeming to stabilize.

But it comes against a backdrop of troubling news. And 37 doctors have now died from novel coronavirus. More than 6,000 health care workers are infected with this virus because they don't have the equipment they need to keep them safe as they try to help others.

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID CORRESPONDENT: I'm Al Goodman, in Madrid. More than 4,000 people have died from coronavirus, exceeding the number in China and second only to Italy. New cases also on the rise. And Spanish officials trying to stop the disease are hampered. About 10 percent of all confirmed cases in Spain are medical workers.

The government has extended the stay-at-home lockdown order until the day before Easter.

Officials adding hospital beds in hotels and convention centers and scrambling to find more ventilators.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Nick Paton Walsh, in London. And the British government is, frankly, at this stage, unsure exactly how bad it is going to get.

Some of the free health care services in the U.K. say they're seeing a continuous tsunami of patients seeking treatment. The government trying to project as much confidence as it can.

And behind me, a potential 4,000-capacity conference hall turned into something of an emergency hospital to deal with surge capacity here.

We've seen the rate of rise of deaths in the United Kingdom slow since the weekend but health care professionals saying things are bad and are going to get worse, but the science here, struggling, it seems, to get a clear picture.

The prime minister said London was three weeks ahead of the rest of the country, so, frankly now, it should be in the eye of the storm.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Will Ripley, in Tokyo. People seem to be ignoring government warnings in recent days to work from home, avoid large public gatherings.

We were out along the river and we saw huge crowds of people viewing the cherry blossoms. Many not wearing face masks. Other parts of the city, s panic buying setting in with supermarket shelves empty.

The government saying a lockdown may be necessary here in the coming days as the number of coronavirus cases continues to spike, particularly here in Tokyo.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: This is Nic Robertson, in London. The Saudi chair's virtual G-20 meeting, first where global leaders all got on one call along with the WHO, the U.N., the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, all on that same virtual call.

The aspiration -- it is aspirational at this stage 0- is to bridge differences to fight the pandemic by sharing data, by sharing research, technology, making sure it's fully financed, to bring support, stability, and to the global economy and that's by working with each other.

[14:45:03]

The idea here that the world's leading 20 nations don't go their own individualistic way, but they actually cooperate in this as well. A plan to make sure that pandemic like this can't happen again.

It's far reaching, and it's only just being discussed. This isn't happening, it's not a game changer yet. It could help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Thanks to all my colleagues there.

And next, a star player for the Miami Heat scolds spring breakers putting others at risk by keeping their travel plans. We'll share his emotional plea to help the kids that are really in need right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:00]

KEILAR: Miami is enforcing a quarantine starting at 10:00 p.m. tomorrow in order to stop the spread of coronavirus. The city is already under a stay-at-home order, but that didn't stop

some young people from going there for spring break.

That prompted one player for the Miami Heat to speak out in an article for the "Player's Tribune."

I want to read some of what Udonis Haslem had to say to those spring breakers. These are his words.

Quote, "These kids fly down to places like South Beach for a couple of days to party. And they think that's Miami. But they have never seen the real Miami. They've never been to Liberty City. They never seen the side of the city that's living check to check. The side of the city that's surviving meal to meal."

"Let me tell you something, man, there's a Liberty City in every city. It's regular people with regular struggles. And I don't know how I can get everyone to listen but I say this from the bottom of my heart. The people growing up in the real Miami are as vulnerable during this crisis as anybody."

"I'll tell you one more thing. This idea about those people, because of this coronavirus that are going to go hungry, they were already hungry way before this. They were already worried about where their next meal would come from or where they would sleep or how to get their next dollar."

"That's what I need get off my chest now," he said. "Get off my chest right here because it's been eating me up to see this coverage of our city from all these people that don't know what they are talking about. Just focused on a bunch of kids that are acting stupid."

He goes on to point out that, for too many kids, school is the one place where they feel safe and all of that is upended right now.

So I want to bring in my next guest on this topic. She knows the impact this is all having on children who are victims of child abuse.

Rebecca Cooper is the national spokesperson for the National Child Abuse Hotline.

Rebecca, thank you so much for joining us on this topic.

I know your call volume has jumped by 20 percent. Texts to "the hotline" have gone up to 400 percent compared to this time last year.

We should put that in context. This time last year it was a new text program but that's still part of the increase you're seeing. What your hearing from children?

REBECCA COOPER, NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, NATIONAL CHILD ABUSE HOTLINE: So, we're hearing from a wide range of callers. Our phone calls are up 20 percent. As you said, we're seeing in texts and online chat we've seen the first crisis hotline to provide texting and chat and that's why we've seen an increase. But 400 percent increase in texts from last year is significant. We're

hearing everything from people contacting us about actual abuse that's occurring as a result of pandemic anxiety, children having to be home with abusers rather than at school.

We're also having survivors reach out to us because this is triggering anxiety and they need someone to talk to and we have counselors that are available 24/7 and we increased the shifts.

Our staff is incredible. We operate the national hotline for child abuse. But one of the largest nonprofits in the country, according several programs. We have residential retaliate programs, where some of the most severely children are living to heal. And we have advocacy centers where children go in when they need to be investigated. Our staff has stepped up.

KEILAR: And as you said, they are the still working, very important they are taking precautions but still working.

If a child, if a child gets in touch, they are more likely to use texts or a concerned person gets in touch, they call your hotline. Then what are the resources, how are they different in this situation where, you know, those kids don't have exposure to the mandate the reporters like teachers and the like? What happens then?

COOPER: Right. So we still follow the same protocol we always follow, which is we immediately have them contact 911 if abuse is happening at the moment, child and family protective services in their city and county and state, if something is happening while they are contacting us.

If they need counseling, we can stay on the phone with them for longer periods of time.

Our counselors can help parents experiencing anxiety. To give you one example we had parents reach out to us. We had a survivor of abuse reach out to us, her baby was crying and she got anxious her baby was crying and was afraid she would shake her baby and would abuse her baby.

Our counselor was on the phone with her for an hour, teaching her to stay calm, rock the baby, and do all things we can do because that's why we're here. And 911 can't provide those resource. Right now, they are stretched.

[14:55:07]

For example, we got notification yesterday that Cincinnati 911 is now alerting their police department that they are only to go to in-house responses in the most urgent situations.

For example, if someone called Cincinnati for assault, they will respond but only do home response, if the abuser is on premises or if the person needs immediate medical attention.

We can help absorb and still be the bridge for any of those kinds of local resources that may be stretched to capacity right now. We're increasing our capacity.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: It's such important work. Rebecca, I'm sorry to cut you off.

I want to get the phone number, 1-800-for-a-child. That is the hotline.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: We can get them additional help from Congress as well. Thank you for letting us talk about this.

KEILAR: Yes, this is so important.

Rebecca Cooper, thank you.

We do have some breaking news out West Virginia where the governor says 20 residents of the same nursing home have tested positive for the coronavirus as well as eight staffers. Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)