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Interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Mayor Mary Castor (D-Tampa) Discusses Florida Governor Finally Issuing Statewide Stay- at-Home & Local Pastor Arrested for Defying Social-Distancing Order; A Look at Urgent Need for Medical Supplies & Equipment Around the Country; Jeffrey Helmreich Discusses His Father Who Walked Nearly Every NYC Block & Died from Coronavirus; Scientist Kevin Kit Parker Discusses Using 3-D Printed Swabs Amid Hospital Shortages. Aired 1:30- 2p ET

Aired April 01, 2020 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): As I say, each one of us has to make a judgment if we are worthy to even give thanks, declare them heroines and heroes for those who are doing this job, unless we are doing everything in our power to make it safer for them to do so. That's a way of saying thank you.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I read --

PELOSI: Thank you.

COOPER: Just finally, I'll let you go, but I read last week, you started a meeting off with a prayer. I think it was a meeting with Steve Mnuchin and others. Do you remember what the prayer was?

PELOSI: Yes. I said it earlier. It was a prayer of St. Francis. Excuse me, Pope Francis. St. Francis is the patient saint of my city of San Francisco.

Pope Francis. Pope Francis has his world prayer that God will enlighten those who have responsibility for the common good, that they will take responsibility for those entrusted to their care.

When I finished the prayer, Secretary Mnuchin said, "You've quoted the pope, I'll quote the markets."

So, again, we have to have a balance in what we do, recognizing all the responsibilities we have to the lives and the livelihood of the American people.

COOPER: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, thank you.

PELOSI: Thank you.

COOPER: Be safe.

PELOSI: Take care now.

COOPER: You, too.

Days after a funeral in one town, the coronavirus, quote, "hit like a bomb." We'll take you there.

Plus, why is Florida's governor refusing to issue a statewide stay-at- home order? The science is clear. The mayor of Tampa thinks it is a huge mistake for the governor to not issue that. She joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:29]

COOPER: The White House projects a devastating six-figure death toll, even if social distancing is strictly followed. There are still about 20 states that do not have stay-at-home orders in place.

Among them was Florida, until just moments ago, when the governor there announced a 30-day stay-at-home order. This, after multiple counties and cities stepped up to the plate, instituting their own.

And that includes Tampa, where my next guest is mayor. Jane Castor implemented her safer-at-home order on Friday.

Mayor Castor, why did it take so long for the governor? I mean, what -- because the science has been clear on this now for a while.

JANE CASTOR, (D), MAYOR OF TAMPA, FLORIDA: Right, it has. But, first of all, thank you very much for having me, Anderson, and thanks for keeping our American public informed.

But here in Florida, we have taken action, and most of the larger urban areas. And the governor did act down in south Florida to institute a form of the stay-at-home order. But you know, he has acted now and he has done that.

But as I said, we have put that in place. And our citizens were actually staying at home prior to the official order on Friday.

COOPER: So, how long -- I mean, there's no way we can know, really, how long it's going to last. You've put this in for how long, for 30 days?

CASTOR: Actually, ours is a seven-day -- we just re-up it every seven days through the Emergency Policy Group. So, it more than likely, will be 30 days.

You know, originally, everyone thought two weeks would be enough, but it's going to take longer than that, in all of the communities across the nation.

And as we all know, the quicker we take these steps, especially in those urbanized, densely populated areas, the quicker we're going to be able to come out from under this.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, I talked to Bill Gates about this last week. And, I mean, the science is pretty clear. And though it's a hard message, every state in the country essentially needs to do this, according to scientists.

Because even if, you know, if you're quarantining in Tampa or have stay-at-home in Tampa and, you know, a neighboring state doesn't, it's ultimately they're going to, once they get enough cases, And then that means the people who are staying at home in Tampa are going to have to stay at home longer because we all need to kind of go through this together for it to work.

CASTOR: Yes, so true. And I know that -- you know, it's a difficult balance. You're balancing the public welfare with the economy. Both are very important. But I was elected as a mayor to, first and foremost, look out for the health and well-being of all of my citizens. So that has to outweigh the economy.

And if you look at the big picture of it, the quicker you take that action, the quicker you're going to get to the business of recovering your economy and your cities or your counties or your states.

COOPER: Yes. And also, I mean, just long term, the worst thing for the economy, as bad as this is, would be, you know, coming out of stopping the stay-at-home and then needing to restart it again and just losing confidence at all that anything is actually working.

Finally, I want to ask you about a pastor in your city who was arrested in your city for defying social-distancing orders, continuing to hold service in a megachurch. He was charged with two misdemeanors. His lawyer says the pastor was not reckless, practiced social distancing.

What do you think should happen if this pastor defies the order again?

CASTOR: Well, first of all, it was not in the city. It was out in the county or it would have been shut down.

COOPER: OK.

[13:40:02]

CASTOR: He should not defy it again, regardless of what his statements are. You just put law enforcement officers at the doors of that church and he's not going to hold services.

But that was incredibly reckless on his part. And you think of all of those individuals. You just watch the video. For him to say six foot, I don't know where he got his tape measure from.

But all of those individuals are going to go back out. And that is the danger of this virus, is the ease with which it's transmitted, and the silence with which it's transmitted as well.

I just spoke with a doctor yesterday. He said, for 14 individuals that test positive and really have the more severe symptoms, there's 86 that didn't even know they had it.

And I think that's going to be the area that we really need to focus on next, too, is to see who has those antibodies, who's gone through it, didn't know they had it. And we can actually get them back out into the workforce, possibly health care workers, taking care of those that are, you know, are in the high-risk categories.

COOPER: Yes, that would definitely be a help.

Mayor Jane Castor, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

CASTOR: Thank you very much.

COOPER: Ahead, a new cluster emerging, and it includes dozens of young adults after returning from a spring break trip in Mexico.

Plus, so many amazing lives that have been lost in this pandemic, including a sociologist who was known for walking nearly every block of New York City. I'll talk to his son, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:22]

COOPER: As the United States battles more coronavirus cases than any other country in the world, President Trump is warning that even if social distancing guidelines are followed, as many as 240,000 Americans could possibly die in the coming weeks. The estimates were between 100,000 and 240,000.

Our CNN correspondents have more on the urgent need right now for medical supplies and equipment around the country. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I am Amara Walker, in Atlanta. Austin public health officials say 28 young adults who recently went on a spring break trip to Mexico have all tested positive for coronavirus, and they are now all self-isolating. Dozens more are being monitored and tested right now.

So, a total of 70 people in their 20s went on this trip to Cabo San Lucas about a week and a half ago, many of whom are University of Texas at Austin students. Austin public health officials along with university officials say they're in contact with all of the people who went on this trip.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Omar Jimenez, in Chicago. The state of Illinois is requesting more medical supplies from the federal government, supplies they say they are going to need, especially ventilators.

Governor J.B. Pritzker says they've requested an additional 4,000 ventilators but, at this point, they've only received about 450 of them.

And this comes as the state of Illinois just saw its deadliest day yet due to coronavirus, as the death toll jumped by 26, and cases almost jumped by 1,000.

In the words of Governor Pritzker, "We are going to run out of ventilators and the federal government really isn't helping at all."

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dianne Gallagher, in Atlanta, Georgia. About one-third of the deaths in this state come from the small town of Albany, where they have been hit hard. Their county experiencing more than 30 deaths at this point. The governor saying that much of it able to stem right to a funeral that took place and just exploded from there.

Now the National Guard has been called in to help this small town put together additional ICUs. There were normally three in the hospital. At this point, there are now be five set up, four of those strictly for COVID-19 patients.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN POLITICS & BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Cristina Alesci, in New York. President Trump faced intense criticism in mid- March over the lack of availability of coronavirus testing throughout the country.

So, on March 13th, he announced a partnership between the government and major retailers, including CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens, that would allow for drive-thru coronavirus testing in these stores' parking lots.

Now, the president outlined a vision where Americans could drive up, get swabbed, and have those swabs sent to labs for testing.

My colleague, Kaitlan Collins, and I looked into the progress and found there have only been five testing sites set up, despite the fact that these stores have 30,000 locations combined.

And those five testing sites are only testing certain groups of people, health care workers, first responders. And in the case of CVS, they've expanded that to senior citizens with symptoMs.

But surely, a long way away from a nationwide drive-thru effort.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Testing, testing, testing. It is still needed everywhere.

Thanks to all my colleagues for that reporting.

William Helmreich was best known for walking virtually every block in New York City, around 6,000 miles in all, according to his book. He loved meetings strangers, hearing their stories and getting to know the different boroughs. And this weekend, he died from coronavirus.

He was born in Switzerland to Holocaust survivors. Helmreich immigrated to New York as an infant and eventually became a sociology professor at City College of New York.

[13:50:07]

His son, Jeff, had this to say about his father, quote, "He believed that everybody had a story worth telling, every place and person was interesting to my father, and every person felt interesting when talking to my father."

Jeffrey Helmreich joins me now.

Jeffrey, I'm so sorry for your loss and your family's loss.

I remember reading about your dad a while ago. I was trying to remember exactly what it was. But I remember, at the time, just thinking, what a cool thing to do to know this city street by street like your dad did. He just sounds like an incredible person.

JEFFREY HELMREICH, SON OF WILLIAM HELMREICH WHO DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS: He really was. And he was larger than life and he was unstoppable. Someone that the rest of us could never keep up with, covering every block, every person, everything would draw him and he would draw people out. He would draw places out.

And inconceivable that he was ultimately stopped -- unconceivable that such an incredibly vital and energetic person, so full of life and so full of a zest for encounters, could be really just felled by this microbe, this virus.

COOPER: As a kid, when you were a kid, was he doing the walking around New York then? And would he ask you to come along or force you to come along?

HELMREICH: Absolutely. In fact, forced it is the right word. If this was a kind of training, boot camp -- ever since I was 5 years old, he would take us on walks, daddy walk day. And we'd go from our house in Long Island or Queens, walk to Shea Stadium just because he wanted to, just because we could. It was exhilarating.

And the walks were always longer than they were supposed to be because people and places and interesting side alleys and characters would draw him in and distract him.

And I only later realized that was the main point.

COOPER: He sounds like my dad was when I was 10. My mom tells story, one time she was trying to get through to him on the phone. This was in the '70s when people only had one line and the line was busy for hours and hours. She finally got through to him and said, who are you talking to? He said, oh, it was a wrong number. It sounds like the same kind of thing,

HELMREICH: Yes.

COOPER: -- like your dad could talk to anybody, it sounds like.

HELMREICH: Yes. And there were no -- it was interesting. There were no wrong numbers. There were no side conversations. There were no random encounters. He hated the word "random" because he talked. Everybody was fascinating to him. And he made everyone fascinating.

It was just -- it's unimaginable even that he would have to live in the city like today. The New York City of today, which is so not teeming with people, and interesting life on the streets the way he loved it.

COOPER: Yes. Yes, I mean, your dad would find the streets right now in New York fascinating in a whole different way because they are so empty and you see different people than you normally did.

The end, did it come quickly?

HELMREICH: Yes, quickly, and unexpectedly. He had no underlying health conditions. He hadn't had the respiratory illness that we were looking out for.

We were on call. I'm in Los Angeles, my sister in Chicago and my brother, we were on call to hear, oh my God, wheezing, coughing, something to do with breathing that would send him to the hospital.

But instead, he just stayed at home with an unbelievable fever and unbelievable aches, but that was it. And then one day, the fever started to break, and a second later, he was gone.

COOPER: Wow.

HELMREICH: It was absolutely a shock. (INAUDIBLE)

COOPER: Yes. Jeff, I'm so sorry for your loss. And I know this sounds like a cliche but, truly, I am.

HELMREICH: Thank you.

COOPER: And, you know, your dad is one of those people that kind of makes this city what it is. It's full of people who do interesting things. And sometimes there's a reason for them and sometimes there's not. But it makes us all better. The fact your dad walked all the streets and knew this city and did what he did and talked to people. And it changed their lives as well.

And I mean, I swear, I read about him probably 20 years ago, maybe, or 15 years ago, somewhere, and it always stayed in my mind, and so when I heard he had died, it made me sad.

And I thank you for talking to us today about him.

HELMREICH: Thank you.

COOPER: You take care and give my best to the rest of your family, please.

HELMREICH: I appreciate that. Thank you.

COOPER: Jeff Helmreich -- you, too -- whose dad was William Helmreich. A New York story.

[13:55:03]

A new plan to address that shortage of coronavirus tests. We'll talk to a man who may hold the key to getting new tests out to people who may need them. More ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: The first critical step in diagnosing coronavirus is getting a nasal swab. It actually has much more of a name and it requires an especially long swab, one that reaches the very back of your nasal passages. Along with masks and gowns and hospital beds and respirators, there's a shortage of these swabs as well.

Enter Harvard scientist and researcher, Kit Parker. He's leading efforts to make his own versions of these critically needed swabs on 3-D printers and get where they're needed fast.

Kit, thank you so much for being with us.

This whole project, I heard you say, got started because of Harvard affiliate hospital reached out when they couldn't do enough diagnostic testing due to a lack of swabs. How do you make these swabs?

KEVIN KIT PARKER, SCIENTIST & RESEARCHER, HARVARD SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & APPLIED SCIENCES: So about 10 days ago, Beth Israel hospital called my team looking for help because of the shortage of swabs. And subsequently, I've had hospitals call me from Seattle, Dallas, Miami, Baltimore, Charlotte. All the hospitals around the Boston area call me about the shortage of swabs.

But Beth Israel started testing these swabs and we rapidly put together an ad-hoc consortium. And it was clear, because of the patent battle between the two main manufacturers -- a company called Puritan, up in Maine, which is doing everything they can to produce swabs, and a company in Italy called Copan -- that we need alternative solutions.

So we put together a consortium of 3-D printing companies and they're 3-D printing these swabs and we're testing those right now. But I think we're about ready to move those out.

COOPER: Are they different? I mean, I know there's some swabs that are thicker than others. Are these the best swabs there is?

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: What makes -- and how quickly --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: -- can they actually churn out?

PARKER: Well, we can crack up the capacity, the manufacturer of these companies to four million swabs per week pretty quickly.

They are manufactured by a different technique, not injection molding but 3-D printing. So are slightly different mechanical properties. And you're using slightly different materials.

What we'll try to do is test the mechanical properties because that makes a difference for patient safety and test the material properties -- this is over at Beth Israel hospital in Boston -- to make sure the materials are compatible with the chemicals in the diagnostic test.

And so we have identified some companies that are manufacturing these. Our consortium, which spans the country, includes a variety of universities, South Florida, Harvard, Stanford, Ohio State. A lot of these companies are involved in this. We've got the manufacturing.

[14:00:07]

The problem is the hospitals properly using --