Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Sunday

Trump: There Will Be "A Lot Of Death" Over The Next Two Weeks; U.S. Reports Most Coronavirus Deaths In One Day; U.S. Military Sending 1,000 Personnel To New York; Louisiana Pastor Plans To Keep Church Open Despite Facing Charges; Several States See Spike In Domestic Violence Calls Amid COVID-19. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired April 05, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:02]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I scratched -- for the whiskers, I scratched it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Isn't that something? She wants people to consider doing something for others and share it, because when you share it online, then other people might be inspired to do something similar as well. You can go to Instagram, of course, any of the platforms. She's using #openheartedchallenge. Consider yourself challenged.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately.

DR. DEBORAH BRIX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: This is the moment not to be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: John Hopkins reporting that almost 8,500 people have died here. And that number is rising.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our coroner's office is at capacity, as it relates to our dead bodies of our loved ones.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We think at some point next week we could have 5,000 people on ventilators. That's a real potential horrible milestone.

TRUMP: We have to get back to work. We have to get -- we have to open our country again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you gather for these sacred events? Palm Sunday, Easter, Passover, when you can't gather for the sake of everyone's health?

TRUMP: How sad is it that we have Easter Sunday and people are watching on laptops and computers. It's sad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY weekend with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning to you.

And we begin with the grim warning from the president. He says that there will be a lot of days of death coming in the next few weeks and we're seeing those warnings every morning.

PAUL: Yesterday, just like the day before and the day before that, the U.S. has now reported a new record of coronavirus deaths for a single day: 1,344 Americans died of COVID-19 yesterday. 8,503 have died across the country in the last five weeks.

BLACKWELL: And let's start in New York. You know how dire the situation is there. Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state has not yet reached the peak of the curve. He says they could be up to eight days away from that. He also says that hospitals are facing the ultimate challenge.

PAUL: Yes, one ICU nurse in New York says patients appear to be sicker compared to last week. She said it's not just their lungs anymore. She said vital organs such as kidney and heart are now being affected.

I want to begin at the White House with CNN's Sarah Westwood there.

So, Sarah, the president laid out this sobering message yesterday. Talk to us about everything that he said and where we're going with this.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump, Victor and Christi, signaled yesterday that the worst could be immediately ahead of us. That's next week and the week after it. The president saying that we could be seeing a lot of deaths just over the next couple of weeks, of fellow Americans. But he suggested that the death toll is not as bad as it could have been absent the mitigation efforts that his administration have been encouraging.

Take a listen to what the president said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done, but there will be death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now, the president also acknowledged the great risk posed to medical professionals working in the field, suggesting that some of them may also experience a loss of their colleagues, of people battling the COVID-19 virus. You know, the CDC this week recommended on a voluntary basis that

people should start potentially wearing face coverings when they go out in public, when they go to the grocery store, when they go to pharmacies. Not necessarily surgical masks, medical masks because those should obviously be left for nurses and doctors, but scarves or other kinds of face coverings they can make in their house.

But notably, President Trump said he will not wear a mask while he's at the White House, while he's at the oval office, despite the recommendations of his own health experts. Although he did say he would try an unproven anti-viral drug, hydroxychloroquine. That is something he has been pushing repeatedly as a potential treatment for COVID-19, even though his own health experts have said there is simply not enough evidence to suggest that it's safe to treat coronavirus patients at this point. That's something that they're looking at.

The president yesterday also said that he's considering setting up a second task force, an economic task force, to address the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak and the shutdown of the country -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: Sarah Westwood, live from the White House for us there -- thank you, Sarah.

BLACKWELL: Let's go now to CNN's Jason Carroll who is outside of the Javits Convention Center in New York.

Jason, good morning to you.

Let's start with the commitment from the military. Who will be heading to New York and how many service members?

[07:05:03]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, 1,000 or so will be heading here to New York over the next few days. You'll be having members of the Navy, members of the Air Force as well. The need here is great, as you can imagine. The governor saying that getting the Javits Convention Center up and operational is going to be a top operational priority here in the city.

Once it's up and running, the facility will be able to take some 2,500 patients, COVID patients here, so you can imagine what kind of relief that's going to be for the area hospitals, which are seeing an influx of patients.

Again, the apex here in the state of New York, according to the governor, according to estimates, still several days away, and the mayor says there is still a need in the city, in the state for supplies, for beds, especially ventilators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DE BLASIO: We think at some point next week, we could have 5,000 people on ventilators. We're going to need 45,000 doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, et cetera. We have to add 60,000 more beds in the course of the next month or so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And, Christi and Victor, just to give you a sense of what it's been like here in the city under the stay-at-home order that's under place here, really, I mean, anyone who has been to New York City, you can walk down 42nd Street in the middle of the day, empty. Jog down Madison Avenue, pretty much empty.

You go to a supermarket, they actually have places where on the ground where it's taped off so you're standing six feet away from another person. And I think the most sobering thing for folks who are not from New York City, for those of us who live here, it's getting to the point now where everyone knows someone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, or you know someone who has gotten sick or who is on a ventilator. And now, it's getting to the point where you're starting to hear about people who have lost their lives.

It's sobering living in the city. And a lot of folks here, it's hard to understand when you look at other parts of the country and see people going to beaches, going to pools, going outside. It's a much different story here -- Christi, Paul -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: Yes, we've seen people online, our friends and colleagues tweeting they can now hear the sirens so often that sometimes they don't even notice them anymore because there are so many.

Jason Carroll for us outside the Javits Center -- thanks so much.

PAUL: Thanks, Jason.

So the president says the death toll would be higher, as you heard Sarah say, if mitigation tactics weren't put in place. Despite multiple warnings and new guidelines from top health officials, though, there are eight states still have not issued stay-at-home orders.

BLACKWELL: Now, the coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, says that now is the time to do everything you can to keep yourself and your family and your friends safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIRX: This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe, and that means everybody doing the six- feet distancing, washing your hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With us now is Dr. Charles Powell. He's the head of the pulmonary and critical care at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

Good morning to you.

CHARLES POWELL, HEAD, PULMONARY & CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE DIVISION, MOUNT SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM: Good morning, Victor.

BLACKWELL: So, give us an idea of -- you are there in New York. What is it like in your hospital?

POWELL: Well, our hospital, like all hospitals in New York City, are caring for a very large number of patients with covid-19. The acuity of illness of patients in our hospitals is much higher than it's ever been before. The need for additional providers is higher than it's ever been before. The need for additional beds is higher than it's ever been before.

So every health system has taken the time over the last several months to prepare for this. Create additional beds, bring in additional equipment, bring in additional personnel so that it can be a manageable situation right now. A terrible situation, but manageable right now.

The real goal is to stay one step ahead, knowing that this surge is going to continue for a few more weeks. So the goal is to have the beds ready for when the patients come in and have the personnel in place and organize in a fashion so that we can do more with personnel than we were ever able to do before.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

POWELL: That's what's happening right now.

PAUL: Dr. Powell, I want to ask you about the illnesses, because as we said, there is an ICU nurse in New York who reported seeing patients that appear to be sicker now than they were last week. That this isn't just affecting the lungs, it seems to be affecting other organs like the kidneys and the heart.

Is there -- what are you seeing in that regard? And is there any evidence that somehow this illness, this virus is mutating or doing something differently than it did before?

PAUL: Well, that was a really important and keen observation. So that observation has been made by physicians and providers in China and also in Italy, and here as well.

[07:10:06]

And we're really -- we're doing science on the fly, meaning we're making clinical observations, we're correlating it with available data, and trying to learn more about the disease. There's no evidence this is mutating, but what we think is happening is that about five to seven days into the course, patients will have one of two trajectories, some will get better and some will get worse. And when patients get worse, it can affect the other organ systems.

And some of the clues we're seeing as to who is at risk for that include changes in the blood coagulation blood tests that we draw all the time. So, we're starting to understand more about what might cause the deterioration and those who do get worse from the same virus. And this could lead to use of therapies that are already in place and could be helpful in that regard.

BLACKWELL: So let me talk about therapies. The president was very optimistic again at the news conference about hydroxychloroquine. And he said that -- he asked, what do you have to lose? Take it. I really think they should take it, but it's their choice and their doctor's choice or the choice in the hospital, but hydroxychloroquine, try it if you'd like.

The president is not a doctor. You are. What is your degree of optimism and your reaction to the president's endorsement of the drug?

POWELL: Well, we all would like one pill to take care of everything, but that's not going to work for COVID. It's going to take harder work to be able to take care of COVID. And the impact and mitigation strategy, social distancing is much more than we can ever see from a single pill. So that's what we need to emphasize and we need to emphasize that around the country.

I heard that eight states in our country are not implementing social distancing. The virus is there. The virus moved from China to here. It's in the United States. It's much easier to move from state to state.

So the social distancing and mitigation activities are going to have a much bigger impact than a bill. And the risk benefit of the pill may justify using it in patients who are already sick, but not really justifying it in patients who are not sick.

PAUL: So I want to get to some of the viewer questions we have because there are a lot of them.

POWELL: Sure.

PAUL: And I've had several questions, and I'm just going to wrap this all into one. Can you get this? Can your pets get infected? Can you get this from mosquito bites? Can you get this -- and how should people who are in one house if somebody seems to be sick isolate another?

POWELL: OK. Mosquitoes, that's a no.

PAUL: OK.

POWELL: There is no evidence that mosquitoes transmit this. As far as families go, we have several providers who have COVID-19. And they do self-isolation both away from the community and they isolate themselves from their family in large regard. You got to stay six feet apart. You got to wash your hands and you got to do everything you can to prevent that virus from spreading.

BLACKWELL: Let me get one more in here, viewer question.

POWELL: Sure.

BLACKWELL: This is an interesting one. If you found yourself too close to someone at a grocery store aisle or somewhere, would it make sense to hold your breath for a few seconds as you walk by?

POWELL: So the portal of entry for the virus, it's the nose, it's the mouth, it's the eyes. And virus gets suspended in droplets that can be persistent in the air maybe six feet around a person for a short period of time.

So, would it make sense to hold your breath around someone who might be coughing if they're next to you? It would make sense. Do you have to? No. Would it hurt? No.

Do I do it? Sometimes yes.

BLACKWELL: All right.

PAUL: Dr. Charles Powell, thank you so much. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and sharing your expertise with us and the viewers. They had so many questions. Take good care of yourself.

BLACKWELL: Thank you very much. You too.

PAUL: Thank you. Be sure to stay with CNN, by the way.

Coming up in "STATE OF THE UNION" today, Jake Tapper is talking with the governor of Louisiana about his state's response to the coronavirus. That's at 9:00 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

BLACKWELL: Some of the last respirators and masks from the country's stockpile are being deployed this week. The president said it's depleted and was pretty much that way when he came into office. Who's responsible for that? We have a fact check on the president's claims.

PAUL: We're also talking about how the coronavirus, social distancing, stay-at-home orders are making a tough situation even worse for victims of domestic violence. Now, there is help for those who need it. How that may fall on family and friends, though. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:18:40]

BLACKWELL: This morning, a fact check. Hospitals across the country are desperate to find the gowns and the gloves and the face shields. Some states have received millions of pieces of that personal protective equipment and the N95 masks from the federal government, but now, President Trump see that the strategic national stockpile is nearly depleted of those supplies a few weeks into what doctors say could be a months-long crisis.

But as far back as 2015, the National Institutes of Health acknowledged that in a pandemic, assuming 20 percent to 30 percent of the population would become ill, 1.7 billion to 3.5 billion respirators would be needed -- 1.7 to 3.5 billion.

Well, here's Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in February, and this is before any stockpiled resources were deployed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): How many face masks do we have?

ALEX AZAR, HHS SECRETARY: We currently have 30 million N95 respirators in the strategic national stockpile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Consider that the 2015 government report that I referenced concluded that for pandemics with a lower attack rate and fewer cases, the number of respirators needed would be higher because the pandemic would have longer duration, 30 million at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But President Trump has consistently blamed one person for the insufficient supply, his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.

[07:20:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The previous administration gave us very little ammunition for the military and very little shelf space. Let me just tell you, you know it, you know the answer. The previous administration, the shelves were empty. The shelves were empty. So what you should do is speak to the people from the previous administration, Jim, and ask them that question because the shelves were empty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, at the start of the Trump administration, the repository shelves were not empty. The strategic national stockpile has maintained a multi-billion-dollar inventory across self administrations, including tens of millions of pieces of that protective gear, but it is true that experts have warned that the supply, specifically of the N95 masks, has been precariously low since the H1N1 outbreak in 2009. Until the coronavirus response, the H1N1 response was the largest deployment in the history of the stockpile. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 19 million pieces of the personal protective equipment and more than 85 million N95 respirators were used.

And now listen to Greg Burel, he's the former director of the Strategic National Stockpile.

(BGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG BUREL, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL STRATEGIC STOCKPILE: Unfortunately, after we used those materials, we never received additional supplemental funding to replace those, nor were this funds provided in our regular appropriation base to be able to replace those materials.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, Burel oversaw the stockpile from 2007 until January of this year. So that's the Bush administration, the Obama administration and the Trump administration. And if President Trump knew that the supply of N95 masks was insufficient, well, then there is an obvious question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: You've been president now for more than three years. Why didn't you and your administration fill that shelf?

TRUMP: I did. We did fill it twice. And we've been distributing that for literally a year.

Nice question, Peter. Thank you very much. We've been filling it out and we've been filling that stockpile many, many times. It's been filled many, many times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Filled many, many times. Here is another exchange from that February Senate hear with Secretary Azar, again, before any of the stockpile was tapped for COVID-19 response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): Did you stockpile any of these critical supplies that we are told we need, masks, protective suits, ventilators, anything, is any of that stockpiled and ready?

AZAR: So, we do have in the strategic national stockpile ventilators, masks.

MURRAY: Enough?

AZAR: Well, of course not, or we wouldn't be asking for a supplemental to procure more of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, N95 mask stockpile was depleted during the Obama administration, has not been replenished since, but there was a shared strategy on acquiring them, according to the former stockpiles director.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUREL: After the H1N1 event, we still hoped we could restock some of our materials, but we did know that all of these are commercially manufactured. Our hope was that we could buy these immediately on the market as we needed them to respond to such an event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: In fact, in its 2017 pandemic influenza plan, the Trump administration highlighted as an accomplishment of the last administration and one of its goals moving forward, developing technology and processes that allow for rapid production of N95 respirators to significantly increase respiratory supply during an influenza pandemic.

The former HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response told CBS News for COVID, this would have been late December or early January of this year.

So what happened?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUREL: The pandemic event started in China, which slowed down manufacturing of all types of materials that come from that area for the medical supply chain. After that slowdown of those -- those manufacturing companies happened, we started to see China and other countries try to hold material within their own borders so that they could deal with the problem they were facing in the immediate sense. We found ourselves in the middle of a perfect storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A perfect storm, and our first responders are caught in it.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:28:19]

BLACKWELL: Well, this is one of the holiest weeks of the year for Christians and Jews around the world. Today is Palm Sunday, marking the start of Easter week and Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday, but to celebrate during this reality of social distancing, just this morning, Pope Francis held Palm Sunday mass without the crowds of the faithful at St. Peter's Basilica. So many people are turning to online serves, including the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm going to be watching on a computer, right, on a laptop. I think on Easter maybe I'll be watching from a laptop as opposed -- so how sad is it that we have Easter Palm and Easter Sunday and people are watching on laptops and computers? It's sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: But our next guest is going a different route. He's choosing to keep the doors of his church in Louisiana open despite facing citations, fines, potential jail time for violating the restrictions in a hard place -- hard-hit place in Louisiana.

Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, is with me now.

Pastor, thank you for your time.

TONY SPELL, PASTOR, LIFE TABERNACLE CHURCH: Thank you, Victor. Good to be here with y'all this morning. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk. BLACKWELL: So you will be holding service this morning?

SPELL: This morning, yes, sir. At 10:00 a.m., we will actually run our buses. We have 27 buses that we cover a 50-mile radius of our city. We bring people into the house of god, feed them, feed them both natural food and spiritual food, and then we go back into our respective places.

[07:30:01]

It takes us about eight hours to run this service on Sunday morning. Then we come back in tonight.

PAUL: You say eight hours. Let me ask you. We're low on time. How many people did you have last Sunday? How many are you expecting this Sunday?

SPELL: Last Sunday, we had 1,800 in attendance. This Sunday, the fear that's been propagated into the hearts of my people, I don't know, but it may have had the adverse effect and we may have more people today than last week.

BLACKWELL: So there is an order from the governor there, John Bel Edwards, in Louisiana barring gatherings of 50 or more. The scientists who advise him suggest that those gatherings put the people who will be coming to your church, the 1,800 last week and whomever will show up this week, in danger.

Do you believe them?

SPELL: We believe the science of this, victor. However, we do have a command from god, and there are no governing bodies that can tell us we cannot gather and worship freely.

BLACKWELL: But do you believe the science? Do you believe the science that people who are in these large gatherings close together are at a greater risk of contracting this deadly disease, this virus? Do you believe the science?

SPELL: Yes, we believe the science. We also believe that 99.3, which the science says, of the people that contract it, a lot of them don't even know they have it and recover.

And then with that also, we're more interested -- people have been locked up in their homes for 22 days now. Suicide, domestic violence, starvation, and the hope is the last stronghold in those people's lives, Victor.

BLACKWELL: But, Pastor, let me ask you this. If you believe the science, and I assume you are pro-life, is that correct?

SPELL: I am pro-life.

BLACKWELL: How is this a pro-life stance to put people in jeopardy of contracting a disease, getting a virus that has no treatment, no cure, often has no symptoms and has killed more than 8,400 people, 8,500 people this morning in our country in five weeks?

SPELL: My response to that is, people's hope is in the house of God. If they do contract the virus, if they have fears of the virus, the church is more essential now than ever to pray with people.

To let them know there is a balm in Gilead. There is a physician in Jesus Christ. He is the healer. He said come unto me all that you are weary and heavy-laden. Let me give you rest.

We were supposed to be 1.5 million body bags, we're at 8,400. So the narrative is false, Victor. We have been caused --

BLACKWELL: So putting the number aside, because I'd imagine the families and friends of those 8,400 would take issue suggesting we should have been at 1 million but just 8,400.

Let me move to another element here. I want to move to the legal element. You've been cited several times and could face 90 days in jail for each citation, $500 fine.

The chief of police there says this is not an issue over religious liberty and it's not about politics. We are facing a public health crisis, and expect our communities' leaders to set a positive example and follow the law. It goes on to say, instead of showing the strength and resilience of our community during this difficult time, Mr. Spell has chosen to embarrass us for his own self-promotion.

Is this about self-promotion?

SPELL: If this were about self-promotion then I would live stream. And televise my services. Which we have the ability to do, but we refuse to because the word of God commands us to assemble together.

When I was arrested by the chief of police after they arrested me, I did pray for he and his assistant chief of police, and I do refer to our governor and our chief of police and all governing bodies by their titles. And I'm not being returned the same favor.

However, what I do want to say is this is not about self-promotion. This is an attack on religious liberty in the greatest nation in the world.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: But, Pastor, what distinguishes your church from the -- the tens of thousands of places of worship around the country, and even more beyond the U.S. borders, who are right now holding services online, doing this via streaming service?

SPELL: One word, conviction. Neither the pressure of our friends, family, lawsuit, jail or death will stop us from operating our convictions, which is, let us go into the house of the lord. This is the most important place in our life. We do not have a preference religion.

This is what made America the greatest nation in the world -- people's freedom to worship.

[07:35:01]

BLACKWELL: All right.

SPELL: And if this were about deaths then every door in this city would be closed, Victor, and every door in this city -- there are more people exposed in the retailers than will be in my service today. Hundreds and even thousands of people, and our lawyers are gathering that information right now.

BLACKWELL: All right. And one of your -- one of your lawyers, I would like to point out, is Judge Roy Moore, who actually ran for Senate in Alabama.

SPELL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: -- isn't even licensed to practice in Louisiana. But will be I guess second chair on any potential case.

Pastor Tony Spell, we got to wrap it there, but I thank you for --

SPELL: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: -- answering a few questions this morning.

SPELL: (INAUDIBLE)

PAUL: OK. Up next is something that you may not have thought about. The COVID-19 quarantine is dangerous for one group. We're talking about people who are living in a home with someone who is abusive.

There is help for those who need it. The CEO of the national domestic violence hotline, though, is talking to us next about the calls that they're getting right now.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So is social distancing starting to stress you out? I know it's happening for a lot of people. Maybe you're having trouble sleeping.

Well, here's how adding house plants to your bedroom might actually help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AISHA RICHARDSON, ENTREPRENEUR: Me putting plants in my bedroom is so that I could relax and just fall asleep with no worries.

I have certain plants like the snake plant or the ZZ plant, and with those cleaning the air, it helps me sleep better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The presence of plants in an individual's bedroom could facilitate positive sleep because the plant is going to take up carbon dioxide that's in the room and give off more oxygen. We do know that sleeping in a more oxygen-rich environment can certainly be helpful.

RICHARDSON: You hear that lavender and other plants have that scent that calm you enough to put you to sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They actually studied it. They found the people who were being exposed to the lavender actually slept better.

RICHARDSON: That makes me happy. Just seeing it come alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A big part of what plants can do for our sleep is really helping to create the environment that an individual likes.

[07:40:04]

And that's a big part of sleep right there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:42:36]

PAUL: Listen to this. Jurisdiction across the country are reporting a higher rate of domestic violence calls, up roughly 21 percent in Seattle, 27 percent in Oregon. Victims of abuse in dire situations due to social distancing guidelines and the stay-at-home orders.

Think about it. They're sitting on their couch. They can't reach out for help when they're abuser is sitting right next to them. There have been reports of abusers depriving people of soap, hand sanitizer, even showers, which are necessary to stay safe in this crisis as well.

The CEO of the national domestic violence hotline Katie Ray-Jones, and CNN law enforcement analyst James Gagliano, both of them with us. Thank you so much for being here.

Katie, I want to ask you, first of all, what kind of calls are you seeing coming into the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Help us understand what people are going through right now.

KATIE RAY-JONES, CEO, NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE: Yes, good morning, Christi.

This is absolutely a distressing time for survivors across the country as you mentioned are in home and close quarters with abusive partners. We're hearing really distressing stories from being forced to wash their hands until they're raw, to strangulation that's happened in the home. We know when there is a loss of power and control in the home, that we see the frequency of abuse increase, the severity increase.

So, we're beginning to hear about that. We heard one woman reported that she was attempting to go to work. There wasn't a shelter in place order in her community, and her abusive partner took out the firearm and began to load it in an effort to keep her home. We have heard stories of abusive partners coming home and coughing on

the victim in the home, coughing on kids in an effort to create more fear in the home related to COVID-19. And then we've heard some stories about perpetrators claiming that they would not pay for medical treatment if the family were to become ill.

So this is all really distressing in a home. We are hearing a lot more incidences of escalation of physical violence in the home and it's really, really quite concerning.

PAUL: It's a frightening -- it's frightening to think about. If you really put yourself in the place of here I am at home, which should be my one safe place, you know, in this world for some people. And it's actually the most dangerous place for them.

You can't sleep. You can't eat. You try to take care of your kids if you have children and shield them, or keep them safe.

James, I -- this is a hard call to make for anybody who is in this situation.

[07:45:03]

Help them understand, though, if they can get help. Help them understand what happens when police come to your home in a case like this.

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Christi, first of all, good to join you, especially during these trying times, to try to disassemble this.

Look, this is a scourge, a ubiquitous scourge that unfortunately is far too common an occurrence in our nation. Just last year alone, there were 1.32 million reported calls for domestic violence or domestic abuse, 746,000 of those were determined to be criminal offenses.

This is a staggering number. That's 2,000 a day, 2,000 criminal offenses that were charged for domestic abusers.

Look, women bear the brunt of this. It's a 3 to 1 breakdown, 76 percent of the folks that are abused are women, and, unfortunately, with criminals, they always decide to either take opportunistic, you know, avenues to further their schemes or to -- or to conduct criminal conduct.

We've seen spikes in 2008 during the economic crisis. We've seen spikes during national disasters like, say, Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy. We've also seen it during times of the Super Bowl, major sporting events.

And, look, correlation doesn't always equal causation here, but there is a lot of factors at play, and one of them is these victims are trapped in a co-habitation situation with the abuser. They're not allowed to be free out on the street. There are stay at home edicts and, unfortunately, that leads to more opportunities for these predators, Christi.

PAUL: Katie, what are you telling people who are in those situations and fear that they can't get out? Does some of the reporting now fall on family and friends who are concerned because you can't call if you're with this person all the time?

RAY-JONES: You're right, Christi. That is one of the strategies we're really trying to deploy right now, is to activate friends, family, neighbors. We are hearing neighbors who are calling the national domestic violence hotline who are concerned about sounds and arguments that they're hearing next door to their own house.

We know that as you've mentioned, it can be incredibly difficult. We know pre-COVID-19, perpetrators often monitor phone calls, what victims are looking at their devices. So, it can be incredibly difficult for survivors to reach out with the perpetrators right next to them.

So, we feel like friends, family, neighbors are going to be the critical lifeline right now to get safety information. And in some cases, because there's not a lot of resources in terms of shelter space or safe places to go to, that it might be emotional support, which I know is incredibly heartbreaking to hear, but that is the reality of the situation.

So, we're really encouraging friends, family, neighbors to call the national domestic violence hotline to learn information to pass on to someone you know who may be suffering.

PAUL: Yes, France actually told victims to go to drugstores and say the code word "mask 19" to the pharmacist. So, they may be able to get help that way. So, that's something, "mask 19" to the pharmacist. If you even get there, because, of course, that's changed to not be told lately not to go there. But obviously if it's a life and death situation, it is worth doing.

James, I want to show you what the Dayton Police Department tweeted earlier this week. They said, there's help if you're experiencing domestic violence or concerned for a family member or friend, especially during COVID pandemic.

I can tell you from having my own experience with this, to have somebody like a police department push this out is huge, because now you're being told, we see you, we hear you, we know you're there and we're here for you.

So, James, have you ever had to go on any of these calls? I mean, how does it affect officers when they get into these situations where they have to try to intervene?

GAGLIANO: Well, sure, Christi. We ask a lot of our police officers, even in obviously less turbulent or troubling times. We ask them to be social workers. We ask them to be mental health professionals.

And yes, one of the things that officers in most departments are trained on is to -- is to glean or discern those signs of distress. You mentioned what they're doing in France. I think that is a wonderful idea, an opportunity for a victim to potentially be able to, you know, make contact with someone that can get them help.

Look, in places like New York City, 8.4 million people, densely packed into the five boroughs, 36,000 police officers. And a number of them have been infected by the virus. A number of them have died.

They're being stretched thin resource-wise. They're being asked to do a lot. They're being charged with going out and make sure they enforce social distancing and things like that, working at health care facilities and hospitals with all the surge of patients that are coming in to do traffic control and additional security.

[07:50:00]

Look, this is something that does fall on police officers, to have that spidey sense, that sixth sense to be aware if someone is trying to communicate to them that they're in an abusive relationship and they can't speak freely. Police officers have got to be on a lookout for these things during these trying times, Christi.

PAUL: Yes, we're thinking about the police department as well, and not just New York, but others that I know are having a hard time.

Katie Ray-Jones, James Gagliano -- you saw the number there on your screen. Again, if you are experiencing or you know of anyone who is living with abuse during this time, please, please, this is so -- it's so pivotal right now. Call the domestic abuse hotline 1-800-799-7233, or you can text LoveIs to 22522.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Firefighters in Florida surprised a firefighter who is recovering from the coronavirus.

[07:55:02]

This was Friday morning. A crew with Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue, they drove to the hospital in the truck, raised the ladder to the hospital's fourth floor window and held up a get well soon sign with cards. And the sign read, your new fire house.

While gasping for air, listen, he recorded a video to thank his colleagues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they're hugging and coming up to say hi. This is love. This is the only kind of love you can get from the brother and sisterhood at the fire house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Listening to his labored breathing is striking there. It gives us a sense of what that man is going through and so many people who have this virus. The firefighter hasn't been named, by the way. But it does -- it's a great illustration of how that one thing can make a big difference in somebody's life, especially, if that's where they are.

BLACKWELL: And, by the way, CNN airing a special report tonight at 9:00 Eastern called "Inside the ER." It's a look at the incredible fight against coronavirus.

PAUL: Take good care of each other. And thank you so much for being with us this morning.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King is up next.