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Don Lemon Tonight

555,000 Plus Cases Of Coronavirus In U.S., 22,000 Deaths; African Americans Hit Especially Hard By Coronavirus; Remembering Philanthropist And LGBTQ Robby Browne. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired April 12, 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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[21:01:39]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon. 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast.

And here's the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, the number of cases of coronavirus worldwide now over 1.6 million with more than 105,000 deaths around the globe, more than 22,000 of those deaths happening right here in the U.S.

At this hour, there are more than 555,000 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. And tonight, stunning comments from the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, telling CNN, he believes more lives could have been saved if the White House push strict social distancing guidelines earlier than it did.

This comes as the "New York Times" reports that medical experts warned the Trump administration about the growing threat of the coronavirus as early as January. Joining me now is CNN White House correspondent John Harwood and Ron Brownstein, senior editor at the Atlantic. Gentlemen, thank you so much joining us, especially on this holiday weekend, appreciate it.

John, you first, President Trump is looking ahead to his decision on when to reopen via the economy and how soon to do it. You know, he's called it the biggest decision of his presidency, but he doesn't actually have control of how this is going to go down.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And, you know, he has said, he's got economic advisers to listen to and health advisors and he's going to listen to his own gut. But I'm not sure how much choice he actually has for a couple of overlapping reasons.

First of all, it's one thing to blow off the warnings of public health officials when the danger is spreading beneath the surface, but it's not visible to the American people. It's an entirely different thing after 20,000 people have died. This has been the dominant news story for six weeks and people are frightened. And when all the public health officials say it is not time to relax those guidelines from Anthony Fauci on down. Secondly, as long as the public health officials feel that way, the publics' would like to be alarmed. We showed 60 percent of the people in the CNN poll last week said they were not feel comfortable removing, resuming their normal routines if they lift the guidelines at the end of April.

And then third, most of the economic activity in the United States takes place in these large America -- metropolitan areas that are governed and populated by -- preponderantly by Democrats. And so the odds of trying to open up the economy, the odds of that blowing up in your face are pretty large.

Now, what I could see him doing is identifying a few places that are the least impacted, and that have some testing and contact tracing regimes in place. And that's possible a month from now or several weeks from now that they will and say that we're beginning to open up and sort of label it as the beginning of a thought, but in terms of a wide ranging opening up in the economy, that does not seem possible right now.

LEMON: Ron, you know, in order to get people back to work, you need data that comes from testing, which is still a massive problem whether he wants to admit it or not. How can the White House assess whether to reopen without widespread testing and antibody tests?

[21:05:00]

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, it would, Don, it would be the bookend to how we got into this situation in the first place. I mean the reason we had to use the kind of blunderbuss nuclear weapon level response of shutting down the economy and the society was because we did not have enough testing to pursue a containment strategy of widespread testing and then contact tracing of people who had the disease.

And you would be in the same position coming out of this in trying to reopen the economy. You can't, you know, test people on a wide -- on a broad basis. You know, just to underscore what John said, I don't think the President has the ability to reopen the economy. He does have the ability to cause a lot of confusion and so a lot of division.

However, if the President does on May 1st, is talking about reopening the economy in any kind of broad way, it would put a lot of pressure on those Republican governors, many of the Republican governors, not all but many of them, to follow along. And we would be back in the situation where we were in the end of March and the very beginning of April, where you had a Republican governors in a number of these red states trying to reopen the economy, those blue mayors and county officials resisting that and enormous conflict between them.

So just quantify one thing John said, if I work with the Brookings Metropolitan policy couple weeks ago, the 50 counties, just the 50 counties, with the most cases, account for one-third of all the economic output in the country, and about one third of all the jobs, 60 million in all. So the thought that you could reopen the economy, while those places are so buckling under the disease in any meaningful way, is just fanciful.

LEMON: I mean, if you look at I mean, New York, the millions of people who live in New York or L.A., the L.A. County is channeling people.

BROWNSTEIN: Seattle and Chicago.

LEMON: Yes, if you look at Chicago, and it, you know, there's Pritzker in Chicago, you have Cuomo here, you know, and then L.A. --

BROWNSTEIN: -- and Newsom.

LEMON: And then Gavin Newsom. I mean, come on. Yes, that accounts for the biggest part of our economy, that's not going to really happen unless they say yes to it.

BROWNSTEIN: But it does -- you could end up with a patchwork again, like we had at the end. I mean, if the President really --

LEMON: But that's not going to help, that's not going to help Ron, I mean, you know.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. It's not going to help -- but it's not going to help but it could put us back into the same very confused period we were at the end of March, where states were pursuing different strategies, and even within states, just enormous gaps between what the biggest metro areas were doing and the rest of the state were doing to the enormous frustration of those mayors who felt that they were being undercut by the lack of guidelines in the communities right directly adjacent to them.

LEMON: John, this is something the President retweeted someone who questioned Fauci's comments writing, fire Fauci, hashtag fire Fauci. OK, fine.

The President added, sorry, fake news. It's all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up. Thank you. Well, actually it wasn't a ban. There were restrictions and there were a lot of people I think like 40. There were a lot of people coming in.

But anyway, so he's amplifying a call to fire a man who most Americans trust on this, what he's tweeting about banning China is really not accurate as well. So what is going on here?

HARWOOD: Well, look, the President and his defenders have been painted themselves into a corner where they're trying to deny things that are obvious. The -- as you said that ban the President put on air travel from China was not a complete ban, 40,000 people flew in from China, after that happened.

And as the "New York Times" documented this morning, something that we all -- we already knew because we watched it unfold in real time. He was very late in dealing with this crisis. And he's been -- his administration has been very disorganized in dealing with this crisis. We watched in real time, as the President kept saying, well, yes, we've got it under control and stock market may be going down, but it's a big buying opportunity. All of those assertions by the President have been blown up. Anthony Fauci has been vindicated when he was on television this morning saying, yes, I guess if we had started social distancing earlier, there'd be fewer deaths. Obviously, that is the case. There's no doubt about that.

The only notable thing is that Fauci was willing to say it, the challenges the Trump administration has gotten us into a position right now, where there are very few good options. And that's why the decision to reopen the economy is so difficult for him.

LEMON: All right, gentlemen, thank you. I appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks Don.

LEMON: I want to get to Dr. Harvey Fineberg now. He is the chair of the Standing Committee on emerging infectious diseases and he has advised the White House on the coronavirus pandemic. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Fineberg. Really appreciate. And thank you for being here on this holiday weekend.

[21:10:02]

You have been behind a lot of research that has been guiding the White House on the coronavirus like how to -- how it can spread through breathing and how it won't go away in warmer weather. What are you looking into now?

DR. HARVEY V. FINEBERG, CHAIR, STANDING COMMITTEE. ON EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, Don, at this point, we're not actively looking at requests from the White House. But our Committee is beginning to organize to look at medium and long term issues.

For me, the most important question facing the nation today is exactly the question you've been discussing with your guests, how and when do we reopen the economy? And the key point here for me is we have to stop arguing about arbitrary dates and start discussing the conditions that are necessary to safely reopen the economy. And there are three.

Number one, we have to know where this virus stands in our communities. This is beyond diagnosis of individuals. It's surveillance in the community to detect new cases. Number two, we have to stand up the capacity in every community that's looking to reopen to be able to identify cases, isolate the patients, trace the contacts, and separate and quarantine those who are exposed.

And number three, we have to get the new cases down to a sufficient level that we can act on that containment strategy. That's not just leveling off hospitalizations and deaths. That's monitoring new cases to where we can control and contain additional cases. Then we'll be in a position to start discussing how to reopen the economy.

LEMON: I could not agree with you more. I think that those dates are shiny objects to get the media and the American people to look over there instead of looking at exactly what the administration is doing and the failings of the administration. They know that they can't really put a date on when the economy can open up.

So, look over here, get the media talking about that, get the American people wondering if they can go back on that date or not. In the meantime, they are, you know, doing what they are doing over there and the American people is not looking and the media are not looking at that. So thank you for saying that. I think you're exactly accurate on that.

Let me let me ask you this question. I want to get to the truth about testing here, OK, because that's the important part here. Does this country have anywhere near the testing that is needed to safely reopen the country and the economy?

FINEBERG: Today, the honest answer is, no. But there are many, many tests coming up online. And some of these are going to prove to be very useful. And over the coming days to weeks on, we will see a much wider availability of testing, particularly the antibody testing, that is going to be so useful in the surveillance of our communities.

And by the way, just because you can't today, reopen a business doesn't mean there's nothing for businesses to do. Every business today should be asking itself, what can we do to enable our employees and customers to be safer? How do we operate in a way that manages to keep people apart that prevents large groups from being in the same place at the same time?

Maybe we do have to start having masks. Maybe we do have to take everyone's temperature. Maybe we do have to act to keep people at a distance that would be safer. If we can do both sides, the virus side and the economy side, I'm sure we can come through this safely, as efficiently as possible, but only with the time that the conditions allow us to do it.

LEMON: Dr. Fineberg, thank you. Our time is short because we have some breaking news. We appreciate it though. Thank you so much.

FINEBERG: Thank you Don.

LEMON: And here is the breaking news we have tonight, dangerous and deadly weather including tornadoes striking parts of the South. At least six deaths are reported. Let's check in now with CNN meteorologist Tom Sater. Tom, good evening to you. So give us the latest on these deadly storms ripping through the South right now.

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's been a crazy day, Don. I mean no one wants to see a severe weather outbreak especially an outbreak of tornadoes Easter --

LEMON: So we've lost Tom Sater. If we get him back up. We will get back to him. But again, these deadly tornadoes are ripping through really the South, striking parts of the South. So there we go.

Natasha Chen joins us now our meteorologist as well to give us an update. You can see it there on the South from Alabama to Georgia as well, also coming through Louisiana. Let's go Natasha Chen.

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[21:15:04]

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Easter weekend, normally a time of celebration and renewal was instead solemn as the United States reached a grim new record more than 21,000 confirmed deaths related to the coronavirus, the most of any country in the world.

Earlier today, the nation's top disease expert acknowledged more could have been done.

ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have save lives. Obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different, but there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.

(voice-over): President Trump continued to defend his administration's response, putting the onus on states to lead and fighting coronavirus. He tweeted Sunday, Governors, get your states testing programs and apparatus perfected. Be ready, big things are happening. No excuses. The Federal Government is there to help. We are testing more than any country in the world. Also gear up with face masks.

But it's that very equipment and tests that local leaders have been pleading for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to need a lot more testing of really, really widespread testing. We're nowhere near that now. This is what our national government should be focused on first and foremost.

(voice-over): The question of testing came up last Monday at a White House press conference.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With the Federal Government, we're supposed to stand on street corners doing testing. We should say congratulations, great job instead of being so horrid in the way you ask a question.

(voice-over): Regardless of where they come from, tests including antibody tests to tell if a person is immune are crucial and figuring out when we can all resume normal life.

FAUCI: It is not going to be a light switch that we say, OK, it is now, June, July or whatever, click the light switch goes back on. It's going to be depending where you are in the country, the nature of the outbreak that you've already experienced, and the threat of an outbreak that you may not have I've experienced.

(voice-over): Nevertheless, President Trump is weighing whether to reopen the country by May 1st.

TRUMP: I'm going to have to make a decision. And I only hope to God that it's the right decision. But I would say without question, it's the biggest decision I've ever had to make. (voice-over): As most of the nation remains at home. Any light at the end of this tunnel may feel far away to the millions who celebrated Passover and Easter through a screen.

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): This is not a time for indifference because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic.

(voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.

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LEMON: So there's Tom Sater joins us now. Again, Natasha Chen a new job there, saying she's a meteorologist. I thought she was going to talk to us about the weather coming through side but I apologize to Natasha Chen. Tom Sater joins us now to talk to us about this line of storms going -- moving across the South. What do you know?

SATER: Don, it's been a terrible day. I mean, no one wants to see a tornado outbreak on Easter Sunday or any day for that matter, especially with everything. We've been going through the lockdown situations and everyone's staying at home. A lot of families obviously are a little frightened. Ninety-five million Americans today under the threat of tornadoes from areas of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and sliding all the way across Georgia during the darkness of the night.

Let me show you the radar picture. And again, now that we've got two waves going on here, the first one you see, notice that little pink kind of box I'm going to get to it, that's just north of Birmingham. Now that's the latest in a tornado warning. But off to the left of your screen, that's the secondary batch.

Notice the orange boxes, those are severe thunderstorm warnings. So the secondary batch moving through Central Arkansas, not too much tornadic activity but straight line-wind damage. But earlier today after a tornado made its way through Monroe, Louisiana, moving from the western part of the city to the east. We had significant damage.

Over 250 homes damage injuries there, blocking down and shutting down I-20, in the Arcadia area. But then we had a tornado. If you see Laurel at the bottom of the screen there, I mean, we got 18,000 live there, Collins to the west, a good 2,500. But it was the town of Baskerville that took a direct hit not once but twice, extremely unusual to have a two-super cell thunderstorms picking up debris and tossing it everywhere.

And that's what we're getting reports from the Sheriff's Department of catastrophic damage and with that the fatalities. Now you see Fort Payne, Indiana, the rains moving out. But you get toward Dalton and Georgia, that's another warning we can also have that new one of course that's just north of Birmingham.

Significant power outages in around the Birmingham area in the suburbs to the north -- affecting the yellow, they'll get to continue into the midnight hour but the tornado watches in red now extended to North Georgia and parts of eastern Tennessee, South and North Carolina.

[21:20:02]

This is going to continue to move through the darkness of night, terrible time, Don, obviously when everyone's at home. I cannot stress this enough. If you live in Georgia or the Carolinas, even northern Florida, please make sure your cell phones are set to get alerts of emergency services. Emergency notifications must be on because you could be sleeping when we have this tornado activity continue into the wee hours.

Tomorrow, it'll stretch up across the eastern seaboard where we have a level three out of five. Today, Don, was a four out of five, the last thing we wanted.

LEMON: Wow. Tom Sater, thank you very much, appreciate that.

Farms destroying millions of pounds of fresh food because they say they can't sell it. I'm going to speak with a farmer who is plowing tons of food back into the ground even though thousands of people across the country are lining up at food banks.

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LEMON: As the coronavirus crisis rages on, millions of Americans are now out of work and many are turning to local food banks to help feed their families. We have seen massive miles long lines outside a Pittsburgh area food bank. And in San Antonio, over 1 million pounds of food were given away to 6,000 families in need on Friday.

[21:25:16]

The demand for food banks is skyrocketing up to 40 percent according to Feeding America Network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries nationwide. That is why the next images that you're about to see that they are, they're so troubling to look at, farmers plowing, plowing over green beans, tomatoes and other produce due to lack of demand from restaurants and other commercial operations.

Dairy farmers dumping millions of gallons of milk that would normally go to schools and coffee shops that are now closed. Surely, there's got to be some way to connect the dots between the hungry people who need to eat and farmers who have this surplus. So this is America, we can feed our people.

Let's discuss with Paul Allen now. He is the co-owner of RC Hatton Farms, which operates an 8,000 acre farm in Florida and Georgia. We are so happy to have you here to discuss this. And to see what we can do to try to fix this, mitigate this, and see what we can do to help people. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

PAUL ALLEN, CO-OWNER, RC HATTON FARMS: Thanks for having me.

LEMON: So you have been farming for 35 years and you say that you've never seen a surplus like this. You sent us this video. Watching these green beans and tomatoes being destroyed, I mean, that must be devastating to you.

Paul, are you there?

ALLEN: I'm here.

LEMON: Yes, this video we're looking at watching this video, people destroying green beans in such that must be devastating, you send us this.

ALLEN: Yes, it's heartbreaking. As farmers, we take feeding on country very seriously. And, you know, we're exhausting all avenues to get this food to the food banks. A lot of the food banks and the pictures you see on television, there's a lot of vegetables and produce in those bags and we're just filling the pipeline as much as we can.

Unfortunately, it's not enough people don't realize just how large the food service sector is in our country.

LEMON: You know, we've got some images up right now showing some of the food that you have donated to, we'll put them up to food banks and first responders. But all -- there it is, all over the country, thousands of families lining up for food at food banks. Why are farmers destroying crops if people are in need, is there a disconnect? What is the disconnect here?

ALLEN: Well, the distribution that we're working with feeding America and feeding South Florida and -- it's just too massive the handle. You have to understand, this is a perishable crop, you know, you're to harvest it on one given day and you got about a two-day window to get it harvested. If you don't, then it's as bad, it's not frozen, not caned.

So it's planted every day, and it's harvested every day. And it's meant to be consumed every day. So it's a difficult challenge to manage all that and get it done in this situation. But we're working hard to try to get as much as we can. Unfortunately, it's not enough.

LEMON: Yes. A big frustration for you is produce being imported into this country from Mexico. What do you want to see happen? I mean, it sounds like there needs to be some someone appointed to deal with coordinating supplies that are already here in this country.

ALLEN: Yes, thanks for asking. You know, we are humbled as farmers to be able to try to feed our country, it's something we take seriously and we work hard. And, you know, it's a challenge right now. It's like a double blow. You know, we've got the virus effect with the food service industry, but what we've got over 200 truckloads every day of produce coming across the border.

You know, we'd like to see the President stop that if he can. And we're thankful for what they've already done. There's help coming to farmers. I think that our administration understands that farming has to be sustainable long term. Every American has to eat three times a day, so they need farmers and ranchers in our country. So we look forward to getting the support. And we humbly asked our President to help us by stopping these border crossings of produce. LEMON: Well, we hope that they are watching and let's hope that they get some help. And, you know, where to call if you need anything. But we hope that something changes because we know the demand for the food banks. I know that we're trying to help our local food bank where I am my partner and I so let's hope that the administration is listening in and something changes.

Thank you, Paul Allen. I really appreciate you joining us. And thank you for doing what you're doing. I'm not sure you can hear us.

[21:30:03]

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LEMON: So hospitals here in New York City are overwhelmed. CNN's Clarissa Ward introduces us to someone she knows well, Dr. Melanie Malloy, a doctor on the front lines.

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DR. MELANIE MALLOY, ATTENDING PHYSICIAN, MOUNT SINAI BROOKLYN HOSPITAL: Hello. My name is Dr. Melanie Malloy, I am an attending physician at Mount SinaI Brooklyn in Mount Sinai, Queens. I'm on my way to work.

[21:35:06]

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We'd asked my old friend to show us what life is like on one day in one New York hospital.

MALLOY: So I'm picking up my PPE. I'm going to get some scrubs. I'm going to get masks, face shield, everything that I need to be safe on my shift.

WARD (voice-over): For Dr. Melanie Malloy, this is the new normal.

MALLOY: I am going to start my shift.

WARD (voice-over): The emergency room at Mount Sinai Brooklyn Hospital has been overflowing.

MALLOY: I walked in and they said everybody is intubated. And it looks like it's true actually. Most of our beds are taken up by intubated patients, meaning patients who can't breathe on their own and who are on the ventilator. Almost everybody is on oxygen and almost everybody is a COVID patient.

WARD (voice-over): Since the pandemic began, more than 1,200 corona cases have flooded in, pushing the hospital to 150 percent of its capacity.

MALLOY: So today there are 43 people in the department. That's pretty much full. But I have to say it's doing a lot better than a couple of weeks ago when we had 86 to 96 in the department, 40 people boarding. It was really tough, it was really bad, bad week. WARD (voice-over): In the intensive care unit, it's a similar scene.

MALLOY: I wanted to give you guys a little look at the ICU. So, we have a full ICU, we have every patient in here on a ventilator. As you can see, it's not a huge space. But it's quite full. Every bed is full.

Now I'm going to try to go to the tents. This is our fast traffic extension (ph) to, you know -- from the get-go, you can see -- now we have to tell people we can't test them for mild symptoms.

Patient get registered here. Good morning. Here is our fantastic staff. And then we have separate areas for people getting treatment.

WARD (voice-over): For the doctors working around the clock to save lives, there are occasional perks.

MALLOY: One of my favorite things to do is the free food. I'm super excited because we have Shake Shack. What?

WARD (voice-over): Moments later, it's back to work.

MALLOY: So I'm waiting for my next patient to be placed in a room. This one is different because as opposed to the mostly older patients we have been seeing today, he's in early 20s. I think one thing we're learning is that we don't really know what somebody is going to come in with and have COVID.

Everybody has coronavirus, but some people also have heart attacks at the same time. This happens and it makes things even harder.

My day is over. Well, my hospital day is over. I was -- it wasn't the worst day I've had, but it's always pretty draining. It's just -- it's hard. It's hard to think that some of your patients that you diagnosed today might not be here tomorrow when you come back to your shift or, you know, all of it, I don't know. I'm just tired.

WARD (voice-over): For Dr. Malloy, the challenges don't end with her shift. A widow, she is raising three children on her own.

MALLOY: So it's almost 10:00 at night. And on my way home, I got a FaceTime from my youngest child who's four. And I think that's the hardest part, I think that's, like, just being alone when I come home, knowing that, you know, my child care is going to go home, my helpers are going home, and it's just me and whatever state my children are in. And I don't really have a lot left in me.

WARD: The next day, Dr. Malloy takes a moment to talk to us.

(on-camera): It's crazy what you're seeing and dealing with. Have you ever experienced anything like this?

MALLOY: Never. And, you know, like even the older folks, like the older doctors are, like -- I've never seen this before in my life.

WARD (on-camera): So one thing that I know you weren't allowed to show us is the morgue.

MALLOY: There are now two large tractor trailer trucks that are refrigerated. They are full of bodies, wrapped in white plastic bags. I was told that they can hold 50 people. And the one that I saw was full.

WARD (on-camera): Do you not worry about getting sick?

MALLOY: Yes, of course we do. Of course I do. The way that we're working in the E.D., it's so -- it's a hit of coronavirus. It's literally dozens of positive patients, the viral load in that place must be astronomical.

[21:40:09]

WARD (on-camera): What do you wish all Americans understood about what you're going through?

MALLOY: I really want Americans to take this seriously, to know that even if you're in an area that's not a big city, you still are in danger and we don't know who is going to get really sick. It does not spare anyone, particularly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: One of the other sobering things Dr. Malloy told us, Don, was that of all those people in the ICU on ventilators, none of them have yet been successfully taken off a ventilator. She also said that while the situation does appear to be getting a little bit better in the last week or so, there have been times on the shifts where she has run out of oxygen, where they have run out of a certain type of antibiotic, where they have run out of fentanyl, a sedative that's often used before you intubate a patient, and perhaps most importantly beds. Don?

LEMON: Clarissa, thank you so much. What President Obama said about how coronavirus is affecting the black community, hear that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:45:28]

LEMON: A data showing African-Americans are being hit disproportionately hard by coronavirus. In Chicago, Black Americans make up about a third of the city's population, but account for 72 percent of coronavirus deaths there.

Let's bring Dr. Suzet McKinney, CEO and Executive Director of Illinois Medical District. Thank you for joining us, I appreciate it. Dr. McKinney, former President Obama recently held a call with faith leaders across the country and he talks about African-Americans being more vulnerable to coronavirus. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The data is starting to show that because of existing disparities in health that arise out of our history and arise out of our inequalities and the fact that we don't have the kinds of healthcare for all people that we should, despite the efforts that my administration made and the progress we made with the Affordable Care Act, that African-American families are more vulnerable to this disease. And we're going to have to make sure that we do -- that there are specific strategies to address the vulnerabilities of those communities and that services are appropriately allocated in your cities and in your communities for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: In what ways are African-Americans more vulnerable and what steps need to be taken?

DR. SUZET MCKINNEY, CEO/EXEC. DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS MEDICAL DISTRICT: Well, Don, first of all, thank you for having me. I think one of the primary reasons why African-Americans are more vulnerable, number one, is because our communities suffer from healthcare disparities much more often than other communities. So when you see a lot of chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension, and then you overlay COVID-19 on top of that, it creates much more serious illness and that's why we're seeing a lot of these disparities.

LEMON: And what steps do you think can -- need to be taken to fix that?

MCKINNEY: Well, I think there are many steps that need to be taken and I think that there's a lot that we are seeing in our communities. So, first and foremost, a lot of these issues, these challenges around healthcare disparities have to do with systemic problems that we've been seeing for many, many years. The large healthcare disparity in the African community -- African-American community is not new. However, for COVID-19, we need to be increasing the testing so that we can identify where larger pockets of illness are existing. And we need to be getting treatment to those people who are suffering greatly.

LEMON: So, you know, he talks about -- I don't want to play it, but he talks about folks wanting to congregate, you know, as a society. Do you find the skepticism among in communities you serve when it comes to that, about sheltering in place?

MCKINNEY: I do look -- yes, I do. One of the things that is apparent to me as a public health official is that this COVID-19 pandemic is the worst pandemic that our country has seen since 1918. So that means a large segment of our population don't understand it, they weren't around in 1918 when that major pandemic occurred, and they really just don't believe that sheltering in place and social distancing are effective.

LEMON: OK, got it.

MCKINNEY: But if there one message that I wanted to get out to the community, it would be that in the absence of a medical treatment, such as a vaccine or an antiviral medication, it is the social distancing measures that are our key tool in our efforts to combat this pandemic.

LEMON: Doctor, thank you so much, I appreciate your time. And just ahead --

MCKINNEY: Thank you so much.

LEMON: Absolutely. The beautiful voice of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli on this Easter Sunday as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.

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[21:53:59]

LEMON: Before we go tonight, I want to tell you about a friend I lost, and so did New York. His name is Robby Browne. Robby moved to the city decades ago to make a way for himself as an openly gay man, and that he did, becoming one of the city's top real estate agents, selling hundreds of millions of dollars in property. When his brother died of AIDS, another pandemic, he took it upon himself to raise money for the cause by holding toy parties in his living room, which grew into a major annual New York event and around the country, really. He helped guide so many people live their truth young and old, famous people and people that you'll never hear of.

Robby was a father figure, a big brother, a socialite, a philanthropist, an LGBTQ advocate, a true character and a friend. He always wore a smile. He fought cancer for years. Unfortunately, though, it was coronavirus that was too much for him to take on. And now, at least he is free from pain.

[21:55:03]

Thank you, Robby, for everything. The world probably should have known you much sooner than your death.

So now to mark the Easter holiday, famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli put on a stunning performance in the empty Duomo in Milan. And we leave you tonight with "Amazing Grace."

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ANDREA BOCELLI, ITALIAN TENOR: How sweet the sound that saved a --

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