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Cuomo Prime Time

Massive Test a Heated Issue in Reopening of Economy; Virus Targets People of Color; Good People Do Say Bad Things; TV Hosts Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Phil McGraw Have All Appeared on Fox News and Made Misleading Claims About Coronavirus; VA Reports More Than 300 Coronavirus Deaths; Food Workers are Getting Sick Across the United States. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired April 17, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome back to a special two- hour edition of Prime Time. I'm feeling good. This is a good test of how strong my body has gotten. So, thanks for being here with me to test it all out.

Now let's talk about the sober reality. As of tonight, at least 700,000 people in this country have been infected by coronavirus. I say at least because we're playing catch up. We don't know because we have inefficiently tested. Testing is everything. It's the key to where we are now. It is certainly the key to getting anywhere back to near normal.

Now, the grave toll. California, 1,000 lives lost. They passed that mark today. Yesterday set a new single day record for reported deaths in the state. So, the situation is very grave. Yet this president has decided to fuel the fire of protesters who decided to risk safety and yours by the way. If you live in the state. Because they are not happy about being told to stay home. Staying home saves lives. Here's the story from Nick Watt.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Huntington Beach, California. A protest march complete with Trump 2020 flags. Similar scenes also other parts of the country. They are calling for the country to open up again.

Jacksonville, Florida. They just reopened the beaches. The crowds came. Immediately. Many completely ignoring the social distancing guidelines that are still supposed to be in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LENNY CURRY (R-FL): Folks, this can be the beginning of the path way back to normal life. Please respect and follow these limitations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: In Texas State, parks will open Monday. A week from now, stores can open for pickup only. But. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: School classrooms are closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Governors not the president will be calling the shots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must get this right. Because the stakes are very high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Some saying we're just not there yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

The fact of the matter is, it's better to be six feet apart than six feet under. And that is the whole point of this. We've got to save lives. Every one matters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: There were also protests against stay home orders in Michigan. And today the president tweeted liberate Michigan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think elements of what they've done is too much.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): You have to develop a testing capacity. That does not now exist. We cannot do it without federal help.

[23:04:59]

MICHAEL PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our best scientists and health experts assess that states today have enough tests to implement the criteria of phase one. If they choose to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Reopening will be regional.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Opening some states and not others it's a little bit like, you know, somebody said to me it's a little bit like having peeing section in the swimming pool.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Some neighboring states are coordinating. A new bloc just formed in the middle of the country. And let's not forget there are still thousands of healthcare workers on the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a lot of sick patients. Multi organ failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Still too many lives in the balance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this patient here, it's a pregnant patient whose a, unfortunately on the verge of being intubated and was trying to save her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: There are so many people in such tough spots. Our thanks to Nick Watt for reporting.

Now look, I don't know how what the vice president said can be true. Why would the governors lie? Democrat and Republican. Why would they not want testing capacity? Why would they not want to reopen? They are feeling the same political strain. Trump is. They're just handling it different. More responsibly, I would argue.

Now, let's bring in one of the leading doctors who helped defeat smallpox. Why, because it's important to understand what worked then and what we need to see now. Dr. Larry Brilliant. How's that for a good name. Very good to have you, doctor. Thank you for joining us.

LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALSYT: Thank you, Chris. I hope you're feeling better.

CUOMO: You know what, I am. But I have to tell you, a little bit of a digression. I don't understand what the heck is going on with my own case. You know, I meet the CDC guidelines, I have 72 hours fever free which they say is like anything lower than 92 low point, 92.2, 90.1.

But my normal temperature is 97 something. So, I am not back to baseline. So, then they say to me something you know, Dr. Brilliant, but many of us don't who have COVID and don't. no, no, no, you don't just get better. There's a recovery phase.

BRILLIANT: Yes.

CUOMO: You've just finished a fight. Your body is beat up. You may have low grade fever. You will have respiratory distress. You cannot just go back to the gym. This will take weeks. They are seeing in the research out of China. Shouldn't people be aware of this?

BRILLIANT: They should, Chris. And you know, this a novel virus which means it's only four months old. It's like a baby. It can't walk yet. We know so little about it. We're finding a lot of people who have blood in their urine because the virus affects the kidneys. People who have the heart harmed by the virus sudden heart disease. We

know about loss of smell and taste. It means the olfactory nerve is affected. Some people have diarrhea. It's not just a respiratory disease in the sense of a float. It is a respiratory disease like smallpox was. It spread by respiration but it affects the whole body.

CUOMO: One other question and then we'll get into the analogy of what you learned from smallpox and what you think we should be seeing now. And the question is about that the state of play that we're having. I'm sure that you have been hearing anecdotally. I got beat up in the media. And that's OK. You know, the media likes to police itself and it likes to say, you know, things are baseless.

Have you had people tell you, doc, I think I had this? I was never tested. But I had this crazy flu and I couldn't breathe. And I had a week of fever. And this was back around Thanksgiving. I've had dozens and dozens of people around this country tell me exactly that. And look, they could all be wrong. They could have something else. But man, does it sound early familiar, doc?

BRILLIANT: And they had a terrible cough and it last for three weeks and it didn't quite feel right to be a flu or you are on. My wife had it and so many friends of our had it. And we kind of at the time we wrote it off to bronchitis.

I do wonder now especially with the data that's coming in from the south bay of California where they are finding when they do proper testing, that the actual number of cases can be 10, 20, 30 times more.

CUOMO: Yes. So, from smallpox what did you learn that you don't see being applied today.

BRILLIANT: The most important thing we learn with smallpox was early detection, early response. Find every case. And then double down on the case and the area around it. Three miles around it, 200 contacts.

We had a vaccine. But we have something almost as effective as a vaccine although it's shorter lasting. And that's quarantine. If we found every case by testing and testing and testing, did contact tracing with the enthusiasm that I know this country can muster.

[23:10:04]

And then quarantine only the ones who were at risk who had the disease or were contact -- then we could begin to talk about opening up parts of the country. Until we do that, we're fighting a losing battle.

CUOMO: I don't want to bathe you in the politics. So, let's end it there. Dr. Larry Brilliant, thank you for telling us what worked on smallpox, and that testing, identification, tracing is everything now once again.

Thank you for your perspective. Stay in good health. I'll look forward to speaking to you again.

BRILLIANT: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Now -- absolutely. Thank you.

One of the things we're learning about COVID-19 is the equal opportunity virus. Rich, poor, brown, white, male, female, or whatever, it gets you.

However, many of us, millions of us are at greater risk of having this hit them and hit them hard if they are minority. Why? Let's discuss with Van Jones. He and Don Lemon are doing a great special tomorrow night on the color of COVID-19.

Let's talk about the reality that's happening right now that's not getting enough attention. And boy, will it explode if we reopen the wrong way, next.

[23:15:00]

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CUOMO: A lot of you online are saying yes, I feel the same way. They say, I'm over it but I'm still sick. Yes, I know, because they don't tell us about this recovery thing. We're still learning. We all have to learn together.

As I go through, I'll give you the information. If it helps you avoid some of the confusion. Great. You guys are helping me as well.

Now here's something else that we have to learn about. We're not all getting hit equally here. Black Americans are twice as likely to know someone who's died or been hospitalized because of COVID. All right?

In New York City, African-Americans are dying at twice the rate of whites. Come on. I mean, we know what this is about. We know what we're doing once again.

Let's discuss the problem and what we should be doing. Van Jones is co-hosting a new CNN special to look at the victims behind the data the color of COVID-19. Tomorrow night at 10 p.m. with Don Lemon.

My brother, I love you. It's great to see you. I hope your family is well. I'm not going to state some B.S. rhetorical question. We know why African-Americans are getting hit. They don't have access to healthcare. They've got more underlying conditions because they don't get the right access to food. And they have density issues.

And they have general protocol issues and there's a laxity in getting them the health services they need. So, we know the problems. The question is, how is it playing out now in real-time and is it being addressed?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think because of you and others the alarm is finally being sounded. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate your consistency on this and your clarity on it.

The reality is we initially we're hearing that this is going to be a disease impacting old people, you know, people who went to Asia and stuff like that. A lot of African-Americans said well, that's not me. I'm 35, I'm 45, I'm 25, I'm going to be fine.

What we didn't understand was that high blood pressure which is an epidemic in the black community is really linked to dying with this thing. And so suddenly when they say, you know, underlying health conditions, underlying health conditions, it turns out that has been fatal for the African-American community.

And so, we should now be rushing masks, tests, ventilators, respirators to the black community and to the brown community. I'm not playing the race card. I'm playing the data card. Those are now the hot spots. And you should be rushing the test to the hotspots.

Because what where you know now is that you got a community of African-Americans, Latinos and others are especially at risk for dying. More likely to get the virus because we have the jobs on the front lines. We have the essential workers. Less likely to have insurance and healthcare. More likely to have underlying conditions.

In a situation like that there should be an emergency response to rush masks and tests ventilators and respirators to our communities. We're not seeing that yet but it has to happen.

CUOMO: Yes. And don't run this B.S. to Van or me about well, that's on them. That's bad habits and it's bad culture. It's endemic. No, it isn't. OK? It's about diet and underlying healthcare and systemic neglect of the community. It's about poverty. OK?

And when you adjust for poverty you see that problems with diabetes, types of diabetes, hypertension and blood pressure run brown and white. It's more about poverty than it is anything else.

Now, Van, what happens when and if -- let's hope if more than when, we reopen but don't have the testing. Don't have the prophylaxis in place. And we still don't have the capacity in densely areas. What will we see in these communities?

JONES: Massive death sentence for people of color. There's just no other way to talk about that. You cannot just reopen this thing. The reason that you have everybody sheltering in place is to buy us time, to buy us time to get the testing in place. To buy us time to get, you know, the ventilators or respirators and get more hospital beds, to buy us time for a vaccine long, long term.

But if you don't have the test in place and you just throw the doors open, guess what? People walk back outside; they're going to get hit with this thing and we're going to be right back where we were and possibly worse. Because now you have a lot of healthcare providers have been knocked out themselves.

It is the most irresponsible thing to say we're just going to throw the doors open. We need to test people. In Hong Kong and in South Korea they tested everybody and when you test then you know. When you know you can say you two stay indoors? You five can go outdoors. And it works. If you're just going to guess and then giggle and hope it works out,

this is lethal stuff.

[23:20:00]

This is lethal stuff for a whole community of people that cannot afford another round of this. We are already was, that are dying in record numbers.

CUOMO: And you know where the least testing is right now. You know where the least access to testing right now in the communities. I've got to tell you, you didn't mean it this way. But over your right shoulder right now Nelson Mandela is staring at us.

Look over your right shoulder and he is not -- he is giving the exact face he would give if he would have heard that the President of the United States in the midst of what we're talking about is telling people waving their Trump stuff.

And let's be honest. It is no coincidence that it's the Trumpers who are out there in the states saying I have had enough with the stay home. And he's telling them to liberate their states.

How dangerous is it, Van, for the president who says he wants to heal to play the heal and get people angry at the only thing that's flattening the curve?

JONES: Listen, I would appeal to the president. I would appeal to every leader in the country. This is the one time we have to be data- driven. It's very easy to be ideology driven, it's very easy to be politically-driven.

When you got -- when you got the lives in your hands, you're a governor over a state, if you're the president of the United States, if you're a mayor, if you're a sheriff, you have people's lives in your hand. And a wrong decision you literally have the difference between, you know, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people dying.

I would appeal to every leader including the president, please, please listen to the public health people. And people got to tell you. You've got to open this thing up because of the economy.

Here's what we don't seem to have we have not gotten this through our heads yet. You can't -- nobody wants to go back to work more than black folk. Nobody wants to go back to work safely than black folk, brown, poor folk. It's decimating people from an economic point of view. But we have to use the time to get the test. Nobody wants us to last.

The minute that we got the test in place then we can do this. So rather than prematurely pushing us back out there we got to get sick again, we're going to be right back here again but at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, give us the -- use this time well to get the test in place and then open the economy.

Test first. Then have us, you know, take the risk. Don't have us take the risk when we don't have the data and we don't have the test.

CUOMO: Yes. If you want to yell about liberating something, liberate the factories and get them making the swabs and making the reagent and doing the things that they did. They did a hell of a lot more expansive work back during World War II. You know, people making vacuums. All of a sudden, they were making machine guns and airplanes.

They can make this leap. He hasn't pulled that trigger. Instead, he's pandering and he's playing to a negative politics that will get us more sick.

Van Jones, thank you for helping this. If anybody asks -- go ahead. Go ahead. What do you want to say?

JONES: Tomorrow night at 10 o'clock I hope everybody comes back around this campfire. You're going to be shocked at some of the voices from black America and brown America. The most famous people in the world coming around to CNN campfire to talk about this in a deeper way. And I believe anybody who watches that will come to the right conclusion about what to do as leaders.

CUOMO: Van Jones, if anybody ask if they have Mandela on their shoulder, it is you. And tonight, you actually do have him looking over your shoulder.

Tomorrow, Van Jones, D. Lemon, The Color of COVID-19, 10 p.m. Eastern. Let's be honest, you're going to be home. You might as well watch here on CNN.

All right. Three of the best-known TV doctors. And one isn't even an M.d. But what have they been saying? Crazy stuff on state TV, man. Crazy, dangerous, ugly stuff. Who's giving them the runway? Who wants to push an agenda that they help? We're going to talk about it. Why would good people say such bad things? Next.

[23:30:00]

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CUOMO: Why do we call Fox News state TV? This is why. Bring on celebrity doctors who make absurd claims to nodding heads. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW PINSKY, TV PERSONALITY: The entire problem we're having is due to panic, not the virus. It's mild and the press needs to shut up.

MEHMET OZ, TV PERSONALITY: I just saw a nice piece on The Lancet arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3 percent in total mortality. It might be a trade off some folks will consider.

PHIL MCGRAW, HOST, DR. PHIL: Forty-five thousand people a year die from automobile accidents, 480,000 from cigarettes, 360,000 a year from swimming pools but we don't shut the country down for that. But yet, we're doing it for this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Yes. Because I'm not going make you break your neck if I break mine in a swimming pool. The record shows us what? Look, they've all backtracked. Why? Because they got busted. And it's a ridiculous thing to defend.

Dr. Drew earlier this month apologized for downplaying the threat. But he's not the only one who does. They are encouraged to do it on that channel. It's still on him. But that's the message they want out there.

Dr. Oz now says he misspoke when he talked about reopening schools. And the latest apology today comes from Dr. Phil who's not a medical doctor by the way so he shouldn't be talking about this stuff. Anyway. And he acknowledges that none of his examples were contagious causes of death. Which is of course the key. And he knew that. He knew it was compelling B.S.

[23:30:00]

Why did they do it? That's the discussion for us to have right now with Oliver Darcy, who has done a lot of the reporting on this. I argue the answer is as simple as where they said it, Oliver. This is what Fox is about. They want the message out there, the decision not big a deal, and that's how you get to protest like we saw today. It's no irony that the Trump folks are waiving Trump paraphernalia and that they are encouraged by far-right groups. What's your analysis?

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Right. Well, one, you know, I would be alarmed if a member of my family were sharing this kind of misinformation. And to hear health professionals going on national television during a pandemic and sharing this kind of, you know, frankly dangerous information to millions of viewers is just, you know, frankly nuts.

But to your point, you know, I don't know why these medical professionals are saying this on Fox, but what I can tell you is it has always supported Fox's general message or editorial viewpoint about the coronavirus. So if you look at it early on, they were trying to downplay the threat, blame media hysteria, so that brought Dr. Drew, who delivered the message from, you know, someone with a medical degree.

Then, when they took it seriously and they were hyping hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment, they bring on Dr. Oz, and he does that. And now that they're pushing for reopening the country and suggesting that maybe that it wasn't prudent to shut down the country, they are bringing on Dr. Phil, who is delivering a message like that.

You know, it's dangerous when Fox elevates a lot of these voices during regular news cycles, but when they are doing it during a pandemic, that just adds a whole dangerous element to this, Chris.

CUOMO: It is always dangerous. It is always politics. It is always an agenda. Now, look, I don't get in the tit for tat game with other anchors. Why? Frankly, the bosses don't like it. At CNN, they want us to stick to the news, as you know. And also, it's not good (ph) for the audience. They don't really give a damn if I'm in a spat with Tucker Carlson or whoever it is.

But I do want to play this clip of Laura Ingraham because I have known her a long time and I respect her intelligence. She is a Supreme Court clerk. She is a smart lady who is making a dumb argument on purpose. And look at what Tony Fauci had to do. Here is a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: We don't have a vaccine for SARS. I mean, they got close in mice. We don't have a vaccine for HIV. And life did go on, right?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: But Laura, this is different. HIV AIDS is entirely different. We don't have a vaccine for HIV AIDS, but we have spectacularly effective treatment. SARS disappeared, and we didn't need to develop a vaccine for SARS. So, I think it's a little bit misleading maybe to compare what we're going through now with HIV or SARS. They're really different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. Side note, White House shouldn't be putting Tony Fauci in that situation. You know they put him on state T.V. You know, I mean, the White House decides where these guys go on from the task force. They put him on there because he is a big one.

And they haven't defending this kind of B.S. on the air. Laura Ingraham knows those answers. Oliver, you know them. I know them. Why? You did 15 minutes of homework. So she's intentionally representing something she wants to be true and that's the reality of what they're doing there. What am I missing?

DARCY: I don't think you're missing anything. I felt -- Fauci was actually quite generous when he answered that question. It does not take an infectious disease expert to know that HIV and coronavirus are totally separate things, right, Chris? You can't get HIV just going on the regular run to the grocery store. You can get coronavirus very easily. It's very contagious. It doesn't take an infectious disease expert to know this.

Someone who is on Fox News, again, talking to millions of viewers every night, should do her homework. This is basic fact. It's embarrassing, frankly, that she did not know this or that she's asking questions like that that while knowing that it's not related. I don't know what's going on over there. I don't know why, if you look at tweets today, she's comparing living under the stay-at-home order to living under Saddam Hussein in Iraq. It's just --

CUOMO: I wonder why. Who has been saying that he's against the stay- at-home orders all of a sudden? The great healer, President Trump, is telling people to liberate states from stay-at-home orders and is throwing the Second Amendment in there, too, for a little bit more red meat. That's why they're doing it, Oliver. I mean, it's just so painfully obvious. I just hope it's worth it to them on some level. Boy, it's --

DARCY: I want to know, Chris --

CUOMO: Go ahead, Oliver.

DARCY: What I want to know, Chris, is where (INAUDIBLE). We hear all this noise about Fox News taking this virus seriously.

[23:34:59]

DARCY: They put out a whole bunch of public service announcements featuring their anchors. But where are the executives like Suzanne Scott or even Lachlan Murdoch when one of their anchors is again saying or suggesting that staying at home is equivalent to living under Saddam Hussein and asking when we're going to liberate states? Where are they?

CUOMO: Quiet, apparently. Oliver Darcy, thank you for being loud and proud about this. We got to expose it. Everything is different now in the pandemic age. Everything should be reassessed. All the agenda should be laid bare and the media should be reappraised as well. Thank you for doing it with me tonight, brother. Be well. Be healthy.

DARCY: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Look, I keep bringing us back whenever I can to the military. Why? Uniquely vulnerable. And again, they play on one of the things that just drive me crazy in this society. We all say we love our troops, but we keep hanging them out to dry.

VA hospitals are hurting for supplies. Why when they are supposed to be our priority and 13 million of them are over 55 years of age and so many have underlying conditions? They're vulnerable.

A friend to all veterans, P.J. Rieckhoff, is going to sound the alarm for us because once again, we're falling short, next.

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[23:40:00]

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CUOMO: We support the troops, right? They deserve the best of everything, right? How come they never get it? How about this number? Deaths among VA patients jumped five fold since the start of this month. Unemployment is higher than we've seen in years for veterans. The toll on veterans is not getting a lot of attention, is it?

Let's change that right now. You know who has been tracking this in real time and encouraging people like me to open our mouths about it? Iraq War vet P.J. Rieckhoff has an amazing podcast called "The Angry American." Welcome back to "Prime Time." P.J. says if you ain't angry, it's because you're not paying attention. And this issue falls right in that category.

Brother, best to you, the wife, the kids, that you stay healthy because we need you. What is the reality of what is happening with our veterans?

P.J. RIECKHOFF, IRAQ WAR VETERAN: First off, good to see you, man. Glad to see you. We are wishing you and Cristina the best. You and your brother continue to really drive some important news and inspire the country. So thank you for that.

Bottom line is the VA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, was not ready. They said they were ready. They put out a public statement saying they were ready and they're not ready. They say there's enough PPE for frontline workers and frontline workers across the country are saying there's not. Now, frontline workers in Brooklyn and Atlanta are protesting.

So, either the frontline workers were lying or the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert Wilkie, was lying. The Wall Street Journal revealed today that the internal memos that he saw said that they did not have enough. So they haven't had enough. They haven't been ready. And you mentioned it. 5X increase in the number of veterans that have died.

They only tested about 50,000 people since this all began. Your brother in New York tested more than that in two days. So they have not been ready. They are not ready. They are not being honest. They are being transparent. The entire country should be angry about that.

CUOMO: Weeks ago, you are saying on Twitter, where is Wilkie? There are concerns about this. They just turned down money for the VA. They said they've got enough. First of all, who turns down money? And that he had not been out in front. And now we are seeing why. The vulnerability goes on, what we are seeing right now, 13 million veterans who are above 55 years of age and many have underlying complications. That makes them vulnerable to this.

RIECKHOFF: Yes. More than half of the nine million veterans that have served VA are over 65. Now, we are starting to see them get hit really hard. One state-run veterans' home in Holyoke, Massachusetts has 56 dead. Fifty-six dead in one veterans home in one city. Now, they are breaking out in 16 other states around the country.

Secretary Wilkie cannot even be bothered to do daily press briefings. He has been invisible in the national media. He hasn't been driving support down for local level. He probably won't come on with you. So that is why we have been using the hashtag, where is Wilkie? It is not just about him not doing media or not being out in public. It is about him not leading. He needs to lead strongly. He needs to lead aggressively. He needs to be transparent.

Why have they only tested 50,000 people in the veterans department since this began? Another important point, Chris, they're not even disclosing how many veteran or VA employees are dead. They won't even tell you how many of their employees have died. The Department of Defense can tell you how many people died on one single aircraft carrier, but the VA can't tell you how many have died across the entire nation.

CUOMO: Can't or won't become the question. What will give us the answer to that is pressure. The kind that P.J. Rieckhoff, a celebrated veteran, who serves this country day in day out just like he did overseas, thank you for sounding the alarm here and elsewhere. We will respond to the call. P.J., bless you and thank you.

RIECKHOFF: Thank you, brother. Get well soon. We appreciate you.

CUOMO: Thank you. Remember who we are talking about here. These are the archetypal Americans, OK? Another example is helping veterans in need, Wounded Warrior Project.

[23:44:56]

CUOMO: So many of you, God loves you, if you want to help right now, you want to step up, donate to the Wounded Warrior Project. They are helping families who have trouble buying food and paying rent right now. There are many, many veteran families that are doing that. They are committing $10 million to the project. They will be reaching out to vets in their database and those who need it can apply for $1,000 grants, OK? So, if you want to help, there is a place you can help, Wounded Warriors, all right?

There are nearly 800 cases of COVID-19 now among workers in a pork factory in South Dakota. Remember we spoke to the mayor? For mayor, this crisis also reaches into the fields. Why? Density of labor. They don't have insurance. They don't have help. A lot of them aren't legal. What does this mean for them and for your food, next.

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[23:50:00]

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CUOMO: All right. So, while most Americans are staying inside or should be, right, if they're not out protesting like fools, more than 2 million farmworkers are still out in the fields, the orchards, the packing plants. Why? Because we need food, right? They're essential workers.

But how about this combination? A lot of people are working in tight confines with no access to health care or inadequate access and inadequate protective resources. What kind of combination you think that is?

Greg Asbed is the co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Immokalee is a town. Gerardo Reyes Chavez is also a leader in that group. We welcome both of them now. Gentlemen, thank you for joining.

GREG ASBED, CO-FOUNDER, COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS: Thank you, Chris.

GERARDO REYES CHAVEZ, FARMWORKER LEADER, COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS: Thank you for having us. CUOMO: So, Greg, what's the concern?

ASBED: Well, Immokalee is a town of 25,000, 30,000 farmworkers, who are right in the crosshairs of this virus. Now, it hasn't set a foothold in Immokalee yet but it is coming. We now have some 20 plus cases in town and that's just the tip of the iceberg because the testing has been so inadequate.

But what we're afraid of is that fact that the conditions in Immokalee are ideal for the spread of this virus. They -- you know, people live in overcrowded housing with 10 to 12 people in a single-wide trailer. They go to work in vans and buses where they cramp 15 people in a van or 50 people in a bus. They work in sometimes very unsanitary conditions. And they get home and get to line up for taking a shower and cooking in the same cramped bathroom and the same tiny kitchen.

Those conditions -- you know, we have been watching your story, Chris, and we know how much you try not to have your family be infected with the virus. And you have all the conditions in the world that could help make that not happen.

Now, imagine being in a trailer with 15 other guys, where you sleep with four people and you sleep head to foot, beds arranged on the floor, next to each other. It's impossible that when one person gets that virus, the rest don't immediately get the same thing. And that's what we're afraid of.

CUOMO: I hear you. My wife had the mask. She had the gloves. She did everything she could, and she still got sick. It's another reason I'm still in the basement. She's upstairs, sick, and nobody's happy that mom got sick and everybody blames me.

Gerardo, let me ask you something. What do you think the awareness is of this situation at the state-government level in Florida?

REYES CHAVEZ: Well, I think that they know -- they know that there is a problem, but they have chosen to look the other way. And that is precisely why, you know, we send the letter to the governor asking him to take steps towards creation of a field hospital.

We're asking for that because, in our community, you know, as Greg was mentioning, the problem is not just the lack of distancing. We cannot do something like that. We need to be able to treat people. And we don't even have a hospital in town. We have a little clinic. The closest hospital is about 40 minutes away. And we need --

CUOMO: Has the state responded?

REYES CHAVEZ: No. You know, there's been a lot of people joining in, asking the governor, supporting this letter that we sent. More than 200 different organizations have asked the same thing. More than 30,000 people are asking him to use his leadership and start to work and responding to this right away because we don't have time to waste. You know, we can see how this is already happening in other places in the country in regards to the supply chain.

CUOMO: Sure. In South Dakota, we were talking to the mayor. You got people packed in tight, tight living conditions. The job requires proximity because they are maximizing space all the time, right? And then you get it.

Let me ask you something, Greg. Please, I hope you can shoot this down. The idea that why wouldn't the state government respond to something that's a powder keg like this. Do you believe there is an aspect of politics of documented and undocumented at play here?

ASBED: Well, we know the virus doesn't discriminate. We know that the virus will -- yeah, I mean, that's -- if there is some sort of -- I don't care if it's politics about people's status or politics about people's party, whatever it might be.

[23:55:00]

ASBED: It's just not the right time to be playing politics. It makes no sense. We're talking about life and death. We're talking about a delay, so far, in weeks since we've been asking the state to pay attention to this powder keg in Immokalee.

The cost will be measured in human lives and it doesn't -- there is absolutely no way that anybody sitting in Tallahassee or here in Collier County can think that there are certain human lives that are worth less than others. That can't be. I refuse to believe that.

CUOMO: Well, I agree with you, that we're supposed to be better than that. But we have been shaking our heads at this suggestion for a while now. Whether it's separating families, how people are treated at the border, you know, how they're described by our president. So, we've seen a lot of examples of how what's supposed to be done, hasn't been done. Hopefully, this won't be yet another.

Greg Asbed, Gerardo Reyes Chavez, thank you for ringing the bell. You have an open line to me. You let me know how this progresses. You let me know what you do and don't hear from the state. We will follow up, as well.

ASBED: We'll do that.

REYES CHAVEZ: Thank you, Chris.

ASBED: Take care of yourself and your family.

CUOMO: Thank you. Thank you.

REYES CHAVEZ: If I can just --

CUOMO: Go ahead.

REYES CHAVEZ: If I can just say one more point. You know, we produce 90 percent of the tomatoes that are produced nationwide. If we don't act right now -- tomatoes is not the only thing that we produce. We produce everything. If we don't do something right now, we are going how a fruit crisis is going to unfold on top of the pandemic, and we don't need that right now. We need to act. So that's the point that I wanted to make.

CUOMO: You are right. It shouldn't come down to selfish motives. It should be about humanity. But if humanity is not enough, think about your own belly. If these people get sick and they can't do the job, we're going to see disruptions in the food chain. It shouldn't be about avarice, it should be about humanity. There it is.

Gentlemen, I got to jump. Thank you. Thank you, my brothers and sisters, for watching. Two hours, I feel all right. Stay tuned. The news is going to continue here on CNN.

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