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Some U.S. States Reopen amid Criticism; Trump Faces Backlash over Injecting Disinfectant; U.K. to Deliver Medical Supplies by Drone; U.S. House Dems Investigating Unproven Coronavirus Tests; Businesses are Reopening but Are They Safe?; Widow Shares Details of Husband's Last Days; Corona Teased for His Name, Gets a Hollywood Ending. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired April 25, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): 5:00 am on the eastern coast of the U.S. Hello, everyone. We are live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
Multiple sources are telling CNN of a strong push inside the White House to end President Trump's daily coronavirus briefings. Administration officials are said to be alarmed by the president's habit of promoting dubious, even dangerous medical advice from his bully pulpit.
On Thursday, he said he was interested to know if injecting disinfectant in the body could kill the virus. Well, to state the obvious, don't do that.
It's easy to understand why the president is grasping for a solution to the pandemic. Johns Hopkins University reporting now more than 900,000 people in the U.S. are infected. At least 51,000 have died. That is enough to fill a sports stadium.
There are possible new clues into how the virus was able to spread so quickly in the U.S. A government review found inadequate safety measures when the first group of Americans were repatriated from China in late January. That included a lack of protective clothing and social distancing.
Well, despite the steady climb of new infections and deaths across the United States, some states are already taking steps to reboot their economies but against the advice of disease experts. CNN's Erica Hill has our report.
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ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An unprecedented experiment, now underway in Georgia. Salons, tattoo parlors, gyms, all have the governor's blessing to reopen. The mayor of the state's largest city, urging residents to stay home. MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: Nothing has changed.
People are still getting infected. People are still dying. We do not have a cure to this virus. The only thing that has helped us is that we have stayed apart from one another. And I am simply asking people to continue to do that.
HILL (voice-over): Customers weighing health concerns as owners must also confront mounting bills.
TARA GLYNN, HAIR SALON OWNER: I'm going to try it. I just feel like, us as a country, we are going to have much bigger problems, financially, if we do not.
HILL (voice-over): Meantime, about an hour south, cars line up for food at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Neighboring North Carolina is not easing up yet.
GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): We love our friends in Georgia but we are really concerned about how quickly this is happening and we want to make sure that we keep our numbers as low as possible.
HILL (voice-over): Oklahoma moving forward with a plan similar to Georgia's. The mayor of Tulsa noting cases in his city are still on the rise and expects that will continue.
MAYOR G.T. BYNUM (R-OK), TULSA: Waiting on those cases to decline as people for 100 miles in every direction are being encouraged to ease social distancing would be futile.
HILL (voice-over): Golf courses open in Wisconsin Friday; libraries and craft stores can offer curbside pickup, the state reporting 23 people who voted in person or worked the polls at the primary there earlier this month have now tested positive for COVID-19.
Curbside pickup is available today in retail stores in Texas, Colorado stay-at-home order will end Sunday, though not in Denver.
MAYOR MICHAEL HANCOCK (D-CO), DENVER: Nothing will change until maybe 8:00 or at least midnight on May 9th.
HILL (voice-over): Tennessee state parks have reopened, more Florida beaches will soon and diners can now eat at restaurants in Alaska, though capacity is limited to 25 percent, a patchwork response unfolding as experts warn, the country is not out of the woods.
DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EMORY UNIVERSITY: People keep talking about the peak like there was the end game, it's not the end game, it's simply a model.
HILL (voice-over): California announcing a new partnership to get restaurants back online and deliver meals to at-risk seniors.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): it is not just about the meals, it's about a human connection. It is about someone just checking in as they are delivering those meals and making sure that people are OK. HILL (voice-over): A chance to reconnect and to help as this crisis
continues.
HILL: Also in California, for the first time since World War II, the California State Fair and Food Expo has been canceled.
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HILL: Typically, some 700,000 people attend the event which runs from mid-July to early August. The venue, where it is held, is also currently being used as a drive-through testing site in the state -- back to you.
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ALLEN: Stunning statements yet again at the White House. You may remember Thursday, the president of the United States floated the idea of injecting disinfectant to rid the body of the virus. On Friday, he tried to scrub all memories of that statement. CNN's Kaitlan Collins was at the White House.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump started Friday by signing that replenishment fund for that small business loan program that they've started since the coronavirus outbreak has shuttered so many of them.
But the president ended Friday with what was one of his shortest briefings of his administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak where he took no questions. The FDA commissioner spoke briefly and took one question but other than that, the president did not engage with reporters.
And that came after earlier in the day he tried to say that his comment the day before, where he suggested that potentially you could use bleach or sunlight inside the body to cure coronavirus, were widely panned by doctors.
The president had said on Friday that he was just being sarcastic when he suggested as much during a briefing the night before.
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QUESTION: Can I clarify your comments about injections of disinfectant?
TRUMP: I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you, to see what would happen. I was asking the question of the gentleman who was there yesterday, because when they say that something will last 3 or 4 hours, 6 hours but if the sun is out, if the use disinfectant, it goes in less than a minute away. Did you hear this yesterday?
I was asking a sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside.
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COLLINS: You'll remember in that briefing on Thursday night, a senior DHS official came out, was laying out the findings of a study that they had done that talked about sunlight, ultraviolet rays and disinfectants like bleach and alcohol killing coronavirus on surfaces, not in the human body as the president later suggested that medical experts should look into, despite his claims later on that he was just being sarcastic.
The president said sarcastic but his press secretary said earlier in the day that he was being taken out of context. And then Dr. Deborah Birx in a briefing that she had taped before the president made those remarks about it just being sarcasm, said that the president was just processing information he had just received in real time, which of course was in front of the cameras and that later led to the CDC issuing a statement saying that household disinfectants should be used as is marked on their labels and, of course, not ingested.
The surgeon general ad tweeted that people should consult with their doctors before taking any treatment when it came to coronavirus and of course many more of the president's critics were saying he should not have been speaking and just ad libbing at the briefing after that presentation -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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ALLEN: Dr. Peter Drobac, he's live for us, a global health expert with the University of Oxford.
Good morning.
DR. PETER DROBAC, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Good morning, Natalie.
ALLEN: It's good to see you. I'll tell you what, let's take what President Trump said and all of that brouhaha and leave it there and move on with the science. OK, because I don't know what to do with that.
All right, so here in the state of Georgia, the governor has cleared the way for some businesses to reopen. They did so Friday. But here we go again, it always comes back to testing.
Without wide testing to know who has the virus, how risky is opening up now?
DROBAC: Unfortunately, it's extremely risky. Before we get to testing, let's look at where we are with the epidemic in Georgia. In some parts of the states, we are still seeing an increase in cases.
So it is not as if we are even past the initial peak. The White House's own plan for how states should open up, the first criteria is that you have seen a 14-day sustained decrease in the number of new cases. So really at the kind of height of things, to talk about opening back
up seems a bit careless. Then when you get to testing, we know widespread testing, along with the ability to trace contacts and isolate infected people, is really important. And the state is just not there at all.
ALLEN: Right, which makes me think of Japan right now, which is having a second wave. It had its first wave. It tapered off. Schools reopened. Then it got hit again. That shows the caution we should be taking here.
Does history tell us whether second and even third waves could be worst?
DROBAC: If you look at past pandemics, mostly influenza, we see second spikes in infections that can be as bad or worse than the first ones.
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DROBAC: In Japan it's significant and Singapore as well, which I think is humbling because it shows how fragile these efforts at containment are.
The virus is not going to change. So if we go back to business as usual, we would expect to see a second spike in infections that could be as bad or worse as the first. That's why we need to be incredibly cautious.
We are still very early in this pandemic, right?
In most cases, only a few percent of the population has been exposed or infected. So if we ease off the gas now with these measures, we're going to be in a very dangerous place.
ALLEN: We really are just at the beginning stages of this pandemic, aren't we?
I mean, as you said, Georgia hasn't even peaked yet. You can understand why people want to get on with it, start their lives, rekindle their businesses. But it just shows what can happen if you move too quickly.
DROBAC: That's right. And ultimately, to beat this virus, it's very likely we're going to need to try to hold firm and find a way to get through this until there is a vaccine ready. We know it will not be ready any time soon.
So we have been hearing this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. We also need to understand we're just in the first couple miles of that marathon. There's a long way to go. Everyone is concerned about the financial crisis and the economic toll this is having on families.
But the only way to end the economic crisis is to get the virus under control.
ALLEN: Right. One of the key three things is antibody testing. It's underway. However, some are shown to be flawed. That could mean people thinking they are immune when they are not.
How challenging is antibody testing?
What do we know?
DROBAC: It's going to be an important tool for us as it is rolled out further. But we have seen a lot of challenges with quality and accuracy, particularly with the so-called point of care antibody tests.
These are ones that somebody could do in their home for a rapid result. Most of those we have seen really significant problems with accuracy. Then you run the risk of someone having a positive test when it's negative. They are told they are immune when they're not. That is going to be a real issue.
It has been less of an issue with laboratory tests. So we have seen some early results from sero surveys, where you doing a random sampling of the population and test for antibodies to give us a picture of what percentage of the population may have some immunity. That's going to be important but the widespread rollout of point of care testing still looks like it's a ways off.
ALLEN: We appreciate your expertise as always. Thanks for your time, Peter Drobac in Oxford.
DROBAC: Thank you.
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ALLEN: The U.S. Navy is recommending the reinstatement of a captain who was dismissed over a coronavirus warning. Captain Brett Crozier was forced out after writing a letter about the spread of the virus aboard his aircraft carrier. But as CNN's Barbara Starr reports, the Defense Secretary isn't ready quite yet to put Crozier back on board.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The chief of naval operations four-star Admiral Michael Gilday has recommended that Captain Brett Crozier get his command back and once again be in charge of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt.
Crozier was dismissed by the now-fired former acting Navy secretary after he got upset about Crozier's complaints and worries that sailors aboard the Roosevelt were not being properly cared for in the wake of the coronavirus breaking out on the ship.
Now after an investigation of several days, the Navy is recommending that Crozier be reinstated to his command. But it isn't going all that smoothly. That recommendation went to Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who declined to accept it right away.
A Pentagon statement says in part that Esper intends to thoroughly review the report and will meet again with Navy leadership to discuss next steps. He remains focused on and committed to restoring the full health of the crew and getting the ship at sea again soon.
So Esper wants to read the full investigation before he accepts the recommendation of his own Navy leadership. There are now more than 850 sailors on the Roosevelt crew who have tested positive for the virus, as the carrier remains tied up in port in Guam -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
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ALLEN: We'll continue to follow any developments in that story.
We were just talking about antibody tests with our guest. Dozens of tests apparently are on the U.S. market without FDA approval. And some of them don't even work.
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ALLEN: A shocking CNN report coming up about that.
Also ahead here, the U.K. looking to get past the troubled rollout of its website for booking virus tests. We'll go live to London.
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ALLEN (voice-over): That's Prince Charles and wife, Camilla, joining countless others in the U.K. in applauding health care workers. This was the heir to the throne's first public appearance since he recovered from coronavirus.
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ALLEN: The United Kingdom is approaching a grim number of coronavirus deaths, close to 20,000 now. Officials there are pushing to get medical supplies to hospitals and health workers. They've been sorely light in having protective gear there.
And starting next week, Britain will begin using drones to make those deliveries. Meantime, the British government is assuring citizens its new website for essential workers to book virus tests will be available again today. The site went live early Friday but it shut down just hours later when appointments got fully booked.
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ALLEN: CNN's Nina dos Santos joins me live from London with more on this situation in the U.K.
Good morning to you, Nina. Just the fact that it is already booked shows people are desperate for tests. NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Yes. They're desperate for
tests. And the government is probably desperate to make itself look better. This issue of testing and not being able to reach the government targets has dumped it for the last two or three weeks.
About a month or so the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said, after being pressed on the issue of testing, that he would commit to a target of 100,000 tests per day, particularly for the key workers like those who work in the health care system, police force, prison service and so on and so forth, who are at risk of contracting this and passing it on to vulnerable people.
He said they would commit to 100,000 by the end of this month, April. But it has been stuck at around 20,000, which is where it is now. To try and cope with this and make sure they could widen it to 10 million key workers and their family units as well, they launched this new website which went live yesterday.
But to the government's embarrassment, they had to shut it after so many people requested tests it just couldn't cope. The transport secretary delivering the daily coronavirus news update, said about 436,000 people tried to access the service, 16,000 managed to get bookings for tests.
Today again will be another test to see why and how this can only still deliver in the tens of thousands in terms of tests. In the meantime, the grim total is fast approaching 20,000 fatalities with more than 600 people losing their lives yesterday, Natalie.
ALLEN: Just horrific. Nina dos Santos for us. Thanks so much, Nina.
Spain says it is well on its way to distributing 5 million quick antibody tests across the country. More than 3 million have been administered so far. The rest are expected to be given out in the coming days. Meantime, the country reports 376 new deaths Friday. That's the lowest number of daily deaths there in more than four weeks.
Well, it is quite a different story in the U.S. A congressional subcommittee memo obtained by CNN says the FDA is not doing enough to protect Americans from unproven virus antibody tests.
Instead, the memo says some companies are taking the test public with no guarantee they actually work. Senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has our report.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Slammed by criticism it slowed down testing during the early coronavirus outbreak, the FDA sped up the process for the next step by allowing dozens of antibody tests to go straight into the marketplace, most without FDA authorization.
DR. STEPHEN HAHN, COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: President Trump asked the FDA to remove all unnecessary barriers. GRIFFIN: And antibody test is supposed to detect whether someone has had a novel coronavirus infection and recovered, even with no symptoms.
But, except for a handful which have been authorized by the FDA, it's hard to tell whether the hundred-odd tests out there work.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Basically, the results could be catastrophic for so many people. Just imagine someone who thought that they are somehow immune because of the president of antibodies and then they go out and they expose themselves and they get other people sick.
GRIFFIN: Illinois Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is chairman of a House oversight subcommittee investigating the antibody test market.
Its preliminary report obtained by CNN says, a lack of enforcement by FDA has allowed manufacturers to make fraudulent claims, that the FDA is unable to validate the accuracy of antibody tests that are already on the market and FDA has failed to police the coronavirus antibody test market, has taken no public enforcement action against any company and has not conveyed any clear policy on serological tests.
The FDA tells CNN it is policing problem tests, citing a statement by its commissioner the day after the FDA met with the committee. "We have and will continue to take appropriate action against firms making or distributing unvalidated tests or those making false claims, such as issuing warning letters requesting that companies stop their unlawful promotion."
Still, the Democrats on the committee insists the FDA's actions have led to a free-for-all, tests popping up on the Internet for sale, the congressional committee citing a report that a Texas emergency room spent half a million dollars on 20,000 tests from China that were worthless.
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GRIFFIN: Congressman Krishnamoorthi says the FDA needs to act immediately and stop unverified tests from being sold.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: They should clear the market.
GRIFFIN: While the FDA has not banned sales, it has set up two pathways to approve tests. Just four of those have received emergency use authorization so far, though dozens of others have applied.
Meantime, companies are allowed to sell tests, as long as they're clearly labeled as not FDA-approved, to be used only in a laboratory setting.
But, according to David Grenache, chief scientific officer at TriCore Reference Laboratories, the rules are vague and require doctors to read fine print. DAVID GRENACHE, TRICORE REFERENCE LABORATORIES: I have seen some e- mails from marketers, from salespeople who are quick to sell their devices. And, honestly, some of them are very deceptive. They make it -- they don't make it clear that these really should be performed in a laboratory.
GRIFFIN: Health experts say antibody tests are crucial in reopening the country, advising the public who may or may not be susceptible to further infection, which is why Chairman Krishnamoorthi is adamant about making sure that tests for sale work.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I fear that a lot of people are going to continue to buy these tests based on faulty assumptions and then get faulty conclusions that could lead to dangerous life decisions.
GRIFFIN: The FDA says of this conflict reviewing and updating its policies but as the same, the policy stands. There's a lot of antibody tests will be sold on the marketplace as long as they are clearly labeled to be not a sole basis for determining infection. A clear admission from the FDA that it is not sure the tests actually work -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
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ALLEN: All right. We're staying in Georgia next. Several businesses have now the green light to reopen. Coming up, we speak with a salon owner to see what it was like to reopen her store during a pandemic.
We also have this story.
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KATIE COELHO, JONATHAN'S WIDOW: I asked him, "What do you want to say to Dad?"
And he hit, "My dad's my best friend."
And that's the last video the nurse showed my husband before he went into cardiac arrest.
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ALLEN: A young husband and father, his life cut short by the virus and his wife speaks about her grief and the comfort of her husband's poignant goodbye.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. As the coronavirus death toll in the United States nears 52,000, many
places are looking to hang the open for business signs. Some states already have despite health experts warning opening too soon could bring on the dreaded second wave of infections.
So the overarching question is, is it really safe to reopen?
CNN's Brian Todd reports now.
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SHANNON STAFFORD, HAIR SALON OWNER: No mask, no entry.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shannon Stafford wrestled with the decision to reopen her hair salon in Savannah, Georgia. She says she will take the temperature of clients as they enter, make sure they wear face masks. But as for social distancing --
STAFFORD: That is not going to be possible, not with the client and a stylist. You can try to distance between the next two people throughout the salon but it's going to be difficult because we are so hands on.
TODD (voice-over): Keira Johnson owns a restaurant in Valdosta, Georgia, named Steel Magnolias, despite the declaration from Georgia's governor that restaurants can reopen with social distancing measures in place. Johnson refuses to open.
KEIRA JOHNSON, RESTAURANT OWNER: I have a 19 month old son, one of my managers has three little girls. Most of my chefs have children and we all have to know what we're going home to at the end of the night is safe. That we are keeping it safe for them at this point.
TODD (voice-over): Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's decision to allow hair and nail salons, gyms, restaurants and theaters to reopen is drawing enormous criticism from President Trump to mayors and other officials in the state to public health experts who have an ominous warning tonight.
DR. MARK RUPP, INFECTION CONTROL CHIEF, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: So I think undoubtedly there will be additional infections as we try to open up businesses. So this virus has not miraculously just gone away, it's still there. It's still looking for ways to exploit frailties (ph).
TODD (voice-over): Next week, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is allowing restaurants and retailers to open at 50 percent capacity. One expert says that may not go far enough and explains how coronavirus can spread in a restaurant setting.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, DIRECTOR TRAINING, GLOBAL BIORISK ADVISORY COUNCIL: This virus spreads through droplets as well as direct contact. So anyone who's touched anything I know, fork, spoon, plate, cup, glass, we have to treat it as hot with real virus (ph).
TODD: In one study, person A1 here marked in yellow had lunch in a restaurant in China on January 24 and then soon felt sick. Nine others marked in red seated nearby were diagnosed within the following 12 days. In gyms now reopening in parts of Georgia, experts say the risks could be even higher, even for people in pre-symptomatic stages. If they're working out too close to others.
RUPP: If one of those persons goes to a gym and works out vigorously and is breathing hard, exerting themselves, that seems to me to be kind of a recipe for spreading that virus in that pre-symptomatic stage.
TODD: So is it impossible for any salons, stores and restaurants reopening to operate safely right now? One expert says, not impossible, but those businesses have to quickly train their employees.
MACGREGOR-SKINNER: The business employees are going to require the training but also the necessary equipment to protect their eyes, nose and mouth. It could be glasses, it could be another face covering, it could be just better use of disinfectant or hand sanitizer or soap and water. But we can do it, but it's going to be done slowly.
TODD: Despite the encouragement of some governors to reopen, many businesses and states that are doing that have told CNN that they are not going to reopen right away. For some, they say the cost of reopening, with all of the safety measures they have to take, are too burdensome.
But for many, the overall risks are just too great.
One theater owner told "The New York Times," "Hell, no," when he was asked if he would reopen.
He said, if he did that and another outbreak is traced to his theater, quote, "You know what that would do to my business?
"I wouldn't have one." -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: We just heard from Shannon Stafford in Brian's report. She's one of the business owners who has reopened her hair salon.
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ALLEN: She joins me now live from Savannah, Georgia.
Shannon, it's good to see you. Thank you for getting up and coming on with us.
STAFFORD: Hi, good morning.
ALLEN: Good morning to you.
Well, you opened your business yesterday. How did it feel?
How did it go? STAFFORD: Actually, it went pretty well. I decided to only take one customer. I wanted to test out everything that I had put in plan as far as everything that I needed to put into making sure everything was safe.
As far as my protocols, I wanted to see if it was anything that I needed to add or if it was anything that I needed to remove just to make sure that myself and the client and stylists were going to be in the safest environment possible.
ALLEN: Right, because I was reading that you are doing everything that you can think of, you're taking your clients' temperature, as I understand it, as they come in, asking them questions, even sign a liability waiver, right?
STAFFORD: Yes, that's correct. We are taking temperatures. We have a questionnaire for the client to fill out, along with an assumption of risk and a waiver of liability for them to read over. That's going to be something important not only for my salon but a lot of salons all over and other businesses as well, who is planning on opening.
ALLEN: Well, I know that you received calls from people in the area around Savannah, asking you not to open. There is a lot of fear out there as our previous report just pointed out.
How did you come to the decision that you would reopen?
STAFFORD: Well, one of the things that I looked at, I felt whether I waited two weeks or I waited a month, my risk is still going to be the same. The things that I'm going to have to implement to make sure the safety of myself and clients are going to be the same whether I wait two weeks or a month or six months. It is really going to be no difference. You're still going to have to take the same precautions that I'm taking today for those businesses that's going to remain closed because the reality of it is we are all going to have to get back to work.
A lot of us are working now. And unfortunately for business owners, we're not in a position where we can close down for months at a time or even up to a year and sustain.
So we're going to have to put things in order, whether it's today or whether it's another month from now. You're still going to have to implement those things. So that was one of the reasons I decided I wanted to reopen. But I wanted to take baby steps in making sure everything was in order.
ALLEN: You did have a customer.
Were you nervous?
You are in the business of cutting and styling hair, as you just pointed out. That is something you do very close to your client.
STAFFORD: Yes. It was a bit of nervousness when she entered into the salon. I think the things that I am implementing not only made myself feel safer but, at all costs, I needed her to feel safe.
I was asking her to give me feedback on how she felt about everything that we put in place. And I think I'm doing pretty good with, you know, even when it comes to shampooing, laying her back, having her to remain with the mask, also implementing putting a towel over her eyes, nose and mouth.
I'm trying to make sure everything is covered, changing out garments, hand washing, sanitizing the station, making sure even my implements are sanitized as well.
ALLEN: It sounds like you are trying to think of everything you can possibly do to stay safe and be sure that your clients stay safe.
Do you anticipate business picking up?
Are clients showing interest in coming in?
STAFFORD: Yes. Clients have been calling to schedule appointments. But I've been very adamant about only taking maybe three clients a day right now. I don't really want to go into it full force.
ALLEN: Right. Understood.
What about your employees?
Do you have other stylists?
Are they coming back to work?
STAFFORD: Yes. They have decided to start this week off, this Monday. I decided by me coming in a couple of days before them, that would be another thing that was vital for me as a salon owner, making sure everything I put in place as far as these protocols will be the best thing for all of us.
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STAFFORD: So yesterday me taking only one client. Today I will take about three just to test out what the rotation process. So that's what I've been doing for the past two days.
ALLEN: Well, Shannon, we know this is probably a nerve-wracking time. But you're going for it. Wish you the best and a lot of safety and hope it goes all right.
STAFFORD: Thank you.
ALLEN: All the best to you.
All right. Next here, imagine you're a little boy named Corona. Yes, just like the virus. And yes, the kids in school can be tough with their teasing. But don't worry. We have a Hollywood happy ending to this one right after this.
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ALLEN: Jonathan Coelho was only 32 when he died this week of coronavirus. He had been hospitalized for almost a month and seemed to be doing better after 20 days on a ventilator. But he didn't make it.
After he died, his wife found he had written a farewell love note to help his family deal with their grief. She talked about it with our Anderson Cooper.
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COELHO: I spoke with a nurse Tuesday at 9:00 and she said he did fantastic and he did tired at the end and that they gave him a little bit of sedative to sleep and I asked if I should face -- if I should FaceTime him or let them rest and she said, you know what, why don't we let them rest and I'll tell him you called and if he wakes up, I'll call you.
But I just didn't want to set him off and 2:04 Wednesday morning I woke up to my phone ringing and it was the hospital.
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COELHO: And I before I even answered it, I just said, oh, God.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: He wrote a note that he -- that he left in his phone, and part of it reads, I love you guys with all my heart and you've given me the best life I could have ever asked for. Sorry.
COELHO: It's OK. Jonathan is good with his words.
A. COOPER: Yes.
Do you have friends and family around you?
COELHO: I've been able to have -- because my kids tested positive and I was never tested. But they said it was safe to assume that I was positive because my entire family was -- we've been able to have people come and help us as long as there.
They were masked and gloved and they've just helped with the kids greatly because the last two days have been really hard and I'm, I'm really trying, but I don't think I'm doing as good of a job as I wish I could.
A. COOPER: I mean, obviously your kids are so young. They don't really know what's going on.
COELHO: No, I think that's the double edged sword in it. I'm glad that they're so happy and they're loving and getting played with and they think it's so much fun. But it's also -- they don't know that they are lost them greatest human being. And they'll only ever know their dad through pictures and memories and
videos and there's no -- and to me I feel like that's the worst part of this is that they won't feel the love that I felt for the past 10 years with my husband.
They'll know about it, but they can't say like, I remember feeling that.
And, anyone who's never had the feeling of Jonathan loving them and has seriously missed out and it breaks my heart and I know he was so scared to miss out on them growing up.
And that's one of the hardest things too is I know he didn't want this and I know he didn't go feeling like he had done everything he needed to do, I know he was feeling scared and not wanting to go.
A. COOPER: I can tell you my dad died when I was a little kid and I know he really tried not to die because he didn't want to leave my brother and I, and then not have as know him. The only thing I can tell you is that they will know him through you and the love you have for him.
They will feel like they know and because I know you'll tell stories about him as they grow up and for the rest of their lives.
COELHO: My daughter, my husband for my birthday this year, made me a photo blanket and my daughter every night unprompted, crawls over to her dad's picture and just like starts hitting it because she just likes his picture.
And the night my husband -- the night prior to my husband passing my son got his adaptive communication device and their -- his speech teacher who was amazing made a tab that was so he could speak specifically to my husband when he we could FaceTime him.
And I sent a video to the hospital and it's my son touching.
I asked him, "What do you want to say to Dad?"
And he hit, "My dad's my best friend."
And that's the last video the nurse showed my husband before he went into cardiac arrest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: We want to show you this, a GoFundMe page has been set up for Katie and her family. If you would like to help, go to the website you see here on your screen.
And we'll be right back.
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[05:50:00]
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ALLEN: Schoolyard bullies have been hard on a little Australian boy who happened to be named Corona. But he didn't let the teasing get him down. He wrote a touching letter to a Hollywood hero and got a friend and a Corona typewriter by return mail. Charles Croucher of 9News has the happy ending.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHARLES CROUCHER, 9NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It's a particularly tough time to be named Corona.
CORONA DEVRIES, TOM HANKS' NEW PEN PAL: Coronavirus. They just kept on saying that. And I got really mad.
CROUCHER (voice-over): Instead of getting mad, Corona DeVries got writing and picked a very impressive pen pal.
C. DEVRIES: Dear Mr. and Mrs. Hanks, my name is Corona. I heard on the news you and your wife have caught the coronavirus.
Are you OK?
CROUCHER (voice-over): Corona grew up knowing Tom Hanks as Woody from "Toy Story." But after a package arrived on the Gold Coast, this 8- year old knows the Oscar winner as his friend from the letters.
C. DEVRIES: Yes, it's very special because I always feel like I'm famous. He said I'm a friend of him.
CROUCHER (voice-over): The letter begins, "Dear friend Corona, your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful," and ends, "I thought this typewriter would suit you. Ask a grownup how it works and use it to write me back."
C. DEVRIES: It says my name on it. Oh, my God.
CROUCHER (voice-over): The letter signed off with a handwritten note, "P.S. You've got a friend in me."
KEVIN DEVRIES, CORONA'S FATHER: Over the moon, I think, was an understatement. He was ecstatic.
CROUCHER (voice-over): Hanks is back in the U.S., where he recently hosted "Saturday Night Live" from his house, showing off his Australian accent --
TOM HANKS, ACTOR: What's a right proper way to get a daily dose of your Vegemite?
[05:55:00]
CROUCHER (voice-over): -- and his collection of typewriters, minus that one that, tonight, is safely in Corona's care. C. DEVRIES: And I'm going to write back soon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Adorable boy. He will outcome those bullies any day.
This one is for the kids. A CNN town hall featuring some pretty big TV stars. Take a look.
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HILL: Big Bird, this next question is for you.
BIG BIRD, MUPPET: It's for me?
HILL: Yes, 3-year-old Connor from Atlanta, Georgia, has this question.
CONNOR, 3-YEAR OLD: Hey, Big Bird, what are you doing during this stay-at-home order?
BIG BIRD: Hi, Connor. Thank you for your question. I have been reading and drawing pictures of my nest. And, oh, I drew a picture of my friend, Oscar the Grouch. And I'm going to give it to him when it's OK to have a playdate.
And oh, I have also had video playdates with my friend, Snuffy. It's kind of hard to see a whole Snuffleupagus in a small video chat screen, though.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: CNN and Sesame Street host a special coronavirus town hall just for kids and their parents. Big Bird joins Dr. Sanjay Gupta and reporter Erica Hill for "The ABCs of COVID-19," the CNN Sesame Street town hall.
It airs in just a few hours at 9:00 in New York, 2:00 pm in London, 9:00 pm in Hong Kong right here.
Thank you so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. The news continues next.
