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President Trump Contradicts His Top Health Expert's View; WHO Fears Coronavirus Will Stay Longer; Millions of Americans Filed for Unemployment; Volunteers Risk Their Lives for the Sake of Everybody; Coronavirus Pandemic, Volunteers Behind Covid-19 Vaccine Trials; Europe Looks For Return Of Tourism; U.S. Moves To Reopen Even As Death Toll Climbs; European Union Releases Guidelines For Phased Return Tourism; Town Caught In The Middle Of Covid-19 Lockdown; Brazil Reports 11,350 Plus New Cases In A Single Day; U.S. Mask Manufacturer Prestige Ameritech, Government Missed Timely Opportunity; Play Ball Has Never Been Like This; Can Sports Leagues Resume Games Without Virus Risk. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired May 14, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN Newsroom. And I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead.
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MIKE RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away.
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CHURCH: As people all over the world count down the days until the coronavirus pandemic is over, the World Health Organization issues a shocking warning. It may be around for a long time to come. Plus.
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JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD: The burden has fallen most heavily on those least able to bear it.
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CHURCH: The U.S. economy and its people are still hurting as experts predict almost two and a half million Americans filed for unemployment just last week.
And despite the pandemic, the E.U. is hoping to attract its usual tourists this summer, but warns travelers it's at their own risk.
Good to have you with us. As the entire world waits anxiously for a vaccine or treatment for
COVID-19, a sobering reality check on Wednesday from the World Health Organization.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN: This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: But as countries, such as the United States, ease restrictions and consider reopening schools, a top U.S. health official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warns against moving too quickly. He says it's a mistake to think children are somehow immune. Especially with the rare complications that are now emerging among juveniles. But the U.S. president doesn't seem convinced.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you said Dr. Fauci is playing both sides, are suggesting that the advice he's giving you is different?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, I was surprised -- I was surprised by his answer, actually. Because, you know, it's just -- to me it's not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools.
The only thing that would be acceptable, as I said, is professors, teachers, et cetera, over a certain age. I think they ought to take it easy for another few weeks, five weeks, four weeks, who knows, whatever it may be, but I think they have to be careful because this is a disease that attacks age. And it attacks health.
And if you have a heart problem, if you have diabetes, if you're a certain age, it's certainly much more dangerous, but with the young children, I mean, and students it's really -- it's -- just take a look at the statistics. It's pretty amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Well, doctors don't agree with that, but Johns Hopkins University says the coronavirus has killed more than 84,000 people in the U.S., but White House sources say some of President Trump's aides are casting doubts on that figure. Suggesting it is being inflated.
We get more now from CNN's Jim Acosta.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Taking control of the coronavirus message coming from the White House President trump is giving the administration a pat in the back for the U.S. response to the pandemic.
With the enormous weight of the pandemic hanging over the White House, sources tell CNN administration officials are questioning the accuracy of the coronavirus death toll in the U.S. and whether the number of dead is being over counted.
But that would fly in the face of testimony from top administration health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci who said deaths are likely being undercounted, as some residents in hard hit New York died at home and were never counted as COVID-19 fatalities.
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ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: So, a direct answer to your question, I think you are correct that the number is likely higher. I don't know exactly what percent higher, but almost certainly it is higher.
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ACOSTA: The president suggested New York's number of dead was too high last month.
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TRUMP: I see, this morning where New York added 3,000 deaths because they died and now saying, rather than it was a heart attack, they are saying it was a heart attack caused by this.
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ACOSTA: Trump allies on Fox News have zeroed in on Fauci as an obstacle to reopening the country, blasting the doctor's cautious approach to the pandemic.
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TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, FOX NEWS: Is the guy you want to chart the future of the country? Maybe not. This is a very serious matter, the decisions we are making right now, Tony Fauci has not been elected to anything.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fauci, to be very blunt, is the face of this failed administrative state.
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: I totally agree.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you got to question the entire premise of this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The chief buffoon or the professional.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: Dr. Anthony Fauci also seems to favor what the Democrats want, and that is massive restrictions with no end in sight.
LAURA INGRAHAM, HOST, FOX NEWS: With all due respect to Dr. Fauci's expertise, no one elected him to anything.
[03:05:03]
ACOSTA: But there is one big problem for the White House. A CNN poll found a solid majority of Americans trust Fauci not the president when it comes to the pandemic.
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RICHARD BRIGHT, FORMER FEDERAL VACCINE CHIEF: Hospital preparedness --
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ACOSTA: Another public health official to watch? Dr. Rick Bright, a top vaccine expert who was removed from his post, he says, in alleged act of retaliation.
Bright who was set to appear before House subcommittee on Thursday warns the U.S. must prepare for the pandemic to get worse. Saying in his prepared testimony, "without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history."
Mr. Trump is brushing off Bright as an unhappy employee.
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TRUMP: To me, he's a disgruntled guy, and I haven't heard great things about him.
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ACOSTA: With such dire predictions, the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was asked whether the November election might be postponed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elections will happen on November 3rd?
JARED KUSHNER, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is not my decision to make, so I'm not sure I could commit one way or the other. But, right now that's the plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Kushner later released a statement saying, "I have not been involved in nor am I aware of any discussions about trying to change the date of the presidential election."
But the damage done to the economy is beyond question. According to Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell who adds working Americans are taking a major hit.
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POWELL: Among people who are working in February, almost 40 percent of those in households making less than $40,000 a year have lost their job in March. This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words, as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future.
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CHURCH: Joining me now to discuss this is Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, a CNN medical analyst and chief clinical officer at Providence Health System. Thank you so much for talking with us.
AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Pleasure.
CHURCH: So, we just heard that the administration officials are privately questioning the coronavirus death toll after Dr. Fauci testified the count is probably underreported. What's the scientific reasoning behind why the death toll is likely higher than we think, and why is it important that we know that real number?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Yes. With the backlogs we've had in testing some people with symptoms haven't been able to access the test, or they are in a part of the country without easy access to medical care. And so, they stay at home with their cough and shortness of breath, and then they passed away there.
Also, in elderly people, it seems that the symptoms tend to be a little less discreet, so people don't feel good, they just general malaise, and they die. So not the same cough or shortness of breath that others get.
And so what happens is people end up dying in other places without getting the test, but it's why you saw New York City start to look at death rates this year compared to previous years and seeing this difference in death rates and that's how they were counting excess deaths from undiagnosed COVID.
And that's what Dr. Fauci was referring to. That we are missing some of these cases for people that simply aren't accessing care today.
CHURCH: Right. And President Trump also criticized Dr. Fauci for cautioning against sending children back to schools, and universities too early while there is no vaccine available, emphasizing they are vulnerable as well.
President Trump insists it's only the age and those underlying health issues that are vulnerable. Who should we listen to? The scientists or the politician? And how do you decide when it is best to send kids back to school when we may not have a vaccine until next year?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: You know, it is so critical to listen to the scientists and to give voice to the scientists. One thing in this epidemic that we have never seen before in the U.S. is the mausoleum of people with expertise. You saw in the quashing of the CDC report and how to get people back to work safely because for some reason it wasn't seen as politically palatable.
And just ensuring that we have the capacity to listen to the experts to the people that actually study the epidemiology and know how to keep us safe. It's essential for us to be able to hear that and use that truth to guide our path forward. And for some reason, we're in this very odd moment when we're not allowing people with expertise to speak that truth, and so we're not able to use it to guide us rationally.
CHURCH: Yes. And we are also learning more about this virus as we go along, aren't we? And now, two new studies revealed a COVID-19 attacks not only the lungs, but also the brain, kidneys, heart, liver, throat, toes, and intestines. So, should of this give us more reason to be cautious as states and countries open up? But how do we strike that balance between health and economics?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: You know, I think we do things rationally, logically, slowly and progressively.
[03:09:58]
And in fact, what the White House guidelines say about opening the country are a rational path forward. They're not very specific, they don't give us much guidance which is what that CDC report that isn't getting released does. You know, specifically tell you how do you open a store, how do you open a school safely, rationally.
And somehow, wanting to take short cuts where we're missing some of that guidance. Because we know people should not have to choose between continuing living and making a living. We need to do both, but we need to do the former guided by the science of the latter.
CHURCH: And doctor, we are also learning that thousands of people volunteering to be exposed to COVID-19 to speed up the effort to find and distribute a vaccine for the virus. This is called a human challenge study, which is a controlled human infection study where volunteers are actually given the experimental vaccine then deliberately exposed to the pathogen viral nasal spray, or some other means. Does this global emergency justified taking those risks to get a vaccine out there? And save many more lives?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: You know, Rosemary, this is one of those moments when I am just continuously amazed at the goodness people have wanting to help their neighbor, right? Wanting to help everybody else. It's the same reason people donate plasma. That everybody wants to find a cure, and they're willing to put themselves at risk to do so.
Any time during a study we have something called informed consent saying these are the risks and these are the benefits, and so people would willingly do this. The reason it makes a vaccine trial much faster is because normally you have to observe people.
You give -- you give the test vaccine to group, and then other people don't get it, and then you watch them over time and see who potentially gets exposed, what are the statistics, and that can honestly take a couple of years.
So, the fact that you're actually giving the vaccine and then exposing them to the virus, you learn very quickly how well that vaccine works, and that's why it really short-circuits it. So, it is ethical, but you have to really make sure people understand what they're signing up for because there is real and legitimate risk to everybody involved.
CHURCH: Yes. Incredible risk, but if this can actually speed up the process a lot of people would be very thankful to those volunteers.
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate it, as always.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you so much for having me.
CHURCH: And as some people in England head back to work for a second day, there are fears over what happens next, both from a health and economic perspective. Busier public transport is raising concerns of a potential second spike and infections, while the British finance minister is warning of a significant recession this year.
And our Nina Dos Santos joins us now from London. Good to see you, Nina. So, what's been the reaction to this warning of a possible recession as the country tries to slowly emerge from its lockdown?
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think many people aren't surprised here, Rosemary, that the country will face a really sharp economic downturn. We've already seen other nations in the European Union, also remember that the U.K is Brexiting as well which also add a lot more economic strain add to the mix later on this year.
They have seen their economies have a very sharp downturn, as well. And evidence of this. Just yesterday for the U.K. economy reporting GDP figures showing that the quarterly basis, the economy strength by 2 percent, 2 whole percentage points. That's a significant amount.
But in March, which is the month when they actually implemented these lockdown measures towards the end of the month of March, it shrunk 5.8 percent. So, people are bracing themselves for much worse figures for the month of April, and a really sharp downturn for the next quarter of the year. Two consecutive quarters of negative economic output equals a recession. So, many people not surprised here.
All of this is trying to focus people's minds to make sure that they can get back to work as soon as possible to try and save their jobs. And that was very much evident on the streets of London. On Wednesday, which was the first day that parts of the U.K. began to lift those coronavirus restrictions to get people back working again, Rosemary.
London is usually bustling Kings Cross station look more likely a ghost town. The few commuters outnumbered by railway staff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trains are totally empty, and everything is fine.
GARY TUNSTALL, CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGER: It's really quiet. Normally, London is just absolutely heaving 24/7, isn't it really.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: Elsewhere in the city, there were more signs of life, traffic clogging roads and buses packed as parts of the U.K. begin to tentatively ease coronavirus restrictions.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The next nation is Buffery Park.
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[03:14:58]
DOS SANTOS: From Wednesday, those who can't do their job from home like construction workers, many factory workers, even garden center staff are being allowed to return, avoiding public transport when possible.
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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I don't want to see crowding on mass transport or public transport in our capital or anywhere else.
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DOS SANTOS: It's a mixed signal for many low paid Londoners we have no other way to get around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's a risky strategy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was really excited to go out, and it kind of, doesn't help, because no one is really following any rules for even a second phase now.
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DOS SANTOS: While British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists that common sense will prevail, his Sunday address appears to have left many Britons even more confused than they had been before.
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KEIR STARMER, LEADER, BRITISH LABOUR PARTY: After the confusion of the last few days, gaining public confidence in them is crucial. Crucial. The prime says its decisions were, and I quote, "driven by the science, the data and public health." So, to give the public confidence in the decisions, can the prime minister commit to publishing the scientific advice that the decisions were based on?
JOHNSON: All sage advice is published in due course. I think people can see exactly what we are trying to do as a country, and they can see that everyone is still required to obey the social distancing laws.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOS SANTOS: Many aspects of the lockdown remain in place, and even the small relaxation could be revoked if infections spike again.
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JOHNSON: What we are doing is entirely conditional and provisional. The U.K. has made a huge amount of progress that the people of this country have worked incredibly hard to get the R down. We cannot now go back to square one.
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DOS SANTOS: Even within the U.K. there is no consensus on how exactly to get back to business. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland with their own public health powers are continuing to tell their residents to stay home. A message that's more clear-cut than England's advice to stay alert.
The big question here, Rosemary, is what a stay alert really mean. It's a question of trying to keep oneself safe, and a safe two-meter distance according to those social distancing guidelines. But as you saw there in some of those scenes it is going to become impossible when London really gets back to work with the current schedule that the transport links have.
And a lot of people here in this country saying that there is not enough joint up thinking and clarity from the government thus far. Also, I should point out, they've missed their testing targets yet again. And as we know, the death toll is rising by the hundreds of people every day, Rosemary.
CHURCH: It is a terrible story, unfortunately a familiar one, as well.
Nina dos Santos, many thanks for bringing us that report from London.
And be sure to tune in for our next global town hall on the coronavirus hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper. Among the special guests, climate activist Greta Thunberg. That is Thursday at 8 p.m. in New York, 8 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong only here on CNN.
And still to come, well over 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment since mid-March. A new report later today will reveal how many more have been added to that grim rank.
[03:20:00]
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone.
Well U.S. President Donald Trump is taking aim at the nation's top infectious disease expert. Dr. Anthony Fauci urge leaders during his testimony to Congress on Tuesday to use caution when reopening the economy and schools. But President Trump says Fauci's comment was not an acceptable answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Fauci yesterday was a little cautious on reopening the economy too soon. Do you share his concerns?
TRUMP: About reopening what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reopening the economy too soon in some states?
TRUMP: Look, if he wants to play all sides of the equation, I think we are going to have a tremendous fourth quarter. I think we are going to have a transitional third quarter, I think we are going to have a phenomenal next year.
I feel that we are going to have a country that's ready to absolutely have one of its best years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Well, President Trump touts his optimistic prediction for the economy, economists expect another two and a half million Americans will have filed first time claims in the past week. That would bring the total number filed since mid-March to 36 million.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell says the unemployment rate is likely to peak in the coming months before declining. And he is warning of dire consequences if lawmakers don't step up relief efforts.
CNN's John Defterios is with me now, live from Abu Dhabi. Good to see you, John. So, the Fed chairman warned Congress to move quickly on the next round of relief for those in need but the Trump administration said not so fast. The markets didn't like Wednesday's message. What can we expect in the next few hours?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, I have to say the Asian markets have digested this news and that big sell-off on Wall Street rather well. They're down, but not severely. European futures, the U.S. futures down, but again, not a shock.
We saw losses of one and a half to two and a quarter on Wall Street and even worse in Europe yesterday as soon as J. Powell did speak. And it's difficult for investors to navigate the near-term future particularly with the WHO suggesting where it could be living with the COVID-19 for years to come.
It just hit consumer confidence and whether you can open up manufacturing facilities going forward. And also, we have to appreciate the sober assessment from Jerome Powell, very solid language suggesting how bad the situation is. Let's get a tone from him here or take an assessment of what he thinks about the unemployment situation and those who are getting hit the most.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) POWELL: Among people who are working in February, almost 40 percent
of those in households making less than $40,000 a year had lost their job in March. This reversal of economic fortune has caused a level of pain that is hard to capture in words as lives are upended amid great uncertainty about the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: He's right to suggest that, Rosemary, because it's falling on those who make less than $40,000 a year but those who are in service jobs and can get fired anytime and we don't know if they can get rehired.
Also, Powell was very direct in his language to President Trump and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin suggesting that the tool box of the Federal Reserve is not going to be open forever. You can't keep interest rates low forever. He doesn't like the idea of negative interest rates.
And this is where he and Mnuchin disagree. Mnuchin saying, look, at a time where we're running high debt, it's good to have low interest rates so we can restructure the debt. The debt is $25 trillion, $5 trillion above the size of the GDP so it's not good.
And in fact, the holders of that debt growing in terms of the foreign governments, particularly China, 37 percent overall is held by foreign government. That's why people get nervous when we see the U.S.-China trade dispute, worrying that it filters into the bond market at the same time.
CHURCH: All right. We'll have to leave it there. John Defterios joining us live from Abu Dhabi. Many thanks.
Well, South Korea has reported 12 new cases of the coronavirus linked to a cluster originating in Seoul's nightclub district. The government has tested more than 35,000 people who visited clubs in the area. So far, 131 new cases linked to the cluster have been found.
[03:25:00]
South Korea is now offering anonymous testing for those who haven't come forward.
And officials in Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million have reportedly started a 10-day crash program to test all its citizens in a renewed effort to stop the spread of the virus. The state-run Global Times reports people who are classified as high risk will be tested first.
Priority for testing will be given to key groups and older communities with dense and fluid populations.
A preliminary study from New York University says that virus testing kits praised by President Trump and used by the White House frequently give the wrong results. Here's what the president thinks of the test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: This is a five to 15 minutes test. As an example, the Abbott Laboratories test. These tests are highly sophisticated, very quick, very good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: But the university says the rate of false negatives makes Abbott's 15-minute I.D. now test unacceptable in their clinics. But the drug maker insists its test has a high accuracy rate and other studies contradict the New York study.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta says even a small rate of wrong results could be dangerous.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is obviously a significant sort of test because it could give results really quickly. If you're waiting days for your test results and you end up having the virus you don't know that you could be out there spreading it. That's been the concern, so people need results quickly.
This can give one in 15 minutes. If a 100 people have the infection, they all get the test. If you have a false negative rate of 15 percent that means 15 of those people will be told you don't have the virus they actually do.
If you are in a hospital, and you get put into a COVID negative part of the hospital, a place where there is not COVID spreading, now you spread it. That creates a cluster in a hospital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: As to the high hopes for a vaccine, the world Health Organization is warning it may never come and we'll need to learn to live with COVID-19, rather than eradicate it. But the race for a vaccine is in full sprint, and many brave volunteers maybe putting their lives on the line for all of us in vaccine trials.
CNN's Drew Griffin introduces us to a few of them.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: He donated a kidney last summer, now Abie Rohrig is ready to medically volunteer again. This time, as a guinea pig in a vaccine trial designed to infect volunteers with a virus the world has never known.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABIE ROHRIG, HUMAN CHALLENGE TRIAL VOLUNTEER: Just like the nurses and the doctors on the front line, you know, I'm willing to take some risks myself if it means that we can move through this as a nation and as a world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: He is 20 years old, lives in New York, has seen with the pandemic can do and has signed up online to be a volunteer in a potential COVID-19 human challenge vaccine trial. Unlike other vaccine trials, in a challenge trial, a group of volunteers would first be injected with a potential vaccine, and a second control group would be injected with a placebo.
After allowing sufficient time for the volunteers who got the vaccine to hopefully build up immunities, it's all challenge. All the volunteers, those with and those without the vaccine candidate are intentionally contaminated with coronavirus. Risky, potentially even deadly? Yes, all of that, but it also might be a quicker path to an actual vaccine for the rest of us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: This is designed to get some people sick.
MARC LIPSITCH, PROFESSOR, HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: That's right. The intention is to make some people, at least, infected.
GRIFFIN: Marc Lipsitch, Harvard epidemiologist is one of the scientists whose idea of using a challenge vaccine for COVID-19 is now gaining interest from the World Health Organization.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIPSITCH: This could save months of the time required to evaluate a vaccine. The goal is to do the fastest responsible, and a scientifically valid way of evaluating a vaccine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Multiple vaccines could be tried at the same time, controls put in place for proper medical care for all the volunteers, and by selecting only young, healthy adults, Lipsitch says the chances of someone dying is extremely low.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIPSITCH: It is not zero, and that's why this is an altruistic act to volunteer for this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: It's not just the risk, it is the unknown risk, says Professor Robert Read at the University of Southampton in the U.K. He is in favor of the idea but insist there would need to be a full disclosure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT CHARLES READ, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON: This case is different. We're not able to quantify the risk to the volunteer, and when we take informed consent from them, we will have to say to them that we cannot say exactly what is going to happen to them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: You are going to be infected with something for which there is no treatment for at this time?
ROHRIG: Right.
GRIFFIN: Does that give you pause?
ROHRIG: It certainly gives me pause, and I don't want to be naive or arrogant, and I don't want to hide myself from the fact that there is a serious, not at all trivial risk to me doing this.
[03:30:00]
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Despite the risk, 16,000 people from more than 100 countries had already signed an online forms saying they are interested in becoming volunteers. That includes, U.S. Army veteran, businessman, husband and father of four, John Gentle of Alabama.
JOHN GENTLE, HUMAN CHALLENGE TRIAL VOLUNTEER: I'm putting more people directly related to me at a greater risk, if something were to go wrong, but I feel like the risk is low.
GRIFFIN: So far, the challenge vaccine trials is hypothetical. But John gentle, Abie Rohrig, and 16,000 others say they are ready, if needed, to take the risk if it means they can be part of ending the covid-19 pandemic. Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the E.U. is looking toward the summer and hoping there may be some kind of return for tourism. We will take a closer look in a live report from London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Weeks of home confinement are gradually coming to an end across much of the United States, even as new cases and deaths keep climbing. The push to reopen is gaining momentum. CNN's Nick Watt has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The biggest spike in grocery prices since 1974 says the Bureau of Labor. One in four Americans will lose their jobs says Goldman Sachs. But as states reopen, trying to staunch that economic chaos, one models projected death tolls for the U.S. more than doubled in just two weeks.
DR. CHRISTOPHER MURRAY, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: People have heard the message and have gotten out, they become more mobile, they are having more contact, and we are seeing the effects already.
WATT: In most states, new case counts are steady or falling for now but rising in Arkansas, South Dakota, and Delaware.
JEN KATES, KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION: We are seeing fatigue of staying inside and also some mixed messages. One state is doing one thing, another state is doing something else. The federal government has provided just very general guidelines. So, I think there is also some confusion as to what is safe.
WATT: Today, New Jersey announced gatherings of people in cars are now allowed.
GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): If vehicles are closer than six feet apart, then all windows, sunroofs, or convertible tops must remain closed.
WATT: West Virginia just announced they will open tanning salons in about a week.
GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R-WV): I never dreamed in all my life that we have gotten all these calls in regard to the, the tanning businesses or tanning beds. Our medical experts now feel like we are good to go.
[03:35:10]
WATT: While Washington D.C. re-upped its stay-at-home order.
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-WASHINGTON D.C.): Through Monday, June 8th, and, I should note, that based on the data, I can't revises this order at any time.
WATT: A new CNN poll shows that 13 percent rise and those who say they visited friends or family in the past week.
DR. ESTHER CHOO, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: We took comfort in the fact that our kids were largely safe. And I wonder if some of that is our comfort with relaxing social distancing measures.
WATT: But now, 15 states are reporting rare cases of severe potentially covid related reactions in children.
DR. JUAN DUMOIS, PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Really high fevers, rashes, and sometimes drops in blood pressure causing shock.
WATT: The CDC planning today to warn physicians to look out for such symptoms.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We have lost three children in New York because of this, 5 year old boy, 7-year-old boy and an 18 year old girl.
WATT: And, what does he think about schools opening in the fall?
CUOMO: Where are we going to be in September? I don't know. I don't know we are going to be in August. You know, I am trying to figure out June.
WATT: Here in L.A. County, the beaches are open again, retailers are open again, but just curbside. The mantra across California, as we are making progress, but we are going to take it slow. Nick Watt, CNN, Manhattan Beach.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And the European commission acknowledges this summer will be far from normal, but it is hoping a phased approach to the lifting of restrictions could preserve some tourism in the coming months. Guidelines have been released, the proposed a flexible uncoordinated way forward, the aim to safely and gradually allow tourism to resume, and restore passenger transport by air, rail, and road.
The European commission recommends that once the health situation improves, the E.U. should move toward unrestricted free movement within the Schengen zone. Now, despite that action, the E.U. transport commissioner told CNN that tourists who do travel in Europe this summer will do so at their own risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADINA-LOANA VALEAN, EUROPEAN COMMISIONER FOR TRANSPORT: It's a risk you take, so no one can actually give you a 100 percent guarantee, and we are not labeling, necessarily that this is 100 percent safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And joining me now from London is CNN's Nic Robertson, good to see you, Nic. So, as people travel at their own risk, they will find different countries have different restrictions causing complications in some parts of Europe. What did you find?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely, and traveling around Europe as I have done over the past couple of weeks or so, it is different from country to country. And at borders, you do get asked that question, where you going? Why are going there? And you can't go places as a tourist at the moment. And that's because countries have reacted to the pandemic, dependent on the severity of the pandemic in their countries in different ways.
And in some parts of Europe, that's creating hardships and difficulties. And one of those places is the border area between the Netherlands and Belgium, and when we went there, the situation was something they've never experienced before.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: Once seamless borders, now controlled. Europe's unity facing new strains. And nowhere starker than the border enclave town of Baarle. This is Belgium overhear and the Netherlands over here. B and L, and the border crisscrosses this town right through the middle of the road. Creating a dizzying array of division.
The coronavirus lockdown is driving to previously unseen proportions. Belgium's lockdown tougher than the Dutch. And here, the border runs right into the store. I'm going in.
Artist Sylvia Reijbroek, loves her special border status, but not the uneven lockdowns. Her shop despite the obvious division is technically Belgian.
SYLVIA REIJBROEK, SHOP OWNER: Now it's a big problem because the law said you can open only for the Belgian people.
ROBERTSON: So you can only sell to the Belgian people?
REIJBROEK: Yes.
ROBERTSON: Because you're in Belgium?
REIJBROEK: It is a really strange rule to ask people where you are from. So, I have to boycott my customers? Who is paying my bills?
[03:40:03]
ROBERTSON: In the weekly market, on the Dutch side, the cheese seller is hurting too.
Normally, you have a lot of people from Belgium coming here to this market to buy your cheese?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, at least 20 to 30 percent. And now we don't see a Belgian.
ROBERTSON: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The borderline is closed so --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The most peculiar municipality in Belgium and Netherlands.
ROBERTSON: Caught in the middle the towns twin mayors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are shock now. Personal, but also the countries, Europe, I think they are shocked together.
ROBERTSON: Both in lockstep about who is suffering most.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Belgium, it was stronger. The shops were closed. The playgrounds of the children, they were close. We closed the border over there.
ROBERTSON: And both in agreement that it's not right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've tried to make them listen to us.
ROBERTSON: She explains they pleaded with their own national governments and the European Union to fix the imbalance now and make sure that it can't happen again. For some here, the fix can't come soon enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 90 percent of the house is Dutch, 10 percent only the -- or you say the toilet.
ROBERTSON: It's Belgium.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Belgium. So on coronavirus lockdown are you doing Dutch or are you doing Belgium? Official Belgium.
ROBERTSON: Because his front door is in Belgium.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, the difference for the countries about the corona, Belgium, Dutch, Germany, England -- all different.
ROBERTSON: So is there a union anymore?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe nothing about the union.
ROBERTSON: Experience has taught the townspeople a lot. When Europe as well, (inaudible) their lives. Now in its worst crisis since World War II, the evidence in Baarle shows how quickly a fundamental of the European project openness can be undone.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: So, one of the ways to sort of continue to sort of keep that openness and that the E.U. is suggesting is that you can have bubbles, if you'd, The Baltic States, maybe such a case where they have similar levels of the pandemic in each country and they can come to mutually agreed between themselves, a travel between them.
So, you know, you sort of get pockets of the E.U. opening up if they have the same sort of pandemic experience but that is not the same as opening up the whole of the European Union. So, I think what travelers are going to experience is something that they have never really had before. It's good to be levels of skepticism about them arriving. Are they OK to enter that country? They are not going to bring the virus in with them.
And for tourists, that can be quite disconcerting. From our experience there in the Netherlands was that a lot of Dutch people right now are looking just to vacation with their own country. Within their own country. And I think that is going to be a broader European picture as well particularly when you hear that advice. You know, you cannot get a 100 percent safety guarantee.
CHURCH: Yes. It's causing a lot of divisions and complications isn't it? Nic Robertson, bringing us that report from your advantage point now back in London. I appreciate it.
Well, Brazil's ministry of health is reporting a record high of more than 11,000 new cases of the coronavirus in a single day. The nation now has the six most cases in the world according to Johns Hopkins University, CNN's Matt Rivers has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brazil continues to set records that no country would want to set, it was on Tuesday that Brazil reported its highest day today death toll increase so far, reporting 881 deaths as a result of this outbreak, and it was on Wednesday that the country reported nearly 11,400 new cases of this virus.
Those new cases mean that Brazil now has the six most confirmed cases out of any country in the world and over the coming days it is likely that Brazil will keep climbing up that list that no country wants to be on.
Meanwhile, the president of that country, Jair Bolsonaro continues to express his grave concern over the economic future of Brazil. He has consistently said that it can be facing a horrific recession in the months and years to come and so he has been laser focused on trying to ease quarantine measures and open the economy back up, when his latest moves is to issue a presidential decree that would call for the reopening of certain businesses like gyms and beauty salons with some governors in different states around Brazil have already said, that they will ignore that presidential order.
Meanwhile, the country's former health minister who was fired in mid- April after disagreeing with President Bolsonaro and how he wanted to lift a lot of the quarantine measures that have been put in place around the country, that health minister spoke to CNN's Christiane Amanpour and here's a little bit of what he had to say about that disagreement.
[03:45:10]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUIZ HENRIQUE MANDETTA, FORMER BRAZILIAN HEALTH MINISTER: We were clearly on opposite sides. So, once these differences were public, I think that -- I mean, he did what he decided that he should do but history will tell who was right and who was wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERS: Now clearly the health minister was right when he was saying back in March and April that if quarantine measures were lifted, that the number of deaths and cases would rise and that is what we are seeing right now, but that has not dissuaded the Brazilian president from saying the economic threat from this outbreak is equal to, if not worse than what we are seeing this outbreak due to people's health. Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And still to come on CNN, a Texas businessman says he offered to produce millions of masks to protect Americans, but kept waiting for the U.S. government to return his call. What happened? We will explain on the other side of the break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: During the early days of the pandemic, the U.S. government allegedly brushed off an offer by an American manufacturer to produce millions of face masks. The co-owner of that company will testify on Capitol Hill about that apparent missed opportunity just hours from now. CNN's Ed Lavandera has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the coronavirus was quickly spreading around the world, Mike Bowen was inside this mask making factory outside Fort Worth, Texas, firing off emails to federal government officials, letting them know his company could produce millions of masks. Bowen is the co-owner of Prestige Ameritech, one of the last American mask manufacturers in the country. For weeks, leading up to early April, he was working to get to the Trump administration's attention in news media interviews.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What percentage of your orders come from the federal government? And I suppose I'm asking in part because we keep --
MIKE BOWEN, CO-OWNER OF PRESTIGE AMERITECH: Zero
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zero? It's all private customers, hospitals and so forth?
BOWEN: Yes. Its hospitals, and the hospital distributors and general contributors, we haven't done business with the federal government since 2010.
LAVANDERA: The saga of Prestige Ameritech's efforts to fill the demand for masks highlights the early missed opportunities to equip frontline medical teams with supplies they desperately needed. The story is part of the whistleblower complaint, filed by Rick Bright, a former Director with the Department of Health and Human Services who says his early coronavirus warnings were ignored by the Trump administration.
On January 22nd, the day after the first coronavirus case was detected in United States, Mike Bowen wrote HHS officials and said, we still have for like new N95 manufacturing lines, reactivating these machines would be very difficult and very expensive, but could be achieved in a dire situation and with government help.
[03:50:00]
And HHS officials responded I don't believe we, as a government, are anywhere near answering those questions for you yet. Two weeks later, with still no federal government orders for masks coming in, Bowen wrote again to Rick Bright. Please ask your associates to convey the gravity of this national security issue to the White House.
The Trump administration has repeatedly touted its effort to stop the PPE supply chain, even though it was until early April that President Trump invoked the defense production act to produce N95 masks.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We put a priority of the president's direction on making sure that those that are providing health care services to America have the protection to keep themselves and their family safe.
LAVANDERA: In an email to CNN, White House coronavirus task force member Peter Navarro said, Prestige Ameritech was extremely difficult to work and communicate with. But few people understand that this issue as well as Mike Bowen, few have been sounding the alarm as long as he has. We have interviewed him 11 years ago, during the H1N1 pandemic. Back then, he warned that not enough PPE was being made at home.
BOWEN: If there was a pandemic, America won't be able to supply its own means because we are pretty much it. And all the other manufacturers have left the country.
LAVANDERA: There is no stockpile of mask available?
BOWEN: What I was told by a government representatives in November of 2007 that for category 5 pandemic, they have only about a 1 percent stockpile of what they need.
LAVANDERA: 1 percent?
BOWEN: 1 percent.
LAVANDERA: That's -- you could do that in a week probably, I bet.
BOWEN: That's what we've been telling them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And thanks to Ed Lavandera for that report. We have also learned that after weeks of making its case, Prestige Ameritech finally received a contract to manufacture N95 masks for the government, but the order wasn't placed until April 7th. More than two months after the first coronavirus case was detected in the United States.
Well, fans of America's grand old game could hear the umpire call play ball later this year. They just won't to be at the ballpark. More on the challenge facing U.S. sports. Just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: In the U.S., there are reports that Major League Soccer is planning for a centralized tournament in Florida, starting in June, with all 26 teams. As Brian Todd reports, other sports leagues also struggling to figure all of this out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The crack of the bat may soon return, the roar of the crowd won't. Major League Baseball has a plan that could allow regular season games to start around the 4th of July weekend, according to multiple news outlets including the New York Times and ESPN. They reported the season would be cut roughly in half to 82 games. The games will be held without fans, and played in team's home stadiums. But only in jurisdiction where the local governments and health officials would allow it.
BARRY SVRLUGA, SPORTS COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: They might have to move some teams away from home stadiums in places like California, where the restrictions are likely to be more stringent to someplace like Arizona, were already, the governor has said that they are open for business for major league sports. TODD: Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, is also courting major sports
teams from hard hit areas of the country, where local officials may not want to resume sports yet.
[03:55:07]
REP. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We will find a place for you here in the state of Florida, because we think it is important, and we know that it can be done, safely.
TODD: Baseball's plan still hasn't been agreed to by the players union. The challenges for baseball to return this summer are enormous, starting with ensuring the health of everyone involved.
BOB COSTAS, NBC SPORTS BROADCASTER: The safety of the players is going to be a concern for the Major League Baseball Players Association, not just the players, but all the insular people, even without, fans you have got a large contingents of people who are not in uniform as players.
TODD: Other major sports league are struggling to navigate a return. ESPN reports top NBA executives are discussing ways to resume this season, but weighing the health risks. The NFL plans to hold its 2020 season as scheduled, with fans in the stands. Germany's top soccer league is returning, England is considering it, top doctors warn those contact sports carry significant risks.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CHIEF INFECTIOUS DISEASES DIVISION, MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL: You know, leaning against each other, they are breathing within each other space, they are less than six feet apart. That is certainly fair game for a virus to transmit from one person to another.
TODD: Experts say players would have to be tested almost every day. Doctor Anthony Fauci told NBC sports, those who test positive would likely have to be segregated from the others.
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALERGY AND INFECTOUS DISEASE: Those who are positive, you know, are taken out of commission for 14 days until they become negative. Then, there is a possibility.
TODD: And there is a huge debate over when to let fans back. When our major sports return in earnest, couldn't look like South Korea? Where the only fans at their baseball games are painted on seat coverings?
WALENSKY: I think, until we have real control over this epidemic, and perhaps even a vaccine, I'd hate to say it, it's going to be hard to fathom how we can safely have thousands and thousands of people gathered in one space.
TODD: And sports analyst say, in order to return safely, the major sports teams are going to have to navigate the dynamics between their players. Maybe one player on a team will be eager to give out there on a given night, but another player might say, they've got a pregnant spouse at home or small children and they don't want to play to risk infecting them. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with more news in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
