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Unemployment in Kentucky is the Worst in the Nation; 3 Million More Americans File for Unemployment Last Week; Doctors Warn of Strange New Syndrome in Children. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 14, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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


MICHAEL CLARK, CENTER FOR BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY: Those workers, it's much harder to work remotely, as you can imagine. So, that may not be an option for a lot of the employers in Kentucky.

[08:30:05]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And two of the state's biggest employers, Toyota and Ford, are shut down.

(on camera): When the auto industry shuts down, what does that mean for you?

GREG RISCH, PRESIDENT & CEO, GIBBS DIE CASTING: That means they don't need my parts.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Gibbs Die Casting supplies the big three automakers with parts.

Greg Risch became CEO just seven weeks ago. His first action: furloughing 670 of his 800 employees.

RISCH: There's no work available, so they're obviously filing unemployment and getting all of the aid that's been available from the states as well.

YURKEVICH: Also on hold, the Kentucky Derby. Huge economic driver now postponed until September leaving businesses without $400 million in tourism dollars.

CLARK: You know, we're seeing reduced demand for their products, so their employees are being affected as well.

YURKEVICH: Parts of Kentucky's economy are reopening with a phased approach, but slower than its neighboring states.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: What's going to separate states and what their economies are going to look like by the end of the year is how well they reopen. If you go too fast, you have a spike and you have to shut down again. That's going to cause more long-term damage than doing it gradually and doing it right.

YURKEVICH: Despite the new safety protocols for reopening, Horn is eager to start seeing clients again on May 25th.

HORN: I'll be working longer hours because of the time in between clients, but it will be worth it, you know, like just to have a flow of money coming in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: And as the state starts to reopen, some jobs will come back online. Ford is reopening their plants next week. That's going to bring a lot of people back to work.

But, John, the big question is this manufacturing industry. Over the last two decades, manufacturing has really been on the decline in the U.S. and Kentucky has not been spared from that. So the question is, will these temporary furloughed jobs become permanent? No one really knows. We're in such uncertain times with this virus.

But people looking at that industry. The biggest industry in the state wondering if their jobs that are now currently unemployed are going to say that way, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: They have just no way of knowing right now.

Vanessa Yurkevich, terrific report, thanks so much for being with us.

The brand new unemployment numbers are just in. We'll bring you the breaking news next.

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[08:36:20]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news, the new unemployment numbers just in. Weekly jobless claims, they paint a full grim picture of the last two months.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans with the breaking details -- Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Two months of pandemic, layoffs totaling 36.5 million layoffs or furloughs. Last week, another 2.981 million, just a remarkable number. Again, these numbers have been slowing a little bit each week, but are still devastatingly big numbers.

And when you look within these numbers, you see retail layoffs, hotel, restaurants, bars. The Fed chief yesterday giving this statistic that of the households in February that were earning $40,000 a year or less, 40 percent of those households lost a job in March. And those job losses have continued pretty steadily here.

BERMAN: All right. Christine Romans, thank you. Stand by with us.

Also joining us, CNN anchor and correspondent Julia Chatterley. And that figure that Christine just read, Jerome Powell testifying 40

percent of those in households earning $40,000 a year lost a job in March. An economy can't work like that.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: And he made this point. I mean, this was about as graphic as it gets, I think, for a Central Bank governor saying it's just tough to put into words the amount of pain this is causing. It's a burden for many people across society, but it's hitting the poorest in society the worst. It comes at a time of food insecurity.

It was a warning, I think, to everybody. It was also a call to action from a central bank governor saying to lawmakers in this country, you need to do more. You may have gridlock at the moment over more spending. But there is simply not enough for all the trillions of dollars that have been put into the system here.

There's not been enough done. This is an unprecedented situation. He couldn't have been more graphic, John.

BERMAN: Look, it was as close to begging as I've ever seen a Fed chief do. We have some sound from that, so let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: The record shows that deeper and longer recessions can leave behind lasting damage to the productive capacity of the economy. Additional fiscal support could be costly, but worth it, if it helps avoid long-term damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Help us now, Congress and White House, seems to be what he's saying, Christine.

ROMANS: Yes. Costly but worth it. He's saying don't worry about the price tag here because what the recovery looks like on the other end depends on what Congress is doing right now.

We know that Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said, let's go big. There's a $3 trillion House piece on the table here.

We know that Republicans -- House Republicans and the Senate majority leader have said let's just slow down here. Let's see what's happening. Mitch McConnell ironically whose state has the highest percentage of the workforce out of work right now, he has said he doesn't feel an urgency at this moment to spend big again.

But the Fed chief begging there -- begging saying, look, you can't put into words the pain these families are feeling. And what Congress does today is what the recovery will look like in the months ahead.

BERMAN: You know, Julia, I keep on wondering. We're about two weeks into Georgia relaxing some of its restrictions. Other states are doing it as well. When or how will we see any signs that this necessarily leads to jobs coming back?

CHATTERLEY: This is such a great question. I've looked at some estimates who suggested we've seen about 5 million jobs come back already. But it's just going to take some time. We know that what we saw from the unemployment rate on Friday, it's just lagged by a couple of weeks at the very least.

[08:40:06]

So it takes time to see the jobs being added back and then being captured within the statistics. We're still going to see this unemployment rate rise when we get the data for this current month. And then I think you'll start to see improvement.

We're always behind the data. I think that's key. But, of course, we're also behind on the science here, John, too. It just takes time to get a sense of how consumers are going to behave overall. There's still fear out there.

BERMAN: That is the point that reopening in and of itself might not create jobs. It's the consumer sentiment, Christine Romans, and the feeling that it is safe that might lead to jobs coming back.

ROMANS: And the polls have shod us people are very cautious here. Many, many polls have showed us many people aren't quite ready to go back to normal just yet. It depends on how the states and localities and frankly individual businesses, how they conduct themselves on the reopening.

One quick point I'd like to say. You know, Congress knew -- lawmakers knew this was going to be bad. The treasury secretary, remember behind closed doors when he was warning senators earlier this spring they could see 20 percent unemployment, that's why they passed that extra unemployment benefits.

There are people in this country, John, who are making more today on the jobless check than they are -- they would have at work. So we're hoping that that money is going to help cushion some of these most vulnerable people.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, Julia Chatterley, nearly 3 million new jobless claims, 36 million people filing for unemployment in eight weeks. Unbelievable.

Doctors now warning about a rare and mysterious condition in children possibly linked to coronavirus. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:46:03]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Doctors are warning there will be more cases of this strange and frightening new inflammatory syndrome in kids that appears to be related to coronavirus. It causes symptoms ranging from very mild cracked lips all the way up to cardiac arrest.

Let's bring in CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with what we know about this rare but potentially deadly condition.

So what have you learned, Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is rare, thankfully, still, Alisyn. And I'll emphasize that point a couple times.

But the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, is working on a case definition right now. There was an alert about this that went out to hospitals in the U.K., a couple of weeks ago, over the weekend, Alisyn. And we're going to see a similar alert here. Basically telling hospitals around the country to be on the lookout for what you're about to see here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIET DALY, 12: My stomach started to hurt really bad. And it felt like my legs were weak and I was pretty tired.

SEAN DALY, JULIET'S DAD: She started having blue lips and her extremities were cold. That's when it was like, this is not a normal flu.

GUPTA (voice-over): Sean Daly is Juliet's dad.

(on camera): Did you think that this might be a COVID or coronavirus?

S. DALY: My wife thought it was a possibility. She called to see if she could get tested. She didn't meet the criteria. She was more or less a healthy 12-year-old.

GUPTA (voice-over): By that evening, Juliet was nearly dead.

S. DALY: They had my leave the room to intubate her. So, they put her under anesthesia. Then she went into cardiac arrest for a little less than two minutes and they had to perform CPR.

GUPTA (on camera): What was her condition when you first saw Juliet?

DR. JAKE KLEINMAHON, MD, OCHSNER HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN: She was about as close to death as you can get.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Jake Kleinmahon is a pediatric cardiologist at Ochsner Hospital for Children in New Orleans.

KLEINMAHON: Her heart was barely squeezing. She was going into kidney failure, liver failure. Intubated emergently and put on a ventilator.

GUPTA: It's hard to believe we're talking about this same beautiful little girl. But it's hard to believe this is possibly related to COVID-19, a disease that wasn't supposed to severely affect kids. Now, it even has a name. It's called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.

KLEINMAHON: There is a lot of cells and cell signaling in the body that is just going crazy. What that's doing is creating a lot of inflammation. It's affecting the heart, the liver, the kidney and, really, all the cells of the body.

GUPTA: It's been described as a Kawasaki-like disease. That's another inflammatory disease most commonly diagnosed in children. Awful rashes, a strawberry appearing tongue, and destructive inflammation, but this is also different.

There are so many questions. Like why now? Why months into this pandemic are we first seeing this? And why is it so devastating to children in the United States and Europe but not so much in Asia where some of the first children were infected?

DR. JANE BURNS, RADY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL SAN DIEGO: We have interesting information coming in from Japan as well as Korea and Taiwan that no one there that we have been in contact with has seen this severe form of cardiovascular collapse in children.

GUPTA: Dr. Jane Burns is the director of the Kawasaki disease clinic at Rady Children's Hospital San Diego.

BURNS: No one can tell you for sure that the SARS-COV-2 virus is a trigger for Kawasaki disease. But there is circumstantial evidence.

KLEIMAHON: We're seeing these kids that don't have an active COVID infection. Some of them do but a lot of them are testing positive for antibodies.

BURNS: A study published in "The Lancet" on Wednesday found that the number of children diagnosed with the Kawasaki-like disease in Bergamo, Italy, jumped 30 fold after the pandemic overtook the region.

[08:50:07]

Still in the United States, as frightening as it is, for now it's still appearing rare. Juliet was discharged after ten days in the hospital.

(on camera): How are you feeling now? You look great.

J. DALY: Well, I am feeling good and there doesn't seem to be any long-term effects.

GUPTA: Are you back 100 percent, would you say, back to normal?

J. DALY: I still feel a bit out of place, feel kind of like 99 percent.

S. DALY: We'll take 99 percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, that is a remarkable story. I mean, yes, I appreciate the caution that it's very, very rare for this -- to see this syndrome in children. However, to watch how quickly Juliet deteriorated is, you know, terrifying as a parent.

GUPTA: No question about it. I think, you know, part of the message that we're going to get from the CDC is for doctors and nurses but also for parents out there.

I think there's two things that I would tell parents. One is that if your child has recovered from this, you still need to be vigilant. It does appear that there's a certain percentage of children, again rare, but a certain percentage of children who as a post-inflammatory sort of thing. After they've recovered seem to have a flare up. It's not clear why.

Didn't see it in Asia. Seeing it in Europe and the United States. Maybe there's some genetic predisposition. They need to figure that out.

And secondly, this is still something that predominantly affects adults. But children are not immune to this. And I think that that's something we've learned along the way. We thought this was not going to be only adults but primarily elderly adults. And now, we see more and more people around the world diagnosed with this, we're learning about who's infected.

CAMEROTA: And just -- I might have missed it in there, Sanjay, but did she test positive for coronavirus?

GUPTA: She did, yes. So at the time when she became ill, at first they weren't sure. Again, like any parent, they thought well she's a kid. She's probably not going to have this.

As she became ill, she went to the hospital, she was tested and did test positive for coronavirus actively. And in studies, I'll tell you, Alisyn, really quick, they've shown the study of 15 children who had it. Four tested positive for coronavirus, six tested positive for antibodies, again, meaning they had it some point in the past, and five didn't test positive for either. So they're still working this out.

BERMAN: All right. We'll let you get a drink of water there, Sanjay. We do have time for a couple of viewer questions here, I think.

Let's take one from Kenny. I see quite a bit of social distancing occurring in a high percentage of people wearing some kind of face covering. But I don't see many people wearing gloves when shopping. Why aren't gloves being recommended as well?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, gloves are not part of the CDC recommendations when you go shopping. I think most people realize this. You're not contracting the virus by touching the virus itself. You're contracting the virus by touching the virus and then your face. So, gloves or no gloves, that's sort of the critical step.

You can wear gloves if you want, but you got to be careful, but sometimes it gives people a false sense of security. They will think that they got the gloves on, so it's not problematic if they touch their face. That's not true. Sometimes they take the gloves off, inadvertently contaminate themselves.

For me, you know, when I go grocery shopping, I'm not wearing gloves. I'm just really diligent about hand washing, which is the critical step.

CAMEROTA: OK, good to know.

This comes from Brian. Will quarantining eventually affect our immune systems by weakening because of less exposure to everyday germs outdoors?

GUPTA: This is a question we get a lot, and so much that I actually have talked to some infectious disease docs just to make sure. The answer is no. That is not a concern. That you're going to have waning immunity to other things.

We have different types of immune systems in our body. Some are more acute. Some are going to be more chronic. Many of the things that, you know, Brian may be worrying about other people may be worrying about, we have longer term immunity to that.

What we're going through is not going to be forever. If this -- if we were going to live in bubbles for the rest of our lives, perhaps. But for the period of time that we're going to be through this, that particular concern should not be one that should worry you.

Make sure that kids, you know, still get their vaccinations, though, just like they normally would.

BERMAN: All right, Sanjay. Thank you very much as always.

Time for a special edition of "The Good Stuff". There is help for disappointed high school seniors after the coronavirus pandemic spoiled some of life's key milestones like prom and graduation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I felt really bad for, like, my friends. Not just me and everybody else in our class. I knew those were experiences that make a lot of people's, like, high school career.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, some communities have adopted an adopt-a-senior page on Facebook.

[08:55:01]

Parents get to boast about their seniors and post their Amazon wish list or cash requests.

Brianna Capel started an adopt-a-senior program in Hopkins County, Kentucky. She's a nurse and therapist whose own mother is recovering from coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA CAPEL, NURSE AND THERAPIST: I the midst of all we're going through and people losing jobs and just not having, the community has come together. We're able to help build the future for these kids and help show them that there's more than one way to cope, there's more than one way to celebrate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was just a reassuring feeling. It made me happy. It felt supported through all these hard times. I just knew that, like, the rest of the community had my back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We all have your back.

Congratulations to each and every one of you seniors. And be sure to tune in as the nation pays tribute to the 2020 high school graduates in an hour-long special "Graduate Together." That's Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

CNN's coronavirus coverage continues, next.

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END