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U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Near 86,000; Cases Eclipse 1.4 Million; Trump To Discuss Vaccine As Admin Experts Predict 12-18 Month Timeline; CDC Warns About Childhood Illness Possibly Linked To COVID- 19; 48 States Will Have Eased Coronavirus Restrictions By Weekend; Texas Sees Highest Number Of New Coronavirus Cases In One Day; U.S. Retail Sales Plunge A Record 16.4 percent in April; White House Threatens To Veto $3 Trillion COVID Relief Bill. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 15, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. This is CNN continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

We are closing a big workweek in America's coronavirus reopening experiment. And we will hear from the President any moment now on a topic of concern to all of us here in the United States and around the world, the race to find a vaccine.

The President is introducing his team for what the White House calls Operation Warp Speed. He predicts a vaccine by the start of next year. His own experts say that would be a miracle pace and a more likely target is a year or 18 months.

Look to the corner of the screen right there you see the daily reminder of just how urgently the world needs this vaccine. 1.4 million cases here in the United States, soon to be 86,000 American dead, 27,000 plus new cases added here in the States just yesterday.

There are also new warnings about the virus and the countermeasures in place to guide the 50-state reopening experiment. The FDA says the rapid Abbott lab tests, the one being used at the White House today, should not be trusted.

CDC cautions that coronavirus could lead to increased risk of blood clots. Yet wherever you are watching the American unlocking is happening right outside your door. Mar-a-Lago, the President's Florida resort home, will partially reopen this weekend. In New Orleans, you'll be able to eat in a restaurant and go to the gym and lift weights.

As we told you, any moment now we will hear from the President of the United States. Let's get straight to the White House, CNN's John Howard, also with us our Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. John, the President of United States rolling out his leadership team for what he calls Operation Warp Speed. What else are we looking for today? JOHN HOWARD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well that's the main thing we're looking for. If they have any update on the status of the ongoing research, that would be something eagerly anticipated. The two leaders he's going to roll out are, a former pharmaceutical executive, Moncef Slaoui; a four-star Army general who specializes in logistics, that's Gustave Perna.

There is some optimism within the President's team, including from Anthony Fauci, who has been very evenhanded and prudent on most things that there will be one or more vaccine candidates that actually come through. Many in development right now. The question is when they will be available for use.

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb says we may get some vaccines on an emergency use basis as early as September to respond to outbreaks in certain cities. But that's different from mass production for the American people.

The President's talked about a goal of November December for the first mass production of vaccines. But we don't know if they can hit that goal. Remember, as you said in the outset, 12 to 18 months is what Anthony Fauci has been saying. But, of course, he started saying that in February. So 12 months in February is not 12 months anymore, that's a little bit less than that.

KING: An important point. Elizabeth Cohen, she's been in a conversation. I want to listen first to Dr. Fauci and also to Rick Barda (sic) Bright. He's the former head of the - one of the vaccine projects in the government. He is the whistleblower now who has been shifted to another job at NIH. He has some issues with how all that was handled.

But listen to these two experts Dr. Fauci and Rick Barda (sic) Bright talking about their realistic expectations for a vaccine how quickly and then how quickly can you produce it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If we are successful, we hope to know that in the late fall and early winter. There's no guarantee that the vaccine is actually going to be effective. You can have everything you think that's in place and you don't induce the kind of immune response that turns out to be protective.

RICK BRIGHT, SENIOR ADVISOR NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: If you can imagine this scenario this fall or winter, maybe even early next spring when vaccine becomes available, there's no one company that can produce enough.

A lot of optimism is swirling around a 12 to 18-month timeframe if everything goes perfectly. We've never seen...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's the if everything goes perfectly part Elizabeth. But one of the reasons John Harwood noted, you've got to see a former pharmaceutical executive, but also the head of the Army Materiel Command. The person the army would turn to, the military would turn to if we needed to ramp up production, whether it's of weapons, whether it's of clothing, whether it's whatever the people who can do things quickly.

They're trying to bring government resources to bear here that if they find a candidate that they can mass produce it quickly.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, John. And if we - if you listened to what Dr. Bright went on to say at the end of what we just heard, he said if everything goes perfectly, and it never goes perfectly. There is always something that doesn't quite go as we would like.

[12:05:00]

Let's back up for a minute and take a look at how many vaccines we currently have in clinical trials. In other words, how many vaccines are currently actually vaccinating real life human beings to see if they work.

There are three companies that are doing this that are in clinical trials in China. Three in the U.S. and one in the United Kingdom. In the U.S., Moderna is doing this with - a company called Moderna is doing with the National Institutes of Health. And then there's a INOVIO and then there's Pfizer. They started clinical trials in that order and this was weeks ago.

But, remember, they've only vaccinated say dozens or at the most hundreds of people. They need eventually to vaccinate thousands or tens of thousands. I have yet to hear anyone who thinks that it is realistic that we will have a vaccine on the market by the end of this year.

KING: Elizabeth Cohen, John Howard, appreciate those insights. We're standing by for the president. Both of you stand by as well as we do. Let's discuss another big important wrinkle in the coronavirus development.

A new CDC alert telling doctors be on the lookout for a rare COVID related illness now appearing in children. The inflammatory syndrome is similar to Kawasaki disease, but also exhibits symptoms associated with toxic shock syndrome. Some of the key indicators include a persistent high fever, as well as a rash, red eyes and dry cracked lips. So far cases have been reported in 18 states as well as Washington D.C.

I'm joined now by Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, she is Division Chief of Infectious Diseases at Children's National Hospital. Dr. DeBiasi, thank you so much for being with us. This is sort of one of these late shocks, if you will.

We learned so much about viruses as we go through them. At the beginning, the indication was children are less vulnerable. What is the indication now? And what specifically, when you see these cases, what are you seeing? How prevalent, and what are the warning signs?

DR. ROBERTA DEBIASI, CHIEF OF PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES, CHILDREN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL: Thank you for highlighting this, John. It's really been an impressive problem. Even in the last two months we've seen an unexpected amount of severe disease on East Coast here compared to what we have been told to expect in China and also on the West Coast of the U.S..

So, to date, we've had over 300 children. We've cared for at Children's with positive testing and symptoms, and about a quarter of those have needed to be hospitalized. So over 75 have been hospitalized and, in fact, over 20 of them have needed critical care. And this is even before the emergence of this new inflammatory disease that we're seeing now.

KING: And so walk through, we put some of them up and I'll put them back up. High temperature lasting more than five days with a rash, swollen neck glands, dry cracked lips, swelling in the hands and feet, redness in both eyes. What should a parent be looking for and how is it different from what they might have thought early on when they were told these are the main symptoms of COVID?

DEBIASI: Sure. We've had seven of these confirmed cases, and they do present slightly different ways. But an overarching theme is fever. So if you as a parent are seeing fever that particularly is higher grade fever and persistent, that would be a first thing to take note of. That's a little different.

Secondly, the kids that do look like Kawasaki may have things like red eyes. The white parts of their eyes may be very red or their lips, as you mentioned, cracked. But what we're also seeing is a different group that have very severe abdominal pain, and that has not really been seen in the other children that we've had admitted to the hospital with other reasons for being admitted for COVID.

So the respiratory complications do not seem to be a big part of this. And many of our children we're finding out had an exposure or symptoms a few weeks before and then are coming in with these later symptoms.

KING: The CDC is just putting out a new alert on this. Again, it's sort of a late breaking development that has people concerned. The CDC saying there's limited information currently available about risk factors, pathogenesis, clinical course and treatment for MIS-C, as they call it.

CDC is requesting health care providers report suspected cases to public health authorities to better characterize this newly recognized condition. So, essentially, this is a on all points alert, be on the lookout for this from the CDC.

A, how does that help? And in the limited cases we know of so far, is there something that links these children together or is it more random? Meaning do they have some under other underlying condition or is it at least from what you know so far just a random event?

DEBIASI: Well, we just published our experience on underlying conditions and other risk factors in children in the first about 180 kids that we saw admitted to the hospital. But this new cohort, we think, may be a little bit different.

In that, the prior group of children that we've been admitting up until this time, about 60 percent of them have an underlying illness, 40 percent did not. But of these last - now this type of presentation that we've seen, more of them seem to be previously well children.

[12:10:00]

And that may have something to do with why this is happening. Many of us believe this is a inflammatory or post infectious or in response to the infection the inflammatory component and normal children should have a healthy inflammatory response. So it could be that this out of control or dysregulated inflammatory response is more common in the kids with a normal medical history.

KING: And so last question for me based on what we know right now and this may change between now and the normal opening of the school year at the end of the summer. But are you learning enough about this to understand whether you think is it safe to send children back into school? Is it contagious among the children or is that something we need to study as we go through the summer?

DEBIASI: This is so newly emerged. All I can tell you is that we are working with every single doctor across the country, and internationally. We're all putting our heads in cases together to really get an answer to what is driving this, the best treatments.

And then we can then - once we have those answers have a - be in a better position to make data driven recommendations about these questions that you're answering - that you're asking, that we're all asking ourselves. But we want to make the right decision based on data.

KING: Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, really appreciate your insights. I'm asking as a parent of an 8-year-old much more than a guy anchoring a television show right now. So as you learn more keep in touch, you will go through this as we go up. Thank you for your insights there.

DeBiasi: We'll do.

KING: Best of luck. Best of luck in your work. Up next for us. Texas eyes it's second phase of reopening even as its daily case count grows.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: You're seeing a picture of the White House live there. We're waiting for the President of the States. He has an event on vaccines. He's going to roll out the leadership team of what the White House calls Operation Warp Speed. We'll take you there live as soon as the President begins that event. In Maryland and Virginia and in New York today new steps as part of the reopening experiment we're watching play out across the country. By the end of this weekend, at least 48 states will be at least partially open. You see them there, Connecticut and Massachusetts, the grey exceptions, and even they're getting ready to move forward in the days ahead.

Some of the new steps taking effect today. Casinos and hair salons now open in Louisiana. Movie theaters, fitness centers in Montana. In New York State, five upstate areas have now reached the benchmarks the governor has laid out in order to reopen. CNN's Jason Carroll is in Binghamton, New York as this experiment plays out. Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, John, the governor has always made it clear that he's going to have a regional approach to reopening. And that's what we heard just when he made that announcement a short while ago that beaches - state beaches in the state will now be reopening by Memorial Day weekend. Also, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, their state beaches will be opening as well. So an Eastern regional approach when it comes to that.

Within the state, also a regional approach. When it comes to upstate versus downstate, in New York, they've extended that stay-at-home order until May 28th. But upstate here in places like Binghamton where you've seen little cases, little hospitalizations, it is part of one of five regions that have met criteria to begin reopening where manufacturing and construction. Just spoke to a man who owns a coffee shop. He says he is ready to get construction and his business reopened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM SHEREDY, PARTNER, BLUE CULTURE COFFEE: We think it's important, obviously, to - the social distancing, working together, wearing a mask, having supplies on hand, letting - asking the contractors if they feel comfortable about coming to work, and if they don't we respect that.

I think it's going to be a slow start, as much as everybody's eager to get out there and do everything. We can't do it all at once, so doing it in phases I think is a healthy approach.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So, again, going in phases, John. You know, they're going to be following the science. That's what a lot of business owners told us here. They're eager to get open, but also wanting to follow with what the science is saying in order to do to go forward. John?

KING: Very fascinating to watch it all play out. Jason Carroll, grateful that you're on the ground there watching it as it begins in New York State.

Texas is seeing its highest number of new coronavirus cases and its highest number of deaths, just two weeks after it officially reopened. Look at the numbers here, according to the Texas Health and Human Services, the state added 1,448 new cases yesterday. That's the biggest daily increase on record. Texas also saw 58 deaths from coronavirus compared to just 25 the day before.

The nation's third largest state is now a case study as the country debates what are acceptable risks as more and more people head back to work. Let's take a look at some of the metrics in Texas.

First, from SafeGraph just this graph of foot traffic. This is when the governor announced he was going to ease. This is when the restrictions were eased in the State of Texas. And you see April 22nd, you just see since then foot traffic in Texas up 54 percent. People are getting out because they're allowed to.

Where are they going? 53 percent jumped in hobby and toy stores as people left their house. Family clothing store saw a spike - shoe Stores, women's clothing stores. Bars not so much, a little bit up and down. We're told that's mostly people getting ready to reopen those bars, because most are not reopened yet. Gift shops, a little bit of traffic too. But hobby stores and clothing seem to get the biggest increase here.

So what's happening in Texas on a case perspective as this plays out? Phase 1 reopening, back on May 1st. Salons reopened here. A week later on May 8th, you're looking at the case count right here going up at the end, right?

You could argue more people are getting about and that's relatively flat, going up a little bit at the end. So you could say they're handling this right. They are where they began. It's relatively flat. This is part of the big debate. What is an acceptable risk? You watch it play out. Let's take a little look at it here.

This is the day they reopened. Curbside retail was first. The state had 862 cases that day. Phase 1 begins, a bit more broad, went up to 1,142 cases. Here we are a week later, May 8th, 1,219. Again, that's a bit of an increase.

[12:20:00]

But let's put it in perspective. This is the debate the entire country is happening - having. What is the acceptable level of risk? May 8th, May 9th, May 10th, just come through. At the end, the last several days, number one, all of these days a 1,000 cases or more. A little bit of an increase right here.

Does this keep going up, do people in Texas say this is too risky or does it stay relatively flat and people say that's not great, but we are managing the reopening? That is the big question in Texas and around the country.

Let's get to our National Correspondent Ed Lavandera. He's live in San Antonio. And Ed that has been the question, can you do this in a way that keeps things static or does the risk go way up?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And that is what everyone here is juggling. You know the governor here in Texas is under immense political pressure to open up the economy from the Right Wing of the political - the Republican Party here in Texas. There is all of this happening as there's a great deal of concern in big cities like San Antonio, Houston and Dallas where those cases have continued to go up.

But since the first phase of the reopening here in Texas started about two weeks ago, now we're really starting to get a sense of those trend lines and how they're shaping up. And as you've done such a good job of kind of going over that, the deaths and the number of overall cases going up. But the governor here in Texas says he's looking at more than just that, looking at the daily infection rate as well as the hospitalization rate.

The hospitalization rate has trended slightly lower over the last couple of weeks. But everything seems to have plateaued for the most part at best, all the other medical indicators that we're looking at. So not that we're making any real progress in turning the tide, making all of these numbers go down in a much more positive way. But there's at that plateau level.

But the fact of the matter here, John, is that the push to reopen the Texas economy - I mean, barring any incredibly jarring medical data, it's hard to imagine that anything is really going to turn the tide of what state officials here in Texas are doing.

In fact, just this morning, the governor here in Texas released an online video touting his efforts to reopen the Texas economy here. So kind of seeing all of that, it would take some jarring medical data to really turn the tide here in the way the economy is being reopened.

KING: It is one of the country's case studies and we'll continue to look. We'll look every day, but then every week as you track the data, and we will see Ed Lavandera in San Antonio for us. Appreciate reporting on the ground as this experiment plays out.

And join Don Lemon, Van Jones for a special conversation about the devastating impact of coronavirus on people of color. "The Color of COVID" live tonight 10:00 o'clock right here on CNN.

We'll remind you, we're waiting for the President of States, he has an announcement planned on vaccines at the White House.

Also ahead for us a new and devastating report for the economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: Live pictures here. That's the Rose Garden at the White House. The President of States, he's a little - running a little late, due any moment now to announce his team Operation Warp Speed, as the White House's effort to speed up development and then production of a coronavirus vaccine. We'll take you there live as soon as the President and his team come out for that event.

To the economy now, another retail giant on the brink of bankruptcy in this age of coronavirus. It appears JCPenney could be next after missing recent debt payments. This, as we're learning, U.S. retail sales plunged a record 16.4 percent in April. CNN's Christine Romans brings us the numbers. Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: John, the American consumer drives 2/3 of American economic activity and the consumer stayed home during this self-isolation. If it wasn't essential, Americans didn't buy it. They're saving their money, they're paying down their credit card debt and they're not buying stuff.

This is the worst number we've ever seen since we've been keeping these records back to nineteen 1992 and its double the loss we saw back in March, which was a record then. And look inside some of these categories, clothing and accessories stores, down almost 90 percent; Electronics, down 60 percent; gas down almost 30 percent. You know gas is so cheap. Usually that's good for consumers, but people aren't driving. So that's not a very big help there.

Overall, this shows you an American consumer that really pulled inward in April. Now the good news is, this is probably the floor. You're starting to see stores slowly begin to reopen, so consumer spending, retail sales could perk up a little bit in the month of May.

This has been devastating for the big American retailers who rely on that foot traffic. Neiman Marcus has filed for bankruptcy. So has J.Crew. There's a JCPenney bankruptcy watch right now. It missed a couple of debt payments in recent weeks and those grace periods are coming due here. So you will see a reshaped retail sector, no question, on the other side of this.

But there have been winners as well, Target and Kroger and Amazon and Wal-Mart. People are buying their necessities online and with curbside pickup. So there are places in retail that have done well. But this retail sales number really shows you the extent of the pandemic on the American economy, John.

KING: Christine Romans, bringing us more sad numbers about the economy. Christine, thank you.

The White House making clear today it does not like a $3 trillion aid package. The House of Representatives will vote on it today. That legislation would never make it to the White House as is. But the White House issuing a veto threat saying it does not like the legislation.

Democrats say this bill would give crucial economic relief to families and small businesses