Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Restrictions Eased in Parts of New York, Maryland, Virginia, 48 States to Phase in Reopen Plans by Monday; Germany and Austria Reopen Some Border Crossings; Second Brazilian Health Minister Out; CDC Director Forecasts 100,000 U.S Coronavirus Deaths by June 1; White House Predicts Vaccine This Year, Experts Skeptical; Researchers Use Cows to Develop Possible COVID-19 Treatment; China to Test All Wuhan Residents within 10 Days; Asia Pacific Region Reopening; Texas Restaurant Owner Weighs Economic Survival against His Health; Baltimore Students Hold Virtual Prom. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 16, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us all around the world, I'm Michael Holmes, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
As health experts say a coronavirus vaccine will take at least a year, possibly years to develop, the U.S. president announces Operation Warp Speed, an effort to get a vaccine by the end of this year.
Even if that does not happen, President Trump says, quote, "Vaccine or no vaccine, we are back."
Against that backdrop, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that all 12 models the CDC tracks forecast at least 100,000 deaths in the U.S. by June the 1st, almost a third of all COVID deaths worldwide.
This coming as 28 U.S. states are seeing a downward trend in new cases and almost every state in the country is now, to some extent, open for business. CNN's Nick Watt takes a look at how states are taking steps to reopen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Across Louisiana, dinner and a movie is now an option once more, but your server might be masked.
COLLIN ARNOLD, DIRECTOR, NEW ORLEANS OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: We really have kind of crushed the curve and because -- it's due to our residents, really. They stayed at home.
WATT: Forty-eight states now have an opening plan under way. Today, half of New York state begins is long road back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can do is get back to work and hope that they'll come. WATT: Beaches in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will, we're told, be open in time for Memorial Day.
But New York's pause order extended another two weeks for millions in the state, including everyone in New York City, unless numbers improve.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: We need a massive citywide apparatus, testing, tracing.
WATT: Meanwhile, in Michigan, resistance to regulations goes on. The blue governor says they're red protesters.
GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): These are not just citizens who are unhappy about having to stay home. This is a political rally, essentially. WATT: That might actually delay reopening.
WHITMER: It's the congregating of big groups of people who aren't wearing masks, who aren't staying six feet apart that will perpetuate the community spread.
WATT: And April's retail numbers are out, another historic low, retail sales down 16.4 percent, clothing sales down nearly 90 percent.
PETER NAVARRO, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF TRADE AND MANUFACTURING POLICY: Most of the 50 states are going back to work in some form. So I like to look forward.
WATT: Ford will start making cars again Monday and restaurants will reopen in hard-hit Miami as the county looks to hire up to 1,000 contact tracers.
Texas just set a record, most recorded COVID deaths in 24 hours, gyms and offices still scheduled to reopen Monday.
In North Carolina, big box stores can reopen, but church gatherings still limited to just 10 people.
KEITH STONE, SHERIFF AT NASH COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: I have not enforced it and I don't intend to enforce it.
WATT: Other sheriffs say the same.
STONE: And I would rather you turn towards the lord than the liquor store.
WATT: Meanwhile, in Sin City, now you can buy a mask from a vending machine at the airport, as Caesars gets ready to reopen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the new world, there will only be three chairs and nobody will be able to be within six feet.
WATT: Good news from L.A., the USNS Mercy hospital ship just left, after seven weeks supporting the COVID-19 fight. The curve here has flattened. So the beaches will be open soon in New York state but not New York City and the mayor explained why. He said people don't really drive in New York City. So they might all go out to Coney Island and you will just have a crush of people there.
Here in L.A., this weekend will be the first weekend with beaches open, a big test, can we social distance in the sand? -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now turning our attention to Spain, where the country is further easing restrictions. It is expanding its first deescalation phase to nearly 70 percent of the country's population. This does allow for larger stores and other businesses to reopen in some capacity.
However, Barcelona and Madrid have still not been given the green light to move forward. The government has also issued a 14-day mandatory quarantine for international passengers entering the country.
Free travel across the European Union has become something of a distant memory after the pandemic forced many countries to close their borders. But now Germany and Austria are beginning to open several crossings. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more on how the move is hoping to jumpstart the tourism industry.
[02:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The weather rainy and dreary, but the mood of a motorists could have been better, as several border crossings between Germany and Austria have been reopened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It took time --
PLEITGEN: It's so important, this woman says. These two villages belong together. We live in this one, but we always go shopping on the other side of the border.
Austria and Germany plan to entirely reopen their border by June 15th. Part of a larger European effort to bring the free movement of people back and revive the comatose tourism industry. All while ensuring there isn't another outbreak.
In the near future we plan to open even more border crossings. The spokesman for the Austrian police says. However, all of this has to be in line with our hygiene laws. And of course, we also appeal to people's own sense of responsibility.
Just a few minutes from the border lies the majestic Salzburg. The birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Salzburg is normally a magnet for tourists with people coming not just from all across Europe but from the entire world.
Now of course, all of that came to an abrupt standstill when the pandemic hit. But now at least there's a glimmer of hope that some visitors could return in the not too distant future.
For Hannes Bachmann, owner of the famous Braugasthof Krimpelstatter, the future starts now. With restaurants allowed to open since Friday, Bachmann says he's optimistic business will recover.
HANNES BACHMANN, OWNER, AUGUSTINER BRAUGASTHOF KIMPELSTATTER: The people need, optimistic need, loving need social life and that's what I told them and I keep them and --
PLEIGTEN: But hotels like the hotel Zur Blauen Gans will have to wait longer until May 29th. And owner, Andreas Gfrerer says he knows the comeback will be tough.
ANDREAS GFRERER, OWNER, ZUR BLAUEN GANS: A hotel when it opens need some market and we don't have the markets yet. We don't have the markets
from abroad, from America and so on but we don't even have the market next to us, especially Germany.
PLEITGEN: The Salzburg region has seen a tourism boom in recent years. The region's tourism representative says getting visitors back is vital.
LEO BAUMBERGER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SALZBURGER LAND: We are expecting a loss of revenue for about 25 percent for the whole year, so it's massive. And of course, we are looking forward to restart again.
PLEITGEN: Germany and Austria have both said they're keen to revive travel and tourism between the two countries but it all depends on whether they can continue to beat back the pandemic -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Salzburg, Austria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The U.K. is still seeing a rise in coronavirus casualties, that is according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 34,000 people have died so far. That is out of more than 238,000 confirmed cases.
The British government is trying to lessen the stress for some of the country's most vulnerable populations, people living in or working in care homes. The U.K. health minister says that all care home residents and staff will be tested for the virus by early June.
Coronavirus, spreading fast through Russia's 11 time zones, on Friday alone, the country reported more than 10,500 new cases. Russia now has the second highest number of confirmed cases in the world, more than 262,000. But the country has recorded just under 2,500 coronavirus deaths.
That is relatively low, that rate, and it could be due to the amount of testing that Russia does. Of course, the more you test people, you see more cases that are less severe as well. Or it could be due to how the government classifies deaths. That is also something that is being discussed.
Brazil is a whole other matter. They are reporting more than 15,000 new COVID cases between Thursday and Friday, a record in just 24 hours. Brazil reported more cases and deaths than any other country in Latin America.
Just compare the total to that reported in Chile or Colombia on the graph. The president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been speaking out more against restrictions than quarantining. He says quarantine measures would make the crisis worse.
Brazil's health minister, meanwhile, stepping down at what looks like the worst possible time. The country reported its daily COVID case record the same day as the health minister stepped down. He thanked the president for the opportunity but he did not say why he was leaving. Shasta Darlington is looking into it for us.
[02:10:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brazil has lost its second health minister in a month. Nelson Teich stepped down on Friday after clashing with president Jair Bolsonaro over how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
His resignation came with the number of cases rising by a record 15,305 in one day; the death toll by rose by more than 800. At a short press conference on Friday afternoon, Teich thanked his colleagues and health professionals but didn't give a reason for his sudden departure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NELSON TEICH, FORMER BRAZILIAN HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): Life is made of choices and today I choose to leave. I tell you that I did my best in those days that I was here in that period.
It is not a simple thing to be in charge of a ministry like this in such a difficult period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DARLINGTON: Teich also thanked Bolsonaro for the opportunity. But in recent days the two have clashed, as Bolsonaro pushed to expand the use of anti malaria drugs to treat COVID-19 and opposed quarantine measures, arguing that unemployment and hunger will kill more people than the virus itself.
Teich was appointed just a month ago on April 17th after his previous minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, was fired, also after repeatedly clashing with Bolsonaro. Brazil has seen Latin America's worst outbreak of coronavirus.
Officials say it is far from peaking. Now a new health minister is expected to be announced in coming days -- Shasta Darlington, CNN, Sao Paolo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Meanwhile, CNN has obtained video of so-called "express burials" in Nicaragua with people in hazmat suits burying sealed coffins in the middle of the night. Some experts there believe that the government is downplaying the actual number of COVID-19 cases. CNN's Rafael Romo reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): In almost complete darkness, a group of men with hazmat suits gets ready for what appears to be a secret mission. It is the final goodbye for a man who died of coronavirus in Nicaragua.
"They didn't let us see the body, it was already in a black bag. They said only three or four of us could follow the coffin at a distance," the deceased man's brother says. Rodriguez (ph) also says police officers were following closely, apparently, to make sure no one took pictures of the burial.
They still managed to shoot this video they shared with CNN; 44-year- old Domingo Rodriguez (ph), an immigration agent at the international airport, who suffered from diabetes and hypertension, was diagnosed with coronavirus after showing symptoms on May 1st. He died 10 days later.
Rodriguez (ph) says he wonders why COVID-19 was not listed as his brother's cause of death in his death certificate. He also says the same thing happened with a 66-year-old aunt of his, who was diagnosed with the virus as well and died two days after his brother.
"Another member of the family asked why the official cause of death was listed as pneumonia and he was told that they were only following orders from the president's office," Rodrigo (ph) said.
There are more suspicious cases in Nicaragua. Martha Bone (ph) says her 57 year old brother, Ernesto (ph), was isolated in the hospital's COVID-19 ward before dying. But as she showed CNN, his death certificate lists pneumonia as the official cause of death. Bone (ph) says she is yet to see the results of her brother's coronavirus test.
"One night, I went to see him and there were five patients who died in the same coronavirus ward, the same one where my brother was treated," Bone (ph) says.
ROMO: Nicaragua's health ministry did not respond to CNN's request for an interview, Vice President Rosario Murillo (ph), wife of the president, dismissed suggestions that the government is hiding the true extent of the coronavirus pandemic in her country.
He called them fake news and accused the opposition of creating panic by using pictures taken in other countries.
ROMO (voice-over): In the streets of Managua, people now have a term for coronavirus related funerals. They call them express burials.
Dr. Leon Guerro (ph), an epidemiologist, told CNN there is already community spread in Nicaragua, besides the fact that there are doctors and nurses who have already been infected, including three who are currently on ventilators.
A group of health professionals say there are more than 1,000 suspicious cases of coronavirus in the country and nearly 200 dead, figures that better reflect the reality in neighboring countries -- Rafael Romo, CNN.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:15:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Michael Holmes. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
On a day when more than 1,600 Americans died because of coronavirus, president Donald Trump both touted and downplayed the development of a vaccine. Mr. Trump, in a Rose Garden ceremony, unveiling an ambitious effort to have the coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
Even if that goal is not met, he proclaimed, in his words, "vaccine or no vaccine, we are back."
Later, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that every model of the CDC tracks forecasts 100,000 deaths in the U.S. by the 1st of June, just over two weeks from now. That comes as 28 states have seen a downward trend on their rate of new cases even though the country adds roughly 1,500 deaths a day, sometimes more.
The current U.S. death toll now approaching 88,000. Meanwhile, the U.S. House passed a $3 trillion coronavirus aid package, mostly along party lines. Republicans, though, say the bill is dead on arrival in the Republican controlled Senate.
Retail sales dropped 16.4 percent in April and the retail icon, JCPenney, filing for bankruptcy protection.
Now the White House Coronavirus Task Force is adding five new members to make up, interesting, because they include America's Agriculture and Labor secretaries. Clearly, a clue that the group is going to be focusing on the economy going forward.
But the most pressing issue and the biggest challenge to safely opening businesses again, of course, is developing a vaccine. Kaitlan Collins reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Unveiling his vaccine effort in the Rose Garden today, President Trump said the country would return to normal with or without one.
TRUMP: I just want to make something clear. It's very important. Vaccine or no vaccine, we're back. And we're starting the process.
COLLINS: Asked what he meant by that, the president offered this explanation:
TRUMP: We think we're going to have a vaccine in the pretty near future. And if we do, we're going to really be a big step ahead. And if we don't, we're going to be like so many other cases where you had a problem come in, it'll go away. At some point, it'll go away.
COLLINS: The president was formally announcing the leaders of Operation Warp Speed, his administration's effort to develop and distribute a vaccine.
GOV. GUSTAVE PERNA, U.S. ARMY MATERIEL COMMAND: It is going to be a Herculean task.
COLLINS: But, at one point, the president seemed to downplay how critical a vaccine would be.
Though many health experts have viewed an effective vaccine as the only way life can truly return to normal, the president made clear he doesn't agree.
TRUMP: No, it's not solely vaccine-based. Other things have never had a vaccine and they go away.
COLLINS: He also repeated his hope that a vaccine can be ready by the end of the year.
Some health experts have said that's unrealistic. And, yesterday, the administration's former vaccine chief, Rick Bright, who was pushed out of his job, said he's doubtful it could happen soon.
DR. RICK BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule.
And I think it's going to take longer than that to do so.
COLLINS: The president said he's hopeful a full vaccine will be ready by the end of the year and available to the general public, not just for emergency use.
(on camera): Do you mean a fully approved vaccine for everyone, the full public, or a partially approved vaccine with emergency use?
[02:20:00]
TRUMP: No, we're looking for a full vaccine for everyone that wants to get it. Not everybody's going to want to get it. But we're looking at a full vaccine.
COLLINS (voice-over): Nearly all of the guests in the Rose Garden today were wearing masks, but on stage some of the president's top officials were and some weren't, including the president.
TRUMP: I told them. I gave them the option they could wear it or not. So you can blame it on me.
COLLINS: Sources say Trump and his aides have questioned whether the coronavirus death toll is being overcounted. Today, the president said he assumes the numbers are correct.
(on camera): Do you think that's accurate, or do you think it's higher than that?
TRUMP: I don't -- or lower than that. I don't know. I don't know. Those are the numbers that are being reported. I assume they are correct.
COLLINS: You may have noticed the vice president was not in the Rose Garden today with the president. That is because he has been keeping his distance from Trump this week after one of his top aides tested positive for coronavirus. He has been on White House grounds but instead of being in the West Wing, in attending these meetings or of it's in the Rose Garden he is instead remained in the executive office building, next door, which aides say is just out of an abundance of caution -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now is Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, a CNN medical analyst and chief clinical officer of Providence Health System.
Great to have you on. We heard at the White House Friday that early data suggests that vaccine doses by the end of the year. A lot of experts already casting doubt on that sort of timeline, expressing concerns, the right precautions will be taken.
What would you make of that sort of prediction of doses by the end of the year?
DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I think it's very optimistic and optimism is never a bad thing. But I think we need to plan for it taking a more rational from now for 12 to 16 months.
I would love to see it happen, I just think everything has to be absolutely perfect to hit that timeline.
HOLMES: Your own team is working on vaccine trials.
Will you tell us how complex that process is and how your own team's work is progressing?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: It is very complex, there is lots of steps to making a vaccine, first of all there are several different types under studies right now. There's over 100 vaccines being piloted and I just know that the work we are doing ourselves, how complicated it is.
So you have to decide, are you going to go for the activated virus or a virus that's dead but could still provoke an immune response or are you going to try a live attenuated virus, meaning a less virulent strain, a less powerful strain of the virus?
Or are you going to go for a new style that no approved vaccine is yet but there are many pilots underway of an RNA virus. And each of those has different steps in both the testing, whether it is safe, whether it actually provokes an effective immune response.
And then you actually have to make 7 billion doses to actually ensure that everybody on the planet gets it. So it is really complicated.
HOLMES: Sort of makes you wonder about the end of the year being the timeline. On the issue of guidance with all of this, it has been interesting the last few days, the CDC had detailed guidance. The White House apparently suppressing that detailed guidance on reopening and instead they put out this simplistic one page document that basically says things we all knew anyway.
And do you worry about scientific experts being muzzled in a way by politics in that sense?
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: I really do worry about that, to be honest with you. From the very beginning, the CDC had a pandemic playbook before this all started. And for some reason, politics, complications in the U.S. political environment at the moment, it never got filed, never got used.
And even still we are seeing these experts, these international experts at the CDC being muzzled and not being able to use their expertise to guide the scientific basis for the recovery that we all want to see.
So we would love to see the CDC unchained and actually be allowed to lead in this area that they really should be.
HOLMES: Yes, even the venerable publication, "The Lancet," saying the same thing about the CDC, let them be.
I wonder, this has the sort of troubled me, do you worry about complacency?
You've got a president saying we probably don't need a vaccine, testing is overrated, let's open, people opening bars and restaurants in parts of the country. In the last few days around 1,700 people have died every day in the U.S.
Are people getting used to the numbers, 1,700 people dying every day?
[02:25:00]
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: I think a couple things. One is we have had very confusing messages coming out from the government. You look at the difference between New Zealand, for example, where the leader is very clear, coherent, consistent and then everybody has trust in the leadership.
We have cacophony here in the U.S., because the federal government has said it's the states, every state has their own rules. The governor fights with the Supreme Court and then every public health department is different.
And that cacophony erodes the trust of the public. And because of that, we have got all different types of voices, with many different opinions, forgetting the fact that we are all in this together and that, as a country, we are going to be stronger if we can actually all adhere with what we know works and not believing the dark corners of the Internet that promote conspiracy theories that this came from elsewhere.
And so I really think that it is a major issue to not have clarity, coherence and trust.
HOLMES: Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, always great to have you on, thank you so much.
COMPTON-PHILLIPS: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now there is so much we do not know about this virus, even exactly where it came from. We will go through what we do know and what we don't, when we come back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: Welcome back.
Let's take a look now at the current human toll of the coronavirus. According to Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 4.5 million confirmed cases worldwide and at least 307,000 deaths. Almost a third of those deaths in the United States.
That comes as the U.S. president announces an ambitious effort to develop a vaccine by the end of this year. At the same time, "Vaccine or not," in his words, "we're back." Almost every U.S. state is now open to some extent, usually, against the advice of health experts.
One research company taking a novel approach to finding a coronavirus therapy. They are trying to engineer a treatment for humans using cow plasma. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Cows, they're just like us, really. These cows are just like us in one important way, a way that could possibly save lives during the pandemic. These cows have human chromosomes.
You've given the cow a human immune system?
DR. EDDIE J. SULLIVAN, SAB BIOTHERAPEUTICS: No. We've certainly given the cow part of a human immune system.
COHEN: And so this company, SAb Biotherapeutics in South Dakota, is hoping their blood could help make a drug to fight COVID-19.
Here is how it works. Using genetic engineering, scientists create a cow embryo that contains parts of human chromosomes. That embryo becomes a calf and then a cow. Then a non-infectious part of the novel coronavirus is injected into that cow.
Because of genetic engineering, the cow produces human antibodies to the virus. Those antibodies are collected from the cow and once purified, become a drug that might work to combat the coronavirus in humans.
So these cows are plasma donors, just like humans who have recovered from coronavirus and donate blood. But the cows have a big advantage and that is they're big and have a lot of blood to give.
SULLIVAN: So that's one of the reasons that we chose cattle, because obviously they are a large animal.
COHEN: Plus they can donate plasma three times a month. Humans can only donate once a month.
Another company, Regeneron, is trying a similar experiment with mice who are engineered to have portions of a human immune system. The scientists called the magic mice, they extract in clone the best antibodies.
DR. GEORGE YANCOPOULOS, REGENERON: We put in the genes for the human immune system into mice so that these mice have pretty much exactly a human immune system.
COHEN: Both companies plan to start human clinical trials early this summer.
If all goes well, when might this drug be on the market?
YANCOPOULOS: So, if all goes well, we expect that we will have the drug on the market by early next year.
COHEN: Of course, there is no telling if this will work, but hopefully these part-human animals will play a role in saving lives during the pandemic -- Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: What about the origin of this deadly virus?
There is a whole lot we do not know but there is one detail that the U.S. president is not letting go of.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This came from China. It should have been stopped in China, before it got to the world, it should have been stopped, right at the source but it was not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, while the first cases were reported in Wuhan, China, critics say Donald Trump is just trying to make everyone forget his own administration's handling of the pandemic. CNN's Alex Marquardt breaks down what the science is saying so far.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The pandemic that has now blanketed the globe is universally accepted to have exploded out of the Chinese city of Wuhan. What is not known or agreed upon, is the exact origin. Now less a scientific question than a political one.
TRUMP: I think they made a horrible mistake and they didn't want to admit it.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): The Trump administration has been stepping up the blame of the Chinese regime.
[02:35:00]
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Leaning hard on the theory that the virus, known as SARS CoV-2, may not have come from Wuhan wet market, like China claims but leaked, accidentally, from a government affiliated lab.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I have said before, I've seen evidence that this likely came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. I'm happy to see other evidence that disproves that.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, points to the security risks at the Wuhan lab. According to cables reported by "The Washington Post," the State Department warned in 2018 about safety and management issues.
The body of evidence is circumstantial. U.S. intelligence agencies say there is no smoking gun but what they do believe is that the virus was not man-made and was not released purposefully.
The Trump administration is not ruling out that the virus came from elsewhere but it has been much more aggressive than other countries in pushing the lab theory, which foreign intelligence partners dispute.
SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: There is nothing we have that would indicate that was the likely source though you cannot rule anything out in these environments.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): That lack of certainty has allowed the Trump administration to use the lab theory to be more critical of the Chinese government.
CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON, FORMER CIA ANALYST: It makes a more compelling case for Chinese Communist Party malfeasance and cover ups and foisting this on the globe basically, which helps the administration shift blame.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Without more evidence, the World Health Organization, which was blasted by the Trump administration, says the lab theory is speculative.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The markets must have played the role somehow. Either the source of the outbreak or an amplifying setting, meaning a setting where the virus was introduced.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): The virus could've been carried to the market or to the lab, which are eight miles apart. What is clear, health experts say, is that, at some point last year, the virus moved in nature from an animal to humans.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told "National Geographic," "Everything about the stepwise evolution, over time, strongly indicates that this virus evolved in nature and then jumped species." That does not discount the lab theory. The Trump administration and Republican allies in Congress argued the delay of China's warnings and its alleged stockpiling protective equipment bolster the possibility that the virus escaped the government lab since they likely would've known sooner.
Still, if it leaked from the lab and the government knew, former CIA China analyst, Chris Johnson, says, U.S. intelligence would likely have picked up on it.
JOHNSON: The administration is trying to make this case very hard. They would leak it if they had and they don't or it hasn't been leaked, so they probably don't.
MARQUARDT: One thing the Trump administration can point to when making the case that it is possible the virus escaped the lab in Wuhan through workers is that it has happened before, multiple times in fact. Not from Wuhan specifically but, in 2004, two lab workers in Beijing, so also in China, were infected with SARS.
And the year before, in Singapore, a student was also infected with SARS through accidental contamination. But for now, outside of the U.S., most everyone says it is highly unlikely that this virus came from a lab in Wuhan.
China, for its part, called it absurd and said the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is insane for pushing it -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Amid the pandemic, the U.S. president still appears intent on settling political scores. Mr. Trump has now fired the State Department inspector general, Steve Linick. He did play a small role in the impeachment inquiry.
The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee denounced the firing and said that Linick office had opened an investigation into the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. A senior State Department official said Pompeo recommended Linick be removed from the job but does not know the reasons why.
We'll take a quick break. When we come back, dangerous times for restaurants. Some will not ever open their doors again. We have a look at one chef, who is fighting not just for his business but for his life. We will be right back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:40:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
HOLMES: After weeks of pandemic restrictions in the Asia Pacific region, countries are beginning to reopen step by cautious step. It is offering a glimpse of what might become everyday life. CNN's Ivan Watson with more in Hong Kong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After a five-week closure, the bars in Hong Kong are back open.
WATSON: That's good. This is my first beer in a bar in more than a month. This city has done surprisingly well with the first wave of this deadly pandemic. Now after the partial shutdown, Hong Kong is trying to open back up.
WATSON (voice-over): In the Asia Pacific region, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand have all had far lower numbers of confirmed infections and fatalities, compared to countries in much of the rest of the world.
In fact, these five countries combined suffered a fraction of the death toll seen in the U.S. state of New Jersey since the pandemic began. Now these countries are starting to reopen.
But the virus continues to present challenges. South Korea never imposed a nation or even citywide lockdown. It only recorded 260 coronavirus deaths. But now it is frantically contact tracing and testing tens of thousands of people after an outbreak in several nightclubs in the capital of Seoul. The South Korean president issued a fresh warning to the people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOON JAE-IN, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It is not over, until it is over. We must never lower our guard in epidemic prevention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON (voice-over): In Mainland China, the country where the coronavirus was first detected back in December, Shanghai Disney reopened this week, with visitors wearing masks and the park requiring new social distancing measures for added safety.
But after discovering six new coronavirus cases in the original epicenter city of Wuhan, authorities vowed to test all 11 million residents for the disease.
WATSON: It feels a bit like two steps forward, one step back. The infection curve flattens; places start to reopen and, then, unexpected clusters of coronavirus pop up again.
WATSON (voice-over): While some Asian countries are gradually reopening schools, shopping malls and movie theaters, international travel is still largely paralyzed. That could change.
[02:45:00]
WATSON (voice-over): Australia and New Zealand, two countries on the Tasman Sea, are discussing the possibility of creating a bilateral, coronavirus-free travel bubble.
JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: I would note, such a discussion is only possible as a result of the world-leading results on both side of the Tasman to get the virus under control.
WATSON (voice-over): In countries that so far escaped the worst of the pandemic, we may be getting a glimpse of what the new normal will look like in the age of coronavirus -- Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: In the U.S., the Badger State is open for business. On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the state's stay at home order was overreaching and many of the bars and restaurants there, as you can see, wasted no time in reopening. CNN's Omar Jimenez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you are seeing right here is basically the new normal for the pandemic in this part of the country. People, inside, enjoying their drinks and food, almost as if you would pre-pandemic.
This is in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The reason this is even allowed is because this particular county has no restrictions on business opening up. This means restaurants, bars, gyms, the responsibility on the health side is left in the hands of the business owners and the customers that show up to these places.
We spoke to the owner of this particular bar, who says he did not necessarily want to open up but, given the opportunity, he felt like he had to.
DAN ITALIANO, BAR OWNER: There are lots of other businesses around that were opening up and if I would've been the lone wolf in this, I would've died. But there's -- I think we are all trying to exercise as much caution and basically keep our livelihood.
JIMENEZ: Every place operates a little differently. Another restaurant we went to had masked waiters and waitresses, waiting on people, sitting down, outside, because they were not comfortable enough to seat people inside.
Let's remember, this is all happening because the state Supreme Court struck down the statewide stay-at-home order, leaving it to individual counties and jurisdictions to decide how they want to proceed.
This creates a dynamic that is concerning to some because the rules, a county over for example, are different than here. So if someone feels that their county's rules are too restrictive, they can just go one county over and then they bring home with them the risk of exposure from that county.
Now as for when we could see any form of statewide order, once again, that can only come from Democratic governor Tony Evers, working with the Republican-led legislature to put that in place.
But given their working relationship throughout this pandemic, a solution, anytime soon, may not be likely -- Omar Jimenez, CNN, Waukesha, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Many restaurants are shutting their doors for good because of the financial hardship brought on by the outbreak. But the pandemic is forcing one Texas restaurant to close for different reasons. CNN's Ed Lavandera explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Life is throwing a flurry of punches at Mike Nguyen. Last year, the 32-year-old opened his dream restaurant, Noodle Tree, in San Antonio, Texas, just after he was diagnosed with cancer.
Then the coronavirus pandemic upended everything. Two weeks ago, Nguyen told CNN's "OUTFRONT" he could not take the health risk of opening his dining room to customers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE NGUYEN, NOODLE TREE RESTAURANT: At the end of the day, it was that the money was not worth losing lives over it, losing -- you know, the people that supported me, this restaurant, it was not worth putting their life in danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: How do you feel, Mike?
NGUYEN: It depends on the day.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): This week, Nguyen learned his lymphoma diagnosis has taken a turn for the worse.
LAVANDERA: You're fighting for your life?
NGUYEN: It is progressively getting worse. My mind is telling me go, go, go but my body is like, no.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Nguyen has made the painful decision to shut the restaurant down. Sunday will be the last day.
NGUYEN: How are you, little lady?
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Each takeout order he walks out is a chance to see loyal customers one last time.
NGUYEN: All right, see you.
LAVANDERA: When you walk out of here this weekend --
NGUYEN: Until next time --
LAVANDERA: -- you don't really know for sure if you're coming back?
NGUYEN: I don't. Worst-case scenario, we never open these doors up. I can say that, I did not fail because my food wasn't good or that our service wasn't good. I failed because of something that was out of my control.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Mike Nguyen was diagnosed with cancer in 2018. Instead of sitting back, Nguyen decided to open the restaurant. He was not going to let lymphoma take this dream away.
Noodle Tree thrived. But when the pandemic struck, he had to let go of his workers.
NGUYEN: This restaurant is very near and dear to my heart. I fought for it. And that's why, for me, it is more than just a restaurant. It is a symbol of fighting. And that is why it is kind of heartbreaking that I have to close because it means that I have to step away from the fight for now.
[02:50:00]
LAVANDERA (voice-over): With one assistant, Mike Nguyen is cooking what could very well be the last meals of his treasured restaurant. If he survives, the restaurants survives.
NGUYEN: I'm going to fight, fight and fight, for not only with my bout with cancer but also for this restaurant and I'll fight. I'll go down swinging if I have to.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): But for now, the lights of Noodle Tree will be turned off.
LAVANDERA: Mike Nguyen remains hopeful that, one day, he will be able to reopen his restaurant. He says he has been battle tested in life and that he is a big believer in adversity. And how you respond to adversity says a lot about who you are. And that is what he is counting on right now -- Ed Lavandera, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(VIDEO CLIP, "MEAN GIRLS")
HOLMES: That moment there from the movie, "Mean Girls," you may remember, from back in 2004. But in this time of COVID, many U.S. schools are, of course, closed for the rest of the school year.
That means graduating seniors are missing out on their prom, missing out on the big day of graduation. But some enterprising folks in Baltimore got creative and came up with a virtual solution. Have a look at this.
[02:55:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like, you know, the real prom, how you get ready. So it looks like we didn't miss it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My prom was supposed to be next Saturday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There, put some lipstick?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Nadia and I'm a senior at Eastern Technical High School.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's good, yes.
You so beautiful. Look at my girl. She so beautiful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm attending for the virtual prom by Wide Angle Use Media (ph) today.
Hello, class of 2020, are you here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening, I'm Jackie on mailbox wok (ph) and it's my honor to welcome you all to the first virtual iconic prom 2020.
(MUSIC PLAYING) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I put it on my laptop upstairs, just to give me some nice lighting and just to make it fun. I'm a senior and this is going to be my last prom. I just want to enjoy it as much as possible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Almost like a tradition. We were all planning on one last big fun time before going to college. It's a little sad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have to find a way, not just to survive but thrive in these changing times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, still here, still alive. Life is still here, so, as long as it is like this, I'm going to enjoy it to the fullest. Yes, yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Good for them. Sad times for those kids. The class of 2020 is redefining high school graduation, so join us on Saturday night, Eastern time, for two back-to-back star-studded special events, honoring graduates. Should be fun.
Thank you for your company this hour, I'm Michael Holmes, don't go away, though, I will be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.
