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China Endorses Resolution To Review Pandemic Response; White House Accused Of Putting Politics Above Science; Abbas: Palestinians Absolved Of Deals With Israel, U.S.; Schools Reopen in South Korea; Trump Taking Hydroxychloroquine; Trump Suggests Travel Ban on Latin America; Record Cyclone to Make Landfall in Bay of Bengal. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 20, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. You are watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow.
Just ahead, as debate rages around the world over when students should return to school, some in South Korea are wrapping up their first day back. We are live in Seoul with that.
And Brazil is close to becoming the world's next coronavirus hot spot as the U.S. president considers a travel ban.
Millions of people in Bangladesh and India are in the path of a monster cyclone as the coronavirus pandemic complicates evacuations.
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CURNOW: Good to have you along. Thanks for joining me.
The coronavirus is reshaping education systems around the world. Lockdowns have forced many to turn to online learning. But as countries began taking steps to reopen, parents, students and educators are left wondering when will school be back in session and what will that look like.
Take a look at South Korea. It is taking a phased approach. Today, high school seniors began returning to class. The vice education minister says students and staff will have their temperatures checked twice a day.
Paula Hancocks joins me now from Seoul.
It's a pretty big deal and a milestone, because many kids have been dying to get back to school.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. As you probably know, many parents are probably keen for their kids to go back to school as well. To give you an idea of how the process is going here in Seoul, this is
a school where all the high school seniors had to have their temperature checked before they came on to the grounds themselves. They had hand sanitizer given to them. They were told to social distance, at least 2 meters apart, as they were queuing to go into the building where there was a second temperature check, a thermal camera to make sure they have no fever.
Within the classrooms, within the cafeteria, there is social distancing in place. Desks are at least a meter apart. In the cafeteria, they have plastic partitions between people who will be eating and every other chair is vacant. That is the one place where the masks are allowed to be taken off.
For the rest of the day, all students and teachers and faculty staff need to keep their masks on at all times.
There have been a couple of hurdles. We understand that dozens of schools in the city have had to close after two students were confirmed positive with the virus. That case is believed to be linked to Seoul's nightclub district. It just shows how quickly it can turn around again. There are about 66 schools closed out of precaution, the authorities say, so they can contact trace and make sure where those two positive students have been. Robyn?
CURNOW: And you did mention parents.
What is the feeling there?
Is there a nervousness about sending their kids back?
HANCOCKS: Among some, there is. There has been a petition to the presidential office here, a little less than a quarter million signed it, saying they thought it was too soon. But for many, they think it is potentially the time. They will be concerned when they hear about schools closing, though because if you want to have the economy back on track, you want to have the parents going back to work and working physically in the office.
Then, of course, you need to have the children going back to school as well. There are concerns because the nightclub district outbreak has more than 190 positive cases related to it now, although the president said he believed the outbreak was contained.
There is another potential outbreak in a medical center in the capital as well, where four nurses have tested positive. So all of these small outbreaks that happened will concern parents once again.
But officials we have been speaking to and the principal say the number one priority at this time is to make sure of the health of the students themselves. But they believe face to face classes, especially for the older students, are needed at this point. Robyn?
CURNOW: Paula Hancocks there live in Seoul. Thank, you Paula.
It's a very different story right now in the U.K., where concerns are being raised about returning to the classroom too soon. The British government wants primary schools to reopen on June 1st.
But a leading teachers' union says the vast majority of its members do not feel safe with that date. In fact, reports say local councils already intend to ignore the government's plan.
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CURNOW: Meantime, Cambridge University is moving all of its lectures online for the entire next academic year. Some smaller teaching groups may be allowed in person, as long as they are social distancing. Let's get more from Nic Robertson in London, where we are due to hear from the prime minister in the next few hours.
I want to talk about Cambridge first. In many ways, this is a milestone. One of the best universities in the world is saying that no one comes until 2021. That is a very big decision.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's a very big decision. And as you say, Cambridge is a leader in the field of higher education at that level. They will likely see this picked up and followed by many other universities.
(INAUDIBLE) struggle clearly to be able to achieve what Cambridge does. Cambridge typically has smaller classes than many other universities. But students coming for the upcoming academic year, October 2020 through summer 2021, will get their classes virtually.
There will not be groups of students sitting in a room with a lecturer as traditionally what happened. So this is a big step and we will see if other universities follow suit.
CURNOW: It is difficult to see how you get that Cambridge experience when you don't get to put down the cam and go to formal college. That's the big part of this. Places like Cambridge say, hey, we don't want anyone coming into colleges until 2021.
The government is saying but it is OK for small kids to go back to school on June 1st. There seems to be a disconnect.
How is that being played out?
ROBERTSON: It is a real problem for the government at the moment. Over the past week or, so they have been experiencing pushback from teachers' unions. Teachers' unions say that about 85 percent of teachers don't think it is safe to come back to school yet; 93 percent of teachers believe the government's plans are confusing; 52 percent of teachers say that they don't believe social distancing can be achieved in the classroom.
We are talking about primary school, the reception level class of year 6 as well, very young children. Teachers I have spoken to say they don't know the value of bringing back young children into this environment for such a short period.
There are concerns about the value of what they are achieving and I think that plays into their concerns about safety. But a significant blow for the government yesterday, not just to be facing pushback from the unions but now some senior government scientific advisers have also joined, supporting the teachers, saying they don't think it is safe for teachers to go back in the classroom until there is a proper test, track and trace system in place.
The government has recruited about 20,000 people to be part of a tracking system. But part of the electronics of that, they have an app but it still seems to be having trouble with its rollout. This is added to the things the government is expected to achieve before the teaching unions and the scientific advisers will sign up to.
The government doesn't have full control here, because local councils do have authority, significant authority, over when schools can go back. There are a lot of problems here for the government.
And perhaps another thing that didn't help the government yesterday is that a cabinet member said the government had had some bad scientific advice from the scientific advisers.
So to hear yesterday that scientific advisers are now making stronger comments, straying perhaps into the more political, is perhaps an indication that we are seeing people covering their backs, if the scientists believe the government will pin blame for mistakes on them. They will naturally be more cautious. We may be seeing some of that here as well, Robyn.
CURNOW: Either way, education very much in flux in the U.K. Nic Robertson, thanks so much.
Dozens of schools in France are closing, less than a week after they reopened; 40,000 schools are back open across the country but at least 70 schools we know are shutting their doors again after suspected cases of the virus were found in the community. The government says nearly all the cases were found outside of the schools.
The U.S. continues its push to reopen the economy. In the coming hours every state will have partially lifted lockdown restrictions, with many states moving on to phase 2 of their reopening plans.
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CURNOW: While infection rates are slowing across most of the U.S., cases do continue to rise in at least 17 states. The U.S. president says that's not necessarily a bad thing. Take a listen.
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TRUMP: When we have a lot of cases, I don't look at that is a bad thing. I look at that as, in a certain, respect as being a good thing, because it means our testing is much better. So if we were testing 1 million people, instead of 14 million people, we would have far fewer cases. Right?
So I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it's a badge of honor.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CURNOW: The president also continues to defend his use of the anti malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, even though recent studies show it has no benefits for coronavirus patients. Jeremy Diamond has more.
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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, President Trump defiant, defending his decision to try and ward off coronavirus by taking an unproven drug, hydroxychloroquine.
TRUMP: Many, many doxis (sic) -- doctors -- many doctors came out and they said it is great. Now you have to go to a doctor. I have a doctor in the White House. I said what do you think. And it's just a line of defense. I am just talking about it as a line of defense. I am dealing with a lot of people. Look at all the people in the room.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The president ignoring an FDA warning against using hydroxychloroquine outside of a hospital setting, which said the drug has not been shown to be safe and effective for treating and preventing COVID-19.
TRUMP: But I think it is worth it as a line of defense and I will stay on it for a little while longer. I am just very curious myself. But it seems to be very safe.
DIAMOND (voice-over): And rejecting a clinical study that found hydroxychloroquine ineffective against coronavirus.
TRUMP: That was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people, extremely sick people, people that were ready to die. It was given by obviously not friends of the administration.
And this study came out, the people were ready to die, everybody was old, that was a phony study and it's very dangerous to do it. The fact is people should want to help people, not to make political points. It is really sad when they do that.
DIAMOND (voice-over): That study, conducted on hundreds of patients at V.A. hospitals, was partially funded by the government's National Institutes of Health. Trump also falsely claimed the drug is risk free.
TRUMP: What has been determined is it doesn't harm you. It is very powerful drug, I guess but it doesn't harm you.
DIAMOND (voice-over): But clinical trials have shown the drug can cause serious heart rhythm problems, a heightened concern for a president who has a common form of heart disease, according to the results of his physical exams.
The physician to the president, Dr. Sean Connolly, revealing in a new memo that he concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risk.
DIAMOND: Vice president Mike Pence on Tuesday saying that he is not taking hydroxychloroquine, even though his press secretary did test positive for the virus. So he is not following the president's lead on this questionable decision to start taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure.
President Trump, though, even as he dives in headfirst into this hydroxychloroquine pool, he is not following the advice that public health experts are saying could help prevent the spread of coronavirus and that is the issue of wearing a mask.
The president on Tuesday was noncommittal about whether he will wear a mask when he visits a Ford manufacturing facility in Michigan on Thursday. Ford has said it did inform the White House that anybody who goes into that facility is required to wear a mask.
We will see if the president follows that directive -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.
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CURNOW: Joining me now is Dr. Emily Porter, an emergency physician in Austin, Texas.
The president is saying and taking and doing something that goes against medical guidelines.
As a doctor, what is your response?
DR. EMILY PORTER, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Well, he is taking hydroxychloroquine for prevention of coronavirus, the COVID-19. The studies are very clear, there has been no evidence that it prevents anything and there has been evidence that this medicine can be harmful for people with heart problems.
Furthermore, we get a lot of people taking it again. We are taking it away from the people we know it works for, with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis. It's an unproven drug that has some severe side effects.
I am not sure what prompted him to take it, other than a couple people in the White House testing positive. But at the same time, he refuses to wear a mask. It doesn't make sense to me.
CURNOW: It doesn't make sense to you as a doctor.
What do you say to patients who come in?
Perhaps they are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms or maybe they are not and they have taken the suggestions of the president over that of doctors?
PORTER: You could take hydroxychloroquine for a few days usually without problems. Generally speaking, when we prescribe it to somebody, we get a baseline EKG. One of the major problems with lethality is it causes conduction problems with the heart.
Generally, they have a baseline EKG. And if you do several days, they continue the tests, which can be very hard to do on an outpatient basis. CURNOW: Has there been an increase since the president said he was
taking it and people coming into your E.R., for example?
PORTER: Not in the last couple days. A lot of people's primary care doctors have opened back up. I know, when he touted it as a cure, about a month ago, there was definitely an increase.
Then it actually prompted governor Cuomo to limit people from prescribing it in New York. He put a moratorium on it.
CURNOW: You are in Texas. If you can give us a snapshot of your day and what you are dealing, with in who is presenting and coming into your E.R.
PORTER: We are seeing more COVID-19 than previously. The rates are still going up. Our hospitalizations are, thankfully, declining a little bit. We are getting better treating people. People are coming in a little bit quicker.
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PORTER: We are still definitely on the incline, not on the decline here. We have opened up a lot of things. About May 1st, we started doing that. Then our governor has continued to open things up. Gyms open up this weekend. Restaurants opened to 50 percent capacity for seating.
So we will just have to see. It is kind of a waiting game here. But I think we have a slow burn. That is what they call it. Instead of having a peak that overwhelm hospital systems, we have never done that and I don't know if we will. But we have what they call a slow burn, where we might not ever have a huge peak and then drop off.
CURNOW: So you are saying there will be a lag in terms of people presenting or dying?
PORTER: Generally it can take up to 14 days after someone has caught coronavirus, before they get symptoms. It can take 2 weeks. They can be asymptomatic in that time, which makes it really hard, because how do you contact trace when now we are open and you have gone to 100 places?
When you were home, who possibly could you have given it to other than your family?
So then 14 days before you can show symptoms and have a positive test, then generally speaking, the deaths will lag by 10 to 14 days after that. People don't tolerate ventilators and oxygen well. They decline and pneumonia gets bad.
CURNOW: Are you nervous?
Are you worried for people who will go to the gym?
A nice old sweaty spin class that they were looking forward to?
Then having a burger and a milkshake afterwards to make up for it?
What do you make of people perhaps doing what they used to love doing but it could be life-changing this weekend?
PORTER: It is very hard. We had a Catholic parish in Houston that just had a tragedy where 3 of the priests tested positive after they opened up. They had been doing Eucharists and they had to shut the church back down.
As long as we have contact tracing and we can make exceptions and close things down then maybe we stand some hope. It seems like we have done a better job with meatpacking plants and nursing homes and prisons, where people are in very close quarters.
But as a physician married to another physician, my family is not going out to a movie. We aren't going to restaurants. We have not really changed our lives at all since week 9. We wear masks when we go out in public. The only difference now is that we can get hand sanitizer every once and a while again. We have a bit more protection.
CURNOW: Dr. Emily Porter there, with some doctor's advice for folks not only in Texas. Thank you for joining us.
PORTER: Thank you, Robyn.
CURNOW: The U.S. president Donald Trump says he is considering a travel ban on Latin America, with particular concern towards Brazil. They are reporting their biggest daily jump in new coronavirus cases and deaths Tuesday. Brazil accounts for more than half of Latin Americans total virus death toll. Shasta Darlington has the latest from Sao Paulo.
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SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In Brazil, record high deaths and COVID-19 infections setting it on the path to become the world's next hot spot. On Tuesday night, the health ministry reported 1,179 new deaths, a record. The number of new confirmed cases also a record at 17,000.
The U.S. president, Donald Trump, says he is considering a ban on travel from Brazil, while in Sao Paulo, officials have declared a five-day holiday to try and get people to stay home.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is focusing his attention on expanding the use of malaria drugs to treat coronavirus and has yet to name a new health minister, even though his second one resigned last week -- Shasta Darlington, CNN, Sao Paulo.
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CURNOW: You are watching CNN.
Coming up next, India and Bangladesh are looking down the barrel of a super cyclone. And the coronavirus is adding a new challenge to preparation efforts. The details on that in just a moment. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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CURNOW: Millions of people in India and Bangladesh are evacuating their homes amid coronavirus lockdowns. Super cyclone Amphan due to make landfall in just a matter of hours. It is the strongest storm ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal.
Both countries are trying to maintain social distancing at evacuation centers. The bottom line is this will be a disastrous event for 2 countries already overwhelmed by the coronavirus.
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CURNOW: Joining me now is Snigdha Chakraborty, the Bangladesh country manager for Catholic Relief Services.
Thank you.
What is the biggest concern you have right now?
SNIGDHA CHAKRABORTY, CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES: The biggest concern is our people are facing 2 risks at the same time. One is the fear of injury from the cyclone and the invisible risk of COVID-19. They are stressed. They are worried about going to evacuation centers. And they are worried about maintaining physical distance.
CURNOW: How do you do that?
This is a mass evacuation of many, many people.
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CURNOW: Is social distancing even possible in these circumstances?
CHAKRABORTY: You are right. It is really not feasible but what we have tried is we have sanitize the cyclone shelters. The last two days our frontline workers are working with people there, alongside the government, to sanitize the cyclone shelters, creating more, smaller places such as schools or smaller buildings that are available. Buying sheets, soaps, hand sanitizers, just bringing everything we can so that we can still feel confident to come.
We also disseminated the message that we will maintain the distance as much as possible. We have also made arrangements for families if they can stay in the shelter so they are mixed up with many people. I mean, it is going to be crowded but there will still be some sort of physical distancing as far as possible.
CURNOW: You are trying the best you can under the circumstances. I know your organization continues to work with the Rohingya. What is your biggest worry for this vulnerable, vulnerable group?
CHAKRABORTY: Yes, this is really highly concerning to us, because of the already difficult condition they are in, which is they are weak homes and the soil is very unstabilized.
So (INAUDIBLE) vulnerable. What we did is we actually have stockpiled (INAUDIBLE) materials and the robes (ph) and the tarps and everything so that if anything happens, we are ready to support and rebuild them and repair them as quickly as possible. That is what we can do it minimum. But we have stockpiled everything for covering houses there in the (INAUDIBLE) camps.
CURNOW: OK, well, stay safe. Good luck. It is going to be a busy, perhaps tough next few hours. Thank you.
You are watching CNN. Still to come, the World Health Organization pledges accountability as countries endorse a review of the global pandemic response. We'll be live in Beijing.
And the White House is under fire for putting political optics before efforts to stop the spread of the virus. Its rocky relationship with the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control, after the break.
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CURNOW: Thank you for joining me, live from Atlanta, here in the U.S. I am Robyn Curnow. It is 30 minutes past the hour.
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CURNOW: Now, the World Health Organization says it will soon begin an independent review of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic. The head of the organization committed to the measure after it's endorsed by all member states.
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TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WHO: As always, WHO remains fully committed to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. We want accountability more than anyone.
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CURNOW: Now, the resolution does not think about any individual country but some, including the U.S., as you know, have criticized China for its handling of the crisis. China though is defending its actions and urged the U.S. to stop the blame game. Well, China has also endorsed the resolution even though it initially bristled at the idea of such an investigation.
For more on all of that, let's go to Steven Jiang. He joins me now from Beijing. So how is China managing all of this process? Because essentially, all fingers and eyes have been pointed at Beijing, but in many ways, they seem to have claimed back some of the narrative.
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right. And in the end, in terms of that this resolution, the Chinese government really almost got everything they wanted because remember, this final version, especially when it comes to this international inquiry, is very different from what some other countries have initially proposed.
So a lot of analysts say the language has been weakened because of the Chinese participation in the drafting of this resolution. For example, this probe will not be launched until after this pandemic is being brought under control. That could be some time away. And also, it's not going to be done through a new mechanism. But instead, it's going to -- it's going to be led by the WHO.
And most importantly, the Chinese government says there's going to be a review of experiences and deficiencies in government responses from around the world, not in their words, a presumption of Chinese guilt. So this -- all of these factors really are going to work in China's favor because with the potential us withdraw from the WHO, and Beijing's own pledge of another $2 billion donation over the next two years, their voice inside the organization will be strengthened.
So they will have a lot of say in terms of who gets to sit on the investigative team and how this process unfolds, which is going to be a lengthy and complex process, even under the best circumstances. And so, they're really playing the long game here, because in a few years' time, China's economic and political position around the world could be strengthened again, and the world's attention and focus could have moved away from this issue as well.
So at the end, I think, Robyn, you can see, unlike many other world leaders, Chinese President Xi Jinping, he can afford to wait this out because he doesn't have any term limits. Robyn?
CURNOW: Yes, you make a good point there. Steven Jiang, good to speak to you. Thanks so much. Live there from Beijing. Now, Sweden's Foreign Minister says she asked the U.S. Secretary of State not to pull the funding from the WHO. She tells CNN, now is actually the time for cooperation. Take a listen.
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ANN LINDE, FOREIGN MINISTER, SWEDEN: We need to cooperate. And the United States is a very, very valuable partner in this fight and in this organization. And it would be a bad thing if United States leaves both for the organization as such and for our cooperation.
We are agreeing with United States that there needs to be accountability in the WHO, but we don't think it's the right time in the midst of a pandemic. We need to have all our forces. We need to concentrate on finding their pandemic. And then after that, we go to the accountability which of course has to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CURNOW: Sweden's foreign minister there. President Trump is though escalating his threat to pull all WHO funding, accusing it of being a Chinese puppet. Now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released 60 pages of guidelines on how to reopen the country. It's a shorter version of a document shelved by the White House last week. The guidelines were posted on the CDC's Web site amid reported tensions between the agency and the White House.
They outlined suggestions for reopening schools, restaurants, and childcare facilities among others. Some CDC workers say trying to curb the virus has become much too much of a political process as Drew Griffin now reports.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Multiple sources inside the Centers for Disease Control tell CNN, they are convinced politics not science is the driving force behind the White House response to COVID-19. And those decisions have made the effects of the pandemic in the United States worse.
JAMES CURRAN, DEAN, ROLLINS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Now, there hasn't been as much input from the CDC from my point of view.
GRIFFIN: CNN spoke to six current CDC staff members, and many of them say the White House has stifled the CDC and its coronavirus response, and at times limited its ability to provide health information to the public. One source telling CNN, "We are working under a black cloud of an administration that doesn't have our backs." Another saying, "We've been muzzled." Dr. James Curran is Dean of Public Health at Emory University and former Assistant Surgeon General at the CDC.
Has the CDC been sidelined here?
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CURRAN: I think the perception is that the CDC has been sidelined at least part of the time. Once you feel like the work you're doing is going through a political lens, it gets to be very, very discouraging.
GRIFFIN: On March 2nd, as COVID-19 was racing across the globe, a CDC internal daily report obtained by CNN found evidence of local transmission in 29 other countries. Two days later that had grown to 85 international locations.
The next day, March 5th, three of the top six countries affected by the disease are in Europe. Internal e-mails reveal a CDC global Travel Alert is about to be issued, expected to be posted that night. It would have urged for cautions for international travel anywhere, almost two months after a travel warning had been issued for China, but it was delayed for unexplained reasons.
The Travel Alert that was supposed to be posted March 5th does not take place until March 11th, the same day President Trump would announce his restrictions on most flights coming in from Europe.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days.
GRIFFIN: Each day of delay bringing exponentially more coronavirus exposure to the east coast of the United States, according to Dr. Ali Khan, a former CDC official.
ALI KHAN, DEAN, COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: Those were the days when these cases were essentially being transported via air travel. And we now have really good genetic data that, you know, probably between two to six weeks before we started to see the peak in New York, cases were already slowly spreading within the New York area.
GRIFFIN: One senior official inside the CDC says they told the White House about the viruses rapid spread across Europe, but that the White House was extremely focused on China and not wanting to anger Europe, even though that's where most of our cases were originally coming from.
Kahn says, the original sin as he calls it, was the botched testing at the CDC that lost time and allowed politics to intervene.
KHAN: And if we had testing in place, people very quickly would have recognized that there were cases in the U.S. probably in early January that were being missed. Similarly, we have identified people coming in from Europe if we had widespread testing across the United States.
GRIFFIN: A Trump administration official responded to this report telling knows that the CDC's views are represented at White House Task Force meetings and rolled into the White House briefings. As for the CDC itself, the official told us, it's just one of many agencies that is part of the task force. Drew Griffin, CNN Atlanta.
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CURNOW: Thanks, Drew, for that. So, air travel will most likely look and feel a whole lot different in the near future. The International Air Transport Association is laying out a roadmap to revamp how flights actually operated. Some of its recommendations will impact airline customers before they even arrive at the airport. Anna Stewart joins me now live from London. Anna, just lay out what we can expect.
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Well, it's really interesting advice from IATA. Their board of governors are the big CEOs of airlines around the world. And this advice is to the governments around the world, to airports, and also to passengers. And lots of us are questioning how on earth will we be able to travel again. How do you keep social distance on a plane, in an airport?
And some of that advice is interesting. To governments, IATA says they will need to make sure they have all passenger contact details before they travel. This is so that if anyone falls ill while they're away on their return, they can contact trace who they've been with.
There's also advice for airports, social distancing at various stages throughout the airport process. More self-service check-ins, for example, maybe smaller carry-on luggage and temperature screening will likely be crucial both as you depart an airport and as you arrive at a new one.
And then there's the advice for passengers themselves. Now, facemask feature very heavily in this advice. That is something IATA has actually spoken about before. When on a plane, you will likely be asked to wear a face mask, all the staff will wear them as well. You won't be allowed to change seats.
You may have to get onto sort of ballast if you want to use the washroom to stop any kind of ques forming. So that's all sort of the general advice here. But what's really interesting Robyn, is what's not on there. IATA still objects to the idea that you would remove the middle seat from any of their planes. They think if passengers wear a facemask, that should be enough to contain any spread of the virus.
And also, object to quarantines on arrival or turn into a country. This is something some governments like the U.K. have discussed, the idea that passengers will be forced into a 14-day quarantine on return into the U.K. That is something they really objected. Not least because airlines are facing the biggest crisis ever have. We've got tens of thousands of people losing their jobs. But they also say that through contact tracing, through temperature checking, through all the other measures, they believe it simply wouldn't be needed. Robyn?
[02:40:41]
CURNOW: OK. Anna Stewart, thanks so much. Either way, it sounds pretty nightmarish. Thanks for joining us. I'm going to stay right where I am. Now, the U.S. Treasury Secretary says the American economy could improve later on this year, but he also warns of long-term damage the longer states remain closed.
Steve Mnuchin's warning comes as he updates lawmakers on how a massive stimulus package is being implemented.
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Are you going to require companies that receive money from this half a trillion-dollar slush fund to have to keep people on payroll? It's a simple question, yes or no. Are you going to require that?
STEVE MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY, UNITED STATES: First, let me say that our number one objective is keeping people employed.
WARREN: Good. So are you --
MNUCHIN: I want to be very clear on that.
WARREN: (INAUDIBLE) who are getting taxpayer money. That's my question.
MNUCHIN: Again, we negotiated very significant restrictions on employee compensation, on dividends, on buybacks. And in the main street facility, we have put in a provision that we expect people to use their best efforts to support jobs.
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CURNOW: Well, Richard Quest has more from New York. Richard?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: At its most simple, this was seen as U.S. Senators taking the debate on whether to protect lives or to protect the economy. The Treasury Secretary and the Fed chair both testified before the Senate Banking Committee.
Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary said the economy could not afford to stay locked down, even though he was asked firmly about the risks of reopening.
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SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): How many workers will die if we send people back to work without the protections they need, Mr. Secretary?
MNUCHIN: Mr. Senator, we don't intend to send anybody back to work without the protections.
BROWN: How many workers should give their lives to increase the GDP or the Dow Jones by 1,000 points.
MNUCHIN: No worker should give their lives to do that, Mr. Senator. And I think your characterization is unfair.
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QUEST: Now, for the chair of the Fed, Jerome Powell, warned lasting damage would take place if Washington, for that you can read the administration, failed to do more. In other words, Congress must be ready with a greater policy response.
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JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE: When you have a situation where people are unemployed for long periods of time, that can be -- it can permanently weigh on both their careers and their ability to go back to work, and also weigh on the economy for years.
Equally so, with small and medium-sized businesses, which are the jobs machine of our great economy, this is the biggest response by Congress ever and the fastest and the biggest from us, and still is the biggest shock we've seen in living memory. And the question looms in the air of is it enough.
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QUEST: Wall Street is now starting to give its own verdict on what shape it seems the recovery will be. No longer perhaps looking forward to a straight V shaped recovery, where the upside comes quickly, but now perhaps more a U shape where the economy will go along the trough of the bottom for some time to come. Richard Quest, CNN New York.
CURNOW: Thanks, Richard for that. So the Palestinian Authority President made a dramatic and announcement on Tuesday. He levied new accusations against Israel, calling into question the stability and security of the region. We're live in Jerusalem. That's next.
[02:45:00]
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CURNOW: The Palestinian Authority President has announced an end to all agreements signed with Israel and the U.S. Mahmoud Abbas delivered a speech on Tuesday accusing the new Israeli Government of annihilating the Oslo Agreement by pursuing an annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Because of that, Mr. Abbas said Palestinians are, "absolved of all agreements including security ones." Well, CNN's Oren Liebermann joins me now live from Jerusalem. Hi, Oren. The face of this, this is pretty strong language. What does this announcement mean?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is very strong language from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. It is a threat we've heard countless times before, to cancel security coordination and to dissolve the agreements between the Israelis and Palestinians.
But rarely does Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas use such language or go as far as he did in his rhetoric, even putting a date on the dissolution of the agreements between Israelis and Palestinians. And yet it's unclear at this point what exactly has changed.
The Western officials we've spoken with, as well as diplomatic officials, are waiting to see at this point waiting to judge what has changed and what agreements are actually being dissolved. For example, if Abbas were to go all the way with his statement, he'd been dissolving the Palestinian Authority.
But one PLO leader who we spoke with said that's definitely not happening. P.A. remains intact. So again, it's important to wait and see here what in fact Abbas will do at this case. In that case, this is likely and should be viewed as an attempt to essentially wake up the international community and get them to pay attention. A warning to the international community, specifically to the European Union and the Arab states that Israel's promises to annex parts of the West Bank should be taken seriously. And this then would be an attempt to put annexation and the issue of the Palestinians back on the international radar.
In terms of timing, I would say there are two things worth noting. First, it is still the month of Ramadan, and next week is a major holiday for Muslims and Palestinians and that would be Eid. And therefore, there are no major decisions and major actions likely to take place in the next week. But certainly, we'll wait and see.
It's also worth noting that a new Israeli government was just sworn in. And the foreign minister and defense minister campaigned on a promise of no unilateral annexation. Perhaps then they too, are part of the intended audience of Abbas' threat. Robyn? CURNOW: OK. I mean, it is interesting to just sort of wonder what happens next, I mean, particularly when it comes to the implications for security coordination. I mean, is that officially canceled as of now or not so much.
LIEBERMANN: The threat has been put out there and one PLO leader said it was canceled or has been canceled. But again, we need to wait and see in this case, because there are a lot of options that Abbas could take in this scenario.
Now, security coordination is essentially the bedrock, the foundation of the agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, viewed as beneficial to both sides to crackdown essentially on extremism and terrorism in the West Bank. And for that reason, it's important to both sides.
But Abbas doesn't just need to cancel it altogether. He has in the past suspended it for short periods of time, or he essentially suspend parts of security coordination. For example, he could allow Palestinian security forces to not hold back Palestinian protesters in clashes with Israeli forces. That, for example, would increase friction in the West Bank.
He could take different steps like that without fully canceling security coordination which again, is still viewed as crucial to both sides. But at this point, there has been no official response from the Israelis, as both the Israelis it seems, and the international community, Western officials and diplomats, wait to see how this really plays out on the ground.
[02:50:21]
CURNOW: OK, thanks for that update. Oren Liebermann there in Jerusalem, thanks so much. So Etihad Airways has flown its first ever known fly to Israel to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians. The medical supplies arrived on Tuesday at Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv. No regular commercial flights operate between Israel and the United Arab Emirates where Etihad is based.
The CEO tells CNN that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline may reevaluate which destinations it offers.
So you're watching CNN. Still to come, as more patients recover from the coronavirus, doctors are searching for answers as to why some make a full recovery while others are left with lingering effects.
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CURNOW: So, among the many mysteries of COVID-19, and they are many, researchers are zeroing in on one particular. Why do so many patients make a full recovery while others suffer from symptoms that really just don't seem to go away at all. So, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on that. Sanjay?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said I need to do a rather aggressive treatment on you? Do you have a wife and children? If so, we need to call them and tell them. You need to essentially tell them goodbye because you have about a 20 percent chance of surviving this.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I can't even -- I can't even imagine. I mean, is it hard to talk about?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The hardest part of all to remember is the phone call to my wife and kids. I mean, that was just awful.
GUPTA: What started as a cough and a fever ended with 49-year-old Michael Herbert in the ICU on a ventilator for seven days, unsure if he'd ever see his family again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't know what was going to happen, if I was going to wake up or not.
GUPTA: In all the numbers we hear about coronavirus, number infected, number who have sadly died. We haven't heard as much about another group of patients. Those who have recovered.
MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGIST, WHO: There are more than a million people that have recovered. Many people are doing very well. There may be some individuals who will have some long-term effects because the virus -- it depends on how severe the virus was.
GUPTA: How are you doing? What does recovery mean for you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I first got out of the hospital, I was -- I was very weak. And I've been told by the doctors, the pulmonologist in particular that my lungs would probably take four to eight weeks to heal.
GUPTA: Was that a concern that you might have long-term impacts on your lungs?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell they're not 100 percent right now, and I guess I shouldn't expect them to be. They told me it would be a while for them to be all the way back. Again, just like everybody else, I think there's a lot of unknown here.
GUPTA: There are still a lot of unknowns. And even studying recovery of coronavirus patients, it seemed like a luxury in the early days of this pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today is pretty intense.
GUPTA: But now, Dr. Reynold Panettieri is trying to decipher these unknowns by conducting a six-month study of coronavirus patients who have recovered.
REYNOLD PANETTIERI, RUTGERS INSTITUTE FOR TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AND SCIENCE: There's several, several cases and participants who described this ongoing fatigue and malaise, a feeling of not well. What is curious is these patients premorbid or prior to the infection were even aggressive athletes. We would not have predicted that.
[02:55:20]
GUPTA: One thing that could help predict long term effects is looking at what happened during other coronavirus outbreaks. Take a look at this. Those are fibrous stripes on the lungs. It almost looks like spattered paint. These could be an early sign of pulmonary fibrosis. That's a type of scarring of the lungs.
Previous studies of coronaviruses like SARS and MERS have identified patients who had long-lasting fibrosis. And now, we are seeing reports of COVID-19 patients with the same fiber stripes on their CT scans. It's another example of what we're still learning from infection to recovery. We're still not sure exactly how this virus will truly affect us long term.
But six weeks since you are, you know, "off the breathing machine and in the process of recovery," how are you doing six weeks later?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm doing so much better. When I finally got to see them again, eventually, once I was taken off of the ventilator, it was like the best thing that ever happened to me.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
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CURNOW: I'm so glad he's doing well. So, you can follow all the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. and around the globe. Also, Anderson Cooper and Sanjay will host a global townhall. They've been fantastic, haven't they? Well, the latest one, Coronavirus Facts and Fears will be at 8:00 p.m. Thursday in New York, 8:00 a.m. Friday in Hong Kong, only here on CNN.
And here's a story. One restaurant in the U.S. state of Maryland has a unique idea for social distancing. Check out these bumper tables. They're large inner tubes that you can stand inside and it keeps you about two meters apart from others. You can walk around and mingle since they have wheels.
Now the Fish Tails Pub will put them to use once they're allowed to reopen. I don't know how that's going to work with a few tequilas, but let's just see what happens when they decide to get those and achieved working well.
Thanks for joining me. It's been a long few hours, a lot of news. Please stay at home if you can. Stay safe. I'm Robyn Curnow. The news continues just ahead. Rosemary is up next. Enjoy.
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