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Cuomo Prime Time

President Trump Still Refuses To Wear A Mask; Trump Family Member Out With A Tell-All Book; Drug Addiction Increases In 2020; Doctors Save People No Matter What. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired July 01, 2020 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome back to a bonus hour of PRIME TIME.

Tonight, the U.S. is tallying a record number of new COVID-19 cases for a single day. More than 48,000. Staggering statistic. What else do you need to know? President Trump has it finally gotten through? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm all for masks. I think masks are good. I would wear it if I were in a group of people and I was close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would wear one.

TRUMP: I would -- I would -- I have. People have seen me wearing one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Actually, we really haven't seen you wearing one. And you told people that you wouldn't because you didn't want to give the media the satisfaction. And you said many times that you didn't like the look and you didn't think it worked for you.

See, the fact is you haven't worn one since the CDC advised Americans back in April to do it. You said you were a wartime president. That means you lead by example. This is what you said at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't think I'll be doing this. Wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens. I don't know. Somehow, I don't see it for myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Tonight, we're learning there's debate inside the White House on whether the president should stop ignoring the virus and start paying attention to it. Think about that. Can you imagine inside the White House of the United

States of America during a pandemic there is a division on whether or not to recognize the pandemic? A 128,000 of us are dead. Should you just keep talking about reopening the economy and that this will disappear? I don't know.

Well, the other guys are starting to wear masks and, you know, these numbers they're not going away the way you told me they would. Yes, this election will largely be about this period and this pandemic.

And here are the facts. Thirty-seven states are seeing an uptick in cases over the past week. Six months after we learned about this. Twenty-three states are pausing or rolling back plans to reopen because they didn't do it the right way.

And a big reason it wasn't done, especially in red states is because of this president and his lack of leadership. Again, even with this movement on masks which we know is a lie. Here's what went with it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think that at some point that's going to sort of just disappear. I hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: And I hope I grow up in a 6'5" tomorrow with a better right knee, twice the lung capacity and I could play for the Knicks. Not going to happen.

Let's bring in Dr. William Haseltine. It's good to have you on PRIME TIME. The idea of the pandemic disappearing, what does that mean through a medical lens?

WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: This pandemic is not disappearing. This pandemic must be disappeared. And it can be. Without a drug, without a vaccine. If you have leadership, governance and individual responsibility it can be reduced to zero as we have seen in a number of countries. Or it can be reduced to very low levels in other countries.

CUOMO: Now if the response from the White House with the president is that, yes, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying that hopefully we'll make it disappear. What's missing in terms of the message?

[22:05:01]

HASELTINE: You need to have clear leadership. Leadership that is clear, consistent, credible, and compassionate. You need governance that has the right tools. You need a surgeon general that has troops. And then you need people. Every individual has to take it upon themselves to be responsible. you need all three layers to work together. One without the other will not work.

CUOMO: The idea that America that this was unfixable. We're always going to be here. It's inevitable. This is how it works. It's not about how we've reacted to it. What's your sense?

HASELTINE: Well, all you have to do is look at America county by county. State by state. And you can see that leadership, organization, and individual --

CUOMO: Whoops. We lost Haseltine. Thank God not to coronavirus. He is making -- he was making the point to us right now that the idea that we had to wind up here, it was inevitable. It's not true on two levels.

One, look at other countries and you'll see how they've handled it and handled it more quickly than we. Even Italy wound up getting through it with an economy that we didn't in terms of time. OK? We'll see how they come out of it. They didn't go into with the kind of economic assets we did so they are going to be hurting for sure.

But why is it still taking us so long? If you look state by state and county and county, you'll see the areas that treated it most seriously, that worked the hardest on it that got all the flak, they are reopening the best. See? Because we had it backwards in some places. It was never, reopen and then we'll take care of the virus. It was, take care of the virus and then you can reopen. That was always the way it was going to be.

And places that didn't do it that way have paid the price. We'll try to get Haseltine back. But even in little doses he's a lot of medicine. And we appreciate him for that.

Let's get a better sense of the reality of where we are and where we're headed from Nick Watt right now.

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every state beach parking lot in Southern California and the Bay Area will now be closed for the Fourth of July weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): And the weekend that has raised a lot of concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Bars, dine in restaurants and movie theaters will also now close again in 19 Californian counties for at least three weeks. Today, the daily death toll in the state like we hadn't seen since April.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: Do not take your guard down. Please do not believe those that somehow want to manipulate the reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: And record numbers now hospitalized in Arizona.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR JOHN GILES (R), MESA, ARIZONA: I'm not sure what more we can do with the short of a total shut down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Record high hospitalization also in Texas and long lines to be tested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D) AUSTIN, TEXAS: While we opened in phases, we went from one phase to the next phase too quickly. So, we weren't able to see the data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: He's echoing Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the most respected voices on this virus but no longer respected by all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIEUTENANT GOV. DAN PATRICK (R-TX): He doesn't know what he's talking about. We haven't skipped over anything. The only thing I'm skipping over is listening to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Thirty-seven states are seeing their case counts climb. At least 22 of them now pausing or rolling back reopening.

New York City was due to open indoor dining Monday. Not anymore. And a new warning from the federal official in charge of testing those under 35 are driving outbreaks right now. And testing alone will not be enough to stop them.

(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Testing is critical. But we cannot test our way out of the current outbreak. We must discipline about our own personal behavior especially around the July 4th holiday and especially among the young adults.

(END VOICE CLIP)

WATT: Vaccine would of course be the game changer. Some promising data from Pfizer today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT WACHTER, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, UCSF: We have an effective vaccine that's proven on January 1. This thing does not end on January 2. It's going to be another six months, nine months, it could be a year before we get it distributed and up shoulders to make a meaningful difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WATT: Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

CUOMO: All right. So that's the straight take. Let's bring back Dr. William Haseltine. I think we got him back. I just want to get you one more question. Thank you for your forbearance, doctor.

This has been politicized. That is not debatable. You just heard that Yahoo from Texas the lieutenant governor saying he's not listening to Fauci. It's the same guy who said, you know, it's worth dying in order to get the economy reopened.

The idea of heading into July 4th weekend and the message the president may send by going to South Dakota to be in the presence of Rushmore and if people not socially distance and masks optional at an event like that. How powerful is that message?

[22:10:09]

HASELTINE: Well, let me give you a idea of how I give myself friends advice who ask me about a barbecue. Something very simple. A barbecue. I say, fine, have a barbecue outside because it's much safer to be outside. Do not go inside. If it rains, don't go inside. Go home.

Magnify that small piece of advice by a huge crowd of 30,000 people or more gathering on the Fourth of July with or without mask is a very dangerous situation. If you're going to be worried about a barbecue at home with friends, and you don't go inside because you might infect one another, you should certainly worry about a very big crowd.

CUOMO: And the argument of, but it's my right, it's my right to assemble. You didn't care like this about the protest. Wasn't it? You can't protest without a mask. What do you make of that argument?

HASELTINE: You know, I am a big proponent of individual freedom. But when somebody else's freedom impinges on mine, we all know and we learn it in high school, in junior high school civics classed. There is a border to personal freedom. You can have all the personal freedom you want as long as it harms no one else.

The moment it may harm someone else society has a right to say be careful. Change your behavior. We do it all the time. Just take a speed limit. Sure. You can go as fast as you want. But if you're endangering other people you can get a ticket and you can be pulled over and you can even be tossed in jail.

So, you got to be careful. You can't just go around recklessly driving. And that's essentially what it's like. You don't know if you are infected. You might be infected. And you don't know it. And you could be harming other people. A simple mask is not a great thing to ask for a period of time.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: And it's only when you can't socially distance.

HASELTINE: Yes. CUOMO: You're not asking them to wear all the time. Everywhere they go inside and outside no matter what the situation is, just when you can't socially distance and you're around people that you haven't been around.

All right, doctor, thank you very much. Sorry for the hiccup. But again, even in small doses you are great medicine. I appreciate it.

HASELTINE: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. We got some breaking news in another Trump battle. This one against his own family. His niece is writing a tell- all book. He wanted to block it. It was actually his brother who tried to block it. But we may get to learn new secrets, not that they'll probably matter much. That's -- I'm a cynic.

But there's news about the ability to stop the book from being read. Next.

[22:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Breaking news. Another tell-all book in the Trump world gets the go ahead from a New York State appellate court. This one written by the president's niece. It's called "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man."

Let's bring in Brian Stelter for what this means for the president and his family and voters. Good to see you, my brother. What is the ruling say, what does it mean?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This is the number one best-selling book on Amazon all across the country. Even though it's not coming out for another four weeks, Chris. And that's because of the title you just described.

A niece of President Trump saying he is the world's most dangerous man. Robert Trump went to court seemingly on behalf of the president trying to stop the book last week. He won an initial ruling in a local court. But now there's an appellate court that said this book will go forward. This book can be published by Simon and Schuster. That the publishing company that says it has already printed tens of thousands of copies.

So even though this book won't come out for weeks it is already a huge nationwide bestseller. Because everybody wants to know what is Mary Trump, who, by the way, is a licensed psychologist. What is she going to say about her uncle? We don't know for a few more weeks. But this court tonight says the book can go forward and can be released.

CUOMO: What's the whisper? That she has tax returns because she would be a signatory to a lot of the family assets, what's the whisper?

STELTER: Right. That she helped the New York Times get a hold of tax returns back a couple of years ago. And that was just a tip of the iceberg. Look, we don't know how much he shows, we don't know how much she has revealed. She's been working on this book in secret. It was not revealed to the world until it was up on Amazon a few weeks ago.

But just because of the title and the suggestion that she is going to say so many shocking things about the president it is already a huge bestseller. And we've seen now two times in the past few weeks attempts to stop Trump tell-all's.

First, it was the Justice Department trying to stop John Bolton's book. Well that didn't work. It's the biggest book in the country right now. It's been out for seven days and the publisher is going out and printing more books.

And now there's this book by Mary Trump which I think will be even more significant. Why? Because it's a member of the family challenging the president and his mental ability. His fitness for office. That is going to be incredibly damaging to the president.

Look, I heard what you said before the break, Chris, who knows if it will change anybody's mind. It doesn't seem like anything changes anyone's mind these days. But a book of this magnitude could be significant as you head into August, you head into the RNC convention, you head into the general election. And you have a member of the president's own family turning against him.

CUOMO: And look, it's no small irony.

STELTER: We'll see.

CUOMO: The president and his team were the guys who were pushing on Facebook and everybody for censoring. They've been trying to censor two stories themselves in the last two weeks. But we'll see. You know how it works. Nobody knows better than you frankly. The chatter will come out a little bit more as we get closer to the publication date. And then we'll see what it is.

[22:20:00]

STELTER: Right. Right.

CUOMO: But Brian Stelter, nobody gets us this kind of information faster or deeper than you. Always a pleasure to see you. Best to you, the wife and the kids.

STELTER: Thanks.

CUOMO: Be well, brother.

All right. President Trump stoking the flames of the racial divide in America. How? Well, what do you call saying that the words Black Lives Matter is a symbol of hate? Is that the right message right now? The White House trying to walk it back but just a little bit.

What does Angela Rye think? Here's a hint. She doesn't like it. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CUOMO: Look, you know you can reach me on social media. You know I have the radio show on channel 124 Sirius. I mean it when I say give me a reason. Help me understand why the president would say that Black Lives Matter is a symbol of hate. Why?

Why would he say that right now about a mural that the New York mayor plans to have painted? Is it because it's outside Trump tower and he sees that as an attack so he has to attack it back?

[22:25:00]

But when this is happening in this country right now, what good reason, how can that help anything? His press secretary says later on Trump was talking about the organization. Not the people. The problem is the organization is the people.

Angela Rye joins me now. I'm not going to ask you to give me a good reason that he would say it. But the idea of --

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

CUOMO: -- calling it that at this time, if anyone has any interest in this movement, is there anything else they need to know about this president in measuring what he thinks of the cause?

RYE: Well, I first just want to take a moment to address a former colleague and Kayleigh McEnany and just invite her into what it means to tell the truth. And what the truth is that she clearly doesn't know much about the Black Lives Matter global network. She clearly has never met the founders who are friends of mine. Opal and Patrisse, and Alicia.

She clearly doesn't understand that black lives have not matter to this country since its foundation. She clearly does not understand that the framers in the organizing documents did not even deem black people as five fifths fully human. She clearly does not understand the number of people who were lynched in this country. Even during the reconstruction era.

I would invite Kayleigh and Donald Trump to visit the equal justice initiative museums stood up. The legacy museum by Bryan Stevenson to just learn history.

And Chris, what I'm trying to do is just ground myself in the truth about a history that I was blessed to learn from my parents when my history books would not teach it to me, I was blessed to learn.

And clearly, I have to believe these people just don't know any better because I got to believe that they would not put in direct harm's way people who are friends of mine who are simply out here fighting to defund the police to ensure that communities of color are reinvested and police forces are divested from.

I got to believe that these people are not just willingly this ignorant to put people who are trying to ensure that Black Lives Matter that black policy matters and what is in our best interest to survive and to find equitable outcomes in the country. I got to believe that they are not doing this maliciously.

And if that means that they just have to take a moment to learn, then I invite them to take the next 24 hours. And maybe even through this weekend to look at what it would take for us to really gain independence.

Frederick Douglass said about Independence Day in this country what do the slave is the Fourth of July. And I would invite them to even start there as the reading principle to see how different we see this country and why the rhetoric that they use is so very dangerous.

So while he refuses to call people who support the confederacy, domestic terrorists. The people who support confederacy as traitors to this country. But instead he's willing to target my friends, I would invite him to learn and then to apologize for what he's done and then to walk back that very toxic rhetoric at a time like this.

CUOMO: Well, as they say bless your heart, Angela Rye. Because you are going to have to steal yourself --

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: He's a blessing because I'm trying.

CUOMO: -- you are going to have to steal yourself for some significant disappointment. We both know what Kayleigh McEnancy is doing. She is playing to advantage. This is someone who during Trump as a candidate said she didn't want to own them. He didn't represent anything about the Republican Party. She had all these problems with him as a human being.

She didn't come on my show when she started to get a paycheck from the organization and said he has never lied to the American people. This is the ugliness of politics. Black Lives Matter represents an inimical force to this president's reelection. That's how it's perceived. True or not. That means it's got to go. And that's how they are treated.

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: But that's a problem. That's a problem because Black Lives Matter is an organization, as an affirmation which is really what it is. It's not something that we can afford to compromise.

CUOMO: Filled with looters. Looters and criminals and bullies and thugs running around beating up police.

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: And that very base --

CUOMO: Destroying their own communities like that antifa.

RYE: Yes.

CUOMO: That's all it is. RYE: And all of that is a lie. All of that is a lie and it is the very thing that would threaten someone like Manuel Ellis in Tacoma, Washington who was another black man who said I can't breathe. That type of mentality is the thing that would cost Breonna Taylor her life. That type of mentality is what would cost Elijah McLain his life.

I cannot continue to just name the thousands of people who have been targeted by police officers just since 2013 because of their appearance. Because black lives have not mattered in the mentality and the psyche of so many. Not just those who wear the badge. We can go to the vigilantes that killed Trayvon Martin or Ahmaud Arbery.

[22:30:03]

It is a deep-rooted problem in this country. It must be addressed. And Black Lives Matter should not be a partisan debate or argument. It should be an affirmation embraced by everyone on the soil of this land and everywhere else all over the planet. That is just what it should be.

And as long as we continue to engage in a political divisive debate about this, we're going to have a problem. Because black lives do matter. And I am requiring that anyone that wants to serve us whether on a corporate level, in a non-profit organization or in a government federal state or local, they have to acknowledge that black lives must matter in this country.

CUOMO: Right. They're just adding a B. It's a BLMB. Black Lives Matter but.

RYE: Yes.

CUOMO: You guys have to comply with the police. But, and if you don't, then whatever happens is OK. Black Lives Matter but somehow the police are being victimized by this movement. They matter but you guys get too many breaks as it is and reparations is crazy.

It matters but can't forget about the confederacy that's important to a lot of people. It matters but, you know, you guys we've done a lot for you. It's time for you to stop complaining. That's what he's catering to. The guy puts out a video that someone says white power in response to people saying Trump is bad. He puts it out and then he deletes it.

McEnany says the deletion is a strong move. No. It was a cover his ass for putting something out there that shows --

RYE: That's right.

CUOMO: -- what he wants to cultivate in this country as a demagogue. How do you deal with that?

RYE: Well, and I think the way that we deal with it, Chris, is by dismantling all of that lack of logic. Dismantling all of the ignorance. And that's why I started with let me just teach like you don't know. Because clearly you don't, right?

If you can still make an argument about why army bases should be named after confederate soldiers. Which he's doing. Because you think it appeals to a base. Shame on you. Leadership should tell you that sometimes you have to educate ignorance out of people.

I hope that this is out of ignorance and not malintent. I'm not confident that that is what it is but I'm choosing to engage in that this way, Chris, because if I don't I come on here shaking, and when I'm done with this thing I cry.

Like I can't imagine a world where in 2020 (Inaudible), you know, just turned 10. My best friend is celebrating her 40th birthday today. I can't imagine we're living in a world where people see these COVID numbers and the disproportionate impact on black people.

I can't imagine a world where we're talking about what black people -- you know, we've given you handouts. No, you didn't. We gave you the handout. We built the entire country for free. That's a hell of a handout. You're talking about reparations. People who you stole from their native lands came here to build an entire economy, building systems and institutions for you with no compensation.

They better not ever say another thing to me about a handout. And all we're talking about right now is just the ability to live. When you talk about the Declaration of Independence and it says, life liberty in the pursuit of happiness. Right now, we're still at left. Maybe we'll get to liberty and pursuit of happiness. So, but you have to see me as your equal.

First you have to see me as five fifths and not just something that you can count to ensure proportional representation for slave masters. That's what we have to get. Chris, myself just the other day I was talking to my dad who you blocked on Instagram and --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I did not. I only said that.

RYE: I did not do that. I love him and I love the picture.

CUOMO: Go ahead, go ahead.

RYE: But I was talking to him -- I was talking to him the other day and I said something about a slave. And my dad corrected me like he does. And he said no, Angela, enslaved person. Stop taking the humanity away from people.

And so, it's just those things like that. It was a nudge. My friend who, when I was talking about defund the police. And I was putting out everything. We'll take the body camera, the dash cam. We'll take all the changes. Right?

And my friend Alicia Garza one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, one of the incorporator, she said, Angela, you can't start that small. We have to be having a bigger conversation in this moment. Our survival depends on it.

And she's right, Chris. We have to for a minute imagine a world, as my friend Latasha Brown (Ph) from black voters matter said, imagine an America without racism. And the mere thought of that, Chris, brings tears to my eyes because it feels so far out of reach. We have to make that a more tangible thing for us, for our kids, for the future generations in the country. We're not going to get better until we can begin to imagine a different reality.

And we're so right. Well, we can't do that because that may cause votes here. We have to do what's in the best interest of the totality of the American -- of all America.

[22:34:59]

CUOMO: No question.

RYE: We have to do that.

CUOMO: No question about it. But look, where's the hope? The hope is you and I have trafficked through a few bad cases over the last few years. We've never had conversations like this as long as we have had them now.

So, we take progress where we find it but we don't stop there. I listen to Michael Che the other night. Part of his comedy, recent comedy sketch he did. And he said we're just saying Black Lives Matter. We just want to matter. We don't want to matter more than you.

We don't -- you know, it's like the lowest standard that we should be able to exist in a country that doesn't seem to seek our extinguishment.

RYE: Yes.

CUOMO: And it made me sad. He's being funny and it was ironic. But that's where we are. This conversation is proof we would have never had it a year ago. We would have never it a year ago. And I told you the last time I had you on, I won't stop having the conversation. I had Chuck D last night. We got to come out from different angles. We got to keep going along after they're out of the streets.

RYE: You fancy. Chuck D. You're dropping Chuck D's name now.

CUOMO: All over the place.

RYE: You fancy, Chris.

CUOMO: All over the place. I've been saying it all day.

RYE: I love it. I want to commend you because I've been watching you have the conversations. I've been watching you issue the challenges. I am proud to say you're my friend and I'm proud to see you honor that promise. Know that this is the type of content and the type of conversation that saves lives. So, I am proud of you, Chris.

CUOMO: Well, thank you for helping me understand and do the job the right way. Angela Rye, God bless you. Best to your father.

RYE: God bless you. I'm going to tell him that you didn't block him this time.

CUOMO: Thank you.

All right. COVID-19 isn't the only -- I didn't block him. I'm telling you right now that what she just said wasn't true.

COVID isn't the only medical crisis seeing spikes. Opioid overdoses. We talk about mental health. We talked about addiction. We tell you how this would happen. It's happening. Skyrocketing. Just because our attention is shift from one thing doesn't mean another problem goes away.

Let's talk to one of the nation's most important voices and find out what's going on, why it's going on and what we can do about it. Next.

[22:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Over doses are spiking. Deaths from drug abuse as well. Opioids killing us even more during the pandemic. A 42 percent jump from last year. Why? You know why. People are home alone. They're stressed. Out of work.

This virus if you get it attacks your body and your mind. It attacks your mind and your spirit and your sense of self even if you don't have it. Look how our lives have changed. Look at the anxiety. All challenges and they'll going to take their toll. We've seen the devastation of addiction long before 2020. We feared it would get worse and it is.

I want to bring in Dr. Nora Volkow who leads the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Thank you for taking time to be on Prime Time.

NORA VOLKOW, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE: Chris, good evening. Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: So important. I cannot let this issue get away, it's too big. A part of the dynamic in America let alone during the pandemic. What have you seen, what concerns you the most?

VOLKOW: Well, what concerns me the most is the isolation that is affecting the vulnerability of people that have been struggling with to stay away from drugs which has made it very, very difficult. And all along we have had people dying from opioid over the past two decades. And it escalated to its peak in 2017. And we thought that we had been able to start to control it.

And then on 2019 we see it start rising. And then during the pandemic it just gets worse. The isolation, the stress that you were mentioning. The over burdening of the healthcare system that no longer is able to provide for treatments. The decreasing ability of actually patients to get their methadone from methadone clinics. The inability for arranging for transportation. Many of the ones that

end up homeless. Those are end up in prisons or jails because of the substance use disorders. All of these issues have become devastating in terms of the stress that it imposes on them. But also, the risk that these people have of getting infected and if they get infected of having adverse outcomes. So, we have an intersection that is very, very little.

CUOMO: They have every reason to have more trouble during this time. Now, a second aspect of this I'd love your take on, is that there is no question because of the need to emphasize COVID. A lot of things within the healthcare system have suffered and been given a little bit of de-prioritization.

But not like when it comes to addiction as an aspect of mental health. two-point five trillion approved for COVID relief. Only 425 million, it's a big number but it's barely more than a hundredth of 1 percent designated for mental health and substance use treatment.

We knew this was going to spike during this time. And I feel like this is an extension of the lack of parody that we still talk mental health and physical health as if they were different and not conflated that they don't combine. Is that part of the problem here?

VOLKOW: It has always part of the problem and it just made worse by this crisis that we are living. It is very rare to have someone that has struggling with addiction problems that also doesn't have comorbid mental illness. Anxiety. Depression.

And all of that just makes it much harder for them to cope and deal. And the healthcare system has all along been struggling to try to provide support. And now COVID-19 actually with all of the urgent needs and the demands no longer can provide that support system that in the past helped people to actually achieve recovery. It's no longer there for them.

[22:45:06]

And on top of that, another aspect that has always been hurtful maybe even worse is the stigma that goes against people that are addicted or mentally ill. And as a result of that you have two problems.

On the one hand the healthcare system not wanting necessary to take care of patients that are suffering from addiction because of the belief that they did this to themselves. But on the other hand, I mean, the person that stigmatized. No one likes to be stigmatized.

So, they are not going to seek for help because they don't want to be mistreated or discriminated. And so, the person who would be otherwise receiving care does not reach out because of the fear of stigmatization.

So, it is confounded by so many issues. This intersection between the pandemic and the epidemic of opioid. That it is not surprising that it has these very little consequences. And we actually don't even know what the numbers are. These are estimates that are starting to emerge. Because we don't --

actually people when they are dying, we -- they are not necessarily going to get an autopsy to find out what they died from.

CUOMO: Right.

VOLKOW: With the social isolation people are dying alone. They are not necessarily called as overdoses. Another aspect that's confounded. I mean, people maybe actively seeking to overdose. I mean, some of the those maybe suicides that nobody will really understand.

So, there is a lot of unknowns with what we do know is that it has been exacerbated. The opioid crisis has been exacerbated and it's not going to take care by itself.

CUOMO: Right. I understand, we knew it would get worse during COVID- 19. We knew we had to prepare. We didn't. But that's not new when it comes to mental health. We imprison people more than we treat them. Until we start treating addiction as the illness that it is and the mental illness that it is, we're going to never get past it in the society.

I got to tell you, doctor, I got to let you go. But I've never said anything that got the kind of resonance as being provocative and as something I shouldn't have said about myself is when I start talking about how useful therapy is in my life. And how much my therapist means to me. And how getting mental health straight has been more important to me in my life than anything I've ever done for myself physically.

It freaked people out more than anything else I've ever said because of all the stigmas involved. We've got to get past it, doctor. I know your work is in line with that. You always have a place to make arguments for that work here. God bless and stay healthy.

VOLKOW: Thanks. Good message. Seek treatment if you need it.

CUOMO: True. I should do it five days a week. take care.

Coronavirus is spiking in Arizona. Why? They didn't deal with it the right way. They have to get on the right page. The governor there taking his mask off. The crowd cheering. Let's get a view from the frontline with a doctor who is deep in the fight there. Is she cheering? Next.

[22:50:00]

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CUOMO: The reality of this pandemic is in people. That's the truth behind all the numbers and the rates. People getting sick, dying, often alone. And those on the frontlines waiting day after day into all of it, even when those applause and the seven o'clock bells stop ringing, people like Dr. Iram Khan in Scottsdale, Arizona do the job.

Doctor, thank you for being an angel among us. I know you say it's just your job, but I don't see it that way. Nobody goes to medical school to get beat up in a pandemic 24/7 for months. Thank you for doing the work, and please give me some perspective.

We are hearing about these tough calls that are being made in Arizona already in terms of distribution of resources, even on the ICU level. What are you seeing?

IRAM KHAN, INTERNAL MEDICINE HOSPITALIST: You know, Chris, as you all can see, our numbers are definitely going up. You know, people are getting sick. Yes, you know, we're getting busier, but, you know, we've been preparing for this.

You know, we are trying our best to get everyone what they need here, but we need help from the people. You know, our doctors are ready. Our nurses are ready. Our hospitals are ready for this. But we need the people to help us here. You know, they need to take responsibility. Listen to us. Mask up. Stay home. Physical distance. We need that from you so we can fight it.

CUOMO: Doctor, they will say, listen, I love what you're doing. The people who wind up in your care, those are the fat people, the sick people, the smokers. You're not putting a mask on me. I'm healthy. Not all of us have to do it, just those kinds of people. Let the old people and the sick people stay home and do all that stuff. The rest of us, we've got to work, we've got to live. We only get one chance at this. Yolo. What do you say to them?

KHAN: Well, you know, it is not just the sick, the old and the sick, you know, who are getting serious disease. Even right now at this point, even though, yes, we have the numbers, the people who have underlying conditions get sicker, they might end on a ventilator, but that does not exclude every young person from getting sick.

[22:55:00]

And you have to remember, Chris, we don't know what the long-term complications of these are. Yes, a young person might get a mild disease. I don't know what's going to happen years down the road what beating his lungs are taking and what will we see later on. We just do not know much about this virus.

You know, one thing we do know is that the prevention works. There is no treatment, period. There no vaccine yet, period. We only have prevention. Masking, distancing. That's all we have and that's what we need to do.

CUOMO: And it's not being done the way you need it to be done in Arizona and you're already at 90 percent capacity of your ICU beds, and not everybody has to go in to the hospital, not everybody goes in extremists and needs ICU beds, but being that far into capacity this soon when you're not getting the right messaging anywhere else is a scary combination.

Doctor, for all the unpleasantness and for all the scariness of this, please know that people like you are a bright spot and they -- that you resonate across this country faster than the virus ever can. And that people know that we owe it to people like you do our best.

Dr. Khan, God bless. Thank you for what you're doing and stay healthy.

KHAN: Thank you so much, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. We're coming back right after this.

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