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Volunteers in U.S. Can Register for Vaccine Clinical Trials; Hospitals Strained As States See Record Spikes in COVID Cases; Anthony Fauci: States With Serious Problems of COVID Cases Should Consider Shutting Down. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 09, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:18]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. 9:00 a.m. Eastern, 6:00 a.m. Pacific. I'm glad you're with us. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.

And as the president pushes more reopenings, plans another rally, and is fighting for school to open their doors this fall, the nation has surpassed three million coronavirus infections as cases are climbing in now 35 states. Some of those states logging record daily spikes.

Reports health care workers are running out of critical protective gear, like masks, face shields and gloves, and 42 Florida hospitals say they're out of ICU beds. 42 Florida hospital. There are only 145 ICU beds left in the entire state of Arizona. California and Texas just saw the most deaths in a single day since the beginning of this pandemic. And the situation is getting so dire that Dr. Fauci said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down. It's not for me to say because each state is different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And minutes from now, we are expecting landmark rulings on whether the president can block the release of his tax records and his financial documents or not. The Supreme Court will weigh in.

We're covering all of this. Let's begin in Miami with Rosa Flores.

Rosa, what more do we know about the hospitals there? I mean, to think that in the state of Florida, 42 hospitals are completely out of open ICU beds.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And some of them are right here in Miami-Dade County, the epicenter of this crisis.

Look, Poppy, here in the state of Florida, the state reported nearly 10,000 cases yesterday. The positivity rate here in Miami-Dade County is 28 percent. When we last talked yesterday it was 27 percent. When you look at the number of hospitalizations in the past 13 days, they've increased 70 percent. ICU beds, 84 percent. Ventilators 116 percent.

Now, despite all those facts and figures, the state of Florida is requiring schools to reopen in the fall for in-person instruction, but here's the thing. We talked to both the superintendent in Broward and here in Miami-Dade Counties and they say that so long as this county is in phase one, it will not reopen. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Both federal guidelines and state guidelines basically dictate that any county, any community that isn't in phase one is unable to open schools. That is the federal and state guidelines at this point. I think it would be counterintuitive with positivity cases increasing, with restaurants just this week being shutting down again, for us to pack up schools. It does not make sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, on to Jacksonville, that city was deemed a hotspot by HHS. The federal government setting up a testing site there, and now a legal battle is brewing. A group of attorneys have filed a lawsuit against that city, Poppy, because they are hosting the RNC there and according to the complaint, they claim that it is going to hurt the health and safety of the citizens of that city -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Rosa Flores, thank you so much.

Let's get to Ed Lavandera, he joins in Texas, in Dallas specifically, which has just reported the state's highest number of coronavirus deaths. Deaths. Not just contractions, but deaths since the start of this pandemic. What can you tell us?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it seems like every day disturbing and troubling records being set here in Texas. 98 deaths reported on Wednesday. That is by far a record high in the number of deaths reported on any single day since these pandemic numbers have been released, dating back to March. And over the course of the last two days, more than 20,000 new cases of coronavirus have been reported. We haven't seen those numbers at all as well.

Couple of graphics here I want to show you that really show you the troubling trend lines here in the state. The first one is the five-day average of the total number of coronavirus cases in the state. Just look at the trend lines that you see there over the course of the last three weeks. And then if you take a look at the same trend line for hospitalizations in this state, and this is one of those factors that state officials here having saying that they're looking very closely at. Just look at the trend lines there as well.

The hospitalizations, if you look back over the course of the last three weeks on June 18th, there were about 2900 people hospitalized. That number is now approaching 10,000. That's about a 30 percent jump in just the last three weeks.

[09:05:03]

And then the other troubling number, Poppy, is the daily positive infection rate when you look at that. State officials here had said that they had been hoping to get that under 5 percent, 6 percent. That that would be a good sign. On May 26th, that positive infection rate was just over 4 percent. Today, it now stands at 15 percent and that is a record high as well - Poppy.

HARLOW: Wow. Ed, thank you for that reporting.

Let's go to our Evan McMorris-Santoro who joins me in Phoenix, Arizona, again this morning where as of last night, Evan, there were only 145 ICU beds available. Not just where you are but across the entire state.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. I'm in Phoenix and that 145 bed number, to put it in perspective, that is the lowest number reported by the state since they began making that number available to reporters back in March. So it's a tough number, it shows how dire the situation is here.

Let's look at a couple of graphics to explain the situation just where we are right now. Look at the five-day moving average of new cases. You can see that number going up. Cases per 1,000 residents, you can see that number, that graphic showing, you know, all over the state, everywhere it's experiencing this rising pandemic spike now and the hospitalization figures also on the rise.

Right now, where I am is on 24th Street in Phoenix, which is another testing site that's been set up trying to alleviate some of the testing problems they've had here. We've been out here since about 5:00 a.m. There's about a mile and a half of cars waiting to get in to the community college parking lot where the testing is going on. Local officials are really hoping that if they get some of this testing going, they can start to get a better handle on the pandemic and maybe get a chance at mitigating it.

But the problem is it takes seven to 10 days to get your results once you get tested here this morning. The way it works is they will e-mail you if you're negative and they will call you if you're positive. But it's going to be a week after you get tested today -- Poppy.

HARLOW: That's been a major concern across the country, Evan, is that these labs are overwhelmed. It's taken longer to get tests back and what do people do while they're waiting for their tests? They don't just usually stay at home alone. I'm so sorry to hear that that's the situation there as well.

Evan, thanks a lot.

So the head of the CDC this morning now says that agency will not be revising the guidelines to reopen schools. This is after, you remember, the president yesterday complained about the guidelines saying they're too tough and expensive. Let's go to Joe Johns at the White House for more. It's really

important here, although I watched the interview with Director Redfield, it was hard to understand exactly where the CDC was on this, but the background that matters so much, right, is that when states were reopening the CDC did reverse some of its guidance on how to reopen safely after the president complained about it. But this time they won't with schools?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And you know, that's the whole point. This morning, we are seeing once again the sort of garbled, confused messaging that's been a hallmark of coronavirus in America. And this time it involves America's school children. It started not surprisingly with a tweet from the president who yesterday wrote on Twitter that in his view, those guidelines that the CDC put up on the schools were too expensive, they were tough, and he said that he was going to talk to the CDC in order to try to get them changed.

At a briefing yesterday, then we got the information that apparently the CDC was going to change the guidelines, but this morning on ABC the director of the Centers for Disease Control said no, they're not changing the guidelines but they're going to send out some more information. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: I want to clarify, really what we're providing is different reference documents. So our guidelines are our guidelines, it's not a revision of the guidelines, it's just to provide additional information to help -- so schools will be able to use the guidance that we put forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So what are the guidelines? We have a thumb nail and pretty brief. Wear masks, six feet apart on the desks in classrooms. That seems to be one of the big problems because of classroom space. Stay home when appropriate, stagger arrival, dismissal times and have backup plans.

Now, the other point that really needs to be made here is this isn't just an example of the feds not having their act together. It's much more important than that, because in a global pandemic people need clear information to do the things they've got to do and they're not getting it.

It's also a clear example, Poppy, of the fact that the president continues to undermine his science and health experts, not just Dr. Redfield, not just the CDC, but also Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the United States and we have seen a number of examples of that.

[09:10:13]

HARLOW: And to the detriment of the health of the American people.

Joe Johns, thank you very much.

So it's a big day today for the high court. Minutes from now, the final day of the term, the Supreme Court will issue its opinions involving the president's tax records and financial documents. Jessica Schneider is joining me now with more.

Good morning, Jessica. Let's separate the cases so people understand the difference here. Let's begin with the Vance case which is about the president's tax records and what is at stake here.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the president, Poppy, has gone to great lengths and legal expense to keep his financial documents and in particular his tax returns shielded from the public. And that's exactly what the Vance case is seeking. They are seeking, in addition to those documents, eight years of the president's personal and business tax returns.

It's all part of a criminal probe for a grand jury investigation about those hush money payments that Michael Cohen made to Stormy Daniels when she alleged an affair with Donald Trump. There's an investigation as to whether the Trump Organization broke any laws when they repaid Michael Cohen, but the president's attorneys in oral argument really making a broad argument in front of the Supreme Court saying that the president, not just Donald Trump, but all presidents have temporary presidential immunity from criminal investigations while in office.

The justices, though, Poppy, they seem to be skeptical of that argument and it's important to note that even if the district attorney got these tax returns they likely wouldn't be seen by the public because of grand jury secrecy rules.

HARLOW: Yes. That's a very important note especially given how close we are to the election. OK, now, let's talk about the House's case here which is the Mazars case and their request for a number of financial documents from the president and his family.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, in this case, the justices did seem a bit more skeptical, in particular the conservative justices really saying, look, where does legislative purpose end and presidential harassment begin?

HARLOW: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: That's because three different committees in Congress are seeking really a broad array of financial documents from President Trump's accounting firm as well as two banks. But, you know, Congress is saying we need this to further our legislative purpose, to look into government ethics laws. They made a broad argument but the president's attorneys really did harp on that point. That this is presidential harassment and where does it end. So we will see what the Supreme Court decides here -- Poppy.

HARLOW: In less than an hour. Jessica Schneider, thank you very much.

Still to come, as the country waits for a vaccine, now you can register to take part in the trials. We'll give you details on that.

And with schools weighing the tough decision about whether to reopen or not in the fall, teachers are speaking out. We'll speak to one professor who says going back to in-person classes is a big mistake.

And as we deal with surges of the virus here in the United States, Hong Kong is experiencing what they're calling a third wave. What has changed there? We'll take you live.

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[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Well, volunteers needed. A new website has gone live, allowing people in the U.S. to register to take part in clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us live. You know, I mean, people are living how a vaccine is developed in real-time here. Who can participate in these studies and who can't?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, let's take a look at this. There are four trials that are expected to start over the next couple of months. They're going to need tens of thousands of volunteers in various locations across the country. Let's take a look, the URL, the website that you can go to is coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org. Book mark that because I know I wouldn't remember it. Ages 18 and over are eligible.

They are looking for people who are at the highest risk of getting sick from COVID-19. And here's the reason. If you vaccinate a bunch of people who just stay home all the time, well, they're never going to have the chance to get the virus, so you don't know if the vaccine is actually working, so they really have a preference for people who are sort of out and about more in communities where coronavirus is prevalent. Poppy?

HARLOW: OK, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much, appreciate it. I'm joined now by Andy Slavitt; former acting administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Obama administration, and Dr. Ross Goldberg; president of the Arizona Medical Association. It's very good to have both of you here, and Dr. Goldberg, let me begin with you because you're in Arizona. We know the dire situation there with COVID right now.

You've said there's major concern about resource availability, staffing, and everything that's being overrun at this point. To your point, yesterday, I had a doctor on, a former Harvard Medical School professor, who talked about in Arizona, he says, they have implemented what is known as a crisis standard of care, which essentially means they have to decide who they treat and they don't. Older people who may not be treated -- treatable or cured in the hospital are being sent home to potentially die, he said. I asked the Phoenix mayor about that, here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR KATE GALLEGO, (D) PHOENIX, ARIZONA: Unfortunately, our medical

professionals don't have the resources they need, and so they are being asked to make difficult decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Are you seeing that happen in Arizona?

ROSS GOLDBERG, PRESIDENT, ARIZONA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Well, first, good morning, thanks for having me. So I actually work at one of the hospitals in Phoenix, I work at Valley Wise Health, the public hospital. We are in crisis standards of care, which is basically how we allocate resources. But I remind everyone, triage is kind of what we do every day. People come in depending how sick they are, that will put them in order of who gets treated.

We are still treating everyone, I have not seen that, at least in my institution nor heard it locally so far. People are being stretched with resources, but as far as I know, everyone is being able to get care so far. Do we have to be mindful how we do it? Yes. I know that's what --

[09:20:00]

HARLOW: Yes --

GOLDBERG: We're doing at my --

HARLOW: Yes --

GOLDBERG: Institution every day.

HARLOW: OK, Andy, I'd like you to weigh in on what the president just tweeted a moment ago about this. And just give us a reality check. Let me pull the tweet up on the screen. He writes "for the 1-slash-100th time, the reason we show so many cases compared to other countries that haven't done nearly as well as we have is that our testing is much bigger and better. We've tested 40 million people. If we did 20 million instead, cases would be half, et cetera, not reported."

I mean, he's wrong. You know, looking at -- there's a mortality rate in this country that's higher than so many, but at the same time, you've got a higher percentage of tests turning up positive in this country, and more hospitalizations. And that has nothing to do with the number of tests is, correct?

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES: Correct. And first, I want to say thanks to Dr. Goldberg and your team there for the heroic work that you're doing across the state and across the country. Unfortunately, and I think, Dr. Goldberg and other divisions know this. We're not testing nearly enough people, and evidence of that is that we see cases growing that wildly in the community for people who are untested.

You reported earlier that people are waiting eight to ten days to get a test result, that doesn't happen if you're testing enough people. Unfortunately, the number of cases are growing more rapidly than the number of tests we're doing. So we are not keeping up. We are about where we were in March and April where we have likely eight to ten more times more people getting the cases every day than can get tested.

So this is both a failure of containment, it's a failure to test, and of course it's a failure to tell the truth which I think it should be deeply troubling to us.

HARLOW: Of course, it should be. Look, the White House taskforce is who so many people rely on and we've heard from them publicly yesterday, which is important. But Dr. Goldberg, again, to the situation there in Arizona, I'd like you to listen to how Dr. Deborah Birx painted part of the picture there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASKFORCE RESPONSE COORDINATOR: The seven-day average is showing some flattening, and I find that encouraging. Also equally encouraging at this point, because we know that the test positivity rate is the first thing to increase and we're hoping that it heralds a stability in Arizona of at least reaching a plateau in their curve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A stability in Arizona, a plateau and a curve, and a state that I believe the latest number show about one in four tests have come back positive. What are you seeing?

GOLDBERG: Look, we all hoped for a flattening and a stabilization. We haven't seen it yet. With everything with this virus, everything is time delayed. So right now, we're seeing a surge of hospitalizations. We're seeing it at my hospital. You know, for as many as we discharge, we get that many more coming in. The numbers are going up, we are still hoping things slow down, but, you know, as people continue to go out, congregate, don't wear masks, we're going to see the numbers continue to rise.

I'm hopeful, and look, we pray for it to slow down, but right now, we can't tell and as was previously mentioned in the testing. If we need -- we need to get more testing done so that we can make sure we're getting ahead of this thing.

HARLOW: You actually -- just to speak about your personal experience, Dr. Goldberg, you say you were fired by a patient for wearing a mask?

GOLDBERG: Yes, so obviously, I've been on promoting the good tenets of, you know, social distancing, good hand hygiene and mask wearing. As a surgeon, I'm kind of used to wearing a mask for my career, so I understand the benefits. And I went on to a local television station and mentioned that, and got a message to my office that I was no longer that patient's physician because I went on and advocated for mask use to protect the public.

HARLOW: Wow. All right, Andy, let's talk about vaccines here. We just talked with our Elizabeth Cohen about, you know, the trials that are going on and humans being able to actually volunteer for them. But you've said something pretty sobering about a vaccine because I guess I just assumed, well, this would be like the MMR vaccine that my kids get, right? And that it would be almost a 100 percent effective. You don't think it will be, you think it's going to be more like the flu vaccine and 40 percent to 50 percent effective in people. Is that right?

SLAVITT: Yes, I don't think we know, and -- but I think we shouldn't -- we should assume that this will be more like an influenza vaccine which will work on some portions of the population and others. We should also assume that there will be more than one vaccine, and that over time, vaccines will get better. Look, I think this is not a shot at a failure. This is amazing speed that --

HARLOW: Yes --

SLAVITT: We will get our first vaccine according to the scientists that I talked to.

HARLOW: Sure.

SLAVITT: But it will be part of our arsenal. And I think if we think in our head that there's a pre-vaccine world and a post vaccine world where everything differs, it's not likely to be that way. It's more likely to be that we'll see gradual improvements both for vaccines and new therapies --

HARLOW: Yes --

SLAVITT: As well as --

HARLOW: Yes --

SLAVITT: New procedures that people like Dr. Goldberg are using to keep people alive and healthy.

[09:25:00]

HARLOW: Well, Andy, just to put a button on it, I have you know, close friends, family members, very intelligent people who in no way are against vaccines in general, saying to me, I don't know, I'm probably not going to get the first one. I think it's going to be rushed. What do you say to them?

SLAVITT: So, look, it's going to be critically important that the people making these vaccine, can they share all the data? If they -- if they don't share the data and we go through this trial, and the FDA were to authorize an emergency use authorization, we've seen that movie before, and I think people would be rightfully suspicious, particularly if it happened in October. On the other hand, if they share all the data widely for all the scientists to see, I think more people will be able to reach a pretty good consensus, that the vaccine is safe.

So far, the word I hear on the Oxford trial, not the one that you -- not the Moderna trial, the Oxford trial which is already being under way is pretty good results and not safety concerns. But you know, we're going to have to see and we're going to have to have experts look at the data.

HARLOW: Thank you both for being here, Andy Slavitt, good to have you, Dr. Goldberg, appreciate you helping, good luck to you and everyone serving in Arizona right now.

GOLDBERG: Thanks.

HARLOW: The coronavirus situation in California is also getting worse. This as the mayor of Los Angeles says the city's infection threat level remains at high risk. We'll take you there next. We're also moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street, U.S. futures are mixed right now as we just learned that another 1.3 million people filed for those first-time unemployment claims last week. Claims had been falling but still really high. There's actually nearly 50 million people who've registered for them in just the last four months.

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