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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
CDC Data Says COVID More Dangerous Among Minority Children; Lebanese Government Resigns Following Beirut Blast Protests; Man Organizes Rescue Flight For People Stranded In Wuhan. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired August 11, 2020 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:58]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: A sharp increase in coronavirus cases in American children, just as many kids are heading back to school.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of unemployed Americans have less money in their pockets after a decrease in weekly unemployment benefits.
Good morning, this is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.
ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Thirty-one minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning.
And we begin here with children in school. An alarming new study finds there has been a 90 percent increase in coronavirus cases among U.S. children over the last month. Experts say the sharp increase is due mainly to more activity among children, more COVID testing, and an overall rise in cases in the general population.
Now, the study comes as children go back to school and Americans focus on how to do that safely in the middle of a pandemic.
CNN's Athena Jones has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: If we just act like the virus isn't there and we kind of go for it and try to tough it out, it will work.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Public health experts warned this would happen and now it has. Schools in states with high rates of COVID-19 infections opening up too quickly without the proper precautions and suffering the consequences as new cases pile up.
The Georgia high school made famous in this viral photo now temporarily closed after nine students or employees tested positive. The school, where masks are not required, holding classes remotely while it undergoes a deep cleaning.
At least 16 schools in Cherokee County, Georgia have reported COVID cases among students or staff, underlying the challenge of holding in- person classes in a state with the highest number of COVID cases per capita in the country.
DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: The reason all this is happening is because we haven't controlled the virus spread in the community.
JONES (voice-over): The lack of a mask mandate in most Georgia schools and concerns about crowding prompting fear among teachers and families.
BETH MOORE (D), GEORGIA STATE HOUSE: I have over 200 e-mails over the course of less than 48 hours from teachers, students, parents, staff members at school, all with really the same message that schools in Georgia are not prepared to go back to face-to-face instruction right now.
JONES (voice-over): The trouble with schools coming as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association say nearly 100,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID in just the last two weeks of July.
With COVID positivity rates rising in 35 states, compared to last week, there are new concerns in places like Idaho, Indiana, and Illinois, where Chicago's mayor tweeted this image of a crowded beach.
In California, CNN affiliate KABC captured tense moments outside a church holding an indoor service Sunday in defiance of a judge's order.
Average daily deaths nationwide have topped 1,000 for the past two weeks and several states are seeing record hospitalizations.
Meanwhile, college football is hanging in the balance. Multiple sports outlets reporting leaders of the Power Five sports conferences are in discussions about postponing the season due to COVID concerns -- a move the Mid-American Conference announced over the weekend.
JON STEINBRECHER, COMMISSIONER, MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE: This was a crushing decision to be made by our membership and it was a decision that was made based on the advice of our medical experts.
JONES (on camera): And there's more reason to be concerned about COVID-19 in children. New CDC data shows that Hispanic children are eight times more likely to be hospitalized with complications from coronavirus than white children. Black children are five times more likely to be hospitalized. One expert saying that testing and prevention resources must be focused in these high-risk communities.
Athena Jones, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE) JARRETT: Athena, thank you so much.
More evidence now that black communities are getting shortchanged when it comes to coronavirus relief fund allocation. New research suggests that the formula used by the federal government could be having a disparate impact on hospitals in minority neighborhoods.
We get more now from CNN's Jacqueline Howard.
[05:35:00]
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JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER (on camera): Christine and Laura, this new research suggests that counties with a higher than average share of black residents, which tend to see the greatest COVID-19 burdens, are at a disadvantage as compared to counties with smaller black populations. That's based on how the allocation formula is set up for the government's COVID-19 relief fund.
Under the CARES Act, $175 billion was allocated to hospitals and other health care facilities for COVID relief, but new research says that the formula used to allocate those funds is based more on past hospital revenues than current financial need -- an approach that, according to the researchers, may be leaving black communities with less support per COVID patient.
Hospitals in counties with larger black populations are facing higher COVID burdens compared with other counties receiving similar amounts in funds.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in response to CNN, in part, quote, "In choosing to act quickly, HHS adopted revenue as a measure of how to distribute funds across health care facilities and providers of different sizes and types. While other approaches were considered, these would have taken much longer to implement."
The statement goes on to say, "HHS has and will make targeted distributions to facilities and providers that have been disproportionately impacted."
Now, racial disparities in the pandemic have been observed for some time. Just, for example, COVID-19 hospitalization rates are nearly five times higher among black children compared with white children. And that's according to a recent study from the CDC -- Christine, Laura.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right, Jacqueline. Thank you so much for that.
Jobless Americans have a lot less money in their pockets and that could hurt the recovery. About 30 million Americans last week were receiving some sort of jobless aid. For four months, it was a regular state benefit, plus an emergency $600 extra. Economists say that extra money was an important stimulus.
How much was it? The Labor Department spent nearly $250 billion on the extra jobless benefits from early April to the end of July. But today, the jobless check is just down to an average $380 a week, down from $980 a week. Depending on where you live, that check is down 86 percent.
Now, the president has vowed to add a smaller $400-a-week back into jobless checks, promising that relief quickly. But the influential Business Roundtable CEO trade group is urging Congress and the White House to come together on a new stimulus package.
The CEO said, "The current political impasse will impede our ability to alleviate the crisis and reduce the long-term costs on the economy, American lives, and livelihoods."
And, economists at JPMorgan warn without a comprehensive stimulus bill through Congress, this recovery will slow.
JARRETT: After a second night of protests, the main opposition candidate in Sunday's disputed election in Belarus appears to have fled the country.
Fred Pleitgen is live for us in Berlin. Fred, what's the latest?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Laura. Well, it's looking more and more like a move by the regime -- by Alexander Lukashenko, the longtime president, trying to decapitate the opposition movement.
In fact, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was the head of the opposition, has now confirmed that overnight, she fled to neighboring Lithuania. Authorities there are saying that she had been detained in Belarus for seven hours and had been put under pressure, and then at some point, decided to leave the country.
Nevertheless, there were riots that went off in the capital of Belarus throughout the entire night. Protests started peacefully, as they usually do, with many people coming to the streets. However, then the government forces came out and started attacking some of the protesters, trying to arrest protesters, once again, using stun grenades -- using tear gas, as well, to try and drive people apart.
Nevertheless, some of these protesters attempted to erect barricades there on the street to try and keep the riot police away.
They have now called, today, for a general strike for the entire country. And if that general strike does go into effect that could certainly weaken the rule of Alexander Lukashenko. He's been in power, of course, for 26 years. He's known here in Europe as the last dictator in Europe.
He claims that he won last Sunday's disputed election by a landslide. However, the opposition continues to say that that is not the case.
And even as its leader has now been exiled to neighboring Lithuania, the opposition has said that it wants to fight on and says that the protests in the country will continue unabated, Laura.
JARRETT: All right, Fred. Thanks so much for all of your reporting.
ROMANS: And now, the government resigned en masse yesterday, less than a week after that enormous explosion flattened Beirut's port area, killed more than 160 people, and sparked days of violent protests.
[05:40:00]
The prime minister, in a resignation address, blamed the disaster on a, quote, "apparatus of corruption bigger than the Lebanese state."
CNN's Sam Kiley standing by live in Beirut with the very latest -- Sam.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're bigger than the Beirut -- the Lebanese state, he said. But it is the product of the Lebanese state and, indeed, the Constitution, which means that the government that has just resigned will remain on in a caretaking capacity anyway.
The last government that went in that kind of way took four months before a new one was formed. And they were all formed out of backroom deals based on the constitutional requirement here to carve up ministries between the different factions and religious traditions.
Sunni, Shia, Druze, and Christians are all given a different share of the political dispensation here, which over 30 years, as critics say, has been a highly corrupting and inefficient process. It did end or help to end the civil war 30 years ago.
Now the protesters here are going to be gathering in about three hours' time in front of the site here that you can see behind me. That is the remains of the grain silos that probably protected a lot of Beirut from the massive blast that dug a 43-meter-deep hole in the ground, 140 meters wide -- bigger than a football pitch (ph).
And they are going to continue their pressure to wipe away entirely the previous system, change the Constitution, they say, and they're going to start that with a big demonstration here. And then going forward, they're talking about occupying government buildings and trying to literally force the government -- a caretaker government for now -- out of office.
But no prospects yet of elections, which were mooted, at least, by the prime minister a few days ago.
ROMANS: Sam Kiley for us. Thank you so much for that. Those images behind you are just unfathomable. Thank you.
JARRETT: Well, President Trump says his team has narrowed down locations for him to accept the Republican presidential nomination to two spots. One option, the White House, which raises a host of ethical questions. And the other, the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania -- the site of the turning point in the Civil War. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've been to Gettysburg numerous times. It's a national park. It's a national historic site.
It's incredible. You know, it's the history. It's incredible, actually, to me. It was a very important place and is a very important place in our country, so we're looking at that.
And we're looking at the White House. The White House would be very much easier for Secret Service.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Now, there's no word if masks will be required for invited guests or how social distancing would be enforced.
ROMANS: All right. A pilot beats the odds, pulling off a complicated rescue mission in the middle of a global pandemic. His story, next.
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[05:47:10]
JARRETT: Welcome back.
A Canadian man has managed to cut through some serious red tape and help bring more than 100 residents stranded for months in Wuhan, China back home to South Africa. And he pulled it off with just a laptop and his phone.
CNN's David McKenzie is live for us in Johannesburg with the story. Hi, David.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Laura.
You know, it's an extraordinary story. People all over the world were stranded when travel bans came in at the start of this pandemic, really, panicking people who were on vacation, business trips -- some of them stuck for months. And as you say, one man and his cell phone managed to organize this incredible repatriation.
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MCKENZIE (voice-over): Two South Africans abroad; one stranded in China because of the COVID-19 travel ban, the other starting a new life in Canada --
CARMEN JOHANNIE, STRANDED SOUTH AFRICAN: When he sent out a message, he said that anybody stuck in China -- anybody stuck in China needs to contact him. So I sent him an e-mail.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): -- brought together by that first message and Carmen Johannie's unshakeable determination to get home.
JOHANNIE: All we had to hear for five months was be patient, be patient -- and that's the hardest thing you can say to someone.
TERTIUS MYBURGH, MAPLE AVIATION: Well, it's me -- me alone, my phone.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Tertius Myburgh seemed an unlikely savior, sitting at his dining room table in Canada with barely enough credit on his phone, pulling off a rescue mission that South Africa's national carrier said was impossible.
MYBURGH: I got bombarded with phone calls and e-mails and everything from people that said they are stuck and people are running out of money because their world becomes very small. It honestly felt as if they were forgotten.
JOHANNIE: It was a team effort thing that we did. And then I just realized, like, how many people actually are relying on us and the pressure was hectic.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Johannie quickly became aviation veteran Myburgh's vital link to more than 100 South Africans stranded for months in China and their anxious families back home. His plan, lease Air Zimbabwe's only functioning airplane and crew and rely on Zimbabwean diplomats to get enormously complex COVID-19 clearances.
JOHANNIE: I called him my guardian angel from day one because that's literally what he was. Literally, the only man that could help us. So, yes (crying) -- sorry.
MCKENZIE (on camera): It's a very emotional journey you've been on.
JOHANNIE: This was very hard. It was extremely hard. It was something I'd never wish on anybody.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The 30-year-old 767 that once carried Robert Mugabe, routing from Harare to Johannesburg to Bangkok to change a faulty engine, then to Kuala Lumpur to pick up stranded Chinese seafarers to help offset the costs. Then on to Guangzhou, back to KL, to Wuhan, then to Johannesburg.
[05:50:07]
MCKENZIE (on camera): And it seems that things that could go wrong did go wrong.
JOHANNIE: One hundred percent, 100 percent. So, yes, it's a matter that you look back and you laugh and you say you actually -- you can't believe it, but it was real.
MYBURGH: To find space for this engine and to get it to route (ph) all the way out of Harare and eventually get into Bangkok, that was a mission on its own. How can I say to them this is becoming too difficult? How can I go and sit now in the garden and have a -- have a whiskey and a barbecue because I made it easy for myself, but all these people who are stuck there?
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The South African government told us they are legally obliged to assist all citizens who are distressed abroad. They did eventually help with passenger permissions for arrival in South Africa and the groups' quarantine at this hotel.
JOHANNIE: This is the T.V. room, and then we've got a beautiful kitchenette.
There has been times where, like, reality has hit. And then there's other times where it just feels like it's not real.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): But, Johannie knows her five-month ordeal is finally over thanks to one man.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE: Well, Carmen and those other passengers are due to leave that quarantine today or tomorrow, Laura, and I expect Tertius will be having that whiskey about now.
JARRETT: What an incredible journey for so many of those people. Thank you so much for all of that reporting, David.
ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this Tuesday morning. First, a look at markets around the world. Asian stock markets closed mixed and Europe has opened strongly higher.
On Wall Street, futures also leaning up here -- a one percent gain for the Dow if it holds. The Dow rallied 358 points, the seventh up-day in a row. The S&P managed a small gain. The Nasdaq fell slightly.
Investors are still hoping for a comprehensive stimulus deal in Washington. Economists at JPMorgan say the president's executive actions on jobless benefits and the payroll tax holiday, they're just not enough to sustain a strong recovery.
Kodak's stock plunged nearly 30 percent Monday after a $765 million loan from the government was put on hold as regulators look into improprieties -- allegations of insider trading.
The loan was meant to launch Kodak Pharmaceuticals under the Defense Production Act. The new company would produce generic active pharmaceutical ingredients to reduce America's dependency on foreign drugmakers.
Now, after the administration's announcement, Kodak's stock soared, raising some questions. Kodak executives also facing criticism for receiving stock options on July 27th, the day before the loan announcement.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president takes allegations of insider trading against the company very seriously but would not say if he will pull the plug on this deal.
Kodak did not respond to request for comment.
We're still in summer, but Halloween candy displays have arrived even earlier this year. With trick-or-treating in doubt because of the pandemic, candy manufacturers are protecting themselves from potential losses for their biggest season. Hershey has partnered with retailers to set up Halloween merchandise earlier in the summer -- in some cases, four weeks earlier. In addition to a longer season, Hershey's is focusing more on family- sized packs and fewer treats in Halloween-specific packaging.
JARRETT: Well, in the era of coronavirus, there are all kinds of masks, but you haven't seen one quite like this. It's an 18-carat mask with more than 3,600 diamonds. And the price tag, $1.5 million.
The mask was custom-made in Israel for a Chinese billionaire living in the U.S. Oh, yes, it does include an N-99 filter. The anonymous buyer requested the most expensive mask in the world so the designer says he added a few carats just to be on the safe side.
I don't think that's going to be on your Christmas list --
ROMANS: No --
JARRETT: -- this year, Christine.
ROMANS: -- it isn't.
JARRETT: But at least it has the N-99 filter at that price.
ROMANS: You know, I've got to tell you, though, aren't people kind of defining themselves by their masks these days? I mean --
JARRETT: Oh, totally.
ROMANS: I mean, my kids have a big, you know, like a basket full of them by the front door and they kind of like go searching through there for the one that they want to wear that day. Kind of like --
JARRETT: It's a good way to get kids to wear their masks, actually.
ROMANS: It certainly is -- it is.
All right, thanks for joining us, everybody, this Tuesday morning. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
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[05:58:48
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DR. MIKE RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION'S EMERGENCY PROGRAM: This virus is proving exceptionally difficult to stop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Average daily deaths nationwide have topped 1,000 for the past two weeks and several states are seeing record hospitalizations.
TRUMP: I think at the end of a fairly short period of time we're going to be in very, very good shape all over our country.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: There should be universal wearing of masks and there should be, to the extent possible, social distancing.
DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I'm not against having a mandate, but the mandate alone will not fix your problem.
DR. MARGARET HARRIS, SPOKESPERSON, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We know that if the virus has an opportunity to spread, it will -- and it hasn't gone away.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, August 11th, 6:00 here in New York.
Alisyn is off. Erica Hill back with me again this morning. Good morning to you.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
BERMAN: So this morning we're learning that coronavirus cases in children have increased by 90 percent in the last four weeks.
In Georgia's Cherokee County School District, more than 800 children and 42 employees are quarantined this morning. Fifty students and staff have tested positive since reopening last week.
Georgia's governor continues to oppose a mask mandate, putting him at odds with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who says in a new interview that masks should be universal to fight the virus. Dr. Fauci says he was disturbed by this photo from a Georgia high school last week, a school where several students and staff have now.
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