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California Experiencing Record Cases of Coronavirus; New Data Shows Coronavirus Can Infect Children in Large Numbers; Russia Announces Successful Vaccine for Coronavirus; Stimulus Talks at Stalemate as Millions Desperate for Relief; Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) is Interviewed on Stimulus Talks and Facing GOP Challenge from Auburn Football Coach; Seattle Police Chief Announces Retirement After Budget Cuts. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They don't get very sick. And according to the people that I've spoken to, they don't transport it or transfer it to other people, or certainly not very easily. So, yes, I think schools have to open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Catching it and spreading it, he's wrong about that. It's just not true. In Georgia's Cherokee County school district, more than 800 children and 42 employees are quarantined this morning, 50 students and staff have tested positive since reopening last week. Georgia's continues to oppose a mask mandate, which puts him at odds with Dr. Anthony Fauci who says in a new interview that masks should be universal to fight the virus.

And overnight here on CNN, one expert, William Haseltine, warned that children may be able to spread coronavirus as easily as the common cold, which is, in fact, a coronavirus.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: There are also significant new developments involving college sports this morning. The Mountain West Conference postponing all fall sports including football. And ESPN is reporting a decision about the Bit Ten season could come as soon as today.

Also breaking this morning, Vladimir Putin claiming Russia has developed the world's first coronavirus vaccine. All this is happening as California records its highest daily case count after the state's top health official resigned.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Stephanie Elam who is live in Los Angeles this morning. Good morning.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. What is not clear is whether or not Dr. Sonia Angell stepped down because of this backlog issue in the number of cases here in California. The governor declining to say if it had anything to do with that when she did announce Sunday night that she was leaving. However, what we can tell you is that there is a record number of new

cases that the state has put -- or I should say Johns Hopkins University is reporting for the state, that number being 14,485. This is likely due to this backlog that the state has been working through, an issue that they realized July 25th that had 250,000 to 300,000 cases that needed to be worked through the system. They've worked through that backlog, and now they're getting the counties to basically attest to those results and getting that data out there.

So that's one thing to keep in mind here. But the one thing that we did mission at the top of the show here is that 90 percent increase in the number in children in the U.S. basically during the last four weeks. And this is according to the analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association. You take a look at that number, and then you look at what "The Los Angeles Times" is reporting this morning, saying that based on data that they looked at from the California Department of Public Health, that cases among children is up 150 percent in the state.

When you look at that, that's more than 50,000 cases in children and teens this week. That's up about 9.5 percent or representing 9.5 percent of total cases. So the issue here as we look at schools trying to reopen, school districts trying to figure out how they're going to do it, we're seeing that children are getting sick with coronavirus, they are getting infected. And also worth noting that here in Los Angeles County, like many counties in California, that is not going to be an option. The state is saying that there's a waiver program that the counties can offer for elementary schools to open up in the fall unless you have a certain ratio of cases per 100,000 people in that county. Right now, it's too high here in Los Angeles County and that's not even an option. There will be virtual learning coming in the fall, and that as many other counties here in California.

Still, the big point to take away from this, John, is that children do get the coronavirus, and they can spread it to others. Therefore, we all need to be cognizant of this when we're sending our children back to school.

BERMAN: Yes, look, 150 percent increase without the schools even being physically open. Stephanie Elam, thanks so much for being there, appreciate it.

Joining us now, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Leana Wen. She's the former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore. And Sanjay, just to Stephanie's point that she's making there, when you see that increase in California, 150 percent, we see the national increase, 90 percent among children, 100,000 children nearly testing positive in the last two weeks of July, what does that mean as some communities, what does it mean for the communities as they begin to reopen schools?

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it means two things primarily. I have been talking to lots of people, health authorities in these various states. One is that we are starting to test kids more, right? It was largely symptomatic adults that were getting tested up until recently. Younger people are starting to get tested more, thinking of school sports, going back to school, whatever it may be.

But I think another bid part of this, John, is that kids are getting out and about more. Young kids have been largely at home since the middle of March, and that's in the United States, but in many places around the world. In fact, if you go back and look at that South Korea contact tracing study, which a lot of people point to to say hey, look, kids 10 and older, they spread this virus just like adults. That's what that study showed. Kids under the age of 10, they sort of had -- it was more inconclusive.

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When I looked at that data closely, you found that 50,000 or so contacts were traced in the entire study, but only about 50 of those were in people age zero to nine, because young kids didn't have that many contacts. They were mostly at home. So as the kids are starting to go out and about and we realize they carry virus, it's becoming increasingly clear to me, I think we have got a lot of clues now that kids do spread this virus, as Stephanie was saying. And we're getting evidence of that now.

HILL: Well, listen, while all four of us are parents. We know how our children spread colds to us so generously, so we know that these things spread. But also calling on your expertise from running school health in Baltimore, Dr. Wen, when you look at the increasing amount of information, whether it's these case numbers nationwide or even in California, what we're seeing at schools in Georgia, it just -- it makes me wonder where we can safely reopen schools.

DR. LEANA WEN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: I think there are places, Erica, that we can reopen and places where community transmission is very low and where we know that there's sufficient testing to pick up on cases as they come up so that it's not as if there are outbreaks that are spreading and we just don't know about it.

But I also think that in much of the country, where there is active surges, there is escalating spread of infection, it just is not safe or prudent to open schools against a backdrop of increasing infections. There's just no way that you're going to prevent huge outbreaks in schools.

Think about these 97,000 kids who are diagnosed as having COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July. If they were all in schools at that point, how many classrooms would have to quarantine all their students and teachers? How many parents would have to be out of work in quarantine themselves? And so we really have to do our best to suppress the level of COVID-19 in the communities while also investing the necessary resources in our schools so that we are de-densifying, we are separating kids into pods and cohorts, we're providing the cleaning, the PPE, and of course mask wearing is so critical too.

BERMAN: So if I can, I want to ask you both about what I think a lot of people are going to see as the most glaring, bright flashing headline of the morning, which is that Russia, Vladimir Putin just announced that Russia has developed and approved, he says, a coronavirus vaccine, Sanjay, and he believes in it so much that his own daughter has taken it already. Well, how should we be looking at this right now? Would you be comfortable taking this vaccine this morning?

GUPTA: I would absolutely not be comfortable taking this vaccine. I know nothing about this vaccine. They have not shared any data. And I have been following this story for some time now and trying to understand what's going on in Russia. We know that they've been working on this vaccine for a while. It's what called an adenovirus platform vaccine where they take a different virus, an adenovirus, essentially exchange out the genetics of that virus with this coronavirus, so it more closely resembles a coronavirus. Then they give that to people trying to stimulate an antibody response.

It's similar to what the Astrazeneca vaccine and the CanSino vaccine out of China, similar sort of platform. But we have no data on this. And we also know, you mentioned Vladimir Putin's daughter, we also know that some of the researchers in the lab according to some of the reports that we heard early on, also gave themselves the vaccine as part of the phase one study, this was back in May, which is highly unscrupulous. That's something that's typically not done. It's not part of the study. It's just something that people are doing, apparently, in this lab, just giving themselves this vaccine.

But we just don't know anything about this vaccine. We've not seen any data. And I have to tell you having covered Ebola extensively, this is back six, seven years ago, there was also lots of talk about a vaccine from Russia at that point for Ebola which they called the most effective vaccine in the world, and I never saw any phase three data on that particular vaccine at that time. So this is starting to sound very familiar to previous vaccine campaigns out of Russia.

But to answer your question directly, no, of course I wouldn't take this. I know nothing about this vaccine.

HILL: I'm guessing your answer is the same to that, would you take it Dr. Wen? But I also want to add a second part to the question for you in that as we look at the vaccines, right, and the push even in this country for a vaccine, people are putting a lot of hope into a vaccine when it is eventually found to be safe and effective and we have one. But what do we know about how that vaccine may affect children? Will they even be eligible? Is there enough testing going on when it comes to kids and vaccines? How does that even work?

WEN: Yes. It's a great question. And first of all, I would absolutely agree with Sanjay, I would not take this Russian vaccine based on lack of data, and the fact that we just don't know that it's either safe or effective, which are the two things that you absolutely need to know prior to getting this.

[08:10:03]

A vaccine is something that you administer to previously healthy people, so the bar of ensuring safety is pretty high. And also, you need to make sure that this is effective, otherwise, you're providing people with a false reassurance that they can get this and be safe from coronavirus when in fact we don't know that at all. And I think the point you're making, Erica, about children is so

important too, because as far as I know, the current trials that are being conducted right now in the U.S. are not involving children. And So I'm not sure at what point children will be eligible to receive this vaccine, and I think it's also a cautionary note for all of us that it's going to take time in the U.S. before a vaccine is approved. And hopefully there will be scientific rigor. There will not be politics involved in expediting this in a way that goes against science. But it's going to take time, and in that time, we should be doing everything we can to prevent the transmission of coronavirus, because otherwise so many more people are going to be infected and unfortunately die.

BERMAN: Dr. Wen, Dr. Gupta, thank you both very for being with us this morning. I don't you're going to get any calls from Vladimir Putin, either of you, any time soon based on your recommendations. Erica?

HILL: I don't see either one of them crying about it either.

President Trump is defending his executive orders aimed at addressing the growing jobs crisis after talks stall in Congress. So what can lawmakers do at this point. There are millions of struggling Americans and they need help. A Democratic senator joins us next.

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[08:l5:07]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, stimulus talks at a standstill in Congress, with most senators back home for the week. The stalemate is starting to worsen the nation's economic crisis.

CNN's Phil Mattingly, he's not home for the week. He's live on Capitol Hill with the latest on this.

Phil, what do you know?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John, one of about five people currently sitting in the United States capitol with most lawmakers at home. The Senate is still in session, lawmakers are gone, there's no expectation for votes. The House is not expecting votes any time soon.

And here's the reality. For much of the last couple of years, there's always been an assumption that when negotiations start no matter how they bad they get on Capitol Hill, eventually they will find a way to reach a deal. Be prepared this time around for that not to be the case. That's what I'm being told by members of both parties.

Last night, Senate Republicans held a private phone call with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and on that call, I'm told they were warned, things do not look good. This is not part of a game of chicken where one side is eventually going to break. They need to be prepared that no deal is an actual possibility here. Here are kind of the dynamics as they currently stand and as they have

stood for the last several weeks. Republicans have made clear, they want a more targeted approach to economic stimulus, sitting somewhere around $1 trillion to $1.4 trillion top line. Democrats have made clear they want to go big and they are willing to hold out until Republicans start to come towards them on that top line number and as things flow down.

And, frankly, if neither side is willing to budge, and that's where things currently stand right now, we don't expect talks to restart any time soon. In terms of where things stand on the talks side, they broke down on Friday. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he's willing to come back to Capitol Hill to talk to Democratic negotiators if they have a new proposal, Democrats have said if Republicans are willing to come up on the top line number, they're willing to restart talks. Neither of those things have occurred right now.

So with millions relying on unemployment insurance that has now lapsed, the paycheck protection program for businesses have lapsed. There's no direct payments, there's no money for education, all of things was supposed to be in the broader package that everyone assumed was going to come together, as of now, John, the path forward is basically nonexistent, according to people I'm talking to.

BERMAN: Bleak.

All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much for that report. Tough to hear be that as it may. Thank you, sir.

Joining me now, Democratic Senator Doug Jones of Alabama.

Senator Jones, thanks so much for being with us.

I think you heard Phil's piece right there. Be prepared for no deal.

How do you explain that to voters? How do you explain that to people suffering?

SEN. DOUG JONES (D-AL): Well, I -- you know, look, I don't know -- first of all, I'm a little bit more optimistic. I do think there'd be light at the end of tunnel. We just don't know how long that tunnel is going to be.

The problem that I see -- I'm -- I just do not believe that the White House has -- had and these discussions in good faith. I quite frankly think that the president all along wanted to issue the executive orders to go it alone. He's done that. That's been his history to try to seize more and more power for the executive branch.

I think (AUDIO GAP) like the cavalry coming to rescue. The problem is he's only doing it on television. And when people look out the window and see that there is no cavalry there, (AUDIO GAP) people are going to be concerned. I think (AUDIO GAP) it's going to take a little bit more time, unfortunately.

BERMAN: And it is true, the House passed their version of this months ago, and Republicans in the Senate, the White House, didn't want to talk about it. Waited and waited and waited, and now rejected it, and are now blaming Democrats for the talks falling apart.

I'll stipulate. We'll stipulate all that, that's the history, that's just the truth.

How far now do Democrats do you think need to go to get these talks started again?

JONES: Well, I think that they've gone a good ways already. You know, look, the House package -- the HEROES Act was a good framework to which really we could start these talks. Unfortunately, we didn't start those talks until about two weeks ago. Senator McConnell kept that bill in his desk under lock and key. And we couldn't even (ph) talk about it.

He wrote his own bill that doesn't include money for state and local government, doesn't include money for enough testing, (INAUDIBLE) it has money for schools but with a lot of caveat (ph) there. So, we didn't have the discussions for two -- until two weeks ago.

That's been the biggest problem. Back in May and June, everyone knew we were going to have this virus with us all summer long. The numbers were going to continue to rise. The numbers of deaths were going to continue to rise. Schools were going to need to reopen, but yet Mitch McConnell sat on this bill, didn't talk to anybody, the administration wouldn't talk to anybody and kept saying, well, this is miraculously going to disappear.

That's part of the problem. You can't (AUDIO GAP) together with gun to your head like the Republicans have tried to do. It's just unconscionably.

BERMAN: There are some Republicans, including your Republican opponent for Senate in Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, who says that $600 -- the $600 extended unemployment benefit is too much money.

[08:20:01]

It serves as a disincentive to go back to work. What do you say to that?

JONES: I say he's insulting the people of Alabama that are unemployed through no fault of their own. They want to go back to work. They're trying to go back to work.

But they want to go back to work safely. And what he doesn't understand and what I think a lot of the folks in Congress don't always appreciate, this is not just about the (AUDIO GAP) who need this money for food and clothing, to feed their kids, to pay their rent. This money also goes straight back into the economy.

We try to keep the economy pumped up. We're doing it with money every time and it goes straight back. It's not like they're holding it to the mattress. It is going back to the economy to help our economy stay put and get it revved again (ph). BERMAN: So, Senator Jones, you are representing Alabama, which you

know is a state which loves its college football. Right now, there are talks about whether or not the college football season will take place.

Let me just play some sound from the coach at Alabama, Nick Saban. Actually, it's a full screen. Let me read to you what Coach Nick Saban has to say about playing.

He says: I want to play, but I want to play for the players' sake, the value they can create for themselves. I know it will be criticized no matter what I say, that I don't care about player safety. Look, players are a lot safer with us than they are running around at home.

Bottom line: he wants to play. We heard from other coaches and players that want to play. Do you think they should play?

JONES: You know, John, I think people ought to listen to the health care experts, just like I've said all along. Not politicians. I'll listen to the health care experts just like I said about the businesses.

The thing that, that's also in the state I'm coming (ph), in Alabama, you know, they're testing their players once a week. They're testing the coaches once a week. They've got an epidemiologist coming in there.

I think they're doing a really good job of protecting their players, but you've got to follow the science, and you've got to see where things are going.

And there's other aspects of this, too. It's not just the players, John.

Are you going to bring the fans in, are you going to have 100,000 people sitting at Bryant-Denny Stadium when the numbers are still as high as they are in Alabama? That is very problematic.

But I also think we're just still a little bit far out. They moved the SEC schedule to start on September 26th. We've got a little bit more time. Let's see how this goes.

But follow the science and do it safely.

BERMAN: So --

JONES: I want to play -- I want to see college football as much as anybody.

BERMAN: I'm sure your opponent, Tommy Tuberville, who was a college football coach, will bring this up about that race. A lot of people look at this as an uphill battle for you running for re-election, albeit you are an incumbent but this is a state that has been sending Republicans to the Senate.

How do you see this campaign playing out? JONES: Well, I think it's going to be a close race. Look, we have

always run as an underdog from the minute I got in the Senate. We knew it would be an uphill battle just for historical reasons.

But for the last two and a half years, we've done the things that the people of Alabama like. I get branded as a socialist or a liberal or whatever, but it's just not my record. In fact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had recognized me for my champ -- being a champion of the free enterprise system.

We have done things in a way that helps Alabama farmers, teachers, health care professionals. (AUDIO GAP) record has shown what we're doing right now.

I think people have of Alabama are going to see I've got their back. My opponent is only going to have Donald Trump's back. That's all he says he wants to do, to have the president's back 100 percent. I've got the people of Alabama's back and I think they know it.

BERMAN: Senator Doug Jones, we appreciate you coming on this morning. Thanks very much.

JONES: Thank you, John. It's good to be with you.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, Seattle's chief of police suddenly resigns after the city voted to strip millions of dollars from the department's budget. We'll discuss, next.

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[08:27:28]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announcing her resignation after the city council voted to cut $4 million from the police department's budget. That is far less than protesters were demanding.

Chief Best has come under fire for allowing officers to use tear gas and other less lethal weapons on crowds at Black Lives Matter protests. On Monday, the Seattle City Council passed budget amendments to initiate police layoffs and cut the salaries of the department's command staff, including the chief's.

Joining me now is CNN law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey. He's a former police chief in Washington and a former Philadelphia police commissioner.

Always good to see you. When we -- when we see that Chief Best resigned in the wake of this vote for the budget amendments, how closely do you think the two are connected?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they're probably connected. I haven't had a chance to speak with Carmen. I just learned today that she stepped down. It's a huge loss for the city of Seattle. She's a very, very good police chief and will not have any trouble finding another job if she chooses to do that. But Seattle has got issues. I mean, they're going to the have a

difficult time finding someone to take her place, at least from the outside. They'll probably wind up promoting from within.

HILL: As we know those cuts, part of them were to initiate police layoffs, also looking at the salaries of those in command positions. There's so much talk about how funds are allocated these days for police departments and I think it's important to point out, too, they're run differently in different areas.

So if we're just looking at Seattle, do you think this is the best way to start moving forward with some changes and to really start sparking the conversations that may be needed?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, that is not going to change anything to be honest with you. You cut the salaries of the chief or the deputy chief or whatever. I mean, how much money are you going to get from that. If you truly want to make a change, reallocate services so there are more social services available for responding to certain situations. The city has to do a whole lot more than that.

And otherwise, what they're doing is just for show. It will have absolutely no -- no substance at all in my opinion.

HILL: Well, we'll be watching to see what happens there.

I do want to get your take on some more body camera footage that was released from George Floyd's death. This new footage being made public now, but the body cams of former Officers Thomas Lane and Alexander Keung, so I want to show you a portion now of the footage from Lane's body camera. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER: Let me see your other hand.

GEORGE FLOYD: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

OFFICER: Let me see your other hand. Both hands.

FLOYD: Please, Mr. Officer, I didn't do nothing.

OFFICER: Put your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hands up right now. Let me see your other hand.

FLOYD: What did I do though? What did we do?

OFFICER: Put your hand up there.

END