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New Day

CDC Pressured to Downplay School Risks; Mother and Daughter Die of Coronavirus; Trump's Rosy Economy Claims; New Hope for Food Allergy Sufferers. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 29, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:32:39]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We just heard from Olivia Troye, the former Homeland Security adviser, on the Coronavirus Task Force about how the White House pressured the CDC to downplay the risk of coronavirus in children in order to open schools faster.

Joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, what did you hear Olivia Troye talk about there that she was privy to while working in the White House?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no, it reinforces this -- this pattern that we've been hearing about for some time. Not only the pressure, which could come in all sorts of different ways, the pressure from the White House, even from HHS on organizations like the CDC.

But I think even more striking, we've -- we've now heard reports a couple times of documents being placed straight into the CDC's website. There is typically a process, you know? Typically the documents originate at the CDC, they go through an entire science vetting process back and forth for some time. They're cross checked to see how they fit in with other guidance that's been given on the website.

What we heard in at least two instances was that documents were just dropped into the CDC's website without having originated at CDC and without having gone through the vetting process. And one of them was the schools document. You -- you remember this, this was back on July 23rd, the document said the importance of reopening America's schools this fall.

The title itself was of concern to people, enough of a concern where they called me around that time saying, that's a pretty editorial statement even within the headline. And then if you went ahead and read the document, it focused much more, as you've been talking about with Olivia and others this morning, on the perils of not sending kids to school while really not talking about the risk of coronavirus. So it fits. This fits with the pattern we've seen now for several months. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It fits with the pattern we've seen for

several months. And it's the same thing as we're seeing in the Coronavirus Task Force, Sanjay, something you referred to as doctor shopping, doctor shopping with Scott Atlas.

GUPTA: Right.

BERMAN: What do you mean there?

GUPTA: Well, you know, from the clinical world, I mean patients go see doctors all the time and, you know, most doctors would recommend if patients want a second opinion, third opinion, especially on things that aren't clear cut.

But that's not what's happened here. The president has really gone around and found someone who is telling him what he wants to hear.

[08:35:02]

He has some of the world's best infectious disease doctors at his disposal, but, you know, what they're saying is not what he wants not to hear. So when doctor shopping you find a doctor who will prescribe a medication that no one else will, that will recommend a treatment that is not warranted, that's going to tell you what you want to hear.

And -- and, look, Dr. Scott Atlas may be a very smart guy, but the reason that he's in the job is because he's doing exactly that. And he has the president's ear. I mean Dr. Fauci told me about this and Dr. Birx used to be in the -- one in the Oval Office briefing the president on a regular basis and now it's Dr. Scott Atlas.

So it's not so much that Scott Atlas has these novel thoughts on coronavirus, it's that they just reinforce what the president has already wanted to hear about masks, about herd immunity and even about, you know, things like schools and how much kids can transmit the virus.

CAMEROTA: Well, Sanjay, let's talk about that because today New York City Schools, the largest public school system in the country, reopens. Other schools, obviously, have been open for weeks now. And so how are parents not supposed to feel duped today when they read that this was cherry-picked, you know, information?

GUPTA: I -- look, it's -- it's really worrisome, Alisyn. I mean I -- you know, we've all had to sort of balance our -- our -- we've all had to become amateur epidemiologists as parents to some degree to -- to try and figure out what's best for our kids. And it's -- it's -- it's really hard. And now, you know, the idea that you can't fully trust the information that you're getting on the CDC's website is of -- if of grave concern.

I mean I've written a lot about this be -- trying to look at the data. I think it's important to look at the data in your particular area. I mean the CDC and the White House Coronavirus Task Force originally did put out gating criteria for what you should look for in your community. I think we have a graphic of this. But -- but, again, it does require some work on each parent's part

pause you have to figure this out on your own.

But if you look and to see if there's a 14-day downward trend for the coronavirus cases, look at what the numbers have been doing, look to see if the positivity rate is below at least 10 percent, preferably below 5 percent. Again, you've got to do this work your own. You shouldn't have to, but that's -- that's the situation that we're in. So find the data within your own community and look for those two things in particular. Are the numbers going down? Is positively rate low enough? And then, obviously, see what's going on in your school. Can you school -- the biggest -- the biggest thing as we talk to many school districts around the country is just square footage, do they have enough square footage to allow enough physical distancing for kids in classes?

I can tell you, a lot of schools are doing it well. I mean they mandate the masks. They're very strict about it. They've very strict about physical distancing. You have to eat outside if the weather allows, things like that, but you've got to figure this out on your own nowadays.

BERMAN: Sanjay, thank you very much. I know you'll be watching the debate tonight, along with all of us.

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Obviously, we're in a pandemic right now and how each candidate addresses the pandemic of paramount important.

So, thank you for being with us this morning.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

BERMAN: On the pandemic, a tragic turn of events for a family in South Carolina, losing two loved ones to coronavirus. Fifty-seven-year-old Shirley Bannister was a registered nurse at Midlands Technical College in Columbia, South Carolina. She died Sunday from complications of the virus. Just three weeks after the death of her daughter, Demetria Bannister, a popular grade schoolteacher whose story we told you about earlier this month.

Joining me now is Shirley's brother and Demetria's uncle, Dennis Bell.

Dennis, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We're so sorry for your loss.

You know, we spoke to friends of Demetria and she just seemed like such a remarkable person. And now we're hearing about Shirley, your sister. And I know the loss is just -- it's got to really hurt, so we appreciate you being with us this morning.

Tell us about your sister.

DENNIS BELL, LOST SISTER AND NIECE TO CORONAVIRUS: Well, my sister, Shirley, was a truly remarkable person. Demetria was a spitting image of her mother. That's where Demetria got it from. Shirley loved geriatrics. She loved little old people. She worked her way up through nursing school, got her master's degree in nursing.

And she was the glue that held our family together. She was caring. She is motherly. Basically she was the second from the youngest of six children. But she was the mother of us all. She was a confidant, so you could talk to her about anything, and she'd hold it in confidence. She was a sounding board if you had a problem. She was loveable. Very open minded. She was humble. She was encouraging if you was trying to do something positive. Had a genuine heart and was truly family oriented. She brought two families together, my family and her husband's family, to the point that we're all now one. And she was a giver. Just -- and she loved what she did as a teacher.

[08:40:03]

Loved helping those students out and that type of thing.

BERMAN: And from what we hear, she's had such an impact on so many lives. You're a nurse also. You -- you say you've gone to your little sister for advice. Tell us about that.

BELL: Oh, of -- oh, of course. I am -- was more on the clinical side of nursing, working in the hospitals, and Shirley was too, but then she moved over into the management side. So when I would have a problem with -- dealing with different situations and stuff, or she would have a problem, we'd go to one another and we'd hash it out and come up with the best solution. And sometimes -- a lot of times I would be wrong on how to deal with it. And she was just smart as all get out. She went right down the middle and she didn't take sides or if I was wrong she'd tell me. Just a beautiful, beautiful person.

BERMAN: Yes. We should all have siblings that wonderful.

BELL: Yes.

BERMAN: Talk to us about how the relationship between Demetria and Shirley and how Shirley was processing the loss of her daughter.

BELL: Well, Demetria and Shirley, to me, were the best of friends, you know. At the -- the growing up and Demetria became a young woman and everything, I'm sure Shirley guided her through everything. But they were best of friends. They would go to movies together, concerts, they'd go out to dinner, have dinner dates and that type of thing. They loved scrapbooking and that type of thing. So they were best of friends.

But when Demetria died, I'm thinking Shirley had a very difficult time, her and her husband, my brother-in-law, getting tested. And when they -- she -- I believe she has a history of asthma and, you know, which the death of her daughter and the illness, hospitalization triggered her asthma attack. And she went to the hospital twice and the second time they kept her. And so it was like -- I think that that's what triggered it all.

BERMAN: Dennis, how are you doing? I mean how -- how can you process so much loss in such a short period of time?

BELL: Well, being a nurse and our family spokesman -- spokesperson on Shirley's side, my concerns is for her husband, you know, because I've known Dennis for over 30 years -- his name is Dennis as well -- over 30 years, and to lose the love of his life, his daughter, and then the second love of -- the first love of his life, his wife, is, to me, that's a burden that's so hard to bear.

For me myself, how can I put it, and I don't want to sound real bad, but in a -- in a sense it was a relief when my sister passed on because knowing her and knowing how private she was with her personal stuff, her personal stories and things like that, to see her with the tubes and all of that, and I've worked with it. I mean years doing that type of stuff. Just seeing her, it was just a relief that she passed on.

BERMAN: Listen --

BELL: So my family, we're getting through it, by my concern now is her husband. I -- you know, we want to give him all the support that we can.

BERMAN: I know you will be there for him.

BELL: Yes.

BERMAN: I know you're there for the entire family.

Dennis Bell, we appreciate you being with us. Our hearts go out to you. We're sending our love and may their memories be a blessing to you and your family.

Thank you so much.

BELL: Thank you. Bye-bye.

BERMAN: We'll be right back.

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[08:48:14]

BERMAN: Time for "CNN Business Now."

The economy will be one of the topics at tonight's presidential debate. President Trump's rosy claims on the economic recovery, they don't add up to reality.

CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with that.

Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning, John. You know, millions are out of work and a pandemic is worsening in 21

states. But, tonight, the president is expected to rebrand the coronavirus recession and tout his economic record.

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KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president's focused on the issues. He's focused on the American people right now, bringing back the economy, a v-shaped recovery that's looking more like a super v, working through Covid, breaking through barriers as we aim to get a vaccine by the end to of the year, fastest rate in history.

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ROMANS: Trump has repeatedly claimed a super v recovery in the middle of the pandemic, but the record does not match his hyperbole. Fast economic growth is likely for the third quarter. But look at that. That's because the economy crashed in the second.

Even pre-pandemic, Trump's 4 percent economic growth target was elusive. There was a small boost after the 2017 tax cuts, but it never sustained the 4 percent growth he promised.

On jobs, the unemployment rate in August was 8.4 percent. It could drop a bit in Friday's jobs report. Welcome news. But it would still be the highest jobless rate ever heading into a presidential election.

And the pandemic puts Trump in a jobs hole, down 4.7 million jobs since he came into office. Now, of course, that's because of the virus. But even before the pandemic, jobs growth in the Trump administration did not match the pace of jobs growth before he was president.

You know, not the greatest economy in history, far from it, but, Alisyn, you can expect the president to say he built the best economy ever and he will rebuild it. You can expect to hear that tonight.

[08:50:01]

CAMEROTA: OK, Christine, thank you very much for all those facts.

Now to this important health story.

Deadly food allergies affect millions of children and adults in America, but the authors of a new book, "The End of Food Allergy," say that title could become a reality within a matter of years.

Joining us now are the authors, Dr. Kari Nadeau, and Sloan Barnett.

Ladies, great to have you here on something that just affects so many families and, of course, is so frightening for so many parents.

And so, Dr. Nadeau, let me start with you.

This is more than just your wish. I mean this is your research. And basically what you found is that having food allergies does not need to be a life sentence, that you can, what, retrain your system? Explain it.

DR. KARI NADEAU, AUTHOR, "THE END OF FOOD ALLERGY": Yes. Thank you. It's an excellent question. We're so glad to be here today.

And what happens during immunotherapy is that very slowly and with very low doses you first try to make sure that you understand someone's food allergies and that that's different from a food sensitivity. And that with food allergies, people take small amounts of that food and then build their immune system, build their immune muscles so that over time they can reach a different threshold of that food.

And so at the end of about six months to a year, that person had reached a higher threshold so that they no longer have to worry about accidental ingestions and so that they could potentially eat the food. And that's a process that takes time. And we're really excited that there's a first ever FDA approved drug in oral immunotherapy now for children with peanut allergy.

CAMEROTA: So, Sloan, you did this. Your kids both had food allergies and you tried this, which I can imagine must have been very nerve- racking to introduce, you know, what -- what had been the poison into your kids' diets. And so just explain that whole experience.

SLOAN BARNETT, AUTHOR, "THE END OF FOOD ALLERGY": Exactly right.

Well, we had the great privilege of meeting Dr. Kari Nadeau. I drove two of my nut allergic, one to peanut, one to tree nut, down to Stanford every single week where they were fed the foods that they had been told their whole lives could kill them. We went through oral immunotherapy and it was hard. I won't tell you it was easy. There were scary times. There were sick times. But, in the end, my kids are out in the world now as big grown-ups and they don't have to be truly frightened of these foods anymore and they can live in the world safely thanks to Kari's work and that's why we wrote the book.

CAMEROTA: But, I mean, Sloan, I also know that one of the messages that you want to impress upon the viewers is, do not try this at home. I mean there were scary times. You needed to be under supervision.

BARNETT: You need to absolutely be in the care of a -- of a practiced group of a doctor, of nurses. We were surrounded by care because you never know when there could be a reaction. And you've got to be prepared for anaphylaxis at all times, which is also why my kids still carry Epipens and we're still very careful, because this is a serious disease. This is not a small thing. This is, as Kari said, not food sensitivity. This is an allergy and could create serious problems. So, no, do not try this without your doctor for sure.

CAMEROTA: So, Dr. Nadeau, to help parents understand this, you have put together these five D's of food allergies. So let me just put this up on the screen. You say you need diversity in diet. Number two, dirt. Number three, detergents. Number four, vitamin D. Number five, dogs. Can you explain these?

NADEAU: Sure. That's great. That's the one thing we talk about in the book is to be able to give

people a nice way to look at what's potentially causing food allergies and how to deal with that, how to change our behaviors so that we can reduce the risk of food allergies.

And so what we talk about is the five D's in the book.

First, diversity of diet. When babies are growing up around four to six months of age, start to give them a diverse diet of many different types of foods, including a lot of proteins that could become food allergens, and do that regularly and in small doses every day. And what people have found around the world is that that will reduce the risk of food allergies. And that's really exciting to know that we have that knowledge in our hands and we can provide that in the book to other people.

And then, secondly, dry skin. And we talk about the fact that dry skin in babies, a lot of people have to deal with this in babies as well as in adulthood. That that dry skin leads to cracks. And with that dry skin people can get allergens through that dry skin and that can activate allergies. And, unfortunately, that leads to itching and scratching and lots of mucus, in fact, for our lungs, which is also skin in the inner side of our lungs. And so with that, that promotes allergies. And if you really take care of your body, take care of the skin of especially infants, that could potentially reduce the risk of food allergies.

Then we talk about dirt.

[08:55:00]

We talk about the fact that you need a little bit of good dirt to be able to help your microbiome. If you use too many detergents and especially some of the detergents that can hurt the skin and hurt the inner lining of the gut, be careful. Use detergents that are safe for the planet because those can be safe for your skin and your gut.

And then, lastly, we talk about vitamin D, as you mentioned, that it's important to keep vitamin D at a good level.

And then dogs are really important. Now, there's a lot of research now that's been shown that if you grow up with a dog in the first year of life, and you're there on the floor with your infants and toddlers, as long as you don't have a dog allergy, dogs actually help reduce your risk of allergies.

And importantly in all of this, and we talk about this in the book, a lot of people think it's their family heritage or it's their genetics that they might have a food allergy, and that doesn't seem to be the case. That it's important to know that two-thirds of people that have food allergy develop it for the first time. They don't have any family history. It's not what your mom ate during pregnancy.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

NADEAU: I know we put ourselves through a lot of guilt trips, but that's not the case. So I'm so excited.

CAMEROTA: That's really interesting, all of that. I mean it will be eye-opening for so many parents. Again, the book is called "The End of Food Allergy."

Dr. Kari Nadeau, Sloan Barnett, thank you both very much. Great to talk to you.

NADEAU: Thank you.

BARNETT: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, it's debate night in America. CNN's coverage continues after this quick break.

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