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New Day

Brazil Hit with New Wave of Coronavirus; Children in Border patrol Custody Surpasses 3,700; Mysteries of Long Haulers. Aired 8:30- 9a ET

Aired March 12, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: As you can see on your screen, and daily deaths are also hitting new records.

CNN's Matt Rivers is live for us in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with more.

What's the situation, Matt.

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn, it was just six weeks ago, it's hard to believe it was that recent, that we were doing a live shot for you from the Brazilian Amazonian city of Manaus. And, at that time, there was a brutal second wave there due in part to gatherings, due in part to a seemingly more contagious variant of the coronavirus.

Well, what was going on in Manaus that we showed you six weeks ago is basically going on in the entire country now. Things have only gotten worse. In recent days we have seen huge numbers of new cases, huge numbers of new deaths.

In fact, just this week alone, two new daily records have been set in terms of coronavirus related deaths recorded in a single day. Nearly 2,300 deaths reported on Wednesday alone.

Brazil has the second most coronavirus deaths of any country in the world behind only the United States. But I want to show you this graphic here. This graphic will show you the seven-day moving average of coronavirus deaths in the United States and Brazil. Look at those trend lines. You see what's going on in the U.S. It's going down. In Brazil it's going up, to the point now Brazil's seven-day moving average of deaths is higher than that of the United States.

Despite all of that, though, what we're hearing from the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus skeptic from the very beginning, is that there are worse things in this country than coronavirus. He told people here in Brazil this week to, quote, stop whining. And he says the biggest threat remains is an economic risk from shutdowns that have been put in place because of this recent surge in cases and deaths. But he appears to just be ignoring the data that we are seeing across this country.

In 23 of Brazil's 26 states, plus its federal district here in the country, ICU capacity at hospitals are at or above 80 percent. Of roughly a dozen of those states, ICU capacity is at or above 90 percent. That means that those states, the health care systems there, are at risk of collapse.

As bad as this pandemic has been for Brazil throughout the past year, right now we can easily say that these are the worst days of Brazil's pandemic so far. And with those ICU occupancy rates I just talked to you about, there is really no end in sight. It's unclear how this gets better soon.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, deeply concerning. A huge nation on the brink there.

Matt Rivers, thanks so much for being there for us. Appreciate it.

We want to remember some of the nearly 531,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

Forty-five-year-old Courtney Yarborough (ph) taught elementary and middle school all over Texas, in Austin, Houston and the Dallas suburb of Frisco. His family says he was supporting and loving with a gift of meeting people where they were without judgment. He leaves behind a wife and four children.

Sixty-five-year-old Henry Weber (ph) was a corrections sergeant at the jail in Campbell County, Kentucky, where he had worked for more than 20 years. Officials say his specialized duty was to deal with inmates and keep them, quote, as happy as you can while you're in jail.

Thirty-nine-year-old Justin Huff (ph) was a chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy based in Virginia. Friends paid tribute on social media, calling him a devoted husband, an amazing father to three young children. "Stars and Stripes" reports he's the fifth active duty sailor to die from the coronavirus.

We'll be right back.

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[08:37:24]

CAMEROTA: A surge of unaccompanied migrant minors are now in U.S. government custody, 3,700 being kept in jail-like facilities at the border. Those children are supposed to be turned over to Health and Human Services within 72 hours, but there's a spike there, too. The number of children in HHS shelters is now up to 8,800.

Joining us now is Lee Gelernt, he's the deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.

Lee, great to see you again, but help us get our heads around what this looks like and these numbers.

So there are 3,700 at our last count of these minors who are in -- at the border in the custody of border and patrol, but there's something like 500 beds.

How does this work?

LEE GELERNT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ACLU IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS PROJECT: So there are unaccompanied minors coming now. And that's not surprising because the Trump administration expelled them back to danger without a hearing. I mean just to begin, we have to take these minors both because it's the humane thing to do and because the law requires us to give them an asylum here and they are fleeing danger, they are children.

Now, the bed space is an issue right now. And I think it's one that can be easily solved. The federal government has more than enough resources. We are concerned that the children are being placed into large facilities at the moment. But we're continuing to monitor that. We're trying to make sure that it's only older teenagers. They stay there for only a few days.

But people need to understand, the children don't stay in facilities for long periods of time. They're moved to relative sponsors. They all have somewhere to go. And so I think this is one of those sort of temporary glitches but we'll stay on the Biden administration.

The alternative is to send them back to danger like the Trump administration did. And that's unacceptable. And I think the Biden administration has recognized that.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's dive into that because our sum of these numbers that we're seeing are some of them holdovers from the Trump administration, a backlog, in other words?

GELERNT: Well, what we saw during the Trump administration is a policy of expelling minors at the border without any hearing, without any assessment of the danger. So we think that there have been children trying to come for a while.

But the bottom line is that we can't expel these children. The law doesn't require -- the law doesn't permit that and it would be inhumane, as the White House has properly recognized.

And so the federal government has more than enough resources to find bed space. So we expect them to find the bed space. We hope they'll find the bed space.

The bigger issue now that we are focused on is that families are being expelled, even with little children, without any hearing.

[08:40:06]

And so we have a lawsuit about that. And we put that lawsuit on temporary hold while we talk to the Biden administration. But the law does not permit them to expel families, and that's what's happening now.

You know, at the end of the day, there's a lot of talk about how many people are coming, but the real issue is, is there capacity? The federal has more than enough resources to (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: Well, but, Lee, explain that to me because we -- that's different. You're making the resources sound more plentiful than what we've heard. What we've heard is that there are not enough case workers to process them, there are not enough immigration judges, there's clearly not enough beds. So why do you think there's this abundance of resources when it doesn't seem as though they're being able to connect to those?

GELERNT: Well, because what you're hearing is what resources they've put in now. My point is simply, if they want to create more resources, the federal government has the ability to do that. That's all I'm saying. You're looking at what you're getting, not what -- what you're seeing, but what you're getting from the government is a snapshot, this is what we have now, not, could we create more space. And I think it's easy for the federal government to create more space. I mean we have tens of thousands of workers in these agencies. We have more than enough resources to create the capacity. So that's all I'm saying. And --

CAMEROTA: Yes. Well, politically, look, politically speaking, you know that this is, obviously, a very hot button cultural issue. And so the Trump administration had this zero tolerance policy. And we all remember the cruelty of babies, children, toddlers, they didn't speak English, being taken from their parents, some of whom still have not been reunited.

These are older kids, as we understand it, some teenagers. But do you think that there is, by the fact that the Biden administration aims and has said it wants to be much more humane, do you think that that is providing an incentive for unaccompanied minors to come?

GELERNT: So I think that there's two things you said there. The one is the family separation issue, Alisyn, and I appreciate you've been on that story for a long time and I do want to make sure that your viewers understand that those little children still have not been reunited with their parents. And so we have just entered into settlement talks with the Biden administration, there's a task force, but it's now two months into the Biden administration and no family has been reunited because of the Biden administration. So that's a story that we really need to stay on, I think.

In terms of the unaccompanied minors, what we know from experts and just people on the ground is ultimately people don't want to leave their countries. It's too dangerous. It's their life. It's their culture. They leave because they're in danger there and they make rational decisions that it would be worse to stay. So, ultimately, I think it's not the policies of the U.S., it's the push factors in Central America. Children have to leave. They're being targeted by gangs. The alternative for them is to stay and either have to join one of these notorious gangs or be killed, so they're making rational decisions to come, whether or not they think they can get into the U.S. They have no choice but to leave.

But I do appreciate how long, Alisyn, you've been on this story of family separation. And I think we need to continue spotlighting that because there's a real danger. It becomes less a priority. And all those children, babies, toddlers, don't end up getting reunited with their parents. And there are hundreds and hundreds of little children who are not with their parents because of that.

CAMEROTA: I know, it's jaw dropping, Lee, and I appreciate you, I appreciate all the work that you've done on it to highlight it for us. We do want to stay on it. It is jaw-dropping when you realize how many still have not been reunited and what that means for their lives.

Lee, thank you very much for all of the information. We really appreciate it. We'll talk to you again.

GELERNT: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Doctors in New York have been trying to unlock the mysteries of the so-called coronavirus long haulers. More on what they're finding, next.

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[08:48:14]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ASHISH K. JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: And we know that 525,000 of our fellow Americans have died, but we also know that tens of millions have been infected and didn't die, thankfully, and recovered. But I want to know what the long-term effects are for a lot of those individuals. I worry that we are really just seeing the tip of the iceberg when we think about long COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So that was Dr. Ashish Jha, along with some who framed Roger Rabbit, you know, flash frames in the middle of them, talking about so-called long haulers. These are people who have recovered from the worst of coronavirus but have symptoms that linger for weeks or even months after.

Joining me now is journalist and author Meghan O'Rourke. Her article "Unlocking the Mysteries of Long COVID" is featured in April's edition of "The Atlantic."

And, Meghan, this was the most comprehensive look I have seen of long haulers in terms of the scope, the cause, and the treatment. And, by the way, none of it is 100 percent on any of those. There are still so many mysteries. But you touch each one. And let's go through them one by one.

First, the scope. How many people are affected by this?

MEGHAN O'ROURKE, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR: Absolutely.

The scope is extraordinary, right? We're hoping to have the end of the acute phase of the pandemic later this year, but we may be facing a crisis of really as yet unknown proportions. So it -- the figures I'm hearing, which are very much fluid, are that up to 10 percent to 30 percent of those infected with COVID-19 end up having long-term symptoms. So that is a huge percentage. Even if it ends up at the lower end of that, that scope of 10 percent, that is, you know, hundreds of thousands, millions of people now who will have ongoing symptoms, many of which are quite debilitating. These are not small symptoms.

BERMAN: And there's also a range of symptoms, which gets to the next subject, which is, what's actually happening here? And you used a word that I hadn't seen before and, frankly, I'm not 100 percent sure how to pronounce, but it's dysautonomia, which describes what's happening to the long haulers.

O'ROURKE: You got it. Yes. Yes.

[08:50:10]

BERMAN: What does that mean and what are they finding?

O'ROURKE: Yes. So, I think it's important to pull back for one moment and say that COVID-19 is a very damaging virus. It can cause all kinds of long-term damage. Some of it is organ based, right? So we do have people who are seriously ill, who end up with scarring of the lungs or damage to their heart.

But there's a mysterious group of patients who were not deeply sick, who didn't get acute, you know, acutely ill. They weren't in the hospital. They had a mild case of COVID. They thought they, you know, went -- it went fine. They were better. And then found themselves experiencing a mysterious range of systems, including a racing heart, fatigue, brain fog, confusion, cognitive problems. We've all, you know, hard this and seen this on shows like yours.

And what researchers are realizing is that some of those patients are suffering from, or living with, a condition that is like dysautonomia. It's not exactly dysautonomia necessarily. They're still trying to figure that out. And they wanted to preserve that comparison.

But dysautonomia is a dysregulation of our autonomic nervous system, which, you know, controls a lot of our unconscious nervous system responses, like shifts in our blood pressure when we stand up, it prevents our, you know, blood from pooling in our feet so that we don't faint when we stand or change position, it makes sure we get blood in our brains so we can think. And what it looks like is that the virus is dramatically damaging and changing the autonomic-nervous system in a significant cohort of patients. That was a lot of science (ph).

BERMAN: And that was a really interesting thing to read. And it's made the recovery that much more difficult because, as you note, one of the things that had been assumed is that you can rehab your way out of it a little bit. Push yourself a little bit harder and maybe your body will get ready (ph).

But, no, with dysautonomia, if you push yourself too hard, it sets you back. So people kept on trying to get out and they get pushed back. O'ROURKE: Yes.

BERMAN: But there is one thing that you've discovered and you wrote about that they are now trying that does have some promise. And what's that?

O'ROURKE: That is one thing that this group of clinicians at Mt. Saini in New York, who have been passionately, you know, pursuing the mystery of long COVID and really trying to treat patients while the long-term research is done to get deep answers. What they discovered was that all of these patients had compromised breathing which, you know, we're familiar with patients on ventilators who are seriously ill with COVID, but no one had quite thought about the fact -- or hadn't realized, let's say, that even mildly ill patients who didn't get COVID pneumonia might have some compromised breathing.

So, what they've done is introduced breathing exercises. And the breathing exercises, you know, you do a set pattern of breathing in, breathing out, holding breath and they're designed to help reset your autonomic-nervous system. They're also designed to help you learn -- teach yourself to breathe properly again and deeply into your lungs because they were finding that people were breathing quite shallowly and suffering from a buildup of CO2, right, which we don't want. Yes.

So this has been helping patients, but it's just the first step. It's kind of the pre-hab, as they described it to me. It's what you do in order to be able to start to do a very tailored rehab that, again, is not like usual rehab.

BERMAN: Meghan O'Rourke, like I said, there's still so much we don't know, and you made that clear, but this was some of the first reporting I've seen on what we are beginning to learn. And it's really helpful because this matters to so many people.

Thank you so much for being with us.

O'ROURKE: Thank you so much for having me.

BERMAN: All right, we do have one programming note.

Jake Tapper hosts a live, CNN special, "Back To School: Kids, COVID, and the Fight to Reopen," tonight at 9:00 only on CNN.

CAMEROTA: So the pandemic gave all of us the experience of isolation. That feeling is an everyday reality for some of the 61 million Americans living with disabilities. This week CNN's hero became paralyzed from the waist down and struggled with his health for years after. But he figured it out and now gives a training and nutrition program to help people with disabilities push beyond their limitations. Meet Wesley Hamilton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WESLEY HAMILTON, CNN HERO: Come on! Easy!

My main goal is to teach people how to take control of their life. Yes, there you go.

Take full accountability and embrace your reality.

Slowly. All right, you can stop right here.

When we go through our program, it's only the beginning. I want to be there through your whole journey because I want to see you successful.

There we go. One more.

I've gained so much from my injury, and I want other people to have that same mindset.

You're learning that you're about to do more.

I believe that once we help someone, now they have the ability to help someone else. This is something that has to have a ripple effect.

[08:55:02]

We coming together, empowering each other, being an inspiration for one another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: To see Wesley's full story, and learn more about his work, you can go to cnnheroes.com. And while you're there, nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero.

BERMAN: I like that one.

CAMEROTA: I do. That's a great one.

BERMAN: Right?

CAMEROTA: Really inspirational.

BERMAN: That was a really inspiring story.

CAMEROTA: OK, have a great weekend, John.

BERMAN: Yes. Just the weekend?

CAMEROTA: Yes. I'll tell you more on Monday, perhaps.

BERMAN: OK.

CAMEROTA: Remotely.

CNN's coverage continues, next.

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