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U.S. Added 115,000 Jobs in April; Health Officials Track Hantavirus; Dr. Sanjay Gupta Answers Hantavirus Questions; U.S. Expects Response from Iran; Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) is Interviewed about Ghislaine Maxwell. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 08, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:05]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We're starting with the breaking news this morning. Surprising new job numbers just out. The data showing 115,000 jobs were added last month, blowing past expectations.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now to break down this report.

What does this tell us about the labor market right now?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Sara, it tells us that the labor market, it's not falling apart. At least it was not as of mid-April. Remember, this is a snapshot in time. So, it's showing us how the job market looked after about six weeks of the war and the energy price spike. And the expectation was for a slowdown. And we did get a slowdown in hiring, but not as big as feared.

So, 115,000 jobs added in April. That was almost twice as much as economists had expected. March was a very strong 185,000, jobs added. That was actually revised slightly higher. So again, you see a slowdown, but not an alarming one by any stretch.

Now February, February was revised the other way. February, which is this bar going down, that was revised even deeper negative. However, you put it together and you do see that there's been this rebound. And that is actually showing the first back to back months of job gains for the U.S. economy in nearly a year. So, this is going to boost some confidence that after a really, really bad 2025, that maybe the job market has stabilized.

Now, let's look at the unemployment rate. You can see it creeping up the last two, two and a half years. But the good news is, it also appears to have stabilized. It's come off that high from last fall. And 4.3 percent was the expectation. That's exactly what we got. It held steady in April.

Now, when we look at where the job growth is, health care adding another 37,000, that's continues to be a major source of demand for workers. Leisure and hospitality adding 14,000. That's bars, restaurants, hotels. The fact that they're still adding jobs, that's a good sign because if people were pulling back because of high energy prices, because of $4 gas, that's where they'd be pulling back first. But they're still adding jobs.

However, other parts of the economy, they're cutting, right? Manufacturing down 2,000 jobs. Finance, 11,000. Information losing 13,000. Information, that's tech.

SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN: They're losing jobs every single month so far this year. And we know information and finance, they've been the early and fast adopters of artificial intelligence. That's going to probably raise some more concerns about whether or not A.I. is replacing some workers and whether or not A.I. spending, right, these tech companies are spending trillions of dollars on these mega data centers. And some of that money that they'd normally spending on workers is now going into artificial intelligence.

So, you put it all together. This is better than expected. I think this is some good news. But, Sara, the question now is whether or not the war, the energy price spike is going to start to slow down the job market, or if this resilient economy is just going to power through yet another shock.

SIDNER: I think that slide tells us a lot because the industrial revolution, when you sort of see what happened over time, it was blue collar workers that were hit. Now it's people in finance and tech that are being hit.

EGAN: Yes.

SIDNER: So, white collar jobs. That's the effect of A.I. most likely. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.

EGAN: Absolutely. Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Matt Egan, appreciate it. Great breakdown.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning from the CDC, the agency has now classified its response to the hantavirus outbreak as level three. That is the agency's lowest level of emergency, according to a person involved in the situation. And at this moment, there is also a scramble underway to track and contain this outbreak that we've been tracking on this cruise ship.

The ship is headed to Spain's Canary Islands, with now still more than 140 people on board, including 17 Americans. Across the world, health officials are tracking dozens of people who got off the ship late last month. In the U.S., five states, California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, Virginia, they're monitoring at least six people.

CNNs Salma Abdelaziz is in London with the very latest for us.

And, Salma, what's the latest that you're picking up here? SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We just got something just a few

moments ago, Kate, and this is coming from Spanish authorities. They say they have found a suspected case of hantavirus. And this is an individual who was not on board the cruise but was on board the flight with that Dutch woman who died of hantavirus. So, this is exactly what people are concerned about, contact with those who were aboard the cruise ship.

Now, what the Spanish health secretary said is that that individual had traveled on the same flight as the cruise ship passenger. They have been removed from their home where they were displaying those symptoms. Again, this is a suspected case. So, testing is underway.

But it shows you yet again just the danger and the concern that is out there right now with these dozens of passengers who had left the cruise ship in previous weeks, making their way through airports, making their way through commercial flights, getting back home.

[09:05:04]

Let me give you the U.K. here as an example, because there are several cases that U.K. health authorities are monitoring, including the case of one Brit who disembarked from the cruise ship, but it seems that the cruise ship company had not initially provided that information. So again, you're relying on the details of these individuals who may have taken off in separate cities, separate locations, traveled across the world. You have contact tracing now happening from Singapore, to France, to the Netherlands, to here.

And then the other important that's happened -- the other important thing that's happening for these key people who are trying to track it is where did this outbreak originate? Because that Dutch couple had been in Argentina. The World Health Organization is operating on the basis that they might have picked up hantavirus while they were sightseeing there. So, we have Argentine authorities quite literally trying to pick up samples from rodents and take those samples to labs to figure out where this originated.

But already here we're seeing the concern, we're seeing the worry about those commercial flights that some of these passengers might have boarded on and the people that they were in contact with. And you begin to understand just how broad this is, on top of the fact that each of these individual countries also have to deal with repatriating people once that cruise ship docks in the Canary Islands.

BOLDUAN: Yes, Salma, and important news you're giving -- that you're just getting in from Spanish authorities on another suspected case now that they're tracking. Thank you so much.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as soon as that music is over, CNN chief medical correspondent.

Sanjay, good to see you.

I just want to get your reaction. I just heard this for the first time, what Salma was reporting --

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BERMAN: That Spanish authorities are saying there is this new suspected case from someone who was on a plane with someone who was on the cruise ship and had hantavirus.

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: So, this would be a transmission on the plane, not the cruise ship. What does that mean?

GUPTA: Well, it's suspected at this time. So, you know, we want to make sure that we continue to follow that to see if it actually becomes confirmed.

So, here's the concern here. So far everyone that we've been talking about is someone who's gotten sick or who has died has been from that ship. The question that a lot of people have been asking is, people who have come off of that ship, could they potentially transmit to somebody else in another setting? In this case, on an airplane. That was the concern about the flight attendant, who subsequently tested negative for hantavirus. And now this person who got sick.

Look, people can get sick for all sorts of different reasons. But, obviously, in the context, in the wake of what is happening now, all of those people who have been on any planes with people who are known to have hantavirus, they will be followed, they will be tested, and they will be monitored. So, we'll see what happens with that.

But that's why I think, as we're reporting on this, John, over the next several days, every time we report on this, we should say, here's what we know as of this moment. And as of this moment, that's still a suspected case, John.

BERMAN: It's suspected, but that is new information. And they are monitoring it, Sanjay.

GUPTA: That is new information.

BERMAN: So, I did want to ask about that.

And we do have questions from our viewers here. Here's one of them. What is the transmission rate? Is it very contagious like the flu, or do you have to be in close, prolonged contact with an infected person?

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: And is it transmissible before symptoms show up?

GUPTA: Yes. So, there's lots of things in this question. And so, first of all, it does not appear to be as infectious, for example, as flu. How do they know this? How do they determine the answer to these questions? Let me just show you here because I think this is instructive. They take a look at previous outbreaks and they basically try and

figure out, how did the virus behave in the real world? So, I don't know if we can make that as big as possible here, but there's a lot going on, on the screen. But in the upper left was a -- was a man who showed up at a birthday party sick. Somebody who was having symptoms, had fever and stuff like that. He was at that birthday party for 90 minutes.

Go to the right and you can see, within that 90 minutes, he infected five people. The majority of those people were then -- were within one to four feet of him. Those five people then you can say, well, what happened to them? Where did they go? You can find that one person actually transmitted to six people on the left, and then one person on the left in that second row, then transmitted to ten more people.

So, this gives you sort of the idea of what a superspreader event looks like. This again, was a birthday party, 2018 in Argentina started with a single man who was there for 90 minutes. Ultimately, 11 people died, 34 people were infected.

I show you this to give you some sense of how they arrive at these conclusions of how infectious something is. What is the sort of sense of prolonged contact? Ninety minutes within a closed space at a birthday party. And then, you know, obviously significant toll, 11 people dying there.

One important point, John, and we figured this out last night, was that for that outbreak there were 80 health care workers who cared for those patients.

BERMAN: Wow.

GUPTA: None of those health care workers got sick.

[09:10:02]

So, what does that mean? I think two things. One is that, even with minimal protective equipment, such as masks, that was very protective for the health care workers. And also, it's a very narrow window of infectiousness. So, people oftentimes by the -- by the time they showed up to a hospital, they had already gone through that window of infectiousness. Again, these details are emerging, John, in terms of what's happening right now. But what happened in previous outbreaks, I think, is instructive.

BERMAN: Very instructive. That is a notable data point about those health care workers in that 2018 outbreak.

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: And we have more questions here, Sanjay. And Emily in Woodbridge, Virginia, asks, what are the signs and symptoms and what treatments are available at this moment?

GUPTA: Yes, so it really seems to break down into two patterns of disease. And I'll show you this. But as you're looking at this, keep in mind, we live in a very different world than when we first started tracking hantavirus, because people travel so much around the world. But in the past, in Europe and Asia, people typically had what's known as hemorrhagic fever, where they would develop fever, but they would also lower their ability to clot so they would have bleeding as well, and it also seemed to affect the kidneys. In the United States, it was much more something that seemed to affect the lungs.

But as you well know, John, I mean, you have a virus now that seems to have originated in Argentina that is now seemingly spread around the world in this very small number of people. So, as a general rule, kidney, lungs, fever, and also this reduced ability to clot your own blood.

There is no vaccine for this. The treatment around this is what we refer to as supportive. So, you know, you look at what's going on. If there's a kidney problem, you try and treat the kidneys. If there's a lung problem, sometimes they use something known as ECMO (ph), where they can actually oxygenate your blood outside of your body and give it back to you.

So, these are these types of resources people have to try and take care of patients. The mortality rates, John, I think, is the thing that frightens people the most. Forty percent in some of these cases. But one thing, John, you may remember, you and I talked about a lot during Covid. We don't know the true denominator here. We know the number of people who show up, get tested, got sick. But what were the number of people who never got that sick to actually show up but had hantavirus? When you start to really count those people, the mortality rate may be much, much lower. We saw that with Ebola, for example, a decade ago.

BERMAN: Another -- more key points there.

Sanjay, we have a question from Rosh in New York. And New York may be the key words in this entire question, but I'll read the rest of it. "On Monday we caught a mouse that we had found droppings and heard activity over the weekend. It was a field mouse based on photos I saw of them. Do I need to be stressed about us getting the virus?"

GUPTA: Yes. So, you pointed out, John, I think New York is the -- is the key point here, in part because of about a thousand cases that have occurred in the United States, the vast, vast majority of them have been west of the Mississippi. That's where these rodents that carry the hantavirus seem to reside. So, very unlikely.

You know, again, I'm going to preface every answer by saying, with what we know now. With what we know now, that seems very unlikely. You just don't see the virus being carried in mice that are east of the Mississippi.

Also, it's not typically mice that you find in homes. If anything, its deer mice in particular. And sometimes they can make their way into cabins, no question. They can interact with humans. But for the most part -- we saw that, by the way, with Gene Hackman's wife, as you may remember, a hantavirus that ultimately led to her sad death. But unlikely in New York, John. BERMAN: All right, a lot of new information coming in. A lot of great,

new analysis and perspective. Sanjay, we really appreciate you helping us understand what we're seeing here.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

Moments ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the U.S. expects to hear from Iran today about a proposal to end the war, even after the two sides just traded new strikes. Plus, a CNN exclusive. Inmates who served time with Ghislaine Maxwell speaking out for the first time, revealing the treatment that they say she received, different from how they are treated, and their punishment for talking about her.

And later, it's called "blue dot" fever, and it's spreading through the world of entertainment. Artists forced to cancel concerts because they just can't sell seats like they used to. I wonder why?

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BERMAN: All right, breaking just a short time ago, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Rome. He spoke to reporters there. He said the United States is expecting a response today from Iran on the latest peace proposal. He noted that the hope is that the Iranian response is, quote, "something that can put us into a serious process of negotiation." He also addressed the two sides exchanging fire overnight. The most extensive and intense U.S. attack on Iran in many weeks.

Listen.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: If you fire at a U.S. Navy ship, what are we supposed to do, say, oh, there's a ceasefire, we're not going to shoot down your drone. That's a stupid question. That's a stupid position to take. Of course we fired back at them. They were shooting at us. That's what I would expect to do. Only stupid countries don't shoot back when you're shot at. And we're not a stupid country.

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BERMAN: Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House.

What's the latest you're hearing? You know, Marco Rubio says -- the secretary of state says that they expect a response from Iran soon, minutes, hours, today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think today is what they are hoping for. We had heard initially they were hoping to get a response yesterday, but now they're hoping it will come today. That response to the U.S. proposal sent to the Iranians earlier this week. And as you mentioned, Rubio making clear that he hopes it's a serious offer.

I do want to dig into a little bit more of what he said because it's the same thing, John, I've been hearing in the conversations with my sources here at the White House, is that one of the biggest challenges that they are facing, this Trump administration, is just how dysfunctional and fractured the Iranian government is right now, their new leadership, of course. That's in part because the strikes from the U.S. took out much of the prior leadership that this administration had been dealing with. And so, he said that's one challenge they have to face.

[09:20:04]

And that is really the big question. You know, in the conversations I'm having with my sources, they say they do not know what kind of proposal they will get back from the Iranians, whereas the Iranians are arguing that it should be a positive thing. You're hearing from the Pakistani mediators arguing that they are moving closer to a compromise.

What is good for the Iranians, of course, not necessarily good for everyone else. So, we'll have to see what that actually looks like.

But I do want to also reference something else Rubio told reporters about the fire we saw exchanged yesterday. And to your point, I would argue it was the most severe test of this very tenuous ceasefire thus far. Rubio argued that the U.S. attacks, he called them, the military action, a defensive measure, and he said that they were separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury. That is a clear distinction that this White House is trying to make here, that what is happening with these -- with the fire being exchanged around the Strait is different from what they see in the broader combat operations happening in this war. All of that speaking to just the desire again that this administration has of trying to find some sort of peaceful diplomatic solution to all of this.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, working very hard to basically say this war isn't going on like it was despite whatever shooting we all continue to see.

Alayna Treene, at the White House with the very latest. Please, keep us posted.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now a CNN exclusive report. Some of the inmates who served alongside Ghislaine Maxwell can -- serve time alongside Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein's coconspirator, some of those inmates are now speaking out. Some saying they were punished by prison staff for talking about Maxwell. One woman who spoke to CNN's M.J. Lee says that she was a former inmate at the minimum security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, when Maxwell was transferred and moved there. And she spoke to a reporter about it then, how Maxwell was getting special treatment, and other inmates thought it was unfair. Well, after those comments and that interview was published, this woman says she was punished.

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JULIE HOWELL, FORMER INMATE: He says, you know, did you speak to a reporter? He said, well, it's all over the world wide web. I waited in a cell for, I don't know, I think it was less than an hour. The warden came in and asked, like, what I was thinking, said that her phone was blowing up all weekend. I ruined her weekend. You know, I shouldn't have talked to them. And I did apologize. I mean, at this point I'm a little teary eyed.

I said, you know, I didn't mean to cause issues. I answered a question. And when I told her that my daughter had, you know, a trafficking experience, she rolled her eyes, flipped her hair back, and she was like, it's too late for apologies, and walked out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is Julie Howell. And she says after that she was actually transferred herself to a higher security facility.

CNN reached out to the Bureau of Prisons about this. A spokesperson said that the bureau does not discuss details related to any specific inmate, but added that they are committed to the highest standards of integrity, impartiality and professionalism.

Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Wesley Bell of Missouri. He sits on the House Oversight Committee.

Thank you for being here.

So, you have this new CNN reporting about Ghislaine Maxwell. And there is reporting coming from your committee, House Oversight, that there's become something of a split among members on whether or not they would support President Trump offering a pardon to Ghislaine Maxwell in order to allow her to cooperate fully with the committee's investigation into Epstein.

Chairman Comer actually told "Politico" that they were -- that there were a lot of people who actually think it would be a favorable agreement, though he thought it would look bad. Is there a split among the committee on this?

REP. WESLEY BELL (D-MO): I can tell you there's certainly not a split amongst Democrats. Our position from the beginning is that we are laser focused on bringing justice to the victims and the victims who have long been denied the justice that they deserve. And just what we're seeing with Ghislaine Maxwell, you know, as a former prosecutor, we accommodate victims. We don't accommodate convicted sex traffickers. And that's what we're seeing from this administration.

BOLDUAN: Maxwell's treatment in prison, M.J. Lee has been doing some really important reporting around a lot having to do with what the victims of Jeffrey Epstein are saying, the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and now listening -- hearing for the first time really from some of these inmates who served time alongside Ghislaine Maxwell and saw what happened they say when she was transferred into this lower security prison. Is this aspect of it, Ghislaine Maxwell, the transfer into the prison camp in Bryan, Texas, is this even something the committee is looking into?

BELL: No. The committee has long been questioning this sweetheart set up that Ghislaine Maxwell has received from the administration.

[09:25:07]

And again, it goes back to the point that I said, the accommodations that are being made for a trafficker as we see victims and survivors continue to be denied the justice that they deserve. It is -- it is baffling. And again, I'm a former prosecutor. We had a victim services unit. And that victim services unit, we did everything that we can from the -- from the time that charges were issued, through the trial, and even after, to make certain that those survivors and victim's families had everything that they need.

But it seems as though House Republicans, it seems as though the administration is more concerned with this cover up, to ensure that Ghislaine Maxwell doesn't spill any tea, if you will, against the administration. Because again, I want to remind folks, I do believe in due process, but in the -- in the -- in the Epstein files, the name that is mentioned the most, other than Jeffrey Epstein, is Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: Well, the investigation from your committee into the handling of the Epstein files, that continues.

There was quite a scene in Tennessee overnight. Protests and more as Republicans enacted a new congressional map, carves up a majority black district. Tennessee moved after the Supreme Court ruling last week. Your state is one of -- your state, Missouri, is one of the Republican-led states that's moved previously to rewrite maps in this nationwide battle. What does this move in Tennessee mean now for the balance of power and Democrats hopes of retaking the majority in the fall?

BELL: You know, it's sad. Civil rights leaders, activists, but Americans bled and died to ensure that everyone had their constitutional right to vote and have their voice heard in our democracy. And what we're seeing is, the Supreme Court has now greenlight -- green lit the whole idea that, particularly what we're seeing in Republican states, because this whole redistricting war started with a call from Donald Trump, but now these southern -- primarily southern Republican states, but Republican states are now going after long, protected jurisdictions. And let's keep in mind, there's a history in this country of why these jurisdictions have been protected, why certain groups have needed to be protected to ensure that they have a voice.

And we've seen that in Kansas City, where Republicans cut up Kansas City in a manner that is just criminal. We -- there are parts of Kansas City that are in the same district with farms 200 miles away on the Illinois and Iowa border. In Saint Louis,, we know that we're probably being targeted as well. And we're going to do everything that we can to fight. But it's important for folks to know what's at stake, your voting rights, your constitutional rights. And Democrats are going to fight for it.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, thanks for your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Kate. Appreciate it.

Ahead, outrage in Utah that's centered around a proposed enormous A.I. data center that many of the residents are railing against. What's happening there?

And the latest on a nationwide hack of thousands of schools where hackers claim they have all manner of user data. New reporting on what the hackers are demanding and how the hack -- how they managed to hack their way in.

Those stories and more, ahead.

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