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Don Lemon Tonight

Coronavirus Changed The Entire World View; Two U.S. Congressmen Tested Positive; Everybody Feels The Brunt Of COVID-19; As Coronavirus Cases Soar, President Trump Meets With Nurses Association To Discuss Their Concerns; Trump Administration Contingency Planning For Coronavirus Lasting 18 Months or Longer; E-Learning Is The New Normal For Many Students And Teachers; Property Owner Tells Restaurants To Pay Employees Instead Of Rent. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired March 18, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

In the hour ahead we're covering all the angles of the coronavirus pandemic. And here are tonight's big headlines.

The virus spreading across the United States at an incredible rate, and it is getting worse by the hour. Now more than 8,700 confirmed cases nationwide, 149 deaths.

Tonight, President Trump signing the coronavirus relief legislation into law which provides free testing and paid emergency leave. Two members of Congress testing positive for coronavirus, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and Ben McAdams of Utah. The first two members of Congress to test positive.

CNN learning the Trump administration is making contingency plans should the virus response need to go as long as 18 months. But in what may be a bit of positive news, China is reporting no new domestic virus cases.

But first, Nick Watt has a story of how America is changing under the coronavirus pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's the invisible enemy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Military metaphors a sign of the severity, and we might still be weeks away from peak infections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have hospitals that are going to start to break this weekend, not weeks from now, not months from now, in the next few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: The administration tells us there's a federal stockpile of over 10,000 ventilators and more now on order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: There's never been an instance where no matter what you have, it's not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: At one Washington State hospital they're now making their own masks using supplies from a craft store.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've ordered millions of them, but we need millions more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: We might also need many more hospital beds and staff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We're reaching out to retired nurses, retired doctors, nursing schools, medical schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Ford, Fiat, Chrysler, and G.M. all about to halt U.S. production saying they'll sanitize all their plants. Nationwide, many workers have already been laid off like Manhattan bartender Tanya Palkaninec.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TANYA PALKANINEC, LAID OFF BARTENDER: I just have to keep living my life, keeping the rest of the morning. There's the ball of anxiety there constantly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Jet Blue now calling its losses stunning saying typical daily takings have fallen from $22 million to an average of four, and they're paying out $20 million a day in cancellation credits. Some executives now taking a 50 percent pay cut.

Misery on misery, cancellations at Chicago's midway because the control tower closed for cleaning after several technicians tested positive for coronavirus.

In San Francisco and elsewhere, millions now allowed out only for essential needs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR LONDON BREED, (D) SAN FRANCISCO: I mean, the streets are, you know, fairly empty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Note, essential needs include walking the dog and jogging. Elsewhere, some criticism that the young especially aren't taking social distancing seriously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They don't realize that they can be carrying lots of bad things home to grandmother and grandfather and even their parents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: The federal coronavirus plan obtained by CNN shows the administration now planning for a pandemic that could last 18 months or longer and involve multiple waves of illness.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

LEMON: All right, Nick, thank you very much.

Joining me now is CNN Chief Political Correspondent, Dana Bash. Also, "The New Yorker's" Susan Glasser, and Dr. Celine Gounder. She is a clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at NYU and the host of The Epidemic podcast. Good evening to one and all.

Dr. Gounder, I'm going to start with you. Why are the full resources of the United States being directed right now to masks, ventilators, coronavirus tests, hospital beds?

[23:05:01]

Can you understand why people are watching and what is happening -- they're wondering what's happening? Wondering what the heck is going on?

CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST & EPIDEMIOLOGIST, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, I can just reflect on what's happening in hospitals on the front lines which is that I already have colleagues who do not have respirator masks to do their jobs. And this is actually from cities across the country.

I'm hearing from friends I trained with back in residency, and they're having to turn to use surgical masks, those loose-fitting masks to protect themselves and they're not wearing masks consistently with every patient.

They're having to even reuse masks between patients and that's really not a safe situation. This is really scary because we haven't even seen the peak of this yet. We're just on the beginning end of the rise in cases. And so, this is going to get much, much worse. And it's going to be very dangerous for our health care providers. LEMON: Dana Bash, I want to bring you in. This is everywhere tonight.

Two members of Congress tested positive for coronavirus. Tell us about that.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Two members tested positive. And since you and I spoke last hour, the number of members who are self-quarantining because they had -- they were near these members -- is four.

And so, there are four members saying that they're going to do self- quarantining including Steve Scalise who is number two Republican in the House of Representatives. And there's probably more being added to that list as we speak because the attending physician in the House sent a note to all colleagues, all members, saying that they are mapping out where these members were, they are finding out who they were close to and making the calls.

Obviously fellow members and also staff members. And the other thing they're doing is working with the architect of the capitol to scrub down the areas of the capitol where these members were. But they're insisting that people who were on the House floor with them have low risk.

LEMON: Yes. Talk to us about what this means, Dana, practically on Capitol Hill. What, if any, steps are being taken to allow members to vote on legislation remotely? What's going on? What are they doing?

BASH: Well, so far, the answer is none because Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, has made very, very clear that she doesn't even want to entertain the notion of virtual voting. But Eric Swalwell is one of the members who has been pushing for this for a long time, continues to do it.

And I'm told the calls are coming in particularly as members of Congress are not just staying at home out of precaution but staying at home because they actually tested positive. We'll see if anything changes there.

But it is important to remember that all of these members of Congress are working and they were working late last week in order to get this big package, at least one of the big packages of money and stimulus and everything else out to the public.

And so, they're going to have to come back and continue to do that as they should as Nancy Pelosi said in private, we're the captains of this ship and we're going to be the last ones to leave. Unclear how things might change. It's a very, very deeply held institutional belief that members of Congress should be physically there in order to vote. But everything's changing in this new normal.

LEMON: Yes. Everything is changing. Look at you guys. You guys are all sitting I would imagine at your home cameras. Usually you would be here in the studio with me.

BASH: That's right.

LEMON: Dana would be in the studio in Washington, or we would be doing it via remote --

BASH: Great point.

LEMON: -- in a fancy television studio. Right?

But listen, Susan Glasser, I want to bring this in. Speaking of that right, we've had these members of Congress at CPAC they were exposed, and riding on, you know, either on an airplane with the president, a dinner with the president. Right?

And so, now we have these lawmakers they've been working on the Hill potentially exposing other people. Is this crisis reaching a new level now?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Don, look, I think it is absolutely. Clearly, we're all. The events are outpacing the ability of us as individuals to process it or our institutions, our Democratic institutions are essentially already in crisis mode. You know, this is happening during election year. Primaries are being cancelled.

In terms of Congress it's very clear we actually need the House and the Senate to find a way to be in session. This economic catastrophe accompanying the pandemic is enormous and is affecting the lives basically of every American, even those who won't be directly touched by the disease.

So, Congress -- Nancy Pelosi is right. Congress needs to find a way to keep in session because they need to be taking measures to protect Americans from the economic catastrophe. But, you know, I think it's probably not going to end up being all or nothing. Right?

[23:09:55]

You know, Congress isn't going to tomorrow figure out how to do remote voting. That's never done before. But think of the measures they could be taking that they haven't taken yet, whether it's some kind of social distancing, a new way of voting that would enable members of Congress not to be contaminating each other and all their aides and all their family.

You know, right now it's been a petri dish of infection milling around. And in a way it's surprising it's only two members of Congress so far. It could well be more. You saw in Canada to the north they actually cancelled the legislature and sent them home out of parliament.

So, you know, obviously Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to do that for some very important reasons, but I would expect there ought to be a lot more conversation about what kind of social distancing and practicing what they preach they can impose up on Capitol Hill while keeping the institution open.

LEMON: Dr. Gounder, CNN learned today that the federal government is planning for a crisis that could last up to 18 months and maybe possibly more. But plans that there could be multiple waves of illness. What does that mean?

GOUNDER: So, we're looking at really trying to suppress this pandemic, epidemic in the United States over the next three plus months, could be even longer, five months. And then after that, maybe lifting some of those restrictions. But you're not going to make the virus go away completely.

And so, it will come back. And then we'll probably have to reinstitute some of those same social distancing measures and do that wave after wave until we hopefully in 18 months or so have a vaccine.

LEMON: A report, doctor, from the Italian health officials say on average -- it says on average, people who died from coronavirus are dying eight days -- eight days -- after they first show symptoms. So, what does that tell you about the timeline that we may be facing here?

GOUNDER: Well, it's actually quite similar to the data that we saw out of Wuhan. The earlier reports published out of there showed that about a week into hospitalization people got much, much sicker and that's when they ended up on ventilators and then passed away fairly quickly after that.

So, essentially what we need to be anticipating is probably in a week or two having a huge number of people in places like New York City all of a sudden needing to be on ventilators. You're going to see that lag basically from 14 days from the time they were first infected and you're going to start to see people coming in with really critical respiratory illness.

LEMON: Dana, today you talked about in the program last night. I'm not sure if you saw the program, we have retired General Stanley McChrystal on last night. He thought that the president should be invoking this -- the emergency wartime authority.

So, he said the president invoked this emergency wartime authority today to speed up production of protective equipment and ventilators and so on. He's also sending two hospital ships to New York. Presidential historian in Douglas Brinkley says that Trump is trying to be, you know, FDR now. Too late? What do you think?

BASH: He's definitely trying to. He said it. He said it out loud today that he sees himself now as a wartime president. And my understanding is that that is in part how people around him convinced him to take this seriously because that is the situation he is in right now. It was a very long time coming.

But, you know, just invoking it and not actually using it or having that power but not using it, if you listen to people like Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, the place where the doctor just said, you know, is going to be hit incredibly hard likely in a week's time, he's pleading with the president to not just send the National Guard but to actually use the military because they are going to need it.

And look, things are kind of happening really, really fast and in slow motion at the same time. I know that sounds a little bit -- very contradictory, but it is because it's taking a while for people to wrap their minds around the enormity of this. And that includes people in the White House who need to be thinking ahead and listening to the specialists you had on before us saying we knew about this.

Anybody who pays attention to pandemics like this has been preparing for something like this for such a long time. And they need to really listen to people who know what they're doing. And when you have a mayor of a big city pleading for something like that in this time, forget about the politics. Forget about whether there's a D or an R next to their name. Listen.

LEMON: Yes. And we've been reporting on it as well, so it's kind of -- the president says that it snuck up on us.

BASH: Yes.

LEMON: That's not exactly the truth. Thank you all. I appreciate it.

More than half of American jobs could be at risk because of the coronavirus. Are there things that we could be doing now to stabilize the economy? That's next.

[23:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The president tonight signing a coronavirus relief package that will provide sick leave, unemployment benefits, food and medical aid to people affected by the coronavirus. That coming after the Dow took another huge hit today dropping below 20,000 points for the first time since February 2017.

Richard quest is here. That basically wiped out everything, the gains from the Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE: From the inauguration. Yes. There's still another 2,000 points of gain from the election. But we're back to where we were pretty much.

LEMON: That's the deepest cut from here where he loves to talk about - to talk about gains. Let's discuss. We have a lot to talk about. I want to get to it.

QUEST: Yes, sure.

LEMON: Anything we can do now to boost the economy?

QUEST: Well, what's being done by Congress, you talk about the trillion dollars, is not enough. It's a very good start. It will provide an immediate band aid to help things get moving. But this is so big and so serious it's going to take a great deal more.

To give you an idea I've got some numbers for you tonight. Spain has done 15 percent of GDP. LEMON: OK.

[23:19:59]

QUEST: Fifteen percent. Germany has done 13 percent. The U.K. has done 15 percent. The U.S. is now at 3 percent. It's going to take -- sorry. It's going to take about 3 to $4 trillion --

LEMON: That's what Anthony Scaramucci said.

QUEST: That's the number that people were talking about. And that's why the market is not happy with what it seen. That's why the market has been down because it's seeing what's being done and it's not, knows it's not enough and it's not the right structure of what's enough. What's needed is help for people who are losing their jobs. A thousand bucks in a check is one month's rent at that.

LEMON: How you -- well, someone said a thousand bucks in a check has -- how is -- how are people whose rent is 2,000 or 4,000 for a mortgage or something, what's a thousand bucks going to get.

Let me ask you, though. Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, temporarily shutting down production. The travel industry is getting hammered obviously. Airlines. Other industries are in danger.

QUEST: Yes.

LEMON: Every industry.

QUEST: This is the S&P 500 sector list. Energy. Oil prices are at record lows because of Saudi and Russia. Materials, same. Industrials, who's buying anything at the moment. Even consumer discretionary and consumer staples, the very things that you would expect to do well in a recession.

But nobody is going out and when they are going out, they're being limited in some cases. We're in an environment where the U.S. economy which is two-thirds consumer by the way, has effectively hit a brick wall. And there's plenty that the government can do to alleviate over time the effects. But you can't do that overnight.

This is -- and it's not just the U.S. that's happened. The whole E.U., Australia, you know, all the OECD countries are suffering. That's exactly --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: This is a worldwide crisis.

QUEST: Completely.

LEMON: Economic crisis.

QUEST: Completely.

LEMON: OK. So, then -- (CROSSTALK)

QUEST: But leadership is required at this point. Leadership. Economic leadership. Go back to 2009 and there was a G20 in London and then another one in Washington where the G20 leaders basically said if we do not do something, then this thing is going to collapse in a way that none of us wish.

LEMON: OK. So, this is when we need our allies. This is when we need the --

QUEST: You know, everybody's going to run for help because --

LEMON: OK.

QUEST: -- we're all in the same boat.

LEMON: All right. So, then this is not a time to say well what about the deficit and what about -- we've got to do it. Where's all this money going to come from? We can't even worry about that.

QUEST: Tonight, there are Americans -- there are very -- the chances of most viewers actually being catching the virus is remote. It's possible, but it is remote if precautions are being taken. But the chance of Americans -- anybody watching this program tonight being economically affected by this is huge. Just tonight --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Almost everybody.

QUEST: Almost everybody. Just tonight I learned of a friend who's being laid off. Now he won't be able to help his daughter with her college costs.

LEMON: Right.

QUEST: Now she has had her exams cancelled because the university is closed. You start to see -- I can -- anybody in this studio, anybody who's watching the economic ramifications, the human toll medically, economically, psychologically is like nothing we've ever seen. Period.

LEMON: Have we gone past the r-word, recession, to the d-word, depression.

QUEST: If -- J.P. Morgan came out today and Deutsche came out today. If their second quarter forecasts are right, U.S. economy will drop by about 13 percent from where it was in the season adjusted rate. That will be a record, it would be only rivalled by the Great Depression.

However, we're talking now about v curves and W's and all these sort of things. It depends how quickly -- this is why it's so important what the president was saying today and what the experts were saying.

If you nip this in the bud which pretty much hasn't been, but if you manage to slow down the transmission, the economics are horrible, but you recover quicker in the future.

LEMON: I've got a bad feeling about the market.

QUEST: Well, you should have. I mean --

LEMON: Everybody keeps saying the market is going to return -- I don't know.

QUEST: Eventually, eventually things get so cheap even rotten tomatoes you can use for making soup. So, eventually things do get cheap. But at the moment there's no reason to buy this market because we don't know the medium-term effects on the companies.

LEMON: Nothing like this has ever happened.

QUEST: I came in the car -- I came in a cab up to here tonight. It's deserted. There's nothing.

LEMON: I know.

QUEST: As it should be, as it should be. But just translate this. The mall that we are in is closed.

LEMON: Everything is closed.

QUEST: Yes.

LEMON: No one -- no one.

QUEST: Yes. And two-thirds of the U.S. economy is the consumer. But government can help, will help. But it's going to cost a lot more.

[23:25:00]

So, any congressman or woman who's thinking they've got away with it with a trillion, get your checkbook out. It's 3 to 4 trillion minimum.

LEMON: Now you've thoroughly depressed me. No, this is a reality of it.

QUEST: No.

LEMON: I know, I know. Richard, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. And don't forget, the service industry. Weddings.

QUEST: I had to postpone my wedding.

LEMON: Richard had to postpone his wedding.

QUEST: But I'm still wearing the ring. because (Inaudible) decided, you know --

LEMON: Yes.

QUEST: -- you've got to have a little bit of happiness for the night.

LEMON: Thank you, Richard.

Health care workers on the front lines warning that they don't have the supplies they need not only to treat patients but to keep themselves safe. Those warnings and what need to be done about them, that's next.

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: As the number of coronavirus cases soars, health care workers across the country are on the frontlines, many of them without the proper gear to protect themselves as they treat coronavirus patients. President Trump is meeting with representatives from nurses associations today to discuss their concerns.

So, let's talk about that now with Dr. Esther Choo. She is an emergency physician and associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University. Thank you. I appreciate you joining us. We've been discussing some of this, and you have been extremely accommodating. We appreciate you coming back, night after night to discuss this with us. What is the situation like at the --

ESTHER CHOO, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: Good to be here.

LEMON: -- hospital where you work in Portland? Do doctors and nurses there have the supplies they need like masks and gloves?

CHOO: We do for now, but we are anticipating a shortage, and this is not specific to my hospital but really what we are hearing from every hospital that I've been in contact with across the country. Everyone is either already in a shortage or they're anticipating a shortage unless our supplies increase.

I've heard estimates from anywhere between two weeks to a month. We simply do not have enough to feel that we can sustain safe conditions for our health care workers as we enter the upswing in the curve of COVID-19.

LEMON: So, you have started a movement on Twitter. Yesterday, you tweeted, frontline health care workers, share a picture of the PPE you're in that you need to stay safe, tag your congress people and @VP, meaning the vice president, use a hashtag GetMePPE.

So, you are flooded with tweets and photos and responses. I just want to read one. It says, NYC, mother of two, double frontline MD couple. Don't make us orphan our two toddlers. We are running out of masks, eye protection, and gloves at work. So tell me about this. I mean, we'll be putting up a lot more as we talk here. Tell me about it.

CHOO: Yeah. I mean, this is something that was really obvious in the conversations we were having behind the scenes. A friend of my mine, Matt Karlin (ph), who is a lawyer and a disability rights activist, suggested that we start a hashtag so people could see more obviously what we know is happening on the frontlines in the hospitals. So, we came up with this rhyming hashtag and invited people to share the stories and really doctors and nurses and other health care professionals really stepped up and showed what they need and the kind of extreme measures they're using just to try to be safe.

I mean, some people were showing how their -- on day five of using equipment that we normally would use once and then discard. People are showing how they were kind of MacGyver-ing (ph) equipment together or purchasing their own equipment. People were messaging me and also posting about how they stopped at Home Depot on their way to the hospital.

I mean, I don't think I ever would have imagined a time where we would stop by a hardware store on the way to work at the hospital to make sure that we are properly equipped. But --

LEMON: Is that effective though? I mean, they're making their own masks because you said they're stopping by Home Depot. Is that even effective, doctor?

CHOO: Well, the N-95 masks, those so-called respiratory masks that are designed to filter out these really small particles, are used not just in hospitals but also in other industries.

So, I mean, I have friends, really wonderful friends who will sometimes wear N-95 masks in totally different industries like when they're sanding things. Friends who have boxes of those in their garages, those are actually appropriate for our use, too, and they're dropping them off at my doorstep or area hospitals. So, some of them are OK.

But we are also just starting to see people try to make them at home. I mean, one health system is starting a challenge for people in the community to start making masks. I mean, they all won't be these N-95 respirator masks but just regular face masks that you use to try to not get splashed with things. Those kinds of masks, we may start to really do them like we do crafts almost just to have some sort of barrier protection --

LEMON: Yeah.

CHOO: -- and hope that it's better than nothing.

LEMON: Yeah. Dr. Choo, thank you. Appreciate it. CNN is learning that Trump administration is making coronavirus contingency plan should the virus response need to go as long as 18 months. Cases in the U.S. today is spiking above 8,700. The chart shows the number of new cases each day in the United States, the curve increasing at an exponential rate.

Joining me now is Caitlin Rivers, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Thank you so much, Caitlin. I appreciate you joining us. So, we saw our curve.

[23:35:00]

CAITLIN RIVERS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: Thanks for having me.

LEMON: You saw our curve. Also, we want to look at a couple others with data from the World Health Organization. OK, so, this is China. Here's China. It is now reporting new cases in just double and single digits. Here is South Korea, an alarming curve, but it has also gone way down. What does that tell you about the U.S.'s ability to get on the other side of this?

RIVERS: Where we are in the United States is just beginning that uphill climb. We can see the lessons from China and South Korea that with enough concerted effort, we can turn the corner and bring cases back down. I think that should be our number one goal right now. China and South Korea layered different kinds of interventions in order to turn that corner.

They did what we called case-based interventions, which means finding people who are sick, isolating them at home or in the hospital, and finding their contacts. They also took community level steps which are things like potentially closing schools or public gathering spaces. So, that's what we're working on right now in the United States.

LEMON: Yeah. So, all the social restrictions in the U.S. right now are about flattening the curve. I just want to show you an animation that illustrates that. Here it is. The blunted curve shows that it makes a difference to keep people separated compared to doing nothing. So, given how steep the U.S. curve is, are we way behind?

RIVERS: No, I don't think so. I am concerned that we are facing a serious public health crisis, and I need people to take that seriously. But there is still opportunity for us to change the trajectory of that curve and we do that through social distancing, which I'm sure everyone has heard a lot about recently, but it really is so important.

Social distancing looks like washing your hands, especially when you come in from outside, before you eat and before you spend time with someone who's very old or very young. And it also means staying at home, teleworking, skipping those community meetings, getting takeout instead of sitting in a restaurant. All of those social distancing measures really do help.

LEMON: Mm-hmm. Caitlin, China had extreme social distancing measures. South Korea was way more aggressive with testing than the U.S. has been. Can we expect our numbers to drop like theirs?

RIVERS: I think we need to keep our expectations reasonable in terms of the timeline for the first thing. So, we know that it takes about five days from when someone gets infected until when they first develop symptoms, and then it will take a few more days for them to go to the doctor, get tested, and come to the attention of public health authorities.

So no matter what, even if we do a perfect job stopping transmission today, we're not going to see evidence of that for another week or two. That's the first thing. We also need to continue to expand our testing capacity in the United States. We need people to adhere to social distancing more thoroughly. And I think we all as a community need to come together in order to flatten that curve.

LEMON: Mm-hmm. So, let's look at this chart comparing the total number of cases in the U.S. and Italy, Singapore, South Korea. The U.S. is there in the red, OK? When you see that we're more similar to Italy's trajectory than Singapore and South Korea, is that concerning to you? What do you think?

RIVERS: It is concerning. We should take the opportunity to learn from Italy and China where there were explosive outbreaks rather that overwhelmed the health systems. We need to learn from that lesson that social distancing and implementing those measures are critically important.

We can still have an outcome like China and like South Korea in that we slow transmission dramatically and get ourselves back on track. But again, now is the time to be doing that and that's why I keep bringing up social distancing, hand hygiene. We all have a role to play and we all need to be working towards that outcome.

LEMON: Caitlin Rivers, I appreciate it. Thanks so much. Schools across the country closed for an indefinite length of time, leaving students without a classroom, but virtual classrooms are trying to fill the void. We got a look at that. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A new reality is setting in for millions of American students, their teachers, and their parents with the outbreak of coronavirus. Schools are forced to close and that means coming up with alternatives. Now, for many school kids and their teachers, the classroom is out and online learning is in. Here's CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So who's going to be in class today?

(Voice-over): The running list of school closings nationwide changes by the minute due to coronavirus. For the time being, the face-to-face school day has been replaced by e-learning. Many college students may be used to logging in to school, but now, online learning has become the norm for students of every age.

SAM MONTAG, STUDENT: We have four classes a day with 15 minutes in between each class and a 30-minute lunch break.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Sam Montag is 13. This is his first day attending 7th grade from his bedroom.

MONTAG: I think going online is a smart idea because we don't know when we'll be able to get back to school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNTRANSLATED).

MONTAG: (UNTRANSLATED).

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Westminster School, a private K through 12 in Atlanta, is trying to make online school as close to regular school as possible. So, the day starts with homeroom, from home.

[23:45:00]

CAROLINA MARES, TEACHER: Just follow what I'm doing. Everyone is doing it.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Carolina Mares has been teaching French and Spanish classes for eight years. For the past few days, she's been translating her classroom lesson plans into e-learning.

MARES: We've been working on learning how to order food and being open-minded about trying this (ph). Field trips are completely out of the picture now. And so we are trying to change the focus of this unit to be instead of ordering food to cooking at home.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): This is the first day she's wrangling her students from her dining room table.

MARES: And we have everyone in class. Applause, everyone made it. Control over the class is one thing that I just have to let go of. I'm not there so I'm not going to have the same amount of control.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): The obvious question: is this going to work? Online education has been around for a long time, but it's never been tested quite like this.

MARES: You know there's that rule or that guideline that your attention span is only as long as your age in minutes. So, for middle schoolers, we're talking attention span is usually 11 to 14 minutes max.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Dr. Lissette Acosta Corniel has been teaching online classes for a decade. She also teaches in the classroom. She says preparing good online coursework takes time, something coronavirus didn't allow.

LISSETTE ACOSTA CORNIEL, CUNY, MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE: The education is going to suffer in the sense that the content might not be the same. The experience might be overwhelming for instructors, for parents, for students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNTRANSLATED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNTRANSLATED).

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So you don't think that 2020 spring semester is going to be a lost semester for students across this country?

ACOSTA CORNIEL: Absolutely not. We might gain from this experience about preparedness, about having more services and program for our students nationwide, have more accessibility, more technology, more support for digital humanities, and therefore have a vision forward.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Sam is learning a new way to be a student. His advice to his virtual classmates --

MONTAG: Just kind of remind yourself that you're still in class and that it is still school even though it's from your house.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Do you think that you can leave your students with the same kind of education that they would have if they were with you in the classroom?

MARES: Yes, I can probably cover everything that I need to cover. But education is so much more than what we cover in class, extracurricular activities and robotics, all of that is part of a student's education.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO (voice-over): Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Restaurants and the people who work in them are facing major money problems because of the coronavirus. But my next guess is taking care to lessen the stress for restaurant workers and his community.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON: So we are hearing more stories of Americans taking care of their neighbors during the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurants are under pressure as coronavirus forces them to make tough decisions. But an investment company in Jonesboro, Arkansas is telling the restaurants in their buildings to focus on paying employees, not rent.

So joining me now is Clay Young, president and CEO of Young Investment Company LLC. Clay, you're a good dude. Thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

So you posted this on Facebook. "In an effort to do our part, Young Investment Company will not expect its restaurant tenants to pay April rent. We ask that you use this money instead to pay your employees and take care of your family. Stay strong. We will get through this together." You say talking to a tenant of yours helped spark this idea. Tell me about it.

CLAY YOUNG, PRESIDENT AND CEO, YOUNG INVESTMENT COMPANY LLC: Well, the last -- I'm a financial advisor as my day job. So the last 30 days, I have been going from early morning until 9:30 at night. So I got a text in the middle of kind of the chaos of dealing with that with the stock market from a tenant who said, hey, have you cashed my March paycheck -- my March rent check? And I said, no, I'm sorry, I just haven't had a chance to go to the bank because I've been at the office all day.

And he said, well, I don't think I'm going to make it. And so I just had this kind of instinctive moment thinking back to 2009 when we were building six restaurants in 2009 and had a really tough time as a real estate company through that financial crisis. So I kind of -- what he was saying resonated at that moment. I just said I'll tear the rent check. And then my phone rang and he called me and he was kind of choked up. He was, like, are you serious?

And I was like, yeah, I'm serious. And he said, man, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I mean, I said, I know you got elderly employees, you got single moms, and we're going to get through this together. And I said let's just do April on one condition, that you -- that you take care of your employees and take care of your family. And then I hung up the phone and thought, oh my gosh, what did I just do?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Yeah. Well, here's the thing.

YOUNG: What?

LEMON: You have no idea how much you are going to get back because of that. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. You're going to get back more because you did that. And you're -- tri-fold.

YOUNG: I appreciate it.

LEMON: That's what it says. So, how are you guys doing? This has to be really frightening for everybody.

[23:54:58]

YOUNG: You know, I mean, I think that after that one initial conversation with the one restaurant and we decided to do it for the other four tenants, you know, you just kind of reminded how important it is that we help each other. I think that what I'm seeing here in Arkansas from the governor down to our community leaders is that everybody has done a really good job here of reaching out to each other and seeing if they need to help each other.

LEMON: Mm-hmm.

YOUNG: And so I think everybody is scared. There's uncertainty, you know. We don't really know how long this -- time is the enemy, obviously. So, we are hoping we can get some answers quick. But people are worried about -- the hourly people are worried about their next paycheck.

LEMON: Well, Clay Young, you are amazing. Clay Young said -- told the tenants in his building, don't worry about rent, take care of the employees. Everyone should follow your lead. You're a good man.

YOUNG: Thank you.

LEMON: Best of luck to you, OK?

YOUNG: All right, man. Thank you. Appreciate it, Don.

LEMON: It was a pleasure meeting you. Thanks.

YOUNG: You, too.

LEMON: And thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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