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Mexico Government Forbids Large Public Gatherings to Contain Swine Flu; White House Issues Public Health Emergency; How the Obama Administration is Handling the Swine Flu Crisis; Rating Obama's First 100 Days; GM to Cancel Their Pontiac Brand
Aired April 26, 2009 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, swine flu fear in the United States. The nation's biggest city, New York, launches an emergency health plan after students turned up positive for the illness. And as cases worldwide grow, health officials go to the White House to figure out how to handle the health crisis. And U.S. military on alert around the world.
The news starts right now.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon reporting tonight from New York -- the city where just hours ago, the mayor confirmed eight school students, high school students, have swine flu. Tonight, it is a nationwide emergency and the Centers for Disease Control is now saying they fear there will be deaths in the U.S.
We've just heard from a White House official.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The Department of Health and Human Services will declare today a public health emergency in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: There are now 20 confirmed swine flu cases in this country, in five different states. And that number is expected to rise. So far, though, no one here has died and only one person has been hospitalized.
Overall, at least seven countries are dealing with confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu. Mexico appears to be the source, 81 deaths there are said to be likely linked to the swine flu. And Canada today confirmed its first cases of swine flu as well.
CNN has the story covered from every angle for you. Susan Candiotti is in New York, scene of the largest group of U.S. flu cases. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us from Mexico City, where more than 1,300 people have been admitted to hospitals with flu-like symptoms. And our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is in Atlanta, home to the Centers for Disease Control.
We're going to start here tonight in New York, where Governor David Paterson and top officials have announced plans to ramp up the state's response to the swine flu outbreak. They have put the state on alert and they're taking new steps to mobilize their resources. The governor also offered an update on the New York students diagnosed with swine flu.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. DAVID PATERSON, NEW YORK: In the United States, there's been one hospitalization and no one -- all who have been diagnosed with the virus are recovering. But in New York, there were eight cases that were confirmed as a diagnosis in Queens, at the St. Francis School, but in those cases, all of those young people are recovering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And that state of emergency, no doubt, because of what unfolded here today. A New York prep school is a site of the single largest cluster of swine flu so far here in the U.S. Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti is there with an update -- Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, I think it's safe to say that as many as -- for the as many as 200 students who fell ill at the school starting last Thursday, this is an illness they won't soon forget. As you have reported, there are eight high school students here who are confirmed to have swine flu. However, their symptoms are said to be mild.
Today, all throughout the day, at the school, they hired a sanitation company to come in and scrub everything down from top to bottom even though the Health Department said that that was not necessary to do. Also, under a direction from the Health Department, there will be no classes here on Monday. And the school has decided to close the school -- continue to shut down classes on Tuesday as well.
The principal said he's been receiving a lot of phone calls from worried parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are telling me that if I have flu like symptoms, what should I do and -- because there is a bit of panic out there over this. And I'm telling them that they should call their doctor or go to a First Med, or if there are no other choices, then an emergency room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, you may very well be wondering why are they only closing down this school. What about the potential for spreading possible illness among the public school system in New York City?
Well, here's how -- why Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he is not going to close down public schools in the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: For other schools, one of the symptoms we track is illness at public elementary schools. We have not seen any clusters or increases that would suggest that so far there has been an outbreak at any other school. This could change. We are monitoring the information very closely. And as soon as we have more information, we will share it. But our intention at the moment is to have all schools open tomorrow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: Now, Don, there's some encouraging news. You will remember, yesterday, we reported that they were also testing about 30 children who had fallen ill at a Bronx daycare center. Those tests have come back negative -- Don?
LEMON: All right. Thank you, Susan Candiotti -- reporting from here in New York as well.
Let's head down to Atlanta now, and CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
Elizabeth, what is the latest on this outbreak as far as the U.S. and I guess, worldwide as well?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, a little while ago, I got off of the phone with a CDC press conference. And there was one thing that really stood out. This was the remark by the Doctor Ann Schuchat, who is an official with the Centers for Disease Control, let's take a look at what she said. She said that there will -- they expect that there will be deaths in the United States. As she put it, "I do fear we will have deaths here." And by "here" she meant in the United States.
Now, early -- earlier in the day, her boss, Dr. Richard Besser, who's the head of CDC, he said something kind of similar. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. RICHARD BESSER, ACTING CDC DIRECTOR: What we know about this virus is it looks to be the same virus as is causing the situation in Mexico. And given the reports out of Mexico, I would expect that over time we're going to see more severe disease in this -- in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: So, they are looking for -- they are expecting more severe disease, even deaths in this country.
Let's go over some of the basics, Don, of what's going on with swine flu right now in the United States. So far, there have been 20 confirmed cases of swine flu. All of those people have recovered quite easily. Only one out of the 20 was hospitalized and none of them even needed anti-viral medications. They just recovered on their own -- Don? LEMON: All right. Let me ask you this. And why is the situation in Mexico, then, so much worse than it is here? That's believed to be the epicenter where it started, right?
COHEN: Right. Exactly. And that is the question of the day. And may even be the question of the week or the question of the month.
Right now, U.S. officials, public health officials, are on the ground. They arrived yesterday and they're trying to figure out why it's so much worse -- why do they have 20 confirmed deaths in that country and there are none deaths here? The strain appears to be the same.
One reason might be is they just have so many more illnesses that they are seeing deaths -- and that, unfortunately, as we see more illnesses in this country, then there's a chance that we might also see death.
LEMON: All right. Bottom line here, though, really, and we don't want to alarm people. But, Elizabeth, how worried should we be? After all, eight students did come down with it and we just got the confirmation today.
COHEN: Right. Now, I want to -- I want to make this very clear. Eight students came down with it and recovered quite easily. They didn't need to go to the hospital or they didn't even need any anti- viral medication. Now, despite the fact the disease has been severe here, there are people freaking out. For example, if you go on Twitter, you can read people -- read about people who are freaking out. It is the most talked about topic on Twitter right now.
And the bottom line is, is that people should be concerned. For example, if my best friend just came back from Mexico and if she were coughing and feeling ill and had a fever, I probably wouldn't hug her. Now, I probably wouldn't hug her anyhow with those kinds of symptoms. But certainly, you want to keep people's travel histories in mind.
So, here's the bottom line. Do the things you usually do, like wash your hands, for example. Cover your mouth when you sneeze. If you have any flu-like symptoms, fever, body aches, et cetera, and you've been to Mexico or you've had contact with someone who's been to Mexico recently, call your doctor, make an appointment and tell them about your travel history. It's very important.
LEMON: All right. Elizabeth, thank you very much for that.
COHEN: Thanks.
LEMON: Mexico, as you know, is believed to be the origin of this outbreak. You just heard our Elizabeth Cohen say that. And our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is in Mexico City for us tonight.
Sanjay, why is this significant? Why Mexico? What's going on?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, it's significant because it looks like this is where it may have started. So, we're not exactly sure about that. But certainly, some of the earliest cases and now, the deaths in this continent, are in Mexico City.
One of the things that we sort of we're -- you know, one of the ideas we had, Don, was that if we can sort of see how they're dealing with it here, there may be some clues on how it should be dealt with in other parts of the world. And also, to sort of look at the medical investigation here. Why exactly did it start here? How did this virus overall begin?
We've been here a couple hours now and starting to get a better idea. You know, what's interesting, Don, I don't know if you've been to Mexico City, but this is a city with a population of 20 million people. Sunday is usually a very busy. And the streets where we are, some of the busiest in the city, there is no one is outside. The few people who are outside are wearing masks. There is not a sense of panic here, Don, but a large sense of concern.
LEMON: Yes. And if you -- if you -- people who know New York City, Mexico City is really huge. If you're flying in there, Sanjay, you can see just how congested it is and really, how the city center just goes on for miles and miles and miles. So, your point is well taken.
But here's the question. How is this so dangerous there?
GUPTA: Well, we don't know exactly why this is more dangerous here or exactly what these numbers all mean yet.
Let me give you a few points of reference here. The number of people who have died from this appears to be around 80 people, although that's not confirmed that every single one of those deaths, in fact, had swine flu. They are still working through that. It's highly suspected. They say that there are about 1,300 people who came down with serious illness as well. So, 81 out of 1,300.
But what we don't know, Don, is how many people just got sick. They sort of had the flu but never went to go and see their doctor. Those people may never be counted. So, those 82 number may be of a much, much larger number. So, the death rate may be much smaller than people think it is right now.
Also, just keep in mind that, you know, the flu, in and of itself, kills a lot of people in the United States and around the world.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: Thirty-six thousand people or so die from the flu every year. This was late in the season. That raised concern. And who the people were that were getting sick and dying -- they were people sort of at the prime of their lives, not the elderly and the young who seem to be the most vulnerable from the -- from the flu that we're most familiar with. LEMON: And, Dr. Gupta, I'm glad you bring that up, because people die from the flu every year. We don't report on it unless it's a really, really bad strain or outbreak or much, much more than normal die from it.
You got there, Sanjay, I just saw you a couple days ago in the newsroom. I know you just arrived there. Actually, you are in this morning, you're working and doing your show. What are your first impressions?
GUPTA: You know, it was interesting -- to get on the plane, I thought it was going to be empty. It was not empty. There were a lot of people actually flying to Mexico City. A lot of nervous chatter about the swine flu. A lot of people are coming up and asking us questions, knowing that we're in the news business.
As soon as we exited the customs area, I think that was the most jarring thing -- to just see everyone wearing masks. And again, it was not a panicky sort of looking situation. People, understandably, putting their masks on themselves, putting the masks on their children, staying indoors for the most part.
Mexico City is a bit of -- a bit of a ghost town. I think that's just sort of the jarring part of all this. There's nothing to sort of indicate anything else is going on, except for the silence.
LEMON: All right. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta -- Dr. Gupta, we appreciate you joining us here today.
And Dr. Gupta is going to join us throughout the hour here on CNN.
Let's take this conversation now to the White House where the federal response has been swift on this. We want to go to Elaine Quijano. She is there now.
Elaine, I understand that members of the CDC health officials were at the White House today.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, this really was a rare event to have a White House briefing on a Sunday, but that's exactly what happened. This is intended to show, obviously, that the Obama administration is working quickly to respond and try to get a handle on this situation.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was joined by top officials from homeland security and the CDC, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. It is her agency that is taking lead essentially in helping to coordinate the domestic efforts on this. And she explained today why the government decided to go ahead and make this emergency declaration.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NAPOLITANO: The Department of Health and Human Services will declare today a public health emergency in the United States. That sounds more severe than really it is. This is standard operating procedure and allows us to free up federal, state and local agencies and their resources for prevention and mitigation. It allows us to use medication and diagnostic test that is we might not otherwise be able to use.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: Now, she mentioned medication there. Officials say that the government has stockpiled 50 million doses of flu-fighting drugs including Tamiflu. And Secretary Napolitano today said, Don, that the government right now is working to move about 12.5 million of those doses into places where state that might eventually need can easily access them if they need to, Don.
LEMON: Hey, Elaine. Do we know exactly who the CDC members and other health officials met with? Do they met with the president or just members of his staff?
QUIJANO: Well, the president, we should tell you, was actually out golfing at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington. He was not actually there for the news conference itself. He didn't return until after it was over.
We don't know what meetings might have taken place, though, after he returned. Certainly, we'll check on that for you. But officials here insist that the president has been getting regular updates, has been kept very much in the loop, and, obviously, wanted to send out his top aides to tell the American people exactly what the government does and does not know, and the steps that the government is taking, again, to try to get a handle on this situation, Don.
LEMON: Elaine Quijano at the White House -- thank you very much, Elaine.
The view of the swine flu situation from ground zero. We'll take a closer look at what's going on in Mexico City.
Also, is the White House making the right moves to handle this fast-moving crisis?
We want you to be part of our show tonight as well. Make sure you log on to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or iReport.com. If you have questions about swine flu, we'll try to get them answered for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Swine flu, it seems to have come out of nowhere. We at least 20 confirmed cases in the U.S. and more popping up worldwide, lots of people are surely on edge, like iReporter, Rick Seno. He lives in Texas, where at least two cases of the virus have already been confirmed.]]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, IREPORT) RICK SENO, IREPORTER: I'm starting to get a little, frankly scared because I'm not sure what all of this means. Several Web sites have it in big red letters, plastered everywhere. That it's impossible to contain at this point and it's deadly. And I'm worried if this is genuinely something that we need to be concerned about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, you're probably wondering how the U.S. airline industry is responding to the swine flu outbreak. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been in contact with the Air Transport Association.
The group says it is, quote, "taking this seriously," and says this is a time for what it calls "appropriate precautions, but not panic." Those precautions include being on the lookout for sick passengers and asking certain passengers to wear a surgical mask when appropriate. It's up to specific airlines to determine which passengers are allowed to fly.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon is warning those with flu symptoms to go to a doctor right away or they could face grave consequences. He spoke earlier about the sick in Mexico.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MEXICAN GOVERNMENT)
PRES. FELIPE CALDERON, MEXICO (through translator): It is important to highlight of these 1,384 cases with problems, 929 patients have already been discharged. I repeat, 929 of the 1,384 cases are been discharged. They are back home. This is a total of 67 percent of all the cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Let's go now to Mexico where the illness was first detected. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in downtown Mexico City.
Ted, you've seen Mexican soldiers handing out surgical masks as I understand.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Don. They were out today handing out those surgical masks to people that were out and about. But the vast majority of people here stayed indoors. And that was for a lot of different reasons. The government is telling people to stay indoors (AUDIO BREAK). They're heeding that advice.
And a lot of the public events that were planned for today will be planned for any weekend or were cancelled. All the masses throughout all the parishes in Mexico City cancelled today, including masses at the downtown cathedral where usually thousands of people come, cancelled masses. The football stadium here, soccer -- as we call it in the United States -- matches, they are being played without audiences.
Bars, restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, all closed down to prevent gathering of people -- gatherings. And that's the strategy for the Mexican government to help curtail the potential spread of this, avoiding clusters of people around the country. That said, they say they are in a good position to treat any new illnesses. And today, the health minister publicly said that the problem with those people that died because of this swine flu was because they waited much, much too long to get help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARMANDO AHUED, MEXICO CITY HEALTH SECRETARY (through translator): Unfortunately, the people who died were patients who arrived in very critical condition. The majority of them, more than 80 percent, were sent directly to intensive care. They had to be put on ventilators immediately because they already had advanced pneumonia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Tomorrow is a very pivotal day (AUDIO BREAK). The last two days, obviously, it was a weekend. So, they stopped -- they basically shut down those events which prevented a lot of people from going out. And tomorrow is the first day back at work after of this two-day relative calm in Mexico City.
The mayor of Mexico City said today, if it proves that there are more cases over the next day, into Monday, on Tuesday, they're going to implement more shutdowns, including workplaces and the subway system. They're going to wait and see what happens tomorrow.
LEMON: Well, the question is, then, Ted, are they -- are people there observing the government warnings? Is it a ghost town? Are you still seeing some people out and about?
ROWLANDS: Well, there are some people out (ph) -- but when you're talking about a city of almost 20 million people, it is a relative ghost town. That is for sure. And the people that are out and about, most of them or a lot of them are wearing masks. And everybody that we have talked to, very, very concerned and very keen on this situation, keeping very close track of it, monitoring the updates.
It's safe to say that everybody here knows of the situation and most of the people, at least over the last two days, had been staying inside. It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow when people have to go to work.
LEMON: All right. CNN's Ted Rowlands in Mexico City -- Ted, thank you very much for that.
Severe weather in the Great Plains. Jacqui Jeras is monitoring the threat in the CNN severe weather center.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, parts of the plains are really having problems tonight with the threat of severe weather. A tornado watch remains in effect for parts of Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is keeping a close eye in the CNN severe weather center.
Boy, oh, boy, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You know, days like this don't happen too often, Don, where we've got watches lined up all the way from Iowa down into Texas. And the risk of severe weather is so high today, we've had a number of tornado warnings, not much in terms of ground truth.
But go ahead and take a look at this video -- here we go, right there. This is from yesterday afternoon. And that is in Leavenworth, Kansas. And there, you can see that funnel cloud, this did cause some damage. It flipped a couple of cars. A few homes were damaged as well, but no injuries. There were eight reports of tornados there just yesterday.
Let's go back to the watches now and this is what we're concerned with at this hour, this is brand new watch across eastern Iowa. But we have two watches that we call PDS watch, a particularly dangerous situation. And that's where things are really breaking out across central Kansas and even into Oklahoma.
We do have a tornado warning. This is in effect for Dewey, Ellis and Woodward counties. And train spotters did report a wedge tornado briefly when the storm went through the Crawford area. So, we'll continue to monitor that threat ongoing. This is a high-risk state. We get maybe a handful of these that happen a year. And there you can see the pink area where we have the greatest threat for these large, long-track tornados.
Now, what does that mean "high threat" to you and me? Obviously, it means, you know, a greater chance than normal. However, there's a specific definition from the severe -- the Storm Prediction Center. It means major severe weather outbreak is expected, 20 or more tornados are likely, some can be EF2 or stronger -- those are the real destructive ones -- or it could widespread wind damage with winds exceeding 80 miles per hour.
So, kind of a rare event of what's taking place today, Don. It happened yesterday, not quite to the extremes that we're expecting today. And unfortunately, our system is kind of stalled out right here. So, more action is expected in the plains again tomorrow.
LEMON: Oh, man. OK. Jacqui, thank you very much for that. Appreciate it.
We have an update now on our breaking news yesterday. The search widens for a University of Georgia marketing professor tonight. He is suspected of gunning down his wife and two men yesterday not far from campus. Fifty-seven-year-old George Zinkhan was last seen at a neighbor's home where he had dropped off his kids shortly after the shooting at the Town and Gown community theater in Athens.
Police say an argument preceded gunfire and that all three victims were shot multiple times. Police also believe the suspect's two young children were waiting in their father's Jeep at the time. If you have any information on the suspect's whereabouts, contact your local authorities. There's a nationwide alert out for Zinkhan and his 2005 red Jeep Liberty.
A man accused of shooting two people at Hampton University in Virginia is in custody tonight. The university and police officials say the former student followed a pizza delivery man into a dorm, shooting him and a night manager before shooting himself. No one was killed. But the dorm was evacuated and the school placed on lockdown for several hours. It is not clear what prompted that shooting.
Growing swine flu concerns as the U.S. declares a public health emergency. We'll have the latest.
Also, a Mexico City soccer game played in an empty stadium. We're going to take you there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.
If you're just joining us, there are now 20 confirmed cases of swine flu in this country in five different states. And that number is expected to rise. So far, though, no one here has died and only one person has been hospitalized.
We'll expand our coverage and go to Mexico City. Go back there, the perceived epicenter for the virus.
CNN's Karl Penhaul is there, we're sporting contest go on with empty stadiums -- Karl?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. This isn't just any stadium. This is Mexico City's as Asteca (ph) Stadium. The biggest soccer stadium anywhere in Latin America. On a normal day it has the capacity for 105,000 people. And you know how many spectators there are today? Not one. That's because the Mexico City authorities and the Mexican government has forbidden large public gatherings, large public gatherings. Soccer here really enjoys the passion of the people. But today they have no alternative just to stay away.
In fact, a few moments ago I saw a small group of five or six soccer fans show up at the gates and there were some police on duty and they just said, you know, you've got to go away, you've got to leave now. So they did. That because of the scare of contagiousness.
Earlier in the day at a news conference Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, said there were probably 1384 likely cases of swine flu detected in Mexico. He said that there had been 81 deaths so far, likely caused by swine flu, but interestingly, he said only 20 of those were confirmed deaths because of this contagion, Don?
LEMON: Karl, this is the region that you cover and Mexico City is a huge place. It looks really empty behind you. Tell us about the city, what you're seeing different, the numbers of people out on the street or not out on the street?
PENHAUL: Exactly. Mexico City, just to put it in perspective, is not, if the biggest city in the world, one of the biggest cities in the world. Normally, millions of people, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, are thronging all the public spaces, whether they're parks, whether they're squares. And particularly today, on a Sunday, people do still like to go out and take a stroll.
Today the streets are empty. The public parks have been closed. We've seen some of the military and soldiers handing out face masks to members of the general public who are on the streets, to stop contagion if they cough or sneeze. Even the church services today, the Sunday mass, Mexico being a very Catholic country, were either not taking place at all or just reduced to a few people, again, to stop the risk of the swine flu spreading, Don?
LEMON: All right, CNN's Karl Penhaul in Mexico City. It appears to be an empty stadium behind him. Thank you, Karl.
The swine flu has the full attention of the White House. Senior members of the Obama administration held a rare, Sunday White House press briefing where they made a declaration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The Department of Health and Human Services will declare today a public health emergency in the United States. That sounds more severe than it really is. This is standard operating procedure and it allows us to free up federal, state and local agencies and their resources for prevention and mitigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Maybe Fran Townsend can help us understand how the Obama administration is addressing swine flu. She counseled George W. Bush on viral outbreaks as his Homeland Security advisor. She joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.
Thank you.
FRAN TOWNSEND, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & FORMER BUSH HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISOR: Sure.
LEMON: She is CNN's national security contributor, so we appreciate you joining us.
Fran, what is your take on how the -- before I ask you about how the Obama administration is handling this so far, it caught our attention when one of the officials said that they fear there will be deaths in the U.S.? Talk to us about that.
TOWNSEND: I think they're right to prepare the American people. We've seen at least 20 confirmed deaths in Mexico and upwards of 80 deaths, not all confirmed. I think you can expect -- each day, each hour, we see more confirmed cases across the U.S. We now have confirmed cases in Canada. You'll continue to get news of confirmed swine flu cases. The likelihood is that the more cases you get, the more likely you are to see more severe illness. So they're right to prepare the American people to expect that.
LEMON: We had the eight students who were confirmed here today. I think people are concerned because they don't know how these people got it. And that's a concern. So the fear level here, the fear level, how can you speak to people about that?
TOWNSEND: Well, I think Mayor Bloomberg is doing the right thing. As we head from Susan Candiotti up in New York, no question these children got sick. It was not severe. They've recovered. The school has taken the right steps about cleansing and cleaning of the school.
Mayor Bloomberg decided not to close schools tomorrow. We need to watch it though, because what we found when we studied the response to the 1918 pandemic was social distancing, that is the cancelling of public gatherings and school, like we've seen where there's a severe outbreak in Mexico, is one of the most effective things you can do.
The think Mayor Bloomberg is right. There's no indication that it's necessary in New York. But we'll have to see. As more cases get reported, we may see localities take those sorts of measures.
LEMON: You know, in these instances when these illnesses pop up with the avian flu and with SARs and what have you, people sort of have gotten used to it and they think it will pop up and go away. This one seems to be happening much faster. I'm seeing a lot more people, just from my experience, getting sick very quickly.
TOWNSEND: That's right. They say from the time of exposure to the time you show symptoms is somewhere around 48 hours. It comes on quickly.
The good news, so far, Don, it seems to go away quickly. Most of the children treated in New York did not require anti-viral treatment. They just sort of live through it.
But again, I think people need to be alert to some things like the sort of general hygienics of washing hands and make sure your cover yourself when you cough or sneeze. Those things can be very helpful in limiting exposure.
LEMON: And I was trying to get the number of what exactly the government was doing to try to get a vaccine for this. It doesn't appear -- Tamiflu doesn't appear to work with this. Talk to us about the government's response when it comes to this? We don't have a vaccine so far. How long will it take them to catch up? Can they?
TOWNSEND: They can catch up. I think they've begun preliminary steps to do that.
Actually, Don, our understanding from public health officials is that Tamiflu and Relenza, another anti-viral drug, are effective against this. One of the things you do is you use it to treat someone that's ill. That's the first use of it. And it helps limit the amount of time one is sick and helps one to recover.
The other reason to use it, it can be used -- instead of a quarantine, you use it to protect prophylactically to protect people who may have been exposed to prevent them from getting ill. So the government will have to decide how to use the strategic stockpile both for treatment and for prophylaxis, to prevent the spread of it.
LEMON: So it does work, Relenza and Tamiflu?
TOWNSEND: Yes.
LEMON: Thank you, Fran Townsend, former adviser to the Bush administration and is now here with us at CNN. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.
TOWNSEND: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Only a few days to go before President Obama's 100th day in office. We'll look at how well he's delivered on the promises he's made, going all the way back to the campaign trail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A lot of you are responding to the stories we're putting on the air.
Here's what Cystalarnandi is saying. "I don't think we are all ready for this kind of flu. It is time for everyone to be very clean, wash hands, take vitamins.
Good advice.
JohnFreeman says, "You're making much to do of nothing. There's 20 cases in 300 million people. Keep some perspective and stop fear mongering."
We're just reporting, sir.
Dobie0904, "Can there be any more things to worry about in this economy? Now swine flu? I'm on an emotional and financial overload."
We feel you. Thank you.
Kimberlyblack1 says, "We're not prepared to handle a medical crisis. After Hurricane Katrina, I'm not sure we're prepared to handle a common cold."
We want to know what's on your mind. We want you to become part of our community. Make sure you logon to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or i-Report.com. We'll get your responses on the air and try to answer some of your questions.
Those are your comments. Now I want to bring in our senior political analyst, Mr. Bill Schneider.
Bill, how is the Obama administration handling this crisis? BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: they're trying to find a balance between alerting and alarming. They want to alert people that there is a public health issue out there and to be very careful about hygiene and contact with other people and also, cleanliness. On the other hand, they don't want to alarm people. So you had that secretary of homeland security saying she wished it were not called a declaration of emergency. It should be called emergency preparedness, because that's what the government is doing. But then, a few seconds later, she said, we really don't know, ultimately what the size or seriousness of this outbreak will be. And the head of Centers of Disease Control said, over time, we're going to see more severe disease in this country.
So obviously, they are trying to alert people without unduly alarming them and it's a very careful balance.
LEMON: Let's talk about the president and how he's handling his job. Overall, we've talked about how he's handling this situation when it comes to swine flu. There's a new poll of polls that shows 66 percent of people approve, 27 percent disapprove.
SCHNEIDER: That's fairly high. It's in the range that his six elected predecessors were in after 100 days, starting with Richard Nixon. They were all between 55 and 67 percent.
The only one who actually came out a little higher, one point higher, was Ronald Reagan, who was at 67 after 100 days. And that puts Barack Obama a little higher than those that preceded him.
It's a very good rating. He's a very strong and popular president. His personal ratings are lower than his job ratings. People like the president. They think he's honest, trustworthy, effective. So, so far, so good.
LEMON: And I was looking at this as you were talking about it, President Bush at this point, 100 days, 62 percent approval. Clinton, 55, as you said. Really high, going back to 1961, Kennedy, 83 percent. Eisenhower before that, he was 72 percent. Those are really high.
SCHNEDIER: Those are high, but let me tell you -- call your attention to something. Kennedy and Eisenhower took office before the late 1960s. In the late 1960s, we experienced the beginning of the great division, the cultural civil war in American politics, conservative versus liberal, red versus blue. We're still living with that.
One of its consequences is that every one of those six presidents, now seven with Obama, has come into office with a hard core of supporters and opponents. Those earlier presidents, Kennedy and Eisenhower, didn't have that division to contend with.
LEMON: Thanks for the explanation, Bill Schneider.
SCHNEIDER: OK. LEMON: President Barack Obama made a lot of promises on the campaign trail. Now that he's in office, is he keeping them? That's the question.
Let's get our report card of sorts or what Josh Levs is calling, the Obamaoter.
Josh?
JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I don't get to claim it, but it's a cool name isn't it?
LEMON: Yes, the Obameter. I've heard the Obameter before.
LEVS: Yes. It's from PolitiFact.com. These guys do a great job. They tabulated tons of promises he made when he was campaigning and now they're looking at how many he's keeping, breaking, that kind of thing.
I got to talk to the head of it, and I asked him, so far, how is president Obama doing?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL ADAIR, POLITIFACT.COM: He's off to a pretty energetic start. Just 100 day into us presidency or nearly 100 days he's, by our calculation, broken only six. So of -- it's important to note, that's of 514 promises total in our database, so he has a lot more to go. He's made progress on significant ones. So I think he's got some early momentum here.
LEVS: Still, the truth is, people vote when promises are made. Promises should be kept. Obviously, there's changing circumstances. But if it's a promise and you declared it's broken, that means it's broken, not just the result of an outside situation. What are the broken ones? What should people know about that category?
ADAIR: Of the six broken, they include things like a promise that he made that he was going to post bills on the White House web site and give people five days to comment. He didn't do that. He wanted to sign bills immediately after they were passed by Congress. So we rated that one, broken.
Another one that earned "broken" was his promise about putting restrictions on lobbyist who wanted to serve in his administration. He claimed that he would end the revolving door for lobbyists. But we found out he put so many loopholes in the policy, it really made the policy not what he said it would be. So he earned a promise broken on that.
LEVS: You also did something interesting. You all rated what you think are the most important promises. When I look specifically at that list, it looks like he's doing particularly well in that list.
ADAIR: When you look at overall, at the major things, and the theme that is he had during his campaign, ending the war in Iraq, beefing up the presence in Afghanistan, those are things that he has made progress on. In the case of Afghanistan, we've rated that a promise kept. He's sending additional brigades to Afghanistan.
On some of his other things, he's got some work to do. One of his big promises was a cap and trade program to create a system to limit global warming. He's going to -- he still has to push that through Congress and that will be a tough one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEVS: You can see more about the promises and the breakdown right here at PolitiFact.com. Just click on Obameter. There are tons of them.
Also, join us online for this conversation. We're hearing from a lot of you. Facebook, joshlevs.cnn, the Twitter page is Twitter.com/joshlevsoncnn. We'd love to hear from you, your thoughts on the first 100 days. What are feeling about it? That kind of thing.
And Don, you inspired me. Learning how to use these tools to connect with everyone, I'm loving it, loving it.
LEMON: That kind of thing, of course, you're loving it. We're always on the forefront here.
Josh Levs, we appreciate it.
LEVS: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Make sure you join us on President Obama's 100th day in office, for the CNN national report card. It's a primetime event Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. eastern. At 8:00, President Obama holds a news conference. At 9:00 eastern, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, and the best political team on television, and you, give the final grade for his first 100 days. That is Wednesday night beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern on CNN and CNN.com/reportcard.
Big news is expected out of Detroit this week. The futures of Chrysler and General Motors are both on the line.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: The Obama administration is waiting to see what happens with Chrysler and Italian automaker Fiat. They are negotiating a joint venture to keep Chrysler afloat. Chrysler has been operating on government loans, but has until Thursday before a decision is made as to whether it will file bankruptcy.
Chrysler is not the only big automaker in the news. G.M. is expected to make a formal announcement about its Pontiac brand tomorrow.
CNN "Money.com's" Poppy Harlow is here to talk about that.
We talked about this -- you did the breaking news on Friday when they said they were going to discontinue this line?
POPPY HARLOW, CNN MONEY.COM: Yes. A source at G.M. telling one of our senior writers, Peter Valdez Depena (ph) about this. But G.M. is still not confirming it, Don.
The expectation is that they're going to kill off Pontiac, the goal to save money and become a viable company by the deadline, which is quickly approaching. But G.M.'s spokesperson, Jim Hobson (ph), coming out today, an hour ago, telling us that, once again, G.M. is continuing to review its restructuring plan to go further and faster and better into its future success. Additional information will be releases as any decisions are finalized. So they are saying no final decision yet. But this is from a source at G.M. saying they'll kill off the brand and try and save the money they can.
LEMON: It's an interesting time for the automakers. You spoke on Friday with Ford CEO Alan Mulally. What did they say?
HARLOW: Yes. A relatively good headline. The company lost $1.4 billion. But in these times, it was better than expected.
Take a look at the numbers there, a $1.4 billion, but expected to lose $2.8 billion, so much better. Ford has lost $31 billion since the beginning of 2006.
But the headline from my interview with Alan Mulally, the president and CEO of Ford, really is the company does not need bailout money. And he says Ford won't, Don, unless the economy gets worse or unless we see an uncontrolled bankruptcy of G.M. or Chrysler because these companies all rely on the same supplier base and that's critical.
Another thing he said that was interesting is that he prepared his company, when he came in 2006, by taking out billions in loans and selling off some brands. So it wasn't in the same predicament when the economy turned south that G.M. and Chrysler were.
Take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN MULALLY, CEO, FORD: When we initially put our plan together two and a half years ago and went to the credit markets, we assumed the economy would degrade not only in the United States but worldwide. We also borrowed extra money for a cushion for this situation. We think we have sufficient liquidity to continue the investment in new products that the people really do want in value.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: One of the reasons that's so interesting they think they have sufficient liquidity, Don, they have $21 billion of cash on hand and they've significantly decreased what the industry calls the cash burn rate. In the fourth quarter of last year, they burned through more than $7 billion. And that number is still a lot, but it's down to $3.7 billion. With the automakers, it's not about that they're losing -- we know they are oozing money -- but how much and how much are you improving. And Ford is.
LEMON: Cash burn rate. You know, I opened the business section of a number of papers today, all about the auto industry. They're upbeat even though they have major losses.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: Thank you.
HARLOW: You're welcome.
LEMON: Poppy Harlow, we appreciate it.
You can call this designer the Armani of armor. Would you think that this high fashion could save your life?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These designer duds aren't what they seem. The clothes you see here are bullet-proof. Yes, you heard right, bullet-proof. They're created by Colombia based designer, Miguel Caballero. You could call him the Armani of armor.
MIGUEL CABALLERO, DESIGHER: Let me show you this one. This is special for me, Italian leather.
FEYERICK: Caballero says his clientele includes estate, executives and celebrities who need to stay safe without sacrificing comfort and appearance.
CABALLERO: We have customers who are unsure what protection level they need. We show them panels that are shot into with all different types of guns.
FEYERICK: His light weight, flexible and fashionable clothes caught the yay of Harrods' Department Store in London.
NICK CHALKLEY, GENERAL MERCHANDISE MANAGER, HARRODS: Miguel had the irony of catwalk collections in the world, so we decided to work with him because he had a lot of customers. He had been contacting us by appointment so I prepared a shopping service.
FEYERICK: But for bullet-dodging VIPs, protection comes at a price. Caballero's clothes can cost up to $10,000 an item.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: High alert for swine flu across the United States and around the world. With at least 20 cases now confirmed in five U.S. states, the federal government today held a rare Sunday news conference to declare a public health emergency. We'll explain what that means in just a moment.
