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U.S. and Japan Report First Deaths from Wuhan Coronavirus; Coronavirus Ship Quarantine Continues; Trump Takes Revenge Against Star Impeachment Witnesses; Democratic Presidential Candidates Face Off ahead of New Hampshire Primary; Trump's Pricey Trips; Oregon Flooding. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired February 08, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Michael Holmes.

And coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, millions in quarantine, thousands trapped on cruise ships and word of the first American dying of the coronavirus.

President Trump cleaning house: two crucial witnesses in the impeachment inquiry forced out of their posts.

And terrifying scenes as extreme weather rips through the U.S.

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HOLMES: Welcome, everyone.

Both Japan and the U.S. reporting their first fatalities from the Wuhan coronavirus. The two victims said to be in their 60s were both in the city of Wuhan. That, of course, the epicenter of the outbreak. That brings the virus' known death toll to at least 726, climbing so rapidly it could soon overtake the SARS outbreak of 2003.

And the infection rate soaring dally. Nearly 35,000 people now have the virus, the vast majority of them in China. Steven Jiang joins us now from Beijing.

And tell us about what we know about these latest two victims.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: Well, Michael, we don't know too much about them. In the case of the Japanese citizen, we know he was male in his 60s and died in Wuhan. His cause of death was still listed as highly suspicious of pneumonia from this virus.

Now in the case of the American citizen, we know he -- we know this person was 60 and he died on Thursday in one of the local hospitals designated to treat this coronavirus. Now a U.S. embassy spokesman here in Beijing told us, out of respect for the family's privacy, he is not going to disclose more information about this patient.

These two deaths were not entirely surprising, given the scale of the problem in Wuhan, where, of course, this virus originated. As of end of Friday, we had seen the city recording more than 13,000 cases. And the overwhelming majority of the global death toll so far occurred in Wuhan, 545 of them.

Now of course, the worry right now in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the provincial capital, is when we will see the next Wuhan because already we are seeing two cities outside of Wuhan reporting more than 2,000 confirmed cases.

It is worrisome because these are smaller cities. So they have even less public health infrastructure to cope with the outbreak of this kind of scale. So that's why officials are very concerned about these cities outside of Wuhan.

Now in the whole province of Hubei, the authorities are reporting severe shortage of both medical supplies and medical personnel, even after the rest of the country have already sent in more than 10,000 workers to reinforce overworked doctors and nurses. But authorities still saying they need at least 2,000 more personnel.

HOLMES: Extremely worrying. Steven, thank you so much. Steven Jiang there in Beijing.

Well, over 300 cases of the coronavirus have been documented outside of Mainland China. Fears of it spreading have led to the quarantine of two cruise ships, a third ship stranded at sea after being turned away from several Asian ports and yet another ship under scrutiny. That one is docked in New Jersey.

But it is the ship anchored in Yokohama harbor, the Diamond Princess, where the greatest concentration of the virus is being found outside of China. At least 64 people on the ship testing positive. CNN's Matt Rivers is in Yokohama.

You've got a lot of uninfected people jammed on a ship with a lot of infected people. It seems like a recipe for contagion.

But what are the authorities saying about their theory here in terms of handling this?

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michael, I mean logic -- just kind of layman's logic would think, if you've got potentially infected people on a boat, get people off the boat and get them away from each other.

But what authorities are saying, in these kinds of situations what the best protocol is is to keep everyone onboard that ship who may have been exposed to someone who had that virus to shelter in place.

They're saying it's not being spread through the ventilation system and the best thing to do is to keep those people quarantined on that ship for around the next two weeks or so. And that's the day to day life for people on that ship.

But in terms of that other ship you talked about stranded at sea, the reason why it's stranded at sea is because the Japanese and other countries here, they don't want a repeat of what's happening with the ship anchored here in Yokohama and that is making life onboard for the people on that stranded ship out in the middle of the ocean very difficult.

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RIVERS (voice-over): David Holst turns 64 on Sunday. Where he'll be on that day, he has no idea.

DAVID HOLST, QUARANTINED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER (from captions): Am I nervous?

Yes, I am nervous.

Am I scared?

I'm not sure I would say scared but I'm certainly nervous.

RIVERS (voice-over): David and his wife, Judy, left on the Westerdam, a Holland America cruise, from Singapore on January 16th for a dream 30-day trip. All went to plan until February 1st and a stop in Hong Kong, a city battling the coronavirus.

Passengers spent a day onshore and new passengers joined and so off they sailed. But when they tried to go to next stop Manila, they were turned away and Taiwan authorities banned cruise ships, too, as did authorities here in Japan.

RIVERS: Everywhere the ship was supposed to go after February 1st turned it away, with each place citing fears the virus might be onboard, even though so far no cases have been found.

HOLST (from captions): Stressful, emotionally taxing, frustrating. No one wants us. Holland American advise that they are in discussions with the State Department, U.S. Navy and Dutch government, trying to find a solution and I have no idea what that will be or when it will be.

RIVERS (voice-over): Holst is frustrated with not only the decision to go to Hong Kong but what he called a lack of health checks and screenings done at the time. He believes the company didn't take the virus serious enough.

HOLST (from captions): People are angry. I think the tension is rising. And everyone on this boat has lived for the last seven days under the dark shadow of a bell ringing and being told we have the virus onboard.

RIVERS: In response, Holland America says they chose to sail for Hong Kong because the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's warning levels didn't indicate that Hong Kong was unsafe. RIVERS (voice-over): Since then, the company says they prevent anyone

who's traveled through China within the last two weeks to board its ships. They're conducting pre- and onboard medical screenings and imposing additional cleaning measures, among other things. They'll also issue refunds.

Though that may not bring much relief for folks on the Westerdam. David Holst managed to send us this video from aboard, passengers just sitting and waiting, no idea where they'll go next.

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RIVERS: So that ship is about 300 kilometers off the east coast of Taiwan. And there is no update in terms of where that ship will go. And look, Michael, I think no one on board that ship will think this is a worst-case scenario. No one is sick. No one has died. It's not as bad a situation as the ship docked here in Yokohama.

But this is a good reminder the coronavirus has other kinds of victims beyond the people that have contracted the disease.

HOLMES: It just seems extraordinary. They've got to go somewhere at some point. What a tale.

When it comes to the Diamond Princess there in Yokohama, what is the mood on board there as we were discussing earlier?

A lot of people do not have it. Some do.

What are people telling you?

RIVERS: People are describing it as a floating prison. I mean, imagine you went on this boat, you're going to go for a nice vacation with your family or your wife perhaps, your husband and you wanted to have a cheap room. You didn't want to splurge for a balcony so you got one of those smaller rooms inside without a window. And you thought maybe we'll be up on deck the whole time.

Now those people are being regulated to those rooms for the better part of about 22-23 hours a day. They're not allowed out due to these quarantine restrictions and so the mood is tense onboard. People are frustrated that we've spoken to.

They've used terms like "Get us the hell off of here." They don't have clean clothes. They feel tense, they feel frustrated and, unfortunately for those people, that's going to be their reality it looks like for the next two weeks.

HOLMES: Extraordinary stories. Unbelievable. Matt, thank you. Matt Rivers there, bringing us those amazing tales.

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HOLMES: As we mentioned, U.S. health officials scrutinizing another cruise ship, one that docked on Friday near New York City. CNN's Polo Sandoval has our report on that. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was initially 27 passengers aboard this cruise ship who caught the attention of health officials who boarded it no longer after it docked early Friday morning. All of them except for four were medically cleared. That family sent to a nearby hospital to be tested for coronavirus.

We should point out, according to Royal Caribbean Cruises, they did not exhibit any coronavirus symptoms and only one of them actually tested positive for influenza during the cruise itself. So it certainly looks promising here.

But they will have to wait until those test results are released, until they can definitively say they were not exposed to the virus itself.

We can tell you Royal Caribbean implementing a series of stricter boarding protocols. They include guests holding passports from Hong Kong or China denied access to their ships for now and anyone traveling from Mainland China the last 15 days regardless of their country of origin denied access.

And finally there would be mandatory health screenings for some of those passengers who feel sick and particularly if they report traveling to mainland China in the last couple of weeks.

In the meantime, as for the ship itself, it was initially scheduled to return back out to sea on Friday afternoon. We're told that will now be heading out on Saturday -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, Bayonne, New Jersey.

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HOLMES: Post-impeachment rage turns to action against the U.S. president's perceived enemies. The key figures Donald Trump is dismissing in the wake of his acquittal. That's coming up next.

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HOLMES: Fresh off his acquittal, the U.S. president Donald Trump is going on a post-impeachment purge. He's fired two key witnesses who testified in the inquiry, Alexander Vindman and Gordon Sondland.

Vindman, a top Ukraine advisor in the National Security Council; Sondland, the now former ambassador to the European Union, who connected the president to a quid pro quo. Our Jim Acosta reports now from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):

President Trump is charging full speed ahead on his vindictive victory lap, sounding like he's on a warpath against his perceived enemies.

First on the president's list appears to be national security official Alexander Vindman, who was fired and escorted off of the White House grounds. His brother was forced out as well.

The president all but hinted at the move earlier in the day.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm not happy with him. You think I supposed to be happy with him? I'm not.

ACOSTA: It was Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, a Purple Heart recipient, who got under the president's skin, testifying during the impeachment inquiry.

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN, DIRECTOR FOR EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: This is the country I have served and defended, that all my brothers have served. And, here, right matters.

ACOSTA: Vindman's lawyer released a statement saying it's obvious why his client was fired, writing: "There is no question in the mind of any American why this man's job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House."

Talking to reporters, the president was tearing into another target, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming she could somehow be prosecuted for ripping up his speech at the State of the Union.

TRUMP: I thought it was a terrible thing when she ripped up the speech. First of all, it's an official document. You're not allowed. It's illegal, what she did. She broke the law.

ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is still fixated on the impeachment fight, tweeting and retweeting dozens of times just in the last 24 hours.

In an interview with CNN, the Democratic House managers who presented the case against the president and the Senate are insisting Mr. Trump will never change his ways.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Yes, of course he hasn't learned a lesson, because, as we repeatedly pointed out throughout the trial, Donald Trump is a serial solicitor.

ACOSTA: The Democrats have just lost another legal battle with the president after a unanimous court decision to dismiss claims that Mr. Trump was violating the Constitution's emoluments clause by accepting foreign payments at his Washington, D.C., hotel.

TRUMP: So, I just got this. It was just handed to me. This is the D.C. Circuit. And we get one the big emoluments case. I think it was a unanimous decision. This was brought by Nancy Pelosi and her group.

ACOSTA: The president also has a spring in his step after the latest unemployment numbers found 225,000 jobs were created last month. TRUMP: We just came out with fantastic job numbers. I think it was

230,000 or something thereabouts, which was much higher than projection. So jobs continue to be great. Our country continues to do great.

ACOSTA: But the president is pushing back on reports he's about to unload his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. A senior administration official told CNN earlier in the day that rumors of Mulvaney's demise, quote, "have been greatly exaggerated" -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

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HOLMES: And joining me now from Washington, CNN political analyst Michael Shear, also a White House correspondent for "The New York Times."

So Lieutenant Colonel Vindman and his brother literally escorted by security from the White House. You've got the E.U. ambassador Sondland recalled and, of course, the former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, recalled earlier and left the service.

Retribution underway?

MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think you can think of it as anything else. Not only did President Trump himself talk about retribution, talk about his anger in the sort of rambling sort of hour-long venting session at the White House the day after the Senate trial ended but you also had the White House press secretary publicly say that she thought that people who had done President Trump wrong in the course of the impeachment inquiry were going to have to pay for it.

And so I think it's hard to look at the actions of today in any other way than as retribution against people that the president perceives as his enemies. And I just don't know whether it's over. That's the question I think we all don't quite know the answer to.

Is there more to come?

HOLMES: Exactly.

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HOLMES: When you think of not Gordon Sondland but certainly Vindman Yovanovitch, that speaks to what has been an across the board loss of expert experience in this administration, not just these cases but for a long time now.

SHEAR: Yes, I mean, look, part of what has been a consistent story about the Trump administration writ large and certainly played out in the course of the Ukraine situation is a real rejection by this administration, by this president, of the kind of expertise that has been, for decades, built up in the government.

Presidents from the Republican Party or the Democratic Party alike, you know, have sort of respected the fact that there's a core career civil service, whether in the diplomatic corps, whether expertise about other countries, expertise about immigration or other policies.

And most presidents recognize while they install political leadership on top of the bureaucracy to direct them in the direction that they're -- that the president wants to go in, that there's a respect for that expertise.

This president obviously has no respect for that. In fact, he's got a paranoia about what he calls the deep state bureaucracy. And what's just remarkable is, in the Ukraine situation, obviously it came to a head. You had people testifying against the president and now he seems to be taking his revenge.

HOLMES: But that also sends a chilling message, doesn't it, when it comes to oversight of this president going forward, whether to speak up when you genuinely see something wrong and also speaks to, you know, potential recruitment and retention of experts within the U.S. government.

SHEAR: I mean, I think that's absolutely right. Think about it this way.

The whistleblower that came forward, the person we still don't publicly know who that is, why, if you're in the government, if you're one of these career civil servants, why would you come forward, knowing that you've just seen a president of the United States wage a months-long campaign of criticism against the unnamed whistleblower?

And now carrying out essentially retribution within hours, less than 48 hours after being acquitted in the Senate. He's firing people. And I think that does send a really chilling message.

HOLMES: Yes, and you mentioned this and it's worth revisiting that freewheeling and embittered, in many ways, address by the president. I don't know what it was, an address or what was it. He no doubt feels wronged, he feels betrayed and perhaps now dangerously vengeful. And as you say, this probably is about that.

SHEAR: I think it's worth reminding people who don't have necessarily have the long view of history, is this is not a normal response. It is no surprise that a president would feel hurt and perhaps upset by being impeached and then tried in the Senate.

But if you look back, for example, 21 years ago to Bill Clinton's response after he, too, was acquitted in the Senate, you know, he chose the sort of normal political path, which was contrition, apology, you know, essentially let's move on, you know, time to do the business of the country.

And that is what is the normal political sort of inclination, regardless of what party you're in. What President Trump did the other day from the White House, using vulgarities and then lashing out at his enemies, calling them evil, you know, that is very much pushing the envelope and on the edge of what normal politicians would do.

HOLMES: A lot of people would say blowing right past the edge.

Another thing that struck me that was interesting was, during that whole thing, whatever it was, not just the often extraordinary comments of the president but how it was applauded enthusiastically by the Republicans.

Are they enamored or cowed by him?

It was extraordinary to watch.

SHEAR: You know, I spent the last four months over on Capitol Hill covering the impeachment. I was in the Capitol every single day, I was interacting with the Republican lawmakers, both in the House and in the Senate. Talking to them every day.

Look, I think there's a mix of fear and genuine admiration. There are members of the president's party, who truly feel as aggrieved as he does and they're on his side and they're always going to be on his side.

And there are others who, I think, genuinely don't feel that same kind of admiration but are fearful of the political power the president has over what ultimately are their voters, their base, their people that they're going to keep them in office.

And they fear that if he were to unleash that power against them, that their time in office would be short. And I think the combination of those two things produces the reaction that you described.

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HOLMES: It really -- they really are extraordinary times. Never seen leadership quite like this. Michael Shear, appreciate it as always. Good to see you.

SHEAR: You, too.

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HOLMES: In a sometimes heated debate, seven of the top Democratic presidential candidates faced off Friday night ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

Pete Buttigieg was targeted as he and senator Bernie Sanders remain neck and neck in the Iowa caucuses. While many focused on health care, foreign policy and electability, it was Elizabeth Warren who took a jab at Michael Bloomberg, who wasn't even on the stage, accusing him of trying to buy his way into the presidential race.

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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think anyone ought to be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be President of the United States.

I don't think any billionaire ought to be able to do it and I don't think people who suck up to billionaires in order to fund their campaigns ought to do it.

Everyone on this stage except Amy and me is either a billionaire or is receiving help from PACs that can do unlimited spending. So if you really want to live what you say, put your money where your mouth is and say no to the PACs.

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HOLMES: Time is running out to win over New Hampshire primary voters but the race for the White House, of course, only just getting started. Nadia Romero reports from Manchester.

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NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seven familiar faces took familiar places at the New Hampshire Democratic debate. But after the disastrous Iowa caucuses...

JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I took a hit in Iowa and I'll probably take it here.

ROMERO (voice-over): -- the stakes seemed higher than ever.

WARREN: We need to reestablish the rule of law in this country.

ROMERO (voice-over): Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders claiming victory in Iowa, leading the polls in New Hampshire and feeling the front-runner fire.

BIDEN: Buttigieg is a great guy. He's the mayor of a small city who has done some good things but has not demonstrated he has the ability --

ROMERO (voice-over): Others hoping for a memorable moment.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bernie and I work together all the time. But I think we are not going to be able to out divide the divider in chief.

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The next president is going to have to restore the credibility of this country.

ROMERO (voice-over): The Democratic candidates touching on the topics that matter most to people in New Hampshire, like health care.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we do what Joe wants, we'll be spending some $50 trillion on health care over the next 10 years.

That's the status quo, Joe.

ROMERO (voice-over): Climate change.

SANDERS: Maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change.

ROMERO (voice-over): And the economy.

TOM STEYER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to have to take Mr. Trump down on the economy and he's going to beat us unless we can take him down on the economy, stupid.

ANDREW YANG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we actually have to do is get the markets working to improve our families' way of life.

ROMERO (voice-over): With the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the time for candidates to stand out to voters is quickly running out -- in Manchester, New Hampshire, I'm Nadia Romero, reporting.

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HOLMES: A new report says President Trump's trips to his properties, his own properties, are racking up some big bills for taxpayers. When we come back, how much it is costing those taxpayers and where all that money is going. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: Welcome back. To our viewers here in the United States and all around the world, I'm Michael Holmes. You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is time now to check the headlines for the hour.

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HOLMES: And during his time there as the president, Mr. Trump has spent more than 340 days at his own clubs and hotels. And lodging Secret Service personnel during those trips doesn't come cheap and they don't get a discount, it seems.

The Trump Organization disputes it. But one report says taxpayers are footing a bill in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and those dollars are going to the Trump Organization. CNN's Tom Foreman breaks it down for us.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hotel rooms at $650 per night for dozens of stays, close to $400 a night for dozens more and a whopping $17,000 a month to use a three-bedroom cottage.

Those are bills for Secret Service agents lodging at Trump properties during presidential travels, according to a new "Washington Post" analysis of available public records. And "The Post" says those documents collectively show more than $471,000 in payments from taxpayers to Trump's companies.

The Trump Organization says that's total nonsense. We provide rooms at cost and for anyone to suggest otherwise is not only inaccurate but an outright lie.

Eric Trump once claimed the same thing about when his presidential father travels to the family's properties.

ERIC TRUMP, DONALD'S SON: It saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they'd be charging 500 bucks a night whereas we charge them like 50 bucks.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Vacation, if you want vacations you're not really in the right business.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Of course there was a time on the campaign trail when Donald Trump said he'd hardly leave Washington at all if elected.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I promise you I will not be taking very long vacations, if I take them at all.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But that was then. Now between golfing, visits to golf courses and simply time away from D.C., as "The Post" puts it, he has spent more than 342 days, one-third of his entire presidency, at his own clubs and hotels.

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FOREMAN (voice-over): And charges the government for it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I'm not looking for credit. But I'd give up my salary. I get zero.

FOREMAN (voice-over): The president has often bragged how he does not accept a salary and about all he does during frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida or, as he calls it, the winter White House.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I like working.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But getting the bottom line cost for taxpayers is tough. The Secret Service is woefully behind in its public reporting of expenditures for tailing Trump, so much so "The Post" notes the nearly half-million dollar price tag we mentioned covers only a fraction of the cost for a fraction of the time Trump has been in the office and out of it, on the road.

FOREMAN: For all that the Secret Service sent CNN a statement, saying they use resources judiciously, can't discuss details of how they protect the president. And that seems to suit team Trump just fine.

Indeed the administration is resisting congressional demands for better reporting of these costs until at least after the next election -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

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HOLMES: A third of the presidency.

Up next, more on the global battle against the coronavirus. Medical face masks flying off the shelves with a major shortage. How China is trying to keep up with demand.

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HOLMES: Welcome back. When the coronavirus first surfaced in Wuhan, China, two months ago, doctors immediately recognized it was similar to the SARS virus from 17 years earlier. Chinese officials were quick to tamp down fears of another SARS-like outbreak but that's not the way it's playing out.

The first case in Wuhan was documented in mid-December. Now there are nearly 33,000 confirmed cases. The first death was one month ago.

[03:40:00]

HOLMES: Now at least 726 people have died.

Now compare that to the slower moving SARS outbreak. It infected about 8,000 people worldwide. That was over an 8-month period; 774 of them died, about half in China.

The other virus often referenced is the MERS outbreak of 2012, which is mainly around the Middle East and was much deadlier. It infected about 2,500 people and killed 858.

Now in the U.S. health experts say they're ready to go to China to help investigate the coronavirus outbreak but Beijing doesn't appear to be taking them up on that offer. Meanwhile as people trying to stay safe from the spreading virus, demand for medical face masks has skyrocketed. Factories can't make them fast enough, as we hear from CNN's Robyn Curnow.

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): It's a global scramble for medical supplies as the coronavirus infects tens of thousands of people and continues to spread.

DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The world is facing chronic shortage of personal protective equipment. I will be speaking to the Pandemic Supply Chain Network to identify the bottlenecks and find solutions and push with fairness in distribution of equipment.

CURNOW (voice-over): Chinese factories in Hubei province have ramped up daily production of medical face masks, this factory from 120,000 to 250,000. Workers are putting in three shifts a day to help overcome the shortage.

China and Taiwan produce most of the face masks in the world and the outbreak has forced this company to focus on domestic orders over exports. In the hardest hit areas, masks are flying off shelves as customers wait in long lines for hours to get their hands on some. Medical professionals say the protective masks are for one-time use,

which is also driving up the need for more. The demand is having a global impact. At a factory in Western France, orders from pharmacies and hospitals are pouring in. They're hiring a third more staff and increasing production to seven days a week but they admit they may not be able to make enough right away.

GUILLAUME LAVERDURE, MEDICOM GROUP: Since the epidemic outbreak in China, the demand has been multiplied by five and we're trying to answer the demand as soon as we can. So we will be able to answer most of the demand but maybe not for next week. It will be scheduled over time.

CURNOW (voice-over): The Chinese government has ordered citizens to wear face masks when they go outdoors but experts warn the masks aren't very effective at preventing transmission of the virus. The World Health Organization says hand washing is the best way to protect yourself.

DR. SYLVIE BRAND, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Think to stop transmission of this virus it's very important that sick people wear masks. That's for clear. Then in terms of risk, again, I have said that, for people who have no symptoms, the mask will not necessarily protect them 100 percent because if they don't apply other measures, it's not sufficient.

CURNOW (voice-over): The assembly lines at these factories continue to run nonstop as the coronavirus paralyzes China and spreads around the world -- Robyn Curnow, CNN, Atlanta.

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HOLMES: And joining me now, Dr. Celine Gounder. She's an infectious disease specialist at the NYU School of Medicine and the host of the "American Diagnosis" podcast.

Doctor, appreciate your time. Let's start with this. When it comes to China one thing that's been interesting is we've seen state media there advising the use of traditional Chinese medicine. I think 125 practitioners sent to Wuhan.

What are your thoughts on that in terms of tackling this?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: So a couple of things. One, many of the traditional Chinese medicine practitioners have been dual trained at least in the very basics of Western medical care.

So you know, when it comes to doing the very basic things like checking people's temperatures and maybe checking their blood pressures and those kinds of things they probably can be quite helpful, you know, providing nursing care, that sort of thing.

Traditional Chinese medicine is very much a part of their culture and I do think there are some ways it can be helpful as well in terms of helping reduce panic if it gives people something to do. And, you know, when you feel powerless, I think that's what leads to panic. But having something that's in your own power to protect yourself and

your family is a very strong treatment in and of itself.

HOLMES: Yes, interesting, as you say, in combination with other measures.

[03:45:00]

HOLMES: It sort of caught me off guard today, the global toll from coronavirus has reached at the moment it's about 724, I think, in a couple of months. I think the first death was a month ago. SARS killed 774 people, only just marginally more, over a period of eight months.

What do you make of these spread rates?

Are they frightening, are they as you would expect or could it be worse?

GOUNDER: Well, it looks like the new coronavirus is behaving more like the flu than it is like SARS. So that means that, in each person, infected their risk of dying is lower but it seems to be more transmissible and so we're seeing many more people infected.

And so you're seeing the case rate climb very quickly in a way it did not do so with SARS. But it remains to be seen how many people will be casualties of this. That will really demand how many are infected in the end.

HOLMES: What are you hearing how long could it be before there's a vaccine and the question always then is, who gets it first, of course?

GOUNDER: I think we're looking at at least a year. It takes time. Even if you have some candidates that look promising, which it does seem like we probably will be able to initiate a clinical trial even as early as April and at the latest by the summer, even then, it takes time to demonstrate a vaccine as safe and effective.

And showing effectiveness means you're going to have to administer the vaccine to people who are being exposed, in the middle of the epidemic, to see if it protects them. So there's a whole host of logistical challenges to doing something like that.

As to who's getting the vaccine first, it's probably to going be similar to other situations like this. So people who are in the middle of the epidemic so trying to contain it that way where you see the most spread, especially targeting the elderly and front line responders, the health care workers who are exposed because they're caring for the sick.

HOLMES: What is the most effective way to slow the spread?

I guess the transmission is key in that, too. I think it's not yet gotten to where you pick it up off a door handle.

Or is it? GOUNDER: So it seems most likely to be spread by droplets. So that's what you spray in little tiny droplets mists into the air when you cough, when you sneeze, even when you talk. You could breathe up against the window and see sort of fog on the window from that.

That seems to be the mode of transmission and that's important because those droplets don't travel that far. It's not like an airborne disease, which can travel much further. So if that's the case, if you practice what we call social distancing, if you maintain, say, a meter distance from you versus the next person next to you, you've already dramatically reduced your risk.

If you wash your hands, that's probably the most important thing you can do because very often you're infecting yourself by touching some of those secretions and then putting them in your mouth, into your eye or rubbing your nose. That's also essential here.

And some basic things you can do, open your windows. That provides much better ventilation than, say, a HEPA filter you buy at the store and will help flush out whatever mists are in the area right around you.

So I think there are some very actually low-cost, easy things to do. It's just you have to be very vigilant about practicing those all the time.

HOLMES: Good advice. Dr. Celine Gounder, thanks so much, with the NYU School of Medicine. Appreciate it.

GOUNDER: My pleasure.

HOLMES: We're going to take a short break. When we come back, a state of emergency for parts of Oregon. Just ahead, severe flooding, washing out roads, forcing emergency rescues. We'll have the very latest after the break.

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HOLMES: In the U.S. state of Oregon, 10 people were rescued from floodwaters on Friday, two of those rescue personnel themselves. Authorities say the flooding happened quickly, washing out roads, making access difficult, flooding just part of a bigger problem.

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HOLMES: I'm Michael Holmes. Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. And the news continues in just a moment, just not with me.