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Democratic Race Intensifies Ahead of New Hampshire Primary; Coronavirus Death Toll Passes 1,000; AG Barr Confirms DOJ Is Vetting Giuliani Information from Ukraine; Apartment's Air Ducts Checked in Hong Kong as Virus Conduit; China's Economic Hit Impacting World Economy; Clearview A.I.'s Facial Recognition Under Fire. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired February 11, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, Biden fades and Bernie leads, ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary, the candidate making the biggest gains in the polls has not stepped in the Granite State or Iowa for that matter.
A new record high in China, grave concerns the number of confirmed cases for the Wuhan flu may have dramatically been underreported.
The Department of Justice reviewing all the political dirt on the Bidens, both real and imagined, dug up in Ukraine by the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
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VAUSE: At this hour, voters in three tiny New Hampshire towns are casting their ballots in the state's primary. That is where there are as many as 12 residents, an entire total of 12. The midnight voting tradition did not nearly happen because of the town's dwindling population.
But there are more reporters and observers right there than there are townspeople. Voters of Dixville Notch have correctly predicted the eventual winner of three of the five last general elections, slightly more reliable than the toss of a coin.
In the hours leading up, presidential hopefuls were busy stumping in New Hampshire. The latest polls show Sanders in the lead, 29 percent, according to a CNN/University of New Hampshire tracking poll and 25 percent of the vote in a Quinnipiac University poll.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. president held a rally in the state where he boasted he would win New Hampshire in a landslide, come the November elections. CNN's Ryan Nobles is on the campaign trail. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The voting already underway here in New Hampshire, the second big contest of the Democratic primary and the first actual primary contest, which means we are not expected to have some of the issues that we had last week in Iowa.
And this New Hampshire primary is very important, because this is when we could start to see the crowd of Democratic candidates start to thin. And there is a lot at stake for some of these candidates.
Senator Michael Bennet, we have not heard much about him, he staked his entire campaign on New Hampshire. There's a good chance after the vote he won't be a presidential candidate anymore. But it's not just him.
Amy Klobuchar, who is starting to see a rise in the polls, could she have a surprise showing and maybe getting on to some of these states further down the calendar?
And then there's Elizabeth Warren, who is from nearby Massachusetts. She was expected to be strong here in New Hampshire. But at this point, she has yet to really gain any momentum.
Warren's situation is also interesting because, unlike some other candidates, she has taken the route of not attacking any of her fellow Democratic opponents. During her recent campaign stops, she has said that she's going to stay above the fray because the most important thing is Democratic Party unity.
That gets us to the front-runners, because they have been attacking each other. Bernie Sanders attacking Pete Buttigieg's wealthy donor base, Pete Buttigieg attacking Joe Biden and attacking Bernie Sanders, saying they represent the extreme options in this race, while he is a sensible choice.
And then Joe Biden expected to be much stronger at this stage of the campaign, instead is battling low poll numbers and attacks from both sides, so he has now gone on the attack, accusing Sanders of being too extreme and accusing Pete Buttigieg of not having enough experience.
Right now polls say Bernie Sanders has the lead. It will be important for him to win here because, like Warren, this is a neighboring state and a state he won by a big margin four years ago. If Sanders is able to pull this off, it could be a key piece of momentum as we head into Nevada, South Carolina, and then Super Tuesday -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Durham, New Hampshire.
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VAUSE: Jessica Levinson with us at Loyola University Law School joining us now from Los Angeles.
OK, this is a big night for Democrats. Clearly irresistible for a U.S. president who has to be the center of attention and so Donald Trump held a campaign rally a few hours ago. Here's what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have more in this arena and outside than the other candidates and the Democrats put together and multiplied times five.
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TRUMP: And the fake news, these guys will never report that, they never will report that.
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VAUSE: Donald Trump has finally got the crowd size thing worked out but does it matter?
Anyone at that Trump rally, are they likely to vote for a Democrat and vice versa?
And would this energize Democrats in a way?
And what would energize Republicans?
So it seems like a wash.
JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL: I think both sides are very energized already. Your question goes to the heart of this fundamental issue when it comes to American politics, polarization. It's an overused word but it is so true.
If you look at where the American electorate used to be, it was more like a bell curve. Now it looks more like a U, where people are basically on either side. And nobody who came to the Trump rally was thinking, kind of on the fence. And vice versa, nobody was at a Warren rally and thought I might keep the current president.
President Trump's rally is very good at sucking up the oxygen in the room. So to the extent what was the goal, I think it is largely successful.
VAUSE: If there's enthusiasm on the Democrat side, it's not around Joe Biden, the former vice president's big for the White House seems to be bleeding out. For the first time he's no longer the national front-runner. Bernie Sanders is in the lead nationally, then Biden then Mike Bloomberg.
Trump loses to all Democrats but loses by the biggest margin to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. And Bloomberg has not stepped inside of Iowa or New Hampshire. With Biden fading and Bernie in the lead, are Democrats looking to Bloomberg as a candidate who can win over not just Democrats but independents and Republicans who maybe wavering on the fence about Trump?
LEVINSON: Yes and no. I think people are looking at Bloomberg and saying, he is our hope, he's the person that can -- and this is what Democrats care about the most -- take on Donald Trump. Can I imagine him in a debate?
Can I imagine him getting the better of Trump in the debate?
He has not actually campaigned, he has just essentially blitzkrieged us with ads. And so what we see a lot with candidates is they tend to be very popular before you see them, for instance, in a debate, before they lose momentum in an early state.
And so this is, in a weird way, before he really has to interact against the other candidates. The moment for Michael Bloomberg. I'm not sure that this is going to lead him to the nomination. He has a risky path by saying I'm forgetting all the early states and putting my money into places like California.
Now if he wins a ton of delegates in California, that could be a real game-changer.
VAUSE: Super Tuesday is the first time he will actually stand in a primary race. But he spent a lot of money. The last three months of 2019 he's spent more than every other candidate combined and, that includes President Trump. He more than doubled the race on advertising.
And the result of that, complaints from those who do not have billions and billions of dollars, listen to this.
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SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think anyone should be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not come from money and I simply think people don't look at the guy in the White House and say, can we get someone richer?
I don't think they think that.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are millions of people who can desire to run for office. But I guess, if you are worth $60 billion and you can spend several hundred million dollars on commercials, you have a slight advantage. That is nonsense.
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VAUSE: Is Bloomberg really buying the election here?
He's buying a platform for a message, which gets a very wide reception. But if voters don't like the message it's a waste of money.
LEVINSON: It is but let's be honest in American politics, money is considered speech, that is every time you try to limit money, you have to do a First Amendment analysis. I apologize for that but I had to say it as a law professor.
Is Michael Bloomberg actually trying to buy votes?
He's trying to find good PR. All of the candidates that we just heard would love to have that war chest. One moment of caution, though, what we see is a lot of time when a candidate has that big of a war chest, it matters how they got it.
So Michael Bloomberg, being a self funded candidate does historically have a threshold he has to pass because he never build up that infrastructure, he never built up that moment of grassroots support. He never had a selfie line, essentially.
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LEVINSON: So is he able to flood the airwaves?
Absolutely.
Will people look and say, maybe there is something there?
It does give you a huge lead.
But is it enough to take you off the finish line?
Historically not always --
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VAUSE: Well, it did work in Dixville Notch, because I'm hearing that he actually won, so that 300 million in advertising paid off for those votes. But here's an example of what actually happened in terms of advertising, here's what he keeps putting out there.
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RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
TRUMP: Build that wall, build that wall.
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Americans are generous and strong and decent, not because we believe in ourselves.
TRUMP: I'd like to punch him in the face.
BUSH: But because we hold beliefs beyond ourselves.
TRUMP: Grab them by the (INAUDIBLE).
REAGAN: The future does not belong to the fainthearted.
TRUMP: This is the crap we have to put up with.
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VAUSE: I can't believe it's taken this long for someone to do that ad. The scale of Bloomberg's stuff drew up a national advertising spend unprecedented in modern American politics, his operation is coming to resemble his own personal political party.
We already have the Republicans that sold their souls to Donald Trump in this cult of personality thing.
Are Democrats going to do something similar?
LEVINSON: I don't know that Michael Bloomberg has the same kind of cult of personality. I think it would be a cult of electability, essentially, who is the safest bet?
Michael Bloomberg does not tend to engender the same level of passion and heat that Donald Trump does.
So will they sell their soul?
I think that people will start taking a closer look, now that he is increasingly showing viability in the polls. They will look at his record when he was mayor and past statements he has made. He definitely has things that people can oppose.
And I think that he will get more of a full vetting. At this point, he hasn't really gotten beat up in the press so much, he has bought up a bunch of really expensive brochures to tell us how amazing he is.
VAUSE: And he's willing to spend $2 billion to tell everyone.
It's good to see you, I appreciate it.
LEVINSON: Thank you.
VAUSE: Two senior health officials in Hubei province have been fired, according to state media, after China's deadliest day since the coronavirus outbreak began. More than 100 deaths were reported on Monday alone, pushing the overall death toll past 1,000 worldwide; 43,000 infections have been reported with the vast majority in Mainland China.
Still Beijing insists it can stamp out the virus and more than 2,000 patients in Helmand Province have been treated and discharged. On Monday, President Xi Jinping, who has been largely absent during this outbreak, made a rare public appearance at a Beijing hospital, trying to reassure the public the country will get through this.
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XI JINPING, PRESIDENT OF CHINA (through translator): We will fight with great confidence, we will fight with people, we must build confidence, we will absolutely win.
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VAUSE: CNN's Steven Jiang live from Beijing, on more of this.
For someone like Xi Jinping, who is leader for life, who is he worried about if he fumbles this particular crisis?
Who does he answer to and is it really a threat?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: Well, his reappearance in state media has gotten so much attention, precisely because what you mentioned, that he had been largely absent in state media for the past weeks.
All the pictures we have seen, him touring the facilities, mingling with residents, wearing a mask and telling them, probably a sign of times let's not shake hands. These are meant to address the questions we have asking, that is the role and the government's response to the outbreak. As well as the power dynamic within the Communist Party.
The fact that he has been reassuring the public and sounding confident of the government's ability to fight and win this war on this virus is important for him because he is trying to reinforce the notion that this most powerful leader in China in decades is in command and control of the government's response. And the people's leader, as he has been called, cares about people.
So the messaging does matter but the question is, until he shows up in Wuhan, which is still 1,000 kilometers away, there still will be a lot of skeptics when it comes to how under control the situation is in the epicenter of this outbreak.
VAUSE: Steven Jiang, thank you so much.
Joining me now Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, thank you for taking the time to be with us.
Since this virus was first detected, there's always been this sort of suspicion that maybe the numbers are not quite what the Chinese government say they are. They have not been completely upfront about all cases.
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VAUSE: Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize winner for her reporting on the Ebola outbreak, was on CNN and put it this way.
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LAURIE GARRETT, SCIENCE JOURNALIST: I fear they are too late, that everybody is dragging their feet and getting ready for this and I think this is going to really explode. It's out of control in China.
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VAUSE: And there is reporting from the South China Morning Post about the testing kits where there are technical inaccuracies which have exacerbate the situation suggesting there could be far more infections than the official figures indicate.
The test involves several steps, a mistake at any one stage could affect the outcome and the accuracy rate of the test is only 30 percent to 50 percent so what is your sense here? Is that 40,000 number of patients, is that in the ballpark or is that way under the reality?
What are the implications if these numbers are being underreported?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well, it maybe close to accurate among the people who are seeking medical care but whenever you have a disease that is a respiratory-borne virus like this is, very often you have a very large number of people who are either minimally symptomatic or with no symptoms at all who are also infected.
So I think most public health officials who have experience with these types of diseases know that the denominator of the number of cases is probably far greater than what is being reported as people who come in to seek medical care and get into a hospital, to be either treated or isolated.
So I think there is no question that there are a lot more people who are infected. Many of them have minimal symptomatology. We are only seeing those individuals who come to the attention of the health authorities and get hospitalized and, of those, about 25 percent have very serious disease leading to a mortality of about 2 percent to 2.3 percent.
However, if you count all of the people who are infected, you have an outbreak in China that is far larger than the numbers that are being reported but also the case fatality is probably less than what is reported because the denominator of infected people are much larger.
Bottom line, there is a really serious problem in China. This virus is spreading rapidly and it is not being controlled adequately. So no matter how you do the counting, that is the bottom line. This is a very serious epidemic in China.
VAUSE: And with that in mind, latest research from China has found that among those who died, the median age is 47, more men have died and women. A big majority had contact with someone from Wuhan.
Almost all reported a fever and many reported a cough. The median incubation period they say was three days. The conclusion from this report is that the virus spreads rapidly by human to human transmission. Disease severity predicts poor clinical outcomes.
What does that actually mean for clinical outcomes and does any of that data point to a specific concern?
FAUCI: Well, first of all, there is a range of what is being reported right now. There are a number of individual reports, some say the median age is 45. Some say 56. Some say it is more men than women. Right now there are some reports that say it is equal.
In general, the incubation period is about five days and the symptoms, in about 25 percent of the people who were hospitalized, are severe. They have pulmonary infiltrates, they sometimes require intensive care. So a certain fragment of the total group of hospitalized patients, about 25 percent, have very severe disease.
VAUSE: There also seems to be no real agreement I guess or universal agreement about the timing of the vaccine. Some say maybe by the end of the year, some say it will be longer than that if they're entering next year and then there are those who believe it could take years.
I guess, for the moment this is a focus on containment in public health.
FAUCI: There is no real disagreement about how long vaccines will take. I think there is a misunderstanding of when people say how long it would take to get a vaccine to be tested in a human. That's different from how long it takes to prove it is effective, which is different from how long it takes to have enough vaccine available to be used and deployed.
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FAUCI: So let's take one step at a time. We've started to make a vaccine. In a total of about two to three months, we will able to go into human trials to determine safety. It will take about three additional months for a total of six months to determine if in fact it is safe and induces the kind of response that you would predict to be protective.
Then you have to go to a phase two trial to find out if it works. So that would take an additional six months or more, which means a year goes by before you even have any idea if it works.
VAUSE: Well, as far as has been spreading it seems that misinformation has also been spreading but faster and sometimes from a surprising source, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton has been banging this drum since last month, here he is.
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SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): I would note that China, that Wuhan also has China's only biosafety level four superlaboratory that works with the world's most deadly pathogens to include, yes, coronavirus.
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VAUSE: This is going to be knocked down from the point of the Chinese ambassador to foreign policy magazine but Cotton has continued on with his theory despite a lack of evidence. Last week he called the so- called reeducation camps in the northern province of Xinxiang, he said they act as breeding grounds for the virus and he tweeted China must release all political prisoners before these squalid, filthy camps are transformed into death camps.
And the Chinese ambassador objected to all of that.
But given the misinformation that is already out there, how damaging is this?
Not just because of the nature of it but it is coming from a U.S. senator.
FAUCI: Well, I'm not going to comment about what any individual says. But in general, I can tell you that theories that are not based on evidence and facts often can really mislead people.
What we try to do is make public health decisions and policy decisions and decisions about what's going on based on available hard evidence -- hard scientific data. Theories and rumors really do nothing but confuse people.
VAUSE: Doctor, thank you so much for being with. Us we appreciate your time.
FAUCI: It is my pleasure. Good to be with you.
VAUSE: It turns it you may not be able to escape the threat from the Wuhan virus even in your own home. In Hong Kong, health officials have forced an entire block to evacuate. Details later this hour.
But first, why is the U.S. Justice Department reviewing evidence from the president's chief Ukraine dirt digger and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani?
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VAUSE: It turns out all the dirt Rudy Giuliani says he found on the Bidens in Ukraine is now being vetted by the Trump Justice Department. The attorney general
says he created a special back channel just for Rudy. CNN's Boris Sanchez reports.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, attorney general William Barr confirming that the Justice Department is receiving information from the president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani on the ongoing operation to dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine.
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: And the DOJ has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that they think is relevant.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Barr explaining there is a process to try to verify that information.
BARR: We have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from Ukraine.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): William Barr responding to senator Lindsey Graham, who's now distancing himself from Giuliani's claims, saying it may just be Russian propaganda.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): All I can tell Rudy and anybody else, if you have some information connected to the Ukraine against anybody, go to the Intel Committee, not me.
Any documents coming out of the Ukraine against any American, Republican or Democrat, need to be looked at by the intelligence services who have expertise. I don't, because Russia is playing us all like a fiddle.
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SANCHEZ (voice-over): Graham is also backing Trump's controversial decision to fire two key witnesses in his impeachment trial, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and U.S. ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland, insinuating they may be members of the deep space, a term co-opted by Trump to describe those in and out of government who he deems disloyal.
GRAHAM: We won't live in a world where the DOJ, the CIA and the FBI can cut corners and go after Trump and nobody gives a damn.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Both Sondland and Vindman were quietly planning to leave the administration on their own but sources tell CNN that Trump wanted their exits to be anything but quiet and publicly fired them Friday while also dismissing Vindman's brother.
That as advisers and several GOP senators warned the president of the optics of firing witnesses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Romney, guilty.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Trump also ramping up criticism of those who turned on him in the impeachment trial.
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TRUMP: How is Mitt Romney?
QUESTION: I have not talked to him.
TRUMP: You keep him. We don't want him.
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SANCHEZ: And the president tweeting angrily at Democratic senator Joe Manchin multiple times and at one point saying, quote, "They are really mad at senator Joe munchkin in West Virginia," Manchin telling CNN the criticism does not faze him.
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I don't know where he got the munchkin, I think I am a little bit bigger than he is, taller. But anyone I guess it's not surprising. I won't call him names. I've heard the names of people who have responded back. I have respect for the president. I want my president to do well. SANCHEZ: Now there are a growing number of the president's allies who
have urged him to move away from these attacks. One of them, senator John Cornyn of Texas telling CNN, quote, "We've got other things we need to do."
He says he hopes the president will move on from this. Of course judging from the president repeated attacks on not only lawmakers but officials he feels betrayed him on the impeachment saga, it is highly unlikely that he will move on -- Boris Sanchez, CNN at the White House.
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VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come, back authorities in Hong Kong have evacuated an apartment block over fears of the coronavirus. We will tell you why they think the disease may actually spreading through the building's air vents.
Also, China's taking the biggest economic hit from the Wuhan virus but that too has a contagion effect, impacting economies worldwide.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Thank you for staying with us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.
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Just moments ago, voters in the tiny town of Dixville Notch cast their first ballots in the New Hampshire presidential primary. The surprise winner was former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a surprise because he's not even officially on the New Hampshire ballot. He did pick up three votes. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders received one apiece, for a total of five votes.
A big upset in Irish politics. The left-wing Sinn Fein party has taken the popular vote in Ireland's weekend election, but the center-right Fianna Fail emerged as the party with the most seats, 38 to Sinn Fein's 37. And 35 for the outgoing government's party, which means no one has a majority.
Lawmakers say talks to form a government could be drawn out, to say the least.
The worldwide death toll from the Wuhan coronavirus has now topped 1,000. China reported more than 100 deaths on Monday alone, making that the deadliest day since the outbreak began.
Meantime, officials say they've treated and discharged more than 2,000 patients in Hubei province. That is where the virus was first detected and the epicenter of the outbreak.
Officials in Hong Kong have identified an apartment block where two cases of the virus have been confirmed. They fear the pathogen could be spreading through the building's ventilation system. Ivan Watson joins us now from Hong Kong with more.
So, Ivan, clearly the way the virus spreads is the big concern among many. And if it can spread through air ducts, would that take this emergency to another level?
IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's clearly one of the concerns of the Hong Kong authorities. That's why they're sending residents of the Hong Mei housing estate, those who shows symptoms of the virus -- there are four additional -- to hospital isolation and putting others who are asymptomatic into quarantine, while they're also announcing that they plan to disinfect the entire building.
The reason for the alarm is that Hong Kong's 42nd case of diagnosed coronavirus, which was announced on Monday, is a 62-year-old woman from this house. Now, a little bit less than two weeks ago, there was a 75-year-old man from the same building who was diagnosed, and these two patients live upstairs and downstairs from each other.
And what health experts have said is that they fear that the sewage pipes in the building had leaks in them that were contaminating the air exhaust pipes in the building, and that that is how the virus could have been transmitted from the 75-year-old man to the 62-year- old woman. And there is some precedent for this in Hong Kong, cases where the sewage pipes were leaking into the air duct systems with pretty catastrophic results -- John.
VAUSE: So clearly, everyone goes back to the SARS outbreak back in 2003 and the devastating impact it had on Hong Kong. So with that in mind, how are these two sort of outbreaks related, in a way? Are they looking at very similar procedures here in dealing with these kinds of things, when they find out there's been some kind of virus outbreak in an apartment block? What's -- what's the procedure here, and how are they dealing with it, I guess?
WATSON: It's very important to look back at the lessons of 2003 and the SARS outbreak, because Hong Kong is one of the most densely- populated cities in the world.
And what you had there in this nightmare case, involving another housing block, called the Amoy Gardens, which was home to about 19,000 people, one of the towers, in particular, in that block had an incredible infection rate, where you had about 41 percent of the cases in that entire area. The estate had about 329 residents that came down with SARS and about 42 deaths. And 41 percent of the cases were in one housing tower.
And in that case, it was a similar phenomenon of the sewage system and the air ventilation system contaminating each other and spreading the virus, where many of the patients were suffering from diarrhea. And it was believed that the virus was passed that way.
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So that's one of the concerns here in this most recent case that we see. How can you stop a community outbreak, especially after the authorities have identified that there's leakage between the sewage and ventilation systems?
VAUSE: Wow. OK, Ivan. Appreciate the update. Thank you. Ivan Watson, live for us in Hong Kong.
Well, the unpredictable spread of the coronavirus is overwhelming public health experts around the world. It's also taking a toll on the world economy. From car parts to Christmas toys, the enormous amount of raw materials from China are already being affected.
CNN's Richard Quest reports.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: What began as a mystery virus in Wuhan, China, back in December has now spread to more than two dozen countries and territories, infecting thousands of people and delivering a shock to financial markets across the world.
As researchers are scrambling to control the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization has sounded the alarm by declaring a public health emergency of international concern.
TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO DIRECTOR-GENERAL: Our greatest concern is deportation for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it.
QUEST: Already the virus is rattling industries. Airlines are suspending flights to China. Retailers are shutting stores in the country. Oil prices are falling sharply at the prospect of lower economic demand.
And investors are grappling with uncertainty, seeking out safety, Chinese markets have posted major losses.
It's all bad news for a country that was already slowing down economically, and is in a tough position. China is still dealing with the effects of the trade war with the United States, with political unrest in Hong Kong, and rising debt and unemployment.
Last year, it suffered its slowest growth in nearly three decades. It's estimated to lose billions of dollars from the effects of the coronavirus.
China's economy suffered during the outbreak of SARS 17 years ago. Its annual growth rate slipped more than 2 percent in a single quarter back in 2003.
This time around, the hit to China's GDP could be even worse, due to the growth of certain sectors like travel and the way in which the country is much more integrated into the global trading economy. All this of means coronavirus and China will have knock-on effects for the rest of the world.
Richard Quest, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: Still to come, with just one photograph, artificial intelligence can now find out everything about you, practically, on the Internet. We'll have more on the debate and concern over how that technology is being used when we return.
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VAUSE: "Parasite's" big win at this year's Academy Awards is resonating with an entire nation. The South Korean film broke through barriers to win four Oscars.
South Korea's president took to Twitter to praise the movie, posting this: "I am proud of director Bong Joon Ho, and the actors and crew. I am especially grateful to them for instilling pride and courage in our people as we come together to weather difficulties." He went on to say that 100 years of Korean filmmaking led to "Parasite's" big success.
The movie is the first non-English-language film to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
Your Facebook or Instagram setting may say private but let's face it: anything you post online is never really private. Case in point, Clearview A.I., a program with a powerful facial recognition technology that can match anyone's face to other images online.
The man behind it claims to have a massive database of billions of photos, and he's under fire from lawmakers and the tech giants alike.
Donie O'Sullivan has more.
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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wow, oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that you?
O'SULLIVAN: That photo is me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doesn't look like you. That's when you were younger?
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): That's my face. A photo I haven't seen in years, found in seconds by the facial recognition app Clearview A.I.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearview is basically a search engine for faces.
O'SULLIVAN: Clearview has scraped billions of images from sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google to use in a facial recognition system. He claims more than 600 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada are using it, though it's unclear how many have actually paid for it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that's the photo of you.
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): So this is a photo of me from CNN.com.
Wow. We're starting to see pictures of me that are not from that original image. This is from Medium.
(voice-over): Tech giant aren't happy about this. They say it violates their terms of service and have sent cease-and-desist letters.
(on camera) This A.I. technology is looking at what? It's looking at --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The unique features, so it learns to ignore things a little bit like the beard and focuses on the features that stay the same across different ages.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you understand why people find this creepy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand people having concerns around privacy. So the first part to remember: it's only publicly-available information.
We're not just making technology for its own sake. The reason and the purpose we found is to really help law enforcement solve crimes.
GURBIR GREWAL, NEW JERSEY ATTORNEY GENERAL: I was deeply disturbed. I was concerned about how Clearview had amassed its database of images. I was concerned about its data privacy, and I was concerned that it was tracking law enforcement searches.
O'SULLIVAN: Are you concerned about taking a tool as powerful as that out of the hands of law enforcement?
GREWAL: A facial recognition tool can be used properly if we understand how the database is created.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Clear view claims its app is 99 percent accurate, a claim that CNN hasn't verified.
(on camera): So you think this is an area that should be regulated?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely. I don't think regulation is a bad thing, and we want to work with the government to create something that is safe and understandable and keeps the whole public at ease.
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VAUSE: And there is a lot more from reporting, including how law enforcement is using this technology. Please go to our website if you're interested. CNN.com for a whole lot more.
Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. WORLD SPORT is up next.
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