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NJ Salon Owners to Reopen Despite Order: "I've Had Enough"; Southwest Reports Bookings Are Up But How Safe is Flying?; Daniel Hendrickson, Creighton University President, Discusses Some Colleges Shaking Up Fall Schedules to Avoid 2nd Wave of Virus; Update on Coronavirus Headlines Across the Country . Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired May 19, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: As states slowly reopening, some local business owners throughout the country feels the process moving too slowly fearing they can't survivor if they cannot open their doors to paying customers.
Some owners are defying state and local orders to follow their own reopening plan. New Jersey's owners of Brick and Mirror Beauty Bar plan to do just that, open their doors despite the governor's orders, saying I've had enough.
George Verdis and Nicholas Mirabela are co-owners of this salon and are joining me now.
George, there are so many small business owners who are in the same situation as you guys, facing financial challenges. I understand this is a family's business and it is your father's salon. Tell me why you are opening despite New Jersey's orders.
GEORGE VERDIS, CO-OWNER, BRICK AND MIRROR BEAUTY BAR: What it comes down is honestly we have families to feed and we have employees that have families to feed. We are told from Governor Murphy that we'll be opening 15-day and it went to 15 more day or 30. There's not a plan on his end what day to open up.
We discussed with our staff and my partner and implemented all the proper sanitation stuff that we need to follow the guidelines. We decided June 1st, we'll reopen and we'll be ready for business and take on clients.
It is on them if they want to come into our salon. It is their choice just as our choice to open up. It is people's choice to stay home if they feel they are affected by COVID-19.
We'll take every proper measure and step and we'll be reopening.
KEILAR: Nick, tell us the steps? Tell us about the precautions you're taking.
NICHOLAS MIRABELA, CO-OWNER, BRICK AND MIRROR BEAUTY BAR: Everyone is going to wear masks. If you can't wear masks, we have a protective cover for you. We'll have our staffs in protective equipment. And we'll sanitize each station between each client.
When you walk in the building, you have 15 minutes to clean each station down between each client. We have 15 minutes to clean all the station down and wipe the tools off. And we have the customers wait in the car and when we are ready, we'll call them in. We'll limit the amount of people inside the building. We went through extreme measures to get our license.
VERDIS: We have strict code to follow sanitations.
MIRABELA: When it comes to partitions, we don't need them because we are spaced out. We'll limit everybody in and out of the building.
KEILAR: Nick, have you had any employees who had health concerns of coming back to work or have said I am not comfortable?
VERDIS: The majority of them are dying to go back to work. We have one employee, she's a little concerned, we told her to stay home. I don't want to force anyone to do anything they don't feel comfortable.
MIRABELA: Correct.
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KEILAR: Will she get paid staying home?
(CROSSTALK)
VERDIS: She's on unemployment right now. They're collecting unemployment.
MIRABELA: The way we run our business is commissions.
KEILAR: No, I understand.
I want to ask you, George, actually both of you this. New Jersey has been hard hit, you know that. More than 10,000 people have died there. Your state is not out of the woods yet. Do you worry, George, that opening your salon could contribute to people getting sick or maybe dying?
VERDIS: You know I got to be totally honest, Home Depot, Walmart is open and Target and all these places are opening. I asked all scientists, does COVID only exists in air salons. The governor made it apparent that this is not essential.
I am concerned of everything. Everything is concerning. We can't live in fear. After 9/11, we would all still be home. We can't live in fear. That's the bottom line. We take as much precautions as we can. From then on in, it is what it is. We're not going to live in fear.
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MIRABELA: It is not about making money. It is about survival. We are trying to get our business opened and get our staff here working so they can feed their families. Unemployment can only do so much. Especially in New Jersey. It is expensive to live here.
VERDIS: Sure is.
MARIABEL: For that few hundred a week you're getting, it is nothing in comparison to what you're making working at the salon.
KEILAR: Nick, what will you do if you will get fined? We've had people on that have reopened and they get fine to a tune of something they can't afford and ended up having to shut down. What are you going to do?
MARIBEL: To be honest, we have legal counsel and we'll defer to them and let them take it up the chain of command and do what we have to do. If we got to pay to survive and let our employees survive, that's what it is about, it is about our team.
I don't mind getting fines if the girls and men that work for me could support their families. I am willing to take that risk.
KEILAR: Nick and George, thank you for joining us. We'll keep an eye on things as you do reopen.
VERDIS: Thank you.
KEILAR: We really appreciate your insight in this difficult situation for all small businesses. Thank you.
MIRABELA: Thank you.
VERDIS: Thank you.
KEILAR: Once you are infected, there are new warnings about the long- term psychiatric problems that are associated with coronavirus. We'll discuss.
Plus, the NYPD shuts down an Orthodox Jewish school for violating the lockdown. See what happened there.
And a medical journal fires back at the president mentioned that. in his threat to the World Health organization, it said something that wasn't true. Hear why they say his claim is B.S.
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KEILAR: In a bit of news for the airline industries, Southwest says the demand for flights is picking up slightly. The airline reporting the number of bookings outpaced cancellations over the last month. But the success or failure of an airline is if other people feel safe enough to fly. I want to bring in our CNN's medical analyst and former CDC detective,
Dr. Seema Yasmin.
Doctor, what can people do? And I know some people do - some people have to fly even for medical issues. What do they do to protect themselves on planes?
DR. SEEMS YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: As much as possible, try not to fly. It means some airlines are struggling to enable as much as social distancing on flights as possible. That's why we ended up with these photos where they are stuck on the plane that's quite crowded.
If it turns out that you have to fly, then do some planning in advance. Book with a carrier that's perhaps keeping middle seats empty and try to book the aisle seat. And pack your gloves and pack your PPE.
In some airports across the country, TSA are doing temperature checks. And same thing when you are on the plane trying to keep your masks on as much as possible. Wipe down those high-contact areas that others are touching, too. Stay hydrated.
Beware when you eat or drink, you have to take off your mask and you want to minimize that as much as possible.
KEILAR: Is there an issue of recirculated airs that may make it worse in other confined areas?
YASMIN: That's not really true. You are not breathing in the same air for like a four-hour flight. The concern is you can't control. At least you can pull yourself out of that situation.
But if you board a plane and it is packed and you are sitting in coughing kind of trap. That's why the advice is not to fly unless you really, really need to.
KEILAR: As we heard from some airlines, some people are not wearing masks and they're not enforcing it. They're encouraging it.
There's a new study of patients hospitalized for coronavirus having hallucinations. Tell us what the dangers are associated with these symptoMs.
YASMIN: This is a very large study that came out of the U.K. They aggregated 72 studies looking at data on 3,550 people who did not just suffer with severe COVID-19, but they also look back at suffering with virus, including SARS and MERS.
Be aware that this infection is causing depression and fatigue and anxiety and PTSD in people.
[13:44:57]
Some are critiquing the study saying it is talking about people with severe COVID-19. And that it's lumping in people who have SARS and MERS all together. But this study is important. We should not focus on physical
manifestation but also mindful of what your mental health needs and now and in the long run.
KEILAR: Dr. Seema Yasmin, thank you.
How California is training thousands to track cases and people who have been exposed to coronavirus.
And some colleges are shaking up their fall schedules to avoid a second wave this fall winter. Here the plan from one university president, next.
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KEILAR: Colleges and universities are being forced to rearrange class schedules for the fall semester. Many are trying to resume classes but avoid a second wave in November and December, the traditional start of the flu season.
Notre Dame, Purdue, Creighton University and University of South Carolina will resume in-person learning in August but will end classes before Thanksgiving.
Creighton will go a step further, ending its fall semester before Thanksgiving.
I want to bring in Daniel Hendrickson, the president of Creighton University.
So tell us how you came to this decision, to allow students back to campus and they'll be leaving before Thanksgiving.
REV. DANIEL HENDRICKSON, PRESIDENT, CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY: Thank you so much. It's nice to join us.
We're excited to welcome our student community and faculty and staff back on campus. We want to do so with all the safety and protocols as possible.
We certainly don't think we can outsmart the pandemic, but we believe we are poised to have a safe environment. We anticipate a flu and cold season coming up.
That would be confusing for any of us to try to understand who is sick and what do they have, so trying to end the semester before that occurs.
And in anticipation of the second wave of the pandemic, we said to get this semester started and ended on an earlier schedule. We've also been able to work out --
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HENDRICKSON: Go ahead, please.
KEILAR: I'm curious, you know, how do you protect everyone? This is what so many universities are grappling with. How do you protect everyone, especially with kids living in dorms?
HENDRICKSON: We're going to work on issues around density both half residence halls and classrooms and courtyards We want to provide PPE for folks, other kinds of protocols that can ensure that safety for us.
KEILAR: So, then, if there's a second wave that hits before Thanksgiving, are you ready to make maybe a different plan than you originally put in place here?
HENDRICKSON: We are. We actually have a full complement of health science and health care programs on this campus, all from medicine to nursing to dentistry to therapies. So we're turning to our faculty and staff and getting a lot of advice.
We have an epidemiologist with us and health care enterprise, so a lot of good consultation and partnership.
We rotated to full online learning on Monday, March 23rd. We did that pretty easily as most institutions were able to do so. I was surprised how quickly and effectively we maintained that. We learned how to do it quickly without a lot of notice.
And we've asked our faculty and staff to be prepared to go back online quickly if we need to again.
KEILAR: Rev. Hendrickson, I want to thank you for coming on. You're on sort of the frontier of this, as so many universities are trying to figure it out.
And we certainly appreciate you talking to us.
HENDRICKSON: Thank you very much.
KEILAR: The president says he's taking an unproven drug as a preventative measure against the virus. Hear why he faces some risks.
Plus, how the Navajo nation has surpassed New York in the highest infection rate in the country.
[13:53:40]
And graduations, block parties, beaches, the risks these events pose as we see more and more crowds.
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KEILAR: The stockpiling of groceries, toilet papers and other household items gave Walmart one of the best quarters in decades. The retail giant reports in-store sales are up 10 percent over last year. Online sales are up 74 percent.
Let's look at the other big coronavirus headlines across the country.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Sara Sidner, in Arizona, the tribal headquarters of the Navajo nation. This nation now how the highest rate of infection per capita for COVID-19 in all of America.
But the president of the Navajo nation says there's a reason for that. They also have done more testing than any state in the nation with 11 percent of its people tested. And 3900-plus people have tested positive for COVID-19. They've had a spike in deaths this weekend.
So they us have one of the strictest stay-at-home orders. Masks are required in public, and there's a curfew every night at 8:00. On the weekends, especially this weekend, there was a 57-hour lockdown.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT. I'm Shimon Prokupecz, in New York City, where the NYPD has shut down a Jewish Orthodox school they say was operating illegally inside a Brooklyn building.
The NYPD responded to the building after receiving community complaints there were students inside the building, that people inside were operating an illegal school.
Of course, all schools across the state and city have been shut since the pandemic. The NYPD says they removed everyone and shut the building down.
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