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Family Sues After Nursing Home-Employed Son Dies Without PPE; Interview with Unilever President Fabian Garcia; Coronavirus Infections Surge in Brazil. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 21, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's full steam ahead in terms of the reopening. The governor says he has the confidence to allow more and more communities to reopen, so now you have about half of the counties throughout the state of California that have submitted plans.

And so in the coming weeks, what you're going to be seeing is more and more restaurants allowing for in-dining customers, and also you're going to be seeing more retail stores open, not just the -- the curbside delivery in terms of what we've seen thus far in a lot of communities. So beginning in the first week of June, perhaps you could see even live sporting events.

So the state does have a sense of confidence that things are moving in the right direction despite the fact that you do have this spike in daily deaths.

And the reopening really can't come soon enough, with some communities reporting, Jim and Poppy, unemployment rate escalating above 20 percent -- Jim and Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Wow, no question, Dan. Thanks a lot for that reporting. We'll keep an eye on those numbers out of California, very closely.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: No question.

Well, nursing homes in the U.S. have been hit especially hard by the coronavirus. Now, workers in those facilities are warning that they're not getting the safety equipment they need. Some say they're forced to use coffee filters, garbage bags instead of masks and gowns.

HARLOW: One family is suing a Texas long-term care facility after a man who worked there died from coronavirus. Our Drew Griffin has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 25 years, Maurice Dotson worked as a nurse's assistant at West Oaks Nursing Home in Austin, Texas, changing bedpans, diapers, sheets and just being a friend to those elderly who no longer had any friends. That ended when he died on April 17th. The cause? COVID-19.

QUENTIN BROGDON, ATTORNEY FOR DOTSON FAMILY: He wasn't given basic personal protective equipment such as a mask.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Maurice Dotson was one of 111 cases of COVID-19 at this nursing home. The state sent in Texas National Guard soldiers to disinfect West Oaks and other facilities.

Quentin Brogdon is the attorney representing Dotson's family in a lawsuit, which says the nursing home failed to properly prepare, respond and provide its employees with personal protection equipment as required.

BROGDON: He gave his life to care for the residents of West Oaks. they were his second family. He could have called in sick, he could have quit but it just wasn't in his DNA. He protected them, but he wasn't protected.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): West Oaks will not comment on the lawsuit. But in a statement, the company said, "Our operations and protocols changed profoundly with the release of the CDC guidelines."

Nursing homes and long-term care facilities, from the start of this pandemic, have been hotbeds of illness and death. One study shows 41 percent of coronavirus deaths in 36 states are connected to nursing homes. The virus spreads quickly to patients and staff, who then leave work and spread it to others.

DEBBIE BERKOWITZ, NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAW PROJECT: In this pandemic, if a worker is infected with COVID-19, then they can not only spread it to their coworkers, but they spread it out into the community.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): A CNN review of hundreds of complaints to federal and state governments show that workers at long-term facilities feel their own lives are at risk, writing complaints like, "Employees are not provided personal protective equipment such as masks," using "coffee filters" as masks and garbage bags as gowns. "Health care workers have died from the COVID-19 and the employer is unwilling to report it."

MARK PARKINSON, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION: We have been begging for additional equipment in nursing homes for the last two months. And unfortunately, no one has listened. In some cases, we've had to go without it and the results have been tragic.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, says in the rush to find protective gear for unprepared hospitals, nursing homes have been ignored.

PARKINSON: Unfortunately, the resources that were denied to nursing homes and were -- instead were sent to hospitals, have had really tragic results because it's impossible to stop this virus if you don't have the face mask that you need to keep it from spreading.

BERKOWITZ: It's like government malfeasance, how little they have done. GRIFFIN (voice-over): Deborah Berkowitz is former chief of staff at

OSHA, the government agency charged with protecting workers. She says the government has failed by silently allowing nursing home deaths to multiply without acting.

BERKOWITZ: OSHA put out no specific guidance until just recently, and has no mandates. And, you know, guidance is voluntary. Employers can follow it or they can ignore it.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): OSHA's guidelines on protecting nursing home workers during the COVID-19 pandemic were published only this past week, three months after the first deaths were recorded at a nursing facility in Washington, far too late to help workers like Maurice Dotson.

BROGDON: He was 51 years old. He didn't need to die.

GRIFFIN: OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, says it investigates all complaints and has been paying particular attention to protections for those health workers who have high exposure to coronavirus. That is of little comfort to the family of Maurice Dotson.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[10:35:04]

HARLOW: Drew, thank you for bringing that story to light.

In just nine weeks, more than 38 million Americans have filed for unemployment claims. One of the nation's largest, largest manufacturers is stepping up to help.

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[10:40:08]

SCIUTTO: Tough news for the economy, tough news for Americans this morning. New unemployment numbers show 2.4 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits in just the last week. That one week, four times the worst week of the Great Recession in 2008, 2009. The total number, 38 million since mid-March.

HARLOW: First-time claims have been on the decline, they peaked at 6.9 million in the final weeks of March. But again, that does not tell the whole story. You have 50 states, all 50 states now that have loosened restrictions and have pushed to try to jump-start the economy and get Americans back to work.

One of the biggest manufacturers of brands you know, like Breyers and Dove, Ben and Jerry's and Lipton, they say this pandemic will trigger lasting changes. Fabian Garcia is the president of Unilever North America. He's with me now. Really good to have you. I was struck by your statement saying, we are

only seeing the beginnings of the impact that this crisis will have. What do you think this portends, big-picture, for the American economy for the long run?

FABIAN GARCIA, PRESIDENT, UNILEVER NORTH AMERICA: Well, obviously, these are tough times. The numbers we saw this morning are shocking: 38.6 million Americans. And we also have some research that indicates that we already have about 17 million people who have food insecurities. So it's going to be tough going, but the good news is that companies like ours can step up and help.

HARLOW: Let's talk a little bit about what you're doing today. Because, I mean, to hear that number, 17 million with food insecurities. We know from Brookings that 17 percent of American parents say their kids are not getting enough to eat, that is three times as bad as it was for children during the Great Recession.

What is the responsibility of corporate America, especially big companies like yours that have been able to stay afloat during this?

GARCIA: So Unilever has always given back to communities. And this is a good time for us to step it up. So the company, when the pandemic started, announced globally more than $100 million donation.

In the U.S., we initiated something called United For America. United For America has three big parts. Part number one is, today is our first annual day of service. And today, every product made in our plants, the equivalent of their value will be donated and the products themselves will be donated to Feeding America and direct relief. That is about $20 millions' worth of product.

Direct relief and Feeding America have about 200 food bank reach, and they are literally touching (ph) about one in every three Hispanic children, they're touching about 56 percent of people who are today in need to help.

So what we are trying to get to is, first, donate those products through their network. Second is all our employees and those of about 90 partners are going (ph) to volunteer today, some virtually, some physically. And they will be doing so in -- doing three basic things.

They're going to be connecting with their networks to raise funds for these causes. Second, they will be connecting not only with their networks but also they're going to be contributing with -- if you click to the weareunitedforamerica.com site, you can actually make direct contributions --

(CROSSTALK)

GARCIA: And if they want to care (ph), for example, they can send gratitude letters to more than 11,000 people who are today serving others in those food banks.

HARLOW: Fabian -- Fabian, you brought up specifically -- it's good to see, and thank you for that initiative. We've seen a lot of companies stepping up. I wonder, though, you brought up Hispanic children, for example. And the numbers show us the stark disparity here, and the dire situation that this country was already in and the income gap has just grown even more and the situation has become more dire economically, specifically for minorities in this country.

Do you think Congress gets it? Do you think enough is being done specifically aimed at targeting African-Americans and Latinos in this country who are in even more economic pain because of this?

GARCIA: We're going to leave the politics to the politicians. But what I can tell you is we're trying to reach as many people in need right now as possible. They are -- we talked about the 17 million people with food insecurities. Our plan and our contributions are agnostic to ethnicity and we want to make sure that we get the help to the people that need it.

HARLOW: And you haven't had any layoffs. Are you planning any layoffs to come, quickly?

[10:45:04]

GARCIA: When the pandemic started, Unilever made a commitment to all of its employees that for the first 90 days of the pandemic, we will not cut anybody's salaries or fire anybody. So that commitment, we stand by our commitment, going forward, and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to avoid those layoffs.

HARLOW: Fabian Garcia, thank you for being here.

GARCIA: Thank you very much, Poppy, for giving us the time.

HARLOW: Another business titan offering to step in and help the groups impacted most by job losses -- women as well as those minorities we just mentioned -- is entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban. Here's what he wrote overnight.

"If you're a minority or woman-owned or any company that believes you're eligible for a PPP loan but have not been approved, please post an overview of your status here." He said he would help. He said, "Let's get that money."

CNN is exploring the past, the present and the future of women's rights in the United States and around the world. That includes the business world. You can see more of these stories at CNN.com/represented.

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[10:50:36]

HARLOW: So, coronavirus cases, as you've heard today, have been surging in Brazil. The country hit a record of nearly 20,000 new cases in just the last 24 hours.

SCIUTTO: Of course, this, after their president repeatedly -- and still -- downplays the threat. We have reporters with updates on the coronavirus fight around the world.

Let's begin, though, with Shasta Darlington. She's in Sao Paolo. How are people there receiving this hard data, particularly when it contradicts what the president has been saying there?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Jim. Unfortunately, Brazil keeps setting one grim record after another. The latest, as you mentioned, the daily number of infections, 20,000 yesterday. Brazil right now has the third highest number of infections in the world, behind just the United States and Russia. It's headed for a total of 300,000.

And experts here say we are not anywhere near peaking. And one of the biggest problems has been these mixed messages we've been getting, with governors on the one hand imposing quarantines, telling people to shelter at home while President Jair Bolsonaro insists Brazilians have to go to work because he says hunger and unemployment will kill more people than the virus itself.

And the latest has been that he has insisted, like his counterpart in the United States, that chloroquine should be used to treat the -- should be used to treat COVID-19 and he convinced the health ministry to expand the use of the anti-malarial drug so that now it can be treated even in mild cases of COVID-19.

And this is despite warnings from international health experts, and even his own health ministers. His second health minister resigned last week, after clashing with him on this particular issue. And he has yet to name a permanent replacement -- Jim, Poppy.

HARLOW: Shasta, thank you for that.

Let's go to Matthew Chance. He joins us now with an update -- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy. Well, the first shipment of American aid to Russia has just touched down in Moscow, the capital of that country, carrying at least 50 ventilators; another 150 are on their way.

It's being seen as -- or being talked about by the Russian foreign ministry as a big humanitarian -- example of humanitarian cooperation between Russia and the United States. But of course, it's a big turnaround from the situation, you know, just over a month ago, when it was Russia sending medical equipment and ventilators in the other direction, to the United States, flying that load of equipment in to New York when that city was at the epicenter of the American pandemic.

Since then, of course, the true extent of Russia's, you know, pandemic numbers have really started to emerge. It's no longer the country that's managed to curb this virus, it's got more than 317,000 people who have been infected with it. That's more than anywhere else in the world, of course, apart from the United States.

And you know, frankly, Russia needs help. And, you know, it's the United States on this occasion is providing that assistance. The ventilators are going to be distributed to various facilities around Moscow to treat that growing number of people in the country that are being infected (ph) with coronavirus -- Poppy.

SCIUTTO: CNN Business reporter Hadas Gold, she's been covering the U.K. response. What's the situation on the ground there now?

HADAS GOLD, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, Jim, schools here have been closed since March 20th, and there was a plan initially to have certain students in Kindergarten, first grade and sixth grade go back by June 1st -- that's just a few days away -- with the aim of giving them at least a month in school before a summer break.

However, this has run into some fierce opposition, some 25 local councils have written to the government, saying that they do not think they will be ready. And one of the biggest teachers' unions here in England have warned that they don't think it's appropriate to bring students back to school by June 1st.

And not even all of the nations in the United Kingdom were on board with this plan. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all having their own plans of reopening, and none of those other nations have plans to bring students back by June 1st, it is only England.

There are fears, of course, from teachers, whether they can appropriately socially distance students as young as four or five years old, even students in the sixth grade, and whether there would be enough staff on hand. Because think about it, if you're trying to socially distance students, you probably need more eyes on the students at all times, you probably can't have that same ratio of teachers to students that we had before the pandemic.

[10:55:00]

Of course, there has now been a bit of a row-back from ministers this morning. The justice secretary was giving a round of media interviews, and he said that all local councils need to work together, work with the governments, and that the June 1st date may not be a fixed date -- Poppy, Jim.

HARLOW: OK.

SCIUTTO: Hadas Gold, Matthew Chance, Shasta Darlington, thanks to all of you.

HARLOW: Thank you so much for the perspective around the world.

Thanks for joining us today. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto. NEWSROOM with John King is up next, with a deep look at the trends emerging in coronavirus data here, at home, and around the world.

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[11:00:00]