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Dr. Sara Goza knows that, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics; Herman Cain Tests Positive for Coronavirus; Dr. Sara Goza, President, American Academy of Pediatrics, Discusses Their Call for In-Person School This Fall; Gang of Eight Briefed on Russia Bounty Intel. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 02, 2020 - 13:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[13:30:00]

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Another hard lesson of the pandemic and a virus and health care workers are struggling to understand.

ADAM SAHYOUNI, COVID ICU NURSE MANAGER, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: We don't quite understand why one person with lab values of "X" does well while a person with lab value that appear to be better doesn't make it. And a mask is not a big ask to help save your life.

MARQUEZ: The work and stress for health care workers everywhere crushing. And with rates of infection rising, they expect more work and stress ahead. Stressful for patients as well who are sick, isolated from everyone.

(on camera): How tough is it to be in your room all day just sitting there?

MICHAEL VAZQUEZ, COVID PATIENT: Oh, man. If you could just hear that unit in the room, it would drive you nuts at first but you get past it.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): This 28-year-old, Michael Vazquez, works in a warehouse. He's isn't sure how he got sick. He's part of a new program here to get patients up and walking as soon as possible even a little bit helping physically and mentally.

(on camera): What has it done to your lungs?

VAZQUEZ: It really made them fatigued really bad. With the -- sorry.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Vazquez isn't sure if there will be any long- term effects to the lungs. Right now, he is focused on getting home to his wife and 7-year-old son.

VAZQUEZ: I just miss, you know, their presence, you know? Miss holding my wife, kissing your son good night. Going to the room, making sure he is OK. I miss that a lot. DR. MISHA PETER, PRIMARY CRITICAL CARE, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: We know that when people walk, when people sleep better, when people see bright light, they get better sooner. We know all of this.

I think, on some level, we have to relearn it with COVID because of our response to it. Obviously, our need to keep ourselves safe, to keep staff safe. So it is not unexpected that we kind of ended up isolating people, whether we meant to or not.

MARQUEZ: Another lesson of the pandemic, trying to reduce recovery times and free up beds badly needed for an expected growing surge of people seriously sick with the coronavirus.

DR. JENNIFER GEMMILL, EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT PHYSICIAN MEDICAL DIRECTOR, SAN ANTONIO METHODIST HOSPITAL: Right now, we are so full upstairs that we have some delays in getting the patients upstairs because there aren't beds prepared and ready for patients. So we are holding a lot of them in the emergency department right now, some for hours, some for days.

MARQUEZ: What is driving the surge here? Doctors aren't entirely sure, but based on what they hear from patients, there was a sense that the worst was behind us.

GEMMILL: I don't think that there was one specific incidence that really led to this spike. I think people after March and April were extremely frustrated with being inside. And as soon as those restrictions lifted, they wanted to get out. Some protected themselves, some didn't. And now we are just seeing the result of that.

MARQUEZ: With the holiday weekend coming up, the fear now, the surge of patients will become a tidal wave.

SAHYOUNI: I don't think I have seen anything like this ever. And I would say that if you want to see august 1st maybe you should stay indoors and isolate on July Fourth.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I want to start on that final point.

Miguel Marquez is with me.

Just a brilliant eye-opening piece again from you taking us inside these hospitals.

Just listen to the doctors talking about the ten patients, young, super sick and how do you choose? All right. I have three beds so when of the 10 get the beds?

What about this weekend? They talk about the fears of a surge for the Fourth of July weekend. How worried are they? How do they handle it?

MARQUEZ: That's exactly what they are most worried about right now because you have a situation where the percentage of those being tested is going up exponentially. And 3.6 percent a month ago to 20 percent on a weekly basis, now over 20 percent.

That is just Bexar County. Other parts of Texas are climbing faster than that. You add on that people maybe don't go to fireworks but house parties, barbecues, and that seems to be where most of the -- what they see right now in terms of cases coming from.

They believe that Memorial Day, graduations, Mother's Day, protests here certainly, but anything that brought people close together, along with the state reopening and a sense that it was all done, we're OK now, behind us, that's really what's driving it.

And trying to -- this is the reason the hospital let us in. They wanted people to understand what it looked like on the very last line of defense -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: I was going to point out, getting access that you got inside of these hospitals, it just doesn't happen. So they're doing it to show everyone, like, wear a mask, be safe, have a great weekend.

But, Miguel, thank you so much to you and the crew for pulling that off. Thank you very much and, of course, to the hospital staff as well.

[13:35:04]

We got some breaking news now. Herman Cain, one of President Trump's campaign surrogates, has tested positive for coronavirus. He was just at President Trump's Tulsa rally. We have those details ahead.

And parents are getting anxious about whether to send their students back into the classrooms this fall. We'll talk to a doctor who says that kids need to go back and be around other kids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:17]

BALDWIN: Taking a look at the stock market this afternoon. Huge rally today after the better-than-expected jobs report. The U.S. economy adding 4.8 million jobs in June, bringing the national unemployment rate down to 11.1 percent.

But still the pain is so real for so many. And 1.4 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week and today's jobs report after several months of significant job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic, of course, and the economic slowdown.

News just into CNN, Trump campaign surrogate and former Republican presidential contender, Herman Cain, is hospitalized with coronavirus. Cain was at President Trump's Tulsa rally June 20th. This is a photo from that rally he posted on his Twitter page.

I am joined now by CNN White House correspondent, Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, what do you know about Mr. Cain?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Herman Cain is chair of Black Voices for Trump. He attended that June 20 campaign rally in Oklahoma.

And we are now told that Herman Cain tested positive two days ago for coronavirus and he has since been hospitalized, suggesting that he is experiencing severe symptoMs.

Herman Cain -- an aide to Herman Cain confirmed on his Web site, saying that Cain was taken to the hospital after he was having trouble breathing. We don't have status update on his condition since them.

But obviously, notable he attended this campaign rally and apparently tested positive nine days after attending. That's within the window where he could have contracted while at the rally, though, we don't know that as of yet.

I want to point to this picture that we have that Herman Cain posted while attending this rally. You can see several other people around him not wearing any masks.

\And that includes Paris Dennard, who is an RNC adviser, a Republican National Committee adviser for black affairs, right behind him with thumbs up.

I spoke to Paris moments ago. He told me that he had not been informed of Herman Cain's diagnosis and he has not tested for the virus since attending that rally. He also said that he is experiencing no symptoms and he is wearing a mask regularly.

But obviously, notable there, Brooke, because you would think that once somebody tests positive, you start doing that contact tracing, right? Contacting the people around that person who tested positive. And certainly, that would include Paris Dennard and the other people around him at that rally.

So again, really remarkable here, Brooke. We have reached out to the White House, to the Trump White House as well. So far, they have not commented on whether Herman Cain was around the president or around any other senior campaign officials. But we're still waiting on that -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: As you hear, let us know.

Jeremy, thank you, at the White House.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending in-person learning in the fall. That means they say they want kids to go ahead and go to school and be around other kids. Why they say that is a good idea.

And join CNN for an evening of fireworks and an all-star musical lineup with Jewel, Barry Manilow, C.C. Winans, and many more. Don Lemon and Dana Bash will be hosting CNN's "FOURTH OF JULY IN AMERICA," live, starting at 8:00 Eastern on Saturday night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:48:08]

BALDWIN: We are roughly a month away from when children start school and some of the largest school districts don't have a plan. Some don't have a start date. The coronavirus forced schools to close and launch remote learning overnight. But the question remains: How to reopen safely as infections continue to rise?

For example, in Los Angeles, they have a start date but it is not clear if kids will physically be on campus. In Maryland, the largest school district is working on a plan for different approaches whether you're younger or in high school. And while districts plan for various contingencies, the reality is it is going to look very different.

Dr. Sara Goza knows that. She's the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Goza, welcome.

DR. SARA GOZA, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Your group -- and it says a lot coming from your group -- pushing for students to go to school this fall, as in no distance learning but be physically present. Why?

GOZA: We know that kids learn more in school than reading, writing and arithmetic. They learn social and emotional schools, eat healthy meals, get exercise, mental health support, things you can't do online.

And beyond supporting that education development of adolescents and children, schools play a critical role in addressing racial and social inequity.

This pandemic has been especially hard on families relying on school lunches or have limited access to the Internet or health care or where both parents work and the children have to go to daycare.

It's really critical that, if it's safe, we need to have children -- the goal should be to have students present in the school.

BALDWIN: What happens -- you gave a lot of explanations as to why they should. But developmentally, if you don't have kids around other kids in a learning environment, what are some of the negative repercussions from that?

[13:50:00]

GOZA: We know that children can get depressed if they're socially isolated, just like adults can, especially our teenagers who are missing out on the things that happen in middle school and high school. So, they can have anxiety and depression.

And some of our children with special needs can have social regression if they're not around people to have the social interaction.

BALDWIN: There's the "but," right? Dr. Goza, you know where I'm going to go with this, the flip side.

Take what happened in Texas where there were over 300 kids at a Texas daycare centers, they've all tested positive. And all it takes is one sick kid to come into school, despite all the temperature checks and the sign offs, carpool in the morning, one kid could infect dozens of others.

What could you say to parents who see it that way?

GOZA: I think that's going to be school leaders and public health professionals who will need to really work together to ensure safety for children, teachers, and for staff. They need to be nimble and flexible and ready to switch gears based on the community's prevalence or whether they have cases in the school.

What we do know, so far, is children and adolescents are less likely to have severe symptoms and less likely to spread infection. And this is from across the world in different countries we've looked where school have reopened. But that's really the case.

But even then, if you've relax your hand washing, social distancing, mask wearing for children and adults that can and should, and not doing the things you can to make sure you're staying safe, then you are going to risk it more.

So, the guidelines really talk about physical distancing, if at all possible, people, that can, to wear a mask to protect others from getting the disease. And then having the ability to isolate if someone does get sick while at school to get them away from the other children and the adults.

BALDWIN: I know the focus --

(CROSSTALK)

GOZA: And in some cases--

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: No, I just want to jump in because I know the focus is so much on kids, as it should be. But I'm wondering about teachers. My sister in law is a teacher. She's thinking, ok, what are the other "I"s I needed to dot and "T"'s to cross to make sure I'm safe and everything else with my kids this fall.

So, how will teacher's worlds be rocked this fall?

GOZA: So, teachers are really going to have to wear masks. I think that's going to be critical for them to wear masks. They need to try to stay six feet away from other adults. And as much as they can, stay distance from their children. And hand washing all the time as often as you can. And really trying to cohort children so you're seeing the same

children every day and you're not going and being around big groups of children. Cafeterias are not going to be a good place to gather, teachers lounges are not going to be a good place to father, and all those things.

It's really going to be being very cautious and taking all those precautions very seriously while you're in school.

BALDWIN: Have those lunches in the classrooms, no sharing toys, scrub, scrub, scrub, all of it.

GOZA: Absolutely.

Dr. Goza, thank you so much.

GOZA: Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: You got it.

And 50,000 new coronavirus cases in one day. An as states roll back reopenings to get a handle on the virus, the White House is still grappling with how the president should respond months into this pandemic. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:53]

BALDWIN: Just into CNN, the Gang of Eight today has been briefed on that intelligence report regarding suspected Russian bounties on U.S. and coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. The Gang of Eight includes McConnell, as well as others.

We are learning new details about who may have financed the alleged bounties from the "New York Times" today. They say an Afghan businessman was allegedly in charge of passing money from Russia to Taliban fighters, roughly $100,000 for every U.S. servicemember killed.

As for President Trump, he has called these Russia bounty reports a hoax.

Let's go to Capitol Hill. CNN's Lauren Fox is standing by.

And we know that briefing is over. Any news from Capitol Hill on that?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, this is a highly classified briefing. The Gang of Eight, the reason they can get briefings like this one is because, when they come out, they say very little.

I will tell you that Chuck Schumer briefly spoke. But he said, independent of the briefing, he thought the relationship between President Trump and Vladimir Putin was inappropriate. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, (D-NY): I'm not going to say anything about the briefing. But I believe the president is not close to tough enough on Vladimir Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And Gina Haspel, the CIA director, was one of the briefers this morning. That is someone the president has confidence in. But she is also someone who Democrats have wanted to hear from all week long, Brooke.

And I will tell you, Democrats didn't have much more to say beyond the briefing. They left without commenting.

I asked DNI Ratcliffe whether or not members were receptive to the message? He said he was not going to comment on specifics of the briefing. But he told me that he promised lawmakers he would return to Capitol Hill and give them updates when they ask for it.

He said, I did my duty today, I came to the Hill, I gave information. And that's all he would tell us -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: We know you'll be watching to see what comes from all of this.

Lauren Fox, thank you.

[14:00:06]

We continue on along. This is CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being here.