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Rush to Reopen Led to Dramatic Rise in Coronavirus Cases in California, Florida, Arizona and Texas; Regeneron's COVID-19 Antibody Drug Moves Into Phase 3 Trials; Thirty Two States Seeing Spike in Cases as Coronavirus Surges Across the U.S.; FDA Head Refuses to Defend Trump's Claim that 99 Percent of Coronavirus Cases are Harmless; U.S. Death Toll Nears 130,000 as COVID-19 Cases Spike Across the U.S. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 06, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:13]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you, I'm Erica Hill. Poppy and Jim are off today.

Coronavirus cases surging across the nation, and now scenes like this, all of these, large crowds over the holiday weekend fueling fears we will see more spikes in the coming weeks.

This morning, 32 states are seeing an increase in new cases over the past week. California shattering the single-day record on Sunday with nearly 12,000 new cases reported. And despite officials closing many beaches over the weekend in Florida, as you can see, people still flocking to the ones that did stay open. The state also setting new records, surpassing 200,000 total cases on Sunday, and ICU beds there are filling up.

Meantime, health systems in Texas and Arizona also stretched thin. The mayor of Phoenix saying bluntly her state reopened, quote, "way too early."

Despite the facts and the science, the president continues to minimize the pandemic, spreading misinformation. His own FDA chief refusing to back up the president's claim that 99 percent of COVID cases are, quote, "harmless."

We're covering all the angles. We want to begin with Rosa Flores in Miami Beach, Florida.

So, Rosa, we are seeing a troubling trend across the country right now and we're seeing a lot of that in Florida.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we are. It's very troubling and it's a dire situation across the United States. 32 states showing upward trends of coronavirus cases including California which busted its daily record there this weekend with nearly 12,000 cases on Sunday alone.

L.A. County closed its beaches through the holiday weekend but the scenes out of San Diego were reminiscent of -- reminiscent, excuse me, of pre-pandemic times. In Texas officials there are sending dire warnings in the counties of Starr and Hidalgo in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. Hospitals there have hit capacity.

And Erica, I can tell you that people in the Rio Grande Valley are starting to get messages on their phones warning them to stay home.

HILL: Warning them to stay home. Meantime, as we look at what's happening where you are in Florida, we're seeing not only that spike in cases but, as you're pointing out, more concerns about hospitalization. Where do things stand right now?

FLORES: You know, experts about a month ago were very concerned about 1,000 cases per day, maybe 2,000 cases a day. Now Florida busted its record over the weekend with more than 11,400 cases in just one day.

When you look at the positivity rate about a month ago, it was under 5 percent. You look now, it's between 15 percent and 20 percent. As for hospitalizations, the state of Florida only releases the number of hospital beds that are available around the state, that's about 26 percent. Florida does not release the number of patients that are in the hospital with COVID-19, but that does not stop Miami-Dade County from releasing their own data, and it's staggering.

Take a look at this. We looked at the numbers this morning, and it shows that yesterday in Miami-Dade County, 1,538 individuals were hospitalized with COVID-19. On June 23rd, that number was 818, that's an 88 percent increase. During that same time period if you look at ICU beds, that's an increase of 114 percent. If you look at the use of ventilators, that's an increase of 119 percent.

That is why, Erica, local officials here are very concerned. They've been screaming off the top of their lungs about the use of masks, about the need to social distance, and over the weekend, the mayor of Miami Beach, where I am here right now, Erica, calling out the president, saying that he is sending mixed messages when he doesn't wear a mask and he holds rallies in other parts of the country that do not mandate masks.

And according to Dan Gelber, the mayor here of Miami Beach, he says that those messages are not helping -- Erica.

HILL: Well, it is. As you point out, those numbers are staggering to see the increase in hospitalizations and ICU and ventilators being used.

Rosa, thank you.

Let's turn now to Texas where at least two counties are reporting their hospitals were at full capacity at the start of the holiday weekend. CNN's Ed Lavandera is live in Dallas this morning.

Ed, what's the latest?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. Well, those two counties, Starr and Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas urging people to shelter at home in place because the hospitals there are at capacity and it is a warning that we're starting to hear from more and more cities across the state here that have seen a staggering increase in the number of new coronavirus cases here in the last week and especially if you look back to mid-June, the trajectory of new cases being reported here has really shot up dramatically here in this state in the last two weeks.

[09:05:07]

The mayor of Austin this morning telling CNN that the next two weeks could be dire in that city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D), AUSTIN, TEXAS: What's happened in Texas in May and June, we opened up in ways that were not sustainable and now we're having to turn that curve or else we're looking at our hospitals being overwhelmed here in the next 10 days to two weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: The CDC forecast that hospitalizations could reach nearly 2,000 per day here in this state by mid-July, and that is a troubling trend, and if you remember back to April, late April, when state officials here were pushing to reopen the economy, one of the things that they pointed to was that the positive infection rate was under 6 percent. The positive infection rate now well over 13 percent -- Erica.

HILL: Wow, what a change. Ed Lavandera with the latest from Dallas. Ed, thank you.

CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro is in Phoenix where the city's mayor says the state opened way too early.

Evan, good morning.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

(CROSSTALK)

HILL: So good morning --

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Let me set the stage for you -- I'm sorry. Let me set the stage for you here in Arizona. We're expecting new numbers today. But according to the latest figures, Arizona now has the highest per capita seven-day average of new coronavirus cases in the United States, and half of those infected are age 20 to 44, according to the Health Department. So with that in mind, this debate over closures is really what's dominating the conversation here.

The mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego, would like to see new closures including banning dining inside restaurants which is still allowed here but she doesn't have the power to do it. She said over the weekend in an interview that she can't do that on her own. She needs the governor's office to let her do that. The pandemic is really putting a big strain on things here in the

Phoenix area. For the past few days, statewide ICU beds have hovered at about 90 percent capacity and that's remaining the case. Here -- we're here in Phoenix at a fire station because their fire department union posted an impassioned plea to Facebook telling people not to call 911 with minor COVID symptoms because of a, quote, "alarming rate of infection among firefighters here."

The department told CNN that 61 sworn members, 61 sworn members of the fire department here in Phoenix are now -- have come down with COVID -- with the COVID virus, Erica.

HILL: Wow. Amazing that they had to put that notice out as well. Evan McMorris-Santoro, in Phoenix for us this morning. Thank you.

We have just learned that Regeneron's COVID-19 antibody drug is now moving into phase three trials. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to explain what this means.

Elizabeth, good morning. So what does this tell us that they're moving now into phase three?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is really exciting news. There is so much hope for these kinds of drugs. They're a little bit a cross between a treatment and a vaccine. What it is, is they take antibodies that fight off the disease and instead of making a vaccine along this theory, they actually use it as a drug, take the best antibodies so that you can give it to patients.

Let's take a look at these clinical trials that they're moving into, Erica. It's basically in three different groups. They're going to try out their drug in patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19, patients who are at home with COVID-19, so not as ill obviously, and also as a prevention for people who are living in a house with someone with COVID-19 who are at high risk of getting it.

And if you add all of those up it's 4,900 patients who are going to be involved in these clinical trials. Now these trials typically take months. They are not quick, but it is quicker than getting a vaccine -- Erica.

HILL: OK. So we'll keep an eye out for those.

Meantime, hundreds of the world's top doctors, Elizabeth, are now warning 239 of them signing this letter saying they want more public acknowledgment that the coronavirus can float and be transmitted through air droplets. But I have to say when I read this, I thought to myself, don't we already know this? Isn't that why masks are so important?

COHEN: Right, this gets very confusing and sort of a distinction that scientists understand, but sometimes it's hard to really get. So let's talk about this. Mostly what authorities have talked about, you can see it on the CDC's Web page, is that it's spread through sneezes and coughs. In other words, there has to be something propelling it. However, there's been a lot of talk that even just breathing can spread it, that you don't really need that kind of propelling to get it to get that to spread the virus.

And this is not a big secret. The National Academy of Sciences told the White House this more than three months ago, that they think just breathing can spread this virus. And so now, these scientists, more than 200 of them, are telling the World Health Organization, let's talk about this openly. The word airborne is scary, but let's talk about this openly, that this does spread more easily, it seems, that's what studies are showing, than people had first thought.

[09:10:09]

HILL: Interesting. We'll watch to see if there's any change there in the messaging. Meantime, when it comes to contact tracing, we've talked so much about how it is vital to stopping the spread of the virus and how it's frankly not being done in a lot of places, and you have a new investigation out this morning speaking to that. What did you find?

COHEN: Well, we found Erica in Florida, which is now the nation's number one hotspot as we just heard from Rosa, that their contact tracing is not necessarily going so well. We asked 27 patients with COVID, diagnosed in Florida, hey, did you get a call from anyone at the health department saying tell me your contacts so that we can get in touch with these people and quarantine them. Out of those 27 only five got that phone call.

When we talked to experts about this, they were not surprised. I mean, look, Florida had more than 11,000 new cases on Saturday, which set a record for the United States, even more so than New York on its worst day back in April. When you have 11,000 new cases, they don't think about the cases that already existed, it's very hard to do consistent contact tracing.

So it really does not seem to be working well in these areas with such a large number of patients.

HILL: Elizabeth Cohen, always good to see you, thank you.

Still to come, President Trump announcing another campaign rally this week as he continues to push for more in-person events despite the rise in coronavirus cases.

Plus the number of cases in Brazil surging past 1.6 million. Still that country's largest city, SAO Paulo begins reopening today. We're there live.

And at least five children killed during an uptick in shootings across the nation this holiday weekend. Five children. The latest violence comes as communities wrestle with the role of policing in the wake of George Floyd's death. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HILL: This weekend, coronavirus cases surged in the U.S., hospitalizations spiked and all of this happening as the president planned a new campaign rally for this Saturday. CNN's Joe Johns is at the White House with details for us this morning. Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica. Just within the last few minutes, a meeting of the coronavirus taskforce has been put on the White House schedule for 4:00 Eastern Time today. That meeting is going to be closed to press at least as far as we know right now. Now, the coronavirus taskforce did not meet over the holiday weekend, and it's important to also point out that in the early days of the pandemic, they met quite regularly, but certainly not this last weekend.

Meanwhile, even before that went on the schedule, we did find another addition, that would be the Trump-Pence campaign rally that's been scheduled for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Saturday. This is a rally we're told will be outdoors in New Hampshire, around 8:00 p.m., also a press release went out indicating that there will be an ample supply of hand sanitizer, masks will also be provided to individuals who want to go to that rally.

And they're also being provided with that obligatory limitation on liability document they have to sign in order to attend. So we know that is going on as well. It's interesting, of course, because this will be the first campaign rally for the president of the United States since that controversial rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, not very long ago, in which two individuals who work for the campaign and eight Secret Service agents tested positive for coronavirus. Erica, back to you.

HILL: Joe with the latest for us at the White House, Joe, thank you. Let's turn now to the FDA Commissioner who refused to deny a false claim made by the president. Here is what the president falsely said and the commissioner's response, when he was asked about it directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, we have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases, 99 percent of which are totally harmless.

STEPHEN HAHN, COMMISSIONER, FDA: I'm not going to get into who's right and who's wrong. What I'm going to say, Dana, is what I've said before, which is that, it's a serious problem that we have. We've seen the surge in cases. We must do something to stem the tide, and we have this in our power to do it by following the guidance from the White House taskforce and the CDC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now is infectious disease specialist Dr. Carlos del Rio. Doctor, when we listen to what we heard from the FDA commissioner who wouldn't defend it, but certainly didn't deny what the president was saying there, his false claim of 99 percent, there's that, and then we also just heard just moments ago from the White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows who just doubled down on that number, and said that the 99 percent in his words came from actual numbers. Are you aware of those numbers that show 99 percent of cases are harmless?

CARLOS DEL RIO, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: Absolutely not, Erica, and I think that's wrong, that's not true, and that needs to be corrected immediately. I understand why the FDA commissioner was hesitant to contradict his boss, the president, but I'm not hesitant to contradict the president. The president is wrong. That's a lie and that needs to be corrected.

HILL: How damaging is that information that is out there, and that again we're now hearing, you know, the White House double-down on it?

DEL RIO: Well, I think it's wrong because misinformation I think is really hampering the response of this epidemic. Whether it's misinformation about masks, whether it's misinformation about transmission, whether it's misinformation about not being a serious disease, whether it's misinformation about having enough hospital capacity, whether there's misinformation that more testing is why we have more cases.

[09:20:00]

All the misinformation is actually not helping our response. And in fact, the lack of good information is really one of the major hurdles to a good national response we have.

HILL: Well, looking when it comes to information, the FDA commissioner said it was quote, "too early to tell", whether it would be safe for Republicans to hold a convention activity in Jacksonville next month. At this point, based on what we do know, to your point, based on the information that we do have, is it safe for anyone to hold a convention anywhere next month?

DEL RIO: Well, call it a convention, call it a church event, call it a wedding, anything that brings a lot of people, anything that creates crowding indoors is not safe right now. And I would discourage people to attend whether it's a convention, whether it's a wedding, a funeral, anything that brings a lot of people into one close space is not where you cannot wear masks, where you cannot social distance is not the right thing to do at this moment.

HILL: As we look at the numbers that we're seeing across the country, I mean, these records being set daily in the new hot spots, more than 11,000 cases added in Florida on Saturday, 9,999 yesterday, L.A. breaking these records, almost 12,000 new cases reported. There's also the death rate which right now is about 4.5 percent. There are folks who are looking at the number of deaths versus the number of cases though, and saying look, the number of deaths is going down. It's not as serious. We don't have to worry as much.

It's younger people getting infected. They don't get as sick. What's your response to that? What do you see in that 4.5 percent death rate, which is higher than the flu?

DEL RIO: Well, I think there are several things. Number one is that, yes, there are younger people getting infected who have a lower mortality. Yes, we've gotten somewhat better at managing this disease, so our mortality is coming down, but at the same time, let's face it. It's real. This mortality is not insignificant. And the reality is mortality lags behind cases.

So you see cases going up right now, you're going to see mortality go up in a couple -- in a couple weeks. Because the U.S. epidemic is not one epidemic, it's a combination of multiple epidemics. And I can tell you that in Florida, they're starting to see cases -- mortality goes up. In many of the states, they're starting to see mortality goes up. It just lags a couple of weeks.

So don't be -- don't be fooled by that. The mortality is significant, can be very significant, and particularly if you're over the age of 65, or in particular, you could be young -- I have a -- you know, a young person in the hospital very gravely ill because this person has obesity and diabetes. If you have obesity, diabetes, hypertension at age 30, you're more like a 70-year-old person.

HILL: We're also learning who is impacted, and we've known some of this, but the data really backing it up now. "The New York Times" reporting this morning that according to new federal data from the CDC, Latino and black people are three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, and nearly twice as likely to die from the virus, and it is not just about comorbidities as we know. There's a lot more that goes into why the rates are higher.

DEL RIO: It is -- it is about social determinants of health, or shall we say social determinants of disease. It's about poverty, it's about housing, it's about employment. If you work -- you know, I have the privilege of being able to telework. Teleworking, shelter in place is a privilege, but people that live in crowded conditions with multiple people, multi-generational households, people that are front line workers that aren't able to protect themselves, put themselves at higher risk.

So, I think we need to say as it is, poverty and social determinants of health are driving the epidemic. This is an epidemic of health disparities. And until we take health disparities seriously and we address them as a nation, we're going to continue to see health disparities throughout our country.

HILL: Dr. Carlos del Rio, always appreciate your insight. Thank you.

DEL RIO: Thank you, Erica.

HILL: Like the United States, Brazil is reopening, despite a rise in cases there. In fact, its biggest city begins that process today. CNN's Bill Weir is there.

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, few countries have politicized coronavirus like the United States and Brazil. And now they're one and two in infections and deaths. Today, we'll talk about the political implications of a president that seems pitted in a race to the bottom of flattening the curve. A live report from Sao Paulo coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

HILL: Brazil's largest city is reopening even as cases surge. Today in Sao Paulo, bars, restaurants and salons are open for business. More than 1.6 million people have had a confirmed case of coronavirus in Brazil, nearly 65,000 have died. CNN correspondent Bill Weir is in Sao Paulo this morning. Bill, so what are officials saying here as the city reopens? How are they keeping people safe? Do they have any advice on that?

WEIR: Well, Erica, it's very similar to what's happening in the United States. No countries have politicized this pandemic like the USA and Brazil. It starts from the top down. Their presidents dismissing it early on as nothing more than a minor flu, showing disdain for wearing masks, clashing with their health experts. You remember when some worried about Donald Trump firing Dr. Fauci?

Well, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil did fire his top health minister because he was recommending quarantines and social distancing. His replacement lasted a month before quitting in frustration. Now, a general with no health experience is running the pandemic response for a country of 200 million people. Now, of the 27 states in Brazil, 20 are opposed to President Bolsonaro's sort of laissez-faire attitude towards the pandemic.

And so places that includes the state of Sao Paulo, where we are here. The governor, the mayors of these cities are trying to keep their people safe and are often at conflict with the federal government as things are going on.