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White House Taskforce to Hold Briefing As COVID Cases Surge; President Trump Ratchets Up Pressure on Schools to Reopen. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired July 08, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Any moment now, we expect to hear from members of the White House coronavirus taskforce holding a briefing at the Department of Education today. So it is safe to assume reopening schools will be a big focus today. Ahead of this briefing, the president tweeted out this morning that he disagrees with CDC guidelines on reopening schools, calling them tough and expensive. And he says that the CDC is asking schools to do very impractical things.

He's also now threatening schools nationwide that he'll try to cut funding if they refuse to reopen on time. Here's how he put it yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The schools will be open in the Fall, and we hope that most schools are going to be open. We don't want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. They think it's going to be good for them politically so they keep the schools closed. No way. So we're very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Everyone agrees getting kids back in school is hugely important and a top priority, but how to do that when there are now rising cases in 35 states is a puzzle no school administrator has yet to figure out. Joining me now is the former Secretary of Education under President Obama Arne Duncan to talk about this. Secretary, thanks for coming back in. First and foremost, I just want your -- where your head is right now, and do you think schools can open in the Fall?

ARNE DUNCAN, FORMER SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: Well, Trump has been just catastrophic in his leadership and has made himself totally irrelevant in this conversation because of what the federal government hasn't done. Everybody, every educator, every parent, myself as a parent, we all want our kids to go back to school, but we can only do that if it's safe to do so. You know, we as a nation simply have failed to do the things that would make our schools and our communities safer. And so what we'd have to do now in the month of July is make those

small sacrifices to give our children a chance to go back to school physically in the Fall. We have to wear masks. We have to stay away from the beaches. We have to stay out of the bars. We have to not do the indoor dining, and if we're not willing to do that, we're going to rob our children of a tremendous opportunity.

I desperately want us to go back to school this Summer, you know, to start now and make up for the loss of learning during COVID. But we as a nation simply haven't done those things that other nations have done. That has cost us, unfortunately, thousands and thousands of lives and is costing our children really important learning and social and academic opportunities.

BOLDUAN: You would be the one person, one among few, who would know this very specifically. Can the president of the United States cut funding to schools nationwide?

DUNCAN: No, again, he just -- you know, just bullies, he threatens and truth of the matter is, you know, very little mileage from K to 12 comes from the federal government. I wish they were really investing, they didn't put -- you know, they didn't put real money into the stimulus package. And so, you know, he may try and bully or bluster, everybody wants to go back to school. We have to do it in a way that is safe.

I think most schools will probably try and open in a hybrid situation with certain children going, you know, maybe Monday, Wednesday, you know, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, maybe Saturday, maybe morning shifts, maybe afternoon shifts. This is going to be very complicated and complex. There will be certain children where it's not safe for them to go to school at all because they're living at home maybe with a grandmother or a grandfather that's very much at risk.

So we'll have to accommodate their learning at home. There may be certain teachers who can't teach. And the flip side of that, they can't teach in a physical environment and will have to teach virtually. But you also may have certain children who the mom and dad may be an essential worker where they need to be in school every single day because it's not safe for them to be at home.

And so we're going to have to think through all this stuff, you know, community-by-community, school-by-school, grade-by-grade, and do it with an unbelievable level of thoughtfulness and compassion.

[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: It is -- what you just laid out is just even a slice of it, right? Just the schedule of it. It is complicated. It is complex. It is different school district from school district, school-to-school even. It is not an insurmountable challenge.

You know school administrators can do this, you know teachers can do this if they are allowed to put their heads together to do this. But I'm also wondering when you hear the president criticize CDC guidelines of safe reopening, calling them expensive. Can you make this complicated strategy work with less money, without more money?

DUNCAN: Well, folks have called for a huge influx of resources, and again, the president, just as he's fundamentally dishonest, disingenuous has lost all credibility on this issue a long time ago when he said everything would be open by Easter, and he was just telling people to take Lysol, where he said this thing would magically disappear. So no one trusts him, no one is paying him any attention.

But to your point, superintendents are working on this unbelievably hard, we're working on this together in a thoughtful way. Everyone is helping each other, but yes, the federal government must invest in education. We have to be safe. We have to have masks. We have to have the ability to test frequently. We may have to put in place, you know, Plexiglas shields around desks, you know, hallways are going to change, food, everything is going to be different, unfortunately.

Like you say, this is going to be one Fall, just one Fall and we have to do this the right way for our kids, for our teachers, for our principals, for our parents at home. This is our common humanity that's never been so clear, hopefully. And unless we're willing to do the right thing we're going to rob our children.

BOLDUAN: Right, I will say this, though. You've said that he is irrelevant, he's kind of made himself irrelevant in this conversation, but people are still paying attention to what the president is saying. I'm hearing from mayors that the messaging coming from the president is hurting their efforts, not helping because it is confusing. So what is your advice, then to the governors --

DUNCAN: Well, if you listen to anything --

BOLDUAN: To state education commissioners. Are you saying ignore the president and go it alone?

DUNCAN: No, they're not going alone. They're working together and to give the leadership at the local and state levels has been fantastic. But if anyone is listening to the president on this issue, they're doing it at great peril to themselves and their community. And as I talk to schools superintendents around the country as I've talked to principals, as I've talked to state school chief officers, no one is paying any attention to what he's saying.

They're trying to actually problem-solve in a level complexity in detail and honesty that he has no interest in.

BOLDUAN: We have so many more -- I have so many more questions and things I'd like to go over with you, secretary, let's continue this discussion. This is the preeminent important topic to be discussing in the coming weeks as we head towards the possible reopening of some schools in the Fall.

How to do it safely, how to get it right because really, as you said, just like we saw with many communities, but especially with schools, you've got one chance to get this one right for the safety and health of our students, our kids and the teachers who are standing at the front of the class. Thank you so much for coming in. DUNCAN: Thanks for the opportunity.

BOLDUAN: So we are just moments away from hearing from the White House Coronavirus Taskforce. They're going to be briefing from the Department of Education. Let's see what they say. Do they agree with the CDC guidelines on safely reopening schools where the president does not? If they don't agree, what is their plan as they're demanding that schools reopen in the Fall? We're going to bring that to you in a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:00]

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here at the Department of Education of our ongoing effort to focus on a mission to save lives, meet the needs of our states, our healthcare workers, to protect the vulnerable and to safely reopen America and reopen America's schools.

As you will hear today, from Admiral Brett Giroir, at this point we have tested more than 39 million Americans, among those, more than 3 million Americans have tested positive, and more than 1.3 million Americans have recovered.

Sadly, more than 133,000 Americans have lost their lives and our sympathies are with all of the impacted families. And while we mourn with those who mourn, because of what the American people have done, because of the extraordinary work of our healthcare workers around the country, we are encouraged that the average fatality rate continues to be low and steady.

And at days earlier this week, it was actually 90 percent lower than at the height of this pandemic. Again, it's a credit to the sacrifices the American people have made that the extraordinary work that our healthcare workers are doing, and we pledge this taskforce working in partnership with governors all across the country as we're going to continue to work our hearts out, 24 hours a day, to continue to keep our losses low.

In just a few moments, Dr. Deborah Birx will outline the data that we're seeing around the country. We're tracking literally state-by- state, county-by-county, but as she will describe in a moment, we are actually seeing early indications of a percent of positive testing flattening in Arizona and Florida and Texas.

Governors in each of those states have taken strong steps to flatten the curve, and again, as Dr. Birx will describe, we're beginning to see early indications that positivity is flattening, and in Arizona and Florida, we are beginning to see declining numbers of emergency room visits as well.

We believe the takeaway from this for every American, particularly in those states that are impacted as -- just keep doing what you're doing because we're starting to see the first indications that as we were able to do in the northeast, as we were able to do in New Orleans and Louisiana and Michigan and other places around the country, we're putting into practice those mitigation efforts, and we're beginning to see indications that they are having a good effect.

We are focused on the states where more than half of the new cases have arisen. Texas, Arizona, Florida, and California, and have received encouraging reports even through this morning -- strong supplies of PPE in hospitals, hospital capacity remains strong.

The one need that we did hear from governors across the region is for personnel. And over the last week, working through FEMA, the Department of Defense and HHS, we've been processing requests to deploy over a 1,070 doctors and nurses and medical personnel.

At this point, roughly 525 doctors and nurses are on the ground in Arizona and California and Texas, and we're processing a request from Florida for an additional amount. We've made it very clear as we -- if you'll recall, we deployed at the president's direction, active-duty military medical personnel to New York, to New Jersey, to Connecticut, to Michigan, to Louisiana.

[11:45:00]

And we're in the process of doing that again just to make sure that those dedicated doctors and nurses and healthcare workers have the relief that they need as we see cases rising in various communities across the Sunbelt, and we'll continue to work that. We had a conference call yesterday with the nation's governors. We are in the process of continuing to send every week a detailed county-by-county summaries, analysis and recommendations to governors that are being -- that are being implemented and well received.

Now, we also are issuing renewed guidance on preservation and reuse of PPE. Again, what we're hearing and not just speaking to governors, but talking directly to hospitals is that, frankly, because of the historic effort that President Trump implemented to spin up hundreds of millions of supplies of gloves and masks and face shields, and as well as the construction of ventilators. We now have 59,000 ventilators in our supplies.

PPE, we hear it remains very strong, but we're encouraging healthcare workers to begin now to use some of the best practices that we learned in other parts of the country to preserve and to reuse the PPE supplies. So our focus is to make sure our states have everything they need when they need it, and we're working closely with all of the governors to make that a reality.

But what brings us to the Department of Education is as we see to the needs of our states, we focus on the healthcare of the American people, we're working to reopen America and to reopen America's schools. Yesterday, President Trump convened a summit of education leaders and health officials at the White House, and as the president made clear yesterday, it's time. It's time for us to get our kids back to school.

And at the summit yesterday, gave us an opportunity to outline and to learn what we might be able to do then. And in just a few moments, I'm going to ask Secretary DeVos to talk about the approach the Department of Education is taking to assisting local communities and states in bringing their schools back online. And also we'll hear from Dr. Bob Redfield who has been literally since early in this pandemic, providing guidance to schools and will be issuing additional guidance next week.

I wouldn't want to pass the opportunity, though, not just as Vice President, but as someone who has been married to a school teacher now for 35 years, just to say thank you to all the teachers out there. From early in this pandemic and teachers learned how to do the distance teaching and did a remarkable job. Often times, having to care for their own families and make sure their own children's studies were happening.

And so to all of our America's teachers, we say thank you. We also want to say thank you to the parents, the parents who had to step in and become educators for all their kids, it's really been remarkable when you see what our kids have been able to accomplish during this difficult time. But what we heard again yesterday from education officials and what we heard from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's absolutely essential that we get our kids back into classroom for in-person learning.

We can't let our kids fall behind academically. But it's important that the American people remember that for children that have mental health issues, for special needs children, for nutrition, for children in communities facing persistent poverty, the school is the place where they receive all those services.

And so this is not just simply about making sure our kids are learning and they're advancing academically, but for their mental health, for their well-being, for their physical health, for nutrition.

We've got to get our kids back to school. And as you heard, the president yesterday and even again this morning, we're absolutely determined to work in partnership with our states to give the guidance for states and communities to be able to safely reopen our schools. The CDC will be issuing new guidance next week, and part of a five- part series of recommendations that will give all new tools to our schools about what Dr. Redfield made clear yesterday, I'm sure he'll make clear again today, is, we're here to help.

[11:50:00]

We don't want federal guidance to be a substitute for state and local laws and rules and guidance. We are here to assist with the shared objective that I think is shared by every parent in America, which is we want to get our kids back. We want to get them back in the classroom. We want to get our teachers back in the front of those classrooms.

We've got to get our kids learning in person once again. As Congress is still in recess, but will gather again soon, we already are in discussions about additional potential support, although we were able to remind governors that $13.3 billion is available in the CARES Act for states to be able to assist them as they roll out and restart schools across the country.

At the present moment, we learned yesterday that only 1.5 percent of those funds has been drawn down by states, and we encourage governors to take advantage of that. Our objectives as I said are to save lives, meet the needs of our states and their healthcare workers. Protect the most vulnerable and safely reopen America and safely reopen our schools.

And the good news is, we are -- we are reopening America. The jobs report last Thursday spoke for itself, nearly 5 million jobs created. And I can tell you, evidence all around the country is that the American people are finding a way to do their part, to put the health of their neighbors first, even while we all find a way to get back to work, to worship and to school.

And we all have a role to play. To slow the spread, to protect the most vulnerable and to safely reopen our country, and our schools. And so, I would just -- I would just close before I turn the podium over to Dr. Birx for her report, just simply to say thank you to the American people.

Thank you for what you've done so far. Thank you for the way you've put the health and well-being of not just family members and friends but strangers. People you didn't even know at first, and we just encourage you to keep doing what you're doing.

Keep heeding the guidance of state and local authorities. Practice good hygiene, wash your hands, wear a mask wherever a state and local authorities determine it's indicated or wear a mask where you can't engage in social distancing. This is the role each of us can continue to play, and we're seeing some early indications in some of the most impacted states that Americans are doing just that. So we want to encourage you on and tell you that we're going to continue to do our part.

And I'm just absolutely confident, just as we proved when this pandemic was striking so deeply in the northeast, when it was striking in Louisiana and in Michigan, the American people know what needs to be done, and we know we can do it, and we flattened -- we flattened the curve before. We slowed the spread before, and we can do it again. But we've got to all do our part and we'll do it together. With that, Dr. Deborah Birx and then we'll get a report from Admiral Giroir before we move on to other reports. Dr. Birx?

DEBORAH BIRX, PHYSICIAN & CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR FOR THE WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASKFORCE: Thank you, Mr. Vice President, if I can have the first slide, please, and I know some of you do watch what I wear. I'm wearing this especially today.

This came from the Salt River tribe. I just want to -- mask can be a fashion statement. And I want to thank the Salt River tribe, it was a real pleasure to be out and speaking to individuals around the United States about the issues that they're facing with COVID-19, to be able to meet with communities, hospital personnel, African-American communities, Hispanic communities and our pride tribal nations. That was a privilege last week. I want to start with Arizona. Just to

pick up where the Vice President left off. That orange line is the number of tests performed, and the blue line is the test positivity. Now, this is at the level of the state. And Arizona does have three counties that we're tracking very closely. Obviously, you know the largest one being Phoenix and Maricopa County. But this does show that the blue line which is a five-day, a seven-day average -- and thank you to the data team for these wonderful slides.

The five -- the seven-day average is showing some flattening, and I find that encouraging. Also equally encouraging at this point because we know that the test positivity rate is the first thing to increase, and we're hoping that it heralds a stability in Arizona of at least reaching a plateau in their curve. The red line represents the emergency room visits for any of the COVID-like symptoms, and this is also an early indicator and we find that encouraging.

The next slide does show the counties that we're tracking, obviously, the largest county being Maricopa County with the largest number of infections, but clearly there's issues in Houma and Pima. The Vice President mentioned the weekly reports that go to governors. This is what the report looks like. This one is their full side pages.

[11:55:00]

This is Alaska's, on the front page is our interpretation of what we're seeing relevant to their epidemic. With specific recommendations related to where we see them as far as being in a danger zone. They are coded by yellow and red. And it follows that they see everything you're seeing on that first report and boxes -- warning boxes, and then each of the counties are represented so that they have in one place five pages from the White House and taskforce that summarizes what we're seeing and that goes out weekly.

Next slide, please. This looks at Florida, and you can see in the same way the red line, early suggestions of decreasing emergency room visits for the symptoms of COVID, and some stability starting in that blue line hoping that heralds a stability in the number of daily reported cases. We also understand that we went through a holiday weekend and holiday weekends can impact data on both ends.

Under reporting through the weekend, and then catch-up reporting on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after a holiday weekend. Next slide. This shows the counties of Florida that we are tracking. These are the top ten counties in Florida, and you can see each of them have a different profile. I want to call your attention to the counties that are across the bottom there, that are more difficult to see.

Some of those represent Jacksonville and other large metros including Tampa. When the governor talks about how they were steady and low for a long period of time after reopening, this is where that is reflected for almost five weeks after reopening. Clearly, there was something that happened, though -- and there's that we're looking into across the board. Because whatever happened in Florida happened across the Sun Belt, and that all of the curves and all of the findings are mirrored. If you remember early on in March and April, we were talking about

first, the New York Metro followed by Boston, followed by Philadelphia, then Chicago. And New Orleans was with the New York Metro, and so it was a series of individual curves.

In this case, whatever occurred, occurred almost simultaneously across the south. And so we're investigating that very closely to really see the etiology behind that, because that can help us as an early warning signal, but also help us in guidance to the American people of what we're asking them to do. Next slide.

Texas. And you can see Texas is in a similar situation with their blue line. And we're watching this very closely across Texas. Next slide. But I think all of you know that there's a series of major metros in Texas with significant increase in cases from Houston to Dallas to San Antonio to El Paso and McClellan area. And so the governors get this type of report with specific recommendations.

And then finally California. Where you can see -- next slide, thank you -- again a long time of stability, but then this increase in the number of test positives and rapid increase in cases. Next slide. And you can see the majority of the issue is in the Los Angeles area, although we see this through Riverside, Imperial or Sacramento and now San Francisco with increased number of cases.

So I want to finish with where the Vice President started about the sacrifices of the American people because in that recommendations, a very clear recommendations that when you have a county with these types of cases, we are recommending everyone using a face covering.

And I think the studies now that have been done showing that cotton- face coverings work, that does open up the ability for us all to have individualized face coverings that express our personality.

But in addition, I think the work that these governors have done to -- and asked the American people to stop going to bars, to close the bars to move to outdoor dining, to decrease indoor -- any kind of indoor gatherings again, to all of the Americans out there that are in these four states and the states that have -- in the report were in the red zone because there's a series of other states that we have in that zone is really asking the American people in those counties and in those states to not only use the face coverings, not going to bars, not going to indoor dining.

But really not gathering in homes either. And decreasing those gatherings back down to our phase one recommendation, which was ten or less. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Report on testing.

BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, UNITED STATES: Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Since we're breaking on our face coverings, this was made by a small religious community in Pennsylvania who were helped by the Public Health Service, and they hand-sewed these for a lot of our officers to match our operational dress, this blue uniform. So, I wear this proudly and I think of that community every single day, everybody pitching in across America to help us all.

So, in terms of testing, I'm going to cover three quick topics, first one is just where we are numerically?