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COVID-19 Causing Logjam in British Legal System; European Union States Discuss COVID-19 Stimulus Plan; Israelis Demand Economic Relief as Restrictions Resume; Widespread Flooding Affecting Millions Across China; Personal Protective Equipment Shortages Still a Problem; CNN Anchor Boards First Flight in Months; Interview with Dr. Kim Schrier, House Representative, on COVID-19. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 14, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, the big question, once you should survive COVID-19, can you get it again?
All major studies indicating, yes, that's the case.
What does that mean for a vaccine?
The U.S. says it will begin production in just weeks.
A pandemic logjam of the justice system means locked in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
And 7 years, ago the owner of the Washington Redskins vowed they never would have their name. Never has arrived and a racial slur looks set to be banished to history.
The latest surge in confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. are 3.3 million, means 1 percent the entire population has tested positive. But the real world number is likely to be much higher, one study from MIT suggests it could be as high as almost 18 million. Globally, infections have topped 13 million with the death toll closing in on 600,000.
Brazil has reported more than 0.25 million cases and the U.S. leads the world and death and infections.
California's governor is ordering bars to close, restaurants to end indoor dining and will close gyms, hair salons and places of worship. Meanwhile, the U.S. president is backing off White House criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The administration was criticizing the nation's top infectious disease expert. But on Monday Donald Trump said he has a good relationship with Dr. Fauci, even if they don't always agree.
At least 35 U.S. states are seeing infections climb and President Trump is trying to blame that on more testing. CNN's Nick Watt has that and the day's other headlines.
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NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): California is closing down again.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Effective today, requiring all counties to close their indoor activities, restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, card rooms and the shuttering of all bars.
WATT: For counties like Los Angeles on the governor's watch list of the worst, there's even more shuttering.
NEWSOM: Fitness centers, places of worship, offices for non-critical sectors, personal care services -- that includes hair salons, barbershops -- and indoor malls.
WATT: Meanwhile, Florida is smashing records, more than 15,000 new COVID cases Sunday, the most logged in any state, any day, ever.
MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R-FL), MIAMI: We have to get control of these numbers. These numbers are out of control.
WATT: Disney World just opened two parks, but if you don't wear a mask, you won't get the photo from your ride. Seriously, that's part of the enforcement.
As for masks around the country, there is still no federal mandate. Even though --
DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: We can turn this thing around in two to three weeks if we can get a critical mass of people wearing face coverings.
WATT: Meanwhile, in Texas the average daily death toll just doubled in a week. Harvard researchers say these eight states should also roll back reopening.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You don't necessarily need to shut down again but pull back a bit.
WATT: Dr. Fauci says in large part because --
FAUCI: People in some states who went from shutdown to complete throwing caution to the wind.
WATT: Atlanta already rolled back to phase one, the mayor and her family recovering.
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D-GA), ATLANTA: We are a textbook example of how quickly this virus spreads. We had one child in the house who was asymptomatic. I was also asymptomatic and my husband doesn't have any underlying health conditions and this has hit him really hard.
WATT: Internal CDC documents uncovered by "The New York Times" suggest fully opening K-12 schools and colleges would be the highest- risk option and that's what the Trump administration wants.
MERCEDES SCHNEIDER, PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER: It is a political roll of the dice for us and we are the dice, the teachers in the classrooms.
WATT: Los Angeles, second largest district in the nation just said school will start back in August, online only. There is a way out of all of this. New York City opened slowly,
(on camera): Now in Los Angeles and San Diego school districts have both said that kids will not be back in the classroom for the start of the fall semester. They say they will only be back in the classrooms when the public health conditions allow.
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WATT: And as the governor of California said, this virus is not going away anytime soon. Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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VAUSE: One reason perhaps why so many in this country seem oblivious to the huge threat posed by the coronavirus is because, much like the president, they're confident that soon there will be a vaccine that will be a magic bullet.
On Monday, an unnamed senior administration official told reporters it's a matter of weeks before production begins on a vaccine, saying the White House is very confident that by year end we will have tens of millions of vaccines put into American arms.
Also, Russia could start distributing a vaccine next month. And looking beyond that by a few months, Europe and China and Australia all say they are on track as well.
So this should be good news, right?
But is it?
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VAUSE: Well, joining me now is Dr. Kim Schrier, who's a pediatrician and also an elected member of Congress from Washington State.
So it's good to have you with us. Thank you, Doctor and congresswoman, Representative.
REP. KIM SCHRIER (D-WA), PEDIATRICIAN: Thank you, John. Very nice to talk with you.
VAUSE: Thank you for being with us. It's appreciated. So one of the big unknowns about the virus right now. Once you've had it, can you get it again?
I want you to listen to what the World Health Organization said on Monday.
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DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We don't know yet whether it's possible with this particular virus, whether the virus -- once you've had an infection and recovered, whether one can be infected again.
We do know with other coronaviruses that that is the case.
And there is some data out there that may suggest that immunity will wane.
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VAUSE: And there's a new study out (inaudible) from the U.K. which has found that protective antibody responses in the coronavirus that causes COVID-1, quote, "appear to wane rapidly. Whilst longer lasting in those with more severe disease, this is still only a matter of months."
There's an earlier study which found asymptomatic patients had weaker immune response. Another study from Spain reported immunity lasts just a few weeks as well.
So -- and I know it's a long question. But if all this proves true, what does that race in terms for the vaccine, which is under production right now? How much does the bar get lifted in terms of making this vaccine to be effective?
SCHRIER: Well, I think you raise some excellent questions. You're absolutely right.
We still don't know whether antibodies that we make naturally protect us and for how long. And so we really can't answer that question about a vaccine until it's gone through all of the clinical trials that we need.
And so I think people should just exercise a degree of caution.
What we heard back in February was that it would take at least 12 to 18 months to have a vaccine available. But I think people forget the "at least" in there because we still don't have an HIV vaccine. I think the fastest we've ever developed one has been four years.
I just we should have a degree of caution here because we still don't know whether a vaccine is safe, whether it's effective, how many people have an immune response and how long that response will last.
And there's a lot to learn before we just decide that this is all going to be over in four months or so. VAUSE: Exactly. I'm just wondering if it would be sensible just to give up on the vaccine right now and just don't expect there to be one.
But I'm also wondering about the pace of the development here. Is speed coming at the expense of public safety?
SCHRIER: No, I think this is really widely misunderstood. That what we're trying to do -- in these cases, you either overshoot or undershoot.
And so in this case, we have many companies working on vaccines. Several of them who are kind of leading the pack are going to be put in a position where they can research the vaccine, see if is safe and effective and at the same time before they even know if it is going to be the winner, they will start production.
And that means we may produce millions of doses of an ineffective vaccine.
But it would be pretty awful to get to the day where you say, "Hey this vaccine works," and now we're going to scale up production, we want it available as soon as possible.
That's why the Congress devoted so many resources to the development of vaccines and therapeutics.
VAUSE: Well, we heard from President Trump on Monday. He continues to boast about doing a great job in dealing with this pandemic. And I guess that the now includes reopening schools nationwide.
(INAUDIBLE), listen to this.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Schools should be opened, kids want to go to school. You're losing a lot of lives by keeping things closed.
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VAUSE: He went on to say that kids want to go back to school but they also don't want to kill their grandparents.
If the White House and Congress actually allocated funding which many have been asking for to refit classrooms and schools for the reality of a pandemic world, it would've still been risky to send kids back, right? But they've done nothing.
SCHRIER: Well, you're right on multiple accounts.
First of all, let me just be really clear that, as a pediatrician, as a mom, as a member of Congress, I can say that we all understand that children are better off in school.
But we need to make it safe for them to be there and safe for their families to know that if their children go to school, they're not going to bring the disease home and infect their parents.
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SCHRIER: And so, it's all good and fine to just say open the schools. But, you're absolutely right, that we can't put the community at risk.
Also, no country out there has opened schools without first getting control of this disease. And we are utterly failing in our country right now to get the numbers down.
And until we wrap our heads around that -- I really feel like the adults in this country are not behaving as adults. And we're really letting our kids down.
It's our fault that they're not going to be able to go to school in the fall.
VAUSE: Yes. So I want to finish up with two theme parks, same corporate owner but two different parts of the world.
Both theme parks were actually reopening, state and local officials in one region, let's call it Region F reported a spike of 15,000 new cases in one day. The other, we'll call it Region HK, saw 52 new cases, that's just 52.
So which park would you expect to close down again?
The one (INAUDIBLE) by 15,000 new cases or 52? Because it was 52, Hong Kong Disney was closed down, but Disney World in Florida, how about it, they're still going.
How do you explain that discrepancy?
SCHRIER: I was discussing that very issue with my husband just about an hour ago.
About the notion that a big kind of explosion of cases in Hong Kong is 52 cases and they take that so seriously and they clamp down and they get control so that it does not become the wildfire that we have here in the United States. In so many of the states.
Here, I think that there is an under-appreciation and I have to say that I think a lot of that comes from the top.
That we have had a lot of downplaying, a lot of rhetoric about how this is under control from the administration. And it's just not true.
And I think at first parts of this country thought oh, it's just New York, it won't affect us here. Well, now it's in -- it's everywhere, it is in every state, it is in rural America and people need to wake up.
We know how to deal with this, we just have to do it.
VAUSE: Yes. I don't what people don't understand about more than 130,000 dead people. That just is a staggering toll. But we're out of time. So thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
SCHRIER: Thank you.
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VAUSE: Well, the death toll in Peru, has gone to more than 12,000, after 180 fatalities were reported on Monday. They say they confirm nearly 3,800 new cases. But despite this the government is moving ahead to open the economy, transportation services will resume this week.
Overall Peru has confirmed, more than 330,000 cases, 5th largest in the world, second largest in Latin America. Brazil has 2 million confirmed cases, at least 260,000 were reported in the last week alone.
Many infections are being reported in rural towns and indigenous communities are being devastated, Bill Weir is reporting, as the president there downplays the threat.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A long lens found Brazil's most famous COVID-19 patients up in about this weekend. And this Twitter selfie was part of a post that inform the nation there on the verge of recession, as he called for families to depoliticize the pandemic, after so much, quote, "misinformation was used as a weapon."
To his critics, that is outrageous since President Bolsonaro often defied a judge's order to wear a mask in public and pushed out two health ministers who disagreed with him. Now he has a team of doctors, in his own palace ICU at the ready, hospitals across his country are jammed.
Here in the geographic center of Brazil, a husband and wife suffer in adjoining beds. A son comforts his ailing father and their doctor is still regaining his strength after 10 days in intensive care.
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WILSON VILETA, BRAZILIAN DOCTOR: So today, my boss, our boss, is inside with the ventilation with tube.
WEIR: Really?
VILETA: Yes. Be better.
WEIR: My gosh.
VILETA: And does not respond to the chloroquine.
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WEIR: Chloroquine is among the cheap, abundant, antimalaria drugs pushed by Bolsonaro as a COVID cure, along with vitamins, steroids and medication for parasitic worms. Dr. Vileta says he has tried them all with wildly mixed results.
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VILETA: I do not know what to do. What do I do?
WEIR: Right.
VILETA: Water?
WEIR: Yes, water.
VILETA: Yes. Yes.
WEIR: You have very little -- you are trying everything you can.
VILETA: Yes. Yes. It is a new disease.
WEIR: Yes.
VILETA: It's a new -- it's a new pandemic. So we don't have things to do it.
WEIR: He says it's even more challenging treating the indigenous Brazilians who once had this edge at the Amazon to themselves but are now surrounded by farms and ranched, a soybean trucker first brought COVID-19 to this region.
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WEIR: And it is tearing through a community already struggling with vulnerable immune systems, diabetes and a deep mistrust of the outside world.
"I would like Jair Bolsonaro to stop talking stupid nonsense," Crisanto Rudzo tells me. The doctors have to prescribe, not the president. His government did not take prevention seriously. It did not prepare.
The indigenous leader was on a ventilator when his mother died of COVID-19.
"We have a very strong spirituality. So she was there. And took my hand and told me I would get out of this to take care of my people. Five days later, my father died.
As the pandemic spread, Brazil's Congress passed a bill that would provide clean water, disinfectant and hospital beds for this country's 850,000 indigenous natives. Last week, those efforts were vetoed by Jair Bolsonaro -- Bill Weir, CNN, Brazil.
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VAUSE: Better late than never, still ahead, after years of controversy, the Washington Redskins are changing their name. But why now?
What does this mean for other NFL teams with racially offensive names?
Also doctors and nurses in the U.S. once again facing a shortage of personal protective equipment, CNN investigates when we come back.
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VAUSE: The Washington Redskins will retire its controversial name and logo. The word "redskins" is considered an ethnic slur, being denounced by Native Americans. The team's head coach is telling "The Washington Post" the new name will honor both the military and North Americans.
While the team's owner long resisted any change, pressure from corporate sponsors as well as protesters made this happen. Christine Brennan is a CNN sports analyst and columnist for "USA Today."
Good to see you again. Let's start with the wayback machine, the year 2013. This has been an ongoing thing for a long time. The owner said, it will never change the name, it's that simple, never. You can use caps. You can use capitals.
In the historical context, the big picture here, how important is this?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: I've been lucky enough to be in Washington for most of my career and I covered the team back in the mid- to late '80s when they actually won games, which they have not over the last 20 to 30 years.
They were a great team, a great tradition and they were beloved in Washington. What always was a point of contention was the name.
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BRENNAN: It's racist and there's no doubt about it. Try explaining that to a 12 year old. If we wanted to start a team now with that name, you could never do that, so this would flare up and then it would go away for a while.
But in 2013 when Snyder told my colleague, never, put it in caps, that's the time that I decided we couldn't use that name anymore. So other journalists and newspapers and news organizations have not used. It why?
Now the George Floyd murder, the tragedy on Memorial Day, bringing up the issue of Black Lives Matter, protests around the country. People started to ask, what about this, name and it became a corporate issue with FedEx, PepsiCo, Nike, Bank of America, all putting pressure on the owner to change the name. Money talks and that put that over the edge.
VAUSE: Money talks indeed. Atlanta's baseball team will still be called the Braves even though American Indians as called for a name change and an end to the tomahawk chop with this cliche Western music from the '50s or something.
The race issued a statement which said, we are continuing to listen to our Native American community, our fans, players and alumni to make an informed decision about our experience.
Why did the fans have a dog in this fight?
The team came from Milwaukee; the chop came from Florida in the 1990s.
BRENNAN: This is when leaders do not lead, the people in charge of the team are trying to pass it off as some other issue, when in fact they should take charge.
The Cleveland Indians have done that. And I'm going to guess that the name will be gone and the Braves name is living on borrowed time. There's no way in this climate that that name can last much longer. And the tomahawk chop is an embarrassment, not only the Atlanta Braves, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Super Bowl champs.
Football teams at universities, they all have the tomahawk chop and they cannot sustain that. So they will all be gone. So why not have leadership do the right thing, instead of trying to poll fans? Unfortunately that Braves need to take charge of this and they have not.
VAUSE: That's one of the issues that, everything has been bubbling along. It looks like it will change and it did not, this is a change where it will happen.
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VAUSE: Christine, thank you for being with us.
Now to racism in European football, part 2 of our interview with the English Premier League's Christian Kabasele. He reflects on being racially abused every two weeks in Bulgaria where he played from 2011- 2012. From monkey chants to bananas being thrown at him, even being called the N word by a fan, he faced some horrific racist behavior.
He spoke to "WORLD SPORT" contributor Darren Lewis in March.
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DARREN LEWIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was worse when you are in Bulgaria, wasn't it?
CHRISTIAN KABASELE, WATFORD DEFENDER: Yes. And it was every 2 weeks when we were playing away, monkey chants and sometimes a banana. I remember, especially in one situation, I was waiting for the bus to leave. So I was outside on the phone with my wife. And one fan came up to me and said he had -- you are F and the N word.
You are F and the N word. Just like that, just like that. Nothing happened during the game but he came to me and said this and then he left with his friends.
So when you see this kind of thing, you understand the people there are really close and don't want to be open to somebody from another culture, another country. Even for the Federation there, nothing changed.
LEWIS: Christian, educate me, why do players play football in countries where the racism is that stark?
KABASELE: To be honest, at that moment, I was young.
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KABASELE: I was 20 years old and I didn't realize that the problem was that big there. I just wanted to play football and Bulgaria at the moment was the best place to play football. I didn't realize that there were that kind of racism in that country.
Now you tell me that you can go there with this kind of country, I would probably say no because I don't want to do this again.
LEWIS: Lots of players go to countries where there is a big racism problem and no real will from the people who run the game in those countries to deal with it.
Do you believe that black players are thinking more about or thinking twice about going to those countries?
KABASELE: I do. I think they have to because you know how the situation is and you will not get the same support as if you play in England or France or I don't know where. Sometimes it's difficult as well because some players don't have many choices to play.
And sometimes that's the only place where you can play football. So to live your dreams sometimes you need to make a sacrifice. And when you accept to go there, you need to be strong in your head and know in advance that you will probably be alone against everybody.
Because even my teammates or people said to me, this was nothing. So you are alone against everyone and you need to be strong in the head to not give up.
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VAUSE: A spokesperson denied his allegations of abuse. They told CNN it's very strange for me to read this because it's not true. We are a very tolerant nation.
CNN also contacted the Bulgarian football association, asking for comment and we are waiting to hear back.
Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, when a pandemic meets British justice, it seems children are the unintended victims. We will explain this.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
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Wearing masks will be mandatory in English shops beginning July 24. A face-mask wearing prime minister, Boris Johnson, urged the country to do likewise. His comments came a day after a top cabinet minister said wearing them should be left to people's common sense. Here's what Boris Johnson had to say.
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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I do think that, in shops, it is very important to wear a face covering if you're going to be in a confined space, and you want to protect other people and to receive protection in turn. Yes, face coverings, I think people should be wearing in shops.
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VAUSE: Masks have been mandatory on public transport in England for the past month. They're already required in shops in Scotland, which as its own country, has its own powers and a public health policy.
Britain has the highest coronavirus death toll in Europe, almost 45,000.
The coronavirus pandemic is creating logjams in the British prison system. Right now, children are being held in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day. That's against U.N. guidelines. But English and Welsh prison officials say it's necessary to save their lives.
CNN's Phil Black investigates.
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JUDE LANCHIN, LAWYER: Start a conversation -- Oh, God.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The wheels of English justice are grinding painfully slowly because of COVID-19. Lawyer Jude Lanchin and a colleague are trying to establish a video call to a client's prison.
LANCHIN: Miracle, wow, very frustrating as you can imagine.
BLACK: After almost 30 minutes, they finally bring in the client.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
LANCHIN: Hello.
BLACK: COVID-19 prison rules mean Lanchin and the person she's representing have never met or even seen each other until this moment.
LANCHIN: Nice to meet you properly and see you. Wow, baby face. Honestly. Gosh.
BLACK: We can't identify him; he's only just turned 16. In custody since early April, his trial is postponed indefinitely because of a vast legal backlog created by the pandemic.
And COVID-19 prison restrictions mean he must wait, alone in his cell for 23 hours a day. Little education, exercise and support, no visitors, including lawyers and family.
LANCHIN: How is your mental health? How is this all impacting on how you're feeling?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before I'd say I'm very stable in that sense, but now it's like, yes, I can be fine one second then the next second it's just -- I would say it's deteriorating. And I realize it's myself, that's what's kind of the worrying part like, I see it myself. I can be fine one second and then I'll think of something and then my whole mood just changes. I struggle to sleep.
BLACK: He's not alone. The latest figures for May show 614 children in custody in England and Wales. This is what some of them have told their lawyers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being stuck in prison is awful. Never mind coronavirus, now it's even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're in your room 23 and a half hours a day. I'm used to it now, but it's depressing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm bored, stressed out. It's just low.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stressful, behind my door all day, getting to my head.
BLACK (on camera): They've all been living through what Unite Nations guidelines define as solitary confinement, 22 hours a day without meaningful human contact. And those guidelines say it should never be used on children.
The prison service for England and Wales hopes to begin relaxing that confinement in the coming weeks and says it knows the restrictions are difficult for children, but they're based on expert advice, and it says that has helped save lives.
Not good enough, says lawmaker David Lammy.
DAVE LAMMY, BRITISH LABOUR M.P.: I'm appalled. Coronavirus is a challenge to the system, but it is not a call for democratic countries like our own to abandon norms that we have fought hard for in this country. It's very, very disappointing and why that we're treating young people in this way.
BLACK: Lammy's review into English and Welsh prisons confirmed a well- known suspicion black and other minority children are disproportionately represented. They now make up just over half of children in prison, while minorities are only 14 percent of the U.K.'s general population. Lammy says that means they're also suffering disproportionately in solitary confinement.
LAMMY: Many of them will have experienced trauma in different aspects of their life, and many of them would have been pimped (ph) or abused by adults that have put them in this criminal setting. And that's why it's hugely serious to treat them in a way that further damages them and further impacts on their own well-being and state of mind.
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BLACK: Jude Lanchin and her colleague are still working to get their client bail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
LANCHIN: OK. Yes, take care.
BLACK: The U.K. has made many difficult decisions to stop the spread of COVID-19.
LANCHIN: My God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't sand it.
LANCHIN: He's so young. I mean, he really is a child.
BLACK: Few should be more difficult than depriving vulnerable children of freedom and support.
Phil Black, CNN, London.
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VAUSE: With the E.U. continuing to haggle over a stimulus package, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says there's no guarantee that a deal will be reached, which should make the E.U. summit this weekend relatively interesting.
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ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): On Friday, we will discuss this and how to reach a common ground. The positions are still far apart, and I can't tell you whether we will find a solution on Friday or Saturday, but it would be very good for Europe.
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VAUSE: The E.U. is pushing for a consensus on the block's $850 billion recovery fund to cushion the financial blow from the pandemic. Well, coronavirus restrictions are once again in place in Israel after a surge in the number of confirmed cases, and now many are protesting and demanding economic relief from the government.
CNN's Oren Liebermann reports.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the streets of Tel Aviv, the numbers are going up. First, there's the number of protesters. Police say more than 10,000 people filled Rabin Square to demonstrate against the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis, demanding economic aid, and held signs that read, "Economic war" and "Free the money."
YIGAL SHILOAH, PROTESTER: I don't feel that they are doing enough to support us. We -- we eat our savings. We -- we don't get any -- any money.
LIEBERMANN: Then there's unemployment, which hit 21 percent this week, according to the Israel employment services. Over the weekend, 1,250 citizens return to work, more than twice that number file for unemployment.
MAAYAN ELIASI, PROTESTOR: I can't train. I can't prep. I can't work. I can't get money from the country. My clients can't come and train, and I've had enough of it.
LIEBERMANN: And there's coronavirus, which has surged to record numbers of new cases a day. Israel is struggling to contain in July what it thought it had under control in May.
The numbers have all put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who promised up to $2,170, and soon, to unemployed and business owners who qualify.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This support, this grant is not dependent on legislation. And we ordered that it will be enacted already today. The button will be pressed so the money will arrive in accounts in the next few days.
LIEBERMANN: One number that is falling: Netanyahu's approval rating in the handling of the coronavirus crisis, from 74 percent in May to 46 percent now.
Last week, Netanyahu held a Zoom call with business owners, trying to placate their fears. Instead, he became the target of their anger.
"My husband and I, we don't know what to do. How are we going to live?" this woman tells the prime minister. "We never got anything in the first round or the second round. There's nothing that we can do. We need a serious solution.
LIEBERMANN: Politically, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, faces no real threat from the right or the left, but he has to contend with a second wave of coronavirus on a tide of economic hardship.
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VAUSE: That report there from Oren Liebermann.
Now, a U.N. report says the coronavirus pandemic could mean 130 million people around the world are left with chronic hunger by the end of the year. Hunger was already on the rise because of the economic slowdown and the climate crisis. Now comes the pandemic.
Africa has been hit the hardest, followed by Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. This all means the world is not on track to reach the U.N.'s goal for reducing hunger by 2030.
In China, heavy rain, severe flooding has impacted millions of people across the country. Rising waters have submerged streets, destroyed buildings. Many have been forced to leave their homes. Our man in China is David Culver.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): China's government mobilizing into what one official calls wartime mode, splitting its efforts between containing the novel coronavirus to now stopping widespread flooding. It's already proven devastating and deadly.
Heavy downpours in recent weeks have left multiple parts of the country submerged. Officials say the rising waters are surging through roughly 27 provinces, cities and regions, impacting more than 37 million people, forcing about two million residents out of their homes.
At least 147 people are missing or presumed dead.
This man telling local media it is my responsibility, and it's everyone's responsibility, to work to contain the floods from further spreading. The hardest hit areas are along the Yangtze, Asia's longest river. It flows East through cities like Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
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The bustling metropolis first paralyzed this year by the brutal 76-day lockdown. Now, it sits soaked by relentless rains.
In eastern China's Jiangxi province, officials have raised the emergency response for flood control to its highest level.
Lakes and rivers are surpassing record depths. Both state and social media capturing the many images of destruction and despair.
Multiple rescue efforts now underway, from crews carrying a newborn to safety, to offering their backs to an elderly man, unable to wade through the currents alone.
And the search for survivors happening late into the night.
For those who make it to dry land, humanitarian teams setting up shelters and dishing out meals. "Currently, we have planned three relocation sites," this volunteer
explains, adding, "What you are looking at right now is a classroom in a primary school. We can house up to 240 people in this school."
But notice, in this age of COVID-19, very few here are wearing face masks. Instead, they're focused on the immediate threat that officials say has already destroyed some 28,000 homes.
The harsh currents have carved out a portion of roadways, isolating residents, and forcing urgent repairs. From above, in places where the flooding has yet to recede, a web of muddy waters marks city streets.
China's central government allocating some 165 million U.S. dollars to disaster relief, but they warn the damage already done is nearing $12 billion.
For the second time in a matter of months, life in central China brought to a halt, first battered by the virus, now wrecked by raging floodwaters.
David Culver, CNN, Beijing.
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VAUSE: Well, coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, is it a tra -- a truce, rather, or a pause. The man trusted by the least number of Americans over how to handle the pandemic backing away from a war with the man trusted by more Americans than anyone else. More on that in a moment.
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VAUSE: Donald Trump would like you to believe that everything is just great between him and the man who more Americans trust than any other to deal with the pandemic. In fact, the president says he even likes Dr. Anthony Fauci. That's after implying over the weekend that Fauci was incompetent at his job.
CNN's Jim Acosta explains.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After spending days railing against Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Trump and his top aides seem to be pulling back on what appear to be a campaign to undermine one of the nation's most trusted health experts.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci. I've had for a long time, right from the beginning. I find him to be a very nice person, and I don't always agree with him. No, I get along with him very well. I like him.
ACOSTA: Even though his access to the president is all but cut off and his TV appearances have been blocked by White House officials, it's Fauci who is still offering Americans a dose of reality, warning the coronavirus pandemic remains a danger to the public.
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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We haven't even begun to seen the end of it yet.
And until you get it completely under control, it's still going to be a threat.
ACOSTA: Even as coronavirus cases reached record numbers in multiple states over the last few days, White House aides have blasted Fauci anonymously, telling reporters several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.
ACOSTA: Why not have the guts to trash Dr. Fauci with your own aides?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So President Trump, I'll refer you back, there's no opposition research being dumped to reporters. The notion that there's opposition research, and that there's Fauci versus the president couldn't be further from the truth. Dr. Fauci and the president have always had a very good working relationship.
ACOSTA (voice-over): While sometimes questioning the expertise of Fauci, who was once awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Mr. Trump appears to be putting his faith in people who aren't scientists, retweeting this tweet from former game show host Chuck Woolery, who claims, "The most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust."
Even though he's just recently embraced wearing a mask and is still downplaying the threat posed by the virus.
TRUMP: We're at about 135,000, and we'll be at somewhat higher than that by the time it -- it ends.
ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is offering up a new conspiracy: unnamed forces are working in cahoots to keep schools closed to damage his reelection chances.
TRUMP: We have to open the schools. We have to get them open. And I think there's a lot of politics going along. I think they think they'll do better if they can keep the schools closed in the election. I don't think it's going to help them, frankly.
But I think they feel that by keeping schools closed, that's a bad thing for the country, and therefore, that's a good thing for them.
ACOSTA: That came a day after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos falsely claimed there is no health risk in sending children back to school, when it's likely some students will pass the virus on to teachers.
BETSY DEVOS, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: There is nothing in the data that would suggest that kids being back in school is -- is dangerous to them. And in fact, it's more a matter of their health and well- being that they be back in school. ACOSTA: Former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is
acknowledging there have been problems with the administration's response, writing in an op-ed on CNBC's website, "I know it isn't popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a testing problem in this country."
MCENANY: My reaction is that we've tested -- we lead the world in testing.
ACOSTA: As for his decision to commute the sentence of former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone, the president is standing by the controversial move that was opposed by some top officials in his own administration.
TRUMP: I'm getting rave reviews for what I did for Roger Stone.
ACOSTA: Attorney General William Barr, who said he approved of the Stone prosecution, is now praising the president.
WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: First, let me say what an honor is for me to serve under a president who's such a strong supporter of law enforcement.
ACOSTA (on camera): As for Fauci, the last time he spoke with the president was on June 2, more than a month ago. White House officials concede it would be difficult to fire Fauci.
And I'm told Fauci believes the best thing he can do is to continue to tell the truth about the virus to the American people, and that he has accepted the fact that he can do not do much to stem the criticism coming from the White House.
Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.
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VAUSE: It was just a few months ago, regular reports from doctors and nurses about chronic shortages of face masks, gowns and gloves, and other equipment, and now they're telling CNN that shortage of personal protective equipment never really went away.
CNN senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has our report.
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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a face mask Nurse Judith LaGuerre will use in a Massachusetts hospital this week, dirty, re-used. One of three she has to recycle, disinfect on her dashboard.
JUDITH LAGUERRE, NURSE: And the sun will heed the mask and we will leave him there for a few days, and then use them again.
GRIFFIN: Hardly sanitary, but health workers say there just aren't enough masks. Out on Cape Cod, Michelle Brum says it's one recleaned mask a shift. MICHELLE BRUM, NURSE: They wanted you to re-use that mask multiple
times, and they send it for cleaning.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Then how often are you are using the same mask?
Brum: They do this process five times.
GRIFFIN: Across the country, nurses, doctors, some state health officials contacted by CNN say the lack of personal protective equipment, or PPE, is their most dangerous challenge, with N-95 masks the toughest to find.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is something that we were talking about four months ago.
GRIFFIN: The American Medical Association has been begging the federal government "to direct the manufacture, acquisition and distribution of PPE."
DR. LEANA WEN, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It's a national shame that we ran out of masks and other PPE to protect our healthcare workers. There was no excuse in March and even less of an excuse now.
GRIFFIN: This month, a Democratic congressional House Oversight Committee concluded lack of leadership from the Trump administration is forcing state and local governments, hospitals and others to compete for scarce supplies.
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The National Nurses United union just endorsed Joe Biden because of what it calls "Trump's abandonment of public health and safety."
JEAN ROSS, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED PRESIDENT: It's not just N-95s. It's everything. We really need the president to fully invoke the Defense Production Act so he can mass produce the things that will keep us safe. Until this point, he has refused to do so.
GRIFFIN: The Department of Health and Human Services disputes that account, telling CNN it has "moved with deliberate and determined speed to ensure we secured supplies and equipment needed by frontline U.S. healthcare workers."
HHS listed 19 companies that have received orders under the Defense Production Act, or DPA, to acquire emergency supplies, including 600 million N-95 masks.
But experts say it's not enough, and it started far too late. Only half of the masks ordered will be delivered by the end of this year.
KELLY MAGSAMEN, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is going to be a very serious and persistent challenge for the United States, you know, for several months, if not longer.
GRIFFIN: Kelly Magsamen, a former Pentagon official under the Obama administration says the Trump administration hasn't used the full power of the Defense Production Act.
MAGSAMEN: The administration listened a little bit too much to corporate interests early on in the crisis. The DPA was not used early enough nor aggressively enough to put us in a position to get the kind of equipment and PPE we need, in time.
GRIFFIN: Some major hospitals tell CNN they are making their own deals to buy ever-scarcer supplies, some even stockpiling PPE. But smaller hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices are left out of the supply chain, jeopardizing even routine medical care, according to the AMA.
DR. SHIKHA GUPTA, GETUSPPE.ORG: A few months ago, we're in this really dire emergent situation, and our hope was that that situation would change and improve. And it's really unfortunate that here we are in the middle of July, and things look more or less the same as they did in mid-March.
GRIFFIN: Early on in the pandemic, Dr. Shikha Gupta helped certain organization to do what the federal government has not: trying to fill shortages of PPE where healthcare workers were going without. Today, she says her group has 13,000 requests. They can fill just ten percent.
GUPTA: It shouldn't be this way in the United States. We had the opportunity to do a better job of preparing ourselves and preparing the people that we're trusting to care for COVID patients. And we didn't do that. We really fell short as a country.
GRIFFIN (on camera): And according to a medical supply chain expert, it will only get worse in the weeks and months ahead, as school systems enter the market, trying to get protective gear so they can reopen.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Atlanta.
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VAUSE: Well, buckle up. We're taking to the pandemic skies with CNN's Richard Quest when we get back. His first flight since the outbreak began.
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VAUSE: Well, months after air travel all but came to a screeching halt, passengers are slowly coming back. And that includes CNN's Richard Quest, a man passionate about travel and flying, and a COVID- 19 survivor.
He boarded his first plane since the pandemic hit, an emotional journey, to be sure.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So my first flight in nearly four months, which is the longest separation from aviation that I've had in, I don't know, 35, 40 years.
The airport is quiet but not unduly quiet. There is definitely a heightened sort of expectation, tension, apprehension, whatever you want to call it, of exactly what to expect at each different piece of the puzzle.
The airport is pretty sparse. All the restaurants seem to be closed, or at least, it's not immediately obvious where you can get something to eat. Everything is getting ready, and perhaps will be, but it's not there yet.
I have done this fight so many times, and yet, it does feel different, knowing the circumstances and knowing the powerless (ph) state of the airline industry. Being aware of the number of flight attendants and crew that are about to lose their job. Something that has been so normal for me, so special, is now very different.
(voice-over): If you look at a flight as being, the plane took off, the engines kept going, and the pilot knew the way, it was pretty much like any other flight. But it was far from that.
(on camera): I got quite emotional. For somebody who travels so much like me, it really was quite an experience. The first flight after four months, and everything is totally different.
The vast slipstream sculpture at the Queens Terminal. So I arrived Heathrow, and the start of what I'm pretty sure will be many flights in the weeks and months ahead.
It is all very different, and you can't exactly say it's a particularly pleasant experience, but we will get used to it, and we will start traveling again. And soon, we'll wonder -- well, this is just the way it is.
Richard Quest, CNN, Heathrow Airport, London.
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VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. I will be back with a lot more news after this.
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