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Top Medical Expert Offers Bleak Outlook for U.S.; Trump Takes Aim at China over Hong Kong; Hong Kong Tightness Restrictions amid "Third Wave"; India Could Soon Reach 1 Million COVID-19 Cases; Sources: U.S.-Canada Border Closure Extended; Mexico Extends Border Closing with U.S. Until August 14; Brazil Nearing 2 Million Cases and 75,000 Deaths; Michigan Party Leads to Dozens of Infections; Gun Violence and Murders Spiking in U.S. Cities Amid Pandemic; TikTok's Stars Stuck in Political Quagmire. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired July 15, 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, back to the future: governors across the U.S. roll back reopening, as the number of infections continues to surge.
Sanction to sanction and from bad to worse, the diplomatic spat between Beijing and Washington continues to escalate.
And from springtime protests to a summer of violence, what's behind the crime waves in the U.S.
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VAUSE: There are new and dire warnings to report about the coronavirus and the leading infectious disease expert in the U.S. saying this pandemic could approach the seriousness of the mother of all pandemics, the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed tens of millions of people.
And the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of challenges ahead if Americans fail to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Dr. Robert Redfield says the autumn and winter could be one of the most difficult times for the United States with the coming flu season expected to overwhelm health systems.
He warned COVID-19 could be around for up to 3 years without a vaccine. But now there is promising news from biotech company Moderna, says a vaccine candidate was found to treat immune responses from all the volunteers it has in a phase one study. The company says more research is needed and is expected to begin the final trials later this month. All this comes as coronavirus cases are rising dramatically, not just
in the U.S. but also around the world. Latin America and the Caribbean have now recorded more fatalities than the U.S. and Canada. Both are reporting a higher death rate per capita.
And the U.S. has confirmed over 3.4 million cases nationwide. And with the infection rate rising each day, more than half the country is pausing its reopening plans. More from Nick Watt.
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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 50,000 Americans are right now in the hospital, suffering with this virus.
We are nearing the numbers from the dark days of April. The vice president was in Louisiana today, where the average daily case count already eclipsed April.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because of the unprecedented national response marshaled by our president, we have more resources today to deal with this pandemic than ever before.
MAYOR DAN GELBER (D-FL), MIAMI BEACH: You can't keep telling people that everything is fine and not to worry because this is not a virus that responds to political speaking points.
WATT (voice-over): At least 27 states have paused or rolled back reopenings but case rates are climbing in 30 states.
More people were reported dead from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours in Florida than ever before.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Some of the metrics have risen.
WATT (voice-over): But the governor did not specifically mention the deaths. A member of Florida's cabinet says he has lost control.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The governor continues to downplay the seriousness of what's happening in Florida. Quite frankly, we've seen very little to no leadership from Governor DeSantis.
WATT (voice-over): North Carolina announced its pausing on phase 2 for another 3 weeks. Chicago just canceled its marathon, Philly canceled all big events for 6 months and in California, every bar and indoor restaurant just closed again. Los Angeles is currently threat level orange.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are on the border of going to red. Red is when everything shuts down again, everything, to our strictest level.
WATT: We hoped warmth would bring respite.
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: I was one of the individuals who thought we get a break in July in August.
WATT (voice-over): It didn't. So the director of the CDC says he is reluctant to make predictions. But --
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REDFIELD: I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be one of the most difficult times that we have experienced in American public health.
WATT: Here in California, a record number of people in the hospital, a record number of people in the ICU, which is why this restaurant is no longer allowed to serve anybody inside -- Nick Watt, CNN, Santa Monica.
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VAUSE: Dr. Anish Mahajan is the chief medical officer with the Harvard UCLA Medical Center, joining us from Los Angeles.
Good to see you. Thanks for taking the time. I want to start with, Florida, Arizona and Texas, 3 states that all bungled the lockdown. They did not get it right the first time and that kind of explains why we are seeing the surging numbers there.
But in California, you have a situation where the governor acted quickly, issued a stay-at-home order decisively. But the cases are surging there as well.
So how do you explain that situation in California?
DR. ANISH MAHAJAN, HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: Well, what we are learning about this virus is that there is very little margin for error. You are correct that Arizona, Texas and other southern state hotspots reopened too quickly. They reopened at a time when there was still ongoing community transmission.
And they still had a lot of tests coming back positive, even as they were increasing their testing. These were a clear violations of reopening. In California, we were more responsible. We had a good stay at home, we did see community transmission go down, we did see the tests positivity rate go down.
But where we erred and we all have to protect from making the same mistake over and over is that we reopened too quickly. Not only did we reopen too quickly and overshoot our reopening but the public did not abide by the masking.
We had found that so many outbreaks of COVID have occurred in private gatherings, where people did not wear masks and they let their guard down. It occurred in small indoor spaces where people did not maintain their physical distancing.
It's occurring in workplaces that did not take care to ensure that their employees would be protected from transmitting the virus to each other in the event that they had it.
VAUSE: It looks like we came to the big thing here, when to reopen the economy. Now it's going to reopen schools. We heard from Kayleigh McEnany telling that the CDC says, it's all fine and there's nothing to worry about. Here she is.
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KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: I'd point you to the words of the CDC director, who said children are not very affected by this and typically are not spreaders.
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VAUSE: Typically not spreaders?
Since when?
From what I heard, there are equal number of studies that say they do and they don't. We don't know.
MAHAJAN: That's right. The science is still only emerging. There is some initial evidence that suggests that younger people may not be as effective spreaders as older children. Be that as it may, we know that reopening schools, most experts would say, in places that are hotspots, where there is a high amount of community transmission, is a dangerous thing to do, because even if young children are not great spreaders, they can still spread the virus.
And they come in contact with teachers, with their older siblings and with their families and parents and grandparents. So we cannot risk this kind of reopening of schools without being sure that we have a handle on community transmission.
The other huge problem that we have in the United States is that we have so little testing for COVID. Nationally, there is a shortage of the supplies needed to do testing. In fact, here in California, we are pulling back community testing and reserving the precious supplies of testing for those who are the sickest.
But if we are going to be able to control the virus in the community and if we want to reopen schools and businesses, people need access to testing in the event that they have symptoms so that they can protect themselves and others.
VAUSE: It does seem bizarre that this is still the case. And your hospital will be among those that will be sending information to that Washington (INAUDIBLE) information about the coronavirus, because it was this other previous system, which, according to "The Washington Post," about 3,000 hospital sent detailed information about COVID-19 patients and other metrics to the CDC.
The staff analyze the data and provide tailored reports to every state twice a week and multiple federal agencies every day. These data are used by local health officials to identify coronavirus trends. So a system that was set up and was in place. They want to deploy the National Guard to help collect the data, which seems odd. But the bottom line is that the CDC will be out of the loop.
[00:10:00] VAUSE: And yet four former CDC directors writing in an op-ed in "The Washington Post," warning the country's premier health organization is being politicized, they write, "We cannot recall over our collective tenure a single time when political pressure led to a change in the interpretation of scientific evidence."
Facts are facts but when people are politicizing science, the ones who have the raw data lock it away for no one to see, that seems to be a problem.
MAHAJAN: We are on a very dangerous path here and it truly is a failure of leadership at the highest levels. When leadership questions science and the very federal agencies here to protect the public using facts and evidence and the best known knowledge in the world, if they are going to cast doubt on these kinds of things, we are in big trouble.
One of the reasons that we as a nation have not succeeded in overcoming the virus so far is that we have cast doubt on the efficacy of masks. People are not fully convinced that they need to social distance.
As long as we have these doubts about the science and about the Centers for Disease Control and as long as our leaders are not setting the right example, it really is irresponsible to reopen our economy.
The thing about masks, we're out of time, thank you very much but wearing a mask is not like donating a kidney. It's not hard. Thank you for being with us.
MAHAJAN: Thank you.
VAUSE: President Donald Trump has announced new actions against China in a rambling address in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday. A new law imposing sanctions on businesses and individuals who helped China restriction Hong Kong's autonomy.
And he's ending preferential trade treatment of Hong Kong because of the new security law China has imposed.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hong Kong will now be treated the same as Mainland China, no special privileges or economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies.
In addition to that, as you know we are placing massive tariffs and have placed very large tariffs on China, the first time that has ever happened to China.
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VAUSE: CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me now live from Hong Kong.
And, if anything, clearly this relationship between Beijing and Washington is getting worse. KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. And China has responded to
this latest move by U.S. president Donald Trump, saying it will take, quote, "necessary measures" and impose sanctions on relevant U.S. entities, this after the U.S. president is signing into law the Hong Kong Economy Act, which effectively ends Hong Kong special trade status with the United States, allowing states to treat Hong Kong the same as China with regard to trade and commerce.
Everyone in Hong Kong has been asking the question, what does this new reality mean?
What does it mean for Hong Kong?
Number one, it will jeopardize tens of billions of dollars worth of trade between U.S. and Hong Kong. We spoke to one economist who told CNN it will shave off 10 percent of Hong Kong's exports, which is a significant number.
Also this move by Donald Trump creates uncertainty, for the 1,300-plus American companies that operate out of Hong Kong, including major law forms and accounting firms.
It also dissuades people around the world from investing in Hong Kong. But this move by Donald Trump will also hurt China, because Hong Kong or China is an important east-west conduit for international trade and finance, a number of mainland Chinese companies as well as multinational companies use Hong Kong as their international headquarters.
So when China says it's going to take necessary measures to retaliate, what would that look like?
We posed that question to an economist based here in Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Take a listen to what he told us.
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TERENCE CHONG, ECONOMIST: In terms of the retaliation of China, they may not have a lot of choice. China does not have that much (INAUDIBLE) with the U.S. So China may not impose any counter action on the (INAUDIBLE) with the U.S. I think the thing that China can do might be like I told (INAUDIBLE) China (INAUDIBLE) the U.S., that is what they may be able to do.
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STOUT: That analyst also says that by ending Hong Kong's special trade status with the U.S., it's a self defeating move for the United States because ever since the pact was in place between Hong Kong and the U.S. since 1992, America has benefited from business friendly conditions here in the territory.
In fact, last year Hong Kong was the biggest single source of U.S. goods trade surplus, which was worth some $26.1 billion -- John.
VAUSE: Donald Trump likes those trade services, so interesting times. [00:15:00]
VAUSE: Kristie Lu Stout, live for us in Hong Kong.
Well, a diplomatic win for the Trump administration with the U.K. banning Chinese tech giant Huawei from having access to its high speed wireless network. The move is an about face, that Huawei equipment could be used in its 5G network.
The British prime minister faced growing pressure to reverse the decision and, the Trump administration claims Huawei's ties to Chinese government will allow Beijing to use its equipment for spying or sabotage. Huawei says that would never happen. British officials say U.S. sanctions on Huawei have affected the security of its products.
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OLIVER DOWDEN, BRITISH DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT SECRETARY: The government agrees with the national security census advice. The best way to secure our networks is for operators to stop using new affected Huawei equipment to build the U.K.'s future 5G networks.
So to be clear, from the end of this year, telecoms operators must not buy any 5G equipment from Huawei. Once the telecoms security bill is passed, it will be illegal for them to do so.
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VAUSE: Jamie Metzl is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of "Hacking Darwin, Genetic Information and the Future of Humanity," assuming that there is, he joins me now from New York.
It's good to see you.
JAMIE METZL, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Nice to see you.
VAUSE: Are we looking at the start of a tech cold war here?
Britain is now following the U.S. with this ban.
Is there a domino effect?
Is there now pressure on Western allies like Germany?
METZL: I don't know if this is a tech cold war but it is certainly the start of a tech decoupling and you can really understand why. Any company, big company coming out of China, has to be assumed in one way or another to be the arm of the Chinese Communist Party.
Maybe not today but when push comes to shove, within their system, companies, big companies, don't have the power to go against the government. So as China becomes more aggressive, it can only be expected that companies and countries around the world are going to have to be more cautious. That's what we are seeing.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to how Britain's secretary of digital, culture and media describe the U.K.'s relationship with China moving forward from this point.
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DOWDEN: What we want is a modern and mature relationship with China based on mutual respect where we are able to speak frankly when we disagree but also to work side by side with China on the issues where our interests converge.
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VAUSE: Isn't that how the relationship used to be between Washington and Beijing in previous administrations?
It kind of worked OK.
Is it possible for that relationship to survive in these current times?
METZL: It will be very difficult. I don't know if the relationship with China was ever perfect. But the idea was that it would mature towards something better and more sustainable.
And what we have seen on both sides, the United States has become extremely erratic under President Trump. And China has become extremely aggressive under President Xi. And certainly, nobody around the world wants to live in the kind of world that China is imagining for the rest of us.
We can see that by what is happening in Hong Kong and South China and so many other places. It's a real tragedy that, just when we need American leadership most to rally around the kinds of principles that have underpinned this post-war world, we have just terrible leadership here in the United States.
And just when China needs to mature into a more constructive role in the world, China is becoming extremely aggressive, in large part, to take advantage of this unique COVID moment.
VAUSE: I want you to listen to how Washington now deals with Beijing. Here is the president.
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PRESIDENT TRUMP: Make no mistake. We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They could have stopped it. They should have stopped it. It would have been very easy to do at the source when it happened.
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VAUSE: We have talked about this before. Without a doubt, China has done some bad things because that's what China does. And there are some questions to be answered there. But it's a long way from that to the allegation being thrown around by the president. That's a big accusation to make and you want to have evidence to back it up. METZL: There is no doubt that China covered up information about this
pandemic before it even was a pandemic, for the first critical few weeks.
On my blog and my website, I put out all of the evidence, which is pretty sizeable, suggesting that this may have all originated from an accidental leak from one of the Wuhan Virology Institutes. Whether that's the case or, not there was a massive, massive cover-up that continues to this day.
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METZL: So certainly, China is part of the problem but it's not coincidental that so many people are dying here in the United States and seven people have died from COVID in Taiwan. And that is the terrible and fundamental failure by the Trump administration in preparing for and responding to this pandemic.
So I am all for pointing fingers. But if we point fingers at China, we certainly have to point fingers at ourselves here in the United States.
VAUSE: They don't like pointing fingers at themselves in the White House. Trump's economic adviser, Stephen Moore, wants to u the ante with Beijing. Here he is.
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QUESTION: Stephen, is the president seriously considering making China pay reparations for the COVID-19 pandemic?
If so, does he have a number in mind?
STEPHEN MOORE, TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: That's a great question. I have not talked to the president about that particular issue but I think it is on the table. I would strongly favor reparations. I think the American people would very strongly favor reparation payments from China. Their behavior has been, I would describe it as sinister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: He later went on to name a number of what the reparations would look like, between $500 billion and $2 trillion . That's a lot of money.
What happens if the administration actually goes out and makes this demand and Beijing does the diplomatic equivalent of, who will make me?
METZL: That may well happen. The administration will not be able to make this kind of claim unless there is sufficient proof about the origin story of this pandemic. And unless that points to this story that I think is actually quite likely, which is the accidental leak from one of the Wuhan Virology Institutes.
But it's not possible to do that investigation because China is still, in many ways, covering, up destroying evidence, silencing people. So China has a lot to answer for. But the United States has a tremendous deal to answer for.
And while we try to get to the bottom of how this pandemic started, we also need to do so much more to respond to the pandemic. We have had such a systems collapse here in the United States and that is why, in large part, so many Americans are dying.
VAUSE: It may be easier to find out how it started if you had it under control first in your own country.
METZL: But you can do both.
VAUSE: Exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Neither is happening though, it seems.
METZL: Yes, and that is why it is so tragic. In times like this, we really need leadership. You get a return on investment, of building a civic culture, building trust between people and their leadership. All of that has broken down here and we are really paying the price.
VAUSE: Jamie, thank. You get to see you.
METZL: My pleasure, anytime.
VAUSE: Still to come, social distancing like never before. Hong Kong has ordered the most severe restrictions yet because of another surge in coronavirus cases.
Plus, love thy neighbor but best stay at home. No welcome mat in Mexico and Canada for their friends from the United States.
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VAUSE: A rare backdown from the Trump administration which has reversed a controversial policy which would have seen international students banned who were only taking online courses. They would not be allowed to stay in the United States.
A number of states and universities had filed lawsuits. Some major schools are planning to move all courses online during the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration's policy would have impacted many of the more than 1 million foreign students currently studying and living in the U.S.
Hong Kong is once again imposing social distancing measures, the most severe the city has seen since the beginning of the pandemic. Officials say they are now facing a third wave of cases, causing infections to spike.
Gatherings will be restricted to 4 people or less. Masks are now mandatory on public transportation. CNN's Will Ripley live now in Hong Kong.
Will, 2 weeks ago Hong Kong seemed to have it all together. The virus looked to be contained.
Has there really been a significant uptick in the outbreak or is banning gatherings of 4 or 5 people or more a good way of banning protests altogether?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have spoken with 3 different experts in the field of infectious disease this morning and all of them agree that this has the potential to be the most serious outbreak of COVID-19 in Hong Kong today, even worse than what was considered the first and second wave in the city.
We are still talking about relatively low numbers in terms of confirmed cases per day, still in the dozens most days. But when you think about the fact that for weeks on end it was zero cases of community transmission and then when social distancing measures were eased, immediately we see a spike.
All of these experts agree that the easing of social distancing and people crowding back into bars and restaurants, having close conversations, loud conversations, that contributed to the spread of this.
There have been cases tied to taxi drivers, specific apartment complexes, senior centers. And as I mentioned, bars and restaurants, which now have to stop dining service in the evenings altogether. They can only take away.
And there could be more stringent measures on the way. People coming from certain countries are now required to submit negative COVID-19 test results to their airlines before they can fly.
That is why U.S. and Middle Eastern carriers are continuing the suspension of flights, here because it is just not viable for them to guarantee that kind of test result, given how few people are able to fly back and forth anyway.
But what I am being told is that if Hong Kong doesn't get a grip on this very quickly, these community transmission cases, many of which the original source of infection can't be identified, it could really explode in terms of size.
VAUSE: What are we hearing from Hong Kong public health officials?
They say the virus has mutated. That seems like a common occurrence but what do they actually mean by that?
RIPLEY: What the mutation means, according to the experts I spoke with, is it is about 30 percent more efficient in terms of replicating. It can replicate more easily. Another thing that can potentially happen is it can be more infectious as a result. A couple of professors told me they do believe this mutated virus is more contagious.
Another expert disagreed with that and said the evidence is still unclear at this stage. What we do know is that mutation can make it more difficult in terms of treatment. At this, point there is just so little information.
You have cases of community transmission and a potentially mutated virus here in Hong Kong. That is why these drastic measures are being taken despite the low numbers, because they very easily could not stay low for long if people don't enact these social distancing measures, which are the most far-reaching Hong Kong has seen so far.
VAUSE: More contagious, that's great. Bad news, Will. Will Ripley live from Hong Kong. We appreciate it.
This is CNN NEWSROOM. Still to come, India is set to reach a milestone they would prefer to never happen. The number of COVID-19 patients just keeps rising.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
[00:31:42]
U.S. President Donald Trump is punishing China for its treatment of Hong Kong. He signed a new law imposing sanctions on businesses and individuals who helped China restrict Hong Kong's semi-autonomy. He also announced an executive order, ending preferential trade treatment for Hong Kong because of the new security law which China has imposed.
A senior official has warned of difficult times this autumn and winter in the Northern Hemisphere if the U.S. does not contain the coronavirus. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says healthcare systems could be overwhelmed by both COVID- 19 and the coming flu season. He fears the virus could be around for up to three years without a vaccine.
The biotech company Moderna says its vaccine candidate is showing promise, with immune response found in all the volunteers taking part in the first phase of its study. The final phase of testing planned for later this month.
India could soon see 1 million COVID-19 cases. Numbers have been surging for the past days. And if that continues, it will hit the million mark by week's end.
Live now to CNN's Vedika Sud in New Delhi.
Vedika, you know, in just the past 24 hours, we're looking at the highest numbers of daily cases so far, just shy of 30,000.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're close to it, yes. But you know what's worrying? Is like you mentioned, John. This has been happening for the last four days. A single-day increase in numbers has been over 25,000.
In fact, the 900,000 mark, we reached that within about four days. And now we're inching closer towards the million mark.
Let me get you some figures, as well, for our viewers. Fifty percent of the cases in India actually are from two states, the states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Thirty-six percent of the total number of cases are from eight other states, so 10 states actually cover 86 percent of the number of COVID-19 cases in India currently. These are worrying numbers.
And, also, you have to understand that we have been unblocking the lockdown over the last month, and that has added to the numbers and the increase that we're seeing.
Maharashtra remains the worst hit, like we mentioned. Also, what's worrying, along with this, is the monsoon season that's going to hit the state of Maharashtra, especially the capital city of Mumbai. Illnesses also do happen because of that. Hospitalization also does happen because of the monsoon that hits Mumbai.
But in this case, after speaking to a few doctors, they claim that the numbers will be lower, fortunately, because not as many people are moving out and are going to offices, or moving on for other activities, which could lower the burden on Mumbai, which is already seeing overwhelming numbers, John.
VAUSE: I'm just wondering, how did it actually get so bad? I mean, there was this lockdown. You know, it seemed contained for a time, but then it just exploded.
SUD: Good question there, John.
So you do know India is the second most populated country in the world, so our numbers are anyway staggering. Over and above that, speaking to medical experts over the last few weeks and days, what I've got to know is that some of them claim that the unlocking down of India wasn't given as much thought as the locking down of the country which happened in March.
So that's one reason. People are out and about, and a lot of them also assume that once you're unlocking the country, things are coming back to normal, which of course, is not the case.
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So you see a lot of people, and according to doctors that I've spoken to, they've spoken to a lot of people coming out, you know, sitting together without masks. And that could be one reason leading to it.
The other reason also being that, at this point in time, you have these people going back to offices. Of course, it's not the total, you know, number of people or, you know, the full strength that's going back to offices, but quite a few are. And because of that, there's also silent transmission that is happening.
So I'd say it's the population of the country. It's also not enough thought going into the unlocking down of the country, according to medical experts. And people are still not taking it very seriously when the government has been reiterating, Wear your masks, exercise social distancing. That will save a lot of people from being infected -- John.
VAUSE: Good advice. Vedika, thank you. Vedika Sud there in New Delhi.
Well, no offense, Americans, but Canada and Mexico would prefer you stay away. Both countries are apparently not ready to open their borders with the United States just yet because of surging coronavirus cases across the U.S.
We have reports now from both north and south of the U.S. border. Matt Rivers is in Mexico City. But first, here's Paula Newton in Ottawa.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Canadian officials tell CNN that the U.S.-Canada border will likely remain closed until at least August 21.
More than that, though, the Canadian government, public health officials say they are stepping up surveillance at those land border crossings.
Now right now, essential workers are allowed to cross, so healthcare workers, essential employees for businesses, truck drivers, flight crews. But they want more surveillance on those borders to make sure no one is coming across with COVID symptoms and that people are abiding by a very strict 14-day quarantine.
As public health officials have said here in Canada, we have managed to flatten the curve here, they say, and we want to continue to monitor that situation in the United States carefully.
You know, no one has more at stake in terms of the surge in U.S. cases than Canada. They have a close economic relationship and a close personal relationship with so many people going back and forth.
But I think a lot of people here -- and polls show it -- that a majority of Canadians do not want to see that border reopened. And in the words of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, he's saying, Look, I love Americans. I just don't want to see them up here right now. He characterized some of the reopenings in the United States as reckless.
And Canadians are also showing, basically, you know, some apprehension about the reopenings even going on in Canada, even though there are only a few hundred new cases of COVID every day in Canada. They see what's happening in the United States and do not want to have to go through a resurgence of the virus.
Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa. MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we learned on
Tuesday that the land borders, both between the United States and Mexico, and the United States and Canada, will remain closed to all nonessential travelers through at least most of August. And that extends closures that have already been in place since late March.
But you can still get from country to country, and you do so by flying. So for example, I just got off of a flight from Houston, Texas, here to Mexico City. And looking at the arrivals board, that is one of more than a dozen such flights originating in the United States, landing here in Mexico City on Tuesday.
And it's happening in other parts of Mexico. For example, in Cancun, a very popular vacation destination for Americans, we counted more than two dozen flights originating in the United States on Tuesday, landing in that resort town.
This despite the fact that on Tuesday, we heard from the World Health Organization. They say that the outbreaks, both in the United States and Mexico, remain among the deadliest in the world.
And we also learned that this week from the Mexican government. They say more than 1,700 Mexicans that were living in the United States have died of this virus since the outbreak began.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
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VAUSE: Well, a record week of new coronavirus cases is forcing Columbus [SIC] -- Colombia's largest cities to go back into lockdown.
The capital of Bogota will be be divided into three areas where lockdowns will be rotated every two weeks. During that time, only essential shops are allowed open and only one family member allowed to leave the house to buy food and medicine.
Columbia's second largest city, Medellin, also reimposed a partial lockdown on Monday.
In neighboring Venezuela, the capital and surrounding areas are back under a total lockdown after starting to reopen last month. The president now says there has been a surge in new cases.
Venezuela has now passed 10,000 confirmed infections, reporting more than 300 on Tuesday alone.
In Brazil, the office of President Jair Bolsonaro told CNN it will not confirm if the president has taken a new coronavirus test, or if any details regarding the test would be released.
President Bolsonaro, who has downplayed this virus -- just a little flu, he said -- announced he was infected by that little flu last week.
CNN's Bill Weir has more now from Brasilia. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in Brazil, another day of grim numbers to digest. Maybe 43,000 or so confirmed cases, pushing the total near 2 million. Another 1,300 deaths. Now approaching 75,000 lives lost due to this pandemic.
[00:40:14]
Meanwhile, President Jair Bolsonaro remains in semi-isolation in the presidential palace behind me and is anxious to get back to work.
In other news, after Brazil's NASA put out satellite data that showed about 400 square miles of the Amazon was destroyed just in the month of June, President Bolsonaro fired the woman in charge of that data.
Bill Weir, CNN, Brasilia, Brazil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, France has allocated $9 billion for pay increases for healthcare workers fighting the pandemic. Medical workers were honored on Tuesday at a ceremony marking Bastille Day, the national day.
The government says those who directed treated COVID-19 patients will get a bonus of around $1,600, and now non-medical staff at hospitals will also get a pay increase of around $200 a month.
Next up on CNN NEWSROOM, partying during a pandemic. Health experts say young people attending large get-togethers in the U.S. are, yes, spreading the coronavirus far and wide. Well done.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: So what happens when you take a large gathering of young people, some loud music, a bit of partying, and mix in a hardy contagious virus? Well, in the U.S., you get a pandemic spike.
One recent party in Michigan led to dozens of new cases across state lines.
CNN's Tom Foreman has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Fourth of July holiday fallout is landing hard in Michigan, where officials say a single house party in the town of Saline has exploded into at least 43 confirmed cases of COVID.
SUSAN RINGLER-CERNIGLIA, WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN HEALTH DEPARTMENT: It sounds like, from our investigation that there were some folks at the initial event with some mild illness, and that's probably one of the reasons that we've seen it spread so quickly.
FOREMAN: Indeed, authorities say the party-goers carried the virus to stores, restaurants, other businesses, a canoe rental place, camps, even connecting with athletic teams and a retirement community, triggering confirmed infections in all those locations. Some even went to other states.
RINGLER-CERNIGLIA: The case count does continue to go up.
FOREMAN: Most of those infections hit people between the ages of 15 to 25, raising new concern about that huge lake party on the northern end of the state, where health officials say people are also turning up with COVID.
But Michigan is far from alone. In state after state, the warnings are stepping up from young people who have contracted the virus.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take this seriously. It is not a joke.
FOREMAN: And officials who worry about environments that attract the young, tired of being locked down. Parties, bars, concerts.
GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): There's nothing about that environment that is conducive to slowing the spread of COVID-19.
[00:45:05]
MICHELLE ZYMET, ENTIRE FAMILY CONTRACTED CORONAVIRUS: He went to, you know, someone's home. There was a few people there, and I'm sure they were eating, drinking.
FOREMAN: Michelle Zymet's 21-year-old son went to a gathering of friends, came home. Now her whole family is COVID positive. Her husband, John, on a ventilator.
ZYMET: And it's scary that he's there, all alone, fighting for his life. And you let your guard down just one time. That's all it takes. And look, you come home, and you infect the entire house.
FOREMAN (on camera): This is precisely what health officials have worried about all along. People make a decision to do what they want to do and go where they want to go, and that potentially affects hundreds of other people who did not make that choice.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It seems the U.S. president has shown he has absolutely no idea what the recent nationwide protests over social justice demands and police brutality, and the killing of African-American men.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are African-Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And so are white people. So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. So are white people. More white people, by the way. More white people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But a federal study of deaths between 2000 and 2012 found a disproportionate number of police brutalities are black people and that black victims are likely to be unarmed. That's the main point of the Black Lives Matter protests, which we saw so recently.
The U.S. isn't just grappling with the impact of legacy and racism and a deadly pandemic. Now American cities are seeing a huge spike in violent crime. Families and communities are being torn apart.
Brynn Gingras has details now on the crime wave and how cities are dealing with it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fourteen shootings in 24 hours on New York City streets Monday, including the killing of a teenager shot in the head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are not going for this (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I'm talking to the streets. You know who's killing who.
GINGRAS: A community outraged after a 1-year-old, while sitting in his stroller, was killed in a Brooklyn park.
More gun violence is being filled in cities big and small from coast to coast. In Seattle --
MAYOR JENNY DURKAN (D), SEATTLE: We are working very hard to reduce the number of shootings here in Seattle.
GINGRAS: -- Chicago, Charleston, Philadelphia, Atlanta.
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA: I hate to use the word a perfect storm, but it's where we are in this country right now.
GINGRAS: In New York --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has to be a price for carrying an illegal firearm in New York City, and right now the price isn't high enough.
GINGRAS: The NYPD points to new recidivism data, showing so far this year police rearresting 1,452 individuals for major felonies. An offender who police say would otherwise likely be held in jail, but due to state bail reform laws which went into effect this year, were released.
That's 771 more arrests of the same group than this time last year. On top of that, courts in New York and many states have not been fully operational because of coronavirus restrictions, meaning cases aren't being prosecuted quickly. Grand juries aren't being convened, and there are limited jury selection procedures.
LUCY LANG, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: In the absence of courts operating, and when people aren't coming through the courts, we're not seeing the same level of debriefings that are traditionally part of the kind of police work that we rely on to be able to respond to violent crime and often enables prevention.
GINGRAS: A spokesperson for the Brooklyn district attorney's office, the borough which saw most of the shootings Monday, told CNN, quote, "For us the biggest issue is there are no grand juries, so we can't indict felony cases."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: March hard (ph), not just for bullets (ph) but police brutality. Do this for this black on black. It could be your child.
GINGRAS: In the wake of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, protesters cried out coast to coast for changes in policing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defund the police!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defund the police!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Defund the police!
GINGRAS: And the defunding of departments, the demands met with swift reform. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania following in New York's footsteps, the governor signing two measures into law which address the hiring of officers and increases their training, including for implicit bias.
JOSH SHAPIRO, PENNSYLVANIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Let me say this very clearly. Black lives matter. I'll say it again, black lives matter. But saying it, that's just not enough. We must listen, and we must take action.
GINGRAS: Across America, the continuous criticism and reform measures said to be weighing on the rank-and-file.
CHIEF TERENCE MONAHAN, NYPD: If you're out on the streets, and every time you turn on television, they're saying how much they hate you and how much they don't need you, and how unimportant you are to the safety of your citizens, it does a lot for their morale.
GINGRAS: Over a one-week period at the beginning of this month, NYPD retirements soared, more than 400 percent compared to the same week last year.
[00:50:00]
A detective who is considering retirement told CNN, "Every day the pension section sends out a notice of who went that day and filed. It needs to be a page, maybe two at the most. The other day it was six pages."
Meanwhile, departments are striving to do better, knowing how vital it is to build relationships with the communities they serve. The NYPD instituting changes within, including assigning a new head to community affairs with the task of reimagining community policing.
JEFFREY MADDREY, CHIEF, NYPD COMMUNITY AFFAIRS: When people start talking about issues of his systemic racism and police brutality, these are the hard conversations that I'm prepared to take on, that I will take on.
GINGRAS: But in the end, experts say it needs to be all hands on deck to turn this alarming trend around, from police to courts to communities.
Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, the presumptive U.S. Democratic presidential nominee is laying out how he would boost the battered economy if he wins the White House, and he says a big piece of that is fighting climate change.
In a televised speech on Tuesday, Joe Biden announced a $2 trillion dollar plan, part of his Build Back Better agenda. He called for spending the money over four years on clean energy projects and transportation, electricity and building industries. And he took aim at the man he wants to replace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is "hoax." When I think about climate change, the word I think of is "jobs."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The former U.S. vice president also slammed President Trump's handling of the pandemic and the administration's rush to reopen schools and the economy, saying it endangers the nation's recovery.
Well, the trendy app TikTok has never been more popular, and with that comes much more scrutiny. It's now caught up in a political dispute, leaving many of its users in limbo.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday denied bail for Giselle Maxwell, the former confidant and alleged coconspirator of the sex trafficker, rapist and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The court ruled Maxwell will not be released because of her risk of fleeing is simply too great and will remain in jail until her trial next July.
The judge cited the British socialite's significant financial resources, international ties, and quote, "extraordinary capacity to avoid detection."
Maxwell pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped Epstein recruit and ultimately sexually abuse minors as young as 14.
The popular app TikTok is under renewed scrutiny because of the company's ties to China. TikTok is already banned by one of its neighbors, and growing international pressure has left many users stuck in a political quagmire.
Hadas Gold explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PARAS TOMAR, ACTOR AND SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: I have about over two million followers on TikTok. Well, I had over two million followers on TikTok.
HADAS GOLD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Indian TikTok stars like Paras Tomar are scrambling to adjust to life and business after India banned the popular app last month.
New Delhi warning it poses a threat to "sovereignty and integrity" following recent clashes in a deputed border region with China.
TOMAR: The ban on TikTok was mixed sentiments. Now, it was a question for most people, which is a mix of their patriotism being questioned versus the amount of money that they were making.
[00:55:00]
GOLD: TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Beijing-based company that has been pushed to the front lines of international diplomacy.
Now, the United States is also considering a ban, warning that because of the national security law, TikTok data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're taking this very seriously. We're certainly looking at it. We've worked on this very issue for a long time.
JAKE SWEET, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: Mousy, mousy.
GOLD: A possibility that makes TikTok influencers like Jake Sweet, with more than 6 million followers, nervous.
SWEET: Well, I'm banned in both of these -- these countries from using TikTok. It's going to have a phenomenal impact on me and, like, thousands and thousands of other creators who put content out there a lot. I mean, one of my videos, I think, had 110 million views, and that was primarily in the U.S. and -- and Indian audience.
GOLD: Several experts tell CNN that, though TikTok's links to a Chinese company are worthy of concern, most of it is data that just wouldn't be that useful for real espionage.
EVA GALPERIN, DIRECTOR OF CYBERSECURITY, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: This is mostly a political move. It depends on what you're doing that might be of interest to the Chinese government. If you are, again, an activist in Hong Kong, if you are a whistleblower on, you know, Chinese government corruption, I would not recommend installing TikTok on your phone. But, you know, for your average dancing teenager, probably it's fine.
GOLD: It's not just the U.S. government that's concerned. Wells Fargo recently asked its employees to remove TikTok from their corporate- owned devices.
TikTok says it never has and never will share data with the Chinese government, and that data from its U.S. users is not stored in China.
But Jake Sweet is already trying to diversify and move his audience to other platforms like YouTube and Instagram in preparation for a potential U.S. ban.
SWEET: I still want to be doing what I love, and I'm -- whilst all this is happening, obviously, concerns are raised. And I'm slowly moving my audience over, just as, like, a safety backup.
GOLD: For now, TikTokers are still safe, but as U.S.-China tensions rise, millions of the app's fans worry that they may be approaching their last lip-sync dance.
Hadas Gold, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. I'll be back with a lot more news after a very short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Hello. Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up this hour on CNN NEWSROOM, back to the future. State governors across the U.S. roll back reopenings as the number of infections continues to surge.
Sanction for sanction and from bad to worse.
END
