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67,000 Cases in U.S.: New Daily Record; States Roll Back Reopenings As Infections Surge; Beijing-Washing Diplomatic Spat Intensifies; Canada And Mexico Close Borders With The U.S.; Brazil Second Only To U.S. For World COVID Cases And Fatalities; Trump Again Blames Testing for Virus Cases Spike; Biden Outlines $2 Trillion Plan for Clean Energy; Pandemic's Toll on Airline Industry; U.S. Banks Offer Grim Outlook in Earnings Profits; London Removes Banksy COVID-19 Graffiti from Tube. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 15, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM. Back to the future. State governors across the U.S. roll back reopenings as the number of infections continues to surge.
Sanction to sanction and from bad to worse. The diplomatic spat between Beijing and Washington intensifies.
And the financial outlook for the airline industry looking increasingly grim. Not only are passengers afraid to fly but now it seems there's nowhere to go anyway.
There are new and dire warnings to report about the coronavirus. With the leading infectious disease expert in the U.S. saying that 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 Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is warning of major challenges ahead if America fails to contain this outbreak.
Dr. Robert Redfield says this autumn and winter in the northern hemisphere could be one of the most difficult times in the U.S. as the coming flu season is expected to overwhelm health systems.
He warned COVID-19 could be around for up to three years without a vaccine.
But now there is promising news from biotech company, Moderna, saying a vaccine candidate was found to trigger immune responses from all volunteers in a phase one study. The company says more research is needed and is expected to begin the final trials later this month.
And this comes as the coronavirus cases are rising dramatically around the world.
Latin America and the Caribbean have now recorded more fatalities than the U.S. and Canada, but both countries are still reporting a higher death rate per capita.
The U.S. has so far confirmed over 3.4 million cases nationwide. And with the infection rate rising each day, more than half the country is now pausing or rolling back plans to reopen.
Here's Erica Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across the country, reality setting in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We should have known that this was coming and planned ahead of time.
And this is the problem. There is no roadmap, no plan for the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: The U.S. now averaging more than 60,000 new cases a day. Twenty states starting the week with their highest seven-day average.
Reopening is paused or in reverse in more than half of all states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR DAN GELBER, MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA: People aren't respecting this virus, especially younger people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: The positivity rate in Miami Dade county, which accounts for nearly a quarter of Florida's cases is almost 30 percent.
California posting new daily highs for hospitalizations and ICU admissions. The majority of those in Los Angeles County.
In Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, hospitals are approaching surge capacity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINA HIDALGO, JUDGE, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: The longer we keep this going, pretending like these incrementalist restrictions are going to fix the problem, the longer it's going to take to recover.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Officials there urging the governor to let them bring back a stay-at-home order.
Testing and a significant lag in getting those results is still an issue months into the pandemic. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FLA): You can swab and then you get the results back in seven days, that's not ideal. And particularly if you have symptoms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Forty percent of infected cases are asymptomatic, according to the CDC.
Yet the country's testing tzar is encouraging some Americans to hold off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, ASST. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, U.S. DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: In places like Arizona and Texas, if you wake up in the morning and just feel like you want a test, you might not need to do that, right?
We need to think about those who are at high risk or in high-risk situations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Schools a flash point as the administration insists that in person learning be the standard, but without offering a strategy.
New polling from Axios and Ipsos shows most parents say it would be risky to send their kids back in the fall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CINDY MARTEN, SUPERINTENDENT, SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: The countries that have managed to safely reopen schools, they have done so with declining infection rates, not rising infection rates.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I mean --
MARTEN: And they have on-demand testing available. California has neither of those.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Best Buy announcing a nationwide mask mandate for shoppers in its stores. Walmart mulling the same as the nation's top infectious disease expert admits early mask messaging was a miss.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: What got, I think, a little bit misrepresented in that message was not that it was just that we wanted to preserve them, but they don't really work that well anyway. So that was the mistake. Because, in fact, there's no doubt that wearing a mask is better than not having a mask for the general public.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Another mistake? Thinking the virus would slow down in the summer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION: I was really one of the individuals who thought we would get a little break in July and August.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: The head of the CDC admitting there is still a lot to learn about the coronavirus. While offering a stark warning for what's ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REDFIELD: I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we have experienced in American public health.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:00]
HILL: While there is concern about what's to come in the fall and the winter, there's also the reality of this summer that many states are dealing with.
That 14-day mandatory quarantine for travelers coming from a number of states that's in place in the Tri-State area here in New York, New jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania -- good news for Delaware, that state has now been removed from the list.
But four others were added on Tuesday because of their positivity rates and the number of cases there. Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin now on that list.
In New York, I'm Erica Hill. CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Dr. Anish Mahajan is chief medical officer with the Harvard- UCLA Medical Center. He is joining us from Los Angeles.
Good to see you. Thanks for taking the time.
I want to start with Florida, Arizona and Texas. These are three states, they all bungled the lockdown, if you like. They didn't get it right the first time. And that kind of explains why we're seeing the surging numbers there.
But in California, you have a situation where the governor acted quickly, he issued that safer-at-home order decisively, but the cases are surging there as well.
So how do you explain that situation in California?
DR. ANISH MAHAJAN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, HARVARD-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER: Well, what we're learning about this virus is there's very little margin for error.
You are correct that Arizona, Texas, and other southern state hotspots, they 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 clear violations of reopening.
In California, we were more responsible. We did have a good stay at home, we did see community transmission go down, we did see the test positivity rate go down.
But where we erred and where all of us 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, the public did not abide by the masking.
We have found that so many outbreaks of COVID have occurred in private gatherings where people didn't wear their masks and they let their guard down.
It occurred in small indoor spaces where people didn't maintain their physical distancing. It's occurring in workplaces that didn't take care to ensure that their employees would be protected from transmitting the virus to each other in the event that they have it.
VAUSE: Well, (inaudible) coming up to the next big argument here. It was when to reopen the economy so that was a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago. Now it's when to reopen schools.
We heard from the White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnaney, on Monday telling reporters the CDC says, it's all fine, there's nothing to worry about.
Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would point you to the words of the CDC director who said children are not very affected by this and typically are not spreaders.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Typically not spreaders? Since when? From what I've heard, there's an equal number of studies which show they do and they don't. We don't know.
MAHAJAN: That's correct. The science is still only emerging.
There is some initial evidence that suggests that younger children may not be as effective spreaders as older children.
But be that as it may, we also know that reopening schools, most experts would say, in places that are hotspots, where there's 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.
And so we cannot risk this kind of reopening of schools without being sure that we've got a handle on community transmission.
The other huge problem 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're pulling back community testing and reserving the precious supplies for testing for those who are the sickest.
But if we're going to be able to control the virus in the community, if we want to reopen schools, if we want to reopen 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, this long into this pandemic.
But I guess, as of Wednesday, your hospital I guess will be among those who will begin sending information to that Washington database about patients who are treated for the coronavirus.
Because there was this other previous system which, according to "The Washington Post":
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
" about 3,000 hospital sent detailed information about COVID-19 patients and other metrics to the CDC where 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 and policymakers to identify coronavirus trends in hospitals in their community."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So a system that was set up, it was in place. [01:10:00]
Apparently, at one point they considered deploying the National Guard to help collect the data, which seems odd.
But the bottom line here is that the CDC will be out of the loop.
And you have four former CDC directors writing an op-ed in the Washington Post warning that the premier health organization is being politicized.
They write:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
"We cannot recall over our collective tenure a single time when political pressure led to a change in the interpretation of scientific evidence."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Facts are facts. But when people are politicizing the science, and 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 that are here to protect the public using facts and evidence and the best known knowledge in the world, if they're 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've 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, 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.
VAUSE: And the thing about masks -- we're out of time, so thank you so much.
But just very quickly. Wearing a mask is not like donating a kidney. It's not hard.
Dr. Anish Mahajan, thanks for being with us.
MAHAJAN: Thank you.
VAUSE: And this breaking news just in.
The United States reporting a new daily record in coronavirus cases with more than 67,000 new confirmed on Tuesday alone.
Overall, the U.S. total now approaching three and-a-half million.
Well, in a rambling address in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, the U.S. President Donald Trump announced new sanctions on China, targeting businesses and individuals involved in China's attempt to roll back Hong Kong's autonomy with a new controversial security law.
The president has also ended a trade agreement which gave preferential treatment to Hong Kong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hong Kong will now be treated the same as Mainland China. No special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies.
In addition to that, as you know, we're placing massive tariffs and have placed very large tariffs on China.
First time that's ever happened to China.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins us now live from Hong Kong.
And Kristie, it seems Beijing isn't exactly running up the white flag at this point.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it's not. It's responded, it's said that it is going to retaliate as a result of what we just heard from U.S. President Donald Trump in that Rose Garden press conference.
China says it's going to take action, it's going to take necessary measures and impose sanctions on relevant U.S. personnel and entities.
This after the United States under Donald Trump, as expected, signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which would allow the United States to treat Hong Kong the same as any other mainland Chinese city in terms of trade and in terms of commerce.
Effectively ending its special trading status.
So what does it mean for Hong Kong? It means that it jeopardizes tens of billions of dollars worth of trade between Hong Kong and the United States.
One economist based here in Hong Kong earlier today said it would shave off some 10 percent of exports from Hong Kong, which is a very significant number.
It would also create headaches and uncertainties for the 1,300 plus American companies that operate here, including major law firms and American accounting firms as well.
It would also dissuade companies all over the world from investing here. It would also hurt China.
Now Hong Kong is a valuable, glittering East-West conduit for international trade and finance.
A number of multinational firms as well as mainland Chinese firms, have their international headquarters here in Hong Kong.
That's why we heard from China. That's why it says it's going to retaliate and quote, "take necessary measures."
But when I asked an economist earlier today what those measures would entail, he said China's hands are kind of well, full right now. They don't want to imperil the trade deal.
But they're willing to limit the number of exports to the United States.
Now other analysts are saying that this is an own goal.
That this move by Donald Trump is actually self-defeating because the United States, since 1992, when there was this trade pact and the U.S. in place, has benefited from the business-friendly conditions here.
In fact, we know that last year, Hong Kong was the largest source of the U.S. goods trade surplus, worth some $26.1 billion. John.
VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout there live from Hong Kong with the latest. Appreciate it.
Well, it's one thing when political opponents and critics say stuff like the U.S. President is utterly incapable and should resign. But now it's coming from family.
In her first interview since her tell-all book was published, Trump's niece, Mary Trump, slammed Uncle Donald.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:15:00]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, "ABC NEWS" ANCHOR: Boil it down. What's the single most important thing you think the country needs to know about your uncle?
MARY TRUMP: He's utterly incapable of leading this country. And it's dangerous to allow him to do so.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Based on what you see now or what you saw then?
TRUMP: Based on what I've seen my entire adult life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Mary Trump doubled down on other criticisms that she's made in her book. It's called "Too Much and Never Enough" and was released Tuesday. That was after the president's brother unsuccessfully tried to stop
the release.
Hong Kong imposing its most severe coronavirus restrictions so far as the city battles what it's called a third wave of the virus.
We'll have more on that in a moment.
Also, Brazil's president says he's tired of staying in isolation as he fights the virus. What his office is saying about a positive retest. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Hong Kong once again imposing social distancing measures. But this time it's the most severe it's seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
Officials say they're facing a third wave of cases, which is causing infections to spike.
Gatherings will be restricted to four people or less. Masks are now mandatory on public transportation.
CNN's Will Ripley live again for us from Hong Kong.
And I guess the question a lot of people want to know is how much of this has to do with the pandemic and a spike in cases, how much of this "you can't have more than five people in a room or outside gathering together" has to do with political protests?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they had upped that number to 50. And again, the national security law allows police to crack down so heavily if anybody violates these certain guidelines.
I'm speaking with public health experts, three different professors I spoke with this morning, who all say this is a serious or at least very potentially very serious situation when it comes to COVID-19 here in Hong Kong.
This third wave has the potential to be exponentially more severe than the first and second waves because a lot of those cases were coming in from the outside. So Hong Kong shut down the borders, they test everybody who flies in.
But these cases, the majority of them -- and the numbers are still relatively low, you're talking about just dozens of cases a day -- but the majority of them are community spread.
So they're not coming in from other countries, they're spreading inside this densely populated city of seven million people.
And the other big concern is that you can't do contact tracing on all these cases. So they don't know where people are catching the virus.
Which means that you have people walking around unknowingly possibly spreading this. And the numbers which are small now can go up really quickly.
Restaurants, they've now had to cut their seating down to 4 people at a table and they have to close at six o'clock so there's no more dinners. People can no longer crowd into bars and nightclubs like they were when social distancing measures were eased.
People, you see them, they didn't have masks on, they're standing very close, they're talking.
[01:20:00]
They're doing everything that public health experts say you shouldn't do. And so when people relaxed, this happened.
And in fact, all three experts that I spoke with agreed that this third wave, this spike in community spread here in Hong Kong, is directly linked to the easing of social distancing measures.
So now you have new measures in effect, some of the most sweeping measures that the city has seen so far.
And there's also a warning from experts that this particular strain of COVID-19 may have actually mutated potentially making it 30 percent more efficient.
Which means potentially more contagious. John.
VAUSE: Yes. As if it wasn't contagious enough to begin with. Will, thanks.
Will Ripley, live in Hong Kong. Appreciate it.
Well, no offense, Americans. But Canada and Mexico would prefer you stay away at least for now.
Both countries are apparently not ready to open the borders with their neighbor where the pandemic is out of control.
We have reports from north and south of the U.S. border.
Matt Rivers is in Mexico City but first, we've got Paula Newton in Ottawa.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Canadian officials tell CNN that the U.S. Canada border will likely remain closed until at least August 21st.
More than that though, the Canadian government public health officials say they are stepping up surveillance at those land border crossings.
Right now, essential workers are allowed to cross. So health care 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.
No one has more 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 the 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 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN 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 non-essential 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 U.S. 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 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, according to the Pan-American Health Organization 60 percent of all new COVID-19 cases in the world over the past week were in the Americas.
Brazil is second only to the U.S. in both cases and fatalities. Nearly 75,000 deaths and counting.
Aides to Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, told CNN they won't confirm if he has taken a new coronavirus test. And if there were any details regarding that test, if it happened, would be released.
President Bolsonaro, who has downplayed the virus, called it a little flu, announced he was infected last week.
CNN's Bill Weir is in Brasilia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Brazil, another day of grim numbers to digest.
Maybe 43,000 or so confirmed cases pushing the total near two million. Another 1,300 deaths, now approaching 75,000 lives lost due to this pandemic.
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.
[01:25:00]
Bill Weir. CNN, Brasilia, Brazil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A record week of new coronavirus cases is forcing Columbia's largest cities to go back into lockdown.
The country has reported more than 150,000 infections, a death toll nearing 6,000.
Well, it's health care system is being pushed to the brink.
Joining us, Stefano Pozzebon looks at the new restrictions being put in place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Streets cordoned off and armed guards on street corners.
This is life in parts of the Colombian capital, Bogota, where several neighborhoods are under strict lockdown as of Monday.
Other neighborhoods will see rolling two-week quarantines.
These follow a surge in the number of coronavirus cases since the government began easing restrictions first imposed back in March.
Columbia is currently the fifth most affected country in Latin America, with more than 150,000 cases, and a whopping 20 percent of those cases came in the last week. Averaging more than 4,000 a day.
Bogota has been hit hard. The city of eight million accounts for more than 30 percent of the total number of cases in the country.
And the new restrictions are in neighborhoods that have seen a spike in recent days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FERNANDO RUIZ, HEALTH MINISTER, COLUMBIA (through translator): The health ministry and the national government together with the participation of 80 government entities and ministries endorse, under the supervision of the president, the decision by Bogota City and its plan to lock down and close areas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POZZEBON: Security forces are out to enforce the restrictions.
Police have set up checkpoints. Only essential shops are allowed to open and just one person per family can leave home to buy supplies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): At the checkpoints, we ask people why they are coming to the area. We take their temperature and give them preventive measures against COVID-19.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POZZEBON: Hospitals are filling up. On Friday, intensive care units in Bogota reached 85 percent capacity.
Doctors and nurses here say they are stressed, worried about the possible collapse of the system while officials and police take action to turn the curve.
Stefano Pozzebon. CNN, Bogota, Columbia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: After first questioning the legitimacy of the assessments coming from the CDC, now the Trump Administration is taking control of the raw data used to make those assessments. What could possibly go wrong?
And Joe Biden challenging Donald Trump on climate change, jobs and that tax cut that could be on the chopping block if Biden becomes president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, FMR. PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: f you look at the countries that have done well through this crisis -- Germany for example, South Korea, for example. You can look at Israel, other countries in Europe like Greece, actually, have done well.
The key to the success has been to understand that this disease is bad enough for people really not to want to get it.
And therefore, unless you're taking really tough action at the beginning and locking down, as I say, hard and fast and then combining this with testing on a mass scale, it's hard to get people the confidence to come back out of it again.
I can't see any way out of this other than to get behind the innovations that are now happening.
So that you can get an on-the-spot test, antigen and antibody, that allows you to decide very quickly what the disease status of an individual is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:06]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers from around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
And I'm John Vause.
Well, the United States has reported a new daily record for coronavirus cases. More than 67,000 confirmed on Tuesday alone. The U.S. is fast approaching 3.5 million nationwide. And now more than half the country is pausing or rolling back reopening plans.
A senior official is warning of difficult times this autumn and winter in the northern hemisphere if the U.S. fails to contain the outbreak. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says health care systems could be overwhelmed by both COVID-19 and the coming flu season. He fears the coronavirus could be around for up to three years without a vaccine. The Trump administration is taking control of the raw data on all COVID-19 patients who are treated in hospitals. Under the existing system that information goes to the CDC. Now, it won't.
We're four months into this pandemic and finally senior White House officials are urging Americans to wear a face mask. But the President had almost nothing to say about that at a news conference on Tuesday.
Jim Acosta has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: In what was billed as a White House press conference in the Rose Garden, President Trump instead delivered what seemed like a campaign rally speech, repeatedly attacking former vice president Joe Biden and hitting on hot button subjects like immigration while hardly speaking about the coronavirus pandemic here in the U.S.
The President was asked a few questions at the very end of this event. He was asked whether or not he sees himself as the underdog in the upcoming 2020 election against Biden. The President instead of citing the poll numbers which show he is not winning this race, instead pointed to voters and bikers who support Mr. Trump. Here is what he had to say.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we have really good poll numbers. They are not suppression polls. They are real polls.
You look at the intercoastal in Florida, you look at the lakes, you see thousands of votes with Trump signs, American signs, you've got the Trump-Pence sign all over.
You look at what is going on. You look at bikers for miles and miles, riding up highways, proudly with their signs. I have -- we want a race where it was the same thing in 2016. We had polls that were fake. They turned out to be fake, not all.
ACOSTA: The President tried to shirk any responsibility for the spike in cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. saying it was all due to increased testing. But that's not the case according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who told a group of students at Georgetown University that there is no doubt there are more cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. and likely many more deaths to come.
Jim Acosta, CNN -- the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It seems the U.S. President has shown he has absolutely no idea why tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets nationwide in recent weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are African-Americans still dying at the hands of law enforcement in this country?
TRUMP: 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: For the record, a federal study on deaths between 2009 and 2012 found a disproportionate number of police fatalities are black people, and that black victims are also likely to be unarmed. And that's the main point of the Black Lives Movement Matter (SIC) that protested across the U.S.
Well, the man who is looking to take over Donald Trump's job says he has a plan to help the U.S. economy recover. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden unveiled his plan to fight climate change, proposing $2 trillion over four years for clean energy projects, ending carbon emissions from power plants by 2035.
Aides to the former U.S. vice president say the money would come from rolling back Trump's tax cut. The trillion dollar one for the wealthy and corporate interests which reduced the tax rate to 21 percent from $28. Biden warned that doing nothing would spell disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is no more consequential challenge that we must meet in the next decade than the onrushing climate crisis. Left unchecked, it is literally an existential threat to the health of our planet, and to our very survival.
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: Jess Phoenix is a volcanologist, theologist and executive director and cofounder of Blueprint Earth and she's live this hour from Los Angeles. Good to see you.
JESS PHOENIX, COFOUNDER, BLUEPRINT EARTH: You too, John.
VAUSE: Ok. This was not your grandfather's climate change policy. This is a biggie. You know, it seems the whole of everything approach because here is the challenge we are facing.
[01:34:49]
VAUSE: You know, we've got this pandemic, but scientists are warning that, "If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise on the current trajectory, the world has little hope of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or even 2 degrees Celsius. If the world warms beyond that, tens of millions of people could be exposed to life- threatening heat waves, freshwater shortages, and coastal flooding from sea level rise."
You know, we know Donald Trump doesn't believe in climate change, but it's real and it seems this Biden plan, it's sweeping, it's big, and there is no other credible alternative at this point.
PHOENIX: That's right, John. We are at a point now, as a global society, as well as an American society, where we have to be thinking about climate because it affects every single aspect of our lives.
From the food that we can eat to the vehicles that we drive to our ability to stay safe in our own homes. And that is only going to become more and more apparent as the effects of climate change worsen.
VAUSE: Yes. And (INAUDIBLE), it's not just throwing a ton of money at something. You know, there are specific targets, there's benchmarks like upgrading buildings over four years to a higher efficiency standard, emission free power industry by 2035.
And it's being presented like a JFK moonshot, a challenge, you know, to this country to get it done.
PHOENIX: That's exactly what we need. This is a matter of national security. It's a matter of public interest. And it is something that if we don't throw all of the available ingenuity that we have here in the United States behind, we are going to lose this fight to keep up with our rapidly changing planet.
And that is something we can't afford. We have to protect folks. That is our social contract that we have with people living under a government. The government has to initiate big efforts like this to make sure that its citizens can stay safe.
And there is a bit of altruism, too. We have to make sure that folks who can't take care of these issues on their own have help from the community and from the government.
VAUSE: Yes. Well, let's listen to how President Trump responded to the Biden plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And as vice president Biden was a leading advocate of the Paris Climate Accords, which was unbelievably expensive to our country, would have crushed American manufacturers, while allowing China to pollute the atmosphere with impunity.
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VAUSE: Apart from the fact that yes, Joe Biden did support the Paris Accord, was anything else in that statement true?
PHOENIX: Everything Trump said there was 100 percent wrong, aside from that one little detail about Biden and the climate accord. It is so incorrect that at this point, I can't say that I am surprised because it really just is in keeping with how utterly and abjectly wrong Trump has been on issues of climate and environment and green technology, since even before he took office.
VAUSE: Well, over at the conservative Fox News Channel, Biden's plan would simply mean the end of the world. Here they are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: If he implements the extreme agenda that he is now embracing, let me be clear, America as you know it, we know, it will be destroyed. Our entire way of life will be flushed down the drain.
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VAUSE: Dogs and cats living together. It will be terrible. I mean, is anybody going to buy this stuff at this point? Is that the fix?
PHOENIX: That kind of alarmism, it may have gotten people to the ballot box four years ago when we were in a relatively decent time as a country. But right now, people understand that we need leaders who take challenges like climate change and COVID-19 seriously and have definitive action plans.
And while Biden's plan doesn't satisfy every single person, it does tick a lot of the boxes that we need to make happen if we want to actually get through these next couple of decades relatively intact.
VAUSE: Yes.
PHOENIX: So I mean, Fox can scream all they want but the data are clear. The evidence is here. And we have to take action, and plus that's how we're going to innovate and grow our economy in the face of this changing climate.
VAUSE: Yes. We are out of time, Jess, but that is actually the point. What Biden has done is link climate change to the economy, to social justice to racial issues. It's all one great, big package and, trust me, Fox will be screaming for a long time.
Good to see you. Thanks.
PHOENIX: Bye (ph).
VAUSE: Well, the airline industry is suffering even further setbacks as this pandemic continues. What a new round of cuts could mean for travel in the foreseeable future.
Also, major U.S. banks reporting plunging profits. We will find out how that's playing on Main Street and on Wall Street.
[01:39:29]
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VAUSE: We're about to find out how this pandemic has impacted the airline industry with carriers set to release their earnings in the coming days and weeks. Delta is the first, posting a nearly $6 billion loss for the past three months, the worst loss since 2008.
The airline is cutting back on a number of flights planned for the months ahead. It says bookings continue to decline. They are already almost at rock-bottom.
Meanwhile Boeing saw dozens of orders canceled last month though not quite as many as it was in March and April. Boeing plans to cut 16,000 jobs, about 10 percent of its workforce, because of the lower demand.
And Australia's national carrier Qantas looks set to suspend all international flights except for trips to New Zealand until at least March next year. The airline was celebrating 100 years since it was founded as the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services and became a vital link connecting a very remote Australia with the rest of the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soon Qantas passengers happily saw their Pacific Ocean journeys cut down to a mere 15 hours.
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VAUSE: A mere 15 hours. 1959, the start of the jet age, apparently.
Let's go to Ryan Patel, senior fellow at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. Good to see you.
RYAN PATEL, SENIOR FELLOW, DRUCKER SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT-CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY: Good to see you, John.
VAUSE: Ok. I just want to clarify what Qantas is doing here because while the flights themselves have not been canceled and all previous bookings remain in place, the move prevents new bookings from being made on any overseas Qantas route except for New Zealand.
Qantas is facing the same problem that every other airline is facing right now, not just fear, but no demand. Why fly when you don't have to? There are no conferences, business meetings have been canceled. They're all on Zoom and all the borders are closed anyway.
PATEL: Well, they are trying to gain whatever revenue stream that they can kind of get to actually stop the bleeding to a certain degree. I mean, pretty much that they're saying that nearly all flights, is the language that they're using, will be shutting down in March.
And the airline industry right now, no matter what airline you are, it's about two words -- buying time. They are protecting their cash. The balance sheet, they're looking at it.
Many airlines are trying to raise cash. We just saw American Airlines do that last month. And a couple (INAUDIBLE) and going back to restock.
And you know, the little momentum that we saw or maybe that the airline industry perceived to see last month is obviously stopping as of the last few weeks because of the coronavirus levels spiking.
VAUSE: We'll get into the cash burn rate in a moment because that's interesting. But you know, if you remember, back after 9/11 and the terror attacks when it was reopened, there was a huge amount of security. National Guard troops being deployed at some airports. And that was really for show. It's all about that rebuilding the public's confidence in security and safety of air travel.
What do the airlines do this time to reassure the flying public that it is safe because no one really knows?
PATEL: And it's not the same. I just want to be very clear. If this is something that the airline industry hasn't seen (ph) and you talk about consumer confidence, we keep talking about what does consumer confidence mean.
Let me break this down to you. Don't forget there is leisure travel and then there's corporate travel. Corporate travel is a large percent of the revenue stream and right now there is none, right.
In the summer it's typically less than 5 percent but when you start to see going after back to school here in the United States and that's when businesses in September start to kind of come back, that's a revenue stream that they are counting on.
And so the consumer confidence of safety is first and foremost. Something that needs to be had. You already see many of the airlines -- Delta, United -- taking health seriously and investing in those protocols.
[01:44:57]
PATEL: So I think they need to do more of those to educate the consumer further on what they're doing because people are asking how you're keeping me safe.
VAUSE: Ok. Delta, the first major airline to report earnings. It's grim. Net loss $5.7 billion, revenue down 91 percent, summer travel down, this seems surprising, 20 to 25 percent. I thought it would've been more.
But the most important financial indicator an airline has at this point, as you said, buying time, cash burn. Delta has got 19 months worth of cash in short terms investment at its current burn rate of $27 million a day.
Back in March, Delta was blazing through nearly 100 million dollars a day. Here's Delta CEO. Listen to this
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soon, Qantas passengers happily saw their Pacific Ocean journeys cut down to a mere 15 hours.
ED BASTIAN, CEO, DELTA: As an industry, I think it's going to take us two to three years as an to find that new level of normal. We're flying at scale both for business as well as for leisure on a global basis, it comes about.
And I said many times myself, not only is it going to take two to three years but this industry will be smaller when we get there to that new level of normal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: I just wanted to hear that 15 hours again.
But you know, look, so you have 19 months of cash on hand, the boss says two maybe three years before a new normal which will be pretty grim anyway.
This is not looking good.
PATEL: It's not. I mean -- let me rephrase. Delta CEO was actually pretty calm and when you're -- when burning $27 million a day and you said that' is pretty good for the next few months. I mean for people at home, Delta has got $15.7 billion in liquidity so like you mentioned about 19 months' cash on hand. And many of the other airlines too, including United has $17 billion in cash.
So what does that mean? Delta is going to have to raise more cash, believe it or not. And so many of the industries, many of the airline industry, yes he mentioned two to three years? They're talking about how do we get through winter. It's not about getting to fall but they're already looking at well, we've got to make it through winter.
And I think, obviously that the federal aid and he's mentioned it, the CEO of Delta that 50 billion kind of has helped Delta not to have the layoffs. But, you know, Delta is one of those rare situations where they do have cash on hand. They're going to go raise money and still be really global at the same period.
So, you know, one more thing, John, I want to mention. The break even average from the International Air Traffic Association, capacity is 77 percent, the capacity levels right now are going on even with COVID, even when we saw a little grim it's a lot less than that, less than 60 percent for many who their lives are not making money and still have not full capacity because they're leaving empty seats in the middle as well.
VAUSE: Yes. I got to say I like that though. My first flight, the other day, it was all empty, it was easy to get on. I know.
But look, you know, Delta had a pretty healthy bottom line before the pandemic or a good financial position compared to a lot of other airlines. You say getting through to the new normal -- what does that mean? The new normal is going to be awful.
PATEL: Or the new -- well, for you a little bit, you would say it would be nice that you have more space.
(CROSSTALK)
PATEL: Well, you're having more spacing, I think the new normal will be awful coming for them because it's going to relook at everything. Think about this, let me just throw -- let me just put some future trends in the future.
Reports are going to look different when it comes to maybe bio scanning, bio tech, bio metrics. You know, the ability to even touch this, when you come into -- first is your ticket and obviously the cost. The cost for many of these airlines with the health side is going to increase, but you know, the other thing John, is they can't go and double the price of the airline, tickets as well, that's not an option either because people won't buy it.
The demand won't be there. They're going to have to build it even when you do get the vaccine there isn't, and you heard me say this, a switch -- a light switch that turns on. It's still going to take time to build that confidence to bill people to travel for work and for pleasure in multiple places. And the domestic travel will come first.
The international travel will come later to recuperate. And I think that is also something to watch. Obviously, Delta is three-quarters of its revenues from domestic but when you talked about tourism, economies overall, governments are watching this because they want tourism to continue to increase, and that means the airlines either get their back two (ph) when it covers international travel.
VAUSE: Two weeks to make a habit. You don't fly for two years, you kind of get out of the way of doing that. Ryan -- it's good to see you.
Ryan Patel there, appreciate it.
PATEL: Good to see you.
VAUSE: Thanks.
Well, good news for some major U.S. banks in second quarter earnings. JPMorgan Chase saw a 51 percent plunge in profits because provisions for credit loss has spiked and the future path to economic recovery remains uncertain.
Wells Fargo reported a loss of $2.4 billion. That sets the stage for its first dividend cut since the great recession in 2009. Poor showing is partly driven by surging credit cost linked to the bank's darkening economic view.
CNN Business anchor John Defterios in Abu Dhabi for more on that. So John, how should we look at those bank results? Bleak and bleaker. I mean what's your assessment here?
[01:50:01]
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, I would say that, John because nobody is doing well in this sort of environment right now. But the markets seem to be shrugging it off.
Let's start with JPMorgan Chase. As you were suggesting it made money this year in that quarter but it's half the level that it did the year before.
The standout for me for JPMorgan Chase is that it has a strong balance sheet, it's that the loan loss provisions were $10 billion which was 10 times the level in Q2 of 2019. Kind of gives you the state of play.
Very different for Wells Fargo, as you're suggesting here, but one thing we didn't talk about there in your lead is that Wells Fargo is paying fines and they're taking hits on the balance sheet because of that because of some financial improprieties with the federal government and it's having to pay the price now.
The markets have shrugged it off. It's kind of a balancing act, John between this potential vaccine breakthrough from Moderna. And that really helping the recovery in the early part of 2021 when it comes through. Or what we see on Wall Street, on Main Street right now.
So we have the Dow Industrial shoot up about 2 percent. The Nasdaq composite had a strong day, the S&P 500 on Tuesday. And then we take a look at the U.S. futures and across the board, the momentum is still there.
Now one thing that again is worth underlining from JPMorgan Chase and Jamie Dimon, the CEO because many people listen to kind of his forecast going forward, something you and I have talked about -- double digit unemployment through the first half of 2021.
So it's the first mainstream bank to say look, the recovery is going to be very rough one, kind of putting the vaccine aside right now. And Donald Trump was saying look, we'll get down to 9 percent unemployment by the end of year.
That's not the case for Jamie Dimon. He says it's going to last through the first half of 2021.
VAUSE: At the same time, we've got this sort of tough talk going on between Beijing in Washington. Donald Trump actually said he's not interested in the second round of trade talks with Beijing which is significant. But yet the markets aren't really seeing any impact from that.
DEFTERIOS: You know, there's a lot of rhetoric perhaps for Donald Trump. Everybody knows it's an election year. But this is not good to see the clash between number one and number two economies that is getting more ferocious, if you will.
And the second round was worth $200 billion and I think Donald Trump is starting to realize that Beijing is not playing ball to help him get reelected. And that's why we are not seeing a huge market reaction.
Again in Asia (ph), people are very much focused on the potential medical breakthrough and this is the predominant theme in global markets in the last 12 to 24 hours.
If you take a look at the rally here from the Nikkei in Japan, the Bank of Japan is holding its interest rate policy intact They've had a kind of negative outlook but said, they would do more if necessary.
And the markets related, of course, so mainland China and Hong Kong are the ones suffering a bit. And Seoul is higher. So overall, right now, it's the medical team that is driving things.
We're watching the oil market today, John as well, because the OPEC Plus group on this monitoring committee is thinking about putting more oil back on the market, because they see demand stabilizing. Even OPEC said that they see demand recovery by seven million barrels a day next year. But over all it's down about 10 this year, right. So you can see the trade-off and the balance theme.
But we're looking at around $43 for Brent and $40 for WTI. It's stable, John, but certainly not enough for the oil producers particularly here in the Middle East. Back to you.
VAUSE: Looks like we're buying time with the airlines. You're buying time with the oil producers.
John -- thank you.
John Defterios there in Abu Dhabi.
DEFTERIOS: Yes.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. We have more news when we comeback.
[01:53:35]
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VAUSE: A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday denied bail for Ghislaine Maxwell, the former confidant and alleged co-conspirator of sex trafficker, rapist and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The court ruled Maxwell will not be released because of the risk of her fleeing is simply too great. And she'll remain in jail until her trial next year.
A judge cited the British socialite's significant financial resources, international ties and a quote, "extraordinary capacity to avoid detection".
Maxwell pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped Epstein recruit and ultimately sexually abused minors as young as 14.
Well, Giselle (ph) is after a street artist. Banksy unveiled his latest work which was displayed on a train. It has been erased from existence by London officials.
CNN's Max Foster has the story.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Many tube riders here in London trying to identify and locate this carriage that Banksy spray-painted on. It is after all now, a very expensive piece of art and a tourist attraction as well no doubt.
This is the first time Banksy's actually identified himself although we can't quite work him out or make him out because he's got this cleaning gear on. He is, of course, doing the opposite of cleaning, spray painting his signature rat on this carriage, one of them sneezing, one of them dangling from a parachute, which looks like a face mask, and another with some hand sanitizer as well.
Face masks are a big political debate here in the U.K. currently. They are mandatory on the tube, they soon will be in shops, and this is Banksy's contribution to that debate.
He certainly got people talking because the video that he posted on his Instagram feed has gone viral.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, a couple in Rio have come up with an eye catching way to protect themselves from the coronavirus. Tercio Galdino (ph) made these space suits so he and his partner can safely take a stroll on the beach.
Yes, it's a space suit. He said he's in his 60s. He says his health -- had health issues that put him at risk. So he has a space suit. Looks kind of hot.
Thank you for watching.
I'm John Vause. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM after the break.
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