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CDC Study Shows U.S. Travel Bans Came Too Late For New York City; GOP Governor Blasts Trump For Hopeless Virus Response; First Randomized Clinical Trial Shows Hydroxychloroquine No More Effective In Early Treatment Of Mild COVID-19 Than Placebo. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 16, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: It is troubling to say the least.

So, thanks for spending your time with us today. I hope to see you here back tomorrow. A busy news day. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a great day.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: I'm Brianna Keilar, and I want to welcome viewers here in the U.S. and around the world.

As the U.S. nears 3.5 million COVID-19 cases, new and troubling signs that the pandemic is spiraling out of control. Just two states are now showing declines in new infections. Hospitalizations are hitting records in 16 states and 14 states are showing an increase in deaths.

Some officials in Texas and Arizona, two of the states with the most new cases on Wednesday, are now bringing in refrigerated rated trucks in hard-hit counties as local morgues are hitting capacity.

In Florida, there are no ICU beds to be found, in Miami-Dade County. And the state just set a grim new daily record for deaths.

And just in to CNN, the CDC says that a travel ban for one city that was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak was too little, too late. We'll have more on that in just a moment and what that means broadly going forward.

But there's one thing increasingly clear, and that is that cities and states are taking actions on their own in the absence of a plan from President Trump and the White House.

Republican Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland writing about his state's struggle to obtain test kits in a Washington Post op-ed that was titled, Fighting Alone.

He writes in part, quote, it was clear that waiting around for the president to run the nation's response was hopeless. So every governor went their own way, which is how the United States ended up with such a patchwork response.

Hogan also questioned President Trump's dismissal of public health experts, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the target of a coordinated attack by the White House and its allies.

CNN has learned that Fauci and the president spoke yesterday for the first time in a month.

And a growing number of retailers are also not waiting for Washington. Today, Target and CVS joining other big-name stores, like Walmart and Sam's Club, requiring customers to wear masks.

And now to that breaking news from the CDC. There is a new study that finds the U.S. travel ban came too late for New York City. This is according to a new analysis of cases by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I want to bring in CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard to talk about this, as well as Emergency Room Dr. Jake Deutsch.

Jacqueline, first, to you, explain this to us, break this down.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Well, here is what the researchers did for this analysis. Number one, they looked at cases out of New York City specifically for the month of March. And then what they also did, they used genetic sequencing. The researchers took specimens from New York City and really looked at the sequences of those to examine how similar they were to sequences from other parts of the world, like Europe and even other parts of the U.S.

And by doing that, there were two takeaways out of this research. Number one, the researchers found that on March 1st, there were 26 cases in New York. By March 8th, that rose to 1,917.

And if you look at the timeline here of travel restrictions, you will see that February 2nd, the U.S. restricted travel from China, by March 13th here, the U.S. restricted travel from Europe. By March 15th, the CDC study says that there was evidence already of community transmission of the virus.

So the main takeaway here is that the virus was already -- it seems to be already spreading way before some of those travel restrictions put place.

KEILAR: So, when you say genetic sequence, so they're actually looking at the fingerprint of the virus so they can tell as we see changes over time, right? They can tell exactly which sequence it was and they can map it together?

HOWARD: That's right. And the genetic sequencing really showed that that fingerprint, like you said, was similar to specimens already circulating in Europe. And what that suggests here is that there's some evidence that suggests the outbreak in New York City can be connected to Europe and also other parts of the U.S., so such as Washington state or other parts of New York State.

KEILAR: Yes. Some people's ears might perk up at that. That is right. This is a virus that is mutating regularly.

Dr. Deutsch, to you. You are an Emergency Room Physician in New York. Tell us what you take away from the CDC's findings about what could have perhaps changed what you saw there in New York.

DR. JAKE DEUTSCH, FOUNDER AND CLINICAL DIRECTOR, CURE URGENT CARE: Back in early March, end of February, we received people who had flu- like symptoms, tested negative for flu. And I remember patients saying, do you think that this could be that COVID virus? And, clearly, this is an indication that that's what we were dealing with.

Incidentally, I got sick early in March and probably was a factor from undetected cases within the New York City area.

[13:05:04]

And what we have learned from doing antibody testing is we've seen patients that reported illness back in February who didn't even travel. They may have been exposed from somebody that they knew that was in Asia or more often Europe and they tested positive for antibodies, which would set the timeline earlier a lot earlier than we recognized and is really scary.

It's just one more factor that we have to realize that we are not ahead of the curve with this pandemic.

KEILAR: And, Jacqueline, explain this to us. A new CDC study, another one that has some information about the symptoms that most COVID patients are experiencing.

HOWARD: That's right. Now, this other CDC study looked at a group of patients, 164 patients who were showing symptoms. And those patients completed questionnaires about the symptoms they were experiencing. And the questionnaire showed almost all of the patients, 96 percent reported fever, cough or shortness of breath. So that really tells us the most common symptoms according to the study.

Now, the patients also reported other symptoms as well. At least half of them also said that they experienced chills, muscle pain and also gastrointestinal symptoms, diarrhea and vomiting.

And so, really, this study gives us a pretty solid symptom profile of what COVID patients are experiencing. But there are two things to keep in mind. Most of these patients were adults. Only a small few were children. So it would be interesting to see a similar study done on mostly or all children to see whether the symptom profile among children compare -- to see how it compares to that seen in adults and especially while we are all talking about or discussing going back to school.

And then, number two, keep in mind, every day, we are learning more about COVID. We are learning more about this illness. And just this week in the medical journal, JAMA Dermatology, there was new research looking at skin rash and even lesions in the mouth connected to COVID.

So we're learning more about this illness and we might even identify even more symptoms as new research emerges.

KEILAR: And, Doctor, I wonder what you think about that, especially as there's a discussion about schools reopening. Look, doctors in hospitals like you could start seeing different things as you have children who display symptoms in different ways being around each other.

DEUTSCH: This study's information, so, yes, those are the most common symptoms of people who presented when we first were treating COVID patients. And what we are seeing now is a big change in what the presentation looks like.

In New York, I can say, from treating thousands of patients, most people are mildly symptomatic at this current moment they are testing positive. Many have no symptoms. So while that may have been what was a typical symptom early on during a certain stage in the pandemic, most people are going to have milder symptoms.

And what I'm concerned about is people are saying, oh, I don't have a cough, I don't have a fever, I don't feel short of breath, this can't be COVID, and that is an incorrect assumption. We need to assume that everybody is potentially sick and everybody has been exposed, kids like adults and we need to be testing people. If we rely on indications that are clear in directions of whether people have COVID, we are not going to be able to contain this.

We have to be smart about this. We have to use science. We have to use testing. And that's where the inadequacies of testing is so discouraging. You are not getting testing in states that are having severe outbreaks. That's where we need to be focused on. And we have to understand that this virus can look like many things different things and it is evolving.

So test, identify, use the things that work, the mask, the isolation. I implore people who are in states where it's not being enforced, take actions into your own hands, take care of your own health, be your own advocate.

KEILAR: Thank you so much, Doctor. Thank you, Jacqueline, for breaking down these new studies for us. It is so important for us to understand what is really a changing landscape here.

We have some more breaking news. While governors are playing politics with masks, big businesses are weighing in.

Just a short time ago, CVS and Target announcing they are joining other major retailers in mandating masks in their stores. CVS says the mandate will be in place on Monday. For Target, the date is going to be August 1st. And this is coming just a day after Walmart, Kroger and Kohl's said they will be requiring all customers to wear masks.

CNN's Cristina Alesci is joining me now. And, Cristina, what more do we know about this announcement by CVS and by Target?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN POLITICS AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know is that rising coronavirus cases combined with a lack of federal leadership and state leadership on this issue has forced retailers to do something that they were initially very reluctant to do, for two reasons, masks have become unnecessarily political and enforcing these policies had been really tricky for these retailers when confronted with customers who do not want to comply.

[13:10:00]

It really puts them in a position to have employees try and convince them to wear them. And sometimes those incidents turn violent.

CVS is actually addressing that in its statement today, saying, to be clear, we're not asking our store employees to play the role of enforcer. What we are asking is that customers help protect themselves and those around them by listening to experts and heeding the call to wear face coverings.

Now, Target is making it easier on customers. They are employing a number of different measures, including having masks available for free at the store for people who are walking in, adding signage and adding additional reminders on the audio systems in the store, Brianna.

But this really underscores the fact that retailers wanted the government to take action. They didn't want to have to be the ones making the call here but they were forced to given the amount of cases that were happening and the lack of a cohesive national strategy around masks.

And they had even written to the National Governors Association pleading with them, the companies had issued a letter, saying, listen, without a government mandate, we're being forced to do this. We're the bad guys. It would help if the government steps in and provides more leadership on this. That didn't come and now the retailers are taking it upon themselves, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. And, look, the liability issue is real especially as the science on masks become so much more apparent. Cristina, thank you so much for taking us through that.

A Republican governor blasting the president's response to the pandemic. He called it hopeless. Hear his message.

Plus, the governor of Georgia bans local cities from mandating masks. I'll be speaking live with a mayor whose mandate was just reversed.

And a bar owner in Texas is protesting the governor's restrictions. Why he says it is safe to open.

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[13:15:00]

KEILAR: In a new op-ed today, Maryland's Republican governor, Larry Hogan, is slamming President Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic. He calls it hopeless. Hogan also chronicles his efforts to secure testing supplies for his state in the absence of federal guidance. And it isn't the first time that Hogan has publicly pushed back against the president's response to the pandemic.

It is notable though given his position as the chairman of the National Governors Association.

We have CNN's Tom Foreman, who is joining us now to talk about this. This is a very interesting write by the governor about what he kind of went through. He was almost an island unto himself with his wife to get testing supplies for Maryland. What else is he saying, Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is a remarkable thing that has happened here because, well, Larry Hogan has not hesitated to say when he thought that President Trump was wrong about things, I think he really has gone out of his way for quite some time not just directly confront the president or go after the president with a broad brush. That seems to be done.

He says, early in this process, he and all the other governors were waiting for the White House to come out with that comprehensive testing plan, a comprehensive strategic plan for dealing with the virus and it just didn't come. And he writes in this editorial, eventually, it was clear that waiting around for the president to run the nation's response was hopeless. If we delayed any longer, we would condemning more of our citizens to suffering and death.

He goes on to say that he was really astonished to find the degree to which the president was dismissing the science of this, living in sort of a land of denial every time the subject came up, in one meeting with the governors barely even talking about the pandemic as if that wasn't the number one business. He said, instead of listening to his own public health experts, the president was talking and tweeting like a man more concerned about boosting the stock market or his re- election plans.

And in another part of this editorial, he notes that the National Institutes of Health, when he talked to them about what his state was trying to do, they were asking him for help and he was simply astonished. He said, this is an undertaking as large national testing program required Washington's help. We expected something more than constant heckling from the man who is supposed to be our leader.

This is, in every way, Brianna, a real broadside at the White House from a Republican governor who enjoys enormous support among Republicans in his state, Democrats in his state, independents in his state. He is exactly the kind of person that Donald Trump probably would like to have at his side as he heads into re-election and yet somebody who now seems to have been clearly pushed to the end of it here by the president's lack of response to the pandemic, and we'll see where it goes moving forward.

But Larry Hogan stayed sort of in a semi-neutral spot, willing to speak the truth, now, not so much, saying flat-out, he thinks the president has done very, very poorly in the response to the pandemic. Bri?

KEILAR: Yes. It is such an interesting read as he talks about actually really appreciating what the president's advisers were early on telling him and other governors about what was going with the coronavirus, and then that one detail that just sort of floored me was how he called NIH looking for testing help and they actually implored him to try to put in a good word with Johns Hopkins to try to get them some help because they can only do like 72 tests. It was crazy.

FOREMAN: It just underscores what we've heard all along at the state and local level, there are people who are heroically trying to take on this pandemic and they have looked to the White House month after month after month and said, what is the plan? And they have had no response.

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KEILAR: Well, kudos to his wife, Mrs. Hogan, who did an amazing job there.

FOREMAN: And she made the deal with all of those tests out of South Korea, amazing, absolutely.

KEILAR: Yes. Tom Foreman, thank you so much.

Growing backlash today after a move by Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp. Kemp has issued an executive order banning cities and counties in the state from mandating mask-wearing. All of this is happening as Georgia seeing a spike in new cases and hospitalizations. The state reported almost 4,000 new cases on Wednesday.

And the mayor of Athens, Clarke County, Mayor Kelly Girtz, is joining me live to talk about this.

Mayor, you were one of the first to issue an executive order that was mandating mask-wearing. Tell us what's your reaction to the governor saying, nope, those won't stand.

MAYOR KELLY GIRTZ (D-ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY, GA): Brianna, thank you for having me. I have to say I'm deeply frustrated today. Not only do we issue a mask order early but we were one of the first communities in the state to issue a shelter-in-place back in March. Those are those things because we are concerned about public health and we're concerned public safety.

I had retailers from very large grocers to very small locally owned coffee shops coming to me and saying, we would like a local mask order so we have a level playing field. In one of your earlier segments, we heard about the challenges that retailers have when they feel like they have to be, quote, the bad guy.

We didn't want that to be the case. We wanted science to lead us. We know very much that droplet transmission and aerosol transmission is dangerous and can be made less dangerous with use of masks.

I'm in constant contact with many mayors across the state. And we believe our local orders can stand and so we're going to fight this.

KEILAR: So when you hear from retailers, Mayor, what are they saying about if they put a sign up before you had the mandate? If they put a sign up that says, masks are required, do they get blowback? What are they encountering?

GIRTZ: They would get some concerned patrons who would say, the guy next door does not require a mask, the shop across the street does not require a mask. And so to provide a single platform where you can go anywhere in the community and have the same experience and the same healthy experience is just what we want to provide.

Here we are in Athens. We're the host of the Flagship State University, the University of Georgia. And just a couple of weeks ago, the Board of Regents elected that all university system of Georgia campuses would require masks in indoor spaces. So, for us in Athens, we also want to be able provide the same environment on campus as off campus.

KEILAR: So what happens now? Cases are surging in Georgia. I mean, yesterday alone, when you lkook at the numbers here, 3,000 new cases. So what options do you have left at your disposal?

GIRTZ: We will continue exhort everyone to wear a mask and we're right now seeking avenues to challenge this latest gubernatorial order.

You look around the country, Brianna, and in Texas, in Alabama, you've got Republican governors understanding that the science has got to lead the way. Even if there were some reluctance earlier in this bizarre national environment we have been in, at the end of the day we need to protect the health of the people who live here.

KEILAR: Mayor, thank you so much. Mayor Kelly Girtz from Athens-Clarke County, we appreciate you being with us.

GIRTZ: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: One day after the governor of Oklahoma announced that he tested positive, pictures surface of him recently not wearing a mask at public places, like Walmart.

Also, a bar owner in Texas is protesting the governor's restrictions. He's going to join us live to talk about that and what has been going on with his business.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that people grew complacent because the media ignored the pandemic in May. Well, that is flat-out not true and we're going to show it to you.

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[13:25:00]

KEILAR: We have some breaking news. Significant new clinical trial shows hydroxychloroquine has no benefit when compared to placebos. So I want to bring in our CNN Health Reporter, Jacqueline Howard, back to talk with us about this. Tell us about these findings.

HOWARD: Yes. So these findings just came in. And what it found, this trial was done in more than 400 patients with mild symptoms. So these patients were not hospitalized and half of the patients were treated with hydroxychloroquine. The other half were given a placebo. And the ones who were treated were given hydroxychloroquine over the course of about four days and then all of the patients were monitored for their symptoms.

The trial showed that the hydroxychloroquine treatment did not benefit and did not help the severity of the symptoms seen in the patients who were treated. So in other words, it really did not show any benefit treating the symptoms compared with the patients who were not given a placebo, so -- or who were given a placebo.

So this is just adding more and more understanding and evidence around the use of hydroxychloroquine here.

KEILAR: And it is worth noting, I mean, just to remind people, this is the drug that the president took and that he and many in his administration touted.

[13:30:00]

HOWARD: That's correct. And it's also important, currently, there is no approved treatment yet.