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CDC Delays Release Of Additional Documents On Reopening Schools; Dr. Anthony Fauci: We Should Make Sure It Is Safe To Get Children Back To School; Daily New Cases, Hospitalizations Rising In South Carolina; South Carolina Governor On In-Person School: "Parents Need To Have A Choice"; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Is Getting Chemo For Cancer Lesions On Liver. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 17, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us. The Coronavirus summer surge is accelerating and this fresh evidence today that the White House is well aware of the scope of the problem yet seemingly will not take charge.

A new daily case record yesterday more than 77,000 new infections reported. It is the ninth new record in the last month. The surge in cases also causing a spike in hospitalizations in many states, deaths heading up in many states as well yet it has been 10 days since the President of the United States how that event specifically to address the pandemic?

And that was to tell schools to reopen despite any local Coronavirus numbers. You get the scope of the challenge even if the President doesn't. 60 percent of Americans disapprove now of how the President is handling the Coronavirus crisis and even greater number say they trust little or nothing of what the President says about this pandemic.

Now we've watched for months as the President ignores or disputes the science, you simply cannot ignore the numbers and the troubling trend. Take a look here again a record Thursday more than 77,000 new infections.

Here's what it looked like just one month ago 23,000 new cases a day this take last hour from Dr. Anthony Fauci.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: People keep talking about the possibility of a second wave in the fall that's a historic terminology related to another time and another outbreak.

I think we need to concentrate on where we are right now because if you're talking about waves we are really essentially still in the first wave when you're having you know up to 70,000 new infections in certain areas of the country that's something you need to focus on right now as opposed to looking ahead and what's going to happen in September or in October.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That sober take there as we go through this remarkable summer surge. Let's take a look at some of the numbers, I just want to come here and take a look at the new cases. And if you come back here again 77,000 plus new cases yesterday right?

The summer surge, we continue to set records. These are all the records as you go. If you go back to June, we're at about 40,000 cases that it was spiking up a little bit 50,000 cases and we thought this was troublesome you see the trend right now as we go.

38 states heading in the wrong direction meaning more cases this week than last week and you see 77,000 there obviously every day we count this number. We're still counting. Today records when it comes to deaths new records in Florida this week, new records in Texas this week and new records in South Carolina this week when it comes to death.

Remember when the reopenings happened? Most of the Governors who reopened early said yes cases will go up but we can handle this. We have the hospital capacity and we don't think the death rates will go up because the death rate starting to go up now in some of these cases.

Let's hope that that trend turns itself around soon records for hospitalization in California this week in Arizona this week and in Georgia this week. Again, that was the big question when you reopened? You knew people go back to work people start getting back out in public it was inevitable that cases would go up.

Everybody knew that the question was how fast how many? Can you handle it? You're starting to see now record hospitalizations in at least the state some stress in other states as well. As we watch this play out this is a horrible week as we close the work week.

Another big debates this week can children go back to school in August and September? As we now go through the middle of July parents and students worrying about this. Kaitlan Collins is life for us at the White House now. Kaitlan we were told we would get some new CDC guidelines where are we on that?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We're not getting them, certainly not this week. The CDC confirmed last night saying that they were just not ready yet which is interesting because the Vice President announced that last week then they talk about it again after the President had been so critical over the guidance for reopening schools.

And they were saying this week because they were going to come out with these 5 new documents more guidance for reopening schools. And of course, the time is critical here because some schools are set to reopen in a month from now 4 weeks from today.

And so, the question still is when are we going to get this guidance? It could be next week that's still something that's to be determined.

[12:05:00]

COLLINS: But I do want to know a document that we did get from the administration not something they release but something that was obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. And that's this document John that was prepared for the Coronavirus Task Force.

And it shows that over a dozen states they believe are in these red hot zones and that means they should start rolling back their reopening going back to these more stringent measures that include wearing a mask at all times when you're outdoors.

No gatherings of 10 or more people, closing bars, closing gems and things like that. And it's these 18 states that are in this document that was obtained by the Center for Public Integrity. And basically, the threshold to be in this red zone is that over the last week they had over 100 new cases for 100,000 people in the population.

And they are having a positivity rate when it comes to testing of over 10 percent. So that is the concern that they're looking at. But this document we should note was not made public its really unclear why because you think this is the information, they would want people to have as they are considering what they're doing?

Not only about reopening in general but specifically with reopening schools something the President has continued to push. So it's still unclear and the question is have they told these 18 states and they're in this zone and then they have got counties in this area and they believe that they should be changing the way that they're doing things now.

KING: Kaitlan Collins important reporting for us in the White House. Transparency would be better in all regards especially at a time of crisis. Kaitlan thanks so much. Joining the conversation now is the Former U.S. Surgeon General, Former CDC Director Dr. David Satcher. He's also the Founding Director and Senior Adviser at the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Doctor thank you so much for being with us. I covered the Clinton White House overlapping your tenure as Surgeon General. I know you're not a guy who loves to dive into politics. You prefer to deal with public health the data and the science. And yet you joined some former colleagues this past week. We can show you the headline here to "Washington Post Essay".

We ran the CDC. No President ever politicized its science the way Trump has. So you have felt compelled to step into politics. You just heard our White House Correspondent the CDC says it was going to have school guidelines now they are delayed again.

There's a document presented to the White House Coronavirus Task Force this says 18 states should roll back because of the current case count it has not been made public. The President of the United States has not had a Coronavirus event in 10 days. What does that tell you about federal leadership at this moment sir?

DR. DAVID SATCHER, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: Where it tells me, we have a reason to be very concerned. We have a reason to worry. We are facing a crisis situation going forward. We're in the middle of a crisis now. So it tells me we have serious problems.

KING: Serious problems, I want you to listen here one of the big debates in the country and it would be a debate for you if you were still at the CDC or still the Surgeon General is what do we do about schools? And obviously it's important if you can, to get children back in schools. Listen to Dr. Anthony Fauci the top Infectious Disease Expert someone you know well the last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. FAUCI: The default position should always be we need to do as best as we possibly can within the framework of safety. But the best we possibly can, to have our default position to get the children back to school. Always thinking we're going to do whatever we can to get the schools open and the children back to school. But always remember that safety and the health of the children and the teachers comes first.

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KING: Help any parent or anybody involved in education watching walk through this. If you were the Surgeon General or if you were still the Head of CDC and you were sitting right now in a Coronavirus Task Force meeting dealing with this question of schools knowing that 38 states are having this surge at the moment, walk through it?

DR. SATCHER: Well number one, I would be concerned that children need to go back to school but I also would grant a word safely as Dr. Fauci said. Safety is really critical here. We should do everything we can to create an environment where children can go back to school safely?

But until they can go back safely then I think we would be irresponsible to push they're going back to school. So I think that's what we're facing when can our children go back to school safely?

KING: And then I think it would be helpful to get more information as we go through this. So you're speaking to me today from Atlanta are you well aware of the case count in your State of Georgia? You're also well aware that the Mayor of your city and the Governor are in a legal fight now over masks and mandates?

I just want to put a map up on the screen, 39 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have at least some kind of a mask requirement. They're different from state to state but at least sounds kind of requirement especially if you're in a public place and you can't keep distance from other people.

Number one, what is your view in the State of Georgia? Is the Mayor right and at least the city should have the authority to mandate mask? And the governor I want to give him some credit he does go around the state with a mask.

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KING: He does say wear a mask. His position as a conservative is I'm not going to mandate a mask. What is yours?

DR. SATCHER: Well, my position is that knowing what we know about mask and then ability to prevent the spread of this virus? We need to find a way to get as many people as possible on - we all know that about the only thing we have now to use to prevent the spread of this virus effectively is in fact the mask and so we should all be pushing for that.

But then we're to guess sort of legal issues and should it be mandated? I think whatever it takes to get people to wear masks now we should be doing it.

KING: I had to go through issues like that when you're a public health professional working in the government. You want to focus on the public health, the science and the data and of course politics comes up. That is inevitable but we're also in an election year and we're dealing with 50 states in this pandemic. How did you when you were sitting around the table with the politicians how did you try to break through?

DR. SATCHER: Well, first let me say that I was both Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary for Health at the same time. And so that was a dilemma but clearly the health of the American people should always be the first issue and we should not let all the issues get in the way about doing what's best for the people of this country or for the people of Georgia.

So we need a way of working out disagreements between the Mayor and the Governor but we should all be working with the health of the people in Georgia in mind and especially the health of our children.

KING: Dr. David Satcher grateful for your expertise and insights and your time today sir take care.

DR. SATCHER: Thank you.

KING: Thank you. Up next for us we'll go to Charleston, South Carolina will talk to the Mayor there as the state records its highest death toll for a single day.

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[12:15:00]

KING: Some breaking news just into CNN. We've just learned that the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been receiving chemotherapy treatments since May to address the recurrence of her cancer. She says though she's doing fine. We'll come back to that story with more details in just a minute.

Back to the Coronavirus though for a moment, 21 states seeing their highest seven day averages for new Coronavirus cases just Thursday, yesterday South Carolina is one of them the state averaging just over 1900 cases per day over the last week.

You see the trend line there that's up about 22 percent from the previous 7 day period. We're also seeing in South Carolina you see the numbers there and you see the trend again the trend up rise in hospitalizations. CNN's Natasha Chen is in Greenville, South Carolina for us Natasha, troubling times?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely John and yesterday the state reported its highest number of COVID-19 related deaths. 69 new confirmed deaths and keep in mind though that reported deaths often lag behind because it takes a while to confirm that that death was actually COVID related especially if the person had multiple medical issues.

So those 69 deaths occurred over the past few weeks. Meanwhile Governor Henry McMaster has been calling for school districts here to submit their plans that must include in classroom learning options for parents thought that was his opinion not an executive order.

The State Superintendent is the one to decide to approve or deny these plans. The deadline is today though the Department of Education here tells me that about a quarter of the districts requested an extension to submit those plans.

Greenville for example the largest school district in South Carolina said they would like to submit on Tuesday. They told me they plan on submitting options ranging from all virtual 2-5 days a week and everything in between.

So far we have not heard that any school district here has submitted plans that are virtual only. And I want to read part of a statement from the State Superintendent Molly Spearman it says in part, school leaders in consultation with public health experts are best positioned to determine how in person operations should be carried out to fit the needs of their local communities?

I remain committed to supporting them in this endeavor and will only approve those plans that offer high quality options and keep safety as their top priority. And keep in mind that the state task force on reopening schools recommends virtual only.

Four places with high disease spread and as of this week the state's Health Department actually says that most counties in the state all but one are seeing a high rate of spread of this virus John.

KING: Natasha Chen for us in Greenville I appreciate the reporting there. The numbers are troubling let's go from Greenville. Charleston now the Mayor is with us John Tecklenburg, Mr. Mayor thank you so much for being with us.

You see the state trends in cases, in hospitalizations we have some data provided by your team but also from the Medical University of South Carolina that also shows in the Charleston area active infections going up that way. What is it? What do you - is it a single source? Is it bars and restaurants? Is it large gatherings in places like churches or public places or is it a little bit of everything?

MAYOR JOHN TECKLENBURG (D-CA), CHARLESTON: I think it's all of them - all of the above. And thank you John and greetings from beautiful and stark Charlton. But what happened not only here but around the country? We opened back up. We didn't really follow the CDC guidelines.

We were just so ready to get open and we thought we were going to a new normal. But I believe most folks just fell back into the old normal. And we were preaching these measures of wearing a mask and distancing and unfortunately voluntary wasn't enough. And so that led Charleston, the City Charlton this week to put in a mandatory mask ordinance with some teeth to it.

And we're going to be unfortunate. And if you come to Charleston, we want you to be wearing a mask.

KING: I will so. Let's talk about where we are. Yes, I'd hope when we're back in March and April dealing with the number's way up here.

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KING: Most of it in the northeast, you would hope it by now the middle of July would be talking to Mayors like yourself all across the country of a position of better straighter or at least relative strength and a low case count about opening schools?

Instead in 38 cases, 38 states heading in the wrong direction right now your state heading up at quite a steep count up the hill. But listen to your Governor here, he says schools should reopen this should not be up to you or your school board it should be up to parents.

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GOV. HENRY MCMASTER, (R-SC): Parents need to have a choice. They need to say to their districts whether they want to go with their children to go in class 5 days a week or whether they want a virtual education at home. It must be their choice. But we must have our schools available.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

KING: Is that a workable approach in your view that leaving this up to parents? I can stay home; my kids are going to learn virtually because I'm worried. I have to go to work you must have the school open 5 days a week for my child.

TECKLENBURG: Well, I absolutely believe that safety comes first. In Charleston County we have our own school district and they've done a really great job at planning on reopening in a safe fashion. They've already had to put off their opening day because of the case numbers here in Charleston.

As you've shown is not where we want them to be. It's not a pretty picture. So I'm all for in person schooling and virtual but you got to wait for the in person until it's safe. And so we need to go back to those tenants or those values on the CDC that you wait until the numbers go down to make decisions about reopening and opening things up.

KING: Mayor John Tecklenburg in Charleston, I appreciate your time and insights today sir. We'll keep in touch and I agree completely what you said at the beginning your city is beautiful. It's spectacular and someday, someday people like me will get to visit safely and say hello in person Mr. Mayor thank you for your time.

TECKLENBURG: It's really important for everyone to wear a mask. I look at it as being a patriotic duty now for the health and wellbeing of our country. Thank you.

KING: I'm on board with you on that one sir, you got me. He got me on board with that one. Mr. Mayor thanks so much for your time. And right now we want to get back to our important breaking news - moments ago the Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been receiving chemotherapy since May to address a recurrence of cancer.

Let's bring in our Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic. She's on the phone with us. Joan we were worried the other day a hospitalization for an infection and now we're hearing that she's been in chemotherapy for months.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: That's right John. And I hope you can hear me clearly. She told us on Friday that her cancer had re-emerged, and she had been undergoing chemotherapy since May at the most busiest time of the recently completed court term. She told us all the statement that she is tolerating the chemotherapy well and is encouraged by the success of the treatment so far.

She said "I have often said I would remain a member of the court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain only able to do that". And she did demonstrate that at the end of the term, but I have to say John this obviously is worrying.

She said she began the course of chemotherapy after a biopsy revealed at least some lesions under her liver and the most recent hospitalization to remove the gallstones - inspection related to what extent were unrelated to the strict recurrence.

As you know John, she has a history of four prior cancer ordeals she was treated for pancreatic cancer last August. In the prior December she underwent surgery to remove two cancerous nasals from her left long. In 1999 she successfully underwent surgery to treat colon cancer.

She was treated for early stages of pancreatic cancer in 2009. But I think there was a recurrence last August. She is regularly kept for cancer in fact when I sat with her in her chambers in January of this year she told me she was cancer free.

According to her statement it was a scan in February that revealed that was then followed by a biopsy that revealed that liver issue. KING: All right, Joan stay with me. I want to read a part of this statement from Doug Ruth Bader Ginsburg just moments ago. I am tolerating chemotherapy well and I'm encouraged by the success of my current treatment. I will continue bi-weekly chemotherapy to keep my cancer at bay and am able to maintain an active daily routine.

Throughout I have kept up with opinion writing and all other court work. I have often said Joan just mentioned this part. I would remain a member of the court as long as I can do the job full steam. I remain fully able to do that.

Joan, its words obviously just learning this it's, just more of your take because you mentioned the history.

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KING: She has been a remarkable fighter against cancer repeatedly the term bad - is often used to describe the tenacity of Ruth Bader Ginsburg but this is more than significant. This is a very big deal given her age, given her history, given the moment?

BISKUPIC: That's right. She's 87 years old, she's the senior liberal on this closely divided up bench. If she were to feel the need to retire any appointment by President Donald Trump which seriously tip the balance of this court. He's already gotten two appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

And if you were able to bring in a third this would be a much difference Supreme Court, a much difference to the law in America. Now you mentioned her resilience and there are two things about her when it comes to her health?

She has been vigilant about getting checked for cancer and vigilant in responding to any fever or chills which is exactly what happened earlier this week when she had - when she went in to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to check on potential infection and a stent, a bile duct stent that had been an year before related to the returns of the pancreatic cancer.

So she is on her own case when it comes to her health. And she is certainly shown her resilience, but we've gone through many, many instances with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and we really hope that she's exactly right that she will continue to do her job full steam. But it is concerning given where she is at?

KING: Well, we certainly wish her the best as we get this news today. Joan Biskupic, I appreciate your hustling to jump on the phone with us. We wish Justice Ginsburg the best of course. So when we come back the NBA getting ready to resume play will go inside the bubble with NBA player Garrett Temple.

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