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1.8 Million Jobs Created in July, But Recovery Losses Momentum; Dozens of Georgia Teachers Protest Return to In-Person Teaching; Some Labs in Miami-Dade County Taking More Than 8 days for Test Results; New Projection: Nearly 300,000 in the U.S. Could Die from Coronavirus By December; Economic Stimulus Discussions on Brink of Collapse; President Trump Considering Executive Action on Economic Relief. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 07, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:10]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

We begin this morning with breaking news. The latest jobs report just released. The U.S. economy adding 1.8 million jobs for the month of July. That, of course, good news to some degree but a sharp slowdown from June and really a small step when you look at the larger picture, an economy that's down nearly 13 million total jobs since the start of this pandemic.

HARLOW: That's right. Let's bring in our chief business correspondent Christine Romans for more on the numbers.

You know, it's not a loss of jobs but it's nowhere near where we were a month ago.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And look, and there were people this morning who are really worried you will see another loss of jobs because we've had the recovery sort of slow down especially toward the end of the month. But indeed 1.8 million jobs created, that's three months in a row.

Let me walk you through the picture here. Look at what happened in March and April. That's the pandemic shutdown. And then in the summer we saw this snapback in hiring a lot of -- some retail jobs, hotels and restaurants. That's certainly what we saw in July. But the pace of the jobs gains is slowing here.

Overall we have lost 22.1 million jobs in March and April, and we've gained back a little more than nine million of those. So it's really important to kind of put that in context to measure just how deep the hole we are in here.

The jobless rate at 10.2 percent. That's declined but still above the worst of the great recession. We had 10 percent in the great recession so a 10.2 percent unemployment rate, and the Labor Department, you guys, points out that if you counted some of these people who are miscategorized in the report, you might have even 1 percent more than that, so 11.2 percent unemployment rate if you counted everybody who's not working.

Some of those people, when they're surveyed by the government, they don't say that they're out of work. They just say they're not at their job, even though they have been either laid off or furloughed. So we got a lot of work to do here. I think that's the important point of this report. And it's a rearview mirror, really important that this is what was happening sort of toward the beginning of July. Now we've got some real worries about what happens in August, folks.

SCIUTTO: You always got to watch the trend line with these numbers.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I know you will often say, and the trend of course going down here. Does it reflect, in effect, a slowing of the re-opening, right, if that's the way to describe it?

ROMANS: That's exactly right. It's a slowing of the re-opening. Those numbers that you saw earlier in the summer, that 4.8 million in just one month, those were opening up from almost a dead stop in the economy. And now we have smoldering portions of the country with the virus.

We have questions about schooling and some families will be making decisions about whether they can go back to work even if they're offered a job because they have to stay home part of the week to help with online schooling. So there are a lot of big issues that are going to come from fruition here in the month.

I will also point out this. This is the first report we've seen when you don't have the shock absorbers of the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits and the PPP, the small business funding, is running out. So now we're looking at a labor market still in recession but without the help that people need to absorb the shock of that job loss. So that's a new moment we're in.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Let's see what Congress does with this. I think it may be a reason for them to punt or no deal to happen here, which would be a real shame.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Christine, we got to go. We'll get back to you soon.

ROMANS: Yes.

HARLOW: Thank you.

ROMANS: Bye. HARLOW: Also this morning, a new stunning projection, an influential

model from the University of Washington predicts the United States could hit nearly 300,000 deaths from COVID-19 by December. That is nearly double where we are today. But it also predicts nearly 70,000 lives could be spared if 95 percent of Americans wore masks.

The U.S. just surpassing 160,000 deaths, an alarming 1200 new deaths in a single day.

SCIUTTO: It's a remarkable way to see that. Simple step of wearing a mask saved 60,000 lives.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Right now a national experiment is underway as schools across the country reopen. Unfortunately, we're already seeing some students and staff testing positive for the virus. Some classes being forced to close down as a result. Hundreds having to go into quarantine as a result of this.

Let's get to CNN's Dianne Gallagher in Georgia.

So, Dianne, listen, schools did expect this. Right? You bring people back together, you're going to have some infections. As this is happening in Georgia, how do they react to it? Does it make them rethink their plans? Or do they say, listen, this is part of the plan, we can control it?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far it appears they're saying it's part of the plan and we can control it. But, again, we're not even quite done with that first week of school. At this point we're already seeing protests from teachers in the state's largest district, Gwinnett County public schools, yesterday, the socially distanced demonstrations. Because they start school back there virtually next week.

[09:05:10]

But there's already a plan that was released that says that they're going to be phasing in this in-person learning a few weeks after that. And the teachers are concerned that it's just not safe because, look, there are districts that have in-person learning that started this week, and we've been reporting on those positive cases. You've seen the pictures floating around as well.

A picture from North Paulding High School here in Georgia that went viral. The student who took that photograph of a crowded hallway during transition time actually spoke with us. She was suspended for violating school protocols having her cell phone. This is why she said she did it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HANNAH WATERS, SUSPENDED AFTER POSTING PHOTO OF CROWDED HIGH SCHOOL HALLWAY: I was concerned for the safety of everyone in that building and everyone in the county because precautions that the CDC and guidelines at the CDC has been telling us for months now weren't being followed.

I'd like to say that this is some good and necessary trouble. So I don't regret this because it needed to be said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: That good trouble line referencing, of course, the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis. Now the superintendent of the Paulding County School District sent a message out to parents and students saying that they know the picture doesn't look good.

But he says that it lacks context, that this was just a transition period. Students aren't around each other for a prolonged amount of time, Jim and Poppy, and that they went virtual on Thursday and Friday. So they can take a step back and try to learn from what they saw those first three days as well.

Of course, Georgia surpassing 4,000 deaths yesterday. One of those deaths that was reported was a 7-year-old African-American boy who had no underlying known conditions at that time.

HARLOW: Wow. Dianne, thank you for all of that reporting, very much. Our hearts with his family for sure.

Let's go to Florida. Our Rosa Flores is in Miami for us this morning.

Good morning, Rosa. We are learning more about some labs in the state taking more than a week to provide test results. Is this just because of the shutdown of labs, because of the CEO or what is this?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, officials here have said in the past that this is an issue across the United States, that there is this lag in getting test results. But this new state data that was obtained by CNN that was given to Miami-Dade County presents a clear picture of what's going on right here where I am, Poppy.

And what this data shows is that one day last week, 19 percent of the test results that were reported in Miami-Dade County took more than seven days. In another day, 45 percent of test results took between four and seven days.

Now, despite this lag in test results, Governor Ron DeSantis not just pushing for the re-opening of schools but also for the return of girls' and boys' sports. He made that announcement yesterday during a press conference saying that he doesn't envision NBA-style bubbles. He does not envision for sports programs to stop if there is an outbreak instead, according to Governor DeSantis, he says that when an athlete displays symptoms, well, that athlete would need to be isolated, tested, and then that athlete could return 10 days later.

Now here's the outlook in the state of Florida right now. Yes, the number of daily cases is dropping. The Florida Department of Health reporting yesterday more than 7,600 cases. Yes, it sounds high. But for Florida, just think about it, a few weeks ago, the record was more than 15,000 cases. And when you look at the positivity rate, it's still high in this state between 10 and 17 percent. Jim and Poppy, and one of the things that I should add, Governor Ron

DeSantis now thinking about re-opening long-term care facilities. I know you and I talked about this before. Well, now he has created a task force that's going to brainstorm ways to allow visitors into long-term care facilities -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Let's hope if they do, they do it right and safely. Rosa Flores, thanks very much from Miami there.

Other news we're following this morning, the World Health Organization says something concerning that coronavirus infection rates among teens and young adults are skyrocketing around the world. Much more on what that means just ahead.

HARLOW: Also, a stimulus deal is just on the brink of collapse between Congress and the White House. This as new research shows 40 million Americans could be evicted by the end of the year if they don't get help.

And overnight the president making good on his threat to crack down on a pair of Chinese-owned social media companies. We'll discuss all of this with one of the president's former senior economic officials.

[09:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, this just in to CNN. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, we've just learned he will announce the decision today on whether or not New York state public schools will reopen. This of course includes the New York City school district which is the largest public school district in the country, more than 1.1 million students. It could happen any moment. We'll bring it to you when it does.

SCIUTTO: It's going to affect a lot of kids, plus it could be a model for other states around the country. A new model often cited by the White House for the country projects that nearly 300,000 Americans could die of the coronavirus by December 1st, double really of where we are today. Researchers say, however, that more than 66,000 lives could be saved if folks took this simple step. If 95 percent of people in this country consistently wore masks.

HARLOW: Joining us now to talk about this, Dr. Craig Spencer, the director of Global Health and Emergency Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

Doctor, it's really good to have you. The numbers say it all. You can save 67,000 American lives in just a matter of months if almost everyone wears a mask. Is it time for a federal mask mandate?

HARLOW: To have you. The numbers say it all. You can save 67,000 American lives in just a matter of months if almost everyone wears a mask. Is it time for federal mask mandate?

[09:15:00] CRAIG SPENCER, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH IN ER MEDICINE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Absolutely, it has been time for that. Look, for a long time I thought that we needed to really try to convince and help people understand why it was so important. And even though we've had an increase in the number of people that are using masks, we still have a big gap.

And we need to make sure that mask-wearing is universal if we want to get this number down. What I'm concerned about with that projection is that not 200, 250 or 300,000 deaths. Is that I'm concerned people don't really appreciate the magnitude of what we already have right now. We have the highest death rate in the world, and the greatest number of deaths anywhere in the world. And I'm afraid that people don't understand or don't really appreciate the huge difference between 150,000, what we have now and 300,000.

And many people just assuming that this is acceptable and this is business as usual. This is an abject failure, and we absolutely need to do better with mask-wearing, with testing, with every aspect of this, otherwise things are going to get much worse.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it is good to see getting through that message about masks, seeming to get through, even the president now photographed again yesterday on a visit to Ohio wearing one. But folks, I'm sure around your communities, I see it in mine, let's hope that it continues that way. I want to ask you about other data out today. This is a warning from the World Health Organization that this virus is moving in the younger populations at a really fast rate.

Share of coronavirus cases among teens and young adults up six times around the world. What does this mean, right? Is that translating, for instance, into deaths in numbers among young people? Or is it largely about spreading it to the broader population?

SPENCER: This has been a concern. And, again, we're learning new things every single day about this virus. Initially, we didn't think that it really impacted kids. Now, we're learning that kids can be impacted and can spread the virus.

This is of course concerning as many millions of kids are about to go back to school here in the U.S. and around the world. Look, the point of this is that younger populations, although less likely to die from this, are fueling this pandemic by engaging in riskier behaviors, less likely to wear a mask, more likely to be out at parties.

The important thing that many younger people need to recognize is that they may be getting their family members, their grandmas sick. But we also are seeing a growing body of evidence that even if you get this virus and you survive it, there is still a lot of people that are having longer symptoms that are being set up for potentially chronic symptoms. Heart issues, lung issues. We saw a lung transplant in a young person last month.

So we know that it's just not a liver dichotomy, and a lot of younger people need to understand that even if they get the disease and they survive it, they're passing it along to other people and they may have chronic complications from it themselves.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: When you look at this research, I don't know if you've seen it out of Hong Kong on immunity, and the immunity cell study appearing to show that the coronavirus may suppress the function of important immune system cells that could help the body from fighting off disease. What should we take from that?

SPENCER: I don't know that there's all that much that we need to take from that right now. What we're seeing is tens of thousands of research studies that are coming out, many every single day. Some are supportive, some seem contradictory. The important thing is that the growing body of evidence that we're learning more about every day, we do have encouraging signs that there is immunity.

Again, if you remember, a month or two ago, we weren't exactly sure whether people who had survived this disease would have any protection. We didn't know if the vaccine itself would be able to provide immunity. We're not a 100 percent sure of all of those things yet.

But the growing body of evidence suggests that if you get infected, you will have immunity for a period. And that's really important in terms of us getting this outbreak under control and for the development of a hope of a vaccine.

SCIUTTO: Yes, one consistent thing with this is we're learning as we go, right? Seemingly every week, some new revelation and a long way to go. Dr. Craig Spencer, thanks very much.

SPENCER: Thanks for having me.

HARLOW: Well, on the brink of collapse, that, frankly is where stimulus negotiations stand. Right now, ahead of a self-imposed deadline, is there any hope for a deal? The latest from Capitol Hill, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Familiar headline from Capitol Hill. Little progress, lots of blame. That's where stimulus talks stand in Congress as we head into the final day of negotiations before what's supposed to be the August recess.

Nothing came from a three-hour Thursday night meeting between top negotiators. Now, the administration is warning the president will take executive action if a deal is not reached today. Big questions about what that action actually is. Can it hold? CNN congressional reporter Lauren Fox, she joins us now from Capitol Hill. So Lauren, are talks dead? Might they rise from the ashes today?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Well, they're certainly on life support, Jim. I will tell you yesterday was maybe the worst I've seen it in terms of members coming out and having a lot of blame to share for the White House.

The White House coming out, having a lot of blame for Democrats in that room. There's a lot of disagreements. And let's just zoom out a little bit because this is really a macro disagreement about how big of a problem this is, and how much the government needs to be spending to make sure that the economy stays afloat.

[09:25:00]

There are some key sticking points. But everything comes from that key issue and that key disagreement. One of the sticking points of course, liability protections for businesses. The other sticking point, unemployment insurance. How much money a week and additional federal benefits need to go out to individuals struggling because they are not working? The other sticking point, state and local funding.

And I'm told that, that was a major one last night in the meeting between Pelosi, Mnuchin, Meadows and Schumer. The reason that, that issue is coming up is because it's not just about giving money to government. What Democrats are arguing is that it's the government who pays essential workers. Your firefighters, your police officers, your teachers. Without more money to state and local governments, they argue, this problem could get a lot worse.

And Democrats, Nancy Pelosi in particular said last night, that you cannot think these individuals who are doing the work right now, if you do not pay them and keep them working. So I think that's kind of underscoring one of the main sticking points. We do know that in the room last night, President Trump called in three different times to talk to his negotiators, not to speaker who he hasn't spoken to since October.

Instead, we know that the sticking points remain. We know that the president has a few options at his disposal. He can either keep having his negotiators talk to Hill negotiators or he can go forward with those executive actions. That could happen as soon as today, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll be watching closely. I know a lot of Americans hoping for a resolution. Lauren Fox on the Hill, thanks very much. Poppy?

HARLOW: All right, Lauren, thanks for that reporting. For more on the state of the U.S. economy, we're joined now by Tomas Philipson; former acting Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. And good to have you, Thomas. For people who don't know, you were in the mix, you were in the middle of this just a few weeks ago. You just left the Trump administration, so your perspective is invaluable.

Your reaction to the jobs numbers this morning, yes, 1.8 million new jobs added in the month of July. Good to see some addition here. But a huge slowdown from the 4.8 million added the month before, and unemployment now still higher than at the peak of the great recession.

TOMAS PHILIPSON, FORMER ACTING CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS: Yes, I think -- I mean, it was obviously a higher expectation, you saw the markets react to that. We're about 40 percent back from the big losses in March and April right now. But if you think of it, I mean, there's obviously two forces here that are operating as the COVID that generates preventions through lack of economic activity.

And the second force is I think fiscal policy where it's putting -- it's kind of remarkable we're getting these job gains with the brakes we're putting on the economy. I mean, imagine if you went into work and the IRS took 100 percent in your paycheck and also made you pay to get into the building. That's essentially what two-thirds of the labor force is facing right now with earning less at work --

HARLOW: Yes --

PHILIPSON: Than they earn at home.

HARLOW: Well --

PHILIPSON: And I think it's kind of remarkable -- I think it's remarkable that we're actually seeing these gains despite these large -- you know, enormous disincentive to actually see them.

HARLOW: What disincentives to see the gains?

PHILIPSON: That we're actually paying people more not to work than work. That's the UI problem. And that's -- I mean, it's been noted by a lot of people. But people don't realize, you know, how much of a disincentive that is. And in fact --

HARLOW: Yes, except, I wonder what -- just to jump in here, Tomas, I wonder what data you're pointing to other than maybe your own hypothesis that people aren't going to want to go to work if they're making more at home which is just not something that I see in the American people because I think you're referring to the University of Chicago study, right? That says 68 percent of people have been taking home more than at work with that additional $600 a week.

But I spoke to the author of the study last night. And he told me, you cannot extract that. They do not surmise that. They do not say that, that is therefore a disincentive for people to go to work. The Yale study says the same and five others.

PHILIPSON: No, I mean, people look at the long term presumably. But it's on the margin. It certainly must be a disincentive to take everyone's -- I mean, a 100 percent tax rate on work is a disincentive. You can't get around that. But people are potentially looking beyond this and saying if I don't go to work now, I might not have a job after this. And that might --

HARLOW: Yes --

PHILIPSON: Potentially be depriving people.

HARLOW: Right, I think it's assuming that people only go to work for a paycheck which is just not the case for most Americans. Many people go to work because it gives them --

PHILIPSON: I'm not saying that -- HARLOW: It gives them a sense of purpose.

PHILIPSON: Yes, part of the reason they go to work is the paycheck certainly. If we didn't pay them --

HARLOW: Yes --

PHILIPSON: Very few people --

HARLOW: All right. So if you were still in the White House, you were in the Oval a lot. You advise the president a lot. If you were there today, Tomas, would you tell them to agree to an extension now of what is expired, which is the extra $600 in cash assistance to unemployed per week? Should they do that?

PHILIPSON: No, absolutely not. So here's an important number which I don't understand why people haven't jumped more on it. The Friday report of GDP last week had a very interesting number which people are not talking enough about. It showed that disposable income went up by 45 percent, not because it took a huge dip in Q1.