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Coronavirus Cases Surge Among U.S. Children as Schools Reopen; 163,000+ Americans Killed by Coronavirus, Almost 5.1 Million Cases. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: New troubling data on the rise of infections, COVID-19 infections among some American children.

[10:00:00]

There's a new report out and it shows a 90 percent increase in COVID- 19 cases in kids just over last Four weeks. The State of Florida alone seeing a staggering 137 percent increase in children in the past month.

And as schools begin to reopen across the country, overnight here on CNN, a warning from a top health expert. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: And there's every reason to suspect that this virus, even though it can kill you, behaves pretty much like a cold virus in terms of transmission. Who drives colds? Children drive colds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: There is, as you know, worldwide push to develop a vaccine. This takes, takes a lot of studies. Well, right now, Russia is claiming that it's made a breakthrough in the race for the vaccine. A lot of questions about exactly how far they have gone and what they have confirmed.

Joining us now, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. So, Elizabeth, should we take this with a grain of salt here? I mean, you need to study vaccines over time on thousands of people before you can make reliable conclusions.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim. I wouldn't take it with a grain of salt. I would take it with a shaker, maybe even a gallon of salt. Be extremely skeptical of this. The Russians have put out no data, not a shred of data. We are just basically taking Putin's word for it that this is a fabulous vaccine. He said my daughter took it and she was fine. It doesn't matter if his daughter took it. That's one person.

What you want to see is phase three trials of tens of thousands of people, and they haven't even done those yet. They're very straightforward, they haven't even done those yet. How do we know this vaccine is safe or effective if they haven't tried it out in tens of thousands of people? I think former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb put it best when he simply said, I wouldn't take it.

HARLOW: You make very important points there about Scott Gottlieb, but also about him saying his daughter took it.

What about vaccine experts? What are they saying about the president's claim? He said it a few times now that he believes a vaccine developed in the United States, Elizabeth, can be ready by Election Day, November 3rd.

COHEN: Right. So the experts that I've spoken with -- and these are people at very high levels. Even Tony Fauci has said that he thinks a vaccine would be ready by December or January after Election Day.

And so what they're saying, what the experts I'm talking to are saying is, look, the only way we're going to have a vaccine by Election Day is essentially if Trump does what Putin is doing. Forget phase threes, don't worry about that. Let's just put it on the market and everything will be fine. Well, that is not the way that we do things in the United States of America. You have to have the phase threes.

And so I asked the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, about this, and he essentially said to me not, on my watch. He said, if this happens, if political pressure is put to bear and the FDA approves a vaccine before it's been shown to be safe and effective in phase three trials, that his voice will be among the loudest. He said Tony FaucI's voice will be among the loudest, protesting it and saying that this vaccine is not ready.

So, we have that from the National Institutes of Health director, that he would be the first one to say, this isn't going to fly.

SCIUTTO: Yes. But the president has done it before. He'd done it with hydroxychloroquine, and still does it, right, despite evidence that it says it doesn't work. So, whatever they say, we should be prepared for the president doing what he wants.

COHEN: Right, exactly. Because this worry that Trump is going to pull this October surprise and put a vaccine on the market in October is not an idle worry. I mean, he really could pressure the FDA to do that. He pressured them to approve hydroxychloroquine. Look how that worked out.

SCIUTTO: Right.

HARLOW: Elizabeth, thanks for the reporting on all that. We appreciate it very much.

Well, despite the global skepticism over, as we just discussed, Russia's claim that it has the first really effective vaccine, Vladimir Putin is touting the development this morning.

SCIUTTO: Matthew Chance joins us from Moscow. To be clear, the Russian government lies a lot. What do we know right now about the science here that we can take seriously, Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as Elizabeth was saying earlier, it's very hard to reach a conclusion about how effective and safe this vaccine is because the clinical data that you would normal put out at this stage for peer review just hasn't been made public. They're saying it will be, but it hasn't been yet. And, obviously, people much more qualified than us will be making that assessment.

But what I can tell you is that, you know, regardless of whether this vaccine works or not, regardless whether it's safe or not, the Russian government have approved it and it's going to be administered to frontline health workers in this country over the coming months and to teachers as well.

I can also tell you that, according to Russian officials, a billion doses of this vaccine have already been ordered by countries around the world, 20 countries, they say, around the world.

[10:05:05]

They're hoping to mass produce this vaccine to the tune of 500 million doses a year moving forward.

And so, look, yes, I mean, I totally get that Russia has lied in the past over a whole range of things. Having said that, it does have a record going back through the Soviet Union in producing, you know, effective vaccines. And so it's got that kind of scientific infrastructure that it's been leaning on heavily.

But undoubtedly, this has been a political project from the outset from Vladimir Putin. The idea that Russia could be first to cross the line, Russia could beat the United States in getting to a vaccine, that's a very seductive thought for the Kremlin, and I think that's probably what's been driving the Kremlin to plow such vast resources into creating this vaccine before anyone else in the world can get there. Again, whether or not it works, whether or not it's safe, it's still to be determined.

SCIUTTO: A wise person wrote recently, when you mix politics and science, you get politics. Matthew Chance, thanks very much.

To Florida now where hospitalizations of children with COVID-19 are rising, this as more school districts welcome students back to the classroom in-person this week.

HARLOW: Let's go to Rosa Flores. She joins us again this hour in Miami. Good morning, Rosa.

I mean, the concern, right, is that many of these districts are in areas with pretty high positivity rates.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jim and Poppy, you're absolutely right. And we know that at least 12 school districts are reopening this week for in-person instruction. But according to the Florida education commissioner, all of the counties across the state that are in phase two of the reopening plan are planning to reopen for in-person instruction, and that is according to the emergency order that was issued by the State of Florida.

Of course, except Hillsborough County, which is the Tampa area, which is in a tussle state right now, because they decided to reopen for virtual instruction. And now the state is going to the district there and saying, look, you have to follow the law, you have to provide in- person instruction and give parents that choice.

Now, all this as we learn, according to data from the Florida Department of Health, that in the past month, the number of COVID-19 infections in children has increased by 137 percent. Take a look at these numbers. Back on July 9th, the number of children infected was 16,797. That number jumped on August 9th to 39,735. You got to think about this. There was no school during this time period.

If you look at hospitalizations, those are up during that same time period by 105 percent, from 213 to 436. The deaths in children during that time period increased from 4 to 7, and yet Governor Ron DeSantis continues to push for the reopening of schools, last week also pushing for the return of girls and boys sports. Here is his rationale. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): The fact is, in terms of the risk to school kids, this is lower risk than seasonal influenza. In terms of their ability to spread it, they are less likely to spread it than they are for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, top experts disagree with the governor. Just yesterday, the vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Infectious Disease told CNN's Anderson Cooper that experts do worry about influenza, that, in a year, it kills 100 children. And so far, in just the past few months, there have been 90 COVID-related deaths in children.

And, Jim and Poppy, I should add, I asked the governor directly what is your safety plan, your statewide safety plan for the reopening of schools, and he didn't have an answer. There is no statewide safety plan, and yet the push for reopening of schools for in-person instruction continues in the State of Florida. Jim and Poppy?

HARLOW: We need a plan, a statewide plan there, national plans. Rosa, thank you.

Still to come, food insecurity, it is just one of the dire realities facing so many more Americans today because of this pandemic. This hour, we will see how one Texas food bank is dealing with unprecedented demand.

SCIUTTO: All right. So, taking stock, it's nearly eight months after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. but the nation is still struggling to combat the spread. What can be done to control it now? Is it too late in some respects?

And as schools shift to online learning, getting access to computers and adequate technology, Wi-Fi, et cetera, proving to be a challenge, especially in low-income communities. Ahead, we're going to hear how one school district is receiving some help to bridge the digital divide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:10:00]

HARLOW: All right. So the heated debate about reopening schools and classrooms is now being fueled by a new reality. Several schools in states, including Georgia and Mississippi, that opened their classrooms this week are, this week, already shut down under quarantine because a student or teacher tested positive.

SCIUTTO: And it is a debate because even folks like Dr. Fauci have said that in areas where the outbreak is under control, this can be done safely with restrictions.

CNN Senior Global Affairs Analyst and fellow parent, Bianna Golodryga, she's been following all of this.

Bianna, it's complex. The CDC laid out clear guidelines. Some districts aren't following them, but some districts that are still making a decision not have in-person schooling. What's happening out there? I mean, is there any rhyme or reason to it?

[10:15:00]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Look, we should have a plan, we should a set of guidelines that parents across the country can follow. Unfortunately, we don't. You talk about some of those early guidelines from the CDC, they're pretty simple. Wear a mask and social distance. Though we don't seem to be seeing a lot of that.

And it was really interesting for me to see the governor Georgia yesterday. He talked schools reopening. And this is what he said, quote, this week went real well other than a couple of photos. Now, of course, we know what those photos produced, right? Kids in masks in hallways being jammed together, many of them not wearing masks. And, of course, subsequently, we've seen a resurgence of cases pop up in Georgia. But it's not just Georgia that's opening up schools for in- person classes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: 9 out of 12 Florida counties are expected today start face-to-face instruction this week despite the state having a coronavirus positivity rate hovering around 15 percent.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Yes, that's about six weeks from now.

GOLODRYGA: Kentucky's governor now recommending that schools wait until late September to begin in-person classes. This follows multiple states opening schools only to see some shut down days later after reported cases of coronavirus, as well as a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children's Hospital Association, stating that there has been a 90 percent increase in the number of COVID-19 cases among U.S. children over the last four weeks.

School districts across the country continue to evaluate whether they are adequately prepared to reopen for in-person classes.

DENEEN DRY, NURSE IN BUCKS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, PENNSYLVANIA: I don't I'm going to be prepared until it happens.

GOLODRYGA: Among those concerned, some school nurses like Deneen Dry, who will be on the frontlines of COVID when she returns to work in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

DRY: This will be and is unchartered waters for our schools, something that we've never had to face. Tnd the uncertainty is frightening.

GOLODRYGA: As of Monday, the state's third largest school district announced that they will be starting the year fully online. It's just the latest district to make that decision.

Of the 101 largest school districts in the country, over half are planning for online-only instruction in the fall. That's more than 7 million students starting the school year virtually. Of the 25 largest districts, so far, all but six have announced an online start. One of the few that will be open for face-to-face instruction at least part of the week, the nation's largest school district.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): First day of school is a magical day.

GOLODRYGA: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the majority of families in public schools say they are planning to send their kids back.

DE BLASIO: We must do it safely. We can do it safely. We've set very stringent standards. We have to meet those standards.

GOLODRYGA: Only a quarter so far opting for only online learning, yet even remote learning is not without potential health risks and frustration, as demonstrated by this video from Mansfield, Texas, showing parents waiting in long lines to pick up their children's devices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's no way two people can serve the whole of Mansfield. It was just ridiculous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Once again, an example of a school and a school district not being prepared for the onslaught of parents coming in to pick up devices. And, Jim and Poppy, we should note that in Mississippi, that's another state that has reopened, the state health official said that 22 different schools have reported cases so far. Of the 34 cases, 19 were among students, 15 were with employees.

We've seen a lot of school districts across the country also ask for rapid testing, the latest being Florida. You know what all of this requires? This requires money. And yet we still see that deadlock in Washington. Of course, these schools could use that money ASAP.

SCIUTTO: money and a plan and a commitment, right, from this administration. Bianna Golodryga, thanks very much.

Is time running out to get a handle on the pandemic in the U.S. before a crucial point and that's the beginning of the flu season? We're going to speak to an expert, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Well, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11th. We're nearly six months into it, the U.S., still no clear strategy how to slow the spread of the virus, cases still high and rising. Are we running out of time to turn this around?

I'm joined now by a data analyst for coronavirus, other outbreaks, Tomas Pueyo. Tomas, good to have you back. You're great at taking a sort of 30,000-foot view to kind of place us where we are so people understand. As you know, our viewers now by now, President Trump did not have really a national strategy, gave a lot of freedom to states to decide what to do, how much to do, et cetera.

Without that national strategy, where does the data show the U.S. is on this outbreak, particularly before the fall flu season?

TOMAS PUEYO, CORONAVIRUS ANALYST: Very, very poorly. We didn't do what we needed to do at the national level, and then the states were left to fend for themselves. But they didn't do what they needed to do. And you have a state like New York, who's doing everything they need.

[10:25:01]

They still have 500 cases a day. And they have a ban for more than 30 states, but they still have more than a million people coming in, for example, every day. That's around 1,000 cases a day coming into New York because the quarantines are very soft. And that's one of the most aggressive states. Imagine the states that just not doing what they need to do.

We have a small window of time now before the fall, but we can stop this at any time. It's not like, oh, my God, right now, that's the -- the spread is low, we can -- it's the moment that we have to do anything. We can stop this at any time if we have the will. SCIUTTO: To do what? The will to do what?

PUEYO: The states have focused mostly on just closing stuff, close schools or businesses. That's what we're discussing right now. But these countries that have controlled the virus without closing at the national level, schools or businesses, such as Taiwan or South Korea.

But we're missing many other pieces that other states necessarily have to do to control the virus. One of them is, if you don't control the people coming in, your infections are going to come in. And there are cases in the United States that states on their own need to control infections coming in, that's one.

The second piece is the obvious, test, trace, isolate. There are not that many states who actually test, trace and isolate contacts. And when they do, they ask as a favor, please, can you stay home, can you quarantine at home. How many of these people react to that and actually do it? Very few. Until we get the infected to stay home, that's not -- nothing is going to work.

SCIUTTO: We're clearly not going to trace, test, and isolate because the president doesn't want to. I mean, he says it every day. The only one reason we're having more cases is because we're testing more. Though that denies the facts of increasing positivity rates, et cetera.

So without test, trace, isolate, what is the path of this outbreak looking like in this country?

PUEYO: Well, tell me a country that has been able to control the virus without test, trace, isolate?

SCIUTTO: So more people are going to die, right? More people are going to die until you have a vaccine? Is that the idea?

PUEYO: Well, until we have a vaccine or until another -- there're three ways. One, you have vaccine or treatment. The second is actually states realize that they're on their own and act as such and have proper borders and proper management of the situation inside of their borders. And the third one is starting in January 20th.

SCIUTTO: Yes. You had an interesting thread on Twitter where you just ask the question, if we as a country learned anything from the pandemic of 1918, more than 100 years ago. And the parallels are remarkable, I mean, things like some states did wear masks for a long time, some did not.

It's amazing that 100 years later, we haven't learned the lessons, it seems.

PUEYO: It's pretty crazy. You look at what we knew then and the threat was the detail around in Spain, at least what knew, right? They knew it was through droplets, spread through droplets through people speaking, talking.

They knew that you had to stay home if you could, and if you were going out, that you stay outdoors. They knew that people -- that you had to wear a mask and that people would say, no, don't wear a mask. They even knew that some people would say, oh, no, no, this is nothing. They had also some treatments that they recommended that were absolutely fake. And the difference is that, at the time, it was tobacco and alcohol, now it's injecting disinfectant or taking bleach.

So I think the big difference though is we thought we had learned, that there is a role in the economy for the government. But it sounds like we've forgotten that lesson, at least in the United States, because here, the best government is no government at the federal level.

SCIUTTO: Yes, there's outright hostility for many of these steps here. People forget.

PUEYO: That's right.

SCIUTTO: There are laws to wear seatbelts and they won't wear a mask.

I just wonder then, there are a lot of models about how many folks are going to lose their lives as a result before you have a widely available vaccine. You're a data guy. Which model do you believe? What do you find most credible?

PUEYO: One of the good things though is that we have better treatments now. It looks like between 20 percent and 50 percent of fatality rate might have been lowered thanks to them.

[10:30:01]

And so if, let's assume, the fatality is 5 percent of all the people who got infected.

END