Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Chris Ragsdale, Cobb County School Superintendent, Discusses Reopening Schools, Parents Protesting Online-Only Learning; Fitness Trainer Who Thought Virus Was Hoax Until He Got It Shares His Story Of Survival; UNC Professor Jay Smith Discusses Campus Staff Filing A Lawsuit Over UNC's Reopening Plans; Fate Of College Football Up In The Air As Another Conference Cancels. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 11, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The governor is not mandating masks in the state. We know that. Masks are not required in many schools.

The superintendent of Paulding County schools, to that point, said this in a letter to the school community that I wanted to ask you about. Writing, "Wearing a mask is a personal choice and there's no practical way to enforce a mandate to wear them."

He's talking about in schools. Do you agree with that statement that you can't mandate masks because it's not enforceable in your schools?

CHRIS RAGSDALE, COBB COUNTY SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT: Well, again, each superintendent has to make their own decision for their community and counties individually. You know, we will have to determine that decision as well for us when we are able to get back to a face-to- foundation option.

BOLDUAN: But do you think -- you have a dress code. There are dress codes in schools.

RAGSDALE: True.

BOLDUAN: There are rules on usage of your personal phones in schools. Isn't it also understandable that you could have a policy or an enforceable policy on wearing masks in schools?

RAGSDALE: Yes, I mean, I think, again, to our previous conversation, we have to let the data impact and determine the decisions we make.

I think there's a lot of, you know, words that can be used such as mandate, require, and those things that do carry a lot of weight in and of themselves.

So when you say staff and students are required to wear a face covering, that does go a long way.

Now, again --

(CROSSTALK) BOLDUAN: And it's also that it's something Dr. Fauci says should be done in schools. You should trust Anthony Fauci, right?

RAGSDALE: You got to go with the data to make that decision.

If a face covering is going to be beneficial in limiting the spread -- because again, that's our top parameter. Face to face is the highest spread. So if we can limit that high spread by wearing face coverings, then, absolutely, we should be doing that. All of us should be doing that.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for what you're doing. Good luck.

RAGSDALE: Thank you. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Got a busy week ahead of you next week. Thank you very much.

RAGSDALE: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, one man thought the warnings about COVID were overblown. Then he got it and then COVID almost killed him. Now he's sharing his story of survival and he joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:08]

BOLDUAN: Public health experts across the board say Americans should avoid gathering in large groups because of the pandemic. That is exactly what is happening at the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota right now.

Some attending saying they don't believe the threat of coronavirus, dismissing the dangers altogether.

With that in mind, scenes like this, a concert by rock band smash mouth, might not be too surprising then. Listen to what band member had to say from the stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going crazy, you know? Now we're out here together tonight.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now we're here once again. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) -- COVID -- (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: After so many months of this, so much science and so many deaths, why are people still denying the real and serious threat of this virus?

Let me bring in one man who went from coronavirus skeptic to realist, but it took a near-death experience.

Ruben Mata, is joining me now.

Ruben, it's great to meet you. Thank you for being here.

Before the virus, what did you think of COVID?

RUBEN MATA, THOUGHT COVID WAS A HOAX UNTIL HE CAUGHT IT AND WAS IN A COMA: I didn't think it was real. I thought it was something that was made up. If it was real, it was not going to come near, you know, where I was at. It was for people up in age. But I didn't think it was real as far as I was going to be able to contract it. I had that mind- set.

BOLDUAN: Why were you so skeptical?

MATA: My mind-set, the conditioned mind of it'll never happen to me, buying into other people's story. It's easier not to have to wear a mask. It's easier not to have to change and stick with my belief system of it'll never happen to me. I won't get it. I had this mind- set of the ego saying I'm stronger than anything.

BOLDUAN: Some of the reason you thought it wasn't real, thought it wouldn't be bad if you did get it, was because you're in great shape. You're a fitness trainer. I mean, you live a healthy lifestyle. Is that part of it?

MATA: Yes, thank you, Kate, for that.

Yes, like, the environment at the gym, a lot of people have that same mind-set. We're high fiving and we're not going to get it. We have that mind-set. And they're invincible, I know it's not going to happen to me.

And that seems to be the mind-set of a lot of people until it gets close to home or really close to home. It's like one doesn't get it until they get it or somebody close to them gets it. It's unfortunate about that.

BOLDUAN: I mean, you look fantastic now.

Just so everyone knows, things didn't just get bad for you. It was almost fatal for you.

[11:40:01]

You were diagnosed in early March. You were admitted to the hospital, put upon a ventilator. And almost immediately -- and then you had to be put into a medically induced coma for five days, thank god, turning the corner after that.

Do you recall, Ruben, the moment you realized how wrong you had been? MATA: Yes, because there was the symptoms that started, major body

aches. The body aches, the fever that didn't go down, the inability to think. It was a foggy mind.

When my taste buds went, that's when it really -- because normally if it was a fever or something, I could dominate it with ginger tea, doing what I knew, but it didn't subside and the conditions got worse. That's when I realized it's something bigger than me.

BOLDUAN: Yes. You know, people still think the way that you did before you got the virus.

Do you think there's something that someone could have said to the Ruben of early march that, I don't know, could have scared you straight? You want to speak out now, you're trying to use your story to get people to understand and to learn lessons and not make the mistakes that you did.

What do you think you could have been told before that would have helped you avoid everything you've gone through?

MATA: How serious it is. It's life. It's life or death. It's not a cough that you could take something or it's not something so simple as my conditioned mind knew. It was life or death.

And until that happened and realizing it's serious of life or death, then I maybe would have thought different of knowing the consequences of not, you know, washing my hands, not staying six feet away of social distancing and not wearing a mask.

If I would have known that -- that's why I'm speaking out so much about what the results may be of not doing those three things, it's death.

My friend, my brother's best friend, just passed away two days ago. And I spoke with him a week before saying go get checked, go get checked. And unfortunately, may he rest in peace, it's the mind-set. It's unfortunate.

But like you were sharing, if I was told that very -- I would say in a way of looking at it as reality, not just hearing it from somebody else, like, on TV. My mind put that aside. It didn't want to see what reality was.

But if I was told by somebody about what really may happen, I would have thought about it different.

That's why I'm speaking out on it, especially out here in Orange County. We have a campaign called hashtag #maskupoc that talks about it. We just posted a video and we had almost 4,000 views in less than a day, which is great, because that's the purpose that I received -- yes.

BOLDUAN: That's great. It's great that you look fantastic. Thank you for using your experience and your story and your scare, really, to try to teach people and get people to learn from your mistakes. Thank you so much, Ruben. Good luck.

MATA: Thank you, Kate, OK.

BOLDUAN: Coming up, some campus staff at the University of North Carolina are filing a lawsuit over the school's reopening plans. Some faculty have a message for students as well: Stay at home, don't come back yet. One of those professors joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:48:17]

BOLDUAN: The University of North Carolina is now being sued by some of its employees over the school's reopening plan and decision to bring students back to its various campuses statewide. The group is accusing the school of putting their lives at risk.

But it's not just those campus workers raising alarm. A group of UNC professors is as well, writing an open letter to UNC undergrads with a very clear message: Please stay home.

Joining me now is one of the UNC faculty members behind that letter, Professor Jay Smith.

Professor, thanks for being here.

What was the final straw that led to writing this letter and speaking out so publicly against the university's plan?

JAY SMITH, PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: Well, we felt our time running out. The sands in the hourglass were dwindling away.

We were working since May. We've been working hard, a whole coalition of workers on the UNC campus, to get through to administrators, to talk sense to them to change their plans. They ignored us steadfastly.

And we realized with a week to go before classes began that our Hail Mary pass had to be a direct appeal to students. And so we asked them to stay at home and make the safe choice for themselves.

BOLDUAN: Classes started yesterday. You told my producer that you and most of the faculty are teaching remotely right now. What are you hearing from students? Do you think your fears are going to be realized?

SMITH: Well, yes, yes, we do. We have every reason to suppose so, given the statistics in North Carolina for the past couple of months. The pandemic has clearly worsened.

[11:50:06]

And there's reason to believe that all of the constituency on campus share these concerns. I was told yesterday that one student, a student leader, said he felt like he was walking into a burning building. And that was an apt metaphor.

All the statistics suggest that viral spread will be inevitable and that vulnerable communities are going to be impacted by this.

BOLDUAN: I mentioned the campus, the lawsuit that was filed by campus workers against the school asking for more protections for employees. Is there a level of protection that you could see that would get you comfortable in heading back into a classroom and teaching in person?

SMITH: Well, you know, our Orange County health director -- recommendations for the university that they ignored, if those recommendations were followed, we would all feel a whole lot safer going back on campus.

They recommended that the density of student housing be greatly reduced. And they recommended that at least first five weeks of the semester be conducted remotely, having a default remote teaching mode, at least for the first five weeks.

And if those directives were followed, we would all feel a lot better about things.

BOLDUAN: Have -- you mentioned your open letter was addressed to the undergrads on campus. But have you heard anything back from school leaders about your message, about what you wrote, about obviously your frustration? And it is not you alone, it is a group of faculty that did this together.

SMITH: Right, right. And one source of our frustration has been the non-responsiveness on the part of our leaders here at the campus level and at the board of governors level over the entire UNC system.

No, they have not answered that letter. They have not answered that message. They ignored petitions that we sent to them with thousands of signatures on them, earlier in the summer.

They are bound and determined to head over that cliff, like "Thelma and Louise." Their foot is on the accelerator.

BOLDUAN: Well, we'll stand by to see what happens as the school year gets under way, classes started yesterday.

Professor, thank you for coming in. Appreciate your time.

SMITH: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: I want to turn to the fate of college football, the college football season, which, right now, appears to be hanging by a thread.

A second NCAA conference announced overnight it is postponing the fall season. And there are reports of a decision from the Big-10 and the PAC-12 conferences that could come as soon as today.

Some coaches and players are pushing back against the momentum to cancel the season saying they want to play.

CNN's Andy Scholes is following this and joins me now.

Andy, today could -- today, tomorrow could be hugely consequential when it comes to -- with the message from the Big-10 and PAC-12 would mean. What are you hearing?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Kate, the Big-10 presidents are meeting as we speak right now discussing the future of the college football season, the PAC-12 conference. Their leaders are expected to meet today as well.

We could find out that they -- of the college football season, for those two conferences later on today. And it might not just be postponing the fall season. It might clue something like pushing it back from the start from the first week of September to the end of September.

If we were talking yesterday morning, it certainly seemed like postponing the fall football season was going to happen. But that's when a number of players, big-time coaches and even some other conference commissioners came out and said, look, we want to play football, this fall.

And in that campaign, the player was led by Trevor Lawrence. He said they want health and safety protocols to be universal across college football. But he added they want to play this fall because he thinks that's the safest for all of the players.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREVOR LAWRENCE, CLEMSON QUARTERBACK: We feel safe here. We feel safer here than anywhere else, honestly. And when you go outside these walls and go get food, go do anything, you're at just as much if not more risk.

DABO SWINNEY, CLEMSON HEAD COACH: We cancel football, the virus is going to go away. It is fully my belief that these guys are safe here. Not only are they safer here, minimally it is better for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: The Big-10 conference appears to be the first Power Five conference that would make the move to postpone the fall football season if they decide to do that.

But they have some of their biggest head coaches saying no, we want to play football this fall. That list includes Michigan, head coach Jim Harbaugh, Ohio State's head coach, Ryan Day.

And Nebraska's head coach, Scott Frost, took it an even step further and he said, Nebraska's playing football this fall no matter what, even if the Big-10 decides not to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT FROST, NEBRASKA HEAD COACH: Our university is committed to playing no matter what, no matter what that looks like and how that looks.

We want to play no matter who it is or where it is, so we'll see how those chips fall. We certainly hope it is in the Big-10. If it isn't, I think we're prepared to look for other options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:55:07]

SCHOLES: And that is certainly a powerful statement there from coach frost. A team playing in another conference for one season, Kate, that's really unheard of.

And if you think about the other conferences in the Power Five that we're not really hearing about now, the SEC, they're moving along as scheduled, their players are practicing, teams are practicing.

And their commissioner was on "Good Morning, America" this morning saying they're not going to be in any rush to make any kind of a decision.

BOLDUAN: Look, the SEC looks like they're looking at every possibility to see if they can pull it off. A lot of push from players they want to see it. Also, you can hear otherwise as well.

Good to see you, Andy. Thank you so much.

SCHOLES: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Coming up, Russia claims it has the world's first COVID vaccine. Do they have the science to back it up?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)