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Ninety Percent Increase In COVID Cases In Children Over Past Four Weeks; Mega Church Pastor Defies COVID Guidelines, Reopens Despite Risks; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Wants To Tax Obscene Wealth Earned During Pandemic. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 11, 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: Thank you for joining us today. We'll see back here tomorrow. It could be V.P. Choice Day. We always like those.

A busy news day ahead, Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar and welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.

The data says it all, children are not immune to the coronavirus. A new report shows a 90 percent increase in children testing positive for coronavirus over the last month. Florida alone saw a 137 percent jump.

Children are not the only population experiencing a sharp rise. Right now, the coronavirus is spreading at an alarming rate inside of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Thousands of families across the country are in mourning. The average daily death toll is remaining around 1,000 people, Florida setting another unfortunate record today with 267 people dying.

And in the meantime, as the global number of cases crosses 20 million, Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country has approved the world's first vaccine and named it Sputnik-V, a hat tip to the Soviet Union's first satellite launched during the space race.

But there are many questions about the safety and the quality of that Russian vaccine. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says being first is not the goal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, HHS SECRETARY: The point is not to be first with the vaccine. The point is to have a vaccine that is safe and effective for the American people and the people of the world. We need transparent data, and it has got to be phase three data, that shows that a vaccine is safe and effective.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Now, the U.S. timeline for a safe and effective vaccine is still the end of this year. But let's get back to that alarming rise that we're seeing in cases among children.

The school year is already under way in many parts of the country. And this study found that 90 percent jump over the last four weeks. That's nearly 180,000 children diagnosed since early July.

Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is with us now, and tell us what we're learning from this updated report, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, to your point, I want to say that now that schools are under way in some parts of the country, we may even be seeing a bigger spike. So let's look at the numbers that are in this new report.

What it finds is that since the beginning of the outbreak, there have been more than 380,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases, and that's a 90 percent increase in COVID cases among children in just the last four weeks. And from July, if you look from July 9th to August 6th, just that short period of time, not even a month, nearly 180,000 new pediatric COVID-19 cases.

Now, I know what a lot of people are thinking about, well, so what, kids get COVID, they're sick for a day, my kid has been sick for a day with a variety of different kinds of viruses over the years, why does it matter?

Here is why it matters, two reasons. One, 90 children have died from COVID since this outbreak began, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That's approximately what the number of children who die in a flu season. We take great care to prevent those deaths in a flu season, we should do the same here.

And, of course, Brianna, as you and I have discussed before, children are little disease vectors. So even if they don't get sick, they could get us very sick. They could get their grandparents even sicker. They could kill their grandparents. We do not want that to happen. It is not the flu. Brianna?

KEILAR: Elizabeth, thank you so much for that reminder.

And now to Vladimir Putin's claim that Russia has developed and approved the world's first coronavirus vaccine. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance is in Moscow for us.

So, I mean, this seems quite quick, Matthew. What did the president say when he announced its approval?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, Russia has just approved what it says is the world's first coronavirus vaccine, despite major concerns about the safety and effectiveness and bringing confidence from top officials.

Russia President Vladimir Putin announced that the Russian-made vaccine named Sputnik-V has undergone what it called all the necessary checks. It is now registered for use, even though phase three human trials have yet to begin.

Putin also said, one of his own daughters has already been vaccinated, an extraordinary statement, but a sign of just how much confidence Russia wants to show it has in what is casting as a huge contribution to the victory over coronavirus. Brianna?

KEILAR: Matthew, thank you.

Putin's push to declare this vaccine a world first before conducting human trials is raising some red flags. The rapid speed at which Russian researchers developed the drug has experts wondering about its safety.

I want to talk about this now with Dr. Richina Bicette. She is the Medical Director and an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine. Thank you so much for being with us, Doctor.

Russia started its first clinical trials at the beginning of June, it plans to begin mass vaccinations in October. What do you think about that timeline?

[13:05:00]

DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, you know, the humanitarian in me is quite excited there have been advancements made, but the scientist in me is very concerned and I'm going to urge everyone else to look at the data very cautiously.

Vaccine development is no small feat and this is not child's play. It usually takes years to develop a vaccine. And the fact that Russia has already approved the vaccine without undergoing phase three clinical trials is much to be concerned about.

KEILAR: So, back in June, there was a New York Times op-ed that was written by two doctors and it put forth the idea that President Trump could launch an October surprise. They actually worried that the president could fast track a vaccine and use it as a campaign stunt, especially after he had touted hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure, which it is not.

Do you think this scenario could happen and do you think that in the U.S., there are measures in place to stop a vaccine that isn't safe and effective from coming forward?

BICETTE: Brianna, I'm very doubtful that that can happen. Just for comparison's sake. Marcan Company is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. In the last 25 years, there have only been seven truly novel vaccines created and Marcan made four of them. The shortest amount of time that it took them to create a vaccine was four years, not four months, but four years. And here we are speaking of creating a vaccine within nine to ten months of the virus first being even discovered.

Luckily, for us in the United States, we do have measures in place to ensure efficacy and to ensure safety. Vaccine approval goes through the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. and there are lots of measures in place to make sure vaccines undergo the proper steps and proper clinical trials before we give it to U.S. citizens.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about someone who we even watching go through her COVID journey, and that is actress Alyssa Milano who says that she has been battling symptoms for months now. Let's check out her latest tweet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSSA MILANO, ACTRESS RECOVERING FROM COVID-19: I just wanted to show you the amount of hair that is coming out of my head as a result of COVID. One brushing, this is my hair loss from COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What do you think about that? I mean, we're learning new things about new side effects all the time. But have you seen hair loss as a side effect?

BICETTE: I personally have not seen hair loss as a side effect. But, again, Brianna, there is so much that we just don't know about this illness and about this virus. The first case of COVID came to the U.S. in January of 2020. We're only eight months in. We have no idea what the long lasting side effects are going to be or what the sequela is going to be.

So, although it is something that I haven't seen before, I don't doubt that it is something that could potentially occur.

KEILAR: And, I mean, we have heard of hair loss, of course, I think, in cases of stress, right, which presumably people are very stressed out in the middle of the pandemic if they're suffering through this.

BICETTE: Absolutely. Not only mentally and emotionally, they're stressed out physically. That virus can take a toll on people's bodies. I had colleagues actually who have contracted COVID while in the line of duty who are still dealing with the consequences of the disease, still dealing with shortness of breath, when they try to walk or do minimal activities.

They're still dealing with dizziness when they stand, passing out episodes. They're having to see cardiologists and pulmonologists. There is so much that is yet to be discovered and my greatest sympathies go to Alyssa Milano.

KEILAR: Yes. We have talked to people who have run long races after COVID, they're having a hard time just getting up the stairs even months later. Dr. Richina Bicette, thank you so much.

BICETTE: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: A mega-church pastor defies his state's coronavirus guidelines. He is going to join us next and talk about why he is opening his doors.

Plus, as the rich get richer during the pandemic, Democrats are introducing a new pandemic, wealth tax.

And the lead singer of Smash Mouth becoming the latest celebrity to dismiss the virus and did it before a packed biker crowd. But is he now looking kind of dumb with his finger and his thumb in the shape of an L on his forehead?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:10:00]

KEILAR: A number of mega churches in California and other states are openly defying state and local mandates and holding crowded indoor services despite the threat of the coronavirus. For the past couple Sundays, Pastor John MacArthur has welcomed congregants to Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County, that's even though California's governor has ordered indoor operations at places of worship close to the public in the state's most populous counties, and includes Los Angeles County as virus cases and deaths continue to climb there.

Grace Community Church could face a thousand dollar fine a day, and its leadership reportedly has retained one of President Trump's personal lawyers as part of a litigation team in case the city or, pardon me, the county responds with legal action.

On the final Sunday of July, Pastor MacArthur told his congregants that there is a time to obey law, but that obedience cannot override one's duty to God.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PASTOR JOHN MACARTHUR, GRACE COMMUNITY CHURCH: We must obey God rather than men. Does this mean we have no responsibility to our leaders? Not at all. God has ordained human government for the peace and well-being of temporal society.

When orders come, however, to us that contradict the orders of our king, we have to obey God rather than men.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:15:07]

KEILAR: Pastor John MacArthur is joining us now. Pastor, thank you so much for being with us.

MACARTHUR: It is my pleasure, Brianna. Glad to be here.

KEILAR: And I know that you have been concerned that spiritual health is being sacrificed to physical health. Can you tell us about your concern?

MACARTHUR: Well, it -- just one way to illustrate that, Brianna, is the fact that every Sunday in the life of this church for decades, we have had four and a half hours every Sunday of training the children, three hours in the morning, hour and a half in the evening. For six months we have had no classes for children. We teach them the bible. It is very, very critical for their young lives. The parents miss that. The children miss that.

Maybe they're the most precious reality in this church. This is not a -- this church is not sort of a TED Talk kind of church. It is not really just a gathering of adults. It is a fully generational, multigenerational experience all through the weekend, culminates on the Lord's day. So, all of that has been shut down.

When it first happened, we thought, well, we heard millions were going to die. So, obviously, we did live stream and nobody was here. But as the weeks went on, people started slowly coming back, and they just kept coming and coming until last week there were 6,000 or 7,000, that's two weeks in a row. It wasn't that we mandated it, it isn't that we told them to come back, they started coming back.

And what caused them to come back was they realized that the death rate in California is 0.02 percent, 99.98 percent chance you're not going to die have COVID. They didn't buy the deadly narrative and they just started showing up. And we began to receive them and they were told they couldn't sing, they were told they had to wear masks.

We were told that if anybody gets within some other person, you can meet outdoors, but if anybody gets within another person within six feet for more than 15 minutes, they have to be quarantined for two weeks. Well, how do you navigate that with 6,000 people?

So the standards that they were trying to --

KEILAR: If you get within someone who has tested positive, you mean?

MACARTHUR: No, no. If you get within someone other than a family member, if you get within six feet for more than 15 minutes, the health department said you have to be quarantined for two weeks and they said it applies to children.

KEILAR: I think -- I think that means if you're near someone who has tested positive. That's been a somewhat standard approach to people who test positive for coronavirus.

But I do want to highlight something that you recently said during a sermon you were talking about some of the statistics that you actually just mentioned, if we can listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MACARTHUR: There is another statistic. Half of those people who died are over 80. So if you're under 80, you have a 99.99 percent chance that you're going to live through this whole thing.

That just doesn't not equate to the response that society has had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: But if you just look at Friday's statistics in your county, in Los Angeles County, there were 48 deaths just in one day on Friday, and there were a little less than a third who were folks above 80, but a little less than third were people 65 to 79 and more than a third where people aged 30 to 64. Does that raise your level of concern knowing that actually it is not just the elderly at risk, as you're telling your congregants?

MACARTHUR: Yes. To be honest with you, Brianna, I just don't know when the truth is being correctly represented. I know --

KEILAR: If I may, pastor, if I may, that's from the public health department in Los Angeles. You doubt the numbers they're putting out?

MACARTHUR: Yes, I actually do. I think they're having trouble in the State of California. The governor just declared that he was firing the state health director because the system, the computer system had miscounted all kinds of things. So the whole state is in an uproar.

And then it came out and said, we obviously can't ease up because we don't even know what the numbers are. So it is so chaotic.

But the bottom line is in people's own life experience, they're not seeing these kinds of things in any abnormal sense and they came back on their own volition because this is the most essential thing in their life.

[13:20:01]

They wanted to be here. They came with joy and not with fear.

KEILAR: No doubt. Look, I mean, we've heard a lot of people who are -- they need that spiritual attachment and going to church is so important. One of my questions for you is, is this really an either/or choice between spiritual and physical health? I mean, is it possible -- for instance, I know I think your overflow area is outside, can you not get creative?

We've heard of other churches there very close to you who are doing outside services, they have cooling systems, they're checking temperatures, they're social distancing, they have masks, which, to be clear, when we look inside of your church, it is indoors, as you said, thousands of people, there is absolutely no social distancing, there is no masks. Why not get creative so that you can obey, as you put it, God's law, but also obey public health regulations?

MACARTHUR: Yes, it is a fair question. So we have been creative. We brought in a tent, put it in the parking lot. And first Sunday we had that, it just filled up and overflowed. So then we created a screen out of the middle of a large patio. That overflowed and filled up. And people just kept coming and coming and pouring into the worship center.

We don't orchestrate this. This is a church. We don't ask people to make a reservation to come to church. We don't know who is coming.

KEILAR: But you opened the doors, sir.

MACARTHUR: Well, yes, because we aren't going to have the people standing outside in a mob all pushed up against each other. We open the doors because that's what we are. We're a church. And we're going to trust those people to make adult decisions about the reality of their physical and spiritual health and how that balance works for each one of them.

Nobody is forcing anything. They're here because they want to be here.

KEILAR: And I hear you on that, but you know they look to you, they trust you, you're their pastor, you're a religious leader for so many thousands of people. Do you worry that if people are coming into your church and they are not practicing what are considered just safe precautions, mask wearing, social distancing, that some of them could die or get sick?

MACARTHUR: Well, in the first place, I can't express to them a worry. There is enough fear going on in this world and in this climate. There is some reason for normal avoidance of illness. That would be true in any time, in any year. But I'm not going to add to the fear because I'm not convinced that what is being propagated is actually reality, neither are they. That's why they're here.

And I don't know of anybody in our church, and that's a large church, who is sick at this time, I don't know of anybody -- we haven't had anybody in our church in the hospital with this through all these months. So, of course, we care about that. We -- I know people in the hospital, I can't even go to the hospital to minister them when they're dying and I have to talk with people who are on their death bed on a phone call because I can't get into the hospital to minister to them.

So our people know life is being restricted in a way that is not constitutional, that is burdensome, that is targeting a church and that makes no sense in light of the actual numbers of deaths that they're seeing.

KEILAR: I would just implore you, sir, some people can be asymptomatic. And also to look at those numbers, I mean, the understanding is that they're underreported. I think that is something you can take to the bank as you make decisions for thousands of -- that affect thousands of people.

MACARTHUR: Well, the bottom line, I don't make that decision. That's their decision to make. And they make that decision because that's the decision they want to make in their hearts and I'm good with that. That's for them to decide.

KEILAR: All right, Pastor, we wish you luck, we wish you health and safety. Thank you so much, Pastor.

MACARTHUR: My pleasure. Thank you.

KEILAR: Apple's Tim Cook is now a billionaire. He's joining a club that has gotten richer during the pandemic and now Democrats want them to pay.

Plus, I'll speak with a survivor who thought that COVID was a hoax. And what happened in those tense moments when the Secret Service pulled President Trump from the briefing room? We'll have new reporting, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:00]

KEILAR: Senator Bernie Sanders wants to tax America's billionaires who have profited during the pandemic to help pay healthcare expenses of uninsured and underinsured Americans. The wealthiest of Americans have done very well since the outbreak hit the U.S. in mid-March. Just take a look at how the seven wealthiest American s have prospered during this pandemic, according to Forbes.

Since March 18th, the world's richest man, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, has seen his net worth jump by $76 billion. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has added $42 billion to his net worth. And Tesla's Elon Musk has almost tripled his net worth, adding $43 billion in less than five months.

[13:30:05]

For more on this new bill, let's bring in Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.