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Sanders Introduces Bill To Tax Rich To Pay For Uninsured, Underinsured Americas; List Of Speakers For Democratic Convention Amid Speculation Over Biden's V.P. Pick; Celebrities Spread Misinformation On Coronavirus; COVID Survivor Regrets Dismissing Virus As Hoax; Dr. Jonathan Drezner Discusses Fate Of College Football & Rare Heart Condition Possibly Linked To COVID-19. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 11, 2020 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg added $42 billion to his net worth. And Tesla's Elon Musk tripled his net worth, adding $43 billion in less than five months.

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

Manu, tell us how the tax would work and how much this would bring in and if this is likely to become law or not.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not this Congress. Virtually no chance given the makeup of this Congress, a Republican in the White House. It is not clear how many Democrats would come down to support this.

But it does have support in the left part of the Democratic caucus, Bernie Sanders. But also support of Ed Markey, who is up facing re- election, facing a difficult primary from his left in Massachusetts. He's a co-sponsor of this bill, and Kirsten Gillibrand. of New York.

What this bill would do is impose a 60 percent tax on billionaires who have reported increasing their wealth since mid-March up until August. It would affect 467 billionaires and, according to Sanders office, would raise $421 billion by posing that 60 percent tax on their newly accumulated wealth.

You mentioned Jeff Bezos. Look at Bill Gates. He added $16 billion in wealth from mid-March, up until today. Warren Buffett, that billionaire investor, also increasing from $68 billion to $80 billion and additional $12 billion that would be taxed as well.

This idea that the Senator introduced last week has not been part of any of these discussions that have been going on, on Capitol Hill, to try to deal with the economic recovery here, stalled discussions between the Democrats and the White House.

But if Joe Biden becomes president, Democrats take the Senate, this will be one of the things that the new administration almost certainly will have to deal with, will have to listen to. Maybe they'll have to fight with their own caucus to determine whether or not to move forward in this way.

But one idea, populist idea, may not have much support on Capitol Hill, but we'll see how the Democratic leaders ultimately have to deal with this if they face pressure from the left -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Manu, thank you so much for that.

And we're getting a look today at who will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention.

As you might expect, President Obama and the former first lady, Michelle Obama, are on the list. Also on the list are Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, part of the party's progressive wing.

The fact that certain names are featured on the speaking list is sparking speculation about who Joe Biden could pick as his running mate.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is with me.

Does this speaker list reveal anything about a potential vice- presidential pick?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the speaking schedule does tell us that Joe Biden's vice-presidential pick will speak on Wednesday night. But other than that, there aren't really too many other clues.

A few of the serious contenders on Biden's list are scheduled to speak, you have Gretchen Whitmer on Monday, Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday, and Tammy Duckworth and Kamala Harris both scheduled for Thursday.

But officials have been very quick to warn that just because they already have speaking slots that doesn't necessarily mean anything about their vice-presidential chances.

Because whoever is selected as his running mate will be speaking in that Wednesday night slot that is reserved just before President Obama is expected to speak.

But, you know, right now, Biden is in that final stage of deliberations, as we really could get an announcement about his vice- presidential pick any day now.

And a few of the serious contenders we have talked about over the past few days are Kamala Harris, the Senator from California, who is perhaps one of most well-known of the contenders in this list for the Democratic primary.

There's former national security advisor, Susan Rice, who worked alongside Biden in the White House. And Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer speaking on Monday night. She traveled here to Delaware to meet with the former vice president, recently.

So Biden right now in that final stage of deliberations as he's going to make one of the most consequential picks of his candidacy.

The campaign has encouraged their supporters to sign up for text messages to be among the first to know who Biden selects. They tell me they had a significant uptick in the number of people signing up for that list, which could also act as an organizing tool for them going forward.

But certainly a lot of people are going to be checking their phones, including me, over the next few days as we wait for the announcement -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Oh, yes, you're going to be tied to the phone, Arlette.

Thank you so much. Appreciate the report.

SAENZ: Thanks.

KEILAR: More and more celebrities dismissing the virus and spreading misinformation, from Madonna to Smash Mouth.

Plus, I'll speak with a survivor who regrets dismissing the virus as a hoax after he and 14 family members got sick from a gathering, some very, very ill.

[13:34:53]

And the doctor who is advising college football and whether to cancel the season will join me. Hear about the heart condition giving everyone pause.

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KEILAR: The U.S. has seen five million coronavirus cases and more than 163,000 deaths. But as the virus spreads so too does misinformation about it. And a growing list of celebrities are some of the main culprits.

[13:40:03]

Take Smash Mouth. They played at a packed concert during the Sturgis, South Dakota, bike rally and listen what the lead singer had to say on stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SMASH MOUTH LEAD SINGER: -- in the house. I've been going crazy, you know. Now we're together tonight.

(CHEERING)

UNIDENTIFIED SMASH MOUTH LEAD SINGER: And we're being human once again. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) - COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Smash Mouth isn't alone. In recent weeks, Madonna and Jon Voight have come under scrutiny for their social media posts downplaying the severity of the deadly disease. NBA star, Michael Porter, even posted his own conspiracy theory about the pandemic on Snapchat.

Here with me now is CNN Chief Media Correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter.

It is hard enough to sift through the information, the accurate information on coronavirus, but here celebrities are weighing into the disinformation and adding that to make it even more difficult.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Yes, and because they are celebrities and they have millions of fans and followers, they can do real harm as a result. Smash Mouth should try to be closed mouthed. Madonna claiming there was a hidden cure to COVID-19 being kept from the public.

I understand sometimes conspiracy theories bring people comfort because they provide simple explanations for scary problems. But they are simple solutions because they're nonsense. They're quackery. And a simple Google search will usually set the celebrities straight.

This is a big problem. Five months into this worldwide pandemic, a brand-new study found misinformation about COVID-19 across 87 countries in 25 different languages. A lot of claims about illness and transmission and mortality. There are all sorts of misinformation -- misinforming claims out there.

And just in the past hour, Facebook announced that it has removed more than seven million pieces of misinformation relating to the virus between April and June.

So they are having to remove millions of pieces of misinformation from these platforms. And that is partly because of the celebrities who make a bad situation worse.

KEILAR: Yes. They have big platforms, you're right.

Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

As the misinformation spreads, so does the danger for families across the country.

My next guest openly admits he thought the coronavirus pandemic was a hoax, that is until a small family gathering in June eventually resulted in 14 of his own family members getting sick. One of them died and another is still in the ICU two months later.

Tony Green shared his story on the blog the opinion table and he's here with me now.

Tony, thanks for joining us.

Please tell us how your family is doing right now.

TONY GREEN, THOUGHT COVID WAS A HOAX UNTIL A FAMILY GATHERING RESULTED IN 14 FAMILY MEMBERS GETTING THE VIRUS: Thank you for having me.

Family is in varying stages of recovery. Most everybody is back to normal. I've been about a month clear now. But my father-in-law remains on a ventilator. They were right next door to one another. They did not know it until after she had already been taken out.

KEILAR: This is very real for you. I would hope that you could share with us when you have that family gathering, clearly you wouldn't have done it if you thought this was a possibility.

But you had heard about numbers around the country, you know, you had seen some of the stories, what was it that made you think actually maybe it is not as big of a threat as people are making it out to be?

GREEN: Well, you know, going back to the beginning of it, as it was starting to make its way into the United States, I was skeptical. Is this just another rebranded flu, trying to send panic, you know, crash the economy and things like that.

And in all fairness, there's so much misinformation out there, and like you're talking about with celebrities, people have a certain amount of influence.

And whether your audience is a thousand, 2,000 or 20 million to 50 million people, people listen to you and they take what you're saying at face value most of the time.

So there's a lot of things that were going on that were causing me to believe misleading information.

And I will also add that, you know, it seems likely the White House, the communication was really broken down. Scientists, doctors, everybody is learning about this as we go along. There are things that have to be corrected as we discover more and more about the virus.

But it seemed like it was being downplayed, don't panic, don't worry, to the point where you just think, OK, well, you know, the president is not worried, if the White House isn't worried, we're taking steps to cure this situation, OK, let's go on with life.

Fast-forwarding into June, around June 12th, the Monday leading up to the 12th, Governor Abbott, here in Texas, had lifted some of the restraints on businesses and increased capacity for 50 to 75 percent at restaurants, bars. And he made mention that social gatherings and small groups would be OK.

[13:45:20]

So that's what we did. We hadn't seen each other in a couple of months, we decided to get together. It was just six of us, my partner, myself and both our parents. And it just kind of spread from there. It spread quickly. It spread to multiple cities. And 14 of us got infected, total.

KEILAR: Tony, I thank you for coming on. I am so sorry for what your family has gone through and what you continue to go through. There are a lot of people in your shoes and it is really important to hear you talk about this.

Thanks for coming on.

GREEN: Thank you for having me, Brianna.

KEILAR: Of course.

The fate of college football is up in the air. The dilemma is over a rare medical condition linked to COVID-19 among some athletes.

Plus, a Nevada beauty pageant shut down for violating social distancing rules. I'll be talking to the organizer who says the pageant was targeted over politics.

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[13:50:43]

KEILAR: As the debate rages over the fate of the college football season, concerns over a rare heart condition, which may be linked to COVID-19, could be the thing that triggers its cancellation.

ESPN is reporting that myocarditis, or inflation of the heart muscle, has been found in several college athletes, including some in the Big- 10 conference.

Two NCAA conferences have said they are postponing the fall season. And a decision from the Big-10 and PAC-12 could come at any time.

I want to bring in someone who could potentially be dealing with this firsthand, Dr. Jonathan Drezner, who is a team physician for the University of Washington Huskies as well as the Seattle Seahawks. He's also director of U.W.'s Medicine Center for Sports Cardiology. And he advises the NCAA on cardiac issues.

Thanks for coming on.

DR. JONATHAN DREZNER, TEAM PHYSICIAN, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON HUSKIES AND SEATTLE SEAHAWKS & DIRECTOR OF MEDICINE, MEDICAL CENTER FOR SPORTS CARDIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: Thank you, Brianna, for having me.

KEILAR: Before we talk about the football season, walk us through what this condition is, and why it's dangerous.

DREZNER: Absolutely. So, we've heard for a while now that COVID-19 has an affinity for heart injury. We first learned this in our hospitalized patients where approximately one in four hospitalized patients would have heart injury or myocardial damage.

It raised a lot of questions in March and April about whether or not this could pose problems for people with less severe infections. Would individuals who had mild symptoms or no symptoms also be at risk for these heart injuries?

Now we're learning that some young athletes who have mild infections or even no symptoms are developing inflammation of the heart muscle called myocarditis. It's been around a long time. There are other viruses that do that.

We're hearing it and we're worried this causes a higher risk from COVID-19 compared to other viruses.

Myocarditis can lead to scar tissue within the heart muscle. That scar tissue can be a focus for arrhythmia or even sudden cardiac arrest. And so it's raised a lot of caution flags.

We still have a lot to learn on this. But we're certainly concerned.

KEILAR: OK. So this means that there are college athletes who potentially could have this and there could be short-term effects. There could be long-term effects for their health, long after they play college sports, or it could also negatively impact their chance s chances of going pro, right?

DREZNER: Yes. So there's been a lot of communication amongst team physicians across the country, and we're hearing about these cases. We probably heard of about a dozen cases within the college setting, not just football athletes.

You know, short term, I think the risk is arrhythmia. There are some more severe cases where the heart muscle doesn't pump as well and they can actually have heart failure. And, of course, there's concerns for long-term health outcomes.

Myocarditis has been implicated in tragic events in athletes for a long time. Research from the University of Washington has shown about 9 percent of sudden cardiac deaths in college athletes is from myocarditis. And this was before the COVID era.

Again, we're not exactly sure what all this means yet, but it certainly has raised some issues that we need to learn more about.

KEILAR: So, based on what you know and, look, the outstanding questions of what you don't know, too, would you cancel this college football season?

DREZNER: Yes, you know, I'm glad I'm not in the decision seat on that one. I think if football season and fall sports gets pushed back, I think it's important for everyone to remember it's not just because of the heart issues.

We're in the middle of the pandemic where many cities are fighting surges, where prevalence in the community is still high, where access to testing is not available for quick turn arounds to keep our athletes in a safe environment.

And we've been aware of adverse health outcomes in athletes for a while. Myocarditis raises that bar even further and maybe is the tipping point where people might decide to postpone fall sports.

KEILAR: Dr. Drezner, thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate it.

[13:55:01]

DREZNER: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: America is struggling right now with how to reopen schools and if they should reopen schools. Now a new study shows a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases among children.

Plus, Russia claims it has the world's first COVID vaccine. But the reaction globally has been skeptical.

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[14:00:07]

KEILAR: It is the top of the hour now. I'm Brianna Keilar.