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Soon, Biden & Harris to Appear Together in Delaware; Reopening Plans for Georgia High School to be Revealed Today; Hundreds of Georgia Students and Staff in Quarantine; Dr. Michael Mina Discusses Record One-Day Deaths in in Florida, Georgia as Cases Drop Nationwide & New Way of Thinking about Coronavirus, as "Cold That Kills"; Medical Group Issues New Guidelines on Wearing Facemasks; Michael Schill, Chairman, PAC-12 CEO Group, Discusses Big-10, PAC-12 Postponing Fall College Football Seasons as Other Conferences Push to Play. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired August 12, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:39]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks so much for joining us this hour.

Coming up very soon, a historic day in the race for the White House. In just a few hours, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be making their first appearance together as running mates.

It was less than 24 hours ago that Biden announced Senator Harris as his choice for vice president, making her the first black woman and first Asian-American to appear on a major party ticket. What will their opening message be today?

They're also learning more about Biden's process in choosing a running mate. We know there was a pretty long list of finalists that were being considered.

Let's get to CNN's Arlette Saenz in Wilmington, Delaware, where Biden and Harris will appear this afternoon.

Arlette, what are you learning about today?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we will see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris appear together for the first time as the Democratic ticket. They are set to deliver remarks a little bit later today in Wilmington.

And this comes after Joe Biden informed Kamala Harris just yesterday that she was the running mate pick.

This caps off a month-long search process where Biden actually interviewed 11 of the women he was considering in the final nine days of that search process. Ultimately, deciding on the California Senator, a former rival of his, to join him on the Democratic ticket.

And Biden informed Harris over a video chat yesterday asking her to join him as his running mate.

Take a listen to a bit of that video the campaign released today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Are you ready to go to work?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA) & VICE-PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE: Oh, my god. I am so ready to go to work.

BIDEN: First of all, is the answer yes?

HARRIS: The answer is absolutely yes. I am ready to work. I am ready to do this with you, for you. I'm just -- just deeply honored and I'm very excited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now ahead of this event today, Joe Biden also tweeting saying that, "If Kamala Harris and I are elected, we're going to inherit multiple crises, a nation divided, and a world in disarray. We won't have a minute to waste."

He added, "That's exactly why I picked her. She's ready to lead on day one."

A little bit of a preview of the way that Biden is viewing this first day with Kamala in person with him as his running mate.

What is this event going to look like? It's going to be incredibly different than other vice-presidential rollouts.

Typically, you have the presidential nominee and his vice-presidential pick speaking before thousands at a giant rally. That is just not possible right now with the coronavirus pandemic, which has changed the way campaigning is held right now in this country.

Biden's events have typically been a bit smaller. And they've adhered to social distancing guidelines. And Biden has often entered the room wearing a mask and removes it as he's approaching the podium. That's something we will be keeping an eye on today.

I am told Biden and Harris' spouses will be attending today as they reach this historic moment with that ticket announced.

BOLDUAN: I was just looking down here, Arlette, as we are tracking Kamala Harris' movements now and Joe Biden's movements, we have fresh reporting from Jasmine Wright, Caroline Kennedy that say Senator Harris has just departed her apartment in D.C. and is heading to Wilmington right now.

In true Joe Biden fashion, he wondered if she would jump on the ACELA. But she's jumped into a grayish SUV with tinted windows.

The movements are happening. And a lot of anticipation building for that event where Arlette is in Wilmington. We'll be watching that and tracking that coming up very soon.

Arlette, thanks for that.

While we are standing by for that, we are also standing by for a big announcement from the school district in Georgia.

It was the Paulding County school district that found itself in the glare of the national spotlight after a high school student posted that viral picture of a crowded hallway on the first day back to school.

That same school has now been closed for a third straight day because of a COVID cluster of cases that popped up.

School officials were soon expected to reveal if and when they plan to reopen again. And I guess the big question of course, now is how they'll do it safer this time.

CNN's Nick Valencia is in Atlanta. He's been tracking this from the very beginning.

[11:05:02]

Nick, what are you hearing about this?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we still don't know, Kate. That's the short answer. We just reached out to the district. We still don't have an update about how they are going to proceed.

But as we know, North Paulding High will be closed for a third straight day. It is one of the school districts here in Georgia that had a photo go viral showing students standing shoulder to shoulder, not wearing masks and not following social distancing recommendations.

And the other districts, north of Paulding County, in Cherokee County, among the first in the nation to re-open schools, they're having their own set of problems. More than 900 students and teachers have been asked to quarantine because of rising COVID cases in that district.

I spoke to a local parent, Jamie Chambers, who says this should be a warning for schools across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE CHAMBERS, CHEROKEE COUNTY, GEORGIA, PARENT: I would think, objectively, anyone looking at this would see it as a disaster. What's ultimately going to happen is it's going to spread out all throughout our area. And there will be a lot of people who are in danger because of it.

We all want our regular lives back, and I have nothing but sympathy and empathy for people who do, but we're not living in normal times. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: The superintendent of Cherokee County schools declined an interview with CNN.

But in a letter to parents yesterday, defended the decision to reopen schools saying 30,000 of the 42,000 in the students in the district elected to go back to face-to-face learning, a survey before school starts.

I spoke to parents just a little while ago. They said, if that survey was taken today, that number would be significantly less.

Parents, Kate, had a lot of faith and optimism that these schools individually would do the right thing, though there are many parents in that district who feel that they're fighting a losing battle.

We visited the district over the weekend and found a very cavalier attitude with some non-believers thinking that this coronavirus is just a hoax -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's the thing. I was talking about it with another school superintendent yesterday, Nick. It's not us versus them, in terms of school versus parents. They're all in this together --

VALENCIA: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- students, parents and the school district. It's not going to work any other way.

Nick's on top of that and he'll bring us any updates from that Paulding County School District.

Thanks so much, Nick.

Let's give you an overall look of where the country stands today. And it's an interesting look today. In Florida and Georgia, for example, they're seeing record deaths from the coronavirus. Florida reporting 276 people died yesterday. In Georgia, where Nick is, 122 COVID- related death.

But at the same time, across the country, the United States is reporting less than 50,000 new cases for three consecutive days. Look, that is nowhere near great, but it is down, as you can see very clearly there from the highs that we saw earlier in this summer. What does that mean?

And there may be new thinking about the virus now -- a new way of thinking about the virus now. "A cold that kills," that is one world renowned medical researchers and expert is saying today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER HARVARD PROFESSOR: This is a cold virus. We've known about these cold viruses. It's a cold virus that can kill. That's the difference. But in other respects, how it infects, how it's transmitted, who gets it is very, very similar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Professor William Haseltine there arguing that this new way that you can think about this virus should help inform how all of us try to protect ourselves and our loved ones, especially as children are starting to head back to school.

Joining me right now is Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health.

Doctor, great to see you. It's great to have you back.

Let me ask you, first, about maybe what we can call a conflicting picture coming from the COVID indicators right now. Average deaths across the country down, but death rates still rising in some of these trouble spots that we're looking at. And also the positivity rate across the country, it really hasn't changed in the last few weeks.

What do you see when you see these indicators? Is this good news or bad news?

DR. MICHAEL MINA, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: I would say it's still generally bad news. We should not settle for having 50,000 new cases per day.

But the good news here is that cases are potentially coming down. But this is a very heterogenous virus, meaning you can have major outbreaks in one part of the country and you could have very few cases in another part of the country.

And so we have to figure out how to deal with this as a whole country because, as long as there are cases happening in any part, we still have transit, especially we have students going back to college.

So any cases anywhere, really keep risk pretty high all across the entirety of the United States.

BOLDUAN: Let me play something else that Professor Haseltine said about getting re-infected with COVID. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:10:01]

HASELTINE: This virus comes back and re-infects exactly the same person. It's not like Polio. You get it and you're protected for life. It is a virus that can fool your immune system.

And we're still trying to struggle to learn what that means for vaccines and what that means for the epidemic. But we know it can come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: Last week, that caught my attention because, last week, Dr. Fauci was asked about this concept of re-infection and he was more cautious. He said we can't make that determination right now.

What do you make about this, Dr. Mina?

MINA: I think it is very important to be more cautious about that kind of statement.

On the one hand, it is likely that people can get re-infected. But we have to look at what it means when someone gets re-infected. And most people upon re-infection would have probably already built up an immunological memory and protection from their first infection.

So even if you get re-infected, the same as we often see with common cold viruses, then we should see less of your disease and, potentially, totally asymptomatic disease.

So re-infection is a normal process with viruses like this but the idea is that our immune memory and our protection will kick in on those re-infections and we will not have as severe disease.

BOLDUAN: So interesting.

Still so much we do need to learn as much as we have learned about coronavirus, how much we still do need to learn about it.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Dr. Mina.

MINA: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: So then there's this. Here's a quote for you, "The quicker we make face coverings our new normal, the faster we can gain control over COVID-19."

That is the message today from a major medical group putting out new guidance in a new effort to take the politics out of the issue of masks, it seems, and also explain and encourage everyone to really get onboard.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen joins me now. She's been looking into this.

So, Elizabeth, what is the Association of American Medical Colleges saying here?

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They're giving some very basic advice about how to wear masks. I've got to say, this is super easy to do, right? Some things are tough and this is not one of them.

Kate, let's take a look at what their advice is. Cover your nose and your mouth with the mask. That seems very basic. But you see people pulling it down under their nose all of the time. And sometimes people are wearing it as a necklace. No good. Don't even bother.

Also try to keep gaps to a minimum. And if you're going to use a cloth mask, use two layers. Three is better. One layer is not as good. A bandana-style mask is better than nothing but, still, see the points above. And also they're recommended for indoor and outdoor spaces.

People often ask, wait a minute, we feel like we're all over the place with masks. Yes, the guidance has changed but that's because we've never done this before on this scale -- Kate?

BOLDUAN: That's a great point, Elizabeth.

Thank you so much.

Coming up for us, we are standing by for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris kicking off their campaign together, their first event as running mates. We'll have full coverage of that.

Plus, two of the biggest college conferences calling off their fall football season, yet others are pushing ahead to play. The president of the University of Oregon is my guest.

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[11:17:34]

BOLDUAN: In a few hours, a history-making appearance in Wilmington, Delaware. Kamala Harris will join Joe Biden on stage for the first time since officially becoming his running mate on the presidential ticket.

What does this moment mean for the now Biden-Harris campaign? What is the newly minted vice-presidential nominee's message out of the gate?

Joining me right now CNN political commentator, Karen Finney, former spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

Great to see you, Karen.

If you were advising the campaign, what is the message that you would want to see Kamala Harris get across? What do you want to hear from both of them collectively in this first appearance today?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The most important thing -- obviously, this has been, I think, the last 24 almost hours has been very exciting. I think you've seen enthusiasm from Democrats.

It's a moment to really try to galvanize that enthusiasm and use this as a moment as a rallying point, right, to say we're the team. We're moving forward, and together we're going to unify this country and move into our bold future.

This is a ticket, Kate, that really represents our country. It represents the diversity of our country.

We saw people articulating how important it was to have someone who represents a lived experience. She comes from experience. She comes of an immigrant background. She's a black woman. She's also of South Asian descent. She brings so much to the table in terms that lived experience of what

Americans are facing.

BOLDUAN: I do notice you take issue with what we heard from some folks in the last 24 hours, which is that Harris is a safe, easy or conventional pick for Biden's running mate. Why is that, Karen?

FINNEY: Oh, when I heard that I had to laugh because I thought, you know, if you are a black woman in America, and you have faced racism, as so many women, also sexism, you know, it was not a safe choice. It was not an easy choice. It was a bold choice.

We've already seen the misogynistic and sometimes racist attacks that have come at her in the last couple of weeks in this process. There's more to come. I think she's demonstrated she's tough and she can take it.

But you know, it was still a bold choice on the part of the vice president given that, you know, these things still exist in our country. There's nothing safe about it.

[11:20:02]

BOLDUAN: One thing that we saw about Kamala Harris is that -- during the primary, is that she's good at person to person politicking. She has a real talent for that retail side of politics, connecting with the crowd or getting into the crowd. There are so many videos of her literally reaching out and talking to people and touching people.

In the age of COVID, there's no way there are chances to do that.

How do you --

FINNEY: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- from an operative standpoint, what is the way you utilize that skill set in the COVID era?

FINNEY: She is so good. I hate to say this on camera but, obviously, I will say that on many different platforms at this point because we've seen people do Zoom town halls. We've seen things on Instagram.

We've seen all kinds of way that the campaign is trying to use technology to connect with people. And in some ways, it's been able to make that a little bit smaller.

Yes, it's exciting to be in a big rally and there's a balloon drop. But it's also that sort of intimacy of one-on-one conversation that you can actually feel to some degree in some of the Zoom calls, even though we're a little zoomed out.

So I think that will really be an important skill because that's the way that we're having to reach out to voters between now and November. It's unlikely that we'll be able to see a big in-person rally.

BOLDUAN: Yes. FINNEY: So these kind of smaller gatherings through technology will be really critical.

BOLDUAN: Really critical. A campaign like no other and a moment like no other is definitely what we're seeing play out.

Thanks, Karen. Good to see you. Much more to come.

FINNEY: You, too.

Still ahead for us, fall season, spring season or no season at all. The future of college football season is very much undecided. One of the university leaders who just made that tough call joins us next.

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[11:26:51]

BOLDUAN: The future of college football this fall is becoming complicated and a bit more confusing today.

The Big 12 is reportedly joining the ACC and the SEC with plans to push ahead with their fall seasons. Yet, the two other most powerful conferences in the NCAA, the Big-10 and the PAC-12, just canceled their fall seasons because of concerns over the coronavirus.

How can one conference call it off, while another forges ahead, both citing the advice of medical experts?

Joining ne now is Michael Schill, the president of the University of Oregon and the chairman of the PAC-12 CEO Group.

Thank you for coming back on. I really appreciate it.

Can you talk to me about your decision that you made? What was, if you made one, the single-most influential factor in deciding to cancel the fall season?

MICHAEL SCHILL, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF OREGON & CHAIRMAN, PAC-12 CEO GROUP: Thank you, Kate.

And I wish I wasn't back on today to have to talk about this. But the most important factor was the health and safety of our students, period. That was what we were -- that's what we care about.

Football is very important to our schools. So are the other sports like track, basketball, volleyball, all of those sports.

But in the end, you know, we need to -- these are our students and we need to protect them and we need to be able to protect them. And we determined there was too much uncertainty and too much risk at the moment to be able to go forward with the season.

We didn't cancel the season, importantly. What we did is we postponed it. We are still hoping to have a season in the spring. But at the moment, we are just going to continue assessing things. BOLDUAN: I've seen some reporting that the PAC-12 heard from medical

advisors about the possible link between coronavirus and the troubling heart condition that apparently has already been seen in some Big-10 athletes and it's called myocarditis.

How big of a factor was this for you.

SCHILL: It was a substantial factor because it raised the risk and the uncertainty. There were some early correlations between COVID-19 and myocarditis and other heart issues. And we decided we couldn't take the risk of moving forward with contact practice at the moment until these sorts of things were clarified.

And we didn't have the capacity to do constant MRIs of the students going forward. And so we decided that that was one of the factors. It wasn't the only factor.

I mean, there are a bunch of -- we have a great medical advisory board. We have great universities in the PAC-12 with great medical schools and so their advice to us was not to begin practice. Too much uncertainty.

We have to understand, and so we include California, utah, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, big variety of states. We don't even have the permission of government authorities to play in some of those areas. And the spread in some of those areas is quite significant. So that was an additional reason why we decided not to go forward.

[11:30:07]

We thought it was just unfair to the students, unfair to the coaches and then the staff.