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California Surpasses 600,000 COVID-19 Cases, Nearly 11,000 Deaths; Florida School District Forced to Reopen for In-Person Classes?; White House Coronavirus Task Force Warns Georgia of Widespread and Expanding COVID-19 Spread; Trump Admits Blocking Postal Service Funding to Stop Mail-in Votes; U.S. Scientists Creating a Coronavirus Strain to Be Used in Human Trials As a Possible "Plan D"; CDC's Forecast Projects 189,000 U.S. Deaths By September 5th. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:21]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

Well, bottom line, the numbers do not lie and that is the warning from the nation's top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, as the United States now averages more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths every day for the past 18 days. And the CDC projects a staggering 22,000 more deaths over just the next three weeks. Dr. Anthony Fauci is pushing back on the Trump administration's claim that this virus is under control.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Bottom line is I'm not pleased with how things are going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Well, the numbers don't lie but the president of the United States continues to spread another lie. That is lies about the safety and security of mail-in voting. Right before our eyes President Trump is actively trying to suppress the vote and discredit the election.

He's now saying the quiet part out loud, and don't miss this because he admitted yesterday that he is opposed to giving the U.S. Postal Service, the you rely on, the U.S. Postal Service more money so that Americans cannot vote by mail during a pandemic. So if it doesn't have the funds to process an increased number of mail-in votes.

It comes as the Postal Service is removing -- listen to this, removing hundreds of mail sorting machines across the country. Why is it doing that? And as the president continues to falsely claim that mail-in voting isn't safe for you and me. It's been happening for more than a hundred years. Soldiers deployed overseas.

It is perfectly fine, though, we should note for the president. Records show that he and the first lady have requested mail-in ballots for Florida's primary just this week. We're going to have more on that in a moment.

First, let's be to CNN's Stephanie Elam. She's in Los Angeles.

Stephanie, that state, the state of California, just becoming the first to report more than 600,000 cases.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's a milestone no one wants to be the first to get to, Jim. And what we're looking at from data coming from Johns Hopkins University is that we have surpassed 6,002 cases here in California. Deaths just one shy of 11,000 according to this data as well.

Now a couple of things to give you to put this into perspective. It took just two weeks to get from 500,000 to 600,000. So it shows you how much that was growing. The virus was growing here in the state during that time. But to put the deaths into perspective, as what we saw in New York state, New York having more than 32,800 cases. So they are by far ahead in the number of deaths, but still the concern here is that these cases could turn into deaths here in the state.

However, we have seen some better trends. Hospitalizations are down. ICU admissions are also down as well. We also see the positivity rate below 6 percent. For most of July we were at about 7.5 percent. So obviously things are getting better but there is concern that if people feel that they can just stop wearing masks that things would go back the other direction. So there is concern, but things are looking better.

One thing I can also point out to you is that the state of California going ahead and stopping evictions and foreclosures. They have already put in stopping any of that from happening, but they're extending that to September 1st because obviously when you look at these numbers things are not getting better. The economy is still not doing what people would like for it to do because we are still battling this virus, and they want to make sure that people are not being forced out of their homes.

I can also tell you, though, that the numbers that we're seeing here in California do include a backlog and that's for California and for L.A. County as well. From that data glitch, we're seeing those numbers and the numbers that have been reported in this week -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. It's an important, you know, footnote to all of it, to qualify it.

Steph, thanks for the reporting.

Let's go to Florida where one school district says it was pressured by the Florida Department of Education to reopen schools for in-person instruction. Our Rosa Flores has more.

So they're actually saying that they received direct pressure to open when they didn't feel it was safe?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Poppy, there is a real showdown here in this state regarding the reopening of schools. Hillsborough Public Schools is reversing their decision to reopen schools for virtual instruction for the first four weeks of the school year.

And they say that this is after they received the scathing letter from the Florida Department of Education, from the Education commissioner, that said that he had grave concerns because this school district was not offering in-person instruction which was in contradiction to the emergency order issued by that department.

[09:05:03]

Now according to the superintendent of schools, in the past week, he traveled to Tallahassee to try to iron out all of these details and then he tweeted late yesterday saying, quote, "The Department of Education," excuse me, "made it clear that any model outside the emergency order would result in a negative financial impact." He went on to say, "Let me be clear. Our school board made an informed decision substantiated after hearing from local public health authorities."

Now we've been covering this story for about a week now and what he's referring to is local authorities telling the school board and also medical experts telling the school board that they didn't recommend the reopening of schools for in-person instruction because of the high positivity rate.

I checked this morning. The positivity rate in Hillsborough County is between 6.5 percent and 10 percent. Now we did hear from the Department of Education yesterday that they said in a statement that they're glad that the superintendent worked hard to ensure the Hillsborough County School District could provide a choice and flexibility to families and students.

And so bottom line, Jim and Poppy, virtual school now starts on August 24th and brick and mortar schools start on August 31st -- Jim and Poppy.

SCIUTTO: That pressure just incredible.

Rosa Flores, thanks very much.

Now to Georgia where the "Atlanta Journal Constitution" newspaper reports that the White House Task Force is warning that the state's current policies are not enough to handle the surge in coronavirus cases there.

CNN's Martin Savidge is in Atlanta with more. I mean, it's quite a warning to come directly from the administration's own task force. MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jim, you're right.

And it's a stinging rebuke against Governor Brian Kemp on two fronts. Number one, the report basically and bluntly says, you're not doing enough. And number two, this is coming from President Trump's White House task force. In other words, this is the same president that Brian Kemp has supported pretty strongly. So there is a very strong political sting to all of this.

The language is pretty much blunt. Current mitigation efforts not having sufficient impact. The task force very much recommends the state mandate mask wearing all across the state. That's something the governor has been adamantly against. Georgia allows nightclubs, bars, and gyms to be open with restrictions, but this task force is saying, no, you can't do that. In those counties that are hardest hit you've got to shut them down.

Georgia allows restaurants to pretty much serve as many people as possible. As long as they're six feet apart. This report says no, you've got to limit it to a quarter of capacity. Then it goes on to list the short falls. Need to ramp up testing, need to do more on contact tracing, need to do a better job in nursing homes and long- term care facilities. Social gatherings, Georgia allows you to have up to 50 people. The task force says no, you've got to limit it to 10.

So over and over again the governor and his policies are being slammed by the White House report. The governor has issued a statement, really his office has, and it says this. As the governor has said many times before, this fight is about protecting the lives and livelihoods of all Georgians. Livelihoods, AKA, the economy. He's losing lives and many say this economy and the state will soon suffer as well -- Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: Wow. I hope they listen to that report.

Thank you, Martin, very, very much.

SCIUTTO: Listen to this next story because amid this pandemic of course there's an election coming and what appears to be a deliberate transparent attempt to interfere in it. President Trump now has just hours to produce any evidence whatsoever that would back up his baseless claims of massive voter fraud involving mail-in voting.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania, of course a key swing state, is now demanding his campaign provide proof in response to a lawsuit that the president's team filed to change how that state collects and counts mail-in ballots. Your votes.

Again, the deadline for this proof demanded by the judge is tonight. And the president's consistent and again baseless attacks against mail-in voting fraud are just that. There is no evidence of widespread fraud and as we've drawn attention to the president said it's just fine in Republican run states, not Democratic-run states apparently.

HARLOW: And also yet another major concern, the U.S. Postal Service is planning to remove hundreds of these machines. Those are high volume mail processing machines. They say it's part of a cost saving effort. They're planning to move them from several facilities in different states across the country.

These machines, like the ones you see right here, they help process mail a lot more quickly and more effectively, and of course that will be very important for mail-in ballots come November. And that is why this is ringing the alarm bells.

Keep in mind, just yesterday the president just flat-out said in this interview on FOX Business that, you know, if you block the funds to the Postal Service, it prevents universal mail-in voting from being able to happen.

The funding fight sparking major backlash even from some Republican senators. Listen to this.

[09:10:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Everyone from postal workers themselves to businesses and the other constituents who are telling me that they're experiencing unnecessary delays in the delivery of mail. And so I do disagree with the president very strongly on that issue.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): So if we are going to support the post office as some states do go to mail-in voting, and that's fine if a state decides to do that. That's in our federalist system, that's OK, then we, I guess, I do agree that we should support the post office in that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Of course, it's what do they do about it to support the post office. Is it just words or actions? Also notable, this. The president and first lady, they requested mail-in ballots for Florida's primary election this week. They get to do it.

CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip is now with us live.

You know, this is transparent here. I mean, the president using his inside voice outside yesterday describing, you know, his motivation for blocking funding to the Postal Service. What's happening here, Abby, and what's going to be done about it?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the developments are accelerating very quickly but I will say that these developments with these sorting machines are setting off alarm bells within the Postal Service and also in Washington.

We've learned this week that about 671 of these machines that are for high volume processing are being slated for reductions, beginning back in June. And postal workers say that while the Postal Service is saying that they are being sort of reallocated across the system, they are seeing them being dismantled and it's not clear what is actually happening with those machines.

This is coming amid restructuring and attempts to make cost reductions at the Postal Service now that is has a new head, a top RNC donor and top Trump supporter, Louis DeJoy, who is a top ally of the president leading the Postal Service. And in a letter to Postal Service workers just yesterday, DeJoy acknowledged that there were some, quote, "unintended consequences" of these changes. That is, reductions in the speed at which the mail is being delivered all across the country.

And we are also learning that last week, right before DeJoy met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, he also met with President Trump in the Oval Office. All of this is raising questions about what kind of influence the president is seeking to have over the Postal Service and the impact that these changes, cost reductions, and what they're calling efficiencies are going to have on mail-in voting.

We should note that these machines take two people to sort thousands and thousands of pieces of mail. If they are removed, postal workers tell us that it would take 30 postal workers to do the same amount of work. So it's an extraordinary reduction in potential service that we could be seeing come the fall.

HARLOW: And Abby, in your important reporting, you guys also, you know, quote a number of mail, you know, officials locally in Iowa and Kansas who, you know, are raising the questions, like why don't they just turn off the machines if they don't need them and then flip them back on in the fall, you know, they don't have to just remove them from the building.

I'm wondering if you could just clarify for the American people, the president may not, you know, want to fund the USPS more, but if Republicans like Susan Collins and Senator Cassidy are saying they want it, what can they and they alone do about it?

PHILLIP: Well, that's a good point. The president doesn't unilaterally have the power to fund or defund the Postal Service. Congress has that power. They have the power of the purse. However, President Trump could attempt to veto some kind of stimulus bill compromise that contains funding for the postal workers.

Now yesterday, our Kaitlan Collins asked him about that very issue. He said that he would not hold up funding for coronavirus stimulus over this issue, but he has said explicitly that he does not want to fund the Postal Service because he is afraid that it will lead to the handling of millions of mail-in ballots that he opposes.

HARLOW: OK. All right. So Congress can complain about it or they can do something about it. That's the bottom line.

PHILLIP: Exactly.

HARLOW: Thanks, Abby.

PHILLIP: Thanks.

HARLOW: Still to come, what are the effects of President Trump's constant attempts to undermine and reduce confidence in the vote? We're going to speak to an election security expert, ahead. And this just in to CNN. Dr. Anthony Fauci confirms that scientists

are working to create a strain of coronavirus that could be used in vaccine trials. We'll have more on that, ahead.

SCIUTTO: Plus, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris set to appear together for the third time later today. Their message on a national mask mandate. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. New this morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci, he says that the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is working to create what he's calling a plan D in COVID-19 vaccine research that includes creating a COVID strain that could be used in human trials.

SCIUTTO: CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen will break it down for us. To be clear, I mean, vaccines often involve a sort of disabled version of the virus, right? I know this one is following a different plan. But explain exactly what Dr. Fauci is talking about here. It's not about a sort of creating some sort of monster, you know --

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No --

SCIUTTO: To release it into the wild.

COHEN: No, but it's also not a disabled version. So let me talk through sort of what this is. The way that the trials are being done now as we speak is that people volunteer, they get injected and then they get sent out into the world, they just live their lives and the researchers hope that they run into the virus so that they can see if the injection worked or not. They can see if the vaccine works or not.

But there's a problem with that. What if the cities where they're doing the trials don't have a lot of coronavirus at the time that the trial is being done, or what if the people who volunteer are very careful and they stay home a lot and they wash their hands, they may never run into the virus and you don't know then if this experimental vaccine works or not.

[09:20:00]

So there's something called the Challenge Trial where -- and this sounds so scary, but let me emphasize, people volunteer for this. People raise their hand, they sign the form. They want to do this. Nobody forces them to do this. In Challenge Trials, you vaccinate someone and then you stick the virus up their nose, and you see what happens. As you can see, it's much more deliberate, there's much less left to chance. But to do those Challenge Trials, you need to have a very -- create a very specific strain of the virus.

You can't just take any old strain. You have to create a specific strain. Now, there is no plan -- I can't emphasize this enough, no plan whatsoever to do Challenge Trials for this new vaccine. But what Dr. Fauci -- I talked to Dr. Tony Fauci about this, and what he said is, look, if we want to do one, let's have a strain sitting in the freezer in the far out contingency that we end up doing this. That's -- those are the words that he used. Jim, Poppy?

HARLOW: It's fascinating, Elizabeth, thanks so much. Let's bring in the former --

COHEN: Thanks --

HARLOW: Acting Director of the CDC, Richard Besser, good morning, thanks for being here.

RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE CDC: Good morning, very good to be here --

HARLOW: What do you -- what do you think of what Elizabeth just explained to us?

BESSER: You know, it is one of those approaches to vaccine research, and Challenge Trials are often done in primates before a vaccine is tested in people. So it's, you know, part of the public, I think learning about the different approaches to vaccine work.

So, you know, given how much disease there is around the world and the likelihood that a lot of trials would be international, I would hope that they wouldn't need to go to a Challenge Trial. I don't think that's going to be necessary.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Besser, I want to ask you about the election as it relates to the coronavirus. Because at the end of the day, an election, people gathering at polling centers around the country which by nature bring people together in crowded indoor spaces often, right?

That is -- that's a risk and that's why there is more demand for more discussion of more people voting by mail to avoid that risk. Just for purely from a health perspective, is it dangerous, right, to not have another option? You know, if you're trying to crowd people into polling stations as opposed to giving them this other safer option, does that not make sense from a health perspective?

BESSER: No, you know, an election is critically important to our nation, and you want to do everything possible to ensure that everyone has a fair access to the ballot. Mail-in voting is one way to do that, and I think that's going to be really important during this election.

In addition though, you want to make sure that when you are creating polling places, that the polling places aren't the way they always were in the past, how do you ensure that you can have some more social distancing in polling places? How do you ensure that rather than poll workers who tend to be older Americans be the ones staffing the tables, that people at lower risk, that you try in recruiting younger people?

I mean, how do you space people out so that they're not crowded in lines? And how do you increase the number of polling places so that you don't have people waiting in line for hours? You know, a lot of supermarkets are able to space people out for entry. And if you think about that model, if you can increase the number of polling places, increase the number of hours, increase the amount of early voting, that can decompress the number of people. But you know, what we're seeing instead is a shortening --

SCIUTTO: The opposite --

BESSER: Of all of those things. And that's very --

SCIUTTO: It's the opposite --

BESSER: That's very worrisome -- yes, exactly.

HARLOW: I mean, you're so right, if the grocery store in my neighborhood can do it, we think we can figure it out for voting. Can we talk testing because we heard -- I think pretty defensive Admiral Giroir yesterday, the White House testing czar, essentially telling one reporter, you know, he's sick of the narrative that we don't have a testing plan in this country. And that's his opinion. But here's what he says is fact. Listen to this.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH: You beat the virus by smart policies supplemented by strategic testing. You do not beat the virus by shotgun-testing everyone all the time. I'm really tired of hearing it by people who are not involved in the system that we need millions of tests every day.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HARLOW: Harvard has said we need 3.5 million, who's right?

BESSER: Well, I think one of the critical things to reflect back on is that in the earliest days of the pandemic, we restricted testing to people who were really sick. Restricted it to people who were -- where there was a decision about whether or not they were going to be hospitalized. And then as more testing became available, we expanded to other people with symptoms.

[09:25:00]

But what we've learned about this virus is that about 40 percent of people who get it have no symptoms and they can spread it. And so, you know, the idea that now this far into the pandemic, we don't have more testing available to be able to test people who may have been exposed, to test people who are in situations where you may want to know, you know, that schools can't use testing as part of their criteria because there's inadequate amount of testing --

HARLOW: Right --

BESSER: Inadequate turnaround time. You know, we shouldn't be in that position of having to say, well, we need to once again restrict testing to those who have symptoms because of shortages, that just shouldn't be. And the other aspect is, we need to be able to look and make sure every community has testing because of how this is hitting different communities in different ways, and communities of color, I really worry are not having the amount of testing, the amount of response that's really needed.

SCIUTTO: You wrote an op-ed in "The Washington Post" along with former CDC Director Tom Frieden, Jeffrey Koplan and David Satcher, the following. "We're seeing the terrible effect of undermining the CDC play out in our population, willful disregard for public health guidelines is unsurprisingly leading to a sharp rise in infections and deaths." Tell us why that's important.

BESSER: Well, it's absolutely critical. I think it's one of the most critical lack of success factors we have when you have different messages coming from public health leaders and coming from politicians. We need to come together as a nation and recognize that, you know, we have a responsibility for each other. And that wearing a mask, keeping six feet away, washing our hands, staying home if we're sick, providing the resources so that everyone has the opportunity --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BESSER: To protect themselves and their family, that's an American thing. That's not a political thing. But when it's been politicized, you know, if 30 percent of people in America say that wearing a mask is a political statement, and I don't want to wear a mask, we fail. So --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BESSER: That is why it's so critically important that the lead --

HARLOW: Yes --

BESSER: Voice be public health and trusted public health in this.

SCIUTTO: Right, I mean, what's good about that, I mean, you drew attention to it. It is changing behaviors. It's not just a message sort of floating around in the air, it is leading people to do dumb stuff. Dr. Richard Besser --

BESSER: Well, it's -- you know, the idea of the piece of that, you know, it's changing behavior, but it's also ensuring that Washington is providing the dollars and protections for everybody.

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BESSER: You know, the eviction protection, the supplemental unemployment insurance, so that everyone has a fair opportunity here.

SCIUTTO: Yes, Dr. Besser, always good to have you on.

BESSER: Thanks so much.

SCIUTTO: Right now, President Trump is actively attempting to discredit the election -- and this is key, suppress mail-in voting. We're going to ask a nonpartisan election official about the dangers of what the president is doing, what it's intended to do and how it might affect your vote. You're going to want to hear this, it's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)