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COVID-19 Takes Center Stage in U.S. Elections Fight; Biden Says Every Single American Should Wear a Mask; U.S. President Attacks Biden's Pandemic Plan; CDC Director: The U.S. was Underprepared for the Crisis; Positivity Rates, Death Counts Rising Across U.S.; Trump Advisor Claims Young People are Not at Risk; Russia Says U.S. Not Currently Open to Vaccine Help; U.S. Military Cases Spike in South Korea; Israel and UAE to Establish Full Normalization of Relations; Palestinian Leasers Calling Deal a Stab in the Back. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Joe doesn't know too much. Unlike the Biden approach, our approach is guided by science.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: The candidates clash over masks. Donald Trump hits back hard after the Joe Biden attacks the President's pandemic response.

Plus -- Russian officials tell CNN the U.S. declined their offer of help with the coronavirus vaccine. We're live in Moscow.

And is it a diplomatic breakthrough or an historic betrayal? The White House brokers a deal to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States took center stage in the 2020 election fight Thursday after attending a briefing with the health experts, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden called for a three-month nationwide mask mandate. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESUMPTIVE U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at minimum. Every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: But President Donald Trump says Biden is politicizing the pandemic and ignoring scientific evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Today we saw Joe Biden continue to politicize a pandemic and to show his appalling lack of respect for the American people is what it is. At every turn Biden has been wrong about the virus, ignoring the scientific evidence and putting left wing politics before facts and evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right. So let's look at the map. You can see right there all that red on the map is where cases are surging. The U.S. is reporting well over 5.2 million cases and more than 167,000 deaths.

U.S. health experts are warning of even bigger trouble ahead if Americans don't do more to help get the virus under control. CNN's Athena Jones explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, Dr. Anthony Fauci, raising concerns about disturbing trends in parts of the country.

FAUCI: This is the thing that is disturbing to me. Is that we're starting to see the inkling of the upticks, and the percent of the tests that are positive. Which we know now, from sad past experience, that that's a predictor that you can have more surges.

JONES: This warning comes as the U.S. confronts the deadliest day of the summer, 1,499 people loss to COVID-19 Wednesday. And as CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield makes this blunt admission.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: This is the greatest public health crisis that hit this nation in a century that we were under prepared. And we need to owe it to our children and grandchildren that this nation is never underprepared again for a public health crisis.

JONES: Redfield warning that if at least 95 percent of Americans don't follow basic public health recommendations like mask wearing, handwashing, and social distancing --

REDFIELD: This could be the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had. I'm not asking some of America to do it, we all got to do it.

JONES: Well new cases are steady or falling in 43 states, deaths have averaged more than 1,000 a day for 17 days now. And COVID tests positivity rates are on the rise in 35 states with Texas leading the nation at nearly 24 percent even as the number of tests being conducted nationwide, continues to decline. [04:05:00]

Meanwhile, in Martin County Florida, north of Palm Beach, an entire elementary school classroom, and one bus route, were placed under quarantine one day after the district reopen for in-person instruction and a student began exhibiting symptoms.

Nationally, more than 2,000 students, teachers, and staff members across five states are under quarantine due to COVID concerns.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: There is just no way right now where this epidemic is raging across the South, in Florida, in Georgia, in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and much -- and much of Texas, that you can open up schools safely.

JONES: Still, it's game on in Utah tonight, a state with a positivity rate of almost 9 percent, two high schools facing off in the first football match of the season.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: I feel like the Titanic. We have hit the iceberg and we're trying to make decisions on what times should we have the band play. Not having fall sports this year and controlling this virus, to me, would be the number one priority.

JONES: And we're getting more insight into the pandemic impact on Americans. A new CDC survey finding that 41 percent of respondents are struggling with anxiety, depression, increased substance use or suicidal thoughts.

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, Mr. Trump's new coronavirus advisors making claims about young people and coronavirus that don't line up with the facts. Dr. Scott Atlas first appeared at White House task force briefings Monday and on Thursday, despite medical evidence that children can develop serious complications from COVID-19 and transmit the virus to adults. Dr. Atlas said this on Fox News --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, FROM CORONAVIRUS ADVISOR: It doesn't matter if children get the disease. They don't get sick from this and the data shows that they do not significantly transmit to adults.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And deeper into all of this, I'm going to bring in Dr. Ron Daniels who joins us from Birmingham, England. He's the intensive care doctor for the U.K.'s National Health Service and also the founder and director of the U.K. Sepsis Trust.

Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. I just want to start with what we just heard there, children and the virus. I mean, we know coronavirus doesn't affect most children as seriously as adults. But the President and some in his circle seem to be really downplaying the danger. So just what are the facts here?

DR. RON DANIELS, NHS INTENSIVE CARE DOCTOR: So the facts are clearly that children can develop symptoms as a consequence of coronavirus. And in a very tiny proportion of children -- and I stress a tiny proportion -- those complications can be serious. Including the disease that's a bit like this disease, Kawasaki disease, that we've seen in a very small minority of children.

But what we do hear from parents who've had COVID-19 is that their children are developing symptoms. They're sometimes developing slightly different symptoms. They typically don't lose their sense of taste and smell quite so badly. They have a runny nose quite commonly. And they can develop red spots and chilblain like problems in their fingers and toes. So they can develop symptoms. They're not usually as sick as adults.

BRUNHUBER: And importantly, they can transmit it to adults as well, right?

DANIELS: Yes, absolutely. Children can transmit it to adults. There are clear documented cases that that can happen. But the good news here is that we've seemed 1/10 as likely to do as adult to adult transmission.

BRUNHUBER: Something we're seeing in the U.S. as well as in Europe, more and more young people getting sick. Do we know why? Is it quarantine fatigue?

DANIELS: Well, it could be quarantine fatigue and that's certainly likely to play a factor in it. And it's important in all countries as you've said that the public continue to behave in a responsible manner. This virus has not gone away.

Now, there might be other factors for increased numbers of testing positive among the younger people. Certainly in many European countries, including mine in the U.K., the manner in which testing is conducted tends to favor the young accessing those tests. They're expected. We can post test out but that's not heavily taken up. They're expected to drive to a testing center. The access details for all those testing centers are only available on the internet. So that will tend to favor, not exclusively but tends to favor younger people and that might be a cause of this effect.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so all of this increase happening as schools are set to open or summer opening already and the percentage of people testing positive in some states is really high. Texas, for instance, you know, close to one out of every four tests is coming back positive. And even, you know, schools restarting sports. What worries you the most?

DANIELS: So you know, and we've heard about states with 9 percent of the population testing positive for the virus. And that's a similar proportion to what we're seeing in some countries like Spain and so forth. You know, this is worrying. This virus does continue to spread through our populations, but what's really interesting is that people don't seem to be getting as sick. There are still some tragedies. There are still some deaths but they're very small in number.

And certainly what we're seeing in Europe, countries like Spain and Portugal and France have had significant up swings in numbers based upon community-based testing. We've also seen this in the U.K.

[04:10:02]

These up swings happened weeks ago. If this was making people very sick, then we'd be seeing hospitals begin to see admissions. And frankly, that's not happening. We've heard about deaths. That's not the right thing to measure. Because there's a huge lag time between people being admitted to hospital and sadly dying. For those who survive the inpatient stay is typically a couple of months. So it's wrong to look at deaths. What we need to look at in terms of capacity is intensive care admissions and hospital admissions and they're very low across Europe right now.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so that's some good news. I'm going to drag this down with more doom and gloom here. I just got my flu shot this week, well in advance of flu season in the fall. And I was inspired by warnings like the one from the director of the CDC who said the pandemic coupled with flu season could create, quote, the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had. Is that hyperbole or is that a realistic fear here?

DANIELS: So look, we're talking worst case scenarios. We're talking about a second wave and we don't know how this virus is going to behave in the cooler months. So a second wave when people are inside, it's less easy to socially distance. The virus might transmit more regularly and we might see more cases. Now if that starts to make people sick and if it coincides with a bad flu season, that is really going to put a strain on health care systems. So it's absolutely right that if you are eligible for a flu vaccine, you should access that vaccine. Other vaccinations, like against pneumococcus and Hib vacs, really important. If you're offered those vaccines take them up. Because we need to stop as many people as possible becoming sick this winter just in case.

BRUNHUBER: All right, very good advice there. Thank you so much Dr. Ron Daniels in Birmingham, England, we appreciate it.

Well a few days ago Russia announced that it had developed a coronavirus vaccine, cue the fanfare, but it seems not everyone was excited. Moscow says it has been offering the United States assistance and the response, well, it's been frosty. So let's head over to Moscow and to CNN's Matthew Chance. So Matthew, this vaccine reportedly confers two years of immunity and has no side effects. OK, it was only tested on, you know, fewer than 100 people. But still, why is the U.S. turning down such a generous offer?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, look, the concerns that the U.S. has are, you know, legitimate of course. The vaccine that has been approved here in Russia -- they called it Sputnik V -- hasn't undergone crucial third phase human trials. These are the mass trials that are normally used to determine the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine before it's released for public use.

Also the clinical data that they have accrued so far has not been made public. So it hasn't been subject to peer review. And so, these are two legitimate concerns which question whether this vaccine is effective or even if it is safe. About what the Russians have said is that look, you know, this is a chance to save American lives. You know, this is, you know, we're offering unprecedented cooperation with the United States to potentially manufacture this vaccine in the U.S. It could be a very effective vaccine if it is and the U.S. doesn't explore the option of the Russian vaccine any deeper.

You know, that could cause, you know, some problems, but the United States, the Russians added, the U.S. has said this as well, are just not interested in Russian technological medical advances such as they are at the moment. What the Russians say is that there is a general sense of mistrust and that mistrust is preventing America and other Western countries as well from really looking with clarity at what Russia is achieving.

The Americans have been, you know, much more explicit, much more sort of forthright in their rejection. One U.S. public health official telling CNN, there's no way in hell the U.S. tries this vaccine even on monkeys, let alone people. And so, that underlines mistrust, perhaps an understatement. The underlines just how deep that mistrust is.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thank you so much. Matthew Chance in Moscow, appreciate that.

U.S. troops arriving in South Korea face two weeks of quarantine as soon as they hit the ground and for good reason. Paula Hancocks gives us a look at how one America base is tackling the coronavirus threat.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Keeping fit with a five-month-old baby is a challenge. Working out when you whole family is in isolation with coronavirus is something else. Sarah and Lincoln Henjum, their infant and one of their 6-year-old twins tested positive shortly after arriving in South Korea from the United States. They are among of thousands of military personnel switching in and out of the country this summer.

MAJ. LINCOLN HENJUM, U.S. FORCES KOREA: My wife has a little bit of chest congestion. So she's coughing a little bit. And myself, I just have a weird sense of taste. So everything I eat or drink tastes like burnt bread.

[04:15:00]

HANCOCKS: And they're all staying in two rooms in a special isolation facility on base, along with the family dog.

HENJUM: So that's my son's bed here. All the beds are twins. And then there's my bed over here.

HANCOCKS (on camera): How are the children coping? I mean, how are you keeping them busy?

HENJUM: We do get one hour of outside time between 3 and 4. We play kickball. We play some tag. We walk the dog a little bit.

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Not the best start to a new posting but not unusual either. U.S. forces Korea say of 152 positive cases the vast majority have been incoming personnel since June when the Pentagon started to lift transfer and travel restrictions. The U.S. military in Japan is facing a similar challenge.

COL. LEE PETERS, U.S. FORCES KOREA SPOKESPERSON: When they come here, we can't control what happened where there at. We can control upon their arrival here.

HANCOCKS: The U.S. military insists once they're personnel land, they enter and remain in a bubble.

COL. MICHAEL TREMBLAY, COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY GARRISON HUMPHREYS: Depart the direct bus right from the airport. We're going to walk into the reception center, wash their hands. They signed in so we make a clear accountability of everyone we have here.

HANCOCKS: After a short briefing they have their first coronavirus test.

DR. ANDREW OH, MEDICAL DEPARTMENT ACTIVITY COMMAND KOREA: They sit down like this soldier is doing, fills this out and then we're preparing to do laboratory sample which is behind you.

HANCOCKS: From there straight into special quarantine quarters for 14 days.

PETERS: Nobody is exempt, I mean, from a private to three-star general. Everybody goes through the quarantine process.

HANCOCKS: Everyone is allowed 90 minutes a day outside so long as a social distance. Colonel Peters says the second test before being released from quarantine is key. One fifth of those who tested positive then had no symptoms at all. The U.S.F.K says they haven't had a single local transmission case in more than 3 months. All cases have been reported. But the Henjum family, all they can do now is play games, watch television, work out and wait for recovery.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, South Korea South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, the UAE, the United States and Israel finding common ground to forge a new partnership in the Middle East. But Palestinians call it a betrayal. We'll explain why just ahead.

[04:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: Israel has agreed to suspend annexing parts of the West Bank -- and suspend is the key word here -- as part of a potentially groundbreaking deal with the United Arab Emirates. But Palestinian leaders were angered by the announcement. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas immediately slammed it as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Now the deal was brokered by the Trump White House and announced Thursday by President Trump. Israel and the UAE have committed themselves to fully normalized relations. So here's how President Trump described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is a truly historic moment. Not since the Israel/Jordan peace treaty was signed more than 25 years ago has so much progress been made towards peace in the Middle East. By uniting two of America's closest and most capable partners in the region, something which they say could not be done, this deal is a significant step towards building a more peaceful, secure and prosperous Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: So besides Israel temporarily holding off on its annexation plans, Israel and the UAE will exchange ambassadors and they'll work out bilateral agreements on many critical issues. The Israeli leader gave all the credit to President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I want to thank President Trump for his critical help in brokering this historic accord. And I want to thank him for his revolutionary vision for peace. Which is the most realistic and important formula for peace in the region. President Trump's Middle East plan served as the basis for today's historic peace announcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: So if all goes as planned, President Trump says he expects leaders of Israel and the UAE to sign a formal agreement in Washington in the near future.

So let's go to Elliott Gotkine in Tel Aviv for the Israeli perspective. Israel, the Palestinians, didn't really make any real concessions here and got a coveted normalization of relations with an Arab country. So a real win for Benjamin Netanyahu, right?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Very much so, Kim. You know, he's already Israel's longest serving Prime Minister. And now he's joining the ranks of Menachem Begin who forge peace with Egypt and also Yitzhak Rabin, who course, signed the peace treaty with Jordan, as being one of only three Israeli leaders to sign a peace agreement with another Arab nation. So a very big win for Prime Minister Netanyahu. He's been coming under

quite a bit of pressure of late, both for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Israel now has one of the worst outbreak in the world on a kind of per million population basis. And also, due to the corruption trial that he's facing, which is due to resume in the next few months.

So this is certainly being seen as a big win for Netanyahu. He received congratulations not just from the leader of the operation, Yair Lapid, but also from members within his own governing coalition with whom he's been butting heads quite strongly of late.

There has of course been some push back from for example, Joint List. This is the third largest party in the Israeli parliament. It represents Israeli Arabs and they've come out and described this as a shameful agreement and said the only legitimate roadmap is one that liberates the Palestinian people from the crime of occupation. But certainly with the exception of Israel's Arabs and some groups of settlers, there are very few people here in Israel you would find who think that this was not a great deal all around.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Thank you so much. Elliott Gotkine in Tel Aviv, appreciate it.

Now we're going to go to CNN's Sam Kiley sitting right in Beirut, Lebanon with the view from there on this development. So from the reaction so far it seems as though many Palestinians feel sold out. After all they were cut out of any negotiations over the West Bank. Israel only saying it will suspend annexation. What's been the reaction in the Arab world?

[04:25:00]

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Palestinians have said it's an outright betrayal. The Turks, President Erdogan who does actually have diplomatic relationships albeit somewhat sour at the moment with Israel has condemned it as a betrayal of the Palestinians. Elsewhere in the Arab world it's been somewhat welcomed as a step forward by Egypt. Cautiously welcomed by Jordan but in both cases insisting that it has to lead to meaningful negotiations leading to a two-state solution with territorial integrity for this Palestinians. And that really in this deal is what is at issue here.

As you rightly point out, it's only a suspension of their plans to annex great areas of the West Bank. The second program no doubt will continue. That is a program that has been chewing into Palestinian territory or potentially future Palestinian territory for many, many years now. And on top of that, it now opens the doors to a great deal more cooperation militarily in terms of intelligence with the Gulf countries, particularly obviously, the Emirates in this first wave. There's hints coming from the White House and other Gulf countries might also join in. I think they probably want to see more response from Israel in terms of talking to the Palestinians before they sign up.

But this is all about really in strategic terms maintaining alliance against Iran. I particular here in Lebanon from the perspective of Israel where Hezbollah sits with tens of thousands of militia, hundreds of thousands they claim of missiles all of them pointing towards the Jewish state.

Anything that can undermine or restrict the influence of Iran or Tehran across the Middle East is good news from the Israeli point of view and also good news from the Emirati point of view. Who are very anxious about their near neighbor just across the Persian or Arabian Gulf -- facing them. Where they have been very anxious about destabilization activities conducted by Iran right across the Middle East, from Yemen, through Iraq, Syria and of course and further afield. And in that context, this is a step forward.

I think the other really important issue is, Kim, that this does give an opportunity for the Arab world in a warm way to offer some friendly advice to the Israelis. This may be an opportunity for the Emirati's to offer a degree of -- to have a degree of influence on the very peace process with the Palestinians and revivify both in terms of the Trump administration and in in terms of Israel. That certainly is the line that they've been pushing at this moment.

BRUNHUBER: A huge deal with so many repercussions. Sam Kiley, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Still ahead, campaigning on coronavirus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Be a patriot. Protect your fellow citizens. Step up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris hit the trail and hit President Trump hard over his pandemic response. Stay with us.

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