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U.S. Reports Average Of 1,000-Plus Deaths Daily Since Late July; Trump Admits He's Blocking Postal Funding To Stop Mail-In Votes; Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) Is Interviewed About Postal Service Warning Every State It May Not Be Able To Deliver Ballots In Time To Be Counted; Teachers, Students And Parents Struggle With Remote Learning; Interview With Former Education Secretary, Arne Duncan; Inspector General Reviewing New Postmaster's Policy Changes & Potential Ethics Conflicts. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 15, 2020 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
ROBBIN CARROLL, CNN HERO: We needed to step in and just provide even more supplies and comfort and security.
I think we always in heal in community. We just hold space for the fact that there's just a lot of pain, and no matter how it comes out, we're here to support you. We're here to help you. We see you. We see you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Anderson Cooper has the full story of Robbin's work during the pandemic at CNNHeroes.com.
(MUSIC)
CABRERA: Thanks for staying with me. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.
And it is the most heartbreaking part of the pandemic, seeing the number of people who have died, and in the United States, that number is staying high every day. This weekend, the U.S. is on track for another day, reporting an average of 1,000 deaths or more from COVID- 19 in a 24-hour period.
Now, the total number of American deaths reported since the start of this pandemic now just shy of 169,000 people. Health experts now say children are testing positive for the virus at an increased rate. More than 7 percent of all people known to be infected in the U.S. are kids.
It's the same day the state of Alabama is reporting that more than 7,000 children there have tested positive, two infants and a teenager in Alabama have died from COVID-19. And just in to CNN today, we have learned a 15-year-old boy in the Atlanta area has died from coronavirus complications. He has become the second youngest person to die in the state of Georgia. A 7-year-old boy in savannah died earlier this month as well from the pandemic. And news from the testing front. The Food and Drug Administration
today announcing it has granted emergency use authorization to a new method that tests a person's saliva for the coronavirus. The FDA says this test is cheaper than the current nasal swab test. It's faster, and it gives similarly accurate results.
Let's begin in Georgia where new coronavirus cases are rising by the thousands every day in a state not requiring masks as parents face the tough decision of sending their kids back to school.
CNN's Natasha Chen is in Atlanta for us.
Natasha, we're also learning the White House is now criticizing Georgia's COVID-19 response. What more can you tell us?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, the coronavirus task force came out with recommendations earlier in the month that described Georgia not doing enough, and today, just about an hour ago, we got the report of 3,000 -- more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases across the state, and that's been the case for at least a month now, at least 3,000 new cases every day, 96 new deaths reported today, which is lower than Tuesday's report which was the highest since the pandemic began.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN (voice-over): Georgia is not doing enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19. That's according to White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendations from August 9th, a document obtained by the "Atlanta Journal Constitution". It reads: There is widespread and expanding community viral spread and there is no significant improvement in the Atlanta metro area with continued high levels of new cases at a plateau. Mitigation efforts must increase.
Governor Brian Kemp's office fired back, sending CNN a list of its ongoing efforts to combat the spread of the virus, saying in part, quote: The DPH lab has been working around the clock, with multiple shifts since early summer and that Governor Kemp continues to rely on data, science, and the public health advice of the state's public health director.
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA: Georgia should roll back. I definitely think Georgia should roll back.
CHEN: In a state seeing at least 3,000 new cases every day over the last month, the Atlanta mayor says it's too soon for students to be in classrooms.
BOTTOMS: And we're seeing it already in our state as schools have reopened. Kids are getting infected, and it's, in my opinion, this is my opinion as a parent, it's more disruptive to think you're sending your child into a situation and then have to pull them all back out.
CHEN: Courtney Smith pulled her daughters out of public school in Atlanta's suburbs altogether, when they told her they say 30 to 40 students in each classroom with few people wearing masks. COURTNEY SMITH, PARENT: As parents, our number one task in life is to
protect our babies and I really felt like I was dropping mine off at a death trap on Monday. So, there were a lot of tears shed by me and shed by my children last week.
CHEN: After two days in their Cherokee County School, Smith transferred them to a charter school, which she says has far fewer students in class and more of them wearing masks.
On Friday, Cherokee County's public school district confirmed 80 new cases of COVID-19 for the week, nearly triple the previous week's count. Two high schools in the district had to temporarily pause in- person learning.
SMITH: If you want your kids in school, your schools have to stay open.
[16:05:01]
And for the schools to stay open, you have to contain your numbers of COVID cases, and the best way that we know of to contain those cases is to implement mask and to also implement a hybrid program where you reduce the number of students in the building at one time.
CHEN: But there is no mask mandate in Cherokee County schools nor at Paulding County schools where North Paulding High School also had to temporarily stop in-person classes due to students and staff testing positive. Starting Monday, that school will use a hybrid schedule with both in-person and digital learning.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): There's definitely going to be issues when you open anything. We saw that when we opened businesses. We're seeing that when we open schools. We've given them guidance. We've worked with them to really give them the tools that they need to open.
CHEN: Those tools include shipments of masks that aren't required by the state, though Kemp once sued Atlanta's mayor for mandating masks, he says local school officials are best positioned to make the best rules for their communities.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN: And Governor Kemp has withdrawn the lawsuit he filed against the Atlanta mayor and city council over their mask mandate and their rollback to phase one. He did say over twitter that his new executive order, due out today, will actually address some of those issues protecting property rights of business owners. The existing executive order expires tonight, and the new one will be announced today, Ana.
CABRERA: OK. Natasha Chen, thank you for your reporting.
I want to discuss some new developments with CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who is also a professor of medicine at George Washington University and a former White House advisor in the Bush administration. Dr. Reiner, testing has been declining nationally, even as positivity
rates are increasing in the majority of states, and we're still seeing these daily deaths averaging more than a thousand since late July.
But here's what White House testing czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, said about testing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Has the administration exhausted it to get testing supplies to the labs? Is that true? Everything's been done?
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE TESTING CZAR: I'm going to say definitively, yes.
BROWN: Definitively yes. There's nothing else the administration can do to get more testing?
GIROIR: Well, you'll hear a DPA action coming up early next week.
BROWN: Would you say enough has been done? Enough has been done to make sure that everyone who needs a test gets a test in this country?
GIROIR: Everything that can possibly be done has been done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Dr. Reiner, do you agree? Do you think the government has done all it can?
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No, of course not.
Look, even the president on April 28th said that soon the U.S. would be doing 5 million tests per day. And this week, Admiral Giroir said, oh, that's impossible. So, one of those two people is wrong about this.
But most public health officials believe we need to do much more testing than we're currently doing. On the order of about 30 million tests per week and we did have some good news today.
The saliva direct test coming out of Yale is going to dramatically improve the availability of tests to people even at home. This is going to be something that people can do at home, ship to a lab, and get a rapid result for a very inexpensive cost.
So, I think we have the ability going forward to significantly increase our throughput, the number of people who can be tested quickly. No, I don't at all agree with the admiral that we're doing as much as we can. We need to do much more and I think we will do much more.
CABRERA: But he's also arguing that you don't want to just test everybody. It shouldn't be a scatter shot approach, it should be strategic. I don't understand why testing would be going down as opposed to at least just staying flat. REINER: Right. And you know, we need to test many more people. We need
to test asymptomatic people.
Early on in the pandemic, we were testing mostly people who were clearly sick, but the reservoir of the disease is in asymptomatic people. We know that probably around 40 percent of adults and now we think about 40 percent of children are asymptomatic, so they harbor the virus. They're still very contagious.
So this is the reservoir that we need to go after. We need to test widely. We need to throw our net much farther than we're throwing it now and quarantine the folks who don't have symptoms, the people who feel well but are infectious. That's how we decrease the spread of virus in this country.
And I think we have the means and hopefully the will to do this.
CABRERA: You talk about children and, of course, school is right around the corner. Some schools have already begun their new school year. The president, though, he has a new coronavirus advisor with him in the Oval Office. His name is Dr. Scott Atlas. He's a radiologist. He doesn't have a background in infectious disease.
Take a listen to what he said this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS MEDICAL ADVISER: By the way, you don't eradicate a virus by locking down. I mean, that's just a complete misconception.
I think we have to get a grip here, look at the science, understand who we're talking about here.
[16:10:04]
There's not a lot of obese, diabetic 78-year-olds playing football.
This is a temporary issue. Pandemics don't last for years and years. I'm sorry, but that just never happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: This is vastly different than what we're hearing from the experts on the White House Coronavirus Task Force like Dr. Fauci or Dr. Birx.
REINER: Right. So he's wrong on a number of issues.
First of all, let's look at the pandemic that the president often refers to, the 1918 pandemic. If you read the history of that, it wasn't really the 1918 pandemic. It was really the 1918 through 1920 pandemic. So, pandemics do last years.
Number two, Dr. Atlas has been an advocate for herd immunity, in other words, allowing the population to be infected to where then contagion drops but to do that, about 70 percent of the United States population would need to be infected with this virus. That's about 260 million people.
Even using the most optimistic case fatality rates of about 0.6 percent mortality, about six times the current seasonal flu, 1.4 million Americans would die if we went for herd immunity and we're not sure that once you get this, you can't get it again a year or two late.
So, are we going to face that every single year? And then we know that there are lingering effects from this virus, even people who survive it. So, it's best to prevent it and the best way to prevent it is to test widely, prevent the spread, and lock down in places where the virus is out of control.
CABRERA: And you talk about those lingering effects. We just saw the note from the American Heart Association just yesterday putting out a warning of devastating and lasting cardiac complications from coronavirus.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, there's so much more to learn about COVID-19. Thank you for being one of our experts to walk us through this trying time.
REINER: My pleasure.
CABRERA: This just into CNN. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the tribute in light, this memorial for 9/11, will happen next month. The memorial had been previously canceled due to coronavirus concerns but Governor Cuomo says the state will provide health personnel and supervisors so that the tradition can continue.
The governor tweeting in part: I am glad that we can continue this powerful tribute to those we lost on 9/11 and to the heroism of all New Yorkers. We will #neverforget.
Up next, as many Americans may choose to vote by mail to avoid going to a polling place during a pandemic, will those ballots actually get to an election office in time to be counted? The Postal Service is warning they may not.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:16:59]
CABRERA: Big warning coming from the Postal Service: mail delays might mean mail-in ballots will be delivered late. So late they might not make it in time to be counted in November's election.
Now, in a letter to governors sent virtually to every state, minus four, the agency is warning it expects to see a pile-up of mail around Election Day and all this comes after the president admitted he is blocking postal funding to stop mail-in votes.
CNN's Kristen Holmes has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump admitting he's opposed to funding for the Postal Service for political reasons.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want $3.5 billion for something that will turn out to be fraudulent. That's election money, basically.
Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. That means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.
HOLMES: Fueling outrage over the Trump administration's attempts to use the postal service to meddle in the election.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Pure Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, guys, let's go, let's go. Come on.
BIDEN: He doesn't want an election.
HOLMES: With more people than ever expected to vote by mail in an election held in the middle of a pandemic, President Trump has spent months making false claims about widespread fraud.
TRUMP: This is a thing that will be a disaster like never before.
HOLMES: Meanwhile, both Democrats and Republicans raising concerns over changes made to the agency by the new postmaster general, a Trump fundraiser and ally, including major shake-ups in leadership and cost cuts that some workers say have slowed delivery.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): Now it's not the time to be cutting back services.
HOLMES: All this as postal workers across the country are sounding alarms this week, over the removal of hundreds of mail processing machines from postal facilities. Documents obtained by CNN outline the plan to remove nearly 700 machines used for organizing letters and other mail.
While a spokesperson for the service describes the removal as a cost- saving measure, postal union leaders have warned that something like this just months before the election could cause delays. In a statement, the postal service saying it, quote, routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes.
S. DAVID FINEMAN, FORMER USPS BOARD OF GOVERNORS CHAIRMAN: I don't understand why they were taken out. Someone's -- I heard someone report that they might have been taking out to use for spare parts. It made little sense to me. HOLMES: New revelations over the postal services urging that states
use more expensive first class mail to make sure the ballots are prioritized or risk that voters will not receive their ballots in time to return them by mail. The influx of mail-in voting causing some states, already financially unstable during a pandemic, to balk at the cost. Now, Democrats are asking for a new USPS inspector general investigation, this time to look into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's finances.
New financial disclosures obtained by CNN show DeJoy apparently did not divest millions in stock from his former company, a current postal service contractor and that DeJoy holds stock options in a major USPS customer, Amazon.
[16:20:03]
The Postal Service says he has followed all of the ethics requirements.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: That was Kristen Holmes reporting.
House Majority Whip, Congressman James Clyburn, is joining us now.
Congressman, thanks for being here.
With all these delay warnings, with Post Office machine removals, do you think the United States Postal Service is capable of handling a surge of ballots come fall without any added funding?
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Yes, I think they do have the capabilities. But the fact of the matter is, we ought to declare now that we are going to have elections -- election month, I would call it. We have absentee voting. In most places, that voting starts 30 days out.
Now, I know October 3rd is a Saturday, so I think that we ought to, whatever legislation we pass, we ought to stipulate that we will have absentee voting for all federal elections beginning October 5th, and I think we ought to fund the capacity of each state to have ballot boxes strategically located so that people can deposit their ballots and do so in a safe and secure way.
We ought not be saying to people, you must go to crowded voting places on one day, November 3rd, in order for your vote to count. We can easily have absentee voting much more widespread than we currently have. And we can do that without having -- using the post office.
I want to use the post office. I think the post office ought to be fully funded, adequately funded. The post office is there for more than ballots. They're there to deliver people's support checks.
CABRERA: Right.
CLYBURN: They're there for veterans to get their medicines and other senior citizens that use mail order. That's what the post office is there for.
We ought not be crippling the post office, and for the president to admit that he is doing this in order to gum up the works when it comes to the elections, he is actually signing a death warrant for a lot of people that he ought not be doing this.
CABRERA: So, you'd blame him if people get sick and potentially die from the coronavirus by going to the polls and actually casting their ballot in person?
CLYBURN: Absolutely. He's the one that's doing this, he and his postmaster general. They met several days ago before all of this stuff happened.
We see them taking machines, sorting machines out of the post offices, and I've received reports that they are moving post office boxes in some neighborhoods that I frequent. And so what are they doing this for? If it's not to gum up the works when it comes to this election?
But they're also hurting people, people who depend upon the post office. And I might add, the post office is in our Constitution. This president is doing everything he can to circumvent the Constitution of the United States of America and it's high time for people to wake up.
I don't know why anybody would be so hell-bent on winning an election that they would be willing to shred the Constitution, put Americans at risk just to try to hold on to power. This man is not going to win fairly.
CABRERA: I feel your --
CLYBURN: So why are we supporting crooked activity?
CABRERA: I feel your passion. I can hear how fired up you are about this, and yet, Congress is on recess right now. Why is Congress on recess? And what -- what is Congress going to do about this?
CLYBURN: You have to ask Mitch McConnell that. He's the one that left town. We passed the HEROES Act, remember? We passed that seven weeks ago.
So, the bill is there. We've asked them, OK, we asked $3.2 trillion. You came up with $1 trillion. Meet us halfway.
I have often said that this is between me and the opponent on any issue of five steps, I don't mind taking three of them. But don't ask me to take all five.
This president wants us to take all five because the Republicans maintain that their idea of compromise is when the Democrats come around to their way of thinking. That is not going to happen.
CABRERA: I want you to hear what former Vice President Joe Biden said last night because he invoked the late congressman, John Lewis, at a fund-raiser, warning about voter suppression, which would be obviously a potential result if this isn't squared away. [16:25:11]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: He's already said he's willing to delay or not accept the outcome of the election. In response, we have to remember what Congressman John Lewis said. Quote: democracy is not a state. It is an act.
We need to act. We need to make sure every eligible voter who wants to vote can vote, whether it's in person on Election Day or with expanded options like no excuse absentee voting and increased in-person early voting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Congressman, given what has transpired in the past couple weeks, do you think this year's election will, in fact, be free and fair?
CLYBURN: If it's left up to the president, it will not be, and that's why I think Mitch McConnell ought to join with Nancy Pelosi and sit down around the table and determine how we can have a fair election, unfettered election and do it in such a way as the former vice president just said.
We can have, with no excuse absentee voting starting on October 5th and we can fund sufficient ballot boxes for people to place throughout the states, not have everybody crowded into one place. I've just heard of one county says they've got one place for early voting or absentee voting. That should not be.
We know that we are suffering with the pandemic here. Our people are sick and getting sick. And for us not to make provisions for people to be able to participate in this democracy without having to run the risk of contracting a disease that could kill them.
I never thought that I would live to see the United States of America tolerate a tyrant who seems to just trample upon our Constitution. This Constitution has not always been good for me. Plessy versus Ferguson's constitution was not good for my grandparents and great- grandparents.
But we have come a long way and we are making democracy work. Why would we run the risk of turning the clock back with this president who seems not to want to find an honest way to run the government and to run and to hold elections? This, I never thought I would see. John Lewis would be so disappointed that he gave -- nearly gave his life to get the vote for people of color and to watch complicity of the Republicans in holding on to this kind of shenanigans is just beyond me.
This, to me, I never thought that I would see this country allow this to happen.
CABRERA: Congressman, I know you're going to be speaking at the upcoming Democratic National Convention, starting on Monday. We just learned today that the president is planning to go to Pennsylvania to just outside Scranton, the birthplace of Joe Biden, to have a campaign event on the very day Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination.
What's your reaction to that?
CLYBURN: Well, you know, nothing this president will do will surprise me. He has very little respect for us. Everything is about him.
I've watched this government. You know, I'm 80 years old. John Lewis and I started out together as 20-year-olds, 60 years ago. We always believed in decency, in respect for others.
I may try to beat you in a contest, but I'm not in any way going to denigrate you. This president should be ashamed of himself, holding an event on the evening that this man, duly nominated man, will be giving his acceptance speech is just poor manners.
My dad used to tell me all the time, the first sign of good education is good manners. This is bad manners, the kind of manners of a less than a good education.
CABRERA: House Majority Whip James Clyburn, thanks as always for being with us, and I appreciate your perspective. Thank you.
CLYBURN: Thank you.
CABRERA: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:34:10]
CABRERA: Face masks come in so many different styles and materials. It turns out all masks aren't created equal. Some do a better job than others.
Here's what CNN's Randi Kaye discovered.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside this lab at Florida Atlantic University, two engineering professors are putting face masks to the test to see which are best at stopping the spread of coronavirus respiratory droplets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heavy cough.
KAYE: To find out, they filled this mannequin's mouth with water and glycerin. A pump forces it to expel the mixture, to simulate talking or coughing. Then, a green laser captures the droplets that escape.
We tested a handful of popular masks, including this one with an exhalation valve.
[16:35:00]
People like the valve because it lets them breathe easier. But the professors found the valve also allows potentially dangerous droplets to escape.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With a mask with an exhalation valve, what it does, it just basically lets out all the droplets through the exhalation valve.
KAYE (on camera): Which makes no sense at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes no sense at all.
KAYE: It defeats the purpose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It defeats the purpose.
KAYE (voice-over): Another popular mask fared poorly, too. Watch what happens when the mannequin talked wearing this single-layer Gator.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This gator was a bit surprising because it seems to let everything through without any stoppage.
KAYE (on camera): We also tested the Gator for heavy cough. Remember, this is a single layer. And we found that it barely filtered the droplets.
So let's turn out the lights and simulate a cough.
You can see the droplets travel straight forward, as far as three feet.
(voice-over): Next up, a single-layer bandanna made of 100 percent cotton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you see there is that this quilting cotton, one-layer mask performs a little better than the Gator. You still get some liquid coming through it.
It filters some of the droplets, but some escape through with the single layer. They don't go very far, but probably about six inches from the face when you are just talking.
KAYE: But the droplets travel about two feet and can accumulate over time in a room where people are gathered.
This double-layer mask made of quilting cotton also spread respiratory droplets when the mannequin talked and coughed but not as badly as the Gator and the bandanna.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't go very far, probably about two to three inches from the face. Significantly better than the other masks.
KAYE: The double layer is in line with new CDC guidance, suggesting two layers make all the difference.
And what about those blue nonsurgical masks so many people wear? They did well but there's room for improvement.
When the mannequin talked, hardly any droplets were expelled. But when it coughed, quite a bit leaked out the top. Though still not much went through the mask. So the professors were impressed with the filtration.
Remember, without any mask, if someone coughs, simulated virus droplets can travel as far as 12 feet, well beyond the six-foot social distancing guidelines.
So, even if a mask isn't perfect, the professors say, wear one.
(on camera): Which mask do you think is the best mask?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so, I think there are -- there are, obviously, no one mask that's the best.
A mask that's well made, you know, number of layers, maybe two or more layers, which allows -- you know, it feels comfortable on the face, fits well, I think that would be a good mask.
KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Dania Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CABRERA: Coming up, the challenges of remote learning, not just for students but parents and teachers as well. Former education secretary, Arne Duncan, is my guest, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:42:19]
CABRERA: As students return to school all across the U.S., many are doing it remotely because of the pandemic. And that is posing some challenges for teachers, students, and parents.
CNN's Brian Todd reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Atlanta's mayor tweeting this week, quote, "It's noon and I still haven't been able to get the twins logged in."
Keisha Lance Bottoms feeling the frustration of some parents across the country as they grapple with the challenges of remote learning with schools getting back in session.
This week, technical problems have been especially worrisome, like in Gwinnett county, Georgia.
LYNETTA FORD, PARENT: I went to the Web site, tried to log into the eClass portal and was getting an error message for the most part.
TODD: With many students and parents unable to log in this week, the Gwinnett County district asked them to stagger their attempts to access the program.
Meanwhile, the superintendent of schools in Humble, Texas, said a cyberattack on their district server blocked some students from logging into their first day of online classes this week.
This comes as the debate rages over whether remote or in-person learning will work best during the pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Teachers could really benefit --
TODD: During a Zoom meeting with education specialists in recent days, one expert said a disadvantage of remote learning is it doesn't always play to teachers' strengths.
CHERI FANCSALI, RESEARCH ALLIANCE FOR NEW YORK CITY SCHOOLS: The teachers who are our most effective teachers who we've had so far in typical face-to-face situations may not be the most effective in remote environments.
TODD: Some parents of students with special needs say their kids aren't being served as well online, like one mother who is suing California's governor over virtual learning.
CHRISTINE RUIZ, SUING CALIFORNIA OVER VIRTUAL LEARNING: I have two boys, two a diagnosis of autism. Without that team to do that hands-on learning, they're just languishing at home. There's no type of education at home.
My children cannot sit in front of a computer screen and do Zoom meetings all day long. It's just regression. It's profound and detrimental.
TODD: One education expert tells CNN almost no state has a specific effective plan to successfully teach online. But a clear advantage to remote learning is that it's simply safer.
A parent in one Georgia county who sent her son to school for in- person classes told CNN it didn't start well.
UNIDENTIFIED PARENT: The second day of school, my son said to me, mom, I don't feel safe. We're not social distancing. There's no precautions being taken to keep us safe.
TODD: And sometimes it appears remote learning can keep some top teachers in the fold. One chemistry teacher in Arizona told CNN he was given no option but to teach in-person, so for his family's safety, he resigned.
MATT CHICCI, ARIZONA TEACHER WHO RESIGNED: A lot of us would have stayed if we had had that option or if we had even had some kind of hybrid option to where we had smaller class sizes. We would have had a lot of us stay. (END VIDEOTAPE)
[16:45:07]
CABRERA: Joining us now, the former education secretary under President Obama, Arne Duncan.
Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us.
When you hear that teacher say, if only he'd been given another option, he wouldn't have had to resign, what goes through your mind?
ARNE DUNCAN, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY: This is just an extraordinarily difficult time. And I'm so angry that, as a country, we've allowed our students and our teachers and our children's parents to be in this situation. We shouldn't be here.
And basically, as a country, the hard truth is, over the past couple months, we chose bars. We chose to open bars over opening schools this fall. And we'll put parents and students and teachers and principals in a really, really difficult situation. And that's heartbreaking.
Having said that, I see just amazing ingenuity at the local level, total and an absence of leadership at the federal level and that's been a disaster.
But the local level, superintendents working so hard to try and problem solve a situation they didn't create and they didn't want.
And I can just give you a couple quick examples.
In Guilford County, North Carolina, they've prerecorded lessons from their best teachers for the first three weeks.
So those first three weeks, actual classroom teachers can totally focus on students' social and emotional health, how are they doing. Do some diagnostic assessments to see where they are. They've given out 80,000 devices.
In San Antonio, they're going to be doing home visits with teachers and social workers to check on students.
In Broward County, Florida, they have had their teachers teaching large classes in the morning so, the afternoons, they can do much more individual instruction.
So, in a really difficult time, seeing, again, creativity, ingenuity, compassion, empathy at the local level and that gives me hope in a very, very difficult time.
CABRERA: I want you to hear the words of someone who now has district access to the Oval Office, the president president's new coronavirus advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas, who is not an infectious disease expert. He's a radiologist.
Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS MEDICAL ADVISER: It doesn't matter if children get the disease. They don't get sick from this. And the -- the data shows that they do not significantly transmit to adults.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: So, first of all, health experts say kids make up 7 percent of known coronavirus cases in the U.S. Several children we know have been hospitalized and some have died.
And this is the man advising the president. What do you say to that?
DUNCAN: Well, I think it's pretty terrifying. Again, I'm not a scientist or a doctor or an epidemiologist, but we've seen where states have tried to open schools too fast, like in Georgia. It's an absolute disaster.
Children are getting sick. Teachers are getting sick. They've had to close back down.
And again, children are passing this on to teachers or taking it back home to parents or grandparents who have a preexisting condition. That's absolutely untenable to me.
And just again, the dishonesty, the lack of caring, coming from the Oval Office, coming from this administration, has put us in a horrific position.
We're way worse than so many other countries. Other countries are being able to open now because they did the hard things. Adults made some sacrifice over the past couple months to allow schools to open.
The disinformation, the dishonesty, the lack of caring is leading to tens of thousands of deaths around the country. And it's -- you know, there's no simple or easy way to put it.
CABRERA: I mean, this has become a political football, for lack of a better analogy.
The president now suggesting, without evidence, that Democrats are trying to keep schools closed because they double as polling places.
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: Listen --
(CROSSTALK)
CABRERA: -- to what he said about this. And then I want to get your reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some people say they don't want -- the Democrats don't want schools open because that's where you have a lot of polling booths. And if you have a school closed, you can't very easily have polling booths at the school. And that's becoming, I think -- maybe we'll be able to show that as fact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Quick answer, if you will. What's your reaction?
DUNCAN: Yes, there's nothing political about this. There's not a single person, Republican or Democrat, who wants children not to be in school. Nobody. No educator, no parent, no child.
It's just fundamentally dishonest. And our American children, our country deserves so much better than that kind of leadership.
CABRERA: Former Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, thank you so much for joining us.
DUNCAN: Thank you.
[16:49:28]
CABRERA: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: Issues of race have dominated the political landscape all summer. And on tomorrow's brand-new episode of UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA, W. Kamau Bell heads to New Orleans to explore the topic of reparations.
Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The New Orleans you see now is not the New Orleans I grew up in. If you look at this area here, prior to Katrina, this whole area was a public housing development.
W. KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST, "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA": That was all public housing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All this was public housing.
When the storm came, we got very little water. But they declared a national emergency. Came with guns and state police. And they lined buses on that interstate as far as the eye can see. Told you to get on the bus, and you didn't even know where you was going. So they put all of the poor people out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Tune in, hit your DVR, but be sure to watch "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA." It airs tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m., right here on CNN. [16:54:55]
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CABRERA: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for joining me. I'm Ana Cabrera, in New York.
And we begin this hour with a warning about your mail. Just 80 days away from the November election, the postal service has now informed nearly every state that ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted, even if they are mailed by the deadline, raising new fears about potential voter suppression.
[16:59:01]
This warning comes as we get word that the postal service inspector general is now reviewing controversial changes by the postmaster general, a Trump ally.
