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The COVID Test Positivity Rate Is Down National At Just Over 7 Percent; Notre Dame University Suspending In-Person Classes For At Least Two Weeks; Bill Clinton Took On President Trump In A Way We Haven't Heard Before; Joe Biden Now Officially The Democratic Nominee For President. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm, Kate Bolduan, thank you so much for joining us this hour. Today looks different in the fight against COVID. Let's take a look at the data. That key indicator we've heard so much about. The test positivity rate is down nationally standing at just over 7 percent that's off a long period of it peaking at 8 percent nationally.

The U.S. has also now gone four straight days with fewer than 50,000 new cases. The number of new cases is down 27 percent from one month ago, 38 states are now - now steady or reporting - holding steady or reporting fewer new cases. And hospitalizations are down across the country. Yet the death toll remains stubbornly high and persistent with an average of more than 1,000 new deaths per day for more than three weeks.

And testing is still a concern. The country conducting 13 percent fewer tests compared to this time last week. So put that all together and ask what does this mean? Is this light at the end of the tunnel or is this a lull in the ongoing storm?

One area certainly not calming down right now is the chaotic reopening of colleges across the country. Hundreds of positive tests already reported on campuses; forcing schools to rollback or suspend in-person learning just as they are starting back up. And with colleges trying to beat back these outbreaks the World Health Organization has a very clear message now for young people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: I think we just need to make sure that the messages that are getting out particularly to young people, particularly to children and young adults that you are not invincible to this virus. It's very important that you not only protect yourself from getting infected you - you prevent yourself from dying. The decisions that you are making, everyone on this planet, the decisions that you are making are protecting yourself. You life depends on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: So Notre Dame University is the latest example of a college

being forced to alter its plans, announcing that it's suspending in- person classes for at least two weeks after dozens of cases were reported. Ithaca College also reversing course saying it will now go entirely online for the fall semester. Michigan State now says it will start the fall semester remotely, pausing plans for a hybrid model of instruction.

These moves follow UNC Chapel Hill which we've talked about which abruptly moved all classes online after an outbreak in the first week back there.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga is joining me now and she's tracking all of this with regards to schools and it is a lot, Bianna. What more are you learning about colleges and the COVID cases that they're reporting?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Kate, it is a lot and it's a headache and a setback for so many families, teachers and parents that want to get their life back to some sense normalcy as students start the semester and the school year. And many of those students should be listening to that warning from the WHO and it sounds like a lot are not. Because we are seeing an increase in the number of those students who are in fact - you listed the names of some schools; Notre Dame, Michigan State, North Carolina State announced that eight members of a fraternity and sorority community tested positive.

Iowa State's at 175 students living on campus tested positive. Appalachian State, 11 students, four staff members that are associated with the football team there tested positive. And back in Iowa, Drake University asked 14 students to leave the campus for two weeks for violating their safety agreement. This of course comes following that news from UNC.

And you've got a different situation on these college campuses, Kate, unlike K-12 schools because you do have access to testing. You do have access to PPE and a lot of these administrators were hoping that given that access that they would be able to control and contain an outbreak. And look we're just a few days into this school year and we're starting to see these schools close down.

Michigan State was said to open in two weeks, new they're telling students to hold off and that causes a lot of disruption for family members and students and faculty.

BOLDUAN: For sure and on Notre Dame they did a lot of testing. They had a very robust plan in place. But they are still dealing with a pretty significant outbreak. I mean what is the latest that you're hearing with Notre Dame?

GOLODRYGA: Look there's a lot of pressure on these schools, right. They've got to validate why they keep tuition levels why (ph) they are and college fees and campus fees where they are at. And one of the reasons was hey you know we are going to be distributing testing; we're going to have rapid testing. Notre Dame sent out testing to students back in July. Remember they were very ambitious at the end of May along with Rice University and a few other schools announcing that they will be holding in-person classes. And so for this to come as school has already started, they're not cancelling they're just pausing in person classes for two weeks.

[11:05:00]

So you can imagine you've got students on campus who are going to be sitting in their dorm rooms logging on hoping that the campus can get this under control and move forward. And what's surprising is not that we've seen cases, that was expected, it's how quickly we've seen them. Just in the first couple of days of school.

Our producer, Meridith Edwards, just told me she dropped her daughter off at NYU we know the positivity rate in New York is low. Things look completely different, they have packed lunches that they deliver to their dorm rooms and they live in virtual bubbles.

BOLDUAN: Regardless of what it is it is a - such a different college and school experience no matter if it's online or now you're living in a bubble at NYU. Great to see you, Bianna. Thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Anne Rimoin she's a professor at - in the Department of Epidemiology at UCLA. It's great to see you again, Anne. On Notre Dame, I'm struck with the Notre Dame experience because I spoke with the president of the school back in May and then he was really realistic and very pragmatic approaching the school year.

I remember him saying - when I - when I asked him if cases - it was inevitable he was going to see cases. If they - that they were going to pop up, he said absolutely yes. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FATHER JOHN JENKINS, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: I think it's unrealistic to believe we'll be completely free. But we will be as safe as we possibly can, we will address it quickly. You know wherever these kids are I know 18 to 22 year old young people. Whether they're on campus or the way (ph) they're going to congregate and they're going to put themselves a bit at risk.

So our challenge is to keep monitoring them. If they do get sick to make sure they're taking care of. And we feel we can get through this semester and allow them to learn in a safe environment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And, Anne, we know as Bianna points out that the school began testing students before they arrived on campus. And it was almost the entire student body and the few dozen that tested positive they were told to stay home. Still this kind of outbreak happens. What does that tell you? ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR, UCLA: Well it just tells you the virus spreads the same no matter what population you're looking at here. Kids are often on their own for the first time. We - all of us have been college know that it can be very, very difficult to be able to get kids who are coming from all sorts of places, all over the United States and the world coming back together. They want to see each other, they want to socialize. It's a natural impulse and so it's going to be very, very difficult to be able to enforce and police kids who are going to have this natural urge to be coming back together.

And getting people to wear masks. Mask mandates have been a problem everywhere. Of course they're going to be a problem especially when kids are not on campus, in school where you're - where people are watching them, where they're having a lot of reinforcement. You know at parties it's going to make sense that you're going to see people taking their masks off and this is the perfect scenario that we see virus spread.

This is what we've seen everywhere in the United States. The LA County Department of Health here in Los Angeles just issued another warning about parties and large gatherings. And unfortunately that's what we'll see in college. Then these kids are going to be in their dorms, they're going to be closely - they're going to be close together, sharing bathrooms, sharing space and it's going to be natural to want to take masks off and to relax when you're at home.

So it's a very complicated situation that just is a perfect breeding ground - ground for cases.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And there's also this mixed picture that we've kind of laid out of what's happening kind of with the data nationwide. There are fewer cases for the first time in a long time. The number of people requiring hospital care because of COVID is down across the country. But the death toll continues to rise averaging more than 1,000 deaths per day for now for more than three weeks.

Anne, what do you do with that data?

RIMOIN: Well, what it's showing us is that this virus is still very deadly. And that people are at risk and that we've made some improvements in how we can treat this virus but it is a serious virus, it is a serious disease and that people are at great risk and putting themselves at great risks. And so everybody needs to do everything that they can to reduce spread.

This is a - you know these - the answers to these questions you know have not changed over the last few months. We still don't have a magic bullet to be able to prevent death or serious disease. And we're still not doing the job that we need to do to be able to contain spread in most places in the United States.

BOLDUAN: You mentioned treatment, we have some new reporting that's come in from the "New York Times" that an approval for emergency use of blood plasma as a treatment for COVID has been put on hold, the NIH telling this to the "New York Times". And the reason being is they're - the emerging data that's coming our from - [11:10:00]

What does this mean potentially?

RIMOIN: What this means is that we still need to do many more - we still need to finish the studies that are ongoing and to really understand how well this works. The - it's a good message here that we're not just putting treatments out there without studying them carefully. There was recently a study in the Netherlands that suggested there was no major effect using blood plasma. There are many studies that are ongoing, including at the Mayo Clinic. So this is a we still need to look at the data. We still need more information before we can make a decision to put out an EUA - an emergency use authorization - and that's the right thing. This just underscores the need for really rigorous, randomized clinical trials for any treatment available for COVID-19.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and not putting hopes in something that isn't - hasn't shown proof in these peer reviewed studies and data that you can trust as is the standard.

RIMOIN: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you, Anne. Thank you.

RIMOIN: It's my pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, night two of the DNC. Bill Clinton took on President Trump in a way we haven't heard before, but did the party's new generation of progressive get enough air time? Plus Dr. Anthony Fauci says a vaccine should be ready by early next year just as a new polls shows that more Americans are saying they are reluctant to take the vaccine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Joe Biden is now officially the Democratic nominee for president crossing the delegate threshold last night during the second night of the Democratic Convention, and on full display the cultural diversity and the generational divide defining the Democratic Party now. The rising generation of progressive and younger leaders and the party's old guard, Bill Clinton going after President Trump in a way he has not before.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you want a president who defines the job as spending hours a day watching TV and zapping people on social media, he's your man. Benign distracting and demeaning works great if you're trying to entertain or inflame, but in a real crisis it collapses like a house of cards.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: And Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez outlining the goals of the progressive wing in the party.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D), N.Y.: Thank you to everyone here today endeavoring towards a better more just future for our country and our world. Infidelity and gratitude to a mass people's movement working to establish 21st century social, economic, and human rights including guaranteed healthcare, higher education, living wages, and labor rights for all people in the United States.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: And you also heard a very personal appeal from Joe Biden's wife, Jill Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

JILL BIDEN, FORMER SECOND LADY: I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours. Bring us together and make us whole.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now, CNN Political Commentator, former Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus, Angela Rye. It's great to see your, darling. What do you think of -

(CROSSTALK)

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLTIICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Kate!

BOLDUAN: -- what did you thin of night two?

RYE: I just was screaming because I'm just so happy to see you. It's been a long time.

(LAUGHTER)

Night two was supposed to be focused on leadership, and the thing that I - that - I'm going to start with a positive. The thing that I really appreciated is how diverse you saw the party in terms of the roll call, how diverse you saw the party at the beginning with all the 17 up and coming young leaders. The challenge I have with this is that Stacey Abrams, for example, was in that initial speech with multiple leaders, mayors, organizers, et cetera. Stacey Abrams is not an up and coming leader. She is absolutely a leader in the Democratic Party, and I believe should have had a more substantial role.

I think the other challenge that we have, Kate, is that racial justice in this particular climate was hardly mentioned. By the time we got to Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, right, who is a chair of Joe Biden's campaign and I love her, was on the third mention of racial justice at night. There's - that night - last night. So there's no way that we can have a real conversation about a path forward while we treat racial injustice and police violence as if it's, you know, taboo and we can't discuss it. It has to be discussed within the framework of the Democratic Party and its policy platform. Otherwise what are we really doing?

BOLDUAN: Well, and you - and you hit on it because while there's a lot that goes into these conventions nights -

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- how much time any topic or any person gets is a statement on priority, right? You've got Joe Biden -

(CROSSTALK)

RYE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- has talked about himself as a bridge to the next generation. You saw that in the 17 younger Democratic rising stars given the keynote addressed tonight - that night together as you mentioned, but you also have a lot of big names vouching for Biden who were in their 70s and 80s and representing a different era of democratic politics. Are you concerned that they're missing the moment?

RYE: Yes, I am. I'm concerned because I don't think that the party understands that Bill Clinton doesn't necessarily connect with the voters who they need. So part of it is this pivot, right, Kate, because before the public eye just like schools - I know your last thing was just on schools - there's this new way that the Democratic Convention has to be displayed.

[11:20:00]

Normally, yes we know it's on air but it really is like this family reunion every four years for party leaders, for party - people who are super, super democrat, like democrat before whatever other identity they have. But now it's before the public, like this is a way to corral people to vote for Joe Biden because folks can't door knock, at least they shouldn't be.

Virtual phone banking and virtual testing only can go so far. So you're trying to show people what the democratic party represents and don't want to have those kinds blind spots. Those are things that we would expect the republican party to get wrong. They're not things that we would expect from the party. And I want - I do want to acknowledge Congressmen Bennie Thompson is my former boss, he's of course chairing the convention and I know that he pushes on these issues. It's incumbent upon the rest of the convention leadership to listen to what he's suggesting.

And especially when you start thinking about programmatic time - how much time we're given people, how much time we're given each issue. Yes, you started with George Floyd and his brothers but that doesn't mean that's where it should end. That should be an integral part of every single day of this convention. It should - so should coronavirus, they know that, they're getting the coronavirus piece right. So this really has to flush (ph) out. I'm giving them a break because

it is - was just day two but let's see what happens tonight.

BOLDUAN: So let's talk about tonight. (Inaudible) we have learned that Kamala Harris has been working on her speech since the day she got the nod for V.P. What do you want to hear from her tonight?

RYE: I really want to hear her rise above like she normally does. Kamala, has been tested on her record, as she should be. Kamala, has been tested on the strength of her blackness, as she should not be. Kamala, has been tested on birtharism (ph), as she should not be. Kamala, has been tested on who she is sexually and how she expresses herself. There's a shirt online right now, Kate, called "Joe and the Ho".

BOLDUAN: What?

RYE: This is a historic moment. Yes, yes, on several Amazon - let me call them all out. Amazon, Etsy, eBay take them down. Yes and so as soon as we get into position and Kate I know you know this, as soon as we get into positions people assume because you're cute, because you're attractive you slept your way to opportunity and that is not the case. So knowing all of the darts that are coming at her, knowing that people are saying she's too progressive and yet somehow so conservative. She has to be able to come in and say I know that I'm the person that would help solidify this deal. I need you all to roll with me because I've got this.

And I think that she could do that. We know she can prosecute a case against Trump. Now she's got to prosecute a case against her haters.

BOLDUAN: You're not cure, you're fierce. Thanks, girl.

RYE: Hey, I'll take it.

(LAUGHTER)

BOLDUAN: I'll talk to you soon. Coming up for us, progress in the quest for a COVID vaccine. But also new concerns over whether Americans will actually take it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:00]

BOLDUAN: New in, the quest for a coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci saying he is cautiously optimistic still that there will be enough vaccine doses for any American who wants one by the end of next year. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: By the beginning of 2021 there should be limited doses. You know, tens of millions, not hundreds of millions of doses. So at that point the process is to make a prioritization for those who would benefit the most and who would need it the most. As we get well into 2021, it is likely that there'll be enough doses for anyone who wanted it.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: The nation's top infectious disease expert making those comments as multiple vaccine candidates are in Phase 3 trials right now. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is joining me right now with much more on this. Elizabeth, you're learning more about one of those trials. The one by Moderna and who they're looking for to volunteer.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Kate, Moderna was the first pharmaceutical company out with its Phase 3 trial. It started on July 27, and my colleague, Sanjay Gupta, has learned that they are looking for participation. Of all their 30,000 participants, half of them over 65 and 20 to 25 percent minorities. Now, you and I have talked on your show before that Moderna will take some work especially to get those minority numbers.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely something they do need to work on and boost pretty quickly if they want to stay on the schedule that they'd like. And there's also a new CNN poll out I wanted to get your take on showing a slim majority of Americans would try a vaccine if it is available. 56 percent. What do you see here, Elizabeth?

COHEN: These numbers are really not great. You know, the government and Operation Warp Speed, the NIH have really - they've spent billions of dollars trying to come up with a vaccine. We just heard Dr. Fauci talking about, but it's kind of like what if you're at a party and nobody showed up? What if you came out with this great vaccine but only, you know, just slightly more than

[11:30:00]

END