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FDA Grants Emergency Use Authorization For Rapid COVID-19 Test; March On Washington Today After Summer Of Racial Anxiety. Aired 12:30- 1p ET

Aired August 28, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

DR. CYRUS SHAHPAR, PREVENT EPIDEMICS TEAM DIRECTOR, RESOLVE TO SAVE LIVES: There's certainly advantages to a low cost, pest that's widely available. So that's exciting to address issues we have around test turnaround time. But we need to see how it performs in the real world.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And so add that into the bigger context about testing, a conversation that we've been sadly having for seven months, because of inconsistencies and supply shortages, debates about what kind of testing and how many tests you should do. There has been broad condemnation from public health officials, local public health officials today, several governors the other day, other organizations the day before that about these new CDC guidelines, essentially saying, if you're asymptomatic, don't worry as much as we told you to worry, a month or so ago. Is that fair?

SHAHPAR: Yes. I think when you see all of the experts, expert groups, governors around the country react in the way they have in a consensus way, against what, you know, the diminishing the testing of asymptomatic, so I think we can recognize that that's generally agreed upon to be a problem in terms of saying it's not needed. You know, 40 percent of cases we believe are asymptomatic and we need to have eyes on the virus in order to fight it. So we can't fight with our eyes closed. And that that means we have to test people even if they don't have symptoms.

KING: Right. So here's what the National Association of Counties and city health officials said today about this. These abrupt changes cause confusion, consternation, and undermine the credibility of the agency with public health professionals and the public alike. These changes put them in a position to say, we will not be following the CDC guidelines.

So number one, you have this public health confusion, who do I believe, who do I trust? Do I trust my county health director, my mayor, you know, my public health official where I live? Do I trust the CDC when they say this is not necessary right now? That's one of the concerns.

The other concerned doctors, there are some people who think that the political pressure on the CDC, from the higher officials in the Trump administration saying let's do less testing as we get closer to the election, so that we will have fewer positive cases reported, doesn't mean they're out there, but we just won't see them.

SHAHPAR: Yes. And I think you mentioned the key word is trust. You know, this is a time when we're dealing with 180,000 deaths, months into a pandemic. And this trust really needs to be built up between, you know, government, public health, and citizens. And I think we're seeing an erosion of that trust with these kind of sudden decisions, whether it's hospital data, or who we test. It doesn't build trust. And we need that trust going into say, if and when we have a vaccine, and making sure people trust, you know, that the vaccine is safe, that it works. And so and we can't build these things overnight. So unfortunately, I think on the trust issue, we seem to be going in the wrong direction.

KING: And where are we on the patients question, I'm going to put it, on the right of our screen right now. I'm not sure you see -- a return monitor. But the right of our screen, we're showing the March on Washington today. And this is a wide shot here. I don't know if we have a closer shot right now, what I have seen a closer shot earlier.

Most of the participants there are wearing masks. They have to have masks to get into the most secure area near the speakers, but they're pretty close together. They're pretty close together. You're seeing Marc Morial there. He's the president, the National Urban League. He is speaking right there. You see these people with masks here. This is one scene.

And then we saw last night, something this -- those people are trying to be responsible, at least most of them, we can see. I want to show you a scene at the White House last night when the President gave his convention acceptance speech. They had more than 1,000 people packed on the South Lawn of the White House, shoulder to shoulder in these chairs, very few masks very, very, very few masks. Dr. Shahpar, when you look at an event like that, for anybody in a position of leadership, especially the President of the United States, is that responsible at this moment?

SHAHPAR: I think, you know, we have mixed messages on the importance of masks. But from a scientific perspective, we know they work, that we could end this pandemic sooner if we all wore masks in the United States, at least, you know, the burden of the disease on the population.

So if some people are some people aren't and that includes leaders, it's just going to delay things in this country and it may disease spread, you know, maybe longer than it has to and then ultimately will result in a lot more people getting sick and a lot more people dying.

KING: Well, I know one of the ways public health professionals like yourself, and I always appreciate that you're calm, even you're candid and you don't, yes, you don't even -- you don't let me drag you into the politics. You just try to stick to the science and stick to the data. One of the ways you get people's attention is with something like this, the IHME increasing its model now forecasting 317,312 deaths in the United States of America by December, look at the number right there. We're about to hit 180,000, 317,312 deaths in December. That number would be lower if people wore masks and social distance, would it not?

SHAHPAR: It would, it would. And I think we have a choice. You know, do we want to I mean -- there's a projection of 200,000 deaths by the third week of September and that's pretty much we're locked into -- that's among cases that already exists. But what about the rest of the year, you know, is it going to be another 50,000 to take us to a quarter million, is it going to be another 100,000? We have decisions that we can make now to make sure we don't end up in that situation. And I think we're getting numb to the fact that these are numbers but everyone is a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, and they're all you know, important.

[12:35:11]

One is one to many. And so I think it's important to just remember that each single digit in that figure is extremely important.

KING: I could not agree with you more every, every person when we count up the case count. Every number you see on the death toll, whether it's the United States or around the world is a friend, a neighbor, a son, a daughter, a child of somebody. Dr. Shahpar, grateful for your expertise and insights as always, very much appreciated.

Up next for us, athletes returning to the court, but they promise activism will still be front and center.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:08]

KING: Just moment ago, the Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris sharing a message at the March on Washington. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: As john put it, Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor. The road ahead, it is not going to be easy. But if we work together to challenge every instinct our nation has to return to the status quo, and combine the wisdom of longtime warriors for justice, with the creative energy of the young leaders today, we have an opportunity to make history right here and right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's Kamala Harris speaking moments ago. We want to take you straight to the March. This is the granddaughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking now.

YOLANDA RENEE KING, GRANDDAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: -- all across the nation. We are going to be a great generation.

That was in 2018. I didn't know what would hit us in 2020. A pandemic that shut our schools and put our young lives on hold, more killings of unarmed black people by police, attacks on our right to vote, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression that we learned about in school, and more extreme weather than ever before. But great challenges produce great leaders.

We have mastered the selfie and TikToks. Now we must master ourselves. Less than a year before he was assassinated, my grandfather predicted this very moment. He said that we were moving into a new phase of the struggle. The first phase was the civil rights and the new phase genuine equality. Genuine equality is why we are here today and why people are coming together all across the world from New Zealand to New Jersey.

He said that we must not forget the days of Montgomery. We must not forget the citizen's movements. We must not forget the freedom minds, the Birmingham Movement and Selma. Papa King, we won.

My generation has already taken to the streets, peacefully and with masks and socially distance to protest racism. And I want to ask the young people here to join me in pledging that we have only just begun to fight. And that we will be the generation that moves from me to we. We are going to be the generation that dismantle systemic racism once and for all now and forever.

We are going to be the generation that caused police brutality and gun violence, once and for all, now and forever. We are going to be the generation that reserves climate change and save our planet, once and for all, now and forever. And we are going to be the generation that ends poverty here in America, the wealthiest nation on Earth, once and for all, now and forever.

We are the grandchildren of our grandparents, great grandparents, and all our ancestors. We stand and march for love and we will fulfill my grandfather's dream. So show me what democracy. Let's say this is what democracy looks. Show me what democracy looks like.

CROWD: This is what democracy looks like.

Y. KING: Show me what democracy looks like.

CROWD: This is what democracy looks like.

Y. KING: One last time. Show me what democracy looks like.

CROWD: This is what democracy looks like.

Y. KING: OK, then, let's show them.

MARTIN LUTHER KING III, SON OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: A proud dad. Let me thank God that we've been able to assemble today. And to thank Reverend Sharpton and the National Action Network and all of the conveners that actually are here today, and most of all, these families that have been impacted by police brutality and misconduct.

[12:45:30]

So we've come to bear witness to remain awake to remember from where we've come and to carefully consider where we are going, whether you're here in person, online or watching on MSNBC and other networks. Thank you for joining us for this march on Washington. Together, we are taking a stand and we are taking a giant step forward.

Let me also thank Al Green for their very warm introduction, my dear friend. But we're taking a step forward on America's rocky but righteous journey towards justice. August 28th is the day to remember the triumphs and tragedies that have taken place in our historic struggle for racial justice. Today, we commemorate the March on Washington, the jobs and freedom in 1963 where my father declared his dream. But we must never forget the American nightmare of racist, violence, exemplified when Emmett Till was murdered on this day in 1955. And the criminal justice system failed to convict his killers.

Sixty-five years later, we still struggle for justice, demilitarizing the police, dismantling mass incarceration, and declaring and determinately as we can, that black lives matter. In our struggle for justice, there are no permanent victories. From this day, 12 years ago, I was honored to address the Democratic National Convention in Denver. And on that night, on that evening in the bow (ph) our city, our spirits were soaring as the Democrats nominated Barack Obama, who had gone on to become the first African American president of the United States.

But the progress we celebrated then is imperiled yet again. And now we must march to the ballot box, and the mailboxes to defend the freedoms that earlier generations worked so hard to win. In so many ways, we stand together today in the symbolic shadow of history. But we are making history together right now. We're marching with the largest and most active, multi-generational, multiracial movement for civil rights since the 1960s. From high school students to senior citizens, black as well as white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, Pacific Islanders, America's are marching together many for the first time. And we're demanding real lasting structural change.

We are marching together for time honored goals and in timely ways. We are courageous, but conscious of our health. We are socially distant, but spiritually united. We are making -- masking our faces, but not our faith and freedom. And we're taking our struggle to the streets and to social media. The nation has never seen such a mighty movement on a modern day incarnation of what my father called, the Coalition of Conscience. And if we move forward with purpose and passion, we will complete the work. So boldly began in the 1960s.

We are marching to overcome what my father called, were the triple evils of poverty, racism, and violence. And today, those evils have exacerbated four major challenges that currently face our country. First, COVID-19 tragically has killed more than 175,000 Americans, disproportionately African American, Latino, and low income people in every background.

Second, more than 30 million Americans are unemployed again, disproportionately, people of color. COVID-19 is laid bare the structural and racial inequalities in our economy that kept too many people trapped in the debt and poverty. Third, police brutality and gun violence are killing so many unarmed African Americans. Today we march with their families and we say their names George Floyd, Botham Jean, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Yousef Richardson, Terence Crutcher, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Elijah McLean, and so many of us.

[12:50:32]

And fourth, our voting rights are under attack. We must vigorously defend our right to vote because goes those rights were paid for with the blood of those lynched for seeking to exercise their constitutional rights. They were paid for with the blood of civil rights workers, such as Sammy Younge, Jr., Goodman, Swrity (ph), and Cheney, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Viola Luizzo, James Reeb. Those rights were paid for through the sacrifices made by heroes such as CT Vivian, Fannie Lou Hamer, Hosea Williams, and John Lewis.

But since the United States Senate has failed to renew the Voting Rights Act, we have had to overcome a whole new trick bags of tactics to suppress our votes, discriminatory voter I.D. requirements, cut backs in early voting and vote by mail, voter purges, targeting those who have missed several elections and disenfranchising those who have served their time and paid their debt to the society.

And now COVID-19 is making it dangerous, even deadly, to stand in line at polling places. We shouldn't have to risk our lives to cast our votes. We need to be able to do what President Trump does, vote safely by mail. But now we are struggling to overcome the dismantling of this U.S. Postal Service for the express purpose of suppressing our vote.

With all these threats to our lives and liberties, our challenge is to use this moment to expand this movement. A movement that not only raises its voice, but cast its votes, pursues its vision, and makes lasting change. The scripture says, where there's no vision, the people perish. Our vision as best expressed by a phrase we must never forget, that is the beloved community. With those words, my father, John Lewis, Ella Baker, Rosa Parks, and so many other historic women and men envision in America, whose dramatic practice is as good as its promise.

And America where the triple evils of poverty, racism, and violence will be replaced by peace, justice and shared abundance and where hate and fear finally give way to help and love. To achieve at America, we need to raise our voices and cast our votes over the weeks ahead, culminating on Election Day. We need to vote as if our lives and our livelihoods, our liberties depend on it because they do.

No person, no people are more keenly aware of the risk of disenfranchisement than those who have suffered from it. There's a knee upon the neck of democracy and our nation can only live so long without the oxygen of freedom. The strength must be exercised by more than ready and more than marching. The simple challenge before us is that everyone can cast a ballot and everyone who can, must cast a ballot. And that ballot that is cast must be counted. And the result must be transparent and known to the whole world.

And so today I can call on everyone with the means to drive people to the polls, to make a plan for yourself, for your family and your neighbor, for those organizations and companies that care about democracy. I call on you today to offer your resources and your capacity to make sure every ballot is counted. If our forefathers were willing to die for the right to vote, we can work for the right to vote. And I will continue to call on you to act in the coming days.

You know my father was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while standing in solidarity with poor working people, sanitation workers who slogan, I am a man, was a statement that they were human beings with rights that should be respected and acknowledged. They were asking for safe working conditions, for a living wage, for recognition of their union, and for human dignity. They summed up their struggle with those four words, I am a man. That simple, but powerful slogan empowers movements today from Black Lives Matter to Fight for 15 and to the Me Too struggle against sexual harassment and abuse.

[12:55:15]

Movements of marginalized Americans are still trying to claim the dignity they've been denied. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for the dignity of work. And that fight is never ending. In 1963, the March on Washington demanded jobs and freedoms. In 1968, the Memphis Sanitation Strike workers demanded, and the Poor People's Campaign, insisted that working people should not live and labor in poverty. Those fights foreshadowed our struggle today to make the minimum wage, a living wage, not a poverty wage.

And we are fighting alongside the frontline workers, sanitation workers, healthcare workers, grocery workers, transport workers, food service workers, and so many more. They are praised for being essential, but they are treated as if they're expendable. While standing with sanitation workers in Memphis, dad said, so often we overlook the work and the significance of those who are not in professional jobs, of those who are not in the so-called big jobs.

But let me to say to you tonight, that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and worth. Now we have a President who confesses greatness with grandiosity. But my father knew better. Everyone, he said, can be great because everyone can serve. He understood the human yearning for recognition and in his famous speech he explained that everyone wants to be a drum major, the leader of the marching band. And he challenged us to channel our drum major instinct into becoming drum majors for justice.

While we honor our history, we must be a living movement, not a monument. If dad were here today, I'm sure he would implore us not to deify him or selectively quote him when convenient. He would want us to be drama majors for justice, to champion ideals he promoted, racial justice, social equality, and peace. And he would gently, but intently challenge us not to dwell upon the past, but to live in labor and what he called, the fierce urgency of now.

So if you're looking for a savior, get up and find a mirror, we must become the heroes of the history we are making. And us means all of us. In 1963, after my father spoke, Bayard Rustin, architect of the March, asked the participants to join the demand that Congress pass strong civil rights and voting rights laws. One and half a century later, we must demand that the United States Senate stop blocking passage of the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act.

And so when we conclude today, let's remember that this is the Commitment March. In the spirit of 1963, I ask you to join me and pledging to act in three ways. First, because our civil and human rights are at stake in this election, I ask you not only to register and vote, to make sure that at least one other person registers and votes. Second, I ask you to commit to service and struggle in your community, from voter registration, to raising the minimum wage, to demilitarizing the police, get involved with one or more of many worthwhile struggles in your community. And third, I ask you to pledge as my father and John Lewis did to get into good trouble and do it nonviolently.

Remember, that in the fight against injustice, nonviolence doesn't mean passive acceptance, it means peaceful resistance. We must come together and join with the Black Lives Movement to raise our voices and say, enough is enough. We must come with the Poor People's Campaign, the climate change, and environmental justice movement, the Women's March and Me Too movement, the Parkland students and a March For Our Lives and say, enough is enough.

Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said that the moral arc of the universe is long, but bends toward justice. But he was also the first to say that it doesn't bend on its own. We must do some work ourselves. In the final year of his life, he wrote in his last book, "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?"

[13:00:02]