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Biden: Do You Really Feel Safer under Trump?; U.S. Tops 6 Million COVID-19 Cases ahead of Labor Day; Three Vaccines in Phase 3 Trials in U.S. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 01, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has been a toxic presence in our nation for four years.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Biden comes out of the basement swinging, his harshest attack so far on Donald Trump. The president hits back with false accusation and outright lies.
He is not an epidemiologist; he has no background with infectious diseases and he's Donald Trump's new go-to guy on the coronavirus.
And QAnon goes viral, the ultra far-right whackery spreads to Germany, right along with the coronavirus.
Hello, everyone. I'm John Vause. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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VAUSE: The U.S. presidential election campaign seemed to begin in earnest on Monday, starting with the Democratic nominee Joe Biden launching an all-out attack on Donald Trump. He said the president was a coward who foments dissent, notably Biden condemned the recent wave of violence and looting.
Hours later the president condemned liberal protesters but defended his own supporters involved in violent clashes in two U.S. states over the past week. CNN's Arlette Saenz is with the Biden campaign.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to forcefully push back on President Trump's message of law and order. And he also pushed back on that argument from Trump and his allies that voters would not be safe in a Joe Biden America. That is a message that Republicans have hammered away at, including during their convention last week.
But Biden tried to turn the tables on Trump and said that the scenes of violence playing out in some protests is occurring under President Trump's watch.
Biden described the president as "toxic" and said that he has stoked violence and also that he is not someone capable of healing the country. Take a look at what Biden had to say.
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Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames. But we must not burn. We have to build. This president, long ago, forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He cannot stop the violence because for years he has fomented it.
Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?
We need justice in America. We need safety in America.
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SAENZ: Joe Biden also condemned the violence seen at some protests, saying that rioting and looting and burning buildings is not protesting but that is lawlessness.
Biden traveled to Pittsburgh to deliver this speech, Pennsylvania being a battleground state but a source tells me that Biden's team is considering having the former vice president travel to Wisconsin as soon as this week.
Biden was asked by reporters in Pittsburgh whether he is considering traveling to Wisconsin. He said he's looking at those possible plans and that he hopes to be able to do that -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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VAUSE: The U.S. president defended one of his teenage supporters charged with killing two men last week in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Donald Trump says Kyle Rittenhouse was violently attacked him and probably would've been killed by protesters angered over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
While the president defends the violent actions of his supporters, he claims Joe Biden will not even speak out against the violence from those on the Left.
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TRUMP: He mentioned law enforcement and the police but he didn't mention Antifa and I wonder why. If we cannot name the problem, there is no way that he will solve the problem. If you don't name it, you don't solve it.
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VAUSE: The mayor of Kenosha and Wisconsin state governor are asking the president to stay away. Donald Trump is going anyway and he will not meet with the family of Jacob Blake, the man shot 7 times by police. But he will meet with the police to thank them. More from Kaitlan Collins.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, the White House says President Trump wasn't fanning the flames of division as he lavished praise on his supporters who clashed with protesters during a deadly confrontation in Portland.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president was highlighting that these were good Americans going into peacefully be a part of a protest and show their voice.
COLLINS (voice-over): There have been nightly protests in Portland since George Floyd's death but violence escalated Saturday after a caravan of Trump supporters waving 2020 flags drove into the city and clashed with counter-protesters, coming to a head when a man believed to be affiliated with a far-right group was fatally shot.
President Trump mourned the victim on Twitter but instead of calling for de-escalation, he called the caravan great patriots.
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COLLINS (voice-over): Trump posted this video of a man firing a paintball gun at protesters and seemed to justify it by saying, "The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching an incompetent mayor admit he has no idea what he is doing."
The White House claimed Trump didn't see the video he retweeted.
MCENANY: I don't think the president has seen that video nor have I. You're going to ask me about a paintball video when in fact for 90 days we've seen horrific, horrific violence by Antifa.
COLLINS (voice-over): Joe Biden wasn't slated to return to the campaign trail until after Labor Day but under rising pressure to push back on Trump's claims that he's anti-law enforcement, Biden denounced violence and rioting today.
JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?
COLLINS (voice-over): Biden accused the president of attempting to change the subject from the pandemic that has killed over 180,000 Americans.
BIDEN: Afraid they're going to get COVID. They're afraid they're going to get sick and die. And that is in no small part, it's because of you.
COLLINS (voice-over): When President Trump travels to Kenosha, Wisconsin tomorrow a meeting with Jacob Blake's family isn't on his schedule. He still hasn't spoken to the family, though it's been over a week since Jacob Blake was shot by a white police officer.
MCENANY: Currently the plans are to meet with local law enforcement and some business owners and he'll survey the damage but there will be more detailed plans forthcoming that are announced.
COLLINS (on camera): OK; so, no, he's not scheduled to meet with the (INAUDIBLE).
COLLINS (voice-over): The White House says the president condemns violence in all forms but would not say if he condemns the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year old accused of fatally shooting two protesters.
MCENANY: The president is not going to, again, weigh in on that. You can ask him this evening.
COLLINS (voice-over): Over the weekend, Trump liked a tweet that said Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump.
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VAUSE: Kaitlan Collins with the report.
Over the past four years, Donald Trump has shown almost a total inability to show empathy and to comfort those in need during moments like this. And the mayor of Kenosha says, despite all that, it's just too soon.
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MAYOR JOHN ANTARAMIAN (D-WI), KENOSHA: I'm not one of those people who is going to tell the president what he can and cannot do. I would tell you, though, that I am disappointed that he is coming.
Our community has gone through a great deal and there is no time right now for political politics to be played. We would prefer the governor had -- the president had waited at least another week or so before coming to visit.
Presidents are always welcome and all cities have presidents that visit at different times. The president is always welcome. But at this time, it's just the wrong time. Right now is a time for us to heal and to be able to look inwards and to deal with the issues that we have to deal with.
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VAUSE: It is notable and unusual that the president is not scheduled to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, whose shooting sparked protests in Kenosha. Here's what Blake's father told CNN.
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JACOB BLAKE SR., JACOB BLAKE'S FATHER: I'm not getting into politics, it's all about my son. It has nothing to do with a photo op.
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VAUSE: Joining me now from Los Angeles, Michael Genovese, president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University.
Michael, it's been a while, great to have you back.
MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, John.
VAUSE: OK. Let's start with the president defending Kyle Rittenhouse, a Trump supporter and a vigilante and accused killer. Here he is.
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TRUMP: You saw the same tape as I saw and he was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like and he fell. And then they very violently attacked him and it was something that we're looking at right now and it's under investigation.
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VAUSE: It's not under investigation. Rittenhouse has been charged but this goes to a much wider point, Trump has his hardcore supporters and they're like members of a cult. He says go home, put the guns away, most will. But Trump will not say that.
GENOVESE: Let's not mince words. The president tonight, when he had the opportunity, refused to condemn someone of who's accused of murdering two people. That should be alarming.
But he's one of the president's supporters and he gives them a lot of leeway, the president is key on his supporters being cleansed of all sins because they support him. And we should be alarmed at this but it's just another Monday in Trump world. He does this all the time so we're almost immune to this.
VAUSE: Yes, that's a problem.
It seems that Trump was responding during the news conference to a speech which Joe Biden never delivered. Here's some more from the president.
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TRUMP: He didn't mention the fact and did not mention the violence. He's given comfort to the vandals, repeating the lie that these are peaceful protests. That's anarchy.
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VAUSE: Very quickly, this is what Biden actually said about the recent violence. Here's the Democrat nominee.
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BIDEN: I'll be very clear about all of. Rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It's lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted.
Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It's wrong in every way.
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VAUSE: Will Biden have to do a speech like this every day?
We have a president who can't lie straight in bed.
GENOVESE: I think what we're seeing is the battle for the narrative. Whoever can control the narrative, the story in people's heads has the advantage. Donald Trump wants you to see an America aflame, American carnage and wants you to blame a very mild mannered, person we know -- we've known him for 40 years, we know that's not who he is.
But Donald Trump is trying to convince you that there is a link between radical anarchists and Biden.
Biden, on the other hand, wants to portray Trump as, I hear the man who's been in charge for 3.5 years. This is your America that all these terrible things are happening on. And Biden's trying to portray himself as the grown-up in the room.
Whoever can capture the imagination and the romance of that narrative has a great advantage.
VAUSE: Here is Biden, pointing out the catch-22 that Trump appears to be in. Here is Joe Biden.
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BIDEN: The violence we are seeing in Donald Trump's America, these are not images of some imagined Joe Biden America in the future. These are images of Donald Trump's America today.
He keeps telling, you if only he was president it would not happen, if he was president. He keeps telling them, If he was president, you'd feel safe. Well, he is president whether he knows it or not. And it is happening. It's getting worse.
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VAUSE: It was a pretty good line, I thought. You only get to run as the outsider once. GENOVESE: I think Trump is campaigning as if he's running for
president, not as president. If you're running for president, you attack what is going on. You point out all the shortcomings and all the problems. But the problems to which he is pointing his finger is the ones that Biden has been trying to say are occurring on your watch.
This is your America, I want to correct that America. Donald Trump's great spiel (ph) is that he can deflect and draw attention elsewhere to the new shiny object. And Donald Trump is at his best when he can get you to see the world through his eyes.
VAUSE: It's part of that not being president of the entire country but just his supporters.
With that in mind, The president was clear that his opponents are violent radical leftists while his supporters, the guys with the paintball guns and other firearms, are patriots and here's the president very quickly.
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TRUMP: I understand they had large numbers of people that were supporters but that was a peaceful protest. And paint is a defensive mechanism, paint is not bullets.
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GENOVESE: Donald Trump is running a similar campaign to Bill Clinton in 1996. At that time, Clinton was running against Bob Dole but he wanted to run against the most unpopular person in America, Newt Gingrich.
So everything he said was, I'm running against Dole and Gingrich.
Trump is doing the same thing. He has the Clinton playbook and he's saying I'm running against Joe Biden and the anarchists and Antifa. He wants you to link those in your head. And the more he repeats is, the more he gets on social media, the more his followers keep repeating it, the more likely is that enough people may buy it. It convinces them that is what the truth is.
VAUSE: We will see if it works again. Michael, it's been a while, thanks for being with us.
GENOVESE: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: The idea of herd immunity to stop the coronavirus is making headlines again, some saying, it worked for Sweden. We'll break down how many millions of people could die if they try that idea.
Also, Hong Kong promises free coronavirus tests for millions but some see an ulterior motive behind the government's offer. No such thing as a free. lunch.
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MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D-TX), HOUSTON: You know what happened to him Memorial Day and the 4th of July weekend. People came together. Then the virus took off and then you saw the numbers go up. As we approach Labor Day, let me encourage people to be mindful, the virus is still looking for you.
So if you come together then you will give it a home.
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VAUSE: The mayor of Houston there in one of the hardest hit cities in the United States, warning the public of another big holiday here across the U.S.
On Monday, the United States topped 6 million coronavirus cases with more than 183,000 dead. Health experts are pleading with the public to follow safety guidelines. As Dianne Gallagher explains, there is trouble brewing in the race for a vaccine.
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DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is growing concern political pressure could be rushing the COVID-19 vaccine process. After FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said the agency might approve a vaccine under emergency use even before the trials are complete.
DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: The problem here is, the credibility of the FDA is crumbling before our eyes.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Hahn dismissed concerns, telling the "Financial Times," quote, "We have a convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic with the political season. And we are just going to have to get through that and stick to our core principles."
Over the past 2 weeks on average, daily new cases are down about 18 percent and new deaths per day by roughly 11 percent. That is even as the United States did surpass 6 million confirmed coronavirus cases today.
White House task force member Dr. Deborah Birx is urging people to take precautions now before there is a vaccine.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Do the right thing today because, if we do the right thing today, we go into the fall with much fewer cases.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Yet, "The Washington Post" reports, sources say President Trump's new pandemic advisor, Dr. Scott Atlas, is pushing for the country to adopt a herd immunity approach, similar to the strategy used in Sweden, which has one of the highest per capita infection and death rates in the world.
Now some on the White House's own task force have said that this approach would likely cause a massive death toll.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If everyone got infected, the death toll would be enormous and totally unacceptable.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): But today in Florida, Atlas denied those claims.
DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: The president does not have a strategy like that. I have never advocated that strategy.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): But President Trump did retweet a false tweet from a QAnon supporter that misrepresented CDC data to claim that the death toll was 9,000 instead of the more than 180,000 people that have actually died. That is simply not what the data says at all. So Twitter took down the tweet.
QUESTION: Is he trying to downplay the death toll?
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KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: He was highlighting new CDC information that came out that was worth noting.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): College campuses are becoming an example of just how quickly the virus can spread. Cases at colleges and universities have now been reported in at least 36 states. At SUNY Oneonta, a lesson in exponential spread.
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JIM MALATRAS, CHANCELLOR, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: We noticed that there was a large party early last week that resulted in several COVID cases. Twenty COVID cases became 105 cases. We stepped in immediately.
GALLAGHER: College campuses really are the source of so many of these asymptomatic outbreaks we are seeing in the United States right now. Temple University is going to temporarily back to online classes after it identified more than 100 cases.
At the University of Alabama, more than 1,000 students have tested positive since school started back on August 19th.
And in part, that is why Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx has said that students who plan to go home and visit should quarantine at their school for 14 days before doing so, so they don't unknowingly bring COVID-19 to their family members or back to their home community -- Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Atlanta.
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VAUSE: Viral specialist Dr. Jorge Rodriguez joins me now from Los Angeles.
Doctor, it's good to see you.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: Thank you, sir. You, too.
VAUSE: Let's start with herd immunity. Here's part of the report from "Newsweek" a few weeks ago.
"While it was hoped that 40 percent of the population of Sweden's capital, Stockholm, would be carrying antibodies by May, the figure was in fact around 15 percent."
Also the "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine" found that, in Sweden, it is clear that not only are the rates of viral infection, hospitalization and mortality much higher than those seen in neighboring countries but also that the time course of the epidemic in Sweden is different, continued persistence of high infection and mortality.
So just to be clear, for anyone who still believes it's a good idea to let this virus run its course without a vaccine, is that effectively the same as advocating for the death of millions of people?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, yes, statistically it appears to be. They estimate that, if we have what is true herd immunity, which means let the virus go wild, every man for himself, survival of the fittest, it is estimated that over 2 million people in the United States will die before it is all said and done.
That is assuming we know when it is all said and done. So Sweden is certainly not the poster child for the success of herd immunity. Even though they deny that is what they were trying to do, they have curbed it back. They realize that it doesn't work. So doing it here, I think, would be almost cataclysmic.
VAUSE: The "American Journal of Preventative Medicine" reports that a vaccine alone without other measures like social distancing will need a 70 percent efficacy or probability of preventing the information. That's to prevent an epidemic and that's with 75 percent of the population vaccinated.
To bring an ongoing epidemic to an end, the efficacy rate goes up to 80 percent. This seems like an incredibly high bar and not great news for the United States, which has put all its eggs into vaccine basket, hoping for a silver bullet, ,that we can burn masks and go back to licking doorknobs or something.
RODRIGUEZ: Right.
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RODRIGUEZ: Obviously, some people appear to be just doing that. This is very concerning for the simple reason that we are going to have -- we are going to need a high percentage of people to get vaccinated. Like you said, 70 percent to 80 percent, with a vaccine that may
actually require 2 different shots over a couple of months; 40 percent or 50 percent of the people say they will not be vaccinated. So if anything else, we need people to be absolutely confident that a vaccine will work and is being released with an appropriate reason. So it's going to be a tight wire.
VAUSE: The appropriate reason, interesting point. Just last week the president made this promise at Republican National Convention.
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TRUMP: We are delivering lifesaving therapies. We will produce a vaccine before the end of the year or maybe even sooner. Nobody thought it could ever be done this fast. Normally it would be years and we did it in a matter of a few months.
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VAUSE: Just by pure coincidence, the director of the Food and Drug Administration now says phase 3 human clinical trials, they can skip over that stuff just to get this vaccine out sooner.
Because why?
When it comes to injecting hundreds of millions of people with inoculation, near enough is good enough?
RODRIGUEZ: No, absolutely not. As a matter of fact, there is a sort of boiling revolution among physicians, the medical community and the research community.
Today, the editor of MedScape wrote a scorching letter to Steven Hahn, the head of the FDA, basically saying, start telling the truth or quit. There is no way that we can destroy what is the foundation, basically of much of our society, the cure for hepatitis C, the treatment for AIDS, why machines fly. Science cannot be compromised.
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RODRIGUEZ: So it would be a huge issue if we released a vaccine very early on based on the whim of politicians. It would be detrimental.
VAUSE: Very quickly. The FDA talks about giving it to the frontline workers, those who need that kind of stuff, it sounds like what they are doing in Russia. To me, it seems like if you are doing what they are doing in Russia, you are not on a good path.
RODRIGUEZ: No. I agree with you 100 percent. What they are doing in Russia is they are giving the vaccine without even showing that it's better than placebo. That is one. Thing without showing the long-term side effects. That is the second thing.
Not because this is a litigious society, which it is, but can you imagine, if you released a vaccine and two years later you said, oh, by the way, it causes heart disease, kidney damage. Those things need to be combed out before anything happens.
Now whether this is to be given to frontline workers first, that is still another debate that needs to happen, once we have a viable vaccine.
VAUSE: Dr. Rodriguez, good to see you. Thank you so much.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you.
VAUSE: The man who saved hundreds of Rwandans during 1994 genocide is now under arrest on terrorism charges. Paul Rusesabagina sheltered Rwandans in the hotel he managed that was the inspiration for the movie "Hotel Rwanda." He is a critic of the government.
In a historic flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi on Monday and now Israel and the United Arab Emirates are discussing economic, scientific and cultural ties. White House senior adviser and son-in- law Jared Kushner is pushing for more normalization agreements with other Arab countries. Palestinians see the deal as a betrayal.
A joint statement by the UAE, Israel and the U.S. urge them to reengage, the Palestinians with Israel.
Pretesting for the coronavirus for everyone in Hong Kong is sparking some concerns of an ulterior motive. Democracy groups are urging people not to sign up -- more on that.
Also, why women are facing dwindling work opportunities as the pandemic drags on.
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VAUSE: Hong Kong's local government has started a citywide coronavirus testing program, the latest effort to contain a recent outbreak. But pro democracy groups are suspicious of universal testing, calling for a boycott because China helped set up the program and is providing resources.
CNN's Will Ripley is live from Hong Kong this hour.
We're looking at 7 million people being tested, this is a huge undertaking. I'm sure this boycott is not helping.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The goal is 7 million people. So far, they have 600,000 people signed up and that 141 testing centers, including this one here in Wan Chai (ph). The city has a capacity to process half a million tests per day.
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So 600,000 people signed up for the whole thing. Obviously, they're not going to come close to the 5 million quoted that city officials initially threw out there, and then they pulled back and said they don't have no quota.
This is one reason why this is a prominent pro-democracy protester who just happened to stop by right before our live shot. He is going to deliver a letter to Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, demanding that they bring back the elections, the general elections that were supposed to happen this year, but have been postponed by a year, because the city argued that it was unsafe to hold an election during a pandemic.
Their argument? Why not space people out, just like they're doing here and at the other testing centers. They could certainly get the volunteers. Why not do the same thing for the election that they're doing for this mass testing?
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RIPLEY (voice-over): The work never stops at this Hong Kong lab. COVID-19 tests are coming in around the clock. Do-it-yourself testing kits take just a few minutes. My team and I got results in 24 hours, all negative.
(on camera): How often do you get tested?
DANNY YEUNG, CEO, PRENETICS: Twice a week.
RIPLEY: Twice a week?
YEUNG: Yes.
RIPLEY: So you don't have to wear a mask.
YEUNG: Well, I'm usually the safest person in the room.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Prenetics CEO Danny Yeung has teams working 24/7.
YEUNG: We've actually had to hire over 200 people just alone in the last four weeks to be able to meet this demand.
RIPLEY: Demand is so high the office is getting crowded.
(on camera): Each of those clear plastic bags is somebody's COVID-19 test. They basically spit into a cup.
They are processing 15,000 of these every day, just at this lab. They actually have a capacity for up to 20,000, and there is the demand because people want to know if there are hidden cases out there in the community.
(voice-over): To find those hidden cases, Hong Kong wants to test the entire population, more than 7 million people. The city set up more than 100 testing labs. Three thousand medical staff are prepared to handle half a million tests per day, assisted by a team of experts from mainland China, raising concern among some residents the tests could be used to collect DNA.
JOSHUA WONG, PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVIST: With how the experience of that red capital companies and provided services in Xinjiang reeducation camp and with the DNA collection for Uyghurs or et cetera, it's time to realize how Beijing and Hong Kong government pretends and also facilitates the interference in Hong Kong using the excuse of COVID- 19.
DR. KWOK KA-KI, PRO-DEMOCRACY LAWMAKER: A lot of people will ask the question whether this important private information will be transmitted or being handed to other institutions, laboratories or even going back to, you know, any places or institutions in China.
RIPLEY: Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, says the claims are purely political.
CARRIE LAM, HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE (through translator): They just need the one thing to smear the central government and undermine the relationship between Hong Kong and the Chinese government.
RIPLEY: Hong Kong is one of the few places outside of mainland China to offer free testing for everyone. Unlike China, it's voluntary. If privacy fears keep too many people away, those hidden cases may stay just that: putting the city at risk for an even deadlier outbreak.
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RIPLEY: That is the point that the city is making. They need to test at least 5 million people in order for this to be effective, in order for them to effectively track down hidden cases and be able to lift social distancing restrictions, which are still firmly in place.
But this is the referendum. People have a choice. If they show up here to take the test, it's almost like casting a vote, and right now very few people are showing up, John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes. Will, thank you. Will Ripley there live from Hong Kong. Appreciate it.
Well, China appears to have brought its latest coronavirus outbreak under control, and with that, thousands of schools across the mainland are now reopening.
Students and faculty are encouraged to wear face masks. Many schools are running drills and training sessions, preparation for a new outbreak.
When schools began to shut down across the world, many women were forced to leave their jobs to stay home with the kids. Now with job opportunities drying up in sectors like the service industry and sales, women are finding it hard to get back to work as the pandemic continues. Isa Soares reports.
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ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like many others, Apana Chakravarti's career hit the wrong note in 2020, jolted by lockdown and the financial whiplash of COVID-19. ALPANA CHAKRAVARTI, MOTHER: We were working from home for just under a
month and then furloughed to end of July and then, yes, of course, got very scared.
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SOARES: But furlough came and went, and now the single mother of two has been made redundant, with no income and bills that just keep piling up.
CHAKRAVARTI: My rental bill is just going up and up. It doesn't matter what I'm trying to do. Everywhere else is going up, so I'm fighting a losing battle.
SOARES: She's not fighting it alone. According to the International Labor Organization, women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, with almost 510 million of all employed women worldwide working in the four most affected sectors.
MARY-ANN STEPHENSON, DIRECTOR, U.K. WOMEN'S BUDGET GROUP: Now, there's a real risk of too terror-torn (ph) to work, so you're going to see large numbers of women not able to return to work because the sectors that they're working in are -- are not really financially viable.
CHAKRAVARTI: Let's break the stereotypical vibe.
SOARES: For Alpana, this has been six months of single parenting, cooking, cleaning, home schooling and entertaining. Ultimately, less time focusing on getting her career and her finances back on track.
CHAKRAVARTI: I'm very worried. I'm still trying. The more agencies I talk to, the more worried I get.
SOARES (on camera): How emotional has this whole experience been for you? If you had moments of self-doubt?
CHAKRAVARTI: I've been wavering. I've been wavering. I've been trying to put on a brave face. I always have done that for my kids. However, that's probably not teaching them true life, and it's OK to see Mum crumble at times.
SOARES (voice-over): The damage from COVID-19 will be felt by future generations of women with the IMF warning gender gaps are widening, despite 30 years of progress.
STEPHENSON: I think it's actually made things worse. So it's not just that it's shone a light on those pre-existing inequalities, it's actually exacerbated them.
So, you know, prior to the pandemic, women in the U.K. were more likely to be low paid, and there was a significant gender pay gap. They're more likely to be in insecure employment, of zero hours contract and so on, and they were more likely to take on the majority of unpaid work. What the pandemic has done is increase that.
SOARES: A disheartening message for Alpana, her 11-year-old daughter, and all women who hope to finally chip away at that impenetrable glass ceiling.
Isa Soares, CNN, Berkshire (ph), Southeast England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, it's a uniquely made-in-America conspiracy theory: Donald Trump fighting a conspiracy of pedophiles who worship Satan. And now it's finding followers in Europe. We'll have details on the viral lunacy in a moment.
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VAUSE: Well, Germany has been one of the world's leaders in dealing with this pandemic, but now there is a new challenge, a viral conspiracy theory direct from the U.S., and it's bringing out the angry wack jobs.
[00:40:03]
Fred Pleitgen reports from Berlin.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): An attack on Germany's democracy. Protesters from a demo against the country's coronavirus restrictions try to storm the German parliament on Saturday.
Among them, people carrying flags of the German Reich, a symbol that is now associated with Germany's far-right, along with Russian flags, but also U.S. flags.
We also found many supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory, this man waving a Reich flag with the QAnon symbol and the likeness of President Trump.
(on camera): Do you like Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I like.
The deep state have long time manipulate the peoples, the humans, and that must end.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): QAnon is a sprawling conspiracy theory that claims, without evidence, that a group of Satan-worshipping members of the deep state are plotting to destroy President Trump and establish world domination.
They claim measures against the pandemic are part of that conspiracy, and at least according to some we spoke to, that President Trump is an angel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's an angel.
PLEITGEN (on camera): (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
PLEITGEN: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has the connection. He has a connection.
PLEITGEN: To whom?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To (UNINTELLIGIBLE). So you will see. Wait till the 4th of November, and the 4th November, the pandemic is finished worldwide.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): President Trump has retweeted claims from accounts linked to QAnon hundreds of times and has repeatedly refused to denounce the QAnon conspiracy.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I don't know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate.
PLEITGEN: But the president's words are undermining Germany's own response to the coronavirus pandemic. Angela Merkel's government is generally viewed as being successful in combating COVID-19, but at Saturday's demonstration, she and members of her government are pictured in what seemed to be concentration camp inmate suits, calling for her to be locked up.
Another man in a Trump shirt and a MAGA hat saying this.
(on camera): What do you think about Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel? Because internationally, she's been praised for the way she's dealt with coronavirus crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she is Hitler's daughter.
PLEITGEN: You think she's Hitler's daughter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, I think.
PLEITGEN: German politicians have criticized the events that unfolded here this weekend, and the German government says, while it respects the right to protest, even in times of pandemic, that trying to storm the German Parliament and waving right[wing flags in front of it are simply out of bounds.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. And up next, after six long months, the wait is over. WORLD SPORT is next.
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[00:45:02]
(WORLD SPORT) [00:56:52]
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[01:00:03]
VAUSE: Hello everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Studio 7 at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
