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Ernst Tries to Clarify Claim That Virus Deaths Are Inflated; Aide Says Pelosi Always Wears Mask, Follows Local Guidelines; White House Coronavirus Adviser Paints Rosy Picture of Risk to Kids; Biden Says If Trump Had Done His Job, Schools Would Be Open Now; Teen COVID Survivor Suffering from Dizziness, Headaches Months Later; CDC Temporarily Halting Evictions Amid Pandemic. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 02, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: As of August 22, 94 percent of those people had something in addition to COVID-19 listed on the death certificate as a cause of death. So the conspiracists have take that and said, well, 94 percent of people didn't actually die from COVID. That's not what it says. And the CDC has confirmed to me that that's a gross misreading.

What the CDC explains is that number one, people can have COVID and a chronic condition listed on the death certificate. For example it can be COVID and obesity or COVID and diabetes. As we know people can live for years with a diabetes, with obesity and then get COVID and die. So the presence of obesity on the death certificate doesn't mean they didn't die from COVID.

Second of all, the other cause listed on the death certificate with COVID can be something caused by COVID. For example, the death certificate can say COVID and respiratory failure. Well the CDC points out to me in statement today, respiratory failure is often caused by COVID.

So the presence of respiratory failure on that certificate doesn't mean this person died by COVID, and indeed the CDC's Chief of Mortality Statistics Bob Anderson points out to me in that statement that of the underlying causes listed on all of the death certificates, 92 percent of the people with COVID on the death certificate also had COVID as the underlying cause.

Dr. Anthony Fauci also went on "Good Morning America" yesterday and said, no, the statistics are not inflated, no, this is a misreading. In in short, people are taking the statistic wildly out of context and it's irresponsible for the President and others to promote this misreading when they have access to the best experts and the best resources.

BALDWIN: Irresponsible, indeed. Thank you as always, Daniel Dale for the clarification. Thank you. Also today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being accused of hypocrisy after, here we go, this video emerged showing the Speaker who is not wearing a mask. Here she is. In San Francisco at a hair salon.

Now this is against the city's COVID 19 rules which require that such visits take place outside. And as you might expect President Trump is pouncing on this saying the Republicans will, quote, send Nancy packing when they retake the House in the upcoming election. Manu Raju, CNN's senior congressional correspondent, and Manu, how is the Speaker's office responding to this?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're basically saying that there was a misunderstanding about what the restrictions say in San Francisco. And that misunderstanding was based on what was conveyed to them by someone who works at that salon.

Now according to the Speaker's office is that typically she gets her hair done by a stylist who comes to her house in San Francisco. And in this case that stylist was not available and this person referred her office to someone else to set something up.

And that other person said come on into the salon, we can operate one person at a time even with the salon closed. Now that actually flies in the face of what San Francisco allows, restrictions are pretty clear. It says that these beauty salons need to operate outdoors not indoors.

Now according her office, they say the Speaker always wears a mask in the business, offered the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business.

The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment. Now security footage shows at one point she was not wearing a mask. We are told that that's because she had just gotten her hair washed at the establishment.

But nevertheless, Brooke, you mentioned it, the President quick to criticize the Speaker tweeting multiple times about her. Of course the White House itself has violated social distancing guidelines time and again, including at the RNC speech just last week.

So nevertheless, Speaker facing some criticism here from Republicans. Her office though says that she was complying with the rules as they were presented to her even if those rules clearly contradicted what the restrictions are in San Francisco -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Manu Raju, thank you for that.

Coming up next here on CNN, an adviser to President Trump downplays COVID's impact on kids. So I'll discuss with a 13-year-old still trying to overcome symptoms after a tough battle with COVID.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00] BALDWIN: National emergency. That is what Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden is calling the current struggle for schools to safely reopen in the middle of this global pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is a national emergency. But President Trump still doesn't have any real plan for how to open our schools safely. No real plan for how to help parents feel secure for their children. He's offering nothing but failure and delusions from the start to finish, the American families and our children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go straight to MJ Lee. And MJ, what else did Biden say?

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, you know, this was clearly a speech where Joe Biden wanted to turn the focus entirely back on COVID-19.

You know, we have seen President Trump over and over again these past few weeks talking about lawlessness in Joe Biden's America warning that Americans won't be safe in Joe Biden's America.

And we saw earlier this week of course, Joe Biden go to Pittsburgh and make a big speech about how these images that Donald Trump is talking about are images that are taking place in Donald Trump's America and that he's the one, the President is the one, who is exacerbating these racial divisions and tensions.

[15:40:03]

And today with the speech here in Wilmington, he clearly wanted to use the very important issue of schools reopening to essentially say, this is happening because Donald Trump was not prepared to handle COVID-19. He really didn't mince words. He said if President Trump had done his job, American schools would be open right no. Obviously, that is not the case. Many American schools are not reopened right now because of a lot of school and parents and educators have determined that it is simply safe to do so.

BALDWIN: What about his trip to Kenosha tomorrow. What did Biden say about that?

LEE: Well he actually made some news, Brooke, on the shooting of Jacob Blake. You know as he heads to Kenosha tomorrow, this is obviously still a city that is grappling with what happened and we got to ask him a question about what he believes should happen to the officers involved in Jacob Blake's shooting and also the officers involved in Breonna Taylor's death. Here is that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Ahead of your trip to Kenosha, Wisconsin, tomorrow, last week your running mate Senator Harris said that the officer who shot Jacob Blake based on what she has seen should be charged. Do you agree with her and do you also believe the same for the officers who were involved in the death of Breonna Taylor?

BIDEN: I think we should let the judicial system work its way. I do think there is a minimum need to be charged, the officers and as well as Breonna Taylor. Let the judicial system work. Let's make sure justice is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: It's very clear, too, Brooke, that this trip tomorrow to Kenosha Joe Biden sees as an opportunity to try to draw a contrast with President Trump. As you'll recall there were some local leaders in Kenosha and Wisconsin who said don't come here, don't come right now because the racial divisions and sort of the pain in the community is too much and you might make it worse.

Well Biden went out of his way today to say that actually Democratic leaders have asked him to come to Kenosha tomorrow to make that trip and so that's why he is doing it. That he hopes that he can make a good influence and, you know, do some good by actually physically going to Kenosha and talking to the community there.

And, of course, another contrast is that when Donald Trump went to Kenosha earlier this week, he didn't say the words, Jacob Blake. We ,of course, now know that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, they both had a long conversation with Blake's family earlier this week -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: MJ Lee, thank you so much for the update. We'll talk more about Biden and Kenosha tomorrow.

Coming up though here on CNN, as the White House downplays the impact of coronavirus on our nation's youth, we are learning some young coronavirus survivors are still struggling with symptoms months after testing positive. So we'll talk to one of those young people, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:00]

BALDWIN: As so many parents are grabbing with whether they should send their children back into the physical classroom right now, here is the guidance they're getting from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE ADVISER: We know that the risk of the disease is extremely low for children even less than that of seasonal flu. We know that the harms of locking out the children from school are enormous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We actually don't know that. In fact, according to the American Association of Pediatrics there has been a 17 percent increase in cases among children just in the last two weeks with more than 70,000 new infections in that period.

And while many young people exhibit mild or no symptoms at all, my next guest can tell you firsthand just how tough this virus can be regardless of your age. Roman Peterson was infected with COVID back in April along with a couple other members of his family, his dad, Dean, is with us. And so Roman and Dean, thank you both so much for being here and I'm glad you're better.

ROMAN PETERSON, CORONAVIRUS PATIENT: Hi.

BALDWIN: Hi. Let's talk first about your amazing mom and the piece that she wrote about your battle and so here is the quote from her piece in "The Washington Post" about you.

He was wiped out. The virus left him so weak some days he didn't even want to look at his phone. This may not sound like a big deal but if you are a parent of a 21st century teen or tween you know that when your child is too weak to take an interest in Fortnite, there is something wrong.

BALDWIN: Roman, no Fortnite? I mean, seriously, though, how are you feeling today?

R. PETERSON: I'm doing a lot better as of recently actually. I still have some symptoms, some nausea, dizziness and headaches but overall I'm feeling a lot better.

BALDWIN: Good, I'm so happy to hear that. And dad, I'm coming to you in a second. But Roman is the star of this interview for the moment. And so, you know, as I was telling you in commercial break, you know, I had COVID too. I'm curious what was -- what was the worst of it for you?

R. PETERSON: The worst of it was probably just the overall like -- I didn't want to eat at all. Like I was hungry but I just did not want to eat at all. I also had -- they're pretty bad headaches and I say those -- that was what wiped me out.

BALDWIN: And how long have the headaches lasted or are you -- are you at all still feeling dizzy?

R. PETERSON: No, I've been feeling dizzy for the past few days. But usually I have headaches and dizziness at least once or twice a week.

BALDWIN: And, Dean, what was it like for you to watch your oldest and maybe one of your healthier kids be so sick, and then to watch him to continue to struggle?

[15:50:00]

DEAN PETERSON, FATHER OF ROMAN: Well, clearly, it's frightening because Roman is a growing healthy boy, a good athlete, a smart kid, a fun kid. And to watch him laid up in bed, unable to eat, unable to stand up, unable to, you know, resolve his headaches, you know, and with his mother also being afflicted with COVID, you know, lying in bed as well. It's a very frightening time for our family. BALDWIN: And remind us how many kids in the family? It was only Roman

who ended up with COVID, correct?

D. PETERSON: That's right. We have four kids. Roman's the oldest. And then my wife and me. So it's a household of six.

BALDWIN: So household of six, Roman gets it, your wife gets it. And you were totally fine?

D. PETERSON: I wasn't totally fine. I exhibited some symptoms and I was told by the doctors to assume that I did have it or had been exposed. So, I didn't get it as severely as my wife, but I did have some symptoms. But not nearly as bad as Roman and my wife.

BALDWIN: Got it. And then Roman to you, you know, I know you talked about your headaches, your mom really writes about your headaches and you heard your dad say, you know, at times you had a hard time standing up. You're now participating in this New York Presbyterian Columbia University study. Tell me what they're -- here's a picture of you. Tell me what they're doing.

R. PETERSON: In the study at Presbyterian I'm giving my blood and spit on and off for six months. Sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly to help find a vaccine. And they're also studying my symptoms and recording them to see if that can help with the vaccine.

BALDWIN: So how does that make you feel to know that you may, even though it's not fun having being poked and prodded, but does that make you feel pretty good to know that you're helping folks?

R. PETERSON: Yes, it makes me feel really good to know that I can be part of the vaccine that can come out in 2021.

BALDWIN: Right on, little man. And, Dean, back to you. You know, you and your wife decided to send your children back to school part-time for in-person learning. I know that this has been a quandary that so many parents nationwide are grappling with. How did you guys arrive at that decision?

D. PETERSON: Well, you know, first of all it starts with the school we send our kids to. We have confidence that our school makes good decisions for the safety and health of the children. And we believe they have the protocols in place that will, you know, keep our children safe.

They're only going two days a week in person, some days three days a week, and the rest of the time will be online. So they have the option of going this hybrid method or full-time online. We opted for hybrid because we thought it was going to be better for the kids.

BALDWIN: Quick last question to you Roman, for people who are watching who are sick with this thing, what would you say to them?

R. PETERSON: Well, just hang in there. A vaccine will hopefully be out soon. You just got to get as much rest as possible, take medication and just stay in bed. BALDWIN: Hang in there. Roman and Dean Peterson, thank you so much.

Best of health to both of you. Thank you.

Coming up, the CDC is stepping in to help some Americans who are struggling to pay rent, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:00]

BALDWIN: Millions of you who rent apartments and homes across the country can breathe a sigh of relief. The CDC is moving to protect renters through the end of the year issuing a temporary halt on evictions for millions who are struggling to afford rent because of this pandemic.

Alison Kosik is our CNN business correspondent and she is with me now. And so who exactly does this apply to?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This applies, Brooke, to any renter who was struggling to pay their rent, but there are requirements that have to be met before you can get this protection from eviction.

You have to show that you earn $99,000 a year or less. You have to prove that you've made an effort to get government assistance to pay for your rent and declare that you can't pay because of financial hardship because of COVID-19 and that you would likely become homeless if you are evicted.

Now this order does come out of the CDC because the agency says that the evictions actually pose an historic threat to public health, meaning the more people who are homeless, the more likelihood it's that the virus can be spread.

Now here is the catch as there often is with these things. And the catch is that this does not cover rent that is incurred. Meaning you are on the hook for the rent that you don't pay once this moratorium has been lifted. So, it clearly doesn't go far enough. Ideally, rent forgiveness would've been the best option here. But it does buy many Americans some time to stay in their homes. One group estimated, Brooke, that up to 40 million Americans were at risk of being evicted if these protections weren't put in place.

BALDWIN: Wow. The other story I wanted to ask you about today. Old Navy is taking this extraordinary move for its employees on election day. Tell everyone what they're doing.

KOSIK: Yes, so we are 62 days away from election day, if you can believe it. And right now we are actually facing a huge shortage of poll workers because most of those volunteers are seniors who could, you know, could have complications from COVID-19. So they're not going to be working at these polls.

So Old Navy, which its owner is Gap, looked at its roster and said we have 50,000 field-workers. Let's go ahead and partner with the Civic Alliance and Power to the Polls to recruit 250,000 poll workers so these polls can stay open across the country and operate more efficiently.

Now, Old Navy says that it's going to go ahead and give an eight-hour workday to any employee who wants to go work at the polls and in addition they could also get compensation.