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Two Faces of Leaders; Police Officers Suspended; President Trump Hate Fabricated Stories; Dr. Fauci Out with a Warning; Rushing COVID-19 Vaccine Not a Good Idea; A Sign of Miracle After 30 Days; Bolsonaro Stating that COVID-19 Vaccine Won't be Mandatory; Sweden's Controversial Fight Against COVID-19; Virus Disproportionately Affecting Communities of Color; Portland Suspect Killed During Police Encounter; U.S. to Report Latest Job Numbers Friday; Rwandan Genocide Hero Accused of Terror; Russian Poisoning, German Doctors Find Nerve Agent in Navalny's System. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired September 04, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Robyn Curnow.
So, coming up, striking a very different tone. Joe Biden visits the scene of a high profile shooting just days after the U.S. president.
Vaccines, hopes and fears, new concerns that sooner isn't always better. And you've heard about herd immunity.
We're live from Sweden with a look their controversial approach to coronavirus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN center, this is CNN Newsroom with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: Great to have you along this hour.
So, with less than two months to go until the U.S. presidential election, the sharp, sharp contrast between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump was on full display on Thursday where Mr. Biden visited Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Racial tensions have been high in the city since Jacob Blake, a black man, was shot in the black seven times by a white police officer. Unlike President Trump's trip there two days earlier, that focused on war law and order, Biden met with Blake's family and he says he spoke by phone with Blake in the hospital. While Biden condemned the virus violence that erupted after shooting, he also addressed what he sees as the cause of the unrest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The underlying racism that's institutionalize in the United States still, still exists, has existed for 400 years. And so, what's happened is that we end up in a circumstance like you had here in Kenosha and have here in Kenosha.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, Sara Sidner is in Kenosha, Wisconsin and has more on the former vice president's visit there.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden showing up here in Kenosha after days of unrest here. He says that he was able to speak with Jacob Blake. Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by a police officer and is what cause the unrest in this town in part.
He also says he spoke to his mother, his father and sisters as well and spent a few minutes speaking to Jacob Blake, who is still in the hospital and is at this moment paralyzed from the waist down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I had an opportunity to spend some time with Jacob on the phone. He's out of ICU. We spoke for about 15 minutes, his brother and two sisters, his dad and his mom on the telephone. And I spoke to them a lot before. We spent time together with my wife. And he talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. How whether he walk again or not, he was not going to give up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: But Biden also was here for a community meeting so that members of the Kenosha community can speak to him. And one of the people that spoke created a bit of controversy. She had a paper that she said she was supposed to read to the presidential candidate and instead decided to just speak her mind.
Her name is Porsche Bennett. She told us that she was able to kind of talk to him from her heart, that it was important that he understood some of the issues that she feels are not being addressed and that need to be addressed and she wants to see policy change if indeed he becomes the president. Here is some of what she wanted to impart to Mr. Biden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PORSCHE BENNETT, ACTIVIST: How they treat us needs to be changed. And if they are going to allow them to do -- if that medical examiner declares that as a homicide, that's murder, which means they need to be treated just how a black man, or a Mexican man or a Chinese man how they are treated. It's just that simple.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Bennett said later on that he pulled her aside and thanked her for speaking her mind. So far, the last few days here in Kenosha, it has been quiet. And again, today, only a few dozen people came out, not a huge protest, not big rallies before a presidential candidate Joe Biden left the area.
Sara Sidner, CNN, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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CURNOW: Jessica Levinson is a law professor and political analyst and she joins me now from Los Angeles. Jessica, good to see you. Thanks so much for chatting with us.
I do want you to give your sense on these images and the conversations about Mr. Biden going to Kenosha. It's certainly about comparing and contrasting, isn't it?
JESSICA LEVINSON, PROFESSOR, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: Absolutely. I mean this election is a story of contrasts. We have very -- two very different men running for office. And here we have Vice President Biden saying, I'm understanding what is happening in the country, and that there are terrible issues that are tearing apart -- the country apart, dealing with racial injustice, the criminal justice reform.
And he is coming to places where there is strife and very clearly saying, I'm listening to you, I'm going to be a different type of leader, a leader that we have right now is a divisive leader who is sowing chaos.
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I am going to be the opposite of that. I am going to be a uniter, to use an overused term. I'm going to unite the country, not divide the country the way we've seen for the last four years.
CURNOW: And we do have a new campaign ad that he has released. And it speaks to that. It's called, we are listening. I wonder if we can just play a little bit, and I want to get your take on the back side of that.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Part of the point of freedom is to be free from brutality, from injustice, from racism and all of its manifestations.
BIDEN: We have to let people know that we not only understand their struggle, but they understand the fact they deserve to be treated with dignity. They've got to know we are listening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: How much does the issue of race and racism play in this election, across all communities? You know, what kind of impact will it make with people going to the polls?
LEVINSON: A big one. Racism obviously has always been a serious issue in our country. And it has always been the fact that the Democratic Party gained a lot more minority voters than the Republican Party.
But there is of course something just qualitatively different about the 2020 election in part because we are dealing with such civil unrest, dealing with our history of racism, and dealing with issues of systemic racism, in part because we have a President of the United States who is speaking about racial injustice in a way that we frankly have never seen before.
And so, part of what Joe Biden has to do is he has to appeal to the base of the Democratic Party, which largely is a large are a lot of minority and black voters. And he has to say, I'm not taking it for granted.
And that's part of why you see him putting these ads out, part of why Kamala Harris is saying so aggressively, we are not taking you for granted, we hear you, we are going to address issues that are important to you.
And Joe Biden, at the same time, has to make sure that he gets those moderates, those swing voters who may have kind of been the Obama Trump crossover voters. So, he's going to have to turn the needle on this election.
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CURNOW: Jessica Levinson there speaking to me a little bit earlier, political analyst.
So, we're learning about another troubling incident, this one in Rochester, New York. Seven police office there -- police officers there being suspended in connection with the death of a black man, his name is Daniel Prude who died after he's handcuffed and forcibly restrained last March.
Well, Polo Sandoval has the details. And we do caution you that some of this video is very disturbing.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe Prude says he called Rochester, New York police to help his brother and they killed him.
JOE PRUDE, DANIEL PRUDE'S BROTHER: He cried for help, it went on unanswered.
SANDOVAL: March 23 he called 911 to say his brother, Daniel Prude was experiencing a mental health episode hours after being released from the hospital and maybe on drugs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's sick and not wearing clothes.
PRUDE: That's my brother. That's my brother.
SANDOVAL: Police body camera video that shows different angles was provided to CNN by the family's attorneys. Prude is naked and, on the street, when police arrive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground. Get on the ground. Get on the ground, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground. Put on your hands behind your back. Behind your back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't move.
SANDOVAL: He complies and is handcuffed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you Daniel?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
SANDOVAL: But moments later, visibly agitated, Prude yells at officers and moves around on the pavement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me go.
SANDOVAL: Then three minutes after the initial encounter, a hood, often referred to among law enforcement as the spit sock is placed over Prude's head. The police say he was spitting and said he had the coronavirus. The hood, which can prevent transmission of some diseases appears to distress Prude further. The officers demand he lie still.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me the gun. Give me the gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay down. Stay down.
SANDOVAL: When he does not comply and tries to stand, three offices physically restrained him and pull him to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I got him, I got him. I'm already on it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're trying to kill me.
SANDOVAL: One officer has his knee on Prude's back and the others hold his head to the pavement. During the struggle the officers realize Prude is spitting and appears to have vomited. Soon after the paramedics start treatment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's freezing out here. He's been out naked for 30 minutes.
SANDOVAL: When officers rolled him over there is no pulse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Start CPR.
SANDOVAL: Prude was pronounced brain dead in the hospital and died a week later. The autopsy ruled the death a homicide cause by complications of asphyxia in the setting of a physical restraint. And further cites, excited delirium and acute intoxication of Phencyclidine or PCP as cause of death.
Since the video became public, protests and demands of police officers should be fired and charged with murder.
MAYOR LOVELY WARREN, ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: Mr. Daniel Prude was failed by our police department, our mental healthcare system, our society, and he was failed by me.
SANDOVAL: Today the mayor of Rochester suspended seven officers, inviting the police union to sue her if they disagreed.
[03:10:03]
The union previously said that while it's still in the process of gathering information, it has concerns about the incident. CNN is reaching out to the suspended officers and the union for additional comment.
PRUDE: It hurts, man, because they took someone away from me. A part of my family tree is gone.
SANDOVAL: Polo Sandoval, CNN, Rochester, New York.
CURNOW: Well, Daniel Prude's daughter spoke to CNN a little bit earlier. And she said the man seen in the police videos does not reflect who he truly was. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TASHYRA PRUDE, DANIEL PRUDE'S DAUGHTER: My dad is not the animal that they treated him like. That is a human being. That is my father. That is somebody's brother, son, cousin, nephew. Like, this was one of the most loving people I have ever known in my life.
And my father was a protector. He would do anything for his family, anything for his kids. He had a bright personality. He's the type of person that if you're going through something, you go to him and he's the one who gave you words of encouragement. Or he will be the one that tell you a joke to make you laugh if he knows you're having a bad day.
He picks up on you if are having about a bad day. And he does anything in his power just to see you smile. And I'm hurt that the media doesn't -- didn't get the chance to actually see him in that state. They see him in a distressed mental state and now everybody is viewing him as this mental patient that he is not.
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CURNOW: Well the daughter there of Daniel Prude speaking a little bit earlier to CNN.
So, the U.S. President, Donald Trump, is denying a scathing report in the Atlantic magazine that says he says disparaged dead American service members. The story cites unnamed sources who allege the president called Americans who died in wars losers and suckers. Mr. trump angrily called that a quote, "total lie."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Everyone knows it's totally false. General Keith Kellogg, who is a highly respected man, couldn't believe when he heard it. And he knows about all of it. And to think that I would make statements negative to our military and our fallen heroes when nobody has done what I've done with the budgets, with the military budgets, with getting pay raises for our military, it is a disgraceful situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: And CNN initially refused to report on this Atlantic story because we were not able to match it. We are doing it now because the president has responded as you have heard there. We are also hearing also from Joe Biden. He reacted to the article in a statement saying, quote, "if the revelations in today's Atlantic article are true then they are yet another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the President of the United States."
And a racial reckoning and a bitter presidential race comes as the U.S. deals with the most confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the world. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more grim news. It now predicts -- it predicts that the U.S. pandemic death toll could reach 211,000 by the end of this month. That's about 1000 Americans dying every day until then.
Well public health experts worry that Labor Day holiday this weekend could mean more people will get out, let their guard down, and triggered another spike in new cases.
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ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We don't want to see a repeat of the surges that we have seen following of the holiday weekends. Particularly, as we go on the other side of Labor Day and enter into the fall, we want to go into that with a running start in the right direction. We don't want to go into that with another surge that we have to turn around again.
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CURNOW: So, big question. How soon might a vaccine be ready? Officials in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told CNN that President Trump has pushed government agencies to speed up development and approvals of a vaccine so that it's ready by election day in November. But doctors are skeptical one could be ready by then. As Nick Watt now reports.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pfizer now teasing it might know if it's COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective as early as the end of next month. With a promise, no corners will be cut.
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FAUCI: That's unlikely, not impossible. I think most of the people feel it's going to be November, December.
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WATT: The CDC now telling state officials to prep to distribute a vaccine, also as soon as the end of next month.
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ALI KHAN, FORMER DIRECTOR, CDC PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS & RESPONSE OFFICE: Just picking these dates before the election so to stokes those fears that the government isn't being duly diligent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: A charge the White House denies.
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PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: The goal of the administration is to get a vaccine out as quickly as it is safe and efficacious to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: And on treating COVID-19, Dr. Fauci says more data is needed on that plasma treatment hyped by the president, and this.
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[03:15:05]
THOMAS CUENI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURERS: They will not be the magic bullet to tackle and contain COVID-19. The industry is still all in and we have come a long way.
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WATT: Here in the U.S., we've come a little way in controlling the virus. But again, we are over 1,000 deaths a day the last couple of days. New case counts have fallen since mid-July, but now, it seem stuck at about 40,000 a day these past two weeks.
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FAUCI: That's an unacceptably high baseline. We've got to get it down.
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WATT: But there is some resurgence in the northeast right now.
(BEGIN VOICE CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The people Western New York have to realize that if they don't follow social distancing, the precautions, the virus will increase.
(END VOICE CLIP)
WATT: But it's going up in the Midwest. The White House task force now recommending Missouri closed bars and mandate masks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAUCI: We've proven that you can actually control the outbreak. To me, that's good news.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're all wearing masks?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Proven in California. Bars were closed, masks mandated, case counts now falling. In L.A. this morning, hairdressers allowed to welcome customers indoors once more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN BEST, OWNER, DYLAN KEITH SALON: We are going to work hard, sales off and we are going to make it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, now on the public awareness train after he, his wife, and two kids caught COVID from friends.
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DWAYNE 'THE ROCK JOHNSON, ACTOR: If you guys are having family and friends over to your house, you know them, you trust them, they've been quarantining just like you guys. You still never know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: And ahead of the holiday weekend here in the United States, the governor of Ohio is saying what a lot of people are thinking. He said to our friends in college, we ask you to be careful.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
CURNOW: Anne Rimoin is a professor of epidemiology at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and she joins me now from Los Angeles.
Good to see you, doctor. Tell me about this vaccine timeline. As somebody who works with viruses and understands vaccines and the development of them, what do you make about the deadline and the timeline that is being suggested here?
ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR, UCLA DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY: Well, when you think about what needs to be done to be able to get a vaccine from all the way from phase one, phase two, now phase three trials, we have a long way to go until we can really get this vaccine out and to the public.
So, the first thing we need to realize is that we are still in the midst of the phase three vaccine trials. And nobody except the data safety and monitoring board should actually know how well this vaccine is working. They are the ones that should only be the only people that are doing inter analysis (Ph) of these data and understanding what's happening next.
You know, the second thing is there need to be at least 30,000 people in each of these trials that need to be enrolled. And we have to make sure that these trials are very well represented with people from all ethnic groups and from all walks of life, people who are from vulnerable categories, young people.
So, it may or may not be possible to get enough people into these -- into these trials. Then we have to be able to look at the data and look at it carefully. So you know, if all goes right, if everything is -- happens perfectly as we wished that it could, I suppose it could be possible that we have a vaccine available towards the end of the year, but I think that it is definitely a little bit concerning to think that November 1 would be the day, three days before an election, that would be chosen to be able to roll something out.
What we need to be sure of is that this is not politically motivated. We should have ultimate faith in our institutions like the FDA and the CDC.
CURNOW: You work a lot and have a lot in the Congo, certainly when it comes to viruses and vaccines. What, in your experience, has been the fastest vaccine that is ever been put on the market? And what does it mean if a vaccine comes on to the market in what seems like a super short time?
RIMOIN: I believe the fastest vaccine to market might have been the mumps vaccine that took four years. There are -- there is another very stark example of a vaccine that was fast-tracked, which was the swine flu vaccine in 1976, where President Ford really pushed to get this vaccine out. And it really didn't turn out all that well.
And there were secondary -- there were side effects including people who had Guillain-Barre syndrome, that only appeared after millions of people were vaccinated. It was a very rare side effect but a devastating one. And so, we have to be very, very careful about fast- tracking vaccines.
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CURNOW: We know that there are a lot of vaccine trials going on in various parts of the world and at various stages, and also coming after this virus in different ways. What's the chance of certain vaccines coming out first, whether it's the U.S. or the one in Russia, the U.K. trials or other parts of the world?
So, we have a staggered release of vaccines over the next year or so. And what does that mean in terms of global access and then trusting of course, the specific vaccines coming out in certain geographical areas?
RIMOIN: Well, one of the problems with all this vaccine development is that there is no standard way --
CURNOW: No.
RIMOIN: -- of determining efficacy and safety that is applied to all vaccines. So, this makes it very complicated. Every company is measuring it in their way, and there is no international benchmark. And so, this is going to be very, very important that we have good consensus about what a vaccine that is safe and effective means.
CURNOW: Anne Rimoin, thank you very much for joining me -- for joining us and giving us your expertise. I appreciate it.
RIMOIN: My pleasure.
CURNOW: So, could there really be a survivor 30 days after the Beirut blast? That's what rescuers are hoping for after they detected apparent signs of life. We have the latest on this operation, that is next.
And then later on, the European Union is mulling its response to the Alexei Navalny poisoning. We'll discuss what consequences there could be for Moscow.
You're watching CNN. Stay with us.
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CURNOW: Well it seems improbable, in many ways, to find any survivors of the Beirut blast at this stage. but rescue teams, take a look at these images, are digging through the rubble once again. Lebanese state media says that's because on Thursday rescuers detected movement deep within the debris. Thirty days after that massive explosion destroyed much of the city.
And we've just heard that equipment has now detected body heat and seven breaths about two meters beneath the rubble.
Sam Kiley is going to join us in a moment. Sam, are you there? I want you to give us the latest on what we're hearing.
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Robyn, a really remarkable series of events or possible hope for a successful outcome 29 days after that massive blast that ripped across Beirut rendering more than 300,000 homeless, more importantly to know that some 200 dead.
There was detected yesterday by a dog called flash, almost walking past the scene of a collapsed building in (Inaudible) a popular street, with popular with residents and also with bars and restaurants.
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He picked up what is believed to been the scent of a living human being. Very quickly, rescuers yesterday afternoon started to dig in. This was mainly a Chilean rescuer, who only brought the dog in at the weekend to help out with the final elements of a rescue operation. They were able to detect, first with the dog and then with various bits of machinery.
And we've now heard this morning, confirmation that from one local NGO who had been speaking with the rescuers there, saying that they believe that they've detected by thermal imaging and some kind of sign of breathing.
But and this is of course almost inevitable in these cases, Robyn, there was overnight a desperate effort to get and dig into this possible rescue site. But at the same time, there was a severe risk of the collapse of a wall.
So, at about half past 11, local time last night, the rescue efforts were suspended whilst the Lebanese army and civilian engineers were brought into shore up that wall. That was then done and in the small hours this morning they renewed this rescue operation.
Now, into day 30 since that ammonium nitrate stored at the port ignited, sending a supersonic blast across the whole city. We don't know what, or who, is beneath the rubble there. But of course, Beirut, which is already suffering from economic calamity, political upheaval, was then struck with this extraordinary explosion. It could really do with a positive story and a sense of good fortune after many, many months of misery, Robyn.
CURNOW: Certainly, a miracle called for here. Just talk us through the situation in Beirut right now. In many ways, it's worse than in those moments after the explosion, just because of the sheer amount of homelessness. Talk us through how folks are dealing with things on the ground?
KILEY: Well, Robyn, there's over 300,000 have been rendered homeless, or have had their homes very drastically devastated. The Lebanese are very capable people. They recover from calamity with remarkable speed. But they are also dealing with well over a million Syrian refugees who flooded into their country from the neighboring civil war.
Their economy has been in free fall, their local currency lost about 80 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar, and they are now in a stage of political paralysis with the recent nomination, but not a full agreement yet of the new prime minister.
CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much. Sam Kiley there for that latest update on what's happening there in Beirut. Thank you.
So, coming up on CNN, U.S. conservative site the Swedish model for handling the coronavirus, but is its controversial approach worth the human cost? We are live in Stockholm with that.
Plus, the disparity of coronavirus healthcare for communities of color from the devastated view of one family. That story, also next.
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[03:30:00] ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Great to have you along this hour,
welcome back to CNN, I'm Robyn Curnow, live here from CNN Atlanta and it is 30 minutes past the hour, wherever you are. Thanks for joining me.
So, this update, Brazil's president is saying, again, that COVID-19 vaccines won't be mandatory when they become available. Jair Bolsonaro spoke in a Facebook live chat with supporters on Thursday. Brazil of has the world's second worst outbreak with more than 4 million confirmed cases, and almost 125,000 deaths.
Matt Rivers has the latest on what is happening there. Matt?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Latin America, the country with the worst outbreak, by far is of course been Brazil. And that country has now top another grim milestone. Brazil is now reporting more than 4 million coronavirus cases for the first time since this outbreak began. And to get to this point, it really has just been a steady March. I mean, consider, from the time that it recorded its first case, to case number 1 million, that took 115 days. For that country to get from case 1 million, to case number 4 million, well that only took 76 days.
But there has been some good news. Recently, out of Brazil, a CNN analysis of the data out of the month of August, shows that from August 1st, to August 30th, if you look at the seven-day ruling average of both newly confirmed cases, and newly-confirmed deaths, both of those metrics have gone down during the month of August.
But still, where they are at right now, these levels are extremely high, more than 43,000 newly confirmed cases reported by the Brazilian health ministry just yesterday. So, clearly, the situation in this country is still very severe. Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: The Trump administration, as well as many U.S. Conservatives, frequently cite Sweden as a model for fighting the coronavirus. The country never went on lockdown, and after a surge last spring, now has one of the lowest death tolls in Europe. But the reality behind Sweden's number is far more complicated. That's why we want to go there.
Max Foster is in Stockholm and has more on all of that. Max, hi, lovely to see you again. Tell us what has been happening there in Stockholm in Sweden, and how it has been faring.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. Everyone seems to want to know how Sweden managed to get their death rate from its high, down to its current low. It seems to be staying low as well. And this is in the context, of course, of this being the country that never went until full lockdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: This ICU unit in central Stockholm lies virtually empty. With
just one coronavirus patients receiving care. This was the scene in April, at the height of the Swedish pandemic, with a unit inundated. Outside, bars, shops, and schools, remained open throughout. No lockdown, but people were given official guidance on how to sanitize, and went to socially distance. And they largely abided by those rules.
Masks were never mandated here, with a senior government source telling CNN, that they regarded here, as largely superficial. After an initial surge in the death rate well above the Scandinavian average, Sweden now has one of the lowest death rates in Europe.
Most of the casualties were elderly, nine out of 10, where over 70 years old, and 45 percent of all deaths were in care homes. That's raised the question about the rest of society, the younger, the healthier. Did they develop some kind of resistance to the virus as they interacted?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is possible that we are, or we have been building up some immunity that contributes to the present state.
FOSTER: But when people in Stockholm were tested for immunity, only 7 percent had enough antibodies to fight the disease. But, they were not tested for t cells, which also provide resistance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That means, immunity in Sweden, and immunity globally, it's probably larger than we have previously appreciate. At least, that is our current thought.
FOSTER: And that is the narrative that some American conservatives are grasping onto. Why bother with lockdowns, and masks, when you can allow people to go about their normal lives, catch the virus, and build immunity? While only shielding the elderly, and the vulnerable. The Swedish government urges caution. Pointing to how their safety guidelines were followed by most Swedes.
[03:25:07]
But also, the universal health care and welfare system, that provides a safety net for anyone falling ill or out of work. Lena Hallengren oversaw the government's response from the beginning, as health minister.
LENA HALLENGREN, SWEDISH MINISTER OF HEALTH: We didn't have a full or a forced lock down, but we had many changes. A large number of changes in the Swedish society. I mean, during the spring, we had distance studies for our online studies, for all of our secondary for the universities and the adult schools. We also had I think 30 percent, 40 percent of people working from home.
We have a lot of people staying home on sick leave, because they have the slightest symptoms. You could go on the streets, in the capital, and you didn't meet almost anyone. We had lots of businesses with a very difficult situation, because they didn't have any guests, or customers. So, lots of things were changed. There was not a cultural event, there
is no sports event, so things were changed, but not in a fullest way. I think that was the difference.
FOSTER: The Swedish economy, shrank by 8 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the largest fall since records began. But what of a bigger price? The many elderly who died? Some argue was sacrificed, in the early days of the pandemic.
HALLENGREN: If you get the virus into those elder care homes, many of the person is living there are having very severe symptoms, and they also die. So, that is why we have this, by law that people are forbidden to visit the elderly care homes. But that was not successful in all the way. But we also learned a lot of that.
FOSTER: All care home workers have since being retrained in hygiene protocols. The government here says it is too early to know what they did right, what they did wrong, or whether herd immunity for the coronavirus is even a thing. In the meantime, they are preparing for a possible second wave this fall. It would not be the first country to see a surge in the virus, after apparently stamping it out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: It is interesting Robyn, when you speak to people here, a lot of them are quite bemused by all of the attention on the country's response is receiving here. A lot of people will just say, that they think it's down to the fact that they followed a basic hygiene protocols. After that initial surge, as you know, Scandinavia very well, it's not a touchy-feely region. And people have been social distancing, and many people think, that is the reason that they have managed to get it down.
CURNOW: Yes, and I think you also make a good point that there is the back fill in terms of the health care system. You know, you can rely on it. Where here in the U.S., you can't, particularly if you are from some communities. So, how do Swedes feel also about being so much part of this American election? A political football in many ways between Democrats, and Conservatives, and sort of having sort of been the poster child of some sort of libertarian cause?
FOSTER: These conservatives of America that talk about herd immunity and how that is a policy that should be pursued, and then they can avoid wearing masks as well. The debate there, when it translates, they use that Swede as the best example of how that's worked.
But then you can speak to people of Sweden saying, it's much more complex than that. You can't just take one of the policies here, and use it as the reason for bringing the death rate down. And you cannot translated it either to a different culture in the same way.
And they point to the benefit system that you just mentioned there, also, the different type of culture, and just, you know, the different spread of population as well. It is very difficult to translate this system to another Scandinavian country. A country, as large as the United States. So, they think that they are oversimplifying it in the conservative movement in the United States. But I don't think it will stop them from using it, however, Robyn.
CURNOW: Certainly not. Max Foster, always good to speak to you. Thanks so much, live there from Stockholm.
So, the coronavirus is hitting communities of color especially hard. We've talked about this. Some groups are now seeing a death toll twice as high as their white counterparts. And many say the pandemic is merely pulling back a curtain to reveal disparities that have long, long, been there. Here is Jason Carroll with that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are the last picture of my parents overtook together.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been five months since Keith Gambrell lost his father to coronavirus, and overtime his sadness has been replaced with anger.
KEITH GAMBRELL, SON OF COVID-19 VICTIM: I find myself more temperamental, I would say over my dad. I don't think it is fair how he was treated. So, it makes me very, very, very upset.
CARROLL: Gambrell says, days before his death, his father had all of the telltale signs of coronavirus. High fever, cough, so much trouble breathing, he slept sitting up in a recliner. He says his father, Gary Fuller went to the emergency rooms of three Detroit Metro area hospitals, but was turned away. All three of the hospitals saying, they do not discriminate, two adding, they were following CDC guidelines, only admitting the sickest patients.
[03:40:17]
GAMBRELL: He is like, take me home, because they do not going to help me. They keep turning me away. They keep telling me its bronchitis. I keep telling them that it is not. They won't listen to me.
CARROLL: Gary Fowler died at home on April 7th. He was 56. That would not be the only life the virus took from the family. Gambrell's grandfather, also died from COVID-19.
GAMBRELL: It's very frustrating, it's heartbreaking, it's bitter. It is America.
CARROLL: In the United States, the number show communities of color have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. African Americans are dying at a rate nearly two and a half times higher than white. Latinos, and Native Americans are dying at a rate more than one and a half times higher.
ESMAEIL PORSA, CEO, HARRIS HEALTH SYSTEM: There is an inequality, social injustice, if I may, to describe it as that has existed in country -- in this country for several decades. All COVID-19 has done is really just brought it to light.
CARROLL: Dr. Esmaeil Porsa is the CEO of Harris Health System, which serves a predominantly minority population in Houston. Health experts say, a number of factors put communities of color at greater risks when it comes to COVID-19, including, exposure at work, living conditions, and chronic health conditions.
PORSA: The solution is to improve economic conditions of the populations. Because when you do that, by doing that you are already addressing everything else that it falls in that population.
CARROLL: How does it feel walking like this now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 150 percent improvement compared to before.
CARROLL: Krystal Cadet (ph), a paramedic with the New York fire department, suffered from asthma. She contracted the virus in March, and, ended up on life support.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody pushed to make sure that I was given all of the care possible.
CARROLL: Cadet says, were it not for mother, who is a nurse, and the fire department, her outcome could have been drastically different.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think without that support there would've been a level of ignorance, and blindness over what I needed.
CARROLL: Gambrell says he knew what his parents needed. The day his father died, he says his mother Cheryl Fowler, was turned away at one hospital.
GAMBRELL: The nurse looks at my mother and tell her, ma'am, there's nothing we can do for you here. Go home, drink tea. Take time off you're fever, get to a hospital if you feel like you really need to go to the hospital. It's like we are here for a reason lady.
CARROLL: Gambrell drove to another hospital, across town, where she was admitted, and soon needed a ventilator. She survived. He and his brothers, also ended up testing positive for COVID-19.
GAMBRELL: One day, I had taste buds, one day, I won't.
CARROLL: Gambrell said he has come away from the experience with the belief that if his parent had been white, they would have received better treatment.
GAMBRELL: We wouldn't been sent home (inaudible) if they were of another race.
CARROLL: Now Gambrell says, he is speaking up for his community and his family.
GAMBRELL: I took my sadness and kind of made it into anger, but point that anger in the right direction. Trying to get the story out there, as best I can, for my mom, my dad and my siblings. And just trying to make a change.
CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thank you, Jason for that important story. I have some breaking news for you, an Oregon man, who died in an encounter with police Thursday night, appear to admit in a TV interview, that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland Oregon last weekend. In an interview with vice news, these man said, he acted in self- defense as he, and a friend, we're about to be stabbed.
Authorities moved in on him, late Thursday, they say initial reports indicated the suspect produced a firearm, threatened law enforcement officers. Task force members responded, and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. U.S. Marshals service confirmed he was being sought on a murder charge.
And we have a very big rally on Wall Street, just keeping going on and on. Until now, reality check, details on the markets ahead.
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[03:45:00]
CURNOW: Take a look at those numbers, European stock markets have open this hour in positive territory, it is slightly better than what we saw in Asia throughout the day. Stocks there fell after Wall Street dropped across the board on Thursday, especially for all those tech heavy stocks on the NASDAQ.
Well, John Defterios has been following all of the twists, and turns, the ups and downs of the markets over the last few hours. So, that was quite a shock, 5 percent fall on the NASDAQ. What does that tell us?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, I tell you Robyn, it's a time for reevaluation of where we are. But that is a good indication that Europe has stabilized and move higher. Because when you have a sell-off at that level, 5 percent from the NASDAQ, 3.5 percent for the S&P 500, you kind of wonder if this is a turning point to a correction or something much more severe in terms of a bear market.
So, you saw Apple, Amazon and a host of a very popular names that have done extremely well during the COVID-19 pandemic and the work from home kind of reality today with efficiency.
We have nine of those sell-offs yesterday. The big board of nine tech stocks, we see losses of 3.5 to nearly 10 percent, Apple loss, $150 billion of its evaluation but it trades well over $2 trillion evaluation. So, let's look forward to Friday, as Europe is indicating, we see the recovery of the U.S. Futures, the NASDAQ is still slightly lower down a third of 1 percent, but it was down one and a 3rd percent over the last two hours of trading.
And the U.S. Futures for NASDAQ are down, but the S&P 500 and the DOW industrial, trading slightly above the line. And a similar theme at Asia, we've had selling across the board, but this is well off the lows of the day with the Shanghai composite wrapping up trading here below 1 percent. We saw loses as high as 1.7 percent in Australia as much as 3 percent.
So, it seems TXT Pacific, and driven towards the United States, because evaluations, Robyn are nearly as high as they were in 1999 before the tech bubble burst in the year 2000 and concerns about a general slowdown going forward after all the stimulus that was spent.
CURNOW: And also, let's talks about the jobs reports is coming out in just a few hours' time. What do you expect there? What does it sign post?
DEFTERIOS: Well, this going to be difficult to interpret, Robyn, because we are going to see a spurt of job growth in August. The consensus is around 1.6 million jobs. Historically high, but it is lower than July, but there is a real concern right now about the slowdown I was talking about.
Particularly in the service sector, because consumer spending has already dropped in July and August. And after spending the $3 trillion of stimulus, people are starting to wonder about the death accumulation for the first time, but I've heard part of the narrative. It is up almost 100 percent of GDP in 2020. They are going well above that target in 2021.
So, it is starting to bring the day of reckoning, slowdown in 2021, but eventually, a day of reckoning, when you are going to pay this back in higher taxes, because of the situation today.
CURNOW: OK. Thanks for the update there. John Defterios in Abu Dhabi. Thanks John. So, just ahead here on CNN, he won prizes for his effort to save people's lives during Rwandan genocide. There was a movie too. Wm now, he is being held on terror-related charges. What is going on? We'll have that story next.
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[03:50:00]
CURNOW: The European Union is not ruling out sanctions on Russia, over the poisoning of Alexei Navalny. Also it urged Moscow to fully cooperate with an international investigation.
Now, Navalny has been an outspoken critic, you know that of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government. German scientists say he was poisoned by the nerve agent, Novichok, which of course, has been used on other Russian dissidents.
Matthew Chance has more on Moscow on this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There is no need to blame the Russian state, says the Kremlin but the years state's surveillance of Alexei Navalny, now fighting for his life in a German clinic, appears to have been constant. This slick documentary, broadcast in 2017, uses surveillance videos that Navalny with his family, provided by the Russian security services. One of the filmmakers told me to suggest the anti-corruption campaigner, lives in luxury.
DMITRY BELOUSOV, FORMER PRO-KREMLIN JOUNALIST: It was spy video, videos of meetings, Navalny with other politicians. It was a Kompromat about where you got money. Main message, where are you Alexei Navalny got money.
CHANCE: The idea, of course, was to discredit this popular anti- corruption campaign that has made Alexei Navalny, a painful thorn in the Kremlin side. Even during his latest trip to Siberia, his colleagues tells CNN, he was constantly monitored, openly filmed in the street, as he recorded his investigation.
Just days later, Navalny was riding in agony, being stretchered off of a plane, forced to make an emergency landing on the way back to Moscow. German officials say, he was poisoned with a nerve agent, the Kremlin insists, no toxic substances were found in his body.
BELOUSOV: All kinds of his life were open to the FBI. It was a message. We are watching you all from the FSB.
CHANCE: So, if they're watching them all, all the time, if Alexei Navalny was poisoned, then, presumably, the people watching him would have seen that happen, wouldn't they?
BELOUSOV: Exactly. If they are looking, if they are watching for every step of him, they must know who and when did it. They must know. They must know.
CHANCE: Surveillance operations, say the Kremlin, are a matter of the secret services alone, not approved by them. But, for a man watch this closely as Alexei Navalny, it is hard to imagine he is poisoning could had been missed. Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: The daughters of a man, hailed as a hero of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, insist he has been kidnapped, and would not have returned of his own free will to the African nation, because it is just so dangerous for him. Well, Paul Rusesabagina's dramatic backstory was told in the famous movie. Well, now, he is now in custody, charged with terrorism offenses in Rwanda.
Here is David McKenzie. David spoke with his son.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The real life hero behind the movie Hotel Rwanda, Paul Rusesabagina, who saved 1,200 of his fellow Rwandans, at the hotel he managed, during the worst of the 94 genocide. Handcuffed, and paraded in front of cameras, in Rwanda's capital Kigali.
TRESOR RUSESABAGINA, PAUL RUSESABAGINA'S SON: I thought my father was in Texas. In San Antonio, Texas enjoying a nice cup of coffee. No, he is in Rwanda, and he has been arrested. All of the sudden, out of nowhere, we haven't gone to talk to him. That is all I know. Literally.
[03:55:10]
MCKENZIE: His disappearance has shock family and friends back in the United States. A senior UAE government official, told CNN that a week ago, Rusesabagina arrived in Dubai from Chicago, on a commercial flight. Five hours later, he would leave the UAE, on a private jet headed to Rwanda. Rwanda's investigation bureau, announced his arrest on Monday. Saying, it was in connection with terror-related offenses.
Why he got on that private jet is still a mystery. Rusesabagina would have known, if he set foot in President Paul Kagame's Rwanda, he was bound to be locked up. Idolized by Hollywood for his acts of bravery during the genocide, awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington, but over the years, he became Kagame's staunchest critic.
According to Rwanda's powerful president and autocrat, accusing the rebel group that Kagame led to liberate Rwandans from the genocide of violent abuses. Deeply taboo in Rwanda, the country, and with the president that (inaudible) little dissent. And frequently, jails opponents, including one politician, Diane Regara, who wanted to run against him in 2017.
What do you make of those allegations?
RUSESABAGINA: I have to be careful what I say because when you are not careful, what you say then these things happen to my father. So, I'll be careful. Having a thought is a crime in some places. Being your own man is a crime in some places. My father is guilty of having the guts to speak up.
MCKENZIE: Rwandan authorities insisted arrest has nothing to do with politics. Saying, Rusesabagina is suspected to be the founder, leader, sponsor, and member of violent armed extremist terror outfits. They say, he was directly involved in two specific acts of terror in 2018, and will bring more evidence at trial. His family fears that however he got to Rwanda, Rusesabagina faith is already sealed.
David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, David, for that. I'm Robyn Curnow, thanks for watching, another hour of CNN is up next.
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