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Experts Fear Labor Day Crowds Will Fuel Rise In Infections; California Sets New Record For Land Torched By Wildfires; Costa Rica Reopens To American Tourists From Specific States. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 07, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Don't miss Fight for the White House, Donald Trump's Presidency. That's tonight 10:00 P.M. Eastern right here on CNN.

Thanks for joining us. I hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brooke Baldwin picks up our coverage right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: John, thank you so much. And good afternoon to you all. Thank you for joining us on this special Labor Day edition of CNN Newsroom. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Here is just a heads-up. We are waiting to hear from President any minute now. He will be holding a news conference at the White House. He is expected to take questions from reporters who are there. So, of course, we'll take that live.

The news conference comes as the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic continues to be called into question despite his boasts today that he is getting, quote, very high marks. This is all happening as fears are mounting that we will see new outbreaks similar to what we witnessed after Memorial Day holiday weekend and of course 4th of July with Americans from coast-to-coast packing beaches and parks and attending large parties this holiday weekend.

And here is a sign that Americans may be feeling a bit more relaxed. The TSA says that it screened nearly 1 million people at airports on Friday. That is the most air travelers on a single day since the pandemic began.

All of this comes as we prepare to enter flu season with the numbers already reaching staggering levels in this country and nearly 189,000 Americans killed, and close to 6.3 million people infected. And we'll get to all of those various threads today in just a second.

But I want to get to the White House. Let's get back to President Trump's news conference, which should be getting under way shortly there. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live there.

And so, Jeremy, I know it's a bit of an unusual setup for this press conference. What are you expecting?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is an unusual set up. We've never seen the president or, frankly, any other president in recent memory to do a news conference on the front steps of the White House, which is what the north portico effectively is. It's typically used for more ceremonial arrivals, heads of states arriving for state dinners, but not for something like this.

But this seems to follow a pattern of the president using every facet imaginable of this as he campaigns for re-election. And this is Labor Day, as we like to often call it, the unofficial start of the fall campaign. In just eight weeks, Americans will head to the polls on Election Day.

And the president has a slew of stories that he is facing right now, perhaps negative headlines that he doesn't really want to be dealing with. There's, of course, The Atlantic article alleging that the president claimed that fallen soldiers are suckers and losers. Over the weekend, several news outlets, including CNN, Fox News and others, confirming key facets of that article.

We have also gotten some excerpts of this book by Michael Cohen, the president's longtime former aide and fixer, who makes a series of allegations about the president's conduct in private, including some racist comments that Michael Cohen says that the president made.

Both of those stories, I expect, are things that the president will be asked questions about if, indeed, he allows some of the more mainstream media outlets to take questions. Sometimes we know the president likes to gravitate simply to the more friendly conservative outlets that are attending these briefings.

But as for the president, it seems that he wants to talk about something else, and that is the economy and the state of affairs, and expects to have your fact-checker ready, Brooke, because the president has been on Twitter this morning claiming that this is the fastest economic recovery that has ever happened, touting these jobs numbers, but he's missing some key points.

Yes, it is true that this economy added 1.4 million jobs in the latest jobs report, unemployment rating ticking down to 8.4 percent. But what the president isn't talking about is the fact that those numbers actually show that the economic recovery is slowing and actually losing momentum. And now, the key question is can that economic recovery be sustained without additional support from the federal government? Brooke?

BALDWIN: One of the key numbers I read, just to further your point, permanent job losses increased by more than half a million to 3.4 million. That was all what came in on Friday with those numbers. We will stay tuned to all of those key questions, hopefully, those questions get to be asked. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much.

I want to get back now to coronavirus concerns with all the holiday crowds, this Labor Day weekend. We are seeing beaches packed from coast-to-coast. CNN's Rosa Flores is live for us in Miami Beach. And, Rosa, like the hat. How busy is it where you are?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Let me show you around. Walk with me, Brooke. This is iconic Miami Beach. You can see that there are definitely groups of people, most of them I can say are social distancing. The furniture out here, you can also see, is separated, more than six feet apart, again, to allow for social distancing. Some people are wearing masks, others have with them. And then whenever they do come closer to someone, then put those masks on.

Take a look around, you'll see that once you are in the ocean, you don't need to be wearing a mask.

[13:05:01]

That's per the rules here. They do have a campaign called mask up or pay up. There are fines depending on what municipality you are here in Southeast Florida. They can vary from $50 to $100. And if you are a business and you allow people without a mask in your business, up to $500.

But let's take a look at the national picture, because at the height of the pandemic, and, of course, this is the worry for many experts, is that that we could see a surge just like we did after Memorial Day holiday and after July 4th. At the height of the surge here in the United States we were reporting more than 60,000 cases a day. Now, it's closer to 40,000.

Here in South Florida, where I am, the cases are between 2,000 and 3,000 cases but Florida, at the height of the pandemic, was reporting at the height more than 15,000 cases. So that gives you an idea of some of the cases and some of the stabilization here in Florida. Right now, positivity rate in the past two weeks has been between 6 percent and 11 percent. But officials are very concerned, Brooke, about a possible surge post the Labor Day weekend.

And, of course, what they worry about, Brooke, is not just what you see out here out and about but what is happening in private homes and rentals. That was the problem last time because people were having big parties and large gatherings at rentals, rental properties and/or at their homes, and that's where the transmission happened, because the beaches on Memorial Day, they weren't even open, Brooke.

BALDWIN: No. To your point, it's, unless you are getting a COVID test for every single person walking through your front door, you blink and then someone can easily get sick and just a private gathering in your own home. Take it from The Rock, if you've watched his Instagram video on how he and his family got sick. Rosa Flores, thank you very much.

And not only are more people at the beach, they're traveling all around the country this holiday weekend. I mentioned off the top, the TSA is reporting a single day record for airline passengers since the pandemic began. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

And, Pete, why do you think it's so busy?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, it's a glimmer hope for the airline industry still struggling. The lines here still pretty thin compared to a year ago, and the numbers are still a fraction of what they were before the pandemic. But what's so interesting is that the TSA thinks about a million people pass through security through America's airports on Monday, a number not seen since March.

The TSA says about 960,000 people flew on Friday, that number about 45 percent of a year ago. The average though still hovering around 30 percent, meaning that airlines are seeing a stair step recovery back to normal rather than the V recovery that they once hoped.

Airlines are trying to show that you can be confident in flying again with their stepped up cleaning procedures and new mask policies. Delta says it has banned about 270 passengers for refusing to wear a mask on board its flights. It's an entirely different experience here at security as well.

The TSA has installed acrylic barriers in the security line to protect you from employees. They have changed procedures having you empty the pockets into the bag rather than those typical trays to avoid extra touch points. And here at Reagan National Airport, they are trying out a new machine that scans your I.D. and your face to prove that it is really you.

The airline travel industry is desperate for a real rebound and weeks away until tens of thousands of airline employees will be furloughed. They are hoping that this is the start of a real recovery. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Pete, thank you for the update there at Reagan.

Colleges continue to be a major worry across the country with thousands of cases in all 50 states now linked to the opening of college campuses. CNN's Alexandra Field is live in New York with that angle. And so, Alex, what are colleges doing just try to get these outbreaks under control?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are trying to do everything they can, Brooke, throwing pretty much everything at it. Look, bringing students back to campus was always going to be one of the biggest challenge we would face with this pandemic. It's proving to be exactly that. We are seeing it in states across the country.

Some schools cracking down. NYU right here in New York City suspending some 20 students for violating their safety protocols. A similar situation with 11 students at Northeastern. There, they've got a draconian response though. Those students will not get their tuition reimbursed.

Other schools are monitoring. They're seeing what's happened as the days and weeks of this semester progress, and they strengthening their recommendations as a result. At the University of Indiana, they are seeing an outbreak among the Greek system.

So they are recommending that students move out of fraternity and sorority houses. At the University of Illinois, as they see the cases tick up, they are recommending that students limit their in-person activities to essential activities only. Those are tall orders on the college campus.

And here in New York State, we are seeing perhaps the farthest end of the spectrum.

[13:10:00]

SUNY Oneonta had a cluster and outbreak, they continue to monitor that. They put the in-person classes on pause. Now they've announced that they will be canceling in-person classes for the rest of the semester and getting those students off campus. It's just proving to be an insurmountable challenge there.

Brooke, again, these are early days when it comes to the academic year. So we'll keep our eye on this but I expect to see a lot more of this to come.

BALDWIN: I'm sure we will. It is like become ground zero, it seems, for a lot of these COVID clusters. What's interesting is just the wide variety of responses from these schools, and to your point, on Northeastern, they don't even get their tuition back. Wow. Alex Field, thank you very much.

FIELD: There's a lesson.

BALDWIN: Yes.

The state of Maine is serving a somber reminder of exactly how fast and far coronavirus can spread. A third person has died from COVID after an outbreak that originated with a small, intimate wedding. The nuptials back on August 7th also led to nearly 150 infections. More than 50 cases are tied to the wedding event itself. The main CDC believes more than a dozen people at a nursing home got coronavirus and more than 70 cases broke out at the York County Jail all stemming from the wedding.

Now, both of those locations are more than 100 miles from the site of the wedding. And Dr. Nirav Shah is the director of the CDC in Maine. So, Dr. Shah, thank you so much for joining me.

And I want to jump right into your interesting way of explaining this outbreak comparing it to glitter. Explain please, sir.

DR. NIRAV SHAH, DIRECTOR, MAINE CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Well, thanks for having me on, Brooke. That's right. This outbreak has really illustrated why coronavirus is such a challenging thing to contend with.

The way I think about it in my own head is that it's like a giant tube of glitter. And you open that glitter up in your -- the basement. And then a few weeks later, you're in your attic and you find glitter everywhere and you have no idea how it got there. That is illustrative of how quickly, quietly and efficiently COVID-19 can spread across a wide population except for the fact that the glitter here is not innocuous.

It's challenging. It has significant health concerns. And in the setting of this outbreak, it's led to three fatalities among individuals who did not actually attend the wedding itself. BALDWIN: Can you explain that? I know you reference secondary and tertiary cases, but how do you get from folks sick at a wedding to people in a nursing home and then jail? None of whom or some of whom were not even at the wedding? How does that happen.

SHAH: In the setting of the nursing home, for example, it was a secondary person, so someone who was related to somebody who happened to be at the wedding who happened to be an employee of the nursing home. In the setting of the jail, it was at least one individual who happened to be at the wedding itself August 7th who then subsequently went back to work at the jail. There may have been other routes of transmission into the jail. Those are the ones that we have identified thus far.

What this really illustrates is that COVID-19 is not just a challenge. We have all known that. But what it really demonstrates is how as we go into seasons where a lot of activities likely to be back inside as cooler weather sets in. The things that we have thought to be protective, as we've been in the summer, like being outdoors, as we go back indoors, the importance of things like face coverings maintaining distance take on an even heightened importance now.

BALDWIN: And to continue with your analogy, the easier to find glitter in the confines of one's home.

I want to ask you -- just switching topics to vaccine news. I know you have expressed concerns about distributing a vaccine before the phase three trials are complete. And according to The Wall Street Journal, the drug companies, the big drug companies all competing against each other to develop a vaccine plan, are issuing this public pledge not to seek government approval until the shots have been proven safe and effective. Does this at least allay some of your concerns?

SHAH: It does assuage some of the concerns. Although I think it's telling that we're in a position where pharmaceutical industry representatives themselves are even having to take this step.

The concern and the risk attended (ph) to approving a vaccine before all the scientific data are in is significant. We shouldn't have to really be having this conversation because --

BALDWIN: Why are we having it? I want to hear it from you as an M.D. Why is it telling?

SHAH: What I think is telling is that the entire system that we have of pharmaceuticals, especially when it comes to vaccines, in a time of high anxiety and low trust, the entire system is predicated on one thing, credibility or trust.

Indeed, in a crisis like we are in right now, credibility and trust are pretty much the only things that we have got. And moves of this nature, if it were to happen, and we don't know if the route will be through this abbreviated approval process yet, but if it were to happen, it would raise genuine questions about the public's ability trust of any vaccine.

[13:15:06]

Not only would that affect the potential uptake of the vaccine itself but other lasting -- long lasting impacts on the public health system as a whole.

What's concerning are some recent data that just came out from a CBS/YouGov poll just the other day. Two months ago, about 32 percent of Americans said that they would take a vaccine ASAP for COVID-19. The latest data from a day or two ago showed that that number had fallen from 32 percent now 21 percent. That is concerning and we have got more work to do.

BALDWIN: Dr. Nirav Shah, thank you very much for coming on on this holiday Monday.

SHAH: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you, good to have you on.

As we mentioned a little bit ago, live pictures here, north portico at the White House. President Trump is expected to take questions from reporters as he continues to make false claims about the severity of the pandemic. So we'll bring that to you live.

Also ahead, record heat fueling these multiple massive wildfires in California. And authorities say one of those fires was actually sparked by a device at a gender reveal party.

And drugmakers with promising coronavirus vaccines still need more black and Latino participants for their phase three trials. What it can mean for the race to get a vaccine to the public, ahead.

You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

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[13:20:00]

BALDWIN: We are back on this Labor Day Monday. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

With more than 2 million acres scorched, California's wildfires this year have become the worst in state history, and it's only September. This is the Mammoth Pool Reservoir area where at least 224 people were rescued when one of the fires blocked the only road out.

The governor of California has declared a state of emergency in five counties where multiple fires are burning.

And CNN Correspondent Dan Simon is live at an evacuation center near Fresno. And so, Dan, investigators have identified the cause of one of the larger fires. How did it start?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Brooke. The so-called gender reveal parties are becoming more elaborate thanks to social media and some soon to be parents apparently lobbed some type of firework, some pyrotechnics that sparked the fire at San Bernardino County.

And so you now have this out of control wildfire, 7,000 acres or so burned, about 7 percent containment. You do have some evacuations and crews doing their best to put out that fire. But it just goes to show you what can happen when you put some fireworks up during fire season when things are very dry.

In the meantime, we are near Fresno. We are at a school where the Red Cross has set up an evacuation center. This is for the more serious fire burning in Central California, the creek fire, which really got out of control this weekend.

And you did have some 200 or so people at that boat launch at the Mammoth Pool Reservoir, and thanks to military helicopters they got those folks out. It was definitely a harrowing situation. Fortunately, just a few minor injuries, some minor burns apparently and some broken bones. And, hopefully, everybody will be okay, but definitely some rattled nerves.

But, Brooke, the serious concern over the next couple of days is really the heat. We're talking about triple-digit temperatures and the wind, things expected to be windy tomorrow with red flag warnings. So, hopefully, crews make progress today to get that containment number up because, right now, it's zero.

And as you said, Brooke, we are just at the beginning of this wildfire season. Normally, things really heat up in October. We are at the beginning of September. And so looking at a very long fire season, already the worst in history. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Thinking, of course, about the people who live in these areas with those firefighters battling in that heat, as you described, just these walls of flames. Dan Simon, thank you very much for the update there in Clovis, California.

Coming up, drugmakers with potential COVID vaccines need more black and Latino participants for the phase three trials. And I'll talk with one man who has already answered the call to participate. Let's ask him why.

And the postmaster general is in some hot water again, this time for reportedly reimbursing his former employees for donating to Republicans.

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[13:25:00]

BALDWIN: Costa Rica is reopening its border to many American tourists but not quite all. People from eight northeastern states and Washington, D.C. are now welcome. You see here the states in yellow, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Colorado will be allowed as of September 15th. Tourists will have to arrive with a negative COVID test taken within the last 72 hours.

And for a look at other coronavirus headlines, let's check in with our CNN correspondents around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Scott McLean in London where schools are back in session and the government is urging businesses to send their employees back into the office just as the U.K. records its highest single-day coronavirus case count since May.

The British health secretary is blaming young people, particularly affluent young people for the sudden surge in cases saying he is concerned that if they don't follow the rules, they could infect older, more vulnerable parts of the population.

It is a similar trend across Europe, especially in Spain, which just became the first country in Europe to record half a million confirmed coronavirus cases.

Now, luckily, European health care systems have not seen the surge of patients that they saw at the peak of the pandemic. But at least in Spain, deaths are starting to rise once again. The country just recorded its highest single-day tally since May.

VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: I'm Vedika Sud in New Delhi. India has positive results COVID-19 case load on Monday morning. It is now second only to the U.S. when it comes to known COVID-19 cases. India has reported over 90,000 new infections for two consecutive days.

The country's population stands at over 1.36 billion while Brazil has a population of over 211 million.

[13:30:05]

India's confirmed death toll stands at over 71,000.