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U.S. To Hit 200,000 COVID-19 Deaths At Any Time Now; Investors Fear Second Wave, New Restrictions, No Stimulus; Economy versus Environment; Critic of Chinese President Sentenced for Corruption; Trump Gives Himself An A+ For COVID-19 Response; U.S. Republicans Rush To Fill Supreme Court Seat; U.S. To Hit 20,000 COVID-19 Deaths Any Time Now; CDC Removes Guidance About Airborne Transmission; Says It Was Added In Error Amid Political Concerns. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 22, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN HOST: Hello everyone. I'm John Vause and you're watching CNN Newsroom live from Studio 7 at CNN's world headquarters here in London. Ahead this hour with the death toll predicted to hit almost 400,000 by year's end, U.S. president says his pandemic response is worthy of an A+.
U.S. Senate Democrats burn in severe repercussions in the face of gross hypocrisy by Republicans and their rush to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. And global markets tumbled amid fears of new national lockdowns as Europe faces a surge in daily infections.
United States is set to be the first country to record 200,000 dead because of the coronavirus pandemic. Once again the number of daily cases has soared above 40,000 each day on average. Infections are rising in almost 30 states with several reporting positivity rates higher than 16 percent rate.
A rate lower than 3 percent is an indication the outbreak is being controlled and in a surprise reversal, U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention retracted guidance on airborne transmission saying it was posted on Friday in error.
Many suspect political interference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. RICHARD BESSER, FMR ACTING DIR, U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Once you have trust that's been broken, it's extremely hard to get that back and I worry about that. I worry about people questioning great science that CDC puts out because they're not sure what's great science and what has the fingerprints of politics all over it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: When it comes to deaths per 100,000 people; the U.S. is much worse off than countries like Germany, France, Canada and Australia. U.S. makes up less than 4 percent of the global population accounting for more than 20 percent of global deaths.
It's a dismal record to many but one which President Trump describes as phenomenal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD J. TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're rounding the corner with or without a vaccine. They hate it when I say that but that's the way it is. We're rounding the corner on the pandemic and we've done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job. On the job itself we take an A+.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Britain's Prime Minister expected to announce new pandemic restrictions requiring restaurants and pubs in England to limit some service and close by 10:00 PM each night. This starts on Thursday. The U.K. and other parts of Europe are seeing a troubling surge in infections. More now from CNN's Melissa Bell in Paris and also Scott McLean in London.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're facing a steep surge in coronavirus cases. The government has just announced that its COVID-19 alert level has gone up to the second highest level.
That means that the virus is circulating in the general population and the transmission rate is high or even exponential. As a result, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce later today that the government will mandate that pubs and restaurants close early at 10:00 and that only table service will be allowed, something that is not typically customary in British pubs.
Let me show you a couple of graphs that illustrate the fact that young people are really fueling this second wave of the virus but the virus is actually growing amongst all age levels. The number of new cases is doubling every seven days and at that rate the U.K. could see 50,000 new cases of the virus each day in just four weeks.
That's more than the U.S. is seeing right now and the U.K. only has one-fifth of the population. That's not a government prediction, it is just an illustration of what could happen at this rate if the virus is left unchecked the government has already tightened restrictions around social gatherings around England but a week out, it's not clear if they're having a big impact so at this point the government's message to the public has been to follow the rules or to expect those rules to get much tighter. Scott McLean, CNN London.
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Here in Europe, several countries seeing a number of days of extremely worrying rises in those COVID-19 figures not simply the number of new cases but also people entering ICU. Here in the greater Paris region, over the course of the last 3 weeks an 89 percent rise in the number of people entering Intensive Care Units and that's something we've seen in other European cities as well. People getting back to work, back to school and those cities seeing large rises in their number. Hence what we've seen in Madrid from today, people in the six Southern Districts of Madrid were faced with a new lock down, not at nationwide level this time but on a city-wide level simply because that is how European governments are now trying to tackle this, not by looking or contemplating the idea of second lockdowns which many of them believe could be very difficult economically but rather trying to see how they can bring those numbers down on a local level. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Dennis is an infectious disease expert. He oversaw projects as well as program which identified and responded to potential pandemics before they began. The program ended last year after funding by the Trump administration was cut. Dennis, good to see you. It's been a while.
[01:05:00]
DENNIS CARROLL, FORMER HEAD OF USAID'S EMERGING THREATS DIVISION: Yes, it's good to see you again.
VAUSE: Thank you. Now across Europe, the numbers are rising, governments there are putting in place new restrictions, warning that there could be tougher measures to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WHITTY, ENGLAND'S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: The number of deaths directly from COVID, I'll come back to indirect deaths, will continue to rise potentially on exponential curve. That means doubling and doubling and doubling again and you can quickly move from really quite small numbers to really very large numbers because of that exponential process.
So we have in a bad sense literally turned a corner.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Most governments are trying to avoid nationwide lockdowns but at this point, when you look at these numbers, is it inevitable that at least some countries will have to bring back those lockdowns?
CARROLL: Well, it's first off, it's clear that we're moving into the fall season and we have said consistently since the beginning of this pandemic, that the fall in the winter seasons represent the most volatile time for transmission and so I think what we're beginning to see and anticipate was playing itself out in Europe right now is the early signal that weather is cooling and the transmission setting for the virus is becoming far more favourable.
So it's only as we should be looking at this as a window in which to understand what is likely to happen soon in the United States.
VAUSE: These stay-at-home orders or lockdowns, initially they were put in place, essentially to spread out over time the impact of the virus so our healthcare system would not be overwhelmed although we're never going to solve the problem, it seems that many people around the world thought once the lockdowns were over and were lifted so too the threat was over but that's certainly not the case.
CARROLL: Well you know, these lockdowns exactly as you said, they were about trying to minimize a dramatic sudden overwhelming of the whole system and they were intended to spread the burden of the pandemic across a longer period of time but that was also the opportunity to begin putting in place, the measures that really would have brought this virus under control and two critical measures that really are essential to ultimately bringing this virus under control is having readily available rapid diagnostics and contact tracing capabilities to identify and follow and isolate and eliminate the virus among infected population.
What we've seen is lockdowns have been executed but we've not seen an equivalent commitment to building up the capabilities to have readily available diagnostics for everyone, every household, every community that are rapid, efficient and reliable and to have the kind of contact tracing that allows you to bring a much more strategic surgical if you will, isolation elimination of this virus so.
VAUSE: The CDC posted new warnings last week that the virus could spread by the air, beyond the current guidelines up within six feet making it far more contagious, far more dangerous. Many scientists believe this is already the case but for the third time since May, the CDC has made a significant retraction in that advise, officially saying it was an error. What do you suspect is happening at the CDC and what are the consequences of this?
CARROLL: Well, let's first off say about the science. The World Health Organisation already issued guidance speaking to that this virus is aerosolizable. CDC's both you know establishing this new information and then retracting it within a matter of days. Again, see we see a pattern of flip flopping that is just totally contrary to the long standing history of this agency that has been the preeminent public health institution for the world.
Really the technologic and scientific leader from public health and we have seen from beginning of this pandemic, persistent and consistent wavering backing off directives ultimately not only undercutting their own integrity as a valid source of information but adding to the confusion among the general public.
What do they believe? They say one thing one day and another thing another day and the one thing we do know that if we're going to bring this virus under control, clear, consistent messaging is an absolute requirement, that the public understands they know what it is that they do need to do, they understand the risks and this backtracking, most recent backtracking further sort of confuses the public.
[01:10:00]
And quite frankly it gives fodder to the anti-science advocates out there that are pushing back on all measures that have to do with bringing this virus under control.
VAUSE: With that we're out of time but the Dennis Carroll, thank you so much. We appreciate you being with us. Thank you.
CARROLL: Thank you.
VAUSE: Well, the race for the White House could be facing huge shake up after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. President Trump's already meeting with potential nominees and says he will announce his choice by week's end.
And two Republican senators Chuck Grassley and Corey Gardner who may have been opposed to a nomination before the election have now publicly supported a quick vote. The issue is set to motivate both Republicans and Democrats and could take the spotlight away from the administration's failed pandemic response.
Here's CNN's Jim Acosta with details.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With 43 days until the election, the president is hoping to galvanize conservatives by seizing on the sudden opening at the Supreme Court left by the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
TRUMP: I'd rather have it before the election.
ACOSTA: Mr. Trump is dismissing Ginsburg's dying wish that the seat be filled by the winner of the 2020 election falsely claiming that's a phony plea cooked up by Democrats.
TRUMP: I don't know that she said that or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi.
ACOSTA: Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff fired back, Mr. President, this is low even for you. Sources tell CNN the top two favorites for the open seat appear to be judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa, both appointed by Mr. Trump.
Barrett is revered by conservatives and seen as reliably anti-abortion while Lagoa would give Mr. Trump, the chance to place a Latina on the High Court.
SEN. MITCH MCCONELL (R-KY): This Senate will vote on this nomination this year.
ACOSTA: But the issue puts Republicans in a tight spot as they block for President Barack Obama's election of Merritt Garland for open seat in 2016, complaining it was an election year. Now some of those same lawmakers face accusations of hypocrisy.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said let the next president, whoever it might be made that nomination and you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I don't think we should be moving forward on our nominee in the last year of this president's term. I would say that if it was a Republican president.
ACOSTA: Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris argues the solution is to wait.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): Whoever's elected to be making a decision about who sits on the United States Supreme Court. Period.
ACOSTA: Besides abortion rights, a new more conservative Supreme Court could also strike down Obamacare even though the president has yet to produce his own health care plan.
TRUMP: I do want to say that we're going to be introducing a tremendous healthcare plan sometime prior - hopefully prior to the end of the month, it's just about completed now.
ACOSTA: And we're told earlier in the day, President Trump met with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, one of his top contenders for the seat left by the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. President told reporters he's already spoken with some of his contenders on his short list and will continue to do so over the coming days. Jim Acosta CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Patrick Healy is a CNN Political analyst and a politics editor for the New York Times. Good to see you, Patrick. Thanks for coming back.
PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Happy to be here.
VAUSE: OK. Republican senator, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham told Fox news a few hours ago, the Supreme Court nomination, pretty much a done deal. Here he is. Look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg replacement before the election. We're going to move forward in the committee. We're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Assuming Graham is right about the numbers, no reason to not assume there. Are there any senate procedures open to Democrats to stall all this down just all out warnings of retribution after the November election?
HEALY: Yes, I think that's right and there's - there are very few levers of power that the Democrats have at this point to slow down or stop either of the Judiciary Committee led by Graham or actually you know Florida Bob before election day if that's what Mitch McConnell decides to do.
What the Democrats now are really looking at is trying to make it a full throated argument to voters in the November election, basically saying that the Republicans are not just hypocritical but possibly putting you know Roe versus Wade at risk, the Affordable Care Act at risk and just a host of legislations.
So really trying to run very aggressively against the Republican Party but actually stopping a Trump nominations going to be very difficult at this point.
VAUSE: You know, just to remind everyone here, the hypocrisy here is because four years ago Mitch McConnell refused to have a hearing of Merrick Garland who was on Obama nominee to the Supreme Court. That's how Neil Gorsuch ended up there. And now it's complete.
According to McConnell we must have this before the election.
[01:15:00]
But you know one thing that the Democrats have warned of is if they control the senate after November, they could increase the number of justices from nine to whatever they want, maybe add ten.
The argument against that is that if Republicans take control back, they'll add ten more judges. So what? The ninth court of appeal, the circuit court has 29 judges. That works perfectly fine.
HEALY: Yes and really it could spiral. The question here partly is will Joe Biden actually go down that road? He has opposed court packing in the past. You know he - today didn't really give a direct answer on that question and there are certainly going to be progressive Democrats who are going to want to go in that - in that route and I think even moderate Democrats in this party who will feel that really there's sort of no alternatives unless you're going to have you know an ultra-Right Supreme Court.
But I think the scenario you lay out is exactly right. It's just how much retribution you know tit for tat, tit for tat you know would both parties be willing to go to and how much would voters put up with that.
VAUSE: Moving on, we had the president, he appeared at a rally in Ohio, Monday night. Before he made this appearance on stage, the state's lieutenant governor, he was a warm up act if you like. Listen to the reaction when he talked about wearing a facemask.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON HUSTED, OHIO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: But if you go into a grocery store where you got a wear one, all right. Hang on, hang on, just listen up. Just listen up.
CROWD: BOOO.
HUSTED: All right, I get it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, the booing, the direct result of a president, he's played down the importance of masks, but he clearly knows the dangers posed by the pandemic and again, here is Trump talking to journalist Bob Woodward in February.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It goes through air Bob. That's always tougher than the touch. You know the touch - you don't have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed and so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than your even your strenuous flus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes and one way of controlling it for airborne transmission is wearing a mask. You know what doesn't make any sense here is that by controlling the pandemic, by wearing a mask, it would help the economy which is in Trump's best interest. Why is he so against it?
HEALY: You know for years now, the Republican Party has had a very strong libertarian instead band. Voters who don't like to be told what to do by the government and that goes back to Ronald Reagan and well before who are not looking to the head of their party to sort of tell them how to live their lives.
The reality is that President Trump knew how deadly this virus was early on. He knew how it was spread. Frankly, he knew that masks you know certainly short of a vaccine, that masks would be an incredibly strong preventative measure that they take but he also knew that among his base, a lot of Republicans just did not want to be told by the government even scientists to wear masks.
And rather than lead, rather than set an example and model behavior, you know he decided to play to the instincts of I think those rally goers who we heard on the tape. You know who just see sort of masks and the need to keep each other safe frankly as too much of a burden, too much government intrusion in their lives.
VAUSE: You were very, very diplomatic. Thank you Patrick Healy. We appreciate it. Thank you for being with us. Take care.
HEALY: You too.
VAUSE: The first prime time election debate in New Zealand just hours away and when we come back, can the opposition land some blows on a Prime Minister loved around the world for her pandemic response?
Also urgent warnings in Canada and parts of the country facing a second wave of the virus.
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[01:20:00]
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VAUSE: Past general assemblies at the U.N. have been described as diplomatic speed dating but this year there'll be no speed dating. World leaders will be keeping their distance. They'll not gather in New York for the 75th anniversary of the U. N.
Instead, they'll appear on tape on recorded messages addressed to largely empty assembly hall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ROTH. CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: All the speeches that the audience around the world have come to love, all of the world leaders are on tape, pre-recorded likely at least four days ahead of time. Now President Trump on Monday said he had just recorded his remarks and he's going to be strong on China so the others will really - no one will get a chance to verbally respond to perhaps an attack made by someone else and we do expect President Trump to attack of many countries.
China which speaks 10th on Tuesday morning. Donald Trump goes second as is the custom of the host country after the traditional first speaker, Brazil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: There will still be sidelined meetings kind of. They'll address issues like climate change, biodiversity but they'll be mostly virtual. New Zealand is just a few hours away from its first major debate of the 2020 general election.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the much admired leader praised for her leadership during the pandemic will face off against the opposition leader Judith Collins. Despite her popularity at home. Ardern has recently come under fire for taking selfies with her supporters without wearing a mask or practising social distancing. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong with details.
You know, there has been the surge in the polls for Labor, the party with Jacinda Ardern. The address and the opposition National party has really struggled to land a blow. It seems that anything that has happened here has been kind of self-inflicted my Prime Minister Ardern.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jacinda Ardern has been hailed around the world for her tough pandemic response and she does enjoy overwhelming support for her pandemic measures inside her country New Zealand as well but there have been some criticisms for these selfish that have been taken, showing Jacinda Ardern posing very closely without adequate social distancing and without wearing masks with supporters on the campaign trail.
As expected it is election season so opposition candidates have seized on this, criticized the lack of social distancing but Jacinda Ardern, she did acknowledge it in a press conference on Monday and said that she "made a mistake."
Now it was back in March when the coronavirus was burning through the west, when Jacinda Ardern presented her country with the choice to either let the virus in or to lock it out and she chose the second option.
The country went under lockdown, sealed its borders, introduced some of the toughest anti-pandemic measures in the west and by June it declared that the virus was eliminated but the virus returned in August and it spread in Auckland, the most populous city in New Zealand.
This city represents and 40 percent of the nation's economy. The lockdown has hurt the economy a lot but the outbreak is now under control and the restrictions are still being lifted this week. I want you to listen to what Jacinda Ardern said earlier defending her cautious approach in handling the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACINDA ARDERN, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: Some may query the cautious approach we're taking. It's worth noting that the last time we moved to level one, we did so after no cases for 14 days and only two cases in the four months we were at level two.
Also an analysis completed for the Ministry of Health suggests that by the end of this month, there is still a 50-50 chance of having eliminated COVID once again. That is of course for us not to get ahead of ourselves and to remind the-
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Jacinda Ardern there, defending her cautious approach at handling the pandemic. She's also pledged to bring the country back to economic growth. New Zealand has - is now in a technical recession. It's going through its deepest economic slump as a result of COVID-19. [01:25:00]
And a few hours from now Jacinda Ardern will have her first live television debate with her main challenger, the opposition National Party Judith Collins. That face off due to take place shortly. Judith Collins is expected to hone her attack at Jacinda Ardern's promises and whether she'll be able to keep them. Back to you John.
VAUSE: Yes, thank you Kristie. We should note that Judith Collins is the third National Party leader they've had this year, not expected to do pretty well in the coming election but we'll see. Kristie Lu Stout, live in Hong Kong.
Public health officials in Canada say parts of the country are facing a second wave of COVID- 19. They're urging people to stay at home as much as possible. They say there are too many large gatherings, too many close social contacts to contain the spread.
CNN's Paula Newton reports from Ottawa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For so many months here in Canada the talk was that the country would crush the curve and indeed for several months, everyone had. Cases were very low, really little bit more than 300 cases for a certain amount of weeks throughout the entire country.
Not anymore. We are now getting here in Canada to an average daily caseload of about 1000 new cases per day. Doesn't sound like a lot but it's the trend line that is really bothering authorities in the sense that it is going straight up.
The province of Quebec, the capital Ottawa where I am already declaring the second wave has started. Now look, a lot of these cases are in young people under the age of 40 and for that reason hospitalizations remain quite low. Still authorities are saying look, keep to your bubble, stay home, mask up.
And the reason is that trend line again when you think about the fact that this has been a doubling of cases in really little more than a month, that is what is so troubling to public health officials and here in Canada the death rate, early on in the pandemic was actually quite high.
No one wants to go back to that scenario, especially as winter is approaching. Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
VAUSE: Well, the White House insists the economy is recovering and recovering quickly but that's not what all the experts are saying, a lot of them at least. The latest on that in a moment.
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TOM JENKINS, CEO, EUROPEAN TOURISM ASSOCIATION: Any - contains risks. Of course people have to be responsible. I think arguably the biggest risk is that the transport nodes and the airports and the aircrafts are in broad terms, I think people have to start enjoying themselves.
Ultimately, there's an equation there. People will sit there and decide whether the risk is worth the experience. And if they think the risk is worth the experience they'll go and do things.
VAUSE: Thanks for staying with us. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm John Vause. In the coming hours, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expected to announce new measures to slow the coronavirus.
From Thursday bars and restaurants will be required to close at 10:00 PM and the COVID alert level will be raised to four meaning transition is high. Meanwhile while many returning to work places.
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[01:29:50]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for staying us. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. In the coming hours, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expected to announce new measures to slow the coronavirus in England. From Thursday, bars and restaurants will be required to close it and 10:00 p.m. And the COVID alert level will be raised from 4 -- to 4 rather, meaning transmission is high.
Meanwhile, while many are returning to workplaces and schools, parts of Europe are seeing a big increase in deadly coronavirus cases. In the past few weeks France has seen a spike in patients admitted to intensive care. More than 800,000 people are under new lockdown measures in Madrid.
Meantime in the U.S. it will see a dismal milestone at any moment now which will be about 200,000 dead because of the pandemic. And the president is patting himself on the back for how handling the crisis.
Nick Watt explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very soon, we will pass 200,000 people killed by COVID-19 in America. More than double what the president predicted in the spring.
DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: We may be at 300,000 by New Year's. This is not necessary. This is not deaths that need to happen. We need a national strategy to avoid this from happening.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are rounding the corner and we have done a phenomenal job.
WATT: No, and no. COVID-19 cases are in fact on the rise. There is the upturn on the graph. We are averaging more than 40,000 new cases a day again.
DR. MEGAN RANNEY, BROWN UNIVERSITY: We are worried that it is only going to continue. This is the beginning of our second wave.
WATT: Texas went from mid summer hotspot to curve crusher, but now an upturn.
Fewer than 22,000 people just attended the Cowboys season opener but excitement, trampled all over social distancing.
Why are numbers now rising in more than half of states? Could be Labor Day mingling? Colleges going back? People moving indoors as the outdoors get chilly.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We may be in for an apocalyptic fall, I'm sorry to say.
ADMIRAL BRETT GIROIR, ASST. SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Vaccines early as possible even in a few million doses will be a godsend in terms of outcomes, hospitalizations, morbidity and deaths.
WATT: Meanwhile, the FDA which would approve any vaccine and also the CDC now has to run everything through the HHS. The press release reads in part, "No regulation issues from any part of HHS without the approval of the Secretary and the White House.
DR. RANNEY: It implies that HHS is going to be serving a censorship function. Our science, our approvals have never had to go through HHS in order to get released to the general public.
WATT: Friday, the CDC finally confirmed that COVID particles can float in the air, makes this virus even more infectious. Today, the CDC took that guidance down claiming a draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency's official Web site.
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: The fact that they retracted this, even though this is common scientific knowledge at this point, one has to wonder what is behind it? Was there political pressure?
WATT: Here is a well informed opinion on how long is this tunnel. How far away is the light?
BILL GATES, FOUNDER, MICROSOFT: The end of the epidemic best-case is probably 2022, but during 2021, the numbers we should be able to drive them down if we take the global approach.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Dr. Leana Wen is a CNN medical analyst and emergency room physician at George Washington University and former health commissioner for Baltimore City. Good to see you. I
DR. WEN: Good to join you. Well, the possibility of airborne transmission of the coronavirus, it's been known some time. And here's how the WHO defines it. This is speaking on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WHO HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAMME: We have always said the smaller droplet that spread this diseases and that is very context driven. People crowded into a small space without adequate ventilation, where they are there for a long duration of time. In that situation, aerosol based transmission can occur. And this has been demonstrated to occur.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But, the CDC guidance which was retracted, this is significant from that. So explain in what way and why it was so significant, especially when it comes to wearing face masks?
DR. WEN: So the science has been accumulating now for several months. Initially at the very beginning of this pandemic, we thought that the virus that causes COVID-19 was transmitted only through these larger respiratory droplets. So you cough, you sneeze, you transmit that way. But then it became clear that it's not only through coughing and sneezing, just by talking and breathing we are also expelling these very small microscopic aerosols that carry the virus as well.
That virus can linger in the air for minutes, maybe even hours, and so that's why wearing masks is so important. That is also why indoors is much more dangerous than outdoors where those large particles could be defused much more quickly.
And that is also why the CDC guidance that was up for a brief time emphasized ventilation, having air purifiers and I think -- and having all these measures come together, because it is synergistic. That all of them working together is what's going to save lives.
[01:34:59]
DR. WEN: And so that's why when CDC guidelines were then removed suddenly and inexplicably, a lot of us have to wonder why. Why was there -- why was there such whiplash? What happened? And was there political interference at play here?
VAUSE: Well, with that in mind many doctors, health experts, public health experts agree with Dr. Ashish Jha, who's a regular on CNN. He tweeted over the weekend, "Extraordinary to see the CDC finally acknowledge what scientists have been saying for months. The coronavirus mainly spreads by inhalation of droplets and aerosols. Maybe the superb CDC scientists are finally being unmuzzled, we could hope."
And again, to that point, it looks like the muzzle has been put back on. This is the third time since May that a retraction has been made. So is there more to this than, you know, just simply a mistake?
DR. WEN: Well frankly, we should be hearing from the CDC every day. They should be providing a briefing to the public every day about the state of the outbreak, about the latest science, and then to explain how the latest research and data will influence policy and will influence our daily lives.
This is just crazy that initially the guidance appeared as a change of the CDC Web site that was only discovered because reporters at CNN had found it. But why was it just suddenly on the Web site?
This really was something that needed to be explained to everybody else, to the public, because it has huge implications on classrooms, on airplanes, on even indoor gatherings that people are having. And then if there is a change, even if there is a mistake, there also needs to be an explanation to the public.
Without that explanation and especially with so many recent instances of political interference, it really makes one doubt the credibility of the CDC, the FDA and other top scientific institutions. Once that trust is eroded, it's really hard to get back.
VAUSE: Ok. With that in mind, the death toll here in the United States is expected to come close to 400,000 by the end of the year. Here is President Trump on Monday giving himself a self assessment of the administration's response. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're rounding the corner. With or without a vaccine. They hate it when I say that, but that's the way it is. We are rounding the corner on the pandemic. We have done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job, a phenomenal job.
On public relations I give myself a D, on the job itself we take an A plus with the ventilators and now with the vaccines that are years ahead of schedule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A phenomenal job from your point of view? A good job? How do you see it? Awesome job? Great job?
DR. WEN: I would -- yes, so I would give President Trump and the Trump administration an F, because what else can we call it when we are rounding to 200,000 deaths and many more hundreds of thousands on the way?
Maybe initially there were mistakes that another administration might have made too. But then there were so many mistakes that continue to be made. I mean we still do not have a national coordinated strategy. We still have mixed messaging.
Public health is still being somehow pitted as the enemy of the economy when actually it is the roadmap back. There is still something as basic as masks that has been politicized by the Trump administration and by President Trump himself. At this point it is just so tragic that we know what it takes in order to save lives but we're not doing it.
VAUSE: Very quickly, Europe is seeing a surge in numbers much like we're seeing a surge in numbers in the United States. Compared to the Trump administration, the Europeans, the governments are actually doing -- taking action. They are reimposing strict -- restrictions on movement, thinking about lockdowns once again.
Here in the U.S., it seems that nothing like that is happening. Does that mean that we can expect sort of what happened in the earlier part of this year to happen all over again? A surge in the U.S. whereas European will get this sort of under control, I guess, fairly quickly?
DR. WEN: Yes, because Europe at least is imposing restrictions when they see their numbers rise versus here in the U.S. because of quarantine fatigue, because we don't have a coordinated national strategy, we are just going to continue to see surges.
At best, we can hope for a guacamole where we control the surges at one area only to see high rises in other areas. But that means that there will be many more preventable infections and deaths.
VAUSE: Ok. Leana Wen, thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate it. DR. WEN: Thank you.
VAUSE: Fears of that second wave of the pandemic in Europe (ph) and diminishing hopes for another U.S. stimulus bill are weighing on stocks. Dow futures are sharply lower after a fall of nearly 2 percent on Monday. That was the biggest one day lost in about two weeks.
Let's take a look at the markets in Asia, how they finished out the day. I think -- there we go. Hong Kong down by just over half a percent. Shanghai down almost half a percent. Seoul Kospi down by just over 2.25 percent, a big drop there for Seoul.
For more let's go to business executive Ryan Patel. We also have our emerging markets editor John Defterios in Abu Dhabi. And John, we'll go to you first.
What is driving this sell off? Is it the uptick in the number of coronavirus cases in the U.K., the U.S. or is it something else?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, there is a number of factors coming together, John and that's why we saw a bit of panic on Wall Street yesterday.
[01:39:51]
DEFTERIOS: COVID-19, the countries that were behind the curve initially, the U.S., the U.K. and some in Europe have never caught up. And they are in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. So that is a drag on growth. No doubt about it.
But it's the influence of COVID-19 on some other key factors that have been coming together now for the last two weeks. One that popped up over in the last week is the Supreme Court decision that is going to be made because we don't know what it means to Obamacare, for example.
So health care stocks were down 5 or 6 percent. And the stalemate over the Supreme Court decision, which it could create, is impacting the discussions about the stimulus bill. We talked about this last week. $2.2 trillion in the House. The White House is looking for a $1.5 trillion, the Senate Republicans don't want to pass anything whatsoever.
And in this context, John, everybody thought we would not have the second wave. A vaccine would be here. The stimulus packages that we saw so far would kind of ride us into 2021 and we grow.
The second half of 2021 is probably the time where we can recover. And I'm not alone in these thoughts. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN SCHMIDT, HEAD OF U.S. EQUITIES AVIVA INVESTORS: The markets I think are going to continue to be volatile -- right up and essentially (ph) through the election. And really, it's all about looking forward and trying to make the call on how the economy fares through the end of this year and then importantly through 2021. (END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: We have a case, John, through 2021 what happens. But we can measure volatility, the fear index, VIX remains extremely high. And investors are watching that. And the valuations on the Nasdaq again or right at the levels we saw in 1999.
And for the first time John, we saw major recedes (ph) or selling off of fund holdings in the United States linked to the Nasdaq. I have to say the silver lining today is that the spillover to Asia is limited -- I saw the sell-off in Seoul, but we don't see U.S. futures down sharply at this stage after that washout and all that volatility we saw on the Wall Street indices on Monday.
VAUSE: Well, everything you just said about the outlook for the economy, the U.S., the White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says, no. Here he is, listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: As more businesses reopen, as the virus is increasingly contained and the fatality rate have stayed very low, we are in a V-shaped recovery with at least 20 percent growth coming up.
Job numbers have been very good. Booming retail sales and housing and autos and inventory cycle building. These are very positive things and I think that is going to be reflected in the stock market before long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Ryan, is Larry Kudlow living in an alternative reality, just making stuff up that sounds good or deliberately making misleading statements hoping they come true?
RYAN PATEL, GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVE: Does it look like they're trying to run for election in November? I mean, they've got to make it sure that -- they've got to make sure the market looks good when it gets there to that point.
I mean what Larry is saying is what he is hoping, right. He's hoping retail sales are going to come back. It's clear that retail has taken a hit. It's clear in the last four days, that you've seen the market take a hit because majority of the consumer stocks have taken a hit.
We look at banks. Even, you know, the reason why the futures in Wall Street right now were as bad because of the tech stocks made a little bit of a really. So, you know, I hate to use the word "uncertainty", but investors and people just want to know, are we going down? Are we going up? This going up and down, up and down it's something that it's also very -- it puts people in a position to hold on to the cash. Makes the more conservative and you know, restaurants, small businesses, it's a wait and see, John.
VAUSE: And just, you know, one thing that Kudlow doesn't really get into is that that 20 percent growth, that could be actually there in the forecast -- this is for Ryan -- but what he doesn't talk about though is that the quarter after that which, you know a lot of the banks are saying will be dismal and a lot of that 20 percent economic growth for the third quarter is based on the U.S. Congress passing the stimulus bill which is going nowhere.
So you know, it can be true as I have said but it looks like it's not going to happen, Ryan.
PATEL: I mean no one is telling me that the U.S. GDP is going to be 20 percent more next year or let alone, you know, up the half a basis point higher than this year, right? So it's -- you may reach a first quarter.
I mean even John -- let me take a step back because if you get the 20 percent hit, you are assuming that the virus is not increasing. You are assuming everything is back to normal, which we know many companies, many CEOs are already planning into the middle of next year and the next year of coming back to the office.
So that tells you we're still back not to normal. So yes, there are always winners and losers in some sectors. It's easy to pick which sectors are winning, but also there's a lot of losing sectors right now that need a lot of help.
There is a reason why we're putting a stimulus package together, John. It's not because they want to. It's because they need to. They need to keep these companies afloat while whatever that normalcy comes back.
[01:44:41]
VAUSE: And John, very quickly, when we look at the indicators which the White House is pointing to for a healthy recovery -- be it, you know, a fall on the unemployment numbers, retail sales, the housing market -- correct me if I'm wrong but they are all lagging indicators, aren't they?
The biggest leading indicator is going to be the stock market, but that is sort of being contaminated by trillions of dollars of printed money.
DEFTERIOS: Well, in fact, we've gotten addicted to the printed money that you're talking about, John. We're looking at $20 trillion dollars worldwide in terms of global stimulus. And this log jam that we have on Capitol Hill to get the second major stimulus underway.
But look, we have eight days, airline bailouts are pending. The president had to use an executive order for jobless benefits to carry through during the stalemate. And as Ryan was saying, we don't like uncertainty so you can go to an election. We don't know the outcome of that election, whether Donald Trump would leave the White House if he was defeated in this election. That is not what is investors like.
And then you add to this in the last 48 hours we have seen investigations, caches of emails, talking about the banking sector, major Wall Street and European banks supporting money laundering. There's another report today of a Divide Gold House (ph) doing the same thing. Again, this is a whole umbrella of kind of cloudiness on the horizon. And I agree with Ryan on this. Going into the second half of 2021, if you talk to the CEOs, they are not banking on a V-shaped recovery. The stimulus package that's on the table right now would get you through the end of the year, maybe a contraction of the negative 4 percent.
That does not mean we will snap back 5 to 6 percent in the United States in growth or globally, you have to worry about the developing world that probably won't have access to the vaccines that Europe and the U.S. is kind of counting on at this stage.
VAUSE: Ryan Patel and John Defterios, two of the best. Thank you for the reality check.
Well, jobs, energy and the economy versus the environment. Ahead we'll take you to the heart of the climate change debate -- coal mines of Poland and the communities they support.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Like many countries, Poland's heavy reliance on coal is a major obstacle when it comes to carbon emissions reduction and transitioning to cleaner fuel could have a very real cost.
Here is CNN's Phil Black reporting from the heart of the climate change debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The rough track turns a corner and we descend into a vast, unnatural space. A monument to humans' ability to change the earth. It's a sight sure to make climate activists despair. Poland's Turow (ph) coal mine and power station, sitting together, locked in a high carbon, long term relationship that's not ending soon.
Here at the pit space, giant (INAUDIBLE) wheeled digging machines gouge the earth away. Lignite (ph) or brown coal is sorted from waste and swept by conveyor belts directly into the belly of the power station where it burns, generating 8 percent of Poland electricity.
[01:49:56]
BLACK: What they pull from the earth here has provided energy for the Polish people, fueled their economy for more than 70 years. But it's also a source of security, of national pride and cultural identity. Whole families and communities have been built on this and they will not give it up easily.
5,000 plus people are directly employed in the mine and power station, many more live around them. The whole region's economy feeds off them.
Thomas and Marta Kukuch (ph) they have worked in the mine for decades. So did his parents and his grandfather before them. They tell me they are proud miners who know action must be taken to
slow down global warming, but not at the expense of everyone who relies on the mine. That feeling runs deep here, even with the members of the 69th (INAUDIBLE) Scouts Group.
Like many teenagers around the world, they say they love nature and worry about the earth's future. But they are also proud to say they recently collected signatures for a petition to save the Turow coal mine. They don't see a contradiction.
Amelia (INAUDIBLE) says supporting the mine does not mean we don't support the environment.
Turow has permission to keep going for another six years. The state- owned operators do not want to close until 2044.
SANDRA APANASIONEK, SPOKESPERSON, PGE GROUP: We go definitely in this way. But we have to do it slowly, just slowly. Not in one year, not in two years; we need a little bit more time for it.
BLACK: That logic sustains Poland's dirty fuel habit. Around 75 percent of the country's energy comes from coal. There's gradual investment in renewables but the government says coal power is here to stay until at least 2050.
And while energy analysts say COVID-19 was an opportunity to close loss-making coal mines, Poland instead successfully lobbied against linking the release of the European Union's pandemic recovery funds to green policies.
This all matters because independent analysis by scientists at climate action tracker shows the Eu is already a long way behind at feeding its emissions targets under the Paris Agreement. The global accord thrashed out to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Like many countries, Poland faces difficult decisions, breaking coal dependence will inevitably hurt people and change lives. But governments transitioning too slowly risk allowing far greater suffering across our warming planet.
Phil black, CNN -- southwestern Poland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: It could've been the clown comparison, the accusation of a cover-up or crisis of government -- whatever it was a billionaire real estate mogul is now paying the price for criticizing China's President Xi Jinping.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Developing story out of China now. An outspoken critic of President Xi Jinping has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption. Billionaire, real estate developer Ren Zhiqiang wrote a scathing essay back in March. It was very critical of Xi and his leadership or lack thereof during the pandemic. [01:54:59]
VAUSE: CNN's Steven Jiang, live in Beijing this hour. And what a surprise. Ren confessed to his crimes, all of them.
STEVEN JIANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, that's right. You know, his fate was very much sealed when he was formally indicted because you know, this is a country with a 99 percent criminal conviction rate.
Now his alleged crimes here or his convicted crimes here are all corruption related. He was accused of embezzling a huge amount of public funds, taking bribes and abusing power that caused huge losses for the state company that he was once a head of.
But of course, these are the same kind of charges and crimes the authorities have long used to go after government critics and former officials.
Now Ren Zhiqiang, this billionaire tycoon himself was born into an elite family of the Communist Party, and he was known to have close ties to senior Chinese officials. That's why, for a long time he was really unusually candid and critical of the government and his comment about Chinese politics.
But this time, it seems his biggest crime, as you mentioned, was not one in the court document. He wrote that essay back in March, calling Mr. Xi without naming him though a power hungry clown that puts the parties interest above people's safety in dealing with this pandemic, and also while lashing out at the party's crackdown on media freedom as well as the intolerance of any dissent.
Now, of course, then he disappeared and the authorities confirmed in April, he was under investigation. And in July, they expelled him from the Party, really paving the way for the prosecution which led to where we are today.
So John this is really the clearest message yet from the party, a very chilling one to the Chinese elite that in today's China, any open criticism, any defiance of Mr. Xi, the most powerful leader in decades is simply not tolerated, John.
VAUSE: You can make your billions but you can't speak out.
Steven Jiang in Beijing, thank you.
And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. My colleague Robyn Curnow takes over after a very short break.
You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:59:48]
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Robyn Curnow.
So coming up, the U.K. is set to announced new lockdown restrictions after a surge in COVID cases.
The U.S. goes it alone on Iran again. The Trump administration is reimposing sanctions on Iran without the support of allies.
Plus -- the political battle for the U.S. Supreme Court. Republicans vow to push ahead with confirming a new justice.
