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Dr Roshini Raj Discusses "Misguided" Antibodies, Genetic Mutation May Be to Blame for Severe Cases; Brianna Responds to White House's Baseless Attacks; COVID-19 Survivor: I Got Glaucoma. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired September 25, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
DR. ROSHINI RAJ, CONTRIBUTING MEDICAL EDITOR, "HEALTH" MAGAZINE & ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, NYU: However, sometimes that immune response, the antibodies can go haywire and attack your own body.
And in that case, you're not doing yourself any good. In fact, you can have an overwhelming reaction to that. That's why sometimes people end up in the ICU or even dying.
So this concept of autoantibodies, those antibodies that attack your body. And in this study, it shows they were attacking some of the immune factors that usually help you fight off the virus.
Since those are being attacked in lower levels, people that tended to have that autoantibody reaction did worse with the disease.
They also looked at a subgroup of people who were very sick, who had a genetic mutation in the production of one of these immune factors.
It's called gamma interferon. It's one of the tools that the body uses to fight off viral infections. And in this subgroup, that level was actually reduced with the mutation.
And they found that it was much more likely to be a male person with a genetic mutation than a female, which may explain why we saw many more deaths and severe illness in men versus women.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Dr. Raj, thank you so much. You always make things so much clearer.
ROSHINI: Thank you.
KEILAR: Ahead, a young coronavirus survivor will join me on the long- term impact that she's been battling, which includes glaucoma.
Plus, I'll speak live with a retired rear admiral who organized the letter with 500 national security experts endorsing Joe Biden.
And I'm going to respond to the White House's baseless attacks on me, the wrong Brianna that they should be worried about. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:16]
KEILAR: Yesterday, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, implied that I'm responsible for two police officers being shot in Louisville. She is lying to Americans again. And I'll address that in a moment.
But first, I'm not the Brianna that the White House should be focused on right now. Breonna Taylor is.
Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT, who just worked a series of overnight shifts in the E.R. as coronavirus started to take hold in the U.S., when she was shot dead by the police.
Breonna Taylor who was killed in a police raid that was the apparent result of poor detective work and the execution of a warrant led by officers, not the same ones who had sought the warrant, according to the state's A.G.
Breonna Taylor, who police thought was alone in her apartment because they missed the very important fact that she was with her boyfriend, Kenneth, who legally owned a gun and discharged that firearm at police, wounding one, when they entered Taylor's home and he mistook them for an intruder, by his account.
He was worried it was Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, who she had put in the rear-view mirror several months before, whose alleged involvement in narcotics investigation, allegations he denies, put his ex-girlfriend on the radar of police.
Breonna Taylor, whose boyfriend, the night of the shooting, Kenneth, was indicted for shooting a police officer until charges were dropped months later when it became clear that he was just defending himself and his girlfriend from what he thought was an intruder.
Breonna Taylor, whose family received a $12 million settlement from the city of Louisville, local police reform, such as a prohibition on no-knock warrants, like the one police had for her apartment, and a state police task force just announced by the A.G. dedicated to investigating how warrants are obtained and executed.
Each of those suggest that Breonna's death was preventable. So forgive her family as they mourn the loss of the brightest light in their lives and wonder why it doesn't even register in the justice system.
If they wonder why not one person faces charges in her death, including the officer who indiscriminately fired 10 shots into Breonna Taylor's apartment through closed blinds, facing charges not related to endangering Taylor.
But because some of his bullets traveled through her apartment and into her next-door neighbor's unit where they endangered the lives of a man, a pregnant woman and a child sleeping there.
The White House wants us to talk about Breonna Taylor. That's the whole point of Kayleigh McEnany's ploy yesterday.
They wager that a lot of America won't care enough about Breonna Taylor's life. There's no body cam footage, no video in this case. And there are a lot of details to sort through.
The president and those around him operate with a cynical calculation. They seem to be trying to drive a wedge between those who believe people should not shoot police and those who believe police should not kill unarmed black people or, in this case, armed black people who believe they're just defending themselves in their homes.
These are not mutually exclusive. You can believe both. You don't have to choose.
The White House wants us to talking about racism and the justice system because they use it as a springboard to scare Americans about looting, aided by FOX News running episodes of violence on an incessant loop that their hearts and minds won't be able to look past the fear to see injustice.
The White House wants us talking about this so we aren't talking about how they have screwed up the federal response to the coronavirus that's killed more than 200,000 people, black, brown, and white.
Many of whom, models show, could have been saved if America had followed precautions the president scorns.
[13:40:08]
Or that the president is now teasing a constitutional crisis refusing to say if he'll accept a peaceful transfer of power or that mail-in ballots actually don't result in widespread mailer fraud.
Now back to Kayleigh McEnany's most recent lie. On Wednesday, I highlight this comment from the Kentucky Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANIEL CAMERON, (R), KENTUCKY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice. It just becomes revenge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It was a deliberate and unmistakable choice of words. Of course, he should plead for peace in Louisville but he wasn't doing just that. He was using a divisive phrase that we have heard many times recently as the president attacks people of color and peaceful protesters and lumps them in with rioters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Biden wins, the mob wins. If Biden wins, the rioters, anarchists, arsonists and flag burners, they win. So if Biden wins, the violent mobs -- you see these mobs all of the
place. They're Biden people and they're Biden states and cities, the Democrat states. If they win, the mobs win.
You see the guys, they go around saying, yes, I want your meal. Give me that food. We are all that stand between the American people and the left-wing mob.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The attorney general's purposeful use of that Trump talking point while his city was on edge is what I highlighted on Wednesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: To have him associated with that convention and Donald Trump's message about mobs and law and order and riots and all the pejorative terms that he's attached to people who are peacefully protest, I just think it left something to be desired and probably undermined his credibility to a certain extent.
KEILAR: And to that point, I wonder what both of you think of that. I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying, quote, "Mob justice is not justice." He said it becomes revenge.
And you know, that's not being said in a vacuum, Laura, because that word the mob and the president having said that if Joe Biden wins, the mob wins, that's what he says, we know this is very politically loaded language.
It's already been seized by people on both sides of this debate about what we are seeing in this fight for criminal justice reform in the country.
I wonder what you thought about him choosing those words when clearly this was something -- he chose his words carefully.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, that night, Tucker Carlson chummed the waters of FOX News with an edited-down version of that moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST, "TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT": CNN knows that mob justice isn't just worth having. In fact, it's the substance of the Democratic platform in 2020. So they attacked him for saying it. Watch this.
KEILAR: I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying, quote, mob justice is not justice." He said it becomes revenge. That word the mob and the president having said that if Joe Biden wins the mob wins, that's what he says, we know this is very politically loaded language.
CARLSON: Look at yourself in the mirror, CNN anchor. What are you doing? You know what you're doing. You are encouraging violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Tucker Carlson, whose own company argues that his show is so full of it that viewers shouldn't be expected to believe what he tells them. That's right.
FOX News just successfully argued in a defamation lawsuit brought against the network and Carlson by Karen McDougal, who was paid $150,000 by the "National Enquirer's" parent company for the rights to her story, which effectively silenced her from talking about her alleged affair with President Trump.
An affair that the White House has denied in a statement to the "New Yorker."
Now according to the judge that dismissed McDougal's claim, quote, "FOX persuasively argues that, given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer arrives with an appropriate amount of skepticism about the statements he makes."
Any reasonable viewer.
But not Kayleigh McEnany. The press secretary left no doubt that FOX News primetime shows are just a propaganda arm of this administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The Attorney General Daniel Cameron said, "If we simply act on emotion or outrage, there is no justice. Mob justice is not justice. Justice sought by violence is not justice. It just becomes revenge."
And you contrast his message with that of CNN's Brianna Keilar, who said, "I question the judgment of the Kentucky attorney general saying that mob justice is not justice. We know that this is very loaded language."
[13:45:08]
That's an appalling statement from Brianna Keilar from CNN.
And what is outrageous about this take is that mob justice is not justice.
Hours later, after this comment was made on CNN, two police officers were shot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: At no time did I suggest that violence is justice. I can't believe I even have to explain that. But the alternative is letting someone like Kayleigh McEnany misquote and manipulate what you say. McEnany, who repeatedly lies to the American people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MCENANY: The president never downplayed the virus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: A lie. Not only has President Trump downplayed it in public, saying that it will soon be over, that virtually nobody young suffers from the virus, told Americans it was like the flu when he said privately it was a killer. I could go on.
But if you don't want to take my word for it, here's the president admitting it, who told journalist, Bob Woodward, this in February.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (voice-over): I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down.
BOB WOODWARD, JOURNALIST & AUTHOR (voice-over): Yes, sir.
TRUMP: Because I don't want to create a panic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: McEnany also lies about lying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCENANY: The president has never lied to the American public on COVID.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It's well documented the president lies about many things on a daily basis and coronavirus has been the focus of many this year.
Also this week, on the day that America saw the 200,000th death from the virus, McEnany said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On the 200,000 deaths, will the president recognize that publicly?
MCENANY: The president, throughout this pandemic, has done just that. He has said before that it keeps him up at night thinking of even one life lost. This president has taken this incredibly seriously.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Why haven't you said anything about the U.S. hitting 200,000 deaths?
TRUMP: Go ahead. Anybody else?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: In fact, on that same day, he tweeted 23 times, none of them addressing the victims, their families or survivors of this virus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCENANY: I will never lie to you. You have my word on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Finally, it is actually Kayleigh McEnany's boss who is the one repeatedly encouraging violence, including just this week, when he praised violence against journalists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They were grabbing them left and right. Sometimes they grab, they grab one guy. I'm a reporter! I'm a reporter! Get out of here.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: They threw him aside like he was a bag of popcorn.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: But no, but I mean, honestly, when you watch the crap that we have all had to take so long, when you see that, it's actually -- you don't want to do that. But when you see it, it's actually a beautiful sight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: That is not real leadership. Real leadership is calm. Real leadership is steady in moments of crisis. It is not hysterical. It is not exploitive. It is not dishonest.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:52:32]
KEILAR: More than 200,000 people have died because of coronavirus in this country. But of those who contract the virus and survive, some, called long haulers, are left with month's-long symptoms, even permanent health issues. And they're wondering when and if they will ever fully recover.
Diana Berrent is one of those. And she's joining us now.
And, Diana, we are so glad, of course, that you recovered. But you're still very much actively in recovery.
You survived what you considered a mild case in the spring. But months after recovering the disease, you got a startling diagnosis. Tell us about this.
DIANA BERRENT, COVID-19 SURVIVOR WHO GOT GLAUCOMA: So, I had COVID back in early March. I was one of the first people in the New York area to get a positive diagnosis. And by the end of April, I thought I was OK. I had lingering symptoms
but they came back in almost a full-on resurgence of symptoms over the course of the summer.
Then I started seeing all these doctors and I got diagnosed with, of all things, glaucoma, which the ophthalmologist is pretty sure was brought on by the COVID.
We're seeing it effect every single organ system, even from the Tylenol and Gatorade kind of cases like I did. People who recovered at home, who were not hospitalized.
KEILAR: Do you worry what this is going to mean for you long term? And I wonder if doctors have been able any answer about that for you.
BERRENT: Unfortunately, the doctors have very little information at this point because most studies, I mean, all studies to this point have been done on hospitalized patients.
Because, remember, nobody is going to the doctor with COVID. It's the first time in all of our collective experiences where we're telling people, who are quite ill, stay at home, do the best you can, and whatever you do, do not seek medical help unless you think you're dying.
So, we have very few data on non-hospitalized patients. That's one of the gaps that we, at Survivor Corps, are trying to fill.
Right now, we have no idea how long this is going to last. Some of these things seem quite permanent, scarring of the heart and severe neurological issues.
People diagnosed with post-COVID-onset diabetes. Really serious issues. People having heart attacks and strokes in their 20s and 30.
And we don't know what it's going to do to our children either. Both of my children had it. They had mild cases but I do worry about their long-term health.
KEILAR: This is such an important topic, Diana. I'm so glad to have at least a part of the conversation.
BERRENT: Yes.
[13:55:03]
KEILAR: We'll continue to have this. It's so important.
Thank you so much, Diana Berrent.
BERRENT: Thank you, Brianna.
KEILAR: CNN is learning that President Trump is frustrated with his CDC director because of his sober messaging on the pandemic.
And an emotional message from Lebron James to black women after the killing of Breonna Taylor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
