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White House Sows Confusion About Trump's Condition; How White House Rose Garden Gathering Likely Became a Superspreader Event; Biden Slams Trump over Handling of Pandemic; U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Could Number 2,900 Daily by December. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired October 04, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): And welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen live from Atlanta.
Updating you on the major breaking news, U.S. president Trump's medical team is "cautiously optimistic," their words, but warns that he is not out of the woods yet. As he spends a second night in the hospital battling coronavirus. Earlier he posted this video.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm starting to feel good. You don't know over the next period of a few days I guess that's the real test, so I guess we'll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: His doctor later said he's made substantial progress since his diagnosis. The doctor adding that the president spent a lot of Saturday conducting business. The White House releasing some videos -- photos of that.
But a source told reporters the previous 24 hours were not so positive, that the president's vital signs were, quote, "very concerning" and that the next 48 hours will be critical.
"The New York Times" and Associated Press said that source was White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Later Saturday Meadows called in to FOX News and painted a somewhat more optimistic picture.
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MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The doctor is exactly right. He is doing extremely well. In fact, I'm very, very optimistic based on the current results. And as the doctor said, he's not out of the woods. The next 48 hours or so with the history of this virus we know can be tough. But he's made unbelievable improvements from yesterday morning when I know a number of us, the doctor and I were very concerned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Doctors say the president is getting remdesivir for five days. A source close to the White House added that Trump definitely has had supplemental oxygen, although his doctor was evasive when asked about it.
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QUESTION: Has he ever been on supplemental oxygen?
CONLEY: Right now he is not on oxygen --
QUESTION: I know you keep saying right now but should we read into the fact --
CONLEY: Yesterday and today he was not on oxygen.
QUESTION: So he's not been on it during his COVID treatment?
CONLEY: He's not on oxygen right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: At that same briefing Dr. Conley created a lot of confusion about how long it had been since the president was diagnosed. He later released a statement saying that he misspoke about the timing and tried to cleanup his mistake. One former White House medical advisor ripped Conley for offering so few details.
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DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: If you go out there wearing a white coat, you are a medical doctor, not a spin doctor. And what we saw today was just spin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Meantime another person in the president's orbit has been infected. Nicholas Luna is one of Trump's personal assistants and was frequently in close contact with him. He is just the latest of several Trump aides, advisers and allies to test positive this week.
A senior official in the administration tells CNN many of those infections likely can be traced to the Rose Garden ceremony last week at the White House, where the president announced his Supreme Court pick. There was no social distancing and not everyone wore masks at that event. Several attendees have tested positive.
CNN's Sarah Westwood is now joining us from Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
And hello to you, Sarah. Are we learning anything more about the president and how he's doing?
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello, Natalie. And the latest on the president's condition comes from a memo that the president's physician released this evening, saying that he's made substantial progress since he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and that he received his second dose of remdesivir today. He was fever free heading into this evening.
But as you mentioned, there was a lot of confusion and mixed messages from this White House today. And that started with a briefing that Dr. Sean Conley, the president's physician held.
This morning around 11:00 am, with reporters here at Walter Reed, he painted a really rosy picture of how the president was doing today and was upbeat about the president's prospects.
But moments later a source told reporters at Walter Reed that the president had had very concerning symptoms over the past 24 hours leading up to his hospitalization here. And it wasn't quite clear what exactly the president's condition was.
Another point of confusion came around the timeline. Dr. Sean Conley used terms like "72 hours" to describe when the president first learned of his diagnosis and began treatment.
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WESTWOOD: But that conflicted with earlier statements that the White House had released about the timeline of the president's illness. Later, Conley was forced to issue another statement, where he clarified what he had said about the timeline.
So just a lot of confusion from this White House about the president's condition today. And all that comes as the White House medical unit is continuing to test aides and advisers.
That stemmed from that September 26th event in the Rose Garden. It's believed that this outbreak that has sickened the president and so many of his advisers began there.
Nicholas Luna, the president's body man and director of Oval Office operations, is the latest to test positive. But that outbreak has included the campaign manager, Bill Stepien. Members of the president's debate team, like Kellyanne Conway, Chris Christie and also three Republican senators at this point, Natalie.
ALLEN: And we don't know if there will be more from that event who test positive. Thank you, Sarah Westwood, for us at Walter Reed hospital.
Let's talk more about the president's condition with Dr. Scott Miscovich, a family physician and national consultant. He also pioneered popup testing in Hawaii. He joins me now live from Hawaii.
Hello, Doctor. Thanks for coming on.
DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, FAMILY PHYSICIAN AND NATIONAL CONSULTANT: Thank you, Natalie.
How are you tonight?
ALLEN: I'm well, thank you for asking.
The president, though, now spending a second night at Walter Reed. He says he'll know in a couple of days how he's doing. As we just heard, it's kind of tricky to know exactly how he's faring, since the doctor has not been that forthcoming with details.
What do you make from what you're hearing about it?
MISCOVICH: Well, I think what we know about the disease, there's still many days before we're going to know for sure. The average number of days before someone is admitted to the intensive care unit after the onset of the disease is 10 to 12 days.
So the way this disease destroys the lung tissue over time, that lung destruction will lead to shortness of breath, decreased oxygenation and that's why the questions being asked about, is he on oxygen or not, those are very important because that is a sign there is worsening damage to the lung tissues.
So he's far from being out of the woods right now.
ALLEN: Right, and we now know that his chief of staff said that his vital signs were very concerning.
What does that tell you?
MISCOVICH: Well, again, when we look at one thing we follow closely, it's what's called the oxygen saturation. It's that little monitor put on your finger and tells you how much oxygen you're getting into your bloodstream.
Also you look at the heart rate because, as you're struggling for oxygen, your heart rate will go up and the oxygen level will drop. And that can happen -- it's very common; we'll see, in 36 hours, people will go from normal oxygenation to being on a ventilator or to being in serious condition in the ICU.
So there's often not a long period of time before someone will just be compromised.
ALLEN: What does it indicate to you also, Doctor, that the president is on a five-day course of remdesivir?
MISCOVICH: That's probably fairly standard. We'll see that going on. Remember remdesivir; people have gotten the flu, they've been put on Tamiflu. That's just a standard antiviral. So that doesn't really scare us.
I think most of us really raised our eyebrows when we knew he was put on the Regeneron treatment, which was very experimental and only, what, 275 patients had ever received it. And a lot of us were like, really? I mean I would not give it to my family. So to be that experimental
and be getting it is something we all looked at.
ALLEN: You have diagnosed and followed some 3,000 COVID positive patients, who have recovered.
Assuming the president recovers, what will his recovery look like?
What can he expect?
MISCOVICH: You know, that is the question I think the country needs to start addressing because the number one thing we're seeing in post- COVID patients who are hospitalized is extreme fatigue. So over half of them are having extreme fatigue.
The second thing we're starting to see is shortness of breath, where he probably is not going to be able to walk that easily from the Rose Garden to his helicopter.
Here's one that bothers me a lot. We're starting to see upwards of a quarter will have some degree or so of memory loss and also have some types of confusion. They'll have mood disturbances and sleep disturbances.
That is something, I think as a country, we have to understand if our commander in chief is experiencing these very common symptoms that we're seeing across the world.
What do we do?
ALLEN: That sounds bleak. And we know that he has conditions that could contribute to his recovery.
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ALLEN: His age is a factor, his heart and his obesity.
MISCOVICH: Yes, I mean a lot of us, as soon as he was diagnosed, had put together you know, our expert opinions. And I think consensus is that someone at his age with those conditions had at least and still has at least an 8 percent mortality from this.
And with those three conditions, that we know of, let's put it that way, he would be in that 8 percent, possibly even up to 10 percent or more, depending on how he would change during this condition of recovery.
And again, oxygenation is key. The other one that we haven't talked about is, there are a lot of neurologic events. There are microdamages to the brain with what we call thromboses. Minor blood clots can occur. And that can lead to the memory changes and to even small strokes.
So there's still so many possible problems that can occur at this stage. We just don't know. ALLEN: I want to ask you and refer back to the thousands of people
you've treated and you've seen with positive cases. And I'm sure many of those folks didn't think they were going to get COVID, took precautions, maybe some didn't.
And how do you think this president might be changed emotionally after going through this?
And we certainly know that he did a lot of disregarding the coronavirus leading up to him getting it.
MISCOVICH: You know, again, that's a great question because one of the things we're looking in the COVID recovery patients is just their emotional status. And there is a lot of depression.
And we're finding that people, if they've been in the hospital for a period of time, they might have some PTSD because it is a near-death experience and it is a experience that affects you psychologically.
Now how our president is affected, he's obviously a different person than a lot of normal people. How he'll be behind the scenes versus to the public, that's hard to say. I also wonder, as his wife has the disease at the same time, as a couple, gosh, that's going to present some real interesting challenges in relationship emotions and how you respond to others.
Hopefully the White House has woken up and takes their security for wearing masks and doing testing a lot more seriously right now.
ALLEN: We certainly hope so. Thank you so much for your time and your expertise, Dr. Scott Miscovich, and thank you for what you do for all of us.
MISCOVICH: Thank you for having me.
ALLEN: We are just a month away from the U.S. presidential election and with Donald Trump sidelined by his coronavirus diagnosis, we wanted to find out what voters thought of his handling of the pandemic. Here's what a few have had to say.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Did the president's handling of coronavirus influence your vote this year?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. It sure did. This has been poorly handled and a lot of it could have been eliminated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has been denying the whole science behind coronavirus and so I hope this is wakeup call for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a very contagious disease. I figured at some point, without the protections, he would have caught it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody could have done anything different. You know, blaming him for all the deaths is ridiculous. This is something we've never experienced before, ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Joining me now is Julie Norman, a lecturer in politics at University College London.
Good morning to you, Professor, and thanks for coming on.
JULIE NORMAN, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning, Natalie.
ALLEN: We're hearing from voters about what they think about President Trump getting COVID-19. And it certainly depends on whom you ask.
How do you think the news may, in general, affect how people vote on the Election Day?
NORMAN: Well, Natalie, I don't think the news itself will affect voters' choices. It won't really change many minds. For most of Trump's supporters, they will probably see this as something somewhat inevitable from the president being out on the campaign trail.
And the White House is -- you're being very strategic in using the language of Trump being a warrior, pulling through this. So as long as the president does recover fully this week, I think that most of his supporters will see him as that type of warrior figure.
Meanwhile Democrats, of course, will -- many see this as something that they might have seen coming, given the president's responses to the virus in the past, really underscoring the need to have someone in the White House who takes the virus seriously.
And also for many Democrats, really bringing health care to the forefront of the campaign, seeing the kind of care that the president has had, rightfully so, but trying to emphasize that other voters should also have care at this time.
ALLEN: It's really unbelievable that, one month before an election, the president of the United States falls ill and is in the hospital.
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ALLEN: The question is, I mean, voting is underway already.
How this campaign looks from here, how does this campaign go on from here?
NORMAN: Well, that's exactly right. Even if this news doesn't shift many voters' opinions, it's definitely going to change the campaigns in terms of both their pace and their shape for this crucial month going forward.
Of course, Trump will need to be canceling some of the many of the in- person events and rallies that he had planned. These are situations in which he thrives and does quite well usually with his base.
And they probably will be sending surrogates instead, such as his children or vice president Mike Pence.
But this will affect the Biden campaign also. We've already seen, over the last few days, that the Biden campaign has chosen to remove most negative ads. They have also canceled at least one event. And they need to be playing this somewhat carefully in the sense of keeping Biden's momentum going but not look like they're exploiting this moment.
And, of course, keeping the public health concerns in mind as well. This also, of course, there was the future debates into question, especially the second debate. That will be coming up on October 15th. And that will certainly have a different format if it goes ahead.
ALLEN: Right, taking it day by day right now, to be sure. It'll be interesting to see how the president being ill affects the partisanship we've seen over this pandemic as well.
And I also want to ask you, though, how his illness and others' illness in his circle affect the critical issues, like the stimulus bill and the confirmation process for the Supreme Court.
NORMAN: Absolutely. So again, this news is affecting pretty much everything right now. The president's own diagnosis, of course, but the fact that many others in the upper levels of government, several senators, including several senators on the Judiciary Committee, have also tested positive, as well as many staff in the White House.
So we expect that this will probably delay, at least by several days, the confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, for the Supreme Court nomination in the Senate. Right now we're hearing from Mitch McConnell that that schedule is still on track. The Judiciary Committee will be holding hearings with members calling in virtually if needed, so they are trying to keep that on track.
But it will be difficult for that to move ahead if the virus continues to spread, as many predict it will, among that level of government. And likewise for the stimulus bill as well, there was already momentum building behind that, to try and get something through.
With the president's condition as well as markets falling on Friday in response to the uncertainty around his condition, there's certainly extra pressure on Congress to get that through this week.
ALLEN: One more for you, Professor. You know, this president has been considered a bully. You mentioned Biden's ads. He took off his attack ads. The Trump campaign is not doing that.
But do you think we may find a softer, gentler President Trump when he recovers from this?
What impact it might have on his emotions and his outlook on life?
NORMAN: As we heard from your last guest, coming out of COVID-19 can certainly affect individuals in different ways and it'll be interesting to see how this affects Trump and how it affects his messaging in particular around the virus. Of course, he has spent the last six months really downplaying its
threat. Now obviously, many taking it more seriously, seeing his condition. And even if the president doesn't change his own messaging, again this is something that has also affected his staff, his campaign workers.
And even if some of the visuals and optics change, with more people wearing masks, more people social distancing within the White House or at his events, that could be a silver lining to all this and just tamping down some of the real polarization, hyperpartisanism around this virus. That really is a human problem, not a party-based problem.
ALLEN: We'll wait and see and we certainly hope that the first lady recovers well in this ordeal, too. It's hard to believe they're both going through it. Julie Norman at the University College London, thank you so much. We appreciate your insights.
NORMAN: Thank you, Natalie.
ALLEN: The president's positive coronavirus diagnosis is sending shock waves through the political scene in the U.S. We're going to talk more about the Biden campaign and how it's being affected right after this.
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ALLEN: What happens when you gather a large, mostly maskless crowd in a small space during a pandemic?
We know now. You get a potential superspreader event. The one we're talking about features several of the most powerful people in the U.S. government.
Last Saturday, President Trump held a ceremony at the White House Rose Garden to announce his nomination for Supreme Court. She was there with her family. Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us how this event became dangerous.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're looking at is the origins of a likely superspreader event. At least eight people, including President Donald Trump himself, are now infected. And that is among those who have had the ability to actually get tested.
GUPTA: You can't see the virus but what is happening during a superspreading event?
DR. ERIN BROMAGE, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: You know, it's a very rough analogy. But if we think of a campfire and say that that's a person who is infected and releasing virus, it's not like it's the ring around the person that is actually going to be the risk.
It's those that are on the side where more of the virus is being projected, either through big talking or through the breeze, the air that's blowing it there.
GUPTA (voice-over): But it was also these moments that caught CNN medical analyst Erin Bromage's eye.
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BROMAGE: When the event finished, when they're all coming up and hugging and shaking hands and saying congratulations, that's where -- if I was a betting person, I would be putting my money on of where this occurred.
GUPTA (voice-over): We know that the safety protocol for the event was to test anyone in close proximity to the president. But it wasn't required for everyone attending the ceremony. And it clearly wasn't foolproof.
Again, take a look here, where the people who were diagnosed as positive were sitting not next to each other, which leads us to again look at what happened right before and right after.
Former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, closely leaning in to speak with attorney general William Barr. Lots of people closely interacting with their guard down. It can be difficult to pinpoint these superspreader events.
This one ceremony, though, is giving us a look at the anatomy of how it happens all the time, not just here but anytime people aggregate together in large groups in the middle of a pandemic.
BROMAGE: There's no doubt that there has been transmission at the protests, the political rallies. It's just a fact that the virus doesn't discriminate.
Just because we haven't documented it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened. It's just that we've got an event now that is very visible, well documented, well tested and we're seeing the outcome from it.
GUPTA: So that gives you some idea of how a potential superspreader event could occur. And also keep in mind, as you heard, it's usually not just the event itself but sometimes people get together before the event, a pre-event.
Sometimes they get together after an event, closely clustered together in smaller settings. That's something the contact tracers have to look at as well.
What's tying people together that have tested positive?
Now it's also important to note the answer to this question.
When was the president's last negative test?
Why is that important?
Because we know that he was -- we got a positive test on Friday.
But when was his exact exposure?
We also know he developed symptoms on Friday. But usually if you look at this timeline here, you'll see that, at the bottom, you learn that the people are usually most contagious two or three days before they develop symptoms.
So if you develop symptoms on Thursday or Friday, you're talking about Wednesday, Tuesday, possibly even Monday, where the president may have been most contagious.
Who did he come in contact with then?
It's a big job, contact tracing all those people. But that's what's happening right now.
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ALLEN: Sanjay Gupta for us there.
The number of people around the U.S. president who have become infected with COVID-19 is raising new concerns about the potential spread of the virus onboard Air Force One. Why experts are concerned about the presidential plane. That's coming up.
Also the virus isn't just spreading at the White House but on Capitol Hill as well. Why this could hurt President Trump's chances of getting his Supreme Court pick confirmed before the election.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Atlanta.
U.S. president Trump is spending his second night at Walter Reed Medical Center, battling the coronavirus. His doctor says Mr. Trump is not out of the woods yet but that he's made substantial progress.
The president tweeted video messages Saturday, saying he feels much better. Earlier in the day, a source told reporters the next 48 hours will be critical.
"The New York Times" and Associated Press say that source was White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, seen here. He later seemed to contradict himself, saying in a TV interview that he's very, very optimistic about the president's recovery.
Coronavirus is also putting President Trump's plan for the Supreme Court under threat. Three Republican senators have now tested positive for COVID-19. That could potentially delay the confirmation of Mr. Trump's pick, judge Amy Coney Barrett. CNN's Phil Mattingly explains what happens next.
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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not just the White House that is grappling with the magnitude of this moment, the president testing positive for coronavirus. It's also here on Capitol Hill, where now three Republican senators have also tested positive for coronavirus.
There is obviously the public health issues there, trying to figure out, one, how those senators will deal with it. Right now two senators have reported mild symptoms. A third believes he's asymptomatic.
But there is also the question of what happens next on a massive issue, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to join the Supreme Court. Republicans have made it clear they're working on a compressed timetable. They want her confirmed before the election.
In fact, hearings are already scheduled to start October 12th. Well, two of the three Republican senators, Mike Lee, Thom Tillis, they are on the Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee that will move forward on that nomination. They will need to be present if the committee is to vote, likely starting the process October 15th.
So the big question now is twofold.
One is will those senators who tested positive be OK in time to be back to consider that nomination?
The second one, this is what unsettles everyone, is anybody else going to get sick?
Right now, they don't have answers to those questions. They've made clear they want to move forward on the nomination but those answers could change that calculation -- Phil Mattingly, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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ALLEN: Now that President Trump and several others have tested positive for COVID-19, Democratic nominee Joe Biden will get tested more often. That's what our sources are telling us. The nominee himself says he does not want to attack the president and first lady but that he would have handled the pandemic fundamentally differently.
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JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For so long, Washington left our states, cities and transit agencies to bid against one another.
If that's not the president's responsibility, what the hell, the heck, is his responsibility?
"Not my fault. I have no responsibility. Go to your mayor, your governor, your employer."
It's unconscionable.
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ALLEN: CNN's Arlette Saenz is following the Biden campaign for us.
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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe Biden is moving forward with his in-person campaigning and officials say he will be tested more regularly for coronavirus.
This follows the news that President Trump has tested positive for coronavirus as well as several other people in his orbit. The Biden campaign says they will release the results of the tests each time he is tested.
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SAENZ: Biden last received his last negative test results on Friday and told supporters that, while he wasn't tested on Saturday, he will be tested for coronavirus on Sunday morning.
Now the Biden campaign has always adhered to social distancing and safety standards at his campaign events. Officials believe that the way that they've structured these events have promoted health and safety, not just for their candidates but also those involved in the events and for the general public.
Biden is always wearing a mask when he is at these events. And they have people at social distances from each other and him. And those are protocols that they plan to move forward with as he continues to campaign in person.
On Monday, Biden is heading to South Florida and, on Thursday, he will travel to Arizona, his first visit to the battleground state and his running mate, Kamala Harris, will also be joining him.
Kamala Harris is set to face off against vice president Mike Pence in their first debate on Wednesday. We are learning there have been some changes to the way that debate will play out.
The two candidates will be seated down for that debate and originally were only slated to be seated 7 feet apart. They will now be 12 feet apart from each other as this debate plays out.
We have also learned that masks will be required for everyone in that debate hall, except for the two candidates and the moderators. This follows Tuesday night's presidential debate when many in the audience on the Trump side were not wearing masks.
But going forward, anyone who is in that debate hall must wear a mask and if they fail to do, so they will be asked to leave, just one of the many changes that is occurring in this campaign due to the coronavirus pandemic -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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ALLEN: The next debate will be between Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris and vice president Mike Pence. CNN special coverage beginning at 7:00 pm Wednesday here on the U.S. East Coast. For our international viewers that are watching, that's midnight Thursday in London, 7:00 am in Hong Kong.
Brazil, the U.S. and the U.K. now have one more thing in common: all have leaders who tried to minimize the coronavirus pandemic and each of those leaders got sick with it. That's next.
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ALLEN: The positive coronavirus test for members of president Donald Trump's inner circle are raising new questions about the president's safety. One of Mr. Trump's closest advisers was flying onboard Air Force One with him earlier this week while she was infected.
Experts fear this potentially puts at risk hundreds of people who travel on, operate and maintain the presidential plane. CNN's Pete Muntean reports the outbreak is threatening a key national security tool.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Air Force One, a symbol of presidential power around the world. Now the question is whether or not how key it was to spreading this virus through the White House and to key members of the administration, including the president.
We know from administration officials that Hope Hicks got on board Air Force One on Wednesday night, flying back from the president's rally in Duluth and began showing coronavirus symptoms on board and was put in a separate cabin.
Air Force One is different than most airplanes that you and I fly on. Large plane, about 4,000 square feet, says the White House, with the president's cabin in the nose, a conference room over the wings and reporters in the back.
What's so interesting here is that those who study the spread of the virus, especially in the confined space of an airplane, say there's no way that Hicks could have been truly separated from everybody else on board.
And those who have flown on Air Force One say there's no way that the president could not have known about this.
Here's what they had to say.
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SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I traveled on Air Force One. It is a larger plane than others but it is not a huge space.
The notion that Hope Hicks would be quarantined on Air Force One and that the president wouldn't be made aware of that situation is really suspect to me.
At the same time, White House physicians' staff travel on Air Force One. They would extensively update the White House chief of staff.
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MUNTEAN: Researchers stress to me that flying on an airplane right now is relatively safe so long as you're wearing a mask. Commercial airlines have mandated that. Apparently, no such mandate on Air Force One.
We have seen Hicks and the president both boarding the airplane without wearing a mask, which brings into question another layer of the story, whether those who operate Air Force One could have been endangered. That could create a whole new security risk.
The 89th Airlift Wing, out of Joint Base Andrews, says it is following CDC protocols. It has not said whether or not any airmen have tested positive for the virus.
But our own national security analysts say Air Force One needs to be ready in case of a national emergency. It is a flying White House like we have seen right after 9-11 -- Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
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ALLEN: Throughout history, many presidents and aides and their supporters have tried to hide presidential illnesses from the American public and the news media. Since President Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, reporters and the public have had to piece together confusing information about Mr. Trump's condition.
There was a time when reporters willingly went along when asked not to publish details about a president's declining health. Renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin spoke to CNN earlier about trust and transparency, particularly with this president.
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DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: When the presidential health was not revealed directly to the public, the rationale is, the public will panic, we can't do it.
I mean, looking at Cleveland having secret surgery for jaw cancer, in the middle of a recession, they figured, oh, my God, the stock market will go down. So we can't let the public know. So he's on a friend's yacht and has part of his jaw removed and we never know about it then.
Wilson is in the midst of the third wave of the Spanish flu, he's trying to persuade the country to do the League of Nations and he has a severe stroke. So they don't tell the public, that has not regarded well for Wilson or his administration at the time.
FDR, in the middle of World War II, is diagnosed by a young cardiologist with severe congestive heart failure. His own doctor says don't even tell FDR what you found, don't say anything to the public. And then he goes out, the personal doctor does, and said, it's just bronchitis, he'll be fine.
So it's never a good thing, because democracy needs the people to know. And I think they can face the truth. They have the wherewithal to do it. And then they can trust the people that are telling them what they're -- what they're not supposed to know.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I know -- you said, you know, trust is the -- and the president's word is critical and timetables are the spine of history. Given that, I'm wondering what you make of what we've been seeing just the last two days or three days. GOODWIN: Well, the conflicting timetables, I think, is just a minuscule example of the fact that we've lost in many ways, trust in the president's word.
[02:45:00]
GOODWIN: And it's the most important thing a president has. Think of it a president is the person who has to tell us that we need to go to battle, why it's important to do so.
Roosevelt, FDR had to tell people why rationing was essential during World War II, so that there'd be an equitable distribution of scarce resources. You had to believe him to go through all of that.
If you don't believe even the timetable of what's happened, who knows what, when, is what history is always about.
And the fact that we've had a conflicting timetable now, just raises the larger question of what it was that President Trump knew back in February about the seriousness of the -- of the virus but didn't think the public could hear it thought, again, the public would panic. It's the same thing all over again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Doris Kearns Goodwin always has so much knowledge. So interesting.
The U.S. president isn't the only world leader to have gotten infected. He joins a small group of presidents, prime ministers and other leaders, who have caught the virus. Some of them, like Mr. Trump, spent a lot of time downplaying it. CNN's Nic Robertson shows us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: I've taken a test that has come out positive.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: When Boris Johnson tested positive for COVID-19 late March, there was little surprise. But the lessons of his infection are worth reviewing.
JOHNSON: I shook hands with everybody.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): For weeks before his positive test, Johnson seemed slow to acknowledge COVID's dangers.
ROBERTSON: How's the prime minister, Mr. Hancock, please?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Other government ministers got it, too. But as they recovered, Johnson got worse. Nine days after his positive test, he was taken to hospital, shocking the nation when he was moved into ICU
JOHNSON: I've today left hospital after a week, in which the NHS has saved my life. No question. Thank you from me, from all of us.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): By contrast, Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, barely seemed fazed when he got COVID-19 this summer. All along, he'd loudly played down its dangers. His resilience reinforced his messaging.
Johnson's near-death experience won him a brief popularity boost, the nation willing him well again. But within weeks of leaving hospital, his ratings plummeted back, as the nation's pandemic problems persisted.
ROBERTSON: The other big takeaways from his brush with death was the rosy optimism coating his office's pronouncements on his health and his struggle to get back to full strength.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Fifty-six years old and overweight, Johnson took two weeks off after leaving hospital. His much younger, pregnant partner, Carrie Symonds, says she had COVID symptoms, too, bounced back more readily, soon having a son. The couple naming their child after the doctor Johnson credits with saving his life.
JOHNSON: I start the day by going for a run with the dog and --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Johnson took up jogging, shedding some of his excess weight. COVID's lasting impact on him and the nation, a push to get fitter, to aid survival and hold the pandemic at bay -- Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: And it's not just politicians, as you know. One of the top football stars in the United States, positive for coronavirus. When we come back, what that means for NFL games this weekend and beyond. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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[02:50:00]
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ALLEN: We've got new numbers on the spread of the coronavirus and it's certainly discouraging.
For example, France reported a new daily record Saturday, with nearly 17,000 cases in a 24-hour period. That's almost 1,000 more than the previous record set just over a week ago.
The United Kingdom reported more than 12,800 new cases on Saturday but blamed the spike on a technical issue. It said the addition of unreported infections from last week made the number so high.
Those cases more than doubled the U.K.'s seven-day average. The government says it has resolved the technical issue.
The United States is currently averaging more than 700 COVID-19 deaths per day, that according to Johns Hopkins University. On Saturday, the state of California surpassed 16,000 total deaths from coronavirus. The California Department of Health reported 88 new deaths.
New York is ramping up testing and it conducted a record high number of COVID-19 tests Friday and reported six deaths on Saturday.
Officials in the state of Kentucky reported the highest number of new cases for that state since the pandemic began. And a record high case count in Wisconsin as well.
A University of Washington researcher talked with CNN's Anderson Cooper earlier and he delivered some shocking news. His research institute predicts there could be 2,900 COVID-19 deaths per day in the U.S. in December. It's a potential reality, he says, Americans can avoid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. CHRISTOPHER MURRAY, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION: We have a tremendous amount, you know, we, the American people, have a tremendous amount of control over what actually happens by how we behave, how much risk we take in terms of interacting with others and most importantly wearing a mask.
And that can make a huge difference.
Right. Your latest model predicts 363,000 U.S. deaths by the end of December.
Do you know if masks were worn what that, how many lives could be saved by December?
Yes, we, you know, given what we know about the effectiveness of masks.
[02:55:00]
MURRAY: And given what we know about half of Americans wearing a mask when they're out, we think that about 86,000 lives could be saved if we can get mask use way up. So it's very much in our control as to what's actually going to happen.
COOPER: So this is so important, so you're saying, 86,000 lives could be saved in the next several months if people wore masks. And you said get way up.
What percentage of the population would you need to wear masks to save 86,000 lives?
MURRAY: Well, we've got to get up to the level in places that we see like Singapore, that's 95 percent of the population wearing a mask when they're in a setting, where they're at risk of transmission, so out of the home, in any indoor setting or even outdoors when you come within close distance of other people.
COOPER: And currently you think what percentage of the population is wearing masks?
You said about half?
MURRAY: We're just under 50 percent are wearing masks in those settings.
COOPER: Wow. So less than half of America is wearing masks in settings that they should.
MURRAY: Absolutely.
COOPER: Wow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: We continue to see the impact of the ongoing global pandemic on the sports world. Now the New England Patriots' quarterback, Cam Newton, has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the NFL Network and ESPN.
The Patriots were scheduled to play the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday but the NFL decided to postpone the game after players on both teams tested positive. They hope to play either Monday or Tuesday.
This will be the second game their week that has been postponed due to the coronavirus. On Friday, the league rescheduled Sunday's Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers game for October 25th.
Lots of shuffling around to be sure. Thanks for watching this hour, I'm Natalie Allen. New developments in President Trump's battle with coronavirus, I'll be back with the latest news.
