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Wisconsin Opens Field Hospital on State Fairgrounds Amid COVID- 19 Surge; Experts Warn of Early Signs of Another COVID-19 Surge; DOJ Unmasking Probe Ends with No Charges; Voters Endure Long Lines in Georgia to Cast Early Ballots; Texas Sees Record-Breaking Turnout on First Day of Early Voting; Trump, Biden to Participate in Competing Town Halls Tomorrow Night. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 14, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Surge in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations rising as well nationwide. And Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that state positivity rates may signal a bigger increase is just ahead.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: My goodness. Also, taking a look at the situation in Wisconsin, it's so dire that they have opened a field hospital, that's what you're seeing being set up. That is being opened right now on the state fairgrounds.

Also Iowa just surpassed 100,000 COVID cases. Still the president is set to hold a rally in the Hawkeye State today. For the thousands set to attend, they must sign a liability waiver, they will be temperature checked, and while they will be given masks, they are not required to wear them.

And it also flies in the face of the CDC's new guidance and warnings that now even small family gatherings are fueling the latest surge.

So let's begin with our Adrienne Broaddus. She joins us in Wisconsin for more on the situation there.

Good morning, Adrienne.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Poppy and Jim. And good morning to those of you watching and listening. Take a U.S. map, you can throw a dart toward that map and no matter the region it lands, the story is the same. No states in the U.S. are heading in the right direction. And as you just mentioned a short time ago about 36 states right now are seeing an increase. Zero states reporting a decrease.

And here in Wisconsin state health leaders are taking steps to try to stop the spread. You talked about that alternative care facility, well, it's set to open any moment now just outside of Milwaukee here at the State Fair Park. It's on the state fairgrounds here in Milwaukee.

Here is the deal. It's not a traditional hospital so if you're experiencing COVID-like symptoms you can't just show up and walk in. You must be referred by a health care provider. The facility can hold about 530 patients, but when it opens today there will be staff to treat 50 patients. And we're talking about patients who have acute cases. They need low-level care or they're at the end of their treatment and nearing discharge.

Governor Tony Evers said here in the state, hospitalizations have tripled. He wasn't too happy about these numbers when he gave a COVID update yesterday. This all comes as President Trump is planning to visit the state this weekend in Jamesville. Meanwhile, Governor Evers also blames COVID fatigue on the rise in cases. At the start of the pandemic people were wearing their masks, they were saying at home and social distancing. He's hoping we can get back to that -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Adrienne Broaddus, thanks so much.

You have those pictures of those field hospitals reminiscent of New York at the worst time --

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- earlier in the spring.

Adrienne, thank you.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, he's now warning that the U.S. could be entering a new surge nationally, a new surge of coronavirus cases, while noting, however, that vaccine development is on a good track.

HARLOW: Let's go to our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. She joins us this morning.

How and why are things getting worse? The fact that there is no green state on that entire map now of the U.S., meaning no one is trending downward, how is this happening?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, there are probably many reasons for this, Poppy, but one of them is as the weather turns colder people spend more time indoors. I mean, I'm sure we have all felt this or we know people who felt it, that you used to maybe get together with a small group of friends outside, socially distanced. Well, in some places you can't do that anymore. It's just too cold.

And so when people start heading indoors this is going to spread more quickly. So when Tony Fauci says that the trajectory is getting worse and worse, when Dr. Peter Hotez says we're headed for a dark winter, we should listen and we should continue taking whatever steps we can to avoid this virus.

Of course, what we really need is a good vaccine and good treatment. So let's take a look at where vaccine development is going in this country. As Tony Fauci mentioned, it is going well and it is going well for two of them, but let's look at the two that aren't going as well. Johnson & Johnson has paused their trial. This hopefully will be a very short pause but they paused it because a participant became ill.

AstraZeneca has been on a pause for more than a month. We're not completely sure why it is taking so long to get that one back up and running, also because of a participant illness. Moderna started their phase three trial on July 27th, so did Pfizer, and both of those are still up and running.

Now let's take a look at the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial timeline. That's one of the ones on a pause. They started working in January on a vaccine in partnership with BARDA which is a government agency. In March they signed a deal to produce a billion doses. In July they started their phase one and two human trials. September 23rd they started those all-important, large-scale, tens of thousands of people, phase three trials.

[09:05:06]

And then on October 12th they had to pause it. And then if you look at Eli Lilly, they're actually making a treatment. It's a very similar treatment to the one that President Trump got. They started their phase one trials June 1st. On June 17th they started their phase two trials. They started their phase three on August 3rd, and then on October 12th they also had to pause their trial. We don't know exactly why, but they just told everybody yesterday we have paused our trial.

And so this is -- while it sounds like there is a lot of pauses here and there are, this is what sometimes happens and hopefully they will be on their way soon -- Jim, Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Right. It's why you do these big trials, make sure it's safe.

COHEN: Right.

SCIUTTO: So big question for Poppy and I, yourself, others with children, is testing, right, of these vaccines on children. Pfizer says it's going to start testing on children as young as 12. How does that work and what can we expect going forward?

COHEN: Yes, it's interesting. So all the trials that we've been talking about so far are adults. So this is moving into children. It's hopefully going to be helpful in two ways. One, while children don't get sick and die at the same rates as adults, they do unfortunately sometimes get sick and die. We want to know if vaccines work in them.

Also as the two of you know as parents and as I know, children spread disease. When my children were little my husband and I called our children our little disease vectors. We meant it lovingly, they're the lights of our lives, but they would get us sick and that's one reason you want to vaccinate children is because they do tend to spread viruses and other infections to people who are older than them and who would be more vulnerable.

HARLOW: My like common phrase at home is let me smell your hands because I can smell if the soap is on them and if they washed their hands.

COHEN: Right.

HARLOW: It's a good move.

HARLOW: It's kind of all I say to them these days. Thanks, Elizabeth, very, very much.

COHEN: Thanks.

HARLOW: Let's talk more about all of this. Our medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner is here. He's a professor of medicine at George Washington University.

Good morning to you, Doctor. Good to have you.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

HARLOW: So CDC director Robert Redfield now is warning against even small family gatherings as we approach the holidays saying, quote, "particularly with Thanksgiving coming up we think it's really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting."

What is your medical advice for families? Does that mean we don't have cousins, aunts, uncles over going forward?

REINER: I think for the short term we have to hunker down. Right now when we have a gathering we have a couple of people over in our backyard, and we sit six -- you know, six to 12 feet apart and we make do that way. We don't have folks in our house. You know, if you're lucky enough to live in a part of the country where the weather will be moderate in November do an outdoor Thanksgiving.

But I think in -- you know, in the north and northeast, places in the country where, you know, winter comes early, I think you have to really be careful. The consequences of this virus, particularly for older folks, the people that we really want to gather with on Thanksgiving, can be really dire and frankly I'd rather do a Zoom Thanksgiving with people that I love than expose them to something that might kill them.

So we have to get through this season. Next season is going to be much better. Next year is going to be much better. Let's get through this and let's get through it safely.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Reiner, you have talked both "The New York Times," "Washington Post" report that the White House discussing the idea once again of herd immunity as a strategy going forward. Tell us what that would actually mean in terms of numbers of cases in this country and then the number of deaths, sadly, you might have to expect if you went down that path.

REINER: Right. So herd immunity is this notion that if you expose enough people in the country to the virus, let's say most people think that it's about 70 percent of the population is required for herd immunity, which in the United States would be somewhere between 230 million and 250 million people. That's how you sort of stop the virus. And in fact, when we vaccinate the country, when we will start vaccinating the country relatively soon, that's what we're going to do.

We're going to try and create vaccine-induced herd immunity, but naturally occurring herd immunity infecting 200 million to 250 million people would result in the death of -- you know, using a conservative estimate, between two million and three million people. Two million and three million people are going to die. And the other piece about herd immunity is that no one is sure whether the immunity you get after exposure to the coronavirus is permanent.

HARLOW: Yes.

REINER: So this may not be like measles where, you know, once you've either been vaccinated or exposed you're done with it. So we could have recurring herd immunity every year where we lose millions of people so it's a foolish idea. It's propagated by Dr. Scott Atlas who's written about it.

[09:10:03]

And it has to stop. No serious public health official is promoting herd immunity. It's capitulation with dire consequences.

HARLOW: Not to mention the fact that there have been reinfections. We have, you know, an epidemiologist coming on who did a study on people getting reinfected. So when you hear the president say this about immunity last night I wonder what you think. Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who has had it here? Who has had it? Yes, a lot of people. A lot of people. You're the people I want to say hello to because you are right now immune.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Is that putting Americans in danger?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

REINER: Yes, absolutely. So we are starting to see thankfully rare cases of reinfection. So I think reinfection is rare, but, you know, we're still only eight months into this pandemic so as we go further out we'll see how frequent that event is. Rather than thinking about immunity, because we don't really understand what that means with this disease, think about if you recently had the infection, you are resistant to reinfection for a period of time and we don't really know what that period of time is.

So the best policy is to, again, limit your footprint. And also we don't really know exactly when your infectivity ceases. The president, you know, now feels like Superman, but we don't know exactly if he's still infectious, probably not, and we don't know how long his resistance to acquiring the virus will last. I think people need to be a little bit more humble when it comes to this disease.

SCIUTTO: Well, Dr. Reiner, thanks for cutting through it all for us, always good to have you on.

REINER: My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: There are new developments overnight here in Washington. A Justice Department probe involving the issue the president had repeatedly ceased on is now done without bringing any charges.

HARLOW: That's right. Our senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns joins us this morning outside the White House with more.

Good morning, Joe.

The investigation into a practice known as unmasking. That's what I think a lot of Americans have heard the word used over and over again. Unmasking. It ended without a public report?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. No public report apparently and, look, this is about the president and his allies up on Capitol Hill taking a fairly routine practice in the government, essentially hyping it up, politicizing it and turning it into a federal case, if you will, claiming it's a huge scandal. At the end of the day nothing found.

This unmasking is the kind of thing that top officials in the government use to try to learn the identities of individuals who are referred to in intelligence reports. They simply unmask the name after they go through a process. The Trump administration uses it, the Obama administration also used it, but the president and his allies up on Capitol Hill suggested there was something nefarious about the way the Obama administration used it.

So they brought in this senior prosecutor from the Justice Department named John Bash to look into it and now we have the report in the "Washington Post" that there are no charges being filed, there is no report being filed, there was no substantial wrongdoing. So at the end of the day you look at this thing, it's another example of the president calling on the power of the United States Department of Justice to essentially go after his enemies and to come away at the end of the day with nothing. This case obviously gets thrown into the trash heap of conspiracy theories.

Back to you.

SCIUTTO: Well, Joe Johns, thanks so much. Good to have you at the White House.

We are seeing it, again, this morning long lines. I mean, incredibly long lines of people, hours long in some cases, but people still determined to vote. Some waited as long as 10 hours to cast their early ballots in this critical election. They even brought a chair as you see there. Well, Texas is seeing record-breaking turnout. What that could signal

for election day. Beto O'Rourke, he's going to join us just ahead.

HARLOW: Also the president says he is immune to coronavirus as you just heard. Is he? Can you get it twice? We're going to be joined by the epidemiologist who worked on the study about the first confirmed case of reinfection in the United States.

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[09:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Just look at these lines, long lines at polling places in Georgia. Early in-person voting started on Monday, and folks are turning out. More than 126,000 voters showed up to the polls. In Texas, early voters shattered turnout records there. In Harris County alone yesterday, that's home of course, to Houston, more than 128,000 ballots were cast.

HARLOW: Our Ed Lavandera joins us this morning in Dallas, Amara Walker is in Atlanta. Let's start with you, Amara, what is causing these really long wait times? It's good to see the electorate --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARLOW: Engaged in voting, but no one should have to wait 10 hours.

AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and actually this location, Poppy, isn't so bad right now, it's only about an hour, hour and a half wait time. And I say only because we were at another polling location yesterday where the wait time was between six to eight hours.

But I can tell you the long wait times in general are because of record turnout. The Georgia Secretary of State gave those numbers of 130,000 Georgians voting on the first day of early voting, that is a record turnout, and a 40 percent increase from the last record in 2016 on the first day of early voting.

But you can see the line here, we are at an early voting site in Fulton County, the line has been building since 6 O'clock this morning. Again, the wait time about an hour and a half, not bad compared to Tuesday when the wait time was about three hours here. I want to introduce now you to a couple of voters who have been in line, Ashley Reid and Dewayne Newman.

[09:20:00]

You guys voted, you voted in DeKalb County, you waited in the line for that, and then you came here with your boyfriend to vote here in Fulton County. Overall -- I mean, and you've been waiting for about an hour and a half now. First off, tell me your experience, what it was like to wait in line this long to cast your vote, and how do you feel about that?

ASHLEY REID, GEORGIA VOTER: I mean, I honestly feel proud to do it, but it's freezing out here, so it's a little frustrating, but we definitely wanted to make sure we, you know, stayed and got it done. When we came to this location and saw how long the line was, like we almost wanted to turn away, but we wanted to make sure that we are, you know, making sure our vote is counted.

WALKER: And Dwayne, tell me about, you know, this particular election, why you're willing to brave what you say is a cold weather -- it's not that cold here, and wait in these long lines.

DEWAYNE NEWMAN, GEORGIA VOTER: It's more so it's important. I think it's important that everybody, you know, does their due part and making sure they're getting out here and voting today. There's a lot of tension that's going on in the country right now, so I feel like, you know, every vote counts if we want to make a change and, you know, kind of change the narrative as far as like how the country is being ran right now.

I think, you know, it is important that everybody, you know, comes out here and independently make their voices heard and -- so that we can make a change in this country. We have to -- we have to -- it's very important to minimize a lot of the racial tension that's going on right now.

WALKER: Well, we appreciate you, Ashley and Dewayne for joining us, and thank you for exercising your civic duty. Thank you --

NEWMAN: Yes --

WALKER: So much. And local officials are also encouraging people to go to a super voting site at the State Farm arena, the home of the Atlanta Hawks, they say the wait time there is only 15 to 30 minutes, over 300 voting machines if you want to get in and out. That's the latest from here, Fulton County, back to you guys.

SCIUTTO: Yes, good to know that, and a lot of NBA stadiums are going to be voting centers this cycle. Let's go to Ed Lavandera, he is in Texas, Harris County, so, I mean, that's a big county, we should remind folks, Ed, more than 4 million people, but it only took seven hours to surpass the total number of votes cast on the first day in 2016. I mean, remarkable turnout there as well.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not to get into the whole, you know, Texas ego kind of thing here. But more people voted in Harris County yesterday than in the state of Georgia. So that gives you a sense of just how enthusiastic the turnout has been, record-setting day across the state.

We are in Collin County in the town of Allen, Texas, and this is a significant area that Republicans here in this state will be watching very closely. It's the suburbs of the major cities of Dallas and Houston, and you know, the president is sensitive to what is going on here last night because President Trump told the crowd yesterday in Pennsylvania, saying suburban women, will you please like me?

And that is why there is a great deal of concern about what is happening here in the suburbs of these major cities in Texas, and the voters we have talked to over the last few days say people shouldn't fall asleep here on Texas. It has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976, a Democrat has not won statewide here in 25 years, but voters are saying pay attention to what's happening here this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that we're typically a red state, but our culture climate, I have no idea how things are going to turn out, but there is a potential shift.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there will be more blue voters in Texas than people realize.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this is probably one of the most important elections we've ever had, you know, we're voting for peace and tranquility again, you know, some semblance of it --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And, Jim and Poppy, one really fascinating detail to pay attention to, in 2016 there were 15.1 million registered voters here in this state. In just four years, that has risen by nearly 2 million voters, we're now at 16.9 million voters.

It really is a sign of just how quickly the state is changing, but no one knows exactly how all of that is going to change and how it's going to play out in this particular election. So that's why there's so many people anxious to see what all of this means here in this state that many people are saying is -- could very well be a toss-up, at least, Democrats want to believe it is. Jim and Poppy.

HARLOW: Ed, thank you. Beto O'Rourke is going to be on in a few minutes, we'll talk to him about the state as well. We appreciate the reporting, Amara, from you as well. All right, so the president and Joe Biden will participate in unfortunately at the same time dueling town halls tomorrow night in key battleground states. I suppose that's what a DVR is for.

SCIUTTO: Yes, exactly. And it was going to be debate night, but no longer --

HARLOW: Yes, right --

SCIUTTO: CNN's John Harwood, Arlette Saenz, they're following the latest. John, to you first. The president is going to hold a rally tonight in Iowa in advance of that town hall. Iowa, though, of course, seeing a surge in coronavirus cases.

[09:25:00]

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. And, you know, the president having pulled out of that virtual debate that had been scheduled for Thursday night, did schedule that town hall with "NBC" to compete with the Joe Biden town hall on "ABC", and he's going into Iowa, a state in the Midwest where coronavirus cases are surging. This is a state he won easily over Hillary Clinton four years ago, but

he's locked in a neck-and-neck race with Joe Biden, maybe a little bit behind. Whether or not this helps the president in the polls, he is craving the affection of crowds, so he's going on a spree of rallies this week, outright begging for the affection of voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm about law and order. I'm about having you safe. I'm about having your suburban communities -- I don't want to build low income housing next to your house, OK? Suburban women, will you please like me?

(CHEERS)

Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARWOOD: Of course, the problem for the president is that maskless rallies of the kind he's staging accentuate voters' concerns, including suburban women, about his approach to the coronavirus. He hasn't been taking it seriously enough.

But the president cannot stop self-destructive political behavior. Last night after that Pennsylvania rally, he sent out a tweet, mocking nursing home residents, suggesting Joe Biden may join them and, of course, Jim and Poppy, one of the huge deficits for the president that has driven his deficit against Joe Biden nationally is his decline among senior citizens.

HARLOW: It's big, especially in a state like Florida. John, thanks for that. Arlette, to you. So no in-person campaign events for Joe Biden today, is that right, but he's going to get some help, a little bit of help on the trail?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, Joe Biden is back in Delaware, holding a virtual fundraiser and also delivering some pre-taped remarks to Muslim-Americans later this evening.

But pretty soon, we will see one of the Democratic Party's most popular figures out on the campaign trail for Joe Biden. President Obama, we're told is set to hit the campaign trail in the final two weeks before the election. His schedule is still being finalized, but they're looking at states where early voting is under way like Florida, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

And the Biden campaign believes that President Obama can help mobilize voters like black men, Latino voters and young voters as they are trying to build some energy and enthusiasm in these final weeks before election. The president essentially going in to serve as a closer for his former partner as the campaign is entering this final stretch.

HARLOW: Arlette, thanks. Appreciate the reporting. So close to 8 million Americans --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

HARLOW: Have fought coronavirus. Can they get it again, though?

SCIUTTO: It's a big question. And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Investors have their eye on Capitol Hill for any indication there is any life left in the stimulus talks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended her rejection of the White House proposal for new stimulus, telling our Wolf Blitzer, quote, "Americans needs are not addressed in the president's proposal." Plus, earnings season is under way with some of the nation's biggest banks reporting profits, big ones, despite the coronavirus pandemic.

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