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Record Turnout Reported in U.S. Early Voting; Trump Holds Crowded Rally in Iowa Despite COVID Risk; Obama to Hit Campaign Trail for Biden Next Week; U.S. Averaging More than 50,000 New Cases Each Day; Trump: Son Barron, 14, Had Virus But Is Now "Free"; Calls for Herd Immunity to Help Slow Spread of Virus; European Countries Grapple with Harsh Second Wave. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired October 15, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: The much feared second COVID wave seems to be hitting the United States with numbers heading the wrong direction in the majority of states. You wouldn't know it by looking at a Trump campaign rally.

Europe is feeling a dangerous deja vu as well, with curfews, mandatory mask orders and warnings of more lock downs as numbers rise.

And for years, President Trump has accused the Obama administration of spying on his campaign and committing treason. Now the year's long investigation has come to an end, but with a different conclusion than he expected.

Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you our viewers here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

Election day in the U.S. is less than three weeks away, but already millions of Americans have mailed in ballots or voted in person where early voting is underway. The turnout has been phenomenal with many places reporting record breaking numbers.

But it's all taking place amid an ominous rise in COVID cases across the country. Health officials warned that no state is moving in the right direction. Despite the obvious health risks, thousands of Trump supporters continued to show up at his rallies this week without precautions. Now while many behind the President were seen wearing masks, most in the crowds weren't.

America's top infectious disease expert says President Trump doesn't appear to be contagious, but Dr. Anthony Fauci said some people around the President could be spreading the virus. We get more on the President's rally in Iowa from CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump staged yet another potential super spreader event at the Des Moines airport in Iowa with thousands of people on hand. Many in the crowd were not practicing social distancing, and they were not wearing masks.

And I had a chance to talk to some of those Trump supporters as they were filing in.

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They essentially said they were placing their trust more on the President than the top health experts who say they should be playing it safe. And here's some of what they had to say.

ACOSTA: Hi, we're just talking to folks about going to the rally tonight and seeing what they think about the health risks of, you know, being in a large gathering wondering if you had a thought on that. What do you -- what do you think? Is it --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not worried.

ACOSTA: And why is that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because it's got a 99.9 percent recovery rate. We're going to live our life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, I care about people. I don't want to give it to them. If there's a chance you might be carrying it around myself, I'm not worried. I figure the sooner we all get it, the sooner we'll be done with it.

ACOSTA: And you don't think that could lead to a lot of people, you know, dying perhaps from the virus?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the numbers are vastly inflated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have any concerns at all. You can't live your life in fear and I'm not really scared of this virus. There's all kinds of other viruses out there that could jeopardize your health as well, so can't stop living.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, if I'm going to get sick and die, I guess it's my turn, but I trust God and I'm not scared.

ACOSTA: And there were plenty of critics of the president's rally here in the Des Moines area as we spotted outside the airport where this rally took place. There was a billboard that said Trump super spreader event with an arrow pointing to the rally site.

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BRUNHUBER: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also out on the campaign trail announced another a massive fundraising haul. Biden says his campaign raised a record breaking $383 million last month. That whapping amount follows another historic fundraising haul in August, and now he's also getting more support from the President he served under, Barack Obama.

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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of times when you're thinking about the presidency, it's great to look at policy and, you know, their 10-point plans on this, that or the other, but a lot of it is what is their basic character, right? Are they people who instinctively care about the underdog? Are they people who are able to see the world through somebody else's eyes and stand in their shoes? Are they people who are instinctively generous in spirit, right? And that is who Joe is.

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BRUNHUBER: And next week, Obama is expected to take that message to the voters. Democratic officials say the former President will hit the campaign trail for Biden in the final stretch of the race, and he'll focus on key states where people are already voting.

On the final weeks of the presidential race come amid a soaring number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. more than 50,000 new cases are now being reported every day. In fact, not a single state is trending in the right direction. Here's CNN's Brian Todd.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A new field hospital opens in Wisconsin, as the state sets records for deaths in a day. It comes as we get the starkest indication yet of a brutal start to the fall, 36 states trending upward in new coronavirus cases, none heading in the right direction. No states are trending down in new cases, and for the first time in two months, America averaging more than 50,000 new cases each day.

DR. AMESH ADALJA, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: We've got a lot of activities that are resuming. We've got sports all over the place with people in stadiums again. We have a lot of people getting back to work. We have schools open. We have people having kind of quarantine fatigue and trying to get back to some semblance of their normal life, having gatherings.

TODD: And there are new warnings about those gatherings, the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the CDC saying they're seeing an increased threat of virus spread from small household gatherings, where precautions often are not taken.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: Particularly with Thanksgiving coming up, we think it's really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting.

TODD: Tony Green knows that threat too well. He held a small family gathering in Texas in June. From that event, he says, 14 people became infected and two of his relatives died.

TONY GREEN, FAMILY MEMBER OF CORONAVIRUS VICTIMS: I feel like a drunk driver that killed his family.

TODD: In two hard-hit areas, local leaders are cracking down. Oklahoma City seeing a rise in hospitalizations, is extending its mask ordinance until December 7.

New Mexico's governor, saying her state is approaching a point where the spread of the virus will be, quote, uncontrollable, announces several new restrictions.

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Bars and restaurants serving alcohol have to close at 10:00 p.m., gatherings limited to five people.

In New York City the mayor says, while some hot spots have leveled off, the city is always at the threshold of getting back into trouble.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: We are threatened with a full-blown second wave in New York City. If that happens, the entire city would have to go back to the restrictions we knew in March and April.

TODD: New York's governor expressing frustration with a sweet 16 party at this inn on Long Island last month which spawned nearly 40 new cases. Citing pop-up clusters like that, he offers a sobering projection for the country.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D) NEW YORK: This is not going away anytime soon. I think best-case scenario, we're looking at another year by the time -- even if everything works out well.

TODD (on camera): But some good news mixed with caution. Three new reports just published say for people who have been infected with coronavirus and recovered, immunity from the virus can last for several months, maybe even longer because they have produced antibodies. But one expert cautioned us that with most coronaviruses, that immunity can wear off in a year or so making the race for a durable vaccine even more critical.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, besides the President and first lady coming down with COVID-19, we've now learned their 14-year-old son Barron also became infected. That was revealed by Melania Trump in an essay on the White House website detailing her own experience with the disease. The President had this to say about it at the rally in Iowa.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Barron Trump, you know, he had the corona-19, the China virus. It's got 21 different names. I could go over it. But to me corona means Italy. China is China, and it came from China. So, we have the China virus, right. And he had it for such a short period of time. I don't think he knew he had it because they're young and their immune systems are strong, and they fight it off 99.9 percent, and Barron is beautiful and he's free.

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BRUNHUBER: All right, I'd like to bring in Dr. Sanjaya Senanayake. He's an infectious disease specialist and an associate professor of medicine at Australian National University. Thank you very much for being with us. I want to start with that idea of herd immunity from COVID. Honestly, I thought most of us have kind of moved on from that fallacy, but here at least in the U.S., there's a renewed push to adopt herd immunity as a so-called strategy. So, I want to play you a clip from renowned scientist, William Haseltine who had a powerful take on this.

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WILLIAM HASELTINE, CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: Herd immunity is another word for mass murder. That is exactly what it is. If you allow this virus to spread as they are advocating, we are looking at two to six million Americans dead. Not just this year, but every year. The reason for that is that there is no such thing as herd immunity. These viruses, coronaviruses come back year after year and infect the very same people.

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BRUNHUBER: So I'd like to get your thoughts on the danger of this, you know, strategy, which as proponents articulated would try to protect those at highest risk while letting the virus basically rip through the rest of the population.

DR. SANJAYA SENANAYAKE, ASSOC. PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Yes, look, the first thing I would say is that in this modern age, when we talk about herd immunity, we talk about it in the setting of immunization. They were immunizing a population. We don't talk about it in terms of natural infection.

And as some of the experts said in the lead up to this interview, quite correctly, we really don't know how long the immunity from this infection lasts. In fact, you've had the first U.S. case of reinfection recently notified and a healthy 29-year-old man. And that was within two or three months of his first infection.

And there is also the chance -- because the immune system plays a big role in COVID and how severe it can be that a second or maybe a third infection could actually be more severe in some people. And even if you think COVID has a 0.3 percent death rate, out of 300 million Americans, that's a lot of unnecessary deaths.

BRUNHUBER: But you mentioned we don't know exactly how long immunity can last. But there is new evidence out there now that immunity might actually last longer than we thought.

SENANAYAKE: Look, you are quite right. A couple of papers have come out. One in particular suggesting immunity might be lasting five to seven months from the basis of what they called neutralizing antibodies that they found in people who had COVID. However, there was a London study, and I guess King's College of

London that found that after three months a lot of people's antibody levels were falling as well. So, it is hard to tell with antibody levels how long someone's immunity will last. You can get an idea, but at the end of the day the best way to find out is to expose someone again and see if they get it.

And we also know with other coronaviruses, you do get reinfections. Now that might be every one to two years, but it does occur. But having said that, those new studies are somewhat promising in terms of the vaccination studies that we've got going at the moment.

BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Dr. Sanjaya Senanayake for his perspective there.

Countries across Europe are seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, which nations are being hit hardest. CNN has reporters covering the story live from multiple cities, we will take you there, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: A second wave of the coronavirus, more severe than the first is sweeping across Europe. Infections have risen sharply over the past week, especially in the countries where the virus was under control.

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In France, President Emmanuel Macron is ordering a nighttime curfew for Paris and other cities to help slow the virus's spread.

In the U.K., the spike in cases there has sparked intense criticism of Boris Johnson's strategy to handle the virus. And Italy just reported its highest daily increase in cases since the pandemic began.

CNN has reporters around the world covering how countries are handling the pandemic. We have Melissa Bell in Bordeaux, France. Salma Abdelaziz in Liverpool, England and Ben Wedeman is live from Rome. Let's go first to Melissa in France. Melissa, as I said, the President there ordering a nighttime curfew. That sounds very serious.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. You mentioned a moment ago the second wave that might be worse than the first. And that was exactly the point that the French President made last night on French television. Pointing out that in the first wave some parts of the country had been harder hit than others. That had allowed for patients to be transferred. For instance, this time he made the point that it was all over the country, also that medical staff retired and there were no reserve beds left. Hence the need to bring the figures back down under any means necessary for the time being. That is a system of curfews, here's what he had to say.

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BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): If we stick to this curfew for six weeks. If we take collective responsibility for reducing our contacts, we think that we will be able to progressively reopen at that stage.

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BELL: Basically, from Saturday, came eight French cities plus the greater Paris region will see a curfew in place from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m., everything will be close. People will be expected to be at home. But perhaps more importantly from Saturday, France enters a stage of sanitary emergency and that really gives local authorities the power to introduce whatever further restrictions they deem necessary to bring this country's surging COVID-19 figures back under control -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thanks for that. Melissa Bell in France. Now go to Salma Abdelaziz in Liverpool, where strict new rules are in effect. And locally where you are more anger over those restrictions and then nationally, more pressure on Boris Johnson.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: That's absolutely right, Kim. I mean, this spike in coronavirus cases across the U.K. has really exposed the political division in the country. A growing course of opposition against the Prime Minister and his strategy. He and his administration argue the best way forward is localized limited regional lock downs like the one happening here in Liverpool right now.

But on the other side, you have a growing number of people arguing, nope, that's not the way to do it. The way to do it is to have a nationwide complete lock down. What they call a circuit breaker for a few weeks to really stem the rise in cases. And in that camp, you have the government's scientific advisers.

So today there will be a lot of facing off with the Prime Minister and his government. Several meetings happening to determine whether more towns and cities will have their levels raised. We have the three-tier COVID alert system. London potentially could be escalated from level I to level II. Manchester, another city in the north of England, also might have its levels increased, similar to Liverpool to level III.

And while all of the political wrangling happens in the capital, we have the number of coronavirus patients flooding the hospitals, continuing to rise. We already have a greater number of coronavirus patients in the hospitals than we did in March when the first lock down went into effect -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right, thank you so much for that. Salma Abdelaziz in Liverpool.

Now let's go to Ben Wedeman in Rome. Ben, I understand some experts there are even recommending a Christmas lock down which points to how quickly the case numbers there have risen.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's one of Italy's top virologists is suggests that over the holiday period there be some form of nationwide lock down to stop what has been a fairly dramatic surge in the number of new cases.

In fact, here, "La Republica," a daily newspaper here, this is back in August, 159 cases, as of yesterday, 7,332 cases were recorded, and that is the highest number of new cases recorded in Italy since the first case was reported on the 21st of February.

Now, what's interesting in these numbers, however, is that the death toll is still relatively low. Yesterday, 43 people passed away from the pandemic. When you compare that to the worst day for fatalities from COVID-19, which was back in March, 969 people reported to have died on the 29th of March. So, what is clear is that testing is getting much easier and better in Italy. In fact, it's become much easier to get tested.

Yesterday I was tested as home, and it took just three minutes to get the result. Just a few month ago, you had to be showing clear symptoms of coronavirus for a doctor to approve a test.

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Also, it appears that the people who are getting coronavirus are generally much younger and healthier than earlier in the year when Italy was the worst spot for this pandemic. So, the situation is somewhat different than it was earlier this year, but certainly there is growing pressure to impose new measures to try to stop this spread. For instance, earlier this week, the government made masks mandatory. If you don't wear a mask now, and I'm trying to adjust mine here, you could be fined as much as 1,000 euro. That's almost $1,200 -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: That rapid testing and, you know, fines for not wearing masks clearly in sharp contrast to the measures that we see here in the U.S. Thank you very much, Ben Wedeman in Rome. Appreciate it.

Still to come, we're seeing many Americans turn out to cast their ballots early. But some are facing slow lines that are hours long. We'll have more on that

Plus, an investigation into the scandal in the Obama White House found nothing. Those details also coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

Voters in the U.S. state of North Carolina will get to cast their ballots in just a few hours, joining millions of Americans who are voting early. Georgia is breaking records for turnout, despite some computer glitches. But the Secretary of State says the long lines are simply because some precincts are more popular with voters.

In Texas, a suburban Houston county will extend voting hours.