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Illinois Health Official Breaks Down While Giving Update On COVID Deaths; Utah Hospitals Discuss Rationing ICU Care As Cases Surge; Boston Police Arrest Suspect In Ballot Box Arson; Conservative Newspaper Endorses Biden, First Democrat In 100 Years; All-Black Activist Group Takes Up Arms In Quest For Justice Reform; Italy Sets New Daily Record With 21,000-Plus Cases, Protests Over New Restrictions. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 26, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The top medical officer in Illinois is begging the people in her state to wear masks and social distance, amid a disturbing new spike in coronavirus cases and deaths there.
She grew emotional as she was reporting the new numbers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. NGOZI EZIKE, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Since yesterday, we've lost an additional 31 lives for a total of 9,418 deaths. These are people who started with us in 2020 and won't be with us at the Thanksgiving table.
Today, we are reporting 3,874 new cases for a total of 364,033 confirmed cases since the start of this pandemic.
Excuse me, please.
My message to you is to stay strong. I've never run a marathon, but I have the utmost regard for those who train and plan and finish a marathon. But this is a difficult race when you can't see the end point.
I'm sorry that's the message I have for you. Nevertheless, I'm asking you to fight the fatigue. Fight the urge to give up on social distancing.
Fight for your kids to have safe, healthy opportunity to have in- person learning in school with teachers who are trained to teach them in the classroom.
Fight to have safe, healthy environments at which we can work, so that businesses can remain open, so that our economies can start to thrive again.
This does mean wearing your mask.
(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: State officials are threatening to impose new restrictions if the case numbers keep rising there.
In Utah, the surge is so serious that hospitals are reportedly preparing to ration care in the event that they're unable to treat some patients.
"The Salt Lake City Tribune" says this drastic plan is part of the plan presented to the governor.
Dr. Russell Vinik is with us now. He's the chief medical operations officer at the University of Utah Health.
I want to thank you so much, Doctor, for being with us.
Tell us how dire the situation has become. And tell us about this idea of rationing care. At what point would this begin to happen? And what would that mean?
DR. RUSSELL VINIK, CHIEF MEDICAL OPERATIONS OFFICER, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH: Well, thank you for having me.
First of all, we are currently not in crisis here. We are very strained as a system at the University of Utah, as well as statewide in Utah. Our ICUs are currently 87 percent capacity.
Crisis standards of care would essentially mean rationing care and prioritizing patients who are most likely to benefit so that we can care for the most patients and do the most good to the most number of people.
We believe we are a ways away from that. That would happen when the system truly is overwhelmed to the point where we literally don't have enough resources, that being nurses, doctors, ventilators, ICU beds.
We think we have a long runway. But that runway gets burnt on both ends. On one end, we have an increasing number of cases. On our second end, with have staff that continues to get ill.
Fortunately, our staff are getting ill at a lower rate than what we've seen in the Utah community. That's certainly a possibility down the road.
KEILAR: I think this is a very scary prospect for people. But the good news that you can tell us about, Dr. Vinik, is there's something people can actually do to try to reduce the strain on the system.
Talk to us about what they need to be doing.
VINIK: Absolutely. This COVID-19 is a preventable disease. We all know what we can and should do. And that is making some sacrifices.
First of all, wearing a mask, a very small sacrifice, but a big impact.
Our staff at our hospital have about half the rate of getting ill in the community. Why? Because we practice what we preach both in the hospital as well as outside.
So number one, wear a mask.
Number two is a lot more difficult and it's social gatherings. When we look at the data, the majority of cases are transmitted lately within small social gatherings.
What can people do? Avoid those gatherings, especially if they're indoors. If you absolutely need to be with somebody, wear a mask again.
But those are the two biggest things we can do is mask wearing appeared physical distance, try to avoid those large social gatherings, especially as we get close to the holidays and Halloween.
KEILAR: Dr. Vinik, with the Utah University of Health.
I just want to thank you for coming on. I know you're very much in the middle of a challenging situation. And it's so important that we discuss what we're going through.
[14:35:01]
Thank you.
VINIK: Thank you.
KEILAR: We have some breaking news today that a suspect has been arrested for allegedly setting a ballot box on fire in Boston. Details on what happens to the votes inside.
Plus, I'll speak to the publisher of a conservative newspaper that just decided to endorse Joe Biden, the first Democrat that it is backing in 100 years.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Just into CNN, Boston police have arrested a suspect in connection with a ballot box fire allegedly set over the weekend. Boston firefighters were, quote, "tending to smoke coming from an early voting ballot box with dozens of ballots inside."
CNN's Polo Sandoval has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, authorities have arrested a 29-year-old Boston man believed to have been responsible but not much is known about a possible motive.
Boston's mayor, together with the Massachusetts secretary of state did call this incident a disgrace to democracy and a disrespect to voters.
The box located in the Boston Public Library's main branch was under 24-hour surveillance, just like all the others.
[14:40:04]
It contained 122 ballots when it was set on fire. According to the Boston Elections Department, new ballots have already been sent to all voters whose ballots were identified as being in the box at the time.
If you are a Boston voter who deposited your ballot at that location over the weekend, the Elections Department wants you to call them just to check the status of it -- Brianna?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: All right, Polo, thank you.
The conservative-leaning newspaper, "The New Hampshire Union Leader" has endorsed Joe Biden for president. And this marks the first Democratic endorsement by that paper in over 100 years.
The editorial board wrote this, quote:
"Building this country up sits squarely within the skill set of Joseph Biden. We have found Mr. Biden to be a caring, compassionate and professional public servant. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to be a president for all of America, and we take him at his word."
Brendan McQuaid is the president and publisher of the "Union Leader."
Brendan, thank you so much for joining us to talk with us about this.
Tell us about what pushed the editorial board to make this decision.
BRENDAN MCQUAID, PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER, "THE NEW HAMPSHIRE UNION LEADER": Thanks for having me, Brianna.
We have endorsed Democrats before, just usually in the primary but not in a general election.
KEILAR: Yes.
MCQUAID: We actually endorsed Amy Klobuchar in the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary recently.
We have to look at both candidates. Frankly, neither candidate pleased us very much.
We have never been Trump fans and Trump has not been our fan since we did not endorse him in 2016.
We took a look at what's going on. And the real thing up that pushed us over the edge on Biden over Trump was the $7 trillion in debt that has racked up under the Trump administration.
KEILAR: So talk about that a little bit. When you think of, for instance, New England conservatives, you think of the GOP roots of fiscal conservatism.
We have not really seen that with President Trump. You're saying that factors into the decision here.
"The Union Leader" made it clear they don't agree with Biden's policies, and yet, in the end, Biden was the better choice.
So explain what this comes down -- is there anything about tone? Is it just about fiscal conservatism?
MCQUAID: Fiscal conservatism is a big part of it. But tone is also there, the way Trump has handled himself.
I think Trump has a lot of very good points. And I think a lot of our readers think that Trump has good points. I've had many calls and e- mails pointing out some of the things that Trump has done well.
And we don't disagree. We think that Trump has done a lot of really good things, especially in the face of a media that has given him a rough shake.
So we looked at Trump overall. And overall, we think that Biden is the better public servant to serve out the next four years.
KEILAR: In 2016, President Trump lost New Hampshire to Hillary Clinton by less than 3,000 votes.
What kind of enthusiasm or engagement are you witnessing from voters there in New Hampshire right now?
MCQUAID: There's a lot of enthusiasm for Donald Trump in 2020. His supporters are diehard.
They will not be swayed by anything he does, anything he says, anything anyone in the media says. They're not swayed by our editorial.
But we made it a point on our opinion page to lay out a case for a voter that maybe is a little on the edge about how they can look at both candidates the way we did, and maybe make the same decision.
KEILAR: How are you seeing voters in their engagement for, say, Joe Biden versus Hillary Clinton?
MCQUAID: I don't think we see the same sort of cult of personality around Joe Biden that we saw around Hillary Clinton.
Hillary definitely had a different sort of, you know, grouping around her.
There was a lot of excitement around Hillary Clinton and the potentially for the first female president that we do not see with Joe Biden, because Joe Biden is an old white man.
KEILAR: That is true.
Brendan, thank you so much. We really appreciate you joining us. Brendan McQuaid.
MCQUAID: Thank you.
KEILAR: Next, CNN is on the ground with a black activist group that has been showing up to protests heavily armed. Hear why they say they mobilized.
[14:44:52]
And we're live in Italy as new restrictions are set to go into effect as COVID cases hit record highs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: CNN is getting an in-depth look at an activist group demanding criminal justice reform and better treatment for American black communities.
The group is all black and includes women and men of various ages. And is heavily armed.
The group's acronym is NFAC. That stands for the "Not F-ing Around Coalition."
Ryan Young, our CNN national correspondent, spoke to the leader of NFAC about the group's origins as well as its future.
Ryan, tell us about this.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, it really started with a question of who this group was, especially when you started seeing them showing up in different cities in large numbers.
[14:50:02]
In fact, when you watch this video and you see how well coordinated they are, they're moving with heavy guns, they're very armed, you wanted to know what they were looking for, what they were seeking.
Quite frankly, what they wanted is they wanted to get everyone's attention because they want to move toward social justice.
A lot of times you see people singing or carrying signs when they're looking for civil rights. But this group believes the Second Amendment is the way to do this.
Every time they show up in a city, it creates a stir.
But Grand Master Jay has a message in terms of why this group is seeing so many people join.
In fact, African-Americans are starting to add up into the largest group that are buying weapons since the Trump administration started. This group is fitting right into that slot.
In fact, take a listen to Grand Master Jay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN "GRAND MASTER JAY" JOHNSON, FOUNDER, NFAC: We're not F-ing around anymore with the judicial system that shortchanged us.
We're not F-ing around anymore with the continued abuses within our community and the lack of respect for our men, women and children.
In other words, we're not F-ing around with the status quo anymore. We're going to change it one way or the other.
Nobody says anything when other demographics pick up weapons and decide to arm themselves and confront the government over anything from wearing a mask to being cooped up in the house.
But when certain demographics arm themselves, all of a sudden, people tend to act like the Constitution does not apply.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Brianna, when you think about this, there are a lot of white militias across this country. We've never really seen black militias grow in size.
Of course, there was the Black Panthers. But that group has pretty much disappeared over the last years. This group is growing in number.
Of course, when you start asking them questions about how large they are, they won't share those numbers.
But as we've seen, as they start growing around country, this group seems to grow in size each time they show up.
They just recently lowered their age to 18 so people could join. There say thousands of new members are starting to join.
There are military, former military members in this group, a former NFL player in this group. Obviously, they're starting to get some sort of traction.
Of course, we did this story for CNN.com. It's a large in-depth sort of look at this group as they start to move forward.
They say they plan to pop up in a lot more places across this country. Usually, they call law enforcement before time so they can set things up.
But of course, when you ask them where they might show up next, they don't want to give us that sort of information.
But, obviously, by the video and the tone, it's been quite striking across America.
KEILAR: Ryan Young, thank you so much for that report. We'll check it out online as well at CNN.com. Thank you.
Next, protests in Italy over the weekend as new curfews take effect to stop the surge of coronavirus. We're going to take you there live as cases hit all-time highs.
Plus, the vice president's staff is now the focus of a second recent outbreak amid staff at the White House. But he's still campaigning in person with eight days to go until the election.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:57:26]
KEILAR: A second wave of coronavirus infection sweeping Europe is worrying health officials in Italy. The country was devastated by the first wave back in March.
Seven months later, Italy just set a new daily record of more than 21,000 cases yesterday. More than 37,000 people in Italy have died at this point. This is according to Johns Hopkins.
The prime minister says the country can't afford a second lockdown, but there are stringent new restrictions that are going into place.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is in Rome.
And, Ben, tell us what steps are being taken.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, basically, all gyms, theaters and cinemas must close for a month.
Bars and restaurants should stop serving customers on the premises at 6:00 p.m. They can do, however, takeaway and delivery.
And secondary schools have to have 75 percent of their instruction online.
We have seen every weekend the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for the last four weekends announcing new measures.
But he is very hesitant to have a repeat of the more than two-month nationwide lockdown that happened earlier this year because of the damage it did to the economy -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Over the weekend, Ben, there were police who clashed with protesters that were upset about a recently imposed curfew. What happened there?
WEDEMAN: There were basically two clashes. Here in Rome, about 100 members of a neo-fascist political party were protesting against the overnight curfew that have been put in place.
And in Naples, where there was a much larger demonstration. That is a much more economically underprivileged part of the country where these lockdowns really do cause damage to the local economy.
But by and large, what we've seen, going back to March when the first lockdown was imposed, was that most Italians, even though they're not happy with these restrictions, understand that they are an attempt to stop the spread of this very deadly virus -- Brianna? KEILAR: I know you recently visited an ICU in one of the region's
front-line hospitals. What did the staff there tell you, Ben?
WEDEMAN: They're worried. They're very worried about what they see coming. And, of course, they were at the very forefront of the struggle against coronavirus.
I can tell you I spoke to the same head of the ICU down there back in March and now. And he said, we are very, very, very, very worried about what is coming our way.
[14:59:03]
Because they know exactly how dangerous this virus can be. And they're not looking forward to a repeat of this second wave.
