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Coronavirus Pandemic; 2020 Election. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 29, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:33:04]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: I'm going to show you the trend lines in the United States right now and in a word, they are bad. This is the coronavirus state by state trend lines 41 states, 41 of the 50 states right now trending in the wrong direction. You see some deep red up here in New England and Alabama as well, and in Alaska. That's 50 percent more COVID infections this week, compared to a week ago. 50 percent higher now than a week ago.

The rest of the orange is more new infections anywhere between 10 percent more and 50 percent more, more new infections now than a week ago, just about everywhere in the country. Forty-one states trending up the other nine holding steady zero. Zero state's going in the right direction trending down right now. This is a horrific map of more cases building up.

And if you look at the timeline, you can just see the red line that trajectory now pointing almost straight up, right. A slow climb, slow climb, now going straight up 78,900. So 79,000 cases yesterday, our new average now up above 70,000, four of the most painful days in this pandemic this past week.

This is why the high positivity, people getting coronavirus tests. A high positivity right means more infections today also means the likelihood of more spread tomorrow. The deeper the collar the higher the rate 28 percent Alabama, 28 percent Wisconsin, 29 percent Iowa, 46 percent South Dakota, 36 percent in Idaho. You see the top five states there but 55 percent in Wyoming, 28 percent Kansas, 22 percent Nebraska, it's everywhere. Double digits, Arkansas, Missouri, problem everywhere across the country right now.

And with more cases inevitably comes the hospitalization trend starting to go back up. It was slow climb at first but now back about 40,000, more than 40,000 Americans hospitalized with coronavirus. And again, with the case count going up so fast the hospitalization will follow as well.

If there's any good news in this and there's no good news, there's better news from time to time. It is that the ratio of people hospitalized. When you look at the cases the ratio of hospitalizations to daily case that has increased. [12:35:00]

Since April as doctors, others in the medical community do know more about coronavirus, as some of these treatments have been found, it is the case it's better news. It's not good news, but fewer people who get coronavirus are now hospitalized. That is some progress.

But again, the state by state trends are bad. Most of the public health experts say the worst days are just ahead of us. The next several weeks, the next couple of months. But even a doctor who says that Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former FDA Commissioner, he says yes, the next stretch is tough. But he is optimistic that by next year, the second half of next year, things will get back to a better place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FMR. FDA COMMISSIONER: This is really sort of the last stage of the acute phase. This 2021 is going to start to look a lot better. I think we'll be celebrating together in 2021, Thanksgiving or 2021. We need to get through the next couple of months. This is the hardest point in this pandemic right now. The next two months, we've done a very good job sheltering a lot of people and keeping people safe. We can't give up our guard right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's continue the conversation with Dr. Amesh Adalja. He's a Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Dr. Adalja, it's good to see you. Just when you look at what has happened over the past week, plus, for the worst five days of this pandemic, in terms of new infections at a daily rate in the last week, when you're projecting out what worries you most?

DR. AMESH ADALJA, SENIOR SCHOLAR, JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: What worries me most is those hospitals that we're hearing about that are worried about capacity, that are worried about ICU beds, that are thinking about how they're going to continue their other operations. That's what flattening the curve is about is trying to preserve hospital capacity and hearing about El Paso and Utah, the Dakotas, as well as Wisconsin, getting in trouble, again, the way that New York did in March. That's what we were trying to avoid. And we were unable to avoid it. And I think it really has to do with the fact that this virus has never been controlled. We don't have a testing strategy. And we don't have the public infrastructure to deal with this.

KING: And so Dr. Anthony Fauci now says he would prefer a national mass mandate, but listen here, he's skeptical it would ever happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He leaned on you for advice. Do we need a national mandate?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Oh, yes. Yes. Well, we do if we don't get one, then I would hope that the governors and the mayors do it locally if it's not done national. I haven't spoken to the President in quite a while about the situation with regard to the outbreak. Obviously, we have had a disparate response. I have been saying that ship (ph) for months now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Interesting there on several fronts, including it would be nice to have a national mass mandate, but we won't have one. So the governor should do it. But then again, look at what's happening in the case count the infections, the hospitalizations, and the top infectious disease experts in the United States of America on the government payroll says I haven't spoken to the President in quite some time.

ADALJA: Yes, this is just very, very concerning, because Dr. Fauci is the voice of reason here. He is somebody whose hand has guided this response. And whatever good has happened has largely been his and other infectious disease. It's been their influence.

And when his influence wanes, we all suffer. And when it comes to masks, I think that the data that didn't quite exist at the beginning of the pandemic is really now becoming almost incontrovertible that face coverings do help decrease the force of infection. And we need to get people to start thinking about this as the best and easiest common sense measure to reduce the harm from this virus.

But there is still mixed messaging going on. There are rallies occurring all over the country where people are not wearing masks. And we know that this is leading to cases. And if we're going to get through this winter, we need people to just follow this very simple advice and wear a face covering when they can't social distance, it will go a long way towards keeping our hospitals out of trouble.

KING: Not only are people crowded at rallies, they hear hearing things at rallies that I think number one don't comport with the science. And number two don't sound very responsible, including this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A friend of mine, a great senator, somebody that has extraordinary common sense. It's one of the reasons he's a successful man at what he does. Senator Rand Paul, thank you. Here's to immunity. To immune people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Here's to immunity, to immune people from the president of the Unites States, obviously had his COVID episode. Senator Paul, is that factual? Or is that the way you should be talking about this if you're in a position of leadership?

ADALJA: No, it's absolutely the wrong way. We cannot pursue anything looking like a herd immunity strategy without killing hundreds of thousands of people. And I think that Dr. Paul needs to be held to a higher standard. He is a physician, he's a medical doctor. He knows better than that. And to pander to this kind of nonsensical unreality that some people live in, really just baffles the mind. And it has made it so much harder for those of us in the field to try and actually give people proper protective action guidance when you're hearing the exact opposite from the president and from a physician who serves in the Senate.

KING: Dr. Adalja, grateful as always for your time, your insight, sir, very much appreciate your time.

ADALJA: Thank you.

KING: Up next for us. We just hit the campaign trail live in three big swing states.

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[12:44:54]

KING: Today's campaign trail itinerary so just how crucial the state of Florida is to winning the White House. Both President Trump, Democratic nominee Joe Biden rallying in Tampa hours apart.

[12:45:04]

Florida is one of the battleground states. The two candidates targeting in these final days of the 2020 election. CNN lucky to have reporters spread across the swing states. Let's begin this hour with Drew Griffin in Tallahassee, Drew.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And John it is a desperate ground game now in these final days here in Florida, which is why both of these candidates will be here. First, Joe Biden going to Broward County, that is a democratic rich county. He needs to get every single Democrat out to vote to counterbalance the overwhelming counties that will vote Republican in this day.

And then both the candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be in Tampa later today. That's a split county, hundreds of thousands of votes at stake. Again, they need to mind every single vote in a state that time and time again has shown every vote counts.

The question I have John is just how many voters are still out there waiting to drop 7.4, nearly 7.4 million voters have already voted in Florida. That is in excess of half all registered voters. This is going to be a tight win in Florida no doubt. 29 electoral votes at stake. It's why we're here throughout the duration of this campaign. Let's go to Miguel Marquez in another battleground state. The colder state of Michigan, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed colder from the sunshine state to the Great Lakes State here in Michigan. Look, this one is just as hard fought as, as Florida today alone. You have Jill Biden in town you have Eric and Tiffany Trump in town. You have Betsy DeVos in town. The President's already been here once this week. The vice president was here yesterday. The President will be back on Friday tomorrow and then Joe Biden and Barack Obama will hold an event here on Saturday. The first time that they hold an event in was in Michigan together.

If you want to get your vote in official say this is the way to do it. Now you got to drop off that absentee mail in vote now at a drop box across the state or the county clerk somewhere. That is the best way to get it in. They expect about 5 million Michiganders to vote in this election. They expect about two-thirds of those votes will be in by Election Day.

Another hard fought state, Wisconsin where we find our colleague, Bill Weir. Bill.

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miguel, the breaking news out of Wisconsin at this hour is comes from the Republican Party who says that someone with knowledge of the campaign's inner workings hacked into their system using a phishing scam and stole $2.3 million. They are also working with the FBI says the statement.

This has both candidates will come here tomorrow it stayed on fire with COVID-19 another 3,800 new cases, 45 deaths. Yesterday the 27 percent positivity rate, John, puts them on track to overflow the state's intensive care units within the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, in the polls, Joe Biden up by as many as five to 17 points, depending on which numbers you believe, John.

KING: Bill Weir for us on the ground. Remarkable the COVID challenge just as we approached the election in the state of Wisconsin. Thank you, Bill and thanks to all of our reporters out in the swing states in these final days. Up next we'll look at three states leading the charge in the record breaking early voting.

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[12:53:06]

KING: There's record breaking early voting all across the country, more than a third of all registered voters have already cast their ballots. That means over 79 million Americans have already voted. That's according to a survey of election officials by CNN Edison Research and Catalysts. CNN's Kristin Holmes joins me now. She's been tracking all of this every day. The numbers are wow, take us through some of the big significant pieces of it.

KRISTIN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, the numbers are wow. I mean, this is more than 56 percent of the entire turnout that we saw in 2016. And the numbers really tell two different stories. And the first is enthusiasm. So many of these states are on track to not only just surpass their 2016 turnout numbers, but to blow them out of the water.

We take Texas, for example. 8.4 million people have already voted. We know they're going to be in person turnout on election day. That is 94 percent of who voted in 2016. In North Carolina 3.8 million, they're already at 80 percent of the total 2016 voter turnout. And you just can't deny this enthusiasm. I have spoken to voters who are waiting in lines all across the country who say they will wait hours or even days if they have to. They believe their vote is just so critical. So that's one part.

The other story here is something that voting rights advocates have been arguing for some time, which is if you give people opportunity to vote, they will in fact vote despite the fact that the Trump campaign and Republicans have really tried to limit voter access. Almost all states have had to relax some of their regulations because of the pandemic to make voting more accessible.

I want to show you this map here. This is the three states with the highest percentage of registered voters who have cast a ballot it is Montana, Washington and Colorado. What do they all have in common? They are all states that do universal mail in voting. Every registered voter gets a ballot. So just goes to show you if you give people an opportunity to vote, they will cast that ballot, John.

[12:55:00]

KING: Amen, let's hope they'll keep it up. Keep it up. Breaking a record now doesn't mean anything if you don't break it when we get to the end, so keep it going. Keep voting make a plan, get it done. Kristin Holmes, thanks so much. When we come back a really fun political experiment the words you most associate with the two candidates for president.

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KING: When voters were thinking about President Trump last week the word coronavirus was a top of the list. For Joe Biden it was debate. CNN has been partnering with the SSRS polling firm and the University of Michigan for months now to track words that break through to voters. Take a look here the past month take on President Trump. Coronavirus top the list for the president as it has 14 of the last 17 weeks of this polling. You'll also see debate getting a lot of mentions there.

And here are the breakthrough words for Joe Biden. This past month debate gets top billing for this past week and a couple other weeks as well. Son was the second most mentioned word for the second week in a row and indication there a fair amount of voters are hearing President Trump's attacks questioning Hunter Biden's business practices.

That's it today. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks for spending some time with us. Hope to see you back here. This time tomorrow as the campaign winds down. Busy day stick with us.

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