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Florida Surpasses 900K Total COVID-19 Cases; New York City Schools Close as Coronavirus Cases Climb; CNN: Current, Former Trump Officials Reach Out Privately to Biden; Biden to Hold Call with Bipartisan Group of Governors Today; Death Toll Climbs As Hospitalizations in the U.S. Continue to Rise. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 19, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:17]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone, I'm Poppy Harlow.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

A sad milestone today, 250,000 American lives lost in this pandemic so far and the administration's own testing czar says the worst is still yet to come. That may be hard to imagine as cases and hospitalizations are already crippling the health care system. Look at that graph trending sharply upwards and our nation's largest school district closed its doors today.

HARLOW: The president's refusal to work with the Biden team is raising some serious fears that it will only exacerbate the crisis. In fact, this president seems committed to undercutting Biden as we inch closer to Inauguration Day.

Let's begin this hour with our Natasha Chen. She joins us in Florida, a state that is seeing again an alarming surge in cases.

Good morning, Natasha.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy. Well, Florida hit 900,000 cases yesterday, making them the state with the third highest number of coronavirus cases after Texas and California. And that's not a record anyone wants to have. You could feel that concern from the people we met who are in their cars trying to get tested right now. We've met a couple of women who said they clean hospitals for a living, a couple of guys told me they were exposed to someone positive, another person said she teaches in a classroom and she along with some others were telling us they wanted to get tested before traveling for Thanksgiving.

And that's a major concern for a lot of experts thinking people will try to gather with their families in the coming weeks. And the reason is this. Take a look at this seven-day average of new cases across the country. We are hitting more than 150,000 daily cases on average, higher than it's ever been. And when you look at the positivity rate across the country we are hovering at about 10 percent. So that's as bad or worse than it has been since the beginning of the summer. The hospitals around the country are taking a hit right now.

Take a look at the red states on this map showing which states saw record hospitalizations on Wednesday. If you look at the seven-day average of hospitalizations that graph has also shot way up. And when you talk about the new reported deaths every day, unfortunately that seven-day average is also trending upward, not as bad as perhaps the beginning of the pandemic but this is certainly a direction nobody wants to see.

There are many states that we've seen that are taking more precautions, instituting new restrictions to kind of put the brakes on this, but there are other states that aren't really doing much right now, including Florida where we are. There's no statewide mask mandate, though there is one locally. And the state is in phase three which means all of the businesses can operate at full capacity.

Governor DeSantis has not really addressed coronavirus since the beginning of November at least and we've asked his press office why that is, we're still waiting on a response -- Poppy and Jim.

HARLOW: Natasha Chen, thank you for that reporting.

As of today right here in New York City the public schools are all closed indefinitely. This is after the city reached that 3 percent seven-day average positivity rate threshold.

SCIUTTO: All students have transitioned to remote learning until further notice. Not clear when they are going to go back to school.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga, she's in New York following the story.

And Bianna, there's been some opposition to this. I mean, that 3 percent figure, positivity rate, in other words three out of 100 people who test test positive, is something of an arbitrary measure, right? Is it not? I mean, was this decision automatic?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it is an arbitrary measure. Good morning, Jim and Poppy, and it was something that was put in place the mayor said earlier in the year before the school year began where the mayor felt that he could get the school officials, teachers and principals comfortable enough to return to a classroom setting, but obviously once that threshold is hit, the mayor is saying that he's got to keep his word and he's got to reassure these teachers that his safety and their safety is top of mind.

But of course for the 300,000 New York City school children that have been going for in-person learning, this is a big setback for them, it's a big setback for their parents. About 700,000 students had been learning online and remotely for the past two months since schools have reopened, but I have to say this has been a rather surprising turn of events that we've seen in two months because it's been a good number that we've seen for schools children.

The positivity rate, the latest information that we have, was just .17 percent. So this experiment many people had been concerned that this was going to be a vector for spread and for causing more virus to spread within the city. That is not the case. Schools have not proved to be a super spreader. Still, the mayor saying he has to keep his word. A lot of parents now are scrambling to figure out things like child care, what they're going to be doing for their children for the next few weeks.

[09:05:06]

The mayor saying the earliest, the soonest that kids will get back into school is the week after Thanksgiving. And of course, they're going to have to be tested all over again. It is a really big mess. And if you think about the frustration and the prioritization that many parents are wondering about in this city, you've got bars and restaurants and gyms that are still open for in-person dining and yet now schools and the largest public school district are closed indefinitely.

SCIUTTO: Do we have our priorities straight? Simple question.

Bianna Golodryga, thanks very much.

Well, joining me now to dig deeper on this former acting director of the CDC, Dr. Richard Besser.

Dr. Besser, always good to have you on. Thanks so much.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So if you can look for a moment at this decision in New York because the data has not borne out that schools are a super spreader in effect as children go back. Was this decision necessary to close schools in New York in your view?

BESSER: Well, you know, I -- Jim, I was one of those people early on very concerned that opening schools might lead to transmission within the school and within the community. And I was really pleased with how things were going in New York City. It demonstrated that in the nation's largest school system you could safely bring children into school, safe for the children, safe for the staff and safe for the teachers.

But I think the city tied their hands when they were linked to that 3 percent community positivity rate because they hit that, but they hit that and at the same time they've been able to maintain a safe environment in the schools.

I was talking to a state health commissioner in another state and she was making the point that for a lot of children being in the classroom where their mask wearing can be observed, where social distancing can be monitored, is really the safest place for them. So in terms of their education and their health, it's a good thing. So I was disappointed to see them make that decision.

SCIUTTO: Do we have our priorities screwed up when you close schools, but leave restaurants and bars open? Listen, I get the argument and desire to keep them open. I mean, they're small businesses, right, many of them, and you want to keep those people employed, but where should the emphasis be in your view?

BESSER: Well, you know, I like the approach that we're seeing in a lot of European countries where they're viewing schools as essential services, essential for children and families and working parents. And so they're shutting other things down. But the other piece that they're doing, they are not just saying we're going to close down bars and restaurants and small businesses and gatherings, they're providing economic support to those businesses so that they don't go -- they don't go under.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BESSER: And Congress here has just not gotten the job done. They haven't come together to give people what they need, to give businesses what they need, to protect people from eviction. There's so much that Congress could do to make it easier for states and localities to follow the science, but, you know, it's so important that we follow the science and shut down activities that are linked to transmission and let people do those things that are not.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Now Congress is leaving town for the holidays to see their families without having addressed those needs.

Let me ask you, you know, this contrast between what's desirable, right, of course, it's desirable to go travel, see your families at the holidays and so on, and what's smart. For folks listening at home, and it's tough, it's tough for my family, I'm sure it's tough for yours and anybody listening, should they -- and forgetting the politics here, to protect themselves and their family, should they not hold large family gatherings? Should they not travel for Thanksgiving?

BESSER: Yes. You know, it's really hard, Jim. You know, people want to be together. We need that kind of human contact. But if you can do it virtually, have a Zoom Thanksgiving that's a safer way to go. You know, our two sons are coming home, they're getting tested before they travel, but my parents live here in town, they live about a mile from my house, they're both 90, they're not coming for Thanksgiving. We're going to deliver a plate of food to them because it's just not worth that risk.

So you have to think about it really carefully and do what you can to protect those people who are at highest risk, be smart about it and recognize that this time of year favors the virus. Viruses like the cold, they like when we're indoors, they like low humidity. And, you know, it's a few more months. If we can get through this winter together and do this, the vaccines are coming. And I've never been as hopeful as I am now, but we have to come together, give people what they need through this winter.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BESSER: So that when the bring comes we can have a new beginning.

SCIUTTO: Is there an odd irony here, right, that the good news about the vaccines might be leading people to be a little less responsible to some degree, right? Saying, well, in springtime I'm going to have a vaccine any way, you know, damn the consequences now.

[09:10:04]

I mean, do you see that phenomenon? Because there was already COVID fatigue and shutdown fatigue prior.

BESSER: Yes, I mean, that can happen, or it could be the rallying cry. If we can just get through these next three months, come together as a nation, forget about politics, forget about all the messaging that's happened before and recognize that just by wearing a mask and keeping apart and washing our hands, we can accomplish so much, and we don't have to -- it's not going to be forever. You know, there's an end in sight, there's light at the end of that tunnel. If we can just do it, give people what they need so that everyone can protect their families, we could save, you know, tens of thousands of lives by doing that. I mean, and that's an amazing thing.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, it's -- I mean, it's in the math, right? I mean, wearing masks saves lives.

BESSER: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Richard Besser, always good to have you on.

BESSER: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, still to come this hour, despite President Trump's continuing refusal to concede an election he lost, some current and former administration officials are quietly reaching out to President- elect Biden's team to help, to cooperate. What they're saying.

HARLOW: And with cases surging across the country some hospitals are being pushed to the limit. We're going to speak with two frontline doctors from two of the hardest hit states.

And as millions of Americans wait for lawmakers to agree on an economic relief package, some are facing the real prospect of being evicted from their homes with their children right before the holidays.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. Well, CNN has learned that a handful of current and former Trump administration officials have quietly reached out to the President-elect Joe Biden's transition team, and one of those former Trump officials tells CNN they view the outreach effort as putting country over party, as President Trump himself, though, is refusing to concede the election.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and a handful have done so publicly, these doing it privately. CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez, part of the team reporting this story. So, Evan, are they having substantive conversations? Are they sharing the information necessary to allow the transition to go forward? EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, they have to

have very limited conversations. There is a lot of people who are expected to be part of the incoming administration, the incoming Biden administration, who don't have all of the clearances, and that's one of the dangers, one of the dangerous things that's happening right now by the GSA refusing to start the formal transition process is the delay in getting those clearances which normally have to happen.

And so what we're told is that you're having these conversations informally, quietly by current and former officials who are talking to the Biden folks, trying to get them some information that they can. One person told us, it was just an offer to be of help, nothing that would get us in trouble.

We're told that these are conversations obviously here at the Justice Department in the intelligence community, for instance, that can't touch official law enforcement information, sensitive, classified information, that kind of stuff cannot be shared, but certainly you can give them some outlines of some of the things that the administration -- the current administration is doing that they're going to have to inherit when the Biden administration takes over.

Of course, we're hearing from Kate Bedingfield; the deputy campaign manager and transition adviser to the Biden team who says, quote, "it requires more than former officials choosing to step forward and be helpful to ensure a smooth transition of power."

She says that the GSA should follow the law and ascertain the results of the election. Guys, you know, I can't underscore enough that there are these people who are risking their careers right now who are inside the Trump administration who are trying to put the country over partisan consideration, and they believe that the GSA should be starting this process right now.

SCIUTTO: Well, they apparently believe the facts of the election, too. Remarkable --

PEREZ: Yes --

SCIUTTO: That it's a minority position. Evan Perez, thanks very much.

PEREZ: Sure --

SCIUTTO: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are set to hold a virtual meeting with a bipartisan group of governors today. The call is expected to focus on the coronavirus outbreak as CNN learns that current Health and Human Services staffers have been given specific instructions not to communicate at all with the incoming president-elect and his team.

HARLOW: Jessica Dean joins us now from Wilmington, Delaware, good morning to you, Jess. How is the Biden team and how is the president- elect this morning responding to the delay?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to both of you. The Biden team and Biden himself are pushing ahead in the ways they can. Today's meeting with these governors is a prime example of that. Biden will be meeting with a bipartisan set of governors to talk about the coronavirus pandemic, to talk about likely vaccine distribution where governors are going to play a big role, mask mandates, things like that.

So they're doing what they can outside of the federal apparatus. We also know that their scientific advisors are meeting with drug makers who are involved with a vaccine like Pfizer this week. So they're doing these sorts of things, but it remains that the delay is causing them to not be able to do everything they want to be doing. President- elect Biden talked a little bit about this yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I am optimistic, but we should be further along. Well, there is a whole lot of things that are just -- we just don't have available to us, which unless is made available soon, we're going to be behind by weeks or months being able to put together the whole initiative relating to the biggest promise we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:00]

DEAN: And obviously, we've talked about vaccine distribution and what a giant logistical challenge that is, how they want to be talking to federal officials about that and streamlining that process as much as possible. But, Poppy and Jim, we also heard from the co-chairs of the Biden transition team's COVID-19 advisory board this week, and they said they're also not getting data that they need, things like how much PPE is available, testing capacity, hospital beds, things like that, that they really want to keep a hold on in order to track all of this.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Jess, before you go, I was struck reading a bit of the transcript of that call that Biden had yesterday with those supporters. When he said this, he said, I think at least half the folks who voted against us are just looking for answers, they're not bad folks. And it struck me as so diametrically opposed to when Hillary Clinton used the now infamous term "deplorables" which she later said she regretted. But it's just interesting to hear him in the transition, making an effort to make statements like that. I wonder if that struck you.

DEAN: Yes, I mean, Poppy, it's interesting that you note that because this is so true to who Biden has been on this campaign the whole 18 months we've been following him, and now even in this transition. He truly believes and we've heard him say again and again, that he thinks he can bring people together, that he wants to heal. And this goes back to his, you know, Senate days where he was very famous for working across the aisle, these are things he's very proud of, and so he continues to try to come back to that sentiment and reach out to the other side. Now, that being said, also on that call, he talked about and

acknowledged that there are going to be what he calls some real brick walls he's probably going to run into --

HARLOW: Yes --

DEAN: In the Senate if the Republicans hang on there, just because, you know, look back to when Barack Obama was in power and the Republicans held the Senate as well, they didn't get much done. So it will be interesting to see if this is different this time with Biden in the Oval Office.

HARLOW: OK, Jess, thanks for the reporting, and we appreciate it. Well, we all know how hard COVID restrictions are, but just imagine how hard all of this is on healthcare workers, the ones on the frontlines who have been battling this virus for months. What they're hearing, what they think needs to be done to mitigate the spread ahead.

SCIUTTO: And we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street, futures down slightly. This as we learn another 742,000 Americans filed for unemployment claims last week. That was up from the week before. These are not normal numbers, and they've been consistent for months. Investors are also rattled by this chaotic transition, and, of course, about the surge in COVID infections. We're going to be keeping a close eye on the markets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Right now, sadly, 44 states are seeing new coronavirus infections surge, particularly in the middle, the north, Midwest, South Dakota, Utah, among those hardest hit. In Utah this week, new infections topped 3,000 for the first time, all 29 counties are listing -- listed as having a very high rate of the virus now.

HARLOW: And then take a look at South Dakota where hospitals are down to 18 percent availability of ICU beds, and you are looking at the surge in hospitalizations on that chart. Dr. Austin Simonson is an internal medicine specialist at Sanford Medical Center in Sioux Falls in -- in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Dr. Nathan Hatton is a pulmonary specialist at the University of Utah Hospital.

It's very good to have you both here. If I could start with you, Dr. Simonson, you now at least have a mask mandate, just happened in the last few days in Sioux Falls, so, I hope that is going to help. Can you tell us what you hear from patients as you go room to room? What are they saying to you?

AUSTIN SIMONSON, INTERNAL MEDICINE SPECIALIST, SANFORD MEDICAL CENTER: Most of them followed the masking rules, most of them tried to isolate, usually they can identify an issue or two, a place where they maybe didn't follow the rules as stringently as they should have, and wonder if that may be contributed, but most commonly, they just wonder where they got it from or what they did or what they could have done to have not gotten it.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Hatton, by making steps such as mask-wearing a political point rather than a public health point, did the states' political leaders do residents there a disservice? Did they put their health in danger?

NATHAN HATTON, PULMONARY SPECIALIST, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HOSPITAL: Yes, I mean, I think this is clearly a very difficult situation. We know now that masks clearly works.

So, this is no longer sort of a political point or a debatable point, it is a fact, and so that's what I think we need to focus on now and sort of get rid of sort of the debate, and say, look, we know this work, there is great science that now backs this up, and now we just need to sort of focus on that and continue to sort of message that so that people sort of say, hey, OK, you know, we're going to -- we're going to buy into this for a bit, the case-load is super high right now and wear the masks.

HARLOW: I was so struck reading, Dr. Hatton, what you said about finding what you call the societal fatigue, even harder than anything else. What do you mean?

HATTON: Yes, I mean, as a healthcare provider, we are on 250 days of having a COVID patient in our ICU right now.