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Nation Plagued By Yet Another Weekend of Gun Violence; Long- COVID Treatment Uses Video Game To Improve Brain Fog; More Than 50 Million People In U.S. Under Heat Alerts; 80 Million+ Americans Under Flood Watches Today; "The Baby Business" Premieres Tonight At Nine. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired September 05, 2022 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: A brazen car chase and robbery in Manhattan, seven people shot at a Virginia house party and the Minnesota State Fair, closed early after a shooting. Those are just a handful of the gun violence episodes the U.S. saw this weekend.
CNN's Martin Savidge joins me now. Marty, these, once again, are places that all of us like to go but no longer feel safe.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Alisyn. You know, this was another violent weekend and, of course, the weekend is not over just yet. We begin looking at that wild scene in New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice over): A car chase and robbery caught on camera. In a video obtained by law enforcement in New York a car crashes into this silver SUV on a busy street in Manhattan Saturday afternoon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a gun. He's got a gun.
SAVIDGE (voice over): A man emerges and approaches the SUV wielding a firearm. The victim reported that $20,000 was taken, but law enforcement says there are some inconsistencies with the amount.
In Virginia seven people were shot in Norfolk after a fight broke out at a house party early Sunday morning.
INTERIM CHIEF MICHAEL GOLDSMITH, NORFOLK VIRGINIA: The preliminary investigation reveals that there had been a party at that location that had been advertised on social media. Apparently, a fight broke out at the party and once the fight started then somebody pulled out a gun and started shooting.
SAVIDGE (voice over): Norfolk State University 25-year-old Zabre Miller and 19-year-old Angelia McKnight were shot and killed said several of the victims were NSU students including McKnight who was a second year pre-nursing student from New York.
The president of the university rights: Angelia's life was important and every Spartan is a is a key member of our campus. With our strength, we will continue to work together.
MAYOR KENNY ALEXANDER, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Violence has no place in the city of Norfolk. Let me be clear to anyone in our community committing crimes and engaging in acts of lawlessness, we will hold you accountable for your actions. The violence must end now.
SAVIDGE (voice over): In Florida Saturday night two people were shot and killed and at least three more injured outside a restaurant in Palatka. In Charleston, South Carolina, a shooting early Sunday morning left five with nonlife-threatening gunshot wounds, two were arrested and charged with firearm violations.
The Minnesota State Fair closed early after a shooting injured one person Saturday night. The area was heavily populated and police haven't released the identity of any suspects or a motive.
And in Maryland, outside Washington, D.C., two teens were shot and injured outside an AMC movie theater. Hours earlier moviegoers were evacuated from another D.C. area theater after a threat to harm was reported. Police were called and shut down the theater for the rest of the day according to CNN affiliate WJLA.
ELIZABETH HARVEY, WITNESS: I heard that in one of the movie theaters, someone had said, you all are going to die, which caused the -- I guess the crowds to flee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (on camera): Today, Alisyn, there's going to be a bit of a shift for law enforcement as they move not just focusing on crime but also looking at the roads and highways as millions of Americans begin to make their way home -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: OK, Martin Savidge, thank you very much.
All right, next a breakthrough on long COVID. A new unconventional treatment for one of its main symptoms. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to walk us through it next.
[15:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: One in eight people who got COVID-19 will develop long COVID with symptoms persisting as long as two years. The CDC estimates there may be as many as 23 million long COVID patients in the U.S.
Some of the most common symptoms include pain and difficulty breathing and many patients also report cognitive problems. But now there is an experimental treatment to target brain fog. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA VANMETER-NIVENS, LONG COVID PATIENT: I went home on oxygen for 500 days. I had physical therapy, had a nurse that came every day. [15:40:02]
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Was there a point when you said, OK, these symptoms are not going away?
VANMETER-NIVENS: Yes. Four weeks after I left the hospital, I couldn't understand why I still felt so bad, why everything hurt. I was on a walker. I was crying.
My PCP had in my hand and she said, Barbara, you have long COVID.
GUPTA (voice-over): That was September 2020. Barbara VanMeter-Nivens' life was turned upside down. Fourteen years as a retail manager leading and coaching a staff of more than 20 was no more, now exchanged for a life of alarms, reminders, and pills.
VANMETER-NIVENS: Have this list, alarms set for things that I need to do daily.
GUPTA (voice over): In the years to come, there will be textbooks written about long COVID. But what is increasingly clear now is that for too many people, the symptoms come and then they stay, persisting for weeks, months -- and for Barbara, even years.
VANMETER-NIVENS: I feel like there's a virus in my brain. And it's changing things in my brain. Because I can't think, I can't remember.
JAMES JACKSON, ICU RECOVERY CENTER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: One of the first things that I noticed was that people were complaining of really striking cognitive problems.
GUPTA (voice over): Often called brain fog. However, that is elusive, hard to define. But as psychologist, James Jackson, started to see more of these patients, he also saw something more specific, something so-called brain fog patients seem to share in common. They had lost the ability to attend, to simply pay attention.
JACKSON: With other chronic illnesses, the cognitive deficits we see seem to focus on attentional problems, problems with processing speed, often memory complaints. But when you dig down, you find that really, the problem is attention. You know that they're not attending and functionally they experienced that as a deficit in memory.
GUPTA (voice over): With that in mind, he decided to try a treatment for long COVID that might surprise you, a video game.
JACKSON: Just like practicing sports or music, a tough challenge will help you improve.
GUPTA: I think I'm doing pretty good.
JACKSON: As you do better, it gets harder. Then as you do worse, it gets easier. It's very dynamic.
GUPTA (voice-over): There is even a dose that they prescribe in the trial, 25 minutes a day, five days a week, eight weeks. JACKSON: Is it going to translate into you being able to do your taxes? Are you going to be able to be organized? Are you going to be able to be driving? And when you stop the game? Do all those benefits stop? And that's a good question.
I think the literature and the science that has emerged is you don't need to be playing the game for the rest of your life to accrue the benefit. But that is certainly something that critics have raised.
GUPTA (voice over): The question is, can it help heal the changes sometimes seen in the brains of long COVID patients, like this? Loss of gray matter in the frontal cortex, tissue damage over here, and an overall shrinking of the brain.
None of this is easy. And to be sure, a video game won't be a panacea for Barbara. But at this point, anything seems to help.
GUPTA: How did it help you?
VANMETER-NIVENS: Attention to detail, paying attention, focusing, sub- memory.
GUPTA: How are you thinking about the future? Are you optimistic?
VANMETER-NIVENS: I take it day by day right now. Because if you try to take it month by month, it's really hard to try to think that far out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: We thank Sanjay for that.
Meanwhile, tens of millions of Americans are sweltering in record- breaking heat this Labor Day so we have the latest for you on the dangerous conditions next.
[15:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: More than 50 million people across the West are under heat alerts this Labor Day. In California, fire officials say conditions are extremely dangerous. They warn anyone having holiday cookouts to be extra careful. CNN's Natasha Chen is in Santa Monica for us. And Natasha, how are people coping?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, they're doing the best they can. People had come out early this morning for their exercise morning run before the height of this heat.
And just over an hour ago California officials gave a press conference saying that rotating blackouts could be a possibility today. We are talking about being now in the heart of the heat event.
They said this is the most extreme part with tomorrow possibly seeing a record-breaking demand on the energy grid, a record not broken since 2006. What's been working is asking Californians to voluntarily conserve
energy between the hours of 4 and 9:00 p.m. turning up the thermostat and turning off major appliances and that's been working because they said the last two evenings, they've seen that there's been 2 percent less demand than expected but they actually need two to three times that conservation in order to avoid taking actions like rotating blackouts.
We talked to some people who were here early at the beach today about their own conservation at home and the fact that some of them live in older buildings with no AC because once upon a time it wasn't that necessary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[15:50:00]
ALEX TALIGNANI, UCLA STUDENT: My apartment doesn't even have AC, so it's pretty bad, especially at 5:00 p.m. but we just got one. So, it's a little better.
VERONICA HERNANDEZ, RESIDENT: We are surprised because these should be like a lot cooler. Because we're close to the beach, and fortunately we get the breeze in the afternoon, but it is definitely different. It's changing.
JAMIAN SUREN, RESIDENT: It's very unusual. You know, we haven't had this kind of a heat wave last, what, couple years and we kind of got spoiled to it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN: If we take a look at the coming days, we're expecting more than 170 places to potentially break temperature records. And if you look at the list of Sunday records that were already broken, you're seeing triple digits there, some breaking records that were initially set in the 1960s. So, this is truly a record event here.
Of course, adding to that, the fire dangers, we're especially looking at the Mill Fire, northern California, near the Oregon border that's killed two people. That has scorched more than 4,000 acres. That's one of 14 large fires burning right now in the state of California -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Just incredible. Natasha Chen, thank you.
Now a flash flood emergency remains in effect in northwestern Georgia as a 1 in 1,000 year flood event is unfolding, 10 to 13 inches of rain -- as you can see on your screen -- fell in just a 12-hour period.
Heavy rains swamping homes and businesses, in communities 75 miles north of Atlanta, with more rain expected. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issuing a state of emergency there.
And Georgia is not the only state threatened by rain. More than 80 million people in 20 states are under flood watches. Meteorologist Tom Sater is in the CNN Weather Center for us. Tom, what do you see?
TOM SATER, CNN AMS METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, this is a tale of two air masses. You know, the unofficial end of summer with Labor Day and the hottest temperatures so far this season out West.
But on the East Coast, that 1 in 1,000-year flood event that you mentioned yesterday, that's the sixth one in the last four and five weeks. Think about that and let that set in. That's just amazing.
But this is a conveyer belt of heavy rainfall. A little concerned about parts of New England that have been in the flash-drought. Good portions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, so when this rain hits this area, it's going to cause some flooding.
Watches from Maine all the way back into Alabama. The forecast is going to be a problem for those who decided to put off their return trip for Labor Day until tomorrow because heavy rainfall in the big cities are going to create a backup. A number of possible of delays and cancellations from JFK to Teterboro and what have you.
Notice the heavy rain. This is our drought area. So that is a major concern. You would think the ground would suck it up. Look at the 90s out in the upper Midwest. And then you head further to the West, and warnings of almost all of California, advisories to the north.
It's going to get hotter. Sacramento 115, L.A. could get 100 degrees, Palm Springs 113, if death Valley gets 125 panel tie an all-time record. We did have the highest September temperature ever recorded in Wyoming.
Real quickly for the tropics, Earl is a tropical storm, could become a hurricane in the next couple days. Will not move toward the U.S. but will come pretty close to Bermuda. Danielle to the north, a hurricane heads to the north Atlantic. So far so good when it comes to the tropics but the rain's a mess.
CAMEROTA: OK, Tom Sater, thank you.
So, a federal judge today granted Donald Trump's request to have a special master review all of the materials that the FBI took from Mar- a-Lago. We're going to take a closer look at what that means ahead.
[15:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: The infertility industry has helped millions of people -- including me -- create families. But today, some people liken the infertility business to the wild west, in terms of lack of regulation. So tonight, I take a look at the issue in my special CNN report, "THE BABY BUSINESS."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA (voice over): After their son's death, Laura and David Gunner were on a mission to find out more about Steven's true medical history.
STEVEN GUNNER: It didn't matter how hard we raised Steven to be what he was, something came out that we couldn't stop.
CAMEROTA (voice over): First, they connected online with other families who had used sperm donor 1558. And when one of those other parents used a commercial DNA kit on their child, that led to donor 1558's mother. Their son Steven's biological grandmother.
LAURA GUNNER: I needed more information. So, I wrote her a letter.
CAMEROTA: And hat did you say in that letter?
L. GUNNER: I told her that we understood that we knew what she went through and that we had no ill will towards her son. But I had questions.
CAMEROTA (voice over): Laura and donor 1558's mother corresponded for months.
L. GUNNER: There were questions specifically on the self-reported donor history that had there been any checks, it would have been determined that it was not truthful.
Have you ever been hospitalized for anything other than a surgery? Donor 1558 wrote no. It was revealed to me by his mother that he spent an entire summer hospitalized in a psychiatric facility when he was about 15.
[16:00:02]
CAMEROTA: And so bottom line, he lied on the paperwork.
S. GUNNER: He didn't have a little history. It was incredible, the history of his issues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA (on camera): We have so much more to talk about. Don't miss my special report, "THE BABY BUSINESS," tonight at 9:00 right here on CNN.
And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
