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World Reacts after Trump Halts WHO Funding; Germany Pondering Lifting Restrictions; U.K. Death Toll Higher than Reported; IMF Releases a Bleak Global Economic Outlook; Danes Return to School; U.S. NIH Predicts Vaccine Early Next Year. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired April 15, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
HALA GORANI, CNN HOST (voice-over): Hello, everybody. I'm Hala Gorani. We continue our special pandemic coverage and the world today is reacting to
this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Doctors and leaders call out Donald Trump.
But what will be the real world impact of the U.S. president's decision?
Then Europe tries to coordinate a lockdown exit strategy.
We're live in Madrid and Berlin, asking, will it work?
Meanwhile, the pandemic is still taking its toll. We'll take you to a morgue and an emergency room stretched to the limit just one day after the
U.S. saw its biggest daily death toll yet.
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GORANI: And we start with the U.S. president's decision, there is growing global criticism today over Donald Trump's decision to halt U.S. funding to
the World Health Organization.
That announcement happened yesterday at the White House as the president deflected blame away from his own delayed response to the coronavirus
pandemic. A chorus of diplomats, researchers and doctors, including our own Sanjay Gupta, call it a shortsighted and even dangerous move. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you really want to cut funding to the WHO in the middle of a pandemic?
All these studies keep talking about the medications, all those studies are being done under the auspices of the WHO. The reason being that any single
institution may not have enough patients to get meaningful results. You got to start consolidating all this data.
Who does that. WHO does a lot of that.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: If we hobble the WHO right now what we're basically saying is we're going to let this pandemic run much worse
in large parts of the world. We're going to leave more pandemic hot spots so they can reinfect our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right, well, Joe Johns joins me now live from the White House.
Why is the U.S. president now suspending U.S. funding to the World Health Organization in the middle of a global crisis?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I'm not hearing that program.
GORANI: Joe Johns, can you hear me?
JOHNS: I'm hearing IFB I'm not hearing program.
GORANI: All right, we'll try to get back to Joe Johns, who is at the White House with more on what might be motivating this announcement by the U.S.
president.
Is it to deflect from criticism of how he's handled the pandemic and his administration has approached it?
Let us, before we get back to Joe Johns, talk about the real world impact of how this funding cut will have an impact on operations on the ground.
For instance, the World Health Organization is active on the African continent. Our Farai Sevenzo has more on the tangible implications of all
of this.
Talk to us about a typical WHO operation where you are.
FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Hala. The WHO -- I just got off the phone with the WHO representative here in Kenya, they say that they
are involved with every country. And the WHO Is absolutely crucial in places like the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, war-torn
countries.
At the moment we understand from the WHO what they call solidarity flights, being operated by the World Food Programme and trying to distribute some of
the most essential things needed for health assistance to work, the masks, the gloves everybody is talking about, the ventilators that everybody needs
to make sure the health assistants are awake.
Without the WHO, in places like Africa, it is very difficult to see how this can be repeated. There is one saving grace, that is that the numbers
in Africa have not climbed as much as they have in the Northern Hemisphere. There again, so many people haven't been tested. So all of these things,
the WHO is trying to provide to this continent, Hala.
GORANI: All right, thanks very much for that.
We can go back to the White House.
So what we know the reasons that the U.S. president has given for this funding withdrawal for the World Health Organization. But it is still,
even by the standards of Donald Trump, you know, something that is quite surprising.
[10:05:00]
GORANI: Why now, why withdraw funding now in the middle of a worldwide pandemic?
Well, I'm having no luck with Joe Johns today at the White House. We are going to take our tool kit out and our hammers and screwdrivers and try to
solve whatever technical problem is preventing me from hearing Joe Johns and we'll get back to the White House as soon as we can.
Let's talk about the World Health Organization itself as an organization. So it is obviously an organization that is funded by member states,
designed to deal with things like pandemics and big global health crises.
Of course, it has been criticized throughout its existence and even throughout this current pandemic for the way it approached this disease.
Nic Robertson has that story on the who Itself and the criticism that has been directed at it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): January 22nd, Wuhan, one day from any form of lockdown, China in crisis mode --
DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: I was very impressed --
ROBERTSON (voice-over): -- the WHO praises China. Yet as we now know for the previous two months, China had been silencing its doctors, stonewalling
its people and lying by omission.
DR. PETER DROBAC, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Early on China repressed information and didn't share information in ways that might have allowed this outbreak
to take hold.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): WHO's senior official Margaret Harris says the WHO was doing all it could, rebuffed by China from sending its own inspection
team.
MARGARET HARRIS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We put out a formal notification in what is called our disease outbreak news.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Critically, though, the WHO continues echoing China's message. Eventually, January 19th, the WHO actually acknowledges
what had become obvious to many experts: human to human transfer was happening, that praises, not criticizes China.
It takes another week, January 30th, for the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern. Yet despite China's obfuscation, the
WHO has already got the vital genome data for making virus tests.
HARRIS: That was provided to us by China and it was publicized to the world so the tests that we talk so much about could actually be done.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Early in February, the WHO does get a team into China with U.S. health experts. Almost two months later, they declare the
pandemic. It did better on SARS when it stood up to China.
DROBAC: If you go back to the SARS epidemic of 2003 to 2005, WHO had more muscular posture, including in calling out China early.
TRUMP: I closed the borders despite him and that was a hard decision to make at the time.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): By late March, Trump's China travel ban, announced January 31st, has become a central plank of his defense, of his own heavily
criticized handling of the pandemic.
TRUMP: I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): The WHO has become Trump's scapegoat with potentially devastating consequences in Africa and beyond.
DROBAC: We need WHO and international support there to help them get prepared and so, if WHO is weakened or paralyzed now fighting these
political fights between the U.S. and China, that could really hurt us in the months to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: That was the story by Nic Robertson.
David Culver is in Shanghai with more reaction from China on Donald Trump's accusation that the WHO is too China centric.
What are they saying where you are?
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you coming out of the foreign ministry here they're saying essentially the idea to withdraw money and
funding from the WHO will be something that will be damning for the global community in this fight against the epidemic.
That's how China has phrased it. They say it will weaken this effort. But you have to look at this back and forth between President Trump, the WHO
and China. And it is an interesting dynamic that has played out and is full of contradictions.
You have a lot of folks who are critical of the WHO and who point out that the WHO has consistently praised China at almost every step of the handling
of this. And Nic Robertson pointed that out quite clearly in that piece. You also have President Trump praising China.
[10:10:00]
CULVER: Just go back a few weeks, he'll refer to his good friend, President Xi Jinping, and doing a great job in how he's been handling the
outbreak.
That's one of the contradictions. The other is President Trump, as Nic Robertson pointed out there, was using this travel ban, was put into effect
really the start of February, announced it January 31st, as one of the reasons that he says he took effective and decisive movement in blocking
the spread of this virus.
If that is the case, if that is something that is deemed effective and it went against what the WHO was recommending at the time and against what
China wanted at the time, why stop there?
Why is it you closed the consulate in Wuhan, the U.S. consulate there, evacuate your diplomats, then institute this travel ban and then halt in
preparation for what would be likely coming your way for two months?
That delay in preparing medical personnel and making sure you had enough ventilators and a lot of the equipment would be in place, it raises a lot
of questions as to how you can simply say that China misled and covered up, which we reported extensively, certainly at the local level, the
allegations of cover-up and underreporting even.
But then at the same time, stop short of preparing your nation for what would likely be coming, Hala.
GORANI: All right, David Culver, there will be time for all these questions, there will be time for finger pointing.
One of the main questions out there today, though, is why announce withdrawal of funds at this critical time?
David Culver is in Shanghai.
I want to remind our viewers what the U.S. president said before he made that announcement and justifying his decision to suspend funding. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Had the WHO done its job, to get medical experts into China, to objectively assess the situation underground and to call out China's lack
of transparency, the outbreak could have been contained at a source with very little death, very little death and certainly very little death by
comparison.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right, Joe Johns is in Washington, Joe, hopefully you're hearing me this time.
JOHNS: Yes, I do hear you, Hala.
GORANI: All right. Let me ask you about the timing, because critics of Donald Trump obviously will say, well, of course, he's going to announce
the withdrawal of funds from the WHO now because he's coming under criticism for his response to the pandemic, that he didn't act quickly
enough.
What is the White House saying?
JOHNS: You can also add to that this is an election year and the president understands that he's getting a lot of criticism. Also it is important to
point out that this is the president's tendency, to deflect blame, to blame somebody else.
And he has been blaming somebody else, including former president Barack Obama, who as you remember left office just about four years ago. He blames
the media and he blamed the World Health Organization.
Now WHO, of course, for its part has made itself an opportunistic target, especially for some of its own slow response, in particular calling this a
pandemic. CNN, as you remember, called it a pandemic before the World Health Organization did.
What the people here at the White House are saying is that they want to do an investigation. Just a little while ago, Kellyanne Conway, the
president's counselor, was out here in the driveway, I asked her about this.
She insisted, of course, that the White House is not trying to scapegoat the World Health Organization, they're trying to do a review and to try to
get to the bottom of what has really happened here.
Of course, it is a very inconvenient time for the entire world, for the United States to be pulling the plug or suggesting he's going to pull the
plug, as some of the other reporters have indicated.
I also asked Kellyanne Conway, what's the end game, where is this headed?
Are you asking for China to pay more?
Because that's something the president has talked about.
Kellyanne Conway said, yes, the White House, the president do believe that China needs to pay more to the World Health Organization, so perhaps there
is an end game in there somewhere. Hala, back to you.
GORANI: All right.
And, just briefly, how will this play out, I mean, practically?
When would this move happen?
What impact would it have on the organization, would anyone else fill the void, other countries perhaps up their contributions?
JOHNS: Right. Well, that's what we're hearing. Some other countries already are indicating they are going to up their own contribution, even as
the United States says it is pulling out, pulling the plug or at least doing a review before it goes forward with any more funding.
So it is pretty clear that some other organizations are stepping up.
[10:15:00]
JOHNS: We do know that some private organizations as well have expressed a lot of concern about this, because it is a very difficult time for the
world and the World Health Organization.
Others may step into the shoes of the United States, even as it figures out what to do. And don't discount the fact that people up on Capitol Hill are
going to allow this only kicking and screaming. There are a lot of people who don't think it is a very good idea.
GORANI: All right. And in fact, yes, you mentioned other organizations, nonstate actors criticizing the move; Bill Gates is one of them. Richard
Horton of "The Lancet" medical journal tweeted out it is a crime against humanity if they do this at this stage. We'll continue to explore this.
Thank you very much, Joe Johns.
Now parts of Europe are beginning to relax some of the lockdown restrictions and try to open up their economy. In a plan for easing
restrictions, the European Union is urging a gradual approach, though. Europe's death toll is still rising and the economy has taken a huge hit.
The European Commission president says there is no singular solution. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VAN DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: This one size fits all approach but it has to be a tailor made approach in every individual
member state. It is not a signal that confinement, containment measures can be lifted as of now. But it intends to provide a frame for member states'
decisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right. Well, Germany is deciding how long to keep restrictions in place. Comparatively Germany has a low death toll in terms of
percentages of total cases. Fred Pleitgen is in Berlin with more.
What are German authorities saying --and we're expecting Angela Merkel in the next few hours to address the people of Germany.
Are we expecting her to announce an easing of lockdown restrictions?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right. Angela Merkel is in a key meeting right now, virtual
meeting, of course, electronically, with Germany's powerful state governors who, in the end, are the ones who are going to have to follow through on
any sort of measures that will be decided today.
But Angela Merkel also said that any sort of opening of Germany's economy, any sort of opening of some of the lockdown measures that are in place, are
going to have to be very, very gradual.
One thing that has been talked about is, for instance, smaller shops being able to open. Right now, the talk is about 800 square meters and up but
then also having a restriction of how many people are going to be able to go into those shops.
Then the big question is, if Germany opens part of its economy again, are they going to have to tighten hygiene measures and, for instance, make
people wear masks when they go into stores like that?
Those are all things that are being debated right now. But the German government and specifically Angela Merkel has already come out and said,
yes. The death toll so far is fairly low, Germany has managed to keep this crisis somewhat under control but they certainly want to keep it that way.
So any sort of movement that we're going to see is going to be gradual and could be reversed if Germany sees a spike in cases as part of all that.
One of the big keys here, Hala, that is really being debated more than anything else in Germany is schools.
When are schools going to be able to open up?
That's the big debate between the state governors in Germany. There are others who want to move say schools need to be shut down for a while
longer. That's something we're looking forward to and we're going to look and see what Angela Merkel says on that topic.
That, here for Germans, is the big question, especially people who have children who are about to get high school diplomas, do their final exams. A
lot of them concerned about what happens there. And we are expecting Angela Merkel to make an announcement over the next 1-1.5 hours, Hala.
GORANI: Yes. We're going to be speaking by the way with the head master of a Danish school where students have been returning to school and a
staggered fashion to keep them safe.
I read an interesting report that Germany is thinking of calling on or using immigrant doctors to respond to this COVID-19 pandemic.
How would that -- how would that materialize?
PLEITGEN: That's something the Germans been speaking about a lot, not just as far as doctors are concerned but generally getting people to try and
work in the medical field. There is a lot of instances as far as the medical response to this crisis is concerned where you not only need
doctors but other people working in the realm of hospital as well.
Certainly Germany, of course, does have a very large population of people who came here, for instance, in the 2015 crisis that happened, with a lot
of refugees coming to this country.
[10:20:00]
PLEITGEN: And Germany is thinking about trying to get some of them into the medical sector as well and helping out in places where that might be
necessary and where that could help move things along.
One thing we have to keep in mind, though, about the situation here in Germany is that the German government has come out today and said, at least
as far ICU capacities are concerned, as far as ventilators are concerned, this country is in good shape. They said in the past they have more vacant
ICU and ventilator beds than Italy has ventilators beds for instance in total.
As far as that is concerned, as far as all of the medical sector concerned with dealing with the coronavirus, Germany thinks it is in a good place;
however, of course, there are still all those sectors of other people, who need treatment for other illnesses.
And that's why the Germans are thinking about definitely expanding capacities there, which is also, by the way, part of their plan to try and
reopen the economy because they all -- and generally this country from lockdown measures -- because they say you have to have a functioning
medical sector and one that is big enough to deal with any sort of medical issue here in this country if you want to open things up and make sure you
have the capacities to deal with the possible new cases as part of ending a lockdown, Hala.
GORANI: It is always a question of trying to calculate that level at which your health service cannot handle any more cases. In the case of Germany,
they're in a better situation. Thank you very much, Fred Pleitgen live in Berlin.
Coming up, major cities had been hit very hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
But what is happening in smaller towns?
We'll look at one New York suburb facing this pandemic head on.
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GORANI: Welcome back.
The U.K. is a major coronavirus hot spot in Europe. And we're now learning that the death toll may be much higher than what we're hearing from the
official government updates. Official government numbers did not take into account care home deaths. Joining me now is Dr. Emeka Okorocha, a doctor in
the U.K. who is working with coronavirus patients.
Thank you for joining me. You're on a break in the hospital right now.
What has it been like for you treating patients who are suffering from COVID-19?
DR. EMEKA OKOROCHA, BRITISH M.D.: Thank you for having me, Hala. For us and (INAUDIBLE) in particular, it's quite -- it is a little bit
distressing. It is quite difficult, if I'm very honest with you, treating these patients and dealing with the whole aspect of the disease and the
patient and the process and explaining to them exactly what is going on with them.
GORANI: Yes. And compare it to other illnesses and the prepandemic sort of typical workday for you.
What kind of -- how is it different?
How is this different?
[10:25:00]
OKOROCHA: So normally when I'm working in the emergency unit, the acute medical unit, you're treating things you're generally quite familiar with
and the patients are generally quite familiar with.
So certain conditions where they know the general prognosis, they know what is going to be hard for them what is going to be easy for them in terms of
getting in and out of hospital.
I think with coronavirus, it is new to them, also it is also new to us and so we are developing and explaining it to our patients. I think we're
learning better communication skills and telling patients, OK, this is what the virus is, these are different complications and looking at your
prognostic value, this I what we think is going to happen going forward.
GORANI: Do you have the protective equipment that you need?
We've heard so much about how healthcare professionals don't always have access to the single use blouses, to the types of masks they need, are you
well equipped where you are?
OKOROCHA: Yes. I think this is an issue that has been going on for a couple of weeks, if anyone has been watching our doctors from NHS speaking
in the media. However I think this is an issue we feel is actually been addressed at present in the terms of (INAUDIBLE) actually seeing the
implementation come all the way down to us.
So fortunately, we're getting a lot more PPE in wards and ICUs and. We're feeling a lot more (INAUDIBLE).
GORANI: We're having a little bit of trouble hearing you but because I have you on, I want to keep you on because it is important to get the point
of view of a doctor on the front lines.
By the way, I want to thank you and all your colleagues for what you do because though we clap every Thursday, I know this is a very small thing
that we're able to do once a week, you're the one putting your life at risk, you know, to help people who are suffering from this illness.
But let me ask you, what is the -- I mean, how is this affecting you?
You must be concerned that you might get infected, you might infect family as well.
What is it like on a daily basis for you mentally?
OKOROCHA: I think medically that's probably the worst aspect in terms of how it is affecting myself and my colleagues. I feel like we have a
situation where we fear for our own health and safety and then there are situations where we're fearing for the people we are seeing every day,
whether it's elderly people or young people.
I think that is something that has been added on to the pressure we have. But at the same time we're still thinking about our patients and what is
going on with them. So I think there has been a number of factors we have to juggle working with coronavirus.
GORANI: Thank you, Dr. Emeka Okorocha, for joining us from the hospital outside London in Essex. We appreciate you and we appreciate the work you
do. Good luck to you and your colleagues.
OKOROCHA: Thank you.
GORANI: Now we know the physical toll that the coronavirus takes on the world. But after the break, we will look at the economic toll. In the end,
it will affect us all. We'll be right back.
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[10:30:00]
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GORANI: The International Monetary Fund has a stark warning: the global economy could suffer a worse depression since the Great Recession. The IMF
predicts it will contract the global economy by 3 percent this year.
For perspective, in January, the IMF expected the global economy to grow by more than 3 percent. In the U.S., the outlook is more bleak. The economy is
expected to shrink nearly 6 percent.
China is expected to grow just by about 1 percent. Growth there hasn't been that slow since the '70s. One bright spot, quote-unquote, Chinese exports
in March dropped less than expected, which boosted global markets.
The U.K. is looking at one scenario which predicts the country's economy will shrink by 35 percent in just the second quarter. The chancellor says
these numbers should be kept in perspective, though.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RISHI SUNAK, U.K. CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER: It is important to be clear that the OBR's numbers are not a forecast or a prediction. They simply set
out what one possible scenario might look like and it may not even be the most likely scenario.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, let's bring in Daniel Susskind, an economics fellow at Oxford University and joins me now live from Oxford.
The worst recession since the Great Depression is what the IMF is predicting potentially for the world economy.
What will be the practical impact on ordinary people around the world, do you think?
DANIEL SUSSKIND, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: It is unprecedented. It will be the first time since the 1930s that global production will have stalled and I
think what is striking about this crisis is that it is a crisis for ordinary workers, for ordinary businesses. The millions of workers, self-
self-employed workers and millions of small businesses.
And it is a crisis for them. I think, in that sense, in some ways, it is quite unlike the crisis of 2007-2008, which began in the financial sector.
This is a crisis that began on Main Street rather than Wall Street, as some people are saying.
GORANI: How do you recover from this?
SUSSKIND: I think we have seen, just as this crisis is unprecedented. I think the interventions that we can expect are unprecedented, too. Around
the world we see the state take on a role that was sort of unimaginable after -- in Britain and Europe, a decade of debating about how austere
should we be.
That debate seems like it applies to a completely different world, a completely parallel economic universe. So I think the response to an
unprecedented crisis like this is an unprecedented intervention from the state. That's what we see.
In the U.K., for instance, the British government essentially underwriting the entire private sector through various forms of wage guarantee.
GORANI: Yes. And it is important, though, and you note this in some of your writings, that this is not an economic disaster that is due to any
underlying economic weakness. These are outside forces that are causing this economic collapse.
So can we then -- is it possible to imagine a scenario in which bouncing back from this will be quicker than, say, bouncing back from 2008?
SUSSKIND: And I think that is why some of the comparisons with war are perhaps a little misleading. Our economy hasn't been leveled by bombs. We
simply turned it off. The challenge is how can we make sure, through the interventions we adopt in the next few weeks, that when we turn the economy
back on in the months to come that it is able to resume --
[10:35:00]
SUSSKIND: -- as close as we can to sort of performance we might have seen before this crisis began. And that is -- that is quite a different set of
interventions that are required.
GORANI: And let's talk about some of these essential workers, who are often paid minimum wage. I'm talking about care home workers, delivery
people, street sweepers, the people who collect our rubbish.
The value that we place on them monetarily from a salary perspective is so much lower than their value in times of crisis, right?
They are -- we would be -- our economies, our societies would completely collapse without them.
Do you think we will re-evaluate their worth after this is over?
SUSSKIND: I hope so. There has been a sort of irony in labeling, as we have done in the U.K., many of these workers, as you mentioned, nurses,
doctors, care workers and others, as key workers.
And it is ironic because these workers have been key for some time. And for some time that hasn't, as you said, been reflected in their pay packages.
It's also ironic because many of the workers are precisely the sorts of people who, under the post Brexit immigration policies that have been drawn
up, they're precisely the sorts of people that would have been (INAUDIBLE) from the country.
And so I hope and I think there will be some sort of reckoning between, exactly as you say, the great social value of the work that so many of
these people do and, up until now, the comparatively -- the relatively small market value that we attach to their work through a wage.
I hope we, in months to come, having seen this very starkly, will attempt to repair that mismatch.
GORANI: Daniel Susskind, thank you very much for joining us, really appreciate it.
Denmark is going to speed up lifting some of its restrictions. Numbers of new cases there are lower than expected and younger students are being sent
back to school.
I want to speak with Henrik Wilhelmsen. He's a school principal in Copenhagen. Let's talk to Mr. Wilhelmsen now.
How did this first day back go in your school?
HENRIK WILHELMSEN, SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: It went very, very well. Things were well organized. The children were happy. The parents were patient. And the
teachers were extremely careful with the children. All and all it was a great success.
GORANI: And some parents, though I read, were unhappy, they thought, oh, their kids are being used to test out the gradual reopening of the Danish
school system.
Have you heard any complaints at all?
WILHELMSEN: We have had a couple of messages from parents, at least the last couple of days, who decided to keep their children home for some more
days. And that was OK. But overall, most parents have sent their children to school today. So a small fraction of parents kept their children at
home.
GORANI: Got it.
What about parents?
You have to drop kids off and pick them up. You know and naturally that creates a group of people huddling outside school gates.
How do you deal with all of that?
WILHELMSEN: We told them to bring the children in a window of 45 minutes. So we try to spread out the arrival over those 45 minutes. And we have a
large area in front of the school, where we have teachers lined up to receive children.
So it worked very well actually. When they had to pick up the children from the school, it was at a steady -- at 1 o'clock we had some more people
outside. But they were good to keep the distance anyway to spread out over a large area. So it worked OK.
GORANI: Can you tell parents outside of Denmark how much effort will -- I mean how difficult will it be for their kids to readapt to the classroom
after sometimes months away from school?
They must be worried that their kids are going to have problems catching up or maybe they'll have to repeat a year or, you know.
[10:40:00]
GORANI: I mean, obviously this is very much still up in the air, especially in countries like Italy, where the lockdowns have gone on much
longer.
WILHELMSEN: Yes, we -- I think we're looking into quite a longer horizon before we reach the level that we were supposed to reach. We try to -- this
is a different school anyway. We have much less children in each classroom. They can only be in one classroom. We have to be outside most of the time.
So the teaching we can do is going to be different from what we normally do. So get back to normal, will still take a long time but now we have the
children in schools, the children are taking it very well. We try to make sure that it is still is a day that is meaningful for the children though
we're not doing the same things we used to do.
GORANI: All right. Well, kids are adaptable. At least that's one good thing. Hopefully they'll be able to reintegrate smoothly and get back to
their studies. Thank you, Henrik Wilhelmsen, headmaster of a school outside Copenhagen.
I want to get you up to speed on some other stories out of -- oops, I didn't wait for the graphic. Let's get up to speed on some stories that are
on our radar right now around the world.
In South Africa, police clashed with protesters, demanding food in one of Cape Town's townships on Tuesday. The protesters said government food
assistance was delivered to some neighborhoods but not theirs. The South African president has promised to provide food and water to the poorest
areas during the coronavirus lockdown.
Dubai is turning five-star hotels into isolation centers for patients. Volunteers say most of the guests are citizens who have returned to the UAE
recently from trips. Most patients will stay at the isolation center for a 14-day quarantine. At least it is a five-star quarantine.
And in sports news, it looks like Saudi-backed -- the Saudi-backed takeover deal for the Premier League's Newcastle United soccer team is moving closer
to completion. Saudi investment group will be an 80 percent shareholder. The deal is said to be close to worth $380 million.
Still ahead, the U.S. president is defending his response to the global pandemic by placing the blame on the World Health Organization. More on his
decision to defund the WHO coming up next.
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GORANI: Now to our top story. President Trump's announcement that he will defund the World Health Organization. Let's discuss this now with our
senior political analyst David Gergen, adviser to four different U.S. presidents.
[10:45:00]
GORANI: David Gergen joins me now live.
What is your reaction as someone who advised so many presidents before to this announcement by Donald Trump, that the United States will defund or
will suspend its participation in the World Health Organization?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. Listen, I -- a number of commentators, including here on CNN, had to point out that the World Health
Organization, WHO, is not immune from criticism.
It was caught flat footed by some of the things going on in China. It has not been its finest hour.
That being said, there is a widespread view in the United States, that includes Republicans, that it is a mistake for the United States to cut off
funding in the middle of the pandemic.
The WHO is heavily dependent upon the funding from the U.S. And to cut it off, it leads to unknown consequences, but they're not good for continuing.
I think it has also given China a platform to go after the United States, to scold the United States and to show it is going to step into the breach
and try to provide some of that extra funding.
Mostly there is a feeling here that there is not a lot of money involved here. We're only talking $500 million at a time, we're talking trillions
coming out of the Congress. So this is not really about money. It is partly about trying to shift the blame for what has gone wrong for this slow,
laggardly start of the international community, including the WHO and the United States, to deal with the outbreak.
And that the president is looking for scapegoats and WHO is one that many of his conservative followers like to beat up on.
GORANI: But what will be the wider, you think, political impact?
It is a presidential election year, of course. I want our viewers to listen to former president Barack Obama endorsing Joe Biden now on a day when
Elizabeth Warren also came out and endorsed Biden. Bernie Sanders, of course, a few days ago as well. Let's listen to what Barack Obama had to
say and I'll get back to you, David.
GERGEN: Sure.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If there's one thing we've learned as a country from moments of great crisis, it's that the
spirit of looking out for one another can't be restricted to our homes or our workplaces or our neighborhoods or our houses of worship.
It also has to be reflected in our national government, the kind of leadership that's guided by knowledge and experience, honesty and humility,
empathy and grace. That kind of leadership doesn't just belong in our state capitals and mayor's offices; it belongs in the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: How to you think, David, this pandemic and the response that the administration has had to it will play in this race?
GERGEN: Well, too early to say for sure. We have to see what happens over the next few months, which will be very relevant. But I do have -- the --
in the beginning, the country did rally around the president, not wholeheartedly. Many did not.
But he did have a bump and he looked like this could well turn into a saver for re-elect purposes. But increasingly these daily briefings that he has,
which were well intended apparently but they've gone off the rails and I think the president is increasingly embarrassing for the administration,
the president is -- goes out every day and, instead of talking about the virus very much, he really talks about himself and how he's a victim of a
hoax, you know, of the media hoax, whatever it is going to be now that the WHO.
So I do think that it is strengthening Biden's hand. The most recent CNN poll had Joe Biden running 11 points ahead of Donald Trump and, if there
were an election held today. I think that's much bigger than exists in reality. I still think it will be a fairly close race. But at the moment,
at the moment, you have to say the winds are shifting in favor of Joe Biden.
GORANI: And the -- those relief checks, the stimulus checks that will be sent out to Americans, will feature in -- and I believe this is
unprecedented, correct me if I'm wrong -- the signature of Donald Trump. But this is, of course, taxpayer money.
So this is the money of American taxpayers, not Donald Trump personally sending money to Americans affected by the pandemic.
What do you make of that?
GERGEN: I think that's an action of people with a tin ear for the politics. It is so over the top, so narcissistic, so all about me, look at
what I've done for you, patting yourself on the back.
[10:50:00]
GERGEN: That makes some of the briefings almost excruciating to watch at times because they're so out of kilter with -- so different from what we
have come to expect from national leaders.
Boris Johnson, for example, I think has strengthened his political standing in Britain with the way he's handled himself here. He's done it with some
grace. And there are many of our governors, starting with Governor Cuomo of New York, who have been -- whose favorability ratings have gone up.
In California, we have a Democratic governor there, Gavin Newsom, his approval ratings have shot up in the 80 percentile range. He's well
regarded there on both sides of the aisle.
In the United States, Donald Trump is -- his disapproval for handling this pandemic are higher than his approvals. He's somewhere in the 50s
disapproval and somewhere in the low 40s for approval.
GORANI: Thank you, David Gergen. Thank you very much.
GERGEN: Always good to talk to you, stay well.
GORANI: Thanks, you too.
We've talked a lot about when and how to open economies. But we're still in the middle, very much in the thick of a major health crisis. The United
States reported its highest number of deaths in a single day on Tuesday.
In a single day, 2,129 people lost their lives. That brings the national death toll to more than 26,000. So far much of the attention on the U.S.
coronavirus outbreak has been focused on major cities. But small towns are struggling as well. Miguel Marquez has our story.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Suffolk County morgue, nearly overflowing with victims of coronavirus.
STEVEN BEILONE, SUFFOLK COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Not only are we seeing that death toll rise now, unfortunately we're expecting to see it rise for the
foreseeable future.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): The county added two semitractor trailers, those two filled to capacity. A month ago, Suffolk County had no coronavirus related
deaths; now the toll in the hundreds and growing.
BEILONE: We have on average 30 trauma deaths a month in this county. We're seeing toll of 50-60 people dying a day from the virus.
MARQUEZ: All COVID?
BEILONE: All COVID-related, yes. The numbers are staggering.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): So staggering, the county has now called back into service the coolers of an unused meat processing plant.
MARQUEZ: How many total will you be able to get into this facility?
BEILONE: It is set up right now to hold 300. We can get to 450 in this facility if need be.
MARQUEZ: 450?
BEILONE: 450.
MARQUEZ: Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
BEILONE: I agree.
MARQUEZ: The county wants farm land and wide open spaces now a second home for many of New York City's wealthiest families. But about 20 percent of
its 1.5 million residents are Latino, many speaking Spanish only.
"The virus is much worse for the Latino community," she says, "because we have no guarantees of work, healthcare or education."
Maria Cortez (ph) has a family of six. Now laid off from her job, she says she knows many people with coronavirus and several who have died. The
entire family now home. Today, they're loading up with food they hope will last for two months.
"It is hard to keep a job if you haven't been tested but you can't get tested unless you have symptoms," she says. "And now with the virus,
healthcare and everything is very expensive."
Hospitals and healthcare workers have seen a constant stream of critically ill patients, old, young, minority and white.
JENNIFER ZEPLIN, SOUTHSIDE HOSPITAL NORTHWELL HEALTH: Being an emergency room nurse, this is what you sign up for. You sign up to be there, no
matter what comes in the door. This is on a much bigger scale.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Here at Southside Hospital, the wave of patients in the E.R. has slowed with the hospital that had 305 beds now has 418. A new
tent is being constructed for coronavirus only patients.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're maxed out. We have been maxed out for a while. Everyone is talking about New York City but our local community has had a
widespread disease and we actually, within the health system, have had a very high percentage of patients in the ICU.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): For the many suburban counties nationwide, Suffolk's executive has a simple message.
BEILONE: If I could convey anything to people across the country who haven't been hit, it is how quick this happens and how intense it gets and
to do everything you can to prepare because, once it does come, you are in for something that you've never seen before.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Miguel Marquez, CNN, Suffolk County, New York.
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[10:55:00]
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GORANI: There is one thing that will change our lives today. And that is a vaccine. It cannot come soon enough. But we have been told it will take
years and years potentially.
However, the way for a vaccine might not be as long as originally thought, according to a lead researcher at the National Institutes of Health, who
spoke to my colleague, Anderson Cooper.
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KIZZMEKIA CORBETT, NIH: We are targeting -- sorry, we're targeting fall for the emergency use. So that would be, you know, for healthcare workers
and people who might be in constant contact and in risk of being exposed over and over. And then for the general population our target goal is for
next spring.
And that is if all things go well and if the phase I, phase II, phase III clinical trials work simultaneously for the good, our plan is to have
people back vaccinated all over the world by next spring.
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GORANI: All right, well let's hope it happens quicker than initially thought.
Here in the U.K., by the way, a World War II veteran has raised millions for the National Health Service, just by walking in his garden. He acted
heroically in World War II; he's acting heroically again: 99-year-old Tom Moore had hoped to turn over $1,000 by doing 100 laps on his walker before
his 100th birthday on April 30th. That goal was quickly met and donations continue to pour in.
Guess where he is now?
Five million pounds. That's over $6 million. Moore enlisted in the British army during World War II. We thank him for his service today.
And thank you for watching. I'm Hala Gorani. I will see you next time. Stay with CNN.
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