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Erin Burnett Outfront

U.S. Coronavirus Cases Near 1 Million; Deaths Top 55,000; WH Releases Blueprint Laying Out Federal Vs. State Boundaries, Says Fed Govt is "Last Resort" on Testing; Trump on Uptick in Calls to Poison Control Centers After His Disinfectant Comment: "I Can't Imagine That"; Texas Gov Will Allow Some Businesses to Reopen Friday at 24% Capacity; Order Supersedes Local Restrictions; Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) Houston Discusses About His Take on Reopening Early. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired April 27, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Thanks very much for your reporting. Thanks very much for joining us.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, the breaking news, the White House says it's going to step up coronavirus testing, but is it still not enough?

And Texas just announced it's going to open businesses on Friday; retail stores, malls, restaurants theaters to reopen, but only 25 percent capacity. So is this the new normal?

Plus, it's a key ingredient in Pepcid, the over the counter heartburn drug. Is it possibly a cure for coronavirus symptoms? It's almost a crazy question, right? But the lead doctor on surprising new research is my guests. Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight the breaking news, the White House rolling out its blueprint to ramp up testing across the United States. The number of coronavirus cases close to 1 million.

According to the plans unveiled by the President, the administration is still putting the burden on the states saying the federal government should act as the 'supplier' of last resort'. The President also trying to paint the United States as a global leader on coronavirus testing.

In fact, though, the lack of testing we hear from governor after governor continues to be a source of deep frustration in states across this country. You hear it from Kansas. You hear it from Oregon. You hear it from Ohio, in New York and New Jersey. The two hardest states say tonight their plans to reopen are based in part on the availability of testing.

And tonight the number of cases across the country as I said a grim new milestone of close to 1 million. The number of deaths in this country now more than 55,000.

Kaitlan Collins is OUTFRONT live near the White House. And Kaitlan, President Trump saying tonight that testing numbers are skyrocketing, but yet the states keep saying whether it's the availability of the tests or the ability to interpret them and it really almost doesn't matter when you can't get a result to a test, they just aren't able to get those results.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And what the White House made clear today is they still think the states should be in charge of ramping up testing and making sure they're in a place that they need to be to reopen. That's what was in these guidelines, which was the purpose of this Rose Garden press conference that the President had tonight.

And if you look through these guidelines, which the White House says was basically a blueprint for how to reopen the nation, something that governors have been asking for. It still continue to put all of this on the states mainly saying, as you noted, the federal government should only act as a supplier as a last resort, basically.

But the President also face some questions over the numbers that he's put out. And he said he believes they are going to be able to double the number of tests that they've done now. But what he did not say, Erin, was when he believe they'd be able to double that number. He then called the Vice President to come up and talk about that who then called on Admiral Girior who's been handling a lot of the testing aspect of this from the White House point of view.

So the question is still going to be how quickly can they do this. Because what you saw the president touting there, relying on CEOs and these private labs and the work that they've been doing is something that has been long in the making, but it's taken a long time to get where they are now. They were talking about those public private partnerships in the Rose Garden, Erin.

You remember the flashback back to March when they first announced that and it has taken so long for so many of these companies to really unveil these sites where people can go and get tested. And still, even as you saw those CEOs touting their numbers, you have to consider the fact that there are thousands of these stores and still a lot of them are not being utilized for this purpose. Like they initially made it sound like it was going to happen in March.

I do want to note quickly that the President was asked about the status of the Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar after reports surfaced over the weekend that his job could be in danger. And the President dismissed criticism that Azar was downplaying the coronavirus early on, saying that the risk to Americans will was low.

The President simply did not talk about the fact that his own Health and Human Services Secretary was saying that. He just pointed out that other people were saying it as well, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan. And OUTFRONT now, the Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Ashish Jha, who has been at the forefront of the entire conversation of testing in this country.

So Dr. Jha, the President said tonight that testing is, his word, skyrocketing. He talked about 200,000 tests done on Saturday. He says that's double the daily number from a month ago. Obviously, a week or so ago, you were very concerned about a stall, but we have seen an improvement. Is this a skyrocket? Would you agree with that?

DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: Yes. So thanks so much for having me on. Look, we've been woefully behind this entire time. And I think what most Americans need to know is the reason we are shut down, our economy has just to shut down is because we've had inadequate testing and we've been stalled at 150,000 a day.

Two hundred thousand is not a skyrocket, it's an improvement. We believe we need to be in at least 500,000 tests a day and most people criticize us for being too low.

[19:05:02]

Other people think it's a lot more than that. So it's like mild progress in the context of when you're starting off really far behind.

BURNETT: So he's saying 200,000 done on Saturday, I mean, we'll see if that's a run rate. I know they want to improve it. But you're saying even with your number, they need to do more than double that in order to even get to your number.

JHA: Absolutely. And our numbers are very conservative. And look, if you ask the question where do our numbers come from. What we're trying to do is come up with a very basic estimate. If you walk into a bar or a diner, you want to make sure that guys serving you coffee isn't infected shedding virus. That's what we're trying to create.

Like how do we create a society where people feel comfortable going back outside and you need at least 500,000 tests, but probably a lot more if you're going to create confidence for people to engage in basic economic activity.

BURNETT: Which is obviously what this is all about. Now, you mentioned your numbers are very conservative. I know, you said, Dr. Jha, others, I think The Rockefeller Foundation, others have said you need 10 million per day. So what accounts for such a wide range? You're saying 500,000, again, I just want to put it out there. The White House is saying they're now at 200,000.

You're saying you need 500,000 and there are some who are saying you need 10 million a day. What accounts for that range?

JHA: Yes. So our approach is, again, we were trying to come up with what's possible and realistic given this White House, given this federal government. And we said at 500,000, if you have a very aggressive contact tracing program. Everybody who's got mild symptoms, you test them, you contact race, everybody, you isolate everybody.

At 500,000 tests a day, you have a shot, a long shot, but a shot of keeping the economy open. The Rockefeller Foundation, Paul Romer and others who are saying 10s of millions, that's what I'd love to get to. That lets people actually feel comfortable getting back to economic activity.

I have no disagreement with their numbers. I just think we can't even get 300,000 a day. I don't know how we get to 10 million with this federal leadership.

BURNETT: So then this federal leadership and they're now saying White House officials telling CNN tonight, Dr. Jha, that their goal which is not the 200,000. Their goal where they think they need to be is to allow any individual, state each state, to be able to test 2 percent of its residents. Does that sound like way too small or how would you contextualize that?

JHA: Yes. So what I heard and I'm still sorting out some of the details as the report just got released, it's 2 percent per month. That's 7 million a month. That's way too little just to put a number on it. It would take four years to test every American. Like that is not the level of testing we need.

What we need is about 1 percent. Again, our very conservative numbers, 1 percent a week, even our approach is going to take like a long time to test every American. I don't understand why the White House is low balling this. This is the thing that is central to getting their economy open, getting our economy open.

You would think everybody at the White House would be focused on this 24/7. They keep low balling it. I don't get it. It's fundamental to getting our lives back.

BURNETT: So Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator, obviously, is, I guess, in the other sense kind of on the other side of this now and she's now saying, well, look, the United States isn't doing the kind of testing we need to be. Sort of acknowledging perhaps what you're talking about. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: We have to have a breakthrough innovation in testing. We have to be able to detect antigen rather than constantly trying to detect the actual live virus or the viral particles itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Do you agree? Is that where the focus should be on antigen testing?

JHA: We got to do both. So the way I think about it is the PCR testing, what we're using right now, testing for the virus itself. To get to 500,000, 600,000 a day that requires work. It requires execution, solving a bunch of supply chain problems. It's very clear our federal government isn't up to the task and Debbie Birx who's brilliant and I think a great public health leader is probably coming to realize that this federal government is not going to be able to deliver that.

So now she's hoping for a technological breakthrough that gets us to the next level. She has data on what the federal government can do that I don't. I think antigen testing would be great. My sense is Dr. Birx is really just acknowledging the reality on the ground and saying, let's hope for and pray for a technological breakthrough that lets us do this much faster and much greater. That'd be great if we get that technological breakthrough.

BURNETT: All right. But interesting, as you say, it comes from a place perhaps of admission. Thank you very much, Dr. Jha. I appreciate it. It's good to talk to you again.

JHA: THANK YOU.

BURNETT: And next, President Trump saying he does not take responsibility for the spike in people using disinfectants and ingesting disinfectants even though he suggested people inject themselves with the chemicals in order to treat coronavirus.

Plus, Texas announces its opening up stores, restaurants, movie theaters but all at reduced capacity, 25 percent.

[19:10:04]

So is that enough, will that prevent a second wave? Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us.

Plus, Tyson warning the food supply chain in America is breaking. Is America's food supply at risk?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump asked about the spiking calls to poison control centers across the country after he suggested using disinfectants as an ingestible cure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you said they were sarcastic, but do you take ...

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can't imagine why, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you take any responsibility if someone were to die?

TRUMP: No, I don't. No, I can't imagine that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, Michigan, New York all

reporting an increase in calls after the President said this on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right. And then I see the disinfectant would knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT now Gloria Borger, CNN Chief Political Analyst and Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who is now officially joining as our new CNN Medical Analyst. Of course, he advised the White House medical team for eight years under President George W. Bush and runs the Cardiac Cath Lab at GW.

So Gloria, what do you make of the President saying that he can't imagine it, he can't imagine.

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I'm sure on one level he can't, but he is the one who suggested that people somehow inject themselves with these cleaners. So he suggested it and people did it and he's shocked.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Look, he's disowning any responsibility for it, which shouldn't be shocking to any of us. But it's remarkable because, of course, he knows the answer to the question.

The answer to the question is, yes, I know what happened. Yes, it's because I spoke last Thursday. And what I said was tell, suggest to people that perhaps ingesting disinfectant might help cure coronavirus in some way, shape or form. So he does know the answer to it.

But in keeping with the way he behaves, he is saying to us, no, I have no responsibility for that. I don't know anything about that. And that's how he answers a lot of questions he doesn't want to answer, which is when he was asked about Dr. Bright saying that he was fired because he wouldn't pursue some science the administration wanted to pursue, I don't know him. I don't know who he is. I don't know what he's talking about.

This is the President's MO.

BURNETT: Right. And Dr. Bright, of course, Rick Bright, was in charge of a vaccine effort for the White House.

BORGER: Yes.

BURNETT: So pretty hard to imagine the President wouldn't have heard of him or know who he was.

BORGER: Exactly. BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, should the President take responsibility for

this issue of people trying to do what he suggested that might work which is somehow put disinfectants on the inside of their body?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes. Absolutely. Except with this president, the buck seems to stop anywhere else. The day that he first pitched hydroxychloroquine about a month ago, later that day, the number of prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine in the United States filed to pharmacies rose 40 fold. So his words have consequences.

He needs to pick his words very carefully and he doesn't. And last week when he pitched completely outrageous proposals, dangerous toxic proposals, they had consequences. People listen to his words.

BURNETT: So, Gloria, when this happens, when you talk about taking responsibility and what the President knew when he knew it, The Washington Post tonight is reporting that Trump was warned more than a dozen classified briefings about the virus in January and February.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which prepares the daily briefing for the President told The Washington Post, "The detail of this is not true," but they say that sources tell them the warnings appeared in the President's daily brief, which is produced daily by U.S. intelligence agencies. The President though, Gloria, while he was, again, according to the Post, getting more than a dozen classified briefings about the rising threat of this virus, this is what he was saying publicly over that exact same time frame.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It looks like by April, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.

You may ask about the coronavirus which is very well under control in our country.

We have it so well under control. I mean, we really have done a very good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Why do you think, Gloria, that he was saying that if he was reading or somehow getting these warnings from the intelligence agencies?

BORGER: Well, it's really hard to know, Erin. What I can say to you is that CNN's own reporting had him getting at least one presidential daily brief that outline the dangers of the coronavirus. The question we don't have an answer to is if the intelligence agencies were doing this once, twice, more than that multiple times, was the President reading the presidential daily brief? Were people briefing him in person about the dangers of the virus spreading in China? Was this something he knew and chose not to pay attention to perhaps, because we were involved in negotiating an important trade deal with China? We don't know the answers to these questions. But I'm sure as we peel

the layers of the onion, we'll be able to understand what exactly happened during that month of February when there was an opportunity to try and slow the spread and pay attention to these flashing red lights why that wasn't done.

BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, we're also learning that - a source is telling us that the White House Coronavirus Task Force may soon begins to basically scale back how often it meets and to do so slowly but to scale it back. And we know they've met basically every day since it first started. They haven't met in the past two days. Does this concern you at all?

REINER: Well, there's the task force which we want to meet every day and then there's the briefing, which I'm not sure we need every day. We certainly don't need the political spin portion of the briefing, the part that tells us how many tests we've done and how many ventilators we've made. We don't really need that.

[19:19:58]

What the American public really needs to hear - they need to hear a relatively frequent briefing from people like Tony Fauci and Dr. Birx to give us an update on where we're making progress, where we need more work, what the public can do to continue to stem the spread of disease. We need to hear from the physician leadership and I think a little bit less from the political leadership.

BURNETT: Well, we'll see if that happens.

BORGER: And Erin ...

BURNETT: Yes. Go ahead, Gloria.

BORGER: Erin, well, that's what I thought foolishly, I guess, that we were going to get today because you saw the press ...

BURNETT: And it looks like Gloria's webcam maybe just froze up. Thank you both very much.

And next, the City of Houston facing two crises right now, coronavirus and plunging oil prices. Oil prices, the likes of which pretty much no one can imagine. I remember covering the markets when it was 1920 [00:00:56] $150 a barrel and this could result in massive job losses. Houston's mayor is OUTFRONT.

Plus, doctors are now testing heartburn medication in coronavirus patients. What could it do? The leading doctor working on this new trial is OUTFRONT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BURNETT: New tonight, Texas reopening for business. Gov. Greg Abbott making a big announcement that the state's malls, restaurants, movie theaters can reopen on Friday at 25 percent capacity.

Erica Hill is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT(voice over): Dinner and a movie back on the menu this Friday in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R) TEXAS: All retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls can reopen May the first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): Occupancy will be limited to 25 percent. The Governor's new executive order supersedes all local measures. The mayor of the largest city in Texas urging caution, holding up a copy of the Houston Chronicle with the headline local cases more prevalent in at risk neighborhoods.

MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D) HOUSTON: I know people want to open up, I got that. But many of the people who live in these communities, these are individuals who are serving the tables and these are the people who are riding the bus and what they are asking for is not necessarily when we are going to open, but Mayor tell me what are you going to do to keep us safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): Denver's Mayor choosing to delay reopening as his state moves forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MICHAEL HANCOCK (D) DENVER: We didn't feel like we are ready and we felt like more needs to be done. This virus is not going away. It's going to remain with us for a while. Now, we need to make sure we're building an infrastructure for the long haul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): Mississippi still urging residents to stay home, maintaining its ban on gatherings of more than 10 people yet allowing retail stores to open today with restrictions. In Florida, more beaches poised to welcome residents as the governor once pushing to reopen, adopts a cautious tone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA: I'm less concerned about a specific date than I am about getting it right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): Ohio, one of the first states to take aggressive measures announcing today its stay-at-home orders will remain in place. Though a phased reopening, begins Friday. Retail, however, won't resume for another two weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R) OHIO: I have an obligation as Governor of the State to do two things right now and it worked every day, get people back to work and keep them safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): In New York, expect some areas including hard hit in New York City to open much later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D) NEW YORK: In some parts of the state, some regions, you could make the case that we should unpause on May 15th. But you have to be smart about it.

There is no light switch where you flick a switch and everybody goes back to doing what they're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): More than a dozen states have started easing restrictions as business leaders and health officials warn more testing is still needed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: What you're seeing now are governors, increasingly, they're putting together economic recovery teams that's completely delinked to the public health component.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL(voice over): Tyson's chicken processing facility in Shelbyville, Tennessee now closed for deep cleaning, amid new questions about the country's meat supply. The company's Chairman warning, "The food supply chain is breaking." As experts note, there is enough food, though the variety may change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And just in terms of the food supply, too, we're hearing different things, Erin. We're actually hearing from hog farmers in Minnesota. There are concerns that they're not processing plants for those animals. They may have to consider euthanizing them.

Meantime in New York State, the Governor saying today that dairy cooperatives upstate have had to dump some of their milk and milk products. So he is now working on an initiative to get some of that product down in this area where there is a serious spike in need at food banks and food pantries, Erin. BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Erica. Of course so much of

the suppliers struggling to go from proprietor restaurants to now to individual buyers.

All right. I want to go out to the Mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner. And Mayor Turner, I appreciate your time. I just heard your reaction in Erica's piece to Gov. Abbott's announcement about what going to happen in Texas later this week. So what are you telling those citizens who are asking what you're going to do now that the governor has said businesses can reopen?

TURNER: Well, we're telling them to still be very, very cautious. We're letting them know that the virus has not disappeared. It's still in our communities. How prevalent it is, only the testing will tell us. But the social distancing, the wearing of facial coverings, all of those things are important.

Erin, look, just today I announced 74 new cases in the City of Houston and four more deaths directly related to COVID-19. So the virus has not disappeared. We've done an excellent job at containing it and minimizing its impact. We don't want to undo what we've successfully done over the last 40, 45 days.

So testing, continuing to being cautious. I too want to open up, but I think you have to do it. You have to ease into it very slowly.

[19:30:00]

And it has to be based on the science and the data in the medical advice.

[19:30:004]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: So when Governor Abbot says his order supersedes all local orders, I guess -- what does that mean? Is there nothing you can do at this point but to allow business owners to open if they want, and how has he responded when you've told him how you feel?

TURNER: Well, you know, I respect the governor's position and his role. Certainly, he has the final say in the state of Texas. But for the city of Houston operation, for those things that are permitted, produced, authorized, my order will remain in place through the end of May. For those events that we specifically permit, the city employees, for example, will continue to work remotely from home where we can.

We'll continue to engage in all of the practices, the social distancing. We'll continue to do that.

You know, if the governor did open up, for example, the malls and the movie theaters and the retail and restaurants, 25 percent of capacity, that's going to be kind of difficult to enforce.

BURNETT: Yes.

TURNER: But, you know, I give people a lot of -- a lot of credit. I think -- I think they recognize that if things don't appear to be safe I think they're able to take the necessary steps to pull back and to stay home if necessary.

BURNETT: Well, it's a fair point because as this happens across the country, there's no way this can be policed. So people are going to do what they think is right and businesses what they think is right.

TURNER: Right.

BURNETT: But this happens in the context of Houston, right? This is one of the biggest cities in the United States and you have coronavirus, and what's happened to your economy, you had a slow down in oil beforehand.

TURNER: Yes.

BURNETT: About a third of your regional GDP, your third of your economy comes from oil alone. Last week, oil was negative.

TURNER: Right.

BURNETT: You basically had to pay people to store it because nobody was using it. It's a stunning thing that none of us ever thought we would see in our lifetimes and it happened, it's barely recovered from that.

But -- I mean, what are you going to do as Houston in a where oil prices are where they are?

TURNER: Well, let's just put it this way, it's certainly the Super Bowl of crisises that we are facing in this city, but we've faced many different disasters in the past.

I've been mayor now going on, you know, 4 1/2 years. When I came in, we faced the Tax Day flood in 2016, we faced Harvey, the storm of all storms in 2017, tropical storm, and now, we're dealing with this virus.

But one thing I can tell you about the people in this city is that we are highly resilient. And Houstonians, we pull together like never before, we know how to bounce back. And so, this is another one. We're very resilient, and we're dealing with the coronavirus, and we're dealing the economy all at the same time.

BURNETT: Right.

TURNER: But I can assure you there is no city -- there's no city, no people like Houstonians that we deal with it, we will deal with it head on, we are highly resilient. We'll bounce back, and we'll come out of this.

But at the same time as we deal with this, it's important for us to be very strategic, to be very smart, to be very cautious and recognize that this virus is real.

And you really don't have to many opportunities to tell people to stay home, so you want to get it right as much as possible, and you want to respect and recognize the sacrifices that people have already made.

BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate your time. Mayor Turner, thank you very much, sir.

TURNER: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.

BURNETT: All righty.

And next, could a popular heartburn drug be used as a treatment for coronavirus? The doctor who is leading the research and actual trial on this new study is my guest.

Plus, the administration warning the U.S. could see an unemployment rate that is comparable to the Great Depression. That peaked at 24.9 percent. Is that going to happen?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:37:56]

BURNETT: Doctors are studying whether a key ingredient in the popular heartburn drug Pepcid could be used as a potential coronavirus treatment. There are now nearly 200 patients who are taking part in a clinical trial with Northwell Health in New York.

Dr. Kevin Tracey is leading the Northwell study and he is OUTFRONT now.

And, Dr. Tracy, I appreciate your time. So let's just start here from the beginning. You have since early April been administering an ingredient I understand found in Pepcid called famotidine, I hope I'm saying it correctly, to patients who are in critical condition with COVID-19.

So, what is it exactly? How did you isolate that as possibly effective?

DR. KEVIN TRACEY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEINSTEIN INSTITUTES FOR MED. RESEARCH AT NORTHWELL HEALTH: Thank you, Erin. Thank you for having me on. The story of using famotidine in this clinical trial really originated in Wuhan in January when Dr. Michael Callahan visited and with physician colleagues there in China noticed out of some 6,000 patients with severe COVID, that some of them had a significantly better outcome.

And when Dr. Callahan and his colleagues studied the medical records of the patients and the cases what they found is that the patients who did better were patients taking -- which as you say is the active ingredient in Pepcid and other heartburn medications. Dr. Callahan came back to the United States and collaborated with Dr. Robert Maloney on a computer program to ask the question what could be the features of this drug, famotidine, the structural features, the shape of the drug that might align with and interact with proteins made by the virus. And they focused on a protein which the virus needs to replicate, which the virus needs to live. And this protein is called a protease. So what they found is that this was the key and protease was like a lock and they fit together. So those two anecdotes framed the question of, might it be possible to study the use of famotidine in patients with severe COVID.

[19:40:04]

That's how this started.

BURNETT: And so, the dosage I understand that you're giving, though, in your trial is about nine times higher than what someone would get if they were to get Pepcid at the pharmacy. So, why such a high dosage, and with such a high dosage, what sort of side effects have you seen? Have there been any concerns?

TRACEY: To pick the dose to do the clinical trial again back to models, to make estimations of how much drug would have to be in the body in order to -- for the key for it to sufficiently turn off the lock, the protease, and those calculations dictated or instructed the dose, which as you say is about nine times higher than what you would take in a pharmacy. However, very importantly we're using the intravenous form of the drug, the intravenous form of course is because we're studying very sick patients typically with bilateral pneumonia, low oxygen in their blood and having to be hospitalized.

So, hospitalized patients under the care of physicians skilled in this clinical trial are using the famotidine by the intravenous root to see if this approach causes more benefit than harm. We do not know today whether this will be harmful or beneficial on these patients. But when you're standing at the bed side of a loved one who's very sick and doesn't have any proven therapies the safety ratio of famotidine is actually quite favorable. What we don't know is if it will be beneficial against the disease itself, and it's certainly an important question to be addressing right now.

BURNETT: So when do you think you're going to get results from this additional trial which I understand you're hoping to have about 1,200 patients in.

TRACEY: The data and safety monitoring board and statisticians who model the trial for us recommended that we aim for 1,200 patients. It's a randomized, blinded placebo control trial so by the time we get to 1,200 patients, there will be about 600 patients treated and 600 patients in the control arms.

What we are -- the statisticians recommend we look at the data after the first 400 patients or so, and depending on how fast patients can be enrolled in this trial at Northwell Health in New York, we will find out when we can exactly look at the data. We estimate it to be a few more weeks. The good news is the emission rates in New York are falling, the disease is on the wane and we hope it stays that way, so it's hard to put an exact time when we'll have enough patients in the trial to analyze the data.

BURNETT: All right. Dr. Tracey, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. TRACEY: Thank you.

BURNETT: And I want to go straight to Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, what do you make of this study? Obviously they're putting it through a formal trial.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what we need to be doing is putting these things through trials. I mean, this is an interesting hypothesis. It has some, you know, biological sort of rationale in that this medication interestingly could help block one of the receptors by which this virus enters the body. It sounds like.

But, you know, Erin, it's interesting. We talk a lot about these potential therapeutics and, you know, understandably given that we're in the middle of a pandemic. But I have to say that I don't -- we would never present this in your program at this stage because it's so just early. We just -- there's nothing to really know here except an observation out of China that people who were taking this medication seem to fair better than people who were taking another sort of heartburn medication. You know, we'll see.

There's a lot of trials going on right now. I'm a little surprised why we don't have definitive results given some of them started in December. We'll keep pushing on that but hopefully we'll hear about some more definitive prospect of randomized results soon.

BURNETT: We know there are so many things being tried and I know there are points when people are very ill they're trying everything they can, so it's not scientific because you're doing whatever you can do. So you're not able to tell if anything works or nothing works.

But to your point there are a lot of things now being studied. Are you surprised we've not yet heard about something being really effective? Because anything there's been an indication of that then we seem to get study after study it's not really the case, hydroxychloroquine being an example.

GUPTA: Yes, I am surprised by that. And I know for example hydroxychloroquine, there were lots of doses given to the state of New York. A clinical trial was going on in five hospitals over there. Governor Cuomo, we asked him about this in the town hall this past week and he said basically based on the hundreds of patients that they had seen so far, it did not seem to have a benefit, but they're still waiting for the FDA to look at this data and have it analyzed independently.

So there's lots of steps and there should be could independent analysis for sure. But I am surprised that -- remdesivir is another one that we've been hearing a lot about, an antiviral.

[19:45:05]

The World Health Organization posted some information on their website last week and then immediately took it down. Gilead, the company that makes the drug, said that was premature to started to release any of these results. The study is still underpowered. It's amazing you've got 3 million people or so around the world who have confirmed infections. The fact you have an underpowered study on one of the most talked about medications is surprising, because it seems like a lot of people would want to be in these trials.

So I'm surprised we don't have data. I'm surprised that we don't have -- it sounds like we don't have enough people in some of these trials yet. We need to get the information because that could be a significant development in terms of how we proceed, all the other -- all the other issues that we talk about could be affected by it by an affected medication obviously.

BURNETT: All right. Sanjay, thank you very much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, Tyson Foods warning that the food supply chain, is, quote, breaking, plants closing to stop the spread of coronavirus. So should Americans be concerned?

Plus, the president refusing to take a back seat to his medical experts despite growing measure from aides and allies. So what happened to the promise new look and focus of the briefings?

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BURNETT: Tonight, the food supply chain is breaking. That's a quote. It's a warning from the chairman of Tyson foods, one of the world's largest meat producers after it and other companies had to shutdown because of coronavirus outbreaks among workers.

Also warning from the company, quote: As pork, beef and chicken plants are being forced to close even for short periods of time, millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain.

OUTFRONT now, the Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson.

And, Governor, I appreciate your time.

Look, Tyson Foods is obviously based in your state. And you know more about this than probably any other governor in this country. When you hear millions of pounds of meat disappearing from the supply chain, how concerned are you?

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: Well, first of all, it's good to be with you, Erin. And the fact that the chairman of Tyson's Food felt necessary to communicate that to America indicates that they are in a critical industry. And as plants in different parts of the country have had breakouts of COVID-19, that it is a concern if you have to shutdown a plant even for a bit.

We've been fortune in Arkansas that we have over 60 processing plants, and they're all operational. They've worked hard to make sure that safety is paramount in those plants. And the most important ingredient is to give the employees confidence that they will be healthy going into that plant and they don't risk having an adverse contagion there in the processing plant.

And so, they're taking the necessary steps, but it illustrates that we have to be prepared in the event there is a positive case, that we sanitize, we clean, and we get back to processing because our country cannot do without this supply of food, and it starts poultry, beef, pork, all of that is critical to supply chain.

BURNETT: And look, you know, you talk about having to have Tyson close plants in your state. They, of course, have closed plants in other parts of the country. Iowa, Indiana, nearly 200 cases linked to just that one plant in Iowa which closed in Waterloo.

Today, the chief medical officer in Indiana said 963 new cases in the state, a majority of which, he says, are related to an outbreak at the Tyson plant.

So, does that concern you that this is happening in other places and it is linked to these plants where, of course, the food processing processes, people are very close together? But it does indicate some pretty serious break downs in whether it be PPE or how this is being managed at the plant level.

HUTCHINSON: Well, it does concern you, of course, and it concerns the plant operators. And that's why they're investing so much in safety precautions. We have been fortune in Arkansas. We've had -- we've had a break out in one of our prison facilities, and so, we can see how that virus infiltrates and expands so rapidly. You don't want that same thing in the close environment of a processing plant.

The key thing is once you get a positive case, that you go in there, do your contact tracing very quickly so you can stop the spread and have that capacity. That's what we're building in Arkansas. Hopefully, that will be sufficient. But also, we're really working to avoid that community spread. We've been somewhat successful here in this state, and we want to keep on that same path.

BURNETT: So, the White House official today said new testing guidelines, they want each state to have the ability to test 2 percent of their residents per month. We were just talking to one of the, you know, most prominent testing experts in the country and he was just pointing out that that adds up to taking four years to test everybody in this country. He thinks it's woefully short of what is necessary.

Are you comfortable reopening your state if you get anywhere close to that number, 2 percent of residents tested per month?

HUTCHINSON: Well, we set our criteria, and we're looking at it for May 4th. Of course, we never shut down completely. We close restaurants, bars, those type of personal contact businesses. But we've been open beyond that.

We are looking at what we need to do May 4th and whether we can reopen some of those contact businesses, though we're going to be very careful about that.

In terms of the testing, we've had a testing surge this last weekend. We're going to continue to build that base of testing in our state. And so, I'm comfortable with where we are. We obviously want to continue to build the testing capability, but all of that revolves around the contact tracing so that we can find out where we have an outbreak and nip it and take -- control it.

[19:55:11]

That takes that investment of resources which we are doing, and we're comfortable with that right now.

BURNETT: All right. Governor Hutchinson, I appreciate your time. Thank you, sir.

HUTCHINSON: Thank you. Good to be with you, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. And next, President Trump back in front of the cameras today after complaining on Twitter that it was a waste of time. So why? Why come back out?

Plus, young and middle aged people with coronavirus are dying of strokes. Why? A doctor studying an alarming trend is OUTFRONT.

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BURNETT: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. Welcome to a special edition of OUTFRONT.

The breaking news, deaths related to coronavirus in the United States is more than 56,000. It's a grim milestone reached this past hour and it comes as President Trump rolls out the administration's plan now for ramping up testing across the country.

The president trying to paint the United States as a global leader on coronavirus testing. But according to a White House official, the goal is to help each state reach the ability to test at least 2 percent of its residents over a month.

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