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First Move with Julia Chatterley
Tokyo Olympics Postponed Amid Virus Pandemic; Progress Reporter In Congress On Aid Bill; Prime Minister Puts U.K. Under Near Total Lockdown. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired March 24, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: ... because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Japanese Prime Minister says the games will be
held by summer 2021 at the latest.
It follows talks between Shinzo Abe and the International Olympic Committee. CNN World Sports' Christina Macfarlane joins me now.
I can't help, Christina -- and great to have you with us -- that it's the athletes themselves and the individual Olympic Committee's that have forced
their hands here as we've watched this outbreak continue and intensify around the world.
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORTS: That's absolutely right, Julia. What we've seen in the last couple of days is it's the athletes themselves
who have found their voice and the NOCs to effectively force the IOC and Japan into this position.
And you can understand why all week they have been saying on social media, even speaking to CNN about how concerned they are for their health, the
fact that they can't go out, they can't train in gyms and swimming pools and tracks across the globe and of course, a complete confusion around how
those remaining to qualify the games would actually do that with 43 percent of athletes yet to book their ticket to Tokyo.
There was a study done by Team USA earlier this week and it showed that under just 2,000 athletes that they surveyed actually said 93 percent of
them said they would prefer these games to be postponed.
But I have to tell you, Julia, these are exceptional circumstances. I've covered the last two Olympic Games under pretty extraordinary
circumstances. Of course, we have the Zika threat coming into Rio 2016 and we had the North Korea threat going into Pyeongchang, but nothing ever like
this.
And now the games have been rescheduled for the first time in peacetime, and I just want to read you a snippet of the IOC statement that came out
just minutes ago. They said they hope the games will act as a light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present, and it has
been agreed that the games and the Paralympic Games will retain the Tokyo 2020 name even though it now looks they're going to be played a year from
now in 2021.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, Prime Minister Abe had said that he wanted this to be a celebration of success over the virus, but to your point, and you can
correct me if I'm wrong, we've never actually had a postponement of the Olympic Games. We saw a cancellation in the First World War. We saw
cancellation in the Second World War. But the idea of postponing this for some period of time, unprecedented.
MACFARLANE: It is. We've had the games canceled three times before, both during those first two World Wars, as you said, Julia, but never a
postponement.
And the big question now is how is this going to move forward? How are they going to move 33 sporting events and sporting venues to a year from now in
2021 with the enormous amount of infrastructure that has gone in to hosting these Olympic Games?
We know for instance that the Athletes Village alone, after these games were done, the apartments the athletes would use to spend their time were
being resold or sold on after these games. So how will they retain that? How will they retain the infrastructure that they've reserved for these
Olympic Games? And what will the financial fallout be?
We know that Tokyo and the Japanese government have spent somewhere in the region of $12.6 billion for these games. The actual figure is likely to be
double that at the moment.
And when we look ahead, Julia to next summer, because of the coronavirus outbreak across the globe that is becoming a rather packed schedule for
sports now across the world as well.
I just want to show you if we can, a little look at some of the events that have already been pushed forward to next summer and some of those that are
already being staged.
We've got the Athletics World Championships in August. We've got the Women's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, that's due to be held in August as
well. The World's Swimming Championship to be held in July, and of course, we have the postponement of the Euro 2020 Football World Championships just
recently, that as well is going to have to be pushed back to next year, and we know that the Women's World Cup was due to be staged in Britain as well.
So all of these are questions that not just the Olympics, but global sports are going to have to look at in a joined up way to figure out how and where
these games will go ahead.
CHATTERLEY: I'm sure there'll be many viewers watching this and saying actually, the biggest surprise here is that again, that it wasn't postponed
sooner, quite frankly, despite the scale, despite the cost that you've just been describing, Christina, because in the end, health and lives matter
more.
But it just made me think when you were saying about the fact again, that we've never seen a postponement. What does this mean for the athletes who
have been training, at least up until a few weeks ago, and as you said, resources, being able to use swimming pools, interacting with fellow
athletes has become increasingly difficult, but just trying to stay in peak fitness for another year versus just knowing it's been canceled. And you
sort of go ahead with a far longer amount of time to the next one.
MACFARLANE: Yes, it's a good point, Julia and the athletes we've been speaking to, as I've been saying, are the ones who have been pushing for
this postponement?
[09:05:02]
MACFARLANE: So regardless of how this plays out for them, at the moment, their health, they feel as at risk. This is the scenario they genuinely
wanted to see happen.
But having said that, you're right. Where does this leave them now, with potentially a year to go? Well, I think the most important thing is that
there is a date in the calendar for them to work.
We know that all professional athletes, you know, work in minute detail in terms of timing, training, in terms of nutrition, how they rise to the
occasion on just one day in their lives, and they will, of course, have been building towards this moment now for the last four years.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
MACFARLANE: So how they take this forward, well, that will be a matter for them to reschedule, relook at their calendars and basically judge for
themselves.
But the bottom line here, as you say, is that they wanted the vast majority wanted this to happen. The uncertainty that we have seen played out in the
last couple of weeks as thrown them into disarray, the fact that they cannot train, but they have been told they needed to continue to prepare
for the Olympic Games was, you know, just a contradiction that many of them couldn't wrap their heads around.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Incredibly anxiety inducing. Christina Macfarlane, great to have you on the show. And thank you so much there for your insights.
I want to bring in now Will Ripley who is in Tokyo for us as well, and you and I, we were talking yesterday about the fact that in the end, health
matters and the anxiety that it had given a lot of the competing athletes here, the fact is, this decision should have come sooner.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It should have and I think that that is why, you know, you had just a day or two ago, the IOC saying
that this could take up to four weeks and then they had this basically, you know, rushed this call together and I believe the Tokyo Olympics chief,
Yoshiro Mori is actually speaking to the press right now.
This is not a phone call and a request that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wanted to make. They won this Olympic bid seven years ago back in 2013, and
this has been a cornerstone of not only Japan's identity, but also Abe's economic recovery plan.
He wants to transform Japan into a global destination and the Olympics in 2020. This summer, four months from now, we're supposed to be the beginning
of Japan's comeback from those devastating dark days of 2011, nine years ago this month when there was that mega earthquake and tsunami and that
triple meltdown at Fukushima, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
Winning the bid was everything for Japan, and they have -- you have signs all over the city which interestingly, the Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike
told reporters they're going to still brand the Olympics, Tokyo 2020, in large part, Julia, because you can imagine, in addition to all the other
logistical nightmares of rescheduling venues, figuring out what's going to happen with the Athletes Village, which has largely been sold off, people
were supposed to move in by the summer of 2021. What's going to happen there?
But just imagine trying to take all the signs off of every single taxi and so many different buildings. So they're going to, at least for now, they're
going to stick with the Tokyo 2020 branding and they're going to begin this massive and very expensive, it could cost upwards of $5 billion or more,
economists are telling us undertaking of doing something that has never happened before in the history of the modern Olympics.
Because remember, you know, the Olympics have been canceled three times during World War One and twice during World War Two. In fact, it was Japan,
it was Tokyo that was supposed to host the 1940 games, and those games were canceled.
Tokyo waited until 1964 for their chance. This time, the games are being postponed. It's never happened. This is uncharted territory for everybody.
And they have a lot of details, a mind numbing number of details that they need to now sort out -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: We're in uncharted waters in so many ways all around the world at this point, Will. It's a great illustration of what they are tackling
with and of course, they're making a judgment call on the globe having got this virus under control, too, with the new date they're proposing.
Will Ripley, great to have you there. Thank you so much for that. Will Ripley there in Tokyo.
So the Olympic Games, the latest casualty of the coronavirus outbreak. Now, as I've said before, and I'll say it again, health and lives matter more.
Meanwhile, we're awaiting the outcome of the ongoing negotiations on Capitol Hill. The Fed -- the Federal Reserve sending the bazookas in
yesterday buying Congress a little bit more time, but now we need the investment in survival. We need a decision. The cavalry has to arrive
today.
The ongoing uncertainty over that $2 trillion bill weighed on stocks in the session yesterday, though, we keep hearing they're very close to a deal or
moving closer. Stocks, seemingly I think reflecting a bit of that relief there premarket, we actually hit the five percent upper limit.
So what? The yo-yoing that we've seen session after session continues.
Europe right now is higher, too. Asia also had a very good session. Japanese stocks, despite that decision, of course, soaring some seven
percent. Watch the U.S. dollar today, too. That's going to be an indicator that the Federal Reserve's actions are starting to feed into the financial
system.
[09:10:07]
CHATTERLEY: The Dollar Index has been down over one percent. We're what? Off -- slightly less than that now.
Oil in the session today is also higher yet. The economic uncertainty continues and this is key. Stunning new economic numbers showing the havoc
that the virus is taking on the global economy.
Preliminary European business activity numbers plunging to a record low. The service sector, in fact, those numbers coming in even worse.
We await the unemployment claims data from the U.S. this Thursday to illustrate the damage that's already been done even as the President
suggests he is perhaps reconsidering the economic sleep that we're in here in the United States after 15 days.
Now, I hear that's simply not policy, and that it would just be reflected upon after those 15 days, but of course, the debate there and elsewhere
will continue.
Our path today, leading right to the Capitol, our message is clear. Now, while massive legislation like this doesn't happen by magic, compromise is
key, and so is getting money out to the people who need it most.
Christine Romans joins me now. Christine, all the debate -- and we've been having it over the last 24 to 48 hours, the lives that are being imperiled
versus the lives that are being saved.
But now it seems everyone, including President Trump, openly talking about it.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Isn't that remarkable here talking about the tradeoffs between the policies that
we're trying to do here that the government is trying to do to pause the economy and how you help people who can't pause their bills. That's what
the stimulus is of course all about.
What I'm really struck by is just how big it is. You have been very, very keen on the fact that it probably needs to be bigger, but we have never
pushed out this much money at one time. And you can see how the Democrats are trying to use this moment to put some of their priorities into play in
the economy -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. And this is key. I mean, Christine, from what I'm hearing, and we saw it come in from the Democrats' proposal that was two
and a half trillion dollars yesterday. Racial data on pay, the Democrats were apparently asking for, that's been knocked down.
We were talking yesterday about a 10-year oversight from Congress on executives' pay. That also has been knocked down.
But a whole host of other things are being considered including minimum wages, a third of the board potentially being chosen by employees' wage
bargaining.
I mean --
ROMANS: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Odes of 2008 and times gone past perhaps where people didn't get the changes they wanted.
ROMANS: Absolutely. And, you know, Democrats will use this crisis now as a as a way to point out that the economy just wasn't fair for living -- for
workers who want a living wage.
You look at all of these essential workers who are told that -- the grocery stores, people who are stocking shelves, people who are working in
restaurants and delivery workers -- I mean, they've long said the Democrats have said they need to have a $15.00 living wage for those kinds of
workers.
And it's now those people who they've been fighting for better wages who are the ones who are really the essential workers in the American economy.
Also paid sick leave, they've been arguing about that.
There's an earlier bill last week that had some improvements of paid sick leave, but it didn't make it permanent. And if you want to talk about
pandemics, you're going to have to talk about how you can incentivize people to stay home if they don't feel well.
We have tens of thousands of people who die every year because of just the common flu that we have a vaccine for. And still, we haven't been able to
get our hands around that, people going to work sick.
So I think the democrats see a vehicle here. I mean, a cynic would say it's Christmas tree. They see a vehicle here that they could put their
priorities in and get as many through as they can.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's delaying. It's delaying the negotiation and agreement here, Christine, but this circular argument here is that because
this is such a service driven economy, because so many workers are on the front lines, it is part of vulnerability here.
Thus, precipitating the response required from Congress and from the Federal Reserve, but we'll go on to debate that again, I'm sure. Christine
Romans, thank you.
ROMANS: Nice to see you.
CHATTERLEY: The United Kingdom under virtual lockdown right now after the Prime Minister introduced drastic measures to curb the coronavirus spread.
Nick Paton Walsh is in London -- in Central London for us. Nick, great to have you with us? What is it looking like there? Are people abiding by
these latest measures?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Julia, I have to just sort of step aside really so you can see Trafalgar Square. You've been here
before. Many of us have. Nobody.
And the eerie sound of police sirens that occasionally come in. It seems the police often driving around, so you hear those sirens blaring to send
out the message that they are around.
Some people on their own, not paying attention to the advice to stay at home. In fact, earlier on today, we saw a group of three people being
approached by the police asking what they were doing and being reminded that the new rules say gatherings in public of more than two are prohibited
and it is extraordinary to see this massive drop in activity across the capital city here.
[09:15:13]
PATON WALSH: All shops apart from those selling food and pharmacies essentially closed here, some exceptions, bicycle shops, a sporting goods
shop tried to suggest maybe it would stay open, because it believed that sporting clothes were essential because people are still allowed to go out
once a day to run.
They're allowed to go out to get food. They're allowed to go out for medical attention. And importantly here, if their job requires them
essentially to be at work, they can go to work.
And I would explain the volume of traffic we saw earlier on in the morning, extraordinary frankly, to still, and we have to remember, you know, if
you're self-employed, struggling to feed your family, your job is essential to you.
So the Prime Minister's terminology last night, delivered an 8:30 prime time address to the nation, the first time he has done that in the crisis
to deliver this key message, stay at home hasn't necessarily sunken I think across the board here, leading for prospect there may be more measures.
He said last night, the police will have powers to disperse gatherings. They possibly already feel they need to start telling people to move along.
There may be fines later on, too, but it is extraordinary.
Remember, Julia, this is a country that was the outlier in Europe for a number of weeks, saying, its scientists at the government level that maybe
some elements of mitigated infection was helpful for giving the population immunity in the seasons and months ahead, and they saw the numbers coming
out of Italy and radically changed their ideas and their modeling and have now brought this in.
Still, some say a little enough. Still European neighbors in the past week have been critical of the British approach. But it is startling just to
stand here and see Central London dead -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Outlier no more, Nick. Thank you so much for that. Nick Paton Walsh there in an empty Trafalgar Square. It's just astonishing times.
Thanks Nick.
Coming up on the show, retail thrown into tailspin with daily rule changes over what can be open and what needs to be shut. We ask the U.S.
representative retail body just how stores are coping and what needs to change.
And the battle to defeat the coronavirus starts with a simple test. One company now hoping to sell at-home testing kits. We speak to them. Stay
with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:30]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stock still on target for a relief rally. Stock futures set to rise around five percent as you can see
there at the open.
The action in oil and gold is encouraging. Oil also up around three percent. Gold higher by over six percent this morning. It's been hit.
All of these things, of course, hit by forced selling, so rallying from very beaten up levels, let's be clear.
The global retail trade sector has been thrown into utter chaos as countries lock down, shutting up shop is the only option facing non-
essential businesses.
Among the rest, there's confusion about those new rules. The world's largest retail trade association represents some 3.6 million establishments
here in the United States, and more than 42 million workers, two and a half trillion dollars in annual sales.
Matthew Shay is the President and CEO and he joins us now. Matthew, thank you so much for making the time to talk to us. That is a huge number of
businesses. It's a huge number of employees that you represent.
But the first thing I want to ask you is the confusion that we all feel and I'm sure the sector does, too, over, quite simply what is essential?
Whether it's at the local level? The state level? And even the national level? How big of a struggle is this?
MATTHEW SHAY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: Well, Julia, this is an enormous challenge for the retail industry, and as you just
noted, the largest private sector employer in our economy and that number is actually closer now to 50 million jobs, and $3.8 trillion of economic
activity that result from retail businesses in the U.S.
So it's an enormous number of businesses, and you know, the vast majority of these are companies that on February 1st were solvent businesses who
through no fault of their own now or because of government shutdowns, mandated in an effort to protect the public, are really putting their
businesses in jeopardy.
So what we need right now is quick action. We need a bridge, not a bailout. Many of these are small businesses. Many of these companies continue to
serve their communities on the front lines, and so those companies are able to employ people. But there are many others that are not able to employ
people.
So we'd like to see quick action now and we need clarity from Federal, state and local governments about essential and non-essential, who can be
opened and all of those things to allow us to prepare to get back to work soon.
CHATTERLEY: So national guidelines on precisely what's essential, freeing up some of the supply chain issues that have been created here.
One of the big risks is jobs. Jobs already lost and jobs to be lost in the future. I mean, I looked at the numbers here and the average small and
medium-sized enterprise in the retail sector has what? On average around, 19 days' worth of cash. It's pretty terrifying.
What kind of job losses for this sector are we looking at? Can you give us any sense of gauge?
SHAY: Well, it's potentially in the many millions. The most recent studies that we've had prepared, and that have been published by PwC indicate that
there are more than 52 million jobs in this economy that are created because of retail activity and that accounts for nearly 20 percent of GDP.
So again, a number of these sectors of the economy we know are on the front lines serving their communities, whether those are, you know, wholesale
clubs, grocers, other essential businesses that we've been able to help promote with the administration, through the Department of Homeland
Security, FEMA, and we've been working very closely with state governors and local jurisdictions.
So those businesses, of course, are facing an enormous challenge of their own in trying to stay fully staffed, fully stocked, keep the supply chain
moving.
And at the same time, there are many thousands of other businesses who are deemed to be non-essential, and we need help and support for those as well
because they're massive creators of jobs in our economy.
Ninety five percent of these are small businesses with five or fewer people, but they are a real engine of job creation, and you know, you got
more than 60 million people employed by companies that have 500 or more employees. So it's not only the small businesses we need to help but also
those medium and large businesses as well.
[09:25:02]
SHAY: And you know, we'd like to see the Congress move very quickly on this proposal. You know, I don't know whether the debates that are going on
now, I guess, are either a feature or a bug of our democracy, but what we need is quick action. And we don't need further negotiation, we need to
move now.
As you say, many of these businesses have no cash to do their operations and that could be dramatically bad for this country.
CHATTERLEY: Matthew, you said, look, this shouldn't be considered a bailout whatever size the company is at this stage or the small business. I
call it an investment in survival, quite frankly. And that's what it looks like.
Part of the debate for small and medium sized enterprises, and I've argued this, it should be grants. We can't saddle small and medium sized
enterprises, fewer than five employees, including ownership, as you're saying, with more debt.
How confident are you that the negotiators get this and it is grants that are provided, particularly if retain their employees and just try and
protect them from further job losses?
SHAY: Well, Julia, that's a great point. And, as I said, the vast majority of these were solvent businesses. So this is a bridge to support them to
get back to normal operations and allow them to continue to employ those people.
You know, I certainly understand why we want to be thoughtful about how we make that equity and that liquidity available to companies of all sizes,
and there ought to be some real priority put on keeping employees attached to the workforce. That's certainly something that we've been promoting
very, very vocally.
Any business owner knows it's easily a greater challenge to go out and recruit new employees than it is to keep the employees you've already got.
So we would all like to see some creative approaches to allowing retailers and other businesses to keep those employees on the payroll and in some
ways, to use either the liquidity that gets provided or some resourceful ways to convert unemployment insurance to direct payments through the
companies because that is going to be a key to restarting America and putting America back to work.
CHATTERLEY: Absolutely. It's so important for the recovery and the timing here is critical, and we keep reiterating that.
Matthew, thank you so much for making time to talk to us this morning. It's so great to get your insights.
SHAY: Thanks, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Matthew Shay, the President and CEO of the National Retail Federation. That's warning for jobs, those numbers there.
All right, the market open next. Stay with FIRST MOVE.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:30]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are open for trading. We are higher. As expected, we'll give you a look at any second to see what
the performance is right now. A strong performance on a relative basis.
Stocks keep yo-yoing. Remember, we're bouncing here on hope, I think from pretty beaten up levels. We're also awaiting hard data on the real economic
impact of the economic sleep that's going on all across the United States and across the world, of course.
This, even as companies continue to retrench. JPMorgan today announcing a hiring freeze. Chevron, a big oil player cutting CapEx spending by some 20
percent and suspending share buybacks as it tries to protect its dividend.
Twitter, GM withdrawing guidance. Stresses on the housing and the real estate market, too, remain key.
Invesco says one of its REITs, its real estate investment trust focusing on residential and commercial mortgages, has been unable to make margin calls.
I think we can assume this is probably happening for many, many players.
The fear, of course, is that if tenants don't make payments because of the virus outbreak, certain debt deals could breach triggers. That in turn puts
pressure on the entire market.
Richard Quest joins me now. Richard, I wanted to point this out because this is just part of the underlying financial crisis and triggers that are
taking place and probably why we haven't heard this government say look, it's okay. We're going to have a moratorium on rent payments here.
There are so many layers to the numerous crises that we're facing here created by the way we're tackling the health crisis.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: Yes, so the way I look at it is this. The global economy or even a national economy is like
a tapestry with a gazillion different threads.
Now, at any given moment, you can unpick one thread. You can sort out an auto industry. You can sort out an aviation industry, or a banking industry
or mortgage relief whatever.
But what's happening here is everybody is trying to unpick and repair all the threads at once, and you've just given a very good example there in
what you were talking about with mortgage relief and the mortgage industry.
Now in any other environment, a company defaults or company breaks its covenants -- that is sorted out. It is sorted out between the lenders and
the various parties, but now there's a risk of everybody having to sort it out at the same time and what there is not, the point you exactly point,
you were just saying, well, what there does not appear to be is a big red button that says pause.
Everybody stop, freeze where you are at the moment, and we'll revisit it in three months' time when things are different and that would be what you'd
need to do, but you can't. So you end up with, as you say, everybody having to unpick the tapestry at the same time.
CHATTERLEY: And coordinate here. This has got to be a decision between all the major banks, the regulators to make sure of the logistics of this.
QUEST: But how do you? How do you, Julia? Because the mortgage department is fighting one set of fires at the moment. The corporate debt department
is fighting another set of fires. The retail sector of the bank is fighting another set of fires.
I went on -- I had to make an inquiry about the bank about a minor matter. You know, I was told the average waiting time is in excess of 30 minutes.
So if you imagine that at the bottom, the firefighting capabilities of these organizations is stretched beyond breaking point, and that's the real
risk. This is when you have an accident.
This is when somebody goes bust or somebody misses something and then the dominoes start to fall.
CHATTERLEY: Richard, I agree with absolutely everything you're saying, and I think that's it --
QUEST: Oh, that's a --
CHATTERLEY: I know. We normally argue.
QUEST: That is dangerous. Dangerous.
CHATTERLEY: I am sorry. This is terrible. This is terrible. But I want to bring it back to something incredibly serious here, and it gets to the
heart of the debate that's going on now between the economic cost, the lives at peril versus the lives that we're trying to save. This is the
debate. It's horrible, but it's the debate that's being had.
QUEST: In front of you, there's a pile of papers that I was using last night in that studio. On them, you will see I've written the word aegrescit
medendo, which literally means the treatment is worse than the cause, or than the disease.
[09:35:01]
QUEST: It's an understandable point of view. I don't think the President is being unrealistic or unfair or irresponsible when he raises this
question that at some point, you have to say are all these measures necessary?
It's a legitimate debating point, however, put on the other side of that scale, Julia, at the moment, Wuhan is only now lifting the restrictions.
Some on March 25th, some at the beginning of April, and that's two months after they came in place.
Now, if you take New York, as the U.S.'s equivalent of Wuhan, to be talking about any form of lifting is highly, highly controversial.
CHATTERLEY: And the world's eyes are watching while they do it, because everyone fearful that they spark a resurgence of cases here. Richard,
thanks for being with us. Thank you.
QUEST: Thank you, as always. Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Richard Quest there.
Now, the W.H.O. -- the World Health Organization has made clear its opinion that testing for the coronavirus is crucial to getting the pandemic under
control. What we need is more high speed tests.
Texas based, Everlywell just unveiled an at-home testing kit. Joining us now, Julia Cheek. She is CEO and founder of Everlywell.
Julia, great to have you with us. Not only have you managed to come up with an at-home test, which is fantastic, but you did it in astonishing speed.
That was what struck me when I read your story. Talk me through what you've achieved here and how the test works.
JULIA CHEEK, CEO AND FOUNDER, EVERLYWELL: Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. So, Everlywell already exists as an infrastructure that
partners with many U.S. labs, CLIA certified labs to be able to deliver safe, convenient and affordable at-home collection testing.
So very similar to a 23andMe saliva kit or something like that is what our existing business is today.
And so we actually issued a call to action on March 8th to incentivize labs to comply with the F.D.A.'s EUA and begin to develop tests for COVID-19.
And then we were able to use those components and develop this at-home collection kit.
Now, that being said, the F.D.A. has clearly come out most recently and had staunch opinions on both rapid testing at home, of which many of those
tests are in development, as well as at-home collection and making sure that that is done safely.
And so there are changing guidelines that we are responding to every day and working directly with the F.D.A. to ensure that these kits are getting
into the hands of those who need them the most, and in an environment where we can ensure that we are not over running our healthcare systems more than
they already are today.
CHATTERLEY: And to be specific, you've made the decision to get these testing kits out to the frontlines, to the healthcare workers that are
being exposed on a daily basis. That feels like a strategic and a very important decision here.
CHEEK: You know, we announced the launch on March 16th for yesterday of our initial supply of 30,000 tests, and I cannot tell you the hundreds of
heart wrenching and just absolutely heartbreaking e-mails that I received from doctors on the front lines, from home health workers, from nursing
homes, from hospitals begging for tests.
And so we ultimately alongside that overwhelming personal kind of situation alongside the F.D.A.'s updated guidance and the White House's call on
Saturday for priority cohorts to get tested, over 65, frontline workers that was hospitalized.
Sunday, we made a decision that we would ensure that this first allocation goes directly to healthcare professionals, and that they're able to get
access to the testing; both for their patients or for their own workforces that they need.
CHATTERLEY: And you're doing it at no profit. I do want to make that point. But I also want to talk to you about swabs, because we've talked
about the fact that there's supply shortages of swabs and I know you're looking at perhaps taking saliva samples, just adjusting it, which will
allow you to ramp up pretty dramatically.
Give me the sense of or give our viewers a sense of the numbers that you could get to here because to go from 30,000 to you're saying, 250,000 and
beyond would be an incredible addition, too.
CHEEK: Right, and I think suddenly there is an incredible interest in the medical testing supply chain and this is such a critical rate limiter right
now.
Both the lab testing capacity itself, but also the access to the basic supplies, the nasopharyngeal swabs. Now, last night, the F.D.A. has
loosened guidance on self-collection to allow for, in certain settings, drive-thru and clinical to allow for some of the shorter swabs, both to
address both exposure to healthcare workers as well as the supply shortage.
So our ability to work with this national responsive supply and be able to produce these -- not only the kit at a national level of a quarter of a
million a week, but then also our technology allows us to aggregate labs so that we have national labs capacity.
[09:40:10]
CHEEK: Right now, you have this very piecemeal framework as labs try to get online as much as possible, and you have very overrun areas with very
limited testing and many areas with no access to testing.
And as you said, the World Health Organization just really emphasizes how important broad testing is to containing the virus and getting America back
to work.
CHATTERLEY: Just give me a sense, because you're suggesting here, I think that we need more strategic oversight to be able to make sure that the
supply chain here and the coordination is better.
Would you agree with that and just given what you're seeing and hearing because we spoke to someone else, who has also created a home testing kit
last week, Nurx, and they were just saying, look, we just need to address some of the bigger issues and the more strategic issues for users of these
things. And that's cost.
How much cost can be recouped and how much cost are these to the individuals that are taking them? Would you agree with that?
CHEEK: I think overall, the supply chain has been a major shortage, globally really, we source many of these materials globally. And so there
does need to be a coordinated response. And I think private sector companies are rising to the challenge quickly in manufacturing.
But again, it is missing weeks to be able to get ramped up and we don't have weeks with this virus. I think on cost as well. We believe these tests
should be free for all Americans who need it.
That being said, we are offering our tests in bulk shipping to healthcare providers at no profit to us. The testing cost itself just running the test
at the lab costs anywhere from $50.00 to $200.00, depending on the lab, depending on the assay, not to mention transport costs, kit costs,
component costs. And then of course physician intervention and diagnosis.
And so this is not a low cost experience, and yet it is important that Americans and providers are not deterred by what it could cost you to get
tested. So there must be ideally free testing. The government has said the testing will be free. We believe that is the right thing to do.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, more action and clarity required. Julia, thank you for your innovation.
CHEEK: Absolutely. Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you for joining us today. Julia Cheek there. All right. Still ahead, using artificial intelligence to save lives. We speak to the
head of a tech company that has already helped doctors in Wuhan. Stay with us.
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[09:45:40]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. Could artificial intelligence -- AI -- be a way to support the overwhelmed medical staff around the world?
Doctors in Wuhan used AI to detect signs of pneumonia associated with COVID-19. It was adapted from technology previously used to spot lung
cancer.
The software was created by the startup Infervision, and the CEO Chen Kuan, who likes to be known as CK joins us from Beijing. CK, great to have you
here on the show. My understanding is your staff in Beijing spent the Lunar New Year holiday tweaking and tuning the algorithms to spot pneumonia
associated with COVID-19. Is that correct?
CHEN KUAN, CEO, INFERVISION: Yes, that's basically correct.
CHATTERLEY: Wow.
KUAN: So we have been working with a few hospitals in the Wuhan area prior to the outbreak. But basically, they have been our long term users for our
lung cancer screening artificial intelligence.
And then while like we see the outbreak coming up, we basically talked and worked with hospital doctors and see how we can actually use our AI
technology to help them fight off this virus.
And that's basically how our team worked our Lunar New Year trying to create this artificial intelligence.
CHATTERLEY: So just so I understand, you put this into 34 different hospitals and as the patients come in, it just helps the frontline medical
staff because they can quickly scan the person's lungs and go, this is probably someone who's got COVID-19 versus someone who perhaps has got flu
or is suffering from something else.
KUAN: Yes, exactly. So basically, our artificial intelligence analyzes CT scan to help doctors identify suspected COVID-19 cases to help prevent
further hospital transmission and cross infection.
As we all know, the COVID-19 is highly contagious and the ability to identify highly suspected cases is extremely important to stop the chain of
infection.
So from early experience that we worked with in China, we see that, for example, PCR is definitely -- the PCR testing is definitely the gold
standard to confirm the presence of COVID-19. But PCR testing suffers from low availability and it can take a really long time to accomplish and there
have been some known cases of having false negative cases.
So doctors in China has been utilizing CT scans with the help of artificial intelligence to help identify, like who has a suspected COVID-19 pneumonia
symptoms quickly, and then they can start the quarantine, they can start the isolation, they can start the observation quickly while waiting for the
PCR test, so that we can actually prevent further in-hospital transmission, as well as when they go back home and transmit it to their family.
CHATTERLEY: It's incredible. There will be people watching this going, the reason why China can do this, though, is because you guys can collect the
data required to feed into the algorithm and the system to simply be able to identify this. Would you agree with that? And is this something that
perhaps you could provide to other countries, just using your data and knowing what you've collected already has a good target rate of finding
this kind of anomaly, the pneumonia like in lungs?
KUAN: Yes, we basically feed our AI with early cases of COVID-19 especially in Wuhan, and then when the virus basically spreads to the rest
of the countries, we deploy our systems in even more hospitals.
And I think the beauty of artificial intelligence is really is that we can actually train the AI and we can deploy it to other places even faster than
the spread of the virus itself.
So especially in some of the rural and remote areas. For example, those healthcare workers, they've actually never seen any COVID-19 cases, but
they are preparing for it, but with the help of AI, they can now help to recognize the virus. So I think this is really the true beauty of AI.
CHATTERLEY: Talk to me about whether you are talking to other health authorities that this could be perhaps used here in the United States in
the U.K., even in Italy, where we're seeing some of the fiercest outbreaks here.
And CK, my second question here is, I know you have workers in the Hubei Province. How are they doing?
KUAN: Yes. So with respect to the first question, we are already deploying our system in Japan and Italy. In fact, we have been working with the
largest tele-radiology group in Japan and deploying our AI with DoctorNet for doctors in Yokohama area where the cruise parked.
[09:50:09]
KUAN: And we have also deployed our AI system in Italy, helping doctors there to fight off the COVID-19 virus. And we are definitely looking
forward to deploy our systems in the U.S. and even more countries in Europe.
And we have a few employees in Hubei and they are still there, and we actually are very concerned about them. But so far, they have been very
good and they have been working with us to fight off this virus. Thank you very much for your concern, too.
CHATTERLEY: No, thank you so much for joining us. Incredible work from you, guys. It's just the power of data and the power of AI explained.
CK, Chen Kuan there. Keep in touch with this, please and then let us know how they're doing and how you're progressing around the world. The CEO of
Infervision there in Beijing. Thank you.
All right. Still ahead. Tokyo 2020, but in 2021. More on the historic announcement to postpone the Olympic Games.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE and back to our breaking news this hour.
It's now official in a move never seen before in peacetime, the Olympic Games are going to be postponed for a year.
Amanda Davies joins us with the very latest. Amanda, we were talking earlier on in the show with Will and Christina, about time, really, as hard
as this decision is, lives matter more.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, absolutely, Julia. There really was no other option than this was there, but boy, how the tide has turned so
quickly really from both the organizers of Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee standing so firm even as recently as Sunday saying that
was not on the table.
But the pressure just got to great, the scale of the Olympic Games in terms of the number of athletes -- 11,000 athletes from 206 different countries
around the world.
This is a $12.6 billion event. So many logistics, so many people, so many different investors and stakeholders. The likes of athletes, broadcasters,
governments, sporting organizations and local level federations. Everybody needed to come together to make this decision and that is no easy task.
But really, once we saw the federations start in the last 24 to 48 hours to say they were not going to send their athletes. The likes of Canada, the
likes of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea. Here, Team GB in Britain.
[09:55:02]
DAVIES: The organizers of Tokyo 2020 and Thomas Bach, the President of the IOC were left with no other option. Really, we were -- it was a little bit
of a game of cat and mouse which of those two key figures were going to blink first.
In the end, we saw this call organized by the Japanese Prime Minister Abe earlier on Tuesday with Thomas Bach and we understand Prime Minister Abe
asked for the postponement of the games from this year until 2021. Thomas Bach, the President of the IOC has agreed.
So this is an unprecedented time. I mean, we've used that word, haven't we, so often in recent weeks, in recent months, but this is something that has
never happened before.
The Olympic Games is such a beacon, a bastion for sports around the world. Its motto, "faster, higher, stronger." It is the pinnacle for so many
athletes around the world, the real highlights of the sporting calendar taking place once every four years.
This is not a cancellation, a postponement that is taken lightly, but absolutely one that is necessary in these times.
CHATTERLEY: Amanda, what was the motto -- very quickly again?
DAVIES: Faster, higher, stronger -- and when you get the athletes who ...
CHATTERLEY: For the world.
DAVIES: ... who can't train and aren't able to perform at the top of their ability, which is the realms that we've been in, and we are in this
time across the world. There was no other option.
CHATTERLEY: I know. Amanda, I have to wrap up the show, but that motto, I think is a motto for us all as we fight this virus around the world. We
will get there.
That's it for the show. Markets are higher. We await that Stimulus Bill. You've been watching FIRST MOVE. Stay safe and we will see you tomorrow.
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[10:00:00]
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