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First Move with Julia Chatterley
A Record 3.3 Million U.S. Workers Asking For Help In Just The Past Week; The $2 Trillion Survival Stimulus Package Agreed By The Senate, The House Votes Next; A New Epicenter In The Battle Against The Coronavirus As Cases Search Here In The United States. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired March 26, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:39]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE, and here's your need to know.
The definition of recession. A record 3.3 million U.S. workers asking for help in just the past week.
Help though, is coming. The $2 trillion survival stimulus package agreed by the Senate, the House votes next.
And a new epicenter in the battle against the coronavirus as cases search here in the United States.
It's Thursday. Let's make a move.
Welcome, as always to our FIRST MOVErs all around the globe. As always, too, it's good to be with you.
Now, I want to begin by talking about an economic snapshot of the U.S. economy that we've been dreading for days. As I mentioned, jobless claims
in the United States rising by almost 3.3 million workers last week. That's right near the top end of expectations. It is the highest number of claims
on record.
Just to give you a sense, the previous record was hit back in 1982, and is one of the biggest percentage jumps week on week in claims ever. It's a
devastating number. It's also in a way deliberate. It's a measure of the steps we're taking to shut down the economy and fight the virus.
We know this, but it's also the suddenness that has been breathtaking. Most of the workers needing government assistance were gainfully employed just a
few weeks ago, unable to foresee or plan for the storm ahead. Remember, it's happening all around the world, too.
But this is why here in the United States, that $2 trillion aid bill with its direct cash payments and crucially, its extension and rise of
unemployment benefits is also critical.
The $350 billion dollars included in the bill as well for small business loans could also prevent further layoffs. That's the plan and that cash
needs to flow ASAP.
The Aid Bill passed by the Senate last night, the House could vote on it by the week and execution, as I've mentioned, timing is key. People
desperately need money to survive the next couple of months.
All right, let me give you a look at the market reaction. It's pretty unanimous thereto. We've had a negative tone to U.S. futures all morning.
Red arrows as you can see.
In Europe, too. Asia closing lower. Japanese stocks falling some four percent after three days of solid gains. The Dow and the S&P did manage to
close higher for a second straight session. The first back-to-back gains for the blue chips in over a month.
We did see a loss of selling though, into the close and without that actually, gains would have been stronger than you see. But we did get that
and you know my view.
These gyrations remain unhealthy. There are simply too many unknowns. I think investors recognize that the survival bill might just be to use the
words of the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a mere drop in the bucket to what we will ultimately need, including kick starting the recovery, too,
when we get to the end of this.
Now to that end, Fed Chair Jay Powell said in a live interview this morning that there's no limit to what the Central Bank can do as long as the U.S.
Treasury guidelines allow it. That comment is critical.
And we'll discuss in a moment, but in the meantime, over in Europe, the E.C.B. is taking fresh action today, too. It's now able to buy as many
bonds as it needs from any single country. So much has been done, so much more potentially to do.
Let's get to the drivers and some analysis on that jobs claims numbers -- 3.3 million new claims here in the United States just in the past week.
Clare Sebastian joins me now. Clare, we were making wild guesses as to how bad it can be. But that gives you a sense of the economic damage that we're
doing deliberately, as I mentioned, in order to try and fight the virus.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Julia, pretty much out there with the highest estimates that we saw coming into this and I think
what's shocking about this, as you were saying, is the speed at which it's happened.
Just the previous week, the number was 281,000. This is about 11 and a half times that. So it's really shocking and especially if you consider the sort
of lockdowns and stay at home measures really sort of only came into force last week.
New York's pause was signed on Friday. California's stay at home executive order was signed on Thursday. New York's restaurants were shut down Monday
night. So it's very, very quick.
[09:05:05]
SEBASTIAN: And I think this shows you the fragility in a way of parts of this economy. Businesses just can't keep going even just for a few days,
can't keep their workers hired without the revenue coming in.
I think the unknown in this number is what life will be like for these unemployed people. We hope that the measures in the Stimulus Bill, an extra
$600.00 on top of state benefits for unemployed people will alleviate the hardship here.
Certainly, we hope the loans to businesses will help prevent future numbers like this. But analysts already -- Moody's put out a statement this morning
saying that they expect to see more like this in the weeks ahead.
So there may not be an end to numbers like this for a little while. Yet, one possible silver lining, if you can look at it like this is that we know
that Labor Departments in the various states were very stretched.
New York State Labor Department were saying today they to hire or in the process of hiring 65 people to process these claims. So at least they are
processing a lot of these claims. That means that that help will be coming to these people.
CHATTERLEY: The silver lining in this too and in the support measures that are hopefully going to pass this week in the House is that the unemployment
benefits are being extended and the amount, the notional amount is rising, and that's now going to provide support to a huge swathe, an
underestimated, I think, swathe of the economy, which is the gig economy -- Uber drivers, self-employed people, contractors.
So they'll get support, but it means that the claims numbers actually could be far higher as a result. We can't gauge that yet.
SEBASTIAN: Yes, absolutely. This is something that we haven't seen before. There was a lot of concern that the gig economy workers of which there are,
you know, have been a growing number leading up to this would be overlooked.
But I think the other thing to point out is, you know, we heard from Jerome Powell this morning, he said, going into this, there was nothing
fundamentally wrong with the U.S. economy and unemployment was a bright spot among that.
We've been seeing, you know, unemployment at half century lows going into this. Now, this is of course a sudden stop. It's all happened very quickly.
But his message was that we should be able to come out of this that once the virus abates, once we start to see cases come down, confidence will
return and that will lead to work as being rehired, to businesses reopening and so these jobs starting to come back -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Absolutely. And to your point -- exactly that interplay between the Federal Reserve and the Treasury -- they could take these pots
of lending money and scale them up. We call it leverage.
This is something that I don't think we're accounting for when we talk about the $2 trillion notional amount. So great, great point.
Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for that.
When can they pass it? That's the key 96 to zero, unity, not something we often see in U.S. Congress, but the U.S. Senate, unanimously passing that
$2 trillion Coronavirus Rescue Package, the bill will now head, as we've been describing to the House for a vote, we think on Friday.
It's also a huge win for President Trump, of course, getting this money to the economies and the people that need it. John Harwood is at the White
House for us.
John, you've heard the discussion that we've just been having. Great to have unity to get this package agreed, signed off, but then it's about
getting the money out to people. What are we thinking here in terms of execution?
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're thinking in the next several weeks, either by direct deposit for people who have it, or by
cutting physical checks for those who don't, sometime, latter part of April, maybe early part of May.
But it's important psychologically, of course, for people to know that it's coming, and this is one thing for all the criticism of the Trump
administration, a legitimate criticism for its laggard response in terms of getting on top of the virus, getting on top of testing and the public
health threat.
This is one thing that they've gotten right. And that is every economist as you know, and we've talked about it multiple times, has said the most
important thing to do when employment falls off a cliff, when economic activity falls off a cliff is to write massive checks, drop the money out
of helicopters, throw it out on the street, get people and businesses feeling that they can make it to the other side. And then try to make the
distance between now and the other side as short as you can through your public health response.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's so critical. John Harwood, thank you so much for that. Let's hope that gets signed off this week. All right, let's move on.
As the U.S. Congress steps up its economic responses as you were hearing there from John, the spread of the coronavirus here is accelerating.
Wednesday was the deadliest day yet with more than 230 killed by COVID-19. Confirmed cases have now topped 65,000 and over 900 people have lost their
lives.
Senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen is in Atlanta for us. Elizabeth, your context, I think here desperately needed as much as we talk
and we talk endlessly it seems about the testing and the need to continue to ramp that up.
The more we test, the more cases we'll have. So can you just give context on precisely what we're seeing here in the United States, but also here in
New York, too?
[09:10:05]
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So what Infectious Disease experts and epidemiologists are telling me, Julia, is
don't get too stuck on these numbers. Because as we do more testing, we will certainly see more cases.
But and I know this sounds a little bit like I'm contradicting myself, but I'll explain in a minute, there is still is no question that this virus is
spreading. Is it getting bigger by this number or by that number by this percent or by that percent? In a way it doesn't really matter.
We know that it is spreading at a very fast rate, and really the numbers to really key into our hospitalization numbers, and we don't have good
national hospitalization numbers and death numbers.
And you said that number, you know, the biggest single number of deaths in one day, you know, more than 220 deaths in one day. I mean, that speaks
volumes right there.
CHATTERLEY: You know, we've been talking throughout the beginning of this show about the containment measures and the economic impact that they are
having. Is it too early to get a sense of whether the social distancing, the closures of businesses are having any kind of impact? We assume they
are, but when will we know?
COHEN: Right, Julia, unfortunately, it will take another couple of weeks before we know that. We just don't know. And that is why people -- the
experts that I've been talking to really are not -- are not with Trump.
You know, Trump is saying, hey, we need to get this economy going. Again, the cure meaning, all of these shutdowns might be worse than the actual
disease. They're saying, you know what, we need to give this more time to work.
We know what we're doing is right. We know that keeping people apart from each other is the right way to go.
You know, we've seen for example, in China when they've said, okay, now it's time, we'll let people go, you know, back to work and get -- start to
try to get things going again that indeed those numbers come up. So there's some delicate balance about how to do this.
Governor Cuomo in New York has said maybe there is some middle ground here where we take people who we know are immune to the virus because we can
tell from their blood tests that they've already had it and they've recovered, maybe they can have more freedom to go back to work.
But as far as everybody going back to work, that doesn't seem prudent right now.
CHATTERLEY: And for that, we require tests, tests, tests and more tests.
COHEN: Right.
CHATTERLEY: And we're still working on that. Elizabeth Cohen, always a pleasure. Great to have you with us. Thank you.
COHEN: Thanks.
CHATTERLEY: All right. Now to an urgent call to action for the world's poorest. The World Bank and the IMF want to suspend all debt payments by 76
developing nations immediately, and they want the G-20 on board.
The leaders of the world's biggest economies have been meeting in an emergency virtual summit over the past hour. John Defterios joins me now.
John, it's something I've been calling for in individual nations, and here in the United States, we've seen it sporadically in states. We haven't seen
a blanket. You were way ahead of the curve here though for emerging market nations and said there needs to be a fund because on a health perspective,
on a final perspective, they're going to struggle more than anyone.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Clearly, that is the case, Julia. I think it's vital personally looking at it from this
viewpoint, from the Middle East looking south, for example, into Africa, I have to say for this G-20 meeting that is supposed to last 75 minutes, and
they'd been at it about 40 minutes. That's quite an agenda for what is on the table here.
I think the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said it extremely well. He said it is a global health threat from the global south that will affect
everybody. So we have to rally to the cause.
He, for example, is trying to start a $2 billion fund for urgent medicines and equipment going into these developing countries. And when you talk
about the lending from the IMF and the World Bank, it's less than $100 billion. To me that seems like small beer, knowing that there's been better
than $4 trillion from the G-7 Plus China going into their economies.
The debt relief, they have about $40 billion on the table. They're looking to freeze that debt for about $15 billion. So again, it's not a lot of
money here. These are small economies, but it is essential for it to happen.
We are talking about 76 countries, it's a quarter of the population. And we've talked about these countries earlier in the week when we raised this
issue, Nigeria and Pakistan, about 400 million people that's bigger than the United States. So you can see the challenge around the corner for a
country that doesn't have the money to inject at this stage.
CHATTERLEY: No, and a lot of these nations as well are big oil exporters, so it's a double whammy of their revenue hit on that side. I can't help but
just put two and two together here and perhaps make five.
But you do have some of the biggest players. The Mike Pompeos, MBS of course from Saudi Arabia. What hopes of perhaps coming to some agreement
here that that could be one thing that could add a little bit of underpinning and support to the fears at this moment?
DEFTERIOS: Well, we're seeing that price war still play out here. Vladimir Putin before the G-20 Summit started said this is not a venue to discuss
the price war. That did not stop Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, he challenged Mohammad bin Salman, saying, look, you're the Crown Prince, a
rising leader in the country, the Chair of the G-20. You kind of need to rise to the occasion here and look at the damage from the price war.
[09:15:19]
DEFTERIOS: And then again, he had a phone call with the Crown Prince here of Abu Dhabi, as you and I've talked about before the UAE was involved in
this price war as well, adding a million barrels a day.
And the problem we have, Julia, they are adding four million barrels a day in April, right? We have demand destruction of 15 million barrels, so we're
looking at nearly 20 percent of global demand collapsing right now.
So even if they had an agreement, I can't see a huge rise in oil prices. But fair point by Pompeo. This is not the time for the price war. Saudi
Arabia and Russia think this is and I'll tell you why. Because there are latest studies that I've looked at here show that U.S. production will drop
about two and a half million barrels between now and in the end of 2021. It takes it just above 10 million barrels a day.
That's what the Saudis want to accomplish right now. Did they pick the right time with a very sensitive coronavirus? That's what Pompeo is
suggesting right now.
And final point here, Julia. I think it's a huge challenge for the G-20. It celebrated its 20th Anniversary last year. Did you hear about it? No,
because it's been sleeping for the last 10 years since the Global Financial Crisis, not helping that the U.S. and China are not on the best of terms.
Donald Trump is not a globalist, and this is a global organization.
CHATTERLEY: Some might be arguing at this point, they've been sleeping for longer, John, but we basically have got a health crisis and economic
crisis, a jobs crisis, and a financial crisis all around the world and yet, ego crisis still rules there it seems.
I said it, not you. John Defterios, thank you so much.
Join us for a CNN Global Town Hall, "Coronavirus: Facts and Fears." Hosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta live at eight o'clock in the
evening in New York, Thursday, four o'clock in the morning Friday in Abu Dhabi, it will replay at 12:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., respectively.
So, if you want to hear from us on all the facts and things to focus on in this virus outbreak, that's where you need to be.
We're going to take a break. Coming up on FIRST MOVE, the U.S. Senate finally approving that $2 trillion stimulus bill. The question is, will it
be enough short term and to kick start a recovery.
Plus, as jobless claims spike in the United States, how the restaurant industry is handling the crisis? That next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. I'll get my teeth in too. Futures are pointing to a lower open this morning after two straight days of gains,
actually look at that.
We've about turned and we're in the green. These markets. Volatility is all I promise you.
We are also digesting the data today, 3.3 million Americans filing unemployment benefit claims in the past week. Top end of expectations. What
scary is still of course is that those claims will surely rise in the coming weeks as we await the impact of the Survival Bill passed by
Congress, feeding in and providing cash support.
In the meantime, yields on short term U.S. debt have fallen into negative territory. This, as all the buying of course and the anticipated buying
from the Federal Reserve kicks in. When price is up, yields down.
Richard Koo is Chief Economist at Nomura Research Institute and joins us now. Richard, fantastic to have you on the show. First, we are already
seeing the economic damage of measures that we are taking deliberately to try and suppress the virus outbreak, but of course, the damage to the
economy now just only beginning to come clear.
RICHARD KOO, CHIEF ECONOMIST, NOMURA RESEARCH INSTITUTE: Yes, yes. Well, this is going to be a very different financial atmosphere for all of us in
this business, in that we were living in a world where there was plenty of money in the financial market and we had plenty of money in the financial
market because we were in the world that is about three months ago until we were in a world where households are deleveraging, companies are
deleveraging, Central Banks are adding money to get the economy to move and inflation rates to go up.
That world loaded with cash was with us for like 12 years, and then once this pandemic hit, everything is turned upside down. Companies need saving
because their revenues are reduced, but you still have to pay the rent and the workers and so forth.
Households also, as our jobless numbers just came out indicate, were also put into a very difficult position. They have to decide. And so the kind of
money that was flooding the financial market is now disappearing, and this is something we never experienced with the last 12 years.
So, I think one of the reasons why both the stock market and the bond market suffered so much in the last two weeks or so, I think comes from
this fundamental shift in the way the money is moving through the financial market.
CHATTERLEY: Either you are famous for your analysis, your work on balance sheet recessions, as you've kind of painted a picture of there, how does a
pandemic recession play out? And you've already hinted at it. And I guess what I'm trying to get to is, what kind of policy response is required and
how what we've seen from the Federal Reserve, and now with the Stimulus Bill in the United States, is that enough in your mind?
KOO: Well, so many experts have said, you know, this depends a lot on the medical outcome. And so I don't think I will be adding much in that
direction, but during the balance sheet recession, the world we lived in for the last 12 months until about January of this year, basically, people
were repairing balance sheets, deleveraging.
And so if you're leveraging, you're not borrowing money, the money you're returning to the banks, you're returning to the lenders. And that's why
interest rates came down to such low levels.
If you look at the flow of funds for the United States, Europe and Japan, the private sector were massive savers, not borrowers, even though we have
interest rates down to zero or negative.
And in that world, the problem was lack of borrower, and so the government had to come in and borrow money to spend to keep the economy going. This is
what Ben Bernanke talked about, and Janet Yellen talked about -- fiscal cliff -- because in a national economy, if someone is saving money or
paying down debt, you have to have someone on the other side borrowing and spending money.
And that's why we needed fiscal policy as the treatment against balance sheet recession. And in this world, monetary policy was not all that
effective because if there are no borrowers, money cannot really leave the financial sector and leave into the real economy.
[09:25:05]
KOO: Now, we are in a different situation. GDP collapsed first. I'm sure if you take a snapshot of GDP now, it is probably down 20 percent to 30
percent; in some parts of the country, it may be down 50 percent because everything is under lockdown.
So now people don't have the revenue, don't have the income to make ends meet, so you need a fiscal policy to put the money into all of these people
that are suffering, and I'm glad that now the U.S. is working on that, Germans and Europeans are also working on it. The Japanese are working on
that as well.
But now the monetary policy becomes a lot more important during the balance sheet recession in that, as I indicated to you at the beginning, financial
market is becoming tighter and tighter as people this day take the money out of the financial market, selling stocks, selling bonds to get the cash
to pay the rent, pay the workers, pay the suppliers and so forth.
In that world, market could tighten very, very quickly. We have already seen that in some out there. Then the Central Bank has to be in there to
provide sufficient liquidity to make sure that at least the government will be able to borrow money at very low rates, and possibly, our private sector
as well.
So in this situation, we need both the fiscal policy and monetary policy, and that's a key difference between the world we live in until about
January of this year.
CHATTERLEY: Richard, you're so incredible at painting the picture and describing the various crises that we're struggling with and explaining why
we have to deal with both monetary and fiscal and in size.
We will get you back to talk about what the recovery could look like. But we'll finish here for now. Fantastic to have you with us, sir. And stay
safe. Richard Koo, Chief Economist at Nomura Research Institute.
KOO: Thank yuou.
CHATTERLEY: The market open is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:08]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE and trading getting underway on Wall Street this morning. You're looking at the New York Stock Exchange, of
course, only electronic trading going on at the moment for safety reasons, of course.
We've got a modestly higher open for stocks. Gee, now, look at that. We're above one percent. This after two-day of gains for the Dow and the S&P,
major volatility, I think is still the name of the game.
We've been seeing concerns for days about what kind of numbers we would see on those unemployment claims today. The first snapshot of what's going on
in the real economy as a result of the measures that we're taking to try and suppress the health crisis and the coronavirus.
The numbers as bad as some of them are more dire forecasts claims as we've been describing, rising by almost 3.3 million people last week. That's an
all-time record. The jump in claims from the week before just staggering.
And that, of course, as we've been arguing, is why that $2 trillion aid package passed in the House, hopefully, and get signed by the President by
this weekend is so critical. And that will hopefully save about more job losses down the line, prevent more job losses.
That said, money probably won't get to needy Americans before April 1st and beyond, and that's when rent and mortgage payments are due.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says money will probably be in accounts by April 6th, so that is good news, if it happens. Richard Quest joins me now.
Richard, you know, you and I battle about these markets, forth and back. I'm still cautious. I think the volatility remains a real concern here. The
hope, of course, is that some of the economic data that we're seeing, the measures that have been put in place will stem those losses eventually, but
it could be a few weeks yet.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: It could, and what I found interesting -- excuse me -- what I found interesting this morning,
Julia, was we knew this number was going to be bad. Some people had even said it. Oxford Economics has said it could be up to four million.
So we were prepared for an awful number, but seeing it and computing it, and then realizing what 3.28 million people means, then you realize the
awfulness of this.
And this is not just in the United States, because if you think of the countries that have now shut shop, the United Kingdom, France, Spain,
Germany, the whole swathe of the E.U., you now realize that we're talking tens of millions of people who are today out of work, hoping to rely on
some form of government support, which may or may not do the trick.
And Julia, you know, what's very clear today by that number is that the importance in the $2 trillion package is the long-term unemployment
benefit.
Many of these people will not be able to get jobs again in the short term, maybe even the medium term. That money will keep, thank God, them and their
families afloat.
CHATTERLEY: I know, it's so critical. Now, the good news or perhaps the bad news here, Richard, is that the G-20 is meeting on the phone, riding to
the rescue like the Charge of the Light Brigade minus the horses and the lights are switched off. What good can they do, Richard? Tell me.
QUEST: Oh.
CHATTERLEY: Oh, dear, someone show me his face.
QUEST: I have -- the G-20 is -- besides those two meetings, one in London in 2008-2009 and one in Washington -- outside Washington in 2009. Besides
then, the G-20 at the executive level, the chief executive level, leadership level is the biggest waste of time that I think I've ever had
the misfortune to have to cover.
First of all, the Fin Mins, say a significant downturn in the economy. Now, we have an hour long meeting. Look, this is not a time for the G-20.
They've got no role to play except maybe -- maybe -- minor coordination of secondary policies.
Their ability to coordinate -- I've always said you've started me now, Julia, be prepared for this. How can you have any meaningful organization
that has sitting at the table countries as disparate as the U.S., China, Russia, Saudi, the European Union, and Australia. They've got too many
different policies within them.
So I have absolutely zero confidence that the G-20 will do anything more than rack up a phone bill.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I wish I could argue with you, Richard, but I can't. I am always prepared for you. However, I do love your sighing on my show.
Good for the business community though because the business community is stepping up where national leaders can't coordinate on an individual level,
never mind anybody else, but I am getting told off I have to finish. Richard, a pleasure.
[09:35:10]
CHATTERLEY: Always. Richard Quest there.
All right, U.S. restaurant operators say the pandemic could cost as many as seven million jobs in their industry, at least 40 states have banned eating
in restaurants. The U.S. has more than one million restaurants with over 15 million staff.
Executives from the fast food sector recently spoke with President Trump discussing food delivery, and drive-thru services and essential, of course,
for getting food to people.
Joining us now, CEO of Restaurant Brands International, Jose Cil, the company owns Burger King, Popeye's and Tim Hortons. Sir, fantastic to have
you with us. Thank you so much.
I know you're part of a critical effort of getting food to people and relieving some of the burden on grocery stores. Just tell me first what
you're seeing and what you're doing among your franchisees and the businesses of course that you operate on measures to protect workers
hereto?
JOSE CIL, CEO, RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL: Hi, Julia, thanks for having me. It's been an incredible effort on the part of our franchise
owners here in the U.S., in Canada and all around the world to try to address a need in each of the communities in which they operate in a very
difficult time.
So over the last few weeks, we've been working with the Federal government here in the U.S. and in Canada, with state officials as well as local
officials to really ensure everyone understands the critical role that we play, that restaurants play in in this time of need.
It's an essential service, drive-thru, delivery, mobile order, pay and pick up and we've implemented contactless or very low contact procedures to
ensure that the process takes advantage of all the technology that we have and to ensure that there's minimum contact, if any, as the food is
prepared, as well as handed over to consumers whether he gets it through delivery or through the drive-thru.
So it's been an incredible effort on the part of our owners, as well as a part of our teams and the restaurants, and I couldn't be prouder of our
organization of franchisees for Burger King, Popeye's and Tim Hortons in the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands actually in the
U.S. of employees that we have that are in the front line every day.
CHATTERLEY: Absolutely. What does it mean in terms of employee numbers? Because, as you pointed out, these are ramping up takeaway deliveries, but
at the same time, in many cases, in this country and beyond, you simply can't go and sit in restaurants. So that reduces that demand for workers.
Are people going to lose their jobs? And what do you make of the support coming in now from U.S. Congress, because the hope is that it will prevent
those losses of course.
CIL: Yes, that's why it's so important to be able to work with the Federal government and see the progress we made in Washington on this kind of mind
boggling, and first of its kind of bill, and someone referred to it as a wartime type of bill that addresses very importantly employees and hourly
employees and folks, that have potentially lost their jobs.
And obviously, with the new numbers that we've seen, there's been millions of folks that have lost their jobs, and so the unemployment insurance is
really critical at this moment.
And then also, at the same time providing liquidity and financing, much needed financing to restaurant operators, small businesses that employs so
many thousands of employees all around the country.
And so that the combination of the bill around relief and stimulus, we think was critical. And we applaud Washington for moving quickly to address
it.'
The sooner those funds get into the hands of our population as well as the proceeds of these financing arrangements get to the small business owners,
the quicker we'll be able to address the needs of both the consumers as well as the employees.
CHATTERLEY: I think, also the world is watching what happens in China, how successfully they managed to reopen the economy but also how customers
behave, whether they're willing to go into restaurants and stores again and be around people. What are you seeing there?
CIL: Yes, we're very encouraged by what we're seeing in China and South Korea. I think our business partners there, our franchisees for Burger King
and Tim Hortons, and soon Popeye's in China have been working really hard to get back into a groove, if you will, from a business standpoint, and
consumers are coming out. They're coming to the restaurants, the delivery continues to be a really strong part of the business.
And that the dine-in business is picking up as well. So we're really excited and optimistic long term, with the business coming back. And we
work really hard every day to ensure that we're delivering a really safe experience in a restaurant with great tasting food.
And our team members in China and South Korea are giving us hope and optimism that this road to recovery will be one that will be right in front
of us really soon.
CHATTERLEY: It is encouraging news and I'm very glad to hear it. One more quick question, there is obviously the debate here about whether we can
achieve a staggered reopening of the U.S. economy in some way. What's your view here?
[09:40:09]
CHATTERLEY: Should health and getting in control of this virus outbreak be the priority? And does it -- should it be the priority for perhaps the
economy here?
CIL: For us as a business and having so many employees and guests that interact with us on a daily basis across the country with our three brands,
the health and wellbeing of our employees and our guests has been number one priority and continues to be a number one priority that we've put in
procedures, hygiene procedures for hand washing and sanitizing at the restaurants to ensure that everything we do is safe and in the best
condition for our employees and for our guests.
And so I think that remains a priority and we will work with the local authorities and Federal authorities to move as quickly as we can. But our
focus continues to be and will always be on the health and wellbeing of our team members and our guests.
CHATTERLEY: It makes perfect sense to me, and I just want to say we don't have time to discuss it, but I know you announced you're giving away
200,000 free school meals for children if they are ordering via the app.
So I just wanted to thank you for that because we obviously have lots of children who get food at school and quite simply aren't doing that now. So,
sir, thank you for your efforts to help in this environment.
CIL: Thank you for recognizing that. Thanks so much for having me on.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you, sir. Great to have you with us. All right. Still to come on FIRST MOVE. What can we take from treating Ebola that could be
applied to the coronavirus outbreak? One company hoping past experience mixed with a lot of innovation can help us at this moment. That's next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. In time of crisis, innovation is often key to turning the tide.
Regeneron is a company with a proven track record in developing a treatment for Ebola. It is now trying to use past experience to discover new
therapeutic antibodies to treat coronavirus patients and to protect people not yet exposed to it.
[09:45:10]
CHATTERLEY: I'm very excited to introduce Dr. George Yancopoulos. He is the President and Chief Science Officer at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Dr.
Yancopoulos, fantastic to have you with us.
Dr. Fauci who has become I think a household name now around the world has said that having an active vaccine could be one to two years away. What can
you tell me about potential vaccine substitutes? Because I know this is part of the work that you guys are furiously focused on at this moment.
DR. GEORGE YANCOPOULOS, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS: Exactly, Julia. We're trying to come up with things that
could help in the near term until these very important vaccines are produced and proven safe and effective. And we can actually -- we've shown
in the case of Ebola and in other settings that we can create a near term vaccine substitute, a vaccine generates an immune response in the body to
fight and protect against the virus.
Well, we can literally create that that vaccine response, the immune response outside of the body, we have a special technology that we've
developed over many years to be able to do this, we can grow this vaccine type of a response, the immune response outside of the body. These are
called antibodies.
We can grow them in large bio reactors and then inject them back into people. It's what's called a passive vaccine. It's not quite as good as an
active vaccine in that it doesn't result in lifetime immunity, but it can last for months and protect critical for example, healthcare workers or
people at high risk like children with cystic fibrosis or the elderly and so forth. So it could really make an impact to help some of the people that
we most need to protect against the virus.
So that's one of the near term approaches that we have. We've been doing it in record time. It's the same thing that we did with Ebola there. We got it
into patients within about nine months. For this crisis, our team is looking to have this in patients by this June, which would be five to six
months, it would really be a world record in terms of getting anything like this into patients.
And it could really provide protection, and maybe even treatment for certain patients, and that's one of our two near term approaches that can
maybe change the course of the impact of this devastating crisis until we can get the active vaccines on board.
CHATTERLEY: This is incredible, so you're saying you could actually be implementing this by around June of this year. I want to just ask you as
well, because there are a lot of fears that when we get to the fall, we could see a resurgence of cases, but in a mutated form.
So is there a way perhaps of combining antibodies so that there's one vaccine substitute that you use that could even protect against a
resurgence of something that comes back in, even if it's mutated?
YANCOPOULOS: You're absolutely right. That's a real concern. So we create what's called an antibody cocktail. It's a collection of at least two
antibodies, and they are selected so that they work against all the known variants and mutants, and it could protect, hopefully, even against general
variants that we might have.
It's not a guarantee, there's always a concern. But the hope is exactly as you said, if we get this into patients, and if we can test it by the end of
the summer, beginning of fall, there might be an effective way to protect people, at least some of the most critical people that we need to be
protecting in an effective way using this vaccine substitute.
CHATTERLEY: One of the other things I know that you're working on as well, and I think we've often read about it, and it makes us all afraid is this
overactive inflammatory response that we see in the lungs and that overwhelms the patients and often, we see them dying as a result.
Talk to me about Kevzara, because I know this is something that you're wondering whether in testing, whether it could perhaps be used to prevent
that. The key being then maybe we need less ventilators if you can prevent that response. Where are you with that?
YANCOPOULOS: As you say, I mean, one of the reasons why this crisis is so devastating is because even if it's only a small percentage of the people,
that's a huge number of people coming in and needing intensive care treatment, meaning ventilators and the healthcare system is not really
designed for them and that's causing a lot of the fear and the devastation.
And what happened was when this was happening in China, just like we are now, they were desperate to do anything, and so they tried a -- because
like you said, they thought that the lung problem might not be caused by the virus itself, but the body's overreaction, excessive inflammation in
response to it.
They tried a drug that was developed by a Japanese company called Suga that was blocking the certain kinds of inflammation that they were seeing in the
lung, because this was inflammation that was related to what you see in rheumatoid arthritis.
[09:50:08]
YANCOPOULOS: And they reported stunning results, but in an uncontrolled fashion, what you call anecdotes, it was not placebo controlled.
But the results were very, very promising, and that got a lot of people excited, because it could change how we deal with this devastating disease.
And so in the United States, it turns out that we have the only other drug that is related to this drug that was tried in China. It is very closely
related and approved also for rheumatoid arthritis. It works almost by the same exact mechanism.
So everybody got together. The F.D.A., they want to know. They don't want thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, even millions of
people treated by something that might work. It could also maybe do harm. Until you study it, you don't really know.
So, the head of the F.D.A., the head of the F.D.A. Drug Division, everybody got together. B.A.R.D.A., the Governor of New York State was very
interested, everybody got together to try to help us to get a clinical study going, and unbelievably in record time, we got a study going.
We initiated it last week. We've already treated about a hundred patients and we hope that within a few weeks, to maybe a month or two, we will have
a definitive answer. We will know whether this class of drugs in our drug, Kevzara, in particular, can really impact the devastating lung problems
that people get with the coronavirus.
And if it does, and I mean, it's still a big if, but if it does in this well controlled study, it could really change the course of history here.
CHATTERLEY: Wow. I mean, the ringing in my ears is Governor Cuomo's ventilators, ventilators, ventilators and the fact that we simply don't
have enough.
I know it's wrong to ask you this question because you need statistical significance. I know to understand enough about statistics to know that,
but is what you're seeing at this stage encouraging?
YANCOPOULOS: Well, the reason we're doing it is because the stories coming out of China were very encouraging, and we also have increasing what they
call anecdotal reports. Physicians using this drug and claiming that it's really helping people. That's why we're trying it. We're very hopeful.
But until you have the definitive study, you don't know for sure. But like you said, Governor Cuomo and his New York State Health Commissioner, Howard
Zucker, they were on this way before other people were and they said, wow, we are going to have a devastation here. We may not be able to deal with
the need for ventilators and hospital support.
And that's why from the very beginning, they joined with us as did the Federal government, as did the F.D.A., as did B.A.R.D.A., everybody says,
we have to test this. We have to know if it really is going to make a difference and change the course of how this disease is devastating us.
CHATTERLEY: I know. You guys are heroes. Thank you so much. And you know, I have to say this is a war and I do believe that Governor Cuomo is the
best general we've got right now, so it's very encouraging to hear.
Sir, thank you and thank you to your team, too. It's phenomenal work.
YANCOPOULOS: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you.
YANCOPOULOS: Thank you. Appreciate it.
CHATTERLEY: Dr. George Yancopoulos there. Fantastic. We're back after this. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:55:15]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE with a final check of what we're seeing for stock market action and all three major averages are firmly in
positive territory.
At this moment, all sectors as you can see higher, looking at the Dow 30 as well, we've got, yes, most stocks there higher. Boeing, in fact posting the
best gains. The cavalry has arrived in the form of this stimulus, I think, which is permeating these markets.
We were volatile, though, and I think we will continue to be volatile. We also have that weak U.S. unemployment number. The claims numbers rising by
some 3.3 or just shy of -- claims in the last week, an all-time record.
Let's get that stimulus flowing. That's the message of the day.
That's it for the show. You've been watching FIRST MOVE. Take care of yourselves and each other. We'll see you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
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