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First Move with Julia Chatterley
Jay Powell And Stephen Mnuchin On Capitol Hill Testifying Today; President Trump Threatens To Permanently Pull Funding From WHO; Sampling For Coronavirus In Your Own Home. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired May 19, 2020 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:03]
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Live from New York, I'm Julia Chatterley. This is FIRST MOVE and here is your need to know.
State of the stimulus. Jay Powell and Stephen Mnuchin on Capitol Hill testifying today.
WHO pays? President Trump threatens to permanently pull funding.
And put to the test. Sampling for coronavirus in your own home.
It's Tuesday. Let's make some move.
A warm welcome once again to FIRST MOVE this Tuesday. Great to be with you for another show focused on stimulus, and on science.
Wall Street was temporarily blinded by science yesterday, on hopes of a future vaccine, we all hope. And we've got Jay Powell and Treasury
Secretary Mnuchin on Capitol Hill today discussing their stimulus efforts so far.
On Monday, well, we had the best rally for the major averages in weeks as hopes of a return to normal life one day lifted stocks. There's clearly
been incredible progress towards the vaccine in a short amount of time, but there's no easy cure for the economic damage already done, and the
challenges we face in terms of recovery over the next few months.
Futures right now are mixed. We've got a whole host of retail earnings today including Home Depot, Walmart. Huge e-commerce gains for Walmart, as
you would expect, but of course, no clarity on the future from either of these players. All the details that coming up shortly, as Jay Powell said
over the weekend, and I will reiterate, I think today the recovery will simply take time.
Even if stock market levels don't reflect that you have to look beneath the surface because the stories there, winners, like Amazon may be up 30
percent year-to-date, but then take a look at the S&P energy sector that's tumbled over -- what -- 35 percent since January.
The banking sector is down more than 17 percent. The banking sector arguably, a better reflection of the economic and the consumer risks.
And we can expect Jay Powell to reiterate those risks again today. Christine Romans joins me now.
Christine, great to have you with us. We've got a choice of the science or the stimulus. Let's talk about the stimulus because that's going to be
poured over on Capitol Hill today.
We've got Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Jay Powell of course, too, together working very hard.
But I think one thinks perhaps the other could do more.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know, I think that's Jay Powell who is going to talk a little bit about
the pain and suffering of American workers who put their lives and livelihoods on pause, and he is going to say it's in his prepared remarks
that we need to do everything we can to support the solvency of those families.
And then you'll have the Treasury Secretary defending parts of this stimulus, you know, this is really going to be the first look at this $2.2
trillion, a huge amount of money.
Remember, this was direct stimulus payments. It was small business lending. It was supposed to be state loan local lending and a Federal Reserve
lending facility for Main Street that hasn't really gotten off the ground yet.
So, I think when you look at the PPP, that small biz lending, when you look at the Main Street initiatives here, that that lending facility, you're
going to see some scrutiny from the senators about what has been done and whether it's gotten out the door quickly enough.
CHATTERLEY: Got out the door quickly enough, and is it favoring some of the big corporations that still have access to money versus struggling to get
it to the smaller businesses that to your point of perhaps struggled the most, and the jobs market or the lack of jobs here, reflect that?
ROMANS: I think that, you know, we can give them a little bit of grace, the people who have designed all this because when have we ever put $2 trillion
out the door so quickly? I mean, this is just something that has never happened before.
But what you're starting to see now is scrutiny over how some of these programs were worded and designed, and also about just whether the money is
working.
For example, state and local governments. You know, we are already talking about the need for maybe more for them, they've seen their revenues crater.
You've already seen hundreds of thousands of jobs lost on the state and local government level, but some of that money hasn't even gone out the
door yet, some of the lending facilities that have already been designed are not working at maximum capacity yet.
So, I think you'll have senators really zero in on things like that.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. I couldn't agree more, just playing devil's advocate. Monetary policy works way quicker than fiscal policy when you're talking
about this kind of stimulus and getting cash into people's hands. It just takes time.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: In the interim, as Jay Powell said at the weekend as well, full recovery will likely take a vaccine. There were hopes that we saw in from
investors in the stock market yesterday, but my point here is even a vaccine isn't a cure for the damage that's already been done and the months
of continued damage while we wait to see what the new normal looks like until we see recovery.
ROMANS: I think you're so right, and look, when you get a vaccine, right, that is approved and safe and we know -- how quickly can you scale up that
vaccine? You know, is that something that goes to first responders first? Hospital workers first? And then it's something that's rolled out for
everybody later.
So there's still time. I mean, you can't really rush that. As much as you want to put it on warp speed, and it's right to do so, we need to be
realistic about that timing.
In terms of the damage that's already happened, I mean, the restaurant industry, in particular, the retail industry. I think these are going to
look different and certainly the airline industry are going to look different in the new normal.
Even after there is a vaccine, I think people are going to be a little more cautious about group setting activities and close quarters activities,
that's going to take transformation spending for some of these businesses, as they redesign how they interact with consumers.
All of that is still more investment that has to come, you know, down the pipeline here for survival for some of these industries. I think we're in
the early innings of this.
[09:05:50]
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I couldn't agree more, and I think Jay Powell was perhaps optimistic when he said recovery by end of 2021, but I hope I'm proved
wrong. Christine Romans --
ROMANS: I hope he's right.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Thank you so much for that.
Now, a resolution calling for a global investigation into the pandemic response has been adopted at the World Health Assembly.
Meanwhile, President Trump is threatening to permanently pull funding from the World Health Organization. In a letter to the WHO Director General, the
President said, quote, "It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for
the world."
Senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns is here. Joe, great to have you with us. I think many nations around the world want an investigation into
the handling of this, to the handling of information, but the consideration -- the idea that you pull funding from this body at this moment in the
middle of a pandemic, still jarring.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. The President made clear in his letter that he thought he was protecting the taxpayers of the
United States. But at the end of the day, the question is whether this could in fact do more harm than good.
This letter the President sent out is scathing in many ways. It attacks the World Health Organization, essentially for the behavior of China for the
World Health Organization's fawning deference, if you will, to China in the early days of the pandemic.
Also important to say, the President himself was fawning in deferential to China in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as it sort of broke
out and began there in Wuhan.
Now, the President's letter also indicates that he expects to pull funding and make it permanent from the World Health Organization in 30 days, if
certain unspecified substantial changes are not made at the World Health Organization and has also suggested that the United States might withdraw
his membership from WHO entirely.
Again, perhaps a big problem potentially for the United States simply because we know that the World Health Organization, in all likelihood is
going to be involved in the development of effective treatments and/or a vaccine possibly in the future, and the United States could find itself on
the outside of the organization looking in, which is not necessarily a good place to be.
There are a lot of critics, especially up on Capitol Hill here who have said this is the wrong time to do this. It's the wrong idea -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Questions need to be asked, but is pulling money the right response at this moment? Joe, there were a couple of things yesterday that
I think were eye opening and more eye opening even than usual.
There were questions being asked about the firing of a State Department Inspector General that was looking into the behavior of Mike Pompeo. Then
the President announced that he is personally taking hydroxychloroquine and the nation went wild wondering what on Earth was going on.
Talk to us about the interplay, let's call it of these two things.
JOHNS: Right. Well, we have enormous distractions, and this is one of the things that happens in Washington, D.C. That Inspector General situation,
by the way, not the first Inspector General to be removed from office here in Washington, D.C.
The President does not like being investigated. He doesn't like having his people investigated. This is just one more sign of that.
And then the President moves to announce to the media that he himself is taking hydroxychloroquine which is an unproven drug that is commonly used
for malaria.
I've taken it myself for malaria on travel, but he says it's possible treatment for coronavirus and the test simply so far, don't bear that out.
There is even information that in some cases, it creates heart arrhythmias, a huge problem for a person certainly with any type of heart problems.
[10:10:08]
JOHNS: So, it's created quite a stir in Washington and in fact, though, if this were this business about hydroxychloroquine were to be a distraction
from anything, I think, the thing this administration would mostly like to distract from is the enormous numbers of deaths in coronavirus, people
getting the illness here in the United States, over 90,000 deaths.
It's an enormous problem here, the worst in the world, and that is something the administration is having a hard time dealing with, at least
right now -- Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, Enormous distractions. Delicately put. Joe Johns, thank you so much for that.
All right now, to a stockpile of retail news. Walmart stocks surging premarket after panic buying in the United States gave it one of its best
quarters in decades.
We've also heard from Home Depot, among others. Clare Sebastian joins us on this.
Walmart -- let's focus on that one. Dramatic rise in e-commerce sales as you would expect.
What was interesting to me though, was six percent fewer transactions, but the average receipt size soared.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, people are shopping less, Julia, but they are spending more when they go. I think you can understand
people. People don't want to leave the house if they don't need to.
But this was a really impressive quarter from Walmart given the challenges and really vindicates the investments that they've been making in e-
commerce.
This encompasses not just delivery of course, but buy online pick up in store and they've been able to sort of leverage that strategy, but also the
huge footprint of stores that are now doing fulfillment from 2,500 stores.
They've launched express delivery where people can get something in under two hours. All of this, you know, could give them the edge as they go head-
to-head with Amazon.
But of course, there were huge challenges. One of them was volatility. They just couldn't predict which items were going to be stockpiled from one week
to the next.
It started, as we know with things like paper products, cleaning products, then it shifted, they said, into educational supplies, home improvement
items, adult bicycles apparently sold out at one point.
And interestingly, they saw a little dip in the first part of April, but then it picked up as stimulus checks started coming in and they saw a rise
in discretionary items, things like toys and apparel picked up in the second half of April.
But Julia, given all of that, given that a lot of this stuff is lower value items that did put pressure on their margins, and given the volatility that
they expect to see continue, they have withdrawn their guidance for the second quarter.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, lack of clarity for all of these companies. But to your point as well about margins and cost, I mean, they hired -- what -- 200,000
workers to help deal with the scale up in demand.
We know just simply having workers in buildings, in warehouses for these retailers was a challenge for safety. What has it done to their cost
levels?
SEBASTIAN: It's been a big hit to cost. They incurred more than $900 million in costs related to COVID-19, Julia. About three quarters of that
came from bonuses and benefits that were paid to hourly workers through the quarter. So, that was a major hit, and they do expect that to continue.
They've already announced that they're going to pay another special bonus to hourly workers in the second quarter. That's already about a third of
the total cost that we've seen in the first quarter.
So the CFO on the call, which was live fairly unusually for Walmart this morning, he said that he wouldn't be surprised if they see the same level
of cost in the second quarter that they saw in the first.
But having said that, he says the company has a strong financial position. They have good access to capital markets. They are in a position to weather
this, but they simply don't know how it's going to go, how long the stimulus is going to last, how people are going to react when lock downs
lift, and all of that just like every company.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for that update there.
To France now with the CEO of Pharma giant, Sanofi is meeting with President Macron over a row over the COVID-19 vaccine that the company is
working on.
Paul Hudson was summoned by the President for suggesting the United States could get priority access.
Melissa Bell joins us on this. Let's be clear, Melissa, the United States paid for initial funding. But there's an awkward mix of business and
politics here when you're talking about a vaccine to potentially save lives.
The company walked it back. What's the discussion on today?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you're quite right. They did walk it back saying that, in fact, they've been talking about vaccines that
would be created in the United States.
But I think what is so interesting about this story, Julia, is the hackles that have been raised here in Europe, how sharply, how fast they were
raised, once that interview got out.
And I think that touches on this sore spot that is that the Europeans have really struggled together a coherent response.
And in that clarification that you mentioned from Sanofi, they clearly say look, we were able to negotiate this initial funding for the vaccine
research with the United States because they had a biomedical authority with which we could do that.
Ongoing discussions continue with the French, but you can see that on the European side, they really failed to find the kind of partner they might
have found -- that they did find on the American side.
[09:15:12]
BELL: But you can understand hackles being raised here. The Europeans point out that this is a company that's benefited from tens of millions of French
tax credits, but then there is of course, that soft spot and I think that's going to be what's at the heart of that conversation going on at the Elysee
today.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, you make such a great point here. For a company that has to initially get money in the beginning to even begin the research, then
you have to try and find a production partner, is there a reticence to perhaps do go to an American partner or a country, a different country, a
company in a different country, because you have that risk then that there's going to be a battle between governments over who gets what
vaccines when.
I'm getting so excited, my words are not coming out properly, but you understand my point and the challenge here.
BELL: This is exactly at the heart of what Sanofi is answering back, saying, look, this kind of research takes state funds. They took them where
they could. This is an urgency. Look at how keenly the world is waiting for this vaccine.
And then the final interesting point in this, Julia, is that the particular vaccine we're talking about, should it be proven to work won't even be
available until the second half of 2021.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, why we need a global solution to this and the globe should be working together. Melissa Bell, I have my teeth back in now. Great to
have you with us. We'll watch to see what comes of that meeting. Thank you so much for that.
All right, we're going to take a break here on FIRST MOVE. Still to come, stay-at-home testing. The U.S. approves the first COVID-19 test that lets
you collect your own swab. We speak to the CEO of the makers, Everlywell.
And from the House of Mouse to TikTok, a Disney veteran taking charge the app that's getting Gen Z ready through the pandemic, and some others. Stay
with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE live from New York and it's a moderately slow start for stocks this morning following bumper gains
yesterday as we await congressional testimony from Fed Chair Jay Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
It's a mixed picture premarket for retail, too. As we were discussing earlier, both Walmart and Home Depot withdrawing their 2020 guidance.
Walmart clearly the outperformer there.
Meanwhile, Moderna shares are lower premarket after their almost 20 percent rally yesterday. That's the company of course working -- one of those
companies working on a COVID-19 vaccine.
Moderna announcing that it has attempted to raise more than $1 billion in the new stock offering to help fund research.
[09:20:38]
CHATTERLEY: Sticking with science, on to a groundbreaking development on COVID-19 testing. U.S. health authorities have approved the first test kit
to allow users to take a swab sample at home and then send it off for testing and diagnosis.
It's made by health startup, Everlywell. Everlywell works with two labs at the moment, but under the approval, it can expand that network.
Joining us now is Julia Cheek, CEO of Everlywell. Julia, fantastic to have you back on the show with us. I remember when we were discussing this,
right at the heart of the outbreak in New York and the benefits this would provide. Congratulations on the F.D.A. approval. Now what?
JULIA CHEEK, CEO, EVERLYWELL: Thank you, and thanks for having me back.
Again, we are really thrilled to be able to help in the course of this pandemic and expand for Americans at home collection testing, and this kit
will be available for individuals and organizations later this month.
So, we're working hard to get it commercialized, and then to of course, as you mentioned add additional authorized labs to the F.D.A. and creating a
framework that's really scalable for expanding capacity in this country.
CHATTERLEY: When we spoke to you last, it was purely for healthcare workers. One of the key points that I think you're making here is that this
is now for anybody. If they want to do an at-home test, they can get one of these kits. They can send back the samples to a lab and they can find out
what's going on. It's that mainstream access now that we're looking at.
CHEEK: Absolutely, and I think the F.D.A., since the beginning has said that they were highly supportive of at-home testing for individuals upon
making sure that it was safe and accurate for individuals to do so.
The test does include an online screening questionnaire and an independent physician network review, an approval, as well as diagnosis from that
independent physician network.
So while it is available, broadly, there will be a screening questionnaire that follows C.D.C. guidelines and there is also treatment and follow up
with a physician, as well as reporting to public agencies.
So, it is not just the ability to have a kit and have no follow up from that and I think that is a really important part of the process as well
that allows you to not only be tested in the home, but then be able to have next steps as well.
CHATTERLEY: This is a very specific emergency use authorization that you've been given. The regulators have had to tailor it to meet your needs and to
be able, as we just mentioned, to scale up in terms of diagnoses labs.
Just give me a sense of how unique this is, and what production you can do and diagnosis you can do today and then what the potential capacity is.
CHEEK: Absolutely. I think this is a very unique and innovative situation, and we really appreciate the close partnership and guidance from the
F.D.A., because Everlywell is a digital health company that provides individuals with access to high quality lab testing, but we ourselves are
not a laboratory, and we are also not a medical provider.
And so when you think about the regulatory pathways for COVID-19 testing under the emergency use authorization framework, it didn't necessarily
incorporate a company like ours, and we're really appreciative of the innovative approach to have an umbrella for a collection kit that can then
be used with multiple authorized labs.
But it is specific to labs that are authorized for the Everlywell at-home collection kit and then it is also specific to a short nasal swab collected
by an individual and then transported in plain saline.
CHATTERLEY: This is one of the things that we were discussing with you two, three months ago -- it was simple supplies of things like swabs.
There were these rather uncomfortable longer swabs where there were supply shortages, and you just mentioned a shorter swab thereto. Talk to me about
supplies and even how just little things like the swab and how uncomfortable this test has evolved over the last couple of months.
CHEEK: Right. So, we've been talking I think over the course of the pandemic about all of the different pieces of the medical testing supply
chain and various limitations at different points over this, like the last couple of months and I think that the nasopharyngeal swabs which were the
very long swabs used to be in shortage and I think they still are.
And now you're seeing that migrate to everything from saliva tubes to the shorter swabs.
And, you know, I think as different collection methods are validated and approved by the F.D.A., you'll see that continue to be the case.
[09:25:21]
CHEEK: But the more collection methods are accurate or authorized, the more we can free up that supply chain. And in the case of our particular test
kit, the short nasal swab is in what's called an interior nares swab. So, it is really just the base of your nostril and so it is not painful, and it
is easy to collect a high quality sample and the F.D.A. observed multiple studies from different groups that submitted self-sampling and showed it to
be just as accurate as a clinical setting and then of course, painless.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, because this is the key. If you're doing it yourself and it has to be something that it's not too uncomfortable that perhaps you
risk not getting the right swab.
CHEEK: Exactly.
CHATTERLEY: Julia, I know when we originally spoke as well, you were talking about this test kit being around $135.00. You've managed to bring
that down to just above $100.00.
But you know, a lot of people now can go to the doctor and say, look, I think I'm sick. I need a test. And they can get it for free.
Are you speaking to lawmakers about how you can get funding in order to make this free and available to people, too? That should be part of the
battle, surely.
CHEEK: So Everlywell made a commitment from the beginning that this test would be offered at no profit, and we have been able to actually bring the
price down by reducing costs with our partners to your point to $109.00.
We are working with Congress to understand how we may be able to qualify for funding. Congress has passed legislation that makes insurance providers
mandated to cover the costs of COVID-19 testing, but it does not cover companies like Everlywell, that are not a medical provider and not a
diagnostics laboratory.
It also doesn't cover things like shipping costs et cetera which in the case of getting widespread testing, shipping costs are actually a very
large part of our cost.
And so we are working with them on how we might be able to benefit because we strongly believe that this testing should be available for free and
we'll continue to do that such that it's not just at no cost and no profit to Everlywell, but it's actually free for the individual as well.
CHATTERLEY: And just to remind us, as well, once you've done the swab samples, you've sent them back. Time to diagnosis, how long does that take?
CHEEK: So, the shipping is overnight and it is really essential that the individual ships the sample in the same day that it's collected.
The F.D.A. reviewed transport instability studies from multiple sources showing that saliva -- sorry -- showing that the short nasal swab in saline
was stable across multiple temperatures and for several days.
However, the user has to be diligent about that as well, which is something that we've put in place in our process.
And once it is received at the lab, it is 24 to 48 hours. Guaranteed. And so you have your results.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. It's brilliant. It's what the future should look like all around the world.
Julia, I know you've been working 24/7 for several months to get this up in play. So, thank you so much for joining us again.
Good luck and I know it launches next week so people can go to the website if they are feeling unwell and need help in the United States.
Julia, great to have you with us.
CHEEK: Thank you, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Stay safe. Thank you. Julia Cheek there, CEO of Everlywell. Part of science.
Stay with us. The opening bell is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:31:35]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. I'm Julia Chatterley and we have U.S. stock markets up and running today.
We're pulling back a little bit here. Some consolidation let's call it that after Monday's big rally on hopes of a future COVID-19 vaccine.
Now, as economies around the world begin the process of getting back to normal, we're seeing a little bit more oil demand out there, too. That's
helped push U.S. crude to above $30.00 a barrel.
A big turnaround of course, if you remember this time last month, it feels like years, but this was when futures took that historic plunge to trade
below zero dollars a barrel.
So, producers were being forced to pay those that were buying the oil in order to take it off their hands. Well, a very different story today.
In the meantime, the New York Stock Exchange trade floor partially reopening next week. It's been shut for the past eight weeks. The President
of the NYSE told CNN's Erin Burnett, that things will look a lot different than before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STACEY CUNNINGHAM, PRESIDENT, NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE: One of the things that drove to our timing to reopen is what we've learned over the past few
weeks and about layers of protection.
It's also clear that this pandemic is going to be with us for a while. We're not close to having -- although closer today, but we're still working
on a vaccine. And until we have a vaccine, we know we're going to be living with this.
So, the plans that we have in place are not designed to prevent a single case, they're designed to prevent an outbreak, so that we don't have
multiple cases in one place.
So, it's really about layering protections. We have temperature screening for everyone coming in the building. Everyone will be wearing a mask on the
trading floor. We've implemented social distancing, created restrictions around interactions, whether they be on people's way to work or as well in
food, its areas and how we will be approaching each day.
All of those things together are part of the solution to limit the likelihood of an outbreak. Everyone is going to leave the trading floor at
the end of the day. So, it's impossible to limit a single case.
We want to prevent any single case that comes into the building from spreading to many.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Layered protections, the new normal. Now on this show, we've seen how big data and artificial intelligence can go hand in hand to track
coronavirus outbreaks around the world.
Well, BlueDot is a tech company that leverages data, artificial intelligence and travel tracking to generate early warnings about
infectious diseases.
The man behind the company says working as a medic during the Toronto SARS outbreak in 2003 motivated him to look for solutions.
BlueDot says it spotted coronavirus in Wuhan last December and its algorithms predicted where the virus might go next, both regionally.
And by tracking flights to destinations around the world, it calculated which cities were most at risk.
It's fascinating. Kamran Khan is the founder and CEO of BlueDot. He is also a Professor of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto, and
a practicing Infectious Disease physician.
Sir, great to have you on the show. Thank you so much for this. As I kind of make clear there, this has been a 17-year journey for you that led to
several years ago you founding BlueDot. Just describe your experience and what made you realize more needed to be done.
KAMRAN KHAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, BLUEDOT: Well, thanks for having me on the show and yes, the story really goes back 17 years. You may remember in 2003
we had the SARS outbreak. I was just beginning my career as, you know, practicing infectious disease physician and this virus nobody had ever seen
or heard of before, showed up in our city, overwhelmed our hospitals, our public health system.
[09:35:18]
KHAN: You know, a number of frontline healthcare workers died in that outbreak.
What was so clear is that diseases spread really quickly and that if we want to stay a step ahead, we're going to have to move even more quickly.
CHATTERLEY: So, you recognized that it could be sort of a catastrophe actually trying to deal with this even a microcosm, nothing like what we've
seen today, but it led you to say, okay, we can tackle this better. BlueDot. Explain how that works.
KHAN: Yes, well, briefly, you know, as you've highlighted, the recognition is that the world is changing quickly and we have a lot of the raw
ingredients we need to be able to tackle this type of threat.
Growing access to data, advanced analytics, digital technologies that can literally spread knowledge around the world faster than any outbreak.
That was really the motivation and inspiration for BlueDot. We are a digital health company, a diverse group of, you know, veterinarians,
physicians, data scientists, engineers, software developers, designers. We are all working collectively to build what we call a digital global early
warning system for infectious diseases.
CHATTERLEY: I wanted to talk about what you've done as well, but there was something very interesting that you just said there, about how diverse your
team is.
Because when we ask questions about the origin of this virus, when we try and check the path around the world how it is spreading, your diverse group
of people that are working on this, perhaps gives you an advantage at this moment as well.
KHAN: One of the things I've really learned is that this is a very complex problem. You know, one moment you're thinking about Zika virus, and then
you have to think about the biology of mosquito and temperature and other factors, and then you're dealing with, you know, Ebola, which is completely
different. And then of course, COVID-19 is completely different.
You really need a diverse set of not only data, but you need a diverse set of skills and expertise and perspectives to tackle this problem and that's
really what we've been building here at BlueDot the last six and a half years. It is that diverse set of perspectives, because this is not a simple
problem to tackle.
CHATTERLEY: Absolutely. I want to take us back to Wuhan, but specifically when you were listening to the noises and analyzing the data from Wuhan,
and then you looked at the travel patterns around and out of Wuhan and you said look, if this is perhaps a bigger problem than we realize, we have to
be watching Bangkok.
And when we saw a rise in cases in Bangkok, very early on in January, you recognized there was a far bigger problem, perhaps than we were hearing
from China.
KHAN: Yes. By the way, our surveillance system, which is part of this early warning system is looking at news of outbreaks around the world in 65
different languages.
We're gathering all of this information using artificial intelligence to make sense of all this vast amounts of data. And that's really where we
picked up this early news of the outbreak in Wuhan.
But we know that these kind of outbreaks don't stay still, that they have the potential to rapidly spread across continents, and that's where we
connect all of this data really, in just seconds to all of the flight schedules around the world, to the final destinations of, you know,
millions to hundreds of millions of passengers moving across the planet.
We used that to identify what some of the next cities would be at greatest risk of having COVID-19 spread to, identified 12 of the top 20. Bangkok, as
you mentioned, was the very top of our list and it was the first city that was hit with COVID-19 after it spread out of Wuhan.
We published that in a peer reviewed scientific literature because we ultimately wanted to make sure that this type of information was available
to the scientific community and the public health community back in early January.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's just astonishing to me that people like you were recognizing these things so early on, and the rest of us were, to some
degree, still oblivious and not recognizing the potential damage that could be created.
I want to compare and contrast, New York's experience, which was quite dramatic versus California. And I know you were working with Governor
Newsom and the California authorities. Just explain to me how you were advising them?
KHAN: Well, we have built an early warning system and a platform that's managing outbreaks over their entire lifecycle from early detection to
assessing how they might spread across continents, but also to be able to manage outbreaks at a local level when they -- you know, when we're
tackling them in our own backyard.
A lot of the work we did with and continue to do with the State of California has been around understanding population movements using data
and I really want to underscore anonymous data on hundreds of millions of mobile devices and the locations of those devices to get a sense of how
populations are moving.
[09:40:17]
KHAN: This is a critical piece of knowledge that we need to understand in order to have effective public health interventions. Stay-at-home orders,
are they working? Where are they working? Where are they not? Perhaps where our populations getting fatigued.
And these are the kinds of insights that are needed so that the public health sector can utilize its finite human resources in the most efficient
and effective and coordinated manner possible.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we were just showing on the screen there, New York and the blue dots and the infectious disease outbreaks, which is critical.
Kamran, how do we prevent this ever happening again? How do we connect the dots and make sure everyone is speaking whether it's at the Federal level,
the nation state levels, state level if you have an enormous country like the United States, but also frontline workers like healthcare workers. How
do we prevent what we've seen ever happening again?
KHAN: One of the key pieces that you highlighted and I think it's a really important point is that, first of all, and insight is only useful if it's
ultimately translated into an action.
And if we're going to tackle these types of threats, we're going to really need to empower the whole of society. You know, generally speaking, this
type of information goes to the public health sector first, and then maybe it goes to the healthcare sector and businesses and the public much later.
But we need to be doing this in a more contemporaneous way. These types of insights have to be reaching all of these various audiences and I say this
as a practicing physician. Sick patients don't go to the public health department, they come to the emergency department.
So, we need to be empowering these groups and these individuals with insight so that they can protect themselves, but also so they can protect
the rest of us.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, the early warning system needs to be far more comprehensive. Kamran Khan, great to have you with us. Fantastic work with
the company. Stay in touch, please, because then we will continue to track the developments with your help, please. Founder and CEO there of BlueDot.
KHAN: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you. All right, the head of Disney's streaming service has shocked the entertainment world with news that he is jumping ship to
viral video platform TikTok.
Kevin Mayer over as TikTok CEO after being passed over for the top job at Disney earlier this year. Frank Pallotta joins me now.
Frank, perhaps I stole your thunder a little bit there. There was some expectation that he could replace Bob Iger. He didn't, so to some degree,
no surprise that he has jumped ship to somewhere equally exciting.
FRANK PALLOTTA, CNN MEDIA REPORTER: I think the surprise was that he went to TikTok and I think there was kind of surprised that he did like it, but
at the same time, like you said, it's not very surprising because Bob Iger basically chose Bob Chapek over Kevin Mayer.
And that was kind of a huge shock when that happened earlier this year because Mayer was thought by many people, both in the media world and even
on Wall Street to be the successor to Bob Iger, especially considering that Disney is shifting its focus away from movies and television and trying to
become more of a streaming company.
And Kevin Mayer founded the DTC the direct-to-consumer unit in 2018 and helped build Disney Plus into the new streaming giant it is with 54 million
paid subscribers around the world.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, they've had great success already far better, actually, in terms of people signing up for this than they anticipated.
Is the hard work done? Could we argue that or what's going to be on top now for the next person that takes over?
PALLOTTA: Well, what's really interesting here is that this is just another terrible thing to happen in Disney's very good, horrible bad year.
You know the parks are closed. Productions have been halted. Major movies have been delayed. But the one bright spot was Disney Plus and that had a
lot to do with Kevin Mayer's leadership.
And now Disney has to kind of move into an unknown future without the man who helped build that into the new kind of streaming giant it is.
I mean, the jobs are never done. They announced who is going to follow up Kevin Mayer, Rebecca Campbell, who used to be the President of Disneyland
Resort in Anaheim, California. She will be taking over for him as he goes over to TikTok.
But the streaming wars are just beginning and Disney wants to be a big part of that. It's going to take on Netflix, hopefully for the next 20 years in
their mind. So, it's just starting to say the job is done is not really true.
But at the same time, the motor is rubbing pretty well and we'll see if that had a lot to do with Kevin Mayer or if anyone can really step in and
move it forward just because it's the Disney brand.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it's going to be fascinating to watch. Never mind the challenge of TikTok and what he does over there.
Lots of discuss in the future. Frank Pallotta, great to have you with us. Thank you so much for that.
All right, still to come on FIRST MOVE. As the pandemic supplies of protective equipment under strain, a company in the UAE is aiming to make
the country self-sufficient. That's next
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:48:15]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. The COVID-19 crisis was a harsh lesson, I think in the benefits of self-sufficiency when it comes to
personal protective equipment.
The United Arab Emirates currently imports all life-saving N-95 respirator masks from abroad, but that's about to change.
A local company that currently manufactures aircraft parts is pivoting to mass production. John Defterios visited the production lines and joins us
now from Abu Dhabi.
John, great to have you with us. We've seen this all over the world. Companies that leapt to manufacture less of what they're doing, pivoting to
doing things that save lives, and this company, no exception.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: No exception indeed, and time was of the essence, Julia because there was a scramble to get the
PPE equipment under pressure around the world.
So, this went to the very top here in Abu Dhabi, the CEO of Mubadala, the investment sovereign fund, talking to the CEO of Honeywell and get this --
from handshake to production in less than 30 days. That was the mandate and they're delivering on it.
And after that initial rush that we saw on the market, Julia, we saw some countries putting tariffs and actually export bans on some of the materials
and machinery, so this is much trickier than one would think.
So as you suggested, an aircraft parts manufacturer that handles products for Airbus and Boeing, given the mandate it ran with it, and now is
delivering within the next week at full capacity. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISMAIL ALI ABDULLA, CEO, STRATA MANUFACTURING: Everyone is seeing that we are at war. In order to win that war against coronavirus, you need to
ensure that the supplies are available in a timely fashion.
MIROSLAV KAFEDZHIEV, VICE PRESIDENT, HONEYWELL: A lot of the countries have introduced restrictions when it comes to the materials, when it comes to
the machine, even when it comes to the actual finished good -- masks.
This is what enables the region to be self-independent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: So, going from a vulnerable importer to a regional exporter, Julia after covering the domestic needs here, and they see the regional
markets, the bigger ones to help support in this effort would be Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two obvious ones because of a dual population there -- a
collective population of 130 million consumers.
[09:50:22]
DEFTERIOS: And then you raise the question, is there demand. The folks that Mubadala suggesting over the next five years, they should have order books
of a billion masks in a post COVID-19 world for the healthcare sector, construction, very important, food and beverage, and also trying to live
with this virus in the many iterations going forward as well.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, too much uncertainty at this stage. You just need to be prepared. Inventories matter.
John Defterios in Abu Dhabi there. Thank you so much for that.
All right. Coming up on FIRST MOVE, how some of our four legged friends are now being trained to combat coronavirus. That's very cute. All the details,
next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: We like paw patrols on this show and we all know dogs could be trained to give blind people back their mobility. They can help police by
sniffing out drugs, and even detect if someone has cancer.
Well, now they're being trained in the hope that they can perhaps spot COVID-19. Max Foster has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This dog is being trained to detect prostate cancer. She is presented with urine samples and
rewarded when she identifies the correct one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER (voice over): This dog, is able to identify the odor of malaria sufferers. Their next mission here, is to train dogs to sniff out people
infected with COVID-19.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. STEVE LINDSAY, PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES, DURHAM UNIVERSITY: The way we're going to do that is by collecting using facemasks
and we're asking people to wear these facemasks for a few hours and then we carefully collect those, and the other thing we're going to do, is get
people to wear nylon socks that sounds a bit strange, but we know from our previous experience, that this is a real good way of collecting odors from
people and it is such an easy way to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER (voice over): If the training is successful, one of their first deployment is likely to be airports where dogs are already used to sniff
out drugs and other contraband.
If they help reopen the travel industry, that could be the boost to international trade that governments everywhere have been looking for.
Max Foster, CNN, outside London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: They're very clever. All right, we're just about wrapping up the show. Let me give you a quick look at where stock markets here are
trading.
We're slipping into red as you can see, taking back some of yesterday's bumper gains.
We're counting down to testimony of course, too on Capitol Hill for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Fed Chief Jay Powell pouring over the
money that's been provided, no doubt questioning on What more should be done to help support the U.S. economy.
[09:55:08]
CHATTERLEY: That's it for the show. That's up next. And we'll see you tomorrow. Stay safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
