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Some Olympic Athletes in Tokyo Test Positive for Coronavirus; Likely Public Health Consequences Summer Olympics being Held in Japan During Coronavirus Pandemic Examined; President Biden Accuses Social Media Companies of Causing Deaths Due to Vaccine Misinformation being Allowed to Spread; FOX Spreads Anti-Vaccine Rhetoric as Officials Plead to Stop. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired July 19, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

TESS BARKER, CO-HOST, "TOXIC, THE BRITNEY SPEARS STORY" PODCAST: So I think the truth is just out there, and I think there's not much that the people around here can do to bottle it up at this point.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it is very, I think, interesting to hear what Britney has to say. It's also very sad as we watch the issues of this family. It just seems very heartbreaking to watch. Tess Barker, thanks for being with us.

BARKER: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: And NEW DAY continues right now.

Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Avlon on this NEW DAY. Great to have you here. COVID chaos as the Olympics as an American gymnast tests positive just four days before the games begin. We have Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us live from Tokyo in just a moment.

Plus, the White House singling out Florida as unvaccinated people drive new COVID case numbers. An infectious disease doctor is standing standing by to talk to us from Florida right now.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: And rightwing media keeps pushing dangerous disinformation about vaccines that could save lives. So why are they doing it? We're talk to a former FOX reporter speaking out right here live.

And dozens of journalists and activists all over the world targeted by spyware. So who are the hackers and what information did they get?

KEILAR: A very good morning to viewers here in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, July 19th, the beginning of our week, a good week together, John Avlon.

AVLON: We're going to have a big week.

KEILAR: We are. We have some breaking news today from Tokyo. A member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team has just tested positive for COVID. So this brings into question, is there going to be a cascading problem, as you put it, John? We're going to see. There's a lot of chaos because of the virus around the Summer Olympics. And it is just four days before the opening ceremonies are set to begin.

There are at least 58 coronavirus cases that are linked to the games. Three athletes who are living in the Olympic Village have just tested positive, two from South Africa, one from the Czech Republic. And then there's U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff who also tested positive even before heading for the Olympics. She is now out.

AVLON: And the pandemic is widening in Japan. On Sunday, Tokyo reported more than 1,000 new cases for the fifth day in a row. The Japanese capital is currently under a COVID state of emergency until August 22nd. So let's go live to Tokyo and bring in CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, this development really underscores the risk to these athletes that we are seeing in the village.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. Obviously, a lot of focus on the games and what's going to be happening when these games start, but this is a big public health challenge as well.

I'll tell you this. We've talked a lot about this term breakthrough infections, people who still test positive despite having been vaccinated. You get the sense that we don't really know how common that is, but these games, because of all the testing that goes on, may give us a better sense of that. There may be a lot more people who do test positive, no symptoms at all, but they have been vaccinated and still get this positive test. We talked through the whole process, trying to get an idea of how they're planning to do this, and what they're doing to keep everyone safe.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GUPTA: Last year, these stadiums sat empty as Tokyo 2020 was officially postponed. Many people assumed the games simply wouldn't happen. But now they are happening. So I've made my way here to Tokyo to try to figure out exactly how they're going to pull this off.

DR. BRIAN MCCLOSKEY: We had no idea what was coming to us in terms of COVID.

GUPTA: Postponing the Olympics again was no longer an option due to international sports schedules. So it was up to Dr. Brian McCloskey, chair of an independent panel advising the International Olympic Committee on COVID-19 countermeasures to figure out how to hold the games in 2021.

Was it just going to be inevitable that the games would happen, you just have to figure out how to do it safely as possible?

MCCLOSKEY: It was possible they could be canceled completely. That was always part of our thinking, that we can only do this if we are satisfied that we can do it safely and securely. GUPTA: While we have seen other sports make it through seasons or

tournaments safely with little interruption, the Olympics bring a unique challenge. More than 11,000 athletes representing 206 different countries, states, and territories will descend on an island nation that is currently fighting to keep the virus at bay.

[08:05:00]

What is the risk at doing an event like this in the middle of a pandemic, to the citizens of Japan, citizens that live in that area?

MCCLOSKEY: Since we first realized that coronavirus was going to be an issue for the games, we're trying to maximize the separation between international visitors coming in, the athletes and team officials, and the local population.

GUPTA: This is why all spectators, both local and from abroad, have already been banned in Tokyo. And athletes' movements will mostly be confined here, to the Olympic Village. Beyond that strategy, McCloskey says the rest comes down to the pillars of public health.

MCCLOSKEY: Social distancing, physical distancing, wearing a mask, and hand hygiene. They were always at the fundament core of what we knew would reduce the risk of COVID during the games. And then we started a layer on top of that, the testing strategy that we might have.

GUPTA: But that has not stopped the concern from both locals and other health experts, like epidemiologist Michael Osterholm.

DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, FORMER BIDEN COVID ADVISER: One of the things that has been a concern is that they really planned this Olympics around the concept of hygiene theater.

GUPTA: To him, the organizers are missing a fundamental point.

OSTERHOLM: Originally the plans were set up counting on this being largely a respiratory droplet, i.e., it falling within three to six feet of the individual who might be infected, when in fact, as we now know, the primary means for transmission is actually through airborne transmission, aerosols, things that float in the air, like cigarette smoke.

GUPTA: So he thinks things like plexiglass completely miss the mark, but makes masks even more important. Right now, the IOC playbook states that a facemask must be worn at all times except when training, competing, eating, drinking, sleeping, or during interviews, but there is no specification for what type of mask should be worn.

OSTERHOLM: We already know the limited protection cloth masks play versus N95s. They've provided no clear direction. They should be recommending N95 respirators.

GUPTA: Vaccines are also another crucial tool against COVID. But they are not required. Why? Requiring them could create an un uneven playing field. MCCLOSKEY: We were fairly confident that we would have vaccine by

now, but we also knew if we had one, it wouldn't make it around the world, it wouldn't necessarily be in good supply.

GUPTA: Still, the IOC estimates more than 80 percent of residents of the Olympic Village will be vaccinated. But that has still not cleared the metaphorical cloud continuing to hang over the city as the world waits to see how this global event will fare in the face of a pandemic.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

GUPTA: And I just want to reiterate a point you heard Dr. McCloskey make as well. The postponing of the Olympics was not an option again because of the international sports calendar and things like that. It was either they were going to do this now or it wasn't going to happen. So you're starting to get a sense, again, of that public health sort of test that's going to be going on the next several days.

KEILAR: Look, what's clear is the Olympic village is not the NBA bubble. I think that's what we're seeing here. And I wonder if you expected, was this just written that this was going to happen without vaccinations required, that there would be athletes in Olympic Village testing positive, Sanjay?

GUPTA: I think so. It's a really, it's a good question. We're all sort of learning about this together. But I think there's no question that people would develop breakthrough infections. We've seen that in other places even after vaccination. As you point out, they estimate about 80 percent of the people within the Village are vaccinated. It's not required. So, I think it was no surprise that we would see positive tests.

I'll also tell you that Dr. McCloskey made this point that what they're trying to avoid as much as possible are false negative tests. So if you look at these tests, they're not going to be perfect. They're going to err on the side of being too sensitive or not sensitive enough. They want the test to be even more sensitive so they don't get any false negatives. That makes it even more likely that you're going to see more positives out there.

So again, we'll see what the next few days look like, what that means for the games overall. But keep in mind, we're doing the Olympics in the middle of a pandemic, in a country that has about 12 percent of the country vaccinated, and the numbers are increasing. So, you can understand why people are pretty nervous about it.

AVLON: Sanjay, before we go, if you estimate the 20 percent of the athletes are unvaccinated, and we know that COVID is in the Village, 58 cases writ large at the Olympics, given the contagiousness of the Delta variant, how big do you think this can get? And at what point do teams start quarantining, being forced to quarantine and therefore aren't eligible for play?

[08:10:02] GUPTA: I think we're going to see that, John, I think, because this is a very contagious variant. To give context on this, we've talked about it before, but recent literature shows the viral load that you have, if you have the Delta variant as an infection, is about 1,000 times higher than the original strain. So even in someone who may not have symptoms, the idea that they could still be contagious, they could still transmit it to others, is high.

And younger people, these are athletes, obviously, mostly in good health, so the idea that they would develop serious illness or require hospitalization is still very low. But the idea that they could test positive, they could have mild symptoms, they would need quarantine, they would be contract traced, they could bring entire teams into quarantine, that's very real. And again, that's what they're trying to deal with here.

KEILAR: I feel like this story is just beginning, Sanjay, so we'll be checking in with you here in the coming days from Tokyo. Thank you.

AVLON: All right, and President Biden accusing social media platforms like Facebook of, quote, killing people, because of all the misinformation about vaccines and COVID. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're killing people. The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they're killing people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: So let's bring Dr. Aileen Marty, infectious disease professor at Florida International University. This is the strongest we've heard President Biden come out and directly connect misinformation with the loss of life. First of all, is that what you're seeing in this practice, that this misinformation is contributing directly to vaccine hesitancy?

DR. AILEEN MARTY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROFESSOR, FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: Always there is a problem with misinformation, leading people to get confused and afraid and focusing on things that are based on fear and not based on reality. And that's always a big -- a terrible thing. And the way we know it's true is because we are seeing a huge rise in hospitalizations in the unvaccinated. And we talk to these unvaccinated people, and you ask them what is their source of information as to why they're unvaccinated, their sources for information as why they're unvaccinated tend to be sources that are not really reliable and that are not telling the truth.

AVLON: So do you think that this really offense by the White House against disinformation on social media companies is therefore warranted, overdue? Should it be accelerated?

MARTY: It's not just social media. It's any media that's broadcasting false information and leading people into behaviors and perspectives that increase their risk and, therefore, increase also the spread of this virus, which in turn leads to the possibility of even worse variants than the one we're facing now as the dominant variant, the Delta variant.

AVLON: It's an important point. It's partisan media especially as well as social media.

And the White House is pointing out that Florida reported 20 percent of the nation's new coronavirus cases over the last two weeks even though it makes up just 6.5 percent of the population, some 45,000 new cases, almost double from one week ago. But we see the Florida PAC for Governor Ron DeSantis selling stuff like this, t-shirts that say "Don't Fauci My Florida." So what is going on in Florida? What do you have to say to the governor who is selling this kind of merchandise at a time when cases are spiking in your state?

MARTY: All leaders, political leaders, religious leaders, any type of leader right now should be doing everything in their power to empower their population to help reduce the spread of this disease by all reasonable means. And that should be the focus of all leaders. And when it's not, the outcome is more cases, more deaths, more suffering for the individual, for their family, for their communities, and for the economy.

AVLON: Avoidable suffering. Dr. Aileen Marty, Florida International University, thank you for being with us.

And just ahead, we're going to talk about how right-wing media hosts are smearing the vaccine, but do they even believe their own dangerous rhetoric? We've got a former FOX reporter joining us next.

KEILAR: Plus, the Biden's administration's dramatic shift on the origin of coronavirus, what they're now saying about the lab leak theory.

Plus, more baseless claims about ballots emerge from the sham election audit underway in Arizona.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:18:18]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: If vaccines work, why are vaccinated people still banned from living normal lives? Honestly, what's the answer to that? It doesn't make any sense at all.

If the vaccine is effective, there was no reason for people who have received the vaccine to wear masks or avoid physical contact. So, maybe it doesn't work and they're simply not telling you that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: FOX host, Tucker Carlson is one of many in the right-wing media casting doubt on lifesaving COVID vaccines, even as unvaccinated Americans continue to drive up COVID case numbers. Let's talk about this now with former FOX News chief political

correspondent, Carl Cameron. He is now the co-founder of "Front Page Live." And I wonder, I think I know the answer, but I want to know from you why are hosts like Tucker Carlson doing this?

CARL CAMERON, CO-FOUNDER, "FRONT PAGE LIVE": It's about ratings.

KEILAR: Just money.

CAMERON: And ratings ultimately become revenue, and that's the name of the game. Whoever gets the most clicks on social media makes the most money, gets the most fame, gets the most attention, and that type of activity is not journalism. It's not news. It's gaslighting. It's propaganda.

I mean, just last week, new infections went up 70 percent, and according to the C.D.C., which over -- excuse me, the N.I.H., which oversees the C.D.C., it is absolutely 99.5 percent of those infections are people who haven't gotten vaccinated.

I mean, come on. Anybody who disputes that sort of stuff is putting people's lives at risk and potentially killing them.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No question about it, and we see this red state/blue state divide in vaccinations.

You say it's about a business model. Isn't killing your own supporters a bad business model?

[08:20:07]

CAMERON: Absolutely. It makes no sense whatsoever. This is literally the metaphor of the lemmings running to their own slaughter. People who are listening to that sort of stuff instead of the science which goes way, way back, we would not be the world we are today, if it weren't for penicillin.

These types of things are real, and to suggest that they're not particularly if you have no education in science and medicine, it is just plain lying to the American people and putting them at risk of death.

We now have this situation. I mean, we saw Sanjay over there in Japan, an American athlete at the Olympics is out, and God knows how sick he could get.

This is wrong for journalists to be doing this, or people who call them that, whether it's FOX or One American Network, or Newsmax, these are all cable channels that are perpetuating lies and it has to be stopped.

In fact, I've been working hard, we've got a coalition going on now called Persuasion U.S. with a number of organizations, institutions, activists across the country. It's an incredibly diverse group, and for Republicans of goodwill who understand that what's happening to the Republican Party in the country as a consequence of what Trump and the far right did is really, really dangerous.

And it's time for the left, Democrats need to start fighting the way Republicans do.

There is no such thing as a one-year presidential race. It's all four years, it's 24/7 on the Republican side, raising money, making up stories, trying to denigrate half of the country who are on the left hand side of it, and that includes those people of color in many cases, and it has to stop.

There are organizations all over the country who are trying to fight this disinformation disease and we are joining that fight and we need a lot of help.

It's going to take money and it's going to take time, and we need to start doing it now because the Republicans have been doing it all the way since the beginning of the year for the upcoming Congress -- congressional races next year, and the White House for three years from now.

KEILAR: And I know that's part of a letter that you and others wrote to the D.N.C. and to Democratic funders. You know, I always wonder, as I'm watching these insane claims, they just seem so nuts and yet you know that there are millions of people watching them and believing them. And I always wonder, you know, is that guy vaccinated? Maybe? Very probably. And I would like to know.

I would like to know when it comes to the kind of drivel that is coming out about vaccines. Do you think that Fox hosts like Laura Ingraham, like Tucker Carlson should say whether or not they themselves chose to take the vaccine?

CAMERON: Absolutely. As a journalist, I'll tell you, I had a Moderna shot. I got it in March, and I think anybody who comes on television and talks about coronavirus with any kind of authority has to explain where they stand.

It is inconceivable to me that people who won't explain they're doing for their own health when they are trying to inform the United States of America. The hypocrisy of it and the danger of that potential falsehood, saying, yes, we I've got one and not having one is exactly the kind of deceit that Trump started even before he was elected.

AVLON: And to that point, explicitly, I mean, Donald Trump hid the fact that he got vaccinated in January.

CAMERON: Right.

AVLON: Why would he not take credit for that, you know, Operation Warp Speed being enormously successful, but it begins with the ex- President of the United States who hid that.

Let me ask you this, when you talk to your former colleagues at FOX, you were there for years, what do you say to them about this danger of becoming complicit in a disinformation effort that's killing people? CAMERON: Well, there are still some good solid, fair-minded

journalists at FOX and I don't ever want to malign them. But it is the opinion hosts who aren't journalists per se, they're talking heads, and their job, their reward is bringing eyeballs on television.

And all they really got to do is keep people watching until it is commercial time and then, it is ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching for the network, and it works really well in primetime, but it's not news.

And there are people within the organization who have been let go, there are people who have departed, and some of them are good journalists who have already landed elsewhere, which says something that there is a bit of a -- I wouldn't say it's an employee problem for the company yet, but a lot of talented people have decided to go elsewhere.

KEILAR: Yes, it is a sad situation, I think when we watch some of what is happening with what some of these hosts are saying. It is gross quite frankly.

CAMERON: The bottom line is, this country needs to begin to have a conversation again. And even families that have stopped talking to one another, it is time to try to have a conversation with your loved ones even if you disagree with them. Make sure that they understand that you're worried about their health.

Give them an opportunity to hear some truth. Don't yell at them.

[08:25:08]

CAMERON: Don't make it nasty. Try to be empathetic.

People have been disillusioned and people have been gaslit and they don't understand that it is not their fault that they listened to their President.

For the last 250 years, our leadership has been fairly reliable. It was not so in the last four.

AVLON: It's such an important point, reaching out to try to bridge those divides from a position of empathy, not judgment because that might help turn this tide of disinformation. Carl Cameron, thank you very much for joining us on NEW DAY.

CAMERON: Thank you.

AVLON: Appreciate it.

All right, there is a new effort to cast doubt on Arizona's 2020 election results. We've got a CNN fact-check up next.

KEILAR: And where did coronavirus come from? The Biden administration changing its tune.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The Arizona audit on the 2020 presidential election continues to move along despite having found no proof of voter fraud.

The man heading up the audit is now claiming that more than 70,000 mail-in ballots were cast with no record of them being sent.

[08:30:09]