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Police: Airport Worker Threatened to Crash Plan into Walmart; Many Companies Want Employees Back in Office Tomorrow; Long-COVID Treatment Uses Video Game to Improve Brain Fog; Man Unearths What May be Europe's Largest Dinosaur in Backyard. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 05, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JUSTIN GREEN, AVIATION ATTORNEY: You're going to find out, is this happens, you know, every few years, something like this happens back in 2018 in Seattle, somebody -- line person stole an airplane. Back in 2010, a pilot flew his airplane into an IRS building. So, unfortunately, you're going to see this again.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What if it had been closer to a major city?

GREEN: Well, I think the outcome would have been similar except the risk goes up. So right here in New York City airplanes are being flown VFR, Visual Flight Rules, right down, up and down the Hudson River, up and down the East River. So, this is actually something, you know, Washington D.C. is protected.

BERMAN: Yeah, Washington D.C. is the only place it's different here, right?

GREEN: Right, it is. And think about, you know, nuclear power plants to as another potential target. So, this is a very serious thing. The FAA needs to, you know, take this very seriously send out more information, make sure owners of airplanes actually take, you know, steps to keep them secure.

BERMAN: What about that, right? Because this was a plane that's parked in an airplane parking lot basically, where in a hangar. What can owners do to make their planes safe?

GREEN: Obviously, locking your airplane up?

BERMAN: Does everyone lock their plane? I know that sounds like a dumb question. But if people lock their airplanes?

GREEN: I think people that care about their planes, lock their airplanes, but there are ways, you know, to get access to the keys. Most airports have -- what are called fixed base operators at FBOs. So, I'll have a line of airplanes out there. And they'll usually have someone at the FBO kind of watching what's going on. But I think each owner should has to be responsible for making sure that no one gains access to their planes. Unfortunately, if he had crashed his airplane, I'm a plaintiff's lawyer, you'd be looking for someone to sue and you know, you can't sue the Walmart, they're not at fault. The guy would have been killed if he crashed into the Walmart. So, you might be looking at the owner as being potentially responsible, but there's really no law that makes the owner in a ways victim as well, so.

BERMAN: Justin Green, thanks so much for helping us understand what we saw. Again, glad it ended the way it did.

GREEN: Now, thankfully.

BERMAN: Right, showdown is looming in workplaces across the country. Bosses want employees back in the office by tomorrow, who will blink first?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, how video games could help millions of patients suffering from long COVID? Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:22]

BERMAN: So, Labor Day marks a day of celebration for workers. If you're working this morning, we celebrate you. It also marks a deadline for some after more than two years of working remotely because of COVID, many large corporations are requiring their employees to return to the office tomorrow.

With me now CNN Chief Business Correspondent who is working this morning in-person, Christine Romans. So, it really is a deadline tomorrow?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, get back in, this time they mean it. Remember, they've tried -- they've tried this. How many times have I done this segment?

BERMAN: I feel like we've been sitting here together talking about this like six times?

ROMANS: Yeah. Because every time they get close to telling people, they have to come in full time, they get a lot of pushback, people just don't want to do it. And mostly it's been because of COVID and flare ups of COVID. But now you got after Labor Day, so many of these companies are saying at least two or three days a week you need to be in, but guess what, Gallup finds only 6% of workers. Only 6% want to be fully in the office. That's a really low number. People want flexibility, John. They want flexibility.

And, you know what? The child care crisis in this country at this time, too. So, you've got people who maybe over the past couple of years have figured out how to work from home or partly from home. They're managing their lives and their kids. They say they work better, actually from home. And now the bosses are saying, come on, what are you doing here.

BERMAN: Already these companies actually saying come in or else, is there an or else factor here? ROMANS: There's a -- that's what this week will show. This week will show just how stern these companies can be because we know that people want the flexibility. We also know that the worker has the upper hand here. We know that these all these polls show that people will leave if they're told they have to come in, I think one number I saw was 60% of workers said they will go find another job where they could be more at home and HR bosses are worried about burnout and turnover if you put people back in that twice a day commute five days a week in the office, they're worried but that's -- that they're just not going to have a good workforce. So, it's -- the corner office and the H.R. bosses are kind of on different pages here.

BERMAN: Are they doing anything to get people back other than ordering it?

ROMANS: In some cases, they are -- they're trying to have a little bit of flexibility. I mean, I think it will be difficult to say five days a week, nine to five or eight to six or whatever the old way, I don't think you're ever going to get back to that old -- that old way again. They're offering a little bit of flexibility. A lot of companies are saying we need you in at least two days a week. We need to hear three days a week.

But the question is, you know, what is the appetite for the worker? The worker definitely has the upper hand I feel here. We know there are two job openings for each job seeker. So, it's the job seeker who is in, you know, in the catbird seat right now. Question is if the economy softens a little bit, if you're talking about the R word down the road, then maybe all of a sudden, you know, the benefit switches back to the bosses. But there's another angle of the story that I think is really interesting, too. It's something called location bias. And women and minorities are more likely to want to work more from home in their hybrid life because of family obligations, a lot of other reasons, is there a worry that if you have -- the people who are in the office, somehow are the ones getting the bonuses and the promotions and the person at home is not there's a bias toward the people who are in the office. That's something that diversity and inclusion experts are worried about.

BERMAN: This time they mean it, we think.

ROMANS: This time they mean it. Get back here right now or sometime down the road.

BERMAN: Right. Well, we'll see if we're having this conversation in a few months. Christine Romans, thank you very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

KEILAR: One in eight people who battled COVID will develop long COVID with symptoms persisting as long as two years after first becoming sick. The U.S. government estimates there may be as 23 -- as many as 23 million long COVID patients in the U.S. alone, some of the most common symptoms include pain and difficulty breathing and many patients also report cognitive problems but now there is an experimental treatment to target brain fog. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

[06:40:14]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA VANMETER NIVENS, LONG COVID PATIENT: I went home in oxygen for 500 days, odd physical therapy, had a nursery came every day.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Was there a point when you said OK, these symptoms are not going away?

VANMETER NIVENS: Yes. Four weeks after I left the hospital, I couldn't understand why I still felt so bad. Why everything hurt. I was on a walker. I was crying.

My PCP had in my hand and she said, Barbara, you have long COVID.

GUPTA: That was September 2020, Barbara VanMeter Nivens life was turned upside down. 14 years as a retail manager leading and coaching a staff of more than 20 was no more, now exchanged for a life of alarms, reminders, and pills.

VANMETER NIVENS: Have this list, alarms set for things that I need to do daily.

GUPTA: In the years to come, there will be textbooks written about long COVID. But what is increasingly clear now is that for too many people, the symptoms come and then they stay persisting for weeks, months. And for Barbara, even years.

VANMETER NIVENS: I feel like there's a virus in my brain. And it's changing things in my brain. Because I can't think, I can't remember.

JAMES JACKSON, ICU RECOVERY CENTER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: One of the first things that I noticed was that people were complaining of really striking cognitive problems.

GUPTA: Often called brain fog, however, that is elusive, hard to define. But as psychologist James Jackson started to see more of these patients, he also saw something more specific, something so called brain fog patients seem to share in common. They had lost the ability to attend, to simply pay attention.

JACKSON: With other chronic illnesses, the cognitive deficits we see, seem to focus on attentional problems, problems with processing speed, often memory complaints, but when you dig down, you find that really, the problem is attention, you know that they're not attending. And functionally, they experienced that as a deficit in memory.

GUPTA: With that in mind, he decided to try a treatment for long COVID that might surprise you, a video game, just like practicing sports or music, a tough challenge, we'll help you improve. I don't think I'm doing pretty good.

JACKSON: As you do better, it gets harder. Then as you do worse, it gets easier. It's very dynamic. GUPTA: There is even a dose that they prescribe in the trial, 25 minutes a day, five days a week, eight weeks.

JACKSON: Is it going to translate into you being able to do your taxes? Are you going to be able to be organized? Are you going to be able to be driving? And when you stop the game? Do all those benefits stop? And that's a good question. I think the literature and the science that has emerged is you don't need to be playing the game for the rest of your life to accrue the benefit. But that is certainly something that critics have raised.

GUPTA: The question is, can it help heal the changes sometimes seen in the brains of long COVID patients like this. Loss of gray matter in the frontal cortex, tissue damage over here, and an overall shrinking of the brain. None of this is easy. And to be sure, a video game won't be a panacea for Barbara. But at this point, anything seems to help.

(On camera): How did it help you?

VANMETER NIVENS: Attention to detail, paying attention, focusing, sub- memory.

GUPTA: How are you thinking about the future? Are you optimistic?

VANMETER NIVENS: I take it day by day right now. Because if you try to take it month by month, it's really hard to try to think that far out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: It's almost like retraining the brain after having a stroke, you know, trying to get things back on track. And it's so important when you have so many people who are dealing with this.

BERMAN: Look, one of the things that people with long COVID are dealing with right now is not being believed or people not understanding what they're going through. I remember talking to Senator Tim Kaine a few weeks ago who is dealing with long COVID. And he says his nerve endings are on fire. Half the time he wakes up at night and he feels this ongoing tingling and pain. And, you know, I don't know if the research is keeping up with the condition that many people are dealing with right now.

KEILAR: Certainly. Hillary Clinton is breaking her silence about her iconic pantsuits revealing exactly what inspired her to make the switch from skirts.

[06:45:07]

BERMAN: A homeowner in Portugal may have found the largest dinosaur remains ever uncovered in Europe. Details on the ancient discovery ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This morning, Hillary Clinton is speaking out about the origin of her trademark pantsuits. In an interview with CBS, she says it all started every suggestive photo was taken of her in Brazil and landed her in lingerie ads.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A state visit to Brazil led to some compromising photographs.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I was sitting on a couch and the press was led in, there were a bunch of them shooting up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of those photos were then used to sell lingerie.

Clinton: And all of a sudden, the White House gets alerted to these billboards that show me sitting down with I thought my legs together, but the way it's shot, it's sort of suggestive and then I also began to have the experience of having photographers all the time I'd be on a stage, I'd be climbing stairs and they'd be below me I just couldn't deal with it, so I started wearing pants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:50:18]

KEILAR: Oh, my goodness, it's fascinating to hear her say that. And I understand -- I'm wearing pants right now. Stay connect with that.

BERMAN: I didn't know there was an actual origin story to the pantsuit. I mean, as someone who's worn pantsuits largely my whole life I mean, I you know, I can see the utility in it, but I had no idea that that happened.

KEILAR: No one's ever shot up your skirt, right? So, this has never been a problem that you have to deal with?

BERMAN: Not that I can talk about on TV this morning.

All right, what maybe the largest dinosaur specimen ever found in Europe turned up almost by accident in a homeowner's backyard. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz live this morning with the details. This is, you know, quite something to find in the backyard, Salma?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: John, brace yourself because this sounds like Jurassic Park comes home. If you can believe it, what could be Europe's largest dinosaur remains found in someone's garden. During a renovation project, if you can imagine that. I know we have these pictures to show you of the Spanish and Portuguese researchers. They're in Pombal in Portugal, and they're excavating, they are an earthing. This dinosaur that could have been 39 feet high and 82 feet long, sauropod, that's an herbivore, that's known for its long tail, it's long neck, and would have existed 100 to 160 million years ago.

One paleontologist calling this discovery, of course, gobsmacking, dinosaur bones in someone's garden. It all started in 2017, an ordinary Portuguese citizen again in Pombal, starting this renovation project, they had construction going on their property. They saw what they thought were remains bones. They called in the experts. And in recent days, of course, now they see the full scope and scale of that dinosaur, again, 39 feet high, 82 feet long, absolutely enormous. I would never expect my home renovation project to turn up a dinosaur, John.

BERMAN: But that's what I keep looking at. Those are huge. I mean, those are just huge. How do you not know for, you know, several million years that that's sitting out there.

ABDELAZIZ: It's absolutely extraordinary. And what they've been able to uncover so far is the ribcage in the vertebrae of that dinosaur. And you can just see the size of a normal person next to that massive ribcage in the garden. I mean, again, this is a reminder that these discoveries can really happen anywhere, anytime. This isn't the first time that bones like this have been found in Europe in areas that are unexpected, and the project is still ongoing. There will take a long time to excavate, to unearth this, but what a huge scientific discovery. And again, just on your property, in your garden, John.

BERMAN: Yeah. I'm going to look at my backyard now and see what I find. Salma Abdelaziz that is fantastic, thank you so much for that report.

So where did all the money go? That question being asked by top Republicans, after a huge gamble from the party Senate fundraising arm pretty much went bust.

KEILAR: And it was a wild kickoff weekend for college football, the Bleacher Report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:42]

BERMAN: Florida State held off a furious comeback bid by LSU. And it all came down to the very last play. Carolyn Manno has this morning's Bleacher Report. This was some game are you.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Are ready for football?

BERMAN: I am.

MANNO: I feel like we're a little bit ready for football. I mean, this is one of the best endings to a college football game we've ever seen. That might be a little bit of recency bias since at least last season. I mean, at least last night LSU down 2014 late in the fourth quarter and Brian Kelly's debut as head coach for the Tigers would not go quietly into the night. James Daniels hitting a wide-open Teven Jenkins for a 22-yard score to cut lead to seven with just over four minutes left.

This was a wild five minutes of football. They get the ball back on their own one-yard line with 120 to go, they needed a 99-yard drive. And the drive ends with Daniel's to Jenkins again, this time when a two-yard pass with no time left. But instead of going for two and the when LSU would line up to attempt the game tying extra point of force overtime and Florida State blocks the kick, the Seminoles come away from New Orleans with a 24, 23 win. Head coach, Mike Norvell, jumping for joy on the side. That is huge win for him, FSU after its first unit start since 2016.

In tennis Daniil Medvedev's dreams of a title defense at the U.S. Open or over this morning, the world number one loss in four sets to the always entertaining Nick Kyrgios. This was such a bizarre rally, it's so Nick Kyrgios. Medvedev hits the ball straight up, going to land on his own side of the net and Kyrgios runs around the net for some reason, it smashes the ball on Medvedev side. I mean, that is not legal. The crowd loves it so much. Despite losing that point, the 27- year-old from Australia showed real boys so consistent advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time at Flushing Meadows very, very big win for him.

And in a matchup between the youngest and oldest remaining women in the women's singles field. 18-year-old Coco Gauff is through to the quarterfinals as well for the first time in her career. The American sensation beating 33-year-old Zhang Shuai from in very dramatic fashion. She was down five-four in the first set. She was down five- three in the second but the fans are with her as well. They were screaming for her go Coco, go Coco and she powered back to win the match in straight set. So, she is playing really well, I think we could see her in a finals matchup with Iga Swiatek and I mean just being there last night you and I were talking about it in the break, Nick Kyrgios is just, his go for broke mentality is, it delights the crowd.

BERMAN: That match was a lousy -- she's watching on TV. It was electric, you had a feeling like one of these two guys is going to win the whole thing, that's what it felt like.

[07:00:05]

MANNO: Big day for Kyrgios if he could do it.

BERMAN: All right Carolyn Manno, great to see you. New Day continues right now.