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New Day Sunday
Blowout Win For Joe Biden In South Carolina Primary; Tom Steyer Ends Presidential Campaign; Democratic Candidates Shift Focus On Super Tuesday Contests; Sanders Campaign Raised $46.5 Million In February; First Coronavirus Death Confirmed In The U.S.; Washington State Investigating Possible Outbreak At Nursing Facility; President Trump Urges Americans Not To Panic; U.S. Announces Additional Travel Warnings Amid Outbreak; East Africa Hit By Locust Invasion; CDC Warns Schools, Businesses To Prepare For Virus To Spread; March Madness Has Arrived. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired March 01, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:15]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very impressive win for the former vice president.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For all of you who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You cannot win them all. And now we head to Super Tuesday in Virginia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom Steyer is going to end his presidential candidacy.
TOM STEYER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I said, if I didn't see a path to winning that I'd suspend my campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Health officials in Washington State confirm the first death in the United States from the coronavirus.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Additional cases in the United States are likely but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president clearly trying to change the public narrative around this and reassure the public.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American people should know the risk for the average American remains low.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Want to wish you a good morning on this Sunday. What a night it was for former Vice President Joe Biden in South Carolina last night. He wrapped up the primary leading with 48 percent of the vote compared to 19 percent for Senator Bernie Sanders. VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The victory pushed him into second place from the delegate count at least for now. He told a crowd of supporters, his campaign is just getting started.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: You could launch a candidacy. You launched Bill Clinton, Barack Obama to the presidency. Now you launched our campaign on the path to defeating Donald Trump. This campaign is taking off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: And now the race moves on to Super Tuesday contest. Fourteen states in American Samoa going to the polls.
BLACKWELL: So the question here is whether Biden can use the momentum from South Carolina to pull out some other big wins this week.
PAUL: CNN Washington Correspondent, Jessica Dean is with us from Columbia, South Carolina. Great reporting. I can't imagine how tired you all are after last night and all day yesterday. But talk to us about the reaction to Biden's win there.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We're certainly happy to be with you Victor and Christi this morning.
It was a huge night for Joe Biden's campaign here in South Carolina. I mean, look, Joe Biden himself has said he expects to win South Carolina, the campaign expected to win here. But to win by that large a margin, it really caps off a week where everything has broken the Biden campaign's way and we really haven't seen a week like that in this primary season.
You had a great debate performance, you had the town hall. A ton of enthusiasm at his events here. And then that huge, huge win last night in South Carolina. Just heads and shoulders above his closest competitor, Bernie Sanders who still leads in delegates but Joe Biden as you mentioned coming in second now in delegates. So just showing you what one night can do to rearrange a race like this.
And, Victor, you said it. But this is certainly the case. The big question now as we turn to Super Tuesday is, what can the Biden campaign do with that momentum? What can they do in terms of money? What can they do in terms of wins across those 14 states that are going to vote, an incredible number of delegates up for grabs.
We'll come back to that in a second. But before I get too far ahead into Super Tuesday I also want to mention that last night we saw the field begin to narrow. And we saw businessman Tom Steyer who spent a lot of money, a lot -- a billionaire who spent millions and millions and millions of dollars here in South Carolina drop out of the race. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEYER: But I said if I didn't see a path to winning that I'd suspend my campaign. And honestly, I can't see a path where I can win the presidency. So am I going to continue to work on every single one of these issues? Yes, of course, I am. Because I've never stopped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: So Tom Steyer stepping aside. He had said that -- his team had said if they didn't get to 15 percent and as you heard him say, didn't see a way forward that it was the statesman-like thing to do, to step aside.
Christi and Victor, there's a lot of question now around other candidates. Will they stay in the race until Super Tuesday? After Super Tuesday will they get out?
My colleague, Jeff Zeleny getting some reporting last night. The Biden campaign for their part happy to see Amy Klobuchar stay in and maybe give Bernie Sanders a run for his money in Minnesota.
[06:05:00]
Same thing with Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts on Super Tuesday where the Biden campaign hoping they can keep Bernie Sanders' margins down there. It's certainly going to be a very interesting night, a pivotal time in this Democratic primary.
PAUL: No doubt about it. Jessica Dean, thank you so much. Really appreciate it this morning.
BLACKWELL: All right. Let's bring in now political reporter for "The Post and Courier" Jamie Lovegrove and political science professor at Clemson University, Bruce Ransom.
Gentlemen, good morning to you.
JAMIE LOVEGROVE, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE POST AND COURIER": Good morning.
BRUCE RANSOM, CO-DIRECTOR, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY PALMETTO POLL: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: All right. Control room, do we have that Biden sound available? Do we have that to start with? OK. We'll get back to that in a moment.
So let's start here with Biden's big win, Jamie. And then I want to look forward to Super Tuesday. Biden won every county, 28 points ahead of Sanders in second place. That's more than any recent poll showed. So the question, was this a late surge or was this like I read your piece -- Denise Washington in Georgetown who said Biden was her guy from the start despite seeing all of the support from other candidates. What did you see there in South Carolina?
LOVEGROVE: It was a bit of both, right? So I've been covering this race for a year and a half in South Carolina now. And from the day Biden got into the race, he had just a huge, you know, ground base of support from which to build. There were just so many voters in South Carolina who I talked to at Biden's very first campaign stop on May 4th who said, I'm locked in. He's in the race, I was hoping he would get into the race and you know, as far as I'm concerned, the race is over at this point. I'm voting for him.
You know, there were a lot of other folks who certainly gave other candidates a look including candidates who didn't make it to yesterday's race. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker were serious contenders in South Carolina for a little while. And Tom Steyer worked very hard over the last few months. Bernie Sanders, of course, did a lot better at minority outreach. But Biden did get a late surge of momentum to make sure --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
LOVEGROVE: -- that he crossed the finish line on top. That Clyburn endorsement earlier this week clearly made the decision for voters who had been undecided and, you know, I mean that margin of victory is incredible.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
LOVEGROVE: It should be noted that 2008 and 2016, the polls under- predicted or underestimated Barack Obama's margin of victory. They underestimated Hillary Clinton's margin of victory in 2016. And, yet, again they have underestimated Biden's victory.
BLACKWELL: Yes, seeing it again with Vice President Biden.
Bruce, let's listen to a portion of his victory speech last night from South Carolina.
RANSOM: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: This is the moment to choose the path forward for our party. This is the moment and it has arrived. Maybe sooner than anyone guessed it would, but it's here. And the decisions Democrats make all across America the next few days will determine what this party stands for, what we believe and what we'll get done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: So, Bruce, a blowout here compared to what we saw the resources from other campaigns, looking ahead to Super Tuesday, I wonder if you're Mike Bloomberg and you're looking at Tom Steyer's $22 million in TV ads and the millions on infrastructure and staffing and the direct mail and the rest and he didn't get a single delegate out of it and then dropped out. Are you a little less confident going into Alabama and Arkansas and Tennessee and Oklahoma and the south, or are these two incomparable?
RANSOM: Well, given the coalition that Joe Biden had in the primary yesterday and given the fact that Steyer's money did not turn the corner for him, I think Bloomberg, in all honesty, has to seriously question his rationale for getting in now. I mean, he's in. He's on the ballot. But if this momentum continues and the Biden campaign has the infrastructure to take advantage of it which it must do. It can't be a one trick pony --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
RANSOM: -- then Bloomberg is, I don't know, what's his reason for being in?
BLACKWELL: Jamie, let me come to you and Senator Sanders, we can now report now that we starting the March, in February, his campaign raised $46.5 million in February alone. You wrote about how much he put into reaching out to African American voters compared to losing by 70 points in that demographic, specifically in South Carolina. He's got a lot of money to double down on that. Did we see the fruit of it this time around?
LOVEGROVE: You know, marginally. But I think the Sanders folks will be very disappointed to be honest. They made such a concerted effort to improve on their performance in 2016.
[06:10:02]
They were organizing it at HBCUs. They were hiring organizers in African American communities. Folks who live in these communities, right, folks who could talk to their neighbors and say, hey, I'm a Bernie Sanders guy and here's why you should consider it too. And yet, you know, at least from the exit polls that we've seen from last night he really very marginally improved his actual performance with African American voters.
You know the fact of the matter is, you know, as I travel around South Carolina a lot of African American voters in South Carolina are quite moderate. And they just aren't going to buy Bernie Sanders', you know, pretty progressive far left agenda. And that's what gives them a huge disadvantage. He's starting from the disadvantage with that community there.
And, look, African American voters nationwide are by no means monolithic.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
LOVEGROVE: South Carolina voters are not going to necessarily be the same as black voters in Illinois or black voters in California.
BLACKWELL: But we saw in Nevada. We saw in Nevada.
LOVEGROVE: Right, right.
BLACKWELL: He did really well with black voters there. We're running low on time.
LOVEGROVE: Yes.
BLACKWELL: But I want to get to one other candidate with you, Bruce. Senator Elizabeth Warren, she came in fifth place in South Carolina. Let's put up the latest WBUR poll showing her standing in her home state of Massachusetts. Senator Sanders besting her here by eight points. I mean, the calculation she has to make now, her best performance thus far has been third place.
Does she want to lose at home and if she's out does that -- all of those delegates then essentially or most of them will go to Sanders. What's going through the campaign management calculations where she is?
RANSOM: Well, I think she has a major decision to make. Whether or not she makes it before Tuesday, I really can't say. But I will say this and the same will go for Klobuchar as well. If a candidate cannot win and win convincingly, in my opinion, in their home state, then that is going to be the death nail of that campaign because if the people --
BLACKWELL: These are also -- go ahead.
RANSOM: -- who know you best do not support you, then why should others?
BLACKWELL: Yes. And you consider that these are also two sitting senators --
RANSOM: Right.
BLACKWELL: -- Klobuchar in Minnesota and Warren in Massachusetts.
RANSOM: So they run statewide, obviously. Yes.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes. Bruce Ransom, Jamie Lovegrove, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
LOVEGROVE: Thank you.
RANSOM: Thank you.
PAUL: Still ahead, we have the first death in the U.S. from coronavirus. Concerns are growing about its spread in the community, of course. We're going to talk about how the government is responding now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:42]
BLACKWELL: There are new concerns about the spread of the coronavirus here in the U.S. health officials in the state of Washington are investigating a possible outbreak at a long-term nursing facility.
PAUL: Two people have tested positive there and more than 50 residents and staff have symptoms and they are going to be tested. Now the state of Washington is also confirming the first patient who died after being infected with the virus in the U.S.
In this country, there are now at least 71 confirmed or presumptive cases of coronavirus formerly called COVID-19. And that includes a fourth case in Santa Clara County in California. So in total, the CDC says 24 of those cases did originate here in the U.S. We're covering this story from several different angles this morning.
CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen is with us in Atlanta. CNN's Sarah Westwood standing by with more from the White House. And their response and CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Washington State.
BLACKWELL: Omar, we'll start with you. What more do you know about this first person who has died as a result of coronavirus?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This person that died, the first person in the United States to die as a result of the coronavirus is the man in his 50s. And according to state officials did have underlying health conditions when he did contract this coronavirus or the novel coronavirus. Now when you look overall at the picture here in Washington state, while he was the only that died, he was one of three new patients here in Washington state that were announced to have contracted the coronavirus over the course of Saturday.
The other two stemming right here from this nursing facility behind us at this moment -- is a very empty nursing facility behind us at the moment. One was an actual worker here in her 40s, the other was a resident here in her 70s.
And when you look at this site in particular, it is why officials are investigating this as a potential outbreak. We do expect to see both state health and CDC officials here on site as they continue that investigation.
But you touched on some of those numbers overall. We look at the countrywide, 71 at least confirmed or presumptive positive cases, 24 of which have come from potential -- originating here in the United States. And it was why the CDC director appeared alongside the president and vice president Saturday and said that this likely won't be the end of more cases that we see.
As we stand here today, the risk of the American public remains low. As we said, we should anticipate more cases but, again, the current risk to the American public remains low.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: As we stand here today the risk of the American public remains low. As we said we should anticipate more cases but, again, the current risk to the American public remains low.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And then here outside this nursing facility, officials are quarantining anyone that has any sort of symptoms and they're also restricting any visitation as they continue this investigation -- Victor.
PAUL: All right. Good to know. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much.
President Trump and top U.S. health official, you just saw them there, urging Americans not to panic over the coronavirus after the first death in the U.S., of course, had been confirmed. This was the president announcing travel warnings to parts of Italy and South Korea. And he also expanded the current travel ban for Iran.
BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood. Definitely a more proactive response, increasingly proactive I should say, response from the administration.
[06:20:00]
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Victor.
Yesterday what we saw from the president was something of a course correction in terms of tone. After the White House had been criticized for sort of spreading some mixed messages over the past couple of weeks in general and President Trump in particular, there was a show of force from health officials from the president. He was reading carefully from his notes at the beginning of this press conference about the coronavirus telling people, Americans to expect more cases across the United States, sort of setting expectations at a more realistic level.
Take a listen to part of what he said yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Additional cases this is the United States are likely, but healthy individuals should be able to fully recover, and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we've gotten familiar with this problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WESTWOOD: Now this was a shift in tone from when the president had said things like the virus is most likely going to disappear on its own, that it's going to disappear when the weather gets warmer. A more realistic outlook from the president. We also heard him briefly touch on the economic impact of the fears of the outbreak. That's what has been causing the markets to plunge over the past couple of weeks.
He pointed the finger at the Federal Reserve, but we did not hear a lot from the administration yesterday about economic steps they might take. We did hear about those travel restrictions, those travel advisories to places where coronavirus has had a major impact, Victor, Christi.
BLACKWELL: Sarah Westwood for us there in Washington. Thank you.
PAUL: We want to bring in CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. Talk to us, Elizabeth -- and good morning to you.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
PAUL: Talk to us about some of these travel restrictions that the president announced yesterday.
COHEN: There are already travel restrictions for China. That was announced a while back. And so Vice President Pence yesterday announced similar kinds of advice for Italy and for South Korea. So let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are urging Americans to not travel to the areas in Italy and the areas in South Korea that are most affected by the coronavirus. The president has also directed the State Department to work with our allies in Italy and in South Korea to coordinate a screening, a medical screening in their countries of any individuals that are coming in to the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now, let's expand a little bit on that last part of what the vice president said. He talked about exit screenings from Italy and South Korea. That would mean, if this works out, that they would when people are leaving those two countries, they would be asked, do you have these symptoms, do you have a cough, are you having difficulty breathing. And they would take their temperature.
What he didn't talk about and it's a little bit curious to some of the experts I've been talking to is, why wouldn't we have entrance screening in addition to that in the U.S.? When people fly in from China, we take their temperature, we ask them about symptoms, we give them a card so that they can remember what to look for and that card has actually been pretty useful.
At the time we instituted that, there were far fewer cases in China than there are now in either Italy or South Korea. So why are we not doing that same kind of entrance screening for Italy and South Korea that we've been doing for China is unclear.
BLACKWELL: And maybe that will clear up over the next couple of days.
COHEN: Yes.
BLACKWELL: I think it's important that we're all pretty careful with the terminology that we use. So let's go through some of the numbers. More than 86,000 cases worldwide. Nearly 3,000 deaths globally. At what point does this become a pandemic?
COHEN: Right. The pandemic is more than just numbers.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
COHEN: Because most of those numbers are in China. So you can say that there is a -- if you use the word pandemic for a country, which you don't, you could say there was a pandemic in China, right? Because it's explosive and the numbers are huge.
But to really call something a pandemic it needs to be global. You need to see explosive growth globally.
There clearly is growth in this country. I mean, we've had three or four cases yesterday and three or four the day before. I mean, that's a lot. But is that explosive and is it everywhere?
So, we're not quite there yet. I think it would not be surprising if we get there relatively soon. But it's not that kind of explosive growth that would make you say pandemic.
BLACKWELL: OK.
PAUL: All right. Elizabeth Cohen --
COHEN: Thanks.
PAUL: -- thank you so much.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
PAUL: Appreciate it.
By the way, in our next hour, we're speaking with someone who is currently living with coronavirus here in the U.S. You might be surprised how he describes life under quarantine. So that's coming up as well.
Vice President Pence sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper to talk about the U.S. coronavirus strategy.
BLACKWELL: He's stressing that most people who get the virus will recover. But he does admit that more deaths are likely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENCE: There will be more cases.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And possibly more deaths?
PENCE: It is possible. I mean the reality that Dr. Fauci and others explained to me since I took on these duties a few days ago is that for most people that contract the coronavirus, they will recover.
[06:25:05]
They will deal with a respiratory illness, we'll get them treatment, but for people that have other conditions that would militate toward a worse outcome that, we could have more. We could have more sad news. But the American people should know the risk for the average American remains low.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: So for more on the administration's response to coronavirus watch "STATE OF THE UNION." Jake Tapper will be joined by Mr. Pence and former vice president, a Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden. That's "STATE OF THE UNION" today at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
Consider this. Billions of locusts are eating their way through eastern Africa. People who live there they're worried about their livelihoods. Will they be in danger if the insects do not stop from grazing on their farm lands?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:00]
PAUL: It is a locust invasion of epic proportions, and it is swarming East Africa right now.
BLACKWELL: So the United Nations says that these insects could decimate the region's food supply and it's concerned it could become a full blown plague.
CNN's Farai Sevenzo explains how climate change may have led to this outbreak.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For three months now, swarms of desert locusts have been eating their way through East Africa. Here in Kenya like (INAUDIBLE), people bang utensils to try and ward off an increasing menace to their livelihoods, all to no avail. The locusts keep coming. Their voracious appetite means these locusts eat the equivalent of their own body weight in a single day and they move a speed on the changing winds, as far 160 kilometers, almost 100 miles a day.
Beans, maize, pasture for animals, nothing stands day chance, raising fears over food security as the farm lands are decimated. And they keep breeding, laying their eggs in the earth in pasture and agricultural lands.
Across East Africa, locust swarms of biblical proportions have been threatening life and grazing land and eating all the people's crops. Here, you can see these hoppers (ph) are the new generations that would pose a bigger threat to agriculture in Kenya.
The war against locusts is now in full swing. If the swarms aren't stopped, the U.N. says they cannot supply as much as 500 times by June. So the Kenyan government and U.N. agencies are fighting back with pesticides.
In Isiolo, Northeastern Kenya, villagers tell us they're seeing billions of newly hatched locusts. How did this happen?
After years of drought, two cyclones hit east Africa in as many years. These climate change influence phenomena replenished pasture land and filled the rivers. But the heavy rains made the wet earth ideal breeding ground for locusts.
DANIEL LESAIGOR, REGIONAL LOCUST CONTROL TEAM OFFICER: The situation is really -- it's disparity but not hopeless. We tend to control it maybe in two to three months.
SEVENZO: Despite the challenges, they've killed as many as 17 swarms in a day, a medium size swarm being 30 to 40 million insects. But for those on the frontline of the locust invasion, like 47-year-old herder, Chris Amerikwa, the future is full of doubt.
CHRIS AMERIKWA, HERDER: A big swarm, big locusts, they were just covering the whole sky. There was a kind of a cloud.
SEVENZO: Having lost all of his 25 cows in the devastating drought last year, he is worried about what these locusts and pesticides will do.
AMERIKWA: It will even complicate our livelihood in the future if they're going to stay and multiply here or they make their home, their home.
SEVENZO: Caught between the climate crisis and the locust invasion, herders like Chris hope to beat the odds they're facing.
Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Isiolo, Kenya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Those pictures.
BLACKWELL: It's both fascinating and horrifying.
PAUL: At the same time. I cannot imagine for those people trying to -- every single day trying to save their crops.
BLACKWELL: Trying shoo off these locusts. Our thanks to Farai Sevenzo for that story.
Let's get to the CDC and this warning that the coronavirus will spread nationwide. Coming up, how schools and businesses, they could play a key role in slowing the spread.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:35:00]
PAUL: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour right now. We're glad to have you here.
The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. has jumped yet again. We are now at 71 at least confirmed or presumptive cases of Covid-19 in this country. The CDC saying 24 of those cases originated right here in the U.S.
BLACKWELL: In Washington State, health officials are monitoring more than 50 patients and staff at a long-term nursing facility. Two people have tested positive there. The announcement came on the same day the state confirmed the first patient to die after being infected.
PAUL: The CDC is warning businesses and schools, start preparing for the spread of this virus.
Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers is with us now. Ms. Weingarten, thank you so much for being here.
I want to know what you're hearing from teachers right now.
RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: So let me just also say that we're the second largest nurse union. And so all weekend long, we've been dealing, I'm obviously not going to say anything that's privileged, but we've been dealing with the situations in Oregon and in Washington State, and really pushing the healthcare institutions to ensure that the healthcare providers have the appropriate masks and protective equipment and there's the appropriate cleaning. And that gets me to schools and to businesses. And so our union has been preparing for a while.
We pushed very hard to get the Trump administration, you know, back in January and February to do something as opposed to pretending that this was not real.
[06:40:04]
And we think about this in terms of the Ps, that every school system should have an emergency preparedness plan for infections or pandemics. We've had infections before. And whether it was MERS or other -- remember Ebola. And people should brush up those plans. But it comes down to precautions, preparedness, no profiling and not to panic.
And when I talk about precautions and preparedness, look, there may be a situation where schools will be closed.
PAUL: I was just going to ask. What criteria do you use to assess and -- to assess that situation and determine you need to close this particular school or certain communities vulnerable right now, particularly Oregon and Washington?
WEINGARTEN: Right. So I think what happens is that's where you have to be guided by the science and not by fear. The scientists right now become really important. And there are still -- I mean, I know that the president basically got rid of all the pandemic experts in the White House. But there are still scientists at the CDC who really understand and know what they're doing. There are scientists around the country who know what they're doing.
So I'm constantly guided in this process by our scientists, by our industrial hygienists, by our industrial docs. We're constantly on the phone with them. And let me also say for places that haven't gotten information, we have a website called Share My Lesson. It's for free for parents, for teachers. And we have put on that website, under coronavirus, all of the best information we have. And we constantly are updating it.
So what's concerning right now is the cases that have -- of people that were not in Italy, in South Korea and China but that you're seeing cases develop from people who have been home. And so one has to actually really understand those cases, understand where those people have been and then try to reduce the -- try to do containment.
Last thing I'll say is, on preparedness, wash your hands.
PAUL: Yes, that has been an overwhelming edict here.
I want to ask you about the parents of this Jackson High School student who has coronavirus. We are hearing from the parents now. They just released a statement this morning saying, our child became ill with flu-like symptoms Monday morning. We took the necessary steps to have him seen by medical professional, be tested for the flu, we didn't learn of the testing of Covid-19 until Friday morning after our now symptom-free child left for school. He promptly returned home before school started.
Why would the parents not have known about the test before then?
WEINGARTEN: Well, this is part of the -- this is part of the lack of preparation. And, you know, I'm glad finally the president is taking it seriously and not pretending that this will not happen in the United States. You have to be honest with the public.
So these two things, you know -- or three things. Wash your hands. There is -- second, there is a test for the coronavirus. And those test kits have to be made readily available. And number three, we have to make sure that there's protective equipment like the specialized masks that healthcare practitioners and providers have to have.
So these things have to be available. And, unfortunately, our government, you know, pretended that this didn't exist.
PAUL: We do. We have. But we do have to point out the president is meeting officials on Monday from the largest pharmaceutical companies to talk about a vaccine. He's imposed some travel restrictions on several different countries, China, Iran, Italy, South Korea. He's got some entrance screenings that going on for China, definitely seems like there has been a shift and the concerns for this --
WEINGARTEN: Yes, no, no, it definitely seems like there's been a turn, yes, exactly. Thank God. And, look, thank God, because this is the -- the role of the government in these kinds of situations is to inspire trust, confidence but they have to be led by the scientists.
PAUL: Okay. Randi Weingarten, we appreciate you taking time for us. Thank you.
WEINGARTEN: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: So you heard Randi there say two or three times wash your hands, right? We have to do that. But the surgeon general has another request if you're concerned about the spread of coronavirus.
PAUL: Yesterday, he tweeted seriously, people, stop buying masks. His tweet comes after so many Americans bought masks in bulk and that leads to shortages, which we're seeing.
Here is CNN's Brynn Gingras with more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: There's no reason to panic.
[06:45:00]
BRYNN GINGRAS, CN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Despite calls for calm, concern is setting in among Americans. Fear of the coronavirus will spread to their community. Store shelves are coming up short in hand sanitizer, disinfectant and most of all face masks.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The average American does not need to go out and buy a mask.
GINGRAS: Government officials say face masks are not necessary if you are healthy and don't entirely provide protection against the coronavirus. Even still, brick and mortar stores are struggling to keep up with demand.
Companies like Home Depot, Rite Aid, Target, Lowe's; CVS, Walgreens, all tell CNN they're working to expedite product to their stores. Home Depot is limiting ten masks per customers and sites like Amazon shut down suppliers accused of price gouging.
Jody Vitelli is seeing her small business begin to boom.
GINGRAS: What sort of phone calls are you getting?
JODY VITELLI, TUTEM MASKS: Do you have any masks and how fast can I get them? And the answer is we have many masks.
GINGRAS: In 2013, Vitelli started Tutem Masks to stop the spread of germs on airplanes. And her masks, which provide the basic level of protection, are in high demand.
VITELLI: This is not an N95 respirator. There is some transparencies, some possibility of it coming inside. But still, it is a very good tool.
GINGRAS: Vitelli says she gets the public's concern and the masks allow people to feel in control of their health.
VITELLI: If you touch something, you're less likely to touch your nose and mouth if you're wearing a face mask.
GINGRAS: The need for a sense security is also driving internet searches. Helium 10, a software company that assists Amazon retailers tells CNN, Amazon users have searched for the word, N95 mask, more than 862,000 times in the last 30 days, significantly up from last month.
PENCE: We've contracted now with 3M to 35 million more masks per month.
GINGRAS: The federal government announcing it's taking steps to increase availability of the N95 respirator masks and will prioritize them for healthcare workers.
DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: If we as healthcare providers do not have the tools we need, some of us may not feel safe going to work. And then all kinds of other things will break down.
GINGRAS: For now, health officials urge your best line of defense is simple and cheap. Wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze.
Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Well, Saturday Night Live, you know, I don't know how they do it, sometimes you think there's nothing funny about this. but then they take their own turn on it.
PAUL: Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've assembled a very experienced team of some of the best people left in government, led by one of the most brilliant minds in medicine, Dr. Ben Carson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm Ben Carson, you know, the brain surgeon, then they put in charge of house development? Well, this is something I actually do know about and rest assured, in my expert opinion, it's going to be bad.
So here's what we know so far, it looks like this. As you can see from his sharp teeth, he's a nasty little thing. He'll bite.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But don't panic. There are still simple precautions that we can all take, like covering your mouth when you cough and, as always, closing your eyes during intercourse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We suggest getting these wonderful Make America Great Again masks from the White House website. It may take a couple of months for delivery because they are made in Wuhan, China.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. All right, thank you, Dr. Carson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's bad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:50:00]
PAUL: So March madness came a day early, crazy Saturday at college hoops.
BLACKWELL: Coy, you know, last year, I led the brackets for a while.
PAUL: And he's so humble about it.
BLACKWELL: Actually, second year running that I led the fourth year. I'll teach you a few things.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I needed it. Victor dominates.
PAUL: I need it worse than anybody else.
WIRE: Hey, look, the way the season has gone is any indication. This will be the wildest March Madness in a long time.
PAUL: Really?
WIRE: Yes. There's been top teams, ten teams falling all season and three more yesterday. Number 6, Florida State down one to Clemson eight seconds ago, and Trent Forrest getting the floater to fall here, putting Florida State up one, but Clemson inbounds in a hurry. And freshman Al-Amir Dawes, slipping and dipping past all five defenders, yes, hear me roar. Clemson stunning the Seminoles as students rushed the floor. Tigers now 3-1 against top ten teams this season. Look out.
How about number 7 Duke falling to unranked Virginia. Virginia's Jay Huff, 7'1, he grew up in Durham, a Blue Devils fan, and now he's dominating the Blue Devils on defense. While he was up one in the final seconds and Duke's Vernon Carey shot swatted by Huff, his tenth block of the game, Duke getting dropped for a third loss in the last four games. It's the fifth time Duke lost to an unranked team this season, can you believe it?
Number 2, Baylor Bears getting blasted by the upset bug as well. P.J. Fuller's thunderous dunk sealing the win for TCU, 75-72. Baylor has lost two of its last three games.
Now, March Madness two weeks away, and could you imagine the tournament being played in arenas that are empty out of the fear of coronavirus. Well, the National College Players Association released a statement saying in part, quote, there should be a serious discussion about holding competitions without an audience present, unquote. They also want things like autograph signings and some of the appearances players due to be canceled while noting that other major events around the world and even here in the U.S. now being canceled.
The NCPA is a non-profit advocacy group which fights for better health and financial protections for college athletes.
[06:55:04]
But they noted Amazon and some other companies in the U.S. canceling summits in (INAUDIBLE) tournaments, soccer in Europe. They played their games in front of empty stands.
PAUL: Yes. And that was a little eerie.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Thank you, Coy.
PAUL: Thanks. So, still ahead, the U.S. is expanding travel restrictions this morning as the country reports its first coronavirus death.
BLACKWELL: Stay with us. The next hour of your New Day starts after a break.
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[07:00:00]
