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New Day Sunday

Long Lines At Airports As Returning Americans Undergo Screening; Spain Imposes Nationwide Lockdown To Stop Virus Spreading; France Shuts Down All Restaurants, Cafes, Cinemas And Clubs; White House: President Trump Tests Negative For Coronavirus; Religious Communities Modify Traditions Due To Outbreak; Retailers React To Coronavirus Outbreak. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired March 15, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The U.K. government scrambling to make sense of new regulations from the United States.

[07:00:03]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got on an escalator. There are people just piled up at the bottom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New Orleans police shoo St. Patrick Day revelers gathered in the Irish Channel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very disappointed that the mayor decided to squash all the good times for St. Patrick's Day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Car after car, bumper to bumper in a single-file line. This is now the front line of the war against COVID-19. What we don't want to do is to flood the waiting rooms and emergency departments with patients who are sick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what Spain's coronavirus state of emergency looks like in Madrid.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIH: We have not reached our peak. You will see more cases and we will see more suffering and death among the vulnerables.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Seven o'clock on this Sunday. Thank you for being with us.

We're talking, of course, about the coronavirus, its expansion and the disruptive changes we're seeing this morning on a global scale.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Americans returning from Europe are finding chaos at airports, hours-long delays. Look at these lines.

PAUL: Oh, my goodness. BLACKWELL: They're waiting to go through customs and health screenings

and that's raising some serious concerns about hundreds of passengers crowded closely together. I mean, this ain't social distancing obviously. And are they being exposed?

Starting at midnight, restrictions in trouble from Europe will include the U.K., Ireland. The president says domestic travel restrictions are also under consideration.

PAUL: And dramatic emergency measures are in place in Europe. We know France is closing all non-essential businesses such as restaurants. Spain ordering people to stay in their homes and the Vatican canceling public Easter events.

BLACKWELL: Good news, though, on the front of the health of the president. President Trump says he has tested negative for the virus. But he came in contact with two people who tested positive. Again, the president testing negative.

2020 politics also feeling the impact. The state of Georgia is moving its presidential primary from March 24th to May 19th. Louisiana also delayed voting.

PAUL: All of the reasons for this urgency is clear in numbers. Sixty people have died here in the United States. This update as well, more than 2,800 confirmed cases now. And around the world, there are more than 150,000 cases. That's according to the latest data from the World Health Organization and John Hopkins University. More than 5,000 people have died.

BLACKWELL: We have reporters around the world covering all angles of this. Al Goodman, he is in Madrid. Catherine Norris-Trent is in Paris. Sarah Westwood is in Washington.

First, though, to Polo Sandoval. He is in New York. Polo is at JFK Airport, one of the 13 airports handling the flights impacted by the European travel ban rules.

What are you seeing there? These pictures are unbelievable.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Victor, these pictures, these stories, they seem to be repeating themselves, especially all the stories that have come in from yesterday. Passenger after passenger describing the scenes met with upon return back to the United States. Of course, we're talking U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are able to travel back into the country from the select regions in Europe.

The concern, of course, you have the government that's asking people to practice social distancing, but at the same time, many passengers comes in waiting for the CDC required testing, staged or forced to wait in long lines and in cramped spaces.

Here's what some of the passengers had to say about their experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KATHERINE ROGERS, PASSENGER ARRIVING IN U.S. (via telephone): We got off the our plane and were directed down a hall and the international terminal and we got on an escalator and it was just absolutely, there were people just piled up at the bottom.

JULIA BAZALUK, CAME FROM LONDON: I spent three hours, I think, maybe a little bit more waiting first to get to customs and then waiting for the second step where I'm not sure what was happening.

EMMA REUSCH, FLYING IN FROM PORTUGAL: Very crowded, which is not ideal considering what this contagion is. It's the worst system I could think of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: All right. Remember what brought us here. Recall just a couple days ago the Trump administration announced this new European travel ban and also this accompanying wellness check for all of these inbound passengers, they designated about 13 airports across the country that are meant to basically -- for these passengers to land. We're talking U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

After they go through customs, they then have to encounter some of these workers that are -- they are asked for medical history, also for some of their travel history and they're checked out for potential symptoms. It's a process that according to the acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf says lasts only about a minute. But, of course, you multiply that by all the passengers that are coming and the result is this logjam.

The DHS secretary taking to Twitter yesterday saying that the department is aware of these long lines of passengers who are undergoing this increased medical screening and that they are currently working to add additional screening capacity and currently working with airlines to expedite this.

[07:05:11]

The secretary goes on to say he understands this is obviously very stressful and very concerning and asking for patience during unprecedented time, and again saying that this is a process that only takes about a minute, Victor and Christi. But, again, you multiply that by many passengers who fly into the country every day and the results are these pictures.

And I think what we're seeing is this fueling two things. It's certainly fueling criticism by some of critics that the Trump administration was not prepared to enforce this European travel ban and also accompanying wellness check, and it also fuels concerns by many of the passengers that feel they're being crammed into these spaces could expose them to the virus itself.

BLACKWELL: Polo Sandoval for us there in New York -- Polo, thank you.

PAUL: So, let's talk about what's happening in Spain this morning. They have a nationwide travel restriction in effect. Spaniards there have to stay inside their homes. There's only a few exceptions to this.

BLACKWELL: So, that is after a spike of more than 1,500 cases in a single day including the Spanish prime minister's wife, she tested positive.

PAUL: Al Goodman is in Central Madrid for us.

Al, tell us -- how are things going there. And what about the exceptions where Spaniards are allowed to go outside?

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christi and Victor. You were talking a moment ago in the program about churches in the United States.

Let me talk to you about one thing not an exception. Church services here in traditionally very Roman Catholic Spain, mass canceled. I'm outside the San Gines Church in Central Madrid, dates back to the 12th century. Nowadays on a Sunday, the priests celebrate eight different masses on the hour in the morning and the afternoon. Each one attended by 600 to 800 Parishioners according to the Parish priest with whom we talked.

Those have been canceled. Parishioners can individually go into the church. We saw a few, a handful in there, in just a few minutes ago. The priest said he will still take confession. That can be done, but the growing Catholic leadership in Spain has put out signs like this one, this is in Spanish, that outside churches across the country, it basically says that because of this state of emergency, masses can't be held in the church here so encourages Parishioners to do so in their homes.

Of course, there's a lot of social media and televised masses that they can follow as well. But that's just one of the places that is so vital to so many Spaniards that's not on the exception list. Now, on the exception list are the food stores and pharmacies. But, clearly, the prime minister says these are crisis days, and what they're trying to do here, as everywhere else, is stop this dramatic increase that might overwhelm the hospitals.

Back to you.

PAUL: Al Goodman, take care of yourself there. Thank you so much for the update.

BLACKWELL: From Madrid to Paris now, the streets of France are quiet this morning. New sweeping restrictions announced by the French prime minister went into affect a few hours ago.

PAUL: All non-essential businesses are closed. We're talking about restaurants, cafes, cinemas, clubs and it started at midnight.

So, Catherine Norris-Trent is a reporter with France 24 joining us now from Paris.

So, people are waking up this morning here realizing they can't go. There's no place for them to go. How are they handling that? Do we know?

CATHERINE NORRIS-TRENT, REPORTER, FRANCE 24: Yes, Christi. People are slowly adapting to this new reality now, this normal here in France, after the drastic shutdown of many of the services people traditionally rely on. So, restaurants, bars, many shops, all of those that aren't selling food and medicine, are all closed this Sunday. Theaters, too. We just heard also ski resorts as well.

So, a lot of people's leisure activities have been curtailed. Daily life is getting more difficult for people as the coronavirus comes and sinks in here in France. We just heard from the transport minister as well asking people to limit movement and she announced that train services and plane services internally in France are going to be progressively reduced throughout the week.

And for Monday, all schools, universities and kindergartens will be shut, too. So, it's really starting to hit home now that social interaction, life, daily life in France will not be able to carry on as usual.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you, before we let you go, about the vote that's happening there. Local elections happening today. What are the precautions being taken?

NORRIS-TRENT: Right. So there is the first round of voting taking place all across France, 50 million people registered to vote in France, in the first round of local elections, and some people saying this is not consistent with the sweeping restrictions that have just been announced by the French government.

There are precautions in place at all of the polling stations.

[07:10:01]

So, for example, people are being told to cue up at least one meter, three feet apart and markers are taped down on floors. The polling stations have been disinfected and in places officials are actually cleaning the ballot boxes with sanitizer gel after each person has voted. And people are being told to bring their own pens, bring their own ballot slips to try and avoid contamination.

But there is a lot of controversy about the fact this vote is being held at all and not postponed. A lot of people, politicians from opposition parties, and also doctors and health professionals, saying that the government should have delayed this vote, and turnout, let me just tell you what the latest number, the turnout is down. It's just over 18 percent as of mid-day in France. That's down around 5 percentage points from the last local elections in 2014.

BLACKWELL: Catherine Norris-Trent for us in Paris, thank you so much.

PAUL: We're going to have continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic throughout the day. Coming up on "STATE OF THE UNION", Jake Tapper talking with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. That is today, at 9:00, right here on CNN. BLACKWELL: President Trump finally takes a corona test, coronavirus

test, I should say. But will he stop shaking hands? Will he stop crowding a dozen people behind a podium? We head next to the White House, coming up after the break.

PAUL: And places of worship, we've been talking about that this morning as they shut their doors and shift from in-person to online services. The impact of coronavirus on religious communities. We're talking to a couple of leaders.

Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:37]

PAUL: Well, the White House says President Trump has tested negative for the coronavirus. This comes after a surprise announcement from the president yesterday that he had taken the test on Friday.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood.

Sarah, help me understand this, because the memo we received from the White House physician was about midnight, it was the middle of the night, going Friday into Saturday saying the president would not self- quarantine, did not need to be tested, but when were the president say he was tested?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Victor, Mr. President Trump said yesterday he was tested Friday night. So, there's a lot of confusion about the timing of that test given that as you mentioned, the White House physician sent out a memo late Friday night saying that the president had had what he described as low risk interactions with people who had tested positive for COVID-19 wasn't recommending the president get tested.

But nonetheless, the president suggested pressure from the media, types of questions he faced during that Friday press conference later encouraged him to take the test. In another memo released yesterday, the White House doctor said after in depth conversation with President Trump that they decided to go ahead and test the president for corona virus.

Now, the White House seems to be taking this a little more seriously. Yesterday, for example, a person from the White House physician's office took temperature of reporters who are going to be in the briefing room with Vice President Pence with President Trump. So, they are going to start screening people apparently who are going to come into close proximity with the president and vice president -- Vice President Mike Pence, sending all staff email to White House staff encouraging them to practice social distancing and avoid physical contact.

And yet we haven't seen President Trump model that behavior. He's continuing to shake hands when he appears in public, continuing to pack the rooms he's in with officials standing behind him when he appears at the podium, for example. So, President Trump not clearly practicing social distancing but that's a message we are getting from this administration and the message they are giving to their own staff, Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, thank you so much for the update. Appreciate it.

BLACKWELL: Joining us now is Lauren Baer. She was a member of the State Department Ebola early response team during the Obama administration.

Lauren, good to have you.

LAUREN BAER, EBOLA EARLY RESPONSE TEAM: Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: So you know what this response is supposed to look like. You helped put together the plan during the Ebola outbreak. What's your assessment of the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic?

BAER: My assessment of this response is that's highly deficient, from the very earliest days in our response to the Ebola crisis, we recognized that it wasn't only a global health issue, there were potential economic implications and also vast national security implications to a disease that would spread in that way. All of the same applies to the coronavirus but this president from his earliest days has treated it primarily as a political crisis, looking at it with implications for his election in November, and not on the American people.

Now, we've seen that start to change in the past week, but I take great concern out of things like the fact that in his statement on Friday, he was still saying things like, I take no responsibility at all. Until the president recognizes that the buck stops with him, and that the lives and livelihoods of American people depend on him owning this crisis and treating it with the seriousness that it deserves, I don't think we can be confident in the leadership here.

PAUL: So, somebody else is talking out about this. Newt Gingrich former speaker of the house wrote a piece in "Newsweek" talking how he's living in Italy, seen a strong response from that government.

Here's what he said about President Trump. He said he was right to cut off travel from China early. He was right to enact travel bans from Europe but the U.S. doesn't need a stimulus package. They need an economic growth package, basically speaking against nationalism. He said, they have to recognize, meaning the U.S., that we may need to grow strongly enough to help pull Europe out of a deep recession by this fall, we can't think just about what's happening economically in the U.S. A collapsing Europe would have a huge impact on the entire world economy including America.

What do you think at this point is the reasonable response to a pandemic like this and do you see anybody in President Trump's circle who can have some influence on that?

[07:20:01]

BAER: Well, first, I want to take note of how meaningful it is that you have Newt Gingrich writing an article like this. This is someone who was a stalwart Republican whose wife serves in the administration going outside the normal diplomatic channels to indicate that he thinks this administration is not giving this the kind of response that it needs.

Now where I might differ from Mr. Gingrich is in saying we need to be concerned not only with the macro economic implications of this crisis but how it's affecting everyday American families. If you look at just the change in the past week in terms of individuals starting to be asked to work from home, schools closing in parts of our country, people avoiding mass transit. This is going to be hitting people's pocketbooks hard especially if you're a worker in a gig company, especially if you're an hourly worker, which is why things like the relief we saw coming out of the house was so important. Things like paid sick leave and paid family leave.

But this is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we're going to need to be providing to ensure not only that the economy as a whole stays afloat but that everyday Americans are able to make it through unscathed.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you, stay on the geopolitical angle of this because your role at the State Department makes you the perfect person to answer this. I want to take everyone back to January 22nd. The CDC at first discovered that initial coronavirus positive in Washington state. And I want you to listen to the optimism we heard from the president. We'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Words of a pandemic at this point?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, not at all. We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you trust that we're going to know everything we need to know from China?

TRUMP: I do. I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, now, more than 2,800 cases in the U.S. Optimism aside, the trusting that we get everything we need to know from China, what's your view on that expectation?

BAER: Well, I want to look at the big geopolitical picture here and make clear to the American people that this is every -- just as much a test of America's global leadership as active warfare would be. This is precisely the situation we need close coordination with allies and international organizations to make sure that we are doing everything we can in following the best practices in order to control this pandemic.

But what you've seen from President Trump is actually precisely the opposite. He spent the first three years of his administration distancing himself from allies, cozying up to dictators and I think we're seeing the implications now. This is a situation the world actually isn't looking to the United States for leadership. No one is saying that we are engaging in best practices here, and that should be a concern to all of us.

BLACKWELL: Laurent Baer, thanks so much for your insight.

PAUL: Thank you, Lauren.

BAER: Thank you for having me.

PAUL: Coming up, churches and synagogues, we know, are closing doors shifting from in-person to online services.

BLACKWELL: The impact of coronavirus on religious communities. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:27:17]

BLACKWELL: President Trump is calling for a national day of prayer. He tweeted he will be attending service online today because of the spread of the coronavirus. Churches across the country are shifting from in-person to online services.

PAUL: Many religious leaders decided to close places of worship, to ban large gathering, to modify their traditions. The Vatican, in fact, has cancelled Easter mass and Holy Week celebrations. The pope is now live streaming the events.

BLACKWELL: Here with us this morning is senior pastor of Mount Calvary Christian Center, Bishop Reggie Witherspoon, Sr., and also Rabbi Adam Starr of the Ohr HaTorah Synagogue.

Thank you both for joining us.

BISHOP REGGIE WITHERSPOON SR., SENIOR PASTOR, MOUNT CALVARY CHRISTIAN CENTER: It's a pleasure. Good to be with you.

BLACKWELL: Bishop, let me start with you, and the decision to move to, I understand, a teleworship. Tell us about the decision and how will this work? Because a lot of, I know specifically the GOGIC denomination, there's a lot of interaction that makes those sermons resonate. How do you replicate that?

WITHERSPOON: Well, it's unchartered territory for sure, and our system certainly social interaction is paramount. As a matter of fact, God designed us to be in community. So, yes, we do a lot of touching your neighbor and those kind of things and certainly encouraged all of our members to do something we've never had to do before. Stay home and watch us live stream via Facebook. Inevitably, there will be those who will show up, and I'm going to be

at the physical church with a few staff people and we're going to stream our service, but for those who decide to show up, we are going to, we're using the greatest sanitary measures possible, but we're encouraging people to watch us online. It's again, unprecedented.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WITHERSPOON: Something we've never had to do before, tell people to stay home. But hopefully that's the best option.

PAUL: Rabbi Starr, I want to put on the screen here a picture of the website, "The Atlanta Jewish Times", because I think people went there to try to get information. It's a bit jolting to see this. So -- we know that connectivity and communal life is pivotal to Orthodox Judaism.

There is an edict you practice to have a quorum of ten people to say certain prayers, to read from the Torah. How do you remedy that if people can't get together?

RABBI ADAM STARR, OHR HATORAH SYNAGOGUE: It is really difficult. We I always like to say that a synagogue operates 365 day as year, nonstop, no matter the weather, no matter what's going on in the world. And for the first time ever, we've had to close our doors.

And we had people praying at home, but it's not the full prayer service.

[07:30:08]

We can't read from the Torah. There are elements we're not allowed to pray unless we have that quorum, which is a real challenge but we feel for the sake of what we call Hebrew (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) of saving a life, they override this otherwise extremely important religious concerns and doing the unthinkable which is closing the door for services.

BLACKWELL: Hmm. Bishop, let me ask you. The president has said that a miracle would end coronavirus. That was early on, and we're seeing a televangelist using his platform to do this. We've got a clip of the video and then I want to talk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH COPELAND, TELEVANGELIST: Consider not my own body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

COPELAND: I consider not symptoms in my body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cannot symptoms in my body.

COPELAND: But only that which God has promised.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But only that which God has promised. COPELAND: Only that what the word has said.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only that what the word has said.

COPELAND: And by his stripes I was healed, and by his stripes I am healed now. I'm not the sick trying to get healed. I'm the healed and the devil's trying to give me the flu!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Kenneth Copeland. Devil's trying to give me the flu and consider not my symptoms.

What are the allowances you make for faith, but also for medical advice?

WITHERSPOON SR.: Well, we have to use common sense. God gave us medical science for a reason. The Christian faith is all about believing, and faith is believing in what you can't see. If you can see it, it's not faith.

So we subscribe to the fact that god is supernatural. God can guard us, protect us, keep us. We believe that we have to confess it but also know the reality is, as believers things don't always go as we would like them to and we've got to trust the knowledge and the wisdom that God has given us via medical science.

So I think we need to encourage our people to do what 2nd Timothy 1 said, giving us not a spirit of fear but of spirit of power and love and of a sound mind. Don't live in fear. Confess what you believe absolutely, the Bible says we have to confess what we believe in and hold fast to what you believe God can do, but at the same time we understand in this realm of humanity, bad things happen to good people. We're in a pandemic experience here.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WITHERSPOON: So it would be naive of us to think that because we're believers that it won't happen to us even though we're hoping, praying and believing that it will not.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: There is a woman, from "The Washington Post" believe Jesus is present in communion. You can't get that on television, which makes you wonder how people -- and I know that is from the Christian perspective, from the Jewish perspective as well, because you said, this is unprecedented what you are doing. How do you retain these people that depend on that human interaction? What -- and who, perhaps -- may be very uncomfortable with a TV version of worship?

STARR: Well, the irony here is that people come to our holy spaces, our sacred spaces when they need support, they need comfort, when they need solace.

BLACKWELL: Good point. STARR: And the challenge is, these are the places they can't come to

at this time, and we are finding very creative ways to resume in other technologies to reach out to them. To do acts of kindness for those who may be in need. I had an email this morning from a teenager asking, can they go shopping for some other elderly people who are more at risk to go to the supermarket? In many ways this challenge can bring out the best in people. I do think that is doing God's work even if they can't come to services.

BLACKWELL: Yes. At our church, the sick and shut-in list, people who were members couldn't come in. Many of them were in their 70s, 80s or 90s, and you go visit them every week. This may be the week maybe you don't go visit them. They're most vulnerable.

STARR: The walls of the synagogues and the churches are expanding.

BLACKWELL: Yes, because should we go? We put that to you before we go quickly, Bishop. Should members go and visit the sick and shut-in? If you got an 80-year-old woman who is a member of the church, well, weekly may be visited only by members of the church, is this the week to go visit her because of the vulnerabilities of the coronavirus?

WITHERSPOON: Oh, man. That's a great, great question. The bible teaches we should take tear of the widows, the sick and shut-in. That is in our Scriptures. I think if we use the best sanitary practices we don't want to abandon our seniors.

We, too, are doing everything we can by grocery shopping for seniors encouraging them not to leave their houses. We will bring everything and anything they need to them. We have to do that, if we're asking them not to leave their houses. But if we can sanitize ourselves and trust in our God that as we do the work of the Lord, serving seniors and less fortunate and underprivileged, that we just have to believe God will cover us.

[07:35:02]

And at some point, we have to ask, what would Jesus do? And Jesus would not turn his eye, turn his head to this situation. He would come to those who need him and trust the God to cover him and protect him. And that's what we're doing.

BLACKWELL: All right.

WITHERSPOON: I believe you do the work of the Lord, God will cover you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Bishop.

PAUL: Bishop Reggie Witherspoon, Jr., and Rabbi Adam Starr, grateful for you both. Thank you so much.

STARR: Thank you.

WITHERSPOON: Thank you. Good to be with you. BLACKWELL: Coming up, will the coronavirus like the flu slow down with

warmer weather? What does the science say? We'll check parts of the world and see what happens, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:13]

PAUL: Messages from actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson. Quote: Take care of yourselves and each other.

Makes so much sense.

Last week the two posted that they're doing fine, after testing positive for coronavirus. They're in isolation in Australia in fact right now, so they don't spread the virus to anyone else.

BLACKWELL: And Hanks was in Australia for preproduction on a film about singer Elvis Presley.

And there are some people who are hopeful that the coronavirus will behave like the flue and we'll see cases kind of taper off in the spring as temperatures start to warm up across the country.

PAUL: What we're learning about the virus, or with what we're learning -- we're learning how likely that is.

Well, we have CNN Meteorologist, Allison Chinchar with us now.

So, you're half doctor apparently, half -- you're a scientist, any way you cut.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

PAUL: But what do we know about, like, the flu? Warmer the temperatures, the less the virus? Because the virus doesn't like warm temperatures, right?

CHINCHAR: Correlation is not causation. I think that's the main focus here. OK? So there's a lot of factors that go into this.

And, yes, the flu has a lot of strong seasonality with it, but I'm pretty sure we've all known someone who's gotten flu in the summer. It doesn't mean you can't get it.

And I think that's just -- we have some viruses that we know a lot about. Coronavirus isn't one of them. So, you can't always compare it to other things we have a bit more research on.

BLACKWELL: We should also point out that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are in Australia. And it is summer.

PAUL: Summer.

BLACKWELL: And there are cases all over the world in warmer climates. CHINCHAR: Yes. And according to the center of communicable disease

dynamics, they point out there are humid and hot conditions where the flu can actually thrive, because the thing is, it's adapting to its environment. It's adapting to the conditions that are there.

So, yes, obviously the most favorable conditions are very dry and very cold for transitions but it doesn't mean it can't survive in warm or humid environments.

BLACKWELL: So, you're telling us that there is no definitive answer as we have all tried to find this hope in what warmer temperatures may mean? Or as we look ahead to what fall might mean? A lot of concern from people about, is this going to go away in the summer and come back with a vengeance in the fall?

CHINCHAR: Right. And if you remember, the 2009 pandemic flu did just that. Again, that's the flu. But it did that. But you saw a decrease in number over the summer. But then in September, it came rapidly back.

And I want to point out, too, for a lot of people. This morning, Florida added 39 new cases bringing their total to 115. Over 50 of those are in the Miami area. The last four days, they've had high temperatures well above 80 degrees.

BLACKWELL: Wow.

CHINCHAR: So, it kind of just goes to show, there's other things are at play than the weather. So, we can't make that definitive correlation once temperatures get warm, once it gets humid, that this thing will go away.

BLACKWELL: This is novel. This is new. There are a lot of things we do not know and we'll look at these answers together.

Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

PAUL: Thank you.

So, across the country, we know retailers are changing how they operate during this pandemic. Nike is shutting down stores. Food chains are cutting back hours to restock.

Up next, how to manage your money through a national emergency.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We're in the height of the primary season, the election is coming in November and the coronavirus is keeping people inside. The last thing you need now is another political argument at home.

[07:45:04]

Well, in today's "Staying Well", how do we keep the peace during these troubled times.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE SAFER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST: You do not have to tolerate something that's going to be divisive and make everybody miserable.

I'm Jeanne Safer and I'm a psychoanalyst.

RICHARD BROOKHISER, SENIOR EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW: I'm Richard Brookhiser. I'm a senior editor of "National Review."

SAFER: How long have we been married?

BROOKHISER: Thirty-nine years in September.

I'm a conservative Republican. She's a liberal Democrat. You know, we used to fight a little bit, and then over time we learned just not to do that. It didn't result in me or Jeanne changing either one of our minds.

SAFER: As a therapist, the issue is not politics. It's psychology. I interviewed 50 people for this book.

I would say about 48 of them were busy trying to stick their opinions down the other person's throat.

If you want your marriage to be better, your friendship or relationship with your child, I hereby give everybody permission to say, let's not talk about this, and stick with it. You don't have to agree with his position. It makes relationships closer. It also says, I know the place of politics and I know the place of personality and character. I choose character over anything.

BROOKHISER: We got the wrong key.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Have you been to a grocery store lately?

PAUL: Oh, my goodness.

BLACKWELL: It's clear it's panic buying. A lot of people are just buying everything.

PAUL: Food shelves, empty. Cleaning products cleaning out.

Starting today, all Walmart stores in the U.S. are closing at 11:00 p.m., so staff can restock and disinfect the store.

[07:50:01]

There are grocery chains as well. Publix, Kroger closing early.

BLACKWELL: With us now, Michelle Singletary, syndicated personal finance columnist with the "Washington Post." Michelle, you know, I went to the grocery store, some of the things I

expected, you know, people wouldn't hoard like grapes. Why all the grapes gone? They're not going to last you 14 days.

This panic buying, what's your take on it?

MICHELLE SINGLETARY, SYNDICATED PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: People, you know, they are scared, and they're worried they're going to be trapped in their house and college kids, they're home. My son, he's home and he eats his body weight in a day.

So, you know, you're like, I'm going to run out of bread, I'm going to run out of peanut butter. And I was at the store with my husband, and for a second, I almost got caught up in it. He's like put that back, put that back, you know?

And I get it. People are scared. But just -- here's something to consider. The longer we're home and people may not be able to work or furloughed or run out of paid sick leave, you're going to need some of that money to pay your bills, so get what you need. There are some things you might want to have a little bit more of, like maybe soup and things like that, but don't stock up so you have this closet full of stuff but you actually need that money that you used for those items.

BLACKWELL: That's a good point.

SINGLEARY: All of this toilet paper, you guys have washcloths, you know?

PAUL: We have heard from so many people, why are people hoarding toilet paper. I wanted to --

SINGLETARY: It's insane. I mean, listen --

PAUL: I want to ask you something that you actually wrote in one of your articles. You said, when my husband tells me to calm down even if my concern is warranted, I'm going to punch him.

SINGLETARY: I did.

PAUL: There are a lot of those people who are letting those feelings bubble up and they say when it comes to their finances, they're very uncertain and there's a lot of fear. So, when you're talking about that anxiety, how do you make solid thought out conditions in your private life?

SINGLETARY: You know, there are several in my family who are therapists and social workers. And I listen to them. My niece in particular who's in New York and she says, your feelings aren't the facts.

And here's the thing, feel what you feel. It's scary out there. You're worried, your retirement account. You're worried about your 529 plan. That's OK. I don't think you should use the words calm down. When my husband says

it, it sounds like you're being irrational. We're not being irrational. This is your money that you work hard for.

However, don't let your feelings drive your financial decisions. That is the key. So, while I'm like -- even I.

I write for the "Washington Post," I write about personal finance. I have a good chunk of money in my retirement account. All of my kids went to college and are debt-free for the money I saved. So, I am you.

But I do not let my feelings -- I'm a worrier. And I will --

PAUL: Yes.

SINGLETARY: I say all of those things to my husband, but then I calm down and I haven't touched anything. I haven't changed any way that I invested because I know the market will come back eventually.

BLACKWELL: So, aside from touching anything or making any moves, for as long as I've been interviewing you, you've always said, don't ignore your finances, open the envelopes, check the account, assist where you are.

Is this the week to ignore that advice? I really don't want to see it.

SINGLETARY: Well, let me correct you a little bit, baby.

BLACKWELL: OK, go ahead.

(LAUGHTER)

SINGLETARY: So, what I said -- what I said was pay attention to your budget and the money that's coming in and out. You should not be checking your 401(k).

BLACKWELL: OK.

SINGLETARY: Even your 529 plan on a regular basis. You check it when you get those quarterly statements at the end of the year, but now because we can go online -- I had a dear friend at my church who text me, she's like, I lost $70,000. I said, stop looking. I said, long you do have before retirement. She's got about ten years.

And so, don't look. I haven't looked at my retirement account in about two weeks because I can't handle it. If I can't handle it, you mere mortals have no chance at all.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: Don't touch your face and don't touch your stocks.

SINGLETARY: That's right. It's really important.

BLACKWELL: Michelle Singletary, we've got to wrap it there, but always good avice. PAUL: Always such a pleasure.

BLACKWELL: Thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you.

SINGLETARY: You're so welcome.

PAUL: So good to see you.

So, listen to this, when NCAA canceled the conference basketball tournaments, Greensboro coliseum, site of the championships, was left with the surplus of uneaten food? We're going to talk about some good stuff. The out-of-the-garden project, a non-profit in Greensboro, providing meals to children and families that need knew exactly what to do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON MILHOLIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OUT OF THE GARDEN PROJECT: We can feel however we want to about the ACC tournament being canceled, but the blessing this that, there are going to be thousands of children who are getting meals that they may not have had that not happened. Now, I'm not saying that's necessarily worth the trade-off, but it's not a waste.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So this outbreak has changed all of our normal routines we know. You've been sharing your stories, which we love to hear.

[07:55:02]

Thank you for tweeting us and getting in touch on Instagram and Facebook. And I want to read a couple of things to you.

Megan says I manage a grocery store. We are all tired. This is worse than any food holiday with less staff we can imagine.

So, when you go to the store, maybe a little kindness would go a long way.

BLACKWELL: Yes, just a nice thank you is all some folks need.

Here's another one. Just got back from a family dog walk and now looking forward to a Sunday brunch. Happy family time and stay healthy.

A lot of families are having family time. Kids are out of school, adults working from home.

This from Alvin. He tweeted his plan, finished work, go home, hunker down, great time to binge-watch TV shows and catch up with DVR.

PAUL: So, go home and -- well, I want to say, hug your kids. But can you hug your kids? Just go home and be with your family and make memories.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS", up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)