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Dozens of Palestinians Killed by Israeli Military Near Aid Distribution Site in Gaza; FEMA Head Tells Staff He was Previously Unaware U.S. has a Hurricane Season; Fluoride Ban Would Increase Kids' Cavities by Millions. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 03, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Officials in Gaza are now saying that for the third consecutive day, starving Palestinians trying to feed themselves have come under fire. The health ministry reports at least 27 people were killed. Dozens more were wounded as people were traveling to an aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah.

But unlike previous days and reports of gunfire, Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that it was their military who opened fire today, saying that several suspects were moving toward them. This is the latest violence as a controversial group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has taken over distributing food supplies.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now live from Jerusalem. So Jeremy, the UN Human Rights Chief is calling these deaths unconscionable.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. And this follows weeks of warnings from the United Nations and other humanitarian aid officials that this system run by this controversial U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation would increase the risks to Palestinians while also failing to meet their full food needs. And indeed, what we are seeing in Gaza right now reflects the desperation and the hunger crisis that is still gripping the Gaza Strip, and also now the dangers that they are facing.

And we see this third day in a row now that Palestinians desperate for food aid going to this GHF site in southern Gaza were fired upon by the Israeli military, according to eyewitnesses.

And indeed, the Israeli military today acknowledging that they did indeed open fire. They say that they fired warning shots first and then fired at several suspects who approached their troops suspiciously.

What we see, though, are at least 27 people who've been killed today, dozens more injured. And among them, there are civilians, including the mother of several boys who was trying to get food to feed her family, her son now asking why she was killed.

The United Nations, as you mentioned, has been warning and calling this a death trap. We just heard from Volker Turk, who said this, Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law and a war crime. This militarized system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution, as the United Nations has repeatedly warned.

Now, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, for its part, has acknowledged the shooting that happened this morning, but it distanced itself from it, suggesting that this shooting happened, quote, well beyond our secure distribution site. But it is important to note that the only reason why people were along this route, whether it be a half a mile or a quarter of a mile away from this aid distribution site, the only reason that they are there is to get aid from this site.

And that's why the United Nations and others have argued for hundreds of distribution sites, as they had when they were running aid deliveries to Gaza, that would be much closer to where people live so that Palestinians wouldn't have to travel through dangerous declared combat zones and Israeli military positions -- Boris.

[14:35:00]

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Jerusalem. Thank you so much, Jeremy.

Coming up, the new head of FEMA, who has no prior experience managing natural disasters, making a head turning comment to staff this week.

The White House saying that it's a joke, but critics say this is no laughing matter. We'll discuss in just moments.

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[14:40:00]

SANCHEZ: Just three days into what is expected to be an above average hurricane season, a comment made by the new acting director of FEMA is renewing questions about David Richardson's qualifications to lead the Disaster Relief Agency.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Multiple sources telling CNN, FEMA staff was caught off guard during a Monday briefing when Richardson told them he was previously unaware the U.S. had a hurricane season. Of course, hurricane season began on June 1st, two days ago. Richardson is a former Marine combat veteran and a martial arts instructor.

He was appointed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. A Homeland Security spokesperson tells CNN Richardson's comment was made in jest. Our sources say some in the room did see it that way. Others, though, voiced their concerns.

Lots to discuss now. We're joined by the former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Richard Spinrad.

It's good to have you with us this afternoon. Put the joking aside. There are serious questions about just how prepared FEMA overall is for this hurricane season and any other disasters that it may face.

In that same meeting, Richardson announced FEMA is not going to release an updated disaster plan for hurricane season, despite earlier promises to do so. What's the impact of not having an updated disaster plan when it comes to not only preparations, but also response?

RICK SPINRAD, FORMER NOAA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, in short, the impact is that American citizens and communities and industries will face some serious consequences. The preparedness issue is one that agencies typically would spend a lot of time on and recognize there are a few reasons for that. One is to make sure all resources are used most effectively.

FEMA needs to know when to deploy, how to deploy, where to deploy, and that's based on things like forecasts from the National Hurricane Center. But the other aspect of preparedness is that these are not unique individual hazards. At any given time, you could have a hurricane in the southeast, tornadoes in the Midwest, and a heat wave going on in the southwest, and you have to have the kind of coordination between agencies to make sure resources are used best, that the weather services know which priority is needed by FEMA and state emergency managers.

And in order to have that coordination, there's got to be communication. So plans, strategic plans, implementation plans are a form of that communication. Without that kind of communication, you can't have the coordination, you cannot be as prepared as you need to be, and people will suffer.

SANCHEZ: Agency staff is also down about 10 percent since January. A large number of those who've left are actually senior leadership. What's the impact of losing that kind of institutional knowledge and experience at an agency like FEMA?

SPINRAD: Well, so first of all, you lose the knowledge base that years of experience brings as to how to respond to a particular situation. Having seen similar situations in the past, the other problem comes from the sort of whack-a-mole approach that you have to take at that point if you don't have enough people to deal with multiple incidents. If you're lucky, you're only dealing with single incidents at a time, but history has shown us that's not typically the case.

So you end up having to surge staff to deal with the most urgent crises, and that's a tough, tough thing to do. So again, people won't get the lead time to make preparations to evacuate, to get supplies to prepare for and make sure that their friends and loved ones are safe. That's going to be the consequence.

HILL: There's also, I mean, as we're talking about the impact that we're seeing here of all the changes, a quarter of the nation's weather forecast offices have actually lost their meteorologist in charge. I mean, is there enough still in those other offices that they can work together to be able to get out the information that's needed, or is this really setting us up for yet another hurdle?

SPINRAD: Well, we'll see, won't we? It's going to be a real scramble. In fact, the weather service just put out a call a few weeks ago for voluntary reassignments to deal with this kind of a musical chairs approach to dealing with crises. These are extraordinarily experienced people who are going to undertake heroic efforts, but if you don't have enough of them in place, it's kind of like fielding a football team with only nine players. You can be as good as possible, but you're not going to be able to keep up with the threats. And with the loss of personnel, with the loss of resources to do things like launch balloons twice a day, with the fact that some of these weather forecast offices can't even stay open full time, nobody wants to get an answering machine when you're calling for information about a watch or a warning or an alert.

So I think it's going to be a real scramble and time will tell how bad the damage is.

HILL: Richard Spinrad, I really appreciate you joining us this afternoon. Thank you.

SPINRAD: Thank you.

HILL: Let's take a closer look at some of the other headlines we're actually following this hour.

A wax statue of French President Emmanuel Macron is now missing after it was stolen from a museum and then apparently taken on a bit of a field trip. According to Greenpeace, activists quote, borrowed the statue and went to Paris's Russian embassy.

They say the reason they took it to protest Macron's business ties and climate policies. Not clear now where the statue is, nor whether it will be returned.

[14:45:00]

SANCHEZ: They could just take it.

HILL: I guess so. Not a lot of security around that statue.

Staying in Europe, Portuguese and German police have launched a joint effort, they say, to find a new evidence in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Police are targeting a quote, vast area in southern Portugal. One source says radars are now being used to look underground. The three- year-old British girl, of course, went missing 18 years ago. She was on vacation with her parents in 2007. In 2022, police named a German national as an official suspect.

SANCHEZ: And the All-American Rejects rejected by police in Missouri. But not before one final song. This is all part of the band's house party tour across America that the band is doing in protest of just how expensive arena shows have become.

The rockers instead selecting backyards, barns and other places where people gather to host gigs. Much to fans delight, maybe not so much to the delight of neighbors though, but as we say on the show rock on. We had them on recently. The lead singer, Tyson Ritter, he was very excited about this tour and about getting back to the roots of rock and roll and playing for fans.

Those fees are crazy for concerts.

HILL: They are insane. Concert tickets are out of control.

SANCHEZ: You're going to a nice concert soon.

HILL: I am going to a nice concert. Yes, but you know, it's a little bit, you go overseas, it's a little less expensive.

SANCHEZ: Oh, you don't have to pay fees overseas?

HILL: The tickets are actually a lot cheaper. The plane tickets not, but the concert ticket is. There you go.

The next show is going to be at Boris's house. I can't wait.

SANCHEZ: I doubt that. Good tips though here from Erica.

Coming up, as more states consider banning fluoride from public drinking water, we're learning about the potential impacts of doing so for your family's health.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta looks into the details for us next.

[14:50:00]

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HILL: A new study shows removing fluoride from drinking water could significantly increase cavities in children. And on top of that, increase health care costs by billions of dollars, even in just the next few years.

SANCHEZ: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long advocated to stop fluoridation, claiming that it's linked to health issues. Now, Utah and Florida have since passed laws banning local governments from adding fluoride to public water.

Let's get the view of CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, how exactly does fluoride protect your teeth? And what are the concerns about having it in drinking water?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, I mean, with regard to the first question, you know, whenever you eat sugar, it essentially feeds these microorganisms in your mouth. And those microorganisms then make an acid. And I think we have an animation to sort of show this.

But that acid essentially, from the sugar feeding the microorganisms, leads to what you're seeing there, a cavity. What fluoride does is basically re-mineralizes your teeth. So the acid sort of demineralizes it, take away the minerals, and sort of re-mineralizes your teeth.

That's what fluoride does. And it's, you know, it's pretty effective at that, which is why it's been part of dental care, you know, added to water for close to 80 years now. Fluoride does occur naturally in plants and soil and water.

But as you point out, it can also be added to the water as well. The concerns, you know, which have been around for some time, really revolve around a few different things. And this, as you look at these concerns, keep in mind something we say in medicine all the time, which is the dose makes the poison.

So the higher the dose of just about anything, the potentially more problematic it can be. So fluoride in high doses could cause something known as skeletal fluorosis, which can be this weakening of your bones and your skeletal bones. It can also cause dental fluorosis, which, you ever seen people have white streaks in their teeth? That's typically dental fluorosis.

And then the last one, neurotoxicity, is a thing that's gotten a lot of attention recently. There was these studies, all of them done outside the United States, that showed the higher the dose of fluoride in the water, the higher the dose of fluoride overall, the lower IQ kids had later in life.

And one of the studies in particular looked at moms who were pregnant and the women who were exposed to the highest doses of fluoride, and they had an association with lower IQ in those children later on in life. And I think that's what's gotten a lot of attention.

The dose makes the poison. In the United States, the overall levels of fluoride in the water are about half of the level where it would be some cause for concern. So there is cause for concern with fluoride, but not in the United States based on the levels in most municipalities.

HILL: And yet we see it being removed. So then Sanjay, what are the risks of actually removing the fluoride from the tap water?

GUPTA: Well, it's a little bit hard to say because you're trying to predict the future here, and you have to take into account all these different sorts of things, including dental care. But there's been a couple of modeling studies. You sort of alluded to this.

So if you just look over the next five years, what is the impact removing fluoride going to do? The models, again, say 25 million more cavities over the next five years, 54 million more cavities by the next 10 years.

Cavities, by the way, are defined as something that requires a filling overall.

So that's how they're sort of defining it. These are models, so they're not going to be exactly accurate. But there's obviously a concern, not only in terms of cavities, but also costs.

And I will say, Erica, one thing that's important to note is that there are countries around the world that have removed fluoride from their water. Iceland did it. And as a result, the kids now get twice a month fluoride rinses, for example. They don't have fluoride in the water, but they do get that dental care. In England, they don't have fluoride in the water, but they fortify their milk with fluoride. So my point being, there's different fluoridation schemes around the world.

[14:55:50]

Calgary in Canada removed fluoride back in, I believe, 2011. But based on the increase in cavities overall, they decided to add it back in.

So this isn't a new idea. It's been tried in countries around the world, different strategies. And in some places, they removed it and then put it back as well.

SANCHEZ: So do the risks outweigh the rewards here in the United States?

GUPTA: Yes, that is the question, right? I mean, if you were to just look this up and look at what the public health sort of stance on fluoride is, what you'd probably read somewhere is that fluoridation of water is one of the biggest public health achievements over the last century, one of them. So that's obviously a very significant statement.

But we've been reporting on this for a long time. And I think what we have found is that if you go back before 1975, fluoridation of water was a much bigger deal. And then around 1975, the incremental benefits started to change.

Why? In large part, because around that time period, 1975, you had improved dental care. You had improved access to dental care.

And you had fluoridated toothpaste that became more widely available. So, you know, a big deal, obviously, in terms of the impact it's had on public health. But over the last 50 years or so, the incremental benefit has started to shrink as a result.

So again, we know that it will probably lead to more cavities. But probably the real issue is the need for improved dental care sort of across the board.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for answering our questions. And don't forget to scan the QR code on your screen right now. You can head to CNN.com to send your questions about fluoride. Dr. Gupta will be back with us tomorrow to answer them. Thanks again, Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: DHS officials say that family members of the man charged with attempted murder after an anti-Semitic attack in Colorado have been taken into custody by immigration officials. We have the latest next.

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