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U.K. Joins International Race for COVID-19 Vaccine; WFP Chief Warns of "Famines of Biblical Proportions"; Trump Signs Executive Order to Halt Some Immigration; Earth Day 2020 during Lockdown; Wealth and Poverty Create Different Challenges for Students; Nursing Homes in U.S. Devastating by COVID-19; Art Museums Attract Thousands of Virtual Guests. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired April 22, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
HALA GORANI, CNN HOST (voice-over): Hello, everyone. Welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD on CNN. Let's get straight to our top stories.
And the race is on for a coronavirus vaccine. Institutions here in the U.K. are calling for volunteers to start human trials.
Also, a famine of biblical proportions, that is the warning from the head of the World Food Programme. We'll speak to him live in about 10 minutes.
And Donald Trump says today is the day he will sign an executive order banning immigration to the United States to protect Americans from the
economic impact of COVID-19.
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GORANI: Well, we begin with that global race for a vaccine. It is the next frontier in this coronavirus pandemic. Here in the U.K., two institutions
are at the forefront of the global effort. Britain's health secretary says human vaccine trials will begin in Oxford on Thursday.
Meanwhile, researchers at Imperial College London are calling on volunteers for their trials in June. Let's bring in our chief international
correspondent Clarissa Ward, live in London.
We'll get to the government having to field questions about the shortage in protective gear for healthcare workers in a moment.
But first, these two vaccine trials, the race is on here in the U.K., what is the potential timeline?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the million dollar question. At first we heard, Hala, from Oxford University, that they
were saying they were confident they could deliver a vaccine by September.
But I've been talking to a number of experts on this subject and really everyone I have spoken to at least is urging people to exercise cautious
optimism saying that 12 to 18 months is still much more common.
And the reason for that is because typically any sort of vaccine and development which would take years if not decades, there are three
different phases of trials, so you start out once you begin human trials. This is on a small group, then you expand the group.
And you're sort of testing to see if the dosage is indeed working and how much is needed to build up the antibodies that are needed to fight off the
disease and how long those antibodies will last for.
This is not an exact science. It takes time or rather it has to be an exact science. And then the third phase is when you do it with a much broader
group. That needs to be done in the moment of the outbreak.
For example, with the Ebola vaccine, it took a long time because the third phase, by the time it had come out, the outbreak was already basically
over. So all and all, people in the know, who are experts on this say that you should expect to wait at least a year before -- that's not to mention
all the regulatory stuff that has to happen as well.
But Oxford University and Imperial College in London, both confident that they potentially could be the ones to deliver this much anticipated
vaccine, they have some stiff competition, two trials on humans ongoing in -- one in China, two in the U.S. and more than 70 in development across the
world, Hala.
GORANI: All right, so, yes, the race is on, but it is a long -- it is a marathon, it is not a sprint. If we're lucky, we might get something in 18
months, a year.
In the meantime what is in immediate future is the ability or inability of world leaders and officials to provide protective equipment for healthcare
professionals. And here in the U.K. the Johnson government has come under a lot of criticism; the House of Commons, by the way, convened virtually
today.
What is the latest on that front?
WARD: Well, Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, who was deputizing for prime minister Boris Johnson, has understandably been facing some tough
questioning from the Parliament, from the opposition leader about why it is that the U.K. government has been so slow to ratchet up the testing that
was promised.
It was supposed to be 100,000 a day by the end of the month. Raab said we're at 40,000 capacity. But as of Tuesday, fewer than 20,000 a day were
being tested. He says they will reach the target of 100,000 a day by the end of the month.
[10:05:00]
WARD: But that's going to be difficult for them to meet. And as you point out, the really pressing issue, the lack of PPE, the lack of long sleeved
gowns, you know, the Doctors Association of the U.K. was coming out with a shocking survey, saying that some 47 percent of doctors don't have access
to long sleeved gowns.
This much anticipated shipment of some 400,000 gowns did finally come in today from Turkey. But this is a broader systemic problem. There are
indications the U.K. could have opinion involved with this sort of E.U. or European coalition or buy-in of all these types of materials which they,
for whatever reason, apparently neglected to do.
You can be sure you're going to be hearing a lot more about that, a lot more criticism, people unwilling to let this issue slide because it is so
vital for those healthcare workers who are on the front lines fighting this battle, Hala.
GORANI: Right, absolutely. Thanks very much, Clarissa Ward live in London.
So the -- Britain will become the third country to hold human trials following the leads of China and the United States. And Germany announced
today that its first human trials will start soon.
This is video from one early trial at Emory University in Atlanta, the World Health Organization report it is one of six clinical trials involving
humans. And dozens of other potential vaccines are in the pretrial phase.
Let's bring in our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.
And as we mentioned there with Clarissa, Elizabeth, Oxford University, everybody is really joining this worldwide race.
What is the outlook?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The outlook is we have to see who gets there first. But the vaccine experts I'm talking to, Hala, are
saying, you know, we have been saying a year to 1.5 years to develop a vaccine, some of them think that's actually optimistic, it will take longer
than that.
This is an unprecedented race for sure. We have better technology than in previous flights to get a vaccine but this is not a quick fix.
GORANI: All right.
Sorry, I thought we were -- I thought we were going to sound there. No problem.
Let's talk about the CDC's warning, the Centers for Disease Control, saying potentially a second peak, a second phase of this virus during the winter
months, if you add COVID to the flu, could be even worse than what we're experiencing now.
Should the world be ready?
COHEN: Yes, and one of the ways we can be ready is we can all resolve to get a flu shot. If we don't get a flu shot, what we're potentially doing is
taking up medical resources, even a hospital bed, that is needed for a COVID patient. We can do our best to prevent the flu by getting a vaccine.
At this point, we can't get a vaccine for COVID, so get a vaccine for the disease that you can get a vaccine against.
But I want to clarify something that Dr. Redfield said because people are to some extent misconstruing "The Washington Post" story, because the
headline is, well, a little bit off. So let's take a look at this.
He didn't say a second wave meaning the coronavirus will get worse in the fall. What he meant is the situation will be worse because it will be on
top of flu. What he told "The Washington Post" is, there is a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be
even more difficult than the one we just went through. We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus.
The CDC folks that I've been talking to and the experts I've been talking to say, look, this isn't going to go away in the summer and then come back.
It may get better. It may get worse, we don't know. But no one is expecting it to go away during the summer.
GORANI: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent, thanks very much for that.
Let's talk now about another potential effect of this worldwide pandemic. It is a health care crisis to be sure. But it is also one that could hit
people in their very survival, their ability to survive in the food supply.
Multiple famines of biblical proportions, that is a bleak warning that is coming from the director of the World Food Programme. He briefed the United
States Security Council virtually, of course, on Tuesday, urging them to act fast. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID BEASLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WFP: Today with COVID-19, I want to stress that we're not only facing a global health pandemic but also a
global humanitarian catastrophe.
Millions of civilians living in conflict-scarred nations, including many women and children, face being pushed to the brink of starvation with the
specter of famine a very real and dangerous possibility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:10:00]
GORANI: As of 2019, the World Food Programme estimates over 800 million people, that's about 1 in 9 people in this planet, don't get enough to eat.
The U.N. backed group offers a lifeline to about 100 million individuals, if they can't get aid to those people, well, 300,000 people could die every
day for the next three months.
The executive director of the World Food Programme David Beasley joins me now.
You yourself have recovered recently from COVID-19, though I understand you didn't have some of the nastier symptoms. I want to ask you about this
hunger pandemic prediction.
How concerned are you?
Because on top of countries having to deal with their own economic meltdowns, there are travel restrictions and lockdowns that you have to
deal with. So I imagine food distribution is also impacting.
BEASLEY: Well, you're exactly right. We are sort of the supply chain and the logistics hub for the humanitarian world, United Nations, and also that
includes medical equipment, UNICEF, UNHCR. So it is not just food. It is a lot of different things.
If that supply chain breaks down, in other words we can't move goods and services, can't move supplies, we can't move food, then people will not die
just from COVID but die from starvation.
This is not the sky is falling, the sky is falling scenario, this is a reality we're facing. We now know more than 135 million people on Earth are
walking toward the brink of starvation. Out of that 135 million, we keep -- we feed about 100 million. But 30 million depend totally on us.
So if the supply chain breaks down or if the money falls apart, so to speak, then, you know, if the 100 people don't get food, 100 people don't
live, so it is a very bleak situation, so we're very, very concerned about this.
GORANI: So what do you do?
Because the potential you say is that the people who face hunger, the number could rise from 135 million to 265 million.
What needs to be done?
BEASLEY: Well, several things. We need to stop some of the wars we have. Number one. Number two, we need to be able to preposition food. If we can
get our donors who have committed money to, to give it in advance, that will help us in maintaining supply chain and disruptions that may come
about over the next several months inside of Africa.
The third thing is that we need supply chain support with regards to making certain that countries don't have export ban restrictions, shutting down
ports, we must allow that supply chain to move, getting food from the fields to the markets to the consumers. Many of these types of issues that
have tremendous implications.
And we also need about 350 million so that we can be flying extra flights, for example, in Africa, commercial airlines, the passenger airlines were
shut down but we've got to move doctors and nurses and healthcare professionals as well as goods and supplies.
We've already transported about -- literally millions of testing kits, millions of masks, millions of PPE, so we got to keep that rolling out
there. And that's where that money comes into play. We need that immediately so we can help these countries in Africa.
(CROSSTALK)
GORANI: That sounds like a very long wish list rather than something -- considering how just turned on themselves countries are right now with
their own problems, their economic problems. And on top of all of that, in Africa, there is an issue with locusts, which are destroying crops.
Our David McKenzie, our reporter, filed a report about the impact of this infestation of locusts on crops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These swarms are terrifying.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Terrifying because they can travel up to 80 miles a day, destroying absolutely everything in their path.
They're eating pasture, they're eating leaf, anything green.
MCKENZIE: What impact does that have on people like yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We fear for the future.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Herder Albert Lemasuli (ph) knows his very survival is at stake all because this tiny insect can consume its own weight in food
every day. Multiply that by millions and millions of desert locusts in one swarm. And across the region, 20 million people in East Africa now face
food insecurity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: These are some terrifying images. What do you make of the U.S. president Donald Trump announcing that he'll defund the World Health
Organization?
An organization like the World Food Programme needs America to continue its financing.
[10:15:00]
GORANI: Are you worried that the U.S. president is hurting potentially global efforts to combat this?
BEASLEY: Well, the president of the United States and the -- interesting that Republicans and the Democrats in Washington, they may be fighting on
everything else but when it comes to the World Food Programme, they have been tremendously united together.
Our funding went from $1.9 billion to $3.4 billion. But I'll let the president and the leaders around the world make their political decisions.
We'll put out the facts and hopefully they'll make the right decisions.
But what you're just seeing with the desert locusts, I had been giving speeches several months ago throughout Europe that explain we were facing
the worst humanitarian crisis in 2020 since World War II. This was before COVID.
I was saying, with the locusts on top of all the problems that we have with wars like in Yemen and Syria and South Sudan as well as the complications
of the extremist groups in the Sahel region, DRC, Ethiopia, Sudan, I said we got a bad year coming.
And then COVID hit. And so it is really just a perfect storm of extraordinary proportions. So we got to look at the whole spectrum to keep
people alive at the same time, keep the economy going, supply chain and protect people in this deadly disease.
GORANI: Yes. And I hope you're fully recovered from COVID-19.
BEASLEY: I do, too. Thank you.
GORANI: Good. Thank you very much for joining us, David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme. Great to have you on.
The U.S. president is shutting the door on immigration. We'll look at what is behind Donald Trump's latest move amid this coronavirus pandemic.
Plus, one U.S. state is accusing China of lying to the world about the virus and now that state is suing China over it. That's ahead. Stay with
us.
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GORANI: Well, more relief is coming to small businesses in the United States. It will be a welcome check when it finally arrives for so many
small business owners in that country.
The U.S. House is set to pass a $480 billion relief package that was approved by the Senate Tuesday. It includes more money for small
businesses, hospitals and also COVID-19 testing programs.
The initial loan program ran out of funds last week, leaving many business owners without actually receiving any aid to help keep themselves and their
businesses afloat. And in the coming hours, the United States president says he will sign an executive order that followed by a couple of days a
tweet he sent out late in the evening.
He announced Tuesday that he'll be signing an executive order stopping people seeking status as U.S. residents. One staffer says the announcement
took them by surprise. John Harwood joins us from Washington.
Many green card holders, people who are maybe have plans to travel to the United States in the coming months, watch CNN around the world.
[10:20:00]
GORANI: Who is impacted by this executive order, how will it change things for them?
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Honestly, it is probably not going to change things all that much. Many of the -- a lot of travel is
down, of course. Many of the immigration related activities related to processing green cards and visas has been slowed down because of
coronavirus.
Even if you assume it was proceeding at the 2019 rate, we're talking about perhaps 75,000 people over a two-month period that this order is in effect,
who would be affected. The president has offered that as a measure to protect the jobs of the American worker.
But of course, that's not a serious policy goal because we're talking about a U.S. economy that has seen 22 million people go jobless over the last
several weeks. The idea that 75,000 people would make a problem for them is simply not plausible.
This is the president sending a signal to his base, looking for something to rally them at a time when many Americans are suffering grievous harm
economically and in public health and the president's poll numbers are down. This is mainly a political move.
GORANI: John Harwood, thanks very much.
The U.S. state of Missouri is actually suing China for how it says Beijing has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, saying that essentially it
misrepresented the danger.
The attorney general of Missouri says the Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced
whistleblowers and did little to stop the spread of the disease. He says they must be held accountable for their actions. Earlier today, China's
foreign ministry spokesperson responded to Missouri's claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENERATING SHUANG, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): This so-called accusation has no factual and legal basis and
it is nothing short of absurdity.
Since the coronavirus epidemic, China has been acting in a transparent manner to timely inform the WHO and relevant countries and regions of the
epidemic situation, share the genome sequence with other countries and actively respond to the concerns of all parties and strengthen cooperation
with the international community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Now a reality check for the Missouri attorney general, China is protected by sovereign immunity. It's not clear if the lawsuit can have any
impact.
Inside of China, David Culver who reported from Wuhan and left just before the lockdown took effect, is now back in Wuhan where this entire pandemic
began and he sent us this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Being back here in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, you get the feeling that this
is a city trying to reawaken after what was a 76-day halting of life.
A brutal and a harsh lockdown, conditions kept many people in some cases sealed inside their homes for those 2-plus months, unable to leave even for
some fresh air. Now as you can hear behind me, traffic picking up again, people are starting to resume a life.
Though it is with this cautious optimism as they go forward, knowing that things could change quickly. The lockdown happened 76 days prior to April
8th and, when it came into effect, it came with little notice, just a few hours notice. So people know things can change rather suddenly and they are
prepared for that.
And yet, the screening mechanisms in place now are rather intense. To get into Wuhan, for most locals, it is rather straightforward. But for
foreigners in particular, this shows the concern for imported cases, they are questioned extensively about what country they are coming from, how
long they have been in China and where they planned to be going from here.
It is all about tracing from here on out and they, of course, have technology that does that but they also rely on self reporting and a lot of
questioning as you make your way from the train station, for example, into a hotel.
Here overall, you get the sense that people are trying to look past what was a very difficult period. And they are doing so by taking advantage of
what they have right now in this moment.
For our driver, for example, that was going outside the city and taking a hike with his family or camping, enjoying the outdoors, enjoying nature,
for this moment, at least -- David Culver, CNN, Wuhan, China.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Today marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. With this worldwide lockdown, the air has felt cleaner, fewer planes are in the sky. We as a
species are polluting the planet a little bit less.
But has it really made a dent in the Earth's climate problems?
Bill Weir has this report.
[10:25:00]
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the golden anniversary of Earth Day, it is as if Mother Nature has sent us all to our
rooms, to think about what we have done and to give us a glimpse of life without us.
There have been penguins wandering the streets of Cape Town and wild pigs on the sidewalks in Corsica, Kashmiri goats are helping themselves to the
shrubbery in Wales and a sea turtle hatch in Thai is reportedly setting modern records.
A normally shy puma ran a stop light in Santiago. A pride of lions was caught snoozing on an empty South African highway. And with no wall of cars
to navigate, Yosemite Park rangers are seeing more bears than ever.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the most part I think they're having a party.
WEIR (voice-over): While they aren't unheard of in New York City, these days it is hard not to be shaken by vultures, circling over the Navy's
floating hospital, the Comfort.
WEIR: Man, it will be a great day when the only big naval ship docked in New York City is a museum. When the Comfort finally sets sail, surely those
vultures will fly away and we can finally come out of our homes. Surely all those wild critters will go back to what is left of theirs.
But what about the effects that are harder to see?
What is this pause in the Industrial Revolution doing to the chemistry of our sky?
WEIR (voice-over): Locals in northern India say they can see the Himalayas for the first times in decades. Before and after satellite imagery shows
how nitrogen dioxide pollution over North America's big cities is down by as much as 30 percent.
But the blanket of heat trapping gases around our planet is still thicker than ever.
WEIR: There seems to be a perception that maybe the virus helped humanity buy some time when it comes to global warming.
What is wrong with that assumption?
DR. JONATHAN FOLEY, PROJECT DRAWDOWN: We have to keep doing this even more and do it for the next 30 years to really begin to bend the curve on the
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
It is like having a really huge bathtub in the sky filled with pollution and we have the faucet pouring more in and all we have done is turned down
the faucet a little bit. But it is still filling up.
WEIR (voice-over): Thanks to the current oil crash when the lockdown is lifted, we'll see the lowest gas prices in generations. And with Donald
Trump's Environmental Protection Agency gutting dozens of regulations, experts say a spike in pollution seems inevitable.
Both the EPA and Earth Day were born when the air and water got too foul for everyday Americans to ignore; 50 years later, science is warning that
the storms, floods and fires of the climate crisis are growing too frequent and too severe to ignore.
Saving what is left will take everyday folk everywhere deciding that their planet deserves more than one minor holiday like a dead president, deciding
that to save life as we know it, every day should be Earth Day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, this weekend Bill Weir and his team reveal their unprecedented journey in a 90-minute special documentary report, "The Road
to Change America's Climate Crisis." That's 10:00 Saturday night in New York, 10:00 Sunday morning in Hong Kong, right here on CNN.
Still ahead, we continue our coverage of the corona pandemic. More than 90 percent of students globally are not able to go to school right now. We'll
take a look at how it is affecting them.
And they are some of the hardest hit spots for outbreaks in the U.S., nursing homes. It is a heartbreaking situation. We'll look at how medical
workers and families are trying to cope.
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[10:30:00]
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GORANI: Well, these world lockdowns around the world are impacting every single demographic, especially children who are not able to go to school in
many countries and who are having to be home schooled and engage in remote learning. Isa Soares looks at that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Count how many cans there are and circle the number.
SOARES (voice-over): Parenting in a whole new light. The coronavirus pandemic has transformed our lives more quickly than anyone thought
possible. And that includes me, as I, like so many others, balance demands of doing my job as a journalist and schooling my 4- and 2-year-old sons.
A shocking 91 percent of the students around the world are out of the classroom, because of school closures, according to UNESCO.
So when will it end?
And how will schools reopen?
Here in the U.K. we're still not sure when schools will reopen, when our children will go back to schools and nurseries. But it is a different story
in parts of Europe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I come home from school, that's where they all -- they're hungry and --
SOARES (voice-over): Mike and Sorda (ph) live in Denmark. So as of this week, their daughters Kirsten, (ph) 3, and Edith, (ph) 7, are now back in
school. Across Europe, some schools are open, some opening soon, some closed indefinitely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've divided the playground into five areas where -- and they divided the kids into groups. While sitting in the classroom,
they're sitting somewhere apart, don't have as many desks and chairs as they usually have. So they're sitting, like --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a space two meters apart each.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two meters apart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a lot of focus on hygiene and hand sanitizing or washing their hands. That's what they do a lot.
SOARES (voice-over): The young parents say they were surprised that primary schools reopened so quickly. But they know children are less
vulnerable to severe cases of the virus and are just happy they can be with playmates their own age.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they can feel that there is something different but not necessarily that they can't really reflect so much about what and
why.
SOARES (voice-over): Mike and Sorda (ph), of course, have good jobs in a rich country. And the pandemic is exposing societal fault lines. In New
York last month, students formed long lines to pick up laptops for remote learning.
A 2018 Pew survey found that 17 percent of teenagers in the U.S. couldn't finish homework because of a lack of reliable Internet connection. And that
number was even higher for students of color and low income families. The virus clearly bringing to the surface all the inequalities that already
plagued our societies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This COVID-19 crisis is going to have a very detrimental effect. It is clear that there are families that don't have the
devices, don't have the bandwidth access. It is clear that their districts, because of the pace at which they had to move to distance learning,
couldn't provide the professional development that teachers need.
SOARES (voice-over): When and how to get students back into school will be about weighing risks. Here in the U.K., authorities have made clear they're
not reopening until it is clear that the crisis has eased. Jeff Barton (ph), whose union represents school principals and administrators, agrees
this is not something you can rush into.
JEFF BARTON, EDUCATIONAL UNION: You're not going to be able to have all of your staff there because some of the staff are going to be vulnerable to
the virus anyway. They might be diabetic. Some of them are living with people who are vulnerable.
SOARES (voice-over): What that safety means all a work in progress. In Denmark, parents drop their kids off outside. Inside, the masks come off.
In the Netherlands, they split the weeks, only half the students are in on any given day.
So how do we open schools? Well, it's a learning process -- Isa Soares, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[10:35:00]
GORANI: My thoughts are with my colleague, Isa Soares, who is having to home school two small kids in addition to working. So good on her.
As you just heard, these schools and nursery closures are impacting children in many, many ways, educationally, also psychologically as well.
Professor Russell Viner is the professor of adolescent health at University College London and the president of the World College of Pediatrics and
Child Health.
Thank you for being with us. We were talking about how school closures don't really necessarily help combat coronavirus as much and it would be
better longer term for the mental health of the kids to reopen them.
What do you think should happen now, in a country like the U.K., for instance?
DR. RUSSELL VINER, UCL GREAT ORMOND STREET INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH: It is a balance of risks, as I think one of your correspondents says. One of
the troubles is we do not have the data on how we reopen schools and how we do that safely.
I think the evidence suggests two things we need to do when we reopen schools. Number one is put social distancing in schools. And number two is
actually basic old-fashioned public health, which is make sure the schools have medical advice, they can test children quickly, they can get the
results back quickly and testing of contacts.
You need a good system to socially distance inside the school and also to be testing kids and actually getting them out of school if they're positive
to stop spread.
The third thing we need to do is to --
(CROSSTALK)
GORANI: So I live across the street from a school. And I'm not a parent. But I see these kids every day when schools are open. And the idea that you
could impose social distancing measures on a bunch of 6- and 7-year olds just sounds like fantasy to me.
How do you even start doing that?
VINER: Well, some countries have managed to do it. Taiwan, for example, number one, you get the classes to all arrive at a different time. So you
have cut down the social distancing, not across the whole year but actually just to a class.
Number two, you could split classes like we heard from Denmark and the Netherlands, get half of the class to attend at any one time. So you're
suddenly cutting them right down. Might only be 15 arriving outside your house at any one time. Then in the classroom, you keep the distances. Sure,
it is difficult.
GORANI: That's the how. And the question is the when. At what point will we have sufficient data to allow us to make an informed decision. Denmark
is doing it already. You mentioned Denmark. Sweden hasn't locked down at all. They think that's the right approach.
So what do you think for other countries?
VINER: Taiwan didn't do that either. For every country it will be, the U.S., the U.K., once the peak is over, then you start edging out. And
children and primary schools need to be one of the first things that are opened.
We need to get their parents back into work, help restart the economy and actually get them into education and improve their mental health so early
once that peak is over.
GORANI: Absolutely. Thanks very much, Professor Russell Winer for joining us. Hope to speak again soon as we get nearer to a potential date for when
schools would be -- will be allowed to reopen. Thank you so much.
CNN and Sesame Street are teaming up to host a special coronavirus town hall for kids and their parents. Big Bird will join Dr. Sanjay Gupta and
Erica Hill to talk about how this is affecting kids. "The ABCs of COVID- 19," a CNN Sesame Street town hall, it will air Saturday morning at 9:00 in New York, 2:00 pm in London on CNN.
That's the way to get the kids' attention for sure. Now let's -- from children let's go to another very vulnerable category, nursing homes.
Outbreaks in the U.S. are leaving elderly people in nursing homes ill and families devastated. Sara Sidner reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Better, same or worse?
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Family members from across the country --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was an amazing human being. She didn't deserve to die like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just so fast.
SIDNER: All experiencing the same tsunami of grief after their parents contracted COVID-19 in a nursing home.
DENEEN BARR, FATHER DIED FROM CORONAVIRUS: For my daddy to just die. But his stay off the -- that just hurts my heart.
SIDNER: Deneen Barr says her father was a retired father captain who worked hard to help others, only to die alone at a hospital.
[10:40:00]
BARR: Even to start a fire lifeguard and he couldn't breathe. It just -- it just hurts me to my heart and I'll never see him here again.
SIDNER: I'm so sorry.
Nursing homes across America are taking the brunt of the outbreak. This is just a small sample of states that publicly report coronavirus cases at
nursing homes. For more than 10,000 in New Jersey to 1,700 in California. Now a federal agency that oversees nursing home says, they must report
their coronavirus deaths and infections directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What's causing the problem inside of nursing homes
when it comes to COVID-19?
MICHAEL DARK, STAFF ATTORNEY, CALIFORNIA ADVOCATES FOR NURSING HOME REFORM: It's really two things, Sara, under-staffing and infection control. And the
two things go hand-in-hand.
SIDNER: In New Jersey, at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center, police discovered 17 bodies piled in its morgue. Thirty six people have
died from coronavirus there. In Richmond, Virginia, 45 residents dead from COVID-19 at this facility. In Massachusetts, Holyoke Soldier's Home,
coronavirus killed 47 veterans including Patricia Cowden's husband of 38 years. She says she believes the administrator there may not have initially
taken the virus seriously enough.
PATRICIA COWDEN, HUSBAND DIED FROM COVID-19: And you know, he's a military person, the commander-in-chief for saying it was nothing, you know.
SIDNER: The very first major outbreak in all of America happened at a nursing home just outside Seattle, 129 people linked to the facility
infected with COVID-19, 35 people died.
IZABELA IVANOVA, LIFE CARE CENTER OF KIRKLAND NURSE: So, all of a sudden, there were so many patients, everybody needed medications, everybody needed
treatment.
SIDNER: Their facility was fined in part for not doing proper infection control. But watchdog group say, that is one of the most common citations
from many facilities, life care centers disputes the finding.
TIM KILLIAN, LIFE CARE CENTERS OF AMERICA MEDIA LIASON: What went wrong, an unprecedented viral outbreak which we did not know enough about entered
our country. And because we have a vulnerable population, it entered our population. That's what went wrong.
SIDNER: He stands by the frontline workers, saying, they were the first in America to heroically battle a new and invisible enemy. Representatives of
many nursing homes warned the government's failure to provide enough testing and the scarcity of personal protection equipment can be a lethal
combination.
(on camera): What is the nursing staff having to do -- I mean, can't they even self-distance from the patients? Don't they have to clean them and
lift them and help them rehabilitate?
DARK: That's exactly right, sir, that is the problem. Many of these patients have to be fed. So nurses are touching and handling patients all
the time, they can't avoid it. They have literally no way of protecting themselves.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Sara Sidner reporting.
Nursing home employees are now on the front lines of this pandemic, it is a role many were not prepared to take on. Joining me now is Dr. Jim Wright,
the medical director of a nursing home in Richmond, Virginia.
Thanks for being with us and you had I understand the first -- sadly, the first death in your nursing home on the 13th of March.
Is it at that point that you realize that this was going to be a big problem for you and the residents of the home?
DR. JIM WRIGHT, NURSING HOME OWNER: Yes, we did. Thanks for having me on today. It was actually our first case was on the 13th, our first suspected
case, diagnosed with testing on the 18th. But our first death followed quickly after.
GORANI: And what has it been like over the last few weeks in the nursing home?
WRIGHT: Right. Right. Well, all that has been horrible. We're at the point now where we're over the crest, we've had no new diagnoses of COVID and no
new deaths in over a week now.
But we went through two to three weeks of absolute hell in our nursing home. We had patients that were critically ill, that were in need of
comfort care and in need of curative care if possible and it was occurring all at once. So it was almost overwhelming, I must say.
GORANI: And how did you, the nursing staff, the staff at the home itself, how did you handle this?
Did you have the protective equipment you needed?
How did the staff that, you know, is not necessarily medically trained to handle a disease like this also -- how were they fighting this battle every
day?
WRIGHT: Right, right. None of us were completely prepared for this. We had met multiple times before first case of COVID had appeared in the United
States, just assessing our supplies, protective equipment and then trying to amass resources.
[10:45:00]
WRIGHT: And it was just impossible to have enough resources on every level in order to fight this. So you know, ideally, with a patient that has an
infectious disease, you want to use a gown and a mask in the room, you want to be able to throw it away and not re-use it.
With all the patients we had, 130, it was impossible to have enough protective equipment to use it in that way. So we had to develop methods of
reusing PPE in line with CDC recommendations.
But it was challenging. People that have not had to face this level of illness in the facility before, like you say, nurses are certainly trained.
But we have housekeeping, we have dietary, we have other ancillary staff that had to learn quite quickly how to use PPE to protect themselves as
well as to prevent transmission to other patients.
So it was all hands on deck for that first couple of weeks, just trying to figure out how to do it.
GORANI: Did any of your staff contract the virus?
WRIGHT: Yes. Yes. We had over 30 staff tested positive for the virus. About half of them had no symptoms, which is something we found in our
studies in this nursing home. About half of our patients that we tested positive for had no symptoms, either.
But some of them were quite ill, we had some in the hospital; fortunately now all are returned. We have begun testing for convalescents now, testing
to make sure our staff members are now immune to the virus. And we're getting some good results from that.
GORANI: And one of the cruelest aspects of the illness is that family members need to stay away from their loved ones when they're ill.
How has that impacted the mental health of the residents?
WRIGHT: I tell you, the isolation that comes from this, especially in our residents that are living with dementia, has been devastating. We depend
upon our families to help our residents just through social interaction, keeping them stimulated, keeping them engaged.
When a person with dementia is suddenly isolated in a room, without family, we use FaceTime videos but really for someone with dementia, that's pretty
tough. They feel isolated, they feel disconnected more than ever.
Without that stimulus that they usually get, there is that lack of connection to staff, where they have the impulse to eat. They lose track of
time. So we're finding now, you know, even though we're done with corona, it is the isolation that we're actually battling the most to recover from
that.
GORANI: Well, I mean, people who don't have these issues are having a hard time weathering this. I can only imagine an elderly person who is forgetful
and has dementia, how absolutely devastating it is for them and their families.
Dr. Jim Wright, thank you to you and all the staff where you work. Really very appreciative of the work that you do. This has been such an incredibly
difficult challenge, yes, such a difficult challenge for people who were not prepared for it, who didn't sign up for it. But they're doing the work.
Thank you so much.
Thousands of people after the break are trying to get a little bit of a mental vacation from all of this. They can't physically go out, so they try
to, you know, maybe virtually visit places like museums. We'll take you on a tour after this.
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[10:55:00]
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GORANI: Well, Michelangelo, Raphael, Vermeer, they didn't live during the age of the Internet, but it's only through the Internet we're able to see
some of these masterful works now, as coronavirus shuts the doors to all these museums around the world. Now all of these museums are moving online
and they are managing to attract thousands. Nick Glass has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The landmark Andy Warhol's show at London's Tate Modern closed after just five days. The gallery's
swift response: an online video from the curators.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andy Warhol is mostly known as a pop artist but actually with this exhibition we really wanted to return to the man and
think about all of the desires, the fears that may have drove him to create art.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wanted to take him out of the hype and start to look at Andy Warhol through the three lenses of the idea of the immigrant story,
his queer identity and the idea of death and religion.
GLASS (voice-over): From a bewigged Andy Warhol to a youthful Raphael, the Italian Renaissance artist died 500 years ago this very month, a show
celebrating his brief life closed in Rome after just four days. The video went online shortly afterwards It attracted well over 300,000 visitors in a
matter of days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that he was a highly cultured lover of the arts who was conscious of the role that images could serve in consolidating and
promoting the identity of the papacy. In the years spent in the service of this pope, Raphael was vetted as the greatest living artist.
GLASS (voice-over): This is the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium, host to a rare exhibition of work by the Flemish master Jan van Eyck. But
now you can only visit it online in what they call the stay at home museum. Only about 20 van Eyck paintings survive and this show has managed to
assemble half of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now this room is dedicated to the subject of mother and child. It's focused actually on one of two versions of the madonna and
child, the "Madonna at the Fountain." It's a gemlike painting and you can see how precisely van Eyck depicts even the splash of water coming up.
GLASS (voice-over): The Frick Collection in New York claims to be one of the American museums to pioneer virtual tours over 20 years ago. There's
much to see, including three Vermeers. You just have to imagine the flood of invisible visitors, 1000 percent more than normally, says The Frick.
Something similar is happening at London's Courtauld Gallery, which was in fact closed for refurbishment before the coronavirus. This month alone, the
Courtauld says that it has had more visitors than it normally gets in a year -- Nick Glass, CNN, at his laptop in Central London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: We're all at our laptops in Central London these days.
Thanks very much for joining us and I think you can also join us always virtually but we're always happy to have you. Thanks for watching. Do
stay with CNN. I'm Hala Gorani. A lot more ahead.
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