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CNN Live Event/Special
Coronavirus: Facts And Fears; Interview With New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D); New CDC Forecast; 135,461 U.S. Coronavirus Deaths By July 11; Right Now: More Than 118,300 Deaths; Dr. Fauci: African American Have Suffered Disproportionately From Coronavirus Disease; Doctor Providing Free Coronavirus Testing For Americans In Philadelphia. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 18, 2020 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No coincidence. He'll be accepting the Democratic nomination here two months from this week -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Wow. All right, Jeff, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you for joining us. The CNN Global Town Hall "Coronavirus: Facts and Fears" begins now.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Welcome thanks for joining us. I'm Anderson Cooper in New York.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta. This is our 14th CNN Global Town Hall CORONAVIRUS: FACTS AND FEARS.
In the week since our last Town Hall, so much has changed in the country, including the outbreak and though we would all like to think that this pandemic is over, it isn't. Experts say we are far from that. We have just gotten a new estimate from the C.D.C. and it is pretty grim, projecting more than 135,000 deaths by coronavirus by the 11th of next month.
On top of that, 10 states now this week have seen record numbers of new cases including Oklahoma, where the President as you know is going to be holding a massive indoor rally on Saturday.
COOPER: We want to begin by showing you two different pandemics, the pandemic as it's been in Europe and in the United States. Take a look at your screen charts. And the difference you see between them.
On the top of your screen, that's the course COVID has taken in all the countries of the European Union. On the bottom, the course of COVID in the U.S., and on the top in Europe, you see cases rising, peaking and falling. On the bottom in the U.S., you see them stuck on a plateau of sorts, and starting to rise again from there.
GUPTA: And that's the picture in this country, and many are afraid that instead of taking the kind of steps that other countries have taken so successfully, to get where they are, we are simply falling into this kind of acceptance, that hundreds of people dying every day is the new normal. This fear that we're getting numb to it, like mass killings, but on a far larger scale.
COOPER: And let's remember what has happened and continues to happen, whether the White House wants to admit it or not, is the worst public health disaster this country has seen in a century and the President after declaring himself a wartime President battling an invisible enemy now seems to want nothing to do with the virus, the Taskforce, the sick and the dead.
In an interview published today in "The Wall Street Journal," the President was asked whether he thought people wearing masks to show their disapproval of him. It could be, he said, yes, it could be. He also called testing overrated.
Meantime, as we will hear in a moment, Dr. Anthony Fauci on tape lamenting what he calls the anti-science bias some people have. We'd like to ask Dr. Fauci about that in person tonight and a lot of things, but our quest to have him on the program was denied yet again.
You see, he may be one of the nation's top scientists but he is under the thumb of the White House. Our request to interview him have to go through the White House. They have to approve it.
Our nation's scientist being paid with taxpayer money on coronavirus cannot speak unless the White House lets them speak to us. We actually asked for any doctor from the Taskforce to join us, but we were denied.
Now remember we used to see Fauci and Birx every day when they used to answer questions from the Briefing Room. The White House doesn't do that anymore because the President suggested we inject disinfectant into humans to experiment on them to see if you can bleach the invisible enemy out of the body. He embarrassed himself and for that, the Coronavirus Taskforce were brought to an end.
The White House doesn't want to talk about this virus and they couldn't be clearer about that. They want you -- they want the American people to believe that it's nearly gone away, dying out, as the President just said. Not a great choice of words by the way. The virus is not dying out, but people continue to die, 617 today as of seven o'clock tonight.
The Coronavirus Taskforce that was famously taking that big strong, quote, "whole of government approach" which Vice President Pence talked about so often, they've gone into hiding. It's like they're in the Witness Protection Program or something. They don't hold public briefings anymore. They don't update the American people about the new hotspots that are flaring up daily, including where the President is going this weekend.
No, this administration wants you to believe that the only reason we are seeing increasing numbers of cases is because of increased testing, and that's just simply a lie and they know it. It's a bear face lie and in Vice President Pence's case, violating his own Taskforce guidelines about wearing masks.
I mean, he's so scared of the President because the President doesn't wear masks. He so wants to curry favor with the President that he doesn't wear a mask.
He even tried earlier this week to get Governors to perpetuate the lie about testing, and then he got caught and he just merrily moved along. This is gaslighting turned up to 20, but be that as it may, the absence of someone from the Taskforce won't stop us from bringing everything that we can within an hour and there's a lot to talk about.
GUPTA: That's right, Anderson. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is going to be joining us. His state has gone from the epicenter to perhaps the biggest success story in containing the outbreak.
So much so in fact, that he may impose a quarantine on people coming into New York. We're going to ask him about that.
Also tonight, why COVID-19 has taken such a disproportionate toll on African-Americans and what can be done to change that?
COOPER: We're also going to be taking your questions for our medical and public health experts. Tweet them to us with the #CNNTownHall or leave a comment on CNN's Facebook page.
As always, a lot of you have sent in video questions. We appreciate that. We'll try to get to as many as we can. Plus, we have reports from around the country and around the world, including Beijing, where they're seeing an uptick in cases and are clamping down hard.
[20:05:23]
COOPER: But first, where this country stands with more than 118,000 lives lost in states that always thought themselves safe now facing some very hard facts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice over): Tonight, more than 118,000 people in the U.S. have died from the coronavirus, and more than 2.1 million have tested positive.
Infection rates in more than 20 states are climbing with 10 states seeing their highest seven-day average of new daily cases since the pandemic began.
Florida alone reporting more than 3,000 new cases, the highest the state has seen in a single day.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Clearly, there were states who, left to their own decision about that went ahead and opened to a varying degree, maybe even, I wouldn't say too soon, but certainly before they got to the benchmarks that they needed to get.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): We're not shutting down, you know, we're
going to go forward, we're going to continue to protect --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice over): Some cities that were doing well in the early months of the pandemic have seen a sudden surge since reopening.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. LAURA KELLY (D-KS): This is not a coincidence. For communities that have followed the guidelines, encouraged the use of masks, the mitigation efforts have worked. If we do not treat this threat seriously, more lives will be lost.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice over): New York City plans to enter Phase 2 of reopening next week, while the rest of the state has moved on to Phase 3, which allows for indoor dining and restaurants. But it all comes with a warning from New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Stay vigilant. It could come back. If you don't stay smart, it will come back.
It could be a second wave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER (voice over): Groups of people from those attending protests to potential political rallies remain a high risk. The effort to find a vaccine continues worldwide. Eleven vaccine studies are now in human trials, four in the United States, even as the fight against the virus is made tougher by those who don't believe the threat is real.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
FAUCI: One of the problems we face in the United States is that unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science bias that people are for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not understandable. They just don't believe science and they don't believe authority.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. CHRIS MURRAY, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION-UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: Unless we are effective at other things like wearing a mask, avoiding contact, it's going to pretty inexorably lead to the second wave.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: Well, as if to underscore that point. Dr. Murray's institute
this week just raised its estimate of total lives lost from the virus from about 170,000 by October to more than 201,000.
And as we just learned, the C.D.C., part of the same government that no longer seems to believe the virus is a big deal anymore has just put out that estimate projecting more than 135,000 Americans will be dead of the virus by July 11th, less than about three weeks from now.
Sanjay, it's been, I guess, two weeks since our last Town Hall. So, I'm curious where you think we are with this pandemic.
GUPTA: Well, you remember Anderson, this is a story that began in big cities along the coast with major international airports. That's where the virus probably first entered the United States and that's why we saw peaks early in places like New York.
But now we're seeing the rest of America become increasingly infected by this virus as well. Arizona, which is a third of the population of New York may soon surpass New York in the number of hospitalizations and ICU beds are growing increasingly full in several states, including Texas and Florida.
We see the numbers change. We see our attitudes change. The thing that is not changing is the virus itself. It's still very contagious since the last Town Hall. There was some confusion over asymptomatic spread, so I want to be clear about this. People can spread the virus, even if they're not showing symptoms. That's why masks are so important. They can decrease transmission six fold.
Being outside can also decrease transmission 18 fold. That means being outside with a mask on is exponentially safer than being inside without a mask.
Most of all, though, Anderson, I think we're slowly figuring out what is acceptable in the United States, as you said where more people are now dying every day than have died in other countries throughout this entire pandemic, essentially two jumbo jets full of people every 24 hours.
No one wants to shut down again. And there is a middle ground here that may help prevent us from having to do so. But I worry, Anderson, that the very people who would never accept shutting down again are hardly doing anything to prevent that from happening.
COOPER: As we mentioned at the top, New York has seen remarkable progress. Erica Hill joins us now from downtown Manhattan with details on that and more. What is the -- let's talk about the good news for New York.
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And there is some good news. Governor Andrew Cuomo, and I know you'll be speaking to him a little bit later saying that they just had the highest number of tests done in New York State, and the lowest positive percentage rate. So that's good. Right?
[20:10:11]
HILL: The more testing you do, the fewer people are testing positive. In fact here in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio says they're ready to move into Phase 2. On Monday, Governor Cuomo says he will announce that officially coming up on Friday, but he also talks about what's happening around the country noting New York is doing very well.
But Governor Cuomo says he is concerned about what he is seeing and he is concerned about people bringing the virus into New York State. He was asked specifically, if he would consider a quarantine for travelers coming into the state from Florida, which we know is seeing an uptick in cases. He said it's been recommended to him and he might consider it noting that this was really a 180-degree turn from what we saw a hundred days ago when Florida with similar measures into place for travelers from New York.
GUPTA: Yes, look, I mean, there is a lot of discussion about Florida, and people heard in our opening piece, they are seeing this dramatic rise in cases so much so that there are fears that Florida could become the next epicenter.
What more can you tell us about what's happening there?
HILL: Yes, absolutely. There's modeling from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania that is concerned that that's exactly what could happen. Florida could become the next epicenter.
Today, Florida reporting its highest single day for new cases since this pandemic began -- 3,207. The Mayor of St. Petersburg actually telling CNN earlier that he expected there would be a rise, but did not expect it to be like this, and when we look at the number, I know you know this so well, Sanjay, and you talk about it all the time. It's not just new cases, but it's hospitalizations.
And one number giving a lot of people pause today out of Florida is the fact that three quarters of the adult ICU beds are occupied now, in that state, 75 percent of general hospital beds also occupied.
COOPER: Erica Hill. Erica, thanks. Now Oklahoma, in Tulsa where the city's top public health officials recently said that the President's Saturday rally, quote, "I wish we could postpone this to a time when the virus isn't as large a concern as it is today."
CNN's Abby Phillip is there for us now. So, Abby, I understand people are already camped outside the event. How big a crowd do they expect?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson we are expecting some 20,000 people to be at the BOK Center behind me. But the bigger crowd is likely to be outside in the overflow. We could see some 40,000 people.
We've even heard local officials saying there could be a hundred thousand people coming into Tulsa both for this event and other events, counter events happening a little -- a few blocks away across town. I want to show you some of the people that are out here lined up.
They are the dyed in the wool Donald Trump fans. Virtually none of them are wearing facemasks. They are outside, we should note. But they're out here in the way that we often see them at Trump events, with their flags, with their coolers, basically camping out and making the point that they are treating this 48 hours before the event, just like any other Donald Trump rally, even though as you noted, this will be the largest event, largest gathering really of any kind, probably happening in the entire country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
GUPTA: I guess, Abby, the concern is this rally could become a super spreader type event, and I think the question is, is there anything being done to try and prevent that from happening?
PHILLIP: Well, the campaign has put forward their plans which include giving out hand sanitizer, giving out masks, but there are two big questions they're facing. It is one, are they going to enforce any kind of social distancing? And will they require those masks to be worn?
We've already heard that they do not expect to require that masks will be worn indoors, but the center, the BOK Center has just sent a letter this afternoon asking the campaign for a written plan about how they are going to enforce public safety measures within that arena, and particularly as it relates to social distancing. The campaign has not yet responded. But it is hard to see, Sanjay how they will enforce any kind of social distancing, if they plan to pack that arena to its almost 19,000-seat capacity. That is the central question here for attendees.
The BOK Center says they'll have hundreds of hand sanitizing locations. They'll be testing attendees for their temperatures before they come in, but an indoor event, 19,000 people, virtually no social distancing. It's hard to see how this will not become a super spreading event if anyone in that crowd has the coronavirus and perhaps doesn't know it.
COOPER: Abby Phillip, thanks very much. Talking to "The Wall Street Journal," the President again called coronavirus, quote, "The plague that was sent by China." He suggested China might have spread it intentionally to hurt the U.S. economy because it's so incendiary. I just want to read you the President's exact words when asked quote, "Is that your gut on that? Or do you have Intelligence that they may have pushed this beyond their border?"
The President replies, quote, "It's my sense that could have happened. I hope not and I hope we'll be able to find it out."
[20:15:11]
COOPER: Right now, of course, China has an outbreak in its capital. CNN's David Culver is live for us in Beijing. David, China uses some of the strictest measures in the world to get a grip on the virus in Wuhan. What sparked this new cluster? DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it was interesting Anderson
listening to you and Sanjay, as you started off this Town Hall mention that you know, as much as we want to think that this is over, and perhaps move on with it, I mean, we've been dealing with this now since late January, five months, and it has now made a resurgence and in all places, the capital.
And that's incredible to think about. I mean, this place was impenetrable. It was the fortress. Beijing was really tightly protected, and it was one of the last places to start easing those restrictions. What we know about this most recent cluster is according to health officials here, it's once again linked to a market eerily similar to Wuhan, and they say there are two theories behind that.
One is that potentially it came in on seafood, they're saying maybe salmon. Another is that and this is more likely, it was transmitted from a person who went in infected, and then with the shoulder to shoulder interactions and despite everyone in those places still wearing masks, there's still a lot of contact. So it likely transmitted human to human in that setting.
Either way, this is the narrative, Anderson and Sanjay, that they are really pushing here, and that is it's an imported case. They're saying it's a European strand, differentiating it from the one that originated in Wuhan.
GUPTA: That's fascinating. But David, they're also saying that it's largely contained now. Right? I mean, what exactly was the effort looking like to get that done?
CULVER: Well, they are saying it is contained and under control. That's the most recent update that we've heard. It is with massive numbers, right? So they do this hundreds of thousands of people testing that they have done by busing people to certain stadiums, and then we see the closures coming back.
I mean, this is a place that just started to just enjoy some of the freedoms again. Right away, you start to see gyms close again, you start to see restaurants, public spaces, and then you have physical barriers going up.
And I want to show you what we recorded just yesterday here and it takes you a little bit closer to the market. Now, obviously, we didn't get out of the vehicle, but this gives you an idea as to what those barriers look like. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER: I'm going to give you a little look right here through the window. This is the outskirts of the market. You can see there are some folks back there with hazmat suits on. All of this is shut off.
The reason we're not stepping out of the car -- actually, let's keep driving because I don't want to draw too much attention is because if we were to cross in to this restricted zone, we would then be potentially flagged and be put into government quarantine. How do they know that? A few ways. One is they could physically stop
us and get our information. Another is they would see the tags of the car and they would mark that down and track us down, and another big data that we've been living by here, they would trace you through your cell phone.
We've heard several reports of people being flagged because of where their cell phones were located geographically within those high risk areas, and then being contacted and told that they essentially need to be sealed off from the rest of the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER: Contact tracing, of course, we've talked about the technology used behind all of this Anderson and Sanjay. It's through those QR codes that we've shown you over the past several weeks. It's gotten a little bit redundant and at times inefficient, several different jurisdictions have these. This is mine alone. I've got one, two, three, four different QRs, as I've been traveling about China.
COOPER: So fascinating to see. David Culver, thank you very much.
More now in the progress made this week on treatments and vaccines, our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen joins us with that. So there were some positive news this week on a treatment for coronavirus.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and it had to do with steroids actually. So this was a study that was done in the United Kingdom and what they found is that patients when they were on ventilators, like this very sick, if they would give them steroids, it really helped them in. In fact, it decreased the death rate by about a third.
Now, Anderson, I'll tell you, the doctors I've been talking to in the U.S., they say they've been using these steroids for months. So, this is not a new idea. They use them because it's been helpful in similar circumstances.
But the doctor said, look, it's great to see that there's data behind what we were doing sort of instinctively because steroids reduce inflammation, and that's so important when treating very sick COVID patients.
Speaking of which, also studies on IL-6, another class of drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, there was one of these drugs that was studied by Yale, the study was not the best. It's unclear exactly what it showed, but still lots of interest in IL-6 drugs already on the market for rheumatoid arthritis. So pretty easy to just transfer them over to COVID patients and see if they work -- Anderson.
GUPTA: And Elizabeth there's also a lot of news about the vaccines. We've been hearing a lot about the Moderna vaccine. That's an mRNA vaccine. That's something that's never before been on the market. In your reporting, are you learning -- what is the benefit in using these sorts of new technologies versus this sort of tried and true vaccine methods?
[20:20:12]
COHEN: Yes, Sanjay, it's so interesting because nearly all of the government funding for vaccines has been through these new technologies. They've been tried out experimentally. They have not gone on the market. And that includes Moderna.
The thinking is that they're much quicker to market just because of the way that they're made. You can get them out much more quickly. And that, of course, is important. There's also some people who think that they're actually safer as well.
Let's take a look, Sanjay at sort of the global efforts to get a vaccine. The W.H.O. reports that there are 13 teams in clinical trials. In other words, they're trying these out in human beings. Five of those teams are in China, four in the U.S., two in the U.K., one in Germany, and one in Russia -- Anderson and Sanjay.
COOPER: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much. Coming up next, we'll talk to the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about what the state is doing in the step he is considering to keep out of staters from coming in, and perhaps bringing the virus with them.
GUPTA: And later, we're going to be talking to a doctor who has been leading the fight to change one of the saddest realities of this outbreak. The fact that people of color are bearing the brunt of it. That and answers to your questions and much more as our CNN Global Town Hall continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:25:03]
COOPER: The C.D.C.'s new forecast tonight have 135,000 coronavirus deaths by July 11th. That would mean about 17,000 deaths in about the next three weeks. There's modeling that suggests Florida could be the next epicenter. They are more than just warning flags. They're a bit of a reminder of what we've seen once before.
Sanjay and I remember it all too well. In the early days of our CNN Global Town Halls, the State of New York was seeing upwards of 10,000 new coronavirus infections every single day. Anyone, all of us who live in New York City remember the time when the ambulance sirens were what you heard and people were dying almost every single minute for days on end.
Today, New York has done much more than just turned a corner, so much so as we've been reporting, the governor is considering a step that other states once took for New Yorkers about imposing a quarantine to keep the virus out, joining us right now is Governor Andrew Cuomo.
First of all, just -- you've got to feel pretty good about what is happening in this state? How does it feel to you? What do you see in the numbers? CUOMO: Anderson, where we sit, it's been a dramatic turnaround as you
mentioned. We did have the worst case scenario when it began, the highest infection rate, and remember, that's because the virus came to New York from Europe, and the Federal government thought it was still in China.
So, we were blindsided by the virus. It landed in our airports, and we had the worst situation in the country. We are the worst situation on the globe. But we took it very seriously. We followed the science, we did the testing, et cetera.
We now have the lowest infection rate in the country. We went from the highest infection rate to the lowest infection rate and we are reopening our regions and we've been phasing in the economic activity.
So, our numbers are doing very, very well. We have less than a one percent infection rate. We did 60,000 tests yesterday, less than one percent infection rate. I'm not worried about the other states as an American, but also selfishly, people who will get on airplanes, and they come to New York and they could bring the infection with them.
COOPER: So what do you do about that? I mean, are you talking about a mandatory quarantine for people entering the state? Is that actually doable?
CUOMO: It is doable. And that that's what happened at the beginning of this, if you remember. It seems like a lifetime ago. People put a quarantine on in their states, and people coming into their state needed to be quarantined for 14 days.
What they were saying is if you come to their state, and you come from a state that had a high infection rate, it was a mandatory quarantine for 14 days, so you didn't infect their state.
Now the tables have turned 180 degrees and we're considering it for New York. We have a lot of people in these states where the infection rate is going through the roof.
New York is in better shape than their state, and we are seeing people who want to come to New York and I understand that, but we worked very hard to get the infection rate down. I don't want to see it going back up.
GUPTA: It seems like you always have to think a few chess moves ahead, Governor, and if the state does decide, someone must quarantine, for example, I think you have to think about where exactly are they going to go? How long? I guess 14 days you said, but how -- will that be enforceable? Will you be able to enforce that in some way?
CUOMO: Well, again, Sanjay, this happened the first go around, and it can be enforced and it can be done. I mean, the cruel irony is why are we here, right?
If you could take New York State that had the worst infection rate on the globe, per capita, and we turned it around in a matter of 100 days, why are we seeing these increases in other states? That's the question we have to be asking ourselves.
We know that more people are going to wind up dying now. We've seen the models that Anderson was just referring to. In one week, they said another 30,000 people would die by October. They made that shift in one week, because they're extrapolating from this new viral spread, 30,000 people who they project will die who didn't need to die.
I don't know what we have to do to get a wake-up call in this nation.
COOPER: How do you move forward in a city like New York? I mean, you have now you know, restaurants and bars doing takeout. But you know, you've seen large crowds gathering and hanging out on streets on a weekend night.
The city doesn't seem to be able to really do anything about that. Businesses, I guess they can police what's right out in front of their business, but I mean, can they tell, you know, somebody half a block away to move along or is that the city's responsibility? How does the city move through these stages now?
[20:30:06]
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Yes, two things. First, your are increasing the activity, that's because we're phasing in the reopening of the economy. And we do it by following the metrics. And we're following the infection rate literally every day about 60,000 tests per day. Sanjay can tell you that's an enormous number of tests, no state in the United States, there's that many tests per capita. No country does that many tests. When you get that much information per day, you can calibrate your reopening.
And I said from day one on your show, rather than telling states just reopen and say Hallelujah, and watch that virus take off, do a phased reopening, monitor it and control the virus and that'll even be better for the economy, because you won't see the starts and stops that now rile the markets and you'll save lives. So yes, you're seeing more activity. We monitor the infection rate.
Also, we're very serious about compliance. It is the responsibility of the city, New York City, that local government is responsible for the compliance. If the city doesn't do it, the state is a backdrop to the city. I have the authority on the state side to actually close down a business closed down a restaurant, closed down a bar that's violating it, because we take it very seriously, as well as the mandatory mask policy that we've had in place for two months, which has been very effective, but it's the local government's responsibility. If they fail, the state can step in. If everything goes bad and the city government is incompetent, then we can slow down the opening of the economy if we see any tick up in that infection rate.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, mask that becomes such a contentious issue, that's remarkable Governor. As you know, probably cover Governor Newsome order that masks are now mandatory, most public places in California. Something that you did you just mentioned back in April for New York. Why do you think that this has become such a contentious issue when the evidence is clear, we've been talking about it and reduce transmission significantly? Is there a way to move beyond this, so it's not so contentious anymore?
CUOMO: Sanjay, it's all been contentious, right? When I had stand up and tell people you have to stay home, it was contentious. When I said schools are closed, it's contentious when I say businesses were closed, it's contentious when I said you had to wear a mask, it was contentious. It is disruptive. And, you know, people don't want to be disrupted. They want to solve the virus, but they don't want disruption. But that's where government has to step in. And we did the masks two months ago. I got beaten up for it. But it worked. And we know it worked. And you knew it work. The scientists all knew that it worked. The numbers that are now coming out, World Health Organization says it's even more effective than we know wearing a mask. So none of these things were easy, but it's following the science.
You know the difference in the states, some follow the politics, and some follow the public relations, frankly. And those are the states where you now see the virus going up. Some states were smart, they made the tough decisions. But they did it early. And that's where you see it going down. This was always about the science and not the politics. And if you handle this as a public relations issue, then of course, you're going to let people do whatever they want to do, let the economy open, no controls. And now you see the virus go up.
COOPER: Is, you know, we're seeing this now -- this rally this weekend in Oklahoma, the President's going to, you know, theoretically pack 19,000 people into an indoor arena. Doesn't seem like there's any social distancing. No one's required to wear masks, though, they'll probably hand them out. Would you allow a large political rally in New York, in these circumstances in this none?
CUOMO: No. No. Look, the President's position all along has been a political position. His position was, you know, this is a virus, it's a flu, don't worry about it, reopen the economy, reopen the economy, reopen the economy, he believes his reelection is correlated to the economy. I don't even think that's right politically, I think it's correlated to leadership, not to the Dow Jones stock market index. But that's always been his position, just reopened the economy, this states that are doing that are seeing the virus go up and seeing their hospitals fill up and their ICU beds fill up. And that's going to not only hurt the economy, it's also going to cause more Americans to die.
[20:35:04]
When they object, they raise up those projection models which they're now doing. That is just the extrapolation on the viral rate that they're seeing, and when you see the spike they then update the projection which extrapolates out how many more people die. 30,000 more people die by October in the model that the White House accepts. Just think about that. And the President of the United States, knowing that the models now say another 30,000 people die by October, still insists that we shouldn't be careful, we shouldn't follow the science, don't worry about the public health have a political arena. I mean, it makes it makes no sense. And it's the exact wrong signal. And that's what the states who are getting into trouble are all following.
COOPER: Governor Andrew Cuomo. Appreciate your time. GUPTA: Thanks Governor.
COOPER: Thank you.
CUOMO: Thanks.
COOPER: Just ahead more on the surge in cases including the high death rate among African Americans and why Dr. Anthony Fauci says they have suffered disproportionately.
We'll also be answering your coronavirus questions when Global Town Hall continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:40:03]
COOPER: The increased in new daily cases, the coronavirus across the Sunbelt the United States could hit black Americans particularly hard. In fact, today Anthony Fauci explained why it's been the case so far.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NIAID: African Americans have suffered disproportionately from coronavirus disease they've suffered in that their rate of infection is higher because of the nature of the economic status that many of them find themselves in where they're outside working, being unable to physically separate. And then when they do get infected, given the social determinants of health, which make it for them, have a higher incidence of diseases like hypertension, obesity, diabetes, they are at much greater risk of suffering, the deleterious consequences including death.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: And just to show you what Dr. Fauci is talking about, this chart from Brookings Institution, based on CDC data with breaks down who exactly has died from the virus since February, in every age group, black Americans have died at much higher rate than white Americans. That's despite the fact that about four and a half times more white than black Americans in this country.
Joining me now is Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon who founded the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, which in addition, education provides a mobile testing unit to make sure black residential tested.
Doctor, thanks so much for being with us. Based on everything you are seeing on the front lines, why do you think this virus is so disproportionately affecting black Americans?
ALA STANFORD, FOUNDER, BLACK DOCTORS COVID-19 CONSORTIUM: There's a myriad of reasons, some of which Dr. Fauci mentioned. But I'd really like to focus on the tangible ones that are happening in real time with COVID. And it has to do with access (INAUDIBLE) particularly when African Americans were being turned away from testing at work, even doctors and nurses were a white supervisor would say, well, you're not sick enough. These are folks we were testing and then we would test them and they were positive or a elderly mortician who comes to get tested, and he doesn't have a prescription. And even though he's been burying people with COVID, all day long, you won't test him because he doesn't have a script. So, yes.
GUPTA: No, I really admire what you're what you're doing Dr. Stanford, you've been doing this mobile testing around Philadelphia. My understanding is you've tested nearly 6,000 people so far, and you're going to where people are right? Neighborhoods, churches, parks and shelters. I guess this is the whole point. But why did you have your -- pediatric surgeon, that's what you do. What made you do this be the person to do this?
STANFORD: Well, Sanjay, if it's OK to call you Sanjay --
GUPTA: Please, yes.
STANFORD: OK, Sanjay, when you and I were both in medical school, we heard about these social determinants of health for over two decades. And when you hear Dr. Fauci say them now, they're no different than what we heard when we were in our 20s. And so as I was sitting, watching these reports, hearing the same rhetoric over and over, I said, I'm not going to sit and listen and have another town hall and sit around the table and talk about it. I can do something at this point. I'm a business owner, I have access to. I have an account with lab where I can order testing kits. I have colleagues who are board certified that would donate their time. And we needed to just identify the individuals.
So when we started, we literally went to people's homes, and we went to where they were, we parked the van outside. They came outside of their homes, and we tested them on the street. And we did that throughout the city. And then as we grew, we knew we had to go to places that African Americans trust, and that's the church, whether you go to church or not. They're in their communities. So people walked. Then they walked home and told her neighbor, they walk, they rode their bikes and someone saw them with a mask and they say, hey, where'd you get that mask? Oh, around the corner at the church, and then folks came over.
We also went to homeless shelters. And when the residents were there for a meal, we stood outside. We answered their question. They were scared that we might be giving them the disease or that it would hurt. We answered their questions. And then we tested them. We went to street corners, we want to park wherever people were we went to them, because when they tried to go to most of the testing sites that were in the suburbs, which they had to take buses and trains to get to, they were turned away because they weren't in a car. So we created barrier free testing, to test folks.
COOPER: How do -- I mean inequalities in how black Americans are treated in the healthcare system have existed before COVID, COVID has certainly brought them to the fore. How does that change? I mean, you know, that is a systematic issue, which we have, you know, has been reported on for years and years and years.
[20:45:12]
STANFORD: Well, I'll tell you, the mantra that I developed for the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium is simply access, empathy in action. So you need to open your doors, there was so many restrictions on people that need it the tests the most. And then when they come to you welcome them, treat them like you would treat your mother, your brother, your sister, someone you care about, maybe when they come into a room sit down instead of standing up and being in a rush to go somewhere. And it's great to talk about it, but things need to happen. I've been part of so many NIH studies where we come up with great ideas. You form focus groups and communities. You come with coffee and treats. And then once your study is done, and you publish the paper, everybody leaves all the support that was there is gone. And someone has a new paper on their resume.
COOPER: Dr. Ala Stanford --
GUPTA: Thank you so much.
COOPER: -- Yes, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. And thank you for being with us and I really appreciate it.
STANFORD: Absolutely.
COOPER: Reminder at the bottom of your screen you're going to see our social media scroll that shows the questions that people are asking. You can tweet us your questions with hashtag CNN Town Hall. You can also leave a comment on the CNN Facebook page.
I'm bringing Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room physician, visiting Professor George Washington University and Baltimore's former Health Commissioner.
Dr. Wen, let's get to your questions. We got one Lark from Huntsville, Alabama sent in this video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARK KEPHART, RETIRED REGISTERED NURSE: : How long will those of us who are at risk or vulnerable to COVID-19 have to continue isolation we need to wait until a vaccine is available and widely distributed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Dr. Wen?
LEANA WEN, FMR BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: It's going to take a year, a year and a half or more for a vaccine to be available and distributed and it's not feasible to stay locked down until then. And so I would do the things that you really love doing but safely so if you want to see family and friends, maybe meet in a backyard or in a park outdoors where you are spaced at least six feet apart. And if you're going grocery shopping or something else, make sure that you wear a mask and keep up really good hand hygiene.
GUPTA: And can I just say as well that I mean, I really feel for Ms. Lark who just asked that question, right? She's stuck in her home. I'm vulnerable. So I'm just going to stay here for a year and a half. We wear masks for people like Ms. Lark. I mean, that's why we do it right. We have to do that so she can leave her home and have some semblance of a life. So we're not just wearing them for ourselves as Lena and I've been talking about for but for people like Ms. Lark they should think about her.
COOPER: It is just crazy. I'm sorry. It is just kind of crazy that on the one hand we're being told, you know, businesses should open guy economy's got to get going and I certainly understand that they're desperate, desperate economic straits. I mean, you know. And yet, you know, I think it was you pointed this out earlier Sanjay, administration who's pushing this is not continuing to push for the very safeguards that would allow for the reopening the mask -- I mean, just the wearing of mass, it's now become this political, you know, signpost of where you stand as opposed to helping out your neighbor. And it's not a test of your masculinity.
GUPTA: Yes, I was really struck even you know, talking to Governor Cuomo about that. He said, look, it's a real contentious issue shutting down the economy. It's really contentious shutting down schools. Yes, I get that those are big, put on a mask to protect people around you. It's this, it's just the two second action to do that. And they can make such a huge difference. People who are so against possibly having to shut things down, aren't doing the things that would prevent that from happening and masks makes such a big difference at this point.
COOPER: Yes. Dr. Wen, I mentioned your answer -- for this one, Jessica from Illinois asked, I'm a mother of three with a newborn and needless to say, very busy. The house cleaning is definitely an extra burden and stress in the family and I was wondering what's the risk of having cleaners come in? Cleaner house if we're not home? We use a team of cleaners who come in and clean within an hour and we would return once they're gone.
WEN: So it's probably safe, especially if you're not going to be home at the same time. And you can even use an abundance of caution and make sure that the windows are open, and that they use your cleaning supplies so that they're not bringing in a mob that's being used from house to house.
COOPER: It's so hard to determine. I mean, I can't believe I'm saying the sentence you and I both have newborns at home. I'd never even imagined I would say such a sentence, but not about you but about me. But it is really hard because you want, you know, family members or loved ones to come by and be able to hold the baby and stuff. And you know, it's a really tricky situation.
WEN: Yes, absolutely. And by the way, Anderson, I hope that Wyatt is doing well and happy early Father's Day to both you and Sanjay.
[20:50:01]
COOPER: Thank you.
GUPTA: Thank you.
WEN: So, yes, I mean it. It is really hard and I think people are faced with a decision about risk. And I do think that if both families if there are two families, grandparents and parents who are both reducing the risk as much as possible and they're willing to even self quarantine for 14 days, let's say that they can see each other and we do that human contact.
COOPER: Sanjay, Nathan from New Jersey sent in this question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN STREITMAN: Is working in a high rise office building with no fresh here, a safe or dangerous COVID-19 environment? If it's dangerous, shouldn't the public be made aware of it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Yes, I mean, this is an important point. I mean, ideally, you'd like
to have as much ventilation in the areas possible, because you're trying to reduce the airborne time of these viral particles and make them not hang in the air as long. It's hard in high rise buildings, hopefully, that you have good filtration systems, good ventilation within the building, but it is a challenge and hopefully, employers are addressing this.
COOPER: And I know we asked you to shoot a video on some of the scanner safety tips on going back to the office. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (on-camera): There's no question things are going to look different at work the first time you go there, first of all, everyone's going to be wearing one of these at our workplace, it's going to be a rule. The other thing I do when I go to the hospital is I always stay bear below the elbow. That way my watch or jewelry my ring doesn't get contaminated, also easier to wash the hands. Speaking of which, carry hand sanitizer. Now I think most of you probably do as well. But the workplaces are going to make it easier typically, by having stations like this.
If you can, it's probably always a better idea to take the stairs. But if you have to take an elevator, keep in mind, this is going to be one of the higher risk situations. So obviously a small space, it's indoors, try and find an elevator that's not that crowded. Everyone should face in the same direction to reduce the spread of the virus and use something like a pen to push the button.
So it goes without saying you want to think about every surface you touch it's going to be thinking about this constantly. Doors will likely be propped open so you don't have touch handles. Everyone's going to be disinfecting all their surfaces, this is going to be a very common thing. Also thinking about where you're sitting, and who's sitting next to you, you're going to want to leave space, obviously, this way, but also try not to sit directly across from someone. That's because you want to reduce the viral transfer.
There was a single floor in South Korea, according to this one study, where 94 people got infected. That's what you're trying to avoid here. And by the way, this whole process I just described starts even before you come to work, take your temperature at home. And if you have any symptoms, you should obviously stay there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: And I'll tell you guys, I mean, a lot of this is going to be you know, company to company. There aren't sort of nationwide policies or even statewide policies yet. People are still trying to figure this out as people return to work.
COOPER: Yes, I mean, I'm a little flash studio, we call it at CNN headquarters in New York, and they thankfully provide, you know, I've got like wipes here and this as well, which as Sanjay knows I've used his hair gel when I like forgot to brush my hair before.
GUPTA: That was you telling anybody.
COOPER: Yes, I know it's a little sad. Sanjay took a picture of the other night.
Doctor, I don't recommend that. By the way, you should not be using --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Anyway Dr. Wen let's try to get one morning before the break. Andrea from Henderson, Nevada asked this question.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREA KINCANNON: COVID-19 seems to be an opportunistic disease. Can breathing irritants like tear gas, smoke and pepper spray weaken the immune system and make people more susceptible to infection? And if so, do we know how this sort of soup of irritants, tear gas, smoke and COVID-19 might affect those who are asymptomatic or younger? What can people who are out marching and or in the neighborhoods through which people manage what can they do to protect themselves?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's a great question. Dr. Wen?
WEN: Yes, so tear gas does increase respiratory secretions. They do make people sneeze and cough and rub their eyes all over which are risk factors for both acquiring as well as transmitting COVID-19.
COOPER: All right. Dr. Wen, thank you. When we -- and Sanjay, thanks.
When we take a break, we're going to return answering more of your question, including when I personally cannot wait to hear. When we're back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:58:11]
COOPER: Welcome back to this Coronavirus Global Town Hall.
Want to get to another coronavirus question. Back with us is Dr. Lena Wen. Dr. Wen a concern aunt named Donna writes in, my niece lives in Crosby, Texas, she has a six month old, for new moms at what age can children wear a mask? I heard not before two years also, how can we protect our young children when we take for -- when we take walks in the strollers?
WEN: What the CDC recommends that children above the age of two wear masks, although I'll tell you I have an almost three year old and it's very hard for him to keep his mask on. It is pretty safe to take your kids out for a walk in a stroller, just make sure that there is enough distance around you to keep that six foot as much as possible. And if it's not, then a lot of strollers have a cover that protects from the sun or rain, you can put that on and also I like to carry a blanket with me and I put the blanket on top of the stroller handle and that adds another level of protection too.
COOPER: All right. Thanks so much. Love hearing questions about baby now, I never. Thank you so much, Dr. Wen. Appreciate it. Sanjay. Thank you.
Also, big thanks to New York's Governor Andrew, Andrew Cuomo and Dr. Ala Stanford who is terrific. We really appreciate her being on the program. Also, thanks to all of you who wrote in with your questions to everyone else who joined us? If you didn't get your question answered tonight, the conversation continue at cnn.com/coronavirusanswers. Sanjay, thanks so much for doing it again.
GUPTA: Yes. Thank you, Anderson. And by the way, have a great weekend. You're first Father's Day.
COOPER: I know it's surreal. It really is surreal. Also, you know, I think there's a lot of people who, you know, Father's Day, Mother's Day are hard for people who have lost a parent and growing up but, you know, I'd never paid attention to Father's Day because my dad passed away. It was just too painful. So to actually be celebrating Fathers Day is it blows my mind. So it's just another of the kind of the wonder --
GUPTA: Very special.
COOPER: -- of what's going on. Sanjay, thank you very much. Happy Father's Day.
GUPTA: OK.
[21:00:08]
And the news continues right now with another father, Chris Cuomo, Chris?
END
