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The Situation Room
White House Versus Dr. Fauci?; Interview With Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), Atlanta, GA; U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Passes 137,000; White House Chief Of Staff: Trump Did Not Approve Adviser's Op-Ed Slamming Fauci; Miami-Dade County Has Run Out Of ICU Beds, 26 Patients In Converted ICUs; Brazilian President Says He Tested Positive Again. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired July 15, 2020 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
We're following breaking news on the worsening coronavirus crisis here in the United States. This hour, the U.S. death toll just surpassed 137,000. New cases are rising in 38 states. One of the hottest hot spots, Texas, right now just reported 110 deaths and more than 10,000 new cases in a single day, setting new records.
And California is reporting its second highest one-day increase in new cases and deaths, this as President Trump has been flouting Atlanta's mask law, while visiting the city, where cases are spiking.
Back here in Washington, the White House vs. Dr. Fauci, that drama continues, after the president's trade adviser, of all people, wrote an article slamming the infectious disease expert.
Dr. Fauci is now speaking out about efforts within the administration to try to discredit him. He is calling all of this bizarre and says the -- quote -- "nonsense" -- all of this -- quote -- "nonsense," he says, needs to stop.
Let's go to CNN's Nick Watt. He's joining us from Los Angeles right now.
Nick, more disturbing numbers tonight from California, from Texas, and elsewhere.
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, yes, record numbers in Texas.
You know, we just heard from our CNN team in Florida that Miami-Dade County has now run out of ICU beds, record numbers here in California. Pasadena has just canceled the world-famous Rose Parade, which was for New Year's Day 2021.
And here in Los Angeles, we have just been told that returning to a stay-at-home order is now a possibility, that we are right now in an alarming and dangerous phase of this pandemic. And we're not alone.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WATT (voice-over): More theme parks opened up today in Florida, just as the state passed 300,000 cases, and ICUS are already full in 54 Florida hospitals.
CARLOS MIGOYA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, JACKSON HEALTH SYSTEM: The biggest issue is we have a lot of aggressive, noncompliant people. A lot of the young people are saying, so what if I get it? If I get it, it doesn't mean anything.
WATT: More Americans are being infected with this virus now, six months in, than ever before. Why?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: As we tried to open up, pictures and photos and films of people at bars with no masks, congregating in crowds, the inevitable happened.
DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Right now, the Southern U.S. accounts for about a quarter of the world's cases of COVID-19. Think about that, just the Southern half of the U.S.
WATT: Nineteen states are now, now seeing their highest average daily case counts ever.
FAUCI: We have got to almost reset this and say, OK, let's stop this nonsense and figure out, how can we get our control over this now?
And by the pushing the reset button, I don't mean everybody locking down again. Maybe we need to walk back a bit and say, if you are going to open, we have got to get everybody on the same team.
WATT: According to one well-watched model, nearly another 90,000 Americans could die before November 1, but if there was a nationwide mask mandate?
DR. CHRISTOPHER MURRAY, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH METRICS, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: It can save more than 40,000 lives in the U.S. between now and November 1.
WATT: Tomorrow, deep red Alabama will make masks mandatory.
GOV. KAY IVEY (R-AL): I always prefer a personal responsibility over a government mandate, and yet I also know with all my heart that the numbers are definitely trending in the wrong direction.
WATT: Oklahoma's governor also just made a surprising announcement.
GOV. KEVIN STITT (R-OK): I got tested yesterday for COVID-19. And the results came back positive. So, I feel fine.
WATT: So, now will he mandate masks?
STITT: Not thinking about a mask mandate at all. We have got different -- you know, across the state of Oklahoma, you have got different communities with different needs.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're glad to be joined as well by Governor Kevin Stitt.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
WATT: In Tulsa, where the president held that masks-optional rally, where case counts have way more than doubled ever since, they're still figuring out what to do with schools, but:
DEBORAH GIST, SUPERINTENDENT, TULSA PUBLIC SCHOOLS: I can tell you for sure there will be masks in our schools.
DR. COLLEEN KRAFT, EMORY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: Schools are going to be hot spots. Kids are a vector for viruses. If you remember pandemic H1N1 in 2009, as soon as schools reopened, there was a huge spike.
WATT: D.C. and Philly both announcing today hybrid school years, some in-person, some online. In Arizona, NFL-style misters are now deployed in one district to disinfect. Kids will be back in these classrooms in a little over two weeks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[18:05:00]
WATT: And I just want to go back to that staggering breaking news out of Miami-Dade County, that they have run out of ICU beds.
Now, one expert who advises the county actually says they have had to move 26 patients into converted ICUs. That is the situation they're dealing with.
Now, here in California, Wolf, testing, this line all day, solid booked here at Dodger Stadium today and tomorrow. And the state is now saying that if you are asymptomatic, but believe that you really might be actively infected, you can't get a test right now, because they're trying to drop the demand, so they can get this turn around time quicker.
They want it under 48 hours between you getting tested and you getting your result. And that is why they're saying to some people, you just can't get tested right now -- Wolf.
BLITZER: That is a sad situation, indeed.
Nick Watt reporting, thank you.
Let's go to the White House, where the tensions with Dr. Anthony Fauci are serious. The prominent member of the Coronavirus Task Force hitting back today at attempts to try to discredit him by White House officials.
Our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, is joining us right now.
Jim, Dr. Fauci is calling some of the behavior at the White House bizarre. That is putting it mildly. What are you learning?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf.
After days of attacks from White House officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci has had enough and he is firing back. Fauci is describing the attacks on him as a -- quote -- "major mistake" on the part of the White House. White House officials, by the way, are jumping into damage control mode, insisting that aides across the West Wing are not happy with trade adviser Peter Navarro, saying he violated instructions from the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who had warned staffers to stop going after Fauci.
And in response to an op-ed from Peter Navarro slamming Fauci, Meadows just released a statement to CNN, saying the president did not approve of that op-ed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA (voice-over): After waging a campaign to discredit one of the nation's most trusted experts on the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House appears to be waving the white flag, at least for now.
TRUMP: We have a very good relationship. Well, that is Peter Navarro. I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci.
ACOSTA: President Trump and his top aides are now backing off of their attacks on Fauci, but only after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro blasted Fauci in a "USA Today" op-ed, writing: "Dr. Anthony Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."
Asked about that, the president all but accused Navarro of going rogue.
TRUMP: Well, he made a statement representing himself. He shouldn't be doing that. No, I have a very good relationship with Anthony.
ACOSTA: After biting his tongue for weeks, Fauci is now defending himself.
FAUCI: I cannot figure out in my wildest dreams why they would want to do that, but, I mean, I think they realize now that that was not a prudent thing to do, because it's only reflecting negatively on them.
I can't explain Peter Navarro. He is in a world by himself. So, I don't even want to go there.
ACOSTA: Navarro's op-ed came after anonymous White House officials sent unflattering talking points about Fauci to reporters. Fauci said that was unwise, too.
FAUCI: If you talk to reasonable people in the White House, they realize that was a major mistake on their part, because it doesn't do anything but reflect poorly on them.
ACOSTA: Now White House officials are trying to distance themselves from Navarro, with one top aide saying in a tweet: "The Peter Navarro op-ed didn't go through normal White House clearance processes and is the opinion of Peter alone. The president values the expertise of the medical professionals advising his administration."
One White House official went further, saying Navarro had been told by Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to de-escalate the situation with Fauci, but that he violated those instructions by writing the op-ed anyway.
Top Republican lawmakers appear to be on team Fauci, from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
QUESTION: What is your level of confidence in Dr. Fauci at this point?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Total.
ACOSTA: To Senator Lindsey Graham. Both are battling for reelection.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We don't have a Dr. Fauci problem. We need to be focusing on doing things that get us to where we need to go. So I have all the respect in the world for Dr. Fauci. I think any effort to undermine him is not going to be productive, quite frankly.
ACOSTA: But the White House is still showing some hostility to public health officials, calling on hospitals around the U.S. to send their data on the virus directly to the administration in Washington, bypassing the Centers for Disease Control.
One top administration official said the CDC will simply no longer control the data. On the issue of using masks, former White House Dr. Ronny Jackson, who is running for Congress, with the president's support, downplayed the importance of wearing them.
RONNY JACKSON (R), TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think wearing a mask is a personal choice, and I don't particularly want my government telling me that I have to wear a mask. And so I think that is a choice that I can make. I don't wear a mask all that often, to be honest with you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, as for Dr. Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert says he does not want to step down, telling "The Atlantic" earlier today he just wants to do his job.
[18:10:00]
And after attacking Fauci for days, the president and his team seem to be following the doctor's advice, at least for now. Fauci was at the White House for a meeting of the Coronavirus Task Force earlier today.
And check this out, Wolf. Vice President Mike Pence tweeted out a picture of himself with Fauci earlier this afternoon. Pence later told reporters Fauci is a valuable member of the White House team on the virus.
Quite a turnaround, after all of those attacks over the last few days on Dr. Fauci, Wolf.
BLITZER: Jim Acosta at the White House for us, thanks very much. I want to bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta,
and Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor and dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Thanks to both of you for joining us.
Sanjay, as the U.S. sets record numbers of daily coronavirus cases, Dr. Fauci says the inevitable happened when the country opened up, and suggests we need a reset right now. So, what should a reset, Sanjay, include at this very, very critical moment?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, an acknowledgment, first of all, that the status quo is not working very well.
So people keep saying, we are going to put a pause on things. And that's fine. But you see what's happening with the new infections on a daily basis. It may involve in some places possibly having to shut down some places again.
I know Dr. Fauci has said, look, hopefully, we don't need that. But there are some places where to break the cycle of transmission, at least for a period of time, that's what might be necessary. We know that indoor settings, restaurants, bars, things like that, there are certain areas that are the highest risk, and those areas in particular, I think, are going to need to be addressed in places where Peter Hotez lives, in Arizona, and Florida, other places.
The -- making the case for masks, having a national testing strategy, and making sure that people are communicating the seriousness of the American people on a daily basis, I think, is all part of that as well.
BLITZER: Yes, so critical.
Dr. Hotez, Dr. Fauci also says the focus now must be on preventing what happened in your state of Texas, let's say, other hot spots, including California, Florida, Arizona, from happening elsewhere. So, how would you recommend doing that?
HOTEZ: Well, I agree completely with Sanjay, with Dr. Gupta.
But I would even take it a step further. We are in a dire public health crisis. Let's really call it as it is. Right now, one-quarter of the world's new COVID-19 cases are in the Southern United States. And there is no end in sight. The deaths are now rising.
Hearing about crowded ICUs, that we don't have ICU space. We have exhausted hospital staff. And the other piece is, the hospital staffs are getting sick, as we have to actually fly people in from all over the country across our hospitals in the South.
This is more than just not working. This is one of the great failures in the history of public health in the United States. And we have to turn this around. And the only way that I could see turning it around is with a coherent national road map and strategy to bring the entire nation down close to containment.
And there's different ways to define it, some call it one new case per million residents per day. Others are more liberal, but at some agreed-upon level, by October 1.
Some states are already there, places like Maine, Vermont, but in the Southern part of the United States, we may have to go to that full lockdown, and then we can safely open schools and colleges and maybe even more.
But you can't open schools right now in most of the Southern U.S. It's too frightening for teachers, for bus drivers, for cafeteria workers, and for parents. This is a tragic situation. We have to come to terms with it and own up to it and make a plan.
Otherwise, we will continue to go in freefall, and we will easily get to that 224,000 deaths by the end of October, and maybe 300,000 deaths by the end of the year, half the number of people who died in the great pandemic of 1918 from influenza.
BLITZER: Sanjay, parents, students, teachers across the country right now are anxiously awaiting critically important, life-and-death decisions, actually, about the upcoming school year. Supposed to begin some places early in August, mid-August, end of August.
You have done some fascinating new reporting on this topic. And you have talked to leading experts. What does the science say about when and how schools should welcome back the kids?
GUPTA: Well, it is very interesting, because there is still this idea that young people in particular don't -- aren't as likely to get very sick from this, as compared to older people. That data has sort of held up.
It is still a little bit of an open question mark as to just what role younger people, students are going to play in transmission. But they probably play some role. It is just not clear, is it as much as adults, is it less? And why is that?
I think that the thing that really drives it, though, Wolf, and I think what came out of reporting and basically meeting the guidelines that some communities have set up, is, what is happening in the community around that school?
[18:15:07]
As Dr. Hotez was just saying, there's different -- different communities are at different levels right now in the country. As a basic rule, what sources have told me close to the Coronavirus Task Force is, if you're going up five days in a row, community spread is increasing five days in a row, that is probably not a time to be opening schools.
You're definitely heading in the wrong direction. You need to get things under control before you start to open that school.
BLITZER: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Peter Hotez, thanks to both of you. Thanks for everything you guys are doing as well.
Just ahead: Did President Trump break the law by not wearing a mask when he arrived a few hours ago in Atlanta, Georgia?
We are going to talk to the mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. There you see her.
We will discuss when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:09]
BLITZER: We're back with breaking news.
The mayor of Atlanta now says President Trump actually broke city law by not wearing a mask during his visit earlier today.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is joining us right now.
Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.
I know you, members of your family, personally, you're fighting coronavirus right now. We are going to discuss that shortly.
But, first of all, let's talk about the president. When he landed at Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport a little while ago, he wasn't wearing a mask. You say he was actually breaking the law by not wearing a mask. Almost everyone there around him was wearing a mask. Tell us why you think he broke the law.
MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Well, I was glad to see that the others on the tarmac did have their masks on.
But I signed an executive order that requires masks in the city of Atlanta, and specifically on city-owned property, which Atlanta- Hartsfield Jackson International Airport is. So, by not having on a mask, President Trump did violate law in the city of Atlanta.
But I am somehow not surprised that he disregarded our rules and regulations in this city. But it was encouraging to see that others did have some regard for what we're doing and trying to accomplish in Atlanta.
And that is to slow the spread of COVID-19.
BLITZER: Well, if you are an average person out there in Atlanta, and you violate the law, what is the punishment if you don't wear a mask in an area where you are required under city law to wear a mask?
BOTTOMS: Well, you can receive a citation, and you can be given a fine and up to six months in our city detention center, which it won't happen to anyone.
But you can certainly be given a citation. But what we have been doing in the city of Atlanta, encouraging people to wear masks and, where possible, giving them masks if they don't have a face covering.
But, given where President Trump was and his close proximity with others, they weren't socially distancing, then it would have been appropriate for him to have on a mask on city property.
BLITZER: You're not going to give him a citation, though, I take it?
BOTTOMS: Just a citation that sends him back to Washington, D.C.
BLITZER: He is on his way back, we're told, right now.
How much harder is it, Mayor, for you to enforce a mask mandate in your beautiful city of Atlanta when the president of the United States clearly refuses to comply?
BOTTOMS: It really speaks to the bigger challenge we're having across America, Wolf.
And what we're doing in Atlanta is following the science and the data. It's hot in Atlanta. We have had temperatures over 90 degrees. This is not the wish of anyone to have to wear a mask.
But what we know, in listening to the experts, listening to Dr. Gupta and so many others, is that this is how you slow the spread of COVID- 19. And so it is unfortunate that we have a president that, for the first time, we have seen him in a mask in the last week, when this pandemic has been on our shores since March.
And it is no wonder that families like mine are being impacted and so many others across the country who are experiencing so much worse with their experience with COVID-19.
I talked with a woman today, one of our city employees, who is burying her husband today. And it is absolutely heartbreaking, and it doesn't have to be so.
BLITZER: I know you are fighting coronavirus right now. Your husband is fighting coronavirus. One of your four children has coronavirus.
First of all, tell us, Mayor, how you are doing.
BOTTOMS: I am doing so much better, Wolf.
I have just been a little fatigued, nothing like that experience of my husband, who is a very healthy man. And corona has literally taken him to his knees. My child is asymptomatic, thankfully.
And we count ourselves as blessed. Again, there are so many people who are healthy who don't get to the other side of this virus. So the fact that there are three of us in our house who are positive and three who did not get infected, we just consider it a blessing from God that we are all on the mend.
BLITZER: Well, we wish, of course, all of you a very, very speedy recovery. There is another development I want to discuss with you. The New York
state governor, Andrew Cuomo, says he is sending resources to Atlanta right now, at your request, including personal protective equipment, test kits and help with contact tracing.
What does it say to you that you had to turn to the -- a governor of another state for these kinds of resources?
BOTTOMS: I'm so grateful to Governor Cuomo and the people of New York for being considerate of what we are facing in Atlanta right now.
[18:25:00]
And it is encouraging to have someone like Governor Cuomo, who wants to help our city, but also discouraging to know that we could be in a very different situation.
We didn't have to look to Italy and other countries across the globe to see the impact of COVID-19 and what needed to be done to get to the other side of it. We watched Governor Cuomo on the news every day telling us that this was going to be our fate, if we were not mindful of our policies.
And, somehow, our state ignored the warnings. And we are now in the midst of a storm. Our positive rates are up 23 percent -- 23 percent. Our ICU beds are at capacity, and many hospitals getting close to capacity, and other hospitals, we're now having to reopen expanded hospital capacity in the city of Atlanta.
We have reopened this facility, or the state did, $20 million-plus. They closed it down. One month later, and now we are reopening it again, so many missteps and so many things that could have been done differently.
BLITZER: We know your state of Georgia, what, nearly 4,000 new coronavirus cases just, just today.
Good luck to everyone in Georgia. Thank you so much, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Good luck especially to you and your family. We will stay in very close touch.
Appreciate you joining us.
BOTTOMS: Thank you.
BLITZER: Just ahead, we will have much more on Dr. Anthony Fauci's efforts to try to defend himself against the Trump administration attacks. Is the White House really trying to de-escalate tensions right now?
And we will also go live to Miami-Dade County, which just, just ran out of intensive care beds, as Florida is getting hammered by the coronavirus.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:30:00]
BLITZER: Tonight, the White House is trying to distance the president from the latest effort to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci an op-ed written by Mr. Trump's trade adviser.
Let's bring in our CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood and CNN Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson.
Nia, the president says Peter Navarro, the trade adviser, shouldn't have published this scathing op-ed in USA Today attacking Dr. Fauci. But it is not like that Peter Navarro was going rogue here. It follows example after example of example of other White House officials, including the president himself, raising questions about Dr. Fauci.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's exactly right and that's why it is so hard for this White House to distance themselves from Peter Navarro. He is essentially echoing comments and criticisms that we've heard from the president. The president re- tweeting criticisms of Dr. Fauci.
But what we know that this White House wants to undermine Dr. Fauci's credibility because his credibility is so high with the American public. It's almost 70 percent. And you have from the president people don't trust him in the way that they trust Dr. Fauci.
Listen, Dr. Fauci has been in six different administrations. He's a living legend in terms of his contributions to science and public health in medicine. And it's very difficult for them to try to ding him. I think they're going to try it anyway. Not only has he been in six different administrations, it means that he is incredibly savvy politically.
So you saw him today come out and say, this is a bizarre attempt at undermining him and it makes the president look bad.
So you imagine it going forward of this kind of ham-handed effort that they attempted, Peter Navarro in the pages of USA Today. You wonder if they're going to think twice going forward about thinking about going after Dr. Fauci in the way that they did.
BLITZER: You know, John, clearly, the attitude towards Dr. Fauci comes from the top. But if the president was actually concerned about this, he could have stopped Peter Navarro or defended Dr. Fauci over these past several days and weeks. I clearly didn't hear a lot of that.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course. He also could have fired Peter Navarro. Look this is a keystone cop situation. They have no idea what they're doing. They have got a pandemic that the president is trying to ignore that is raging out of control. They have no strategy to deal with it. And they're allowing people to vent the president's frustration, which he did yesterday in that punch- drunk news conference he gave.
So, you know, this is something the American people can see. We had a new Quinnipiac poll out today that showed the American people by more than 2-1 saying the president is not honest. He's underwater in his approval by 36 percent to 60 percent and he's down 15 percentage points to Joe Biden.
It's pretty ugly political situation for the president. They're frustrated but they do not have the capacity to get their arms around it.
BLITZER: With the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll I just saw has Biden 51 percent, Trump 40 percent, 11-point difference, a lot of these polls very, very consistent.
Nia, the White House may be doing some damage control, but we've seen Dr. Fauci's role minimized, apparently hasn't spoken directly with the president since June 2nd. He says he wasn't consulted about the move to cut the CDC out of its role of handling coronavirus data that's very sensitive. How worrying is it for the American people to realize that the health experts are being sidelined even as the country hits these record numbers of new cases?
[18:35:02]
HENDERSON: It's incredibly worrying that you would sideline someone as renowned as Dr. Fauci who has dedicated his life to infectious diseases obviously on the frontline of any number of issues, HIV, and, of course, Ebola, and now with COVID. But this is, you know, I think, indicative of this White House's inability to get their arms around this crisis.
You have from this president someone who is essentially trying to wish this pandemic away, trying to will the schools open, for instance, without any real plan for parents who are worried all across the country about sending their kids back to school. So this, I think, they are siloing Dr. Fauci. Thankfully he's still been out there, right?
He's not necessarily on CNN, not really allowed to go on CNN apparently or any of the other networks but he is finding ways to get his message out there, talking to The Atlantic, for instance, today. So that is great.
And, listen, some of these states obviously have their own public health officials and are having to listen to them in a way they hadn't before, and now issuing mask mandates, for instance. That's what's happening in Alabama.
They have listened, I think, to the president. They were ready (ph) to open their economies back. And guess what has happened? Exactly what all of the experts predicted would happen. And that is a runaway virus of this endangering the public and then also undermining the economy.
BLITZER: Yes. And, John, none of these attacks against Dr. Fauci are a real substitute for actual national plans to control this virus. As far as a national plan is concerned, we haven't seen it. Is there one on the way?
HARWOOD: No. The president has been dealing with this for six months now. We haven't got -- he downplayed it at the beginning. He then put the nation in shutdown in a certain way. But as soon as he saw some light gleaming at the end of the tunnel, he pushed a reopening. It's turned into a disastrous situation.
And the push to reopen schools is a pretty good example of it. The president just says outright, they need to open their schools. And somebody said what if parents are scared. He said, well, they need to get somebody else in there and just go ahead and open the schools.
Well, this Quinnipiac poll today showed by 29 percent to 61 percent, people disapprove of the president's handling of the schools. By 2-1, Americans say it is unsafe to send kids back. The president's words are not going to dictate the course of the nation's reaction here because people don't believe them outside his base.
What's going to dictate the course of the reaction is the fear in the public, the fear among American businesses who see what's happening to the economic recovery. It's getting dampened by this. And the ability of Americans to feel safe going forward and try to get some control over this virus, which we do not have at the moment.
BLITZER: That's absolutely true. All right, John Harwood, thank you. Nia-Malika Henderson, thanks to you as well.
Just ahead we're going to get more on the escalating crisis right now in Florida, where one county now has actually out of ICU beds.
Plus, Brazil's president is announcing a second positive test for the coronavirus for himself.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:40:00]
BLITZER: We have breaking news out of Florida right now. Hard-hit Miami-Dade County has just run out of ICU beds and now patients are being transported to converted intensive care units.
CNN's Randi Kaye is on the scene for us in Florida. Randi, how dire is the hospital capacity in Miami right now?
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we know that at least 54 hospitals around the state have run out of ICU beds but this is the first time that we're hearing an entire county is without ICU beds.
In Miami, they normally have in Miami-Dade, that is in the county, they normally have 405 ICU beds but now 431 ICU patients, so they are 26 beds short. So they are now converting rooms, they're bringing in equipment like negative pressure machines to try and convert those rooms to ICU rooms.
One infectious disease expert who advises the county there in Miami- Dade says that this is maximum urgency. She says that they have more people now on ventilators, Wolf, than they have ever had. And hospitalizations around the state have gone up over the weekend. There were 7,000 people hospitalized and now today we're seeing more than 8,200 people hospitalized. So, certainly, those numbers are increasing rapidly.
But despite all of that, north of here in Orlando, you have Epcot and Hollywood Studios reopening today. Hollywood Studios has so much demand that they are actually booked solid, Wolf, for the next eight days. And Epcot has a special food and wine festival debuting today at the theme park. Of course, they will require masks and temperature checks and social distancing. But, certainly, they are going on with the party there in Orlando, Wolf.
BLITZER: They certainly are. All right, Randi, thank you.
Let's get more on the escalating crisis in Florida right now. We're joined by Carlos Migoya, the President and CEO of the Jackson Health System in Miami-Dade County. Carlos, thank you so much for joining us.
You just heard Randi Kaye report Miami-Dade has now run out of ICU beds. I know that the Jackson Health System, which you run, is converting regular beds into ICU beds. Give us a sense of just how dire the situation is right now.
CARLOS MIGOYA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, JACKSON HEALTH SYSTEM: Wolf, as of right now, we have yet to convert any beds. That's our plan in the future should we need to. We are very, very tight at this point in time, but we're still being able to replace non-COVID patients as they're moving out of the ICU beds in with COVID patients.
[18:45:08]
So, we've been running tight, which is not unusual for Jackson. Jackson Memorial, which is our main hospital, deals with a lot of complex surgeries like transplant neurosurgery and open heart. So having a full intensive care floor is not uncommon thing to do.
We --
BLITZER: All right. I --
MIGOYA: We do expect to run out of beds, but not yet.
BLITZER: All right. Well, I know your health system says it has seen, correct me if I'm wrong about it, 226 percent increase in coronavirus patients in just the past month. And just yesterday, your group reported 420 coronavirus cases.
Help us understand, Carlos, the reality of this data. What kind of pressure has this influx of cases put on your facilities?
MIGOYA: So, here's the deal. Our current census that we can run in adult patients is 1,100. We have seen in the last 14 days a growth of double, from 200 to 400. The number you're talking about is for 30 days. But I've been -- we've seen a dramatic growth over the last certainly two weeks and certainly over the last 30 days.
But, still, 400 and 400-plus patients, 1,100 patients, it's running just under 30 percent. We believe that this number can grow higher. It's very stressful on
our people. We have been going this -- as I mentioned the day before, we are over 120 days now where all of our employees are going through a very stressful environment. We're converting a lot of non-ICU patients that are moving out because they were here for elective surgeries and now we're not doing elective surgeries and moving in COVID patients.
We feel we can do more of these and, frankly, just got off a call at 4:00 this afternoon with all the hospitals in South Florida where every one of us are doing exactly the same thing as we -- as we're weaning out of the elective surgeries and moving in COVID patients. Extremely stressful and we are very, very close, but we believe that we still have a little bit of room left before we get to the point of conversion.
When we get to conversation, we have plenty of extra beds and actually right now, Governor DeSantis has given us an extra 150 nurses to help us with the extra staffing that we need so we have a little bit of room. But this room is not going to last forever.
In another three to five weeks, we could run out if we keep it this kind of pace. And what we need to continue as I've said before is make sure the community starts really masking and being compliant with the social distancing, which many people are not.
BLITZER: Well, good luck. Carlos Migoya, good luck to you. Good luck to everyone at the hospital. The situation is really, really serious right now.
We'll stay in close touch. Thanks so much for joining us.
MIGOYA: Thank you.
BLITZER: Just ahead, a world leader who belittled -- totally belittled the risk of coronavirus tests, he has now tested positive for a second time. We'll update you on that when we come back.
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BLITZER: We're following the breaking news out of Brazil right now as the country's president reports a second positive test. Brazil's coronavirus death toll has just surpassed 75,000.
CNN's Matt Rivers is following all of this for us.
Matt, tell us more.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Wolf, in a lot of ways, it's not surprising that this second test came back with a positive result for the Brazilian president given that it wasn't that long ago that he tested for it the first time. But what's clear is that the message that the Brazilian president is trying to put out there is that he's ready to get back to work. He said that he doesn't have strong symptoms. He doesn't have loss of
taste, loss of smell, his cough ended several days ago. And so, he's trying to project strength in the face of this virus.
And, Wolf, I mean, that's good news. We don't want to hear anybody with this virus getting worse or have bad symptoms. We would be remiss if we didn't mention there are hundred of thousands of Brazilians with this virus who do have severe symptoms. We're going to pass 2 million cases in that country this weekend, more than 75,000 people have lost their lives.
And I've been reporting on the situation in Brazil talking to many different experts who uniformly agree that a lot of those cases and a lot of those deaths have occurred as a direct result of a lack of action, a lack of coordinated response from the Bolsonaro administration.
So, while it's great news that the president himself doesn't have those symptoms, there are hundred of thousands of Brazilian families who are dealing with loved ones who do have those symptoms. And that is at least in part the president's own fault.
BLITZER: As you know, Matt, Brazil is second only to the United States in coronavirus cases. Is wearing a mask widely accepted by Brazilian citizens? Or do some follow Bolsonaro's lead by not wearing them?
RIVERS: That's a good question. It's certainly not quite the political issue that it is in the United States. Even at pro-Bolsonaro rallies, people would wear a mask. But, you know, Bolsonaro hasn't wore a mask in public many times. He will have people that follow him in that example.
And just today, Bolsonaro said that he's been taking hydroxychloroquine, the very controversial drug that is pretty much uniformly agreed upon that its results are at least considered controversial.
And yet he said don't just listen to me, listen to your public health experts. But he's taking it and some people are going to follow his lead.
BLITZER: Matt Rivers, reporting for us. Matt, thank you very much.
Be sure to tune in to CNN tomorrow night for a new coronavirus global town hall, CNN's Dr. Gupta will be joined by former acting director of the CDC, Dr. Tom Frieden, among others. It's at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
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Anderson Cooper will, of course, co-host that CNN special town hall.
We'll have much more news just ahead.
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BLITZER: Finally tonight, we honor some of the people who lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.
Walter "Jimmy" Amoss Jr. of Louisiana was 95 years old. He served in the U.S. Navy near the end of World War II, returning home to work as a maritime consultant. He and his son had six sons and lived in New Orleans.
Sabina Evangelista-Grasso of New York was 77. Sabina was known as genuine and kind. For two decades, she helped lead an organization for people with developmental and special needs.
May they rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
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