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Christians Attend Virtual Easter Services; Researchers Study Former Coronavirus Patients` Immunity; Meeting A "Ravenmaster" Whose Job Is For The Birds
Aired April 13, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN 10. Your daily down the middle explanation of world events. I`m Carl Azuz. It`s great to be starting off a
new week with you. We have a couple quick headlines to cover first today on this Monday after Easter.
In fact, the first involves Easter itself, the most significant Holy day for the world`s Christians. This is how services looked last year in St.
Peter`s Square at the Vatican and this is how they looked on Sunday with Vatican City under the same lockdown as surrounding Italy. Pope Frances,
the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, participated in one of many services shown on TV and online as millions of Christians virtually
attended church following social distancing guidelines on the day that commemorates Jesus Christ`s resurrection.
Some churches held drive-thru and parking lot services and some worshipers planned to celebrate in person anyway. And that brought up a number of
legal questions and lawsuits in America as issues of health restrictions and religious freedom clashed with one another. Many businesses, crucial
parts of the U.S. economy, have been shutdown for weeks because of coronavirus fears. Unemployed and furloughed workers have fears about
making ends meet.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are a lot of people like me who are just wondering how long this is going to be.
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AZUZ: Some help is on the way though. The first wave of checks, direct payments to Americans from the government`s $2 trillion stimulus package,
were sent out over the weekend. For those who are eligible, hundreds if not thousands of dollars could arrive in the days and weeks ahead. We don`t
know yet when the stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders will be lifted, but the United States has now seen more cases and deaths from coronavirus
than any other country. So health officials say removing the restrictions too soon could make things worse.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most states are not going to reach their peak of coronavirus cases for one to two weeks. Now remember why we`re doing this
lockdown is so that that peak doesn`t overwhelm what our hospitals can handle.
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AZUZ: More than 1.8 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19. Most people who get the disease will recover. So the next question for them is
are they now immune to coronavirus and for how long.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to the Coronavirus Task Force, more than 2 million tests have now been performed in the United States. And yet there
are still people who need to be tested, such as healthcare workers who can`t get one. It`s part of the reason there is now so much interest in a
different kind of test, an antibody test. Dr. Fauci told CNN on Friday, it`s coming soon.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: I`m certain that that`s going to happen that within a period of a week or so we`re going to have a rather large number of tests
that are available.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But what exactly are antibodies? They are proteins in the immune system that develop days after someone has been infected and
it`s the antibodies that make someone immune to becoming re-infected. It means two things. You were previously infected and you are now likely to be
protected, at least for a while.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think it will be a tool that will help us get people back to work. It will be additional information because as you know, if you
have an antibody that means you were exposed and have recovered from it. That with the information about diagnosis should help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s why public health agencies around the world want these antibody tests because it could help some people get back to their
daily lives. You remember the swab test we`re all familiar with. Well that tests for the virus itself, specifically its genetic material. Problems are
first of all at some point after you recover, that test will be negative and secondly, a lot of people have had trouble getting that diagnostic test
in the first place.
The antibody test is more definitive. There are only a few reasons you would have antibodies in your blood. You got someone else`s antibodies by
an injection of their blood. You got a vaccine which teaches your body to make antibodies or you were infected. The antibody test requires a sample
of your blood and this strip which has proteins from the virus on it. If your blood reacts to that strip, it means you have antibodies in your
blood.
DR. DEBRA BIRX: And I think really being able to tell them, the peace of mind that would come from knowing you already were infected. You have the
antibody. You`re safe from re-infection, 99.9 percent of the time. And so this, I think would be very reassuring to our frontline healthcare workers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another benefit of antibody testing, surveillance. In places like Miami-Dade County, Florida, Santa Clara County, California and
Telluride, Colorado, they have already starting using antibody tests to get a better sense of how many people, many of whom will be surprised to learn
have already been exposed to the virus.
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AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Where would you find a yeoman known as the "Ravenmaster"? Notre Dame, Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, Tower of London or
Edgar Allan Poe Museum. The "Ravenmaster" cares for the famous ravens of the Tower of London.
They`ve been a fixture at the tower since, well, no one really knows. What we can tell you is that there are seven of them. There is a legend that in
the 1600s`, King Charles II ordered that the ravens be kept around the tower to protect the country. There was a superstition that if they left
disaster would strike England.
But just like there are a lot of legends, myths, and stories about the Tower of London itself, there are a lot of legends about the animals and
modern day "Ravenmaster" says there`s not a lot of proof the ravens were there before the late 1800s`. One thing we know for certain, his job`s for
the birds and his beat is the next stop in our ongoing series of virtual field trips.
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CHRISTOPHER SKAIFE, RAVENMASTER AT THE TOWER OF LONDON: My name is Chris Skaife. I`m the "Ravenmaster" at her majesty`s royal palace and fortress
the Tower of London and I`m responsible for the safety and the welfare of our magnificent ravens. There are many myths and legends associated with
the tower and one such legend reminds us that should the ravens leave the Tower of London, it will crumble and a great harm will befall the kingdom.
So we keep the ravens here in order to save the kingdom.
I have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders. I start early in the morning. I ensure that the area that they`re going to spend their day out
and about freely around the tower is clean. I feed them, look after them. Let them out during the day. Make sure that they`re nice and healthy for
the -- the members of the public to come in -- in and see them.
My relationship with the ravens depends very much on the actual personality of each individual raven that we have here at the Tower of London. One of
our oldest ravens, raven Moonin (ph) doesn`t really like me. She fell out with me many years ago for some reason I don`t know.
I do have a large bonding with one of our other ravens called Merlin and we`re really good friends. This is of course my home. There are currently
37 serving young (inaudible) so the (inaudible) of the Tower of London and about 150 people live inside this iconic building. As far as I`m aware, I`m
officially the only "Ravenmaster" in the world. So I consider that quite a responsible job. I think her majesty the Queen would too.
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AZUZ: If you`ve ever stopped what you`re doing, looked up at the sky and thought whoa. I wonder what the Hubble Space Telescope could see on my
birthday well now you can know. The observatory was launched into orbit in 1990.
It`s been maintained and upgraded through numerous spacewalks and all this has come at a cost to the U.S. that approaches $10 billion. But as its
whirled around the world at 17,000 miles per hour, it`s taken some incredible images of the universe beyond it and there`ve been so many
pictures throughout the year that NASA says it has one for your birthday. Not the year of course.
That would weed out anyone born before 1990 but if you know the month and date of your birth, even if that`s February 29th of a leap year Hubble has
taken a picture of space that NASA will share with you.
And some would say, "NASA pretty cool". Maybe they`d call it "hubbling" that they`re not "hubbled" by time and space. It`s fun to become
"universed" in what you can "galaxsee" from the great beyond. Just "hubble" on over to your computer, maybe with a slice of "hubble" pie and take the
"trubble" to appreciate a whole "scope" of possibilities. OK. That`s enough of that.
Grand Forks Central High School is taking the "trubble" to appreciate CNN 10 today. Thanks to all of you watching from Grand Forks, North Dakota. I`m
Carl Azuz.
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