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CNN 10

Worldwide COVID-19 Cases Exceed Two Million; South Korea Holds An Election Amid Social Distancing; Aviation History Buffs Don Their Scarves And Goggles

Aired April 16, 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: Industrial production and manufacturing, two important parts of the American economy factor into our first report today

on CNN 10. I`m Carl Azuz, happy to have you watching. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, the country`s central bank, 5.4 percent is how much

America`s industrial production dropped in march as factories stopped operating.

Manufacturing fell by 6.3 percent as cut backs were made in areas like car production, auto parts manufacturing and furniture making. The last time

these numbers decreased by this much in a month, the year was 1946. World War II had just ended.

Industries were shutting down their production of war effort materials and transitioning into making consumer products again. Seventy-four years

later, it`s the coronavirus pandemic that`s closed factories. No one knows yet how long it will take to get industry running the way it was before

COVID-19 entered America.

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than two million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide. Over 610,000 of them are in the United

States and while there`s still a lot that doctors don`t know about the disease, a new study suggests that people might be most likely to infect

others before the carriers even show symptoms themselves.

This was published Wednesday in the journal "Nature Medicine" but the studied relied on patients memories of when they first started showing

symptoms so it might be entirely accurate. Still, a growing amount of research indicates that people who feel healthy are helping spread

coronavirus.

So the U.S. government`s recommending that healthy people keep their faces covered whenever they leave the house. 2020 is an election year, not just

for the United States but for numerous countries on every inhabited continent. South Korea is one of them and it`s giving us a sense of how

other elections may look in these strange and virulent times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what an election during a pandemic looks like. This is South Korea, the parliamentary

elections and as you are coming into the polling station you have your temperature taken. You are told you cannot stand less than one meter apart

to try and keep some distance. As you come up here, you are given hand sanitizer.

Everybody has to sanitize their hands and then just before you enter into the polling station itself, you`re given disposable gloves to put on and

only then you are allowed inside to vote. Now when it comes to masks, this is South Korea. Everybody is automatically wearing a mask and has been for

weeks anyway.

Now this is what we are looking at, at this point, this is being replicated around the country. There`s more than 14,000 polling stations. They will be

disinfected throughout the day that we are told and this is really being seen as a referendum of President Moon Jae-in and his ruling party`s

dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

Now his approval rating has increased in recent weeks as has his party`s and there`s certainly been some overseas praise for the way that they have

dealt with this crisis. But it`s interesting because it`s - - it`s almost the voting itself. The fact the election is taking place that is more

important from an international point of view than who wins.

The fact that they are able to do this and there will be countries around the world looking at this to see if they are able to replicate the same.

Now there was some concern that turnout might be low. Maybe people would be too worried about coming to a polling station where other people were.

That is clearly not been the case. Friday and Saturday of last week was when early voting took place and it was a record turnout over 26 percent of

the electorate voted early. And the final turnout vote we have seen is the highest in well over 20 years. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. What or who were Nieuport, Sopwith, and SPAD? Clothing store founders, British battle ships, Triple Crown winners or

World War I aircraft. These were all aircraft that flew in the first World War engaging in the first dogfights of aerial combat.

The Sopwith Camel was one of the most famous fighter planes of World War I and to give you a sense of how dangerous flying was in 1917, the

Smithsonian says almost as many pilots died in accidents involving the Sopwith Camel as they did in combat with the machine. Just training to fly

back in World War I was incredibly dangerous and that`s before you factor in the threat of other pilots who were trying to shoot you down.

But it offered an unparalleled thrill and adventure when flying was new, dogfights were breaking out in the skies over Europe and those who shot

down at least five enemy aircraft became the world`s first flying aces. So for today`s virtual getaway, we`re visiting an aerodrome. An old school

airport in New York who`s runway is a field.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The aircraft is a brand new invention World War I. You know, just 10 years or so after the Wright Brothers first flew. At first I

think the armies in Europe didn`t really know what to do with the airplane but it very quickly found a very important role. And aircraft production

and training of pilots all skyrocketed very quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a brand new way of fighting having war machines that operated within the air added a third dimension to the battlefield.

And they were just learning how to do it and so pilots were throwing bombs out of the cockpit and they were carrying pistols and rifles in the cockpit

or they would have an observer and a secondary cockpit who had a pistol or a rifle. And they would be trading rounds with other airplanes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a lot of respect for the young men who flew these really primitive, elemental airplanes back in the day, often with only a

few weeks of training. I can imagine being a 17 year old kid jumping into one of these airplanes and then being thrown into combat versus another guy

who`s probably another 17 year old kid scared out of his mind he`s trying to kill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think on the one hand they were terrified because they were young. They were fresh. When they came to the front lines with a unit,

you know, they maybe had a maximum of 20 hours of flying time. They just weren`t that experienced.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome is the only real time machine I`ve ever seen anywhere in the world. You know, you step across the

covered bridge here. It`s just like it was back in the day. The machines, you know, the people, the atmosphere, it`s all so different from the

everyday hustle and bustle and, you know, most people have hundreds of airplanes fly over their heads all day long. They never even look up. But

here you can`t help but look up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything now a days is very much electronic. It`s very much, you`re just a system`s manager. You know, flying on an autopilot and

it`s not as visceral and it`s not too literally in your face. When you`re sitting in a (inaudible) or whatever from the war flying that is true wind

in your face flying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here in Old Rhinebeck we believe an airplane isn`t really an airplane unless it flies. So we will do everything we can to keep

them going and always sticks to little things that may go wrong and keep it all in the air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s very much living history. It`s very much history that you can`t get anywhere else as it is in your face. You literally can

hear it, see it, and smell it all at once and that`s a totally different experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Marc Hauser says when he was 19 years old, he decided to overcome his fear of heights by skydiving. And he just became the Guinness World Record

holder for performing the first skydive into the jet stream. To do that, he used a hot air balloon to travel more than four and a half miles up.

The high winds and the cold put out the balloons flame so it wasn`t just about setting the record, it was about making sure his two assistants got

back down safely. All of them did. That made finding a firm footing a "feet". To "defeet" fear by putting his best foot forward, finding a way to

"foot" the bill and stepping out where angels fear to tread. What a fine "feeture".

I hope Nekoosa High School agrees. It`s in Nekoosa, Wisconsin. You guys are awesome for subscribing to our YouTube channel. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.

END