Know, are in much different condition and in a much different place than other states. Its going to be very, very close, maybe even before the date of may 1st. So keeping him honest, as constitutional scholars and other experts on the subject have pointed out and as we pointed out last night, the governors do not need the president s authorization. They are not sitting by the phone waiting for an official authorization to reopen their states. In addition, saying before the date of may 1st, as the president puts it, that is before the expiration of the centers for disease controls social distancing guidelines as they now stand. And just today dr. Anthony fauci called even a may 1st reopening in parts of the country, quote, a bit overly optimistic and said that the widespread testing that would be needed to safely lift restrictions, quote, were not there yet. That said, it was as close to a total aboutface as one could imagine, though unacknowledged. And though it certainly is the lead story for tens of millions of americans worried about their safety but also about their jobs, it was not what the president began the briefing with today. He started by announcing a halt on u. S. Funding for the World Health Organization. The president blaming it for opposing his restrictions on travel from china. Also he said for failing to inform the world about a lack of transparency from china on the outbreak. Now, there are certainly very legitimate criticisms to be had on the w. H. O. And of china and cnn has reported on them extensively. However, not so long ago the president was expressing a very different view of each. On china. Heres a tweet from the president , january 24th. Quote, china has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well, in particular on behalf of the American People i want to thank president xi. Transparency. A month later heres a tweet on the w. H. O. , quoting again from the president. The coronavirus is very much under control in the usa. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries, cdc and world health have been working hard and very smart. Stock market starting to look very good to me. Then, and now. Just four days later, the First American would die of coronavirus. Today the death toll topped 25,000. Cnns Kaitlan Collins was in the rose garden for tonights briefing. She joins us now. Certainly so much for the president being in charge of how the country will eventually reopen. I mean, its a complete 180 from what he said yesterday, though he doesnt acknowledge he was just wrong. No, he isnt saying, you know, i dont have total authority of this. Actually the governors will make these decisions. Now hes framing it more as hes coordinating with these governors which as we noted last night is what these governors would like, federal guidance on this. They just dont want the federal government to try to dictate what they are doing. Anderson, the president s change in position today came after constitutional scholars were saying he was wrong, republican lawmakers, even republican governors in addition to the democratic governors that he referenced on twitter not that long ago when he was saying that they were essentially trying to have some kind of a mutiny and was invoking that movie talking about this. That was just this morning. Now hes striking a much more cooperative tone, talking about reopening the country. But whats also going to be notable is the president was hintsing that there are some places, some states that could open before these guidelines theyve put out expire before the end of the month. Anderson, he did not name those states, but of course that came after fauci said its not likely most of the country would be ready to open by that may 1 deadline. The president also said that the u. S. Was halting funding to or pausing funding to the World Health Organization. You tried to point out that he himself had been praising the World Health Organization for the exact things hes now criticizing them for. He didnt really he certainly didnt answer your question. No. And another reporter had actually tried to ask that question before me, pointing to the president s january tweet where he praised china for its transparency when it came to the coronavirus. That is exactly what he criticized the w. H. O. For tonight, saying that was in part one of the reasons he was withholding this funding pending this review, saying is it was because they had praised china for being transparent here. So the president was criticizing them for something he had done. One reporter tried to ask him about it. The president didnt answer that question. He was talking about his trade deal with china. Then i tried to follow up on that question repeatedly. He was talking about those travel restrictions that hes touted many, many times but thats not, of course, the same thing as what the president s tweet said. He didnt walk that tweet back or say anything about that. He said he hadnt called them transparent when, of course, we have seen the tweet where the president has, and this has come, you know, overall where the president has repeatedly spoken with the chinese leader, praised them for their efforts on coronavirus, said that they have it under control several times and, of course, he did not answer that question tonight about why hes criticizing the w. H. O. For doing something that he himself also did. Yeah. Kaitlan collins, appreciate it. Fascinating aboutface. Reaction now to the president s aboutface from one of the state governors who joined together to formulate plans for reopening their states and for returning to what will almost certainly not be the same kind of normal that existed before the virus hit. Oregon governor democrat kate brown joins us now. Governor brown, thanks so much for being with us. So the president is saying hes going to authorize governors individually to implement reopening plans for their states. You clearly do not need his authorization. What are you thinking about in terms of reopening . So we obviously have the power. As a governor i have the power to protect the health and safety of my constituents, my oregonians, and thats exactly what weve done. We took aggressive social distancing measures early in this pandemic, and as a result weve been able to provide, for example, extra ventilators to the city of new york, and i think that speaks to oregonians willingness to take action to socially distance, protect themselves, their neighbors and their communities. In terms of reopening, weve aligned with california and washington around a framework, a handful of things that need to happen. Number one, we need to make sure that the growth rate in new cases is slowing. Number two, we need to have adequate protective equipment, gloves, masks and gowns. Number three, obviously additional testing. We probably need to roughly double our testing capacity. Number four, well be able to have an aggressive Contact Tracing system. And number five, make sure that we can provide care in isolation for those who test positive for the disease. Did you expect the president to ultimately back down from his comments because, again, there was just no Legal Authority for the president to claim that he was the one who was going to determine for all the states what was going to happen. Look, the reality is with this pandemic we are all in this together, and its critically important that we work together. Im really proud of the work that the states are doing in the west, our western states, to create a framework that not only protects the health and safety of our citizens but also because our economy is so interconnected, protect the business the businesses all up and down the west coast. When you talk about the aggressive Contact Tracing, every epidemiologist that ive talked to has stressed that that is so important moving forward. Is the state of oregon set up because everybody ive talked to in different states says their state is really not set up at this point with a Public Health system to have the number of people required to kind of do real aggressive Contact Tracing. So our Oregon Health authority is working on a Strategic Plan to address this particular issue, but i also think that its going to be incumbent upon us to develop partnerships. For example, one of our Hospital Systems in Southern Oregon has volunteered to provide a private partnership with local county Public Health to both train and increase the number of Health Care Workers that would be able to do this work. Making sure obviously they have the knowledge. They have the expertise and they have the ability to work with families in their communities. Do you know how many people you think might be needed to do Contact Tracing . Because, i mean, theres been some epidemiologists who say nationwide, you know, it could be as many as 100,000 people, which you know, is obviously a huge rise in employees. Certainly my medical Advisory Panel is working on those details. We think its going to be a lot, hundreds at least for a state like oregon with a population of 4. 2 million, but as i said we can create Public Private partnerships. We have a very good system of Health Care Workers. Folks already working in the communities that could provide this assistance as well, and then were exploring other Creative Concepts that we could easily train and increase the amount of local community Health Care Workers. What i think is really important is that this be done in a culturally competent way, and so thats going to take time and energy. Its time and energy worth investing in our communities. Do you agree with Governor Newsom that when things do return, when businesses, you know, open up and stuff that its going to be a very different kind of normal really until a vaccine is found and a vaccine that actually works and is something that, you know, that works . Absolutely. This is not a light switch going on or off. This is going to be making a change, testing it, modeling it, and then seeing whether it works, and then if it does, you can make another change. Do you see social distancing remaining . Yes. Some form of social distancing remaining . I think youre going to see broader cultural changes. For example, hand shaking. I think were going to see a move to a more asian style of headbowing. I think youre going to see folks really limiting large gatherings for a long period of time, months, and i think youre going to see other social changes. Weve been laughing, of course, about the use of zoom and other technologies. For introverts thats a great way to limit your social interaction but still have the social connections that you need to to get your work done. I dont know if youre saying that because youve read that im a huge introvert, but i am a huge introvert and i appreciate you bringing up introverts. Governor brown, really appreciate it. Take good care. You, too. More insight on reopening each state. The w. H. O. And one of the president s favorite medicines from cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. The president talked about reopening. Earlier today dr. Fauci said were not there yet on opening the states. How to assess the health risks of reopening things too soon too fast. The health risks are you could have many more people become infected, anderson. The concern is its not an incremental thing. You run the real risk of sort of going back to square one as has been described i think by many people and has been evidenced in some places around the world. So theres a real risk to that, and i can say as well, you know, i think with dr. Fauci, he obviously looks at the data, the same data that most of us has access to although he may have other data as well. I think hes known for some time that it would be very difficult to reopen things in any kind of normal way on may 1st. The data just hasnt suggested that. I think, you know, anderson, i think his strategy he knows but he sort of slow rolls it a little bit so as to not shock the country into this stuff. I think it will be very hard to to believe that with the current sort of state of affairs with the virus eventually were going to open, but it seems like to would be hard to believe by may 1st. He also knows better than sort of announcing a date or just flat out saying may 1st, theres no way because it would contradict what the president is saying and it would cause tensions. The president saying about the World Health Organization tonight halting funding to the organization. Im wondering what your reaction is. Because the u. S. Gives a lot of money to them. The World Health Organization, what does that main go to . What do they do . Well, they do lots of different things. I mean, part of of it is creating diagnostics, Lab Diagnostics and helping set that up in countries around the world. As you might imagine, anderson, as you know, because you and i have traveled to these places, the countries that would be most adversely impacted by cuts in funding arent going to be countries like us. They are going to be countries that dont have established Health Systems or minimally established Health Systems. Thats usually who ends up getting penalized when theres a cut in funding, and, you know, i mean, i think we all in some ways look to the World Health Organization right now because they are focusing on these trials. Theyre collecting data from around the world, like a World Health Organization can do. I will say, anderson, i mean, i think there have been some missteps for certain by the World Health Organization. It was pretty clear that the, you know, first patients out of china, a significant number of them, were not related to that animal market as we kept getting told. That was significant because these patients im sorry, these people were not getting the infection from that market, where were they getting that infection from . Was there already evidence of Community Spread long before we were told about it that the rest of the world was told about it . I think theres some legitimate criticisms. President trump even said i dont know where he got this number, but he said 20fold more infections occurred because of the slowness of the World Health Organization. Im not sure how he arrived at that number. So i think theres some legitimate criticisms is but to stop funding in the middle of a pandemic to penalize countries that are more dependent on this, im not sure that makes sense. The w. H. O. Says they are investigating cases of what they call reactivation of the virus after reuters reported that some people in south korea tested positive after being cleared. How does this change how scientists and doctors study antibodies and immunity because, again, the concern is are people really immune once they have had the virus . They use the word reactivation in this reuters article, not reinfection, and it as you know, anderson, its two different things. I think thats more than a nuance. Reinfection would suggest that somebody has the infection, they completely recover, theres no more virus in their body, and then they get reinfected again. That the antibodies didnt really fight off the infection. Reactivation sort of suggests that the virus just lives and stays in the body a lot longer than people realize. Anderson, you know, you and i have seen this because we interviewed im blanking on his name right now, university of nebraska, we had him on the town hall several times in a row. Yes. They have the special center. They do a lot of work on this. They do a lot of work on it. He was found to continue to have presence of the virus for i think again, correct me if im wrong, 28, 29 days. His first name is carl. Carl. He has a Radio Station and his wife had to go and pick up after the dog while he was quarantined. Right. Yes, exactly. But because he was being tested so often they realized he actually harbored the virus a lot longer than people realize so i think thats something we do have to Pay Attention to. How long does this virus really stay in our body after we recover . I dont know that we can clearly answer that right now. Yeah. Sanjay, appreciate it as always. Thank you very much. Coming up next, in light of the president s criticism of the World Health Organization, china, state governors, anyone but himself, well take a closer look at the timeline for the month of february which the president yesterday almost entirely left out of the campaignstyle propagandastyle video, call it what you want, that he played boasting his accomplishments. Were keeping them honest. Joined by senator chris murphy of connecticut. And lifting restrictions. Well talk to one researcher whose team has published a study that said they might have to continue in some shape or form number 2022. Well talk about what can make that necessary and how to avoid that fate ahead. laughter baby coos laughter man on video chat hey man chasing dog oh no no no no baby crying only roomba i7 uses two multisurface rubber brushes. And picks up more pet hair than other robot vacuums. And the filter captures 99 of dog and cat allergens. If its not from irobot, its not a roombaâ„¢. All the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. Oh, thats a good one. Wait, whats that . Thats just the lowbattery warning. Oh, alright. Now its all, check out my rv, and, lets go fourwheeling. Maybe theres a little part of me that wanted to be seen. Well, progressive helps people save when they bundle their home with their outdoor vehicles. 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