Transcripts For CNNW Coronavirus Facts And Fears A CNN Globa

CNNW Coronavirus Facts And Fears A CNN Global Town Hall May 1, 2020

Life for most expired tonight. What that means for our physical and Mental Health and whether now is the appropriate moment to let them end, at least from the federal perspective. Thats going to be a major theme for tonights program. Its up to governors to decide in their own states how much to loosen them or if to loosen them. Yeah, and at the bottom of your screen, youll see our social media scroll. We want to hear from you. Tweet us your questions with cnntownhall or leave a comment on the cnn facebook page. Many of you sent in questions. Well get to as many of those as we can. Were also going to have reports from across the country and around the world on how those at home and abroad are still fighting this virus. First, where we are as a nation and the problems we still have to confront. The u. S. Has now had more than a million positive cases of the coronavirus. More than 62,000 people have died. New modelling shows this pandemic will continue. The new projected death toll in the u. S. Is estimated to be 72,000 people. Thats up from 67,000 projected only one week ago. At least 31 states will be partially reopened by the end of the week. Public Health Officials warn the governors in those states to be careful. You cant just leap over things and get into a situation where youre really tempting a rebound. Food supply is also a concern as thousands of meat plant workers around the country have been infected with the virus. To protect the plants and the food supply chain, the president signed an executive order forcing plants to stay open. The workers wonder how they will stay safe. There are encouraging steps in the fight against this virus. Companies in the u. S. And the u. K. Say they may have a vaccine ready for partial emergency use in the fall. And White House Coronavirus Task Force Member dr. Anthony fauci says a vaccine for the general public may be available in january. We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure its safe and its effective. I think that is doable. In the meantime, researchers believe the antiviral drug remdesivir could be an effective treatment for coronavirus patients. In new york, which remains the epicenter of the u. S. , the usns comfort has discharged its last patient and has left new york citys harbor. The field hospital, the javits center, is also winding down. But with more than 1,000 deaths reported a day nationwide, this virus is by no means contained. Every day, i think maybe today is the day the nightmare will be over, but its not. Sanjay, i want to start off just by asking i think its the question weve asked pretty much the start of all of these town halls. What do we know this week that we didnt know last week . What is still a mystery that we need to know . And also what about new York Governor Andrew Cuomo saying there, how will we know when the nightmare has ended. Thats the question everyone is asking. Were a ways away from knowing the answer to that. We know weve seen signs of improvement around the country, anderson. Weve seen numbers start to plateau in several places. We havent seen this 14day downward trend, though, that we need to see in order for people to feel more confident in reopening the country. We know if we want to be confident in doing that its going to come down to test, trace, and treat. Our testing is not where it needs to be. We know its going to take hundreds of thousands of people to adequately trace. We dont have that many. But there have been signs of optimism, anderson, as you mentioned, with regard to treatment. This antiviral drug remdesivir, i first heard about this back in 2014. You may remember it was trialed unsuccessfully at that time for ebola. But its now giving us some hope showing that it can have impact on this Novel Coronavirus by shortening recovery time. Its not a knockout. Its not a home run, whatever Sports Metaphor you want to insert. Its not a cure, but its a start and its an important one. The thing, anderson, i think ive really been struck by this week is after speaking with so many people inside and outside the medical profession, there seems to be this cognitive dissonance. Some people are really talking about this as if its close to being over or already over. But others are saying were still very much in the beginning and we absolutely cannot get complacent. We dont know when its going to end for sure, but we know were not there yet, anderson. Some states will be partially open by the end of this week. Here they are. Politically speaking theyre mixed from most parts of the country. For many states that means retail and restaurants can partially reopen, as can hair and nail salons. Elective surgeries will now be allowed in places. In Texas Governor abbott supersedes any local orders. Erica hill in new york is here to join us. Its been governors and mayors that set specific standards. What are you learning about what will actually change . Reporter it depends on where you are. It also depends on the state. As you said, in texas, his order supersedes everything. In florida, the governor announced phase one will begin on monday. That will allow for some retail and restaurants to open with restrictions, 25 capacity being one of them. Adequate spacing as well. You still cant visit Nursing Homes. Schools remain closed. Whats interesting about florida, three of the hardest hit counties, miami dade, broward and palm beach are excluded from the governors plan there. They are not part of that phase one reopening. Other areas of the state, though, we know are opening beaches. Destine on the gulf coast, they are ready to welcome tourists back. The mayor saying hes worried about the economy and they need to get their beaches open. It depends on the state. California still under a stayathome order, although a plan to phase a reopening was announced this week. They are likely weeks away. From he closed the beaches in Orange County because he said there were too many people out there last weekend. You know, erica, i was talking about the cognitive dissonance, people talking about reopening. And at the same time were seeing big number of infections in some places. So, take new jersey for example. Whats happening there . Reporter new jersey has the second highest number of cases in the country, just behind new york. Up over 118,000 today. And the governor, who phil murphy, met with the president today, said the state has been, in his words, crushed by this virus. As we know, he said theyre starting to see a little bit of improvement when it comes to how those cases are coming in. But, listen, there are still a high number of deaths in that state. There is still much more testing that needs to happen. That said, he did talk about a phased reopening and something that they will see open this weekend are parks and golf courses. There are concerns, continued concerns about the food supply chain. Today the president issued an executive order requiring meatpacking plants to remain open. How tough is that going to be for companies . First of all, a lot of companies have sick woerks. And the working conditions in a lot of these plants, its shoulder to shoulder. Its very hard work. And its tough to maintain social distancing. Reporter youre right. The main concerns that cnn is hearing from workers in these processing plants across the country is that its very difficult to social distance. Theyre right next to each other. They spend long hours a day in close proximity to their colleagues and theyre concerned about having adequate ppe to protect themselves and that the plants will be deep cleaned. One mayor in south dakota said hes worried the town plant in his town is so old hes not sure how they will keep up. Thats going to be a focus heading forward. Erica hill, thank you very much. Joining me more on the treatments and vaccines, elizabeth cohen. Just in terms of vaccines, so many Different Companies working toward the same goal, whats a realistic time line . Now all of a sudden some of the timelines theyre talking about are really, really quick. How many of these vaccines would actually work . These are all excellent questions. Were still trying to figure some of this out. Let me tell you, anderson, what we do know. There are actually dozens of companies that have told the World Health Organization they are working on vaccines. Only seven of them that we know of are actually in human Clinical Trials. And that started a while ago. If we take a look at the list, for example, the mih trial, the National Institutes of health one. That started on march 6. Then you see the Chinese Company and followed by several other companies through the most recent ones that started, pfizer and university of oxford in england on april 23rd. Weve been talking about a year, year and a half, year, year and a half, somewhere in that time frame. And today dr. Tony fauci was asked, what do you think, could we have a vaccine by the end of the year . He said, look, i started saying year, year and a half back in january. Yes, the end of this year would be 12 months from when i first started saying it. So he thinks it is possible that this could work by the end of the year. But, anderson, there are so many ifs here. The Clinical Trials have to go very quickly. The fda has to move quickly. There are a lot of things that need to happen to get a vaccine on the market in the u. S. By the end of this calendar year. It is interesting. He does seem to have struck a more optimistic tone this past week, dr. Fauci. Well talk to him about that in a minute. Elizabeth, i know weve been talking a lot about remdesivir because it did show some impact this week in these trials. Youve been doing a lot of reporting about hydroxychloroquine as well. I just wonder, is there any update on that . Has there ever been any data that you looked at thats been released on that . On remdesivir, yes, absolutely. This week there was data that was released by dr. Fauci. This is preliminary data. We have not seen it published in a medical journal and that is an important point to make. But what he said was look, we studied this data in order to see how long it was taking people to recover. So, lets take a step back and think about what remdesivir is. If you havent heard much about it until recently, theres a reason for it. It was developed for ebola years ago and it didnt actually work very well for ebola and its never been on the market for anything. Its not currently in hospital pharmacies. This is a drug people get intravenously. When they gave it to very sick patients hospitalized with covid19, what they found was that it cut down on the amount of time that it took for recovery. When they took a placebo it was 15 days, and when they got remdesivir, they got 11 days. 4 days doesnt seem like much. 4 days less in the hospital is a good thing. Its a proof rof concept. If remdesivir is doing something, we can look at the way it works, the enzyme it acts on, and try to make other drugs that could hopefully work in the same way. Elizabeth cohen, thanks so much. Now to london with british Prime Minister Boris Johnson who recovered from the coronavirus. Johnson defended the governments response which is under a lot of criticism certainly, laid out a plan to try to reopen the country. Explain what he said. Well, he basically said were past the peak and then the chief medical officer said were nowhere near the end of this pandemic. With we have had a situation here where numbers of deaths reported jacked up this week because they forgot to add the incredible number of deaths in care homes. So, now the numbers of deaths here are amongst the highest in europe, much more than 26,000. And its very, very difficult for people here to get a grip on this. Plus theyd been promised 100,000 tests per day. This hasnt happening. Theyve been promised since the beginning of april that this would happen at the end of april. Were now at the end of april. It hasnt happened although they claim theyre ramping it up. This is really tough. Although Boris Johnson says were going to have a plan to reopen, he also says i refuse to risk a second wave and a second infection. So, he hasnt given any clarity. And you know, were behind you rather ahead of you in the United States. And theres still no clear route towards opening up. So, its kind of interesting hearing that so many places in the u. S. Are considering opening up. And just one other thing in europe on the vaccines. I spoke to the president of the European Commission today. On monday theyre launching a massive global g20 effort to raise 8 billion to find and work on vaccines and the rest. And the u. S. Government has not agreed to take part. The Gates Foundation will and also gabby, the Vaccine Alliance will, but not the u. S. Government. So, theyre missing u. S. Leadership in this regard. Christian, i want to ask about sweden. I think its fascinating. A lot of people may know whats happening over there. Theyre essentially not doing lockdowns and now people including President Trump are using that as an example to defend lockdowns, for example, here in the United States. But what is the latest out of sweden . So, heres the thing with sweden. Its really an outlier. Those who are frustrated at lockdowns even here in the United Kingdom would say look at sweden, they seem to be doing okay. It looks like theyre in fact not. Their death rate is the highest amongst their neighbors in that part of scandinavia, in that part of europe there. Theyve got Something Like 2,500 deaths compared with 400 or so for denmark, 200 or so for norway which did do very early lockdowns and a very, very early Financial Relief for workers to encourage them to lock down. So, sweden, in fact, is not out of the woods. And they say 50 of their deaths are amongst their elderly in the elderly care homes. And then they say, well, now we may have some kind of a herd immunity if theres a second wave, wasnt our intention, they say, but maybe. You can see a little bit of the ethical dilemma. You can see a little bit of the practical differences and the results of different attitudes and approaches all of this. Also south korea, i understand theres positive news from there. Yep. There is actually, and its important because where it erupted in asia is now where its really under control according to the governments there in china and south korea. South korea said today for the first time no new domestic cases since it reported their first infection back in january. Thats important. Theyve had about four cases, they say, but these were from travellers and they were not domestic cases. So, what is it that created the success in south korea . It hasnt changed since day one. It was testing, isolating, tracing. And they keep saying look, we started to build up tests even before we had a lot of cases. We really did. As soon as we understood what was happening in china, as soon as the w. H. O. Said test, test, test, even before that we were ramping up tests. So i think that for them has worked. Plus the isolating and the tracing. Christiane amanpour, thank you so much. With had we return, well talk to dr. Anthony fauci on the White House Coronavirus task force to answer your questions. Were at the movies and we need to silence our phone. Who knows where that button is . I dont have silent. Everyone does right up here. It happens to all of us. We buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. What i do is help new homeowners overcome this. What is that, an adjustable spanner . Good choice, steve. Okay, dont forget youre not assisting him. You hired him. If you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. Who else reads books about submarines . My dad. Yeah. Oh, those are progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Look at that. Thats why working together ist more important than ever. At t is committed to keeping you connected. So you can keep your patients cared for. Your customers served. Your students inspired. And your employees closer than ever. Our network is resilient. Our people are strong. Our job is to keep your business connected. Its what weve always done. Its what well always do. To ewhether youreting these uncaring for your. Family at home or those at work, principal is by your side. Were working hard to answer your questions. Like helping you understand what the recently passed economic package can mean for you. Were more than a financial company. Were a together we can get through anything company. Now, more than ever. Staying connected your way youre just a tap away from personalized support on xfinity. Com. Get faster internet speeds with a click. Order xfi pods to your home in a snap. Or change your Xfinity Services with just a touch. All in one place. Youre only seconds away from all of that on xfinity. Com. Faster than a call. Easy as a tap. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. We continue the cnn global town hall, coronavirus facts and fears with answers to your questions about the pandemic. At the bottom of your screen our social media scroll showing questions people are asking. Joining sanjay and me and dr. Anthony fauci from the White House Task force. We want to get to viewer questions again. When you look at the two diverging realities where on the one hand cases are going up, deaths are rising. On the other hand were on the eve of the social distancing guidelines expiring. What is your message overall tonight for people confused by the different realities . You know, anderson. The message is to take a look at the clearly articulated guidelines for opening america again. And if you take a look at them, even though the socalled 30day mitigation period has ended. The first component of opening america again is what we call a gateway which means that you need to have to go down over a 14day period incremental deckmental, decreases, in the number of cases you have before you can even think about going to phase one. Then you stay a certain time in phase one then theres another check point before you go to phase two and another check point before you go phase three. So, t

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