Hours they were able to hold hands and say i love you to each other one last time. Mary kepler was 92 years old and Wilford Kepler was 94 years old. They lived and they died together. Our thoughts go out to those families and all the families who have lost loved ones and been affected during this pandemic. The news continues right now. I want to hand it over to chris for cuomo prime time. I say it every night, coop, thats because it matters every night, remembering those who are gone, honoring that memory. By taking this situation seriously. Its not just important, its a gift to the audience and to us so we stay focused on the humanity. Thank you, my friend. Have a great night. I am chris cuomo, and welcome to prime time. So, its a monday. Im going to ask you to try Something Different tonight. Lets just try it once, see how it goes. All right . Instead of taking the bait that the president tossed out today about him taking hydroxychloroquine, can we just try looking at why hes doing this today . Okay . Because this is not an accident. This is another day that he wont have the media pointing out that were reopening recklessly. Its another day that hes going to avoid the media, people like me, saying, we dont have proper testing and tracing measures in place. Were the only major nation who doesnt have a central plan to do so . This thing about the drug is a fight he can win because his base believes in the efficacy of the drug. The science is irrelevant. Hes not going to lose anybody that he doesnt have already and he avoids a fight he doesnt want to have by avoiding a question he has never even attempted to answer. How do we reopen in a way that balances our Economic Needs with our health needs . Hes never even taken a swing at it. So, yes, theres another story tonight as well. There is progress tonight in a race for a vaccine, but thats not a shortterm solution. Lets hope its good, but at this point, its more hype than hope. So well bring in our a team of doctors to talk about why this doesnt make sense, but dont take the bait. Lets stay focused on what matters. We have to reopen, but we have to do it the right way. How . That question remains unanswered. So what do you say, together as ever, as one, lets get after it. Look, the president knows look, the president knows that hydroxychloroquine is not supported by science. He knows that its been flagged by people in his own administration. He knows his own task force took a non position on the drug when listing the protocols of how to treat covid19, but he got it in his head early on when he got it wrong that now it speaks to optimism. It speaks to strength. Im allin on reopening, ill try anything, we should do anything. Not testing and tracing. Why . If you want to do anything, why . Because testing and tracing makes reopening go more slowly, he thinks. Why . Because the numbers, what did he tell you about what the numbers do, we have more cases because we test more. We test more than anybody in the world. Not true. Guess how much of our population weve tested, less than 5 . So were not overdoing it. What else did he say . And every time you test, you find out something is wrong. Wrong . How is somebody being positive negative right or wrong . Its only wrong if you dont like what it represents. So why does he bring up this hydroxychloroquine . I dont know if hes even taking it. Hes got a letter from his doctor saying thats why he prescribed it. By the way, doesnt mean hes taking it. Why would he take it . Its a fight that he can win and the media will take on and his opponents may take on, and its all a beautiful distraction. Now, heres what he said today and you have seen it picked up everywhere and almost always for the wrong reasons. Watch. Many, many are taking it. I happen to be taking it. I happen to be taking it. Hydroxychloroquine . Im taking it, hydroxychloroquine. When . Right now. Yeah. A couple weeks ago i started taking it. I want the people of this nation to feel good. I dont want them being sick, and theres a very good chance that this has an impact. Im telling you, its a winning argument for him. Beat me up all you want. Sanjays going to come on for a second. We got rich besser tonight who used to head up the cdc. Excellent doctors. Theyll slap around what the president is doing. Its irrelevant. Okay . He wins this argument. Why . Because he believes, because hes taken a chance, because hes strong. Hes not the party of no. Hes not the democrats, no, dont take the hydroxychloroquine just in case, you stay home, you cant go out, you cant work, you cant eat, you cant live. Thats where hes put the democrats. Some of its messaging. Some of its more than that. Now, why did he do this . Who cares why because it works. All right . Now, lets bring in sanjay gupta. Okay . Sanjay is not here to talk politics. Hes here to check obvious boxes for us. Lets put up the doctors letter, sanjay, because i did a little calling when this came out, as im sure you did. Not easy to find a doctor who says they would prescribe this prophylactically. Which means before there is anything wrong with me. After numerous discussions the president and i had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from the treatment outweighed the relative risks. How often have you heard this prescribed prophylactically before youre sick . I have not heard it prescribed prophylactically. Theres been a lot of anecdotal discussion about this. There is no evidence. I read the letter as well. It says the evidence for and against. There is no evidence to use this prophylactically. There are studies being done to look at this right now for Health Care Workers whove had significant exposures. Those studies will come out at some point. There are other studies looking at it as a treatment, as you know, chris, you and i have talked about it and those studies are pretty abysmal. Theyve not shown benefit and shown some potentially significant harm especially when it comes to the heart. So not good as a treatment. Evidence is there for that. As far as prophylaxis, no evidence shows it works. The fda has come out, you talked to these folks, but said do not use this outside of a clinical trial, outside of a hospital, because theres just no evidence here. Hes the president. He can get tested and checked out and get ekgs and stuff like that, but what about everybody else . The message is very clear, dont take this. We dont have evidence that it works. It could be harmful. Now, one quick other medical box to check, and then i want to talk to you about why i think this is not about medicine at all. He, according to you and others, may have a sensitivity with his heart. Is what you had seen in tests about his heart in any way relevant to what has been discussed about hydroxychloroquines potential unintended consequence with arrhythmia . Its a great question. What i would say is this, and, again, were learning as we go along, but in people who have covid, meaning that they actually have the infection, this is a concern for the heart. Taking this medication. And if you already have existing Heart Disease, its a different sort of heart problem that the hydroxychloroquine can cause, but it is a concern for people who have underlying Heart Disease, if they were to take this medication as a treatment for covid. As a prophylaxis, its a little unclear. Thats what the new studies are going to go and show. Chris, you know, this was a malaria prophylaxis, still used in places around the world. Ive taken it, actually. Other people have taken it in the past, a long time ago. I wasnt screened for anything for my heart at that point. I think at that for somebody who doesnt have existing covid disease, theres not an indication necessarily, we dont know yet what the impact on the heart would be. But for someone who has the disease and takes the medication, there is now a real concern. So, again, no benefit right. Proven either for prophylaxis or treatment, potential harm, significant harm, when its used as a treatment. Okay. So weve been responsible. Okay . Now let me talk to you about why i think this is happening. Even though i dont usually talk politics you, i think youre going to get this. When the hydroxy you can obviously get it, youre a genius. Im saying its worth exposing you to the politics of it. When this first came out, you and i talked about it a lot. I had zpaks and hydroxychloroquine sent to me by wellmeaning clinicians who were all trump supporters. Every one who sent me them believes in the president on one level or another. I dont think thats a coincidence. Why . Because this became symbolic of one part says no, no, no, no, no, sanjay, no, dont take it, no, dont leave your house, no, dont do this, no, dont do that. And what is trumps argument . Reopen, baby. Were strong. Were not playing scared like gupta and all these other guys want us to play. Take the hydroxychloroquine, what do you have to lose . Youre dying, anyway, from staying home. Youre losing all your money. Your life is draining away. Youre just stuck because the democrats want you there. And by the way, they want you there because they want to steal your freedoms and make you pawns of the oppressive power majority, which is growing faster than anything to do with the virus. Thats how this started. Youll remember people coming at you about it that way. Why dont you say yes, sanjay . Why dont you say yes about this drug . It means more than the medicine. Your take. Yeah, i there was definitely a lot of that and people want i mean, theres this Inflection Point between hope and honesty and i think people were very much leaning on the side of, you know, lets just be hopeful that this works and, you know, who cares about the data or the science and, you know, as clinicians, as scientists, we always have to say that, look, there can be potential problems with this stuff. Theres no evidence that it works. And ended up it was a really it was crazy timing. Got a lot of pushback on that which was very interesting. Again, i think most of my medical colleagues i think have been much more responsible when it comes to this, but there have been i know people were sending you medications where people were saying, just try it. Things can have harm. Things may not have benefit. In this case, people started hoarding the drugs. Pharmacies were running out of the medication. People who needed it for legitimate reasons could no longer get it. So you really have to play this out and see what all the unintended consequences are. Thats going to happen again tonight, chris. People are going to start hoarding this medication. People are going to start taking it that shouldnt be taking it and people could be harmed. Thats the concern. Thats why we keep talking about this. Ill talk about it. Ill be responsible about it, but i aint taking the bait. Im telling you, im not doing it. He doesnt want me to mention this is another day without a plan to test and trace in this country the way every other major nation whos seen a downturn in cases has done. Not on my watch. Not with me and sanjay. Not tonight. You need to do more and better and answer the question of how. Nobodys forgetting. This is, to use medical parlance, sanjay, lets use the antiseptic light of truth in reality. There you go. Whats happening here. Hes going to take hydroxychloroquine but he wont wear a freaking mask . Right. I mean, come on, man. Right. Sanjay, thank you for being reasonable. Thank you for telling people what we know and what we dont. I appreciate you and love you for that. You got it. Okay . You, too, brother. Me, i am the sullied. Okay . Im into the politics of this. Sanjay, we keep him for the medicine. He talks about Public Health policy. Please, dont have him in here anymore, let sanjay go home. Thank you, sanjay. Leave hum alone. Leave him alone. Im telling you, i dont want him for this part of the discussion. Good. Thank you. I dont want him colored by this. Im sullied by this. I see the politics in this. I dont know if hes taking it or not, but i know that this is helping him. I know it is because his people see it as strength and his determination to do whatever he can and that the democrats are the party of no. Theyve been caught in messaging. We got senator Bernie Sanders on tonight to talk about exactly that. Now, what does he not want us to talk about by floating out this hydroxychloroquine thing . What the government should be doing to get us to reopen faster. What about the how . Who should be talking about that . Dr. Rich besser. Why . He ran the cdc. He understands what this government is capable of. What states should be doing. What they should be directed to be doing. And whats not happening. Show me what youre made of. So we showed it our people, sourcing and distributing more fresh food than anyone. Our drivers helping grocers restock their shelves. How were helping restaurants open popup markets. And encouraging all americans to take out to give back. Adversity came to town. So we looked it in the eye. And it wont be us. That blinks first. Excuse me would jayou be interestedustomer. In bundling your home and auto with progressive . No. Well, you could save money. Im independently wealthy. 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Sold to the onion lover in the front row next up is lot number 17, a spinach and artichoke dip, beautifully set in a hollowedout loaf of sourdough bread. Dont get mad get e trade and get more than just trading investing. Banking. Guidance. Reopen or not kbm reopen or not . Not even a question. Have to reopen. The only question is how. And it keeps being ignored because its hard. Unless you wanted to go full trump, go full wisconsin, allin, lets see what happens. Right . But almost every poll of you guys says, no, we dont want that. And yet, it gets ignored. Well talk about hydroxychloroquine and why the president s taking it. Who cares. God bless him. I hope hes okay and he doesnt get sick. Sure as heck aint going to be the hydroxychloroquine that saves him, though. Theres no science to support it. Boy, does it work wonders in politics because heres our reality that youre not going to hear a lot tonight, even on my competitors tonight, i guarantee you it will be more about why he would say that, what is it about, why is it right, why is it wrong, than this, all 50 states will have reopened by the end of this week. Again, look at whos growing in cases, yet opening. Okay . For those of you who have been clamoring for a quick reopening, listen, im with you. We all want to reopen asap. But you got to admit, its a little weird with states to be reopening without a testing and tracing plan, no real way to make sure if theres any problem that they can deal with it when their cases are still going up. A little risky. A little weird. It will be interesting to see how many people go out and take risks with their own families. Again, we dont want anybody to get sick. Okay . Its just about how we do it the right way. A good thing is to reopen, but ive always said, its just about how. And we ignore that. Youve never heard the president talk about how in any real way. Especially why we should be concerned. You know why . You hear this . That is the sound of the voiceless. Those who will be hit hardest. Who . Communities of color, vulnerable populations because of poverty and systemic problems in terms of getting treatment, getting to care. Africanamericans, 13 of the populations in all areas releasing such data, 27 of deaths. Okay . Lets take a look at one state, georgia. Opened fast. Right . Home state of the cdc, by the way. Black americans, 50 of the deaths, 31 of the population. Why . Dr. Richard besser, former acting director of the cdc during swine flu, h1n1. Ive known him a long time. Ive been leaning on this man like a crutch for over a decade. Its good to see you, doc. Nice to see you, chris. So, dr. Rich besser, why are africanamericans and poor populations, minority poor populations, specifically, dying more . Yeah. I mean, its its a critical question, and its something that shouldnt be, and there are quite a number of reasons behind it. One is a very high proportion of black americans, latino americans, native americans, fall into that category of essential workers. So whether theyre working in health care, whether theyre working in transportation, food supply, making sure theres food on the shelves for others to eat, its putting them at risk because of exposure. So you have that piece of it. You have them in those positions without proper protective equipment. And then when people get sick, what do they do . Well, very high proportion of black americans, latino americans, who are either uninsured, there are 28 Million People in america without health insurance. So what do you do . Well, you cant call your doctor so maybe you go to the emergency room and if you didnt have covid before, you can get exposed there. Then youre diagnosed with Covid Infection and what do you do . Youre told to go home and selfisolate. Well, you know what it takes, you had this, you know what it takes to shut yourself off from people you lived with. If you live in a crowded situation with many other family members, many of whom may be elderly or have underlying medical conditions, you arent just one person who is sick. You are the start of a little localized outbreak in your family. Those are many of the reasons. Theres also, you know, a high proportion of diabetes and high blood pressure. A lot having to do with the conditions in lowerincome neighborhoods where the air quality is not as good, sets you up for asthma and Heart Disease and lung disease. The access to fresh fruit and vegetables isnt there. And this group that were calling essential workers, before this began, how many of them were even being paid a living wage . Uhhuh. You know, so, see, its the perfect storm here, chris, as to why this is occurring. Right. Many places arent even looking closely to identify where the risk right. Is happening. Now, just for the audience, real quick, when you guys hear rich, dr. Rich besser say, and they werent even making a living wage, youre like, whoa, what does money have to do with making you sick . What do you use to pay for food . What do you use to pay for medicine . What do you use to fuel all the things