Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20200421 : vi

CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper April 21, 2020

Pads, just get out on the field and try not to get sacked. Hairdressers, youre less than six feet apart. Many of these things are completely counter to some of the measures of mitigation weve been trying to deploy. Reporter in South Carolina, beaches and some Retail Stores are open today. Some coastal communities, including myrtle beach, say their shores are closed. Do i go back to work to try and make money and risk getting sick . Or do i stay home and go broke . Reporter realtort, construction workers, and attorneys going back to work while new jersey is opening a new Field Hospital today. Floridas governor is planning his next step as cases there remain steady. Neighboring georgia seeing an uptick, along with connecticut, illinois, massachusetts, maryland, and california. Progress is being made. You are bending the curve. Youre beginning to flatten the curve. But it is still nonetheless rising. Reporter hospitalizations, icu admissions, and intubations are down in new york. But the governor says the state will reopen on a regional basis. We operate as one state. But we also have to understand variations. And you do want to get this economy open as soon as possible. Reporter data will be the driving force for those decisions, much of it related to testing, as experts advise millions of tests will need to be performed each week to safely reopen the economy. The fda approving an athome swab test for emergency use. It would then be mailed to a lab. More than 38 Million Students will likely not return to school this year. The Digital Divide remains a major hurdle for distance learning. California announced private companies are donating 70,000 devices to help bridge the gap. As the country records more than 42,000 deaths, a sobering reminder of the true toll. Schuyler herbert, daughter of First Responders in detroit, died after two weeks on a ventilator. This is a horrible feeling that i dont want any other family to have to experience. Reporter schuyler was 5 years old. Detroit First Responders of course have been especially hardhit by the virus. Schuylers mother is a police officer, her father a firefighter, jake. Just one other note from here in new york, we talk so much about what has changed, what is being canceled. The mayor noting that when new york is ready, one of the first things they plan to do is hold a tickertape parade for the Health Care Workers who in the words of the mayor saved us. He said it will also be a sign of a rebirth of this city. Having a parade in new york city is one of the stupidest ideas ive ever heard. Erica hill, thank you so much. Reporter not right now. I hear you, but still. Democratic mayor of savannah, georgia joins us. What was your reaction to the governors announcement yesterday afternoon . I was blindsided, extremely disappointed, very, very confused and really disturbed at the fact that an announcement will be made at this point, at this juncture. We have not checked any of the boxes on the white houses playbook to gradually reopen states, yet were really reopening our cities. Beyond that, the governor has a stayathome order that extends to april 30th yet were opening some businesses on the 24th and others on the 27th. Savannah is one of the biggest cities in the state of georgia. He didnt talk to you before he made this announcement . I havent spoken with the governor since this began. The governor says that this order is statewide and cannot be overturned. Are you going to try to fight it or are you going along with it . What is the reaction of savannah . Obviously, again, were very disappointed because we were not asked here on the ground. Were going to explore all of our options. I told our citizens this morning, theyre the governors and mayors of their own homes. They get to call the shots. Certainly they know that science is there that they need to make sure they do the things necessary to keep them safe. We are not safe here in this community yet, and these businesses should not be open. Ive also appealed to our local businesses, they know its not safe to open, dont put themselves, dont put their employees, and dont put their customers at risk. So, mr. Mayor, theres obviously a lot of economic pain and desperation out there. Im sure youre seeing it in savannah. What are you hearing from savannah residents, savannah business owners, what are they telling you . Are they ready to reopen . Do they want to reopen . Ive heard from many businesses, jake, all over our great community. And again, theyre in pain. Theyre hurting. This has been a massive, massive loss of opportunity for them. But ive heard them overwhelmingly say they want to do it when its safe. They dont want to put their employees at risk. They dont want to put their customers at risk. Again, theyre confused by it all because on the other end of it, we have a stayathome order until april 30, yet theyre being allowed to open on the 24th and the 27th. Which order are you following, the stayathome order thats in place or the order that says you can order on the 24th or the 27th . People are confused all over the place. Thats not good at this time, we need to speak with a very clear voice. So you say most of the people that you talk to in the community of savannah want to stay in the situation youre in. What do you say to those who are in the minority, according to you, that talk to you about this, who are struggling financially and say, look, i need to get back to work, i cant pay my preserent, i cant food on my table . What do you say to them . Again, im very, very sensitive to our businesses here. Theyve put their lifes work into building something that is done well up until this point. What ive told them is this, is that frankly this is a national emergency. You could be open all day long but the fact is, if people arent coming, youre not going to do well either. We would rather you open when its safe. We dont want someone to be victimized by coming into your place of business, being infected in your place of business or putting your business at a situation where youre closed for an extended period due to an outbreak in your business. I think people get that, they understand that, these are unusual and extraordinary times. And i think people generally want to do the right thing. I think generally, across the city, from what ive heard from across the state, people want to open, but they want to open when its safe. They dont want to open for the sake of opening. In this case, people are more important than economics. So let me just ask you about your personal decisions, if you dont mind my asking. Im sure that you go to the gym, im sure that you go to restaurants, im sure youve been to the movies. When do you plan to start doing that . Are you going to take advantage of the governor lifting the restrictions or are you going to wait . Whats your plan . Well, personally, you could tell by my physique, im in the gym every single day. But the reality is im not going anywhere until its safe. And i have asked the city of savannah, were not going to resume normal Business Operations until its safe for our employees and safe for our citizens. Im doing the takeout thing, im learning how to cook. We have to be able to live in those types of things. And particularly when you look at hair salons and beauty shops, massage parlors and tattoos, tattoo parlors. There is no way to maintain social distancing in those cases. And to me, i think its really a bad decision, its not based on science. We have the 14th highest infection rate in the country, and yet the seventh lowest testing rate. We have to do better here in georgia if were expecting to reopen safely. Mayor van johnson, god bless you, thank you so much and god bless the citizens of savannah, well be thinking about you. Thank you. Keep us in your prayers. Thank you so much. Could you have been exposed to coronavirus and not even known it . Our dr. Sanjay gupta took a new Antibody Test to find out, his experience and results from that, next. Plus were watching capitol hill where the senate is about to vote on a deal for more funding desperately needed for more business owners. Stay with us. Announcer the lead with jake tapper is brought to you by sal salonpas. Try it for your pain. Relief. Ddictive salonpas lidocaine. Patch, rollon or cream. Hisamitsu. But one thing hasnt breakfast. And, if that feels like a little bit of comfort, its thanks to. The farmers, the line workers and truckers, the grocery stockers and cashiers, and the food bank workers, because right now breakfast as usual is more essential than ever. To everyone around the world working so hard to bring breakfast to the table, thank you. To everyone around the world working so hard your bank can be virtually any place you are. You can deposit checks from here. And you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. And pay bills from here. Because your bank isnt just one place. Its virtually any place you are. Just download and use the chase mobile app. Visit chase. Com mobile. However, there is one thing you can be certain of. The men and women of the United States postal service. Were here to deliver cards and packages from loved ones and also deliver the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way. Every day, all across america, we deliver for you. And we always will. Ibut that doesnt mean ayoure in this alone. Were automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. Were also offering flexible Payment Options for those whove been financially affected by the crisis. We look forward to returning to something that feels a little closer to life as we knew it, but until then you can see how were here to help at libertymutual. Com covid19. [ piano playing ] welcome back. Its an unproven drug often touted by President Trump as a possible treatment for coronavirus. What do you have to lose . Take it. I really think they should take it. Hydroxychloroquine. Try it. Hydroxychloroquine, which i think, as you know, its a great malaria drug, its worked unbelievably. What do you have to lose, President Trump asked. Well, today a new Veterans Health Administration Study found no medical benefit to hydroxychloroquine when it comes to coronavirus patients and that it could actually be harming patients who take it. Joining me now is cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. Sanjay, this is crappy news, we all want this to work. No doubt, were all looking for a therapy and hydroxychloroquine has been getting a lot of attention. This is a study of some 368 patients, still a small study, jake. Were going to get larger data studies, so we have to take all these studies with a grain of salt. This one was not peerreviewed, it was not randomized. Nevertheless, exactly what you said, jake, the patients who in this study got hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, thats the zpack, the antibiotic, did worse. They had a 22 death rate as compared to patients who didnt get those medications who had an 11. 4 death rate. So it doesnt look very promising, you know . This is another study among a drumbeat of studies now, again, all of them pretty small, were still waiting for the larger studies, but if you look at france, you look at brazil, you look at sweden, youre hearing similar things. In france they said they found a dose that was too toxic, it was actually causing heart arrhythmias. In sweden they gave guidance to all that nations hospitals to stop administering the medication outside of a trial. You framed it perfectly, we all want something that works, theres obviously a lot of enthusiasm around this one, but so far the results have not been that impressive at all, jake. Lets talk about this study of Antibody Testing out of Los Angeles County that found the true number of coronavirus cases could be actually 55 times higher than traditional testing shows. In l. A. County, the study found 4. 1 of adults are or have been infected. It seems remarkable. What does it mean . Well, its interesting. This is the second, there was a stanford study that sort of showed the same thing, a stanford study showed as many as 80,000 people had been exposed to the virus, 40 times as many patients who were exposed versus those who were confirmed. Its like most things, jake, theres some bad news and good news. The bad news is the virus has seemingly spread even more than we thought. We suspected this for some time. Its a contagious virus and we havent been testing adequately. Now were starting to get a glimpse of just how far this has spread. At the same time, many of the people who were exposed to this either had no symptoms or minimal symptoms, which in part is good news, because that brings down the overall fatality ratio. The fatality ratio is the number of people who died over the number of people who have confirmed infections. If there are more people that had the infections, thats going to bring down the fatality ratio. We still dont know what it is, it seems to be variable country to country, even regions of country to regions of the same country. If there arent a lot of people getting sick from this, it means its widespread but not as deadly as the few confirmed infections that we have. Sanjay, you got an Antibody Test. Tell us about it. Yeah, so, you know, this was an interesting process. And Health Care Workers are starting to get these tests, because theyre taking care of patients. I wanted to see it firsthand. Theres been so many questions about this, jake, you and i have talked about it, i decided to chronicle this to better understand it myself. Take a look. Reporter there are two different tests were all becoming familiar with. A diagnostic test that searches for the genetic markers of the coronavirus, and this one that tests for antibodies. The first thing youll notice is the Antibody Test requires blood. For me, it was just a poke. And were all done. Reporter but look at all the steps that takes place after that. My blood is taken down to the lab and then spun down in a centrifuge. Youre looking at my serum. Thats the clear part that might contain antibodies if i have been previously exposed. The way to find that out is fascinating. Just take some of my serum and put it in the same test tubas the virus and see what happens. If you have antibodies against that, theyre going to bind and were going to be able to detect that. Reporter dr. John rowback is medical director of the blood bank at Emory University hospital in atlanta where i practice as a neurosurgeon. I was able to get this test because im still working as a doctor at emory and Health Care Workers are considered at high risk for covid19. This particular test, approved under fda emergency authorization at emory, was developed by rowback and his colleagues. Right now they test up to 300 people a day. By midjune, they expect to be processing thousands a day. Its far more sophisticated than the tests you may have heard of recently. What do you make of these athome tests for antibodies . I dont think they can achieve the sorts of performance characteristics we can with these tests that weve in our clinical laboratory. We have a lot better control over the testing conditions, over the sample that was collected. Reporter heres what happens in your body when youre infected. The blue line, thats how long the virus typically lives inside of you. Take a look at the green line. Early on, igm antibodies appear. But they disappear shortly after. And then the red line. Thats the igg antibody. Thats the one that appears after the infection is cleared and might provide immunity. For just how long, how strong . That we dont know yet. We do know that for other coronaviruses like sars, antibodies lasted two to three years. Mers had antibody presence of three years. But with this new coronavirus, its still too early to tell. In order to answer the question, researchers will focus on this term, neutralizing activity. You see, it doesnt necessarily matter how many antibodies you have. It only matters how well they work at keeping the virus from entering the human cell. And that can vary from person to person. Its fascinating that not everybody that has high levels of antibodies on the tests were doing now actually have very much neutralizing activity. Those antibodies might still be healthy. It causes us to pause a little bit before we just categorically say if you have high antibodies, youre immune. What is the real value of having the test . I think if youre positive on this test, it indicates youve been exposed. That can give you a little peace of mind, i think, that, you know, the cough i had two weeks ago, that was really covid19. It could indicate that some of your close contacts should be tested. Reporter but perhaps most importantly, dr. Roback told me something i hadnt really considered before, that if you test positive for the antibodies, that means youve dealt with this infection and you beat it. And chances are that if youre exposed to it again, youll beat it again. As for me, that part is still an open question mark. I tested negative. Sanjay, what are your big takeaways after undergoing this Antibody Test . I was trying to understand the justification. Everybody says get the Antibody Test to find out if youre essentially immune to this. We cant say that yet, those studies still need to be done. So is there any merit to getting it done . The last thing struck me, if you do have antibodies, you may have had the infection or some coldlike symptoms earlier. The fact that you beat it already, even if youre not immune to it, means that if youre exposed to it again, you could beat it again. Thats the point he was making. Its peace of mind at this point, jake. Hopefully we get studies that prove imimmunity. In the meantime, there could still be some merit. Lets caution people at home, go with the fdaapproved tests, theres a lot of junkie tests out there. I think four are approved. Your governor, Governor Kemp of georgia, is starting to lift restriction in georgia, even though georgia has not met the guidelines that President Trump and the white house have put out of a 14day decline of new coronavirus cases. You think this is a Public Health mistake, yes . This is a Public Health mistake. The

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