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The Situation Room
U.S Tops Five Million Coronavirus Infections As Schools Start To Reopen Next Week; Moderna Recruits 5,000 Volunteers; Trump Aides Exploring Executive Action On Voting Law; White House Having Trouble Defending Executive Orders; Texas Positivity Rate Hits Record High At 20 Percent; British P.M. Pushes Schools To Open Despite Increasing Cases; Brazil Surpasses 100,000 Deaths; Trump Abruptly Ends Coronavirus Briefing. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired August 10, 2020 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, I'm Pamela Brown in for Jake Tapper today, and our coverage on CNN continues right now.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Jim Acosta in THE SITUATION ROOM and we're following breaking news.
We're standing by to see if President Trump takes questions at a White House briefing that's about to begin. It comes as the number of coronavirus cases (inaudible) them in the U.S. where the death toll now tops 163,000 people.
Despite that, more schools across the U.S. are re-opening this week amid troubling new data. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that almost 100,000 children tested positive for coronavirus in the last two weeks of July.
Let's get more on the latest on all of this with CNN national correspondent Athena Jones. Athena, there are some breaking news out of Georgia right now. Isn't that right?
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. That's right. This is what happens when you try to open schools in a community where you haven't brought the coronavirus infection rate way down.
We're looking at Cherokee County schools in Georgia. At least 484 students and 21 staff members have been quarantined because that district is reporting some 25 positive cases among students and staff. And it's not just there. We are seeing this at other schools that have also opened in the state.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: If we just act like the virus isn't there and we kind of go for it and try to tough it out, it won't work.
JONES (voice-over): Public health experts warned this would happen, and now it has. Schools in states with high rates of COVID-19 infections opening up too quickly without the proper precautions and suffering the consequences as new cases pile up.
The Georgia high school made famous in this viral photo now temporarily closed after nine students and employees tested positive. The school, where masks are not required, holding classes remotely while it undergoes a deep cleaning. At least 16 schools in Cherokee County, Georgia, have reported COVID cases among students or staff, underlining the challenge of holding in-person classes in a state with the highest number of COVID cases per capita in the country.
WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDEBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: The reason all this is happening is because we haven't controlled the virus spread in the community.
JONES (voice-over): The lack of a mask mandate in most Georgia schools and concerns about crowding prompting fear among teachers and families.
BETH MOORE (D), GEORGIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I have over 200 e-mails over the course of less than 48 hours from teachers, students, parents, staff members at school, all with really the same message that schools in Georgia are not prepared to go back to face-to-face instruction right now.
JONES (voice-over): Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, who opposes a statewide mask mandate, today announcing the launch of a temporary site that will be able to test 5,000 people a day promising results in 48 to 72 hours.
BRIAN KEMP (R), GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA: We have come a long way, but we are not out of the woods yet and we cannot take our foot off the gas.
JONES (voice-over): The trouble with schools coming as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association say nearly 100,000 children in the U.S. tested positive for COVID in just the last two weeks of July.
With COVID positivity rates rising in dozens of states, there are new concerns about states like Idaho, Indiana, and Illinois where Chicago's mayor tweeted this image of a crowded beach.
JULIANA STRATTON, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, ILLINOIS: People need to recognize that this COVID-19 pandemic is still going on. It has not gone anywhere and people need to take it very seriously.
JONES (voice-over): Average daily deaths nationwide have topped a 1,000 for the past two weeks and several states are seeing record hospitalizations. In Texas, now the third state to top half a million cases, the positivity rate is over 20 percent, a new record, even as the state's testing rate has fallen.
Meanwhile, college football is hanging in the balance. Multiple sports outlets reporting leaders of the Power Five sports conferences are in discussions about postponing the season due to COVID concerns, a move the Mid-American Conference announced over the weekend.
JON STEINBRECHER, COMMISSIONER, MID-AMERICAN CONFERENCE: This was a crushing decision to be made by our membership. It was not a decision that was made lightly. It was not a decision that was made quickly. And it was a decision that was made based on the advice of our medical experts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES (on camera): And there is news on the vaccine front. Pharmaceutical company Moderna reporting that it's been able to recruit fewer than 5,000 volunteers out of the 30,000 it hopes to take part in its vaccine trial, leading experts to say there is absolutely no way the Moderna vaccine can be ready by election day, as President Trump has predicted. Jim?
ACOSTA: Okay, Athena Jones, thank you very much. Let's go to the White House and CNN White House correspondent Boris Sanchez.
[17:05:02]
Boris, President Trump is defending the executive orders he issued on pandemic relief even as the White House is struggling to explain them. They're having trouble laying it out for the American people.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Jim. The president also spinning these executive actions claiming that they do more to help struggling Americans than they actually do. The president dodging criticism even from within his own party that these actions are unconstitutional and also ignoring previous statements that he's made about executive actions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Tonight, President Trump sparring with his own party, taking aim at critics of his new executive actions, tweeting that Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse is a Republican in name only, saying he has, quote, "gone rogue again. This foolishness plays right into the hands of the radical left dems."
Sasse tearing into Trump's decision to circumvent stimulus negotiations in Congress, calling the move unconstitutional slop, comparing the actions to President Obama's signing of executive orders after lawmakers could not reach consensus, orders that Trump himself frequently criticized.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The country wasn't based on executive orders. Right now Obama goes around signing executive orders. It's a basic disaster. You can't do it.
In theory, you're supposed to, you know, the old-fashioned way, get everybody into a room and get something the people agree on.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Trump was not in the room getting lawmakers together, instead spending the weekend at his golf club in New Jersey as questions linger over whether the actions will survive legal challenges, members of the administration struggled to even explain them. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You keep saying $1,200
per person. Are you talking about in addition to the unemployment that they're already getting?
LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC ADVISER: No.
BASH: Where does that number come from?
KUDLOW: That's the payroll -- so, I beg your pardon. The $1,200 will come from the payroll tax. It should be $800. I beg your pardon. It should be $800 for the unemployment.
BASH: 800 or 400?
KUDLOW: No. It should be $800.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): But White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows appears more concerned with public comments from the administration's health experts. "The Washington Post" reporting meadows has admonished Dr. Anthony Fauci for sounding out of sync with Trump.
According to "The Post," Meadows has also excluded health experts from morning meetings with staff, privately sharing skepticism about Dr. Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, questioning their expertise and regularly raising issues on what she thinks they've been wrong.
Meantime, the White House is now eyeing new executive actions on mail0in voting. A source familiar telling CNN aides are mulling a symbolic executive action for Trump to sign on voting laws.
Critics charging Trump as trying to sink mail-in voting to boost his chances in November, also pointing to a Friday night massacre at U.S. Postal Service. Trump's hand-picked post master general firing or reassigning some two dozen top officials at the cash-strapped agency on Friday night.
Trump also trying to discredit "New York Times" reporting that White House aides inquired about adding his face to mount rush more, though he denies it, South Dakota's governor confirmed his ambitions back in 2018.
KRITI NOEM, GOVERNOR OF SOUTH DAKOTA: I said, Mr. President, you should come to South Dakota sometime, we have Mount Rushmore. And he goes, did you know it's my dream to have my face on Mount Rushmore? When I started laughing and, you know, he wasn't laughing so he was totally serious.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Trump later showing a photo of himself next to the monument adding that the addition sounds like a good idea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (on camera): Trump today also announcing that he has narrowed down his choices for a location to deliver his RNC acceptance speech to two places, either here at the White House, which Republicans and even members of his own staff have already criticized or Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the site of one of the deadliest battles of the Civil War. Jim?
ACOSTA: And one the confederacy lost. All right, Boris Sanchez, thank you very much. Let's get more on all of this with CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association.
Sanjay, the world is on the verge of passing 20 million confirmed coronavirus cases, just a staggering total. But a quarter of those cases, as we've all been talking about, right here in the United States, 5 million cases when this pandemic started several months ago. Did you ever think we would end up in this situation here in the U.S.?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, Jim. I never imagined that we would have a quarter of the world's infections in this country. I mean, you know, I knew there was a contagious virus that was likely to spread, but the fact that we've been hit so disproportionately hard in this country, I did not expect that.
I mean, you know, we're an affluent country. We have lots of resources. But this speaks to just I think how many mistakes candidly have been made along the way.
[17:09:59]
Jim, I think the thing is now you got to keep in mind that, you know, when we decided to go in some sort of shutdown mode back in the middle of March, there were fewer than 5,000 people who had been infected in this country and fewer than 100 people who had died at that point.
Now, we're in the middle of August, you see the numbers on the screen, 5 million infections, 163,000 people have died, and we're thinking about opening back up despite the fact that we haven't created the infrastructure or anything to do so.
So, we shut down and the problem -- it would be like we got out of the water as it was getting slightly warm and now we're diving back in when it's boiling. That concerns me as well because I think it's just going to amplify the problem that you're raising.
ACOSTA: That's right. And Dr. Bailety, you just spoke with the FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn about the hunt for a coronavirus vaccine. He insisted the FDA would not "cut corners on vaccine safety." That's an important message for a lot of Americans out there because I suppose because of the president and others saying they want to have a coronavirus vaccine as quickly as possible.
Americans may not have confidence in the vetting process. What did you take away from your conversation with Dr. Hahn?
SUSAN BAILEY, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: Well, first, thanks for having me with you this afternoon. And Dr. Hahn reassured us repeatedly that science and evidence-based research would be at the root of all of their decisions and we certainly -- that's music to our ears.
We think that the science must be adhered to. We can't cut corners. We can't do anything that would jeopardize the safety of the American people. And the vaccine has got to be effective for it to work. We did hear a lot of other great things about upcoming therapeutics and studies to treat the COVID-19 as well as news about this coming flu season.
ACOSTA: And President Trump, as you know, Dr. Bailey, has floated the idea that the Moderna vaccine could be approved by Election Day, which obviously raises concerns that this process is being politicized. You just spoke to that to some extent.
Most experts believe this timeline is unlikely. What does it say to you when he says we are not going to cut corners? I mean, I suppose one of the reasons why you're so concerned about this is because you can't have a vaccine come out with any questions being raised about it or else you could have huge swaths of this country just not trusting it.
BAILEY: I think it's important to understand the vaccine study process. They're trying to get 30,000 volunteers through the coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org for the vaccine. So far, Moderna's gotten about 5,000 I understand. It takes time to recruit people to enter these studies.
And with the vaccines after they get the first dose, they have to get another booster several weeks later. And then you have to see if they catch COVID-19 in their communities. That just takes time to do.
And if you don't have adequate data comparing the placebo group with the group that got vaccine, you're not going to be able to tell whether the vaccine works or not. It's just that simple. And these things take time.
ACOSTA: And, Sanjay, the U.S. recorded nearly 100,000 confirmed cases in children in just the last two weeks of July. What does that mean for the prospect of opening schools, which is something that parents are grappling with as we speak?
GUPTA: Yes, no doubt, Jim. I mean, we're grappling with it. I'm sure you are as well. I think this is concerning though. I mean, you know, we know that kids are becoming infected and they're becoming infected at an increasing rate.
I think part of the reason that the numbers -- I will say that it's less likely for kids to get sick. I think that that has held up since even some of the early data that we saw out of Wuhan. It's a separate issue from the idea that they can transmit the virus, they can be spreaders.
And I think that, you know, we just haven't known enough about little kids because little kids in particular have been largely home since the middle of March. They haven't had many contacts.
There's this contact tracing study out of South Korea that everyone is citing, looked at the study very closely. They followed some 50,000 contacts from people of all these different age groups. But for kids under the age of 9, there was only 50 contacts, 50 or 60 contacts that were followed total.
The point is we don't know. We know these little kids carry a lot of virus in their noses and we know like with flu they can spread viruses. It will be -- it's I think a concern no doubt, Jim, as kids go back to school that these numbers will increase significantly.
ACOSTA: OK. And it's something we're all thinking about right now as we speak. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Susan Bailey, thanks for breaking this down for us. We appreciate it.
And up next, President Trump faces pushback over his executive orders on pandemic relief. And he now says he may give his Republican nomination acceptance speech at Gettysburg. We'll talk about it with our political experts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:15:00]
ACOSTA: And we're waiting for President Trump to take questions at this evening's White House briefing. He may be asked about the confusion sparked by the executive orders he issued over the weekend. Let's talk about it with CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash and our chief political analyst Gloria Borger.
Dana, the White House has struggled to sell these executive orders so far, even the members of their own party. When are Americans going to get some clarity on this desperately needed economic relief? I mean, people are struggling out there and wondering, you know, why can't they make heads or tails of this?
BASH: Because there is very little to be made, heads or tails of. Obviously, you both have read the executive action. It's very unclear and it certainly didn't match what the president actually said that it was going to do when he gave his address at his golf club on Saturday.
[17:19:58]
So, I think the answer to your question is we're not going to have clarity. Nobody's going to have clarity until it's done the right way, until it's done legislatively with a compromise, with the Democrats and the Republicans and it's passed through the House and Senate and signed by the president as the first CARES Act, the original relief bill was done and the several pieces of legislation done afterwards because this is not the kind of thing that is meant for executive action.
You note this, Jim, and I think you reported this, that a big part of why the president did it was to try to boost the Democrats to getting them to the table and more importantly, to getting them to try to give a little bit more negotiations. I'm not sure it had that effect, but we'll see.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. And, Gloria, candidate Donald Trump as we all know, we saw this during the 2016 campaign, other Republicans working for the president frequently criticized President Obama and his executive orders on DACA and everything else.
Now President Trump has taken a liking to them. What do you make of this hypocrisy? I suppose all candidates like to talk about executive orders until they get into the White House.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, even by Washington standards, it's pretty hypocritical. I remember covering Republicans and I'm sure you guys do, covering Republicans talking about Obama and the so-called imperial presidency. And they talked about this nonstop and they talked about it with regard to immigration, you point out, with dreamers. And now suddenly you have some Republicans at least.
A lot of Republicans have said I don't like this, but mostly privately. Sitting back and saying, okay, let the president do this because they understand, as we all do, that this is just for show. They know this isn't going to happen, as Dana was pointing out. They know it has to be done the right way.
But if there's any political mileage they can get out of it this close to an election, I guess they're ready to take it. Now, an exception to that is Ben Sasse who called it unconstitutional slop, I believe. But, you know, Republicans, as they have during much of this administration, are sometimes willing to sit back and say, okay, let this play out and let's see if it works for me.
ACOSTA: And, Dana, you had quite the moment with the president's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow yesterday on "State of the Union" and it seems like he doesn't even understand exactly how this executive order is going to work, which I suppose he shares that with a lot of other Americans around the country. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: So when will people see their first checks?
KUDLOW: -- when they were three or four months ago. I don't want to be as specific as you might hold me to it, as you should, but I think it's going to be in a couple of weeks, and I think it's going to come to about $1,200 per person. That's a huge wage increase --
BASH: You keep saying $1,200 per person. Are you talking about in addition to the unemployment that they're already getting?
KUDLOW: No.
BASH: Where does that number come from?
KUDLOW: That's the payroll -- I beg your pardon. The $1,200 will come from the payroll tax deferral on top of this --
BASH: Okay, we're going to get to that -- okay, all right, because there's a lot of numbers here and it's a little confusing.
KUDLOW: I'm sorry. It should be --
BASH: I want to get to payroll tax in a minute. Go ahead.
KUDLOW: It should be $800. I beg your pardon. It should be $800 for the unemployment.
BASH: $800 or $400?
KUDLOW: No. It should be -- it should be $800. If the states step up, we're prepared to match, that should come out $400 federal, $400 states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Dana, I feel like I'm playing monopoly and I don't know if I'm supposed to get $600 when I land on Park Place or $800, but if the president's own chief economic adviser can't make sense of this, how are the rest of us supposed to do it?
BASH: It's very hard. And, you know, look, this was obviously put together extremely quickly without very much to back it up. I think the most egregious part of what was in the executive order, executive action, was that $400 that the president claimed would be coming from, given back to people.
Remember the $600 in enhanced unemployment benefits ran out at the end of July. He was saying they would get $400 again. But if you look at it, number one, it requires the states to ask the federal government for the money.
And number two, it requires the states to give a quarter of that, so $100. And most importantly even Larry Kudlow admitted to me that they haven't really reached out to most of the states. He wasn't sure even if states were even going to participate.
Later on in the program I talked to fellow Republican in Ohio, Mike DeWine, who said that they weren't sure either because they weren't that familiar with it.
[17:24:52]
So, it was done extremely quickly and back to what we were talking about at the beginning of this segment, much more of a political ploy than a real attempt, it seems, to get people the help that they want.
ACOSTA: Yes, Gloria, I mean, that executive order doesn't add up. The payroll tax executive order the president put out, a lot of employers are saying that they may not even participate in that because you are just deferring the payroll tax cut here as opposed to absolving people from having to pay it. Does any of this make sense to you?
BORGER: No. I think it's for show. I think it's purely political. When Donald Trump stood up there and said I'm signing this, he even acknowledged that it was going to wind up in court.
And I think what he was using it is a way to, as Dana pointed out earlier, thinking that, well, I'll get Democrats back to the table. In fact, he said, well, you know, the Democrats are calling me when in fact we learned that they're not.
I think at some point they all ought to get back to the table. But this was a ploy that was not very well thought out. And if you're sitting out there and you're getting your $600 in unemployment insurance, you are wondering, well, has it just been cut in half? What am I going to do about it? And I don't think this provides any answers to those people.
ACOSTA: All right. Well, thanks for breaking it down for us. We'll stay on top of it and we'll see what the president has to say when he comes out in this briefing in just a short while. Dana and Gloria, thank you so much.
And coming up, the Massachusetts governor orders new restrictions as cases in that state climb. I'll talk about it with the mayor of Boston.
Plus, important information about what kind of mask you should be wearing. We'll get details of a study showing which work best and some that don't work at all.
(COMMERCAIL BREAK)
[17:31:34]
ACOSTA: Coronavirus testing is decreasing in Texas but the state is seeing a record high positivity rates. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Plano for us. Ed, these are some very troubling news in that state.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Jim. Think back to the end of May, the positive infection rate of new coronavirus cases in the state was at just over 4 percent. Today is we're awaiting the latest numbers to come out. They haven't yet come out this afternoon, we stand at just over 20 percent. So that's five times higher than we were less than three months ago. Staggering increase in the infection spread of this virus.
And as top health experts across the country will tell you, this is one of the key indicators that they look at in terms of modeling and trying to figure out what's going to come next. But this also comes, Jim, at a time when the number of overall tests being reported here in this state has dropped dramatically. A couple of weeks ago, the state of Texas was reporting about 70,000 tests being done per day. That number now is hovering around 45,000 tests per day.
We don't quite know exactly what is going on there. We've reached out to a health officials here in Texas, but have not heard back today. Is this a question of fewer people wanting to get tested? Or is it the fact that some tests are just taking way too long to come back so people are giving up on them? The exact cause of this, we don't know at this point.
But overall, other disturbing news emerging today, the University of Texas with a study suggesting that the death toll in the state which now stands at just under 8,500 could top 23,000 by the end of this month. The University of Washington model which has been dependent on quite a bit across the country, as well as projecting about 27,000 deaths by the end of this month, by the end of this year, excuse me.
Of course, these are just projections, they can change from week to week, month to month, but it really does give you a sense that right now health experts are very worried about the death toll that is going to mount here in this state as the virus continues to spread, Jim.
ACOSTA: It is a very worrying trend. All right, CNN's Ed Lavandera, thank you very much for that.
Let's get an update now on a new concern about Boston. Mayor Marty Walsh joins us. Mayor, thanks for joining us. Let me start with this. Dr. Deborah Birx says Boston is on her list of cities seeing a concerning rise in coronavirus cases. How are you responding to that warning?
MAYOR MARTY WALSH (D), BOSTON, MA: We've seen incremental numbers going up. Last week, our positive rate -- Well, the week before last is 2.1 percent. Last week was 2.8 percent. So we're watching this very closely. It's kind of the first time that we've seen increased back- to-back weeks and a bit here.
What we're doing is going to continue to remind people about the physical distancing, the social distancing, the mask wearing, obviously, and we're trying to track through contract tracing, just to make sure that contact tracing -- just to make sure that we're not seeing spikes in certain places around restaurants and parks and things like that.
Our Governor rolled back 100 person gathering to 50 people gathering. He did not move forward in the next phase of reopening here in the city, which meant on the state more people in restaurants. So we'll take it very cautiously because we will hit very hard in the very beginning both Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
ACOSTA: Right, and you don't want to go in reverse and the Governor there, Charlie Baker, announced new restrictions taking effect tomorrow. He's restricting gathering sizes and stepping up enforcement of bars, masquerading as restaurants. Do you think these additional restrictions will be necessary if cases keep rising and what more can be done?
[17:35:08]
WALSH: Well, I hope, you know, they have to work and I think people need to understand that if they don't work, we're going to be rolling back even more. And I think that's something that we don't want to go backwards. We have a very busy six to seven weeks in front of us. I would love to see schools opening in Boston. Obviously, we're looking at it now, but that's only a potential it might not happen if the numbers continue to rise.
We want to make sure that the restaurants and our service industry survive. They took a big hit for the month of March, April, May, June, quite honestly, and they don't want to see it roll back. So it really is incumbent upon all of us. And I keep reminding people to look at what's happening around the
country and seeing those numbers go high, particularly in gatherings where people aren't wearing masks and things like that, that that very much could be Boston, Massachusetts, again, if we don't continue to be very careful moving forward.
ACOSTA: And you mentioned schools. You know, we understand your planning sort of a hybrid school reopening at this point at least looking at that which would give the option of full time remote learning but allow some shorter return to classrooms on a part-time basis. I'm sure you've seen this, Mayor, that there are some experts who argue that this hybrid model may be more dangerous because children will be exposed to more of their peers outside the classroom and then potentially infect people.
A new set of peers, when they're inside the classroom is sort of moving back and forth, you know, from in-person learning to remote learning. Why did Boston opt for this model? Why are you looking at it?
WALSH: Well, I think I'm looking at -- I'd love to come back to school. Our kids -- by the beginning of September, September 10th or 11th, around that time, our kids be six months out of the school building. I'm concerned about their educational future, quite honestly, by losing all that time. We did have online learning, but it's not the same as in classroom learning that can't be repeated.
We're trying to close achievement gaps here in the city of Boston. We're trying to make sure that our young people of color, black and Latino shows (ph) students don't see a growing gap here in our educational system. So we're going to do our best to be able to try and open school in the hybrid model again.
We might not be able to -- it's all going to be based off science and data. And it's going to be incumbent upon parents, quite honestly, to make sure that when their kids are not in school, we still have to be very careful in kids on in school to make sure that they're not out and about that they're physical distancing, social distancing, wearing masks.
That is as important right now as any other time. I know a lot of us feel and wish that we would be on the coronavirus, but unfortunately we're not. It's very much here still. And I think it's really incumbent upon all of us. So I know what the experts have said about schools but again, it's about being disciplined when people aren't in school as well.
ACOSTA: All right, we know you have a big task ahead of you and wish you good luck out there in the city of Boston. Mayor Marty Walsh, thank you very much for joining us. Good luck in the fight against the coronavirus. We appreciate it.
WALSH: Thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, and stay with us. We're waiting for President Trump to take questions from reporters at this evening's White House briefing. And next, our look at coronavirus headlines from around the world including new rules about wearing masks outside in Paris. Will people obey? That's a big question there in Paris. We'll take a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:42:52]
ACOSTA: In global coronavirus headlines, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson like President Trump is pushing schools to reopen this fall. Let's go to CNN's Nic Robertson in London. Tell us more, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Jim, the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited a school today to reinforce his message he wants children back in classrooms with their teachers by September. He said it's a moral duty and national priority.
He's indicated that as coronavirus rates are going up here in the U.K., if they cross a certain threshold and is forced to choose between keeping schools open, or pubs and restaurants, is going to be schools that remain open. Unions here are pushing back. They want the Prime Minister to have a plan B perhaps teaching in the classroom for a week, teaching at home for another week.
Others are saying that the Prime Minister should be having regular testing for teachers and pupils. The government is saying they are looking at surveys and studies that are being done right now, international studies and surveys where they say infection rates in classrooms between pupils and between pupils and teachers is relatively low.
They want these children back in the classrooms in part as well, because the Prime Minister recognizes to get the economy going and that's a big driver for him. He needs parents to be free to be able to go to work, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you for that.
In the wake of a new increase in coronavirus cases, French authorities are getting more strict about mask wearing. Let's go to Paris and CNN's Cyril Vanier. Cyril, what are you seeing?
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, it is now compulsory to wear face masks in some parts of Paris. The riverbanks and tourist spots and streets like this one where it is hard to stay socially distanced. It's quiet now but this place gets busy in the evening. And it's not always possible to be 3 feet away from everybody at all times.
There are more than 100 streets like this in the Capitol where masks are now compulsory for ages 11 years old and up. There is $160 fine if you don't wear one, but police were here earlier and they were just reminding people of this new rule, really trying to build good habits at this stage. Authorities tighten these rules because France has seen a marked increase in new coronavirus cases in recent weeks. Jim?
[17:45:00]
ACOSTA: Cyril Vanier, thank you very much for that.
And Brazil and Mexico ranked second and third behind the United States for the number of coronavirus deaths. CNN's Matt Rivers is monitoring the situation from Mexico City. Matt, there are grim milestones in both countries, aren't there?
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, another difficult weekend here in Latin America led by the two countries hit hardest by this outbreak, Brazil and Mexico. In Brazil, the death toll there now more than 100,000 and counting. The overall confirmed cases now more than 3 million and counting and yet the country's President Jair Bolsonaro continues to be flippant about the fact that tens of thousands of his fellow countrymen have died.
In fact, just after the health ministry announced that the country had passed 100,000 deaths, Bolsonaro posted on his Facebook page a photograph celebrating one of his favorite soccer team's latest victories. Meanwhile, here in Mexico, we continue a steady march towards 500,000 cases overall that will likely happen in the coming days. Also, the death toll in this country has now cleared 50,000 for the first time. Jim.
ACOSTA: Matt Rivers, thank you for that. We're standing by for President Trump to take questions at this evening's White House briefing. And up next, new data show which masks work the best when it comes to preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Stay tuned for that.
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[17:51:10]
ACOSTA: Health experts warn and they agree in many cases that wearing masks is key to getting the coronavirus pandemic under control. And now we're learning more about which masks work best, and some that don't work at all when it comes to spreading this virus and preventing the spread of this virus.
Let's go to CNN's Brian Todd. Brian, some very interesting new findings in this study.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Interesting and important findings, Jim. Researchers at Duke University say the kinds of masks we've been wearing really run the gamut, including at least one type that does more harm than good.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TODD (voice-over): They come in so many different styles, materials and designs from N95 surgical masks to bandanas, knitted masks, even so called gators, those stretchy bands of fabric that cover the neck. Tonight, a new study from researchers at Duke University has advised on which masks work and which don't. Gaiters or fleece masks, they say, you should stay away from.
PROF. MARTIN FISCHER, DUKE UNIVERSITY: It's a combination certainly off stretchiness of the material and the material potentially being very thin.
TODD (voice-over): The bandana, according to the researchers, may look cool but doesn't work well.
FISCHER: The material itself that is just, I mean, a little bit more transparent and a little bit more transmissive to these droplets. In addition, there's, of course, lots of gaps.
TODD (voice-over): The Duke researchers tested 14 different kinds of masks. They shine iridescent light from a laser through slits in a dark box. A person spoke one phrase repeatedly into the box to create droplets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay healthy, people. Stay healthy, people.
TODD (voice-over): They used a cell phone camera to record the droplets then counted the droplets that were let through by the different masks. The ones that work well, they say, N95 surgical masks are the best, letting out very few if any droplets. But those should be reserved for frontline health care workers. Those standard surgical masks, the light blue ones that many of us can buy at stores also work well, they say. And --
FISCHER: All the cotton masks we've tested, they weren't great.
TODD (voice-over): The Duke researchers say there's one kind of mask that they believe does more harm than good. The fleece mask, because of the size of droplets it lets through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's noticeable here is that you see lots of particles and lots of little particles. So this is actually counterproductive because the little particles that get generated from big particles, they tend to hang around longer in the air. They can get carried away easier in the air.
TODD (voice-over): The Duke researchers told CNN their study is not meant as an endorsement of certain masks. Other experts are hopeful that this kind of advice can be communicated more clearly to the public, acknowledging there's been way too much confusion.
GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, DIRECTOR OF TRAINING, GLOBAL BIORISK ADVISORY COUNCIL: We should not have any confusion over mask wearing. This is confusion that we ourselves, the frontline workers, the government, public health experts, doctors, nurses and other influential people when it comes to infection prevention control --
ACOSTA: All right, we're going to interrupt that story because we want to go to breaking news. President Trump has abruptly ended a briefing at the White House. I want to go to CNN's White House Correspondent Boris Sanchez, who has the breaking news on the situation there.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
ACOSTA: Boris, what do we know right now?
SANCHEZ: Well, Jim, it sounds like the White House is on lockdown at this moment. We're getting this from our colleague, Jeremy Diamond, who's actually on the premises. From what we understand, the President was giving this briefing, when suddenly he effectively left the room, the press briefing room.
I can tell you we are just outside of Lafayette Park. This is not far from the White House grounds. And there were sounds of sirens outside, we heard shouting. I didn't get actual eyes on Lafayette Park to see what was happening. But as you can see in this video, the President from one moment to the next, leaving the briefing, almost mid- sentence.
[17:55:00]
Obviously, we're still working to get more information on exactly what is happening but it sounds, it appears as if at this moment, the White House is on lockdown.
Again we heard sirens outside. We heard people shouting. I didn't get eyes on Lafayette Park, but it sounded like there was shouting back and forth some sort of a scuffle outside, loud sounds. And then the President left the briefing. We could see inside reporters looking outside of the press briefing room. We're working to figure out exactly what is happening right now. But clearly, an unplanned moment here at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Jim.
ACOSTA: Absolutely. And Boris, you and I both know, covering the White House, this happens from time to time. The Secret Service will place the grounds on lockdown and they'll keep the reporters holed up inside the briefing room the way they are right now.
That is not totally unusual but to have the President in the middle of a briefing talking, you know, in a press conference type setting with reporters gathered in the room and then the Secret Service to come in and whisk him out of the room that quickly interrupting the briefing, obviously, that is highly unusual. And so we're trying to get to the bottom of exactly what was going on.
Boris, let me ask you, because we're seeing some of our colleagues in the White House Press Corps outside of the doors to the briefing room, it looks as though they're trying to get perhaps people back inside. But maybe there might have been some crews outside for a few moments to figure out what's going on. What can you tell us?
SANCHEZ: Yes. So it really comes down to the geography of how things are set up at the White House. As you can imagine, with everything that's happening right now, the President, addressing reporters, a lot of our setup as journalists is actually just outside of this press briefing room. And there are cameras set up there. So they're almost certainly crews out there anticipating what the President was going to say.
Again, I didn't get clear eyes on exactly what was going on outside but I imagine that those crews were rushed out of that area. As you noted, Jim, this is something that happens from time to time at the White House. Just a few years ago, we reported that there was a gentleman who died by suicide just outside the White House and it was put under lockdown. The President was not on the grounds that day, he was down in Mar-a-Lago where I was reporting.
But again, this is the sort of thing that happens in this area. It's a very public area. There are folks that have been coming out here to protest, especially in recent months over racial injustice and unrest. So it's still an open question as to exactly what led to this moment.
But as you can see, the President from one moment to the next thing approached by the United States Secret Service, effectively told we need to go and he just walked out of the press briefing room. From what I understand, according to the White House pool, the exact words were step outside, sir, we're going to have to step outside. President said, oh, and left the room, Jim.
ACOSTA: That's right. And we should caution our viewers, you know, they sometimes shut down Lafayette Square from time to time, they'll find a fanny pack or some kind of package that has to be rendered nonthreatening. And so, sometimes the park will be shut down, sometimes the North Lawn of the White House will be shut down.
But it is highly unusual to have the Secret Service break into a live briefing, live press conference that the President is having. And as you were just saying, saying to the President, sir, we're just going to have to step outside according to the notes we're getting from the White House pool and the President saying excuse me, and then the agent saying step outside, and so he had to move fairly quickly.
Now, we are hearing from some of our colleagues over at the White House, our CNN colleagues that there was some shouting perhaps going on in Lafayette Park that got the attention of the Secret Service and some sounds that caught the attention of officers in that area.
We're trying to get to the bottom of what those sounds are, but obviously, you know, the viewer at home can, you know, surmise for themselves, what kind of sounds would draw the attention of law enforcement and concern people enough that they have to take this sort of action. And so we're trying to get to the bottom of exactly what went on. We're reaching out to our Secret Service sources.
And Boris, from your vantage point, you're over at our annex location just outside the White House grounds looking down, what can you -- can you see anything from your location? As it turns out, there might have been some sounds in Lafayette Park that concern people.
SANCHEZ: Yes. So I was actually preparing for the top of the 6:00 hour taking down some notes and I heard noises outside, I heard a ruckus, I heard people shouting. I heard a woman screaming and then I told our producer and our photographer that something is going on outside.
They glanced outside. We heard sirens. We heard some kind of a commotion. Our window here is somewhat limited, so we can't really see down the street. But soon after that, we heard what I assume were either Secret Service or police agents, asking folks to leave the area to clear it out.
From my vantage point right now, I see several folks standing on the roof of the White House.
