Skip to main content

tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  April 6, 2020 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT

4:00 pm
doing, thanking us, has a great relationship with mike, thanking us. and i just wish the palm titiol would say to you what they say to us. do you have one? >> a question about governor cuomo. the national security front to the extent you can comment on this, your administration is making heavy preparations to move against -- in latin america right now. >> you said latin america? >> yes. >> could you expand on the reasoning of why now they're supplying logistics? >> that's a good question. we've moved a tremendous number of boats and ships to the area of, you know, different areas of exactly where you're talking about because we're tired of drugs pouring into our country from other places and we're tired of seeing drugs pour into different parts of latin america, south america and just
4:01 pm
coming into our country. now we've got them stopped at the border and they're trying to do it by sea. so we stop them at the border with -- and frankly with the help of mexico -- mexico right now is 20,000 soldiers on our southern border. they never had any soldiers. they're doing that because i asked them to do it. that's the only reason they're doing it. they have 20,000 soldiers, so now they're trying to bring it in by boat and by ship that drug lords and the people doing drugs and trying to destroy our country from inside with drugs, and we're hitting them, very, very hard. >> is it beyond narcotics? are there other illicit activities -- >> well, there are the activities of human trafficking and especially with respect to women and as, you know, proportionally it's mostly women, and it's a horrible thing. there's never been a time like it, and it's because of the internet. and this all over the world. but for the most part in this
4:02 pm
country they're coming through the southern border, but we're hitting them very hard. they have tremendous illegal trafficking in women and children also but mostly in women. and it's illegal, and it's horrible and it's disgraceful. and i've seen things that are an absolute disgrace, and we're trying to knock them out, and we're gawking them hard. and again i want to thank the president of mexico because he has really stepped up to the plate. 27,000 soldiers. and i did that because the democrats will not approve -- because they want to have a open borders. they want to have all these people flowing through our border, and in many cases they're sick, they have problems you don't want to know about or they're criminals in many cases. not in all cases but in many cases. and they don't want to have -- they want to have open borders. they want to have sanctuary
4:03 pm
settee cities and so they protect criminals. and i want to have strung borders but we're doing it for drugs, human trafficking, we're doing it because you have to do it. >> fda approved now but not widely available yet. i know the admiral said by may you expect to have millions available. how do you prioritize who's going to get the antibody test, and what is that going to show you? is the test going to be immunity? >> let me clarify and you probably understand this, the antibody test does not tell you if you have the active virus in your nose. if you are positive for the antibody it strongly implies it means that you have had the virus before and to the degree that we know of medical knowledge you will probably highly probably be protected
4:04 pm
against getting the virus again in the future. so i want to make something clear, there's no antibody test approved. okay, approved is not a word we talk about. there is a test or two that received emergency use authorization. and many, many others out there that have not gone that way yet, and i want to take this opportunity to caution there is a very consolidated effort between the fda, cdc, nih to validate some of the tests that are on the market right now because it is very important that they actually do what they say they do. and we have reason to believe that not all of them are going to perform well. i don't know the primary source, but the financial times just reported that the u.k. had 17.5 million antibody tests that they bought, and none of them work. so we're not going to get in that situation. we're going to be very careful to make sure that when we tell you you're likely immune from the disease, you're really -- that test really said that.
4:05 pm
now, i will also make a statement, and i'm -- there's a lot of work on here and i'm very excited about it. as opposed to the test for a novel virus, the antibody type tests are very sophisticated technology but they're old technology. this we expect to have many tens of millions of tests the first month that we are really sure that the test makes sense. so this allows for surveillance screening and dr. birx is one of the world's experts to understand 1 wrers, 5%, 20% of the americans have been infected but also allows us to have very widespread tens of millions of people screened with a finger tick on the spot. >> by may you're saying this will happen? >> so science doesn't run on rails right? so we need to make sure the fda, the nih, which they're actively doing right now assure that their testing really do perform
4:06 pm
the way they should. and if things work out the way we believe they will, we will have millions on the market by may in a sophisticated way in a prospective way that we get the surveillance we need, we can test people to see if they've been exposed, immune and go back to work. and a combination of that kind of test with the current kind of test now is how america opens back up again. >> how do we prioritize -- >> all right, good evening. i'm erin burnett and you were hearing a question there about antibody testing. that of course was the coronavirus task force along with president trump giving the latest update on the pandemic, which comes as the united states today reports more than 10,000 deaths related to coronavirus. there are, though, tonight signs that social distancing and stay at home orders may be working in some places. new york's governor andrew cuomo telling reporters that new york, which is the epicenter right now in the united states, may be experiencing a flattening of the curve. you're still seeing an increase,
4:07 pm
the rate of that increase though seems -- seems to perhaps have been slowing. we have a lot to discuss. i want to go to jim acosta now, gloria borger, daniel dale our fact checker and dr. sanjay gupta. there's a lot to talk about. i do want to ask about those antibody tests because that's going to be a crucial thing, that last point just made. but first as the president was taking these questions, jim acosta, he certainly was -- i mean, he was going back and forth with people. but it was certainly very defensive i think would be a fair way to describe it. >> reporter: absolutely. i mean, this is a president who sounds even though he's been doing these briefings day in and day out for weeks now sounds like a president whose back is up against the wall. and what seemed to really set him off were questions about this new inspector general's report out of the department of health and human services. that report, the name on that report was from the principle
4:08 pm
deputy inspector general there. at one point during the briefing when he was asked about this inspector generals report the president said where did he come from, this inspector general, what's his name? well, it's not a man. it's a woman. and just to give our viewers a sense of what's in this report. it essentially surveyed hospitals around the country and found critical supply shortages. not just critical supply shortages in terms of treating patients but also protective equipment for doctors and nurses and so on, which puts everybody at risk at these hospitals. and the president was going back and forth with several reporters essentially saying, well, is this an obama political appointee? well, according to her bio on the hhs website she was appointed by the trump administration in january of this year. and her experience goes all the way back to 1999. so she has served in government for both democratic and republican administrations including the current one. and you heard the president rip
4:09 pm
into john carl of abc news for a moment there. that was totally uncalled-for, referred to john carl as a third rate reporter. i've known john for many years. he's a terrific reporter for abc who has lots of experience and was asking the right questions as were others in the room about all of this. but it just goes back to, erin, what we've heard for weeks now, that this president is just terribly sensitive when it comes to criticism of the government's response in all of this and how they've been able to manage getting these supplies out to states across the country. it has been a massive failure on the part of this federal government, and the president seems to know that and is just bristling and having outbursts any time a question is asked about this. >> you know, sanjay, just the facts of this, right? so he's slamming his own appointed inspector general, but the facts are not not in dispute. it's nice we have an inspector
4:10 pm
general report to tell what people are hearing from doctors and nurses on the front lines in hospitals. but this is the reality of what there's been, which are massive shortages of a whole lot of necessary things. >> reporter: there's been so many voices, erin, lately, front line workers, people i talk to on a regular basis who they told you the stor ezabout having to go in, take care of these patient and not have enough personal protective equipment. it's as simple as that. and every patient who comes into the hospital even if they're not coming in for something that's an infectious disease specifically where ithahave to be treated as if they might have this coronavirus, which means everybody that examines that patient, interacts with that patient would like to have personal protective equipment because, you know, again i'm telling you things you've heard, i think most people have heard. but those health care workers, they then go home to their families, right, and they worry about taking the virus home.
4:11 pm
so it's real. it's real there's a need and there's been a shortage of this ppe in some places around the country. i think the inspector general report just sort of laid it out in a more clearer fashion. >> and daniel dale on the fact checking side here also the president again brought up tests, right? he was showing sort of a ramp up in testing for a actual virus from the antibody point he was making just a moment ago. but you were also canal to fact check some of what he said about that. >> yes, so there were two separate false claims about testing. number one, he said the initial tests that he claimed that inherited he said were old and obsolete. there is no inherited test for the coronavirus. if it was called the novel coronavirus because it's new. these tests were developed in 2020, and they were flawed under trump. he also claimed that people are being tested getting on and off airplanes. and he used that to justify why he doesn't want to impose further restrictions on domestic
4:12 pm
or new restrictions on domestic travel. that is not happening. people aren't being tested getting on and off planes. he also again wrongly described his restrictions on travel from europe as a ban. they're not a complete ban on europe. there are many exemptions and whole countries are exempted. he also made what i thought was an absurd false claim about the obama administration's handling of the h1-n1 pandemic. obama requested billions from congress so the idea they didn't handle this at all is ridiculous. and as jim talked about, he suggested the deputy inspector general who produced this report was an obama appointee. she's a career official whose career dates back to 1999 and he dismissed her report saying it's wrong. that report was based on more
4:13 pm
than 40 hospitals in 40 states. but to just dismiss it is baseless. >> so, gloria, you know, another thing that stands out in part when you hear daniel for example going through these facts is that the president himself is answering most of these questions. you know, i personally would like to hear even more from doctors. you hear some from doctor bir kbpg but more from dr. birx and dr. fauci. explain what a change, a decrease in the growth rate as aoposed to an actual decrease in cases what this means, where are we, how many people are dying, how many of these things change. we and perhaps a medical as opposed to wishful thinking on medical treatments but instead the president seems to jump in and take almost every question. >> well, i think if you take a look at today's presser as a whole, it was quite stunning and
4:14 pm
a little bit disconcerting i would think because the president was defensive. he was bullying, and quite frankly his behavior was outrageous, erin, not only to the journalists in the room. but here is a president who wanted to take the stage to say if you don't give me a great grade, give me an a in every question you ask, i'm going to shoot right back at you and i'm going to bully you. and if i hear about an inspector general report what he said was what's the name of that inspector general, tell me because of course he has no faith in the government's ability to police itself or quite frankly any public servants who work in the government. and it sounded like a threat. what we all know is what the inspector general report is supposed to do is to tell hhs and other public servants where the problems are so they can fix them.
4:15 pm
it's not to lay blame at anyone's feet. it's to help the government figure out where the problems are. but instead every question the president got that seemed to sort of say, okay, do we need more tests, what about this inspector general report, any kind of question he was getting even about chuck schumer, what chuck schumer has suggested, oh, that's just about a bunch of politics. the president was responding as if it were a personal assault and that all of this is about him, which is of course -- it isn't. so when he is confronted with something that doesn't give him the best grade and say, mr. president, you're doing a great job and i know the governors have had to say that to the president to get what they want, quite honestly, but i think what we saw today was a stunning performance of somebody who is clearly got his back up against the wall here and doesn't want
4:16 pm
to have an honest give-and-take with journalists. but it makes you wonder quite frankly what is going on behind the scenes between the president and the scientists. >> and sanjay, to that point what do you understand at this moment is going on behind the scenes? i know we've heard, you know, about raised voices in that room when it comes to therapies like hydroxychloroquine as an example, whether it'd be dr. fauci or whether peter navarro in that case in the reporting but what is the relationship between the president and the scientists? >> it really is quite striking to me because i think the message sometimes given to the scientists about the scientists is because you're saying the trials are needed, because you won't just sign-on and say this stuff, in this case the hydroxychloroquine just works that somehow you're being disparaging and you're being a pessimist and you're somehow not
4:17 pm
wanting people to get well. i mean, i found that really striking. you know, i mean anthony fauci talking about the fact that, look, the studies are small. everybody on the planet wants one of these therapies to work, i think, you know, because this is a true pandemic, but you want to test these things. hydroxychloroquine, erin, this is the one that's got a lot of attention. president trump today talked about ten different therapeutics being looked at, 15 different trials. he didn't sem to lean-in as heavy as he did in the past, but that particular medicine may work because it's an immuno suppressant. that's why people with auto immune disease take it to sort of tamp down their immune system. that could be affected by people debilitated with this immune disease. but for people who have weakened immune systems already giving a medication like this could be quite detrimental. we don't know.
4:18 pm
that's why you study it ahead of time. if you don't immediately buy into this, if you're somebody who asks for data, then you must not want a therapeutic to succeed -- i think that was how anthony fauci was being painted today by peter nuvario. >> and the president talking about a call he had and saying he had no idea anything about india possibly halting all exports of that when of course their own ministry of commerce this weekend said they were doing that, banning all exports. so you'd think that would be something he'd be up in arms about or acknowledge he knew about, which he didn't which i found odd given his intense focus on that particular therapy. then at the end there were questions about antibody testing, and the president did ask the admiral to take that question from jonathan carl. but let me ask you about that
4:19 pm
because this is really crucial. we do know in one country where they did complete randomize testing in iceland, they tested 5% of the population randomly and only 1% of them had had coronavirus. so we don't know what the numbers are in the united states, but if you're going to use an antibody test as some kind of a gauge or metric for returning to normal life and your numbers aren't going to be huge -- right, i don't know what they need to be, but they need to be huge in terms of the number of people have had it, this can change the game and those are the questions it seems like the president should be addressing. >> that's right. and really those are the questions, erin, we need to have addressed by dr. fauci and dr. birx. i thought what was striking when dr. fauci one of the rare moments he had to talk during the press conference over the last hour, when he was asked how can we get back to a way of life before the coronavirus, and he was doubtful as to whether we would ever get back to that kind of way of life, in a way that
4:20 pm
somehow this country is somehow permanently scarred by all of this. that may somehow be the case. but if past is prologue, erin, the government's ability to get an antibody test out there, i mean i think there's going to be great skepticism about this, and i think the president is obviously once again going to feel like his shirttail is on fire when these questions are being asked. when you have problems going from testing to medical supplies like ventilators to personal protective equipment and every step of the way, every possible, you know, piece of equipment that's needed during this crisis, and there are break downs in that supply chain, it just begs to i think, you know, to be called into question whether or not this antibody test will get out in a reasonable fashion. i will tell you going back to you were saying a moment ago between this conflict going on between dr. fauci and peter navarro, we have some reporting on that and that is dr. fauci really felt like peter navarro
4:21 pm
was really going at him at this situation room meeting that occurred on saturday. and all dr. fauci was trying to say was when it comes to the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine is that where is the proof this is proven treatment for coronavirus? it just doesn't exist yet. and erin, this goes back to a big problem we've seen throughout this administration. when the president doesn't like the questions from the press, he engages in a war against the press. when he doesn't like the court system restraining him, he engages in a war on elements of the court system. and my goodness in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic, do we really want the administration to go to war against the scientists? i mean obviously that is the very definition of putting lives in danger, erin. >> and well said. let me ask you about another question that happened because when the president was talking about some of the risks here, he was talking about the british prime minister boris johnson who we do know is in the icu, which is pretty stunning think to take a deep breath here and think about the importance of that.
4:22 pm
president trump talked about it more than once in nis case saying this is serious thing, but that was the comment he made about the british prime minister. meantime this is the president who of course said he will not wear a mask. and we actually have a picture of it, is standing up there and obviously they're getting regular testing, but is standing up there right next to the vice president of the united states. no social distance between the person who is running the country and the person who would need to run the country were the person running the country were to be sick or anything like that. and yet here they are. >> there is still a lack of, you know, practicing what is being preached here. and look, this is serious. i mean, some people may see this just as optics. i mean even prime minister johnson i believe was talking about that he was still shaking hands right before he was diagnosed i think 11 days ago. you know, this is serious stuff. i mean, we are telling everyone to stay at home, to practice social distancing because this virus is highly transmissible.
4:23 pm
it can move person to bern. as you point out both the president and vice president are getting tested. i think they're getting people who they're interacting with and having meetings with, they're getting them tested before these meetings. so in that sense they obviously have a level of concern. but one of the most basic things that actually help really reduce the impact of this pandemic and how quickly it spreads is that social distance. and we see this up over and over again every day. and even the admiral was standing right next to the president at one point. i was quite surprised by it. ambassador birx i think was trying to tuck a little bit away perhaps being more cognizant of it. and the reporters widely distributed in the room. but you're right, i get a lot of e-mails about people saying why don't you say something about it? i'm sure other people have told them, but they're still not practicing that basic strategy. >> and this is a situation in a sense no matter how protected
4:24 pm
the president may be, first of all again i bring up boris johnson who the president then wept on talking about what a great person he was -- this can happen to anyone, okay? and anybody can get it and be in intensive care. okay, boris johnson is the rural of the united kingdom and he's the prime minister, and he's in the icu. so practicing what you preach matters. and it may matter for a lot of lot of people who still sort of may not want to take this seriously. and the president may say what he wants to say, but it's what he does and what he does not do whether it be a mask or how he stands that may be so important to many americans out there. >> right, and i think the president was clearly very concerned about boris johnson, his friend. and we know how he processes these things. he talked about the hospital in
4:25 pm
elmhurst. he talked about his friend who was in a coma, and how he sees his friend boris johnson, in the icu which he says is very dangerous and he understands that. and i think what we're seeing is a president here kind of under siege in many ways. just a week or two ago he's talking about everybody's going to be back by easter. we're all going to be in church by easter. then he extended it to april 30th. now he's fighting with the scientists who are saying wait a minute not so fast, and now he feels like there's a drug mat might help people and why are these scientists fighting with me on that because i want to give america hope. we can't the cure be worse than the disease and all the rest of that. and so here he is, he thinks, trying to provide good news to the american people, which he doesn't actually have. so what he ends up doing is providing bromides and mixed messages, which don't give the american public the information that they so desperately are
4:26 pm
craving. >> all right, thank you all very much. gloria, jim, daniel and sanjay. thank you. and next, when you talk about where this is spreading and moving maryland tonight seeing its cases triple, quickly becoming a new national hot spot. the governor of maryland is my guest. plus the british prime minister boris johnson he is now in intensive care with coronavirus. and just moments ago the president multiple times calling it very serious. we are live in london outside the hospital where the prime minister is tonight. and something that could potentially save lives, and that is blood from people who have recovered from coronavirus. i'm going to speak to one recovered patient who has donated his plasma to three patients. when did you see the sign? when i needed to jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event.
4:27 pm
help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage, and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com which is why when it comes to his dentures only new poligrip cushion and comfort will do. the first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. choose new poligrip cushion and comfort.
4:28 pm
i need all the breaks, that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. talk to your doctor, and call 844-214-2424.
4:29 pm
from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.
4:30 pm
which most pills don't. that gives me cash back onesome new aeverything.akuten that's ebates. i get cash back on electronics, travel, clothes. you're talking about ebates. i can't stop talking about rakuten. pretty good deal - peter sfx [blender] ebates is now rakuten, sign up today. breaking news, president trump's top infectious disease expert dr. fauci warning the country will likeny not get back to normal until there's a vaccine for coronavirus. >> if back to normal means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, i don't think that's going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population. >> this as the u.s. sees some signs of hope in the fight. nick watt is out front.
4:31 pm
>> this is what we train to do and signed up for just not in this volume. >> reporter: in new york state the rate of new infections is finally falling. >> it is hopeful but it is also inconclusive, and it still depends on what we do. >> reporter: so despite good news, the governor just extended their stay at home order through the end of the month and doubled the fine for noncompliance. >> this is an enemy that we have underestimated from day one, and we have paid the price dearly. while the numbers look like they may be turning, yay it's over. no, it's not. and other places have made that mistake. >> reporter: even if peak infection has passed, health officials say peak death rate still likely to come. >> for new york and new jersey and detroit, this week is going to be the peak week. >> reporter: in new jersey
4:32 pm
sheryl pavitova just lost both her parents, both health care workers. >> this is the year they were supposed to retire. and this is their retirement. >> this is going to be the hardest and saddest week of most americans lives, quite frankly. this is going to be our pearl harbor moment, our 9/11 moment. >> reporter: around our nation's capitol confirmed cases have near tripled in just a week. more than 10,000 americans dead already according to john hopkins university, and one model the white house task force is using to test we're still ten days from the peak when we could lose 3,000 or more in one day. in michigan more than 600 dead and counting. >> we're running dangerously low on ppe. we have less than three days until n-95 masks run out. this is nationwide impact and it's hard to adjudicate those resources across the nation
4:33 pm
knowing you're not going to have enough for everybody. >> peak infection in california not projected until mid-may. >> i think it's pretty clear at this point this is what april's going to look like. >> reporter: most of us still told to stay home at least another 3 weeks, likely longer. in louisiana the same model suggests they've actually passed their peak need for beds and ventilators. it was grim, still is. >> our coanroner's office is at capacity as it relates to our dead bodies of our loved ones. >> reporter: so we have been told to expect rolling peaks across the country. california hasn't been hit very hard yet, so the governor has given 500 ventilators to the national stockpile. but here in l.a. county we have now been told to brace ourselves. the county health director said today if you have enough supplies this might be have a
4:34 pm
very good week to avoid, erin, even going to the grocery store. >> nick, thank you very much. and i want to go now to republican governor of maryland hogan and he was on a conference call with vice president pence today with governors where i believe, governor, you were told the administration now considers the washington metro area which does include maryland a hot spot. and i know you have what now more than 4,000 cases, nearly 100 people have died. you had a tripling in your caseload, and you are still where your rates of growth here are growing right now. is that correct? >> well, so we're a couple of weeks behind some of the places we just heard about in the previous report. we're just really starting to escalate. we're several weeks away from the peak. but i've been working to convince the leaders in washington that we were the next hot spot. we were pleased today that the administration recognized maryland, d.c. and virginia as a hot spot. we've got about ten jerks in our
4:35 pm
state, about 5 million people between baltimore and washington that are really impacted directly and that are now considered hot spots. we've had almost a qua drupeling our numbers and it's going to be the washington area next to watch the real hot spots. >> do you have everything you need and if not what do you need the most? >> the same thing you're hearing from other governors. this is problem across the country and we're working closely with federal partners. that's why we toip to have the discussion with the president and vice president and his team. there's no sense just regurgitating the same stuff you heard from all the governors, but every single state has the same resource problems. but when you hit that peak in your curve and you don't have enough ventilators and ppe, you don't have enough masks and all the protective equipment, it's the overload of the system that is causing the problem. that is why we're all trying to
4:36 pm
take these aggressive steps to flatten that curve. we took some of the earliest and most aggressive steps in the country to try to not get to the point that we're seeing in some of those other places. but time will tell, you know, how successful they're going to be. >> so, you know, the president was talking about the call you were on today with the vice president, with the governors and he had this to say about it. >> we're working very well with the governors. now, they may see you and say oh, we're not happy, but they're very happy on the phone and mike pence is a straight shooter, and he had great conversation with them with all the governors, teleconference, and they're very happy, every one of them. >> is that fair to say that you're happy? you're happy with the situation, you're happy with what you're getting? >> well, the president was not on the call today and wasn't a part of the discussion, but i would agree that mike pence has been a straight shooter, that
4:37 pm
there's been really good discussion. and the governors for the most part, look, we were thanking the vice president and the team -- there's a great team of people working really hard, dr. fauci and dr. birx and all those folks trying their best to help us. but saying we're completely happy would be an overexaggeration. obviously you heard from governors on both sides of the aisle. we're pleased by the effort by team members, everyone's in this together and everyone's got issues. we know everyone's working on hard on it, but i think everybody's not completely satisfied. >> you also heard dr. fauci just the sound bite i played at the beginning, but he was saying there would be no returning to normal fully until we have a vaccine. do you agree with that? you could talk about all sorts of -- with doctors all sorts of models how they would try to rush that, but it seems like the best case scenario for that to
4:38 pm
be available and broadly distributed across the population is at best 12 to 18 months. >> so i've had a number of great conversations with dr. fauci and not only with all of the governors but individually one-on-one, and we have a great team of folks here that we talk to almost every other day, folks from places like john hopkins and all our top hospitals here in maryland, and there's all kinds of different modeling. no one knows exactly how long it's going to be or how long it's going to last. fauci is one of the guys i respect the most. i think what he was trying to say is even if we start to really come down on our numbers we were not going to be able to return to completely just ignoring the virus and going back to our total normal lives where we're out shaking hands and not having some kind of distancing. if we don't have a cure, if we don't have a vaccine to stop it because he's afraid it might come back up again in the fall. so, look, everybody wants to try to get this thing beaten down and get back to some type of
4:39 pm
normalcy as fast as possible. but it's true in talking with all all our experts, and we're work on possible vaccines here in maryland and nih and fda, but it's a ways off. we're 12 to 18 months from actually finding a vaccine and cure if you will. >> governor hogan, thank you very much, sir. i appreciate your time. >> thank you, wheerin. and next the breaking news from london, the british prime minister boris johnson tonight is now in intensive care. he was admitted to a london hospital last night with coronavirus. obviously his battle with the virus is very serious. we are live at his hospital. plus president trump urging patients to take an untested drug. my next guest, though, who advised the george w. bush white house has a warning tonight about that very drug.
4:40 pm
♪ in nearly 100 years serving the military community, we've seen you go through tough times and every time, you've shown us, you're much tougher your heart, courage and commitment has always inspired us and now it's no different so, we're here with financial strength, stability and experience you can depend on and the online tools you need because you have always set the highest standard and reaching that standard is what we're made for ♪ thwe've never seen it look quite like this. and reaching that standard is what we're made for but there's no mistaking it.
4:41 pm
and it's our job to protect it. because the best people to fight for our communities are those within them. so if you've just bought a volkswagen, or were thinking of buying sometime soon, we're here to help with the community-driven promise. - [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. and they're counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. grubhub. together we can help save the restaurants we love.
4:42 pm
4:43 pm
yeah. this moving thing never gets any easier. well, xfinity makes moving super easy. i can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. wow, that is easy. almost as easy as having those guys help you move. we are those guys. that's you? the truck adds 10 pounds. in the arms. -okay... transfer your service online in a few easy steps. now that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today. tonight british prime minister boris johnson is in intensive care with coronavirus. his office saying in a statement the prime minister's symptoms have worsened. president trump calling the
4:44 pm
situation his words scary at tonight's briefing. >> in intensive care it's a big deal. i found boris to be a fantastic person just like a fantastic, warm, strong, smart guy. he loves his country. you see that. i mean he fought like hell for his country. and intensive care is big stuff, really big stuff. >> and it is. clarissa ward is out front. she's in front of the hospital where the prime minister is being treated. clarissa, what is the latest on prime minister boris johnson's condition? >> reporter: so what we know, erin, is that he is in the intensive care unit, that he was admitted there earlier this evening because his condition was deteriorating. it does not appear at this stage he's been intubated or he needs a ventilator to breathe, but i did speak to one er attending physician at a different
4:45 pm
hospital who basically explained to me that they would have moved him into the icu as a precautionary measure. that also gels with what downing street is saying because on day 10 or 11 things can go badly very quickly. you do often see patients start to deteriorate very rapidly. and what they wanted to do is have him in a situation if they did need to intubait him, it wouldn't need to be done in sort of an emergency manner. he would be ready, there, the staff would be ready there and he'd be getting the full resources of the st. thomas hospital behind me. the question everyone is asking is how did this happen a because i've been standing out here all day. all we've been hearing from downing street is he's in great spirits, running this country from his hospital room, and now it's become very clear things have escalated dramatically and the question a lot of britains had is when did things start to
4:46 pm
go wrong? why was he admitted, and i think there's a sense here people are feeling anxious and want to know the truth and the seriousness and the gravity of what is actually really transpiring, erin. >> it's pretty incredible you're not getting those answers. pretty stunning. clarissa, thank you very much. and i want to go to dr. jonathan rhiner who advised the medical team for george w. bush and currently the president of the organization at gw hospital. dr. rhiner, what do you make of this? obviously president trump saying this was really big stuff, repeatedly talking about boris johnson, and as clarissa said the situation as escalated dramatically and what does this tell you? >> like every american i wish the prime minister a speedy
4:47 pm
recovery but it's an ominous occurrence. the best data we have actually comes out of the u.k., recently published from the intensive care national audit research center which looked at about 165 patients admitted to the icu in the u.k. with covid-19. and the mortality rate, people who need intensive care unit management is about 50%. for those who need to be intubated, need to be put on a respirator, mortality is 66%. so almost two thirds of people who are intubated in a setting of covid-19 don't survive. >> go ahead. >> what i was going to say, erin, it's a terrible cautionary tale because this is a virus that has become ubiquitous. and when i watch our leadership do these daily press
4:48 pm
conferences, worry for their safety. this shows anyone can be infected with the virus. and i just don't think that our leadership here is taking this seriously enough for their own safety. i worry about the safety of the president and vice president. >> and to that point, you know, i showed this picture to sanjay gupta, earlier, but it is pretty incredible when you hear the president of the united states talking about boris johnson, and he seemed very somber and sort of chastened in a sense when he was talking about him as he himself is standing right next to the vice president and of course has been very public about how he's not going to do anything like wear a mask because he's getting regularly tested. >> you know, in the days after the 9/11 attacks the president and vice president were never together boss the concern was that the enemy could deliver what would hardly be called a decapitating attack, right, and kill the, you know, leadership
4:49 pm
of this country. so the president and vice president were never together. well, this is an enemy that can do the same thing. so why would you have the president and vice president together frequently when one can infect the other? right, the president should be basically on lock down. there isn't a meeting he can't do without secured videoconferencing. and you can try and test as many people as you can. and i think testing people that are going to be in the presence of the president is great idea, but the testing isn't 100%. you have to test everybody meeting with him every single day and i hope they're doing that. but if the virus gets through that defense the president is going to get sick. and the president is 73 years old -- 74 in june. he's at high risk of dying from this virus. so i think that for the sake of our leadership there really needs to be very, very limited physical access to the president of the united states. >> and the president, again, continued to promote the use of the malaria drug
4:50 pm
hydroxychloroquine which he has done repeatedly, he did again today. his comment "what do you have to lose," what do you say to the president as a heart surgeon? i believe >> well, what you have to lose is your life from the drug. even if the drug is potentially effective and i pray to god that it is, do you start it at the very beginning of the illness? or is it best to start it when people get sick? what is the dose of the drug? how long should you give the drug? which patients should you not give the drug to? so, well, a lot of questions. and the way you answer those questions is by doing clinical research. there is such a huge volume of people with this virus now, we have the capacity to do these studies very quickly and have all these answers and understand if the drug works, and then how to get it to work as best as possible, and then to understand who really shouldn't take the drug.
4:51 pm
these are important questions. >> and on that point, you have, i believe talked about, this drug itself can do damage to the heart, it can do damage to the liver. it can do serious damage to people. >> the drug in particular can cause a malignant heart rhythm, a dangerous heart rhythm, something we call sudden cardiac death. what do you have to lose? you can lose your pulse. this is not a drug to play around with. if it works, we need to understand who it works in, how best to use it, and who not to use it in. let's get the data now. we can get it very quickly. here's the other point, erin. this disease is not going away in the next four weeks. it may drop down to very low levels over the summer. we all hope it is. we're expecting it. but we're going to need to know what works for the 0 long term
4:52 pm
and the often way to do that is to trial it. >> all right, dr. reiner, thank you as always, sir. i appreciate. >> my pleasure. >> and next, could blood from coronavirus survivors be a key to stopping the virus? in the race to the cure, i'm going to talk to one man whose plasma is now being used on at least three patients. at bayer, we make aspirin to help save lives during a heart attack... so it never stops the heart of a family. at bayer, this is why we science.
4:53 pm
this piece is talking yeah?. so what do you see? i see an unbelievable opportunity. i see best-in-class platforms and education. i see award-winning service, and a trade desk full of experts, available to answer your toughest questions. and i see it with zero commissions on online trades. i like what you're seeing. it's beautiful, isn't it? yeah. td ameritrade now offers zero commissions on online trades. ♪
4:54 pm
seeing the break in the clouds before anyone else. together, we'll weather this storm. as a home instead caregiver, for everything that i give, i get so much in return. hearing all of stanley's stories about his home, and everything that he's learned over the years, it reminds me that this is as much for him as it is for me. join our family of home instead caregivers and help make a world of difference.
4:55 pm
home instead senior care. apply today.
4:56 pm
new tonight, the cdc preparing to test more people for infection identifying antibodies in their blood specific to the coronavirus. it comes as scientists are working on a therapy to see if some people who had coronavirus may be able to help save the lives of others by taking their blood and basically giving, injecting their antibodies into somebody who is very sick. out front now, jason garcia, he donated blood to help others after fully recovering from the virus. jason, so, you know, tell me about how this even came about. i know people who have recovered
4:57 pm
who have been really trying to do what you've actually successfully managed to do. your plasma donation came about because of a facebook post. tell me about it. >> yeah, so, i mean, at the time i just wasn't aware that, you know, donation -- this was even an option or being explored. so when i got out of isolation, there was a letter from san diego county public health verifying i completed the isolation requirements and i took that letter and i kind of made a facebook post about it. just kind of claiming victory over covid-19 and saying, hey, i defeated the disease and i'm feeling great and that from that post, i had a friend that also saw a similar post from a colleague of hers from saint joseph's, and they were looking for someone who had tested positive for covid-19 and had been in recovery and symptom free for 14 days. so seeing both posts, she kind of put us in contact together
4:58 pm
and saint joseph's reached out to me and from then we were starting to arrange the donation. so that's how it came about. it was kind of very lucky. >> pretty incredible. i know now your plasma has been used to help three people who have coronavirus. what do you know about their conditions now? so, there's one patient that immediately got it that same day. and they've been given updates on the media. i haven't checked in with them since yesterday. i hear that patient's improving, but everything is still too early to tell if the experimental treatment was a success. but at least the patient is improving, so that's really promising. >> yeah. i mean, i can only imagine how that must make you feel to make a difference for someone else. i know the hospital says you were the first plasma donor on the west coast. the fda has since approved clinical trials to explore the
4:59 pm
treatment. they've been looking for donors on the east coast. how easy was this? if someone out there is considering being a part of one of these trials or doing this, how easy was it for you to do? >> so, for me, like everything was kind of lucky how this came about. i can tell the hospital kind of arranged this on their end getting the fda approvals and all their internal administrative approvals because this to them was a first. so it was a little -- there was little hurdles and challenges because we thought saint joseph's was the first hospital to store -- pioneer this on the west coast. but now i'm hearing because of the interest that this type of experimental treatment is having, there's more hospitals opening up to this treatment. and i know the red cross right now is taking information from recovered patients to sort of
5:00 pm
arranging this. >> hopefully this is something that will work. and i know for those three patients, i'm sure they and their families were very grateful they could get that from you. jason, thank you so much. >> no problem. >> and thanks to all of you for joining us. ac 360 starts now. >> good evening, everyone. there is a lot to get to tonight. some potentially positive signs in new york. the epicenter of the fight to save infected people and plenty of continued warnings about difficult days and deaths ahead. we're going to get to all of that. the white house coronavirus press briefing ended a while ago. if you tuned in hoping to hear from the country's top scientists you were disappointed. what we mostly heard was the president. what we saw was a hijacking of the task force press conference by a president determined to rewrite the history of his early and irresponsible response to this virus. what the president showed us today is what the