tv Cuomo Prime Time CNN April 24, 2020 11:00pm-12:00am PDT
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>> you also been coming up with all these life hacks. i just want to play a quick video you posted where you discovered something pretty amazing. take a look. >> sometimes i just stun myself with my original thinking. i should be an inventor or something. okay. so you got a bag of chips, and you've got no clips. you know, so what on earth you do? oh, well, let's take magnets off the refrigerator. job done. watch out rachel ray. i'll take my 3 million followers. i'll start me a little home channel. >> and so you're, like, you live in l.a. but you're hunkering down in tennessee. how's your mom doing? >> she's doing really, really well. i hit the jackpot on mom. she's the most beautiful woman in the world. she really is. >> i mean, must get a lot of it
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from her because i mean she's got to be a character, too. >> well, you know, she really isn't. it's funny how she's just so normal, and she was just such a good mom. and when i was young, i thought she was a fairy princess because she's blonde and bashful. and people talk about fairy princesses. but my mother's very, you know, private. and so people have said to me why don't you approach your mother? oh, lord, no, she'd die. >> leslie, i got to go because i'm cutting into chris's show. and i know chris is a huge fan of yours, too. but i wish you the best. i will reach out to you on instagram. thank you so much. you're welcome back here anytime. all right. you should follow leslie. it's awesome. leslie jordan. the news continues. let's turn things over to chris for cuomo primetime. i am chris cuomo. welcome to prime time. so instead of selling us on a well-thought-out plan to reopen so we can get on the page, what are federal officials doing today? warning us not to poison ourselves with household
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cleaners. why? because of what trump said and meant. this president just take responsibility. just take it back. trump floated it seriously, not s sarcastically. and, now, he's trying to spin it. it's the same thing every time. double down on dumb. instead of the forces of the fringe, now, we got to hear them saying, oh, he was right about the light. and, if he were wrong, if ehe were wrong to suggest taking disinfectant, look, he was being sarcastic. look, we all heard it. this is no time for this kind of noise. we wonder why states are all over the place. why reopening is a mess. georgia, oklahoma, opening up now. cases still out of control. why? leadership. is consistency and accountability.
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if you don't have it, you get what you are seeing right now. every night, i will remind only one way forward. together, as ever, as one. that means we've got to be straight, and we've got to care enough about each other to do the right thing for everyone. let's get after it. >> why does it matter? we should be worried about each other and our public health. i agree. but look at the google trends. a massive spike in searches in terms like disinfectant and injection. i wonder why. just happen toss come after the president trial ballooned exactly that as a possible coronavirus cure. people are actually looking this up. come on, my brothers and sisters. and, yet, i can't really put it on you. why wouldn't you take a look? the president told you, seriously, that this is something they may look at. lysol had to come out and issue
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warnings that, under no circumstances, should its disinfectants be put inside the human body. his protectors in media are saying it was wrong of you, cuomo, to make that joke that trump's saying take two shots of b windex, swallow a light bulb, and call me in the morning. really? and you wonder why things are so wrong. this ain't state tv. all right. we're going to give it to you straight here because it matters too much. this was trump's response today. the most toxic part of the occasion. >> i was asking a question, sarcastically, to reporters like you. just to see what would happen. >> you're not encouraging americans to -- >> no. no, of course. that was -- interior wise, it's said sarcastically. it was put in the form of a question to a group of extraordinarily hostile people. namely, the fake-news media. >> you were looking at dr. birx.
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>> i was looking at bill. i was looking at the doctor. i was looking at some of the reporters. i don't know if you were there. were you there? i don't think you were there. >> i was there. >> no, not you. not you. not you. you were there. if you're there, i never forget. >> i wasn't there. yes, sir. >> you were not. >> no, sir. >> yeah, i didn't think you were there. >> we were all there. we watched it on tape. this is not a mystery. this is not an open question. here's what he said. >> i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or -- or almost a cleaning. as you see, it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the longungs so it'd be interesting to check that. >> see anybody laughing? you see people behind him like this? no. not one. why? because he wasn't joking around. he was musing. he was doing what he was doing,
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which is him making stuff up. and then guess on to say, today, oh, no, i was talking about the disinfectant on the hands. and did you know that if you rub the disinfectant on the hands, it -- it can kill coronavirus? it can kill things. so, you know that's what i was talking about. and it was like i was waiting for him to say, you know, because you can put it on and it's kind of clear so maybe we call it something like pure but it's a gel. so my idea is we put some stuff, you know, that can kill germs on our hands and we call it purell. you know, that's just something i'm spit balling. amy comi i'm coming up with it. come on. just own what you said. tat's leadership. it was a stupid thing. nobody really cares except the people who were googling it because you won't own that you were wrong. okay? and that's the problem here. kaitlan collins was there. she heard it in person but, by the way, that's not the standard. all you need to do is hear the sound. there is no benefit of context that he's not getting.
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tonight, another clue. the president wouldn't take questions about it. kaitlan collins joins us now. >> yeah. that's right, chris, the president didn't take any questions tonight. that is, of course, a rarity for the president at these coronavirus briefings. where, often, you know, sometimes they go for one hour, potentially two, and the president takes lots of questions from reporters. but the last we heard from him today where he was taking questions was in the oval office, when he was trying to explain away that remark saying he was simply being sarcastic. though, of course, chris, many people have noted that's not really what we heard. from other people at the white house today. including when, earlier, they said actually the media had just been taking him out of context. and then dr. deborah birx, who was in that briefing today, explained in an sbroon o interview on fox news that the president was just digesting information, in real time. of course, that came after the presentation you saw from the top dhs official who, when the president was suggesting that doctors should look into his musings about whether or not light and disinfectants could be used inside the body as a cure
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for coronavirus, the doctor -- excuse me, the dhs official said no that's not really something they do but they could try to put it in the hands of people who do. and we've seen the fallout from this where the cdc had to issue a tweet saying please do not use household products. follow the instructions on the label. and even the surgeon general putting out a tweet this morning saying you need to make sure you are consulting with your doctor before you pursue any kind of treatment when it comes to coronavirus. >> before swallowing clorox, please consult your doctor. you'll certainly need them after. kaitlan collins, bless you. for keeping it straight in situations like this. i wish you a very good weekend. let's bring in dr. william schaffner, infectious disease expert, cdc advisor. always a pleasure, doc, welcome back to "primetime." >> good to be with you, chris. >> so, doc, people are googling this because they take him
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seriously. nobody was laughing behind him when he said it. you know who is telling the truth? dr. birx. he was processing information in realtime. he heard them talking about using uv light and other ways of disrupting the virus on surfaces, so it can kill this virus so it doesn't live as long as a pathogen on all these different surfaces and he wanted to one up it. people will say who cares? nobody cares about this. why do you care? >> well, i care a great deal. that disinfectant remark really gave me a chill when i heard it because there might well be some people out there who took it seriously. i mean, that's toxic. we'll be generating calls to poison control centers because of that. that can make you really, really sick. disinfectants are for inadamant
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surfaces, not for the interior of the body. by the way, my inbox gets all kinds of suggestions from well-intentioned people about all kinds of -- all kinds of interesting ideas they have for treatments. none of those have been studied carefully. so we need to be very circumspect about what it is that we do in order to try to prevent these infections, as well as treat them. we need to be conservative and rest on the science. and, in the meantime, as you know, social distancing, handwashing, use those masks. >> right. and, look, why are people a little mixed up about this? well, part of is, they're sick of it, right? fatigue is natural in a situation like this and to be expected. but when the president of the united states is saying, you know, i don't know about testing. you know, sometimes it's works. sometimes it's not the right way. some governors say they have a better way. no governor says that, by the way. then he says you should liberate your states.
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people are protesting. you know, i get it. this is hard. people want to get back to work. that's the messaging. and it creates a mess, does it not? >> well, surely. now, everybody wants to return to a semblance of normal. but we also want to do it safely. so the way to do that is gradually, in a phased fashion. and here's where leadership really is important. you have to tell people exactly what they ought to do and ought not to do. for example, if you are opening things up now, still wear your masks. everybody who works in businesses that are opening up should wear a mask. businesses shouldn't let anybody in unless they're wearing masks. we need to normalize this in the near-term future because coronavirus, it's going to be with us for quite a while yet. >> right. and it's also the only thing we can do right now. you know, all these other things are maybes.
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the -- for instance, that's what i was just reading while you were talking. the fda is now approving the first at-home test kit. but you're not going to get it tomorrow. there are a couple of questions about its accuracy, but there are always questions about accuracy with tests. but that's going to be a while, right? and isn't the reality of testing that that's going to be a while before we're really up to scale, before we really know the content of this country, in terms of viral exposure? >> oh, for sure. we've all said we want to test more. we're making baby steps in that direction. in tennessee, i can say it's fortunate now that if you want to get a test, you can go to an assessment center and get the test. there's no cost involved. so that's really, very important. that's a step ahead. but, still, we're not testing nearly as many people as we would like to test. and, of course, that's a fundamental aspect of moving
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forward as we gradually, in a systematic fashion, carefully, open things up to the new normal, not the old normal. >> let's end where we began. the reason it matters, what the president says, is it has sway. now, look. taking disinfectant. i can't believe that many people were googling it. you know, i have to say i am a little surprised by that. but the hydrochloroquine thing. that's how we got in that mess. he went out there. he pushed it. people started buying it up all over the place. made it hard for people with lupus who needed it to find prescriptions. now, you got fauci and his team put out protocols on how to treat covid, they were neutral on hydrochloroquine. the fda is now issuing warnings on hydrochloroquine. are you in favor of the move? and is it too late? >> oh, it's -- it's not too late. and the important thing is that there are trials underway examining hydrochloroquine.
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and i hope that patients around the country are volunteering to be part of that trial because we need these answers so that we can treat patients coherently. evidence-based medicine is the best way to go. we don't want to harm parents. we want to do well by our patients. we want to improve them. but only when we have the evidence, can we do that with confidence. >> and, doctor, the reason i love having you on is the same point that we're trying to make about the president. you say what you know, and you say what you don't know. hydrochloroquine may help people. may have helped people already. we don't know so you're not going to suggest it to people. what you suggest is that we figure it out. that's the kind of leadership is that gets us answers, not more trouble. dr. schaffner, i hope you get to have some rest this weekend. thank you for helping me and the audience. >> my pleasure, chris. >> all right. look. also, you have to look at the consistency of message as part
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of the reason for the confusion in reopening. georgia, open for business again. despite warnings, even from the president, by the way. you got to give him his due, when he says something that's right, give it to him. be nice if itse was sooner. be nice if it wasn't contradictory of what he said earlier about the governor of georgia. what's happening right now in georgia? people flocking to salons? what does the city's mayor think? let's get the reality of the reopening. next. as homes become schools at&t has created a $10 million dollar fund to support distance learning tools, curriculum and resources to help educators and families keep school in session because the key to keeping kids learning, is keeping kids connected.
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all right. i hope we can stay clear about what the real question is about what comes next. reopening isn't about if. of course, we have to do it. it's not even about when. it's about how. how do we get to where we want to be, and keep ourselves and our families safe? tom foreman is showing us the steps that researchers believe are the key. >> good morning, guys. welcome to blackberry cafe. >> in his tiny restaurant in the tennessee hills, lynn sherrod's
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videos are -- so when he heard his state will be lifting many restrictions meant to contain the virus, he was pleased, sort of. >> we all need the income, and we want the economy back. but, at the same time, we want to do it in a safe and healthy way. >> as calls grow to reopen america, that's the puzzle many big research names are tackling. how do you unlock the closed economy safely? and certain keys are showing up in almost every proposal. first, testing. >> ultimately, i thiwe're doing testing i think than any of the governors even want. >> in its new recovery roadmap, testing capacity remains inadequate. leaving no clear picture of where the virus is or how it is spreading. and most proposals insist testing must be vastly expanded. harvard says it should be millions of people per day. duke, the ultimate goal should be that all patients with covid-19 symptoms seeking
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outpatient or hospital care receive a reliable diagnostic test. only that can confirm a 14-day decline in infections which even the white house says should prece precede reopenings. second, tracking. several states are launching contact-tracing efforts, meaning identifying infected people and anyone they had recent contact with, asking them to self-quarantine. doing that nationwide could require hiring as many as 300,000 people. but on boston's nbc 10, one of the leaders of the effort to add contract tracers there explains how it can work. >> it seems big until you kind of break it down, and realize that spread isn't going, like, you know, scattershot. it's going through social networks. >> third, rapid response. researchers say hospitals must be on solid footing. protective gear, ventilators, and more, replenished so the medical system can respond quickly and isolate new outbreaks. allison hoage believes it's
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irresponsible of her state, georgia, to say she can reopen her beauty salon without such measures. >> yeah, i am really angry about it. >> and, fourth, continued restrictions. every credible plan for reopening the nation, still, calls for degrees of social distancing, limits on travel, and only a gradual resumption of business so any emerging problems can be spotted, and a shutdown instantly declared again. >> yes, all of this will require a lot of money. it will require discipline, and it will require patience. but these experts say, done properly, we can slowly and safely reopen the whole economy. and the worry about places like georgia jumping out front without all these protocols is that you might trigger a giant backslide, which pulls the economy and hope and trust and everything back, and we all pay for all of this much longer. chris. >> tom, thank you very much. we actually saw something like
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that in hong kong. they tried to get back too soon, came with major implications. but that leaves us with georgia. tom, thank you, bless you, have a great weekend. the georgia proposition has now opened the world to the opportunity for the coveted htm. the haircut, tattoo, massage trio. is this a good thing for anybody? let's go to the mayor of augusta, georgia. hardy davis. welcome to primetime, mr. mayor. >> chris, excited to be here with you. and, again, let's talk about it. >> what is it looking like there, now that people have the opportunity? >> well, you know, today was our first day. and i took a drive around downto downtown and across the city. people are very cautious. they are taking a very tempered approach in terms of coming out into the community. i saw folks out walking. social distancing. continuing to do that.
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i popped my head into a barber shop and there was only one barber who was in the shop, and he was taking customers by appointment. but i think the general consensus is that people are still very concerned. we know that now that the governor said we're going to take a phased approach in terms of opening certain businesses, we're going to comply with that and work with that. now is not the time to remain at a place of surprise and shock. we've got to govern at this point. this is an opportunity now for us to lead. and what it's done for us in augusta is it's caused for us to have to move very quickly in terms of how we mobilize with our reopening plan. >> and, look, you don't really have much choice, mr. mayor, right? i mean, the state -- the governor was very clear that the local authorities have no ability to not execute the order, as written. so your hands were tied, you weren't consulted. and the problem with that is you are going to get saddled. you've been very outspoken about this and your concerns. but you are going to get saddled with the reality now and underlying the governor's move
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is his statement that the businesses are able to open because new cases and hospital visits have lowered enough. they have not lowered at all. according to the cdc and projections, not only do you not meet the cdc guidelines, but cases are, still, rising. >> yeah, i think you're absolutely correct, chris. our initial plan was to follow the cdc's guidelines that call for 14 straight days of a decline in terms of confirmed cases. we still have yet to see that in georgia. not only have we not seen that decline but, in fact, today, we find ourselves at a place of almost 22,500 confirmed cases and almost 900 deaths. when you look at the fact that we understand that you got to have the three ts. testing, contact tracing, and treatment. we're not at a place where we can do that in sufficient enough numbers. whether that's across the state of georgia and, without question, in augusta.
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one of the things i can, again, give the governor great credit for is he's identified augusta university in the city of augusta as the state's primary testing facility. they are working on a rapid-response ability, to be able to provide testing across the state of georgia. i'm very hopeful that that's going to be successful. not only is that going to take place, but we need to make sure that working in partnership with the georgia department of health, we can get folks on the ground to do contact trace being. but, again, those things are not possible at this point in sufficient enough numbers. >> look. that's the catch 22. there's no question the university's going to be really busy. and the problem is you got restaurants and movies opening on monday. and you're not going to know about what effect this had on cases for weeks. so, by the time you find out, people are going to be out there. they're going to get more confidence. and it's hard to put all of it on the cite zens to do it the right way. that's what the leadership's supposed to be abo
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supposed to supposed to be about but mayor hardie davis, you have been clear about your concerns. i wish you well. god bless. >> thanks, chris. appreciate it. >> all right. logical. cases are going to go up. why? because we're going to be closer together. we know that. it's certainly going to happen in georgia because the cases are going up, already. oklahoma, as well. now, you know what the question really becomes? how much of that are you okay with? that will be the major measure of acceptance of moving forward. how many cases? how much death are you okay with? let's talk to a former top health official on how this works out. next. print, our priority is keeping our customers, employees, and communities safe. during these uncertain times we want you to get great service without leaving the safety of your home. shop at sprint.com for free next day shipping and no activation fees on our best new phone deals, like a samsung galaxy phone for just $0 a month.
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and it's going to remain almost purely aspirational, unless you get what the mayor called the three ts down in augusta, georgia. you got to test. you got to be able to trace, when you get people who are positive, and you got to be able to treat the cases that come into the hospitals. we heard this from the vice president today. >> we're going to continue to increase testing, dramatically, in the weeks ahead. >> now, that should sound familiar. >> we'll continue to build out the structure, going forward, for the weeks ahead. in the weeks ahead. >> in the next few weeks. >> days ahead. >> testing is ramping up. >> i think we'll be talking about it in the not-too-distant future. >> now, this is where you got to strip out the politics and look at the practicality. are we increasing testing? yes. but have we gotten to where we need to be? not even close. we've only tested about 5 million people, in a country of,
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what, 300-plus million to be sure, right, on the low side. it's like saying, hey, we were at a 42. now, we're at a 55, man, we're doing good. passing is 65. we're still failing. period. promises made. promises kept. come on. those are words. it's about the quality of the action and the practicality of the policy. let's bring in someone who knows that well from his time as acting administrator for the centers of medicare and medicaid. mr. andy slavitt, good to have you, sir. >> hey, chris, how are you? >> one of the best opportunities i can afford on this show. tell me i'm wrong. yes, we're ramping up testing. yes, they're at 150,000 a day. but scale, brother. scale is not incremental if you need to hit a certain benchmark for it to be effective. and we're nowhere near it. so is progress enough for a pat on the back? >> look. i think that what the president would be smarter to do is to hit a number that he can stick to or
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beat. i think that's not in his nature. but if he said, look, by the end of june, we're going to have 3 million tests and i know it's not enough. but by july, we're going to have four. and then by -- you know, people will understand. they may not like it. but to continue to say that everybody has all the tests that they need, when everyone knows it's not their reality, it erodes trust. and so what he needs to do now is build trust. because the reality on the ground isn't changing. mayors from augusta to new york city to all over country, democrat and republican, they don't want people in their towns to die. and so they're not going to just take the vacant words that are coming out of the white house press conference. >> the catch is if we finally hit numbers to show promises made, promises kept, whatever, accountable. if it were just a solo criterion but it isn't. it's testing as a coefficient of
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whether or not you're ready to reopen. and if you can't hit the three ts, you know, if you don't have an ability to let me know, with some reasonable degree, hey, who's going to be in this restaurant with me? how safe am i here on the way in and on the way out with the valet and everything else or whatever the situation is? i'm not going to go. so it's not just hitting a mark, is it, andy? i mean, they've got to get to a point of saturation, where people believe there's real protection. >> that's right. and i think the reason they're not doing that is because they are so far away from the number that they'd rather see if they can have the governors take the blame. and say that it's the responsibility of the governors to get to that level of testing. and the truth is it's going to take both the governors and the white house to work together to expand testing and the private sector. including the fda. so there's accountability that has to go everywhere. >> well, look, i'm told they had a good call today. the governors with the people, you know, on the tachk forsk fo
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getting on the same page and doing it. look, we know what the tension is here. we say it's about public policy and health but it isn't. right? the problem with testing is it gets in the way of reopening. you can't test enough people to make it compelling to push for reopening right now. but that's what he wants. so he wants to get away from the testing. so he wants to diminish the value of testing and to the extent it is valuable, i'm going to put it on you. and that's where we are right now, and we seem a little stuck. how do we break out of this and get to a place where reopening isn't reckless? >> you know, with a little bit of patience. i mean, look, we all -- we wish it weren't so. we wish we could open. we wish we could send our kids to summer camp. we wish we could go back to work. we'd all like to go back to our restaurants. we'd like to enjoy the sports that we enjoy in the summer. and i think, you know, there's not a person in the country that doesn't -- that doesn't want that. but wishing won't make it so. we have to accept the situation
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we're in, and work our way through it. you know, 18 months isn't forever. we're going to have to get through this period. it's a hard period and the government's going to need to support people through it. understanding people are anxious, i think it's fine to relax some of the restrictions where people have gone too far, or where the outbreak hasn't hit those areas. those are fine things. but if you do those things and don't have the tools in place to instantly reduce, that's when i think you're going to get into trouble, as you heard from the mayor of augusta. >> now, look, you know what will become a really interesting factor. it's about to go away for a few months, but then it's going to come back. i'm not talking about the bump in the fall. i'm talking about school. because they are a not going to play around with kids and people in those situations because you can pop -- you -- you could have clusters of contagion fast that way. and that's about to go away because, soon, we're going to be on summer break. but you can't open the economy if you can't open schools, and that is going to be a real catch point for us and we will see how it plays out and we will
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be dog it in real time with you. andy slavitt, have a great weekend and thanks for helping out my audience. all right. now, i hope you know this. okay. there was absolutely a mental health crisis in america before this pandemic. depression is one of the most diagnosed situations we have. medically. okay? we're, also, a nation where so many of us are battling addiction or know someone who is, right? i mean, if it's not someone who is really close to you, are you really more than two degrees from somebody who struggles? so what is this pandemic doing to people's management of their own illness? the ability to get treatment? dr. duckworth is back tonight. he understands the situation, and he's going to tell us, next. - my family and i did a fundraiser walk
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every time i think of the reality, i get anxious. we're home. we're scared. we're isolated. we're alone. we lose our normal network. we can't get to other people. alcohol is flying off the shelves. i mean, you know, what is it an obvious recipe for? how do you cope with having real problems and real trials when you can't get to treatment? you can't get to your doctor. maybe you can't even get your medications. either because of convenience or because of supply chain. health experts fear a rise in addiction, a rise in problems. they know that alcohol is flying off the shelves. they are gating huge spikes in distress calls. police departments, around the country, overdose calls are up, year over year. people who were already struggling with addiction before the pandemic are worried about
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relapse. treatment centers are having trouble being staffed, having trouble with beds. they can't get their ppe. this is a real, real problem, and nobody's talking about it. let's welcome back dr. ken duckworth. the chief medical officer for the national alliance of mental illness. national alliance on mental illness, also known as nami. doc, i told you we would do it again tonight. >> thank you for having me. >> oh, you're a blessing. can't ignore this. this is a recipe for disaster, for people who are not well. if you can keep yourself from using now, you have some great, strong resolve and a chance at leading a sober life for a while. tell us why? >> or if you're part of a community that is supporting you. i think it's really important that this is a moment we're home. we have time. think about this condition, addiction, not as a moral
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failing but, as chronic biological vulnerability that has treatment. and i do want to say that, if you can participate in a community of recovery and get treatment virtually, a lot of treatments are being given virtually, chris. i want to emphasize you can get suboxone. that can be prescribed now through televideo visits, which was unheard of a month ago. so, while the story is difficult, we had a crisis before this kban. began. we had 70,000 opiate overdose deaths in 2017. and our lifespan in america has been going down three of the last four years and that's because of suicide and addiction. so we have some work to do, as a society. and as we're on this giant pause, thinking about how we relate to addiction. how we love people into care.
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how we forgive ourselves for our vulnerabilities. and work this problem. it's a hard problem. and these stresses are adding to it, chris. >> so let's talk solutions. two different phases. one is if you have somebody in your life who's struggling, what do you do? what can you do? what are the tools? and what should you do for that person? >> yeah. well, it's a very individual situation. and if it's a mental health vulnerability, there is a nami organization near you. we have 600 across the country. where you can problem solve. i like to think what i think of and what the person thinks of as two venn diagrams, and i stick with the overlap. what is area that is troubling them that i, also, see? they may not see something that i observe. they might not want to hear about it. but the other pieces of what they see are true for their experience. so if they're having trouble sleeping or they're functioning
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poorly at work or they can't organize their thinking. those are problems that you can both agree upon. these are the principals of so-called motivational interviewing. find what the person cares about. get alongside of them, like you're on a bus stop with them, looking out at the world together. see if you can get to yes on how to engage in help. it's not easy. yeah. >> and you, also, reminded people last night and it's important iterating tonight, that we are isolated. but we are not alone. you can reach out. you can facetime. you can chat. there's a gazillion apps. zoom, everybody's using now. reach out. say hello. watch tv together. you know, on the phone. connect with them so that people aren't stuck with their own heads and their own thoughts because that can be a spiral, as well. and, then, you have the person who is sick. and, by the way, i -- you're talking about your venn
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diagrams. i see tremendous overlap between mental illness and addiction. i consider addiction a mental illness. i know that's a little controversial. i think that's about stigma and i think, eventually, it will go away. it's not controversial in your community. i'm saying in the non-treatment community, it is. what should those people know is available to them? and what to do if they start feeling the obvious stressors? >> well, there are co-travelers, mental health vulnerabilities are co-travelers. depression and alcohol, common co-travelers. people don't read the textbook and just have one problem. so i think the question is what has worked for you in the past? if aa has worked for you in the past, aa has a remarkable online recovery community. so too smart recovery. if you can't go to the methadone clinic because of social distancing, many states, you can
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get it through a pharmacy now. you just go once a month, and you're able to get methadone. these are creative interventions that have been public-policy successes. so it really depends on what has worked for you in the past. and how do you adapt to these difficult circumstances that we're under? which are going to stress people. and i do worry about our first responders and healthcare workers, in terms of the trauma they are exposed to because that can have a longer tail than the viral curves that we see. the mental health tail is going to be longer, i believe. >> absolutely and it's tougher to treat. it doesn't go away the same way. doesn't get dismissed like a fever. and we already know that there's been over 100% strike -- 100% spike in distress calls and a lot of them are healthcare workers and it makes sense. dr. ken duckworth, thank you for breaking the silence. and talking about what should not -- >> good work, chris. >> listen. this -- this is the job and it is a privilege to do so.
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be well. stay well. and, look, just a quick note. i know it is hard for people out there right now. i hear from you all the time. on my radio show. social media. there are people that care about you. they're in your life. you reach out. you want to send us messages. do it. to the extent that we can help, we are here. we are all in this together. just because you're home does not mean you have to be alone. okay? healthcare workers. absolutely, helping us get through this. they deserve all the praise we can heap on them. new yorkers have found a new way to spread the love for them and so many others. you want to see it? next. (slow music plays) ♪ (laughter) ♪
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all right. we got to have heart, right? how about literally. check out this lawn love from brian park in new york city. it's right near time square. landscapers mowed this giant heart into the grass. dedicated to all the healthcare heroes, first responders, essential workers. and we know they are the difference in terms of saving our nation right now. whether they're stocking shelves or they're keeping people breathing. these people are up against it, man. they're working crazy hours, and against terrible odds. the park itself is closed until at least early may. but this is another reminder that we've got to be in it together. you've got to reach out, and let
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people know you care. and new york's heart will always be open. now, ahead, we heard very little today from the president at the task force briefing after yesterday's debacle. oh, i'm sorry, i mean the sarcasm, and i am being sarcastic. is there a concerted effort, now, within the white house, to get him to stop talking so much? what do you think of that? next. you're first. first to respond. first to put others' lives before your own. and in an emergency, you need a network that puts you first. that connects you to technology to each other and to other agencies. built with and for first responders. firstnet. the only officially authorized wireless network for first responders. because putting you first is our job.
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