hello, everyone. i'm kate balduan. thanks so much for joining us. hospitals stretched to capacity. record number of new cases of the percentage of positive tests still increasing in multiple states. this is where the nation stands in the fight against the coronavirus. florida has emerged as the nation's new epicenter. it surpassed 200,000 total cases after having its single worst day on the fourth of july. in texas the situation is becoming increasingly dire as at least two counties are reporting that their hospitals are at full capacity at the start of the

holiday weekend. overall 3 it states are heading in the wrong direction reporting an increase in new cases can over the past seven days it and that is why images like these from the holiday weekend have health experts and local officials so concerned. >> clearly our current approach, if you call it that, is not working. by the time we're for the fall election, i'm sure we'll easily be at 100,000 cases a day as dr. fauci predicts, and we might even more -- might even be at a higher level than that, and we're in freefall and need to stop it. >> let's go to cnn's rosa flores in miami. rosa, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: you know, i'll start with the silver lining, kate. the numbers were just released by the florida department of health. they are down a bit just to over 6,000. this weekend, however, florida busted its record with more than

11,400 cases in one day alone. leaders here like the mayor and city of miami has used the word exponential to describe the growth and a the spread of this virus here in miami-dade county. let's look at the numbers here because the number of hospitalizations are staggering. we checked with miami-dade county. they are releasing this information even though the state of florida is not releasing it. when you look at the number of hospitalizations here in miami-dade county, yesterday there was just over 1,500 individuals that were hospitalized. that the number on june 23rd was just over 800. that's an 88% increase. during that same time period if you look at the number of icu beds being used, there's 114% increase. if you look at the number of ventilators during that same time, 119% increase. that is why there are so many individuals here, local leaders,

mayors, that are very concerned. now, kate i want you to process this with me for just a moment because miami-dade county is the epicenterest code of 19 cries is here in the state of florida and experts say that contact tracing is essential to stop the spread. on may 14th the mayor of the county was ready to hire between 800 and 1,000 contact tracers to help stop the spread in this county. well, we asked the county today how many they hired so far and the answer is none. they sent us a statement saying that they received this from the florida department of health. quote in, florida the florida department of health is the only entity authorized to conduct contact tracing. now according to mime dade county, there are conversations between the county and the state to see what they can do so that they can help during this

crisis. now we've reached out to the florida of department of health to ask for comment, but, kate, during a crisis like this you would think it would be all hands on deck, and if the county is willing to hire between 800 and 1,000 contact tracers, the question why is the state not allowing not allowing them? we've of course asked that question. we're waiting to hear back. >> conversations that should have happened months ago are happening apparently right now. rosa, thanks you. let's get over to dallas and ed lavandera in texas. ed, what are you hearing there about hospitals and capacity? >> reporter: well, local officials and city and county officials are sounding the alarm that the hospital capacity is going to come and continue to be a dire situation in the days and weeks ahead. we have the mayor of austin saying hospital capacity could be reached there within the next couple of weeks. you have county judges in the rio grand valley in star an

hilgd hidalgo county are already at capacity and now we have new numbers from the department of health and human services and really indicates how difficult it is to control this coronavirus. in the child care facilities now reopened, that they are now reporting more than 1,300 cases of coronavirus, most of those cases are among staff members, but some children also infected as well, but just look at how this has jumped in just the last two months. may 15th, there were 59 covid cases reported in child care facilities in texas. a month later 210 and now we're at more than 1,300. this as in the course of the last few weeks we have seen a staggering increase in the number of new coronavirus cases being reported here in texas, towards of end of last week some

7,000, 8,000 new cases a day that are being reported. kate, the really more troubling part of all of this is the positive infection rate among these new cases being reported is now over 13%. the goal here in texas, state officials have been saying is to keep that under 6% so they are more than double where they want to be. >> kate. geez. thanks for the update. one key pandemic throughout is ed was talking about is how many people are tested and how many people among them test positive, the positivity rate. in south florida the news there is startling. joining me right now dr. amy compton phillips, cnn medical analyst and chief clinical officer for the providence health system. doctor, it thank you for coming in. miami-dade county, rosa flores is reporting about it reporting a positivity rate of 26%, 26% of the code of tests administered on sunday came back positive. the goal in the county is to

keep that below 10%. they have obviously been above that and and they have been above that for two weeks. why is this so important for people towns in looking forward? what does this mean for how the virus is spedding in the state's largest county? >> yeah. thanks so much for asking, kate, and what that means is that the number of infections is outstripping the test supply. the reason we test, of course, is people individually want to know what they have going on, right, but also you want to be able to -- to constrain the virus, and so if you test adequately. if you get most of the cases, then those people can stay home and prevent themselves from going out and infecting others, so really ensuring that you can capture everybody who has the virus and preventing it and interrupting the spread, preventing is it from going on. if we have a 25% positivity rate that means that we're not capturing the virus very well. we're not putting ring around all those infections and keeping them contained and instead it is

exploding beyond those boundaries. >> it is very clear were dr. pierre hotez says this morning that we're in freefall and that's what it looks like. in terms of the federal response you have the president saying this weekend that 99% of covid cases are totally harmless. this morning the white house is not trying to clean that up. they are not claiming that he was joking or being tongue in cheek as they often does when he says false things about the pandemic. his chief of staff is actually pushing the very same thing saying that the risk is extremely low for most people. doctor, what do you say about that? >> that's a made-up number not steeped in any kind of science, not validated anywhere. right now from the people who have had covid so far in the u.s., the mortality rate, the death rate is over 4.5%, and that is not only the people who have died, right, around 20% of

people are put in the hospital which is not an insignificant virus. we do know that we are underdiagnosing covid, that there are more infections out there than we have the diagnosis for, and so that mortality rate when we look back a year from now will be a little bit lower but 99% is just pulled from thin air so that really has no basis in the literature anywhere. >> it also gets to put the -- put the number aside. what it's trying to evoke you don't need to be scared or serious. it's likely not to impact you. that is not the message that we're hearing on the local level when you heart numbers that we're talking about. >> no. that's exactly why here in the u.s. we are suffering dramatically more from this virus than countries whose leaders have managed this well. so right now in the u.s. we've had pushing now 130,000 people die which is dramatically higher than other wealthy western

nations, and the reason being is that we've had inconsistent messaging from leadership saying what you can do to protect yourself and how important it is to protect yourself. we would get our economy moving much faster if we simply had everybody wear a mask and wash their hands and take it seriously. it's not asking people to do a whole lot. not asking us to shut down our economy, just asking us to take our precautions and work together and be kind to your neighbors by wearing a mask. one of the key things that i think should be called out is the that the preamble of our constitution says that the government owes responsibility is to promote general welfare so in this case we really need our elected officials to adhere to what the constitution stays, promote the general welfare and encourage everybody to wear a mask, wash their hands and socially distant. >> those simple things are empowering for the economy to get back up and running if that's what your goal is. there was some news, doctor,

out from the drug-maker regeneron announcing they have moved into phase three trials for an antibody cocktail that can be used to treat patients in and out of the hospitals when we're taking about the use of antibodies. what does all this mean? >> again, it gives us hope for when you already do have the virus, but hopefully it won't get so bad that it will kill you which is -- which is a positive, right? it we want to be able to have therapeutics and treatment, but what we really want to do is not only be able to put our finger in the dike when you get sick which is why we're working on treatments and social distancing when we shut down the economy and vaccines. we want to have treatments or the antibody treatments or remdesivir or the steroid therapy we're all hearing about. those are good to have as

backup, but really the goal is to keep people from getting sick. >> someone described it as a bridge between where we are currently and the moment a vaccine is available, so it is something. it's definitely not a long-term answer. doctor, thank you so much. >> thanks. coming up, president trump is focusing on just about everything but the pandemic and also inflaming racial tensions in a truly remarkable way over the weekend. is the this his bet for re-election? plus, as cases are spiking to record levels in florida. hospitals are beginning to get overwhelmed. we'll get the view from one major hospital in miami. people were afraid i was contagious. i felt gross. it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx. four years clear. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, if your inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen,

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president trump mad, 9 july

4th holiday with two speeches with two very clear messages. division and darkness and also denial. the president focusing very little on the very real and urgent public health crisis that's only getting worse right now. instead, choosing to send this message to the american people on independence day. >> we are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing. our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children. we will not be tyrannized. we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad,

evil people. it will not happen. >> that was just some of it. i mean, the president continuing this morning to stoke the flames of racial tension in this country tweeting out an attack against nascar driver bubba wallace and also attacking nascar for banning the confederate flag. joining me now former republican governor of ohio john kasich, a cnn political commentator. governor, some of the things the president was talking about division, talking about confederate statues and the fear of indoctrination, comparing left-wing activists to nazis and essentially denying the reality of the virus. what were you left thinking after seeing these speeches on july 4th? >> kate, i thought it was something -- i thought it was an netflix show. i actually thought it was some fantasy. i mean, it's just so hard to believe, but one of my friends said this morning, and he made a lot of sense talking about this it. he says he's not getting too

worked up with the president because the president is flailing and failing and he's become desperate so he's using this rhett risk division, and he somehow thinks if he uses that, that that's going to create strength and energy, but it isn't working. you know, the reason it isn't working is people don't want to hear that out of their president. they want to hear somebody on the fourth of july that says we're all in this together and by the way we're in the middle of fighting this virus and things are starting to get out of control. please wear a mask. social distance and wash. wash your hands. well, riley tell you what it is, he's just desperate. he's looking at all the polls and lashing out at any media organizations and not only just at cnn but now he's telling people not to the watch fox news. >> right. >> it's really like a netflix show, really like some sort of a fantasy show. >> it's as if he can't take in new information. he doesn't want to -- he's not adjusting. he is not adapting to the

reality that the rest of the country is face, but also i'm -- the republican party, many times you and i have talked on this topic of the party struggling to deal with donald trump since the beginning of this presidency, the division that he stirs up. on the virus the president now denying the facts that he's trying to sell that it's 99% harmless and it's life and death. i mean, we talk about responsibility quite a bit, but what is the responsibility of elected republicans when we talk about leadership in this country when you have a republican leader in donald trump doing what he's doing. >> because they have coddled him and they have made it easy for him to say these kind things because they operate out of a sense of fear, that if they criticize him, he's going to go after them and somehow he's going to cost them their election. if in fact republicans as a group had come out early on, particularly starting with charlottesville and said that this language is unacceptable, i

believe he would have changed or the party would have separated from him, but, you know, somebody was telling me at the mt. rushmore, one of the senators out there clapping his hands and laughing and on the one hand saying i don't agree with trump and kind of supporting him. look, you know, i -- i see that some of them are beginning to move away from trump, and i guarantee you, kate, at some point in the future some of these people are going to say once they understand that their election sim perilled by donald trump they will say i've never supported donald trump. >> of course. >> that's the way it works in politics. >> so, you know, they have really encouraged it. it's like when you have kids, right? if you don't correct your kids they do things far worse than if you had stopped them in the beginning and the republican party has been absent. largely absent, terrible. >> another thing we've noticed -- >> and by the way, kate, they are damaging the brand, too, so if you're a republican now and you're in a moderate district you'll likely lose because you're reap warnings and if

you're in a soiled republican districts you're living in fear of a primary. you're like -- that's why so many of them are leaving because they don't want to deal with this any longer. it's a party meltdown right now. >> well, there's another thing, trust, trust in facts, trust in public information, trust in public health i think is another thing that i'm interested in, the responsibility of public health experts now because let me play to you what the current fda commissioner said in refusing to correct the president's claim of 99% of covid cases are totally harmless in his words. he was on cnn yesterday. let me play what you said. >> so i'm not going to get into who is right and who is wrong. what i'm going to say dana is something that i've said before. it's a serious problem that we've had. we've seen a surge in cases and must do something to stem the tide and we have this in our party to do it by golg our guidance from the white house task force and the cdc. >> this gets back to responsibility again.

what is -- what is the responsibility here? >> leaders have a responsibility to speak the truth to power if you want to be a leader. if you want to say, well, you know, i'm not going to argue, of course, he's dead wrong. why would with the guy not say it? is that job that important to him? look, put ourselves in his shoes, kate. put us in the shoes of that fda guy. are we willing to stand up and say the president is wrong? fauci has done it. he's been able to say it and keep his job but is keeping your job the most important thing in life, because after all, life is short, and -- and sometimes it's hard to speak truth to power, but when you do it, you feel liberated. you feel great and you're not, quote, a collaborator with this nonsense because the president's actions around this virus have been reckless. that's the easiest and nothing thing to say, totally and completely reckless. people dying, people get infected and we don't know over

time if it's damaginging their organs or things in their body we don't even know right now. wear a mask, come on! how silly is this. if you're outside on a bicycle, not so much, but if you're inside and you can't social distance be responsible. how hard is that for a president to say? >> not hard. >> or the senators. >> not hard for johncationic to say and that's why i appreciate it. governor, thank you. >> okay. kate, thank you. >> thank you so much. >> coming up for us, hospitals in florida are seeing a judge jump in the number of covid patients coming through their doors. next we'll talk to two doctors on the front lines of the fight. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ and get way more.ith wso you can bring yours vision to life and save in more ways than one.

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florida has become the epicenter now of the coronavirus pandemic in the united states. look at the numbers, and you will see why. the in miami-dade county, coronavirus hospitalizations are up 88% over the last two weeks. patients in icu beds, that is up 114%. and there was a 119% increase in patients on ventilators.

these are shocking numbers in and of themselves but it's one thing to talk about the numbers, but what does that look like and feel like for doctors on the front lines in this fight right now? with me right now is dr. ferrera, chief mod call officer at the university of miami hospital and dr. david lang who is director of emergency medicine and point of personal privilege, dr. lang helped lead the team that helped saved my mother's life two weeks ago. dr. lang, it's fantastic to see you again. thank you very much for being here. let me start with you, dr. lang. can you take us inside the e.r. right now, what you and your teams are seeing? >> we've been seeing an increase in patients coming in all ages with covid symptoms. we do not see many pediatric patients so let's take out anyone under the age of 18 for us, but our covid patients are ranging usually 20s to late 90s

now. many of them are getting sicker, and our admissions have gone up, but the testing overall as you mentioned early in the show, the positive rate of testing has also increased. >> yeah. which is a scary, scary thought of exactly what all of that means. dr. ferrera, what kind of changes have you seen because when i speak with local officials on the ground, it's different, things are changing, and it's all heading in the right direction? >> thank you, kate, for having me. what we've seen is the number of cases hospitalized has almost doubled to our covid units. we have seen a younger population, but that's not to say that we've seen the range that dr. lang has described. obviously we have been preparing since january. we have not stopped preparing. the plan is very comprehensive and fluid plan but we have been able to adapt. at our hospitals we test every

single patient coming into the system. we test for covid and sort of create the units that we isolate the koefds from the non-koefds and we're able to adapt but certainly we have seen an increase in the number of hospitalizations with covid disease. >> you know, off the top i listed off, dr. lang, comes the latest numbers from miami-dade. everything is up. everything is the wrong direction? we talk about numbers a lot, but what does that feel like? what does that feel like for -- for you, the nurses, other lab techs, everyone in the hospital when you see these numbers jump and what they are seeing and what they know is also going to continue coming their way. the. >> right, i think it puts a pressure -- >> both of you can take a stab at it. >> lang first. >> i'll defer to my chief medical officer. >> thank you, dr. lang. well, i think we have different stages of a surge plan and our plan is comprehensive to the point that every single number

of patients will go up a step, we'll go up a step so we have a long preparation on that, but certainly it does stress the system but kudos to the staff we've not stopped working. the staff continues to work, works nights, days, weekends. it all comes into preparation. >> dr. lang. >> i think it puts some stress on the system. we have been able to flex up and down over the past couple of months as needed to see all the patients. and, look, our system luckily prepared in january for this. we have daily meetings with administration, including our ceo about do we have what we need to manage our cases? our staff is working 24/7. sometimes we flex up, down shifts to try to get everybody

seen and strike to sprain to the patient what is going on, what their diagnosis is, having to call them back with their diagnosis if they are covid positive or immediate because the test isn't immediate. it will take several hours. depending on the day of the week we can have a significant surge of patients coming in, and -- and at least at this point our system is they have been able to handle it pretty well. >> looking ahead, finally, you've seen these images from around the country, local folks in florida are very nervous about what the fourth of july meant in terms of the spread, how worried are you what you can be seeing coming through your doors in a couple of weeks, mark it from holiday weekend plus two weeks? >> look, i think going back to the surge plan, i think it's not only staffing the number of beds

and number of ventilator capacity and number of medications can and obviously ppe. people need to adhere. the scientific message has not inning chaed, okay and that message is social distance, wear a mask, you wash your hand and if you're sick please go and get tests. that message has not inning chaed. what needs to happen, people need to adhere and follow that message. of course, we're concerned. we're monitoring the situation closely with authorities and local authorities working very closely, and we're trying to get that message out but you're seeing some increase in the numbers, but i think there's some local measures when you try to flatten to some extent the curve and the flattening of the curve would require people to adhere to the safety measures for sure. >> doctors, thank you so much for your time. we'll jump over to new york city right now where governor andrew cuomo is speaking making an announcement. >> our numbers are all good so that's good. >> best news, a number of lives

lost, and we're down to nine. it's unimaginable at one time that we would be this low. obviously you don't want to even see nine. you don't want eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, but this is great, great news. the rolling average for number of lives lost is nine yesterday. we did 54,000 tests yesterday. on average we do about 60,000 tests per day. it's the highest testing rate in the nation. .95 positive. we normally run about 1.1, 1.2, somewhere in that range so that's all good. so what does this mean? what it means since we started

reopening. may 15th we started our phased reopenings. the numbers have actually declined since we started reopening. you see the gold line under may 15th. that's where we were when we started reopening. the every expert warned us on the reopening that you could see the numbers start to go up, right, because you were increasing activity. our premmis was you could moderate the activity so you could start the reopening but monitor the number of cases and control the phased reopening to keep the number of cases down. and that's just what we've done for the past seven weeks. we're actually down from where we were when we started reown, which as you'll remember no one

predicted. the question was when you start reopening, activity will go up, the number of cases will go up. can you control the increase? that was the question. we haven't needed to control the increase. we've actually had a slight decline and now we're basically running flat, and that is great news. that is great news. and it's what we said from day one with my great graphic that nobody liked at the time i originally did it and nobody still likes, but i like it, so sometimes it's nice to be governor. you have a valve. control the activity and watch and northern tore the vamps to see if the infection rate is going up, the hospitalization rate is going up, is and keep your hand on the valve, and can you see it start to go up, slow down the valve. if you don't see the numbers going up, then you can open up

the economic activity valve, and that's what we've been doing. that's what you see with these little corrections so new york city goes into phase three but no indoor dining, right? it is so we have the phases, and then we have certain adjustments that we make to the phases. but the numbers show you that we're right where we want to be. new york city goes into phase three today. no indoor dining, but there are rules on phase three, right? it doesn't mean go out and have a party. we have 50% occupancy for personal care services. you have to wear face conversation, the customers will wear face conversation, six-foot distance, prohebted services that require removal of face conversation such as facials. you can't get a facial. i did that against my own self-interest. i was supposed to get a facial today. close the waiting rooms, employees providing services

must be tested every 14 days so there are rules. tomorrow is phase four, four was just in rockland, hudson valley and long island is on track for phase four on wednesday. their numbers are all good. school reopenings, just to make sure there's no confusion, there are 700 school districts this the state. the state has directed all seven school districts to come up with a plan on how they would reopen because there's two levels of discussion. should they reopen, and if they reopen what does a reopened school look like in the quote unquote new normal? so we've asked every school district to come up with a plan on what reopening would look like in your district. new york city is coming up with a plan pursuant to that question on what it would look like to reopen the new york city school

system in september, but there has been no decision yet as to whether or not we're reopening schools. we obviously very much would like to. nobody even knows the effect that have going to have on students, socialization of young students, et cetera. we want kids back in school for a number of reasons but we're not going to say that children should go back to school until we know it's safe, right? and we have some time uncertain fluid situation and when we get the data we will make a decision. in the meantime i'm telling all school districts to come up with a reopening plan but we don't yet know if we're going to reopen and we'll follow the data and make a decision on data. the department of health is also working on this, so every school district is coming up with a

plan to reopen. that doesn't mean they are reopening, okay? nuance sometimes is important. not often but sometimes it is. the -- on casinos and movie theaters, we're still looking at the data, but for now they are going to be closed. we are not going to open the state fair in syracuse. this is a really tough one. fairs all across the nation are not reopening. we have a fantastic state fair in syracuse. we've invested a lot of money. we've had record attendance, 1.3 million people half year, we broke the attendance record. we invested money and reit the whole state fair and rebuilt a new expo center. 1 so feet and it's really been amazing. it's been an economic boon for the whole region, but this year

we're going to have to cancel it and that makes me personally very unhappy, but that is where we are. on the covid transmission following the facts, the facts are changing as they learn more about this virus. there's less concern about surface area transmission, more data that it is primarily an air borne transmission. that then raised the question of what can we do with air filtration technology? you hear this in an air conditioned building. it brings air up into the hc system and runs through the hvac system and gets recirculated. what kind of filtration can you have on the hvac system that may be capable of catching the virus as it's attached to the

droplets? there are filters that systems install, hepa filters are one of them, and then a series of filters that is are rated by the minimum efficiency reporting value, and the most dense filters can actually filter out the virus which is remarkable and interesting. nothing is simple with this virus. it depends on air conditioning system you have whether or not it can take one of these higher filters and still operate, and different systems take different filters, and we're working through this now. we're spending time on it because i think there's a real possibility that we could actually have a positive contribution here and different

hvac systems have different capacities but we're working through this now, because if there is as way to filter the air and a way to get covid out of air, then we want to do that. and if we can do that without an exorbitant expense for existing hvac systems, it's something that we have to look at. so we're in the midst of that now, and as soon as we know something, we will make it public. new yorkers did the impossible. we went from the worst infection rate in the united states to the best infection rate in the united states. i like to say that we cross the mountain. there's the mountain. we we don't want the challenge of crossing a mountain range, right? one mountain was enough. the last thing we need is to see this virus spike again, and

there are two threats in that area. one, new yorkers getting complacent. this is great. new york is doing great. the numbers are down. i heard the governor. he said everything is great. we get complacent. we get cocky, and we get a little arrogant. that is a real threat, and it's a threat that i'm concerned about. you look at the festivities over july 4th. you see gatherings that are not socially distanced. they are not wearing masks. you see it in manhattan. you see it on fire island. there are reports upstate of gatherings where people aren't socially distanced and people aren't wearing masks. you know, i don't know how else to say it. actions have consequences.

our success was a function of our action. you change your action, you change your behavior, you're going to change the outcome, it is that simple. that curve was purely a function of what we did. if we change what we're doing, you're going to change the trajectory of the virus. i understand people are fatigued. we've been doing this for 128 days. i get it. but, it doesn't change the facts, and we have to stay smart. we -- i need, we need every person in the state to help the local governments enforce the law. i talk to local governments all the time, mayors, county executives, et cetera, and i'm going to have another round of conversations today. i understand that it is not

politically pleasant to enforce the mask law or the gathering law or the socially distanced law. i get it. i get that politically it's difficult for the local governments to do it, but it is the law, and if we don't do it, there's going to be a serious problem. it's not a local government law. it's a state law. so i get the politics, and i've said to them i have no problem taking responsibility. mr. mayor, tell your police when they go out to enforce the law, they can say don't blame the mayor, it's the governor. blame governor cuomo. county executive, tell your police don't -- when they hand out a summons say this is not a county law, it's a state law, blame the governor. i don't have a problem with that. but they have to enforce the

law. we do not have a state police department that is large enough to enforce the law in the entire state of new york. that's why we have local police agencies, but they have to do their job and they have to enforce the law, ared at law is clear. and i don't want to be difficult or unnecessarily difficult, but i'm telling you, if we don't follow these behaviors the numbers are going to go up. it's that simple. the second threat is you now have poll states in this country with an increasing virus, increase rate of infection. it's getting worse. it's not getting better. you look at states like texas, likes as and we've seen those curves. we've seen there, been there, done that.

this is a frightening situation across this country. look at california. look at the curve. we have been here. we have seen this. deja vu all over again. aj parkinson said that. no? will rogers said that. just see if you're paying attention. i know it's a monday morning. you're a little sleepy. yogi berra said it. two points. but it's deja vu all over again. it got on a plane in europe and it landed at jfk and newark and that's why we had the spike. nobody knew it at the time. everybody was saying china virus. the china virus had gotten on a plane, went to europe and came here from europe. 3 million people got on planes,

landed in new york. january, february, march. that's how we had the problem we had. now you're going to see people getting on planes from the 38 states in this nation where the virus is going up. they're now going to land at jfk, newark, et cetera. you know? an outbreak anywhere is a outbreak everywhere. that's the new mentality we have to have. we can't protect ourselves as an island. because we're not. we have people coming in and out all day long. and when you have these spikes, in china and europe, that's how it happened the first time. now people can come from florida, anywhere else. we are already seeing it. we have had significant clusters where people came from out of state, attended a function, bang. the next day we have an increase

in the infections. we're doing so many tests and so many tracings that we can trace it back to patient zero and they're very often from out of state. we have a down state. we have it upstate. it is inevitable. so yes. new yorkers have to be smart. but we also have a problem that if the virus is increasing anywhere it is going to travel here and then we will have a problem. t denying covid is really advancing the covid virus. and i know this is a politically charged environment right now. and somehow covid has become a political issue. which i have never heard of a virus becoming political. but in this environment it has. but if you deny the problem then

you will never solve it. we're not the united states of denial. we have never been a nation that is excelled because we refuse to admit the problem. we admit the problem. and then we overcome the problem. if we do not as a nation acknowledge the covid viral increase, it is going to continue. those upward numbers don't change on their own. they only change when you change them. that number keeps going up unless you bonderman tend the c. bend doesn't happen naturally. the bend changes when people change the behavior and reduce the transmission rate. the upticks are just going to

continue. that mountain, that didn't just plateau because god said plateau. it plateaued because we did masks and social distancing and closed down and all those activities and testing and tracing. that's how we bent the curve. if we are in the state of denial you will see that curve continue to go up. now, how do you bend the curve? we know how to bend the curve because we did it. you have to be aware of it, admit it, you have to take action and be committed to it and it starts at the top with leadership. president said over this weekend, if we didn't test so much and so successfully we would have very few cases. okay? think about that for a second.

what he is really saying is if we didn't test we wouldn't find the cases and if we didn't find the cases we wouldn't have a problem. that's incredible but that's what he is saying. okay? so let's just extend that logic. if we don't test then we won't know and if you don't know then you have no problem. it's a great way to go through life, isn't it? so on that theory let's do no more cancer tests and will solve the problem with cancer. no more mammograms because we don't want to know and solves breast cancer. no more prostate checks to solve prostate cancer. no more tb a checks. that will end tb. no more hiv tests and that solve the aids issue. no. not knowing doesn't mean you

don't have a problem. and in this case, if you do not admit it and if you don't confront it it is only going to increase. we know it has to be done because we lived it here and we did it here. to bend the curve, yes, you have to test. yes, you have to trace. yes, you have to isolate. yes, you have to phase the reopening and you have to socially distance. phasing the reopening is better than reopening recklessly where you have the states, okay, we are reopen. everybody comes out. the virus goes up. stock market goes down and now the states are saying we have to close again. a phased reopening is better than reopening and closing. that is not just a premise. it's been proven by the past

experience. look at the states that reopened recklessly and are now closing again. who did that help? it actually set us back. so, mr. president, don't be a coconspirator of covid. do one simple thing. acknowledge to the american people that covid exists. it is a major problem. it's going to continue until we admit it and each of us stands up to do our part. if he does not acknowledge that then he is facilitating the virus. he is enabling the virus. how did this become a political statement? this is common sense. and let the president start by

sending that signal very simply. just wear the mask. i've been asking him to do it for weeks. just wear the mask. and say to the american people, this is real. and it's a problem and we have to do our part. we started masks april 15th. first state in the nation to start masks. they make a difference. july fourth true patriots wear masks. true patriots are new york tough and smart and united and disciplined and loving. >> governor, one of the things the president said in recent days is that the virus is no longer as lethal as it was when it tart getted new york. he made the case that 99.9% of the people that get it are fine and you basically just need to live with it. i wonder what your response is.

>> yeah. the president says a lot of things. right? they're not necessarily facts or true. 99.9% they then had the fda commissioner on the television saying is the president right? he wouldn't say the president is right. he makes up facts. he makes up science. he wants to deny the covid virus. he has from day one. well,just like the flu. well, it is going to be gone by easter. it will get warm and then disappear like a miracle. he said all those things. none of them were true and now we have a problem in 38 states. because some people believed him. he won't wear a mask. vice president pence says wear a mask. all the health officials say wear the mask. he won't wear a mask because he doesn't want to admit that there is a covid virus. why? i have no idea.

but his denial of the problem and his making statements like that, 99.9% don't have to worry about it. okay. then there's no issue. he's saying there's no problem and don't wear a mask and don't socially distance and don't take any precautionary behavior and then the virus goes like this. he is, he is facilitating the virus. he is enabling the virus. by statements like that. and you're seeing the infection rate go up and the economy suffer. and he is part of that current debacle that we are in. look at new york. we know what to do. because we did it! we did it! we know there's a model that says you can contain the virus. we did