tv Anderson Cooper 360 CNN September 16, 2020 5:00pm-6:00pm PDT
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town. >> and don't miss cnn's one-hour "champions for change" special saturday night at 10:00 with alisyn camerota and john berman. "ac 360" with anderson starts now. the president of the united states considers it praise worthy fewer than 240,000 americans died of the coronavirus and some of what he said at this press conference late today. his comments come after and in reaction to testimony from some of the top public health experts conthe t contradicting him on mask wearing and the single highest day spike in deaths in more than a month according to the information gathered at johns hopkins. 1,293 reported covid fatalities yesterday. the one single person's whose words prevented so many from dying tried to gas light us from
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seeing the last six months as a great success. >> if you look at what we've done and all of the lives that we've saved, i'm going to ask that a graph be put up and now it's up. the was right at the beginning if we do a great job. we'll be at 100,000 to 240,000 deaths and we're below that substantially and that's despite the fact that the blue states had tremendous death rates. if you take the blue states out, we're at a level that i don't think anybody in the world would be at. we're really at a very low level. >> if you take the blue states out. which i mean, just think about that. that's really a window into how this president views this country. there are his states, and the blue states. ignore the deaths from the blue states. things look great. i mean, that alone is stunning or should be if we weren't numb to outrage by now. the president noted tonight that deaths might have reached into the millions had the administra
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done quote not so good a job so 2 239,999 is a great victory for him? he wondered about doing anything differently, i think we did a great job he said. george w. bush was raked over the coals for telling the fema director he was doing a heck of a job during the worst of hurricane katrina but that's for patting someone else on the back. this is an american president patting himself on the back while presiding over the greatest single loss of life in the shortest amount of time ever in this country. to him because it is useful to him with an election coming up, he's already put that behind hi him. >> we're going to be okay and it is going away. it will probably go away faster because of the vaccine. it would go away without the vaccine, george. >> it would go away without the vaccine? >> sure, over a period of time. sure, with time. >> and many deaths. >> i believe we're rounding the corner, and i believe that
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strongly. >> again, he said that on a day 1300 deaths were reported and today, well, the president also contradicted the sworn testimony of the cdc director on mask wearing but before he play that, here is what dr. redfield said. >> we have clear scientific evidence they work and they are our best defense. i might even go so far as to say this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when i take a covid vaccine because it may be 70% effective and if i don't get an immune response, the vaccine isn't going to protect me. this face mask will. >> the sworn testimony of the top public health official, a member of the president's task force, i think he still is. you'd hardly know if he is these days because he's nowhere to be found at any presidential briefing same with dr. birx and dr. fauci. the president's go-to doctor was
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a radiologist and he's there at the president's press conference today. he said quote, as far as the mask is concerned, he made a mistake. meaning redfield made a mistake in what he said in his testimony. he said he spoke to dr. redfield about it today but instead of recounting what the doctor told him or allegedly told him, listen to the president saying what dr. redfield might hy hypothetically say when asked, which isn't the same thing at all. >> i believed that if you ask him, he would probably say that he didn't understand the question because i asked him two questions. the questions we covered and the mask question and i enjoyed it. people enjoyed it. they said a lot of good things about the show but they cut my
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sentences off. they cut it off on masks, the masks have problems, too. i talked about the masks have to be handled very gently, very carefully. i see that in restaurants that people with masks and playing around in their mask and they have fingers in their mask. >> i hope they do well. he hopes abc did well with the ratings of town hall he was on. the stuff he said about masks being no good because food service workers sometimes touch their faces, aside, dr. redfield just tweeted showing no sign he agrees with the president's cover story he misunderstood the question. remember, the president said i think if you asked him he would say he misunderstood the question. this is redfield's latest tweet. the best defense we currently have against this virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands and being careful about
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crowds. clearly redfield, he doesn't want to say he disagrees with t the. the boss and nearly the only and he's now said several times including and he has kept at a distance bringing together. some of whom will just by the law probably get infected. sadly, some may die. dr. redfield didn't give him much ground. members of his own agency appear to be introducing a big bust over what he said about the timing of a vaccine. >> if you're asking me when is it going to be generally available to the american public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, i think we're probably looking at third
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rate, second quarter, third quarter 2021. >> so dr. redfield said that under oath in front of a senate committee under oath today and the president said this. >> i think he made a mistake. i think it's just incorrect information and he didn't tell me. we're ready to go immediately. in october could be announced after october and once we go we're ready. >> what he's done and gotten away with than his claim is instantaneously going to shift. no delay. like one, two, blink and suddenly you have new health care coverage. that's essentially now what he's
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saying about this vaccine, that it's just going to be out there everywhere. it's not going to take -- there is not going to be first responders people on the front lines and others, no. it will be nationwide all at once. it's not going to take six months. not long after the president said that laying down the political line, the cdc press officer named paul fulton junior, not dr. redfield told cnn i quote in today's hearing, dr. redfield answered a question he thought was in regard to the time period all americans would have completed their covid v vaccination. he was not referring to when vaccines will be available to all americans. no comment from dr. redfield in there is -- if this has an odor, they relied on an fda commiss n
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commissioner to toutde. consider the president is again declaring victory on the pandemic as thousands are dying. we'll talk about all of that tonight. chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta and director of the research institute near san diego join me now. doctor, i mean, do you buy what the president is saying and apparently what the cdc is saying director redfield misunderstood the question under oath and he's been working with viral infection diseases for more than 30 years? >> right. >> for any cristicisms how he's run the cdc, he does have experience with pandemics. >> good to be with you, anderson and sanjay. the key here is that dr. redfield was telling the truth, and the truth is we're not going to have vaccines if we do this right until the end of the year, beginning of next year to start and he also was, you know,
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straight on the mask, which of course is essential and we're going to be wearing masks with the vaccines over the course of the next year. here we have a direct collision and really enforced it. it's like a circus act in the midst of an important pandemic that's the last thing we need. >> so when you say about the vaccines, can you explain? i mean, the president is saying look, we could get a vaccine in october. his radiologist says, mentioned something about an emergency use authorization and then them just getting the vaccine out, you know, with via the military to everybody in america, does it work that way? >> no, it can't work that way unless there are shortcuts taken. if you do the math, these two big trials, pfizer and moderna trials haven't completed in rome. they have -- these participants have to get a second dose which takes about another three to four weeks and then we're
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looking for infections end point. there are various interim analysis and the data analysis plans haven't been published but to get any reasonable readout anderson of a strong effectiveness signal and that's even without as much safety that a surveillance we'd like to see would take you easily through november, no less december. so anything short of that and by the way, the fda vaccine advisory committee is not even meeting until october 22nd. so that is predicated on there being a trial stop prematurely, which is the last thing we'd like to see here before that time. so the timeline that president trump is giving is just unrealistic. it doesn't compute. >> sanjay, we're talking about this timeline the president has given. i'm wondering what you make of his timeline because again, i think it was the radiologist today who said his radiologist was saying that he made mention
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of emergency use authorization. is that something they will go for to try to speed this up and will it still go through phase three and, you know, all boxes checked? >> well, an authorization is not an approval. so this is an unusual circumstance, anderson. first of all, there is not really a vaccine that's really been emergency use authorization. so this would be an unusual situation. what they're saying is they would complete phase three clinical trials but this would still be an authorization the vaccine maker could apply for approval later. what that means is dr. topple was saying, they will look for evidence this is effective. they will see if there is more people getting infected in the placebo group and wait a certain amount of time, i think they say
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42 days or so is when most adverse effects occur. they will wait a certain amount of time before they say this is now authorized. so that's where they sort of get that timetable. i want to tell you, anderson, i talked to the chief advisor to operation warp speed last week, this exact issue came up how much vaccine will be available when? take a listen to what he said. >> in november or december, we don't have enough vaccine doses. we have a few million in november and maybe 10, 20 million of each in december. that would be enough to vaccinate certain populations. start vaccinating certain population but not the whole population. >> so you get an idea there, anderson, and essential workers is about 29 million people that have that designation. people that can be considered higher risk, 75, 76 million. there is a lot of people that would be in the first higher risk group before you'd even be
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able to think about the general public, anderson. >> doctor, you had the president undermining dr. redfield's position on masks today. you mentioned thiss ese earlier. there seems to be no ambiguity how important it is to wear one. >> he made it very clear how essential masks are and the fact that this is still being challenged is just lunacy. this is our main protection right now. as i mentioned, even as we go through the vaccination period, which is going to be put to question by all this uncertainty and potential shortcuts, but we still need to use masks because remember that vaccines don't render immunity. you could harbor the virus. it protects from the illness. we can get more carriers in the vaccination phase. a lot of people don't recognize this. the other thing, of course, these trials are not powered for severe infections or moderate
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infections. the two big trials we're talking about are really looking into what could be even mild infections. so the protection that they're affording this end point that would be used to stop them, we wouldn't want to see that stop. these are big trials of 30,000 or more participants and we like to see them go to completion but no matter the masks will be essential and we're talking about not just for a few weeks but for many months ahead. >> sanjay, i mean, it's undeniable that when you put together the most recent stuff the president is saying, it's so politically motivated. it's so clear the timetable that he is discussing is all based on the election. he keeps talking about, you know, we could have an answer in october. we could get confirmation on a vaccine that works in october and then it will be very quickly so we sort of are hinting it will be nationwide as soon as the election is done and over as long as there is something in october. maybe it will be late november,
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early december. doesn't mention anything about winter coming and the concern about a huge rise in telling stephanopoulos last night and said this before about we're turning the bend. you know, we're turning the bend into a winter already europe is seeing, you know, a big resurging. that is the concern here, as well. i mean, it's so play tablblatan timelines. >> you can't disintingle anything from politics these days. there is no question about it. this idea they are v mov movingy fast, yes. the backdrop of an fda that's authorized emergency authorized hydroxychloroquine without any evidence exaggerated the data on convalescent plasma is what people are worried about. i think the bigger point, though, is that even if you start to get evidence of effectiveness from this vaccine,
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you know, by the end of the year or maybe even before the election, it doesn't really mean anything for the general public. i mean, this is still, you know, that's the concern is that people think it will switch. just flip on a switch at that point as dr. topple said, we'll need to wear masks for awhile. it will take time to build up immunity and we want to make sure this is a safe and effective vaccine. all those things have to happen. >> appreciate it. thank you. next, the deparatoture for top official. anthony join uss us and a game changer and whether it's living up to the billing.
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today the department of health and human services took a two-month leave of absence to deal with a lymphatic condition. a post on facebook has been taken down. here is part of what he said on that video. >> these people cannot, cannot allow america to get better nor can they allow america to hear good news. it must be bad news from now until the election. frankly, ladies and gentlemen that's sedition. they are sacrificing lives to
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defeat donald trump. ladies and gentlemen, that's sedition and also call it what you will. but when they let somebody get sick and die, there is one word for that. the partisan democrats, the media and the scientists, the deep state scientists want america sick through november. they cannot afford for us to have any good news before november because they're already losing. donald trump right now if the election were held today would win. >> joining us now is former white house communications director anthony. it is stunning that the head of communications with an agency and handling the pandemic would be spreading conspiracy theories about people in his own agency. >> well, anderson, it's very
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hard for me not to feel pain watching that. you and i are both empathic people. i feel bad he's going in that direction. i think when it's corrupt at the top it spills over into everybody and this will be a case study in that so the president is under cutting the cdc but he would praise something like what michael caputo is saying. that's what happens. you're getting a hornets nest descending on the president. the reason why he under cuts people is that he's figured out that a very large group of the population is list ping se list and him only. so when dr. redfield is out there under oath telling the truth that the mask is as important as the vaccine, he's got to under cut him because his
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only hope to win the election is so secure the base and increase the participation in the base. that's why he's doing that. but my heart goes out to michael caputo. i hope somebody has a deprogramming intervention with him, shakes some sense to him and brings him back into the real world and they dematerialize trump-ism. >> the president is now increasingly sending messages to conspiracy theorists. even his, i think he used a term peto to describe vice president biden which is something the qanon people, that's a clear signal to qanon people that they are accusing everybody of being pedophiles and all democrats. it is frightening that the main streaming of conspiracy theories has reached this point. i mean, you know, the president is saying that this candidate who won the republican primary and is probably going to end up
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serving on capitol hill who is a qanon conspiracy theorists is the store of the republican party. >> for now. she's the future star for now. if trump-ism is defeated at the ballot box and the republican party is reconstituted, there is going to be a lot of healing in the party. people have to have a reckoning. it like any time a demagogue is taken over a party, a government, the haze that takes place after that dem dagogue is gone and the renetting of the society. one thing that happened that i'm astonished by is the loss of national purpose by my fellow republicans. i mean, the lack of civic v virtue. they know what the president is doing is wrong. they know he's lying about the science but they are locked into this not with him and not sure how to get out of it. the qanon stuff will go away a little but will persist after the defeat of donald trump.
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we have a systemic problem going on now, anderson. it will require honest leadership, transformative leadership and servant based leadership. the president wants the rule when we set the founding documents up, it was about service and public service and he thinks of it as ruling and that's why we're in a dangerous situation and george conway and i participated in that documentary on fit so we could lay the case out for people because there are moderates woching networks that are buying into he's better for the econ y economy. he's not better for the economy. he wrecked the economy for the mishandling of the truth and science with covid-19. and the great irony is joe biden will be way better for the economy, way better for the stock market than donald trump. >> you really believe that? there is a lot of folks that are worried who has large invest 7878 mentes in the stock market and
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capital gains and higher taxes likely under joe biden if he gets elected. >> so listen, i'm running still about billion, the likelihood of a tax increase goi ing through e economy. this anemic is virtually zero. i'll take everybody back to the 2008 to 2009 tradition. no tax increase until the economy healed and the federal reserve maintained the same policies, more over, the stimulus to middle and lower income people will help the economy tame down the i can new mexico -- economic anxietyecono anxiety and he's not a treat. i challenge anybody on wall street that thinks that donald trump is the right solution if he continues to destroy and undermine the democracy and the rule of law. everybody that's a commerciales
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integrity of the system is more important than the idea, ideology. >> appreciate it. thank you. >> good to be here. >> president trump's remarks at today's news conference claiming a vaccine is coming soon in a way dove tailed with what he said last night at a town hall. he talked about his long promise new health care plan. what he said about that next. age-related macular degeneration may lead to severe vision loss. so the national eye institute did 20 years of clinical studies on a formula only found in preservision. if it were my vision, i'd ask my doctor about preservision. it's the most studied eye vitamin brand. if it were my vision, i'd look into preservision. only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the nei to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. i have amd. it is my vision so my plan includes preservision.
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my wife and daughter had been killed in an automobile crash, and lying in the bed were my two little boys. i couldn't have imagined what it would've been like if i didn't have insurance to cover them immediately and fully. forty years later, one of those little boys, my son beau, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, given months to live. i can't fathom what would have happened if the insurance companies had the power to say, "the last few months, you're on your own." the fact of the matter is health care is personal to me.
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obamacare is personal to me. when i see the president of the united states try to eliminate this health care in the middle of a public health crisis, that's personal to me too. we've got to build on what we did because every american deserves affordable health care. i'm joe biden and i approve this message. deserves on the border of expected. "tand extraordinary. for those willing to go further. like vans customized for work or play. with safety and tech to keep you connected. supported by a five-star sales, service and finance team. and backed by the one star you know. so, go the extra mile. it's never crowded because so few have what it takes to go there. mercedes-benz vans. it's a thirteen-hour flight, tfifteen minutes until we board. oh yeah, we gotta take off. you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app so you can quickly check the markets? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board.
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just around the corner coming very soon. listen to this woman expressing frustration with the president expressing her issue with her health care and listen to the president tell george stephanopoulos about that health care plan. >> it costs me with co-pays, i'm still paying almost $7,000 a year in addition to the co-pay and should preexisting conditions, which obamacare brought to fruition be removed? >> no. >> without -- please stop and let me finish my question, sir. should that be removed within a 36 to 72-hour period without my medication, i would be dead. >> you've been promising a new health care plan. i interviewed you? june of last year. -o you said the health care plan would come in two weeks. you told -- >> i have it already. >> you've been trying to strike down preexisting conditions. >> i have it already. it's a much better plan for you
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and a much better plan. >> joining me to discuss maggie haberman and political analysts gloria borger. it's hard not to almost admire the sheer brazenness of i mean, this lies at this point but the idea that oh, i have it in my pocket i'm just not going to show it to you, we heard the president say the health care plan is ready. he's promised that time and time and time again. the idea he's not going to show it before an election. it's so good though but not going to show it. i mean, does that make any sense other than a political sense? >> no. no. it doesn't make political sense because if we had a good health care plan maybe he would put it out there. what also didn't make sense is the white house press secretary standing at the podium, reporters like you asking questions about this saying okay, where is this? she refused to even specify who
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was working on it. i thought that's what you're supposed to do for the white house podium when reporters ask you questions, talk to this person at the department of hhs and they'll give you details. i think the truth of the matter is the president wants to do something that protects preexisting conditions and there is absolutely no agreement within the republican party about how you would do that or they would have had a plan already. and the chief of staff mark meadows said yeah, we'll do some executive order and that will be some political document that won't have support among republicans on capitol hill. so it will be a campaign plan. >> maggie, i keep going back to the campaign when the president constantly is talking about how it will be lwill be instantaneo switch over and will be great and you can bring it state to
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state. it's like a three-card monty game and we don't see where the health care plan is hiding. >> it's like health care and health care reform is enormously complicated and complex you can't write on the back of a cereal box and campaign off of it. i was struck by last night, i'm no longer struck by the fact the president keeps promising a plan that he has yet to deliver because we have heard him do verg versions of that for a long time. if given, he would probably not stick to the what the gop would be. he is a republican and he cannot be allowed to not own the lawsuit that the department of justice is engaged in on repealing obamacare. so when he's talking to this woman and saying and she's saying -- he interrupts her and she's asking if she should be forced to have her health care cut off due to preexisting coverage, he says no. this is his administration that's suing and he is creating
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an enormous amount of uncertainty for people on actual life and death issues. >> gloria, you know, you wrote a piece for cnn.com how president trump is always refusing to see the difference between truth and lies. the same thing bob woodward said last night about not knowing whether the president has it straight in his head what is real and unreal. >> yeah, that's what he does and i guess we shouldn't be surprised by it anymore. it took me back to a time when i four years ago was doing a documentary and 1990 he was at the taj ma hall and on opening night slot machines shut down and it was a disaster for him. he went on larry king and said we had a real problem with the slot machines, he said to larry king was they were so hot they blew up. that was the story and he was
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sticking to it and that's what we've seen him do in the presidency which is once hea na believes he can sale. not that he believes in or is the truth but a narrative he thinks he can sale, he is dev e devoted to selling it. whether it's on health care, forget the fact his administration is fighting preexisting conditions in court as maggie points out, doesn't matter. his narrative is i'm going to protect it no matter what. >> maggie, we've become so used to things which are just so weird and would be just derailingly weird in any other time. you know, the president's press conference today, it used to be the coronavirus task force press conference which he's taken over. none of the actual known doctors are there anymore. dr. birx is off on some sort of extended tour somewhere. dr. fauci is on pod casts and,
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you know, redfield is kneecaped and, you know, his own sworn testimony, the president saying oh, he was just mistaken and there is a radiologist now that is the go-to guy. is this -- i mean, is there a coronavirus task force anymore? >> there is but to your point, it's sort of doesn't matter. this is always an issue with this white house in terms of dealing with the coronavirus is the degree which the president treated this like a messaging challenge as opposed to a pandemic and a medical crisis and a health care crisis and a health crisis and instead he's looked at the p.r. crisis because he tends to conflict all issues, legal, public health, government with pr crisis and that's what you saw him do today and it was pretty remarkable watching this in realtime to your point at this press conference where he's literally saying, you know, saying he suggested to redfield, redfield
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must have misunderstood the question if we asked him now and then he turns to scott atlas, the new go-to guy who says a version of what redfield said minus the thing about masks. in terms of the timetable for the vaccine, he was saying the same thing. >> yeah and yet, the president -- >> how mortifying -- >> ignored that, as well. >> ignored that and pretended that had not been said at all. literally was like no, he didn't understand. it was -- >> how mortifying is that? >> mortifying it is, gloria. >> how mortifying is that for the cdc director? it is mortifying he had to said i didn't say what i said. >> that's the latest mortifying orde ordeal. >> beginning at 8:00 p.m. with joe biden takes place in scan ton, pennsylvania. >> the trump administration boasted to be a game changer with rapid antigen tests and
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at his press conference he praised the testing and promised a nationwide rollout of rapid antigen tests. the contract was for $760 million. another incredibly valuable result of president trump's all of america approach. cnn senior investigative co correspondent drew griffin. >> reporter: it was supposed to be a game changer in the fight against covid-19. the trump administration announcing a few weeks ago it was buying 150 million new abbott laboratories rapid antigen tests. >> we'll deliver millions every week to governors. >> finally the u.s. has desperately needed point of care tests which don't have to be sent to a lab can be done at schoo schools, workplaces and nursing homes that could be done in 15 minutes. what should be a pivotal moment likely will not be.
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because once again, there is no clear national plan according to 11 experts who spoke to cnn. all who believe the country needs more federal guidance. >> national messaging is essential to controlling infectious disease. because diseases don't stop at state borders. >> the point of care tests are cheap and very fast but not as accurate. multiple experts tell cnn they are most effective when groups of people are tested repeatedly. that would require for more tests than the u.s. has on order. >> we are talking about a lot of tests more than 100 million tests per month. >> which is why ten states have teamed up to purchase millions of their own tests. and in lou of any detailed guidance from federal health r foundation came up with guidelin guidelines, effective testing and screening for covid-19. >> how often we test, who we test, how often we test for
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people that don't have symptoms going back to a workplace or going back to school, that's where we really need guidance. >> the main feature according to duke university director and former fda commissioner mark mcclellan is screening, massive amounts of the population on a regular basis. catching asymptomatic individuals. 40% of people infected with coronavirus have no symptoms. >> we have asymptomatic testing going on now. it works. it helps reduce spread. what we don't have is a national strategy that we're actually implementing to get those asymptomatic screening tests to everybody who most needs them now. >> reporter: the plan, testing school children returning to class, essential workers, detecting positive cases, isolating them, tracing their contacts and developing a single cohaerent public health message with one simple goal, suppressing the virus to reopen society. >> that sounds like a plan that
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you would have at the beginning of a pan dedemic, not eight mon in. >> it would also have saved lives. south korea and the united states both announced their first case within 24 hours on each other. south korea launched a massive testing program, the u.s. did not. deaths in the u.s. skyrocketed to now nearing 200,000. south korea's death toll is less than 400. a rate 85 times lower. >> they refuse to launch a national response. it's one of our greatest national tragedies and biggest public health failures. >> the kind of testing needed now according to experts can be found on some u.s. campuses like the university of illinois where students take a saliva test twice a week. they are able to identify asymptomatic people with covid and limit potential outbreaks before they spread but rebecca lee smith says it won't work
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unless the entire nation works together. >> it is quite frustrating. guidance from the top down is what will get us together as a country to get out of this. >> anderson, the department of health and human services responded to this report saying they do have a national strategy and support. $10 billion worth of support to local and state agencies to do testing, but those state agencies say that's not a strategy at all. that's just throwing money at 50 different states to come up with their own plan and it's just not the kind of leadership and in fact, the lack of leadership and leadership is what is needed now they say to get us through this pandemic. anderson? >> drew, thanks very much. we go to the gulf coast where hurricane sally came ashore as a category 2 and weakened to a tropical storm to cause cat strastrophic flooding. this is
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gary tuchman joins us from pensacola tonight. what does it mean in terms of damage? it's a slow moving storm? >> this is a barrier island, pensacola beach, florida. what hurricane sally meant was hurricane conditions earlier in the day. it wasn't a wind event here. it's a very important point to make it it was scary, it was frightening overnight. they got more than two feet of rain here in pensacola beach. because of that, there's immense flooding in businesses and homes. the bimany beach bar under water right now. next door, there's the parasailing restaurant under water now. there's the case here inness cam bee ya county and the alabama gulf coast. a lot of flooding, a lot of damage, a lot of heartache for people right now.
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no one has died from this hurricane, and that's very positive. but there have been a lot of rescues. hundreds of people have been rescued by emergency officials in the state of florida. all those rescues so far have been successful. i want to tell you about this, there's a bridge. it's going to be out of commission. one barth or two barges about a woman went out to see her property after it was damaged by the hurricane, she lives by the bay, she got out there and ran into a 12 feet five footwide green alligator in her property. she also ran into some snakes in her property, she went upset,
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she wasn't shocked. she wasn't upset, she said that she knew while the hurricane was coming in, not to go out there, that's where the critters were hunkered down. anderson. next, he fled war, now he's on the path for change. and you're going to find yourself where you need to be. ♪ the race is never over. the journey has no port. the adventure never ends, because we are always on the way. ♪ ♪
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this week cnn has been highlighting with remarkable change makers, people that are redefining what's possible in our champions for change. he spent time in a refugee camp in south sudan. he's on a mission of peace. he uses the power of gaming to help spread his message. >> i was showed a computer for the first time in 2007 during a demonstration. it was an amazing moment for me. i came to my mother, i was like, i want to buy a computer. she kept saving money for three years. how can my mother work for a computer. i realized i could work to save
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money. >> it's three hours walk to charge his laptop so he can walk back and work for two hours. he's teaching himself how to code and build and create a game. >> i am the creator of video game salon. >> it's really personal to me. when you're playing a game, you're putting yourself in the lives of someone. i was born in the way as my family was playing south sudan. as the center in northern uganda, i spent over 22 years in the refugee camp. >> the only thing we could do is wake up in the morning, we have -- all we need is to survive. >> we're looking at approximately 80 million
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displaced people in the world today. that number is as high as we've ever seen. what we're talking about are people who are really running for their lives. they're seeking safe ground. >> salaam is a high tension running game. you take a refugee from a war torn country to a peaceful environment. when you buy water in the game, you are actually buying water for somebody in the refugee camp. >> what the game does, it provides people engaging in that game an opportunity to contribute actual relief and assistance to refugees. >> better than me. >> the game is going to bring people that are not necessarily a traditional audience for messages about refugees. it's going to bring them into the room, and they're going to be learning about this at a
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younger age. it's really a game changer. >> i talk to game developers all the time. they want to create incredible experiences for people. 99% of the time those experiences are it's source and sorcery, it's going on this grand adventure. when you talk to luwall he says, let me tell you about how we can help disadvantaged communities, refugees. find food and water. he can use his unique vision literally to change the world. >> my hope is, we are here to thrive. >> remarkable young man. just incredible. so glad he's here in the united states contributing in this way. we're going to continue to share these inspirational stories all week. one hour special this saturday, 10:00 p.m. here on cnn. another reminder about tomorrow morning, we'll be
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moderating a town hall with joe biden from scranton, pennsylvania. hope you join me for that. i'll try not to take up too much of chris's time. chris cuomo joins me now. >> time with you is always time well spent. >> you with your pretty words. >> thank you very much, my brother. have a good night. i'm chris cuomo, welcome to prime time. here is the reality, the covid vaccine will not be ready for most of us for about a year. and your best bet to be safe right now is to wear a mask. this is not a new reckoning. everyone involved with the making of the vaccine or on the task force agrees with the two propositions told to us today. and yet the president attacked the head of the cdc for saying so. he said, he must have heard the questions wrong. and forced an odd clarification from the cdc, why? the cdc
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