cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is here. tell us what this is teaching us. cause children have been at home many have through this. now they're testing more -- oh, we may have lost elizabeth. >> yeah. she can't hear us. >> we'll get her back and we'll ask her if she knows the smart answers to the hard questions. give us a moment to fix that. >>> meanwhile, millions of acres are scorched out west and the president is digging in on his claims that climate change doesn't have anything to do with it. >>> we're moments way from the opening bell on wall street. take a look, futures are higher, stocks are set to start the day in positive territories and the coronavirus hits some of the world's largest economies hard. the trend is reversing in china. they're in recovery mode. retail sales up in august for the first time all year. >> before the bell brought to you by e-trade. trade commission free today with no account minimums and go to cnn.com/before the bell to stay on top of markets and sign up for the daily newsletter. rt the bidding at $5. thank you, sir. lookin

>> elizabeth cohen, thank you, you're right. it did seem to us at the beginning of the week that this was something that happened all the time. so thank you for that. >>> with us now is dr. paul ofete from the children's hospital in philadelphia and good morning to you both. building off of elizabeth's reporting on why the astrazeneca trial was paused, that adds to the new ensemble that 15,000 more americans could die from covid-19 in the next three weeks and dr. fauci says things will get worse. what should people be bracing for? >> i think in terms of what elizabeth cohen said she's right. it is unusual for a trial to be stopped. obviously, we need vaccines, we want a vaccine. a vaccine along with hygienic measures is our way out of this pandemic, but it has to be safe and held to a high standard of safety. people who are getting the vaccine are unlikely to die from this virus so i'm glad that astrazeneca are through pausing to see whether or not this was an event that was causally related to the vaccine or just coincidentally

i want to bring in elizabeth cohen who's joining us now. this

>>that was elizabeth cohen reporting in addition to getting the flu shot for the fall in the winter. the cdc says will be critical to continue wearing masks washing hands often and practicing social distancing. also for your health tonight, there's little reason to worry will become sick with covid from the food you eat or handle. that's according to an international committee. the study if coronavirus might be carried on food or it's packaging. the international commission on micro biological specifications for foods said in a statement that there is no documented evidence that food is a significant source or vehicle for transmission of covid the organization went on to say it's possible people could eat something contaminated with the virus and become infected, but so far no cases of that have been confirmed up next activists in portland mark a 100 consecutive days of protests against police brutality. but demonstrators say has been key to keeping pressure on leaders plus both presidential candidates hit the ground running this labor day how they both focus on jobs and the economy

let's go back to elizabeth cohen.olie and rin and it is highly toxic and potentially fatal if consumed. why was the fda looking into it. >> as far as we know, they were looking into it because a right wing trump ally with a stake in a company that used this ingredient suggested it. so apparently if you're a trump ally and you say something whacky lake, hey, this will work, try this out, that you will look at it. we don't know absolutely for sure why. but that could be, that seems to be part of the answer here. >> and so what now? >> well, right now, so they've rejected it for this particular purpose. and to one accept -- to reliable source has say, hey, this could work, let's try this for covid. so i think what now is not much. >> elizabeth, thank you very much for the update. >>> let's get to the former vice president. it is possibly strongest attack yet. nominee joe biden unleashed on president trump today. from his handling of the economy, to disparaging remarks he reportedly made about fallen service members. no p

you heard elizabeth cohen, dr. gupta confirmed reporting that the cdc guide lines that confused us because why would all of a sudden you suggest asymptomatic people coming in contact with somebody covid positive don't need to be tested? it was political influence. what is the impact of that? >> it clarifies the confusion because we were talking about what happened here? is there new research and that's why the guidelines was changed? it makes sense except it's really dangerous because we know that asymptomatic transmission is driving this pandemic and if we aren't able to detect asymptomatic cases we don't rein in covid-19 and we have to talk about the trust for cdc and fda. these are seen as some of the top public health intuitions in the world, that people from all over come to get the training for example at the cdc, some of the best in the world known for the scientific expertise, rigor and integrity and that is undermined by political interference and could have lasting damage on public health, both in the u.s

joining us now to discuss it, cnn medical analyst elizabeth cohen and john harwood. h, i know and you know early on folks such as dr. fauci were reluctant to recommend masks nationally. at the time there was a real concern about ppe for front line health care workers. tell us what the data and the science show on what a difference masks make in stopping or helping stop the spread of the virus. >> so, jim, before i do i want to make a note i think we have hit a new low point when the president of the united states is quoting waiters. actually, he's quoting fictitious waiters, what waiter said this why we have an actual scientist in dr. fauci to quote. >> listen, on the issue of waiters, waiters are the first to tell you put the masks on. but sorry, i didn't mean to interrupt. >> right. no, i completely agree with you. if i were a waiter, i'd want to be wearing a mask and i eat want others wearing a mask. masks do serve a purpose. they have been shown to reduce the transmission. you don't need a ph.d. to understand why. the way this virus spreads, people talk and the ma

elizabeth cohen, start with you. on the pressing issue for dr. hahn, who, of course, has watched the president travel the country at his rallies saying the vaccine is coming very soon, very, very soon. very soon. perhaps before the election. he went out of his way to make clear we have an independent process. there's a scientific process. and that essentially sticking his neck out saying, i will not accept pressure from anyone, and in parentheses, that means the president of the united states. >> right, john. i've spoken to many people who have worked with dr. hahn in the past who know him and say they believed him when he says this. they're not really worried about dr. hahn. what they're worried about is that the president will bigfoot dr. hahn either on his own or through secretary azar. not worried about dr. hahn's integrity but he'll be bigfooted and the decision made for him or basically instead of him. >> and listening to this play out. what jumps out most significant from the point of somebody watching at home trying to figure which course

we have cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen here to talk about the details. so, elizabeth, this team was looking at the health records of more than 5 million patients in the v.a. system. what did they see there? >> what they saw is reflective of what's seen in the entire u.s. population, but they added an interesting new piece of information. what they found was that black and latino veterans were more than twice as likely to get coronavirus than white veterans. that has been known. those numbers have been seen, pretty much the same numbers have been seen in the entire u.s. population when you look at cdc data. what this study adds is that many people have said maybe it's because black and latino people have more underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to getting infected. they found that was not the case. underlying conditions did not answer the question nor did it answer the question on where they got their care. so we need to find out why there is a racial discrepancy. a couple thoughts put out there is it has to do with the jobs that mi

with me now senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, this morning dr. anthony fauci says a vaccine should not be widely available to the american public unless it's been shown to be safe and effective. that's not an outlier position. that's how this country has done vaccines for generations. so what is dr. hahn suggesting here, how usual would that be? >> reporter: what dr. hahn and dr. fauci are saying, they would say the same thing. they would say we're not going to put a vaccine out there unless it's been shown to be safe and effective, but, jim, the devil is in the details. it is possible that this vaccine will have such great early results that both doctors would agree let's put it on the market, but the chances of that are so small as one doctor told me that it's ludicrous, so the bottom line is here the two experts, dr. hahn, dr. fauci and others could look at same set of data and dr. fauci might say, you know what, this isn't looking good at this point. let's keep going and keep enrolling more people and keep trying and dr. hahn could say this d

let's begin with cnn's medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, you've got -- big picture. you've got good progress on a vaccine, no question. you've got multiple paths here, and they seem to be seeing good data in these early trials. you know, the question is are they getting a thumb on the scale right to push this out before they have enough data, so what's happening? >> reporter: all right. so, jim, there's no question but huge progress has been made. i mean to go from, you know, having heard of this for the first time in january, that we need to get a vaccine to having trials started in july in the u.s., that's amazing. i don't know that we have good data. that has not been announced yet. that's kept very quiet. there may be no data. you can start these trials and not get anywhere, so when pfizer and bio entech say they will have sufficient data to apply for, you know, permission from the fda to market it next month, we have no idea if that's true or not. we have no idea what that is based on, and so it's interesting that these companies now have taken a pledge that the

. >> cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is joining us now to discuss this. i know that you have been carefully following this race for a vaccine. tell us what your sources are saying about this potential fall timeline. >> the experts i'm talking to would say what dr. fauci said but add an adverb, not just unlikely but that it is extremely unlikely. and here's the reason why. first vaccine trials in the u.s. started in late july. you've got to give shots to all those people, you then have to wait three to four weeks for another second round of shots and wait for them to kick in and this is the part that can really take a while, you have to wait for those people to get into the path of the virus and get infected and get sick. i can't emphasize this enough. booilg has to do its thing. if you have enrolled people who tend to work from home, tend to wear masks a lot, they may never run into the virus and never know if the shot you gave them is working or not. that is what could take a long time. a lot of this depends on how good the pharmaceutical companies were

let's bring in cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen to tell us more about the comments from dr. fauci. so dr. fauci has been consistent here, it is possible to have a vaccine as early as the end of the year if the science or the trials shows that. he's saying the idea of having it before the end of phase 3 trials doable, again, if it's safe and the science shows it's working. >> right, jim. you and i have been talking about this for several days now. dr. fauci is saying what many people have said, which is if the data looks incredibly good we could have a vaccine earlier than when the clinical trials are done. think about a vaccine as like cookies baking in the oven. you peek every so often to see if they're done early. it's possible there will be so many infections with the people in the trial and that the vaccine will work really, really work against that infection that they will say, we know it's early, but the data is just so good so that the fda should give an emergency use authorization or eua. let's listen to dr. fauci this morning on the "today" show. >> i have been

as elizabeth cohen is noting, this is why you do broad based phase 3 testing. what does this tell you? clearly, there's a lot of political pressure to fast track vaccine approval here. does this kind of thing give pause to the folks in charge of giving that approval? can it help stand in the way of that political pressure we're seeing? >> well, i hope it reinforces what you're just saying, the value of doing these large trials and not prejudging the outcome. you know, i continue to talk about, you know, if we have a vaccine rather than when we have a vaccine. because there's no guarantee that we will have a safe and effective vaccine. i'm optimistic, but let's wait and see what these trials show. i also thing though, jim, it's important not to overinterpret the pause in the astrazeneca trial. this is why you do these big trials if you see something, you stop. you investigate, you see was this related to the vaccine or not. you know, in the large trials you have hundreds of thousands of people in vaccine trials. you will see life events. you will see people who

. >> with us senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. good morning. do we know why this changed from the cdc? for anyone confused because it's gone back and forth, what is the main messing for them this morning about this spread? >> so poppy, let me answer your second question first. let's talk about exactly what the cdc is now saying, what is new on their website. what they're saying now is that coronavirus most commonly spreads when people are within six feet of each other. think of it as a direct hit. you're talking to someone, they sneeze, they cough, maybe they spit a little when they talk, we know people like that and wham, you are hit with that droplet. that is not if ynew. they say there's growing evidence that droplets can remain suspended in air. in other words i talk, i spit a little and the particles hang out. you're on the other side of the room, you come walking into my air space, you could inhale those droplets. that is different. you weren't within six feet of me, you were further than six feet away. they're saying stay six feet away f

. >> bring in the cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen saying he lives in the real world.ive us context here because the admiral has said a number of things over seven months of testing and the availability and the reliability and turned out not to be true. we are we now? >> in the real world the situation is that things have gotten better, may not be saying much because they were a nightmare to begin with. if admiral giroir feels he needs a pat on the back i will officially give him that pat on the back that things are better than they used to be. they are not still not where they need to be. too many americans are waiting too long to get their test results. if you go in and get a test on a monday and don't get results until wednesday or thursday, you run around potentially infecting other people. this is a great country with people who can do great things. why can't we get more tests that are quick within minutes and also accurate? we should have more of these out there this many months into the outbreak. when i hear the admiral say, you know, too many people say, you kn

. >> let's bring in the senior medical correspondent cnn's elizabeth cohen. should we be as optimistic as dr. fauci seemed there? is it good news? >> dr. fauci has used a phrase that i have talked about with you many times, john. cautiously optimistic. he may not have said it this time but hundreds of times before. the vaccine trials have enrolled very quickly. the question is, how quickly will they get data? so we asked that question here on cnn. we asked dr. fauci when do you think we might have a vaccine available? here's what he said. >> could this be earlier? sure. if someone comes out saying, you know, i will shoot for the possibility that i'll get it by october, you can't argue strongly against that. that's unlikely. not impossible. i think most of the people feel it's november, december. it is conceivable to have it by october though i don't think that that's likely. >> john, this is why dr. fauci and really no one can tell you when this vaccine will be ready and that's because what they have done is they have taken tens of thousands of people, split

let go to our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen.et's start with this latest news from phizers's ceo, one of the first times we've heard extensively from him. what stood out to you? >> reporter: one. things that stood out is he talked about not taking money, pommy, for development, for phase three trials. he talked about taking money -- we know that pfizer has only taken money from manufacturing and distributing the vaccine once it's done. let's take a listen to what the ceo said. >> that isn't why i did it. it's because i wanted to liberate our scientists from any bureaucracy. when you get money from someone, that always comes with strings and also i wanted to keep pfizer out of politics, by the way. >> reporter: now, i want to make two points here. i think that this is really important. pfizer is getting a lot of money from u.s. taxpayers. they are getting nearly 2 billion, that's billion with a "b," $2 billion to manufacture and distribute this. that's about the same or even more that other companies are getting to do phase three

i want to bring in cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen to walk through this. tell us, the people behind the report now seeking public comment? >> right. so this report is not an actual final report but it is a pretty detailed draft of what this group of experts thinks should be the plan when the vaccine comes out and won't come out with enough for all of us all at once but we have to make a priority so take a look at the things that the national academy of sciences consider. who's most at risk of getting infected in the first place of covid? and then who's at risk of getting sick and dying? who's at most risk of negative social impact? we would be in trouble without doctors and nurses? an aide in a nursing home might be young, healthy and might get infected with covid and never very sick but they could spread it to vulnerable elderly people so what it comes down to in terms of using real examples is highest priority is various groups including front line doctors and nurses, elderly people in the nursing homes. in the middle people, teachers and the third group

>> elizabeth cohen, thanks for bringing us the numbers. in just a minute, a few minutes, i'll speak with dr. anthony fauci about a whole host of topics. i'm sure you're interested as well including the search for a coronavirus vaccine and the timeline. >>> in iowa, as cases surge and as concerns grow from the white house coronavirus task force, the governor is not issuing a mask mandate. cnn's omar jimenez is in des moines with more. the science is showing more and more evidence that masks make a real difference here so what's holding the governor back? >> reporter: well, the governor at this point, the basic line of reasoning from her stabbed point is they were able to decrease the amount of numbers without the mask mandate earlier in the year and she's hoping to use some of the similar strategies but at that point they were putting safer at home orders and shelter in place. this time around she's pointing the blame to young adults, saying that that's been the reason for why we've seen number of cases rise, the positivity rate and even th

liz wed elizabeth cohen is standing by with that. what does the analysis show. >> they found that steroids do appear to save lives and this is confirming something doctors have known for some time. i remember talking to doctors in new york city back in march and they said, look, we're using steroids because they worked in other situations with other viruses. we're going to try them. well the medical instincts were right. let's look at the numbers that come from this very large u.k. trial. when they looked at 1,700 covid parents among 678 treated with steroids, 33% died. when you look at around a thousand patients who got usual care or a placebo, they didn't get steroids, almost 42% died. that is a significant difference. what this tells you is if you were in this situation, you would want steroids. and so it is good to know that what doctors have been doing for a while, that the statistics bear them out. brooke. >> what about the story about the plasma. i've had covid and i've begin my plasma and i want to give again but the contradi

cnn's elizabeth cohen, dr. fauci tried to clear up the confusion on vaccines here this morning on cnn. what did he say about the timeline? >> before i get into what dr. fauci said, which is so important i want to talk about why there is confusion. there's confusion because a vaccine trial is unpresident-electable. sometimes you get results faster than other times. it has to do with how quickly the people you gave shots to run into the virus in their daily life. you might have vaccinated a buvenlg of people who are going to go out and go to bars and not wear masks and get sick quickly. i hate to say it, because it sounds perverse, but for the sake of the trial, that would be great, because then you find out if it work. if you're going to vaccinate people who stay home and work, go out once a week and wear a mask, it will take a while to get answers in this trial. dr. fauci reflected all of that unknown. i've talked to him so many times over the years and he says to me, elizabeth, i don't have a crystal ball. tha

let's begin with our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. good morning, elizabeth. you have the latest on the vaccine to begin a phase 3 trial in this country. >> that's right. it's by johnson & johnson and what sets this vaccine apart of it from the other three that are currently in phase 3 clinical trials in the u.s. is that it's one dose. that will certainly be handy. if it works and if it's safe it will be much easier to vaccinate everyone once rather than twice. let's look at the four vaccines that have already started phase 3 clinical trials. moderna and pfizer started july 27th. astrazeneca started august 31st and then ten days later went on hold to investigate a participant's illness and they are still on hold in the united states. johnson & johnson started today, and when you look at this list, interestingly enough, moderna and pfizer are using the same technolo technology and astrazeneca and j&j, are using the same technologies. neither one of them have ever led to a vaccine that was put on the market. there's no vaccine on the market that uses either of t

elizabeth cohen grateful for the insights. thank you very much. >>> open classroom windows on chilly days to the wrinkles of our new normal. it's a reflection of research that air flow is absolutely critical. if people are going to be in one location for extended periods even if coronavirus precautions like social distancing and wearing a mask is in effect. the professor at the school of public health and the co-author of healthy buildings and how indoor spaces drive performance and productivity. mr. allen, grateful for your time today and i just want to show and i was reading about it yesterday and new york city public schools and older buildings. sometimes you can't even get the windows open and you've had the surge of a handyman essentially going around the new york public school system to make sure the windows can open. explain what the research tells you about why this air flow is so critical. >> thanks for having me on. that's great to see in new york city and we're short on time and short on resources and what can you d

elizabeth cohen joining me live. that's a big difference, about a month from the current timeline from the cdc. >> that's right, the first case of coronavirus was announced on january 21st. it was a case in washington state, and that's when people thought it started. now we're seeing that ucla has looked at millions and millions of patient records at three hospitals and more than 150 clinics, and they found that actually there was this uptick in things like cough and other kinds of symptoms. it's very hard. it was flu season. no one is saying that all of it was covid-19, but they compared it to prior years, and they said wow, at the very -- tail end of 2019 and january and february 2020, there was more cases, more symptoms than there were in prior years. perhaps since covid was here before we thought, this is not the first study to show this. others looking at various other kinds of data have found the same thing. >> do they have any idea where these cases -- obviously if there's an uptick, they can tell. can they is

>>that was elizabeth cohen reporting for us tonight now in addition to getting the flu shot for the fall and winter. the cdc says it will be critical could to continue wearing masks washing your hands often and practicing social distancing. >>next in sports. the giants looking to take 3 out of 4 from the arizo great day on the lake! it is. lunch is cookin'! and i saved a bunch of money on my boat insurance with geico. fellas, can it get any better than this? whoa! my old hairstyle grew back. so did mine. [80's music] what? i was an 80's kid. it only gets better when you switch and save with geico. >>take a look at this a long line of cars were seen trying to get into stinson beach today. this despite many peaches in the bay area being close to avoid large crowds amid the coronavirus pandemic in fact ocean beach parking lots had to be closed over the weekend after a burning man celebration saturday night. san francisco mayor london breed celebrations like these puts the progress the city has made curbing the spread of coronavirus at risk. >>and look at this crowds were seen at lake tahoe,

elizabeth cohen, thank you for that and the context. i want to move on to this amid the fallout with the interviews with bob woodward where the president admitted that covid was airborne and deadlier therein the flu. trump campaign before voters last night in a town hall and once again defended his handling of the pandemic that killed nearly 200,000 of his fellow americans. >> no, i think we did a great job. >> you were saying it was go to disappear. >> it is going to disappear. it is going to disappear. >> could you have done more to stop it? >> i don't think so. >> president trump also blamed former vice president joe biden for not implementing a mask mandate even though biden couldn't do that. because he's not the president. trump also said this. >> so a lot of people think the masks are not good. and there are a lot of people as an example -- >> who are those people. >> i'll tell you who those people are. waiters. >> the surgeon general will like to have a word with you because this is the advice he gave the nation this morning. >>

so let's start there with cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, what are you hearing about this timeline from pfizer and this german company beyondtech? >> brooke, i'm going to point to one word you just said. you just said the word could. could be ready. all sorts of things could happen. the minute you use the word "could" anything can happen. so when i talk to experts including people who are within the trump -- within the government, people who work for the federal government are saying there is no way that -- almost no way, we should never say no way, they cannot see a way that we are going to get shots into arms by november 3rd. i will also say that the bioentech executive who said this, he called the vaccine, this is the vaccine he's doing with perfect near perfect. when i hear a scientist call something that has not been tested yet near perfect that brings up a lot of doubts and it brings up doubts in my mind about this vaccine that i didn't have before. why is a scientist calling an untested vaccine, not tested for covid-19 near

. >> with us now is senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, listen, we're learning more about this, scientists are learning more about this as we go, right, and there's been many updates to our understanding as we go on. how significant is this one, and what does it mean, i mean, crucially, about all the kind of steps that we take to try to prevent the spread, including masks? >> i'll tell you, jim, when i first heard about this, that they made this change just in the past couple of days i thought what took them so long. in april, in april the national academy of sciences, one of the most prestigious science groups that there is, wrote a letter to the white house saying this, a letter that was made public. this has been known for months. i don't know why it took the cdc so long to put this on their site, but let's take a look at exactly what the cdc is saying right now. they are saying that the coronavirus most commonly spreads when people are within six feet of each other. this is me, not them saying it. think of it as a direct hit.

elizabeth cohen and lucy kafanov with us now.- this started with great promise, but now we're in this hold that has gone on for more than two weeks. our reporting, based on documents from the folks who are running the trials, is that there has been various accounts of what's happened, of the illnesses suffered by study subjects after they received the vaccine. let's take a look at what our reporting shows. there was a pause in the trial -- >> elizabeth, my apologies. we have to jump to this press conference with the family of breonna taylor. i apologize. here is their attorney general, benjamin crump. >> -- representing and fighting for respect, dignity and justice for breonna taylor and her fami fami family. we have present with us her mother, tameka palmer, her sister, jania, her aunt, bianca austin. we also have who i call the queen of the movement for brianna, tameka mallory and until freedom. we also have the breonna square activists who are present with us today. and attorney baker and agular and i know without a shoutadow

i want to bring in senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen to talk about this. s quite a back and forth. it seems look it's more orion the side of science and explain what happened here, elizabeth. >> it is. it is more on the side of science and basically back where it was before. it says if you have had a close contact, a close exposure to someone with covid, you should be tested even if you don't have symptoms. this is very basic. very basic science. if you have had close contact, within been six feet of someone 15 minutes or more you should get tested even if you don't have symptoms because those symptoms may be on their way or may never appear but either way you should be tested to protect yourself and those around you. that's the way it was before and then a few weeks ago they changed it to say, hmm you don't need to necessarily get tested but that came directly from the department of health and human services in washington and the cdc didn't review it and now changing it back to science instead of the way washington wanted it. >> this interference by politi

i want to bring in elizabeth cohen who's joining us now. this is key, elizabeth. supposed to be consistent, even if it changes over time, this flip flopping back and forth, what is happening here? >> brianna, i have to tell you this is extremely unusual, i'm covering the cdc better part of 30 years, i have never seen this, see them put up guidance and then three days later say we're reverting back to the old guidance. this is really unusual and very surprising. let's talk about the old and the new guidance and then now we're back to the old. we'll start with the old guidance. the way that the cdc is saying for months is that coronavirus is spread between two people who are within six feet apart, that that's the main way that it spreads. someone sneezes on you, cough or spit on you a little bit, they said on friday, actually, we think particles could be suspended in the air, droplets could be su spended in the air and you don't have to be within six feet, even if you're not within six feet you could catch coronavirus from someone because those droplets are floating

make their own decisions whether to attend rallies and here is cnn veteran medical correspondent elizabeth cohenjoking reference after joe biden wearing a mask. >> when we hear our president make fun of someone for wearing a mask, our president has blood on his hands. wearing masks saves lives. howie: blood on his hands, wow, look, i think president trump should be more forcefully be urging use of mask but using that kind of language against the president would be unacceptable on cable news shows. let's talk on twitter. i hope you also listen today my podcast, media buzz meter and on the day's hottest stories, apple itunes and amazon devices, many other places. wh will see you back here next sunday with the latest buzz. ♪ ♪ it may also affect people who take medication for depression and schizophrenia. - [narrator] in today's trying times, we're here to help you manage td. visit talkabouttd.com for a doctor discussion guide to prep for your next appointment in person, over the phone, or online. - it's a relief to know there are treatments for td. eric: well, we should know this week. countdown i

. >> cnn senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen, is joining us now. perspective. >> let's talk about this. what sanjay and dr. fauci were talking about, a proposal we're expecting to hear from the fda, saying to those making vaccines even if you have data shows your vaccine works we want you to hold off for two months, because in that two-month time, more people will be enrolled in your study and get the first shot and second shot and we can see if there are any safety concerns. even if it's looking effective, we want you to wait two months to make sure that it is safe. when i heard dr. fauci saying to sanjay just now, basically, he's in support of that, thinks it a good idea with one caveat. he says, say early data shows a fantastic vaccine. 98% effective. in that case, do you want to wait two months? two more months of people dieing from covid. do you want to wait those two months? that that's a legitimate question. however, the chances that there is going to be a vaccine, study data shows it's 98% effective, that that's going to come out in the nex

more now from cnn's elizabeth cohen. >> reporter: when a coronavirus vaccine does come out it won't be available to every american right at first. it's going to have to be done in batches, if you will. so various groups have sat down and said who is first priority? this time it's the national academy of sciences, a very convenie venerated institution. what they determined the highest priority should be first responders, doctors, nurse, emergency workers others on the front line of the coronavirus response and seniors in nursing home. other people in this group. these are just some examples. middle priority are those with underlying health conditions that would put them at risk from getting very sick or dying and prisoners and others who live in tightly crowded settings. lower priority would be young adults and children. no one can predict when a coronavirus vaccine or vaccines will come on the market in the united states. that's just not known right at this moment or exactly how many will be ready at the time but this group is hoping by coming out with this plan the roll out will be a

first though we begin with cnn's medical correspondent elizabeth cohen who has the latest on the vaccine to big phase three trials in the u.s. this is a big point because this is where you tested among thousands of people. what are we learning? >> right. as we test it actually among tens of thousands of people. this is now number four to go into phase three clinical trials. let's look at the list. so we know that know that moderna and pfizer started in tens of thousands of people on july 27th. astrazeneca sort of an interesting one, started august 21st and then went on hold while an illness of one of the participants is being investigated to see if it's related to the vaccine. johnson & johnson started today, september 23rd. when you look at these four, the first two use the same type of vaccine platform or technology. the second two use another type. so the first two use one type and neither of the times has ever resulted in the vaccine on the market. so these are relatively new vaccine technologies. we will be interested of course to see if they actually work and if they're safe. jim a

elizabeth cohen, thank you. >>> next we fact check the president's other claims made at that town hall, including one about herd immunity. >>> plus the president share as manipulated video of joe biden and nwas anti-pli antholice ant. what will social media police do about it? and a trump aide baselessly accusing doctors and scientists of wanting americans to suffer from the virus. or? secret aluminum free helps eliminate odor instead of just masking it. and is made with three times more odor fighters. with secret, odor is one less thing to worry about. secret. for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. >>> the president faced voters last night at a town hall and he lied over and over again. he lied about everything from health care and isis to the protests and the stock market, but alternate reality again focused on his response to the coronavirus. >> well, i didn't downplay it. i actually in many ways upplayed it in terms of action. >> upplayed it? someone he admires dis

. >> joining us now is cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. listen this, matters. responding to concerns that politics would drive the timeline for the vaccine by saying we're going to have strict standards here and the president saying very clearly you might overrule those standards. can that happen based on the rules and what would it mean for the science, the medicine of this? >> you know, i think that it's unclear, jim, exactly what the white house is able to do or not able to do. folks at the fda tell us, you know, whenever we do something like this, it always go by omb, the office of management and budget which, of course, is part of the executive branch as well as the fda is part of the executive branch. could he basically go in there and big foot the fda? mean, it has happened before by other presidents, so technically could he? it certainly appears that he could. i think the important point here is that we want to listen to what the president just said. he said this is political. why would they want to do this? so i hope the president is watching because p

for more on the front to find a vaccine, here is cnn's senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen. >> brianna, nine pharmaceutical companies have signed a pledge, saying they won't ask the fda for permission to sell their vaccines unless the data shows that those vaccines are safe and effective. in a way this goes without saying. a company is not supposed to ask permission to put a product on the market unless that product has been shown to be safe and effective. however, the companies might have felt they needed to, because many americans have been hesitant about the vaccine. cnn polling shows that 40% of americans say they won't get the vaccine when it comes out. brianna? >> we know that nursing homes have been hit by -- have been some of the hardest hit by coronavirus. now a lawsuit has been filed against two new jersey facilities. jean casarez is following that for us. >> reporter: in new york, a civil action has been filed in new jersey, hoping to have it certified as a class action against two long-term care facilities and over someone and two, saying they did not take reason

. >> let's bring in elizabeth cohen. good morning. obviously it's significant, but just thinking about why they even feel like they have to sign a pledge to say they're going to act ethically, it seems like it would be a given. >> yeah, it's actually kind of sad that they have to make this statement. kind of like farmers saying, don't worry we won't sell you sour milk. we kind of assumed you wouldn't sell us sour milk. let's look at the recent polling numbers and shows why they felt the need to make this pledge. this is a poll by cbs. only 21% of americans plan to get it as soon as possible when a vaccine does come out. if a vaccine comes out. and 58% said they would consider it but would wait, waiting is not really what we want people to do. right? we want to get out of this pandemic. and 21% -- one out of five, they said they'd never get it. those are not great numbers. we need this vaccine if and when it comes out to get out of this pandemic. and this kind of hesitation, it's not going to help us. >> we know -- we have talked about

here's elizabeth cohen. >> reporter: laura, christine, good news about treatment for covid-19.hat treatment is steroids. we've talked about it before, but now there's a new study. let's take a look at the numbers. this large study in the u.k. looked at more than 1700 patients with covid-19. when they looked at the 678 patients who were treated with steroids, about 33% died. but when they looked at about 1,000 patients who didn't get steroids, they got a placebo or they just didn't get steroids. 41%, almost 42% of them died. what that tells you is that steroids help. in many ways, this is confirmation of what doctors have been doing anyways. i remember last spring doctors in new york city telling me they were using steroids on covid patients because steroids had worked with patients with other types of viral illnesses. another piece of good news is hospitals have steroids. they're not hard to get, not expensive and doctors are very accustomed to using them. >>> a chemical nerve agent was used to poison alexey navalny. that's according to the german government. chancellor angela

so clearly a lot to get to this morning and our elizabeth cohen joins us. good morning. what more do we know about -- about that testing guidance because it was so counter to everybody else and we're scratching our heads and now we know it wasn't really from the cdc? >> right. exactly. i mean, you remember, poppy, we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago on your show and we said, what the heck? this doesn't look like something the cdc would say. i said the cdc, this is what they do for a living is public health communications and what they're saying makes no sense and it seemed very odd. well, now "the new york times" has reported and our dr. sanjay gupta has confirmed that this wasn't written by the cdc. and it was not reviewed by the cdc. the department of health and human services sent it down to the cdc in atlanta where it was supposed to be reviewed and get a process that takes several days of back and forth among scientists and communication specialists and then have whatever resulted from that published but it was just plunked on the cdc website and the pe

let's begin with our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. we'll get to the news which is really significant in a moment, but just explain why astrazeneca is testing the vaccine trial and the broader implications of that. >> right, poppy. this is the way it's supposed to work. when you do these trials you are enrolling tens of thousands of people. there is a chance that one or more of them are going to become seriously ill. i don't know if it's because of the vaccine or if it's just a coincidence. so we don't know exactly what this illness is, but this is the right thing to do. you pause it. you investigate and you see, is it because of the vaccine or isn't it. this is one of the reasons, poppy, why vaccine trials are so unpredictable and you never know what's going to happen. folks at the university of oxford who are doing this trial with astrazeneca, they were bragging about how they were going to be first and how they were going to be the best and the others aren't very good and this is why you don't brag like that because you never know w

let's start with elizabeth cohen. she's with me. and these were commented made by the ceo of the serum institute in india in the interview with the financial times. what is this ceo seeing that has him concerned and how many doses does he think will be needed worldwide? >> so i'm going to take the second one first if that is okay, brooke. we know if not most if not nearly all of the vaccines being tested for covid-19 are two doses. the three for example that are in phase three clinical trials in the u.s., those are all two dose vaccines. you get one dose and three or four weeks later you get a second dose. so it is a good guess that the vaccines that end up working will be two doses. and what this manufacturer is saying is, look, we can't snap our fingers and make those. it is going to take time. this is an unprecedented act to produce vaccine for the entire world on very short notice. and we've talked about it before, that two doses is a big deal. it is double everything. not just the vaccine, set that aside, it is two sets of syri

. >> our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is with us now.s. >> they are, and it really just shows the kind of mistrust that is going on in this country around vaccines. let's get to these numbers in this kaiser family foundation poll. what they found is 62% believe trump will pressure the fda, so, in other words, most americans believe trump will pressure the fda on a vaccine. 54% said they would not get a free vaccine before the election. now, more said that they would get it after, but 54% said they would not get a free vaccine before the election. this, you know, you have to wonder if this plays into it at all since this poll was done. astrazeneca has paused their trial twice because people got sick. the first time they pause it had they found that the sickness wasn't associated with the trial but they didn't tell anyone about it until now, and that certainly makes you wonder about trust issues. let's also take a look about testing. there's a new study out that shows that or suggests that there were more people sick with covid back in the

cnn's elizabeth cohen joins us now. and elizabeth, you've seen these ads.do they say and why are they necessary? >> john, i think they're very effective. they really are very emotional and sort of get right to the heart of trying to get minorities to join these trials. that's important, because for the trials, you want people who are at a high risk of contracting covid. and that, unfortunately, is minorities. let's take a look at some numbers. dr. fauci has said that he wants 37%, approximately, of the trial study subjects to be latino. and moderna's trial's only 16% and pfizer's trial is only 11%. he also recommends that 27% of the participants be black. and in moderna's, it's only 10% and pfizer's only 8%. several weeks ago -- months ago at this point, actually, i think -- the national institutes of health asked a group to come one some ads to encourage minority participation. let's take a listen to part of one of them. >> we know that someone somewhere is full of hope and strength and wants to take action and will take a step forward to hug her grandkids

. >> cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins me now. you hear dr. del rio and all the public health experts and you go through the data and look at all the studies every day. it's simply not smart, i'm being gentle, not smart to put that many people packed in a tight space for a long period of time and yet the president says whatever. >> right. why in the world would you want to do that? that's my question. why would you take steps and want to do that? you know, one of the -- the only thing i can think of is you're trying to make a point. you're trying to say or the president is trying to say, look, nothing to see here. no big deal. life is normal. we're going to pack people into spaces normally just like we usually do. that is not the right thing to be doing right now. john? >> so let's listen to the president. he's been saying for quite some time. this is not new per se but the reason i ask this question again is listen to him on "fox & friends" this morning talking about a vaccine timetable. people are starting to involvement the president keeps

elizabeth cohen joins me now. good morning.ts say and i just made our appointments for flu shots later this week but this year it's more critical. >> that's right, and this year we need to do everything we can poppy to prevent both covid and flu. now, for covid, there's no shot for you to get, but for flu, you can and should get a shot. nobody likes getting a shot but this year it's more important than ever, because this year we're going to have not just flu, but also covid-19. >> i am worried. i do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be probably one of the most difficult times that we've experienced, and n american public health. >> this year, there's not one, not two, but three reasons to get yourself a flu shot. number one, it will decrease the chances that you'll get the flu or if you to get the flu, you'll get a milder case. number two, you won't spread the flu to other people. number three, you won't end up taking up a hospital bed that someone else like a covid patient would need. and if you get s

our elizabeth cohen spoke to a federal official, and i'm quoting, i don't know any scientist involvedwho thinks we will be getting shots into arms any time before election day. what do you think is a more realistic time line? >> well, i think it's more realistic to expect that we will start to see, you know, good news about a vaccine being approved either at the end of the calendar year or beginning of next year. and that would be an optimistic scenario. and then it will take some time after that to deliver and get the shot in the arm. because a shot in the arm is what matters at the end of the day. that's how we actually protect people and stop the spread of covid-19. >> how significant then is this draft of a pledge reported by the "wall street journal" by pfizer and moderna, johnson & johnson not to go for approval of a vaccine until it's been proven totally safe and effective? >> i think it's a good sign that these companies even though they have a vaccine candidate in the pipeline that they are stepping up to reassure the public that there are certain standards they want to meet

cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us now. okay. tell us first about the testing guidance because this confused everyone when it happened. i was talking to dr. fauci on the air. clearly not in line with his thinking. how did this happen, and has it is been corrected since then? >> reporter: it has not been corrected, and i think that we should all keep an eye on cdc website to see if they do correct it. here's sort of the -- of the narrative of what happened. the cdc all of a sudden a few weeks ago said, you know, what you don't necessarily need to get tested if you've been exposed to someone with covid as long us a don't have symptoms, so you've spent, you know, 15 minutes or more near someone with covid, so you've been exposed but you don't have symptoms, you don't necessarily need to get test and that's counter to what every expert says is yeah, you do need to get test. get yourself tested so this change was made. nobody could understand why. it just appeared on the cdc website. it was very mysterious, and what the "new york time