[King:] The social unrest across America is colliding, sadly, with the coronavirus crisis. Large crowds chanting and shouting in close quarters. Yes, we do see masks in a lot of these protest scenes, but public health officials also see the possibility these events become what they call super spreaders of infections. It was already a challenging moment as the reopening accelerates. The coronavirus reopening. Let's take a look now. Just some of the latest numbers. This is just the country ranks globally. The United States approaching 1.8 million confirmed cases you see well ahead of any of the other leaders, if that's what to call them, on the global case count board. If you look at the map where are we right now in the United States. 18 states heading in the wrong direction. That's orange and the darker orange. That means your case count is going up 10 to 50 percent this week compared to last week, if you're the lighter orange. 50 percent plus if you're the darker. Those states concerned. Relatively low case count in Montana but still now going way up. Nine states, that's the beige there are holding steady. 23 states, green, heading in the right direction. Their case count heading down. But you do see a swath here especially across the southeast. Little dots southwest as well of states heading in the wrong direction at the moment. Illinois, seen a lot of protests has also been a major coronavirus hot spot. Look at it. Its seven-day moving track has been going down. The high level of case. But Illinois has been heading in the right direction. Oregon a relatively low case count, but you see here in recent days that curve starting to go back up. Something you want to keep an eye on. Could just be a couple of days of a blip, but you don't want your average spinning that way. California, the most populous state. A lot of protests out there. You see again the seven-day moving average which is the red line started to trend up again. That is not what you want at any moment, especially now that you have so many people out in the streets. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now. And, Sanjay, it will be a few weeks before we know because you're out in public if you contract a coronavirus. It takes a while for it to show up. But at this moment when people already going back to work, when you look at these scenes, some of them are pretty troubling.
[Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Cnn Chief Medical Correspondent:] Yes, I think so. I mean, you know, there's a few different factors you have to consider. One is, obviously, the distance that people are between each other. A lot of people have heard you know this physical distancing of six feet. But also, there's a few other things like, John, what constitutes a close contact? For someone like you if you had coronavirus, what would constitute a close contact? Distance, yes, but also duration longer than 15 minutes, environment inside or outside. Are you wearing a mask? These are some of the things on the screen that people should be doing to try and reduce their risk. What we don't know, John, and again, this is a new coronavirus. We know it's a very contagious virus, but it will be it will be something to see over the next few weeks just how much of an impact this has. Were people spending a lot of time right next to each other? How much of a difference does the mask and outside environment make? I think it's going to be a significant impact. People do worry about these super spreading events, a few people being the cause of most of the spread of the virus, and we don't know if that's going to be an impact amongst these protests, but we never experienced anything like this. The closest thing, John, I was reading throughout the weekend was probably back 100 years ago when there were parades during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 at that time. So, maybe there's some parallels there. But as you point out, there is a lag time. We'll see in the next few weeks.
[King:] Yes, it's interesting. You watch the images on television. I'm just holding up the Seattle newspaper here. You can't see this. I'm holding up on television, but I'm just telling you, if you look at it, it's remarkable. Most of the protestors here are wearing masks, in other scenes they are not. Sanjay, this is just an unprecedented moment. We're in the middle of a pandemic. Now we have the social unrest across the country. I was struck. I heard you talking about it a little bit earlier today. The American Academy of Pediatrics which you would assume would be focused on the healthcare crisis right now, deciding it wanted to weigh in.
[Gupta:] Yes.
[King:] As we've seen athletes. We have seen other people weigh in. I just want to read this tweet. "Racism is a public health issue. The AAP condemns violence, especially when perpetrated by authorities, and calls for a deep examination of how to improve the role of policing. Systemic violence requires systemic response." How unusual is it for a major medical association to decide we need to add our voice in the middle of all this unrest?
[Gupta:] A few years ago, it would have been considered very unusual, John. I mean these are typically, you know, they focus on medical issues, very, very concrete medical issues over the last bit of time and especially now. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, other big medical organizations, all releasing statements sort of conveying this same message. And it's striking because these are typically just very straightforward medical organizations. But also, we're in the middle of a pandemic, so most of the messaging has been around infectious disease, curtailing the pandemic things like this. But taking timeout to say, hey look, we recognize the fact that there are protests going on in the middle of a pandemic and here's what we're choosing to say. You know, talking about racism as a public health issue, talking about police brutality as a public health issue as well. So, I think it was quite striking. And frankly, John, quite important as well to hear from them in this way.
[King:] Quite important as well. Dr. Gupta, really appreciate your insights. Thank you. Just ahead for us, Philadelphia among the cities facing major protests. An NFL running back turned pastor joins us to share his thoughts.