[Chris Cuomo, Cnn Host, Cuomo Prime Time:] Hello. I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to PRIME TIME. Today was another day that this President failed to take charge of the pandemic. And we have to track it every day because every day costs lives. Just today, cases of sick Americans in California, Florida, Texas, all broke their daily Coronavirus death counts again. And yet, the biggest concern in the country right now is Arizona. It's leading America in new cases. ICU beds are running dangerously low there. This is no secret. And yet, there has been no offer of help from the Federal government. Why not? More than two dozen other states are facing similar reopening resurgences, and there is still no plan to help them. The only plan is the President's plan to spread false claims of victory.
[Donald Trump, President, United States Of America:] What we do have is we have perhaps the lowest, but among the lowest, but perhaps the lowest mortality rate, death rate, anywhere in the world. We did it right. We shut it down. Now it's time to get back to work.
[Cuomo:] Shut it down? How can anybody believe that brand of dishonesty? It's making us sick, literally and figuratively. One question destroys the entire figment of his imagination. If the rise is just about us testing so much, why are hospitalizations spiking? Debate over! But it's not about a debate. It's about a deception. The truth is we are at great, great risk. It's not about what I think. This is coming from America's top expert.
[Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director, National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases:] When you compare us to other countries, I don't think you can say we're doing great. I mean, we're just not.
[Cuomo:] But for Trump, it's not about the truth, and it sure as heck is not about the health of you and your kids. It is and has always been about only his political health. And so, he is doubling down on forcing things despite the risk of more cases.
[Trump:] We have to get our schools open and stop this political nonsense. And it's only political nonsense. It's politics. They don't want to open because they think it will help them on November 3rd. I think it's going to hurt them on November 3rd. Open your schools.
[Cuomo:] Help them open the schools. What is your plan to help them? What will you do to help them? That's your job. Do your job. Are all the facts of cases and hospitalizations and deaths and states going backwards from following his "Open up, ready or not," dictate nonsense, is that all nonsense? Is that politics? Or is what he is doing politics? Now, the good news, the CDC says it's not going to change its rules for reopening guidelines. In fact, experts were already questioning whether the current CDC guidelines were too lenient. The President is complaining about them because he wants no rules, just like his life. Now, the White House says "The costs are too high to keep schools shut down." Nobody wants them shut down. Help figure out how to open them up. The cost to what is too high? Your ability, to tell people, that you made things great, when you're actively doing the opposite? How about the human cost to reopening them the wrong way? To my kids? To people's kids? To their lives? Look, Dr. Fauci isn't wrong. We're all paying the price with this toxic partisanship.
[Fauci:] You'd have to make the assumption that if there wasn't such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordinated approach.
[Cuomo:] Now look, Fauci is in a tough spot, they all are, because to tell the truth is to lose your position to help the rest of us. That's the reality. Every time he says something that isn't lockstep with Trump, where does he go? Gone. Look, there is toxic partisanship. But be honest. Trump is motivating this. He did it with the reopening. He did it with the testing. He did it with the PPE. And he's doing it with schools. We're likely to pay even more this fall, if we don't need do what we need to do right now. So, what can we do? What should we do? Let's turn to another top Infectious Disease Expert, friend of show, Dr. William Schaffner. Good to have you as always, Doc.
[Dr. William Schaffner, Professor, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Cdc Adviser, Infectious Disease Expert:] Hi, Chris. Good to be with you.
[Cuomo:] Practical effect of the mixed messaging? The experts saying, "Go slow. Wear the mask. Socially distance. Wash your hands. Don't reopen if you're not right. Back up, if you're doing it wrong," and Trump saying, "That's all politics. Open up ready or not. We got to get back. We're on top of it now," what's the net effect?
[Schaffner:] Well, the net effect is confusion, of course. And people, in their confusion, really don't know what to do. And we have this crazy quilt of recommendations and ordinances and other circumstances, around the country, so that it's so different. We really need national authority, good good modeling from the top, and everybody kind of doing the same thing. There's too much virus out there. It's spreading in essentially every State, some more than others. But we haven't controlled this at all. The virus is still ahead of us, and we are rushing to catch up. As you know, I think, we squandered the time where we were locked up. We should have done much more and prepared everyone to the to the effect that the new normal will require all of us to participate in, exactly as you said, wearing the mask, six-foot distancing, going about things cautiously, not going into large groups. If we do the opposite, the virus will spread even further.
[Cuomo:] Now, I know you believe that the President's proposition that the only reason we have so many cases is because we test so much more than everybody else. Well, you know, you gave me the hospitalization rate as a metric, early on, to cut through all that BS. Forget about the case the cases from testing. If there are more people in the hospital, you've got more sick people. Period! That debate is over. In fact, it really isn't a debate. But when you look at what is happening now, in the big states, and in Arizona, have you ever seen anything like this, in this country, where the Federal government was as absent, and during an emergency, and they declared it an emergency, as they are in Arizona and these other states?
[Schaffner:] No, of course, I haven't seen anything like that. And the vacuum at the top is being felt down below, as each of the states tries to fashion its own recommendations, and its own approach, to try to do things rather than working together. You know, I've talked about orchestras with all their different instruments. If they're all playing separately, you get dissonance. If you have a leading Conductor, then you get good music. What we need is a coordinated, national plan. I don't think it's going to happen frankly.
[Cuomo:] Me either.
[Schaffner:] I think we are all muddling through, struggling, each in our own way.
[Cuomo:] I mean that's why I call it out every day because I think that it would fundamentally change our fate. And the only reason not to do it is bad reason. I mean, you know, you came up with the music metaphor. I added Captain Cacophony to it. Still doesn't meet your "Interdependence Day." That was one of the best things I've ever heard related, in terms of messaging, in this moment. And it resonated all over the country, Doctor. I got to thank you for that. Let me ask you something else. One more reason to stop the spread is not only do you not want to get sick, not only can it stink when you're sick, God forbid, can it be worse, and you can go to the hospital, or maybe even die. But even if you're one of the lucky ones, and you make it through, after being sick, Dr. Fauci started talking today about what he is calling long-term fatigue syndrome. More and more mounting anecdotes of "I've got brain fog. It's not going away. I have malaise. I can't sleep. But I'm always tired." And there are these common combinations. Are you seeing this as well, and how serious is it, in your opinion?
[Schaffner:] We're just starting to define these problems. And it's clear that there are long-term effects, just as you described. And some people who've had serious lung disease, we are afraid, are left with some scarring in their lungs from which they will never recover. So, the acute problem is bad enough. But long-term effects, we'll also have to contend with. And there were people who were kind of on the edge of frailty, particularly older people, they may never come back to the same vigor, that they had, the same level of day-to-day competence that they had before they got COVID, and they will start the slide into disability. So, all of those things, we have yet to define. But we know they're happening because we're seeing it around us.
[Cuomo:] The key is the "We." Socially distance. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. The power is within us, to make the change, even if we're not getting help, from above, on the Federal government. Dr. William Schaffner, can always count on you. Be well.
[Schaffner:] Yourself, too. Bye-bye.
[Cuomo:] All right, so Joe Biden says he has a plan to make things better, and he'd be doing things differently, right now, if he were President. We have someone, who could be in the running, to go on that Biden ticket, here, to comment on the way forward, his new economic plan, and the state of the crisis that is upon us. You see her there, Senator Elizabeth Warren, next.
[Text:] CUOMO PRIME TIME.