[Anderson Cooper, Cnn:] Good evening. Welcome to our second hour of 360. Tonight, another grim milestone, for the first time, more than a 1,000 have died in one day in the United States. This moment, 1,419 people, the most in a single day, for this country, 7,402 dead in the United States overall, total cases now, 276,467, those are the numbers. There are people behind all those numbers. You have to underscore the sharp rise. An emergency alert went out on New York City cellphones this evening, "Attention all healthcare workers: New York City is seeking licensed healthcare workers to support healthcare facilities in need." According to the New York Times, the number of cases in the city has almost doubled in a week, the number hospitalized, the number on ventilators more than doubled. Today, the President announced new CDC guidance recommending the use of face coverings for all Americans. He says it's not something he'll be doing. He repeatedly said he won't be following that guideline. We'll talk about the new guidance with the Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, who's already urged his residents to wear them. Also, we have a report on the U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier Captain who lost his command after informing his superiors of the threat the virus posed aboard his vessel. We start tonight with an acknowledgement of who's not here at the top of this program, most every night, it's Chris Cuomo, to continue telling the news. He's now at home, having contracted COVID-19. Obviously, he joins us now. Joining us again, this hour, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Christopher, how you're feeling?
[Chris Cuomo, Cnn Host, Cuomo Prime Time:] How are you doing, fellas? I'm doing better than I deserve.
[Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Cnn Chief Medical Correspondent:] Hi, Chris.
[C. Cuomo:] I've I've learned Sanjay told me a few days ago, everything takes a few days to sync in with me. You can't wake up expecting to be better, you know, like you have a cold or a virus. You get depressed because it's going to be a long slog, and I accept that now. I get that this is going to be a long fight. I've talked to a lot of people who have the virus. I know I'm looking, you know, at about twice the time I've had so far, so that's what it is, you know, and I'm lucky, and I'm loved, and I just go day by day.
[Gupta:] Hey, Chris, I mean you you are loved. I got to say everyone I got so many emails, asking me today about how you were doing, so so you should know that. I'm trying to get a sense though, Chris. I mean, and and all kidding aside, you really should should take time off, I mean, you know, just to take care of yourself. I realize you're stuck in your basement down there. But are you are you worried? I mean, you know statistically you're, I mean, very, very likely to to get through this, and recover, and all that. And I know you realize that. But how what is your sort of how worried are you?
[C. Cuomo:] I'm fairly worried, one, that my kids and my wife are still going to get it. My wife is taking care of me, and that is an amazing act of love, and we're doing everything we can. But, you know, so that's a constant concern. Sanjay, I see the 80 percent a little differently than I used to, which is, yes, 80 percent will get this, a lot of them will be asymptomatic, or they'll get through, and there's all these different courses. But, you know, now, I got my kids showing me these little cutouts on the on social media of of mothers who die and 30-year-olds who die, and 50-year olds who die and, you know, there's this acute awareness and appreciation. You know, I woke up this morning, and I didn't hear my son's quad anymore. He'd been riding around. All a sudden, I didn't hear it. And he was watching me sleep. And I knew he was watching me because he was worried. So, you know, that gets you, and you don't want that for them. And what I'm worried about is duration. And my fear is that I'm going to get through this, and then I'm going to get something else, these super infections you guys talk about, and like pneumonia, or something like that, and I'll have another 10 days, and more time without the family. And I know that's what gets people all across the country. I've had so many people share their stories with me. That's my fear now like how will I handle that? How will I handle another three weeks of this? That's what I try to not focus on because it scares me.
[Gupta:] Right.
[Cooper:] You know, one of the things that always gets me through being sick is sort of the realization like "Oh, there's some medicine I can take, and it's just a matter of time before that kicks in." Obviously, that's not the case with something like this. How do you, I mean, how you've been sleeping? How do you kind of get through the the day?
[C. Cuomo:] Well, you know, you're kind of deadweight, you know, all day long. You know, I haven't watched any Netflix series. I haven't read anything other than online, and trying to stay appraised, and talk to other people because I'm so lethargic that I can like stare outside, and like an hour and a half goes by. I think I took a 10-minute nap, and it was 3.5 hours. I change my clothes like seven times a day because I just-
[Cooper:] Why? Because you're sweating so much?
[C. Cuomo:] -sweat, just sweat through things. Every time I drink something hot, which they say is important to do, I just sweat. So, it's a really surreal existence like I'm not bored because I'm like barely aware of what's going on. It takes almost all my energy to do a simple hit like this, and I'm not even really having to prepare, except existing. So, I'm taking everything. My wife is a Wellness person, you know, she runs this business where she's learning about homeopathic and all these different things, so she's given me a ton of stuff. I don't even ask what it is. I just take what she tells me to take. But there is no medicine other than Tylenol. And yes, people talk about the Hydroxychloroquine and all that. And my feeling is this. I don't want to take a risk of taking something while I'm still fighting through this that might take me in a bad direction. I don't need it. I know other people are doing it because they're at a different point of desperation. I do not judge anybody's choices. I totally get why you'd be afraid enough to want to try something with the risk. But I don't have any answers for anybody other than this newfound acceptance. I know I'm in a fight. I don't wake up thinking that I'm going to feel better. I don't look at my fever. I'm not upset when I have a fever. I know I have a fever. I know I'm going to have a fever tonight. I know the Beast comes at night. I know the night's going to suck. I know I'm not going to sleep through the night, and that's how it is, man. And then, tomorrow, you know, you get after it again, and that's the way you got to be.
[Gupta:] You know, just so so people at home know, Chris, and you and I've talked about this. We talk on the phone quite a bit. But, you know, people, you know, again, mostly will recover. People are mostly being asked to recover at home. But there are some things that, you know, if if this is starting to happen should think about getting, you know, talking to the doctor. If you're having obviously any kind of chest pain, which you had, I know that first night, but went away. Shortness of breath, if you if you feel like your sensorium, you know, like your ability to focus or concentrate is is off, you know, that that's a concerning sign. And then any kind of bluish tint to your lips, that just means you're not getting enough oxygen. You're obviously checking your oxygen. Those are serious signs, obviously, Chris. And I know at at times you've had these sorts of things. But today, compared to yesterday, compared to the day before, is there a way to assess your trajectory? Are you are you are you the same? Are you are you worse? How do you feel about that?
[C. Cuomo:] Well, first of all, thank you for teaching me a new word. You know, Coop has got that steel look working, but he didn't know what sensorium meant either when you said it. I don't care-
[Cooper:] I still don't.
[C. Cuomo:] I don't care how-
[Cooper:] I still don't know what-
[C. Cuomo:] I don't care how straight-faced you look.
[Cooper:] I was just I was-
[C. Cuomo:] And I definitely-
[Cooper:] You know what I was thinking during that? I was like mental note, "Look that word up."
[C. Cuomo:] I was like yes, my sensorium, my sensorium was all sideways, you know. I can't say that enough.
[Gupta:] It's what-
[C. Cuomo:] But, listen, I I think that I'm doing all these things that you tell me to do, Sanjay. You are a gift to me, as a friend, and as counsel. And, you know, it's no secret that, you know, Anthony Fauci has been a friend of the family for a long time. And I have all these big shots checking to see how I am. And I know it matters that people are looking to see. They're also afraid of this boogeyman. But, you know, your focus is not right. You're not a 100 percent. You're just not a 100 percent. And I think that people have to know that. And you have to decide what you're going to accept, and what you're not going to accept. Frankly, I get a lot more hot and bothered listening to what the government is telling us journalistically, when it doesn't make sense, than I do about my own situation, you know, and I think it's feeding people's powerlessness. But I know I have to be careful. And it's frustrating, buddy, because I can't control it, you know.
[Gupta:] Right.
[Cooper:] Yes. I'm not sure you want to listen to a lot of some of the statements coming out, you know, when you're sick. I think you need all your strength for, you know, for that kind of thing.
[C. Cuomo:] Well I mean but people talk to me about it, man. You know, they say because what's spooking people? Why are people watching CNN's coverage, especially with you guys so much right now? Because it doesn't make sense that on the one hand, Pete Navarro, who look, he's a nice guy. We all have good working relationships with him. He makes himself available. He can't answer anything that is a bad situation for the government, but he can talk your ear off about things that are completely beside the point.
[Cooper:] Yes.
[C. Cuomo:] There is an obvious functional analysis here that when it was time to build the wall, this President used mechanisms mechanisms and urgency that he hasn't even come close to approaching in this situation. Why? It doesn't make any sense to people. Watching governors not get condemned by this President, the guy in Georgia saying, "Oh, I just found out that, you know, you can be asymptomatic."
[Gupta:] Yes.
[C. Cuomo:] Really? Really? My 10-year old knows that. He just learned it? The guy in Tennessee who says "Well, you know, there's a lot of different research on social distance." Really? No, there isn't. They know these things. Why isn't the President on them? To that, that's more fearful, that's scarier to me than the virus.
[Cooper:] Yes. Chris, just finally-
[C. Cuomo:] You know.
[Cooper:] -how do I mean, how do you communicate with your family? I mean how do you you talked about your son watching you sleep, which breaks my heart.
[C. Cuomo:] No kidding, man.
[Cooper:] What?
[C. Cuomo:] I go like this. Hey, Cristina?
[Cristina Greeven Cuomo, Chris Cuomo's Wife:] Yes?
[C. Cuomo:] How we doing up there, all right?
[Cristina Greeven Cuomo:] We are fine.
[C. Cuomo:] All right. Anderson just wanted to see how we communicate. There it is.
[Cooper:] Yes, OK.
[C. Cuomo:] How is how is that from a sensorium perspective?
[Cooper:] I'd say-
[C. Cuomo:] There there she is.
[Cooper:] Communications-
[C. Cuomo:] That's as close as she's allowed to come.
[Cooper:] Chris? Sometime we have to do a study on how like-
[C. Cuomo:] See the gloves?
[Cooper:] -how you and I both grew up, and communication in your house versus communication in my house. Communication in my house was like small whispers and like occasional-
[C. Cuomo:] Uh-oh.
[Cooper:] -like leaving notes to each other.
[C. Cuomo:] Uh-oh. That's it.
[Cooper:] That's as close-
[C. Cuomo:] You better go bleach that entire arm. That's as that's as much of her as I've seen in in nine days. And the yellow dog will come downstairs. And then I think she sprays him with Clorox. The black dog we have the yellow dog and the black dog. The black dog is more afraid of the virus. And the kids sit up there. Today, we had our first the the kids are more keenly aware of this now. And Bella came down today, and she wanted to do karaoke singing, and I really can't, like I don't have enough wind for that. So, we kind of like got through that. She saw it wasn't something for her to be upset about. You know, I just I've been laying down a lot and, you know, this takes something out of you. So, I'm trying to stay close emotionally without letting them get freaked out. But I have to tell you, Anderson, my my heart goes out to people all over this country and this world that imagine not being able to be there for the ones you love. There's so many people who are sick, are having to take care of their kids at the same time, they're worried about their kids, and their spouses, and whether they're going to be able to work again, and they can't work because now they have to stay home, on top of the virus.
[Cooper:] Yes.
[C. Cuomo:] There are so many of us that are dealing with such overwhelming situations. That's what fuels my urgency, not just to come on with you good guys, but to try to get back to hold our government to account to give us better answers because there are too many people in too hard away for too long.
[Cooper:] Yes. Chris-
[Gupta:] You they told you how long Chris they think before you oh sorry.
[Cooper:] No, no.
[Gupta:] I know we're running out of time.
[Cooper:] No, no.
[Gupta:] How long do they think before you're going to get to recover, Chris?
[C. Cuomo:] You are "They." You tell me. You're the guy I'm waiting for,
[Gupta:] Doctors-
[C. Cuomo:] So tell me.
[Gupta:] I know. Well I'll tell you what I think. But your doctors-
[C. Cuomo:] They say I need no fever for 72 hours and then maybe seven to 10 days, I'll be quarantined after that, you know. And I can't see myself not having a fever for 72 hours. I haven't not had a fever for 72 minutes. So, I just take it.
[Gupta:] Yes.
[C. Cuomo:] I just take it one day at a time. I'm lucky. I'm strong. I got people who love me. I got a reason, you know, to want to get through this, and that's all I can control.
[Cooper:] If you could-
[Gupta:] And it's a long course. We're thinking about you.
[Cooper:] If you guys could just stay there, we need to take a break in a moment. We want to continue this discussion though with a Paramedic from the New York Fire Department who's contracted the virus as well. So Chris, if you could still hang out. Later, the Mayor of Los Angeles joins me, Eric Garcetti. I'll discuss the news we mentioned earlier about the new guidance from the CDC on face coverings and what President Trump said about it.