The CDC Warning Americans To Begin Preparing For The Possibility Of An Outbreak; Trump Minimizes Threat Of Coronavirus As Markets Take A Punch.
BALDWIN: The CDC says it is preparing for the possibility of a community spread of the coronavirus right here in the United States. Let me throw a map up on the screen and you can see just how many people in more than 30 countries and regions around the world have now been infected. And now let's talk about the U.S. CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta just heard from CDC officials about the spread of the virus here in the U.S. And so Sanjay, we know there are now 57 cases of the virus here States side. How concerned should we be?</s>SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Brooke, I think the concern level is still low, and take a look at the numbers where these 57 patients are coming from. You know, there's a significant number that are related to travel. There's only been two cases so far in the United States where it's human to human transmission. But as you point out, the majority of the patients here in the United States were repatriated, many from that cruise ship that we talked so much about. So when you look at 80,000 cases, Brooke around the world, 57 here in the United States, the concern level is still low. But we just did hear from the CDC and I think that they're starting to get into this mode, talking about the fact that if we start to see this transmission within communities here that's something we need to be prepared for. Let me tell exactly what they said. They said, "The data over the last week, and they're referring to countries around the world, and the spread in other countries has raised our level of concern, and raise our expectations that we're going to have community spread here." I won't to explain exactly what that means, Brooke, but I talked to the head of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield, specifically about -- specifically about the worst case scenario here in the United States, and here's how he put it.</s>DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: We've had a very aggressive approach to try to do early case identification, and then isolation and contact tracing that's enabled us to contain this at this point. But I think this virus is probably with us beyond this season, or beyond this year, and I think eventually, the virus will find a foothold and we will get community based transmission. And you can start to think of it in the sense like seasonal flu. The only difference is, we don't understand this virus. At least seasonal flu, we pretty much understand how it acts.</s>GUPTA: So Brooke, to your question, 57 is the number right now, but Dr. Redfield and others are saying it's looking more and more likely this is going to gain a foothold here in the United States. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be something that is wildly lethal. We still seem to think that most people who get this infection have no symptoms or minimal symptoms, but the idea that it's going to start spreading more widely that seems to be the common consensus -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Then why is it that the World Health Organization will be the ones to declare this a pandemic? Why have they not taken this step yet?</s>GUPTA: Some of this may be semantics, Brooke. I mean, there are some criteria to declare something a pandemic, and what it really means is that in several places around the world, not only do you have the virus spreading, but it's spreading generationally. So one person spreads it to three people. They spread it subsequently to three people each, and that sort of transmission happens four or five times, four or five generations of spread. That's what they mean by sustained transmission. But you know, we're not there yet according to the WHO, but it is possible that we're going to get there. We saw that with H1N1 for example, in 2009. SARS, Brooke, which it is often compared to was never declared a pandemic. So there are some criteria in place. And you know, the definition of this may change even over the next couple of days or weeks.</s>BALDWIN: All right, Dr. Gupta, thank you. And thank you for the latest from the CDC We've got another doctor waiting in the wings here. Meantime, President Trump is downplaying fears about the virus's spread here in the U.S. He says it's very much under control. So with me now, Dr. Zeke Emanuel, former White House Health Policy adviser for the Obama administration. He is with me. He just returned from a WHO meeting of scientific experts on the coronavirus. So you, sir, are the perfect person to be talking to, Dr. Emanuel, welcome.</s>DR. ZEKE EMANUEL, FORMER WHITE HOUSE HEALTH POLICY ADVISER FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Nice to be here.</s>BALDWIN: So you just heard from Sanjay that essentially the CDC is sounding the alarm when it comes to, you know, coronavirus here in the States. I've read that you had suggested that people in the U.S. may be overreacting to this outbreak. How so?</s>EMANUEL: Well, I think if -- I would agree with Sanjay on two very important points. First, the current risk in the United States is extremely low. We have 57 cases. The vast majority of which come from that cruise ship in Japan. We've had, you know -- most of them have been travel related. Only a couple have been person-to-person spread. So I think in our daily lives, we need to be careful about not being hysterical about coronavirus for ourselves and not stigmatizing people who come from China. So that I think is very important. Will it likely spread? Will we have more cases, thousands of cases in the United States? Probably. That shows you that the quarantine and the travel ban we've imposed might delay the coronavirus coming here, but it's not going to prevent the coronavirus from coming to the United States and I think that's very important. We are obviously rapidly progressing on a vaccine and testing therapeutics, both of which are really important to see if we can block this virus from spreading through a vaccine.</s>BALDWIN: You mentioned the vaccine. Let me jump to what the President said about a possible vaccine. Here he was.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The coronavirus, which is you know, very well under control in our country. We have very few people with it. The people are getting better. They're all getting better. And I think that whole situation will start working out a lot of talents, a lot of brainpower is being put behind it. Two and a half billion dollars we're putting in. There is a very good chance you're not going to die. Now they have it. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we're very close to a vaccine.</s>BALDWIN: So two questions, Dr. Emanuel coming out of that. Number one, just the point. I mean, I hear you laugh, and I want to know why. Is he true on the point -- is he correct on the point about the U.S. being close to a vaccine? And two, what do you make of how he characterized the virus?</s>EMANUEL: Well, first of all, I would say it's going to get worse before it's going to get better. And we need to be well aware of that. We're going to have more cases before it's going to taper off and decline. And the idea that we're not going to have more than 50 or a few more cases that's just not likely. It is a low risk situation. Now, given what we know, the death rate is 2.5 percent, mainly among old people and people with other complicating diseases like diabetes or heart failure or emphysema. And that seems to be where the real problems are. But we're going to have a lot more cases in the United States and we should be prepared. We are close to having a vaccine three months or four months away, but then it has to go through a series of trials to assess whether it's safe, whether it actually does produce antibodies and whether it protects people from coronavirus. That's unlikely to be completed before the end of -- before the next season.</s>BALDWIN: So it was funny? What was funny about the President?</s>EMANUEL: This virus may -- well, because he was talking about we have it all under control. I might remind your audience, the President has suggested cuts in the CDC The administration fired Admiral Rimmer who was handling biosafety in the White House. They weren't prepared for this at all. We do have a lot of brains behind that, but that's not because the Trump administration was well-prepared, it's because the N.I.H. and the CDC, the career people there are very well-prepared, extremely well-trained and really know how to do this, but not because the administration itself, including its political appointees were prepared for this at all or even are now prepared for this. So I think it's a little humorous for him to authoritatively say we have this under control. That's only because of the government bureaucrats who we tend to dismiss, they have it under control. They have been working hard. They've been working with the scientific community to develop a vaccine. And I think that's important to recognize. We have to make these investments.</s>BALDWIN: I appreciate you making that point. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, thank you, sir.</s>EMANUEL: Great. Thank you for having me.</s>BALDWIN: You've got it. The President of the United States is once again attacking the U.S. Supreme Court calling for two liberal justices to recuse themselves in cases that are, his words, Trump related. And disgraced movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein is now a convicted rapist. We will talk to a woman who helped expose his predatory behavior.