Top Medical Expert Offers Bleak Outlook for U.S.; Moderna Vaccine Promising but More Research Needed; U.K. Bans Huawei from Its 5G Telecom Network; Mexico Extends Border Closing with U.S. until August 21st; Hong Kong Tightens Restrictions Amid Third Wave
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN. I am Robyn Curnow. Just ahead, a bleak winter in the United States.</s>DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be one of the most difficult times that we have experienced in American public health.</s>CURNOW (voice-over): A dire message as the country breaks another single day record for new coronavirus cases. Also, the U.S. president is punishing China over its new national security law. We will have a live report on that. And accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell is staying in jail after being denied bail. We will speak to the attorney for some of her and Jeffrey Epstein's alleged victims.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.</s>CURNOW: The U.S. has reported a new daily record for coronavirus cases, more than 67,000 people confirmed on Tuesday alone. Overall, the virus has now killed over 136,000 people across the country. And according to a widely cited scientific model, the death could rise to nearly a quarter million people by November. But there is some promising news. Biotech company Moderna says its vaccine candidate was found to trigger immune responses from all its volunteers in a phase one study. The company will now begin final trials later on this month. And all of this comes as U.S. health care workers are being overwhelmed. In Florida, intensive care units at 48 hospitals have now reached their peak, their capacity. The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns hospitals could be further strained this autumn and winter if the outbreak isn't contained. He is encouraging all Americans to continue wearing masks.</s>REDFIELD: I'm glad to see the president wear a mask this week and the vice president. Clearly in their situation, they could easily justify that they don't need to because of all the testing around them and they know they are not infected. But we need them to set the example.</s>CURNOW: For his part, the U.S. president continued to defend his response to the pandemic. In a press briefing, he once again touted America's testing capability.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And frankly, if we didn't test you wouldn't have all the headlines because we are showing cases, and we have just about the lowest mortality rate, but if we did, think of this, if we didn't do testing, instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing, we'd have half the cases. If we did another, you cut that in half. We'd have, yet again, half of that.</s>CURNOW: The nation's top expert on infectious disease has disputed those claims, saying the high number of cases is largely due to more infections.</s>ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Obviously, the more you test, the more you going to pick up. So increase in testing is going to give you an increase, but there is no doubt that there are more infections, and we know that because the percentage of cases of the cases that are tested that are positive is increasing. Therefore, unequivocally you are seeing, truly, more new cases.</s>CURNOW: The U.S. has so far confirmed 3.4 million cases nationwide and the infection rate rising each day, more than half the country is now halting or rolling back some of their reopening plans as Nick Watt now explains.</s>NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 50,000 Americans are right now in the hospital, suffering with this virus. We are nearing the numbers from the dark days of April. The vice president was in Louisiana today, where the average daily case count already eclipsed April.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because of the unprecedented national response marshaled by our president, we have more resources today to deal with this pandemic than ever before.</s>MAYOR DAN GELBER (D-FL), MIAMI BEACH: You can't keep telling people that everything is fine and not to worry because this is not a virus that responds to political speaking points.</s>WATT (voice-over): At least 27 states have paused or rolled back reopenings but case rates are climbing in 30 states. More people were reported dead from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours in Florida than ever before.</s>GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Some of the metrics have risen.</s>WATT (voice-over): But the governor did not specifically mention the deaths. A member of Florida's cabinet says he has lost control.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The governor continues to downplay the seriousness of what's happening in Florida. Quite frankly, we've seen very little to no leadership from Governor DeSantis.</s>WATT (voice-over): North Carolina announced its pausing on phase 2 for another 3 weeks. Chicago just canceled its marathon, Philly canceled all big events for 6 months and in California, every bar and indoor restaurant just closed again. Los Angeles is currently threat level orange.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are on the border of going to red. Red is when everything shuts down again, everything, to our strictest level.</s>WATT: We hoped warmth would bring respite.</s>REDFIELD: I was one of the individuals who thought we get a break in July in August.</s>WATT (voice-over): It didn't. So the director of the CDC says he is reluctant to make predictions. But --</s>REDFIELD: I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be one of the most difficult times that we have experienced in American public health.</s>WATT: Here in California, a record number of people in the hospital, a record number of people in the ICU, which is why this restaurant is no longer allowed to serve anybody inside -- Nick Watt, CNN, Santa Monica.</s>CURNOW: Dr. Esther Choo is a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. She is with us this hour. Doctor, good to see you again. We spoke a few times in the past few months. It is still mind-boggling to hear these reports of America hitting record numbers, again and again and again.</s>DR. ESTHER CHOO, OREGON HEALTH AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY: Thanks for having me on, Robyn. Yes, I cannot believe we are here. talking about this again. I honestly thought when we first spoke that by this time, either you would not need to have me on or we would be on kind of celebrating some kind of victories and how we are headed into a much more promising trajectory going into the fall. That was my hope all along. But we are really experiencing Groundhog Day again here in the U.S., in many ways. It feels like it did back in March in New York state but happening around the country. I will be honest, I'm very nervous heading into late summer and early fall if we do not course correct. This is going to be terrible.</s>CURNOW: A very bleak outlook. You agree with the head of the CDC then?</s>CHOO: I do. But with the caveat that this is in our control. This virus and its spread are simply a function of human behavior. It really is a collective decision how successful this virus is. It really counts on us going out, there getting together, not wearing masks. If we do those things, it will proliferate. That's what it does very predictably. If we don't give it as much opportunity, we can have successes here. This is a decision to be made in our communities everywhere.</s>CURNOW: There are a number of studies coming in from all over the world, looking at the way this impacts the body. That varies from person to person. But we are seeing a new study showing mother to child transmission and real concern about health problems with the fetus and then with the newborn. What do you make of that study? What advice or clues does it give to women who are pregnant right now?</s>CHOO: This new study was a woman near the end of her pregnancy, who got COVID-19. They were able to find evidence of the virus in the placenta and the amniotic fluid and then in the baby's blood and then the baby became ill. There have been now a number of case studies showing the evidence of vertical transmission like that during pregnancy. But I think overall, I would say, first of all, being young remains protective against these serious consequences of COVID. And all the babies in which COVID-19 has been detected, the neonates have all done well. So I would say, remember for pregnant women out there, this should not raise your blood pressure. I don't want to add to the mental burden of women who are pregnant. We have seen many, many more healthy pregnancies. Pregnant women are not more likely to get COVID-19 or its complications than anybody else. I think pregnant women need to do the same things everybody else needs to, which is be careful, social distance, wear a mask, wash your hands. There is no special thing for pregnant women. Statistically speaking, bad outcomes are extremely rare. And you just need to do regular precautions.</s>CURNOW: What about optimism on a vaccine? I know there have been a lot of wild timelines thrown about.</s>CURNOW: But we are reporting that there has been some optimism on one vaccine in terms of the immune response.</s>CHOO: It seems the most promising vaccine in the U.S. is from Moderna. They published the results of their phase one trial that showed it was safe in a small group of people, just 45 adults. And it seemed to stimulate at a mid-range dose a good immune response, at least comparable to what you would get with the disease. So that's very promising. They are currently conducting phase 2 trials. They expect to move on to phase 3 trials this summer. And let's hope for the best, which would mean that the trials would conclude later on this year and we can start to make vaccine available early next year. However, it's never a guarantee. Many vaccines that have gone through phase one never make it out of phase 3 and into clinical trials because when you test in a much larger population, you find you are able to find safety concerns or to measure efficacy and effectiveness. And you find it's not that effective. So I would say cautious optimism but so, far things have been going well and we can just cross our fingers for this one.</s>CURNOW: Thanks so much, Dr. Esther Choo, we really appreciate you joining us. Thank you.</s>CHOO: Thank, you Robyn. My pleasure.</s>CURNOW: President Trump is taking aim at China, announcing new sanctions on businesses and individuals who helped Beijing restrict Hong Kong's autonomy. That's not all. Hong Kong will no longer enjoy special trade status with the U.S. The U.S. president ended that with the stroke of a pen on Tuesday.</s>PRESIDENT TRUMP: Today, I also signed an executive order ending U.S. preferential treatment for Hong Kong. Hong Kong will now be treated the same as Mainland China, no special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies.</s>CURNOW: Kristie Lu Stout joins me now live from Hong Kong. Good to see you. What is the impact of this decision?</s>KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: One impact, of course, is worsening relations. We already heard from China and it plans to retaliate. China says it is going to take necessary measures and impose sanctions against relevant U.S. personnel and entities on the back of what U.S. president Donald Trump just did, as expected. He signed the Hong Kong Economy Act into law, which effectively ends Hong Kong's special trading status and allows the United States to treat Hong Kong like any other Chinese city in regards to trade and commerce. Here in Hong Kong, everyone has been wondering, what does this mean for Hong Kong? Number one, it will jeopardize tens of billions of dollars' worth of trade between the U.S. and Hong Kong. In fact, one economist told us earlier that it will shave off 10 percent of Hong Kong exports, a pretty significant number. It will also create a lot of uncertainty for the 1,300 American companies that operate here, including major law and accounting firms. It will also dissuade people from choosing to invest in Hong Kong. It also hurts China. Hong Kong has been an east-west conduit for international trade and finance; a number of multinational companies and mainland Chinese companies have their international headquarters based here in Hong Kong. That's the reason why China says it is going to take action. But what will that action entail? I posed that question earlier to an economist. Take a listen to what he told us.</s>TERENCE CHONG, ECONOMIST: In terms of the retaliation, China may not have a lot of choice because China does have a trade deal with the U.S. So China may not impose any counter action on the</s>STOUT: So China could limit its exports to the United States. Analysts also said that this is a self defeating move by the Trump administration, because, ever since this pact was in place between Hong Kong in the United States for Hong Kong to enjoy the special trade status, the United States has been profiting from and benefiting from the favorable business conditions here. In fact, just last, year Hong Kong was the source of the largest U.S. goods trade surplus for the United States, valued at about $26.1 billion.</s>CURNOW: Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, thanks for that update. Staying in the region, a diplomatic win for the Trump administration with the U.K. now banning Chinese tech giant Huawei from having access to its high speed wireless network.</s>CURNOW: Britain had said in January that Huawei equipment could be used in its 5G network on a limited basis but then it reversed course on Tuesday.</s>OLIVER DOWDEN, BRITISH DIGITAL, CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT SECRETARY: The government agrees with the national security census advice. The best way to secure our networks is for operators to stop using new affected Huawei equipment to build the U.K.'s future 5G networks. So to be clear, from the end of this year, telecoms operators must not buy any 5G equipment from Huawei. Once the telecoms security bill is passed, it will be illegal for them to do so.</s>CURNOW: CNN's Sherisse Pham is live for us in Hong Kong this hour. Good to see you. This is certainly an about turn, the decision coming after pressure from the</s>U.S. SHERISSE PHAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is an about turn and it is a huge loss for Huawei. This decision from the United Kingdom, even though it means it will cost billions of pounds to strip Huawei equipment from emerging 5G networks there and even though it will also delay the rollout of 5G, the fact that the U.K. took this decision, despite those high costs, it really sends a signal. Analysts I talked to today say the U.K. somewhat of a trendsetter in Europe because of its security assessment chops. The United Kingdom is able to examine lots of code and make really good and strong security assessment risks. And the fact they have made this decision that it's now too risky to use Huawei equipment and 5G networks, it sends a signal to other countries. It means other countries like Belgium and France or Germany could follow suit and also ban or further restrict Huawei from their 5G networks. While Huawei called the decision disappointing and said this is a decision because of U.S. trade policy and not because of security. And as you mentioned, this is a big win for the Trump administration.</s>CURNOW: What do we know about the potential at least for retaliatory measures?</s>PHAM: There is always a potential for that from China, especially when it comes to a big national tech champion like Huawei. Before the decision came down, China's minister of foreign affairs said that this will be something of a litmus test for Britain if Britain decides to ban Huawei from the 5G network. And in Germany, even though the debate about Huawei has intensified, German officials are also worried that, if they ban or restrict Huawei from the 5G network, it could mean retaliatory measures against German exporters. Of course, China is a huge car market for German cars. Now today, we just have a state run tabloid in China, perhaps one of these starkest warnings yet in an editorial, titled, "China won't passively watch the U.K.'s Huawei ban." Here is what they wrote. "It's necessary for China to retaliate against the U.K.; otherwise, wouldn't we be too easy to bully? Such retaliation should be public and painful for the U.K." So that in itself, is a warning to other countries that might want to follow suit and follow the U.K.'s lead.</s>CURNOW: Thank you for that update. Sherisse Pham, we appreciate it. You are watching CNN. Still to come, Canada is not allowing U.S. visitors at all right now and neither is Mexico, for that matter. Find out how long they will be shutting out their neighbor. And after winning several legal challenges, Donald Trump's niece finally publishes her revealing book about the president and she is opening up about it for the very first time.</s>MARY TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S NIECE: He is utterly incapable of leading this country.