CDC's New Coronavirus Testing Guidance Has Some Health Experts Scratching Their Heads; White House Weighs Executive Action To Help U.S. Airlines
ASHER: The C.D.C. has suddenly issued new COVID testing guidance, quietly changing its website. C.D.C. guidance now says that people without symptoms may not need to be tested even if they have been in close contact with someone known to have had the coronavirus.</s>ASHER: The move has baffled some doctors as the U.S. continues to struggle with a high case count. A senior health official tells CNN the C.D.C. was pressured from the top down to change its testing guidance. Let's get to CNN's Nick Valencia in Atlanta for more on this. So Nick, I mean, how dangerous is this? Just walk us through the potential ramifications of this dramatic change in testing guidance.</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are hearing from public health experts and professionals proximate to this coronavirus response who are calling it flat out ridiculous, saying this is another example of the White House putting politics ahead of science. And as you very clearly laid out there, Zain, a Federal health official telling me that the sudden change in C.D.C. guidance basically discouraging people from getting testing is coming from pressure at the highest ranks of the Donald Trump administration. The White House, to H.H.S. to the C.D.C. We did reach out to the C.D.C. for a statement about their sudden change in guidance. They were unwilling to provide a comment on their own change in guidance punting instead to Health and Human Services. It was just within the last hour that the Assistant Secretary for H.H.S. held a phone call with reporters in which he says that this is not to discourage testing. It is actually for more appropriate testing. You could really just characterize that as more spin. If this all played out the way Admiral Bret Giroir says it does -- or did rather, this was presented to the White House Taskforce on Thursday, the same day that Dr. Anthony Fauci was having surgery on his vocal cords. So the top doctor at the Taskforce seemingly unaware that these changes were coming. The C.D.C. again not commenting and again, Zain, you know, H.H.S. saying that this is about more testing. But really, this falls in line with what we have been hearing weeks during the pandemic directly from the President of the United States who has called for a slowdown in testing, saying that if there was less testing, there would be less cases. And it seems as though, Zain that this recommendation or these new recommendations last that President Trump will be getting exactly what he wants. No one, no public health expert in the country right now will say that this is a good idea. They will tell you we need more testing in order to control this virus, so very dangerous indeed -- Zain.</s>ASHER: Yes, that's what happens when politics get in the way of health and safety. Nick Valencia live for us there. Thank you so much. The U.S. markets are up on Wednesday on some new and hopeful economic data. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 are seeking a fourth straight day of record highs. The Dow is up two after a slight fall on Tuesday. Open Table is reporting a recovery in the restaurant industry, but it's a different picture depending on where you are in the world. The U.K. government has been offering a discount scheme all August to get Britons eating out, and that's led to a significant rebound among restaurants on the Open Table app. Compare that though to the U.S. where openings have plateaued between 6 to 7 percent for the past few months. OpenTable CEO Debby Soo joins us live now from New Hampshire. So just where are we, Debby in terms of restaurant bookings now compared to the start of the pandemic. What are you seeing in terms of trends?</s>DEBBY SOO, CEO, OPENTABLE: Well, the data really varies depending on what region or country you are looking at. In the U.S. like you mentioned, we are still seeing a drop year-over-year in terms of seated reservations. But there are countries like the U.K. or Germany for example, where we are actually seeing seated reservations up year-over-year.</s>ASHER: So you take over at OpenTable as CEO during a relatively, I could say tumultuous time. It has been a very difficult time for the restaurant industry. You came from Kayak. You were an executive there. How has the recovery in the restaurant space compared to the travel space? What are you noticing?</s>SOO: Well, for both industries, they have been hit very, very hard by this pandemic. The restaurant industry has been hit particularly hard, I would say. Restaurants even before COVID were operating on razor thin margins, and now you add on top of that safety precautions and measures that restaurants have to be taking, the capacity restrictions that they are facing, it is becoming even more difficult. In terms of recovery, I would say, if I had to predict having been on both on the travel and the dining side of the business, I would predict that dining would recover faster. As restrictions loosen, as case counts stabilize or go down and people are feeling safer and more comfortable to dine out, they want to dine out. We recently conducted a survey at OpenTable and found that 25 percent of Americans now are dining out once a week. So the demand is there.</s>ASHER: The demand is there now. I mean, obviously, it is going to take some time to get back to normal of course. But, you know, you alluded to this. Even before the pandemic that restaurant business as you know is quite a difficult one and it is prone to failure. Restaurants in general have a high rate of closures in terms of not being able to stay afloat and make it. So just walk us through what sort of -- what are the levels of permanent closures we are going to see as a result of this pandemic in terms of restaurants that stay shut for good after this?</s>SOO: We have predicted that one out of four restaurants will not make it through this pandemic. We came out a few weeks ago and said that. And now looking at the numbers, we think that that estimate might even be conservative. At OpenTable, our main mission right now is to help restaurants forge through this crisis and do everything we can to help them. We may have waved our subscription and reservation fees through the remainder of the year. We have launched features like safety precautions so restaurants can easily let diners know what precautions they are taking, whether their servers are wearing masks, or table spacing, disinfectant provided, all of that. So we are trying to do everything we can to keep restaurants open and surviving during this terrible time.</s>ASHER: Not just OpenTable, but also various governments around the world are also trying to do their part. We touched on the fact that the U.K. has got this eat out to help out program, where if you are part of the scheme, if you are a restaurant and you are part of the scheme, the U.S. government will actually pick up 50 percent of the tab. I believe it is capped at ten pounds in terms of the meal price.</s>SOO: Yes.</s>ASHER: So, what do you think in terms of where government policies around the world in the various countries that OpenTable operates in, where government policies have actually been that much more effective in getting restaurants back?</s>SOO: I think any aid that governments can be giving to the restaurant industry right now is necessary and welcome. You've mentioned some of the initiatives that the U.S. government and the U.K. government have done. The eat out to help out campaign, we have seen, and our data has really helped seated reservations go up. So that campaign if where if you dine Monday through Wednesday, the government will help foot part of the bill. And what we have seen in our data is that reservations during Mondays through Wednesdays are spiking through the roof. I believe that scheme or that program is over at the end of this month. So for those of new the U.K., I encourage you to take advantage. But again, anything the government can be doing to be helping this industry at this time I think is so necessary. And for all of us and all of you out there watching, what we can be doing to support our restaurants is to dine out at them, order delivery, or order takeout to support them.</s>ASHER: Yes, my husband and I actually order takeout once a week just to support our local restaurants. So I am proud to say, I am doing my part. Debby Soo, live for us there, thank you so much. All right, coming up, we head back to U.S. politics. Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is here with his take on night two of the Republican National Convention. Thanks next.