800+ Students Quarantined in Cherokee County, GA, after District Reports 50 Positive Cases Among Students & Staff; Dr. William Schaffner Discusses Whether Children Can Easily Spread Virus; Chris Ragsdale, Cobb County School Superintendent, Discusses Reopening Schools, Parents Protesting Online-Only Learning.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, I took a look at four years of the world under Trump, under his foreign policy, upending not only relationships with enemies but allies and within his own government, unleashing a madman theory of his own. And the results for the country, by and large, not positive. All I ask is you give the book a chance and let me know what you think.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Tons of access to current and former officials talking to you on the record. Congrats, I'm proud of you. We'll see you back here tomorrow. I'm Poppy Harlow.</s>SCIUTTO: I'm Jim Sciutto. "NEWSROOM" with Kate Bolduan starts right now.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you for joining us this hour. The world now passes a startling marker, 20 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide. The United States accounts for an outsized portion of that. A quarter of those cases, 25 percent, though the United States makes up less than 5 percent of the world's population. The U.S. is also leading the globe in the number of coronavirus deaths. With all of that in mind this morning, the concern for America's children amid the pandemic has never been so urgent or real. A new analysis from the American Academy of Pediatrics says there's been a 90 percent jump in COVID cases in children in the last four weeks. In Florida, the situation is even worse. The state seeing a 137 percent increase of COVID in children in the past month. With kids in many states already heading back to school, Dr. Anthony Fauci is once again pleading for everyone to mask up. Also calling out the photo of a crowded hallway at a Georgia high school.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There should be universal wearing of masks. There should be the extent possible social distancing, avoiding crowds, outdoors is better than indoors, and continually have the capability of washing your hands and cleaning up with sanitizers. When I see sights like that, it is disturbing to me.</s>BOLDUAN: Let's start with CNN's Nick Valencia, coving the growing number of cases in schools in Georgia. CNN's Nick Valencia joins me. Nick, what is going on there? What's the latest you're hearing?</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, these numbers are very concerning. Florida used to be the focus and it now seems that Georgia is becoming the hot spot in COVID cases. Georgia, the schools here returning, among the first in the nation returning August 3rd. Just last week in Cherokee County, we're focusing on that because the cases are rising so fast. After the end of the first five days of classes, 478 people were in quarantine. At the start of class today, that number had swelled to over 800, 50 of those tested positive for the virus. Even still, you would think there would be more of a concern there locally in Cherokee County. But when we went there this weekend, it was almost a cavalier attitude. Just listen to the governor as well saying that after the first week of school, things were great.</s>BRIAN KEMP, (R), GEORGIA GOVERNOR: There's definitely going to be issues when you open anything. We saw that when we opened businesses. We're seeing that when we open schools. I think quite honestly this week went real well other than a couple virtual photos, but the attitude from what they're telling me was good.</s>VALENCIA: We talked to parents in Cherokee County who said that they're not social distancing even though masks are required for school staff. One parent told me she walked into the school district to complain about the lack of social distancing believing that her child was not safe and that no one in the school was wearing masks. In fact, the principal of that elementary school told her staff that she didn't need to wear a mask because she was shielded by God. Now, we spoke to Jamie Chambers (ph), one of the local activists who's been sounding the alarm, very concerned that the spread of viruses in schools will only spread further and further throughout the community, putting more people in danger. He has decided to not send his kids to school. They're virtually learning. Those are stories we're hearing from parents in the district who are removing their students from face-to-face learning to now learn online -- Kate?</s>BOLDUAN: That statement from that school principal is truly remarkable when you look at science. Good to see you. Thank you very much for calling it out. One question all along, which is even more important now as children return to school is how easily, can they spread virus to others. One leading expert says likely all to easily.</s>WILLIAM HASELTINE, FORMER PROFESSOR, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL: There's every reason to suspect that this virus, even though it can kill you, behaves pretty much like a cold virus in terms of transmission. Who drives colds? Children drive colds.</s>BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Dr. William Schaffner, professor in the division of infectious disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Good to see you, Dr. Schaffner. Many questions. What Nick Valencia just reported is that a teacher was saying -- reporting that an elementary school principal in Georgia said she did not need to wear a mask in school because she would be shielded by God. As a scientist, would you like to comment on that?</s>DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASE DIVISION, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, I'm just saddened by that. The COVID virus does not respect religion. If we were shielded by a greater being, why would there be 20 million cases around the world and five million here in the United States? I don't understand that. Nick's story has me very, very concerned. Why aren't masks required in those school systems? You know, we're learning more about this virus every day. We're writing the textbook as we go along. And one of the things we've learned recently is that children can become infected. They're less likely to get seriously ill, but they can become infected. And it's looking increasingly as though they have the distribution franchise, that they can spread this virus, first of all, amongst themselves, and then they'll bring it home, spread it to their parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends, and keep the virus going in the community. So if you're not opening schools carefully, they will accelerate the spread of this virus in the community.</s>BOLDUAN: One of the reasons that this whole question of how much can children spread this virus, why it continues to come up. And it's something I feel like experts like yourself are explaining still is because the president continues to throw out unfounded claims that I'm not drawing you into politics. I do want to keep it to sane, doctor, but just yesterday he said he actually literally said they don't transfer it to other people or certainly not very easily. Look, one thing that we know is there's a lot unknown about the virus in children because Dr. Birx has said this, parents do a great job of keeping kids home at the beginning of the pandemic. So they were largely, like, out of the way and protected. And now we're learning much more. But is there anything to that concept of children certainly do not spread this virus easily?</s>SCHAFFNER: Actually, to the contrary. At the moment, the data are coming in that children do become infected and are capable of transmitting this virus. They shed a fair amount of virus, comparable to adults. We're learning as we're going along, the children were indeed, as Dr. Birx said sheltered early on, so it was not evident that they could spread this virus. But as we're opening up, having the children out in the community, they're getting infected and spreading it amongst themselves. If we're not careful about how we open these schools, as I said, they will accelerate the spread of this virus in the community.</s>BOLDUAN: Does that speak to this new reporting from the Academy of Pediatrics that they're seeing a 90 percent increase in COVID cases amongst children in the United States over the last four weeks? Is it because it has been -- children have had it, they just haven't been tested? What do you think this is?</s>SCHAFFNER: Well, children certainly haven't been tested as much in the past. We concentrated on adults. Now we're testing more children. But more importantly, children are now getting together with each other. We've seen all these vacation times, and so more exposure, more illness among children also.</s>BOLDUAN: Just as easy, I remember talking to my pediatrician who said, look, the common cold, the summer cold and flu kids would normally get wasn't happening, and now as kids are starting to hang out again and again, he's starting to see that summer cold pop up. I want to play another sound byte from Dr. Michael Osterholm about schools reopening in person. Listen.</s>DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: When school starts, both at the high school level and in college and universities, we think we're going to see an explosion of cases in September that will far surpass what we saw after Memorial Day. This is just going to continue increasing and getting higher and higher in terms of numbers.</s>BOLDUAN: Dr. Schaffner, do you share that prediction?</s>SCHAFFNER: I share Mike's concern. I'm not so sure it will be an explosion. But we will see here and there throughout the country splurges of infection. Dr. Fauci's right, we should all be wearing the mask.</s>BOLDUAN: It is not hard. That did not hurt, Dr. William Schaffner, to put that mask on. There's no pain about it. It could save your life or the life of someone you love. Dr. Schaffner, thank you.</s>SCHAFFNER: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: Coming up, Russia claims it's developed the first coronavirus vaccine. If true -- is it true, first? What does it mean for the vaccine trials in the United States? Plus, a fitness trainer in California thought COVID wasn't real and thought that he was safe because he was in good shape. Then reality hit him and he was in a coma for five days. What he wants others to learn from his mistakes.