All Students At Michigan State University Strongly Encouraged To Self-Quarantine Due To Coronavirus Outbreak On Campus
WHITFIELD: All local students at Michigan State University are being strongly encouraged to self-quarantine immediately to contain an outbreak on campus. Local officials say at least one-third of the new cases reported on campus have been traced back to parties and other social gatherings. CNN's Dianne Gallagher joining me right now. So Dianne, how challenging has it been for college administrators to keep students from large gatherings?</s>DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think we've started to see this play out across the country, Fred -- 342 people attached to Michigan State University have tested positive for COVID-19 since August 24th. Now, a Michigan State University physician issued this statement to CNN, saying that "MSU is committed to doing everything we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The safety of our entire community is a priority, and we all have a role to play in preventing the spread of the virus. This recommendation from the health department is just another tool to help us do that." That request for people to voluntarily self-isolate and quarantine is to try and prevent the spread. But like you said, people are still doing things off campus if they don't live on campus. Perhaps one of the best examples we've seen recently is this at Miami University in Ohio. It's from police bodycam video that essentially shows an officer that was driving by and saw what looked like a large gathering outside of a house. He then begins to talk to them, saying you're in violation of an order, only 10 people inside or outside. And then finds out something really unfortunately disturbing once he scans one of the resident's I.D.s.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never seen this before. There's an input on the computer that you tested positive for</s>COVID. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When was this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a week ago.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you supposed to be quarantining?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's why I'm at my house.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you have other people here and you're positive for COVID? You see the problem?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were honestly all walking by when we were out here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many other people have COVID?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They all do.</s>GALLAGHER: So there were six students from Miami University in Ohio who were cited for violating that mass gathering order in the city. That's a fine of at least $500, Fred. We talked to Miami University. They wouldn't go into the details of what's going to happen to those students but did say that violating quarantine or that mass gathering ordinance would cause them to face disciplinary action.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for that. So it must be pretty baffling for any local or state leader who has been trying to convince people to wear face masks and then hear this portion of the recorded Bob Woodward interview with President Trump.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now it's turning out it's not just old people, Bob. But just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just older --</s>BOB WOODWARD, JOURNALIST: Yes, exactly.</s>TRUMP: It's plenty of young people. Well, I think, Bob, really, to be honest with you --</s>WOODWARD: Sure, I want you to be.</s>TRUMP: I wanted to, I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down.</s>WOODWARD: Yes.</s>TRUMP: Because I don't want to create a panic.</s>WHITFIELD: I want to bring in now Kelly Girtz. He is the mayor of Athens, Georgia, and has been critical of the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp's battle against local leaders being able to enact face mask rules. So Mayor, good to see you. Your reaction to what you are hearing coming from the president of the United States?</s>MAYOR KELLY GIRTZ (D), ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY, GEORGIA: It's frustrating to the extreme, Fredricka. I really appreciate you having me on. Local leaders are doing everything we can in Georgia to contain the spread. We certainly are asking for smart individual behavior, but we also have to have smart institutional behavior, and that means statewide and nationwide. I had an opportunity to be in a conference earlier this year with George W. Bush, speaking about his experience after 9/11, and of course yesterday was the 19th anniversary of that tragic episode. And while I didn't support him as a president, he said something really smart about what it takes to be a good leader in times like this. And he said that you have to be empathetic, and you also have to be very honest with people about the challenges. And on the national level we've seen a failure in both of those arenas. This president is not empathetic and he also is not being frank with the American public, and unfortunately that's bled down to leaders like Governor Kemp, and that's had an impact on the local level here. Athens is a city that all through the summer had lower case counts and lower death count per capita than any other metro area in the state, but in this last month we've seen this dramatic spike.</s>WHITFIELD: I was going to say, you attribute the more impressive numbers to the fact that you have been trying to encourage people to wear masks for a very long time. What do you think explains the most recent spike?</s>GIRTZ: Clearly, it's the return to campus of large numbers of students who are not here through the summertime. We're a city of 130,000. We probably had an influx of 20,000 or 25,000 students here just in the last month. And of course, it's being replicated across the country. You see it in Oxford, Mississippi, in Columbia, Missouri, in Pullman, Washington, other metro areas that, sadly, are on this rising case count spike in recent weeks. But, again, what we need is coordination. We need state leaders and national leaders who will say we need some common restrictions, some common understandings of what is good. Here in Georgia, the size restriction even on an interior gathering is 50 persons, much too high for the circumstances here.</s>WHITFIELD: But while you have been firm about advocating for people distancing and wearing a mask, that is your city of Athens. With the University of Georgia, being Athens is its home, do you see any real coordination, successful coordination that you might be able to have with the campus leadership?</s>GIRTZ: I've been in constant contact with campus leadership. And of course, they're guided by statewide leadership. And if you compare them to, say, some of the institutions in communities that have had much lower case count, they're simply allowing more activity, creating an environment for more activity. Before I moved into this office a year-and-a-half ago I worked with teenagers for 20 years. We know a lot about the young mind, we know a lot about young people's emotionality and libido, and certainly young people are going to do the things that young people do. And so we need to create the underlying conditions that keep people safe. And so that means very low allowance of gatherings, and really as much digital or online activity as possible. And so if you look at University of Virginia or University of North Carolina, Charlottesville or Chapel Hill, they've seen per capita much lower case counts because statewide leaders were able to enable local leaders to make those kinds of decisions.</s>WHITFIELD: Mayor Kelly Girtz of Athens, Georgia, thank you so much. All the best to you.</s>GIRTZ: Thank you, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: Up next, AstraZeneca resumes coronavirus vaccine trials in the United Kingdom after an unexpected delay. Plus, a CNN exclusive, an inside look at vaccine research in Russia, why a critical development is getting mixed reaction.