Transcripts For CNNW Coronavirus Facts And Fears A CNN Global Town Hall 20200412

Tonight, cdc director dr. Robert redfield will be joining us to answer your questions about coronavirus. Also about what needs to happen before the country can reopen. Multiple sources tell cnn the white house is looking at a date as early as may 1st, though it may be later. Just this evening President Trump told our jim accosta during the coronavirus News Conference there will not be mass coronavirus testing for all americans as the country goes back to work. Quoting the president , were talking about 325 Million People. Thats not going to happen, as you can imagine. We will talk to dr. Redfield about that. Also joining us, nba hall of famer Magic Johnson about why the coronavirus affects africanamericans disproportionately. And pastor rick warren about faith and hope heading into the easter weekend. Tweet us your questions with cnntownhall and leave a comment on the cnn facebook page. A lot of you have sent in video questions. Well get to as many as we can. We also have reports from across the country and around the world how those at home and abroad are fighting the virus. I want to start with this country and where we are in the fight against the virus. The death count increases dramatically every day. According to Johns Hopkins university, 1,161 people died today. Total dead, 16,478. Hard to believe. At least 460,437 people infected in the United States alone. Health Officials Say this week will be the deadliest of the pandemic yet. And what we do in the coming days and weeks may define how we live for the foreseeable future. The United States just had its deadliest day yet from coronavirus. Theres been a shift in a key models predictions for the death toll. The states governor says there are signs that social distancing is working. The cdc is urging americans to keep it up or risk losing any progress that we are making. There are now more than 450,000 cases of the coronavirus in the u. S. More than 16,000 people have died because of the virus. This is going to be our pearl harbor moment, our 9 11 moment, only its not going to be localized. Its going to be happening all over the country. More than 97 of the country continues some form of social distancing efforts. With new evidence that it is working. Updated models show the death toll in the u. S. Might not be as high as the white house initially feared. The numbers are going to be much, much, much, much lower than what had been predicted by the models. Still, the White House Task force warns of hot spots around the country. Washington, d. C. , baltimore, philadelphia, and houston may be next. Despite some positive trends, new york had its highest number of deaths so far this week. Officials warn now is not the time to ease up. What we do affects the number of cases. Our behavior affects the number of cases. Were generating the cases. There are encouraging signs here and around the world. After 76 days of lockdown, wuhan has reopened. Several European Countries may follow later this month. But for the u. S. , there is no clear timetable on when it may be safe to go back to some sense of normalcy. We are doing a very good job on mitigation on the physical separation. Weve got to continue in many respects to redouble our efforts at mitigation of physical separation in order to keep those numbers down. That is the message from Health Officials this week. Selfdistancing is working, but we need to keep working particularly as i said earlier during what many Health Officials believe will be the deadliest week of the pandemic. Sanjay, we talked about what weve learned and still need to find out about the virus. What do you think weve learned this week . One of the most common questions were getting, anderson, when are things going to return to some sense of normalcy . People are stir crazy, theyre home bound. By the way, how are you doing, anderson . Are you doing okay with the stayathome orders . Yeah. Im able to work, which is a great blessing and i feel very lucky to do that and privileged to do that. So it at least gives me something to focus on each day as otherwise, yeah, i would be going kind of stir crazy. You know, its interesting, people look at the numbers. Were going to talk a lot about this tonight. Keep in mind, between the time someone is exposed with this virus to the time they develop symptoms, on average about five days. Between symptoms and if they have to go to the hospital, a small percentage will, its about another ten days after that. And then another week, sadly, if someone dies. The point is this. When you look at these numbers, anderson, theyre sort of giving us a snapshot of how things were two to three weeks ago. How we behave now is going to determine what things look like two to three weeks from now. As weve always said, anderson, every single town hall, we have to behave like we have the virus. How we behave now, how i behave directly affects you, and how you behave directly affects me. That hasnt changed and i hope we dont take our foot off the pedal with regard to what has seemed to be working so well so far. We are still all in this together. Lets get our reporters around the globe starting with erica hill reporting from the epicenter of the pandemic, new york. Where are other hot spots emerging . Reporter so this week the task force, dr. Birx, actually, noted that there were concerns about houston, washington, d. C. , baltimore, and philadelphia as potential hot spots. The mayor of baltimore just a short time ago on cnn saying they are ready. Theyve been preparing. They dont feel theyre a hot spot yet and theyre hoping and praying that doesnt happen. Officials from philadelphia are actually pushing back a little bit on that classification. The mayor saying theyre grateful for the attention, especially if it means more ppe, more equipment, perhaps staff to help their overloaded medical staff. And the Health Commissioner for philadelphia saying he doesnt say that theyre out of the woods, but that he likes what hes seen over the last couple of days and he thinks that they are actually in a better place and hes a little bit more optimistic these days. Erica, you know, people heard about this outbreak within the Cook County Jail in chicago. What have you heard about that . Reporter the numbers are staggering and i think its the numbers that really grab everyones attention. So 400 positive cases, 251 of those are detainees. We know at least one detainee has died. 22 are hospitalized and theres been a lot of concerns about jails and prisons around the country. The cook county board president saying that jails, in their words, are like petri dishes. Also there are a lot of questions about schools tonight. Moments ago floridas governor said that he might start reopening schools on a countybycounty basis. On the flip side in california, some local authorities are predicting some events may not resume until this fall. Reporter youre right. In Santa Clara County they said good luck seeing sports before thanksgiving if youre lucky. Just trying to temper everybodys expectations. When it comes to florida, the governor there said a short time ago he may consider opening county by county. In his words, the virus doesnt threaten children and no one under 25 has died. Of course, that is not true. We know from the figures people under 25 have died. Its not just children who will be in schools, its adults of all ages who will be there as staff and teachers, we should point out everything is different around the country. As you hear this in florida in missouri this afternoon, the governor there saying schools are closed through the end of the academic year. In connecticut it goes through may 20th and could be beyond. Erica hill, thank you. And china has begun reopening its country, including the source of the virus, wuhan. For more lets go to david culver in shanghai. So last night you showed us the app the Chinese Government uses to track people in the country. Its incredibly detailed and personal and invasive. Can you explain how you signed up for the app . How is it used . Reporter yeah, let me walk you through that, anderson. Ive been getting a lot of questions. This is the qr code, a bar code equivalent that i have. Its really specific to me and everyone who is registered for one has something just like that. You have to use it to get into places like hotels, restaurants, shopping malls. Its your golden key, essentially. Let me show you to when i arrived in shanghai. I dont think i fully realized it at the time. Thats what i was signing up for along with every Single Person that got off the train. You go through a line, they monitor your temperature. Youre met with folks in hazmat suits. They ask for your national i. D. Card, i hand over my passport. Its linked to not only your passport number, but also your cell phone number so they can continue to track you. And i can show you how its used if you are headed into, for example, a space like a hotel. As soon as you walk in, theyve set up tables that naturally have the temperature screening, the Hand Sanitizer and they ask to see your app. You open it up in realtime because people have been screen shotting them. They figured out a workaround to avoid that. You have to push a button and show it time stamped. They check it, verify it and let you in. Incredibly invasive. I dont know if it can happen in other parts of the world. Though it is their way of tracing and tracking. Have they done a test on you and did they do a nasal swab test on you and you passed that and, therefore, every time they check your temperature they assume you havent gotten infected . How do they know youre not infected . Reporter thats a good question. Incredibly, i have not been tested, even though i was actually in wuhan ahead of the lockdown and did 14 days of quarantine and have subsequently been here in shanghai. Ive not been tested. Thats not part of this. The idea here is that they can determine whether or not youve been around somebody who is a confirmed case. Thats using some of the geolocations, tracking on the cell phone and they can specify if youre on a train, one end of the carriage or in a separate car from a confirmed case. Depending on how far you were or how close you are to that confirmed case, they can then change your bar code, your qr, to a yellow or red and you can then go into selfisolation or government quarantine. Thats incredible that they can i mean, thats a level of surveillance which obviously does not exist here. And i think could not exist. I think david would agree with that. Hes lived in both places, china and here. Its interesting because a lot of people do look to china, david, to sort of get an idea of how things are going to transpire here. So to that, what are the latest numbers the Chinese Government has released on the virus . Ive seen sometimes its trending upward, but the government feels confident enough, i read, for shanghai schools to reopen now . Reporter that was a significant announcement that was made just this week. Shanghai schools, youre talking about a city here of 24plus Million People. So its the largest city. It was set at the end of april, april 27th, that they have decided to start this phased reopening of schools. Theyre going to do it in batches, sanjay. Theyll essentially let those who are seniors go back first, and then entering may theyll start to allow universities to apply to reopen, and some of the other students to then resume classes. But as far as the numbers are concerned, were looking at more than 81,000 cases total. All of this, of course, according to the National Health commission or the Chinese Government, its met with heavy skepticism because they list the total deaths at 3,300. And as we start to see the numbers really skyrocket in europe and in the u. S. , that is met with increasing skepticism. I think folks simply cant believe it is adding up to that. But they also stress the recovery number of some 77,000. So that leaves roughly 1,100 active cases. David culver, thanks very much, appreciate it. Its fascinating to see that. Sanjay, i should point out i coughed a couple times. I dont have any symptoms. I think its a little asthma thing late at night or during the evening. Just want to say that. All right. Into your elbow. I couldnt see you i did, the back of my hand. Okay. Im going to go to london now for the latest on the European Countries attempts. Also the update on Boris Johnson who was rushed to intensive care monday after his coronavirus condition worsened. Hes supposed to be doing better right now, right, christiane . Apparently so. The government said hes doing well enough to be moved from icu and go back to a hospital ward. Obviously theres been no contact. None of the government Officials Say theyve spoken to him, nor have there been any pictures. So were taking their daily word for it. But it seems that he has at least been removed from the icu. On the other hand, very, very sadly, a doctor who had posted a few days ago a letter pleading with the Prime Minister to make sure front line medical workers get the gear they need, the ppe gear, he died. The reports are that he has just died. So thats really very sad. And really, its the story of the entire crisis, isnt it, is the front line workers who simply do not have what they need to be properly prepared and properly armed soldiers in this war. So thats really a very difficult thing for everybody to, you know, to deal with. And they are the most exposed because you see these health care workers. They cannot social distance, physically distance in hospitals. Thats where the virus is circulating. You know, christiane, people have been paying attention to germany, ive been following germany closely. They said there is a possible gradual return after easter if people follow the current restrictions. Is that what youre hearing . How is that being received over there . Yeah, well, look, you know, its not just germany. Its actually denmark, its norway, its several other countries who have said that they are seeing that the curve is flattened. That theyve reached their peak and certain countries have said weve got it under control. Like norway said we have it under control. And we are going to start opening schools. You just heard david talk about schools in shanghai. Its obviously schools because of young kids that are the experimental first to break out of this lockdown. So theyre going to start doing that in norway on april 20th. And in germany they said perhaps if they could sometime after easter. But they are also looking very carefully because they dont want to open up and then suddenly see a spike. So when i asked the norwegian Prime Minister whats your plan b, they said theyre going to monitor it very, very carefully and, you know, really react very, very fast if there is any sort of deterioration after even a partial opening. Here in great britain, thats not the case at all. Britain was slower than the rest of europe. The United States has been slower than the whole lot put together. So you can see how this is progressing. But they do, you know, theyre watching it very, very carefully and some say that they do have it under control. But as youve been talking about, germany was big on testing, wasnt it . It was huge on testing proportionately. Yeah. And that really helped them. Yeah. Christiane amanpour, thank you very much. Sanjay, were going to take a break. When we return, dr. Robert redfield is going to join us to answer your questions. Hello, son. Dad not cool. You know whats not uncool . Old spice after hours. And jazz. Dad, i prefer ultra smooth, it handles sweat without all that. Jazz. Youre right son. [female vo] restaurants are our family. The cornerstone of our communities. And our family needs help. Right now theyre facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to help them through. Because if we dont treat restaurants like family today. They might not be around to treat us like family tomorrow. Grubhub. Together, we can help save the restaurants we love. I have always wanted to be a teacher. Ive been teaching for over 20 years. With everything going on, weve had to alter our classroom settings. We have to transition into virtual learning. On the network, we can have teachers facetoface with a student in livetime. They can raise their hand and ask questions. They can type questions. We just need to make sure that the education is continuing. vo at verizon, were here and were ready to keep students and teachers connected to the world. Thats why verizon and the New York Times are offering 14 Million Students free Digital Access to times journalism. The heroic doctors and nurses on the front lines. The 7,000 cigna clinicians beside them. And everyone staying home to protect others. We will get through this together. For the same medications as the vet, but up to 30 percent less with fast free shipping. Visit petmeds. Com today. As we reported at the top of the show, the administration is now looking toward reopening the economy. As health Officials Say we need to continue to selfdistance to further reduce the toll of the coronavirus, we want to talk about where we are in the pandemic and what needs to happen from a medical standpoint in order to return to some sense of normalcy. Joining us for that and to answer your questions, dr. Robert redfield from the centers for Disease Control and prevention. Thank you for joining us. Before we get to viewer questions, sanjay and i had questions for you. Im curious about the timeline for reopening and reducing social distancing restrictions, thats up to the president. But from a medical standpoint, what are some things that need to be in place before, you know, from a science standpoint that would be recommended . Yes, thank you very much. Obviously its really, really important to get our nation back to work. One of the critical things clearly has been the aggressive social distancing that weve done. And i want to take a second to thank all of americans that have really been vigilant in putting that into action. I think were seeing the consequence of that when we see our mortality rate is really a lot lower than would have been predicted and it really shows that this mitigation works. Clearly as we move to reopen, and i think were coming to the peak as we sit here today, were able to see the other side of the curve and well see this outbreak continue to decline over the weeks ahead. We need a couple things. One is we need to understand the extent of the transmission of the virus and this can be very different in different parts of the nation. So its not going to be one size fits all. Its going to be using the data that we have from surveillance to really understand where it is the most important places for us to begin to reopen. We really have to have that Public Health infrastructure augmented and we at cdc are working hard to get that so that when we open up the government, we open it up for good. We are able to maintain our aggressive Public Health response of early case identification, isolation, and Contact Tracing so that we dont get back into this wide Scale Community transmission where we end up with these significant mitigation steps which weve been through. We need to really make sure our Health Facilities are prepared. And finally, weve got to build within the community the sense of confidence that its the time to get back. Its a time to go back to work, a time to open up some of the businesses. So those are really the four most critical elements that were working and planning on now with the anticipation of beginning to reopen our nation one region at a time and get us all back to work and get prepared for next year, which will be another challenging time. But i want to be able to have it so that we respond to it next year with the fundamentals of Public Health, early case identification, isolation Contact Tracing. We dont have to go to the serious mitigation steps that were taking to get us under control today. So thats crucial, getting testing, more testing, Contact Tracing because right now the last time i talked to dr. Fauci, he was saying a lot of states, they dont really have the Contact Tracing in place that would be necessary. Yeah, were really were in the process of working to augment the capacity, as you know, that cdc provides, a significant portion of the funding for all of our state, local, territorial, and Tribal Health departments across the entire nation. Its really true. I think we have to be direct and honest about it over the last ten, 20, 30 years, we have underinvested in Public Health in this nation. Were in the position now of preparing a significant expansion of local Public Health capacity so that we can operationalize this. Cdc has well over 500 people in the 50 states that are there. Were planning to expand that substantially to have a Public Health Response Team that can facilitate when diagnosis are made, that aggressive Contact Tracing thats going to be so important when we begin to open up to make sure that we open up for good. Right, got it. And just to emphasize that point, dr. Redfield, i have heard that in order to do adequate Contact Tracing, you would need and this is a quote an army of some 300,000 people around the country at the Community Level to actually do this effectively. 300,000 people. Thats a lot. Are we anywhere near close to that . Yeah, sanjay, i dont think thats the estimates that we have right now. I think if we were trying to do this in the midst of a massive transmission period, it may be more substantial. I do think its going to take a substantial enhancement, but i dont think thats quite the magnitude that we think at this moment in time. Obviously were going to as the going back to work starts in different areas, were going to be operationalizing this and learning along the way. But it is going to take a deep commitment to the principles of Public Health and having the workforce to actually execute that. And were working to get that accomplished as we speak. In massachusetts, i think theyre doing a Sample Program i think they hired about 1,000 people to do Contact Tracing right now with the Public Health department. My understanding is for Contact Tracing, they leave it up to the person who is positive whether its for this virus or something else, to Contact People they may have encountered. For actual Contact Tracing, thats not good enough, is it . No, i think were going to were going to have, i think, a very robust Public Health supervised Contact Tracing. Again, remember, sanjay, its going to depend upon the extent of the infections we have as we open up. I think were going to see a substantial decline in the number of new infections were seeing across this country as we open up. Obviously those jurisdictions that are late and still increasing are not going to be the first ones that we open up. So more recently you can see philadelphia, baltimore, washington. You can look at other jurisdictions now that are way down on the down curve. And well be looking at this data to do very strategic, very surgical opening up with those Public Health assets to make sure its successful. Dr. Redfield, i think americans have heard so many different numbers over the past couple of months. I think when you and i spoke in february there were some models suggesting that 1 million to 2 Million People could lose their lives to this virus. Weve heard 100,000 to 240,000 recently from the white house. The university of washington model now saying 60,000. Its really all over the map, so to speak, dr. Redfield. Do you believe that the numbers have come down that significantly to 60,000 from where you and i spoke back in february . You know, sanjay, thats what the tribute to the American Public is. Ive said this before. As you know, we have one of the most powerful weapons against this virus. Were not defenseless. And that weapon was the social distance and is the social distancing. This virus has a very significant weakness. It cant swim seven feet. If we can just maximize that social distancing, we can limit this virus ability. Many people didnt predict and the modelers for sure didnt predict for sure that the majority of American People would embrace that social distancing. And what ive said, when all of us try to do behavior modification, whether its what we eat, exercise, you know, whether cigarette smoking, whatever it is for our own health, were not very good at that. But i can tell you, ive been really unbelievably amazed and gratified by the commitment of the American People. When their behavior modification wasnt for their own health, their behavior modification was to protect a life of somebody else. Yeah. And weve really seen the American Public go in to protect the vulnerable. And thats why these numbers are down. And the American Public should take credit for that. Dr. Redfield, the president said today there would not be mass testing for all americans as the country goes back to work. Ive talked to a lot of scientists and epidemiologists who say there has to be widespread testing and also pretty immediate results in order to give people confidence that the person in the cubicle next to them, you know, the cough they have, its just a regular cough and its not coronavirus. So doesnt there have to be really widespread testing and immediate testing in addition to Antibody Testing . I think there has to be continued expansion in testing, which is continued. But i think its important, sanjay, you know, one of the things that was really critical that we really werent blind even before we had widescale testing the cdc and the Public Health system of this nation has developed a variety of Surveillance Systems for flu. If you look at our influenza viral reporting system and you go back and look at it, you can really learn a lot about what is going on with this coronavirus. So if we have continued flulike illness, then obviously very expansive testing is going to be necessary. If we have very limited flulike illness, then i would argue its that case identification, the isolation and the Contact Tracing and showing that we can really eliminate these clusters, which is going to get the confidence of the American People. Clearly, as we also do the serology testing, well get an understanding of the full extent of the infection of the population. But i think it will really depend on the extent of respiratory illness thats going on at the time. I think were going to see a marked decline in respiratory illness, and were going to get back to the basics of Public Health, contact case identification, Contact Tracing, isolation, and thats whats going to drive the American Public to see that theres not significant circulation of this virus in their community. And while they get that confidence, then they will be able to embrace that confidence in the actions that they choose to take as we get back to work. Dr. Redfield, wed like to get to some of the viewer questions as well. Scott robinson in medina, new york, sent in this video. Take a look. I think a lot of people are wondering if its safer to stay in the hardhit area and follow the strict guidelines or to leave if you can and isolate for a twoweek period since you might have become exposed to the virus along the way. Would leaving even be permissible as essential travel . Could you hear that, dr. Redfield . Sanjay, could you repeat could you repeat it a little . Im having a little earphone problem. No problem. Basically the question was should you say, as things stand now, is it better to stay in a hardhit area and strictly follow the guidelines or to try and leave if you can and isolate for a couple of weeks knowing that you might pick up the virus while traveling . Well, i think its really important to embrace these guidelines, the 30 days we put out to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Clearly when it comes to those areas and i didnt quite hear the whole question. But if its related to people traveling from an area that we had suggested they should isolate 14 days, for example, in new york connecticut area, new jersey area, we do think its really important for those individuals to isolate for 14 days unless theyre in a Critical Infrastructure job that they need to do, and weve recently issued guidelines there how those individuals, if theyre asymptomatic, if they dont have a temperature and theyre in a Critical Infrastructure job, you know, whether its First Responders or whether its really in the Grocery Store or in the food industry, these individuals can go back as long as they wear a mask and monitor themselves for illness. If they do get ill, they go home for 14 days. Im not sure i quite heard the question. Im having an earpiece problem. I tried to do the best i could. No problem. Ricky from georgia says, whats the racial breakdown of covid19 cases and deaths . What percentage of each racial group has been affected, black, white, asian, et cetera . Yeah, i think this is really an important question. As we get firmer on all the data and it gets more complete, to look at how this virus is affecting not just different geographic areas, but obviously different demographic, where its age, as we know, or if its individuals that have comorbidities or if its based on race. We have seen in our nation, and i think we talked about this before, sanjay, the Health Care Disparity that exists in this country. Clearly this virus, for most individuals who get it, theyre going to recover. Over 98. 5 to 99 of people are going to recover. The group that has the challenge, that has significant comorbidities, gets in hospitalizations, intensive care, and even death are those that have significant comorbidities. Medical comorbidities. The most important ones are diabetes, hypertension, Reactive Airway disease like asthma, obesity. So if this virus, then if theres Health Disparities already in a population where there may be a greater proportion of diabetics or hypertension, or asthma and reactive air disease, or obesity, these individuals are at greater risk. The data that we have now clearly does show that minority populations appear to be having a greater risk for complications. I want to emphasize, this virus, in our view, does not discriminate who it infects. It can affect all of us. But where there is a difference in its ability to cause significant mortality and morbidity, and that is going to be in excess in individuals that have Health Disparities for those preconditions that i mentioned. Diabetes, hypertension, and asthma, active airway disease, obesity. We are digging deep to get into the data with complete data sets. We dont want to come out with partial data sets that are not complete so that we would come up with a different interpretation. But i can tell you cdc is working together with the states and territories to have complete data sets so we can get a better handle on exactly what that difference is. To that point, the federal government hasnt released national data. Weve seen statistics from some states and cities and weve seen thats how weve seen the disproportionate impact of africanamericans, and its shocking. Louisiana, 70 of covid19 victims are african americans. They makeup only 33 of the population. Can you give a specific date when the cdc is going to release more complete demographic information . Because from what i understand, none of it has come from the cdc yet. Yeah, as i said, were working very hard to get this data complete. You know, were subject to the data to come in and get reported to us from the different states and territories. This is an important issue. Were looking at it critically to get out really that national data. And i can tell you as soon as we get that data in a manner which we think is rigorous and complete, were going to release that to the American Public. Lets see if we can get to another viewer question here. This is from Brenda Barrett and it reads this, dr. Redfield. It says, President Trump is promoting hydroxychloroquine as a preemptive drug against coronavirus. If there is a huge uptick of that medication, will there be enough of it for those of us who need it for things like lupus and severe arthritis . How worried are you . You know, sanjay, i think you know this as well as i. I went through the early days of my career taking care of men and women that were trying to live life with hiv. Clearly we have the ability as physicians to use approved drugs for nonapproved indications. Related to hydroxyurea, this is a decision between the physician and the patient. Clearly there is some Laboratory Data that shows activity. As you know, that Laboratory Data doesnt necessarily translate to clinical benefit. Theres a number of Clinical Trials that are ongoing that i think will be rigorous and answer that question definitively. But in the meantime, this is going to be a personal decision that a physician and a patient will make about whether they choose to use hydroxyurea for an offlabel indication. I think we just have to see can i just ask, dr. Redfield, because i hear that quite a bit. Im a physician and people ask me. Frankly, i dont know because there isnt data and i would typically say no. You know, i want data. Youre a doctor. Its a decision between doctor and patient. Would you recommend it to a patient . Yeah, im not going to recommend it and not going to not recommend it. I think, you know, sanjay, you and i are very similar. And my friend dr. Fauci, were very comfortable in responding when we have data that is compelling. And i think this is where the studies are going to give it. Cdc is an organization, as you know, you and i have talked about it before. Were not an opinion organization. Were a sciencebased data driven organization. So i do think this is going to be an independent decision of these Health Care Providers and patients and that at this stage, this moment in time, were not recommending it, but were not not recommending it. Were recommending for the physician and patient to have that discussion. Is there a danger i mean, you worked, i know, a lot, did a lot of really important work in hiv aids. Isnt there a danger with a drug like azt, a lot of gay men tried azt thinking and wanted it rushed into use and fought for that, and it ended up killing a lot of people, didnt it . I mean, isnt there a danger in rushing to something without the science . Yeah, i think thats a great analogy. Its something that i lived through. Its something that we saw. And i think if people look back in retrospect, a lot of that monotherapy azt decision was premature. I mean, that Clinical Trial had disproportional dropout rates, as you know, between the two arms, suggestive that people figured out what arm they were in. It didnt have significant pneumocystis prophylaxis, which is the primary endpoint. This is why i think from a scientific point of view, from a datadriven point of view, the way to do this is to do the appropriate trials and get the answer. Dr. Redfield, we appreciate your time and all your efforts on peoples behalf. Thank you very much. Thank you both, anderson and sanjay. Thanks, god bless. Byebye. Up next well talk with a california man who has recovered from the virus and whose plasma is now being used to treat some pandemic patients. Well be right back. Time ever you can watch the brand new Trolls World Tour movie. Wait for it. At home. What . What . What . Oooh what a troll. Watch now on the apple tv app. 100 online car buying. Carvanas had a lot of firsts. Car vending machines. And now, putting you in control of your financing. At carvana, get personalized terms, browse for cars that fit your budget, then customize your down payment and monthly payment. And these arent madeup numbers. Its what youll really pay, right down to the penny. Whether youre shopping or just looking. It only takes a few seconds, and it wont affect your credit score. Finally a totally different way to finance your ride. Only from carvana. The new way to buy a car. My time is thin, but so is my lawn. Its been worn down to ugly, thin grass now, theres scotts thickr lawn. The revolutionary 3in1 solution for weak lawns. With a soil improver to strengthen roots. Seed to fill in gaps. And fertilizer to feed. The result, up to a 50 thickr lawn after just one application. Get everything you need for spring at scotts. Com order today. burke atthat can happen to your wehome. Or car. T everything and we covered it all. Ah, memory lane sure has a lot of accidents. We know a thing or two about bundling and saving. So get a quote today. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum welcome back to our cnn global town hall. Sanjay, we were talking to the head of the cdc, i wonder what you made of his comments. Obviously hes in a position of trying to focus on the science when obviously theres other considerations on the task force. Look, that last point that he was being asked about, would you recommend this medication, i think its such a crucial point. Its one of the questions that we get so much. You heard his answer. I wouldnt recommend it, but i wouldnt not recommend it as well. Which, you know, it obviously doesnt offer a lot of clarity to people. I think theres a lot of doctors who are and Health Care Professionals trying to decide whether to give that medication. The answer is we dont know. And as you pointed out, that was an important example you gave. There can be real concerns about side effects here. Theres been three cardiology associations came out and said they urged a lot of caution with hydroxychloroquine. So i think we just have to keep asking about that. People want a treatment, but we dont have the evidence yet. Much of the conversation about lifting restrictions around the Country Centers around treatments, therapies, and ultimately obviously a vaccine. In that regard i want to bring in jason garcia, fully recovered coronavirus patient. His plasma is being used to treat covid19 patients currently battling the disease. Jason, great to have you here. You experienced some of these challenges thank you. Falling ill with the virus. And then to see it turn into something hopefully potentially saving other peoples lives, thats got to be an extraordinary feeling. Yeah, it is. I cant you know, you described it perfectly. Thats just exactly how i felt. I understand as well, jason, you were actually the first plasma donor on the west coast. A lot of people are hearing about this idea of convalescent plasma now. Can you talk us through the process . How did it work . Yeah. So its essentially youre given blood. They take the blood, it goes through a machine, they separate it out, put the blood back in. They collect the plasma which has the antibodies and a special protein. Since i fought it off, i recovered successfully, we use antibodies can help other patients who quite havent had the immune response and arent responding well to the disease. Theyll use my plasma, which has essentially antibodies to help assist in the fight. Jason, i know other people who have had this, who want to do this as well. Was it painful at all, just for others considering volunteering for Something Like this . Not at all. I mean, if youre comfortable giving blood, donating blood, its easy. Its that simple. There is an extra iv involved because not only are they drawing blood out, theyre putting blood back into your system. Youre hooked up to a machine. It takes 45, 50 minutes. So its really, its really if youre donating blood, or donated blood before, its as simple as that and you can possibly save a life and help. I know that i mean, youre not a scientist, jason. Im sure youve talked to the doctors about this whole process. Theres lots of different types of potential treatments out there. Do you have any sense of how hopeful they are, you are about the fact that this might actually work . I think everyones being positive about it. Theyre hopeful i mean, i know theres history on convalescent plasma therapy. The unknown is we dont know how well patients are going to respond with this virus with convalescent plasma therapy. I think thats kind of what theyre doing with the initial trials. So hopefully it is something that can get us by in the meantime until a vaccine gets made. Jason garcia, we appreciate what youre doing. And i hope a lot of other folks will be able to follow your lead. Thank you so much. A reminder, at the bottom of your screen, youll see our social media scroll that shows the questions people are asking. Tweet us your questions with cnntownhall. You can also leave a comment on the cnn facebook page. Back now with sanjay and also want to bring in our cnn medical analyst and clinical assistant professor of diseases at nyu medical school and bellevue hospital. Doctor, plasma is used when new diseases or infections develop quickly and there are no treatments or vaccines developed. Are you hopeful it can bridge the gap until there is a vaccine . Anderson, this is an approach used really since the turn of the 20th century to treat anything from measles to most recently weve tried it with ebola. Its had varying success. So it seems to work better for diseases like measles and influenza. Did not work so well for ebola. I think one major limiting issue is, this really does depend on people donating blood. And the amount of convalescent serum that you get from any one person is not a huge amount. And so if youre talking about treating thousands of people across the country, i do have very serious concerns. Even if it works, which we have yet to definitively prove, that we can scale this up in a meaningful way. Doctor, i want to ask you about what we heard from dr. Redfield. The other issue sanjay, you can weigh in on this as well is testing. Obviously the president has said, look, there is not going to be everybody in the country tested. But at the same time, every epidemiologist ive talked to says testing is, i think the governor has called it the bridge, others have called it the lock to open up the economy, and Contact Tracing, really none of which is in place at the level that all the epidemiologists ive talked to thus far seem to think it needs to be state by state. Sanjay, what do you think . I agree. I think it is pretty clear that we dont have. The testing is ramped up, but you have to apply it uniformly. As we go through the curve, one of the things will be we are capable of reopening the country, but it will be to trace and test and see if we have a treatment. Celine, with flu in any given year, i think they say 29 or 39 Million People get the flu, but fewer than 100,000 tests are done so they extrapolate. Do you think that is likely to happen . Thats what we call the influenzalike illness. Thats what we do. Thats how we are picking up there is probably coronavirus transmission occurring in other parts of the country that dont have the testing capacity. But you cant differentiate who has the flu and who has coronavirus. For example, you were asking about convalescent serum, how can they know who to get that from if you havent tested. You will have to do mass testing to see who might be a donor and if they agree to donate. Lets look at this video. We are self isolating in our homes to avoid catching or spreading the virus. Many people will remain healthy using this strategy. When the time comes we can once again resume normal activity, we will have no immunity to the virus which will not miraculously disappear. What will prevent us from becoming the next wave of victims. Thats an important point. When we think about this curve and getting through this, there is a good chance, according to some of the models, that 95 of the country will still not be immune to this virus and its still circulating. It gets back to the same issue. As it comes back to the curve, can we address this by testing people and making sure they can context isolate the person and trace their context. Until we have a vaccine, this is a good one. The only other thing that can happen, like 1918, lots and lots of people become infected, people get sick and it overwhelms the health care system. Thats why as we come through the curve we have to have these strategies in place. Susan scott sent in this video. I have heard all kinds of things like mike wavicro waving leaving them out in the son. Do the masks need to be cleaned after each use . When you come home, remove it from the ties behind your ears. You have to assume that the exterior of the mask could be contaminated with virus. Cloth masks, its great to just wash them. Have your washing machine open, toss it in. Maybe if you have a couple of them, you wont have to wash every day. When you have a load of those, wash. We asked you to do a quick tutorial about how to make a mask. How to make a mask. Take a bandana and fold it. As im showing this, remember you dont want to take a hospital workers mask. You should wear the mask going in public but only if you cant social distance, no need to wear it if you are walking by yourself. Also, remember you are doing this to prevent you from giving the virus to other people. You have to act like we have the virus. It doesnt protect you, but protects other people. This is going to be a key move right here. Fold one end and tuck it inside the other. This is not going to be a fashion statement. There you go and there is my bandana. Keeps me from spreading the virus. Take it off, pretend the bandana is contaminated. If you have a mask like this, y this is one my daughter made me you will have to untie like this and put it in the laundry. A lot of people have these, but here is the problem, a lot of people continuously adjust them. Most of all, stay home as much as possible. Wear a mask if you are going to be in a place where you cant socially distance. Stay safe, everybody. We all know the mask making abilities in your home belong to your daughter. Sanjay sent me a picture of the mask his daughter made for me. I am so excited to receive this. I love it. Its like kids pajamas from the 70s. I am sure i had those pajamas as a kid. My daughter thought a lot about this. She loves you and watches you. There is a whole story behind it which i will share with you when i send you the mask. She made bandana ties. I will wear this mask everywhere. Then you will happy protect people. And i will look stylish at the same time. This next question comes from one of your podcast listeners. 9yearold declan. How about people who are disrespecting us by inviting us over to parties and social gatherings. One of the most respectful 9yearolds. As dr. Redfield said, if you dont think about abiding by these policies for yourself, think about your loved ones, if you go out and bring the virus home, you could infect the people you love. Hopefully thats inspiration enough. Thats what i tell my kids. Thank you, dr. Grounder. I appreciate your expertise. We have a lot more ahead. We are going to speak with Magic Johnson who is living with hiv. And we will talk to a doctor from the World Health Organization and we will talk with pastor rick moore about faith as the easter weekend approaches. Stay with us. At papa johns, we want you to know that from our 450degree oven, to box, to you, its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. Trust us. Us kids are ready to take things into our own hands. Dont think so . Hold my pouch. Allstate hcatastrophesing custofor 89 years. We move quickly and put people first. As the coronavirus is keeping Many Americans at home, we are driving less and having fewer accidents. So we created the shelterinplace payback to give our Auto Insurance customers more than 600 Million Dollars to help them in these challenging times. If youre an allstate customer, go to the allstate app or allstate. Com this is what it means to be in good hands. Many of lifes moments in thare being put on hold. Are staying at home, at carvana, we understand that, for some, getting a car just cant wait. To help, were giving our customers up to 90 days to make their first payment. Shop online from the comfort of your couch, and get your car with touchless delivery to keep you safe. And for even Greater Peace of mind, all carvana cars come with a sevenday return policy. So if you need to keep moving, were here for you. At carvana the safer way to buy a car. Thats ensure max protein, with high protein and 1 gram sugar. Its a situp, banana bend at the waist im tryin keep it up. Youll get there. Whoahoahoa 30 grams of protein, and one gram of sugar. Ensure max protein. Welcome back. Moments ago we heard from dr. Redfield. Currently there are over 16,000 deaths. We are going to have pastor rick moore for questions on guidance on easter weekend. And a top leader from the World Health Organization will be joining us to talk about transmission of this disease. But we start this hour with one of the most famous athletes ever produced and also knows about living with a virus that can kill. Joining us is former Los Angeles Laker Magic Johnson. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me and thank you for helping so many people, educating them. You are a hero to me personally. Your bravery back in 1991 announcing you were hiv positive, saved a lot of peoples lives who got tested because they took greater precautions because of you. Thanks to you, hiv is a chronic condition. Th people with it are living normal lives. This pandemic is different. But when this started, did it have a different residence for you having lived through the hiv aids pandemic. When you think about hiv and aids, first i would like to thank all of the doctors for educating me about hiv at that time. Elizabeth glazer who was dying helped me mentally. She said a lot of drugs were coming down the pipeline and she was right. Those drugs have prolonged my life about 30 years. But when i think about this virus, its different. We must in the black community educate ourselves better because we thought and a lot of people were saying it, and these are black people saying it, that blacks couldnt get this coronavirus. And they were absolutely wrong. Too much misinformation going out into our community. If we look at the numbers, africanamericans are leading in terms of dying from the coronavirus. Also those who are in the hospital, most of them are africanamerican. We have to do a better job as africanamericans to social distance, stay at home, make sure we educate our loved ones and family members about this virus and do what we need to do to stay safe and healthy. And then when you add up that we dont have access to Quality Health care and so many of us are uninsured, so that also creates a problem, too. Just like it did with hiv and aids and same thing with the coronavirus. For people of color are treated differently too often in terms of hospitals in terms of being given pain medication in some cases than other people. There are long standing inequalities and disparity in treatment, access to treatment, access to testing. Those have existed for a long time. That also has ripple effects in the current pandemic. First of all, africanamericans deal with a lot of Health Issues already. We talk about hiv and aids, but obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure. All of these things we already deal with and then we add coronavirus on top of that. Thats a tough situation for most africanamericans and minorities, period. Then the lack of access to health care is just an unbeatable combination. We must get better. Hopefully there will be Affordable Health care for all people, not just minorities but everybody. If the prices can come down, then i think you will see africanamericans be a lot healthier. Another thing, too, to add into that mix, magic, which is that a disproportionate number of front line workers, food service logistics, transportation, are also africanamerican so more at risk. What would be your message to make sure that these structural in inequalities that anderson is talking about dont continue . First of all, those jobs, especially if you havent gotten a good education thats really been our problem. We have those jobs. Hard working people, want to take care of our family, but at the same time we understand that the hospitality sector, the restaurant sector is driven a lot by minorities, especially africanamerican. You think about the unemployed number, 17 million americans are unemployed, a lot of them are africanamericans because they are in that sector. We cant just say its because we are in those sectors. We as africanamericans, we have to do a better job and make sure our kids can educate themselves so they can have jobs in other sectors so we wont be talking about this hopefully in the next five years. I was talking to some people about this today. One of the things i think this pandemic has done, it shows inequality as it exists in society, like an xray that magnifies inie qualitiequalitie brings them to light. But it is an extraordinary opportunity to start to see each other differently. The idea of who is important in our society. We think its celebrities. Think people make a lot of money, but right now all of those celebrities and people make a lot of money, but we are all depending on people who are not making money who are delivering boxes of goods, who are driving the bus, who are saving our lives because they are keeping the entire system. If it wasnt for truck drivers, ups, delivery folks. They dont get a lot of acknowledgment in regular times. Things are flipped, so they are keeping us alive. Yes, they are. We have to thank them. I employ a lot of those people and want to thank them right now. People who work for me are in hospitals right now. I can tell you in new jersey, newark, new beth israel, my team is working almost around the clock to feed the doctors, nurses and also all of the other patients, not just the coronavirus patients, but the other patients who are also at that hospital and have dietary needs. And i have a team of people who work in the school system. In the same neighborhoods we are talking about, we are feeding those schoolchildren twice a day meals so that they can have meals that they normally if school was out now because of this virus, they wouldnt eat all day. We want to continue to feed these young people and thats what we are doing. I want to thank my team. But Grocery Store workers are still working to feed all of us to make sure we have a meal. Doctors, nurses, First Responders, all of those people, we want to thank them because they are still working while we are sitting at home. Last but not least, inequality and injustice going on for a long time, especially when you think about minorities. You have to change, first of all, in city hall, on the state level, then the federal level. If nothing changes there, then nothing will change in urban america. Until somebody says we are going to make sure that africanamericans and latinos have the same opportunities that others have, minorities are going to have. Until those things change, we are still going to have a lack of health care. We are still going to be behind the eightball to africanamericans. Magic, i am curious how you think through this. In the beginning with hiv there werent any proven medications, and yet there was a real need for them, a real clamoring for them because people were dying. This is a sort of different pandemic, as anderson mentioned, but some of those same things are here. We want to rush this through because people are dying. And concerns about side effects, real concerns. How do you think about that, magic . When i first announced hiv there was only one drug, a. C. T. Now there are over 30 drugs. Now people can live a healthy life because of those drugs. Here with the coronavirus, hopefully we can find some drugs that will prolong life and that we have to make sure first every american can get a test, get tested because right now there is a shortage of tests, so people want to get tested, but they cant find a test kit. Thats also a problem, too. So the reason my life im still living is because early detection, i had a test, a physical. It came up i had hiv and that saved my life. People wanted to get tested. Until people get tested, they wont be comfortable because that will tell them whether they have this virus or not. In 91 when you announced you were positive, a. C. T. Was the only thing out there. And a lot of activists fought to get that drug brought quickly onto the market so they could use it. There wasnt the amount of testing there would normally be because it was such a desperate situation. It turned out a. C. T. Wasnt effective alone and hurt a lot of people and resulted in people dying. Was it something you tried . A lot of people who died said they decided not to try azt and felt like that was you are spot on. I tried it in the beginning and the cocktail came right behind it. They were testing the cocktail when i first announced in 1991. I came along at the right time because that drug came right after that. Between me working out, keeping a positive attitude as well as taking the cocktail, thats what made me live for now almost 30 years. I dont want to belabor this point, but there is a real push of some of these medications to release them earlier than you normally would. I am not trying to put you on the spot, magic, but how do you think this should be balanced, medicines versus the need for evidence given that you went through it yourself . Right now this virus is so new, and nobody has a cure or a drug that can help people. It doesnt seem like that anyway. So until we come up with some drugs that can prolong life and also help people beat the virus, we are going to continue to have people passing away dying. Thats unfortunate because here we are the biggest and strongest country in the world. We should be having drugs that can help people through this virus. I hope that the doctors and scientists can find a cure or a drug that can help people beat this virus. I am hoping that happens soon. I was thinking about you a lot today. You i put myself in your shoes. In 1991 to come out and sit down in front of a roomful of reporters with all of the prejudice and bigotry and misinformation about hiv aids at the time and announce what you did and say what you did, the fear that you and your wife must have felt in those days where there wasnt the cocktail, wasnt the drugs where now it is a chronic condition. You are as healthy as anybody else as long as you keep taking the medicine and anybody who has access to the medicine is as healthy as anybody else. A lot of people in fear tonight, economic reasons, fear of getting the virus, fear of losing a loved one. How do you deal with that fear . In 1991 or 1992, there wasnt a lot of reason for hope. The first thing we prayed a lot. God really blessed me. I continued to have a positive attitude. I continued to work out and then also i took my meds so i followed my doctor who was dr. Ho at that time, and still is. I think its similar to what happened with hiv and aids. When i announced it was a white gay mans disease. People were wrong. Blacks thought they couldnt get hiv and aids. It is the same thing as the coronavirus. It reminds me going back 30 years. We were all wrong. The numbers have switched from a white gay man disease to a minority disease which it is today. Hiv and aids, more minorities get it than any other group of people. Same misinformation went out in our community, blacks cant get coronavirus. Thats why we see the numbers so high. People went out spreading the word that blacks couldnt get it. Now we see not only can we get coronavirus, but we can die from coronavirus. We have to do a better job of making sure that everybody can get this virus and its deadly. I dont want to belabor this, but when we dont see each other, dont see our brothers and sisters who are disadvantaged or living a different life than we are, when we dont interact or see each other, thats when you dont end up having testing, emphasis on testing in the black community. We have seen this with hiv aids. Doctors dont think about how do i reach out to this population in a different way perhaps so that we bring that population in. When we dont see each other as a society, that filters down to who gets medical care and who doesnt. Thats wrong and that needs to change. See, anderson, the problem is people want us to drive to suburban america to get that test. Why cant you have that testing done right in urban america, right in the inner cities, and then we want doctors who look like us because thats important, too, so they can deliver the message to us, this is what you are up against. Thats an easy message to accept when it is a doctor of color who can explain to us how it will affect not only us but our family and community. A lot of times we dont get the information because its only over here, only over in suburban america, not in urban america. And then when we get it, we usually give out the wrong information. I am here today to tell all minorities, this virus, you can get it and die from it, so make sure you do everything you are supposed to do. Stay at home. I have been hearing there are car parties arou card parties. You cant do that. You have to stay home with your family and keep a safe distance from everybody. Here in california i drove up here in might mask. I am staying safe, my wife is staying safe. We urge everybody, get your mask, gloves, stay at home and watch tv shows, old nba games. I have been watching nba tv, the old classic games. And all of my tv shows i like. You were in a lot of those old nba classic games, magic. Do you think the misinformation spread is worse now . There are all of these digital platforms, compared to 30 years ago. Here it was thought to be an older white persons disease, coronavirus. Is it as hard to get information out . It should be easier with People Living on their cell phones and ipads and so on. We should be able to get the information out better, but what happens is you have some people given the wrong information because they havent been educated enough. Those people have a following, and a big following. So if somebody says we cant get it as black people and they have millions of people who listen to them, then they are going to go tell other people what that leader or what that guy or woman said. And thats wrong. I am here today to correct that. Look at all of the numbers that cnn has shown us every single day. You have shown us the numbers where africanamericans lead in every single category. We have to get the right message out to the urban community. I have to ask you one question about sports. You are a basketball legend, and part owner of the l. A. Dodgers. No live sports, no baseball, hockey, golf, nothing. How do you think sports is going to come back from this . And do you think there will be a right time for this to happen . There definitely will be a right time. I know commissioner adam silver has done a terrific job with the nba. He wants to be sure the players are safe before they come back as well as safe for all of the employees that work at the arenas. I think sports will come back. Its just a matter of when will we make sure this virus has not affected its level and not affecting the whole country anymore. When those numbers drop and stabilizes, i think sports will come back. Dodgers and mlb are talking about maybe in may. I hope that happens, but first the players have to be safe, and then the numbers have to be stabilized for that to happen as well. Look, america and all of us who live in this great country we live in, we need sports especially in a time like this, but only if everybody is safe. The key is i think sports will come back, probably without fans first. The key is when will fans be allowed to come back. That will be key. Lebron james, i know you said the greatest athlete in the world and also a laker, he said he cant imagine a sporting event with no fans. Do you think fanless sports is a viable option . Lebron is right. Its hard to play without fans, but once you have one without fans. Say the nba comes back without fans. Once you play one game, you will adjust to not having fans there. But i think also, too, we have all played our lives on the playgrounds and pickup games without fans being there. Basketball players will know how to adjust, trust me. Also, those guys want to see who is the world champion. Listen, if they have a chance to go back, if they are healthy, if they all get tested, if they go back and know they can be healthy and nothing can happen to them, they will go back to crown a champion, because they want to see who is the best team in the nba. I am look being forward to seeing if the lakers are going to win the championship. Magic johnson, always great to talk with you and i really appreciate you being with us. Thank you for having me. Everybody out there, please stay safe and do what you are supposed to do to let these numbers go down so we can get back to our live. When tower global town hall continues, we will answer your coronavirus questions and have pastor rick moore talking about faith during this time. But right now, the world needs all the good that we can do. To all of our employees and everyone working to keep america strong, thank you. 450degree oven, to box, to you, know that from ourking its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. Ladies, my friends and i are having a debate. I have a back rash. Alright. Whoa, mara. I laugh like this. [ laughs obnoxiously ] its just not my scene. I couldnt help but over do you like insurance . I love insurance. Did you know you can save money bundling home and auto with progressive, and renters can bundle, too . I know, right . [ laughs ] [ singing continues ] whyd you stop . I was listening. [ microphone feedback ] to have constipation with belly pain, straining, and bloating, again and again. No way. More exercise. More water. And more fiber is the only way to manage it. Is it . Maybe you think. Its occasional constipation. Maybe its not. It could be a chronic medical condition called ibsc, and time to say yesss to linzess. Linzess works differently than laxatives. It helps relieve belly pain and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. Do not give linzess to children less than six and it should not be given to children six to less than 18, it may harm them. Do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include gas, stomach area pain, and swelling. Change your thinking to ibsc. If your constipation and belly pain keeps coming back, tell your doctor and say yesss to linzess. Welcome back to the cnn town hall. In the past couple days we have seen President Trump making allegations against the World Health Organization. They have responded with a timeline of their response and saying President Trump please dont politicize this virus and said they would do an after virus report to look at strengths and weaknesses. We want to bring in the technical lead for covid19 response at the w. H. O. I will get to your questions in a moment. Your assessment of the fight against the virus here in the United States and around the world. Thank you for having me. Our focus is 100 on saving as many lives as we can. We are seeing an incredibly resilient global population fighting hard against this. We are seeing governments putting everything they can to try to minimize infections, to save lives and save the Public Health impacts. We have seen good signs in countries as we have talked about before. We are seeing reductions in asia. Several countries in asia are seeing reintroductions. They have put in place the Public Health measures that worked the first time. We are seeing increases in outbreaks in case numbers across europe, north america. Seeing a good fight happening there and want that to continue. What we are really worried about is how this virus will behave across africa and lower income countries, latin america. It is a mixed bag in terms of what we are seeing. But the human spirit we are seeing, the solidarity across the globe, the unity bringing people together is inspiring. I follow these models on a daily basis. It is difficult to understand where this is going. When you look at the cases and deaths around the world and these changing curves, first of all, does it make sense to you . And what stands out to you . What should we be paying attention to . We look at the numbers, the cases being identified and how quickly are those cases being identified and how quickly are cases doubling, the doubling time. Across europe the doubling time is three to four days. Thats very fast. That means that the case numbers are going to grow very, very fast which can overwhelm systems. What we are also looking at is not only where those numbers are, but where those numbers are coming from. What is the strategy of a country, what is the testing strategy of a country so we can put those numbers into context. The other thing that is very important is how on the downward side of the curve, how fast is that happening and how is that happening. We are looking at these numbers going up, but just as important is how the numbers are coming down. We look at the positives through the tests. Thats important, how many tests are done and how many are positive. If you are seeing countries with a 30 positive rate, there is a lot of positive rate. If you are seeing a country with 1 positive rate, they are countering their cases. Models are models. They are wonderful for scenarios and help us think about the what ifs if we dont put in interventions. But models are models. Our goal is to make sure the reality of those numbers, which can be scary, dont become realities. In terms of society getting back to normal, until there is a vaccine there will be doubt and fear and concern of sliding back into the pandemic, but what works in terms of getting a country or society out of this and back to normal . Govern governor comeau refers to testing as the bridge, but what helps a place get back to normal. This is a hot topic, because a lot of countries implemented with stringent stay at home orders. This is global. We have questions how to get out of this. Testing is part of that, but one measure as a comprehensive package of things. You have to have testing in place, have Public Health that can find those cases. What is the workforce that can go out and do Contact Tracing. Do you have a sense of how many people you need doing that . Is it thousands of people, hundreds of people . It depends on the area. Globally, huge numbers. This is where countries need to be creative. You dont need medical professionals to do Contact Tracing. It would be great if you could, but we need medical professionals in hospitals. We have heard creative stories of using teachers or universities, but Everybody Needs to be trained and do it in the proper way and be protected. What would be helpful, to think at the lowest administrative level you can. You have to have those systems in place before you start. You have to have your bed capacity higher, but not filled. You need to have beds should you have an increase in cases, you have a plan to care for those individuals. You need to have your workplaces in order so once Companies Start to get back to work, you have a plan in place should you find positive cases, what do you do. Where we have seen this done successfully, the lifting of these measures has happened in a slow and staggered approach. The entire country doesnt lift at once. You lift these measures a little at a time. You open these factories and have part of your workforce go back, not all of it. It will take time. It cant be done all at once because you can have a resurgence. We have a lot of viewer questions for you, doctor. This one from kim does ones blood type play a factor in being able to combat the virus once contracted . I had heard that one other time. With this respiratory virus as with others, all of us are susceptible. It is a new virus so we havent had a chance to build immunity. Charles in renton, washington sent us this video. In the absence of a vaccine are massive infections necessary to create the immunity necessary to flatten the curve . I didnt hear the whole thing but he asked about he said are massive infections in the absence of a vaccine, necessary to develop herd immunity. Let maybe explain what herd immunity is. Herd immunity is when it is in the community and there is no place for it to attach. We want to prevent as many infections as we can and reduce people who advance to severe, critical disease and die, and at the same time accelerate vaccines as fast as we can. Recently we have more than 130 developer scientists, companies coming together to say they are willing to work globally on a vaccine. That is something we will push for in the whole world. Along those lines, one of the questions we always get, if you get the virus, the infection, are you certain immune to it if you are exposed again . Nothing in this is for certain. We are still, even weeks in we are in our fourth month, and we are learning something new every day. The studies are still being done so there is nothing for certain yet. We have seen preliminary results where preliminaries where some people will develop an immune response. We dont know if that infers immunity where they are totally protected. If we look at other coronaviruses, we would see people who would have an antibody response for maybe ten months or a year. We dont, even there, if that conferred protection. For this virus, the answer is we dont know yet. Those studies are being done. We need to understand how the body responds. There are 300,000 people who have recovered. We need to look at what level of antibodies they have and if there is protection. Doctor, we appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Up next, we will both talk with pastor rick warren about faith. Bounce out wrinkles. And your mother told me all her life that i should fix it. And now it reminds me of her. Im just glad i never fixed it. Listen, you dont need to go anywhere dad. Meet christine, shes going to help you around the house. The best home to be in is your own. From personal care and memory care, to help around the house, home instead offers personalized Inhome Services for your loved ones. Home instead senior care. To us, its personal. Home instead senior care. Athat provides strong, longlasting pain relief, so sean can help push her on her next adventure. At bayer, this is why we science. Allstate hcatastrophesing custofor 89 years. We move quickly and put people first. As the coronavirus is keeping Many Americans at home, we are driving less and having fewer accidents. So we created the shelterinplace payback to give our Auto Insurance customers more than 600 Million Dollars to help them in these challenging times. If youre an allstate customer, go to the allstate app or allstate. Com this is what it means to be in good hands. Yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. This is cnn global town hall. We will have more questions ahead. Easter is only a day away. Pastor rick warren is with us. Thanks for being with us. Lets begin with your thoughts of where we are in this country with this pandemic. I first heard about the pandemic in january. Our championship is in four continents. Satellite hong kong went to t s early on. So we heard about it early on. As the pandemic started to spread, i got texts and emails from pastors and priests around the world asking the same question. Is easter going to be canceled this year. My answer was the same to all of them and it was this. As shepherds we are called to protect gods flock, not just feed it and read it. Telling them to stay home will not curtail our celebration. We are not going to cancel the resurrection. It happened 2,000 years ago. When we use a date, even our birth dates, we are using the resurrection. I have tried to help the pastors around the world. We have a Large Network of about a million pastors. On monday i did a global pastors prayer gathering with leaders from all of the continents. Over a million pastors around the world tuned in to that as we were preparing them for easter in for the first time in 2,000 years where christians arent meeting. But there will be celebrating in other ways. You guys, we are not the first guys to stay home on resurrection day. Thats what happened the first easter. Peter and john and all of those other guys who were i ddisciple. John says that night, talking about easter night, the disciples were huddled in a home with the doors locked for fear of authorities. They werent afraid of a virus, but afraid of the same group of people who crucified christ might come after them. Congratulations, you are celebrating the way the first easter was celebrated, in a home with the door locked for fear. The second thing i would say is there was no megachurch at the first easter. Jesus just showed up at their homes to their surprise and i have no doubt that he will do it this easter. And saturday was a day of silence. In your world, pastor and in my world, the human touch is so important. How will you observe i know you will do this via how much is it going to impact your congregation . Well, theres no doubt about it. Human touch is extremely important. In fact, everywhere jesus went he gave a look, a word and a touch. A look, a word and a touch. He would look people in the eye, he would give them which said you matter to me. He would give them a word of encouragement. And he would give them a touch. Pat on the back, a hug, a squeeze. And you know, you know doctor that preemies that arent touched get failure to thrive syndrome. We are made to be touched. But right now in our current restrictions on public gatherings and on the lack of touch that we have we need to remember that jesus never intended for his church to be merely an event that people go to. Its a family that were supposed to belong to. God wanted a family. Thats why he created the universe. While worship is the first purpose of the church its not the only one. Jesus outlined four other purposes including fellowship, creating altogether entic community, dissipellship, helping people grow their souls, help people spiritually mature, a mission, connecting people to god, and ministry serving the needs of everyone. And any church can keep doing those, even with social distancing. This last in the last 2 1 2 weeks we have fed 30,000 households in 2 1 2 weeks, just our church alone. We started we have about 550 ministries in the community. You dont have to have a big assembly to keep doing it. In fact, i train pastors. And ive had over a million pastors and 197 nations take purposedriven training. We tell them heres how you spell church. Church. C. Care and comfort the anxious. H. Help and heal the hurting. U. Uplift the tired and discouraged. C. Care for peoples souls and spiritual growth. And h, heal the sick. All of those can keep on people dont realize that the church basically invented health care. We invented the hospital. Not government. Not business. The reason christianity spread if you know history is because of two plagues of the roman empire that when people began to flee the urban areas of the roman empire because of the plagues in the second century and in the third christians moved in to take care of the sick. And see how they loved one another. You talk about feeding at a time like this you really see how churches, food banks, Community Organizations are filling that need for feeding people, literally feeding people. I also wanted to ask you, you and i were talking about this right before we came on air. My brother died by suicide. You lost a son to suicide. You know what you know pain. What grief is like. Theres a lot of folks who have lost loved ones and who are scared tonight of losing loved ones or who have lost loved ones and may be watching. Im just wondering, what do you say to people in that in what is now the worst time of their life in which the future seems so distant and its hard to imagine ever even smiling again. Yeah. Well, thank you for letting me talk about that because thats important. Theres going to be a lot of grief. People are going to lose loved ones who die, but it theyre also going to lose jobs. Theres the grief of not being able to go to graduation. The grief of not being able to watch a baby be born. People are losing out in all kinds of different ways right now. And so theres going to be this tsunami of grief behind even after we pass the tocchet curve and we start to flatten it and lower it, that weve got to deal with the grief of lost opportunities and lost times of life. Were not very good at grieving. But grief is actually a good thing. Grief is the way we get through the transitions of life. Theres no Growth Without change. There is no change without loss. And theres no loss without pain and without grief. There is no time limit. There is no shelf life on grief. Everybody grieves differently. And to force people, are you over it if you lose a loved one, its like losing part of your arm. The rest of your life youre going to know its not there. And people go are you over it . No, you dont get over it. You get through it but you dont get over it. And after my son died kay and i had no idea that we would end up spending the next the last seven years helping a lot of wellknown people in grief. Because nobody knows how to deal with it. You dont suppress it. You dont repress it. You confess it to god and you express it. Feelings are meant to be felt. The only reason we have feelings is because were made in the image of god. God is an emotional god. The bible says god gets angry. The bible says god gets sad. The bible says god gets jealous. The bible says god gets impatient. The bible says god gets frustrated. Were made in his image. So feelings are simply meant to be felt. And if you stop them, its kind of like shaking up a can of coke and putting it in your refrigerator. Its one day going to explode and come out sideways. So were going to have to have a lot of grief counselors helping people after the threat of the virus subsides with the next wave of the emotional fallout. Im trying to deal with all of the this is saddlebacks 34th national or International Disaster that weve been in the 40 years ive been a pastor. Poignantly, this easter would have been saddlebacks 40th birthday. Kay and i started this church 40 years ago with just two of us. Now theres 180,000 names on the roll and were in four continents. But it just happened. And so what we have to do is we have to teach people how to deal with grief. Let me ask you a question i think comes up from a lot of people who are in the middle of a pandemic. Its existential to some people, an existential threat. This is a question that was submitted over instagram that says this. Pastor warren, id like to know wheres god in a pandemic . Why does god allow such a harmful thing to happen . Sure. Very good question. And there are actually two. The first one is where is god in a crisis . The answer is hes in the hearts of his people. All those people you see out there helping others, thats good in the hearts of those people. I dont know why, but in a situation ive been through 34 of these national pandemics or international crises. Dr. Bob redfield, weve traveled together around the world in different pandemics, including the aids pandemic, which saddleback has been very involved in for decades. Some people turn to god. Some people turn away from god. It just reveals whats inside us. But theres two questions. The first question is wheres god . People said where was god when my son died . Hes the same place he was when his son died. On the cross. He was grieving the inhumanity of humanity to each other. He was grieving. The bible says god weems. But you also see god in the goodness of people. When katrina hit, i took 4,000 volunteers to new orleans. And we worked there for three or four years. We paid our church paid the salaries of 400 small africanamerican churches where they totally lost their buildings. It was in the hearts and generosity of our people. The other question is why does god allow this . When people ask why does god allow something wrong in the world, what theyre expecting is heaven on earth. This is not heaven. This is earth. In heaven everythings done perfectly. There is no sadness, no sorrow, no sickness, no stress. None of thats true here on earth. Thats why were praying the lords prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Because on earth its rarely done. In heaven its done perfectly and completely all the time. So we shouldnt expect heaven on earth. God could get rid of all the evil in the world real simple. Take away our choice. Because when i do evil god our greatest gift is our freedom of choice. Its also our greatest because i dont always choose the right thing and i hurt people. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. Pastor rick warren, its always good to talk to you. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us tonight. Thank you. Wishing you well and peace in the days ahead. Up next, something to cheer up your spirit. A message of hope ahead. Eam any, i think theyd be lost. vo we are all home right now. Thats why verizon is giving you more of the entertainment you want. Dayley is usually watching a tv show, and mckenna is almost always listening to music. We love verizon. I get the shows i need when i need them. vo now unlimited plans come with your favorite artists on apple music, shows and movies on disney , and over 70 top channels of live tv with youtube tv. Music plays a huge role in our family. Thats how we connect. vo plans start as just 35 so your family can mix, match, and save. Shop online today. Only at verizon. 450degree oven, to box, to you, know that from our its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. Balanced nutrition for strength and energy. Whoohoo great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health