Transcripts For CNNW New Day With Alisyn Camerota And John Berman 20200511

Trump is worried the white house outbreak will undercut his plan that the pandemic is fading. The white house is now conducting strict testing and contact tracing, two tools the president tried to downplay. This morning, the death toll in the u. S. Is almost at 80,000 people. At least 12 states are still seeing an increase in cases. At the same time, the majority of states will relax stay at home orders this week. And that Key University of washington model now estimates that the u. S. Death toll will surpass 100,000 by next friday. Thats memorial day weekend, before it in fact, this is because of what they call an explosive increase in mobility among the American People. There is also new concern about coronavirus in children, more than 80 kids in new york have been hospitalized with severe symptoms. Three children have died. All suffering from this mysterious inflammatory disease believed to be linked to coronavirus. Okay, john. Joining us now is maggie haberman, White House Correspondent at the new york times. Great to see you. This morning, lets talk about whats going on inside the white house. So these two people in the inner orbit of President Trump and Vice President pence, katie miller, the spokesperson for pence and President Trumps personal valet have tested positive. Now that theyre doing contact tracing, do they know how these two people were exposed . As far as we know, alisyn, they dont. And if they do, they have not said and we should be very clear they publicly released very Little Information about both cases and the case of katie miller, reporters were not reporting her name as they were refusing to release it at the time. And then the president blurted it out in part because he is annoyed that there is another case that is close to him at a public event on friday. So we dont know how they caught it and they may never know, but we do know that it created a sense of enormous anxiety within the white house, not for everybody, but for a number of people who are now scared that it is going to just tear through the west wing in the coming weeks that some of them may have already been exposed to it, that some of them could be asymptomatic. We know that most people are getting tested, everybody who is within a small circle around the president is getting tested. People who see him right before meetings get tested. But that still leaves out a lot of people. And tell us more about that. Because i mean i had read your tweet where you said people are freaked out. Is there are they just scared the way everybody is scared because when somebody close to you gets it or is there something going onfreaking them . There is fear youre working in cramped quarters within the white house, the hallways are small, the offices are generally very small. People spend a lot of time together in confined spaces. There is just fear that people are going to catch this or that it is lurking around in a way that just hadnt seemed real for a lot of white house officials. And candidly, alisyn what this brought home within the white house is the same fear and, again, not for everybody, but for some people, same fear that a majority of americans are having about resuming their lives. This is something that the president has been sort of not really acknowledging, not focused on as hes been pushing to reopen, trying to harness unrest and pushing protests that have still been relatively small. A lot of aides recognize privately that this could end up impeding or complicating their messaging as theyre trying to tell the public to feel safe. The white house is the safest place it work and if people are getting sick there, that doesnt send a great message to businesses that dont have widespread Testing Available. Maggie, do you have any reporting on the president s response to one of his top economic advisers, kevin hassett, saying he feels scared . That going to the white house is scary and you feel a lot safer sitting at home . The president doesnt want to hear that people are afraid now. There is an irony, alisyn in the fact that this is a president who likes to fight more than anything else and has thrived by inspiring fear in people and now fear is subsuming his presidency and it is fear within the public, fear among the public, fear within his white house. Those are not comments he generally wanted to hear. He wants people to suggest that this is, yes, this is bad, but were not afraid. He doesnt like the optics of wearing a mask. Mike pence, you know, didnt wear one and did wear one. There are going to be more aides around the president now Wearing Masks because this is a recognition that this virus is actually there. You know, the policy seems to be haphazard, i think is fair to say. So explain why are three members of the task force selfquarantining, where as four i think we have a list that we can pull up of those here are the three that are going to be in selfquarantine because of the folks who are in the inner orbit that tested positive, and then here are the four who are not. So what is the rule . There is no rule. And thats the thing. This is basically up to individuals to decide what theyre going to do. And, again, you know, the problem is that a strict order was given to folks at the lower level and saying that the lower rung of press aides, they were told to telework, not given the option to come to work. Other workers who are deemed essential are the ones who come to the white house every day, that includes certain members of the task force. I think it is not a surprise this dr. Fauci is at least partially selfquarantining, though i dont know what partially means, and i dont think thats been very well explained. But i think that he is in a position where he feels like he he has to send a message, the message is still to the public, some of this is optional, and because of that, why you are still seeing the virus break out. Look, i think the white house is grappling with real issues. The state of the economy is not sustainable. The job losses are staggering and peoples lives are ruined. Those are very real set of concerns theyre dealing with. The message has been to stop and start. Some of that is because that is a new virus and theyre feeling their way. Some of that is because the president and his aides have not seen this as a serious threat and when you see it that way, you practice it that way at the white house, and that is the message the public is getting. President obama spoke out about this. It was a private phone call, with supporters. But, you know, we dont hear him talking much about the current administration, so it was notable and he said that he believes that the response to the coronavirus from the Trump Administration has been, quote, a chaotic disaster. I believe we have a portion of the phone call we can play. Listen to this. It is part of the reason why the response to this Global Crisis has been so enaeanemic a spotty and it would have been bad even with the best of governments, it has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset of whats in it for me, and to heck with everybody else, when that mindset is operationalized in our government. Maggie, do you have any reporting on if President Trump plans to respond somehow . The president has been dealing with president obama by trying to push the questions around the Michael Flynn investigation on to obama and so i think you will see this become a part of that potentially depending on how much of it the president sees on television. Im not so sure that hes going to, based on what hes been watching, hes going to see a ton of it. I do think that you can expect the president obama is likely going to be speaking out more than he had been. I think thats what is so notable about that audio, hes really generally refrained, you know, with the exception of some moments in the midterms, but from being, you know, frontally attacking or seen that way of his successor and i think that, you know, you are likely to see that changing as we go forward and as the election becomes hotter. Maggie haberman, thank you very much for sharing all of your reporting with us. Great to see you. John . That was a great discussion there. Want to bring in dr. Sanjay gupta and dr. Richard besser, the former acting director of the cdc and now president and ceo of the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. Great to see both of you. Sanjay, in addition to being a neurosurgeon, youre a terrific reporter. Youve been digging on how the administration is responding to this outbreak or at least the emergence of cases inside the white house. We mentioned that fauci is sort of partially selfquarantining, redfield and hahn they are selfquarantining, other people are not. Is there any medicalogic lotgi who is and who isnt . Thats what ive been trying to dig into. It seems a bit inconsistent now. There is a significant amount of Testing Available in the white house. But the testing itself is not really dictating the quarantining or not kwaurn teerning. As we now know, the tests are not perfect. You can have false negatives with the tests, 15 false negatives, which becomes significant when youre starting to use that to determine whether or not youre going to put people into isolation or not. Second of all, you know, as you mentioned earlier, john, it is very hard to physically distance people within the white house. It is just that it is a small space, people come in close quarters, same sort of thing happens in hospitals too, by the way. Even in places youre not taking care of covid patients, people are Wearing Masks to try to give themselves some protection or protect other people from them. The white house because of the lack of masks, that also i think factored into how they classified these exposures, so low risk versus medium risk versus high risk exposure. Dr. Fauci, for example, is classified as a low risk exposure, hes been tested negative but still decided to modify, selfquarantine, meaning he may come into work with a mask if no one else is there i think is how he described it. There is the surgeon general, ambassador birx, who also part of the task force, not doing that at this point. Saying theyre primarily going to work from home, but not actually saying that were going to abide by some sort of quarantine. This needs to be clarified. This is the country now at this point that is now looking to this particular situation and saying, so how exactly are we going to handle it . The cdc guidelines are clear, it is not clear if the guidelines are being uniformly applied in the white house. I dont know if we have the map available if we throw up a map, you can see how small these rooms actually are. A lot of small rooms off ten a t of crowds, not crowd, meetings crammed into small rooms. You ran the cdc during the h1n1, the swine flu back in 2009. Im curious, what precautions you took then not to get infected yourself or not to have to selfquarantine like dr. Redfield is now and what the impact would have been, if you were taken off the playing field. You know, when i was running cdc at the start of swine flu, it was really early days in that outbreak. We had a good sense of where this was. And we were also pretty much locked down within the building. Atlanta was not one of the places that was getting hit. John, one of the things that strikes me here is that were trying to develop a National Culture around this, were all in this together, were all responsible for protecting each others health. In order to do that, you have to see that trickling down from the top. What is recommended for everyone across america is being demonstrated by our leaders. Were not getting that. I worry as hard working people go back to work, as states open up, this idea that everything is being done to protect workers health, it is not going to carry a lot of water if were not seeing that taking place in the highest workplace in america, which is in the white house. It is interesting. Model behavior as a parent, you want to model behavior inside the white house if youre trying to get the American People to pay attention. I want to talk about children and what is happening now with these inflammatory cases and dr. Besser, youre a pediatrician by training if my memory serves. What do you make, more than 8 0 cases in new york now of kids presenting with inflammatory symptoms, there are three deaths. What is the takeaway here . I think the big takeaway is that this is really early days. And we are we have a lot to learn about this virus. First, we have to learn is this truly caused by this virus or not . It is another reason why it would be so valuable to be hearing from cdc every day. I know that this is something theyre investigating, we should be hearing from them in terms of what are are they seeing, what are they learning, what can parents do to protect their children. It is another reason why while most people will do well with this virus, theyll have mild infection, we dont know yet the longterm consequences and so it is in everyones interest to try and prevent the ininfection ffe themselves and for others. This has gone from curious to a real concern fairly quickly. Really wasnt even on the radar in the early stages of this pandemic in china. Explain. Yeah, so there has been a couple of sort of perplexing things. Richard and i both sit on the National Academy and the National Academy of medicine will send out alerts so a couple of weeks ago now, maybe three weeks ago, there was an alert that went out of the uk. And it was an alert that went to all the hospitals that basically said, you know, be on the lookout for this. This is something that is starting to bubble up, maybe these children who are developing these symptoms, seemed to be consistent with kawasaki, you showed a picture of the characteristic rash, an inflametory disorder that affects many differenting or continues in the b organs in the body, it affect maffects many organs, including the heart. I was corresponding with some sources in asia and china and japan where you typically see higher rates of kawasaki disease and i said, have you seen this as well. And sort of surprisingly they said we have not seen an uptick in kawasaki around this pandemic. That was the first curious thing. And then a question, are we going to start seeing this in the United States . We seem to have started seeing this now in this country. It is a little unclear as you pointed out what exactly is the relationship if any to coronavirus . There does appear to be a relationship and the first 15 children in the study in the states, four of them were actively diagnosed with coronavirus. Six appeared to have the antibodies to coronavirus. So had some previous exposure. And five didnt seem to have any sort of relationship that, you know, that could be documented by a test. But i think this is enough of a concern still rare, you know, i think parents will hear this, im a parent, and it is going to be understandably concerning. Something that is rare that were talking about here. I think there is two points that came out, one is, first of all, is it affecting different parts of the world differently and why . Two, children still are largely protected, seemingly, from this virus. But there may be some cases where they developed Something Like this, and it may happen after the fact. Even maybe more likely. So even after someone has recovered, stay vigilant. It is something that bears watching going forward. I want to mark one thing on testing, the testing isnt where it needs to be or as plentiful or available as it needs to be. But less than 10 of tests now are coming back positive in the United States. Thats an important marker. So what does that tell you . Well, you know, i would be really careful with that marker. You need to break it down, not just as a nation, but by state and within state, by region, by neighborhood, by race and ethnicity. Because this virus is spreading in different rates and different places, so were seeing outbreaks in different stages of severity in different places. The reason the number, though, at a local level is really important is thats the number that the World Health Organization says that you should target. If youre percent positive is less than 10 , it means youre testing a lot of people who have mild symptoms, not just those who are short of breath and have fever and cough. That group that has classic symptoms, everyone is testing them, but in order to open up safely, you need everybody who has even faint symptoms of coronavirus to have access to testing and we know across america thats not the case. Dr. Richard besser, dr. Sanjay gupta, always an education to get to speak to both of you in the morning. Thank you for being with us. Thank you, john. Experts have warned the coronavirus could be with us for years. So how will we know when the pandemic is over . Top researcher shows us what we can expect next. Can my side be firm . And my side super soft . Yes. 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These numbers account for more people leaving their homes as states ease their restrictions. Our next guest is focused on when and how the pandemic will end. Joining us is dr. Jeremy green, hes director of the institute of the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins university. Great to have you on. This is a really interesting discussion because you say there are two ways that pandemics end. There is a medical and thats if there is a vaccine or a pandemic is somehow eradicated and thats a very high bar, very unusual. And then there is a social end. So what does that mean . And what is the difference . So i would clarify here, john. Thanks so much. The distinction here is between what i would call the biological epidemic, social epidemic. And the biological epidemic has us thinking about knowledge of the virus itself, who gets sick, who dies, what the processes are if it moves through a population, and the social epidemic is in many ways our responses to it. Both of them disrupt daily life, right . The biological epidemic disrupts daily life by sickening and killing people. The social epidemic disrupts daily life by undoing all the basic structures that we expect our day to day life to pass. Both of these things are tightly intertwined with one another. The trouble is in mistaking one for the other. You talk about the social end of a pandemic, fear is often a key ingredient to that. So how does one or how does a society get rid of that fear . So history doesnt give us a single answer. When we look back at past epidemics, we find models of solidarity, we find moments in which communities come together, we find models of nativism, of deep xenophobia as has been covered in many other places in this pandemic as well. I think there is no single vaccine to fear, but i think a lot of what we see when we study, when effect interventions come together have to do with Building Trust and both in the transparency of facts and the basis on which knowledge is made, and in the process by which leaders make decision and share that information. I have to tell you, it is always fascinating to me when i speak to doctors and people in the Public Health field how much they fall back on that issue of trust, that Public Health and public trust are one and the same thing. And that is so striking as i look at new polling this morning from q, were states right to lift restrictions was a question they asked. 68 say no. These numbers to me indicate that there isnt at least right now a social end in nearsight to this pandemic. What do you see when you see those numbers . I think that any end is still a while away. I think you are speaking to two very important topics here. One is how do we get to a point where we collectively feel the transmission of this virus can be controlled to a point that we can start slowly and then gradually more robustly resuming what looks like normal activities. And the other is how do we have a process of reinstituting broader trust. When we look at protests taking place throughout state capitols today, this is not simply a statement of ignorance, it is a statement of a fractured sense of how information moves through a community and a body of people coming together as a political unit. When you talk about a social ending to a pandemic, how much of that is an acceptance of some level of death, an acceptance of some level of risk. I think that this language you had very recently about how much death were willing to accept is very dangerous. It is not something that i think historical examples of have been gives us to give us any sense of comfort. But, again, i feel that so much of what we do when we talk about the social epidemic, we talk about these just disruptions that we have all been learning to is to understand that not everyone feels these social disruptions in the same way, right . So that some of us are much more able to work from home than others. Some of us are much more able to figure out how to get food at this moment. And so i think part of building an effective social response is having a set of structures in place so that everybody can feel that they will actually benefit from taking part in these social distancing measures that should benefit us all. I think that level of trust on some level, that we as a nation, we need to be able to convincingly communicate to all people that we do actually have their back, we expect everyone to america has not done a good job there yet. Public trust. I cant thank you enough for coming on this morning. Thank you very much. Very interesting discussion. Thank you. A standoff this morning between south dakota tribal leader and the states governor over checkpoints. Details on the clash that could end up in federal court. Thats next. The United States Postal Service is here to deliver your mail and packages and the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way. Every day, all across america, we deliver for you. And we always will. You know when your dog is itching for an outing. Or itching for some cuddle time. But you may not know when hes itching for help. Licking for help. Or rubbing for help. If your dog does these frequently. They may be signs of an allergic skin condition that needs treatment. Dont wait. Talk to your veterinarian and learn more at itchingforhelp. Com. Seeing the break in the clouds before anyone else. Together, well weather this storm. Confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Find yours at letsmakeaplan. Org. A south dakota tribe is rejecting an ultimatum by the governor to remove checkpoints on state highways that the governor says are illegal. South dakota is among the top five states that had seen a sharp rise in mobility which experts say will likely lead to more cases. Cnns sara sidner is live in timberlake, south dakota, with more. What is the latest on this, sara . Reporter the tribes here are saying they absolutely will not take down their checkpoints. And the governor is insisting that they must because she says these are state roads governed by the state and federal roads governed by the federal government. The tribe isnt buying it and saying theyre doing these checkpoints for one reason, alisyn, and that is to keep their people safe. No fever or cough or shortness of breath. Reporter no, dont have any of those things. The tribe says this is their front line in the battle against coronavirus. If you want to enter their lands in south dakota, youll have to answer some questions at their checkpoints. Have you traveled to or from an area with covid19 cases. Reporter if you dont answer correctly, unless youre engaging in essential activity, you could be turned away or tracked closely and quarantined if you have a reason to stay on the reservation. We love our people. You cant replace a human life. And so thats all were trying to do is to save our people. And the residents on this reservation. Reporter the governor of south dakota says the checkpoints are not legal because sheint interfering traffic on u. S. And state highways. Shes trying to open up the state, while the tribes are traying tray ing trying to keep their reservations closed off for now. There are curfews in places. Theyre making it very clear they dont want visitors. Reporter thats right. They dont want tourists or nonessential visitors, not right now. The virus doesnt travel. The people with the virus travels. The state of south dakota does not have jurisdiction in this area, but the federal government does. Reporter the governor said she was concerned about whether medical crews, truckers hauling supplies or road work crews would be able to get through. The tribe said, of course they would. But on friday, the governor gave them and the tribe an ultimatum, remove the checkpoints in 48 hours or be sued in federal court. Are you going to take them down as she has requested or are you going to stay put . Were going to stay put. Reporter tribal leaders say if the tribe cant contain the virus here, it faces catastrophe. They did the math. If the virus escaped and tracked similar to other parts of the country, the numbers would overwhelm their hospital. We knew that we need a thousand beds. Reporter how many beds do you have . We have eight. Reporter eight beds. Eight beds. Reporter and the icu . No. Reporter with eight beds to serve some 12,000 residents, and the closest intensive care unit three hours away, their best bet, stop it before it spreads. It would hurt so bad for our people to get this and it just run rampant and take out our elders. Reporter molly longbreak and other tribal nurses say the information gathered here helped them find, track and quarantine the very first case of covid19 on the reservation before it could spread. So we identified her that way prior to testing, and because of our daily calls with her, we were able to identify that she was getting sick. And get her the proper help she needed fairly quickly. Reporter the tribe set up two separate areas where residents can go into quarantine, all part of a plan to safeguard their people, because they say, if history is their guide, they cant afford not to. We got to stand up and take care of ourselves because they wont. Well, sara, they obviously made a very compelling case for why theyre doing this. It sounds like theyre at an impasse. So what now . Reporter well, they have gotten some support actually from 17 bipartisan state legislators who have written a letter to the governor saying that her statement that tribal governments do not have a right to put checkpoints on their own land is simply not accurate. They say it is governed by the 1851 and 1868 port laramie treaty and she needs to reconsider. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. As this legal battle goes on, if it does end up in court, as the governor has promised, the tribes say theyre going to continue to stay here, theyre going to continue to do these checkpoints and theyre willing to stand here even if it means a physical confrontation. Alisyn . Lets hope it doesnt get to that. Sara, thank you very much for all of the reporting from the ground there. So as more people begin returning to work, how will they stay safe on buses and trains and subways . Hear what some front line workers like bus drivers are saying today. The biggest week in television is here. Now through may 17, enjoy free access to the best shows and movies from favorites like hbo, showtime, starz and for the first time ever, hulu and peacock watch the show starring that guy you saw in that other thing. You know the one. Or the series this kid on reddit says is legit, punch emoji, explosion emoji. Even the one with the actor people say looks just like your boss. And maybe sounds like him too. Put your phones down. Everyones got a show to recommend. Watch the best for free. Just say watchathon into your voice remote, or download the Xfinity Stream app. Breaking overnight, 19 members of the iranian navy were killed and 15 others hurt in an apparent friendly fire accident. Iranian state media say it happened near the strait of hormuz, that crucial water way. We will monitor this story and bring you all the developments. New this morning, hundreds of Public Transit workers tested positive for coronavirus nationwide. It is essential as people begin to get back to work. Still, some bus drivers fear their safety is at risk. Cnns pete muntean live in silver spring, maryland, with more. Pete, welcome to cnn. Welcome to new day. Great to have you here. As so many people think about working again, one of the biggest questions they face is how are they going to get there. Reporter john, transit systems want to show theyre on the right track. This is typically one of the busiest transit stations in maryland. But ridership has dropped by 95 . Trains and systems want commuters to come back, but they warn that your ride will not be the same. It is still fresh in my mind. Reporter as Carlos Gonzalez laid in a hackensack hospital, he worried he would join more than 100 transit workers from across the country who have died during this pandemic. There is nothing there to protect us. Reporter gonzalez is a new Jersey Transit bus driver, who believes he contracted coronavirus on his daily route to new york city. Were the first ones that make contact with people. You know, everything comes in through our door. You dont know who is sick. You dont know who is who has what. Reporter the trains at unions says more than 1,000 transit workers from Staten Island to seattle have tested positive for covid19. The Union President fears that number will grow significantly as states start opening up and commuters, many with no other choice, start coming back. Im concerned. Every night still losing a member. And the numbers are still going up, not down. Reporter many bus systems such as those in austin, texas, bar riders from using the front doors near the driver. On buses in washington, d. C. , distance from drivers is kept with a yellow plastic chain. Keeping six feet of social distance between passengers themselves is difficult on vehicles that are often only nine feet wide. We have been doing a lot of word. Reporter paul weedfield runs the bus and rail service. Right now crews are cleaning station surfaces nightly, first and last train cars are empty to keep train operators insulated from riders. Two months ago, the trains were carrying 600,000 riders a day. Now, only 30,000. Were on a very good climb in terms of ridership. And i see that coming back. The reality is to move the vast numbers of people that you need to move in an area like ours, transit has to play a role. Reporter unions want passengers mandated to wear masks but agencies struggled with enforcing new norms. In philadelphia last month, police removed a bus rider not wearing a mask and refused to get off. That Transit Agency has since changed its policy. Will masks be a condition to ride, do you think . I think the public will demand it. Reporter Carlos Gonzalez battle with covid19 is in the rear view mirror but he know his fellow transit workers have a long road ahead. Were all in this together, you know . For us to move forward, and past this and for future we just have to be more careful with each other. Reporter the d. C. Metro system tells me it may mandate masks, maybe by the end of this week. It says it does have a solution to that situation that we saw in philadelphia. It says that Transit Police officers will carry masks to give out to riders who do not already have one. Alisyn . Pete, really interesting to see all of the measures they are trying just to try to keep people safe. Thank you very much. Now, we want to remember some of the nearly 80,000 americans who have been lost to coronavirus. Jose rivera was a navy veteran, a cancer survivor and a father, friends remember his infectious smile and his unique way of making anyone who feels comfortable in any situation. Jose leaves behind a wife, six children, and 11 grandchildren. Celia marcos a nurse at hollywood Presbyterian Center in los angeles. She served on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, ultimately dying in the same hospital where she worked. Her son john said regardless of the dangers she was in, she always worried about others. And kip lions worked in a longterm care facility, helping care for patients with dementia. She loved to ride motorcycles with her husband in her free time. She died at 59 years old, less than a month after being diagnosed with coronavirus. Her husband describes her as a hero. Well be right back. How about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no nnnnono only discover has no annual fee on any card. [ siren ] doug nnnnono give me your hand i can save you. Lots of money with Liberty Mutual we customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The 1991 best selling romance novel called happy endings is set in steamy washington, d. C. , and tells the story of a dashing doctor who seduces a former first lady, all while developing a cure for aids. The story is a work of fiction, but the inspiration for the leading character, the doctor, is none other than the real dr. Anthony fauci, the author of that book and wellknown washington insider sally quinn joins us now. Sally, great to see you. This sounds juicy. So as i understand it, you were seated next to dr. Fauci at a d. C. Dinner party and i guess you were quite taken by him. So tell us what happened and how he became a character in your book. Well, i had just finished regrets only, i was the first novel there are two novels. Happy endings is the sequel, and my main character in the first novel was the first lady. She in the second novel is widowed, and i was looking for the perfect person for her to have an affair with, and i hadnt quite, hadnt quite gelled in my mind and i was seated at the pension building dinner, which is this huge dinner hall in washington where there are a lot of black tie dinners. I was sited next to tony fauci, and i had not met him before. I knew who he was, because he was the famous as doctor who had basically discovered the cure for aids and had been involved, and had been very controversial because aids was not it was not recognized as something that we should worry about. In those days it was seen as only a gay disease, and so there was a lot of controversy around him, and we started talking, and usually washington dinner parties, the conversations are, you know, about politics or but hit hat about the news, but we just sort of immediately got into a very intense conversation, and i just found him riveting, and unbelievably attractive, and charismatic. I thought he was brilliant. He had an incredible mind. He had a wonderful sort of witty sense of humor, and he was one of those guys who was interested as well as interesting. I mean, he was asking me question questions and we just hit it off immediately, and i just thought, wow, this guy i thought he was really sexy, and you know, he was he was he was he just oozed decency and integrity. He was kind and caring and all of those things, and so after the dinner, everybody left the table, he and i were still locked in conversation, and on the way home, i said to my husband, ben bradley, you know, i found the guy, i found the perfect person for her to have an affair with. Because she had been married to the president who was a jerk and she wasnt really in love with him and he was totally in love and involved with himself, and here was tony fauci, who he was famous and well respected and all that. Didnt care about fame or money or power. He just was in it to do good, and thats very rare in washington, by the way. Many people often start out that way, they often dont end up that way. And so i told him that he was the sincentive. Im sorry for the delay. Yes. Yes, and so you told your husband and he said, great, i think that sounds like a great idea and then he at some point are read the book and saw the steamy scenes and then what did he think . He wasnt too thrilled. Tony fauci, huh . But we saw them every once in a while at parties, and ben was always sort of, hello, tony, how are you very stiff. But i think he was thats great. But i wrote i hadnt read the book since i wrote it, and so when it came about, this guy called me up and said he wanted to write about it. I talked to him and he read the book and he read both of them, regrets only and happy endings which is the equell. So he wrote this piece and when i read the piece, i thought my god, i cant believe i wrote this. Its so close to what the truth is today. I mean the scenes at the white house and the relationship with the president at the time and the white house and his relationship with her and what she saw in him, what she saw in him was exactly what everyone is seeing in him now. Theres a petition now for him to be named sexiest man alive, and hes become this great sex symbol and it was kind of like who knew . I just wrote it the way i saw it, and suddenly here 30 years later, its all coming true, except that hes not having an affair with the first lady. Yes. Well, that we know of, but that leads me to the depiction of him on saturday night live, so sally, just let me recap this moment, and i wonder if youve seen this. So watch this. Theres been a lot of misinformation out there about the virus, and yes, the president has taken some liberties with our guidelines, so tonight i would like to explain what the president was trying to say. So sally, when snl got brad pitt to play fauci, i think they were playing off some of the irony of the sexiest man alive, but what did you think with that depiction . Well, i thought it was very funny obviously, and i mean, tony fauci is not brad pitt, and brad pitt is not tony fauci, but the idea was beautiful, because tony fauci is really sexy, and at age 79, hes a real renaissance man. He went to a Jesuit School so he studied greek for four years and latin for four years and french and philosophy and the humanities, and you know, hes a runner. Hes an athlete. He was captain of his Basketball Team in school. Hes a big baseball fan. He loves music. He loves sting. You know, hes just a very allaround, and when you talk to him, you dont just its not just sitting there talking to a scientist. Youre talking to someone who is a philosopher in a way, and a person who is brilliantly educated, and wellread, and its just, hes just a treat to be with, and delightful companion, and somebody, you know, that im sorry in a way we never got to be close friends, because it just didnt work out that way, but hes somebody id really like to spend more time with because hes so fascinating. I can hear that, sally. I mean, you have i think really spelled out his finer points for all of us, and i think that its great to see, to be able to see dr. Fauci through your eyes and through that lens. Sally, were out of time but great to talk to you. Thanks so much for sharing this version of dr. Tony fauci with us. Great to see you. So we have some new details on the coronavirus outbreak that is now inside the white house, and new day continues right now. Weve all been exposing ourselves to risks but were willing to take that chance because we love our country. Two people in the west wing tested positive for the virus. The Vice President , mike pence, will not go into selfquarantine. Three of the doctors on the Coronavirus Task force entering some form of selfquarantine. If they cant contain it at the white house, how are they going to contain it at a restaurant, a bar. Toddler, elementary schoolchildren are presenting symptoms similar to toxic shocklike syndrome. As the body is fighting, it fights in such a manner that it starts to cause other problems. Announcer this is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day. I feel like i need a cold shower after watching the interview about Anthony Fauci sex symbol. I see him in a new light as well. New light and nothing else. Be that as it may, this morning the Trump Administration is scrambling to contain the coronavirus outbreak not just in the nation, but in the actual white house. The medical and political fallout already with the serious impact. A valet to the president and the Vice President press secretary have both tested positive. Three Top Health Officials are in some form