Has more. Good morning, elizabeth. Good morning, poppy, jim. Like you said, this is unprecedented. Ive been following the cdc for 30 years now, and president s dont ignore the cdc. They may not do exactly precisely, but they dont ignore this agency which is the most respected of its kind in the world. Lets take a look at what the cdc said last week, or what cnn found out last week, we first told you about it last week. Their guidelines were for daycare programs, people of faith, employers with vulnerable workers, restaurants and bars, mass transit administrators. They said, a team of people at the cdc spent numerous hours in response to an ask by deborah birx. She is the doctor that is the head of the Coronavirus Task force. Specifically what these guidelines said were things like, if youre going to reopen a school, the children should be sitting at desks that are six feet apart. If youre going to be reopening a church, you should not have a choir or you should think about not having a choir because singing can make the virus spread more quickly because youre sort of spewing the virus out there if anyone is sick. You shouldnt have a collection plate that circulates. You should have it stationary. It was those kinds of guidelines, and now apparently the white house is choosing to ignore it. Jim, poppy . Wow. Thats stunning, elizabeth. Thank you. Lets discuss now with cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. Sanjay, youre a doctor. Youve been involved in these discussions. You speak every day or often to the seniormost officials in this country handling the outbreak. Tell me your reaction to the white house asking for guidelines, and keep in mind, this is about how to open safely, right . Its not saying whether or not to open, its how to do it safely. Whats your reaction to asking for those guidelines and then deciding to ignore them . Its disappointing, jim, and maybe not surprising as well. Its been sort of stunning since the beginning of this outbreak to see how much the cdc has been progressively sidelined here. There were almost daily briefings from the cdc which we all were listening into. I can tell you february 26 there was a specific briefing where dr. Nancy mesonye basically said its no longer a question of if the pandemic is going to affect the United States, its when. It was almost after that point i felt like the cdc got sidelined in all of this. As elizabeth was mentioning in the past, whether it was going back to sars, h1n1, ebola, tom freedman, they were always at the forefront of this. The point is, i get questions all the time from people who say, what about summer camp this summer for my kids . What about the ncaa in the fall . A lot of times were going to the cdc and asking them because they apply what we know about this virus into reallife scenarios. It gets really specific. You talk about restaurants but you also talk about schools, you talk about camps. How can you do these things as safely as possible . We know the microbiology of the virus, but theyre the investigators that make it really detailed for us. Lets set aside the president for a moment here, because the fact is he has less influence on this, perhaps, than he majimagi. Its actually state and local leaders that make the decisions. There are some governors opening to some degree, here and there, slowly, et cetera. When you look at that, who is getting it right, in your view . Who is taking the steps properly on questions like the ones you raise. Do you let churches open . Do you let schools open . Do you let summer camps open . Well, you know, i mean, one of the things, if you look specifically at these gating criteria in terms of how these states should open and when they should open, none of the states are there yet. Its not to say they could get there, but theyre not there yet. Some of it is just following the trends of making sure there is a 14day downward trend, but also making sure you have testing in place. What that means is maybe we should get away from the absolute test thats necessary, some people get fixated on that, but this idea that people can get tested when they need to get tested. They have both the physical and psychological confidence to go out in the public to do these things theyre talking about. Jim, when you go back to work, are you going to be comfortable youre not harboring the virus and people around you are also not harboring the virus . How do we get to that point of confidence . There is not a state yet that has that level of testing yet. Then you have to do trace contacts and all that. Its almost an entire new industry, jim. People are hearing the term Contact Tracing for the first time. We talk about hundreds of thousands of people that will be necessary for this. It reminds me of these great transformations in our society when we had to create new industries to be able to handle something. This is one of those points. Until we have a vaccine or really effective therapeutic, this can work. There are examples around the world where this has worked, jim, its not all doom and gloom. This can work. Absolutely. Look at south korea, but the facts are the u. S. Remarkably behind on the testing and Contact Tracing. Final question for you, because folks listening at home, they want a sense of the timeline and hopefully a sense of some relief. Every day you hear a different guess as to when a vaccine will be ready, a reliable one. But the fact is most folks say not until early next year. Do you need a reliable vaccine for folks to be going back to be doing most of what they did before this outbreak . I think so. I mean, you can have significant improvements without the vaccine in terms of our lives overall. I think the testing and i know i sound like a broken record here, but i think that will go a long way. I think its not only containing the virus which testing will help. I think were in a psychological funk right now. We dont know, nobody knows whats going to happen. We need data, and we need individualized data, stuff that we can count on. So widespread testing that we can get the results early, thats accurate. Without a vaccine, that can really go a long way. By the way, the vaccine stuff, the trial thats coming out of moderna, this is encouraging stuff. We should emphasize that. Going to a phase 2 trial, the United States government has put half a Million Dollars behind this. If this works, this could be significant and maybe much more rapidly than vaccines of the past. We should note countries like germany, for instance, there is novak seen, but germany because of Contact Tracing and testing, has begun to make moves to open up, so it can happen before. Dr. Gupta, always good to have you on. You, too, jim. Thanks. Coronavirus, im sure youre asking every day, what to do, what to avoid, when to see a doctor. Dr. Guptas podcast has the answers on coronavirus fact versus fiction. Some businesses in texas will be able to open for the first time in weeks. Ed lavandera is in dallas. Tell us what those are. How are texans doing this . How are they kind of dipping their toes in the water here with reopening . Reporter well, theyre moving rather quickly here, to be honest. The governor of texas, when he first started announcing this phased reopening of the texas economy a while back, he had originally said that barber shops, hair salons, nail salons would be included in the second phase of the reopening here, which wouldnt happen until may until midmay, excuse me. But the governor just a few days ago announced that those businesses can reopen tomorrow, which is interesting because there is one particular salon owner here in texas who has garnered a great deal of attention for defying those orders and not closing down h her salon here in the north dallas area. In fact, that salon owner was put in jail for civil and criminal contempt of court for defying those orders, and after that kind of news broke out, the governor sped up the reopening of those types of businesses. That will unfold tomorrow. Gyms and bars will be the next phase. Were told, as we understand right now, that will happen in about ten days or so. And this is kind of what were seeing in many parts of the country, this push to reopen the economy as quickly as possible. Poppy . Ed, thanks so much for that reporting there. Lets talk about denver, colorado where just this week the city saw an uptick in cases, some businesses still set to reopen this weekend. Denvers mayor, mayor hancock, is with me. Mayor, thank you for taking the time. If you look, these are new cases. If you look just between may 4th and may 5th, for example i think we have another one we can show you may 4th, you had 58 new cases, may 5th, you had 137 new cases. Help us understand why now is the time to open. First of all, poppy, good to be with you this morning. Thanks for having me. What youre seeing also is a correlation of denver stepping up its testing. We have been working hard, working very closely with the state to try to increase testing and accessibility to testing. We have more institutions that are able to test in our state. We expect that our numbers would increase as we increase our testing. So we look at the full spectrum of the impact of covid in our communities before we make decisions to open them up, and thats why, as we look at all the other metrics, were feeling a little more better about opening up some of the operations within our city. Understood. Heres what greyson lendauer who was a barista at Denver International airport until they were laid off in late march said, quote, im really scared about going back in. I feel like im being held hostage. Pay your bills or stay home and be safe, but youre left in a situation thats terrifying. This is going to kill people and it feels like no one cares. Do you think this reopening could result in more deaths . We certainly hope not. Obviously one death is too many. Weve had close to just over 200 deaths here in denver. Were doing what we can to blunt the curve. Weve said that from day one, and i think as a state and a city, we got in front of this at the right time. With regard to our employees and our workers, our businesses and the city of denver, our whole focus has been about protecting everyone and doing what we can to make sure that we keep people healthy. And now were working with those businesses to make sure proper protocols are in place to allow folks to go back to work at the appropriate time. At the airport, the airport was one of the first places in denver, quite frankly, that started to put in measures to sanitize and make sure people had access to those measures to help keep them safe. And we expect to see more people come to the airport because the airport never shut down. Theres also, obviously, the concern about livelihood, right . I completely understand that. You look at denvers population, and the latest census numbers tell us its almost 30 hispanic. And there is an incredibly troubling poll out of the Washington Post this morning that shows that hispanics are more than twice as likely as white americans to have lost their job in this crisis. Are you seeing that play out in denver . Were seeing that people all over this country has been disproportionately impacted by this virus in our society, whether its contracting the virus, dying from the virus, being implicated as a result of jobs being lost and institutions being closed down. Absolutely were concerned about people of color, latino, africanamericans, everyone who has been disproportionately impacted by this. Thats one reason why we want to protect everyone. And two, make sure people have access to the testing and were able to get the testing to them and make sure theyre able to Access Health care, which is another big hurdle. Of course. And how do we get this economy moving again . Thats really the balance weve tried to walk, but nothing trumps keeping people safe, and lets try to get this economy moving again on the right pace so that we can ease back into the economy while at the same time maintaining the priorities of health and safety. I understand that. There is no easy answer. Let me just end on this because one hour outside of central denver is the jbs greeley meat packing plant. Theyve had 87 deaths. This is a picture that cnn obtained. The womans name is tin ei. Her daughter sent us this. Shes fighting for her life, shes on a ventilator, and her daughter said fearing loss of pay and inability to pay bills, she kept going to work despite not feeling well and having a cough. We reached out to jbs about her, we havent heard back. But i wanted to ask you about this because it brings to life what so many people are doing that are deemed essential and going to work, because theyre scared of not having a paycheck and now this woman is fighting for her life. Its an impossible choice and i just wonder what your reaction is to that given its right outside denver. Youre absolutely right, poppy, and i thank you for sharing that story. All of us here in colorado and across this country, we know the vast majority of the people who make up our economy are folks who simply cant stay a day off or stay home. They are blue collar workers, the people who are the engine of our economy, and unfortunately the fear, as this woman you know, i cant afford to miss a day, i cant stay home a week, and i certainly cant afford to shut down the plant because im going from paycheck to paycheck. My heart just absolutely stinks for them, but to hear the stories i cant miss a day so i kept working and now we have situations like this. My prayers and thoughts are with those families, and thats why i get up for a purpose to open up this state in a way that allows them to take care of their families. We appreciate that, mayor, and well keep hope for her improvement. Mayor hancock, thank you so much. Thanks, poppy. Lawmakers accusing Airline Execs of misleading consumers over refunds. Well hear that next. 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A change in policy after employees threatened a lawsuit, but also they were concerned this violated conditions of the cares act, which provided support to the airlines. Was this what made you decide to make this mandatory . It was, jim. Were looking all across our company to try to reduce costs because were going through the worst Economic Impact weve ever had to face. This has gone deeper and sharper and lasted longer than weve ever seen before. Were doing everything we can to reduce cost. Thats why executives have reduced their salaries by 50 . And were asking for our employees to think of ways they can save money, including reducing their own hours. Jim, weve been blown away by the responses of our employees. Tens of thousands have come forward voluntarily agreeing to reduce hours because they know it will benefit the company in these challenging times. Its an indication just how loyal our work force is in this industry. I get that airlines are i could see takeoffs from National Airport has dropped precipitously, so i know its rough. But as the company is getting forms of aid, for instance, there are other questions, too, about refunds for folks who booked tickets but either they dont feel safe taking those flights anymore, getting credits as opposed to their money back. Is that a mistake as taxpayers help fund relief for airlines . Jim, we should be really clear about what our policy is. F if you have a refundable ticket, you can get a refund as well as anyone. We are asking our customers who had travel plans to change their travel plans without a fee. If they prefer, they can get a travel benefit thats good for the next 18 months. Lets talk about the Business Climate for airlines here. The drops are just precipitous. 95 drops in air traffic. With fewer people on board both due to theyre out of work, they dont have the money to travel anymore, or the need to travel, but also concerns about social distancing, i just wonder how do airlines recover from this . Can they survive . Yeah. Jim, i think the limiting factor right now, you identified some of them, but a lot of them are the shelter in place orders that have been put in place by local governments to contain the spread of the virus. So what we are doing, jim, is preparing our airline to be in a place where we can build confidence in peoples ability to travel once much of those shelter in place orders start to be lifted. Were requiring all our customers on board our planes to wear masks, our flight attendants, too. Were using an electrostatic sprayer. This is a device that hospitals use to clean hospital rooms. Were doing it on our aircraft. Starting the end of the month, well do that on all our aircrafts. They can be confident theyre traveling safe even aboard an aircraft with united. People just dont have the confidence, and it will take time to build that confidence, and theres nothing more confining than an airplane,