This Week: Disney, Goldman Sachs, & Airlines Cut 60,000+ Total Jobs; Trump to Hold Rally in Wisconsin Amid Massive COVID Surge.
TAPPER: In our money lead today, with Congress stalled on stimulus relief plan for coronavirus, businesses continue to close down and lay off workers and at an incredible clip. Just this week, retail store H&M announced they are closing 250 stores, 250. Disney is cutting 28,000 jobs mainly at their theme parks. And with airline travel down 70 percent from this time last year, United and American Airlines today announced job cuts for 32,000 employees. Delta CEO also telling CNN that nearly 2,000 of their pilots may be at risk of layoffs. CNN's Pete Muntean joins me now. Pete, 32,000 job cuts between two major airlines. What does this signal about the future of air travel?</s>PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It is not a good sign for the airline industry, Jake. And that reality is setting in for tens of thousands of airline employees now furloughed. You know, they lobbied Congress for months for an extra $25 billion to avoid this October 1st furlough deadline by an extra six months. What's so interesting now is that airlines are saying if Congress can get its act together in the next few days, it will recall employees back from the unemployment line. Here are the latest number from airlines: American Airlines says it's furloughed 19,000 employees effective today, 13,000 at United Airlines. The total when you consider smaller and regional, more than 50,000 furloughs industry-wide. They are pilots. They are mechanics. They are gate agents. They are flight attendants like Allie Malis, an American Airlines flight attendant, for about nine years. She's one of the 9,000 American Airlines flight attendants now without a job.</s>ALLIE MALIS, AMERICAN AIRLINES APFA FLIGHT ATTENDANT: I'm trying not to cry today, trying to hold it together because we still have an opportunity to get this done, two press undo. We have an opportunity to fix this before the ripple effect takes ahold on the whole, entire economy.</s>MUNTEAN: Just to put this all in perspective, the furloughs at American Airlines alone, those people could nearly fill Capital One Arena here in Washington, D.C. this could be the single worst day of job losses in the entire history of aviation -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Pete Muntean, thank you so much for that sobering report. And our health lead with states easing restrictions and the cold weather moving in states that flattened their curve are once again seeing spikes as CNN's Nick Watt reports.</s>NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wisconsin is in trouble. Average case counts climbed to stunning 300 percent just the past month. Look at that line?</s>DR. ASHISH JHA, BROWN UNIVERSITY: This is not the time to be holding a rally in Wisconsin.</s>WATT: The president had planned two of his notoriously unmasked MAGA rallies this weekend in Wisconsin. The one in Lacrosse was just canceled.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a very severe situation with COVID.</s>WATT: Unclear what's happening with the one in Green Bay.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Currently, one hospital out of the four in Green Bay has more patients than the entire city had at our peak in April.</s>WATT: More than half of states are right now heading in the wrong direction. Average new case counts climbing. New York now seeing spikes in at least 20 zip codes, most in New York City.</s>GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: There are increases primarily in Brooklyn. A cluster today can become community spread tomorrow.</s>WATT: Reopening the city schools goes on for now, but kids do spread this virus among themselves, so says a large new study out of India, which found young and middle aged adults are the primary source of community spread. Up in Boston, after a rise in new cases, many among college students, they just pump the brakes on reopening some businesses and won't allow bigger gatherings.</s>MAYOR MARTY WALSH, BOSTON: You want to be treated as adults, well, then act it.</s>WATT: Meanwhile, AstraZeneca's vaccine trials still on hold in the U.S., paused after an illness of a volunteer in the U.K. The FDA can't or won't explain why.</s>STEPHEN HAHN, FDA DIRECTOR: I can't speak to confidential, commercial information.</s>WATT: Moderna says it probably won't have enough data to file for emergency use authorization until late November. So after the election. The CEO their vaccine likely won't be widely available until the spring despite what the president claims.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's going to be very, very soon and before the end of the year. Maybe sooner than that.</s>WATT: New research posted online concludes this man, our president --</s>TRUMP: It's like a miracle. It will disappear. Hydroxychloroquine, try it. We're rounding the corner on the pandemic.</s>WATT: This man was likely the largest driver of the COVID-19 misinformation infodemic.</s>WATT: Now, the White House gave us a statement about that study and it reads in part, this study could not be further from the proof. The president's message has been consistent from the beginning: resilience, hope, optimism. Ironically that statement is not entirely accurate. And, Jake, we just heard that MAGA rally planned in Wisconsin for Lacrosse has been moved to Janesville. The campaign said nothing to do with COVID, it was a lease issue on the venue -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Nick, resilience, hope, and optimism, the study wasn't about whether the president was promoting resilience, hope, optimism, it was about whether he shared misinformation, which he did over and over and over.</s>WATT: Yeah, correct.</s>TAPPER: All right.</s>WATT: He did, Jake. He did on so many things, and it can cost lives. Misinformation can cost lives.</s>TAPPER: Indeed. Nick Watt, thank you so much. CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us. Sanjay, President Trump planning to hold a rally in Wisconsin, which is seeing massive spikes and deaths and hospitalizations. And the ignorance is not just the president's. Take a listen for vice chairman for the Republican Party in Brown County which is a red zone and where a Trump rally is set to be held.</s>ANDY WILLIAMS, VICE CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF BROWN COUNTY: If you're coming to take whatever precautions you need to be safe. I don't have a reason to wear a mask. I'm not sick.</s>TAPPER: I don't have a reason to wear a mask. I'm not sick. I mean, that's a local leader of the Republican Party. Your thoughts?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know if he doesn't know at this point. That would be hard to believe, how this virus spreads. I mean, he's an elected leader. Presumably, he's knowledgeable. Or he maybe he really doesn't know. You know, I'm just not sure at this point, Jake. So many months in, we're still talking about same things you and I had deep conversations about back in February and March. He said two things. One, no need to wear a mask. I mean, look, we said over and over again, the effectiveness of masks, we can show data, sometimes people like numbers. If you wear a mask and have virus number, what's the likelihood you'll transmit it versus not wearing it. It's not a six-fold difference there. It's not perfect but it can make a big difference. He also said he's not sick. Therefore, he doesn't need to wear a mask. And again, Jake, I hope people know this by now, but 45 -- 40 to 45 percent of the spread of this virus is from people who don't have any symptoms. So, you know, again, I don't know if he doesn't know, or what, but those are just two false statements.</s>TAPPER: Yeah, I mean, at a certain point, whether it's willful ignorance or just sheer stupidity, it doesn't matter, still a health menace.</s>GUPTA: Yeah, that's right.</s>TAPPER: We're entering final month before the election. So, it's unlikely the president is going to slow down on the campaign trail. In fact, I'm sure, he's going to get more active. Do you think these rallies are potentially super spreaders?</s>GUPTA: Yeah, I do. We know this is a very contagious virus. I mean, that hasn't changed. Nothing magical has changed about the virus. It spreads from person-to-person. It likes to do that, likes to find lots of hosts. You know, it is true that being outdoors is going to be better than being indoors. We know that, but there's lots of factors that go into this. How close are the people around you? Virus can jump person-to-person. How long are you next to these people? Is it longer than 15 minutes. And then, of course, are you wearing a mask. So, all these factors make a difference. Outside better but not if you're not doing these other things as well, which you're not.</s>TAPPER: And then a study released by the Cornell Alliance for Science found that President Trump was likely the largest driver of the COVID- 19 misinformation, what they call an infodemic. You and I have been debunking the president's claims about this since February, literally since February. But now you have a quantitative analysis of it.</s>GUPTA: Yeah.</s>TAPPER: The president of the United States holding rallies in which he's probably putting or definitely putting his supporters at risk, at the very least, and also the leading purveyor of misinformation according to this study.</s>GUPTA: The president of the United States, the biggest source of misinformation in the middle of a pandemic. I mean, I -- it blows the mind. The study I looked at it, Jake, 36 to 38 percent of misinformation is coming from one person, the president of the United States. Some of the most common themes of the misinformation had to do with these miracle cures, really promoting things like hydroxychloroquine but also bleach and U.V. light. It has real world sort of impact, Jake. You know, a mask is the biggest thing. We can see the data around this. They say that 48 percent of people, roughly half the country, has at least one misconception regarding coronavirus still. Twenty percent wearing a mask actually poses a health risk to them and 16 percent believes they don't help reduce spread. I think it's even higher than that, Jake. But, clearly, it has an impact, this infodemic.</s>TAPPER: A Trump administration officials told CNN that in the early days of the pandemic, there was a fight in the White House over whether or not to wear a mask, because, quote, if you have the whole West Wing running around wearing masks, it wasn't a good look. This is a Trump administration official. What's your response?</s>GUPTA: Well, you know, my response goes back to the same thing. We know that this is a contagious virus. It spreads indoors, especially in closed quarters, poorly ventilated areas. I think what really struck me about this, Jake, going back to recordings with Bob Woodward February 7th. He's saying, we know this thing is airborne. We know this thing is a killer. You know, we know this thing can spread. And then after that saying people --</s>TAPPER: Deadlier than the flu.</s>GUPTA: Right. Deadly, yeah, not (ph) as deadly as the flu. You know, all that sort of stuff. And then after that he's saying people don't need to wear masks. He knew the evidence at that time, probably ahead of many of the medical journals. So -- and then you're telling people, even people within your workspace that you don't need to wear masks or it was frowned upon, it just doesn't make sense. I mean, you know, politics almost aside, like that's your own health at that point you're talking about, the health of your staff, people that, you know, work with you. It just -- you know, it doesn't make sense.</s>TAPPER: Yeah, people in the White House have gotten the virus. Thankfully we don't know if anybody --</s>GUPTA: Yeah.</s>TAPPER: -- is seriously injured. I mean, it's just -- I wish that you and I, what we've been talking about since February, I wish we had been proven wrong this whole time. You know, I wish we were looking back at the days that we were alarmists.</s>GUPTA: Right.</s>TAPPER: But everything we've been talking about, the president not taking seriously enough, the job losses coming if we didn't really seriously stop to slow the spread, the testing. Everything happened the way we said.</s>GUPTA: Yeah.</s>TAPPER: And I wish we were wrong. I wish it were so.</s>GUPTA: I do -- I do, too, Jake. One of the things that really stuck with me I think going back to February, I think it may have been Dr. Fauci or somebody who said, if you feel in the middle of a pandemic that you are overreacting, it feels like the way I'm overreacting, it probably means you're reacting the right amount.</s>TAPPER: Yeah.</s>GUPTA: It's the nature of the pandemic. You can get so quickly behind the curve that you don't even know what happened. You've got to react quickly. And we didn't, you know, for a month, maybe even five weeks.</s>TAPPER: Still not. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Joe Biden said he is the Democratic Party. Bernie and AOC supporters have entered the chat. Does the nominee risk angering many on the left to ease fears that Trump is yelling to the right? Stay with us.