Top Infectious Disease Doctor Says U.S. Failing on Testing; Brazilian Official Tests Positive After Meeting Trump Days Ago
BALDWIN: Here's the thing. In this coronavirus outbreak the issue right now is getting Americans tested. Just for context in South Korea, for example, they are issuing 11,000 tests per day and when Alisyn Camerota this morning on "NEW DAY" asked the Vice President Mike Pence this morning how many tests would you say have been done? His response was I would leave that to the experts. The thing is, the Vice President is the head of the White House's coronavirus task force and the scientific expert Dr. Anthony Fauci put it this way today.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INDECTIOUS DISEASES: The system does not -- is not really geared to what we need right now. What you are asking for. That is a failing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A failing. Yes.</s>FAUCI: It is a failing. Let's admit it. The ides of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Failing. When President Trump addressed this from the White House again this morning, he used phrases like testing is going smoothly and the markets are going to be just fine. All the while you're watching the striking split screen of the Dow. You see the numbers right there in free fall. Listen, Americans are officially afraid. It's understandable. Our worlds are disrupted. Sports seasons cancelled. Universities or schools closing its doors. St. Patrick's Day parades off. Houses of worship closed. America's beloved actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson sick. And you know how he knows he's coronavirus positive. He's in Australia. If he were here in America that may not be the case. China by the way is seeing its numbers fall dramatically after taking drastic measures. We have some serious questions to be asking ourselves. And to this White House, Mr. President, Americans need two things right now. Coronavirus testing, and leadership. Juliette Kayyem is a former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She's a CNN national security analyst, and Dr. Roshini Raj is an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health. Ladies, thank you for being here. When you hear Dr. Fauci saying, failing, are we failing? To either of you.</s>DR. ROSHINI RAJ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AT NYU LANGONE HEALTH: Yes. I mean I think the point is we do not have an adequate number of tests.</s>BALDWIN: Why not?</s>RAJ: Well, this is a novel virus, so that's something that had to be created as we learned about the virus, the testing and we are lagging behind. And it's not clear why in other countries they were able to develop that number of tests so quickly and we weren't.</s>BALDWIN: I mean the word that a doc at Yale used with me the last hour is that they were proactive.</s>RAJ: Yes.</s>JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. It's not good. And yet we move on. Because what we need to do is make sure now because of the failings of the testing that our needs do not bump up against our capacity. So, shut it down. We knew this moment would come. We were hoping we had more time because we would be able to contain. And so, but we're not there. And so, you just literally in the last 36 hours, every single governor, every single institution shut it down. Florida just did it. We just got to get our heads around it. I'm not a therapist. This is just what we have to do.</s>BALDWIN: Help us though from your perch in national security, get our heads around it, because you wrote -- I remember that it was the first -- your second to the last graph in your piece in "The Atlantic" it was just like seared in my mind as basically Americans brace for impact.</s>KAYYEM: And brace for impact.</s>BALDWIN: What does it mean?</s>KAYYEM: So, it means, I mean, well, we're feeling it now, right. So, it means basically that we are now part -- we're now first responders. We're now part of the response. We're the heroes. Right. Because there's three ways that we're going to curb -- you know it's basically stop the flow, stop the spread. It's going to be personal behavior. Washing the hands, all things that the doctors are recommending. It is going to be institutions that we've seen from NLB to NCAA, universities, colleges, museum, shut it down.</s>BALDWIN: We should mention you're a mom, two kids, literally in commercial break you're dealing with cancelled SATs --</s>KAYYEM: Canceled university and canceled SAT. Get your head around it. That's all I do. Just brace for impact. Look, it's not like this is forever. I guess I should say that too.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>KAYYEM: This is for a period of time until we can get the kits, get the testing, all the things that doctors are recommending. And then the third, of course, a state and local actor. So, you're seeing mayors and governors fill a gap that the White House and the President are simply incapable of filling right now and I'm just being blunt here. It's just that leadership gap. And so, you know, thank goodness for federalism. That's all I'll say.</s>BALDWIN: On the President, we know that the President of Brazil's press secretary has tested positive for coronavirus. We know that this person was with President Trump over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and out and about at a birthday party. And so, this is what Stephanie Grisham said in response to that. Both the President and Vice President had almost no interactions with the individual who tested positive and do not require being tested at this time. Here's the photo. President in the middle, Vice President to the right, this press secretary of the President of Brazil who tested positive to his left. My question to you is this should the President be tested and even if not should he self-quarantine? If he says he's fine.</s>RAJ: Yes. Right now, the recommendation for testing -- and part of this is because we're so limited that we need to ration the test -- is that if you've had prolonged exposure. So it's not just standing next to somebody for 30 seconds. But longer than a few minutes. And if you are within 6 feet, which clearly, he was given that photo. Then you should be tested. If it's someone who has a known case. We don't know if it was prolonged exposure. He hasn't really released how long he was him. But his doctors are saying he really wasn't. And he's saying he has no symptoms. Now if you lived with someone or spent a long period of time with someone who was positive absolutely you should self-quarantine. I don't know how realistic that is for someone in his position. On the other hand, he absolutely needs to be extremely careful about the way he's interacting with people right now.</s>BALDWIN: OK. We saw -- we were sitting here listening to Senator Bernie Sanders and how he addressed coronavirus. We heard from former Vice President Joe Biden making a speech today on what he thinks needs to be done address this crisis. Here's the former Vice President.</s>JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Every senior center, our vulnerable population has to have easy access to the test. And we should establish hundreds of mobile testing sites, at least ten per state and drive through testing centers to speed testing to protect the health of our workers.</s>BALDWIN: I think most people would agree that would be ideal, but is it feasible to have ten testing sites in each state?</s>KAYYEM: Look, I talked to a lot of governors, I do a lot of advising to governors and mayors, Republican and Democrats. So, what they're doing right now is they are determining what their capacity is and what their plan B is. One of the challenges right now is one state thought that the sister state next door could help them in a crisis, say a flood or hurricane. No states are going to help each other under these mutual aid agreements. So every state on their own. So, they just are looking at their capacity right now and seeing how much they can build in the absence of federal guidance. Right? In other words, the lack of federal guidance about what these governors and mayors should do and when have been surprising. Look, we --</s>BALDWIN: Do you think they should declare a national emergency?</s>KAYYEM: I don't even know what that means for this -- look, I mean, it's like our 12th, like I mean at this stage it's been so muted. What we need from the President, you know, can I be honest with you?</s>BALDWIN: Get real with me.</s>KAYYEM: We're going to deal with a crisis with the President we have not with the one we need. He will not change. Last night was proof of that. So, every governor and mayor is now President. And so, you just -- we just have to make those decisions and shut it down for a period of time. But the idea that we three years later let alone six weeks later are looking at this White House and this President like get over it. It ain't going to happen. And so, let's just try to minimize the damage and be grateful that, you know, a CEO, sports leaders, actors and actresses, the Prime Minister of Canada --</s>BALDWIN: Are doing the right thing.</s>KAYYEM: -- are taking care of us.</s>BALDWIN: I appreciate your candor.</s>KAYYEM: Sorry, I'm not normally that political.</s>BALDWIN: Don't apologize.</s>KAYYEM: It ain't going to happen.</s>BALDWIN: Don't apologize, Juliette Kayyem and Dr. Roshini Raj, ladies, I appreciate you both very, very much and all of that. Again, the news keeps coming in. We are now hearing several live entertainment organizers such as Live Nation and AEG have just announced they are postponing concerts and other events through the end of March. Also, Ohio has just become the first state in the country to close all schools. All schools. We'll be right back.