Dozens Of Secret Service Agents Quarantining After Tulsa Rally
HARLOW: Well, this morning, dozens of Secret Service agents are in quarantine. The decision to isolate comes after working president's rally in Tulsa last weekend. The event, you'll recall, took place in an indoor arena.</s>SCIUTTO: CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood joins us now. So, John, this is not the only precaution being taken. Is this about protecting the president or the Secret Service agents or both?</s>JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I think it's both, Jim. In addition to the quarantine, we know that the Secret Service is now requiring that agents for the next couple of weeks, at least, the agents who go on presidential trips have to be tested for the coronavirus 24 to 48 hours before leaving. Obviously, their health and safety is a concern, and we saw at the Tulsa event two Secret Service agents were diagnosed with COVID. Eight advanced staffers were diagnosed with COVID. That was an indoor rally, not a packed arena, 19,000 capacity, only a third filled, but people were generally not wearing masks, even though the Trump campaign said it was giving out masks. Then a couple days later, the president went to Phoenix and had a packed auditorium with people, again, not wearing masks. So, clearly, at a time when public health officials are discouraging large indoor gatherings, the president is defying that, and the people who are charged with keeping him safe are paying a price for it, and it's not beyond the pale to think that the president might eventually pay a price for it. Remember, a couple of White House aides, one close aide to Mike Pence and one of the valets serving the president earlier this spring were diagnosed with COVID, so it has been around and it's a concern for the White House and everyone who works there.</s>HARLOW: So, John, the president goes to Wisconsin today and Marco Rubio says just wear a damn mask. Is the president going to wear a mask?</s>HARWOOD: I doubt it. We haven't seen him wear a mask in public before. He has expressed concern about how it looks and about the effectiveness, about whether or not people -- mask-wearing is a sign of disapproval of his leadership. But it is clear from public health officials, the recommendation is that wearing masks both protects other people from you and they are wearing masks protects you from transmitting the virus via droplets. The University of Washington says that 95 percent of the American people wear masks, 33,000 fewer Americans would die by October 1st. President Trump, in a pretty self-defeating move, has declined to embrace the mark of message and we're seeing seen the consequences play out.</s>HARLOW: We are. John, thanks for reporting from the White House. As more than half of the country, half of the states in the country are seeing a spike in COVID cases, what needs to be done to actually slow the infection rate?</s>SCIUTTO: Let's speak to Dr. Larry Brilliant, CNN Medical Analyst and Epidemiologist. Dr. Brilliant, great to have you on. I'm kind of amazed as others are that this is where we are, months into a pandemic where health experts know exactly what to do, right, to prevent the spread and when it does spread, what to do. We were speaking to someone from Miami just a couple of minutes ago. They are doing their best there, but it seems like they are still debating what you do when you find people with positive tests now this deep into it. How did we get here, right, and can we get out of this? Because, clearly, the numbers are going up, clearly, the country is not doing what's necessary to get this under wraps.</s>DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, good morning. It's a complex question how we got here. You know, one of the factors is that today is exactly one month after Memorial Day. We all knew that Memorial Day plus three weeks, we'd see an increased spike in cases, and Memorial Day plus four or five weeks, we'll see an increased spike in deaths, and we're certainly seeing it. Today's case count is back to the highs that we had in April and our deaths are beginning to increase almost doubling since yesterday. These are -- these are just numbers, but they -- they show our inability to deal with the seasonality, the summer. I fear we'll have the same situation when we have 4th of July plus three weeks, Labor Day plus three weeks. You know, epidemiologists saw this come. Every one of us said it's not a question of, it's a question of when. The thing we did not see coming was not the virus. We didn't not see the total absence of the federal government leadership that we have become accustomed to in every other outbreak. We know what to do. You find every case, you do contact tracing and testing. Those cases that you find from contact tracing, you treat or you isolate. You do that while you're doing face masks and social distancing. I just want to call attention to one thing, which is that today, South Korea has had 325 deaths. That's cumulative since the beginning of the outbreak. We've had double that number of deaths in one day that South Korea has had in the history of the outbreak. And, Jim, you should know, Poppy, that the outbreak began on the same day in South Korea and the United States. This is shameful.</s>HARLOW: Yes, January 20th. Look, there's no reason, and correct me if I'm wrong, Dr. Brilliant, that the U.S. could not have done what Iceland did, right? Our Max Foster went there and brought us the remarkable story of Iceland, where they are living like normal now because of what they did on the front end of this, right? I mean, other than sort of political ineptitude, there's no reason that a bigger country couldn't do the same, right?</s>BRILLIANT: Iceland, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, I mean, some of these are island republics with women leadership, which are two really important factors. We can't monitor either of those just yet. But, you know, clearly, we could have done what South Korea did. In fact, what we should do right now is to follow the playbook of those countries that have been successful and take from them the best lessons in a spirit of humility because, honestly, we have a lot to be humble about in our response.</s>SCIUTTO: Dr. Brilliant you talk about a lack of presidential leadership, right, lack of federal leadership here. In fact, and this is just the way that's playing out, you have a president deliberately fighting the science here, right? He says it's going away, it's not. The numbers don't lie. He says cases are rising only because of increased testing. That's also not true because the positivity rate is going up, and he won't wear a mask and he creates events where people aren't required to wear masks, which is the simplest, you know, confirmed way of stopping the spread. By doing that, is he endangering lives?</s>BRILLIANT: Well, you just -- you just heard Chris Murray say that if everybody wore a mask, the death count in the United States would be 33,000 cases less in a month. That's almost 1,000 deaths a day. That's more deaths in total than we have right now. So maybe he should listen to Marco Rubio. I believe I just heard you say that the senator told him, wear a damn mask. And I don't know any</s>HARLOW: Yes. I think Marco Rubio was talking to everyone, but the president is included in that. Dr. Larry Brilliant, we always appreciate having you. Thanks a lot. Well, Bill Gates warned about a pandemic like this a long time ago, years ago. Now, he weighs in on the rising number of cases and what can be done at this point to actually change things. He joins Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta tonight for a CNN global town hall, Coronavirus, Facts and Fears, live at 8:00 Eastern right here on</s>CNN. SCIUTTO: So Democrats in the House, they are set to pass their policing reform bill later today, but this after Democrats in the Senate, they blocked a GOP version. Republican Senator Mike Braun was trying to bring both sides together with something of a compromise. It didn't work yet. He joins us ahead. We'll see where this all stands.