GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert Tests Positive For Coronavirus; Emory's Dr. Carlos del Rio Discusses Louie Gohmert Testing Positive.
KEILAR: We want to get back to our breaking news. Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert testing positive for coronavirus. The Texas Republican was seen walking behind attorney general, William Barr, yesterday as he arrived for a hearing on Capitol Hill. Neither were wearing a mask. And then they went into the hearing room. Yesterday, another committee meeting. Again no mask. CNN's Manu Raju is live for us on Capitol Hill. Tell us what you're hearing there and what lawmakers are saying, Manu?</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, lawmakers are taking aback by it, because a number of them have been in contact with Louie Gohmert, or have seen him interacting with members on the floor of the House. As he's been doing frequently for weeks now. And it is something that I've observed watching from the House gallery, watching him interact with members, sitting down next to them on the House floor, talking to them. I I've never seen him wearing a mask on the House floor as he's carried on. In fact, I'm asked him directly why he didn't want to wear a mask and he said, in late June, if I get the coronavirus, I will wear it. And then I said to him, well, if you could be an asymptomatic carrier of this virus, something that health experts say is a reason why you should be wearing a mask. And he said, I'm not afraid of you because, he said -- I'll give you the exact quote -- "But I keep getting tests and I don't have it. But I'm not afraid of you. But if I get it, I'll wear a mask." Now he did talk to a local Texas station just earlier and he explained why he thinks he got the virus. Take a listen.</s>REP. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-TX): I can't help but think that, if I hadn't been wearing a mask so much in the last 10 days or so, I really wonder if I would have gotten it. But I know moving the mask around, getting it just right, I'm bound to put some virus on the mask that I've sucked in. That is most likely what happened.</s>RAJU: So there's a lot to unpack there. One, that flatly contradicts the science and what actual public health experts say, is that you don't get the virus by wearing a mask. In fact, that is something in which you wear a mask to prevent yourself from spreading the disease and to protect yourself. Also Louie Gohmert has not been wearing a mask and he's not seen around the House wearing a mask. In fact, he doesn't wear one on the House floor. He has worn it during the House committee meetings because it is required but pulled off as he is speaking. It's unclear when he thinks wearing a mask may have caused him to get the virus. But that is, as I say, not supported by the science and certainly not supported by what we're hearing from the Centers for Disease Control and others who say it is imperative to wear a mask. And as you mentioned earlier, Brianna, he was seen interacting with Bill Barr, the attorney general, outside of the committee hearing yesterday. Barr, we're told, will get tested after the interaction.</s>KEILAR: If we could put some of the pictures back up of Louie Gohmert in various settings. Including in committee hearings where, for instance, here is one he's in the hallway, no mask. He's near people who are wearing them. But Bill Barr is not wearing one. Here he is with a face covering, not covering his face, which would render a face covering useless because it is supposed to cover one's face. Here he is in a committee meeting not wearing his mask as he's speaking, which is not particularly unusual. But you have to consider, Manu -- let's just talk about the risk factors for -- I mean, he's not speaking in fact. But let's talk about the risk factors of people around him. Because if he is someone who was pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic -- and we watched him yesterday in a hearing room, he was there for an awfully long time. He was talking. He's inside where transmission is higher than it is outside. And so as he's speaking. And we know this, this is basic science, the virus is aerosolized. So in the hearing room with a number of lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, at times speaking and not wearing a mask, so they are there not protected from his germs, right?</s>RAJU: Yes. And look, there were probably interactions that we don't see inside of the hearing room. There are ante rooms where they congregate. And his practice is typically not to wear a mask. It is safe to assume that he probably at certain times while interacting with members yesterday was also not wearing a mask as he was interacting with them in close quarters. And I could tell you, I saw him last week, last Wednesday, on the House floor interacting with a lot of members. That is a week. We don't know if he was infected then or a few days before or a few days after. But certainly last Wednesday, I watched him for several -- at least a couple of hours. I kept popping back into the House chamber and he was still there during an extended vote series. He was sitting next to Chip Roy, a Texas Republican congressman, and sitting both next to each other and maskless and carrying on an extended conversation. And we reached out to see what he is planning to do here. But that is obviously a concern that a lot of members have, a lot of aides have, whether or not Louie Gohmert may have exposed them to this -- Brianna?</s>KEILAR: Manu, definitely. Stand by for us, if you will. I want to bring in Dr. Carlos Del Rio, from Emory. And, you know, one of the things that the -- the key thing to take away here from Congressman Louie Gohmert, who has tested positive and refusing to wear a mark, he's surmising, Doctor, that he got coronavirus because he did wear a mask. What do you think about that?</s>DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, he's obviously wrong. And you don't get coronavirus for wearing a mask. You get coronavirus because you don't wear a mask. And it is very clear that he wasn't wearing a mask. I think I want to emphasize again that the reason we wear a mask is to protect ourselves and others from getting infected. I wear a mask to protect you, and you wear a mask to protect me. And it is very important that everybody wears a mask. There are many types of masks. If I want to protect myself, I need a N-95 or an KN-95, which is what we use in the hospital seeing patients with COVID. But if I want general protection and decrease remarkedly protect my chance of getting infected, I need to use a cloth mask or a surgical mask. The cloth masks are very useful for people to not infect other individuals. So the congressman is wrong. He didn't get COVID for wearing a mask. He got COVID because he wasn't wearing a mask and he was probably around other people not wearing masks.</s>KEILAR: So how at risk are other lawmakers who -- because, look, we know he was in close proximity, speaking, not wearing a mask, and not social distancing with lawmakers. Are they at risk and what should they be doing?</s>DEL RIO: They are at risk. And not only those not wearing a mask but those that were wearing a mask are at risk because, if he's infected an not wearing a mask, I'm not protected. If I'm in front of someone not wearing a mask and I'm wearing a regular cloth mask, my chances of getting infected are decreased but not absent. They go down to about 30 percent. So those wearing masks were at risk because he wasn't wearing a mask and he was already infected.</s>KEILAR: And so what would you advise then for lawmakers who are now trying to figure out what they need to do? And what would you say for committee hearings where obviously you have at least a member who is infected and speaking without a mask on and even though there's other lawmakers with a mask.</s>DEL RIO: I'm going to say what I think is really important that somebody said, is that we need a national mandate to wear a mask. We need to stop playing with this. We can stop transmission of this virus if we all wear a mask. And I know wearing a mask is uncomfortable. I don't like it. But right now it is necessary. And I think we all should do it. It should be for a short period of time, maybe four to six weeks. Dr. Redfield said four to eight weeks. But if everybody wore a mask, we could decrease the chance of infection significantly. And I think it is time for Congress to implement a national mandate on that.</s>KEILAR: Dr. Del Rio, thank you so much for joining us from Atlanta. We appreciate it. And our coverage will continue now with Brooke Baldwin.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We will take it. Hi, there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for joining me. You're watching CNN. Here is what I could tell you. President Trump is in Texas right now. Texas, the state on the verge of surpassing New York for the total number of coronavirus cases well over 400,000. But the president is not there to talk COVID. Nope. Instead, the president has been meeting with supporters and a fundraising committee. And this hour, he will tour an oil rig. [15:00:06:] The lack of focus on this pandemic is even more galling when you consider the fact that the U.S. is coming off the deadliest day since late May.