Lebanon's Economic Protests Turn Violent; U.S. Food Banks Struggle to Cope with Surging Demand; Critical Shortage of Testing Supplies at U.S. Labs
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, before the global pandemic, Lebanon had seen months of unrest over soaring prices and unemployment. Now, after nearly a two-month long lockdown, demonstrators are back on the streets. As Arwa Damon reports, these new protests have turned violent.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Protests broke out across Lebanon, but we are really focused in the northern city of Tripoli, where some pretty dramatic images emerged showing buildings being set on fire, banks being attacked, ATM's being vandalized. People are enraged. They have had it. And they are hungry. One of the protesters who was killed in clashes with Lebanese security forces was just 26 years old. And he has been dubbed the martyr of the hunger protests. Lebanon, of course, has been in an economic tailspin for months. Right now it is a country that is crumbling very quickly, and its population is growing increasingly desperate. Protests first broke out because of the economic situation back in October of 2019. These current clashes that are taking place were described by one of the protesters as being the fiercest in all of Lebanon's recent demonstrations that we have been seeing taking place. What COVID-19 has done to the Lebanese economy is quite simply further exacerbate an ongoing problem. In fact the ministry of Social Affairs says that 75 percent -- 75 percent of the Lebanese population is in need of aid at this stage. The people are angry at the government but they are especially angry at the banking sector. Banks have been imposing discretionary capital controls on people which means that for months now, they are waiting for hours, begging tellers to release their money. And the banks -- the central bank has been refusing to formalize these capital controls, which many have feared would just be hurting them, the average citizen, hurting small businesses, while allowing the financial elite to be able access their funds. And those fears came to fruition when the Lebanese prime minister announced that in January and in February, $5.7 billion U.S. were transferred out of cash- strapped Lebanon. At this stage, it is not just the Lebanese population that is suffering too but also Lebanon's refugee population, with the international rescue committee saying that 87 percent of refugees living in Lebanon are also in need of food. And it doesn't look like the situation is going to get any better anytime soon. Arwa Damon, CNN -- Istanbul.</s>VAUSE: The U.S. president has signed an executive order requiring meat processing plants to stay open. Some of the largest plants in the U.S. shut down when thousands of workers tested positive for the coronavirus. At least 20 workers have died. The widespread shutdowns in more than a dozen states prompted fears the nation's food supply chains are breaking down. The head of the country's largest meatpacking union has warned that presidential order needs to come with safety measures for workers adding this statement. "While we share the concern over the food supply, today's executive order to force meatpacking plants to stay open must but the safety of our country's meatpacking workers first. Simply put, we cannot have a secure food supply without the safety of these workers. Well, it's an increasingly common sight across the U.S. long lines at food banks, another sign of pain caused by this pandemic. At one food bank in Little Rock, Arkansas demand was so high that the donated food packages were gone after an hour. For many, this is the first time they have had to ask for help like this. CNN's Jason Carroll reports food banks themselves are now struggling to cope with a surge in demand.</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The line of cars stretched for more than a mile.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many people are in your household?</s>CARROLL: The wait way for food at this emergency distribution site in Newark, New Jersey -- more than an hour. But the need is so great those who came looking for help were more than willing to wait.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have never done this before. It's a shame that I have to do this.</s>CARROLL: Many here say it is their first time asking for food.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's two families in here, ok.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open your trunk right here.</s>CARROLL: People like Rita Charles, who brought her elderly neighbor.</s>RITA CHARLES, FIRST TIME AT A FOOD BANK: We're alone, you know, even my neighbor, she's alone, too. So that's why we appreciate it.</s>CARROLL: Julio Ortega, a furloughed truck driver came with his wife who was laid off from her job at a dry cleaner.</s>JULIO ORTEGA, FURLOUGHED TRUCK DRIVER: It's an experience, you know. First time. The kids -- it's hard for them.</s>CARROLL: Week after week, as the number of unemployed rises across the country, so too does the number of people needing food assistance. Feeding America -- the nation's largest group of food banks -- says it is now seeing a staggering 100 percent increase in demand at some of its distribution sites like this one in Little Rock, Arkansas where they ran out of food in less than an hour, Tuesday. The states seeing the biggest spike -- Ohio, Florida, California and Texas where in San Antonio last week people lined up for hours. And with the increased demand comes more worries about meeting those demands given diminishing donations food banks once received from what were reliable sources before the pandemic.</s>ERIC COOPER, SAN ANTONIO FOOD BANK CEO: Restaurants, hotels and caterers aren't donating. Grocery stores are selling out. And so there is not as much food to collect while the demand has doubled.</s>CARROLL: So much need, and yet so much waste. Down the food chain -- hogs in Minnesota to be euthanized, chickens slaughtered, their carcasses thrown out while dairy farmers such Paul Fouts (ph) are forced to dump 8,000 gallons of milk last week.</s>PAUL FOUTS, DAIRY FARMER: It kind of makes you feel sick to your stomach, really.</s>CARROLL: Part of the problem? Restaurants and schools now closed so farmers have fewer outlets to sell in bulk to. And with so many people sick, it has crippled their distribution channels, like the trucking industry.</s>FOUTS: I mean the food is here. The farmers have it. And the consumers need it. Somehow we've got to get the system in between to work for that.</s>CARROLL: Billions in federal assistance is scheduled in the next few weeks to aid farmers, along with a program to get distributors to work with food banks. And at the state level, New York which saw a 60 percent jump in food bank demands, launched an initiative to help cut the waste.</s>GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: We are also immediately to stop this dumping of milk and get it to people who need it.</s>CARROLL: In the meantime, the lines and the demand keeps growing. Jason Carroll, CNN -- Newark, New Jersey.</s>VAUSE: Well, the U.S. President was back before the cameras on Tuesday. He was back making false claims about how soon the government will ramp up widespread testing. Most experts say to safely restart the economy, about 5 million tests are needed every day. The President said that should happen soon. Even though the White House is leaving all of the heavy lifting to the states. But senior health adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper, the federal government has to do more.</s>DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The blueprint for testing clearly indicate something that we really have to do. There has to be a partnership between the federal government and the states. The federal government has to provide strategic guidance, as well as technical assistance. We had a phone call with the governors where that was explained. One of the problems has been is the test getting to the people who need them. Or are there tests out there we're not connecting the dots. And what we are trying to do, and I believe that was pretty well articulated to the governors, was if that is not happening, if we are not connecting those dots, we need to help them to do that. We can't just leave them on their own on the one hand. And the federal government can't do it by itself on the other hand.</s>JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: When do you think? I mean when will it all be up to speed? When will everybody who needs to get a test be able to get one?</s>DR. FAUCI: Yes. And I like the word you used -- Jake, when you said "need". Because there's a lot of times people say that I want to test and it's not part of the strategic approach. But needing is important. Everyone who needs a test, according to the way we are approaching -- the identification, isolation, contact tracing, keeping the country safe and healthy that hopefully we should see that as we get towards the end of May, the beginning of June. Jake, that's what I'm being told by the people who are responsible for the testing. I take them for their word.</s>VAUSE: Well, critics -- and there is a lot of them -- say this new White House blueprint is not really a plan but just rather a note to pass the buck to the states. CNN's Drew Griffin investigates.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: What the President says at his briefings --</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Confident that we have enough testing to begin reopening and the reopening process --</s>GRIFFIN: -- is not the reality at labs across the country.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day is a struggle.</s>GRIFFIN: A CNN investigation finds a critical shortage of COVID-19 testing supplies at many labs is delaying and halting testing. And the supplies that are available are often distributed unevenly, leaving big commercial labs with everything they need, while some hospitals, clinics, and other medical centers don't have enough.</s>MARY BOOSALIS, PRESIDENT & CEO, PREMIER HEALTH: I knew we needed capability to do a thousand tests a day. And we didn't have that.</s>GRIFFIN: Mary Boosalis is the CEO of Premier Health Hospital System, who sent a letter earlier this month to Ohio's governor, saying inequitable distribution re-agents, the chemicals needed to perform tests, was impacting patient care standards.</s>BBOSALIS: We kept running into anecdotal information from vendors that said they had the re-agent, but they couldn't sell it to us. And so that was of concern to me.</s>GRIFFIN: Different labs need different supplies. For some, it's swabs. Others, pipettes or re-agents. Multiple health care facilities tell CNN supplies they order either don't arrive or they only get a fraction of what they need.</s>SUSAN BUTLER-WU, KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CAROLINA: It's not unusual for us to place an order and to be told that the order is going to be canceled and I can't be filled, or that we only get 10 percent of what we order.</s>GRIFFIN: Meanwhile, the biggest commercial labs, like Quest and LabCorp tell CNN they have the supplies they need. The White House task force even shared plans to prioritize supplies for commercial labs. The big labs make up more than half of all testing in the United States, more than three million tests so far. Though experts say the inequity is leaving critical health care facilities where sick patients go to get tested without necessary supplies.</s>WU: I think it's a disgrace. So to prioritize testing to be sent out away from a hospital that may have the capacity to do in-house testing is basically contrary to all the principles of optimal patient care.</s>GRIFFIN: The heads of major lab associations have been writing directly to the task force asking for help. Like Carmen Wiley, with the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, describing significant barriers to testing because of shortage of necessary supplies.</s>CARMEN WILEY, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR CLINICAL CHEMISTRY: We feel there's a disconnect between the theoretical capacity and what we are actually able to do.</s>GRIFFIN: Some state governments also complaining about lack of supplies. Washington, D.C.'s health director says the district is only able to do half the number of tests it could if it had proper supplies. And it is clear the task force knows. This document shared with governors obtained by CNN, shows the federal government discussing barriers to testing, including insufficient laboratory personnel, funding, and supplies.</s>TRUMP: Today we are releasing additional guidance on testing to inform the states.</s>GRIFFIN: Monday, the White House released a blueprint for change that critics say changes little. States and local labs fend for themselves for precious supplies, adding to confusion, scarcity, and lack of tests where they're needed most. Overall, testing numbers are inching up when experts say we need leaps. Harvard estimates 500,000 tests a day at minimum are needed to reopen the country. The current averages are less than half that amount. Vice President Mike Pence Again this week is promising millions of tests will be conducted every week very soon -- a promise he has made before and not kept. Drew Griffin, CNN -- Atlanta.</s>VAUSE: Well, still to come, another key endorsement for Joe Biden and his run for the presidency. But it comes as he faces renewed scrutiny over a decades' old allegation from a former senate staffer. Also ahead, shocking images from El Salvador's prisons, as the president authorizes lethal force against street gangs.