Study Shows Kids Can Be Reliably Diagnosed With Autism At 14 Months; CNN Reality Check: Can Elizabeth Warren Solve The College Debt Crisis?
CAMEROTA: These are staggering numbers. One in 59 children has autism. Most will not be diagnosed until they're three or four years old. But a new study suggests that kids can be screened and diagnosed much earlier, which would mean the possibility of therapies much sooner. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us live with more. Sanjay, this sounds like a game changer.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It could be. I mean, you think about autism and the diagnosis right now, there's no specific blood test or biomarker or scan to be sure that someone has autism -- that a child has autism. And so, as you mentioned, typically, the diagnosis happens around three or four, sometimes as early as two. But I think for some time now, researchers have been saying well look, how early can we -- can we reliably diagnose a child with autism and that's what this study really focused on. They looked at over 1,000 children. And the conclusion that they arrived at here Alisyn -- I think the headline was that as early as 14 months -- 14 months of age they could make a stable diagnosis of autism, meaning that they would make the diagnosis of autism and then that child at three or four years old, they had autism. And there was about an 84 percent likelihood that that diagnosis was going to be consistent and stable. So, earlier diagnosis, more consistent diagnosis possibly leading to earlier intervention -- that's the significance here.</s>CAMEROTA: What would you do for a 14-month-old --</s>GUPTA: Well --</s>CAMEROTA: -- if you determine they have autism?</s>GUPTA: I think -- you know, we talked to some of the scientists specifically about that because look, if you just diagnose something and there's nothing to do about it then that obviously doesn't really do the patient or the family any good. There's a couple of ways that they sort of break it down. First of all, earlier diagnosis might mean avoiding what they refer to as more challenging behaviors. So, for a child who is not communicating, for example, and instead, they're trying to get attention in other ways by head banging or things like that. Could you start to intervene -- prevent -- you know, develop other skills to prevent that sort of behavior. Prevent isolating behavior. Provide skills for not only the child but also the family. The family now knows the diagnosis. They know what they're dealing with. Could they develop skills to better cope? But then there are other interventions and I think we have sort of a list of the things that people sort of focus on here. Everything from family training, obviously, but speech therapy, hearing impairment services, physical and nutrition services. It comes under this umbrella of applied behavioral analysis, as well, really trying to understand what are the behaviors, how are the behaviors impacted by the environment, and how can you subsequently change the behaviors. No one is saying look, earlier intervention is going to lead to an absolute treatment or certainly, cure, but the idea of -- the idea of better adaptive behaviors for both child and family, I think is what people point to as a benefit of earlier intervention. But again, 14 months is very young. I mean, think about a 14-month- old and what they typically are able to do. And if you can diagnose earlier that could provide some benefit.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, Sanjay. Thank you very much for explaining all of that to us.</s>GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: John --</s>BERMAN: It's so important to so many people. All right. Elizabeth Warren has a one and a quarter trillion -- that's with a "t" -- dollar plan to cancel college debt for almost everyone and make four years of college completely free. Could it work? John Avlon has our reality check -- John.</s>JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, guys. So look, according to a new CNN poll, tuition-free public college is number four on the list of top issues for Democratic voters this year. Free college may sound pretty radical but it's a reaction to rising costs and crippling debt. Check this out. College tuition has more than doubled over the past 30 years. America's total student loan debt is more than $1.5 trillion with a per-student average of more than $20,000. And at a time of growing income and equality, it's no surprise that progressive politicians are offering alternatives. So -- and out up front is Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Now, she says she can immediately erase debt for more than 95 percent of students. She also wants to boost spending on higher ed, knocking out tuition and fees for all students at public colleges. And the cost? Glad you asked. A whopping $1.25 trillion over 10 years. Now, to put that in perspective, it's roughly a dozen Marshall Plans but only half the estimated cost of the Trump tax cuts. So how do we pay for that, you ask? Well, it's a familiar refrain -- tax the superrich. Now, a two percent tax on wealth above $50 million and three percent tax on wealth about $1 billion, it may seem like a lot. But to Warren, it's a small sacrifice to pay for a new, great society.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Two cents. We can do universal child care for every baby zero to five, universal pre-K, universal college, and knock back the student loan debt burden for 95 percent of our students and still have nearly a trillion dollars left over.</s>AVLON: This is a pretty popular idea by polling. Ninety percent of Americans agree that college affordability is a big to very big problem. And, Democrats have been moving in this direction for a decade. President Obama first proposed two years of free community college back in 2015. Bernie Sanders, of course, made free college his signature issue in 2016. And, Hillary Clinton followed suit by backing tuition-free bachelor's degrees for families making less than $125,000 a year. Joe Biden started talking about free college when Obama did and it's still part of his core sell. He wants to pay for it by closing a loophole used by the wealthy to avoid taxes on assets they inherit. In all, four 2020 hopefuls are all cosponsors of what's known as the Debt-Free College Act. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is pegging her free college program to a promise of public service. Good idea. But two of the candidates have come out strong against free college for all and one of them, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, has a pretty clear reason why.</s>PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans who have a college degree earn more on average than the Americans who don't. And as a progressive, I have a hard time getting my head around the idea that a majority who earn less because they didn't go to college would subsidize a minority who earn more because they did.</s>AVLON: Instead, Buttigieg supports expanding Pell Grants and incentivizing states to help out. Other critics point out that Warren's plan essentially penalizes those folks who have already paid back their college loans, while conservative critics look at progressive plans and say -- if you think college education is expensive now, just wait until it's free. America needs to strengthen the middle-class and improve social mobility, and increasing access to higher education is one powerful way to do that. So let the policy debates begin. That's what we should be doing. And that's your reality check.</s>BERMAN: And those debates are very much on. And when we look at our most recent poll, a lot of Democratic voters want to be talking about just this -- the idea of free college tuition.</s>AVLON: Ambitious stuff -- big debate.</s>BERMAN: All right, John. Thanks so much.</s>CAMEROTA: Thanks, John.</s>AVLON: Thanks, guys.</s>BERMAN: So we now know what Robert Mueller told William Barr about the handling of the Mueller report and Barr's going to have to answer for it in just a little bit. He appears before the Senate two hours from now. This will be a dramatic day. NEW DAY continues right now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a letter from Mueller expressing objections about how Barr characterized the findings.</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Barr put out a misleading summary and Mueller was pissed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The special counsel couldn't conclude Barr was doing what he was supposed to.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are looking ahead to two days of the attorney general testifying.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an opportunity for him to be completely transparent if he stands by his statements. He should be forthcoming.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is going to get tarnished if he just isn't fully cooperative.</s>STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: The intense standoff at the heart of the Venezuelan government (ph) is still ongoing.</s>MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There's no way Maduro can stay in a nation he has so decimated. It's time for him to leave.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.</s>CAMEROTA: All right, things are heating up this morning. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, May first, 8:00 in the East.</s>BERMAN: Are you talking about the news or other things?</s>CAMEROTA: I'm talking about the news --</s>BERMAN: OK, good, good --</s>CAMEROTA: -- because we are just two hours away.</s>BERMAN: -- because it was awkward for a second.</s>CAMEROTA: And our chemistry. Two hours away from Bill Barr settling into a seat that just got hotter, OK, on Capitol Hill. That is going to be a hot seat because the attorney general will have to defend his handling of the Mueller report in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But overnight, we learned that the special counsel Robert Mueller sent a letter to Bill Barr in late March expressing frustration about the attorney general's 4-page summary of his report that he felt mischaracterized the findings. Mueller says it failed to fully capture all of his investigation. Mueller then called Barr on the phone to share those frustrations.</s>BERMAN: This raises all kinds of new questions. Did Robert Mueller get played by William Barr? If Mueller meant to send a message to the American people on obstruction, did he fail because he was outmaneuvered? And when will we hear from Mueller, himself? His testimony really does seem guaranteed at this point and vital because there are serious questions about what. END