CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Gov. John Bel Edwards

Interview

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One of the state's hardest hit by the coronavirus is Louisiana, particularly in New Orleans, the city with the highest death rate per capita from the virus in the United States.

Joining me now, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards.

Governor Edwards, thanks so much for joining us.

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): Good morning.

TAPPER: Your model's current projection shows that New Orleans could reach 2,500 new hospitalizations per day at its peak around the end of April.

[09:20:03]

You said on Friday that you could theoretically run out of ventilators on Tuesday. Is Louisiana really just 48 hours away from Louisianians dying from coronavirus because you don't have enough ventilators?

EDWARDS: Well -- and, obviously, we already have Louisianians dying.

And we're -- like every other state, we're modeling the growth of coronavirus cases and how many are going to need hospitalization, how many are going to need acute care beds, ICU beds, ventilators.

And, every day, we get new information that informs our modeling. We now think it's probably around the 9th of April before we exceed our ventilator capacity, based on the current number on hand, and that we're a couple of days behind that on ICU bed capacity being exceeded.

So, as we achieve success in slowing the rate of spread, we also push out that date. And critically important is the number of people who will present to the hospital and not be able to get a vent or a bed is a smaller number.

So, we're encouraging everyone in Louisiana to take social distancing, the stay-at-home order very seriously, because that's how we're going to save people's lives at the end of the day.

And whatever time we can buy ourselves, that gives us additional time to surge our medical capacity, which is what we're doing right now, as we source ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile and from around the world. And we're standing up beds at the Morial Convention Center, as you know.

This -- this is a tough emergency, and it's not different here than it is elsewhere. It's a little more acute, I think, than some places. But this is a tough emergency, Jake.

TAPPER: Well, Governor Edwards, so what day do you anticipate you will run out of ventilators and people will not be able to get them if they need them to live?

EDWARDS: Well -- well, the current date, based on modeling, is the 9th of April.

And then the bed capacity would be exceeded on about the 11th of April. And, as I said, we continue to update our modeling every day based on the new cases in that region, in the New Orleans-Jefferson Parish region.

And so we hope we can continue a downward trend on the rate of transmission of new cases. That buys us a little more time. And, as I mentioned, that means a fewer number of people will present on any given day and not be given the opportunity to access a bed or a ventilator, should they need them.

TAPPER: All right, but that's Thursday. That's still -- it's still stunning.

EDWARDS: Yes.

TAPPER: I want to ask you. President Trump said on Friday, last Friday...

EDWARDS: Oh, no, it's -- this is serious, yes.

TAPPER: Yes.

President Trump said on Friday that his team spoke with the CEOs of the two largest health systems in New Orleans, and -- quote -- "They said they feel that they currently have enough ventilators." I don't know if the word currently is doing a lot of work there, but he seemed to be downplaying the idea that ventilators are a problem. You're saying they're definitely a problem?

EDWARDS: Oh, they're a problem.

And I do believe that those CEOs were talking about current capacity. They have the ventilators that they need for the patients that they have now.

TAPPER: Yes, right this second.

EDWARDS: And I will tell you, it was the same day a decision was -- yes.

But a decision was made the same day in Washington by the task force to send 200 more ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile. That arrived yesterday, by the way. So I don't have any problem with what the CEOs were saying.

But we -- as we look out into the future, we definitely see that we will exceed our ventilator capacity at some point. And we're trying to push that as far into the future as possible.

But all of our modeling, even under the best-case scenarios, show that we will do that. And, again, we're modeling for the entire population in Louisiana, and specifically the New Orleans region.

I think those hospital CEOs were looking at their particular hospital and what they could do inside the walls of their hospital, and not necessarily for the entire population. But they were talking about currently. And I think that's the difference.

TAPPER: The biggest Mardi Gras parades in Louisiana took place on February 25, just as the national outbreak was starting.

In retrospect, if you knew then what you know now, would you have canceled Mardi Gras?

EDWARDS: Well, you don't get a do-over like that, Jake.

We -- there was not a single suggestion by anyone, a doctor, a scientist, a political figure, that we needed to cancel Mardi Gras. And, you know, in February, we had a Super Bowl, and it wasn't canceled and so forth.

So, rather than look back, I am focused on today and going forward. We can't go back and change what did or didn't happen before. And this is going to be an interesting study. And I look forward to, at some point, being able to figure out exactly what role that played.

But, right now, that is not our focus, because it doesn't tell us what we need to know in order to go forward and save lives.

[09:25:01] TAPPER: "The Washington Post" reported that, on February 9 -- that's more than two weeks before Mardi Gras -- a group of governors came to Washington, D.C. They had a White House gala there.

EDWARDS: Yes.

TAPPER: And, there, they also met privately with Dr. Fauci and with the CDC director, Dr. Redfield.

Even though the president was publicly downplaying the outbreak, those experts, Fauci and Redfield, gave governors the same dire warning that they're giving now. I know you were in Washington for the gala. Did you meet with Fauci and Redfield?

EDWARDS: Well, they actually spoke to a governors-only meeting.

And so all the governors who chose to attend that particular meeting were there, and we had a briefing from them. And we spoke generally about the novel coronavirus.

I would say it is not accurate to say that they gave the same sort of information that they are providing right now. I mean, they have learned an awful lot about this virus, about the disease that it causes and the rate of spread and how to best stop it and so forth.

We didn't get into anywhere near this level of detail back in February when we were there for the National Governors Association meeting. That just didn't happen.

TAPPER: OK. Well, Governor Hogan of Maryland says that it was the same message then that they're giving now.

But I want to ask you about Pastor Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle Church, which is just outside Baton Rouge in your home state. Even though he was issued a misdemeanor summons for continuing to hold church services, Pastor Spell told CNN just today that he's still planning on holding church services this morning.

Obviously, this is a dire health threat. You have made that very clear to all of the people in Louisiana. Should police break up this large gathering that violates your executive order?

EDWARDS: Well, Jake, we're not going to enforce our way out of this.

Now, I'm still calling upon him to be a leader. He is a leader in the faith community. And I'm calling upon those parishioners to not go, because it is grossly irresponsible. There is not a setting more conducive to the spread of the virus, as far as I know, that -- like we have when we have church services, with people sitting in close proximity to one another for an hour or two at a time.

And so it is irresponsible. Obviously, he is violating the order. He has been served a summons on that. I would hope that he would -- he would stop.

And law enforcement has this very much in their sights. And I support the actions that they're taking.

But we have 4,500 churches. The overwhelming majority of them are following the order. We have tens of thousands of businesses. And they're following the order. We have 4.7 million people, and we're getting more and more compliance every single day.

So, we're going to work through this as well. I'm appealing to Pastor Spell to do the right thing. And, thus far, he has not. It's very disappointing.

But the vast majority of pastors out there are doing the right thing.

TAPPER: Governor Edwards, thank you so much. Please stay in touch with us, and let us know what you need...

EDWARDS: Jake, thank you.

TAPPER: ... and whether or not you need us to shine a light on things that you're not getting from the -- from the government or from the business community that you need.

And God bless the people of Louisiana.

EDWARDS: We will do that. Thank you so much, Jake.

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