CNN "State of the Union with Jake Tapper" - Interview with Jared Polis

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining me now to talk about the reopening process is the Democratic governor of Colorado, Jared Polis.

Governor Polis, thanks so much for joining us. I have to ask you. The White House guidance for reopening requires a

decrease in confirmed coronavirus cases over a 14-day period. But, when you look at a graph of coronavirus cases in Colorado, on Thursday and Friday, your state had the two highest numbers of new cases in your state since the pandemic started, 959 on Thursday, 718 on Friday.

Your cases aren't going down, sir. They're going up. Why on earth are you starting to reopen?

GOV. JARED POLIS (D-CO): Well, first of all, what we're doing is we're going to a sustainable phase of social distancing that we can keep up.

Those two days are -- are not the cases that are in those two days. Those are from weeks before that we finally found and attributed to those two days. So it looks strange on the graph. But we have also released the information that shows the steady -- the steady trend over time, where this -- this aggressive intervention, which is the stay-at-home, has been effective in leveling and plateauing the curve, which is absolutely critical if we're going to have any way to sustain the social distancing, for not just weeks, but likely months, Jake, I mean, probably May, June.

I mean, it -- we don't even have an end date in sight, until there's a vaccine or a cure.

TAPPER: I don't think anything could be a bigger rejection of this reopening idea than the actions of Denver, Colorado, Mayor Michael Hancock, who announced that he is going to be extending Denver's stay- at-home order, despite the state's new guidance, adding -- quote -- "We need more time to scale up our testing and tracing capacity."

How are you ensuring that cities and towns across your state have the testing and tracing capacity that they will need to reopen?

POLIS: Yes, we're happy to work with Denver to increase their capacity. They have a very achievable goal to do.

They have -- we have a -- we're a very big, diverse state. So, Denver, 2,500 cases, that's like 5 percent of their population. And, you know, as you know, some of these -- some of these are underdiagnosis. It could be more than 5 percent.

We also have counties in our state with zero, like Bent County. We have counties with a very low rate, like Mesa County.

So, one of the very first counties that was hit hard, Eagle County, actually request -- that was one of the -- Vail, world class-ski areas. Skiers brought it in from across the world. It's been one of the first to emerge from the stay-at-home phase, through a request by their health community, their hospital, their commissioners, to leave the stay-at-home phase a few days ahead of the rest of the state.

They have been very successful in their public health effort. And we're cooperating closely with counties across the state to meet their needs. TAPPER: Jonathan Samet from the Colorado School of Public Health said

that another spike is coming in your state in late July and that -- quote -- "could be bigger than what we just saw."

Does that warning give you any moment of pause?

POLIS: Yes, we're all worried about a potential for a second spike, whether it's in the fall, in -- along with flu season in September or October, whether it's July.

It's why we have really been really laser-focused, as an administration, on figuring out how we can -- how we can endure and sustain these kinds of social distancing measures -- our target is about 60 to 65 percent social distancing from the way people used to live -- and how we can do that over a period of months in a psychologically sustainable way, and, of course, an economically sustainable way that meets the health goals of the state.

TAPPER: Starting on May 4, you're going to allow offices to reopen with reduced work force.

If you see cases start to spike again, as Jonathan Samet warned about as a possibility, will you reissue the stay-at-home order?

POLIS: Well, we -- we will have to adjust, and we expect that we will have a lot to adjust, the degree of social distancing in real time, meaning we're going to look at those early indicators, the mobility data. We're going to look at disease data. We're going to look at a number of different proxies and, as we need to, adjust it in real time.

[09:40:13]

May 4, offices going back half-capacity, they need to have that social distancing. They have, you know, half the number of people in their workplace than they used to. They need to make sure they're spacing people appropriately.

And just as importantly, Jake, if not more, they need to make sure that members of the work force that are over 65 or that meet other at- risk criteria, like moderate to severe asthma, are given priority for not coming to work, for continuing to telecommute, continuing to be able to work from home.

And we're encouraging that every Coloradan who can works from home, and every business that doesn't have to open right away waits a few weeks and takes their time, and making sure they do it in as safe a way as possible.

TAPPER: Governor, this might be the most important decision that you ever make, and this might be the most important crisis that you ever have to face as a public official.

Are you worried that you're making a decision that could theoretically cost your constituents their lives?

POLIS: Well, we always wish, Jake, that I had next week's information and next month's information available to me today.

That's not the world we live in. We have to make the best informed decisions, based on data and science, with the information we have.

What we know is that what matters a lot more than the date that the stay-at-home ends is what we do going forward, and how we -- how we have an ongoing, sustainable way, psychologically, economically, and from a health perspective, to have the social distancing we need at workplace, where people recreate, and across the board.

Otherwise, if we can't succeed in doing that on an ongoing basis, the stay-at-home was for nothing. It doesn't accomplish anything, if it's not replaced with practices that are sustainable for the weeks and months that it's likely to remain with us.

TAPPER: All right, I hope -- I hope it goes well, Governor.

Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

POLIS: Thank you.

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