MIT researcher: Droplets carrying coronavirus can travel up to 27 feet in the air

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MIT researcher: Droplets carrying coronavirus can travel up to 27 feet in the air

Is 6 feet enough for social distancing? Reaction from otolaryngologist Dr. Linda Dahl.

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," March 31, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And it's over.

Setting up tent cities and emergency makeshift hospital rooms out in Central Park has a little sort of a disjoining feel to it, and disjoining at the corner of Wall and Broad, where the Dow swooned about 22 percent on the quarter cap, with a 413-point falloff today.

The fact that so many companies are announcing so many furloughs, now better than a million, among some dozen premier names, including Macy's, with Bloomingdale's, and The Gap, and Simon, the auto -- general national store mall owner, you name it, it was getting hit hard today.

Now the question is, what does this mean going forward? A lot of this has been built on the belief that the coronavirus situation itself is the focus of attention. And, some days, when people feel it's getting better and the prospects are looking better, they buy.

Today, on concerns from Governor Cuomo in New York, the cases there were running up at a 17 percent clip and showing no signs of easing. France got worse. Italy got worse. Germany, concerns that it could spread. China, though, was one saving grace, some signs that things could be coming back there with a manufacturing activity improving and the number of cases have eased considerably.

Let's get the read right now from Heather Zumarraga and Scott Martin, who've been monitoring all this very, very closely.

Guys, we have put to bed a quarter that was expected to be bad as soon as this corona thing began to accelerate. It confirmed that.

Heather, the bigger issue now is how consumers react to it. And, right now, they're pulling in. They're retrenching. How long do you see this happening?

HEATHER ZUMARRAGA, FINANCIAL ANALYST: No, you're right.

They're retrenching, but not that long ago the consumer was very strong. And the only reason they are -- we're retrenching is because businesses are shut down right now due to the unfortunate situation, to say the least, of the virus spreading.

So, 60 percent of GDP in this country is comprised of the states that are shut down right now, so no bars, no restaurants. You can't go out. We are social distancing, and we should be. But that is why the consumer is pulling back.

It's not necessarily because we have a weak economy. It's because we can't go out and spend. But I do think that the unemployment situation will become a problem, may become a problem very soon.

CAVUTO: You know, Scott Martin, one of the interesting -- Goldman Sachs and a number of the big investment firms are saying, and stating the obvious, it's awful this quarter. We get that.

They're saying that this could be short-lived, though, that even with the plunge that we could see GDP fall about 30 to 35 percent, the number of unemployed Americans could rise to 47 million, that they do anticipate a sharp rebound once this whole virus thing is resolved.

Do you agree with that?

SCOTT MARTIN, KINGSVIEW ASSET MANAGEMENT: Well, it never hurts to hope, Neil.

I think we all hope for the best in that case, the -- quote, unquote -- "V- shaped recovery."

But to touch on a lot of things the Heather said, I mean, I think -- and as you can led in there in the original speech parts, was, what's really the fallout here? How deep does this go?

Because, as we see in previous recessions, Neil, some of the jobs that are eliminated, some of the businesses that go out don't come back. So, there's going to be some destruction, and there's going to be some areas of the economy that, frankly, are just gone.

So, we have to deal with that and hope that, say, green shoots grow up from those ashes, let's say, at some point down the road in Q3 or Q4. And that goes along with two things, one, getting medically over this virus, for certain, and making sure, two, that the Fed and the government has stimulated this economy enough to where it's safe to go back in the water and create a business.

CAVUTO: Well, that reminds me then, Heather, of what's going on in China.

Now, I know it's a little dangerous to believe the numbers that China releases, sort of like my diet statements. People begin to roll their eyes, say, yes, fine.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: But one of the things that the Chinese have been saying is that they're through the worst of it. They already are opening up a number of factories.

Of the 60 million that were sort of cordoned off from the world, more are being allowed to roam freely, go back to work, do what they want to do.

Now, I'm thinking of that two-to-three-month lead time that China had over us and wondering if that's the arc, if two to three months from now, the same thing, maybe hopefully sooner, will be happening here. What do you think?

ZUMARRAGA: Well, I think that would be great.

You look at Italy, they're finally getting their arms around this situation as well. But their economy is still shut down. So, I think two to three months would be a situation in which we could weather the storm.

Look, the American public right now is depending greatly on fiscal stimulus and monetary policy coming out of the Fed, which has pledged unlimited support right now.

So, I think it's now ultimately up to us in terms of personal responsibility. Also, you have to reinvent yourself. Look, we're broadcasting via Skype right now. So, I mean, there are ways embracing technology.

There are other companies that are hiring, Walmart, Amazon, for example. So it may not be the optimal job choice for you or situation, working from home, for example, but if we can embrace this and keep some of the jobs -- and small businesses are first and foremost, and the government is doing everything they can to help with the bill with some of the small businesses right now.

But it is up to us to reinvent how we can be of service to the public. Lowe's' CEO was just on FOX Business not too long ago, saying that, hey, we have a lot of job openings right now. So, that's what we need to look for.

How can we provide help and service to the economy while we're struggling in this dire time right now, and keep as many jobs as we can?

CAVUTO: You know, Scott, having said that, though, the simple fact of the matter is, a lot of big businesses are cutting, furloughing now, with the hope that maybe they will rehire later.

I know we mentioned that about Steve Madden Shoes. It's looking at a significant number of layoffs just announced today. Gannett has been following people, salary cuts among executive ranks. Cisco, the food distributor, is looking at its biggest curtailment in the work force that it's ever seen.

We have -- and on and on we go, with the Macy's situation, what's going on at Bloomingdale's. Add all of those up, we're talking over a million workers who are likely to be furloughed, and it's very early on in the process.

I'm just wondering why some of these companies and some of them are not going to take advantage of loans that will turn into grants if they hang onto those people. But the fact of the matter is, the big guys are getting out now and jettisoning workers now, with the hope that things will stabilize.

But, for those workers, they're not.

MARTIN: No.

And it's everywhere, Neil. You talked about all the sectors and industries it's reaching to. And what kind of struck me -- and it started happening about two or three weeks ago -- was how quick these companies were to just cut everyone or cut 30 percent or cut 50 percent.

I mean, it was just a flip of a switch. And so that, to me, told me one of two things, one, that they're, yes, getting prepared for the malaise that's coming down the road and hopefully going to rehire those folks and just get by the next three months, and then come back, or, two, maybe their businesses weren't that strong to begin with, because of the fact they were looking for this catalyst to get rid of some of the fluff that was in their work force.

So I think we have got to keep that in mind as we kind of come out of this thing hopefully in the next three months or so, in that maybe, again, some of those jobs don't come back because maybe they should have been there in the first place.

CAVUTO: Guys, I want to thank you both very, very much.

By the way, as they were speaking, we're learning from other sectors that are hard-hit. The airlines, for example, with or without virus aid, they are going to be retrenching their overall flight plans, to the degree right now that they have crashed 70 percent from highs reached little more than six weeks ago, a reminder that, no matter how much help could be coming their way, it's not doing enough right now to stop this downsizing, both in routes and planned departures.

You know it as a flyer, if you're flying at all.

All right, in the meantime, the gist of this comes back to the coronavirus itself. It's scaring people, rightly so, especially when you see tents set up in Central Park to deal with that.

But this is playing out across the country. Many people are trying to help out in any way they can, including Franklin Graham, what he's doing to make sure help isn't only on the way, it's already here. In the Big Apple, it is.

Stay with us. You're watching "Your World."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): It comes down to not overwhelming the hospital system, because those people who need acute care may not be able to get the acute care. So it's all about the hospital system. That is the front line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAVUTO: All right, Governor Cuomo is doing his best to make sure that those who need care will have care, and in the darndest of places, like New York's Central Park, where a number of tents were set up.

David Lee Miller on what they're doing to be prepared, no matter where they have to be prepared -- David Lee.

DAVID LEE MILLER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Neil, throughout the day, crews have been putting the finishing touches on this 68-bed field hospital here in New York's Central Park.

We are told that there's going to be some type of opening ceremony that's going to take place in about 45 minutes. After that point, we could start to see the first patient arrive here.

Remember, construction didn't begin here until Sunday. So this was an empty meadow on Sunday, and in just a few minutes' time, it is going to be an operating field hospital, 58 beds, including 10 with ICU capability.

The actual admissions to the field hospital are going to be done by Mount Sinai Hospital, which is located directly across the street. Now, Mount Sinai, like so many hospitals in New York, is struggling to cope with the increasing number of virus patients.

All hospitals in the state have now been ordered to increase bed capacity by 50 percent. And at Mount Sinai, they are now constructing facilities in that building's lobby to accommodate additional patients.

And in the New York City borough of Queens, parts of the U.S. Open stadium will be converted into a hospital; 350 beds will be set up at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, construction there expected to take about three weeks.

Mayor de Blasio in his daily briefing said the city has obtained 250 ambulances from FEMA. He also said the city is distributing badly needed supplies to all hospitals, both city-owned, as well as private, and they include three million surgical masks.

Still in short supply, though, to treat those who are critically ill are ventilators. De Blasio issued a plea to anyone who might have one that is not being used.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DE BLASIO (D), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: If you have got a ventilator in your office, in your operating room, we need it now. It shouldn't be sitting there doing nothing.

This is a war effort. Everyone needs to contribute. You will get it back when this battle is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MILLER: In recognition of the hard work and sacrifice by emergency workers, last night, the Empire State Building replaced its customary lights with ones that were red and white.

The colors resemble an emergency beacon at the very top of that building, honoring those who are trying to keep us safe. The operators of the Empire State Building say, this practice is going to continue until the crisis is over, so an iconic New York image, Neil, now taking on a very special significance -- Neil.

CAVUTO: And everyone pitching in. That's good to see.

David Lee, thank you so much, my friend, David Lee Miller in the middle of all that.

Well, private initiative made this very possible in Central Park in those tents behind David Lee.

In fact, Franklin Graham made this very possible. The son of the late Billy Graham joins us right now. Franklin is the guy in charge of Franklin's -- or Samaritan's Purse, the president and CEO, providing a means by which these folks who need help are getting help as we speak.

Franklin, very good to have you. And through so much going on, this is a needed relief for New York, with -- on top of the ship coming their way, more help coming from outside. New York needs all the help it can get.

Is that why you were doing this?

REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, SAMARITAN'S PURSE: Well, Neil, first of all, we always respond in crises around the world. We're in Italy right now, where we have a mobile hospital setup in Cremona.

This is the hardest-hit area in Europe. And just last week, we were approached, would we be willing to bring another hospital to New York? And we said, of course. We will respond to our country, just like we would anywhere else in the world.

And so we're there at the -- as an invitation, and we were given this spot here in Central Park across from Mount Sinai, and we're so thrilled to be able to work with Mount Sinai. This is a great institution, and we will be partnering with them. All -- they will do all the screening. The patients will come to us.

But we're taking coronavirus patients. That's who we will be treating. We have got a great team. This team, our -- these are doctors and nurses that have worked all over the world with us. They have worked with infectious diseases. They know what they're doing. And they're excited, and they're eager to help fellow New Yorkers and to save life.

That's why we have come in. And, of course, we're Christians, Neil. we want people to know that God loves them. He hasn't forgotten them. He hasn't turned his back on them. He's not mad at them, but he cares for us.

And so we're there in Jesus' name to provide healing and care for everyone who comes through the door.

CAVUTO: I like what you had told Sean the other night, that this virus is going to kill Republicans, it's going to kill Democrats, it's going to kill independents. We just need to work for the better of this nation.

I like the way you frame that, keeping the politics out, because it doesn't show any particular discretion or bias one way or the other. And it's gaining steam.

What do you tell, as a religious leader yourself, especially now it's difficult, impossible for Americans to go to church or to go to a service of any sort, to -- what do you tell to reassure them, we will get past this, we can deal with this?

GRAHAM: Well, first of all, Neil, so many of the churches today are meeting online, and there are actually more people in many of the online services as there were during the service itself.

CAVUTO: Right.

GRAHAM: The churches are still meeting. And churches are praying. They're praying for -- we have got so many churches that are just praying for the people that are suffering with this virus.

And this virus is like a tsunami. It has just swept over our nation and swept over the world in a matter of weeks, days. Who would have imagined this time last month we would be facing what we're facing today?

But we're facing a murderer, a virus that has taken life. And all of us have to work together to try to save and preserve life. God made us and created us, Neil, but we only have one life to live.

And I think it's important that we do everything we can to save and preserve life. And we're just -- we're excited about being in New York City. I went to school out on Long Island. My son went to West Point. We have a lot of friends in New York. And we are just honored to have an opportunity to help our friends in New York City.

CAVUTO: You know what's kind of scary? And this is a beautiful thing you did in Central Park and others that have cropped up around New York, but also around New York in some of the hotels are these makeshift mortgages and the trucks that come in to deal with all the bodies.

And it's just a weird and unsettling juxtaposition, and maybe speaks of the scary times we're living in. What do you say to that?

GRAHAM: Well, you're right. These are frightening times.

But we have to remember that God, who made us and created us, loves us. He hasn't turned his back on us and he's not mad at us. We do go through storms in life, Neil. All of us do.

CAVUTO: Yes.

GRAHAM: And I think it's important to understand where the solid ground is, and the solid ground is at the feet of Jesus Christ, who is God's son, who came to give his life for our sins.

He died on a cross, he was buried, and he rose again. We're coming to Easter in just a few days. And Easter, we celebrate, not a tomb, but an empty tomb. And Jesus is alive. And he will come into everybody's heart that is willing to trust him.

And he said, I will never leave you. He said, I will never forsake you.

And so, as we come to this Easter, it's important to remember that even though we're in the middle of a storm, God is there too. And if we're willing to put our trust in him, he will take us through the storm.

It doesn't mean we're prevented from going through the storm, but he will be with us during that storm.

CAVUTO: Well put, Franklin Graham. And thank you very much for the work you and your fine folks are doing, not only here, but around the world, to get that message out and to help out physically with what you're doing, certainly in Central Park.

Franklin Graham, Samaritan's Purse president, much, much more.

As we continue here. So much focus on the markets and how much they lost for the month and the quarter, virtually all of this at the feet of a virus that is still spreading around the world.

I did want to bring your attention to what governors are doing to sort of ratchet up those demands that you cannot, cannot and will not ignore our requests, now demands, that you do what we say, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper among them, first day of a stay-at-home order there, going so far as to say that energy companies better not even think of shutting off service for those who can't pay their bills.

And so it goes.

More after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)  CAVUTO: All right, are you ready for a stimulus four?

It seems a little premature, but the president himself kind of saying, maybe it's time to tee up something like that, tweeting out earlier today - - and I quote -- "With interest rates for the United States being at zero, this is the time to do our long-awaited infrastructure bill."

Many others agree with him, that if there's such a time and there's such hope for stimulus, this is it.

Nancy Pelosi has talked about another measure, another relief measure, whatever, to address the fallout from all of this.

Now, keep in mind, we have three different measures, including the $2.3 trillion relief plan that's already coming out there that include the checks for individuals, the help for airlines and other distressed industries, before that, moneys that were geared toward a lot of health care professionals and the like and protections for workers and their insurance and health coverage.

But this would be potentially as big, if not bigger, than those.

Let's get the read from Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, who joins us on that.

What do you think of this, Senator, yet another stimulus measure, relief measure, whatever you want to call it, and maybe a big one?

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R-OH): Well, Neil, let's see how this one works.

You know, $2.3 trillion is a lot of money. We -- we have spent through this one CARES package, which was necessary, absolutely necessary, more than we annually appropriate in Congress.

So, when you include the mandatory side, of course, it's more than that. It's $4.5 trillion. But this alone is equivalent to about what we spend every year. So, let's see how this works.

I do think that the next package should be one where we close some of the gaps that we have found that was not appropriate -- appropriately distributed in this one, as an example, hospitals. In Ohio, we're really hurting right now.

I don't know that there will be enough in here to cover some of the deep concerns we have, particularly with our rural hospitals. Their revenues are way down, obviously, and their expenses are up.

But then, second, I think we ought to look, I hope, beyond the crisis. By then, one would hope that we would begin to see us flattening the curve, begin to see us coming on the other side of that curve, and so talking more about stimulus.

And you're right. That typically is tax relief and things like infrastructure spending. So, my hope is that, on the rescue side, we will be able to close some gaps that were not fully anticipated through this first legislation, the phase three legislation, which was the legislation that was just passed a week ago, and then, second, that we look forward and say, how do you get this economy really humming again?

CAVUTO: Then where did Nancy Pelosi draw the distinction, Senator, between those prior measures you alluded to and her saying, next time, we have to focus on recovery?

Did she mean, after all of those take effect, and there's still work to be done, to pour money into that? Do you know what she's talking about?

PORTMAN: I'm not sure.

I mean, I think, first of all, what she wanted to do was to add a lot to this legislation that was just passed, the CARES legislation, that had nothing to do with the coronavirus, per se. It was part a wish list, as you know, and in part things that related to stimulus that you would want to do once the health crisis is behind us, because, right now, as long as you have the crisis in effect, you're going to have the economic fallout that we have seen.

But when you see the crisis, the health crisis be addressed, when we begin to see some better numbers, when we begin to see fewer, not more cases day to day, that's the time to start looking at, well, how do we now stimulate the economy? People aren't able to make things, so there's not going to be products out there for the consumer to buy.

Consumers aren't going to go to restaurants. They are going to go to retail establishments. We aren't going to go back to work and back to school until the crisis is abated.

And that's when you look, I think, to these stimulative initiatives, like the tax cuts that we did a few years ago, which were very helpful, and also with the -- some of the spending provisions like stimulus that you talked about with infrastructure, where you can actually do something that's both stimulative...

CAVUTO: Right.

PORTMAN: ... in terms of creating more jobs and activity, but also good for the economy in the mid and long term.

CAVUTO: You know, Senator, a lot of people want to see a V- or U-shaped recovery, where you just dash out of this thing.

And I'm wondering -- this is more psychological than anything else -- how is that going to happen even when we do get things right with the economy? And I have no doubt we will. It was strong before. It will -- it will be booming back, I have no doubt.

But a lot of people are going to be leery of flying for a while. They're going to be leery of going in tight places with people for a while.

I had Jon Taffer, the America "Bar Rescue" host, who was saying he thinks restaurants are going to have to spread out a little bit more, the seating capacity. Wouldn't be surprised if he saw it in stadiums and sporting events.

It's going to change the way we are. It's going to change people's vacation plans and all of that. So, I guess what I'm saying, given all of that, the psychology might not be there for a boom back.

What do you make of that?

PORTMAN: Well, I -- the president talks about pent-up demand. And I think he's right about that. I think there is going to be a pent-up demand to get back to our jobs and back to working hard and higher productivity and so on.

But I also agree with what you're saying is, it will be a different economy, at least for some time. I think people will be more hesitant. There will be more social distancing, as we say. And there probably should be, because, once we get this first wave of the health care crisis behind us, it's possible there could be another one.

I talked to some experts today that are talking about the possibility that, as the weather gets cold again, we might have a resurgence of this.

CAVUTO: All right.

PORTMAN: So we have to be careful. So, I think there -- I think there will be a little different approach.

CAVUTO: OK.

PORTMAN: One thing that I think is very interesting -- and it doesn't necessarily relate to a slower growth, but a different kind of economy -- is the amount of teleworking we're doing now.

I have friends who are -- and I guess I'm one of them -- working hard at home 12 hours a day, some folks, and being actually pretty darn productive.

So I think we're learning more about what we can do without being in an office setting.

CAVUTO: Absolutely.

PORTMAN: That isn't necessarily a bad thing. That could actually lead to not necessarily a better or worse economy, just a different economy.

CAVUTO: By the way, it doesn't work for everyone, Senator.

Teenage boys, for example, I have found that's a bit of a challenge.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: So, I will keep you posted on that.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Senator, thank you very much. And thank you for all you have been doing, both parties really doing yeoman's work, trying to...

PORTMAN: Neil, thank you. Thanks for being on the air, and thanks for your -- your thoughtful approach to this.

CAVUTO: Thank you very much, Senator.

All right, the senator was touching on this social distancing? What if I told you that the six-feet thing might be wrong, that it should be more like 27 feet?

I will explain after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAVUTO: All right, Chicago Bears star Allen Robinson is already a mega, well, symbol for kids. Now he's helping feed those same kids in the middle of a pandemic.

Why he's doing it and how he's doing it -- after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)  CAVUTO: All this distancing thing might be doing the trick in a lot of these key cities, especially in Seattle, where it all kind of started here, if you think about it, about, what, six weeks ago now?

Anyway, the latest on that with Dan Springer.

Hey, Dan.

DAN SPRINGER, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hey, Neil.

As you know, encouraging news has been hard to come by, but we do finally have some here in Washington state, where for the first time the number of new patients entering the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms actually came down last week.

And there are two studies that suggest that social distancing is working to slow the spread of coronavirus. They were funded by the Gates Foundation and found person-to-person transmissions dropped nearly in half.

Washington was the first state to see a major outbreak and the first to prohibit big gatherings.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams reacted to the study on "FOX & Friends."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JEROME ADAMS, SURGEON GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: When you lean into aggressive mitigation efforts early, you can flatten the curve, you can blunt it.

And, in Washington, we have seen their cases level off and hopefully start to come down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPRINGER: Unfortunately, right after the study period ended March 23, the number of new cases in Washington actually spiked four consecutive days, more than doubling the previous increases.

The cases going up certainly could be driven by much more testing. Governor Jay Inslee says the state is second in the nation in testing per capita.

But he also announced a statewide crackdown on people and businesses that are violating his stay-home order. He even brought out the attorney general to threaten criminal prosecution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB FERGUSON, WASHINGTON ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't want to have to use the powers of my office to hold accountable those who intentionally violate the governor's emergency orders.

But I want to be very clear. If necessary, I will. The reason is simple. Lives literally depend upon it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SPRINGER: Meantime, the 627th Hospital Center Unit out of Colorado Springs arrived in Seattle yesterday to build a 250-bed field hospital in the event center attached to CenturyLink Field, the home of the Seattle Seahawks.

It will be taking non-COVID-19 patients, so the other hospitals can gear up and have -- be ready in case the surge comes in a couple of weeks, as they're anticipating -- Neil.

CAVUTO: All right, thank you very, very much, Dan Springer, great reporting, as always, on this, from the epicenter those -- think about when it started, in Seattle, right in Dan's neck of the woods.

You have heard a lot, in the meantime, about this six-feet keep-your- distance rule, and that will really lead to improvements and maybe bring down the number of coronavirus cases we see.

But what if we're way off on that, and not that the number should be smaller, but it should be much greater? Try 27 feet.

An MIT professor saying that would do the trick, because there are a number of other factors that the six-foot rule doesn't apply to.

Anyway, I want to get into this with more detail with the ear, nose and throat doctor Linda Dahl. She joins us via Skype.

Doctor, thank you for taking the time.

I'm sure you're a little bit familiar with this professor's work. But, essentially, her argument has been -- I just want to make sure I have it right -- that it doesn't appreciate the fact that, either in saliva or spraying or in the air, there's a longer trajectory, in other words, that, in this environment, it could follow as much as 20, 22, 27 feet.

And that's what she recommends should be the more acceptable gap between individuals. That seems pretty severe. What do you think?    DR. LINDA DAHL, OTOLARYNGOLOGIST: Yes, I read this study.

And she's a mathematician out of MIT. And the point of this study was to talk about transmission of droplets. And since the 1930s, WHO and CDC have been using work based on tuberculosis studies, where they differentiate between small and large droplets.

And it was kind of an ambiguous differentiation. So, in her work, she noticed that -- or she found that spray droplets can travel kind of in a cloud. So, the droplets that are tiny that contain virus particles can kind of linger in the air for longer.

And if somebody has a really strong sneeze, it can go for as far as 27 feet. But her work wasn't done with people using masks. It was actually -- she -- her focus was to talk about the PPE that the health care workers are using in the hospital systems, how that might not be enough to protect them while patients are sneezing and coughing actively in their environment.

And it also could possibly account for the fact that, in China, they found the COVID virus in the ventilation systems in the hospital, even after the patients were gone.

CAVUTO: So, she was really addressing coughs and sneezes, right, the dynamics what she calls of exhalations, and that, in some cases, those gaseous clouds, whatever you want to call them, could travel up to 27 feet.

Now, if you're not wearing a mask, and she's right about that, is there a risk in keeping it at six feet then, I mean, because in the six-feet scenario, no one -- no one -- very few, at least, are wearing masks.

DAHL: Yes, she stated in the study that she doesn't know how this would affect transmission of the virus...

CAVUTO: Right.

DAHL: Because the particles, they move in a cloud, they don't -- nobody knows how much of a viral load you need to inhale in order to get sick from the virus.

And so even, if it's lingering around or it sprays in the air, somebody coughs right at you, of course, that would be terrible, but nobody knows how much of that you have to breathe in and what the environment in your own body has to be like for the virus to be able to live there.

CAVUTO: All right, I'm just thinking, Doctor, spreading out 27 feet at a grocery store between people, could you imagine?

Doctor, thank you very much. Very calming. We appreciate that.

All right, there's a lot of good being done in the middle of this, good people like the doctor there, and all these people who are on the front lines trying to deal with this.

And then there's Chicago Bears star Allen Robinson, who's helping kids deal with this in a very practical way. He's feeding them.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)  CAVUTO: You know, when anyone wants to talk to Chicago Bears star Allen Robinson, they're all interested in knowing, all right, you're in the last year of a $42 million contract. We all want to find out about you're likely going to be showing him the money the next contract.

But he doesn't like to talk about that, doesn't want to talk about that. That's not front and center to him, even though, to a lot of other people, a lot of other stars, it certainly would be.

His preference these days is to help out, to help out kids. He's been running a foundation that does that, Within Reach Foundation. And, lately, one of its goals is to make sure that kids are taken care of and, during this whole coronavirus situation, they have food. And food matters.

The donations matter too. He leads the way, but he gets the darndest people to match him, including Bears coach Matt Nagy, $12,000, tackle Charles Leno Jr., $7,200. I think that's to do with his number on his shirt, 72.

Anyway, only Allen Robinson could do this. He was kind enough to join us right now to talk about this.

Allen, very good to have you.

ALLEN ROBINSON, CHICAGO BEARS: How you guys doing? Thank you for having me.

CAVUTO: Thank you.

Now, about that contract. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: On this, Allen, what got you started?

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: See, I tried to sneak that in there.

But what got you doing this?

ROBINSON: You know, I mean, just starting a foundation, growing up in Detroit, I have seen the effects of kids not having the same opportunity as others, may that be low income or whatever the case may be, trying to provide children the opportunity to be able to see outside the box, experience different things, have stuff to go back to school with, have a Christmas, and have things to put under the Christmas tree.

And also just to have a person like themselves, who once was very similar to them, in the sense of having dreams and having goals and having ambitions, and being able to just kind of talk them through that.

Again, I mean, me wanting to be a professional athlete at 5, 6 years old was a lofty dream. And a lot of people didn't believe in that. So, again, I just try to give another voice to kids as much as I can, just for them to believe in themselves, whether that's school, extracurricular activities and everything.

CAVUTO: No, I can see it in their eyes when the kids see you. You're obviously a rock star to them.

And you're helping them, looking at educational opportunities. But it begins with just making sure they have food in their belly, something as simple as that.

And we forget that and all the stuff, that, if you're hungry, there's there's very little a book is going to do for you.

ROBINSON: Most definitely.

If you are hungry, and if eating is number one on your priority list, that can deter kids in a very negative way and send them to do a lot of things that they shouldn't necessarily be doing by them just trying to feed themselves.

So -- and that also goes for the children and also their parents as well. So, for us, this is an opportunity for us to be able to provide food to families. You know, again, $12 provides 20 pounds of food to a family.

And, again, our true mission is want to just impact as many families as possible, because like I said before, with this being a tough time, not only with just the virus, but with people being laid off and different things like that, some people don't have that same source of revenue that they had just here a couple weeks ago.

So, again, being able to try to lessen the burden as much as possible. There is so much going on right now as far as medically with doctors and nurses and them not having the proper protection, people being laid off and things like that.

So, if we can just try to play a positive role in any of this, that's what we want to do.

CAVUTO: There is real concern whether we are going to see in football season now, given the delay in baseball season and all.

Are you worried about all of this?

ROBINSON: That just has kind of come up over the past -- over the last couple of days.

I'm not sure as far as what the plan of action is or what the plan of action will be. Personally, I don't see that.

I understand, from the standpoint of football, it's a little bit -- well, and the NFL, it's a little bit different from college sports and the MLB. The MLB has spring training, and then they kind of get into their season like that.

CAVUTO: Yes.

ROBINSON: So, they're talking about, will they have redo spring training and a lot of different other logistics. Same with college.

But, for us, we have OTA period. And then we take a break, and then we go into training camp. So, unfortunately, this whole entire OTA period is missed. We don't start training camp until late July.

So, I mean, my own personal hopes -- and I don't know how lofty this is or isn't -- my own personal hopes is that everything will be kind of functioning back to some kind of normal way of life by then, hopefully.

CAVUTO: Yes.

ROBINSON: Again, I don't know how lofty that is or isn't.

But, hopefully, by the end of July, we will be able to start camp and function as normal.

CAVUTO: Yes, we hope so.

Allen, thank you very much. You're very inspirational. And I didn't even mention the contract. Maybe the next time we chat.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: But thank you very much.

You're a great example to a lot of people. Be well.

ROBINSON: All right, most definitely. I appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me.

And just -- I just continue to just preach to everybody, just go out and practice safe measures.

CAVUTO: No, you're a remarkable young man. I can say that because you're all of 26 or 27. I have ties older than you, Allen, but that's neither here nor there.

Allen Robinson.

What a great thing, just gives you hope, right, that sharing in more ways than you can and maybe than a lot of people even think of.

The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, about to speak.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): I know there's this issue with these cruise ships.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)  CAVUTO: You know, most movie theaters, in fact, pretty much all of them in this country, they're closed. They're shut down.

But a lot of drive-ins are not. That's right. You heard me, drive-ins. They're still around, maybe not as many.

But if my next guest has his way, that will change.

Darrell Landers is the Ultimate Outdoors Entertainment boss.

And I guess, Darrell, you're trying to woo a lot of these movies studios:  Hey, bring those first-runs to us, because we're still around, right?

DARRELL LANDERS, FOUNDER AND CEO, ULTIMATE OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT: Yes, thanks for having me, Neil.

It's kind of an interesting dynamic that's occurring here. First-run films have really been relegated to theaters and some drive-ins around the country over the last few decades.

And, of course, we have a mobile drive-in service. So, we provide mobile drive-in movies anywhere that our customer wants them. And we're starting those discussions with studios at some point to say, hey, we think that people are not going to want to jump right back into theaters even when all this is said and done.

And we'd like to see an opportunity to show first-run films in smaller venues on our big screens for customers wherever they want them.

CAVUTO: All right, but you know about people congregating. How do you answer that?

LANDERS: Well, we're certainly abiding by all the social distancing guidelines that each of the communities are putting out.

CAVUTO: Right.

LANDERS: I think, right now, the biggest interest is in setting up events that, where they're allowed to, they certainly will.

But most people are setting these up for after April or after May, when the guidelines have been relaxed a little bit. And, like I said, I think people are going to be hesitant to jump right back into crowded theaters and other spaces where they're with 400 or 500 people in tight spaces.

And they're going to look forward to doing something like the drive-in, where they have an opportunity to go socially gather, but still be safe.

CAVUTO: So, they're mobile centers.

So, in other words, it's not like the -- all the drive-ins of old. Could you explain the difference?

LANDERS: Yes.

So, a stationary, existing, traditional drive-in obviously has a fixed screen projector, parking for however many cars they can accommodate.

CAVUTO: Right.

LANDERS: We have -- we have three different screen sizes for our drive-ins from 45 to 75 feet in size. They're inflatable. They're projection-based. We can take them anywhere.

We have set up screens for universities for movie nights in the past, corporate events, drive-ins of all kinds all over the country. We service all 50 states.

And there's some really new, exciting, fun things that people are doing with the drive-in, in light of the shutdown. Most recently is our church customers who are calling us looking for our LED screens for daytime worship services, drive-in style.

CAVUTO: All right.

LANDERS: And even graduation services for the senior kids that have lost half of their senior year now, and probably won't have a walk across the stage in most locations.

CAVUTO: That's wild.

I think it's an excellent idea, Darrell. Thank you very, very much. I wish we had more time.

Some of those examples showed individuals clustered together, but, of course, this is -- if you have cars clustered together, it's a different matter.

But you're on to something here. We shall see.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)  CAVUTO: The White House might be ready to change some of these distancing guidelines.

You know how they stand now, 10 feet, and some who say it should be a lot more than that, six feet, 10 feet, 20 feet.

We'll see.

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