caused by over 200 indoor and outdoor allergens. like those from buddy. for one week only, save up to $26 on select claritin products. check this sunday's newspaper for details. welcome back to another special late-night hour of "quo mow prime time." every single state in the nation now has coronavirus cases. west virginia was the last to report tuesday. now we're all in. why? look, it was always going to go this way, all right? what to be worried about is how we handle what is to come and

how we can reduce it before it hits us and overwhelms. now, the numbers. do you know what? now's a good time. we know we haven't been tested. this chart is making its way all over the internet. everybody's sending it to me with omgs attached to it. but here's my point. it suggests a false premise. january 21st, february 7th, look at the dates. they weren't testing. they weren't testing. and we know that the numbers are going up. it's spreading in the communities. that spike is like, you know, freaky. i agree with you it's freaky, but it's out of context. yes, more and more cases. there are many more cases than they're telling us. it's in the a secret. they're not hiding information. we're just not testing. we're ignorant on this. here's the real problem. the real problem is not the growth rate of cases. that we're handling, if you do

what you're supposed to do, if i do what i'm supposed to do, by staying away from each other. that's why it's so important. look at italy. look at the messages from italy about what thaw wish they had done weeks ago. if you need more impetus than that, i don't know how to help you. capacity is going to be the issue. we're already at high capacity in hospitals all over the nation. so, you know you won't be able to handle what's coming. what are we supposed to do? let's talk to a doctor who's going to be on the front line. california internist dr. sam fink. i mean, doc, i've got to tell you, this is for me the only frustrating part. we knew this would happen. we knew it would come. we knew it would spread in community. we knew that the cases were not being represented fairly because there wasn't enough testing. but they know they don't have capacity and they know they won't have capacity. and i feel like we're not throwing everything at it. am i missing anything from your

perspective? >> well, i think what we're throwing at it is that we're really trying to flatten the curve by practicing good effective social isolation. here's a problem we can all help. there aren't too many national problems like that. we can all do our part. the more we stay away, the less the case will be. that means there will be doctors, hospital bedding, icu beds to take care of you. we're ahead of italy. italy did not respond as quickly as we did. it's hard for any society to respond to a pandemic like this. i think we're doing okay. we're doing the best job we can at this point. we need to throw at it social isolation. and we need more testing and hopefully that will come in the near future. >> capacity. where does capacity fit in for you? am i overdoing it in capacity? what do you think about it? >> i can tell you my local hospital, right now we're fine. we're waiting what's to be and i

think time will tell. we've got to keep the number of cases down. i know other parts of the country, they're at capacity so we're going to see that. when we watch all areas of the country closely, i think we can do that. san francisco just a few hours ago announced they were going to have a curfew for three weeks. in areas that have a lot of cases, it's something we need to do. we all need to be supportive. we need to help each other. >> what are your concerns? >> you know, my concerns right now, you know, i tested one of my patients on friday. we're tuesday evening and i still don't have the results. testing is slow. i have kids but i'm not getting test results. my understanding is that will improve next week. right now quest which is a major laboratory is testing the specimens from the east coast on the west coast. that will change next week. we get a better sense of who's got this, where they are. we're going to do a better job. that will come. i also get the sense that everybody's trying the best they can. i think we're going to get

there. >> let's disdus your optimism. you've treated people with coronavirus. >> yes. >> anticipation can sometimes be worse than the reality. people believe if you get this, you've got 1 foot in the grave and another one on the banana peel. what are you seeing? >> with e know that isn't true. the numbers, we have 100 people get it, 80 of them are going to be fine at home. they have nothing but simple cold symptoms. it may be a bit worse. another 15 may end up in a regular hospital bed, and maybe 5 of those will end up in the icu. >> and another question i keep getting, so right now you and i, we're walking on the street together. we're six feet apart but we're walking together. i feel fine. two days later, i call you and i say i got this crazy fever and they tested me. i have coronavirus. people feel like that's it. that's it. fink is as good as done. he's got it too. what's the reality of

transmission? >> i think the reality that if you're really walking together for a long way, i would go and quarantine for about 14 days. >> even if i had no symptoms? >> but you were -- you tested positive, correct sf. >> i tested positive but i had no symptoms when i was with. i didn't cough on you. i wasn't doing that. >> what we do know about this virus is that it's fairly contagious so i would take that precaution and isolate myself. if my child was in school and one of his friends had a friend who had it, it goes through many levels of transmission. i don't think we have to go that far. but if you are in direct contact with someone who has corona, you should self-isolate for 14 days. >> will you have the equipment that you need? >> as far as hospitals, i hope they do. as for now, i'm trying to get n-95 masks. those are popular.

i just spent $100 a box for a mask of 20. i have stayed open through this, seen patients that are not ill so that i can take care of other medical problems. >> how hard is it to get somebody a test, doc? that's another thing we hear. i call mid doctor, they said i can't get the test. i don't know how to do it. there are no tests. >> sure. i can answer that. my practice, right now i have about 15 swabs and i will test those that need to be tested. now, my worry is that when i send them out i may not have the test result in three to five days. that's a problem. i think i can get the test kits. i don't know that i can get the results, but i'm hoping that will improve as soon as next week. >> i call you, i have a 104 fever, my chest is killing me, it just wreaks of coronavirus to you. are you making the choice that you obviously have a problem, stay home for two weeks, monitor your situation and see if you need to go to the hospital. does that warrant a test?

>> no because -- what i do in that situation, that only happened to me two or three times today and i was doing this online. and you know, i did send one patient to the emergency room. if you're 104, chest hurts, shortness of breath, i'm sending you to the coronavirus. but the more common scenario is cough, fever. it's not going to hurt them to self-isolate at home. so, a test doesn't really give them anything. >> what if i don't have a fever but i have a little shortness of breath, maybe it's anxiety, maybe it's something else. my stomach isn't feeling right. do you need the fever to check the box that this could be corona? >> no, and i thought about another case. and in fact that happened to me today as well. i told patients if you have any concern, isolate at home because the other concern is what are you going to do? you're going to send them to the health care system to the er that's already pretty crowded.

you need to send them to a doctor's office. i'm trying to keep patients at home if they feel ill. if they have the coronavirus i don't want them to give it to someone else. and if they don't, i don't want them to get it from someone else there. so far it seems to be going well and we'll see how it goes. >> so, you don't have to have a spooky high fever for an adult to have coronavirus? >> i totally agree with you. >> i'm not saying -- i'm not a doctor. i'm asking a question. people think if i don't have a fever, i'm okay. >> you know, you cannot have a fever and still have coronavirus. fever is one of the signs. you can have fever. dry cough. shortness of breath. it can be other symptoms. some patients reported abdominal pain. right now, the problem is the community. we have influenza. it's so hard for any doctor to isolate. >> and now we're also paranoud. now on the east coast, it's

allergy season kicking in. people are starting to feel, you know, tightness in the chest and the stuff we used to call hay fever and all that stuff. and everybody is so scared by the unknown that i can't tell you, doctor, how reassuring it is to get sober answers from somebody who's seen it like you. dr. sam fink, thank you very much. >> i appreciate this. >> for your information and the way you're delivering it as well. >> thank you for having me on. i really appreciate it. >> all right. god bless. stay safe. and thank you for healing the rest of us. next guest, what a great story. she took a shot for you. the healthy woman who was the first to test out a trial of a potential coronavirus vaccine. why did she do something like that? she'll tell you why, next. a cp without frequent heartburn waking her up. now, that dream... . ...is her reality. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts, for all-day, all-night protection. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn?

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you are the picture of surrendering the me to the we. the only question that matters is the first one. how are you doing? >> i'm doing great. i feel -- i feel great. >> now, what did they tell you is going to happen here one way or the other? so they give you a potential vaccine. now, what is in the vaccine? is it, like, dead forms of the virus? or sit live forms of the virus? what did they put in you? >> yeah, that's a great question, and it's been very helpful for me to explain that to people so they can be less worried about it. this vaccine uses messenger rna, so there is no element of the virus in this vaccine. scientists can explain that better to you, but -- so, there is no risk -- there's no risk to me of contracting the virus through this study. there is no risk to people

around me -- in fact throughout the whole process of the study, i will never be exposed to the virus. >> you may be exposed to the virus based on how you live your life or someone comes into contact with you that you didn't know, but we get it. it's not in the vaccine. >> sure. >> so, what is the potential down side for you other than the anxiety of this process? >> yeah, you know, there's the usual vaccine kind of potential side effects. you know, soreness at the site of injection, fever, chills, nausea, things like that. and i actually have not experienced those at all so far. in fact, my arm feels better than it has with a previous flu shot. so, you know, of course there's the big one, right? this has never been tested on a human before. but i'm doing great. everything's good. >> a little bit of levity in these situations always helps. everybody's afraid of so many

different things. you say your arm's feeling better. any signs of superstrength, ability to run faster than you could before? >> you know -- >> can you tell us anything like that right now? >> i've got my fingers crossed. i know i have a lot of friends are very hopeful this might turn into a super power, but so far i haven't noticed anything. >> any idea once they start the lottery again what the numbers will be? i'll split it with you. 80/20 seems fair. >> i don't care what they tell you about what's in the needle, not in the needle, you're going to have to go through different protocols and isolate yourself in this process. why? >> to correct you, no isolation. i'm free to live my life as i normally would although that's completely changed. >> you're isolating anyway. but don't you have to do things every day?

how does it work for you? is it just one and done and you wait to see what happens with the shot? >> yeah -- no. so, it's very controlled. so, i got my first shot yesterday morning. >> okay. >> and i have a follow up phone call today, a follow-up phone call tomorrow. ly go back in for a blood draw in a week and one more a week after that. and then four weeks after yesterday i will go in for the second dose and do that short -- that process again. and that's it. there are a handful additional visits for blood draws over the next 14 months, but besides that -- >> there's nothing that you're not allowed to do that you would otherwise do in your life? you can do everything you ordinarily would do? >> yeah, that's correct. i -- well, i cannot start taking any new drugs -- i can if i need to, but that needs to be reported. >> did they tell you anything

under the big category of just form hadal life right now in the state of washington? there is high exposure, a lot of cases. if you were to get sick with anything or with coronavirus, is there any additional consideration because of what they put in you? >> well, there's a 24-hour on-call phone number that i can use if i have any problems. >> what i'm saying, if you were to get coronavirus, would you get more or less sick than if you hadn't had this vaccine? are you more susceptible? is your immune system compromised by it? anything like that? >> understood. no, i don't believe so. we'll take that to the scientists and have them answer that question. but, of course it's an unknown. you can't say anything for sure, again, being the first. but none of that is expected.

>> why did you do this? >> yeah, that's a big question. i -- i am so privileged in my life to be healthy and to have family and friends around. my kids are older. i have a great job in the tech industry in seattle. i work for a company that allows the flexibility to take time off and to work remotely whenever i need. so, i just have a huge privilege that i can do those things. i will continue to receive my salary through this. and so so many americans right now do not have that privilege and are concerned about paying rent, certainly losing their jobs, how they're going to feed their family. there's so much that other people are worried about right now that this was something that was easy for me to decide that i wanted to do. you know, i'm blessed to have an opportunity to be able to do

something. we all feel so helpless right now. and i actually am getting to do something here. >> i ask you because i want to know what is different about you from so many who feel helpless right now. and the answer was not to volunteer for a vaccine or to do anything for anybody else but to run out and buy as much toilet paper as they could find? what do you think it was that triggered you to say do you know what? i've got it pretty good. i think i'm going to give of myself right now even though i don't have to, nobody's asking me to. >> yeah, i believe that thousands and thousands of people applied to participate in this study. i don't have the numbers, but i believe that to be true. and i believe we are all good. and i certainly went out to costco last thursday and fortunately already had enough toilet paper and i bought plenty of supplies. so, it is natural for us to, during crisis, to go inward and

to protect ourselves and to protect our family. and i think, you know, this is a great opportunity for us to kind of wake up and to step out of that a little bit and start thinking about others and having concern for others and what they're going through at this time. i really hope this is a wake up call for our country to enact what we need to take care of people. we need universal health care. we need paid time off. we need paid sick leave. there's -- there's so much that needs to change that i'm very hopeful that we'll wake up to this and we'll start making some big changes after this. >> any change that comes in society necessarily starts with the feeling that you have put on display for the audience tonight which is you make a decision to care about somebody other than yourself. so, jennifer, i wish you well. i hope it is uneventful and yet

very helpful to researchers in giving us a better way to deal with something like this. and i thank you for what you're doing for the show and for me and for all of us. >> thank you. my pleasure. thank you. >> american. do you know who else fits in that category? all these doctors and nurses on the front lines of the coronavirus war. they know it's coming. they know they can get sick too. in fact they're probably more likely to, right? what's being done to keep them healthy so they can do the same for us? next. if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream. it's a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. with otezla, 75% clearer skin is achievable. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated... ...with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression...

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it's the reality, not just a thought for many of our health care workers and first responders. and they're going to face it all day every day. >> reporter: doctors, nurses, health care workers on the front line in the battle against the novel coronavirus. an emergency room doctor in new jersey in if critical condition, a health care worker has tested positive, a doctor was exposed to coronavirus and a trauma unit had to be shut down. the largest nursing union speaking up. >> this is a public health crisis and we need our hospital leadership to get it together. we need the focus on our patients. we need to protect our nurses. we need to continue to be able to come to work and care for our community. >> even just giving a

coronavirus test to a patient can be dangerous for a doctor or a nurse. >> there's a swab that's put in the back of the nose all the way to the back of the throat. when you put that in, it's highly likely a person coughs or sneezes so you're at risk. >> doctors and nurses are particularly worried since protective gear are in short supply. this hospital went through five months of protective gear in six days. at massachusetts general hospital in boston, they're limiting the number of doctors and nurses who have face to face contact with patients who might be infected. >> there are stories that people are asymptomatic and can transmit, and so the more we are limiting health care interaction with patients, the less likely that people might be exposed. >> and it's not just infections with the coronavirus that's causing problems. doctors and nurses having to work harder because many of their colleagues have to stay home because they might be infected. at this hospital in western

massachusetts, 160 employees have been quarantined. at mass general, many workers there told not to come to work. >> it is a depleted work force in the hospital at a time when we have patients knocking down the door. >> but doctors and nurses carry on. >> we're tired, we're working a lot, but there's no prouder time to be in medicine than to see what's going on on the front lines. >> they're the heroes in this outbreak and they need to be protected so they can stay healthy and take care of the rest of us. elizabeth cohen, cnn, atlanta. >> all of these problems are practical but also political. what will our president do or the men who want to be our president? a clean sweep for joe biden tonight. frs time voters have cast ballots knowing their choice could end up taking over the coronavirus crisis. so, what does it mean for the state of play? the w the wizard of odds looks at the

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some perspective, not since 9/11 forced the new york primary to be delayed have we seen this big of a shift in the middle of an election season. some states are postponing. others like maryland are going to vote by mail in some cases. still, voters in three states did cast their ballots on what was supposed to be yet another super tuesday. that's why i got the wizard of odds here to sort out the new normal. there he is. so, let's do this. you know what i think is obvious is that that debate the other night, they should have been talking about coronavirus the whole time. anything about long term planning or systemic change. i just don't know where the national appetite is for it. what did we see tonight that proved me right or wrongish. >> the i think the thing that

proves you right or wrongish, illinois was the one state in which there was a significant day-of vote compared to arizona and florida where the majority of the vote was cast early. 87% of democratic primary voters said they were concerned versus just 13% who said they were not concerned. so, very clearly the coronavirus very much on the minds of democratic voters. you are circling democrats there. i will say that in some of the polling, republicans are not nearly as concerned as democrats are. i don't think that's too much of a surprise considering the president was down playing it for years. it will be interesting to see if the republican numbers catch up to the democrat numbers t but a lot of people are concerned about coronavirus. >> one other thing that matters for democrats is this number. >> yes. >> let's turn out more better for the president. >> you think that. i heard you say that last hour

with phillip. let me point out in illinois, the reason i had illinois on the slide was because it was the state that had the most number of people that were going to vote today. you see turnout is down about 500,000 back from 2016 which is different than what we saw in the other primaries in which turnout was match organize exceeding 2016. >> pre-coronavirus. >> pre-coronavirus. coronavirus had an impact on the states. getting to your point, i know there's the idea that higher turnout is good for democrats. that's not necessarily the case. it depends who is turning out. you may remember in 2004 when george bush was running for re-election, if john kerry could get more voters out. he did and then bush got out more voters. it's not necessarily clear to me that lower turnout is necessarily a good thing for the president, especially since the most enthusiastic people at this

point are the people who want to get the president out of office. at least that's what we saw in the midterm elections. >> treason ihe reason i'm sayin you just had a slide that said democrats are more likely to worry about this. if you're not worried about it, you're more likely to vote because you're not as worried about the virus. i think that may come into play. let's leave it there because it's an unknown. here's what is a known. democrats who are talking about trust -- >> yeah, i mean, look. older folks are more concerned about the coronavirus once you control for partisan identification. older democrats are more concerned than younger democrats. which you might think if less older folks turned out it would be a good thing for bernie sanders. who do you trust more to handle a crisis. look at the numbers from arizona, florida, and illinois. 66% say joe biden is more capable to handle a crisis than

bernie sanders. as we've seen this shift in the democratic primary, i think it's to biden's benefit. he's saying emergency, emergency, mernl si, we need to attack and sanders didn't seem to be on as firm of footing. >> this man is not in office. this man is. i wonder if that adds a layer to the dynamic of people saying what is sanders doing right now on coronavirus? what is he pushing for? is that something they may have an expectation about or no he's just one of 100 senators. >> i think it's more about the latter, he's one of 100 senators. but i think it gets to the point that biden is the one you trust most. he was next to the commander in chief. he has the experience. he's pledging return to normalcy. and voters are craving that especially in these crazy times. the coronavirus adds to the crazy times in the minds of voters who just want a little

bit of normalcy. so, that makes them flock back to biden. >> what happens after tonight for sanders in terms of his argument for why he needs to stay in? >> i don't know the argument for why he should stay in. if you look at the delegate count, after tonight's primaries are said, biden's going to have a 300 delegate lead, perhaps a little bit more obviously. >> much bigger than clintons. >> right. allocating the delegates. there it is right there right now. he's up by 307 at this particular point. and if you are up by 307 at this particular point, what you would need given the number of delegates that have been allocated so far and given the fact that democrats allot their delegates proportionally, bernie sanders would need to win the remaining vote by somewhere around 20 percentage points. but bernie needs to win by about 20. look at the margin biden has over sanders in our last cnn poll in the states that have yet to vote. he's leading by 32 points. so, right now bernie sanders is running about 52 points behind

where he needs to run. i've got to be honest -- i may be a wizard of some sort, you point out wizard of odds. but you don't have to be much of a wizard to know if you're running 52 points behind where you need to be, it's not going to happen for you. >> his argument is they don't need to come out in the primary but the people who are very young will carry me to victory and you don't win any other way. >> i don't get it. i don't get it. we've had a lot of primaries. have we seen turn out. >> he's saying they only come out in general. >> great. i'm going to wait until tomorrow and maybe the newspaper will get delivered even though it hasn't been delivered in seven days. i don't get that argument. the people coming out in primaries are suburban women and they're supporting joe biden. look, the fact is joe biden is ahead. joe biden is going to be continue to be ahead. and if i were putting odds on the nomination as i did last week, right now he's 99.9% to have the plurality ayma jorty of

delegates. >> we poll all the time about what you care about and what the list of issues are. we don't need to do that anymore. who's going to help me get through this? who's going to keep my family safe? who's going to figure out how to get us back to what we used to think with something called normal? it's all through one lens now. who will capture it? we'll see. whiz, i love you. >> i'll give you the salute. >> bernie sanders has a tough decision to make at some point if it's tough at all. let's bring in alaina plot and the professor, ron brownstein on where is sanders. i get where the wizard is. brownstein is going to say the same thing. how does this hold up after this third super tuesday. two great minds, next. ♪

♪ ♪

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biden won big, but you've got to look at how. how? well, he wound up proving his appeal to an array of democrats,

okay? coalition, a word you're going to hear. even as many do see promise in senator sanders' movement, a dahl for revolution, the idea that the senator will bring out voters in the general that you cannot win without. and now this is all coming to a head. you've been hearing this for weeks and months. but not through this lens. not through the coronavirus lens. what does it mean? alaina plot and the professor ron brownstein join me now. good to have you both. ron, you've spent time with history. we've seen october surprises, black swan event, an unknown. they certainly have shaped elections past. but we ain't never seen nothing like this. how do you think it plays? >> well, nothing has disrupted american life to this extent in our experience. we're at probably not since pearl harbor. this exceeding even 9/11 by the time it's all over. so, we don't know exactly all

the ways in which it will affect and reshape the election. certainly one of them though is it puts a premium on leadership and on experience. and i think that is part of the reason why joe biden has -- not the experience, but one of the reasons joe biden has pulled away from bernie sanders and it will be -- it's a backdrop that highlights his strengths relative to donald trump who, you know, even on his best day among his best supporters would have to be seen as volatile and unpredictable and veering around. so, just one quick number. quinnipiac did a poll at the beginning of this month asking who would you trust to handle awe crisis. joe biden led the sitting president by 16 points on that question. that's an important asset even though the president will have the ability to show leadership in the coming months and trying to recover from the very slow start they've had in responding to this. >> alaina, young voter question,

what you take from me in iq points i make up for you in years over age. i ask you this question. young voters do not seem as concerned about coronavirus. do you think that there's a chance that it will mean less to me them in the election and that if you want them to vote you're going to have to stick to their issues because they're not coming out. >> they're not coming out before this was an issue. bernie sanders entire candidacy has been premised on the idea he can fundamentally reshape the electorate. that has not been the story at all in any primary thus far. and i think the variable that young people are perhaps less scared of the coronavirus than earlier voters, i don't see how you boost turnout for something that's already not helping bernie sanders get to where he wants to be in the first place. >> so, now it comes to well what happens? he got beat badly again tonight. but -- and i've asked you both this question before and you've

both smacked me down on it. but it maintains the senator's candidacy which is sorry guys you're very smart, but you're wrong. in the general, they'll come out. these people don't vote in the primary. they don't like the party. they're nung, they're new, i'll get them, can't beat trump without them, got to stay in. >> well, look, first of all, the first question is do you advance or diminish your cause, do you increase or diminish your leverage in the party if you go out and get walloped every week? i mean, he did not exceed 36% of the vote today. chris, there are only three states where he's gotten past 37% of the vote. one of them is home state of vermont, one a caucus in north dakota and one in idaho, which is a small state that is not very democratic out west. he has lost self-identified democrats in every state since south carolina except colorado, california and vermont. he is losing not only the college educated whites and

african-americans but blue-collar whites in most states including 2/3 of them in some of the states tonight. he says he is mobilizing a campaign of the working class. i guess you could argue that if you continue you will diminish your leverage because you will be showing that you have a smaller piece of the party that is wed to you than you have argued. >> all right. then how about this? that the entire state of play in our government has just shifted over to exactly what bernie sanders wants to do, alaina plott. you're going to give everybody a check. i know that was really andrew yang. but certainly bernie wouldn't be against it. you believe that you have to revamp the entire health care system now to make sure that everybody gets what they need. that's what he's calling for. and these measures about forgiving debt, about helping people in the work class, about separating them out from the elites. these are all bernie's ideas. why hasn't the whole race just changed in his favor? >> because you know what i think overrides that, chris? this craving among voters, perhaps more than ever right now, for technocracy.

i did a story for the "times" on sunday speaking to trump voters about how they feel the administration has handled this. >> alaina, you can't just say the word technocracy to someone who is as hamheaded as me and think it is just going to be absorbed. mayonnaise is the biggest word i use. what is technocracy? >> this is the idea that experts and expertise are not bad things but that lifelong kind of government officials, bureaucracy in general, expertise within agencies are actually essential to a functioning democracy. that's something that donald trump, you know, really rejected and drove against in his obviously v obviously very successful 2016 bid. but what i wanted to say, chris, is this is the first time i've ever spoken to trump voters when they've actually expressed a deep appreciation for and trust in government agencies. like the cdc. and if you're hearing trump voters saying that i can't even imagine how deeply that must extend in the democratic party.

so beyond, you know, stimulus measures and whatnot, i think that's the ethos, that as long as this virus continues we'll continue to propel voters in favor of joe biden. >> all right. and how about this? that what's going to be done by congress right now. and i think necessarily so. and i think it's just one step. i'm worried about them giving checks to every american thinking they're going to spend it. why wouldn't they save it? i mean, if they know they're not going to be working, you're going to give a prudent person money and you think they're going to just run out and buy a tv? they're going to have to take more steps. but if congress gets us out of this before the election, ron, why doesn't that in your view redound to the benefit of trump as the president who was at the helm when he got out of this? >> it's not inconceivable that it does, chris, i agree with you. first of all, for any democrat, i mean, the irony here of republicans -- every single republican in the house and all but three in the senate opposed president obama's stimulus plan in '09 and fought tooth and nail

against every dollar. mitch mcconnell, you know, basically threw himself in front of the train to try to block that stimulus. and now to have republicans sort of casually saying, well, we need a trillion-dollar stimulus you have to ask what exactly is different other than the partisanship of the president? but i agree with you. 's not inconceivable that donald trump -- depending how this unfolds. democrats have a lot of ammunition in terms of the way they have handled the early stages. the delay in testing, don kettle who is one of our federal scholars of the federal bureaucracy said this will go down as one of the greatest failures in the history of the federal government, the delay in testing. the delay in reinforcing the supplies that we need in the hospitals and you know, medical facilities. all of these are tremendous management failures. but if they can turn the corner and hold down the ultimate inside dennis of disease and prevent the economy from sliding off of a cliff, absolutely the president will -- by the way, in

the polling so far, opinion about how he's handling this almost exactly is following the tracks of the overall opinion of him. virtually everyone who agrees with the way he's handled the job in general says he's doing a good job, and everybody who disagrees says he isn't. it's like impeachment, like everything else. more reinforcing than reconfiguring the basic lines of division. >> until this touches you where you live, which none of those other things did. and when he said he gives himself a 10 out of 10, you know, that may shape opinions when this comes close to hem. because elaina, last word to you, one thing that's definitely changed, i don't think people have the same appetite for pointless political division anymore when there's an xichbttial threat around, even if it's just getting sick for a while. we're much more worried. give me a quick last word. we've got to go. >> i think that crises only cease to be political when they become personal, and the more that this touches people, whether in red states or blue states, the more that it's going to shape their calculus of how they view november. >> i'm glad i gave you the last word.

it's much better than i could have said. thank you both, elaina plott and ron brownstein. thank you. stay tuned. we will give you the information you need, no matter the hour, until we get through this and beyond. stay with cnn. dies, my friends i are having a debate. -i have a back rash. -alright. whoa, mara. i laugh like this. [ laughs obnoxiously ] it's just not my scene. -i couldn't help but over-- -do you like insurance? i love insurance. did you know you can save money bundling home and auto with progressive, and renters can bundle, too? i know, right? [ laughs ] [ singing continues ] why'd you stop? i was listening. [ microphone feedback ]

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hello. welcome to our viewers joining us in the united states and around the world. i'm john vause. coming up on "cnn newsroom" -- millions of people on lockdown around the world. borders closed from eastern europe to america's west coast. as the coronavirus spreads, so too the drastic measures being taken to try and limit the impact of the virus. countries also going it great lengths to stop the economic fallout. the trump administration announcing a $1 trillion stimulus package to cushion our faltering u.s. economy. and joe biden sweeps key primary states, giving him a nearly insurmountable