hey, everybody. i'm chris cuomo and welcome to primetime. we have a load of breaking news for you tonight. here is the biggest headline. california has just issued an unprecedented statewide order telling all people to stay home. obvious reason, coronavirus cases are surging there. what does it mean? how will it work? you got 40 million residents there. the big question for them will, of course, be how long? here, in new york city, cases nearly doubled overnight. and there is a dire new warning that hospitals could be just two weeks away from running out of essential medical supplies. we have one of the president's top lieutenants here to address the needs and the threats. and you are going to hear from the leader of the senate tonight. a cnn exclusive with mitch mcconnell and what congress is doing to deliver so many financially strapped americans critical aid. we know the problem. what are the solutions? we're a big part of it. so let's get after it.

this is cnn breaking news. california governor gavin newsom ordered all 40 million residents to stay at home. to slow the coronavirus spread. the governor warned the white house today more than half the state's population could be infected with the virus within eight weeks. that's about 20, 25 million people. let's go to cnn's dan simon in san francisco with the very latest. we saw something like this from los angeles. mayor garcetti. he put an end date of his, though, in april sometime. 13th or the 17th. what do we noknow about this? >> well, chris, one can only assume that governor newsom received a very bleak assessment from his team this afternoon. he said that more than half of californians could come down with the coronavirus in about eight weeks.

just think about that for a moment. you see all these people here walking along this trail in san francisco. it means that half of all these people you see will come down with the virus, if these estimates hold up. it makes you, also, wonder, chris, if this is going to expand to other states in the coming days. i want you to listen now to what governor newsom said just a short time ago. >> we direct a statewide order for people to stay at home. that directive goes into force and effect this evening. and we were confident -- we are confident -- that the people of the state of california will abide by it. >> now, people who are living in california and around the country who are just learning about this for the first time. i want to sort of explain what we're living with in san francisco so you get a sense in terms of what life like -- might be like for the next couple of days. so there are a number of exemptions in place. so you can go to the grocery store and pick up a few things.

you can go to the gas station. remember, your police department, is still on duty. you still have your fire department. you still have public transportation. so, in some respects, life goes on. and you can also come outside, get some fresh air, get some exercise. go for a jog. all of those things still exist. >> well, we'll see whether they exist or not. we're going to have to make some sense of the order. you are standing out there in a park or wherever you are. i have the executive department state of california executive order. and let me just read through it here in realtime with everybody and let's see what it means. why does it matter? well, california is one of your major population centers. it's more than one in ten americans, i think one in eight lives in california so they are a window into our present and our future. and, again, many of us take this kind of information about staying at home as proof that we are losing to the virus. that thinking, while it may make

some sense, is completely wrongheaded. we have heard from tony fauci, dr. fauci, and all of the experts, again and again, this is the best weapon. if you stay away from one another, you avoid a really horrible statistic, which is what? four out of five cases of coronavirus are transmitted by someone who didn't know they had it. okay? now, when you look at it that way, what we're doing is buying time to build capacity, and to deal with the cases, and let cases that can resolve, resolve on their own. without spreading to anybody else who may have different compromised immunity. and give our healthcare system a chance to cope. it is a weapon. it is not proof that we are losing. that is not semantics. know that. so what shape does this take? so the beginning of the order, the governor's explaining why he has to do it. he's been told by public health and safety officials that the

entire state is at risk. and that it is rapidly spread. it's necessitating updated and more stringent guidance. therefore, he says that he's drawing on certain codes to do the following. to preserve the public health and safety. there are directives consistent with the march 19th, 2020, memorandum of essential, critical infrastructure workers. meaning this isn't going to affect everybody the same way. they will keep state systems up and going. okay? but everyone who is living in the state, other than essential operations employees, who will be designated by the state, what is that going to mean? essential services. healthcare workers and whatever the governor and public health officials determine they must keep going. sanitation. there are going to be different things that you see. people who keep power in service. but, otherwise, they are ordered to stay at home. at home or at their place of

residence. except -- and this is going to be the key language -- except as needed to maintain continuity of operations in the federal critical infrastructure sectors as outlines. that's what i was referring to. he had to carve that out, and he did. now, let me look at this to see if there is an end date on this. it's infrastructure. they have identified 16 critical areas where they have to keep them up and running. that's a good sign for the residents of new york. that those will be kept intact and they'll work with staffing those situations to preserve people's safety as best they can, while preserving the services. the supply chain must continue. californians must have access to necessities. food. prescriptions. healthcare. when people need to leave their homes or places of residence, whether to obtain or perform the functions above, or to otherwise facilitate authorized necessary activities, they should, at all time, practice social distancing. so can you go get food?

yes. can you go get medicine? yes. can you do things that you must do? yes. can you do what they're doing behind dan simon right now? no. why? because you will unwittingly spread the virus, even if you don't know you have it. even if you don't have symptoms. so, dan, now we go from the can to what the realities are. what is it looking like on shelves in the area where you are in san francisco? >> shelves in stores, chris, you know, go to the walgreen's, i mean, the shelves are bare. i mean, you can't get paper towels anywhere. you can't get clorox or all the cleaning supplies that you need. so, really, people, you know, stocked up well in advance when they had a sense that this might come down. but, chris, you think about what this shutdown is going to mean

for california, this is one of the largest economies in the world by its own right. and it's going to come to a grinding halt. already, in san francisco, all of the quote/unquote nonessential stores are already closed. you can't go to -- go to a gap or anything like that. i mean, it's just -- it's just crazy what's happening. and now, you're talking about the entire state. 40 million people. what's that going to do to the state economy? >> it's going to tank it. but this is, obviously, a balancing test for the governor in california. as it's going to be for governors all over this country. you have to figure out. your only weapon against the virus is to control how many cases you get. and it is the first state to do this, this way. we've seen it done here in work yo new york as a function of localities and suggestions of self-isolation. the mayor of new york city

popped off that he was going to do it. he had to get brushed back by the governor. any mandatory protocol like this gets very complicated. and that's why the governor of california took pains to figure out what essential services to keep going. but, dan, you are raising a good question. and it has to be put in the right context. what's it going to do to the california economy? it's going to tank it, just like every economy is going to take a big hit. the question is, at what point is it worth injuring economic activity to improve the chance at longtime sustainability of health in that state? that's a call the governor had to make. he will be judged by it. and we will see its effects playing out, day by day, week by week. dan simon, thank you very much. reporting is also going to be something that we understand that state governments and, hopefully, the federal government will recognize as an essential value. and we are taking our own risks. we're all in this together. okay? i have no immunity to a virus

any more than you do. we have to take our jobs seriously right now. you need us as much as ever and we have to take care of our own as much as ever. that's at home. that's here at work. we're figuring out how to do the job just like you have to figure out life one day at a time. if we stay together, we will get through it together. there are headlines popping all over the country. we have them all. stay with cnn. is the frels family's land. they grew their first tomatoes right here. and when it snows, the kids go sledding right there. the frels family runs with us on a john deere 1 series tractor. because this is more than just land, it's home. search "john deere 1 series" for more.

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because this isn't our network... it's yours. for bathroom odors that linger try febreze small spaces. just press firmly and it continuously eliminates odors in the air and on soft surfaces. for 45 days. all right. we're living this all together. there is breaking news out of california. the governor there has just issued a stay-at-home order for the entire state. this is a huge deal. california, one in every eight of us lives in that state. he's the first governor to do something like this. and it is not a sign of weakness. it is a recognition by this governor that this is his greatest weapon against the virus. if we can stop it from spreading, four out of five

cases of coronavirus -- i just learned this, listen to this -- four out of every five people who get it, got it from someone who didn't know they had it. you see why people are getting so pissed off about the spring breakers and not taking these protocols seriously? you can take practical steps and cut that down in a big way. that's what the governor's call is about. now, look. it's a big call for him to make. it's going to have huge economic impact. so what you have to balance that with is the understanding of what the upside is. now, i can't find a date when this ends. but we did find language from the governor saying this isn't going to be martial law. he said i don't believe the people of california need to be told through law enforcement that it's appropriate just to home isolate to protect themselves. so you can still go out and buy food. get essentials. but he doesn't want you socializing. he doesn't want you doing those

things at least for the foreseeable future. i can't get you an end date. in los angeles, the mayor there had done it. now, that will be superseded by what the governor did, obviously. governor is above mayor. but there, it was like april 15, april 17. and we are seeing that consistently. measures are somewhere in the -- in the several weeks to a month range. why? we don't know. they don't either. okay? they will say that, on graphs, you see that about four to six weeks, you see a peaking in cases. but there are a lot of variables that go into that. for instance, another headline for you. in new york, we had a doubling of cases overnight. but what does that mean? well, the cases doubled. fact. but they're still not testing in any real way. are they playing catchup? do we believe this number is accurate? it can't be. they have a huge backlog of tests. i am going to bring you a family later on that you are going to meet that you may have read about. fusco. they're from new jersey. this is one of the most heartbreaking things i have heard come out of coronavirus. their family has been savaged.

they've lost four. it's a big family. it was 11 kids. it was like 40 grandkids and cousins. or make it like 70. it's like a big, italian family. they've been savaged by this. they can't get test results. they have 20 of them in quarantine right now. sowe so we are so far behind on testing that all the numbers you get are lagging. to bring in some perspective on this, dr. william schaffner. infectious disease specialist, cdc advisor. doctor, thank you so much. people are so worried about what they are learning and it's so valuable to have you to put some context to it. so, first, with what i just said about the cases. isn't it a fair assumption that given the lag in testing and the relative inability to keep up with the flow with testing, that any numbers we get have to be, if anything, on the bottom side, right? >> oh, that's absolutely right, chris. we're not testing nearly as many people as we would like to test

to give us a sense of, actually, how many people with the infection are out there. i'm absolutely amazed at governor newsom's order. really impressed. in fact, when i heard it a minute ago, i had to punch myself in the chest to get my heart started again. i never anticipated something like that would happen. here, in nashville, we're actually almost there on a voluntary basis. this morning, when i went into work, the traffic was less than 10% of what it normally is. there are lots of businesses closed. sports venues. entertainment facilities. bars. all closed already. we're kind of doing that, virtually, already. this is serious. >> so it's serious. obviously, we know that now. the country's never seen anything like it. but that doesn't mean it's easy to understand, either, even when explained. it's one of the biggest economies in the world. why does everybody have to stay in? why don't you just quarantine the vulnerable and the elderly and let the young work? what does this mean in terms of balancing economic impact and

health? how is something like the order the governor just gave in california something that is commendable to you, as a physician? >> well, you said it absolutely right, chris. a few moments ago. it's everything we can do to dampen the expansion of this outbreak. we want to press down on the epidemic curve, to spread it out, so that when people are sick and really do need care, we don't get a tsunami wave of them coming in all at once. if we spread this out, we can manage the very sick. and, of course, another reason is that everybody, no matter what the age -- we are learning this -- children and young adults can be spreaders. nobody wants to be a dreaded spreader. and that will spread the virus to the most vulnerable. so what we're trying to do is everything we can. this is our great, big canon. this is our weapon to try to interrupt, or at least profoundly reduce i should say,

transmission of this virus from one human being to another. >> i don't have to stay home. i'm not sick. your response? >> i -- i think you could be a spreader. you could pick it up and send it to someone else. >> and not even know you have it. >> and not even know you have it. that is absolutely right. that's why we all have to do this together. and all make our own contribution, as uncomfortable and disturbing as it is, for a short period of time to try to dampen this outbreak. >> let me ask you one question. one step sideways then i want to get back to you about medical equipment. do you want remember -- what do you think, in your life experience, is the last time you've seen this country asked to do something that involves this type of surrendering the me to the we? >> well, we've had a number of occasions where we have had other emerging infections. the 2009 influenza swine flu

outbreak. >> we didn't do anything like this. >> no, nothing like this. nothing like this. we have had an epidemic of anxiety, which we currently have. when hiv first came on the scene. that got everybody very, very anxious. >> we handled it horribly. >> yeah. well, we have two outbreaks, as you well know. the coronavirus outbreak and the outbreak of anxiety. both of which, we are trying to deal with. >> doctor, let's do this. let me take a quick commercial here. come back. and i want to talk to you about capacity. what it means because it's not just beds, it's ventilators, and what you know about what we have and how the richest country in the world doesn't have enough masks for people to wear. gloves. how can this be? schaffner will give us some great context on this right after the break. make sure that the network is working all the time. (announcer) we're relentlessly committed to the network. so in times like this, we can all stay connected to work, school, and most importantly, to each other.

all right. i want to bring back dr. william scha scha schaffner. my desk with all the information we just learned about

california. this is the governor to do something like this statewide, stay at home. not marshal law. he didn't say people don't need law enforcement to tell them to do this. he did say it was open-ended. he did say 16 or 17 different areas of essential services have been identified to keep the state going. he did say that you can go out, in the executive order. that you can get your food, you can get your medicine. but to keep social distancing when you do the same. you celebrate this because you say it is -- you agree with the idea that it's wrongheaded to see these types of measures as proof of defeat that the virus is getting us. this is the best weapon against it. so now, you get to why we want to mitigate the number of cases, other than commonsense, less is better. our hospitals are going to be over capacity, pretty much everywhere this hits. the question is, why, doctor? why did the richest country in the world not have enough masks, gloves, gowns, ventilators? why? >> so let me give you three

quick reasons, chris. the first is that about 20 or 30 years ago, we decided that we would not over hospitalize. when i was an intern and went to bed at night, i knew that there were always empty beds in the hospital. so i would be awakened to take care of a patient who was admitted in the middle of the night. a lot of the times now, our hospitals are absolutely full. so we have under-built hospital beds because they are very expensive. number two is globalization. sure, we build ventilators here. and we -- we make masks in this country. but we've outsourced a lot of that around the world. so we didn't anticipate international turbulence influencing this. drugs. vaccines. similarly. the third reason is, it's very american to have just-in-time ordering. we no longer have, in hospitals, large stocks of drugs in pharmacies. large warehouses full of these personal protective equipment.

it's just-in-time ordering. that's what we all do because it's more efficient and less expensive. now, those seem to be good ideas. all of them. some time ago. but they sure do get us in a pinch right now. >> falls in the category of seemed like a good idea at the time. and then you hear some more context. 2005. then as recently as year or so ago, there was modeling down about how to handle a pandemic at the federal level. so the idea that they had no idea like something like this could happen is not exactly true. what's your understanding of how much thinking went into doing what was right in a situation like this, before it actually hit? >> well, there's been an awful lot of pandemic planning that's gone on. and we have learned from ebola, from zika, from influenza, swine influenza back in 2009. but putting those things into place requires leadership and

organization and coordination. and we don't have to go into great detail here. but it hasn't been optimal, shall we say. >> right. it's not time to play politics, of course. although, i have to tell you, you know, and it's not just the president. we have seen it local places. these false promises. today, the president said we're fast tracking this drug through the fda. they call it trump speed, which i find really ironic given how slow we were to get into this situation and start fighting back. but then tony fauci, dr. fauci, had to say there is no magic cure. we don't know about any drug that will work. there are few we think may work. we don't know anything for sure. who is right? fauci? or the other message? >> let me just say we all, in infectious diseases and public health, have enormous confidence in tony fauci. >> so when -- when we think about this now, what should people's expectations be?

are we anywhere near having a drug that can carry ture the ba cases? >> actually, treatment, i think is likely to come if everything works well, sooner than a vaccine because we have a number of previously known drugs where we know a lot about their safety issues. and how they work. so we don't have to make a new drug. we're testing old, known drugs in this situation. and there are plenty of patients in whom we can do clinical trials and get solid information. so that may come forward in a matter of months. developing the vaccine will, still, take longer even though we're doing a full-court press on that. >> dr. schaffner, thank you so much for being with me at such an important. i am sure we'll be speaking again, probably often. thank you for the advice and, please, stay healthy. >> hang in there, chris. >> all right. so that's the medical side of it. that's the big headline. how is this playing in california? we have the mayor of los angeles, mayor garcetti.

he is going to join us right after the break. remember, he did this for los angeles. he put an end date on it, though. april 13th or 17th. i forget. i don't have time to read it. but i am going to have time to talk to him about it and he is going to give us the answer and what he makes of this much bigger move. the first of its kind in the country. all of california ordered, stay at home. 40 million people. next. 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... ...or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines,

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joining us now on this very big news. the first of its kind in the country. a governor saying that everybody in the state should stay home. los angeles mayor eric garcetti joins us now. mr. mayor, you, today, had announced exactly this kind of measure in los angeles. only going out for essentials. otherwise staying inside. you, unlike the governor, had put a hard out on it, though,

april 19th. though, saying it was subject to extension. what is your thought about the governor taking your idea for that major city and making it the entire state? >> it was great news, chris. and thank you, by the way, for your exceptional coverage during this once, we hope, in a life time crisis. here in los angeles, i took that action with a heavy heart. but with a very clear mind. the more and more that i talk to people who looked at the data, looked at the trends, and who looked at history, those who act slowly will be punished. and those who act quickly have a chance. and i think, for all of us, to see a state do that -- and i spoke to a governor early today saying i have your back. we all have your back on this. the big-city mayors. we all are imagining somehow if it's not as bad in our city, that there is a magical moat around this. or maybe we're just different than some other place. or our country just needs to keep out those people. this is universal. it's the entire world.

and there is nothing that will protect us besides moving swiftly and what public health professionals tell us to do. which is limit that social distance. go to the bare minimum and try to help people get through this together. >> the big pushback is the cost. that this tanks the economy and how can it be worth it? this isn't the plague. it's just the flu. 80% of the cases are okay. why isn't this going too far? >> i started with the premise tonight that human life is precious. if we don't start there, i don't know where we ever start. what's the price of that life of that loved one who is battling cancer or who has a pre-existing condition? parents or grandparents just because they're older and they're going to have a one in eight chance of dying unlike your child who might only have a one in 10,000 chance of dying if they get it. i think that we, hopefully, as human beings, believe that all human lives are precious. and, by the way, i think it's a false dichotomy. the blow to the economy. of us letting this continue to go forward. of us not treating this with the

seriousness. these companies, these places, will be under anyway, if we have all of our doctors and nurses sick. they will not only be able to respond to this crisis but to the other health crisis that threaten people's lives and we will lose lives in that scenario, too, and cripple our eon economy when people in key sectors can't even come to work. i think it's up to leaders right now to acknowledge the pain that people are going through. call for the federal government to help with the economic pain. make sure we treat all people equal, including immigrants, who might not get the federal assistance that they need. but pick the food that we're now eating in this crisis. clean the buildings that we are trying to keep safe. drive the trucks that get us what we need. >> right. >> and then get to the next steps from there. >> let's tick off a few kind of practicalities here. one, a lot of the shelves are bare. people think that there are shortages, versus just restocking issues. what is the case in your city and your understanding of the state?

is there enough to put back? and it's just about the rate of people buying it? or is there something bigger afoot? >> nope. there's plenty. and i actually went to one of the distribution centers with all of our grocery store ceos and leaders just this week so people could see it live. it's a stocking issue. i mean, maybe for toilet paper and paper towels, a couple days away. hand sanitizer, probably a few weeks. but there is plenty. don't hoard. don't impulse buy. buy for a week. it's going to be there next week. >> we are going to hold that thought about why they hoard for one more practical question. then i want to get to that more philosophical question. how is this enforced? the mayor said they don't need law enforcement to tell them they're better off at home. but what if they don't stay home? how is it enforced? is it enforced? >> you no, one of the questions we had at our press conference a couple hours ago is is this one of those if you see something, say something? i said yes, absolutely. but don't call a cop. go and tell somebody they shouldn't be doing that. then if there is cases where people are blatantly violating this order, yeah, we'll visit

them. when we said restaurants were closed to eating indoors, 99.9% of them closed. the press found one restaurant who said i was going not going to do this. we visited them. we brought a police officer. it was closed down immediately. the guy had a smile. it's not open. people are getting guns. they are going crazy. i'm saying crime is actually way down and generosity is way up. this is different than a riot or a public safety emergency. this is a public health emergency. and we have to remember that it's on all of us to do this. but we're certainly going to deputize many city employees to walk those streets, to drive around. if we see any folks that are still open, we'll just pay them a visit and let them know this is something they have to comply with and it's for their own health. in the very rare cases where somebody doesn't comply, of course we will enforce that. >> it's not unusual in times of panic to see people buying guns and ammunition. it doesn't help when you have state tv saying the democrats are using coronavirus as a reason to take people's guns

away. let's put it to the side. mayor, i want toyour take on on more thing. the idea of people being so afraid is understandable. the idea of people not going along with things that everyone in their country is telling them they need to do is less understandable. what do you say to the people who say i'm not doing it. i'm not sick. it's too much of a restriction. everything's going to be fine. this is overhyped. >> well, it's very clear. especially, the younger people who might feel they're immune. everybody says let's go to the beach. just remind people. they're somebody you care about. there's somebody you know who is in treatment for something or who is compromised in their health before this. somebody you love who is older. you will kill them. and i think it's straightforward saying that. letting people know that this is unlike a fire. you saw the heroic work of the fires out here in california last year. but the first responders aren't dressed in uniforms. they are us. we are the first responders. and the handshake's another one

that could kill somebody. so we just have to stay constant, consistent, and anybody who violates that, we have to let them know there is now an order. and the difference between survival and not, depends on you. >> heavy heart. clear head. it's good way to put it. mayor, you know the right thing to do. but you know it's going to cost and you know it's going to be hard. but it's about what the long-term gain will be for all of us. mayor eric garcetti from los angeles. his state just the first in the country to say, through the governor, everybody should stay home. god bless. be safe. let us know how we can help. >> thank you. god bless you, too, chris. >> be well. all right. now, who do you go to in times like this? we have to have our better lights tell us why this is going to be okay. okay? tom friedman is, absolutely, one of them. he wrote a fascinating op-ed about life before and, eventually, after coronavirus. what message does he have for you? i want to hear it as much as you do. i guarantee you that.

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i know. i know. every day you wake up and you look at what life is now. all over the place. not in a pocket, not in one place that got hit by a hurricane, or a tornado, or a power outage or the temporary thing and the new normal is scary as hell, especially because we don't know what's going to happen and how long it's going to take. and now you see that reality reflected in california. all 40 plus million people told to stay home. what does this mean? let's talk to "new york times"

tom friedman. listen, brother, i know this is a tall task, but i wanted us on because we need our better light now. you're getting the same questions i get everywhere i go. thank god right now i can't go many places because i don't have good answers, but what are we supposed to think in a time like this? >> well, chris, i think we have one goal as a country right now. the governor of california emphasized it, the mayor of los angeles emphasized it, your doctors on the show emphasized it and i believe the president needs to stress this from the white house podium at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. we have one goal. we need to manage what is now unavoidable so we can avoid what is unmanageable. we need to manage what is unavoidable now so we can avoid what would be unmanageable, which is that our health system gets completely overwhelmed. i appreciate why the president wants to talk about cures and vaccines. he wants to emphasize the

positive, but right now actually the greatest gift he could give the country, his greatest act of leadership actually would be to maybe instill a little fear in people so they would shelter in place, so they will socially distance, so we can manage what is unavoidable and avoid what is unmanageable. >> i love your line but i want to test one thing for a second and i want to talk about something else. it would be right, it would be understandable for an over exuberance of optimism to be coming out of the president. i don't think that's what it is, tom. i think him talking about this drug is going to get through, we're going to do it, i think he knew that wasn't true. i think for tony fauci to have to go on cnn tonight and try to clean it up, the most trusted man in america probably, this is what this president keeps doing in this situation. he says what he thinks people want to hear, but this ain't politics. this isn't about a tax cut.

you know, people are freaking out about this and they're pinning their hopes on what they're hearing from government. i don't know that it's the time to be selling snake oil. >> i don't think it is at all. that's what i'm trying to get across everywhere i can, through my column, through this appearance on your show. i'm trying to do it in a constructive way. there's been enough trump bashing out there. i'll be happy to con trtribute it afterwards, but rate now he has a podium, chris, like nobody else. >> yes. >> and he needs to actually get away from the cures and the vaccines. that's later. right now we have got to -- this is a -- this comes from climate scientists. we have to avoid what is unavoidable so we don't have something that is unmanageable. there is no one that can get it across that is better, wider, louder than them.

he can call the governor of florida, what kind of knucklehead are you. those kids go to the beaches where they're all choked together and they go all over the country. what planet are you living on? >> most of them are drunk so that they're going to have lowered immunity and make stupid choices. now you then get to the next level of what we really seem to need, and this is something i don't get i want your take on. what is life going to be like after this? we'll make it through. we're going to make it through. this may take a bite out of our ass, the likes of which we have not seen in a couple of generations, but we're going to make it through. where is your head in terms of what after looks like? >> one thing we know about innovation, chris, is necessity is the mother invention and some of our greatest companies were born in economic downturns, companies like intel and microsoft. and i think you're going to see a massive amount of innovation around, first of all, elearning.

distance learning. it's already been out there through companies like audacity, con academy. i think what you're going to see is an explosion of it afterwards. this could deal with the huge student debt load we have. another thing i'm sure you're going to see is a huge explosion in 3d manufacturing. so we aren't dependent on these massive, long supply chains when we do need, whether it's special facemasks or when we do need ventilators. the ability to manufacture in this country close to home, i think there's going to be an explosion of that, too. let me say one thing, chris. >> please. >> this is not the time for a u.s.-china cold war. i can't think of anything more reckless. china is a source of capital that we're going to need when we want to grow out of this. it's a source of manufacturing prowess.

these people could put up a hospital in a week. we may as their crisis winds down, we may need to draw on that, their manufacturing prowess. at the same time, they're a source of science. really both the president of china and the president of the united states now because they both feel guilty i think about acting too slowly early on have found the perfect enemy to deflect, you know, their guilt and it's on each other. it's absolutely the wrong time. you know, one of my rules of life, chris, is do you want to make a point or do you want to make a difference. if you want to make a point about china now, this is not the time. if you want to make a difference, then we should be talking to the chinese every day, how do we leverage their manufacturing capacity, their scientific capacity and ultimately we're going to need their capital just as we did in 2008 to stabilize the global economy. >> i give you a big amen and i'm trying to follow it. i make a point of what this president does wrong in this situation to give him a chance to make a difference, that's why

i'm trying to keep him to account because he's got two big a stage and time is too short. tom freedman, we need your head, we need your heart. brother, be safe and be healthy and thank you for talking to the audience tonight. >> any time, chris. >> appreciate it. big, breaking move. the biggest move. all residents of california, stay home. only go where you have to come because coronavirus may hit half the state with cases. what does that mean? a prominent medical authority next. my gums are irritated. i don't have to worry about that, do i? harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. it works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. gum detoxify, from crest.

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hey, everybody. i'm chris comeau. this is a special double hour of "primetime." there is a ton of news.