with on rejuvenating the economy and always health. always health. health and life living is number one. but the rejuvenated economy, and i think it's going to be going quickly. we'll be utilizing our robust testing capacity for the governors. we'll be giving them what they need, if they don't have it themselves. we hope by now they'll be able to have it themselves. we were hoping they would have had it themselves early on, but they weren't. such great advances have been made. so we'll deal with them on that. they can rely on us very strongly. they'll be relying on us. i think for some help, and we're there, whether it's building hospital beds, which i don't think they'll need. you look at javits center, a great, great job that the army corps of engineers did, fema got involved. we actually ended up sending our medical people. that was not a covid-19 center, and they asked could you do that? then even after we did that, it was not used very much. meaning they didn't have to use

it nearly to the extent that they thought when they conceived it. it wasn't that they made a mistake. we built it. i would rather have too much than too little. err on the side of caution. and it's really incredible what they did including the two ships, the two great ships. and i just want to thank a lot of really great people, a lot of great politicians. again, we'll be announcing the political list tomorrow. on there we'll have a lot of senators and we'll be having a meeting with the governors probably on thursday, a meeting by teleconference, and a lot of things will be discussed and some of the details will be discussed. but we want them to do an incredible job of running their states. i think they'll do an incredible job, too. after having gotten to know so many of them. again, the federal government is there. we have ventilators if they need them. we have beds if they need them.

we have hospitals if they need them. we have a testing capacity that's now second to none. we're, again, other countries are calling us. countries that you thought were doing well are calling us for help on testing. so we're there to help. and with that, if you have a few questions, we'll take them. if not that would be okay, too. go ahead, please. >> mr. president, two questions. first on your announcement about the w.h.o. i understand your grievances with them, can you address why it is the correct time do this now in the middle of a pandemic? >> we'll be dealing with countries and we'll be dealing with leaders of different parts of the world. we spend 500 million a year. we have for many years. far more than anybody else, including china. and, i mean, look, i read off a long list of problems that we've had. we've had problems with them for years it doesn't matter -- we're looking at a term of 60 to 90

days. we're doing a very thorough investigation right now as we speak. but this should have been done by previous administrations a long time ago. and when you look at the mistakes that were made, all of the mistakes that were made, it's just something we have to look at. and it is very china centric. i told that to president xi, i said the world health organization is very china centric. meaning what ever it is, china was always right. can't do that. can't do that. not right. we spend -- again, it's not a question of money, but when we're spending 5$500 million, china's spending 38 million, 34 million, 40 million. 42 million in a case, again, it's not money. but it's not right. so we'll see. this is an evaluation period. but in the meantime, we're putting a hold on all funds going to world health. we will be able to take that money and channel it to the areas that most need it. and that's another way of doing

it but we have not been treated properly. >> mr. president -- >> yes. >> you mentioned you're going to be speaking with all the governors tomorrow -- >> on probably thursday. >> thursday. what if they don't listen to you or take your advice or obey you? will you consider taking away their federal funding? >> i don't want to say that. they'll listen. they'll be fine. i think we'll have a good relationship. they need the federal government. not only for funding. i'm not saying take it away, but they need it for advice. they'll need maybe equipment that we have. we have a tremendous stockpile that we're in the process of completing. we're in a very good position again. the cupboard was bare when i got here. nobody ever thought a thing in all fair news to previous administrations, nobody thought a thing like this was going to happen. but it did happen. no. the governors will be respectful of the presidency. this is not me. this is the presidency. the presidency has such a great

importance in terms of what we're doing. you can talk about constitution, you can talk about federalism, you can talk about whatever you want. but the best way i'm talking now from a managerial standpoint is to let individual governors run individual states and come to us if they have difficulty and we will help them. john? >> mr. president, you talked about having testing and tracing equipment and the facility for that in place to open up the government. dr. fauci said this morning that that critical testing and tracing ability does not currently exist. >> i don't know. look -- i don't know. john, i don't know what he said. >> my question is -- >> nobody knows. >> my question is will it exist by may 1st? >> the individual governors have testing. the individual governors -- we have many forms of testing. new testing is being developed. our country has to get open. the and it will get open. and it will get open safely and

hopefully quickly. some areas quicker than other areas. but there's tremendous testing. the governors will use whatever testing is necessary. if they're not satisfied with their testing they should not open. but they'll use whatever testing is necessary. go ahead. >> thank you, mr. president. back to the w.h.o. will you support the organization again if tedros is immediately replaced or do you want to see him step down as possible? >> we're doing an investigation. i don't know the gentleman. but i know there's been problems. it's been very unfair to the united states. just like the world trade organization has been unfair and now they're coming into line when they considered china, a developing nation? because china is a developing nation they take massive advantage of the united states? why didn't other presidents stop this? we're looking at that strongly. i have a problem for world

health and world trade, both of them. i'm not sure which is worse, to tell you the truth. we'll figure it out. >> mr. president -- >> go ahead. >> mr. president, you were criticizing the w.h.o. for praising china's transparency but you were saying many of the same things about china a couple months ago. how do you square your decision to -- >> i did a trade deal with china. china was supposed to be spending 2$250 billion in our country. we'll be watching very much to see. we got delayed because of the virus, but i would like to have a good relationship with china. if you look -- we made a phenomenal deal. china has paid us tens of billions of dollars over the course of a short period of time. billions of it -- some of that money has been spent to farmers where they were targeted by china. we cannot let that happen. we can't let that happen. so we ended up signing a very good trade deal. now i want to see if china lives up to it.

i know president xi. i think he will live up to it. if he doesn't live up to it, that's okay, because we have good alternatives. go ahead. >> today, 600,000 cases, 25,000 deaths. i know you want to blame the w.h.o., but i spoke to hundreds of people across the country in the last few weeks who say they can't get tested, and that they are not social distancing -- >> so the governors -- >> wait. let me finish. >> excuse me, i know your question. you ready? the governors -- the governors are supposed to do testing. it's up to the governors. go ahead. >> mr. president -- mr. president -- that's not the question. the question was -- >> quiet. quiet. quiet. >> mr. president -- how many -- >> they are following your lead, they're not social distancing -- >> the governors are doing the testing. it's not up to the federal government. go ahead. >> the question is about social distancing, sir. the question is about social distancing -- >> i told them when they put this guy here, it's nothing but

trouble. he's a showboat. if you keep talking, i'll leave and you can have it out with the rest of these people. if you keep talking i'm going to leave and you can have it out with them. >> it's a simple question. >> just a loud mouth. go ahead. >> if you can clarify, you are basically lifting your slow the spread before the may 1st deadline? >> not at all. the governors will be running their individual states. some of them will say, no, i can't open now. and some of them may last longer than we would think. others will say i can. i don't want to mention states. there are numerous states in gate shape right now. they're viewing the rest of the country like we don't even believe this is happening. we have a lot of those states. they're set to open practically now. they would be open now. we'll let them open sooner than the date. we'll pick a date, get a date that's good. it will be sooner, sooner than the end of the month. but there are many states out there that are looking at this and they're reviewing it and

saying we shouldn't be even included in this. there's some that want to open up almost now. now, if we disagree with it, we're not going to let them open. we're not going to let them open. if some governor has a lot of problems, a lot of cases, a lot of death, and they want to open early, we won't let it happen. we're there to watch. we're there to help. we're also there to be critics. on testing, very important, we've always wanted the states to do the testing. we're now providing great testing, but the state has to provide the great testing. the state has to provide the ventilators. but they didn't do that. so we ended up going into the ventilator business essentially. and we made tens of thousands of ventilators. and we solved a big problem for the states. but we want them to do the testing. we are there to help. yeah, please? >> i have a question on the -- >> one question. >> i have a question on the governors. can i follow up -- can i follow

up on jordan's question? do you want to walk back where you did praise china for being transparent? >> i'm always respectful of china. i'm respectful of other countries. in the meantime china paid us nothing in your last administration, nothing in any previous administration. they paid us tens of billions of dollars because of what we've done. and the trade deal we have, they have to give us 2$250 billion i purchases. let's see if they do that. they're also paying us 25% or 2$250 billion in tariffs. we're taking in billions of dollars for china -- from china, they never paid us tence cents. that's great thing. now, if they don't produce or if we find out bad things, we won't be happy. and we're doing that. that's what we're doing. look, we have an investigation under way. we're paying almost 5$500 million. we have an investigation under

way on the world health organization. we will find out exactly what went on. we may be satisfied that it can be remedied, we may be satisfied it's so bad that it can't be remedied. if it can't, we'll go a different route. >> that's my question. you were criticizing the w.h.o. for praising china for being transparent. but you also praised china for being transparent. >> i don't talk about china's transparency. >> in january -- >> you know, if i'm so good to china, how come i was the only person, the only leader of a country that closed our borders tightly against china? by the way, when i closed our border, that was long ahead of what anybody -- you can ask anybody that was in the room, 21 people, i was the one person that wanted to do it. deborah can tell you that better than anybody. i was the one person that wanted to do it. you know why? i don't believe everything i hear. the and i closed it. if we didn't close our border early, very early, long before the kind of dates you're talking

about, we would have had thousands and probably hundreds of thousands more death. >> i'm talking about how you said -- >> that's enough, thank you. >> last week you said that you would have data in the coming days about the coronavirus disproportionate impact on black americans. >> that's being worked on very strongly. >> when will we have that? >> i would say within two weeks. deborah is working on that strongly. >> cdc. >> cdc is working, but we're getting reports on that. >> in the back, yeah. >> mr. president -- >> you're talking about reopening parts of the country by the end of the month. if you do that, as result you see a spike in cases in those areas -- >> we may or may not. you know? some countries have, some countries haven't. i'm watching other countries. i'm studying other countries as they open. i don't want go into names. for some it would be embarrassing. i'm studying other countries as we go along. on that, we have looked at every country that's opened. some successfully, some okay. no total disaster. but some okay. and some have go back to the hot

spot and fix the hot spot. we think we're going to do it successfully. again, we have one country, but we have lots of different pieces. it's a puzzle. we have beautiful pieces, beautiful pieces with capable governors. they know when it's time to open. we don't want to put pressure on anybody. i'm not going to put any pressure on any governor to open. i'm not going to say to governor cuomo you have to open within seven days. i want him to take his time, do it right, and then open new york. i'm not putting any pressure on the governors. some of them don't need pressure or not pressure. they're ready to go. that's a good thing. so we'll open it up in beautiful little pieces as it comes along. go ahead. >> yes. just a quick question, you spoke about governor cuomo. do you have any thoughts on some of his remarks from earlier today where he basically said that were new york to be pressured to be opened it would cause a constitutional crisis and he basically said that you

declared yourself king trump. >> yeah. i heard he said that, i didn't see the remarks. but he understands how we helped him. he needed help. we gave him 2,900 hospital beds, he didn't use them. we gave him a ship, he didn't use it. i'm saying that's good. you know what? that means he didn't need them. but we said it was too much, but we wanted to err -- we said err on the side of caution, as i said. we said, look, we don't think you need it, but if you do, we'll have them built. the army corps of engineers did a fantastic job. the u.s. navy did a fantastic job, we moved the ship that was not meant for covid and we had it redesigned for covid. they still didn't have many people going in. now, we are -- we'll get along just fine. he understands. we'll get along just fine. >> mr. president -- >> mr. president, how do you assure workers in states that may reopen that are fearful

about going back to work for fear of getting sick. >> talk up, please? >> what's your assurance to workers who are asked to go back to work with, but are fearful of doing so? >> that's up to the governors. the governors will want to make sure everything is safe. i think that companies can do testing on a maybe weekly basis. you don't have do it every day with the same worker. they can do testing. they can do temperature gauges. they can do a lot of different things. we're only talking about for a period of time. eventually we want to get back to where we were. we want people sitting next to each other in ball games eventually. we won't rip out every other seat in baseball stadiums and football stadiums. i want people to understand that. we're not going to be like the way you are. we have 300 reporters in the back that want to sit. look at this. the way this looks. i don't even like the way it looks, though i have a lot fewer reporters. that's okay with me. look at the way this looks. i have never seen anything, john. never seen anything quite like it. there's a lot of people.

we don't want this. i don't want this. i don't want this. eventually we're going back. restaurants that had 150 seats will have 150 seats, not 50 seats. more importantly, the atmosphere is better. we have to get used to it. i don't know that people will be shaking hands as readily. some will. i said to some of the hospital people today, so will people be shaking hands again? i must say, i was a little surprised most of them said probably. there's some kind of a thing to it. i was never a big handshaker, when i ran for politics, i said i better start shaking peoples hand. john? >> mr. president. a couple of financial questions, if i could. larry kudlow said this morning at the current run rate the paycheck protection money will run out very soon. the plan to reup it is stalled in congress. what can you do as president to try to move that forward? >> we're trying to get it done. the problem is the democrats want to put all sorts of things

did-- last time they put kennedy center in. i hated putting kennedy center in. i have great respect for kennedy center but i hated putting it in the bill. it's not appropriate, right? they wanted it in for whatever reason. they had their own political reason. john, i said watch the way that blows up. it blew up in their face. we want to take care of our workers. we'll worry about other things, other pet projects of democrats and republicans later. but it's been a tremendously successful program. i think you see it banks have stepped up hundreds of thousands of loan applications approved. money is going out. it's been a tremendous program. really has been. obviously it was at a point where we're almost -- you know, we're almost -- the money will be expired and we could use a refill for the workers. we want to make sure small businesses stay open, john. and i think that will happen. go ahead. >> mr. president, today california's governor sent out a

list of six criteria for reopening the economy there. did he consult with you on that? and also you said earlier that there were as many as 20 states that could reopen their economies as early as may 1st. could you list them -- >> i didn't say all of them, but there are 20 states -- i was given the number 29 states who are in very good shape. i don't want to say whether or not the governors spoke to me about that. we had a good relationship. gavin newsom, very good relationship. in the back? >> mr. president, thank you very much. i have two questions. >> one question. >> a person can't be here -- >> who cares. if he can't be here, that's all right. >> one question that i have is about the united nations, the economist there says that there is a danger that the food supply could be interrupted during this pandemic. i wanted to know what you're going to do about that? >> i think our farmers are

incredible. they're producing levels of food like just unbelievable. our transportation, that's one of the reasons i have the transportation people on the line tomorrow for the delivery of the food. no we're doing phenomenally with the food. i will say the stores, kroger and walmart, which has a lot of the food and many of the stores, they seem to be in very good shape. i haven't heard that at all. we'll be strong on food supply. >> how about one more question. >> mr. president, the death projections that you mentioned earlier are based on full social distancing until the end of may. >> yeah. >> so if you ease up on these guidelines now, how many more americans do you think will -- >> i'm not easing up. first of all, we'll have guidelines even for the states that open. there will be guidelines. we will not have problem with that. your question is a very interesting question, but the states that are opening are not states which will have a problem with that, plus they will have to adhere to guidelines until a certain point into the future when the enemy is vanquished. >> but the reason they don't

have a problem now is because of social distancing. so if you ease the guidelines -- >> no the reason they don't have it is partially. some of that will stay into effect for a period of time. the reason also is they're different kinds of states. they have lots of room. they have fewer people and they have lots of room. and that's one of the primary reasons. i want to thank you all very much. a lot of positive things are happening. we'll have some strong recommendations for the governors. we'll work with the governors. the governors will do a good job. and if they don't do a good job, we'll come down on them very hard. we'll have no other choice. thank you all very much. thank you. >> all right. and that was president trump there. and members of the corona task force giving the latest update on the pandemic. the president retreating from his position that he alone has total authority to tell the states what to do. tonight he says he is reauthorizing the governors to open up their state when ready. they already had that power. the death toll in the united states tops 25,000. a moment ago we know of more

than 600,000 known infections in the united states. the number of cases across the globe, again, known infections now at 2 million. j.b. pritzker of illinois, i love that press conference. it was about you and your fellow governors. the president says he will speak with you and your colleagues across the country. and that he will let you decide when to open the state. he said he had the total authority to do that. that he would be making the decision. what's your reaction? did he cave on this? >> well, it's a good thing that the president finally recognized that it's the constitution that authorizes the governors to have the power to reopen their states. and so i appreciate that. i think governor cuomo had it right when he said that the president is not a king. he's president of the united states of america. and so we're looking forward to evaluating what it is we're going to do going forward.

the most important thing that we'll do is focus on the safety and health of the people of our states. in my case, you know, i've made it clear, we need testing, tracing, contact tracing, and we need a treatment. put that together with readily available ppe, and then you can start to talk about how you will reopen an economy. >> okay. so the president also said a few moments ago in that briefing, governor, i know you have a lot going on, but he said when the testing question came up that the governors are supposed to do the testing. it's not up to the federal government. basically any issues any problems are your fault. your response? >> well, that wasn't his tune earlier. in fact, let me go all the way back to when he said it was a hoax and all of us were trying to deal with it as individual governors. illinois was the second state in the united states, the same day as california to put our stay-at-home order in place. it's having the effect of leveling out the cases here. but we're the ones who had to

spin up testing. i asked over and over again for testing there the federal government. they kept saying they would deliver millions of tests across the country. they haven't done that. we've done that ourselves. we have some of the best medical institutions in the entire country. they have done that work in our state labs, too. we're producing thousands of tests. we're producing our own vtm to make sure we have got all the supplies that we need. we have gotten very little help from the federal government. it's fine. i've given up on any promises made. i hope something will get delivered from the federal government, but i don't expect it anymore. >> so, you're saying you've given up on them on this. he also said at the end of his press conference there will be severe consequences for governors if they don't get this right, basically referring to the reopening. do you see any teeth in that threat? >> well, the severe consequence is the health and safety of the people of my state. that's the severe consequence. the president at this point is

near irrelevant when it comes to this question of testing any way. and they've done very little for us as a state. so we're doing the work. look, we're also spinning up contact tracing. the state of massachusetts did a great job putting a collaborative together. we're looking at copying that and doing that in the state of illinois for contact tracing. and then we've ordered millions and millions of dollars of ppe and items of ppe that we're getting delivered from all over the world. we had to compete with everybody including with donald trump for that ppe. but, you know, we're getting it. we're doing what we need to do despite him. >> so, he also just said a couple other things that i want to make sure i give you a chance to respond to. one is he said "we have to get our sports back. he wants sports to start. his frustration was watching 14-year-old sports games. the governor of california today laid out a scenario where there may not be sports games there until the fall. you obviously have major league

sports teams. so what is your -- what are you closer to? the gavin newsom world, where gath gatherings of hundreds of people are not in the cards, or the president who wants his sports back stat? >> i comes fr s frofrom a sport chicago. i come from a state where sports are extraordinarily important to people. we want them back, too. we want to work hard to make sure they come back in a safe way. we're not going to allow sports to reopen, major league sports unless we have all of these preconditions set, because i'm not going to have tens of thousands of people getting into an arena together and giving each other covid-19. at this point it sounds crazy to imagine any such thing. but, you know, the president also said that he wants to have, you know, the press briefing with people side by side, no social distance. he wants that to start again. he wants restaurants to have 150 people in them. can that something you can see

happening? do we literally go in any time frame that is not many months from where we are now to everybody just jammed all in together? >> i think the -- i think the president shares the dream that we all have that, you know, we can move past this and move past expeditiously. the challenge is the preconditions are not there yet. i knnoknow we all want this to soon. we do i'm not going to risk having another spike come and having more people hospitalized, having our hospital and health systems overwhelmed and more people dying. so we're going to do this very gradually. very carefully. i want people to get back to work just as much as the president does. the but we've got to be not expeditious about it but very careful and rely most importantly on the science. >> all right. governor pritzker, i appreciate your time. good to talk to you again, sir. thank you. >> thanks. i want to go now to our panel here who was listening to the governor and the president's

press conference. john king, jim acosta, daniel dale and dr. gupta. there was increasing frustration there with reporters at some moments, but the president was really taking on the w.h.o. as one point and trying not to look like he was caving to the governors even though he was clearly doing just that. >> every one of these, erin, almost every day you see the president trying to rewrite history, trying to move you away from things he has said or done on the past. on the governors just yesterday he said i have total control. i call the shots. i have the authority. only the president. there was no wiggle room in what the president said yesterday. today it was i will authorize the governors to do as they see fit in their states. in other words, i don't have that authority. the governor also do as they see fit in their state. the whole debate of the last 24 hours was a waste of our time. the governor was there polite saying move on. on the issue of the w.h.o. and

china, the president stood in the rose garden -- we had this conversation a couple weeks ago, i'm not going to defend the w.h.o. cnn called the coronavirus a pandemic before the world health organization. it was flat footed. it did overly trust china, the president it right about that, but look at the president's own words. he said we were working with the world health organization back in the early days and things were fantastic. he repeatedly defended china. on the day in late january he said this would never be a pandemic. he said that was because president chi was on top of it and he trusted the president of china. he wouldn't answer a question about that after that, saying he was being respectful of china. he said the world health organization is responsible for deaths around the world because it cozied up to china. he did the same thing. >> daniel dale, i'm looking back at some of these tweets. february 24th. coronavirus is very much under control in the usa. we are in contact with everyone

and all relevant countries. cdc and world health have been working hard and very smart. stock market looking very good to me. just as a note for those watching, the stock market is down 12%. 12% since the day he said it was looking good to him. but daniel, this is what he was saying repeatedly. way to go, china. way to go, w.h.o. that's the fact. >> it is. that's right. what we've seen repeatedly with this president is, as john said, he continually attempts to erase parts of his own history that were on camera, that we all saw. he pretends it didn't happen. again, erin, we saw another list of false and misleading claims from this president. he had an exchange with kaitlan collins, she pressed him on his own praise of china's transparency, he side stepped for a while and then said i don't talk about china's transparency. he sure did on january 24th. he said china has been working hard to contain the coronavirus. the united states greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. that happened. he can't wipe that away.

again, he also said he's authorizing governors to open their economies. he doesn't have this gift to give. it's not his power. he made repeated false claims which he said numerous times before about china and trade, falsely saying china is paying the tariffs that americans are paying and falsely saying there has never been tariff revenue from china under other administrations, it was 12 billion a year from 2007 to 2016. and the president claimed he did not want to fund the kennedy center to help the kennedy center in this relief bill. but in march he said he was a fan of that. he said the kennedy center does a beautiful job, incredible job. he said i approve that. again, rewriting history. >> it was funny. of all things to pick. it may sound small to some, but just he had been so blatant saying the opposite thing about the kennedy center. jim acosta, he also commented on saying he wants everybody to be in that briefing again. no social distance. he wasn't saying he wants that

tomorrow. but he sort of was, again, putting out the impression he wants to go back to a normal that there is no governor or reputable scientist saying we're going back to any time soon. >> that's right. that's why yesterday he was total authority, today he was total retreat. he backed away from what was a claim that just wasn't ever going to hold up. that he had this authority over the states in terms of when to reopen their respective areas to, you know, normalcy. we're just not there at this point. the president may want that power and authority, but he doesn't have it. just to add to that comment, erin, the other thing is the president was saying during this press conference a few moments ago when he was asked about testing and whether or not there is an appropriate testing system in this country, he went on to say he wants the states to take the lead on testing. in one breath, he is saying he has total authority, today he's

saying he will be watching over these states and holding these governors accountable but at the same time he's pushing this testing responsibility off to them. i want to say, i do think this double talk on china is extraordinary. we in the press have been accused by some on the right of being propagandists for china because the president from time to time has praised china. we point that out. but in that tweet that daniel just mentioned a few moments ago, the president on january 24th says i want to thank president xi on behalf of the american people. it's the president who has time and again defended china, praised china throughout this entire crisis, and, yes, of course we're going to read some of these tweets back to him to get his comment on it when he himself is the one in the briefing room or in the rose garden today blaming the w.h. w.h.o.'s flat footedness in all this on their devotion to china.

so a lot of this doesn't add up. this is a president who has run out of explanationness fs for h failings. we saw this time and again today moving from one scapegoat to the next. he's trying to find a scapegoat and not looking in the mirror. >> one of his tweets about xi, he's strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the coronavirus. couldn't be more clear than that. he p you the it ut it in black his own tweets. sanjay, jim brings up the issue of testing. the governor of illinois says the federal government is near irrelevant on this issue of testing. the president is trying to say this is all on the states, i guess trying not to own the issue, even as he said the testing in the united states is second to none. second to none? >> yeah. i think part of this is how you look at the numbers. if this is a per capita sort of thing. i think would have a hard time making that case.

the per capita testing, some people say what difference does it make. we have done 2 million tests. it's about sample size. when you have a significant sample size, you can start to talk about the something tans of t significance of the testing. if we were to ask how widespread is this infection in the united states we have a hard time answering that question still. testing got a lot better, but the other thing, it's not just the number of tests but how practically available are they to give an individual? anybody right now who says i'm worried, i want to get tested, how challenging is that process still? getting better, but not perfect. we need it to be really good in order to think about coming off the backside of that curve. >> and he's now saying also, sanjay, that it's possible, he said, that we could -- i guess accepting the possibility that things open up too early, you may have to close them up and start all over again. but that was in the context of

what he was saying, that he thought there would be a bunch of states where at least we don't know of any further infections -- mass outbreak, right? because we have not done a lot of testing. some states we have not seen it as of yet. maybe you don't know because you're not looking. he said they're open up even earlier than his projection for the end of the month. what is your reaction to that? some states could open even earlier. >> there were states a couple weeks ago, two, three weeks ago that thought they had dodged this, right? they thought this was primarily going to be in a few hot spots around the country and they would be okay. thinking that even at that time, three weeks ago, that they could not impose restrictions or loosen restrictions, now some of those states have thousands infected. michigan, you know, detroit, that area. the hospitals have been overwhelmed over there. that has not happened everywhere in the country but it happens, and you don't know where it will happen. that's why you test. places that say we don't have a

lot of cases now it's because of lack of testing, they have to beware and look at some of these other places around the country that were saying the same thing not that long ago. >> i mean, because, you know, john king, you have very didn't vie different views coming out. the governor of california saying perhaps no major league sports or sporting events until september. saying you could have june, july, august without that. they'll have temperature checks, disposable menus, laying all all these things when the president of the united states is saying he wants his sports back. he's sick of watching 14-year-old games and he wants restaurants that have 150 people to have 150 people in them again. he realizes that is not going to happen neeimmediately. but the view he's giving of how this will happen and what reopening means is very different than what we're hearing from the governors. >> the president on many issues, it's all the more consequential in the middle of something like this, a pandemic where people are nervous, anxious and scared. yes, they do want to know the answers to those questions.

when can my high school kids have a basketball game again? or when can i go to the nba? will hockey resume? where is baseball? don't we all miss baseball? but the point i would make on this, number one, the president's job is to lead us through this. and it is his job to be an optimist sometimes. we should give him grace when he's trying to be an optimist. he also has to be reasonable about setting expectations, when it's how quickly the economy will take off. the president says the economy will take off like a rocket. given that there be social distancing, some regions at a time, fewer employees at a time when people start to rego, there's very few people who think it will be a rocket. the president's job is to lead us through this and he may be oversetting expectations. that's not just the governors, i've been in touch with several different sports leagues, they want to get back yesterday, but they know they can't. all the plans on the table now in the short-term, if they try

to pull them off and they're still wore riffed about testing, that issue still comes up, even they say it would be without fans in the short-term. the president, it's wishful thinking. i'm with him. i would love to go to a basketball game or baseball game, it's not happening. >> this whole view, sanjay, comes on the same day that a study out of harvard says that you can be in -- you know, serious social distancing and have a lot of things not reopened all the way to the year 2022 if that's when you don't have a vaccine. >> yeah. nobody obviously wants to hear that. i looked carefully at study. this was a well-established, well-regarded author of the study. it was one trajectory they put out there as a possibility. these trajectories in terms of how long will we need to at least intermittently social distance. maybe there are periods of time where you can loosen up and they have to go back into social distancing. they said it was dependent in

part on, as you mentioned, the vaccine, and we heard that a vac keen could be available next year that would change things. also how much immunity do people have in the country now. the idea that if you've been exposed you may have immunity, that would also change the trajectory. 2022 seems like -- it doesn't seem like we'll be doing it that long because of other things but that's one possibility these authors raise. >> all right. thanks very much to all of you. tonight, you know, when we talk about this question of, you know, when things start to return to -- well, not the way they are now, the new normal i guess is what you would have to call it, what does that look like? what does it look like when states reopen? it doesn't look like the way it looked like two months ago. that's going to be the hard reality. erica hill is "outfront." >> we can't get ahead of ourselves and dream of regretting. i don't want to make a political decision that puts peoples lives at risk. >> reporter: california governor

gavin newsom making it clear. what's ahead will be different. >> you may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves, maybe a face mask. dinner where the menu is disposable. >> reporter: as states prepare to gradually reopen, california setting expectations for this new normal, which could include regular temperature checks, staggered school days, and a continued ban on large gatherings like concerts and sporting events. all aimed at one goal -- stopping this virus. >> we think we are at the apex on the plateau. >> reporter: on the opposite coast, encouraging but cautious updates from new york as governor andrew cuomo tells president trump he won't be pushed into reopening too soon. >> if he ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, i wouldn't do it. >> reporter: both governors working with their neighbors for a coordinated science-based

response. as researchers warn some form of stay-at-home orders may need to continue into 2022 unless a vaccine becomes available. mo in south dakota, hundreds of confirmed cases at this pork processing plant which is now closed indefinitely while the state remains open. >> we really don't know what the holdup is. we've been identified as a nation hot spot in sioux falls, so it's a question of when does it infiltrate the rest of our rural communities. >> reporter: in louisiana, schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year. florida's surgeon general telling his states to buckle down. >> i cannot emphasize enough that we cannot let our guard down at this present time. until we get a vaccine, which is a while off, this is going to be our new normal. we need to adapt and protect ourselves. >> reporter: as tennessee's governor announces plans for a phased reboot beginning may 1st.

and those watching the virus each day urge caution. >> if we are planning to do this appropriately in a way that prevents continued spread of the virus and more deaths, may 1st is a pipe dream. >> reporter: dr. anthony fauci telling the associated press that may 1st was a bit overly optimistic for many areas. this just reinforces what we're hearing from a number of governors, that it is the data not the date that will drive the decisions. erin? >> erica, thank you very much. i want to go to dr. jonathan reiner, he advised the george w. bush white house for eight years and is director of the cardiac cath lab at g.w. hospital. the governor of california was laying out expectations for social distancing in the future. i mentioned one of the regular temperature checks maybe when you go to a restaurant. bans on large gatherings like

concerts and sporting events and saying those could continue through june, through july, through august. do you think he's right? >> yeah, i do think he's right. i'm a doctor, i live in the world that i have, not the world that i want. and the world that i want is for all of this to go away tomorrow. but that's not what we're going to have. the virus is going to start to diminish in many places but it will linger with us for a long time. so we're going to have to have strategies that allow us to develop some sense of normalcy but with a degree of safety. i think some of the measures that governor new sosome make sense. disposable menus, very smart. wearing masks in public is going to remain a staple. so these are smart gestures. it's a nod to reality. the virus is going to linger for a while. it will come in waves. was we'll learn a lot now but we're resilient people.

we'll get through this. >> i know, doctor, there's been some universities, ivy league schools, for example have been talking about the possibility -- what they'll do in the fall. it's on the table to postpone fall semesters. this is an issue that's front and center for millions of americans. do you think that -- they have to make these decisions in the next month or two. do you think it's possible we could be looking at a fall where a lot of people are not in school who are supposed to be? >> i think we'll have to reimagine how we do it. maybe the semester starts via telelearning, remote learning. maybe it's flexible. we'll have to see. well have to work through this. we have to play the long game here. we have to understand that eventually we will have a vaccine for this. i know 2022 sounds like forever. but it's essentially 18 months. a lot of people have been talking about working through this for 18 months. let's be smart. let's learn. let's innovate.

we'll get through this. it will be different, but it doesn't have to be awful. >> so, today, you know, a lot of this -- how long it takes relies on not just a vaccine, we know the runway on there, there's various conversations, it's longer than a possible treatment or cure if one were to come forward. we know the president has continued to tout a malaria drug to treat coronavirus, hydroxychloroquine and its variants. a major french study you've been following came out today and the result was that hydroxychloroquine did not help patients with coronavirus when they compared people who went in the icu who took it and who didn't, they said a statistically insignificant dins in terms of death and and recovery. and president trump said he met with a michigan state representative who took that drug and said this with the president. >> after the medication. >> incredible. so many stories like yours. it's not just -- i have not

heard a bad story if you want to know the truth. normally you hear some good up with with -- good ones, some bad ones and you still give it a shot. it's amazing. the word is out. people get it. these people don't get it. the media. but the people get it. >> so i just referenced the study in france. he said he hasn't heard a bad story of somebody taking this. a study out of brazil was halted yesterday because several people died who were given the hydroxychloroquine. what do you say to the president? >> i think the president's obsession with this drug is hard to understand and frankly irresponsible. there is little data now, strong data that supports the efficacy for this drug. you know, the standard in this country for approval of a drug for an indication has always been succinctly described as substantial evidence of both efficacy and safety. there's none of that for this drug. the study that you mentioned from the amazon in brazil had

two doses of this drug, high dose and a low dose. and the study was terminated because the high dose was killing people. the faa today put out an advisory prohibiting pilots from taking hydroxychloroquine within 48 hours of a flight, concerned about sudden cardiac death for it the pilot which would lead to a bad day for the passengers. so this is a drug with real toxicity. it needs to be studied. we are studying it in a lot of centers in the country, and we'll have data soon. we need the data. >> so there are still questions about where this virus originated. i know we talked about this. i want to bring it up in the context of josh rogin from the "washington post." he got two state department cables warning about the safety of that research facility, that bio lab in wuhan that was studying coronavirus from bats. one of the cables from january 19th says the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained

technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high containment laboratory. there's no evidence that the virus was engineered. scientists largely agree it came from animals, but nonetheless this opens the possibility that it could have come from someone mishandling it in this lab or does it? >> this is a fascinating story in the post today. essentially what it states is that coronavirus from bats were being studied in a level 4 bio containment lab in wuhan. experts looked at the genomic sequence do not feel this is a bioengineered virus it may have been studied in a lab and it's not inconceivable that this is a virus that escaped containment in the lab. we need to understand this. this is a mistake, if that's true, that this can never happen again. we need to know. >> we sure need to know with labs like that around the world. thank you so very much as always. >> my pleasure.

>> tonight the long road to recovery. my next guest contracted the virus while working on the front loins as a nurse trying to fight it. he spent 11 days in the hospital, seven of them on a ventilator. out now -- ""outfront"" now jesse vanderhoof and his wife wendy. thanks for taking the time and i'm glad you're together. every moment of every day you must be grateful for that. jesse, you've been out of the hospital now for about ten days, but i know that there's been a lot of hard moments. it's going to be a slow recovery for you. how are you feeling so far? >> well, i don't totally feel like i got ran over by a mack truck anymore, but i still feel the effects of covid. i mean, i think when anyone spends the amount of time that they do in like a bed, you lose so much weight and you lose so much muscle that you're just going to feel horrible for a while, and then add on top of

that the effects of covid. it -- it's a challenging experience. >> and emily, for you, too. i mean, i know just celebrated -- celebrated is the wrong word. he spent his 40th birthday in the hospital, and now he's home, but you have this fight ahead of you as a team, and, of course, you trying to help him. i know that obviously jesse has had things like delirium, challenges that he's faced since he's come home. what are the challenges that you're facing right now? >> you know, it's not as simple as just go pick somebody up from the hospital and drive home and it's all fine. he came home with a walker, could hardly walk. you know. we made a makeshift bed downstairs because he couldn't walk upstairs. i slept on the floor next to him when he was on the couch making sure he could walk in the middle of the night and, you know,

delirium, i didn't know anything about delirium, i really didn't. oh, it's delirium, and i did not understand the effects of delirium that they think they are thinking totally clear and they are not and trying to work through that. i think now we're almost through that, but it's been a -- it's been a rough few days of -- of just him battling going through delirium to kind of clear his head. >> and how has that been for you, jesse? >> it was much more worse initially. >> yeah. >> like so at first -- i don't know totally if the delirium tremons is a side effect of the covid-19 or if it's a side effect of the medications they had me on while i was on a vent in the icu. either way a lot of it is just like my brain wanted to keep on looping over and over and over, and i kept on asking without

realizing that i had asked these questions lots of times. like i didn't understand why as a nurse in idaho why i was part of this national movement. i woke up on my birthday with 50 texts of people saying something about this covid, and i'm just like what is going on? like i don't understand at all what is happening, and like that was part of like the initial covid. >> did did you even realize what was happening to you? you were obviously in a medically induced coma for part of it so you weren't aware. how much of it at any point were you even aware that it was happening even when they started, when they put you in the icu? >> i really don't remember. i mean, now that i've been out and i've had some time for my thoughts to clear a little bit, i can vaguely remember talking about covid-19 prior with the

docs that i worked with in the hospital or other nurses that i work with, and at this point it's starting to get clear, but for a while there, like especially like right after they took me -- right after i was starting to gain kind of consciousness and especially after i would talk and they took the intubation tube out, like it was really, really confusing to me. i didn't understand why i was part of any of it. like i just went to work one day and came home, and she ended up taking me to the hospital at some point. >> yeah. >> so i -- >> like he doesn't remember going to the emergency room that morning when i dropped him off. i don't think he knew -- >> don't remember the swab tent at all really. >> emily, it happened really fast, right? mean, when you sent -- it was an incredibly quick deterioration,

am i right? >> yeah. he was sick over the weekend, and monday he was definitely sick, but, you know, it wasn't the symptoms of respiratory. it wasn't shortness of breath. like he was able to breathe and he was taking his vitals all throughout the day, kind of knew what to watch for, and by that morning he just said i can't take this anymore, and he doesn't remember that, the drive to the hospital or, you know, i watched him walk into the entrance of the hospital, and i said just call me in a few house, you know h.like i'm come get you and update me, and the next thing i know, maybe 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. and the nurse called who we nurse and she said he's been intubated, and we're going to life flight. he had a seizure. i'm like what? he was going to come home, you know. >> yeah. >> it happened so fast. >> jesse, i smoke to an icu doctor the other day it, and i know people are trying towns, and obviously i know that in some level you have to -- you're so grateful and it's miraculous you've recovered. i mean, obviously people who are

int intubated most of them don't. one doctor said to me and i want to quote him. even a young healthy person like you obviously who goes on a ventilator for days, they are not going to come out of that the same as they were before. he went on to say it will take a long time to get over the physical trauma, but the psychological trauma, too. it is that sound like your experience so far? is that what you're prepared for? >> exactly. >> that is -- hits very close to home. like prior to this, emily and i lived fairly active lives. i've worked as a ski patroller for a long time. we ski as much as possible in the winters. i mountain bike as much as possible and fish as much as possible in the summers. i've done a lot of things. we hike a lot. you know here in idaho, there's just amazing outdoor opportunities here, and i weren't from like that

experience to laying on my back with my eyes open and having every aspect of living being taken care of by someone else. i mean, like you want to talk about humbling and challenging for a man, like that is as tough as it gets right there. >> jesse, do you have any regrets, or would you do it all again in terms of being a nurse and helping others and obviously knowing that that could put you at risk for this? >> in no way at all do i feel bad about being a nurse and trying to help anyone. you know, like if i've learned anything in this experience with medical problems, it's that i want to help people more than i ever have before. >> all right. well, thank you both so much. >> yeah. thank you. >> that leads us to a trend among doctors and nurses who are trying to comfort their patients.

here's jeanne moos. >> reporter: how would you like to wake up to this at your bedside? personal protective gear may protect the wearer but not the psyche of the patient. >> it looked really menacing. >> reporter: how to even tell your caregivers apart. just wearing a simple mask on streets you realize how weird it is, that your smile no longer translates. does this look like a smile to you? so why not add a little humanity so the patient's eyes go from this to this. respiratory therapist robert rodriguez added a lam nate badge, and just like that became -- >> today's hero of the day. >> reporter: he was memorialized in an illustration. other medical personnel picked up on the idea or spontaneously had it themselves. meet chief of medicine joe veron at houston's united memorial. >> make your patients smile. make your patients smile. they are going through hell right now. >> reporter: at least patients

know who they are going through hell with even if it's just a modest polaroid. notice derrick vaulted to internet fame and the part-time actor's handsome photo had people wondering, yo, but is he single though and joking derrick all of a sudden, i'm weak, help me, but this didn't start with coronavirus. five years ago a california artist was so moved by seeing ebola patients that she went to africa and organized photographing medical staff. mary beth her non-combined heart and art and the patients -- >> they loved seeing who was inside the suits. >> reporter: now some joke about pretending who is inside the suit. anyone out there want to buy my idea for a rom-kom about a doctor who tapes a picture of george clooney on his perm protective equipment and a covid patient who falls in love with it. >> chest, right arm. >> reporter: this pediatric emergency physician took it a step further inhabiting george

clooney to get the smile and to give reassurance. >> you're going to be fine. >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> and thanks so much to you for joining us. anderson continues our coverage now. and good evening. thanks for joining us. the day after saying that his authority to tell states when to lift coronavirus restrictions is quote total president trump tonight reversed himself without acknowledging that he was reversing himself completely. at a briefing that was preceded by a day of jousting with democratic governors over this very issue as more americans died or fell ill the president said doesn't that governors, not him, will decide when to reopen their states. >> i will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly, and i will then be authorizing each individual governor of