good evening, everyone. today, the death toll from coronavirus rose above 28,000 and state governors grappled with the difficult question of when, how, and to what extent they would begin trying to reestablish some kind of

normalcy-let we normalcy. well, today, the governors also learned something about the president of the united states. that's because, again, today the president spent a large part of what has become a substitute for his political rallies, he spent boasting his accomplishments. accomplishments he's yet to actually accomplish and deflecting blame. he is eager to reopen the country, as he so often says and said so again today. what he did not do is provide any evidence that his administration has taken the steps needed for that to actually happen safely, in a way that won't trigger new outbreaks and cost more lives. one such step is widespread testing, which the president has both derided and claimed that is currently happening. keep in mind, though, there is not widespread testing we will you tell mately need to get back to business. there just isn't. and that is not just us saying so. it is scientists on the coronavirus task force. epidemiologists. it's also some of the country's top business executives. they told the president that today and when he was asked about it at tonight's briefing, he first tried to claim credit

where none is due. and then he tried to put the responsibility elsewhere. first, though, the boasting. >> they said testing has got to be ramped up significantly before they feel comfortable opening their stores and restaurants and whatnot. isn't that what health officials and state governors -- >> we have great tests, and we want the states to administer these tests, for the most part. but we're standing behind them. we have great tests. we've done more testing now than any other country, as you know, in the world by far. we have the best tests of any country in the world. >> great tests. best tests. not true. failed tests. delayed tests. not enough tests. true. in fact, as has been reported for weeks now, this country is testing far fewer people as a percentage of the population than many other countries. and the number of tests being done has actually flattened out recently, not risen, due to shortage of swabs. here's what the president said

in the very next breath. >> we're not going to be running a parking lot in arkansas. we're not going to be running a parking lot where you have a walmart, which has been great by the way. walmart has done a fantastic job. but where you have a testing center and running that from washington, d.c. the states are much better equipped to do it. >> well, the president also nodded to the fact, which he acknowledged yesterday, that states will decide when and how to reopen, which we all knew, all along, would happen. however, he also renewed his veiled threat if they don't do -- if the state governors don't do what he wants. >> i think the companies will determine that and the governors will determine that. and the federal government. and ifwe we're not happy, we'll take very strong action against a state or a governor. if we're not happy with the job a governor's doing, we'll let them know about it. and as you know, we have very strong action we can take, including a closedown. >> you do realize he repeats the word strong all the time. and power, powerful, in order to have people believe he is strong, and therefore, powerful,

by saying those words. again, keep in mind the president of the united states does not have the power to tell a state to lift public health restrictions. he also blamed the world health organization, this came accusing the agency of a coverup with respect to the outbreak. he suggested new york city is doing something wrong by reclassifying several fatalities. but then he quickly said, quote, that's okay. that's okay. and, yes, there is controversy surrounding that but no evidence of wrongdoing. but, recall in the past, he made similar statements about medical supplies going out the back door of hospitals. what was missing in all this was any sign of clear, achievable steps and plans for safely doing what the president, and everybody, wants so badly. reopening country sometime. that, and taking responsibility for it, for better or worse. if that weren't all, the president also lashed out at the senate over not confirming his

apo appointees. plenty to talk about tonight. senator kamala harris also joins us to talk about her state, which is formulating plans on how to reopen but in a way that may look very different from the old normal. but, first, let's go to cnn white house correspondent jim acosta. so, jim, talk about what the president is threatening to do because i didn't really mention at this point because, to me, it just seems like such an obvious and overused move by the president, which is, you know, terrible death toll today. diverted attention away from that and all the things that aren't being done or have been failed to do by lobbing a hand grenade or trying to create some new villains to rail against. and pretend as if you're going to be powerful and strong. >> right, anderson, today i think the bright, shiny object was dangling in front of the press corps. in the rose garden is what would allow him to essentially unilaterally shut down the congress so he can get his recess appointments for various

nominations. the problem with that, anderson, is a couple of things. one, it's never done before so there are constitutional scholars saying hold on a second, mr. president, what are you talking about here? the other thing is it also depends on what happens in the senate, which is controlled by the republicans and the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell just put out a statement in the last several minutes, essentially, sounding cool to the idea. in one part of the statement, anderson, senate majority leader says he's going to be working on some of these issues, in terms of the president's recess appointments that he'd like to see go through. but he is going to be doing that with -- you know, working with the senate minority leader chuck schumer. and so it sounds as if, at this point, mitch mcconnell is not on board with this, which probably should give a lot of americans reason to breathe a sigh of relief tonight. anderson. >> right. i mean, because he is the president, we all take it seriously as if it actually means something. but it's just like him saying he is going to order the governors and he's the one to determine when to reopen. as we were saying, that's not

his role. he doesn't have that constitutional ability but he dominates the news cycle for yet another night by this headline that he is going to adjourn congress to appoint these nominees. did the bulk of appointments have anything to do with the urgent needs during the pandemic? >> well, he is mentioning the director of national intelligence. he has an acting director of national intelligence right now. but, anderson, he was also harping on the broadcasting board of governors and talking about, you know, the people over at voice of america and describing them as disgusting people who do disgusting things. this is another sign of the president's authoritarianism that is really coming out, you know, out of the shadows, to some extent, during this pandemic. you know, he is essentially railing against the people at voice of america because they won't put out propaganda, you know, about his administration saying what a wonderful job he's doing. a theme that we've heard before. but, anderson, one thing we

should point out is that, right now, there is an acting secretary at the department of homeland security. the president has had over a year now to put in place a permanent secretary of homeland security and hasn't done at this point. and that has little to do with lawmakers not doing what he wants on capitol hill. >> jim acosta, thanks. we'll step away from the political, take a wider view. cnn's erica hill joins us now. so, erica, the cdc now changing the way they are counting coronavirus deaths. can you just explain that? >> yeah, they are so now, anderson, the cdc saying they are going to include probable cases in their tabulations. that could add thousands, right, to the list that they have of patients and deaths. so what it changes is not just counting those positive cases but people who had a probable case. and that's key, as we know, as we try to understand the breadth and the scope of this virus. how many people have been, not only affected but how many people may have been,

asymptomatic or may not have had a positive test? and all of that information is critical. we're hearing from officials as they make their decision on the next moves to reopen their states and their cities. the iconic hollywood bowl will remain empty this year. >> it's difficult to imagine us getting together, in the thousands, anytime soon. we've got many, many miles to walk before we're going to be back in those environments. >> the mayors of los angeles and new york suggesting concerts and sporting events, likely, won't return before 2021. >> we got one chance. if we move too quick, we put 50,000 people in yankee stadium and that's part of why you see resurgence of the disease, that would be the worst. >> shelf major events like jazz fest until next year. as the president continues to push for a symbolic may 1st reopening, officials around the country are trying to adjust

expectations. >> we also know that we're in this for the long haul. the virus isn't going to disappear or go away. anytime soon. >> i say -- personal opinion -- it's over when you have a vaccine. it's over when people know i'm 100% safe, and i don't have to worry about this. >> that vaccine, likely, at least a year away. >> we're going to have another battle with it, you know, upfront and aggressively next -- next winter. this is why it's so important we take the time now to really improve our testing capacity, expand our public health capacity, to do early case recognition, contact tracing, isolation. i call it block and tackle. block and tackle. >> san francisco is launching a partnership to tackle contact tracing. los angeles, now, offering same or next-day testing to its 10 million residents. anyone with covid symptoms is eligible. in new jersey, the nation's first saliva testing site is now open. major league baseball pitching

in for antibody testing. players, their families, concession workers. some 10,000 volunteers, in total. part of a nationwide study to better understand the infection and its spread. as georgia prepares for a potential surge, michigan's strict stay-home orders brought protestors out in lansing. new york and connecticut announced new regulations for face coverings. and, in massachusetts, which is now in the surge, the governor, emotional, talking about the 957 lives lost in his state. >> i pay attention to the numbers. but what i really think about, mostly, are the stories and the people who are behind the stories. >> the story of gregory hodge, an emt in new york, just one example of the many lives stopped short. the 24-year veteran of the fdny assisted at the world trade center after 9/11. he died as a result of covid-19. gregory hodge was 59 years old.

>> erica, you mentioned new york, connecticut, having new regulations with face coverings. explain the details on that. >> so here, in new york state, the governor said he will be issuing an executive order. new yorkers have three days to comply. but after that three-day period, any time you're out, anderson, you will need to have your face covered. it can be a bandana but your nose and mouth must be covered. he said if you are the only person walking on the street, you don't have to have it on but have it with you because if you go to cross the street and there's someone else and you can't maintain that six feet of social distancing, you need to have your face covered. in connecticut, the governor saying similar things. he he says he will likely issue an executive order in the next 48 hours or so. but just saying that, in his conversations with several folks, including dr. fauci, he realizes that they really need to make a lot of these suggestions more permanent. >> yeah. and seems like that is going to go on for a long time. erica hill, thank you.

in addition to new york bravest, new york's finest have also paid a terrible price for their service. as of today, 25 members of the new york place department have lost their lives to the virus. joining me now, cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. so, sanjay, the president saying the country probably passed the peak. what does that mean for people's everyday lives if that's, in fact, the case? >> yeah. i don't think it means anything now. i think people have paid a lot of attention to this peak and sort of imagined it as a binary sort of before the peak, after the peak. you know, we're going to have to see does this -- these trends that we are talking act, do they hold up? some of them are encouraging, as you know, anderson. but the problem is, right now, we're looking at a snapshot that really reflects the time period about two to three weeks ago. between the time someone's exposed to the time they become s sympt symptomatic. if we are looking at deaths, it really reflects three weeks ago so we really have to see how the next few weeks ago.

and, anderson, you remember those initial models from the university of washington, they talked about even if the peaks were happening now, that nothing should really change, at least until the end of may, first week of june, in terms of stay at home orders. >> business leaders tell the president there would have to be guaranteed increase in testing before people can really return to work. how close are we to wide-scale testing? because i'm still not sure i understand what it's going to look like and you and i have tried to get number and we've heard figures of 100,000. the governor today said it would require an army of people in new york doing contact tracing. >> yeah. no. the testing thing is still, you know, i think the primary issue. and i think what's a little confusing about this is i think, clearly, there's all this extra now testing capacity. you know, you talk to quest and people at these big companies. and they say, hey, we're doing all right. we don't have a backlog anymore. we're -- we're basically caught

up. and, yet, the number of tests that are actually being performed has gone down. now, some of that could be because of the holiday weekend. but how could it be that so many people still need to get tested, and fewer tests are actually being performed? what is -- where is -- where is the gap here? what's the problem? part of it is i think, you know, it's still unclear, the people who don't have symptoms should be getting tested. right now, there's places that say unless you have symptoms, you can't get a test. that's not surveillance at that point. we need to be doing surveillance. the other thing is that even though the numbers have gone up, anderson, i think the question that people ask themselves, that i hear all the time is, look, if today i wanted to get a test, do i know where to go? do i know how to get it? and could i get the resultings back today? could every person in the country say that? it doesn't mean everybody needs to get tested, to be clear. but right now, even though you have increased numbers so to speak, there's not increased -- to the people who should be getting tested. we probably need to be doing up

to a million tests a day. we're not doing that. think we've done 3 million so far now. >> when you talk about surveillance, why is that important? >> surveillance is really important to get an idea of how widespread this is in the united states. someone were to say, how bad is coronavirus in the united states? we really have no idea how to answer that question. we have no context for that question, still, because we've only -- you know, we've tested -- we've had 619,000 people come back positive. but we know that there's many, many, many more people out there who either don't have symptoms or have minimal symptoms who probably have had the coronavirus or have it now, and could still be spreading it. the other issue is, anderson, this issue of asymptomatic spread. people who don't have symptoms or about to develop symptoms, don't know it yet, they can still spread it. that's another reason you have to do this more widespread testing. >> sanjay, appreciate it as always. sanjay, do you ever sleep? >> a little.

not as much as i should. >> we appreciate it. more now on how the availability of testing might change the course of the outbreak, as well as loosening distancing restrictions in california's case maintaining significant limits on large gatherings in the months ahead. that's one of the projections in a new harvard school of health study. joining us now, mark lipsich, who heads the team making projection that any emergence may be temporary and obviously, sanjay staying with us. mark, can you just explain in layman's terms how your research, which says things might not return to normal until 2022, squares with, you know, sort of the messages we're getting from elsewhere about things getting better sooner rather than later and getting back to work? >> yeah. thank you, anderson, and thanks for all you guys are doing to spread understanding on this complicated topic. i think the -- the -- a lot of the confusion stems from the

fact that we may be hitting something like a peak. and we may be near a point where the number of cases might start to go down, as sanjay gupta said, we'll have to see. but that is a possibility. that does not mean it's a permanent thing. what -- what social distancing does is it slows the spread of the virus so that we can protect our healthcare system, and that's very important. but when we let up on social distancing and when we begin to go back to normal, the likelihood is that the virus will begin spreading again. we -- our best estimates are that a minority of people in this country have been infected. and that means that there are plenty of susceptible people around. and when you have a virus plus susceptible people, you get epidemics. >> sanjay,i know you have questions. >> yeah, i'm curious. professor, i think you are the guy we turn to and listen to on this stuff. you know there's all these

antibody testing capabilities that are ramping up. and the idea that people may have some immunity to this. obviously, we don't know how strong or how long that immunity might be. but if a lot of people out there do have antibodies, how much would that affect, even short of a vaccine, how much would that affect your model of possibly needing intermittent distancing until 2022? >> well, thanks. that's an important question. so if the number is -- is still a small minority, then the -- the -- then the predictions are sound. but it is correct that we don't know whether there are actually possibly quite a number more. i think it would be surprising if more than half the -- it would be very surprising if more than half the population, even in a hotspot like new york, had been infected. but if it's 30 or 40%, if we find that -- unlikely but possible -- then that means

we're much closer to the point where the majority of the population or enough of the population is immune to really slow spread, even in the absence of social distancing or intense social distancing. so it's a -- it's an interplay between how much we slow things down by immunity, and how much we slow things down by our interventions. so we need that data. >> do you have a sense, mark, at all? i mean, it's not really your -- your -- your purview, but just, have you imagined, you know, a year from now, assuming there's not a vaccine yet. say, the vaccine is 18 months away or more. do you have a sense of what our life looks like, on a daily basis, in terms of -- i assume we're wearing masks outside, just like the governor's talking about in new york today. wearing a mask when we're around other people. do you -- i mean, have you tried to visualize that at all? >> yeah, a little and i think masks are going to be with us

for quite a while. parts of asia, if you went in the 2000s, the experience of sars left a mark there for many, many years after sars was gone and people wearing masks. there are -- i think that social distancing of the sort of physically stay at some removed from people may last for a while. and i think what's most likely to happen because, to be clear, we were not endorsing, in our study, the idea that social distancing for another couple of years is a pleasant idea or even a good idea. we were trying to understand the consequences of it. so i think people are going to get tired of it, in various ways, and politicians are going to get tired of it. and the economy is going to need some relief. and so different places, my guess is, will try different strategies for emerging. maybe with staggered working and staggered schools.

maybe with trying to test people for antibodies and see whether we can let people back to work and school. different strategies. and hopefully, that will be done in such a way where we can learn what works and what doesn't. i think large gatherings are going to be among the rabbit la come back because i think those are potentially the most concerning. >> and -- and -- go ahead, sanjay. >> well, you know, one thing, professor, we are obviously all learning as we go along here. i think the couple of things that people remember early on was that this was pretty contagious. maybe one person could spread it to two or three people and that it was fairly deadly. maybe, you know, a flu was 0.1%. this was maybe, you know, ten times that. now that we're 3 1/2 months into that, when you look at this, does it still sort of follow that same pattern of contagiousness and the fatality rates? >> yeah. i think those numbers are --

are -- have settled down for contagiousness. and, of course, as we put in interventions and as immunity builds up, that contagions goes down. in terms of fatality, again, we're really flying behind until we have good serologic tests and history of exposure to the virus. but i think reasonable, educated guess is at this point, if you are symptomatic, you have 1% or a little more than 1% risk of dying with a big age effect. and that probably half of people or maybe a third of people, something like that, are symptomatic. so that the risk per infection is probably around a half percent, which is still much higher than seasonal flu. >> mark, appreciate all your work and your expertise and really appreciate you being with us. thank you. and sanjay, thanks very much. see sanjay tomorrow night cnn

global coronavirus town hall. joe biden will take your questions. also joining us, facebook founder and ceo mark zuckerberg and his wife priscilla chan and how the chan zuckerberg initiative are trying to combat the coronavirus. that's tomorrow night starting 8:00 p.m. eastern. i think it is our sixth global town hall. a lot more ahead, including a frontline physician in this fight. he'll -- we'll talk about what the world health organization does and the risk he sees to all of us in taking funding away. later, kamala harris on what her state may look like as it emerges into a very different kind of normal.

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as we mentioned at the beginning of the program, president trump threatens funds to the world health organization. as the president tries to deflect attention as much as he can to his own failures during the pandemic. >> no, i don't take responsibility at all. the obama administration made a decision on testing that turned out to be very detrimental. many administrations preceded me. for the most part, they did very little. i talk about the chinese virus, and i mean it. that's where it came from. it's not racist at all, no. not at all. it comes from china. >> we're really a second line of attack. the first line of attack is

supposed to be the hospitals and the local government and the states. >> like in illinois, the governor couldn't do his job. like with governor cuomo, he had a chance to order 16,000 ventilators two years ago and he turned it down. he can't be blaming us. we're a backup. we're not an ordering clerk. world health organization. they called it wrong. they called it wrong. they really -- they missed the call. no, i don't take responsibility at all. >> according to "the new york times," the money this country sends to the world health organization is used to combat polio, aids, cancer, and heart disease. also, to develop vaccines and provide mental health programs in some of the poorest areas in the world to the poorest people in the world. certainly, not a perfect organization by any means. huge bureaucracy, big problems. my next guest, dr. craig spencer, has worked as an epidemiologist across the world and today he penned this op-ed in usa today quoting in those places where contagion will be rampant and resources scarce,

it's the world health organization that has boots on the ground and will be a vital partner in saving lives. he is the director of global medicine at columbia university medical center. 2014, he contracted ebola in west africa. dr. spencer, we are in the middle of a pandemic, and the president is essentially using the w.h.o. as a distraction. and as way to cast blame on somebody other than himself. it obviously could have long-term impact on global health and some of the poorest regions of the world. and i'm not sure a lot of people have really seen the w.h.o., up close, in those places. >> this is such an important point. undermining the w.h.o. right now is just another dangerous distraction to take the spotlight off the fact that we were not prepared, and our response has not been good here in the united states. it's also important to recognize this decision does not just impact us here in the u.s. it impacts everyone, all over the world.

as you mentioned, i've seen, firsthand, the world health organization's imperfections. they need to improve and i think they've made some improve the over the past couple years. the w.h.o., however, is our best hope for responding to and preventing any future pandemic like this. this is not the time to pick a fight with an organization that is on the ground in over 150 countries all over the world where even the u.s. is not doing surveillance. where even the cdc does not have people. they are already hampered by a small budget. smaller than one hospital in new york city or in boston. they were begging for hundreds of millions of dollars when the coronavirus response first started. and they are -- they're caught between conflicting mandates and these political priorities. unfortunately, so much of the money they get is strings attach attached from western countries that limits their operating role. if we take away their money now, it limits their ability to help us in the future. >> right. and, you know, one of the things -- against them is that

they're sucking up to china, that they're not being honest about, you know, china's problems with transparency. and -- and, you know, the -- the artificially low death toll that china has publicly put out. you know, i guess the counterargument is one of the things that w.h.o., you know, is trying to do is work in the entire globe on public health. and that requires having access to a country like china. and, look, the w.h.o.'s very political. they pretend taiwan doesn't even exist. they don't talk about taiwan in the coronavirus. so there's certainly a lot of problems. you wrote, in our op-ed, another thing you wrote in "usa today." you said let's agree we must align our expectations with our investment. if we truly want to anticipate public health -- we must build up in the world health organization, not tear it down. >> they've made some reform in the past couple years. the problem is their funding, increasingly over the past few

decades, been tied more to really the political needs of primarily western countries. even if they are working to bolivia. what we really want to do if we want to build up, what we should be doing in this organization, again the only organization that has an operation presence in so many places. we should try to depoliticize their funding. let's have commitments more than just a meager commitment we're making. you know, 500, $600 million from the united states is not that much money. we spend a lot more. i think we need to start prioritizing and recognizing, again, unless we stamp out coronavirus or any future virus, everywhere in the world, it will continue to remain a threat here in the united states. >> well, also, this the not the last pandemic, you know, we are going to be facing. and, you know, in this time where we're realizing how really close the rest of the world is and how interconnected we all are, even if you don't care about people in developing world

suffering, which i guess some people may not or not think it's a huge priority. it is in all of our self-interest that there be a frontline response, on the ground, in places like, you know, drc congo in eastern congo where, you know, ebola flares up. that there be a response there so that somebody doesn't then get on a plane and, you know, is one or two plane flights away from coming to the united states. >> absolutely. i think the important point, the thing that we really need to recognize, is that we're spending over $2 trillion in a response package here in just the united states. that would have covered pandemic preparedness, for decades, for places all over the world. and the other really important thing is that the amount of money that we spent to eradicate small pox, we make up in every 26 days by not having the vaccinator treat the disease. largely because of cdc and w.h.

ocht ow.h w.h.o. >> to see the work doctors are doing, you know, on the ground, day in and day out, i mean, it's -- it's incredibly admirable. appreciate your time. just ahead, senator kamala harris joins me to discuss the president's threat. also, to discuss the legislation she's helped craft to establish a 9/11 style commission to investigate the u.s. response to the coronavirus. (laughter) ♪ ♪ ♪

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quote, i will exercise my constitutional authority to adjourn both chambers of congress. president trump said those exact words tonight about what he would do if the senate does not confirm his nominees or adjourn to permit him to make recess appointments for a variety of positions. most of which do not have anything to do with public health. joining us to talk more about it, california democratic senator and judiciary committee member, kamala harris. senator harris, thanks so much for being with us. i hesitate to even kind of lead with asking you about the president threatening to unilaterally adjourn both -- both chambers of congress because it seems like such a obvious distraction by him to keep people from not focusing on his own failures during this. but he is the president and this is his threat. what do you make of that? >> well, anderson, you're quite right. he is doing it on purpose so that this would be the lead question, to deflect from the fact that he has failed to be a leader during a pandemic. a public health crisis.

an economic crisis facing our country. frankly, we got to stop waiting for him to act like a president and just move on and talk about what is happening in states. what is happening with local leaders around the need to address the pain that americans are feeling every day. it's a distraction. he is doing this as a way to distract us from the topic at hand. so let's talk about the topic at hand. checks are starting to be cut by the treasury department. i'm sending a letter, with other -- others of my colleagues, to demand and request that secretary mnuchin make it clear that debt collectors cannot take those checks because those checks are going to start flowing. and we have almost 17 million americans who are out of work in just the last few weeks. they need that money to pay their rent, and put food on the table. and i feel very strongly, and i think many would agree, we can't have debt collectors trying to take those checks before they get to the folks who need to feed their children. so that's part of what's at hand

today. what's at hand today is saying that let's address the need to have more support for our small businesses because the money is running out from that $2 trillion care act. and, still, so many small businesses have not found relief. let's agree that we need to, also, expand the money that we are sending to -- for snap beneficiaries. basically, people who need to feed hungry children. these are the things that we are addressing today. i was on a call today with 13 of the mayors of california who represent the 13 largest cities in the state. and they are, still, waiting to have all of the resources they need in terms of ppes, in terms of testing, in terms of reimbursement. these are the issues at hand. we have had an abject failure of leadership and i'm tired of waiting for him to act like president or be a president. he doesn't know how to do the job. >> i have been talking in the last couple days to a lot of people in the food industry, looking at, you know, food banks

and things. and a lot of them are saying the same thing, which is that the snap program, they really wanted that to be extended to cover more people. and, also, give more options to the people because that is a very quick way to get money in to people who definitely need it and to feed them. >> that's exactly right, anderson, and one of the things that we fought for in the last bill and i'm going to continue with so many others. deb thi debbie stabenow and so many other leaders. in the snap program, there is a card called an ebt card. essentially, it's an electronic card and we can transfer the relief to them electronically so they don't have to wait for the check to come in the mail, which for so many people is going to take months. there's so many people who need support right now, the so-called unbanked. they don't have a bank account. they don't have direct deposit. and they are in critical need of support, today. >> and, by the way that money

then goes to supermarkets and food establishments and helps them keep people employed. so it's not as if that money's disappearing. >> that's exactly right. >> it's reinvigorating in a needed industry. i want to play something l.a. mayor eric garcetti said today about large gatherings going forward. >> it's difficult to imagine us getting together in the thousands any time soon. >> i just want to be precise. big concerts in l.a. or major league baseball or nfl football or basketball. none of that's going to happen until 2021, from your perspective, in l.a.? >> it would be very difficult to see that. >> i think it's difficult for people to imagine kind of what life will be like a year from now, assuming that there is not a vaccine at that point. you have talked about a 9/11-style commission for 2021. talk to me a bit about why you think that's important. >> so you're right.

the -- the bill would -- we would start this commission after the pandemic. so not now because we don't want to distract from the task at hand, which is bringing relief to folks. but why is it important? because we need to have a -- an honest, transparent examination of what our government has done in -- in success but also in failure of the american people. we know that pandemics are only going to increase, and i could go on at length about why we know that, including because of the climate crisis and changing environments and what that means in terms of invasive species and a number of other issues. pandemics are not just going to be a thing that go away now. we are going to see more of them and we need to make sure the united states government is prepared for the future and that we learn from the past. on the point about mayor garcetti, i have to tell you mayor garcetti has been an extraordinary leader. he has had the vision, from the beginning, to speak truth about what has to happen even though people don't want to hear it.

he is one of the first that started a whole child care process for healthcare workers in the city of los angeles. in that region, you have people like mayor robert garcia who started, by appointment, drive-through check covid testing. there is a lot of great work happening at a local and state level. and, again, let's not talk about the other guy in the white house who's not leading. let's talk about those profiles in leadership, which are going to take us to where we need to go which to some point, get back to normal and be healthy and be safe. >> senator harris, appreciate your time tonight. >> sure. >> take care. thank you very much. up next, a new report that suggests china may have sat on critical information during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak. when we face adversity, we find a way through it. it's about taking care of each other. it's the small parts that make a big difference. at chevy, we promise to do ours. we're offering current chevy owners onstar crisis assist services and complimentary wifi data.

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just a few moments ago we had a conversation with dr. greg spencer of the columbia medical center in china with regard to the virus. questions have been raised and underreporting of the death tolls from the early days of the coronavirus when president trump was praising china for transparency, if you can believe it. a new report from the associated press based on an internal

chinese document states the country sat on critical information for six full days before alerting the public about the scope of the threat. david culver is in shanghai, doing reporting from there since the earliest days of the pandemic. david, what's the latest on this? >> hi, anderson. the internal documents acquired by a.p. suggest that china's top officials knew the potential severity of the virus but for six days held off on sounding the alarm to the public. now, the a.p. report is based on what they characterize as a leaked memo from a confidential teleconference. cnn's gone through the government's public release of that teleconference which highlights the worries expressed by health officials to other leaders. now, here's what we know, anderson, of what china knew and when going back to december 8th. that's when the wuhan government first disclosed the first patients' symptoms of the then unknown virus. nearly a month later on january 3rd, wuhan health officials stressed there was no obvious human-to-human transmission. on that same day, china notified the u.s. of the virus. on january 7th, president xi jinping, first public awareness is made known and he ordered

actions to be taken. a week later, january 14th, the teleconference that this is based on, and that according to a government release, which, by the way, came out a month after the teleconference, says a, quote, sober understanding of the situation was made known to top government officials adding that clustered cases suggest human-to-human transmission is possible but here's the concern. the wuhan health commission says the outbreak was preventible, controllable and not contagious. the next day, a very different native. leading health officials acknowledged cases of human to human transmission and stressed that message, medical personnel had got infected and then three days after that the wuhan area went on lockdown. >> and do we know how far up the chain of command this went? >> it's not clear how much president xi jinping, himself, knew about this. we knew he was made aware of the

virus, but it's not clear he knew the potential severity of it. that said, i think the biggest issue here is the timing and we have to go back to when this was all playing out. it was during what is the largest annual mass migration of humanity. i mean, hundreds of millions of people traveling for the lunar new year holiday. so the question is, if it was six days' time, that may not seem like a lot, but that six days where you could potentially have stopped people from traveling and people from coming together in those mass gatherings and that could have had an impact in slowing the spread of this virus. >> david culver, thank you very much, david. appreciate it as always. i want to check in with chris, see what he's working on for "cuomo prime time." how you doing? >> how you doing, coop? i've got new york's governor on the show tonight to talk about realities on big questions you've been handling here. who has the power to re-open the economy? i thought we had decided this twice, actually, but it seems that the president as you pointed out tonight moved back to his original position that he has the power. let's get the governor's take on

it because the governors are pushing back and you'll get to judge the arguments at home. then it's going to be really the central question that i can't believe is being ignored. no plan, no phase of any type of reopening can happen without testing. if they can't keep us safe, it doesn't matter where we start. nobody can go anywhere. we're even hearing it from the business community. i want the governor's take on that. and i'll tell you about what's happening at home. it is a long road for everybody who gets messed up with this. every family gets hit in hard ways and we are learning our lessons here as well. >> all right. chris, we'll see you in about five minutes from now. we'll be right back. more news ahead. ♪ hey you, yeau. i opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized that i could be earning interest back on my money. this is amazing. i just discovered sofi, and i'm an investor with a diversified portfolio. who am i?

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reminder, join us tomorrow night for our seventh cnn global town hall, "coronavirus facts and fears" beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern. i know i said it was our sixth earlier. i was wrong. it's our seventh.

joe biden will take your questions, also facebook founder and ceo zuckerberg, his wife, are going to join us to talk about what facebook is doing and what the initiative is doing to combat the coronavirus. we think the town hall's really become the place to take the time and really dig into some of the most pressing coronavirus issues of the week really focusing on the virus, itself. we hope you join us. news continues. for us, though, i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." chris? >> anderson, how could you possibly keep track of all you're doing? you're carrying us on your back. i for one say thank you. i need the help right now. thank you. i'll tell you one thing, that's for sure, you'll do a great job as always. i can't wait to watch. anderson cooper, now me. chris cuomo. welcome to "prime time." we hear a lot about flattening curves and let's be honest, that makes us want better days. good. what happens next? first, can president trump relax

social distancing standards? he seemed to say yes. then he said no. now he seems back to yes. governors don't agree. new york state's governor joins us tonight. he says he'll set us straight. we'll see. but there's also a bigger problem than who has the power. it's where is the plan? all this talk about dates and phases. be clear. the only word that matters almost never gets mentioned by trump. testing. little clue, do you even know who's in charge of planning and testing for us on the federal level? here's a hint. it ain't trump. it ain't fauci. it ain't birx. how do we not even know the name of the person who has our fate in his hands? together as ever as one. if that is the key, it has to mean one fate and one concern. that concern, who will keep us