let's do here and there next, okay? we're all set. >> you talked about your meeting together with governor cuomo you mentioned. is there a reason he's coming down here? i don't know. we believe it or not, we get along. he was very generous in yesterday in particular. he did a, quote, phenomenal deal. i don't know if anybody wrote that, but he said that and i appreciate it, but oats not about me but it's about these people and the thousands behind mike and the admiral and all the other people working with us. and you see -- i don't understand when i see polling and approval ratings for the job, i mean this group should get a 95, they really should. and we're really helping the governors a lot, and the governors call me, the ones i know or the republicans and they say it's incredible the job you're doing. again, not me, the job this group is doing. and you sit here and i just am

watching from the corner, and i'm just saying, boy, it's incredible stuff when you watch the general get up, the general and talk about boom, boom, boom, you don't see that. you don't see that -- when you hear the admiral speak about the testing how good it is, and yet people don't like to say -- but remember it was all about ventilators a month ago, and then we fixed it. you don't hear about ventilators. you haven't asked about ventilators recently. what's going on? what about ventilators? we're helping other countries now because they can't have -- they're very hard to come by, and they take a long time to make like years. it's incredible the job they've done, our people have done and also private companies have done. you know, you talk about the act, we don't like to use it unless we have to. a lot of times just the fact you have it gets you everything you need. so we don't want to embarrass any of the companies, but we have used it on a number of occasions but it work and it

worked just as well before you have to use it. and i don't want to embarrass them because they've done a great job. please, go ahead. no, i think right behind you. i promised. i cannot tell a lie, so we'll get you next. >> well, thank you so much, mr. president. my question -- i have two questions. the first one is on testing. you talked about the idea first it was ventilators and now it's testing. you seem to maybe possibly implying personal testing is a personal attack. can you explain given that the access to testing has been an issue for a long time? there's bipartisan outcries still today there's not enough testing. why do you think it's a personal attack on you? >> well, it's not bipartisan. it's mostly partisan, but more importantly than mostly partisan, it's incorrect. you have the experts -- look at these maps. you have the maps with so many different locations. in the case as an example governor hogan, he didn't really

know. it was very obvious to any of those listening on the call today even though you weren't supposed to be on it, i'm sure some of you were or representatives were. he really didn't know about the federal laboratories. would you say that's correct, mike? he didn't know. and mike doesn't like to get into this stuff. he's less controversial than i am, but he didn't know about it. and if he did know about it, he would are have been happy. we've done a good job in testing. with that being said we have tests coming out perhaps in the next two weeks that will blow the whole industry away. a lot of people love the abbot test, so do i i. the abbot test is great because it's boom, they touch, they put it in and five minutes you have -- the problem is that doesn't do massive numbers like the big machine. but the big machine takes a day, takes a day and a half, you know, with delivery and everything else. but we have tremendous testing, tremendous testing capability. remember this, we've testing

more than any country in the world by far. in fact, i think i read where if you add up every other country in the world we've tested more. but remember this we're dealing in politics, we're dealing a thing called november 3rd of this year. do you know what it represents? you know better than anybody in the room. november 3rd of this year, it's called the presidential election. no matter what i do, no matter where we go, no matter how well we do, no matter what, if i came up with a tablet, you'd take it and this plague is gone. they'd say trump did a terrible job because that's their sound bite. that's the political sound bite. they know the great job we've done. but with all of that being said, and also there is a thing that somebody could talk to if they want, but i don't want to bore you with it. not everybody believes we should do so much testing. we're talking about maximum.

the reason democrats and some others maybe because they don't know, they want maximum because they want to be able to criticize, because it's almost impossible to get to the maximum number and yet we've been able to do it already. but with that and you'll be seeing this i think over the next couple of weeks or sooner, we have it a test if it comes out it'll revolutionize the whole world of testing. i don't view it as a personal at all. what i do say it's something not fair to thousands of people that have done such a good job. >> the second question i have about your language and how you approached the coronavirus at the beginning. i interviewed someone who says his family got sick, they went to a funeral in mid-march and they said mainly because the president wasn't taking it seriously. if the president had a mask on and he was saying stay home then i would have stayed home, but he said his family members were sick because they were listening to you. do you feel like maybe

down-playing the virus that's what people got people sick in. >> a lot of people love trump, right? and guess i'm here for a reason. to the best of my knowledge i won, and i think we're going to win again. i think we're going to win in a landslide. but just so you understand you're talking about march, right? and yet -- excuse me, excuse me -- i understand. and yet in january, a certain date. you know the date better than i do, we put on a ban on china where china can't come in. and before march we put in a ban on europe where europe can't come in. so how can you say i wasn't taking it seriously? you know, i put on a ban on china before anybody in this country died, i put on a ban. so you tell me, nancy pelosi was having -- she wanted to have a street party in china town in san francisco at the end of february. that's a month later. and then they tell me it's only a political talking point, but you feed into it because you're

too good a reporter to let that happen. really, you are a good reporter. you're too good of a reporter to let that happen. at the end of january i put on a ban. people that were in that room will tell you, i think there were 21 people, i was the only one in the whole room that wanted to do it, fortunately i was the one that counted for that purpose. we put on a ban because i was reading bad things about china. world health organization should have told us, but i was reading it with or without them. they didn't even have to be there, but tried to cover up for china, world health covered up for china. but you can't say this, look, i put on a ban, in other words i stopped china from coming to the united states. i stopped europe from coming into the united states long before the march date that you're talking about. so people should say i acted very early. that was a very hard thing to do. doing that was a very hard thing. i didn't want to do that, but i did it because i thought -- and dr. fauci said that by doing it

president trump saved tensf thousands of lives. so i did take it very seriously. >> there were rallies in february and march -- >> i don't know about rallies. i really don't know about rallies. i know one thing i haven't left the white house in months except for a brief moment to give a wonderful ship the comfort. did i hold a rally? let me till you in january when i did this you had virtually no cases and no deaths and yet i put it on. so how could i not? nancy pelosi is holding a street fair, she wants a street fair in san francisco in china town to prove -- you know what the purpose of it was -- to prove there was no problem. many other politicians did the same thing and wanted to prove while i was -- of course not. no, no, no. people are amazed how early i

acted and where did act early. with that being said it's very hard to say let's close down the greatest economy in the history of the world. i had to close down, and a everybody else that works with me and close to 350 million people built the greatest economy in the world, best stock market numbers, best numbers in virtually any category, even good manufacturing numbers. even great manufacturing numbers. and you know what, i did that and somebody walked into my office and said, sir, you're going to have to close down the academy. you're going have to close the country. what you know what i say to you, we're going to rebuild it and better and it's going to go faster than people think. i built it once, i'll it is a second time. please? >> mr. president, thank you. >> go ahead. >> we have going back to the topic of friendship and bipartisanship americans with the exception of pelosi, schumer

and even romney americans have seen an unprecedented chapter of bipartisanship and cooperation on a political landscape. on a personal note what has been the most significant signal that your relationship with democrats have changed for the good of america? >> i think it's a great question because there is bipartisanship. look, we're getting the paycheck plan, it's already $350 billion was approved essentially unanimously, and we have another 250, which i think you're going to find out is going to be a higher number than that. i won't say it now, but it's going to end up being more than $250 billion, and is going to small businesses and going to workers. and these are really bipartisan plans. it's a great thing that's happening. so i think the fact we're able to do all of this in a bipartisan way is great. now, the tax cuts the republicans did we had no help

from the democrats so you can't say that's bipartisan, but this whole thing getting our country back, and, you know, nancy pelosi she's been very nasty. she wasted a lot of time on an impeachment hoax. it was a total hoax, went nowhere. and that was not good. and schumer i guess the same thing and he accepted it and he didn't do very well with it. but that was not appropriate. that was a bad thing for our country, but it was fine. i understand the game. they have a little bit of a majority, so they say let's do something and let's try and stir it up. but they wasted a year. we could have been doing things that would have been great for our country. they could have been looking into china. they should have been looking into china as an example. a lot of people are blaming the democrats for waesting all that time because it was during that time period as you know it was

fomenting. i wouldn't say we're going to set records throughout the world, but things are happening that are very good. the country is coming together. and i'll tell you what, the people are coming together. the people are really coming together. i think you're going to find our country is much more unified. i do think that the presds, ts, media foments a lot of this anger, foments tremendous anger. i'll be asked a t trueneda trem hostile question but a lot of these questions asked by certain networks are so hostile and there's no reason for it. there's no reason for it. we are in a war. this a world war ii, this is world war i, where by the way the war essentially ended because of a plague. that was one of the worst ever, they lost almost 100 million

people, but we're in a big war. and i'll say one thing about because i think it's important -- the last person i did it early, but i was the last person that wanted to close down one of the great economic -- you can't call it an experiment but everything in life is an experiment. but one of the great economic stories in history. i'm the last person that wanted to do it, but we did the right thing. because if we didn't do it you would have had a million people, a million and a half people, maybe 2 million people dead. now, we're going toward 50 i'm hearing or 60,000 people. one is too many. i always say it. one is too many, but we're going for 50 or 60,000 people. that's at the lower, as you know the low number was supposed to be 100,000 people. we could end up at 50 to 60. okay, it's horrible.

if we didn't do what we did, we would have had, i think a million people, maybe two million people, maybe more than that. and you look there's one country in particular that decided let's wing it, let's just keep going, they are being inundated with death. now, if you take a look at some of the hospitals where one of them i knew growing up in queens and i'm looking at the bodies laying in hallways, being brought into refrigerator trucks. these massive trucks, bodies going in. multiply that times ten, it's not sustainable. and many of the people that have this theory, oh, let's -- you know, maybe we could have gone right through it, i was somebody that would have loved to have done that, but it wouldn't have been sustainable. you can't lose a million people. that's more than -- that's almost double what we lost in the civil war, i use that as a

guide, civil war 600,000 people died. so it's not sustainable. but it could have been much more than a million people. if you took a number and cut it in half and half again you'd end up at 500,000 people, okay if you want to make a very conservative guesstimate. 500,000 people is not acceptable. is that correct a sort of analogy? so i see it all the time. but people i have great respect for. well, we could have done this, we could have done -- and remember this when we say 50 and they compare 50 to the average of the flu, over a ten year period that's a lot, who would think that? but we're not talking about with the flu. that's just -- it just goes. we're not locking ourselves in our units. we're not locking ourselves in our apartments and not moving and not touching anybody and just saying the world. in this case we are and we're

still going to lose between 50 and 60. but if we kept it going on a normal basis which is really the only standard you can compare to with the flu, because that was a normal baesz you get into an airplane, travel to floor, go to texas, go wherever you're going. but in this case if we didn't do anything the number wouldn't be 50 to 60,000, the number would be a million people dead, a million five, a million two, maybe 700,000. it would have been a number like that. and the number is so important. you can't compare because i'll tell you what the people of this country what they've done -- the way they've lived it's not great. it's terrible. maybe the first three days then all of a sudden you see what's going on, they want to get going. and i get that fully. but i just say this. if we would have done that we would have lost anywhere from a million to more than 2 million

people. now, with all of the death that we've seen in 50 or 60,000 people heading toward -- right now it's at 40, but 50 or 60,000 people, probably over 50, but that's with our guard up. we took it down and say okay we're going to keep this open, we would have lost millions of people. can you imagine? look how bad it looks now when you look at the bodies, when you look at long island in new york where they have the mass grave and all the things you see, can you imagine if we had the guard down, we didn't do anything and we just said let's ride it out? it would not have been sustainable in any way, it would have been an atrocity. so we've done the right thing. we've really done the right thing. and the people that have worked so hard and dangerously -- again i say it but i watch those doctors and nurses and medical

people running into those hospitals and they don't even have their gear on. forget about whether it's great gear or not, and we're bringing in the best gear in the world, but they're running in with open everything, and i mean the job -- they're like warriors, the job they're doing. but if we didn't do the moves we made, you would have had a million, a million and a half, 2 million people dead. so multiply that times 50 you're talking about you would have had 10 to 25 times more people dead than all the people we've been watching. that's not acceptable. the 50,000 is not acceptable, it's so horrible. but can you imagine multiplying that out by 20 or more? it's not acceptable. so it's a very good question. i appreciate it. we'll see you tomorrow. we'll see you tomorrow. >> all right, good evening. i'm erin burnett. you have been watching members of the coronavirus task force

giving the latest update on the pandemic. you were just listening to the president there. and this comes as the president is making the argument it was right to do the shutdown or the death toll could be 10 to 25 times more than it is now, comes as georgia's governor is just announcing he's ready to go ahead of the white house and is doing so, a very aggressive plan to reopen the economy there, gyms, salons, massage therapists can reopen this week even as georgia reports hundreds of new cases. tonight the death toll in the united states has doubled in the past week. now more than 41,800 people. john king, jim acosta, daniel dale, dr. sanjay gupta join me now. sanjay, i want to start with you just because the president wez laying out this case. and one thing he was basically saying obviously this would be 10 to 25 times worse if the shutdowns weren't happening. i'm asking a question looking back in history whether or not they happened earlier and how much better this could be than

the situation we're in now. we're almost at 42,000 people in this country who have died in the past month or so from the coronavirus, and they're still sticking by numbers by august it will only be 50,000 to 60,000. does that make sense to you? >> those numbers, they don't make sense. and we've been following these models very closely, and, you know, i think up until now the models sort of tracks. i can't remember exactly what the university of washington model had around this time, but i think it sort of tracks. as you mentioned the numbers doubled, erin, over the last week. the numbers of deaths, you know, i think they predicted around 63 or 64,000 by august 4th, and we're in april 20th right now. so i think it's a little bit hard to reconcile that. obviously different places in the country have different sort of waves and different peaks as people have described it. so we are going to see numbers

come down in some places but maybe go up in other places. it doesn't really track right now going out still another couple, three months from now especially, erin, if places reopen prematurely. it was really striking to me. the president really seemed to acknowledge just how significant these physical distancing measures have been in terms of the impact. i mean, we are going through something unprecedented. people say we did want need as many ventilators, not as many cases. what we're doing right now in the country is unprecedented. we have to really acknowledge the impact of having, you know, most of the country essentially staying at home in terms of curbing this virus had we not done that as the president just said, as many public health officials have just said, the numbe numbers would have been significantly higher. so that is an important component we need to put into the equation of every question that comes up around this. >> and now with your state

reopening i want to ask you about georgia in just a moment, but the president did, jim acosta, make a point here of picking on several governors. and one that stood out tonight was the republican governor of maryland. basically the president calling him incompetent multiple times. >> right. yeah, i mean, i think at one point the president said that larry hogan who we should mention not only the republican governor of maryland but also the chairman of the national governors association, this is someone who's working with all governors across the country, that he needed to get more knowledge in terms where testing can be dup in his state. and governor hogan was on with wolf this evening and said he knows where testing can get done. and yet the governor of maryland went out on his own and purchased the capacity to run some 500,000 tests in the state of maryland. he went to south korea to get those testing kits, and it just goes to show you what a mad

scramble is under way right now not dissimilar to the mad scramble that was on for ventilators for a period of time. now it's on for testing capacity, and it seems the governors are going to have to do this on their own. vice president mike pence trying to step to the podium and saying we're working with the governors to make sure the testing can be done in their individual states. but make no mistake this was the president of the united states taking a fellow swipe at a republican governor because governor hogan had the audacity to criticize the government response. and you can tell from the press conference over and over again, erin, the president is taking this deeply personal. he said at one point it's not about him, and he made it clear it is about him. referring to the november election and at one point he talked about how he thinks people still love him. and so he wants these press conferences. he wants the coronavirus response to be a love fest, and when people just want to make sure lives are being saved at

this point. >> you know, an interesting one moment that stood out to me is when the president acted like he didn't remember holding a rally in march, which you know sort of oh, oh, did i, as he was trying to basically take credit for saying had i not done that you could be looking at 1 to 2 million dead american and now you're looking at, well, the number continues to go up but about 42,000. as he was trying to take credit when presented with the fact he was still holding rallies he basically was saying he didn't remember. >> erin, if you watch these briefings you come away with a parallel university sense in many ways. if the trump administration gets right the history of 2020, it will erase february and half of march. that's what you get when you listen to these briefings. yes, the president did ban that travel from china, but go through february, we have no problem with testing, it's going to quickly go away, we're 15

cases, we'll soon be down to zero. the president refuses to acknowledge yes he took one bold step early on, but then he didn't do a lot of other things. and you see it represented in his team as well. it was great when the admiral got up today and said in the middle of march we had this military airlift, we went to italy, it was locked down but we got a bunch of military jets to go in there and get a bunch of swabs for testing in the middle of march. that's great. people were skreeping about testing all through february and early march. they bring out those maps. the president loves to show and tell at these briefings. he thinks you only watch today, here's the president's team, you have the dots -- and one last point as they say, as jim said

you question the intelligence of the governor of maryland, question the intelligence of the governor of illinois, the republican trumpy governor of south dakota said at her press conference today yes i have the machines, yes i have the labs, i don't have supplies and i need federal help. every governor gets up every day and finds a reason to pick a fight with the trump administration in the middle of a pandemic. no. >> daniel dale, and that's the point the president is trying to say. first it was ventilators. he's saying that fast political, and now he's saying it's testing. as john points out the numbers on testing show a stall, and they can point to whatever point on the supply chain whether it's interpreting the tests or doing the at thes. tonight it was like they were trying to say don't blame us for the fact no one can actually read them. >> that's right, and the president said that people who criticized him or others on the issue of testing are trying to

get him. when he was asked why he thinks this nonpartisan issue is a personal attack he said it's not nonpartisan, it's partisan. erin, it is both bipartisan and nonpartisan. we have heard for months from both governors of both parties and nonpartisan experts that there's not enough testing being done to slow the spread of this virus, and to let us get out of this crisis by lifting restrictions. we hear from people like nebraska governor pete rick s about testing concerns, from governor hogan, from governors around the country and from scott gottlieb, from the association of american medical colleges. these are not foaming at the mouth leftists, but people actively describing the situation on the ground. we heard a number of repeat false claims from the president today saying he banned travel from china and europe when his restrictions were laden with exemptions. he absurdly again claimed he hadn't left the white house in

march. i think the testing complaints are some kind of anti-trump conspiracy was the most important piece we heard this evening from the president. >> it doesn't add up. the republican governor of ohio, dewine also has said that, said to me the other day his issue is he doesn't have the reagent to interpret the test and they need help. i know he's now talking to the vice president about that, but it's not a bipartisan issue. it's just a factual issue. on this point of reopening you now have georgia, and obviously you are in georgia right now. but the georgia governor is going to allow this week fitness centers, bowling alleys, tattoo studios, barbers, hair salons and massage to reopen and that's ahead of the white house plan. they're not early. they're off the chart early. how dangerous is it?

>> you know, i'm really worried about it, erin. i know there's a lot of pressure from these businesses to want to reopen. i hear that as well, and i'm sure the governor is feeling a lot of that pressure, but this is worrisome. we know the virus is still out there. we know it's a contagious virus. that is the constant in this entire equation. we put together a graph here. let me show you if you look at testing overall in a place like georgia you see over the period of time we've done some 84,000 tests roughly, some 19,000 or so people have been diagnosed with this. that's where we are right now. i mean, anybody can look at that graph and say that is still accelerating, we're not doing enough testing so the numbers are likely even worse. 23% of the people who are tested come back positive. that number needs to be closer to 10% to sort of get a sense we are testing enough. there has not been a 14-day downward trajectory which is

part of the guidelines that came from the federal government to your point, erin, showing that's what they needed to hit before they started to reopen things. i think it goes without saying there's certain of those activities you mentioned, massage therapists, nail salons, hair dressers, how do you maintain a physical distance there? these are tough calls and these are unprecedented times. sometimes it's hard to recognize the impact of the physical distancing. it's kind of like telling people to eat right. you tell them to eat right and they say i feel no different. i ended up eating broccoli instead of chocolate and i feel the same. actually it does make a difference. you can extend the analogy to the country here. i get it, it's painful for everybody, but in the end it'll be good for us. in the state of georgia or the entire country. >> and to make your point here as you said if 20% getting test kits are coming back positive, we heard the admiral just say

the number they want is 10%, so that is obviously off multiples. john king? >> erin, this is where the inconsistency of the president plays right up. remember when he announced his guidelin guidelines -- the president very much wants to reopen. we also saw he said if the governors did anything wrong he would stop. the state is nowhere near meeting the president's own guidelines but the president has shifted again to jim's point at these briefings and the president is thinking much more about his political standing than about fighting the coronavirus. look, he's a president up for re-election. his economy went from a boom into a bust recession. however, today, tomorrow and the next day should be pandemic before politics. and we'll see what happens in the state of georgia. maybe this will go breathlessly well and the governor will set an example. we're all going to count the case count.

the president said follow my guidelines. let's see if he speaks up about georgia. what are the protesters doing? they are complaining about governors who are doing what the president has asked them to do, and the president is supporting the protests, so the president's own instincts are to reopen georgia and to a degree jacksonville the beaches. we have before us like it or not a test now for the doctors and we'll watch the case numbers in the next ten days or two weeks and get another sense who's right. >> all right, thank you. and more on that big announcement, georgia's governors very aggressive plan to reopen his state. it is a big move today, and erica hill is out front. >> reporter: gyms, barbershops, hair and nail salons, massage therapists all clear to reopen again on friday. >> this measure will apply statewide and wile be the operational standard in all jurisdictions. >> reporter: theaters and restaurants can open april 27th.

bars and nightclubs will remain closed for now. some businesses ipneighboring tennessee will also be back open wednesday. neither state has seen a 14-day decline in cases when the president recommended before moving into phase one of reopening. south carolina giving some retail stores and beaches the green light. four coastal communities, however, will keep existing restrictions in place noting there is, quote, no evidence from medical professionals that indicates the threat has diminished setting up a stark contrast across the country. >> i think the worst is yet to come for a lot of people. >> boston, chicago, and philadelphia singled out by the white house task force as potential new hot spots. ohio, the latest state to close schools for the remainder of the academic year as experts caution a rush to reopen could backfire. >> unless we get the virus under control the real recovery economically is not going to happen. so what you do if you jump the

gun and go into a situation where you have a big spike, you're going to set yourself back. >> beaches in jacksonville, florida, now open with limited hours and what appears to be limited social distancing. >> jacksonville is right across the border from georgia, and it tells you that one state can't make a set of decisions that are inconsistent with public health and science because it's going to affect another state. >> as states and cities look for a path forward, testing continues to be key. >> the question is how fast can you increase the volume of tests? because the more tests the better. that is the axiom. the more tests the better. test nursing homes, test schools, test teachers, test prison facilities, but you need the volume of tests. >> the city of detroit now

testing its essential workers. amazon using thermal cameras to screen for fevers. new york state began antibody testing today, but officials stress we still don't know how effective those antibodies are. and erin, just to give you a little bit more background what we're hearing from governor brian kemp in georgia, he was asked about concerns whether it was too soon to reopen and he acknowledged the fact there would likely be more positive cases in the wake of this reopening, but he said he felt the state had what was needed in place to deal with that. and also stressed his decision had to do with small businesses and needing to help those small businesses get back to work. >> erica, thank you. and i want to go to the democratic mayor of savannah, georgia, dan johnson. i appreciate your time and we were going through for people some of the things that are going to happen here friday of this week. it is by far the most aggressive reopening plan yet.

it is not in line with the white house guidelines, gyms, hair, nail salons, body art studios open on friday, theaters and restaurants opening by monday. is this the right call? >> absolutely not. i am beyond disturbed. in my mind it's reckless. our reality here in savannah is our numbers are still going up. we still have not done expanded testing, and we do not have the 14-day decline. so this just -- it blows our minds here in georgia that we would have these types of rules and being lifted in a time when people are still suffering. >> so the governor kemp just admitted with more people going out that cases will go up. i mean obviously it's -- that's a fact and he's admitting it. but do you think he's not aware

of the fact the deaths may go up, or what metric is he basing this on, do you think? >> i don't have the slightest idea. he has not spoken to anybody here in the city of suvavannah, and several mayors across the state, we certainly have the best information here on the ground. we have 15 million visitors that come to savannah every single year and enjoy savannah. regardless people don't feel comfortable, they're still not comfortable. >> so the governor does say his ruling overrides any kind of a local decision. as in you could say that you think this is reckless and these businesses shouldn't open, but they still will, right? is there anything you can do to stop businesses opening in your city where cases are still going on? >> well, the strange and sad part about this is the governor on two akaoccasions has specifi

no local municipality can do anything more stricter with his order. again without discussing anything with these local municipalities. what we can do and we're doing here in savannah is encouraging people to follow common sense. the fact of the matter is the data is there, people can see it for themselves. we want them to keep the faith, but we want them to follow the signs. this is still a dangerous time, and it's not the time for people to take their feet off the gas. not the time to think we're lulled into a false sense of security. this is still a dangerous world and covid is still killing people. >> why do you think governor kemp is doing this to begin with? >> i'd have to be in his head to know. certainly i think politics are in play, and understandably. small businesses have suffered across our state, but i contend that businesses are made of people. and so not only the small businesses are suffering but what about those people who have to work in those businesses that

now have the opportunity to become infected and take it home to people? this virus has exposed everything that's wrong with our socyeeconomic system not only in georgia but across the nation. people who have been suffering before suffering now. those that are black and brown, those that are economic issues, those that are less educated match that is a fact, and until we can get that under way we're not even doing expanded testing here in georgia. why would we even think it's safe to say let's go back to life as normal? that just does not compute in my mind. >> he only enacted the stay at home order to begin with because he said that it had just been found out that a symptomatic people could transimate coronavirus. again, this was back on april 1st. here's how he put it. >> finding out this virus is now

tra transmitting before people see signs. what we've been telling people from directives from the cdc for weeks now if you feel bad stay home. those individuals could have started infecting people before they even femt bad. we didn't know that until the last 24 hours. >> what is troubling about that, mayor, it is obviously something not true and the governor's health experts should have known. we have reported that 6 1/2 weeks before he said that that you would have people transmitting before they were symptomatic. what do you think is behind this, and do you think the governor has all of the facts from his health officials? >> i have great respect from dr. toomey and the georgia department of public health.

the nfrgz the governor said he did not know we received from his health professionals. the fact have been undeniably and unmistakably clear throughout this process this was an airborne illness and it can be transmitted in a variety of different ways. i don't know why he didn't know, but the fact is we knew here in savannah which is why we took preemptive and proactive action in canceling the second largest st. patrick's parade in the country, and i think we were very early in the game in telling people we had to social distance. so the fact the governor did not know and did not ask is really beyond me. >> all right, mayor, appreciate your time. >> thank you for all you're doing. thank you. >> and i want to go now to dr. jonathan rhiner who advised the white house team under president george w. bush. you just heard the mayor, you know, he just said governor kemp in georgia who i want to say not

just the first state to do this but weeks ahead of where the white house say he should be bay their own recommendations, he says it's reckless and premature. would you use those words? >> no, i would call it a dereliction of duty. i were 800 new cases of covid-19 posted in georgia today. this is -- this crisis has not abated in that state. and this is akin to spiking the ball on the 50-yard line. look, we know that the virus lives in asymptom atic people. and you heard sanjay gupta mention the positivity rate in georgia is an enormous 23%. in plates around the world where the virus really has been tamped down, places like germany, the positivity rate is 7%. so we know we're not testing nearly as many in the state of

georgia as need to be tested. a report came out in los angeles today. they did some aebd testing, and they've estimated the prevalence of the virus in los angeles county is 4.1%. that's 50 times higher than what has been tested. so we know, we haven't tested widely. in georgia the virus is still very, very active, and this behavior is frankly reckless. >> and it comes as you are -- your deep concern about testing and they were going on about this at the briefing, right, saying it's a political problem is what they're saying even though, of course, governors of both parties have said they simply cannot get the testing done, whether they don't have the test or reagent to interpret it or something in between, it matters a lot in terms of getting it done, but it doesn't matter in terms of the bottom line which is there has not been the testing. you use the word stalled to describe the testing in this

country. >> since april 1st this country on average has done about 150,000 tests per day. we've been stalled at that level. it doesn't matter how many machines we have or how many alcohol preps we have, it is very difficult for the average person who doesn't feel well or is simply worried they may have contracted the virus to get tested. i got a call this weekend from a colleague in arizona, a physician who could not find an open place to test her husband. this problem is rampant around the united states. the governor of the state in which i live, maryland, just had acquired 500,000 tests from south korea. whatever the problem is, it is translated into an inability to test enough people in this country. that's the basic really irrefutable problem. >> all right dr. rhiner, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> and one place where they have been doing the testing and testing so many as you heard dr. rhiner just say that they get

that 7% rate is germany. germany could be a road map of what happens when you get this right. germany allowing some small stores to reopen just today, but officials are warning if there is a second wave of infections there could be another full shutdown. fred pleitgen is out front. >> reporter: the first seals finally have an audience again as germany gradually emerges from lockdown allowing some zoos to open up and giving both parents and children some reprieve. the children need a distraction, this woman says, it's been so hard on the kids, all the playgrounds are closed. i'm a single mother, i still have to work and schools remain closed. and schools will remain closed until at least may 4th just like bars, restaurants and gyms. but believe it or not this is what many german towns look like today as shops smaller than 8,600 square feet were allowed

to open for the first time in weeks. the germans say they are pushing the coronavirus outbreak back thanks to massive and early testing now up to around 700,000 tests per week, the government says. and a drastic increase in icu capacities. the outbreak has become controllable and manageable again, the health minister said. that's allowing germany to even fly in patients from hard hit countries like italy, spain, france and the netherlands. and germany is going even further. the country's center for disease control announced a series of mass antibody tests for a study to determine what part of the population has already come in contact with coronavirus. for one study in munich testers are even going door-to-door. we want to discover how many people get infected by the coronavirus without having symptoms or with only very light symptoms so they're not even aware of having the virus, the

head of testing says. still, many physical distancing measures remain in place in germany, and angela merkel warns the gains made are fragile. it would be tragic if we knowingly relapsed and if we knowingly endanger these first successes merkel said today. as germans enjoy the lifting of some of the lock down measures their leaders are already warning stay vigilant or the lockdown might return. and of course, erin, that antibody testing is becoming more and more important around the world. and the u.s. of course it's new york governor andrew cuomo who says his state will be the most aggressive at antibody testing. the germans moving one step further as well. angela merkel saying today they're going to extend contact tracing. the thing she says is to know who exactly has the virus right now. >> fred, thank you very much from berlin, and i want to go out front now to the professor

of the evolution of epidemiology at harvard. profess, i appreciate your time. angela merkel her big fear and big warning is there could be a second wave of cases, and obviously they're trying to open up bit by bit. as you fully reopen is it a question of if when it comes to a second wave or is it really a question of when? >> it's a pleasure to be here. i want to start by saying how great germany's response has been so far. it's truly impressive. it's another federal nation and it should be an example to the world. if you relax too early and without sufficient testing you do risk a second surge. i prefer the word surge to wave because it's a surge which overwhelms health care with workers. they have testing so they hopefully would be able to detect it early enough and make adjustments to prevent it. >> when you look at what they're doing one basic thing they've

been doing is testing, right? the point you're making here obviously we're not there and not even close to there. when you go through the numbers, professor, you say the u.s. is just at the beginning of this crisis and how do you come to that conclusion? >> this is pandemic and a pandemic operates in this way because nobody has any immunity to it. and in order to get to the point where you would be able to see the numbers of immunity you'd have to see that over half the people in the country had been infected. >> so in that context i want to ask you about where the united states is right now, and for this i want to compare the united states to south korea. james from the laentdic i thought had a great point today. he looked february 20th you had nee deaths in the united states, no deaths in south korea which of course has been doing a lot of testing like germany.

today 236 total deaths in south korea, 42,000 deaths in the united states. what do you attribute this to? >> i attribute it to ed even though we know there is a pandemic threat, nobody has immunity to, we sat around and waited for it to show up. the thing is one of the things this very unpleasant about this, as you were saying, the majority of people who get it don't show sufficient symptoms probably that they even know they have it. which means they transmit it and transmit it and it ends up in a nursing home and goes crazy. i want to put a couple of things to rest here. this is not the flu. this is absolutely not the flu. there have already been more than 10,000 deaths in the city of new york alone. in order to get that kind of mortality from a virus that was like the flu, literally

everybody in new york city would have had to have been infected. and as we know, the deaths are still rolling in in new york. this is a very serious pandemic virus, which is currently hitting different parts of the country hard. and if it hasn't hit a part of the country hard yet, chances are it will unless we maintain our vigilance. >> and that's i don't when we keep hearing peak, there is the whole perception you get to the peak, the mitigation, if it works, it works, you plateau and you start to come down. and then you open up a little bit. >> correct. >> it's okay. you're saying it's misleading. it's more appropriate perhaps to look at this like a mountain range. >> yes, correct. the reason i'm saying that is because of the fact that when we're seeing what's happening in new york at the moment, you've heard the phrase "flatten the curve." new york is what flattening the curve looks like. imagine if it was worse. imagine if it was continuing to grow exponentially, how many more lives would be lost outside

of covid alone from other people not receiving the care they need from things like heart attacks. so that is flattening the curve, but it's not the virus that's doing that, that's humans. every single infection averted at this stage, even if it's just delayed, is a victory over the virus and a victory for us. now, when it starts coming down, it is not coming down because of immunity. it's coming down because of stuff that we did. and when we stop doing that stuff, chances are it's going to start doing again and ticking up. if we don't have the testing, we ain't even gonna know. we'll know when people start dropping dead in nursing homes. it will be too late and we'll go through the whole wary cycle and we'll do the stuff we're having to do now. you can do milder social distancing if you do it early enough. >> professor, i appreciate your time. appreciate those words. >> thank you. >> and i want to go now to an incredible story of survival in this. frances wilson is 29 years old. went to a hospital in virginia

last month with coronavirus after struggling to breathe. now despite being young, again, i want to say it, 29 years old, and having no preexisting conditions, he ended up spending ten days on a ventilator. in fact, his condition was so dire that doctors told his family he likely would not survive, and he was given his last rites. but then there was a last-ditch effort by his doctors. his condition improved, and he is here today to tell his story. francis wilson joins me now. this is an incredible story, francis. i know one that hopefully give people a lot of hope. i mean, you are so young and you were so healthy. i know never in a million years could you have thought this would be you. how are you feeling right now, first of all? >> i'm dock very well. thank you, number one, erin, for having me on. today has been awesome. i feel great physically, mentally. i do recognize that every day is different. it's a good step in the right direction for me. >> so, you know, i mean, i can't

imagine the sort of trauma of what you experienced, having to go through 15 days in the hospital, on a ventilator, in an induced coma. the physical toll is hugely traumatic, i'm sure, and you will be dealing with that. what about the psychological toll of that? >> i'd say the psychological toll has unexpectedly been the harder part for me. when i was under, i didn't remember most of the stuff that happened to me, which is pretty expected. they have you on pretty high sedatives. but on march 26 is when my condition got to the lowest point that it had been. that's when i was -- that's when my family was called in for last visitation purposes when i received last rites and i was transferred to george washington university hospital. and at that point for some reason i was able to remember everything that was happening as far as my dreams and what i was understanding.

i was also able to perceive stimuli around me. and at that point i believed i had died and thought that i was being processed for burial. it was a really tough thing. i even heard my family speaking to me at that point. that was really tough. it's been hard to come back from that. >> i mean, just to -- your family came in and read you the last rites, and you actually could hear them? is that true? i mean, what -- can you even at this point even kind of put words around what that was like, that you're separated from this by this glass panel and you know that they've been told and then you are now aware that you're going to die? >> yeah, that was, that was tough. i mean, so, at that point in my dream or hallucination or whatever you want to call it, i had already thought that i had died. and at that point, you know, there's like this pinkish purple

light that spoken to me and told me i had 30 minutes to speak with all my loved ones. at that point i heard my family. so they were on the other side of a glass panel and there was a nurse inside the room with a phone that they held up to my ear so they could speak to me. and i remember in this dream state hearing my family say, you know, we love you, francis. you need to pull through this for us. keep fighting. and i remember feeling frustrated because in my dream state, i thought i was in china. that's a long story, but i remember being frustrated that i couldn't go back and tell my loved ones back in america what i needed to say because i was stuck there. that was a really, really hard moment for me. and it was one of the most frustrating parts of this all. and it's really shaped the way that i've moved on and some of the lessons i've learned from this whole experience. >> and now, you know, you sit here as a 29-year-old young man, and thank goodness recovering --

and i use the present tense here because i know it's going to be a process. but again, you're the kind of person people wouldn't think could get sick from this. now we see protests, people want to reopen the country and you're hearing about in georgia, you know, they're opening this week and the beaches in jacksonville, there have been protests in your state of virginia, francis. after everything you've been through, what do you say to people who are pushing to reopen quickly? >> i mean, this is tough because i caught this from a friend who at the time i believe was asymptomatic. i was asymptomatic for a few days before things really just completely fell off a cliff for me. but there is always that risk. and especially when more people are going out and not taking the same precautions that we're taking now that are as effectively as possible are limiting the spread and the impact of this virus, i mean, whenever we lift those measures, whether it's now, whether it's

in the future, there is going to be a risk of a second wave or another peak of this. and it's important for us to make sure that we have advanced to the point where we're able to respond to whatever that second wave is. i'm not qualified to speak as to whether we're there now, but i would -- that would involve, you know, having developed a quarantine, understanding how this virus or its various strains affect humans. it's so novel at this point i don't think we're necessarily there yet. >> before you go, francis, what's been the hardest part physically for you in recovery? >> physically in recovery, just -- there's been -- my lung capacity is completely shot. i was playing soccer before this and now i'm getting winded kicking the ball against the wall. i love singing and can't reamll do it as well as i wish. it's coming back. yeah, the breath is coming -- so, we're getting there.

>> all right. well, francis, thank you very much for being with us and sharing all this with everyone. thank you. >> thank you. >> and we'll be right back. with aplastic anemia wasd and if i didn't find a donor, i probably wouldn't be here right now. be the match uses the power of the cisco network to match donors with patients faster than ever, saving lives like max's. me and dylan are dna twins. ♪ ♪ dylan's like my brother. ♪ ♪ cisco. the bridge to possible. to support you during the current health situation... cvs pharmacy is now offering free one to two-day delivery of prescriptions and everyday essentials you need to stay well in the days ahead. visit cvs.com/delivery or call your local cvs pharmacy to learn more. so you can be prepared, stay on track with your medication,

and stay well, with free prescription delivery from cvs. thank you for joining us. our coverage continues now with anderson. >> and good evening. there is breaking news tonight. the governor of georgia, a state where more than 700 people died of coronavirus, announcing what he called a small step forward in reopening the state. in fact, it's anything but small. everything from gyms to barber shops, bowling alleys, tattoo parlors, nail salons will be allowed to open by as early as friday. next monday, theaters and restaurants. the governor also acknowledged his decision means cases of the virus will probably continue to go up, but that the state is a lot better prepared to handle it, he says. we'll be joined shortly by georgia mayor to get her take on what that could mean. we'll ask