hanks' instructions simple, ask an adult how to use it and write me back. >> it's very special because i always feel like i'm famous. he says i'm a friend of him. >> he said he will send hanks a typed letter on his typewriter very soon. thanks for joining us. i'm poppy harlow. >> and i'm jim sciutto. "newsroom" with john king starts right now. hello and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm john king in washington. this is cnn's continued coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. some global warning signs as the united states begins its coronavirus reopening. germany, where the progress has been the watch word of late, says the rate of infection is climbing to dangerous levels that would overwhelm its

hospitals. australia closes its beaches again after hundreds ignore social distancing rules. here in the united states, the state of georgia right now is the new case study. beauty salons, barbers, bowling alleys set to reopen. at least eight states are unwinding the coronavirus shutdown in limited ways. in texas retail to go is the new way to shop. in illinois, greenhouses and pet groomers can again take customers. nearly 870,000 confirmed cases, more than 50,000 americans dead. the other relevant number, 26.5 million. that's the number of americans who lost their jobs in what is now a coronavirus depression. the tug-of-war between economics and science is right now the defining american dynamic. the president again exacerbating these tensions, though it would be wrong to suggest his latest recommendation has anything to do with science. the president asked aloud

whether there might be a way to fight coronavirus by injecting or ingesting disinfectant. an idea so dangerous that the company making lysol rushed out a statement making clear that its products are to clean surfaces, not people, and in no way should be consumed by humans. we will circle back to the president's latest leadership detour in a moment. first, though, the legitimate question being asked and tested around the world, is coronavirus corralled enough to be able to leave the house and go back to work? the president applauded georgia's plan but quickly pushed back. the nationwide reopen date? not that far off. >> do you think i'll be fishing in early june, mr. vice president? >> i think honestly, if you look at the trends today, i think by memorial day weekend, we will

largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us. >> from your lips to god's ears. >> state and local officials will begin to reopen activities. you're going to see states in the days ahead here begin to do that, but the key for president trump, for all of us is we want to do it in a safe and responsible way. we don't want a resurgence, and we think the key to that is a phased approach the president outlined to the nation and to the governors last week. >> in georgia, the republican governor's challenges is that the criticism is now not just from democrats. >> i said, you're not under guidelines but i'm letting you make your own decision, but i want people to be safe. i could have stopped him, but i decided, and we all agreed, they have to watch it closely. but if you ask me, am i happy about it? i'm not happy about it and i'm not happy about brian kemp. >> just within the last few minutes, president trump doubling down on that criticism of governor kemp, tweeting he

never gave him the okay of reopening businesses such as salons, tattoo parlors and sps.z the governor insists people are safe screening them for fever and respiratory illness, enhance sanitation, maintaining social distancing and limit capacity. staggered shifts and teleworking if possible. martin savage, what are you hearing on the ground? >> reporter: there are a number of businesses that are trying to reopen, such as the shopping center behind me. hair salons are opening today. other businesses in the area say it's just too soon. they worry about the safety of their customers and for their employees. others have difficulty finding personal protection equipment that are mandated by the state

requirement's floor reopening. then there's also the pushback. the mayor of atlanta has been extremely critical and continues to be so. here's what she's saying. >> very simply, stay home. nothing has changed. people are still getting infected, people are still dying. we don't have a cure to this virus. the only thing that's helped us is that we have stayed apart from one another and i'm simply asking people to continue to do that. >> reporter: we were at a barber shop that opened up this morning. the door opened at 7:00. the line was starting at 6:30 in the morning. there was social distancing that was taking place, but the barber was not following the protocols. for instance, he does wear a mask. he's not wearing any gloves. we didn't see any temperature taking happening, and we also didn't hear him asking the medical questions he's supposed to ask of his customers. so, clearly, even though some

businesses are opening, they're not necessarily following those strict guidelines which, of course, the governor says they should. and that has always been the fear for both civic leaders and for the medical community, john. >> it's early moments of an interesting experiment. we'll keep tracking. martin savage, i appreciate your reporting on the ground. let's discuss this challenging moment with three business owners. mario is the ceo of bad ax throwing. lester is the owner of a salon in georgia. lester, let me get to you. i'm sure employees want to get back to work, and i'm sure they're concerned about the safety of themselves and customers. should georgia have waited another week or so? >> when we got the news, we got all of our 85 employees in our 150-space parking lot and we had a meeting. we asked our employees if they wanted to come back to work this weekend. half said yes, half said next

week. so we opened with about half our employees, and next week we'll be back to normal hours, monday through saturday, 8:00 to 9:00 and sunday 12:00 to 7:00. >> and you have no hesitation? >> i definitely have hesitation. i'm anxious, i'm scared, i'm excited all at once. i'm just trying to rely on the advice of our local government. i saw on the news this morning channel 2 saying we had less than 50 new coronaviruses on april 22nd, which was wednesday. it looks like it's going down to me. i'm not sure. >> let's hope it goes down. craig, i see one woman working out behind you. every business has its own unique set of circumstances to space people out, to wipe down equipment. take us to this moment for you. how important is it for you to reopen and what are your clients saying when they ask, should i come work out? will i be safe?

how are you handling this? >> i've been mitigating health concerns for over ten years, not just with coronavirus, but a lot of our participants who come to work out with us, they're worried about heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and they're ready to get back and get started again. >> ready to get started again. have you had any clients say not yet, i want to wait? >> yeah, we've had a few clients who have expressed, and we certainly respect that, but we are spacing -- we're going overboard. we're spacing our equipment 10 feet apart. we're checking temperatures as our clients come in the door. we just purchased an air filtration system that's going to be cleaning the air. so we believe that what we're offering today in getting our clients started back is going to be safe as possible. we're following the guidelines of all of the health professionals, dr. fauci and everyone i hear on the news, so we want to offer a safe experience and believe that we're going to be able to do that and continue to help our

clients work on all of their health and fitness goals here at she's fit in augusta. >> mario, come into the conversation here. in the sense that you go to these ax-throwing events, you're going with your friends, you're often going to air out after work, you had a frustrating day. i'm sure there is stress relief people like by going to do something they find enjoyable like that, but how do you spread people out? how do you hammer out the fact that one person is ax throwing. how do you clean it before the next person gets their hands on it? >> we have a large facility. i think it's close to 11,000 square feet so we have significantly reduced the occupancy load to do the calculations if we're able to comfortably put people within 6 feet. we're looking at household groups, groups that come in together, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend that live together. we're going to put them together.

we're also using every other lane. this is similar to the approach bowling alleys would take. in order to comply with 6-foot social distancing requirements, we're going to be spacing out individuals accordingly in the lanes. so we're going to be using every other target instead of every single target within the facility. on top of that, we're also wiping down axes after every single use. we are wiping down all the equipment. anything that is a touchable surface, we're making sure it's being wiped down at least every hour if not after every group event. so we're doing the minimum of and we're staying on top of all the cleanliness as well as binding by any state level regulations, including taking temperatures, reducing occupant loads. we have enhanced sanitation that we're complying with, social distancing. our coaches will not approach customers, they will be within six feet away from them. also any sort of payment

processing system, we're implementing a touchless methodology for it. if there does need to be contact on any sort of p.o.s. system, that p.o.s. system will be wiped down as well. >> it sounds like you're taking a lot of precautions there. we'll watch as this plays out. people around the world are watching as georgia is one of the first states to try and do this. mario, does it matter to you? does it make it more complicated that your governor has a plan? most of the mayors have said, whoa, whoa, we're not ready for this, slow down. the president at first said, go ahead, governor, and then pulled back and now they're worried about businesses like yours, a salon. has the political debate and confusion contributed -- do you have any issues with that or is it just put on blinders and try to do the best you can? >> i think what the public really needs to realize is no one wants to open up. as business owners, we are all worried, we're scared, we're

anxious. it's not something we're proud of doing. we are kind of waging our own war against survival. what most people don't realize is when business owners, especially small business owners, when they sign a lease agreement and they move into a facility, they're putting their personal assets on the line. so they may have high rents for three or four years, and typical liease agreements have clauses that say if you default on a lease payment and you miss a lease payment, then you can escalate the rent for the remainder of the term. i'm just going to give you quick numbers. let's assume for a second i'm paying $5,000 per month. clean, easy number. so every year i'm paying $60,000 a year. i have 10 years left on a a 15-year lease. i would effectively owe them $6,000 because i missed one lease payment. not only do we not have the funds, but they put their

personal assets on the line. i think what's most difficult is the ppp program was very valuable and helpful, but unfortunately it completely fell apart. there are so many business owners that have not received the ppp program. they applied fior a second roun, and you have people like jp morgan and chase saying, go to another bank, we can't fulfill it. so if they're telling you to go somewhere else and you have bank of america essentially telling you the same thing, the need for small businesses is in the trillions, not in the hundreds of billions. i think politically this whole thing, i think everyone is trying to do well. i just don't think there is enough funds out there to keep everyone afloat and keep everyone whole. >> we're in the early stages of it. greg, mario, thank you for joining us.

i know this adds more cleaning to your places of business. i wish you all the best. >> thank you. listening to the president of the united states can be dangerous to your health. he will dispute that statement and launch into one of his attacks on the media. but you decide. at yesterday's white house briefing the president was very happy with the department of homeland security official who said research shows the coronavirus breaks down in sunlight and heat. the government official also discussed the effectiveness of disinfectants when wiping surfaces. that got the president thinking, if that's the right word. he had some new advice to doctors. watch closely as he made the case to white house deborah birx on the task force. >> suppose we hit the body with tremendous -- whether it's ultraviolet or just a powerful light. you said you're going to test

it. and i think you said you can bring the light inside the body, whether you can do it through the skin or some other way. i think you said you're going to test that, too. it's quite interesting. then i see the disinfectant that knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that. i would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there is any way that you can apply light and heat to a cure? if you could. maybe you can, maybe you can't. again, i say maybe you can, maybe you can't. i'm not a doctor. i'm a person that has a good you-know-what. deborah, have you ever heard of that, the heat and the light relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus? >> not as a treatment. certainly fever is a good thing

when you have a fever, it helps your body respond. but not -- i've not seen heat or -- >> i think it's a great thing to look at, okay? >> reporter: sir, you're the president, and people tuning in to these briefings, they want to get information and guidance and want to know what to do. they're not looking for rumor. >> i'm the president and you're fake news. you know what else i'll say to you? i'll say it very nicely. i know you well because i know the guy, i see what he writes, he's a total faker. are you ready? are you ready? are you ready? it's just a suggestion from a brilliant lab from a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant, man. he's talking about sun, he's talking about heat and you see the numbers. that's it. that's all i have. i'm just here to present talent. i'm here to present ideas. because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. if heat is good, and if sunlight is good, that's a great thing as far as i'm concerned. >> john howard covering the

white house for us today. john, i'll defend the white house reporter. he's a very good reporter, and the president goes on attack when someone tries to hold him accountable. are they trying to hold this one back at all today? >> reporter: not really. you know, you could be generous to the president, john, and say was irresponsible when he was up there touting hydroxychloroquine before there was evidence it was going to be effective, and now we see evidence suggesting maybe it was dangerous. this idea was so obviously nutty that the lysol, the maker of one of the disinfectant products we were talking about, said the idea of ingesting disinfectant was something consumers absolutely should not do. the fact that the president should offer this idea, this nutty idea, seemingly unaware of how nutty it was puts into question an issue that we've

danced around in the media for the last few years, which is, is the president all there? is he connected with reality? one of his former national security aids, brett mcgirk, tweeted this morning, you cannot get past the crazy in this white house. think about that. it's hard to think about since president trump is the leader regarding this coronavirus. >> you can't escape the crazy in this white house. the president likes to attack us. look at the people who work closely with him. they tried to walk back a correction on the press briefing transcript put out by the white house. walk us through that and why it matters. >> i think this was deborah birx trying to protect her reputation. the initial transcript that came out of the white house reflecting that back and forth when the president leaned over to the side and addressed her had her saying that is a treatment. instead, it was corrected this morning to say, not as a treatment.

kind of the opposite statement from deborah birx. she's tried to be very diplomatic throughout this process and not contradict the president as much as possible, but this is one where she could not let stand the idea that she was countenancing this suggestion which, again, was so obviously a crazy idea. >> pictures do speak a thousand words. it's a cliche but also true. now they've collected the transcript to make sure she was correct. just the suggestion of sunlight and injecting disinfectant, you don't need proof to see how uncomfortable that made her feel. the coronavirus fight is not new. >> some people think that goes away in april when the heat comes in. typically that will go away in april. in april the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus. >> it looks like in april, you

know in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away. >> in april it supposedly dies in hotter weather and that's a beautiful day to look forward to. >> in april when it gets warm, it effectively is able to kill the virus. >> those statements made in february all citing april that the heat would, in theory, work its magic. you see the horrific coronavirus death toll right there on your screen. on march 31st, that number was 4,000. at least 36,000 has been added to the death toll in the united states this month. april. we still have six more days to go. up next, major medical developments just ahead.

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real science takes time, which is one of the big frustrations of the coronavirus fight. the world health organization says it could be weeks, maybe months, though, before we know which drugs really help in the fight against covid-19. this as researchers in china say they have successfully cloned antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients for the very first time. it's one piece of very early research and a potential first step in developing new treatments. cdc medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins me now with more. elizabeth, this antibody research, is it interesting or could it be a game changer? >> reporter: it's definitely interesting, john, and if it works it could be a game changer. we've heard about giving plasma. john, let's say you recovered from coronavirus. you have antibodies because you fought it off. take your antibodies, let's say i'm currently suffering, give them to me so your antibodies

could help fight off the virus. that's the theory. cloning the antibodies helps because, john, you only have so much blood to give. you're not scaleable. if you clone it, those antibodies are scaleable and could help people suffering from coronavirus. that's the theory of it. here's why i'm saying theory. it might not work and also cloned antibodies could solve problems. we need to see, does it hurt? does it help? that's why we have research. it takes a while. >> they have this first wave. now what? >> reporter: right, so now it's many months. now they need to do clinical trials to see what it does. that is many months. but i will tell you it is short either than wh shorter than what a vaccine would take. if this works, it could hold us over until a vaccine appears. >> that would be great if we get to that progress. elizabeth cohen, thank you very much for that important reporting. let's go to larry shatner at

university medical center. elizabeth cohen says this antibody research is interesting, it takes months. do you see hope? are you skeptical? >> yes, there is hope and it's very, very interesting. the notion is the body responds with a whole variety of antibodies to a corrective agent. the question is which is the most effective in bringing the illness to a close? you try to hone in on those. one of my colleagues right here at vanderbilt, james crow, is doing just that. he's an expert in this and he's working along the same lines as the investigators are in china. so this is a very promising line of research, because as elizabeth said, it can be scaled up. of course, you have to see if it works and you have to know what the adverse effects are, because there is no drug or treatment that doesn't have those, but let's monitor those carefully.

we need an effective therapy. this is a very provocative line of investigation, very 21st century. >> very 21st century, very real, which is why, especially as people have anxiety about where we're going here, it's important that we talk about it. now i'm going to take you on a detour. i'm sad i have to, but the president of the united states stands up at a podium in the white house briefing room, listens to a presentation, and starts musing, should we talk to doctors like yourself about is it possible for humans to ingest or inject disinfectants? what goes through your mind when the president of the united states -- and his supporters will say he's just musing, he made it clear he's not a doctor, he says doctors like yourself should think about this, i'm not saying people should do it. what genicioes through your minn you hear things like that? >> i'm really worried about that, that someone misinterprets

what the president said and would actually do that. that would be a poison if they took it because bleach ingested, going down the esophagus into the stomach, that would destroy many of the cells that are in the mucus membranes of the esophagus and stomach. that would be very, very serious. appropos of the other suggestions, my email inbox gets a steady stream of suggestions about therapies of one kind or another from thoughtful people. but they haven't been vetted. they need to be studied before we apply them. absolutely, stay away from those disinfectants. use them on surfaces for sure, but not internally. >> right. there's outside the box thinking and then there's what i call outside of this world thinking. we got some outside of this world thinking yesterday. the president tweeting this morning that in his view testing is a great success. at the white house briefing

yesterday, the president responding to something dr. fauci said. let's listen to dr. fauci and the president's response. >> we absolutely need to significantly ramp up not only the number of tests but the capacity to actually perform them. i am not overly confident right now at all. >> we're doing very well on testing. i don't agree with him. >> dr. shatner, who is right? >> i always say listen to the public health authorities. we need to ramp it up, but we don't have that capacity all over the country. we're able to do so somewhat in tennessee at the moment, we're very grateful for that, but we really need to test more broadly and as quickly as possible. i'm with dr. fauci on this one. >> dr. william schaffner, always appreciate your insights on the

real science. what was once a coronavirus hot spot in colorado is now reopened just about three hours ago. jbs beef slaughterhouse telling its 6,000 workers they can return to the plant in greeley. that plant shut down two weeks ago in an outbreak that left more than four employees dead, 100 testing positive for the coronavirus. mark, thank you for being with us. are you convinced, as they say the plant is reopened, come back to work, that your men and women, sisters and brothers, are safe? >> i am not totally convinced at this point in time, john, for the following reason. based off the conversation you just had about testing, testing has been very difficult for us to obtain for all the workers. now, they closed the plant, left it closed for a period, and i think the reason why they did that was hoping it would ferret out anybody that may have come up with positive symptoms and

then they wouldn't have come to work. but we've added layered ppe inside the plants with shields, masks and partitions, but until we get testing, i can't be confident we're not going to see another enclosure at some point in time. we've seen over 14 plants close in rolling fashion which covered 24,500 workers over the past month. that has reduced our food supply and pork by 24%. we've seen it in beef. it's reduced us by 10%, and we're starting to see some of the same activity that takes place in poultry. and so at this point in time, we've had, at least at the dfcw nationwide, ten people that have died that were in food processing meatpacking plants

and another three that have died in just regular food processing plants, and we've got approximately 5,000 workers that either have got the virus or have shown symptoms, which we have pulled out of work right now. so i'm not totally sure, no. we need testing. and we need rapid results for the testing. >> marc, i'm sorry, i need to end the conversation here to get to the daily briefing by the governor of new york. i want to circle back, but let's take you to albany and the governor of new york. >> good news. 14,200. all the evidence suggests we're on the down side of the curve. we're headed down. net change in hospitalizations is down. net change in intubations is down again. and they have been down for a while. this is still not great news. number of new people coming into the hospital, number of new infections is slightly down, but that's basically a flat line.

and that is troubling. about 1,200, 1,300 new infections every day. number of lives lost is still heartbreaking news. 422. again, this is at an unimaginable level, and it's dropping somewhat, but it's still devastating news. the question we're watching now is we hit the high point. we're on the way down. how fast does that number come down, and how far does that number drop? we have projections again, like we had projections on what the disease was going to do on the way up the mountain, we have projections on what the disease would do as a rate of decline. but, again, they're just projections.

some projections has it going down and flattening at about 5,000 people in hospitals, still. some projections have the decline slowing between now and june, but these are, again, all projections, just like they had projections as to how fast and how far the disease would increase. those projections, as we know, were wrong. they weren't wrong. we didn't hit those projections because of our actions, because of what we did, because of what the federal government did. luckily the disease did not go as high as they thought in the projections. you now have the corresponding question, how fast is the decline, how low is the decline? and again, the variable is going to be what we do. we change the projection on the way up, we can change the projection on the way down.

but it's purely dependent on what we do. are we socially distancing? are we testing? how fast do we reopen? how do we reopen? you answer those questions and you will determine what the rate of decline is. if you say, well, we're done, can't stay in the house anymore, let's just reopen, just start business tomorrow. let's go. what happens? that's what happens. all the progress we made is gone, and all experts, or virtually all experts, will say not only does the virus spread increase, but it increases to a higher point than we had increased the first time. again, this is a remarkably

effective virus at spreading and growing. so i know everyone is impatient. let's just reopen. that's what happens if we just reopen. so we have to be smart. people are also talking about a second wave, potential of a second wave. people are talking about potential for the virus to come back in the fall. which means the game isn't over. which means the game could be just at half time. so let's make sure we're learning the lessons of what has happened thus far, and let's make sure we're being truthful with ourselves. not that we're deceiving anyone else, but let's make sure we're not deceiving ourselves. what should happen? what should we learn from as far as what has happened thus far so we make sure we don't make the same mistakes again? and let's do that now.

this was our first global pandemic. welcome. there had been people who talked about global pandemics before. bill gates had talked about the potential of a global pandemic. the obama administration talked about being prepared for a global pandemic, but it was always an academic exercise. what if, what if, what if. once it happens, once it actualizes for people, then it's different. then people get it. we now know that a global pandemic is not just a textbook exercise, it's not just a tabletop exercise. it can happen. and when it happens, it's devastating. let's just learn from what happened on the first one. let's just get the basic lesson of what happened on the first one. last november/december we knew that china had a virus outbreak. you could read about it in the newspapers, right? everybody knew.

january 26, we know we had the first confirmed case in seattle, washington and california. february 2nd, the president ordered a travel ban from china. march 1st we had the first confirmed case in the state of new york. by march 19th, new york state is totally closed down. no state moved faster from first case to close-down than the state of new york. march 16th, we have a full travel ban from europe. researchers now find, and they report in some newspapers, the virus was spreading wildly in italy in february. and there was an outbreak, massive outbreak, in italy in february. researchers now say there were likely 28,000 cases in the united states in february, including 10,000 cases in the state of new york.

and the coronavirus, the virus that came to new york, did not come from china. it came from europe. okay? when you look at the number of flights that came from europe to new york, the new york metropolitan area, new york and new jersey, there in january, february, up to the close-down, 13,000 flights bringing 2.2 million people. all right? so november/december, you have the outbreak in china. everybody knows. january/february, flights are coming from europe. people are also coming from china in january until china closed down, and the flights continue to come from europe until europe shut down.

2.2 million people come to new york and come to new jersey. we acted two months after the china outbreak. when you look back, does anyone think the virus was still in china waiting for us to act two months later? we all talk about the global economy and how fast people move and how mobile we are. how can you expect that when you act two months after the outbreak in china, the virus was only in china waiting for us to act? the horse had already left the barn by the time we moved. a researcher now says knowing the number of flights coming to new york from italy, it was like watching a horrible train wreck in slow motion. those were the flights coming from italy and europe in january

and february. we closed the front door with a china travel ban which was right. even in retrospect, it was right, but we left a back door open because the virus had left china by the time we did the china travel ban. that's what the researchers are now saying with 28,000 cases in the united states, 10,000 in new york. so what is the lesson? an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere. when you see in november and december an outbreak in china, just assume the next day it's in the united states. when they say it's in china, just assume that virus got on a plane that night and flew to new york or flew to newark airport and it's now in new york.

that has to be the operating mentality. because you don't know that the virus didn't get on a plane. all you need is one person to get on that plane in china and come to new york. the way this virus transfers, that's all you need. and you can't assume two months later the virus is still going to be sitting on a park bench in china waiting for you to get there. that is the lesson. and, again, why do we need to learn the lesson? because they're talking about this happening again with this virus where it could mutate in china and get on a plane and come right back. or the next virus or the next pandemic. whose job is it to warn us of these global pandemics? the president says it's the world health organization. and that's why he's taken action

against them. not my field, but he's right to ask the question. because this was too little too late. and let's find out what happened so it doesn't happen again. and it will happen again. bank on it. let's not put our head in the sand and say, this is the only global pandemic that we'll ever have to deal with. in the meantime, let's keep moving forward. one of the things we're working on is how do we clean, how do we disinfect? we're talking about reopening, we still have public transit systems running, we still have buses running. so we've been working on how do you come up with new cleaning, new disinfecting protocols? and i asked a simple question to our team a few days ago, how long does the virus live? and it's something we need to know, but frankly, i think it's

something everybody needs to know. the virus can live up to 72 hours on plastic surfaces and stainless steel surfaces, okay? just think about this from a transit point of view or from your car point of view. it can live on a vinyl car seat up to 72 hours. it can live on a pole on a bus or on a seat on a bus for up to 72 hours. up to 24 hours on cardboard, up to four hours on materials like copper, and the droplets can hang in the air for three hours. this was a shocker to me. when they were talking about droplets, i thought it was a droplet and then it falls, right? it's a droplet that can hang in the air for three hours. i don't even know how that works. and many of the people who

spread it are showing no symptoms at all. so just factor that in in your daily life when you're going through your own precautions. we're also going to do the state finance report this week, and what you're going to see is what we expected, roughly a $13.3 billion shortfall from our forecast, total effect of a financial plan of $600 billion. now, what happened? new york state was not, quote, unquote, in trouble before this happened. new york state was very, very strong before this happened. our economy was growing, it was growing at a very high rate. our government spending has been at record lows. the spending increases, our

taxes today are lower than the day i took office. oh, you're a democrat, how can that be? that's the numbers. tax rates on individuals' businesses are lower today than the day i took office. every tax rate, as incredible as that sounds, is lower today than the day i took office. so the state's finances were very, very strong. and then this economic tsunami hits, and you shut down all the businesses, everybody stays home, they're not getting a paycheck, they feel economic anxiety. the consequence to the state is the revenue projections are way down. what do we do about it? some people have suggested, well, states should declare bankruptcy. i think, as i said yesterday, it's a really dumb idea. people are trying to talk about

bringing the economy back, reopen, we have to get the economy moving again, and then rather than provide financial aid to the states that got hit by this economic tsunami through no fault of their own, a suggestion was made states should declare bankruptcy. little -- a few problems with that premise. forget the morality of it and the ethics of it and the absurdity of it and the meanness of it. legally, a state can't declare bankruptcy. you would need a federal law allowing states to declare bankruptcy. so to the senate that proposed it, i say pass a law allowing states to declare bankruptcy. i dare you. and let the president sign that bill that says, i give the

states the legal ability to declare bankruptcy. your suggestion, senator mcconnell? pass the law. i dare you. and then go to the president and say, sign this bill allowing states to declare bankruptcy. you want to send a signal to the markets that this nation is in real trouble? you want to send an international message that the economy is in turmoil? do that. allow states to declare bankruptcy legally because you passed the bill. it will be the first time in our nation's history that that happened. i dare you to do that. and then we'll see how many states actually take you up on it. i know i wouldn't. but if you believe what you said, and you have the courage of conviction because you're a man of your word, pass that bill

if you weren't just playing politics. we'll see how long it takes him to do it. also moving on. voting, we still have elections in the midst of all this chaos. we've seen elections held where we have people in lines for a long period of time. it makes no sense to me we passed an executive order that said you can vote by absentee. today i am asking the board of elections to send every new york voter automatic receives a posted page application for a ballot. if you want to vote, we should send you a ballot so you can vote so you don't have to come out and get online. looking ahead, more testing and we are making progress on that. new york state is doing more

testings than any states in the country right now. new york state is doing more testing than any per capita on the globe right now. watch that spread of the virus, it is getting warmer and more people are coming out of their homes. maintain social distancing. also, plan on a reopening and not just reopening what was. we went through this horrific experience, it should be a period of growth. it should be a period of reflection reflection. if we are smart and use it that way, there are reflections to learn here and if we are smart we have the courage to look into the mirror. we went through 9/11 and we were smarter for it. we went through world war ii, we were better for it.

we went through super storm sandy and we learned and grew and better for it. people totally changed their lifestyle. what did we learn? how do we have a better care system that can handle public health emergency. how do we use technology and education better. why do some children have to go to a parking lotto get wi-fi to do their work? why do we learn from this and how do we grow? let new york lead the way because we are new york tough. new york tough when they say we are tough, yeah, we are tough. we think tough incorporates being smart and disciplined and unified. last point i want to make is and this is personal.

my grandmother on my father s's side, a beautiful woman, a tough lady. gone through depression and she's a little rough. i would say to her you know grandma, met this girl and met this guy, they're really nice. she would say nice, how do you know they're nice. it is easy to be nice when everything is nice. grandma, what does that mean? she says you know when they're nice when things get hard, that's when you know if they are nice. and i never got it but her point was it is easy to be nice and kind awhen everything is easy. you really get to see people and character when things get hard.

when the pressure is on is when you really get to see true colors of a person and see what they are made of. so much as the pressure forces their character and the weaknesses explode or the strengths explode. that's what we have gone through. this has been hard. it put everyone under pressure. you really see what people are made of as a character. i personally tell you the truth, some people will just break your heart. people who i thought would rise to the occasion and people who i thought were strong -- under pressure, they just crumble. on the other hand you see people who you didn't expect anything

from who just rise to the occasion. you see the best and the worse of humanity just coming up to the surface on both ends, just everything gets elevated. the strengths in people and the weakness of people. the beauty in people and the ugliness of people. for me the beauty you see and the strengths you see compensates and balances for the weakness. i get inspired by the strength so i can tolerate the heartbreaks of the weakness. here is a letter that i receive

that just sums it up. >> dear mr. cuomo, i seriously doubt that you will read this letter as i know you are busy beyond belief with the disaster be falling on our country. we are a nation in crisis. i am a retired farmer, hunkered down in northeast kansas with my wife who has one lung and occasional problems with her remaining lung. she also has diabetes. we are in our 70s now and frankly i am afraid for her. in close find a solitary n-95 masks left over my farming days. it has never been used. if you could, could you please give this mask to a nurse or a doctor in your state?

i have kept four masks for my immediate family. please keep on doing what you do so well. sincerely dennis and sherry. a farmer in northeast kansas, his wife has one lung and diabetes and he has five masks, he sends one mask to new york for a doctor or nurse. you want to talk about a snapshot of humanity. you have five masks, what do you do? you keep all five? do you hide the five masks? do you keep them for yourselves or others? no, you send one mask to new york to help a nurse or a doctor. how beautiful is that?

how selfless is that and how giving is that? you know that's the nursing home that sent 100 ventilators down to new york city when they needed them. it is that love and that courage that generosity of spirit that makes this country so beautifully and makes america so beautiful. and it is that generosity of spirit for me makes up for all the uglines ths that you see. take one mask, i will keep four. god bless america. questions? >> what did the president's suggestion for research using uv rays for covid treatment? >> i don't know much about uv rays. not my job or business or background or education. doctor, what do you know about uv rays?

>> anything when it comes to bleach, these are chemicals you would not ingest. we know we make sure your kids do not go into cabinets do not have any chemicals in them. you need to stay away from those products. >> have you gottheard from the president how he may help new york when it comes to testing? >> i had a meeting in the white house and the president and his team are working on the supply chain issues to get the test kits so that we can provide our commercial testing here in new york. we want to go -- we are doing about 20,000 a day, we want to go to 40,000 a day. karen? >> people are saying it may not

be a good idea -- >> polls would be open? >> you think the board of election can carry this out with their problems? >> life is options. you have to watch it. there are only two options. either people go to the polls or people vote by absentee. there is no other way to do it, right? we are saying you have both options. you can go to the polls or you can do absentee. i don't know what else anyone can expect anyone to do. what is the other option? people on the left and right are unhappy, what do they