she was hospitalized for a brief period of time. judged well enough to be out on her own but clearly was not better. and her sisters told me that you could see in her eyes that there was something not there. >> our thoughts and prayers for that family and her hospital community. thank you for being with me. our special coverage continues now with kate baldwin. hell, everyone. i'm kate baldwin. thank you for joining us this hour. the numbers continue to be staggering. now over 59,000 americans have been killed by the coronavirus with well over a million people in this country infected. that back drop makes this news all the more important. for the first time we're able to say there is optimistic news on a possible coronavirus treatment. dr. anthony fauci announcing from the white house just a short time ago new data on a

study of the drug remdesivir. listen to this. >> it is a very important proof of concept. because what it is proven is that a drug can block this virus. and i'll give you an example in a moment of why we think looking forward this is very optimistic. >> dr. fauci notes that this is not a proven treatment but evidence so far very good news. >> the data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut significant positive effect in d diminishing the time to recovery. this is important for a number of reasons but we think it is really opening the door to the fact that we now have the capability of treating and i could guarantee you as more people, more companies, more investigators get involved it will get better.

>> let's start with elizabeth cohen on this. i was also struck that dr. fauci compared this moment to a moment 34 years ago when they first saw progress with the hiv drug agt and that was a huge fight against hiv. what do we know about this drug and this trial? >> reporter: right. it was a huge turning point all of the decades ago and seemed to be saying we could be headed into a similar situation. it didn't end hiv but got us on the right path. so let's take a look at the data that dr. fauci presented because this is so important to look at the actual numbers. when you look at the mortality rate of the 1,000 people in this study in the u.s. and abroad, the placebo, the pill that does nothing, those patients had an 11% mortality rate during the course of the study. people who took remdesivir had an 8% mortality rate. there is not a statistic

significance to that. they need to have more people in the study but it is headed in the right direction. and here is where you get to the significance. when you look at duration of illness, how long these people had to stay in the hospital before they were discharged, on placebo it was 15 days, on remdesivir it was 11 days. so what that tells you is that the drug was doing something. it is not a cure. and we don't want anybody to think it is a cure and if you just get remdesivir you are fine, that is not the case at all. but doctor said this needs to be the standard of care and what we're giving everyone because it does seem to have some advantage. and to your point he said it is a proof of concept. if this particular drug with this particular mechanism of action worked, we could build on that. we could learn from that, move forward and come up with even better treatments. >> is there anything known about any possible side effects? >> reporter: yeah, there is a little bit known.

we should say this is an experimental drug and never officially on the market for anything. it was invented for ebola and gives to ebola patients and patients with covid. and in both they have found elevated liver enzymes sometimes. they found that. they don't know if the drug caused it but they've seen that. so the authors of a recent new england journal of medicine article said we need to study the side effects more because the last thing we want to do is make the patients sicker. but the enzymes, moderately, are something that doctors have been looking at. >> so you weigh the balance of the damage done by a side effect or saving a life potentially or as we see here, significantly decreasing the amount of time that it takes to recover. good to see you, elizabeth. thank you so much. so the new york times is reporting that the fda plans to announce the emergency use of remdesivir in the wake of the positive results. in a statement to cnn, an fda spokesperson put it this way and

said, quote, as part of the fda commitment to expediting the availability of covid-19 we have been in discussion to make remdesivir available to patients as quickly as possible as appropriate. joining me now is dr. jennifer leah at george washington university and a cnn medical analyst. doctor, what do you make of what dr. fauci is talking about this morning and in announcing? >> kate, it is a very encouraging news. because as everyone knows to date there have been no approved treatments for covid. and i think what we're about to hear about potentially even later today is the very first approved treatment by the fda for the coronavirus. and it's very encouraging. i think we haven't seen the published data yet from the nih

trial but what we're hearing again is that there is a significant difference in improvement in the time to recovery for this group of hospitalized patients. and that is another important point. the patients with covid had to meet criteria to me in the trial. they had to be admitted to the hospital and they also had to have low oxygen level and they had to have changes on their x-ray, they had to have some changes in their lung exam like crackles or wheezing or something that was abnormal. so this is not for people who have mild or no symptoms who are not admitted to the hospital and it is still an iv drug but it is encouraging to have this first treatment. >> and when you talk about -- let me ask you about that. when dr. fauci is talking about the recovery time and that is significant in the findings. 11 days versus 15 days in the hospital. you have been on the front lines of this. how significant is a four-day

difference? >> well, you know, some of these could be very significant from a number of perspectives. so some of the patients, again, we haven't seen the data that will specifically say who was enrolled and what characteristics the patients had, but certainly some of them were very sick. maybe even on a ventilator. spending many, many days in the hospital. and so from the patients' perspective, of course, any time you could shorten that hospital stay but even just a little bit it is significant. but when you think about from the hospital side and the capacity to treat, whether you're talking about ventilators that are available or hospital rooms or just the staff needed to treat patients, the more that you can minimize that stay in the hospital, the more it expands the capacity to treat the population in general. so i think it is significant. >> let me play else that dr.

fauci said because i think everything that he said in this moment in the oval office was really important for people to hear, about why he's talking about this now instead of waiting for this to get a full and formal stamp of approval. listen to this. >> the reason why we're making the announcement now is something that i believe people don't fully appreciate. whatever you have clear-cut evidence that a drug works, you have an ethical obligation to immediately let the people who are in the placebo group know so they could have access and all of the other trials are taking place now have a new standard of care. so we would have normally waited several days until the data gets further -- dot the i and cross the t but the data are not going to change. some of the numbers may change a little but the conclusion will not change. >> what do you make of that, doctor? >> again, to me it is very

encouraging. what dr. fauci describes is not an uncommon practice talking about clinical trials, especially for conditions where there aren't any approved treatments. when you start to see a significant difference in the experimental group compared to the controlled group, that shows something positive in favor of that experimental treatment, then there is an ethical obligation to stay, well, we need to be able to offer this to those in the control group, that placebo group and to other patients out there who are suffering and who, again, we don't have any treatments for right now. so i think that makes me even more encouraged and we also heard, again, about the fda potentially even moving on this within emergency use authorization for remdesivir. i also want to note there is more data coming out very soon about remdesivir that will give us clarity about how to use this, when it to use this, for whom. coincidentally, just today, and

this might be confusing to some, there was a study that was published in the lancet, another placebo controlled random trial of remdesivir among ten different hospitals in china and it actually did not show a difference in the time to clinical recovery. so it is a smaller -- it is a smaller study. it is oanly about 200 patients compared to this one which is over a thousand and this has more weight to it and more power to it. but the study in china could give us some kwlu clues because perhaps some patients were less sick and that could give us an indication of who is remdesivir best used for and again want to note this is an iv drug so it is right now just for hospitalized patients. >> all of that information is going to be not only interesting but important to get out. doctor, thank you so much. really appreciate it. >> my pleasure. so from that to the push to

reopen the country accelerating this afternoon. nearly 20 states are allowing some businesses to reopen this week. this despite the fact that, as you look at the map, it appears not a single state in the country has met the vague white house guideline of a 14-day downward trajectory of cases before reopening. but it is not exactly clear how the white house is defining downward trajectory in the guidelines. florida is the latest state to begin the process of reopening. the governor is expected to outline his plans any moment now. joining me now is randi kaye in west palm beach. randy, desantis teased this announcement when meeting with the president yesterday. do we know anything more about what the governor's plan included. >> >> reporter: we could expect an update on the stay-at-home orders, what he's lifting and not lifting and reopening today and you could see the beaches do

remain closed for now. we'll see if he addresses that. we'll see desantis take more credit for keeping the number of coronavirus cases down in the state of florida even though he didn't put in the stay-at-home order until the end of march. some cities and counties took action before him, about ten days earlier. the city of miami canceled two music festivals to keep the numbers down. so he may give himself another pat on the back. we'll see. but he'll probably have to address a report in the tampa bay times reporting that the florida health department is asking the medical examiner's office to withhold data and they've been doing so at the request of the florida state health department. they have been told, according to the paper, that the state wants to review the list and may even redact some of it. they may want to take off a number of the cases and get rid of the case descriptions which only leads us to believe there could be fuzzy math here in terms of the number of cases that we're seeing here in the state of florida, kate.

>> it is media outlets have had to sue to gain access to the records that is how hard it has been to get access to what it normally is, public information. great to see you. thank you so much. coming up, president trump ordering meat processing plants to stay open even though thousands of workers have gotten sick. so what could be done to protect workers? and also avoid a food shortage. and later, when will stadiums like this one see action again? dr. fauci weighing in with an outlook likely to disappoint potentially a whole the sports fans. details ahead.

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there are and the big companies that you're reading about. they're so thrilled and so happy and they're all gung-ho and we solved their problems and unblocked some of the bottlenecks. >> saying meat process plants are thrilled with the new order requiring them to remain open. that might be true coming from executives but what about the workers. remember how we got here. plants were closed because thousands of employees and workers were becoming infected with the coronavirus and they needed to shut down. the meat packing facilities in the green bay, wisconsin, area, now account for more than half of the confirmed cases in the county. omar jimenez is in one of the hardest hit parts of the state. what are you hearing about the impact of the president's executive order now? >> reporter: that's right, kate. well a lot of companies and workers are trying to figure out what exactly that executive order means for them because as you mentioned it is one of the

hardest hit places in the state and in part due to the workers -- ott numbers we've seen from the meat packing facilities, it's now the highest infection rate in the state in this county. we've seen this in plants across the country. thousands of workers that have shown symptoms or been hospitalized throughout this coronavirus pandemic, at least 20 that have sadly died and more than 20 plants that have closed over the course of the past two months at one point or another. and here in green bay there are three plants being affected by this pandemic and seeing confirmed cases. jbs, american foods groom and salm partners. jbs closing throughout this. but another aspect is when you look at the demographics of employees infected here, 35% hispanic, 20% black but the 35% hispanic is the highest among minorities groups that we've seen in places across this country. i spoke to one worker here in

green bay who worked at gren one of the meat processing plants that has been affected and he said by his estimation 90% of the people he works with are hispanic. and that spanish is definitely the first language spoken at their plant and they say that they are nervous about potentially coming to work, scared in some cases. and while the person i spoke to wasn't undocumented himself, he said he knows many undocumented workers that are fearful of even speaking to management for fear they won't be asked to return, kate. >> and that adds to all of the anxiety and what this means if they're being told they need to go back. omar, thank you. joining me now for more is david michaels, the longest head of osha, the federal agency tasked with worker workplace safety. as omar reported, many of the workers come from communities that are being disproportionately impacted by the disease. how do you ensure the safety of

these workers? is it clear to you right now how to get it right if these meat packing processing plants are being told they have to open? >> well, telling them they have to open is a terrible mistake. we know how the job could be done safely. and the reason these are being closed is not because overzealous governors or public health authorities are forcing them to close. it is because the employers, the meat companies didn't take proper precautions when they should have, when the recommendations were out there, and there is no osha rule that said they have to do it. so now consumers are scared. workers are terrified. you could do it right. they should have done it right a couple of months ago. but what president trump has done is said we solved the bottleneck, we're going to make you stay open, it is a disaster for workers. we're making these workplaces, these meat packing plants human sacrifice zones. >> the real question is what

does this executive order mean for workers that are in the plant -- the plant might be open but they might not feel safe going back yet. i asked this because this is exactly what iowa's governor has been talking about in the last couple of days and listen so what she said about this. >> if you're an employer and you offer to bring your employee back to work and they decide not to, that is a voluntary -- what is the word i'm looking for -- acquit. so we don't have it happen very often. it is a volt unterri quit so they are not eligible for the unemployment moment. >> in that environment that is impossible to ask of people. how do you see that? >> that is right. what the governors are saying if you have to choose between

putting your life on the line, your health on the line, or your income on the line. workers correctly are scared. and it is getting worse. i have to tell you the poultry plants throughout the south have requested permission from the usda so speed up the lines, not to slow things down. when we need to slow down to be able to put workers six feet apart. but they've gotten permission to speed up the lines and offer more money. so they're offering essentially a little bit more money to come in and really risk your health or stay home and lose all of your salary and not get unemployment benefits. it's wrong. >> from what -- you come from the experience -- you come with immense experience when it comes to workplace safety. from your perspective, are you comfortable in this moment of workers being told going -- they should be heading back to work in the plants which we've seen have shown clusters, have become

clusters of the coronavirus outbreak. >> it's outrageous. would you like to see those governors and ceo's spend a day on the pork lines shoulder to shoulder with the workers with lack of personal protective equipment and at the end of the day say what do you think, should we get everybody back in here every day. >> you have, i've seen in a previous interview that i've begin osha an "f" in terms of a report card and how they have handled themselves as an agency in the midst of this crisis. how important is this federal agency? how important is the role of osha in this next phase when businesses will start reopening, states will -- are starting to reopen. >> that's exactly the right question. we need to reopen the economy but if workers are terrified and if they're all going back to situations like these poultry workers or the pork workers,

they have to want to go back and if they do go back without proper protections we would have a second wave of this disease which will set back the economy and in addition to killing people. what osha needs to do is issue a clear emergency standard saying every employer has to assure that workers are safe. the law is clear osha can do that. there is legislation from the house and the senate requiring osha to do that. but the house and senate are not in session right now and we haven't seen president trump, we haven't seen secretary of labor scalia make si any sort of effort to say that employers are required to keep workers safe and osha has to be in the forefront and right now the trump administration has not put osha in the backseat, it is not even in the car. >> and, look, many companies might be putting together plans for making the workplace safe and the new precautions in protective gear for workers

coming into the business but they might take proper precautions but they definitely across the board need to be clearly communicating that with the public and workers if they want people to come back. thank you so much. great to see you, david. >> great to see you. thanks. >> thank you. coming up for us, the united kingdom is revising how it counts the number of covid-19 deaths that they are facing. and it is showing a dramatic change in the death toll there. we're going to take you live to london with the details, coming up. make family-sized meals fast, and because it's a ninja foodi, it can do things no other oven can, like flip away. the ninja foodi air fry oven, the oven that crisps and flips away. i have always wanted to be a teacher. with everything going on,

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welcome back. this just into cnn. a grim milestone reached in the united kingdom. the death toll has been revised upward there to more tan 26,000. the second highest that would make it now in europe behind italy. let's go to london with more on this. bianca nobilo is there. what is driving this jump? >> reporter: well, kate, today was the first day that deaths in the community and in care homes were included. now we all know that some of the people that are most vulnerable to this virus are the elderly and those with other comorbidity

so for a long time us in the united kingdom knew the death toll was underreporting what the true total would be here and now the u.k. has the third highest virus related death toll and the second highest in europe and one of the ministers said today in britain it could well be the case that britain ends up with the highest death toll in europe. now dominic robb, the first secretary of state was standing in for the prime minister today who was absent this time not for a serious life-threatening reason as he was for coronavirus but because he has had a baby boy with his partner carry symonds and this is what he said about the increased toll. >> from today we're moving to an improved daily reporting system tor deaths so deaths in all settings are included wherever the individual has tested positive for covid-19. rather than just those in hospitals. >> we have recorded an

additional 3,811 deaths in total and i think it is just important to say that those additional deaths were spread over the period from the 2nd of march to the 28th of april. so they don't represent a sudden surge in the number of deaths. >> reporter: kate, now the questions that follow, of course, are what could be done urgently now to try to improve the situation and then why is this the case. is it possibly because britain has lagged considerably behind in tests, just over 50,000 tests announced today and the tarkt was 100,000 by the end of april to the government are getting close to that. one more day left. or the tact that the government acted so late and the country didn't go into a lockdown and it is still not in a lockdown. those are the answers that those in government and those in the media will be pushing for in the coming days. >> absolutely. thanks bianca. fans are adjusting to a life

without sports begrudgingly but how long will baseball and basketball be on hold and what is on tap for the football season. more ahead.

along with so many aspects of quote/unquote normal life, professional sports is something so many people are missing right now. and they may not be coming back any time soon. i say that because dr. fauci told "the new york times" in a new interview that without

breakthroughs in testing, some sports may have to skip the entire season. here is how he put it to the "times." safety trumps everything. if you can't guarantee seven-day forecast than enfortunately you have to bite the bullet and say we may have to go without this sport for this season. joining me now bob costas. bob, this is breaking the hearts of millions and i include myself in that group. what do you think of fauci's message? do you think the leagues are hearing this message? >> well i think dr. fauci would be among the heartbroken because he's a passionate and knowledgeable sports fan. i've heard him speak with particular detail about the baseball he grew up following in the 1950s in new york, the basketball he played in high school, he followed the nba closely. so he's not dismissing this as something unimportant. he recognized that it is an

important business. and that also millions upon millions of americans would welcome it back. they're yearning for the diversion and yearning to follow their teams. certainly i am. but dr. fauci, as usual, is saying something very reasonable and credible. unless and until there is comprehensive and credible testing, because you're going to have to frequently test the participants, not just the players but everyone surrounding them, even if they are fans in the stands, there is support personnel and many more people than just the players involved and you have to test them frequently and quarantine them and this could only take place when widespread testing is available to, as the expression goes, everyone who needs it and wants it. otherwise it is a public relations disaster if it is viewed that privileged athletes and team owners are jumping the queue while americans who are less favorably situated are

still waiting. >> that is a great point. and how you lay out which is really spot on. is it wrong to think that it feels like an insurmountable challenge to get to that place where it is widespread enough and comprehensive enough to be able to let the sports teams go on. what is your gut telling you on this one? are you getting the sense that we're going to see professional sports have to take an entire year off? >> i think that is entirely possible. and someone who has a much better sense of it than i do like dr. fauci at least said it is possible. but at same time, i think all of the leagues are right to have contingency plans, best case scenarios and worst case scenario and everything in between. for shortened seasons, for full seasons pushed back and for the possibility that there will be no seasons at all and that we would hope to begin with baseball in spring training of

2021. all of those things are possible and we'll have to take our cues from people's expertise is much greater than mine. >> you don't give yourself enough credit, my friend. i have to say i've been impressed in the absence of enjoying sports with the creativity of the leagues and the creative ways the leagues have been trying to and if you look at the numbers successfully engaging sports fans in the time of quarantine from the michael jordan documentary to the nba horse competition to the nfl draft taking place from roger goodell's basement. what is your impression of all of this. >> i'm impressed from a production standpoint of ow espn and the nfl network pulled off that virtual draft. and a lot of people play "horse" in the driveway and there is a shot there. and players from the wnba have defeated nba players which is

interesting. and i think "the last dance" would have been compelling and highly rated under any circumstances but now especially people are yearning for original material and here it is. so all of those things are fine but eventually -- and so too are the all-time games, the archival material that all four of the major team sport networks are pulling up off the shelves and showing great games from the past but eventually even that loses its appeal and people yearn for something in the here and now but we can't have it unless and until it is safe to do so. i will say this, if you have a second, when it comes to baseball, as you may know, baseball has tossed around various ideas, tinkering at the edge of the sport. playoff format and putting a pitch clock in because of pace of play is a concern, whatever the trial balloons, if and when they're able to play a season, short of running the bases backwards, they ought to

experiment with all of it. because baseball fans will accept it. that it is a unique set of circumstances. so if they play the world series in a neutral site in a dome and expand the playoffs and put in a puch clock and electronic umpire calling balls and strikes and now is the time to send up the trial and see what works. >> i take the tee ball version. that might be a fun idea. great to hear from you, bob, thank you so much. >> thank you, kate. take care. >> appreciate it. >> thank you, you too. coming up, it is a question millions of students and their parns and teachers are asking. when will schools reopen and what will it look like when they do. the president aft largest teachers union joins us next. now more than ever, you need technology you can rely on. and people you can rely on. i'm a dell technologies advisor. me too. me too. me too. and if you're a small business, we're with you. we are with you. we're with you.

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across the country, the decision to reopen businesses and get back to work also hinges on when and how to reopen schools and get kids back in the classroom. california governor gavin newsom suggests he might start next school year early, as in july, to get students back learning. how is how he put it on nbc this morning. >> we're hopeful, and again, the data will make that determination for us. inciden it's not back to normal, it's modified. that's very difficult. if we're going to get the economy moving again, we have to let parents get back to work who can't afford childcare, in a way that keeps kids, teachers, and ultimately our community safe. >> what will the new normal in school look like and what will

that mean for the teachers at the front of the class? joining me is the president of the national education association, the country's largest union representing teachers and school staff. thank you for coming in. first, what do you think of newsom's idea there of starting next year's session early in july to get students back in? >> so we're listening very carefully. govern governors, state senators, all those folks who say why not now, it's not politicians checking their guts. i listened very carefully. i liked part of what i heard, and that is "we'll look at the data." to me, that means they'll listen to the experts. i want to remind everybody, like we rushed out of those school buildings like someone pulled the fire alarm. it was like, everybody go home, this is for the safety of the students, of the teachers, of the families they go home to.

this is for the safety of the community, this social distancing. that's why we rushed out of those schools. there is absolutely no reason to pu rush into those schools, especially if you still see smoke coming out of the windows. what we need is plan. and he said two very important words. "when," and "how." for us, the "when," you have to listen to the professionals, you have to listen to the medical infectious disease professionals. i trust them, more than i'll trust me politician, to say we now see evidence that we can relax social distancing. but how, you have to trust the educators, the professionals that know the names of those kids. that means the people that work in the school buildings, not the folks that are ten levels above. but bring those professionals

in, and listen to the medical advice. what kinds of distancing do we have to continue? what kind of safe buildings, the clean buildings that we need, the disinfected buildings that we need? this cannot be done quickly. it has to be done correctly. >> and i know that your union came out very strongly calling how the president was talking about it with governors when he was saying that they should even try to open, reopen for this school year end, you called it dangerous. i do want to ask you, though, as you're on the front line of this, about what it's going to look like whenever schools reopen, some of these elements being tossed around. how will it impact lesson planning for teachers if you have part of the class mondays and wednesdays, the other part of the class tuesdays and thursdays? have you started thinking that

through? >> we've been thinking this through since they told us to go home and do what we did with our kids in a classroom where you could give them a hug and tell them good job, to doing something on a virtual call. we have to do this within like hours, to figure all of this out. and so we have really thought through, while we're building that plane as it's going down the runway, and i always correct people when they say we canceled class. oh, no, you didn't, you just moved it. we're working as hard as we ever worked. the lights are off in the school building but they're on in people's homes, and those teachers and support staff are working like crazy to make sure our kids have something. but we don't think there's normal to get back to. we think away going to have to be very, very creative. and look at how they're

carefully opening businesses. they're saying, how do we space workers, how do we limit the number of customers that can be in a store, what is the personal protective gear that we have to give our employees. you have to ask those questions and a thousand more when you're talking about children in a very crowded school building. i have 39 sixth graders one year, that was never healthy. what are we going to do to make sure -- you can't space 39 kids in a classroom six feet apart. >> that's right. that's right. and that's one of, as you said, thousands of considerations that need to be considered from classroom to classroom, school to school, district to district, state to state at this point. lily, thank you so much for coming, i appreciate it. coming up for us, dr. fauci expressing major optimism about the drug remdesivir as a treatment for coronavirus. so what happens now? dr. sanjay gupta weighs in,

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this is cnn breaking news. welcome to "the lead." i'm jake tapper. the nation surpassing 60,000 deaths from coronavirus, a number that it was once not projected the u.s. would reach until august.

we're still in april. the number lost to coronavirus is 60,207, to be precise. but we do have a dmrglimmer of d news for you this afternoon. dr. anthony fauci described what he described as good and highly significant news for potential treatment for coronavirus. a new study shows evidence that a medication called remdesivir can help block coronavirus and has a, quote, clear-cut effect in diminishing the length of time one suffers from it. dr. fauci also saying that the mortality rate for patients taking this drug was lower. "the new york times" is now reporting the food and drug administration, the fda, is expected to issue emergency authorization for the drug to make it available to coronavirus patients quickly. cnn's nick watt reports now, dr. fauci said the remdesivir results remind him of the desperate effort t