good evening. i'm erin burnett, and welcome to a special edition of "out front." tonight, a potential breakthrough in treating coronavirus. the fda planning to announce the emergency use of remdesivir after promising results from a clinical trial. dr. anthony fauci suggesting that this is a breakthrough. >> it is very important proof of concept because what it has proven is that a drug can block this virus. we think it's really opening the door to the fact that we now have the ability and i can guarantee you as more companies, more investigators get involved,

it's going to get better and better. >> results from this preliminary trial show remdesivir improved recovery time for coronavirus patients. 15 days in the hospital. taking the drug, only 11. and while fauci admits the drug did not show a statistically significant benefit in whether patients actually died as of yet, i just spoke to a doctor involved in the remdesivir trial. he is much more optimistic. he says the expectation is that the more data that they have coming through is going to show a statistically significant improvement of people living. sent the dow soaring today. but all of this comes in the context of americans dying. tonight, more than 60,000 americans have died from coronavirus. it is more than a quarter of all deaths around the world. out front now, i want to begin our coverage this hour with a coronavirus patient who was treated with remdesivir. chris kaine was put on oxygen right away when he got to the hospital on march 9th. his wife told us he was in such bad condition, she thought he

was going to die. he got his first dose of the drug the infect dnext day, and released four days after that. and, chris, welcome to the program. i mean, it's pretty incredible. you go into the hospital. your wife actually thinks that you're not going to make it. and you get this drug. do you think this was the key to your recovery? >> well, when we first got checked in there, they didn't really allude to any other options we had at that point. so then when the doctor approached us and said, hey, we have this test drug. would you be interested? and described it. it was certainly not something we thought about when we got there. so -- but needless to say, i was really happy with the results. >> so what was your condition when you received the drug? i mean, we heard your wife's skrich description. but how would you describe your condition when you went into the hospital, and when you started on remdesivir? >> probably, about five or six days prior to that, i was running a 103-degree fever. i had a lot of -- my chest was -- was compressed. i mean, i had a lot of trouble

breathing. so it was -- i was feeling terrible. i mean, it was really difficult to move around and do anything like that. so -- and it'd been that same way, you know, day after day, which is where it was really starting to worry me. >> so, when you go in on march 9th, march 10th you start receiving remdesivir. you're home by the 14th. i mean, we all know of so many people, right, once they go into the hospital, they're in for quite some time. whether it's on oxygen or then, actually, being intubated. how quickly after you started getting the drug did you feel dramatically better? >> i'd probably say about two days, 48 hours. the first day of thinking, like, hey, i'm not feeling worse, for once, when i woke up. and, then, the next morning when i woke up, my temperature was a lot lower. i was always waking up with a fever in the morning. and then, when i had to get up and walk across the room, i really had a lot of trouble walking. that was the first day that i was walking.

i didn't have as much breathing. it was still -- it still hurt. but i, all of a sudden, felt, hey, i'm in a better spot than i was two days ago. >> look. obviously, pretty incredible if this was because of the drug. do you know anything, chris, about how many doses you got or the dosage amount you got? because obviously, this is what they're really trying to test now. >> yeah. i was on -- i was actually on a five-day plan or five-day doses. i got a dose, an iv, every morning, for five days. and i believe there was a ten-day program, also. but i mean, at the end of four days, i mean, i was still feeling the effects of corona. but to the point where the doctors felt like, hey, tomorrow, one more dose, and then you can go home. >> and then you did go home. and -- and how are you doing now? did you have any -- any sort of, you know, fallback or was it, from then, just pure improvement? >> yeah. no. it's -- i -- i think i'm back to -- back to healthy. i went to my -- my regular

doctor a few times. and they did a chest x-ray. and when i went in there, i had a lot of cloudiness and pneumonia and stuff like that inside my lungs. and when i went and saw my regular doctor, a few weeks after i got out of the hospital, they said it looked like my lungs were -- were completely clear. and they didn't see any scarring or anything like that. so i'm feeling -- i'm feeling dramatically better right now. >> wow. all right. and pretty incredible, too, that you're saying no scarring. that it really was a full -- a full recovery because i know so many people have a fear that, even when you do recover, you can have that scarring and damage to the lungs. chris, i really appreciate your time. thank you. >> thank you. appreciate it. and out front now, dr. jonathan riner who advised the medical team under george w. bush and current director of the cardiac cath lab at george washington university hospital. so let me just ask you, dr. reiner, you just heard, obviously, chris kaine's story. dr. fauci says that -- that this data shows clearcut,

significant, positive effect in terms of the time to recovery. and it certainly sounds, in the case of chris that, that was a very quick recovery. >> yeah. so, wow, finally a little bit of sunshine in a dark time. how nice. well, it's hard to know , in an individual patient response, what the effect of the drug was. but the good news is that we now have a large, almost thousand-patient, placebo-controlled, randomized trial. that shows us, now, that this drug has efficacy. so time to recovery significantly improved. and they almost met the statistical requirement. although, the trial wasn't really powered for it, they almost met the statistical requirement for mortality benefit. very impress iv. so a feel-good moment. i felt really happy for tony fauci today. he looked really buoyant.

>> he did. i mean, he really did. as i said, sort of looked -- sort of looked -- in some regards. but he did make a point that there was -- it was not statistically significant in terms of improving whether people actually lived or died. right? the mortality point that you make. now, i had a doctor involved in the study on last hour. he seems to feel that, as more data come out, and that that data in the next couple weeks, it will meet that statistically significant hurdle. given what you saw, which is 11% mortality before the drug, 8% after, those were the numbers, that they will clear that hurdle? >> yeah. i think it's -- i think it's very possible. look. that was a 27% reduction in mortality. and that's -- that's a big number. these patients were sick. so these are hospitalized patients, who have -- well, you see from the trial, they had 13%

mortality. so that almost 30% reduction is clinically significant. i think we will eventually come to find, either from this study or another study, that it is statistically significant. but i think what we are starting to see now -- this is -- this is not the end. this isn't even the beginning of the end. but it just might be the end of the beginning. where we're starting, now, to see some therapies that can positively impact outcomes for folks who are sick, and get admitted to the hospital with covid-19. >> so, as a doctor right now, you nknow, there is a big question on how quickly they will be able to get fda approval and emergency approval. sanjay was saying he thinks they will be able to. and certainly, the bar for that was pretty low when it came to the antibody tests. would you give, right now, though, dr. reiner, remdesivir, given what you have seen, to a patient with the virus right now? >> i would because it fills the criteria that we require for all therapies. it's been studied in a well-conducted, randomized,

double-blind, clinical trial. and it shows, both, efficacy and apparent safety. look. the devil is in the details. we need to see the manuscript, and we need to see all the data. but this top-line result looks really good. and gilead has already produced over a million doses of this drug. they did this three weeks ago. they ramped up production, which i think was very far looking, showing -- taking quite a bit of risk. looks like it's going to be made, in very short order, by eua, to every hospital that has a patient with covid-19. >> and just to make a point, of course, it's not approved for anything else. this isn't off label. like hydroxychloroquine was well known and its positives and negatives. but this really is new. so does that give you any caution in the sense of something going, so quickly, from a trial to, you know, mass -- mass use? >> absolutely, which is why trials need to continue. there are multiple trials looking at how to use this drug. when to give it.

which patients benefit the most from it. which patient should you, perhaps, not use this drug? so we'll need to acquire data, even post-approval. but it's an exciting first step. and it's only really a first step. but, yeah, i would use this now. this will become, as dr. fauci said today, this now becomes the new standard of care for hospitalized patients with covid-19. a nice moment. >> dr. reiner, thank you. >> my pleasure. next, breaking news. president trump lashing out at his own campaign manager amid slumping poll numbers over his handling of the pandemic. we have new reporting coming out this hour. plus, a top trump economic advisor saying the u.s. could see a depression on the unemployment number. why the disconnect? the president's top advisor gary cohen is my guest and florida and california. two of the most populous states in the country. yet, they have a much smaller death toll and death rate than new york. why?

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tonight, president trump downplaying the need for testing for the virus. just two days after releasing his plan to ramp up testing. >> we've done incredible with the test being. and you will see, over the next coming weeks, mike, you may be -- want to speak about that a little bit. but, over the next coming weeks, you'll see some -- some

astonishing numbers. i don't know that all of that's even necessary. >> that is not consistent, though, with trump's medical experts. >> we, absolutely, need to significantly ramp up, not only the number of tests but, the compa capacity to actually perform them. >> we have to realize that we have to have a breakthrough innovation in testing. >> so she says you need a breakthrough to get anywhere, and the president says it's going to be so astonishing we won't even need all the tests that we have. okay. they're not on the same page on this issue, and it comes as we are learning the president is also clashing with his campaign manager over sagging poll numbers amid the coronavirus outbreak. jeremy die moeamond broke that and is out front now. jeremy, the president, clearly, growing concerned about his re-election prospects. he brings up the election and his popularity and his ratings at his briefings, when he was holding them on a daily basis,

so what happened? >> erin, the president isn't just growing concerned. he's growing increasingly unnerved by the prospects by his 2020 re-election prospects. the resources familiar with the matter are now telling me, erin, that the president's frustrations boiled over on friday evening during a phone call with his campaign manager, brad parscale. i'm told that the president berated parscale for his slide in the poll numbers. even threatening to sue him at one point. now, it's not clear exactly how serious the president was about that threat. some sources have suggested to me that it was, perhaps, a joke. but what is clear, erin, is that the president is growing increasingly unnerved about his re-election prospects. remember, this coronavirus pandemic has really upturned the roadmap for president trump to win re-election. it took away his biggest calling card, which was, of course, the economy. >> so, jeremy, you're also reporting this outburst that you are talking about, that brad parscale, came a couple days after the president was briefed by his advisers. you know, in a briefing -- the

briefing to him was warning him that those daily white house briefings were maybe not good for him. what did they tell him, from your reporting? >> that's right. so two days before the president erupted at parscale, the president had a phone conversation with parscale, as well as the rnc chairwoman, rhonda mcdaniel and some other top advisers. and basically, these advisers were, number one, presenting the president with some new polling data, some internal polling data, showing the president headed for defeat in some of those key battleground states, trailing behind former vice president joe biden. and they also showed him some granular data about how swing voters felt about those daily, combat iv ne combative news conferences. and these aides were trying to convince the president to scale back some of these briefings because the data saying swings voters really did not like the president's performances during the news briefings.

outside white house allies to try and kins convince him to scale back those briefings. and of course it was the day after the president received that briefing when he is, i'm told, a lot of the data he had been showed. the president had perhaps his most self-defeating yet when he suggested that disinfectant could be ingested to cure coronavirus. all the criticism in that briefing, he erupted at parscale. but since then, we know the president has within been skbee news conferences. but, of course, the president's still managed to find an outlet for his views. taking questions from reporters in the oval office, for example. >> all right. thank you very much, jeremy. out front now, david gregory, our political analyst. and douglas brinkly, cnn presidential historian. so, david, it's pretty interesting. the president loved those briefings. i mean, he lived for them. he kept talking about his

ratings, and saying how great they a they are. one of his most loyal and effective players in brad parscale. >> yeah, it's striking but it's not surprising. i mean, i don't know any president, under these circumstances, in an election year, who wouldn't be incredibly unnerved. the -- the crisis that's in front of you, and then having to face the voters. it's just very, very difficult. this president is not a professional politician. he's very transparent in what he thinks, day to day, and he wants to command the airwaves. he always wants to be in front of the american people. everything is about him, not even the government. and, you know, so, yeah, he erupts when he gets bad poll numbers. but, you know, the reason is he won't listen to people who have been trying to say, mr. president, don't say crazy stuff because that's bad, politically.

any leader shouldn't say things that are unfounded in reality or in facts, and certainly not the leader of the free world who is trying to manage a global pandemic, that's killing people on this scale. that's what -- that erratic behavior is what's getting him into trouble. making promises that he can't keep. he's not responsible for all of this. he'll be graded, in effect, or assessed by his reaction and by the government's reaction and his handling of it. but he really gets beyond the lines by saying things like about the disinfectant is what gets people really questioning his judgment and temperament at these times. >> and, look, judgment and temperament. people have their views on that, right? but this is a moment where, all of a sudden, you realize that youring o willingness to dismiss that, or not, may matter more than you thought. maybe that's the question people are facing because, doug, this reporting that jeremy had on the president's outburst at his campaign manager comes as a new poll shows 55% of americans now

disapprove of trump's handling of the coronavirus. that number has risen, from 49% who felt that way in march. so we'll see where that goes. but, obviously, that is a significant -- significant jump, in a very short period of time. so, doc, how much do you think this crisis is weighing on the president's chances for re-election? >> well, i think trump's unraveling before our very eyes when he does these press conferences. he seems to have an empathy deficit disorder. i've never seen a president unable to speak like a human being to people on the front lines. to talk and tell the stories about doctors and nurses, medical experts, and what they're really trying to do. he, constantly, is putting the whole story on himself. and you can't trust what he says. i grew up in ohio in the midwest and he is sinking in the polls there. and a lot of it is because he doesn't seem to have an open heart. what he's worried about is himself, and i could see why he blow up during the polls. having bad polls.

but, you know, when you say about fdr, during world war ii, you know, you had a first-class temperament, which brought us through the war. there are no examples of fdr blowing steam and yelling at people in that kind of abusive way, to the point where trump threatened his own campaign manager in this jeremy diamond story, to sue him because he doesn't like what the polls are saying. so this is about a president that has a big problem in the midwest. he's been dissing the michigan governor. he sent vice president pence to mayo clinic, to not wear a mask, in a kind of weirdo charade. and, you know, those states are starting to show that they're not -- the swing voters aren't turning trump. >> erin, tonight -- >> go ahead, david. >> just talking about -- talking about fdr, i mean, you know, certainly, doug knows more about that than i do but as a student of history, we know americans had great faith in fdr, not because he had all the answers

but because he was there. they had real confidence in his empathy and his leadership and his commitment. you know, the president's talking about a lot of things that does resonate with the american people. this tension between public health and getting the economy going again. that resonates with a lot of people who want to get back to work, who need to get back to work. but he detracts from that when he talks about disinfectants. when he talks about what a great job he is doing. when he goes after reporters. even people who don't like the press, and there's lots of those, see a president who is just going way -- swerving way beyond the lanes, and is not focused. and he doesn't seem to have a sense that, as the leader of the country and of the free world, there's certain things he shouldn't speculate about. that's what gets him into trouble. >> right. and this is a moment, again, where people have been fraeafraf life and death and what's going to happen in the world we all live in. it is -- it is a moment where what you say matters and can't just be dismissed. again, that's when a moment what you say there just matters so much. we also hear, doug, when vice president pence speaks, for example, he always, you know,

prefaces his talk with, you know, the leadership of the president. we hear that from all the ceos when he brings them out to the podium. the president's son-in-law, jared kushner, is even taking it a step further. >> we have achieved all the different milestones that are needed. so the gofrmvernment, federal government, rose to the challenge and this is a great success story. >> and so jared kushner said that, doug, on the same day the united states death toll surpassed 60,000. at best, tone deaf. >> completely tone deaf. it's at 60,000. more than vietnam war, now. but, very soon, you can add 9/11 and katrina, oklahoma city bombing, and there are going to be more deaths. it might even end up being as many as vietnam and korea, combined. jared kushner made a fool out of himself, going on the fox -- fox and friends morning show. he talked about whiny people,

that are doing their internal -- the internal lockdown crowd. i don't think it's about an eternal lockdown crowd. we have, particularly, so many veterans in senior and assisted-living places, that are dying. and you read stories of cnn today putting people that are very close to producers and cameramen that are dying. everyone, now, is losing somebody due to covid-19. and kushner needs to be, again, talking more in an empathetic way. optimism's great but not blind optimism, when you have distorted facts. and that's what's been coming out of the trump crowd. >> we just need results. we don't need people spiking the balls in declaring victory. i think if you listen to the people closest to this, our governors in the biggest state, they are the ones least political and most focused on the practical facts of what needs to happen to ultimately prevail. >> thank you both. and the pandemic crippling many farmers and the food industry in iowa. the ripple effects of this could

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tonight, worse than we've ever seen. federal reserve chairman jerome powell issuing a stark warning about the situation, how bad the economy is right now. >> we're going to see economic data, for the second quarter, that's worse than any data we've seen for the economy. >> that opinion is shared by small businessowners, who agree this downturn is unlike anything they have ever seen. miguel marquez is out front. >> auction day in iowa. bob larkey used to call them out six times a month. now, down to one. >> i know how many we've sold. we sold about -- >> so less than half what you normally sold. >> oh, yeah. less than half. >> larky has been auctioning cattle for 60 years. >> you can only lose money for so long. sooner or later, you got to say,

whoa. >> have you ever seen anything like this in the market? >> never. i've seen some drops but never nothing like this, that affects everybody. >> with processing plants losing workers to the coronavirus, there is a bottleneck between producers and retailers. >> it must be frustrating cause you're seeing what people are paying in the supermarkets, and you are seeing those prices go up. but you can't sell cows. >> right. right. >> what's happening? >> well, yeah. what -- i guess -- what -- what i want to know is, what is happening? >> johnson typically sells 5 to 800 cattle, every week. >> how many have you sold in the last month and a half, two months? >> we have sold nothing in the last five weeks. >> he'd lose hundreds on every cow, as they can't be delivered to slaughterhouses with the coronavirus sharply reducing the workforce. the pandemic, crippling the food chain and retail business, alike. >> it's really bumpy right now. >> ben graham is a fourth-generation clothier in dubuque.

he is preparing to reopen, unsure what to expect. while iowa never told its residents to stay home, it did close all but essential businesses. >> before that, you were already feeling the effect? >> oh, my gosh, yeah. >> how? how much was business down before the order went into effect? >> 70%. 80%. >> what? >> yeah. i mean, it just like, right now, people got worried and afraid. >> he's not alone. data from safe graph, which tracks anonymous cell phone data, nationwide, indicates a sharp decrease in economic activity across iowa, more than a week before most businesses were ordered to close. data from nearly 43,000 locations across the hawkeye state show a steep drop in foot traffic from everything to retail stores to manufacturing plants. the pandemic stifling consumer confidence, disrupting markets, from agriculture to retail to restaurants. >> what is your expectation for how life comes back to places like dubuque? >> i believe it's going to come

back slowly. people are going to be very, i think, people will start, eventually, coming back. and they'll sit out, maybe, outside. that's what i would be more comfortable with. >> as dubuque heads into tourist high season, the big questions, like everywhere, when will the pandemic be tamed? and how long will the economy be disrupted? >> now, the governor here in iowa has ordered that certain counties start to reopen in the next couple of days. the question is, will people come back? the governor's also said that if you are on unemployment, and refuse to go back to work, you risk losing those benefits. there is a couple of problems there. if they have underlying health issue or other issues, living with elderly or kids at home, they might not want to go back, and might not have to go back. the bigger question, beyond all that is, are employers going to want all their employees rushing back to work? they're not entirely sure, so far, the customers are going to be there. erin. >> that could be the biggest question. miguel, thank you very much.

and i want to go straight, now, to gary coomb, who served as director of national economic council under president trump. and gary, the point miguel was making, you heard him say businesses took a 70 to 80% hit before the shutdown. but as miguel just said reopening alone may not change much of that. right? it's about people are willing to go back. i mean, how hard will it be to take the fear out of going out, out of returning to normal life? >> erin, thanks for having me. look. this is an interesting conundrum that we have put our american citizens in. for the last 35 to 40 days, we have, literally, heard nothing but orders to stay at home. only leave your house to go buy the bare essentials of life, that you need, and return home immediately. and, now, we're starting to tell people, no, ignore what we told you. go out and reenter the economy. that mental transition is going to take some time.

there is a natural adjustment period there to go through. i think people will adjust, as they see people entering the economy, they, themselves, will want to get out there. this is not an overnight phenomena. people would be more comfortable going into smaller retail establishments, where there are one -- one or two customers inside. versus larger so they'll open first. and then, as they get comfortable with that, they will be more comfortable going into a retail establishment with four or five people. but this will be a natural evolution. but if we don't start the evolution, we won't get there. >> right. it gets -- it gets harder and harder to break the fear. i understand your point. so in terms of the economic impact of this, i mean, i guess it's fair to say, at this point, we don't even, perhaps, know how bad it will be. we did learn, today, that the economy contracted last quarter. we knew that but we got the formal confirmation. the biggest problem since the great recession. it's going to be worse next quarter. and i wanted to play for you

what white house economic advisor has been saying about the gdp number and unemployment and what the president has been saying. >> that will be just the very tip of the iceberg of a few months of negative news that's unlike anything you have ever seen. >> we are going to be looking at an unemployment rate like rates we saw during the great depression. >> we are having one of the best periods in terms of stock market. >> i think we're going to go like a rocketship once we get back to business. >> why the dramatically different messaging, do you think, gary? >> i agree with kevin hasett and what he is saying about unemployment. in fact, we are seeing it. we're seeing it real time. we are seeing unemployment claims every week in the u.s. economy. and originally, small businesses and all businesses in america went to the stay-at-home orders. and that meant, for many small businesses, they instantly laid off their workforce. and that was the only prudent and rational thing to do. since that period of time, we've now had the government come in

with some sweeping policies, where they are trying to replace income with the ppp and other programs that we have in place. as the ppp money gets into the system, remember that 75% of that money that companies receive has to go back to pay wages for your employees. so those employees terminated by small businesses, those employees need to be hired back, and those companies need to pay those wages out. hopefully, people will regain employment, and they'll come back into the workforce. so i do agree, initially, we were going to see very high very high unemployment numbers. the stockmarket, in itself, you know, looks at other indicators. the stockmarket is very forwa forward looking, where unemployment numbers are, literally, realtime. we see 'em once a week, real time. in fact, we see real time, americans lining up.

but the stockmarket is forward looking. it is trying to figure out where we're going to be, you know, a year from now or two years from now. it's the forward value of what companies are going to look like. >> right. and of course, we just don't know what it's going to look like. so it's very hard to read anything into it right now. but i will say, you know, when you and i spoke on the show, a few weeks ago, gary, we were talking about antibody testing. and, at the time, it seemed like it could be really crucial, right? you know you had it. you could go back to work. you know, you talked about it being an imperative part of reopening the economy. but since then, we have learned more about the tests and, frankly, there is some very serious accuracy issues with them, at this point. so what is your view now of what a return to work will be? in this case, i am talking about people who are currently working at home. what is a return to work going to look like? >> so, erin, first of all, hopefully, those antibody tests will get better. and our medical community and our scientific community is doing amazing work on trying to improve those tests and testing and -- and vaccines. so, look, let's hope that that

happens. but as -- as we return to work here, and we try and open the economy, slowly and methodically and, still, being very concerned about a re-outbreak or reoccurrence of the covid virus, we need to bring people into the workforce. and i think the clip that you played from the governor of iowa is very important. as many of these companies try and reopen, they're going to try and get their employees to come back to them. there is an opportunity cost to come back to work. right now, if you're collecting unemployment, you could be getting 100% of wages or 100%-plus in wages. but remember, you may have kids at home so you're not paying for childcare. you don't have kids going to school, so you need to take care of your kids. if you're going back into the workforce today, you may get your wages. but you have to deal with your children. you may have to pay childcare or support for your children. you have commuting cost.

you have all types of additional cost. so the opportunity cost of going back into the workforce, today, is extremely high. so, as the governor said, if you're not willing to go back in the workforce, the governor may cut off some of those benefits to change that equation of what the opportunity cost to stay home is, versus the opportunity cost to reenter the workforce. >> so, you know, when all this comes in terms of the spending here, the government's already spent more than 2 trillion to stimulate the economy. frankly, there is no end in sight. they're going to keep spending until they don't need to spend and right now there is no problem borrowing the money. right? it's essentially free. except for nothing is free in the long-term. and the question for you, gary, is could all this spending, with really no concern for the price tag, lead to a bigger economic crisis? >> erin, you said it yourself. it may look free. and it may feel free, today. but we are create being a longer-tomorrow problem, that could turn into the next crisis. i say could turn into the next crisis. we are going to put another 2 or

3 or 4 or $5 trillion of deficit into the united states. we could end up with 25, $27 trillion of deficit. we have to finance that deficit. to the extent that the world allows us to do that, we have no problem. but, if we get to that horrible, horrific point, where the world no longer wants to finance our debt and we cannot self-finance with savings in this country, we, then, have another crisis on our hands. where the u.s. cannot borrow money, and interest rates in the united states go dramatically higher, which has a immediate impact on every homeowner, every auto loan, every mortgage, and every student loan in this country, where the rates on those loans are going to go dramatically higher. and we're going to have a real impact on our economy. >> all right. gary cohen, thank you very much. a sobering thing to consider but an important one, given obviously that debt will -- will -- is, now, greater than the size of the entire economy.

which is attritionally, a big red flag. thank you very much. i appreciate it. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> next, two massive states gearing up to reopen. california and florida. why do they appear to be doing so much better than states in the northeast? plus, jeanie, on how couples are getting hitched, virtually. -excuse me. uh... do you mind...being a mo-tour?

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tonight, florida and california. two of the country's most populous states are both announcing plans to reopen. but here is the big question when you think about this. these are -- these are huge states, with huge cities. how did they have more success in containing the spread than hard-hit new york? tom foreman has that story. >> two coastal states, both, drawing oceans of travelers. home to massive populations. and wildly different in their approaches to containing covid-19. in california, the earliest reports of the virus spurred the first stay-at-home order in the nation. on march 19th. >> if you are are presumed to be positive or you're waiting for a test result, you need to, immediately, notify your close

contacts so that they can begin to quarantine themselves. >> the most populous state clamped down on restaurants, public events, and spaces. the result, a surprisingly low, 48,000 cases, in a recent assessment. about 1,900 deaths and plans to relax restrictions. >> we believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications. >> florida took a different path. the third-most populous state did not push residents to stay home until april, and did not move to shut down huge spring break crowds on beaches. with so many older, medically-vulnerable citizens, epidemiologists feared a huge outbreak. but, the current count, again, an unexpectedly low 33,000 cases. approximately, 1,200 fatalities. in parts of florida, too, are poised to reopen. >> we're making progress. you know, we need to continue to put people back to work. >> both of those states have fared much better, per capita, than much smaller massachusetts, connecticut, and new jersey, which have racked up

considerably higher, whorrific infection numbers. topping them all. >> new york state now the epicenter. >> in new york, the death toll reached a new high. >> new york remains the epicenter. >> with more than 23,000 deaths, new york is, by far, the hardest-hit state, in raw numbers and person for person. why is the northeast home to more than half of u.s. covid-19 deaths? while the region quickly followed california's lead with stay-at-home orders, there is some evidence compliance may have been less robust. add in the population density of major northeast cities, and the fact that no part of the country relies more on crowded public transit, and that may have been the true formula for disaster. >> all of this is largely speculation, at this point. but that's one reason why epidemiologists want hospitals to keep as careful record as they can of who shows up, where they have been, and who they had contact with. so they can try to recreate a

viral map of sorts of covid-19's deadly i want to go to the co director of the children'slap lab at philadelphia, and you have been talking about this issue, that we're posing, and specifically, how it is that the virus can spread, not only, you know, more effective at spreading in more dense areas, that is sort of obvious, to all of us, but why the death rate is also higher in those areas. why would that be? >> well, you know, i think it has been a long-held principle in infectious zooesz diseasez that. infectious diseases that inoculum is important in terms of severity of disease. we've seen it in other viral

infections. we know the second children in households who have chicken pox infections in one child, often the second child gets sicker than the first. we've seen even an analysis of a previous influenza epidemic in 1918 that suggested that the greater number of people individuals were exposed to had been infected, more likely they had severe disease. so we're just at the early stage here of getting evidence that sars-cov-2 was present. when we looked at the doctors in italy, we the super they had higher amounts of virus when they tried to take care of patients in northern italy and likely sicker because of it. >> when we look at those health care professionals, it's a fascinating point when we talk about the viral load, how important, and this is an important point for how we got here and also how this country's biggest city is going to get out of this.

and that is, how big of a problem was the new york city subway? >> i think it's a huge problem. when you compare places like florida or california to new york city. i mean, areas in south florida were conferred advantages that new york city did not have. they're not as densely populated. they don't have these large mass transit systems with crowding on the platforms. and, you know, they're also warmer. our newer models, and we have forecasts coming out later this week, will reveal stronger temperature effects as we're heading into the spring. they're not enough to mitigate all the transmission of the virus. but they're certainly helping places like florida. when you put it together, you have areas of south florida where most people live in single family dwellings, there's not a large mass transit system, and they're conferred the advantage of those warmer temperatures. >> dr. rubin, thank you very much, a lot there to think about. i appreciate your time. >> thanks. next, jeannie on virtual weddings that have gone, shall we say, viral. people used to care. heck, they'd come

all the way out here just for a blurry photo of me. oh, that's a good one. wait, what's that? that's just the low-battery warning. oh, alright. now it's all, "check out my rv," and, "let's go four-wheeling." maybe there's a little part of me that wanted to be seen. well, progressive helps people save when they bundle their home with their outdoor vehicles. so they've got other things to do now, bigfoot. wait, what'd you just call me? bigfoot? ♪ my name is daryl.

tonight, tying the knot and saying "i do" on video chat. here is jeanne. >> when lockdown means you can't walk down the aisle, when friends and family can't gather

to hear, consider saying "i thee zoom wed." bride and groom invited as many as 50 guests who introduced themselves -- >> i'm uncle mike from canada. >> drank and ate up to the moment of the ceremony. the mother of the groom in the uk wore a fascinator. friends of the bride dressed fancy on top. a shoe designer and a worker in finance were among the first new yorkers to marry via zoom after the governor gave the green light for weddings via video conferencing. >> no excuses anymore, you're married. >> these two newlyweds nuzzled and kissed during our interview. a long time friend officiated at the ceremony. >> your lawfully wedded wife.

>> i do. >> how long did it take to invite guests. >> note the quarantine hair. it was great practice for marriage after dating for 3 1/2 years. >> we'll look back and laugh and realize there is a light and that we can get through things together. >> it may not sound like the language of love. but there's nothing mute about this romance. >> i think he said, you know, now you may kiss the bride. >> i screamed. you can see my video, i screamed. >> i can now pronounce you husband and wife. kiss the bride. >> there were cheers, toasts. but some guests complained. >> some of us missed the kiss. >> don't worry, they're more than making up for that. >> that was great. >> jeanne moos, cnn.

>> i love you. >> new york. >> and everything in the whole world seems to be happening on zoom right now. chris cuomo is ready to take it over. our coverage continues now with you, chris. you doing zooms? >> can't stop love, erin. what do i have to zoom for? i do this. this is my zoom. have a good night. i'm chris cuomo and welcome to "prime time." federal guidelines to slow the spread are set to expire tomorrow. no state appears to have met the benchmark to reopen, that is 14 straight days of declining number of cases. not one state has met it. the president's leadership in this moment, i'm not really sure about needing testing after all. really? for the love of logic, just two