really? it was clear from the moment they saw the video, and they had that video day one. don't believe these people telling you the video just came out. the cops had it, from jump. i'll show you what i believe could be the most crucial part of that video, especially at trial, if there is one. so let's get after it. tell you. no president wants their name attached to something like a depression. all right. they are very rare. but, today, an unemployment rate of 14.7%, the worst jobs report in american history. more than 20 million lost their livelihoods last month. coop is off. and, far worse, losses of life. probably on daddy duty if i had to guess. you got me for two hours tonight. now, more than 77,000. the virus is now inside the and there is no reason to trump inner circle. believe it's going to go down so they are doing all this anytime soon. testing. all this tracing. and, yet, our president, instead the president's upset. they are saying they have to be of owning our reality, instead soouf supercareful because they don't want it to spread, and yet, the of treating desperate times with

president at the same damn time is making a case against testing desperate measures, like we did during world war ii, which we for the restus. and he is saying we may not need commemorate today, he keeps a vaccine, either. moving the goalpost. it'll probably just disappear on its own. you mean like the flu? shirking responsibility. he should be happy he has the denying reality, even on the death toll. luxury of detecting this around remember he said 60,000, that's him. all it'll be. now, he says 100,000 or more. he should be upset that you do not. and he should be more open with this is all dangerously close to him politically. you about his understanding the but, more importantly, personally now. difference between you and him. a personal valet has the virus. did he put a group of elderly now, the press secretary to the vp, married to one of the world war ii veterans, the president's closest aides, has heroes of our greatest the virus. generation, at greater risk her name is katie miller. today? and we're not letting up on the and we wish her well. i hope her symptoms are light. case of ahmaud arbery. and that they move quickly. and let's be honest. we waited too long to take this she is the wife of white house as seriously as we should. a black man, simply out on a senior advisor stephen miller. the entire family, i hope, jog, shot and killed. nobody else gets touched. i hope it goes away quickly. today, would've been his 26th but we should deal with the birthday. reality. it took this day, 75 days after two white house staffers, in 24 hours, with confirmed positive tests. the crime, for okay? that's how it happens. it spreads. now, it's around him.

what are they doing? they're testing everybody. . what are they doing? they're tracing the people who had it to make sure they can limit the contagion. why aren't we doing that for the rest of us? the president is, still, downplaying the process. >> this is why the whole concept of tests aren't, necessarily, great. the tests are perfect but something could happen between the test, where it's good, and then something happens. and, all of a sudden, she was tested very recently and tested negative. and, then, today, i guess for some reason, she tested positive. >> this should be very troubling to you. one, katie miller did nothing wrong by testing positive. okay? second, of course, the test is only as good as that day. it can't predict the future. how does the president not know this? what's going on with the people around him? tony fauci. couple cups of coffee or

whatever he drinks. and explain to him, every day is a new day. you can be negative today. you can be positive a couple days later. you know who was? i was. you know who else? a lot of people. why? because, not only can you be exposed and get the virus after you've been tested, which is kind of the duh part of this. but this virus takes time to build in your system. and come to a level where it will be detectable, and where your body is starting to lose to it. but, no matter the science, forget the sophistication. what's the simple part? everything that i just told you is more reason to have more testing. they, obviously, matter. it's not a discount argument. you know, the thing's only good for today. it doesn't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow, so why even do it? really? i mean, if i said that, i might be taken off the air for a while. but, from the president of the united states, particularly one,

thankfully, remaining healthy, in part because all of the testing done around him. let's bring in chief white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, i got to tell you. a little unsettling to hear the president kind of coming to a new conclusion that a test is only as good as the day it's taken on. >> very unsettling, chris. not -- not more unsettling, i think than having two staffers in two days test positive for the coronavirus. that really sent some shock waves through the white house. i talked to a senior white house official just a short while ago who said they are, understandably, very concerned. they are very worried about whether or not somebody else might test positive. i can tell you just some new information, chris, in the last couple of minutes. this official tells me that they performed contact tracing inside the white house. that katie miller told officials, here, inside the white house, who were the people that she was in touch with. those people were reached out to, and tested for the coronavirus. those tests came back negative,

including for her husband stephen miller. that's the good news, at this point. but, in the meantime, there -- there is a sense, chris, and there's just no way to tiptoe around this, that the president, other members of his team, not all of them but many of them, don't take this seriously enough. you saw this down on the national mall earlier today where the president was meeting with world war ii veterans. the president was saying, well, you know, i don't necessarily have to be wearing a mask because i was staying far enough away from them. these are elderly members of the greatest generation. it was sort of a monument to risky behavior, seeing the president down there on the national mall doing this. but, in the meantime, here at the white house, they say they are going to be doing more cleansing around the hallways of the west wing. they're going to make sure that, you know, the staffers who go into the residence of the white house are wearing masks and that they do more testing and temperature checks. but, no question about it, you have a president, you heard this earlier today, sort of downplaying the need for testing. when they were ramping up testing everywhere you look inside the white house because

of this positive case involving katie miller. >> and, look, let's be clear. they' they're doing the right thing. temperature checks, i'm not a buyer. too many get this and don't have fever as a symptom. i did. now, i saw a picture of katie miller not wearing a mask, and i think you were standing right next to her. now, i know we try to keep ourselves outside of it but you know what? i need you. and if you're out and around there, are you worried that she didn't have a mask on. and i'm not saying she meant it. she probably didn't know that she had the virus. i would guarantee, almost certainly, she didn't. >> well, that was not me. but that was one of our producers. nikki, you can see her on the far left of your screen right there, chris. i was not in the pool that day but she was, as well as one much our photographers. and as you can see, katie miller -- this was just yesterday. the vice president was dropping off ppe down in alexandria, virginia. and she was not wearing a mask and interacting with the news crews. but, as you can see there, the members of the press are wearing masks. i was wearing one earlier today, even live on the air and in the

briefing because, you know, listen. when they tell us that the vice president's press secretary tests positive for coronavirus, i'm going to wear a mask. there is no one around here right now so it's okay not to wear one i suppose for the time being. but no question about it, chris, this was very worrying and we have members of the press who were in the west wing this afternoon. scramble over to what we call lower press, which is the office of the press area of the white house where the more-junior press staffers are located. instead of staffers being in their offices, white house physicians were in those offices giving everybody coronavirus tests, including me. i think i came -- i'm pretty sure i came back negative because they didn't tell me that i tested positive but that's how things changesed very quickly here earlier this afternoon. >> look. the reality is this is a reflection of what we need everywhere. testing is truth. it's the only way you know anything. especially, if you're anxious to get us reopen. if you want us to be reopen, the only way that you'll give people confidence to go out and restart the economy, through demand, is

if they have some indication that it'll be okay for them to do so. i'm glad that that wasn't you there. i'm glad carbahal had mask on. now, the one quick thing. are you hearing anything about rick bright? i know that he sat for an interview. but is there any word of him being reinstated? you know, interestingly, i had his lawyer on early this week. here's why i ask you, jimmy. and the administration says this guy needs to show up for work, man. we gave him this great job at the nih where he could make a big difference for people with coronavirus, if that's what he cares about. his lawyer said what job? he hasn't been told about any position. and they know where he is. he's been dealing with some physical effects and ailments, recently. what's the latest? >> yeah. i mean, the latest is -- is that his attorneys put out a statement, earlier this evening, saying that they've been informed by this federal selective office, called office of special counsel, don't confuse that with special counsel robert mueller.

it's a different part of the government. and what they are preliminarily saying at this point is there are grounds to believe that he was retaliated against in violation of whistle-blower protection, inside the federal government. that he was trying to warn the public of what was going on inside the administration. that there were things going on that shouldn't be happening when it comes to responding to the coronavirus. and that he was retaliated against. now, he was -- he was brought up during one of our photo opportunities with the president earlier today. president wrote him off as this disgruntled attorney. but he was on cbs earlier this evening saying he is not a disgruntled employee and, as a matter of fact, it is hurting the response to the coronavirus pandemic by him not having him in that position. here's more of what he had to say. >> i am not disgruntled. i am frustrated at a lack of leadership. i am frustrated at a lack of urgency to get a head start on developing life-saving tools for

americans to move me over to a very small, focused project, of any scale, of any level importance, is not responsible. doesn't make sense. >> and what dr. bright, he raises a good question and, that is, why would you pull the top vaccine expert in the federal government out of the mix, in the middle of a pandemic? he says it's because he was being retaliated against for, essentially, questioning the president's embrace of hydroxychloroquine, which as we know has kind of gone by the wayside. and so this fight is not over yet, chris, and i suspect this is just one of the early rounds in this battle. >> well, look. rick bright is not the first guy that we've seen have an unseemly exit from the trump administration for going against the word of the leader on high. jim acosta. i wish you good health and i hope the rest of the team is okay. that matters, most. and the only way we'll know is by people getting tested. have a great weekend, brother, and thank you.

>> good to see you, chris. >> all right. so this president keeps coming up with every excuse not to wear a mask, himself. i wore one. you just didn't see me in it. i wore it backstage. this is not a reality show. you are president of the united states. today, he said it was windy. so it was blowing away-l, with e high-risk group of vaeterans he was with. it goes around both ears. won't blow away. what does this mean for others, when he doesn't wear a mask himself? now that he could have been exposed. one of our top doctors is here next. imagine what you'd say about somebody else who did that. next.

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including seizures; use with caution in dogs with a history of these disorders. protect him with all your heart. simparica trio. west wing is nervous. they should be. two positive cases, in two days. you know why that happened? because this virus is still spreading. now, our leaders are getting texted eve tested every day. that's good. the people who test positive, unfortunately, are having tracing done. very thorough. that's good. the weird part is, the bad part, why don't they see the need for the same type of exercises for the rest of us? let's bring in dr. william schaffner. joining me now. now, there is a little bit point of criticism that trump and pence, these people should self-quarantine. i say no because they're too important. we only have one of each of

them. and if there is any excuse to keep them vital and in the loop of what their daily duties are, i think we've got to defer to that, for now. we only got one president, doc. so i'll give a pass on that. but, on the idea of not wearing masks, the president had an excuse. i wore one backstage, he said, as if this is all a reality show. why does it matter whether or not the president is wearing a mask? messaging aside. medicine only. >> i'm going to say both things, chris. messaging is terribly important. this is a big weekend. much of the country is opening up. the pizza parlor owners, the folks who run nail salons, the barbers, the beauticians, as well as the grocery stores that have been open. no one should go into any of those establishments who's not wearing a mask. and the personnel in those establishments should be wearing a mask when they deal with their

clients. and the white house should be showing an example. this is very, very important. we need to protect our national leaders, absolutely. and that's why the staff inside the white house should, also, be wearing masks. you wear the masks to protect the people around you. >> now, one -- one point of pushback. one, you're right. the messaging matters, even in a medical capacity. you're right to make that point. thank you, doc. in terms of masks, you guys have been all over the place with masks. don't wear maska mask. a mask is meaningless. forget it. it's more downside than upside. well, maybe a mask. a mask won't hurt you. a mask is better than nothing. and, now, everybody has to have a mask. it's confusing. >> me, too. i was -- i learned as we went along. as soon as we learned that coronavirus could be transmitted

by people who were perfectly healthy, then, the reason to wear masks, universally, suddenly, became apparent. because i don't know that i'm not infectious, right at this moment. if so, in order to protect you, if we were close together, i would have to wear that mask. that would help me protect you. we're all in this together. we need to try to reduce the transmission of this virus. it's easily transmitted. this helps block the transmission. >> i'll tell you what. the work that you're doing, what you mean to your institution, what you mean to us, in the media, because of how you're helping educate the public. i would rather get it again than hear that you have it. so, god forbid, you get the virus. we need you healthy. you mean too much to too many people. now, why the the irony being lost on the white house? that, exactly what they're doing

right now, which they should be doing, upping the testing, making sure there is complete tracing, this is exactly what the president keeps saying isn't necessary in this country. >> beats me. i listen, and i urge everyone to listen to the public-health leadership in this country. dr. tony fauci, dr. robert redfield, director of the cdc. listen to them very carefully. they have the right track. it's clear. opening the country is a balancing act. all that misery that's out there, financial, social, cultural, we need to start bringing that back. but if we do that too fast, too soon, too quickly, we'll get out of sync and there will be many, many more illnesses. the only way we can manage this in the middle road is for all of us to be careful about what we do. social distancing is with us, chris, for the foreseeable future.

the six-foot rule, hand hygiene, masks. people who are older, who have chronic, underlying illnesses. take it easy. don't go out right away. mass gatherings. don't like those mass gatherings because the virus likes them too much. loves to spread in mass gatherings. take it easy. >> all right. i hear you saying take it easy. and i see you, you know, say listen to tony fauci. but anybody who wants to be played by brad pitt, i automatically discredit as far as their accountability. fauci's out as far as i'm concerned. and it doesn't matter because the president says something else. schaffner, you're a smart guy. fauci, eh, here's what he says about why we even need a vaccine or not. >> i feel about vaccines like i feel about tests. this is going to go away without a vaccine. it's going to go away, and it's -- we're not going to see it again. you may have some flair ups next

year, but vefrmgleventually, itg to be gone. >> what to worry about? it's just going to go away, he says. like the flu goes away. except, we need a vaccine, every year, for that. and there's absolutely no basis in science for anything he just said. sohear, after the most-powerful man in the world just told them that? >> please. the coronavirus is not going away. it's here. there are many people who are not infected. it's very contagious. it loves going from person to person. we need to be careful, and we need to keep working hard on, both, therapies for when you get sick, as well as vaccines. in the meantime, what we can do, right now, to try to reduce the transmission of this virus, to -- to make sure it doesn't go from one person to other, or at least reduce the chance, is all

that social distancing and wearing the mask. the mask is the new normal. >> dr. schaffner, thank you, so much. you make it interesting and informative, and i wish you a great weekend. >> stay healthy. >> thank you. you, too, more importantly. now, i kind of love schaffner, i got to be honest. i wish he'd been my doctor. although, my god father was my doctor growing up and he's a great guy too. he's my god father. listen. here's what i don't love. the reason that the president is telling you that you don't need a vaccine, it's going to go away. and testing's not all it's cracked up to be. there's a better way. and that, you know, this is really just not going to be that big a deal. he wants to reopen, and he wants you to ignore the reality of the virus. that's why he's not into testing. that's why he says you don't really need a vaccine. that's why he flouts the mask. but, remember, when it's his hiney on the line, everybody's

getting tested every day. and they're tracing everybody. now, that is a concern that a leader should have for whom they lead, not just themself. if you want to know what he thinks about the coronavirus, hook at what they a look what they're doing in the white house right now. look how he is treating himself and the people around him, who could get him sick. that's what you have to watch. lot of new details coming up and something else we need to watch. and i blame myself for not putting your eyes on this sooner. shame on me. the case of ahmaud arbery. the young, unarmed black man, shot dead more than two months ago. no police action. his accused killer, arrested just yesterday. the two white men gave police an excuse for the killing, that is very suspicious, on the face of the video that the police have had, from day one. what the police said today and what they should've been saying all along. next. equal to the job done.

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all right. more on coronavirus ahead. but we waited too long to get into a story that matters too much. and, look, it's got to be about fairness under law. you got to have the facts come out. you are a probably going to need a trial but you can't ignore it. and you can't ignore a situation where there's been no police action, for months. all right. this is an obscene case in georgia. an unarmed, black jogger, shot and killed. and i call him a jogger because that is what he was and is from every apparent indication from all the facts, as we know them, to this point.

now, today, the father and son, who are facing murder choices, made their first court appearance. demonstrators took to the streets across the country. many were running 2.23 miles, in celebration of what would've been ahmaud's 26th birthday. why 2.23? this happened on february 23rd. now, the arrests are the appropriate process for what we understand, in this situation. probable cause seems to be a very low bar, and they get over it easily on the video alone. and remember, please, stop spreading misinformation. or at least stop believing it. if you're spreading it, i probably can't have any effect on you. the police had this video, from day one. they wrote about it in their initial reports on this. it is not new to them. i want to show it to you, again. okay? now, before i even show it to you. the police say, okay, this isn't me saying it.

it's not the arbery, the victim's family, saying it. there were two confrontations between arbery and these guys in the car, with the shotgun and the pistol, and the guy following them, before what you're about to see. so very important. factor it in. guy's jogging down the street. twice, he is confronted by these guys. now, you're going to pick up at how he is acting and what happens. okay? let's watch. >> you see him jogging? get the bottom third off. you see him jogging? now, they're trying to get him again. camera works not great but we only have what we have. now, he runs around the truck that has already come to him twice. there is a man with a long gun. they start a fight.

the brother, the father and the son say he attacked them. now, let's look at what we know from this. okay. what did you see in ahmaud? in the first scene. what was he doing? he was running at a steady gait, down the middle of the street. okay? you're going to see it here. this guy's pulling up. this guy is going to become of interest, by the way. why'd you take this video? what is your role in this? see? you see him? there's ahmaud. now, let me ask you something. okay? just think. just common sense. okay. you don't have to have 20 years of investigating these cases like me. you don't have to have a legal background. just common sense. you are fleeing the scene of a crime. men have aproefproached you. two white men. you are black. okay. they have weapons. they have approached you twice. and, then, you are still jogging down the middle of the street? is that what somebody does when they are fleeing the scene of a crime? jog down the middle of the street?

no. it is not what you do. it is what you do when you are intent on jogging, and are probably having some kind of emotional state of shock from the fact that these white guys keep coming up to you. but he kept jogging because that's what he was doing. reasonableness dictates, if he was on the run, what do you do if a guy pulls up in a car and sta starts asking you about what you are trying to escape from? keep jogging in a line down the middle of the street? no, you break left, right, try to get away. you be evasive. that's what people do, especially when they have reason to do it. not here. remember, police had this video. police know, from the investigating of talking to the guys, that they finally arrested 70 something days later, that they came at the guy twice before this. he never ran away. he never dodged for some backyard. he never tried to escape. not until the guy came out with a long gun in his face. and the father and son say he attacked us. what do you do?

when guys that intent on talking to you, jump out of a truck, with a long gun in your face? let alone, injecting the race into this. martin savidge has been on this story. his reporting took us deep into how this video came out, and really exposed something, martin, that can't be underestimated. which is, the police had the video. there's all of this talk online and defense of the process here that, well, it's new information to all of us. not to them. you were at the demonstrations today. tell us about the state of play, martin, and, again, thank you for giving us the information that give us such insight. >> absolutely. the demonstrations today were the largest that we have seen when it comes to support of ahmaud arbery and his family. there were hundreds of people that gathered in front of the glen county courthouse. this demonstration had been planned, even before the arrests had taken place. it went forward, even after the arrests had been made. and the crowd was still

frustrated. as one of the speakers said, this is not a celebration. this is just step one on what has been a very long road of trying to even start the process of justice. many people are very upset with the previous das. they're asking that they be -- resign, fired, or be ejected from office. and they believe what has happened here has been exemplified by the gbi. the state level of investigation, which comes up in less than two days, with the decision that, yes, you must make arrests. whereas the local investigators, that's the glen county police department, for over two months, couldn't decide whether they should do anything. so there's still a great deal of anger and frustration. >> well, that's what happens when an innocent man is shot, dead, on the street and nothing happens for two months. i know you understand that, martin. you have been all over this country. bringing truth to light in situations like this. the gbi, the georgia bureau of

investigation. so the local authorities somewhat taken out of the mix here. replaced by state investigative authorities. they said, today, that the video is a very important piece of evidence. we don't need them for that. what else did they say? >> well, they pointed out that the investigation had been done, almost completely, by local authorities. they only interviewed a few more people in the neighborhood. what they really did was they went through all the documents. they went through all the evidence. they went through all the material that local law enforcement had, including the video. which, by the way, the head of the gbi who i asked directly, i said when did local authorities have it? he said the day of the accident, they had that video. and so what's so amazing that you learn is that the local law enforcement came up with a completely different take on that evidence than what the gbi officers, by the end of their

first day, knew. that they had to go to the judge and get an arrest warrant for the father and son. >> now, another key aspect of this is going to be the basis of the defendants' attention here, which they say, a series of burglaries with -- for which this man fit the description. what can you tell us about burglaries in the area? knowledge of the same? and a description of this -- of potential assailant. >> well, gregory mcmichael, who is of course former law enforcement. the first thing he begins telling to the officers when they arrive on scene after this horrific shooting, is that he implies they were in hot pursuit of the suspect because there had been a series of break-ins in the neighborhood. and this is a perception that even some callers to 911 had said. so we went and started looking into the police records to find the reports about all those break-ins. you don't find them. there is one reported theft.

it occurred on new year's day. and it, actually, was a gun that was taken out of an unlocked pickup truck. and that pickup truck, by the way, belonged to the mcmichaels. . so when you hear this depiction that there was this sense that this was a neighborhood victimized by crime, time and time again. it simply isn't verified by police records or reports. >> and arbery had no weapon on him, right? >>, no, he d >> no he did not. no. >> martin, thank you very much. now, one other question. any idea, yet, of -- i know the charges. georgia's one of four states without hate crime laws. and that anything like that is taken into consideration, only in sentencing. they were struck down in 2004 there i think by the supreme court as being unconstitutionally vague. there have been efforts to pass them since. hasn't happened. what does that mean in terms of how this case is being viewed by

the state? >> well, i mean, many people, i think outside the state of georgia, when they might have heard the gbi being questioned about this whole hate crime thing and the director of the gbi said we don't have a hate crime in the state of georgia. well, if you're of the other states that do, you were probably flabbergasted. it's georgia, it's arkansas, it's south carolina. and one other state. wyoming. so you've already recounted the history here. many have asked, well, why is it that the georgia legislature just can't seem to pass it again? there's been some speculation that because georgia's a conservative state, that there are some who just simply do not want to give protections to the lgbtq community. i don't know how truthful that really rings out because one of the last attempts to try to get a hate crime back on the books in georgia was actually started by a republican. so it's clear we don't have such law. and what it would have done, or would do, in this case, is tag on extra years to the sentence

once a conviction was derived. >> martin. i appreciate, very much, and again, thank you for opening the aperture of our understanding on this. this is one of those stories that is going to be completely infected by false narratives, to justify all kinds of agendas. so thank you for making the record so clear, so much, so early. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thanks. >> now, as martin told you, today would've been ahmaud arbery's 26th birthday. i want to have you hear from his father. and his father's attorney. ahead. about what this means to them that it took this course, and what his son meant to him. because that's why you have to care about these cases. but, also, coming up, i have silicon valley giants, like google and apple, right, i want to talk to you about this. they're stepping up to help take on the massive job of contact tracing.

identifying those who may have been exposed to covid. this country can't rely on one type of technology, alone. but we do need tracing to reopen safely. and a lot of you aren't going to like it because it's going to have privacy concerns. but i want to bring in an expert, who specializes in controlling outbreaks with a vast array of solutions about what you can do. next.

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all right. contact tracing. very important. you are seeing it play out in the white house, right now. when somebody tests positive, you have to know who else they might have infected. or who may have infected them. it's key to how you get through any pandemic. okay? it's key to allowing us to open up safely, so that you can have the confidence that you can go out and buy and shop and eat and work and live and enjoy with a peace of mind. so, we need more testing but we, also, need this companion part that you hear very little about. and, really, that's because it's even harder than testing. and it's more expensive than testing. it takes a lot of manpower and time. so, with more than a million cases, okay, in the united states already, it's going to be a tall order. but there is a cause for hope. we already know how to do this. we already contact trace for other diseases, like hiv and

ebola. joining us, now, is an expert on tracing. david harvey. executive director of the national coalition of std directors. thank you, very much, for joining me. >> thank you, chris, it's great to be with you. >> first, do you expect the premise, testing, yes? but tracing, just as much but not discussed as much because a lot of manpower, a lot of money, which is scary to people who are not in the business to not want much attention to tracing until the first place. >> so, yes, we've had a lot of discussions about testing. and so far, i think the coverage of contact tracing has been very clinical. and i hope what we can do tonight is to kind of humanize this a bit. this is something that we have done a lot of in the united states. and we have a long track record of doing. with other infectious diseases. and we, now, need to know what we already know how to put to work for covid. >> the question becomes, or what has been point of resistance, is the feds not going to do this. it's up to the states. and every state says the same thing. we don't have the manpower and

we don't have the money to get the manpower to do the tracing. what are we missing? >> well, we're missing federal money, for one. but -- but, you know, absent that happening in the next stimulus bill, we already know that states are moving forward on their own. today, coverage was issued by national public radio that shows that states are moving forward to hire 66,000 entry-level contact tracers. that is not enough, by the way, to do the job. so congress needs to allocate about $8 billion, which is what the national public health community is asking for. to cdc, to be allocated to states and local communities, for this function. and we think that figure should support about 100,000 contract tracers, supervised by a more advanced contact tracer called disease-intervention specialists, which are funded and supported out of the std program at cdc. >> all right. so, david, now help me

understand as one of the uninitiated. all i hear are huge numbers and a lot of money. i don't even know what happens. so take me through how this works in a community that wants to reopen. okay? they're telling you they're going to reopen businesses. they're going to do things. how does testing and tracing work together to make me feel i can go out there and enjoy myself, with relative safety? >> so i think the first thing that i want people to know is that these are dogooders. these are people who come from the community, who have a lot of love for their community, and want to help and support people. so, if you get a positive test for covid or if you think you've been exposed or you may have been informed you are presumptive positive, you may get a call from a health worker who works for the health department. this is a function that's vested with health departments. new york city. the new york city health department is one of the leaders in the world in doing this work. and so when that call gets made,

people are experts at understanding how to reach people. i liken it to almost social work, people trained in crisis counseling. purpose is inform people, help them understand what's going on with their health, how to navigate the health care system, what needs to be done to isolate if necessary, and to identify people that they've had sustained contact with. reason this is important to do within the health department is that there's laws, regs, specific rules about confidentiality, and of course we need to count what's going on around the country. health departments have this very well organized. i also want to dment on the fact that cultural competence, cultural humility, rather, is a

very important function of what this work force does. we know covid disproportionately impacted african-americans and latinos. contact tracers need to come from those communities. our existing disease intervention specialist work force comes from those communities. they know how to work with their local communities. >> tech versus face-to-face. >> tech versus face-to-face. there's been an awful lot of talk about, this and i've been asked a lot about this. google and apple and lot of other companies by the way that have technology platforms that support the work of contact tracers in dis. smaller companies that you never hear anything about, checks out, miter. so technology is a component of the work, but it's not the whole thing. nothing is going to replace building a trusting relationship

with communities that often don't trust government systems like the health department. and that has to be done in a phone-to-phone contact or ideally person-to-person contact. with social distancing, the way this is working right now, is largely over the phone and through other special media platforms. but one day we will go back to face-to-face contact with appropriate personal protective equipment, and do this work. but for the moment it's done over the phone largely. >> what does it mean in terms of the efficacy of tracing that one of the aspects of this particular covid is that they are spreading but they don't know it because asymptomatic? >> right. this is the facts and science of covid that people need to be tutored and educated about. that's one thing that contact tracers do.

asymptomatic infection is the biggest challenge we're facing as a country, right? having this work force who understands the science of what's going on here and can help educate and support people and counsel people is what we desperately need. that is not a cheap proposition, as i said. congress needs to get off the dime and allocate this money to the cdc and we need the cdc to step up. there are excellent resources that cdc has issued in this area but don't yet have a unified national strategy to guide states and communities. we're hoping that will be issued very soon. >> they may issue it within the cdc, but the question is will it become part of the public policy.

we saw what happened with the reopening guidelines, white house is very determined to make people think this is going away even though there's no data to show that. that's why i wanted you on, people to understand reality makes a difference and truth will get us through this, not hopes and dreams. thanks for making it understandable, even to pumpkin head like me. >> thank you, chris, good to see you looking well. >> appreciate the good work, god bless, stay healthy. >> thank you. actor sean penn is working in a way i have seen nobody else in this society doing on independent level. of course has a big organization, raising money, all kinds of things. i keep talking about testing, he heard it long before, built an organization to help stop the spread. no dilettante thing, he's not face, not raising awareness, he's doing the work. he and his group are creating testing centers that people can come up with protocols that have

quick, easy, and he's helping our first responders. got to hear from him directly, and you will later on. first, dr. sanjay gupta on the president's risk with yet another infection confirmed in key white house player. next. alri ...oh. i'rt... oh, do you want to go first? no, no i don't...you go. i was just going to say on slide 7, talking about bundling and saving...umm... jamie, you're cutting out. sorry i'm late! hey, whoever's doing that, can you go on mute? oh, my bad! i was just saying there's a typo on slide 7. bundle home & auto for big discosnouts. i think that's supposed to say discounts. you sure about that? hey, can you guys see me?

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hey, everybody, i'm chris cuomo, welcome back to "prime time," i know about our regular hour, we did 8:00 and now the second hour, the regular hour. why should anything be clear? everything is confusing. president should be more worried about this virus, and i argue to you he's more worried than he's telling us. look how he's reacting to it being in the white house. it's not just one case but two among white house staffers. today he revealed that the vice president's press secretary has it. katie miller, the woman without the mask in the picture in front of your face, she is the wife of one of his top aides, stephen miller. now, look, i hope that there are light symptoms and they pass quickly and mo one else in her family gets it, okay? diagnosis comes day after confirmation that president's personal valet tested positive. this spreads. that's why you need testing and tracing.