cnn sit room. erin burnett out front starts right now. out front next, breaking news. president trump says he's been taking hydroxychloroquine, the same drug the fda has warned against. why? plus a potential break through. a vaccine trial showing early promise, this as coronavirus deaths in the united states top 90,000. a doctor and a patient involved in that vaccine study out front. and a new study says closing down restaurants helped stop the spread of coronavirus, shutting down schools, not as much. what does that tell us about the path forward? let's go out front. and good evening. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight the breaking news, a startling revelation from the president, trump announcing he's taking the drug he's touted time and time again, hydroxychloroquine to prevent coronavirus. now, president trump says he doesn't have the virus, he's taking the drug as a precaution, but to be clear there is no

study which has shown the anti-malaria drug can prevent coronavirus. >> a lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy, a lot of good things have come out and you'd be surprised how many people are taking it especially the front line workers before you catch it. the front line workers many are taking it. i happen to be taking it. >> a lot of good things, well, put a thin in that thought for a second because when it comes to the other things he said taking hydroxychloroquine before you can catch it, that doesn't adup right for you. list toon the president's own top infectious disease dr. anthony fauci. >> is there any evidence to suggest as with malaria it might be used as a prophylaxis against covid-19? >> the answer is no. >> the answer is no. well, the president was standing there but he made it clear today he was not listening to dr. fauci. he actually said he got the idea

to do this from a doctor he has never heard of. >> this is a doctor he doesn't want anything, don't know him, never heard of him, but he treats people that we're talking about. and he said out of hundreds of people he's treated he hasn't lost one. >> so the president is taking hydroxychloroquine based on a recommendation from a doctor he doesn't know despite what dr. fauci said. so what about the risks? >> couple of weeks ago started taking it because i think it's good. i've heard a lot of good stories. and if it's not good i'll tell you right. i'm not going to get hurt by it. >> well, actually according to the fda trump could be hurt by it. the fda has said, quote, the fda cautions against use of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for covid-19 outside a hospital setting or clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems. of course the president will be 74 years old in a couple of weeks, and according to his 2018

physical he has a common form of heart disease. and on top of all of this there is one more really important thing, which is that two major studies of hydroxychloroquine in patients who have coronavirus have shown no benefit, none. but to president trump the science doesn't matter. >> here's my evidence, i get a lot of positive calls about it. >> jeremy dime amond is out fro near the white house tonight. what have you learned today about why the president is now taking this drug, which i understand is a recent thing despite all of the evidence which exist and the studies i mentioned and others. >> reporter: right, erin. as you just laid out there's no evidence showing hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment of coronavirus nor it's effective in preventing coronavirus infection. so there are no scientific studies the president can point to why he's taking this. in fact, there's evidence to the contrary warnings about the

heart problems that could develop when taking hydroxychloroquine. the president is pointing to antidotal evidence, talking about this letter he got from a doctor in new york suggesting he's getting calls about the positive effects of hydroxychloroquine. the question, erin, is still why the president began taking this. the timing is interesting, though. the president began taking this he said about a week and a half ago. that is around the time one of his personal military valets actually tested positive for the virus. we do know the president has been touting this drug for months now. and when he touted it back in march that is when he began to talk about it from the briefing room podium and prescriptions and demands for hydroxychloroquine around the country surged. now with the president of it united states taking this drug despite the scientific evidence to the contrary, despite the warnings from his own fda what will americans do? erin? >> thank you very much, jeremy, and that of course is a crucial question here. i want to go out front now to our chief medical correspondent

dr. sanjay gupta and dr. jonathan rhiner at george washington hospital and a former white house medical advisor. so dr. rhiner, you raised the red flag very, very early about the possible impacts, heart impact for some patients. there's a lot we still don't know about it, but we do know it is not recommended for coronavirus, patients who either have coronavirus or who have not yet contracted it. >> right. so let's review what we know and what we don't know about this. we know it does not appear to work in terms of improving outcomes in sick coronavirus patients that are hospitalized. multiple clinical trials have shown that. in fact, some clinical trials have shown potential harm with a drug in that patient population. but the drug is also being evaluated for what's called

post-exposure prophylaxis. two big studies, one out of columbus and another out of the university of minnesota both of which should be done in rolling patients. university of minnesota about a 3,000 patient study, and we don't know whether the drug works to prevent the development of the disease in patients using it prior to overt symptoms or prior to testing positive. so it's a data-free zone. so i don't recommend doing this. but this raises a lot of interesting questions. first of all, we know that if the white house medical team approved this, and my sources at the white house tell me that they did, then the patient's exposure must have been quite severe. he must have had quite extensive exposure for them to go ahead and begin hydroxychloroquine. it also raises questions about, you know, what to do for a person like the president with unusual job requirements where the downside risk for having the

disease include death, and the risk for taking the drug also could be severe. it's a very, very complicated question. >> and certainly talk the heart risk, he's right in the middle of that as well. sanjay, what do you make about dr. rhiner saying it appears there was a perception he had had severe exposure. obviously we know his personal valet had tested positive. we don't know the condition of that person or how sick they were, but obviously there was a feeling the president was very much at risk of getting this, which maybe made them more likely to do something unproven. >> yeah, i mean, we don't know what kind of exposure he had. that could be the justification for his doctor prescribing it. although as dr. rhiner said the trial is for these health care workers with larger exposure. obviously the president is not acting as a health care worker. his own fda says this should not

be used outside a clinical trial. i'm curious how he's being evaluated, what the rationale there was. but he doesn't qualify for the clinical trial. there's no evidence that it works as of now. there's some potential harms in people who already have covid and take this medication, so it doesn't make sense. i think it's going to confuse people as it did in the initial days as people started going out and taking this early on, even causing shortages in places with no evidence it worked. >> right, and part of the reason they started doing that is because he started touting it. dr. rhiner, he did say this was his idea to take the drug, he'd gotten a letter or something from a doctor he'd never heard of that suggested it, that his doctor did approve it at the white house. his birthday is in a couple of weeks, he's going to be 74. his physicals have shown evidence of coronary artery disease as sanjay has pointed out and obesity. if you were his doctor what

would you do here? >> it's a very interesting question and having peeked into that world for a while i can tell you it's not so easy to answer. let's look at it another way. and look, i've dumped on this drug for two months now and i know at least from the clinical data it doesn't work in sick patients. i don't know if it works or doesn't work in this setting, but this is what i know. the president has a significant exposure to covid-19 maybe from two people, both his valet and ms. miller. we know because he's almost 74 and he has some evidence of heart disease and he's clearly obese, we know he has a substantial risk of dying from covid-19. maybe somewhere between 15% and 20%. we also know there are demonstrable risks to taking the drug but because he's the president of the united states, because he has un-paralleled access to 24/7 health care, on demand health care basically

stapled to him, his medical team can attenuate some of that risk. measuring the ekg interval which is increased by the drug and can create a problem. so they can get an early warning, perhaps, that the general population can't get. don't get me wrong. i agree with everything sanjay said. we have no reason to suspect this worked and i do not recommend the public do this, but if i were the president's doc and i know he's been exposed to a virus that as a significant chance of killing him do i wait for the trial or do i give him the drug and try to mitigate the risk? is the risk of him dying from this drug higher than the risk of him dying from the virus? it's a very complicated question and i feel for dr. conley. >> what's amazing, sanjay, is we're sitting here having a conversation whether 15% or 20%

of dying from coronavirus is greater than his chance from taking hydroxychloroquine. it's pretty stunning we're even at a moment where such a conversation is out there. i think this is moment to kind of take a step back and have people understand the gravity of the exposure he had and the situation he is in. >> no question and dr. rhiner had some really interesting insights here that are going to be unique. he's been in this situation and taken care of the vice president and offered insights, but you're absolutely right. i think the concern, i think, and i think jonathan would agree with me is what are people hearing tonight? maybe i have an exposure, i'm at risk, i'm going to go out and get this drug. i mean, if it's good enough for the president why isn't it good enough for me? dr. rhiner makes a good point, he can get ekgs when he wants and monitored closely, but what's going to happen now? there's no evidence still it works.

there will be trials coming out looking at prophylaxis which is different than taking it when you are taking it as a treatment. people will understand those are two different scenarios as a treatment that could potentially be harmful, and there's no evidence that it works. it's a really dicy scenario and going to be a confusing one now i think the american people are going to have to deal with here. right now we can say there's still no evidence that works. we'll get that data from a prophylaxis standpoint. there is some potential concern it could harm from a treatment standpoint. >> and just amplify that, the american public should not take this. but i do understand the dilemma the white house had. >> right, and given what you're saying i think at the very least we all could have hoped the president would have not discussed he was taking it. that would have just been helpful. thank you very much. and next early data from a vaccine study in the united states is showing promise against fighting against coronavirus. i want to talk to the lead

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tonight promising new results in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. a vaccine developed here in the united states by moderna and i'm going to talk to one of the doctors aworking on the vaccine what it means and to one of the people that agreed to be injected with it. when the number of americans dead from this virus has now passed 90,000. erica hill is out front. >> reporter: gyms in multiple states are open today including texas where offices also have the green light as the state moves into phase 2. >> one thing that we all know an important part of reopening is access to child care, so starting immediately child care services are able to open. >> reporter: summer camps and youth sports can return may 31st. bars and bowling alleys can open

friday. texas posted its highest single day speak in cases over the weekend, two weeks after easing restrictions. >> we do have more testing that's happening, but at the same time we're also recognizing that we have reopened and people are mixing, and so we don't know how those two equations coming together, how that really is impacting the overall equation that we have. >> reporter: more than a third of the new cases there connected to meat processing plants in the state. overall texas is one of 17 states seeing a rise in new cases over the past week. 18 posting a decline including massachusetts which just announced its plan for a phased reopening. california's new cases are holding steady as the governor looses the criteria for reopening. >> we recognize the conditions across this state are unique and distinctive depending on where you are. >> churches may be aloed to meet in person in the next few

months. auto makers returning to work in michigan today with a few changes. >> i'm pretty comfortable with the precautions that i've heard they're going to be taking. >> reporter: while across the country beautiful weather, cabin fever and more re-openings made for a busy weekend. >> it's been really steady, busier than i thought it was going to be. >> i am beyond kpexcited to be shopping again. >> reporter: in scotsdale, arizona, packed bars and restaurants. >> i have no more fear than contracting the flu, the cold, a virus they haven't named yet. >> reporter: lines in the mall and outside this casino though not everyone is ready for the crowds. >> you go to wal-mart and people are on top of each other and people in the bars high fiving and people you don't even know and they try to get too close. >> reporter: the university of south carolina will reopen its campus this fall, but after thanksgiving classes will move online over fears of a possible spike in cases in early december. purdue and rice universities

adopting a similar plan, while creighton university will end the fall shesemester on a simil day. all the participants in a small study developed antibodies to the virus. moderna which is partnering with the nih says if future studies go well the vaccine could be available to the public as early as january. >> everything i'm seeing so far makes me optimistic. >> reporter: and erin, further signs to push to reopen and bring back little signs of life as we used to know it governors of california and texas all saying they're ready for professional sports to come back in their states. governor cuomo saying new york is a ready and willing partner though the games will be played with no spectators. >> the coprincipal investigator at the vaccine and treatment unit.

it's good to have you back, doctor. i know we talked about the vaccine briefly before. i know you got the results from the initial 8 participants. of course it is a small number when it comes to testing. usually you get thousands of participants tested. how encouraged are you when you see these antibodies in the first eight? >> so, erin, this is the first step. as you say this is just the phase one. phase one traditionally with any medications including vaccines, phase one is about safety. so we know the vaccine is safe and then it's tolerability where people are able to tolerate the vaccine. and also did in this case because of the speed that needs to happen they also checked the presence of antibodies neutralizing against the virus. but surprisingly they found all participants had that. so now the decision is come up with the appropriate dose in the next phase of the study, which was phase 2 in which two different doses will be used to

come up with a final dose that will be taken to a phase 3. phase 3ia mentioned where 30,000 people across the united states will be enrolled and the vaccine will be compared to a placebo. again, this is at the speed of light. no other time has a vaccine been developed so quickly. while the findings are encouraging we're only at the beginning. we're not there yet, so let's be calm and let science take its time and do the right thing. >> i will say, though, when we talked before you said obviously -- you were obviously cautious on the timing. given what you're saying now that you're able to detect antibodies at a time you'd really only be looking at safety how much does this truncate your timetable by and those 30,000 people how many of them will really be exposed but what's

your timing? >> i think if things go as they should maybe by january we may have a vaccine approved. but then you have to obviously produce millions if not billions of doses of vaccine, right? and we don't have -- we need those vaccine capabilities. to have a vaccine you can then get into the public and prevention if all goes well it'll still be some time next summer. i don't think honestly we'll be able to be anytime before that. that will still be incredible record time. >> one final thing talking about the antibodies you found in those eight patients dr. peter hotez also working on a vaccine at the university of washington told "the washington post" it would be obviously very important to understand the level of antibodies in the patients because he was pointing to emerging evidence where people don't have a lot of antibodies, if they don't have enough they may in fact, you know, not be able to neutralize the virus, right? like the level of antibodies

that you get is really important. do you have any sense of levels? >> i have no sense of levels. i'm not involved in looking at those but i can tell you even getting some antibodies in there while the vaccine may not be a neutralizing vaccine producing a neutralizing vaccine against a respiratory virus is going to be hard. even if you get some neutralizing antibodies that prevent vaccines will still be an effective vaccine. a vaccine that may not p present -- >> that is very useful. and i want to go now to a volunteer in the moderna coronavirus vaccine trial and also a medical student at emery. you've now gotten two doses of the vaccine, so have you been tested for antibodies yet? >> thanks for having me again, erin. as a participant the investigators aren't sharing the

specific results for each patient with the vej patient so unfortunately i don't know whether i specifically have been able to generate antibodies against the vaccine. >> so, right, so i guess it's blind to you so they're not going to tell you, but the part of the trial you're technically in and even though they're getting those important results now you're two doses in and two shots in have you had any side effects? >> i'm very happy to say after the first dose i didn't experience any side effects and the same has been true after the second dose as well, and i think it's consistent with the results moderna has released for safety for most of the participants in the low and medium dose groups. i was in the medium dose group. so hopefully this is a good sign for more folks moving forward in these phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials to come to safety. >> what happens next for you?

now you've had two doses. what's next and when? >> the excitement for me is largely over. i was incredibly excited like a lot of folks across the country to see the initial results from this phase one trial indicated there might be immune responses generated that can neutralize the virus at least in a laboratory setting. now i'll continue to go back and have some samples run so that the nature of the immune response has been generated if i have generated one can continue to be monitored over time. but my involvement of the trial is kind of dwindling down at this point. >> we hope you continue to not have any of those safety side effects and stay well and and thank you, good to talk to you. >> yeah, thank you very much, erin. and next a new study shows parts of the united states that did not adhere to any social distancing policies could face 30 times more cases of the virus and shutting restaurants works much better than shutting down

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tonight quarantine fatigue. crowds heading out of their homes across america to beaches, parks and bars this weekend and it comes a new study found areas that did not have social distancing measures could have 35 times greater chance of spreading coronavirus than those that did have strict social distancing. out front now one of the researchers behind that study and the professor of economics at the university of kentucky. good to talk to you again. in your study you looked at four different social distancing restrictions. shelter in place orders, bans on large gatherings, closureser o entertainment businesses. which worked better?

>> the first is the shelter in place measures, the ones fat are fairly heavy-handed imposed in most but not all states, and the second one that really mattered a lot was the closure of entertainment related businesses, which would include, for example, restricting dine-in at restaurants and as well closing of bars and gymnasiums, those sorts of thing. what we also found is that there were a couple that didn't matter much at all in terms of bending the curve. >> i want to talk about those. and in your report you have a graphic which shows the impact closing restaurants had, and sheltering in place and entertainment-like restaurants. and closing schools we can see the other line on that chart. very little impact. you know, how little and why do you think that is? >> well, we are able to think through reasons why any of these measures would bend the curve and the answer would be because they reduce human interactions

with each other. shelter in place where you or i were forced to stay at home really clamps down on how much we interact with each other. it also turns out that a great way to spread the steez is by staying in one place close to many other people so the restrictions on restaurants also intuitively make a lot of sense. what's interesting is that if you think about the public school closures, then what that may have done especially in the absence of a shelter in place order was change where people congregate without actually reducing it too much. for example, if parents take their kids to the park rather than kids interacting at school then it's very possible that the virus could spread just as easily. so that's part of our thinking on why that happened. >> this weekend we saw massive crowds heading out of their homes across the united states. it was good weather and people were out. so based on your research and you see this, this isn't

sheltering in place, and, you know, there are still some -- people are presumably trying to do something, and there are some things still happening, but there are a lot of things that are not. people are out about and going to entertainment venues. what do you see the impact being here? >> well, our study was able to show that these government imposed measures heavy-handed really didn't matter in terms of bending the curve. without those measures people were taking other senseful measures but they didn't bend the curve enough. as you mention at the beginning of the segment there were about 1 million confirmed cases in the u.s. of covid-19. the strong measures not been in place we could have seen as many as 35 million cases, so it would have exploded. so with the voluntary measures going on there is some fear

unless we have, for example, extensive testing and effective contact tracing then we're going to be back to where we were before. >> all right, which is big warning when you say we could have had 35 million cases versus the 1 million at the time when you did the research. i think that is something everyone can understand very tangibly. thank you very much, professor. appreciate your time. >> thank you so much. and next the new york stock exchange coming to life with restrictions after being shutdown for months, so what does it mean? the president of the exchange is my guest. and an inspector general fired on a friday night. now we're learning the inspector general was look into saudi arm sales which secretary of state pompeo refused to be interviewed about. with a lifetime warranty. go from old to new. from worn to wow. the beautiful bath you've always wanted, done right, installed by one expert technician, all in one day.

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tonight the new york stock exchange is getting ready to open. the it will partially reopen next tuesday may 26th after being closed for two months. out front now is stacey cunningham, president of the new york stock exchange. under this plan i understand about a quarter of the trading floor will be able to return because you're going to be social distancing and things

like that. we're familiar with images of traders on the floor and at posts, but you say and here it is obviously not what it looked like ten years ago or more, but people interacting and side by side. not going to look like that, but what will it look like, and what sort of precautions are you going to take? >> so thanks for having me on, erin. the floor will look different than we're all used to seeing in pictures of the floor throughout the years for a cup of different reasons. and highlighted social distancing that's such an important way for us to protect ourselves, so that is something that runs through our plans from start to finish is the idea of having social distancing, so it'll be about 25% of the trading floor community that comes back, which is -- but less than that if you think about all the people that work in the building. we have many of our other employees staying remote for now. we're focusing our efforts on the trading floor, and we're also focusing on which traders we bring back in first.

if you look at the floor most of those people many of them don't work for the new york stock exchange. they're either market makers or floor brokers representing customer orders. those floor brokers are small businesses, and for the past two months they've been home and unable to service their clients and many businesses across america and many other states will be thinking how do we help those that are most impacted, and that's how we thought about our plan. we start with those small businesses and it allows us to make the lay out of it floor a little bit different than it is in normal times so we can have people social distance and change the ways they interact. so it won't be a lot of one-on-one contact in the initial phase. >> you're telling people i know they can't enter the building if they've taken public transportation. i just was thinking about, you know, extrapolating that across any part of manhattan for any serious number of people, but for you as first out of the gate here how are people going to be getting to work and how do you

enforce the public transportation? >> let me explain that a little bit because i think it's important to understand. we're an essential business and we voluntary closed a couple of months while we wanted to learn more about this. given the fact that governor cuomo's pause order is still in effect and he's asking people to shelter at home we're respecting that by asking people in the building to leave that social distancing for health care workers that are taking the public transport right now. we don't want to add any strain on that system. so that is tied in the shelter in place ord. once the city reopens and the governor goes to lift those plans mass transit is such an important part of new york city and our work as well that shelter in place order will be

lifted. >> what's your plan for when there is what may be an inevitable infection? >> one of the things that drove to our timing to reopen is what we've learned over the past few weeks and about layers of protection. it's also clear that this pandemic is going to be with us for a while. we're not close to having although closer today but we're still working on a vaccine. and until we have a vaccine we know we're going to be living with this. so the plans we have in place are not designed to prevent a single case. they're designed to prevent an outbreak so we don't have multiple cases in one place. so it's really about layering protections. we have temperature screenings interest everyone coming into the building. we've implemented social distancing, created restrictions around interactions, whether they be on peoples way to work or as well in food areas and how we'll be approaching each day. all of those things together are part of the solution to limit the likelihood of an outbreak. everyone's going to leave the

trading floor at the end of the day so it's impossible to limit a single case. we want to prevent any single case that comes into the building from spreading. it's such an important part to be cautious, slow and flexible because we may need to revert as conditions change and move back, so we have plans in place that allow us to scale and scale and scale backwards as well. >> all right. well, thank you very much and good luck with that opening. >> thank you, erin. i appreciate you having me on. >> all right, and next a probe into an $8 billion saudi arm sale lead to the firing of the state department's inspector general at the secretary of state mike pompeo's request? we have new details tonight. to everyone navigating these uncertain times...

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new tonight president trump defending his abrupt firing of the state department inspector general saying it was mike pompeo who asked him to get rid of steve linick. >> i don't know him at all, but i was asked to by the state department by mike. i offered most of my people, almost all of them i said these are obama appointees and if you'd like to let them go i think you should let them go. >> linick was investigating the saudi arms deal and also whether pompeo had government employees

doing personal jobs, personal errands, walking izdohis dog, laundry. cnn political analyst david gregory joins me now. this story -- you know, this story keeps getting worse. >> yeah, it does get worse because the whole point of an inspector general is to have some accountability over agencies. you don't get rid of people because you don't like them. you don't get rid of people because they were appointed by another president. the whole point is they serve presidents of both parties. the president appears not to get that. the fact he's so transparent about the fact oh, yeah the secretary of state said he'd like to get rid of him at a time when he's being investigated himself or at a time -- shows you the administration is not interested in oversight. >> the numbers are pretty

stunning. senate republicans haven't been willing to go against him, you know, with the exception of mitt romney who obviously very clearly called him out. trump supporters were saying, oh, there were obama was hindering their work, that's essentially the same as what trump is doing here by firing all of these individuals in the past month. why does that argument that conservatives are making not add up? >> well, i was going through that today and it's very clear why it doesn't add um. number one, they did get that information they were looking for. some of it was grand jury information, some of it was other secretive information that was ultimately provided to those inspectors general. but the big difference, they weren't fired. they weren't fired. so this string of firings makes it very clear this president is dead set against any accountability, wanting us all to believe in the myth of a deep state that's only out to get him.. look, there's a lot of hypocrisy

to go around. there's a lot of democrats who don't like republican watch dogs and it goes back and forth. but republicans were silent on this, who want to pick apart these individuals or side with the president just have to get ready for the new reality. and the new reality is that there won't be oversight. that there won't be watch dogs. there won't be a belief in someone who can act independently with credibility. and now it's going to be a different washington. it's fair to be cynical about washington and partisanship and all the stuff that doesn't work, but this is a new line of demarcation. and if republicans are going to be consistent, they're going to -- when the next go around, when there is a democratic president, they're going to have to go along with the fact that there will be no accountability because that's the standard that trump is setting here. >> that's right, get rid of that, get rid of filibuster, get rid of all kinds of things people are going to regret. thank you very much, david. always good. >> thanks, erin.

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tonight the navajo nation now surpassing new york with the highest infection rate in the country per capita and a lack of basic infrastructure is complicating that community's efforts to contain the virus. sarah sidner is out front. >> reporter: the beauty of the navajo nation masks the vengeance coronavirus has exacted on its people. in this household -- >> i don't know where it came about and just whipped through us. >> reporter: she is one of five people in her family who has contracted the virus that takes your breath away. >> i could just -- >> reporter: how afraid were you when you realized that your mom had it, that your sisters had it, and then you had it?

>> i didn't want to leave my kids behind. because i had so much to do in life with them. i have altogether nine kids. >> reporter: she didn't want to go to the hospital because too many people she knows never made it back home alive. this is one of the hospitals where members of the navajo nation would be brought if they needed to be in an i.c.u., for example. the nation is now reporting nearly 4,000 covid-19 cases in a population of 175,000, which means they surpassed new york, and now have the highest infection rate per capita in the u.s. this is partly because the navajo nation says it's tested more people than any other state, 11% of its population. but unlike new york, just getting to a hospital with these kinds of resources can take hours. >> it's really hard for them to get the care they need if they need to be intubated.

if they've got to have someone transport them from a facility to like albuquerque, phoenix is where we're starting to send people. >> reporter: the navajo nation spans 27,000 square miles. there are no short distances here, which is one of the difficulties with getting resources to all of its people, with the exception of here. i am standing in the four corners where, with one step, you can walk into four different states. but with the vast distances, self-distancing might seem easy. it isn't. because everyone shops at the same stores. the president of the navajo nation says infrastructure and resources long ago promised by the federal government were never realized, and now there's a perfect scenario for the virus to spread. >> 30, 40% of our citizens here on the navajo nation don't have the luxury of turning on a faucet. >> reporter: they don't have running water? >> they don't have running water. >> reporter: also generations of families often live in one home,

so if someone gets the virus, isolation is often impossible. never mind frequent hand washing. >> we can change that with the help of the federal government. >> reporter: for now he's placed the strictest of measures on his people. 8:00 p.m. curfews on weekdays and on weekends a 57-hour lockdown. not even the gas stations are open. and their lucrative tourism and entire gaming industry are closed down until further notice. >> we're talking more than tens of millions, not just amongst the gaming, not just amongst the tourism, but also all of our other enterprises throughout the navajo nation. >> reporter: the covid-19 battle native americans are facing is just like the rest of the nation, except on their tribal lands the suffering is more acute. 40% of families here already live below the poverty line. so when the tribal government traversed their nation handing out healthy food and bottled water -- why is this important? an f >> for me to eat and my family

to eat. >> reporter: the lines seemed endless. many were gathering items to help others survive like felisita jones. how are you feeling now? >> right now i feel great. >> reporter: sarah, i know doctors with borders have been deployed now to where you are. what have you heard from them? >> reporter: yeah, doctors without borders is here. you know, erin, that they're normally an organization that's in war-torn areas and extremely poor countries, but they are here in a small group and trying to help after the president of the navajo nation did ask for help. they answered the call, but i should mention, erin, the first place that doctors without borders went to help with the covid response in the united states was actually new york. erin? >> this is a lot. thank you very much, sarah. sarah is live there from arizona. and thanks so very much to all of you for joining us.

anderson cooper, 360 with anderson starts right now. >> and good evening, everyone. thanks for joining us on a day the coronavirus death toll passed 90,000 in this country. the president of the united states said today he is taking a drug to prevent coronavirus that the fda warns is dangerous and study after study now shows is useless against the virus. the drug is a familiar one by now, hydroxychloroquine. and before going any further, i do want to just read directly from the fda's april 24th bulletin on this drug. quote, the fda is aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with covid-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. additionally, quote, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing covid-19. those first words bear repeating. serious heart rhythm, heart problems in patients with he covid-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. and a study published days ago in the