and great progress across the board in the metro areas. next slide. so we also look at daily cases and case numbers. i know you all know that's a very erratic and depends sometimes on how the tests were reported, how the cases were reported. so you often have to look at over three or seven day period. this is looking at daily cases on a seven-day rolling average. you can see the number one, the top peak that is now come down dramatically is the new york metro area. underneath that, you can see our concerns about chicago and our concern in the yellow line at the washington, dc area because these are two areas that went through the log rhythmic phase and now at a high plateau with an unchanging number of cases day over day. that's the orange line and the

yellow line. you can see the line in washington, dc and chicago and that's new york, boston, and many of the others. providence is also up at per 100,000. we can understand it in relationship to populations. the other groups that have very low levels that once had a peak, this is detroit. very low level now. this is boston in the gray. and then atlanta and miami. next slide. i think sometimes, there have been publications about where the world was before we started the stop the spread and before many states shut down, and just to take you back to that moment, on march 14th before stop the spread, this is showing new york. i didn't even put march 14th on

there because new york on march 14th had less than 50 cases reported. chicago had less than 10 washington had less than 10. the large state with a significant number of cases was the washington area, washington state, which had 100 cases. on march 14th, we had about 500 cases distributed around the united states, not in any dramatic hot spot per se but the majority of those cases in the hot spot at that moment was washington state. this is how the new york/new jersey/connecticut, rhode island and the dramatic decline they've had in the number of cases and i know you know that also, mortality has started to decrease in that northern new

jersey/new york area. next slide. but i wanted you to see how we bring this information together on a daily basis. the red line in this graphic are the emergency room visits, the syndromic visits that i discussed with you at the beginning. the blue line is the test positive and again, it's very erratic because of the reporting of when cases sometimes from the entire weekend are added on a monday morning, and then you can see the actual case numbers in the black bars. and so that's how we bring everything together and what we want to see is all of the items trending down. we want to see the number of positives that you find because we really have states now looking for asymptomatic cases, so we want to ensure that both asymptomatic cases, symptomatic cases are all declining as shown in the blue line, that emergency room visits are declining and the actual case numbers are declining together, and of course, the mortality behind

that in the green lines that are hard for you to see. next slide? this is the washington area, so that's why i wanted you to see that contrast. you can see there's not been that dramatic decline in the blue line. not seen that dramatic decline in the black bars of cases and not a dramatic decline in the emergency room visits with covid-like illnesses, so even though washington has remained closed, l.a. has remained closed, chicago has remained closed, we still see these ongoing cases and i asked the cdc and the cdc working with the local areas in chicago and this area and l.a. to really understand where these new cases coming from and what do we need to do to prevent them in the future. next slide. this is chicago. again, just to show you, going up into this high plateau, that has been fairly persistent. next slide. and this is los angeles. so you can get a flavor of where we have concerns of where cities

have remained closed and metros have remained closed but have still persistent high number of cases. next slide. so then i wanted to talk to you about outbreaks, because throughout this all, there's been a large part of america that's been really finding their outbreaks, containing those outbreaks by testing everyone and doing contact tracing, and then stopping them and stopping those outbreaks in their tracks. what we've talked about, everybody being able to do across the united states. this illustrates the counties with 100% increase in new cases over the next three days. now the reason i wanted to show to th because this, i see more graphics about cases going up and cases going down. an example of wyoming and i think many of the groups now have wyoming as a red state of cases going up.

wyoming three days ago had 5 cases confirmed and today had nine. so they qualify almost and show up as this large increase. it's a good alert for us. we immediately look and see what exactly is happening at the state web site, but you can see when you have very low number of cases, you can have a doubling from 5 to 10 number of cases and show up as 100% increase so each of these have to be investigated separately to really understand what it is. it is the way we find outbreaks in prisons, it's the way we have been finding outbreaks in nursing homes, and we have this graphic. it goes through all of the counties as well as, next slide, so this is one state's analysis, and what they have shown, and they have been able to find each of their outbreaks, contain every one of their outbreaks, close those outbreaks and call

them closed cases. in this case, the dark blue is community spread. the rest of it, 50% of the cases have been coming from outbreaks that they've been able to contain. the largest group in this is meat packing plants and what they've been doing is going in and testing 100% of the individuals in the meat packing plant, and also, finding 100% of the individuals that are associated with those individuals in the meat packing plant. they've been able to go into group housing, social gatherings, so just as we discuss all of this and when you go out for this weekend of memorial day, and you want to do some kind of social gathering, it's very important to maintain that 6 feet distance and have your mask in case that 6 feet distance cannot be maintained, but it also talks about long-term care facilities. interestingly enough, 50% of the total cases, since they've been tracking, came from these

outbreaks almost 70 plus percent, 76 of all the mortality came from these outbreaks and this is why we have been really pushing both in the original opening up of america again, in the proactive monitoring and surveillance susceptible to outbreaks. every state has this acknowledged now and this type of analysis. what we're asking them to do is proactively test everyone in meat packing plants and proactively test 100% of the residents and workers and a follow-up of the workers in every single long-term care facility. this is to find the asymptomatic cases. cdc yesterday released, they thought 35%. we started with an understanding we thought it was around 11 to

15% based on the experience with with one of the princesses but may be greater than 35 because it may be so age dependent that there may be a lot of people under 30 that have the virus and are shedding the virus and aren't aware that they have the virus. so proactive monitoring and testing critical to find asymptomatic cases. next slide. this is my last slide. this is just to show you what an outbreak looks like. if you look at this axis, it's through 100,000 population, but you can see this is what we want to see. we want to see very low case number. we want to see they've identified an outbreak, they've tested 100 percent, they've contained 100% and then they don't find anymore cases. so this is what's happening across the country county by county, this is a county map, to

really show you the work that's going on and since the last two months, we've gone from, i think, less than 4,000 contact tracers to nearly 50,000 contact tracers and this is what's been happening behind the scenes but i really want to applaud the governor ans and the health commissioners and the local health departments who have really been working quietly in an unassuming way to find these cases, track these cases, isolate these cases and ensure there's no additional spread. you can see in many of these instances, they've gone more than two weeks without any additional spread. so this is what we are hoping goes across the united states. we have to admit, it's going to be much more difficult in metro areas because you have to really identify where are those asymptomatic cases and how will you find them? that's why there's been a lot of

additional resources going into disadvantaged areas and to the federal community clinic to be able to proactively be able to test for this virus, and find asymptomatic individuals. when someone gets sick with covid, you heard the cases. some of them have very high fevers. so they're not out walking around, so they may have been shedding virus for one or two days before they got significantly ill and they had to be in bed because they felt so terrible. now think of that, they were maybe out two days and so if they're 50% of the cases, they're only out for two of the days that they may be spreading virus and asymptomatic individual that doesn't know they have covid, they may be spreading an ad shedding the entire time that they're in the communi community. so instead of two days, it may be six days or it may be seven

days. so when we talk about proportions, 35% that are asymptomatic that are out in the community is much more opportunity of transmission than someone getting sick and is only out in the community for two days. and so we know we have to find both, and we've been working with states about what proactive surveillance would look like in this case to find people who are asymptomatic but it's also why we continue to recommend to the public very clearly that you can't tell who's infected, and so that's why you have to continue to social distance. that's why you need to continue to maintain six feet apart. i remember in the early days of hiv, people told me all the time that they knew who was infected and i would say, you don't know who's infected. i could be infected. you're just saying you don't think i'm infected because i look healthy. there's a lot of healthy people

out there with covid that look healthy and so we're asking continuously for you all to be outside, to enjoy your memorial day weekend, to play golf, to hike as dr. fauci said, to play tennis with marked balls, to be out with your families that you have been in the household with and to even consider sharing social distance space as long as you have utensils that are belonging to individuals and that maybe can be thrown out immediately. there's a lot of things to think through. i know you can do this, the american people can do this. as you go out this weekend, understand, you can go out, you can be outside, you can play golf, you can play tennis with marked balls, you can go to the beaches if you stay 6 feet apart, but remember that that is your space and that's the space that you need to protect and ensure that you're social distanced for others. thank you. >> i want to start by, dr. birx,

for a moment or two, i believe you emailed me a question about nursing homes and testing this morning. if you want to ask it, i'll have dr. billion girx give you an an >> last week, or two weeks ago, you and the vice president 100% of nursing homes tested within two weeks. most two weeks later, are you disappointed and what are the consequences of that inaction? >> no, i know many of you don't know me. i'm a very aspirational and hopeful person that likes to put out challenges because i think that's what needs to be done. we've had it in the open up america guidance where we asked them to test all the nursing home residents and workers. we know that the group is very susceptible and has significant mortality. we continue to ask the states. we always look at the side of

the ones who haven't been able to get it done, there are some that are getting it done and i think what we will learn is from those who were able to get it done, how to do this more efficiently and effectively so we can work together to ensure not only that we have the baseline testing but we continuously test the workers in the homes to prevent asymptomatic spread back to the residents. we're testing way over a million people per week, getting closer to over 2 million people a week. so over that 4 million per two weeks, i was hoping a million of those could be our nursing home residents. i think week over week, as we see testing expand, it's not going to just be, and why i keep coming back to this, it's not the number of people you have tested. we see this all the time with other diseases.

we have a lot of worried well that will come back frequently to get tested. we want testing in areas where we know there's higher vulnerability to susceptibility to worse outcomes like our nursing homes, areas where we know there have been outbreaks such as prisons, meat packing plants, particularly areas where beam are transport people are transported to plants together or live together and single resident or multiple residents, multiple group home housing situations and among inner cities where we know people may not have as much access to testing, it's why money has gone to the federal clinics for testing. it's why money and working with others have really improved testing through the pharmacies and ensuring more assessability. i know it's a long answer but never be discouraged by those who can't get it done. be encouraged by those who have

shown us it can be done and the governor's calls, we have those governors present to the other governors how they did it. >> following up on the president's announcement regarding places of worship, being essential reopen, what guidelines and encouragement do you have for pastors, rabbis, imams as they prepare to reopen? is that appropriate nationwide right now? what precautions do they need to follow if they reopen their houses of worship? >> so we, and i've checked all 50 states have on their web site what their new cases were over the last 24-4 hou8 hours. we try to get every state to do that by community and zip code because i firmly believe a knowledgeable community can really make judgments for themselves. i think each one of the leaders in the faith community should be in touch with their local health departments so that they can communicate to their congregants.

certainly, people that have significant co-morbidities, we want them protected. i know those houses of worship want to protect them, so really, ensuring that maybe items, maybe they can't go this week if there's high number of covid cases, maybe they wait another week, but there is a way to social distance, like you are here, in places of worship, and i think what we're trying to say with the cdc guidance is there's a way for us to work together to have social distancing safety for people so that we decrease the amount of exposure that anyone would have to an asymptomatic and i say it that way because i know all of you and all of americans, if they didn't feel well, they wouldn't go to church that day. >> dr. birx, can you comment on the latest study on hydroxychloroquine? there's a study that suggests,

again, the drug could cause heart problems or increased mortality. the president's obviously said that he's been taking it. what's your recommendation on using that drug as a prophylactic? >> i think the fda has been very cl clear on their web site about their concerns about hydroxychloroquine, particularly when combined and i think you see that in the study, and i think the study, although it is open label, and it is, i tell you what i take home from the study and i hope everyone here does in addition to what you just commented on, it clearly shows the co-morbidity that puts individuals at more risk, and i think it's one of our clearest studies because there were so many, tens of thousands of individuals involved that the doctors clear lly annotated who had heart disease and who had

obesity and you can see dramatically the increased risk for that. there are still control trials going on, both for prophylaxis and controlled trials, looking in the hospital setting, how these drugs do, and i think those are still pending but i hope everyone looks at those co-morbidities and for all of our millennials out there, they get data like this, look at that. go through and see if your parents or your grandparents have any of those things, and make sure you're helping protect them. i'm really worried about people in my generation because we're very social at times, and we have a habit of forgetting social distancing or forgetting that glass and when you eat, can't eat in a mask. even if you're far enough, you have to watch every utensil, i'm asking our great generation of millennials to get youtube videos how to do picnics outside with friends and still protect

everyone and still ensure that there's no co-contamination of food and utensils. i think there's a way to do it but i want it explained in a youtube video. >> thank you very much, dr. birx. i know you need to get back to work. you can do a follow-up with me. you can go ahead, but before i start my portion of the briefing, there were a few things i wanted to note for you all. pursuant to those, some of the very encouraging graphs we saw were the states move from red to orange to green and we saw the united states increasingly become green. it's encouraging to see that america's reopening alongside that, two-thirds of america's small businesses are opening, and open table studies that americans are starting t to din again. ' 60% of local food and drink

businesses are opening. near normal levels and google reflects the same. encouraging to see america reopen and the great work president trump has done for the faith community going into this weekend. we have a first amendment, it's very important that we protect that in these churches, these synagogues, these mosques. they are essential and president trump underscored that, and finally, before getting started, i wanted to note that the president, as you all are well aware, donates his salary to various initiative and parts across the federal government and this quarter, he will be donating his salary to hhs, health and human services to develop new therapies for treating and preventing covid-19 so that we can safely reopen. here's the check amounted to $100,000 that will go directly from president trump and his paycheck that he does not take but rather donates it to various noble initiatives including in honor of covid this time and

those who have passed and the studies under way, he'll be donating it to hhs and with that, i will take questions from you all. >> kayleigh? >> a couple of questions to follow up on the president's announcement. just to clarify, he came out and said, i'm calling upon governors to allow churches and places of worship to open up right now. dr. birx said in areas where they have high cases of covid-19, maybe they should think about waiting a week. which is it and why the mixed messaging? >> that's up to the governors. as it's said in our guidance, we note that while many types of gatherings are important for economic and civil well being, religious is a right protected by the first amendment. the president wants to see these communities opened. dr. birx was integral to make these guidelines and they lay out a pretty clear path for faith communities to reopen. >> the president said going to override the governors, under what authority would he do that and to your point, he said

several weeks ago, this is all up -- >> you're posing a hypothetical. >> override the governors? >> you're posing a hypothetical, you're assuming the governors will keep synagogues and churches and mosques shut down. that's a hypothetical question and we'll leave it to these faith communities to reopen. and kristen, i think we can all hope that this sunday, people are allowed to pray to their gods across this country. that's a good thing, and i'd also note, there's detailed guidance in here about the way you can clean your facilities, promote social distancing. so this is something we should all look at and be thankful that we are encouraging these faith communities to reopen and do so in a safe way, and we'll leave it to parishes to open in a safe fashion. >> kayleigh, is the white house now supporting these churches that are defying governor's orders and opening up? >> the president is clear, he

wants churches to reopen safely in accordance with guidance, very detailed, posted now. you can take a look through it and he wants to see all of those churches open in a safe fashion. >> if the governor doesn't allow that, are they defying these executive orders? >> the president's been clear. he wants churches reopen in accordance with guidelines. >> the answer is yes? >> i just give you an answer, the president would like churches to reopen in accordance to the guidelines. >> the provision of federal law allows -- >> the president will encourage every governor to allow churches to reopen and interesting to be in a room to see these houses of worship stay closed. >> i object to that. i mean, gi go to church. the question we're asking you and would like to ask you and dr. birx is, is it safe? and if it's not safe, is the president trying to encourage that or agree with dr. birx, that people should wait? >> jeff, it is safe to reopen your churches if you do so in

accordance with the guidelines, which are laid out very stringent detail here about promoting hygiene practices and there are five bullet points and cloth face coverings, if social distancing is not possible, it's recommended intensifying cleanings and we lay them out meticulously, so i am thankful that we have a president that celebraselcelebrates the first the same amendment that gives you the ability to ask me questions, so imams and pastors can go to their churches and celebrate a first amendment right to pray to your god and practice your faith. >> we celebrate that too. >> and should be thankful there are guidelines that allow us to engage in that behavior. >> we're not asking if they're allowing americans to pray. that's not -- >> to gather in their places of worship, to attend church

services, to pray together and the president laid out a clear path, the cdc has laid out a clear path for this to take place, our first amendment to be exercised in a way that's safe and robust and that's something that's a good thing and thankful we have a president who celebrating the first amendment and helps it to be celebrated fullest and most robust way possible. >> thank you, kayleigh. i'd like to switch gears asking about president obama. we had, we ahad an interesting article this morning and i would like to ask you if the president has considered -- for illegally spying on u.s. citizens and other potential crimes out there, has he considered that? >> so i have not spoken to the president about that, but who i did speak to about president obama and asking michael flynn, the men and women in this room.

i haven't spoken to him on that specific point. i have spoken to him about the matter generally and i laid out a series of questions that any good journalist would want to answer that why people were, i want to follow that. did anyone pose any questions about michael flynn in the unmasking of the president obama spokesperson? not a single journalist posed that question. so i would like to lay out a series of questions and perhaps if i write them out in a slide format, maybe visual learners and you guys will follow up with journalistic curiosity. number one, why did the obama administration use opposition research funded by a political organization and filled with foreign dirt to surveil members of the trump campaign? number two, why was lieutenant general michael flynn unmasked? not by the intel community entirely -- >> you've been listening here to the white house coronavirus task force, coordinator and then that

was press secretary kayleigh mcenany. but the president deeming houses of worship essential. he set out his direction that the cdc has guidance for communities of faith. he is demanding that governors allow them to reopen this weekend. he threatened to override those governors even though, let's be really clear, he can't. he doesn't have the authority to do this. he's talked about doing this before when it comes to reopening government and he just doesn't have the authority. so we've been there, done that on that issue. he does not have this authority. he can, however, create a lot of chaos, which i think we should probably expect here. now, after he spoke, dr. birx was asked about the study that showed higher risk of death in coronavirus patients from the drug that the president is the touting and taking, hydroxychloroquine. she did not answer the question, right? so i want to bring in gloria borger. we can start, i mean, there's so much to cover here, gloria.

let's start with churches and the other thing i will say is i was listening to dr. birx because, look, she is someone who knows what she's talking about when it comes to public health but i found her answer to be incredibly lacking because she said that she had confidence if people had symptoms, they won't go to church and i thought, wait a second, you just said you can't tell if someone's infected with coronavirus because so many people are asymptomatic. she explained how if you ended up symptomatic, you could have been shedding the virus two days before unbeknownst to yourself because you didn't have the symptoms and then if you were asymptomatic, you could be shedding the virus for six, seven days and never know. by her own measure, what she's talking about going back into churches just doesn't fly. so let's talk, gloria, about why the president is doing this and why he's seen political opportunity in this pandemic. >> well, it's a modelled mask,

first of all. he's seeing political opportunity here. he told everyone in april he was going to open up the churches for easter sunday, it would be a miracle and i think kayleigh mcenany herself asked a question about opening up churches, how can you be sure it's safe, isn't it amazing how many people in this room seem to want to keep those churches closed or something to that effect, and the journalist said, i go to church every sunday. i object to that. so if you're trying to make this into a faith-based plan here versus those who have no faith, that's absurd. and the second thing, kayleigh mcenany was trying to make this into a first amendment issue, the right to worship and support the first amendment. the president called the media the enemy of the people. time and time again and i think

the message was completely modelled because when the president said i can override the governors as you pointed out. if president cannot override the governors and then when kayleigh mcenany was asked about it, she didn't really answer the question. she said she wants the governors in accordance with the guidelines to open up, that it's safe to epiup churches if you follow the guidelines. what does that mean if a governor believes that because of asymptomatic spread or because churches are too small and can't have the distancing or perhaps don't have the opportunity to do services outside, that this could be an issue. and lots of governors are opening up churches. there are some governors with high amounts of covid left more skeptical about it. this isn't about faith, this isn't about the first amendment.

it is about public health and it is about trying to keep people sa safe, and the issues are clear. i just think you can't confuse them. >> this is about politics. this is not about public health to be clear. elizabeth cohen, what did you think about this guidance and what did you think about dr. birx, someone who is not a politician, giving credence to this reopening when i have not heard a single public health expert say this is a good idea and that this will not result in people getting sick and dying. >> brianna, you can't help but admire dr. birx when you look at her career and what she's done, that's why i was as stunned as you were when i heard her say, oh, you don't go to church if you don't feel well. she had just gotten through saying how many people are asymptomatic when they have this disease and they can spread it

even when they're asymptomatic. she had a long explanation about how you can't just look at someone and say, you're healthy. i don't need to social distance. she went into detail and then said people who were sick don't go to church. that's the point, people asymptomatic go to church and that was stunning to hear her say that. i'm no theologian but religions value human life, value what god created which is all of us so do you really want to put all of us into one place, even if you do a deep cleaning or don't have a collection plate, do all of those things, you are still putting a lot of people into one inside location. back in march, there was a church in arkansas, a husband and wife, 38% of the people who went to services at that church contracted covid before we were doing the measures, still a lot

of people in one enclosed space. >> people aren't perfect, right, and that's, there's going to be issues. i want to bring in pastor darren to talk about this. you are someone who's just been put on the governor cuomo's interfaith advisory council focused on reopening. you're the pastor, correct me if i'm wrong, but i believe it's of ame zion in syracuse, new york. i want to get your take on this. >> yeah, i mean, when you listen to what the president said, the churches being essential. okay, churches are essential, but our congregants aren't expendable. make sure the people konlicomin our houses of worship are given the best possible protection. to open the doors and say, the churches are open does not answer the questions in full, how are we going to do this, what are the practices going to be and i applaud our governor because we're developing a

faith-based, interfaith council talking about developing policies and strategies that we can get there. we believe in progression but progression must be made with caution. >> and dr. pritesh gandhi and a democratic candidate as well, you were shaking your head during dr. birx's comments. >> look, this was another uninspiring and angry message from a president that has continually denied science and denied public health and now we hear mixed messaging from dr. birx, the president, from the cdc, it's a mess. there are no clear guidelines on how we would do this. houses of worship are high density areas, people are in prolonged contact with each other. how do we open? what procedures do we take? what is the protocol? what's the federal advice on this? there's no credibility left and it's unfortunate, and frankly,

i'm a bit stunned and feel bad to have dr. birx go through that press conference knowing full well that very little of what the president says is rooted in science and in public health. >> the president made an announcement about churches but did not take a single question and left it to dr. birx to take on the tough questions, so there was no dodging it. although, she certainly did try on some of these. i want to know, pastor, are you worried that people are going to flock to churches? are you worried they're going to think this is okay and maybe not even follow all of the protocols? >> well, i think people are pretty sensible in this matter. when you understand what's going on right now, yes, allegedly, the doors are open, but people are going to use their wisdom. and as people of faith, you know, pastors and rabbis and

those in the faith community, yes, we believe in faith, we believe in science, and we also believe in wisdom and it's not good wisdom to just open up the doors and allow somebody to just come in with no clear plan and no clear strategy and those things have not yet been developed. particularly, in my community, in the community that has disproportionately high rates of chronic disease that can be influenced by covid-19, also, a high asymptomatic group of people. you allow those persons into a house of worship and just open the doors willy-nilly, you have opened the door to another set of community spread and it sets the clock back rather than taking us forward, which is what we should be doing but not in this manner. >> elizabeth cohen, i want to talk about another point that was very important in this briefing and that was about the president taking hydroxychloroquine. he over and over talked about what do you have to lose? we know new studies showing and reinforcing other findings that

you're more likely to die if you have coronavirus and you're taking hydroxychloroquine and the president has been promoting it over and over. so dr. birx was asked about this. she did not -- she was asked specifically about taking the drug as a preventative measure, and all she stated was that there is a clinical trial looking into that, and then she seemed to, like, grab on to this toe hold of saying, if you have co-morbidity, if you get coronavirus and these other problems, if you have a loved one having issues, but she did not answer the question, and i guess the reason in particular that i think that's bothersome to a lot of people is that pu purchasing of hydroxychloroquine doubled in march. this is a real problem if people take this stuff. >> the biggest one released just

today and it found that people who took hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, hospitalized patients, more likely to die and between 2.4 and 5 times more likely to have a cardiac arrhythmia. these are serious things. there's the answer to the question trump's been asking for weeks. why not take it? because you might die. why not take it? because you might develop a cardiac arrhythmia because this study shows an increased risk of that and other studies found that cardiac arrhythmia. i was also very disappointed with dr. birx's answer. she did not answer the question. if we're still studying, why does he take it? you don't take it if it's still being studied. the answer for hospitalized patients, taking it preventively could make you sicker or even more likely to die. it is still being studied, we don't know the answer. why would you want to take that risk?

i also thought it was disingenuous to point out these co-morbidities. i felt like she was blaming people. if you have diabetes or heart disease, that makes you more likely to have something go wrong. that's true for practically everything. having an underlying condition makes you more likely to have complications or to die pretty much in any situation. so she didn't point out there were people who went in there perfectly healthy and hook hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine and had problems. she was waving a shiny object so no one would pay attention to the real issue that we haven't looked at this as a preventative measure. it might not work and actually be dangerous. we just don't know. >> she was waving a shiny object there for sure, gloria, because if she answers the question truthfully, which any public health expert, any medical journalist like elizabeth will tell you, if she answers the

question correctly, the president will be very upset with her. dr. birx has taken a lot throughout this, gloria, because some people have said she gives the president too much cover. other people said they're so happy to have dr. fauci and dr. birx up there because they can kind of manage the situation but at a certain point, where do you draw the line when you are not advisering people, you're not saying don't take this, and they can die. >> we don't know if she was consulted. she does work in the white house and that leads to the larger question, since we learn nudes abo -- news about the president, what was his level of exposure and how concerned were they to take this extraordinary and unsafe step and potentially unsafe step? so we don't really know the answer to that question. on a larger sense though,

brianna, i think this goes to the notion of a president should be modelling for the rest of the country. and so taking hydroxychloroquine is not a model that doctors want to see, not wearing a mask is not a model that doctors want to see, or that dr. birx wants to see and then the next question i have, really, given churches, is the president going to decide that he needs to model somehow by showing up at church this sunday? i don't -- >> i don't know how far he's going to have to go to find a church because i don't see them opening here in washington, dc, right? dr. gandhi -- >> because washington has shut down. that's right. >> it's very shut down. >> no, that's -- certainly has

not, gloria. dr. gandhi, on this issue of hydroxychloroquine, what did you think about, i guess, the president not really wanting to take the question, clearly, that's why he didn't take questions, and dr. birx's answer. >> it was unfortunate. this is a study that spanned 600 hospitals over six continents and had clear outcomes. it's not a randomized control trial but there's no other study, frankly, that comes even close to demonstrating not only does hydroxychloroquine not help, it hurts. leads to a two time higher race of heart problem and increased death that were taking it in the hospital but this is in line with this trump doctrine of act first and think later. the unfortunate side effect of that doctrine is people get hurt and right now, we don't have the guidance, at the federal or state level, here in texas, we're about at 58% of the amount

of testing we need to do. what's guidance for houses of worship this weekend? do they open up? dhou th how do they do? that i'm concerned that the president is not just not only modelling bad behavior but there are real side effects for the patients we treat. >> yeah, this is dangerous what the president did today saying that at his direction, the cdc, having this guidance for communities of faith, he said identifying churches, synagogues and mosques as essential places that provide essential services and that he will override governors who do not open churches. it be clear, he does not have that authority but certainly can undermine them and sew confusion and chaos and threaten to withhold money. we've heard him talk about doing that but what he's doing here is seeing political opportunity in this pandemic and i want to thank you all. thank you all for your insights.

really appreciate it. millions are flocking to beaches, barbecues, even pools for memorial day. how to keep yourself and your family safe as more people are venturing outside. plus, the cdc reporting just how many people are spreading the coronavirus without experiencing any symptoms. this is why this church announcement is mind boggling, the numbers, they are staggering. and as cases surge across the south, one major city out of icu beds and sounding the alarm that the spread could get, quote, out of control. was that your grandfather,

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weekend unlike any before because of the ongoing pandemic. tens of thousands of vacationers are expected to go to beaches across the country. there will be sand and sea but will there be social distancing. kyung lah is lacking into the unofficial start to summer. and what are officials telling you about what they're going to do to keep people safe? >> reporter: well, what they're saying at first, brianna, it is not necessarily safe. they're focus on safer. they understand this is the start of summer and people have been stuck at home and they want to get out. but what that's local officials are watching, what scientists are looking at are the numbers as they tick closer and closer, the death toll exceeding and expected to exceed soon 100,000.

>> well, we're about to start a very important weekend. >> reporter: the first summer holiday weekend. a major test of america versus the virus. as millions head outside. >> it is nice to have the option to at least come to the beach and just have some fun with friends for once. >> i think it will be very busy and i'm confident that people are going to want to do this in a safe manner because if things don't work we may go back to a lockdown situation and i don't think anybody wants that. >> reporter: beaches up and down the east coast will be open with enforced social distancing. >> if we don't get voluntarily compliance, they will ask the law enforcement to come and enforce the executive orders for distancing. >> reporter: but different rules depending on where you are. >> i don't think it is realistic or practical to ask people to go to the beach and wear a mask. >> reporter: while america dives ahead, data shows this week more states are heading in the wrong direction. in the weekly average of new

cases, nine states here in green are down. 24 states are steady. and 17 states in red and orange are up. 25,000 new cases in the u.s. added just yesterday. among the steepest climbs, arkansas. the state saw a 65% increase in the rate of new cases compared to a week ago. the state still opening water parks and pools today with restrictions. and nearby alabama, crowds packed beaches today despite warnings that more cases would stress an already stretched montgomery hospital system where icu beds run short. >> i'm quite worried with the memorial day weekend coming and the restrictions loosening that this is going to go like a prairie fire. again, it has been smoldering and we've had a lit on it but it is now really having the potential to get out of control. >> reporter: trying to control a crisis in navajo nation, home to

the highest per capita infection rate. the territory will order a 57-hour lockdown starting tonight. in texas, bars are open for the holiday weekend. but in california bars slower movement despite improvement in some cities the first day to order a statewide shutdown is seeing a rate of new cases at twice what it was at the start of april. this image at dodgers stadium shows the strain on california tourism. these are unused rental cars. so many the empty ballpark lot is now storage. you heard the president talk about churches being essential services. that is an issue that has been brewing here in california, we're anticipating to hear from governor newsom later today in a press availability that has been 1,200 passers in california who signed a petition that asked that in-person services resume

on may 31st. this is certainly coming to a head here in the state. brianna. >> i knew what you meant. thank you so much. kyung lah, thank you. a gym owner in new jersey expecting to be arrested as he defies the governor and reopens as president trump claims he'll override governors if they don't open houses of worship now. a power he does not have. young man: thanks for having us this weekend mrs. garcy

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hello, i'm kate bolduan, thank you for joining us this hour. moments ago president trump is announcing that he's declaring churches and other houses of worship essential and demanding that governors across the country reopen them immediately. >> the governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now. for