beating coronavirus. terrific stuff. they have been married for 45 years and counting and there they go. they beat it. very quick programming, monday morning larry kudlow will be on varney, do not miss that. we are done for the show, take it away neil cavuto. neil: thank you ashley very much. great job as always. we are focusing on good news is the news of boris johnson has left intensive care in the hospital. of course the markets are closed today so we are showing you numbers from yesterday after the s&p 500 put in a strong week, the one with the best weeks we've seen going back to 1974. the big news that a lot of folks are focusing on in the new york metropolitan area are statements of governor andrew cuomo saying that we have seen a slight drop in icu admissions for the first time since all of this started, that is a very encouraging

development, even though the number of cases in the number of deaths rise, they are rising at a slower rate, hospitalizations are growing at a slower rate and now of course admissions into intensive care, that to is dropping. so those are constructive developments that you obviously want to see. but we told you about boris johnson doing better. people forget another thing were dealing with is the ceo of morgan stanley, he is okay right now, he is recovering from the coronavirus. these are bits of news that we tried to get out to let you know not all the news is grim as they continue to look at what a good time to gauge when making kind of slowly get ourselves into weaning out of the lockdowns parade were a long way from that and a lot of folks to say this is a generous timeline, we will get both sides of the story. right now we know the healthcare

tax force led by the president is going to be reporting a little earlier than normal, about an hour from now. like fermented tea it all up. >> i love the good news on a friday, part of the reason why there are many who are talking about the push to potentially reopen the economy back up in the next few weeks. we heard from the labor secretary eugene scalia who wrote up the arguments in the economy cannot remain on hold much longer because he says on the other side the bounce back would take longer. >> we know we need to get back before the virus is entirely gone among us and we have to plan for that. we know it might not be the same date in every location that were all back to work, we will need to plan accordingly. but we also know we cannot wait too long. >> also this morning the surgeon

general saying neighbors could be a timeline for some but not for every part of the country. he also suggested certain conditions would need to be in place for may 1 green light. >> as we ramp up testing and can feel more confident that these places actually can do surveillance and can do public health follow-up, some places will be able to think about opening on may 1, most of the country to be honest but some will and that's how will reopen the country, please play place, bit by bit on the data. >> using some of the conditions and caveats when you talk about reopening the economy, we should know of course that the state governors and the local mayors and leaders that will eventually have a lot of their stay with this. other news items today out of washington, president trump, the white house spoke with vladimir putin earlier this morning, the second call between the two in

the last two days, yesterday the president spoke with him and saudi arabia, everything that's been going on with opec in the oil market, a second phone call, the one-on-one with the president and vladimir putin, they talked about energy trying to maintain stability in the global energy market. a little while ago the department of transportation announced it would be giving a billion dollars to amtrak, the dot says amtrak ridership has decreased 90% in the recent days because all of this. it sorta matches up with the airlines as tsa screenings have been done 96% as well. neil: thank you blake burman, were going to go to steve moore, what do you think we will hear from the president on this revisiting the april 30 deadline about slowly not quickly getting americans back to work. whose advice from the medical

establishment, the economic, what you know about that. >> i think a little bit of all of those in the medical team containing the virus. you know me i been saying this for a long time, there's a lot in the white house would agree with me, you can get the economy up and running quickly because we don't want to see more reports with 6 million signing up for unemployment benefits. i was very hard and by what i heard from blake burman, those are really positive things that they think they can get in the economy open about may 1 and we may have flattened out the curve a little bit. you are seeing that reflecting in the markets. my take on this, when you look at what's happening at the fluctuation in the market, i would say about 80% of the fluctuation in the stock market right now is based on what the john hopkins report is telling us about the progress with respect to fighting the virus. we have to get the economy

reopen the obviously we have to do it at health-conscious way. neil: i think you are right on that, 95% really with any news that we get on the path of the virus. having said that, the president will be leading his briefing today and there's criticism from those in the wall street journal that he tends to make it about himself in this days too long and he starts getting in fights with reporters, the wall street journal cited that the presiden, your very rational season business guy, do you think the wall street journal is fake news. >> no i do not. i love that newspaper, i worked there for ten years. i'm a little biased as you know. >> i thought you would say that. >> i thought there was -- i love this president, i worked with him but i would say this, they say the president would be wise

to take some of that advice from the wall street journal, he's done an amazing job in the press conference but maybe not doing battle with the media so often and so much in the american people just want to know what is going on and they want to be reassured by the president, we will solve the crisis both with respect to our economy and the health crisis that we have right now and i would like to see him rise above this and knocking and sponsor the media but donald trump, he is going to do what he wants to do and that's one of the things i love about him. but at least he's reading the editorial for the wall street journal. >> he did say that the journal always forgets to mention that the ratings for the white house press briefing are through the roof and the only way for me too escape the fake news and get my point across, when he says stuff like that about ratings and performing, and the job that he is doing, he puts it in a different framework for americans who just want to know,

am i safe, is this thing going to kill me. >> i think there is something to that. again who might give advice to this president, one of the great political mind as well as an economic leader for our country. neil: everyone can use advice trade i use advice. let me switch gears, absolutely i think you're right and i did not want to put you on the spot but i wanted to get your thoughts. what will happen now -- people like dr. fauci say the virus will decide this issue in another words, how quickly we reopen or get back to business as usual, as you stress it will be a little bit to go back to where we were and maybe in that direction, dr. fauci seem to say when all is said and done, it is a virus and progression or slower progression to decide.

is the biggest criteria you know of is the fact that the cases have to decline for a significant period of time they mentioned a 14 day figure before we even entertain easing up. >> i think we have to get the economy opened up quickly. i really do and the reason that i do. by the way, of course keeping in mind to help the information that we get. here is my point, i'm not a health expert, i'm an economist, dr. fauci is a great health expert but not an economist. i will tell you this if we keep this economy, i've seen some expert team we have to keep the economy closed through june or july, if that happens we will have a great depression pray there is no way you can keep this economic engine, the greatest economic engine in civilization shutdown for four months and somehow some of these people think you can flick the omission switch in the economy starts up. no the economic damage will be so severe, you will have corpse

of businesses that will never reopen because they have sold their assets, they have no revenues, and one last point, i know were running out of time, we have half of the economy open right now, you been talking to a lot of people running these great businesses operating like fred smith at fedex. they figured it out how to keep their workplace safe in the workers safe which is their top priority but also provide goods and services so we have an economy. so why don't we follow the advice of the trucking companies in the fedex in the amazons that are doing it and doing it in a safe way. neil: last question if you don't mind my producer is going to kill me but you're such a good guess. jerome powell of the federal reserve and all the extra efforts unlike we've ever seen before, the fed was doing during the meltdown, do you think jerome powell has put himself in better braces with the

president, giving his performance in the face of this virus that he is not necessarily one and done with this president. >> i was thinking about that last night, that's why i was laughing, trump is been so tough on jerome powell on the last since usually appointed. actually every meeting i've been with, trump to talk about the economy, he always takes time to attack the fed chairman. i have to say no been pretty critical of the show and others as you know i think powell has done a good job of managing this crisis, i think it's a right thing to do. neil: good enough to keep his job. you know the president well. do you think the president would say i don't hate you anymore you're not a loser anymore. i think i would reappoint you. >> you the answer to that question, if we come out of this and we come out like we want to see with a v-shaped recovery with the economy back in shape by the fall and were not even

nine months. i think jerome powell will deserve to be reappointed. but i'm very nervous about the fed taking winners and losers in the economy right now. we cannot have this wear will be allowed this company not the company. that makes me a little bit nervous but i'm going to give him an a- grade for what he's done in a crisis. neil: all right, it looks like were bailing out everybody at the rate were going pre-will see what happens. always a pleasure pray thank you my friend. let's get the reed on this, we have jackie deangelis, and charlie gasparino, what did you think about your own power. powell might be changing minds, i don't know about the one in the oval office but what do you think. >> it is very mixed record, the

guy in the oval office might not be in the oval office to reappoint him. we should point that out coming november. so a lot is in flux about powell's future. listen, i have a problem with what the fed is doing in the sense or what the government is doing. you can throw trillions of dollars of fed easing and backstops and everything at this economy and it could have just marginal impact because the real problem is a mainstream problem it's what steve morris said. if everything is shut down how are people going to be able to go to the bank and get a loan to expand the restaurants if no one is going to eat those restaurants. i think that's part of the problem of the government's response, if you think about it the fed has pumped $10 trillion, and being conservative into this economy. the small business portion of the bailout plan from the federal government is

500 billion. those are the places that are really getting hammered here. i want to say one other thing about opening up early, we know this is horrible and a good chance we can go into a depression with what is going on. if you open up the economy to early in places like new york city, i'm not talking about idaho, oklahoma but in new york city particular and florida and maybe in seattle and the hotspots of this thing, you can have a second occurrence of this virus and you could be in the health system could be overwhelmed and just be real clear here, the economy is bad, maybe there is a rolling plan where new york state shut while the places they open but you have to be really ope careful at opening up too early, if you open up too early and this comes back a second time i'm telling you the economic consequent this will be worse and i do know a little but about emergency rooms and icus, my brother is in icu doctor, yes stuff is leveling off but leveling off from

insanity. it is not exactly leveling off where everything is okay. it's gone from really bad to just. neil: let me ask you about that because the president might address that but in my conversation with steve should they address it's been clear to the point and move off the stage and let the medical people detail some of the options out there with the wall street journal and essentially saying that it's big news for pointing out the fact that he wears out his welcome in the viewing audience by ripping reporters. should he just report the latest bulletins in the latest senate buddies getting and let the professionals finish it. >> of course he should but he is not going too so it's a point f the briefing and he's the president and he will duties been doing and that's almost one

of the is what it is types of situation. carly makes. neil: i'm jumping on you he did something different last night. he did something different, i don't follow the beginning to end but he left the state early and that is the kind of stuff and he said he should do more which echoes your point. >> i think he had another conference call to jump on, he had these other meetings he had to go too so sometimes when time is pressed, that dictates how much time he can spend where he other times he's out there for an hour and a half or two hours. i think the people that want information look forward to the time he passes the microphone to the vice president because you know you hear from dr. birx and

dr. fauci and the questions that are asked of the medical issues are going to be probably more directly answered them when the president is up there we get off the rails on these things. the point i want to make to follow up on charlie, it's important about the federal reserve, to me this flies in the face of what steve was talking about to the effective 80% of movement in the market is a market looking ahead and see the models approving on the health side. 80% might be a little bit high because it is discounting the effect that the federal reserve is having to help wall street and help investors bring to charlie's point you are still seeing the pain in the economy on main street. we cannot lose side of the fact that the programs the government has promised especially the paycheck protection program those promises have not been delivered on. they can give us the numbers all they want in terms of how many loans have been approved and how many applications have come through but we know from speaking to real people, just

from her own show and after the day this week, we have one small business owner on and another ry ofoday, every single one of frustration in terms of getting the help that they need and that is not what was promised, we were promised a week ago these businesses could go when in a few hours the money would be available for various reasons and we know some of the reasons that have not happened but that has been the big story in the federal reserve has helped wall street maybe even more than an outlook of the models it does not have the ability or the program put in place and it has not helped main street as well as the programs are there or not working the way they are promised to work. neil: jackie, there's no right or wrong answer and not try to put you on the spot but i heard out of the briefing today if the president were to telegram, this all ends on the 30th i think

were ready to go back to work even if he does it in stages. how do you think that goes down especially when i look at the surveys and others that show seven out of ten americans are quite anxious about their own exposure to this. that say nothing of love ones and friends. how do you think that will go down. >> you can turn it off and say everybody needs to go back to work but to charlie's point in new york city, if you have people congregating in public areas in the office for example that do not know if they were ever infected with the coronavirus, they can be asymptomatic carriers, they could get other people sick. what it comes down to the testing that governor cuomo has been saying, that is how you can send the safe part of the population back into the workforce to get things going.

the market may reactive the president says we will turn things on in the market will be okay in a couple of weeks but the market came a long way this week. i think he was excited about the extra stimulus and excited that were may be reaching a peak and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel even though things are pretty tough out there for the average person. we probably had some people that we are short covering saying i don't want to bet against it which pushes the index and the dow up. a lot of things to look at but i don't think you can turn this on with the magic light switch, push of a button and get everybody back because if you have that resurgent it's going to cause a bigger problem. i go back to the idea that we need antibody testing. that we know it say for certain people to go back. >> i want to make a couple points on the market, back in 2008 after the bailouts, markets went back up and then they went back down violently again when the reality of the great recession came into play.

that is number one. number two the federal reserve is good at lowering interest rates. the federal government has not been good in bailing out wall street and banks, i'm not saying they shouldn't but they're good at that. the federal government is horrible when it comes to these bailout fiscal policy whether infrastructure rebuilding and i can tell you i reported this from day one, even before friday of last week when the ptt was supposed to start small stimulus business plan, nobody had any idea, the rules will not clear, this is so much mass confusion, so little thought into actual process of the fiscal small business part. it really is bad and i got attacked on twitter by all these people saying you're so negative. i was only negative in reporting because small businesses were getting screwed and by the way the disparity between what is going on on wall street in small business is still very large. one other thing steve moore said trump is great and a great politician. calling people names in this environment and having fights with the press is not great and

all you have to do is look at jimmy carter's approval rating during the iran hostage crisis, guess what it was at 60%. donald trump is not at a 60% at a time when people generally give the commander-in-chief credit for leading the country. the people are not saying he is doing a great job. the average person is not. neil: all right. you sound like a loser. i am kidding. i want to think connell and jackie as well. the point all of these guys mentioned, we talk about the jobless claims and where we are is 17 million americans early on in the coronavirus crisis, charlie gasparino was referring to the financial meltdown of what happened of all the rescu rescues, even after the rescues and even after the rocketing on

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neil: new items concerning chuck schumer saying there is no reason that congress cannot

agree to the coronavirus relief deal by early next week. hillary vaughn has been following this back and forth. the two sides are far apart whether the $251 billion that will be added to the small business part under the package if you will. it is enough. democrats say is not enough, their mother futures and protections for the healthcare workers that can bring tens of billions more than that. i do not know where this is going but i'm betting hillary does. what is going to happen. >> there could be a deal reached over the weekend because a source familiar with the call from vice president mike pence and senate republicans tells me that senate majority leader mitch mcconnell told the vice president he is trying to work out a deal with democrats over easter weekend. if the deal is not made he is not opposed to putting up the same bill for the $250 billion for the paycheck protection program back on the floor on monday to see if democrats are willing to object or if they will go for.

>> the democrats are blocking it, nancy pelosi is driving the party making the decisions for the party and said no, this seems to be a no-brainer and seems to be these very unusual times, the democrats are playing politics as usual. we need to get relief to the american people, this is the way to do it. >> on the ground building between two unlikely allies in congress. the senator josh holly and progressive democratic congressman who both have similar ideas to have the federal government cover some of workers paychecks, the proposal right now from senator hawley would have the government cover 80% of workers salaries but we kept the money paid out to medium income waged somewhere between $30,050,000 and another proposal from congresswoman would have the bill for all workers salaries for worker benefits for 100%. the key is that this would cover

businesses big and small, all u.s. private companies would be eligible for the government to cover these paychecks, that is something different for what the small business planned the paycheck protection program offered. the bottom line is this, there are people in both parties who are on board with getting this relief but really it's leadership at the democratic party that is stalling this from really making any movements, we will see if they can get through this over easter weekend or not. neil: they are confident that they can prove we will see pre-thank you very much. the more pressing needs for a lot of you maybe for dinner tonight and there's a group that is urging you to order takeout delivery because there are a lot of folks that are depending on that. nancy is leading the charge, blaze pizza ceo where they had the great american takeout campaign that urges you to get some takeout delivery orders going. good to have you.

>> thank you so much for having me o on. neil: a lot of people are ordering out but i'm sure not the orders that would offset the losses that a lot of restaurants have felt. but you are trained to bring more awareness. that is an option right. >> yes the restaurant industry in place 50 million people. and for those of us to have dining rooms that were mandated to be closed, there has to be an immediate pivot, pickup, curio, curbside, any delivery we have added additional carriers to our groups in the restaurant industry and the internet is right, i think he's the manager of the fish and chips place, you will get this, it is about people and hospitality and trying to keep those jobs. the great american takeout has been shared it's not anyone brand, 400 plus brands in

restaurants associated with it. if you order out one more time a week, we can keep jobs for people and keep them actively employed and try to work through into all the relief comes out and then we can start releasing restrictions and help keep people employed, it's about that every day. >> i am curious with the demand for the small business package that is about 360 billion of the $30$300, how many of your membe, restaurants in general would be beneficiaries of that, there to do the paperwork and all of that i get that but how do you think that's worked out for them? >> where a franchise organization about 99% franchise, we have applied for our restaurant and were advising our franchises, if you can imagine where the mix of large experience alternate operators and then we have husband-and-wife couple who was

there thing and they wanted to open two or three and they may not be able to have the resources. we are shepherding folks through the train to make sure they have the rules as they come out. a tremendous sharing happening right now across brands to again, none of us are being territorial about what we know and how to get access to the funds because all of those thrive on the side of the restaurant business. so nearly all of our folks will benefit from it for sure. neil: all right. best of luck with this. a lot of people love their local restaurants and they do want to support them and a good many are that we have to keep doing it. thank you. best of luck on the front. where are we going with this entire effort, a lot of people at home and just dealing with this. people get angry and start thinking how did all of the start and a lot of the criticism that we have been seeing has been coming early on against

china that it was hiding stuff from us, the worl the world organization being complicit in that and keeping china secret secret from the rest of the world so much of the administration has been leading an effort to defund the money that we give to the world health organization. right now the former marco rubio 2016 presidential campaign advisor. also critical of the china nature of the w.h.o. but more to the point that it's way bigger than that, not just china centric, it is a failure. i don't want to jump to that conclusion but it sounds like that's where you stand on this. explain. >> i think the problem is you have an organization that over the years has done a lot of good work, no question about it. but the focus is on public health. that should mean they place public health over politics, and the current crisis we see with

coronavirus, it seems as though the organization has been willing to accept wholesale, the argument in the data coming out of china without a critical examination of the data. i think it's the first and foremost responsible the of an organization like this to figure out what is going on and disseminate information that is accurate and actionable from countries like the united states. neil: do you worry that as screwed up as it is in looking at some of the announcements and research, you are quite right even if it is not deliberate, it is clumsy to put it mildly. but if you started the funding process now in the middle of a global contagion like this, you are doing more harm than good, what do you think. >> i think we have to look at the different sources of funding for the organization. there is a separate fund of the organization has set up to deal with coronavirus. that is something we can continue with but we send a lot of money to the organization, we sent $400 million a year. we need to demand accountability

for that money. whether it's a temporary hold or something that goes into a more long-lasting look at the stream of funding that we provide to the organization, we need accountability and right now we don't have the accountability. the only way to get it is with the strings, that is something they will listen to and respond to and i think it's important for the future efficacy of the organization when we have a next pandemic that we will enforce the accountability now. neil: you know, it is always in the bia of the holder, the accountability what the order under world health organization didn't, we know in the white house that peter navarro was sending out a memo warning about this virus that could become a very, very big deal. there was no signs of that ultimately went out to president trump, doesn't accountability work both ways, in other words of the administration or others in high positions failed to

appreciate the gravity of this, how is that any different when the world house or organization during the same. >> i would say as american voters, those who participated in the process we would need to have them want to have a thorough account of what the u.s. government to do and what it did do and what it shouldn't of done. those are fair questions. what we think about the purpose of the world health organization, the purpose of this group is to protect public health and to make people's lives better, when the organization for some reason is not performing the task, my point is there is no one else in the world apparently now that is all interested in enforcing accountability with the world health organization, were in a unique position. we need to use our leverage to get those answers from the world health organization. yes we should get those with their own government, no question about it but that should not stop us from seeing were spending our money wisely and prudently to the benefit of

our public health and the public health around those in the wor world. neil: thank you very much. very good seeing you again. >> thank you neil. neil: all right, in the meantime, how are you celebrating passover and on sunday easter. i bet in small numbers, how do you do that, how do you deal with that, how do you still experience the important of these days. that is up next. ♪

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neil: sadly were always in the middle of a crisis when i have robert allen on. but i have him on because it's good at combing everyone down and putting things in to

perspective because he steps back and avoids politics and nastiness which would make him a horrible cable tv host but unfortunately he is much better than that and much bigger than that. father, very good to have you, thank you for taking the time. >> good to be back with you. i could be a little nastier if you want, and from brooklyn after all. [laughter] neil: we will try that. a lot of families are getting kind of nasty with each other and been under the roof for a long time and it could be longer now. here we are in the middle of holy week as you know, they are celebrating without the extended family. many are videotaping and going on to the other outlets that allow you to communicate with family members but it is not the same. how do you advise people to deal with it. >> i just came over from the church, and hearing confessions and believe me, this is a real thing, personally one thing that i do because i find myself that

way, i lived in the house with other priest and everything and i just remind myself when i'm feeling snarky that i'm feeling snarky, i'm not feeling very charitable toward people in that kind of puts a break on it. just your consciousness is when you are not aware or not admitting to yourself that you're under a lot of stress, that is the reality of the circumstance were living in, this is good friday and i'm sure the lord felt very snarky as he carried the cross to the hill. neil: but imagine an opportunity that he would not have been able to meet with his family because everyone was sheltering apart. it is very different, i'm not trained to be comic about it but they need that commodity, that human companionship, how do you guide them when they cannot have it.

>> there are ways of communicating and communicating with other people, they're not as good as the personal family meal kind of thing. we have to see the light at the end of the tunnel and we have to see -- i'm using good friday as a metaphor because were talking about this today that christ saw what would happen after good friday, i think we need to see there is something after this. this virus is not going to destroy human civilization, it will cost us a great the up. but there is going to be a day and in that day where we emerge from this, we will appreciate these relationships so much more, sacrificing and consciously sacrificing, not just enduring this but in a way embracing it and using it for something greater then this right now can be a great

consolation amidst this catastrophe. neil: more quickly, were told that people like dr. fauci said we should not say can, we should be on smaller numbers, maybe restaurants will be as crowded, theaters won't be as crowded, it will take along time for people to be comfortable in crowds maybe even in churches, does that worry you. >> yes of course that worries me and i think our perspective is going to change, if were talking about this from a middle of a crisis, this is not the best time to assess what we will be like and how we will feel once were outside the crisis. we have to do these things because of the biology because of the contagion of it. but when we get this thing under control, i think we will have a perspective. the idea of having good basic health practices is something

that needs to be in our consciousness. but this does not happen every week, thank god it does not happen every week. neil: father, thank you so much for joining us. happy easter father. >> easter is coming, happy easter to you and all your viewers. god bless. neil: god bless. a final touch on something very profound. this is something that will test her character in maybe her patients. but we've been through something and in fact 50 years ago we went through something very, very scary that riveted the world, 50 years ago tomorrow apollo 13 launched, do you remember apollo 13, after this. it's a challenging market. edward jones is well aware of that. which is why we're ready to listen.

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55 hours 48 minutes, apollo 13 presently at 177,861 nautical miles away. >> after the broadcast a quick test before bed.

>> we have one more item. >> out of nowhere and exposure. >> houston we have a problem. >> this is houston state again. >> we have a problem. >> this is not on earth, this is 200,000 miles away. a little different. yes away from earth, there was nothing we can do but become and try to figure out what we had. >> is there any laser we can give them, we have around problem or what. neil: 50 years ago tomorrow apollo 13 took off, it would be our third trip to the moon and people have gone blasé about it but not after what happened a couple of days after that when there was an explosion and it looked at those three men would never make it back, they did of

course. the timing of all of this is amazing. this is a special way approximation, i hope you can catch up this weekend because we go back and talk to the original astronauts involved in that including jim lovell the commander who was robbed attitudes to walk on the moon himself, it's an amazing story of resilience and getting through something tough. does it ring a bell what's going on right now. let's talk to tom jones on that. we all know when you guys go into space, the great risks you take and you face them head-on as well, that was an unusual event in an unusual time where he was telling me i thought the odds of getting back home safe and sound were few if not to know. what do you think of how they handle then how we as a nation handle that. >> i marveled at the teamwork between mission control and apollo 13 crew on board.

they were out there in deep space 180,000 miles from earth, some places we have not gone in about 50 years. and we cannot believe that those people return those astronauts alive. we learn from some of the same astronauts when i was an astronaut in the shuttle and some of the people who worked at mission control during apollo 13, they were the flight director when i flew on the shuttle two. i got the lesson learned from apollo 13 and i hope they will remember them the next time we ventured to the moon. neil: i was talking to the astronaut at the time and they had said if they could get them their own by getting them home safe, how does this program, we would have former flights, eight were when unterman walked the surface of the young unterman but that was not down for a while. >> i think the determination comes loud and clear, the crew to tackle one problem after another off the engine firing

with the buildup, living in a freezing spacecraft for four days on the way home, they overcame all that including illness, he got sick on the way back and then the guys on the ground, they never regarded this as a lost cause and they refuse to give up, they saw the problems at navigation, communication providing the crew with the life-support system, they would need rationing the power that is available to get them back alive. so those are lessons that that is a nation we should take to heart today. if we put our minds to it, we can come up with these solutions and thanks to preparation and training, also among the spot ingenuity. neil: the difference now is people are feeling afraid of the virus for themselves in a family that was then was detached focusing on the fate of whether they get back alive. there is a difference there but it did show, there is an inherent moxie in human beings

even now but what do you think. >> i think the country has great untapped reserves of courage and smarts and the ability to withstand and hold out until this crisis passes. i think we haven't plumbed those deaths in a while and it's good to find out that they are still here. that we still have the traits we can pull together from apollo 13 and pulled them together now to confront the virus. were all going to isolation, astronauts get to experience on every trip, even medical coding team before the flight were six-month on a space station. so to deal with isolation, you have to rely on your teammates, crewmates, they will push you and lift you up when you are down and anxious and worried and disappointed. i relied on my crewmates for disappointment, i had a lost spacewalk on my third mission where my commander recognized that i was depressed and discouraged and said why not you

come over and help me fire up the rock and columbia and help us maneuver this patient. that was not a recognition by letting me fly a rocketship in person. and then the second example i was supper people is to stay active, don't let yourself get cabin fever and get cooped up, get exercise indoors or outdoors if you can because that refreshes your mind as well as your body, it gives you a chance to look at the big picture and how we can get through this neil: wise words, all. tom, you haven't lost a beat. thanks for your example. it's a good reminder today of what we did 50 years ago. again, a reminder. tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the launch of apollo 13 and that saga that became a character-building test for this country and the world. i often say, a lot of you get tired of hearing it, i think as a species, we are really judged on how we handle the things that don't go well, not the things that do go well.

history is often defined by those things that do not go well. that was a test of character then. you could see it this weekend on fox nation. it's a look back in time that reminds us of the time that happens again and again when we're tested but i tell you, folks, time and again, we always get through it. we always, always get through it. andy card knows that very well. you remember him, former chief of staff for president bush during 9/11. he was the guy who had to break the news to the president, at the time in florida, that we had been attacked and the terrorist attack was on, and a war was on. he handled it calmly and deftly, probably one of the best chiefs of staff the white house has ever known. he joins us right now. andy, good to see you. >> you were very kind with that introduction. great pleasure to be with you. neil: that was the intro you wrote, wasn't it? >> no. neil: good to see you, my friend. one of the things i was thinking about, having you and remembering this apollo 13

anniversary and everything that's going on with the coronavirus, people harkening back to the financial meltdown and others before that, all these tests of the markets and our people, and i know i sound like yankee doodle dandy, we get through it. i think people forget that. we have been through a lot, but we get through it. what do you think? >> america is amazingly resilient, and not only that, we lead the world in resilience. i would say that one of our strengths is that governors play a role in this, it's not just the central government. it's governors playing a role. they have a closer understanding of the impact of the coronavirus on their people and also on its impact on the local economy. that's one of the strengths of our system of democracy, where we have federalism, where governors actually play a significant role in determining what is best for their

constituents. neil: i had caught some remarks you made, i forget where, excuse me, talking about at times like these, words matter and i could extend that beyond just the president but those in leadership. chuck schumer, nancy pelosi. but words and the tone that you use matter. on that front, do you ever worry with the sniping back and forth that we don't get that message? >> i do. i think we have turned to hyperbole more than we should in the political dialogue that takes place today, and everything doesn't have to be all politics. this is a time when we should put our partisanship and our partisan politics kind of aside and just rally together to do what is right. it was my grandmother to gave me this conscience to say, she would say taste your words before you spit them out. this is a particularly important time for all of us, whether they are presidents or speakers or

governors or just local officials, taste your words before you spit them out, they do have an impact. look, this is a serious challenge that we have. we don't want to oversell it. we don't want to undersell it. we also want to be optimistic without causing i'm going to say -- you don't want rosy scenario to be the most important adviser on your cabinet. neil: so when you would advise and talk to president bush right after 9/11, and we can all remember when he took the megaphone and was in lower manhattan to say the world hears you, how did you balance, you know, the zeal to dismiss what's going on at the same time you are going to fight what's going on? it's a delicate balance, isn't it? >> you want to acknowledge the emotion that people are feeling and you want to have as much empathy as possible, but you don't want to make your decisions based on emotion.

you want them to be pragmatic, exercising good judgment, trying to the very best of your ability to make sure there are no unintended terrible consequences to the decisions you make. so that's the balance. we have to remember, as the president is doing his job, and the president's job is always difficult, it's particularly challenging right now no matter who the president is, it would be challenging, and the president doesn't have things taken off his plate. people just keep adding to his plate. so while he has to deal with this pandemic crisis and his interest in getting our economy moving again, he also has to deal with situations of diplomacy and maybe natural disasters that might show up. we have to deal with legislation, implementing laws, complying with expectations around the world. so the president has a lot on his plate. he needs a great team helping him out. the role of the chief of staff is to make sure all of the responsibilities that the

president has get met, even while the president is paying disproportionate attention, appropriately, to the current pandemic and the desire to get america back up and running again. neil: you know, you think about it, george bush's entire presidency was based on how he responded to 9/11. this president and his re-election chances will be no doubt defined by how he responds to this coronavirus crisis. how do you think he's doing? >> i give him high marks for giving attention. he stands up, he has phenomenal stamina to take the questions he takes every day. i do have a little bit of concern that he's maybe not paying attention to some of the other responsibilities that a president has which he also has to meet. but generally, i give him high marks for how he is addressing the current situation. tough priorities have to be made. i do think he should seek the counsel of governors,

republicans and democrats, large states and small states, understand from them what their concerns are, respect the constitution and the role the governors have, give them the tools they think they need consistent with the stockpiles and the role of fema to exercise judgment, but generally, i say he's trying the best that he can to deal with a very challenging situation and i want everyone to kind of put their politics aside and just let's fix this and then we will have our political debate later on. neil: you know, the president was taken to task, he thought un-farrell su unfa unfairly so, by the "wall street journal" that these press briefings drag on too long and the president gets into battles with the media and it takes away from his otherwise very good command of the situation and the keys americans have to know, it's gotten to the point where other networks are contemplating not carrying the press sessions

because they veer into crazy territory that the "wall street journal" says the president should stop. he called that fake news and that the "journal" is making a big deal out of nothing. where are you on this? >> well, i do tend to think that he spends a little too much time in front of a camera taking questions from the press. the most valuable commodity that is rare is time. the president doesn't have a lot of time to deal with all of the problems he has to deal with. i think that he should be more judicious in how he uses all of his time. i love seeing him out there, it shows that he's engaged, but there are other challenges the president has to be meeting as well and i want to have confidence that he's doing that. let his advisers go out and share more of their information. he doesn't have to be the director of the press conference and call on people to ask questions of other people. i think he could leave the experts out there and maybe not stand center stage himself all

the time. so i tend to agree with the "wall street journal" editorial. it was maybe a little meaner than i thought it should be, but i understand -- i want the president to succeed in this effort and let's have him make the decisions that are tough decisions. he doesn't have to explain them before he makes them. he will have to explain them after he makes them. but i think spending more time at the desk might be better than spending time in front of a camera at a press conference. neil: all right. andy card, always learn a lot. thank you very much, my friend. very good seeing you. happy easter. >> same to you, neil. thank you very much. neil: andy card, former white house chief of staff for president bush. speaking of this president, this health care task force briefing has been pushed back a little bit until 1:30 p.m. we will take it when he gets to the podium along with those health care force members. meantime, we've got representative mike gallagher, wisconsin republican congressman

with us now. congressman, good to have you. >> thanks for having me. neil: lots to get into, including the efforts you're making right now to look at the supply chain and what we rely on out of china but on what you want to hear from the president and task force today, you have heard this back-and-forth where the president goes on too long, whether he should defer more to his medical staff. where are you on this? >> well, actually i think the white house having these daily press conferences, being exceptionally transparent and being unscripted is actually a good thing. there's been no effort by trump that i can ascertain to silence fauci or dr. birx or pence or anyone else on the task force. it may not be as polished as some would like, but it is uniquely transparent so i think the more information we get out there, the better. the extent to which he can provide the american people with

a sense of what have we learned with this massive investment in testing and contact tracing because that's our best path out of this. testing is how you get data. data is how you produce intelligence. intelligence is how you win wars. so i think to the extent the president wants to give us a light at the end of the tunnel and show americans hey, we are not going to be forced to be shut down forever, you are making a sacrifice, we appreciate it, but here's the path out of it, i hope he will use today's press conference and subsequent press conferences to do just that. neil: so what is the path out of it, in your opinion? some say a decline in the number of cases, even a decline in the increase in cases and/or deaths for 14 straight days. others say much more testing, to your earlier point, not the 1 out of 300 we have being tested in this country today, closer to what germany has, i believe 1 out of 100 tested there right now. but we need to have a lot more

of that before we even entertain easing up on the stay-at-home provisions. what do you think? >> i think the next phase of this, because let's be honest, we aren't going to flip a light switch on and go back to normal, i think the next phase is going to be a bottom-up effort led by all the different states because what works for me here in green bay, wisconsin is going to be a little bit different than what works for you in manhattan or manhattan beach in california. so asking our governors to figure out what makes sense for your local communities, your school districts, your state parks, all the complicated things that no president, no member of congress and no governor by themselves can figure out in a nation as diverse as ours, i think is the key to phase two of this. but ultimately, it's premised on our ability to use data and testing to fight smarter. my own view is that until we figure out a way to control the virus and defeat the disease,

there simply aren't enough dollars the federal government can print to cover the cost of staying shut down. again, i hope we transition to that phase two where we combine enhanced data with a bottom-up approach with a continued strict but strategic quarantine and i think the american people would be willing to sacrifice for longer if we can give them a sense of what's entailed in that phase two bottom-up effort. neil: got it. sort of like a light at the end of the tunnel. while i have you, you were one of the first to see that we were exposed to china in more ways than just the potential virus here in its earliest days, that a lot of the pharmaceutical materials that are needed to fight it come from china, that neck of the woods, and you want to address that supply chain disparity right now. i know you are working with senator cotton to do just that. could you explain what you are up to? >> well, i do think the trump administration deserves credit going back to 2017 for the

fundamental premise of their national security strategy and our subsequent national defense strategy, which is to say our primary competitor as we shift away from counterterrorism in the middle east is china and it's that competition that will define the next few decades. certainly what makes that in some ways more difficult or more complicated than our competition with the soviet union is that unlike the early stages of the cold war, in this new cold war, we are incredibly economically intertwined with china, and particularly we are now painfully discovering we are dependent for active pharmaceutical ingredients, what's called apis, for over 80% of what goes into our drugs. that stuff is made in china to a lesser extent, india. we simply cannot have a situation where we are dependent on the largesse of the chinese communist party which does not share our interests and have chinese communist party officials threaten to cut off exports of drug ingredients and thereby plunge us into a sea of coronavirus. we are going to have to take

some time, we will have to spend some money bringing that manufacturing either back here domestically or at least to countries that we trust are free world allies because the goal of the ccp is to break apart that free world consensus that we lead as the leader of the free world. neil: but you got to time it right. ner in other words, you don't want to cut off purchases from china until you have alternatives right here, right? >> senator cotton and myself have allowed for a waiver in the short term, particularly as we deal with the coronavirus crisis, to ensure that we are not increasing costs on americans as we struggle to get through this crisis. you are absolutely right, there needs to be some flexibility. at the same time, our legislation sets an ambitious timeline which is to say shoring up these supply chains, bringing some of that manufacturing back to the united states by 2024, and that may seem very ambitious, but consider the fact that the centerpiece of china's

grand strategy is made in china 2025. so it is certainly their intent to become the global leader in things like the future of the telecommunications market. look at their efforts around the world to have ccp controlled companies like huawei dominate the future of the internet, the future of 5g internet. so we could ignore this and not force ourselves to take it on with that sense of urgency but i think we would do so to our own disadvantage and we would end up costing ourselves more in terms of blood and treasure over the long term. neil: congressman, we will follow very closely. thank you for taking the time. we appreciate it. >> thank you, sir. neil: all right. we will take a quick break. or will we? do i have that right? we are going to keep going. all right. we will go to jackie deangelis, connell mcshane, i apologize for that confusion. can i blame it on you?

andrew is right here with me. guys, thank you all. sorry for that. connell, you know me long enough to know i'm certainly not going to take the blame myself. so let me get your take on what the congressman was saying here that the president has been an effective communicator on this, even early on against china, our reliance not only on a lot of trade products from them but a lot of these pharmaceutical items and drugs and all, and that is something that will resonate long after this. do you agree with that? >> yes. essentially, yes, that we need to do something and this has been talked about in recent weeks in some of the briefings about supply chain reliance on china for a whole host of different items and this has been one of many wake-up calls, the largest by far, people obviously during the trade talks started to think about that as well. the other thing i think congressman gallagher hit on which is really interesting is he started talking there a few minutes ago about this phased approach to reopening of the economy, and that we do a good

job of communicating that, that essentially americans, small, medium size business owners and people that work there, they might be able to make more sacrifices. i think what he's getting at is important because we heard this from the likes of scott gottleib, mark mclellan and other officials who have been working on reopening plans for the economy, if you lay it out and have criteria, all right, cases going down in an area for 14 days, okay, hospitals can handle this and when we start reopening, we will have small businesses go first or as the mayor of miami told me the other day, maybe outdoor businesses go first. whatever the plan is, if it's laid out, you allow people to plan for it. i thought that was an interesting point. let's see if we see that. we have heard more generalities from the president and task force of oh, we will open up, it will go up like a rocket ship, whatever phrase the president uses on a given day but let's see if we see more specifics about not that we are going to do it tomorrow, but when we do it, this is what it might look like. neil: you know, lily, on that

issue, up like a rocket ship, v-shaped recovery, maybe you want to prepare americans for something that might not quite be that way. i have no doubt we will come back. i think that consensus from third and fourth quarter growth, that will be appreciable, 6% or more, but this rocket sentiment you could be building in people could be as dangerous as saying the virus is gone, let's move on. i don't know that's balanced, but what do you think? >> yeah. i think there is a combination of, one, getting back to business, our essential businesses, those are shut down right now which is what the economic relief packages are meant to do. but in parallel, back to the topic from the congressman and reclaiming medicine independence, we need to rethink where innovation dollars are being put in. we can continue to do business as usual and think about big infrastructure to let's say wait until 2024 to open manufacturing back in the u.s., but they are

ready to activate american ingenuity that this is the time for prime time. there is one particular lab in new mexico that is able to bring agile manufacturing to the united states right now and i think this is the time for changing the rules for who gets the funding, who is accelerated because in the middle of a crisis, innovators will rise. i think it's a balance between those two, the fundamentals for fundamental businesses that need to get back up and who are we going to bet on that is ready to leapfrog technologies and innovations that will get us ahead and get us out of the mess that we're in right now, depending from other sources for our fundamental life-saving drugs that right now are starting to get into a shortage. it's a delicate balance and we need policy makers and public/private partnerships to look at all options and be open to those kinds of new partnerships and new innovators

as part of the mix. neil: jackie, i think in the meantime, all these financial issues, stimulus, debt buying of everything under the sun, what really seems to set the course of the market for the time being seems to be progress on this virus and that at least its increase is slowing, hospitalizations are going down, the kind of stuff that obviously encourages average folks who are scared of it and apparently 7 out of 10 americans are, but that seems to drive the market's direction for the time being. what do you think? >> absolutely. people are scared of it and within good reason, obviously this is a very contagious virus and it's been very dangerous. even life-threatening for certain parts of the population. but having said that, just speaking from a market standpoint strictly for a moment, the market was very very concerned about this as we were going in and now it's starting to see that while things are not

great under the circumstances, nobody wishes this was happening, they are somewhat under control and that's what the market looks for. it hates uncertainty. it wants to so a light at the end of the tunnel. you mention growth in the third and fourth quarter and that's what this market is looking at now. i said in the last hour i think it may be getting ahead of itself a little bit, maybe moving too aggressive. charlie pointed out that during the financial crisis, we went up and then took a sharp leg back before we came up again. that's something to think about, because there are going to be bumps in the road here and a lot of people have said this recovery may not look as clean and simple as everybody expects and it may be more w-shaped than v-shaped. we may see bumps along the way. i think that's what the stock market is seeing right now, is the light at the end of the tunnel and not necessarily thinking about how rough this could be over the next couple of months. neil: all these letter analogies to the recovery. i heard someone mention z-shape. that one completely, i don't know.

i don't know where that goes. z-shape. guys, thank you all very, very much. sorry for the confusion at the outset. it was andrew white's fault. in the meantime, i want to get the latest on this briefing that's been pushed back to start in about ten minutes. blake burman is getting a read on maybe where this will go, what the president will be focusing on. blake burman. we are going to break here. which is different than blake.

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neil: all right. deaths are rising from the coronavirus, but hospitalizations are declining, the rate of increase in hospitalizations is declining. that is seen as a far more significant development because it's a more active, current indicator than the lagging one in deaths. here to explain the phenomenon of that and why this might be an encouraging development, not the death part but the

hospitalization part, dr. jen caldwell. good to have you back. obviously governor cuomo seized on this hospitalization news as a good sign, a welcoming sign. can you explain why that would be? >> well, i think anybody would agree, i mean, it is a good sign. it is a welcoming sign. it is like a little bit of a glimmer of light at hopefully, that we are seeing at the end of this tunnel and that is for anyone, whether in politics, whether at home, whether you are a doctor. this is what we want to see. but what i would also say, i know what governor cuomo also indicated as well, this is not a reason to let up. in fact, the way that i think about this is that this should actually give us more ammunition to continue social distancing and doing the measures we have been, because it's showing that hopefully, they are starting to work. neil: so i know i ask you this question every time you come on,

but what would it be to you to ease up on a lockdown, ease up on the shelter at home provisions? what are some of the things you want to see? >> well, i certainly want to see a lot less illness, a lot fewer deaths, a lot less hospitalizations in terms of exact numbers. i'm not sure that we have those to give, exactly the situation and circumstance. but this is something i do need to say. when we think about how we came into this pandemic, what were we all saying? we were all saying and still saying, why didn't we know about this, why didn't we prepare, we could have done this, could have done that. before we start jumping in to reintroducing society into society and the world, we need to put that same amount of thought that we don't feel happened for this pandemic into the reopening of society. i'll be honest with you, i'm not up for a hasty reentry into society if it's at the expense of lives. look, we are doing hopefully, i

know we are doing good in terms of our social distancing. people are heeding the warning, i think more and more every day, but it makes me a little bit anxious, i will be honest with you, every time we talk about reentry. we all need to re-enter society. the economy needs to come back. we are all on the same page, i am, too, do not get me wrong, but i am definitely afraid of us either going backwards in all the gains we have made, or stimulating sort of a second wave of illness which might be the case anyway. my point simply is that we have to be very thoughtful, very measured and we have to be very realistic and put people's lives first. people's lives are first. neil: i like that. you know, doctor, this was an interesting development to me. i don't know how widespread it is or even if it's super significant but i want to bounce it off you. south korea, the latest country to report many of their recovered coronavirus patients are testing positive again.

there have been figures in other countries where those who have been treated and came out okay from the coronavirus, you know, got it again. i'm sure it's a small percentage but i'm thinking about when we do return to normal or whatever it is to your earlier point, is this something we have to worry about? >> so i'm glad you asked that. i believe this was asked last night in the press conference and dr. fauci sort of addressed it. our current understanding and thought process is that once you get coronavirus at this point, you will have some sort of protection going forward. how much and for how long that will last, we're not quite sure at this time. but the general consensus is that you will have some protection. now, with these reports out of south korea and other places about reinfection or a second infection, i think we need to be very very cautious about how these reports are interpreted. i haven't seen the studies myself. i have just seen the reports on the news. you know, whether someone is considered reinfected or not, and that's a very very specific

medical way of thinking about it, i don't know if i explained that right, but the point being is i'm not taking that at face value. i think dr. fauci last night was asked the same question and indicated the same thing, whether someone is actually reinfected by the lab tests you get and things like that depends on a number of variable that i can't say is the case. i will hold off saying they were actually reinfected. you need more information about those cases. even still, regardless of what tends to be the case or what comes out to be the case is that the social distancing, hand washing and all this stuff, is really what we need to be doing. but i'm cautious about those cases, about their interpretation. neil: i admire that caution. you don't sensationalize or hyperventilate over anything which is valuable and our audience particularly appreciates it. good seeing you again. >> you, too. neil: in the meantime here, what would you think of using a product where the people behind the product start telling you don't use the product because we

want better pay, better benefits? grady trimble has been weighing into this, concerns that delivery services, explain this because it seems weird. reporter: it's called shift, owned by target and is a delivery service for target. the workers, the people who do the shopping, are calling for a boycott. one of their main demands is they want paid sick time not just for workers who have tested positive for the coronavirus but also those who are sick and aren't able to get tested or those who are immunocompromised and therefore can't work right now. they also want personal protective equipment, things like masks, gloves and hand sanitizer for workers as well as hazard pay. they are calling for this boycott today but despite that, shipt tells us in a statement we do not anticipate a decrease in demand, at this time our efforts are focused on hiring additional shoppers and support team members to fill orders quickly

and efficiently during this period of increased demand. target also tells us they have provided that ppe to workers, and workers for shipt right now are making 30% more not just in pay, but also in tips right now. they also say that orders are way up, 15% today compared to last friday, and last friday was a near record day. we should point out it's not just shipt dealing with this type of thing, it's several other companies that are considered essential, including amazon, whole foods and instacart, all of them dealing with some sort of worker protest, whether it be a walkout, a sickout or boycott. but they are trying to strike the balance, really, between providing protection for workers and also fulfilling these essential needs right now. by the way, all of those companies that i just named, including shipt, are hiring thousands and thousands of workers. neil? neil: all right. grady, thank you very, very

much. we are getting word right now that the u.s. is already projecting a spike in summer coronavirus infections if stay-at-home orders are lifted at 30 days. in other words, lifted at the end of this month. i would assume. this is coming to us via the "new york times" citing some new federal figures. i want to bounce that off our panel right now. rejoining us, jackie, connell and lily. as we wait for the presidential briefing with the task force moments from now. another spike in cases, jackie. what do you make of that? >> well, it's concerning. that's why people are saying you can't go back to business way too fast. there is so much that we still don't know about this and especially in the hot spots. i keep talking about new york city because we are here, and the fear is real that people will get out and about and once we start all coming together in office spaces or public spaces, that we will start reinfecting

each other. the reason that we have been able to do so well with this horrific pandemic is the fact that we are practicing social distancing, we shut the economy down and everybody is staying home. it's not a realistic sort of model, if you will, for the rest of the year, for example, but when you have dr. fauci talking about mutations or possibly resurgence coming back in the fall or the doctor that was just on talking about people getting reinfected, you really worry about what potentially could happen here. so right now, for example, one of the reasons i'm willing to come in is because there's not really anybody around me so i don't feel like it's that dangerous but having said that, bringing everybody back into the office is a scary prospect. neil: what you're saying is you don't want connell and i anywhere near you just in case. connell -- i'm kidding. connell, it is interesting, that's been played out before, the concern that people come back too soon, even if you do it on a staggered basis, that you

could compound the problem, that that's a fear that's always out there. you got a lot to weigh, right? >> yeah. it's been a fear that's been out there because we watched it play out in some other countries. i know governor cuomo at his press briefing today cited issues similar to this and i believe singapore, he brought up italy and some others, they looked at japan, they see that once businesses start to reopen and by the nature of things that it's going to raise the risk. looking at these projections that the "times" got ahold of, they come from homeland security and hhs and they say their models use a number of different scenarios. they are trying to look at it and say that you know, on the first model, you do nothing to mitigate the spread of the virus so in other words, lift all the restrictions that are in place. the second one they say is a steady state that assumes that schools remain closed until the summer, 25% of americans are able to work from home so you have a quarter of the population working from home and you also have some social distancing, and

the third one is a 30-day shelter in place on top of the steady state so i guess they are modeling and saying that we could, even if we start to lift some of the restrictions gradually, then you do raise the risk. i don't think anybody is advocating for number one where you raise all the restrictions at once but i know the governors have been talking about it. the other thing andrew cuomo, the governor of new york, talked about today is he obviously, like everybody wants to get the economy up and running and knows how much people are hurting but he thinks the reopening in new york, remember, we have what is it, 19 million plus people in new york, he wants it to be heavily reliant on testing. so people have been infected, get a second test but more realistically, people who don't know their status are able to get an antibody tests. those tests exist. we had an executive from one of the companies that rolled it out. they don't exist at scale yet. what governor cuomo is calling on, we will see if this is addressed at the briefing, is for the president to use the defense production act to compel

those tests to scale up essentially. he wants the government to get involved to scale up the antibody testing and thinks that would be a key to returning at least new yorkers who work. neil: how would it work? to connell's point about testing, we are woefully behind other countries on a percentage basis. 1 in 300 americans are tested now. that's a dramatic improvement, take nothing away, in the gaagg more than any other country, but we have 300 million people, to get it to where germany is, 1 out of 100 or better than that. how do you think that part is going? >> yeah, that's going to be the key to bringing peace of mind. we know the market people and the way we behave is directly tied to the psychology of everything around us so testing will be key and i agree with the comment about making that scaleable and accessible to all because that gives you peace of

mind. also creating a culture of self-monitoring and i know temperature checks are not the all in all guidance for somebody that has symptoms or not, but it's something that might be part of a new routine for all of us. and definitely staging the reinsertion of the work force into normal life is going to be key, because what worries me, too, is the minute we start relaxing that and get comfortable, there is 25% arguably that are asymptomatic and carry the virus. we start traveling again across state lines, going into airports, and we may see another wave spike back up of people with the virus. so there are so many things to be modeled and we are -- there's no playbook for this. everyone is trying to figure it out as we go. and especially in big cities like new york right here, we need to be conservative in how this gets done so we don't create the problem yet again

later in the summer or in q4. neil: you know, we are going to lose our electronic connection with you very shortly. i do want to ask you one more question and it concerns who is getting hit by this virus. disproportionately among minorities, it's particularly walloping latinos, african-americans. what do you make of that? >> i think america is realizing that most of the essential workers that are packing our groceries, the farmers that are picking the fruits and vegetable thats s that we eat, a lot of them are minorities in the front lines, just as the doctors, keeping us going and keeping us alive. i think this is awakening another set of discussions. i don't want to overpoliticize it. this is about realizing there are essential jobs that right now, people that are putting their lives on the line for us and a lot of them are hispanic and minorities that are now getting sick and they also disproportionately are affected

by chronic disease, diabetes, obesity, heart failure, and that is just a bad combination. they have to work, they may have preconditions that make them more susceptible and here we are seeing the death rates, 1 in 3 deaths in new york city is hispanic and that's heartbreaking. lots of things, we need to reassess also when it comes to inclusion and access for all through the lens of economics and health and public policies around that. neil: thank you very, very much. it's always good catching up with you. again, back right now with jackie and connell. connell, we are also learning a little bit about, as we get with all these briefings, the latest on the virus front and the latest on this push for more stimulus relief, whatever you want to call it, in the form of a $251 billion package added to the small business part of this. democrats want to add on more but again, you're getting word

from chuck schumer here that they think something can be agreed on, you know, certainly by next week. is that doable? >> maybe. i think the timing was much more important the first time around because -- and as fast as they moved for congressional timing and people saying oh, we have never seen a bill passed, this large passed this fast, and that was all probably true, the timing in getting that money to small businesses who need the money, it just has not worked out, as we talked about earlier, the way it needed to work out. they lost the program on the paycheck protection last friday, there were still many small businesses, we speak to them all the time, who have not gotten their money yet. so adding $250 billion to the $350 billion there already may indeed be necessary and may prove to be necessary, but right now, that's not the issue. the issue is getting and meeting the 350 first. we kept saying last week well, what's going to happen when we run out of money.

we haven't run out of money. we just haven't been able to get through the system for whatever reason, whether it's the sba not giving enough guidance, some of the banks will tell you, i think charlie talked about it yesterday, some of the money laundering rules that are in place may have slowed down the approval process for some of the larger banks. there are all these reasons that it's happened. but it hasn't been that we have run out of the $350 billion yet. in fact, in many ways, we probably wish we had because that money should have been given out already. but again, this money, it looks like with the demand that's there, that the money will be tapped into and it's probably necessary, but the first step needs to be getting the first round out. neil: indeed. we are getting more on that from edward lawrence, who has been tracking this latest push for more dough on that front. edward, what are you hearing? reporter: yeah, you know, in fact, it's seven days in now and the big banks really haven't, to connell's point, brought through some of this stimulus and finished the loan process. they accepted the applications but haven't finished it.

it's really been led by the small community banks. i talked to my drycleaner today and he said he's waiting for his loan from a big bank that he went to to try and process through for the payroll protection act. but we are seeing some big numbers. i want to show you a number here. 15.3 million people. that's how many people are employed by the companies that are currently getting the loans that are existing. $150 billion worth of loans have been processed through the system already. we are talking about more than 585,000 small businesses getting these favorable loans. hillary vaughn is reporting that the senate majority leader mitch mcconnell told the vice president that there could be a deal over the weekend to add to that payroll protection program. regardless, she's saying from a source that he will bring the measure up monday. some well-known republicans are saying this is not a time to play politics. listen. >> you've got small businesses, they typically don't have 45 days worth of reserves there. they've got people who have been loyal and worked for them that

they want to keep, and they can only do it with this program. so now is not the time to be playing games. now is the time to get money in the hands of those that want to keep employing people, want to keep their businesses open. reporter: and the administration seeing this program as a way to sort of jump-start the economy, once it gets back open there. the labor secretary saying that this could help a big bounce. listen. >> i'm mindful of just how strong our economy was five weeks ago. you know, at the start of march, we put out one of the strongest jobs reports we have seen in this country in 50 years. that's where we were. and that's where we want to get back to. reporter: the chairwoman of the house financial services committee sending a letter to the ceos of the big banks. she wants to know in her committee why, one, the loan applications, why the delay in loan applications. also she wants to know why some

customers were preferred over others, some banks saying you had to be an existing customer while others initially saying you had to have a credit card with them in addition to being a customer there. so the house financial services committee now getting involved as to why the big banks aren't coming forward more quickly. back to you. neil: edward, thank you very much. back to jackie and connell. jackie, i've got to read the tea leaves here. they are going to argue over this but the money is going to be made available, a lot of money will be piled on top of that, i suspect still more money piled on top of that. the president and even some democrats get their way about even hinting at an infrastructure package, so there will be no shortage of funds thrown at this. i'm wondering where all this goes. what are you hearing? >> well, with respect to where it goes, hopefully connell made the point it will end up in the hands that it needs to, even if it's taking a little bit longer than anticipated to sort of keep this ball rolling forward. what i'm a little bit more concerned about is when we look at the fed stimulus package, the injection yesterday, the $10

trillion on the balance sheet, and who is sort of going to fund these programs. we have seen this before where we turn around and the fed just injects this money, spikes the punch bowl, if you will, and the stock market seems to love that. at the same time, you are kicking the can down the road and yes, this is a major catastrophe that's happened in our country and yes, you have to help the people, the small businesses, everybody who is going to struggle through this before we get back on our feet again. but you wonder, you know, what cost this is really going to have on the economy and you had a guest on earlier talking about the fact, it was steve moore basically saying if this goes on longer than expected, then we are guaranteed to be in a depression as a result of the losses that businesses will suffer and everybody else. so there is still a lot of questions about this and while wall street is looking, at least the stock market is telling you, on the bright side of things, i really wonder about the economic fallout and how it will play out in reality. neil: yeah. and how quickly it plays out.

i want to break away to jeff flock. he's following something in illinois that's fascinating, with all these people sheltered in their homes everywhere are looking around saying we should do something, we should spruce it up, we should maybe improve where we're living because we will be living here a little while. jeff, what's going on? reporter: you talk about stimulus. what is being stimulated right now is the home diy market. you are absolutely right. this is home depot here in the chicago suburbs. maybe you see a line of people out there. these are homeowners largely, we talked to some of them, that have been sitting in their house, they are looking at things that are wrong with it and they have the time to devote to it, so diy is pretty popular these days anyway. so they are going ahead with that. we talked to the head of the national kitchen and bath association about how this is shaking out. he said that's good news in some ways and it also may mean if we get back to normal, people are starting projects that they can't finish and maybe that's

more work for construction workers. take a listen. >> sometimes in the remodeling area it starts with diy and consumers realize they need support and help so they hire a member to continue on a larger scale. reporter: you know, i'm no stranger to diy. perhaps we have some pictures. i have an old house and i have i don'ted soused some of the time myself. old houses sometimes if they are not cared for properly tend to rot. we have pictures of maybe some of what i have been at work at. you know, when you have time and you see the things that are wrong with your home, you go to home depot and you try to figure it out and see if you can't figure out a way to make it better. and use the time and also get your mind off some of what's going on in the world today. not a bad idea. neil: you know, that's not baa d

idea at all. i didn't know you were so handy. then again, i kind of suspected you were. reporter: i try. neil: okay. jeff flock. so good. so good. let's go to blake burman right now. we are waiting for this white house health care task force briefing. it's running significantly behind schedule right now. but again, they are getting their ducks in order. he has probably a pretty good idea of what will come up today. blake? reporter: i wish i knew what would come up today, neil. normally when something runs this far behind, at this point, what is it, 48 minutes or so, it means the president is probably pretty busy at this point. we do know that he has had a busy morning to date. speaking earlier this morning as well with vladimir putin. what's interesting about that is that is the second phone call that the president has had with the russian leader in less than 24 hours' time. last night he had that phone call along with vladimir putin and the saudi leader mohammad bin salman as well. today a followup one-on-one with vladimir putin.

so we await to see potential details as to what those two talked about in that phone call coming up for the president, when there was that three-way phone call last night, the president was asked about it in the briefing saying he feels there could be a lot of layoffs in the energy market, in the oil industry here back stateside because of the drastic drop in oil prices that we have seen here over the last, what has it been, four, five, six weeks or so in tandem, of course, with what's going on with covid-19 here in the country and all around the world as well. there has also been a renewed or at least continued talk today as it relates to potentially when the economy can be opened up. the labor secretary eugene scalia said earlier this morning quote, we know that we can't wait too long, talking about opening the country back up economically speaking, saying that he feels that if they wait -- if we wait too long, then the bounce back on the back side would be extra harmful or at least hurt a little bit more than it might potentially even though the surgeon general said

today that certain spots could potentially open up on may 1st with certain conditions. other areas most certainly will not open up may 1st. so potentially talk from the president here coming up about when the economy could open up, as you talked about at the beginning of the show, there was some good news out of new york as well as it relates to numbers and cases there. we don't know if this will be the only brief or the last briefing, i guess, that we would get until monday, because of the holiday weekend. presumably so. so we await to see president trump here, members of the task force as well, this friday afternoon briefing. neil: all right. blake burman. we did get a two-minute warning. they are coming out right now. one of the things we will be watching very very closely in this is an update not only on the cases but again on this hospitalization issue that was heralded by new york governor andrew cuomo. he did like to see the progress there because it showed a slackening in demand for hospital beds and the rest and that is an active indicator.

deaths are actually a lagging indicator, tragically, as high as these deaths have been and they continue to be very high and consistently so day after day, in so many states like new york and new jersey and elsewhere, new hot spots, louisiana, et cetera, that they do like to keep track in how it all starts when people first get into the hospital. the hospitalization count has begun to slow from very very high levels. it's also slowed in intensive care so icu admissions are also slowing. not declining, just off their highs. that is something that you want to consistently see for awhile. it's also something that works into the mix about when and how we go about de-locking ourselves down, if you will, that you need to see a lot more of that kind of stuff, a lot more testing. i was making much of the fact that our testing in this country must dramatically improve for the coronavirus. the fact of the matter is only about 1 out of 300 americans are

indeed tested versus about 1 out of 100 in places like germany and france and italy. where lockdown provisions certainly in the case of italy and france might be winding down slowly but surely. so that's one thing. you also want to see just the number of cases of improvement or the caseload and the death load begin a steady decline that lasts at least 14 days. i don't know the magic of the 14-day argument that a lot have raised. i do know they are trying to keep track of it. by the way, to that end, we are just learning that apple and google are partnering on a coronavirus contact tracing technology that the "wall street journal" says would alert people in contact with someone infected with the virus to sort of get this out to billions worldwide. the tech joints agiants are say would be released over the coming months and be a way we could keep track of those who

have the virus or have been exposed to it. now the president. >> good afternoon. today is good friday and this sunday, millions of christians celebrate easter and the resurrection of jesus christ. at this holy time, we pray that god will heal the sick and comfort the heartbroken and bless our heroes. as american families look forward to easter, we are reminded that our story ends not in despair but in triumph and renew renewal. very appropriate, isn't it. i'd like to provide americans an update on our ongoing efforts in the war against the invisible enemy. before i do that, i will have a couple of notes. the united states, in discussions last night with mexico, saudi arabia, russia and in dealing with opec nations, we are trying to get mexico, as the

expression goes, over the barrel, and mexico is committing to do 100,000 fewer barrels. the president and i spoke last night, we have a great relationship, great friendship, they're helping us very much at the border. they have 27,000 soldiers, mexican soldiers on our border right now stopping people from coming into our country, as our wall goes up. we are up to about 168 miles of wall. and in speaking with the president, they have a limit, the opec nations have agreed to a different limit, reduction of about 23%. so what i thought i would do and i don't know that it's going to be acceptable, the united states will help mexico along and they will reimburse us sometime at a later date when they are prepared to do so, and we had a great conversation but we will find out how that all works out. as you know, they are trying to

get rid of the glut of oil. there's a tremendous glut of oil. we don't want anything to hurt our incredible industry. we actually are the largest producer in the world now. so we don't want anything to hurt those jobs, those great jobs in texas and north dakota and oklahoma and everywhere. we have tremendous energy, new mexico, tremendous energy business and we want to keep those jobs. so we're working on it. i think eventually it's going to work out, may work out quicker than what most people thought possible and maybe it won't, but it will work out eventually. our experts are monitoring the data from every part of our country having to do with the topic that we're here to discuss, in the midst of grief and pain we are seeing clear signs that our aggressive strategy is saving countless lives. tremendous progress is being

made although when you look at some of the numbers, i just spoke with governor cuomo in a good talk, when you look at those numbers, the numbers of deaths, people that have died, so horrible. now on the other side you have the numbers of beds being used, we were just saying, are substantially reduced. that's usually the sign that it's heading in the downward curve. so new york, we know where that is, but in the midst of all this grief and this pain, we are seeing these signs and we are seeing them very strongly and a lot of that has to do with the aggressive strategy in saving so many lives. we're saving so many lives compared to what it could have been. so nobody knows what the number is but we had a number of 100,000 lives, as many as that is, it's impossible to even think of it, and that was the

low end with a tremendous amount of work and a tremendous amount of you can call it many different things, our people had to be extremely strong and brave to be able to put up with what they've put up with, but the minimum if you did this social distance i distancing, and every other aspect and i think i can say 90%, maybe even more than that, were able to do it, the minimum number was 100,000 lives and i think we'll be substantially under that number. hard to believe that if you had 60,0 60,000, you can never be happy but that's a lot fewer than we were originally told and thinking so they said between 100,000 and 220,000 lives on the minimum side, and up to 2.2 million lives if we didn't do anything. but it showed just tremendous

resolve by the people of this country so we'll see what it ends up being but it looks like we're headed to a number substantially below the 100,000. that would be the low mark. and i hope that bears out. the situation in detroit and new orleans appears to be stabilizing. detroit is really started to go up and now it is stabilizing, and new orleans, great place, i have so many friends there, they can't believe what's happening but it's really stabilized. i spoke with the governor of louisiana and as you know, we are building them additional beds right now. the army corps of engineers and fema. and that is going to be done and i hope they're not going to be very well used because i think they've really -- i don't think they are going to need them, or certainly not very many of them. we built them a big hospital of 1,000 beds and now we're in the midst of doing another 1,000.

i don't think they're going to be using very many of them. that's a good thing. there was a time two weeks ago when we said that's not going to be nearly enough, we're going to have to build more but we wanted to wait to see it. i'm glad we waited. it just looks like they're doing really well. louisiana and the state of michigan is doing really much better than we thought. in washington state, we have made enough progress that the governor >> we think we're probably not going to need that hospital anymore. if we do, we're ready to move it to a different location. in new york, we're seeing hospital admissions declining very substantially, as i said, nationwide, the number of new cases per day is flattening, substantially suggesting that we're near the peak and our

comprehensive strategy is working. over time our guidelines to slow the spread are decreasing. the rate of new cases very substantially and will result in fewer hospital admissions and we're seeing that. it's incredible. i think with no exceptions, it's looking like it's lower. and again, that's because of the people doing what they had to do, great people and working with elected representatives and the doctors, the nurses, and everybody. i mean, just everybody, everybody has been so amazing. i was told this morning again please mention all of those people working in the grocery stores and it's true. the checkouts and the clerks and the people that are really -- and a number of those people have become infected, so we want to thank them and a shoutout to them.