jesus christ avalanches us. lou: amen. thanks for being with us. we hope you have a great easter weekend. we thank you for being with us. we'll see you monday. good night from sussex. liz: on this good friday and easter and passover weekend. the headlines out of the white house briefing. dr. birx says it looks like u.s. infections may be leveling off. we are seeing good news coming out of california, washington state and new york. the rate of infections may be coming down. the south and the midwest are still seeing issues. let's welcome my next guest.

your reaction to the seemingly good news. we are not out of the woods. but it seems like it's good news. >> the goal is to defeat the models. you saw the models in other countries where it went right up. we were trying to stay under that and keep our healthcare system in check and not overrun. this is good news because that's what we have been after all along. we are starting to see the trend go down. liz: do you think the united states finally answered the wake-up call? the government has been warned about and deputy nicks sars, mers and ebola and zika.

americans may wake up to a brand-new word of having to wear masks to go into work and maybe tested for coronavirus. new apps on their iphones and phones to rack them? do you think congress and the government has answered the wake-up call, that we are-an and i of a jet stream of viruses going around the world? >> if we don't learn lessons from this, i don't think we ever will. we need to know what's coming across our border if we are going to protect ourselves. unfortunately we have people in politic who think the border

should be wide open. you go to other countries and they ask you about your health and where you have been. there will be many new normals. but there will be a medical scientific process that will be a new normal. check whether something is growing larger than you thought it might be. and how quickly we nip things in the bud. who needs to be quarantined. but we also learned some lessons about how we'll have to manage our supply chain. right? it's a national security issue. liz: that's true to bring it back home. there is also a lesson to be learned to stop politicizing everything. doctors and hospitals are saying stop the finger pointing. focus where the virus is coming

out of, and that's china. we have those grew some wet markets up and running in china. china says they outlawed' of the wet markets. the president said he's going to decide next week whether to cut funding to the world health organization. >> it reminds me of the nato model. there was a certain level of responsibility that comes with everybody who is in it. and the president was big on that. the world health organize is designed to try and allow us to nip things in the bud so we can act as one set of human beings on this earth trying to cut out disease. you have to be honest. the problem with the cop tonight system is -- the problem with

the communist system is similar to what russia did after chernobyl. they don't want to admit when there is a mistake. there is no doubt about it that we have to do something to address. a lot of it should come from the world health organization itself. and i think the president will help drive that. liz: here is the issue. the w.h.o. is saying it's taking north korea's line that north korea has no cases. that cannot be believed. also the line of rhetoric we are hearing in the media that other administration's pandemic responses were state of the art and we are learning they were not. dating back from the 1980s. the pandemic response on the federal and state and local level was not up to speed. you look at the rhetoric coming

out of china. the american institute is sayi saying. -- saying 2.9 infections in china. we are seeing social media lighting up in bangladesh and pakistan against what is going on in china. do you think the world is wake up saying we can't go through another pandemic like this? >> one of my medical colleagues has with been in touch with an infectious disease doc. one of the things the chinese doctor said to my friend is how come you all aren't wearing masks in america. the reason is, you have them and you are not selling them to us. that was a problem and it goes back to the supply chain.

what they will do to their own people and keep them in the dark. but the world is waking up. h.i.v., it was four years before we had a reliable clinical test. i just would like to point out one of the opportunities that we have on the medical side, we have a lot of people who have gotten it and have recovered, and they will be eligible people to donate plasma that can help others that get this. liz: the issue is, too, should the president use the defense production act, should that be a step towards getting the medical supply chain back in the united states. china is moving to be a super

power with the belt and road project. it tried to corner the market on remdesivir. it tried to get as many ventilators that it could before it told the world that it had an epidemic on its hands that turned into a pandemic. dr. robert darling is one of the leading infectious disease doctors. he's still saying china won't give over the virus samples to study. that tells you it could have been an accidental release out of a viral lab. or they don't want to admit the virus he natee emanated from the province. how do you hold china accountable? those are some of the ideas republicans are pushing on now. what do you think?

>> i think we need to:pursue that avenue and see what happened. we have had terrorist attacks where certain countries did take responsibility and we were able to get some compensation. but i don't expect them to change their behavior. but we have to change how we view china and how we work with china or better yet how we don't work with china because they can't be trusted. liz: congressman wenstrup, thank you for joining us. next up. the hot debate about reopening. can the u.s. do it? will the nation's 50 governors agree to the plan to reopen? we'll debate it. r, i need all the breaks that i can get.

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liz: welcome back. you are watching "the evening edit." joel, welcome. the president said it will be the toughest decision he will possibly make to reopen the

country by may 1. >> the whole idea is so essential to us coming out strong and surviving. about it requires testing, reporting, and tracing those contacts. that's not going to be a one size fits all policy. that will be on a regional level and a county and city level. i'm hopeful parts of the country will be ready to reopen. and we can see the spread throughout the rest of the country throughout the springtime. liz: you need an economy to pay for public health and the emt workers and our firemen and cops. here is the forecast out of jpmorgan chase. they are seeing 25 million people out of work by the end of the month. are you seeing sufficient

information coming out of all levels of government on testing, on vaccines, and on drugs? do we know when the vaccines will be ready, when the tests will be ready? people are feeling there are bottlenecks in delays in testing. people are exhausted and want information. there have been delayed getting those reports. if someone knows they are sick. even if they are not showing symptoms. most people because they have common sense will stay home and avoid infecting people. if you contact somebody you think has it and you have to wait a few weeks, that's lost time. it's essential we build that testing capability. we had bureaucracy that wasn't permitting different times of testing kits.

we have seen some of that resolved. i'm hoping going forward the bottle necks will be much fewer. if we want main street to reopen again. we have seen 10 million jobs wiped out in just a few weeks. we have given up the gains that took years to sack inquiry. years to ainquiry. a -- acquire. liz: here is the information coming out of oxford university. they are estimating 60% of the e u.k. has already been infected and have immunity. we have seen the initial fatality rates go down in the

u.s. we don't know. nobody knows what the death toll will be that's a staggering number. it's concerning. but testing is key. we know new york state and the region of new york, connecticut, new jersey. whose model do you think works the best when it comes to testing? do you think you should get tested at your job? >> even if you are not sure you have the right symptoms, you can get tested. even if we have states and cities say you can open back up and you can go back to work and shop. if people are scared for their lives to go out because they don't know whether they have the antibodies. people are going to hesitate to leave even if they have permission. this is not just the government saying get back out there. we try to hammer home that

point. you have got to be able to get the test results back quickly, and you have to be able to trace so we can restore confidence so governors and mayors are confident opening up their cities and people like me and you feel confident getting out there. liz: if they don't feel safe, they ain't going to come out and consume and shop. civil libertarians are up in arms about the phone apps that can trace you. and the use of drones with the voices of mayors in new jersey, florida and california where voices are flying over people's heads saying go back inside, you are violating the shelter in place order. that's not what america is

about, they are saying it violates our values. >> it's police cruisers going by, telling people to disperse, even if you are on bikes, you are directed to different streets. i understand mayor and stiff officials are rightfully wary of this spreading. i think all of us are looking to move to a place where we can begin moving to a sense of normality. you look at some of the plans in place to gradually reopen society. i think we'll see that here as well. >> it's true. certainly many countries in the europe are talking about reopening. thanks so much for joining us. we appreciate it. you are going to want to watch this next segment. it's about the drugs and vac seents that will be up and running.

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[♪] liz: let's bring in our next guest be former peace corps medical director. he has been work as a surgeon in the most dire situation. dr. steven weinberg. good to see you. can you give us the update on the status of vaccines and drugs and blood plasma therapy? how many months away are we to scope the covid-19 outbreak? >> i hope not much. in the days or weeks. in the last two hours the "new england journal of medicine" tweeted that they are involved in a remdesivir study, one of the anti-virals ," and the preliminary dat data looks good. we have been hearing about

hydroxychloroquine for self weeks. we keep hearing it's anecdotal. but when they have get up to self thousand people they are not anecdotal any more. they are not double blind studies, but they are looking very good. everybody with a chemistry set in the world is trying something. several different studies in the same whose. it's looking very, very good right now. liz: there are 70 countries with 100 different clinical trials under way. the n.i.h. launching a clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine. the pushback has been because there hasn't been a controlled test. but you are saying there have been enough anecdotal results.

but the question is if it works on people with preexisting conditions. >> and does it work early. can it be used troph before thet sick. all of those need to be answered. but we are drinking out after fire hose right now. and we need answers, results as quick as possible. and we'll get back to all the wonderful scientific studies the next self months. where it d the next several months. where it's working that one seems to be working well and lots of folks are on it. liz: we have japan, avagan. the university of pittsburgh has a promising vaccine. , and in australia a

tuberculosis drug. that's what they are work on there. more than 300,000 people worldwide have recovered. that means possible blood plasma therapies. are you optimistic about that? >> very. and a number of major medical centers in this country are now harvesting blood plasma and giving it to the most critically ill patients. this is not somebody with a runny nose or sore throat. these are for the real sick people. we have a lot of people in this country who recovered. they can donate their plasma he week. you spin off the plasma and give the blood back. all you are taking off is the liquid part. the antibodies are in there. this is not brand-new

scientifically. we are use it with early good results in other cases. and you can recreate those antibodies in a laboratory. those are the antibodies we want to give people in a vaccine so they will create those antibodies which will give them immunity. liz: this is a scary disease because it immediately takes the oxygen out of your blood. even before you show shortness of breath, it takes the oxygen off. we saw the rise, then the plateau, then they fall. sit went away with sars by june and july. but it could come back. spanish flu did come back. are you concerned about this coming back in the fall and

winter? >> have much so. spanish flu came back three times. we don't know if it's weather dependent. we do know this disease is present in a lot of countries right now that are warm. there is a terrible outbreak in ecuador on the shore. there are lots of sick people. we have to plan that it will and hope that it won't. that's what the vaccine research will do. if it comes back and we have plenty of people immune and the vaccine is working, then we are in good shape. liz: thanks for joining us, sir. be well. >> thank you, you, too. liz: a sailor from the uss teddy roosevelt was admitted to hospital after being found

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is what we're made for. liz: let's bring in our next guest, retired army colonel, david hunt. great to see you. numerous militaries around the world have been infected with covid-19. asia, north korea. a sailor from the teddy roosevelt admitted to an intensive care unit in guam. 460 on board are even effected. the joint chiefs of staff is warning about military readiness. what's your reaction to this

story? >> this is a terrible story. we have 0 aircraft carriers. as you mentioned before -- we have 20 aircraft carriers. the navy has not done a good job with senior leadership. we had the secretary of navy having to resign after what he did. we don't have enough tests which i can't understand or explain and we don't have enough tests for the department of defense. we have to have a priority here. two aircraft carriers is a lot. there are just 18'. so it's very, very troubling. to me it's a senior leadership issue, not speaking up for the sailors or soldiers who need help. it's a crowded environment on these vessels. 5,000 on a carrier.

tremendous amount of work. very, very talented. but they can't protect themselves. admirals and above need to get their heads on straight and get this story back object track and it's not. it's only getting worse. liz: a top pentagon official saying the u.s. military has a limited ability to test for coronavirus. >> that's inexcusable. this is as important as missiles and bullets. this is a war. the front line is our health providers. people doing everything they can. but the other piece of that is readiness of our soldiers, airmen and marines, and we are not taking care of them. this bad leadership, the secretary of the navy with the way he acted, we can't have this and it needs to be corrected and

i mean now. the greatest nation in the world can't have this kind of a problem. liz: we are seeing it's' not just the u.s. military dealing with this. other countries around the world, their own militaries are getting infected rapidly with covid-19. defense secretary david norcliff sent a veiled warning to china, the u.s. is ready to suspend interest in the south china sea. china picked up the phone and called venezuela saying we are hearing what your issues are, we stand ready to help. we are using the navy and major military hardway to combat narco terrorists and drug cartels who are trying to deliver narcotic

into the united states. are you saying stop the problem now so we can do the tests at hand? is that it? >> yes. the war on drugs is something we lost 50 years ago. it's not just stopping them at the border. it's also the consumption we have and the policy issues. the people speaking. the vice chairman, they have a job, and that's to protect their soldiers. they can't protect their soldiers if they are sick. and that's going to be -- it's men versus mission. and they are failing on the men part. this is senior leadership problem. it needs to be addressed now and it's not. this needs more people getting fired besides the secretary of the navy. liz: i just want to be clear what you are saying. we have a number of ships that are now infected.

so you talking about the former acting navy secretary thomas modly resigning oh his remarks on the firing of captain crozier. he was up ploarg the moisty to step in because hundreds of service members on his boat that he has been relieved command of, the teddy roosevelt, are sick. the navy has not rued out reinstating captain crozier. do you think he should be reinstated? >> absolutely. >> the commander of the task force was on that aircraft carrier. the first thing he did to him was send a letter. he asked and called and sent mess ands. this was a last ditch effort. his sailors love him, and the navy has a much bigger problem than this captain.

these kind crises bring out, show us good and bad leadership. what we are seeing now is bad. we need more captains on the uss roosevelts than less if you want to keep this navy to be the best in the world. liz: we hope you have a good easter weekend. getting u.s. manufacturing back home to make medical supplies thanked had been outsourced to countries like china. the president's push to use the defense production act to get medical supplies ramped up. this is a hot debate. stay for it. it's coming up. and other money managers don't understand why.

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liz: welcome back. let's bring in our next guest be former california congressman, darrell issa. >> thank you for accommodating the contain' here in california. -- the containment in california. liz: there is a bipartisan brush to get manufacturing of medical supplies back here in the united states. could this be a first step to do that, to use the dpa to ramp up u.s. manufacturing here. >> it's a good way to exercise our capability. but unless we continue to need ventilators in land quantity, these are industries that will switch back.

here in the united states and the rest of north america and mexico, there is tremendous capability to manufacture things that are currently being outsourced to china. liz: china is trying to become a super power in health. with the building of the belt and roads project. the strategic national stockpile. we know hindsight is 00. it was depleted in 2009 and wasn't replenished. congress found there were 100 million n95 respirator masks that weren't replenished that were used during the swine flu.

people are saying president trump didn't do enough. but they are saying it's not his problem, it's prior administrations. >> when you inherit something it's easy not to take it on immediately. it wasn't the only problem this president had coming out of the obama years. we need to genuinely review not just the stockpile, but our ability t -- to ramp up quickly. there was no amount of stockpiling we would have done to supply 3 million americans with n95 masks. these masks and other items don't last forever in a stockpile and you could end up with hundreds of billions of dollars being thrown away in the years between pandemics.

i'll give an example. taylor guitar manufactures cases for guitars. they are still trying to get permission between the u.s. and one of their plants in mexico to convert their ability to stitch together guitar cases to stitch together masks. they have the capability. they have done the prototype. but they haven't been able to get up and running. so streamlining the capabilities whether it's ford motor company or taylor guitar, that would make a continues. the best reserve is the reserve to produce. not to stockpile and allow it to become obsolete and dated. liz: that's probably the most common sense thing we have heard in a long time on this show when

it comes to the stockpile. arnold schwarzenegger said in 2006 he had a pandemic up and running. it happened here in new york state and new york city. in 2006 michael bloomberg had a pandemic plan and medical supplies and ready to go. and it was set aside. you said be ready to have the supply chain geared up and running, not so much sitting in a warehouse. is that your point? >> exactly. the best way for your viewers to understand it is if we knew we would need twice as much electricity as tomorrow. we wouldn't stockpile electricity. we would have an electrical generation plant in reserve that can come on line. it's cheaper to be ready to produce electricity and to produce it without anyone needing it.

we can't store 300 million masks for decades because they will go bad. but we can be ready to have in a short notice our industry switched. we do this in defense. we have a number of companies around the united states who are prepared to switch to producing things for military use. we need to do the same thing with healthcare items. liz: congressman darrell issa, thanks for coming on. happy easter to you. liz: a former top official at fort detrick institute of infectious diseases warned china is still blocking samples of the covid-19 virus that could reveal where it started. that is needed to create

vaccines. that story next. nted to be a teacher. i've been teaching for over 20 years. with everything going on, we've had to alter our classroom settings. we have to transition into virtual learning. on the network, we can have teachers face-to-face with a student in live-time. they can raise their hand and ask questions. they can type questions. we just need to make sure that the education is continuing. (vo) at verizon, we're here and we're ready to keep students and teachers connected to the world. that's why verizon and "the new york times" are offering 14 million students free digital access to "times" journalism.

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[♪] liz: let's bring in our next guest, hudson institute director of chinese strategy. michael pillsbury.

great to have you here. michael, we have been working on this story for months now. we are uncovering more about how china is operating unsafe bio pathogen laboratories that study infectious diseases. robert darling from the army medical research institute warns that china will not give over samples of covid-19, or stars * co2 that could reveal its origin and could be used to create vaccine. why is china stonewalling? >> they don't respond to pressure from the united states or the world health organization. they think they are pretty much the number one country in the world. as they measure the losses. our own gdp is going to suffer a

$5ville cut. that's almost a quarter of our gdp. china's messaging and media, they are basically saying they are number one from the world now. if they don't want to hand over the history of what happened in wuhan. they won't do it. they make jokes about american senators and congressmen go on television and sponsor a resolution to punish china. and china says they only get one or two co-sponsors. the only person they are really afraid of is president trump. that's where we may see action on this. but china has a strong lobby in washington. when rex tillerson was secretary of state the first year, he renewed all of our almost 100 scientific exchange programs with china. we could have canceled those or held them at risk. we could have pulled out of the

world health organization. they have to have strong pressure applied to them before shell provide viruses and the history on the growth of this virus and where it came from. liz: the world cannot get hit by another viral pandemic. dr. darling says the chinese certainly know but have not shared the virus to help us understand what happened. they are operating at bio safety level 2. they are studying 2,000 animal viruses, including deadly coronavirus. they are doing it in unsafe -- they are not being safe in many of these conditions. they are not wearing masks or face shields. the sars 2003, right after that. 8 people in china died because that sars virus they were studying somehow escaped the lab.

so do you hold china accountable? how do you make them stop, how do you make them change? what can the president do? >> the president can do what he did with yo -- with unesco. he pulled out. president reagan did it, too. but it doesn't force the world health organization to get the samples and the history from china. i don't see us having the leverage anymore to do that long congress proposes these resolutions with two co-sponsors. the president as you know, liz, he succeed in the trade area by the tariffs. the tariffs are still largely in effect. he's getting concessions from china because of pressure on the tariffs. we have no pressure on the wuhan virus.

>> the involvement of our scientists with china will take a lot of pressure congress to change. this is not panama or nicaragua. this is a coequal world power. liz: michael pillsbury thanks for joining us. great to have you on. great to see you, michael. i'm elizabeth mcdonald. you have been watching "the evening edit." join us monday. we'll have more on this developing story. we hope you have a good evening and a good easter and passover weekend. thanks for joining us. ter.

and we'll see you monday. "lou dobbs tonight" starts right now. [♪] lou: good evening, everybody, president trump standing with his coronavirus task force today. he delivered a promising message about the country's fight against the deadly wuhan virus. president trump says there are growing signs his administration's aggressive strategy to save american lives is working. president trump: we are seeing hospital admissions declining substantially. the number of new cases nationwide per day is flattening suggesting we are near the peak and our comprehensive strategy is working