curve. >> good news as new cases are easing. >> the last few days we have been able to take our first breath. >> but the death toll stillfá rising. >> the bad news isn't just bad. the badz rñ it's almost un"ájt that. >> with millions newly unemployed, president trump wants to reopen the economy quickly. >> hopefully we're going to be opening up very, very, very, very sonl, i hope. >> but how can we dot( that

without adequate testing? >> we still are missing thee1 widespreade1 testing that's need for us to understandw3 exactly where we are on this curve. >> and what metrics would the president u3ç >> the metrics right here. that's mye1 metrics. that's all i cañ do. >> also, thee1 devastating effe on people of color. >> covid-19 is the perfect storm for our black and brown communities, which are mostly low income. >> my guests this t(morning, fd commissioner steve hahn, dr. david fvidko nabarro, mark mcclellan, and vin gupta from the university of washington. also,ñ@cernie bows out. >> while this campaign is coming toe1 an end, our movement is no. >> can joe biden do what hillary clinton could not, win over sanders supporters? joining me for insight and analysis are nbcxdó[st welker, author and historian jon meach meacham, yamiche t(alcindor, an lonny chen, fellow at the huver

institution. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in telephovision historyyñ this is a special edition of "meet the press" with chu' tor.ip &h(lc% >> good sunday morning and a happy easter and a happy passover. it's hard to talk about good news when more than 2,000 people are dying on a daily basis in this country, butq this past week, we did see some reasons for e1optimism, verye1 cautious optimism. as of this morning, there haveo been more than half a millionñr confirmed cases of covid-19 in the united states and more than 20,000 deaths. both numbers sadly now lead the world. but the curve appears tows$(q flattening, as the pace of new cases has slowedñr and the ratef hospitalizations is down. all suggesting that eventually, the rate of deaths will alsolp slow. "the new york times" has a deeply reported story thath/kp weeks president trump ignoredq repeated warnings fromok white house and other government officials, partly out of fear of

hurting the economy, and partly because he perhaps refused to accept what he was hearing. with nearly 17 million americans filinge1 new unemployment claim in the last three weeks, the president is eager to open the country again for business by mayçó 1st. but getting back to normalrw@&h% depends on two one is if we continue social distancing, which clearly is working. and if we are able to institute large-scale testing to see who has the disease, who's recovered, and contact tracing. mayb'y it's appropriate to wrap up the past week withe1 a quote from winstone1 churchill. after british forced routed the germans in egypt in world warfá ii, churchple hill told his people, thnd ofq the beginning. >> i want to get it open as soon as we can. we have to get our country open. >> as the president signals he wants the knhae to reopen as soon as may 1st -- >> the metrics right here. that's my metrics. >> many governors who will

icgually make the decisions on ease to restrictions warn widespread testing needs to be a condition. >> we need an e1unprecedented mobilization where government can produce these tests in the millions. >> the goal to win> we don't have the amount of testing we would like. >> mr. trump has claimed repeatedly -- >> we have more tests than anybody in the world. >> but the reality is though testing capacity has improved, the u.s. trails germany, italy,1 canada, and south korea in testing per capita. less than 1% of the population has been tested. just 2.7 millionqweek, the admi shifted responsibility for testing back we're thexd federa. we're not supposedi] to stand o jt testing. they go to doctors, they go to 1 hospitals, they go to the e1sta. >> after pushback, revoersed

course and said states can choose whether to run community-based tes÷hrt themselves or with federal help. the president does any responsibility. >> we have taken testing from a broken system i inherited to having the best tests. >> in fact, the faulty test was created this winter by the xdó[. >> we found in some of the states it didn't work. >> the fda also became a road ñ barriers >> we still don't have good testing in place. we still do not -- are missing the widespread testing that's needed for us to understand exactly where we are on thisñ2h curve. >> and hhs and dhs projection leaked to "the new york times" concludes if stay-at-home

guidance is lifted at the end of >> china has been unbelievably taken advantage offá us. the world w.h.o. world health got it wrong. they got it very wrong in many ways they were wrong. >> and joining me nowq the commissioner of the food andjf drug administration, dr. stephen hahn. dr. fáhahn, welcome to "meet th press." happy easter. i want to start simply withq this. the president would like to lifr social stline ati] a,&( realistic in the next three weeks? >> well, thank you, chuck, for having me on the show. really do appreciate it. i think obviously everybody wants to get back to work.

i have been hearing that from friends and colleagues around the country. certainly, there are urgent economic reasons for that. however, i think the task force, thelp president, the vice president, all the doctors on the task force, are really the primary issue here is the safety and thei] welfare of the american people. that hast( to come first. that has to bex:zu%ñ 1st consideration. and i think we have seen the mitigation efforts working.e1r we have really good signs of that now which i think ise1rc/sa great --mop resiliency of the american people, but that has to be balanced with all theert issues that have to be taken into account as we moveq forward wit a plan to getting 1m1i%9m back to work and out the their lives. >> seems like the biggest imped mentd has been thexd testing.e1 diagnostic. we still haven't been able to test 1% of the population. we're still only ÷0ting those with the most severe symptoms.

i know you were excited about an antibody test that may be coming out soon. what's realistic? when are we goinglizfjf have th 9=i cuomo said, 3ao millionvoç he needs 30 million tests to li guidelines. >> well, chuck, testing is one 1 component of the response to the outbreak. in addition to the mitigation efforts. and you're right. thexd testing which we're workingú developers every day, e1fda is working with developers, iy>s+ators around the country to try to ramp up further testing. i think it's important for the to remember we have multiple systems around the country that use differentt( platforms and different types of tests. what we're trying to do at this point is actually increase some of those platforms that don't have a lot of utilization right now. dr. birx and dr. fauci have spoken from the podium about that. ñ deck to try to g more diagnostic tests in. and we'ret( seeing more people come forward with very novel approaches to getting more

tests. so thate@qj one component. >> with all due respect, dr. hahn, can i pause you there? with all due respect, we're in april. it seems as if this testing problem has been over two months now. and we're still looking forñi innovation here. what went wrong? whyok are we so -- other countrs are testing at a higher rate. what went wrong? i know we initially blew it with the cdc. is this the delay? i mean,fá the delay that you we with lifting regulations, is that the reason we're in thisñr situation? >> i think there's going to be plenty of time to look back on this, and i thinke1 that's goin to be really important. what i can tell you what r did, we started working with and chuck, it's real a important to remember that these tests have to be valid and behind the to be the right science. we have and in manyñr ways, having an

inaccurate test is worse than actually having a test. >> let me askw3 you this. you're fairly new into this position. did you ever go through one of these pandemic e8/cises that the government -- weren&u there the last timeñi the pandemic exercise had taken place? >> no, i wasn't. i was confirmed in december and started in late december, chuck. >> do you feel as if in hind sidelhdr"@,mufá have enough peoe this. i want to read you one email. ifá know you say eventually you want to look backwards,q but right now you e1don't. i want to read you this "new york times" story. one leaked eai from the red dawn email exchange that i don't knoweojez you tabletops at the outset of pandemic planning in 00all of tt would work and had worked in hong kong, singapore. we have thrown 15 years of institutional learninge1 oute1

window and are making decisions based on e1intuition. do you feel like you had enough institutional knowledge to deal with this pandemic? >> so i'm note1 aware of that email. what i can tell you is i do feel that we have been surrounded by experts, particularly at fda, we have a lot of scientific and clinical experts whoxd know a l about testing. so i do feel that there has been the appropriate exper pietees t get the tests initiallye1 wheree node to be, and obviously, we have responded to the changing situation and changed our regulatory approach based upon that. >> have you felt pressure, though, political pressure, fro? there's a lot of implications that some in the white house, the president himself, didn't like thei] sounding of alarms tt was taking placenb about this virus over the last six weeks. juáu)e? political pressure. i have notñr exerted political pressure on#rfda.

where weñr do feel pressure isx the urgencyp  in this conversation, and i think that's right. this is axd rapidly moving, a novel coronavirus, and we hav4 had to respond to that as information has come in to us. so there is an urgency around this, but i have not received political pressure to have fda make one decision versus another. >> i know you are going to be approving some antibody tests soon. there's been some reports out of southi] korea and their centers an working. some people seem to -- they thougp(8 were antibodies and thn they get -- they end up getting the virus, n first time but symptomatic the second time. are you concerned thei] antibod tests won't work? >> i am concerned that some of the antibody tests on the market

that haven't gone through the fda scientific review may not be as accurate as we would like them to be. we have authorized one qantibod test already, and i can assure the american people what we're doing is using data and science to lookñi at those tests to mak sure they're valid, they're accurate, and they're reproducible. we know, chuck, that no test is 100% perfect. but what we don't want are widely inaccurate tests because as i said before, that's going to be much worse having wildly inaccurate tests than having no tests. >> i want to go back to what do you feel has been thee1 balance between economic pressure and medical advice on the task force? >> i think we have had really good and vigorous debates. since i have been on the task force, all the doctors are very free tofá express their opinion. the doctors /-aate issues. we exchange issues.

we all bring information to the table. one thing, chuck, that's been really helpful is our fronte1 lines. i consult colleagues on the front lines all the time.t(e1 bringing that information back to the task force and discussing what's happening on the front lines and also the data associated with infections and other things has been very helpful to provide the most up to date and accurate medical into this, and we, the vice president, the president, have always led with the medical input into this, because as i said, thee1 primacy here is the safety and the welfare of the american people. >> may 1ste1,e1 is that a reali date or not, or should americans plan for a lot longer than may 1st? >> we're lookinge1 at may 1st. obviously, we want thate1 to happen as soon as possible. i can't predict at this point because as i said, things are happening very rapidly, but this team of doctors, of experts, all offá government approach, they' focused at looking at the earliest possible time we can

get americans back to work safely. and to give americans the confidence they á-fd to ma# suzu$at these are the right decisions. >> all right. it sounds like mayú more aspirational thzññ not a ñ!k"t at all these targets. [ cd be great for the american people. >> all right, dr. stephen hahn, head of the fda, thanks for coming on.k-hope you enjoy your. a zoom event for many, many families around the country. >> you bet, chuck. it certainly will be. thank you very much for having me. t( president trump had some harshxd words for the world heah organization this past week. in addition to accusing it of not being aggressive enough in ó responding to the virus, mr. trump is threatening to cut off u.ké 9)q organization. joining me is dr. david nabarro, the w.h.o.t( speciallp envoy fo coronavirus. welcome to "mee let me just start with a basic question that we've all become

familiar with in this country, which is flattening the cu÷69ñ we're trying to flatten thee1 curvee1w3 in america. where are we on the world's curve? have we begun to flatten the curve globally?çóxd >> well, when we looé( at europ and the u.s., there are signs of flattening the curve, but the t@muq) parts of the world. however, very rapid action in manye1 countries, particularly through introducing physical distancing and lockdowns means it's not advanc[ne quite ase1 ft as we feared in some parts of the world.e1 we'retxráur&l very worried, ando we're still very much on high alert and trying to support the countries that have got weaker health systems to really be able to get on top of it as best they can. >> what are youfá learning abou thee1 virus in the souther'3 hemisphere that will give us clues about what our fall is goingñi to look like? our september, october, november? how likely are we here in the united states and in europe

going to getñr a second wallop from this virus based on what you learned in the southern hemisphe hemisphere? >> we're not so sure it will come in waves in the way that influenza okdoes.es@&h(lc% we think it's going to be a virus that stalks thee1 human re for quite a long timefá to come until we can all have a vaccine that will protect us. ì=éd that there will befá small outbreaks thatfá will emerge sp raldoalth(h! sporadically and break through our defenses. the key for this particular

and showing the world that they believe that this global threat has to bee united action between all countries and their people.e1 i like the facte1 that the worl healthc organization!u is seen public health professionals uz be a really good direction finder, and i'm veere pleased we have been able to help different health professionw3als to find a way t go in a direction to find, but i would like leaders to be a little bit more cooperative.ñr yes, please. >> let me ask you this. obiiou

we have to rely on information received from different governments, and that thl/ permits us to work out what's going on. we believe that we have had the best information coming to us that can come under the current circumstances.çó and that axz recommendations and decisions have been made on behalf of that. but we know that there will be many things that are found to have perhaps not been done as well as they could have been done, and we're anticipating there will be lots ofq examinations afterwards. right çónow, we have to move forward. we have to get the best possible cooperation. i just heard you discussing with the head of the fda some of the challenges, things we're learning about this virus all the time. that's why we need strong

w.h.o., a trusted w.h.o., and we hope all leaders will continue to7n'ñr work with us inq!q wa. >> you ud an interesting phrase here. the bestq information you cane1t under current circumstances. thate1 seems to be a hint that certain governments are more transparent than otherq governments. do you believe china has been honest about the damage this virus did in theirñie1 country? number one, and number two, if they haven't been honest about >> so at first, wet( really dox have to work with the information we get. we don't have in the world health organization the power to go and inspect beyond what countries tell us. that's been made clear in the treaty that governments agreed in 2005 on how nations work together and how the w.h.o. operates. but i say this, that theye1 did invite a team pulled together by the world health organization to come and e1inspect everythingè mid-february.

there were no e1restrictionse1 what that team investigated. it included american experts as well as experts from others in the world. so we're trying to be clear to everybody that we have been given accesse1 to the informati we requested.e1 and so i]e1therefore, i don't l at any time to say we don't believe. we believe what we've got. we work with what we've got. that's how we e1operate in the world health organization. >> president trump has talked about withholding funding to w.h.o.nñ i believe the united states is anywhere approximately 15% to 20% of your annual budget. how devastating would it be if the united states pulled its funding? >> well, do know, we're right in the middle of this massiveú struggle. every single human being in tit world is affected by it. businesses are reallylp inlp trouble. communities are in distress. i really do hope that all nationsu will not find any rean tolpxd make threats or otherwis

undermine our capacity to bring together all the best knowledge we can find, and of course, we love our partnership with the united states. wá work with the united states %mqm for years. i personally have huge respect for what you bring and quat you offer, and that would be so 5a unfortunate if anythingt( happed toñi lessen that cooperation. i know that ted ross, the director general, has had direct discussions with the president of the u.s., and he really does trust him when he hearsxd from e president that respect for the w.h.o., and we hope that will go on. it's too important to have anything that disturbslp therc functioning of the international system at this time. >> okay. dr. david nabarro, a special envoy for the w.h.o. on this coronavirus, thank you for coming on. >> thank you for having me. >> much appreciated. >> when we come back, we can't open the country back up until we can do testing on a massive

scale. why aren't we even close? that's next.w3ñi and as we go to break this morning, we want to show you some uplifting moments beginning with david williams whoçó had bn tx+a ventilator, being cheered (slow music plays) ♪ (laughter) ♪ ♪ ♪ (baby coos) ♪ (laughter) man on video chat: hey! man chasing dog: oh no no no no! (baby crying) ♪

♪ your dedication and humanity. but today, as you're being challenged more than ever, i see heroes, not just to me but to so many. thank you for keeping us safe. and for being our light. for always doing your part, to make the world shine a little more bright. to our over one-million heroes, in towns across america, i say thank you.

joiningt( me now, president tru has made it clear withxd the economy in freefall and-9 near 17 millionñr americans filing n unemployment claims in the last u1áqq weeks he wants toe1 start opening up the united states to business again as early as may 1st. former fda commissioners mark mcclellan and scott gottlieb are proposing a plan to reopen the company, but first, the country needs widescale testing. we have been dancing around with

technical issues this morning, but right now, we have former fda head dr. mark mcclellan and joining us islp vin gupta from e university of washington, and as folks know, as we're using a lot of different technologies, we have some issues back and forth, but let's get right to it. mr. mcclellan, i want to start with you. you and #áíñgottlieb have putxd out this plan. let me ask about the plan this way. if the president said to you, i want to open on maylp 1st, whats everything that would have to happen in the next three weeks for us to reopen america in some form on may 1st? >> chuck, it's about making sure that when we reopen, we don't go back to the jfbeginning. we should be moving intowo/ th next phase of managinge1 this pandemic and to do that, several things need to be in place. wkjt we have adequate hospital and health care capacity to deal with any compli'yations from an increase in cases if that happensr number two, we need to make sure, as you said, we've got

testing capacity out locally so that we can take more of an offensive approach to this pandemic. not justxw number of cases to emerge. but finding and i]r outbreaks before they become more substantial. those are the most important things to get going as soon as possible with the overall economy. >> all right. but mark mcclellan, right now, is that at all may 1st opening right now? >> well, i think it depends on what we do over the next few weeks. we have seen a bigxd surge capacity take place in ventilators. and in the response to more serious cases coming withjf thi first wave. we're seeing a flattening of the curve. the same thing needs to happen for testing. the numbere1 of tests availables up. the fda has approved a number of new platforms. there are some more innovative ones coming that can be potentially administered by pe"( done at home. so the capacity is getting

there. the hard parts are also making sure that we can get thatfá t is that we can get thatfá needed. so states, local governments are going to have to take step91 lie they have done to try to beef up their hospital capacity ande1 t federal government needs to support them by making sure there is situational awareness of all the tests so they can be connected locally, and also to make sure that we have enough of the supplies that go alongt( wi the tests so that therelpe1 are delays because swabs aren'>1 available or personal protective in washington state, you're one of the first places to deal with this. one of the first placestxá= flatten their curve, one of @&h% firstq places to get control of

this. how would washington state open up on mayuxd 1st? >> thanks, chuck. and just amplifying everything that dr. mcclellan just mentioned,zyeu know, i think here's thes7 issue. the science is clear on what we need. you and i haveñiçó talked abouts repeatedly. we need more of the pcr what's not clear, and what we could use fda's additional guidance on is how do we implement and scale effectively and safely, so one of the problems, and dr. mcclellan just mentioned this we really need to emphasize at-home options. self-collect options at home one approach gaining some favor is saliva testing. can we have people spit in a cup at home or in a tube, mail it back to a lab, and is that safe and valid? we think it might be because there's a lot of virus in our saliva, but we need validation studies. we need to make sure this is safe, that we are not actually missing positive cases

less of a focus on let's get more technologies, more emergency use authorizations on board. the fda is doing an amazing job on that. credit to dr. hahnahn. we need now more guidance, we need now more guidance. how do we scale effectively at home specifically and i think that's how we get washington state back to work, hopefully at some point in may, maybe towards the end of may, and the country. that's the type of focus >> mark mcclellan, there's a lot of after action reporting now. in your best assessment, how did we blow this testing issue >> well, there are so many things that have to come together at scale in a very diverse -- country, so i don't think there's any one factor to point to i would have liked to see more of these private labs and more of these innovative tests available sooner i think the good news is that there is a lot more test capacity available, and i think we need to learn from what's happened in the critical steps in this first wave when we had trouble with access to

ventilators, trouble with access to protective equipment, to make sure we don't do that again. we know what's going to be needed for this large-scale testing to work. it's going to take getting these tests out locally, hopefully at home as well there are big roles that states and local governments need to play in that, just as mayor garcetti of los angeles has set up a cares corps to get people to help do these tests and make them available locally with other partners in the community. we need that here, too and the federal government needs to support that by anticipating the much larger needs that we're going to have. not only for the tests themselves, but for all of this other equipment. so that's a situational awareness, a ramp-up in to take over the next few weeks. for us to be ever back at full capacity on anything without a

vaccine? >> i think it's realistic, chuck. but we need a parallel approach. we need multiple work streams active in parallel and, you know, one thing that dr. nabarro said is we need contact tracing. we need specificity on what that means. that is the important piece here what does that mean? i think that's where we need to have the humility as a country to look at great examples of private sector innovation like what singapore is doing. they're using gps modeling and app-based technology to facilitate contact tracing we need to give our public health departments a lift. we need an all-hands approach, but we need specificity here we know what the problem is, we diagnosed it ing and question need testing at scale testing at scale but let's get specific on what the approaches will be now so we can have an incremental return to work strategy but it's going to be incremental. >> all right

>> all right. dr. mark m dr. mark mcclellan, dr. vin gupta, thank you both for sharing your expertise this morning. testing, testing, testing. it is pretty clear what we need to get ourselves back to work. when we come back, could president trump's daily news conferences actually be hurting him politically? the panel is next. just chew on that. as we go to break, current and former broadway cast members of it happens in honor of the popular social distancing tool of this pandemic. "hamilton" singing,t"he zoom where it happens" in honor of the popular social distancing tool of this pandemic. ♪ didn't you want to work a ♪ (vo) was that a pivotal historical moment we just went stumbling past? here we are dancing in the rumbling dark

swe're working every dread day gthat is given us to grasp feeling like the person people meet really isn't us like we're going to buckle underneath the trouble like any minute now the struggle's going to finish us and then we smile at all our friends even when i'm weak and i'm breaking i'll stand weeping at the train station 'cause i can see your faces there is so much peace to be found in people's faces. i love people's faces. ♪

has stood strong through every dark hour and bright dawn our country has endured. it has seen the break in the clouds before anyone else. for the past 168 years, we've also stood by you, helping you weather storms like this one, to protect your loved ones. and we'll do it for 168 more.

welcome back the panel is with us from their remote locations nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker historian jon meacham, the author of "hope of glory." "reflecttions of the last word on got." yamiche alcindor for pbs newshour, and lahnee chen, a fellow at the hoover institution at stanford university welcome all. i want to start with kristen welker the president's reaction to the criticism, light criticism he's getting from fellow republicans about these news conferences -- the daily coronavirus news conferences and his participation in them. here is a couple of republican critiques of them. >> i think the president should open and then turn to the medical experts. i don't know that all of the questioning back and forth adds as much as the opening statement. >> i don't think they need to be too long i don't think he feels like he has to answer everything >> and, yet, on friday, after all that criticism went public,

the president said oh, yeah? watch me and he went, i believe it was the longest coronavirus briefing yet. >> well, that's right, chuck the president's been defiant on this point, despite the fact that he has been getting, frankly, criticism from aides and allies for weeks now that these briefings tend to go off topic. at times, he mixes it up with reporters. and they have been stressing, look, if you're going to come to the briefing room on a daily basis, you need to, first, have a large announcement every single day, and you need to stay on topic and when you can, turn it over to the experts for answers, when you don't have the answers but, look, this comes against the backdrop of an election year, so, typically, we would see president trump out on the campaign trail right now he doesn't have that possibility, so these briefings, in some way, take the place of that but look at his ratings, chuck, and you pointed this out earlier in the show.

we have seen initially very high response to these briefings, but now, his ratings are starting to drop a bit still, i don't get any indication that he's going to change course. will he try to stay on topic more that's what we'll be looking for. >> look, while i go to you, lahnee chen, i'm going to put up the graphic here, our friends at real clear you can see crisis begins, there's an uptick in approval. as the president becomes more of a public focus, he's starting to see a different type of curve flattening, reverting to the mean i don't know if public advice to the president ever works, and, in some ways, it can back fire there is -- i don't know what you can do to advise the president to tone it down. >> well, this is the president kind of following his own best advice he thinks he is the best cheerleader. he thinks he is the one who is best able to articulate the message that he wants to be out there articulating

i think the data you're showing in terms of his approval rating has a lot to do with people seeing the economic news, which is why i think he's becoming a lot more sensitive to this question of when the economy opens. but, chuck, as you have discussed many times before, when the economy opens is not up to the president it's up to private businesses, it's up to governors it's up to local health authorities, the ones who are actually setting policy at a level that impacts people's lives. so i think some of this discussion is going to be very challenging for the president because he's operating in an environment where, frankly at the end of the day, he's not going to have a whole lot of control. >> yamiche, it does seem to me, if you want to read between the lines with dr. hahn, with me, with other comments that are out there over the last two days, it feels like the task force is trying to rein the president in from his may 1st promise >> well, the president has continuously had to be signaled to be reined in by his health officials from the very beginning of this. he got early warning signs this

was going to be really bad and that he needed to prepare the american people for large disruptions in their daily lives, and he didn't want to do that in fact, he, of course, was downplaying the virus for a long time so i think when we look at this may 1st date, he has not wanted to say at those briefings i want to open up the government by may 1st, and that's because he wanted to have the government opened today on easter sunday. he wanted churches packed today. instead, he was giving messages that he now wants pastors not to do that. what the president is up against is that he's really eager to try to start getting the economy back because he sees it so tied to his re-election campaign. but i think it's one of those things where you can see the president saying, i'm going to go with my instincts and the health experts, while dr. fauci is saying we're going to make a collective decision, and president trump is saying this is the biggest decision of my life and i'm going to make it. >> jon meacham, the president personalizing that, i thought that was interesting look, he's not wrong this decision, if he makes it too soon, would be probably the

most consequential of his presidency, and it it perhaps could go consequential in a really bad way if he's wrong >> absolutely. and it's in keeping with his monarchical tendencies here. i think these briefings are really infomercials more than briefings. he is constantly selling his own reaction to the crisis in the face of facts. and i think that ultimately what you're seeing with the numbers is americans at some intuitive level understandingm that the president is selling them, he's not protecting them. i think one of the things he's got to figure out politically here is this is a virus, the virus can't be bullied, it can't be dismissed

and, you know, 75 years ago today, franklin roosevelt died and one of his watch words in the second world war was, the american people can handle bad news, but you have to give it to them straight from the shoulder. and the news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better. but if you level with people, they will respond. >> right kristen welker, very quickly >> very quickly, chuck, worth pointing out, commissioner hahn said to you, we're looking at reopening the economy on may 1st. a senior administration official said to me we're planning to open the economy on may 1st. i think president trump, unlike his aspirational goal of easter, is very serious about this he's appointing another task force. he's going to announce the specific details this coming week the question is, will he listen to the experts if they say he can't do it? one official telling me, look, they're going to do this in tranches this is not going to be like

flipping a switch on a light bulb it's going to be like turning up a dimmer, chuck. >> yeah, i just wonder, do they -- do we avoid a red/blue response by governors if we go in that direction, which i think is the fear a lot of the scientists have in all of this all right, guys. i'm going to pause here. our tech challenges continuing but we're dealing with them. when we come back, african-americans are being hit particularly hard by the coronavirus, and there are many reasons why. we'll go through some of them next >> first, the night shift nurses at norton hospital in louisville, kentucky, sing "lean louisville, kentucky, sing "lean on me.

step by step, we're going to figure this out. we're gonna find a way through this. we're working really, really hard in hospitals, our nurses, our techs, all the docs. it's about staggering when people get sick so that the hospitals can cope. we're gonna go through an awful lot of these. all across puget sound, people have been stepping up and donating personal protective equipment. we stay at work. for you. you stay at home for us. just know we're all with you. thank you, thank you so much. thank you doctors & nurses.

welcome back. data download time. th'kñ week, we saw a sobering pattern emerge among covid-19 cases and deaths. a disproportionately high number among african-americans and other minorities.

hospitalized covid-19 cases are people who are african-american. even though that racial group only makes up 13% of the country's overall population. to be clear, public health experts say there isn't any genetic predisposition among african-americans that make them more at risk to severe cases of the coronavirus, so what's driving those numbers? among the top counties for number of cases are some of the nation's largeste@scities, plac that are more racially andxd ethnically diverse than the nation e1overall, and those cities's counties account for 27% of the covid-19 cases nationwide. there is also aok mix of econom and health factors that make the virus particularly dangerous for many minority groups. among nonelderly americans, the kaiser family foundation finds 11% of african-americans lack health]/> insurance. 19% of hispanics are uninsured and as many as 22% of native americans, all higher than the

national i]average. and a lack ofi] health insuranc means fewer trips to the doctor and often leads to what? more underlying health conditions. specifically those that are risk factors for covid-19t( hospitalizations. african-americans and native iamericans have higher rates of asthma thano$ráe americans or hispanic americans. higher rates of diabetes, with only white americans in single 3 digits. and while obesity is a problem for americans of all ]1%1 and ethnic groups, it's much higher amoá/ñnb minorities, especiall native americans. there's always beent( an inequality in this country when it comes tov care, and this pandemic is shining ae1 light on that issue like no other time in our country's?;( d even after the virus is under control, those issues will remain unless perhaps this makes lawmakers finally tackle them. >> when we come back, it'só[ settled. bernie sanders is out. what's not sett there are times when our need to connect really matters.

to keep customers and employees in the know. to keep business moving. comcast business is prepared for times like these. powered by tou speed, reliability, and security you need. tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. and a team of experts - here for you 24/7. we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. seeing the break in the clouds before anyone else. together, we'll weather this storm. and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward.

and we are back. there was some developments this week. wei] had bernie sanders officiay dropping out or suspending hise campaign. and jon meacham, we had theq chaos of the wisspár' primary. i'll say chaos. i'll put up some clips here. the decision to hold that primary. they had problems with theiri] wisconsin showing how hard it is to hold an actual election during a pandemic or sanders finallye1 bowing ñrout? >> i think that the wisconsin drama isr the election in november.

and we havejf to focus very strongly on this. it's a fundamental voting rights q-eñstion. vote by mail, which the president has attacked, has been proven to be quite successfule1 and secure. and i think that all of usñ1 ha >> kristen welker, where has the president gotten it in his head that vote by mail is a bad thing for republic i know, we know reports in florida, florida republicans are panicked by the president'se1 trashing the vote by mail because it's an important part of their get out the vote strategy. >> right, and a lot of swinge1 states have vote by mail, chuck. it's also to some extent hypocritical because he's voted by mail in florida. and so hei] was at the podium,

though, lashing ou+gñ and tryin to make the casee1 that, look, we consider this seriously for a general election, thatxd ultimately, you would have cases ofi] voter fraud. but this is not unlike what we heard from him in the wake of 2016, so he's almost girding his supporters and his base for what could be become a key talking point if this is something that moves forward e1seriously, chuc. >> yamiche alcindor, on the issue of sanders dropping out, i want to put up a chart we noted of all the ways joe biden has shifted to the left, both in trying to appease elizabeth warren and trying to appease bernie sanders. he's done so lowering medicare eligibility age to 60. he's in favor of that, a sanders proposal. forgiving some lpe1tuition-rela student debt. increasing bankruptcy protections. is this it forfá biden's courtsp of the progressive movement or should we expect him to continue moving left, which is a bit unusual once youok have won a nomination? usually in either party, you

move to the center, but trump four years ago went right, and is biden going to keep going left? >> it seems like biden is at when we look at the disparities with the virus, that's about systemic racism, feed deserts and the conditions african-americans have lived in in this country that is largely still segregated.e1e1

ti said if this pandemic happened a

so going even farther to republ, i thinkxt q the toughest thing is going to be if biden continues to hue to a relatively more centrist agenda, it is going to be difficult to put him in the socialist box in the same way it would have been to put bernie sanders there. so the president is going to oe biden esident is going to remains not too far to the left, as long as het( doesn't go too $ to the left, that's more challenging asjf we look toward the fall. >> all right. i'm going to have to leave the panel there. i h/( all of you have a happy easter. those of you celebrating passover as well, have afá happd passover. i know it's tough to do this from a distance, but that's what we're all living in this that's all we have. thank you for watching. again, stay safe out there. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."e1r

- 58 million latinos live in the united states. if we all participate in the 2020 census, we can ensure fair funding for our schools, libraries, hospitals, and other public services. the census is safe, it's confidential, and our community is counting on us to do our part. we know who we are and how vibrant our community is. let's make sure our nation knows it too. for more information, visit getcounted.com, and to participate, go to census.gov.

♪ developing overnight, the world health organ stay, but there could be new hope in the u.s. as we may be reaching the peak. to those at home waiting for government checks and worried about bills, we have news you can use to help you right now that may ease your financial burden deadly weather striking different parts of the south with tornadoes, heavy rain and more let's get started, "early today" starts right now

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