hospitals in those cities of non-covid patients who still need hospital attention. >> reporter: he served as the 37th surgeon general of the united states navy. >> they're in the readiness business and the readiness business means, i call you today and say, i need you tonight be, and you say, yes, sir. >> reporter: how quickly they will fill up will be the ultimate sign for who is winning this unprecedented war. jonathan vigliotti, los angeles. >> also in new york, the legendary bellevue hospital is preparing for the worst. police and military crews have set up a makeshift morgue outside, complete with refrigerated trailers for the deceased. it's not the first time bellevue has taken a lead role in the battle against disease. m mo rocca has that story. >> it's an eerie place because the ghosts are everywhere. this is a hospital that goes

back three centuries. every immigrant group has come through with every imaginable disease. >> reporter: if you want to tell the story of america through its chronology of health crises, then there's no better setting than bellevue hospital. >> the irish come first, and they allegedly bring with them cholera and tyfus. then the germans and the jews come and tuberculosis becomes the big disease. >> reporter: pulitzer prize winner david oshinsky writes the book about the storied new york city hospital. >> this is a tuberculosis balcony. we're here in the famous tb bellevue wards. it was believed fresh air would help. they would be here in the snow. >> reporter: and in the 1980s, bellevue was ground zero during the aids epidemic. >> more patients with aids come to bellevue and more patients

with aids die at bellevue hospital. and the treatment of aids patients is a story of struggle and heroism and eventually helping to turn a deadly disease into a treatable one. >> reporter: with covid-19 patients expected to fill the city's hospitals, bellevue and its doctors will once again be on the front lines. that bellevue has confronted so many crises isn't surprising. founded in the 1730s, it's america's oldest public hospital, meaning all are welcome regardless of condition or ability to pay. >> bellevue turns no one away. i mean, that has always been the mantra of bellevue hospital. and they come to bellevue knowing that they will be treated and they will be welcomed. >> reporter: and it's because bellevue has always taken in the worst of the worst cases that it's drawn the best of the best in medicine. consider the case of alexander

anderson, bellevue's first doctor. >> in the six weeks of the great yellow fever epidemic, alexander anderson lost his son to yellow fever, his wife to yellow fever, his mother and father and brother to yellow fever. and he largely stayed the course because he believed it was god's will that he help these people. and to me, alexander anderson is really not only bellevue's first doctor, but he sets down the notion and the ethos of compassion. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: dr. susan cohen, the current director of palliative care at bellevue, carries on that tradition. >> we see every emotion, every facet of the human condition that you can imagine. and it's humbling. >> reporter: as is the scale of the place.

>> there's a diner. there's a school. there's a court. there's a jail. there's a hospital. everything is in the walls of bellevue. >> bellevue was the first hospital to have a civilian ambulance corps. they were light. they were horse-driven. they could move at incredible speed. >> reporter: bellevue's story can also be told through a remarkable run of medical milestones. it had the first nursing school, the first departments of forensics and pediatrics. the first maternity ward. >> if i may, bellevue was on the cutting edge when it comes to circuncision. >> it was. these were obscure religious rituals before this time. >> reporter: bellevue became infamous for its psychiatric wing, the very name a by word for insanity. that's because of this woman. >> nellie bligh was the great

dare devil female reporter. she was the one who jules mel born went around the world, she went around in 76 days. >> reporter: she was writing for pulitzer's world when she went under cover in 1887 to report on the city's psychiatric hospitals. >> nellie bly made like she was crazy. she basically had a fake break down. the judge sent her to bellevue hospital. >> reporter: from there she was sent to a state mental hospital on black well's island where the treatment she witnessed was barbaric. chronicled in "ten days in a mad-house" a sensational expose that became a best-selling book. >> once that comes out, bellevue in the public mind is really linked almost forever with insanity and mental illness. >> reporter: bellevue became a punch line as in this clip from "the honeymooners."

>> and i'm calling bellevue because you're nuts. come out here. >> where to? >> bellevue. >> reporter: and at the movies, bellevue was where chris kringle was sent in "miracle on 34th street." and a host of real life writers and artists spent time in the psych ward. >> oh, henry. >> my old kentucky home steven foster. >> that is correct. lead belly. >> reporter: lead belly even wrote a song about his stay at the hospital. >> i went one morning in bellevue. i saw miss johnson. must have been a nurse. she was new. so long. >> reporter: and singer john lennon was brought here after he was shot, along with his assassin. >> and one of the great ironies of the story, mark chapman was being examined by psychiatrists probably 100 feet away from where john lennon's body was in

the morgue. >> reporter: but it was the 1989 murder at bellevue of dr. katherine hement that shook the institution to its core. >> a homeless man who had been living illegally in bellevue hospital killed a pregnant pathologist in her office. and it caused an absolute furor. and bellevue really had to decide at that moment, are we a hospital that provides emergency services to everybody, or are we a bus station? >> reporter: in the end, security was ramped up and bellevue did not abandon its mission as a public hospital. dr. susan cohen has been at the hospital for 12 years. >> i love the people. i love the patients. and i love the mission. you have to want to be here to be here. if it's not the right fit for you, you shouldn't be here. >> bellevue remains important

because? >> it is the bellwether. it is the place that takes in people who can often go nowhere else. and if they have a medical issue, it will be taken care of issue, it will be taken care of with great care and compassi new tide power pods one up the cleaning power of liquid. can it one up spaghetti night? it sure can. really? can it one up breakfast in bed? yeah, for sure. thanks, boys. what about that? uhh, yep! it can? yeah, even that! i would very much like to see that. me too. introducing new tide power pods. one up the toughest stains with 50% more cleaning power than liquid detergent. any further questions? uh uh! nope! one up the power of liquid with new tide power pods. breathe freely fast, with vicks sinex. my congestion's gone. i can breathe again! ahhhh! i can breathe again! ughh! vicks sinex. breathe on.

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perhaps at your local animal shelter. here's nancy chen. >> reporter: for more than a year, the holzers in maryland had been looking to adopt a dog. then came the news that everyone in the family would suddenly be staying home. >> we'd been thinking about it, but my husband and i both work full time and we just didn't know how widemanage integrating a puppy into our family and house training the dog and i just thought, wow, we got to do it now. >> reporter: through lucky dog animal rescue in washington, d.c., they brought home two-month old georgie who quickly became a member of the family. >> what a silver lining for my children who are out of school. there is this scary virus going around. they can't have play dates. it's a miracle for us. >> reporter: rescue groups say they are getting offers to help like never before. if owners suddenly become able to care for their pets or shelter staff is reduced. they are looking for a permanent decision, there are other ways

to help like fostering, bringing home a pet until they're ready for adoption. sarah brasky is the executive director of foster dogs ink, placing them every year in new york city homes. >> we are flooded now with people who are interested in fostering. >> reporter: through virtual adoption events her group and others nationwide have been working nonstop to get as many pets into homes as possible. >> there are shelters around the country that are mobilizing in ways that they've never done before where they're saying it is so urgent that we get all our animals out of this facility and be able to take in new animals and be able to get these animals into safe places because we don't know what the next weeks, days are going to bring. >> reporter: erin usually fosters on the weekend. she's fostering mastiff bubba full time. >> having someone there for me, to keep me entertained and make

me laugh. >> reporter: it's uncertain companionship in uncertain times. nancy

the coronavirus lockdown has millions of americans ordering take-out. but if you'd rather cook for yourself, super chef bobby flay has some tips. >> i'm not talking to you as the burn down the building high-flying chef you see on food network. but as a father to a daughter starting her career and the son of a father who is as vibrant on the other side of the kitchen. but he's in his upper 80s. the nervousness comes from one common denominator. the coronavirus. i'm also a person who closed a dozen restaurants since this all went down. the aftermath of what has been well documented but what seems like every chef and restaurant owner in this country.

the loss of thousands of jobs incurring untold debt and realizing 40 years in an pron went up in smoke in less than a week. as individuals we deal with these moments differently. as chefs, we cook. we celebrate. we cook. when we get depressed, we cook. it's how we show our love. it's how we self-medicate when our therapist isn't available. during 9/11 it seemed like every chef in new york banded together and we became brothers and sisters forever. mostly feeding the rescue workers at ground zero. in this case, we can't be together to band together. we're told to keep our distance and quarantine ourselves. i have cooked no less than three meals at home a day for the last week. i work the stove constantly in between watching the news, making very hard phone calls and every once in a while bingeing on a show i don't like. just to distract myself from what i know the future will hold. i found myself reaching for

ingredients that would create these sunday night dinners. i'm using my skills as a chef not to be clever, but to be resourceful. so, meatballs and tomato sauce served with spaghetti one night becomes meatball sandwiches the next. had some fron shrimp with their shells which i peeled and i used to make shrimp stock then used it to flavor some rice. i mailed old school chicken soup with whole chicken and the chicken meat was used for chicken salad sandwiches. then the lemon and chicken ired by everyone's favorite cook ina garten. i bought what i could find in the market. it felt like sunday night every night. that's okay. i'm saving my energy taking one day at a time because i know someday soon it will be my time to put my chef coat back on and run through the thickest brick wall ever erected in my lifetime. i owe it to my family and my

friends. i owe it t o m team. they expect me to lead and i will lead the only way breaking news tonight. $2 trillion. senate leaders are ready to seal the deal on the biggest relief bill in history, calling it a wartime level of investment. but could last-minute snags now stall a vote? and as unemployment claims skyrocket, news tonight on when you might see a check in the mail. also breaking, deadly spike. 11,000 more test positive, and the u.s. has its deadliest 24 hours so far. an entire nursing home forced to evacuate after workers become sick. every patient now suspected of having coronavirus. what's working? new york's governor says there are some positive signs that social distancing may be