allowing it to be made quickly and big numbers for the surge in coronavirus cases. >> this is something you can knock together in a weekend. mass producing would be dead simple. >> reporter: rfrpers say 5,000 machines could be created every week. the u.k. currently has 8,000 ventilators across the entire country. >> should i put the compressed air in? >> engineers hope to get government approval so they can start breathing new life into struggling hospitals. gwen bumgarner, cbs news, london. >> the concept of medical rationing looms like a dark cloud over the coronavirus pandemic. what that would mean for patients? well, here's sunday morning's senior contributor ted koppel. >> reporter: these are dark times, escalating demands, diminishing resources. to get a sense of where we may be headed, we have only to look at italy. theirs is one of the oldest populations in the world which partially explains the death rate that is now close to 10%.

in the north, lombardi, the medical system is all but overwhelmed. too few hospital beds, not enough gowns, masks, a desperate shortage of ventilators. you've seen what's happened and what continues to happen in italy right now. >> yeah. >> reporter: dr. maria raven is chief of emergency medicine at the university of california's san francisco hospital. you've got me on one gurney and you've got a 25-year-old on another gurney. you've only got one ventilator for the two of us. who gets the ventilator? >> that's a very tough question. i mean, i think the answer that we would use if we were to follow principles from a specialty like transplant is that people that have more life years might get the ventilator. but there are also many other

sort of principles that could underlie the decision making. you know, you have to take into consideration underlying illnesses people might have and you have to take into consideration if there are other temporizing measures in one person you could use. you may not need a ventilator immediately. >> reporter: maria, maria, maria, you're tap dancing. >> all right. i mean, i can't -- this is a tough question. i mean, i don't want to necessarily speak for ucsf on this because i haven't put out their guidelines yet. i mean, i think -- yeah, i think -- >> reporter: i'm sorry to interrupt you. when are they planning to put out the guidelines? what are they waiting for? >> well, any day -- the clinical group is working on them right now. >> reporter: these are terrible decisions to leave in the hands of doctors on the front lines, the ones actually treating patients. now, there are certain

situations relatively few, thank goodness, that are catastrophic events that entirely overwhelm our ability to do what's right. haiti was one of those. is emeng t alarm.omirsc he is afraid that what he confronted in haiti in the aftermath of that country's earthquake a decade ago, desperate shortages of medical supplies, equipment, personnel could soon face us here. >> and that was the same thing i faced when i was in haiti. it's about the most difficult decision that you can make. >> reporter: you're still choking up all these years later. why? >> good question. you know, you'd think after ten years i'd be beyond that, but

it's -- again, it's such a difficult decision. >> reporter: there are guidelines. new york state put out a massive thoughtful set in 2015. the italians have drafted a set bas based on their current experience. but every hospital follows essentially its own guidelines. >> we're trying to save the greatest number of lives possible, so in some cases these guidelines would really shift radically the way we work and put both patients and doctors and families in the terrible position of saying, we can't do what you would want. >> reporter: dr. tia powell is director of bioethics at monday t montifior medical center in new york. >> you'll have three groups, maybe you'll have a mild case --

you might feel miserable, but you're not in danger. the group that you're looking for in a hospital is the group that is very sick and that actually may die without critical care resources. but if we can get them those resources, they have a good chance of pulling through. and then the third group is the most unlucky. that's people with a terrible prognosis, people for whom, even with critical care resources, the chance of surviving is terrible. >> reporter: i'm sure it's not a term that you will happily use, but we're talking about rationing. >> it's a form of rationing, yeah. and i agree, everybody tries to avoid that word, but i would actually like people to understand what may be coming. >> what we fear will happen, what is most likely to happen is that persons who are poor, persons who are racial ethnic minorities, are less likely to get ventilators than those who are wealthy and well connected. >> reporter: david williams is a

professor at the harvard school of public health. >> and what makes it even more challenging is that the disadvantaged groups we have talked about, they are the ones who begin this process being more vulnerable, because they have earlier on set of disease. more likely toace chronic ongoing stressors in multiple domains of their life. so we're looking at those most in need being most likely to be disadvantaged. >> we have to keep trying and doing things, so is it likely that people will die from lack of access to ventilators? probably. does that mean as an individual patient they're likely to die? no, because we're not going to quit trying. >> reporter: so i understand why you're fighting me on this. you don't want to let anybody believe that the medical

community is just going to give up. and i'm not suggesting that you will. but i am suggesting in the strongest terms that we don't have adequate supplies to meet the likely demand. you don't think that's an unfair statement, do you? >> given my knowledge of the situation, that's not an unfair statement. but i'm not a supply guy, i'm a doctor. >> reporter: do you think the public is adequately informed about -- >> no. no, i don't think that the health care community is adequately informed. and i think, you know, experts have been working on this. but now it is really a realistic possibility and it's a realistic possibility, not in a year, but soon. i never thought i would see this day. we're not quite there, but realistically, many, many health

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meg oliver has the story. >> when i would visit with my kids, it was really the highlight of her day. >> reporter: alix handy lost her mother lona erwin a week ago. the great grandmother died from covid-19 along with eight others at this nursing home. it was hard to not say good-bye. how hard was it to say good-bye? >> i can accept her passing away. but not saying good-bye is eating away at me. >> reporter: sunday morning 100 residents and staff tested positive at this tennessee rehabilitation center. outside baltimore a staggering 77 seniors tested positive here. >> what we need to avoid is literally turning nursing homes into our chilling fields. >> reporter: nationwide long-term facilities house three

times the number of patients hospitals do. dr. wasserman said we need to transform more buildings into skilled nursing facilities for seniors with covid-19. >> if we push older adults out of hospitals and icus into nursing homes that will be overwhelmed, in three to four weeks the problem will be ten times greater. >> reporter: it's a dire prediction families are worried sick about. >> it's kind of scary. you don't know what you're sending them into. >> reporter: kathy's husband edward is recovering from the virus in the hospital. he was in a nursing home after suffering a brain injury and needs around the clock care. >> i'm just really going to have to bring him home because i can't trust anybody. >> reporter: you've been married 40 years. have you ever gone this long without seeing him? >> never. i just can't imagine what's happening to him. and how he's being treated, and

whether people are doing the right thing. >> reporter: i'm sure you want to be there by his side. >> i do, as a mother, i know how hard it is to see our children's lives impacty covi, oronavg unprecedented resources and services to meet this challenge. i want you to know, that we are here for you. but i also have an ask for you. please stay home to keep others and yourself healthy. your actions can help save lives. and together, we will get through this.

by now we've all heard the warnings, wash your hands. with soap, of course. did you ever wonder where soap comes from? jeff glor has our overnight news history lesson. ♪ hands, washing hands >> reporter: in the age of covid-19 -- >> where ever you are, wash your hands. >> reporter: hand wishing videos have spread everywhere. >> you're going to get some soap. three pumps of soap. why not? >> reporter: but to find the first evidence of soap use and production, you have to go back 5,000 years to ancient babylon, present day iraq. it was made then by mixing fats and oils with wood, ash and water. the french made the next great leap.

a chemist and surgeon navid nicolas lablanc patented a soap-making in 1791. hungarian physician was the first to really push hand disinfection. >> you and i have a coat of armour that protects our bodies from the outside world. >> reporter: in the commercial soap we used to emerged in the 1900s, a process called batch kettle boiling. it was introduced, refined and sold to the nation by a still-growing industrial giant, procter & gamble. soap is nothing more than the salt of a fatty acid. it works because it breaks up oil and germs into small drops, which can be easily washed away. >> you, yes you, will love gentle ivory soap in this handy personal size. >> reporter: during and after world war ii, soap sponsorships of radio and tv serials in america became so common, people started calling them soap operas. >> the new wonder bar, camay.

>> you make your own lye soap? >> got to. you can't buy it in beverley hills. >> reporter: later thereas granny's lye soap in berley hill billies. >> some possum renderings. >> enough soap would blow up just about anything. >> reporter: and tyler's paper street soap company, in fight club. everyone has their favorite clip. >> what is this? >> this is -- >> reporter: and cleansing process. >> wlsrd, wet, lather, scrub, rinse and dry. >> reporter: but all soap made the right way works. a reminder that old-schoo methods can still help solve modern-day problems. ♪ if you wash your hands ♪ the world will be a better place. >> just wash your hands for 20 seconds. it's as easy as that. and that is the overnight news

for this wednesday. reporting from the cbs news studios in washington, d.c., i'm kris an cleave. ♪ ♪ captioning sponsored by cbs breaking news tonight -- deadliest day. the number killed by breaking news, deadliest day. the number killed by coronavirus in the u.s. spikes, more than 700 in 24 hours. and these stunning pictures. bodies stacked in refrigerator trucks as a tennis stadium becomes a hospital. and as we come on the air, those shocking models from the white house. the hundreds of thousands who could die and the guidelines to try and stop it. emergency on board. the commander of a u.s. aircraft carrier begs the pentagon to evacuate more than 4,000 sailors. we'll ask thepandn