captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc dr >> wf: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: bracing for the surge. e w infection counts in the u.s. soar, as the entpulations of california and new york are ordered to stay at home. plus, accusations emerge against sitting u.s. senators who appear to have profited off of the pandemic. then, covid-19 and the crown. the coronaviruspreads through great britain. how citizens there are adjusting to a nation transformed.re >> woing to go through that period of denial, confusion, annoyance, anger, and then sooner or later, within ten ys or so, we'll get that period of acceptance. >> woodruff: and, it's friday. mark shields and davide rooks analyza week unlike any other in living memory-- and one that

has fundamentally altered the course of american life. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ years. our economy for 160 , the engine that connects us. >> when it comes to wireless, coumer cellular gives its customers the choice.

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>> woodruff: more ofhe country is closing down tonight, trying to contain the coronavirus pandemic.ne york state and illinois have now joined california in taking that step, with moretates expected to follow. meanwhile, president trump invoked emergency powers to move medical supplies into place as quickly as possible, as u.s. infections topped 15,000, with more than 200 deaths. willm brangham begins our coverage. >> brangham: in much of california, stay-at-home orders have already brought much of puic life to a halt, and today, those orders expanded statewide. governor gavin newsom asked the entire state, 40 million people, to stay home. he cited an analysis that half the state could be infected in the next eight weeks if more so he ordered that nothing but, the most essential activities continue. >> we will have social pressure that will encourage people to do the right thing.st

nod and a look, that says, "hey, maybe you shouldco ider being out there on the beach, being 22 strong at a park." it's time for us to all recognize as individuals and as a community, there's more we need to do to meet this moment. >> brangham: it's unclear how the new orders will be enforced, but it's one of the most drastic containment efforts underway huross the country, anothe effort-- new york governor andrew cuomo ordered every employer in his state to keep their workers at home. t >> 100% workforce must stay home. these are non-es.ntial servic essential services have toti continue to fu-- grocery stores need food, pharmacies need drugs, your internet has to continue to work, the water has to turn on when you turn the faucet. so, there are essential services that will continue to function. >> brangham: and illinois' governor issued a shelter-in-

place order, effective tomorrow. these states have seen a surge in covid-19 cases and they--al g with washington state-- are the hardest-hit in the country. their hospital systems are already being stressed and critical protective supplies are running low. the white house offered some forms of relief today. president trump said he had invoked the defense production act, directing certain companieo hange their focus and produce supplies needed for the coronavirus fight. and, the president also announced an extension to the april 15 tax filing deadline.e >>e moving it all the way na july 15. no interest, no ies. your newate will be july 15. >> brangham: and in a move to stem the spread of the virus across countries, he annnced the u.s. andexico had agreed to close down the southern border to non-essential travel. but in what turned into a testy, contentious press conference, the president also said several things that are ctually wrong.

for example, he cited the wrong symptoms for covid-19. >> they're sneezg, they are sniffling, they have a temperature. there are a lot of different things. >> brangham: actual symptoms are fever, but also dry cough and trouble breathing. sn.zing and sniffling are n he implied that an unproven enti-malaria drug could pr infection. there's zero pro of that. one of his top health officials, dr. anthony fauci, had to rrect the record moments later: >> the answer is no. >> brangham: and, contrary to all public health guidance, the president implied the u.s. didn't need additional testing for the virus. >> we're hearing very positive things about testing. it's able to test millions of people. but we inherited a broken, old, terrible system. frankly, a terrible system.ix and weed it, and we've done

a great job. >> brangham: across pennsylvania avenue, negotiations began a between senato the administration over a package, to provide some cushion for the economic toll the virus is taking. on't think i need to tel anybody how catastrophic that is. that's happening all over this country. teand it's going to accele today's a payday. today, some people in this country will get pd and told not only are they not working on monday, but they're not getting paid any longer. >> brangham: the republican's relief plan proposes direct $1,200, and $2,400 for couples; loans to small businesses struggling to meet payroll; anrelief for hard-hit industries, like commercial airlines. but democrats again pushed for a different focus. >> the medical priority has to be the first priority. evything else follows from that. unfortunately, their plan does not address thats much as we believe it should. >> brangham: meanwhile, capitol hill was rocked by reports that some senators had sold substantial amounts of stock after they received earl private briefings on the state

of the outbreak. in italy, re tragic news. the nation saw its biggest daily rise in coronavirus deat, more than 600 in the last 24 hours. worldwide, the death toll from this pandemic surpassed 11,000 people today. for the pbs newshour, i'mll m brangham. >> woodruff: wall street is limping into the weekend, aftert worst week since the 2008 meltdown. stocks sank today after nereyork state orworkers to stay home, on top of california's state-wide lockdown. lost 913 points to close belowge 19,174. the nasdaq fell 271 points, and& th500 fell 105 points.ek for the the dow lost 17%. the nasdaq fell 12%, and the s&p 500 dropped 15%. now, to help walk us through how washington is respono all

t this, i'm joined by our white house correspondmiche alcindor and our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins. so, yamiche, to you first, going back to some of what william was reporting, what do we know, now, about testing, theavailability of testing and then what the white house is doing with regard to makre medical supplies >> well, there are two critical challenges that thedo critical states is facing right now as it relates to coronavirus. the first is that the u.s. is not able, ats hiint, to meet the demand of testing. there are a lot of people who want and need to be tested for the coronavirus who are not being able to get thoth tests. second thing is there are hospitals saying they are facing dire shortages of med equipment, things like masks and other equipment they need totr t patients. so i put a question to the president that said when wil -l peopeveryone who needs a test be able to get a coronavirus test? >> we inherited-- meaning this

administration-- an obsolete, system, that wasn't mea for anything like this. now we have a system that, you can see because, look,we we'r into this, and nobody's even talking about it, except for you, which doesn't rirprise me... which doesn't su me. >> alcindor: there are americans, though, who say they have symptoms and they can't get tested.y what do you americans... >> yeah, well, i'm not, i'm not hearing it. go out and get a test because there's no reason for it. >> so the president is saying that he has not heard of any americans who have coronavus symptoms who need a test but aren't able to get a test. we have heard from so man people who say that they do need a test and haven't been able to get one. dr. anthony fauci, a health expert in this adm, istration, sao, very clearly, the united states is not able to meet that demand. the other thing is the president is saying he inherited a mess and head to rebuild the entire syst. obama administratiin officials co to stress they left the president with a white house pandemic office and he dndis it in 2018.

the other thing to note is the prhaident's talking abouting the defense production act invoked, but the preside f went back arth and never landed clearly on whether or not he's directing companies to start making medical equipment. instead, he said companies like general motors want to start making medical equipment, but it's not clear whether the president is saying you need to now art making medical equipment. of course, that's very, very important forta hos facing these shortages. >> woodruff: we saw the president got into a back and r forth wiorters at that briefing today over -- when he was asked about how th administration is handling all this. >> that's right. this is probably one of the most contentious press conferences i've ever seen with the president. at reporters.mp was lashing out specifically, he was talking about the idea that heel aggrieved by nbc news' peter he said that he wary angry at peter for asking a question about whether or not he had a

message for americans who were scared. president trump said that he was a nasty reporter, that that was a bad qustion. we've seen this president do this over anerovgain. for the first time in white house history a former white house press secretary was posing questions for the president. me today in the white houseto briefing room. so it was interesting to see thp esident lashing out. the president was in a much better mood when he was talki about the border changes. he said i have been trying to make changing i have been wanting to abcuout unnted i immigrants, and now i'm able to do those things. >> woodruff: yamich me turn to you, now, because congress is moving quickly at a speed we're nt used to seeing to try to come up with legislation to address not ly the health questions that are out there but also the econoc questions. >> i'll tellou, judy, all day today at the capitol, the premise here is mostly abandoned except with a large number of white house officials and cabinet secretaries, which there

were so mny you almost ran into they're having meetings across the senate, trying to have a deal, trying to get a draft proposaly midnight tnight. something new is a bigger focus on hospitals, maybe building ne temporary hospitals to deal with the medical issues that yamiche is raising and others are concerned abt. one piece that seems to be cementing is the small business let's look at where it stands for small businesses interested. the idea would be to float hundreds of billions of dollars in loans that could be processed in days for small businessesee thatit. the idea is that could help for back pay retactive to march 1 for businesses that already have to stop paying their workers, shey could repay them wih thi deal, and those loans would be forgiven. if that small business uses that deral loan money for payroll or for lease money. now, that's the part that seems to be kind of taken care of,

there is a reestion about unemployment benefits, those wh are work who were not with a small business. many senators wod like to increase the unemployment benefit by a lot. today, when we look at what's happening with tt, the idea of raising the unemployment check amount is running into a logistical problem, states which oploate the uneent system may not be able to handle the surge, they're telling congress, and there could be a lag in trying to get that payment out. so congress is wrestling wth a logistical issue when it comes to unemployment. this is where the idea of direct payment to americans comes in, probably a $1,200 check or so. that is still very much on the atable. i also to mention speaker pelosi is paying attention to use will be so the ho able to ring in very quickly and the idea is to maybe vote on als by monday. that seems incredibly optimistic to me, but i want to s that is the official word from senator mcconnell's office, that is their hope. >> woodruff: there are

suggestions there is going to be a ant increase in unemployment. separately, lisa, on capitol hill, there are some other questions being raised abo whether some members of congress are profiting during this national emergcy, nd lisa has >> desjardins: two u.s. senators under scrutiny and defending themselves: richard burr ofrt carolina and kelly loeffler of georgia. the republicans sold off millions of dollars in stocks at different points in the weeks before global financial markets tanked. here's what we know.a >> it was good presentation. >> desjardins: on january 24, the senate was briefed about ,e coronavirus in a priva secure meeting with top health officials. that same day, loeffg r's tradcount began selling off stocks worth between $1 to $3 million, anpurchasing stocks in companies focused on working from home. loeffler co-owned those stocks with her husband, who is the chairman of the new york stock exchange. but, roughly three weeks later, she publicly showed confidence in the market.

>> the good news is the consumer is strong, the economy is strong. >> the committee willgage -- as >> stahl: as for burr, who is >> desjardins: as for burr, who is chairman of the senate intelligence committee, on february 7, he co-wrote an op-he ed, assuringnited states was "better prepared than ever before" to face coronavirus. on february 12, the u.s. stock market hit an all-time high, but, coronavirus deaths in china had topped 1,000. the centers for disease control warned that same day of coronavirus spreading in the u. the following day, february 13, burr's trading account sold off between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks. both burr and loeffler have denied they made the financial moves based on non-publicrm inion, which would be illegal for members of congress. could not be true. false, and it >> stahl: loeffler said today, a money manager does all of herr es, and she doesn't learn of them until three weeks later. in a statement today, burr saids

he "reliely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks on february 13." burr also asked the senate ethics committee to open an investation in the matter to provide "full transparency." >> woodruff: lisa, you spoke today with senat loeffler and senator burr's office. >> that's right. just a quick note here, the estions that remain, senator loeffler basically sayinshe had nothing to do with the stock trades because it goes through a ird party. did she speak to her husband who manager?ve spoken to the money doesn't sound like she has a blind trust. senator burr, his oce says he has been raising the alarm about pandemics for a long time and had this ncern for a while. the concern is the public statements versus what they were doing with their ss. >> woodruff: yes, that is the question. lisa, what did the experts tell you about whether what has happened appears to have broken >> our producer spith

former federal prosetors, s.e.c. officers, former congressional experts and say we don't know that much about the the timing and who exactly the senators spoke with, but two of the people said there might be enough to initiate a case. right now this is in the hands of the senate ethics committee,h which is not most transparent body on earth, but we obviously will be paying close attention. other members of congress have made stock trades, het timing is not as suspect as these two. >> woodruff: yamiche, at the white house, the president was asked about this. >> that's right, the president said he would psibly be interested in thesing these senars be investigated for these stock trades, but he said these are good, honorable people and said they have done nothing wrong. i should say a couple of days ago i talked to larry kudlow, economic white house advisor, he said this could be a good buying opportuny for people, when i asked about people who were scared about their retirement

funds. so there is busadinesice coming from the white house as well. >> woodruff: thank you both. >> woodruff: this has been a week when more citieand states have started far more comprehensive shutdowns in a desperate bid to mitigate the spread of covid-19 in this country. i spoke yesterday with dr. anthony fauci, one of the country's top public health officials, about that and how the country is faring when it comes to slowing the pandemic here. he joined us or our special, "confronting coronavirus," and we continued our conversation. dr. anthony fauci, thank you very much for joining us. as we sit here, middlof march, what is your biggest concerni about coronavirus pandemic? >> well, i mean, my biggestco

ern, i think, would be obvious, because we've seen its potential, we see what it did in china, we see what it has done in korea, and we see what it's doing right now in european countries, particully italy and france. we have an escalation of cases in our ownountry right now, and my concern is -- and i hope it goes from a concern to a realization that we're doingld what we she doing -- is that we really need to take the recommendations and the guidelines of how to mitigate the spread of this very, very seriously. the situation o of -- situations well delineated in the guidelines about avoiding crowds, getting people to self-isolate. don't go to rs or restauran or places where there are crowds and gatherings. 10 people at theost if u want to do something socially. if we do that and do that consciou --conscientiously, we a

long way to muting that. certain people are not taking that seriously. everyone has to take tt seriously. it particularly depends the younger individuals who may feel they're invulnerable because they hear, appropriately, thatse the e or the infection in young people is not nearly as severe as if you're an elderly person or a person who has an underlying condition.yo >> i heasay that and, yet, you see pictures, video of people enjoying themselves at the beach in florida and perhapa other plces. what do you say to them? >> one of the things that stimulated me to make theou statement abt appealing and tweeting the younger generation is that i see the pictures of people frolicking around at a bar. it's spring break, in many cases, you're yong, fee

enjoyed doing that, but this is a very unique situation we're in. analogous to what ppening,ke you know, in a war when everyone the plate and do somethingep to extrao binary. isniness as usual. we cannot treat this as business as usual. >> woodruff: speaking f springreak, conflicting advice this week to americans inen diffstates about whether schools should be closed, opened, daycare centers. what is ur best advice on that right now? >> it variefrom location to locationli you want toten to the local -- state and local healthy authorities, bu also would hope that they are looking ata the gins tare coming from the federal level because they're only guidelines. they should "you should," the don't say "you must," but they should at least be looked at. so, clearly, in certain circumstances, particularly in areas where there's community spread, the schools should be

closed. >> woodruff: dr. fauci, reuters reporting today that the first cases of covid reported in the united states and south korea on the same day, january 20th, but i south korea they moved very quickly, they had testing manufactured and made available within days. they moved vry quickly to identify who had covid 19. the story isthe united sta has been a lot slower. this country is still, as you've said, not rea th tests everywhere they're needed. what has gone wrong here? all the time and the propwith regulation and the social distancing thadidn't get implemented until the last few days? >> to be fair, i don't think th something has gone wrong. obviously, nothing was perfect. with regard to the testing, we've gone over that over and over again about,ly initithe system that we use for testing from the c.d.c., developing a test, getting it t the public health authorities, was not designed to the broad type of

high through put testing that goes out in the coryu we're in that arena. let's look forward as to posed to back, that's working. but the other things, we have been quite aggressive. when you have an outbreak, when you look at the histi of outbreaks, it's a little bit like the fog of wal-mart people try to do the right thing and sometimes ey get it right right from the beginning, sometimes they correct and really wo. d think where we are right now in a good place, it isn't perfect by any means, we still have to get more equipment and we're doing something to get more equipment. we still made kneed make sure testing is much more available but it's getting there really rapidly. >> woodruff: dr. futurey, i know you have been reluctant to predict how long this is gog to be w us. i had somebody say is there ang this is going to be like the black plue, something from

the 14th century which was there but came back again and again for years? >> we don't know, judy, because this is unprecedented, but you can kind of prouject andrmise from experience with different infections that we have been confronted with both in our own lifetimes and historically. thgoal right now, as i said ry often, if you leave the virus to its own itvices will go way up and then come way down the it did in china. if you try to mute it, make ith be mss of an impact, you won't completely eradicate it. i hope we do and get rid of it the way we did srs. it's unlikely, given the efficien with which this spreads, that that's going to happen. i can't guarantee. so what might happen it may go under the radar screen for a while and then, as we get into the next winter season, latn fall, wter, it may come back. i mean, we would be unrealistic to thi t thathat's not at

least a possibility. but it would be different then because, by then, hopefully, we will have been better prepare to respond in a public health way, number one, mber two, we will have already tested severag some of which, hopefully, might be effective, and we would be much, much closer to a vaccine which, asou know i said many times, might be ready for deployment between a year and a year and a half. so it's conceivable that it will ccycle and come k. but when it does, we'd be much, much in a different position than we are right now. >> woodruff: dr. anthony fauci, we thank you very much.wi >> good to b you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, former democratic presidential candidate mhael bloomberg announced today that he is transferring $18 million

to the democratic national committee. the money comes from his campaign account, and is the largest such transfer ever. thmeanwhile, indiana becam eighth state to delay itsid prtial primary, due to the corona-virus pandemic. officials pushed it back from may 5 to june 2. in afghanistan, at least 17 police and soldiers were killed overnign alled "insider" attack. officials said some in security forces joined taliban fighters assaulting a base in zabul province in the south. it was one of the most seriousta s since the u.s. and the taliban agreed last month on withdrawing foreign troops. four men in india were hanged today for the gang rape and murder oa young woman on a new delhi bus back in 2012. the crime ignited protests across india, and outrage around the world. at dawn today, crowds gathered

outside the jail as demonstrators celebrated the executions amid tight security.n >> ( ated ): this has brought peace to my heart, and a huge burden has been lifted. the gang rape victim, who left this world in sheer pain, has gotten justice. her parents have waited for so long. >> woodruff: in the years since the murder, india has imposed tougher sentencing rulesor sexual assault. still, activists say the new penalties have not deterred rape. and, this was the 25th anniversary of a nerve gas attack in tokyo, japan. a doomsday cult released the chemical in the city's subway system, killing 13 people and injuring thousands more. subway workers and the victims' relatives held a moment ofto silence y at the station that was targeted.y a larger ceremwas canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. still to come on the newshour: "warning signs." the critical days ahead as the virus spreads through the u.s. "the pandemic abroad."li

in the united kingdom during the era of covid-19. plus, mark shields and david brooks analyze a week in america unlike any other. since the start of the pandemic is, should the u.s. have been better prepared? nick schifrin has a look at that now, with someone who occupied a front row seat in gove efforts for decades. >> schifrin: for years, experts inside and oside government have sounded the alarm bell that the u.s. needed to better prepare for a pandemic. one of those experts is dr. kenneth bernard, an epidemiologist, a retired rear admiral in the u.s. public health service, and the lead for public health issues on the national secity council staff

during the clinton and george w. bush administrations. dr. bernard, thank you ver much. welcome the "newshour". the administration, today, taking the right steps? >> yes, i think . much delayed, but, in fact, they're listening, they'reing. putting together a plan that will protect us into the future, may help control the amount of disease we see in th united states, and the president's plan to move forward, i think, is the right one now, there have been a few missteps along the line, but i want to reall temphasiat, despite mistakes that have been made before this time, this is a battle, this is a war against a biologic enemy, and we all need to pull together as a country abd fight this war independent of our opiniont what happened in the past or what our political opinions of the current administration or other administrations happen to be. >> reporter: and it is a battle that st win, and we

must win altogether. for a minute, though, i do want to ask you about those delays, oruch delayed, as i think you put it. you have criticized the adminiration's initial responses, many others have initial responses. what was inadequate about the initial response? .>> advanced planni many of the things that we're doing right now, increasing our personal protective equipment, increasing the number of ventilators, planning for hospital surge capacity, all could have bn done in advance because we've known an epidemic we've had a series of epidemics back from sars and ebola and pandemic flu and there's may epidemics in the history of mankind, even in t recent 15 or 20 years, that have indicated that this is a real risk, ran ongoinsk to humanity, and we need to plan for these and we need to plan for them in

advance, and that is the biggesp i've seen is the late pla were implemented over the last few weeks that could have been implemented a month orm a th and a half ago. >> reporter: what is supposed to be th hub for plan hg in the administration is the national security staff. in 2018 john bolton eliminated the office of global health security on the announce national security council staff. thath not the first time happened. in early 200 the bush administration eliminated it. b brought back. the obama administration eliminated it as well. so this is actually a bipartisan blind spot. >> it is. the bush administration,hen they came in, abolished the office altogether until 9/11 and the anthrax attacks. suddenly they re-created ance ofwith five people. i was put head of that office, and that ofice stayed in plce

and did really good work until the next administration started. the next admintration started, there were no more big epidemics in the offg, frowhat they could tell, this was not an important issue fo th national security environment, abolish the office again. >> reporter: you just said not an important issue for the national security environment. anenxtraordinary statement, we think about what is happening today. but, as you say, it's not abo politics. is it more about how the national security community doesn't coordinate with each other and perhaps doesn't take health seriously? >> yes, it's been the problem from the very start. the problem is a tribal one. the national security folks -- defensdepartment, state department, intelligence agenci -- they deal with hard hard-ball politics and hard-ball foreign policy. they don't really see health -- in the past have not seen health

except support for their own people. the fact that health actually hanational security implications has been a hard sell for 20 years, and that's the reason why thekept abolishing the offices. office of russian affairs at the interested in russfairs,n't but they abolished the office of byo defense and health affairs because each new foreign policy lead that would come in to the white house would say, ah, it's a health issue, send it off to health and human services. >> reporter: let's fast forward back to tod'srisis. a lot of state department officials tell me they bly e china, tame china for covering this up, and if china had acted better, then we would be more ahead of the problem.r do you ee? >> it's possible, but essentially completely irrelevant. did the president's early decision to block those from china, especially from wuhan,

entering the united states? absoluten . we were gimonth of extra time to prepare for what uld be inevitable in this country, given the virus, and, inswetead, pent most of our time worried about blocking borders and not enough time prepari for inevitable. >> reporter: and dr. bernard, with the idea that we all need to come together and we all need to win this battle. what does a good response look like from here on out andow can we all be part of that? >> well, first of all,e all are beginning to work together on this. i haven't seen this in a long time, and i've nevereen an eutbreak or an epidemic lik this in my entire life, and i'm sure that's true for many peopl who are working on it. we all need to follow the directions of the admninistrat on social distancing, on, in my case out in california and

new york, we're sheltering at home. we're just not goaninywhere. we need to do that. we need to flatten the epidemic curve. we need to decrease the stress on our dical emergency systems because they are going to be overwheld in the next two weeks. we also, as a government, need to aggressively pursue antiviral agents and other a countermeasure i think any dollar that isn't spent on that that could be is a crime. >> reporter: dr. kenneth bernard, retired rea admiral and the former head of public health issues on both the clinton and george w. bush administration national security council staffs, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: europe is now the epicenter of the outbreak, with italy, spain and france contending with a flood of patients. ten days ago, the attitude in

the united kingdom was "keep calm and carry on."no bu the stakes are higher, and the national feeling more dire. special correspondent malcolm brabant is near his home ingl marlow, d tonight. malcolm? judy, the death toll in the united kingdom stands at 177. the big news tonight is that the government is proming billions to save jobs and businesses, and the prime minister has ordered alpubs and restaurants to close, to try to reduce the risk of ctagion. the prime minister has urged everyone who can, to work at home. that's why my report comes from my hometown, marlow, 30 miles west of london. >> six, seven, eight... >> reporte this class was the last chance for part-time teacher leah hars to earn before all british schools were shuttered. it was the second blow in double time.ma he dancing gig, in the show "42nd street," ended when covid-19 brought the curtainsnd down across 's theatreland.

>> it's just so sudden and very, very scary.y where's the moen going to come from? producers are going to run out of money because they haven't got ticket sales going out. who knows when it's going to end? >> reporter: before closing her doors tonight, jo noel hartley, tre owner of this small th and drama school, issued an appeal. to>> we need the governmen pause all mortgage and rent payments. i think that's the most important thing. people need roofs over their heads, and i don't know how anybody is going to survive working for-- possibly for two months, without any income. >> reporter: westminster prime minister boris johnson promised tenants protection against possible eviction. >> it is very importat, as we ask the public to do the right thing for themselves and everybodelse, that no one, whatever their income, should be penalized for doing the right thing. c reporter: johnson was criticized for nsing schools sooner, but today, pupils left campuses not knowing when they will return. the school furlough means many rents will have to aband work to provide child care. that as to the worries of auto

trader tim platt. >> i woke up in a cold sweat at about 3:00 this morning and then couldn't go back to sleep. >> reporter: platt's car dealershipas been a pillar of the local economy for a century, existential threaten the most successful business. platt is determined to retain his 50-strong work force. ge>> it's about, how dyo people spending money, keeping the circulation going? because if that circulatiot' isn't there,got to be very disruptive. >> reporter: tonig, prime minister johnson, and his finance minister rishi sunak,su a blank check to protect jobs and business. >> government grants will cover ne80% of the salary of ret workers, up to a total of 2,500 pounds a month. that's just above the median income. >> reporter: after being accused of dithering, the government also tonight ordered pubs, cafes, and clubs to close, because so many people refused to exercise self-restraint. some watering holes, like the ship, voluntarily went into

dry dock before the ban came into force. >> you may thi that you're invincible, but there is no guarantee that you will get mild symptoms, and you can still be a it on to others.isease and pass >> reporter: the bottling plant at the local bwery is silent. rmally, this productn line generates an annual turnover of $6illion.-o er mark gloynes knows the line between profitability and catastrophe is razor thin. >> 80% of what we brew, we sell through the pub trade, and we've lost tt pretty much overnight. >> reporter: gloynes hopes his on-site store can help cash flow. customer val cauldwell prefers to shop here than in a national chain. >> i think it could kill the local economy, if we don't try to support the people who are local to us. >> reporter: gloynes is committed to the livelihoods of his 60 staff. >> we might haveo incrementally reduce people's hours down, and we might have

to stop paying them proportionately. but we're hoping that, by the measures we're taking, that we'll actually retain all the staff, and when hopefully ings return to normal, whenever that will be, that we'll be able to just start again with the current level of staff. >> reporter: at the local radio station, director tim ashburner fosters communityir and keeps his finger on goe public pulse. >> we're going through that period of denial, confusion, annoyance, anger,er and then, sor later, within ten days or so, we'll get that period of acceptance. >> reporter: but farr anthony mash is defying advice to seniors to stay home. >> i can't sit there. i'd go stir crazy. >> reporter: mash is 79 years old. two years ago, his farm was incinerated. only the name plate survived. >> and i'm just anxious to see it rebuilt. laid, every nail that's put in. >> reporter: but, mash has heart uroblems.

he's waiting forons to install a new valve. his immunity system is compromised. he's more vulnerable than mostnk >> i don't tt would hurt, if i caught it, actually. i'd probably survive. i think i'm reasonably robust, apart from my aortic valve. >> reporter: so far, the local hospital has only registered one virus-related death, but health chiefs fear emergency rooms won't be able to cope if britain follows italy. despite the skepticism of some british doctors, the prime minister is upbeat about defeating covid-19 within three months. to do so, he insists, britain must endure the ghost towns. blue for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in marlow. >> woodruff: some news just in. a member of vice president pence's staff has tested

positive for covid 19. the white house says neither the president nor the vicbpresident haen in close contact with the person. now, to help make sense of a week that doesn't seem real to many of us, we turn to theys an of shields and brooks. that is syndicated columnist mark shields, and "new york times" columnist david brooks. and neither one of you is here with me. we are keeping you at what we think is a se distance, but david, how do we make sense of. this, you know, things going on that i think most of us could never have imagined? >> yeah, i sort of have are split- reaction to this. when you talk abut regular people and how they're acting, i think it's been a remarkably good week, an uplifting week on the whthle. is something, even ough we're separated, it's something we're all goi throu together, and we're having the same experiences and undergoing the samese anxie in a weird way we had to be pulled apart to feetogether.

there are so many acts i've heard about people helping buildings, virtual cocktail parties, i feel it's a moment whersocial connection is i top most mind and people are finding innovative ways toec cowith each other. societywise, it's a good moment. politically i'm a little less sang win. presidentrump has much impred by his uro sees and narcissism still show up and still give me pause. >> reporter: and i want to ask you both about that in a minute. but, for nowar mark, hoe you making sense of all this? >> judy, i'm not sure how much sense i can make ofit. i mean, i don't disagree with david's assessment, but t, to m, what has been most revealing was revealed by the "wall street journal" and nbc poll isos a a political divide on the crisis, and that is the republicans, particularly president trump's most ardent

supporters, haveeen quite resistant to accepting that this was a crisis and, in part, because of the den congratulations of the -- denigration by the governmentan concerted efforts, very little trust or confidence in ourllective action, whereas democrats have been far more, perhaps of the skepticism about president trump, have been far mo willing to accept that this is a global, national and personal crisis for all. so we're in politic silos, and usually, historically, crsis have sort of brought us together and that, beyond the acts ofdu indi kindness, has not occurred yet it mr. schi. woodruff: how do you see that divide out there, david. how serious is it >> partly, we just see through tribal lenses these days.

rtly it has to do with population density. the dener locations reacting more, partlly alarm, dystrust of media.at but i thinhe end of the day, we're notn e italy phase yet. when we do, we will be terrifiwi and ther be scary moments and i'm hopeful everybody in the country, regardless of political belief, will season tat a say, oh, yes, this is super real. >> woodruff: mark, how are you sizing up the leadership we are seeing this week, whether it's coming from the white house, the governors, what are you seeing out there? >> well, the president's mood has changed, whether it was the intervention by tucker carlson or just the weight of empirical evidence and listening, finally, to scientific voices in his own vicinity, the president's manner has beenoore serious andre

somber. to what was identified as both a strength and a problem of his in hee 2016 campaign that remains and that is --uestion is do you take what donald trump says literally or seriously? and to selena vito wrote in 2016, donald trump's supporters took him seriouslynot literally and the critics took him literally but not seriously. you want in a leader someone you can take seriously and literally. the president has been corrected so ma o tim his misstatements, whether 15 cases going down tho zero,at everybody can get a test and 're on a verge of a vaccine, then the correction and amplifation comes out tht it does, i think, cripple him as av effespokesperson.

just add to that, hs attack today on petaser robinso touted earlier in the "newshour" was symptomatic of a thtitude. that ability to be comforter in chief, consoler in chef teacher in chief that is part of the presidency.f: >> woodravid, how much does what is going on with the president matter at a te like this, and what about some of the governors who people are lookino nd making different assessments of? >> well, even on his best da the president is unnerving. the fact that he lashed out at the reporter who asked a very simple softball question, how uld you comfort people who are afraid? first, he revealed it was l about himself, he thought the fear wa because he wasn't doing a good job, and then triggered by empathy. that wa unnerving. i worry about actual production. are we actually producing tests? that to me is still an unanswered question. we can not lock down our entire

society for an indefinite period ofoime. we have ove to this total lockdown which we have to do now to a process where we test have thefection are olated and the rest go on with their lives so to me it'the actual production of stuff. when dwight eisenhowe running u.s. forces in world war ii he spent an enormous time on landing craft, the dull logistical things thateed to get a process and institution to work in a crsis, and i don't have confidence we're doing thes dull, loc things now. >> woodruff: that's something the white house has beeinta about, mark, and is focusing on that, looking at legislation to address the health and medical urgent issues out there as well as the economy, with so many people ouof a job. what do you see coming from congress? is it moving fast enough? are the political divides, are ey going to be so great as to even be able to find a remedy

here? >> i think they will act, judy. i think the crisis is such that they'll find it in their own intere as wellas the national interest to act. just one side bar and that is andrew cuomo, the governor of new york, deserves a shoutout for his leadership as does mike dewine, even though controversially closing the primary tuesday, i think he'shi shown leaders the republican governor of ohio. but i think the congress is, judy, d i think we're seeing the divide philosophically, polically as to where th money should go. i'm always kind of fascinated by the captains of industry who, in good times, believe tha everything that's good is their own doing and that all profits should be privatized. but in bad times and catastrophe, are run with a tin p to the federal government to

socialize their losses. i just have a simple proposal and that, is fine if the airlines want the american people to underite them, to take theover, then become ati public e and, therefore, the c.e.o. is paid at the same rate as the member of congress, $174,000. the idea of subsizing an $11 million salary -- i'mle not talking about flight attendants or machinists or mechanics, i'm talking about people making $11 million -- that th should be subsidized by taxpayers who themselves are belguered and besieged and scared is unacceptable. >> woodruff: what about that, we had economist ken rogof open the "newshour" last night telling paulolman this is going to be a recessionlik nothing we've ever seen. in other words, we may beed looking at a nor trillions and trillions of dollars. >> yeah, and ihink congress is at least respondedh the $1 trillion, may h go upting at

to $2 trillion. uti have been reading abast pandemics, people in these fearful times are extmely sensitive to inequality that somebody is getting better treatment an them, so when u write the legislation, it has to go to those lower down the income scale. it should be capped at a certain insurance anl businessmployment reliefs to keep meeting payrolls and be in the form of 1.5 or $2 trillion. i'm sort of shocked republicans wre one bill and the democrats are going to come back with another. m seems like inment of emergency they could write the bill together. >> woodruff: speaking of unfairness, mark, the reports today about senator richardbu , north carolina, senator kelly loeffler of georgia selling stock in january wn they first heard privately about eyw bad coronavirus was going to be. oth say they didn't do anything wrong, nothing illegal >> judy, it's time,pions.

especiallyking up on david's point, when 49 members of the utah jazz basketball team and company middle east get tested while hundreds ofront line healthcare workers can't is special privilege and special treatment being shown, which the president seemed strangely indifferent to when the question was posed to him. d i just -- i think if this is , tat's all you can say, if, in fact, they had a private briefing and then sold their stock. you know, senator loeffler, finesomebody else did it. i have a private advisor doing this, i don't care. if this is the case that you were informed of what was happening and unloaded stocks that looked ke they were going to be losers and took a profit, is blood money and has to be

cuted.d and pro >> woodruff: david? yeah, the thing tat's gng to determine success or failure in this crisis is one thi's, ocial solidarity, it's the idea we're all in this together, that we're al looking out for each other, nobody's trying to screw anyby else, and that requires what i think we're seeing on the ground level is people reaching out to each other and feeling connected witi their bors, neighbors they may not have known. but it also requires leadership from the top and empathy. it requires a sense that everything is surrendered to tho on good, and we enter this crisis with all those things, all thsocl solidarity levels at such low ebb that we have no luxury here, we just have to develop and grow it in the worsw possiby and, obviously, what those senators did or anything that looks like private tiering even if it's wrong, th is unacceptable. i mean, yeah, so, i mean, we've just got to keep social

solidarity upper most on our mind. >> woodruff: on that note, david books, mark shields, thank you both and stay safe. and that is the newshour for tonight. and, at the end of this week, that has rocked even the toughest among us, i again want to ask that we lisn to our best instincts. take care of your loved ones and of yourself, and keep in mind others who may be in need. i'm judy woodruff. have a great wkend. thank you, stay safe, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity investments. >> bnsf railway. >> consumer cellular. >> american cruise lines. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, institutions to promote a better world. at www.hewlett.org.

>> supporting socialre entrurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems--n. skollfoundatg. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbe station fromrs like you. thank you. ng captioponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

. hello, everyone. welcome to amanpour and co. here's what's coming up. scientists race for a coronavirus cure, the impactcf the pandes felt everywhere george osborne tells me how they can balance financial health and survival. pl, the british-iranian nazanin zaghari-ratcliffe is temporarily out of prison. part of a mov to slow the vicious spread of coronavirus deathsnside iran. i'll speak to her husband richard ratcliffe. then theaters and cinemas all shut down. social distancingakes hold. brian coxen weighs the i pressure on the art and the artists. as for the search for a