captioning sponsored by nnewshour productiollc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: at the forefront. how the u.s. is coping with thmost covid-19 cases in the world, as the house of representatives brings the historic rescue bill to final passage. then, states cry out for more medical ventilators, and the president nationalizes production, after sending mixed messages on the need for thefe ving equipment. we speak with the governor of michigan on how her state is handling this shortage. >> there are not enough ventilators, no matter what the number is today, for the needte that we anticiomorrow and the days coming, as this continues to grow in my state. oodruff: and, it's frida david brooks and ruth marcus analyze the close of another historic week, and they

uncertai all still face as the pandemic bears down. all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving o economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us.me >> concellular offers no-contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy.

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>> woodruff: a mammoth pandemic rescue plan for the u.s., costing more than $2 trillion, is now law. president trump sign it today, and he ordered a major automaker to start churning out ventilators. that came as u.s. infections topped 100,000, the most anywhere in the world, with john yang begins our coverage. >> yang: lawmakers scrambled to get back to washington, to give final approval to the largest economic rescue package ever. >> we face a challenge rarely i seamerica's history. we must act now, or s e toll on lid livelihoods will be err greater. >> yang: with mespread widely across the chamber, heated speeches underscored the tension of the moment. >> our society needs you to stand togethou at this time. country loves you. to our doctors and our nurses, i am wearing these latexevloves to tely american to not be

afraid! a >> yan the bipartisan recognition of urgency. recognize party lind noot partisan solution will defeat it. >> yang: president trump signed the bill quickly, capping the week-long effort to pass the $2.2 trillion package to help struggling americans. >> yang: but the need for more medical support is also being felt around the country. >> the entire system is stressed and under pressure. weeed 140,000 beds. we're scrambling.ds, that's why >> yang: the u.s. navy hospital ship, "the comfort," will bedi atched to new york this

weekend. today, her sister ship, the" mercy," entered the port of los angele it will take in non-covid-19 patients, to ease the burden on. crowded hospit meanwhile, on twitter, president trump called for automakers general motors and begin production of critically-needed ventilators. e president initially suggested he wand to relax health restrictions by easter, but today, vice president pence said that might not be the cas nationwide. >> let me be very clear, there is going to be areas of the country where we n continue to lean into mitigation efforts. >> yang: around the world, communities are finding ways to cope with rising infectionand overtaxed medical systems. hospitals and retirement homes in bergamo, italy, the epicenter of that nation's crisis, opened their doors to russianilitary dics. italy's infection rate has slowed, but the numberf deaths there account for more than a third of the world's total.

and today, british prime minister boris johnson revealed he is now infected. >> i've taken a test. that has come out positive. so i am working from home. i'm self-isolating. and that's entirely the right thing to do. >> yang: other parts of the world are still hoping to avoid the worst. in johannesburg, south africa, the military patrolled the streets, ordering people home.co the untry reported its first began a three-week lockdown. and at the other end of the tunnel, a semblance of normalcy returned to china's hubei province, once the global epicenter. subway workers disinfected train stations for the reopef public transportation, and trafc flowed into wuhan, aft authorities lifted restrictions rlier this week. for the pbs newshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: the passage of that huge economic rescue plan waske

not enough t wall street's rally alive. the dow jones industrial average st 915 points, finishing at 21,636. but, it gained nearly % for the week, that is the most since 1938. the sdaq fell 295 points today, and the s&p 500 dropped 88. now, our own lisa desjardins and yamiche alcindor join us to talk about the historic legistion, which the president has just signed. so the president has signed this, yamiche. he's also invoked the defense production act. at more can you tell us about what the president has done? >> that's right, judy. the president signed thi historic two t $2 trillion coronavirus sttoulus package aw this afternoon. it's an historic bill, the largest stimulus package ever passed by congress and signed into law by any president.en the pres said he was happy

democrats and republicans could come together to get this bill done, butte the president was only surround bid republicans when heigned the bill today, there were no democrats present. the prident is still not speaking to housepeaker nancy pelosi since last year. he invoked the defense production act to allow the federal government to direct american manufacturers to make equipment that the federalay governmentit needs. in this case, the president is invoking that act for one company, general motors, and foq one piece ofipment, ventilators. this comes after governors all over the country have been urgi president trump to invoke the defense production they say they need all sorts of medical equipment including masks and gowns, but the president is not invoking the act for other medical equipment. it's also a big question whether or not the preilsidentl meet the need republicans and democratic governors say the need. the president last night on fox news says he's unsure that the medical equipment beio

requested byme governors is actually needed. he says es a governor really referring to speciy tos and was new york governor andrew cuomo who said his state needs 30,000 ventilators. so as the president is invoking this, we have to watch closely whether or not he does that for qumore medical eipment like masks and whether or not he neath metes theneeds the governors say they need. >> woodruff: and to li sarks w we know the vos preceded by a fair amount of drama. take us into is itouse chamber. >> what an extraordinary day, judy. rst of all, in the house chamber, there was not enough space for members to be seated and vote with proper social distancing. so we sawomething ewe've never seen before, members filling the balconies in the house chamber, spreading out two or three seats apart, filling balconies, some in the stairs, some the doorways, all because tom matthews of kentucky wanted a recorded vote and in end because he was worried about the cost of this bill, in the end,ot

the house him down and unanimously decided not to take a recorded vote and by voice just outd loud saiey'd pass this extraordinary bill. that was a moment of inverbal unity on the house for members on their feet. >> woodruff: lisa, let's continue our conversation from yesterday about what's in this bill. you were telling us a lot about how it's helping individuals an businesses. what about how it's addressing the medical crisis? >> a lot of money for that, too. first of all, $150 billion for health providers including there is also some $27 billion to help fin countermeasures to v thrus, including the the blood supply.for things like now, in addition, this changes some regulations so it will be easier for more people to have teleappointments with their doctor over the coputer or over the phone. judy, also, funny thing, a permanent provision in this to make things more affordable for

from now on hsas and fsas can be used to buy all the over-the-couer medication including menstrual products like tampons, meant to be permanent change toake medical care more affordable in the future. >> woodruff: some stes are already reeling from trying to get their arms around thi crisis. how are they part of this? >> so much to say. states will get $150 billion direct, that will be allocated basically by population. as part of tt, cities over 500,000 people in population, they also get a direct allocation from their states' money. there's $31 billion for schools from kindergarten through higher ed. judy, there's so much in this. separate money for mass transit, for the tribes in this country. but you know, judghy, even th this is billions of dollars likely more than we week about

usually for theroups, everyone in congress acknowledges they don't think it ultimately will be enough and even though the house and senate are both gone for who knoowws long, they expect they will have to deal with this againn coming weeks and mons. >> woodruff: that is already what we're hearing. lisa ds,sjardamiche alcindor, we thank you both. >> woodruff: the scramble for scarce medical equipment has been further complicated by conflicting messages from the trump administration, governors and medical professionals. a key question at is moment: does the u.s. have enough ventilators, or not?es amna nawaz t closer look at the efforts to ramp up emergency protection equipment >> nawaz: it's become one of the most crucial pieces of equipment to treat critical coronavirus patients-- the ventitor. governors across the country

have made desperate pleas this week for more. >> we needat a minimum, an additional 30,000 ventilators. you cannot buy them. you cannot find them. every ste is trying to get them. >> we did have delivery of ventilator it was not the amount we requested, and not enough, but we appreciate them. >> we've had some help from the federal government. we think we have a commitment of several hundred ventilators, but that's why we're searching the globe for additional ventilators literally as we speak. >> nawaz: last night, president trp spoke by phone with fo news' sean hannity, questioning how many ventilators are really needed. >> i hava feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areasre just bigger than they're going to be. i don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. >> nawaz: but then by today, on twitter, he pressed both general motors and ford to manufacture " ventilators, ast." both automakers have volunteered to cvert some of their

manufacturing facilities to make the ventilators that are in short supply. there's also what's known as the "strategic national stkpile," a government reserve that helps bolster health care systems in a crisis, but there are only 16,600 ventilators in , and the total estimate in all hospitals across the country is 160,000. that is a fraction of what medil experts say they need. >> at the rate that this virus exponentially transmitting, you know, our transmission atge this si go home every single night and tnk about, what if we had to decide betwe two patients? >> nawaz: one way to get ventilators to hospitals faster would be if president trump fully invoked the defense production act. until now, the president has this afternoon requiring general motors to prioritize federal contcts for ventilators.

michigan governor gretchen whitmer is among those appealing n to the trump administratr more ventilators and other critical supplies. me now from east l.d she joins governor whitmer, welcome to the "newshour". as we talk today, we should mention your state has just seen ththe biggest single day incres, 800 and you will likely need more to have the ventilators and the president i going to ask g.m. to make more so you can get them sooner. what's your response that? >> i'm glad for it did, to be honest. i think every state in theo nation isfronting what michigan is right now, maybe not as fiercely as we are in the moment, but it's coming across this nation. we are seeing hospitalsat thre to capacity, already, and we are just dths intis. we're going to continue to see this climb, and we know that, with covid 19, there will be no vaccine, no cure, cowntains and deadly it is, but there will be a massive need for

ventilators across the country. and, so, the defense productn act something that was relied on during the world war ii. we were the arsenal of democracy in michigan and, you know, mping up and producing is going to be very important and, so, i know that thep leaders at general motors is tough and ready to take this on, but we need to all be in this and do our part. >> reporter: let me ask you to ventilator because's been a lot of confusion around this, how many do you have, how many do you need, and have you gotten any from the federal governmento ar? >> well, we have been working incredibly hard to make sue we've got ventilators. we are bringing ventilators thae haveretired, we are revamping them and bringing them back online. we know that no matter how many we have, we're going to need more. >> reporter:o you know what at need is in michigan? >> we're going to need thousands. i mean, at this point, we are trying to mitigate how many people get sick from covid 19

and that's why we have been so aggressive in terms ofr stay-at-home orders and pulling kids out of school. that's part of the challenge because there's not enough data or testing so modeling shows us anywhere between a million or less people will need to beho italized at sme point in michigan if we're not aggressive now and that's n what's drie decisions we've made. but we know we've got to continue to ramp up. there are not enough ventilators, no matte number today, for the need we anticipate tomorrow and the days tocoming as this continuerow in my state. >> reporter: you mentioned theho stay-a order you issued on march 23. in the last week, michigan has seen a 566% jump in the number of cases in the state, but you didn't make a majorisaster declaration request for to the federal government until march 26, and in just those ree days the cases more than double. did you wait too long to do that? >> no, as we've seen in other states that asked forisaster

declarations, it hasn't come into a lot of resources. but my team has worked closely with the army corps of engineers, fema, departmentan of homsecurity, closely with the vice president to mitt grate spread, we have been pulling out al stops on all fronts. this is one additional step and an important one but certainly not the only thing we're doing to make sure we're able to draw in all the resources and harness all of theeh powerd the federal government to assist in our efforts to make sure we've got th amasd the gloves and the gowns that our front line providers so desperately need. >> reporter: the governor has been critical of goernor and said they have been wasting time. do you believe those h corporatioe been doing as much as they can to provide critical equipment? >> they have and they have been

great partners. i can just say thi think anyone wants to spend energy fighting one another. we have to band together and atght covid 19. we have to do tas a nation, and that means all hands on deck, from the greatompanies that built the middle class likd general motorsord, to every individual doing their part, this is how we get through this crisis. we have gotten through crises in e past and we are successful when we all remember what the enemy is, and in this case, you can't see the ene's covid 19, and it is ravaging our country an thas why we have to have a national strategy and lock arms and be united on this. >> reporter: that's governor gretchen whitmer of michigan joining us today. thanks for your time, governor. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, president trump and china's president xi jinping

spoke by phone overnight, and beijing says xi offered to help the u.s. fight the pandemic. the white house says they agreed to work together. u.s. officialsad accused china of covering up the initial outbreak, and china had charged that the u.s. bungled its own response. in venezuela, president maduro tes fired a broadside at president trump being indicted on u.s. drug trafficking charges. washington also offered up to $15 million for information leading to maduro's arrest he erupted in a televisionad ess last night. >> ( translated ): the government of donald trump, in an action that is extravagantly extremist, vulgar, and miserable has put out a number of falsee accusations, lracist cowboy of the 19th century who puts a price on the head of revolutionaries. >> woodruff: the u.s. has been trying to force maduro from office, after he was widely accused of rigging his own re-election in 2018. there may be new progress toward peace ta afghanistan. president ashraf ghani has announced a team to negotiate

with t taliban. his rival, abdullah abdullah, has not yet endorsed ghani's selections.u. bu special envoy zalmay khalilzad hailed the announcement todaya "meaningful step." back in this country, the trump administration is relaxing som environmental pollution regulations. it says oil and gas firms, and others, may have staffingdu shortageto the coronavirus pandemic, and have trouble complying with the rules.ro enental groups say it is all part of a broader campaign against the regulations. an a passing to note. long-time republican political strategist john sears died yesterday of a heart attack at his home in california. sears served preside richard nixon as deputy white house counsel, after working on his 1968 campaign. he managed the first two presidential campaigns of ronald reagan, almost masterminding the defeat of an incumbent president, gerald ford, in 1976, and

setting the stage for reagan's nomination in 1980, before being fired. john sears was 79 years old. still to come on the newshour: the secretary general of the united nations, on this global crisis. what doctors are seeing on the front lines of the fgainst covid-19. the pandemic abroad-- will americans stuck o?rseas get hovi plus, dad brooks and ruth marcus on this american life. >> oodruff: the coronavirus pandemic has hit the globe at a istime of massive refugee , confrontation between the world's great powers and armed conflicts in many countries. how does one coordinate a global

response to an invisible enemy? for answs, i spoke earlier today with someone grappling with this and much more-- antonio guterres, the secretary general of the united nations. mr. secretary general, thank you very much for joini. you've told the leaders to have the world's richest nations ye oerday that every count earth is in a fight against this coronavirus, but not winning it. why not, and do you think it's a fight that can be won? >> well, this is is a fight that can be won, and the demonstration is it has been won already in some parts of the world, but it requires ther vey clear strategy you need to suppress the virus and needs to be adopted by all countries in coordination following the guidelines to have the world organization. it was a completely different set of measures in differents,

countrometimes within one country different areas doing different thin a. the virus very dangerous one and it's not easy to control, so we need concertti by all measured players and, obviously, yesterday i was meeting agent the g20, meeting with leaders not only of 80% of the global ecotnomy bu0% of the cases of infection. so if the g20 can come together, adopt a common strategy everywhere, concerted actions everywhere, following thees idelf the world health organization, aiming at suppression of the vius and the transmission of the virus, not of mitigation, not just of bbending curve, toreak the curve that represents the number of cases, if that could be the common strategy. if we don't do it, if each country will do it some way, now we are seeing the virus move from china to korea, from kor to europe, from europe to the u.s., now it's moving south. and when moving south, africa is

continent with very litle capacity to respond, and i am extremely worried about, in those situations, we might have millions of cases with millions of people dying and a terrible threat we need to avoid. >> woodruff: mr. secretary general, where is e evidence countries are working together? because we see squabbling betweethe united states and china, for example, calling each other names. i mea tn where evidence this kind of cooperation is happening? >> i don't think that this kind of cooperation is happening. i think this kind of cooperation must start effectively because as a result we will be defeated by the virus, and the cost will be enormous, of course, in human lives, and the cost will be enormous in relation to the economy and the society. thisrisis is a crisis that is larger from the economic and financial point of viifew. here was a concerted action by all members of the g20 i

order to be able to address the crisis and to relaunch the economies. this time we will need an even bigger effort. i was happy to see that the senate in the u.s. approved $2 trillion, which corresponds almost to 10% of the american economy, but, of course, i'm very worried about the countries the south where these resources are not available and where theig tragedy be a terrible human tragedy. >> woodruff: you're right about what the congress has passed. e president is presumably going to sign it. however, onllly 1 n of it, sounds like a lot of money, but that's .05% of it is set aside for international aid. you called on the developed countrs to help the veloping countries. do you see that kind of support forthcoming? >> we need about $3 trillion for the developing countries, if one looks again at the same percentage of g.d.p. the question is to mobilize in

an effective way, in a nonbureaucratic way without conditions that countre not able to meet and to do it massively in support to the countries of the south. >>moodruff: at the same t you have what is now, i believe, the largest population of refugees displaced persons on the planet since world war ii. what if the coronavirus hits those popchations, whit's certain to do? how does that get addressed? >> well, we have through the commission for refugees, a plan of action preseing, avoiding at all costs, unfortunately many of these camps arm in reote locations, avoiding at all cost the viems to come to nd, at the same time, to build the minimum capacity to respond, we know that will be extremely divment that was the reason why i lanched today -- yesterday a view of humanitarian agencies

of wt we need for the globalean to provide for the most vulnerable situations in areas of conflict, the minimum of humanitarian response able toho fully prevent the disease from coming and, if it comes, to do our best to, respond to it knowing it will be very difficult to avoid, very tragic consequences. >> woodruff: so many challenges to face, mr. secretrly general. r on monday, you also called for a universal cease fire forherever there are hostilities for them to end because to have the coronavirus. isdinyone hee that call? >> yes, we have positive answer in several situations, but the problem is not only to give e positients, it's to make sure that the answer is ground.ted into action on the therwas an acceptance in principle by the two warring pas in ya, but unfortunately on the ground things got worse.

in syria, several announced they suorted the cease fire. they would be redy to supportd the cease fire, but this requires massive pressure fromna thonal community. i have been appealing for members of the more relevante powers in rld to put pressure on the parties of conflict in all thesse situati in order to be able to translate that principle, that idea that, indeed, they are ready to accept it into auneality on the grod and then, fortunately, the risk, the good intention might not be translated into facts is a big risk. >> woodruff: no qestion, a big risk. final, mr. secretary ge where do you look for inspiration in all of this? i'm assuming you've never seen anything lik this in your time working agent the u.n.,orking with refugees. >> my inspiration comes from

those people in not only my old agency, united nations commission for refugees, but in unicef, in peacekeeping the couge, resilience and generosity they show, this is for me an enormous piration. >> woodruff: united ited nations secretary general antonio guterres, thank youery much. >> thank you very much. ou >> woodruff:iana is one of the emerging hot spots of covid-19. new orleans alone already has more than 1,100 cases and 119 deaths. the u.s. surgeon general warned that next week will likely be worse. and, the city's convention center is being converted into a makeshift hospal. william brangham has a conversation from the frontlines of health care there. >> brangham: that's right. for a ice from louisiana, i'm

joined now by dr. julio figueroa. he's an infectious disease doctor at louisiana state university health. dr. figueroa, thank you ngry much for bere. could you just give us a sense-- we've been hearing difrent dispatches from louisiana. what's it like there? what kind of patients are yo seeing in the hospitals right >> so, we're seeint of what other people have described from the standpoint of folks with pre-existing conditions, g older individuals, comin with primarily influenza-like illnesses. with a lot of shortness of breath, some fever. and then they come in, usually are doing okay. the first week, they we doing okay, and then they would just decline very rapidly. little different.ly, it's been a so, we're seeing more people coming into the emergency department with severe respiratory distress and needing mechanical ventilation, intubation, pretty much straight out of the box. >> brangham: we've also been

seeing some reports that louisiana is seeing quite a s suddke in cases. is that true? is that your experience? and why do you think that is? >> it is true, at lecat from what wsee. we certainly have been seeing increasing numbers of patients with the syndrome that consistent with covid-19. ang.why that is, is interest we have, first of all, new orleanians tend to like to congrega together and enjoy things, enjoy food and family and being togeth. and so, those are-- >> brangham: a we kn mardi gras just ended a month or so ago. >> right. and then, and then mardi gra and those sorts of things, certainly accentuated that. so that, then, the fin thing is that we are a destination city. a lot of people from all over the world come here,o therefore, we are sort of a ripe situation for importation of theirus and then spread. if we have a virus that spreads from person to person contact,

then we're a pretty good place for that. >> brangham: we know just from looking at the broad statistics that louisiana has high rates of chronic diseases in the general population. and that is certainly going to complicate your response because te know that puts people particular risk, right? so one of the things that we've been seeing is that we are seeing younger-- younger people who are getting very, very sick. who are in that cohort, there are a lot of folks who have are lot of thexisting that have been des inorbidities older individuals. so, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, lung disease, those sorts of things. is-- has more those conditionsat than in many places around the country. >> brangham: and lastly, we know that your governor, public health officials, have been issuing warnings to people t"

say, "ease stay at home, keep your distance from each other." i know that not all the businesses-- some businesses have been closed in louisiana. is it your sense from being around the city and the state that people are heeding those warnings? are they taking this seriously? >> i think as we are evolving in this epidemic here in new orleans, that people are more and more serious about it. i will say that again, as i mentioned, new orleaneans like toather and share stanorie enjoy food together, and that has been a little bit of a change over time. but i would say that the mayor and the governor have been very good at sort of making that casw thneed to be protectin ourselves, but prog thoseecting around us. and i think there's better compliance of that now, though, it is a little bit couo our culture. >> brangham: we don't want you to deny your essential nature, but we, of course, want you all to be safe.fi

dr. julieroa, thank you very, very much for your time. >> thank you. >> woodruf the u.s. state department says it has brought back 15,000 americans who were stranded more than 30 countries. but some 30,000 americans are still stuck abroad. and as nick schifrin reports, they are worried about local border closures and health care systems becoming overwhelmed. >> schifrin: when 28-year-old samantha behlog landed in honduras earlier this month, she didn't need to social distance from the children she was trying to help. she and her volunteer team brought books, and created libraries, for communities that need them. but then the pandemic arrived. schools closed, and she filmed this line outside an a.t.m. the capital, tegucigalp locked down. masked soldiers and police

prevented anyone non-essential from entering the city. downtown, the streets emptied and the government iss indefinite stay at home order. >> there was no warning, there which people could really get out on time. >> schifrin: honduras' health care system is not prepared. government hospitals only have 12 respirators behlog knew she needed to get out. at first, the embassy wasn helpful. >> like, i'm an american citizen that's here, what can i do? m and them telli we don't contact the airlines. s the waiting room at the airport. >> schifrin: eventually she went to the airport without a ticket, hoping to standby. >> all of e workers, you see them walking by me, everyone's in masks, everything is closed down. >> schifrin: and she found ato quiet placpeak to us on her phone. >> there weren't answers. not knowing when i could get off, if i could get off. especially with the increasingn restrictionse u.s. you want to get out of here before they decide to close down

>> schifrin: senioe department officials call this moment unprecedented, d admit their capacity to repatriate is strain. wee defense department is trying to help, and lasend evacuated the u.s. women's football team. but the challenge is overwhelming, and worldwide. in uganda yesterday, police forcibly cleared shoppers who ignored government closure 15 miles away, n.g.o. worker anj missionaed morrison lives with his family. he's worried about their safety. >> there's a bit of xenophobia going on with the ugandans thinking that us expats are the es that brought the virus here. so we're being really careful to stay in our compound.d en also, one of our children has asthma, and we know if something were to happen and he were to contract the virus, t th health care here is not adequate. >> schifrin: they are hunkering down, relit on a swing set, and a backyard garden, after

officials closed the village rket. last week, the embassy offered american citizens one qatar rwayflight, but the price was $3,200-- per seat. >> and just in the process of booking, you c see that the price was changing and went from $10,000 to $14,000 to $17,000 for seven tickets for our family to get out. >> schifrin: morrison said today e embassy facilitated a commercial flight for next weeke for $2,500 a t and is that at all affordable to you? >> as a missionary family, no. >> schifrin: in lima, soldiers enforce a nighttime curfew, and the airport has been closed indefinitely-- except for ddtourists, who hold onto bears and hope the u.s. can help them leave. >> we're really relying on them to help us get out of the country and back home, because we're not going to be able to do that on our own in the near future. >> schifrin: tara finch is an accountant from the philadelphia suburbs. she was hiking in machu pichu

with some friends. now, she's stuck in cusco, and running out of food. >> i've been eating, like, a peanut butter sandwich almost every day. >> schifrin: here's the view from tara's window-- empty streets. anyone found outside not going to the grocery store, risks arrest >> i mean, if we were to not gee out in the nexdays, i'd be worried about getting food, e we would have to go ou and get food. i'm worried about my job back home. i'm worried about if i were to get si here. i don't really know if i'm a not a citizen of this country. >> i think on the first night,wa we tried t the dog. and there was a police officer who was like, you guys can't be out here. >> schifrin: khadija ismail is stuck in the capital, lima. helpful at first, but is now facilitating three daily flights. but there are thousands of americans who need to leave. and she needs to leave.

>> there's multiple health care workers here, multiple r.n.s, other physicians. and given what's going on in the u.s., we would definitely be much more useful back there. >> schifrin: ismaiis a 4th-year emergency medicine resident who works at u.c.l.a.- harbour outside ofos angeles. >> every day there's a new update, how we're running out of personal protective equipment,wh we're going to do about that. and some of coworkers actually have been exposed to positive cases, that they've now had to go in quarantine. y d so it's frustrating because, you know, currenm supposed to be working, and people are covering my shifts and we're already short-staffed. and i can't do anything here. ck>> schifrin: after four s and $3,000, behlog was able to leave honduras. she flew through empty airports, this afternoon, finch was also able to leave peru, and flew wearing a handkerchief. but so many are still stranded, including those trying to get home, to try and save lives.

for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: as the days now become wee, to help make sense where we are, the analysis of brooks and marcus. that is "new york times" columnist david ooks, and "washington post" columnist ruth marcus. mark shields is away. hello to both of you. we are keeping you distant for your safety. david, to u first, the u.s. is now leading the world. we've surpassed every other country in cov 1cases. experts say it's just going to get worse because of early missed opportunities. do you think americans are ready for what's coming? >> well, they have been ready so far. i think the reaction, people are iously, they a doing the distancing. i have been on zoom calls with thousands of people this wee it seems, and people are

volunteeng to help each other out in ways that are safe, so i have been impressed by theu americanblic's reaction. the government more of a mixed g. obviously esident trump pooh-pooh'd it for too long and that c vital weeks. but she wasn't alone. the c.d.c. messed up the test. the f.d.a. regulations got in e way. political scientists have been talking for years about the decay of our governing institutions, too much politics, too much regulation, not enougho to maneuver for the managers, and that seems to all be coming true. so we've sort of seen an institutional failure from the white house on down. a>> woodruff: ruth, whout that? what about the the american people and the inns b tuitions -- institutions? >> the american people are one thing and the institutions ae quite another, as david suggests. the fact of the matter is if thc am people aren't prepared, it's because their leaders andim ily president trump have failed to prepare them for what is and he's failed to prepare them on a number -- he's failed to

epare the country in terms of the material and the readiness that we need to have, and he failed to prepare them with a clear and consistent message about how we are g ng tofeat isiblee calls this inv virus and this invisible killer. while we were just -- or while the show was on, he was on television in his nhtly self-con gras -- congratulatory moment and complaining about the governor of michigan who was on your air an ad complainiout the governor of washington and saying he told mike pence, if they're not nice to you, don't call them, if they don't treat you good, don't call them. that is not presidential. that is heady and not what thes country deserd needs at this point. >> woodruff: david, what about presidentrump's leadership now? >> i think the word i would lead is inconstant, most of yo allus.

we'r to his self-focus and his narcissism and i want people to love me all the tie. but it's etremely unnerving where the president says we don't need ventilators one hou and desperately need them the next hour. that's a nerve jangling problem. if steve bannon had been in the whithouse, he saw this problem early. the intellence community saw this problem early. it was the president doing what he thought would serve him best for his reelection that caused him to tamp this wn for so long. when he gets bad press by someone like general motors that suggests e dragged hiset, he reacts to that. he's reacting to b w presshich leads to inconsistency. >> woodruff: ruth, we have congress passing and agreeing d the president signed this $2.2 orillion historic amoun money that's supposed to go directly to aid americans who are hurt by the response to thi.

how much help do you think it's going to make? >> it's going to make a lot of hee,. in a bad this was a good moment. there were problems along th way, there were disagreements along the way, but the fact that ming could pass this quickly package of this mazing magnitude, 2.2 trillion -- we've now spent almost 3 trillion. to get treatment, these guys can't evestrename a ffice and they managed to do this. there are two things that are critical, though, one is to make sure this money that's been allocated, particularly the money to small businesses and even more tan that the money to individuals to get them through, hn order to be effective, that has to get out door as quickly as humanly possible, and that's going to be a phenomenon of oversight and execution that

is up to the executive branch, that task, i likely hope theyo are. the second thing is that, while this is an enormous sum of money, it actually may not be sufficient. it's enough to getple through the next couple of months, but we may need to dige into national pockets and the national scrounge for the change in the national couch cushions and come up with mor because the president likes to pretend this will be over by easter or at least in some coaties over by easter, tt's not reality based. >> woodruff: we're hearing a lot more money will be needed. david, how much difference do gyou think it's goo make? >> it's going to make a difference. it's a lot of money. we have a14 trillion economy, so $2 trillion is a lot of money.i personallypplaud them for getting it done. to see congress do anything, as ruth said, is imressive. i think they took the wrong

stratein. the unitedom and denmark and other countries decided what's most imporent is to kep people employed, so they gave money to employers to keepe people on yroll, and that does a lot of things, it keeps the firms in tact, it keeps people feeling like i have a job, even if i have to stay home. we went the unemployment insurance route, which was to get people out of the workplace, then we'll subsidize them. once you're off and out of the bor market, for some people, it's hard to get back in. and i worry about the organizations, these small businesses. if suddenly they go away for a ernlings how many of the will come back? how many of the nonprofits will come back?ad i'm e're doing it. i wish we'd tried different strategy. >> woodruff: how much do you >> i worry if we were going to do that we would have needed to do it earlier because soy manof these places have already laid people off and the imperative to get money to them quickly, but i

don't disagree at that migh have been a better strategy. the thing that i worry about more in the immediate term isa alsoing sure, i just want to go back to this supply chain question and the move that the prayident made to invoke the defense production act. this shod have domonths ago. we understood there should have been a need for ventilators. if you invoke the defense production acts do it another way to make sure the masks and ventilators are thehain and ready to go and be supplied. and we need -- david talked about the incon stant substancey of the message, weeed a constant and rational message for the president, but we also need one person in charge of making sure that all of these,e as we areing out these very needed checks to businesses and to be deploying these are splice

to the hospitals and the healthcare workers because if we don't get this under control'r just going to keep hemorrhaging money while this virus just devastates u a. >> woodruf you do, david, hear the criticism that because this wa'tone -- organized earlier, people are going to die. >> yeah, that seems absolutely true. it's simply ovcterr there has not been a moment where somebody overreacted. everything that seems to be thec overon is the right reaction. a university of pennsylvania study said even if we cut the infection rate by 95% by social distancing, we'lill need 960,000 people going into an intensive care wad. that's a lot of ventilators, masks and equipment. so erring on the side of too much is probably still too little and, so, everybody's instinct should be that way. >> odruff: and, ruth, back to what david was saying about the presideps talking about at least getting some

people back to work by easter,so hoping tha parts of the country can go back to business as usual. every expert you hear, however, says that would be crazy, it's dangerous, you can't do that. i heart -- heard bill gates last night on cnn saying it can't be a county-by-county approach. what happens if this is lifted too soon? >> well, i thght that the president's statement that he wanted to see the church pews packed on easter because he said it was a beautiful day was tossibly the single mos irresponsible statement ever made by an american president in history. that is an outrage. it is dangerous. e problem with -- even if we were packing church pews in individual counties, this is amica, we don't build walls around counties. we have no unknowns, as donald rumsfeld used to say. the knn unknown here ishere is the virus. if we had the test and could do

widespread testing, we would t know whe virus is and might know where it's easier to lift the restrictions, but because we didn't prepare for the test, we don't know where th, virus is and, solifting it in this or that county because it dsn't seem to have a lot of illness right now is just a very, verory dan move. by the way, even when we lift restrictions, whense think it' safe to lift restrictions, we can't just open up the go start shaking hands andody to getting smashed together in church pews again. we have to do it intelligent and slowly or we're going to find ourselves in this groundhog day of pandemic. >> woodruff: david, how concerned are youbout that? >> you know, one of the things is, a, donald trump doesn control a lot of this, this is done on the state level, and we'll see the vitues and the vices to have our federal system. and he is surrounded -- i don't take him that literally, i think

some his statements cause b extreme harmt people are just going to take control around him. and we know how this ends up. we've seen successful countries in asia, particularly, and itup nd as ruth said, when we have tests and use sophisticated high-techology to trace the actual individuals who have the infection, we trace networks and their movement, it's possible to do this with the right level of execution. we did not have the advantage of having the sars system, so we don't yet have the sort of infrastructure to dothat, but eventually, presumably, we're going to get it.od >> wff: and finally, less than a minute, ruth, joe biden, bernie saners still out thre running for president. is that presidential race even relevant anmore? >> right now, we're all covid 19 all the time, and there is nothing else that people can think about, talk about, dream about, and, so, i think, in a sense, this is just a moment where, first of all, for bernie

sanders, he needs to -- the moment for him to go gracefully is probably behind us, but it just shuts off any oxygen that he had left for his campaign. i don't know reallknow what it point is now at this time of national emergency, except for vice president biden, he just needs to find his voice in this moment but also just to make sure it doesn't lootoo political. >> woodruff: and a quick, final word, david. >> there's nothing joe biden it's march. now. the election will be in the fall and he he does nothing, he will be fine. ruth marcus, please stay safe. thank you both. >> you, too.dr >> wf: and before we go tonight, i have a word of thanks. first to you, our view so many of you have written to say you're counting on us for straight, factual reg, never more so than right now. thank you for putting your trust

in us.yo and thanto my incredible newshour colleagues, too many to name, on- and especially off-ng air, who are desearch, writing reports, shooting video, editing that video, sometimes using technology that has barely been tested before. they areperating equipment essential to give us a presence digitally online, and on t some coming here intour studio building, putting themselves at some risk, or if they can, working from home. there would not be a newshour without them, and i'm grateful to each and every one. they are the reason we will be back, right here, on monday, with the latest on the coronavirupandemic. that is the newshour for this friday. have a great weeket thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fidelity investments.wa >> bnsf ra >> consumer cellular.

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