captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy on the newshour tonight, a country the grip of the virus. surges, as hospitarapples. with a growing wave of patients, and health officials warn the worst is yet to come. icen, as covid-19 dismantles the economy, many ams are going hungry for the first time, and food banks struggle to meet the new demand. >> there's no money to be made. i'm down to like $4.00 in my bank account, and no food. for me it's worth it, waiting over an hourlready, for this food bag. >> woodruff: plus, the schools are closed, but the classes go on. how parents, teachers, and students are re-making education in the wake of the pandemic. all at and more on tonight's

pbs newshour. >> ajor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when it comes to wireless, consumer cellular gives its customers the choice. our no-contract plan you as much-- or as little-- talk, text and data as you want, and our u.s.-based customer service nsumercellar.tv to help. >> the john s. and james l.io knight foundat fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org.

>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank u. >> woodruff: coronavirus deaths in the united states have reached a new milestone: 3,700. that overtakes china's officially announced total of 3,300. italy and spain each have recorded many more deaths, while the u.s. has far and away the most cases of any country in the world, more than 180,000 so far. president trump warned tonight that the country faces "a very tough two weeks," and and, everywhere, but especially in new york state, officials are scrambling to keep up. amna nawaz begins our coverage >> nawaz: across new york city, local landmarks are joining the frontlines of the fight against

coronavirus. the javits convention center, w a 1,000-bed hospital, in its first overflow patientsla st night. n that, as york, the epicenter of america's outbreak, saw known cases in the state top 75,000. governor andrew cuomo announced he purchased 17,000 new c ventilators frna. the need, he said, is desperate. >> know how you know? we are paying $25,000 per ventilator and we are broke. the last tng i want to do is buy a single ventilator i don't need. >> the need is also great in losiana where 239 have died. governor bel edwards warned today wih over 1300 hospitalized, the state may run out of ventilators this weekend. he implored residents to do all they can to slow the spread.

>> stay at home stop read and save lives. there's no way to see that number and notbe startled. and, look, i'm telling people to expect things to get worsehe beforeget better. >> and saw the number and i was startled. >> nawaz: hospital beds are sslling up, but streets remain largely empty ache country. as of tonight, arizona and tennessee join the dozens of states liting residents' tivity outside their homes. all told, at least 32 states now have some sort of stay-at-home order in place, affecting more entire u.s. population.t and those directives areun kely to ease soon, according to projections from the white house this week.en prestrump extended the social-distancing guidelines until the end of april, after new models estimated that between 100 and 200,000 americans could die of the virus. advisor, dr. anthoci:navirus >> if we pulled back on what we re doing and didt exte them, there would be more avoidae suffering and

avoidable death. it was pateny obvious looking at the data, that at the end of the day, if we tryo push back prematurely, not only would we lose lives but it probab would even hurt the economy. >> nawaz: president trump, meanwhile, proposed that the government take advantage of rock-bottom interest rates, slashed to mitigate the pandemic fa"out, and move forward o" ve big and bold, $2 trillion" infrastructure bill. leaders in other countries, like chile and hungary, areg advantage of the uncertainty with power grabs; cracking dowan on dissenterconsolidating power. officials at the european unn expressed concern today. >> respect of freedom of expression and legal certainty are essential in these uncmetain >> nawaz: but, in europe's hardest hit nation of italy, a glimmer of hope. a health official announcing the three-week-long national lockdown has led to a leveling- off of new infections. in memory of the thousands of italian victims so far, a moment

of silence tonight in rome. nearby in spain, nearly 850 deaths today made it the country's deadliest 24-hour- stretch so on the streets of madrid, in the pouring rain. police officers, ambulance drivers, and street cleaners, stood in silence to pay thei respects. in gratitude echoed in the streets, from singapore skyscrapers, to townhouses in england, residents worldwide stuck at home stepped outside to take part in a newdi pandemic ton, applauding medical workers fighting the virus, as one shift ends, and another begins. for the pbs newshour, i'm amna nawaz. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, wall street ended a brutal first quarter with fresh losses. the dow jones industrials average dropped 410 points today, to close at 21,917. it lost 23% for e quarter, the most since 1987.

the nasdaq fell 74 points today& and th500 slipped 42, ending its worst quarter since 2008. online retailing giant amazon has fired a worker who led a protest over covid-19 protections. walkout monday at a warehouse on staten island. the company says he had violated social distancing rules, and refused to stay home after coming into contact with an infected co-worker. smalls said his bosses ordered him home only to get him out of the way. tonate majority leader mitch mcconnell claimey that president trump's impeachment trial diverted attentim the coronavirus. he appeared on a conservative rao show, and said the outbreak in china, during january, and congress were distracted. >> it came up ile we were tied down on the impeachment trial. and i think it diverd the

attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment. >> woodruff: president trump's top aides did brief congress on the outbreak on january 24th, during the impeachment trial, and agaion february 5th, the day he was acquitted. but at the time, mr. trump maintained the rk was low. the trump administration today rolled back obama-era standards for auto mileage. a new rule drops a requirement for annual increases of 5% in fuel economy. environmental groups promised to challenge the change in court. we'll get the details, later in the program. the federal communications commission is taking new action against robo-calls. it ordered phone companies today to implement caller i.d. authtication against so-call "spoofing." that practice makes it appear that a robo-call is coming from a local number, so people will answer.

federal judges have bloclad efforts byma and ohio to ban abortions during the coronavirus outbreak the states had classified ortions as non-essential medical procedures. meanwhil appeal a federal judge's order that blocked a similar ban. and, the college sinrts govebody will grant another year of eligibility to spring sport athletes, after their seasons were cut short by covid-19. the n.c.a.a.'s new policy covers baseball, softball andsse. it does not include sports that had finished most or all of their playing seasons. still to come on the newshour: food banks feel the strain as many americans go hungry for the first time. students and the pandemic-- the u.s. gets an education in distance learning. a doctor and writer on how covid-19 behaves in the body. the trump administration rolls back the rules on the climate impact of cars.

and much more. >> woodruff: with unemployment soaring, the covid-19 outbreak is taking a stagring toll on workers. as stephanie sy reports, food services to meet d even as donations, volunteers, and supplies are pressed.st hey is also part of our chasing the dream series on poverty and opportunity in america ti>> so i'm in this line w. there's over 2,000 people in this line here imesa, arizona. >> reporter: matthew, who preferred we not use his last name, was in a long cue leading to the parking lot of the mesa convention cter, waiting for a week's supply of food. >> i'm here because i'm one of

those gig workers. basically the business has dried up. there's no money to be made. i'm down to like $4.00 in my bank accou, and no food. car payment's late, everything's late, for me it's worth it, waiting over an hour already, for this food bag. >> reporter: the distribution line is drive through only, one of many ecautions dave richins, president and c.e.o. of united food bank has put in outbreak.the wak >> we're going to start teerature readings on every volunteer that comes.yb y that's not in the safe temperature range is going to be sent home. we juscan't risk it.te >> rep richins told us by skype they are serving four times as many people as usual--s like many st enlisting the help of the national guard. >> swe're seeing the uber driver that has no more fares to pick up.

we're seeing the maid at the local hotel that is not working near as much as she used to. we're just seeing a lot more of the recently unemployed in ours. li but the elderly are still there. and so makg sure those populations stay separated and safe is important. but the thing that breaks your heart the most are the families >> reporter: the food bank saw a lot of new faces. >> student, just finished from pima and right now they're not hiring for dental assistants so i'm on hold because of what's going on. so i heard on the news, i have to kids, and this would really help me out lot. >> reporter: heidi nitti was getting food f other people. >> i'm in need to help people, the disabled and also peopleat re retired, that can't get out, that are sick, and mostly all this foois going to people on my property where i live. >> reporter: from los angeles, california, to duquesne,

pennsylvania, across the country, cars loiting in mile- lines to receive food packages. since the coronavirus outbreaks began, food bave seen demand increase by as much as 50% in some places, says claire babineaux-fontenot, c.e.o. offe ing america, the largest hunger-relief organization in the u.s. >> we've seen this before, just never at this magnitude. the average american does not have $400 in cash available to deal with a financial emergency. people started losing their jobs. people started missing checks. most people in ts country are one check away from being in need of some n source of food and other things that are necessary for sustenance. >> reporter: what about the impacts on all of the people that volunteer their time at food banks, many of whom i would guess are elderly? >> our volunteers are

inordinately elderly. consequently, we have a bit of a perfect storm going on right now, so we have increase in demand, decrease in supply and a significant decrease in our volunteer workforce. some of that decrease in workforce is us wanting to look oufor the safety of the people where they are trying to help us and they're particularly vulnerable. r orter: the mad rush for supplies as families prepared and stockpiled for home lockdowns had the knock-on effect of limiting donations from major retail grocers that food banks rely on. the recently passed "cares act" directs more federal funds to food insecurity, inclu300 million for purchases for the emergency food assistance ogram. but babineaux-fontenot is worried about the needs gap.

and her organization issued a statement criticizing lawmakers nefor not increasing snap ts in the act, saying they "missed ie opportunity to help fam facing hunger, and unfortunately, food banks wi bear the burden of this oversight." >> it's not enough, though. but we've made some good progress. our data shows us that the hole additional supplemental food that we're going to be able to rely on from the federal government., consequentth the contracting amount of retail donations, with a bier population of people in need, we're having to go out and purchase more food and we're competing in the marketplace in an in a scarcity environment. >> reporter: back at the united food bank, dave richins says supplies from the u.s.d.a. will this pace through august.g at >> as long as we continue to get ucks coming to our warehouse and delivering food, there'sth g that's going to stop us

from filling our mission.in i'll keep seuntil the last can of food is on the shelf. or>> reporter: his biggest isn't keeping the food supplies employees and volu safe own from the spreading virus. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy in phoenix. >> woodruff: one of the many consequences of asking americans meto stay home is what it't for schools, teaching and learning. for many, the normal school day has been halted, at least for now. various aspects of thishe periodically. let's start with what it mea f to be teachim a distance, learning from home and coping with children at home all day. this is one way teachers and students see each other in the age of coronavirus, organizing parades in small towns whereey

ave from a distance. more than 55 million american students are now out of school and expected to learn from home. >> i'm dawn bishop mclin. i'm the mother of two girls. we start every morning about 8:30. we have a schedule. and that schedule is a blessing because it keeps us on track. >> it's been a tough adjustment. my name is aaron warner. i'm from south burlington, vermont, and i have a son who is nine yea old >> my name is megan smith and i i am a teacher andch sixth through 12th grade. id i have two kids, cecilde in karten and kaylee is in third grade and she is eight. it's challenng to not be able to sit one on one with students and really help them understand what they're missing. and i think bi a parent, my est challenge is going to is

me.ng to be the availability of teaching my own children that iney're just going to have to be a little bit morpendent and do things on their own? >> with my son being autistic, it's a lotf times there are these things where i can't just be like, hey, you know's a math worksheet from your teacher. spend 30 minutes on this. i have to sit there with him ant we go throug and i mean, i probably only worked 15 hours last week at my regular job just because i was taking on all this stuff. and it was important to make sure that he had some consistency from as we make this transition becse it's hard for him. >> woodruff: that transition in some cases has been helped along by technology. play dates via ipad. classroom video conference calls on a technology called zoom.me >> my s sarah soliz and i anve in albuquerque, new mexico. i have two kids they are

eight and 11. one day we watched the life facebook stream from the cincinnati zoo because they've been doing every day, they've been doing a, you know, sort of a show and tell with a different an so every hour i try to pick somethinthey can work on, and then eventually, you know, i just give up and let them play minecraft >> my name is riy house. i am an 11th and 12th grade woodrow wilson higol inat the district of columbia. my biggest thing for the pas week and a half has just been communicate, communicate, communicate. there are definitely some students who the minute i post an assignment in the morning, they're going to get right to it and hand it in. you havether students who there are some barriers. o we fou last week that a lot of students, 30% of the stent population in d.c. i think does not have access to technology. so they're preparing to giveut devices to those students who are in nd in the coming weeks. >> woodruff: the technology gap

is something school diricts are grappling with from east to west, passing out laptops and tabletwhere possible. driving wifi buses to internet free zones... >> we do have a couple oft studentse school that we put all paper book packets together and gave them work that way. >> i a professor of psycholo at jackson state university. i know some challenges for my college students are some don't have adequate wifi. soin live in rural areas her mississippi. there's still a digital divide among minority populatio in their community. so i've had to adjust how i teach. >> woodruff: and as for the challees of being home all the time: i feel like there are lots of veert and kind of to do theba

workically. so we're kind of working through that. >> >> not everything i do is, you know, academic per se. i feel like there are lots of things. you know, they can learn from.n and so w learned to make pretzels, for example, and that was really fun. but yeah, i mean, it has been challenging. it's hard to get my work done, it's hard to, you know, not go crazy in your house and feel like you're just living in a junk pile. >> woodruff: and teacher and parent megan smith had one final note of advice for parents: >> we don't need to be totally solely focused on academicsca e at school that's not what the school day looks like. i would say don't beat up yourself as a parent if your kid ls not engaged academically day long. they really are going to be fine.f: >> woodror more on the challenges presented by distance learning, i am joined by kate gardoqui, she is a formerde teacher who nogns curriculum and trains other teachers. she is a senior assowith the great schools partnership and joins me via spe from main

so, kate gardoqui, how big a challenge are we talking about for these millions of students and teachers and parents? >> this is a tremendous challenge. there's just no way to overestimate it. if we think about tho groups one by one, for the teachers and the educators, evyone involved have, some this cases, 24 or 48 hours to prepare to coplmel reenvision what education looks like, and they did it with great creativity. it's just-- it's monumental. and for our students, we asked them, also, to reenvision what learning looks like, reenvision what their social lives look like. and for parents, as we just heard, we're hearing from so many parents trying to educate care ofildren, ta their children, and do their own jobs at the same time. remarkable.: it's just how different is it when you're teaching elementary, primary

grade students, young students,l versus mschool and high school? is one or the other particularly harder, or is there a greatce differ >> i think each of those age levels has wan its own challeng. the high school students may be able to learn more effectively on their own, or they may be able to, you know, govern themselves more effectively. but the depth of what we ask of them is so huge, that there's really just great challenges all around. >> woodruff: whathe main things, kate gardoqui, that are lost when you don't have that pers-to-person contact, that eye contract that you have in a kassroom? >> yw, i've worked in schools all my life, and the many amazing teachers is the depth of love and caring that they gie to students. and i think that's been one of the hardest thingsor teachers

is that they can't check in with ose kids that they really love and care about, look in their eyes, look at their body nguage, see how they're doing. and i know that there are schools out there that have divided up tir whole student population, and they're making sure that every kid has one teacher or one educator who is ularking in on them on a reg basis. and i think that's a great practice that schools have tousd ry to fill that gap. >> woodruff: and is there some formula fowhat part of tis is the-- is clearly-- it's the students' responsib in large part, but what part of this is the parents' responsibility, and what part is the teachers'? t >>nk right now, you know, in this unprecedentedweoment, al can ask is for everybody to do their best and kee the children first, to constantly ask, "ow are the children doing?" and so for parents, that means

checking ins much as we can, setting up those scheduleds, also giving kids some freedom t just c destress. and for teas and educators, it means setting up as many ways as we can to figure out what kids might be falling through the cracks, what kids are missing out on what we're tryg to share with them, and how can we stop that from happening? how can we rcheaut the kids who node it the most. there's no one piece of advice that fits every circumstance, but in general, what advice do you have for parents who are watching and wonring if they're doing the right thing, what more can they be doing? >> well, i would say kids know how toearn. that's what kids ar best at. and so, you know, in his me, the most important things are to check in with their kids and give them lots of love and p supporh them to think, and push them to read. you know, talk absut wha

happening in the world in ways that are age appropriate, and ask them good questions, and tra to sure that they're reading. and those are the moportant things that we can do to support our kids right now. woodruff: because i'm thinking parents have to be out there who are juggling work and time that theyhink they should be spending with theirechildn, and they have to be feeling guilty or worried. hard for all of our parents, for all of our teachers. and so the other thing as parents and as teachers that we have to do is try to do our best, show our students love. let our students know that ey-- that we know they're learning, and that wean see everything they're learning on their own. they may be dealing with stress by playing the guitafor three hours, or by talking with friends and supporting them, or maoe they're reaching out grandparents. and so as farnt parents and tea,

we want to be recognizing those things that kids are doing and honoring tdhat an asking how can that become what our students learn duri this time? >> woodruff: kate gardoqui, thank you so much. we appreci >> thank you. >> woodruff: we will continue to report on this topic in coming days with a rtok at the paicular challenges involved in teaching children with learning disabilities and special needs. >> woodruff: we've spent much time looking at how to cope witr covid-19, itic impact and worldwide disruption. tonight, we're going to try to understand a little more about what we're learning about the novel coronavirus itself, and how it behaves. jeffrey brown has our conversation. >> brown: and for thati'm joined by dr. siddartha mukhjee. he's an oncologist, cancer researcher and pulitzer prize

winning author, and he's just written a nearticle on covid 19 for the "new yorker." welcome. thank you for joining us. you wrote that so far we've been measuring the spread of the virus acro people. we need to start measuring within people. can you explain what you mean by that and why it's important? >> well, during a pandemic like this, the first thing that we want to do is to track how fast it's moving across populations, and that's what i mean by measuring virus across people. that's really an on off. zero one plus minus kind of assessment. are you infected? are you not infected?ma are you sympc? are you not symptomatic? of the pandemic when you need to begin to understd the dynamics t virus within people, which is how much virus were yoo expose how much virus does thatto exposure lean infection? once you get the vdo you get immune to the virus?

these are things that help us undetand the dynamics of the epidemic as it moves across the population. >> brown: well, so there is still so much mystery about what ehappens when it attacks person aopposed to another.av whatwe learned so far? >> well, there's several things we've learned. first of all, we've learned that, a, that the virus is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets or so- called foammites. that's the main mode of transmission. the second thing that we've learned that we're trying to learn is that we're in the middle of learning. there are several people who are asymptomic who may be shedding virus. that's a very, very important idea. that is to say that there may be a child or someone who doesn't have any symptoms, no fever, no dirhea, no respiratory symptoms, but nonetheless is sheddi the virus. we need to identify those people

and isolate and potentiallyso quarantine thehat they don't keep spreading the virus. learning, which we haven'te learned for sure, issehat there s to be if you do the right kind of test, there se be a way to predict whether you're going to have very severe disease versus a more mild form of the disease, and that helps because that will help us triaged patient to those who are either going to be sick and therefore require urgent attention versus those who mayco less sick and may be able to be managed more conservatively too. >> brown: do these individual responses have implications for currenract, current discussions about, for example, wearing masks, whether all of us should wear masks? >> well, so absolutely. they have an enormous le in this. i think the general conclusi, although we don't know this empirically, what one wod logically conclude from this information is that health ce

workers need full masks. and by that, i mean they need really protective masks. if you are not a healthcare worker and you happen to have an cial-95 mask, please do a service and donate it to a health care worker. so that's the first thing that we need that we know.e cond thing that we know is that for most respiratory viruses. if the viral load isn't the kind of viral load that a health care worker is receiving, there is a mountain of evidence that suggests that a simple surgical mask is essential. it works. such a mask works income in conjunction with hand hygiene and social distancing. this is not to say you should op practicing hand hygiene and social distancing. but it is to say that if you are if you are an essential worker and if you're being asked to think that wearing a simple

surgical mask would be effectivf and would be h in trickling down the amount of infection. if you happen to have an n-95 rrespirator, please consi donating it to a health care worker who desperately needs one. >> brown: you know, you wrote in your article that every virus has its own personality and i wonder how different is covid 19. thand how confident are yo we will come to understand it enough to help in time? >> i'mery confident that we will understand it in time. covid 19 is a unique virus, but it belongso a family of viruses, including sars and mers and other coronaviruses th we have been dealing with for a very long time. itnds not something peculiar mysterious that is that is suddenly emerged. we know this family of viruses well enough. we are in the midst as a medical community in the midst of launching an extraordinary phase of drug trials to treat the

sickest patients. so if i if there's if the's one message i would say with regard to the virus is that you need the population, the public, everyone needs to buy us time. we need time to get these trials launched. we need time to get to ensure that they are done correctly so when the full wave of t sickest patients hits us, we will be epared for them. >> brown: before we go, i want to ask you, there's a new documentary abt to come out on pbs called "the gene." it's based on yourarook of a few ago. and it makes us all, i tnk, wonder about the analogy or the connection, rather, between th about the genetic nddocumenting what's going on today with this virus, how we're trying to understand it, how we're trying to respond. >> virtually every technology that we're using to quantify, understand and deepen our

understanding of covid 19, reliesn genetics. there is, you know, the word ral load really is a quantification of the amount of virus in the body using genetic techques. so and also the production of drugs such as antibodies depends on recombinant d.n.a. chnology. to understand how the last one hundred years of geneticci me and genetic technologies have impacted our undetanding of infectious diseases and pandemics such as covid, i would encourage you to watch it. >> brown: all right. so you and i will talk a little bit more about the documentaryt and we'll at online in the coming days for now. dr. siddartha mukherjee, thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank u so much. hope you stay well. >> woodruff: and you can watch "the gene" on your pbs station starting next wes . it a two parts, on april

7th and 14th. >> woodruff: it is hard to focus on anything aside from covid-19 these days, but it is remains important to keep an eye on how the federal government is working in other ways. the trump administration today moved to roll back another federal regulation intded to reduce global warming. as john yang reports, today's t announcemegeted automobile ayleage standards. >> yang: judy, t proposal would undercut obama administration fuel efficiency intended to combat climate change. it would require u.s. vehicles to improve mileage standards an erage of 1.5% a year from 2021 through 2026 instead of 5% a year.n juliet eilpe senior national affairs correspondent for the washington post and covers federal environmental

policy. she joins us by skype. >> this is quite scant.is this? it affects their cars, trucks and s.u.v.s that america across the country drive and s will be driving for deca me. because whe this affects, obviously, the kind of cars that are built over t next seven years, people hold onto those cars for some time. so it really will have a endous effect in terms o what are the standards that auto manufacturers will meet and what's that kind of poution and affordability of the cars that we'll be driving. >> yang: and what's the administration's rationale or justification for this change? >> they are arguing that the obama administration, who initially set carbon and fuel efficiency standards in 2009 and updated them in 2012, really set too stringent a target in the in the years to come. and then, in other words,

they're too expensive for manufacturers to meet. and as a result, they argue americans would actually hold on to older dirtier cars rath than fine. y g: and who are the opponents of today's proposal and what are they saying in response? >> there are opposed to this, starting with the state of california and more than a dozen other states and the district of columbia who td adopted stringent standards and had are tryish ahead with them, even though the administration is trying to hold back. and they're joined by a coition of environmental a public health groups who argue that for t reasons, you need to keep these standards place. one, because tkiy address the of traditional air pollution that kills people, and two, because thecurb the co2 that comes out of tailpipes and obviously contributes to cmate change. so for those reasons, they're adamantly opposed to making

mileage standards. >> yang: and the auto industry is split >> yeah, that's one of the things that's really interesting.it as the auto industry that within a matter of days oftrump taking office that they wanted to relax these staards, but they in some ways had second thoughts because they thought that there could be romise between the trump administration and, again, state officials in california and other states who did want to see cleanecars and and so they had assumed that they would meet somewhere in the middle. instead, what they saw was this split. and so you had a handful of major manufacturers, including, for example, ford and honda and bmw, who reached agreement last summer with california, sayingul that they go ahead and meet the stricter standards. and then you have others, such as gm and chrysler who said, no, we'll just abide by what the what the trump adminion is

going to do. emth has caused a real d for auto manufacturers because they may face competing standards and no matter what. there'll be an extended legal fit that will leave this question unanswered for some time to come. >> yang: so, i mean, talkiou the legal fight, who's fighting? it's the states and are some o j the automakening that fight?tt >> it's a unclear, although it is true that, for manufacturers strueal inese auto july with california, part ofth agreement was that they would defend california's right, set its own standard. so you could easily see some of the auto manufacturers siding with the administration and some siding with california and the states who want stricter mileage standards. they'll certainly be joined by, as we said, almost every major environmental group and multiple attorneys general, particularly from democratic states. you will see some of those also

arguing that they have a vested interest in. cutting the pollution from cars and trucks because it affects everything from climate impacts to their states toeihe air that citizens breathe. >> yang: deregulation has been o big pawhat the trump administration with president trump has wanted to accomplish.n is there any that they're moving things forward to get it in before the electi >> they are absolutely advancing eir deregulatory agenda this front. and many others, when i talk to some of the trump administration ofcials, as well as the re folks who work with them. they are keenly aware of the fact that there is a provision called the congressional reviewc which allows a president and congress to overtu regulations if they are enacted within 60 days. and so this was, for example, a republicans used oump came into office to overturn some of the last rules that the obama iadministration took it p

place that trump officials are keenly aware if under some scenario they lose the white house and democrats gain control of the senate while holding on to the house, so of their policies could also be overturned. so what we're seeing right now is a real pushed finalized some of their highest priority rollback so that they can stay even if you have any. >> yang: juliet eilperin of the "washington post," thank you very much. >> very welcome. >> woodruff: president trump was at the podium again today taking questions on the pandemic.ci our yamiche or joins me now from the white house for the latest. so, yamiche, we know that the official death toll from coronavirus in the untates has now moved past 3700.

what are ey saying at the white house about the pace of >> well, judy, the number of people who died from coronavirua hit a relly grim total today. more people have died from the virus in america than on the that sobering tone, that sadness was really apparent in today's white house briefing. there were models shown that showed even with the best cial distancing, something like 100,000 americans could stillof dihis virus. now, health officials and president trump said that they're doing all ththey can to make that number even lower. but, again, that figure is if people do all that they can around the country to social distance and try to combat this vios. the other ing note is that the white house is saying that the testing andnt ators, all this equipment that governors nge saying they need, are bei given to them as soon as possible. but the message today cominge from the wh house was every amican need to do what they have to do in order for this non to be evore deadly. there was a figure shown that

said 2.2 milon people could die if nothing had been done in the united states. soreally, today was a really sad day at the white house.si and the prnt's tone was markedly changed bec.ause of th >> woodruff: those numbers are. breathtaki yamiche, and what are they saying about federal government efforts and what tgoe federal rnment can do at this point? >> well, we've heard governors over and over againay that they need medical equipment from the federal government. and today, the president said that he's holding bak on soe, at least 10,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile, because he wants to see how bad the surge is going to get. anahe said tht's really emergency equipment that he wants to send out at a later date. governors are saying they need that equipment as soon as possible. the other thing to note the present made a tty sobering statement when it came to what's ahead. he said the peak in about two weeks. so let's listen to what he said. >> i want every american to be prepared for the had days that lie ahead.

we're going to go through a very toh two weeks, and then, hopefully, as the exerts are predicting, as i think a lot oferous predicting, after having studied it soe hard,'re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel.a as aion, we face a difficult few weeks as wehppro that-- that really important day when we're going to see things get better, all of a sudden. and it's going to be like a burst of light. i really think, and i hope. >> that's a lot different from what thpresident said in the past. in the past he said that coronavirus was like the flu. but today, he sid it's not the flu, it's much more vicious. so the president, at the white house, was really trying to tell americans to brace themselveses. and that was also the message health officials and top white house officials were giving today. >> woodruff: and, yamiche, finally,t was just a few ds ago that the congress passed and the president signed this emergencylcoronavirus ief aid bill, $2.2 trillion in there.

but, already there's talk of more legislation. >> that's right. that legislation, that piece of legislation that you just mentned, the $2.2 triion coronavirus bill, it was the largest single stimulus package ever signed into law. bualready we're hering that another package is under way. i want to putop fr people some of the thing people are talking about. they're talking about rnfrastructure, and that would maybe mean moe clean water. more direct aid to americans and paid leave to workers, trying to helpe get through this economic tragedy that we're going through right now.r and, also, me funds to states and localities. i should say that president urump and house speaker nancy pelosi have beentalking about what they want to see in the next bill. and there is thrs some overlap there. they're both talking aboutu infrastr. so we have been hearing for three years that this is a white house-- and the demtorats want o something on infrastructure this this country. they might now be getting it done bause of this pandemic. >> woodruff: yamiche alcindor, following this late-day briefing at the whitehousee,

yamihank you very much. >> thanks so much. >> woodruff: andviow, how the rus is affecting the u.s. military, and in particular one aircraft carrier based in the pacific. for that, we turn to foreign affairs and defense correspondent nick schifrin. so, nick, this is about the u.s. navy, the ship in theif pac. they've just held a conference call. tell us what the eyaying. >> yeah, judy, that conference call is ongoing. but the head of the u.s. navy in the pacific ocean, admiral john aquino, was discussing the "theodore roosevelt", and he said they're taking extraordinary action to try to isolate soldiers on that ship, testing them while in quarantine but i have to say what he just captain of the ship has been asking for.u someber of hundreds, perhaps in the thousands, from the u.s.s. "theodore roosevelt" are the admiral saidey would notbut

exceed, by the req captain, which was really an extraordinary one, take 90% of the ship off nd keep 10% on the ship in order to clean the ship and maintain the nuclear reactor on that ship. and what the captain said was basically, "we neded to do this because everyone on this ship was working too clsely together, and we couldn't keep the sailors safe. there have been dozens of cases of covid-19 on that ship. and h wote a real plea to thepe ntagon in a letter yesterday, judy. let mest read art of it: no judy, admiral aqrom the u.s. navy in the pacific said

that was not going to happen. an intent to take all the sailor offs that ship." ut woodruff: still a lot of questions and abhis decision. but, quickly, nick, how concerned is the military fromor your reng about other ships world?re out there around the ll, the military says it's concerned about other shi. but i have to say, judy wthis decision they are clearly saying that they need to maintain readiness over maintaining the pure safety of all those salors on the ship. and that's yet message today is th b that ship would noe evacuated. the experts i talked to fear that a lot of these val ships are like cruise ships. they're basically incubators for disease like covid9, and the sailors simply are working too close together in order to keep them all safe.ju >> woodruff: it raises the question, how can one have readiness if the sailors themselves are n healthy? >> right. that is the shrt-term and long-term question. you have deep the sailors safe,

and you have t keep theailors maintain long-term readiness. at least that's what the experts are saying. >> woodruff: nick schifrin reporting for us. thank you, nik. >> woodruff: even amid all the current fear and uncertainty, people are reading and we're hearinof book clubs continuing remotely. it's the same for us, and we wanted to continue our 'now read this' book club. as it happens, this month's book addresses themes relevant to the moment. jeffrey brown is back and has that for our arts and culture series, 'canvas.': >> bror book club, pick for march is "inheritance," a memoir by dani shapiro about her reckoning with an ancestry tes that revealed a life changing family secret: the beloved man who had raised h was not her biological father. exploration of genealogy,

medical ethics and, above all, enduring love. the author joins me from her home in bethlehem, connecticut,a wer some of your questions now. >> oh, it's such a pleasure to be with you, jeff. >> brown: so you learned that you're not exactly who you are, to p it in a nutshell. what was this book for you? >> this book was a reckoning with my very identity when i made the discovery about my dad. it was as if i had to reshuffle and re-remember and re- understand pretty much every story that i had ever been told or every story that i had told abt myself. >> brown: so readers had a lot of questions along those lines, of course. and one is about your da how you came to think about him, how this changed. he had died years before all this, but your book is partly looking at that relationship. >> wn i first made this

discovery, i felt betrayed by my parents. but over the course of this journey, iame to actually feel that my father was more of a father to me than i had ever even felt before. and he was, as you said, very beloved to me. >> brown: one of the remarkable aspects of this is how you retre exactly what happened, how this happened and whattl exhappened and who knew what when. >> i mean, it thrust me into the world of, you know, i made this into the world parents in the early 1960s, the choices that they made, being an infertile couple, which was such a source of trauma and shame back then and the steps that theyook, which i had to retrace. enmean, in a way, there was a ticking clock thre time i was working on inheritance because anyone who might still have known anything about the truth of the story was if they were still living, was very old. what i came to understand is my biological father had been a

sperm donor as a young mm student. he had been an anonymous sperm donor. i didn't ask to be conceived or born this way or make this discovery, but i das so many people are. and the whole qestion of what is our moral responsibility to each other, which was and continues to be profound. i did meet him. and i would say that we have a really lovely friendship now. he doesn't feel like my father, the man who raised me as my dad. >> brown: you know, you have told me before that since this bookame out and when you're on book tour, y have so many people come up to you or write to you to tell you about their own experiences. >> it's an extraordinary time when secrets are tumbling out. and in the end, i haven't met anyone whoi wshes they hadn't found out. t hadn't met one person who wished they hadown, because in some ways, when you do make a discovery like this, even if it's shocking, it also makes an incredible amount of

sense. >> brown: i also just can't help but think of this to set it in the moment that we're in your writing of family, of g yourself better, of realizing your history. so many people, so many of us are thinking about those things. now you? >> oh, yeah. now more than ever, and one of the things i've been thinking about is that when you make this kind of diovery that come kinds of families, the very first feeling often that people have is feeling threat which is, i think, something that many of us are feeling right now. and in fact, one of the extraordinary things that'smy happed ihinking as a result of my journey, my family ndo raised me have been unfailingly kind compassionate in the wake of this discovery, the family that i discovered who are my genetic family, unfailingly kind. and i think that the antidote to that kinof threatened feeling is kindness and compassion. and so i find myself thinking, i

but we are actually all in this together. >> brown: all right, the book i" "inheritan dani shapiro, thank you so much. >> thank you for having . >> brown: and before we go, i want to give our pick for april. it's called "disappearing earth," a novel by julia phillips about a community t upended sudden disappearance of two young girls set on russia's kamchatka peninsula. you'll read along with us, get involved with many other engage readers and members around the country, and join us on our facebook page and hear on the news hour. t for now res, our book club partnership with the "new york times." >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonooht. i'm judyuff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs ne,hour, thank you, stay sa and see yosoon. n major funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by:th

inancial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democrantc engageand the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation forc puroadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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