captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evooing, i'm judydruff. on the newshour tonight, seeking clgns of hope. as the death tolbs and president trump removes a key gates about how he sees a way out of this pandemic. >> the vaccine is critical because unl you have that things aren't really going to be normal. they can open upo some degree, but the risk of a rebound will be there until we have very broad vaccufation. >> woo then, a call to action. from struggles for supplies to a higher death rate among people of color, the vernor of maryland and mayor of chicago on leading at a local level. plus, we hear from emergency

medical technicians. what they've seen from the ambulances as they race to save lives. and, politics in the pandemic to wisconsin, where voters are heading to the ballot box today, despite warnings that polling aces are a hotspot waiting to happen. all that and more on tonight'sur pbs newsho. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular offers no-contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy. whether you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer find a plan that fits you. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv

>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made g.ssible by the corporation for public broadcast and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: hundreds more names have joined the list of the pandemic has now claimed more than 80,000 lives, including more than 12,000 in the uned states. and, new york city has surpassed its own record, set by the worst terror attack on american soil. adill, there are new suggestions that hope lies a stephanie sy begins our

coverage. >> reporter: another grim mistone reached... >> aot of pain again today, for many new ykers. >> reporter: ...deaths in new york city have now exceeded 3,200-- more than died in the center.tack on the world trade but, the number of new patients being ferried to hospitals is dropping -- d governor andrew cuomo says that is a sign of progre. >> right now we're projecting we are reaching plateau in total number of hospitalizations, you can see the growth and you can ensee it's starting to fla >> reporter: other states are also sing early signs of containment. new jersey governor phil murphy urges staying the course.: >> but we cannot be happy with only reaching a plateau. we need to keep strong, and keep determined, to see that curve begin to fall and ultimately get to zero. that's going to require many

more weeks at the least of oursm beint and staying at least, at all times, six feet apart. >> reporter: but in wisconsin today, staying six feet apart presented a new challenge for voters. the state supreme court orderedo the primarake place as scheduled, after an 11th hour legal battle to delay in-person voting. lines outside polling stations national guard troops stepped in to run sites where poll workers failed to show in fe catching the virus. meanwhile, the pandemic's effect on migrants detainede southern border came into iearper fo eqsty inat failed to adopt te measures to prevent outbreaks. ey're not ensuring basic hygiene and sanitation, or enforcing social distancing practices and quarantining people with symptoms. amnesty says the u.s. imgrn dentsyst i e laes theorwith

advocates have asked ice to provide alternatives for detentiort they may stoing so for certain detainees, including those er 60 and pregnant women. but the trump administration's efforts to control the virus have ben called into question, even outside closed quas.r" the new york times" reported today that warnings about the scale of the crisis circulated around the white house in late january even as president trump publicly downplayed the threat. memos from trade adviser peter navarro warned the virus could"n take milof lives" and cost the economy "trillions." president trump also came under fire today for replacing glenn fine, the independent watchdog who had been chosen by peers to thersee the rollout of mor $2 trillion in coronavirus relief funds. and, in itain today, londoners woke up to news prime minister boris johnson had beenivoved to

intecare overnight, battling worsening coronavirus symptoms. >> it is quite worrying for the country, for people inal, because what's going to happen. he is the leader, rif the country, so i think it is quite worrying >> reporter: officials said johnson relied on oxygen support but without the need of a siventilator, and with no gns of pneumonia. british foreign minister dominic raab, now at the helm, sai johnson's diagnosis came as a shock. >> he's not just a prime minister, for all of us in the cabinet, he's not just our bos he's also our colleague and our friend. i'm confident he will pull through because if there's one thing i know about this prime minister is he's a fighter. >> reporter: and, in wuhan, china, the original epicenter this crisis, upbeat residents flocked the streets, ready for tan 11-week lockdown comian end. china reported its first daync sijanuary with no new

deaths. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy. >> woodruff: wall street oallied for muthe day, on hopes but, oil prices fell sharply, and the rally died. the dow jones inlostrial average 26 points to close at 22,653. the nasdaq fell 26 points, and, the s&p 500 slipped four points. at a time whenveryone is looking to understand the scope of the pandemic, and how to minimize the threat, one of the best informed voices is that of businessman and philanst bill gates. the co-founder of microsoft has spent the last few decades focused, through the bill and melinda gates foundation, on improving global health, including reducing the spread of infectious disease we spoke earlier this evening.th bill gatesk you very much for joining us. you were one of the prescient few years ago who said thatn

infectious disease outbreak was of peo that could kill millions how is what is happening now different from ywhoouuld say tt the economic damage is much greater. i put $3 trillion for ata respy virus spreading clearly we're goo go well know, beyond that. you know, the whole goal of speaking outhen wasn't to be able to say, "i told you so"t whenammond. rather, it was to make sure we did the right thing so diagnostics would come out right away, the timeline for a vaccine would be very short.no and, sadly many of those things were done. so now we're scrambling tocom up with therapeutics, scrambling to try to figure out hoe to gt this vaccine made. but people are arising to the occasion, but it's a very bad situation. >> woodruff: well, speakt g of things tren't done,

testing. this has become one of the central problems facing the unit states right nw. president trump said, i think three weeks ago, that there would beome sort of rapid testing. he mentioned google. said that was imminent. it hasn't happened. why is this so hard? and what do you think it's going to take to get a rapid turnaround test in place? >> yeah, we need a variety of tests. the testing that's currently being done, whicis a p.c.r.-based test, thenre was a advance that our foundation drove that now you can do self-swa you could very quickly do the test without having the health care worker have to wear protective equipment and having to change that. so eventually, we'll have a home test that you can just swab and send bhk in fore p.c.r. >> woodruff: so what is the g that needste th to be done withegard to testing? a website where yor in theaving

criteria of your symptoms, are you an essential worker, where you are, and it giv you back a priority level, and so all the testing operations make sure thathey're only taking in enough high-priority stuff thth can mainlt a very quick turnarnd so you don't have stale results. that should be reasonable to put together w in paralle've got to go as fast as we can on therapeutics and go as fast as we can on a vaccine. because therapeutics can save a lot of lives and avoid the overload. and with luck, some of those will be promising in the next three to six months. the vacce is critical because until you have that, things aren't really goingo be normal. they can open up to some degree, but the risk of a rebound will be there until we have veryc broad nation. >> woodruff: and you've said

it may take, according to the scientistsanou work witd you talk to all the time, it could take up to a year and a half to get that vaccine. what-- are you saying, literally, that it could be the fall of 2021 before americans can be s te fromhis covid-19? >> before you can be completely safe eye mean, by doing thedi strong soctancing that most of the country is engaged with right now, that allows you to level off the cases and bring it down. and you want to bring it down to a level that your capacity to test, to contact tracing, to make se the quarantine is maintained, so you don't see a big rebound, even though you'veo d most work to continue, you know, school, you know, certainly in the falyou'd thriek see that go in. so we want to have that period have the economy not as damaged

as necessary this extreme period where the numbers are so big and they've been growing exponentially, that we've got to get that down so that it's much lower. >> woodruff: but when you talk about returning to some semblance of norat, are we saying that looks like? i mean, you mentioned keeping up sial distancing. what could life lo like, say, six months, a year from now? there's still some of these-- some of these steps we're takinu now, they remain in effect? >> yeah. bi'm working to writeout that. look at china.del today is you they are sending people back to work, but they're wearing masks. they're not doing large sporting events. and so, they've been able to avoid a lar rebound. there are countries like swedeno that aren'ting down quite as much and seeing, okay, do their numbers go up? s

, you can trace back the activities that are causing that. we need toearn from all the countries. our partner, international health metrics and evaisluation, ooking at forecasts where they compatriot differe countries. that's helping us to understand, okay, which policies in whichse countriem to be working? and so we'll be far closer to normal once we get those case numbers down. but there will be some things where the benefit to e risk, like large public gatherings, may not resume until broad vaccination has taken place. >> woodruff: meaning conventions-- when you say "large public gathering," over 10 people.ea >> well, we'll have to figure out how to draw that threshold. and we may even undecstand age-ic risk at that point. so having a classroom with 30 young people in it may be just fine because their re in

transmitting the disease we'll understand in the next month or so. it may be so limited, that u're far more liberal with young people getting together than you would be with a general-age audience. >> woodruff: a couple of questions about the nomy. the wall street firm evercore, is projecting 50%-- that is 5-0-- percent drop in g.d.p. this quarter, an unemployment rate of 20%, twice as high du ng the financial crisis. they're projecting ano%ther 5 drop in the third quarter. and that's before we begin to come bk. is that you not as dee an expert on that as i am on vaccines.s if you have t a three-month period of extreme shutdown, and then you were able to d a large the end is the best thing from a

medical point of view, and an economic point of viehw. one g that will be very tricky, though, is when we open e'up, you know, peopsyche in terms of their wealth and their willingness to go out o things has been deeply affected. so even once you fix these supply side by allowing people to go back too wrk, factories to t n, then you'll still have this huge question abe demand side, you know, taking trips, buying new houses, even buying a car-- this is very unprecedented. and although that model you one of theooks li more negatives, the uncertainty is such that it's not out of the realm of psibility. >> woodruff: the continent of africa is a place that you and your wife, melinda, know very well through your foundation. you've done so much work there. how much do you worry about the effect of this pandemicn a place like that when it hits

there? >> yeah, sadly, it seems likely at this point that even thugh the deaths in the developing world have baen very smll as yet because not that many people with the disease wenthere as moved around in between rich countries, that because their health systems are so limited, because thetocial distancing much harder to do where you live in a slum right next t each other. you have to go out to get your food. there isn't the capacity to run the food distribution sys jm wist a small percentage of the workforce, like the u.s. has. and so trying help those countries get their testing capaty up, figure what tactics work for them, that may be different. the kind of social distancing rich countries do may not wor h and w do you tune that? sadly, you know, i do think tht most of the deaths will be in

those countries and the most extreme economic pain. un, they're not able tor borow 10%, 20% of g.d.p., which many of the rich countries are engaged if that exercise. they just don't have the creditworthiness, the sense that will drive hyperinflation would so even though it's super important that we deal with the domestic numbers and get those down, as we think about innovation, as we think about the rest of thi year, the suffering in those countes, we also need to be thinking about that and help as much as we can. >> woodruff: dihear youay you think most of the deaths >> in developing countries, yes. >> woodruff: and finally, a personal question. u certainly know this issue better than most anybody else, and, yet, has shaken a lot of people. has caused people whore their lives to be quite rattled.

how do you think-- do you think you've been affected by this?m >> well, i deeply shaken. i-- you know, every day i'ke rwe really in this situation? wow. you know, there are things like polo eradication tha you know, was-- we felt like we're makings progn that. this is going to be an unbelievable setback for that. resources that are fundedinarhe and shifting them to this priority. so, you know, who knows where we'll be on those other effort fort. we have some great h.i.v. breakthrough drugs that we want to get out into trials. those trials aren't happening.t, in fhe top people who were going to work on that have been reassigned to work on the coronavirus vaccine. so the foundation is scrambling because as lot oth key understandings and relationships to accelere some of these solution, but our normal work,

you know, is-- is suffering. and, you know, you just look at people whoatre isolate home or, you know, overcrowded inei home or kids who are going to lose three months of the of pain involved in ouarning. this thing is gigantic. and, you know, so it's deeply troubling. but we neeto still act to minimize a of that. >> woodruff: well, bill gaerkts we thank you very much for spending the time talking with us today. thank you, and we wish and you what you're doing at the foundation the very best. y >> tha. he woodruff: in the day's news, acting secretary of the navy homas modly resigned after a tirade against the captain of a warship that's been hit by the modly had fired captain brett

crozier of the aircraft carrier heodore roosevelt," for sending out an e-mail plea to evacuate the crew. then, on sunday, the secretary addressed the crew, in guam, and lambasted crozier. >> it was my opinion that if he didn't think that information was gonna t out into the public in this information age asthat we live in, then hea, too naive or too stupid toe the commanding officer of a ship like this. >> woodruff: modly azed last night for his comments about crozier, but tls for his ouster mounted. president trump degnated james mcpherson to succeed modly. he was confirmed asf undersecretarye army just last month. white house press secretary stephanie grisham is leaving,s. after nine mon at president trump's direction, she never held a formal prs

briefing, and she will now become the first lady's chief of staff. will be kayleigh mcenany, who'sy now spokeswoman for the trump re-election campaign. in afghanistan, the taliban says it has broken off talks with the afghan government over a prisoner exchange. the militant group said it will not take part in what it called "fruitless meetings." withdrawal agreement with the militants in february. the deal also called for a prisoner exchange, as a step toward a broader settlement. australia's top court today threw out the criminalti convs against roman catholic cardinal george pell, for sexually abusing children. reasonable doubt about his guilt. pell was released after 13 months behd bars, and driven to a monastery in melbourne, as abuse survivor groups condemned thdecision. >> you feel angry and then you just feel really sad. because, the emotions are just

so vast. thers so much to think about and to take on in althis. >> woodruff: pell had been the most senior catholic church official to be jailed in the long-running abuse scandal. the university of michigan isnd g letters to nearly 6,800 former student-athletes in a sexual abuse investigation. the school wants them to speak to a law firm investalating gations that go back to the 1960's. a former campus doctor, robert ied rson, is accused of in 200mo8. a federal appeals court allowed texas today to limit most abortions duoronavirus cpahendemic.ring state officials have classified abortions as non-urgent procedures during the crisis. a lower court blocked the policy last week, but the appeals panet ruled the is protecting the public health. a magaze publishing has passebld awinay.

acearlee gravepis senionor diedy after a long struggle with alzheimer's disease. in 1970, he launched "black enterpriir." it was the magazine about black entrepreneurs to be ned by an african-americd he used it to champion black siness. earl graves was 85 years old. and, a so-called "super-on" will light up the sky tonight over much ofhe country. the moon will be full moon, and closer than usual, less than 220,000 miles from earth. that should make it the brightest and largest lunar show of the year. still to come on the newshour: speaking with the governor of maryland on how his state ise coping with isis. front lines-- what emergency medical technicians ve seen in the fight against coronavirus. the mayor of chicago on whyk blericans are being hit what can be done to address it. plus, covid-19 and the campaign. wisconsin voters head to the

polls. >> woodruff: as hospitals in coronavirus hot spots brace for difficult weeks ahead, governors kiacross the country are w together to ensure front-linel medirkers receive critical protective gear. maryland governor larry hogan is the chairman of the national governors association and he joins us now from napolis. governor hogan, welcome. the newshour. your state of maryland, we believe, has now passed 4300 cases, surpassed 100 deaths. in yany wa, do you feel you're getting your arms around this? >> well, it's very hard toe evr feel like you're getting your arms around it.

i mean, i feelike we' as prepared as we possibly could be. i was on ne of the firste country to declare a state of ioergency, and we've taken unprecedented ac every single day for the past 33 days. but like everyone, we're tryingc yi plh-up and tr anybody to say, you know, we've got our arms wrapped around it. >>oodruff: what do you most need right now? as you knw, so much conversation about governors having a hard time getting the they need. getting the supies what is the most critical to yoy governor, i think, judy. it's the same thi that you keep hearing about. and it's-- the most difficul s ple of hundredright now isor ventilators from the administration, a commitment of 0 more ventilators. that's what new york is being faced with right now. it's just-- but it's p.p.e. it's all the protective equipment thawe need for our hospitals and health care

rorkers. it's testing angd tesits. and that's just something that we're searching for these things all over the domtic market, all over the world, and we're our federal partners for help as well. no govnor is siterting by waiting for these things to arrive. >> woodruff: as you know, governors are speak out and saying they're not only having to compete against each other. they were competing with the federal government, fema. they're mpeting with other countries. is that just the way it's going to be for the duration of thisem pa, or is there a fix in sight? >> i think it's improving, judy, to tell you the truth. i mean-- lok, it's not a perfect situation. but it's getting better, rather than wolde, i wou say. we're having ongoing discussions, all the governors, with thadministration. there are new laboratories that are ramping up with new tes and more availability of tests. we're certainly playing catch-up. it's not where we ne be. but i think we're better off today than we were last week.

and we're catching up, but it's certainly not where anyone needs to be today. but it's a lot better than it was. and we have more testing going on in our state, and i think in most states than we did last week. >> woodruff: just moments ago at the briefing at the white house, president trump told reporters, he said, among other things, he said, "if your governor is failinto get you what you need," he said, "i'll protect you." i mean, is that the way it now works? no well, look, i think what we really need righ it's real enemy here is the virus.at the common enemy we're all fighting. and it's going to take the federal, state, and l governments all working together to try to fight this common enemy. we don't n finger pointing from anywhere. i don'think there are any governors failing anywhere in america. i can tell you as somebody who has been leading discussions with govnors on an ongoing basis and many of them with thei president an president, and many with just the

governors, i'm really proud of the job they're doing. d i don't think we need finger pointing about any governor's failing. every governor is doing the best job they can, and i think thenm ntoa l govt is doing the me abbeou t jtobeo how to fix these problems rather than fing,ger pointrom any direction. nor youruff: gov announced the first in the nation, i believe they're called strike teams, too into nursing homes in maryland. tell us how that works. the country.is a oblem acr remember the first crise happened in the state of washington with this nursing home that we all were shocked to hear about. and now we've got 90 nusing homes here in our state where we have at least one case, but several of them with really dramatic outbreaks. a number of other states do. i we are sendi strike teams with members of the national from our localalths and nurses departments and from local and an emergency basis to try toon wrap our arms around this and to

identifythe situaion, to triage the situation, and send people when they need to, to hospitals or take care of the situation right there with both testing to find out, you know, exactly where thacility is and what help they need. because, you know, this is our most-vulnerable population. we're having the outbreaks across the country. we took action about a month ago to limit visitors and to op-- to make sure we're checking staff members. but still, we've got these outbreaks, and we've got to make sure we stop them before theyme beidespread. and the strike teams are just one new tool that we're unleashing today. >> woodruff: and just quickly, nally, i read that you also nounced that the states i launching what they call a "conavirus rumor control" page on your website. is that because of so much bad information being out there? >> i think there's jut a lot of people that are just relying on a lot of random rumors that they pick up on social media, d it

just runs rampant. so we're just going to try to-- ayou know, i think fac really important, and that's why we've tried to be as transparent as possie, have the doctors and the experts talking. and so we want to separate fact fromicorti tonh. e hearing frothe scientists and doctors, and not running rampant with things that just aren't true. >> woodruff: governor larry hogan of maryland. thank you very much. and, again, we wh you the vey best in dealing with all this. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: new york remains the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the u.s. doctors, nurses, a medical teams there are bearing the brunt of a surge of seriously l patients. william brangham recently spoke with two frontline members about their work. >> brangham: adam bliden is an

e.m.t., an emergency medical technician, in rockland county, about 25 miles outside new york. same with pearse matews. they both drive ambulances, responding to 911 callross the county. ke so many places in new york right now, coronavirus has become all consuming. i spoke to the two of them the other day. as a percentage of the calls you're getting now, how many a would you assu coronavirus cases? >> 100%. >> brangham: 100%? >> 100%. >> yes. the rarity of tting a "regular a regular emergency where someone needs our help right away and we can do something? in 10 calls, you may have one almost, yeah. so it's almost 100% are either confirmed cases or suspecteds. ca >> brangham: i mean, that has

got to be, i don't want to put words in your mouth, but nerve wracking-- like if every person you possibly interact with -- if you're worried that person has coronavirus, that's got to be, mean, mentally exhausting. >> it is. it is that, coupled with the call volume going up drastically and in most cases more than doubling your call volume every day. so a shift that you might see, you know, eight patients on, you're getting called to 16 to 20 different houses. we're going from 100 calls a week to 200 and 250. it's... it's intense.ea it'sy intense. especially when you don't believe you have the correct p.p.e. it's scary. we're scared just as much as the

regular person. again, we have to do thijob. fo. this is what we do for a living. and e.mpersonnel and hospital personnel are proud to do it. but it's very ary. it'sot infectious. that is, obviously, the case that covid is an infectious disease. but it's also that the people that we're seeg may not live. and as e.m.s and health healthcare workers, wee used to trying to do our best to save lives. i s emotionally taxing, i think, on the health care personnel. >> last week, me specifically, there were at least three patients i had seen earlier in the week w i came back to work a couple of days later and found out they had passed away. i was just there? like, how quickly, you know, was that? that she went from being alive, to not alive anymore. he went alive, to not being alive. >> brangham: that's got to make the statistics that we see.

these numbers of cases going up every day, we see them as bar charts. but for ouslloreceyou ys, it ses >> yeah, it's it's not a chart.s ot a graph. it's a-- it's a person who you spoke to.you touched, who you and now they're not. now they're,ou know, sadly, ey've gone on to become a that's, that's onee harder parts of this, for sure. >> actually, i when i en i got off duty last night. i'm off today. i got off at 2:00 a.m. i went to a friend's house to evaluate his father, who is bed- ridden and was diaosed with pneumonia. i cried from the station to his house, and in fronof his house for probably about two e additional minutes, beca-- you know during my shift, i work for 24 hours straight. i couldn't really you know, i couldn't really have emotions because i was working. you know, we have to dour job. we all have to do our job. we signed up for this. we have to, have to treat these patients and make sure everything's okay.

and, you know, after the end of my shift, i broke down, i cried. tu know, just thinking ab everything that i had seen, youw probably would not make it. >> on top of that, we have the fear: have i been exposed? you know? am i going to give it to someone else? u can't kill us. losew it's getting c considering our own health as well. i think yesterday we lost, they were retired guys, but there were two firefhters who passed away yesterday from this. those are guys who gave their whole life to their fire departments. so it's getting closer and closer to home for all of us ifit's no longer, you know we're gonna be exposed, that's gone. we're all gonna be exposed. we don't know when.

>> brangham: on top of the stresses of the job, of worrying whether they themselves might get sick, many e.m.t.'s also have twork for low pay and few benefits. >> the average salary for an e.m.t. in new york state doing what we're doing through all of this is about $37,000 a year. >> wow. >> yeah. righnow, both pearse and i, everyone who's doing what we're doing, we're juggling, usually it's two or three jobs just to keep working so we can pay our bills. we do this because we love it. everyone knows there's no money in it. but right now, i'm doing all of this with no health insurance, no healtrainsurance. >>ham: no health insurance? how is that possible? it doesn't come with the job? >> the job doesn't offer it and the affordable marketplace sick and okay, i go get tested

positive. i can't go to the hospital. literally, life or death is what's going to put me in the hospital. it's scary and you know. people come out and ey show us their support and i love it. i love, and i've eaten so much pizza in the last two weeks! b itn great! i don't need pizza. i need to be able to pay my bills. i need to be able to work a 40 hour work week and live like a anrm have probably seen all these videos of people clapping t when there's aospital shift rotating out and i mean, i hope you know that there is everybody out there does osome level appreciate how crucial you all are to keeping all of us safe. >> aciatyoyinghat. we're scared also of-- the general public is scared about this virus and we are, too.

but we also know that this is our job. and, you know, we love to do this. fixing people and makingure they're okay, it's something that we like to do. ithe regular people and also ft r agencies like police and fire. i appreciate that a lot. hitting the u.s. is hitting people of color especially hard. at least that's at the early the c.d.c. has not pubshed breakdowns of deaths by race. but some places are disclosing that and the numbers are

alarming. in michigan, roughly 40% of deaths were among african- americans last week. in louisiana, nearly 70% of deaths were among black citizens. and that was true in chicagos well. as part of our race matters series, yamiche alcindor takes a closer look at what's happeningn >> alc the trends are particularly bad in chicago. chicago mayor lori lightfoot hae sounding the alarm about this and joins me now. will thank you so rech for being mayor lightfoot. in chicago, some 70% of the people who have died from the coronavirus are african american, and the city'son populas only 29% african american. we're seeing other trends in iachigan and lou that also show that african americans areo dispropotely part of the dete 'shatinteh o ts hind these numb? and what can be done to better protect the people mos rt atisk? >> well, look, these numbers are shock to be sure, but thet y're reason is we've been talking about the health disparities in our city really for when you see that african

amicans disproportionatel have high rates of diabetes, heart disease, and a range of respiratory problem this disease attac those underlying medical conditions with a vengeance. so given that disparity in health conditions and life expectancy, we are doing everything that we can to do two things. numberne, make sure that we have good data so we can reallel effectmeasure the impact of this disease. we put these numbers outknwing that still 25% of the providers are notso wpuin re pplace an orr yesterdathat requires that reporting. the other thing that we're ing we've mobilized what we're calling aracial equity rapid response team." we have a mod nel one area of our city that is really broken down a lot of barriers to getting african americans access

to health care, demtifying the system, and really bringing them into preventive care. we're going to take thaelt mod and then we're going to implement that in a hyp way, but all over the city. we're focuson the areas where we're seeing the highest percentage of death, but then we'll expand it out from there. when i first saw these numbers, i have to tell you, it took my breath away. but i resolved that we had to do something to make sure we weren't just giving people bad news. we were giving them tools to help themselves. >> social distancing for some is a privilege. african americans are more likely in your city and cities across the country it take public treynsportation. e also more likely to hold jobs that you can't do from home. wh s should be done to mare that people aren't putting their lives at risk because they have to go to work? >> well, a couple of things, and you're 100% right. in many of our african americ households they don't have can separate themselves. they so what we're saying is if

you've got somebody in your house that's got an underlying medical condition and/or is a senior, make sure that they are segregated out on se, a roomorfsoro sme place else, where they can, in effect, quarantine in place to, have a plan for who tis goi be going out, whether you have to work or if that same person shoulde the person whooes out to get groceries and other essential supplies. the other thing that we've done on the south side and the west side is making sure that we're putting more buses with docauble iages, if you will, so that we can avoid the crowding on public transportation. nnd then again, it's all about education, and ccting people up to health care, emphasizie-- making shat you're washing your hands on a regular basis, and using othekinds of pduct to sanitize your hands and making sure that if you are you going to see a doctor. so those are the kind of strategies that we're going to be employing and king sure that, for example, grocery

stores ad liqr stores, where we tend to gongigate, that tho orre issseialt distance in hoy're allowing customers to move in and out of their facilities. we're gointo muc aggressively inspecting and citing, if necessary.ic >> a americans and people of color also make up a lot of health care workers that are on the front lines of this battle against the coronavirus.at when you loohe lack of personal protective equipment and tsts, how is that impact the people that are doing those bs, especially african americans and people of color? >> what i caner say is in chicago, one of our top priorities has been making sure that we keep our health care system srong and vibrant, to be able to meet the surge and the and that includeking sure that our health care workers ae protected. so we've done a nusber of thi to help them, bute shipped out literally millions of pieces of

perform p.e. equipment--sh lds, gowns, gloves-- its works, to make sure that our health care workerseed the equipment, have the "that they need to keethemselves safe. in addition to, that we sto up two hotels just for health care nyrkers to give them respite. we know that mf our health cre workers travel great distances to the hospitals and clinics in which throey k.opportun ity to get respite without having to go all the way the utinfection to their househd spoaps that's another support that we've given our health care works in chicago. >> the chair of theio congrel black caucus, she held a call today with reporters and she said, "this is an emergency," and that data is needed. she called for the c.d.c. and other federal agencies to start collecting and sharing data it relates to racial breakdowns for the coronavirus. where do you stand on the lack of data and the need for data when it comes to the coronavirus?

b> well, the data isor aed yesterday was to make sure that all providers that are doing testing and that arein tre in the demographic information that's so critical fous to be able to measure the impact on a race and ethnicity basis across our city. so we've got a lot of reporting that's happening, buwe need to make sure that we fill in that 25% that we've been missing i terms of demographic information. but i agree with you, the data is ctically important. it's up on our webte chicago.goslrks/coronavirus. that information is updated and has been on a daily basis, but we're going to be bring out the demographic information, and we started that yesterday. >> well thank you so much for joining us, lori lightfoot, mayor of chicago. >> my pleasure, thankou.

co>> woodruff: voters in win headed to the polls today, following days ochconfusion and s. amna nawaz has more, on the first state to hold a major election with in-persong in the midst of a stay-at-home order. >> nawaz: multiple political and legal battles preceded today's contests. the wisconsisupreme court yesterday overturned an executive ordeby the state's democratic governor to put off in-person voting until june. and the u.s. supreme court ruled along partisan lines to cut off an extension for absentee voting. wisconsin stands in contrast to more than a dozen other states that have delayed their primaries in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. from wisconsin lieutenant governor mandela barnes. welcome to the newshou and thanks for making the time. you made clear how you feel about this in a tweet this morning. niu said, good mo, and welcome to the "s" show-- that stands for a word cannot say here.

what are you worried about the impact of today's election will be. >> i honestly feel i was sharing the frustration of so many people across our state, people who waxted to eercise their right to vote, the people who requested an abloentee baland have not got one yet. the people standing in line for two hourso vote. i believe i shared their frustration. this is a day that didn't have to happen. it definitely didn't have to delay the election,on. and the republicans in the legislature they decided to put people'sealth and safety at risk, in jeopardy. and in doing that, they've caused mass hysteria. they've caused chaos. we've seen it at the polling locations. you see peoe unaware of what to do because they have an absentee ballot that they may urn yev have been able to return bsentee ballot or didn't return one, even tough you requested one, you are expected to show up in person. that comispr a person's

health. here in the state, we have over 2,500 positive test results. we're now up to 92 deaths in our state. ople don't want to take that risk and what it does is it accident franchises voters. it makes people not want to get up out of the house and go risk it. >> let me ask you, lieutenant governor, about that confusion, though. there has been criticism of governor evers, too. you have had coronavirus cases in wisconsin for several weeks. he didn't movoe t change anything about the election until just a few days ago. f public health it really the primary concery not change something sooner? why not act earlier? >> the gov eernorven before yesterday called on the legislature to act on the election. he also moved tor ke ipoble r mkoreplto oe su return teir absentee ballots to. and many people operated under that asumption. and it's a shame and it's unfortunate that republicans ine thslature decided that toaneyl t lrok tho revisions to allow people to get

a chance to exercise their >> i know therebeen a greater push by democrats to move, especially during ice pandto greater mail-in voting means. i want to put to you whatre blicans say. they say overhauling the systems in 50 states is no easy task. opens up the process to a whole new world of fraud. and they also accuse democrats of taking advante of the pandemic to get around what they call "election integrity sm. what do you y to that? >> , you know, the thing whenno they say, it'asy task." what are easy? we are dealing with nothing is going to be easy now. people are changing their entire ways of life.y it's not ea for farming communities. it's not easy for urban communities. it's not easy for sick andio elderly popul. it is not easy for a whole lot of people. government to be able to respond appropriately. you shouldn't seek ele office if you aren't ready to take on the togh task, and creating a proce, a system that would allow to more access for votcuing, more accy forin oi

ca. >> the elections are not jusmar. people say isn't it important to we're in a pandemic.ed because you need officials in those spots right now >> in the event the election was dlairkd as it should have been, i don't think it's too much of an inconvenience to have those people in office for another month or two, given thum ciances, given the fact that we are dealing with a pandemic. like i said, this is not easy for anybody. we have to make certainme adjus. and i think that that is one that people would be able to agree upo >> that's wisconsin lieutenant governor mandela barnes with us today. thank you foyour time. >> thank >> nawaz: and for a different take, i'm joined by ronna mcdaniel, chair of the republican national committee. miss mcdaniel welcome back to the newshour. i want to start by asking you to speak directly toolks in wisconsin. what do you say to the voters who feel like they have to make a choice today between protecting tir exphght

exercising their right to vote? >> well, the r.c. hasn't engaged in states that are changing their elections. thto uattp your governerorve an spifically is when thd.n.c. came in ask tried to remove safeguards to the inty of the election, like i.d. requirements, or extending the election an additional six days, and keepinx it open for si days. so that's when we intervened. but we haven't done that in any other st they've moved their elections. that's really up to the local state government. >> to be clear, it was republicans on the ground who were pushing back against the efforts to move th election, understanding that governor evers' effor came late, just a few days before the actual election. should they have allowed the election to go forward today? >> that's a state issue. the r.n.c. only got involved whenhe d.n.c. filed a lawsuit to remove those safeguards and that's why we been engaged in wisconsin. the lawrt legislature and governor needed to cow together rk on that and i think the governor as the leader of the state should have acted sooner

and started doing all these 11th hour proposals to try to change theio ele and i think it's a failure of leadership on his part that he didn't me soner. >> let me ask you from the voters' perspective, there's there are a number of polling places that had to be closed because of cor e ncou believe evnneer igible to ir t ghean so today?ns >> wis still had early voting and the opportunity toen receive abe ballots. none of that was prevented true through this process. when we felt uncomfortable with s an election being open for additional days when you had an election day april 7. anyone who post marks their vo by 7:00 p.m. today, their vote will count. we want everybody toble to vote. we want to make sure there arepe safeguards thaple who aren't supposed to be voting don't vot t re are thousands of people

who requested absentee ballots who still hadd them vetil this moreiningt . n'do yocreu really believe evere who has a chance to voe will be able to do so today? >> the governor and legislature was pushing forpril 7, and if they didn't get that process done, that's going to be up to e state to make sure they got those baots out. able to vote.want everyone to be what we did not want is to see safeguards taken wayike d., making sure that the voter who is turning in the ballot is the voter whose name is on the ballot. those types of things that safeguard the integrity of the election. th so much uncertainty right now in our country, we need people to have confidence in our election process. and that's why the r.n.c. got involved and pushed for the i.d. requirements, the witnesses not keeping an election open six additional days beyond the election date. >> while there is global pandemic, while cases are rising here in the unitu states, do lieve any state should be

holding in-person voting? >> that's going to be up to then trties get involved in that. that's upthe states legislatures based on what is happping with theiulation. you have seen at the national level democrats try to push election agenda, like ballot harvesting, which certainly isn't safe going door to door to collect ballots. or things like getting ridabsen. requirements. those are things we're going to push back on. wewano dt net electionat keep our integrity in place. the sterne en th ho thsen c eatletctions d.e that's yet states and the governors and the legislatures have that role. >> ronna madaniel, cir of the republican national committee joining us today. thanks for your time. >> tha you. >> woodruff: and a news update befo we go tonight: presiden trump said this evening that he is considering ending united stes funding to the world health organization. he blamed the international health group for the spread of

the coronavirus pandemic. the u.s. contributes more money to the w.h.o. than any other nation.ew and that's theour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. tomorrow evening.d again here for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> you find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with financial planning and advice for today and tomorw. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement

of international pea security. at carnegie.org. e >> and with going support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for publicroadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captiong sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by wg media access group a access.wgbh.org

. hello, everyone. welcome to amanpour & co. here's what's coming up. >> together we are tackling this disease and i want to reassure you, if we remain united and resolute, we will overcome it. >> a rare prime time address om brit an's queen elizabeth as boris johnson languishes in the hospital. dr. siddhartha mukherjee is here. then how did iran do with this virus? my interview with mohammad nahavandian. >> the countries that have