captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc f: >> woodrood evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newour tonight, federal social distancing guidelines expire as the global health and economic impacts of the coronavirus deen. i speak to republican senator testing and congress' ongoing response to covid-19. then, feeling the pain-- the latest jobs report shows more than 30 million americans have been laid off in the last six weeks. we answer your personal finance questions as rent and mortgage payments are due.pl , the food fallout-- applications for federal assistance skyrocket as millions more americans struggle to feed their families.

>> if this goes on much, much longer then we could start to see actual starvation in america. we're doing far, much worse than any developed western nation. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> life isn't a straight linu and sometimen find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with financial planning and advice foroday, and tomorrow.

>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and 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 for and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: economic wreckage from the pandemic is on painful thdisplay again tonight, i

late government data. there's also new talk about how, and how much, to help state and local governnts. white house corrpondent yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> alcindor: one in every six americans is now jobless last week, another 3.8 million filed for unemployment. that means in the last six weeks, more than 30 million people lost their jobs. but at t white house, president trump held out hope for better times to come. ea i will say i think next is going to be a spectacular year in terms of growth, in terms of bringing our country back. i think we're going to have a really good year. p >>lcindor: tsident spoke at a sit-down meeting with phil murphy, new jersey's democratic governor. murphy made his pitch for federal aid to help states cope. he said new jersey alone could need $20 to $30 billion. >> we don't see it as a bailout, see this as a partnership, doing the right thing in what is the worst health care crisis in the history of our nation. >> alcindor: today, house speaker nancy pelosi said that

all told, states could need $1 trillion in aid, over the next few years. pressuring officials to lift are restrictions on certain parts of the economy. anday tfederal social the trump administ saysxpired. those older rules are now incorporated into guidance for states on loosenfeg their own measures. dr. anthony fauci of the national institutes of health urged states to be careful in rolling back restrictions: >> there no doubt when you pull back, there will be cases. and what we need to do is make sure they haven place the capability of identifying, isolating and contact tracing individuals. if they do, do the states that feel cautiously optimistic >> alcindor: idaho governor brad little announced his stay at home order will expire tomorrow. he will let places of worship and ycare centers open, but will keep hair salons and other sites closed. california governor gavin newsom

parks to close, after people defied health restrictions last weekend. >> the issues have raised alarm bells. people that are conjugating -- congregating there teren't practicing physical distancing. protesters crowded into the state capitol building demanding an end to pandemic-related curve. today nascar announced it wisu re its season may 18. the first major sports organization to announce a return to play plan. but the little league world series will not be played this year for the first time since the organization began because in the meantime,e white house today issued new guidance for in the meantime, the white house today issued new guidance for nursing homes. the facilities have been hard- hit by covid-19.

>> reporter: nursing home and long-term careacilities in the a past two months, more than 11,000 people have died due to covid 19. across europe, some governments are lifting across europe, some governments are also lifting restrictions in the face of stark economic losses.he inirst quarter of the year, the overall european economy shrank by 8%. >> ( translated ): the eire global economy, and also our national economy in germany,s confronted with the biggest economic slump in our history; we expect the worst recession in post-war history. >> alcindor: meanwhile, coronavirus cases in russia surpassed 100,000, with the country's prime minister now among the infected. in africa, trucks lined up for miles in kenya, waiting to entee uganda, asountry issued one driver said heeenrivers. waiting for days for a health check: >> ( translated ): it is taking too long, so slow. this is the third day since i got to the border. they should at least add more officers so the testing can be done faster. >> alcindor: for pbs newshour,ch

i'm yaalcindor. >> woodruff: the day's dismal economic numbers weighed down wall street.w the nes industrial average lost 288 points to close at 24,345. the nasdaq fell 25 points, and, the p 500 slid 27. for the month, the indexes gained 11 15%, thanks partly to rescue measures from congress and the federal serve. with more than 30 million americans losing theirob or business and millions of others forced to take pay cs, man homeowners and renters are finding it increasingly difficult to make their monthl housing payments. given the job losses and tomorrow's monthly payment deadlines, we spoke with se viewers about the challenges they are facing. here's a sampling of what we heard. >> my name is evanna bacon and >> my name is brenton mattox. i currently live in philadelphia, pennsylvania. >> my name is evanna bacon and i'm from tupelo, mississippi.

>> i'm, christopher land. i live in taylor, michigan. >> my name is candice. i am 28 years old. i just bought and bought a house prior to being laid off. and it been difficult because there haven't been a lot of relief efforts that i've been able to take advantage of.t, so i'm jou know, trying to make payments on time and h wherevever that comes with whether it's through freelancest projects or rom savings. that's really how i'm coping time as owning a hf at the same >> our mortgagor, they ,immediately were like "y we're just doing a flat 90 day tacked the next thnthsjust onto the back end of our mortgage. if they hadn't done that, we'd be in much, much worse shape. >> my landlord was very accommodating because i had always kepan open dialog with him about when i could pay

something, when i was expecting to pay something. this affected me, he sympathized with that and was able to accommodate me accordingly. i honestly i can't imagine what i would do in this situation if he was not flexible. >> this month, i'm also going to have to ask our landlords to cut our rent in half. it's kind of one of those situations where if they say no, then okay. you know, we'll scrape it together and i'll have to use, you know, part of my check from the hoping to make sure that we have food with that.e' thno absolutely no buffernc in oure. >> because i have this mortgageh note, i'm juing that employment prospects just pick up for me in the next few weeks

because i would love to be ableo ot have to worry as much on ssday to day basis about providing for neies and also just carrying on with regular life. >> if we had not gotten that mortgage forbearanceit would be. you know, it would be time to start looking at potentially going to... not yet, but we would we would be in range of talking about like where do we find different food banks? you kn what? what is that going to look like? not paying for a mortgage for three months is the difference between life and death. like it, it's unimaginable. it's unimaginably huge. >> woodruff: john yang explores now what kind of relief and options might be avaable for people who are struggling to make their mortgage or monthly rent payments. >> yang: judy, just as strapped homeowners are scrambling for solutions, so are regulators and lenders. diane thompson oversaw mortgagei

regus at the consumer financial protection bureau. consumer law center, a non-al profit that focuses on consumers es for low-income people. thanks for joining us. i know there's no one size fits all answer to the people, the concerns we just heard. t let's try for the size that fits most. i know that 70% of theortgages in america are backed by the federal government one y or another, federally backed one way or another. if i hold one of tho mortgages and i lose my job, what should i know the immediate thing to do if you are in that situation is to call or contact, email your mortgage servicer. under federal law, for homeowners that are suffering any kind of financial hardship related to covid 19, they can get up to 12 months of rerbearance, so 12 months whe they don't have to make the

mortgage payment, and in most of those cases, what should happen with the mortgage payment, it will just get b put on theack end of the mortgage. >> reporter: you say 12 we hne to have the rdmonths. gentlemen in the tape just say his lender gave him three months automatically. can he go back and ask for more? >> yes, that's exactly right. many lenders, we're hering, are giving people three months automatically, but, under the cares act, you have a right to ask for up to 12 months, if you need it. >> reporter: and we've hea he was getting that time, the three months tacked on to the end of the life of himortgage. we have heard some people say that their lenders tell them they will get 90 days' forbearance but, at the o e the 90 days, they will have a balloopayment of the three months they missed. what should the people say if their lender tells them that? >> well, in the vast majority of the cases, people will not have to pay a lump sum.

all of the federa regators have been working on making clear that most homeowners will get the paymts moved to t back of their loan, they will not have to pay a lump sumer has been an awful lot of misinformation out there, whicht many o federal regulators are working now to correct. if people -- people should go ahead and accept the forbearance, if they get to the end of the forbearance period and the lender saysou have to pay this back in a lump sum, they should have to cotact a housing counselor, see if they're eligible for free legal services, complain to the financial protection bureau and the state attorney general. kinds of help or forbearance homeowners could be asking for right now?es >> all lenders have a whole suite of assistance tions, opportunities for people who are having trouble making their rtgage payments for one reason or another. if you want something differentl than the rar forbearance,

you know that your income hasne been perly reduced now, you should just call up your mortgage company or, agin, contact them by email and say "i need help, i need to pursue some kind of loss mitigation," and they can work with you to figure out what's the optn that bes fits your circumstance, anything from a short-term repaent plan to a loan modification that will on your mortgage. your payments >> reporter: everybody's taking a hit in this, including the lenisders. here a threat to the housing market and the home mortgage system -- the home mortgage industry? >> i thi there is a pretty signifant risk here. we are already at 7%, roughly, of all mortgages in the country in forbearance. those numbers are going up every week. we expect to see large surge in the next week when we get to the may 1 payment date.'s tha significant fraction of the mortgage system, and we're

going to need concerted, effective leadership at the federal level to prevent another major housinhcrisis like wit we saw in 2007, 200 one immediate risk is that the lenders ve to keep advancing the payments on the mortgages, even though homeowners aren't making, the lenders hve to keep advancing payments in the mortgages for at least four we keep seeing these increasing numbers of forbearances, there's a real qution about when the mortgage companies will start to n out of csh. at that point, we could start to see bankruptcies. thatould be devastating for homeowners as geeir mortgages transferred from one company to another and mortgages get lost and we can see an upinick foreclosures. >> diane thompson of the national consumer law center, thank you very much.

>> thanks, john. >> woodruff: the economic crisis also means demand for food stamps will swell. while congress did pass additional benefits for some recipients, a high percentage oo the pooreseholds did not get an increase. questions over additional money will undoubtedly be debated in congress in the weeks to come. but many people are already facing complications with using their benefits right now.on omics correspondent paul solman has the story for our series, "making sense." a pittsburgh food bank.g line at and it's hardly unique. dave wellons manages a foo warehouse in el paso, texas. >> usually by 8:00 o'clock inrn the g, there's vehicles lined up a mile to a mile and a half long. >> reporter: michael lopez is i. new yo

>> typically, the hu try monk rescck serves about 200 meals a week in our food pantry, over the past 35 days thatas numberrown to about 2,000 ngmilies that we are servi. >> i don't have any income coming in. don't get anfoodsts. sot's ard to get any helpightow. rhvil's brooklyn dotson doesn't get foot nearly 40 million americans do as so-called snap benefits. no one is starving, ys hunger free america's joel berg, but... >> they're rationing food. if this es on much, much longer then we could start to see actual starvation in america. we're doing far, much worse than any developed western nation. >> reporter: economist hilary hoynes. >> prior to thcrisis, about 11 percent of americans suffered from food insecurity, and we have every reason to believe that those statiics are increasing dramatically in the current time period. >> i'm natosha mccray and i live in the bronx, the nation's

hungriest urban county. d this is ghter ariana and my son ethan. >> reporter: three years ago, mcray was struggling, even with snap. but the pandemic has her kids, now four and 16, home from school, where they got their morning and afternoon meals. suddenly, says mccray... y got to have breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and with them both being home everybody is hungry all the time. >> reporter: mccray gets about $550 a month for her family of three. but her income as a tutor to low income kids has plummete a so hut free food? she was using new york city's grab and go school meal program which expanded to adults o3. apri >> and then shortly between week three and four, cken i went to p a breakfast or a lunch or two, there weren't any more breakfast or lunch available. >> reporter: joel berg isn't surprised. >> even in the best of, the charitable sector only handles a small portion of the need. the federal nutrition assistance programs, still provide re

than 10 times the doar amount. >> reporter: but for those like mccray, already getting maximum snap benefits before the pandemic. >> you have to wear a face mask. >> reporter: the assistance't haone up while prices have. >> hamburgers $18.99, $31.99. >> reporter: at least in her food desert stretch of the bronx. >> when the pandemic first started, they were gouging prices. i mean the cost of eggs was around $8.00. milk was $7.00. over the past five weeks it has been a nightmare. >> reporter: and the crisis has caused lots of snap snafus. quincy pettis is home from college so he isn't getting meals there. but he can't get snap either. >> i applied, but they denied me because they were saying that i t uld have to work 20 hours. >> reporter: he job, at dominos pizza, even ough hs taking 21 class credits online.

and still no food stamps. >> i would have to go and have my own apartment. but i am currently living at my parent's house. >> repter: so because you're living at your parents' house as opposed to having your own apartment, y're not eligible for snap. >> yes sir, correct. >> reporter: did you get a stimulus check? >> no, i did not get a stimulus check.te >> rep because he's in college. the rules are a problem for millions of students right now says ken regal of just harvest. >> collegetudents can't get food stamps at school, can't get food stamps at home. the parent can't get food stamps for the child in their household. parent can't get the smulus payment for the child and the child, the college student can't get the stimulus payment of their own. it's a quintuple whammy. ter: are you hungry at all? >> yes, i am hungry. >> reporter: another snap snafu: online shopping. alisa grishman, a pittsburgh disability rights advocate, has six autoimmune diseases. >> the main ones that affect me are multiple sclerosis and crohn's disease.bu i also have forms of

arthritis. i have diabetes from steroids for my other conditions. and so it's extremely dangerous for me to go out.le i haven't my house in a month id a half. if get sick, i'm going to get very sick. >> reporter: so if you can't gou >> unfortunately, shop online? snnsylvania doesn't allow you to use your foodmps to order online delivery of any sort of groceries. vealso can't use it to do a pickup order to omeone pick it up either. >> reporter: in fact, only six ststates do allow it, undect conditions. >> ts is auge problem for large numbers of people. people who are immunocompromised, people who have disabilities, people have difficulty getting around. people whose buses he been cut. >> reporter: tens of millions of americans are food insecure right now. doesn't bode well for them,

or the economy, says joel berg emphatically. >> even before this crisis, food insecurity cost our economy over $160 billion a year because hungry children don't learn as well. hungry workers don't work as well. and hungry seniors can't stay independent. >> reporter: and all of their numbers are growing. this is paul solman. uf >> woo that brings us to this week's ask us segment where we take your questions on the pandemic to experts who can help us make sensof these difficult times. fueled an incredible response iaross our website and our various social mlatforms: twitter, instagram and facebook. s for the record, facebook funder of the newshour. am nawaz has more. >> nawaz: thanks, judy, and thanks to all of you for sending us your estions. as we've been reporting, the

economic fallout from the pandemic has been unprecedented. so thiweek we're focusing on all your concerns about your money and your jobs. to ansr those questions, we are joined by michelle singletary of the "washington post" peonal finance columnist. michelle, welcome back to the newshour. good to see you. >> good to see you as well. >> nawaz: it will surprise you not at all to learn pet le have a questions on the topic. so let's jump right in. our first one comes from ann nagahiro. she lives in the state of washington. she reached out on instagram. here's the question fromnn.f >> for those who are planning on retiring in the next year or two, what would you suggest to make up the losses to our retirement funds? >> nawaz: michelle, a lot of people in this position. is there a way to make up those sses? >> no, not really. not in the short term. lots of people are wondering, should i sell, sell everything? but the fact of the matter is that sort of trying to time the market and you don't want to do that and you're probably going to have years to retirement. what you really want to focus is on making sure that you have

enough income to weather this storm for another year or two, that you would tap your emergency savings, maybe some bonds, but you really want to a leave the bone if it's already well diversified and have a good retirement plan. there really isn't ag you can or should do right now. that depending on how old you are, this ecomic pch is hitting you differently. i want to go now to onur younger viewers, kamto reached he lives in raleigth carolina, and he sent us ts question. >> staying home as continue my studies and begin a job search, i'm finding it really hard because i can'network. what advice would you have for a limited skills entthe jobith market right now? >> nawaz: michelle, there's so much uncertaintyor college students, recent college grads. what advice do you have for kevin? >> it's really, really tough. it just so happens my son is named kevin. and he's a senior in college. and he right now is trying to get an internship for the summer.

and you know what was key for him? he stayed in contact with the career office at his school. u he goes to tversity of maryland, baltimore county, and they have a fantastic office that is actually working to help its students finding summer internships. there's some that are actually virtual now he's looking at.he and that'snternship that will be virtual. he got a job actually for the summer.mo this a little worried about that, but he was able to land an internship.f so onee things is contact the career office at your school and just continue toatut those applns out. even though companies have pulled back, you kno economy will start again and they are going to need those some workers that they're used to. >> nawaz: good luck to your kevin michelle and to kevin kamtout there who wrote in o last question now coming to us from lisa quinlivan.te she's a pistudio owner and she reached out to us on our web site. michelle, here's what lisa h to say. >> i'm bleeding financially.ed

not unemplet, not fully employed as i was prior to covid. what can i do to survive when i'm under the radar of the cares act and its economic distribution? >> nawaz: michelle, of coursat are is actually talking about the massive congressional plan to provide some kind of economic relief for america. what do you say to lisa stuck in this position w? >> well, there's actually two avenues she might want to pursue both. at the same time, though, the care's expanded unemployment for the self-employed workers. so she should check with your state unemployment office to see which part, because lots of states are behind on that. but if that's a possibility for her to get some income and you can get an extra $600 per week up until july, i'm from the she should also pursue a small business loan. she's self-employed and thosesm l business loans are also available to self-employed folkr likelf. now, that program has been plagued by issues and obviously some people already know it ran

upt of money right away. but there's a stn funding. and so if she has a good relationship with a local bank, that she should contact them anl get e for that. >> nawaz: that is peeat advice fole who really, really need it right now. michelle singletary of the "washington post." always good to talk to you. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. of nawaz: and thanks to al you for your questions, you can send us more on news hoursit we twitter, facebook or instagram accounts or on our web site: that's pbs.org/newshour. n >> woodruff:e day's other news, the nation's top elected democrat defended joe den, the party's presumptive presidential nominee, against an allegation of sexual assault a former staffer says biden attacked her in the mid-1990's, when he was a u.s. senator. his democratic presidential campaign has strongly denied it.

pelosi eorsed him on monday, and said today she is satisfied >> there's been statements from his campaign, not his campaign but his former employees who ran his offices and the rest that there was never any record of this.e ths never any record. and that nobody ever came t forward t nobody came forward to say something about it apart from the principal involved. >> woodruff: meanwhi president trump dismissed e former natnal security advisor michael flynn was tormented by dirty scos and cited internal defense lawyers say the documents show flynnas set up

during the russia investigation. he pled guilty to lying to the f.b.i., but is seeking to withdraw the plea. reports of sexuaasults in the military are still rising, but not by nearly as much. the pentagon's annual review finds reports were up 3% last year, to just over 7,800. a year earlier, the incrse was 13%. and, britain paid tribute today to captain tom moore on his 100th birthday for raising $37 million for the national health service during the pandemic. the world war ii veteran earned financial pledges by doing laps around his garden. today, vintage warplanes did fly-bys as moore celebrated his centennial with family, and cake. he said there's more to be done. >> i'm delighted we've got so much money for such a good at the moment that cause is still necessary, they haven't

finished, they're still working their socks off aren't they, for all these or ill people? >> woodruff: moore's fundraising feat has also earned him a place in the guinness book of world records for most money raised by one person, walking. still to come on the newshour: republican senator john barrasso on the economy, testing and congress' ongoing response to covid-19 an examination of the world health organization's haonling of the cirus pandemic and what funding cuts could mean, plus much more. >> woodruff: as the debate over reopening states rages acrossim

the country, aar dispute is underway in the nation's capitol.e use of representatives remain in recess, but senators will return to washington in just a few days, for the first time in more than a month. b senator jorasso of wyoming se the third highest ranking republican in thte. he's also a physician and he joins us now from casper. senator barrasso, thank you very muchor joining us ain. it's good to see you. i want to start out by asking you, as a doctor, how encraged are yu by these latest reports about this antiviral drug a remdesiv a treatment for the coronavirus? >> well, i'm very encouged by this. i will tell you, judy, this is very important for all of america because that's what we need, a treatment for this virus. that's the way that we get beyond this terrible medical asndition, as wel the economic disaster that has we need to have therapeutics available, and this is really a

od sign of hope. >> woodruff: so you see it as turning a corner? >> well, i really do. it is a light at the end of the tunnel. it's aopportunity to more quickly open the economy. in wyoming, we are opening our state tomorrow, we're doing it the right waye . vernor is working closely with our health officers. we're going to do it smartly, safely, and we're going to be returning as a senate tosh gton on monday, but i think this is really good news. when youtake a lookt at the fact that we have 30 million who are nemployed right ncause to have the pandemic, we need to do everything we can to help those people get back to work. want toruff: i als ask you about testing, senator, because people are asking how long is it going t take to get to where the united states needs to be on testing? right now, per capita, we are only about half of where germany is, and we're behind a number of other countries. en can americans look for testing to be where it needs to be? >> we're getting closer.

dr. fauci said we need about 3 million tests a week. we'rat about 2 million tets a week. we lost about six weeks by the delays inonmination for the centers for disease control in e february arly march. we're moving in a right direction. we're now at n pointoming where we have enough tests that because we have t medicaln supplies, we have the hospital beds, and we have the testing to make sure that, if there's a flareup, we'll be able to detect it quickly. we have been fortunate ing wyomo not have that many cases, only about 400. but the impact of this virus hit everyone in america. in wyoming more from an economic because it flat lined our economy in terms of energy, agriculture d tourism, and that's why people of wyoming are so happy, they want to get back to w'rk, and going to get >> woodruff: speaking of the economy and struggles states are

having, as you probay know democratic speaker nancy pelosi is saying, in fact, sheaid today, she's looking for a need to up a trllion dollars in the coming years for state and local governmenthit hard by the pandemic, revenues are not coming in. at this point, republicans are not on board witath thand, in mcconnell, said ju fewch days ago, he thinks it's acceptable for states to think about bankruptcy. >> well, he certainly got everyone's attention with that ctatement. i think that's mtoo early to go down that line. we had a conference of all of the republicans today by phone talkinespecifically about th needs. we all know there are 30 million americans who are t of work today because of coronavirus. we know they are going to need help. we want to do it in a way that is targeted and is temporary. needs to be bipartisan, which is what we had last time with the cares act, 96 to nothing in

the senate, but it has to focusc on the i of coronavirus. what we've said is it's time to temporarily push the pause button, to make sure ll of committed is beised wisely. been the states are asking for more money, thstates just got $150 billion layst tue so none of those states have had an oortunity yet to see how far that's going to go, what the needs are. what we really need to do is push the strt button to get the economy moving again, and the sooner we can do that, judy, the ortter it's going to be everyone. so my goal is to get the economy moving and is medical breakthrough, i think, is one of the big helpers to help us downt ine. >> woodruff: in connection withll that, as you know, a lot of complaints and criticism about the facts that businesse that were big and successful have gotten big chunks of the money that has gone out that wa intended for small, struggling

businesses. how confident are you that, aring forward, thergoing to be the safeguards, the guardrails in place to make sure e money goes to theeople who need it? >> i've heard the stories ander shared the co of those people who have seen those reports of whether is the l.a. lakers or whoever getting in wehad over 7,000 loans to wyoming. small businesses, mom and pop small bus oinesseer $800 million. the program is wor it's going to need to continue to work to help get these people back to woe and maksure these businesses are there. the early goals were tt o just the money out as quickly as we could to try to keep people o the payroll. this was such an overprprescribd ram that what we saw is it ran out of money and sat empty for about ten days while the democrats played politics and tried to get political leverage under speaker pelosi and chuck schumer. that should have never been allowed to happen. we now have this funded again,

it is working for small that signed an affidavit that said with we need the money and it's coronavirus impacted, they were not going to have those loans forgiven if they really didn't need the money, and rightly a number of them who have been point at returned the money so it can be used for across the country who really need it badly, judy. woodruff: quickly, i wnt to ask about president trump's leadership. and said he's done a very good job of leading the country through this. but i wanict to qy quote something he said at the end of february. he said, at this point, there were 15 people in america who had died, he said this is going to be down close to sorry, we've done a pry good job. senator, here we are two months later more than 61,000 americans have died, over a milion cases, a third of the cases in the world, the president's son-in-law is saying it's a big

success story. how do you square this? >> well, dr. fauci, just a couple of weeks ago, was talking about hundreds of thousands of times" talked about millions of americans dying. the president has d from in front, he has listened to the medical experts, to d. birx, dr. fauci has done that regularly, and i believe he has now put the entire force to have the united states government in this fight agaus. there is a light at the end of the tunnavelst, and irthoe rpres pointing that road to the future ecr a return to a healthy d aomricat bnac qk tohe work, e better the president has a lot of things to balance -- national security, economic safety for the country, the physical safety of the country, and he's continued to work hard every day to get that balance right. o >> woodruff: but he alsid at th end of february the country was close to zero. >> well, we know what te numbers are today, and that's what i'm doing. we can spend a lot of time

rsinting fin i know the house wants to put a commission together to go after the president. want to focus as a doctor and as a senator for wyoming on getting wy oomien again, getting businesses going, gettina strg, healthy, robust economy back to place and saving asany lives as we can in the process. >> woodruff: senator john barrasso of wyoming joining us from casper. thank you very much, senator. >> thank you, judy. dr >> wf: today the world health organization is hosting m an emergenting, as the trump administration continues its pressure. for weeks the trump administration has blamed the world health organization for

while the u.s. intelligence community said today it made no judgment on that score. president trump has frozen u.s. contributions to the w.h.o. the u.s. has bn the largest funder, paying more than 14% of the w.ht,.o.'s budouble the next largest individual country. as nick schifrin reports, the adnistration blamed the w.h.o. w.h.o. says it's t doing its job. >> the director jerl led a meeting ton cofirm emergencies that are medical. >> we shouldn't pretend because some organization has health in the title it's capable of delivering the outcomes >> ty're literally a pe organ for china. that's t way i view it. argues the w.h.o. failed to warn the world about covid-19, and failed to question china's incorrect initial assessments of no human to human transmission.

>> we give $500 million we have over the years, from 400 to 500 fong time, for many years. and china is giving $38 millionn yet they seem to work for china..o >> schifrin: wdirector general tedros ghebreyesus has pushed back, arguings to accept country's assessments, and the organization did its job. . from the beginning, w.h has acted quickly and decisively to respond and to warn the world. we sounded the alarm early, and we sounded it often. >> schifrin: here's the u.s. criticism: four times in early januar the w.h.o. released statements and tweets repeating china's incorrect claims, and praising china's response, despite an early coverup in wuhan. >> i'm declaring a public health emergency of international concern. >> schifrin: by january 30, ghebrereyesus declared the organization's most urgent warning, and continued praising of china.

>> the speed with which cha detected the outbreak, isolated the viru and sequenced the genome, and shared it with who and the world, are very impressive, and beyond words. >> schifrin:he administration's critics accuse president trump of deflectingom blame is own failings, and note he too praised china and the w.h.o. early on. >> i think china is very professionally run, in the sense that they ha everything under to have it under control. we're just sent some of our bese le over there, world health organization, and a lot of themo are composedf our people, they>>e fantastic. he united nations, a new organization exists to promote >> schifrin: in ju8, the w.h.o. was born with an american director general and an agendack to help the cross the world. >> all peoples of every race and from all res and nations. >> schifrin: w.o. has launched successful polio campaigns in

some of the world's most dangerous countries, like syria, coordinated and trained vaccine efforts, going back to cholera. and battled diseas t like ebola developing world senior u.s. officials te pbs newshour they're looking to redirect money to other health organizations. but the us might also decide some w.h.o. programs are state mike pompeo said yesterday.th >> ie is a function that only the w.h.o. can do, and we think it is important for american national security because we are good humanitarian ipartners around the worl confident we'll find a way to deliver thatutcome. >> schifrin: so is the trump administration's criticism of the world health organization valid? for that we get two views. dr. michael merson is professor of global health at duke university.er he held a nuf leadership positions at the world health organization for 17 years, inuding directing their acute respiratory infections control program.d nhee chen is the director of domestic policy studies at he also served in orge w.

bush administration as a senior official at the department of health and human services. thank you very much. welcome to the "newshour" to you both. dr. merson, let me start with you. what do you make of the fundamental critique of the w.h.o.? >> i think one can argue that the chinese government did not act fastnd strong enough at the appearance of this new coronavirus. they ignored some early signs, and they stifled some whistleblowers, and this needs to be looked into, but i think, from the standpoint of w.h.o., i think they -- for thet mos part -- acted quickly and decisively. >> reporter: lanhee chen, what about that? did they act quickly and decisively? the strzok said they accepted china tomuch at face value. >> i don't think there is any n estion that the w.h.o. was more interestedis case specifically of parroting what the chinese government was

telling it as oposed to truly evaluating the situation. some will argue that's because of systemic issues at the w.h.o., limitations on its w power and authority, and that may be, but the fact remains that the w.h.o. waited for tenbe weekeen the first manifestation of symptoms in wuhan fore even sending a group of individuals to go to the ground in china to having what was going on. >> interest merson, we just ard the word parroting, but the w.h.o. argues it has to pash alont its member countries give it and, in this case, chi wasn't giving it anything and, when it did give the w.h.o. some information, it was that there was no human-to-human tranission in late december, early january. >> i think soon, within 48 hours of hearing about this coronavirus, w.h.o. put the word out to institutions in seventy countries about the presence of the virus.

they then continued to hold almost daily briefings. they sent information to countries, all of this in the fit few weeks of january, about the virus, how it was spread. they were able to share the genetic sequence of the virus so that countries could make diagnostic tests, even begin to make a vaccine. they produce add booklet, information on how you could even go ahead and make a p.c.r. diagnostic test. the director general and histo team wenhina to talk to the authorities there and, by the end of the month of january, they had convened an emergency committee that had declared a public health emergcy, which is under the internationalns health regulathe highest alert that w.h.o. can issue. so i think, within a month, that's a very impressive track record. >> reporte so lanhee chen, what about that?

the time china declaredin somethinlate december all the way through late, jr., w.h.o. took those steps and the director general saying yesterday and the last couple of weeks they sounded the alarm early and often. >> well, there we critical missteps early that i think contributed unfortunately according to some scientific analysis to the spread of the virus much more wideline and virulently than it had the notation on january 14t januy 14th essentially repeating china's claims regarding the virus noto being trance missable between humans and, in fact, no providing the e caveats that china provided at the time was a crucial early mistake. the failure, as i said earlier, to investigate more thoroughly than med february as to what was happening on the ground, contrast that to how the w..o. very forcefully addressed sars back in 2002 when it sought information from nongovernmental sources, wh it sought

information on the ground, when it actually provoked china to finally admit stuff was going on there in country at the time. >> when i talked to the administration officials, they emphasized they're trying to get wsitive outcomes and want to reform th.o. tanned to try to give the w.h.o. more power to, for example, not just repeat what china is telling them. are those ideas for reform valid? are they possible. >> is this it's always a goo idea to see how u.n. agencies can be proved. w.h.o., over itsisry, has had various looks at how its administrations and operations can be improved, but it's not time to do thinow. we are faced with the worst pandemic in theast 100 years. we have had mostly, so far, our europe, northern united states, but the real fear is this pandemic is no going t really strike the low and middle-income

countries. there are over 110 of these, and these countries depend on w.h.o. for their technical advice, for their strategic thinking, for their equipment, for supplies, and they neew.h.o., they're health systems are fragile. they don't have equipment that they need, and they're going to get that frm w.h.o. and there's a projection from oxford that there might be as many as 1.4 million deaths in middle-income countries.ow and so this is just not the time to break a key lifeline that these countries have to keep theirs populatis healthy as they can be. if we cntinue to have hot spots anywhere in the world, that's a reat to our own security and, unless all countries are healthy, no country is safe from this pandemic, and by going after w.h.o. now, we'bare cally threatening our own global security. >>eporter: lanhee chen wat

about the idea that the timing is bad that w.h.o. does things that it needs tbe alowed to do in this pandemic and, also, the criticism of president trump, should president trump be blaming the that he's made? of the mitakes >> undoubtedly the w.h.o. does important work and the w.h. is not solely responsible for he pandemic outbreak, but we have to take cold look at the numbers and realize that of the u.s. contribution in 2018, 2019 to the w.h.o., only 1.6% of our contribution went to pandemic preparedness and response. the notion that somehow the organization is going be crippled because the u.s. takes a pause in looking at how it wants to fund and potentially form the organization, in my mind, is red herring. we need to continue to ensure the organization dos what it's able to do best but that doesn't as sec pompeo noted in the. opening pi cece,r thei u itical needs are funded, i t bnsheede

is going to be curbed or shut down haze because he u.s. takes a hold on funding is untrue given the numbers and actual contribution we make to the organization. >> reporter: lanhee chen, dr. michael merson, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in tonight's brief but spectacular, authoand former hindu monk jay shetty has a message for those living alone during the pandemic. he's currently leading a 20-day, live meditation series on instram, and his first book, "think like a monk," will be out this fall. >> my first message to anyone living alone at the moment is, i want you to know that you're not alone.

we often refer to loneliness as something negative and we look at it as a weakness. but when i lived as a monk, solitude is often spoken of, as a strength.and the fstng i mends fi e thing that you can do every single day that brings you joy. it may be reading a book youay love, ite looking at a beautiful piece of art, doing one thing by yourself, for yourself, that creates joy is such an important habit.so don't seal distancing as the end of your social life. it's so importan we use edinth tibcrolecleathn connection, ask for support when yoneed it. don't feel ashamed or embarrassed. we are a in this together. we're all experiencing it and we're all going to be there for each other. some people e fearing the loss of work. some people are dealing with the wss of work.

people are dealih the loss oc family members or the rescheduling of ures and surgeries that were already planned. so ge people the time around you to accept their loss. one of the best ways that we can experience gratitude right now is to look through our phones at the 72,928 pictures at you've taken. and take a moment to feel gratul for three things, the people in your life, the places that you've visited and the projects that you've worked on. during this pandemic, i believe that we'reoing to get to see the best of humanity. often we think of change as being raising a million dollars or helping 100,000 people, but true change, real change could be just calling one person who you know is lonely every single day. it can be delivering some food someone who can't go out

themselves, so don't measure your impact by how many peoplen you lp. measure it by how deeply you can help the people around you. my name's jay isetty, and this y brief but spectacular take on whye're never really alone. findodruff: and you c all our brief but spectacular segments at pbs.org/newshour/brief. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshourthk you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs ednewshour has been providy:

>> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the worldwide. of social change >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. >> and with the ongoing supporti of these instis and friends of the newshour. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station fromiewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored b newshour productions, llc

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♪ hello everyone and welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> coronavirus hasow killed more americans than were killed ov two decades in the vietnam war while the economy shrinks for the first time in six yes. former democratic senator heidi heitka on the struggle facing small, rural busisses. look at farm communities falling on har times here ine th uk. plus the untold stories of coronavirusround the world. the prime minister of bar bad does tells us about the unique challenges facing her small island d holidaytination and -- >> what i really, really strive for is to think about others and try to