captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: the threat persists. covid-19 infection and death rates continue to mount, as the esident leaves washingto for the first time in weeks toa visisk-making facility in arizona. then, thlatest view from the front lines of the battle against the coronaviru this time, from a medevac nurse practitioner. plus, making use of idle time. the unique projects people are pursuing as they adapt to life under social distancing. >> wheyou are confined, there's less environmental stimulation to keep the mind engaged. there's less to do, unss you exercise creative responses to your situation.

>> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshou ajor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: on >>mer cellular offers no-contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy. ether you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer service team is here tt find a plan its you. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> fidelity investments. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fosterininformed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support

of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for publicroadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. oo >>uff: the covid-19 pandemic has now claimed more than 70,000 lives in the united states. that news comes on a day when president trump broke a long spell of confinement in washington and traveled 2,300 miles west. we begin with this report from john yang. >> hello, everybody. the white house today for hiseft first cross-country trip since the pandemic gripped america, he dismissed an internal government report that projected a steep rise in deaths, even as states ons. restric >> it's a report with no mitigation. so, based on no mitigation-- but we're doing a lot of mitigation.

and frankly, when the people report back, they are gointo be social distancing, waing their hands. tthey are going to be doi things they're supposed too. >> yang: in phoenix, president trump toured a honeywell aerospace plant, now producing n95 masks. but, did not wear mask himself. >> we're now looking at a little bit of a different form, and that form is safety and opening, ntd we'll have a differeroup prably set up for that. >> yang: in washington, lawmakers returned to the capitol, but business was anything but normal. a sete confirmation hearing for mr. trump's picko be director of national intelligence was held in a nearly empty room. senators rotated in and out to keep their distance from each other. and in the house, lawmakers

wearing masks welcomed their newest colleague, maryland's kweisi mfume. the democrat-controlled house had hoped to hear this week from dr. anthony fauci, but the white today, president trump saide. fauci would be allowed to testify at a hearing in the arpublican-majority senate. meanwhile, statewrestling with how to reopen their economies. new york governor andrew cuomo warned of the costf reopening too quickly. the state today reported more 19an 1,700 previously undisclosed covieaths at nursing homes. >> in a nursing home, that coronavirus-- and all it takes is one person to bring thats vi. >> yang: in raleigth carolina, dozens gathered to rally against that state's restriions. >> we must protect our liberty, and it is time to reopen north carolina. >> yang: but similar measures apar to have paid off in places like south korea.

officials there logged just three new cases today-- the lowest in nearly three months. now, some south korean students are poised tgo back in school d,rtarfaneineek. indulged-- albeit from inside their homes. korea's professional baseball league kicked off its new season today, with no spectators in the stands. but a similar st toward normalcy in india, where infections are still soaring, backfired. crowds flocked to the streets after the government took its rst steps to end its lockdown, and social distaing fell by the wayside as lines outside liquor stores stretched for blocks. in response, the governmentta impod a 70on liquor. in europe, new evidence thathe ourus may have arrived earlier than previously t. a paris hospital discovered a december-- nearly a month before

france confirmed what had been thought to be its first case. a world health organization said it was no surprise. >> it's also possible that some rly cases be found as countries retest samples from patients who were sick in december or january of unspecified pneumonia or other reasons. >> yang: for the pbs nshour, i'm john yang. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, wall street managed another modest rally as more stsinesses began reopening. the dow jones inal average gained 133 points to close at 23,883. the nasdaq rose 98 points, and the s&p 500 added 25. the rally came despite news at the pandemic caused the service sector in the economy to contract last month for the first time in ten years. the nominee to oversee federal pandemic recovery spending promised fair, impartial audits today.

house counsel's office.hwhite as a special inspector general, he would watch over $500 billion in economic rescue funds. president trump has said he would resist oversight ofnd pandemic sg. the president's pick to be director of national intelligence pledged to steer clear of political bias. texas republican congressman john ratcliffe is an ardent defender of mr. trump. g,at his confirmation hear senators-- including some republicans-- openly questione whether he would guard the intelligence community against political pressures. >> there are some very experienced analysts wthe i.c. that are concerned that you mighattempt to shade the conclusis in order to avoid alienating theresident in

presenting his daily brief. >> i won't shade intelligenc for anyone, whether we're talking about the president, members congress, any policymakers. >> woodruff: ratcliffe's initiai tion was pulled last year after bipartisan criticism of his closeness to the president and lack of experience in intelligence. in syria, there are reports ofy. israeli air strikes in two different regions of the country. state media reports israeli h plan military targets at al-safirah, near aleppo. and, a war monitoring group qiys separate strikes killed 14 iranian and iighters in eastern syria. the israelis had no immediate comment. the president of venezuela says ericans took part in a failed raid aimed at toppling his government. they were arreed monday, a day after mercenaries attacked a coastal outpost. their pers show they were

former green beret able to uncover throristre incursion, of which we have been victims. the government of the united states of america is fully and completely involved in this , defeated by the solid civic military police union of venezuela. >> woodruff: both president trump and dense secretary mark esper said today, the u.s. had nothing to with the alleged raid. and, the philippines government ordered thcountry's top television network to shut down after its franchise expired. president rodrigo duterte had targeted the network's news coverage of his administration. a handful of protesters lit candles and held signs outside the network's offices,de uncing the government's move as a crackdown on free speech. still to come on the newshour: i ask arkansas governor asa hutchinson about the challenges

of reopening his state. another dispatch from the "front lines" of the battle against coronavirus. the worldwide battle for for medial workerse equipment and, much more. >> woodruff: after weeks of unemployment claiming,ered and more than half of the states are now beginning to lift restrictions and reopen local economies. earlr today, president trump was in arizona, and told abc news that heccepts that more people could become sick and die as a result ofeopening. >> it's possible there will be some, because you won't locked into an apartment or a house, or whatever it is.

but at the same time, we'r going to practice social distancing, we're going to be washing hands, we're going to be doing a lot of the things that we've learned to do over the last period of time. and, we have to get our country back. you know, people are dying the other way, too. when you look at what's happened it goes up... when you look at suicides. i mean, take a look at what's going on. people are losing their jobs.e we h bring it back, and that's what we're doing. >> woodruff: in arkansas, republican governor asa l hutchinson hd out his plan for a phased reopening of houses of worship, gyms, restaurants, and other large gathering spaces. governor hutchinson joins me now. welcome back to the news hour, governor. yes, you have announced the opening of a number of places, hair salon, church, we've talken abouhe next few days.ra dine-in rests. massage parlors.week places like

why do you think it's safe to do this? >> judy, it's good to be with you again. e last time we were together, we were talking about the fact that arkansas was not a we got a lot of criticism as to whether that was the right strategy. we put restrictionon many of our businesses, but we didn't shut everything down. now that ourcases are down, our trajectory is going in the right direction, we're starting toom liftof those resictions and just like we did it differently before, now we're not doing it all at once.in we're it a step at a time. so you can measure very being disciplinedher ouryou're ...es go up, whether our whether we have any resurgence. so we're being cautious about it.ou bucases are down. our trajectory is going in then. right direct and we're doing our testing.

we have contact testing capability. so i feel comfortable in lifting some of thetise restrs now. the key is that we have to beal indivi disciplined to do the social discipline. it's really hard out there whenever the sun is shining, we're cooped up. we want to get outside, but we haveouo disciplinerselves. >> woodruff: at the same time, governor, you know, the white house guidelines werthat states were advised strongly to wait until you had 14 days of declining rates. you're not there yet in arkansas. >>no, i disagree with that. we've had 14 days of declining caseload. the trajectory is down. in addition, one of the alternatives was the negative rate or the positivity rate on your testing, and ours is very, very low. it's been treg ndwn. so we actually meet all of the criteria for entering pse under the president's guidance. we want to be able to stay there and to cont tint trajectory

so that in another 14 days we can go to phase two an we can continue to open up and lift those resontric >> as you know, governor, groups that do these projections forecast e number of infections and the number of deaths including the most prominent one at the university of washington. they have now in thlast day upped their projectns. tesed on the fact that sta like arkansas and a number of other states are opening up. they say people are going to be moving around, they're going to be touching places that otherin people are tou and inevitably that is going to mean more infections. are you prepared for infections and frankly for deaths to up? >> it is a concern. the university of washington, even though they've missed their modeling significant as they made projections for arkansas and other states, it is still a od warning.

certainly it is a concern whenever you look relying upon individual, relying upon employers to do the right thing, i think ty're being very, very yen uni. in have 60 processing plants arkansas. thank goodness we don't have any that have shut down becse of positive test, but it's a crucial it's a risk. they havrigot to do the ght thing every day. but the key is that, sure, 're going to have to have understand debts of a positive test or a business or some of thi activity. and we have to be able to no if there. we have to do the tracing, know the sources of it and expand that, and then be able to and that's how you move through this pandemic and also be able to continue with aan economy tht is vital and people need to work. so i think we are balancing it right, and the key again is that individual discipline and, you exercise that and is theoing

work.re but i think wdoing it the right way, and as nation, every state is different and ever ay state different trajectory, a different peak time. so the governors have a lot of discretion. we're exercising it here. look at the statistics. we're going the right direction, and i think we're one of 15 states that moving down in our caseload. >> woodruff: governor, i watched your news conference today. de of the things you s in the next couple day, you expect there to be a spike in cases in arkansas's correctional institutions. you talked about having state employees and you also mentioned nursing homes. people who have tested positive may still be expected to show up for work if they're asymptomatic because in the view of the i stats more important that they take these jobs, that these jobs are filled. y then that theay away. explain that reasoning. >> well, let's look at the

prisons. in the prison system, we had an outbreak, the mimum security unit. it was a large outbreak. so some of the staff tested positive, but... soe allowed some of the staff that ideallyu would be qarantined in their home to come back to work, and they would only be working with those inmates that tested positive.ng so it's not goo be a spread issue. it's going to be flfilling the need that was there. so because it's a hard-to-fill job, because it's a very dangerous place to work, we needed those guards there. in a similar way, in some nursing home, if a staff person tested positive, you put them in the right position, because you have to have people in there to care for these positive patients, as well. so you work through that. it's not ideal, but you worknd through itthat's how we handled it. >> woodruff: and very quickly,

govern, you said you were opening up restrictions on people coming from non-hot spots if y will around the contry to be able to travel into arkansas, but my question quickly is: ho are you going to check that? are you going to have center are you going to haverd people at airports? just quickly, how does that work? >> we won't have those checkpoints, but, for example, those that come here and seek lodging, if they're from one of the hot spots, then they'reed requo quarantine for 14 days. that in and of itsbelf proably will keep them moving, because no one wants to stay in thee sam hotel for 14 days. and so it's checked by our lodging industry, and it is measured there, and if there is a different hot spot that arises, then our department of health can make the changes.>> oodruff: governor, asa hutchinson of arkansas, thank you very much. good to see you. >> good to be with you.

woodruff: as we've been reporting, america's regional and rural hospitals are sometimes overwhelmed and ill-equipped to deal with the influx of more seriousro virus cases. william brangham recently spoke unique medical tet comesof a to help these hospitals and thr patients. >> brangham: that's right. which is a huge hospital system, that serves many different counties and states, sometimes when critically ill patients need help, jennifer adamski comes and gets them via helicopter. adamski is a critical care nurse practitioner with the cleveland clinic, and she joins me now. jennifer, thank you very, very much for being here. could you just give us a sense now, how many would you estimate aof your patients current coronavirus patients? >> i would say what i'm seeing in my role is maybe an upwardsov

of 50% to 60 the last month or two or so. covid-positive, or suspected covid-positive patients, most requing mechanical ventilation and/or high levels of oxygen therapy and support.ow you a little bit about what i do: before covid, we would fly in and safely and quickly get the patient out and have really minimal interaction with the staff, and or develop eep connection with the staff-- >> brangham: this is the staff at t local hospital? >> exactly. but now what we're seeing is when we rive at these facilities across the state or even across the country, whether it be a freestanng e.r. or a small community hospital, a big level-one tertiary center i.c.u., we instantly become part of their covid team. you know, each facility has really determined a process that works best for them in this

dilyicult time, and we insta are assimilated into that fold. and what i mean by that is we may take more thoughtful and deliberate time to interact with the nurses and the support staff, whether it be taking para in their donni doffing buddy systems, helping them with their i.v.s outside the room, or even making sure that we facetime families before we go, because they may not see their loved one for a while-- or at all, actually. and for me personally, i just really make sure that i take the time to let the staff know that they're appreciated. the is such a sense of pri from the nurses at the bedside that i've never expeenced in my 20-plus years as a nurse. you're doing a lot mor than transporting. you're doing full medical interventions up there. >> absutely. s's funny, i teach mdents that critical care is a type of

care and not a place, and this is the perfectexample of th. this is critical care in the air. this is critical care in the air with aew less resources, few less hands than what you would have at the bedside in your i.c.u. >> brangham: from your vantage point in ohio-- i ow you're traveling around the country, i but you're basohio-- have people there been listening to those stay at home orders for the most part? >> i feel like that they have. and if i could share just a quick story?in i was drhome last week after a long shift of flying very sick patients, and i came upon this multi-car accident that appeared to have just happened. and there was a body laying lifeless in the middle of the freeway. and immediately i stopped, and i was the first one on the scene to assess the patient. and he appeared to have been thrown from the car and had a bad head injury and bleeding and very shallow respirations. and over the next two minutes, four critical care nurses stopped, one right after another, eacin their scrubs,

all from different area hospitals, all different specialties. ankfully, i had some extra gloves and masks in the car that i distributed.ld i -spine and we rolled theni patient inn, like a dance. >> brangham: these were all workers from different hospitale all coming off shifts too? >> absolutely. we assessed airway and pulse. one of the nurses ha great idea to use one her child's diapers to stop the copious head bld. and we waited in the middle of what was always a busy highway before cov, and now only had essential workers on the road. and how lucky for that patient? itas very surreal, and i thought about it later on that night why it touched me so much. and it wasn't that my fellow warriors in arms stopped to wehelp, because that's whao. it was the sense of ownership and competence that each one of these nurses exuded and the need to keep our communities safe at all costs, even outside the four walls of a hospital.

so despite this visceral fear that i have each day now putting on my flight suit, there is such truth in the quote that the best way to find yourself is to loser lf in the service of others. and honestly, i can't remember a time when i was more proud to call myself a nurse. >> brangham: it's a beautiful definition of the term"e ential workers" right there. annnifer adamski of the cleveland clinicyou so much for your time, and thank you for your work. >> thank you so much. and stay well. >> woodruff: today, president trump left washington, d.c. for to visit a new honeywell factory th makes medical masks. it's part of a massive push by the trump administration to move the prodtion of medical equipment to the u.s. and, as nick schifrin reports,

tlit comes amid a global b for medical equipment, aftsh a worldwide ortage. >> we demand that you immediately get p.p. to nurses, doctors and health care workers! >> i kid you not-- white aprons. >> ( translated ): our colleagues don't have p.p.e., and they're being infected. nd>> we have people coming sewing things for us, sewing masks, making things out of plastics. that would be like a soldier going to war and making a plastic gun to bring with m. >> schifrin: in this war, the frontline has often fought without protection. doctors and nurses had to create their own personal protectiveui ent, or p.p.e. the shortage killed hundreds of them. services found "widespreadman shortages" that "put staff and patients at risk."ie counand u.s. states competed for p.p.e. in a worldwide, cutthroat competition. >> we've been competing againstt other statesr nations, our own federal government, for p.p.e., coveralls, masks,sh lds. i

>> thenoystem of allocation or distribution that okes into account the nee various parts of the world. de becomes kind of a marketplace to the highest b >> schifrin: dr. tom ingelsby ntdirects johns' hopkins' for health security. he says the pandemic has exposed a key u.s. vulnerability. >> the are many compans that are based overseas that make product that comese o the u.s. soe dependent on overseas p.p.e., manufacturing and shipping. >> schifrin: the global center for p.p.e. is china. before covid-19, chinese, u.s., and other companies based in china produced approximately % of prod tuctioron. w but in january, as chinese doctors struggled to confront the country's covid-19 peak, they didn't have enough p.p.e. so chinese companies dispatched employees around the world to buy supplies-- including in australia, as seen in this

australia "60 minutes" story. >> if you have time, please drop by your local pharmacy to check if there are any 3mn95 or 8210 masks for sale. >> staff bought up what they could from pharmacies in eastwoodo penrith, to hornsby to mona vale. >> schifrin: at the same time,th trump administration was facilitating american p.p.e. for china-- 17.8 tons of it. secretary of state mike pompeo tweeted this video in early february o but china wasny accepting american p.p.e. in juary and february, it blocked u.s. factories in china from exporting masks back to the u.s. china effectively nationalized some of these companies, includg american companies, product inside of china. wh was the impact of that? >> wn you y "nationalized," in a crisis, any country would do that. that that was unoidable. we didn't need the procts then.

>> schifrin: derek scissors focuses on china for the american enterprise institute. he says the bigger problem is getting american- and chinese- produced p.p.e. out of china today. chinese television has promoted the export of billions of medical supplies around e world. senior u.s. officials say those exports slowed after countries complained about quality, and control.troduced more qualit wci theres anasr othys ontore the u.s., saysors. i don't think the cse are yi they have countries they think they can win diplomatic points with, a lot of them ahead of us. and so, in addition to theob m of low quality production, in addition to the problem of bureaucracy, there's 'rfinitely an element of " not rushing to fix those problems for the u.s." >> schifrin: the chinese government says it's doing all it can to increase production and distribute supplies around the world. >> ( translated ): china is to countries and regions thaties are in urgent need, at the fastest speed, every day.ut >> schifrin:senior u.s. officials accuse china of using those exports for coercion.

a recent article in "globale times," a chinwspaper that reflects government thinking, said cna should consider halting medical exports to the netherlands, because of improved ties with taiwan.u >> when e other countries stop exporting critical materials like p.p.e. fo whatever reason, it shows that the u.s. shouldn't breliant on overseas production and shippin of crititerial like masks and gowns and gloves.me >> schifrin:can companies like 3m and honeywell beefed up production in the u.s. in january. the trump administration has encouraged that move, and today president trump visited honeywell's new plant in arizona. but it will take months, even manufacturers want to maintain their china supply chain, saysak scott wh the c.e.o. of a medical manufacturers trade association. >> i think there is likely going

to be a shift to some degree ast wemore u.s. manufacturing. but i think the reality is, you still have to recognize at global supply chain exists and so you want to make sure you're doing both.a >> schifrin: fys that since late march, the u.s. has imported from china more thanma 163 millios, gloves, gowns, thermometers, and shields. nearly 1 billion-- mostlygl es-- have been imported from all over the world. senior trump adminision officials describe the air- bridge of supplies as a massiv success. but, obama administration officials say it shouldn't have be necessary. >> we realized the systems would collapse. >> schifrin: in 2015 and 2016, christopher kirchhoff served on the white house ebola task force, and led the obama administration's "lessons learned"tudy, that predicted today's p.p.e. shortage-- and a way to prevent it. >> we didn't make a major investment in p.p.e. that we knew we needed. systems worked as it should have in the first place, we never would ve ended up in a

situation where we're this sort of p.p.e. >> schifrin: today's increased manufacturing should lead to.s lessdependence on foreign imports. but even today, front line workers are paying therice for the shortage. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin. >> woodruff: in the best of times, mental heth and illness often are under-funded and under-treated in the americanem health care sy those concerns are especially magnified now, during this extended period of self- q isolatiorantines and shutdowns.y experts surge of need is building more widely and is only going to grow in the weeks and months to come. ose issues and what peop amna nawaz explores some of need to know.

>> nawaz: the laffs, the nancial pressure, the care- giving, are taking a toll on people across the country. mbers are hard to me by, but a recent survey by the kaiser family foundation found that 56% of people sa worry or stress tied to these outbreaks have led to at least one negative effect on their well- being. including sleeping troubles, eating, and alcohol use. we turn now to two experts. dr. joshua gorn is the director of the national institute of mental health at n.i.h. and, former congressman patrick kennedy is the founder of the these issues., which focuses on he's also a leader of the national action alliance for suicide prevention. gentleman, welcome to you both, and thank you for being here. patrick kennedy, i want the warned of what yoe called a have coming epidemic of suicide and overdose stemming from thismi covid-19 pan what have you seen so far that leads you to that conclusion? >> wel, first, we had an underlying epidemic to begin with, a record levels of increase in suicide and overdose

even before covid-19 hit. and as you just mentioned, covid-19 is going to exacerbate exponentiallthe amount of suicide and overdose. you know that because the science from dr. gordon, research shows that with unemployment and the dislocation that it's caused for unemployment, we see suicide go up. and with this degree of unemployment, it only stands to reason that we're going to seede enormous suirates, and so our job now is to make surthat what happened to covid-19, where knew it was coming but we didn't really quite do what we needed to do,o prepare for it that that doesn't happen again with respecto the coming a epidem tsunami of overdose and suicide. >> nawaz: dr. gordon, talk to a ut what you think we will

be seeing. millions of americans prepandemic struggled with mental health and mental illness.b you're talkingt a time of increased anxiety and isolation. what do you think is ahe? >> wcan anticipate over the coming weeks and months that those of us who had preexisting mental illnesses may e exacerbations of their conditions, and those of us who have been i relatively good of new mental ies.see the onset we have to prepare for that, and we also have to do what we can to prevent that.>> nawaz: what e who happen to be in support seeking treatment for substance abuse or mental illness. how does this time complicate those efforts? cocates it tremendously. we need to figure out ho best health care under circstances such as social distancing that we are currently engaged in. fortunately much of the mental health community has begun to make the shift from person to

person visits to telehealth anda dihealth, but we need to do more than that. not everyone can use thse technologies. not everyone has access to high-speed internet or cell phones. so we need to ensure that our community mental health centers and other healthcare providers are prepared with personal protective equipment and needs of ensuring social distancing waiting rooms, et cetera, so we can open up tov eeryone who needs help. >> nawaz: trick kennedy, i think it's fair to say our existing mental health infrastructure has long been underresourced and underfunded, especially in communities of colors. ponsesou look at the res you've seen so from the administration, from congress, what has been done to bolster >> well, as they take the tally of the dollars that are flowing from washington day to help shore up our healthcare system and our economy, we're tking

trillions of dollars. and it's ateal sign o continued persistence, igma against mental illness and addiction that a small, small, infinitesimal fraction of those dollars have gone to mental health andddiction. i think big change, the paradigm shift we orr going to have with covid-19 is that since ev geryby ng to be affected by some kind of mental health syste as dr. gordon said, i think that now mental health won't be something of us versus them, oh, t they're the ones thaed mental health. i think after covid-19 it's going to be all of us. >> nawaz: to follow up on that, what would it take. effort, and do you think we have the resources to do that? >> i believe we coutld easily pu some dollar numbers to change the whole system of healthcare,a sus we achieved the vision of presint kennedy when we

combined the community mental health act. we need new beds and more beds in psychiatric hospitals, but what we really need to do is get a much better prevention strategy. that should be our mental heapoh cy of the future. and i think that's affordable when you look at the cst of u not doing th>>at. awaz: i wanted to ask you, dr. rdon, what's being don and seen and done by the "frontline" workers. what are the effects down to line? >> i think the mental health burden on our first responders and on our h rkerhcs and woour delivery personnel is tremendous. first, many of them are to busy to seek the help and to maintain heir mental well-being. a lot ofspitals and healthcare organizations are m aching out to their workers and offering thscussion groups and support, et cetera, but they just don't have the time toake advantage of them. the second thing we need t think about is those who are

also hit but don't have those resources, the warouse rkers, the grocery chains, the delivery people. these are folks who are out there every y facing the covid pandemic, nofrom the perspective of trying to help people, you kn, deal with the medical consequences, but trying to help people live their livet. an're taking risks every day. >> woodruff: you kno patrick kennedy, you have been very open talking about your and yourr family's own ggles with substance abuse and with mental illness. you sought help. i would like youunow if don't mind to speak to the millions of americans who might be similarly struggling out there. what is it you can say to them right now. >> well, that we need each other and that we're important to our family and our friends, and that when it doesn't seem that way, often because ourdisease, our disease is one that pushes pey le awaand makes them angry with us and upset with us, our diseas you know,jeopardizes our jobs and our relationships

with the people weove. it's a terrible disease. the symptoms are awful. and those symptoms create anger and shame toward people who have these illnesses, and dr. gordon can tell you these are physical symptoms of the neurpriology, sion, anxiety, of alcoholism and addiction. when you presentwith these symptoms, you are not someone that anyone wants to helof coune that when people who need the help the e most the ones that people least want to help, because the symptoms are so awful in terms ofinerpersonal connection. sll i would say the people i there's great help in peer support. there's also great help in t medical system. and there needs to be a spiritual component, which i think is just reallya love and

connection. and wherever you can find that connection, that's just so important to have. and especially innt turbu times like we're living in. >> woodruff: >> nawaz: dr. gordon, we want to give people smeplace they can turn if they need help. where can people turn to right w if needed? >> there are twoqj lines that people should be aware of, the substance abuse ansmental healtvices administration has a disaster sustress line. and the icide prevention ornization has a national hot line. please use those resources.e. they're availa >> nawaz: thank you both. dr. joshua gordon of the national institute of mental health and patrick kennedy of the kennedy forumyo than for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> woodruff: new data released today shows that britain now has

the worst covid-19 toll in europe: at least 32,000 dead. that's second worst in the world, after the united states. amid the crisis, health authorities there are probing why people of color are being portionately infected, a dying in greater numbers tha whites. special correspondent malcolm brabant visited a community with ese of the highest death r in britain, and he has this intimate portrait of how tragedy struck one family. mourning ) >> reporter: rukidi lee has sa goodbye to her husband of 14 years. dave lee was a 62-yeld martial arts instrtor with a formidable reputation. just weeks befe his death, lee was sparring with men half his age.

>> for someo who was so fit and healthy, to be a victim of this disease, was shocking to . even when he first went in, i thought, at least inhe initial stages, i thought he'd recover. there was no reason or no underlying health condition. >> reporter: before the funeral, son aidan and the family opened their hearts to show the manity behind the facele statistics of death. >> just to give you me context: at the start, there was only him and one oth person in the i.t.u. ward. and towards the end, a week and at that point, they said no more visitors. so frothat point up until he passed, i couldn't see him. >> reporter: besides being aal persragedy for family and taiends, lee's death adds to the growing list of ties amongst british peop of color. there's widespread concern thatt

ic minorities have a higher mortality rate than whites. 35% of all ritons critically ill with covid-19 are either osblack or asian, whereas people just comprise 10% of the overall population. the british health authorities have launchees id innvd tit gaws are so disproportionately high.- the mostsk category appear to be people who have caribbean roots. >> you are just as likely tondet this thingndeed the die from it if you are an indian hospital surgeon as if you ar a hospital porter. >> reporter: veteran racial equality advocate trevorle phillips is member of the inquiry team. is inequality a factor? >> caribbean are older than average, so we think age is part of it. the other thing we thnk is probablyery significant is the groups who work in customer-facing occupations, like pple who work on the

public traport system or retail, are probably more vulnerable. >> reporter: slough, a town of 160,000 people, has britain's fourth-highest rate of covid-19 infections. many of its minorities live in crowded accommodation and work in front line seices. councillor akram says they were slow to embrace social distancing. >> you've got over a hundred languages that are spoken in this town alone. so slough would be particularly vulnerable to that, i think.

>> the lee family still doesn't know how he was infected. they opened their home to show the humanity behind the faceless statistic of death. eldest son ryan only managed to talk to his father on phone. >> once or twice, just before he had lost his voice because of the virus-- yeah, just before that. it was a very brief conversation. it sounded like things were ving fast on the ground, in the hospital, so it was a very, very brief chat, unfortunately. >> reporter: were you able to say goodbye? >> no. i seriously thought he'd make it t, so it didn't cross my mind to say such a thing. >> reporter: by the time aidan reached the hospital to say goodbye, it was too late, >> he was already cold to touch. but i spent some time there, trying to ke the most of seeing him o last ti. and i guess that, one thing thae alloweo have some form of peace was that he was restful,

he looked calm, he looked inid peace and het look as in distress as he was before, when intubated and on ttilator. was >> reporter: rukshi and dave married in sri lanka. gethis was his second marr how do you want people to rember dave? >> he's a good husband to me. he looksfter me so well. and he loved the lor those are the memories i will have. and the last memory want to keep is that he said bye to me in the hospital. that's the only memory i have, sir. >> reporter: as a kick-boxing trainer, he propelled some to national and world titles, saved others from a life of crime, and empowered young women in hisor neigod. >> for me, it was about building my resilience and really beings confident,woman.

for me, he talked about breakinl glass gs, talked about reaching for the stars. and that was his principle, i think generally in life. he always made us believe that actually anything was possible, >> reporter:ave lee believed in giving back, and was a pastor in an evangelical church, the kingdom come temple.as here, hereaching about the importance of keeping promises. >> as parents, we make many promises to our children.e but wheneak them, they will grow up thinking every adult-- not just their parents-- every adult is the same. they will never keep their promises. but god is different. hallelujah. (♪ "amazing grace" ♪) >> i really love you for the rest of my life, i promise you. that is the promise i give you. i wi live for you. with all your memories, i will live. >> reporter: dave lee, born sri lanka december 1958, died

wexham park hospital april 2020. one british life. among 32,000, and rising. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in slough. >> woodruff: in this difficult time, millions of americans are finding themselves stuck at home. as jeffrey brown reports, many have turned to new hobbies and do-it-yoself projects to pass a the timend redirect their energy. this story is part of our ongoing arts and cultu series, "canvas.": >>it's not your normal workout space. one by one, all that was familiar in zach skidmore's world was suddenly out of reach: furloughed from his job, unable to see his friends and extded family. >> i have a couple nephews, and

a niece, really little. and, i love them. i can't spend time with them right now. >> brown: the gym, where he spent much of his free time, was closed. but, skidmordid something that surprised no one more than himself: he built his own. >> i just kind of got idea that i could at least make a bench. so i grabbed the chainsaw. and i actually never made anything with a chainsaw before. some days were nine hours, and couple daytually was working from when the sun came up until the sun came down. >> brown: he used big slabs of timber as weights, designed his own pulley system, constructed r dmill from small rolling logs. good for his physical health.pe betteraps, for his psyche. >> i had expected myself to fail in making this gym. but i tried anyway, because i had the time and it took my mind off of things. >> brown: new emotions. new experiences. people everywhere are struggling to cope. >> we just finished the third

and final season of "star trek." >> brown: watching old tv. >>o boldly go where everyone has clearly gone before. >> brown: sometimes through new hobbies, do-it-yourselfts never before condered. there's less enviralined, stimulation to keep the mind there's less to doss you exercise creative responses to your situation. >> brown: astronauts in space. researchers spending long periods at the south pole. lawrence palinkas, a medical anthropologist and professor at the university of southern california, studies the impact of extreme isolation. we may not be at those extremes, he says, but the way people fill their time now, taking on lasomething new, can be si >> i remember one year at the south pole, for example, the

crew decided to produce their own science fiction movi the n vaatioof t claichi sci-fi, where they were chasing aliens. many of these projects and activities, which are designed thto make use of time, tha feel somewhat obligated to make use of because it's now available, canroduce a great deal of positive rults. >> brown: positive results, from negative emotions, as with chicago teenagers krishita dutta and lauren tapper. >> i think that it started out with us feeling sort of overwhelmed with everything. we were just in shock, and we didn't know how-- what to turn that into.lt >> and i also bit cheated, just because we'd always learned to leave it up to the adults, i guess, t with this and make sure this ver happened. brown: they ao realiz there was a whole wod of teens who felt as ey did, so krishita and lauren learned to

code. and, by the d of march launched "covid-tv," a website where young people around the world can share thr quarantine experiences. >> it's really just an eiting and uniting experience, to know that someone in india is experiencing the same exact >> brown: of course, sometimes "d.i.y." is less global, more living room putt-putt. 62-year-old bill underwood of fishers, indiana found himself at home and utterly bored. >> when i had thoecarpet shamout and i was shampooing in the dining room and it dawned on me th i've just done that about a week ago, that's when i realized i needed something else to do. >> brown: an avid golfer, he resolved to build his own nine-hole course, maf old sippy-cups, that winds around his ling room, tucks up against a piano bench and a cat scratch pad. >> now 7, 8 and 9 could be the >> brown: he even stied the

work of famed designer pete dye, the man behind some of theed world's celebrolf courses. >> i'm sort of the pete dye of indoor golf courses now, i think. >> brown: all over the place, people taking up hobbies: painting, photography, learning to knit... or fly a drone. it's a great way to cope but lawrence palinkas also s us not to be too hard ourselves in these anxious times. he points agai l researchers g-term isolation in antarctica. >> people would come down to stations like the south pole with the expectation that they were going to master new language or study the principles of biomechanics or some other complex subject. and after a couple of weeks, they lost interest and energy. and we would frequently counseln th to feel guilty about it, because it was a natural process that, given the stressac that is on us by isolation and confinement, we are going to feel fatigued over.

ti we are going to feel les motivated. >> brown: in othme words, try ing you've never had time to do. but also: relax and be kind to yourself. fothe pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. woodruff: and now, your turn. and tonight, online, we introduce "america interrupted, a iginal podcast series that looks at all of the ways the coronavirus pandemic is changing our communities, our jobs and life as we know it. in our latest episode, hosted by william brangham, we hear from frontline workers who have beeng handutbreaks in more rural parts of the country, where hospitals were already struggling to stay open before the crisis hit. you can listen on our website, that's www.pbs.org/newshour, or you can subscribe wherever y get your podcasts. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself headingctn a new diren. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, , th financial planning and advice for todd tomorrow. >> bnsf railway. >> fidelity investments. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> consumer cellular. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and thadvancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing supports of thesetutions and individuals.

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