captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: coronavirus continues. medical experts react with alarm to the president's announcement that he is taking an unproven drug to treat covid-19, as the nation's top two leaders on the economy face questioning from congress. then, the pandemic abroad. despite a skyrocketing number of covid cases, the official death toll in russia remains unusually low, as the government plans an ambitious reopening. plus, a desperate situation. the coronavirus exposes the inequities and shortcomings of nursing homes in the united states.

>> the reality is that, yeah, this is where covid-19 is taking its steepest toll. this is-- this is who is feeling the brunt of this disease. >> woodruff: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> consumer cellular offers no-contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy. whether you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer service team is here to find a plan that fits you. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> fidelity investments.

>> bnsf railway. >> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporatn for public broadcasting. and by ctributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: two different pandemic plot lines are playing out in washington tonight. the president is defending his use of a drug that has not been approved for covid-19; and, congress is focused on the relief money that it already approved, and whether it shoul approve more. white house correspondent

yamiche alcindor reports. >> alcindor: washington remains under lockdown. but today, president trump was out and about. he visited the u.s. capitol-- without wearing a mask-- to meet with republican senators. he also defended taking daily doses of hydroxychloroquine. the drug has potentially dangerous side effects, and it is unproven against covid-19. but president trump dismissed warnings that his actions send a dangerous message. >> i think it gives you an additional level of safety. but you can ask-- many doctors are in favor of it. many frontline workers won't go there unless they have the hydroxy. so again, this is an individual decision to ma. >> alcindor: later, at a cabinet meeting, he spoke again. >> alcindor: the president also announced that he would sign an executive order directing

government agencies to identify any regulations that can be temporarily waived to help reopen the economy and promote grow. republican senator rick scott of florida: >> if it's to help small businesses that don't have access to capital, i want to be helpful for them. but if it's to continue to spend money without any accountability, i'm going to oppose it. >> alcindor: minority leader chuck schumer, and other democrats, say the next bill must help workers as well as hard-hit state and local governments. >> are they for aid to state and local governments? are they for so many of the things in the bill-- more money for hospitals, more help for testing, more money for p.p.e.? >> alcindor: at a senate hearing, conducted via video- conference, federal reserve chair jerome powell pledged that a lending program for towns, cities and states will be available by the end of the month. treasury secretary steven

mnuchin defended efforts to have businesses reopen, under questioning by pennsylvania republican pat toomey. >> the longer that we continue a shutdown, when weeks turn into months, doesn't that necessarily increase the risk? >> there's the risk of permanent damage, and, as i've said before, we're conscious of the health issues and we want to do this in a balanced and safe way. >> alcindor: but ohio democrat sherrod brown argued more should be done to protect workers: >> the president says "reopen slaughterhouses," nothing about slowing the line down, nothing about protective equipment. how many workers should give their lives to increase the g.d.p. or dow jones a thousand points? >> no worker should give their lives to do that, mr. senator, and i think your characterization is unfair. we have provided enormous amounts of equipment. >> alcindor: meanwhile, at another white house event today, president trump threatened a permanent end to u.s. funding to the world health organizatio it has already been suspended temparily. >> they have to be much more fair to other countries,

incling the united states, or we won'be involved with them anymore. >> alcindor: late monday, the president sent the w.h.o. a letter accusing the group of letting china's influence deter efforts to prevent the pandemic. all the while, the virus continues its rampage. in northwest india today, people stood in line waiting for covid-19 tests, as cases in the country reached 100,000. and, vietnam looked to jumpstart its economy by pushing for more domestic travel. the country has banned foreign visitors, and its tourism industry has suffered greatly. >> ( translated ): there are a few domestic tourists, but their spending, on average, is significantly lower than that of foreign tourists. the truth is, the situation is tough, really tough. >> alcindor: the story is much the same the world over, adding to the pressure that grows daily to reope for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: the congressional budget office today released the latest look at economic damage from the pandemic. it predicted the economy will contract this quarter at an

annual rate of nearly 38%. the agency said it could take until 2021 to recover fully. meanwhile, on wall street, the optimism that drove monday's rally gave way to new doubts. the dow jones industrial average lost 390 points to close at 24,206. the nasdaq fell 49 points, and the s&p 500 slipped 31. as we just heard, the country's top economic leaders were pressed for answers today on capitol hill about the government's relief and rescue efforts. we are going to speak with two senators who were part of this, starting with senator pat toomey, a republican from pennsylvania. he is on the senate banking committee, and a member of the congressional oversight commission, a new committee watching over the spending of the cares act money. senator toomey, thank you very much for talking with us. we heard you express concern today at the hearing about the

effects of the economy -- on the economy long term if people end up staying out of work for such a long time. is that now a greater concern for you than covid-19 coming back later in the year, there being a resurgence of it? how do you weigh the two? >> you know, judy, it's a great question, but, you know, i'm reminded of the reason we took the extraordinary, draconian step of closing the economy for the first time in the history of the country the government made it, you know, just forbid economic activity, forbid people from earning a livelihood. there was a very specific and clearly articulated reason for doing that, and the reason was to prevent the spread of the virus from happening so quickly that so many people would get sick all at once that they would overwhelm our hospital capacity. it has been abundantly clear for

weeks now that we're not going to overwhelm our hospitals. we have all kinds of excess capacity in hospitals, and much of pennsylvania we have half-empty hospitals some that danger has long since passed, and yet every day that goes by that we continue the lockdown now presumably for some other reason, we're destroying livelihoods. we're destroying businesses. we have bankruptcies. some will never come back. and we'll undo a lot of the good that we were doing for an awful lot of americans and pennsylvanians. so at this point i really think the best course of action is to proceed with a cautious, prudent reopening that includes the kinds of measures that we all have learned, the c.d.c. guidelines of keeping physical distance and wearing masks and washing hands, those are behaviors we didn't engage in at all whatsoever in january and february. we'll engage in those behaviors now. so i think the risk is much,

much lower. we know much more about this. we have much greater capacity to fight any kind of resurgence of the virus. and we need people to be able to get back to having a livelihood. >> woodruff: as you know, the folks on the other side of the aisle, a number of them are saying they are still worried about health effects. they don't think enough has been done, has been put in place to make the workplace safe enough for workers. what do you say to that? >> well, so that's a new argument, right? the initial one was we couldn't overwhelm hospitals. now that that's not a risk, we have a new argument, but the fact is this is a disease that is very, very dangerous for a very, very small percentage of our population. we know who is vulnerable to this. it's older people and specifically people who have underlying healthcare problems, especially the elderly some in pennsylvania for instance, i think this is probably pretty typical across the country,

fully 69% of all fatalities have happened inside nursing homes, where this disease spread. that's a whole issue about how that happened. but it tells you something when the overwhelming majority of the deaths occur in the most vulnerable subset of our most vulnerable age group. those people need to be protected. we need all kinds of security measures to protect people who are living in assisted living and nursing home, but the fact is 30-year-old factory workers are not vulnerable anything like older folks are, and with the safety precautions that the c.d.c. recommends, they can be kept safe. >> woodruff: let me ask you about attempts by the congress to help people who are hurting, whether people own a business or whether people are out of work. as you know, the how has passed a bill that would aim -- be aimed in part at helping state and local governments. we hear leaders of state and local governments now crying out for help, saying they are

either... they have already laid off people, furloughed people, or are about to have to do that. they're having to cut back important services to the public in their communities. why isn't this more of an urgent need in your mind on the part of other republicans who say, let's go slow? >> well, in part, judy, because of what we've already done. we have sent hundreds of billions of dollars to our states, $150 billion right off the bat to deal with anything remotely related to covid-19 to be allocated by governors across their states, their commonwealth. some of it went directly to the largest counties, of which we have handful in pennsylvania, for instance. but that's not all. we also increased the federal share of medicaid. the federal government has already paid a majority of the cost of medicaid. now we pay an even bigger share.

we spent a tremendous amount of money to hospitals, billions and billions of dollars for primary and secondary and tertiary education, all of which relieves state dgets from those cat goirs. so again, i think given that we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars, we have sent that to the states, it's probably time to pause and say, what exactly are the other needs, why did they arise, and whether it's appropriate for that to be dealt with at a state and local level or the federal level, and that's a subject for a robust debate. >> woodruff: so very quickly, when fed chairman jerome powell says he's concerned about state and local government employees being out of work and worsening the economy long term, because they're not working, what's your response? >> well, it could... launching another round of hundreds of billions or trillions if nancy pelosi had her way is not

necessarily a better outcome. there's in free lunch. this doesn't come at zero cost. if there were no cost to distributing money, we could send a million dollar check to every man, woman, and child in the country. everything would be great. i don't think anyone thinks you can do that and not have really, really dire consequences. we have pumped out trillions in matter of weeks. nothing like this has ever handed before. i think prudence suggests we need to proceed slowly here. the other thing is let's be candid, not all states are in comparable situations. some states have been fiscally very prudent. they have modest budgets relative to their population. they have rainy day funds. other states are essentially insolvent. they've been extremely inprudent. it will be difficult to figure out, well, why do the taxpayers of the states that have been more cautious, prudent, why are they supposed to subsidize the other states, and what's the

formula by which we do that? i'm not sure anybody's got abeasy answer to that just yet. >> woodruff: senator pat toomey, pennsylvania, thank you, sir, very much. appreciate your joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: senator sherrod brown is the highest ranking democrat on the banking, housing, and urban affairs committee, and he joins us now from cleveland. senator brown, thank you for being here. let me start by asking you about what senator toomey said, and this is that in his view it's now clear that covid is mainly dangerous to the elderly and that it's time for young, healthy people to be able to go back the work. >> well, what senator toomey said essentially is it's not government's role to protect workers. i don't know if he's not seeing the numbers. abraham lincoln, one of my favorite quotes is, "i have to get out of the white house and

get my public opinion back," meaning i need to talk to people about their lives and where they're hurting and what they're doing. i spend every day talking to people that are staffing homeless shelters and talk to people at food banks and talk to people that are laid offer, and the pain is great out there still, and in the end, that hearing today showed that the administration continues to care more about the stock market than it does workers. we have had -- we're 5% of the world's population. we've had almost one-third of the world's death. he can say, well, they're just people in nursing home, we don't care that much about them, they're old anyway, or he can say, we have to protect workers. the president just a couple weeks ago a slaughterhouse in south dakota, hundreds were infected at work. we know that prison guards are infected in large numbers. we know that 35 or 40 -- i haven't seen the most recent

numbers -- bust drivers have died from coronavirus. we need the start putting workers first. as we reopen the government, w need to scale up testing,ing? administration has taken to leadership on. we need to increase the protective equipment we get, not just the hospital workers, but the laundry, people doing the laundry, people doing food service, people driving buses, people stocking shelves at supermarkets, because the next big outbreaks are going to be in woplaces, because we're not setting the guidelines and enforcing them on what employers must do to protect their workers. >> woodruff: senator brown, you put it in pretty stark terms today with treasury secretary mnuchin. at one point you said, "how many workers should give their lives to increase the gross domestic product or the dow jones average by 1,000 points." he pushed back. he said that is not fair. the administration has put a lot of money into protecting workers.

is that an answer that... how does that answer sit with you? >> well, you heard the previous interview with my colleague from pennsylvania that it's just like these are numbers. never do we hear out of the administration the human, the pain about people dying alone. they can't sit with their spouse of 06 years or sit with their 45-year-old daughter as they're dying in the last few days of coronavirus. and you can see that this administration is all about the economics of it. i want people back at work. i want a more prosperous country, a more prosperous economy, but if you start putting people back to work without the safeguards and nobody really believes this president has led ay national effort to scale up production of protuck tef equipment for all workers. nobody believes he's worked to scale up testing. that's why we've had one third of the world's death yet we're only 5% of the world's population, even though we found out about this coronavirus

pretty much the same week or maybe even the same day they did in southorea, yet in south korea, fewer than 500 people have died, and their economy, their unemployment rate is 3 point something per sengtd. it's just because the president never scaled up testing. the president has shown no interest in building a move. and an effort to produce protective equipment for workers, because frankly, the president in and senator "confederates in the attic" -- senator senator mccoblg always side with wall street. too many workers going to die on the job regardless of what my colleague from pennsylvania said. you have to focus on workers going back to work as you reopen this economy, otherwise there are more outbreaks and more deaths and more economic hardship that will be visited on the whole country.

>> woodruff: senator, what about their argument that if you keep people away from work for too long, you destroy livelihoods, that businesses can't open again, jobs can't get recreated again, that you're doing a different kind of damage but an equally long-lasting damage? >> well, of course we want to put everybody back the work. they just make up these arguments when they say, we don't want people to go back the work. i want them to go back the work safely. the president... my governor in ohio, a republican, i'm a democrat, this isn't a partisan state. my governor has saved lives because he early and aggressively went after this virus. the president of the united states, who is in denial about this virus and has never stepped up and led an effort for protective equipment and for scaled-up testing, this president has cost americans lives, and if you go back the work without protective equipment, if you go back the work witut a plan to really scale up testing, the economy is

not going to grow, and we could easily fall back in to more people getting sick and more people dying. we're still seeing roughly 2,000 people a day die, but you take new york and new jersey out of this, and many states around the country, infections continue to go up because the president and people in the senate like my colleague from pennsylvania, continue to argue get 'em back to work, get 'em back to work, get 'em back the work, but don't argue about -- don't put anything out there to protect the workers. in the end, whose side are you on? mitch mcconnell and president trump always looking for more tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporate interests. they're always on the side of corporations, and that hearing today, you can see who is fighting for workers. you can see that the federal reserve chair, jay powell, was saying we have to put money into local communities so they don't lay off police and fire, so they can provide the kind of city services instead of just -- these are just senior citizens, they're just people in nursing

home, but the real people don't get sick i guess is what my colleague was saying. >> woodruff: senator, 15 seconds. the commission that today reported that only a tiny part or a very small part of the money tht's been appropriated by congress to go toward state and local governments has been, and small business, has bee spent. they're saying we need to wait until that money is actually spent before congress starts appropriating more money. just in a few second, why not wait? >> the administration needs to do their job, get the unemployment benefits into people's pockets for small business, not just the big banks and wall street and the airlines and the big guys that they want to help, but we still know there are huge holes in funding for food banks and funding for community health centers and funding for local governments. there will be massive layoffs coming. they're already starting in ohio city and communities and

counties, small cities like where i greup, mansfield and large cities like cleveland and detroit and chicago. there's a layoff coming, and things get worse as more people get infected. you have the move right now. >> woodruff: >> senator sherrod brown of ohio, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, former national security adviser michael flynn is asking a federal appeals court to order that his criminal case be dismissed. he filed an emergency petition today. this month, the u.s. justice department moved to drop the case against flynn for lying to the f.b.i. the trial judge refused, and today, he scheduled oral arguments for july 16. officials in india and bangladesh began evacuating millions of people today, before a powerful tropical

cyclone strikes, amid the ongoing pandemic. the storm is expected to make landfall tomorrow, with winds above 100 miles an hour and flooding rains. officials in india's west bengal state today drove around coastal towns and warned people to leave. many families headed to shelters that had been quarantine centers. >> ( anslated ): we came here because of fear ofhe cyclone. otherwise, why else would we come to this shelter? the cyclone hasn't come yet, but we evacuated here as the weather began to change. >> woodruff: both india and bangladesh are still under partial lockdowns, and infections in india have topped 100,000. the united nations is appealing to the warring parties in afghanistan to step back from fighting. new numbers show that civilian casualties jumped to 380 in april, despite ongoing peace efforts. the u.n. today blamed both the taliban and afghan security

forces and also the islamic state group. back in this country, johnson & johnson will stop selling baby powder in the u.s. and canada. some 20,000 lawsuits have claimed talc in the powder was contaminated with asbestos, which is known to cause cancer. the company cited slumping demand in today's announcement. it also said that it stands by the safety of its product. and, annie glenn, widow of the late astronaut and u.s. senator john glenn, has died of complications from covid-19 at a minnesota nursing home. in 1962, she faced the national spotlight-- with a severe stutter-- when her husband became the first american to orbit the earth. but, she ultimately overcame the stutter, and became an advocate for those with speech disorders. annie glenn was 100 years old. still to come on the newshour: the governor of california on how and when to reopen. despite a skyrocketing number of covid cases, the official death

toll in russia remains unusually low. the coronavirus exposes the inequities and shortcomings of nursing homes. and, much more. >> woodruff: california was one of the earliest states hit hard by the coronavirus, but in the last few weeks, the curve there has flattened. just yesterday, its governor, decrat gavin newsom, announced plans to loosen restrictions in a number of counties. i spoke with him earlier today. and, i began by asking him to explain his decision, and the trade-off between safety and the long-term effect of keeping the state's economy closed.

>> we have had stability now for many, many weeks, over a month. as we know, we never saw the peak increase in the total number of cases and deaths that many other parts of the country did. so over the period of many, many weeks, we have not only seen stability, but a modest decline in hospitalizations, i.c.u. patients a the like. we have also seen a significant increase in our testing capacity and moreover our ability to procure and distribute protective gear within sectors of our economy, not just for our front-line health officials. so we're in a better position than we've ever been. that's why we're moving into this new phase but with our eyes wide open, driven by data, driven we evidence, not ideology, and driven by transparency at the local level so we can toggle back if conditions change. >> woodruff: from the reporting i've seen, it looks as if you changed the standard that california counties have to meet. the new standard removes the death rate requirement and

replaces it in part with a more generous threshold based on rates of newly confirmed cases. explain that. >> well, the fundamental challenge we all have across the state of not -- not only across the state of california but across the rest of the country is going within regions and looking at precisely what the problem areas are, not surprisingly for the state of california, many of its skilled nursing facility, assisted living centers have been a major challenge all across the country. you have some county, massive geographic counties. remember, california is larger than 21 states combined in terms of population, that have had outbreaks in very isolated areas. and yet those death raights related to the outbreak deny them the ability to reopen parts of their economy. so we're being more precise, more targeted, d really wrapping very aggressively all of our energy and attention around those vulnerable

facility, particularly the skilled nursing facility. >> woodruff: they have been a tragedy across the country. in the state of california, what is going to cnge with regard to nursing homes in your state as a result of the last few weeks? >> put the scale and scope in the state as large as california, we have just shy of 9,000 licensed facilities for seniors and in adult care in the state of california. these are the most vulnerable californians to this pandemic, and you're right, north of 30%, approximating 40% of all the deaths occurring in and ar the skilled nursing facility, the assisted living centers. so that predated the beginning of this pandemic where we really recognized our responsibility to focus in on these facilities. but now doing more than we have in the past with infectious disease teams and strike teams, working with the federal government, working with our national guard, working to increase p.p.e. and testing

capacity in and around those skilled nursing facilities, and doing this, judy, and this is foundational, recognizing that they don't live in isolation. while many people may live in these communities, staff operate in multiple facilities in many communities. so we have to make sure the staff is protected, as well, tested, isolated, quarantined to the extent they're exposed to this pandemic, as well. >> woodruff: governor, you have been very open that this pandemic has taken a big -- has caused a big hit on california's budget. you went from a surplus projected at the beginning of the year to something like 54 billion projected deficit. right now you have and other gofs are urging the u.s. congress, washington, to send a trillion dollars to state and local governments. why should that money come from washington? because as you know, republicans are saying, we're not at all confident that states are going to spend this money wisely.

>> well, it's not a blue state or a red state issue. i would hope that republicans would consider the republicans in states large and small across this country. i live in a state 58 counties, 26 of them went for donald trump overwhelmingly in the last election. they're american citizens. they're californians. i care about each and every one of them, and i hope republicans in the senate do, as well, including other red states that are suffering similar economic conditions. remember, judy, we're dealing with depression-era unemployment. we're north of 20% in this nation. the numbers that come out publicly are lagging, and the reality is we're northf 25% in california. 4.8 million people have filed for unemploymt insurance just since march 12th. you're correct. we were running surpluses. we have fiscally been disciplined in terms of how we've managed the affairs of this state. we're not looking far bailout in the abstract, we're looking the support our front-line workers, our public health and public safety woers, our public

teachers, and they need the support at this moment from the american government that was conceived of in a frame of mutuality and commonwealth to protect the public safety. but also the well being of its citizens, not from a frame of charity, but a frame of social responsibility. >> woodruff: governor, one of the things you said you might have to do if this deficit is azimov it looks and you don't get the help you need is cut state workers' pay. we heard the chairman of the federal reserve, jay powell, in washington today say that when state workers, local workers either lose their jobs or lose pay, it affects the overall health of the economy. how much does thato into your thinking? >> i think those are wise words. they're important words. by the way, they're shared by the former fed chair, janet yellen, along with bob iger, one of the most iconic brands in

business, both recognizing an economic and business imperative to address this crisis and to address the impacts from municipal budget, city clearly, and state budgets. at the end of the day, what they need is some certainty. if you're a business leader, you want some certainty so you can make medium and long-term bets, but with all the uncertainty because of historic economic impacts and budget deficits that create a dynamic where you don't know what the regulatory system may look lie, the tax system may look like, that creates additional pressure and additional anxiety, so jerome powell is correct, and this is why this is not a bailout. it's not charity. we believe it's foundational to our economic recovery. >> woodruff: governor gavin newsom of california, thank you very much for talking with us. we appreciate it. >> honor to be with you. thank you.

>> woodruff: over the last day, russia has announced nearly 10,000 new covid-19 infections. the virus is now marching across russia's 11 time zones, with almost 300,000 infections nationwide. only the united states has more. half of their infections are in badly-afflicted moscow, from where special correspondent julia chapman reports. >> reporter: at a hospital outside moscow, protective gear is washed for re-use. and, many of the doctors here believe they, too, have been hung out to dry. these suits are only intended to be used once, t medical workers acrossussia are facing shortages of personal protective equipment. and as they treat the most seriously ill patients, their lives are also being put at risk. radiologist ksenia menshikova

says her hospital was under- prepared, and stf were under- protected. while the authorities have addressed some of her concerns, she says employees remain exposed. so she's set up a legal helpline for her colleagues. >> ( translated ): when russia's main coronavirus hospital had already been open for around a month and everyone understood that an epidemic was approaching, our hospital was completely unprepared in almost every way. when the first suspected coronavirus patient arrived, we barely had enough masks. >> reporter: dr. margarita lapshina and her colleagues work in a maternity hospital, usually treating newborns. when it was converted into a coronavirus center, there was no preparation for what was to come. >> ( translated ): we didn't get any instructions. so there was no organization inside the institution-- how to admit patients, which forms to fill out, how to evaluate their condition. we had to learn on the job. >> reporter: even in wealthy st. petersburg, fi patients died

in an i.c.u. at st george's hospital, when a ventilator caught fire. and, dtors in the city who contract coronavirus are being investigated. a commission will judge whether they took sufficient precautions to avoid infection. but, every day, medical workers take huge risks to treat patients with covid-19, and many of them are losing their lives. they've started a list of their colleagues who have died from coronavirus. it's more than 240 names long. two of them were medical workers who reportedly died after falling from windows, in suspected suicides. after weeks of restrictions, there are signs that russia's infection rate is beginning to slow. president vladimir putin has declared that it's time to start getting back to work. >> ( translated ): the non- working period for the entire country and all branches of the economy is coming to an end. but the fight against the epidemic continues.

the danger remains even in those territories where the situation is relatively good and where new cases are in the single digits. >> reporter: certain industries will re-open if local authorities say it's safe. and employers are required to test their workers regularly. in the capital, some 200,000 construction and industrial workers have returned to their jobs. but many doctors say they fear another surge. more than a quarter of a million russians have already been diagnosed. russian officials say the number of cases is so high because of widespread testing. more than six million tests have been carried out for coronavirus. only the u.s. has done more. but moscow's mayor, sergei sobyanin, says the infection rate in the capital is likely three times higher than the official figure. authorities admit that swab tests are producing false negatives, but they blame the nature of the virus rather than

the quality of tests. >> ( translated ): we work with a very sensitive testing system. if you haven't correctly taken the sample, if you touched it with your tongue, if something went wrong before the analysis, before it came to the lab, then the system won't be able to detect the virus. even theest test system in the world. >> reporter: while russia's coronavirus figures have soared, one number has remained low-- confirmed deaths from the virus account for fewer than 1% of cases. in the u.s., that number is nearly 6%. officials say the widespread testing is helping russia protect vulnerable groups who are more likely to be killed by the virus. they say their early border closures and strict lockdowns kept the death rate low. but statisticians say the number can partlye explained by the way russia classifies the cause of death. many people are recorded as dying with coronavirus, not because of it, so their deaths are not added to the overall total.

>> you should multiply it by several times to get the true picture. nobody knows the actual count. >> reporter: preliminary figures in moscow suggest a 20% rise in april deaths compared with the ten-year average. only around half of those were attributed to covid-19. russians are all too familiar with heavy casualties. on may 9, they marked victory day, commemorating the defeat of the nazis. it's a day when the whole country would normally be on the streets celebrating and remembering the millions lost. but no tanks rolled into red square, no veterans gathered to be honored. only the rumble of helicopters in formation marked the day from any other. moscow's mayor urged people to watch the fly-over from home. but some couldn't resist getting a better view.

>> ( translated ): in every family, somebody fought. so we remember them, because we're here breathing this air, we're still living in peace. yes, there are problems. a new enemy has arrived. but we came here to give a salute and watch the fly-over. >> reporter: others who tried to mark the occasion were arrested, accused of breaking self- isolation orders. russia is no stranger to service and sacrifice. as the country confronts its greatest challenge in decades, president putin is facing falling trust figures. and after 20 years in power, his fate and russia's are intertwined. for the pbs newshour, i'm julia chapman, in moscow. >> woodruff: as we heard from california governor gavin newsom

earlier, nursing homes across the country are facing a desperate situation, with large outbreaks of coronavirus among staff and residents. in 17 states, more than half of reported coronavirus deaths have been in nursing homes. our lisa desjardins brings us this report on what has become a front line. >> desjardins: in these photos of coronavirus victims is a sometimes-hidden aspect of the crisis-- where they died-- in nursing homes, are a kind of ground zero. >> he was always kind of a little bit of the life of the party. very funny, always smiling. >> desjardins: nicole catatao's grandfather, antonio catatao, died while living at a nursing home in massachusetts that had one of the largest outbreaks of covid-19 in the country. she told us that after he was diagnosed, the family checked on him through a window. and, on one afternoon visit, it looked like he had not been fed or dressed since the day before.

>> we could visibly see that his diaper was overflowing. so at that point, you know, my aunt became really upset. and one of the administrators of the facility came outside to speak to her, and told her that they had a lack of staffing, that they had multiple staff members out with coronavirus, and that, that day, they had two staff members for the whole facility, which is over 200 beds. >> desjardins: two staff members for the whole facility? >> correct. then he had also said, "we have no doctors." >> desjardins: her grandfather died two days later. >> the reality is that, yeah, this is where covid-19 is taking its steepest toll. this is-- this is who is feeling the brunt of this disease. >> desjardins: dr. danny avula is the director for the richmond and henrico health districts in virginia. a long-term care facility in his district saw more than 50 deaths

from coronavirus. in april, it was the nation's deadliest. that outbreak has quelled, but others have started, and his staff is trying to contain the virus in more than two dozen different long-term care facilities. >> in any other situation, we've got the staff and the expertise and the capacity to really provide hands-on support for one or maybe two facilities that have different outbreaks going on, but not 26. >> desjardins: he says families should consider removing relatives from long-term care, if they can. >> these are patients who have severe dementia and have a high degree of need. hour by hour, minute by minute, in terms of support. anthat's why they're in homes like this. it's really difficult to support that in a-- in a residential setting. and so, you know, i don't say that lightly. >> desjardins: and that dire concern comes before we know the full scope of the problem. up until this weekend, nursing homes had not been required to

publiclyeport numbers of covid-19 cases and deaths. that changed over the weekend, when a new mandate from medicare and medicaid kicked in, requiring that all facilities share this data th the federal government, which in turn says it will publish swiftly. here's what we do know, even without the complete picture: the first major coronavirus hotspot in the country was this nursing home in kirkland, washington, with 45 deaths in early march. two months later, more than 7,000 long-term care facilities have outbreaks, according to the kaiser family foundation. that includes three separate outbreaks at facilities in new york, massachusetts and new jersey that each saw at least 70 deaths. and, two major outbreaks in medford, massachusetts, with at least two dozen deaths at one nursing home and more than 50 at another. including nicole's grandfather. she has some advice for families dependant on nursing home care. >> ask the nursing facility

about, you know, what is your staff numbers? what is your staff ratio? how has it changed with coronavirus? don't assume that because the care was there beforehand, that they're able to maintain the same level of care. >> desjardins: charlene harrington is a professor emerita at the university of california, san francisco. she has been studying nursing homes for 35 years. why weren't our nursing homes prepared for this? >> well, experts and advocates have known for many years that the nursing homes were not operating at an appropriate level, in terms of staffing and quality. and yet we've allowed this to happen over the years. so this is the first time i think the whole country s become aware. before the pandemic, 75% of the nursing homes did not have enough staff, especially registered nurses, and

registered nurses are essential for infection control, for assessing residents and managing the staff in nursing homes. >> desjardins: that is just one layer. roughly two-thirds of nursing homes are private, for-profit facilities. pay can be low, and clients often stay two to a room. and even before the pandemic, the kaiser family foundation found 63% of nursing homes had recently been cited for improper infection control. the c.d.c. says as many as 380,000 people die of infections in long-term care facilities every year. things could be changing. last week, the trump administration told governors to focus on testing every nursing home resident and worker for coronavirus over the next two weeks. >> now, some of the states, many of the states are doing that. but i think all of the states should be. they have the capacity, they should be doing nursing homes. that is a real vulnerability.

>> desjardins: across the country, some are on the road to recovery. and when they get better, the nursing home staff, who have cared for them throughout, are there to cheer them on. like for jack holzberg, a 94-year-old holocaust survivor in new jersey. for the pbs newshouri'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: the vice president is put in charge of a task force to deal with the mounting health crisis; the president is given untested preventive medicine; the country faces chaos. amid a global pandemic, comes a novel about a global pandemic, and it feels all too real. jeffrey brown talks to author lawrence wright, part of our ongoing arts and culture coverage, "canvas." >> brown: a virus starts in asia

and quickly spreads around the world. here in the u.s., deaths mount, the healthcare system is overrun, schools close, the economy tanks. it's the world we're living in. but also a world of ficti. >> it was a very strange experience, jeff, honestly. the stories seem to be chapters out of my book. i felt... it was unnerving. >> brown: lawrence wright's new novel, "the end of october," was written before the novel coronavirus had been discovered in china. >> the timing of the publication is a total coincidence. but the eerie parallels with what we're experiencing, those are not coincidences. that's exactly what experts told me would happen. >> brown: this isn't the first time wright has seemed to predict the future. in 1998, he wrote the screenplay for "the siege," a film starring denzel washington about a terrorist attack on new york. three years later, it became a

top-rented movie, after september 11th. but wright is best known for his non-fiction. he's a staff writer for the "new yorker" and in 2007 was awarded the pulitzer prize for "the looming tower," a book, later turned hulu series, about events leading up to the 9/11 attacks. i asked why he'd returned to fiction now. >> as a journalist, you're always asking what happened. and in fiction, you're allowed to ask what could happen. so it is similar. but it gives you the opportunity to create a new canvas, and also to get inside the minds of your main characters. >> brown: his main character is a scientist with the world health organization, named henry parsons, who has experience with ebola and other viruses, and is now trying to stop what's called "kongoli flu," first seen in indonesia. it's fiction, but filled with scientific fact. >> i interviewed a lot of

experts-- but i also got them to read it, to make sure that i hadn't made some colossal error. and even, jeff, sometimes as a novelist i would paint myself into a corner, you know, with some kind of problem that my hero had to solve. and so it seemed impossible to me, but i would turn to these experts who are now, you know, on the front line of trying to find us a vaccine. and they actually kind of jumped in with a lot of good spirit. it was very helpful to me. >> brown: you had moments where you're writing and you're thinking, oh, no, i've gone a little too far here. i've got to pull myself back? >> well, a good example of that is, i had them quarantine mecca, three million people. it just seemed like a huge leap of imagination. and this was several months before china quarantined a hundred million peop! which i would never have dared, as a novelist. >> brown: in the book, the crowded pilgrimage in mecca is one way the virus is spread around the globe. today, of course, mecca is

empty. >> well, this is austin, in the middle of this lockdown. >> brown: wright has been sheltering in place at his home in austin, texas, the long days broken up by occasional walks. >> there are very few people on the hike and bike trail, who are supposed to be running all in one direction. but we've got some scofflaws out here, which isn't surprising for a city that likes to keep it weird. >> brown: even as debate continues over how quickly to open up, wright sees reason to be encouraged. >> unfortunately, i got too many things right. but i will tell you one thing i got wrong. i underestimated the solidarity of ordinary citizens to isolate themselves-- sometimes willingly, and then sometimes because of the government orders-- but at great personal cost, not just financially but socially and emotionally spiritually. so many ways, as a whole, society has retreated and made this disease so far, far less

dangerous than it would have been had we not taken shelter. >> brown: it's got to be strange for you. you finished the book. you wrote an ending. we don't know the ending to our story yet. >> i see us being at a kind of crossroads, jeff. i mean it-- this, is a great pandemic, like a war or a depression, is like an x-ray on the society you live in. and now suddenly we can see everything. all the faults of our society are clearly on view, and we can address that now or we can fail. if you look back at our own history, we had world war ii. you know, we became the biggest manufacturing and commercial country in the world's history. but then, you know, after 9/11, where we had a similar inflection point, i thought the country wagoing to make great changes. but instead, we invaded iraq. we can make a change that will

lead us a stronger and more unied future, or we can forfeit this opportunity. and i hope that we don't do that. >> brown: all right. the novel is "the end of october." lawrence wright, thank you very much. >> my pleasure, as always, jeff. >> woodruff: before upending american life, covid-19 unleashed a wave of pain, death and suffering across italy. tonight, you can watch the premiere of "frontline: inside italy's covid war." it is a portrait of one doctor in northern italy, and the battle she and her team are waging to save as many lives as they can. the documentary premieres tonight at 10:00 eastern, 9:00 central. here's a scene that shows what dr. francesca mangiatordi and her team are up against.

>> woodruff: that's "frontline" tonight. and that's 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, please 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 heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with financial planning and advice for today, and tomorrow. >> bnsf railway. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> consumer cellular. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and

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