♪ this morning, we're following two major stories, first, the coronavirus reaches a grim milestone. more than 100 deaths reported in the united states. now, the virus has been confirmed in all 50 states and local leaders are weighing more predictions to keep the vices to spread. >> the former vice president won three major primaries in florida, illinois and arizona. ♪ good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, march 18th, i'm

ayman mohyeldin alongside yasmin vossoughian. we begin with the very latest on the coronavirus with confirmed cases now reported in all 50 states after west virginia reported its first case yesterday. the reported u.s. death toll from the virus has now passed 100 as the number of confirmed cases soared to 6200, with new reports coming in by the hour. the number of known cases in new york city alone jumped by 100, just yesterday. it is now more than 900. and now, there is confusion over whether the country's most populated city is considering a shelter in place order, after mayor bill de blasio said it is being considered. governor andrew cuomo's office put a statement saying, quote, any blanket quarantine or shelter in place policy would require state action and as the governor has said there's no consideration of that for any locality at this time. here's how the mayor responded to that last night.

>> this is moving very fast. we should all be very concerned about how we find a way to slow down the trajectory of this virus. the idea of shelter in place has to be considered now. it has to be done in our case city and state, working together respecting the state's role. what i was trying to say to new yorkers, this is the reality we're facing now. get ready for the possibility because it's not so distant an idea at this point. even a week ago, i would have said, no, that's impossible. but not anymore. >> other states tightening restrictions south carolina limiting gatherings of 50 people or more. has directed restaurants to stop dining-in services. florida has closed classes for at least april. college classes for the rest of the semester. shuttered bars and night clibs, beaches gathering limited to less than ten people. the governor of kansas says the schools will be closed for the rest of the school year.

california says it will likely do the same. amazon meanwhile said it will stop accepting items in its ware hours and focus on fewer electronic and more home goods. >> and borders shut off stretching from portugal to finland for 30 days in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus. the european union and home to more than 400 million people is now the epicenter of the pandemic as france imposes some of the harshes measures to immos a lockdown, 100 police officers setting up residences showing on their honor their reason for leaving their home. in italy, the death toll surged to 2500. forcing students scrapping final exams, all of this to try and help their nation's health system survive. spain where cases surged to over

11,000 announced it was nationalizing its private hospitals as residents there also faced lockdown. and iran has temporarily released about 85,000 prisoners who have tested negative for the virus. let's focus on italy first but this is becoming very much a global effort here. joining us now from rome, nbc news matt bradley. matt walk us through, first, what you're hearing from where you are, as italy tries to grapple with this pandemic. >> reporter: yeah, you mentioned italy is the largest country, worst afflicted country in europe, it's the second worst in the world after china, of course, which is where this whole thing started. italy is a country that america, mayor bill de blasio is going to want to look at closely. here in rome, it's very quiet. that's because of this unprecedented almost medieval-style lockdown that has started last week. 35,000 people fined for the

crime of walking through the streets. that's something new york has to look at closely how police and authorities are implementing in italy's largest city this strict effort and also we should talk about the third worst afflicted country in the world, iran, which has nearly 1,000 deaths. but the world health organization has come out and said because of the audacity of the ayatollahs who run around, their inaccuracy of reporting the figures, that number could be five times as high. iran is something that the united states is also going to want to look at. there's a very strict set of sanctions on the iranian regime. that makes it difficult to buy supplies in the market to staunch the outbreak within their borders. that's something that the trump administration had replaced those sanctions back in 2018 is going to want to think about restoring, if they want to allow the iranians to fairly meet the challenge that's coming in the next couple of weeks.

>> hey, matt, let me pick up on that point really quickly with iran. obviously one of the conversations we're having in this country, not only about the potential skwlung, but shortage of supplies and impact it may have on our health care position. what canou tell us about the situation in iran, because of the health care situation, are they able to get the respirators, medical supplies that are needed? do they have any of the same travel restriction that's we see imposed in italy, or the lockdown that we saw happen in china is being considered here in the u.s. as well? >> reporter: yeah, iran really tried to put in a lot of those restrictions but way late. the iranians didn't impose those restrictions because the city of the spread was the city of qom which is a shiite city for muslims. they were reluctant to impose congregations, they were

allowing people to congregate in that city, for a while before it became clear that was the wrong approach now the iranians are desperate for medical aid. and the sanctions that the united states have placed on iran have made it very difficult. they've even gone to the international monetary fund and asked for a $5 billion loan but that money could be useless if they can't access the international market to get the supplies. guys. >> matt bradley, stay safe. the white house announced is pitching a $1 trillion package to combat the coronavirus outbreak. $250 million which would be used for americans as the city tries to combat the impact. mitch mcconnell after speaking with senate republicans, the white house said if congress acts quickly checks could go out to americans by late april. that's a long time away, though but that could still leave millions of workers scrambling to make rent and other payments

due at the beginning of the month. the white house first announced proposals of sending checks directly to americans during a news conference earlier in the day. watch this. >> we're looking of sending checks to americans immediately. what we've heard from hard working americans, many companies have now shut down, whether it's bars or restaurants. americans need cash now and the president wants to get cash now. and i mean now, in the next two weeks. >> we're not sure exactly who would be eligible. president trump who originally floated a payroll tax holiday said he wanted more immediate action that could inject cash into americans' pockets faster than waiting for the next payday. still ahead, as we mentioned new york city mayor bill de blasio is considering a shelter in place order. what does that mean. we'll talk about that with analysis danny cevallos. plus, a new study takes a look at how long the coronavirus can live on surface and in the air. what those experts are saying.

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joining us now senior white house reporter for nbc news digital shannon pettypiece. shannon great to have you with us. we were talking about the stimulus package, the secretary trying to get that to americans quickly. what has been the sticking point for americans who have been on the fence in terms of whether or not they're going to support this new stimulus package? >> well, first there was a lot of back and forth just how big the stimulus package should be. whether it should include things like a payroll tax credit or short-term emergency measures like paid sick leave. there's enormous back and forth between the white house on friday. looks like they had gotten the deal on friday but things ground to a halt.

it seemed like we were on track for a vote with mitch mcconnell saying this wasn't perfect but saying that this member has to gag and vote for it. and then late on the day on monday, tuesday, i should say, rand paul sort of threw a wrench in things and introduced an amendment with a number of things unrelated to the coronavirus to the stimulus package. things having to do with the iraq war, requiring a child tax credit for a social security number for child tax credit payments so that ground things to a halt. so, now, it's kind of unclear where we are. it seems like the senate may vote tomorrow on this amendment that rand paul wants to introduce that is not expected to pass but then they can move on. really, yes, something we thought we were going to get done friday is dragging on into the week. it seems like once they get past this issue there is an agreement among republicans and democrats who say that they just have to pass something to get some money

moving quickly to businesses and consumers who are going to be hurt really bad in the coming weeks. >> i think we can speak on behalf of all americans saying we've got to get this thing passed and fast. shannon you have a piece out that they're actually facing the coronavirus and what are the challenges that dhs is facing right now? >> dhs over a year how has had a real big vacuum and revolving door of officials. kirstjen nielsen and her deputies were pushed out because of a disagreement on how to handle the border. since then, a year ago now, dhs has not had a permanent secretary. and at this point, 65% of top key positions at dhs are vacant. meaning they are either filled by someone in an acting basis or they are completely vacant.

like the number two position at fema. there is nobody in that job, another key position in the agency being someone filling it while they are trying to fill another job. so, a big leadership vacuum that has really trickled down throughout the agency, because it's more difficult to fill jobs when you don't have permanent leadership in spots. and a lot of the sort top administrators, you know, and staffers, come along with someone when a new secretary comes and goes. or a new deputy. so when i talked to dhs they just said there's low morale right now. a lot of vacancy. a lot of confusion about who is in charge. and you can see how that is affecting things, like this big airport rollout we had over the weekend where, you know, the people on ground just did not seem prepared presumably because the leadership wasn't preparing them. and sending down really the plan to execute this. >> all right. shannon pettypiece, thank you so much. appreciate your insights.

so in seven counties in san francisco yesterday, compliance lagged during the first day of eye quote, shelter in place order, as businesses remained unsure if they were required to close. according to the "los angeles times," the order requires residents to stay home until at least april 7th with the exception that they leave their homes for essential purposes such as buying groceries, visiting doctors or medicines. the order comes in a region of 7 million residents. the "times" notes that businesses and residents are subject to citation if they violate the order. but elected officials say law enforcement is more likely to issue warnings than issue citations. >> joining us here on set, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, appreciate you being with us. let's talk a little bit about what this actually means. what would constitute a citation

if something violates a shelter in place order. something that we're seeing possibly in new york. what does law enforcement do as an essential visit for someone out on the street and someone who is not. >> california safety codal allows for a misdemeanor for violation of this order. and that means a potential jail sentence of 90 days. i want to be clear about this, in order to make sure that you don't come in contact with other people, the government is willing to throw you in a building full of other people in a jail cell. so keep that in mind. authorities have said, this is not something they want to enforce. and in reality, it's going to be very difficult to enforce anyway. how are you going to decide if somebody walking somewhere is doing something that's authorized. or carrying out a business that is authorized, unless you stop and question them. so, really, this seems more cautionary than it is actually something that's likely to be enforced. and we're not likely to see people arrested or dragged into court with misdemeanors under california's health and safety

code. more likely, this is just an empty threat. but something intended to get citizens to actually listen and actually stay home and maintain social distancing. >> obviously, ayman mentioning this, but we did hear from mayor bill de blasio saying that something could come with this, an answer at least in the next 48 hours as he said in his news conference yesterday. do you expect this type of thing, the shelter in order place order, to roll out in other areas of the country? could there be a federal mandate at one point for every american across the country to shelter in place for a certain period of time to get this thing under control? >> we will see shelter in place orders in other parts of the country, but most likely, they will be at the local and state level. the federal government and the state government both have the power to quarantine. but historically, the federal government has rarely exercised this power.

instead, the cdc normally takes a supportive role in helping states and local governments carry out their own quarantines which are usually authorized under state law. that's normally how it happens. and as the constitution anticipated, the state's police power makes them in a better position to carry out these quarantines and shelter in place-type orders. >> i think the underlying point that all americans should understand, whatever the government is asking is it for the safety of the general public so that's something that everybody should keep in the back of their minds. thank you. still ahead, a change to the website is raising new questions amid the coronavirus. we are back in a moment with that story and more.

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libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us. welcome back, everyone. as concerns of potentially overloaded hospitals continue to rise, many have called on the veterans health system to step in with resources.

among the va mission to care for treatment of veterans, the fourth is to accept civilian and nonpatients in the event that hospitals overflow in an emergency. >> described in the va's website going back to 2014 vanished last friday. references to the congressionally backed fourth mission was removed with information that does not reference the original statement. a spokes american for the va says it is intact. it it's sistered 322 coronavirus tests since the outbreak began. coming up on the show, david shulkin will be joining the conversation to get some answers there. as we've been doing every morning, we want to get a quick check on the numbers of coronavirus outbreaks here in the united states and transition to the forecast. bill, break it down for us. obviously, the numbers continue

to grow as we heard yesterday from new york's governor andrew cuomo, he's concerned about that tipping point. >> yeah, a tsunami, instead of a wave. we showed you this about a week ago, we're trying to avoid this peak, this fast-moving crest on the health care system. we want to do this curve here, the bottom, in blue. we tracked this every single day. yesterday was a rough day. yesterday we jumped to 6,496 cases across the country. on march 2nd, we had 100. you can see bend in the curve and now we're going up. you can see which of those curves we're currently following. the applied growth is 30%. in the next three days, we're doubling the days. in three days from now, 12,000 to 13,000 cases. unless we blunt this curve, we'll have over 1 is 00,000 casn this country. china is holding at 82,000 cases

if you believe the numbers coming out of there. to give you perspective of what we're trying to do and why everything is shut down and everyone is trying to stay away from each other. as far as the cases on the calendar, i'll zoom in here. we started with the first of 75 cases in march. then to 100 on the 2nd. then you see how the numbers just grow. yesterday we jumped to 6,496. the week before that, we weren't even at 1,000. you can see every week, every day that goes by, we're just jumping up with the numbers. the math is scary. unfortunately, it's not just the cases that this applies to. this applies to the death and fatalities that is going to continue on that growth rate. the fatalities now over 100. let me transition into the forecast. unfortunately, we could have weather that could have consequences for people. we don't have to worry about morning rush hours and stuff like that. we had a lot of thunderstorms in areas of dallas. we still have first responders that have to go out there and

help people. we have flash flood warnings in the ft. worth area. and storms rolling in. this is round one. we will get a second round today. unfortunately, as we head into the spring season, we are seeing the potential of isolated tornadoes today. this area of orange is the enhanced risk of san angelo, wichita falls, oklahoma city, too. watch out here, keep track on your local weather radio or weather radio, or nbc station here in case we do get storms in areas of texas. it's obviously different times, but the weather doesn't stop. someone said yesterday, why are you still doing the weather. in this country, we usually get hundreds if not thousands of people die from weather-related activities, too. that's whiy we'll give you the updates. >> thank you, bill. >> nks that, bill. still ahead, we're going to job about joe biden's big outcome after sweeping 13

states. he's now on his way of the delegates he needs to secure the nomination. plus, we're going to talk about where the stock market stands as the white house tries to combat the economic impact from the coronavirus. we'll be right back. back. and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. well, here's to first dates! you look amazing. and you look amazingly comfortable. when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. try downy fabric conditioner. unlike detergent alone, downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning and smoothing fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. downy and it's done. and i don't count the wrinkles. but what i do count on is boost high protein.

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♪ welcome back, everybody, i'm yasmin vossoughian, alongside ayman mohyeldin. we begin this half hour with the race for the democratic nation, as joe biden walked away with decisive victories and all three states up for grabs in yesterday's primaries. nbc news projects that biden

will extend his delegate lead after winning the florida, illinois and arizona contests. in florida, yesterday, biggest delegate prize, biden with 62% of the vote leads sanders by 39 points. while in illinois, the former vice president is up by 23 points, 59.4% to sanders' 37.5%. in arizona biden wins 42.5% of the vote leading sanders by a little over 12 points. biden has passed the halfway mark to the 1,132 delegates needed. the former vice president leads sanders by 315 delegates, 1,132 to 817. >> after last night's wins, joe biden addressed via live steam, as well as calling on all americans to unify on the coronavirus outbreak. >> senator sanders and i might

disagree on tactics, but we share a common vision, with the need to provide affordable health care for huall americanso tackling the existential threat of our time, climate change, senator sanders has supported a remarkable tenacity to these issues. together, they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country. so, let me say especially to the young voters who have been inspired by senator sanders. i hear you. i know what's at stake. i know what we have to do. our goal is to campaign and my goal as president is to unify this party and then to unify the nation. our goal as a campaign and my goal as president is to unify this party and then to unify the nation. you know, it's moments like these that we realize we need to put politics aside and work together as americans. the coronavirus doesn't care if

you're a democrat or republican. it will not discriminate based on national origin, race, gender or your zip code. >> as hospitals across the united states brace for a surge inpatients, a new study by harvard paints a potentially grim picture of beds heavily overrun past their capacity. even in the best case scenario with 20% of coronavirus cases spread out over 18 months, the study estimates that hospital beds would be about 95% full in some regions. that includes already occupied beds if additional ones are not added. if the infection rate proves to be much higher over a short time span, the hospitals will be inundated with figures. new york governor and drew kwre has called on president trump to enlist the army corps of engineers but so far, they have said they have not been assigned a mission. the pentagon will give

respirator help for human response all of this happening while vice president mike pence calls on construction workers to donate masks to hospitals as reports surface that staff are being forced to reuse dwindling supplies. and the u.s. is preparing for the coronavirus pandemic to last more than a year ago. according to "the new york times," the federal government tried to combat policymakers that the coronavirus pandemic could last multiple months that could strain the nation's health care system. the products may impact health care, emergency services and other elements of critical infrastructure. and this includes diagnostics, medical supplies including personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals and staffing in some locations. meanwhile, new york governor andrew cuomo at a press conference warned yesterday that the number of coronavirus cases in the state might not peak for more than a month. >> expected peak is around 45

days. that can be plus or minus. depending on what we do. they are expecting as many as 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds will be needed at that point. >> while the potential surge in cases threatens to overwhelm hospital capacity in the coming weeks, politico reports that new york state has used to use javits center convention center as a medical facility. a new study suggests that coronavirus can survive on some surfaces for three days. we're going to speak to a leading health care expert on the results of that next. next it all starts with an invitation.

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days on certain surfaces like plastic, even steel. but according to the "the new york times," experts say the risk of consumers getting infected from touching those materials is still low. the "times" notes that the new study also suggests that the virus doesn't survive more than a few hours on packages which helps lessen concern amongst consumers about getting deliveries at this time. researchers say when the virus becomes ex pended in tiny droplets known as aerosols it could stay in the air several minutes rather than hours. but with the world health organization position that the virus is not transported by air. >> joining us now, pediatrician and public health is expert and the dean of georgetown public health, dr. lynn goldman. dr. goldman, thank you very much for joining us, very much appreciate it. you can walk us through the new transmission of the coronavirus? clarify some of this for us

because it seems like a lot of back and forth on how long you can actually get this and how long it actually does live on surfaces? >> yes, this study was carried out by the national institute is an incredibly important addition to our understanding of how the virus is being spread. when we can appreciate that it is in aerosol in time and as well as a very long time that it stays on surfaces, even though each time you touch a surface, it's unlikely you transfer the virus to the surface, or if the virus is there, it's unlikely you pick it up. the more surfaces on which we have the virus, the more times that we're around people who are creating aerosols, even though they're in the air for a time, probably more likely we are to catch the virus. and one thing that's been difficult to understand is the fact that country after country, what we've learned is that the virus is being transmitted by

people who don't believe that they have symptoms. they're not very symptomatic. if they're symptomatic at all. and how can that happen in the virus is just being spread by droplets? because, of course, most of us, if we're seeing droplets, we mean that, it's helping us in two ways, one, to understand just why this virus is spreading much more readily than the original sars virus. and second, though, why it is true that it seems to be spread by people with very few symptoms. >> dr. goldman, i wanted to get your thoughts on a comment that dr. fauci made yesterday. in essence, he urged young people to do their part to curb the spread of the virus. how important is it that they take the necessary precautions? there is the sense permeating that if you're younger and

healthier, you're not affected by this some saying the rules of isolation, self-quarantine don't apply to me? >> yes. well that is the conversation i've had frequently in a public health school gain and somebody involved in our university campus. because for many young people it's not going to be a major threat to my personal health, why is it important? well, it's important, because young people can be, and are fuel for epidemics like this. they have a lot of conventions. one student might be in four different classes that each has 16 other students, contact with 60 different people. most of those students don't have as much contact. but at night, the epidemic increases the rate of the acceleration of the growth of the epidemic, thus, putting more

people in harm's way. and we're trying very hard to flatten the curve because we know if we can prolong the course of this we're in better shape in terms of caring for people who became ill. i think earlier in the show you showed that there are shortages of hospital beds, and especially intensive care beds and ventilators for people who are seriously ill. so, if we can flatten the curve, we have more of a chance to save lives by providing medical care. but also people are trying to develop cures, trying to develop vaccines, and if we prolong this long time, we may reach a time where it's actually possible to prevent or cure this disease. >> can we go with that for a moment all estimations as we were reading earlier that this thing could actually last 18 months with waves in and out. is there any way that they can expedite the development of a vaccine? because i'm assuming that

18-month guideline is also pertaining to the development of the vaccine, and the fact that dr. fauci said it could take 18 months to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. is there a way to expedite that process to get a vaccine even sooner? >> i think they're trying. i think it's going to be very difficult. i applaud dr. fauci for not getting overly optimistic assessments to give us too much. i think that medication could be coming down the pike much more rapidly because of the fact that there are trials under way already, with the cases that are occurring. and we have a lot of -- not only for us to actually kill viruss, but also to treat some of the worst effects of this virus, the pneumonia and the inflammation that occurs in people's lives which is really what is killing some of the people who are dieing from this. so, i do see a lot of approaches to saving lives, but again, only if we can flatten the curve. we need to stay at home.

we need to, unfortunately, all of us, contribute to keeping this epidemic from growing too fast. >> always go back to that same message, follow those guidelines dr. goldman, thank you for that. as we mentioned at the top of the program, we reached a milestone in this country with all 50 states reporting cases of the coronavirus outbreak. with more on that, nbc meteorologist bill karins has a look at the detailed map. hey, bill. >> well, we're going to look at the distribution of those cases as we get it in, what we learned from italy, it's not fair. it doesn't spread evenly everywhere. in northern italy is the path of the whole country. this is how our distribution looks from johns hopkins university. the bigger the circle, the more cases. right now, 1,000 in washington state. that's a big circle there. 700 in california. then to other areas, a lot of states in the midwest, the states are still kind of small.

one thing, right now, louisiana actually has more cases reported than texas. now, some of this could be because of the number of tests that are coming in and the lag in the numbers. these are things we're watching. 196 cases in louisiana. florida just passed 200. new jersey, 200. massachusetts right around 200. but this huge circle around new york city, that is what is alarming. right now, new york city is reporting 1700 cases. you want to put that in perspective, there's only nine countries, nine countries that have more cases than new york state right now. new york state is on the same pace as the united kingdom for the number of reported confirmed positive cases. and yesterday was, as we expected, guys, a bad day. 1700 new cases. you can see the jump we had here on the graph for the new daily number of cases. double what was the previous record from yesterday. >> all right, thank you, bill. still ahead, the economic impact of the coronavirus. treasury secretary steven mnuchin warns the pandemic could

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the u.s. is starting to feel the economic impacts of the coronavirus as a stimulus package of potentially more than $1 trillion is now being considered. jeff cutmore is joining us live from london on this. good morning to you. talk to us about the latest with regards to the state of the u.s. economy as we've had such a volatile time over the last two weeks or so and are expecting a vote hopefully on this stimulus package over the next 24 to 48 hours. >> well, the early indications are that the u.s. economy is now being affected by the coronavirus. and, of course, the government wants to maintain the health of the u.s. economy as best it can, which is why we've got this

stimulus pack ab stimulus package announcement. it's a trillion dollars. $500 billion of that will be directed at households. difficult at this stage to see which way that goes, whether they'll be mailing checks or whether that will come through some kind of irs tax rebate. but that's the aim. and then another 200 billion or so likely go to small businesses. and then there's some money in there for the airline sector as well. so the ultimate aim here is to buy time for the u.s. economy. and as part of that, the federal reserve also coming up with a new fund to support the credits of companies. and, again, the whole idea is to try and keep these businesses going even though they may be seeing revenue falling at this point. the stock market bounced on the back of the announcement. we were up a thousand points on the dow, but i have to tell you here in europe right now, the

markets are weakening and the future suggest we might see that thousand points taken back. so a short-term bump. of course this is serious. treasury secretary mnuchin saying unemployment could spike to 20% if congress doesn't play ball on this stimulus package. so we will have to wait and watch exactly how this vote goes here. but mr. manu chen sayinuchin sa no time to waste if we want the economy to remain relatively healthy. >> thank you, jeff. >> thank you so much. coming up next, a look at axios' one big thing. coming up on "morning joe," former vice president joe biden extends his lead in the race for the democratic nomination with apparent wins in all three states up for grabs in yesterday's primaries. plus, as the u.s. and the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, we're speak with two governors about the impacts on their states and

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joining us now via skype with a look at axios a.m., political reporter alexi mccommand. what is the one big thing for you this morning? >> well, according to a new axios poll, nearly 1100 adults who were surveyed over the weekend, twice as many democrats as republicans, say that they are concerned about the coronavirus. and the breakdown in the numbers show a stark new reality in america. 64% tell us that they are no longer shaking hands. 10% told us that they were told not to work in the past week. 10% say they're self-quarantining. 22%, unfortunately, say that their mental health has gotten worse over the past week. all that matters because the effects of things like school closures and social distancing, the effects of those things are only just beginning to set in. luckily axios will be doing a poll throughout the coming weeks

to get a pulse on the coronavirus' effects on americans and our daily lives. but these things are starting to set in. and the results show there's something between a panic and a national malaise because of coronavirus. and that's manifesting in different ways, anxiety and uncertainty being the top two ways. >> talk to us about the sweep last night with regards to the former vice president. how did coronavirus affect that, especially considering the delay in the ohio primary? >> yeah, i mean, the missouri primary getting postponed was a pretty shocking turn of events. but that just goes to show how coronavirus has a profound impact on the election and the electoral process already. the main thing of course is that coronavirus has forced candidates on both sides of the aisle to cancel events and stop doing these massive rallies. we know the way senator bernie sanders thrives when he's drawing these massive crowds and

his campaign is deploying hundreds of thousands of staff members to do door to door canvassing and events with voters. that affects him at a time when his campaign was on the decline because he's not been able to do that retail politicking that he loves to do or to get in front of huge crowds. i've been in those groups and the energy is palpable. the energy difference between a biden rally and bernie rally is stark. and now that he doesn't have that, that's slowing his momentum even more than it was before all of this happened. >> how are tech leaders, alexis, planning to make the most of the greater need to access as more people stay inside? we were having this conversation before with a colleague of ours about students across the country who are doing online courses and what happens if they don't have access to internet. >> yeah, that's a real concern. my colleague, you know, was very -- that some of the biggest tech companies, facebook,

amazon, apple, talking to them about how they're going to meet this moment. you think about it whether we are all in isolation, self-quarantining or inside because we can't go out, we're constantly relying on our devices more than we in our day-to-day lives. we go to going the for the first thing we need to search. we share things on facebook, instagram, twitter. but my colleagues said they're focused on meeting the moment. one is because of the tech clash that we've seen in the last year or year and a half alone, they're trying to find some goodwill for them self. but because of this unique moment that we're in, they're trying to connect isolated people and address the spread of misinformation around coronavirus. we've reported on this. others have reported on this. there's tons of misunderstanding and disinformation around coronavirus that tech leaders and tech companies have an actual role in the sharing and spreading of these things are looking at this and trying to figure out what they can do not just to stop that, but to make people feel more connected in a

time of panic, uncertainty, and unknowns. >> you can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. >> that does it for us for this wednesday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. all of us together, this is a moment for each of us to see and believe the best in every one of us. to look out for our neighbor. to understand the fear and stress that so many are feeling. to care for the elderly. elderly couple down the street. to thank the health care worker, the doctors, the nurses, the pharmacists. the grocery store cashier and the people restocking the shellsshell shelves. to believe in one another. because i assure you whether we do that, when we see the best in each us, we lift this nation up and we'll get through this together. that's how we've always done