i'm yasmin vossoughian next to ayman mohyeldin. "morning joe" starts now. do you consider america to be on wartime footing fighting the virus? s >> i do. if it got out of control -- early on, we did a stoppage of people coming in. could be very, very affected. a lot of people, including profess aa profess aa aal -- professionals didn't want us to do it. i see it as a wartime president. it is a tough situation. you have to do things, you have to close parts of an economy that, six weeks ago, were the best they've ever been. we had the best economy we've ever had. one day, you have to close it down in order to defeat this enemy. but we're doing it, and we're doing it well. i'll tell you, the american people have been incredible. for the most part, they've been really incredible.

>> good morning. welcome to "morning joe." it is thursday, march 19th. along with joe, willie, and me, we have white house reporter for the "associated press," jonathan lemire. former treasury official and "morning joe" economic analyst, steve rattner is with us. so reports of new cases of the coronavirus in this country seem to be coming in by the minute. there are now more than 8,900 confirmed cases here in the u.s. and more than 150 deaths. the number of cases in the state of new york alone jumped 44% over the last 24 hours. now close to 2,400. that's more than double washington state, which has the second highest number of confirmed cases. a top official on the white house coronavirus task force says the number of confirmed cases in the u.s. is expected to dramatically increase over the next few days. at a white house briefing yesterday, dr. deborah birx

urged americans not to overreact, noting that the spike will occur as testing accelerates. >> they were individuals who had been tested. who hadn't had their specimen run because of the slow throughput. it is now in a high-speed platform. so we will see the number of people diagnosed dramatically increase over the next four to five days. i know some of you will use that to raise an alarm, that we are worse than italy because of our slope of our curve. to every american out there, it will be five to six days worth of tests being run in 24 to 48 hours. so our curves will not be stable until sometime next week. >> well, you know, also, these numbers aren't going to be stable for a while, willie, because whatever the numbers are right now, because there isn't testing -- i've had a lot of health care officials say the

numbers are probably six, seven, eight, nine, ten times the amount it is. if it is at 8,000 right now, chances are good you have between 50,000 to 80,000 americans who are actually carrying around the coronavirus. of course, as we've been saying for weeks now, we can't map them. we can't track them. we can't make sure that communities are protected from them. because we still don't have the testing. >> that's what public health officials have been telling us on this show and elsewhere for weeks and weeks. t numbers you see on tv and read in the paper and come out of the cdc is not a reflection of how much disease there is in the country. it is a reflection of how much testing there is, and there is not enough. we'll talk more about that. we had an official from columbia university on yesterday saying they're probably by a factor of ten higher than the numbers put out there. we're already seeing people who haven't been tested flooding into hospitals. the capacity already strained in

new york city and other places. once these tests come in, and once we get more testing, as dr. birx say, the numbers will go way up from where they are now. >> jonathan lemire, testing is way off. we had supports yesterday of supplies running out that are needed for some test kits. again, it is a colossally botched effort by the federal government. we're going to be talking about ventilators in a little bit, the crisis there. our overreliance on testing parts and other parts from china. also, how, again, we're not going to have what the demand -- the supply that the demand calls for when these hospitals are overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. >> there's a looming crisis here in terms of the medical supplies. masks, ventilators, and so on. the demand is simply far, far

outstrips the production at the moment. the president and the white house, they're trying to step this up. they've been touting public/private partnerships to get companies to step up their levels of production. yesterday, the president invoked the defense protection act, which is a rarely used, 70-year old measure, where he can marshall the private sector, to get better prices, mobilize them to this effort. we played at the top him describing himself as a wartime president. that's how they're viewing this. the people inside the white house likened this to a war effort. some of the president's most senior advisers said it is going to take a national movement, akin to what we saw for world war ii, in order to do this. the president himself invoked that yesterday, although -- and we also, of course now, there is the political implication. the president thought, as of a few weeks ago, he'd be running for re-election on a back of a strong economy. the economy is now gone. we seem to be staring at a

recession at any time. instead, they're trying to rebrand this. they're trying to grab the moniker wartime president, suggesting this is a national moment. they want him to be judged on his performance here. one could argue that would be a failing report card at the moment. they're asking americans to be patient. to sacrifice, to understand that things are going to get worse before they get better. >> mika, i want to sprinkle in here, waas we talk about the shortfall on products and safety equipment, this is guidance from the cdc to health care providers that they sent around to hospitals. in settings where face masks are not available, health care providers might use homemade masks, bandana or scarf, for care of patients with covid-19 as a last resort. in the united states of america, doctors are used to use bandanas or scarves instead of masks because we don't have enough, or to rip apart gowns and sew together their own homemade masks. that's where we are in terms of supplies. >> to frame this -- >> in 2020.

>> -- in terms of supplies, joe, the masks could have been available. if we had acted early december, when we knew this was coming our way, when it was clear it was spreading around the world, we would have everything that we need. maybe not complete on ventilators, but we'd have a lot more if we'd had a jump start. if, perhaps, the pandemic office hadn't been cleaned out with everybody fired. that's what they do for a living, prepare. the president got rid of those people. >> well, you look at the masks. you look at the gloves. willie, you look at the other protective equipment. most of that is made in china. right now, of course, we've been having a trade war with china for quite some time. you wonder how, in the united states of america, in 2020, the most technologically advanced country in the world, the most medically advanced country in

the world, that in our country, we do not have the basic necessities to take care of the american people because the government didn't prepare. we don't have the safety equipment. we don't have the respirators. we don't have the ventilators. >> we don't have the testing. >> you know, what's concerning is that we keep hearing this talk out of the white house about what they may do. >> right. >> but, you know, you talk about how the president invoked this defense act yesterday. it was established in 1950. he later suggested that he would start moving and doing things if the situation got worse when it was needed. well, it's needed right now. >> it is worse. >> it is a ship that turns very slowly, and there are going to be thousands, at least thousands of americans who are going to die because -- and medical professionals whose lives are going to be at risk because we are acting like we're a

third-world country. telling our medical providers, our best and our brightest, the people on the front lines, who are going to be performing t ii triage, to rip off a piece of their gown and use it as a protective mask. >> that's what they are doing. some are instructed to re-use those masks which, of course, violates every protocol that medical and health care providers ever learned. reuse them. to your point about the president, when he invoked the defense production act, he tweeted out, we'll only use this in the worst-case scenario. i hope we don't need to. as you say, we are there. >> it is the worst-case scenario. >> we need to produce ventilators and respirators. we are there. also, a stark warning for younger americans. new data from the cdc shows all adults, not just the elderly, are being hospitalized with the virus. a new report shows adults between 20 and 54 years old made up 38% of hospitalizations here in the u.s. dr. deborah birx said millenials

are especially affected. >> there are concerning reports coming out of france and italy about some young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the icus. we think part of this may be that people heeded the early data coming out of china and coming out of south korea that the elderly or those with pre-existing medical conditions were at particular risk. it may have been that the millennial generation, our largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades, there may be disproportional number of infections among that group. >> joe, this immediately calls to mind those spring break scenes of the packed beaches in the state of florida, which still have not been closed. these are from a couple days ago. they're still out there yesterday. some of the bars are closing. the beach is not. kids on spring break. in fairness, the messaging from the white house and from others, even from the medical community,

was that this hit elderly people especially hard. 60 and over, those more vulnerable. what dr. birx took pains yesterday to make the point, this is not just an infection. this is not just a disease that hits the elderly. it comes for young people, as well. >> well, as we're learning, as we're hearing from people who have -- who are suffering right now from the coronavirus, you can see that it impacts people very differently. sometimes you can't predict how it will impact a person. a person may seem healthy but can really field the symptoms of coronavirus, while another may not. joe, the spike in testing results that we are bound to see, as dr. birx has put out there, to tell us not to overreact, i actually think that information is going to really make it real for the young people who are still congregating, when this is clear that the entire country needs to stay put and stay separate. the young people are the weak

link here. >> there's also -- there's a lag. every number you see today is a lagging indicator. the numbers you see today are the people who got it three weeks ago. >> right. >> the numbers you see today are the worst -- >> and ten other people have it now from that person. >> yeah, from that one person who has been going around for three weeks, who may not have been exhibiting signs of this. you have to multiply that number. >> just the science. >> steve rattner, you add those numbers up and, again, nobody knows, i don't know, the cdc obviously doesn't know, the government doesn't know, but medical professionals i talk to say if you look at a number like 8,900 cases, chances are good that the real number is 90,000. if we were testing like south korea, the number would be probably increased ten-fold because those 8,900 people have

been spreading it around for the past three weeks. and because we don't have tests, like the president said, if you want a test you can have a test -- he said that several weeks ago. because we're not like south korea was on this testing, then health officials know that number is exponentially higher. it is going to keep spiking straight up until we have the tests, until we have the wherewithal to map this out. quite frankly, until the government decides to tell everybody to go home and lock down. >> there's no question about that, joe. the number of cases is far higher than what you're seeing in the reported results. you hear stories all the time about people with symptoms, who feel bad, whatever, who go to their hospital or are turned away because they don't meet certain criteria for being tested. it seems they are slowly getting to a better place in terms of having on drive-in testing and things like that. we are a lot closer to italy in

our response to this than we are to south korea and china, which have both been exceptionally effective at not just testing but figuring out how to lock down people, marshal all the abilities of the government. we've been a step behind. >> yup, we have. steve, you have a couple of charts for us that put the market hemorrhaging into historical perspective. also, we'll talk about how we respond. what do you have? >> look, first of all, i think every day that goes by, the economists get more and more pessimistic about what we're looking at. we are now looking at -- it is not a question of whether we're going to be in a recession. it is not a question of whether we are in a recession. we are in a recession. it seems to be unfolding as a recession of really historic performances. a number that came out yesterday, i think, that stunned a lot of us, was a forecast from jpmorgan. they're looking now -- a week

ago, they were looking at 3% or 4% down gdp. now, 14% to decline in the second quarter. that would be a historic record by any measure. we've never had a decline in quarterly gdp, at least since the depression, of more than 10%. you can see the magnitude of the decline. if you look here at what happened in the great recession, about an 8% decline in the worst quarter. jpmorgan is projecting we'll have a jump up in the third quarter, as people get back to work and start spending the money they're not spending. that sort of presupposes that on july 1, everything is back to normal and we're spending money and doing stuff, which seems a little hard for me to imagine. if this happens -- >> steve, if i can interrupt for a second, these forecasts have been overly optimistic every day, as you roll over the past several weeks. we're hearing from the best and brightest medical minds that, actually, it doesn't just go away one day magically and

daffodils come out and people start jumping up and down across meadows, throwing thousand dollar bills at jpmorgan. it'll be, from what we hear, a rolling virus. we may hit a peak. it may go down, then it can pop up again. then it goes down, then it comes back again. that's what this is going to look like until we have a vaccine, according to a lot of medical professionals who, of course, say this isn't going to be a blizzard. this is going to be a long winter. >> that is an important point, joe. people, in their heads, think, well, if we do social distancing, maybe shelter in place for three weeks, life is going to be fine. that's not at all -- and we spend a lot of part-time listening to public health experts because we have to invest money on what they say. it's not what you hear. you hear of this flattening of the curve, which leads to the same number of people being infected, just over a long period of time. before i get to the stock

market, let me try to translate the gdp into real numbers. what you are starting to see are massive applications for job insurance around the various states. give you a couple of statistics. in connecticut, in the first three days of this week, there were 30,000 applications for unemployment insurance. they typically have 3,000. in massachusetts, they had 19,884 applications for unemployment insurance. in the entire month of february, they had a little over 17,000. in illinois, they had 41,000 applications on tuesday alone for unemployment insurance. normally have 4,500 over two theys in days in a normal period. gdp is an amorphous concept for many americans, you're looking at massive increases in unemployment and massive declines in the real industry. car companies are shutting down. service industries, of course,

are shut down all over america. getting back to this question of how the virus unfolds, joe, this is not like a play at which you have an inter mission, then everybody comes back and finishes the play. this is more like the tin man in the "wizard of oz," who gets caught in the rain, sits there until somebody unsticks him. we can talk about the stock market reaction because yesterday was another bad day. yesterday brought the stock market all the way back to where it was when donald trump was inaugurated, almost exactly back to where he was when he was inaugurated. we can all talk about trump's role in this and so on. what this represents, this is the steepest, fastest decline in stock market history. it's down 32% from the peak. it has taken less than a month to get there. to put that into historical perspective for you, in the great recession, it took a year for the stock market to fall as much as it has fall been this country in one month. without getting too political about it, i think there is a

piece of this that certainly relates to leadership. you can track it literally to when the market feels washington is on top of this, when trump feels he has his act together. market, okay, we can deal with this. then he says stuff that freaks people out or they don't understand, doesn't sound like he is taking it seriously, and it bose the othgoes the other w. you have a piece of real stuff going on and a piece of leadership going on. >> we're just in act one of this. act two is when the hospitals start to get jammed, mika. >> we see the lack of supplies. >> our health care professionals don't have the supplies they need to keep them safe. then they go down. the possibility, the very real possibility, certainly not saying this to disturb anybody, but this is the reality we seem to be facing. with health care professionals not having the safety supplies they need, then our health care professionals go down, and suddenly, an overtaxed emergency

room and an overtaxed hospital, an overtaxed health care system collapses. so this situation, let's hope the social distancing, let's hope governments shutting down interaction between people, let's hope that stops that emergency from coming. again, there's a three-week lag on everything that's happening. i think even if we shut the country down tomorrow, or even if we shut the country down today, the three-week lag is still going to hit us. it is going to be felt most acutely in the hospitals, in the emergency rooms, where we don't have basic equipment. >> well, to stieffeve's point, market is responding to leadership. if he seems strong, like he knows what he is doing, perhaps it'll respond differently. here is what the market is looking at. are we depending on social distancing to solve this crisis?

do we really think all americans, including the tens of thousands of young people we see on the beaches, are going to be the one that is can pull us through this? if not, it is going to be leadership, which has been proven to have so far botched this with the testing, which we still don't have. there's no testing. the market can see that this is going to get worse before it gets better. okay. how is this president going to respond to this? are we going to have what we need? are we going to have the supplies? he's moving military ships. it'll take weeks. he is going to have ventilators? no, he's not. they don't exist. ventilators are complicated machines. it is not like you can order them up and call on the private sector and have them just make them in their printers. it doesn't work like that. >> we're going to be having dr. dave on very soon, who has disturbing information about ventilators. and it's grim. it's a grim situation. >> it's grim. >> again, i don't know why the

president would be waiting to use the full power of his office and the full power of this defense act for an emergency to come. the emergency obviously is here. he declared it. we need to get moving right now. >> the worry is that he is moving and we're not ready. it is just not possible to get things in place. let's go to rome. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley is there. keeping in mind the numbers right now, matt, here in the united states are on par with rome, with italy, in terms of how this disease has progressed. what's the situation there? >> reporter: well, we just passed a really, really grim milestone. we had, yesterday, the largest increase in a single day in the number of deaths here in italy. also, we saw the largest increase in the number of new transmissions, of new cases, in one day since this whole nationwide lockdown started about a week ago. now, that's a pretty terrible,

symbolic step, but we're probably going to see another very grim milestone today. now, italy is probably going to surpass china in the number of deaths that have come from the coronavirus. we'll probably hear that in the next couple hours. we don't know for sure, but we always get the statistics every day here in italy about 6:00 p.m. that's when we'll see, very likely, that italy will have surpassed china in terms of number of fatalities. we also heard from the prime minister conte last night. he told the italian media that this unprus deecedented, nation lockdown, will be extended past april 3rd. he probably saw the statistics and was shocked by what is a lag. i heard joe mention the lag of three weeks. that's what we're seeing here. despite this really, really strict lockdown that's across the entire country, we haven't seen that coming up in the numbers. we haven't actually seen the statistics reflect what is this unprecedented -- and i keep

using this term, unprecede unprecedented -- lockdown here in italy. you know, we haven't seen the effect in the statistics. that's probably because a lot of the deaths were people who got the disease before the lockdown started. again, the transmissions are also a problem. if we're not seeing that, that could be the lockdown isn't really having much of an effect. that was one of the reasons that the prime minister came out and said that he chastised the public, told them they need to comply with these orders. they need to be staying indoors. that's why he also is going to be restricting the amount of time that dproegrocery stores, is one thing you can still go to here in italy. you can go to the grocery store, to the pharmacy. the hours of operation will be constricted. it seems the government here is frustrated with the lack of efficacy on the nationwide crackdown. though the streets seem empty. >> we're looking at pictures as you're speaking of makeshift hospitals in italy, health care

workers trying to attend to those who are sick. a lot of americans have been looking at italy over the last couple weeks as perhaps a preview of what's headed our way. as you say, a couple weeks ahead of us. what is the situation today inside the hospitals? we're already seeing overruns in new york city and other big cities of sick people. >> yeah, the situations at the hospitals is dire. this is one of the most advanced health systems in the world, especially in lombardy, in the north, where the vast majority of the cases here are. you can't say that this is a backward health system. it is actually quite advanced, quite wealthy. they're still really overly stretched. we heard from doctors and nurses who have been saying that, you know, they're parsing out these ventilators. they don't have enough to go around. now, they don't really have enough hospital beds. lombardy is going to start -- or it has started, basically, exporting cases to elsewhere in italy. they're having to transfer patients. here's a really macob kind of

the times. they're exporting corpses. they're not able to handle in all of the cemeteries and the morgues the number of corpses they've been getting. again, you saw this massive increase in the number of deaths. so the bodies are going to have to be moved outside of the lombardy region in northern italy to elsewhere in italy for burial and cremation. that's because they don't have the capacity not only to handle the living people but even the dead. >> matt, what do health officials believe constitutes the reason for the big difference between the impact on the coronavirus in northern italy versus southern italy? obviously, northern italy hit the worst. southern parts of italy not feeling the effects. >> reporter: there was a lag in the amount of time in which they cracked down on people's movements in northern italy. that's one of the reasons why this outbreak blossomed the way

it did in lombardy, to the extent that it even is now surpassing the situation in china. but there was a lockdown in northern italy that prevented the disease from spreading further south. that's why here in rome, which is obviously italy's largest city by far, there haven't really been that many cases. the government has stepped in and has restricted people's movements, so it has been effective in the sense they have managed to -- even though this is a dire situation in northern italy, they have managed to keep it from spreading to the rest of the country. it is unclear whether or not that's going to stay. the big question for a lot of italians is even if we do comply with these very, very restrictive rules, is it going to be effective? has the damage already been done? i made this point before, once this disease insinuates itself, it is unclear whether or not even the most dramatic efforts will be able to halt the spread. that's what we're seeing in lombardy. so far, as you mentioned, we're not seeing that in southern

italy, where the health system is much, much, much weaker. that has been one benefit of this. the crackdown has geographically restricted the spread. >> matt bradley, thank you for your reporting. still ahead on "morning joe," one idea as to how to help businesses instead of government bailouts. as this pandemic unfolds, new york is being hit especially hard. we'll talk with the state's governor, andrew cuomo. plus, senator chuck schumer with the view from washington. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back.

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you know, willie, a lot of people are obviously concerned about washington moving very quickly on relief, on economic

relief. very concerned about bailouts of companies, of corporations that got a windfall of billions and billions of dollars just a couple years ago president trump tax cuts. instead of investing it in their work force, instead of expanding operations, instead of putting away cash reserves for a rainy day like now, they spent 95% on stock buybacks. the airline industry was especially guilty of this. now maybe a $50 billion bailout for the airline industry. bailout for the cruise industry. i'm not sure americans have an appetite for that. >> the president said explicitly, we'll take care of the airlines. americans are saying, great. what about the workers? what about the people laid off from the restaurants, bars, dry cleaners, all the small businesses that are going to be wiped out by this?

andrew, our friend are the snie"new york times," had a fascinating piece that stirred discussion. he writes, the co vis 19 crisis will take time to be solved by science. the economic crisis can be solved right now. bailouts of companies or industries just cause division. the answer, a government bridge loan to everyone to end the financial panic. what we're talking about, steve, is a no-interest loan to, say, a small business, or all small businesses, that is guaranteed for the duration of this crisis, for however long it goes on. obviously, to be paid back to the government or the banks, whoever makes the loan. what do you make of the idea, and can you flush it out a little more? >> there are a lot of ideas like this floating around. we had the $8 billion bill out of congress. we'll have a $40 billion bill out of congress. a trillion dollar bill out of congress. probably another trillion to come for the big businesses. there's a lot less sympathy, and in my view, working on bailouts, i would want to do it on commercial terms.

then you get to all the small businesses all over america. as we were talking during the break, they'll have to shut their doors. what do you do for them, and how do you do it? i think -- i talked to andrew for that piece. i think he is directionally heading in the right place. what we're going to need is something like $1 trillion that will be, quote, lended to small business, probably through the banking system, but with the condition that they maintain employme employment, with the expectation many won't be able to pay it back because that i simply getting on their feet. something like that is where the great minds ask, and a lot of pe have been talking about this, are headed. you have to expect it to be more like a gift than a loan. it is something we have to do to get the economy going. >> joe, andrew writes as part of this, you have to keep, i think, the number was 90% of your employees. if you take this loan, you have to keep the employees on the payroll. >> yeah. i mean, again, you look at the trump tax cuts.

of course, everybody was talking about how it was going to expand the economy. we'd get 4%, 5%, 6% growth because companies were going to expand their workworkforce. no. we said it on this show repeatedly before it passed. these huge companies were just going to take the money and do stock buybacks. so, you know, jonathan lemire, i know this administration likes easy bailouts. $16 billion check to the big farm agricultural interests. write a $50 billion check to airline companies. i think it is safe to say, most airline companies don't want to bail out boeing right now, the other companies that spent 95% of their tax cuts on stock buybacks. when, again, the sell from the administration was, we need to pass this because it'll help

workers. it will help the economy. they will reinvest in their businesses and grow their businesses and operations. that never happened. what about this idea from andrew ross sorkin? what about instead of bailouts, we extend zero interest loans, especially to small business owners who are really hurting right now? >> the details of what's coming are still being worked out. the white house has pledged for help to small businesses. it's not clear exactly what or how big that'll be just yet. as steve said, as we were discussing, you're already seeing impacts of this. in my neighborhood, few restaurants already closed. we're into a few days of this. it shows how establishments are day to day, week to week, and can't handle a sustained, economic drought, which we seem to be about to face. the federal government is moving on this. senate approved last night paid sick leave for workers. try to get the virus tests for free. there's a long way to go. mcconnell has told he wants to

keep senators close by to begin negotiating as soon as today. we can ask chuck sumer abochume this when he is on later on. $1 trillion package is probably the first that will be needed. it is not clear what happens next. it is not sure the house will be able to convene any time soon to then take up the measure and work on their own package. we haven't mentioned this. there are two members of congress who tested positive for the coronavirus. others were exposed to them that had to quarantine themselves. at least to this point, there is not an appetite for electronic voting. there is going to be a lag here. there will be a slowdown before some of the measures are put into place, despite the white house pressing them. even though, as you pointed out, there's real concern of political appetite in this country for the big industries receiving any sort of bailout. >> steve rattner, thank you very much for being on this morning. coming up, our next guest has dealt with health crises in

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why did it take so long to invoke the defense production act? >> hospitals are supposed to have ventilators, too. when we have thousands of ventilators, it sounds like a lot. but this is a very unforeseen thing. nobody ever thought of these numbers. >> we knew for weeks we needed for ventilators. why did it take so long? >> we knew. it depends. it depends on how it goes. worst-case, absolutely. best-case, not at all. we'll have to see where it goes, but we are ordering thousands and thousands of ventilators. >> hospitals are supposed to have ventilators, too. joining us, "morning joe" chief medical correspondent dr. dave campbell. and dr. vanessa carey. ceo of seed global health, a

nonprofit that helps train future doctors and nurses in countries with limited health care resources. great to have you both on the show this morning. >> vanessa, you heard reports of doctors being told to actually tear off parts of their gown. you use it as a makeshift mask to bring bandanas from home. could you ever imagine that this would be happening in the united states of america at one of our most trying times? >> no, i couldn't. at all. i think the reality is that we are in -- we are facing an existential threat that we have not experienced in generations. arguably, that we have never experienced because of globalization, the size of our population in the world. the truth is, this is really a crisis of several proportions. one, the fear that we are going to get sick. it is a crisis of the preparedness that we have here. it is an economic crisis.

it is an information and misinformation crisis. it is most fundamentally a crisis of leadership. that, i think, is what people are feeling the most and what is promoting so much of the panic. including my colleagues at mass general hospital and elsewhere who are going to be on the front lines. and the crisis at the level of our administration. >> dr. dave, i want to be very careful here. i'm not going to mention any names, but we had a conversation last night. you have a colleague that you've known for three decades now. extremely respected professional. got a call from one of his colleagues in italy asking for any help in getting ventilators over to italy. he placed a call to somebody that he knew who worked for a company that mass produced ventilators. that company had been told, i guess, in early february that they were going to be sending all of their orders to china.

a whole mass collection of ventilators that the chinese government had called up and said, we'll pbuy all of your ventilators through june. without revealing any of these names, because we're working the story right now, tell us about that. tell us what you learned by talking to the person involved in this, about just how difficult it is to mass produce ventilators and why you're spectacle of the government's claims. >> thanks, joe. this is a story of china being first to the plate in the development and need for ventilators. so in fmid-february, this compay received an order for 1,000 ventilators from china. they had 20 to 30 in stock. they supplied those. the order then went in to

manufacture 100 ventilators per week over the next ten weeks. that's 1,000 ventilators. if you were to call this major company today and ask to order venn la ventilators for a company, hospital, or medical center in the united states or italy, which is what happened, there's no supply until june. so it's not a condemnation of china asking for these ventilators. they needed them. they need them now. they just needed them two months before the united states and italy, joe. >> yeah. mika, this company is a major, multi-national corporation, and one of the best known american companies that there are. again, they're not going to be producing ventilators for the united states and for american patients through june. they're going to be working, in effect, for china. >> as we flush out this story, we'll see just how complicated

it is. it is not just -- you don't just deliver ventilators and make them. they have parts. parts need to be replaced constantly. this is a crisis that could have been slightly averted and, instead, we are caught flat-footed. it is going to be the next big miss. first was testing, which we still don't have. the second is going to be hospital space, supplies, ventilators, and masks. and it is why everybody is uncertain, especially the markets. dr. carey, seed global health sends doctors have third-world areas, to train people in the third-world countries to try the deliver their own health care. do you envision medical students at this point being mobilized? we have a health care workforce that, right now, is blatantly being exposed to the coronavirus. >> i think this is what's really complicated, is that we're asking health care workers, like my colleagues, myself soon, when i have to go to the hospital, we

are going to be working in a situation where we don't have the protective equipment we need. i think that's going to be a real problem. what is going to happen is we get infected, pulled from the health care workforce, you probably won't see medical students, but you will see potentially your dermatologist. a colleague of mine who is a dermatologist recently said, i feel i need to brush up on pulmonary and critical care. where should i go look at it? that'll be the reality we see, unless we take unprecedented actions and embrace it as a community, as a country. if we can pubuckle down and ris to this moment, we can help mitigate how long we have to live in that reality. we are going to be in this for a while. we have to accept that. for how long is up to our actions today. ideally, the actions of this administration to make testing rapid, much more widely available. they held a press conference a week ago saying that we were going to be scaling up tests immediately. we still don't have those. it takes two days, at least, to

turn around a test. we still have -- we have over 8,000 cases in america, over 150 deaths now, almost 9,000 cases and 150 deaths. we are still testing about, you know, i think it is something like 500 americans for every million people. south korea was testing, you know, at 5,000 for every million. it is just -- we will not get control without more information and without better leadership to guide us. >> dr. kerry, it is willie geist. we can't give thanks big enough to you and your colleagues in the health care community for what you're doing now on the front lines. i know you're about to go in yourself. in terms of equipment, in terms of things you need, gloves, masks, respirators, ventilators, i guess the question for a lot of americans is, why don't we have enough of those things? i understand that this is a huge ask, that the pentagon can release what it can release. a lot of the reserves are for something targeted, a big event

in new york city, and they suddenly need 1,000 ventilators there. not for every hospital across the country. what can happen as of this morning? what could the federal government do as of this morning to get at least the gloves and the masks and that protective equipment that you need into your hands so you can get to work? >> there's a couple things. one, i think releasing the, you know -- releasing the supplies is going to be critically important. that's a stopgap, right? we are going to need millions of masks, millions of gloves. what we have just been released is only going to get a fraction of us there. it might buy us a little bit of time. the reality is, we never expected, we never thought that we could be vulnerable to a pandemic of this size. with the work i do at seed global health, we believe health security is national security and it is critically important to invest in health systems around the world. we're only as strong as the weakest link. we never thought we could be the weakest link. now that we're there, what we have to do is scale up production. also, some of my colleagues are

some of the most foremost public health professionals. they identified massive sources of masks available in china, as they reported no cases as of yesterday for the first time. no new cases. they are available, but we have trade tariffs and bans in place that aren't making it possible for the equipment to be available. that is irresponsible in this moment of crisis right now. we need to be creative. we need to be bold. i think that i'm very hopeful we can get ourselves there sooner rather than later, so we're not dealing with this for, you know -- into years. we're dealing with this hopefully only into the summer, and at a place where we can start to catch our breath before we potentially get a second wave in the fall. this is here to stay though. the question is, how bad and for how long? >> dr. dave, this is here to stay, for sure. i'm hearing everything from different waves of this to shutdowns becoming a part of life for several years. we don't know what's to come.

this is clearly here, and the numbers are beginning to double in certain localities as we get testing. the president has deployed two navy wartime ships to serve as hospitals, but the understanding is that that will take other patients that can't fit into hospitals anymore due to the influx of coronavirus patients. and they won't be ready for a few weeks. there's the act that he passed that allows him to direct industry to produce critical equipment, to confront this crisis. none of this seems like it is happening right now. it still feels like we're weeks, potentially months off from being up to speed in confronting this crisis. >> yes, mika. there are a few solutions, none of them very good. one dr. kerry mentioned, to scale up production. scaling up production of ventilators in the united states

can happen. but every ventilator used in every hospital in this country is under the fda regulation. nobody manufactures and uses a ventilator here that's not tightly regulated by the fda. special exemptions to allow some of the older ventilators that are still safe to be utilized or manufactured may help. also, we heard that there are 10,000 -- there's a massive stockpile of ventilators and equipment. that is, perhaps, more a virtual stockpile. my sources tell me there is not a single warehouse somewhere with 10,000 ventilators. they're spread out over storage rooms, places in hospitals, many of them older. so we really have to look closely as how to expand and scale up the use of existing, safe ventilators, the manufacture and collection of

safe ventilators from wherever they are, the see if we can catch up. we have about two weeks. we have some time. beyond that, dr. kerry may agree, beyond two weeks, we really don't know where this country will be. >> i also want to add that we need people who know -- >> yup? >> we need people who know how to use the ventilatoventilators. that's the second piece of this. >> that's the layer of educating doctors, maybe young doctors, medical assistants. we're going to lose people at the rate we're going. numbers are doubling every few days. dr. dave campbell and dr. vanessa kerry, thank you both. coming up, a sea change for republicans, who once opposed bailouts. we have president trump's $1 trillion gamble for re-election. plus, will the city that never sleeps be told to shelter in place? dpo governor cuomo weighs in on

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i've always known, this is a real -- this is a pandemic. i felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. all you had to do was look at other countries. now, it is almost 120 countries all over the world. no, i've always viewed it as very serious. i call it the unseen. the unseen enemy. you call it -- there's a thousand different terms for it. it snuck up on us, and it did 128 countries, i think. something like that, very close to that. it spreads violently. it is a very contagious, very, very contagious virus. >> welcome back to "morning joe." don't want to keep talking about testing, but i'm going to keep

talking about testing. because i just read this from garrett haake, willie and mika. due to a shortage of tests, ohio's governor, mike dewine, says coronavirus testing is limited to health care workers and those already hospitalized. garrett goes on to say, lack of tests around the country remains a huge story. we are still flying blind. again, this is -- willie, we are -- our economy is being destroyed right now. >> yeah. >> because instead of having testing, we're just having to shut the whole thing down. it's the only responsible thing we can do because we have failed so miserably, our government has failed so miserably in having these tests provided. somehow, we're supposed to believe that south korea is a more advanced nation than the united -- no. south korea took the tests from the world health organization. other countries took the test from the world health

organization. we refused. we botched the tests. we're still flying blind. so instead of knowing what cities are infected or who to isolate, we have to isolate 300 million people. or risk 2 million deaths. all because we still don't have the tests. willie, we were guaranteed, if you want a test, you can have a test. >> yup. >> yet, mike dewine from ohio is now saying, no, citizens of ohio, we have no tests for you. you're out of luck. the only people that can have tests are health care workers and those already infected. >> you know what else south korea did? yes, they took the tests from the w.h.o. the moment they knew it was coming, back in january now, starting to happen in wuhan, starting to happen in china, the south korean government got all of the private companies into a

room, in a conference room at a train station in seoul, and they said, this is about to be a crisis. we need tests, and we need them now. go. that's your new job. that's your objective. a week later, one week later, the private companies in south korea came up with a test, and they distributed it. south korea has gotten its arms around coronavirus, not by locking down their society, not by sheltering everyone in place, but by getting out early and getting people tested so they know who had it, and they can isolate those people and not shut down their society. we're well beyond that. if the president, joe and mika, believes he is a wartime president, as he said yesterday, well, a wartime president is a wartime president from the beginning, when he knows it is a war. in our case, it was back in december. if you thought it was war, you would have gathered all those people in a room at a train station or the situation room and said, go find a test. you have a week to do it. >> yeah. joe, the president said he knew it was coming. it's almost worse when you look

at it that way. that's just malpractice. you know something like this is coming, and you do nothing. that's what he's telling the american people. he did nothing from the get-go. >> there was reporting from "politico" that the reason why he didn't want the test out, he thought it could be contained. also, the reports were that the president thought the higher the numbers, the worse it would be for him politically. the worse it'd be for his re-election. jonathan lemire, i've been saying the past is the past. let's worry about the future. this will obviously -- all of these quotes, all of these video clips will come out in the fall. that said, the past is the past. we only can work with what we have right now. we've been saying that for a week right now. i have to say, who is in charge at the white house, other than the president? we hear jared is in charge at the white house. why do we still not have tests?

we keep getting promised a million tests here, a million tests there. yesterday, we heard reports from a health official that we don't have a lot of the supplies that are needed to apply the tests. who is in charge? i'll guaren-damn-tee you, i can give you businesspeople that could be in charge of this and would say, literally, get me a test in a week, go. even if it were a little longer than a week, they would be on war footing, like fdr. he basically sent detroit to war, and detroit helped win the war. what's happening in this white house? why are we still hearing this bs about ventilators when it is bs? why are we hearing bs about testing around the corner, when it is proving to be bs? when is somebody going to finally be in charge and get these tests to the people of ohio who need it, to the people of florida who need it, to the people of arizona who need it,

to the people of new york and california who need it, to the people in nebraska who >> there's a few things at play. first, the white house was slow to react. the president is engaging in revisionist history. he spent weeks downplaying the crisis. in part -- >> what are we doing now? what are we doing now is my question? who is in charge? if they can't do it, they need to bring somebody in who can do it. who is in charge? who can tell us truthfully how many ventilators we have ready to go? who can tell us truthfully when every american who wants a test can get a test? we keep hearing, nobody in ohio can get a test. >> part of the problem -- >> nobody in ohio? that's ridiculous. who is in charge? >> that's part of the problem. uncertainty as to who is in charge. the jared kushner team, which has been working behind the scenes, is at odds with the task force headed up by vice

president pence. there has been rivalry and confusion among government agencies, who they should be dealing with. confusion in the private sector as to who they should be dealing with. the president invoked this defense act yesterday in order to use the -- marshal the private sector for the effort, but later walked it back. >> jonathan, can you explain that? what is the insight? he invokes the defense act but later says, i'm not going to use it right now. >> even when he invoked it from the white house, he said, if we need it, if things get bad enough. it clearly is. >> we need it. >> he did invoke it last night. he signed it last night. it is in place. he tries to have it both ways. he's suggesting, i'm a wartime president. he's saying we're doing all we can. at the same time, he's still minimizing the impact of what's happening here. this is an attempt for him to be too cute by half. he's saying, we need to do these things, but also trying to broadcast to the american public, things aren't that bad. i think also, we need to -- too

much has been made of the last few days about his shift in tone. yes, has he been more somber in the white house briefing room? he has. that should have happened weeks ago. >> that's right. >> much has been made about he's using the phrase chinese virus to describe this, though many described it as racist. yesterday, he didn't back off the idea when one white house reporter said an official told her he called it the kung flu. the president wasn't upset about that, and it was another offensive term. >> these are the term that is the president, at this point, is putting out there. i wouldn't get distracted. we're looking for facts on people who might be dying of the coronavirus at this point. >> by the way, it is a good point, mika. >> it's terrible. >> let me give liberals and progressives and people in the media a tip here. he's poking at you. he wants you to become outraged. >> react to racism.

>> so you will talk about that instead of talking about tests. >> xenophobia. >> you'll talk about that instead of talking about ventilators. it's called a rabbit trail. yes, it is offensive but, again, we can talk about this in november when the election is in full force. this is all a distraction. >> we're closing in on 10,000 cases of the coronavirus here in the u.s. that's because the state of new york reported nearly 600 new cases within the last hour. sending the number of nationwide cases to more than 9,500. new york now has nearly 3,000 cases of coronavirus, a third of the nationwide number, and more than double of washington state, which has the second highest number of confirmed cases. let's bring in senate minority leader, democrat chuck schumer of new york. we have a lot to talk to you about, senator. let's start with the numbers in new york. how do they relate to the number of tests out there?

do you have enough tests -- >> no. >> -- to test everybody in the state of new york? >> we do have the not have enou. another thing we'll be pushing in the new bill we're doing, it is not just the testing, and that's bad enough. we need a marshal plan for all of the health care industry, particularly our hospitals. there are not enough ventilators. i don't know. the president finally -- we asked him to do this several days ago -- invoked the defense production act, allowing him to command the factories to make more. is someone implementing that? we don't have enough beds. getting the army corps of engineers to build some temporary hospital buildings with beds is very important, as well. we should probably use some of the veterans administration beds that are not being used right now. they don't have enough swabs. then there are all kinds of other problems. in new york city, the health care workers use the subways to get there. if they close the subways -- i'm not saying they made a decision.

it'll be up to the governor and the mayor -- how are you getting people to work? this happens in lots of other places, as well. we need a marshal plan on the health care system. as three weeks ago, you and i and many others were talking about tests now, we will be talking about the dire situation in the hospitals in a few weeks if we don't act now. so this is all very, very important. i agree with joe. the president -- everyone can judge the job he's done. you've done a very good job talking about it. we have to go forward in a bipartisan way here in the house and senate and do what needs to be done in bold, quick action. that's what we're trying to do here. >> senator shuke eschumer, it's geist. i know how busy a time it is for you. thanks for coming. this is the front page of the "new york post." "mass layoffs begin." thousands of new york city restaurant workers fired. we know the national restaurant association said yesterday they

expect 5 million to 7 million jobs to be lost in that industry alone. what is your message this morning? people are hearing about bailouts of the airlines and things like that. >> yes. >> to the waiter, to the bartender, to the dry cleaner. >> okay. my message, two words, workers first. here's what we're going to be proposing. this morning, i hope, when leader mcconnell and i meet to work out this package. that we massively expand unemployment insurance. right now, unemployment insurance is hard to get, takes a long time to get. you get paid only a fraction of the wages you were paid. it is not available to large numbers of workers. what we democrats in the senate are proposing, and i know house speaker pelosi is for this because we're consulting on everything, is that we get unemployment insurance where you get paid if you get laid off. no fault of your own, of course, the restaurant workers. you get full salary. you get it quickly. the application process is very, very simple. it goes for a long period of

time. you know, we need to have the workers being paid during this huge crisis where no one is showing up at the restaurants, so they're not working. we need them to be paid, and everyone to be paid. this unemployment provision is very important. i spoke to mr. mnuchin last night. i told him we needed this probably more importantly than anything else on the economic front. pau because it is targeted and goes to the people who need it. he seemed very open to it. i was glad about that. >> senator, the money that has been talked about, directly into americans' pockets, $1,000, $2,000, will get people through a month. if the little business you work for shuts down, you're done after a month. what about this idea that's being talked about, steve rattner was talking about it this morning, about the bridge loans? that's the federal government, obviously an expensive idea, but something that might be needed to prop up the economy, to give small businesses across the country a loan over the duration

of this crisis? no interest to be paid back over five years or whatever you decide it is. >> with one caveat. i'm all for it with one caveat. that loan can be forgiven if, and only if, they keep all their employees. >> all employees. >> yes. you don't want to give them a loan and they fire half the employees and they're out of work. again, it is something we're working on. mark waerner on our side of the aisle is working on. we've been talking to mnuchin and powell about it. our motto is this is workers first. the bailout in 2008 helped people at the top. didn't help average folks. that is not going to happen on our watch. we're going to fight as hard as we can, and we hope our republican friends will join us, in putting workers first. i'd say that also in terms of the airlines industry and the hospitality industry. we don't want to give them money. we know we have to keep them going. we know that they have lots of

workers, and we want to keep them working. but we don't want to give them money unless they keep all their employees, they don't cut salaries of their employees, and these bailouts, which i know, joe, these buybacks, they infuriate me. we shouldn't allow them to do buybacks, raise corporate salaries. and they did $39 billion, the airlines industry alone. $39 billion of buybacks over the last eight months. that money could have been there to help the workers, to help the airlines out of this. we have to find a way to claw back that money. buybacks are a menace. 70% of this tax break that we did two years ago didn't go to workers, didn't go to productivity, it went to buybacks. it is a disgrace. >> you know, republicans will say, well, it's their money. they get the tax cuts. they can do what they want to do with it. these the same republicans who sold the tax cut by saying they would use it to help workers. >> yes. >> they'd use it to expand

operations. >> right. >> they'd use it for cash reserves. they didn't do that. i want to ask you something about something that was on npr's morning edition this morning. richard burr, good friend of mine from way back, the intel chief of the united states senate. there was a recording of richard burr that tim mack at npr got his hands on, talking to a north carolina business group three weeks ago, warning them not to travel to europe three weeks ago. that was, by the way, 15 days before the state department issued the same warning. compared the coronavirus, three weeks ago -- excuse me for being upset -- three weeks ago to the 1918 spanish flu. and warned them of everything that has unfolded over the past three weeks. how could it be a republican senator could warn his constituents on capitol hill about this three weeks ago, and this administration is still

flat-footed today? >> well, that's the big question. that's the big problem. our number one job, joe, is to try and -- with people in the white house, who seem at least to understand some of the magnitude here, mnuchin, he has a wall street point of view. i don't. we'll have to make sure that is curbed, his view, in what we propose, but we have to come together and move forward. >> i agree. >> you said it well, this will be a valid theme in november. i think the american people know when the president says he's always thought it's a crisis, they heard his words a week away when he was downplaying it. now, we have to be all-han hand deck. this is the most serious crisis we've faced in the history of the country. >> i agree. >> i know you do. >> my question is this though, how do we ensure -- because, again, i don't want to talk about what happened in the past. i want to talk about what's happening now. >> yes. >> how do we ensure that every new yorker, every person from

ohio, every person from florida, arizona, wisconsin, california, everybody that needs a test gets a test? how do we get there from here? >> well, there are a couple of things that can be done. last week, i was on the phone, our governor, our mayor were all on the phone with the vice president saying, let new york approve its own testing. we have labs in new york. we have hospitals in new york who are eager to go. finally, they did that. i think new york, you'll see many more tests in the near future. every state should be allowed to go forward. one of the big problems is that the fda and the cdc take so long to approve a test. they aren't looking at it at the level of crisis we have now, that many more people will die if we don't approve these tests quickly. as you said, they're essential. when they imposed the quarantine on the mayor in new rochelle, he was begging the white house for tests. the governor was begging them for tests. he said, if i could test

everyone in new rochelle -- this is one of the first places that imposed semi-quarantine -- i could test them. if you had the virus, you'd stay in your house. if you didn't, you could go to the stores, go to the shops, and we wouldn't have this crisis. your anger is totally justified. i share it. i speak to new yorkers all the time. you know, this crisis, it's devastating in a different way. what do new yorkers like to do, what do americans like to do in a time of crisis? same thing we did after 9/11. come together, all as one people, no matter our backgrounds, everything. now, we're isolated. i mean, i love being out with my constituents all the time. they tell me things. i'm on the phone call day, but it is not the same. we can't be near each other. that makes it even more -- the uncertainty of what's going on, the lack of leadership, which you so aptly pointed out, and the inability of us to be together makes this crisis even more vexing. that demands real, strong

action. what we're going to propose is the marshal plan for the hospitals. we're going to propose this large increase in unemployment benefits. it is almost employment benefits because the people will be employed again. they're just furloughed. we're going to propose large increases in pay, in paid sick leave, and in paid family leave. the bill we passed yesterday, and it was a good sign, 90 votes, both sides of the aisle, but it didn't go far enough and didn't cover enough people. it will. finally, in the bailouts, we're going to propose workers first. dealing with the buybacks, dealing with corporate salaries, making sure the workers are kept and paid full. if we can do these four things, and many others, elizabeth warren and i want to see student loans forgiven during the period of the crisis. we're going to call for that. we've got to call for help with senior citizens. we need the national guard to be involved. who is going to deliver meals to the senior citizens or the kids at school who used to get their

best meal during the day? so there's so, so much to do. we're going to try in this covid 3 legislation, to get the cooperation, nancy and i do, of the senate and republican friends. >> senate minority leader chuck schumer, thank you. joe, you heard the long list of things that need to be done. there's so much more. right now, it appears, our only weapon, our only weapon against this virus, which is here, is social distancing. it's what americans can do. everything seems to be wrapped up in chaos. i want to ask a question as we get to our next guest. i men than this seriously. there seems to be a vacuum in leadership and brains at the top to tier of the white house. you have this president, we know who he is, we know what his weaknesses are, and we don't need to go there, but who is around him? where is the chief of staff? who is the chief of staff? mark meadows? i think he is in quarantine.

the last was fired recently. so is it jared? is it ivanka? is it dan scavino? who is his close circle of people who are advising him so that we can bring together this nation and bring together the bright minds and the bright ideas as to how to deal with this? >> yeah. >> i can't think of anyone. >> jonathan lemire, you're there. why don't you answer that question? i know jared is -- has been put in charge. i heard rumblings that the president had problems with jared. >> what is his experience? >> i heard that jared now has an outside group that he is putting together. there doesn't seem to be -- this is an understatement -- a neat hierarchy there. at this time, it really almost seems like the president needs to appoint a czar that republicans, democrats, and individu

independents alike could all respect to guide us through this crisis. right now, it is scatter shotment shot. we like seeing the medical professionals. >> keep us posted on where this is going. >> we like them. it is important we see that every day. but the question is, the president of the united states can't do this. you know, he's obviously -- he's obviously spread thin on a lot of different things. even if he is dealing with one crisis. who is the one person in charge? because this is how it works, driving production of ventilators, driving production of testing, getting on the phone and saying, damn it, i need it by next week. how do you do it? who is that single person? >> that person does not currently exist. jared kushner has taken a growing role in the last week or so in response to this crisis. he has -- he's always sort of had his own team within the west

wing. he is assembling them and adding to it, to push the private sector. that's where he is saying he's touting relationships with business to increase the testing production and work on other issues like ventilators. as we discussed in the last hour, there is a rift between his side and the vice president's side, where there has been tension there and also just some confusion on the outside world as to who they should be dealing with. mark meadows is the new chief of staff. he's out of quarantine and in the west wing. he is getting his feet under him. there is no suggestion he is in charge. he was helping the president's re-election effort. he came on before the coronavirus crisis exploded. as much as dr. fauci -- and the president has allowed him to continue to be up there every day on the briefing room podium. that is reassuring to a lot of americans. you're right, there might need to be a czar, a face here to the production side of it. to mobilize the private sector to help out with testing. to this point, there have not

been conversations about that. in part, the president himself is reluctant to concede the spotlight. those around him are saying he shouldn't be the face of this, for his political well-being. he's been in the briefing room every day. we anticipate we'll see him there again later this morning. >> can't help himself. let's bring in political reporter for the "washington post" and msnbc political analyst, robert costa. he is the moderator of "washington week" on pbs. bob, good to see you this morning. your paper, "the post ," is reporting on jared kushner's role, a shadow role to vice president pence and his task force. what can you tell us about jared kushner and what he is doing behind the scenes? he said his best role can be working with private companies and getting them on board with whatever needs to happen. why are the two factions in the white house working on the same problem? >> willie, when i was at the capitol talking to senators this week, it was clear there is a split screen for this people in power on both sides. they see what's happening with the coronavirus task force and

mr. kushner's so-called strike force that's working with different agencies and private companies. when you ask them, standing 6 feet away, not huddling with them at the capitol, about who is really running things right now, they say the person who they go to is a former hollywood producer who is now the treasury secretary. non-idealogical man, low-key guy in their eyes, named steve mnuchin. they say he is the person for them, whether it is speaker pelosi's allies or chuck schumer's allies. senator schumer saying he's been talking to secretary mnuchin today. they think mnuchin, because he doesn't come at this as a republican with sidolog eid i e like -- ideology, and he's not mixed up with politics, he can move. embracing the romney idea of $1,000 or $2,000 to every american. there's also deep concern that mnuchin's ability to work with both parties is not enough. to joe's point, they still don't feel like vice president pence

or jared kushner have a hold on all of this, on the agencies, the testing, getting the beds. there is an infrastructure problem, a leadership problem, in the eyes of many of my top sources, even as they work with the treasury secretary on legislation. >> you're talking about economic legislation. jared kushner is working on, i guess, extensively on the relationship with private companies on the medical side of it. what can you tell us about the way republicans have taken a turn, publicly and privately, first of all, about how serious this is? a lot of them were downplaying this, along with the president, over the last couple months. now, changing their tune on the idea of bailouts, of giving a bunch of money to airline companies, cruise line companies. also this potential of taking care of small businesses, a philosophical change, actually, in an emergency. >> ten years ago, the tea party came to power in washington mostly because of fury on the right about the bank bailouts of 2008. now, here in 2020, when you're

at the capitol and talking to republicans, they're rushing to embrace president trump's trillion dollar stimulus package, citing this national emergency. there's going to be immense scrutiny, not only from the right, which seems to be stepping in lockstep with president trump, but the place to watch right now is the left. do they really tolerate republicans and president trump giving money to private businesses? you see senator schumer already talking about needing to see commitments from companies about keeping workers. there's a lot of worry on the left, which is ascended in this country, about whether this administration can be trusted at all. whether it has credibility when it comes to bailing out companies or giving taxpayer money to private businesses. look for investigations. democrats will try to hold republicans' feet to the fire on that front. >> bob, what are you going to be looking at specifically today? what story are you going to be chasing today on capitol hill and at the white house?

>> the key thing right now is can they get any agreement beyond the $500 billion to thco to americans? there's agreement to get americans some payment to get them through, so they can pay rent, car insurance, mortgage payment. beyond that, when it comes to private companies, even the small business administration, the details are everything. so far, a lot of collective enthusiasm for the $1 trillion idea of a rescue plan. this is a test for leader mcconnell. and senator schumer. can they get the senate united quickly around a package that is enormous in scope, to try to keep businesses shored up? can they ensure that americans don't feel like some private companies that are close or friendly with this administration are getting sweetheart deals or favored positions compared to normal americans who don't have the connections. >> "washington post"'s robert costa, thank you very, very

much. >> by the way, we're going to be talking to tom colicchio next hour. he is going to be talking about all the small, independent restaurants lobbyists. you have massive chains that have a lobbyist, will get bailouts. so many small business owners and mid-sized business owners don't have an army of lobbyists in washington, d.c. they're going to get run over. >> could be rough. >> if people on capitol hill are not careful. still ahead on "morning joe," it is something a lot of us may soon learn about firsthand. the test for coronavirus, how it works, what it shows, and where to find it. our next guest's company is working to test thousands of people per day. he joins us next to explain. and as we go to break, take a look at this. on the left, paris, france, yesterday. one of the world's most visited cities turning into a virtual ghost town. the entire country currently -- >> oh, my god. >> -- under lockdown.

then on the right, the beaches of clearwater, florida. clearly in the throes of spring break, with people who are not listening to the severe warnings that scientists and doctors from the highest levels of government are trying to send them. >> by the way, people from all across america mixing in one place which, of course, is exactly a perfect recipe for disaster. it's time for governor desantis -- >> close the beaches. >> -- to close the beaches. this is absolutely outrageous at this time of pandemic. >> we'll be right back. cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. hey allergy muddlers... achoo! ...do your sneezes turn heads? try zyrtec... ...it starts working hard at hour one... and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day.

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hownon-symptomatic, professional athletes getting tests when others cannot? do they go to the front of the line? >> you have to ask them the question. >> should that happen? >> i read -- no, i wouldn't say so. perhaps that's been the story of life. that does happen on occasion.

i've noticed where some people have been tested fairly quickly. >> president trump answering nbc's peter alexander on why entire nba teams have been able to get tested, while testing remains difficult to come by for most others. willie, this is, you know, where we'll have towns that finally get tests. the numbers are going to spike so dramatically because people aren't going to know they have it. we are weeks into this. it is incredible. >> health care workers on the front lines who may have been exposed to coronavirus can't even get a test. i think the president is right, that there is something going on there. washington missed an early opportunity to leverage the resources of the private sector to contain the spread of this virus by testing as many people as possible. joining us now, executive chairman of bio reference lab a laborato laboratories, dr. cohen. he worked to provide coronavirus testing and establish the first drive-through testing center in

new rochelle, new york, which is one of the early hot spots of coronavirus. dr. cohen, thanks for being with us this morning. let's explain to the audience exactly what you all have done, how you did it, and perhaps how it might be scaled up so we can finally get some tests where they're needed. >> sure. thank you. so first aoff, i want to talk about how the process works. the patient needs to get a swab, you've heard about, through the nose and into the pharynx. the way it works right now, i consider three groups of patients. first, the group of patients that are in the hospitals that need to get tested. then there are patients going to physicians who are doing some swabbing to send the test. then the third is really the drive-throughs, which new york state was really in front of everybody else, quite honestly. governor cuomo and his staff really did an amazing job to get these drive-throughs up and running. >> let me ask you, doctor, sorry to interrupt, but why is it we can't scale that out?

why can't other states follow the model you all have? >> we're getting enormous amounts of phone calls around the country right now. there will be many more drive-throughs that will stand up. i want to explain what happens. the swab is then done, and then the patient needs an order. it comes into the laboratory. when we stood up the testing, when the cdc first released the recipe, it was a relatively slow process. the way that works, the virus has to be extracted. once it is extracted, it is put on another analyzer, then the result is reported. so there are multiple steps in the process. we made a decision that, in addition to the cdc testing, we are in the process to bring up four other platforms with different types of analyzers. all of them run a little differently and have a little different recipe. all of them run differently in terms of speed. we made the strategic decision we would bring up four different types of platforms in addition to the cdc, so we can get to

where we are today, which is to be able to do 10,000 tests a day, scaling to 15,000, scaling to 20,000 within the next -- >> have you spoken to the federal government, maybe the white house task force, anyone who said, hey, you're doing something that's working in new york state. how do we scale this ourselves? >> so i was actually at the white house. i was in the meeting with the vice president. i guess it's a week ago now. it's been a long couple of days. >> yes. >> in terms of when they would be making the decisions. right now, the issue is as follows. you talk about capacity and demand. we talked a little about the demand. the demand is enormous, as you can imagine. there are some real decisions. we are now prioritizing all in-hospital patients. when we get the specimens in, we know there's a priority. after that, we do what we have on the other specimens we get. the question is going to be, how do you deal with the front line workers? how do you deal with the physicians, the nurses, the medical professionals, the firemen, the police, and

everybody who the on the front line? that's a huge question that hasn't been addressed yet. how often should they be screened? should they be screened? i'm getting a lot of calls from police departments, fire departments, other people around the country, asking us about whether or not we can be accommodated. it is a huge next wave that's coming. you ask about what would be next. so if i could get to 25,000 tests a day or higher, what i'm limited by is the supply chain. meaning, if i had another six of these analyzers that actually run high throughput testing, i could scale to 60,000 a day. if i had the support behind it for the analyzers, i could get there. >> you talked about the meeting with the vice president and the task force. in that meeting or a subsequent follow-up conversation you've had with them, have they pledged the help, to help you with the supply chain? is there a sense of urgency from the federal government to help you get these tests to as many

people as quickly as possible? >> quite honestly, we've been incredibly internally focused. what we spent our time doing is getting up to where we are today. my communications -- right now, my communications have been with the state, who -- actually, the state is the one who put up the drive-throughs. the state is the one who put up new rochelle. we also, as you mekkntioned, are -- we also did a deal with new york city, basically, to provide testing for the new york hospital, health hospital corporation, the largest corporation in the country. for them, we're focused on hospitals so they get what they need in 11 hospitals. right now, we're internally focused. a lot of people are talking about the supply chain side. we have enough supplies right now. we do have enough swabs. but the calls we're getting is there's obviously a huge need for swabs to get people tested. then the need for the analyzers

is unlimited right now. >> dr. jon cohen, thanks for the work you're doing. let's hope we can scale this up and get it to other communities. dr. cohen is executive chairman of the bio reference laboratories. appreciate your time. coming up, as if the pandemic wasn't complicated enough, there is disinformation out there, too. we'll separate fact from fiction and look into the way some american adversaries are trying to exploit the crisis for their own gain. "morning joe" is back in a moment. - [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi pressure cooker,

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the federal trade commission is warning the american public to be on guard for scammers looking to steal direct payments offered to people suffering from the negative economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. it's not just fraud to be on the lookout for. experts warn that the atmosphere

we are in is furtive ground for malicious disinformation campaigns. joining us now is someone tracking these threats. former fbi special agent and msnbc contributor clint watts. along with thomas ridd, professor at johns hopkins university and the author of the forthcoming book, "active measures, the secret history of disinformation and political warfare warfare." also, we have the chief public affairs officer for move on, and msnbc contributor. clint, you wrote for foreign policy research institute, america and the world's top concerns for thwarting coronavirus disinformation should focus on actors that are threatening the public safety, stressing financial markets, and advancing racism that provokes conflict. i see a couple of issues with this, but let's start with where these threats are coming from. >> yeah. so when you look at it, there is a wide spectrum. anybody that puts out

disinformation is in the game. if you just look across the spectr spectrum, it is almost overwhelming, how much information is out there. the ones that we really need to focus on is when people are scared, they tend to take in information they might not otherwise think about or give it truth. >> right. >> if that is the case, usually fraudsters, pranksters are there to jump on the case of fake cure, some devices for protection. the same point, what we're seeing is nation stations coming in line, where extremist groups are coming in line, is a push toward racism and the idea that this is a man made virus, a bioweapon being spread around. you're seeing china, russia, iran, and even in our own country, putting those conspiracies forth as reason to really bolster their own nationalism, vis-a-vis, another country, as if it is an information war and this is a tool that any of these countries can use to bash the other one. >> professor ridd, what are the precedents of disinformation and ways it can be manipulated and

used against us in history, in terms of targeting infectious diseases that might be raging in a country? >> there are thousands of examples of disinformation operations in history. in a small subset, we have a number of kgb and east german operations that target infectious diseases. kgb claim dthe fever was a military operation. and aids was portrayed as an american bioweapon, code name denver. >> what is your biggest concern looking at this outbreak right now, professor rid? >> so when i wrote my book, "active measures," i noticed i had run a high risk of becoming a useful idiot. helping out the adversary. helping the adversary by

understating or overstating the threat. i think it is really important to get this right. why? because intelligence agencies will internally -- and that's what history shows -- will internally exaggerate their own effect. they'll claim to have been more more successful than the data actually show. so if we join them, if we think they are more powerful than they actually are, they will include press coverage, will include alarmist reports in their own internal memos to demonstrate success. so it is really important that we are cautious here. >> clint, you mentioned china. there has been this semantic debate that kinned in tcontinue briefing room yesterday. but the fact of the matter, it started in wuhan in early december. the chinese government deleted samples, it destroyed evidence, it silenced doctors, coerced them not to talk, it lied to the world health organization, it even went so far not by some crazy blogger but the chinese foreign ministry suggested in a tweet that it was the united

states military that introduced this spryrous virus into china. and now they are doing pr, they are donating masks and the chinese government is selling vent wlaf lat ventilators to italy, things like that. how do we cut through the propaganda? and this morning now first day without any new cases in china. do you believe any information coming out of the chinese government? >> anytime that their stats come out, i usually double or trip he will it, naturally assuming that they are hiding something. but what china see hes as an opportunity, you have a two pronged opportunity against the united states. one is with it pandemic, they have been able to essentially contain it and redirecting their own population that it could be the united states that did this to you, it wasn't our fault. and the second part is they are now using their influence around the world with the financial markets going down. this could be everything from

buying up large swathe of stocks to handing out aid in european countries where they are wanting to push huawei and other technology companies. and then pointing to the united states saying hey, we can contain this with our version of the capitalism, but why can't you do it in your country. you were spoefsed to esupposed greatest country. so maybe we are the great heest country. so if we can't get it as a handle for ourselves, we can't stick together, it doesn't just weaken us inside america, it weakens us around the world. >> and careen has a question. >> and this information campaign is always dangerous. i think the problem that we face now in the coronavirus crisis, it is now deadly and people are confused and trying to figure out what do. what should the average person, the everyday person know about what they should be doing to protect themselves? >> yeah, i think when it comes to disinformation or even misinformation, which is when people share things that they

don't realize is not true, there is three things to look for, one, who is the actual person by name that is the source of that information that you got. a couple days ago there were conspiracies about martial law and always revved to my neighbor said or a front at the pentagon. but what is the real name of that person who is the source. the second thing, for that information outlet, do you know where it fiit physically came f. if you don't know, we're here at 30 rock talking to you, if you don't know where physically it is at, you shouldn't trust it. and 3third thing, how does that information source major rke re from it. if someone is trying to scare you and sell you some survival bucket or some the sort of food, they are probably trying to scare you with manipulated information to get you to buy something. so three tricks. who is the actual person, where is the information physically located and how are they trying to make or monetize money or revenue. those are the three things to

look for. >> professor, over the weekend there were reports of a cyberattack at the hhs during the midst of this coronavirus trying to slow down the american response to this pandemic. two questions for you, first, what do we know about that, what are you hearing? and what other aspects of the government are seemingly vulnerable? any sort of these real propaganda efforts to stoke confusion. >> we see a spike in cyber attention and in fact scams, not just to sell product, but also to get people to download malware, to click on attachments that they receive because they are linked to the coronavirus. so i think that we have to be extra cautious the fact that lot of people are working from home right now, also makes it harder to defend company networks in general. so cybersecurity i think has never been more important. and the old rules stilt appl ap

what kind of documents you open, be cautious. always a good advice to opening them in the chrome browser to limit your exposure to malware. >> willie, it is confounding to me and i'm glad that you brought this up, that the "new york times" yesterday wrote an article talking about the, quote, chinese model. that this is going to be a big propaganda for china. the chinese model. foreign affairs this morning has an article out talking about how is this a great opportunity for china to expand its influence across europe and the rest of the world. but as you pointed out, this virus started in china. this is that -- you know, i don't care what people call it, i don't care about the semantics a little, that too we will sort out after we save americans' lives. but i had a liberal friend send

know a video from vox.com weeks ago about wet markets in china, people should look into that. and then the chinese government lied. they covered up, they destroyed test results. remember the iwhistleblower tha got got trouble trying too wa rn wi the world about it and he died? and the lies continued. and it is pretty staggering. and as we talk about prop propa war, people talking about the chinese model that somehow the chinese are going to be the big benefactors of something that they were in large part responsible for. and again, don't throw tomatoes at me. that is what the after action reports will show. it is just extraordinary what

i'm reading in the "times" and foreign affairs. >> as you say, the way president trump is using the term is gross, he knows exactly what he's doing. and people are being hurt in the streets of asian americans being hurt because of it. but your point is the right one, which is history is being rewritten very quickly. this all just happened in december and january and i'll say it again, the chinese government, they tamped this down because they are an authoritarian government, they silenced doctors and whistleblower, they destroyed evidence, they lied to the world health organization. that is not a model that you want to follow you want to follow the south korea model where they have got the together with private companies and they decided that we better start testing, you have a week to develop the tests. and they got out ahead of it without shutting down their society. you don't want to handle it like china. and if you've forgotten, read news articles from a month ago say. thomas, what view on all of this about the chinese model

as it is being called? >> it is a good point that we can't trust information out ultimate authoritarian governments. but at the same time, china has at this point in time the data and because wuhan was ahead curve and the chinese medical research community is putting out some extremely important research right now. so it is both information that is not very reliable and also important medical research coming out of china. how can you tell the difference, what can you do. we are now in this extraordinary situation that every one of us can follow some of the world's best researchers and epidemiologists on twitter and directly read it perhaps in a simplified version through them and directly from these websites. so go ahead and follow some of these experts on twitter and you will get higher quality information even out of china. >> and especially out of china because again, we've said this

as well, china obviously can help us, we can learn an awful lot from what has happened over the past several months. and a lot of what we can learn is what they did wrong. there is a "times" of london story talking about how a wuhan lab identified a contagious lab and they were ordered to destroy the tests and cover it up. and i say that not because we need to get in a propaganda battle with china, but our western media outlets need to be a little more careful in their writing, a little more skeptical of china, a little more skeptical of claims out of china today given the past three months. but we're all in this together. china and the united states. we've got to work together. they can help now. but they are the ones who put us in the position in the first

place. >> thank you both and we're back in one minute with governor cuomo. in one minute with governor cuomo. - [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps. it's more than just fast. it keeps all your devices running smoothly. with built-in security that protects your kids... ...no matter what they're up to. it protects your info... ...and gives you 24/7 peace of mind...

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but the democrats and i go senator schumer wants us to have much more than that. and normally in life i say we'll take it. we'll take it. if they want to give more, we'll to more. we'll spend whatever is appropriate. hopefully we won't have to spend so much because we really think that we've done a great job in keeping it down to a minimum. and again, we've had tremendous success, tremendous success, beyond what people would have thought. >> about three weeks ago president trump was all but mocking democrats for wanting to spend more money to fight the fallout from the coronavirus. but now it looks like the price tag is entering trillion dollar territory. welcome back to more thck more "morning joe." and with joe and me, we have jonathan made lehn ljonathan le

jean-pierre. >> and when we talk about what we talked about before about china and where this began, a this is a matter of science. it will be proven in the long run. we obviously -- it is offensive what is being done as far as what this virus is being called and the scapegoating. that said, western media outlets have to be far more careful because i'm seeing a surge from the "new york times," i'm seeing other articles where they are literally taking the word of chinese authorities despite what has happened over the past three months, despite the lying, despite the coverups and destruction of records. and i would not bring this up normally because china and the united states have to work together now to get through this crisis. it did begin in china. but with western media outle ll so rest recklessly moving

forward, they are showing more skepticism torn western governments than they are toward the chinese authorities that actually spread this through their coverups, through their lies. i don't understand it. >> and remember, those organizations were just thrown out of the country. the "new york times," wall street journal and others thrown out of the country and saying that you can come back in when you clean up your act. listen, there are great reporters, great foreign on reporters at all those outlets that i trust. but when the chinese government says we have no new cases yesterday, i would not swallow that story whole and i don't think that they will. >> we're now closing in on 9,000 cases of the coronavirus here in the united states. that is because the state of new york reportedly -- has reportedly nearly 600 new cases this morning sending the numb nationwide cases to over 8900. last hour, we reported the numbernumb nationwide cases to over 8900. last hour, we reported the

number and it has been revised. an illustration of just how fast moving this situation is. new york has a third of the nationwide number and more than double washington state which has the second highest number of confirmed cases. joining us now, governor andrew company he know cuomo of new york. and if you could update us on the number of tests available for new york versus the demand for the tests. >> sure. good morning. new york number is high number one because of our population, our density, et cetera. also we are testing at a very high rate. we did about 8,000 tests just overnight. and in this situation, the more you test, the more positives that you will find. it is in no way reflective. spread of the virus.

i think the spread of the virus is well in advance of any of these numbers. so really what is happening is the more you test, the more positives that you will find. especially the way you test. because we track down the positives. right? you have one positive person, and then you go down the line. so we did 8,000 overnight, which is one of the largest numbers i think ever done in the country. and that is good news. but we haven't gotten this morning's tally. but you will see it jump astronomically i have no doubt because we did so many tests. >> so governor, we 45er frhear medical experts that we are two, three weeks behind, the lagging indicators. but your best estimates and the medical experts that you have spoken with, if we're showing 8900 cases in the united states, what do you multi fly thapply t your mind? possibly five fold, ten fold of

that number because of the three week lag? >> it may be even higher. we think here in new york -- and remember that you will have different trajectories in different states depending on when it started, et cetera. but we're looking here at a peak in about five or six weeks, we're looking at about 110,000 hospitalizations, about 25,000 to 37,000 people needing icu beds. that vastly overwhelms our health care capacity. and that is what this has been all about from day one. trying to reduce the rate of the spread to meet your capacity of your health care system. the best news is i think the federal government has now really gotten this and they are engaged. this is a war, a different type of war, but it is a war requiring massive government

mobilitization. and only the federal government can do that. states can't fight wars. we did it once. it was a disaster. so you need the federal government, you need the capacity, and i was hud secretary as you know, governor now, i know that state cannot do this, i know the potential of the federal government. and the president stepping up saying that he is in, army corps of engineers, department of defense, that is what we need to bring that kind of capacity. we have a real equipment problem. ventilators are going to wind up being the great story when this is over. the way we needed missiles in world wars, we need ventilators. and we will lose people without vent lafrt ilators believe it o. >> this is willie geist. i want to ask you about

something people are believing is inevitable, which is a full lockdown of the state of new york at some point which is to say that everybody stays in their house unleor apartment un there is an emergency. mayor de blasio floated that idea. and you came out yesterday and tried to tamp that down and say wait a minute, we won't shut down the place just yet. so what is your threshold where you say is this bad enough or i see something on the more ray amazon is th horizon where everybody has to stay inside until further notice?ray horizon where everybody has to stay inside until further notice? >> two points. first, i make decisionsscience, numbers. when the numbers go up, then we ratchet up the density controls. because that is what we're really try doing, reduce the density. we did it yesterday. we did it the day before and we'll do it again today. but i think that there is a bigger point. we're battling the virus, we're also battling the fear and the

panic and the fear and the panic i think can be worse than the virus. i cut my teeth on disasters down in florida with hurricane andrew when i was hud assistant secretary. i've seen panic. i've seen fear. and i'm telling you, that is more frightening than the virus. and communication is very important. we've had mixed messages from the federal government. i'm glad the president is now fully engaged. but this chaos is feeding a panic and when you get to a dense place like new york city, you panic people, you will have a real problem that you can't manage. and i'm telling you, the fear is spreading faster than the virus. and the fear is harder for us to deal with. so do i talk about density control? yes. closing down businesses?

yes. i'm not talking about imprisonment of people in their homes. i'm not talking aboquarantine a road blocks. that will explode panic in new york city. >> so we're looking as you are speaking at a live picture of times square. it is just after 8:00 in the morning, rush hour, just a handful of cab, no people out on a rainy day. i think that most people are quarantining themselves effectively anyway staying inside. so i take your point about fear and panic. but at what point do the health risks exceed your concerns about fear and panic? in other words, the idea that if anybody is out and about, this thing only gets worse from a medical point much view. >> well, let's go back to the fact, willie. we are ratcheting up the density control let's call it. yesterday i said no more than 50% of the employees of any business can go to work.

50% must work at home. and i've asked all businesses to keep their workers at home and that is why you see the low level. but it is not that people can't go out of their homes. right? it is that you can't be in a dense environment. social distancing works and make senses and we have to do it. but it is not that you have to be locked down. you know, some of these terms are so confusing. shelter in place literally meant in an active shooter situation or a nuclear disaster, find the interior room with no windows and stay there until you get the all-clear message. you know, you're scaring the heck out of me, right? so yes density reduction, yes stay inside, yes social distancing. but communicate in a way that is comforting to people who are already confused and panicked.

>> speaking of comforting people, you have twice commended the president and the administration talking about you how they seem to be engaged, how they seem to be understanding the gravity of this situation. talk about that a little bit. because i know that you and the president have gone back and forth at the beginning of this crisis. he's tweeted abo ee eed about y. and this morning you seem to being that the president and his administration are starting to get their arms around this crisis that would be comforting i think for a lot of americans. explain why. >> joe, to say we go back and forth is a very kind sort of floridian way to explain our exchanges. >> yeah. >> i don't think that you've had a governor who has been more aggressively opposed to the president's policies and more

vocal about it that ben i have. and i'm proud of it and i believe new york is the progressive capital of the nation and i'll always make that fight. and when the president was not responding early on, i made that point also. i've had a number of conversations with the president. i spoke with him again last evening. you hear what he says publicly. forget the politics for a second, joe. we need the federal government to step up. we want to encourage that. we want to invite that. i said to the president we need you. we need the federal government. i don't have the resources do this. i can't build more hospital beds in 45 days. only the federal government or arm corps of engineers can do that. use order manufacturers to build ventilators and ppe. only the federal government can do that. so we want them mobile litzized.

and so i said to the president, you step up, you help my state, you help my people, you help this country, and i will put my hand out in partnership 100%. because politics be darned right now, right? this is a war. and dependent on how we handle it will be how many people die. >> and that is it. in terms of our readiness, governor cuomo, i know there are two military ships coming to the new york area. but it will be weeks. and i believe that that is for people being -- one ship to the new york area -- people who don't have coronavirus being transported to the ship. but this is weeks away if that. how are new york start hospitals right now, are they ready? could you use separate hospitals to deal with coronavirus cases and if so, why is that not

happening? >> good question, mika. let's say we need 30,000 more icu beds in new york. intensive care beds. because the intense sif care bebe beds have the vechbntilate tors. i'm trying to get more capacity within the existing hospitals. i regulate them, i can do that. we need to build more hospital beds. that is the the army corps of engineers. and we're planning this. a bed without a ventilator does nothing for me. so that is where the federal government has to use its full muscle, that is the way that we made missiles in world war ii. general electric makes them, phillips makes them. and that is what the federal government really has to help. find the beds, but even more

find the equipment. >> governor cuomo, we know about the drive-in testing site in new rochelle obviously in new york city, a lot of resident don't have cars. are there going to be an equivalent here, perhaps a walk-in site. and secondly mayor de blasio has called for the military itself beyond the national guard to be here in the city streets to help with the response. co do you want that as well? >> well, i'm using the national guard all across the state. and they have been very helpful and they are always helpful in disasters by the way. calling out the national guard shouldn't send up a panic flare. i use them for snowstorms, floods, everything. they are the state workforce. military help, yes, army corps of engineers help us build hospital beds as quickly as poob bobl. dod assets, equipment low guess

tic ticks, yes. military personnel on the streets, no. >> and governor, yesterday you signed a bill that guarantees new yorkers get paid sick leave. you can talk more about that? >> look, this crisis works on so many levels. and one of them is just economics, long term, which is going to be a whole situation in and of itself. but short term. and paid sick leave which i supported before this any way is now so an bicbu abundantly obvi we have to pass it. we need to pass it nationwide. and i've quarantined about 10,000 people. paying the people who we have quarantined both mandatory and voluntary, we think is essential. just to stabilize the economy

now. and paid sick leave and quarantine pay go a long way. i hope the federal government passes the current bill which would actually give americans some money in their pocket to buy food just to stabilize the short term situation. >> all right. governor cuomo, thank you very much for being on the show this morning. we appreciate it. and still ahead, his state was the last to see a confirmed case of coronavirus. but like the rest of the country, west virginia is now fighting the battle too. senator joe man chin is joining you and what congress is working on to shore up the faltering economy. on to shore up the faltering economy. ninja foodi pressure c, the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps.

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a live look at which i will. joining us now, joe manchin of

west virginia. there he is. >> hey, joe, good to see you. i wanted to circle back to something that willie said earlier. wi willie, you were talking about that train station meeting in south korea. and this same day that south korea had its first person diagnosed, the united states had it's first person diagnosed. they had the emergency meeting while we were still denying that this was anything big. and within one week according to this roi this reuters article, within a week they had a lab that created a test within a month, they were having drive-thru testing. the numbers are astounding.

they have already given out about 300,000 tests. their cases are falling off. ours are going to deep exploding for some time because we still aren't even close to that number. and one great quote inside there from the cleveland clinic expert, you cannot fight quh wh what you cannot see. >> and that was great reporting from reuters on this story. yeah, this was in late january at the time they only had four cases, four positives in south korea. but they recognized that this could become a problem, that was the first step which we didn't do early on, but this could turn into something bigger. and they called the meeting, the south korean 2k3w0e6789 ca south korea government called the meeting in the became asemea train station and they said let's get to work pnd a. and a week later, they had a test for coronavirus, they scaled it quickly, they got it out immediately.

they could quarantine people who were sick. so as we talk about what model to look at going forward, the south korean model seems to be the one that is the one to look at. >> and senator manchin, how ready at this point is west virginia and what do you need? >> we're not. i think that the people of west virginia were led into a false sense of safety and security because we were the only state not reporting any cases. if you are not testing, you won't report anything. when they were saying that we were the only state not to be having a case yet, we only tested 38 people. can you can believe that? then we went up to 84. and we found one. and now we're at 148. i will say that i spoke to mike pence, vice president, a couple nights ago and told him our dire situation. we are the most at risk state in the nation. if something hit, it is going to be a tsunami. and that is what i'm been preaching about for a long time. we need the test kits, we need

to be in a tier one. because an older population fragile population, they are the ones that will be attacked first and we're doing everything that we can. in west virginia, neighbors take care of neighbors. so if you have and the delderly neighbor or family member, do their shopping, take the recommendations from the cdc. and listen to dr. anthony fauci. he will speak truth to power and tell you exactly what is happening. >> well, i saw a story last night unfortunately of a veteran in west virginia, he and his wife who exhibited signs of the coronavirus got tested for the flu, got tested for other things. but not the coronavirus. and they have just been sent home. and told that there aren't any tests. that has to be really disturbing to you. and i'm just curious what your thoughts are about that and also you say west virginia is the most at risk state. tell us why. >> well, we are a population of

over 720,000 people are elderly. we have 1,800,000. second or third older population only to florida. so also a lot of younger people that have chronic illnesses because of the hard factory and mining work that they have done. these people have given everything they can and they are true patriots. but they are being defenseless. and if it hit hit, we don't have ability -- they are even closing hospitals. nobody should close a hospital. but all of this is going on. and we are talking about everything that we can do, we need the feg. a federal government. and general motors and tesla says that we can build ventilators if there is at shortage. and there is a distillery in west virginia that says we'll convert into making hand sanitizer. mr. president, we need the leadership to bring this country together. we can do what south south korea

and a lot more and we're not doing it because 240 one no on bringing us together. but we have to fight it. and the other thing you should be asking, what is wall street, why are we allowing wall street to continue to do short selling, why are we allowing them to take advantage of the declining 401 k market, allowing people on withdrawal street, people who do short sells to take advantage and make billions on the misery of america. maybe close a day or two. we don't need -- it is not an industry that we have to have, but right now just calm the waters if you will. and i think that we need to be looking at everything. and i can tell you what we're doing, from chuck schumer was on earlier, i saw that, a good interview, but the bottom line we've all talked about, sad thing is we're not talking to each other. democrats and republicans in the senate aren't allowed to

congregate, but we should be on conference calls together. we're not. we should be talking if there is a difference, we know where the differences are. right now, sdwroe, i don't th k joe, i don't think that you should be sending you or mika $1,000 or me. i've said that. our biggest thing is how do we protect and make sure that we're protecting social security, people on welfare that need assistance, but make sure that the money that we have are going to the people that have been displaced. no fault of their own, but basically the market has collapsed. their jobs have been shut down for the safety reasons. we should be able to carry them through. $1,000 check is not going to carry them through what will be i think a longer period of time. it is a tough time. >> and we don't need the checks, you're right, the big corporations don't need the bailouts. it is working americans that need that money. jonathan lemire has the next question for you, senator. >> and on that idea, mitch

mcconnell says that he is keeping the senate there until the third relief package is passed. how confident are you that that can come together quickly and you mentioned wanting the money in the hands of the americans who need it. but what else did you think is essential to be in this what could be a trillion dollar proposal? >> let me go back to last thursday night when we were adjourned. mitch mcconnell adjourned the senate. i mean, it was ridiculous. why are we leaving in the house is still there working on their package. and by saturday morning, we could have had the package degreed on that we degreed on last night. it is ridiculous. if there is a guilt complex, don't stay and hurpry it. this third package has to be done as well as we can possibly do it make sure that we're just not throwing money to the wind and caution to the wind. we have to be thinking about future generations also. how long is this going to take, how about the small business that doesn't have capitalization to get through. what type of ways can we

accelerate them getting capital. what can we do to on which sffs. and we don't have to be give going bailouts to corporate america. they have one heck of a bailout during the tax bill a year ago shouldn't we look to the people who are really hurting? and then the other people should have opportunity to have capital, but they should be paying it back, large corporations. and the small companies need to work through the sba programs, unemployment compensation is where we should be working flew. break down the bhar yearrier, t down the waiting time. give them a bump in what they can receive. they are saying 250 3w8d f$250$r this or that segment. i don't know where they are getting the numbers from. b we didn't need to be wasteful.

>> senator manchin, thank you very much for being on. >> stay safe and stay healthy. that is the most important thing. >> you too. thank you so much about. up next, it was one of the major considerations at play when shutting down schools. how would millions of kids get the meals they depend on to stay healthy? acclaimed chef has more on that and the major impact that the yourt break wrought outbreak on the restaurant industry. t outbreak restaurant industry. - [spokeswoman] meet the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the best of pressure cooking and air frying now in one pot, and with tendercrisp technology, you can cook foods that are crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. the ninja foodi pressure cooker, the pressure cooker that crisps.

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various industries are starting to feel the brunt of the virus as the pandemic continues to alter americans' daily lives. a new poll from npr finds that one in five households have already lost work in retail, macy's, bloomingdale's, nordstrom have all the closed their doors. and general motors, ford and fiat chrysler temporarily closed their u.s. factories. in the film industry, cinemas have closed and movie release dates have been pushed back as

the national association of theater owners asked congress for financial relief. and the national vant associati restaurant associates projects that the food industry service could lose 5 million to 7 million jobs. joining us now is chef tom. good to have you are. >> and thanks for being on. i know that you have to be concerned about these companies -- these fortune 500 companies, massive company, that have a fleet of lobbyists that are pushing for bailout money. but i want to ask you about something that is near and dear to your heart. but what the individual restaurant owners across america, the families that, you know, put their life savings into a restaurant, maybe even six ago. i have a friend who was about to do that.

how are those independent restaurant owner, how are those family businesses going to get through this? >> you know, joe, we're too small to fail. and so we're not -- you have to understand the landscape here. we're not talking about celebrity which he was like me, we're talking about mom and pop operators all across the country who are just struggling to try to figure out how they will make it work. and you know, you think about the amount of people that the restaurant industry employs, about 15 million people. if you look at total economic development, about $1 trillion, it is about 4% of the gdp of the country. and so again, it is not just the restaurants. it is about the suppliers that we pay, it is about wine purchase and beer purchase, the florists, it is about the person who is actually delivering linen. and so if you look at the totality of it, we were just too big to fail. we're -- you know, in a position

because we have small and fwrra mgted, that we don't have that voice. and so when trying to get the public to understand the size of the problem that we're looking at. >> so there is a long term question which is the health of the restaurant industry after this. but in the short term, let's talk about your workers and what you need. let's talk about those bartenders and wait ertz aers a backs and cooks that make up those 15 million people. what does the industry need now in the short term? >> most of those people because they had jobs will be taken care of by unemployment insurance. in family first act, it is 75% of your stallry salary up to $ month. and senator schumer is asking for 100% of that.

and also get rid of that two week waiting period. people need the money now. and people who are working, they are month to month. they can't wait two week. and that is the number one. number two, we have to look at can we get back open because the revenue that question tawe take we're paying bills from 45 days ago. so we need a package of money and it should be federally backed interruption of business insurance. so we need about $150 billion. we need tax breaks. we need guaranteed loans that you want to see am mort saigort over ten years. and so we need to package it. we need tax breaks. it is a total package. the national restaurant association put out a pretty good proposal. and when we open up, we won't being busy. unless we have full restaurants,

we are not making money. we can't stay in business. and then let's think about this, after we open up, we have to talk about not just the economics here, you talk about culturally, what do we want to look like when we get the economy back going and restaurants are where people come together, sort of the heart and soul of communities and we have to get that back open. after this, what kind of society do we want. and that is what we have to look like. >> and another thing that you are worried about, tom, the more than 30 million children who take part in the national school lunch program. we have a lot of schools in different cities that are not closing because the kids need this food? as it escalate, how do we feed these kids? >> a lot of schools, these cafeteria workers -- and i'm the son of a woman who rachbn a sch

lunch program. they are the first responder and they need to be treating them that way. they are putting themselves in harm's way 2do god's work. 22 million kids rely on schools for their breakfast and lunch. and so again, the family first program, the snack program, actually has expanded. we got rid of all the restrictions to receive s.n.a.p. it sounds like the second stimulus package coming through, there will be a 15% increase to s.n.a.p. benefits. and the other thing under the family first act, the summer feeding programs, because when schools shut down in the summer, additional money is put on to the s.n.a.p. benefits cards. and so the summer feeding programs will go into effect too. so those are all really good 3r57 programs and they really need support. so there has been a very good response. it has been a little slow, but a good response and those cafeteria workers are first responders.

>> yeah, there are certain areas where people are -- the grocery stores -- where it has gone from low level workers who are getting by on minimum wage to first responders. and these are the people on the frontlines who stand to spread the virus, but also help people by giving them the supplies they need. >> i think that is right. and the problem too as you all were talking with worker, they are the ones every day workers are the ones who are being laid off for the past couple weeks. so it has been really difficult to see. i do have a question for tom and it goes into what you were just asking him about schools and lunches. and here is the thing. as we're fryin we're try doing distancing, how do we make shush the kids with the food in-securities issue, how do we insure that they get this food? >> again, the school lunch

programs are plowplowing food. and you actually come and pick it up. in elizabeliz new jersey, i spo the mayor and they have their cafeteria workers there. cuss towed xwral workewedial wi delivering the food. and so we can make this happen. we can get it done. but right now, you know, talking to the restaurant chefs across the country, they want to protect their worker, they are okay that we got -- they are not happy that we got shut down, but they understand why. we have to stop the virus first and then we can go forward after that. so they get that. >> all right. tom, thank you so much for being on with us. up next, we're closing in on the oemg be

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this morning u.s. stock futures are pointing toward yet another low open. a day after the dow briefly dropped down so low it erased all of its gains during the trump president cicy. and you are pea european markets are off to a strong start as they announce that they will buy bonds to ease markets. but eased off throughout the day. and yesterday the asian stock market index reached as low as 4.1%, its lowest point since 2016. joining us now financial editor of the "wall street journal" charles pharrell and also zany beddows. >> and what does the central bank look to doing in the coming

wuk weeks to calm the jit terse and is there a feeling that europe is handling this economic vicis any better than the united states? >> well, the european central bank as you said came in big last night with a 750 billion euro promise to buy more bonds. and that was in some way making up for the fact that at the end of last week, the president of the central bank had not really helped matters by sounding less than equivocal about doing what it takes to hold europe together. and now sounding much stronger. but i'm not sure that europe is handling this. you can see i'm coming to from you home. this is the first week that we've put economists together completely remotely. and there are a lot of discussions of lockdown within 24 hours. and so goes it across europe. italy as you know is the epicenter and europe governments

are way behind the curve in terms of the amount of estimast. >> and charles, proposals that n floated out there. we're a $21 trillion economy. if that economy is shut down for three or four months, $1 trillion suddenly, i can't believe i'm saying this, as a small government conservative, but a $1 trillion relief package suddenly sounds like a drop in the bucket for a $21 trillion economy shut down for half a year. >> the numbers are simply beyond anything that anybody has seen or really can conceive. it's an enormous stop in the economy. it's a real stop. it's not just that there are some sectors slowing. it's a full-on stop. and it's going to be very difficult to figure out how you

find the demand, how you find the money to tide the economy over during that period. the real question, i think, is, let's assume that things reopen and we don't end up in a very bad spiral. what does the economy look like when it gets back, and what can you do now to make sure when it does reopen and reopens in as good a position as it can be. it's going to be hard. the numbers are enormous. >> it's jonathan lemire. we heard senator manchin suggest that wall street close for a couple of days. he suggested it wasn't an essential business right now. the white house is very opposed to that. we heard treasure secretary mnuchin say there's some talk of perhaps reducing hours but he didn't want to close the markets for fears of what message that would send. what's your take on that? should the markets close for a few days? would that steady things and let everybody cool off? >> i don't think closing markets steadies things.

it reinforces the feeling of panic. closing down financial systems -- what we have right now, the reason everybody is in a panic is we have a total lack of understanding of how far this could go and the world economy is literally shutting down, and we don't know for how long, and we don't know when or when it does emerge from this, whether it will happen again. one of the striking things we're learning as we find out more about this virus and the latest modeling that's done suggests that, yes, you can suppress infection rates if you shut down the entire society, but probably, because it's now so widespread, it's going to come back again. so are we going to have this intermittently until we find -- no one can get their head around what that means or if, at some

point, you have to tolerate, you know, more casualties from the virus to prevent the -- >> charles, in the united states, if you look at what's been happening with wall street, it seems every massive decline is followed the next day by at least a temporary spike up. people obviously have been trying to time the bottom of this market, and it has just crashed from 29,000, 26,000 to 23,000 and now obviously at 19,000. are you getting a sense that the people you talk to believe that we're about to settle on the bottom of this market or do they believe there's still a long way to go? >> no, i don't get the sense that people believe we're -- that we can know we're at a settling point. there have been down days and up

days. the down days have greatly outnumbered the up days. the volatility on the down side and on the up side makes traders and investors worry. it gives you a sense what you thought the risk level that you thought you had in your portfolio, you thought the stock or the bond that you held would move x percent and you see it moving many multiples of that, you have to take risk off. you have to invest in less risky stuff. that's why we see this flight to cash. so in a sense, the selling -- stocks are down because people are selling and people are selling because stocks are down. there's a cycle here. nobody knows when it's going to break. >> "the wall street journal's" charles farrell and the economist's zanny minton beddows. willie, gleets to you right now for final thoughts. >> i've just been, over the course of these days and weeks, been talking to friends who are doctors and people i've met through this who are doctors.

just got a text from an operating room at a major hospital in new york city showing an empty shelf. no more masks available in that operating room. it's a scene that's playing out in hospitals across the country. they just don't have the supplies they're going to need to fight this right now. >> kareen, final thoughts? >> yeah, so, i'm left with, we have to pray for our country. this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. but we will get through this. we have to. we have to take care of each other, our elderly. if you have an elderly that lives next door to you, check in on them. but we'll get through this together. we will be resilient. >> we will. jonathan lemire? >> the president is teasing a major announcement today from the fda. remains to see what that is. is that going to be a trial drug testing? some sort of new testing mechanism? that's not clear but people around the white house are billing it as hopeful news. we shall see. >> we shall see.

and just mika, to follow up with what kareen said, we are all in this together and we do have to be very careful and need to make sure that we take care, especially of our senior citizens. >> and i'll close by pointing to your article in "the washington post," your piece that you've written, that talks about politics. the politics of this. bernie sanders, does he want to make a statement or difference and your call for him to shut down his campaign for president and get back to work in the senate. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage after a short break. ♪ if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not a cream.

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one week is all it takes. neutrogena®. hi there. i'm stephanie ruhle. it is thursday, march 19th. here's what's happening. the president says the united states is at war with the coronavirus as he and congress take dramatic new steps to save lives and livelihoods of millions of americans. this morning, the number of cases in america is roughly 9,000. that includes two congressmen, the first two washington lawmakers to test positive. the number of cases h s has dou since tuesday mostly due to expanded testing. 153 people have died here in the united states. on wednesday, president trump said he is stepping up the federal government's response to the virus and compared it to a

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