>> the country is in great shape. the market is in great shape. >> the coronavirus has put the markets into a free fall leaving some investors in panic. >> the nation's top infectious disease doctor admits testing has been a failure. >> how would you rate your response to this crisis? >> i'd rate it at ten. >> there's a possibility that millions of americans could eventually die. >> and now here we are. trump cannot be trusted with our economy, our health and our future. >> good morning and welcome to a.m. joy. well, that dra mat i believe mah the american bridge pack running right now in three states lays out in devastating fashion donald trump and his administration's failures in their slow and disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic. trump spent weeks downplaying how serious it was egged on by close advisors like jared

kushner who reported in vanity fair, viewed it nothing more than a pr problem. trump wrote it off as a democratic hoax and he kept up with the happy talk despite receiving dire warnings from inside the administration about the looming pandemic. the waushington post is reportig that the u.s. intelligence agencies began issuing warnings as far back as january. and so here we are. the hour by hour updates coming out of local and state governments are heart wrenching. there are now more than 19,000 cases of covid-19, the illness caused by coronavirus in the united states. new york is reporting the largest number of cases with more than 8,000 people infected. 247 people throughout the country have died. in the last 24 hours the governors of new york and illinois followed in the footsteps of california issuing

stay at home orders. and while hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients and running low on vital supplies, some workers are now resorting to making their own protection gear with items like bandanas and sports goggles. this week two members of congress, republican mario diaz of florida and democrat ben mcadams of utah became the first two members of congress to test positive. we learned the pandemic has reached the white house, now that a staffer in the vice president's office tested positive. but if you listen to donald trump and vice president mike pence who trump has put in charge of mitigating this crisis you'd think it was all good. >> they're available now. the 3m facility told me that in january they went to full production on 35 million masks. the legislative change means that all 35 million of those that started to be produced at full capacity in january can now be sold to hospitals.

that's the distinction here. it's very important change and it's part of the way the president has been engaging the private sector, pushing the kind of regulatory reform and the kind of liability reform that has greatly expanded the availability of mass. so they're in the marketplace now. we're going to make it clear to governors. >> the federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and shipping. we're not a shipping clerk. the governors are supposed to be as with testing the governors are supposed to be doing it. >> governors are responsible. well, all this is going on, we learned this week that donald trump was not the only washington politician who was fully aware of the crisis at our doorstep and failed to warn the public. instead, we have learned through reporting from propublica and the daily beast that at least two senators, a highly classified briefing about the coronavirus crisis said nothing

to their constituents and began selling off stocks instead potentially making money off this staggering crisis. joining me now is former presidential candidate cam la harris of california. and thank you so much for joining me. really appreciate your time. >> of course, joy. >> i want to start by asking -- thank you. i want to start by asking you about -- we're going to get to the numbers in california and some of the issues regarding the bill working its way through the senate but i have to ask you about this situation with two of your colleagues. senator berm and senator luffler of georgia who it does appear had early warnings, a highly classified intelligence briefing and then at least -- this is senator burr and i want to read you on the secret recording that was obtained. we don't have the recording but this is what it said. burr talking to some highly placed constituents meaning

donors, highly placed people and he says there's one thing i can tell you about this. it's much more aggressive in its transmission than anything that we have seen in recent history. it is probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic, what's referred to the spanish flu. every company must be cognizant that you may have to alter travel and judge whether the trip to europe can be done. why risk it? and then we find out that he sold off a lot of stock. that ms. leffler sold off a lot of stock. what is your comment about that and will there be ethics investigations in that regard. >> to be honest i have not been paying attention to the details of that. but i believe that senator burr has invited the ethics committee

to investigate and look at the facts and i'm sure that that will probably happen, but you know, that's why we have an ethics committee. right? but the reality of it is, what i'm most concerned with right now certainly the concern you raised the troubling but what i'm most concerned with right now is that we have in the united states senate the responsibility to pass a bill and get this thing done to bring relief to -- to families in our country that are suffering. you know, mcconnell dropped this bill. 247 pages with a very short deadline but by the way, last weekend, went home instead of being here in d.c. doing the work of the senate and we're looking at a situation around the country where people are getting laid off. you know, one of the points to your point of talking about pandemics historically, let's talk about just within our lifetime the kind of -- the national crisis that we have

faced. we had 9/11. that was about national security. a real crisis. we then had the crash of the stock market and wall street, a real crisis, the first about national security, the second one a financial crisis. this third one is a public health crisis and it is having an impact on the economy but at its source it's a public health crisis and what we are not talking about is the fact that people are getting laid off and they are going to lose their health coverage. people are -- >> right. >> people need to be home sick and they're not getting paid sick leave and paid sick leave saves lives so my focus right now is saying to my colleagues, republican in particular, let's do the work of recognizing this is a public health crisis and we need to bring relief to american families in a way that we save lives and do the work of -- of addressing the problems with solutions that are really obvious and at our grasp. >> and you know, i think that is

fair to say absolutely because that is the most important thing is people's lives and livelihoods are at stake and one of the reasons that people are so concerned about what potentially richard burr and ms. leffler did is there seems to be a breakdown on what the elite and the very wealthy are hearing and receiving and what the average americans are hearing and receiving. we're seeing that professional athletes can get tested. average people are having a really hard time even if they think that they have symptoms getting tested. you have senator burr potentially briefing very wealthy people, potential donors about how serious things are so that they can prepare and they can be safe, but not telling his constituents, just average voters in california or average voters in georgia so they can be safe and these are the very states where polls show people are less likely to believe. >> you're totally right. >> yeah, we want average people

to also be informed by members of the senate too. i have to ask you about this bill. it seems the same thing is happening with the bill. your republican colleagues are putting forth ideas that small businesses would have to take out loans, but airlines would get $50 billion, cargo carriers would get $8 billion. big businesses like mcdonald's that don't want to pay fair wages to their workers would get big bailouts and small businesses would get loans and some people making $40,000 a year wouldn't get anything. will democrats stop that in the senate? >> that's what we're fighting against and we've been in meetings including late last night, chuck schumer brought all of the democratic senators together last night to reconfirm and reaffirm our values which is that this should be a bill that is about working people and workers and putting worker protections and consumer protections ahead of yet again a policy that's about bailing out

big corporations and attempting to further the tax cuts for big corporations and so we've been talking about and we're pushing for the fact that working people need help, not big businesses. and republicans frankly haven't learned a lesson from the tax bill where we had a $1 trillion bill that -- that gave tax cuts to the -- to the richest, the one top 1% of biggest corporations. this $1 trillion bill should focus on working people, not corporations and specifically cash assistance should occur monthly throughout the crisis just like bills recur monthly but the republican plan is just a one-time small check. we are saying that low income families and social security recipients should receive help and relief and currently under the mcconnell plan they would not. people are being laid off. and they're losing their insurance by the end of the month.

and they make enough so that they would not qualify for medicaid, but they will not have enough to be able to pay their bills. and so -- and their hospital bill if they need hospitalization, medication, things of that nature, so we are -- we are definitely saying that we have to put workers first and not be in business of bailing out big corporations and we can't forget again that this is a public health crisis and a health care crisis and when people lose their jobs at the very moment when a serious illness might strike, suddenly millions of people are about to go without health care and i frankly commend my state california and governor newsom for reopening enrollment for laid off workers. but what we're arguing for, joy, specifically is we want strong consumer protection. one of my priority is suspending pnlties for missed credit payments. also limiting the report on credit scores during the time of this crisis and pandemic. also we are arguing for bridge

loans to businesses and small businesses, but that they be contingent on also providing paid leave and other worker protections and then also we need to expand public assistance and so that's about food stamps and unemployment and then i will also say that i've -- i talked about also suspending raids in terms of ice that endanger public health. >> yeah. and can you ensure the public that the president's family, a brilliant reporter at the washington post is reporting about the losses in trump's family businesses. he's been pushing hard to get hotels bailouts. can you ensure that the trump family will not benefit from the bailouts number one and that the tax cut passed by republicans, those who used it for buy backs of their stock, is there a way to ensure that they cannot then turn around and line up for another bailout? >> well, that's certainly

something that we're fighting against and this is part of the work that -- that democrats have been doing through the night and through the day and night yesterday. and we're saying that any bill that puts corporations overworking people and the ceos and shareholders putting them over working people such as buybacks, that that is backwards. it will not stabilize the economy because the economy is, let's be clear about this, the economy is about workers and families. when they do well, our economy is doing well. and they're the ones that need help right now. >> yeah. indeed. thank you so much for your time this morning. really appreciate it and be safe out there. >> thank you. and listen, just remember this is a critical time and it's stressful, but let's remind people to be patient with themselves and each other and this is certainly a moment where we want to see kindness from our

elected leaders and express it to each other so thank you. you take care. >> yeah, very much so. thank you very much, senator. really appreciate that. very important message. thank you. up next for all of you the alarming spread of the coronavirus by the numbers. our medical experts will weigh in. eigh in hey there! kelly clarkson! what're you doing on our sofa? what're you doing on your sofa? try wayfair. you got this! woah. yeah! let me try! all alright, get it! blow it up! that's what i'm talking about. except that's my seat, so. all right, so maybe after the movie let's talk about that bedroom of yours! when was she in our bedroom?

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when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done. >> 15. that's how many recorded cases of coronavirus we had in the united states when donald trump briefed the press on february 26th. just 15 known cases. today just three weeks later that number has skyrocketed to more than 19,000 nationwide with cases reported in all 50 states. that number is growing rapidly as multiple states ramp up their

testing efforts and there were likely more than 15 cases back on february 26th. we didn't know it because donald trump was treating coronavirus as not that big of a deal and he didn't want his numbers of cases to be high. the death toll from covid-19 which coronavirus causes is also rising at a startling rate. earlier this month on march 4th there were 11 recorded covid-19 related deaths. as of this week there have been 247 deaths recorded. joining me now is msnbc medical contribute torr and director of the harvard global health institute. thank you both for being here. i'll ask you both in order. i'll start with you, dr. pa tell. the rising death toll, how much of it is covid-19, you know, becoming more lethal in some way, killing more people because it is not being controlled properly and how much of it is we've already had high rates, we

just didn't know because we weren't testing? >> great question, joy. and it's -- it's more likely that we just had not really understood the denominator, kind of how many cases we really have because if you actually start to look at the numbers, and look at the numbers of deaths which are incredibly important, we actually don't have necessarily the same numbers or the fatality rate that we saw in china for example. however, i can't stress this enough, you know, people are kind of trying to understand, you know, are we then quote over the hump or flattening the curve, we are still on that roller coaster ride up and our numbers in terms of the cases are incredibly troubling and that's why you're seeing you know, almost a third of the nation talking about sheltering in place or putting that into action. >> yeah. and how much would it help, because i personally am personally obsessed about this idea of people not being able to

be tested. how difficult it is for people to get tested if you don't meet all the criteria, you've been overseas you know you've come directly in contact with someone. it's still difficult to get tested even if you have flu like symptoms. is now the point for people to lock down and have we passed the point where getting more tests would even help? >> yeah, so good morning, joy. and thanks for having me on. no, we are not past the point where having more tests would be helpful. when i was on here a week ago i said we need a hundred to 150,000 tests a day. our best guess is we're doing 30 to 35,000 tests. that's what we did yesterday. we're making a lot of progress but boy, we're still far away from where we need to be. and even if we do all the other things we're doing, shelter in place, taking a national pause, testing is fundamental to our strategy for beating covid-19. so the fact that we're still not up to speed is troubling. the good news here is we're

making progress and i'm hoping over the next few days, maybe the next week we'll finally get to a point where we have enough tests, but boy, it's taken a long time. >> yeah, absolutely. not getting that -- not taking that w.h.o. test strikes me as the biggest single mistack. the administration not taking that test that every other country in the world is using is shocking to me but i'll move forward. let's talk about the shortage of masks. one of the biggest concerns is that the people who have to take care of people are at risk because they don't have the equipment. dr. patel, you now have in new york where i think a lot of people have to give governor cuomo a good job of communicating and trying to make it work in a state that has so many cases. some u.s. doctors are making their own masks. you have in new york the governor saying to fashion designers and people who make clothing that they'll pay them

to make masks. how -- i mean, how could it be that a a country with so many high level medical facilities and award winning brilliant hospitals just don't have enough masks? is that a normal thing for a country of this size not to have that number or enough masks just for our medical community to use? >> joy, there's so many things about what's happening today that are not normal in any regard and i think the fact that this is a completely novel virus for all health care professionals, we are learning that it's really only when you have this head to toe kind of protective personal equipment that you can really be safe and to be candid, the guidelines tell us that if you're in contact with these respiratory droplets you have to take it all off, throw it away and start again and that is not something that we've had in a conventional setting at this scale. every hospital has respiratory isolation rooms and all this

equipment but nobody projected that we would need 1,100 beds to be filled and staffed with this equipment. but i have to go back, this is a failure of the president to not take this seriously. that sent a signal to even the public sector and the private sector, well, we'll just wait and now look what's happening. you've got people on facebook asking if you can drop off boxes of masks in order to protect themselves and doctors and nurses who are being told, you will probably get sick and you still have to work through it because we can't afford to lose you. >> yeah. i mean, to the point where in new york the governor has asked retired doctors and nurses to sign up to be on call, bringing people back in to retirement to your point. it is really shocking. but i want to also now talk about the fact that we also have an outbreak where the president of the united states did not take seriously his own intelligence community saying no, this is going to be bad, members of the intel community

in the senate knew it was going to be bad, only told rich donors, didn't tell everyone else. meanwhile the president is downplaying something that his media, his affinity media picks up his line that it's nothing, that it's a hoax. now these are the same people who tend to be older and who tend to live in states that don't have health care. washington post reports one in ten of trump voters live in counties with no icu beds. so people without a lot of money don't have any health insurance. how lopsided could we wind up seeing this outbreak become because donald trump's own followers are now behind. >> so look, this is now just a global pandemic. it's a national pandemic. we're going to see this play out at different times in every community. and there is no doubt that the federal response was abysmal, it

is starting to get better but we're still having lots of problems with the federal response and there are communities, especially rural communities, especially a lot of states that don't have great health care infrastructure that are going to get into a lot of trouble. the outbreak is really hitting new york and other big cities, seattle hard right now. it's not going to stay confined to new york and seattle. we're going to see this spread throughout the rest of the country and so i think it's critically important that all of us work on strengthening the health system across the country and joy, to your point, i mean, there is no doubt about it that we're going to have a lot of states that have not invested in medicaid, that have not invested in making sure that everybody is covered that are going to have real problems. this is going to be a national challenge that we're all going to have to work on. >> yeah, absolutely. thank you both very much. stay safe and thank you. and up next, senate minority leader chuck schumer joins me live to discuss who gets a bailout under the senate

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>> we're not talking about a thousand dollar check. we're talking about much more than that. and we're talking about doing phases. we're going to keep going until we get it going and frankly once we get the economy back and once this enemy isdefeated, we get the economy back it's all going to come back to us very quickly. >> as americans across the country wonder how they will pay their bills during the coronavirus pandemic senate republicans thursday released a trillion dollar stimulus bill with one-time direct cash payments of up to $1,200 per person for those making less than $75,000 a year. but those who may need the money the most appear to be getting the least. the poorest families, those with no federal income tax liability could get between $600 and $0.

joining me now is the senate minority leader chuck schumer and senator schumer, thank you very much for being here and i want to jump in on this bill. >> good to be here. >> thank you so much, sir. so the challenge i think those of us are looking at what republicans are seeming to be proposing with steve muchen's support is a one time check which does nothing, versus giving a full on bailout to companies like mcdonald's, to give them cash money and then making small businesses like restaurants get loans. is -- is that going to pass? >> no. we are -- we have a -- we senate democrats have a plan that's called workers first. we want the help to go just to the people who use it, who are losing their jobs and have to pay monthly bills not just the one-time shot of money and then what do they do next month when they have a mortgage or a rent or food? so let me show, we have five

major points. there are many more but let me give you the five. first we beef up unemployment insurance in a huge way that's wagner been done before. you -- we call it unemployment on steroids or employment insurance. you lose your job because of this crisis or any other reason, the federal government will pay you your full salary for 4 to 6 months. we're trying to get 6 for the whole time and that way you will have money every month, you will have money at the same level you were making before and you will be able to at least pay your bills and then if the crisis is over you'll go back to your old job because you'll have your bills, the company will just furlough you and that will work. second, a massive amount of money for health care. our hospitals are hurting. and they need huge amounts of equipment, they need huge amounts of masks and the workers in those hospitals, i've spoke to the head of the nurses union. they need all kinds of help.

they're asking them to work longer hours. they're asking them to work without the proper protective gear. massive infusion of money to hospitals and by the way, to state and local governments which are hurting. third and i know you're going to have sarah nelson on your show, we're working with her. any money that goes to these big industries has to go to the workers. we are going to demand of the airlines, you can't lay off a single worker, you can't cut the benefits, you can't cut the salary, you can't cut any of this for any worker. we're going to work on -- i've been talking to some of my friends here in new york with these workers that they farmed out, you know, you clean toilets for minimum wage because it's a contractor, not the airline, no way. and another thing, no buybacks. it just infuriates me, joy, that these airlines between 2015 and 2019 did $45 billion in buybacks and now they say they have no money. those buybacks went to the wealthy shareholders, not a

nickel to productivity or et cetera. and paid sick leave, paid family leave. people need it. if you have to stay home because you're sick or a loved one is sick, you ought to be paid and finally we'd like to help the students and so what we're saying -- we're trying to get them working with elizabeth warren on this, a portion of your loans, not just the interest, but the principal is forgiven during this crisis. students are losing school. they may have to go back for extra terms and extra courses. they should be made whole too. there's many more things in this, but as you can see it's a workers first plan, period. >> can i add a sixth thing? >> sure. we have more than five sarah, but -- yeah. go ahead. >> i think a sixth thing that a lot of the american people would really appreciate you guys adding and that bill sounds like it makes a lot of sense, is ensuring that the president and his family cannot profit from bailouts. we know that donald trump when he was a nonpolitician

benefitted after 9/11 from taking that money that was given to businesses that were harmed in new york. the fact is he's in the leisure business, sir, and his -- his business is based on tourism. it's hotels, it's golf clubs, et cetera and we've learned from the "washington post" that those businesses are now losing money, but they've taken in a lot of money from us, from the taxpayers by him charging the military and the federal government to stay there. >> yeah, and all these right wing republicans, they only go to the trump hotel, which should be against -- we have a lawsuit led by senator bloomenthal to stop this. it's a good thought and we will look into it. we have a lot of other things. that list is not exclusive but i wanted to give you some of the main things and the flavor of what we're trying to do here and we're making progress. we want to get this done but we want to get it done in the right

way which is for workers. and average folks. >> so you're going to ensure that the president and his family cannot personally benefit from bailout? >> we'll try to get that in the legislation. i think it's against the law now but the judges are not interpreting it correctly. >> right. yeah. and another issue, i think that's important that i must ask you about since i have you here. >> sure. >> the fact that at least two members of the united states senate, senator burr and senator loeffler of georgia appear to have traded on the crisis, using information at least in the case of senator burr, he is the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. the idea that a united states senator let alone a chairman of the intel committee would brief high ranked donors, big ticket people, rich people, brief them on the crisis, not brief his own constituents in north carolina, not tell them how bad it was but tell big business people how bad it was and then trade on that information, will there be a --

i asked senator harris this earlier. will there be an ethics investigation of these members and any other members will be the same. >> the answer in one word is yes, there should be and there will be. i don't own any stocks. i think it's a very bad idea for senators to own stocks. there's either a conflict or an appearance of conflict and one of the things we need with the public is some degree of trust. you know, it's pretty low right now. you own stroocks and you benefi from something that no one else can, the american people have even less faith in government and look, at a time like this we need people to have faith in government because our federal government, the right wing is learning this, is needed. it may be the only backstop to, you know, to so much destruction in people's lives and health and happiness. >> yeah. and we know that the treasury secretary is who is negotiating with you guys on behalf of the

white house and i wonder if you might ask him while he's there if he's -- since he's not been very good about disclosing anything about the president of the united states' tax returns or his finances, i think the american people would like to know what donald trump's trades and his stock investments look like during this period because he was also -- he had this information too and didn't share it and said it was, you know, to big deal but presumably he also knew how bad it was. can we find out if he traded in any way or his family? >> we know one thing, joy. we may have known how bad it is but he downplayed it with so long with the testing and everything else that it's worse than it would have been, considerably worse than it would have been but obviously it's a fair question. obviously. and i don't know that he'll give me an answer but i don't mind asking. >> two more questions. second question, is it possible for the united states senate to authorize this country to simply

buy the w.h.o. test authorized out of germany, the gold standard test that other countries are using and distribute that around the country. >> we're trying to get as many tests out as we can. we need many more than this test. but i think the have been slow in authorizing tests. we in new york state have different laboratories and different parts of hospitals that could come up with own tests and it took till last saturday for the federal government to say go ahead and we're ramping up the tests in new york. the mayor in the place where the first quarantine said i could have tested everybody, everybody who had the virus could have had to stay inside. the testing is important, but here's what's going to be the crisis in the next three weeks if we don't jump on it and do something about it. hospitals. there's going to be not enough beds. there won't be enough nurses, there won't be enough doctors, there won't be enough protective

gear, so we've called and part of our plan is a marshal plan for hospitals so they get dollars quickly and they can deal with the people who are sick. >> well, senator schumer, good luck. thank you very much. good luck in those negotiations and new york i think is really fighting hard so good luck. >> we are fighting the fight. we have no choice. america needs us. >> new york is fighting. absolutely. and joining me now is congressman demiings which represents florida's orlando and popular spots like disney world. the governor has only belatedly taken the actions that other states have taken in trying to close down activity in beaches and parks and he still seems to be having spring break rolling. your thoughts? >> well, good morning, joy. you know, we had a conference

call through homeland security on yesterday with fema and they really helped to put this crisis into perspective. what they said was, you know, they respond to natural disasters all the time, but imagine having a disaster in every state and that is exactly what we are having with the coronavirus. look, i just thank god for local representatives, local leaders, local mayors and other elected officials who really in the absence of leadership have had to really take the bull by the horns and come up with programs and processes and procedures to really help to protect the people here in florida. as you know, all of the theme parks have closed down. we have tourists that were basically stranded in hotels that we've had to deal with, as well as testing, making sure that we can perform as many tests as possible and then also making sure that our hospitals have capacity and that is

probably one of our biggest worries for those who do test positive and will need capacity. and so we are glad for what local leaders are local here in orange county, local health department has been able to do to help the people here. >> yeah. and we know that in terms of the deaths in the state of florida as of 4:30 a.m. this morning, there were 514 cases, ten deaths. we know that florida is the state with the most senior citizens in the country, i think about 19% of the population are seniors. it is the state with the oldest population, but we also know that it has a lot of tour -- of cruises, cruise ships, a lot of places where the pandemic could easily spread and i want to talk about one of them and that is of course disney world. we know from the miami herald that a california man who died from covid-19 went to disney world and universal according to

reports. he was 34 years old. he flew to florida for a work conference, stayed for a couple of extra days to visit the parks and flew home to california. talk a little bit about that, because florida just -- because it is a tourism state it's also an agricultural state, a whole other sort of way that there could be a lot of transmission. is florida doing enough to safeguard not just its own residents, its elderly, its seniors, its visitors. >> well, we had 76 million people visit central florida last year so just to put it into perspective. i do know that disney as well as universal, lego land, sea world, all of the major theme parks closed down. and i think that was pretty responsible on their part. i mean, you think about the magnitude there. but they also have an obligation to make sure that anyone who visited the park, any persons who were staying at their hotels, that they receive proper

information, instructions about what to do if they're exhibiting symptoms, if they feel like they have been exposed to someone that they know who tested positive, i certainly think that theme park cans help those who were part of their family, if you will, during those critical times get the necessary information that they need. you've talked about the senior population. we have everything from even our grocery stores and some of our department stores that have developed special hours like they're designated the first hour of shopping to those who are 60 and over and so i know that you know, we're also in contact with nursing homes and other senior citizens facilities to make sure that our seniors are properly taken care of and as i said before, in the absence of leadership, things don't happen enough, but what i believe is going on here at the

local level is something that is an adequate response but we are always certainly looking for additional information from our elected state leaders and certainly the president. >> absolutely. i want to show you just a side by side picture and this is in paris and at clearwater beach, florida. paris france, clearwater beach, florida. showing the differences in terms of the crowd size. it's deserted in paris. it's not deserted quite yet in florida and i want to ask you, just what -- what message would you give as somebody who is so respected -- i met you down when i was a florida resident for a long time so i know people listen to what you have to say congresswoman, to those who are still insisting on trying to spring break and just from a personal standpoint, the churches, you know, even my former church is not quite, you know, people are not quite closing it down. what would you say to these

residents, visitors in florida about why it's so important to really -- to really do this social distancing and take it -- take it seriously? >> well, let me say this. we had a conference call a couple of days ago, the democratic members of the florida delegation and we talked quite extensively about the beaches not being shut down and joy, quite frankly we just don't understand that. why would you leave the decision up to basically college students that are here having a good time, for them to make the decision about what's best for them and best for others that they might return home to? and so we reached out to the governor and basically said, you need to shut the beaches down. we don't believe that leaving it up to this community to basically exercise or practice social distancing is really very responsible at all. and you know, overall, this is

just a very serious time. it's a very critical time. every individual, families, businesses have got to take responsibility to make sure that we basically stop the spread of this virus. and as i said, in the absence of leadership, it really makes it real tough but we've all got to rise to the occasion and take the necessary steps. i had a long talk with my pastor and it was quite, you know, an interesting conversation about funerals that will be taking place and then of course our worship service but the bottom line is, it's better to be safe than sorry and where we landed was we're going to start on tomorrow, surngsd with virtual worshipping and you know, so we sent that information out to all of our church members and we are expecting every church should take the responsibility to take

care of its members by practicing social distancing when you're not in church, but also to participate in virtual worshipping. it is the best thing for everybody. >> absolutely. and i have to note that two miami of your fellow miami po politicia politicians, the mayor of miami is now quarantined having tested positive as well as my former congressman from south florida mario diaz, you have a governor -- well, former governor who's now your colleague on the senate side who used to run a big health care company that had some interesting issues in terms of illegal or sort of taking from medicare and medicaid and tricare but he still managed to become governor and also a senator. what would you say to florida politicians right now about what they could be doing differently regarding their communications with the public and even

something like refusing to expand medicaid, refusing to expand obamacare at a time like this? >> of course i heard your conversation with leader schumer and this moment is really aboute that we take care -- as we really should be doing in this country all the time -- the most vulnerable, making sure that those who need the help the most are not left out but receive the help first. certainly, you know, if you want to be an electioned office, if you want to be a leader, then you have to lead. you have a direct responsibility to take care of all the time that you are responsible for. so we want to make sure that, as i said earlier, that we have testing available, but also that those who need to be tested, or able to receive it, and those who need medical care, are able to receive it.

my goodness, we say we live in the greatest country in the world. well, certainly if we live in the greatest country in the world, everybody should have access to health care. we know that our former governor had an opportunity to expand medicaid in this state to cover almost a million people, and chose not to do that. our current governor now has the opportunity to expand medicaid to people that he is responsible for, to make sure that they get the help that they need. i would just encourage every elected officials and other community leaders to make sure that people in our state, in the state of florida, are able to receive the coverage they need so that they can receive the proper medical treatment and care they need. it's not sunday, but i think you're probably getting a lot of

amens. thank you, representative. >> thank you. more "a.m." after the break. '. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ to feel connected. it all starts with an invitation. the invitation to lexus sales event now through march 31st. lease the 2020 es350 for $379 a month for 36 months and we'll make your first months payment. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. ♪ ♪ wherever we want to go, autosave your way there with chase. chase. make more of what's yours.

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workers first. that's our motto in what we are proposing. that means help for all workers, service workers, industry workers, factory workers, office tower workers, small business workers, gig workers, free

licensers, bartenders, retail workers, airline attendants, and so many more. we owe a great deal of gratitude to the working people of america, whether they be blue collar or white collar. good morning. welcome back. in a few minutes governor cuomo and virginia governor will each give updates on how their states are handling the pandemic. we'll keep you updated. first, the spread of the virus has put countless lives all over the world, but the economic crisis has put countless livelihoods at risk, too. i want to talk to five people on the front lines s joel burg is ceo of hunger free america, author of "america, we need to talk." melba wilson, author of "melba's american comfort."

and andrew simzimern, and tom colicchio. thank you all for joining me. joel, i want to go to you first. the estimate from goldman sachs is there could be 2 million filing for unemployment in the next week or so. two weeks ago that number was 200,000. that means a lot of people are going to be unemployed. we now also worry that a lot of people will be hungry. what is hunger free america doing in that regard? >> we are making sure that there's a combined federal, state and local response, along with the charities. the country needs to understand groups like ours can't do it alone, even with gen where you private dough. before this crisis, 37 million americans, 11 million american children, lived in homes that couldn't afford enough food. worse-er isn't a word, but there

crisis has made this go from worse to worser. like with sandy, like with katrina, this disaster has pulled the bandage off the wounds that is the festering hunger and inequality in america, and has forced the country to see these preexisting conditions have gotten far, far worries overnight. people shouldn't have to choose between a deadly disease and working. >> melba, you and i know each other. we've been friends for a long time. you said something to me in a text which was so profound, that i needed to have you on the show. you are in the business of feeding people, but the people who work for you have to eat, too. tell me what businesses like yours are facing regarding people -- you've talked about these are family members, people who work for you, that i can't necessarily pay them out of money you don't have. tell me what you're facing. >> joy, this is a very, very difficult time for myself as

well as other restauranteurs. we employed over 250,000 people here in new york city. when i look at our employees and know they cannot afford to feed their children, cannot afford the mere necessities breaks my heart. this is a time we need the government to step in and not provide a $1200 just. them ped need to feed their families and need the bare essentials. at a time when people take care of people in this country, the fact there's nobody here to take care of them is heartbreaking. >> as a small business person you're looking for taking out loans? because that's what -- >> i'm not looking forward to taking out loans. i think the government should step up and provide grants. we need the rents to be frozen right now. we need to make sure there's a cash infusion so we can take care of small businesses which are the backbone of this

country, as well as our employees. people don't tend to think of airlines as a food business, but it is in a sense a food business. you have the people who provide the people -- there's also the health, saved and flight attendants. tell me what you are facing in terms of the airlines shut down, the possibility that the companies you work for can get a giant bailout. what's being done for you. flight attendants are still going to work. let's be clear, while others are sheltering in their home. we're still going to work just like in another natural disaster. i worked the relief fleet to puerto rico, and a lot of times those are the first once to step up and give help to other people. right now flight attendants are going to work. the restaurants are shut down. at the hoeltsds, around the hotels, when we get back to the communities they're not ability

to find food, nonperishable items they can take on the trips. we need to be strong so that we can help the other people who depend on us. our restaurants and hospitality workers, the cab drivers, van drivers, teachers, all of these people count on us to be strong. that's why we're promoting a direct assistance, grants directly to our airlines, but specifically to pay the paychecks of workers. this is not a bailouts for corporations. this needs to be directed to keeping the paychecks, keeping people on the job, connected to their benefits so we can stay trong and help other people. we need to keep as many systems in place, as many people strong as possible to help those who are sick and the most vulnerable. >> sarah, does the flight attendants and pilots have access to get tested? >> it has been a problem with getting tests. those people who have gotten

sick or been exposed, waiting for tests sometimes five, six days. we had a flight attendant who was very ill in the hospital with symptoms that sounded like coronavirus. she had to wait because they were only doing 42 tests a did i in that hospital. she ended up testing negative, but this is what we're seeing out there. those who are still healthy are showing to go to work, too. >> tom colicchio, you're also a chef, you also own restaurants. i mean, the thing is when people think about this bailout, the discrepancy between what these senators are talking about doing for giant airline companies or for mcdonald's or big, big corporations, and what they're talking about doing for smaller businesses who have employees who really depend on that check, you know, 9 waiters, waitresses, bartenders are not rich. $1200 one time will not do anything for them.

what will -- what would forces businesses like yours to take out loans, whereas mcdonald's gets tax money, free money u. your thoughts? >> so, joy, i represent a group called the independent restaurant coalition, and we have a plan. this plan can take care of 15 million people. i think you have to include every single restaurant. if you look at every restaurant in america, last year revenues were $808 billion. a lot of that money goes out to our employees, our suppliers, our landlords, and so if money is funneled through the restaurant industry, if you consult that in half, $4340 billion, put it directly into the restaurants, where we have to keep our employees or pay them, keep them from going on to unemployment, right now about 7 million workers are filing for unemployment. they won't have to have unemployment. we can also pay our suppliers so they can pay their suppliers. we can also pay or landlords so

they don't have to go to their credit facilities and negotiate deals with them. because we are so many, if you funnel funds through independent restaurants -- actually restaurants across the country, we can reach 15 million people accomplice suppliers plus landlords. i think that's -- >> absolutely. i think everyone listening -- andrew, first, i love your show, "what's eating america?" and let's take it to the most baseball level. biff the food gets into the restaurants, before the food can be distributed by joel's organization to people who are hungry or distributed on airlines where sarah is working, the food has to get picked, cultivated. what needs to be done in terms of protecting the people who originate our food? the people picking our food? it sounds like deportation is in

order or lock them out, get rid of them, rather than protect the people who are on the front lines of feeding us? >> well, we have a very difficult problem here in this country. like tom, i'm also involved with the independent restaurant coalition, and we have a multitiered problem here in this country. one of the communities that has been marginalized, kept in the shadows for decades are people who work in the processing -- i'm sorry, i have to interrupt you. i'm so sorry, andrew. i don't want to have to do this, but the governor of new york is starting his press conference. we need to go to that now. here's the governor. robert, the director of division and budget, melissa derodsa, secretary to the governor james milatris, who's been of tremendous help. the numbers are still

increasing. we have been seeing that. that's the line we are tracking. this is all about the increase in the number of cases, to the capacity of our health care system. what are we doing? we're reducing the spread and the rate of the spread to match the increase in the number of cases and increasing hospital capacity at the same time. how do our hospitals manage the rate of the spread? we're trying to reduce the spread to over a period of months, over a period of months or health care system can deal with the numbers. we have moved to zero nonessential workers. you can't go below zero, so we're doing everything we can there. we put out new rules on personal

conduct and what people should be doing and how they should be behaves, and where they should be. matil matilda's law, which is for the vulnerable pop lace, senior citizens, people with compromised immune systems, underlying illnesses, that was very specific. how do we help moment? there was a different of opinion. the best health plo fessionals put together guidelines, to help senior citizens, but also their families. i know it was helpful to my family. the questions among sibs license, they laws and guidelines answer ed is the

personal conduct rules and regulations are also helpful. i want to thank dr. fauci, really an extraordinary american, who has given me grate guidance and help and assistance in putting together they policies. i want to thank him. every piston is firing. everything that can be done is being done. new yorkers are lucky. we have a very experienced team that's doing this. this is not their first rodeo. they've been through a number of emergencies on a number of levels. increasing hospital capacity. we want to get the capacity of 50,000 up to a minimum of 75,000. we told the hospitals we're going to be ending elective surgeries. we are now working with hospitals to recon figure the space in the hospital to get more beds and to find more staff

to manage those beds. we're working on building new beds. we're going to go out and review a number of sites today. i'd like to get a final list to the federal government and the army corps of engineers. we're looking at stony brook, westbury, westchester, and i'm going to look at the sites today, or those that i can get to. that would give us a real capacity if we can get them up quickly enough. increasing supplies. which is warm-up most we have identi

identified 1 million n95 may have beens. well apparel manufacturers converting, it's also a creative -- i want to thank them. yesterday i asked them for help. we've been on the phone with all sorts of companies who are really doing great work. we're also exploring the state of new york manufacturing masks ourselves, we going to send 1 million n95 masks to new york city today. that's been a practice priority for new york city. and 1 million masks won't get us through the crisis, but it will make a significance crib abus to new york city's mask issue. thank to you mayor de blasio for working in partnership. 500,000 n95 masks are going to

long island. we've been working with the county executives, and i want to thank them. we're gathering ventilators from all facilities across the state and will use those in the most critical areas. we identified 6,000 new ventilators that we can actually purchase. that's a big deal. from the federal government's point of view, i have spoken to the president a numbs. i've spoken to the vice president a number of times. they have issued a disaster declaration, which is a technical act, but it allows fema to step in and assist financially. by that declaration fema would

pay 75% of the costs of a disaster, new york city would pay -- new york state would pay 25% of the cost. the federal government can waive 25% of the cost i'm asking them to waive that in this situation. i've worked on many disasters. fema has waived the 25%. if there's any situation where fema should waive the 25% this is the situation. we're also working with the federal government -- we're requesting four field hospitals at 250 capacity each. that would give us 1,000 field hospital beds. we're going to be looking at javits as a location for those field hospitals. we're also requesting four army corps of engineers temporary hospitals. those are the sites i mentioned earlier that i'm going to take a

look at, the sunystony brooks, westbury, westchester and javits. it's so being that they can take the four field hospitals and the army corps of engineers. we're requesting assistance with medical supplies. and we're also asking our federal congressional delegation to fix a law that was passed on the coronavirus federal aid, because of a technical issue, the way the bill was written, new york state does not qualify for aid. that's over $6 billion. that's a lot of money. we need the federal delegation to fix that bill, otherwise new york state gets nothing. new york state has more coronavirus cases than any states in the united states of

america, that we should note be included in the bill obviously makes no sense. we're also going to conduct immediately trials for the new drug therapy which we have been discussing. i spoke to dr. zucker, there is a theory that the drug treatment could be helpful, and dr. zucker feels comfortable, as well as a number of -- where a person in dire circumstance try what you can the fas will sent us 10,000 doses. as soon as we get those doses we'll work with doctors, families on using those drugs

and seeing where we get. the president spoke to this drug therapy yesterday. i spoke to him afterwards. i said that new york would be interested. again, we have the most number of cases. and health professionals have all recommended to me that we try it. we will try it. we're also working on a number of other drug therapies and antibody therapy, possible vaccine. we have a company here in new york called regeneron that is showing some promising results. i have exempted them from the no-work order, because they could possibly have a really significant achievement for us. the new numbers. the more tests you take, the more positives you find. i give this caution, because i

think people misinterpret the number of new cases. they take that number of new cases as if it is reflective of the number of new cases, the spread. it is not. the number of new cases is only reflective of the number of cases you are taking, right? where our goal, it's to find the positive cases. if we find the positive case, we can isolate that person, and that stops the spread. we're actually looking for positives. the more tests you take, the more positives you will find. we are taking more tests in new york than any place else. we're taking more tests per capita than china or south korea. we're also taking more tests than any state in the united

states of america. that is actually a great accomplishment, because if you remember back two weeks, which seems like a lifetime now, the whole question was coming up to scale on tests. how do we get the number of tests up and get it up quickly? i spoke to the president and vice president, and i said decentralize the testing, let the states do it. i have 200 labs. i can mobilize quickly. let us do the tests. they agreed. we're doing more tests than any state. so, for example, we've done 45,000 tests. california has done 23,000. washington has done 23,000. so you see how many more tests we are doing. again, i credit the team that's working here, because this is exactly what the mandate was. perform as many tests as quickly

as you can. that's the drive-thrus we put in place, the hospital management, et cetera. our numbers should be higher, and they are. total number of positive cases now is up to 10,000, number of new cases has increased by 3,000 -- let's go back in case you can't read as fast. 6,000 in new york city, 1300 in westchester, 1200 in nassau. the westchester number is slowing. we did a new rochelle containment area. the numbers would suggest that has been helpful, so i feel good about that. you see nassau increasing, suffolk increasing. that's just the widespread increase that we have been anticipating, but our hot spot of westchester is now slowing

and that's very good news. new york city, it is the most dense environment. this virus spreads in density, right? and that's what you're seeing in new york city. new york city obviously has many more people than any other specific location in the state. number of counties are increasing. you see the blue. i said early on blue will take over the whole state, just the way every state in the united states has now been covered. most impacted states, you look at the number in new york is 10,000. washington, california, 1,000 each. does that mean we have ten times the number of cases as california or westchester? or does that mean we're doing more tests than california or westchester? the truth is somewhere in the middle, and nobody can tell you.

total number of people tested, we're up to 45,000. number of new tests, this is a rate that we watch. what is the rate of hospitalization? again, because this is all about hospital capacity, right? 1600 out of 10,000. that's roughly 15% of the cases. it's been running about 14, 15. it's gone as high as 20%, 21%. so actually 15% rate of hospitalization is not a bad number. it's actually down from where it was. the more refined the number is of those who are hospitalized, how many require the ventilators, because the ventilators are the piece of equipment that is most scarce, that's the next refinement of these numbers that we have to do.

again, the context on the numbers is important. we're talking 10,000, et cetera. you look at any world health organization or the nih, or whatever, any of the other countries are saying, you have to expect that at the end of the day, 40% to 80% of the population is going to be infected. so the only question is, how fast is the rate to that 40% to 80%? and can you slow that rate so your hospital system with deal with it? that's all we're talking about here. if you look at the 40% to 80%, that means between 7.8 million and 15 million new yorkers will be affected at the end of the day. we're just trying to postpone the end of the day so we can deal with the capacity. again perspective, johns

hopkins, this is not a science fiction movie. you don't have to wait until the end of the movie to find out what happens. johns hopkins has studied every case since it started. 284,000, 11,000 deaths, almost 90,000 recovers, 183,000 still pending, which trackses everybody we know in new york. the first case, a health care worker, 39-year-old female who was in iran, she went home, she never went to a hospital, she recovered, she's now negative. you get sick, you get symptoms, you recover. that is true for the overwhelming number of people. again context. people who died in the flu -- from the flu in 2018-2019, 34,000 americans.

34,000. so when you hear these numbers of deaths, keep it in perspective. 34,000 people died of the flu. over 65, 74% of the people over 65. 25% were under 65. so if you have an underlying illness, you catch the flu, you can die. more likely, if you have an underlying illness, senior citizens, et cetera, but not necessarily, you have 25% under 65 years old, you die from the flu. don't listen to rumors. you have such wild rumors out there. people call me with the craziest theories. i understand there's anxiety and stress, but let's remember some

basic context and facts. society functions. everything works. there's going to be food in the grocery stores. there's no reason to buy 100 rolls of toilet paper. there really isn't. by the way, where do you even put 100 rolls of toilet paper? the transit system functions, the pharmacy system functions. these things are all going to work. nonessential workers, stay home. the essential workers are staying home, especially the health care workers. there's no road block in the morning that says you can't leave this place or that place, right? so if you have a real question, because you think there's a real concern from a credible source,

contact my team -- we have a special website coronavirus.health.ny.goff. ask the question, and you will get a real truthful factual response. i have not hiding anything from the people of this state. i have not tilted facts. franklin delino roosevelt -- the american people deserve the truth, they can handle the truth. give them the truth. when they don't get the truth or the facts, that's when people should get anxious. if i think -- you're you're shading the truth, now i'm anxious. everything i know i've told you, and i will continue to tell you. these are facts, and you hear a

rumor and you want to check it out, go to that website. these people work for me directly. you will have the truth. we do have an issue with younger people who are not complying. i mentioned this before, but it has not gotten better. you know, you can have your own opinion. you cannot have your own facts, okay? you want to have an opinion, have an opinion, but you can't have your own facts. "well, young people don't get this disease." you are wrong. that is not a fact. 18 to 49 years old are 54% of the cases in new york state. 54%. 18 to 49 years old. so you're not superman and you're not superwoman. you can get in virus, and you can transfer the virus, and you

can wind up hurting someone who you love or hurting someone wholly inadvertently. social distancing works and you need social distancing everywhere. there's a significant amount of noncompliance, especially in new york city, especially in the parks. i'm going to go down there today. i want to see what the situation is myself, but it has to be stopped, because you are in dangering people, and if it's because of misinformation, if it's because of noncompliance, i don't care, frankly. this is a public health issue, and you cannot endanger other people's health. you shouldn't be endangering your own, but you certainly have no right to endanger someone

else's. this is my personal opinion, this is not a fact. you know, to me it's important that especially in a situation like this, tell me the facts and then tell me your opinion. this is my opinion. we talk about social responsibility, especially young people, talk about social responsibility, and they should. we pass a lot of legislation in this building, groundbreaking legislation, national first, on economic rights versus the highest minimum wage in america, human rights first state to pass marriage equality, which i believe was a human rights issue. we talk about environmental responsibility. this stays has the most aggressive environmental laws in the united states of america, and i am proud of it, but i also want people to think about the social responsibility when it comes to public health. we haven't talked about it before. it's not really a field, not

really an issue, not really a hashtag, but social responsibility applies to public health, just as it applying to human rights and economic rights and environmental rights, public health -- especially in a moment like this -- is probably most critical. so let's think about that, and let's act on that. in this crisis think of ourselves, we are all first responders. we are all first responders. your actions can either save or endanger a life. so we are all first responders. what's going to happen? we're going to get through this, we don't know how long it's going to take us to get through this. the fact is we're trying to slow the spread of the virus to a

number of months so the health care system can deal with it. so therefore, by definition, it's going to be a number of months. i know people want to hear it's only going to be a matter of weeks and then everything's going to be fine. i don't believe it's going to be a matter of weeks. i believe it is going to be a matter of months. but we are going to get through it. how long and how well it takes us to get through it is up to us. it depends on what we do. you know, when you're sick and you say to the doctor, well, how long until i get better? the doctor says, it depends on what you do. if you follow the advice, you'll get healthy faster. it depends on what you do. this depends on what we do. china is now reporting no new cases. let's assume that's true. look at that trajectory and look

at that turnaround. look at what they did, right? we do have data that we can follow. how long is it going to take? it depends on how smart we are and how responsible we are and how diligent we are. you tell me the percentage of compliance and intelligence and discipline on social distancing, et cetera, i'll tell you how long it takes us to get through it. also, something that people aren't really talking about, but i think we should start talking about. we talk about the economic consequences of this situation, and they are going to be significant and we are going to have to deal with it, and new york will be right on top of it and as aggressive as we are with everything else, but economic consequences come second, right? first is dealing with this

crisis. we talk about the economic consequences, but we also need to talk about the social consequences. it's hard to gauge and hard to measure, because there is no dow jones index that we can watch on the screens that's measuring the social consists and the social decline, but the stress, the anxiety, the emotions that are provoked by this crisis are truly significant. people are struggling with the emotions as much as they are struggling with the economics. and this state wants to start to address that. i'm asking psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists who are willing to volunteer their time to contact the state, and if this works out, i would like to set up a voluntary network

where people can go for mental health assistance, where they can contact a professional to talk through how they're feeling about this, they're nervous, they're anxious, they're isolated, can bring all sorts of emotions and feelings to the surface when you're isolated, you don't have people to talk to. i'm asking the professional mental health establishment to contact us, let us know if you're willing to volunteer time. it would obviously be all electronic. it wouldn't be in person, over the telephone, skype, et cetera, but i would ask you to seriously consider this. many people are doing extraordinary things during this public health crisis. i would ask the mental health community, many of them are looking for a way to participate.

this is a way to participate. if we get enough mental health professionals willing to volunteer their time, we'll set up a mental health electronic help center. we'll talk more about that in the next few days. what happens beside how long? what happens? the bigger question to me is what do we learn about ourselves through this. as a society we have never gone through this. thank god we haven't gone through a world war. we haven't gone through any great social crisis here in new york. we went through 9/11, which i think is relevant in terms of some feelings that are now -- people are experiencing. 9/11 transformed society. i was there. i was part of it. you were never the same after

9/11. i had a sense of vulnerability that you never had before, which i feel to this day there was a trauma to 9/11, but as a society, as a country we've been blessed that we haven't gone through something as disruptive as this. so what do we learn about ourselves? really brings out the truth about ourselves, first of all, and about others. and you see people's strength and you see people's weaknesses. you see society's strengths and society et cetera we society's weaknesses. you see the beauty and the vulnerabili vulnerability. you see the best in people and the worst in people.

you see people rise to the occasion, and you see people fall from the burden of the emotion. so you take a step back, first, there are people doing extraordinary work who deserve our thanks. when you see a health worker on the way to work, when you see a grocer working a double shift trying to deal with the demand, when you see a fapharmacist overwhelmed with lines, when you see a ploys opening doors, they don't know what's on the other side of the door, walking up to car windows, these are just extraordinary heroes. ask yourself, would you do that?

what kind of selflessness and courage -- what does public service mean? this is public service. this is public service in stereo and on steroids. these are people stepping up. when you see them, say thank you. the bus drivers, the subway drivers, the public transit workers, these are people showing up, leaving their family. they are just as nervous as you are, but they're doing their job. child care workers, who are watching people's children so they can go work in a hospital or do their essential function. they deserve our thanks, and in some ways it gives us perspective on beautiful people can be and how courageous people can be, and how great americans can be. my last point is -- practice

humanity. we don't talk about practices humanity, but now if there's ever a time to practice humanity, the time is now. the time is now to show some kindness, show some compassion to people, show in gentlity, even as a new yorkers, yeah, we can be tough, this is a dense environment, it can be a difficult environment, it can also be the most supportive courageous community that i have ever seen, this is title for gentility. it's a time for a smile when you're walking past someone, time for a nod. it's a time to say hello. it's a time for patience, and don't let the little things get you annoyed.

that's new york at its best. that was new york after 9/11. yeah, we have a problem. yes, we will deal with it. yes, we will overcome it, but let's find our better selves in doing it. he let new york lead the way in finding their better selves that's the new york destiny and new york legacy. that's why i'm proud to be a new yorkers, crowd to be the governor of this great state. we're going to do it as we've done it before. questions. >> reporter: on the 6,000 ventilators, where were those located? how soon can they be in new york? >> they were located all across the globe, jessie. they will be coming in over the next several weeks. we're also looking, by the way

at technologies that would allow to you use one ventilator for multiple patients. one ventilator, for example, to kieffer two patients. we're getting as crative and aggressive as we can. >> reporter: can we assume -- >> they go where the cases are. >> reporter: a very emotional doctor who tells me they're out of hospital gowns, that they have no masks, that they are reusing hospital gowns that could potentially have been exposed, and with that in response to that message. look, this is a national problem, the medical supplies. states are scrambling all across the board. i'm proud of everything the state has done.

i'm calling people all across the world for these supplies. we have apparel companies that will go into the gown manufacturing business. we have to secure the material h. we're trying to do now. if i can get the material, we will make them in the state. i have companies in new york where we're buying equipment, sewing equipment for them so they can manufacture them, but we have a gown shortage statewide. >> reporter: a couple questions -- >> not just all over. it's worse than that. we were doing bet, we're doing

better with ventilators, nowhere near where we need to be. we need 30,000 ventilators, so we're at 6,000, but at least we got to 6,000. the medical community has told me over and over again, the masks are the priority for the covid-19. we have made progress on masks. gowns are also very important, no doubt, but we have not been successful as of yet with finding a supply of gowns, but we are searching high and low. >> with the number of masks, i think you said 2 million, 1 million going to the city and i forget the other number, but what are staying here -- >> we have enough masks to handle all of upstate's needs. the numbers are very different between albany and new york city. we do the allocation based on where the cases are.

new york city -- new york city, westchester, nassau, suffolk, that's the locus of the problem. masks for upstate hops, we can address that, fill that need as of now. >> reporter: people are wonde' wondering, have you been tested? >> no. i've not been exposed, i don't have any symptoms, i don't want to waste the test. >> reporter: symptoms, they have to save it for the health care workers, is that a concern? he. >> we were testing by the same protocol all across the state, karen. if you meet that protocol, then you get a test.

it's on the weapon sides. if you have been exposed to someone positive, if you are showing symptoms, if you immediate that protocol, you get a test. again, we are testing more than any state in the united states of america. we are testing more than china and south korea, so yes, no state -- no country can give everybody a test who wants a test, but that shouldn't be the goal either. this is not just i want a test to make my slough feel better, and it won't even make you feel better. okay, you tested negative at 10:00 a.m., but then you went and you talked to six people, maybe you're positive again. you know, you will never solve that neurosis, right? that anxiety. more people are getting tests in

this state than anywhere else. that is good news. i'm very proud of what we did. we were all starting at the same place. for us to come up to scale that quickly and get to scale where we're doing more than anyone else, that was great. >> reporter: governor you mentioned the 39-year-old health care working from iran who is now doing well, do you have -- [ inaudible ] >> we can get you those numbers. i don't have them. >> reporter: how about the technical issue of federal legislation, what do you mean by that? is it a house bill -- >> the house bill that passed said -- this is alternates weedy, but the house bill that passed said for a state to get the federal money, it can't make any changes in the medicaid procedures.

in this state, since january i announced the mrt, the medicaid redesign team, they issued their report that changes procedures in the medicaid program. i've been doing that since january. we can't do a budget without changes to medicaid. you need changes, because there's a lot of waste and inefficiency in medicaid on the long-terms problems. they even wrote a bill -- it's not really funny, but it's sad. you either cry or you laugh. if you change any procedures, you don't qualify, but we've been changing procedures since january. >> reporter: of the four field hochts, are those essential outdoor m.a.s.h. units? >> you have two types of what i call pop-up hospitals, and they say don't call pop-up hospitals.

the field hospitals are done by the fema. they are equipped hospitals with 250 people eat, they're basically a tent configuration, with beds, medical equipment, staff. and they come with a 250-bed capacities. we requested four of those, so 1,000. the army corps of engineers, they basically do a tent-like facility, they can do it in a gymnasium, or westchester convention center, they can do it outside, but it needs a hvac system -- that is more a tent structure without 9 beds without the medical equipment and without the staff. >> reporter: so field hospitals would be set up where?

adjacent to hospitals? or in parks? >> we're talking about field -- the field hospitals, the 1,000 bets in javits. if it works, if it fits. this is all preliminary, i have to talk to the javits people about the electrical service, et cetera. but 1,000 beds in javits. we don't have a number yet in the other locations. jared, is that all correct? >> yes. >> reporter: you have a point of people in state prisons that if they get infected, it might spread like wildfire. >> we're watching that situation very closely. when we don't -- we don't have a significant issue yet. we have taken certain precautions. we have stopped certain visitation, but if we have a problem, we'll address it, but we don't have that problem yet.

>> reporter: yet, you're waiting to see what happens? >> right. if we have a problem, then we'll address it. >> reporter: on those n95 masks, the million come out of stock -- >> no, those are 2 million that we are acquiring. how many new n95s have we identified. >> we've been at this for weeks and yesterday we had so many people reach out, so we're sorting through that. we're looking to buy in bulk, obviously, and get as much as we can. >> two million are the number of masks we have identified to buy. just a bit of caution -- these are companies who say i have the masks, i will sell you the masks, i will send them by this date for this amount of money, just so you know what's going on, masks that normally cost 80 cents are now $4, okay?

these n95 masks, but, look, it's price gouging, but we need them, and most of these are coming from overseas. so far 2 million new masks we've identified. >> reporter: -- saying how the state determines which hospitals or -- >> there's a trade association called the greater new york hospital association. that's what ken rasky runs, so between the voluntary hospitals, they'll be distributed proportiona proportionately. >> reporter: regarding the consequences to the state treasury, i agree that public health is job one, of course. i drove in here thinking about something that governor mario cuomo said about advocates asking you to fund this or that, and he said which suny campus do

you want me to close. another one said the days of wine and roses are over. to me it seems that some of the press releases that i see are rather pollyanna-esque, because they haven't fully adapted to this new reality. is it time for a reboot as to expectations at what the state can do for all these groups out there relying on the state for funding? and do we need a pay freeze, for which you probably can't do with the contracts -- governor andrew cuomo, governor of new york, factual, even with a powerpoint presentation, seated at a nice social distance from the experts beside him, calm, authoritative. boy, i cannot imagine a greater difference with the presentations daily given by the president of the united states.

they say that character is revealed in crisis. wow, these two are very different. donald trump combative, angry, fighting with the press, disputing his experts. could not be a different presentation between the two of them. i still have joel berg, who is here from new york city, mable wilson, author of "american comfort." we have russell honore joining us, who led the response to hurricane katrina and andrew zimmern. i want to let each of you give us your reaction. first, let's stars with rug the honore, your react, sir? >> i thought the meeting was informative, i think the key points, joy, is the governor is buying in the millions in quality. the government will have to get the total asset assessment of

what is available and how many masks they need. if they go about it this way, we will not have supply management. i know i'm using an army term. that's why i'm coaching the white house every day. bring in the defense logistics agency to manage the logistics of moving the masks where they need to go and in days of supply, not just ordering 30 million of this and 6,000 of this. if we don't get supplies, we won't have an equitable distribution where the need is. it will be the first order will get all the supplies. the government needs to fix that now and go to mobilization as defense logistics agency. >> they have certainly not done that. andrew, i'm sorry i cut you off earlier. 45,000 tests have been conducted in new york. that's more than california or washington state.

they have ramped up quickly. they have over 200 labs proiing testing. the governor talked about the magnitude of the number of people who are testing positive, said that's because we're testing and that you have to be testing in order to know. you have to know in order to treat it. i thought it was a very impressive presentation, but i want your thoughts. >> i did as well. i've been saying for a number of days and for a week on social sins month when i appeared with the governor here in minnesota. our nation's governors are leading. our nation's governors are showing real leadership. this is not a red or blue issue, not a right or left issue, this is a forward issue. i agree with general honore, we have to deal with facts op, logistical expertise, to help our governor get the help they need where it's needed the most.

>> absolutely. melba, you heard the governor talk about stress and social responsibility, a thorough presentation. that's your governor, you're his constituent. your reaction? >> joy, you know, it's really interesting. i think that during difficult times, what we look for is leadership. we look for someone to take us and show us the way and let us know the facts, and to give us hope. when i listened just now to governor cuomo that's what i felt. he was extremely informative. he gave factual information. there was no anger or hostility. i'm glad to be a new yorkers as well as an american. this is what we look for in our president. sorry that we're not getting it with president trump, but governor cuomo is doing an amazing job in leading the city. >> yeah, this may be a high time -- i was born in east flatbush, st. mary's hospital, proud to be a new yorker as

well. but joel, i want to give you the last thoughts. >> my mother grew up in east flatbush. governor cuomo has done a great job. we need to ramp up the antihunger and anti-poverty provisions, because we have a festering problem with 1 million school meals not broadband served in new york city each day, countless people unemployed. we need to ramp up not only the health impact fighting that, but the hunger impact immediately. >> that's right. we need this kind of leadership to come from washington. do your job, sir, learn from the governor here, fellow new yorkers. he's outdoing it. lt. general russell honor and everyone else, thank you for joining us. alex witt will be with us right after this break.

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good day, everyone, it is high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to everyone. we have breaking news this hour, as we are expecting an update from the coronavirus, we'll bring to to you live. the other breaking headlines this