about now. that's our broadcast for this tuesday evening as well. thank you so much for being here with us. on behalf of all of my colleagues at all the networks of nbc news, good night from our temporary field headquarters. ♪ good morning, everyone. it is wednesday, march 25th. i'm ayman mohyeldin. we begin with major new developments from washington, d.c., after days of partisan gridlock, senator leaders and the white house announced a mass d massive deal aimed at rescuing the american economy from the scourge of the white house. the white house calls the coronavirus stimulus bill the single largest in history. onetime payments of $1200 to most adults and $500 for each child. four months of employment

insurance, instead of three. more than $100 billion for hospitals. $150 billion for state and local governments. $350 billion for small businesses and $500 billion for corporations including airlines and cruise lines that have been hurt by the outbreak. while the text of the bill is likely still being finalized, senate minority leader chuck schumer says it includes realtime reporting of corporations and the inspector general and the board will provide oversight. >> like all compromises this bill is far from perfect. but we believe the legislation has been improved significantly to warrant its quick consideration and passage. because many democrats and republicans were will to do the serious and hard work. the bill is much better off than where it started. >> so madam president, the help is on the way. the american people are already rising to this great challenge and the senate is about to

follow suit. we're going to pass this legislator today. >> and white house negotiator treasury sector steven mnuchin said the legislation is terrific and hopes that house speaker nancy pelosi will take it up as is. joining me now over the phone, white house reporter for politico, gabby orr. let's talk about where things goes from here. how likely is it that house speaker nancy pelosi will pass the bill as it is? >> well, there's a good chance that the house will go ahead and pass it without making any significant changes. there might be some tweaks that happen to the bill as it moves through the house. but for the most part, the goal was always to get senator schumer in the senate and speaker pelosi on the same page. to get them behind a piece of legislation that they can both support and that they can both rally their caucuses behind. and it does seem with the agrement that was struck early, early this morning, senator

schumer said this is a bipartisan agreement. it's not something to be celebrated. but it is something out of necessity. and i think that's the message that you're going to hear speaker pelosi deliver to her caucus as she tries to get house democrats to rally behind this. >> we've been kind of following this work its way through the various committees and back and forth over the past coming of days. republicans and democrats have been at odds over what's inside the bill and who actually gets to see where the money is spent once it's allocated. have both sides come out of this with a little bit of what they wanted? where do they each compromise and where do they each come out as winners? >> yeah, i do think that both sides got most what they wanted with some exception. you know, the big thing that the democrats isn't the senate were asking for is more bolstered unemployment insurance. insurance that would extend to self-employed workers, workers in the gate economy, people like

uber drivers and food delivery personnel. and they also wanted additional funding for hospitals and oversight in that sort of slush fund for corporations that are dealing with the economic impact of this virus, and all three of those things were checked off the list for democrats. now, important the amount of funding going to hospitals or to an unemployment insurance fund is, you know, exactly, the target amount that they'd hope to get is still in question. but it was at least enough to get them on board to sign on to them. and for republicans, you know, all along, they've really been pushing for aid to small businesses. this bill includes more than $250 billion in aid to small businesses. it will also send direct cash payments to american workers, up to a certain income threshold. and that's obviously something that president trump had pushed for and endorsed from the white house podium just yesterday.

>> all right, gabby orr, thank you very much. gabby, i'm going to talk to you in a little bit from now. stay with us. meanwhile, the world health organization says the u.s. now has the potential to become the new epicenter of the virus around the world with more than 55,000 cases. more than 10,000 within the last 24 hours, the agency says the u.s. now represents 40% of all new cases worldwide. combined with europe, the western world represents 80% of all cases across the globe. india has ordered all of its 1.3 billion citizens to stay inside their homes for three weeks starting today. "the new york times" prints that narendra modi's actions are the most severe taken anywhere to stop the spread of the virus. india has reported 5500,000

infections which is relatively low. should the results go widely, the results are catastrophic with lacking adequate public health care. new zealand, the country of $5 million with the lockdown. and as europe reels from the outbreak of the virus, its health care workers on the front lines have been especially exposed with spain reporting almost 14% of its total coronavirus cases are medical staff. over in france, italy and spain, in the three of those countries, more than 30 health care workers have died. and thousands have been asked to self-isolate, thinning the ranks of the medical staff as the contagion continues to spread. its daily death toll surged to 743 yesterday, after falling for two straight days, dashing hopes that the country had turned a corner. and china lifted all restrictions for travel from wuhan province, excludeing

wuhan, where the city originated. joining us from rome nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley. matt, good to speak to you. you were right yesterday to say it's too early to say we've turned the corner and no one should be looking at the decline prior to today as a sign that the situation is under control as we see what has happened in the past 24 hours? >> reporter: that's right, ayman, there was optimism. people were hopeful, that, look, the numbers were going down, not in a big way but in a small way, hoping that the unprecedented two-week old nation lockdown would have effects with the statistics. you can't base a trend on small cases in numbers in a few days. that's exactly what will we saw yesterday. as you mentioned, 743 deaths, an

appalling number up there with the world record on saturday which is 793 deaths in one day here in italy. and we're going to hear those numbers again at 6:00 p.m. local time. that's about eight hours from now. and there's no reason to necessarily believe that those numbers are going to be going down. the number of transmissions has also been increasing here in italy. and it just goes to show that some of the most earnest, strictest, most severe efforts to contain the virus are not necessarily going to have an immediate effect on the numbers. those numbers may delay that effect. and there's no evidence that it's working at all here in italy even though i said we're two weeks into that. that's something that policymakers in the states are going to be looking at, because the number of transmissionists, the numbers of people testing positive here in italy, that number has also been increasing. >> i want to get your thoughts, i know it's hard to go out and

speak to health care workers directly. following the pulse of italian media officials and briefings taking place in that country. what is the major concern right now for italy's health care system? i mean, can it continue to cope, as you say, with the uptick in numbers and infection rate and health care workers continuously feeling exposed to the virus? are they falling by the wayside? >> reporter: it's interesting that you mentioned that, ayman. here in italy, italy has been the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the world, especially for the united states. we did speak to a health care worker yesterday. she is a representative for the union for the health care workers. she's in it up with people on the front lines. she was a general practitioner. she started her conversation by saying, you know, i probably have coronavirus which is a little off-putting she was among hundreds of health care workers here in italy who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

dozens have died. at least a dozen have died. so, they have one singular complaint. and it's the same one that is echoed in the united states. they need more protective gear. they're very disappointed. hard broken heartbroken in their government for now providing them the proper protective gear as they rush to the front lines andiel with patients. here in rome, it's really not that bad, relatively speaking. the problem is in lombardy region, and there's much more grave danger, ayman. >> matt bradley, stay safe, my friend. economists are making predictions about tomorrow's jobless claims reports about the coronavirus. the numbers are staggering. here's a morgan stanley chief economist on cnbc yesterday. >> even in the financial crisis, even in recession, no one was told you can't go out and conduct business. doors weren't shut in the way

they are now. we estimate the jobless claims when they come in on thursday are going to be 3.4 million. that's a one-week number. >> wow. >> that's how many were laid off last week. that's incredible. >> and goldman sachs and parthenon economics both predict the jobless claims will be between 2 and 3 million. while morgan stanley further projects the gdp will drop as much as 30% in the second quarter which could push the unemployment rate at 12.8% a number not reached since the 1940s. still ahead, a judge denies michael cohen's request for release due to the coronavirus outbreak. danny cevallos joins us for that. plus, governor andrew cuomo warns about a new infection rate here in new york. those stories and more when we come right back.

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welcome back, everyone. a manhattan federal judge has denied a bid by president trump's former lawyer michael cohen for home confinement yesterday. writing that cohen was trying to, quote, inject himself into the news cycle in the coronavirus pandemic. in a letter last week, cohen's lawyers urged the judge to let him finish his term in home confinement due to the vast spreading of the coronavirus in new york state. cohen's plea comes as local governments across the country release thousands of inmates in an effort to prevent the coronavirus outbreak in crowded jails and prisons. in los angeles alone, 1700 inmates, 10% of the jail population has been released to limit the possibility of a disastrous outbreak behind bars. joining me now, msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, what do you make of the judge's decision not to release michael cohen from prison?

>> first of all, the judge lambasted michael cohen and his lawyers for this motion, but i'm not that surprised because judges have a really difficult choice to make in this moment. what do you do with -- how do you release some prisoners and not others? and of course, the government, the prosecutors have a similar dilemma. how do they seek justice and protect the public, but at the same time, recognize that prisons and jails are exactly the kind of place where a coronavirus outbreak could go absolutely out of control. now, the government's position, i'm seeing a theme here in my case. and in other cases. which is that the government's position is that, well, coronavirus isn't a huge problem yet in our federal prisons or jails. so, let's not start releasing prisoners and detainees yet. that may be a somewhat optimistic outlook of the way the coronavirus spreads just because it isn't there yet. prisons and jails are a perfect

place for a virus like this one. but michael cohen's motion was a little unique in that it was meant to modify a sentence. michael cohen has already been convict and he's serving a sentence. the judge in this case correctly observed that only the government and prosecutors can make that motion. it's really only in very rare instances can a defendant or offender bypass the government's prerogative to make that motion to reduce or modify a sentence. but that doesn't answer the broader question of what the judges do about how high-risk prisoners who are serving sentences. and also, detainees, who, keep in mind, are not convicted of a crime and are technically presumed innocent but being held prior to tile. >> so, let's take that grouping of people for a moment, those that are in pretrial detention. but aside for a second. is the argument being made by attorneys like yourself who want to have their clients and others

removed from prison, is that if the coronavirus pandemic explodes in the prison system, they don't have the health care infrastructure to deal with the influx of patients? or is it that just by virtue of having them there in that prison, they're exposed to this, and there could be a certain degree of vulnerability? because when you put them out in the public, you actually have less control of this motion. whether or not they're abiding by this. when they're being released in the public, but at the same time, with ankle monitors, some tracking mechanism that make sure that they aren't going out and perhaps doing other things? >> you've struck at the heart of this challenge which is how do we release prisoners in the way that it ensures the safety of the community. but at the same time, even if there is not yet an outbreak in prisons, everything about them, the fact you that have corrections officers coming in and out every day. the fact you that have a number of people confined in close spaces using communal areas like

bathrooms, showers, things like that. they really are, even if there is not yet a problem with coronavirus in the prisons and jails it is going to happen in all likelihood. and you see state facilities like california releasing large numbers of low-level offender. federal prisons are a little different. for the most part, almost every federal crime is a felony. and argue gaeb, they contain people serving much longer sentences than you might see in city and county jails. >> danny cevallos always a pleasure. thank you, my friend. still ahead, we're digging into troubling new numbers coming out of louisiana as the coronavirus continues to spread. plus, what city and state officials are doing this week to hem combat the virus. we're back in a moment. ...it starts working hard at hour one... and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. zyrtec muddle no more.

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professor at the university of louisiana at lafayette, over a 13-day period the increase in the number of cases placed the state on a tra ject tore for infections ahead of both italy and spain, some of the hardest hit countries. just led, louisiana recorded 268 cases bring the total number to 1,388 with 46 reported deaths. according to the nbc affiliate in new orleans, 95 service employees in that city has been exposed to the coronavirus. at least 28 of them have been quarantined. new orleans only has 170 ems employees. across the country, local officials are taking matters into their own hands to help stop the spread of the virus. last night, the city of miami ordered all residents to shelter in place and remain at home. the stay at home order was issued in orlando and begins tomorrow. in washington, d.c., all nonessential businesses have

been ordered to close until april 24th. charleston has become the first city in south carolina to issue a stay-at-home order. and the entire state of vermont is under a stay-at-home order until april 15th. let's bring in bill karins, he's looking at the numbers, infection rates as they skyrocket across the country. bill, as we're looking at the numbers coming out of louisiana, a troubling trend, particularly louisiana, not anywhere in the clear? >> yeah, now, we're getting regional curves. now, we're looking at it based on the whole country with the numbers going up. obviously, we're probably going to see the new york area first and then flattening and other areas accelerating. let's get to the areas, the one that's the hardest, the fatality curve. the total deaths went up to almost 800 as we went through last night. you can see how quickly from march 20th, five days later, 250, we tripled that number in

five days. you can do the math and you can see how that curve has gone up. and that is the one we need to flatten the fastest. and that's the most troubling. now, let's go to the total cases. and we're right around 55,000 total cases, you notice they're directly related. the curve for the cases and the curve for the dentals they follow each other. it's amazing, every two or three days they're both doubling. and that's the face we're on. 55,000 today, we'll probably add somewhere close to 10,000 today. that will put it past china, the number of cases they have which is 80,000, to 85,000, by the time we get to friday or saturday. and with the normalcy here, to bring you your forecast today, if you're heading out early we do have a lot of rainy weather in the mid-atlantic region and areas of south carolina, down through areas of georgia. we did have severe weather, including a big tornado area in mississippi and alabama with some damage.

notice by 7:00 or 8:00 p.m., the rain is gone for the mid-atlantic region so that's good. thursday, the northeast is fine. kind of a rainy, chilly day for the areas of the great lakes. finally the forecast for today, excessive heat, 92 degrees in areas of south texas. ayman, one of the things we're trying to figure out and learn when we have the seasonal flu, we see the number of cases going down as we go into the warmer weather season, the south is also very warm. i think we'll find out if it has any effect on the curve at all for the number of new cases. >> yeah, any help to flatten that curve certainly would be welcome. bill karins, thank you very much. we'll talk to you in just a bit. as the number of coronavirus cases ramps up, trump officials issue new warnings for residents. plus, president trump said he wants the country back open by easter, but somehow officials are taking issues with this time line. we're back in a moment.

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and streaming apps all in one place, xfinity has you covered. with simple digital tools you can get the help you need. just say help into your voice remote or download the xfinity my account app. we're working to make things a little easier on everyone. ♪ welcome back, everyone. i'm ayman mohyeldin, we begin this half hour as tensions flare and residents flee hard-hit new york city. health officials have called on those who have passed through or left the self-quarantine for 14 days to help stop the rapid sped of disease. >> everyone who was in new york should self-quarantine for the next 14 days to make sure that the virus doesn't spread to others. no matter where they have gone, whether it's florida, north carolina or out to far reaches of long island.

>> what we're seeing now is that understandably, people want to get out of new york. the idea, if you look at the statistics, it's disturbing, about 1 per 1,000 of these individuals are infected. that's about 8 to 10 times more than other areas. which means when they go to another place, for their own safety, they've got to be careful, monitor themselves if they get sick, bring it to the attention of a physician. get tested. >> as coronavirus cases double every three days in new york, the state has now surpassed 26,000 case which is marks almost half of the nationwide infection numbers. as the death rate continues to climb governor andrew cuomo warned yesterday that the fight to flatten the curve is far from over. >> we haven't flattened the curve. and the curve is actually increasing. the apex is higher than we thought. and the apex is sooner than we thought. that is a bad combination of

facts. new york is a canary in the coal mine. new york is going first. we have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. what happens to new york is going to wind up happening to california and washington state. and illinois. it's just a matter of time. we are just a test case. and that's how the nation should look at it. look at us today. where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. we are your future. >> and while touring the convention center turned field hospital in new york city, governor cuomo criticized the government's lackluster response to the increasingly dire situation. and said that the peak of the infection is still two to three weeks away. that scenario outpaces the official projection and

threatening to strain the already strained health care system with as many as 140,000 incoming cases. right now, only about 53 hospital beds are available. while public health officials call on interactions, president trump yesterday said he wants the country back to business by easter sunday on april 12th. >> i'd love to have it open by easter. okay. i would -- >> oh, wow, okay. >> i will tell you that right now, i would love to have that, it's such an important day for other reasons. but make it an important day for this too. i would love to have the country opened up and just rearing to go by easter. >> during our town hall today, you threw out a date where you think america can be working again. and that's easter sunday. >> yeah. >> that's 19 days from now. how did you come up with that day? >> well, it's 19 days but add another seven, because we've

been doing this from the time we heard about it. >> seven to nine. >> yeah, from the time we close it up. so you could add seven to nine. look, easter is a very special day for me. and i see it's sort of in that time line that i'm thinking about, i say, wouldn't be it great to have all of the churches full -- >> who suggested that? >> i just said it's a beautiful time. it would be a beautiful time line. a great day. >> while president trump is optimistic about reopening the country by easter, dr. anthony fauci yesterday describes that time frame as flexible. >> since the president said you and dr. birx and others will be guiding him and making the decision, where are you this time, 19 days from now? >> that's really very flexible. we just had a conversation with the president in the oval office talking about, you know, you can look at a date. but you got to be very flexible on literally a day-by-day,

week-by-week basis. >> meanwhile, tom engle of the director of the washington community says removing restrictions now would allow the virus to spread widely, rapidly and terribly, and could kill potentially millions in the year ahead with huge social and economic impact. and the forecast of continued economic hardship. >> we're headed for a rough period. it's only goings to weeks, we think. weeks and months. not for years, that's for sure. and hopefully pave the way nor economic recovery after this crisis. >> joining me once again, white house reporter for politico, gabby orr. gabby, good to have you with us.

so, what has been the white house's reaction to the president's shift in focus in restarting the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. i was saying earlier, you can see this billowing up with right wing media, right wing stratosphere, saying let's get this going. even the lieutenant governor of texas making that comment about possibly trading our seniors and our elders for the future of our economy. >> absolutely. there's a growing faction of white house officials urging the president to take action to basically rez resurrect the eco by easter sunday. i spoke to a number of conservative activists on a call with vice president mike pence who said they truly do want to get things back going, get americans back to work. especially healthy young americans, within weeks, not months. a number participating in that phone call told me that they really hope that the administration follows through

on that promise. that they think there's a possibility that it could do even more harm to people's health by keeping them home. keeping them, you know, in a place where there's economic anxiety. more harm than the virus stephanopoul stephanopouloitself. >> and how has the coronavirus pandemic impacted his re-election campaign? you can't deny or one can't deny that politics are certainly on the mind of this president, his political allies, as they takes into consideration whether or not he can get this economy back on track before this campaign heats up? >> that's a great question. the trump campaign has tried to navigate this pandemic in a way that doesn't move his re-election effort sort of off compass. and they've taken to doing digital events. they're really utilizing the strength that they have there in terms of their digital platform

and the fundraising that they've had. as far as the president's re-election message goes, though, it will be interesting to see how the sort of shift in tone, just in the last 48 hours where he's now talking about restarting the economy, whether that impacts how lawyers perceive him and his handling of this crisis. up until march 22nd, a poll that was in gallup released yesterday showed that his approval rating did improve as he took this more seriously, as he talked about the severity of the virus. so as we start to see him shift away from that rhetoric and say it's time to get people back to work, despite what his infectious disease experts and health officials are telling him, it could potentially have an impact that would be negative on this re-election campaign. >> gabby orr, thank you very much. always a pleasure, gabby, stay safe. >> you, too. still ahead, positive news about the rapidly spreading

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in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. scientists studying the coronavirus say it is not mutating significantly as it spreads, suggesting that a one time vaccine will likely offer lasting protection. "the washington post" reports they say that relative stability suggests the virus is less likely to become more dangerous as it spreads. a molecular genecitist told "the washington post" there are strains that infected the united states and the original virus that originated in china. that's a relatively small number of mutations who having infected so many people. this study suggests a single

vaccine would be needed rather than a vaccine every year like the flu requires. several vaccines for covid-19 are in development. but experts estimate it would be a year or more before one of those is available. and situational factors of older population, hospitals being overwhelmed shortage of ventilators and the resulting rationing of life-saving care, rather than some difference in the pathogen itself. "the new york times" reports that south korea is only one of two countries to flatten the curve of new coronavirus cases and it has done so without implementing severe restrictions or economically damaging lockdowns like those in other countries. the measures that south korea took is acting quickly from the start, widespread testing along with critical support from citizens reminding them constantly to wear masks and take preventive measures. soon after the first case hit in their country, south korean

officials began ordering the development of testing kits. they now produce 100,000 kits per day. per day. the country has tested far more people for the virus than any other nation, enabling it to isolate and treat many people soon after infection. south korea has conducted over 300,000 tests for a per capita rate of more than 40 times higher than that here in the u.s. let's get a quick check both on your weather and some of the anybodies of the curve here affecting us here in the u.s. with meteorologist bill karins. hi, bill. >> thanks, ayman. now, let's take a look at region by region because we've been doing this this time every day. yesterday, the numbers were slightly lower than that when he saw as we went through monday. we had about 9,000 new cases reported yesterday. on monday, maybe it was the backlog from the weekend, but for whatever reason, there was about 13,000 but we're still on the curve going up. you'll notice on the colors the red is the northeast, blue, areas in the northwest, we're

still seeing signature growth in the regions. it's not just the new york city, that's the headlines over the week. the exponential growth. about 30% in the south, every try days, you know, we're doubling the number in the south. and in the west, it's like every four days that we're doubling it. but let's take a look at the calendar for march and you can see as you add up the numbers in march, going every two to three days, doubling the total numbers of cases in the country. by this weekend, we should hit 100,000 cases in the u.s. as far as any weather concerns as you're heading out the doors, mid-atlantic, it's rainy and slow from d.c. southward. and the other story, the heat very warm. houston 90 degrees. dallas, 87. some of that warmth is spreading through the south. so it's a summer like weather in the southern half of the country, ayman.

unfortunately for the northeast, we get a little rain coming in friday and lingering into saturday. not the best weekend for home confinement. >> bill, appreciate it. still ahead, now wall street is reacting to the massive deal to rescue the economy. plus, with millions staying home, streaming service and social media sites reporting traffic, as you can imagine, is an all-time lie. the stories driving your business day are next. worst sys which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase. how do you gaveeno® happy 24/7? with prebiotic oat. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this. and you feel like this. aveeno® daily moisturizer get skin healthy™ ♪ ♪all strength ♪we ain't stoppin' believe me♪ ♪go straight till the morning look like we♪

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>> so that was bill gates in 2015 with perhaps a foreshadow to the u.s.' current situation amid the coronavirus pandemic. and now the billionaire has more to say. but first, on the $2 trillion stimulus package. we go live to london. julianna, good to have you with us. what more do you have on the deal and how the stock markets are generally reacting to this news? >> this is huge news for global investors and they're reacting accordingly. we've seen global markets rally in the last few hours in response to this news that the white house and the senate have struck this $2 trillion deal. it's a massive stimulus package and markets were anxiously awaiting this final agreement. we've heard from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell saying in effect this is a war time level of investment into the nation. mcconnell said that the senate will vote and pass this legislation later today.

one of the key sticking points was oversight of this $500 billion bailout fund. according to a administration official, steve manu chen has agreed to oversee this. coming back to bill gates, you played some sound there, he also weighed in on a ted connects program saying that the u.s. has missed its chance to avoid stay at home orders because it didn't act fast enough. very strong message there. he also labored the point that the u.s. needs to ramp up its testing abilities. so making no mistake about it, his message, when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus. and finally i want to just flag, if you've been wondering what millions of americans have been doing with their time in this coronavirus crisis, they have definitely been using netflix and definitely been using instagram and facebook. netflix traffic numbers show

that use age has at an all-time how. facebook and instagram said messaging is up 50% in kung countries. and italy the messener on facebook has jumped by 1,000%. >> hopefully the internet can withstand all of this demand. julianna live for us in london. thank you. up next, a look at axios' one big thing. and coming up on "morning joe," the senate has come to an agreement on the tanking u.s. economy. chris murphy of connecticut will join the conversation. plus, as the world health organization warns the u.s. could become the new epicenter of the pandemic, president trump plans to reopen the country for business by easter sunday. and as local officials are taking matters into their own hands to help stop the spread, we're going to speak to governor john carney to move his state's presidential primary.

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. joining us now from washington, d.c. with a look at axios a.m., editor and chief mr. nicholas johnson. good to have you with us on this wednesday morning. what is axios' one big thing for us? >> today's one big thing is the fight for new york. new york state has become the epicenter of the battle against the coronavirus in the united states really highlighting all of the challenges and opportunities the nation faces in this battle against this global pandemic. right now new york has 5% of cases worldwide and half of the cases in the united states. this really turned governor andrew cuomo into the epicenter of the battle against the coronavirus. his daily press conferences have become the story told about how statsds are gearing up the fight against this, very much sort of showing the challenges he's facing and getting cooperation from the federal government and trying to get more resources. we're hearing a lot from governor cuomo how new york is struggling with having enough

hospital beds as this is playing out in realtime, particularly in new york city, sort of the effects of the shutdowns. how the streets in manhattan are deserted. they haven't seen this since 9/11 shelter in place practices being put into real effect. the real takeaway from all of this is even as city resources are getting now, number of patients are growing, health care officials are telling us we're still 14 to 21 days away from the peak in new york. >> what is the practical effect of the president putting the country back to work in three weeks? do you think governors will follow suit? he may order it, but as we know governors and right now mayors are taking charge of some of these stay at home orders. >> right. >> do they have to abide by what the president says? >> a lot of these stay in place orders are done at the local level. there has been discussion of these being done nationally. it's a federalist system where states and mayors and governors driving this. we're looking at the president's

decision to push the country open sooner could add an lext politics to this return pack how many of these governors are republicans and how many are democrats. right now there's not a big partisan breakdown in how governors moving. in more red states like texas there have been resistant calls for statewide lockdowns. what health officials are telling us what the danger is if the president moved forward with trying to reopen the entire nation and trying to move faster than the health officials suggest and that could add a political element to that and then it becomes partisan. so you have blue state and red state governors squabbling over whether the government should be open or bids should be opusines open or not and that's a political question, not a health care question. >> how are u.s. efforts recovering after the impact of the virus? we're going to spend months going through this, i wouldn't be surprised if there's a commission on preparedness at some point down the road, but right now what's the initial reporting that you're getting about this? >> there will certainly be years and years of monday morning

quarterbacking to figure out how this got here. but we're speaking to health officials to give us a sense of this and we're seeing so many missed opportunities. one health care official said this is a pandemic that just slipped through the cracks. it's nothing that wasn't unexpected, we just weren't prepared as much as we start and it starts very much internationally where governments such as china weren't sharing as much information and earlier the united states wasn't listening to that information as quickly as it should. and in the united states there was not as much time spent early in the transition saying when should these shutdown orders begin to be put in place? when should these extraordinary measures be put in place? what should be done more to reach out to private businesses? >> a lot of things we're doing in march should have been done in january. >> and all of this is happening in the middle of an election year and it's going to cause serious disruption to our politics and potentially the way the primary said absolutely playing out and the speaker of the house is calling for mail-in ballots by november. are we likely to see movement on

that front? >> we're seeing lots of cancellations in primaries and we're uncertain how this will filter out to the summer if we still get to the convention and regular voting later this year. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> you too can sign up for the newsletter at signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this wednesday morning. "morning joe," everyone, starts right now. we are doing very well with, i think, almost all of the governors. for the most part it really has become something dealing almost every day with speaking to each other whether it's conference calls, usually we'll have 50 governors on the call at the same time. no i think we're doing very well. but, you know, it's a two-way street. they have to treat us well also. they can't say oh, gee, we should get this. we have you had get that. >> president trump on his relationship with the nation's governors, many of whom are pleading for help. >> again, i'll tell you right off the top there, when the president of the united states