hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east. the number of coronavirus cases in the u.s. stands at more than 200,000 with the death toll surpassing 4500. nearly 40% of all u.s. cases are now in the state of new york. but new hotspots are beginning to emerge across the country. and overnight a staggering new warning that those numbers are about to get exponentially

worse. the white house projecting between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the united states due to coronavirus and that is their best case scenario. assuming all americans adhere to the strictest social distancing guidelines for weeks to come. the size and the spread of the tragedy has been abundantly clear to medical professionals and hundreds of thousands of americans directly impacted by the virus for days now and last night, with the typical trumpian flour ishes of revisionism and political swipes at his adversaries, donald trump finally leveled with the american people on the scope and severity of the coronavirus pandemic. he conceded that it's nothing like flu, something that he's asserted as recently last friday. t >> i want every american to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. we're going to go through a very

tough two weeks and then hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as a lot of us are predicting having studied it so hard, we're going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. so this is a very, very painful two weeks. >> the president left it to his top medical experts to fill in the details. dr. fauci and dr. birx stressing that americans must do their part -- stay at home, stay away from others where the ultimate death toll could far exceed their predictions. >> in the next seven days toing ten days, we'll continue to see things go up, we can't be discouraged by that because the mitigation is actually working and will work. >> there's no manic bullet. there's no magic vaccine or thera therapy. it's just behavior. each of our behaviors

translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days. >> those warnings help ramp up pressure on states like florida whose governor ron desantis just this afternoon announced a statewide stay at home order. saying the task force hadn't recommended one. in new york, governor andrew cuomo enduring another round of attacks from donald trump. part of last night's grim announcement, suggested that cuomo had hit, quote, paydirt with the medical supplies and he re-upped attacks on former fbi director quote, a crisis that mr. trump had repeatedly asserted was under control and hoped would miraculously disappear has come to consume his presidency, presenting him with a challenge that he seems only now to be seeing more

clearly, baker adds, quote, the president did not explain on tuesday why testing was so slow, nor did he explain why he waited to recommend cancelling large events, closing businesses and schools and limiting group gatherings until after governors began orlandoing it themselves. and nor did he explain why he publicly declared that the country could reopen as early as easter, only the reverse himself days later, if he understood all along how bad the situation could get. a now familiar story line of this growing crisis and that crisis is where we start today with some of our favorite reports are and friends. ashley parker is back. and director for center of vaccine development, dr. peter hodes is here. stay on this staggering announcement, this number had been out there for a couple of days, but the official

announcement from the white house that the best case scenario for this country is that we lose 100,000 to 240,000 of our neighbors, fellow americans in this pandemic, i have been asking this every day this week, how do you process that. >> that's a great question. you know, if we look at an average influenza season there are a lot of variations. we have known for a while that this is last four-times, five-times more lethal than influenza. there are different models out there depending on the various assumptions and this's important to note because we're still in the steep learning curve about this virus and the models are only as good as the assumptions. we're hearing 100,000 and

240,000. we have come up with a number of 93,000 between now and august. the exact numbers mean less to me that we're in a significant public health problem and deaths. . the key now is to avoid the cities where things have gone new york city and new orleans. in new orleans, we've got a death rate of between 4% and 5%. if that's reproduced in other cities we're in for more on the high end of that number rather than the low end of that number. the only weapon we have right now we're developing a vaccine is not going to be ready in time for 2020. the only weapon we have the social distancing and we have seen evidence that social distancing can work and we can talk about that. >> well, if one of the other measures, though, that has been

used by countries like south korea and china who managed to get on the other side of where we are where staring up the cliff heading toward our peak, why isn't testing being mandated, demanded by every governor, by every mayor, by every hospital, i would imagine a hospital would want to know among its own workforce -- why are we still not testing everybody in. >> that's the big question, we're still -- we're still not where we need to be in testing, we're better than where we were a few weeks ago. we have more options available but we're still not quite where we need to be. i have been talking about the surveillance, where we identify groups of people where we're starting to see upticks in fever

in people with nonspecific findings and that may be what we have to do because we got this situation that's untenable, we cannot be in a situation where we find out first about covid-19 and people start showing up in our icus, it's game over right now. we're seeing this play out in new york, new orleans and now atlanta. we have to get our arms around this. according to dr. fauci and the models coming out, the peak in the united states comes is in april 15th, april 16th. you get the idea that now is crunch time. >> i could ask you my health questions for the next 60 minutes. the two i hear the most. one, what's the number -- the current thinking on the number of asymptomatic people and how they're spreading it?

how many people do medical professionals believe to have covid but be asymptomatic and are they contagious as sick people. >> we're still on the steep learning curve about this virus. we don't know that for certain and this is what makes this virus so dangerous, you have two groups getting very sick and in icus including older americans with underlying diabetes and hypertension. this cohort of younger adults who are also getting very sick and on the other hand you got people who can go in and out of stores and public venues with seemingly no symptoms and that's what this thing so hard to control because you all these people transmitting this virus and another cohort getting very

sick. this is different from sars i began in 2003 and mers in 203, other serious coronavirus infections, there if you have had the virus you were sick, staying at home or going to the hospital you weren't out and about in the community this is different. ch though it's a little less lethal sars and mers you got this cohort of people transmitting it. without a vaccine, you're trying to do this with one hand tied behind the back. you're trying to have aggressive diagnostic testing in place and surveillance testing and practice that social distancing but that's what you do. unfortunately it's a 14-century practice and that's what we're resorting to right now. >> ashley parker, 14th century practices in a disease that we

now how that dr. hotez far more lethal than the flu. last friday, the president compared it to the flu. let's watch this and talk to about it on the other side. >> we're at war with a deadly virus, success in this fight will require the full, absolute measure of our collective strength, love and devotion. it's going disappear. it will bs disappear. very sobering, 00,000 people. when you have 15 and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, i have many friends, business people, people with commonsense they said lride it out. don't do anything, ride it out and think of it as the flu. it's not the flu. it's vicious. sometimes they just get the

sniffles, sometimes they feel really bad, that's a little bit like the flu. like the regular flu. >> ashley parker, i'm old enough to remember donald trump standing in a red hat that said keeping america great, saying i'm really good at this stuff and saying things like on that tape. what brought about the change of heart and do they own up to any of the president's past utter rances? >> they do not generally to the president's utterances. the explanation is that people are allowed to evolve and they explain a range of reasons why the president came around to that press conference yesterday that was grim, somber, serious they said the part of it is he does listen to the scientists. he was struck by the images coming out of elmhouse hospital

in queens. he was struck by a friend of his going into the hospital for coronavirus and ending up in a coma and he's seen these projections and the numbers and he understands how stark they are. that said, those statements of his you played early on, a lot of that he wanted to down play it because he didn't want to be true, he didn't like to see the markets fall. the financial success tied to his re-election hope. when the markets started to fall he seemed to engaged in magical thinking where he could wish it away. it weighed very heavily on his mind at the beginning. some political considerations frankly that have brought him around. he was also hearing and being briefed by campaign aides and advisers who were saying, look, a tremendous death toll ravaging

the nation is not good politically. finally, to answer the second part of your question, when he's asked questions about what if we had done social distancing sooner would we be in a better situation? he said, i accept no responsibility and he points to his decision early on to block travel from china. he did do that. but when you talk to the public health officials and experts they say they should have been time to get testing up and running and get supplies to hospital. >> ashley, i accept your reporting because you can always take it to the bank that he has warm feelings for dr. birx, but i have heard from sources that dr. fauci through secretary azar had been banging the pots and pans very early in the year,

whether he feels warmly toward them or not he did not listen to them and he's talking about people who said ride it out. he's the guy who said ride it out. last week, he said let's get everything on sunday. he seems to be blaming some phantom, he's the phantom. >> what you're seeing there's tremendous revisionist history here, it wasn't only dr. fauci and dr. birx, there was very much a push and pull through the economic advisers and medical advise advisers, where the economic advisers were winning and when he was frustrated with dr. fauci for sort of gently but firmly correcting him from the podium and in media interviews and one of the president's -- some people are saying, some people were saying ride this out. that some people is him. that was his belief initially. so it did take him a very long

time to come here. but he's not acknowledging that. he's not acknowledging that at all. but it doesn't change the facts. we can look back and see what he said two weeks ago, two months ago that it was a slow learning curve to get to that news conference we saw yesterday. >> doctor, i want to read you something that bill gates about how we make up for our lost time. everybody's in this agreement of this last month and as ashley, it was largely due to the fact that the president's economic advises are were winning the debate about how aggressive to be. bill gates writes this, we need a consistent nationwide approach to shutting down. despite urging from public health experts, some states and counties haven't shut down completely. in some states beaches are still open. in others restaurants are still

serving meals. this is a recipe for disaster, because people can travel freely across state lines so can the virus. florida didn't shut down until a couple of hours ago and the images of people on beaches have gone everywhere, how do we fight this as a country as florida is off at the beach. >> listen to bill gates. he's right about a lot of things. he's absolutely right. look, we have actually have now data to support social distancing works before it was a bit theoretical, now we know it can have an impact. we have seen this in california and washington state. you can actually follow the flattening of their curve because of their very aggressive stance on this and it has been terrific. we have some surveillance from this company on the west coast

who has more than 1 million data points of people with fever and they have algorithms due to covid-19 versus flu, you can show once you begin social distancing, they have done this in santa clara, the thing flattens out. it's very impressive. it's all hands on deck now trying to convince the governors of those other 20 states a bit on edge or feeling uncomfortable about it. if we don't do it now it's not going to work because now's the peak is going up. the good news is there does seem to a projections of a tailing off going into later in may or june. if we do now, look, the whole economy is disrupted as anyway, get the full gain of doing this social distancing. there's no reason not to do it.

>> ashley parker, any suggestions, any reporting that the white house will call for a nationwide lockdown like gill gates suggest. >> that's a great question, so far the big news of course was that he went from easter to these 30 days, that's what we're trying to find out. public health fishes outside of the administration say it's irresponsible and that period should be longer. but i think this president is not going to go and extend those social distancing guidelines any sooner than he has. he'll make an assessment there. they're looking at projections and models, but he's not going to say let's social distance for two months. one of the other reasons he decided for these social distancing guidelines was a realization that he can't overrule these governors, even if he decides to declare the

economy open for business the governors will have orders stay at home orders in their states and even if restaurants do open up, even if stores open up, lot of people who are not going to feel comfortable going in and dining out. there was a reality that he has too get the virus under control if he wants to do everything else which is to get the economy up and running and win re-election. >> thank you both so much for spending some time with us. when we come back as florida emerges as one of the nation's next hotspots, the governor today under mounting pressure, finally -- finally issuing that stay at home order. how the hospitals led by one of the president's political allies managed to get medical supplies. also ahead, senator kamala harris is here to talk about the

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florida now joins the list of more than 30 states under statewide stay at home order. the governor trump ally ron desantis has been under pressure for weeks to curb the actions of his residents. packed beaches went viral. when it came time for a statewide order, he said he waiting for an official call from the white house. it seems like he finally got one. florida was the only state with more than 5,000 cases so far that had not enacted a statewide lockdown. joining our conversation, our

friends kimberly akins and editor at large, charlie sykes. ron desantis, all the dots that connect him and donald trump, an important governor of an important political state, a governor who refused to order his residents to stay at home even though there was evidence all over the internet that beaches were packed, restaurants were full, no one practicing any social distancing at all, yet he was rewarded with a whole bunch of medical supplies when other states with more dire medical crises and better behavior on the books were not responded to as generously, what gives? >> well, i think this is one of most fascinating story lines that we're tracking here is the role of the governor versus donald trump. donald trump has led from behind on all of this. it's been the governors who have

taken the lead other than governor desantis and the governor of mississippi. the trump has pitted the governors against each other. they led the way on mitigation. it's going to be interesting, when we look back on this, we'll ask, whether or not the states were treated fairly? whether there was favoritism and look at the different results that we got from the states that took this seriously and the ones that took their cues from the earlier donald trump -- it's very interesting, governor desantis like the governor of mississippi, clearly taking their cues from the earlier donald trump and it's only now that trump is changing his tune that they're belatedly taking action. i'm guessing that history isn't going to treat them at all because of their delay.

>> you know, kim, charlie makes a great point, this is sort of the donald trump of last week, you know, ron desantis didn't even keep up if he's trying to be trump mini-me with the trump of this week as one reporter described it last night after yesterday's briefing seems himself scared, i mean, why the slow reaction from the state that's so important to donald trump, so big and is really at risk? you look at florida's senior population, you look at the numbers of people from new york who travel -- why would florida of all states play with, you know, sort of a loaded gun of this dangerous virus? >> well, it's really remarkable to see the difference in reaction to these governors as charlie pointed out. you have governors from places like florida where they're essentially saying, look, unless the white house tells us to do this we're not going to do it. and then, at the press conference yesterday, vice president mike pence saying

we're not going to tell you what to do and it's this weird circular thing. meanwhile, we're seeing the cases rise in florida at an alarming rate. so the fact that that action was finally taken -- which is the action that experts have been saying for weeks is the way to go. that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been calling for a strong provisions like this for a long time. this isn't a novel idea at this point to have people stay at home to get ahead of this and depress this curve and save lives. contrast that to governors in other states like in massachusetts, in maryland, that took it upon themselves while they were waiting from guidance from the federal government on everything, not just on social separation policies but when to close their schools, when to send their own state employees home. they had to act on their own because there was no guidance

from the department of labor, no guidance from the department of education and they did so and we're seeing in those cases much better outcomes and at least starting to get ahead of it as opposed to other places where they're still a burgeoning problem. >> you know, charlie, it's a good point and i understand the theory behind county by county, state by state, decisionmaking. but here's where it falls apart for me if you take the post-9/11 period where we had chatter, intel, we were connecting the dots between the cia and the fbi and you could pass those threads to a rudy giuliani of new york, if the marathon was a target, i think that's one of the pieces of intel that came out. the difference here is, my 8-year-old knows that social distancing is the only way to protect ourselves. the virus is here now. it's in the community spread

phase now. you need one sick person in the grocery store or in a train station to infect a pocket of people that go home and infect their home. we're beyond the point where region by region approaches seem effective but donald trump still seems to be treating -- you talked about cuomo hitting paydirt, sending desantis whatever he wants, still not ordering the other 20 states who haven't locked down their states to do so why is there still a piecemeal approach. >> this comes down to leadership. this is the real test of leadership. you saw leadership on the part of so many of those governors that took high-risk decisions to shut down the economies of their sta states. donald trump, despite to take credit for all of this has been unwilling to show that kind of leadership. he's been unwilling to do that. look, i mean, i'm glad he's made this pivot over the last couple

of days but i do think it's important to remember for how many weeks and how many months he was send out the signal don't take this just seriously. he was encouraging the voices that said this was a hoax or overhyped by the media. as a result of that -- your point about the community health is crucial -- there are still so many individuals and businesses and local governments, local officials who take that earlier signal and because of the lack of leadership from donald trump has been slow to take the steps they need to take, if we have a patchwork of responses, some businesses that take this seriously and others, we won't get a handle on this. the result will be catastrophic. it comes back to the leadership that was ceded to the state

governments. >> this whole notion, that donald trump's polls numbers are going up. when people if are in crisis, they want to root for the president but the evidence is clear, there's the loss month, still no testing, petty politics being played with the governor of the biggest hotspot i think in the world now, new york, why do they think this is a political winner for them. >> i don't know. i think the difference between this and other things that the president has emerged from without the support of his base waning at all, things like the impeachment inquiry, is that everybody now is paying very close attention to this because this is affecting every american. every american is at home. paying close attention to this. . i'm hearing from listeners and from folks across the country u

paying attention to who's doing what. they're help with their local and state officials and how they're reacting. they're happy with their members of congress and they understand what they're doing is different than what's coming from the administration. recent polls are showing it hasn't hurt the president among his base. what that teaches us that base is in inelastic and they'll stick with them. but a lot of other consequences come election day for sure. >> kim, atkins, charlie sykes, thank you. after the break, looking for leadership in the time of trump. turning their governors and lawmakers for guy dance, one of them senator kamala harris joins us next. whose tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. don't get mad,

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the problem is some people what you give is never enough. i got him shipts, hospitals a lot of things that he never

thought -- he hit paydirt and i have been very generous on ventilators. >> hitting paydirt is certainly one way to look at the situation. donald trump me-centric response is large reason why so many people are now looking to their state officials for information, for guidance, for leadership. just in california, where governor gavin newsom's early aggressive social distancing seemed to have a very positive effect. they have a tenth of what the state of new york is dealing in cases. joining us now from capitol hill, california senator, former democratic presidential candidate, kamala harris, how are you doing and how is your state. >> good. my state -- anicolle, i was in n hours long conference call with the mayors of cities over

300,000-person population, listen, you said it. starting with the mayor of san francisco to stay at home to gavin newsom who's provided leadership. the vac sum of leadership here in washington, d.c., has shifted leadership to our mayors and our county officials and our governors and in california i say perhaps with a bit of a boastful pride they're doing an extraordinary job. but there's a real crisis. i'm talking to the mayors today. they're at wits' ends, when are they going to get tests? mayor eric garcetti has a field hospital but he needs more. he's getting hospital beds but he needs more hospital beds but equally important he needs medical health professionals who

can actually work on those hospital beds, the crisis is facing everyone around the country and california is no exception. but i'm proud of the leadership that folks there are providing but they need more leadership from washington, d.c. >> because california has done this social distancing piece really well and my whole family is in california, they've been hunkered down, they've been home longer than i have, what's the conversation around what happens next? how do you contemplate ending that, how do you send streeters back to school, knowing whether they have the antibodies or positive or negative -- how do you begin the process or begin the conversation of opening the state back up without tests. >> so, first of all, we need president who takes seriously the tools at his disposal including the defense production act. donald trump delayed initiated it. only for a couple of

corporations around ventilation. it requires time to produce the goods that people need to use on the street such as what california needs. he need to use the defense production act to also then require that masks and testing are actually being produced. he has yet to do that. let's look at what the last bill did, a $2 trillion bill, it met the moment in terms of urgency it was sorely inadequate in meeting needs. the president who has the ability to reopen enrollment so people who have lost their jobs, those 3.3 million people around the country who are also learning their health insurance will be able to take advantage of the open enrollment. yet the president of the united states and attorney general are in court to still fight against the affordable care act which will meet the moment in terms of

this public health crisis. to say that i.c.e. should not be engaged in enforcement in areas of necessity like public health facilities and grocery stores, let's meet the needs of the moment and understanding that 3 million children in america don't have access to internet. while schools have closed down, children aren't receiving the benefit of an education. if a child misses up to 10% of a school year that's almost -- we can almost not make that time up. so these are the moments that requires a president to understand the ability that he or she has to meet the crisis at the moment and frankly, i find this president has been inadequate. >> you know, he got a lot of credit last night for kind of level wgs the public about the potential for 100,000 to 240,000

deaths in the country. but there's still a debate in our business about whether we should be carrying these briefings at all, what's your take at on that? >> i mean, listen, real leadership means that in a moment of crisis you have the courage to speak truth and then act based on truth which requires embrace of facts and science. it's tragic that dr. fauci and others have told us in the last 24 hours that we're looking at the possibility of 100,000 to 250,000 lives being lost in a large part that could have been preventable if we acted sooner and the briefings are helpful only when we have dr. fauci speaking, frankly, i find that, you know, give him the mic and let the scientists speak, this can't be a moment that's led by people who have a political agenda, we need the scientists, we need the medical health

professionals to lead the way, they should be the only voices leading the discussions about what's needed to meet the moment of this crisis. >> senator kamala harris, i hope we can call on you often, people are scared and yours is a reassuring voice in these stunning times. >> and on that point i just want to remind everyone, social distancing is important. not even emotional distancing. let's remember that this is a moment where we have people who are have to be isolated but we want to make sure that people aren't emotionally isolated. let's reach out to our single friends and our neighbors, people who are alone, i'm not texting as much, i'm picking up the phone and calling people more. you know, the mental health -- >> we know they're home. i'm doing that, too. >> right, and it's so great to hear a voice and listen to that laugh instead of lol, right? >> i know.

>> that's what we need. >> that's such a good point. what else are you doing? >> i'm cooking. i've been watching the "tiger king." . oh my god. i can only watch one episode at a time. it's a little too much. the reason it's so appealing what could be more outrageous than what we were experiencing, well that, right. >> the only thing scarier. >> it is a scary thing. but let's just make sure that we remember in this moment where it's for the public health interests it's important to be alone or isolated but actually what people are going to need to stay healthy and connected that they not be isolated in terms of relationships, let's keep those relationships going. let's work at them. we'll get through this and this is one of those examples we're all in this together.

we're all in this together. >> let's keep having this conversation. thank you so much for spending some time with us. >> take care. >> we're grateful. >> of course. after the break the sacrifice of new york's finest not lost on the people they protect. checking in on the front line heroes, next. when you shop with wayfair,

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[ cheers ]

it's become something of a nightly tradition in new york city at 7:00 p.m. hundreds perhaps thousands of people confined to their apartments uniting in appreciation for the healthcare workers and first responders on the front lines of the crisis by opening their windows and applauding and banging pots and pans, a small gesture for the group of people risking so much. more than 16% of fdny members were out sick yesterday, a quarter of them part of the emergency medical system we're joined by editorial board member, a new yorker, who's been walking her way through the coronavirus pandemic. i read your tweets and it's like a finger in the socket every time i read them the impact the hit that our first responders have taken, our police officers,

our emts worker, take me through the scope of the impact on the health and safety of our first responders. >> yeah, i mean, i think what's going on nicolle, now in a normal situation -- i hate to d this parallel but when you looked at 9/11 they called it the pile when they'd go down there and try to search for bodies, for remains, they would work on that and then they could come home. they could go and grab a cheeseburger and a beer at the end of the shift. i was talking with people at the new york city police department just last week. we were all lamenting we couldn't go and have that moment of sanity. what you're looking at is new york city's first responders. it is 24/7. when you look at getting home, am i going to infect my family? is my family going to infect me? that is a significant concern. this is new york city with a tremendous amount of resources and when you're looking on your screen, a hundred ambulances being sent to new york to augment the largest fire

department in the country. these are kind of extraordinary times and, look. there are little pieces of good gnaws when y news when you look at the police department today 4500 people who had coronavirus came back and made it through. they're back on the job. another 120 or so plus also came back believed to have had it but couldn't get tested. those are good pieces of news in that people that went through this can now come back and help them out. but we are talking about hundreds to a thousand that have been impacted depending upon the fire department or the nypd who we're speaking about that are dealing with this right now and when it comes to the fire department and the emts they're just being soaked with work. record setting calls, medical calls nicolle for the last seven days. >> you know, something that took place after 9/11 and something i've heard some of our medical officials talk about i think during lawrence o'donnell's special the other night was ptsd

among our first responders. are they doing anything to guard against that? we are not near our peak yet. >> i think nicolle the focus right now is having enough man power, making sure there is enough ppe, making sure they're addressing the problem. it is almost like we are at the stage right now where people are too busy to go there. that is my sense from talking to both people at the fdny and the nypd. yes. when you come home you have that moment of, i just took somebody to the hospital that i'm pretty sure is not going to make it. i'm taking somebody to the hospital that we may not have the resources for. we're not there just yet. i was listening to mayor de blasio's briefing and getting a sense of how things are going in the city. we aren't far enough from that point where they have to make tough resource decisions unless the city gets more resources. that is a tough place for first responders who are used to being able to say when i pick you up i'm going to be pretty certain here that i can at least make things somewhat better for you, nicolle. it is something that will weigh on their minds deeply i think.

>> new york city is a city full of innovators and one of our city's innovations is the 7:00 p.m. celebration of our first responders. i have seen it more times than i can remember and it still reduces me to tears every time. are you there for that? what is it like? >> i'm definitely there for that. i'm participating -- i've gotten to know my neighbors in the past few weeks, frankly over the past three years i've lived here. we open the window and can hear the applause and actually the other day i kind of shouted afterward. i said everybody have a good night and people shouted back at me and said, you, too. have a good night. and be safe. it's a sense of camaraderie that we really desperately need right now. and i just want to say this is about the first responders,

certainly, the doctors, the paramedics and emts, the nurses. but it's also about the other really critical workers that we haven't really thought about and the role they play in our lives. the delivery people, who are risking their lives, many of whom are bringing food to our doors and groceries to our doors. the folks staying open to man the grocery stores. and really just kind of sharing an experience in any way that we can. people who live in cities want to be together. they like other people. and it's just a way for us to try and stay connected. >> you know, i'm so glad you brought that back. senator kamala harris just talked about social distancing not meaning emotional distancing. i've gone out and the delivery people don't want you anywhere near them but i've gone out and introduced myself to my post people, my u.p.s. men and women, fedex men and women because

their arivals are the highlight of my day. it's when toner comes, paper towel comes. but just talk about these unexpected opportunities for connection. i thaink that's really importan. >> sure. i'll be honest and say i have made a very special connection with my local wine merchant. i've gotten to know him by name. and he has, you know, a great bottle for me the other day. they're doing contact list payment now. they're doing contactless payment now but we've become very friendly. i've gotten to know the manager at the pharmacy, certainly, and neighbors and their dogs who i hadn't met before. and also, you know, there are other city workers. new york city is massive, biggest city in the country, right, but there are other critical city workers who man the subways and the buses and the sanitation department trucks who are putting their lives at risk right now as well as

journalists. i'm not on the streets in the same way i used to be when i was a younger reporter, but i have colleagues going to hospitals and telling stories that need to be told. beat reporters. all of these people are critical and essential to new york and i've had quite a few friends who either left the city, which is totally fine, very scary time, but they'll say to me, you know, are you sure you want to stay? and, i mean, people are not going to leave their city. so this is home. it's a scary time. but even though we can't be together we are in it together. and the hope is that we can really try and find ways to use this as an opportunity not just to come together but to as senator harris said earlier really think about ways moving forward to better support people. paid sick leave is a big thing. also, the city's emts and paramedics are already under staffed. there are 4,100 of them.

they were under staffed before this crisis. so that is something to consider as well. so hopefully we're learning lessons. >> tom and mara, this is one of my favorite koerconversations oe hour. thank you both so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> thank you. >> thanks to all of you at home for letting us into your homes during these extraordinary times. that does it for our hour. our coverage continues with chuck todd and the white house coronavirus briefing right after a quick break. you've got it all. all this grass. all this mulch. all these projects to do.

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welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily" and good evening i am chuck todd continuing msnbc's breaking news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. we are of course standing by for today's coronavirus task force briefing at the white house which comes as this administration is dealing with one of the greatest government failures of our life times. it was just a little over a month ago that the president