we've always believed in the power of working together. that's why, when every connection counts... you can count on us. 21,000 people have now been declared recovered in italy's fight against covid-19. what can we learn about what's going on on the other side of this deadly virus?

before the pandemic, 37 million americans struggled with hunger. now, with unemployment on the rise, so are the number of people dealing with food insecurity. and a third way technology, it could be the solution to flattening the curve and ending social distancing, but at what cost? "velshi" starts now. good morning, i'm ali velshi. here are the facts. the total numbers of confirmed cases of covid-19 across the globe now more than 1.2 million, roughly 66,000 people have died. the coronavirus only arrived in the united states in mid january. now there are almost 310,000 confirmed cases of covid-19 here in the u.s. 8,405 people have died. new york continues to be extraordinarily hard hit, reporting 630 deaths and nearly 11,000 new cases in just one day.

in total, 3,565 people have died in new york and more than 4,000 remain in intensive care. in a show of support and generosity, oregon is sending 140 ventilators to new york. it comes just in time as the state only has days left before running out. in addition, an army of volunteer health workers have descended upon new york city to help. >> in terms of staffing, we have 85,000 volunteers, 22,000 out of state volunteers. how amazing is that? 85,000 volunteers. i'm also signing an executive order to allow medical students who are slated to graduate to begin practicing. we need doctors, we need nurses. >> in new york city, there are 69,606 confirmed cases of covid-19. joining me now, nbc news correspondent kathy park reporting live from new york city's jacob javits convention

center which has been converted into a hospital. kathy, for people in new york, everybody knows the jacob javits center. it takes up probably a few square miles on the west side of manhattan. for people who don't know it, it is cavernous. it is huge. it is probably the biggest facility in all of new york city and it was initially set up to house non-covid-19 patients but because of the high number of cases it's been converted into a makeshift coronavirus hospital. tell me what's happened inside that place behind you. >> reporter: ali, good morning to you. that is right, this is a massive convention center, 2 million square feet which has been temporarily transformed into this emergency field hospital. originally the idea was to treat these non-covid patients with 1,000 beds to relieve some of the stress on nearby hospitals and take some of the emergencies not related to the coronavirus,

but after growing criticism and the fact that this space was sitting pretty much empty, governor cuomo reached out to president trump, asked for a change in plans and got the okay from the federal government. so now, as of friday night, they have been taking on these coronavirus patients. right now we are still waiting to get a number as to how many patients are being treated inside but we do know that the space has now been expanded to 2,500 beds. the u.s. army is taking the lead on this as far as the operations go. we have seen military members going in and out of this facility all morning long, and they will continue to do so for the indefinite future. but ali, you have to really give the state some credit for mobilizing so quickly, getting the resources in place to put something like this together in just a matter of days, so a lot of other cities throughout the country are looking at the javits center as the possibly

model as they brace for resurging cases in their respective communities. we have heard andrew cuomo talking about the a pepexapex, k surge in cases and every day that number seems to shift but as of yesterday he said that time frame will look like that week time frame, seven days potentially, but it's always a moving target because the data continues to change. what i thought was really interesting, ali, yesterday he said that if the apex were to hit the state today, the state would not be prepared. mayor bill de blasio of new york city also says that the city still needs 45,000 extra health care workers to get them through april and may, but i will leave you with some good news though. 85,000 medical personnel have volunteered here in new york with this ongoing pandemic. 22,000 are from out of state. so a bit of good news there. ali? >> that's an amazing piece of

good news, kathy. it's not one of those things where, hey, here's a little silver lining. those are the moments where we start to believe that humanity can overcome these things. there are such heros in this country. those 86,000, every one of these front line workers. kat kathy, you're looking on the street of manhattan where i am as well and you see the people who have to be there, who are delivering things, providing services, the police, the emergency workers. it is truly amazing that in our worst moments the best of us come out. kathy, please stay safe out there. use that mask. kathy park reporting live from new york city's jacob javits convention center. the trump administration's policy of not stepping up and letting states fend for themselves continues to have disastrous effects for those in desperate need of life-saving supplies. >> so you have 50 states competing to buy the same item. we all wind up bidding up each other and competing against each

other where you now literally will have a company call you up and say, well california just outbid you. it's like being on ebay with 50 other states bidding on a ventilator. and then fema gets involved and fema starts bidding. and now fema is bidding on top of the 50. so fema is driving up the price. what sense does this make? >> we should not be competing on the marketplace for tests and gowns and masks in this difficult, difficult time. we don't have the power or the resources to compete with new york city. we can't. if new york buys a mask for $7, we can't buy a mask for $8 or $9. we can't do that. it means that we go out. >> joining me now, activist and contributor for usa today, sally

cohn. she's the author of "the opposite of hate." and nbc medical contributor dr. natalie azar. natalie, thanks again for joining us. governor cuomo said we're going to have this peak within seven days and they put up graphics when he does his press conference and it showed that we're sort of close to the top of the mountain on his peak, but he said two interesting things that kathy park just mentioned. he said on one hand i want to be on the other side of the peak. on the other hand, i'm glad that we're not there because we're not yet prepared for it. so what does he hope happens within the next few days as new york hits its peak that we don't already have now? >> ali, i think there's two parts to this puzzle. one is the equipment part and the peart art is staffing. as our colleague, dr. gupta, mentioned yesterday how important it is to have folks who are trained intensivists

working on the front lines. as we know, we have had folks reassigned from other divisions in the hospital from outpatient practices just to supplant and support the staff that's been taken away to take care of covid patients. so in addition to the ppe and the ventilators, which fingers crossed, will be adequately supplied, it's also the staffing issue. governor cuomo made clear of how appreciative he was of all the folks who stepped up to volunteer. those people are in the process of being vetted. licensing needs to be checked. a lot of things need to be cross-checked before those people can come into the new york city hospitals to help out. but it is certainly an overwhelming show of support that i'm sure all new yorkers including myself do appreciate. >> we're very, very grateful for that. sally cohn, one of the things that happens in new york city and a lot of major cities is if things get delivered all the time, people ordering food, groceri groceri

groceries. there are no restaurants open, there are no bars open. they're open but for takeout in some cases, and that is affecting a massive segment of the population that works and gets paid cash or earns tips. that becomes very hard for them to claim that on unemployment. the inequalities that we were already dealing with are going to become more serious. >> that's right. you know, listen, i love that everyone loves andrew cuomo right now and it's a fantastic thing that he is stepping up in this moment and obviously it is in contrast to the lack of leadership and consistent leadership we're seeing at the federal level, but it is important to note that in new york state restaurant workers are paid a sub-minimum wage. in 43 states around the country, restaurant workers and other tipped workers are legally allowed under a federal law to be paid a sub-minimum wage.

the sub-minimum wage is $2.13 an hour for tipped workers. what that means, among other things, is that, a, you're relying on tips for your income, most of your income. so when tips dry up, obviously you're really screwed. but also it means you don't have the kind of steady income and reserve that you would rely on in this moment. in particular, the problem is if you even qualify for unemployment, the basis for your unemployment is $2.13 an hour. so it is a spiraling problem. a lot of people are hurting in this moment. we know 10 million people have lost their jobs but it's particularly hard for low wage workers. >> dr. natalie, let me ask you about something that we discussed yesterday. the president continues to talk -- i just keep asking this question so i say it right. hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, i want our viewers to sort of understand what is the clarity on this thing because despite the fact that dr. fauci

says this is not an fda approved treatment for coronavirus, the president continues almost every day in his press conference to tout it. what's going on here? >> so ali, this all stems from -- and this is a very interesting and important topic and i want everyone to understand where this is coming from. in a dish, hydroxychloroquine was shown to inhibit the virus' entry into a cell and inhibit the replication of the virus once it's there. it also has what's called immune modulartory effects. it is a hypothetically exception wall treatment for something like this. so then we moved to the small studies that we had out of china and france, two of which were neutral, the latest of which showed some encouraging response that there seems to be some

diminishing. this is not a large study and in dr. fouch's words it was not robust enough to draw a conclusion that the medicine is effective in the treatment of covid-19. currently there are multiple clinical trials under way to evaluate just that. as i pointed out last night and which i think barears repeating the fallout is that there was a rush to prescribe it for people. there was even some suggestion that folks were hoarding it, and that was taking away the supply from people who need it desperately and who need it the most which are lupus patients and rheumatoid arthritis patients. i'll add as a rheumatologist, that particularly in lupus patients, it is life sustaining, disease modifying, and without hydroxychloroquine, lupus patients have a potential to really, really have some bad outcomes. so it's incredibly important and, again, we have to just sort

of really rely on the scientific method here. all of us who are watching this story closely want the medicine to work. those of us who have experience with the medicine understand that it has some potential adverse effects that do need to be monitored for but in the short term all of us would agree that it is a very reasonably safe medicine to use in these patients. >> natalie, thank you. it's a complicated issue. i continue to ask you about it and i don't mean to sound like a broken record but it's really actually important that we know what this medication is, who it's for and that we don't hoard a medication that we don't know works for something when other people who actually need that medication do need it and might face supply issues. dr. natalie azar, thank you as always. sally cohn, stick around. you'll be back with us shortly. with 10 million americans unemployed, many people don't know where their next meal is coming from. this is a line for a food bank in pittsburgh last week. look at that. it was so long that it does

rupted traffic. how pantries are handling the increased need for food. that's up next. still fresh... ♪ unstopables in-wash scent booster ♪ downy unstopables

the coronavirus is having a dramatic effect on economies of large and small cities. in philadelphia thousands of workers have been laid off, hotels have suspended

operations, restaurants have closed, others try to survive on a takeout only basis. maura, i used to spend every weekend in pennsylvania, except now i'm on lockdown in my place in new york so i haven't been to the city that i love so much. what's going on there? >> here in the city of brotherly love, ali, there's a quite concerning scene behind me here in love park. we're just across the street from city hall but it turns out there's an outdoor church service here and meal program happening just behind me, but a little bit further from that is the art museum, those famous rocky steps that everybody knows a few blocks away is independence hall, the convention center. these industries, tourism and hospitality industries that philadelphia really runs on, the hospitality industry employs 77,000 people here in philadelphia and sees about 45 million visitors a year, compared to vegas seeing 42

million visitors a year. this is a tourist heavy city and the people that work in hotels which are shut down, the restaurants which are shut down, they can't work from home so unfortunately a lot of them are losing their jobs, ali. i spoke with a man yesterday at the italian market. he had to close down his flagship restaurant. luckily he has a shop still in the works. he spoke to me about what it feels like to see his local business owners around him and his workers suffering during this time. here's what he had to say. >> you know, when they're talking about in this uncertain era, the stress levels go up. i was never really the kind of person that took on a whole lot of stress or felt a lot of stress, but you know, i can certainly see now i get a little bit nervous. >> reporter: with this industry on hold, a lot of business owners feeling the same way. he had about 100 workers that he

had to find other jobs for. some are working sanitizing his tee shot but we had to close down his catering business and several other local businesses around the area tell me that right now it's very frustrating because they don't know when they can get back to business. they can't serve the customers that they love safely and of course this comes with the added headache of the confusion around these small business loans that are supposed to come under the coronavirus relief package. ali? >> very confusing few days about the coronavirus business relief package. got off to a very rocky start. if you're a small business and listening to this, go to nbc. we have great coverage about what's going on with those loans and how you get them to keep your business going and your staff paid. thank you, maura. the coronavirus pandemic is creating economic hardships for many people around the country. the recent surge in jobless claims is forcing many to turn to food banks in order to get their next meal. listen to this.

>> if there's one image that can clearly show us how this is becoming an economic crisis, it's this here. the pittsburgh gazeltte capture hundreds of cars waiting for food. some waited five hours as they distributed emergency supplies to 1500 families and then they ran out. >> reporter: a new reality for those in need. rick paulson is the volunteer coordinator for the joined hands food pantry. he says they've been holding the food pantry for 15 years but have never seen it like this. >> someone said it's like out of a 1950s movie or a bad dream. >> reporter: on this day, 7200 pounds of food was given away from the chicago food depository and it went fast. >> we had so many calls from people and we know they're first-time people because they were asking where the location was. if you looked at the scene in black and white you would think you were back in the 1920s

during the great depression. the line stretches down that street in that direction and it comes back in this direction as well. they say the line is getting longer and longer each day that this coronavirus crisis drags on. this has always been a destination for the city's poor and homeless but now they're seeing a lot of new faces in the crowd, they say. people who have lost their jobs, people who are not getting paid, people who are here at a food pantry for the first time. >> that number that we've been looking for just crossed and you'll forgive me if my jaw is on the ground. u.s. weekly jobless claims total 6.6 million versus 3.1 million expected, 6.6 million unemployment claims were made in this country last week. >> what we've seen through this covid-19 crisis is that there are so many more people looking for food assistance right now. it is folks maybe from the service industry, from the hospitality industry and they're furloughed or out of work

potentially for the first time. for example, our mobile pantry site, usually we have about 300 households that come, and with these distributions that we've had in the last few weeks we've upwards of 1,000 come. >> a panel of experts is going to join me to talk about poverty and how we can use benefits like snap more broadly. you're watching "velshi" on msnbc.

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a second coronavirus relief package could be on its way to americans in need by the end of the month. in a letter to congressional democrats over the weekend, speaker nancy pelosi announced that the next round of federal funds must go further in assisting small businesses including farmers, extending and strengthening unemployment benefits and giving families additional direct payments. this comes as the number of unemployment claims since the pandemic began skyrocketed to

nearly 10 million cumulatively this week. that number is going to continue to rise as more communities are faced with the economic impact. i want to bring in a panel to discuss this further, reverend william barber, co-chairman of the poor people's campaign, dorothy roberts, professor of law at the university of pennsylvania law school, activist and usa today contributor sally cohn is back with us. reverend barber, you have been in charge of the poor people's campaign, which is something that does not get a whole lot of mainstream coverage from people, but suddenly the movement has come to your door. the argument you have been making about 40 million people who are food insecure, 500,000 people who sleep on the street every night, the millions of children who get their meals at school, suddenly this is a stark reality. you think that we haven't gone

enough to address this but at least it's getting people's attention now. >> it has to because a pandemic actually spreads through the fissures of our society, so when you pass bills that focus on corporations and treat corporations like people and people like things and you leave millions p aand millions of peo without any relief, you're extending the way that the virus can spread through the society and you're extending the economic downturn. our numbers are still wrong. it's 140 million people who are poor and low wealth, 43% of the nation. it's way more than 500,000 who are homeless or at the verge of homelessness. we continue to hear politicians say we're going to pass bills for small businesses. you have to say the poor. you have to say the low wealth. you have to deal with all of these things that are being left out, renters that were owed three months of rent after they

get a brief ability not to pay in a few months, people who can still have their water shut off. there's a scripture that jesus quoted, he said a nation will be judged by how they therese the least of these. that means if you don't take care of the poor and low wealth, you're actually putting the rest of the population at risk as well. that's something we need to hear very clearly. >> dorothy, when i think back to the last financial crisis and of course this is very different than that but if you went into the last financial crisis with some wealth, with assets, with good credit and if you kept your job, you came out a lot better. so it took us three and a half, four years to largely recover unemployment-wise and in terms of wages, but for those who went in okay, they came out much better and wealth inequity was increased. there doesn't seem to be anything in our phase three,

this last $2 trillion bill that went through, that fundamentally addresses that issue. it's a status quo bill. >> that's exactly right. i think what reverend barber is saying and what many of us are saying is that these deep inequalities existed prior to the coronavirus pandemic and the relief package and the bailouts haven't changed fundamentally those inequalitieinequalities, going to continue after the virus. i think we have to take this as an opportunity to see what is being rebuilt so plainly now, that there are these deep inequalities that make people homeless, that make people unemployed, that make people be in a situation where they have no health care. that's plain in the lines in the food banks now. it's plain before us but we can't look at it as if how do we

keep the status quo by helping those who are most privileged. it has to be how do we fundamentally change these structures and systems and policies that created the inequality in the first place so that we don't end up in the exact same situation when the next pandemic hits. >> sally, one of the things people say to us when we talk about these things, i had a conversation in the last hour with gina mccarthy, former head of the epa. we were talking about the structural changes that need to happen, whether it's medicare for all or at least some form of universal health care that every other developed country in the world has and they say don't take advantage of these moments to go for structural change. it's the same conversation i have when i cover hurricanes and i talk about climate change and they say this isn't the time for it, but in fact, sally, this is exactly the time for it because we are doing really hard things and we're paying a lot of money to do those things. >> well, and to your point, the

vast majority of the bailout of taxpayer money that bailed out big corporations in the last economic recession actually exacerbated and expended inequality and most of those gains went to ceos and shareholders and not to workers. there was a piece "the wreckage of a train that's been careening down the tracks. a lot of people are talking about how corona may be the virus but capitalism as we've been practicing it is not the only way to do it but where we put the interests of the wealthy and big corporations over workers, people and communities and our health, that is the pandemic. this isn't opportunistic. this is survival. if we as a people want to survive and not just survive,

god forbid thrive, we have to address the fundamental inequalities that this virus is revealing. >> reverend dr. barber, i'm an economics guy. i watch cnbc sometimes and one thing i'm hearing is that if we change our tax system to tax the wealthy more which is what a lot of people who talk about income inequality say we have to do, then these billionaires -- and they have gone on tv and said you know how much we give to hospitals, to charity, all that would actually disappear. i'm not sure that's the way we should be thinking about society, that we should have people -- we have to sustain the wealthy with low tax rates so that they can give us the charity so that poor people can go to hospitals. >> that's a ridiculous argument. it's the same arguments that were used in the great depression. those are old arguments that are refurbished in this town. we put a budget together that actually showed if you do the

things we're talking about, it actually benefits society. you pay people a living wage, you pump more money into society. if everybody has health care, healthier workers produce more. and we have the money and if we look at our bloated defense budget that we have all of those billions of dollars that we really don't need in that budget, you can still protect the country and could redirect that money into social uplift. it makes no sense that we're putting 53 cents into every discretionary dollar into defense and less than 16 cents into health care and infrastructure and education. we are at a point where we must look at the cost of inequality, the price of inequality as joseph stickily talked about in his book. the reality is, going back to this point, if you do not make sure everybody has health care, especially in a pandemic, and living wages and sick leave, and if you pass bills that leave out millions of people, you put everybody at risk, everybody at risk. the virus spreads through the breakages in society. it's a matter of physical death

and economic death. lastly, ali, there's a scripture that used to talk about gay people and i hate it about sod am and ga mora. it says the city failed because it did not care for the poor and the needy. let the white evangelicalists check that out and maybe talk to trump. the city failed because it refused to take care of the poor and needy. you cannot leave them alone and think all of us are going to live. everybody has a right to live. if they don't, we don't. >> dorothy, the thing i enjoy about dr. barber, he's a man of the cloth but he actually speaks in economic terms. this concept of fixing inequality should be appealing to conservatives and liberals and people who like markets entirely because your return on your investment is better if everybody's got health care, it is better if you're not incarcerating as many people, it is better if people aren't on

unemployment and they're making money and paying taxes. it shouldn't be an idealogical argument at this point. >> that's true, although i would like to emphasize that we should have a society that is more humane and equal because human beings are equal and we should care equally about all human beings. it is unjust and inhumane to have society structured the way ours is so that you have so many wealthy people who own so much of the wealth and then so many poor people, far more poor people. that income gap and wealth gap is abominable. it's abominable that we treat our problems in this society by locking people up in cages. so i agree that we would have a healthier society -- there's studies that show this. the healthiest societies, the happiest societies for everyone are more equal societies.

that is absolutely true, and i also believe that we would have more wealth in the nation to distribute among everyone more equally if there weren't a slice of society that's taking up so much of the wealth. that's true as well. we would have a better society in all these ways, healthier, happier, more just if we change the racial capitalist system that we in this society rely on and the incarceration system we rely on to meet people's needs and instead shift to what we're seeing we need. we need more income distribution. we need universal health care. we need to end homelessness. all of these things that now cities and states and even the federal government are forcing to fix temporarily in a paltry manner.

why not just see that a radical change would benefit everybody. so i end up where reverend barber and you end up. i would just emphasize that it's not just for economic reasons, that actually being more socially just and humane has an economic payoff for everybody. >> thank you to three of you, dr. william barber, co-chair of the poor people's campaign, dorothy roberts at the university of pennsylvania law school, and sally cohn, activist and contributor to usa today. important conversations. we will continue to have them. we are a country that relies heavily on the men and women whom we know as essential workers. coming up next i'm going to talk to a home health nurse about her critical role in this crisis. you are watching "velshi" on msnbc. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate

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stay-at-home orders, what would you advise them to do? >> well, i would advise them to follow our 30 days to slow the spread guidelines. i ran a state department of health. i've talked to many of these governors and here's what i say to them. here's what i would say to them right now. the next week is going to be our pearl harbor moment. it's going to be our 9/11 moment. it's going to be the hardest moment for many americans in their entire lives, and we really need to understand that if we want to flatten that curve and get through to the other side, everyone needs to do their part. >> it's a new warning this morning from the u.s. surgeon general, jerome adams. many of us like myself are fortunate enough to shelter at home to protect ourselves but there are millions who can't take that critical action. essential workers risk their lives all the time to protect the rest of us. joining me now is someone who is on the front lines, who is protecting the most vulnerable in this society, sher reen adderley is a home health aid.

she works for a client who is a retired doctor who has parkin n parkinson's and dementia. he fortunately does not have any coronavirus symptoms but there's no circumstance under which your client with whom you have worked for ten years can do without you for a day. >> no, he can't. >> tell me about what your routine is with him. >> the normal routine is, as of now, when i go home -- sorry, when i get to work, is basically check his blood pressure, check his oxygen levels, check him out to make sure he's okay, and basically try to keep him as safe as i possibly can. >> but he's not -- he needs certain things outside the home. he needs blood work and things like that that he can't get right now and you can't take him for. >> no, i can't do it. everything is stay at home. basically, even with grocery shopping, everything has to be

ordered online and they have to send it in. i'm not allowed to basically go downstairs. they drop everything off. he lives in a condo so everything is dropped off downstairs. someone brings it up to the door. we wipe the door down. we leave the stuff outside. we're basically cleaning all the time. >> sherene, you are the unknown face of this crisis, and we are grateful for people like you who are taking care of those of us who need the help to stay home, a home health care aid. thank you for joining us. please stay safe. we're thinking about you and praying for your and for your client. it's important to remember that we are all in this together so i've asked you to send us your stories, pictures and videos about how coronavirus is affecting your life. lori ann petros says, thank you for your life-saving coverage. knowledge helps people transition from fear to concern

and adapt their daily habits to protect themselves and others. we have spent two weeks at home with only a trip to the grocery store for basics and medications, post office, and gas station. she adds, my husband's vacation happened to occur at this point. he goes back on tuesday, april 7, as he is considered essential with fedex. check this out, even the moose are bored in alaska. lori says this big guy visits regularly, giving her family some much needed entertainment. thank you for watching, lori, and stay safe. please send me your stories, your videos, your pictures to my story @velshi.com. we'll have more after this break. alike and customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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there is a desperate need for more innovative ways to contain coronavirus. and one of the main issues is tracking down those who have crossed paths with a newly diagnosed patient, because of

the virus' accelerating spread. that's a problem that researchers in the united states and europe are hoping to solve with common technology. they're scrambling to build apps that alert users when they have come into contact with someone with coronavirus. now students at duke university say they have developed such an app. they say it is called contain it, it allows anyone who tested positive to immediately notify those they have been in contact with by using the cell phone's location data. we'll have more information on those types of technologies as they become available. that does it for me for this hour. join me tonight on msnbc for an incredible documentary from our partner sky news in london. sky news special correspondent stuart ramsey takes a compelling look at the devastating impact of the coronavirus on the people in the hardest hit city in the hardest hit country in the world, bergamot, italy. we'll take you inside intensive

care units, we'll hear the critical warning that the front lines there want the rest of the world to heed. that's tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. you won't want to miss that. coming up next, minnesota senator tina smith joins my friend joy reed on "am joy" after the break.

new york needed the help. it was really, really clear. we have all been seeing the photos over the last week. oregon is in a position to help out. we don't need the ventilators right now. we might at some future moment. i'm hoping when we have needs in the future, other states will be willing to help out. states are truly on the front

lines of this horrible pandemic. we have already been working together. it doesn't matter if you're a governor of a blue state or a governor of a red state, we all have the same needs. >> good morning. and welcome to "am joy." after receiving a big up from the governor of new york, thanking her state, oregon governor kate brown joined me yesterday evening to discuss her state's decision to receive 140 ventilators to new york, which could run out of the needed life saving equipment in the coming days. it is a bright spot of interstate cooperation at a time when states are more often competing to get supplies. thanks in part to an historical failure of leadership from the trump administration, which has hesitated to marshal federal resources. overnight, the number of cases in the u.s. jumped to nearly 310,000, with more than 8400 people dead. new york accounts for more than a third of the country's cases and deaths.

and in new york city, we're now approaching the level of death we saw during the 9/11 attacks, that started at the world trade center. when it was all over, 2,754 people had been killed. as hard as these numbers are to fathom, we're seeing the signs of collaboration at the state level. here is what new york governor andrew cuomo said yesterday when he announced governor kate brown's gift. >> we're all in the same battle here. and the battle is stopping the spread of the virus, right? state of oregon has lent us 140 ventilators. it was kind. it was smart. stop the virus here, it is better for the state of oregon, better for the nation. their curve comes after ours. we will return their 140 ventilators and there has never been a discussion, but frankly i

know