shall hey there, i'm joshua johnson at msnbc world headquarters in new york. it's good to be with you tonight as we continue our coronavirus coverage with another look across america. by our count, there are now more than 330,000 confirmed cases of covid-19, more than 9500 people have died in communities of all sizes. there is hardly anywhere that's not responding in some way to the outbreak. in massachusetts, all prisons are on lockdown after a third inmate died from covid-19. according to the omaha world herald, a massive meatpacking plant is still in operation after ten workers there tested positive. and the u.s. surgeon general said today that this week is going to be the hardest and saddest of most americans' lives. now, before we look across

america, we begin across the pond with some big developments in the u.k. british prime minister boris johnson is in the hospital tonight for testing. his symptoms of coronavirus have persisted more than a week after he tested positive. also today queen elizabeth ii gave a rare and historic speech urging her nation to pull together. nbc's cal perry joins us now from london. cal, let's start with borns. what's the latest on the prime minister? >> reporter: well, we had a very short press release from his office that said this was a precautionary measure. the symptom that they cited was this persistent fever. they said a number of symptoms had continued, this now ten days after he had tested positive for the virus. his office saying that doctors basically wanted to see him face to face. that they were going to run some routine tests. now, the question, of course, on many people's minds are what kind of tests are they run at the hospital they couldn't run at his office.

it has certainly raised concerns about the prime minister's health. we will have a briefing in the morning at 9:00, the daily cobra briefing. that will be led now by the foreign minister dominic raab who will take that task at hand. the government quick to state the prime minister is still running the nation and he is still in charge of the fight against the virus, but he is in hospital at least for one night, joshua. >> and it's also worth noting that there is, unlike in the u.s. constitution, there is no hard fast set of rules in terms of what happens if the prime minister is incapacitated. like we have the 20th and 25th amendments that spell it out very clearly. that's not quite as clearly spelled out in the u.k. before i let you go, cal, what's the reaction been like to the queen's speech today? >> reporter: well, i mean, look, you know, we use the word unprecedented over and over again. but on a night in which the prime minister is admitted to hospital, we hear from the queen, this is only the fifth time she has done this in her 68-year reign if you count

outside the times she's addressed the nation in that annual christmas address. she hearkened back to the difficult times in the past that this country has been to, specifically in world war ii. i think that's formulating so much of the government's response. it was a short speech. it was to the point. and it was incredibly unifying. it was frankly refreshing to hear a leader, public figure give such straightforward, not only advice, but direction to the nation. it was certainly something i think the united kingdom needed. i think it would have ended on a much higher note had the prime minister just minutes after the queen finished that speech been admitted to the hospital. that is definitely going to have people on edge. so many people still not abiding by the government's wishes they stay inside today. we'll see tomorrow if it was a wake up call the prime minister going to the hospital. if maybe we see more stringent restrictions being put in place in the morning, joshua. >> thank you, cal. that's nbc's cal perry joining us from london. nursing homes are among the

most vulnerable spots in this outbreak. we've been seeing outbreaks at facilities across the country. in new mexico, hundreds of people are being tested after two people died from covid-19. in galveston, county, texas, more than 80 residents and employees tested positive. so how are we doing so far at keeping nursing homes safe? nbc's steve patterson joins us live from los angeles with more on that. now, steve, nbc news is reporting that more than 400 long-term care facilities around the u.s. have residents who are infected. that is up 172% in one week. what are we hearing about mitigating these infections, about just preventing people from getting hurt? >> reporter: joshua, the struggle to manage this wildfire-like spread of covid through these nursing homes really is kind of the closest thing that we have in this crisis to a literal matter of life and death. you know, you mention those 400 care facilities. there are thousands of cases in

those homes. there are hundreds of deaths as this crisis continues. i mean, here in california, we're looking at new cases. there is a new cluster in san diego. there are about 27 people who became infected at a care facility in the bay area. san bernardino had a care facility with 57 people infected. l.a. county as a whole, they're looking at 67 care facilities, upwards of 320 possible cases of the virus there as well. so we aren't seeing the same numbers here like we are in new york, for instance, where it's, you know, estimated one out of every four facilities has an infection, but the spread is here. it's started and it's now continuing as the numbers of infected really across the state as a whole continues to go up as well. so what does mitigation look like? it looks like what it has from the very beginning. it is pure triage. it's basically separating and isolating residents into their rooms, trying to keep them away

from communal spaces. it's locating or scrambling to locate sterile wings of these facilities where they can treat infected patients or people that they may suspect be infected. and it's workers trying to keep themselves from getting infected as well. a number of workers continue to treat these patients come down with the virus themselves. and it's also keeping the outsiders, family members unfortunately, away from the care facilities. people that may be asymptomatic, come in and start to spread the virus through a population that is very high risk as it is. so it's a number of factors, but mainly it is primarily a matter of triage and just working with what they have because they are so limited on ppe. they are so limited on availability to testing. >> right, right. >> and there is worry about as the health care system becomes more stressed, that they will have to take in more infected patients. we've heard stories of care facilities where they're wearing the same n95 mask for a week or

have to use makeshift gowns. so it's an incredibly stressful situation for those care workers who are already under a lot of stress as it is, joshua. >> having to do social distancing in facilities where seniors already deal with a lot of isolation and loneliness. very tough situation. thank you, steve. that's nbc's steve patterson reporting from los angeles. tonight the white house says millions of more pieces of protective equipment are headed to health care workers. they cannot arrive soon enough. many care givers are still desperate for the protective gear to keep them safe. joining us now is dr. roy, an internal medicine physician and nbc medical contributor and dr. charlene babcock, at ascension hospital in detroit. glad to have you both with us. dr. babcock, let me start with you. give us your perspective from the front lines of fighting this pandemic. how are the nurses and doctors and others doing, including in terms of supplies? >> well, first of all, i have to tell you that it's not just the doctors and nurses. i think that we have to put a shout out to everybody that

comes to work in the hospital. it's incredibly challenging to think about the risk you might be taking. we personally at our hospitals still have ppe available. i know that may not be true for all hospitals, but we still have it available. but even with that ppe available, there still is a risk. and not just -- >> i'm sorry, i hate to interrupt you. did i hear you right, did you say that you don't have any personal protective equipment at all? >> no, i'm sorry. i may have misspoke. we have plenty of ppe available right now at our institution. >> that's the problem with hearing you over a web chat. thank you for clarifying that. go ahead. >> it's not just -- ppe is very important, but you still have a risk when you come to work even with ppe. and i tell you the doctors, the nurses, respiratory therapists, transporters, phlebotomists. i can't mention everybody there. it's very important to recognize that these people are coming to work and helping in a very dire

situation and taking a risk on themselves. and quite frankly, the hospital wouldn't be able to work like it does if we didn't have all these heroes, not just doctors and nurses, but all these heroes coming to work. you can see there it's something on our front, our grass as you drive into the hospital to remind us, everybody, it's so important they come and help because the hospital couldn't function it it wasn't for everybody including ems and police and firefighters, too. >> dr. roy, let me ask you about hydroxychloroquine, this medicine that is being tested as a possible treatment for coronavirus. president trump has been touting it during his press conferences. he has said repeatedly, what do you have to lose? this is not approved by the fda to treat covid-19, although doctors theoretically could prescribe it off label. how do you see the use for hydroxychloroquine seeing it's still needed to treat lupus? >> let me drive home a key point dr. babcock made regarding ppes.

there are clearly places that are going to be running out. there are health care workers reusing it for days. and then even with adequate ppe, these health care professionals are really putting themselves at risk with the sheer volume of patients and with the infectivity of this virus. it's a safe medication. it's been around a long time. the medical community and research community is aware of this medication. the key point, though, for the public to understand is that we do not know the efficacy, if any at all, with hydroxychloroquine in patients with covid-19. these are the tests and trials that are being done now. but remember, trials take a long, long time for the results to come out. and as you pointed out quite accurately, hydroxychloroquine is used for patients with known indications such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, malaria. so when people start using these

medications and when doctors and other providers start prescribing it for something that's not approved yet, it's depriving it from other patients who need it. so we need to be really careful. this is not -- in fact, there are no fda approved medications at this time to treat covid-19. >> we should also be clear that lupus is not caused by a virus. lupus is an autoimmune condition. malaria is a parasitic condition. using it on a virus is another frontier in the use of this drug that we really don't have data for yet. dr. babcock, before i have to let you go, there is a report out at politico that i wanted to reference that has to do with states competing against each other for supplies. and also the u.s. competing against other countries. a former u.s. official referred to it as lord of the flies ppe edition. developing countries where covid-19 has yet to fully wreak havoc. politico writes, they are

terrified of being left behind for ppe and other materials because they cannot match the purchasing power of the u.s. and other wealthy countries. dr. babcock, what is the solution here, if you can speak on behalf of other doctors, directly to congress, to the president, what is the biggest thing you'd be asking for? >> the thing i'd be asking for is be more strict about lowering the curve. we right now, we are still seeing people gathering and that doesn't make sense to me. if we can lower the curve by getting more people to do isolation, we would not be putting ourselves in such a dire circumstance. i can't tell you that's going to solve all the problems, but that's something we can do right now and could make a difference and we're not doing it. >> and we should be clear before we let the two of you go that dr. anthony fauci has said wearing some kind of face covering is not a substitute for social distancing. in every place where the rates have gone down, all of them have involved some form of social

distancing. dr. charlene babcock and dr. roy, good talking to you both. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> across america, it's just getting started on msnbc. up next we will head to houston, the city with the world's largest medical center. houston's mayor joins us live next. ot! no no no no no, there's no space there! maybe over here? oven mitts! oven mitts! everything's stuck in the drawers! i'm sorry! oh, jeez. hi. kelly clarkson. try wayfair! oh, ok. it's going to help you, with all of... this! yeah, here you go. thank you! oh, i like that one! [ laugh ] that's a lot of storage! perfect. you're welcome! i love it. how did you do all this? wayfair! speaking of dinner, what're we eating, guys? you're clearly someone who takes care of yourself. so when it comes to screening for colon cancer, don't wait. because when caught early, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers... ...even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer,

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let's continue our look across america. in houston, texas, the state has more than 6800 confirmed cases and 127 known deaths. so far there's been no word of a spike in cases in houston, unlike other cities. but intensive care doctors and nurses painted us a rather sobering picture. the number of confirmed cases, the limb ilted number may be a reflection of limited testing. joining us now from houston is its mayor, sylvester turner. mayor turner, welcome to the program. >> well, thank you. thank you for having me, joshua. good to be with you. >> how is houston doing right now? it has the world's largest medical center. it has a phenomenal array of doctors and nurses and health care providers, but it's dealing

with the same outbreak everyone else is. how is houston right now? >> well, you know, we recognize that this was a crisis and we recognize that the numbers can change dramatically on any given day and any given time. and so we're taking those necessary steps that need to be done right now. we're not waiting for the numbers to shoot up way up into the, you know, several thousands. we have our stay at homework safe order in place and we've been taking some intentional steps since march 5th. so we started closing down conferences and conventions then. the following week we shutdown the largest rodeo in the world. in the following week we stopped our restaurants, our clubs, and all the dining room facilities. and then after that we put the stay at home safe work order in place. we certainly are bracing for the peak of this virus. we're not assuming anything.

we are taking a look at what's happening in cities all across the country. we are being very, very intentional and we are telling people to do whatever we can to stop the virus. >> it's interesting this morning, i happened to be watching tv in new york and we run joel osteen's program. he has preaching to a gigantic arena and this huge stage about the size of rockefeller center. even he is leaning into the message this virus is real even as he's ministering to his congregation. contrast that with "the new york times" with the data. the data may be underestimated. how do you feel about the surveillance of coronavirus in houston, in texas, regardless of whether or not people are heeding the warnings? do we really know what's going on? >> well, let's put it this way. the testing is not nearly as robust as we would like. and what i've said to people in

the city of houston repeatedly, regardless of what the numbers say -- for example, today, we have about 743 positive cases. but what i've said to the people in the city of houston, multiply that by ten. we certainly recognize that there's more of a community spread beyond what the numbers are indicating, and that's in large part because the testing is not nearly as robust. but irrespective of the testing, we can still be doing the same things that others are doing across the country where there are more, substantially more cases. so we still need to stay at home. we still need to engage in social distancing. we still need to wash our hands, use sanitizer, put the masks on, all of those things that people are doing, for example, in new york city or in new orleans. we need to be doing that right here in the city of houston right now. and today, for example, i went around to a number of our churches, faith-based institutions to see whether the

level of activity, and i will tell you with the exception of just one location, all of the other churches were streaming online. they were not meeting. the pews were empty. and people were working with the request we have made. so we are taking it serious, but i would love more testing because it's all about testing, testing, testing. that would give us a much better sense of what's out there. in the absence of robust testing, we are simply going to assume that on any -- at any given moment, our indications could spike up dramatically. but we want to take those necessary steps right now to flatten the curve, to slow the progression. and we have one thing to go, the cases that are coming in will not overrun our health care delivery system. >> very briefly, mr. mayor, before i let you go, you have a very interesting city, wonderful city, but also one that's quite diverse. it has now its first hispanic lead county executive, hidalgo.

also in the state of texas, governor greg abbott has instituted or not instituted different measures than certain cities have. what is the one thing you would like to see most happen now in texas? very briefly before we let you go. what is the one best next step you'd like to see in texas? >> well, we are all on the same team and all of us need to be very intentional about flattening the curve, which means we are all connected. doesn't matter whether republican or democrat, which part of the state you're living in. we are all connected in the state of texas. and so what we do here in houston will impact what happens in dallas as well and austin and san antonio. so if we all work together collectively, be very intentional, we can flatten the curve and texas literally can come out of this sooner than most people -- than we would like. we don't want to drag this on further than it needs to be. let me put this that way. >> houston mayor sylvester turner.

mr. mayor, i look forward to visiting your city soon as soon as this is over. thanks for talking to us. >> thank you, joshua. be safe. >> let's head to kentucky where hospital workers could soon lose their jobs. one of the largest hospital chains will reportedly layoff about 500 employees. that comes just as kentucky could face a wave of new patients in the weeks to come. and some coronavirus testing sites that are popping up in kentucky and across the country are under more scrutiny. nbc's sam brock has the story. >> at 17th and broadway where the alleged covid testing stations have set up once again. >> reporter: in louisville, kentucky, people in full hazmat suits and blow techtive gear operating what's presented as covid-19 testing. >> excuse me? >> are you taking swabs from these folks? >> you have to, ma'am. >> reporter: louisville officials like barbara sexton smith says it is a scam, they are testing without government approval and without taking

nasal samples. how furious are you about all this? >> they may go through 40 or 50 people in a test wearing the same gloves and we've got the photos of them taking off all their stuff, throwing it in the back of a pickup truck and driving off and then the next day, getting up, putting it all on and then going to another location in our community. >> reporter: as victims reveal their heartache the worst thing ever. to even have to go through what i'm going through, on top of it being taken advantage of. >> reporter: a crunch for legitimate gear emerges. holy name hospital had to return a thousand safety masks. >> between the fact they did not have the certification the n95 masks need and we are concerned about the fit, we shipped them back. >> reporter: hospital equipment distributors telling nbc news the search for quality masks bordering on the impossible. >> out of the 300 we vetted so far, we haven't yet found one that's legitimate. >> reporter: federal officials telling people to prepare for a wave of scams as soon as this

week as those already victimized speak out. >> i feel like i've been violated. these people are truly demonic. >> reporter: sam brock, nbc news, miami. >> coming up we'll look at the economic toll of coronavirus. president obama's former deputy secretary of labor joins us in just a moment. t.

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you might put america's big worries around coronavirus into two categories. medical and economic. and those economic concerns are justified, especially in some industries. according to the bureau of labor statistics, the leisure and hospitality industry has been hit hardest by far. and that's no surprise. i mean, just consider how many bars and restaurants are doing take-out and delivery only or hotels have entire floors of empty rooms or how many tourist attractions are closed indefinitely. joining us is chris lu, former

secretary of the obama administration. welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> so what do you think is going to make the difference between bars and hotels and theme parks and such regaining those lost jobs? i'm hoping they're not gone for good. but if they're not gone for good, what's going to make the biggest difference in bringing them back? >> first and foremost, this is a public health crisis and so you can't really fully assess the economic damage until we get past this public health crisis. that might be for the rest of this month, it might be several more months. so what's important right now is to provide a level of financial stability to all unemployed workers. 10 million people have been out of work so far and we think those numbers are going to go straight up as well as the small businesses that have to shutdown. as long as we can provide that financial stability to them, i think we have a better chance of getting out of this when the economy opens back up. this has never been done before. we've never shut off the u.s.

economy like a light switch and tried to turn it back on. i'm concerned when we try to turn it back on, a lot of these businesses aren't going to come back. >> do you think businesses learn to adapt from this? i'm from south florida and i remember after the crazy hurricane seasons we had in the mid 2000s where they literally ran out of names for names, if your reservation got canceled because of a hurricane, you had flexibility in terms of getting refunds and exchanges. do we adapt in case of another coronavirus outbreak? >> it's hard to say. the large companies like airlines are going to have to do some adapting. cruises are going to have to rethink their cancellation policies. when you're talking about mom and pop delis or the dry cleaners or small restaurants, they're already running on such a tiny profit margin right now. on average, a restaurant in this country has about 16 days of a cash buffer. so that's 16 days they can go without having any customers

come in the door. so they really don't have a lot of margin for changing their business practices. and that's what i'm concerned that notwithstanding the loan programs that are in the recent relief bill, many of these companies just might not come back. >> do you think those mom and pop shops like service industry workers, like laundries and so forth are going to be the next big wave of job losses? who do you think is the most vulnerable, next most vulnerable? >> joshua, it's interesting the numbers that came out on friday, two-thirds of the 700,000 jobs lost were in leisure and hospitality. we only saw about 45,000 jobs lost in the retail sector. so that's all the stores that you would normally go to buy things. that seems awfully low given most nonessential businesses in this country are shutdown right now. so i expect those numbers to go up as well. and my greater concern is that the longer the shutdown goes to, the ripple effects start to affect white collar industry, salary workers, professionals

that are in offices. and if that happens, that will have a huge impact on the economy because no matter what the unemployment payments that they receive are, it's not going to come close to meeting their daily expenses. >> just to briefly follow on that, do you think that's partly because retail has already been kind of whipped up on by the rise of amazon and e-commerce? >> yeah, you're 100% right. we've seen over the last couple of years a lot of shopping malls go down. but what is interesting is that big entities like macy's which was doing fairly well has had to layoff several thousand people the last couple weeks. those numbers aren't reflected in friday. what we've seen is the tip of the iceberg in terms of bad economic numbers. >> what would you say to people out of work looking at the stock market, trying not to look at their 401ks, don't look at it now, it will make you cuss.

they're not sure what the markets are going to do next, what would you say to them? >> i would certainly say don't look at your 401(k)s because they'll bounce back. they may not bounce back in the next couple of years but they'll bounce back because the stock market dozen he have toably go up. if you're unemployed try as hard to navigate your unemployment system. i know they're antiquated and sometimes getting glitchy with so many people logging on. but keep sticking to that. if you're a small business, get out there and apply for one of these loans that will allow you to keep as many people on staff as possible. look at your state programs, city programs. there are all kinds of programs that are out there right now. it is really incumbent on workers, businesses to learn what's out there because the government is providing resources. but it's not doing a particularly good job of telling people what those resources are. >> briefly before i let you go, house speaker pelosi said she'd like to see another stimulus bill. what are the prospects for that, and what do you think might be

in it before we let you go? >> i think there needs to be another one. as i said, the most important thing is providing financial stability for people out of work or businesses that are closed. so if this public health crisis goes on for several months, we need to provide another round of stimulus checks, more loans, more unemployment insurance. this is a relief bill and we can't even get the stimulus until we can actually get past the public health crisis. >> chris lu, former deputy of secretary labor in the obama administration, thanks for talking with us. >> thank you. >> coming up he served as a battle field medic in iraq, treated victims in the mass shooting and is deep in the fight against the coronavirus. you'll meet him just ahead. stay close. ad stay close ? sure. sometimes i wish i had legs like you. yeah, like a regular person. no. still half bike/half man, just the opposite. oh, so the legs on the bottom and motorcycle on the top?

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let's focus now on the impact of coronavirus beyond the big cities. according to the los angeles times, about a fifth of the u.s. population lives in rural areas. that's 60 million people. those areas have a total of about 2000 hospitals. few, if any of which, are ready for a pandemic. a huge problem for states like iowa. the number of confirmed deaths there jumped by more than half in one day. iowa does not have a statewide stay-at-home order. joining us now are two emergency physicians, dr. sudeep from odessa, texas. he's a retired u.s. army major and treated saddam hussein after he was captured by u.s. forces. also joining us dr. nick moore

from the university of iowa hospitals and clinics. glad to have you both with us. dr. bose, let me start with you. give me a sense of what the challenges are that face doctors outside the major metro areas. what would you say is the top challenge? >> thanks for having me today. important lessons from the emergency room. so, you know, i practice in places in south side chicago. i practiced at northwestern university, i've been in new york, cook county, advocate christ medical center. i've been in military emergency departments. and now, you know, i'm in west texas and it is different in several ways. first of all, one thing i'm noticing that's very interesting that might resonate with the listeners is, you know, midland and odessa are sister cities. they have a couple 100,000 citizens each. you think of ranchers and

farmers. those people are doing pretty well. think about it. they're isolated. they have make an acre of land. they have a self-sustaining life-style and they're putting their own food in their freezer. i think there is something to be learned from that we can all embrace. they're not any less happy, per se, in the sense of iegs lags. >> dr. moore, what are you seeing, are there distinguishing features of treating coronavirus outside major metro areas that stand out to you? >> i think what we see in iowa is that as the cases are growing, we worry a lot about surge capacity. we know that in iowa, for a population of about 3 million people, we have about 120 hospitals. three quarters of those hospitals are critical access hospitals, meaning they only have about 25 beds or smaller. so those communities, if they're affected by coronavirus, yelp strip their capacity to take care of those patients very quickly. it's important as a state we think about surge capacity and

help support people outside of the metropolitan areas. >> dr. bose, you were among those on the front lines who were treating patients during the odessa massacre when a gunman killed seven people and injured 22 people. here is what you said to us at the time. >> it's about building a system. it's not about one doctor, one individual, one surgeon. it's about a system. this is years of preparation. this is years and years of planning how to handle situations like this, who to call in, what resources you need, where the bottlenecks are. and this is doable. >> you said this is doable. did we do it? >> we can do it. i mean, what we're doing here specifically is we took a lot of the lessons from combat and we've got an excellent team that created essentially a war room, a command system. it's called e.o.c., emergency operation center. imagine a room where we are

tapping in with pro jecteject o the wall. we have odessa fire/rescue. it covers 38,000 miles of land, like i understand. we try to reach out to the areas to make sure people get supplies we have. we're using virtual technology and embracing platforms. i want to thank the people who joined live clinic.com and volunteer doctors, nurses, p.a.s that volunteered to help there. we're doing everything we can with what we have to get things done here. >> dr. moore, what's it been like for you in iowa trying to deal with coronavirus in addition to your regular caseload when iowa does not have a stay-at-home order statewide? the governor of iowa has pushed back in terms of whether the rationale for that for iowans makes sense in light of the other mitigation measures that are in place. how is that working for you?

>> that's a good question, joshua. i think we all agree that the way to stop the spread of this virus is through social distancing. that is at what the people of iowa know, that's what the people around the country know. what we've seen in iowa is our government has taken some very aggressive measures to try to limit social contact and promote social distancing. there's been somewhat of a mixed message here. recently the iowa board of medicine and medical society encouraged the governor to pass a stay at home ordinance. i think part of the reason for that is we still have people in iowa who think that this disease isn't here yet. but we know now with the number of cases that we have in iowa that we have community spread and it's really important not just that we have people who are washing their hands, but also that we limit our social contact, that we stay out of the stores and shops in iowa, and that we isolate ourselves from even our neighbors and our friends as we try to stop the spread of this disease. >> briefly dr. moore, to clarify

when you say it's not in iowa, do you get the sense -- and dr. bose, i'd like you to answer this briefly before we let you go -- dr. moore, do you get the sense your patients think this is a big city disease? >> i don't think so. as we see the case count rising in iowa like we do the rest of the country, i think people know that it's here. but much like the rest of the country, we saw it in china and it received like a long ways away, then italy and europe. it seemed like it was maybe closer, but still seemed like it was a long ways away. once it arrived in new york and washington and california, it started to look like it was coming, but it didn't look like it was here yet. i think that now we understand how important it is that the social isolation measures are things we do even here in the midwest and throughout even rural parts of the country. because we know it's coming here, too. >> briefly, dr. bose, how do your patients see this, is this a disease over there or does it feel more present before we let you go?

>> we are seeing it. there are cases here. just like any medical condition in the emergency room we probably see it before the public sees it. you know, you don't worry about the medical conditions until they land in the e.r. you may not notice the high blood pressure until you have a heart attack. take it from the front line fighters we are seeing it. as far as what you mentioned about kind of locking down the city, we have chosen not to use police force to lockdown the city at this time and i think each place has to make that decision individually. and we can discuss that on another segment. >> dr. bose in odessa, texas, and dr. moore in iowa city, iowa, thanks for talking to us. >> thank you. >> up next, drawing close to god while staying far from each other. we'll see how some houses of worship are handling the outbreak. safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%!

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nowadays, including for people of faith. pope francis held this year's palm sunday mass at the vatican in an empty sanctuary. compare that to last year. tens of thousands of people came to see the blessing of the palms. in louisiana, life tabernacle church chose not to follow the social distancing guidelines. pastor tony spell welcomed his congregation this morning despite a statewide stay-at-home order. governor john bel edwards of louisiana had this. >> we're not going to force our way out of this. i'm still calling upon him to be a leader. he is a leader in the faith community. and i'm calling upon those parishioners to not go. because it is grossly irresponsible. there is not a setting more conducive to the spread of the virus, as far as i know, like we have when we have church services. >> joining us to discuss it is npr's religion and belief correspondent tom gelton,

welcome. >> good to see you again. >> good to see you too. i wonder what your sense is of how different communities of faith are taking this. you look at the pictures from last year's palm sunday crowd, it's hard not to acknowledge what's changed since then. i've heard some faith leaders who are preaching directly to the epidemic and saying, follow the advice for our local leaders, this is going to be fine. i've heard others who said, continue to practice your faith, we don't need to fear a virus because we are servants of the most high god and he -- no weapon formed against me shall -- and everything in between. what are you hearing? >> right. well, actually, joshua, there was a poll taken the last week of march of people who attend church or synagogues or mosques regularly. and 9 of 10 people responding said that their own institutions were closed. so we see across the country a really widespread adherence to the public health guidelines. there are and you just mentioned the pastor in louisiana who went

ahead and held services anyway. i think those are kind of the exceptions, there's outliers. for the most part, pastors and other faith leaders recognize that gathering is dangerous. and they are willing to go along with this. they've had to, and it's been hard, you know. it's hard, joshua, because churches are i think inherently sort of conservative institutions, they sort of have done things the same way for years and years and years. just in a matter of weeks they've had to adapt to a whole different form of worship. i think for the most part they've done pretty well. >> passover begins this week on wednesday. >> right. >> we remember the cluster of cases in new york began in a jewish community in new rochelle, a suburb of new york. i imagine this week is going to be quite different for jewish congregations, but not all jewish congregations are created equal, there are many different kinds. how do you see that going this week? >> this week is passover, begins wednesday night.

the tradition -- actually, passover in contrast to the jewish holidays tend to be -- tends to be a much more home-based, family-based holiday. the big thing, of course, is the seder dinner. and that takes place in your home. the difference is that seders traditionally involve the extended family. and now we have generations that are separated from each other. you know, the grandparents are not seeing their grandkids or maybe even their own kids. so the seders that happen on wednesday night, thursday night, are going to be smaller, more intimate. that's a change. but jewish leaders like others recognize that this is just a time when it's necessarily to do things differently. >> so we've got holy week this week, passover starts on wednesday night, ramadan is in a few weeks. it seems the technology is really proving to be very helpful for some people. there's a bible verse that says, where two or three are gathered

together in my name, there shall i also be. it seem at lot of people are using technology to gather in spirit when they can't there be in person. >> that bible verse is getting quoted over and over again as you can imagine. i think that there is a have and have not division here, though. some churches, particularly the big mega churches, have been doing online worship for years and years and years. not just online worship, online giving. they've adapted really quickly and easily to this. they've got the technology, they know how to do it. the smaller congregations, 100 members, they're really struggling. they had a very steep learning curve to figure out how to get online, if they were able to get online. they are not getting the kind of offerings that they are accustomed to. easter sunday, next sunday, is a time when churches take in a lot of money from offerings. it's going to be really stressful for these congregations. >> that's npr religion correspondent tom geldon, thank

you for talking to us. and that is our look at "coronavirus across america." thank you for making time for us. until we meet again, i'm joshua johnson. stay safe, stay sharp, and stay tuned for our special report, taking a deep look at bergamo, italy, next on nbc. for colon cancer, don't wait. because when caught early, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92% of colon cancers... ...even in early stages. tell me more. it's for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur. ask your prescriber if cologuard is right for you. i'm on it. that's a step in the right direction. the spread of covid-19. to help, we're offering free prescription delivery, by simply going to cvs.com or calling your local cvs.

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thank you for joining us for this special report, "coronavirus: into the red zone." you're about to see an incredible documentary from our partner, sky news, in london. it is comprehensive and it is compelling. sky news special correspondent stewart ramsay shows us the devastating impact of coronavirus on people in the hardest-hit city in the hardest-hit country in the world, bergamot, italy. more than 15,000 deaths so far in italy alone. now there are signs of a possible plateau in new infections. but this fight is far from over. sky news gets amazing access going inside overwhelmed hospital emergency wards and intensive care units. you'll hear the critical warning from those on the front lines. you'll hear what they want the rest of the world to heed. now we take you "into the red zone." >> isolation is the only

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