hey there. i'm joshua johnson at nbc news world headquarters in new york. it's so good to be with you tonight after that phenomenal virtual concert. i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did. it's kind of amazing how connected we can still be despite keeping our distance, especially in times like these. so let's keep that going in tonight's look at coronavirus across america, we'll explore the push for more testing. we will see how two of the biggest states are dealing with this crisis now. and we'll dive into nbc's latest reporting on where covid-19 came from. later in the hour, california congresswoman maxine waters will join us. we will also speak to san

francisco mayor london breed about how this is affecting her city. and we'll meet the owner of a lab that will help process thousands of new york's covid-19 tests every day. now, testing remains a hurdle but it seems we're doing our part to stop the spread, especially social distancing. >> what this graphic illustrates is the amazing work of the american people to really adhere to social distancing. this was some -- this was nothing we had ever attempted to do as a nation, and the world hadn't attempted to do. but they were able to decrease the number of cases so that, in general, most of the metro areas never had an issue of complete crisis care of all of their hospitals. >> washington is our first stop on this trip across america. joining us are two of msnbc's political analysts, phillip rucker for "the washington post"

and eli stokels. also with us, beth fouhy. glad to have you all with us. phillip, let's start with testing. now, public health officials are saying that testing needs to double, or maybe triple, before the u.s. can safely reopen. this week, president trump announced guidelines for states to ease their stay-at-home orders. phillip, where do we stand with that right now? >> well, the administration has said, today, that there are more than 4 million americans who have been tested. but that is a really tiny fraction of the population of this country, of course. and testing has been a chronic problem in the united states for weeks now. the administration has improved the speed and volume of the tests but not at the pace necessary to be able to safely reopen businesses and get rid of some of these social distancing guidelines and what we are hearing, in the last few days from governors, in a lot of states, they just don't have support from the federal government to expand their testing programs. they are getting some of those

abbott machines and other testing machines but they don't necessarily have all the equipment they need to operate them at full capacity. or the expertise from their technicians and are pointing their fingers at washington saying this is a problem that needs a national solution that's not being provided. >> to be clear, the administration argued they don't need to open the country to test everybody. they need enough representative samples, that's the argument, right? >> that's exactly right but public health experts are still saying we're not at that level yet. while many americans have been tested so far, we need to have more data, more information about where these hotspots are. where they might emerge in the future, in order to really determine come communities are safe to reopen. >> eli, talk about the federal government's role right now. the president got lots of flack for saying that he had, in his words, total authority over when the country opened. that is not true. states set their restrictions, so the states will lift them, as they see fit.

but, setting that aside for a minute, what is the u.s. government's role right now? >> well, it's to support the states. i mean, the president has been intent the last month, coming out every night to do these briefings, he's been trying to show that he is the one managing this crisis. but if you talk to people inside the white house, you get an impression that actually it's at the staff level that folks are actually managing the president. trying to get him off of announcing an open date. a reopen the economy date, as he did when he suggested easter. and they had to really come to him after he said i have absolute authority, and present a plan to lay it out for him. and say, look, you can't just impose your will on all the states. but they've also tried, in the last few days, after he's gone out and put this plan forward, to explain to him that he has to stay engaged and this is not just a time for him to say mission accomplished, now it's on to the states. one of the ways the states are looking for the federal government to support, you have already talked about it, is the testing. and trump, today, at the

briefing said, well, it's just the democrats who are complaining. he said senator angus king was nasty during a call yesterday with vice president mike pence because he was bringing up the testing thing. and he -- he -- he was frustrated with the response he was getting. the president has said all these complaints are partisan. they're just coming from democrats. and we know that's not true. mike dewine, a republican governor in ohio, and someone that people in this administration credit with being ahead of the curve and taking strong preventative measures in his state. he has been public in stating that, look, we can do more tests in the hospitals in ohio. but we need the fda to help facilitate getting more tests, more of the testing agent, the reagent, into those hospitals. they can't do it alone, and i think that's the thing that people in a lot of the states are worried about. >> before i put a political question to beth, phillip, let me ask you about this stimulus 3.5 bill that may or may not be coming. we have had more than 22 million americans file for unemployment during this pandemic. that small business loan program that congress approved has used up that money.

that's all spoken for. how is it coming with that next bill? there is going to be a next bill, right? >> we believe so. but it's a question, at this point, of what that bill, exactly, is and when it gets passed. you know, congress is not in session at the moment. and there's been growing tension between the president and democratic leaders in the house. namely, speaker pelosi, president trump has been attacking her for the last several days. publicly. that's not the kind of rhetoric or conversation one would hear if we're on the brink of a bipartisan accord. so i think it's going to be some time before these leaders can get together and put together a bill. burr, clear but clearly, there's a need that both parties see for some additional government help with the economy, given how destabilized everything is right now. >> beth fouhy, let me shift to politics for a moment. there is a lot of speculation about who joe biden's running mate is going to be.

where does the biden campaign stand right now, in light of those endorsements, and especially because it's got to campaign online right now? >> yeah, well, he had a great week of course this week. he got the endorsement, as you said, of president obama. he got the endorsement of bernie sanders. he got the endorsement of elizabeth warren. basically, the party has united behind joe biden in a way that probably nobody thought possible. even a few weeks ago. and that this contest, this democratic contest would end so early. but, now, as you said, joshua, it's this conundrum. he is sitting in his basement in wilmington, delaware. he can't campaign. he is an older fellow anyway. so he fits some of the criteria for being more at risk, perhaps, than a younger candidate might. he is trying to make his way onto the platforms that the people are watching. he's doing podcasts. he's doing town hall meetings. he's putting out ads online. but as -- as we all know, president trump takes up every bit of space, every bit of oxygen, every day, all day. now, that may be the president's

biggest challenge, actually, or problem right now is that he is the -- the symbol of this pandemic and his response to it and his handling of it will perhaps, probably, be the major issue that determines who wins in november. so perhaps all joe biden needs to do is step back and let the president sort of own the space. own the territory because it is such fraught and turbulent and tragic ground for him, at this point. but other democrats are concerned. other democrats feel that joe biden really just has kind of fallen off the face of the planet despite all this good political news for him in the last week or two. and people are waiting to see whether he can sort of engage back into the conversation in a way that's forceful, and represent himself as the leader of the party now. >> yeah, it's a big, open question. one of many that still have yet to be answered from here. there is no lack of political questions to be answered from here. but the u.s. intelligence community is trying to answer a bigger question. where does covid-19 come from?

want a hypothesis? a chinese lab that was studying coronaviruses might have let this one out by mistake. nbc's kdelanian and courtney kue report a researcher may have been infected, left the lab, and started the spread from wuhan to the world. today, vice director of the wuhan institute of virology denied that in an interview with one of china's state-owned networks. >> as we said early on, there is no way this virus came from us. we have a strict regulatory regimen. we have a code of conduct for research, so we are confident of that. "the washington post" and several other outlets wrote about this virus coming from the wuhan lab. they have no evidence or knowledge. this is entirely based on speculation. >> ken delanian joins us now. ken, i can only imagine how tough this is for the u.s. to investigate, right? >> yeah, absolutely, joshua. i have learned to be humble about saying for sure what the

u.s. intelligence community knows but what our sources are telling us is that they are investigating the possibility and sifting through evidence about whether this was an accidental release from the lab. to be clear, no one is suggesting this was a manmade virus, a bioweapon, the result of biological weapons research at least none of our sources are saying. what they are saying is it was released from a laboratory that's where they work on the most dangerous pathogens and this lab was studying viruses in bats, including the virus that caused the sars outbreak back in 2002, which is somewhat related to covid-19. so the u.s. intelligence community is looking at whether it's possible someone working in the lab was infected, walked out, infected somebody else, and that was the result of the outbreak. it's a competing neary with tthe hypothesis that the virus emerged from that wuhan wet market we've heard so much about. but what we are hearing, joshua,

is the evidence is inconclusive. there's not a smoking gun piece of intelligence that can point -- at least as far as we can tell -- would point the u.s. intelligence community in one direction or another. but "the washington post" has reported on diplomatic cables where the state department visited this lab a couple of years ago, and raised concerns about a lack of trained technicians. and there was even an article about this lab in the journal nature back in 2017 where chinese scientists acknowledged that they had some work to do in terms of their safety levels and their approach to keeping things -- keeping on top of things. but, so, for now, it's an open question, joshua. something that the u.s. intelligence community is examining. >> beth fouhy, before we let y'all go, china's become much more of a campaign issue because of coronavirus. it seems like both joe biden and donald trump are trying to aim for each other's weak spots, as they perceive them, related to coronavirus. what might those weak spots be that they're aiming for?

>> well, there's very fertile ground when it comes to talking about the president and his response to this virus, early on, when he was praising the country for doing a good job. and his great relationship with -- with president xi of that country. so there's plenty of evidence on tape just, you know, over the last several weeks, of the president praising that country. then, of course, democrats can use if they want to pile on the attacks against president trump and his handling of this virus. now, we have seen, as you said, joshua, republicans trying to make make hay with joe biden. he was sort of a point person to china when he was the vice president under president obama. so they are hoping that they can portray him as a little too favorable to china. there is, of course, the whole discussion of china allows them to bring up the whole issue of hunter biden, also. joe biden's son who, of course, was front and center in the discussion around ukraine and

the president's impeachment just a few months ago. hunter biden went to china, with the vice president. he was making business relationships there. so they think that they can, perhaps, make some -- make some -- some hay out of that story line against vice president biden. so we should see. it's hard to say how anything that vice president biden has done or said around the issue of china has anything in common with what the president of the united states is going through right now in this pandemic. but it's certainly something republicans will try to do. >> that's nbc's beth fouhy and ken dilanian. also, phillip rucker. phil, eli, ken, beth, thank you all for making time for us. much more to come. our trip heads to california. one of the places coronavirus is disproportionately affecting african-americans. congresswoman maxine waters joins us to discuss that and more next.

poppy come quick! something big... has arrived. [ screaming ] ♪ tiny diamond is my name ♪ my whole body's made of glitter ♪ ♪ and i'll throw it in your face ♪ i have always wanted to be a teacher. with everything going on, we've had to alter our classroom settings. we have to transition into virtual learning to make sure that the education is continuing. (vo) verizon and "the new york times" are offering 14 million students free digital access to "times" journalism. and sometimes, you can find yourself

heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. a partner who makes sure every step is clear, when your v-neck looks more like a u-neck... that's when you know, it's half-washed. downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. downy and it's done.

our trip across america takes us, now, to california. the state had nearly 30,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus, more than a thousand californians are known to have died of covid-19. joining us now is democratic congresswoman maxine waters of california. she is the chair of the financial services committee. congresswoman, good evening. >> good evening. thank you. >> how are your constituents doing right now? >> well, we're all, you know, trying very hard to do everything that the experts are telling us to do in social distancing. people are wearing their masks. the churches are not holding services. we are trying to do everything possible to be safe. but i want you to know today was the highest-single day of fatalities. 81 people recorded dead in los angeles county, today. and so you mentioned our numbers. well, we're up.

we're 30,718 cases. we have 1,147 deaths altogether. so we are doing everything that we can. and, to tell you the truth, it is absolutely confusing and not helpful to have the president of the united states sending dual messages. talking past the experts. and giving out information that he is not qualified to give out. and, then, supporting right-wing segregati segregationists and activists who are out basically organizing in the country with his support. telling them to challenge these cities and these cities and get back to work and open up the businesses and all. it is unfortunate that the president of the united states is not a good leader. and he's not helping out with this pandemic at all. as a matter of fact, i think he's harmful and dangerous.

>> i did want to ask you about the impact of the federal government on this relief effort to fight the virus. now, we know president trump is pushing to reopen the country asap. he's rolled against the press for, in his view, being unduly critical. but the government has thousands of people working like crazy to keep us safe. kind of career civil servants. i don't think i need to ask whaut thiwhat you think of the president's rhetoric. but i'd like to know your sense of the overall response, especially as it affects southern california and especially with those frontline workers, who are just strtrying save lives. >> well, you know, i think that it is known, by practically everyone in this country, that our president did not heed the advice of experts early on. he dismissed the pandemic as a hoax. and so we didn't get started. now, when you add that to the fact that he defunded the

pandemic office that had been set up by obama in order to plan, to anticipate, to be prepared. and following that, he has created a lot of trauma in this country. by causing the states to have to compete with each other for ppe, that is the materials that's needed in the hospitals and on the front lines. he has often commandeered equipment that was targeted for different states and different areas, in order to put them into the federal pile stock. and, in doing this, what he's done is he's been able to basically give out to those areas in those states, those cities, what he wants them to have. and it looks as if it's campaign related. and and so, i mean, he is absolutely at the forefront of this dismantling, you know, all the rules of the game. what we should be doing. as a matter of fact, he said, in

no uncertain terms just a day or so ago, that he has all the authority. he can tell the states what to do. and then, of course, he was pulled back a bit by some of his advisers and some of his staff. but he is absolutely a catastrophe in dealing with this -- this issue. so we still r still hahave hosp who need materials. we, still, have a lot of testing that needs to be done. in my district, we just got test sites opened up a week ago. and, in the african-american community, in the minority communities, we are dying at a higher rate. we are getting infected at a higher rate. not only in los angeles county but, all over the united states of america. >> yeah. >> well, just to tell you the truth, more than 30% of those who have died in los angeles county are residents of long-term, skilled nursing facilities. so the old people are not being taken care of properly. they are being infected.

they don't have the testing. they don't have the equipment. the same thing in the black community. we don't have the testing. the president does not want the testing. he does not want the numbers to show because he is trying to open up these businesses. and without having those numbers reflected. yes. >> i want to ask you about that, congresswoman. about coronavirus and people of color because i'm starting -- i don't know about you -- but i'm starting to question the use of the word disproportionately to describe the impact on black and brown people. reason being, you and i both know just about every health concern affects us more than it affects whites, historically. in that regard, it seems like this is precisely proportionate. so is there anything to be done about this disparity with coronavirus? or do you think it kind of runs too deep? >> yes. well, first of all, we need -- we need the data. we need the information. and i have written, asking for that information, to show exactly where the resources have gone. where there is a need, how many

have died, how many have been infected. we need information but the information that we have, the limited information that we have, we are showing that blacks are disproportionately impacted by this virus. and we are showing that the death rate is absolute higher with the limited information that we have. >> democratic congresswoman maxine waters of california. congresswoman, stay safe and thanks for talking to us. >> well, thank you so very much. >> we'll continue in california in just a moment. san francisco was quick to implement rules on social distancing. it was a critical precaution in one of america's most densely-packed cities. we'll spend some time with san francisco mayor london breed just ahead. stay close. so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ no

uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. there's my career,... my cause,... my choir. i'm a work in progress. so much goes... into who i am. hiv medicine is one part of it. prescription dovato is for adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment and who aren't resistant to either of the medicines dolutegravir or lamivudine. dovato has 2... medicines in... 1 pill to help you reach and then stay undetectable. so your hiv can be controlled with fewer medicines... while taking dovato. you can take dovato anytime of day,... with food... or without. don't take dovato if you're allergic to any of its... ingredients or if you take dofetilide. if you have hepatitis b, it can change during treatment with dovato and become harder to treat. your hepatitis b may get worse or become life-threatening... if you stop taking dovato. so do not stop dovato... without talking to your doctor.

serious side effects can occur, including allergic reactions,... liver problems, and liver failure. life-threatening side effects include lactic acid buildup and severe liver problems. if you have a rash and other symptoms of an allergic reaction,... stop taking dovato and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have kidney or liver problems,... including hepatitis b or c. one of the ingredients in dovato may harm your... unborn baby. your doctor may prescribe a different medicine... than dovato. your doctor should do a pregnancy test... before starting... dovato. use effective birth control... while taking dovato. the most common side effects are headache, diarrhea, nausea, trouble sleeping, and tiredness. so much goes into who i am... and hope to be. ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato is right for you. ibut you're not alone. apart for a bit, ask your doctor if starting hiv treatment with dovato

we're automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. learn more at libertymutual.com/covid-19. [ piano playing ] this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over,

we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. depending on where you drive along california's coast line, things are beginning to open, or continuing to close. this week, there was good news in santa cruz. the county reopened its parks

and beaches. surfing is, also, allowed again. further north on highway 1, san francisco has new restrictions in place. starting today, residents must wear face masks in public. nbc's alexa leoto joins us now from san francisco. gavin newsom gave an update on the latest efforts. what is the latest on california reopening? >> hey, josh, well you just mentioned those two sort of opposing examples there. santa cruz relaxing some restrictions. san francisco imposing a new one, enacted last night. and that seems to be really the tailored approach that california is taking on here, as it comes to how it thinks about reopening the state. i have heard an analogy that it's slowly opening the valves. testing the waters and figuring out which pockets of the state are able -- are -- are responding well to that. but, more broadly, we're looking at the framework that governor newsom announced earlier this week. those six indicators that are key to -- key to accomplish an order for california to move

forward. everything from testing capacity to, also, contact tracing. and just here, in the bay area, the efforts to improve contact tracing have been really invested in. specifically, in partnership with ucsf. they are building volunteers, they're training librarians. and i spoke with the lead doctor the ucsf to talk about how important contact tracing is when it comes to reopen the state. his name is dr. mike reid. take a listen to what he had to say. >> contact tracing is -- is essentially one of the key things that has to happen before we move beyond shelter in place. not the only thing. but it's one of those public health interventions that we need to be able to deploy and deploy at scale if we're going to have a robust and sustainable impact in terms of controlling the epidemic as we, and when we, return to some semblance of normality. >> and that sense of normality that he is talking about. the governor hasn't, yet,

imposed a strict timeline for that. so we're just waiting and seeing here. learning more about the initiatives to prepare california as it ultimately, one day, might reopen. joshua. >> thank you, alexa. that's nbc's alexa leoto in one of the most gorgeous places with one of the most gorgeous sunsets over the golden gate that i have ever seen. alexa, thanks for making time. >> joining us now is london breed, the mayor of the beautiful city of san francisco. mayor breed, good evening. >> thank you. good evening. >> san francisco was one of the first cities to set a shelter-in-place order last month. why set the face mask strik restrictions now? was there a last straw? >> i think that, when we talk about reopening and we talk about the numbers that we're seeing in san francisco, we also have to get prepared for reopening. and part of doing that, contact tracing, more testing, and also getting people used to wearing face coverings in order to keep their distance. but, more importantly, to ensure that we are keeping people safe.

we're reducing the number of infections. this is playing an important role in helping us through this process. the fact is we do still experience some challenges with people who are standing in line and may not, necessarily, be social distancing. or in our shelter systems, in our congregate living settings, in our grocery stores, we need to get people -- and even in our buses -- we need to get people used to protecting themselves which, also, protects the other people around them, especially as we look at what's coming in the future when we start to reopen our city. >> i used to live in san francisco. and when i arrived, one of the first things i noticed is how compact it is and very densely populated. it's like seven miles by seven miles, and you have very different kinds of neighborhoods that sit right next to one another. you have western edition, historically black. and you come south next to at&t park a park.

i am guessing that compression of people and that tremendous diversity puts a lot of pressure on the city to contain the virus really fast. >> well, it definitely does because, again, when we talk about our congregate living settings, it's not just our shelters. there are these single-room occupancy hotels where people live in the tenderloin and they share bathrooms. they share kitchens. and so those kinds of living settings and people who are very close to one another, and sharing close spaces. so it definitely puts a lot of strain on our city. and, immediately, with our -- with our senior living facilities. so, immediately, when we knew that something like this could impact our city, we did a lot of extensive outreach with our nonprofit organizations, to the people that serve various populations that, traditionally, may not receive information in a timely manner. to start to educate the public about the coronavirus, the myths, what it could do. and -- and some of the things that we need to do to protect ourselves. >> how do you plan to deal with

coro coronavirus among the homeless? there is a push to secure 7,000 hotel rooms by next sunday, to get people off the streets. add to that, the home less population is plagued by living in filthy tents alongsi sidewal. that's got to make it tougher to deal with the virus in general. >> definitely tougher because, the fact is, people who have struggled in our homeless population those in particular with mental illness and substance use disorder, it's not going to go away just because there is a pandemic. and in the age of social distancing, dealing with the logistics of what we have to do now, in order to keep safe, has been really, very challenging. we have, however, been able to move almost a thousand people, homeless people, into hotel rooms. and it is -- it has really been incredible that so many of our

city employees, who are disaster service workers, who are working in libraries, working for our rec and park departments. working in entities without -- throughout the city, where they don't necessarily work with the homeless population. but they are being trained to work in our hotels, to increase our capacity so that we can help more people and allow more people to stay in these hotels. it has been incredible to see it. and it has been very challenging, still, because those issues don't go away. but we are continuing our efforts to get as many hotel rooms as we can. building the capacity, with our staffing and the logistics in the age of social distancing continues to be a real challenge for us. >> another night, i'd love to talk to you more about the homeless population in san francisco because as much as people say they want to do something about it, when you ask, well, where do you want to put these people? where do we buy land and spend the money? not in my backyard comes up a great deal. a conversation for another night. san francisco mayor london breed, do stay safe. please, take care of my favorite city. and thank you for talking to us.

>> thank you and come back to visit us soon. >> as soon as this is over. as soon as -- >> as soon as it's over. >> as soon as this is over. thank you, mayor. >> thank you. >> coming up, where do we stand on testing? are parts of the country really ready to reopen? we'll get to those questions, next. so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ high protein. low sugar. tastes great! high protein. low sugar. so good. high protein. low sugar. mmm, birthday cake. and try pure protein shakes, with 24 vitamins and minerals. from anyone else. so why accept it from your allergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms which most pills don't. get all-in-one allergy relief for 24 hours, with flonase.

so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. talk to your doctor about chantix. the most common side effect is nausea. new crest pro/active defense. you're doing more to keep your body healthy for the future. shouldn't your toothpaste do the same for your mouth? now with crest pro/active defense, future proof your whole mouth. its active defense technology neutralizes bacteria to shield against potential issues. crest.

it's a voice on the other end of the phone. a note to say you're on our mind. a willingness to come to you. the world and how we interact with each other is changing. but that will never change who we are at lexus. now, more than ever, you and your needs come first. find out what service options are available in your area at lexus.com/people first balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. but when allergies attack,f any the excitement fades. allegra helps you say yes with the fastest non-drowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. allegra. live your life, not your allergies.

guys! guys! safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. so we have talked a lot about some of the problems we are facing with this coronavirus. let's talk about solutions, especially to improving the nation's testing capacity. america now has more than 725,000 coronavirus cases. more than 38,000 people have died. this week, the federal government unveiled guidelines to reopen the country. and testing is a key factor in that plan. a number of doctors say they just don't have the resources they need to ramp up. in a survey of more than 2,600 family physicians across the country, a third said they could not test for covid-19. joining us now, nbc news medical contributor, dr. patel. she is the former health policy

director for the obama administration. and nancy cass from the john hopkins burman institute of ethics. that survey, does it surprise you at all? does that match what you're hearing from your colleagues? >> oh, absolutely, joshua. and i'm a primary care physician myself, and the truth is that, not only could i not do the test but, even if i ordered the test, it would take days to come back. so this is not just a real problem. but if you think about trying to recover or people talk about trying to go back to work or schools, et cetera, where are we going do this? and -- and it's something that i think we're going to have to struggle with as this country. >> i think also, dr. patel, i'm just now getting a sense of how deep this gap runs. i have a very good friend who works at penn medical in philadelphia and he has covid-19. he works in healthcare. but he had to stay at home, sick, for like days before they

could finally scare up a test for him and confirm that he was positive. so i'm not sure we fully have a clear picture on just how deep this gap runs. >> yeah. not only do we not have a clear picture, but, remember, this is a novel virus. so we don't exactly know -- right now, if i were to get coronavirus, like your friend did, i would have to have a time period where i had no symptoms. and, in order to come back to work, i would have to have two subsequent tests that are negative. and you talk about testing, joshua. not all tests are equal. so we know that -- we have been talking about tests like they're interchangeable. but, for example, even the test that your friend will probably get might be a little different than the test we have in california. and the performance of those tests is incredibly important. to the point you made about having confidence about coming back to work. >> well, and, dr. cass, that's one factor that affects the data on where we really are.

how do we deal with all that? >> well, it's a big challenge, joshua, you're absolutely right. part of the challenge, obviously, is that people who feel sick can't be tested. but another enormous challenge is that we actually have no idea how much the virus already has affected people. we know that so many people who get this are unaware that they a are getting it or they think it's something mild, they're getting a cold. there are starting to be a few -- as they're called. widespread testing, for example, of pregnant women of all the women who deliver in the hospital. those are showing 13 to 30% of people have had coronavirus. the more we start to understand where this is in the country, what the spread, what the prevalence is, the more we can start to understand it and the more we can start to get a handle on it. >> dr. patel, let me get your

reaction to a quick clip from yesterday's coronavirus task force briefing about testing. listen. >> testing is a part, an important part, of a multifaceted way that we are going to control and, ultimately, end this outbreak. the emphasis that we've been hearing is essentially testing is everything and it isn't. it's the kinds of things that we have been doing. the mitigation strategies. >> we have, and will continue to have, enough tests to safely go into phase one. it is beyond the possibility to test everyone in this country, every day. it's just not possible. >> dr. patel, what do you make of that? >> joshua, right now, we're doing about 160,000 tests a day. you already pointed out we're not doing enough. and, yes, it is true. we're not going to be able to physically test every single

person every day. but i would argue we're not even testing people that actually have the virus. meaning we have people who have symptoms who are telling, you know what, if you are not a certain age or your symptoms aren't that bad, we're not going to test you. so that's point number one. to dr. fauci's point, he's absolutely right. if all we take away from this is that we need a test and that's all that we will take -- you know, need, of course, that's not true. testing is a part of that. but i got to tell you, we've had so many setbacks and we know that we've already had a failure, at the federal level. it's really hard to move on when we know that we should be getting tests and we just aren't. >> dr. patel and dr. nancy kass, glad to have you both with us tonight. thanks very much. before we go, ingenuity meets g generosity. a lab in indianapolis created its own covid-19 tests.

now, it's giving 50,000 kits to new york city, for free. frustrated that everyday activities cause wrinkles and there's nothing you can do about it? downy wrinkleguard is a fabric conditioner that helps protect you from wrinkles all day. pants washed with downy wrinkleguard and detergent are virtually wrinkle-free. try downy wrinkleguard.

but when allergies attack,f any the excitement fades. allegra helps you say yes with the fastest non-drowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. allegra. live your life, not your allergies. there will be parties and family gatherings. there will be parades and sporting events and concerts. to help our communities when they come back together, respond to the 2020 census now.

spend a few minutes online today to impact the next 10 years of healthcare, infrastructure and education. go to 2020census.gov and respond today to make america's tomorrow brighter. it's time to shape our future. i don't have to worry about that, do i?are irritated. harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. it works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. gum detoxify, from crest.

so as we've mentioned, there remains lots of questions and concerns about the lack of testing across america. nbc affiliate kprc in houston found that just a half percent of texans had been tested. not half of texans, a half percent. that's lower than the national average, and it comes out to about 146,000 people out of a

state of 29.5 million. texans. governor greg abbott is outlining plans to reopen the state and stem some very deep job losses. nbc's priscilla thompson is in southeast houston with more. >> reporter: joshua, this parking lot might normally be filled with customers who are headed across the street to nrg stadium to watch a football game. but, instead, thousands of families have come here today to get food from the houston food bank who is hosting a food drive. now, this site actually opened two hours early because a line had already started forming. and i spoke to one man who came through, and he says that he has become unemployed, his wife is now unemployed, and they have five kids and three grandchildren at home. and so this is his first time having to utilize a service like the food bank. but he says it's been so important to his family because he doesn't know how he would be making it without resources like this. now, the texas governor, governor abbott, has talked

about reopening the economy here in texas. and some people i spoke to today expressed some fear and concern about what that could look like. but one thing is clear. local officials, elected be morg in order for that to happen, and that the government must do more to help people in regards to food instability and making sure that they have what they need to be successful once this economy reopens. joshua? >> that's nbc's priscilla thompson in houston. now, this pandemic has shown us some incredible generosity, bravery, and ingenuity. a small lab based in indiana developed its own test in just three weeks. now it's donating 50,000 kits to new york city. joining us now is one of the men behind that lab, zach khan is a partner at aria diagnostics just outside indianapolis. zach, welcome. >> thank you for having me. >> your lab was originally just processing tests but started to actually manufacture them

yourselves. what made you decide to make your own test, especially given how hard we've all heard it is to just find the components you need? >> i think you hit the nail on the head. you're right, it was difficult to find the components to make the kit put together. we started initially ordering the full kit, and then after a few days realized it was getting difficult to get the full kits. so we said, okay, let's order swabs. it might help for me to describe a bit of the anatomy of the test kit. it's very simple. there's a swab. there's a vial with either viral transport media or saline and then a bag. so when you start deducing down, what we can get and what we can't get, we quickly found that one day vtm was impossible to find or the vials were impossible to find, and then more so the swabs became impossible to find. so we were like, we need to put something together to serve our community. so we better start thinking about the raw products and how can we put it together in an

fda-approved scenario to do this right? >> does that mean that you had to like get the cotton yourself and make your own swabs? >> not quite. we found swab manufacturers, but they were not sterile, or they weren't scored. so the swab might be, you know, six, seven, eight inches long. but at four inches, you need to score that so that it breaks easily to fit into the tube to transport to the lab. so we were by hand scoring hundreds and hundreds of thousands of swabs in order to process them. we needed to sterilize those and put them into the kit. >> the tests that you donated on their way to new york, how did that come about? >> honestly, i was working out and i heard early in the morning before going into the lab, i heard the governor of new york talk about how he wanted to partner with private enterprise. then i heard the same time mayor de blasio talking about the same thing the same day. and candidly our hearts just broke for them. i went into the lab and i spoke to my partner. he said, we've got to do something. the city is in dire straits, and

we need to do something to help them. it just happens to be within two or three days of us coming up our own kit manufacturing process, and we thought maybe this is god telling us this is what we need to do. we've come up with this process. we need to start donating to them as well immediately. >> how is indiana dealing with the virus? nbc's affiliate in indianapolis, wthr, found that the state also needed testing swabs. did they reach out to your lab about testing issues? i mean what's your sense of how they're doing? >> they did. dr. box gave me a call a little over a week ago, and we chatted about the need for swabs. we donated 2,000 swabs to them. i had a nice conversation with her this morning about some other things we're working on as far as expanding testing, utilizing some new technology out there. indiana is doing as well as can be expected given the circumstances that we find ourselves, but i believe that where we are right now, we're doing a lot more testing than probably most of the municipalities, most other states.

in fact we're surveilling law enforcement officer first responders on a weekly basis where they're all getting tested every week here in carmel, indiana, as well as zionsville, many of the suburbs to the north of indianapolis, which is different from everywhere else. >> what is your sense of the testing gap in this country? you know, the administration says we need a representative sample to be able to know when to reopen the country. people -- everyday people who don't work in testing say, that's very nice for you and your studies. i just want to know if i have it or not or if i had it or not. how do you see it? >> i candidly disagree respectfully, sir, because if we look at those countries that were successful in getting beyond the covid virus not unscathed but relatively unscathed, countries like iceland, countries like south korea, iceland is on a mission to test all of their population. granted it's only 300,000. they're on a mission to test them all. the reason that i feel this way is because what they found was pretty confounding.

half of their positives were asymptomatic, meaning half of the people -- of all the people we find symptomatic and positive, there's an equal number of those people walking around that are still shedding the virus and are contagious. if you test everybody or as many people as you can that are out in the workforce, retail people, gas station clerks, grocery store clerks, if we test them, we will find out who has it. we can quarantine them appropriately, which is what we're doing here in indiana. then you can start curbing this virus down and flattening that curve. but that way you can be very successful in doing that. only because we're taking a page out of a playbook from another place who has done it already. so why reinvent the wheel when someone has already done it, you know, successfully? >> zak khan with aria diagnostics in carmel, indiana, zak, as a new new yorker, thank you for helping us deal with our testing gap and thanks for making time for us tonight. >> it's our pleasure.

>> and that is our look at coronavirus across america. it's been a pleasure having you with us on msnbc. thank you for making the time. i will see you back here tomorrow at 3:00 p.m., noon pacific. but until we meet again, i'm joshua johnson. stay safe and stay sharp. we'll get through this. good night. i just love hitting the open road and telling people that liberty mutual customizes your insurance, so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

if we weren't able to stream anything, i think they'd be lost. (vo) we are all home right now. that's why verizon is giving you more of the entertainment you want. dayley is usually watching a tv show, and mckenna is almost always listening to music. we love verizon. i get the shows i need when i need them. (vo) now unlimited plans come with your favorite artists on apple music, shows and movies on disney+, and over 70 top channels of live tv with youtube tv. music plays a huge role in our family. that's how we connect. (vo) plans start as just $35 so your family can mix, match, and save. shop online today. only at verizon.

why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills?e else. flonase sensimist. nothing stronger. nothing gentler. nothing lasts longer. flonase sensimist. 24 hour non-drowsy allergy relief trolls world tour, now available in your home. i'm ready to party. it's a musical cure for the quarantine blues. happy birthday? the world premiere is now in your home. go to watchtrolls.com for more. new crest pro/active defense. you're doing more to keep your body healthy for the future. shouldn't your toothpaste do the same for your mouth? now with crest pro/active defense, future proof your whole mouth. its active defense technology neutralizes bacteria to shield against potential issues. crest. and sometimes, you can find yourself heading in a new direction. but when you're with fidelity, a partner who makes sure every step is clear, there's nothing to stop you from moving forward. a partner who makes sure every step is clear,

we're finally back out in our yard, but so are they. scotts turf builder triple action. it kills weeds, prevents crabgrass and feeds so grass can thrive, guaranteed. get everything you need for spring at scotts.com order today. it's more than just fast. it keeps all your devices running smoothly. with built-in security that protects your kids... ...no matter what they're up to. it protects your info... ...and gives you 24/7 peace of mind... ...that if it's connected, it's protected. even that that pet-camera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that? xfinity xfi can because it's... ...simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ]

thank you for joining us this hour. you know, there were some positive signs over this past weekend, the holiday weekend, when the u.s. daily death toll from coronavirus seemed to be dropping. on friday, a week ago today, you might remember the number of americans who died from coronavirus that day topped 2,000 for the first time in this epidemic, which was a terrible milestone. again, that was a week ago today. we were over 2,000 deaths in one 24-hour period for the first time. but then over last weekend's holiday weekend, over the easter weekend, those numbers dropped back a little bit, and it seemed like maybe the numbers had maybe hit their peak and would start to consistently drop. that's obviously what everybody