good morning and welcome to a.m. joy. as the number of confirmed cases in the united states approaches 1 million. as of this morning more than 50,000 americans have now died in the covid-19 outbreak. at its current rate the next few days could see the number of american fatalities surpass the death toll during the vietnam war. a war that lasted roughly 20 years from 1955 to the fall of saigon in 1975. the man who avoided service in that war due to bone spurs does not want you to remember this prediction that he made just 59 days ago. >> and again, when you have 15 people and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.

>> but as alarming as the escalating death toll is, a death toll that far exceeds every other country in the world, around this country governors are grappling with decisions about when to reopen businesses to revive the struggling economy. well, governors, if you're listening here are a few startling facts. in wisconsin the number of cases spiked on thursday just over two weeks after the republican controlled legislature refused to delay the primary election that included a hotly contested state supreme court seat forcing hundreds of thousands of wisconsi wisconsinites to vote in person. >> and in michigan, there's been a rise in confirmed cases for the past four days as well, just a short time after protesters gathered in public to demand an end to that state's lockdown orders. these statistics make it all the

more confusing. governor bryan kemp of georgia would proceed with his plan to reopen his state yesterday. phase one of that process began with places like hair salons, nail salons and even gyms, bowling alleys and tattoo par r parlors back up and running. on monday other close contact businesses like restaurants and movie theaters will follow suit. here's what governor kemp had to say about that earlier this week. >> by taking this measured action, we will get georgians back to work safely without undermining the progress that we all have made in this battle against covid-19. i will say that, you know, when we have more people moving around we're probably going to see our cases continue to go up, but we're a lot better prepared for that now than we were over a month ago. i can tell you i don't give a damn about politics right now. >> he seemed to be taking advice from the man that he treats as

his boss, donald trump. he's been bent to reopen the economy. he's encouraged supporters to defy lockdown orders that he deemed as too strict in a pandemic. here's what he had to say about governor kemp's decision as recently as tuesday. >> how do you protect the people of south carolina for example from a potentially bad decision by a governor in georgia. >> he's a very capable man. he knows what he's doing. he's done a good job as governor, georgia. >> but perhaps given the rising infections in states where citizens did not heed stay at home orders or just because he's donald trump and he just repeats the last thing that he hears, here he is just one day later on wednesday. >> i toild the governor of georgia, bryan kemp that i disagree strongly with his decision to open certain facilities, which are in violation of the phase one

guidelin guidelines. >> joining me now is the mayor of atlanta, georgia, and mayor, thank you so much for being here and i want to start just by reading you a little piece -- a little bit of a piece in the guardian this week that is titled georgia's covid-19 reopening pits white governor against black mayors. here's a bit of it georgia is a state where african americans make up 32% of the population but account for an estimated 5 #% of known coronavirus deaths. only 20% of black workers reported being eligible to work from home compared with about 30% of their white counter parts according to the economic policy institute. it feels like this governor is not all that concerned about those people who are at risk and what do you make of this idea of reopening close contact businesses like hair salons and tattoo parlors and movie

theaters? >> something that struck me as i was watching your introduction is the distance that the governor had between the person holding the sign and the person who was doing the sign language. that's a safe distance so we are to stay away from each other. you can't do that when you are cutting someone's hair or when you are giving them a massage or a manicure. and what we know in looking at the numbers african americans are disproportionately impacted by this disease, i've had a good working relationship with our governor so this race transcends economic level, this is a virus that hitting us all and despite the great working relationship i've had with him over the past couple of years i think this is a bad decision. i think it is putting all of us at risk but especially communities of color where you have a beauty and barbershop on

every single corner. it's not just about the people in that shop you will infect and impact a community as a whole and that is what concerns me. >> yeah, you know, there is this disconnect between you know, what business owners are dealing with which is obviously a marked loss of revenue, it's very difficult to deal with. they also have to pay rent, they also have payroll and stressors. between that and the science and the data, so let me play for you first, this is a barbershop owner in your city, in atlanta saying they want to come back open. take a listen. >> the south is a lot different from up north. new york has been hit hard. all them places have been hit so hard. we haven't been hit hard like that. we've got empty beds in hospitals now. and if we do our job with the secretary of state and the governor has put the rules and regulations in for us, i think it's better now than it's ever been.

i mean, we clean up after every chair -- every customer. we're wearing gloves. hey, our customers are in better shape now coming in than they've ever been in our country. >> and that -- of course that is not a black barbershop so we don't nearly know how barbershops in the black community are going to react differently if they are going to react differently from majority barbershops but the data shows that georgia has one of the lowest testing rates in the entire country. fewer than 1% of georgians have been tested for coronavirus. and there's also a lot of data that suggests and this is from the "new york times" that the infection rate in georgia is is getting worse, not better. it's actually going up. so how do you manage the disconnect when you have this very trumpian governor who wants to reopen for his own reasons and you've got the data source of things getting worse in your

state. >> i stuck my head in there a few weeks ago before everything was shut down. it's a very diverse barbershop and really representative of who we are as a community, but again, this is something we will agree to disagree on. what concerns me when i look at our numbers that i received at 7:00 last night with nearly 23,000 people in the state testing positive and remembering we still aren't testing people with mild symptoms and people who are asymptomatic. that was up 26% from seven days ago. our deaths 899 as of last night. up 32.79% from a week ago. 231 deaths in the last week, more than a quarter of all the covid-19 deaths that we've had in this state. wishing the economy to reopen will not make this virus go

away. the reason that we do have beds open in our city is because we have been very aggressive in shutting things down and i've said this the past couple of days, joy, simply because we have capacity doesn't mean we should work to fill those beds up. we cannot sacrifice people's lives and enter into this public health experiment for the sake of the economy. >> well, can i ask you very quickly before i let you go, i've had a lot of friends from georgia texting me asking and i want to ask you, is it possible that your governor wants to reopen your state because the budget in the state is not in good shape, not in good place because of deep tax cuts and past economic policies and that this is a way, reopening, to push people out of eligibility to collect unemployment? because technically if you reopen the state these people are no longer unemployed and

they can't claim benefits. >> i think that is a very good question. our state budget is facing a $4 billion shortfall over the next several years. we also know that one question on unemployment application is are you eligible to work, did you refuse to work and that's a consideration that people are giving. but i'm hearing people say if i had money in my pocket i would stay at home. it's the reason we launched the small business fund in atlanta. it's the reason we have a relief fund to try and give people that option but that is certainly a consideration and i know that he has publicly expressed he is concerned about the state of the economy in georgia. but again, i don't think it should be at the risk of people's lives. >> very quickly before i let you go, we know that a fellow georgian, stacy abrams has been mentioned for a potential short lister for vice president as joe

biden is making his selection. mad dam mayor,ing are being vetted because your name is popping up as somebody that may be vetted for the vice presidential running mate. >> joy, i've seen and read the same stories that you have. i've seen my name mentioned but obviously being the mayor of a major city in the middle of a pandemic is more than enough and i had to think about in addition to figure out third grade math again so what i've said is i want the vice president to put on the ticket whomever gives him the best chance of beating donald trump in november. >> do you think that that needs to be a black woman because that's another thing that's being talked about a lot. >> you know, i think that the vice president will give whatever consideration needs to be given to this ticket. he's been through this before. he knows this process way better than any of us know so i won't second guess what he feels is needed to round out his ticket

but i do trust that he will make the best decision. >> mayor, stay safe, good luck with the third grade math and also we're all thinking about your city. thank you so much. really appreciate you this morning. >> thank you, joy. and joining the discussion now is msnbc contributor and a paying columnist for the "washington post" and legal analyst for msnbc and a professor at the news school. >> you worked for a time in city government. the considerations that the governor is making are supposed to mainly include the health and keeping his constituents alive, his members of his state alive but i have heard a lot of talk from georgia and the mayor did not dispute it that some of these considerations are strictly financial. that because the state cannot afford necessarily to pay out unemployment benefits because they've tanked their own budget with tax cuts, that the govern nor is trying to keep folks off the rolls.

he's trying to make it so they can't apply. what do you make of that theory? >> well, you know, i can't speak for what is motivating the governor of georgia. i think that there's no question that states and cities across this country are feeling an enormous amount of economic pain and we're even seeing a growth in hunger as people lose meals. i think the disturbing thing about this is the only reason you would reopen the economy is because of politics. and i say that because the reality is you have so many people clam moring for finding a way, just as mayor said finding a way to make their lives work when government step in with really good unemployment benefits, when it doesn't step in with the health care that people need, if it doesn't step in with making sure people have paid sick leave, all the things that enable them to do exactly what they want to do, which is

stay safe, stay home, it's not that people don't want to, it's that they feel enormous amount of pressure about getting back to the ability to support their families. so really what governor kemp should be doing is what we see a lot of governors across the country doing is asking why states aren't getting more support from the federal government in order to meet the very life needs, necessities of our residents and that's something that i think is a very legitimate question for governor kemp because this isn't black and white. this is life and death. >> but you know, jonathan it's side logical. so you have these red state governors who in theory don't believe in federal funding of anything, they also don't believe in taxes, so they have a very low tax base. so there's not a lot of money coming in, and a lot of these states quite frankly are on the

dole. they take in more money from the federal government than they give out. there are only two red states or maybe three that give more money to the federal government than they take back and georgia ain't one of them. >> and to put a finer point on it, it's money from blue states going in in terms of tax revenue to the federal government that then gets doled out to the red states and i think governor cuomo made that point a couple of days ago. the over thing here is the focus on reopening the economy is based on politics. i agree with maya on that point. but imagine where we would be if we didn't have a president of the united states whose sole focus was how the dow industrial average was doing, how wall street was doing, how the stock market was doing, how -- for the last couple of weeks we've been talking about opening up the economy instead of putting his focus on or at least trying to strike a balance between the

public health and the economy, you know, i interviewed governor whitmer of michigan on thursday and she was under immense pressure with those demonstrations in lansing from people saying reopen the economy and yesterday she announced that she's looking into maybe easing the restrictions, but she said her stay at home order was being pushed in to may. for her, she told me that a national strategy on testing and on ppe would be something that would save lives, but would also give her -- and actually all the other governors the room to be able to balance public health with the economy and from her perspective and i think from all the governors' perspectives perhaps with the exception of maybe governor kemp, her overriding concern is a second wave of infections and i think that is what governor kemp is risking by doing what he's doing. you showed those maps in the

"new york times" two days before he reopened the economy yesterday, that the number of infections were the biggest they've been, you know, compared to the other two maps that were shown on that page of the "new york times" that you showed earlier there that we're looking at right now. >> yeah. >> imagine if we had a president who was able to balance public health and the economic well being of the nation in those states. >> well, or imagine if you had a different governor. i want to play stacy abrams who a lot of people believe should have been governor based on a lot of tricks being played with the voter roles and she wasn't. here she was on morning joe this week talking about disparities in georgia. >> we're the 8th largest state in the nation but we have the 14th highest infection rate and the 7th slowest testing rate these businesses reopening are

going to force front line workers back to work without having access to a health care system to help them if they are in need. >> you know, this is not a small state. if a huge outbreak on the level that we're seeing in places like new york does kick in in georgia, this is going to be devastation and a lot of lives lost disproportionately in the black community. >> absolutely and the latino community. i want to say here in new york city we lost a five-month old baby, jay natalee who was the daughter of a firefighter and a mom who worked for our department of education. five months old. don't tell me that this is just about people over 80 in nursing homes. it is not. the youngest person we know to have died of complications from coronavirus. this is not a game and the more we're seeing and learning, i mean stacy abrams is exactly

right and we're an epicenter in new york and it is now spreading in rural areas around the country and we're seeing in places like south korea where they were extremely competent at getting coronavirus under control that they've seen and been able to track down this call center in south korea where you had 50% of the workers getting sick on the 11th floor of one building. now, take that to other states that are reopening businesses. >> yeah, absolutely and you know, jonathan, rick wilson said it best that the governors that think they're being obedient to donald trump by saying oh, yes, sir, we'll reopen our businesses and put our own citizens at risk for you sir to help your re-election, they quickly find out that his loyalty to them doesn't exist. it's only one way. because he then turns on them and says that's a terrible idea. >> right. and we saw that in high relief this week where you showed one day the president says you know, i trust bryan kemp, he's a smart

guy and the very next day he trashes him not only saying that he thought that the governor was making a bad decision, but made a point of saying his name over and over and over again as if he -- as if he's punishing him. >> yeah, absolutely. it's -- he's not going to be loyal back to y'all so i don't know why you're putting him in front of your own constituents. thank you very much. stay safe, both of you. >> thanks. you too. >> coming up, donald trump thinks that he can make his disinfectant inhalation device ideas disappear with no streaks or residue. with no streaks or residue i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine.

♪ nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. i wanted more from my copd medicine that's why i've got the power of 1, 2, 3 medicines with trelegy. the only fda-approved once-daily 3-in-1 copd treatment. ♪ trelegy ♪ the power of 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy ♪ 1,2,3 ♪ trelegy man: with trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3, i'm breathing better. trelegy works three ways to open airways, keep them open and reduce inflammation, for 24 hours of better breathing. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. trelegy is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. think your copd medicine is doing enough? maybe you should think again.

ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy and the power of 1, 2, 3. ♪ trelegy, 1,2,3 man: save at trelegy.com. thats where i feel normal.s an hour, having an annuity tells me my retirement is protected. protected lifetime income from an annuity can help your retirement plan ride out turbulent times. learn more at protectedincome.org. frustrated that clean clothes you want to wear always seem to need an iron? try bounce wrinkle guard dryer sheets. the bounce wrinkle guard shorts have fewer wrinkles and static, and more softness. it's the world's first mega sheet that does the job of three dryer sheets! bounce out wrinkles.

we get to know his face in every single place. when you see it you'll know quick, things make you sick, sick, sick, sick. sick, sick, sick.

mr. yuck is mean, mr. yuck is green. >> that was a psa created by the pittsburgh poison center in the 1970s to educate kids about the dangers of drinking household cleaners like bleach and ammonia. certainly kids need help knowing the difference between harmless items and hazardous ones. but adults know better. right? well, apparently not if you're donald trump. this week in one of the most bizarre moments to ever occur on live television particularly involving the president of the united states, he offered up a possible new treatment against covid-19 injecting disinfectant into the bodies of infected people. yes, disinfectant, the stuff that you use to clean and kill bacteria on household surfaces like counter tops and doorknobs. like lyosol or bleach and

because this epic moment from the white house briefing room went viral the maker of lyosol was forced to put out a strongly worded statement, quote, as a global leader in health and hygiene products we must be clear that under no circumstances should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body through injection, ingestion or any other route. and after a full day's news cycle filled with equal parts ridicule and alarm as state health agencies like the one in maryland received 100 calls inquiring about the new trump miracle cure, the white house walked back the whole thing and staying right on brand blamed the media for its accurate reporting. donald trump meanwhile before a record short version of his daily reality show tried to claim oh, he was just being sarcastic when he suggested his followers down disinfectant and

blast their bodies with uv light. take a look at what he said and pay very close attention to the reaction from dr. deborah birx. >> i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute and is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside or almost a cleaning because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs so it would be interesting to check that so you're going to have to use medical doctors but it sounds interesting to me. >> joining me now, dr. irwin red liner, director of columbia university's national center for disaster preparedness and dr. tamara moys, i want to play one more clip from this because it is just -- it was extraordinary live television. unfortunately it was live. here is donald trump a little bit more on his new miracle drug

ideas. >> proposing we hit the body with a tremendous whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and i think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it and suppose you brought the light inside the body either through the skin or some other way and i think you said you're going to test that too. and then i see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or -- or almost a cleaning because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs so it will be interesting to check that. you'll have to use medical doctors but it sounds interesting to me. >> doctor, he was not joking. he was speaking with william bryan at the department of

homeland security. he wasn't joking, he wasn't trying to make -- you know, ridicule the press, she whe was serious. what danger does that do, that kind of communication from the president of the united states do to the public health? >> good morning, joy. so yeah, so this was a display of extraordinary ignorance and arrogance that should never have come out of the mouth of the president of the united states. he was clearly not joking. he -- not only did he look at bill bryan from homeland security, he also was looking at dr. debbie birx who i thought was going to fall off her chair from disbelief. i can't even imagine what was going through her mind but nonetheless, there is a president being extraordinarily inappropriate and dangerous actually. anybody now who ends up having ill effects from following any part of what the president was recommending is now on his

shoulders. a lot of things now that he's going to be responsible for in terms of the failures of his administration to act appropriately in the face of this pandemic really. but adding this to it is a surreal, bizarre and ignorant display of whatever it is that's going through donald trump's really distorted mind right now about what to do about the pandemic. but i think it's worth repeating again that these are dangerous, dangerous recommendations that the president made and people should stay away from them. >> absolutely. he has no qualifications to say this whatsoever. and the problem is, doctor, you know, folks like you, you're an er doctor end up dealing with the consequences of donald trump who has a cultive personality meaning that anything he says is taken in the god's honest truth by his supporters. here is a caller to a conservative radio show. this was just on friday. this was yesterday.

take a listen. >> maybe they could make some sort of vape that was healthy for you, you know, that would at tommize the chemicals into your lungs and could blow it out your nose, you know, but thinking outside the box is what we have to do now and no one seems to want to do it. they just -- i don't know if i'm crazy. >> no, you're not crazy and bingo, you said the word. you said the phrase and thank you for that call. thinking outside the box. that's literally what the president was doing yesterday. and that's what a good chief executive does. >> no you're not crazy. i think a lot of people would beg to differ. we had reports last month a man died after taking hydroxychloroquine the man and his wife thought it could prevent the disease. the wife ended up in icu.

trump kept saying it was basically pretty much a cure, what will be your message to the american public? she says -- is what von asked. the response don't believe anything the president says but before she gets to that point she ends up in an icu where she is now a risk to other people. your thoughts? >> i think that at this point a lot of people are laughing at this whole situation, there are memes out on social media. what we have to realize is that president trump has a base. the base listens very intently to what he says and takes his messages very seriously. so now we're seeing that he's putting these inappropriate dangerous messages out and people are actually internalizing this and taking them seriously. you have, you know, now you have situations where people in maryland were, you know, calling

the hot line for coronavirus and actually asking about these supposed treatments that he spoke about. so you know, i don't think people realize the level of danger. i think a lot of people that see this will make sense of this and say hey, of course, you know, ingesting a disinfectant is not appropriate, but you have people out there that truly listen intently to the president and will follow what he says. and unfortunately, these, you know, the fact that they're actually listening can be extremely dangerous to them. they could die from ingesting these disinfectants. this is not a joke. so we, you know, the -- the president has to be -- he has to be responsible and the media outlets that are encouraging his message, you have to be responsible about what you're saying. these are -- these are not messages that are backed up by the medical community and it's

an extremely dangerous thing. and with hydroxychloroquine also, the president had come out and said that this might have been a game changer. this is so dangerous. yes, i mean, this is a drug that, you know, has gone through some studies now and the studies are inconclusive at this point. i work, you know, at my urgent care in brooklyn, new york, i've decided not to use hydroxychloroquine at this time simply because the studies have not proven it to be the drug of choice. it may or it may not be. the studies are inconclusive. so at this point i work in a black and brown community. i'm going to make sure i'm giving them the highest level of care and i'm not going to listen to someone like the president who is not a medical professional. i'm going to make sure that what i'm doing is evidence based. i have to make sure that my community are -- that they're getting the proper treatment, that they're getting high

quality treatment. so this whole message that the president put out is extremely irresponsible and it's very dangerous. >> yeah. absolutely. and dr. red liner, he disagrees openly with dr. fauci. he says we need more testing and the president says i don't agree. he's pushing the hydroxychloroquine which the fda has cautioned against using outside the hospital setting due to the risk of heart rhythm problems. at this point for his supporters, they do know who to listen to between fauci and trump, they listen to him. >> yeah, it's pretty amazing. but i do think you -- you used the term cultish following. it is -- it is truly like a cult. and it reminds me of jim jones and the cool aid and all that horrible stuff that we saw 30 years ago with people just following quote, the leader no matter what the leader says and no matter what the leader intends to do or where to take

them. and a donald cult -- freudian slip, donald trump has a cult and unfortunately i -- i think that the people that are in his cult that are immovable from following him are going to be insignificant harm if they follow this advice not to mention the hydroxychloroquine which has caused some deaths in people it's thought. so we have a lot to work on here. >> and last question to you, one in five new yorkers may have covid-19 per anti body tests. this is getting terrifying really for a lot of folks. >> it is. at this point you know, governor cuomo is really ramping up the testing to -- so that we can really confirm that data. so this is the very beginning of the data, but definitely it's -- it's very concerning. but i'm not surprised.

i'm here on the boots in new york. a lot of people have coronavirus. i had it myself and i'm over it. i'm honestly not shocked with the statistics to be honest with you. >> well, stay safe and we're glad that you are feeling better. thank you both very much. stay safe. and coming up, the new coronavirus relief package. we'll tell you what's in it and the really important things that are missing. ate really important things th are missing.

we live in uncertain times. however, there is one thing you can be certain of. the men and women of the united states postal service. we're here to deliver cards and packages from loved ones and also deliver the peace of mind of knowing that essentials like prescriptions are on their way.

every day, all across america, we deliver for you. and we always will. the coronavirus continues to affect us all, and we are here, actively supporting you and your community. every day, we're providing trusted information from top health experts...sharing tools to help protect families from fraud... and creating resources to support family caregivers everywhere. as always, you can count on aarp to advocate for you and your family. join us and stay connected at aarp.org/coronavirus for you and your family. 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. yeah. this moving thing never gets any easier. well, xfinity makes moving super easy.

i can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. wow, that is easy. almost as easy as having those guys help you move. we are those guys. that's you? the truck adds 10 pounds. in the arms. -okay... transfer your service online in a few easy steps. now that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today.

florida governor ron desantis has drawn ridicule for his decision to reopen florida beaches in midst of a pandemic and for his recent effort to try to install personal protective equipment on himself. this week the late show with stephen colbert added its own twists to the governor's struggles putting on his mask. >> gflorida governor desantis

demonstrated a unique way of wearing a face mask. >> no, don't do it. just be cool. maybe no one will notice. wow, look at mr. coolness. he was so excited to be the governor's mask. >> all the smart people are saying it's more effective to have the ear strap dangling. >> speaking of sports you see that chicago bulls documentary? >> don't change the subject. >> oh, florida, florida, florida, come on, florida. coming up next, the latest on the coronavirus relief bill and mitch mcconnell's -- they do it every time. mitch mcconnell's new shell game. mitch mcconnell's new shell game we're at the movies and we need to silence our phone.

who knows where that button is? i don't have silent. everyone does -- right up here. it happens to all of us. we buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. what i do is help new homeowners overcome this. what is that, an adjustable spanner? good choice, steve. okay, don't forget you're not assisting him. you hired him. if you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. who else reads books about submarines? my dad. yeah. oh, those are -- progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. look at that. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ here's a razor that works differently. the gillette skinguard it has a guard between the blades that helps protect skin. the gillette skinguard.

i would certainly be in favor for allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. my guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don't have to do that. that's not something i'm going to be in favor of. >> during a radio interview this week senate majority leader mitch mcconnell suggested he would prefer that struggling states file for bankruptcy rather than receive money from the federal government to help them cope from the pandemic. rather than help those taxpayers paid into the federal tax roles to fund the hospitals to provide equipment for doctors, nurses

and paramedics. here's what governor cuomo says about that idea. >> he says maybe the states should declare bankruptcy. okay? this is one of the really dumb ideas of all time. new york puts in more money to the federal pot than it takes out. his state takes out more than it puts in. senator mcconnell, who's getting bailed out here? >> on thursday, the house passed another round of coronavirus relief without that crucial funding for state and local governments. the cares act does replenish the paycheck protection program and it allocates billions for hospitals and testing and what's not in it is the challenge. joining me now, author of revive us again and seth harris, former

acting secretary of labor in the obama administration and just to put a finer point on what the governor said, governor cuomo said he treated out these numbers. kentucky mitch mcconnell's state takes 148 billion more from the federal pot than they put in but we don't deserve help now because the 15,000 people who died here were predominantly democrats, he asks? and here are the maps that show the states most dependent on the federal government. this is from u.s. news and world report. notice those states are heavily in the west, very republican states and in the south. and we've talked about this before, the fact that these states don't want to tax, they don't want to pay for education so they don't like to tax rich people and so now they wind up in trouble but new york is the one that mcconnell wants to punish. >> that's exactly why on june

20th, 2020, we are having a poor people assembly to deal with this very question. poverty amidst a pandemic and many of these states who are high povertywell, with lack the health -- but i have a bit of a problem with both of the arguments. they argue who has the more rights to the federal pot, but there's a framework, joy, that it's time to focus on a strategy to protecting wealth. we have to change the starting point. the starting point ought to be how do we impact the 140 million poor -- how do we lift from the bottom, since that's where pandemics spread? 270,000, in new york 51 march of the people are poor and low income. nine million residents, 1 million uninsured, 89,000 homeless, 3 million workers who make less than $15 an hour.

in kentucky 872,000 workers that make until 50% of the workforce. we need an argument, a focus how we use federal dallas to focus on policies where they don't begin from the top, go to the middle and stop, but they start from the bottom and lift everybody up. pandemics spread -- powerful as a country. we'll have major problems as a country. >> and i want to move to the bill and talk about it. what's in it is $320 billion in this paycheck protection program which goes to small businesses. hospitals and health kaye workers get $75 billion. injury, disaster loans, which doesn't seem like a whole heck of a lot. things not in the bill, though.

hazard pay for frontline workers. states and cities getting more money. election security money, more oversight on the bailout, food stamp money, rent freeze money, more checks for stimulus, means individuals getting some money. one stick lars person who didn't vote for it is alexandria ocasio, cortez. >> while something may be better than nothing, it is lapping in the context the congress having gone on recess for a month. we are going to pass a small potatoes bill, and then we are talking about recessing again until may 4th. every time we pass one of these bills, we're hearing the real solution is coming in the next bill, and then the next bill, the next bill. at some point we have to raise our hands and say, when is the solution coming? >> you know, i feel like a lot of people don't understand why

there was enough money that ruth's chris game back their $20 million, but congress can't seem to find a way to get regular people money and firth responders money and money for testing. >> i agree with you, joy. i would have voted for the bill, because something is better than nothing, and there are millions of small businesses that are at grave risk of disappearing, and we would lose a lot of workers' jobs if we were to allow that to happen. but you're right, there's a lot of things that were missing from this bill that were desperately needed. we need to fund health insurance for workers who have lost their health insurance because of loss of employment by funding the cobra payments that workers would have to make in order to keep their employer-provided health insurance. we need to provide funding for personal protective equipment. we toad po put a moratorium on

payments. we don't need anybody being evicted, foreclosed upon or losing vital services like internet or lights or water simply because the government doesn't have them not go to work. they certainly didn't do enough. i expect that speaker pelosi is going to come back with a much more expansive bill that will include some of the items you listed, but it will be a big fight. senator mcconnell is running for reeaks elects, he's disliked in his state, so hi says inflammatory patented things about the assault on states that you quoted at the beginning of this segment. it's just the kind of grotesque politics that he's become the symbol of. >> yeah, and beneficiary stop, what do you want to see democrats push for in there is yet another bill?

>> yeah, that's part of the part. the problem is what have we fought for? we have to start before the pandemic, even before the pandemic, republicans, democrats ran in poverty. when democrats had a majority, we didn't vote on certain things. the issue is what should we be fighting for. ? if we are staying people -- we used to call them service workers 45 days ago, now we call them essential workers. they have not been provided health care. we found $3 trillion for corporations. we can't find the money for them to be guaranteed health cared? it's in the the poor have gotten worse. we are choosing these long lines. we are choosing people not having money. germany said they would pick up the salary of their people during the pandemic. where is the permanent sick

leave? the rent forgiveness? where is the guarantee that utilities can't be shut off? where is the money for undocumented workers and homeless? where is the direct money for those communities, people of color that are being hurt the most and poor communities like in up in appealacia kentucky? this is type of deals are a dereliction of duty that says too many people are still too comfortable with too many other people's deaths. that's part of the american reality? we have to -- which is what caught the the genocide and with people in power keep saying the next bill, the next bill or no bill, and we don't fight for it. people in power are too comfortable with other people's

death and it's time to stop this foolishness. >> thank you both very much. stick around, please. senator kamala harris is live, coming up next. harris is live, coming up next learn more at libertymutual.com/covid-19. [ piano playing ] in this time of crisis we run with them, toward those in need. we are 7,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and therapists supporting their efforts on the ground and virtually. and just as we are by their side, we're by yours, too. with answers to your most pressing questions and expert advice at cigna.com/covid19

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.

yeah. this moving thing never gets any easier. well, xfinity makes moving super easy. i can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. wow, that is easy. almost as easy as having those guys help you move. we are those guys. that's you? the truck adds 10 pounds. in the arms. -okay... transfer your service online in a few easy steps. now that's simple, easy, awesome. transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. visit xfinity.com/moving today. the idea that you have to stay in your mouse is disturbingly close to house arrest.

we're looking carefully at a number of these guidelines being put in face. if one goes too far, we try to jawbone the governors, and if people bring lawsuits, we filed persons of interest. as we await the live conference from governor cuomo, one of the many governors facing growing pressure to open their states. that pressure is now coming from attorney general william barr, who seems to prefer the role of hand of the king or trump's personal cop than the job of the nation's a.g., and he -- that he has no more authority over than trump has. trump is using his authority in interesting ways, given the fact that the united states has now surpassed 50,000 deaths with nearly a million confirmed covid-19 cases. this week dr. rick bright, whoa

led the federal agency involved in create ago coronavirus vaccine was abruptly dismissed, and reassigned by the administration. bright to told the "new york times" he believed his firing was because of his opposition to -- dr. bright said in a statement, quote -- science, not politics or cronyism has to lead the way. dr. bright is a career vaccine expert, and similar to an increasingly silenced dr. fauci, he insisted on sticking to the science. s brian harrison is a health and human services aide, for who six years ran dallas labradoodles. that's not code for some brace. instead it's exactly what it sounds like. the new hhs leader of the

covid-19 response does not have a formal background in med sage or public health, but instead was a dog trainer. this isn't just cronyism over normal politics. this is cronyism over saving lives. joining me is a democrat pushing for legislation to address this crisis. senator harris of california. good morning. i want to start by asking where we left off. >> good morning. >> that the idea the person in charge of trying to find a vaccine is dismissed and that hhs has now put in a former dog trainer to lead the response. what is going on here? is this something that the senate can investigate? >> i've been in the senate now three years and even before this pandemic, you is a you this administration attempt at every opportunity to reject science. literally there were moments

where they took the word science, climate change, off the web sites of the federal government. so this is -- you just have to track it. this is what this administration has been about, including that president obama instituted within the white house, because it was that high of a priority, a whole division to focus on pandemics, which donald trump got rid of, because he tried to get rid of everything that barack obama did as president. then there were a whole group of people who work for the federal government working in china, and they were dismissed by this administration, not to mention that donald trump from the beginning called it a hoch. he was on camera at least 34 times between january and early march, minimizing the serious any of the coronavirus. he has tried to place blame on others, muzzled his public health experts. this is just more of the same. i'm not shocked, i'm not surprised, but the reality of it is we have to deal with the fact

that at the core of this crisis is a public health issue. that's why even your clip about attorney general barr really has to be understood in this context of a public health crisis, because bill barr right now has his lawyers, who work for the federal government, who work for taxpayers, they're in the supreme court trying to get rid of the affordable care act that brought health care to 30 million people that didn't have it, that brought health care to people with preexisting conditions. this coronavirus, particularly preys on people with preexisting conditions. we want to make sure we have every apparatus that the federal government can supply to support people in having health care, and across the board this administration has rejected science and has attempted to deprive the american people to access to affordable health care. >> you gave probably some of the best questioning of his confirm hearings, so you have matched up with him before.

i want to play you what chris wallace, even on fox news there are people who are squinting their eyes at the things he's say, this is chris wallace's response to the idea that barr thinking he's going to go after blue states. >> i think it's talk on a talk radio show, and i wonder about the attorney general engaging in that kind of talk. the idea that the attorney general of the united states is going to get involved with a lawsuit in an individual state that perhaps goes against the president's guidelines and goes against the tenth amendment to the constitution? i don't see that happening. >> you yourself have been an attorney general. you know what the job involves. is that instrument, that what he is proposing, is that unstill as was explained by mr. wallace? >> listen, we -- each of us who hold public office and take an

oath as attorneys general, that every attorney general takes an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the united states, and to do that with the spirit of understanding we hold these positions in the public truth, meaning that our responsibilities is use the power that's been vested in us by the people in the best interest of the people. bill barr consistently since he was appointed and we went through those confirmation hearings, and it became clear from the beginning that he is the hand of the president and that he acts as the personal attorney of the president instead of the attorney of the people. on these issues, it's about attending to get arrive of the affordable care act. i've called bill barr and talked to his number two and what are they doing in terms of the

prison, what were they doling to release low-level offenders? people who are old, people who are sig, pregnant women? i've asked them to give guidance around the rasual profiling and hate crimes we're seeing against our asian-american brothers and. sisters. and good for chris wallace. good for him. california actually pays more into the federal coffers than it gets back from the federal government, so it affects, you know, california in that way, but states like kentucky, mitch mcconnell's over state, they actually take in more money from the federal government than they pay in. this is chutzpa to a lot of

folks, but what do you make of this argument? >> yeah, so let's unwhat he's suggesting. he's suggesting that the federal government should not support and give resources to aid state and local governments. let's deconstruct this. failure of leadership in the white house, and failure to act -- i went through the whole litany that trump did not do during a crisis -- what happened then is that it fell on local and state leaders, like so much of the mayors of california that i'm proud to know and work with. the governor of california. so many mayors and governors around the country, state and local leaders took on the responsibility on their shoulders to carry the weight of the burden of addressing this health crisis. they did that with their local and state resources. the federal government has a

respond to support them. and i don't know what the agenda is, but i will tell you that there's no question that in the next package, i'm still here in d.c. that we have to give state and local governments the support they need to complete their mission, which is to be on the ground supporting families, supporting people through their county public health systems to get through this pandemic and get through this crisis. >> i want to ask you a few things about that, because there is apparently going to be more legislation around this. we know that stephen miller in the white house and his allies are using this opportunity to try to put in place anti-immigrant provisions that they think will outlas the pandemic, so we have seen that happening. we haven't seen any action on trying to make sure the federal incarcerated population is protected.

we're also getting reports that at least three companies are getting bailouts, which is something that we asked senator schumer very specifically about that on this show, would that be prevented? is there a way in the next piece of legislation to address those issues directly? >> well, certainly. i know that at least among my democrat eccolleagues, there is the will and the desire to do just that. we need to address, for example -- stephen miller, listen, i called on him to resign months ago. he is -- he has vilified immigrants. he has had an agenda that i believe is born out of hate, an attempt to divide, reject the history of who we are as a country. he was the architect i believe of the muslim ban, of that whole vicious policy that was about separating children from their parents at the border. so what do we need to do in the next bill? we need to do a number of

things. we need to ensure that all people are having access to pretreatment, free testing and free treatment. we need to make sure in all federal facilities that people in detention centers or in prisons that they are safe. if they're not safe, they'll have to take drastic steps to ensure they are safe. we need to do a number of other things. part of the piece on small business, i am calling to say we need to have a tranche, a caveout for small businesses who have 20 or fewer employees, because they are on the ground and they are suffering. ben's chili bowl, right? an iconic place in washington, d.c., may close and never be able to reopen. these are some of the things i'm calling for. i'm calling in the next bill we pass, my vote smart and vote safe act, which is essential looking at the fact we're having this election coming up, and we need to make sure that people

can be safe. that means a number of things. one, not having people choose between their personal health and their right to vote. then encouraging states with $5 billion to institute vote by mail, to institute early voting, meaning at least 20 days before election day people can vote and do that according to their schedule. it means making those who do vote in person safe, curbside voting, requires states to put in place time limits, meaning that it would not be like wisconsin where people were in line for two, three hours, that states would have a standard that say people shouldn't have to wait in line for more than x number of minutes. i'm working with kiersten jill brand and bernie sanders, to stay the nap benefits are expanded by 30% and eliminate the work requirement, because guess what? 26 million people just lost their jobs in the last five

weeks. how can you expect people that snead snap benefits, that the only way they're bited to it is if they have a job? these are the things i'm fighting for and so many of us are. >> do you have enough co-sponsoring to be confidence that this very important piece of legislation to protect the vote it can pass? >> on that call, and rainbow push have endorsed our bill, and i do believe there should be bipartisan support for this empeople can vote for whatever

they want, but we want to make sure when they vote, people are safe. the reality is this, there are so many challenges that we have in convincing people even before this pandemic that their vote matters that elections matter. now there's a reason people think they shouldn't vote in terms of their safety. sew i think everyone should support this. >> we know, of course, that this pandemic has disproportionately impacted black americans and brown -- black and brown folks, people of color are actually being hit harder. >> yes. >> we know the majority of these voters tend to be democrats, right? it's likely most of these voters will likely support joe biden. i want to play a clip that i asked my producers to pull up. this was you at the debate in atlanta during the democratic primary.

i want to play that back for you for just a moment. >> for too long, i think, candidates have taken for granted constituencies that have been the backbroken of the democratic party. there are plenty of people who applaud black women for the success of the 2018 election, applauded black women for the election of a senator from alabama, but you know, at some point folks get tired of just saying, you know, thank me for showing up, and say, well, show up for me. the question has been to be where you been? and what are you going to do? >> i am sure you are aware, senator harris, of the conversations about who vice president joe biden should pick as his running mate. your name comes up frequently. i want to ask you this specifically, you're bringing up issues like the right to vote,

this pandemic that is hurting black folk, the yesterday of medicare for all, young black voters are really in support of as well. do you up foresee vice president joe biden turning to you or to another black woman as his vice president, and do you think it's important to have that kind of representation, as you said, for biden, for the party to show up for black women the way that black women have showed up for him specifically and for the party? >> well, i can say that vice president biden hat looked to so many of us to give him feedback, ideas, to share thoughts about what is in the best interest of this country. he's very generous that way, which is that he really does invite people's perspective, and he absorbs it, unlike the guy

who is currently in the white house, who is so self-involved he could care less about people's thoughts, much less that are sump. that's who joe biden is. i do stand by those words. when you look at the disparities this crisis has highlighted. all crises will highlight who was doing bad before, they'll do even worse in a crisis. we're seeing a disproportionate impact in terms of the number of deaths of black folks during this pandemic. you look at the fact that we're looking at black women have three times the rate of lupus than white women. it's an autoimmune disease and we need to make sure they're getting the medication and support they need. black maternal mortality, something i've been working on for years with so many others, which is that black women are three to four times more likely to die in connection with

childbirth and it has nothing to do with socioeconomic class, nothing to do with the educational level. it has to do when a black woman walks into a hospital, a clinic or doctor's office, she's not taken as seriously, which points to the racism and bias that's in these system that is existed long before this pandemic. i know joe biden cares about those issues, he and i have talked about those issues. that's why i'm supporting him for president. i do believe he takes seriously the important of having an administration and go. that reflects the people and looks like the people. >> does that mean having a woman of color, not just a woman -- any woman on the ticket? >> i believe it's very important to have a woman of color or a woman on the ticket, and i am sure -- you can take joe biden at his word, under like the current occupant of the white house. you can take him at his word.

i believe he will do that. >> my last question, i'm goods to press you win more time -- are you being vetted? for a lot -- at least for a lot of black women, women of color is less specific than saying a black woman, because that is the base of the democratic party. >> right. >> i am not aware if i'm being vetted, but i'm focused on what we're doing now with this coronavirus. i'm honored to be considered, if i am being considered, and there you go. there you go. >> but before we end this interview, if that's -- please, i urge all the of your viewers to push for this vote safe act. we have got to turn out our vote in november. it is critical. there's so many issues that are life-threatening on this ballot, and elections matter. i just want to end with at least a reminder folks that we got to make sure people are safe when they vote.

thank you, joy. thank you. absolutely. i'm sure people with google that information oar go to the website for the senator. >> yes. that's very important. >> please. >> thank you for reminds us of that. thank you. stay safe. brian harrison, the health and human services aide for six years ran a business called dallas lap ra doodles, was a dog breeder, not a dog trainer. very important different. we'll tell you -- we're much better off now. which of trump's friends might be tracking you very soon. that's next. u very soon. that's next. ♪go your own way copd tries to say go this way i say i'll go my own way with anoro. ♪go your own way once-daily anoro contains two medicines called bronchodilators that work together to significantly improve lung function

all day and all night. do not use anoro if you have asthma. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you a heart condition, high blood pressure, glaucoma, prostate, bladder or urinary problems. these may worsen with anoro. call your doctor if you have worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain while taking anoro. the most common side effects are sore throat, diarrhea and pain in the arms and legs. ask your doctor about once-daily anoro to start treating your copd. ♪go your own way save at anoro.com but when allergies and congestion strike, take allegra-d... a non-drowsy antihistamine plus a powerful decongestant. so you can always say "yes" to putting your true colors on display. say "yes" to allegra-d. to putting your true colors on display. when you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. but when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. so, when you get a check... you can deposit it from here.

and you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. you can save for an emergency from here. or pay bills from here. so when someone asks you, "where's your bank?" you can tell them: here's my bank. or here's my bank. or, here's my bank. because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. visit chase.com/mobile. introducing tide power pods with cat & nat. that is such a large load, don't the stains sneak through? new tide power pods can clean that... whole situation. it's like two regular tide pods and then even more power. even the largest of loads get clean. it's got to be tide.

from social networks to rocket hitch rocket ships. i'm not a politician, but neither is donald trump. he's a builder. it's time to rebuild america.

since his speech at the rnc convention in 2016, billionaire entrepreneur bill teal, the tech giant cofounded paypal, but now he runs palanteer, a firm used to track your data. it finds useful information for its clients, club the fbi, cia and department of defense. palantir has been used to keep data on immigrants, and even has had contracts with, get this, the census bureau. now "the daily beast" is reporting the trump administration has enlisted that have i country in a key role to track the virus and determining when states will reopen.

that means you are paying attention please explain what palantir is doing. this is certainly company that sounds like i don't want to have any of nigh data. >> what we have found is palantir is building the department of health and human services a platform to integrate data from a staggering amount of data sets from around the country. hhs says 187 data sets, including things like supply chain management for hospitals, bed space in hospitals dealing with coronavirus, information as well on where for that the new outbreak may be and their intensity. what we don't have a clear picture on is what access

palantir itself will have to that information. >> well, bloomberg feature on palantir was entitled "palantir knows everything about you." i wonder if they used that during governor rick scott's time. the fbi used it in a criminal probe. the department of homeland security deploying it to keep tabs on immigrants. this is a guy who in his mind believes that facebook should continue unfact-checked right wing ads. this is not a guy on the -- palantir is basically the weaponization of what hard varied business schools calls surveillance capitalism. all of the data that we generate from nearly everything we do, particularly in an economic sphere these days, all of it

being digital has a huge amount of implication for our privacy. what that really means is a huge implication for our freedom. palantir has built with the cia start-up money from an investment arm, has an incredible suite of tools that a variety of both law enforcement, intel jenks, military, commercial and civilian government sector entities used to monitor a tremendous a of what we do. the implications of this are really profound and they're only going to grow the more of data we generate. now this has moved into the public health sphere. that's a sphere where palantir has worked for times. they have built tools about ten years. they helped tractle the cholera outbreak for the cdc. during the trump administration,

it's po grown in side. this one particular tool they're sending to hhs, this thing called foundry, we found a contract for that basically a drop in the bucket, $7.5 million, but now what we have to find out is where that data actually goes and what happens to the data when they no longer need it. the history of surveillance over the past generation is once you build these tools and the government has them, they don't want to give them up, and they migrate into a permanent fixture. apple and google are reportedly building covid-19 contact tracing tools. it feels like -- i've always said it's not -- the government doesn't come up with things that have been owned inside the pentagon. they just use the stuff we use, right? private companies then to suck up our data, suck it up from our google, from our own input and they have it, and as we said, they don't know what they're going to do with it.

>> this tool as we understand it doesn't actually perform contact tracing, which is probably the most useful and direct form of tracking the virus. this is more about supply chain stuff, as we understand it. the biggest question i have, these apple and google tools -- there's another that oracle built that does have americans' health data in it. who has controls over it? who has access to it? under what conditions do they have access to it? how can they share the data within it? what sort of safeguards do we have to make sure our very sensitive data doesn't remain particularly without a warrant for it being collected within government hands, spreading around government hands to private businesses and contractors for, you know, however long they decide they're going to use it for. >> i mean, they are rules about sharing health data generally, right? you can't just share people's health data. this sounds like it's getting around what are normally barriers though be able to get

that. it's bad enough we lose track of our personal data, our financial data, et cetera, or shopping data. this is your health data. >> again, we don't really know if actual health data is going to be integrated into this hhs protect now tool that they're using palantir for. however, there's a huge amount of questions that surround both the data atmosphere that you mentioned in general and specifically how this tool is going to interact or if it will at all with these other teals for contact tracing, this other platform for actual health data with oracle is supposed to be a lot of laws about this, but again, the history of the path 20 years when it came to counter-terrorism is that those laws really get ignored or stretched to the point of meaninglessness in the face of a crisis or in the face of a government demand to address it. there's no one that you can use

to bomb or kill here or lock up, but that's not, you know, any real paia tiff in terms of what happens to this data as it migrates within to a government apparatus that's trying to stop the outbreak of, you know, a pandemic. >> so, i guess the question i would have for those listens to this in alarm, do these other counter-programs like delete me, or other services that allow people to take themselves off the grid or not allow the intensive, intrusive surveillance of their lives, are those things effective at stopping a company like palantir? you're shaking your head no. >> absolutely not. what we have done is create an economic or society in which everything we do weaves a digital record and trace. you can scrape a fair amount of your data off-line, but there are always more sophisticated tools to find of remnants of it.

you can't backdate and get rid of every single cookie that you've touch, that's touched your browsing history or messaging history. there's not a great way of doing that, and there are always going to be markets, particularly a as -- you know, this is the awful future that we live within, for more powerful commercial tools to go back and get what they want out of you. last question would be, are there any reg that i see in error reporting that you've been able to uncover? is this regulated by any law? >> for the health data stiff, hipaa is supposed to be the law that applies. with this, there's a lot of data already provided to the government from state, from local municipalities, from hospitals, from private entities, tracking supply-chain information. that's considered less sensitive

data so there's fewer amounts of safeguards surrounding that. that's something that will be going forward. >> i guess, just to follow up here, this is actually scary. you're looking at it in and out from the front end. this thing i guess has been created yet? what is the status of it now. is this something that already exists? >> we were expecting an announcement from the white house this week. it turns out the briefings went in different directions than i would have anticipated, but we found on daubs the contract that is being final iced on wednesday, 7.5 million, so it's a drop in the bucket. this is supposed to be pretty much, as i understand it, a plug-and-play up platform, they already have foundry, but a lot of the specifics particularly

the roll-out we don't have yet. what we understand is that dr. birx have been using information collectively to helps inform the government's task force response to this, and, you know, when you think about it, this is also not just a health tool, this is a powerful economic tool. this is supposed to inform the government task force about where in the country can be safely reopened for economic activity. again, the implication than this stretch, not just from the health corns that are essential, but the economic concerns that are a second-order correlation from. up. spencer, thank you. this is terrifying. i'm going to enscourge everyone to read your at the time article in "the daily beast." thank you so much for being

here. i'm going to turn to governor cuomo, who has taken the desk. > . we are back where we were 21 days ago. when we will back to the back to the point where we're only 700 people showed up at the hospitals every day with the covid infection. that's what we want to see. we want to know how fast that decline continues, and how low the decline gets. we would like to get back to the days of only 400, 3500 people on

the down side of the mountains -- as little tick up, and there will be some evidence we're not on decline, but all the evidence, being stable for a number of days -- number of days. 1100 new cases. again, we'd like to see that down into the two, three, 400 new cases per day. just when you think you're going to have a new day, this reality slaps you in the face, 437 deaths ideas.

yesterday. which is actually a tick up. this number is, as you can see, called it flat, call it flat with a slight decline, if you're looking for a silver lining, but this is just terrible, terrible, horrific news. testing is what we are obsessively focused on noun. the andy body testing, we do about 20,000 tests per day average, goes up and down a bit. we had a great meeting with the federal government this week and came up with a division of respond. i spoke to the other governors about it yet, all governors i spoke about the arrange with the federal government.

i hope the federal government and the other governors find that temp palace, because it's a template that makes sense. we always said this was a federal/state partnership. the president said he understood the federal government had a r0e8. we came up with a division of responsibility, which is basically the states take responsibility for the labs in their state in getting those labs functioning. and the federal government would make sure the manufacturers had the tests, reagent, all the equipment that the national manufacturer needs to be able to send to our labs so our labs can actually financial they have these machines they bought from national manufacturers, but the machine requires the test kids and reagents specifically for that machine.

it's like you buy a printer from a company for your computer like a color printer, but the printer requires cartridges from that company you you can have a fancy printer, but if you can't get the replacement cart ridges that printer is a paperweight, right? we need the national manufacturers said -- but it's working here in new york, we're see the numbers of tests increases. new york state is already doing more test we're actually doing more tests around the country the -- as we're increasing the

capacity of the labs, okay, so now our 300 labs are getting more equipment, more supplies, they can do more tests now we need more collection mechanisms, more places to collect the test data so they can send it to the labs, right? the labs run those sampling, get those sampling back to the people. we have boosted the lab capacity to an extend where we need more collection sites now. we going to authorize all the independent pharmacists to be collection sites for testing. i assume -- and my guess and my ed indicated guess is that independent pharmacists will take us up on this and there are 5,000 pharmacies in new york state.

some of them have already been doing it. people ko go to their local collection sites. that could quickly ramp up our collection capacity. so we're doing that. and since we now have more collection sites, more testing capacity, we can open up statistic eligibility for those on tests. we had a protocol for eligibility, not everybody could get a test. that's been the biggest complaint. they couldn't get tests, because we had a tight screen on the eligibility, because we had a limited capacity to test. as you increase the capacity to test, you can increase the

eligibility. first responders, healthcare workers, and essential employees. why? because these people have been carrying the load, and they have been subjected to you get on a bust, this is the subway conductor. you are interacting with government, these are the people who you are interacting with. if they're infected, they could possibly spread it to a large number of people. we are dramatically flocking the capacity with these groups. firefighters, paramedics, emts, police officers, police officers, state, local, county, sheriffs, et cetera. also correction/parole officers, probation officers, people in

the prisons, they can now go to the increased number of collection sites in the state, they're eligible to get a test. healthcare workers, broad definition, direct care providers, healthcare practitioners, medical specialists, occupational therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, recent doenchal care program managers. if you're working in a residential facilities, community group residents, you're now able to get a test. and, quote/unquote essential workers. the people who have been keeping everything running. when we say we closed down the economy, we really didn't close it down. we closed it down relative to what the economy was doing, but you still go to the store and buy groceries, your lights are still on, right? someone is picking up the

garbage in front of your house. so those essential workers have been functioning all along, and these essential workers, and god bless them, we want to make sure they are now eligible for tests, again, because they've been working all along, they've been exposed, and also when you go into the dry cleaner, this is the personal on the other side of the counter who is interacting with dozens of people a day. we want to make sure those people get tested. as we continue to -- the collection sites are opening, the more testing we have, the more we will open eligibility. hopefully one day we get to the point where anybody who wants a test can walk in and get a test,

right? that was the dream. we quickly found out we couldn't do that. we had to prioritize, we still are prioritizing, but we're opening that up. the more capacity, the more we'll open the eligibility criteria. we're also focusing on our healthcare workers and first responders. we're doing antibody testing for our frontline healthcare workers, and we're starting today coming up to scale with four facilities in downstate new york. obviously downstate new york handled the bulk of the cases, not just in this state, but for the nation. we're going to those hospitals who had a large number of covid

cases come in. we're doing antibody testing as quickly as we can, and the largest scale we can. elm hurst hospitals was one of the new york city's public hospitals whether we talk about hospitals downstate, there's about 100 hospitals. about 11 of the 100 are called public hoptsds. new york city runs them. as part of their health and hospitals corporation, those public hospitals really saw a large number of people and they are under stress, frankly under stress even before the covid situation. elm hurst hospital, which made national news, montefiore, suny downstate, is only a covid hospital. you want to talk about god's work, that's where it's

happening. we want to get them the antibody testing. we're also going to do significant antibody testing in downstate new york with those frontline transit workers also. people have been working for the mta, they're transit workers union members, they have kept the city operational. you need the buses and subways. if you want to have the hospitals running, the grocery stores running, those employees have to get to work. the mta, the buts, the subways did that for us, god bless them. and then the police, the first responders who are out there because we have to be safe, and we have to be safe even during covid. so nypd was out there. they have large number of people who became sick because of the

situation, state police, same thing, so we're going to be doing significant antibody testing there. we've said thank you to the first responders, and we meant it sincerely, and saying thank you is a good start. people want to know that they're appreciated, but even better than saying thank you, actions speak louder than words, right? so show me that you're thankful, and act like you're thankful, and get me the help i need. i'm out here doing my job, it's might public duty, i get it, but i'm sacrificing myself, sacrificing my family, at least show me support. and support is you have the equipment you need, you have the tools you need, and we're going to get you testing on a priority basis, because you deserve it. last point, personal opinion, somebody said i can't do this anymore, people are feeling the

stress on a number of levels. they're not getting a paycheck. their life is on hold. is my business going to come back? do i have a job at the end of this? my whole life has been disoriented, i can't take it anymore. i get it. i really do fundamentally get it. this has been a god-awful situation on many, many levels. many people i'm sure saying this in their own way. who said it to me is not important, but it was one of my daughters. i won't tell you which one, though, just to protect their privacy. i get the feeling. today is day 56. it's been 56 long days generations are called upon to deal with high levels of

difficul difficulty. we are called responsible to deal with this crisis. 1918 pandemic we arennt on for darcy. the agree depression we-- great went on for four years. you want to talk about people losing homes, not being able to feed themselves. people living in camps. people living in cars. world war ii, six years the vietnam war went on for eight years. i get 56 days is a long time. i get it's the worst thing that we have experienced in modern history ma history. but a bit of perspective. yes, in life things happen.

on an individual level and on a societal level. things happen and you have to deal with it. it's hard, but on the other hand, it makes us who we are, right? you get shaped by your experiences. this is a terrible experience to go through, but we will manage it, we will handle it, and we will be the better for it. 56 days, all this inconvenience, yeah, think of it this way -- what you're doing is actually saving lives. that's not rhetorical. that's not overly dramatic. you are saving lives. what we have done here has saved lives. every expert, every expert, cdc, white house task force, cornel university, columbia university,

mckenzie, the group that bill gates funded, every one of them projected there would be at least 100,000 more serious infections in the state of new york 1700,000 more serious infections. what happened? we did what had to do, which was hard and is hard. well, what did we accomplish? 100,000 fewer serious infections. that's what 56 days of our relative living through hell has accomplished. that is a heck of an accomplishment. so, yes, it's not for naught. 100,000 fewer infections. and, look, life is better than

death, even if it is not your own. a.j. parkinson -- even if you're 22, and you're 25, and you're strong and you're healthy and say, you know what? even if i get coronavirus, it's not going to affect me, because it doesn't affect the young. with a little caveat there -- except when it does and your life might have been the one that it did affect, but even if you're right, i'm 22, i'm 25, i would have been just fine. yeah, but who could you have infected? and maybe they weren't going to be fine, because they weren't 22 and they weren't 25, because they were 65 and because they had diabetes, or they had hypertension, or they had an underlying heart condition, or because they were recovering from cancer and a cancer operation, and you infection that person and that person dies

because you got infect ed that' the as reality. 56 days of pain, yes, yes, relative to the past and what other societies have gone flip. bad, but not the worst that people have gone through. what did we accomplish? 100,000 fewer infections in the state of new yorks, and we actually saved lives. that's what we did. that's what we're doing, and that's inarguable. personal opinion is i believe everything we did was worth it. people can argue that point, but that's what we did. for me that's a heck of an accomplishment and one to family good about, and one that new

yorkers will be proud of, because it is what new york is about, being smart, unified and loving. so maybe the life you saved is not your own. okay, but you saved a live. questions? >> reporter: you want over the past week reopening things, but does that not undermine the tristate-plus approach to coordinate other states to reopen things when one state may take varies approaches. >> good question, you're right, that's why it has to be balanced with the tristate approach. tristate approach with then expanded to the other states, right? we have seven states, understanding the individuality of a region within that context.

so you can look at one region, look at north country, central new york and say, well, look, on our numbers we are okay. okay. on your numbers as a region. but people have cars, people are mobile, people have been cooped up. whatever you do, you can't trigger a reaction in that tristate area, and you could see people from across that tristate area come to year rougen, because you are now the place where i can get a haircut, you are the place where i can walk down main street, get an ice cream store and have the kids go in and slop. that's the balance to all of this. that's what we're working through. >> reporter: it's not something that's been figured out yet, correct? >> that's exactly right. the whole discussion is premature, but it's something we are working through right now. we're working with the state

collision, we're working with region region regional coalitions. >> reporter: we started a meeting with our partners at the very end of last week. one of the founding principles we laid out between states is the important of the border states. there wassage understanding that everybody is acknowledging that everyone has -- in their own states. so the example of -- upstate new york, massachusetts, southern tier of pennsylvania, really honing in the tristate area with new jersey and contract contract. again it won't necessarily work out that aligns perfectly, but that was one of the main principles we set out is that sensitivity to the regions with the borders. >> reporter: -- unveil in a formal way? >> we're working to try to come to a consensus on principles, but there's an acknowledgement among the states they'll all by

on -- the major goal is to not undermine even each areas success. there's no timeline yet. >> reporter: april 29th days for to report back to work on that date, and then april 12th. >> we'll be speaking to that in the next couple days. the tests at the pharmacies will be diagnostic tests, positive/negative, not antibody tests. >> reporter: international pharmacies, not just collect -- they'll just be collected there? can you go to a pharmacy and get a test. >> the pharmacy will collect the test. the pharmacy sends to the lab, the lab conducts the test. so