i'm ari melber. we appreciate you tuning in. that does it for our hour. but i will see you back here tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. eastern. stay informed, stay safe. keep it right here on msnbc. good evening. i'm steve kornacki in new york. the coronavirus pandemic in this country has now surpassed another grim milestone. as of today, there are now more than 1 million confirmed positive cases in the united states. and more than 58,000 americans have now lost their lives to this virus. this afternoon, president trump said the worst days of the pandemic are now behind us. he was asked about that 1 million case number in light of his own previous attempts to downplay the crisis.

>> how did we get from your prediction of zero to 1 million? >> well, it will go down to zero ultimately. you have to understand when it comes to cases we do much more testing than anybody else. very good experts, very good people said this what would never affect the united states, it wouldn't affect europe or anything outside of china. so we were listening to experts and we will always listen to experts but the experts got it wrong. a lot of people got it wrong. >> more and more states this week have announced plans to begin to reopen their economies at least partially. yesterday the administration laid out a blue print for testing with the goal of testing roughly 2% of the population each month. nbc's kristen welker asked if that plan goes far enough. >> some health experts says the u.s. needs 5 million tests per day to safely reopen. owe increased the testing but not by that much.

why not and can you get to that benchmark? >> well, it will increase it and it will increase it by much more than that in the near future. not everyone feels strongly about testing as others. we have some governors who are strong on testing. and others who aren't. their tests are much more modest and real test is when people stop getting sick. >> you're confident you can surpass 5 million tests per day? >> well, we'll be there very soon. >> the president took another drastic step today announcing he would sign an executive order to mandate meat processing plants stay open amid the pandemic and to provide liability protections. amid all of this, one of the most closely watched tracking models, revised the estimated death toll upward to more than 74,000 by august. president trump was also asked about intelligence he received about the scope of the virus earlier this year and in

light of "the washington post" report that claims quote, u.s. intelligence agencies issued warnings about the novel coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings in january and february. months during which he continued to play down the threat. >> after -- i would have to check. i want to look at the exact dates of warnings. but i can tell you this. when i did the ban on china, almost everybody was against me including republicans. and there was -- i think we saved whether it was luck, talent or something else, we saved many thousands of lives. >> and i'm joined now by senator chris murphy of connecticut. senator, thanks for joining us. there has been a lot of talk about testing over the last few weeks. i think we well established the united states was behind and has been behind when it comes to ramping this up. the administration is now talking and you heard the president there confidently saying this is going to be dramatically increased where i

think we're at about 230,000 tests today in this country. he's talking about dramatically increasing it from there. do you see the united states now being on track to get where the president's talking about? >> absolutely not. there's nothing that the president said in the clips that you just showed which is true. he has no plan to get the united states anywhere near 5 million tests. every single day, it's my state of connecticut that is fighting, that is scraping that is clawing to get more testing capacity into our state. a state that's on the front line of this epidemic. we are receiving almost no help from the federal government. you know what the president can do? he can use the powers that have been given to him to start commanding manufacturers, make more of the components necessary for these tests. he refuses to do that. so he has capabilities right now that would allow him to produce more tests domestically. he is not common deering all of the manufacturing capacity of

this country. you know why we can't do tests in connecticut right now? we would do more if we had swabs. if this president in january or february or early march had seen this epidemic coming he could have started the domestic production of something like swabs to put us in the better position than today. it is not true we are on a pace to do that number of tests and not true that the federal government is assisting states in the way they need assistance. >> i'm curious as an elected official trying to manage this, what do you think a reasonable target is on testing? i think we're at 230,000 a day right now. we have been seeing this $5 million number. i have heard numbers lower than that. from your stand point as an elected official, where do you think we need to be? >> so let me just take my state of connecticut. we're doing about 3,000 tests a day in my state. we likely need to be doing about

ten times the amount that we are today in order to reopen. why? because we have to have the ability to test not just symptomic officials but asymptomatic individuals. we have to go into the nursing homes or prisons or densely populated neighborhoods and test people who aren't show symptoms an get on top of the new outbreak before it breaks out of othat area. we don't have the means to do that without a federal government that's helping us. without a federal government that is manufacturing more of these components and helping make sure that they get to the places that are of the highest need. we don't have a plan from the federal government to get us in connecticut where we need to get to. >> you mentioned there that the powers the president has at least that he could use if he chose to through the defense production act, he did talk today about invoking that through an executive order that would affect the meat processing industry. saying that the food chain here,

that we heard the tyson's ceo there saying the food chain is in the process of breaking right now and the president said he'll sign an executive order that he says will declare meat processing, and he seemed to suggest there's liability protection to keep that open. what's your reaction to what the president is about to do on that front? >> yeah, i think it's pretty wild that the president is willing to use the defense production act to guarantee more meat production, but he's not willing to use the defense production act to guarantee more testing production or more mask production. reports suggest that the big health care industries through the chamber of commerce have been lobbying the president to refrain from using his powers to require more manufacturing be done and to set prices to make sure that there isn't gouging happening. there are big health care industries that are making a lot of money off of the scarcity of tests, the scarcity of swabs,

the scarcity of masks. you know, right now i fear the president is putting the profits ahead of the safety of my constituents. then he's just lying to the american people when he says that this is a plan being run by his administration to deliver 5 million tests per day in this country. that's just not true. it gives a since of false confidence to the american people that i think it's really dangerous. >> so i understand your point, you'd like to have him invoke the defense production act when it comes to testing, when it comes to critical supplies but in terms of whether he's doing it with meat processing plants, the justification again here is hey, he says the food chain is in danger of breaking here. this needs to be done to help prevent that. on that front and that front alone, do you agree or disagree with that action today? >> well, i think you have to look at the two in conjunction. i'm not going to disagree that there are elements of the food distribution chain today that needs federal support. but remember he's not just

ordering these manufacturing plants to get back online. he's ordering all of the manufacturing workers to go back in to places where with they could transmit the disease. so you need to make sure if you're doing to force thousands of meat packing workers to go back to work there's testing in the sites so you can shut down the facility if there starts to be signs of an outbreak. and so i just worry that this administration doesn't think before it acts. if we're sending all of the employees back into the meat industry without the testing protections, without the tracing and quarantine systems that need to be built and the reopening i'm not sure the good being done is going to outweigh the danger. >> chris murphy, thank you for joining us, i appreciate it. this morning, dr. anthony fauci believes it is inevitable that the virus will return this coming fall. if it ever goes away at all. >> so it's not going to disappear from the planet, which

means as we get into next season in my mind it's inevitable that we will have a return of the virus or maybe never went away. when it does, how we handle it will determine our fate. >> and this afternoon, fauci said that everyone who needs a test should be able to get one by june. >> everyone who needs a test according to the way we're approaching the identification, isolation, contact tracing, keeping the country safe and healthy that will hopefully we should see that as we get towards the end of may, the beginning of june. jake, that's what i'm being told by the people who are responsible for the testing. i take them for their word. if that doesn't happen, i'm going to go to them and say what happened here? why didn't it happen? and how can we fix it? >> i'm joined now by dr. joseph fair, a virologist and science

contributor and yamiche alcindor. thank you for being with us. we had a discussion with senator murphy about the issue of testing. i think you have done some research on this topic so i'm curious what you think the number that the united states needs to be at in terms of daily testing. again we're talking about 5 million. i think it was scott gottlieb who says it needs to be more like 500,000. where do you think it needs to land? >> it is going to depend on -- let me say it this way. it's going to determine if this virus ends up being a seasonal virus like dr. fauci was just saying. will we see a second wave that's due to seasonality of the virus meaning it will drop off, maybe starting in may and june and kind of stay that way until september and then going into october when our normal cold and flu season starts pick back up again up or going to stay with us throughout the summer?

we don't know. it's hard to say at one time how many diagnostics we'll need. having a diagnostic for everyone that needs one that accounts for everybody being tested once. so assuming it's not covid-19, a lot of people will have to be retested if they're still naive to covid-19, that means they can still get it and have another covid-19 at some point in their life. i think ideally we'll be -- as my professional opinion be more on the 5 million of the diagnostic needs rather than the 500,000. it depends on what you're looking for, but to go back to work safely as a country the 5 million number is more accurate. >> yamiche, you heard that interview there with dr. fauci. he is being told that we'll be at that level, that testing level about a month from now, late may or early june.

i think the expression was i'll take them at their word on that, i'll have an issue with them if they don't. that seems to be leaving wiggle room there. that it will actually happen. what is happening behind the scenes right now in terms of the administration trying to get that number, trying to get the numbers up on testing? >> well, the white house says that they're trying to ramp up testing by having public/private partnerships with a number of retail companies including rite aid and all of the ceos that the white house had on the white house lawn a couple of days so the white house is feeling like they need to continue to ramp up testing. of course, using money from the congressional bill to use that -- those resources to ramp that up. but i think one thing that's really critical is that when you hear dr. fauci say well, anyone who needs a test can get a test, possibly this summer essentially and he's couching that very carefully the president a month ago said anyone who needs a test can get a test right now. that was a month ago when that

wasn't true. it's not true. it wasn't true then and not true now. so what the president has is a political problem, which is that there are a lot of people who think that the president is not credible when it comes to teftsing because he made that at the time the misleading statement when it comes to testing. >> well, meanwhile, quest diagnostics said that individuals can order a coronavirus antibody test online in a push to broaden covid-19 screening. cnbc pointed out it doesn't guarantee immunity but physicians say a positive antibody test means you have protection against a reinfection. we talk about the testing but the antibody testing will tell you if you ever had it. somebody who maybe a month or two months ago said i was having the symptoms. talk about the significance of being able to test for that and also i understand there's some

questions here about how reliable these tests are. what can you tell us there? >> well, i think the one that is being offered by quest does have some form of fda approval to it if i'm correct. i may be wrong on that but i believe it has some fda approval and that gives you a bit more confidence in it. there are a lot of tests because the fda has relaxed their rules regarding antibody tests in the united states that are flooding the market, especially from china, that are not necessarily specific for covid-19. so they would give you what you would call a false positive by reacting with the seasonal coronavirus that cause the common cold, et cetera. knowing where with the different components that come from the -- that make the tests is essential and, you know, making sure that those are validated especially against covid-19 or sars. sars is so closely related to the virus that causes covid-19 it's called sars-cov-2 and it

works very well. the important of having the tests is to one, know if you had covid-19 or not and eventually we'll know if the antibodies are neutralizing or protective antibodies and if that confirms you are vaccinated against covid-19 for some period of time. in the laboratory when studied for when we study the macaws they couldn't be reinfected with covid-19 so you may have some protection. >> appreciate that. dr. joseph fair and yamiche alcindor, thank you both. coming up, florida's governor meeting where the president and has the curve been flattened enough in the sunshine state? stay with us. in the sunshine state? stay with us and into the unknown... for all of us.

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government. ron has been great. and some of your friends some of the other governors have done a good job and some haven't i'll be honest with you. >> well, florida governor ron desantis was at the white house with the president and they announced a new milestone. 700 new cases are bringing the cases to nearly 33,000 and 83 new deaths reported today. the highest number reported on a single day. however, that might not be due to the spike, but rather the way that the state accounts for deaths spread out over the week. the state has regularly reported fewer new deaths on sundays and mondays based on weekly averages. in fact, if you add together today's high number with the low numbers reported over the weekend, it's actually less than the total for the same period last week. overall, florida's death toll sits at nearly 1,200 right now. desantis visit comes at a time when trump's ability to win

florida this fall as he did in 2016 is in question. three recent polls found president trump trailing his democratic challenger. former vice president joe biden. "miami herald" reports that the governor's own standing has seen a slight dip although the overall approval rating is nearly 60%. democrats have accused desantis of being too late in responding to the virus and failing to help expedite soaring unemployment claims. the governor said he'll unveil new plans to reopen the state tomorrow and has said that different regions may open at different paces. for more, i'm joined by charlie crist, former governor of florida. thank you for joining us. so your state's governor was at the white house today and is teeing up a potential announcement tomorrow. what is your sense of what he's announcing here and do you think the pace is too fast or too slow

or just right? >> i don't know that anybody knows to be sure. but i think you try to be to the best with what you have. i have heard people talk about the situation, trying to build a plane while flying it. what i've heard in the opportunity that the governor had with the president today, he talked about a fairly moderate opening, if you will. sort of a phase one as a beginning. and then moving slowly and prudently. i'm encouraged by that because i read recently in "time" magazine an article about the prefecture of ok e ido which had shut down and had a stay at home order early on and then had the curve start to bend down. so the governor lifted it. you know, quite a little bit ago and then they had a surge. all of a sudden. where the incidents of the

infection started to go back up rapidly. so they had to shut back down again as a state in japan. so you know we need to from what other states and other countries are doing and be prudent and smart and cautious. from my perspective, you want to err on the side of saving lives. the economy is important, everybody gets that. but what's more important than saving life? i don't think anything. so i think that the governor needs to be prudent and smart. >> let me ask you this. i think this is an issue in florida, an issue nationally too. when folks are looking at this picture in terms of cases and deaths it's not spread out evenly. we saw it nationally, almost half the deaths are in the new york metro area and in florida, 60% of the deaths in your state as i'm sure you know are in miami, dade, broward, palm beach. they account for less than 30% of the population but nearly 60% of the cases.

nationally and in florida, what do you think of the idea of regional reopenings? hey, this part the reopen, this part of the country maybe reopens, this one doesn't. is that feasible, something we should be thinking about right here? >> sure, why not? it sounds practical. utilizing common sense. you're right, the southeastern part of florida has been hit the hardest, no question about it. as you cited, the new york city metro has been hit significantly worse than any other part of the country. why not look at that and say, you know, maybe the southeastern part of florida should be delayed a bit because they are having the highest incidents of death. i mean, that just sounds like logic and clear thinking and sober judgment. so i think that that is something that could be utilized, steve. i hope that the governor will take that into account. here in tampa bay the numbers are pretty low, thank god. pretty low. and hopefully it will stay that way. but i think more caution where

you have more trouble is just the right formula for anybody who's an office holder and wants to put forward good public policy for the people's benefit. >> all right. congressman charlie crist, thank you for taking a few minutes. >> my pleasure, steve. up next, we'll head over to the big board. we'll take a look at some numbers around trump. the election, his opponent this november. there's still an election this year. might look a little different and we'll talk about where it stands after this. lk about wher stands after this. won't be a new thing. and it won't be their first experience with social distancing. overcoming challenges is what defines the military community. usaa has been standing with them, for nearly a hundred years. and we'll be here to serve for a hundred more.

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i want to add my voice to the many who have endorsed you to be our president. just think of what a difference it would make right now if we had a president who not only listened to the science, put facts over fiction, but brought us together. >> all right. hillary clinton officially endorsing joe biden for president earlier -- you didn't think she was going to endorse trump did you? but officially the former democratic nominee from last time around endorses the presumptive nominee this time around. i have some interesting numbers comparing clinton and biden as candidates. some interesting numbers on trump. on the head to head here. the big question on trump always the approval rating. and look, as this coronavirus

pandemic was really taking hold, his approval rating this doesn't look like much on paper, 47 approve, 50 disapprove. this was actually basically as good as trump has ever gotten as president. he got a little -- stress little, but he got a bounce at the start of the approval rating and what's happened over the course of the month it's kind of receded to base line here. 47, it's gone down to 45. this is more consistent with what we have been seeing from trump before. that little bounce has kind of receded. in terms of where that leaves him against joe biden this is the average biden 48%, trump 42%. in the head to head more importantly, the electoral college, these key states in 2016, here's biden leading in michigan by eight. here's biden leading by eight in pennsylvania. a state trump won narrowly. here is biden leading in florida, a state that trump won narrowly. here is biden leading it by

three point. one thing we're noticing, the difference between biden as a candidate and hillary clinton as a candidate. at least as of right now. so take a look at this. what you're seeing here are the three key states, michigan, pennsylvania and florida. this is the exit poll from 2016. it's the favorable/unfavorable. these were historically unpopular candidates and trump was 20 points more unfavorable than favorable. and clinton 14 points. a lot of people didn't like either candidate and a lot of the people who didn't like either candidate broke for trump. how -- that was the story in '16. now right now, you notice this is different. here's the biggest difference. you see blue here for biden. biden is above water. he is more favorable than unfavorable in michigan, pennsylvania and florida. hillary clinton was nowhere near

that. biden is. that might be changing the dynamic a bit. that favorable/unfavorable game that worked to trump's benefit in '16. look at the polls right now. that's a difference. let's see if that lasts but that looks like a big difference. up next, trump was banking on a booming economy to give him re-elected. will supporters give him a pass in the current economic crisis? in the current economic crisis the 3:40 mid-shift migraine medicine. introducing ubrelvy™. it's the migraine medicine for anytime, anywhere a migraine attacks without worrying if it's too late or where you happen to be. one dose of ubrelvy™ can quickly stop a migraine in its tracks within two hours. many had pain relief in one hour. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. few people had side effects, most common were nausea and tiredness. ask your provider about ubrelvy™ or access doctors from home with telemedicine. migraines can strike anytime, anywhere.

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i think you're going to have a recovery. look, i built -- they were just telling me inside and it's fact, i built the greatest economy with the help of 325 million people. i built the greatest economy in the history of the world. we had to close our country. we had to close our economy. i built it. >> welcome back. that was president trump last night taking sole credit for quote building the greatest economy in the world and it

comes as the economic adviser warns that the decline listen the worst since the great depression. already trailing in the polls against joe biden as we just showed you, this sudden economic downturn has put his electoral prospects in question. as nbc news reports the campaign advisers believe that a strong bounce in the economy will be critical if trump is to win re-election. his partisan coronavirus briefings are not helping his cause, even mitch mcconnell said it was quote, probably a good idea to shorten them. but while trump's candidacy appears weakened at this moment, the dynamic we are seeing may resemble that of 2016. when of course donald trump defied seemingly long odds to win the white house. conservative columnist henry olson argued in "the washington post" that the president quote may have a secret stash of voters that makes the race closer than it currently appears that is because according to the polls, quote, more people approve of trump's job performance than say they will

vote for him. and i'm joined now by the author of that piece, henry olson from the ethics and public policy center and steve schmidt, former republican. i'm looking forward to this discussion because i think you both see the politics of the moment a little differently. i'm interested in getting both perspectives on this. henry, let me go to you, because we put your column up there. i want you to explain what you mean by that. we put those numbers up a minute ago. i can show them to set you up here. trump's approval rating right now -- this is what you're arguing, his approval rating is both can see, it's at 45.6% and his standing against joe biden in the head to head race is lower than that 45.6. 42%. so take us through the argument you're making here. >> going back to 1972 which is as far back as we have accurate polling data in a year when the president is running for

re-election, that president has on election day always gone within half a point to a point of his final job approval standing. that if somebody says they will approve of his job, they end up voting for him. and that's gone in the case for republicans, it's been the case for democrats. every time since 1972 this has happened. so there's no particular reason to think that that won't hope for donald trump and what i'm looking at right now is the job approval rating. just as in 2016, there were a lot of republicans who told pollsters right up until the day of the election that they would vote for a third party candidate, but -- pretty strongly that if people approve of the job now they will come home to him if they still approve of his job in november. that means he's probably a lot closer to biden although still behind than the head to head numbers suggest. >> so steve schmidt, henry is

painting a picture of 2016 all over again. trump trailing in the polls. having all sorts of gaffes, folks saying there's no path here and yet on election day a path reveals itself. does that -- as a trump critic here is that something that haunts you as a real possibility? >> well, i think as a trump critic who thinks that donald trump could be re-elected as president of the united states and this is the most consequential election since 1864. henry's exactly right. presidential candidates going to perform within about a half a point of that approval number and he's correct when you can look back at presidential elections all the way to 1972 when we first started tracking such things. i would disagree a little bit to look at that number and to say without contact that it's a sign

of strength for the president. i think when you look inside the numbers, and you look specifically about his handling of this crisis, about his preparedness, whether people think we waited too long, all of those things they show a real dereliction of duty. they show a real distrust by the american people, a real unease with trump's handling of all of this. now, we lock at it -- at the electoral map and for example look at a state like texas, which over time is going to trend purplish and trend blue. i can't sit here tonight and tell you what's going to happen in the state of texas when there are food lines that are hours long, miles long, and when people get up to them who were working just a month or so ago to get food that they have never thought they'd ever be in that position and they don't get it. stripping away of dignity.

the magnitude of the recovery that will need to follow here and the fact that trump is basically saying everything will be fine by august which is clearly not the case. as we get into the fall, the question of the election is going to be who can lead this country out of one of the most epic disasters it's ever faced and when you have an incumbent who's talking about people shooting up lysol to deal with the coronavirus, it would suggest that he's not up to the job and in the end there's only two types of elections. there's change elections and more of the same. and so the question is for the american people, will they look at all of this in its totality and say, yeah, we want four more years of this? and i'm skeptical that's going to be the outcome. >> in terms of your efforts to bring the outcome of where trump is not re-elected your group the lincoln project has a new ad out slamming the president for the way he has handled this crisis.

we'll take a look at it here. >> how would you rate your response to this crisis? >> i'd rate it a 10. i want them on the appreciative of me. we have monday night football type -- like bachelor finale. i have hundreds of millions of people on facebook. we have really done this right. you know i was number one on facebook? people were amazed. i'm number one on facebook. everybody was amazed. i was never involved in a model. i have been right a lot. at least this kind of model. we have done an extraordinary job. >> you heard the case that steve made and this is the ad, this the type of attack that needs to be made against the president for the way he's handling this. does that change the equation in a way that hurts trump? >> well, i think what it does is reinforce the 52% of the people who say they don't like or disapprove of donald trump right now reinforces their

pre-existing beliefs. the challenge for trump is how to get his job approval rating up to around the 47 to 48% range nationally. because if he can get himself up to that he'll be at or over 50% to win the electoral colleges. he has to have a good answer for this and he has to switch the message. he has to switch who how do we handle the recovery and people trust him on the economy more than joe biden and nationalism. that's a ground that he's pretty strong on. i'm not saying he's going to succeed in it. but he has strong arguments to make and all he has to do is improve his standing in the job approval rating by about two to three points and he's re-elected. >> steve schmidt, we had this discussion in 2016 about how other republicans for congress for senate should be approaching the president. we have seen some stories about republicans in washington starting to nervously look at their standing in the senate right now.

starting to wonder how they should handle -- what would your advice be as a political strategist to a republican, hey, i want to keep my senate seat here and here's how the president is handling this. how should they handle the president right now? >> well, the executive director of the national senate toirl committee told them to run away from donald trump. they're extremely worried on the republican side about the senate majority and they look out across the country whether it's the tillis race in north carolina, the mcsally race, the collins race, others, they have a very difficult terrain. nobody is sitting in washington, d.c., right now thinking that the full embrace of donald trump as a senator and in a competitive race is a healthy thing to do. one of the things i would disagree with for a minute is on the question about whether

donald trump has a strong argument to make here. the president has been a disaster at an epic level. he has failed to meet the test of history in a way that is greater a failure than we have ever seen any president fail at in the history of the country. we have seen the warnings that came in to donald trump through the form of the presidents' daily brief. we saw the months of inaction and the result is this. somebody who promised to run making america great again has led to death and suffering at an epic level and an economic catastrophe with 26 million americans thus far unemployed. and the old question that ronald reagan put so many years ago -- are you better off today than four years ago, donald trump is going to have an amazingly difficult time answering that

question in the affirmative. he has been engaged in the level of delusion and happy talk and i suspect the bill is going to come home for that. >> all right. steve schmidt and henry olsen, thank you both for the conversation. appreciate that. and still ahead the emotional and psychological toll of this pandemic is significant. we'll have an expert talk us through some coping mechanisms and the signs of severe distress we can be on the lookout for. ans we can be on the lookout for wow, that's... and now the progressive commercial halftime show, featuring smash mouth. ♪ hey now, you're an all star ♪ get your game on, go play thank you! goodnight! [ cheers and applause ] now enjoy the second half of the commercial! even renters can bundle and save! where did that come from? the kitchen. it was halftime.

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since i don't have time to read, i mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news, or history, or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. i listen to spanish lessons sometimes to and from work. yea, it makes me want to be better. audible reintroduced this whole world to me. it changes your perspective. it makes you a different person. see what listening to audible can do for you. 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

welcome back. many health care workers are being pushed to the breaking point as they work on the front lines battling the coronavirus. on sunday, a top new york city emergency room a top new york c emergency room doctor took her own life. nbc's stephanie gosk has more on the tragic story. >> reporter: overnight, new reaction to the tragic news. that shines a light on the overwhelming impact of the coronavirus pandemic. dr. brean, at new york's presbyterian hospital, took her own life. herb father saying she was in every sense of the word a hero who gave her life for friends and city. her father, also a doctor, confirming his daughter contracted the disease and survived it. but she described devastating scenes of the toll the coronavirus took on patients. she tried to do her job, and it

killed her, her father told "the new york times." she's a casualty just as much as min else who has died. >> joining me now is dr. jessica gold at washington university in st. louis. doctor, thank you for joining us. just listening to that piece right there and that description, that sounds like the kind of story you get coming out of a war zone where people just see unspeakable tragedy all around them and just become overwhelmed trying to deal wit. that seems to drive home there, that's in a lot of ways what this is. >> yeah, thank you for having me and for having this conversation. i use the analogy of war zone, because it is different than what doctors are used to experiencing on the day-to-day job. what people are seeing is different, it's hard, we're seeing a lot more deaths, a lot more infections. doctors are scared we're going to get sick and infect our families, that we're going to

die. it's not something doctors think about very often. we're afraid that we're not protected with protective gear, which is something that we are used to having and are taught we should be having, and that is something when you go into a quote unquote battlefield, it can feel trauma provoking, it can feel depressing. it's just not something we're used to. >> health care workers have been sharing their experiences and concerns with us online. here are a few of their responses. >> i have a 4-year-old, a 6-year-old and husband at home. that's one of my biggest fears. i drove home that night, that first night, and i just cried, because i couldn't -- i really couldn't fathom the thought of bringing covid home and exposing my family to that. >> my patients today weren't --

you know, these elderly people. i see a lot of people who aren't that far off from my age. it's hard not to be scared. it's hard to not let that get to you. >> you see and hear there those fears that you were describing there. some of those fears that health care workers are facing here. what advice, whatever the specific fear is, whatever the specific anxieties, what advice do you have for health care workers who are dealing with it? >> yeah, you're right. you can hear it in their voices. really heavy when they speak. it's almost like palpable when they talk. i think the first thing to do is to let yourself feel. health care workers are used to being stoic. we don't like to talk about feelings. it's almost hard to not talk about feelings. so the first thing we need to do is allow ourself to feel, talk to our friends and family if we

can, if that's not someone we feel comfortable talking to, reach out for help. there's help that exists, there's help from people like me, and we want to help you. and i think that's not something we're used to doing. we're used to putting the mask on other people and really focusing on helping other people before we help ourselves and we need to do both right now. that's hard to do, especially when the day-to-day is filled with so much adren laline that can't stop and focus on ourselves at all. and we need to do both to keep going and to want to keep going. >> for members of the public just wondering what they can do to help, what's the advice there? >> yeah. i mean, i hear from friends and family and a lot of pmy patient who are health care workers. those little things people have been doing, like showing up and thanking health care workers and sending cards and texts. so please keep doing that.

i think know that sometimes we can't tell you our stories and sometimes we can't be the narrators because it is hard for us. i think that it is hard to be the people who are always telling you what's going on inside the walls of the hospital. that's trauma provoking for us at times. i think people ask us, because they care and sometimes we just can't tell and know that's not because we don't know you care. it's just hard sometimes. keep that in mind. i think there are ways to volunteer, you know, some hospitals have ways to donate ppes, some places like ppe.org is an organization my friend started and that's a great place to get involved with. that's a great way to get involved. the crisis textline has a frontline worker specific line. they're always looking for volunteers. >> doctor, thank you for joining us. we want to let you know if you or someone you know is in crisis, you can call the

national suicide prevention lifeline. the number is 1-800-273-talk. we'll be right back. back.at yo! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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er yerl today, the air force thunderbirds and the navy's blue angels staged a flyover of new york city area hospitals to thank coronavirus first responders and health care workers. take a look. [ cheers and applause ]

and that does it for us tonight. thank you for being with us. "all in with chris hayes" is up next. from new york, i'm chris hayes. there's a concerted effort on the part of influential network that we all call trump tv to peddle dangerous misinformation about the coronavirus. call it coronavirus trutherism. the question at issue is one whose answer should be obvious to everyone, is this disease really as deadly as the vast majority of experts tell us it is, as we've all seen with our own eyes. last night, one host told his viewers that experts are wrong. we should lift the lockdowns because