wednesday night. on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, thank you for being here with us. good night from our temporary field headquarters. with new overnight, we're going to get the latest with live reports from around the world. and with the u.s. death toll at nearly 94,000, president trump says there's nothing he would change about his administration's response to the pandemic. the president threatened retaliation against several states that are trying to make it easier to cast a ballot in these uncertain times. good thursday morning, everybody. it is may 31st. we're going to begin with the

president threatening to withhold federal funds from states that make it easier to vote during this pandemic. in one tweet, the president blasted nevada's transition to a mostly mail election, falsely calling it illegal and accusing the state of creating a, quote, great voter fraud scenario. the president put finance officials on notice tagging his budget director and the treasury department. in another tweet, he falsely accused michigan of, quote, illegally mailing absentee ballots to 7.7 million people. when the state only sent out applications for absentee ballots. he corrected that part, but stood by the false claim that the state did something illegal, which it did not. the president was asked about his tweets yesterday. >> well, i think if we're talking about the mail-in ballots, if people mail in ballots, there's a lot of

illegality. they harvest ballots, you know all about harvesting. and people go out and they vote. if you need a mail-in balanceout, specifically, i'm in the white house and i have to send a ballot to florida. that makes sense. so if you need for it for some reason or if somebody is not well, that's one thing. but when you send out 7.7 million ballots, there's forgeries, there's frankly duplication where they print ballots on the same paper with the same machinery and you can't tell the difference and they send in thousands and thousands of fake ballots. in the state of nevada, they have tremendous -- they have a tremendous drive in where you mail in your ballots. i can't do that. you have to go in and vote. people have to check you. they're supposed to look at you and check you and make sure that -- when you get thousands of ballots and they put them in a bag and bring them in and people start counting, who knows where they come from.

it's so obvious. frankly, they should have voter i.d. that's what they should have. >> so according to a washington post tally, republican office holders in at least 16 states that do not have all-mail elections have encouraged citizens to vote absentee during this pandemic. when the president was asked about that, he said, quote, we're going to see how it all works out. the latest npr meris poll is finding 52% of voters would rather vote by mail. 61% of democrats and 53% of independents prefer mail-in voting while 56% of republicans prefer to vote in person. breaking it down by age, half of voters between 55 and 73 years old prefer to vote by mail. 55% of voters over the age of 73 want to vote by mail. and the number of coronavirus

cases around the world has reached a new grim milestone this morning. there are now more than 5 million cases, according to data from johns hopkins university. right now, the united states, russia, brazil and the uk have the highest number of confirmed cases. this news is coming just after the world health organization expressed concern yesterday about hitting a daily record this week, a new daily record. at a news conference, the world health organization's inspector general said more than 1,000 cases have been recorded in a matter of 24 hours. he added almost two-thirds of those new cases were reported in just four countries, but did not specify which countries. we have correspondents covering the pandemic all across the world right now. in london, sara heartman from rome, nbc news correspondent matt bradley in tehran.

talk us through where the uk is at the moment. >> it has been 59 dates and counting of lockdown here in the uk. that means no restaurants, no publics, no hairdressers and perhaps most importantly for many people, no school. the prime minister boris johnson had announced an ambitious plan to reopen primary schools in england from june 1st. that was hugely corespondent visual right out of the gate with teachers unions, parents and school districts. now this morning, there's been a further blow with government ministers forced to announce that this coronavirus tracking app, which was touted as the key to lifting the lockdown here in the uk, isn't going on be ready in time. in fact, they say it could be weeks. that is important, yasmin, because fatigue is setting in here. a new study out this morning showed nearly half of young adults here in the uk are no

longer adhering to the government's lockdown restrictions. i'll send it over to matt bradley in italy where the view is very different. >> thanks, sarah. so, yeah, things here are pretty much open, bars, restaurants, cafes, hairdressers are now open for business and there are romans walking around, going to all of these businesses. so things are kind of turning the corner. there are some social distancing being enforced in some of these places, but it's entirely inconsistent as far as i've experienced. i went to a cafe where there was a plexy grass barrier on the table separating customers from other customers. i've been to a restaurant where we were required to give our name and phone number for tracking purposes. and i went to a bar where the police came and dispersed everybody who was standing outside. but none of these things were consistent for people from place to place. in the last few days, we've seen a spike in new cases and deaths.

that has been a difficulty for this country which is carrying a heavy, heavy burden. but we can't necessarily hinge all of our conclusions on one or more days of changing statistics. there have been peaks and valleys in these stats regularly and it's entirely unclear what is going on in the coming days. but the fact of the matter is that this country really needs to get out of lockdown and that's what these people want. and now for another hot spot on the coronavirus crisis, my colleague, ali ruzzi in tehran. >> thanks, matt. well, in the last month in iran, they started to ease social distancing rules and reopen the country. and it's pretty much been back to business as usual here. tehran is a busy place. public transport is packed, worshippers congregate for communal prayers at mosque and people are in the streets going about their daily lives. within weeks of the country opening up again, we've seen a sharp rise in covid-19 cases.

the latest official number show there was 23,000 ncase new case yesterday. but if you compare that to the beginning of may when there were stricter rules in play, there was only about 800 new cases a day. so it's plain to see, as soon as the restrictions eased, the machine of cases per day were doubled. the government here plans to lift remaining rules and allow people to eat at restaurants, visit holy shrines, sports teams can start training again and gyms are going to open up. the government says they have no choice but to open up the country again to salvage their economy to combat u.s. sanctions which were biting before the

crisis. >> here in south korea, another big smimilestone. students started going back to school. about 240,000 seniors arriving for their first day back. getting temperature checks, some getting gift bags with masks and sanitizer and arriving to very different classrooms. some with desks with social distancing and others with partitions up. the requirements now in school, everyone must wear a mask. the only exception, of course, is at lunchtime. lunchtime is now staggered to minimize large groups gathering in school. school reopening was delayed by a week here because of a cluster of cases linked to nightclubs in seoul. but after two weeks of really intensive tracking, tracing and isolating, putting people in quarantine, government officials now say it looks as though this cluster has been contained. there's been no mass infection connected to this cluster.

11,000 total cases in this country. 10,000 people have recovered. 264 have died. and yasmin, this is a place where there was never a full lockdown. yasmin. >> kelly, sarah, matt, ali, thank you to you all. this virus is affecting every part of this world right now and having to learn from one another as countries do begin to reopen amid it. still ahead, the supreme court blocks the release of bob mueller's full russia report for now. and later, how president trump's operation warp speed is fueling the anti-vaccine movement. those stories and a check off your weather when we come back. your weather when we come back

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to see the grand jury materials from the mueller investigation before the november election. the supreme court yesterday agreed with a justice department request to hold off on the release of the previously undisclosed material pending a review for, quote, separation of powers issue. the appeals court for the district of columbia circuit ordered the redacted grand jury information be turned over to the house judiciary committee. but the solicitor journal francisco successfully argued that congress is in no immediate need of this material. according to "the wall street journal," the committee said it still need today material because its impeachment probe is ongoing, adding this, its probe further developed recently to explore whether the white house influenced recent decisions related to the prosecutions of roger stone and michael flynn, both of which were initiated by bob mueller. the white house must file its

full petition for supreme court review by june 1st. there was no dissents noted in yesterday's order. joining me now, dan nasa vny ce here. i want to read a quote here. danny goldman said many of the redactions in the mueller report related to ongoing cases, including the roger stone case that have now concluded. when will the doj release a less redacted version of the mueller report now that there is no longer any justification for those redactions? so what do you make of this most recent decision here, danny? what is happening here? what kind of separation of powers issues can there be in this grand jury information? >> there are two things going on. first, this week, all the supreme court did was put a pause on the lower court's order forcing the doj to release these

materials because, once you open the barn door, you can't close its again. once that information gets out, it can't be redacted any more. so that is all that's happening in the immediate future. but in the broader scope of things, what this -- what the supreme court will do is entertain a petition from the government and these are very drawn out things that you have to prepare. i know i've prepared them myself sometimes. and they're going to argue that the issue here is really narrow. the house investigation was an impeachment proceeding. and the lower courts held that even though grand jury material is super secret, and it has to be because we want to encourage people to come forward and testify and we don't want to ruin reputations. there is an exception under the rules for an ongoing judicial proceeding. and the real issue here is whether or not an impeachment investigation counts as a judicial proceeding such that that grand jury material can be released to the house. it really is a very narrow

issue. it doesn't mean that if the house loses here, that this material will never become public. it just means that for this particular request, for an impeachment proceeding ongoing, that they don't get it under this exception. >> so you've said the other key word there, danny, which i want to expand upon which is the fact that this impeachment inquiry, it seems, is ongoing whereas many of us thought this was a case closed moment. and as i read earlier, the committee saying its probe further developed recently to explore whether the white house influenced recent decisions related to the prosecutions of roger stone and of michael flynn, as well. and we've seen some recent developments with regard to michael flynn, as well, with regard to the doj dropping that case there. how is that possible? >> when it comes to impeachment proceedings, if at first you don't succeed, you are allowed to try and try again. so this investigation can be ongoing. but more than that, it has to be ongoing or else the house's

entire argument fails. if there is no ongoing investigation, then there is no ongoing judicial proceeding and that exception to grand jury secrecy simply doesn't apply. so they better have an ongoing investigation or else the house has no argument for these materials. >> danny cevallos, my friends, thank you as always. great to see ow this thursday morning. still ahead, a disagreement between the white house and the cdc leads to a delay in guidance for how to reopen places of worship. that new fight, coming up. worship. that new fight, coming up.

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welcome back, everybody. guidance for centers of worship has been put on hold. the white house was resistant to putting limits on religious institutions. a senior administration official telling nbc news this.

the cdc sometimes views things in an overly bureaucratic way. we are trying to encourage a more federalist approach where each state is able to make decisions based on their own circumstances and individually tailored needs. the cdc this week quietly released detailed recommendations for reopening restaurants, mass transit, schools and child care programs across the country. but the guidelines did not include nor address religious institutions. and a majority of americans continue to disapprove of president trump's handling of the pandemic. according to the latest quinn pea act university poll, 41% say they approve of trump's handling, down 5 points since last month. 56%, as you see there, up five, disapprove. among voters 65 and older, 44% approve of trump's response to the pandemic while 53% disapprove. meanwhile, 42% trust joe biden most to handle the coronavirus. 35% said they trust the current

president, according to a new morning consul political poll. let's switch gears and bring in nbc meteorologist bill karins. bill, good to see you on this thursday. >> yeah. good morning to you, yasmin. we have to talk about the concerns we have today. we have this pesky storm that's been sitting in the same spot for like three days. and our friends in north carolina and ohio and kentucky have kind of taken the brunt of it. we didn't have a lot of horrible flooding yesterday, but we could get some additional flooding today. we have areas of very heavy rain in areas from north carolina to virginia, south carolina is beginning to improve a little bit. and you'll notice some of the brighter yellows and reds, those are heavier areas of rain and a previous thunderstorm complex now about to come in along the coast there around onslo county, camp lejeune area. it's the mountainous areas we are most concerned with. notice the maroon there, we have one flash flood warning in areas of western virginia and one

smash flash flood warning to the west of wilmington, north carolina. an additional easily 12 to 3 inches during the day today and our computers are hinting at the heaviest rain today in areas just south of roanoke. what has changed overnight is now some of this rain is going to show signs of shifting northwards. if you have saturday plans from philadelphia to new york city area, southern new england, it looked pretty good yesterday. that has changed. now it looks like this storm could slowly drift northwards and soak us on our saturday. sunday should clear out, but saturday could be rainy. here is your severe storm threat. a slight risk of severe storms in areas of western kansas from abilene to san angelo, could get some pretty good storms later on this afternoon. here is your forecast for your thursday. beautiful day today. today is a top ten day in areas of new england. get out and enjoy it safely from new york up through boston. pretty nice in areas from

chicago to minneapolis. d.c. gets kind of a soaking rain and as i mentioned, yasmin, that arrives in southern new england for your saturday. we'll give you the complete memorial d memorial day weekend forecast, coming up. still ahead, new data suggests that thousands of american lives could have been saved if social distancing measures had started earlier. but the president says he wouldn't change a thing about his response. also, why dr. anthony fauci is voicing concern about the president's promise to deliver a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. we are back in a moment. year. we are back in a moment.

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welcome back, everybody. we're going to begin this half hour with a new study that suggests at least 36,000 lives could have been saved if the united states started social distancing measures one week before it actually did back in march. that's according to the disease modelers at columbia university in new york who found earlier action could have prevented an exponential growth of infection. for instance, if cities would have locked down two weeks earlier on march 1st, the u.s. would have avoided about 83% of deaths with 54,000 fewer people dieing by early may. the white house issued a statement responding to the study, which reads in part this. what would have saved lives is if china had been transparent in the world health organization had fulfilled its mission.

what did save american lives is the bold leadership of president trump. in its report on the study, the "new york times" cautions that all models are estimates, which makes it nearly impossible to find the exact number of deaths that could have actually been avoided. and president trump said that he would do nothing differently to avoid the u.s.'s high rate of infection relative to the rest of the world. watch this. >> president trump, with 4% of the world's population and 30% of the outbreak, what would you have done differently facing this crisis? well, nothing. if you take new york and new jersey, which were very heaard hit, we were very, very low in terms of morbidity and in terms of you look at the death, relatively speaking, we're at the lowest level along with germany. and germany, us, there could have been some smaller countries, too, perhaps, so we're in that category along with germany as the lowest.

and i think that's a great -- that's a great honor. >> not surprising to hear that, to say the least. this is not a president necessarily who admits when he makes a mistake. so the president announced on monday that he's been taking hydroxychloroquine as a preventive measure and yesterday he indicated he would be finishing up his regimen in the coming days. >> i think the regimen finish necessary a day or two. i think it's -- two days. two days. >> and dr. anthony fauci says he has grown increasingly concerned about the branding of the white house effort to distribute a proven vaccine effort by the end of the year. the project has been dubbed, quote, operation warp speed. and fauci now worries about misexceptions a misconceptions and the risk on

pushing forward with vaccine. fauci says misconceptions to go big and fast are leading people to believe the priority in the project is financial, not safety or efficacy. fauci offered reassurances that no corners would be cut and said multiple steps from collecting data to preparing to scale up the number of potential doses would be pursued all at once. joining me now, primary care physician at a community health center in washington, d.c. and a clinical instructor at ucla, dr. pavida patel. doctor, thank you so much for joining us this morning. very much appreciate it. when the news emerged about this phase one trial with maderna and the success they had seen so far, it was encouraging.

talk us through how much stock we should place in the success of this phase one trial at maderna and the process behind develop ago vaccine. >> that is absolutely right, yasmin. it is a complicated process. you can imagine anything shorter than that is a pretty hee roaric effort. let's talk about exactly what happened on monday. 45 patients, but the critical information is 8 of those 45 patients achieved two important goals. they achieved what is called neutralizing ant bodes. that meant in those human volunteers, the vaccine produced

enough of an immune response in the body to overcoming the news moving forward. the results allow us to understand why the company can move into what is called phase two of the trials where instead of, you know, 45 volunteers, they move into several hundreds of human volunteers. that is phase two. i know the company and others hope this can be a winner by 2020. dr. fauci is trying to set expectations that this might not happen for at least another 18 to 24 months. >> so everybody wants a vaccine,

right? everybody wants it because everybody wants to get back to normal. but they want it to be safe in the development of this vaccine. what do you believe is a safe timeline with regard to the development of this vaccine and when, in fact, a safe vaccine is developed, who would be getting this vaccine first? >> those are great questions in the sense that you know there is not going to be an overnight light switch. as we've seen with other things related to any treatment or even test, coronavirus, it's not going to happen overnight. so just on a safe basis, thinking through the various phases and, really, thinking about especially in the united states places like the food and drug administration and other safety monitors, it is probably not until even the beginning of

2021 that we 34might have some those initial doses that might go to the front line health care workers, members of the military and potentially some of the residents in the nursing homes which brings to another issue so far this vaccine has only been tested in kind of younger to older adults, 18 to about 50 years old. we want to make sure that this is safe in children and in some of those kind of frail elderly. and that is another reason that it would take us at least until next year to see that safety. >> we could have this conversation for the next couple of hours if we had the time, dr. patel, and i wish we did. but i would like to bring you back, if you will. i know it's tough to get up early but we appreciate your voice on this, especially with regards to more on tho immunocompromised patients and pregnant women and children, as

well. dr. patel, i appreciate your voit voice voice on this. thank you so much. yesterday a senate panel authorized the committee's chair, senator ron johnson, to use blue star tactics. johnson's probe focuses on allegations that blue star strategy sought to leverage hunter's position on the board. the party line vote came amid vigorous objections from democrats who have accused their gop counterparts of aiding russian disinformation efforts and improperly using the senate's resource toes boost president trump's political fortunes. meanwhile, democratic presidential candidate joe biden pushing back against those investigations yesterday during

an interview with an abc affiliate in wisconsin. the former vp criticized ran johnson for not overseeing the federal response to the pandemic. >> this is a great diversion. what is he doing to help the state of wisconsin? what's he doing to deal with the fact the small businesses are shuttering? what is he doing to deal with the crisis? >> all right. still ahead, newly reopened states see a huge influx of travelers seeking to escape lockdowns. also a new report showing florida officials knew about an impending pandemic as early as february, but kept people in the dark for fear of hurting the state's tourism industry. your first look at "morning joe" is back in a moment. ing joe" is back in a moment. when you take align,

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maryland and virginia's reopening this past weekend was met with a huge influx of out of state commuters desperate to escape their own shutdowns. nearly 860,000 commuters traveled to parts of virginia and maryland as a result of those states reopening from the coronavirus on friday. this is an 18% jump in travel from previous weekends totalling to 5.83 million trips through the area between friday and sunday. the biggest jump in visitors in maryland were in beach counties with boating and outdoor recreation while virginia saw the biggest increases along state boarders. these findings from the university of maryland follow a trend similar to georgia's reopening in april when the state saw a 13% increase in cross state travel. the "miami herald" reported

that the governor was muting concerns of the pandemic for fears of what the news would do to tourism in the sunshine state. according to the herald, the department of health released two news releases about the covid-19 virus. the first to release a web page and the second a statement from the surgeon general about virus preparedness. it wasn't until late february that he said the state was preparing for the virus, stressing that there were no confirmed cases. however, according to internal records obtained by the herald, the department of health received its first positive test result just the day before. but the cdc had not yet confirmed that result. let's switch gears and bring

in nbc meteorologist bill karins. good morning, bill, once again. >> good morning once again. let me update you on the curves from our covid numbers. yesterday we lost 1,403 lives. that was the lowest wednesday total going back since early april. so we continue the down trend in the fatalities. what was interesting, it's a small sample size. we had 400 new cases reported yesterday than the wednesday previous. because of the reporting practice over the weekends, it's easier to compare it day-to-day. it was a small sample size, but it was higher than last wednesday. now let me turn to michigan and that horrific flooding because of the two dams that burst and the pictures that came out yesterday, just hundreds of home that were flooded. the river crested three feet higher than the previous record and, you know, the amount of water that went down the river was incredible. it was the record for the fastest water flows and as we go throughout, you know, the next couple of days, the cleanup will begin in these areas. the people had to evacuate.

some people didn't even want to go to shelters. they went to friends and family members' houses instead. those are homes that you see there and cement tricks half buried in the water. stop signs were five, six feet under. today, we have the heavy rain threat in virginia and north carolina. as you transition to the memorial day weekend forecast, the rain shifts northward. friday, it moves into the mid-atlantic region. it will be a soggy day around washington, d.c. on saturday, that rain moves up around new york city and philadelphia and southern portions of new england. we get pretty wet in areas of south texas and then it hooks like on sunday, nice weather returns in the mid-atlantic and northeast. but it's rainy stormy sunday from dallas on the houston and san antonio. finally for memorial day itself, a nice day for the east coast and for new england, but still very wet and we'll deal with flooding in the middle of the country. so a little bit of everything for people. you will notice, though, that

sunday/monday looks pretty good for you. and i know that will make you happy after a rainy saturday. >> that does make me happy. but i've got to say those flooding pictures, bill, they mean more than ever before, i think, right now because you think about the stress that people are under during this pandemic, staying inside of their homes for so long and then the stress that the states are under financially because of the shutdown, as well, and the help that they'll need to recover from some of the devastation they've seen from this flooding so far. so these extreme weather conditions, not good right about now. i'm sure you can agree with that. still ahead, we're going to go live to cnbc for an early look at what is driving the day on wall street, including the more important numbers on the jobs front. we are back in a moment. e jobs front we are back in a moment. ♪ y'all know what this is ♪ good lovin', no questions ♪ ♪ reach out and you'll touch me ♪ ♪ bad habits, don't judge me ♪ just don't waste my time ♪

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welcome back, everybody. u.s. unemployment claims are expected to approach a staggering 40 million this morning, 40 million.

cnbc's juliana is joining us live about this. you could never expect we would be here, but here we are, 40 million jobless claims expected after themorning. you keep thinking maybe it's going to get better, right? people are starting to get back to work. some cities are starting to reopen. it seems as if this will just continue to get worse, as certain small businesses and major companies, as well, will realize they can't keep going. people are not coming out. they're not spending the money they need to keep the businessings businesses up and running. >> that's for sure. despite the fact lockdowns are easing across the united states, we are still expecting to see more than 2.4 million americans to have filed for unemployment claims in the last week. that takes us up to may 16th. now, this follows the previous week of nearly 3 million. we have seen a downward trend in terms of the number of americans who have been filing for unemployment each week.

still staggering numbers. as you pointed out, we're approaching that 40 million mark. one of the key aspects that public health officials talk about when it comes to reopening the economy, which could obviously alleviate pressure on the jobs market, is the contact tracing app. that brings me to the next story i want to highlight. apple and google have released a contact tracing software tool. this is not an app. it's a tool that app developers and public health askbren si a use to build apps and trace people's movements. they automatically log when people come into contact with each other. if one person contracts the virus, they can figure out who else will be vulnerable. public health systems from 22 countries, as well as several u.s. states, already asked about testing the software. you can expect to see apps using the software start to turn up soon. and the one benefit of this system is that apple and google claim it is very roh bubust whe

comes to privacy. >> we talk about the effects on small businesses, but i also mentioned earlier the effects on big businesses, as well. victoria's secret being a casualty of all this, closing 250 stores, it seems. what more can you tell us about this? >> that's right. we got an earnings update from l brands, the parent company of victoria's secret. they saw a 37% decline in sales in the first quarter and a net loss of nearly $300 million. this comes as they were forced to shut outlets across north america due to the virus. they expect to shut down 250 stores across north america this year, as the pandemic cripples the business. this, of course, comes after some headwinds when it comes to corporate change. l brands confirmed a deal with pe firm sycamore fell through earlier this year. >> great to see you, julianna.

up next, axios' one big thing. coming up on "morning joe," with beaches on the jersey shore set to reopen in time for the upcoming memorial day holiday weekend, governor phil murphy will be our guest. "morning joe" is moments away. ♪ of all the places you're looking forward to where will you go first? ♪ wherever you may go lexus will welcome you back with exceptional offers on exceptional vehicles. get zero percent financing and make no payments for up to 90 days on all 2020 lexus models. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. for up to 90 days on all 2020 lexus models. i but what i do count on...ts anis boost high protein...rs, and now, there's boost mobility... ...with key nutrients to help support... joints, muscles, and bones. try boost mobility, with added collagen.

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for a text message to find out when your table is done. also, shrinking the things on in menus, making it easier to get out faster. restaurants w s work on really margins. when you have an area that could have 100 seats and get it down to 25, it becomes concerning, on how the restaurant can be able to stay in business. we're looking at what's

happening in florida.s they're operating 25% capacity. the underlying concern over this is there are thousands of restaurants that won't be able tof survive the shutdown. we're keeping a close eye on how manya will be able toclos surve reopening under the new rules and reduced capacity. >> it's tough if you think about it. you have to spend money to institute the measures, right? >> right. >> if yourri overhead is more tn what you're overh bringing in b of the reduced capacity, it'll cause a major problem for you fo and your small business and survival. >> absolutely. >> it'll be a long road ahead for a lot of the restaurants, especially in the big cities al where your rents are higher, as well. let's talk about some of the southern states that are beginning to reopen. they're also seeing a rise in new cases of the coronavirus ast they are reopening. is a big factor in this rise that states have begun to perform more testing, they have the capability to test more now? >> exactly. we've updated our national

coronavirus map on axios.com to show where case numbers are. remember, the number of total cases is a key metric in reopening for the federal government. they needin to have a consisten two-week decline in the number of cases to hit the guidelines to begin moving forward with reopening. many states are not hitting e that. as you said, it could be becaus, of increased testing. now, that's not a complete solution. if you're doing more tests, it's not like you're finding cases e that weren't there. they'd be there whether you were testing or not. you can get full visibility with increased testing. you see a lot of states trending in the right direction. it is also key to add it to t other things to look at, a holisitc view, where hospitalizations are going, deaths are going. we see big concerns in arkansas, north dakota, and north carolina, where the broader numbers are looking. nationally, we're seeing most of the trends are heading in the right direction. >> nicholas johnston, my friend, great to see you. >> thank you. >> i'll beee reading axios a.m.n a little while. you can sign up at

signup.axios.com. that does it for me on this m thursday morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian. "morning joe" starts right now. with 4% of the world population and 30% of the outbreak, what would you have done different ly facing this crisis? >> take new york and new jersey, very hard hit, and we were very, very low. in terms of morbidity and in terms of -- you look at the death relatively speaking, we're at the lowest level, along with germany. germany, us, could have been smaller countries, too, perhaps. we're in that category, along with germany, as the lowest. i think that's a great honor. >> yeah. >> that's not correct. >> no, that's a lie. >> according to data from johns hopkins university, the u.s. ranks tenth highest in per capita death rates out