adalja: there are two things i look at. is the percent positive of tests, meaning how hard you have case?k to find a positive if that is going up or staying flat or if it's decreasing tells you where you are in the trajectory. in the country as a whole, we are declining, the percent positive is in the low single digits now. that's a good thing. earlier in new york city for example, it was over 50% positive. we didn't have to look too hard. the other thing is hospital capacity. that is what social distancing is about. flattening the curve to preserve hospital room. what percentage of patients are admitted that have covid? scarlet: i want to get your thoughts on hydroxychloroquine. brazil health minister says it is to be used for all patients in the first day of coronavirus symptoms. the government also recommends hydroxychloroquine, a sister drug president trump says he is taking as a preventative treatment. is this a case of using these treatments can only help and not hurt you? dr. adalja: no, it's not that. it is never th

amesh adalja. work is focused on emerging infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness as well as bio security. i'm sure you saw the report out a little while ago, internal documents from the administration suggest there could be a doubling of deaths in early june. can you react to that report and whether it seems possible? we decreasehat as social distancing, we will get more deaths. that is a simple fact. vaccine, without a highly effective treatment, debts will continue. the question has always been, will the hospitalization rate, the people needing hospital level care, one that exceed capacity? that is the issue we have been struggling with. flattening the car was about preserving hospital capacity. these debts were going to occur, and they will occur at a faster rate once we get back to normal economic activity. this should not be a shock to people, but the way it is presented to the general public has been bad from the beginning of this pandemic. vonnie: that is a terrifying thought. it sugg

adalja, and to dr. patel. >>> meanwhile, president trump is lashing out at his predecessor while going full steam ahead with his push to pressure states to lift shutdown orders, tweeting in all caps this morning to "reopen our country!" even as the number of cases and deaths across the country, as we've pointed out, continue to rise. the president's medical advisers seem to be sidelined for now, in favor of his economic team, with peter navarro, the trade adviser, blaming the cdc on "meet the press" and telling chuck, as we just said, that more people could die from missing routine tests and treatment during the lockdown than from the virus itself. a virus that has now killed more than 90,000 americans in three months. joining me now, nbc white house correspondent and "weekend today" co-host kristen welker and "washington post" national political reporter robert acosta, moderator of "washington week." welcome, both. kristen, we really seem to see peter navarro and other economic advisers taking, you kno

adalja, we're talking about antibody tests.mergency fda approval for an antibody test that they claim is nearly 100% effective in detecting antibodies. that only goes so far, right? dr. del rio was is saying the presence of antibodies leaves many questions unanswered at this point, correct? >> right. we don't know what protection an antibody serves. we know that people, usually when they recover from an infectious disease have a period of time when they're not able to be reinfected. that wanes with time. are you completely protected from reinfection or you don't have symptoms? there's a lot questions about this. what it means at an individual level is something we need to study in detail. >> as we look to not just vaccines but antibodies, there's been a focus of course on remdesivir and we know that there is now this emergency use authorization from the fda and we are learning dr. del rio, the government will decide who gets it. in your estimation is that the best way to move forward with this treatment? >> well, you know at th

adalja, what do you see right now? do you think we are going to have -- let's just talk about a college campus. are we going to have the contact tracers and the testing capacity to make it fairly easy for your average-sized university to test students anytime they need to in a quick, rapid way? >> i think it's going to be daunting when it comes to a university. when you're talking about an elementary school or even a high school, it's a lot easier than thinking about a college with all of the ancillary people that work at a college. the fact that people are coming from all over the country to go to that college. and that can be something that's going to way on college administrator's minds about how can they do this safely. do they have the ability to test all of those individuals? are there student health services robust enough to be able to deal with that? and i can see some colleges going either way. some may say, we can do a lot of this online, these are adults, they know how to learn. and some people will say, we'

adalja. >> granted my kids are in middle school, not college. when i hear the cal state university system will not open its physical plant in the fall, that makes me wonder what happens in the rest of the country. talk to me about that as a medical decision. why do you think that decision has been made and how important is it for that to be made? >> what you're looking at as a university, it's a mass gathering. when you have that many people together interacting, it can set off a lot of cases, make it impossible for contract tracers to keep track of the number of cases and get capture of those cases. university is different than an elementary school which is a smaller group of people and different types of epidemiology. bigger universities have to handle it on a case by case basis. what constraints they face and doing contact tracing and how well they can do online learning. what's going on in the state and the municipality they're located in. i think that's going to be different across the country. some colleges, i suspect, will open. some of w

amesh adalja, thank you all for getting us started. up ahead we're checking in on one of the first states that started to reopen. we'll talk with colorado governor jared polis about how his state is doing. and later the future of flight. traveling anywhere anytime soon is going to look a lot different thanks to the coronavirus. how safe are airplanes really? and can airlines handle the baggage that comes with getting off the ground again? getting off the ground aga in usaa was made for right now. and right now, is a time for action. so, for a second time we're giving members a credit on their auto insurance. because it's the right thing to do. we're also giving payment relief options to eligible members so they can take care of things like groceries before they worry about their insurance or credit card bills. right now is the time to take care of what matters most. like we've done together, so many times before. discover all the ways we're helping members at usaa.com/coronavirus discover all the ways we're helping members wh...they fe

adalja, i think texas is an interesting case study. texas saw its highest single-day spike in cases this weekend. i think there were 1800. i mean, if this is instructive for us going forward, since we'll see other states that have something like this, how will researchers figure out if more testing is being done or if more illness has broken out? >> there's an important metric to look at. the percent positive of tests. that will give you a better gauge if this is because of targeted testing. we heard this in amarillo, meatpacking plants that had testing. when the percent positive is in the low single digits, meaning looking hard to find positive cases, that's a good trend. if you see the percent positive going up to 15, 16, 20%, then you're in trouble. that's, i think, the better metric to look at than the total number of cases. that's the difference between what's testing, where are you testing and what's going on in terms of the meat processing plants. >> the trend there. they are testing more and therefore and turning up more positi

adalja, juliette kayyem, great to see you both. thank you very much. >> juliette, i know i called you a doctor. that's my gift on this memorial day. >> my mom will be so happy. >> thanks to both of you. sadly, the u.s. death toll nears 100,000 americans. president trump spent the weekend golfing. and insulting people on twitter and spreading the conspiracy theory. we'll discuss next. the #1 hyaluronic acid moisturizer delivers 2x the hydration for supple, bouncy skin. neutrogena®. ♪[ siren ] & doug give me your hand! i can save you... lots of money with liberty mutual! we customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ whether it's bribes ...or an overdue makeover. get all your pet essentials right when you need them, with curbside pickup at petsmart. just order online, drive up, check-in, and pick up. i remember my dadg coming up the stairs in my grandpop's house where we were living, sitting at the end of my bed and saying "joey, i'm going to have

adalja, i have to tell you, your sound kicked out a little bit. a backup phone or something that you have nearby, hopefully if you come back but just in case it gets glitchy for a second i'd ask you to find your backup. there we are. let me just ask you -- it's sort of a difficult question about cdc. i am used to thinking of cdc as the gold standard both for us and sort of around the world. i'm a little bit weirded out about this new guidance coming from cdc about antibody testing. after this debacle last week when people outside cdc noticed that they were combining apples and oranges, they were combining virus tests and antibody tests in their testing numbers in a way that made their cdc data basically garbage in terms of trying to understand testing prevalence in this country. should we worry whether or not cdc is being rigorous about stuff like this right now? >> i do think the idea of combining antibody tests with pcr tests which test for acute infection and using those numbers iintd numbers interchangeably is the wrong way to go about this. i

adalja, as always, thank you so much. thank you. >>> and coming up next, why has wearing a mask gone from being an issue of medical safety to taking a political stance? stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. u're watchingl reports" on msnbc. well, dad's still dead. in case you were wondering. i wanna become a real tattoo artist. yeah, probably not a good idea to tattoo children. i thought he was like at least fifteen. how old was he? ahhh! i don't want to do it! nine. you don't get to act crazy your whole life, just 'cause dad died. are you gonna get a job? i don't even know why you gotta clean the truck. trying to show up all sexy to a fire? i like him. >>> in many states, it's now mandenedatory to wear a mask wh you leave your house to help stop the spread of covid-19. president trump has mainly avoided wearing a mask in public, saying, in fact, he's not worn a mask in public at all, saying last week in michigan head not want to give the press the, quote, pleasure of seeing him donning one. so

adalja, kristen welker, of course, and peter baker. house speaker nancy pelosi joins me now from capitol hill. madam speaker, thank you very much for being with us today. it's good to see you. >> thank you. >> the president said there would be more deaths but the virus will pass, that it's time to reopen the economy. as we see hotspots spreading across the country, do you agree with him now that it's time to focus more on what he sees as getting back to normal? >> what i think we must do as science tells us, we must have testing, testing, testing, tracing, tracing, tracing, and have a number of an idea of how our country has been affected in all communities across the country. that's why i'm so all here working on putting again the next c.a.r.e.s. 2 bill. it's about testing, tracing, treatment and isolation, social distancing and the rest. right away, rapid and robust testing so we can see and take a measure of what's there and not to do so in a way one day they have a task force, next day they don't. one year they have a volunteer cor

amish adalja. thank you so much for talking to us tonight.i really appreciate you being here. >> sure. thanks for having me. >> first let me just ask you if anything that i have said thus far strikes you as wrong or backwards or if i'm already asking dumb questions. >> no, i definitely think the points you made about not notifying which nursing homes have outbreaks, which workplaces have outbreaks, that's the exact opposite of what you want to do. you want full transparency. you want the public to be completely informed so they can take the best action. that's definitely something we need to emphasize. the other points you made about fever screening being not that panace panacea, that is something i completely agree with. >> in terms of the fever screening, i feel like when we saw initial reports that walmart and other large companies were going to start fever screening for their employees, it seemed like the first, initial sense that a big organization with a lot of equity for this crisis was at least starting to take seriously the possibili

adalja. what do you make of states starting to lift the restrictions? it's may 2nd already. is it too soon? >> it all depends on where you're sitting. there are some states that are in better places than other states. there are even parts of states that are better. what you have to look at is the percent of positive tests that a state is having, what their hospital capacity looks like and what their health dcepartment i able to do in terms of contact tracing. then you have to make a decision and you try to make this decision as best as you can looking at real science on the ground about what's going on with the outbreak dynamics in your area. in starting to peel back some of the restrictions in a measured manner, always looking to see are you getting too many cases for your hospitals to handle and making adjustments as we go. and it's going to be different. we're going to be on different timelines in different parts of the country and even in different parts of the state. hopefully this is being done in a measured way where we get some of the economy back without letting the

adalja, thank you for being with us. >>> this morning, a mystery illness believed to be linked to coronavirus has now killed three children here in new york. details on what you need to look out for next. [horns honking] birthdays aren't cancelled. hope isn't quarantined. first words aren't delayed. caring isn't postponed. courage isn't on hold. and love hasn't stopped. u.s. bank thanks you for keeping all of our spirits strong. we've donated millions to those in need and are always here for our customers and employees. and right now, is a time for action. so, for a second time we're giving members a credit on their auto insurance. because it's the right thing to do. we're also giving payment relief options to eligible members so they can take care of things like groceries before they worry about their insurance or credit card bills. right now is the time to take care of what matters most. like we've done together, so many times before. discover all the ways we're helping members at usaa.com/coronavirus >>> this morning, officials in new york are warning parents to look out for troubling symp

ames amesh adalja. let's talk about this downward trend in cases. in a place like new york, are we learning anything more about whether or not this virus has any seasonality aspect to it? >> we know this is a coronavirus. and the coronaviruses do have seasonality. however, you have to remember that when it becomes sunny, when it becomes hotter and more humid, there may be environmental conditions that make the virus less likely to transmit from surfaces. surfaces are a small part of transmission. so many people susceptible to infection that person to person spread will still continue to occur unless there's sufficient immunity to get that full seasonality we see with other coronaviruses. we may see some decrease but it's not going to be the same as with other respiratory viruses. >> do we know if it's transmitted through the big droplets we expel from our mouth and nose or is it transmitted through the smaller droplets? is it aerosolized making it potentially harder to keep to yourself, even if you're wearing a mask? >> there's not very strong evide