michael osterholm.ook youf write "the ability to transmit a micro by breathing into our lungs is the most dangerous. we call this airborne transmission. in real estate they call it location, location, location. in public health it is -- airborne, airborne, airborne. your comment? dr. osterholm: that is absolutely the case and that is what is happening. the national academy of sciences just put out a statement last night to the white house in response to questions asked that basically said -- air -- airborne transmission, even just talking is part of this whole transmission. this is one again that confuses people because there is a lot of debate out in the science community that is not based on good information. what any by that is if you talk to the people that really study transmission of viruses in the air, they all agree that these aerosol particles that can float for sometime around a person are part of the transmission. why is that important? the only protection against respiratorse n95 and we won'

osterholm? mr. osterholm: i didn't hear it very well. first question i think was about the antibodies and how long are you infected if you have -- with the antibodies. host: yes. mr. osterholm: if you have antibodies, we believe you are not infectious, and we are hopeful you are protected from being reinfected from this virus again. that work is still going on and we are just not sure. the second question -- host: he said if you are asymptomatic, how long are you asymptomatic? how long does it stay in your body? mr. osterholm: some people will be asymptomatic through the entirety of your infection, and the virus may be present for days to a week or more in the body. at that point again we believe these people are most infectious in the earliest stages of their infections even when they claim no signs of symptoms. but it is not a long-term situation. again i mentioned earlier the korean data where they suggest people will get reinfected and period ofd for some time. that is still a real question whether that is true or not. in this case i

osterholm, with you to respond to something dr. birx said earlier on the show. she essentially seemed to imply that we can't ramp up testing as we know it and that the only way we're going to solve our testing problem is with essentially a breakthrough. is she right? is that throwing in the towel on testing too early? >> well, she's partially right, but let's be really clear. there are three major problems with testing right now. one, we don't have the reagents. our governor is not working with private sector companies as all the other governments of the world are seeking testing to best ramp up the reagents we do need. number two is we have the wild, wild west for testing. the fda has all but given up its oversight responsibility for tests we have on the market. many are nothing short of a disaster, and we got into that place because of had fact once cdc had a problem, the fda just opened the gate, and we have a lot of bad tests on the market right now. the third thing is these tests just don't perform well in low prevalent populations meaning that right now, i

plus michael osterholm, director for the infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. kristen, first to you, the president has been tweeting up a storm today already from state to state talking about people -- letting people out. he just said yesterday that the governors are in charge after reversing himself from monday. is he now again saying he is going to tell the governors want to do? >> these tweets are quite confusing, andrea. let me just walk our viewers to what he's been tweeting in the past few minutes or so, calling on several states to essentially be liberated. liberate minnesota, he says, liberate michigan, liberate virginia. on this note he said it's interesting, save your great second amendment. it is under siege. we know virginia's governor just signed new gun safety measures into law. not sure if that's a roenks reference to that and why he felt the need to invoke the second amendment into that. here's what we also know about those states, andrea, there were protests in michigan yesterday with people saying that they thought that the stay-at-

michael osterholm of the center for infectious disease research e d policy at niversity of minnesota.nks for being with us. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, e congressional budget office warned of a tidal wave of red ink triggered by the pandemic. it said economic damage and relief bills will drivfithe federal t to $3.7 trillion. despite that news, wall street maged a rally. the dow jones industrial average gained 260oints to close at 23,775. the nasdaq rose 139 points, and, the s&p 500 adde39. the u.s. navy is recommending that brett crozier be re- rastated as captain of the ai carrier "theodore roosevelt." the newshour has confirmedhe recommendaon was made today. crozier was fired after he cpealed to evacuate the ship when tonavirus broke out. the man who fired him, acting navy secretary thomas modly, udi abiaoday extended aism and unilateral ceasefire for one month. it said the pause will help to contain the covid-19 pandemic. rebels backed by iran have refused to accept a cease-fire, and both sides blame the other for continued attacks. meanwhile, the

michael osterholm. thank you very much. thank you kristen welker. >>> and the coronavirus is now the leading cause of death in los angeles county, passing deaths from the flu, emphysema and heart disease. this according to health officials. but this as the county and state of california are struggling to deal with the vulnerable homeless populations during this pandemic. there's close to 59,000 people experiencing homelessness in l.a. county alone, according to the annual count conducted in 2019. that's the second highest in the country. joining me now is is the ceo of nonprofit the people concern, which provides the homeless with interim housing and medical health care and much, much more. john, thank you for being with us. what are you doing to try to ameliorate the problem with such vulnerable people, the homeless population? >> thank you, andrea. and i appreciate you having me on this morning to talk about what we're doing. at the people concern, what we are seeing on the ground is about twice the number of people comin

osterholm is saying, that a coordinated plan is saying. dr. berks on the white house task force is cautiously pointing to your state, mayor, as showing some positive signs. do you feel that on the ground? do you feel that you're starting to turn a corner? >> we do feel positive that we see that what we've done and choices we've made have had a positive impact. >> but you're cautious? >> yeah, but we're very cautious because all of it has come at a really high human cost. in protecting those health care workers, flattening that curve like everyone talks about now is the number one thing, but in doing so so many businesses, small businesses, workers today have no source of income, and that's going to be for weeks and for months. we still have -- you know, the virus is still spreading here. we have more deaths, more infections. we don't have test kits, for example. i get so infuriated when i hear everybody has as much testing as they need. we have multiple locations that we need to be testing people who are very vulnerable, where there's been out

infectious disease specialist michael osterholm says more is needed, but increasing volume is not the only answer. >> anyone who just holds on the that as the holy grail is going go have some real surprises ahead. >> reporter: he warns, tests are stilill new and unreliable. >> and so we have to look carefully at that. do we want to tell people that are infected with this virus by are infected with this virus by in the community and then finding out that, in fact, test results were wrong? >> reporter: yet private businesses are ramping up. amazon announced it's building its own testing facility. and, this scene from dubai. health officials there partnering with emirates airlines to conduct on-site, rapid covid-19 testing for its passengers. >> everybody wants testing. >> reporter: today, new york governor andrew cuomo said his state has tested more than half a million people in the past 30 days, and said demand from states, businesses, and thedevem >> 50 states are competing, and mee federal government is buying product from these labs. this has to be figured out, and an can only be fi

host: joining us is michael osterholm, policy director for the center of infectious disease.hank you for your time. let's start with what we know. new to people about how this virus is spread? unfortunately, we are having some audio issues so we will try to get to you in a minute. let's first tell our viewers the numbers. if you live in the eastern or central part of the country and have questions about this virus, how it works, how it infects people, why certain people are dying and certain people are not , and also testing for this virus, in the eastern and central part of this country call (202) 748-8000, mountain and pacific call (202) 748-8001, and medical professionals, we want your stories at (202) 748-8002. you can also text us, first name, city and state that (202) 748-8003. m is also al professor and infectious disease and research and policy director. while we wait for him to get his audio up and running, let me just break down the cases and deaths across the united states. this comes from "the washington times," who is dying from the coronavirus, a look at the dea

osterholm with us earlier in the hour. scary, yes, but also he's very much a realist.e said that a year from tonight, we'll still be having this conversation. do you agree with that, and talk about whether or not you see that if we launched a manhattan project on testing, would that still sadly be the case? >> you know, it's anybody's guess where we're going to be, and everything is all speculation at this point. i do think that if we had a manhattan project type of situation, you know, we would be doing better. but here's the thing. everybody is working on vaccines now, and i think we do have a lot of work happening. we have a lot of work on vaccines. we have a lot of work on therapeutics. things are moving forward. i think we need to take heed of what's happened in other countries. we need to really focus on getting our act together, moving forward. but we can't forget that it's not just vaccines and therapeutics. it's going to ride on also contact tracing and testing. we need everything, and we need to be hitting it at all fronts. >> dr. rimoin, i know you just said

osterholm on, he made a strong case how this is not going to get better. this is not going to work without a national strategy, we are talking about a national strategy looking out months and not weeks that's the only thing we are seeing right now. at this point when you see the projections that olsterholm is looking at and you see how it is getting worse and worse in new york and trickling and continuing in other locations, what the hell? i am sorry to say it that way. >> i can understand how you would say it that way. michael olsterholm, this is his life's work, he's basing on a lot of things. the data does not lie of what's happening in the country. there are still several places around the country that are not abiding these stay-at-home orders and don't have it in place. that's the problem for the country and not just for those states. i think that's hopefully clear to people. what they are doing does not affect them and the community but the entire country now. as grim as the projections are right now, grim projections are predicated on the idea that

mike at osterholm is with the university of minnesota. this is really bad news, what do you think?ally not new news. it's something we've known about for weeks. peach have to lapped on to the test-test-mode. we need testing, but we have major road blocks we have to get over. who i've been super excited to say i can't wait for my family to take the test. who is pushing the solution, a solution that doesn't work? >> there's three piece to say this problem. one, we have a short an of the pcr test, because we don't have enough reagents, the chemicals to run these tests number two, the fda have allowed a lot of tests on the market, because, in their own words, they're crap. that's in response that we had such a shortage, it's almost if you had a shingle that said "testing" you can't get through, but this is a function with a test that occurs very rarely such as this antibody, likely in no more than 5% in the country, in new york city maybe as high as 15%, over half of the test positives will be in fact false-positives. if you tell you you have antibody, but a one in two chance it's not

joining me right now is michael osterholm. he's the director of research and policy at the university of minnesota. thank you very much for being here, doctor. thank you for sticking around. >> thank you. >> just one question about what we're hearing from governor cuomo. when you see that at this point when new york has been the epicenter of the national outbreak, the last 24 hours being the highest single increase in deaths, what does it tell you? >> first of all, it's a covid reality. that's what we're dealing with right now. i think the thing that's really hard for everyone to understand is that this is just the beginning of this situation. we're going to see this spread throughout the united states. there will be more places, maybe not quite as severe as new york, but they clearly are going to be severe. we've already seen that in a number of metropolitan areas. i think one thing that's really being missed here, if you look at 1918 and the big influenza pandemic that occurred then, that happened until 1920 until most peopl

michael osterholm, i think it might solve more than just coronavirus to give people something like that to work on together. you're right. that's what people are hungry for. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you very much. >> we have much measure ore of colleague, savannah guthrie's, exclusive conversation with bill gates throughout tonight. >> the gates foundation is in the thick of the hunt for the vaccine. up next, hear why bill gates feels hopeful we may be on the optimistic side of the timeline to find a vaccine and the unprecedented steps now being taken right now to find a vaccine and mass produce it. >>> plus, does bill gates think the u.s. is doing a good job at testing presently? that's all next. there is much more still ahead this hour. new york governor andrew cuomo will join us to talk about the day he learned this stunning fact. more than one in five new york city residents tested found to have antibodies to the virus. meaning far more new yorkers might have had coronavirus without becoming sick or showing symptoms. stay with us. we're at the movies and we need to

michael osterholm. doctor, president trump says he is ready to reopen, but you say we're in the second inning of this game. >> well, first of all, we have to understand we do have to reopen. somehow the economy can't be closed down for 18 or 20 months, whatever it may be this pandemic runs. we don't have a game plan for how do you reopen and if cases start to surge again, which we fully expect they will, how do you bring it back down. we don't have an on ramp or off ramp for this. that's desperately needed. everybody thinks testing in and of itself will make all the difference. there's real limitations with that as you're already hearing. >> like what? >> well, for example, number one, we don't have the tests. we don't have the reagents. in an op-ed piece in "the new york times" i said in about three weeks we'd start to collapse in terms of what testing we could do. it's great to have all these talking heads on tv and writing columns saying test, test, test, but then where are the tests? because it turn

michael osterholm is the director for the center of infectious disease and research and policy at the university of minnesota and joins me now. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> let's talk about, first of all, the masks. there's a lot of confusing, even the new york state health director sitting next to the governor was contradicting was mayor de blasio advised last night about the effectiveness. the point here is that it can protect the next person, not so much yourself, but it's more to protect people around you if you are within that six feet from getting possibly infected from you if you're wearing a mask outside. >> first of all, all of us want to do whatever we can. so everyone who's making these recommendations are doing them in the spirit of let's do something. but we just have to take a step back and make sure we're not doing something that is actually less protective. that may seem counterintuitive. but lets be clear, what's being recommended is to use a mask of some kind so when you're out in the public and you're not sick -- you shouldn't be in the publ

michael osterholm wrote a great article about it yesterday. if you look at these tests and we can't take our eye off the ball on this, there's a 15% false negative rate on some of these tests. if it's that high. you're going to start to lose confidence in people actually being able to trust these tests. they have to get more accurate and more widespread. >> a continuing issue. as always, appreciate your insights. a deep look at the new horrible economic numbers. the gdp shrank by nearly 5% last quarter. that's just the tip of the iceberg in the economic blow. here with me, christine romans and gina smile, a reporter. gdp down 5%, that's wow. that's been a long time since we have contracted, but we also know that's the last quarter, the one we're in right now is likely to be even worse. >> good-bye to the longest economic expansion in american history, and officially hello to the coronavirus recession. these numbers, i'm sure, are going to be revised even lower. you know, the government even said in its technical note that they couldn't even ca

michael osterholm.d like to ask first about testing. at the rate we're going, without it coming from the government, sort of streamlining and using perhaps the dpa to get a national uniform, robust, mass testing effort, it seems like we're in kind of a convoluted space where there's some types of testing here, other types of testing there, and in many cases across the country, nonexistent testing. at the rate we're going, without it coming from the government, when are we going to have enough testing that's uniform enough, that we can map out this virus and protect ourselves? >> well, first of all, let me just say that testing has almost become the kind of what you call mantra that we saw post-9/11 where cipro is everything, testing is everything. and i want to be a little cautious about that. i think we have gotten far too ahead of ourselves on the testing issue, what it can and can't do. first of all, we is a major shortage of testing in large part because of the reagents, the chemicals we need to run

michael osterholm, author of the wood entitled "deadliest enemy."he president or his top doctors? >> first of all, let me fine tune the message and help you understand that right now not more than 5% of the u.s. population has been in-fwekfect with this virus. we know that it is highly infectious and it will try to infect people until 60% or 70% is infected and that is when we develop the herd immunity. so you can do the mental math. there is a lot of transmission left to come. it could even stay through the summer into the fall well into the following year. so it is here. there is no question about that. it is like the law of gravity. it is here, we'll see a lot more transmissi transmission. >> do you share the concerns of dr. fauci and others that the fall and winter months may be the worst months like we saw in 1918, 1919 because of it coinciding with flu season? does that present unique challenges that we need to prepare for today? >> yeah, i think the issue now that this is a coronavirus, not a flu virus, we're not exactly sure where it is goin

osterholm: thank you. host: >> we'll take you live to harrisburg pennsylvania and update from state governor tom wolf. >> social distancing efforts by statewide stay-at-home order. the business closure order school closure order and other efforts over the past month. today, i'm asking all pennsylvanians to wear a mask any time you leave your house. masks heap people from sharing illnesses. they d