stephen morrison from the center of strategic and international studies, thank you for being with us. >> thank you, amna. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, a judge in south floridae announced ndemic has forced an indefinite delay in the trial of nicolas cruz, for the parkland school shootings. the judge said it remainou unclear whens can reopen for jury selection. cruz is charged th killing 17 people on valentine's y, 2018. a noose at a nascar speedway in atalladega, alabama, led outpouring of racial solidarity today. the noose was found sunday in the garage space of bubba wallace, nascar's sole black driver. he had successfully pushed to ban confederate flags om racing sites. l 39 other drivers ralli around wallace today, pushing his car down pit row before the rain-delayed race began. he climbed from the car and wept. the white house confirms that president trump approved the weekend firing of u.s. attorney geoffrey berman, in manhattan. the president initially indicated he played no role. but today, his press secretary said attorney general william barr spoke to mr. trump, arme

stephen morrison is a senior vice president and director of global health policy at csis,th center for strategic and international studies. he joins may now, stephen morrison, welcome t bathe newshour, let's start overseas where we are seeing some of the ermous surges specifically in brazil. 54,000 new cases, why is there such an alarming surge happening right now? >> well, it's a nuf factors. i mean testing has expanded a bit but that's not the main factor we're looking at he. there was a lockdown for a period but it was verwefla it was very fragmentedment there has been a repening. people have become complacent. i think probably the dominant factor is simply wretched naonal leadership in the form of president bolsonaro who has had open scoscrn forience and for this virus. has embraced hydroxychloroquinen has hademp for his governors who attempted to put in place quarantines, has called for mass rallies, has done pretty much everything possibly wrong. and his support and legitacy has collapsed. and so we-- and the epidemic is concentrated in large, urbanre centers whhere is high slums

. >> smi: stephen morrison ishe th policy expert who has long warned that america was unprepared forc like this one. >> and secretary azar was having a hard time conveying the gravity of the situation to the president. >> smith: this is 18 days aftere the chinese ment has recognized that they are seeing deathsrom this, and it takes 18 days for azar to get to the president. >> correct. >> smith: was that the president's first true briefing on this? th as far as i know, it wa first serious high-level discussion. >> smith: buit is unclear how much azar pressed the president. he declined to be interviewed. according to micha shear, azar actually reassured the president that he didn't need to worry. >> what azar wanted to communicate tohe presidentot was, "wehis. we're not, we're not taking this lightly. cdc is on it, a is on it. we're moniring it closely." but also not, like, "we all have to panic and shut the cotry down."an i at this point, it's really, everybody is in the eyde of, you know, this... "we gotta keep aon this." >> are there worries about a >> no, not at all.oint? and we ha

but last year, stephen morrison headed a bipartisan effort to address america's pandemicon re capacityrt, released in november 2019, recommended the pandemic response team be moved back to the white house. >> we live in an era in which we're seeing increasing rapidity and increasing velocity and increasi impacts of these new pathogens coming at us. this is the condition of our microbial universe today. >> a sars-like virus has now spread into japan. >> more than 10,000 people died from h1n1. the idea that you would disband your capacity willfully at the white house, aware ofhe developments of the last twos, decahich were convincingly that we needed to be prepared, and far better prepared, on a consistent and sustand coherent basis. >> smith: what's then explanatat would be ven? >> well, i can't speak for john bolton. i presume that they wanted toib see that respoity moved over, out of t white house, toar the secretof hhs and to those who worked underneath him. >> smith: so what's wrong with that decision to move this capacity over to the hhs? >> the mistake there is to assume that the

j stephen morrison is the vice and thet for csis global health policy center. dr. morrison has directed several high level commissions, is a frequent commentator on global health in africa and foreign assistance. he served in the clinton administration and taught for 12 years at the johns hopkins school of advanced international studies. vermont -- at d sis, heor to joining served as the national intelligence officer for africa from 2015 to 2018, leading the analytic efforts on sub-saharan african issues and served as the personal representative at inter-agency policy meetings. the cia senior analyst on sub-saharan africa. director as the nsc senegal, and- and contributed toward the u.s. strategy toward sub-saharan africa signed by president obama in 2012 that led to the recognition of the somalian government for the first time since 1991. he spent two years abroad working in nigeria from 2008 to 2010. with that, we will get started and let me talk -- turned to ambassador linda thomas greenfield for her remarks. ambassador thomas greenfield: i think i am unmuted. t