Almost 40 of households that bring in less than 40,000 a year lost their jobs. Goldman sachs now predicts 1 in 4 americans will be out of a job thanks to the coronavirus. That massive job loss also means Massive Health care disruption. New data shows 27 Million People may have lost their employerbased Health Insurance since this started. Millions now without options to get new coverage. Everyday life is also getting more expensive. Grocery bills jumped in april by the biggest amount in nearly 50 years. Eggs and beef had the biggest price hikes. The president s posture is open now, and he promises things will look more normal by fall. That despite warnings from his own top scientists if states ease restrictions too quickly or too much, there could be a major resurgence in cases. The president s testing czar says 50 million tests a month is the target by fall when schools are schedule today reopen, but already, the largest fouryear Public University system said it will not take the risk of bringing students back to campus for the fall semester. In ord toor maer to maintain distancing guidelines we would have to reduce the capacity of our classrooms to 25 of their normal levels. We would have to drastically reduce the member of students enrolled. And frankly, the prospect of bringing students from across the state and the country to converge on monterey county, it would be a cluster that would drive the infection rates in our county. We didnt really want to do that. Lets get straight to Stephanie Elam in manhattan beach, california. A big wow, a big shockwave. How big that cal state wont let students come back in the fall . Its a huge shockwave, john. Think about it. Were talking some about 500,000 Students Affected by this. The campuses also employ 50,000 people as well. Theyre saying all 23 of their University Campuses will mostly not be open. Nearly all closed. All of that education going virtual. The whole idea here being if they do this now, his could help temper the expectations. Its may, so people are still working on graduating from high school. If theyre coming back to start college, they at least know what theyre looking for as they begin the school year. Take a listen to what they had to say about this. It is the right call, looking at the safety of our student body population, looking at the safety of our campus communities. Were talking about more than half a Million People on 23 campuses. Across 800 miles of california, and were looking at the most diverse ethnically, economically population. In order to give students a level of certainty, i think this decision might have needed to happen sooner rather than later. And its not just the cal state system which is the largest public system in the country, but its also the university of california system as well, saying that their ten campuses that stretch throughout the state will likely not be open and will have Virtual Education as well. You may see some small gatherings, but the issue here is theres just not a vaccine yet, and therefore, they cant see getting the students all together on the campus. Nay say this is going to be a couple years in development on how theyre going to attack this problem, but for now, at least these students know they can start planning to learn from home. John. Stay at home. Stephanie elam, a big deal out in california. Thank you so much. Reopening, 50 states, 50 plans. When we talk about the increase in the National Death toll projection, it has a state by state projection too. They project higher deaths in North Carolina and maryland, for example, but lowering its projections for indiana and for georgia. Another data point we watch is the case count. As the states get deeper into their reopening plans, lets take a peek at the national trends. You see the national map, the different colors. The red states still going up. If youre 50 higher this week than the week before, youre in the darker red. The more orange, that means your case count is up 10 to 50 from the week before. You see nine states still heading up. Thats a bad trend. 19 states, thats more of the gold yellowish color, holding steady. 21 states on the way down, one state way, way down. Youre tracking this on a state by state experiment. Some are reopening. Lets walk through some of this. Oklahoma, look at oklahoma. You come back here to april 24th. This is when they started to reopen. You want to look. Case count going up, case count going stable. The red line is the sevenday moving average. Its relatively flat. Heres the oneweek mark, the twoweek mark. A couple daily spikes but overall, its flat. The question is are they headed back up or is this a blip if you want to keep watching this. Is oklahoma starting to head up . Well track that. Alaska, another state, reopened back on april 24th. The red line is your rolling average. Down or flat . Even down a little bit from when they reopened. A little blip in recent days. The question is, is the case count going up or is this a oneday oneoff and the line stays down here. Something to watch as the states get deeper into reopening. Georgia has received a ton of attention. Among the earliest to reopen. You watch the line, a concerning day, but overall, the red line is the average. Some days are lower, higher. Georgia has been relatively flat. The governor would say i can manage this case count. Whats this in the last couple days . Is it heading back up or a low day and a high day and it averages out . Thats what you have to watch in each of the states. Can they keep it flat or does it start to go back up. Georgias governor said were going to continue to reopen and im going to continue to watch those numbers. Many have warned of a second wave and asked if we are willing to change course if conditions decline. Let me be clear, we will continue to track the numbers. We will take whatever action is necessary to protect the lives and the livelihoods of all georgians. Joining us now is a doctor, the chief of Infectious Diseases at massachusetts general hospital. Also joining us, Senior Vice President of Global Health and hiv policy for the Kaiser Family foundation. Doctor, let me start where you. When you look, i looked at three states, and we could look at them all. Most of those states relatively flat, with a day or two that leave you worried. As youre watching this experiment, we heard dr. Fauci yesterday say im worried. Do you see anything concerning or is it so far so good, lets keep watching . Well, good morning, john. I was worried when it happened. I remain worried. I think time will tell, and we really have to watch carefully. Certainly, you know, the trends of flat over this period of time may be falsely reassuring. We know there is quite a delay, up to two weeks, until things start taking off. So i do hope that as we pass that twoweek mark, that when were actually in this threeweek mark, that we dont see the manifestations of sort of exponential spread as could happen during the time of things happening. To that point, the ihme has increased quite significantly its national projection, likely to die by the first of august. Its up in some states, down in other states because were going through this remarkable 50state experiment. Listen to chris murray who runs the model explaining why he thinks people are getting out of the house and youll have a higher death toll. Whats happened is states have relaxed early. People have heard the message, they have gotten out, they become more mobile. Theyre having more contact, and were seeing the effects already of that transition and then thats playing out in the projections, unfortunately. Jen, the increased mobility is inevitable as states reopen. I think one of the big subquestions to that increased mobility is how do people behave . Will they keep their social distance, will they wear masks in public and so forth . Good morning, john. Good to be here. It is a critical time and a critical question. From surveys we have done and others, people are still afraid, and most say that they want to be very cautious, but as you noted, the people are moving. I think were seeing fatigue of staying inside, and also some mixed messages. One state is doing one thing, another state is doing something else. Federal government has provided just very general guidelines. So i think theres also confusion, what is safe and what should i be doing . And as the doctor said, time will tell. I think we all need to be very vigilant and watch the trends very carefully. Not just on a statebystate base but within states. People dont live in one spot. They move. Right, they do move. I can show you just from our new polling, have you left home to visit friends, family, or neighbors in the last seven days . 35 say yes now. Doctor, your governor of massachusetts is about to reopen the state. We can show you the 14day trend there. It is certainly down. But i was reading the boston globe this morning and a lot of the scientific experts are kind of apprehensive about this. Some wish, could we wait another week or two, could we let it play out . When you look at this, put massachusetts in the national context, are you ready in the state of massachusetts, which has been among the states hardest hit, or do you think the governor should pause a little longer . Great question. I have been very grateful to live in the state of massachusetts, as you see our trends are trending down. I think if you looked at the federal guidance as to whether we should be ready to reopen, we certainly dont have the tests we would need. I dont think well have the tests we need for a long while, and i think patience will run very thin wfr before we have th. Our trends in death are trending downward, and on monday, governor baker announced a very slow and vigilant fourphase policy, so fourphase plan to reopen. I dont think theres going to be rapid reopening. I think this has been a very thoughtful process, and it ilwill be a very slow process. I want to come back on the case you made, jen, about lack of National Guidelines. There were cdc guidelines about reopening. They were very detailed and very prescriptive. If you read the cdc guidelines which have been shelves or reedited, by those guidelines, texas and georgia would be way out ahead of where the cdc would like them to be already. I want to show you pictures here. A graphic shelter in place patterns. You see two maps. One from april 9th, one from may 9th. On the left, a deeper blue. That means people are staying home. You might not see a giant difference when you look at the one on the right, but it is getting lighter. Thats people getting out and moving around. To the point you were making, jen, do you think, is this up to individual governors, mayors, county executives to say heres whats happening in our county, therefore you must wear a mask, or do you think National Guidelines would be more helpful . I think local Health Officials have a really Critical Role to play, and the cdc guidelines you mentioned specifically say everything should be done in consultation with local Health Officials. But this is a virus, and viruses dont understand borders, whether its a county border or a state border or a country border, and so there is a real need, i think, for some general standards that can be used across the country, certainly theres going to be different experiences, and thats important. But im worried were going to be in the situation of having so Many Disparate movements and potentially outbreaks in different parts of the country that this could really explode and thats what we have to be prepared for. And testing is a big part of this, if we have enough testing going on, which we dont yet. We dont yet, is what you hear constantly from people like yourself and around the country. The white house says it will get there. Doctor, lets close the conversation with this. I want to listen to dr. Fauci from yesterday and ask you a question on the other side. Heres dr. Fauci. There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control, which in fact paradoxically will set you back. Not only leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery. 50 states, 50 plans. What would you look for most specifically . Is it rate of transmission, is it daytoday increase in case counts, hospitalization pressures . What data point do you study the most as you watch each of the states start to progress and get deeper into a reopening plan . Great question. There are a couple metrics i have been using. One is the percent positive of cases, of tests that are done. So i have been watching that carefully in massachusetts. We have gone from early on, 28 positive to 23 of a rolling average over the last week or so, we have been anywhere from 9 to 10 of cases that are positive to yesterday i believe we were at 13 . So that reflects two different things. It reflects how much disease is out there and also reflects how many tests are being done. If youre really widely testing, and theres very little disease out there, then you should be in the 2 , 3 range. I would love to see us get there relatively soon. The other place that i look a lot is to see how our hospitals are doing. Do we have the resources to care for the people who are coming in the door . Certainly, that is Getting Better in massachusetts. Or in mass general, anyway. We still have quite a few patients with covid in the hospital, over nearly 200. So that certainly is a stress on our system. And what i would reiterate is, we already have a stress on the system in the fall and winter during the influenza season. When you combine those with influenza and potentially covid that could be escalating, i really worry about the capacity to care for those which is why our eyes on that data every day. Really appreciate your time and insights and expertise today. Thank you so much. A new warning now from a whistleblower. Dr. Rick bright, the ousted head of the agency in charge of meantical countermeasures says the United States is headed for its darkest winter without dramatically ramped up countermeasures against the coronavirus. This is dr. Brights opening statement. Hes a whistleblower called before congress. What is he going to say . Thats right, john. Well, first of all, hes going to reiterate what we have already seen in his previous complaint. Last week, of course, dr. Rick bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research office, filed a whistleblower complaint alleging he was fired, that he was ousted from that post as the head of that office in charge of Vaccine Development because he resisted efforts to push the treatment hydroxychloroquine, which of course, President Trump had repeatedly promoted in february and in march. He will say, according to the written testimony that we have obtained, and finally, when i resisted efforts to promote and enable broad access to an unproven drug to the American People without transparent information about the potential health risks, i was removed from barda. But beyond that, what were also going to hear is hearing from dr. Rick bright talking about the future of this pandemic, not only talking about the fact that he raised warnings that the United States was unprepared for this coronavirus pandemic early on in january and in february, but also talking about the fact that unless the United States government begins to ramp up its response to this coronavirus pandemic, that the United States could face the darkest winter in its history. He talks about the potential for unprecedented illnesses and fatalities if the government does not ramp up a National Coordinated response. Among many of the things he says the government needs to ramp up is that perennial issue of testing, which as you know has been a central focus, was a central focus yesterday during that testimony from some of the top experts in the federal government, and it was a focus of the questions not only from Democratic Senators yesterday but also from several republican senators. So dr. Bright, again, will be testifying tomorrow before a Health Subcommittee on the house side this time. And again, reiterating those allegations of retaliatory firing, tieing it to hydroxychloroquine, but also warning of the future of this pandemic and the risk that the United States faces if the government does not ramp up its response. John. Jeremy diamond, appreciate that reporting on the big testimony coming tomorrow. I believe the doctor is with us from boston. Let me go through this in two parts. Number one, rick bright said he was pushed out because he was not willing to accept the president s exuberance for hydroxychloroquine. Studies more recently have shown that dr. Bright was right. That it is suspect at best as helpful. Is my interpretation of that correct . Yeah, i think we just have to be scientists here and researchers as we try to do the best for our patients. When we do that, we dont sort of advocate for any unproven treatment that has not been shown in a controlled randomized trial. Thats how we assess the goal standard for how we assess things that work. We did not know, we did not have those data for hydroxychloroquine at the time. We have increasing data now that hydroxychloroquine not only it does not appear to be working, but in fact, causes toxicity, cardiac toxicity. So you know, i think everybody was anxious to have something for patients because people were dying quickly and we had nothing to give them. But we do have to recall that our Gold Standard here is the randomized trial. And so then looking forward to the warning there of the darkest winter. These things are complicated. Hes a whistleblower. Were going to see what the testimony is. Theres any members of a team, some people may say were up to speed, were behind, were ahead, but testing has come up repeatedly. His main concern in the testimony about the darkest winter is he does not see the administration built up, a, in the context of the coronavirus testing, and when you overlap it, as you were mentioning in the previous conversation, were dpeeg have a seasonal flu anyway and other challenges ahead of us. What did you make of what you heard from Jeremy Diamond of his warning about a dark winter . I worry about it myself. I think dr. Fauci said it best during his testimony yesterday. We should be humbled about what we dont know. Were learning a lot about this disease every single day. Manifestations we never thought we were going to see were now seeing. Were using drugs now that we have never used before. The longterm manifestations of those interventions, so i think we have a lot yet to learn. We are not scaled up in the testing that we need to do. Its Getting Better, but its not where it needs to be, and im worried about the fall. Doctor, appreciate you sticking with us to go through that breaking news. Appreciate the work youre doing every day. Up next, House Democrats say the country needs another giant stimulus plan. Senate republicans say its too big and too soon. To gather to. But we can grill together. Oscar mayer invites you to take your backyard cookouts to the front. Join us for the oscar mayer front yard cookout. Enjoy sharing a meal together but safely apart, while we share a million meals with feeding america. And everytime you use the frontyardcookout, oscar mayer will donate an additional meal up to a million more, through the month of may. Lets head out front and give back. Up to a million more, through the month of may. I came across sofi and it was the best decision of my life. Were getting a super competitive Interest Rate on our money. Were able to invest through the same exact platform. I got approved for a loan and it was a gamechanger. Truly sofi, thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. House democrats say they new 3 trillion stimulus plan is urgently needed so they planned a vote this week which includes direct packages to americans, but Senate Republican leaders say not so fast, arguing its too soon to know if more federal spending is needed. Manu raju is live for us on capitol hill. An impasse between the house and senate. What happens next. Theres going to be a vote on friday. The speaker, nancy pelosi, making it very clear she plans to push ahead. Even though theres even some concern within the left flank of her own caucus which has not believed it goes far enough in protecting the jobless. This bill would be the largest relief measure ever passed by congress, if it were to pass both chambers, and this affects virtually all aspects of the economy, providing a trillion dollars in aid to state and local governments. Also providing money to small businesses, bolstering money for the unemployed jobless benefits, including sick,000, up to 6,000 for payments for certain families depending on their income threshold, an additional 75 billion to help renters and homeowners, in addition to 75 billion for expanded testing. Democrats are pushing forward on this after weeks of closeddoor discussions on how exactly to piece another proposal forward, and this comes on the heels of Congress Enacting roughly 3 trillion just this spring alone, which amounts to the most aggressive intervention by congress, by washington, into the economy since we have seen since the great depression, and thats why the republicans in the senate are saying, lets wait to see how that is being implemented, how those programs are working before we agree to more, but john, i can tell you, there are republicans in the senate that do want to move forward on some aspects of this including money for state and local governments. That Division Within the republican conference continues to play out. Continues to play out, which means horse trading and vote counting in the days ahead. Manu raju, appreciate the latest there. The reopening in stirring is business activity, but its worth remembering, americas three largest cities are shut down and theyre major pieces of the american economy. This pegs the daily loss in gdp. 722 million from new york city, in chicago, 351 million. John friedman, founding codirector of founding insights joins us from rhode island. When you look through the numbers, you have a tracker. You do find that spending is rebounding some in some places. Arkansas, tennessee, north dacdda dako dakota, and maine. But theres a big lag where i am, new york, delaware, connecticut. What are you seeing up there . You mentioned there are 50 states and 50 plans. Were seeing the Economic Conditions are differing across all of these 50 states in very interesting ways. Were seeing stronger spending rebounds in the middle of the country especially. Not necessarily places where there have been fewer instances of the disease. But in some places like new york, new york obviously a hot spot of the disease, theyre kind of a middle place in terms of spending. Places like nevada, which is heavily dependent on travel and tourism, were seeing spending really lagging very far behind there. Again, another piece of your tracker, this visual i find really interesting. If you look at where the National Emergency was declare and where spending was, and then it drops way down. You see the stimulus checks go out on april 13th and you see spending go up some and then it flattens again. It has rebounded a bit if you look at the numbers but still, way, way down. Is that fair . Thats right. Spending was down about 30 at the beginning of april, as everyone was really pulling back. Theres a clear rebound to about down 20 now. We say down only 20 , right . Thats only great relative to the beginning of last month. But its a clear sign the stimulus is working. Of course, i think its going to be those neediest families who are spending the stimulus checks most. And so were going to be on the lookout for not just when but where these stimulus checks are starting to run out and where we may need another boost to keep people afloat with money to put food on their tables going forward. John friedman, really appreciate it. Fascinating data. Youre on the lookout. When you see new numbers and a change anywhere, give us a shout. Well bring you back on. Its fascinating to watch as the stimulus debate in congress will intensify. To politics now and brandnew cnn poll numbers. They show joe biden with a National Lead in the race for president , but there are warning signs for the democrat when you dig deeper into the numbers. Its a fivepoint National Lead for biden. President trump receives 46 , but remember 2016. We pick president s state by state. Look at the horse race in the 15 states that cnn designates as president ial battlegrounds. The president leads in those battleground states 52 to 45 . Be careful not to invest too much in any one poll, especially in the middle of a pandemic, but bidens numbers are down among women, down among independents, and in both of those subgroups, the drop is primarily among Younger Voters. Lets discuss with jeff zeleny, laura lopez. Let me start with you. If you look again, dont overinvest in any one poll, but when you see the drop among independents, the drop among women being primarily led to a decline among Younger Voters, my question is, Bernie Sanders got out of the race. Biden is the presumptive nominee. Theres been some grumbling among sanders progressive voters and also been a very targeted Trump Campaign effort online trying to target Younger Voters and sanders voters. Do you think thats an impact here . I think that there is certainly some enthusiasm we have seen from this poll and others that its down among young voters. Thats one of the biggest concerns you hear a lot from people who worked soonders campaign, from sanders himself and other supporters. We saw that biden announced this Unity Council today, and a part of that are former sanders supporters like congresswoman accostio cortez. Theres some effort to bring in that momentum sanders had with young voters. Efforts to address that. Bidens campaign has been talking to more activist groups that were very supportive of sanders and his progressive policies. Again, this is a clear issue across young voters, regardless of race and ethnicity were seeing. Also young latino voters arent very enthusiastic about biden and he needs to address that. He has time, but the numbers there do send some warning signs. Jeff, part of the conversation for the Vice President is, as laura noted, you bring in aoc and other sanders supporters to try to prove im reaching out to people who may have questions. He also has to pick a running mate as he goes forward in the process. In our poll, we did ask some questions in our poll about this. What are you looking for . What are democratic voters looking for as biden picks a running mate. Nearly four in ten say someone who adds racial or ethnic diversity. 33 say adds idealogical balance. 31 , represents the future of the democratic party. You look at the numbers, and the racial disversity, executive experience, idealogical balance top the list, but no overwhelming wish among democratic voters saying mr. Environmenmr. Mr. Vice president , you need to pick this. What are you hearing in your reporting . Theres no question thats the primary task right now on the lap of the Vice President , the former Vice President and his campaign, slowly looking through his roster of potential candidates to find ronning mate. Were told, talking to a variety of people who are close to the former im sorry y need to interrupt you. The governor of new york, andrew cuomo, beginning his daily coronavirus briefing. Deputy superintendent of the department of Financial Services but has been working with us on the covid situation, has been doing a great job. Pleasure to be in the North Country today. Jefferson county, i want to thank dr. Ty stone for having us and the hospitality today. I wear a mask. Apparently, it doesnt say anything. You dont see any words on it, but when someone wears a mask, it says to other people i respect you. I respect your family. I respect the work of our frontline heroes, the nurses, the doctors, et cetera. And i wear this mask to protect you and your family, because i respect you. Its a sign of respect. And all new yorkers, i believe, should do it. Lets talk about the facts today and the situation were looking at today. Number of hospitalizations are down again. So that is good news. The rolling total of the number of hospitalizations has been down, and thats good news. Number of intubations and down, and thats good news. And new cases per day, which is something we watch very carefully, little bit up. But overall, down. Thats i refer to that as the mountain. You see the outline of the mountain. Adiran d adirondacks, we know about mountains. You see how fast we went up and how much slower the design was. And thats important. Thats what the National Experts are talking about when they say you could have an outbreak that you couldnt recover from. The increase, the incline is very fast. The virus travels very quickly. And then getting control of the outbreak is much slower and much harder. And that was the experience we had here in new york. You see how fast it went up and how many days of super effort by new yorkers it took to get that spread under control. And to reduce the rate of new cases. The number of lives lost still painfully and tragically high. These are not numbers. These are families. These are lost individuals. Theyre fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and 166 families are in pain today. And they are in our thoughts and prayers. When you look at where we are today, were just about where we were when we started this terrible situation. So we have hopefully come through the worst. We paid a heck of a price for it, but we have come through the worst. One of the things we have been very diligent in doing is taking care of our essential workers. We owe them. You know, theres still a right thing in life and a wrong thing. Theres still obligation and gratitude. And the essential workers we owe. We close down everything. We communicated how important it was to do that, how deadly this virus was, and then we told the essential workers, but you have to show up tomorrow even though this is a deadly virus. We need you to show up, nurses, doctors, transit workers, police officers. We need you to go to work while everybody else can stay home and try to be safe. They made a tremendous sacrifice. And i asked them to do it myself. Day after day. And i told them we would do everything we needed to do to protect them. We have been doing testing of the essential workers. To see if we have a problem anywhere. And good news has been the frontline workers are testing at lower rates than the general population. So downstate new york, the transit workers tested about 14 of the overall number tested positive. Thats compared to new york city where about 19. 9 of the general population. The Health Care Workers, 12 . Think about that. Nurses, doctors, in emergency rooms, 12 . You know what that means . It means ppe works. Masks work. Gloves work. Hand sanitizing works. How do Health Care Workers have a lower percentage of infection than the general population . Because people dont wear these at home. And they dont take the same precautions. But this works. Nypd, 10 . Fire department, 17 . We then sampled the new york state police. Who have been doing extraordinary work. We sampled 2700, which is a large sample of the state police. Only 3 tested positive. That general population, upstate new york, of about 12 . Thats also very good news. And then we tested the people who work at docks, our department of correction services. Prisons. We have also been very careful because prisons, you have a congregant population. Wherever you have gatheringsering thats where we see the virus spread. We did a test of those people who work at the department of corrections, primarily corrections officials. We sampled over 3,000. 7. 5 , again, below the general population rate. So that should give us all some peace of mind that the essential workers were out there, they are doing fantastic work for us, and we have made sure that they were protected in doing the work that theyre doing. All of the frontline workers, Public Service frontline workers, tested below the general population. So we should feel good about that. Also, i want people to know that elective surgeries are going to start in 12 more counties. And thats important. We had stopped elective surgeries so we had additional Hospital Capacity for covid patients. But as the covid, number of covid cases has come down, we can restart elective surgeries. Also, ambulatory services. So thats good news. A lot of attention on reopening now. And were doing something in this state that no other state is doing. Were doing the most transparent discussion and reopening operation of any state. Why . Because it only works if people understand it and if people are part of it. This is not a government exercise that were doing here. This is a social exercise. The 19 Million People of new york state are doing this. And the best i can do is give them the information, and i believe in them, and i believe in the people, and i believe when they have the right information and they trust the information and they know the information is actually factual, as opposed to some type of political jargon, they will do the right thing. And they have. And thats how we bent that curve and flattened that curve. Same thing on reopening. You will know exactly what is happening in your region, in your county. Youll know the facts and the numbers on a daily basis. And youll know what were doing. We heard testimony yesterday from the National Experts, dr. Fauci, who warns of suffering and death if the u. S. Reopens too soon. Okay. If you reopen the economy too soon, people are not taking the precautions, you have gatherings, the virus will transfer, and youll see a spike in hospitalizations and youll see a spike in deaths. Okay. Whats the key in that expression . The key is too soon. If you open too soon. All right. What does that mean, too soon . Too soon means youre opening, youre increasing activity at a rate that the Hospital System cannot handle and people are not taking the right precautions. Thats what too soon means. Okay. Well, then how do we calibrate too soon . You can measure exactly what you are doing. The red valve is the reopening valve. You start the reopening valve. Activity increases. Youre doing diagnostic testing. Are you positive, are you negative . And you watch that rate. Youre doing antibody testing, which tells you how many people were infected, and you watch that rate. You know on a daytoday basis now how many people are walking into the hospital with covid. We have those numbers. Never had them before. We have them now. You watch that rate every day. And if you watch those rates, you know how fast the virus is spreading. What they call the rate of transmission, the rt. So too soon, watch the numbers. Watch the measures. There is a science to this. And that has to be watched in every county, in every region, and it has to be monitored. You see those numbers starting to move. You will know if youre reopening too soon and if people arent taking the right precautions, and if you see that virus spreading. So give the information to the people. Thats what im trying to do. Thats what i have been trying to do from day one. Because government cant do any of this. This is a function of the actions of every individual and every family. Well have a Regional Control Group for the North Country, for every region in the state. Watch those numbers every day. Make sure those businesses are complying. Make sure people are complying. And watch it daytoday and youll know if the activity is increasing to a level that is increasing the rate of transmission. And act accordingly. And that has to be done on a region by region basis. Now, also, with this virus, we must stay alert because were still learning. And what we thought we knew doesnt always turn out to be true. Okay. This virus has been ahead of us every step of the way in this country. When we first started with this virus, we were told it was coming from china, right . Wuhan province, came from china, and its going to come from china. Now to the United States. Turns out it didnt come from china to the United States. It did in some parts of the country, but the east coast, it turns out it came from europe. I talk to everyone all day long. In the beginning of this, nobody ever said its coming from europe. We had 2 million europeans come to new york, new jersey, big airports, international airports, jfk, and no one knew it was coming from europe because it had gone from china to europe and it gets here from europe. No one knew. When this started, once you have the virus, you have antibodies, and then youre immune from further infection. That was stated as a fact. Now it turns out maybe youre not immune even if you had it. Maybe you have some immunity but not total immunity. Were not sure. Okay. Then we were told children are not affected by covid virus. Great. Sigh of relief. Less than 1 of new yorkers who are hospitalized under 20 years old. Now, were finding out that may not be 100 accurate either. Because now were seeing cases, the department of health is investigating, and new york is in many ways the tip of the arrow here, looking at 102 cases where children who may have been infected with the covid virus show symptoms of an inflammatory disease like the kawasaki disease or toxic shock like syndrome. We have lost three children in new york because of this. 5yearold boy, 7yearold boy, and an 18yearold girl. And these cases are all across the state, predominantly where the population is. 60 of these children tested positive for the covid virus. 40 tested positive for the antibodies of the covid virus. Okay. That means children either currently had the virus or could have had it several weeks ago and now have the antibodies, saying that they had the virus and they recovered from the virus. 70 of the cases went into icu. Which means theyre serious. When youre going into intensive care, it means its serious. 19 resulted in intubation, which means theyre very serious. 43 of the cases are still hospitalized. On the age when they say children, its across the board. It can be under 1yearold. It can be up to 20, 21yearold. Majority between 5 years old and 14 years old. It affects children of all races. And its not just in new york. The department of health sent an alert to 49 other states. Dr. Zucker has been leading this conversation nationwide. 14 other states are now investigating cases in their state for possible inflammatory disease for children related to covid. Five European Countries are now looking at this. Because it happened after the fact and does not present as a normal covid case, it may not have been initially diagnosed as a covid case. Covid cases are normally respiratory. This is not predominantly respiratory. Its an inflammation of the blood vessels which could affect the heart. Its more of a cardiac case than a respiratory case, which is a new manifestation of the covid virus. The department of health is being very aggressive in doing the investigation and also talking to other states, countries, about what they may have learned, partnering with Rockefeller University and the new York Genome Center to see if theres anything in the dna of these cases. But parents have to be aware of this. The predominant signs, fever, abdominal pain, skin rash, other symptoms. Change in skin color, difficulty feeding, trouble breathing, racing heart, irritable or confusion. Its a wide array of symptoms, as you can see. Which makes it even harder for a parent to know exactly if your child has been exposed to someone who had covid, even if it was several weeks ago, that is a special alert in this situation. Department of health has told the hospitals in the state to prioritize covid testing for children who come in with any of these situations. And if you want more information, this is the health site to go to. Now, as a parent, i can tell you, this is a parents worst nightmare, right . To have a child we thought that children were not specially affected by the virus to find out that they might be and it might be several weeks later, this is truly disturbing. So, we raise it because its something that parents should be aware of. Were still finding out more about it. Were working very aggressively. The more we know, the more well communicate. For now, everything we know is on that website. But parents say, you know, should i be concerned . You should be aware. You should be aware. First job is to protect our children. My baby is 22. Not really a baby anymore, she likes to tell me. Shes theoretically this is 21 and below shes 22. Maybe i have nothing to worry about. I still worry. Because thats what you do as a parent, you worry. I tried to get her up to come with me today, mikaela, 22 years old. Do you think you have any power in life . Try to get a 22yearold out of bed at 7 30 in the morning, and you will quickly come down to earth about any expectation of anything. But go to the website in the meantime. New york state. Im proud of what our people have done. And were proceeding with caution and with intelligence. We also need help from washington. I understand the federal government has said, you know, its up to the states, its up to the governors. Great. But we need help to make this happen, and we need help from washington. I think that the decision or realization that it should be done state by state makes sense, but it doesnt mean the states are on their own, either, and we need federal legislation. We need whats called state and local aid. Our state budget, our state economy has suffered. We have a significant funding gap, and states need assistance. New york has about a 61 billion funding gap, which is a very, very serious funding gap. What does who does the state fund . If we dont have funds in our budget, what does it mean . States fund local governments. We fund police, firefighters, and schools. If our budget doesnt work, who gets cut . Police, firefighters, schools, local governments. The very people who we need to fight this virus and the very people who we all call the essential workers and the heroes who have been doing a great job. Then how do we not give them support that we need . We also need funding for state testing. Everyone says the key is testing. The key is testing. By the way, this is a tremendous operation to put in place. This will be millions of tests in new york. Tracing, never been done before to this extent. Its going to be thousands of people who do tracing. We need funding for that. The washington bill should finally provide a real economic stimulus that helps this nation rebuild. Every president has talked about the need to rebuild our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our airports. Every administration does a report. The bridges are falling. The roads are crumbling. Our country doesnt build airports anymore. Which it doesnt. Were building a new airport in downstate new york, the laguardia airport. First new airport in 25 years in this country how can it be that we havent built a new airport in 25 years . You fly around the world and everybodys airport looks amazing. Its like a shopping mall, hotel, entertainment complex. And then you come to an airport in this country. You need to stimulate the economy. You need to create jobs. Do what every president has said but none has done, democratic and republican. The bill that was introduced yesterday has something thats very important to many states. It repeals whats called s. A. L. T. , state and local tax deduction. This was a tax change made two years ago, three years ago in washington. It increases the taxes of homeowners in certain states. New york is one of them. It costs new york state about 29 billion per year. State of massachusetts, 11. 8 billion per year. It also affects new jersey, connecticut, maryland. That is repealed in this bill that the house put in. Its the single best piece of action for the state of new york. And we have representatives who know this very well in representative lowey and representative neal. I applaud them for putting it in. They have to make sure its in the final bill, because the only thing that matters is whats in the final bill. But that is good news in this bill. And the need for state and local aid. This is not a democraticrepublican issue. You have democratic governors. You have republican governors. All governors will say they need assistance from the federal government. The governors Work Together in an Organization Called the National Governors association, nga. The chairman is a republican, Governor Hogan from maryland. Im the vice chairman, democrat. Governor hogan and i did a joint statement on behalf of all the governors, saying, we understand what we have to do, were prepared to do it, but we need help from washington and we need that state and local funding. So, this is not a partisan issue. Something else that washington has to do, which is very important. Special interests always rear their ugly head, and these bills that are coming out of washington, they have a lot of funding to get the economy running, a lot of money for big businesses and a lot of money for millionaires and a lot of money for large corporations. I fear what is going to happen is that corporations are going to use this pandemic as an excuse to lay off workers. Theyre already telling analysts that their profits are going to go up because theyre going to reduce their payroll. So, youll have americans who are now out of work, who think theyre going to get their job back, but the corporation is going to announce, by the way, we dont need all those employees back, were going to reduce our number of employees. And youll see layoffs for americans. We went through this before. 2008. We had the mortgage fraud economic catastrophe, right . And we bailed out the banks. I was attorney general at the time. So many banks took the bailout from taxpayers and then gave themselves bonuses or gave their employees bonuses with taxpayer dollars. And as attorney general, i had to bring actions against these corporations to get the money back. How absurd, they create a financial catastrophe in 2008 because of these mortgage scams and mortgage frauds. Taxpayers bail out the corporation. They turn around and use the money to give themselves a fat paycheck, when theyre the ones who caused the problem in the first place. So, we made this mistake before. We cant make this mistake again. I did an op ed today in the Washington Post that speaks just to this. You want to provide subsidies to corporations . I understand that. Make sure the subsidies are tied to worker protections. Very simple. If a corporation gets a check from the government, that corporation must not lay off any workers. Have the same number of workers after the pandemic that you had before the pandemic, and dont think taxpayers are going to subsidize you, mr. Corporation, so you can then lay off workers. And then the taxpayers can then pay for that. I call it the Americans First law. No Corporate Bailout if youre going to lay off workers. And its going to be introduced by members of the new york congressional delegation, and im very proud of them for their leadership. If we get that washington bill passed, then its going to make a significant difference because its going to give states the ability to do what they need to do to reopen. And we can take it from there, because we are new york tough, which is new york tough and smart and united and disciplined and tough enough to love. Thank you. Questions . Governor, good afternoon. Jeff cole from channel 7 here in watertown. Hoping to be able to ask you a couple questions. First, welcome to watertown, and welcome back to the region. Its good to have you here. First question. Whats the future of state prisons . The budget gives you the authority to close as many as you see fit, and now that we have this Political Climate and the fiscal climate, im