Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20200407

An important symbolic role as the sovereign, right . In the uk, it is the monarch, the person in whose name the government is formed. So in great britain, head of governments Prime Minister. Head of state is the queen. And in great britain, Queen Elizabeth is often seen at ceremonial things, but she is rarely heard from directly. She gives a christmas address each year which is, you know, christmasy. But other than that, in her more than 50 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth has only ever made an address to the british people on a small handful of occasions. Well, the coronavirus disaster, which is just ravaging the uk, is now the latest of those very rare occasions on which the queen chose to speak to the british people. Im speaking to you at what i know is an increasingly challenging time, a time of disruption in the life of our country. A disruption that has brought grief to some, Financial Difficulties to many, and enormous changes to the daily lives of us all. I want to thank everyone on the nhs front line as well as care workers and those carrying out essential roles who selflessly continue their daytoday duties outside the home in support of us all. I also want to thank those of you who are staying at home, thereby helping to protect the vulnerable and sparing many families the pain already felt by those who have lost loved ones. Together we are tackling this disease, and i want to reassure you that if we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it. I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the britons of this generation were as strong as any. That rare address from Queen Elizabeth was yesterday. Then today the british people learned that their Prime Minister has been moved into intensive care in a london hospital. Prime minister Boris Johnson has been ill with coronavirus for more than a week now. He was hospital sized last night at st. Thomas hospital in central london. The government said explicitly today that his move into intensive care was in part to facilitate his continued care in the event he needs to be put on a ventilator. Now, there is no vice Prime Minister in britain the way we have a Vice President who would take over if a president was temporarily unable to continue his duties because of illness. But in great britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reportedly asked the British Foreign minister, the equivalent of our secretary of state, to take over the Prime Ministerial duties at least in the short term while johnson continues to be hospitalized. The uk, as i mentioned, is having a very hard time with coronavirus. Theyve got more than 5,000 deaths. Theyve got more than 50,000 cases. They were among the slowest countries in europe to adeposop measures designed to slow the virus. Prime ministers government got sidetracked with some strange theories about maybe letting the virus sort of run rampant on purpose, and then maybe there would be immunity, and then maybe that would work to the they got sidetracked into that sort of nonscientific fantasy prospect in terms of how well they could do if they didnt address it policywise. They ended up starting their measures intended to slow the spread of the virus quite late. And now their epidemic is still just taking off as other European Countries are finally starting to bring theirs down to earth. In italy, france, germany, spain, the rate of new infections is slowing dramatically now. Going back to the beginning of this month, so just for the past six days or so, each of those four countries i just mentioned, theyve had a rate of increase in new cases that is below double digits. Italy has been below 5 growth in their case numbers since the start of the month. Spain, germany, france all now at growth rates of 5 or less. But the uk, which was so slow to get starts on its policies to keep people apart, the uk is still raging, and they have been between 10 and 20 growth in new cases every day since last week. And now, of course, prayers and well wishes worldwide for their Prime Minister, who is struggling. Here in the United States, we are with them in more ways than one. It is not just that they are our closest overseas ally. Our approach to the virus in many ways mirrors them in terms of being slow and even more patchwork than theirs. Were also paying the same kind of a price although ours is worse. Heres the Financial Times trajectories as of today. These are death tolls. You can see there some of the countries that are doing better. I mean you see there italy, right . Italy, overall a huge number of deaths over the course of their epidemic. More than 16,000 italian citizens killed already, but they are bringing that curve down now as is germany, which is the green line there well below italy, as is spain, which is starting to bring their curve down. France just starting to flatten out their curve. But as i mentioned, the uk is not making enough progress yet. Their curve still looks absolutely terrible, and the only one that looks any worse anywhere in the world is ours. Now, this data again, this is the Financial Times. They have they Data Visualization whiz kids that put this stuff together every day, and i think it is very helpful. Part of the reason its helpful and it tells a fairly clear story that doesnt need to be constantly revised or corrected is because they use a multiday rolling average. This, i believe, is a sevenday rolling average. Thats what the f. T. Has been posting and thats helpful because then you dont get distracted by individual one or twoday blips up or down. You instead see a more stable trendline. That said, if youre looking for hope and you are willing to get more microscopic about the data you are looking at, there is potentially a little reason to hope in the very latest numbers that we just got in tonight in new york city and in the United States. What the very, very latest numbers show that we just got in tonight is that the death rate, the number of people dying each day, appears at least to be dropping for the past couple of days in new york city. Now, again, thats just a couple of days, and we dont know if thats a blip, but that is down over the last couple of days. Now, that drop in new york city deaths appears to be driving a plateau in the death rate in the United States since the vast majority of deaths in the United States have been driven by the new york epidemic so far. So you see that plateauing there, right, in terms of u. S. New deaths. And that is good. Lets hope thats not a blip. Lets hope that is the start of some sustained good. Lets hope that holds because overall, the picture of the american epidemic remains almost unremittingly bleak. More than 10,000 americans have died now, including 1,200 in the last day alone although that number changes by the minute. That said, states that acted early to take mitigating measures to keep people at home, to prevent americans from spreading the virus among ourselves, those states are starting to reap rewards now just as the European Countries are that acted quickly as well. So as we start to see in europe italy and spain and france and germany bring their numbers down, we have at least an allegory for that in the United States. California and Washington State both announced that they would send hundreds of ventilators to the National Stockpile, so reversing the flow of ventilators back to the National Stockpile so those ventilators could be deployed in places that more urgently need them because the immediate demand in california and washington has waned. Oregon went ahead and sent 140 ventilators directly to new york after a direct request by new York Governor Andrew Cuomo for other states to please send supplies and things like ventilators to new york now in exchange for new york promising to send that equipment back along with other supplies and along with trained and experienced staff when those donor states now hit their peak in the future, or wherever the next peak arrives. In terms of where things are needed next in the United States, i think theres a few different horizons that we can watch as americans. They all give us a slightly different piece of information. But theyre all urgent, and theyre all interesting. In the immediate term, the shortest term, we of course are watching places like new york and new jersey, where they are overtopping the capacity of some of their hospitals right now. Were also watching the long term, where governors still even now in some states are refusing to take statewide action, which allows the unchecked growth of their states eventual case numbers, right . States that do not have stayathome orders, where people are not being broadly told to stay home and so people broadly arent, that is allowing the virus to spread unchecked in those states that will ultimately grow the number of people who have tested positive, the number of people who get sick, the number of people who need to get hospitalized, the number of people who need intensive care, the number of people who need ventilators and the number of people who will die. And those case numbers and all of the attendant consequences will go up the longer you have people going to work and having gatherings and doing their usual communal stuff day after day after day while this highly infectious virus circulates in every single state because weve got it in every single state. Nevertheless there are still governors that dont have stayathome orders and theyre defending their decision not to and are defying all advice, and theyre just letting their case numbers, what will eventually be their case numbers, balloon and balloon and balloon with each passing day. And so in the long term, we will reap the reward of that as well. But in between that immediate horizon and that longerterm horizon where we can see the way we are screwing up still badly as a country, there is this medium term where it is not as acute necessarily as what weve got in new york and new jersey right now with hospitals always overtopped. But we can start to see the epidemic showing its face in places all over the country. One of the places we have been watching, one of the sort of sources of data that weve been watching among my staff and on this show to try to get signs of that, to try to see where there might be brewing epidemics in individual American Cities and locations that we should keep an eye on in terms of where things are coming next, weve been looking at the data from the vam v. A. , Veterans Affairs medical facilities, which now daily report numbers of how many patients theyve got, how many people theyve got tested positive for coronavirus through those facilities. And the caution here is that v. A. Is not necessarily doing a great or very thorough job with testing. All signs indicate that they are not. But they are doing some testing, and importantly its an interesting nationwide repository of data because there really are v. A. Medical facilities all over this country in every place where any significant number of americans live. And so if you look through the window of these v. A. Statistics again, daily reports from the v. A. You can see it sort of gives you a lens into various American Communities and where there are upsurging numbers of coronavirus patients being cared for at least at the local v. A. Let me show you what i mean. Heres todays numbers from the v. A. Again, these come out every day. Just take a look on this long list about whos over two dozen cases already at their local v. A. Facility. Its ann arbor, michigan. Atlanta, georgia, boston, the bronx, brooklyn, chicagos west side. North chicago too. Cincinnati, cleveland, columbia, west haven, connecticut, denver, colorado, los angeles. The Hudson Valley in new york. Upstate new york, indianapolis, long beach, california. Miami, milwaukee, east orange, new jersey. New orleans, huge number in new orleans. Orlando, philly, san juan puerto rico. Nashville, kansas city, missouri. Washington, d. C. I mean today in all of those places, theres more than two dozen cases among veterans who are being served by their local v. A. Medical facility. So today you can see through those stats these are your veterans struggling. These are your veterans testing positive. But those federally collated statistics that come out every day also give you a window into what is happening in cities all over this country because these are communitybased facilities and their testing of their veteran patients is shining light on what is going on in those communities. And lo and behold, its not new york and new jersey that are the only places that have this to worry about, right . I mentioned columbia, South Carolina, there. Theres 44 cases reported as of today at their local v. A. Facility, which tells you something about columbia, South Carolina, and the type of epidemic they are dealing with there whether or not theyve got their arms around it yet. Well, today the governor of South Carolina, republican henry mcmaster, finally today put in place a stay at home for his state, but hes not calling it a stayathome order. Hes calling it a home or work order because hes not actually ordering people in South Carolina to stay at home. Hes ordering them to stay at home, quote, unless theyre working, theyre visiting family, or recreating outdoors. Those are the limits he said today. So you can stay inside. You should stay inside, stay at home. You should stay inside, stay at home unless you are visiting with your family, unless you are doing outdoor recreation, unless you are doing other things that the governor says probably wont spread this thing too much. But in case that sounds too onerous, dont worry. Even that doesnt go into effect until tomorrow night because why rush . South carolina has more than 2,000 known cases now. Theyve got more than 40 cases just at their v. A. Facility that isnt doing a ton of testing. But anybody in South Carolina right now who doesnt know theyve got it but they are spreading it asymptomatically, your governor, mr. Mcmaster, im sure really hopes you wont spread it unabated while you continue to visit family and work and, you know, do whatever you need to do within his work and home order. In georgia, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp this weekend overruled all the cities and towns in georgia that had decided locally to close their beaches to keep people from congregating at beaches and spreading the virus that way. He overruled those cities and towns and ordered georgia beaches back open because thats Georgia Governor Brian Kemps kind of approach to this. Georgia already has more than 7,000 confirmed cases and more than 220 deaths. Reopen the beaches. Tomorrow in wisconsin apparently were going to have an inperson election with polling places staffed by poll workers and people expected to turn up to vote. Republicans in the state legislature decided they want that election to go ahead anyway regardless of the health risk. They filed a lawsuit to stop the governors executive order. The conservative majority on the state Supreme Court sided with the Republican Legislature and blocked the governors executive order. Then the u. S. Supreme court blocked a lower courts effort to at least extend the deadline for people to submit mailin ballots. So they wont extend the deadline for people to submit mailin boughts eve mailin ballots even. This is a developing story, but Wisconsin Republicans and the president , when asked about this matter, have been pretty blunt about their belief that the lowest possible turnout they think benefits republican candidates. And theres a republican state Supreme Court candidate who they really want to reelect on this ballot. You know, if youre hoping for low turnout, boy howdy is it a pretty bulletproof way to ensure low turnout, to threaten the lives of people who turn out to vote, and to threaten the lives of poll workers who will have to turn out in order to facilitate that vote. Thats one way to get what you want. In new york, the Javits Center and the u. S. Naval hospital ship comfort will both be taking coronavirus patients after the federal government initially said those two facilities would only take noncoronavirus patients. Those changes have been made for both of those facilities now. The new york hospitalization burden continues to be fairly relentless. These are the Daily Hospitalization numbers that we have been tracking in the city. You see just over the last four days were up to 15,000 now in the city. In addition to the builtout facilities in new york that theyve already stood up in parks and stadiums and the Convention Center in manhattan, today the latest makeshift hospital to be announced in new york city is the nave of the cathedral of st. John the divine, which will now host 400 hospital beds as overflow for mt. Sinai hospital. Today doctors and nurses and other Health Workers at harlem hospital protested the fact that they really are having to work without the protective equipment they need to prevent themselves from becoming infected. You see their signs at their protest today outside harlem hospital. Respect Public Hospital patients and our nurses. How many of us must die . Ppe over profit. Protect the front line. Who will care for you when we are dead . We will not be your body bags. Then theres this one. Please dont call me a hero. I am being martyred against my well. Defense production act now. The administration is warning that this week will be among the darkest times the country has gone through, and you are seeing National Signs of support and gratitude to Health Care Workers. But Health Care Workers still dont have what they need in the places that are hardest hit. The National Response remains patchwork and in parts of the country just backwards, just insane. On the front lines, the fact that the hospital staff isnt getting what they need to do this right now will ultimately be looked back as the sort of, i think, Central Metric of how americas great industrial and economic might proved absolutely impotent in the absence of leadership to apply it. But seeing these daily protests out of new york city hospitals, right . Its not like we didnt know that new york was going to be in crunch time right now. Its not like we didnt know we needed a National Upsurge in resources specifically to ep new york first while new york debt with 15,000 simultaneously hospitalized Covid Patients and all the ventilators in use. Its not like we didnt know that was coming. But even now, even today, new york city front line hospital workers are having to protest with homemade cardboard signs saying i do not have the equipment i need to do my work without risking myself. And who will take care of you when were dead . Even now. The administration is not getting it done. And you know, when it comes to the federal government, weve just got a president , and weve all got the same president. As a country, we dont even have a different person whos a head of state to turn to when our head of government fails. But we do have congress, and thats something. And we are going to be joined next by the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi. Shell join us live. Stay with us. Again soon, and family gatherings. There will be parades and sporting events and concerts. To help our communities when they come back together, respond to the 2020 census now. Spend a few minutes online today to impact the next 10 years of healthcare, infrastructure and education. Go to 2020census. Gov and respond today to make americas tomorrow brighter. Its time to shape our future. To get back to normal again. For hospitals and at ctca, we arent waiting either. Were still focused on providing worldclass cancer care. Because cancer isnt just what we do, its all we do. Call now. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. Or make me feel like im not really there. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442342424. When youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. So you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com it could be as simple as repositioning your wireless gateway. Place your xfinity xfi gateway, or your other gateway out in the open, off the floor, and close to where you use your devices most. Dont crowd your gateway. Avoid other electronic devices. Need even more coverage . Adding xfi pods may help extend the wifi signal in your home. To get the most out of your wifi, go to xfinity. Com wifihelp. Joining us now for the interview is the speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelo pelosi. Madam speaker, thank you so much for joining us through the miracle of sort of local to local connection here and these cameras that we have macgyvered on both sides of the country. Thank you for being here. Telephone. Telephone cameras. My pleasure. Any chance i get, i want to thank you for the beautiful presentation you make about the challenge that our country is undergoing. Thank you, rachel. Well, thank you for saying so. I mean its im just trying to keep up. I feel like and as the top democrat in the american government, as the person with the key role that you have leading the house of representatives, i feel like theres great frustration over the patchwork and sometimes backwards and slow response that we have had as a country. Do you have faith that there are things that congress can do, that you and your colleagues can do, with the control that you have over those levers of power, to try to shore up our National Response and to try to alleviate some of the worst mistakes that have been made . Well, im very proud of the work that weve done in a bipartisan way actually in the congress. On march 4th, we passed our first bill, which was about testing, testing, testing and research for a cure and a vaccine and so many other things. The 14th, we passed another bill addressing the needs for masks and all of that. The 28th of march, the president signed the c. A. R. E. S. Act, which is the over 2 trillion bill to meet the needs of the American People, a bill im very proud to stay democrats turned on its head from Corporate America trickdown to bubbleup for the workers. So there is in place so much that we have done, but we need more. And, again, were right now trying to implement the c. A. R. E. S. Act in terms of the unemployment insurance, in terms of the help for small businesses, in terms of direct payments, issues that relate to state and local government, issues that relate to hospitals and other healthserving institutions to meet their needs. So weve done a great deal, and we just have to get that out. But as it goes out, we know already that the acceleration of the pace of this virus and this assault not only on the lives but the livelihood of American People, that we must do more, so were preparing for c. A. R. E. S. 2 already. In terms of that preparation, in trying to match the scale of the congressional response to the size of the problem, its been reported that the former fed chair janet yellen briefed democrats within the last few days saying that the real Unemployment Rate right now is probably about 13 already rather than the official 4. 4 . Weve also heard it reported that the next c. A. R. E. S. Act, that the next relief bill will be on the order of about maybe another 1 trillion. When you think about that economic threat and that economic response, do those numbers seem like they match to you, that thats the right size approach to that big a problem . Well, we have to take it as it comes. I mean, in other words, when i talk about numbers, people say, well, lets see what we need, and thats what were taking inventory of. But what the country needs is really we need to find a cure. We need to get rid of this virus. What we need is a central command, for the president of the United States to say, somebody is in charge of just seeing what we need, whats in the chain of the supply chain, what isnt, getting it to the places, the hot spots where its needed, moving it on after that. We dont have that. What we need is really testing, testing, testing to evaluate the scope of the problem so that we can truly have a measure of our success. And what we need is again just the respect that we should have for our workers so that as they save lives, theyre not risking theirs and that of their families. They need the ppe, the personal protective equipment to protect themes, not just the Health Care Workers but First Responders and others as well as the ventilators to get to people. What the American People want is to see those workers get what they need. What they want to see is them getting their own checks. Lets get it in the mail whether its unemployment or direct payment, et cetera. And what they dont want to see are industries in our country receiving taxpayer dollars and ripping them off with buyouts and bonuses and dividends, et cetera. So thats why in this bill, we put the conditions in there so that didnt happen, that we put the resources in there for small business, for unemployment, for direct payments, and now we need more. What you were describing in terms of the supply chains and needing somebody in charge of making sure the right equipment and supplies get to where they are needed, your colleague in the senate, Senate Democratic leader chuck schumer, its been reported he spoke with the brandnew white house chief of staff. Theres been a number of them, but theres a brandnew one. Senator schumer spoke with him, asking the president to appoint essentially a czar to oversee what you were just describing, the production and distribution, allocation, reallocation of these critical supplies. He reportedly gave him a list of names. I wonder if you are also in support of that kind of approach, if you and senator schumer are working to the on that, if youve had any word that the administration might sort of get their act together in that regard. Its so selfevident, and our caucus, steny hoyer, our distinguished leader, has been calling for this for a long time. But we all know you have to have somebody in charge to manage it. It just doesnt happen that it goes politically where somebody might want it to go. It goes where it is needed. But you cant go anyplace unless you have something. So there has to be an inventory of what the supply chain is, and what we also need in our country is Domestic Development of the therapies so that were not didnt dependent on foreign countries. Congresswoman anna eshoo has a bill to that effect, a commission to establish what and why about this. We are so dependent. So when other countries say, well, i have this and i have that and im not shipping it out because i have my own problem, were at the mercy. Madam speaker, tonight it looks like the great state of wisconsin is going to go ahead with their statewide election tomorrow after the state Supreme Court blocked the governors attempt there to postpone it till june because of the obvious Public Health emergency. The u. S. Supreme court also weighing in late in a 54 ruling saying the wisconsin voters shouldnt even get any additional time to return their absentee ballots. I just wanted to get your take on what we saw in wisconsin today and what you think about how we as a country should be Holding Elections during this crisis. Well, people should not have to decide whether they can vote or be sick. Thats just not a good choice for anyone in a democracy. And you would think that the Supreme Court of the United States would not overturn a Court Decision which gave the voters extra time to do a vote by mail by a few more days to get their vote by mail ballot in. So you have the Supreme Court of the United States undermining our democracy. Its really shameful, 54. Surprise, surprise. But we just have to as i say, we dont agonize. We organize. We just have to get out the vote to make sure that they do not not only risk peoples lives to vote but risk the outcome of the election, which is an important one in wisconsin now. But the judge who decided the lower Court Decision that was overturned tonight, he said, i cant rule to change the election, but i can determine that this is what you need to do. You need more time to get in the vote. A very clear picture of understanding the health risks that were involved at this very unfortunate and unusual time. Apparently the Supreme Court does not have an appreciation of that, sad to say. No surprise. Madam speaker, let me just ask you on that line, along those same lines, what do you say to the American People tonight who may be concerned about the prospects for the november election, who may see the crisis that were in and the kinds of decisions that are being made, the kind of political maneuvering thats happening around this election, for example, tomorrow in wisconsin, people who are worried that maybe we wont have a president ial election or that we wont have one that has an actual meaningful test first im so proud of all the president ial candidates because they all understood that elections are about the future. What is your vision for the future . What do you know and have a passion about, having a strategy to get something done around it, and how do you connect to the Kitchen Table needs of the American People . They all were wonderful in that respect. As we go forward, i get back to what i said before. We dont agonize. We organize. We must make sure that people get to the polls and vote. And theres time for us. Hopefully this virus will be beyond us then, but even if not, then we organize in the reality that were in. But i just have to say to them to know their power. They have the ability to make the difference for the future. The stakes could never be higher. All you have to do is look at one press conference, and you see them every day, and the press insists on showing them every day. And you understand that this country has to go in a better direction to meet the needs of all of the American People, valuesbased, evidencebased in our decisions and the rest. So i would just say to them, theyre the boss. I just finished a town hall meeting with my bosses, the people of san francisco, and i respect what they believe and what they the standards they set for their elected officials. The people have to understand they are the boss of america. The choice we have in that election is up to them to decide, but you dont count if you dont vote. So lets just every single day, as we are in these atmospheres of shelter at home and the rest, use all the time we can to make sure that every day we make progress in getting more people to the polls. And as i always say, its all about the children. So as we do this, just remember its for the children. Speaker of the house nancy pelosi. Madam speaker, thank you for joining us tonight. I appreciate you making time and making it technologically work. I really appreciate it, maam. Sort of. Thank you so much, rachel, again, for just being such an intellectual resource to us all and an sprags. Thank you so much. Thank you for saying so, madam speaker. Weve got much more to get to tonight. Stay with us. Knowing were prepared for the future. Surprise we renovated the guest room, so you can live with us. Im good at my condo. Well planned, well invested, well protected. Voya. 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Talk to your doctor about dupixent. Aand were here for you ry day fespecially now,rs. Doing Everything Possible to keep you connected. Through the resilience of our network and people. We can keep learning, keep sharing, keep watching, and most of all, keep together. Its the job weve always done. It is the job we will always do. Bi n95 masks, this critical piece of equipment thats in short supply, these masks are not meant to be reused. Plan a would be to have a functioning federalized supply chain capable of getting the right number of these masks to the hospitals that need them and having in be a plentiful supply. Plan b as been reusing masks and that has not been going great because weve got them using them over and over again doing Different Things to extend their lives. They are giant mask decontamination for reuse. We reported on this a few days ago and want do give you an update on it. These machines are made by an ohio nonprofit. The company has one machine operating near their headquarters in columbus serving ohio hospitals. They tell us a machine they just installed in the boston suburb of somerville, massachusetts, should be operational sometime this week. Another of their machines got up and running this weekend on the campus of Stony Brook University on long island outside new york city. That machine is reportedly in use now. The company also is in discussions about deploying another machine to new york city soon. This video, which we just got today from the u. S. Military, shows a dry run of the decontamination process at one of these machines installed at camp murray outside tacoma, washington. The masks get sprayed with Hydrogen Peroxide vaper inside these sealed shipping containers. Each hospital gets its masks back within a day after theyre decontaminated. They can label each mask so its returned to the same person. The company says they believe they can safely decontaminate these masks so that they can be used up to 20 times. Battelle tells us this Washington State facility should be operational by the end of this week serving local hospitals. This was them demonstrating basically what the process will look like. The company couldnt tell us how many masks have been sterile aed so for at the long island site. They say it will take a while to get up to capacity because individual hospitals have to sign up to use this process. They have to put a system in place for getting their used masks safely to the machine where they can be decontaminated and then returned to them. But as these facilities are starting to come online in different parts of the country, you will see more and more hospitals using them. I mean this kind of macgyvered, stopgap, temporary solution to our shortage of equipment for Health Workers, it is hard to believe this is the best weve got right now, but it is something at least. 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By march 15th, less than a week after the symptoms first started, the patients breathing had become so labored that he had no choice but to go to the emergency room. They looked at him but sent him home. 24 hours later with the patients breathing deteriorating rapidly, he was back in the e. R. , and this time they admitted him to the hospital. The patient in this story is david latte, the founder of the excellent and essential legal blog above th abovethelaw. Com. Before he got too sick to continue, he used twitter to detail the increasingly curveballs was throwing, like when he found himself gripping onto the counter at the emergency room admissions desk because he was too weak to stand without doing so. Within five days of being admitted to the hospital, david lat took a dramatic turn for the worse. He was moved into the intensive care unit. He was intubated and put on a ventilator, which is terrifying not just because of everything youve heard about the chronic lack of ventilators nationwide. Its also scary because the data has shown that patients who go onto ventilators have considerable reason to worry if they will ever come off that ventilator. But david lat did after nearly a week. On april 1st, he tweeted, quote, not an april fools joke. After 17 days in the hospital including six days on a ventilator, i am being discharged. He has since said about his ordeal, quote, i dont think ive fully wrapped my head and heart around the enormity of what ive just been through. Im so grateful to be alive. And we are grateful to have him here tonight. Joining us now is david lat, the founder of abovethelaw. Com, and his husband, zach. David, zach, thank you both so much for being here. I know this is probably the last thing in the world you want to be doing, but thank you. Were thrilled to be here, rachel. Were thrilled that were able to be here. Yes. Well, were all thrilled that youre able to be here. David, let me just ask how youre feeling. I can hear youre still hoarse. I know you said you feel like you have a long way to go for your recovery, but how are you . Yes, i am quite hoarse, rachel. I still feel a little weak or winded. If i walk across the room, i find myself panting. I have a little plastic stool in the shower because you cant stand for the whole time. But its a lot better to be they took great care of me at nyu langone, but its much better to be home than in the hospital. So im glad to be here. Zach, let me ask you about some of the time you have spent here without david. I know that particularly the time that he was in the icu, that he was intubated and on the ventilator, you were effectively alone. Hes anesthetized. Hes on the ventilator, not able to communicate with you in any way. I imagine that must have been harrowing. Yeah, absolutely. It was horrible. I couldnt communicate with david obviously, but it was also at times very difficult to communicate with the hospital because they were so overwhelmed. And of course you couldnt go to see david because of coronavirus. So everything was isolated, and i also was recovering from the virus at the time. So it was quite the confluence of terrible events. Wow. David, one of the things that youve said since you came home is that you are looking forward to being able to donate plasma in the hope that that could be used as part of the research to try to develop a vaccine, a cure, treatment. How do you feel your treatment was . Obviously there is no treatment for this disease that is fdaapproved. Theres a number of different experimental treatments that are being tried. Theres no vaccine yet. Essentially care right now is supportive. How do you feel like your treatment was and what are you hoping for in terms of people that are going to be going through what you just went through . Yes. Near the end of my stay at the hospital, i actually did donate some of my plasma to researchers at nyu langone who are conducting a couple of different studies. I felt like i gave them a gallon of blood. They had different vials for things they wanted to study, but studies are under way. I think theyre really important, rachel, because theres so many different treatments out there on the market and theyre not really sure what works. I received a couple of Different Things. I received hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin. The evidence is not clear its fully there. I received a drug designed to deal with strong immune reactions that can lead to lung failure, which is what happened in my case, strong reactions to the virus. And i also received an antiviral. So i received these three Different Things. I dont know if any of them worked. I dont know if all of them worked. I dont know if they were counterproductive. We dont know. So i think we really need to did more research. Absolutely. And, you know, the way that those Clinical Trials are structured, the different regulatory bodies, the Different Countries theyre going to be conducted in, this is going to take incredible leadership from a medical point of view in order to get this done. And yet there is this incredibly human story at the heart of this. I guess ill just ask you guys too. I know you have a 2yearold son and that part of this ordeal was thinking about his ongoing care. Also your parents, staying with your parents, worrying about being you both having been exposed, you both having been ill with coronavirus, worried about potential exposure of your families. How have you navigated some of those currents . So after we both david especially started showing signs of a virus, we didnt think at the time it was necessarily coronavirus, we actually had our son go with davids parents to protect him and to protect his nanny. And of course then we were nervous after we found out it was coronavirus that they were exposed. Fortunately they seemed to have been okay, and whether our son, 2yearold, had it or not, you know, since he was so exposed to us, he may well have been. But fortunately hes been fine. But figuring out what to do to protect everybody was very tricky and very scary. Yeah. And, david, i know that your recovery is going to be significant. The ventilator itself for six days is an ordeal for the body in terms of what youre going to have to recover from. But were so happy to lay eyes on you and to see you both on the other side of this. Thank you both for helping us understand what youve been through and welcome home. Thank you, rachel, for your great coverage. Thank you. Thanks for saying so. David lat again, founder of abovethelaw. Com. His husband is zach. Weve got more to get to tonight. Stay with us. Excuse me. Uh. Do you mind. Being a motour . What could be better than being a motour . The real question is. Do you mind not being a motour . I do. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. I do. At bayheart and discovering more akidney disease,between so george can keep discovering new adventures. At bayer, this is why we science. My agerelated macular degenso today i made a plan with my doctor, which includes preservision. Because he said a multi vitamin alone may not be enough. And its my vision, my morning walk, my sunday drive, my grandsons beautiful face. Only preservision areds2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the National Eye Institute to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. Its how i see my life. Because its my vision. Preservision. 450degree oven, to box, to you, know that from our its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. The xfinity my account app puts you in control with Digital Tools to give you the help you need when you need it. Get fast and easy answers with personalized help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Change your wifi password to a phrase thats easy to remember. Even troubleshoot your services on your own. Were working to make things a little easier for everyone. Download the xfinity my account app today. One last story before we go tonight. One exquisitely botched portion of the federal governments response to coronavirus has been the u. S. Navy firing the Commanding Officer of the Aircraft Carrier Theodore Roosevelt after he called for help for his crew when large numbers of his sailors started to test positive for coronavirus. The Trump Administration fired him and then they sent the trumpappointed Navy Secretary out to the Theodore Roosevelt to give remarks to the crew in which he insulted the outgoing Commanding Officer. As of the last few minutes, the Navy Secretary, thomas the Commanding Officer in the way he did. I apologize for any confusion my choice of words may have caused. Confusion was not the problem. Thats going to do it for us tonight. Time for a special hour, life in the time of coronavirus hosted by lawrence odonnell. And dr. Zeke emanuel. That starts right now. The coronavirus crisis, a highstakes waiting game across the United States and across the world. Hospitals bracing for the pandemics peaks. Field tents being set up all around new york. States begging for ventilators and protective gear. We are trying to source ventilators literally all over the world. And the price has at least