On tonights pbs newshour. P major funding for the newshour has been provided by cruise lines, travth American Experience the Maritime Heritage and culture of the maine coast and new england islands. Our fleet of small cruise ships plore american landscape seaside villages, and historic harbors, where you can experience local customs and cuisine. American cruise lines. Proud sponsor of pbs newshour. Carnegie rporation of new rk. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongopport of these institutions and individuals. Ongopport this program was made possible by the corporation car public broing. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. It has been a day like few others in modern morn life, freeft coast to the west, the Stock Exchange and house of worship. For stocks it was the worst day of trading since t 1987 crash. As fears of the pandemic spread, the w jones industrial avera plunged 10 , tumbling 2,352 points to close at 21,200. The nasdaq plummeted 750 points, and the s p 500 lost more than 260. Meanwhile, a rapidfire succession of new cancellations and closures rippled across the u. S. And around the world toy, from major sporting events and cultural institutions, to entira school systend even catholic churches across rome. The u. S. Now has more than 1300 covid19 infections in at least 45 states and the district of columbia. That as the fallout intensified over pside trumps decision to ban travel from most of europe. Nick schifrin begins our coverage. Schifrin in european in the oim containment area in the country, food is handed out by the natiol guard. You in rochelle, new york sone of the cities on the front lines of disruptions, delays, and closings across the country because of covid1ls public schre closing for nearly four million students,ud ining every k12 school inio nd maryland. New york state banned gatherings of more than 500. Broadway, and manchesters metropolitan meum of art, and metropolitan opera are going dark. Dizzily land will close for rest of the month. Major League Baseball suspended operations. The National Hockey league paused its season. And the n. C. A. A. Canceled it march madness conference. On capitol hill, the question was whether the u. S. Has enough tests. Utah republican senator mitt romney. E dont have the level of testing that were seeing in veher countries, and we wonder why they have sl thousand people a day getting tested and we have a handful. Reporter dr. Anthony fau agreed in response to democrat Debbie Wasserman sch theres not one person that can ensure that these tests can be administered. Yes or no . The sysm does not, is not really geared to really what we need right now, what you are asking for. That is a failing. A failing . Yes. Yes. In it is a fa lets admit it. The idea of anybody getting it easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, were not set up for that. Do i think we should be . Yes, but were not. Schifrin despite his experts testimony, the despite the c. D. C. Not releasing official statistics, 45 minutes later, presideth trump said we have heavily tested. If an american coming back or anybody coming back, we have a tremendous testing set up where people coming in have to be tested. Reporter people are ruing to come in from europe today, where preidential calls r calm were met with fear and confusion. Definitely been, like, a lot of uncertainty, which has caused a lot of, like, panic. I think its definitely at diffictuation for everyone to be in and its clear the situation is being handled chaotically. Reporter american citizens can return home from europe, as can u. S. Citizen foreign family members, but the confusion came after president Trumps Oval Office stateme last night blaming europe. A large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from europe. After consulting with oup Government Health professionals, i have decided to takseveral strong but necessary actions to protect the health and wellbeing of ansll ameri reporter President Trumps suspension of travel from the european continent to thu. S. Starting friday was met with shock. European officials tell pbs newshour. And today, the onropean uni top officials dlird a short a terse response the Prime Minister of ireland, which is exempt from the ban, President Trump called i necessary. We had to make a decision, and i didnt want to take time and, you know, it takes a long time to make the individual calls. And we are calling, and we have spoken to some of them prior to, some of the majors, prior to. But we had to move quickly. I mean, when they raised taxes on us, they dont consult us. Reporter apparently the majorsnclude the United Kingdom, whose officials tell pbs newshour they were inedfo beforehand and are also exempt from the ban. One of the reasons u. K basically, has been its got the border. It got very stron borders. And theyre doing a very good job. They dont have very much infection at this point, and hopefully, theyll keep it that way. Reporter Johns HopkinsUniversity Says thest infections in europe are in italy, france, spain, andan ge the United Kingdom has the tenth most infections. But in london, Prime MinisterBoris Johnson warned things would get worse. The true number of casess higher, perhaps much higher, than the number of cases we havo far confirmed with tests. Reporter worldwide, the virus has reached 110 countries and infected more than 126,000 people. Denmark, nory and ireland, have ordered all schools closed. 1,000. Ly, the death toll topped residents are coping with tighter restrictions, after the government yesterday ordered most businesses, shut. But where the virus originated, the streets are returning to normal. Chinese Health Officials claim the lowest total of new cases, a dozen, since the outbreak began. And the chinese say nearly but the chinese are ng fingers outward. The foreign Ministrys Deputy spokesman tweeted today, it might be u. S. Army who brought the epidemic to wuhan. That is a lie, u. S. Officials say, designed to deflect blame. Woodruff we return to the financial fallout and to help make sense of todays dramatic drop ithe markets. Liz ann sonds is chief investment strategist for Charles Schwab and company. The anne, welcome back t newshour it looks pretty cataclysmic. What is driving this. Yeah. We so, obviouslyknow the virus and the unique uncertainty with regard to we know its goiwo to gete before it gets better. But the economic impact, the impact on corporate engs. Then we had the double whammy of the collapse in opec talks and the ash in oil prices, and how thats filtered into the onomy, but also significant dislocations in the Corporate Bond market, and then more recently, you had dislocations occur in the treasury market, which is y the fed sepped in with what they did today. So, unfortunately, its been this triple whammy. Its not ju the virus. Woodruff so in laymanse terms, is ththing to reainvestors, to reassure the markets right now . Well, i think we saw a bit of shock and awe out of the fe today, but thats really just to stabilizrthe treasury mat. The fed has been very honest in saying that they cant really do much to ease the pain of a pandemic. They cant create a vaccine. They cant create tests. And i think theres this realization that Central Banks have limbed power. So i think we probably need a bit more shock and awe from government authorities, something on the fiscal policy side. Ngand the markets are telyou that we havent gotten that yet. Woodruff and whawould that look like, fiscal policy side . Well, there have been lots of ideas bandied around, whether it uld be done ugh some sort of payroll tax holiday, a little more discussion recently about just actually providing money. Is it more targeted toward ose individuals or industries that are most at risk . So theres a lot being discussed. Conversations, but so far, were not yet seeing that shock and awe ke at least the Central Banks are attempting to give us, which is limited in its aid. Woodruff so in the meantime, until that happens, we and back and watch and hope . Well, we are at a at a thats about in nen the market historically with what the market has done in anticipatio of recessions. Now, this is a unique cause to a likely ression, given that we have whole swaths of the economy literally simultaneously shutting down all at once. So theres a tremendous amount thats unique about this set ofe circumst but if it is significant enoug to bring on a recession, wanrkt , at this point, is than what has been the case in the past. That doesnt mean the bottom ins but weve hit those levels as of today. Woodruff pretty grim. Liz ann sonders, thanks very much. Thanks, judy. Woodruff we look nsome of the broader ripples and response with our nick schiffrin, Lisa Desjardins and yamiche alcindor. Hello to all three of you. Yamiche, im going tort with you. We are seeing all this disruption. How is the preside haning it . Well, the president is facing a challenge like nothing hes ever seen bef ce. And rse this country is facing a challenge like nothing its ever seen before. Ive been tae,king to sou democrats and republicans, and they say American Life is not going to look like look like normal americalife for a lon time. You have elderly couples crying in their cars aaid to go into grocery stores. You can vpeople that cant go to football games, cant throw a football with their child because theyre worried whether or not the virus iin the air. And you have a president who is struggling, frankly, judy, to figure out what to do, how to calm people. People in some cases dont trust what the president is saying. Just today on testing, something americans are very, very concerned about, he is saying testing will be going quickly. Were all working well. This is going smooanly. Then you have the Top Health Official saying actually testing is failing in this country, and we dont have drivethrough testing. Its not as easy as othcoer tries. What you have is a president trying to calm peoples fears oying things that his Health Officials in Hi Administration are saying are wrong. Woodruff and, nick, we heard some of this in you report a moment ago. What else are you hearing from an officials about wha the president said last night . European officials, anger is re tly palpable when you tao them. One European Union official told me yesterday that the first time they heard about bithe posty of the travel ban was when a reuters story hit yesterday afternoon. They called the administration in the hours between that stry and the speech. They never heard back. So they heard when he all heard, when the presideng started spea french, german, e. U. Officials i spoke to all of them. None of them were consulted before the speech. And they also wonder, by the way, why the United Kingdom w left off. Each of these officials see this in a larger context. They cite candidate trump callinglet e. U. Aeconomic foe. They talk about the paris climate accd ord laming europe during impeachment for not helping ukrne. But now european official i talked to today talked about retribution at all. As the e. U. Statement today said, its time for cooperation not tit for at that time measures. Sreenivasan how is the white house push back on what the europeans are sayg . The president is doubling down on the decision to have these travel bans hd have tese travel restrictions go to effect. The president said, you know what . When the europeans tax us, they dont consult us. He made it aout trade. He made it tit for tat as looking at our european allies. President s relationships with european allies. Hes has talked about an americanfirst approach and the virus as a foreign virus. Of course, the cronavirus esnt know any border. There is no country that might not be touched by this, what you have is the president now having to face the fact that international ties and International Strategy is going to havto be somthing that ppens in order for this to be tamed. And Health Officials in the president s own administration say there has to be International Coordination for this all to go tooth p smoothly. Again, the president is doing what hes done in past crises, d thats lash out at people and lash out at people who are living across the borders and living abroad. At ts point, its going to in some ways have to figure out how to change this tone becthause e are people in his own administration who are worried. Woodruff and, meantime, americanrare clearly ried, as weve been discussing, lisa. Stepping back, even talking to a lot of folks today, Political Leadership broadly, how is ilot ing at dealing with this . Well, at this moment, judy, im watching my phoo see if the white house and Congress Speaker pelosi, specifically have arrived at a deal for how to handle workers, families, people who are going to have needs, whether its food or paychecks for the next few weeks or months. I think that deal uld be come anything minute now, watching mh e. Otherwise, trying to arrive at that deal and for leaders at the capitol, understanding the scope of this problem, today was a wild day on pitol hill. We put together this story looking at it. It. Oo uff the pressure touldnt be greater looking a it. Right now Many Americans are talking over concernmehow the gove is responding to the pandemic, the ability to get. Esting and how the u. S response compares torg countries. I think we want to ce bak my mistake here. We do want to come back to the democratic president ial candidates. President s response. On the we have members of congress, as lisa just sai working onome sort of package that would address the pandemic. And lisa has more otn t. Desjardins at the capitol, noanonger open to the public eruption of recognizing the obvious a mighty problem has arrived. I think this is a wake up call for the world. The only question is how many more cases . Desjardins also obvious congress and t white house must act sooner than that. This will not be the same issue a week from now. It will be much worse. So we need to be here in our seats solving the problems we can solve. Desjardins trying to solve some problems, House Speaker a nancy pelo treasury secretary Steven Mnunchin have been on and off the phe to negotiating a possible deal to help workers and families whose lives may be disrupted. Last night, President Trump announced executive action from the oval office, including an historic travel ban, that came with some confusion. To keep new cases from entering o shores, we will be suspending all travel from europe to the uniteds for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect friday at midnight. Desjardins just an hour later, deputy d. H. S. Scuretary keinelli tweeted out an important clarification that this does not apply to american president that it also does not apply to goods. Vice president mike pence downplayed this in mor interviews. I dont think there was confusion. De he made thsion on the spot after hearing from all sides that the best thing we could do is suspend a travel. Desjardins the president s plan has other elements he is considering declarg a national emergency, which could free up more than 40 billion to help. He is starting to give loans to Small Businesses and asking congress for 50 billion more to help them directly. And he wants congress to pass a payrl tax cut to boost the entire economy. But on capitol hill, the focus is on a much broader sweeping democrats. Pu proposed by house its abouing families first. Speaker ploa desjardins House Speaker nancy pelosi is hoping to bring the white house on board democrats unprecedented plan. Ould give workers affect by the virus twothirds of their monthly pay, up to 4,000. Businesses would have to immediately provide 14 sick days Small Businesses would be reimbursed for the cost. And it would fund one billion dollars aimed inelp for food banks, lowincome families facing School Closures and meals for homebound seniors. The house is on fire. Pe le are concerned about of course the health of their children. If they are losing their jobs e nobody is coming to th restaurant or whatever it is then we have to be there with some help for them. Desjardins but republicans on the hill initially pushed back. The bill comes out short. Desjardins House Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy said the biac adds too much bureaucr and that republicans are wary of one piece for workers that it would require those emergency sick days in any Public Health emergency, not just this one. Session this week to work out a deal. E should not just take a rush just because there is a bill we want to make sure it works in the process where we are going. Desjardins just a few hours later, Senate Majority leader mcconnell announced via twitter he is canceling next weeks planned Senate Recess to deal with the issue. Outside of the capitol, more evidence of the national shi, as president ial candidates spoke in studios, not before crowds. Former