The current total now approaching 13,000. Americans are souring on the Trump Administration response. A majority, 55 , now say the federal government has done a poor job preventing the spread of the virus. Thats up eight points from just a week ago. Abc news also reporting today that u. S. Intelligence officials raised alarms as far back as november to the pentagon and to the white house, as the virus began spreading in china. There are some Global Developments today as well. President Vladimir Putin says the next two to three weeks are defining as russias cases spike and the government struggles to contain the spread. And in wuhan, where the outbreak first started, chinese officials lifting a lockdown, the citys 11 million residents now free to leave their homes for the first time in ten weeks. Even before todays update to that university of washington model, President Trump was upbeat. Were way under any polls or any of the models, as they call them. They have models, and were way under, and we hope to keep it that way in terms of death. Now, his team is a bit more cautious or a bit more balanced. Suggesting social distancing and other restrictions are working, but also noting, there are some very tough days ahead, and the pr prospect that some areas spike as others flatten their coronavirus curve. Its doing to be a bad week for death, but driving that and ahead of that is the fact well start to see the beginning of a turnaround. We need to keep pushing on the mitigation strategy. We are concerned about the metro area of washington and baltimore. And were concerned right now about the philadelphia area. All of our previous areas seem to be steady at least. The estimates of deaths going down is a result of the fact that we have listened to the president and the Vice President and the task force. Joining me now, cnn chief medical correspondent, dr. Sanjay gupta, also dr. Patrice harris. Doctors, both, thank you for being here. Sanjay, its hard to find the words. You cant call it good news because the model still projects 60,000 americans will die, but its an improved outlook. Why, and what does it tell us . When you looked at the original models, john, what the university of washington was sort of basing that on was primarily, you know, the evolution in china, in wuhan specifically. And sort of saying, look, if we do those same sorts of stayathome orders, what is that going to look like here in the United States . But also, taking into account that it probably would be difficult to do those same sort of stayathome orders. And that, as a result, pushed the numbers higher. I think as they have started to look at other countries, primarily countries in europe, which were behind china, maybe a little bit more lax with regard to their stayathome orders, they did still see significant benefit there and they started to add those data points and those modeling numbers into this model here in the United States. And that seemed to improve things. John, it is still a model. There are many models out there. A lot of people are focused on this one out of the university of washington. We have been looking at several different models, and you know, when you start to put those all together, you do see a bigger variation. As statisticians like to say, all models are wrong, but some are useful, and i think that applies here as well. Just have to keep an eye on this over the next several days to see if the trends continue. I want to stay with you for a second, sanjay, and pup up the numbers of the projections. 81,766 yesterday. 60,00 60,415. You dont want to use optimistic, good. Its better and improved. When you look at the numbers, you hear the president , you hear him publicly itching if its not as bad as we thought, its time to reopen. Lay down some milestones for doing that. You know, as with the models, there are different projections and milestones in terms of opening up the country, so to speak. Lets put some of those up. As you look at these various criteria, keep in mind that theres not going to be an all clear sort of flag that is waved. In addition to the physical sort of issues, theres going to be a psychological concern. Are people going to be willing to go back, push elevator buttons, you know, touch handles . Heres what youre trying to see, you have to make sure the hospitals are equipped to take care of patients. In several places around the country, theyre redlining as they describe it right now. You want to be able to test, john. We talked about this for three and a half months now. You need to be able to test so you can isolate people who are positive and trace their contacts. The 14day reduction in cases. They want to see the trend go down. How long . Two weeks in a row. One number that came out of the yufr yufrtd university of washington, and again, once we see below 60 people dying, and im with you, its hard to talk about this so clinically, but when you see below 60 people a day dying, thats a sign were getting close to reopening. Dr. Harris, come in on those points. Sanjay showed those milestones. Number one, you want the case count to go down. Especially in the large areas with big populations, you want to be on the downside of the curve. You also need to have in place, i believe, a more robust testing system. Sanjay is right, we have been talking about this for three months. The president says the United States is testing more people than anyone. That might be true numerically, but were still way behind other countries per capita, and the former president weighed in, social distancing bends the curve and relieves some pressure on our heroic medical professionals, but the key will be a robust system of testing and monitoring, something we have yet to put in place nationwide. How far away are we from a testing system nationwide that would make you comfortable as the head of the ama to say we medical professionals are ready to say we can at least start a reopening of the American Economy . Well, thank you for having me on. And first of all, sanjay is correct. And sanjay reminds us that we have to have data points and evidence before we can even think about reopening government or reopening our society, whatever that ultimately means. And that will be a slow process. It wouldnt be were off today and on tomorrow. So we need to continue to collect the data. A critical piece of that data will be related to testing. We knew that we were behind on testing from the very beginning. Sanjay notes that we have been talking about this for three months. And we are still not there. We need to see the data, how many tests are happening in every state across this country, even down to the county level, where are these tests being offered . You know, yesterday, we had conversation about the disproportionate impact on africanamericans. We want to make sure that tests are available from the urban areas to the rural areas, and all pockets of this community so we can make informed decisions about when is the right time to reopen our society. I do go ahead. Yes, im sorry. We cannot forget about physical distancing. And what the flattening of the curve shows is that as sanjay said, basic Public Health principles work. Physical distancing is working. And thats why every state needs to make sure that they have enacted shelter in place, stay home policies. And part of what makes it so difficult, doctors, and sanjay, to you first on this one, is we have 50 pieces of the american puzzle just in the mainland United States. Thats not even counting puerto rico, guam, other places we should also keep an eye on, too, theyre our brothers and sisters as americans. If you look, you see new york, you think it may be at its apex. Well hear from Governor Cuomo later this hour. The question is, is it a long plateau, do they start to drop . You can look at louisiana, detroit, but then you have florida projected to peak on april 23rd, different states, there are states that are behind, if you will, the states were focusing on most urgently at the moment, but that doesnt mean their problems are not significant. The question is, how do you manage this when things get better, quote unquote, again, that term in new york or louisiana, but were still going up the curve in other places . Right. Thats an excellent point, and i think dr. Harris would agree. I mean, we keep thinking of this as a curve, but it may look more like an upward slope and then a flat trajectory for a while before we start to see a downward slope. And that would be a desirable thing as opposed to a significant peak where you have exceeded Hospital Capacity and all that. So well keep an eye on that. But with regard to these other states, john, first of all, as we said for some time, everyones behavior is sort of, everyone is dependent on each other in terms of their behavior, how people are behaving in different states affects people elsewhere in the state and the region and the whole country, but more practically speaking, it really is about these hospital resources. Youre hearing about ventilators for example being sent from california to new york. If theres other hot spots that start to develop, are they going to have enough resources . Are we going to need to deploying the most Critical Resources to those places . When we talk about the peaks in the country of deaths, we want to make sure that the hospital resources in the country as a whole are not being outstripped, whether thats in a place in texas or in new york or in california, wherever it may be is the point. So we are all in this together, and we still have a finite amount of resources. Hopefully, we dont outpace the resources that we have. But places that just two weeks ago had dozens of cases, john, now have thousands. So places that think that they have dodged the bullet, they still, as dr. Harris said, have got to be vigilant right now. People are going to look at these models and say, hey, good news. Its all working. We can take our eye off the ball, our foot off the pedal. Cant do that yet. Cant do that. If its a little bit better, again, thats the best i can say. I dont want to be optimistic, maybe it gives you a chance to think more broadly and spread your resources and do the scramble. Doctors, appreciate it very much. As we continue to try to judge where were heading. Up next for us, the blame game that comes with the coronavirus fight. As the president faces growing criticism over his response to the crisis, hes lashing out at a new target. Thats next. The sign . When i needed to create a better visitor experience. Improve our workflow. Attract new customers. Thats when fastsigns recommended fleet graphics yeah, and now business is rolling in. Get started at fastsigns. Com did you know diarrhea is often causedtry pepto diarrhea. Food . Pepto® diarrhea is proven effective to treat symptoms, and it also targets the cause of diarrhea. The 3 times concentrated liquid formula coats and kills bacteria to relieve diarrhea. While the leading competitor does nothing to kill the bacteria, pepto® diarrhea gets to the source, killing the bad bacteria. So, try pepto® diarrhea, and remember to have it on hand every time you travel. Also try pepto®bismol liquicaps for onthego relief. Hey you, yeah you. I opened a sofi money account and it was the first time that i realized that i could be earning interest back on my money. This is amazing. I just discovered sofi, and im an investor with a diversified portfolio. Who am i . They make you feel like its an honor for them to help you out. Thanks sofi for helping us get our money right. Today, theres more evidence the United States government missed or ignored some loud warnings about the coronavirus outbreak. Theres a shift in how americans feel about the president s crisis response, and an attempt to shift blame from the man in the oval office to just about anyone else. Abc news reporting u. S. Intelligence officials concluded as far back as late november that china was masking the severity of the early outbreak. Abc says those findings were briefed across the government, including to the white house, the pentagon, and the National Security council. The white houses first action on coronavirus didnt come until late january, two months later. President trump bristles when asked whether he underestimated the tret and hes quick to assign blame to others. Yesterday, it was the World Health Organization. They actually criticized and disagreed with my travel ban at the time i did it. And they were wrong. They have been wrong about a lot of things. And were going to put a hold on money spent to the w. H. O. Were going to put a very powerful hold on it and were going to see. Now, the president also said the World Health Organization got it wrong. That tracks with what the president is seeing on fox news. But it runs count toor his own past words and tweets. In early february, for example, the w. H. O. And china were great. Well, i think china is very professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control. I really believe they are going to have it under control fairly soon. You know, in april, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather. And thats a beautiful date to look forward to. But china, i can tell you, is working very hard. Were working with them. We just sent some of our best people over there, World Health Organization, and a lot of them are composed of our people, theyre fantast, and theyre in china helping them out. Were in good shape. Fantastic, in very good shape. Two weeks later, the president tweeted more praise and one of many assessments that has not stood the test of time. This in the president s tweet, the coronavirus is very much under control in the usa. Were in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. Cdc and world health have been working hard and very smart. Stock market starting to look very good with me. Here to share their insight, dana bash and Maggie Haberman. This is trademark president. Number one, he doesnt care what he said yesterday. Hell Say Something completely different today. But he is looking for a scapegoat at a time more and more people are questioning, did he underestimate this . He says it was just being a cheerleader. If he was doing that, then he was misrepresenting it. I think thats right, john. Look, theres a third factor i would say, which is that he is getting pressure and questions about when exactly the u. S. Will be opened up. We have seen him wrestling with himself at the briefing podium about how long he should keep these social distancing guidelines in place. He talked about how the country has Big Decisions to make, and thats part of what youre seeing in trying to find a scapegoat. A, two things can be true at once. It could be there are issues with the w. H. O. And the president still underplayed this and still has to be accountable for his own words. And to your point, in january and at various points over the last couple month, the president was very praising of china. He might have had reasons for that, but he has to own that he said it. I understand hes going to try not to do that. The w. H. O. Is going to be the latest person in addition to states that didnt respond quickly in his measure or others who hes going to suggest who are at fault here. That is his entire m. O. It always has been, to shift blame and to claim credit where things are positive. And if you go through the timeline, i take no pleasure in beating up the president or holding the president accountable for his past words. I dont. I know the trump people out there think thats what we do. I do not, but if you get back to this on january 27th, he was in davos. He was asked on cnbc, do you see a pandemic coming . He said no. This is tom cotton speaking to hugh hewitt this week. But tom cotton the same day the president said no, wrote a letter to the administration saying dont believe china and be prepared because there could be a pandemic coming. Listen to tom cotton say why he was so alarmed. I saw two things from china about midjanuary that told me this virus posed a great threat. On the one hand, all of the hoppy talk the Chinese Communist party and all the lies they were telling the world and the w. H. O. Like they had it under control and it couldnt be transmitted from person to person, so on and so forth. That contrasted with the extreme draconian measures they were taking. You know, locking down an entire city, larger than new york city. Dana, theres nothing that tom cotton can see that the president of the United States cant see. Tom cotton was acting. Liz cheney also, a few others, very few people in congress who do their jobs, who take their Committee Assignments seriously and read the briefings. Intelligence was telling them china is saying this but doing that, and they saw a great problem there. If tom cotton has that information, the president of the United States or at least all the people around him have that same information. No question about it. And tom cotton and liz cheney were called alarmists by their republican colleagues in particular. Look, in fairness to those of us who didnt have access to the information, it did seem the notion of closing down new york city like they did in china to wuhan was impossible to wrap our minds around. But we didnt have the access to information that people like tom cotton did. And the fact that the Intelligence Community had information that was very cleary putting them and putting the u. S. Government on the path to understanding how bad it was or if not how bad it was, how much the chinese were covering up, and at the same time, the president of the United States was doing happy talk about the chinese response, about the w. H. O. That he is now using as a scapegoat. Its remarkable. I mean, i remember sitting in the impeachment trial in the United States capitol, john, watching tom cotton with his Fidget Spinner because he was,uous know, kind of trying to pass the hours during the impeachment trial. Well, it turns out when he wasnt doing that, he was reading important Intelligence Briefings that the presiden