Hospitals in the United States. So want to go right to cnns chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta, working the phones all morning. Sanjay . And im about to let you in on a conversation ive been having with some of my colleagues here, in atlanta, at the emory hospitals. I want to preface by saying, look, what youre hearing over the last 24 hours, 48 hours is pretty concerning, alarming. Were going to get through this pandemic. Were going to get through this. It is going to take time, but we thought we would give you an idea of what doctors are facing in hospitals now. I would like to bring in my colleague dr. Carlos del rio, who is the dean of emory at grady hospital. We have been colleagues for a long time, traveled around the world together. Carlos, good morning. You and i were emailing throughout the night as well. And i thought i might just start off by sharing a little bit. Certain things i cant share, but some emails came in last night, guys, this is happening, were now seeing droves of patients being admitted with covid19. The novel coronavirus, nine doctors now sick with 20 more expected tomorrow. The nine doctors who are sick tested positive for the coronavirus. The advice that the doctors were giving to the colleagues to us, carlos, tell your friends to hunker down and take this quarantine very seriously. You replied, this is happening fast and furious. Look, we have been talking about this for a long time. The anticipation of these patients coming to the hospitals. Dr. Del rio, what are you seeing . Were seeing throughout the city and the different hospitals is the number of people coming in with what we call with symptoms, we call them persons under investigation is going up very rapidly. Theyre coming in at a very quick pace. And part of the reason we have you will see in many hospitals, we have 100 patients, persons under investigation, and we may only have five or six confirmed cases. Part of that is because there is still a big bottleneck in testing at the state and im very happy to know that emory healthcare stood up their first test yesterday, started running tests in house, and they were able to run 60 pests whitests, fantastic. We need to start having more tests. We have more testing, we will have a lot more ability to diagnose who is really a patient a person under investigation and who is not and who is a true case. The number of cases are going to go up, im not surprised. Theyre so backed up in cases that as we get more testing, well be looking at those sort of the cases that already exist, but i want to emphasize that patients are coming in and two issues that come up, sanjay, number one, ers, it is going to get worse over the coming weeks and the icus and the floors, and number two, providers are at risk. Theyre at risk in the hospital of getting infected, in the clinics. Theyre at risk in the community. We really im really worried about having sickrs errs and the combination. So thats a bad combination, too many patients, too Little People to take care of them. I want to emphasize to people, you have it take this seriously, have to stay home, do whatever you cannot to get infectioned. T if we dont do our job this is going to get very bad. I want to talk about, you know, the best guidance for individuals, even aside from when were hearing from the federal government. I was struck by this, carlos, nine physicians, nine doctors sick, tested positive. 20 more currently under investigation. Thats a huge problem. I mean, i know my colleagues. I know the system. If thats already happening this early on, are we going to have enough Healthcare Providers to take care of these patients . I think thats exactly a concern. But you have to remember that every place we have seen this virus we have seen this. China had close to 2,000 infected Healthcare Providers. Italy seeing that, korea seeing that, i think part of the reason is you have somebody come in with very little symptoms, what we learn in this disease is not everybody is very ill. People frequently come in with very mild symptoms. So you may have them in the clinic and they have a little cough or little fever or little something. And they look no different than anybody else. You get exposed. I think thats a concern. We as doctors as you well know, we get pretty close to patients. When were examining them, were looking inside their mouth, we have them say ah, it is hard to do social distancing when youre taking care of patients. We as Healthcare Providers are were doing a very rapid scaleup of training everybody on how to use personal protective equipment, how to do that, how to use it appropriately. Part of the problem were having as a country and atlanta is no different is there is a real shortage of masks, of gowns, of gloves, so our recommendation for people, please dont buy masks. We need them in healthcare. Do not go out there and buy your own masks, we need them in healthcare. We have a big shortage of personal protective equipment and thats something we have been telling the federal government that we really need. We need a big, you know, purchase of personal protective equipment. I have colleagues who are telling me that they come home at the end of the day and theyre essentially living and sleeping in their garage because they dont want to come and possibly infect their spouse, dont want to infect their children. This is real. I want to bring in, my colleagues, john and alisyn here, as well, let me ask you one more thing, youre hearing in San Francisco the people should shelter in place. Hearing from thele fr ing the f no more Mass Gatherings of ten or more people, based on what youre seeing now, what would be your advice to the community at large . What should they be doing . My advice to the community and my advice to others is stay home. Do not leave. I really think we need to basically, you know, quasi shut down the country. We have to close restaurants. We have to close bars. We have to close shopping. We have to close business. The economic pain is going to be significant, but we can stand it as a nation. We can do that for a month and stand it. But the economic pain of not doing it is going to be much higher because simply were going to have incredible costs and the human cost is going to be huge. Were going to have many deaths and were going to have much suffering. So please take this seriously. This is not a time to take it lightly. And i was still quite surprised yesterday as i was driving through city, you know, seeing places with parking lots full and people being there shopping and doing other things, stay home for a month. If you dont do that, youre putting everybody at risk. Okay, well, dr. Del rio, thank you for all youre doing. Alisyn, john, it is a little bit of an insight into what doctors are seeing and then the recommendations based on that. Because this is happening real time. Carlos and i were talking about this last night through the night by email and text. Real conversations right now. We really appreciate you bringing that conversation public. I know that he didnt have to do that, but thats something we need to know. So our thanks to dr. Del rio and lets bring in now dr. Vivek murphy, the former u. S. Surgeon general a member of joe bidens Public Health advisory committee. It is very alarming when we hear people doctors on the front lines say that it is starting. That patients are coming in, quote, fast and furious. This is what we had feared. This is what you all predicted. And so what do you hear from colleagues what did you hear from dr. Del rio there . Unfortunately what were hearing from dr. Del rio is being echoed by doctors all over the country. There are private facebook groups of thousands of doctors who are all reporting very similar things. Theyre seeing ers fill up. Theyre seeing patients come in with symptoms consistent with covid19 infection. Theyre struggling to get them tested and now increasingly the doctors themselves are beginning to get sick. This is not surprising because number one we knew this is a very contagious virus, much more so than the flu. But also because we know many of these doctors are working without the protective equipment that they need including masks. As this progresses, well see not only the hospitals fill up, but well see our workforce be strained, as nurses and doctors get ill. What we need to do is mobilize Healthcare Providers who are retired, who are part time, and who may be able to come in and provide some of that additional surge capacity. We need to do that in a way that allows them to work across state lines. We also have a medical reserve corps in this country of 200,000 healthcare workers, who have volunteered to serve during times of emergency and we have to effectively mobilize that group as well. And finally, something that few people know about, as we have a United StatesPublic HealthService Commission corps, which has 6600 medical and Public Health officers of various disciplines. We need to stand up a reserve corps there as well so we have retired Public Health officers and others who can stand at the ready and be deployed during times of emergency, we could use them right now. Sanjay, what i thought was most interesting and helpful i think for our viewers to see is that it is on. That was a real time assessment of what the leading hospitals around the country are seeing, which is that people are coming in fast and furious, so when we put up on the screen numbers that 4400 people have tested positive for coronavirus, that doesnt tell the story. That only tells the story about the people we know who have been tested now. Some studies suggest it could be ten times that many people who have it or are carrying it already, which brings me to the study we know got before the president over the last few days. You suggested you see numbers like this for along time. Which is that if extreme measures are not taken to stem the tide here, that more than 2 Million People in this country could be killed. This is a study out of england. Yeah, look, you know, we have seen these numbers as well. And this is a balance between being very factual and very honest about the worse Case Scenarios and what needs to be done. So i think we focused on, okay, heres what needs to be done. But there is no question, look, john, and we talked about this. 40 to 60 of the country potentially according to some projections could be exposed to this virus, could become infected. You can do the math here, were talking 150 or so Million People. And we know the fatality ratio we have been talking about around 2 . So, again, i want to be careful, i want to be cautious, because i still think there are things that can be done here, but this is serious. It has been serious for a long time. We have been talking about on this program for, you know, a couple of months now, and i think what youre now seeing, what was anticipated for along time with these patients would start to show up, they are going to need care, as alisyn pointed out. Not sure that we have all the things that we can need to care for them. And as dr. Del rio is saying, look, basic things like the masks, so nine healthcare workers yesterday at emory, my institution, were diagnosed with this infection, nine. I mean, if that were just starting off. If that that sort of thing continues, it calls into question how are we going to be able to care for the patients. Dr. Murphy, i know doctors, like all of you, are on the front lines, but why does this virus seem to be hitting doctors in a more dangerous way . Why are they more seriously ill than some other people . Am i just imagining that . I dont think youre imagining this. This has been remarked upon in scientific papers, and in newspapers around the world that we see a number of doctors being impacted quite seriously, even though theyre of younger age. We dont fully understand why that is. It also emphasizes the point there is a lot about this virus that we are still learning. If you put all this together, a virus that were just beginning to understand, we know is a high fatality rate, very contagious, this makes the case for why it is so essential that we act right now. Some people are wondering are we overreacting by having people stay at home if they can and by shutting down so much of the normal operations in society, but i dont think we are. I think this is exactly what we need to do. If you want to see what happens when we take aggressive mitigation measures, just look halfway across the world at china, at south korea, and what you see is that china after putting aggressive measures in place now just close down the 16 hospitals that had opened, apple opened up stores there and south korea is seeing cases new cases continue to fall. Thats what we have to do here in this country, be aggressive about mitigation. Dr. Murphy, sanjay, thank you for that. Such an important window into what is happening at this moment around the country. We appreciate it. In the meantime, there is breaking news, ohios governor postponed todays primary elections in that state over coronavirus fears. What about that move . Why havent other states taken that measure . Well discuss next. Got the Office Birthday blues . Break the cycle with a gift from edible. Give our fruit flowers bouquet, with fresh strawberries and pineapple daisies, for just 29. 99. Make Office Birthdays fruitful. 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Thats why aarp and our force of 38 million members are leading the fight to make Drug Companies lower drug prices for everyone. Join us in fighting for whats right. The breaking news, ohio not voting this morning. The governor there called off todays primary just hours before the polls were scheduled to open. Florida, illinois and arizona have moved forward with their primary elections despite the coronavirus concerns. Joining us now, ron complaiklai john kasich, former republican governor of ohio, secnn senior commentator. What do you think of the decision . It was a great decision and the right decision. I had to actually have conversations with the secretary of States Office yesterday. Franklin rose, about, you know, this they were trying to decide what to do. I said, just go for it. They made good decisions and the governor has been out in front. And, john, look, were on a war footing. There is no there is no surprise here. We actually are fighting a war. And there is some things i think can be done. First of all, i do believe that donald trump in terms of discussing with his son how serious this was was a step forward. You got to think about Winston Churchill and the way he got people to be in under ground and to come out and sweep the streets, he didnt do that by forcing them, he did it by inspiring them. I think we need more of that from the president. We need pelosi and schumer to be right next to him, we need a war cabinet to be able to convince people how important this is, and those are the kind of things that i think can make a big difference. And we have the weapons, by the way, to win the war and that involves washing our hands, staying away from other people at a reasonable distance, and at the same time not touching our face. These are the weapons that all of us employ them, we can win. Well get more to the Administration Response in a second. I want to stick with ohio for one second. Ron, just so people know, many people already know this, youre advising joe biden, but im asking you as a matter of Public Health, also an area of your expertise, ron, the decision in ohio, how reasonable do you think it was to call off the election there, particularly when they didnt make the same decision in florida, arizona and illinois . Look, i have been generally praiseworthy of what govern dewine has done, one of the leading governors on this. Along with governor cuomo, governor hogan, it is not a partisan issue. A little worried it was done in the defiance of the court order and the state didnt pursue this through the courts. I understand why governor dewine did what he did. But we can have Public Health and democracy. People voted during world war ii. We have to make sure were doing things the right way, here, the fact that the Court Ordered him not to do this and he didnt appeal that order is a little concerning. Overall, i think what governor dewine has done in this in the effort against coronavirus has been very admirable. I wish this was handled differently. Governors have been the leading edge of the coronavirus response. In some cases by necessity. There was a Conference Call that the president had with the nations governor yesterday. And in this call, some of the governors interpreted the president as saying, in terms of getting equipment, that is needed, including ventilators and icu beds, you should go out and try to do this yourselves. Now, the president later explained what he was saying, he would cut through some of the federal government bureaucracy, but some of the nations governors took this to mean go out and fend for yourself. Michelle lou grisham reported, the entire nation continues to be at risk. What do you think of that perceived message . Heres where i respectfully disagree with some governor kasich said, we dont have the weapons we need. Washing hands is a great thing, not touching your face is a great thing.