Theres 114,000 cases of coronavirus confirmed here in new york state. There are more than 3,500 deaths just in new york state. There are, of course, other hot spots in other parts of the United States that are being carefully watched that are absolutely serious. But new york state and new york city remains the number one epicenter of this pandemic in the United States. So we will hear from the governor in a moment. Meantime, the Surgeon General of the United States, jerome adams, speaking on television this morning saying this coming week, the next seven days, will be the toughest, the saddest week in American History for many americans. Talking about in the lifetime of americans who are living today, he says this will be the hardest and saddest for most americans lives. He describes this moment as a pearl harbor moment and a 9 11 moment. Strong, important language from the Surgeon General, not always being matched by other federal government officials. Let me bring in the new yorker staff writer Susan Glasser as we await Governor Cuomos press conference coming up. Susan glasser, youre reaction from what weve seen from local, state and federal leaders in recent days. I mean, not that terrible tragedy of this, its not a pearl harbor in that we know its coming, and we are bracing for, you know, the peak of this terrible disease this week in new york city or next week. The Surgeon General compared it to pearl harbor, but what is notable to me is that weve been on this trajectory for some time. This is not a sneak attack by the japanese. Its not even a sneak attack by this virus. Its one of these to me, its like watching a slow motion car crash and to see essentially the government often behind the 8 ball each step of the way has been, i think, particularly painful. Im curious to see what Governor Cuomo has to say as we prepare for what is very likely to be a painful week not only of deaths in new york city but recognizing that theres insufficient protective equipment for medical personnel, insufficient number of ventilators. Its humbling the richest country of the world. We have viewers around the world watching at this moment and how they perceive it and how they see the United States reaction versus the reactions of other countries that have also been crippled by this deadly disease. Governor cuomo tweeting a moment ago ahead of his briefing saying i wish i could promise new yorkers this will be over soon. I cant. Heres what i can promise, he says i will continue to give you the facts, i will make decisions based on science and data. New yorkers deserve nothing less. Susan that strikes me. As we await the governors briefing, ive been notice as a new yorker im sure youre seeing this in washington how quickly americans do react to what theyre hearing from Public Officials by government leaders. In recent days the message has been consider a mask, wear a mask if you can, wear a scarf. Overnight in new york city, half the population is Wearing Masks. It happened that quickly. Are you seeing the same thing . Absolutely. I ventured out to the Farmers Market this morning in Dupont Circle where there is serious social distancing in effect. Theyre only letting a small number of people in at a time. I would say 60 to 70 of the people were Wearing Masks of some kind as well as all of the vendors. So people are listening. But, you know, governors cuomos fact and science approach is a rebuke from what weve seen from the federal government which is inconsistent in messaging. Just yesterday, of course, we watched the president give another one of his briefings to the press that veered all over the place. An inconsistent message saying on one hand there will be death, on the other hand saying i want to reopen as soon as possible and implying there could still be sports seasons at a time when other people are suggesting thats not feasible. Of course then veering off into attacks on the media, attacks on science, talking about unproven medical treatment. So, you know, its an inconsistent messaging at the federal level which may make the message from the governors and from local leaders much more important. I think thats a shift in our politics that were seeing as people recognize, you know, crucial role that on the ground leaders are playing in this pandemic. Let me bring in some other guests while we await Governor Cuomos Daily Briefing. Greg goncalves of the Yale Medical School is with me, and neesha meti joins me. Were talking about local, state, federal responses to this rising death toll and this increasing crisis. Your reaction . Well, as andy slavid, president obamas former director of medicare and medicaid services, this is the worst thing in 100 years. Who is in charge . Is it the task force Jared Kushner and his skunk works. And the provisions of the 2 million stimulus act that was just passed is under question. This may be a Public Health crisis, but ive been working in Public Health for 30 years, i recognize it as a political crisis first and foremost. South korea and germany come to mind, they have been doing much better than we have, its been a colossal leadership failure that brought us to this press pieccp. Theres a Great Washington post piece today, but a lot of time we get this engagement from the white house podium. We get headlines like governors disagree or experts are concerned rather than challenging the president and his actions. We need to know whats going on, how and why responses are still failing and who is responsible. We all want this over sooner rather than later, but the status quo makes it far worse. We need to know what is going on in the white house, within the cdc, that should have been on the ball with this pandemic. Let me hold that thought. Let me bring you back after the governors briefing. Governor cuomo speaking. Number of patients discharged, total discharged up is 12,000, 1,700 discharged in one day. Number of deaths sup. That is up. Thats the bad news. We pray for each and every one of them and their families. Thats up. Thats the worst news. But the number of deaths over the past few days has been dropping for the first time. What is the significance of that . Its too early to tell. This is the impact by state. An interesting blip maybe in the data or hopeful beginning of a shift in the data and the number of cases. Total number of new hospitalizations is 574 which is much lower than previous numbers. Thats partially a function of more people being discharged. But you see icu admissions are also down. The daily intubations down slightly from where it was. Again, you cant do this daytoday. You have to look at three or four days to see a pattern. Discharge rate is way up, and thats great news. And the statewide balance of cases has been relatively stable for the past few days. There is a shift too long island. Upstate new york is basically flat. As long island grows, the percentage of cases in new york city has reduced. The this is when for those people who look at the data, there is a you have all these projection models, whats infuriating to me is the models are so different, its hard to plan when these models shift all the time. Theres also a difference of opinion on what happens at the apex. All the models say you go up until you go down. Thank you very much. Then theres a difference of is the apex a point or is the apex a plateau . In other words, do you go up, hit the high, and then immediately drop . Or do you go up and then theres a plateau where the number of cases stays high for a period of time and then drops . Theres a difference of opinion. So you have to think of that when you think about what youre seeing in the numbers. You could argue youre seeing a slight plateauing of the data, which obviously would be good news because it means you plateau for a period of time and then you start to come down. Were all feeling our way through this. We have the best minds in the country, literally in the globe advising us, because new york is the first. I also think it will be helpful for the other states that follow. I was just talking to dr. Zucker about codifying everything were learning. When the next states start to go through this, we hope they can benefit from what were going through. But were looking at this seriously now because by the data, we could be either very near the apex or the apex could be a plateau and we could be beyond that plateau right now. We wont know until we see the next few days, does it go up or down . Thats thats what the status tisch shstatu statusticians will tell you today. The coronavirus is truly vicious and effective at what the virus does. Its an effective killer. People who are very vulnerable must stay isolated and protected. That was the point from day one, that was the point with matildas law, my mother. You have to isolate and protect those people. If a very Vulnerable Person gets infected with this virus, the probability of a cure is very low. And thats what this is really about from day one. That small percentage of the population thats very vulnerable. Major effort that has impacted everyone to save the lives of those people who are in the very vulnerable population. If youre not in a vulnerable part of the population, then you will get sick, 20 require hospitalization, but the Hospital System can very effective and it makes a real difference. And thats why the highest number of people ever now being discharged, right . So youre just seeing the evolution of this whole story. Youre seeing the narrative unfold. Were all watching a movie, were waiting to see what the next scene is. And as the movie unfolds, you start to understand the story better and better. Rush of infection rate, rush of people into the Hospital System, Hospital System capacity explodes, more people are in, but more people are coming out. 75 of those people who have gone into the Hospital System are coming out of the Hospital System. It also helps with the capacity of the Hospital System because obviously the more people who are coming out, it makes it easier to handle the large influx thats coming in. Having said all of that, the operational challenge for the Health Care System is impossible. Because the system is over capacity all across the board. Its just over capacity. What were basically saying to assist them is you have to manage with the same resources that you have, same staff, an overcapacity situation. And that is putting a tremendous amount of stress on the Health Care System. Youre asking a system to do more than it has ever done before, more than it was designed to do with less. I understand that. I get that. Day in and day out the commissioner and everyone at this table deals with the Health Care System. I understand what theyre dealing with. I understand theyre being asked to do the impossible. And they are being asked to do the impossible. But life has options. We dont have any other options. You get to a situation and you do what you have to do in that situation. Thats where we are. The only Operational Plan that can work, right because you know the system doesnt have the capacity, doesnt have the supplies, doesnt have the staff. How do you handle this surge over capacity . We call it we have to surge and flex, which means you have to deal with, if youre an individual hospital or hospital network, yes, you will be over capacity. And the only way we can make this work is if we flex the system so that we take all hospitals, all hospital networks, some hospitals are in networks and we Work Together as one system which has never been done, right . We have public hospitals, we have private hospitals, we have long island hospitals, we have new york city hospitals. In totality its the Health Care System, the state manages the state Health Care System but theyre all individual hospitals. Or individual networks. And they are customed to just doing business and managing their own affairs. That doesnt work. We have to balance the patient load among all of these hospitals. If one hospital starts to get high or has a projected high intake, we have to shift that patient load to other hospitals. That means some patients who show up at their neighborhood hospital may be asked can we transport you to another hospital which is not in your neighborhood, but actually has more capacity . We have to adjust that patient load among all of the hospitals which is a daily exercise and its very, very difficult. Were running short on supplies all across the board. Some hospitals have a greater supply of one thing or another. One hospital has a greater supply of masks. Another hospital has a greater s supply of gowns. Were talking two, three, four days of supply, which makes the entire Hospital System uncomfortable, which i also understand. Because we are literally going daytoday with our supplies, with our staff, et cetera. Which is counterintuitive and counteroperational for the entire Health Care System. And i understand that also. The big operational shift will be that javits coming online, if we get that up and running efficiently, thats 2,500 beds for people who tested positive for the covid virus. Thats a major shift for the systems. And at a time when we desperately need a relief valve for the system, javits could do that. Were working very hard to get that up and running. But that rolling deployment, that flexibility, there is no other way to do that or do this on a state level. I cant say to a hospital, i will send you all the supplies you need. I will send you all the ventilators you need. We dont have any. We dont have them. Its not an exercise. Its not a drill. Its just a statement of reality, youre going to have to shift and deploy resources to different locations based on the need of that location. I think thats going to be true for the country. The federal government, everyone says the federal stockpile, federal stockpile, theres not enough in the federal stockpile to take care of new york, illinois, and texas, and florida, and california. Its its not an option. The only option i see is theres a National Deployment everyone says this is wartime, it is a war, and the virus is the enemy where new york help new york today, thank you state of oregon, were dealing with this curve today, and this intensity, and then nationally we shift the resources to the next place that is most impacted. Right . Just what were doing in new york city, new york state on a microcosm we shift resources from the bronx to brooklyn to queens to nassau, shift National Resources and state resources from new york to florida to illinois, whatever is next on the curve. Were going to do that in any event. We get through this, people have been so beautiful to us, and it is the new york way. Were going to codify everything weve learned and we get past this curve, whatever part of the country goes next, we will be there with equipment and personnel and however we can help. Federal government is deploying approximately 1,000 personnel to new york, thats doctors, nurses, respiratory technicians. The immediate priority is to deploy those people to help the new york city public hospitals. The new york city public Hospital System, hnh, was a system that was under stress to begin with, before any of this. So obviously you add more stress to institutions that were under stress, it only makes the situation more difficult. Well deploy all the federal personnel who are coming in today, 325, to the new york city public Hospital System. I talked to the hospital administrators on a daily basis. We get them on a conference call, we do this shifting of supplies and balancing of patient load. I know that im asking them to do really difficult things. I get it. I dont enjoy being in this situation. I dont enjoy putting them in this position. I know their staff is all overburdened. But all i can say is thank you to the administration of this Health Care System, and most importantly thank you to the front line workers. I mean, these people, they are true heroes in the truest sense of the word. What they do day in and day out under very difficult circumstances. And we thank them all. On a different, somewhat lighter note, theres an accompanying affliction to the coronavirus that we talked about early on, its cabin fever. Its a real situation. Not medically diagnosed, i asked dr. Zucker, theres no medical definition for cabin fever. I believe it exists. Its a feeling of isolation. Often accompanied by radical mood swings, resentment of people around you varying degrees for no reason whatsoever. Just an upwelling of recent m, especially towards people who are in apparent position of authority in this situation, which ive noticed. Irrational outbursts can come in at any time without any warning, just irrational outburst, frustrati frustration, anger, with no rational basis. Cabin fever in many ways also threatens the essence of our constitution which is premised on people having domestic tranquillity and it with be disruptive to tranquillity. I can attest to that. Its a real thing. Think about it. Its only been one month, but its been a long month. Positive interventions for cabin fever, im going to take up running again. I used to run back normal days before this job. But im going to start running again. My daughter, cara, well run as a family. Well go out there. She has a head start. Shes out there doing five miles every day. She thinks she can beat me. Give me a