Help all americans who have been impacted by this. And this will pass. This will pass through and were going to bine stronger for it. Among other things, Officials Say they have a partnership with google to launch a website that will help americans decide whether they need testing. And much like we are now seeing in a community in new york state, they also announced that drivethru testing will become available in some places for those in need. U. S. Testing capacity has so far lagged behind other countries, the white house is taking a series of steps intended to boost their availability. However trump pointedly refused to take responsibility for failures in testing to date. Dr. Fauci said earlier this week that the lag in testing was, in fact, a failing. Do you take responsibility for that. No, i dont take responsibility at all because we were given a a set of circumstances and we were begin rules, regulations and specifications from a different time. It wasnt meant for this kind of an event. And that is not the fall of anybody and frankly the old system worked very well for smaller numbers. Much smaller numbers. But not for these kind of numbers. Now as of tonight, nearly every state in the United States has confirmed coronavirus cases. With a total number of people infected exceeding 2,100 nationwide, a 21 fold increase from the beginning of the month as u. S. Health expert dr. Anthony fauci warned of an acceleration of cases but he did say mitigation should help to blunt the impact. The next few weeks for most americans is obviously what youre going to see is an acceleration of cases. There is no doubt about it because that is how these outbreaks work. Two things were looking for. A. , things will get worse before they get better but, b. , what is happening now with many more tests going out very, very shortly with people now very seriously taking containment and mitigation into effect, hopefully well be able to blunt that peak. That is what i see in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, more governors are shutting down their schools in their states, including now oregon, new mexico, michigan, virginia and the District Of Columbia among others. The state of louisiana today became the first to postpone a president ial primary. It had been scheduled for april 7th and now rescheduled for the june. And the pga canceled the players championship following other major sports leagues that have also suspended their seasons. Disney, meanwhile, announced it is closing parks and canceling cruise ship departures and the city of boston has postponed the marathon scheduling it now for september. Im joined now by the mayor of oakland, california, libby schaaf, former fema administrator Craig Frugate and mike florts and thank you for joining us. Craig, a National Emergency declared today by the president. So what will be different now . What will be the case now that wasnt the case before this emergency was declared, what does it mean . Well you already had hhs and their authorities but this now brings the ability to reimstate and local governments for direct federal assistance and now fema is hhs is the lead and now they could look at what additional assistance could be in the next coming weeks and fema could fund that with the coordination and the direct federal assistance. Mayor, let me ask you. We have the explanation there on the flow chart how this all works but in your city, a state of emergency declared nationally, is that something that may be useful to you now or down the road . Absolutely. And oakland has already been coordinating with our federal partners and our state partners as weve had this operation to disembark the passengers from the grand princess cruise ship. But we need fema. We need every level of government to make the right decisions to prevent human suffering, to prevent the spread of this virus. I could tell you that at local level, those of you who are mayors in the communities, are seeing such tremendous anxiety and fear. But this is a time that we must be driven by facts, not fear. And take the precautions that are within our power right now to prevent the spread of this virus. That is what were doing in oakland. We announced today the closure of our Public School system, all of our recreation, libraries, senior centers, and so that is going to be incredibly disruptive. We need the federal government to help our lowwage workers, to help our First Responders have the adequate protective equipment. These are things that we really need the federal government to step up to help us right here on the ground. Doctor, you heard Anthony Fauci say the idea it is going to get worse before it gets better and also said the steps now being taken could lead to blunting the worst of that. So much emphasis on testing. Take us through the importance of testing, and what that could mean in terms of blunting it as he said. Theoretically, you could limit the amount of closures that you have to do, the amount of all of the shut downs were seeing. If you could accurately test tons of people and identify what are the hot spots, where is it tra transmitted and you could inform being more strategic but as it is we dont know we dont have a great handle on how wide spread this is. And we arent able to just have anyone with a little slight symptom go in and get cleared and say youre fine to go back to work, we have to say no. Well how far are we from that situation. You hear limited number of testing and the capacity is low, folks who say maybe i have something, cant get a test. How far are we from a situation where somebody can just go in and get that drivethru test were hearing about . This week dr. Fauci said there could be about a million in ideally about two weeks and weve heard more and we might see it sooner but were a very long way to say that anyone with minor symptoms is going to get tested. We need them for people who are sick and to know exactly who has it and who doesnt and needs to be where in the hospital. And what goes into that . There is still a limit for the capacity of testing and what goes into marshalling the resources and distributing the resources and determined all sorts of important col clagss li calculations like that. And the lead is hhs but we have to understand we dont have enough test kits right now and that is why were doing the social distancing on a scale weve never done before. That by time slow this down and as was pointed out, when you get more testing, we could be more strategic. But now is the time to take these acs to slow this down. Because there is going to be finite resources. This is what we did when we dealt with h1n1. If we could not get that curve down we could overstress the system and find out selves what italy is facing. There are resources but they are finite and they need to go where the the greatest number of the patients are and if we could all do our part, wash our hands, keep our distance, and stay home if we can stay home and we have to go into work, we need due diligence, if you are not feeling well, stay home, to give time for testing but also to keep the system from being overwhelmed, to allow patients that do become sick to get the maximum treatment available. Mayor, with we talk about the states that are now closing down their schools statewide. In your city, oakland, california, the decision now to close the schools. I believe through the first week of april at least. Talk a little bit, if you would, about the decision about what you think it will achieve and i one of the questions that comes to mind is, okay, the kids arent going to be in schools, are they going to be staying home or are they going to be outside or socializing . How much are you limiting potential exposure here . Well, that is why that in concert with the School Closures the city is closing down the library and the Recreation Centers and sending clear messages to parents to keep kids at home. We dont want them to be spreading the disease to other vulnerable parts of our community. But this decision was not taken lightly. But we have an opportunity to take what we know about the spread of this disease and prevent it spread. Like the doctor said, flatten the curve. Avoid stress on our fragile health care system. And so that is what were trying to do. But we really are going to need help. Because we have so many families here in oakland that live barely paycheck to paycheck many of them will have to miss work, stay home to take care of those kids that have nowhere to go right now. So these are part of the unintended consequences of some of the decisions that were having to make. But i feel very confident that this is the right thing to do. Were also learning today that the mayor of miami tested positive for coronavirus after interacting last weekend with a brazilian Government Official who has contracted the virus. The mayors diagnosis comes after we learned that the president and Vice President were also in proximity to that brazilian official last weekend at maralago. Trump today downplayed his risk but now said he will most likely get tested. Dr. Fauci said this morning, if you stand next to somebody who tested positive, you should selfisolate and get a test. You say youre white house doctor is telling you something different. Who should americans listen to . And my second i think they have to listen to the doctors. And i think they shouldnt be jumping to get the test unless it is necessary. Dr. S have you said you might have it even if you dont have symptoms. Are you being selfish by not being tested. I didnt say i was going to be tested. Are you going to be . Most likely. Not for that reason because i think i will do it any way. Will you let us know the results. Were working on that. Were working out a schedule. And tonight the Washington Post is reporting that a second person who visited maralago last weekend has tested positive as well. Doctor, there is this question of what every day americans should be doing if they think they have a symptom or been around somebody and youve discussed that there is an issue right now with the ability to test people who dont have obvious symptoms of it, dont present an obvious case. But what is what is the practice c the practical vice to someone with a slight fever or not too dramatic but makes them hey hmm. In an ideal world everyone would get tested and have access to health care and be able to if they test positive take themselves out of you go into quarantine where you wont go home and affect your family and your community. We dont have that right now. So we have to presumptively say as soon as you are sick isolate yourself as best as possible. And we currently, most places, dont have a run on hospital beds but we anticipate that we will so we have to keep updates daytoday as to who needs to check in. There is triage by telemedicine to say here are the symptoms and the risk factors, do i need to go to the hospital or do i not the and those are critical. What are the next steps in terms of the administration and the federal government, the state of emergency now declared, you heard those steps that were outlined today, what should come next . Well, were buying time. This is why i think in the state of florida they announced today theyre going to shutting down schools and extend spring break because were buying time. If we could do enough social distancing on large scale, were buying time to get the testing and get everybody ready as we get more cases. So the federal government particularly the lead agencies with hhs, theyre focused on that and working with the state Public Health and as they track cases and tracking what is happening. Fema is planning for what happens when with you start seeing disruptions. And again there is a lot of planning to do that everybody hopes with we dont have to implement but theyll start looking at next steps. And the other thing we have to start thinking about is disasters are not stopping. So we have tornados in nashville a couple of weeks ago and we have flooding are risk in other places, Severe Weather is still occurring. So the other part fema has to look at is how do they continue to respond to disasters with coronavirus potentially in the populations of impact. Everything from evacuation to shelters, to how do you do recovery and what steps are are you going to do and what are you going to postpone while this virus is present. Craig, dr. James and mayor libby schaaf from oakland, california. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate that. And dr. Anthony fauci said things are going to get worse before they get better so if our Health System prepared for a smi a spike in coronavirus cases. Plus critics are painting Donald Trumps response to the coronavirus pandemic and hes firing back at them and at barack obama. We have much more to get to. Stay with us. Ts go to a commer. Ts go to a commer. Nooooooo not another commercial when you bundle your home, auto and Life Insurance with allstate you could save 25 . In fact, the more you bundle the more you can save. 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Today the trump tried to assure americans that the government would be able to meet testing needs. An investigation by the atlantic found that only roughly 16,000 covid19 tests have been performed in the United States as of early march. That would put the United States far behind other developed countries. Dr. Aaron carol, a pediatrician who writes for the New York Times explains that tests help medical professionals know how many people are ill and warns that according to estimates 10 to 20 of those affected may require hospitalization. In say metropolitan setting the numbers who need care could easily overwhelm our capacity to provide it. And according to New York Times even hospitals with the worlds best Health Care Risk becoming triage wards forcing doctors and nurses to make extraordinary decisions about who may live and who may die. Im joined by dr. Ann mary kim bell from the washington, and dr. Carol, we just read what he had to say about this. Dr. Kimball, how much testing is going to be required, what is the timetable on that testing to get these answers to how fatal this is, what the infection rate and basic questions that everybody is asking . Well that is a very good question. And, in fact, were well behind the curve on our testing. Let me explain, south korea should be our model. And south korea has done 120,000 tests. And they have a population of 51 Million People. We have a population of 350 Million People. And as you just said, we have about 16,000 tests total that weve done since the beginning of this threat. And what you do testing for is to understand how you do social distance most efficiently and with the least disruption to people. So were way behind the curve. Dr. Carol, how did this happen . How did it happen that south korea is able to just get people in and out and do all of the tests and the United States, the number is 16,000 in a country of this many people with this much concern right now . It is a great question. It appears that we originally turned down the opportunity to take a test that was developed and used by the w. H. O. It turns out then we might have been slow in accepting some of the tests that universities were actually trying to do. And weve been slow in letting businesses and other companies try to get testing going. And were just way behind. And of course lots of people are pointing the blame in Different Directions and we might not know for sometime exactly where the lesion is but there is no question there is a big lesion. What do you make, dr. Carol, at that press conference today, that event at the white house with all of the leaders of the federal government response, one point that was made was that some of the data coming back from south korea where there is extensive testing is pointing to a lot of people being tested, a lot of people thinking they have symptoms, having some symptoms but proportionally a lot of them being negative is that an encouraging sign that youre seeing sat all in the data from south korea. I dont know that it is encouraging. The more people you test, especially people with low or no symptoms, the more negatives you get. If you are only testing people sick and in hospitals youll get a much larger number. Until we decide to test randomly or testing huge parts of the po