Good evening, im ari melber, continuing our special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Lets begin as we have been with the facts. There are now over 80,000 u. S. Cases here, more than 1,100 people have died. Hospitals in new york city, which is now the formal center of the pandemic in the United States facing a surge of new cases in reports of many dire circumstances. A doctor at emhurts hospital in queens saying the rush there is downright apocalyptic. 13 people dying in a single day there. A hospital in manhattan, mt. Sinai west, had medical workers resorting to using trash bags to protect themselves an serve all those people affect. Ed because of the lack of basic agreement. You see the photographs. Meanwhile, Governor Andrew Cuomo was asked about those reports. He says the supply of equipment may be enough for now. Weve called the individual hospitals. There is no doubt that in the past few days, you know, theres maybe the distribution is a little start and stop. But we have enough ppe and the new york city Officials Say they have enough ppe for the new york city hospitals. There are now over 37,000 cases there in new york state. 385 fatalities. The governor saying the number of people hospitalized jumped, get this from yesterday, jumped by 40 . Meanwhile, we just heard dr. Debra birx say there should be no concern still about hospital space or ventilators. This was at the white house briefing. There is no situation in the occupation right now that warrants that kind of discussion. You can be thinking about it in a hospital, certainly many hospitals talk about this on a daily basis. But to say that to the American People torque make the implication that when they need a hospital bed, its not going to be there or they need that ventilator, its not financial to be there. We dont have evidence of that right now. Meanwhile, today, we saw the first real measure of how devastating the virus is for the economy. We were just discussing this heading into tonights show. The Labor Department reporting 3. 3 million americans have now applied for unemployment benefits, last week alone for comparison the week before, it was just 282,000, today, president trump, meanwhile, warning all 50 governors, his administration will work on new guidelines for maintaining or relaxing social distancing in some places. Then there is dr. Fauci saying today he hopes to have a vaccine available at least in time for next theres a couple of handfuls of vaccines at different stages of development. We hope there arent a lot of people getting infected. But there is likely there is somewhere in the world whats going on. Its likely we will get what is called an efficacy signal. We will figure out whether or not it works. If, in fact, it does, we hope to rush it to have some impact on recycling in the next season. And like i said, that could be a year to a yearandahalf. The doctors speaking at the white house. For more reporting, we have a White House Reporter for the Associated Press and viralologist and ep domologist dr. Joseph fehr. Doctor, your explanation of dr. Fauchl explaining you have to be careful with any time line. Which doctor . You are our doctor in this segment. Just you. Vaccines are not simple to come up with. This is using absolutely state of the art technology. This is a rush for a vaccine. Vaccines by reference take anywhere from five to 20 years to put into place. Thats including safety trials. So this is using the latest in Molecular Technology and modern technologies, putting the vaccines together really quickly. They still have to go through human trials, because there could be adverse effects that could lead to negative outcomes, there are several candidates out there, one for sars, which is being reworked now for cars covid2, the virus responsible for covid19 so promising candidates there. On the convalesce ent serum, they recovered and developed antibody, they actually neutralize the virus. We can transfer those into patients, acutely ill. That has been fast tracked by the fda. So there is promising news on both fronts but we will be a while away from the vaccine. Doctor, listen to the president saying people could return to work in various ways, something many medical experts cautioned against. Take a listen. Our people want to work. They want to go back. They have to go back. We have to go back. This is the United States of america. They dont want to sit around and wait. Theyre going to be practicing as much as you can social distancing and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things that we talked about so much. But they have to go back to work. Our country has to go back. Our country is based on that. And i think its going to happen pretty quickly. I think its going to happen pretty quickly. A lot of progress is made. But we got to go back to work. Doc, for the argument there seems to be apply these precautions while ignoring the main one, which is to stay home if you can. Your response. As a Public Health official and politics completely aside, i think that would be absolutely devastating and make this mob far more worse than it is right now. I completely get the need to go back to work. I worked as a waiter all through college, every night i needed those tips. Every night they made me count my rent or groceries. I get that need. If, say, this is purely a hypothetical, im making up states here, if new york shuts down two weeks and new jersey chooses a separate two weeks to shut down. Those cases from new jersey can come back or it all start over again. So until we do this nationally, then we will not be able to extinguish this. This is akin to another natural disaster, it would be a forest fire, you clear cut around the forest fire to contain it. So we have to do it because the worst fire spread throughout the nation. Its less in some parts. But we have it in all 50 states. I would also say this. Go ahead. No, you please. I would say its up to the individual governors of these states of when they lift their mandates. What we have from the federal government thus far are guidelines guidelines are not laws. Soliciting guidelines or leaveing in place guidelines means absolutely nothing to the governors of each state. I would urge the governors that have the state at home, shelter in place and staythat at home orders, shelter in place. I urge you to do it. Even if you are not seeing it bad now, you are going to see it get worse. Understood. Jill, what the doctor is saying here is basically the best thing medically is to try to ignore the president. That would help people stay focused. Thats not great news to the United States, whether you like the president or not. But day after day, hes going out saying these things. The point about these precautions not being laws is quite vital. Because, jill, and i look to your reporting of how the white house deals with this, but a lot of folks around the country are looking at the risk. Theyre looking at a death toll and they may soon need to choose between ignoring their president and doing what is, according to experts, the safest thing. Exactly. We will also see a situation where you have governors, mayors, who potentially then will have to conflict with the federal suggestions here in what they should be doing. The problem is, that this country just like the doctor was saying, there are no borders between states. People travel freely between states and i am told is that the White House Task force, the doctors will be delivering the president a series of options over the next weekend. We expect the president to make recommendations early next week ago to the country. Today the white house send p sent out letters saying they were considering this idea of classifying counties as either low risk, medium risk or high risk. I spoke to a high level official at the white house before coming on today. They said the plan is not expected to include telling high risk people that live in high risk states or counties, telling them not the leave. Theyre not expecting any suggested restrictions on low rent states saying you shouldnt expect people. How do you prevent those spreading across counties, states that dont have a lot of cases from becoming the next new york, especially when we are at a point in testing in this country. Exact especially. When people have symptoms. Even people that want to be tested have not been tested. We have no idea what the rates are in so many of these places, even though dr. Birx today talked about how they are working to gather information. As you said, other parts of the country doesnt want to become the next new york and the United States doesnt want to become china. We are second only to china. There are other countries that have been dealt tough hands but have used measures and their Healthcare Systems to try to combat this. Some doing better than the United States. I want to thank jill for the reporting and dr. Fair here for all of your analysis and expertise. I want to tell viewers Something Else. You know today Governor Cuomo was stressing the need for more ventilators to address there ongoing crisis. Were still shopping for ventilators all across the country. We need more. We have approved a technology that allows one vent lator to serve two patients, what they call splitting, which is where you add a second set of tubes to a vent laptor to do ventilator to do two patients. Its not ideal. But we believe its workable. We are joined by the director of Global Health at new york presbyterian at Colombia University medical center. Thank you for joining us. Your view of these ongoing shortages, both the facts, which we saw were disputed to some degree by the Coronavirus Task force today and what the United States should do about it. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Look, im not a politician. Im a physician. What i am noticing is there a s a disconnect me and my colleagues are seeing in the emergency dents in new york city. The most Important Message is that the virus cannot infect you if you the virus does not find you. So this idea of us going back to normal life, filming churches, going back to work in a couple weeks, to me also would be a disaster given that everyone is talking about not wanting to be the next new york. In new york, were still seeing a huge upswing in the number of cases. We havent crested, we havent peaked. Were not on thedowndown swing, we need to listen to doctors and politicians we need to lead, give us the ventilators i need and because the harsh reality is that even if the streets look calm, the situation inside of our hospitals here in new york city is dire. Right. Doctor, since we came on the air tonight, we have now, United States surpassed china as the country with the highest number of virus cases world wide. How did that happen . The unfortunate reality is it happened because we reactively are responding to a crisis many of us knew was coming. Ive written articles before, a bunch of other Public HealthOfficials Saying a pandemic is coming. The United States has torn apart the pandemic architecture over the past couple years. We have drastically underfunded the cdc. We have underfunded our local health departments. We have cut funding to the world health organization, crippling its ability to respond around the world. Its important to remember we are so connected today, a virus in china that emerges in november and december can be here and sweep around the world within a couple weeks and months. Theyre not connected. We need to think how we responded globally. Does that mean, sir, that what you are saying, to put a fine point on it is, this was not inevitable, this is a consequence of both how its spread, which may be somewhat unpredictable but also a consequence of policy choices if they had been made better in the United States wouldnt have this sad distinction tonight for the first time of being the most viruses in the world . You point out two really important things. The first one this virus is for lack of a better word perfect. It spreads so well. It doesnt kill a relatively high number of people it infects. But it infects so many. It passes before people have a lot of symptoms. This is a virus that will cause a pandemic. The first part is this virus is perfect for what its going to do. The second is we werent prepared, we werent prepared, so we are reactively responded to a crisis we could have prepared for at a fraction of the cost that would have protected not just us here in the United States but every person on the face of this earth. Dr. Spencer, you get the last word at the top of the hour. I appreciate your exper fees and your service. After the break, we have new reporting the white house ignored the key pandemic blueprint that was prepared by its own National Security council, holding the white house accountable. Later, something we are excited about that involves Michelle Obama and this d. J at Club Quarantine is helping people get registered to vote during time of isolation. Well explain later this hour. Tv sports announcer five seconds left. Oh ho yeah, thats my man there. Tv sports announcer time out. Lets go to a commercial. Nooooooo not another commercial when you bundle your home, auto and Life Insurance with allstate you could save 25 . 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Get more flexible data, the most reliable network, and more savings. Plus, get 300 off when you buy a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Thats simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. We never had an economy like we had just a few weeks ago, then it got hit with something that nobody could have ever thought possible. This came out of nowhere. Nobody could imagine this even happened. Nobody could have ever seen Something Like this coming, but now we know. Nobody ever thought a thing like this could happen. We were talking about millions of masks and you are talking about all of the things you are talking about. President trump often claiming that nobody could have seen this outbreak coming. But thats not true. In fact, there is a wealth of both scientific and investigative documentation of how this was coming and how the white house has also ignored the warning signs. Politico warning the white house had a playbook how to handle the pandemic. Finished in 2016 provided a stepbystep list of priorities which were then quote ignored by the Trump Administration. The story notes trumps own staff lacked behind the time line laid out, for instance, the government could have pro cured personal protective equipment two months ago, ignoring warnings out of china, reporting u. S. Intelligence agencies issued ominous warnings as far back as january, trump pub rickly and privately played it down, according to health officials, the messaging minimized the disease, fueling a lackluster response the chances are too slow to spread. From the House Intelligence Committee a National Correspondent at split core betsy, given all the reporting, what you found and what you think the implications are. Reporter this is excellent reporting from my colleagues. And i think one of the most important highlights as you mentioned is what they found about this initial nsc plan regarding the fact that if a pandemic have you can, the need for that protective equipment. So were talking masks, gowns, gloves, not all of this is particularly technologically sophisticated. The need for that protective equipment would have the professional to skyrocket. On top of that, this is equipment thats needed not just in the healthcare sector but for any number of deposit employees who have to interact with the public to keep it safe. I chatted with a official who chatted with tsa officers. He says one of their concerns is because they go through protective equipment every day, including gloves, surgical facial masks, theyre worried down the road those officers could be facing shortages as well, the fact that nsc officials had predicted this problem would come but the white house wasnt ready to field it is something that historically will appear to be one of the dark, one of the many dark moments of this episode. Congressman, as i mentioned before the break, we come on the air tonight for the first time, reporting the u. S. Leads the world in these virus cases, yet, it had more of an advance warning than some countries, because we are by definition not the origin state. Do you view that as a statement about the spread of the virus or the Trump Administrations response . Look, i think you have done a great job on this network and its been documented extensively how ill prepared this administration was. Not just ill prepared, meaning they had to do things when the