Source of the best information, the president of the United States. Later tonight, i want to tell you the great neil cotchall here. And well talk about the legality of quarantines and travel bans around the world. We begin with the latest for you. Right now in the United States, we have more than 1500 confirmed cases of coronavirus. Right now in the United States, the dow is down nearly 10 today alone. And right now, in the United States, there are 19 different states, at least, that have declared types of emergencies to address all of this. That gives you a portrait of a crisis. Now as for the markets, its the worst day on the dow since the 1987 crash which you may recall. Many referred to for years as black monday. So we are in our own territory of that, although unlike the underlying Economic Issues then, many hope that the United States can rebound from this if the Health Situation evolves. At one point this morning, if you didnt see this, the dow was falling so fast that they formally froze trading to try to forestall any panic selling. Meanwhile, the president had an idea that he worked out relatively quickly to try to address all of this. A travel ban of europeans who come here. And it is getting panned by even people who served in his own administration. Unfortunately, george, those travel restrictions and additional screening measures are going to have little to no effect at this stage when controlling the spread of the virus. I think people perhaps misunderstand that the virus is here already in large numbers. The virus is here already in large numbers. You probably know that. A lot of the question is about what are the Different Levels of precautions that can be taken. You in your own life. Your own family. How you deal with other people regularly, whether thats through a job or other activities and which you can take precautions for. Which you can curtail. Then the macro is, its policy. Its what happens in washington and capitals around the world. What are the policy choices that have to be made. In a democracy, we all talk about them, but washington tends to decide on them. That has some concerned with the president returning again today to another policy idea maybe taking whats happening inside the United States, domestic flights, and canceling them as well. Travel restrictions within the United States such as to Washington State or california . We havent discussed that yet. Is it a possibility . Yes. If somebody gets a little out of control. If an area gets too hot. Around the nation there are local officials also doing their best to find ways to have everyone just step back from the kind of contacts that are voluntary. For example, were seeing major league sports, basketball, hockey, baseball, now paused. Broadway here in new york going dark for a month. Church services on hold. Meanwhile, in other states, bans on any types of gatherings of people. Speaker pelosi taking charge of basically how you craft the Coronavirus Relief package in congress, working with trump officials, including treasure secretary steve mnuchin. Secretary mnuchin, he had some suggestions, all very reasonable. I think that none of them is would prevent us from moving forward with the bill. In a moment ill be joined by this expert panel covering the medicine, the science, the economics and the washington response to this unfolding situation in the u. S. We want to begin with a local leader facing this crisis on the ground. Seattle mayor jenny durkan out of king county where there have been over 270 coronavirus cases reported. Thank you for joining us during a busy time. Thank you, ari, for having me. People around the country are concerned while trying to avoid any type of overreaction or panic. What are you seeing right now in this city of seattle and king county area outside it which has been hit so hard, and what are you doing . I think that you framed it exactly right. People should be concerned, and leaders across this country should be taking urgent action. But urgency does not mean fear or panic, and i would encourage the markets and others to lower the temperature and increasing the action. Were doing a number of things out here in saleattle, washingt. Theres things were looking for the federal government to partner with us. This san emergency and Health Crisis, not just here in seattle but across this country. And well only resolve it if we pull our resources in places that are going to make a difference. What are the local measures youve taken . So weve taken a range. Just to set a framework, you gave the numbers of actual cases we have. But weve been really hampered by the fact that we have not had adequate testing even until today. Were starting through our private labs to get more testing, but we estimate that the actual cases we have in our community are much higher than the confirmed cases. We have some of the best researchers in america. They estimate that today we have over 1,100 cases and if we dont do measures like were taking now, by april 7th, well have 25,000 cases and 400 deaths. So the governor thats 25,000 where in that estimate . In the seattle region. In the king county region. And just to be clear, you are referring to the sort of credentialed Public Health experts that you rely on are warning you in a matter of weeks you could hit 25,000 in seattle alone . Thats right. So theyve been able to actually get the genome and done a lot of modeling. And their best modeling is based on how this virus is transmitted and the tests theyve run through the modeling. They estimate if we dont take action. Thats why the governor, standing with the three county executives, myself and other mayors, instituted a number of measures because this is a virus that goes facetoface contact. And if you limit that contact, you can limit the spread of the virus, save lives and preserve our Health Care System. So were taking a number of things to limit public gatherings and other places where people will congregate and give public real scientificbased information. And let them take measures to protect themselves. Mayor durkan, thank you very much for joining us during a busy time and for your candor. Meanwhile, theres a lot of questions about the leadership in the white house as well as the people who want to replace this president in the white house. Against the backdrop of this crisis, we heard from the two remaining leading president ial candidates in the democratic race with their views on the crisis. Protecting the health and safety of the American People is the most important job any of president. Unfortunately, this virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration. We need that information coming from credible, respected scientific voices of which we have many in our own country and all over this world. Not from politicians. I want to bring in now our panel. Dr. Lena nguyen, former Health Commissioner of boston and president of planned parenthood. She is now with George Washington school of Public Health. Gene sperling, director of the National Economic counsel in the clinton and obama administration. He helped work on crafting the obama stimulus, responding to a different set of National Problems not unlike weve seen unrolling these past few days, and Eugene Robinson from the washington post. This is unfortunately a time where each of you brings so much to bear. I can start with Gene Sperling on one of the largest market crashes since 87. I can start with Eugene Robinson in washington looking at coronavirus, reshaping the entire president ial race. But im going to start with our doctor here with me on set. What is the nature of this Public Health crisis today as americans heard the president give his view of it last night . This is the relative calm before the storm that we know is going to be coming. We just heard the mayor talk about whats going to come to seattle and this is whats going to come all over the country. Were going to see many hundreds, thousands of cases, maybe tens of thousands of cases in the coming weeks. Lets pause on what you just said. For a lot of americans, particularly, the way people are tuning in to this story. It doesnt feel like the calm. It feels like part of the storm. And again, were hearing from Health Officials with experience like yourself and the mayor we just heard from saying that doesnt mean to panic, but when you say this is a calm, when you say tens of thousands of cases, what are you getting at that this is going to get much more onerous on peoples daily lives . I think were about to see significant disruptions in a way that were just experiencing a little bit of it now. The streets feel emptier. The stores feel more crowded as people are stocking up. Were soon going to see all of these schools being closed. Work being significantly disrupted and us changing our routines but we have to because we have to protect the most vulnerable among us. And we have a very small and limited window to act. That window is in the next week or two. So im really glad that our political leaders, at least on the local and state levels are taking dramatic action that may seem like overreactions. Im hearing my neighbors and people in my community saying, why are all these things happening . It feels like a lot of communities dont have any cases yet. But its only a matter of time. Let me read to you with regard to the New York Times reporting on the capacity in the United States. We talk a lot about the Health Care System here, how expensive it is, a patchwork. This is a quote that there arent enough ventilators and icu beds if theres a significant surge of cases. The system could become overwhelmed. Do you agree with that assessment . Our own federal government estimates even if we have a moderate outbreak, not severe, were going to need 200,000 intensive care beds. The u. S. Only has 100,000 intensive care beds at any point in time and most of them are occupied. If you have all these patients coming in all at once, many of them are not going to get care. Were also going to compromise care for those who are coming in for noncoronavirus related issues. People with heart attacks and trauma who need that care. So anything we can do to, we call it, flatten the curve. Anything to reduce the rate of infection and spread it out over time, it gives the Health Care System a chance to catch up so that doctors dont have to make that choice about who gets to live and who is going to die. Really appreciate your points there. Youre obviously staying with us. Turning to Gene Sperling on what any other day would be, by far, the biggest story in American Life and certainly in president ial politics given the economys relationship there. What does it mean when we see the statistic that this was the largest single day drop since the 1987 crash . Well, theres no question it was a bloodbath in the market. Not just today but in the last couple of weeks. But, you know, what i think is important to recognize is this is not fundamentally a financial issue. The markets are responding to the real economy, to the failure to have a competent, professional, truthful government response that should have included massive just massive government effort to get widespread testing so we acknowledge uncertainty, to have the kind of medical surge so that we werent at risk of a lack of capacity to do things like Emergency Paid Sick leave. Not because Nancy Pelosis making somebody do it, but because if you dont do this compassionate thing of making sure people can stay home when theyre sick, youre going to increase the community spread. Theres nothing the government could do to make all this go away simply or have no health or economic cost. But if you had the confidence that our response was going to say, were going to have a dip. Were going to have a downturn, but its all because we have a National Strategy of testing, treatment, to handle this in a relatively short period of time and a surge of economic response to help people and communities in our country get through it, then youd see markets saying, wow, its going to be bad for a little while, but we have confidence its going to get better. When you have this complete failure of the government to help the real economy, the Real Health Care crisis, markets cant see where the bottom is and they cant see where the end is, and thats how they responded. You mentioned the market reacting or pricing into their understanding of how the u. S. Government is handling this. In your view, is todays crash partly a response to the way the president handled this last night or is it too soon to draw that link. Well, i have a little different view which is, i dont think that this is just about the president s speech. I think its about peoples growing recognition that you have a government that was out talking about this as if it was a political conspiracy. The president golfing, the Vice President who was in charge of it going to fundraisers, and now people are starting to really realize, oh, my god, im understanding the exponential growth of how this spreads, and i am realizing our government is way behind. They are looking at south korea. They are looking at other countries. And they are losing confidence. I dont think its just about the speech last night. I think it is about the entire government response and the lack of confidence. Ari, ill say this. This is a National Teaching moment or maybe just a painful reminder. Competent, professional, truthful, credible government matters. And it matters a lot. You say that and then Gene Sperling walking us through that. Our other gene is Gene Robinson. Listen to Speaker Pelosi with regard to the Congress Role in trying to craft something. Its about putting people and families first. Everybody could have a complaint about this or that. I said save it for another day. We can have an after action review about how we got into this situation. Save it for another day. Right now, we have to find our common ground, Work Together to get this done as soon as possible. Gene, what do you see coming out of washington on this, and how much is it right sized, a lot of emphasis on what they can control, which is like anybody. What do you have control over when the doctor and others have outlined some of the problems in the u. S. Health system dont relate to payroll tax credits. Exactly. You know, from the economic point of view, im a little concerned that the deal they eventually come out with, and i think theyll certainly come out with a deal. Speaker pelosi was negotiating with treasury secretary mnuchin all day basically. And so its going to be a deal im a little worried that its going to be too small bore, you know. It seems to me you saw what happened on the markets today. We need kind of a bazooka in the economic sense, i think. Far be it from me to tell Gene Sperling anything about economics, but it seems to me we need essentially a stimulus. We need help for people who are not able to work now. Restaurant workers are having their hours cut back or being laid off because people arent eating out. That sort of thing, people are not taking trips that they otherwise would take on the airlines, on amtrak, everywhere. And this ripples through the economy and i wish we had a big plan for addressing this because i think it is an emergency in that sense, as well as a health care emergency. Were running over on time, but Gene Sperling, having been name checked in your economic expertise, i give you the last word. What about a lot of the concern that these precautions are the type of thing that are harder on wage workers, people with less savings and less health care. Its fine if it is medically true that Everyone Needs to take a step back, but what about people who are literally losing what would be next months rent for that precaution. Well, precisely. And in response to the other genes comments, exactly right. You need all of the above. Theres a lot of i thought you were the other gene. Why is he the other gene . Only in my family is Gene Robinson the other gene, but i think hes right. You know, were going to need some big powerful help for economic demand, but you have to contain the uncertainty and there is this category that i think is the most winwin. And that is helping the people like gene just described who are dont have paid sick leave. They are gig workers who may not have the right type they dont get covered by Unemployment Insurance. I think the first winwin is you get a massive influx to them, and i think we need a broad emergency paid leave. We need to take most of the restrictions off Unemployment Insurance so that that waiter with less hours, the gig economy worker, the Domestic Worker can get that assistance. And i will tell you that was a point of agreement today between joe biden and bernie sanders. And that is compassionate and the right thing to do. But those are the people who are going to need the money. Theyll spend it the fastest. If you have a surge of that type of help, medicaid match, unemployment paid leave, broadly available in