Welcome to msnbcs special coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Ill ali velshi. Weve got a full slate of experts standing by to break down all the days developments. But first here are where things stand right now. At least 281 are dead across the United States. 23,000 are infected. More than 80 million americans being told to stay home. Today new jersey became the latest state to issue a stay at home order to its residents following similar directives in california, illinois and where i am here in new york. As medical professionals across the country continue to voice concerns over a lack of lifesaving supplies President Trump continues to try to shift the blame. Given this is one of the wealthiest most powerful countries in the world should this be happening . Shouldnt this have been resolved weeks ago . Ill tell you the way i look at it. Many administrations preceded me. For the most part they did very little in terms of what youre talking about. This is unprecedented. You can speak to tony, to anybody. This is unprecedented just about unprecedented. As time goes by were seeing its really at a level nobody would have believed, nobody would have thought possible that this could happen. And we are making much of this stuff now, and much of its being delivered now. Weve also gotten tremendous reviews from a lot of people who cant believe how fast its coming. Who are the reviews, who are these tremendous reviews coming from . What should the federal government we doing and what are they doing to help protect the men and women who protect this country . To answer that im joined by dr. Ven gupta, a pulmonologist. She and i were talking earlier. Shes an air force veteran whos been trying for weeks now to get a test for covid19 after exhibiting a number of symptoms. And dr. David shulkin who has been with us regularly, hes the former secretary of veteran affairs under President Trump. Thanks for joining us the three of you. Sarah, i want to start with you because we had an audio problem earlier. We couldnt get your full story. You are a military veteran, you fall under the care of the administration. You have been trying to get a test since the beginning of the month. Whats your situation, how are you feeling and what has happened to you since trying to get a test . Hey, ali. I started feeling sick in the beginning of the month and it came on kind of slow and all of a sudden it hit me pretty hard. I had a lot of chest problems, fever, my throat was hurting a lot. And then i realized i couldnt really do much but lay on my couch for a few days. After probably 8 to 10 days i decided to call the va and was told not to come there, that if i were to come in to talk to my doctor that they wouldnt let me through the gate because of the symptoms i had. And i was trying hard to see if i could just see my doctor to see if i had to flu or Something Else going on, not even necessarily thinking it was that. But they wouldnt even let me see my doctor for that, they wouldnt give me a flu test, they wouldnt give me a test for covid. And after calling in several times i have about two hours logged here in west palm, they wouldnt let me come in. Every time i called back and they told me over and over again do not come here and randomly overnighted me amoxacillin and an inhaler in the mail without diagnosing me for anything. And after calling back the next weekend found out my doctor was on vacation for two weeks. And they told me if i feel worse in a few days to call back again. And by this time most of my symptoms had started to clear on their own. I ended up going at the advice of a telehealth person a few days ago to the emergency room for a respiratory issues lingering. All of my other symptoms are pretty much gone by now, but theres still a lot of pressure on my chest and hurts when i breathe still and they basically told me it doesnt matter what my symptoms were, you cant get a test unless youre over 65 years old, been to china or been in contact with a person lucky enough to get a test. Dr. Gupta, this is an area of your specialty. So theres several things i want to unpack. You and i discussed this last night. He does not know anybody in america who needs a test who cant get a test. Lets put that aside for a second. What should sarah be doing . First of all, i want to say im sorry, sarah, that was your journey. That should be no patients journey in the United States for any condition, certainly for covid and all the fear around it, so im sorry that happened. What i would say, ali, is clearly testing is aspirational at this point for the entire country. We know that people who need it dont have access to it. I will say that i think hope is on the horizon there and were going to have relief coming up very shortly in terms of drivethru testing being scaled, home sent in swabs and infrastructure being put in place in major cities across the country. So there is going to be relief, sarah and ali, directly around the corner. What i would say directly to sarah about what do you do now, your story is the story ive heard from many of my patients and family members seeking reassurance, really wanting to know are they posing a threat potentially to the health of loved ones and thats really challenging, almost the psychological toll outweighs the physical toll of the virus in some cases. And so im glad youre feeling better. I think at this point continuing to do what youre doing, which is televisits, trying to engage in a way that doesnt require an inperson visit makes the most sense, and im glad youre feeling better. Secretary shulkin, you are a medical doctor as well and not only did you run the va, but you ran a Major Hospital group across the river in new jersey. So a couple of things. You and i have spoken several times the last few weeks about the one good thing, that the va has the capacity to be able to do this. The idea sarah couldnt get the necessary testing through the va, what do you make of that . Well, its really painful when you hear stories like sarah and i couldnt agree more that thankfully you seem to be doing well and you have been seen and thats whats most important. Our veterans deserve the best care our country can give and this clearly was not good example of that. I know the men and women who work in the va and theyre some of the best Health Care Professionals in the world. But as a physician i agree with dr. Gupta, this was not good care. Especially our veterans shouldnt have to go through this type of red tape to be seen and to be tested. And frankly, we can do a lot better than this and sarah deserved better than this. Fortunately i hope she didnt take the antibiotics that were given to her because she wasnt seen and evaluated and chances are this wasnt a bacteria. But hopefully shes on the path to Getting Better now and we certainly want to see better than that in the future. This is little tricky, dr. Gupta, because the president has again tweeted today its the second time now hes said this in a row and dr. Anthony fauci has contradicted it. Hes discussing a set of treatments that involve a malaria treatment and antibiotic. And there are a lot of people saying this is basic medicine stuff people like me dont necessarily know, but coronavirus is a virus does not react to antibiotics. Whats being posed thanks, ali, for the question. Whats being thrown around really on social media is studies that very, very small studies out of france and china that suggest an old antimalaria drug chloroquine and another derivative called hydroxychloroquine used to treat lupus and other inflammatory disease states, that those drugs are showing some degree of effectiveness of limiting what the virus does in the body. That sounds vague because it is. We have no evidence that theres therapeutic effectiveness. In other words, that its actually saving peoples lives or its keeping them out of the hospital for a longer period of time or getting them discharged in a shorter period of time. We have no evidence. You need randomized control trials for that. So dr. Fauci is advocating lets put the brakes on this, lets get some studies done, lets talk about this through evidence and maybe there is something to all this potential promise coming out of france and china here. But lets put the brakes on. So thats why hes saying that and hes 100 correct. Go ahead. Yeah . I was just going to add because you had asked about the second drug which is an antibiotic and dr. Gupta is right it was a case study of 20 patients so that certainly isnt large enough. But this particular antibiotic also treats what we calls atypicals which potentially could be helpful when additive to the plaquenil. And this is too early for us to know but that combination is something to keep an eye on. But for those americans getting information from Donald Trumps twitter feed it says go forward. Secretary shulkin, i do want to ask you, you ran a hospital group. Earlier on the show i had general Russell Honore on, and hes the second person whos said to me we need to get a whole bunch of people who have basic training or in the middle of their training as doctors and nurses out into the field immediately. Hospitals are suffering from a staff shortage not just from people who may have infection and need to protect themselves but all the other people that help medical facilities run who are not there, and theres a call to get doctors in training out into the field, get nurses in training out into the field. Tell me about how you think about this from a staffing perspective of our Health Care System, which is now were starting to get up to the top of the capacity of it . Yeah, i think that as we begin to see the demand on our hospitals clearly the shortage that is going to be most concerning are the staff shortages. When you look at experiences in past pandemics up to 35 to 40 of staff will not be able to come to work because they themselves may be ill or theyre caring for family members at home. And so dealing and preparing the staff shortage is critical. When i first came to the va to take care of the Health Care System we were facing an incredible demand on our facilities. We couldnt care for all the veterans who needed to be helped, and one of the first things i did was i granted our event Practice Nurses the ability to practice. And that really helped free up our demand, and that is something i think should be looked at again because were going to need all the help we can get should the worse of these scenarios become a reality. Sarah, where are you in your situation right now . Are you free of symptoms . Excuse me. I all of my symptoms have dissipated. The only thing thats remaining is i have a lot of chest discomfort and i get winded really easy. But, again, when i went to the er the other day i tried to ask them when did they Start Testing because the doctor came in and hand me a piece of paper that had the qualifications of what you needed to do or be before they give you a test, and he said theyve been doing it for weeks, and i told him i called on the 11th and was told you werent able to do testing. And he said, oh, we hadnt yet ordered the test at that point. But that was just a week ago, so im not really sure what exactly that means. I have another friend who works at the va whos a veteran who is sick with symptoms, and he was told theyre probably not going to get tests until next week. So you dont really know who to believe when theyre saying anyone can get a test but at the er theyre saying weve been doing it for weeks but we havent ordered them. Im pretty sure the only way to stop the spread of this is to know who has it. And you cant know who has it if youre not even testing the severe symptomatic people. It doesnt make any sense. Ven gupta, when we talk about weve been dropping singapore and hong kong and japan and south korea and how they managed to flatten the curve and in some cases it really put a lid on this thing. And it was the idea that people who are suffering from particular symptoms, particularly respiratory symptoms and other things that look like a flu did get tested and they can get a complete picture whats going on. If doesnt matter if youre an economist or doctor i think we need to full information we can get and we have not been working on the full basis of that information. Were now two weeks out of the president saying i dont want people getting off that ship because it will double our numbers. Were now above 23,000 people infected in the United States. Again, im not a doctor but it sounds to me sarah falls into the category of people who should be tested. Sarah absolutely falls into that category, ali. I couldnt agree more, and in spirit, sarah, im there with you. You deserved an early test and the system failed you. And im sorry for that. What i will say is unlike south korea, unlike singapore and japan the countries that you cited, ali, were well past that point. They were effective at containment with early testing. And yes, in that case you want to test people who are symptomatic, quarantine them and try to minimize transmission. Here we are under a situation where we need to move towards a National Lock down. We are well past that point. Some states 20 of the u. S. Population is effectively shelter in place. Whats the 80 what are the other 80 doing . Were recommending that they stay sheltered in place. This lack of unanimity in policy at the federal level is causing a lot of confusion. Some people think they have their freedom to do as they please, others dont. The end result here is were going to have a crisis when it comes to continued transmission because were pursuing a middle of the road approach. With middle of the road approaches youre going to get middle of the road outcomes. Thank you to the three of you for joining me. Dr. Ven gupta, i appreciate the time youre taking. Hes a pulmonologist and professor. Sarah is an air force veteran having remarkable difficulty getting tested despite displaying symptoms that would suggest she would. Dr. David shulkin, the former secretary of veteran affairs under President Trump and ran a Major Hospital system. Thank you to the three of you. Weve got breaking news out of the trump administration. Vice president mike pence and his wife karen have tested negative for coronavirus. The Vice President s press secretary tweeted out the results minutes ago. Vice president pence announced in todays press conference he would take the test after a staffer in his office tested positive. Neither the Vice President nor his wife had come in a close contact with the staffer and they have shown no symptoms of covid19. Up next, education comes to a halt. Over 43 Million Students around the United States are staying home from school as the country takes on the threat of coronavirus. Billions of mouths. Billions of problems. Sore gums . Bleeding gums . 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Whether its the physical equipment, the discipline necessary, the supervision of those parents. Are you worried what the effect of this could be with a whole lot of kids, some might be enjoying staying home, but they may not be getting the education they need. Ali, first of all thank you for focusing on children. I dont think we spend enough time really thinking about the unprecedented situation we have in this country. Millions of children suddenly and dramatically sent hom in some threat they cant see, dont understand into homes where parents are losing their jobs. Theyre desperate. They dont know what to do, and suddenly were going to act like these kids are going to be able to function normally. I think that weve got to really spend time talking with parents, helping them figure out how to create a learning situation for their children thats going to protect and nurture them under these really dramatic and difficult circumstances. Yeah, you and i for years have been talking about the distinctions between private schools and Charter Schools and Public Schools and magnet schools and the distinctions in the way professional paid teachers and principals deal with students. And now weve got a situation where so many of my colleagues, some of whom are responsible for this show being on the air right now are at home with children in a circumstance parents are fantastic at raising their children. I think you and i know that. But parents under Financial Stress who have to do their jobs from home and educate their children at the same time, that is not an expertise we have develop