Were starting to reexamine the possibility, should everyone be Wearing Masks . Who really should be a time. And they may be separated by the pandemic but theyre together in song. Announcer nightline starts right now with juju chang. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. They are the warriors in our battle against covid19. Health care heroes facing unprecedented dangers while filling an unexpected void as patients are cut off from their families. Tonight, the physical and mental toll that its taking from candid voices. We just had our third death this morning. This protective gear that you see has to be worn for the entire day. We only get one for the entire day. Reporter as the Novel Coronavirus plows its destructive path, doctors and nurses leading the battle but often feeling unarmed. I have nurses that call me on a daily basis to tell me that theyre scared, to tell me they dont know what to do. We didnt sign up to cause harm. At this point we know that were the ones that are going to take it into the community. Without the proper ppe reporter tonight their voices a chorus of concern that the very people on the front lines are in danger. How many of my coworkers have to become severely ill and risk dying before the government really takes notice and gets us the proper ppe we need . Reporter the growing toll both physical and emotional rising among their ranks. A wellknown neurosurgeon, an icu nurse in miami among the casualties. All the patients in this room, all the feet that you see, they all have covid. And this is only one of the covid19 in the u. S. This is ground zero. The situation right now is overwhelming. Reporter elmhurst hospital in queens, new york. Seeing as many as a dozen deaths in a 24hour period from the virus. Primary care physicians like dr. Luz aras are working to ease the crush of patients on hospitals like elmhurst. We have a big role because if we take care of the patients that are not too ill then the e. R. Doctors will have more time to take care of the sickest one. Reporter aras and her husband, dr. Carlos gonzalez, met in medical school in puerto rico. Theyve served this queens immigrant community for decades in their private practice. How dangerous is this virus for Health Care Workers . Its terribly dangerous. I had a staff meeting with my three medical assistants, and its it broke my heart. I tried to have a contingency plan of i reschedule seniors, i check the temperature on the entrance of the office. I saw two patients that were ill, and i felt i had no defense. And i said, you know, this is not working. I dont have the gear steady stream of cases in early march became a wave of sick patients cresting over this dense workingclass corner of queens. Many of them depend of public transportation, and i think, this is my theory, that because they use the subway and the buses, you can never find an empty sidewalk. Its very crowded. And this virus is so contagious. Reporter and in this case you feel defenseless in many ways. Its Like Fighting a monster with a water gun. Reporter dr. Ares believes that her husbands job, which included checking patients for strep throat, put him at risk and may have exposed him to the virus. And as a former e. R. Doctor what made your husband finally say im going to he told me, i dont feel right. Im not breathing right. Reporter its been ten days since dr. Gonzalez tested positive for covid19. His wife had to leave him at the door of a Long Island Hospital on the eve of what would have been a doubly special day, the couples 38th anniversary and dr. Gonzalezs 66th birthday. How are you doing, both physically and emotionally . I think physically im fine. I think emotionally the im trying to be strong. Reporter and yet youve joined the ranks of the patient population, unable to visit your loved one in the hospital. That was so hard. I think that was that was the hardest thing. Were like weve been together for so many years. Im so sorry. Hi. How are you doing . Reporter with word of her husbands now stable condition dr. Ares is focusing on her patients. Dry cough. Reporter teleconferencing day and night. Sore throat. Reporter whats astonishing to me is your husbands in the hospital fighting for his life and youre seeing 100 patients a day. Its really a calling. You have to be selfless. In puerto rico we have a saying that once you sign up to be a soldier you have to march. For us as registered nurses we are compelled to help and to heal. Reporter Bonnie Castillo is the executive director of National Nurses united. She says the lack of personal protective equipment is forcing medical professionals to make choices they should never have to make. Decisions as to whether they can work in conditions where they themselves could become vectors in the spread of this virus and actually cause harm instead of healing. Hey, mike. Hi. How are you . Reporter michael koridakis has been an icu nurse for 25 years. But these past few weeks he says have left emotional scars. I used to joke that you could only get ptsd if you have even the most hardened practitioner, you know, everybody cries at work. Its just its part of it now. Reporter what triggers the tears . People die alone now. And thats unusual. I had a 35yearold patient die, you know, on me the other day with nothing significant as a medical history. This is a horrible, horrible disease. Reporter and so tell me about that patient. He was my only patient for the first part of the 12hour shift. Because hed coded a couple of times during the day. Reporter coded meaning his heart had stopped . Right. The phone rang. It was his wife. And she said can we facetime with him . And i said absolutely. So i straightened up the room. I made sure he looked nice for the call. When the monitor started alarming. I looked up and his heart rate was dropping and his Blood Pressure was dropping. And within just a minute or two he was almost gone. So i just stopped what i was doing and i went with him and i talked to him. I said that his wife was thinking about him, that id just spoken to her. You know, and that his family loved him and missed him. And just tried to say the things that i thought i might want to hear if it was me. I just called her and let her know that he had passed away. And she still wanted to facetime with him. And then she handed the phone around and gave it to their son, 10 or 12yearold boy. And that was hard. He just said he just said, papi, papi, please dont leave me alone in this world. You know, that was it. I hung the phone up and did what i had to do, got him ready. And then i got two more patients from the e. R. The beds dont stay empty for very long with this. Reporter it feels like combat. I guess walking into combat at least you know where the firing is coming from and you can shoot back. We walk into this without any weapons. You know . Reporter and you dont know where the enemy is. Yeah. You know, luckily in this hospital we have we still have pretty good ppe, personal protective equipment. So i have not once gone without an n95. But there are hospitals around the country that have run out. But the truth is once your doctors and nurses die you dont stand a chance. If we die you die. And that is the truth. Up next, the debate behind the mask. Should everyone in america be Wearing Masks to help contain the pandemic . And later, singing in solidarity in times of uncertainty. Breast cancer on my birthday. I thought, im not letting anything take me away from my family that loves me and needs me without a fight. 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According to the census it doesnt matter if youre related or not, everyone living in your home on april 1st counts. Because this count helps inform funding on how billions get spent every year. And where there are more people, there are more needs. Complete the census online, by phone, or by mail. We find a way through it. Its about taking care of each other. Its the small parts that make a big difference. At chevy, we promise to do ours. Were offering chevy owners complimentary onstar crisis assist services and wifi data. If you need a new chevy, interestfree financing for 84 months with deferred payments for 120 days on many of our most popular models. You may even shop online and take delivery at home. Its just our way of doing our part. And now to the often confusing debate over masks in the face of this pandemic. While everyone agrees they are essential for first responders, there are mixed messages on whether we should all be wearing them. Heres abcs steve osunsami. Reporter all around the country Everyday Americans are joining the Massive Movement measure from the front of your ear. Reporter to help Health Care Workers. It stays nice and snug to keep any germs out. Reporter Even Companies like nordstrom are doing their part, helping populations at higher risk of getting sick and helping people just hoping for a little more protection. And theyre doing it one stitch at a time. We appreciate it. Thae ah uer in michigan sewn 60s it wo far. I feel great being able to help in the way that i can. Reporter its become a Family Affair in the meyer household. In six days judy, conrad, and their daughter natasha have made almost 200 masks. Its really amazing to see our Community Come together. Reporter while there is no conclusive evidence that these homemade masks help prevent the spread of covid19, Top Health Officials seem to think they may be more helpful than they once thought. There is some rationale that the person in the street who may not know theyre infected could actually prevent the spread to other people by Wearing Masks. Reporter even the president today says hes entertaining the idea. I could see Something Like that happening for a period of time. But i would hope it would be a very limited period of time. Epr foow the recomions of leading specialists from asia who are now saying that simple face masks and not hospitalgrade masks may have played a role in helping them contain the coronavirus outbreak. The head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and prevention told Science Magazine last friday that the big mistake in the u. S. And europe in my opinion is that people anweing masks. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others. People should be wearing a mask from the data weve looked at whenever they go out in public. Reporter jeremy howard, a Research Scientist at the university of san francisco, wrote an editorial in the Washington Post highlighting data from covid19 Success Stories in Asian Countries like south korea, hong kong, and taiwan, where everyone is Wearing Masks. Ive analyzed 38 scientific papers that have looked at the relationship between using masks and the transmission of covid19 and similar kinds of viruses. And they all tell the same story, which is that wearing a mask can decrease transmission by up to 50 . So that could be enough to massively slow the spread of this disease. Our thanks to steve osunsami. Now to dig deeper into the issue of masks, earlier i got a chance to talk to abc news chief medical correspondent dr. Jen ashton. Hey, jen. Hi, juju. You know, theres a big difference between the n95 masks weve all been hearing so much about versus the surgical mask versus a diy, or a doityourself mask. Can you clear yeah. So i have two examples of them right here. Lets start with the n95. Theyll always say n95 somewhere on this mask. These masks are designed to keep viral particles out. They actually have to be fit tested to your face. And with any mask they have to be used properly or they can actually wind up doing more harm than good. Now, this is the routine surgical mask. This is designed to actually keep viral particles in. So thats why you hear we put these on sick patients to prevent them from spewing particles all over the room. And then this is yill , ic re the cdc has said in a la resort can ev oer some degree of protection for healthcare workers. Give us the dos and donts of how you wear these masks correctly because thats critical. I have seen countless images on television, in print of people wearing surgical masks and theyre wearing them wrong. Theyre wearing them like this. Right. This does nothing. Right. It should be above the nose. This does nothing. And it should be thats right. Kd of backbone he it should be pinched along the bridge of your nose. These, these n95s, and im not going to be able to totally put these on now, youll see the two straps. They both have to go on the back of your head. One goes high up and one goes low down. Ive seen pictures of people wearing them like this, flopping youre introducing contact transmission, which is obviously another thing were trying to avoid. I know that diy patterns are all the rage as people are sitting at home wondering what if anything they can do. What do you make of the sort of doityourself model of face masks and could that be something that could afford people some level of protection . So first of all, i like the effort. I like the intention. I like where the peoples minds and hearts are. We dont really have such great data on that. One study did show that with these fabric masks that they increase the risk of the person getting a respiratory infection 13fold. But when you talk about data in general its all over the place. Theres no data that suggests that wearing a surgical mask doesnt help. But there are some that show no difference between these two masks. A lot of people are feeling like some protection is better than nothing. And if the cdc says a bandanna will do in a pinch, i think a lot of people are reaching for fabric. And i think in science were reanalyze, reinvestigate, and explore other things. And its important to keep an open mind in science and medicine just like in life. Well said. Thanks, dr. Jen, juju. Up next, social distancing. But together. In spirit and song. Magnificent mile for me. I thought i was managing my moderate to severe Crohns Disease. Until i realized something was missing. Me. You ok, sis . My symptoms were keeping me from really being there for my sisters. announcement final boarding for flight 2007 to chicago so i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remiss and the mahave happened,le w ngea fairee blriicnsand tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Did yocould be signs that syour digestive systemwn isnt working at its best . Taking metamucil every day can help. Metamucil supports your daily Digestive Health using a special plantbased fiber called psyllium. 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Onstar crisis assist services and wifi data. If you need a new chevy, interestfree financing for 84 months with deferred payments for 120 days on many of our most popular models. Its just our way of doing our part. Nissan has been with you through thick and thin. And now is no different. Were offering Payment Options for current owners and for future owners, were offering no payments for 90 days on 14 models. Dozens of people were just rushed off this cruise ship. You guys are the front lines keeping the supply chain open. Who lives, who dies. The iran hostages. The 9 11 terror attack. And now this. This is nightline. Nightline. When it matters most. 11 35, 10 35 central on abc. And finally tonight, a harmony of notes for comfort. Members of the seattle girls choir pulling off a stunning virtual performance. Singing no time. No time to tarry here covid19 forcing the cancellation of a scheduled fundraiser. Everyone practicing social distancing. But technology putting all their voices together. To spread the healing magic of music for all to hear. And we will hear the angels singing a truly powerful performance. And thats nightline for tonight. You can watch all of our full episodes on hulu. Thanks for staying up with us. See you right back here tomorrow at the same time. Jimmy kimmel live is next. Good night, america. Ica. Pa, da, pa, pa, da, pa, pa, da, Pa Jimmy Kimmel live from his house. Hi. Im jimmy kimmel. Today is monday, march 130th. What year i dont know. We are back on television with the first of what is hopefully a limited series we call Jimmy Kimmel Live from his house. And this is my house. Its the only room in my house thats not completely crusted in playdoh right now. Im also not making these videos on my ipad anymore. A few light. Ive got basically the same setup they use to shoot pornos here. The only thing i dont have is people. Everything is being operated remotely tonight. From space. Mike pence is controlling this show from the mars rover right now. I hope you had an okay weekend. I had a chilling thought last night. I hesitate to even mention this because i feel like if i dont know. I feel like if i do it wont happen. So im going to mention it. As bad as this all is, and im not talking about the serious stuff, people dying, im talking about the inconvenie