Pbs newshour. Ajor funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by when it comes to wireless, Consumer Cellular gives its customers the choice. Our nocontract plan you as much or as little talk, text and data as you want, and our u. S. Based Customer Service nsumercellar. Tv to help. The john s. And james l. Io knight foundat fostering informed and engaged communities. More at kf. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank u. Woodruff coronavirus deaths in the United States have reached a new milestone 3,700. That overtakes chinas officially announced total of 3,300. Italy and spain each have recorded many more deaths, while the u. S. Has far and away the most cases of any country in the world, more than 180,000 so far. President trump warned tonight that the country faces a very tough two weeks, and and, everywhere, but especially in new york state, officials are scrambling to keep up. Amna nawaz begins our coverage nawaz across new york city, local landmarks are joining the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus. The Javits Convention center, w a 1,000bed hospital, in its first overflow patientsla st night. N that, as york, the epicenter of americas outbreak, saw known cases in the state top 75,000. Governor andrew cuomo announced he purchased 17,000 new c ventilators frna. The need, he said, is desperate. Know how you know . We are paying 25,000 per ventilator and we are broke. The last tng i want to do is buy a single ventilator i dont need. The need is also great in losiana where 239 have died. Governor bel edwards warned today wih over 1300 hospitalized, the state may run out of ventilators this weekend. He implored residents to do all they can to slow the spread. Stay at home stop read and save lives. Theres no way to see that number and notbe startled. And, look, im telling people to expect things to get worsehe beforeget better. And saw the number and i was startled. Nawaz hospital beds are sslling up, but streets remain largely empty ache country. As of tonight, arizona and tennessee join the dozens of states liting residents tivity outside their homes. All told, at least 32 states now have some sort of stayathome order in place, affecting more entire u. S. Population. T and those directives areun kely to ease soon, according to projections from the white house this week. En prestrump extended the socialdistancing guidelines until the end of april, after new models estimated that between 100 and 200,000 americans could die of the virus. Advisor, dr. Anthoci navirus if we pulled back on what we re doing and didt exte them, there would be more avoidae suffering and avoidable death. It was pateny obvious looking at the data, that at the end of the day, if we tryo push back prematurely, not only would we lose lives but it probab would even hurt the economy. Nawaz President Trump, meanwhile, proposed that the government take advantage of rockbottom interest rates, slashed to mitigate the pandemic faout, and move forward o ve big and bold, 2 trillion infrastructure bill. Leaders in other countries, like chile and hungary, areg advantage of the uncertainty with power grabs; cracking dowan on dissenterconsolidating power. Officials at the european unn expressed concern today. Respect of freedom of expression and Legal Certainty are essential in these uncmetain nawaz but, in europes hardest hit nation of italy, a glimmer of hope. A Health Official announcing the threeweeklong National Lockdown has led to a leveling off of new infections. In memory of the thousands of italian victims so far, a moment of silence tonight in rome. Nearby in spain, nearly 850 deaths today made it the countrys deadliest 24hour stretch so on the streets of madrid, in the pouring rain. Police officers, ambulance drivers, and street cleaners, stood in silence to pay thei respects. In gratitude echoed in the streets, from singapore skyscrapers, to townhouses in england, residents worldwide stuck at home stepped outside to take part in a newdi pandemic ton, applauding medical workers fighting the virus, as one shift ends, and another begins. For the pbs newshour, im amna nawaz. Woodruff in the days other news, wall street ended a brutal First Quarter with fresh losses. The Dow Jones Industrials average dropped 410 points today, to close at 21,917. It lost 23 for e quarter, the most since 1987. The nasdaq fell 74 points today and th500 slipped 42, ending its worst quarter since 2008. Online retailing giant amazon has fired a worker who led a protest over covid19 protections. Walkout monday at a warehouse on staten island. The company says he had violated social distancing rules, and refused to stay home after coming into contact with an infected coworker. Smalls said his bosses ordered him home only to get him out of the way. Tonate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell claimey that President Trumps impeachment trial diverted attentim the coronavirus. He appeared on a conservative rao show, and said the outbreak in china, during january, and congress were distracted. It came up ile we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And i think it diverd the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment. Woodruff President Trumps top aides did brief congress on the outbreak on january 24th, during the impeachment trial, and agaion february 5th, the day he was acquitted. But at the time, mr. Trump maintained the rk was low. The Trump Administration today rolled back obamaera standards for auto mileage. A new rule drops a requirement for annual increases of 5 in fuel economy. Environmental groups promised to challenge the change in court. Well get the details, later in the program. The federal Communications Commission is taking new action against robocalls. It ordered phone companies today to implement caller i. D. Authtication against socall spoofing. That practice makes it appear that a robocall is coming from a local number, so people will answer. Federal judges have bloclad efforts byma and ohio to ban abortions during the coronavirus outbreak the states had classified ortions as nonessential medical procedures. Meanwhil appeal a federal judges order that blocked a similar ban. And, the college sinrts govebody will grant another year of eligibility to spring sport athletes, after their seasons were cut short by covid19. The n. C. A. A. s new policy covers baseball, softball andsse. It does not include sports that had finished most or all of their playing seasons. Still to come on the newshour food banks feel the strain as Many Americans go hungry for the first time. Students and the pandemic the u. S. Gets an education in distance learning. A doctor and writer on how covid19 behaves in the body. The Trump Administration rolls back the rules on the Climate Impact of cars. And much more. Woodruff with unemployment soaring, the covid19 outbreak is taking a stagring toll on workers. As stephanie sy reports, Food Services to meet d even as donations, volunteers, and supplies are pressed. St hey is also part of our chasing the dream series on poverty and opportunity in america ti so im in this line w. Theres over 2,000 people in this line here imesa, arizona. Reporter matthew, who preferred we not use his last name, was in a long cue leading to the parking lot of the Mesa Convention cter, waiting for a weeks supply of food. Im here because im one of those gig workers. Basically the business has dried up. Theres no money to be made. Im down to like 4. 00 in my bank accou, and no food. Car payments late, everythings late, for me its worth it, waiting over an hour already, for this food bag. Reporter the distribution line is drive through only, one of many ecautions dave richins, president and c. E. O. Of United Food Bank has put in outbreak. The wak were going to start teerature readings on every volunteer that comes. Yb y thats not in the safe temperature range is going to be sent home. We juscant risk it. Te rep richins told us by skype they are serving four times as many people as usuals like many st enlisting the help of the national guard. Swere seeing the uber driver that has no more fares to pick up. Were seeing the maid at the local hotel that is not working near as much as she used to. Were just seeing a lot more of the recently unemployed in ours. Li but the elderly are still there. And so makg sure those populations stay separated and safe is important. But the thing that breaks your heart the most are the families reporter the food bank saw a lot of new faces. Student, just finished from pima and right now theyre not hiring for dental assistants so im on hold because of whats going on. So i heard on the news, i have to kids, and this would really help me out lot. Reporter heidi nitti was getting food f other people. Im in need to help people, the disabled and also peopleat re retired, that cant get out, that are sick, and mostly all this foois going to people on my property where i live. Reporter from los angeles, california, to duquesne, pennsylvania, across the country, cars loiting in mile lines to receive food packages. Since the coronavirus outbreaks began, food bave seen demand increase by as much as 50 in some places, says claire babineauxfontenot, c. E. O. Offe ing america, the largest hungerrelief organization in the u. S. Weve seen this before, just never at this magnitude. The average american does not have 400 in cash available to deal with a financial emergency. People started losing their jobs. People started missing checks. Most people in ts country are one check away from being in need of some n source of food and other things that are necessary for sustenance. Reporter what about the impacts on all of the people that volunteer their time at food banks, many of whom i would guess are elderly . Our volunteers are inordinately elderly. Consequently, we have a bit of a perfect storm going on right now, so we have increase in demand, decrease in supply and a significant decrease in our volunteer workforce. Some of that decrease in workforce is us wanting to look oufor the safety of the people where they are trying to help us and theyre particularly vulnerable. R orter the mad rush for supplies as families prepared and stockpiled for home lockdowns had the knockon effect of limiting donations from major retail grocers that food banks rely on. The recently passed cares act directs more federal funds to food insecurity, inclu300 million for purchases for the emergency Food Assistance ogram. But babineauxfontenot is worried about the needs gap. And her organization issued a statement criticizing lawmakers nefor not increasing snap ts in the act, saying they missed ie opportunity to help fam facing hunger, and unfortunately, food banks wi bear the burden of this oversight. Its not enough, though. But weve made some good progress. Our data shows us that the hole additional supplemental food that were going to be able to rely on from the federal government. , consequentth the contracting amount of retail donations, with a bier population of people in need, were having to go out and purchase more food and were competing in the marketplace in an in a scarcity environment. Reporter back at the United Food Bank, dave richins says supplies from the u. S. D. A. Will this pace through august. G at as long as we continue to get ucks coming to our warehouse and delivering food, theresth g thats going to stop us from filling our mission. In ill keep seuntil the last can of food is on the shelf. Or reporter his biggest isnt keeping the Food Supplies employees and volu safe own from the spreading virus. For the pbs newshour, im stephanie sy in phoenix. Woodruff one of the many consequences of asking americans meto stay home is what itt for schools, teaching and learning. For many, the Normal School day has been halted, at least for now. Various aspects of thishe periodically. Lets start with what it mea f to be teachim a distance, learning from home and coping with children at home all day. This is one way teachers and students see each other in the age of coronavirus, organizing parades in small towns whereey ave from a distance. More than 55 million American Students are now out of school and expected to learn from home. Im dawn bishop mclin. Im the mother of two girls. We start every morning about 8 30. We have a schedule. And that schedule is a blessing because it keeps us on track. Its been a tough adjustment. My name is aaron warner. Im from south burlington, vermont, and i have a son who is nine yea old my name is megan smith and i i am a teacher andch sixth through 12th grade. Id i have two kids, cecilde in karten and kaylee is in third grade and she is eight. Its challenng to not be able to sit one on one with students and really help them understand what theyre missing. And i think bi a parent, my est challenge is going to is me. Ng to be the availability of teaching my own children that ineyre just going to have to be a little bit morpendent and do things on their own . With my son being autistic, its a lotf times there are these things where i cant just be like, hey, you knows a math worksheet from your teacher. Spend 30 minutes on this. I have to sit there with him ant we go throug and i mean, i probably only worked 15 hours last week at my regular job just because i was taking on all this stuff. And it was important to make sure that he had some consistency from as we make this transition becse its hard for him. Woodruff that transition in some cases has been helped along by technology. Play dates via ipad. Classroom Video Conference calls on a technology called zoom. Me my s sarah soliz and i anve in albuquerque, new mexico. I have two kids they are eight and 11. One day we watched the life facebook stream from the cincinnati zoo because theyve been doing every day, theyve been doing a, you know, sort of a show and tell with a different an so every hour i try to pick somethinthey can work on, and then eventually, you know, i just give up and let them play minecraft my name is riy house. I am an 11th and 12th grade Woodrow Wilson higol inat the District Of Columbia. My biggest thing for the pas week and a half has just been communicate, communicate, communicate. There are definitely some students who the minute i post an assignment in the morning, theyre going to get right to it and hand it in. You havether students who there are some barriers. O we fou last week that a lot of students, 30 of the stent population in d. C. I think does not have access to technology. So theyre preparing to giveut devices to those students who are in nd in the coming weeks. Woodruff the Technology Gap is something school diricts are grappling with from east to west, passing out laptops and tabletwhere possible. Driving wifi buses to internet free zones. We do have a couple oft studentse school that we put all paper book packets together and gave them work that way. I a professor of psycholo at jackson state university. I know some challenges for my College Students are some dont have adequate wifi. Soin live in rural areas her mississippi. Theres still a Digital Divide among minority populatio in their community. So ive had to adjust how i teach. Woodruff and as for the challees of being home all the time i feel like there are lots of veert and kind of to do theba workically. So were kind of working through that. Not everything i do is, you know, academic per se. I feel like there are lots of things. You know, they can learn from. N and so w learned to make pretzels, for example, and that was really fun. But yeah, i mean, it has been challenging. Its hard to get my work done, its hard to, you know, not go crazy in your house and feel like youre just living in a junk pile. Woodruff and teacher and parent megan smith had one final note of advice for parents we dont need to be totally solely focused on academicsca e at school thats not what the school day looks like. I would say dont beat up yourself as a parent if your kid ls not engaged academically day long. They really are going to be fine. F woodror more on the challenges presented by distance learning, i am joined by kate gardoqui, she is a formerde teacher who nogns curriculum and trains other teachers. She is a senior assowith the Great Schools partnership and joins me via spe from main so, kate gardoqui, how big a challenge are we talking about for these millions of students and teachers and parents . This is a tremendous challenge. Theres just no way to overestimate it. If we think about tho groups one by one, for the teachers and the educators, evyone involved have, some this cases, 24 or 48 hours to prepare to coplmel reenvision what education looks like, and they did it with great creativity. Its just its monumental. And for our students, we asked them, also, to reenvision what learning looks like, reenvision what their social lives look like. And for parents, as we just heard, were hearing from so many parents trying to educate care ofildren, ta their children, and do their own jobs at the same time. Remarkable. its just how different is it when youre teaching elementary, primary grade students, young students,l versus mschool and high school . Is one or the other particularly harder, or is there a greatce differ i think each of those age levels has wan its own challeng. The High School Students may be able to learn more effectively on their own, or they may be able to, you know, govern themselves more effectively. But the depth of what we ask of them is so huge, that theres really just great challenges all around. Woodruff whathe main things, kate gardoqui, that are lost when you dont have that perstoperson contact, that eye contract that you have in a kassroom . Yw, ive worked in schools all my life, and the many amazing teachers is the depth of love and caring that they gie to students. And i think thats been one of the hardest thingsor teachers is that they cant check in with ose kids that they really love and care about, look in their eyes, look at their body nguage, see how theyre doing. And i know that there are schools out there that have divided up tir whole student population, and theyre making sure that every kid has one teacher or one educator who is ularking in on them on a reg basis. And i think thats a great practice that schools have tousd ry to fill that gap. Woodruff and is there some formula fowhat part of tis is the is clearly its the students responsib in large part, but what part of this is the parents responsibility, and what part is the teachers . T nk right now, you know, in this unprecedentedweoment, al can ask is for everybody to do their best and kee the children first, to constantly ask, ow are the children doing . And so for parents, that means checking ins much as we can, setting up those scheduleds, also giving kids some freedom t just c destress. And for teas and educators, it means setting up as many ways as we can to figure out what kids might be falling through the cracks, what kids are missing out on what were tryg to share with them, and how can we stop that from happening . How can we rcheaut the kids who node it the most. Theres no one piece of advice that fits every circumstance, but in general, what advice do you have for parents who are watching and wonring if theyre doing the right thing, what more can they be doing . Well, i would say kids know how toearn. Thats what kids ar best at. And so, you know, in his me, the most important things are to check in with their kids and give them lots of love and p supporh them to think, and push them to read. You know, talk absut wha happening in the world in ways that are age appropriate, and ask them good questions, and tra to sure that theyre reading. And those are the moportant things that we can do to support our kids right now. Woodruff because im thinking parents have to be out there who are juggling work and time that theyhink they should be spending with theirechildn, and they have to be feeling guilty or worried. Hard for all of our parents, for all of our teachers. And so the other thing as parents and as teachers that we have to do is try to do our best, show our students love. Let our students know that ey that we know theyre learning, and that wean see everything theyre learning on their own. They may be dealing with stress by playing the guitafor three hours, or by talking with friends and supporting them, or maoe theyre reaching out grandparents. And so as farnt parents and tea, we want to be recognizing those things that kids are doing and honoring tdhat an asking how can that become what our students learn duri this time . Woodruff kate gardoqui, thank you so much. We appreci thank you. Woodruff we will continue to report on this topic in coming days with a rtok at the paicular challenges involved in teaching children with learning disabilities and special needs. Woodruff weve spent much time looking at how to cope witr covid19, itic impact and worldwide disruption. Tonight, were going to try to understand a little more about what were learning about the Novel Coronavirus itself, and how it behaves. Jeffrey brown has our conversation. Brown and for thatim joined by dr. Siddartha mukhjee. Hes an oncologist, cancer researcher and Pulitzer Prize winning author, and hes just written a nearticle on covid 19 for the new yorker. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. You wrote that so far weve been measuring the spread of the virus acro people. We need to start measuring within people. Can you explain what you mean by that and why its important . Well, during a pandemic like this, the first thing that we want to do is to track how fast its moving across populations, and thats what i mean by measuring virus across people. Thats really an on off. Zero one plus minus kind of assessment. Are you infected . Are you not infected . Ma are you sympc . Are you not symptomatic . Of the pandemic when you need to begin to understd the dynamics t virus within people, which is how much virus were yoo expose how much virus does thatto exposure lean infection . Once you get the vdo you get immune to the virus . These are things that help us undetand the dynamics of the epidemic as it moves across the population. Brown well, so there is still so much mystery about what ehappens when it attacks person aopposed to another. Av whatwe learned so far . Well, theres several things weve learned. First of all, weve learned that, a, that the virus is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets or so called foammites. Thats the main mode of transmission. The second thing that weve learned that were trying to learn is that were in the middle of learning. There are several people who are asymptomic who may be shedding virus. Thats a very, very important idea. That is to say that there may be a child or someone who doesnt have any symptoms, no fever, no dirhea, no respiratory symptoms, but nonetheless is sheddi the virus. We need to identify those people and isolate and potentiallyso quarantine thehat they dont keep spreading the virus. Learning, which we havente learned for sure, issehat there s to be if you do the right kind of test, there se be a way to predict whether youre going to have very severe disease versus a more mild form of the disease, and that helps because that will help us triaged patient to those who are either going to be sick and therefore require urgent attention versus those who mayco less sick and may be able to be managed more conservatively too. Brown do these individual responses have implications for currenract, current discussions about, for example, wearing masks, whether all of us should wear masks . Well, so absolutely. They have an enormous le in this. I think the general conclusi, although we dont know this empirically, what one wod logically conclude from this information is that health ce workers need full masks. And by that, i mean they need really protective masks. If you are not a Healthcare Worker and you happen to have an cial95 mask, please do a service and donate it to a Health Care Worker. So thats the first thing that we need that we know. E cond thing that we know is that for most respiratory viruses. If the viral load isnt the kind of viral load that a Health Care Worker is receiving, there is a mountain of evidence that suggests that a simple surgical mask is essential. It works. Such a mask works income in conjunction with hand hygiene and social distancing. This is not to say you should op practicing hand hygiene and social distancing. But it is to say that if you are if you are an essential worker and if youre being asked to think that wearing a simple surgical mask would be effectivf and would be h in trickling down the amount of infection. If you happen to have an n95 rrespirator, please consi donating it to a Health Care Worker who desperately needs one. Brown you know, you wrote in your article that every virus has its own personality and i wonder how different is covid 19. Thand how confident are yo we will come to understand it enough to help in time . Imery confident that we will understand it in time. Covid 19 is a unique virus, but it belongso a family of viruses, including sars and mers and other coronaviruses th we have been dealing with for a very long time. Itnds not something peculiar mysterious that is that is suddenly emerged. We know this family of viruses well enough. We are in the midst as a medical community in the midst of launching an extraordinary phase of drug trials to treat the sickest patients. So if i if theres if thes one message i would say with regard to the virus is that you need the population, the public, Everyone Needs to buy us time. We need time to get these trials launched. We need time to get to ensure that they are done correctly so when the full wave of t sickest patients hits us, we will be epared for them. Brown before we go, i want to ask you, theres a new documentary abt to come out on pbs called the gene. Its based on yourarook of a few ago. And it makes us all, i tnk, wonder about the analogy or the connection, rather, between th about the genetic nddocumenting whats going on today with this virus, how were trying to understand it, how were trying to respond. Virtually every technology that were using to quantify, understand and deepen our understanding of covid 19, reliesn genetics. There is, you know, the word ral load really is a quantification of the amount of virus in the body using genetic techques. So and also the production of drugs such as antibodies depends on recombinant d. N. A. Chnology. To understand how the last one hundred years of geneticci me and Genetic Technologies have impacted our undetanding of Infectious Diseases and pandemics such as covid, i would encourage you to watch it. Brown all right. So you and i will talk a little bit more about the documentaryt and well at online in the coming days for now. Dr. Siddartha mukherjee, thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank u so much. Hope you stay well. Woodruff and you can watch the gene on your pbs station starting next wes. It a two parts, on april 7th and 14th. Woodruff it is hard to focus on anything aside from covid19 these days, but it is remains important to keep an eye on how the federal government is working in other ways. The Trump Administration today moved to roll back another federal regulation intded to reduce global warming. As john yang reports, todays t announcemegeted automobile ayleage standards. Yang judy, t proposal would undercut Obama Administration fuel efficiency intended to combat climate change. It would require u. S. Vehicles to improve mileage standards an erage of 1. 5 a year from 2021 through 2026 instead of 5 a year. N juliet eilpe Senior NationalAffairs Correspondent for the Washington Post and covers federal environmental policy. She joins us by skype. This is quite scant. Is this . It affects their cars, trucks and s. U. V. S that america across the country drive and s will be driving for deca me. Because whe this affects, obviously, the kind of cars that are built over t next seven years, people hold onto those cars for some time. So it really will have a endous effect in terms o what are the standards that auto manufacturers will meet and whats that kind of poution and affordability of the cars that well be driving. Yang and whats the administrations rationale or justification for this change . They are arguing that the Obama Administration, who initially set carbon and fuel efficiency standards in 2009 and updated them in 2012, really set too stringent a target in the in the years to come. And then, in other words, theyre too expensive for manufacturers to meet. And as a result, they argue americans would actually hold on to older dirtier cars rath than fine. Y g and who are the opponents of todays proposal and what are they saying in response . There are opposed to this, starting with the state of california and more than a dozen other states and the District Of Columbia who td adopted stringent standards and had are tryish ahead with them, even though the administration is trying to hold back. And theyre joined by a coition of environmental a Public Health groups who argue that for t reasons, you need to keep these standards place. One, because tkiy address the of Traditional Air pollution that kills people, and two, because thecurb the co2 that comes out of tailpipes and obviously contributes to cmate change. So for those reasons, theyre adamantly opposed to making mileage standards. Yang and the Auto Industry is split yeah, thats one of the things thats really interesting. It as the Auto Industry that within a matter of days oftrump taking office that they wanted to relax these staards, but they in some ways had second thoughts because they thought that there could be romise between the Trump Administration and, again, state officials in california and other states who did want to see cleanecars and and so they had assumed that they would meet somewhere in the middle. Instead, what they saw was this split. And so you had a handful of major manufacturers, including, for example, ford and honda and bmw, who reached agreement last summer with california, sayingul that they go ahead and meet the stricter standards. And then you have others, such as gm and chrysler who said, no, well just abide by what the what the trump adminion is going to do. Emth has caused a real d for auto manufacturers because they may face competing standards and no matter what. Therell be an extended legal fit that will leave this question unanswered for some time to come. Yang so, i mean, talkiou the legal fight, whos fighting . Its the states and are some o j the automakening that fight . Tt its a unclear, although it is true that, for manufacturers strueal inese auto july with california, part ofth agreement was that they would defend californias right, set its own standard. So you could easily see some of the auto manufacturers siding with the administration and some siding with california and the states who want stricter mileage standards. Theyll certainly be joined by, as we said, almost every major Environmental Group and multiple attorneys general, particularly from democratic states. You will see some of those also arguing that they have a vested interest in. Cutting the pollution from cars and trucks because it affects everything from Climate Impacts to their states toeihe air that citizens breathe. Yang deregulation has been o big pawhat the Trump Administration with President Trump has wanted to accomplish. N is there any that theyre moving things forward to get it in before the electi they are absolutely advancing eir deregulatory agenda this front. And many others, when i talk to some of the Trump Administration ofcials, as well as the re folks who work with them. They are keenly aware of the fact that there is a provision called the congressional reviewc which allows a president and congress to overtu regulations if they are enacted within 60 days. And so this was, for example, a republicans used oump came into office to overturn some of the last rules that the obama iadministration took it p place that Trump Officials are keenly aware if under some scenario they lose the white house and Democrats Gain control of the senate while holding on to the house, so of their policies could also be overturned. So what were seeing right now is a real pushed finalized some of their highest priority rollback so that they can stay even if you have any. Yang Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post, thank you very much. Very welcome. Woodruff President Trump was at the podium again today taking questions on the pandemic. Ci our yamiche or joins me now from the white house for the latest. So, yamiche, we know that the official death toll from coronavirus in the untates has now moved past 3700. What are ey saying at the white house about the pace of well, judy, the number of people who died from coronavirua hit a relly grim total today. More people have died from the virus in america than on the that sobering tone, that sadness was really apparent in todays white house briefing. There were models shown that showed even with the best cial distancing, Something Like 100,000 americans could stillof dihis virus. Now, Health Officials and President Trump said that theyre doing all ththey can to make that number even lower. But, again, that figure is if people do all that they can around the country to social distance and try to combat this vios. The other ing note is that the white house is saying that the testing andnt ators, all this equipment that governors nge saying they need, are bei given to them as soon as possible. But the message today cominge from the wh house was every amican need to do what they have to do in order for this non to be evore deadly. There was a figure shown that said 2. 2 milon people could die if nothing had been done in the United States. Soreally, today was a really sad day at the white house. Si and the prnts tone was markedly changed bec. Ause of th woodruff those numbers are. Breathtaki yamiche, and what are they saying about federal government efforts and what tgoe federal rnment can do at this point . Well, weve heard governors over and over againay that they need medical equipment from the federal government. And today, the president said that hes holding bak on soe, at least 10,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile, because he wants to see how bad the surge is going to get. Anahe said thts really emergency equipment that he wants to send out at a later date. Governors are saying they need that equipment as soon as possible. The other thing to note the present made a tty sobering statement when it came to whats ahead. He said the peak in about two weeks. So lets listen to what he said. I want every american to be prepared for the had days that lie ahead. Were going to go through a very toh two weeks, and then, hopefully, as the exerts are predicting, as i think a lot oferous predicting, after having studied it soe hard,re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. A as aion, we face a difficult few weeks as wehppro that that really important day when were going to see things get better, all of a sudden. And its going to be like a burst of light. I really think, and i hope. Thats a lot different from what thpresident said in the past. In the past he said that coronavirus was like the flu. But today, he sid its not the flu, its much more vicious. So the president , at the white house, was really trying to tell americans to brace themselveses. And that was also the message Health Officials and Top White House officials were giving today. Woodruff and, yamiche, finally,t was just a few ds ago that the Congress Passed and the president signed this emergencylcoronavirus ief aid bill, 2. 2 trillion in there. But, already theres talk of more legislation. Thats right. That legislation, that piece of legislation that you just mentned, the 2. 2 triion coronavirus bill, it was the largest single stimulus package ever signed into law. Bualready were hering that another package is under way. I want to putop fr people some of the thing people are talking about. Theyre talking about rnfrastructure, and that would maybe mean moe clean water. More direct aid to americans and paid leave to workers, trying to helpe get through this economic tragedy that were going through right now. R and, also, me funds to states and localities. I should say that president urump and House Speaker nancy pelosi have beentalking about what they want to see in the next bill. And there is thrs some overlap there. Theyre both talking aboutu infrastr. So we have been hearing for three years that this is a white house and the demtorats want o something on infrastructure this this country. They might now be getting it done bause of this pandemic. Woodruff yamiche alcindor, following this lateday briefing at the whitehousee, yamihank you very much. Thanks so much. Woodruff andviow, how the rus is affecting the u. S. Military, and in particular one Aircraft Carrier based in the pacific. For that, we turn to Foreign Affairs and defense correspondent Nick Schifrin. So, nick, this is about the u. S. Navy, the ship in theif pac. Theyve just held a Conference Call. Tell us what the eyaying. Yeah, judy, that Conference Call is ongoing. But the head of the u. S. Navy in the pacific ocean, admiral john aquino, was discussing the theodore roosevelt, and he said theyre taking extraordinary action to try to isolate soldiers on that ship, testing them while in quarantine but i have to say what he just captain of the ship has been asking for. U someber of hundreds, perhaps in the thousands, from the u. S. S. Theodore roosevelt are the admiral saidey would notbut exceed, by the req captain, which was really an extraordinary one, take 90 of the ship off nd keep 10 on the ship in order to clean the ship and maintain the Nuclear Reactor on that ship. And what the captain said was basically, we neded to do this because everyone on this ship was working too clsely together, and we couldnt keep the sailors safe. There have been dozens of cases of covid19 on that ship. And h wote a real plea to thepe ntagon in a letter yesterday, judy. Let mest read art of it no judy, admiral aqrom the u. S. Navy in the pacific said that was not going to happen. An intent to take all the sailor offs that ship. Ut woodruff still a lot of questions and abhis decision. But, quickly, nick, how concerned is the military fromor your reng about other ships world . Re out there around the ll, the military says its concerned about other shi. But i have to say, judy wthis decision they are clearly saying that they need to maintain readiness over maintaining the pure safety of all those salors on the ship. And thats yet message today is th b that ship would noe evacuated. The experts i talked to fear that a lot of these val ships are like cruise ships. Theyre basically incubators for disease like covid9, and the sailors simply are working too close together in order to keep them all safe. Ju woodruff it raises the question, how can one have readiness if the sailors themselves are n healthy . Right. That is the shrtterm and longterm question. You have deep the sailors safe, and you have t keep theailors maintain longterm readiness. At least thats what the experts are saying. Woodruff Nick Schifrin reporting for us. Thank you, nik. Woodruff even amid all the current fear and uncertainty, people are reading and were hearinof book clubs continuing remotely. Its the same for us, and we wanted to continue our now read this book club. As it happens, this months book addresses themes relevant to the moment. Jeffrey brown is back and has that for our arts and culture series, canvas. bror book club, pick for march is inheritance, a memoir by dani shapiro about her reckoning with an ancestry tes that revealed a life changing family secret the beloved man who had raised h was not her biological father. Exploration of genealogy, medical ethics and, above all, enduring love. The author joins me from her home in bethlehem, connecticut,a wer some of your questions now. Oh, its such a pleasure to be with you, jeff. Brown so you learned that youre not exactly who you are, to p it in a nutshell. What was this book for you . This book was a reckoning with my very identity when i made the discovery about my dad. It was as if i had to reshuffle and reremember and re understand pretty much every story that i had ever been told or every story that i had told abt myself. Brown so readers had a lot of questions along those lines, of course. And one is about your da how you came to think about him, how this changed. He had died years before all this, but your book is partly looking at that relationship. Wn i first made this discovery, i felt betrayed by my parents. But over the course of this journey, iame to actually feel that my father was more of a father to me than i had ever even felt before. And he was, as you said, very beloved to me. Brown one of the remarkable aspects of this is how you retre exactly what happened, how this happened and whattl exhappened and who knew what when. I mean, it thrust me into the world of, you know, i made this into the world parents in the early 1960s, the choices that they made, being an infertile couple, which was such a source of trauma and shame back then and the steps that theyook, which i had to retrace. Enmean, in a way, there was a ticking clock thre time i was working on inheritance because anyone who might still have known anything about the truth of the story was if they were still living, was very old. What i came to understand is my biological father had been a sperm donor as a young mm student. He had been an anonymous sperm donor. I didnt ask to be conceived or born this way or make this discovery, but i das so many people are. And the whole qestion of what is our moral responsibility to each other, which was and continues to be profound. I did meet him. And i would say that we have a really lovely friendship now. He doesnt feel like my father, the man who raised me as my dad. Brown you know, you have told me before that since this bookame out and when youre on book tour, y have so many people come up to you or write to you to tell you about their own experiences. Its an extraordinary time when secrets are tumbling out. And in the end, i havent met anyone whoi wshes they hadnt found out. T hadnt met one person who wished they hadown, because in some ways, when you do make a discovery like this, even if its shocking, it also makes an incredible amount of sense. Brown i also just cant help but think of this to set it in the moment that were in your writing of family, of g yourself better, of realizing your history. So many people, so many of us are thinking about those things. Now you . Oh, yeah. Now more than ever, and one of the things ive been thinking about is that when you make this kind of diovery that come kinds of families, the very first feeling often that people have is feeling threat which is, i think, something that many of us are feeling right now. And in fact, one of the extraordinary things thatsmy happed ihinking as a result of my journey, my family ndo raised me have been unfailingly kind compassionate in the wake of this discovery, the family that i discovered who are my genetic family, unfailingly kind. And i think that the antidote to that kinof threatened feeling is kindness and compassion. And so i find myself thinking, i but we are actually all in this together. Brown all right, the book i inheritan dani shapiro, thank you so much. Thank you for having. Brown and before we go, i want to give our pick for april. Its called disappearing earth, a novel by Julia Phillips about a community t upended sudden disappearance of two young girls set on russias kamchatka peninsula. Youll read along with us, get involved with many other engage readers and Members Around the country, and join us on our Facebook Page and hear on the news hour. T for now res, our Book Club Partnership with the new york times. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonooht. Im judyuff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs ne,hour, thank you, stay sa and see yosoon. N major funding for the pbs newshour has beeprovided by th inancial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democrantc engageand the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation forc puroadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media cess group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org jamie we need to eat more veg, and we need to start now. Sme on, you know it makse. Its better for you, and its better for the planet. Im going to cook ggies in a way that are going to make you so happy. Or just wanting to start eating less meat, ive got some easy and delicious recipes for you. I dont want to compromise on the flavor, no way. Ive traveled around the wld meetmag people doing some azing things with veg. Wow, look at that. And picked up brilliant tips to create the ultimate meatfree meals. No meat, but no compromise. Enough talking straight in the mouth watch this ng jamie comip, im going to pump up the veg in a big and bold black bean burger; make a poptastic double corn salad; and dish up a delicious curry s