Could have imagined. Narrator and, the tale of two washings. That governor is a snake. Okay. Inslee. We are not going to be distracted by any rhoric that the president or anyone else uses. Thats the only thing thats going to get us through this. Narrator now on frontline, coronavirus pandemic. Frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundati, committed to building more jt, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org. The Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines osocial change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. Additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to eellence in journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening publicr ess of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family tst. Supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. seagulls squawkinen blaring it was one of the most vibrant cities in america. Our economy was strong, a port that was one of the leading ports in the country. We had one of the most vibrantra rest scenes, Small Businesses flourishing. And we went from that to almost zero overnight. ship horn blares miles obrien ved in seattle in mid march, a city and state in the process of shutting down before that was the norm in the rest of the country. S ive coverence stories for nearly 30 years, but this felt more like science fiction. The deadly disease covid19 was about to bring the countryth anworld to its knees. Its like watchina slowmoving landslide move towards you. Obrien how did it eva our warning systems, our best science . A lot of people died because we werent ready. Obrien why was our government so slow to act, so unprepared . I havent cried ever as much i have in the last week. Obrien and what lies ea i came to seattle g for answers. My first stop. How e you . Providence Regional Medical center in nearby everett. Nd have you traveled outside the u. S. In the last0 days . I have. Okay, so were gonna ask you to put on a mask. Obrien okay. This is the hospital that treated the first known case of covid19 in the country. There we go, 97. 6. Obrien i met dr. George diaz, an expert in Infectious Diseases who treated patiente a 35yearold local man whod flown into seattle on january 15. He was having a cough, he had been having feen having fevers e hadnt been eating well, he generally felt poorly and he had been complaining of diarrhea at home. Obrien he is 35 years old and otherwise healthy. Totally healthy pson. He began developing symptoms the day after he arrived. Obrien he went to this walkin inic and described his symptoms and told them where he had been for about six weeks wuhan, china. A preliminary investigationou into a mystepneumonia outbreak in wuhan, china, has identified. Obrien that was a cruci detail. The mysterious new pneumos a viruckened dozens of people. Obrien for weeks, wuhan had been the center of a grong storm. Scientists in china trying. Obrien . As news trickled out about cases of a strange new pneumonia. Still a lot that is unknown, the w. H. O. Has said. Obrien in seattle, a city known for cuttingge medicine and technology as well as ties to asia, officials told me they had been on alert. It clearly had the ion of our Public Health folks, and they in turn were starting to line up the other departments, starting with human se, about how were going to respond when and if it arrived on our shores. Obrien at the cliere the man returning from wuhan was chances. Treatment, they took no at that point the clinic appropriately isolated him. De Health District contac the cdc, who advised testing. And fortunately that clinic had the appropriate gear to be abl to safely test the patient. Se he was then adto go home and quarantine. Obrien the clinic sent a nasal swabheyd taken from the man to the centers for Disease Control and prevention in atlanta. And then, witn 24 hours, we had a call from the cdc saying that the test was positive and at they wanted us to admit him for observation. Obrien e first covid19 patient had been confirmed in the United States. Around 10 00 p. M. On januaryon 20, patienwas brought to the providence Regional Medical center. This is a photograph of his arrival, encased in whats called an isopod, designed to keep a patient quarantined. Patient number one arrived here in this . He did. When we were going through the Transportation Plan with the ambulance company, they wanted to keep their staff safe. Completely contained, doesnt allow any possibility of infection. So our patient was pd in this by ems and brought to our hospital and unloaded in his room. So, it took us about two hours from the time the cdc called for us to get all our staff personnel, supplies, and the facilities all in place to beve able to he ems folks the greenlight to come in. Obrien you did at in two hours . R in two hours. We were ready fo. Obrien one of the reasons they were so ready less than three weeks earlier, diaz and his lleagues had conducted elaborate simulation pandemic training. W were aware of what was going on in wuhan at that point, but it was part of our routine structure already to prepare. Obrien you really had a goto plan. We had a game plan in place alady. We had everyone involved, including the local ems, those people that bring the patients from point a to point b, Public Health officials, and other partners we have in the community to drill. So we had a variety of scenarios we went through. Obrien by the time patient one was hospitalized, local Public Health officials wereto going inigh gear. The reason Washington State found that first casause we were ready for it. The Ambulance Service was ready, they knew the right personal protective equipment to wear, it was one of those absolute coordination between the health care, local health, state health, and the cdc. It went perfectlow thatse were able to find the first case in the country. Obrien it was a critical Early Warning sign that the highly contagious coronavirus could be spreading in the u. S. But in his first public comments, President Trump dismissed any threat trest of the country. Have you been briefed by the cdc . I have. A there worries about a pandemic at this point . No, not at all. And were. We have it totally unntrol. Its one person coming in from china, and we have it under control. Its going to be just fine. All right. Sa travels. Thank you. Obrien in seattle, doctors and scientists werent so sure they didnt have a way to test for coronavirus on their own. And while the cdc had been able to test the sample from patient one, it didnt yet have a test it could deploy on a massive scale around the country. The way to really know the burden of disease in your community is to beble to test. So the testing piece was a huge pie of the puzzle that we didnt really fully. We werent fully able to address. Obrien by early february, with the virus spreading around the globe, the World Health Organization was recommending test kits that had been developed in germany. But u. S. Officials made a own way. Decision to go their if you look at a moment when the United States may have lost its ability to control whats happing, it begins with the decision early on in 2020 by the cdc not to utilize the test kits and the capabilities that were being shared by the World Health Organation and other nations. obrie cdc wouldnt talk to me on camera, but told me they took the swiftest path and using another nationst ould have caused worse delays. Former cdc dector tom frieden said the decision made sense. Theres never been a time previously when there was a neet to uset from outside because the cdc system has not failed in the past. Obrien the cdc began shipping its own test kits tobl health labs around the country. But in seattle and elsewhere, it was quickly obvious that something was wrong. T one of tee chemical probes was faulty, generating inconclusive results. There were checks and balances within the test. And when we vadated can it t te the virus and can it not overdetect it, tlance was not correct. Research and implementation laboratories said, you know, this doesnt work. Youve given us a bogus kit, and were not going to use it. Fix it, fast. You know, or give us t right to use our ownits. Obrien at the university of shington i met virologist Alex Greninger, whod been trying to do just that. You got to have the supply of testing, absolutely do. We need to be able tct where the virus is and then try and snuff it out, i mean, right . Prevent its transmission, thats the name of the game in the coming months. Obrien but he ran into a bureaucratic brick wall the food and Drug Administration hae institutrgency procedures accurate. Ure any new tests were but you have to seto the tests, fda and get it reviewed and then authorized. And ill admit, im in my first couple of years here in th particular job, i had not been through this process before. Obrien the fda application was 28 pages long, andequiredun him to r tests that would takeee at least two. And that wasnt all. One of the things is th needed a document fedexed across the country before they coullook at the document. Obrien you couldnt electronically transmit it . I could electronically transmit it, but they t look at it until it was fedexed. And then they changed that regulation. M and so fcouple days after february 4 all the way to february 26, they didnt have a test, they were completely blind, too. Obrien this had to be incredibly frustrating. It was frustrating, it was. So we try to prioritize things in the top tier. Orien the fda told me it did review greningers application but it was incomplete. Theylso said they were balancing the need for tests with concerns about accuracy. Major developments, a Global Health emergency as the corovirus reaches its 20th country. Obrien in seattle a and around the world, the clock g. The coronavirus is now coidered a Global Health emergency and the us is warning people not to travel to china. Obrien the w. H. O. Had declared a global emergency, and the cdc was beginning to screen passengers at u. S. Airports, including seattle. We are coordinating with the chinese vernment and working closely together on the coronavirus oureak in china. Obrien President Trump was still not raising alarms, though he banned foreign travelers from china. My administration will take all necessary steps eguard our citizens from this threat. B obrien buthat time, flights from the outbreak zone. Ad been landing at u. S. Airports for wee the travel ban may have t bought us someime, but in all actuality, you know, people were leang wuhan, going to beijing, traveling to western europe and ultimely to the United States in late 2019 and early 2020 anyway. Chinese health ofs said today another 46 people have died from the coronavirus. Obrien in tse critical first weeks after the arrival of the virus in the u. S. , Administration Officials and the president himself continued to insist that the risk was small. I want to emphasize that this is a Serious Health situation in china, but i want to emphasize that the risk to the americanre public cly is low. How concerned are you . Well, we pretty much shut it down coming in from china. Weve offered china help, but we cant have thousands opeople coming in who may have thisor problem, theavirus. But we did shut it yes. Happens, obrien that attitude didnt sit well with washingtons senior democratic senator patty murray. She spoke to me from her home. Li i fel at the time i lived in two different worlds. I lived here in washington stat where people were going oh, my gosh, we have a problem, and in washington d. C. , where theyday, oh, you guys worry too much out in the west coast. Obrien a tale of two of washingtons. Yeah. We should have pulled out all the stops and checked everything, but it was more like, oh, you guys quit worrying out there. Obrien there was a lot to worry about. In isolation at provence hospital, patient one was deteriorating. He began developing more shortness of breath. And because of that we got an xray which looked like he had a developing pneumonia. His oxygen levels in his blood re also decreasing. Obrien that worried dr. Dire medical reports out ofthe wuhan. Ir it appeared, based t data, that once patients begin developing pneumonia that many of them end up in thon a ventilator and die. Obrien patient one was slipping fast, and there was no known treatment. Dr. Diaz told me hed heard about an antiviral drug called remdesivir that some experts erought could potentiallhelp. It would be an eent, he said, but the patient was willing. At that point, i contacted the fdand gilead, the manufacturer, to see if they would approve it. So the fda gave us an approvalt to try a compassionate use basis, knowing that it had not been approved yet and that there were no trials available to base thatecision on. We infused it the next day. He was still having very high fevers and still was requiring oxygen the day that we gave itto im. By the next day, his fevers resolved and they stayed gone. He felt much better. He felt like he had startedru beating the obrien no one knew if the drug had an pact, or ithe virus was taking its natural course. Heres the thing, you have one data point here. One person in the world. Obrien yeah, in the world. It was an anecdote, and so we were hpy that the patient got better and was ultimately continuing to get better, able to go home. So that part was fantastic for the patient. We knew then that we needed to caudy this in a formal cli trial. Obrien although patient one was well enough to be sent home, for Public Health officials in Washington State, ere were many more questions to answer. They needed to find out who patient one might have come in contt with after returning from china and send samples from them to the cdas well. So, we find contacts, seone that you spend at least ten minutes of time talking face to face with. Ie we ident60plus contacts. We swab them multiple times toe see was thtransmission of this virus. And we found absolut ansfer amongst those contacts that this first case had. In obrien waons governor, jay inslee, remembers this as a brief, optimistic moment. I interviewed him remotely from his office at the state capitol. What we were thinking is we were very much on top of it because we did very extensiveg contact tracth all of the contacts that the person had who was the first patient and did lyeverything epidemiologic that you could ask a Public Health system to do. Obrien but soon more signs of trouble began to appear across Lake Washington in the cityf kirkland at the life care Skilled Nursing and rehab center. Scott sedlacek had brought h 86yearold father there to recover from a bad fall. So, he hit his head hard enough that he had some brain trauma and bleeding on the brain and he broke his right ankle. And the bed that opened up was at life care. And so, on februy 20, we moved my dad to life care. E and thenarted seeing some of the staff wearing respiratory gear, wearing face masks, wearing gloves. Its kind of like, whats going on . Obrien inside life care, residents had been getting sick with an unknown respiratory infectn. The sickest were brought to e nearby evergreenhealth medical center. Dr. Francis riedo is the medical director of Infection Control here. Remember, this was flu season. And wed already had a peak of influenza b in december, and now we were going through the peak of influenza a. And so the unit was full of respiratory infections. In the meantime, in the background, were wahing these events unfold with increasing alarm, not only in wuhan, and now spreading across the globe and wondering when o turn was coming. Obrien until that point, federal guidelines for testingl potentiases were very narrow patients had to have be in a hotspot li china or in contact with someone infected. Then, the rules changed. Dr. Riedo wasted no time. We settled on two individuals and we tested them the following morning. I had a regular day, saw patients in clinic, saw patients in the hospital, was sitting there as i usually do trying to complete my notes and ceived a call at 7 40 p. M. And both othe tests were positive. Obrien what goes through your mind . My initial honest response was skepticism. I thought the odds of both individuals being positive with no history of travelno history of exposure to anybody was fairly astronomical. Th was a huge shift. Incident command was activated and we made a quk decision to thtest nine additional peoat nit. Eight of those nine were positive. Obrien wow. Right. Obrien kind of stunning actually, isnt it . It was, and within the firstd fis, we had 32 positives. Obrien many were from life care, but crucially, some had connection to the nursing home. We then knew that this was a much bigger outbreak than you could have imagined. Obrien at least 41 life care residents and two visitors would eventually die with more linked to the home testing positive, including scott sedlaceks father, chu he has never shown symptoms. Obrien so, how worried are you that symptoms might appear . Extraordinarily. Because we dont kw, this is new, its uncharted waters. Obrien the sedlaceks story hit home for me my 84yearolda father is isd living in florid hellthere. Can you tilt down a little bit . Im sorry what . obrilt down, til down, a little more down. There you go, thats good. How you feeling . Well, im fine, how are you . Obrien no coronavirus so far, but hes pretty much in isolation, no visitors allowed its the same at life care, but the sedlacekhave found a way around that. My sister is here and well go up d will say hi through the wiow. We brought a big white board today so we can actually write notes use theyre double pane windows seal the noise t. laughs can you hear us . laughs okay, well let you finish that love you. Listening to the n staff. Eep theyre looking out for you. He has tget the love from the family to get better. Without it, he wilbecome not just physically but mentally ill. O rien yeah. Its the worst thing you can do to an older person. Obrien yeah, right. H, yhe worst thing you can do. Obrien scott himself also got the virus. Unlike his dad, he got sick. I was hospitalized rough the emergency room with the fullblown list of symptoms extraordinary difficulty breathing, lhtheaded, dizziness you name the symptom, i had it. Obrien what was it like being in isolation, sick with th disease . Were you scared . Hell yes, i was scared, its an unknown. I was hooked up to an iv and they started an albuterol nebulizer, which they had to give two full rounds of it. But after those two full rounds, i was breathing normally and after six hours, they had all ms sympnder control. Within 12 hours, they moved me to a full isolion unit, and ten hours later, they released me with zero symptoms. The number of coronavirus ses at home and abroad continue to climb, the Financial Markets rocked, and more aggressive steps to fighthe spread. Obrien by this time in ndrly march, covid19 cases were multiplying hereround the country. Breaking News Washington in a state of emergency. Obrien governor inslee had put washington under a state of emergency. Washington state has declared a state of emergency. Obrien . The first governor to do so. The governor decl state of emergency. Obrien but like many here, he was increasingly concerned that President Trump w continuing to downplay the threat. Its going to all work out. B everybody has calm. Its all going to work out. Obrien inslee, a democrat and former predential candidate, tweeted that the administration should stick to science d tell the truth. It would ignite an escatin r of words. Obrien during a visit to the cdc, trump fired back. That vernor is a snake. Okay. Inslee. Let me just tell you, we have a lot of problems with the governor and. The governor of washington, thats where you have many of your problems. Are, hes no good. How nice you thats the way i feel. Orien at that point, did governor and the state oou as washington was sort of on their own and the federal cavalry was not coming . N yes, but we dever depend on that leadership coming out of the white house, so its not something that we were surprised by we always knew that we would have to lead the charge, given e president s reluctance to really exercise leadership on. Th and we sort of knew that he had an intent of downplaying what was an emerging problem. That, you know, could only be explained by someone who had rather than an eyeew jones epidemiological curve. Obrien seattles yor, jenny durkan, shared those sentiments. T we are ing to be distracted by any rhetoric that the president or anyone else uses. Weve got to act. Weve got to act to protecthe people and i think those actions are what matters. Facts and science. Got to rely on them. Thats the only thing thats going get us through this, and, fortunately, weve got a really vibrant health and Science Community here in the state of washington and seattle and we listen to them. Obrien she and other political leaders here had someo hard dec to make after heing grim predictions. We had researchers hereg tell that within six weeks, we would have over 70,000 positive ces and hundreds of deaths if we didnt act. And so we had a choice to make. The choice was knothat youre going to have enormous pain in shutting down parts of yr economy, or have those same impacts later and overrun your health system. As we moveorward, it will be increasingly necessary and important that we are d in e r efforts. Obrien seats starting on a trajectory that the rest of the country would soon follow. There is no magic Silver Bullet at the moment medically, but there is a very successful effort that we can take to slow the spread of this d and thats to reduce the social interactions that are not necessary in our lives. Obrien you, the countye, executnd the governor, were early out of the box on taking these actions, pretty proactive. Did you feel at the time a n littvous about all that . I think it was. All of usl felt a great d. Sense of obligation and concern because we were the first to go. Obrien mayor durkan actually had a Pandemic Response plan on the shelf, which she and her cabinet had updated in early february. We pulled out the pandemic planning and knew that one of the first things we had to do to separate people from another was have them telecommute, those that could. So our lgest employers acted immediately. Obrien that included seattle iconicrosoft, with a workforce of more than 50,000 one of the largest private sector employers in the region. Afternoon, march 1. L on sunday we had the business leaders. Obrien crosoft president brad smith spoke to me from his home. We went from monday telling people they should work om home if they were more comfortable, tuesday telling, people, you knel free to work from home, it might beer beto wednesday work from home unless its essential you come to work. Obrien the decision you made was a big one. No, it was interesting. Once we decided at microsoft that we would be decisive and base our decisions on Public Health advice, then we knew what to d its the hardest decision ive ever had to make because all of our instincts are to grow the whole economy for your city, to make a Stronger Community for everyone. D at were saying is weve got to stop that kind of community and we have to stop doing work. Obrien almost overnight, the vibrant city shut down businesses closed, storefrontsbo arded up, empty restaurants, e famous Pike Place Market nearly deserted. Ll a local soccer field us filled with kids and families, preparatio for a surge of covid patients. We knew already te of the Biggest Challenges would be having the Hospital System overwhelmed by a wave of cases. We were trying to figure out hog we cou testing, we were trying to figure out whether we would receive materialin the form of field hospitals orfa people who were unhoused. R and there wasnt a lot of concrete offers of help coming from the federal government. W sowere left with the reality that were going to have to take on a lot of this ourselves. Or than 140 people lost the death toll to over 590 inng this country. Hes not doing everything he can do. Obrien as coronavirus was ghsweeping the country thrt march. And i cant tell you how frustrating it is. Obrien . So was frustration among governors scrambling for resources they needed to respond. Were bidding against one another, its really not a great system. All of the states are taking action to try to find these things on our own. Obrien the president was now feuding with multiple governors. 400 ventilators . I need 30,000 ventilators. Obrien and like hed done with the virus in the beginning. I ont believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. Obrien . He disputed there was scarcity of crucial medical equient, like masks and ventilators. Many of the states are stocked up. Some of them dont ait it, but they have, we have sent so many things to them, including ventilators. Obrien amid the feuding, doctors and nurses have struggled to get the personal protective equipment, they need. Good morning, and welco everyone. Obrien in seattle, thats been the top issue for dr. Amy comptonphillips, the chief clinical officer of the providence hostal network. Last year, across all of providence, we used 0,000 masks. In the first three months of this at everett, theyve used 25000 masks. We cannot have our own caregivers going down from covid while theyre trying to take care of the community, because, you know, the supply chain is st not keeping up with o needs. Amy, i have to say if i cant assure them that they are safe then i dont think t rest of this is worth anything. Obrien inside providences around ppe have beigh. Tensions dr. Ryan keay is the departments medical director. Think about the sequence thatt you puings on and take things off and where youre sanitizing during that sequence. Every nurse, every tech, every physician ive talked to has said, ive been working f years and ive never been so exhausted. And it leaves people just on edge all the time. We have enough n95 masks that people should not have to be able. Should not have to bring in their own masks at this is the recommens still one n95 per five patients . Or a we using it the whole shift now . Shield for as long as you needm. To use t you just store them in a paper bag until they become moist or soiled. Okay, so forever . Well, not forever. chuckles orien reusing masks and storing them in paper bags wasnt the only diy workaround i saw. I caught up with dr. Comptonphillips at the otherwise vacant proe headquarters. Inside a large meeting room, she weand a handful of her tea e read out a safe distance, cranking o facshields. Our caregivers would normally have protective goggles on and a surgical mask underneath this and then this goes in front and basically protects against droplets. Obrien they had raided a half dozen craft stores to scrounge up supplies. Weret 288 now, were goingto et to 1,000 by tomorrow. Were retooling our resources going into war againovid. I feel like rosie the riveter. 499, 500 cheering o obrien on hand, this is really. Its kind of heartwarming. But its also really sad. Desperation. Obrien yeah, i cant decid which go in this. What are your thoughts . I would rather offer our caregivers something than nothing and at the moment, you know, if the choice is not having ppe or having homemade ppe, were ing to offer them homemade ppe. Obrien right, right. So. Obrien thats what motivated jeff kaas his small family biness builds and sews furnure for aviation and tail customers. He decided to pitch in and sta making masks. Theres not a shortage of the Raw Materials at least, that would be. Or not yet . There will there will be, yeah. So, i think weve engh to make two million masks. W obrien but how longl that take you to do . Well, it depends onow fast we want to go. Obrien how fast do you want to go . We want to solve the problem. My assumption is that we will ba ing up for several wks and then drop off a cliff. Body will need me in the healthcare business anymore and then survival becomes a question for my company. Thats probably the next scary thing, which is less scary than what our healthcare friends are going through right now. Thats the bigger issue for me. We knew in january what we would need we knew. We would need glov and masksre anirors, and ventilators. Twoandahalf months later, were dependent on sewingup circles to sply our frontline heroes with what they need. It may be a nice american story; i find it pathetic. Obrien Washington State officials, like others in the country, say thiwas an avoidable crisis. W becauve lacked the federal leadership we needed, its been mayor versus mayor, city versus city, state versus state, trying to get accessit to the l resources to protect our communities, whether its ventilators or maskfor our Health Care Workers, all of that has become this hunger games process where everyones tryg to figure out a way to outbid each other. S washingtte had a line on masks that were coming to the country and at the port in california. Suddenly, multiple states were bidding on them. It happens. Ay that were searching the world for every potential warehouse thatth have any o personal protective equipment. That has been a constant , ruggle and we are bidding against each othd im sure that the suppliers are having a field day bidding the price up while states are bidding against one another. E it woumuch more efficient economical and otherwise if the rnment was that regard. Vigorous role in obrien the tensions between states and the federal government have been escalating. Another five million ericans file for Unemployment Benefits last week. No obrienjust over the response to the outbreak. The market down ten percent in relatively short order. Theres a lot of bad news stillm to obrien but now over what it will ke to get the country up and running again. M this isassive meltdown on a national scale. More jobs lost in a matter of two weeks than in the entire 18 months of e great recession. Our team of experts now agrees that we can begin the next front in our war, which we are calling opening up america again. Obrien the president has been pushing governors to reopen, even as soon as may 1. Or country has to get open. And it will get open. And itll get open safel and hopefully quickly. Obrien but some of them ha been pushing back. We cannot be guided by emotion. We need to be guided by where the facts on the ground, science and Public Health take us. Whats best for the people of illinois, their safety and health, and listening to the scientists and the doctors. Se becf you do it wrong, it can backfire. Obrien and many like slee say it will come down to one thing mass testing. This is the number one challenge for the United States right now, is we need a huge ramp up of our testing capacity, even greater than was needed rly in the outbreak. Obrien to increase testing, inslee says trump needs to order u. S. Industry to helpin usthe defense production act which the president has only just begun to do. We need the president to help ignite a National Mobilization of the Manufacturing Base of the United States, that is absolutely imperative so that we can restart our economy. En obbut President Trump has also thrown this back on the states. Theovernors are responsible, they have to take charge. They have to do a great job. Obrien there are limits to what a state can do though, as i saw at washingtond healartment laboratory. They can only complete about 300 tests day, and thatir es a mad scramble. The Raw Materials for test kits e hard to come by. We have a lot of testing lab capability but we dont have the equipment to swab everybodys nose. I think the current status in Washington State is limited by the supplies to actually run the test. Obrien they also dont have enough ppe for the Health Care Workers administering the tests. If we don have enough gowns, gloves, masks, to treat patients, how are we going to prioritize a gown, a glo, and a mask to swab somebody . Because that is the requirement. Department it alone in struggling to meet the demand. E cant have that level of crosscontamination. Obrien after getting approval for his test from the fda, Alex Greninger has dramatically ramped testing at the university of Washington School of medicine virology lab. For inpatients, Health Care Workers, institutionalized populations, but mos inpatients, people who need supportive care, weve got to get that fast turnaround time that reduces the use of protective. brien because theyre in the hospital. Yes. Obrien on this day, they completed abou3,000 tests. To get 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 specimens a day, you know, it takes a lot of focus. Obrien just like in the state lab, grenger says it is difficult to get the Raw Materials he needs. T one ofhe hardest things to find the single use plastic tips that contain the chemicals and the specimens. An some automated pipettors use four tips a testothers use three and, so, just getting the tips into your facility so we can run that many tests. This is what we looking for, basically. Se tweeted at roche and the world to get the things in, like you would tweet like delta lost your bags or Something Like that, right . E i mean, we havtwo people whose entire job rig now is to manage our fedex shipments. Basically, we blow up our hallway and it goes down to a single file. And then it takes over the next six to eight hours, were able to actually ve those boxes into our local warehouses we bought other space here in the building. Its the supply chain has been really the number one thing we do. Problems, they are still managing to return results the same day in many cases. This is ucial to keep up with a fastmoving virus and help w healthcakers on the frontlines reduce their need for personal protective equipment. When you send a test for covid19, you have to treat the person as if theare infected until we give you a result that says they arent. And during that time, you have to use all the personal protective equipment. So, the speed at which we t those test results back allows us to conserve our personal protective eipment. It really touches so many things. Obrien so what do you envion the coming months . I think personally right now, this will be with us for some time, a long time. Theres no magic bullet just yet. Obrien thisesting marathon could go on for at least a year thats how long experts say it could take to develop vaccines. Racing to finish Clinical Trials of several therapeutic drugs including that promising vi anl remdesivir the one that seemed to workl so w patient one. On trial . Yes, hes on trial. He started on the 15th. Obrien dr. Diaz is no leading e of the trials with patients at providence hospital. These are still anecdotes because we havent seen e full studbeing completed, but were certainly very optimistic. We want to get these questions answed as fast as possible. Obrien and there may be another way to help people fight f the coronavirus using the blood of covid survivors themselves. Hey elizabeth, looks like youre on the mend. Yeah, ive been recovered now for. Obrien people like elizabeth schneider. She was getting ready to become the firsperson in seattle to donate her plasma to rearchers trying to see what natural sistance she might have developed and whether she can share it. Scientists dont know howha long we haveimmunity for this particular virus. It signs so far look like, you know, we will haunity. Obrien survivors blood as tha. Apy its not a new ide doctors used it in 1918 in the midst of thepanish flu pandemic. I do feel a little more sense of security going out and doing t daytoday task because i have already hads. Obrien she was amonthe first documented covid19 cases in the u. S. A microbiologist who worksor a s biotech compan came down with flu symptoms on februaryda 25, thre after attending a party. On facebook she learned many of her friends who were there were also sick, 15 in all. She told me she and seven others ultimatsted positive for covid19, which brought her to this moment on this morning to the blood bank in downtown seattle. Hi, i am here for psma donation. Obrien the coronavirus antibodies in her plasma may be a way for others to fend off the virus. Its called convalescent plasma therapy. Our goal is to get to 840 ml today. m hoping that some of my plasma ends up in another patient who is suffering from a covid this could potentially save their life. Obrien there are now signs that covid cases may be plateauing in some places, like here. We have had some success attening the curve, that has taken place. Obrien . But also spreadg to new areas of the country. Washington state recently returned more than 400 ventilators it received from the National Stockpile so they could be used where theyre needed more. In governoee today announced that 400 ventilators would be leaving the state of washingt. Obrienbut in recent days. Trumps back and forth. Pr obrienesident trumps feud with governors has become an allout war. H in a series of tweets exclaimed liberate minnesota, michigan, and virginia. Obrien encouraging protests against social distancing restrictioth. Seeine protests at state capitols. Obrien . Even in Washington State. Protesters gather today in olympia demanding that the governor act now. Sundays otests in olympia ations. Latest in a wave of these are people expressing their views, i see where they are, and i see the way theyrerk g, they seem to be very responsible people to me. The govnor of Washington State says the president may be inciting violce. Obrien in his own tweets, governor inslee said trump was unhinged, off the rails, ang fomenti domestic rebelln. When i talked to governor to be rushing to r. All leaders have the biggest challenge to make sure people understand that as the sun comes up and the daffodils come out, weve got to double our efforts. Because if you relax too soon the curve just can rebound and start right back up again. The most dangerous element in my state today is the virus of complacency because we have to be just as diligent for the next several weeks as we were theal last seveeks. Orien i wanted to know what pandemic modeler chris murray thought of all of this. He runs the institute for Health Metrics and evaluation at the university of washington. If you ask chris murr obrien its models are often cited by President Trumps coronavirus ta force. So, really, when you think about it, chris, theres no scenario Going Forward that you c envision that doesnt demand mass testing, if not tting for everyone . The issue will , you know, the capacity to test. Right,ow many tests areas practically le come june,by stattate . And it may not be anywhere near enough to be able to do fullscale mass testing. So then if you take measures off may 1, and theres a pretty quick rebound, so by midjy, wed be right backe we are now. Re obrienly . Actly the rate odeath and hospitalization that were dealing with . Pretty much, yeah. So, were not going to want to take off measures may 1, lets put it that wa and the second wave wont be like the first wave. Obrien that t president isneding scientific warnings, once again, is causing alarm ong those whove been dealing with the outbreak since the beginning. I am pessimistic about the next few months. I think its goingo be really hard and we need to ramp up. Ramp up, hurry, we need a to go well beyond where he isng right now in saying, heres what we need to do in tes of testing and giving people the information they need to get the economy going. Long term, im optimistic, but its a long ways betwe here and there. Obrien i went back one last time to where the outbreak took hold here, evergreen hospital, where those patients from the nursing ho were treated in february. It is an apt window into where seattle and the country are right now. I met a woman who was recovering from covid19, rosanne eskenazi. I want to give you a kiss and stuff but i cant. Nope. Obrien at 63, with an immune system disease, hers chance living to see her husband maury again were not good. When they put her on the ventilator, i never thought id see her again. And i wasnt reading about people that were surviving this and coming out of this, so i was. You know, it was over. I dont even know how many weeks it was, but i dont when we broughtwhen the day came that. She looked horrible. Her temperature was hoible. It was like 105 . Obrien oh, my god, really . It was 105 d she was like coughing and we had the ambulance co. They sent two ambulances. This was the beginning of the covid, you know . Obrien you didnt reallypr fully iate how bad it was, did you, because you were kind of out of it . Yeah, i was out of it. Ts i saw my parmy dead parents, when i was here. I dont know whether. I was saying i dont know whether it was a dream or a hallucination. My parents were here and they were sitting across from me and they all said, you know, youre going to be okay. Everythings gng to be okay. Youre going to be okay and if something happens, your children will be fine. Everythings going to be great. Ndyou have all this family stuff, so dont worry. So. And it really helped me not worry. Oh, there, it says that way. Yeah, sorry. Obrien rosanne was on her way home. Bye brien but there were others still coming in, needingt urgent ation. people chattering i met crical care and pulmonary physician miael bundesmann, who was focused on one particular patient. His is a person who has multiorgan failure and ultimately required mechanical ventilation and now needs dialysis, kidney replacement therapy, theyre in shock. Obrien three days earlier, hed been awake, alert, joking with his ctors. Patients come in and they lo okay on one day, and so of them are kind of okay to be discharged from the emergency room, and me back a few days later much more sick. Ttat degree of unpredictability i think is very ng for everybody. Obrien dr. Bundesmann sayss the pace haslackened some since the darkest days. We could feel the curve flatten a few days ago, probably ev last week. It has allowed us to be able to see patients and to take care of them at a pace thats a little more used to what our icu can handle, volumewise. And its certainly made a big fference. We are now i think at a stage where i think we can keep thisav pace that we he going andoo thats ad thing because how ny people are still susceptible to this infection. Its going to be a long haul, i think. Some of the things that worry uo are, youw, what happens when theres a next large outbreak in a Skilled Nursing facility, thet ime a susceptible population gets hit within a tight community. I dont know when thats going to happen, i think that until there is some degree of herd immunity, there are goin to bpeople out there who hav to be planning this out very carefully and cautiously, when people can start returning toca work, whstart returning to work, and what time frame. Ha because ashappens, the cases are going to start to pick up again, and we have to there and be ae to support them as best as possible without stretching the capacity of our health care system. Tough decisions for those people who have to make them. Obrien there have now been more than three quarters of a million confirmed covid cases in the u. S. , more than 40,000 deaths. What began as Public Health crisis here with patient one has encome aational crisis over response, over s andpo tics and decisions with devastating consequences siren wailing its still a tale of two washingtons, the storyhat i found when i arrived. But its also a tale of washington and the states, and how the country will emerge from the crisis. Ive never actually made a story about my country. Or i found the doas who took that photograph that went viral. Ng spea italian s said, were seeing hallways with patients, and doctors that arerw completely olmed. Italy has reported th highest oneday death toll from coronavirus. Its my story, its your story. Y, it feels reaeally close to home. Go to pbs. Org frontline for our latest reporting on the pandemic includi our podcast, the frontline dispatch. Le so what does the governor think now . Well he concerned. He says this is the most perilous moment because people are inside and they want to get outside. And dont miss the coverage by our colleagues at the pbs news hour. Connect to the Frontline Community on facebook and twitter, and watch any time on the pbs video app or pbs. Org frontline. Frontline is made possible b contributi your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major supporis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committedn to buia more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information fo at md. Org. The Ford Foundation frontlines of social change the worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. Additional support is provid by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. The park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The john and Helen Glessner family trust. Supportingrustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontli. Frontlines, coronavirus pandemic is avaible on amazon prime video. Youre watchi pbs. The truth is rarely black and white. Intelligence officials are expected to be face to face. All we hear about. But if ask the hard questions. Russia witch hunt. Check the facts. Ro we face a number of important issuesd privacy. Dig a little deeper. Boom and take a breath. Truth is closer than you think. America is in the midst of an opioid drug epidemic. Somebody telephoned 911. We got commotion and using drugs. All rig, 104. Driven by escalating opioid addiction, drug overdoses are now the leading causof death people are literally amdying in the street. Theyre dying in their parents homes. According to the centers for Disease Control, lethe Opioid Epidemic is fby prescription pain medications. Om great job way tonicate with eye contact. Michael israel dreamed of becoming an architect. In high school, he participated in a video pject exploring the architecture of his hometown of buffalo. These buildings have been here fosuch a long time. Michael didnt realize his dream. Despondent over an addiction to prescription opioids,