Transcripts For CNNW Coronavirus Facts And Fears A CNN Global Town Hall 20200419

Safely. Former Vice President joe biden and we will talk with Mark Zucker Berg along with his wife and how the zuckerbergs and chance are working to help fight coronavirus. A lot of you have sent in video questions and we will try to get to as many of those as we can. We have reports from around the country and world on the fight of the virus and the effort to get back to business. We are going to start where the country is now as new cases are plateauing, even going down in some key hot spots. But the death toll keeps climbing. It is doubling since our last meeting. We are getting new details on what life will look like when things begin to reopen. The president continues to suggest may 1, just a few weeks from now. The cdc director warns we should expect a second wave of Coronavirus Infections in the fall. There are now more than 650,000 cases of coronavirus in the United States, more than 32,000 people have died in less than two months since the first death. There are signs the cases are leveling off in the u. S. And more focus on when we start to reopen. No doubt what we have seen over the last several days is a flattening out. Hopefully that trend will continue. Governors are figuring out coalitions to figure out the next steps in opening up. Californias governor warns of a new normal. You may be having dinner with the waiter with gloves or a facemask. And it is said that social distancing measures may need to be in place as 2022. Vaccines may be ready as early as this fall. For Health Care Workers and those in Constant Contact and at risk of being exposed over and over. If successful it could be available to the wider public by spring of next year. But new york and detroit, some of the bodies of the dead are overflowing morgues and hospitals. Images like this are reminders of the human cost of this p pandemic. So we turn to where we stand on the unveiling of restrictions with state governors taking the lead and whether or not these are realistic. We see the numbers. The numbers of deaths continues to go up, but there are plateaus where the rate of infection is going down. And promise of vaccine possibly available to the general public as early as next spring. But then there is a lot we dont know. People who are presymptomatic can spread the virus more than when they get sick, before they develop symptoms. Also we are hearing what the country might look like as we start to reopen. We are starting to learn about that. Also, every epidemiologist and sicientist has discussed testing, testing, testing to get back to work. Didnt hear a lot about that from the white house today. They talk about the fact this is a core state responsibility for the states to have efficient and safe testing. Practically speaking, the question that people should be asking themselves who are watching is right now if i needed to get tested, do i know who to call, how to get might results. Everybody in the country needs to answer that question. If you go into a place of business, a restaurant, whatever it might be. There may be these additional protocols to make sure that people are trying to reduce the spread of the virus as much as possible. That has to be part of the thing coming out of the back side of this curve. We will have a lot more throughout the next two hours. Lets go to erica hill who has more on the guidelines of the white house. There are three facephases, there has to be a sustained decrease in cases for 14 days, available testing, also an available supply of ppe. Hospital needs to be at a precrisis level. Once that is met there are guidelines for individuals and employers. In the first phase individuals are told they should continue to maximize physical distancing. Limit gatherings to ten or lez. In phase two. Vulnerable individuals need to continue to shelter in place. And the number of people gathering should be limited to 50 people and nonessential travel can resume. And phase three. Low risk populations should consider minimizing the time they spend in crowded environments. When you look at all of these various environments, when could a place like new york city or new york go into phase one when some stuff starts to reopen . Its hard to imagine. The president says some states could be in phase one tomorrow. New york is not one of those. The governor continued the pause until may 15th. Without testing, without a vaccine, its impossible to know who can be out and about. Also they need to assess which businesses could open safely. There is a lot of work still to be done here. Erica hill. China is coming under broader suspicion for its lack of transparency. David is in china. It is being investigated whether the virus came out of a lab. What do we know at this point . That investigation is something that u. S. Intelligence officials told cnn is something they are looking into as a theory as to how this started. From the start of the chinese making this public has directed attention to the wet market, and that was seen as the epicenter of all of this. With this new investigation under way, it looks like they are looking at the potential it started in the lab and spread outside. Cnn is reporting that they dont believe this was done in a bio weapons fashion, but it leads to how much transparency they are getting from the Chinese Government in particular. You mentioned the ap report because that brings up more reports, in particular how things were handled early on and what could have been done that would have maybe stopped the spread of this particularly over six states. January 14th to january 20th. There was a teleconference in which Health Officials made known the potential severity of this outbreak. What we saw publicly from the 14th to the 20th was that things were down played significantly here. Even on the 19th had one of the leading Health Officials saying everything was preventible, controllable and not contagious. It was only the next day things took a dramatic turn and they admitted there is likely human to human transmission. If we are looking at china as the bellwether of the rest of the world, it is how china stepped forward and the progress. And we have to trust what is coming out of china if it is going to be the bellwether. What does this mean . At one point they are helping each other fight the pandemic. Where do things stand from your point of view . Sanjay, i have been reflecting on this a lot. I think this is a dire situation that will go past this outbreak. I think we are seeing the decoup li decoupling of the two largest world economies. Not just at the political level, but on chinese social media and echoed in American Social media to be fair. We have noticed a distrust of foreigners and something that is not backing down, only seeming to intensify with each passing day. If thats what is really playing out and where we are headed, any sort of cooperation in how to handle this is going to fall through. The u. S. Has backed down on funding w. H. O. And put skepticism on lets see how these could economies and countries can work together. It is a political situation getting worse with each passing day. David, thank you very much from shanghai. Some countries cautiously easing restrictions, but United Kingdom extending them. I want to start with easing restrictions in some places. Where and what are they doing . We have been reporting that places like austria and denmark have been slowly reopening, but now germany from april 20th is going to start to slowly reopen some nonessential businesses, only businesses about 800 square meters in size and not going to be opening restaurants and gyms and cinemas and sports. In early may they start school again. They are starting at the older age, the high school age. They believe their intensive early action, testing, tracing, isolating, has allowed them to keep this pandemic in their nation under control. Yes, they have had inl fe infections, but their mortality rate has been less by a huge factor. They had icu beds and ventilators. They say it is a new normal and we will reassess in two weeks. They will start some nonessential businesses and then schools. I think everyone should be watching germany. A lot of comparisons between italy and the United States. And other countries in the spectrum. What is next for them . Italy has been seeing a dropoff of the number of infections and more of a stabilization. Ily, there was a g7 call. There was a call with germany and france and england and all of the major allies. They said there needs to be a global sustained effort to fix this. To that point they reasserted their support to the w. H. O. The german said he doesnt think it is the right time to be defunding the w. H. O. Who is the only organization dealing with it, not only in the developed world but soon to be in the developing world. This is a setback and about peoples lives so politics shouldnt be involved. All of the other allies gave their support for the w. H. O. As well. Thank you. Coming up next is dr. Deborah birx. We will be right back. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good. High protein. Low sugar. Mmm, birthday cake. Pure protein. The best combination to help you stay fit. We laid out the news at the top of the hours. The president unlifting guidelines for restrictions being lifted state by state. Its up to the states to decide when to lift those. Lets go to dr. Deborah birx. Dr. Birx, thank you for joining us. First time in the town hall. Thank you. Are individual states ready with enough equipment, tests, supplies, people to actually do real serious Contact Tracing to begin doing this . I think there are two critical pieces there. One is mapping every single platform that can run these tests. Thats what we have done the last week doing. To work with governors and mayors to understand the depth and breath of equipment that can run these tests in their cities and states and marrying that up with cdc. Cdc already has 500 plus people on the ground in many states. They will ensure there are people in every state to support the local governments and state officials to analyze each one of these gating criteria and determine where they are and what needs to be done. We are going to talk a little more about testing, dr. Birx. Thank you, by the way, for your service. The Contact Tracing. We have heard you could need hundreds of thousands of people to do Contact Tracing and now we have heard people could spread this before they even know they had it. Do we have the infrastructure to trace the way we need to . I think thats why the criteria the federal government has recommended are fairly strict. Thats to give states really the time to set up exactly how they are going to Contact Trace with the cdc and the background supporting. Those two pieces need to move forward over the next few weeks as the states move through. We know mortality is a lagging indicate or and indicator and we know that will continue as it did last week. If a state is wanting to hire 1,000 or 2,000 people to do Contact Tracing and quickly train them. Is there money that the federal government will give to the state to do that . I think you know in the c. A. R. E. Act and phase one there was money beggiven to cdc for t reason. That will be critical both for right now and for potential reoccurrence in the fall. Then we will flu and covid. Then we really have to have testing and working closely with the states but we have to be sure we can Contact Trace rapidly. Dr. Birx, obviously people, including yourself and dr. Fauci said testing in the beginning was inadequate. As we go forward, they say states have to have safe and efficient testing. They dont have the capacity to do this. They need help from the government. Whose responsibilities is this, the state or federal government . We have a federal Task Force Working on testing and strategy with the state and local governments. This isnt possible unless we work as a seamless team. We are working with them to identify all of the laboratories they need and they are working seamlessly to work on getting those things. If you look at the fda, in the last few weeks we have moved from the swab to single po polyester swab and now they are looking to see if cotton qtip swabs with be used. These kind of clanhanges have c to be possible because the fda has been hearing from the states what their problems are and looking at commercial labs to see what else can be utilized. I know its but a lot of the states are saying we dont have the resources to hire 1,000 or 2,000 people to do Contact Tracing or 100,000 tests for people who want to go back to work. I think your key statement in that was rapid testing. Figuring out what combination of point of care tests. We do have some of those now. To strindustry level testing wh you want to the test hundreds of people at once. What i discovered with hiv aids is you have to work through that and making sure those are in alignment. Thats what states are working through right now, to determine where the equipment is and where the point of tests are. I know it seems daunting, but i have done this all over the world in limited resource settings and we have been able to align need with capacity so you can align what communities need. Dr. Birx, i have heard from officials people may need to get tested every week before they can walk into the building. Could you need to be tested on a regular basis and do states or businesses or whoever would be doing this have the capacity to do this kind of testing . Lets say we have 140 million workers in the United States. There is no disease where we test 140 million workers on a weekly basis. I think thats why we have to be strategic and smart enough we combine surveillance opportunities in the community. The virus doesnt come from nowhere. It has to be in the community. So thats why you have to have a combination of sentinel surveillance, Early Warning systems like the influenza type illness. Any one piece will not be able to accomplish what we need. Thats why the focus is on bringing the talents of the state with the surveillance and activity we can really understand. States have used these for decades, understanding illness and early alert systems. Using that with sent nals ainel Contact Tracing have to come together so the worker knows there is not coronavirus in the community. And if it is, all of that Contact Tracing and activity wraps around to surge both personnel and Testing Capacity into that particular community. We have questions from our viewers. This is from mo. He sent in a video. Both south korea and china are reporting multiple patients who recover from coronavirus, testing negative and recontrasting the virus. If that is the case, how does that impact vaccine and antibody test. We dont know if its full length rna. We find that people will shed, as cells are broken down, partial elements of rna. The tests we are using are highly sensitive and can find small amounts of rna. The jury is out on whether there is late shedding and whether a person has antibodies of the full virus. People are working on that and cu culturing the virus and seeing if that exists. The worstcase scenario would be they got reinfected. It wasnt a breakdown of the virus, but they got reinfected. Could that be the case . Of course in biology you never want to say thats not possible. Coming out of a field where we dont have an effective model of effective immunity, seeing a person develop an immune response, and the link, in the progress of the disease we have seen to date is reassuring. But there may a person who doesnt have effective immune resistance or has a gene defect in their immune response to a specific virus. Those outlyers always exist. I studied Political Science and i am not sure what that means. Real science i am not sure. In laymans terms, we dont know 100 for sure if someone is immune after getting the virus. Is that correct . We have the example of is the biology of somebody getting infected, recovering and developing an antibody, so in traditional infectious disease, that is the progress you would normally see and would be controlling in getting subsequent infections. If there are shared proteins that antibody can bind to and prevent reinfection. I dont want to ever say never, but thats what we are seeing in most patients. They recover. And we know from the early studies with the plasma, it looks as though the plasma, although early and anecdote al will get hints in whether they are helpful in fighting a person with the disease at that moment. That will help you. This is another question from beth in connecticut. My husband tested positive last wednesday. On date eight, he has lost his taste completely. Can you tell by the start of symptoms if it is the start, middle or end of symptoms . A set order of symptoms . Thats a great question. I wish we knew the answer to it it. Because we dont know what percent of individuals are asymptomatic, we cant tell you what the standard course is. What have we found out that 50 of patients infected were asymptomatic, that it would be difficult to say what a beginning, middle and end would look like. We are hearing from cases we know of, that some individuals appear to get better and start to improve at day seven, eight or nine and then have a very resurgence of a rocky course thereafter. Trying to understand that. You see the new reports about maybe it involving cardial or renal or other parts of the body. This needs to be understood so we can help every client we are serving. Dr. Birx, he would appreciate what you are doing and appreciate you talking with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. A quick break. And we have more numbers that may determine how soon states can begin to reopen. The model cited by the white house. Next. If were gonna save the world we need to unite all the trolls. Like country. The country trolls look friendly. Get em. [ screaming ] hip hop. Tiny diamond is my name peace and love tiny and daddy out. And techno. Get ready for the drop. Wait for it. Come on man one more time the World Premiere is now in your home. Go to watchtrolls. Com for more. And i like to question your im yoevery move. N law. Like this left turn. Its the next one. You always drive this slow . How did you make someone i love . That must be why youre always so late. I do not speed. And thats saving me cash with drivewise. My son, he did say that you were the safe option. And thats the nicest thing you ever said to me. So get allstate. Stop bossing. Where good drivers save 40 for avoiding mayhem, like me. This is my sons favorite color, you should try it. [mayhem] you always drive like an old lady . [tina] youre an old lady. Bud light seltzer. Unquestionably good. Welcome back to our kroe coronavirus town hall. We are always concerned if we reopen too early. Dr. Murray is the director of the institute of health met trick tricks. Metrics. It is his modeling the white house is using. I know the data is being processed and the models will be completed late tonight. What can you tell us . We made a big push to try to take into account how people actually move around, like direct measurement through cell phone data. There are a bunch of providers out there sharing cell phone movement data, of course anonymous. But even in some states who havent had as strong of mandates. That will factor into our data tomorrow. It looks like we will have smaller epidemics than expected. I know you will have new numbers later tonight. What are your current numbers about projection for the path this may take on death toll. Our numbers would be around 68,000 deaths total with it peaking about now nationally, but different peaks and that will be a factor in the opening. One of the things that will be happening now, probable cases will be counted, not just confirmed cases. I remember that happening in china as well. You saw a sudden increase in cases. How are you going to incorporate that into your modeling . I think phanefive states so have started to incorporate. We are trying to lock at that. Confirmed cases may be at the low end. Counting all cases may be an overcount. A bigger issue for getting the trajectory and helping hospitals plan for the surge is that if you count all of those missing deaths in one day and put them out, it can throw off our understanding of the trajectory. We are trying to dig into the details of each state and tease that apart. In the known numbers, if there is more social distancing in some states than expected, would the death rate also decrease and the overall death rate for the entire country might be lower as well . I think so. They will go down for places in the south. Places like florida will come down. Another phenomena that is a part of that is places like new york seem to be stuck at the peak than longer than we expected. Overall the numbers nationally will probably come down. But a longer peak. We are seeing this in italy and spain as well. Instead of two or three days at a peak, they are spending a longer period and then cases tend to come down. I am sure this is a phrase you have heard it and hate it. All models are wrong, but some are useful. But what degree of confidence do we have in those numbers . Models are wrong. I couldnt agree more with the statement. The key thing is useful, particularly for hospitals and authorities planning for the next phase. What we are trying to do, like a good weather forecast, is taking the data and keeping the models as up to date as possible to reflect the new data. This is a new pandemic. You cant expect that at the beginning you know everything that will play out. Why are we seeing such an epidemic in new york and havent seen it in other cities commensurate with new york. Thats why we want to have the data drive the forecast. Dr. Musrray, he would appreciate what you are doing. At the bottom of our screen you will see the social media scroll. You can tweet us your questions and leave a comment on the facebook page. I want to bring in an Emergency Room Physician and new mom. I havent seen you since you had a baby. Congratulations. Thats right. Thank you very much. Baby is doing very well. Thank you. What needs to happen in your view before reopening schools and businesses and the like . Because we heard from the white house today, it will be from the governors. He would didnt hear much about testing and Contact Tracing as perhaps one might have expected we would have. We need those components. We need three things to reopen safely. We need widespread testing. Testing for everyone who has symptoms and everyone who wants a test to know whether they can go back to school safely, and for surveillance, so we can understand what is happening around communities around the country, and then the infrastructure to do contact it tracing and we need to be stabilized, so we can treat with people with routine diseases like diabetes who are having trouble accessing the health care system. That sounds positive. That social distancing was being more adhered to, even in cases that didnt have huge numbers of cases and thereof the death toll may be lower. I think its wonderful the American People are heeding the advice of health care experts. This is not a time to celebrate. There are many communities around the country who are yet to see the peak and dont know the Community Spread there. We dont want to let down the guard too soon. The last thing we want to do is loosen our restrictions too soon and we have a second wave of death and then we wonder what were all of the sacrifices we made for. So that has to be made on science and data and evidence. Lets go to viewer questions. This is susie in bakersfield, california. Is there a way to clean or desanitize n95 masks at home so they can be reused . I found a couple of packaged n95 masks like this left over from past plumbing work at might house. I have worn one of the masks three times when i have gone out for essentials. Is there anything i can do to take precautions to safely reuse these masks for the rare times that i do have to go out . Would Something Like Hydrogen Peroxide be effective to use or any other household products . Doctor . N95 masks are not meant to be resanitized and reused although because of the Health Care Settings there are advice on how they can be resanitized. For nonHealth Care Workers, there are cloth masks that can be laundered easily. No matter what type of mask, watch your hands good afterwards to avoid the spread of any virus. Are there breathing exercises we can do to strength en our lungs . You know who talks about this yeah, chris. I dont know if there are some across the board. But doctors recommend some breathing exercises for different people. People who have become ill, maybe needing to go to the hospital, one of the things doctors are doing for these patients, maybe not necessarily putting a breathing tube in, but just having them lie prone on their belly rather than their back to create more lung capacity. Sounds like a simple thing. They call it proning. So breathing exercises and increasing capacity can be valuable. Cynthia sent us this video. I am 31 weeks pregnant with my fourth child. Is there any evidence to suggest there is antibody protection for a newborn if a mother has been exposed to covid19 either throughout placental gestation or breast milk . First, congratulations. There is a lot not known about covid19. We do know the coronavirus 19 crosses the placenta and there is a look to see how much of the antibody is present in breast milk. Even if the infant gets that, we dont know if the newborn gets immunity, meaning they are less affected or gets a less form of it. In the meantime we should consider pregnant women and babies particularly medically vulnerable and should take extra precautions. And this video as well. Hi, im from walnut creek, california. Might question is this. The public has been advised repeatedly to use soap and water for washing our hands rather than relying on hand sanitizer. I was wondering why not use soap and water to disinfect household surfaces such as counter tops and packaging rather than lying on wipes and sprays. This is probably one of our most common questions. Yes, you can use soap and water in the same way you can use some of these other cleaners. We know about that for your hands, but for other parts of your house as well, they can do the job. A question about making your own mask. Last week you showed about making masks and your daughter made me one. I am eagerly checking my mail as she made me one. By now you know that coronaviruses can live on surfaces for several hours or several days which means we have to be cleaning all of the time. And we get emails that i am running out of cleaners. Not only is soap and water a good alternative, many scientists argue it is a better alternative. Viruss are three things, made up of proteins, the building blocks, and the lipid block when you put soap on like this, it can break apart that lipid. It is like washing a buttery dish. You wouldnt use alcohol or sanitizer, but soap and water. Make sure you clean your phone, use lots of soap and water on that. And switches and doorknobs. This is how you prevent yourself getting infected. Hope this helps. Great. Hard next week i hope you give a tutorial about how to give yourself a haircut. Last night i took a razor and buzzed my head. And i gave myself a giant bald spot over here. Which i find very i thought it was a 7 and it was a 5, and i dont know. Ive been Walking Around all day with my hand on my head. Theres this whole staring straight at the camera thing its fine straight on. As soon as it all gives it away i hope that grows back in. I think it will. Im not sure but i think it will. Yeah. Maybe thats for next week. You can do a tutorial. Dr. Nguyen, this is william in illinois sent in this video. Lets take a look. Im a veteran, and a couple weeks ago i received an email from the they asked us not to use paper money or coins as viruses tend to live on money for a long time. Why hasnt the public been warned of this also . Dr. Nguyen, what about that . Well, viruses can live on surfaces and objects, including on money. Although your chance of actually getting covid19 from cash is probably very low. Remember that if youre touching cash to wash your hands well with soap and water and if you can go to use contactless methods of payments. Although also keep in mind that if youre handing your credit card to someone you also have to wash your hands after that. And also if youre using your phone. But then youre touching your shopping cart and then your phone, youre also potentially infecting or also potentially transferring virus to your phone too. Wash your hands well with soap and water. Its the most important thing. Sanjay, jerry in indianapolis sent in this video. Over the past years there have been several viral outbreaks such as sars, h1n1, ebola and mers. All have ongoing issues. Is that because our vaccines or antiviral drugs control these viruses . I also dont remember these other viruses shutting down the economy. What is peculiar with the coronavirus that we need to practice such extreme social distancing . Thats a very good question. Sanjay. It is a good question. Its an involved answer. But let me just take sars and h1n1 for example. Sars was also a coronavirus and it was a new virus at the time, 2003. In the end we know that sars ended up infecting 8,000 people roughly around the world. Just 8,000 total. And causing around 800 deaths. So very high fatality rate but didnt turn out to be very contagious. H1n1 was very contagious. It infected some 60 Million People within the United States alone within a year, but it was far less lethal than the flu even, like a third as lethal as the flu. So the difference with this, and i think the reason theres been so many more measures is that this is both very contagious. One person can spread it to two or three we think. And it appears to be far more lethal than the flu as well. Both those things in combination i think are why were taking this so seriously. You want to try to decrease how many people get infected. Because of that fatality rate. Hmm. Dr. Nguyen, thank you so much. Im so glad you and the baby are healthy and happy, and congratulations again. Thank you. Much more of our global town hall ahead. Democratic president ial candidate joe biden joins us, as do Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, dr. Priscilla chan. Well also check in with chris cuomo. As you may know, his wife now has been diagnosed with coronavirus. Feed a healthy lifestyle, with pure protein. High protein. Low sugar. Tastes great high protein. Low sugar. So good. High protein. Low sugar. Mmm, birthday cake. And try pure protein shakes, with 24 vitamins and minerals. Tums ver bell rings la stick when heartburn hits fight back fast. With tums chewy bites. Beat heartburn fast tums chewy bites yeah. This moving thing never gets any easier. Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. And welcome back again to this cnn town hall, coronavirus facts and fears. Its our seventh town hall. Its on a day that saw President Trump lay out some federal guidelines, suggestions for states to begin lifting outbreak fighting restrictions by or before may 1st. Even as some states extended those measures for weeks beyond that already. New york and los angeles, washington, d. C. As well. Also a day that saw the number of lost jobs in just the last four weeks hit 22 million. This hour democratic president ial candidate and former Vice President joe biden is going to be taking your questions. Also facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, dr. Priscilla chan, will be joining us as well. Yeah. Were also going to talk to chris cuomo very shortly about how he is doing, how thinks family is doing. As you know, yesterday he let people know that his wife has tested positive. So we want to see how she is doing. Sanjay, just in terms of where we are in this, a lot of emphasis today on discussion of how states may come back online so to speak, reopen in stages. We did not hear, though, much from the white house about testing and clearly this president does not any question he gets about are you going to push for more testing, are you going to enable states, are you going to give them the funding and back them up and enable them to give more testing, he reverts back to saying we have the best tests, we have the most tests, we have the great tests, the most powerful tests when in fact there clearly is not enough testing nationwide and even state by state. The thing thats so striking to me about this, anderson, is the fact that for people who are watching theyre saying we see that the tests are going up and theres places where they can more easily get one but the idea that someone whos worried about this, that they think they may have been infected or you know, theyre hearing that theyre presymptomatic or asymptomatic, people can carry it, and theyre worried about their family members, whatever it may be, do they know how to get tested right now . Can they get tested . Who would they call . How would it happen . Thats the practicality of it. Thats what it means to have widespread testing available. Doesnt mean as dr. Birx said, anderson, that 325 Million People are going to be tested. You can start to get an idea of what the country looks like. But were not close to actually being able to have enough testing to understand where is and how far spread is coronavirus in the United States. Weve got to be able to answer that question. Yeah. In this hour were going to talk to Mark Zuckerberg, his wife dr. Priscilla chan, also former Vice President joe biden. Right now lets go to chris cuomo. Chris, how are you doing . Hows your family . Hows your wife . Better than i deserve. This was tough for kristina to get it. And its frustrating because it once again plays on like the name of this special tonight, fact and fear. We have a lot of fear because we dont have a lot of facts. Last night we were celebrating how oh, turns out that youre more contagious before youre symptomatic. Oh. Same night my wife gets hit with coronavirus, 17 days into my case. We have completely different symptoms, thank god. Shes stronger than i am. She has a stronger immune system, shes got a stronger constitution and stronger character. But she lost her sense of smell and taste. But no fever. Science pressu sinus pressure in her head. Little bit of lethargy and a little bit of residual frustration at me because im l. Almost certainly how she got sick. But heres the factor. On our learning curve. And families are hit with this, guys, as you know all over the country. Now youve got two sick parents separately in quarantine. The one Silver Lining i thought would be that she and i could be together. No. Why . Again, we dont know this b. S. About the antibodies and whether or not im immune. Okay . Whether its Anthony Fauci or anyone on down who does this, will tell you, they dont know that i have any immunity, even if i have the antibodies and how it works and how long it would be. So my wife and i have to be separated for another two weeks, which means our house is dependent on a 17yearold, my daughter, bella, whos stepping up. But you may hear them because this is now lord of the flies in my house. The kids are in control. Chris, ive got to ask, and i dont know the answer. But just based on what youre saying, im just working this through in my head. You and cristina both have tested positive. Youre both having symptoms. And maybe im missing something here. But you guys cant be together now . I understand that you needed to be isolated. She would need to be isolated. But if you both have it why cant you interact now . Well, im not a doctor, but heres what ive learned. You know i love you. But i did stay at a holiday inn last night and i had a couple hallucinations i was a brain surgeon. Heres what they say. They dont know. And in the abundance of caution i could get reinfected. So they want us to stay separated. We do have completely different symptoms, which is again part of the weirdness. The kids now anecdotally, cristina believes that at least two of them have had it in the last few months. Why . We dont know. But atypically Long Duration sinus, fever, lethargy. I think were going to learn that coronavirus has been in this country since like october, that there have been cases. And as you guys both know and i hear all the time from all over the country, how many people do you hear saying i think had it, i had this and this, i lost my sense of smell and this and that, but i never got tested. Those cases are like abounding all over the country. And i think that the frustration here is we just dont know. I had a guy say to me today, anderson, youll find this very interesting. So i have this lowgrade fever i cant beat. This guy calls me today, and hes a very big deal in this field. Why do you keep complaining about the fever . I say because i want to get past it. Well, now i have the 72 hours of under 99 or so. So by cdc guidelines im fine. Thats not my baseline temperature. My baseline temperature is 97. 6 or 8. He says but youre going to have weeks of recovery from this where youll have residual inflammation, fevers, sweats, lung recovery, maybe a change in o2 volume. I never heard of this before. I said what do you mean . He goes, oh, the recovery of this virus can be two to five weeks, we saw it webla, we saw it with this no one told us that. So now even though im better and if they test me they want to retest me now, ill probably wait through the weekend to do it, and im happy to do it. Im happy to give my plasma. Im happy to give my blood. I hope there are antibodies. I hope theres information for the clinicians in it. But if i test negative twice in 24 hours, but i still feel like crap for weeks and i cant do normal workouts and i get sweaty if im under lights or if i drink soup, he said yeah, for weeks. We dont know any of this. And thats scary. So sanjay, in a case like that would chris, you know if now chris is living in a state where people are going back to work, would chris be expected to go back to hypothetical, chris, expected to go back to work and would he still be if hes having those, you know, residual effects is he still shedding virus . Yeah. I mean, good question. Were all learning as we go along. But if chris is having symptoms and, you know, some of these respiratory symptoms, whatever they may be, then anytime anyones having symptoms they should not go back to work. But i think what chris is talking about, and a lot of people are asking themselves this, okay, now im isolated. We should all be staying at home first and foremost. But now im isolated within my home. When could i possibly come out of that . 72 hours, as chris mentioned, without a fever. Specific to that person. No more respiratory symptoms or certainly improving of those. And at least seven days since your symptoms started. So unfortunately, chris doesnt meet the at least the last two criteria yet. Keeping our fingers crossed. But it can a while, which is something were learning about this. Right . Chris is experiencing it but were all learning about it together. I mean, look, they dont really know. Theyre figuring out the standards as they go. I was listening to dr. Birx. And look, i think that shes in earnest and giving you good answers. She did not answer your guys questions about the testing protocols because they dont know how to do it. And if you dont have a cure, and i know theyre going to start doing Antibody Testing in like a month or so, but if you cant tell people that if you get it we can keep you from dying and see, thats another thing. All of this is an academic exercise and not important until you hear about that case tomorrow about the guy whos my age who was healthy who died somewhere or the mom who was fine who died or the 60yearold who all of the sudden crashed after a week of getting better. Every time we hear about just one of those its enough to put possibilities in your head that are panicking. They dont know how to keep us safe prophylactically. I dont care how you phase it back in. Theres no such thing as separate circles in this society. Theres intercourse on all levels. They open up westchester. Those people arent going to leave westchester. You open up a part of new york city, people arent going to come in and out . Weve got to start answering more of these questions. The unknown is driving the fear. Chris, im so sorry about cristina. Im glad her symptoms are not what yours were. And by the way, if you need a haircut, i have a little experience now. And id be happy to come by. As you can see, im working the carol brady. I dont know if i gave myself a cut last night and i gave myself a big bald spot right here. Anderson, now you will make that popular. And i will probably shave a hole in the side of my head i call it the chris, thanks very much. Our best to cristina, all the family. Joining us no democratic president ial candidate former Vice President joe biden. Mr. Vice president , thank you for being with us. How are you . Hows your family . Well, thank god im doing well. And im sorry about cristina. I really am, chris. Youve been through a lot. But i tell you what, youve got a 17yearold able to handle it and shes going to be better for it. Anyway, i wish you the best of luck, pal. Im doing fine. I think. I mean, so far so good. Listening to chris, im not sure anymore. No, but all kidding aside, im doing fine. My family is in good shape the best we know now. I think i mentioned before, i have two grandchildren. My deceased son beau, who lived about as the crow flies, about 3 46 a mile from me. They come over every day and stand off the back porch, and i bribe them with haagendazs ice cream and throw down the ice cream bars and we talk for a half hour or so. But im not able to hug them yet. And ive got a son and a new grandchild out in california and ive got a daughter whos a social worker running a boys and girls club project down in florida. And ive got a soninlaw who is separated from her because shes down there and hes a surgeon up in jefferson hospital. So my kids are sort of all over. Yeah. Looking at the president s new plan for reopening the country in phases, again, its up to the states, what do you think of what you heard today from the white house . Well, i wouldnt call it a plan. I think what hes done, hes kind of punted. Hes decided that hes not he doesnt have the right to make the call for the country. And he talks about phases that in the generic sense seem to me from all ive learned and all ive listened in my morning brief from the docs i talk to is not irrational but it doesnt give you any hard guidelines. And one of the things that i think we keep coming back to, and ive spent this morning talking to the docs that you used to work with, sanjay, in our last administration and heads of other entities, that it gets down to testing. Its about testing, tracing and treatment. And so were way behind on the testing piece. And i dont quite i dont quite understand why were taking so long to do the kinds of things that have to be done. You know, there s during world war ii roosevelt came up with a thing that was totally different than the he called it the world war ii he had the war production board. I dont know why they dont set up Something Like a pandemic production board. Where we open up things that oversee surging test kits. Testing sights in sufficient trade personnel to staff these things. Trained personnel. E ensuring adequate lab capacity. Clear guidance on who needs a test. Im not sure what that is. I would have thought that would be something that would have been decided how you deal with it. Doc, youve been saying all along, and i have Great Respect for you, that thing isnt going to be over until we have a vaccine and were not going to really be able to make sichbts changes on the three phases the president s talking about or any phases until were able to test much more broadly. So when someone comes back to work, they get tested before they walk in the door. So theyre in a position to know all the folks you have working in that plant or working in that facility i mean, i dont and again, im not a scientist. Im not a doc. But ive been paying an awful lot of attention. And it just seems to me that these are things the president would have done had he taken responsibility early on. But now i think congress should pass the legislation and come up with something equivalent to creating a pandemic testing board and give them the authority and get out of the way. One of the things the president , that is. One of the things, mr. Vice president , is people are starting to understand what at least normal could look like for a period of time until the vaccine, as you mentioned. Large gatherings limited, as you mentioned, temperatures, even tests before you go in to work or a restaurant. People still Wearing Masks perhaps when they go out in public. What do you think the new normal should look like, mr. Vice president . Well, i think the new normal should look like until we have a vaccine that we take precautions. Is that we in fact continue to move in the direction where we try to figure out everybody whos gathering in a place of employment or in an area even though they can still have social distancing to test them whether or not they are in fact infected or have been infected. If you can find that out. And based on my discussions today youre able to do that but we dont have enough of all of the things that are needed including the sourcing supplies, the i mean, a whole range of things that need to be done. I had a whole thing written down from my docs this morning talking about showing me how the tests function, the machines that are needed to do the test. We talk about i heard earlier one of the govs saying weve got plenty of machines. Wellu dont have plenty of machines a lot of places. You dont have plenty of machines to be able to go out and take even the swabs that can be done and you dont have the protective gear for people taking those swabs. It seems to me there ought to be something that focuses on how do you get as many tests done as possible to allow some elements of the economy, some elements of society be able to get back to some sort of normal. Im not talking about as the president said the alabama game with 100,000 people or something. Im talking about just being able to make sure youre able to gather in relatively small groups up to 30, 40 people in a restaurant thats separated and all your employees are tested, et cetera. I just but testing seems to me to be a critical part of it. And mr. Vice president , it seems to me that ultimately this balance and im wondering how you think through this. Just think through this issue. Theres always going to be a balance between Public Health and wanting to get the country back up and running. No matter what were hearing once you start opening things up, mr. Vice president , people are going to get infected. More people are going to get infected. Some may have to go to the hospital and some may sadly die. That may happen at any point before the vaccine is actually available. Again, leaving aside specific numbers, how do you think through that in your own mind . How would you make those decisions . The way i think through that is i air on the side of caution. Look, i think its a false choice to say you have to choose between the economy and our health. If you dont fix the health side of, it the economys nfr going to get right. Youre never going to be back in that place. Youll never be in a place where you get to remotely a new normal. And we have to get back ultimately to normal where people can gather. But thats going to take a while until you have the vaccine. In the meantime there seems to me the things you can do. There are certain jobs for example, we talk about being able to have we want Small Businesses to be able to stay in business. Well, guess what. The really small mom and until you can walk down main street and see all those stores or drive down and see all those stores from the coffee shop to the hairdresser to the barber shop to the nail salon to the hardware store, thats not thats what i mean by Small Business. Im not talking about a Small Business technically 500 people or less. Well, we want them to do well too. But if these little guys go out of business, theyre out of business. I mean, theyre not coming back likely. So i think we should think about how we deal with the economy in a different way. For example, i think we should do a situation like we did in the recovery act, and that is instead of employers if theyre able to stay open, instead of being able to having to lay off employees, bring on everybody where keep them working, they may have one person doing 50 of the job and another person doing 50 . I think the federal government should just come in and make up the difference in the salary. Just make up the difference. To keep people employed. The most devastating thing a man or woman has to do is make what i call that longest walk up a short flight of stairs where the kids say daddy doesnt have a job, we dont have any income, we dont know whats going to happen, things are in trouble. So keep people on the payrolls. And just have straight flat payment. A flat payment where the government pays half the salary of everybody on there, you can keep everybody doing half the work they were doing but everybody stays employed. But that requires you to be in a position where you know the people you have inside whatever that facility, building, circumstance is that they in fact have protective gear but they also have been tested. We know whether or not they are, theyve had it or they have it. And i just think its i think youve got to air on the side of health, not on the side of the commerce side. But youve got to take care of the little guy. I mean the mom and pop operations. Theyre the heart and soul of communities. I want to bring in viewer questions if we can. Evan in fairbanks, alaska sent in a video question for you. Lets listen. Despite your previous pledge to pick a woman for Vice President , would you reconsider that for a qualified candidate who has performed admirably during this crisis . Like Governor Cuomo. I think Governor Cuomo is capable of being president. I think hes a great guy. But i think its also important that there be a woman. I think its important that we look, i want an administration to look and theres plenty of qualified theres plenty of women with the experience and the capability of being president tomorrow. And i think its important that we begin to have my administration, god willing, is going to look like america. And i really i genuinely mean that. Not just not just Vice President but making sure that we have a supreme court, we have a cabinet, we have a white house that looks like the country. And i think it really matters. And so i think its really important that and theres plenty of qualified people who have the experience and background who are women ready to be president on day one. Im just going to stick with that. Mr. Vice president , lets get to one more viewer question. Scott owens in wisconsin sent in this video. Please take a look. Sure. The coronavirus will have a profound impact on our lives for years to come. Many people believe that very big proposals will be needed in order to recover economically and ensure the health and safety of all americans. Are you willing to consider universal health care, basic income, and other ideas that perhaps just a few months ago you would have thought to be too ambitious or unnecessary . Well, i didnt think they were too ambitious. I thought that universal health care can be accomplished by providing a public option for obamacare, significantly increasing the subsidies for obamacare. It would cost a lot of money. Cost about 750 billion. But it would provide universal care for everyone. And everyone with preexisting wn conditions. And i also do think look, you have an entire generation of young people beginning back when the attack occurred on 9 11 that in fact behind the 8 ball from the time they get out of school, whether its high school or college. We ended up in a situation where we had the great recession. People who had opportunities that would have otherwise been available. Good paying jobs. Found themselves in real trouble. They were not able to get those jobs. They werent available to them. They also had significant student debt. But found themselves and now look whats happening. You have a whole generation of people between the ages of 18 and 30 who are going to be further put behind the 8 ball here. Because this is going to provide look whats happening in terms of employment across the board. And so i think we have to look at it totally differently than we had before. And i think the way to get through this is we have to deal with stimulating the economy. But then we have to deal with recovery. Recovery. And the way you deal with recovery is you think much bigger than we had before. Its like the new deal. Think of every great change thats taken place, its come out of a crisis. We worried about the elderly. We ended up with social security. We worried about labor, we had labor unions. We worried about a whole range of things. And we expanded opportunity. And i think we have an opportunity now to significantly change the mindset of the American People. Things they werent ready to do, you know, even two, three years ago. Theyre now going oh, my lord, look at all those people out there making minimum wage or saving their lives. Look at all the people out there stocking the shelves. Look at all the people who are making sure theyre sanitizing the areas you go into. These are people who deserve to be treated better. I think youre going to see minimum wages going up. I think youre going to see the ability to provide for Significant Health care for every single american. I think youre going to see changes in education because the public realizes holy mackerel, i didnt know this, its like the band yards bandaids been ripped off. A real recovery, we can fundamentally change the science relating to global warming. And we can create seriously create 10 million goodpaying jobs. We can do it. Its within our power to do it. We can put in 550,000 charging stations along our highways. We can own the electric vehicle market. We can set up a Transmission System across the country where we invest billions of dollars to do it so we can transfer across the country to every area of the country. Wind and solar energy. New battery technologies. All the things that are out there that are going to be able to provide people in organized labor, people who were educating in terms of science and technology. There are so many opportunities. And i think the countrys going to be ready for it and going to need it. Vice president biden, we appreciate your time. Thank you, sir. Im optimistic about this. I really am, guys. Were going to come out of this stronger. Its going to be hell getting out of it, though. Yeah. Lets take a break. Thank you very much, Vice President biden. When we return, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, dr. Priscilla chan of the Chanzuckerberg Initiative. Theyre going to join us next. Its a musical cure for the quarantine blues. Happy birthday . The World Premiere is now in your home. Go to watchtrolls. Com for more. It only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. Tide pods childguard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. Align, press and unzip. Tide pods. Keep them up. Keep them closed. Keep them safe. 450degree oven, to box, to you, know that from our its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. Why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills . E else. Flonase sensimist. Nothing stronger. Nothing gentler. Nothing lasts longer. Flonase sensimist. 24 hour nondrowsy allergy relief bud light seltzer. Unquestionably good. Your cells. Trillions of them. Thats why centrum contains 14 key nutrients to help feed your cells, nourishing your body inside and out so you can focus on what matters most. Centrum. Feed your cells. Fuel your life. Welcome back to this cnn global town hall. Before the break we spoke to democratic candidate for President Joe Biden about the role of the Public Sector in providing aid during the pandemic. We now want to turn to what the private sector can do. Joining us now are the founders of the Chan Zuckerberg initiative, dr. Priscilla chan, a pediatrician, and her husband facebooks mark zukerberg. Their foundation has provided millions to facilitate free treatment, testing and aid to poor students most affected by school closures. Thanks so much for being with us. Mark and priscilla, im wondering just how have your lives changed in this pandemic . I assume like most everyone else youre doing things remotely. Yeah. Working from home. Kids are at home. Its a new experience, just being right down the hall working from priscilla. Its nice. Yeah. We definitely miss our normal lives just like everybody else. I zoomed with you yesterday, which by the way was my First Time Ever zooming. But mark and priscilla, you told me mark had just come in from gardening and right before we went on air you said mark had cut his air. Thats true. You did a good job. Because i was telling people i cut my hair last night and gave myself a giant bald spot over here. Well, thank you, anderson. I think you might be the only person whos ever complimented my hair. Youre both parents to young children. I have children as well. Million of americans are trying balance right now the working from home and parenting and you want to spend more time with your family, but it can be challenging. How is that part of things going . How are you navigating that part of your life . Yeah, look at czi were the Chan Zuckerberg initiative were doing everything remotely. And children, dogs, family members walk into meetings all the time. Thats just a normal part of that. But sometimes you do need to take a quiet meeting and mark and i have been known to hide in corners to make sure that we can have the peace and quiet that we need to get some work done. Obviously right now all states, all companies are trying to figure out how to move forward until theres a vaccine. Im wondering, i know you have already announced some stuff. For you, mark, what does working at facebook look like in the next year or two. I think its clear that the return to work when it happens will have to be done in a staggered way. And were fortunate enough to be able to work productively from home. Software engineers can do that. And as society begins to reopen, you know, we think its important that we give right of way to other types of businesses and people who may not have the flexibility to work from home productively for their livelihoods, make sure they can get back to work first. So just today we announced that the vast majority of facebook employees should expect that theyre going to be required to work from home through at least the end of may and likely longer. In order to make sure that other people in our local communities can be the first to access the shared Public Resources and can be the first to get back to work. I think well likely continue that philosophy. I dont know how long this will take for society to reopen. But i would imagine that we will be among the last back to work in order to make sure last back to the offices in order to make sure that others can get back first. And priscilla, your foundation focused a lot on education. You have kids, as you just said. What about schools . Do you think theyll still be online this fall . And do you think theres any merit to that . The idea of bricks and mortar education is something were very familiar with. But as weve gone to online, have there been some merits to that, do you think . Yeah. I think getting kids into a supportive educational environment is incredibly important. And right now a lot of families are struggling with that. What were doing, the Chan Zuckerberg initiative, through our investment in education is really thinking about that whole child. For us quality education has always been thinking about a kids holistic needs, not just reading and math. And now more than ever we need social, emotional supports. We need abilities for kids to explore their curiosity, their focus, their grit. And a lots happening. Not every household is the same. And theyre seeing a lot of challenges in their community. Their families. And some kids are seeing loss. And so thats going to be a lot for kids in schools to process over time. And whether or not we go back to school in september, im not the right person to guess at that. But what i do know is that kids will always need that mentor, that teacher in their life to help guide work decisions, exploring, and that can look a lot of different ways. And weve always known it as a school. And we as a society, were going to have to think about this creatively as we get through the next, you know, few months of coronavirus. Mark, i saw smith think that youre going to do at facebook that i think you made an announcement that youre not going to have any meetings of more than a certain number of people until 2021. Is that right . Yeah, thats right. So as part of the staggered reopening of society its not just going to be that some locations open before others. Its going to need to be that some functions and some jobs can get done and others we just wait longer to bring back online. I think large events are probably going to be the last thing, at least one of the last things that comes back online. Weve gone ahead and made the policy call now that through june of 2021, so next year, were not going to were not going to host any internal or external physical events that have 50 or more people in them. All of the events that we need to hold well just shift to be virtual online events. But some of them well find other wiays to do them or well just cancel them. That doesnt mean we wont be productive until then. But i do think large events, people going to sports events, movie theaters, things like that, are probably going to be one of the last things that comes online as part of this reopening. Im curious, when you think about providing accurate knowledge to people or helping to do that or at least not letting them get bad knowledge, this is a story where weve learned a lot along the way. I mean, the knowledge has sort of changed. Just how communicable it is. How lethal it is. How its spreading. Shu wear masks, should you not wear masks. All these types of things. When theres a lot of information out there, sometimes theres a lot of Bad Information as well. Just how do you approach thinking about that to make sure the right knowledge, at least what we know at the time, is whats getting out there . Yeah, so i think one of the most important functions that facebook and our apps can do right now is help connect people with authoritative Health Information and experts. And at the same time to limit the spread of misinformation. So on the work were doing to connect people with authoritative Health Information, weve actually directed more than 2 billion people to this covid19 Information Center that we built that we put at the top of the facebook app for everyone. And through these educational popups that weve put throughout the product. If you search for information or if you show up in a group, for example. And of the 2 billion people weve shown that to more than 350 Million People have clicked through and spent some time on the covid Information Center. That is valuable. Its showing information from health experts, from local government officials. Its highquality content. Equally important is making sure that we limit the spread of misinformation. And there are two basic policies that we have. One is its information if someones spreading something that puts you at imminent risk of physical harm we take that down. We dont allow that on facebook at all. So for example, some people are trying to spread these complete hoaxes like, you know, if you want to cure coronavirus drink bleach. Obviously thats a disaster. Thats false and thats dangerous. So someone tries to share that well just take that down. And there have been a lot of pieces of content like that that weve taken down. There are also other misinformation that may not lead to physical imminent risk of physical harm but still isnt the type of stuff we want to be spreading through our system. And there we work with independent Fact Checkers. And so far during this crisis those Fact Checkers have marked 4,000 pieces of content, individual articles false, which has led to us showing warning labels to more than 40 million times across our products when people come across something thats false. And the warning labels work. We know that because 95 of the time when someone sees a piece of information that has a fact check on it they dont go through and consume that information. I think overall both of these sides of the equation, showing authoritative information and limiting the spread of misinformation, are incredibly important, especially so during a Health Crisis. A lot of work has gone into this. Weve gotten a lot better at this over the last few years as a company. Im really proud of the way the team is working on this. Youre also working on building disease prevention maps. Can you just explain using all the data that you have access to, can you explain how that works and what it might be able to show and help people are . Sure. I think this is going to be potentially a very important tool for governments and public Health Officials. What were doing is were running a widespread survey across facebook asking people what kind of symptoms theyre feeling. Do you feel a fever, do you have a cough, shortness of breath . Have you lost your sense of smell . And by asking those questions basically, were working with academics, Carnegie Mellon university to start. All the information goes to them. Were not collecting Health Information about people. But through the survey were then able to produce a county by county map across the country of the prevalence of disease and people with symptoms. This is going to be quite valuable for local governments and Health Officials to get a sense of whats happening in their area and whats about to happen because people report feeling symptoms days before they feel they need to go get tested or show up in the hospital to develop some of the more severe symptoms of covid. This can give people a lead indicator of whats happening, which can help plan the nearterm Public Health response, help allocate scarce resources, whether its masks or ventilators. But then over the coming weeks and months it will also help local governments figure out how they should be opening up, when its going to be safe to start opening and have people come back into society, or if something starts going wrong and theres a recurrence, where we might need to restrict things further again until it gets farther back in control. And priscilla, through the Chanzuckerberg Initiative youre also redirecting a lot of efrlts efforts to coronavirus. Yeah. So mark, the study that marks talking about through facebook is an awesome example of sentinel testing where you get the early signs. But also important is the ability for individual patients to know they actually have coronavirus and if theyve been infected with coronavirus in the past. And policy makers are going to also want to know whats the incidence, how many cases of coronavirus are in my area now . And those are all questions that were the scientific communitys trying to figure out. But at czi, the Chanzuckerberg Initiative, weve been working on science for about four years now with the aim of building great flvrkt infrastructure for science so we can cure, prevent and manage all disease by the end of the century. Obviously coronavirus is an awful hit to us globally. So what weve done is actually reorient a number of resources including the Chan Zuckerberg biohub where we invested 600 million in over ten years for research. And in march when we realized that testing the first step being individual testing was necessary, we turned that lab around, equipment, leaders, grad students, volunteers, faculty members into a Certified Laboratory to test for coronavirus. And within eight days we got up to a capacity of 1,000 tests a day. So that was really awesome to be able to serve our community that way. And when we realized that we had more capacity, weve now as of today made testing free to all departments of Public Health in california. Thats awesome. Theres also an interesting because they are an established Scientific Lab in addition to a testing center, theyre both testing whether or not an individual has coronavirus and then theyre taking the positives and then doing a full genome sequence of the coronavirus positive test, and they look for tiny mutations in the coronavirus sequence that allows the scientists to sort of backcalculate how many other unknown cases there are in a community. Thats just the tip of sort of what these amazing scientists, joe de richlt si, steve quake and others at the biohub and many more across ucsf stanford are trying to get to that question that we all need know, how many cases are there out there. So that we can go back to work as a society. The team over there has done really impressive work. I mean, its basically we built up all this technology to use for longterm research. And like priscilla said, within days or weeks basically the team repurposed it and said hey, yeah, that longterm research is really important but right now we need to make sure we can use all this equipment to help with testing and to help out with the acute response to the Health Crisis in the bay area. So its ive been really proud of them. Yeah. Testing obviously is at the heart of moving forward from where were at right now. Mark zuckerberg and dr. Priscilla chan, thank you so much. Really appreciate your being with us. Its fascinating what youre doing. Thanks for having us. Appreciate all your efforts. Up next were going to take a look at the psychological impact of the pandemic. Your questions and some answers from psychiatrists. Well be right back. Frustrated that everyday activities cause wrinkles and theres nothing you can do about it . Downy wrinkleguard is a fabric conditioner that helps protect you from wrinkles all day. Pants washed with downy wrinkleguard and detergent are virtually wrinklefree. Try downy wrinkleguard. 450degree oven, to box, to you, know that from our its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. This is cnns global town hall. Well get more answers to your coronavirus questions ahead. At the bottom of the screen youll see our social media scroll that shows the questions a lot of people are asking. You can tweet us your questions with the hashtag cnntownhall. You can also leave a comment on the cnn facebook page. Theres no question that the psychological impact of physical distancing, the anxiety that all of us are experiencing for a variety of reasons is a key part of the ongoing pandemic. So we want to bring back in dr. Psychiatrist dr. Christine moutier. Its good to see you. Thanks for being with us. Obviously the headlines, the stories behind the headlines continue to be devastating. So many lives lost. What do you think, whats your advice for people just sort of i dont know what the word is. Just dealing with the trauma, the grief. Especially when isolated physically. Yes. Right now there is a wave of grief is that so many of us are experiencing. And there are different types of losses. And i would just i think it helps all of us when we know how to set our course a little bit. Like how to set expectations. And its also really important to not minimize your loss because it doesnt seem as huge as somebody elses. Loss is loss. And grief is a real and very painful experience. But its really important to acknowledge that, that understand that its not a linear experience and thats okay. It will come in waves. Of intensity. It will kind of circle back around at times. There are triggers from memories. And all of that is a normal part of the grieving process. And in fact, grief is a universal human experience. One other thing i would say about it is that if youre someone who knows somebody whos experienced a loss and you feel like you dont really have a way to support them or relate to them the main thing is dont avoid them. Reach out to them with expressions of love and caring and support just like you would at any other time. We can do that remotely. And dont assume that just because youre not going through the same thing that you cant do that. We all have a role to play with supporting each other right now. Dr. Moutier, it seems like theres a lot of whiplash right now. Female are hearing the conversation about the country reopening as soon as possible. Everybody wants that of course, obviously. At the same time there was a study that got a lot of attention saying we might have to do some intermittent social distancing at least until 2022. Those are for a lot of people thats just conflicting messages. Thats what people are hearing. How do you suggest they deal with that . To me it till taps into the same issue that weve been challenged with this whole time, which is being faced with uncertainty. And it just feels uncomfortable. Again, we like to set our course and have a sense of power and control. Now, the truth is even during our normal lives, outside of this covid moment, there are lots of things that are uncertain and many things that are well outside of our control. And so there are things within our control right now, and its a time when i think just reflecting on what can we control and what is outside our control, and so lets just move toward those things that we can start planning for and to help ourselves, you know, take action and feel present in this moment, those are the strategies we can do and that we do have control over. We get a lot of viewer interest, obviously, a lot of questions. This is a question that came in via twitter. Its there on the social media scroll. It reads, what medical advice is suggested for alcoholics and relapses during isolation . Well, the first thing to realize about addiction is it is its a health kcondition like ay other health condition. So try to get out of the seat of judgment that youre just weak or making bad choices. It is an illness. Theres treatment available, even during this home, and i would urge people to look for ways to connect with a posuppor group. And on the samsa web page there is a treatment page where you can learn where treatments are available for Substance Use problems. I read a report that said antianxiety medication prescriptions are nearly twice as high for women as compared to men. Have you ever seen a spike like that . Yes. There have been times as we know in our society, when weve been faced with tremendously stressful, natural disasters. Wartime, many, many sort of assaults to our life as usual, and this is certainly one of them. So it doesnt surprise me in the sense that we know that stress and anxiety, sense of isolation, theyre natural struggles and it is a fogood thing to seek help. The gender differences, there are gender differences for anxiety and women tend to be the health care brokers of the family, meaning we will advocate for our own and or loved ones health needs. So its not necessarily indicative of men not feeling every bit as stressed and anxio anxious right now. Doctor, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Always great to hear from you. Great to have you, thanks. The and beyond the resources just mentioned, cnn also has resources. You see that web address right there on your screen. Well be right back. Straining, and bloating, again and again. No way. More exercise. More water. And more fiber is the only way to manage it. Is it . Maybe you think. Its occasional constipation. Maybe its not. It could be a chronic medical condition called ibsc, and time to say yesss to linzess. Linzess works differently than laxatives. It helps relieve belly pain and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. Do not give linzess to children less than six and it should not be given to children six to less than 18, it may harm them. Do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. Get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. The most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. If its severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. Other side effects include gas, stomach area pain, and swelling. Change your thinking to ibsc. If your constipation and belly pain keeps coming back, tell your doctor and say yesss to linzess. Tell your doctor it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. Tide pods childguard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. Align, press and unzip. Tide pods. Keep them up. Keep them closed. Keep them safe. For the same medications as the vet, but up to 30 percent less with fast free shipping. Visit petmeds. Com today. A lot of you have asked how you can help those faked by coronavirus. You can do that now by going to cnn. Com coronavirus, how to help. There are categories of how to search for organizations to contribute to and how you can get help for yourself. Can you go to cnn. Com impact. Sanjay, thanks so much. And i want to thank everybody who wrote in with your questions for this town hall. The news continues now here on cnn. Thats why were offering contactless delivery and setup on all devices. And for those experiencing Financial Hardship due to this crisis, well work with you to keep your service up and running. Hi because at at t, were always committed to keeping you connected. 450degree oven, to box, to you, know that from our its our policy that your pizza is never touched once it comes out of the oven. And were taking extra steps, like no contact delivery, to ensure it. Bud light seltzer unquestionably good its got all my favorite shows turn oright there. Boom, i wish my Trading Platform worked like that. Well have you tried thinkorswim . This is totally customizable, so you focus only on what you want. Okay, its got screeners and watchlists. And you can even see how your predictions might affect the value of the stocks youre interested in. Now this is what im talking about. Yeah, itll free up more time for your. Uh, true crime shows . British baking competitions. Hm. Didnt peg you for a crumpet guy. Focus on what matters to you with thinkorswim. Hello, and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Im michael holmes, and this is cnn newsroom. Now, as we come to you right now, there are more than 2. 3 million cases of coronavirus worldwide, and the death toll more than 160,000. Now, against that backdrop, growing frustration, some glimmers of hope, as well. In Great Britain there were fears the National Health service would run out of some personal protective equipment or ppe this weekend. But whats being called