Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom 20200402

Were going to close down the city playgrounds and leave the open spaces available. So use the open space in a park. Walk around, get some sun, great. No density, no basketball games, no close contact, no violation of social distancing period. Thats the rule. Governor cuomo and others have warned that anyone can get the virus including young people. There is confirmation of that at the state of connecticut. An examination of the remains of a 7 week old infant showed the child had the coronavirus. Authorities say the cause of death is unknown. Sandra. Sandra so many difficult stories to hearing coming out of this. Ed thank you, sandra. President trump and his administration calling for new blood tests to determine who may have immunity to covid19. Dr. Anthony fauci saying it would be an important step to keep all americans safe. Antibody testing right now is not the first thing on our priority. It is something we need to do is testing to see if someone is infected. It is very important ultimately to be able to get a feel for what the pen trance of the infection was in society for a number of reasons. You get a better feel of what the impact has been but also you get a better feel of what the herd immunity would be. Ed john roberts is live on the north lawn again. To put a little more english what he is saying there. These Antibody Tests are important because they do not tell you who currently is sick with coronavirus. They tell you people who previously had it. You get an idea how many people were infected, where those people were. Where the virus has been circulating. How long it has been circulating and ultimately how many people have previously been infected and may Carry Forward immunity to the coronavirus so that in the future for the next outbreak you might not have to worry so much about those people. At the same time some important therapies are being investigatesed to treat people who currently have coronavirus virus. Taking plasma from people previously affected in one way. You may have seen dr. Granville yesterday talking about a process he has developed and given to the u. S. Army medical Research Institute on Infectious Disease that binds up the receptors of the coronavirus so it cannot infect cells. I asked dr. Fauci about that yesterday. People watching television today heard from a researcher named dr. Granville who has come up with a potential antibody therapy he has given do you know anything about this . If you have a protective antibody passive transfer of that could provide not only protection but also treatment. I wouldnt be surprised if he and a number of other people are pursuing this. Its the right thing to do. The president is considering more steps to limit person to person contact saying he is looking at restricting air travel from hot spots like new york, detroit and new orleans. He says it is a delicate calculation measuring the cost of shutting down an airline against the Health Implications of keeping flights running. Listen here. President trump i am looking at hot spots. I am looking where flights are going into hot spots. Some of those flights i didnt like from the beginning but closing up every single flight on every single airline, thats a very, very, very rough decision. But we are thinking about hot spots where you go from spot to spot both hot. And well let you know fairly soon. On the political front the president yesterday saying he is open to an invitation from joe biden to have a phone call and discuss coronavirus strategy. President trump i would like to speak to him. I dont know him very well, frankly, i think he is probably a nice call. If he would like to call id absolutely take his call. What about people who dont have Health Insurance . The president was considering last month reopening the exchanges on healthcare. Gov. They have decided to not do that but there are a lot of people who currently do not have insurance or they are losing it because theyre losing their jobs. They cant afford cobra coverage. That leaves a lot of people uncovered. The president says he is thinking about doing something about it but it appears they arent clear here at the white house what they could do about it just yet. Ed yet another devastating impact of workers around the country. Thank you. Sandra thank you, ed. Dr. Fauci giving an update on the development of a vaccine saying that testing is underway and any vaccine is still about 12 to 18 months away. The ultimate game changer in this will be a vaccine the same way a vaccine for other diseases that were scourges in the past that now we dont worry about. The vaccine is, as i said, on target. Were still in phase one. Sandra joining us now is dr. Bob bollinger, the head of Infectious Disease at Johns Hopkins and joins us now. Thank you for your time this morning. Can you give us an update where we stand with the first human trial of that vaccine, dr. Fauci says were on track, this is the game changer. How close are we . Just to clarify im head of center for Global Health education, not the head of Infectious Disease at hopkins. I think dr. Fauci is correct, 12 to 18 months from deploying and effective vaccine. Sandra 12 to 18 months is what we would eventually see there. A lot of breaking news involves the coronavirus Antibody Test. We did hear from the head of the fda saying it would be crucial in helping protect our nurses and doctors who are on the front line. Here is the fda commissioner last night. The serology test is an indication of having previously had the infection and now recovering because youve developed antibodies. And so it tells us a lot. I think dr. Birxs point about our front line First Responders and Healthcare Workers getting that information and knowing that they have the immunity is actually very important. Sandra as we have been told time and time again it would be crucial in slowing the spread of this disease, doctor. Thats correct. So if the antibodies that are being detected are as dr. Fauci said able to neutralize the virus it would be very helpful to know. And would be very reassuring to Health Workers who know they have the antibodies and they may have some protection. More inclined to get back to work, more comfortable getting back to work into those situations where they might be exposed again. Sandra doctor, tell us why it would be so crucial to identify if a person like a Healthcare Worker or doctor or nurse has been exposed to the virus or had it and recovered from it, maybe didnt know that, because that would indicate that they cant become reinfected . Where do we stand on knowing whether or not you can become reinfected with the virus . We dont know that for sure yet. We are going to certainly learn a lot about whether thats true, i would think, in the next few months as we see about the efficacy of some of these new antibody treatments. For example, convalescent serum or antibodies show they can protect people from getting infected or treat people with the infection that would be reassuring to those of us looking at the Antibody Test as an indicator of that kind of protection. Sandra dr. Bollinger, if you could talk to us about the telemedicine side of this and you are partnering up with another company, mocha. You sit on the board and have an interest in it. But this would be crucial in helping those medical workers and front line workers identify their symptoms when they come into work, how they are feeling, taking their temperature, documenting that in order to keep people as long as they are healthy working on the front lines through this. Tell us a little bit about it. Well, it was a mobile Health Technology was developed at hopkins and licensed to a company. Weve worked for many years trying to develop these mobile Health Applications to support Health Workers in a variety of settings. Dating back to 2015 this technology was used to help monitor Health Workers who might be exposed to the ebola virus. We worked with the biocontainment unit at hopkins to develop that app. More recently leveraged that to monitor the health of workers at hopkins. Health workers on the front lines need to be supported and monitored for symptoms when theyre at risk for Covid Infection to protect themselves, families and patients. So when we can help them selfmonitor and report their symptoms we can rapidly give them access to information and guidance about how to protect themselves, how to access testing and treatment if needed, and help them feel supported and get back to work more quickly. Sandra amazing to see how much invention is happening and technology that is emerging right in the middle of this pandemic. Dr. Bollinger, youre involved in so much of that. Thank you for being here. Ed Emergency Medical Technicians clearly on front lines of this pandemic and the outbreak is putting them under incredible strain. Resources stretched to the limit. Steven reid is an emt in Westchester County and a First Responder on 9 11. Mr. Reid, good morning. I need to wireless one. Ed can you hear me, mr. Reid . Its ed henry. Yes. Ed thank you for all youre doing for so many people. Governor cuomo has said its almost like a new normal comparing it to 9 11. You were a First Responder on 9 11. How do you contrast what you are seeing now to what you saw after the terror attacks . There is a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. A lot of people were affected by september 11th but new york, pennsylvania, this is affecting the entire world. Everyone is getting hit hard, in new york and all over america, florida, california, italy. Were all paying this time. Ed i talked to a Restaurant Owner yesterday who said on 9 11 he felt as tragic and awful as it was, it was somewhat contained. We had an idea of what played out and that in this case there seems like it keeps on going and going. Does that resonate with you . This will be going for a long time and brings up other issues with Mental Health. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We will have to pace ourselves and be in it for the long haul. Ed the north New York Post has an paramedic in quens saying its like battlefield triage. We bring patients to the hospital to die. We know what we signed up for though we didnt expect this. It is very straining. Were all exhausted. How do you react to that and what are you seeing . 100 i couldnt agree more. Theyre not dying in the field. The people are dying in the hospitals. The numbers are staggering and continue to be staggering. Protocols are changing on a daily basis. Were not performing cpr in most cases in the field with cardiac arrest. Combat triage at this point. Ed whats the most difficult thing youve seen . The most difficult thing is dropping my patients off at the ambulance base. We drop them off, give the report to the nurse and thats the end of it and thats the way it is with the family also. Theyve been given 20 minutes to say goodbye. People get intubated in the hospital, they go to the icu and it is pretty much the end. Ed you mentioned Something Else a moment ago i want to dig deeper on about patients with cardiac arrest. There was a memo obtained by the New York Post where allegedly emergency workers like yourself have been told not to bring people with cardiac arrest to hospitals. No adult nontraumatic or blunt traumatic cardiac arrest is to be transported to a hospital with mechanical compression in progress with return of spontaneous circulation or an order unless there is imminent physical danger on the scene. The body is in public view, the body can be left in the custody of the nypd. It sounds chilling. Sad but thats where were at right now. Thats why were asking everyone to stay home and do our work. There are plenty of things that ed this is what people have feared. The idea youll be out in the field having to say someone is having a heart attack, i cant resuscitate them because we have to deal with so many coronavirus patients and that you are making those life and death decisions like that. Is that whats happening . Thats correct. Disaster management and disaster medicine sometimes you have to black tag people that you could have saved. Triaging people like an mci. Multicasualty incident. I know i could save that guy but i need to get to the other 20 people. The same disaster, the same type triage. Ed wow, truly remarkable to hear you describing exactly what youve seen. We appreciate you talking to us today. Most importantly we thank you for your service and the service of all these emt officials not just in new york but around the country trying to save so many people. We appreciate you coming in. Do you have a minute for one other thing . Operation work 57 is a veteranrun Organization Support group. They have a crisis hotline. A lot of need for it. Cop line, a lot of resources out there. Ed say it one more time . Operation work 57 they run a hotline. Hotline is another one. People will need help. I suffered from ptsd after september 11th and took me a long time to get back to where i am now. I know that now and i know i need to face these things. Were doing ed we certainly appreciate all you are doing. Well get the hotline, try to get it on the website and trying to help so many people. Thank you. Sandra Field Hospital is set up in new york central park as youve seen for days now. It is now taking coronavirus patients as the state sees rising numbers of infections. Well speak to the medical director at the helm of that effort to save lives there. Plus the white house projecting the u. S. Could turn a corner perhaps by memorial day. What will it take to make that happen . The person who runs the center for medicaid and Medicare Services will join us at the top of the next hour. A long ordeal may be coming to an end for passengers on board two cruise ships stuck at sea off the coast of florida. We will have a live report on that coming up. Clearly were going to be willing to accept any floridians who are on board. My understanding is that most of the passengers are foreign nationals. I think that they are working on ways to deal with that. My concern is simply that we have worked so hard to make sure we have adequate hospital space in the event of a covid19 surge that we wouldnt want those valuable beds to be taken because of the cruise ship. Sandra Governor Ron Desantis has been reluctant to allow passengers of the zaandam and rotterdam cruise ships to disembark in south florida. Now he says he is open to a safe plan. Over the past two weeks nearly 200 passengers got sick, many have improved but four people have died. Phil keating has more from Port Everglades in florida on that. The two cruise ships have finally made it off the east coast of florida. The zaandam and rotterdam still in International Waters and hopeful that by tonight, maybe by as early as this afternoon, healthy passengers will finally be able to disembark and end what has been a cruise from hell. 2500 people are on the two ships. Half passengers and half crew including four children that are under 12. Broward commissioners and unified command works through the night working the details on a plan that keeps floridians protected from the virus and gets all these people back home. One commissioner says it is very close to being a done deal. Jim and colleen wing are on board and they live near orlando and should have been home nearly two weeks ago from what was supposed to be a glorious journey around the tip of south america. Their son says it has been stressful and desperate for the entire family. This is a humanitarian crisis. We have people that have passed away and people very, very sick. Much more sick than my stepfather who are stuck. According to the cruise line 1200 healthy passengers are on the ships. 45 have a mild illness. 10 need Critical Care. Nine have tested positive for covid19 and four have died. The journey has been everything you dont want. Two weeks spent in isolation in their cabins unable to leave. The last time they left the ship was march 14. 11 countries in south and Central America refused to help fearing the pandemic. Under the plan that is being discussed and could be agreed upon this morning, all of the healthy passengers would get off the ships first Wearing Masks, straight into sanitized and disinfected shut also and directly to the airport to get on planes and fly back home. The 10 critical patients will be accepted by Broward Health and taken to the hospital. The 45 others with mild illnesses wont be able to leave the ships until they get better first and meet cdc health standards. Sandra. Sandra important update on south florida. Phil keating. Thank you for that. Ed a doctor pulled over for speeding but instead of handing her a ticket, a state trooper shows her the true spirit of america together. We have that coming up. Plus amid records set in unemployment records President Trump looking to americas futures and the prospects for an economic rebound. Maria bartiromo will join us for the opening bell. President trump together we are going to win this war. The sooner we do the sooner we can begin to rebuild and were ready to rebound and return to normal lives. Sandra the markets just opened for trading over a minute ago on wall street and you are looking at a dow off 33 points after some pretty bad news on the economy. The unemployment numbers are out. Well get the government jobs report tomorrow on friday. This one showing more than 6 million americans filed for jobless claims last week alone. So the dow down 49 points out of the gate this morning. Now joining Us Fox Business Network maria bartiromo. You look at this number and this is nearly double what the estimate was for those filing for those jobless claims. And the market doesnt seem to be having too bad of a reaction to it this morning as if this was just expected. Well you know what . I think investors are expecting the news to get grimer frankly. You know, you are looking at 6. 6 million Unemployment Benefits this week. Look at the last two weeks. You total the two weeks. We had 3. 2 million last week. You are talking about 10 Million People filing for benefits just in the last two weeks. That is an indication of increasing furloughs, increasing layoffs and people needing help. Thats why the president wanted that relief package signed into law as fast as possible and people believe well get a fourth package. People are hurting as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The idea that businesses were told to shut down and close operations and stay at home until further notice. This is the numbers that were seeing on wall street. You arent seeing major reaction because we are expecting it to continue. Were in it now. The president said the next two weeks will be horrific. It will be that way in the economy as well. Sandra meanwhile, maria, i know you talk to people all morning during your show for three hours looking into the future as well. I know that you have drawn the conclusion that you believe that we are going to see a big rebound when the economy reopens, Fourth Quarter you are projecting a big economic boom. So is the president and here he is in his own words. President trump i do think once we get rid of the virus well have a boom economy. I think it will go up rather quickly. Maybe very quickly and maybe slowly. But it is going to go up and it will all come back. I think it is actually going to come back stronger than what it was because of the stimulus. Sandra while its hard to see that or attempt to feel that in this moment when things are so bad, maria, you are predicting a big economic rebound. Yeah. I think you have to write off the next couple of months. It is hard to write something off when you have lost your job and hard to say things will get better at the end of the year when you were just furloughed. It is a tough time right now, no doubt about it. I dont want to ignore that because these are real people, 10 Million People who have filed for Unemployment Benefits in the last two weeks. There is reason to believe this is all just temporary. The fact that all these businesses have closed is an effort to get ahead of this virus. An effort to make sure were social distancing and were away from people so the spread does not get worse and stop the spread of the coronavirus. I think that at some point, i dont know if its during the summer or after the summer, the president will make a determination that its safe to go back in the water and make a determination that businesses should start opening up again. I dont think well have the behavior after this is over. I think people will still be leery standing too close to people and getting germs and getting coughed on. I think well behave differently. When businesses start to open again except the sharp snap back Fourth Quarter and 2021. We have to get ahead of the virus first, sandra. Sandra you go back to the governor of new yorks word, andrew cuomo talking about the potential for the new normal that we may all eventually see, maria. It opened down but the dow turned around when we were talking and up 73 points in the first few minutes of trading. Well take it. Maria, thank you. Thank you, sandra. Ed as most of the world deals with this pandemic ordinary americans are stepping up every single day to help our heroes in the healthcare industry. Senior correspondent mike tobin has todays roundup of america together. Good morning. In a time when people are hoarding toilet paper it is easy to conclude civility is fragile and gives way to savage re but the people of doing whats right are out there. You need to look for them. As the coronavirus flared this doctor was pulled over for speeding. You are going way too fast. I had left work and lost in thought and to be honest not paying attention when i should have been. When the state trooper asked her about her out of state drivers license she explained she is a doctor in minnesota helping with the medical crisis. We had been issued a number of masks. I felt more than i probably needed. He gave her a warning and a handful of masks. It was unexpected to say the least but also the depth of the gesture, i burst out into tears. In san antonio, texas the tailors at alterations to go started sewing masks. The Community Stepped up with donations of cash and fabric. As long as donations keep coming and as long as i can pay my people to be here, we will keep on going. From what im hearing on the news, this is helping people survive. In suburban detroit sam heard Healthcare Workers were running short of personal protective equipment. Within 24 hours he generated enough money to drop 24,500 latex gloves at royal oak beaumont hospital. There are still some good people out there. Sams donations have largely dried up. Alterations to go have produced thousands of masks. Combat doctors tell them in a pinch. The doctor is hard at work dealing with the cardiac complications that come from respiratory problems. Ed we appreciate that. For more stories of people going the extra mile like that along with information how you can help as well go to foxnews. Com america together. Sandra good stuff there. The coronavirus taking a heavy toll on the music world. Family of ellis marsalis, junior died from pneumonia brought on by the virus. His son said he died the way he lived, embracing reality. He was 85 years old. Award winning songwriter adam sles, inc. Er has died as well. Known as a member of the band fountains of wainwrighting the title track for the 1997 tom hanks movie that thing you do. He was just 52 years old. Ed so many stories. New york city mayor bill deblasio asking for more equipment in the fight against the coronavirus. We need to build out an additional number of 65,000 hospital beds in the city of new york by the end of april. We already have a tremendous start. Ed youve heard about a new Field Hospital in central park that is helping, opening its doors to its first covid19 patient. Well hear from the hospitals medical director. Thats next. Plus a new report claiming thousands of ventilators in a National Stockpile may not work. Some experts warn some Healthcare Workers may not know how to use them. Well dig deep on that coming up. For many of our members, being prepared. Wont be a new thing. And it wont be their First Experience with social distancing. Overcoming challenges is what defines the military community. Usaa has been standing with them, for nearly a hundred years. And well be here to serve for a hundred more. But i never had the time and then i tried babbel. [announcer] babbel, the number one selling language learning app in the world. Youre learning phrases that you can use right away in real life conversations. After just four weeks i was feeling confident enough to have simple conversations in french. speaking in french language now im speaking french. Babbel, the quick way to get conversational in a new language. Try babbel free today, go to babbel. Com or download the app. We are all working together, federal government, state government, city government, nonprofit organizations, charities, everyone is working together. When we think about our hospitals, we are thinking about all hospitals together, public, voluntary, independent. All of them. Everyone is wearing the same uniform. Ed bill deblasio calling for a united front. As a Field Hospital in central park admits its first covid19 patient. Dr. Elliott tenpenny joins us live now. You have a mask on. You are covered and making sure you stay healthy. Thats important as well. Welcome to the program. Thank you having me. Ed tell us the first covid19 patient, just in general, how that person is doing. Doing very well right now. This disease is a rough disease. Causes severe shortness of breath. He came in yesterday, started to be treated with oxygen and doing quite well. Ed how many ventilators do you have, then . Whats the extent of the operation, how many covid19 patients do you think you could take over the next few weeks . This Field Hospital behind me takes all covid19 patients. It has 68 beds within it. 10 of those are i. C. U. Beds. They have ventilators to take care of some of the sickest patients in new york. Weve been hearing how difficult it is for this city in particular, but other cities like new orleans, parts of florida, that are being hit pretty hard. Always want to remember what is happening but new york has been the epicenter, we want to remember whats happening around the country and what others may expect. How does this compare with what you are seeing in new york city to what your organization may have been doing elsewhere around the world in places like italy . Honestly, samaritan purses exist to come along to bring the hope and healing of jesus christ to the people and greatest need around the world. First that was italy. We have a Field Hospital there. The second you see behind me. Now the epicenter especially here in the United States is in new york city. So were here to come alongside mt. Sinai hospital our partners to help take care of the people of new york. Ed what are you seeing in comparison then . So many people have watched what played out in italy and is still playing out frankly this very day. Is it worse here in new york . About the same . How do you compare it . Italy has actually been a few weeks ahead of the United States and new york city. Theyve been suffering with this, with high death rates for many weeks. Weve been able to minister to the people there for the last few weeks. Now new york is getting worse but were here to come alongside them and help them in jesus name. How does it compare with the great work that samaritans purse under the taout ledge of the reverend franklin graham, of course, have done responding to earthquakes in haiti or other problems around the world . I know they are different situations but compare this in the grand, bigger context of what youve seen around the world, sir. Absolutely. Ive deployed with hospitals like this, earthquakes, hurricanes, bahamas recently. War zones in iraq. Taking care of people all over the world. The need here honestly is just as great as weve seen it elsewhere in the world. Just that this one comes from an outbreak. But we remain steadfast to come alongside the people wherever they are in the ditch of life and help them and care for them as possible. Ed given the fact you compare it to every many big, big crises youve seen around the world, what is your message to the American People this morning about how hopeful you may be . We had an emt on at the beginning of the program saying that he is having to black tag people, mark them for death even though they could have been rescued because they have so many cases and somebody going into cardiac arrest they cant bring them to the hospital. They have too many covid19 patients to take care of. People hear these stories. How do you remain hopeful in this crisis . What light at the end of the tunnel do you see, doctor . There will be challenges. There already has been challenges. New york just like the rest of the world is in a battle. A battle against this disease. But there is hope. We are here to show that hope. There is hope both medically and hope spiritually. We come alongside to share that hope in jesus christ and to share the hope with new york city and the people. That together with what each person can do, we can get through this. Ed which heard that message from the president as well in terms of listening to what the cdc and other medical officials have said. Everybody has a role in this. Dr. Elliott tenpenny, you have a remarkable role and we salute what you are doing and appreciate it very much. Thank you for having us. Ed sandra. Sandra thank you to them. Hard hit louisiana meanwhile is responding to the pandemic. How some medical students from tulane are helping out. Years. And were here for you especially now, doing Everything Possible to keep you connected. Through the resilience of our network and people. We can keep learning, keep sharing, keep watching, and most of all, keep together. Its the job weve always done. It is the job we will always do. Did yocould be signs that syour digestive systemwn isnt working at its best . Taking metamucil every day can help. Metamucil supports your daily Digestive Health using a special plantbased fiber called psyllium. Psyllium works by forming a gel in your digestive system to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down. Metamucils gelling action also helps to lower cholesterol and slows sugar absorption to promote healthy blood sugar levels. So, start feeling lighter and more energetic. By taking metamucil every day. Inwe turn. A shortagef of hospital beds. Ywhere a shortage of supplies at the grocery stores. A shortage of the needed vaccine, a shortage of answers for the questions everyone is asking. But with all the talk of shortages, theres one thing which we will never run short of. We will never run short of gods love. He is with us, he loves us, he is strengthening us and he is watching over us. But when it feels like we dont have what we need, god promises to provide for us. And when it feels like things are falling apart, god promises to be there for us. What is god saying in this time . Among the answers must be this promise from psalm forty six and verse one, he is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. Turn to him today. Sandra meanwhile some more sobering numbers from around the world. Nearly a Million People have now been infected by the coronavirus. Almost 50,000 have died from it as countries are doing what they can to fight the pandemic. Benjamin hall is live from our London Bureau with the latest from there. Good morning, yes, sobering numbers indeed. Not least here in the u. K. Which has seen the fastest rise in deaths across europe. 30 increase. Yesterday alone taking the total number of deaths in the u. K. To 2900. Boris johnson has been heavily criticized for his low respond and lack of testing. The only two drivethru testing sites opened in the u. K. Sit practically empty because of major confusion who has been invited to be tested. Across europe one of the greatest needs is still for icu beds for critical cases and in france as with other countries, the military is now having to ship patients on helicopters, high speed trains and jets to distribute cases around the country. The death toll in france stands at 4032. Middle east irans death toll is the highest. Official figure is almost 3,000. But Opposition Group mek says the real total is around 15,000 and now they say there are riots and antigovernment protests growing around the country and say a number of top commanders, mullahs and politicians have caught the virus. Doesnt bode well for the regime. Good news doctors in spain where the death toll is over 10,000 applauded after 93yearold man recovered from covid19 following five days in isolation. In europe more than 95 of people who died are over the age of 60. Sandra thank you. Ed the white house predicting if americans follow the guidelines the u. S. Could turn the corner on all this. Seema verma from the task force is coming up. I just could not hear. I was hesitant to get the hearing aids because of my short hair, but nobody even sees them. avo our nearly invisible hearing aids are just one reason weve been the brand leader for over 70 years. deborah when i finally could hear for the first time, i started crying. I could hear everything. avo call 1800miracle to start your 30 day riskfree trial and schedule your free hearing evaluation today. Ed fox news alert. The coronavirus pandemic hitting another grim milestone amid new warnings the worst could be yet to come. Welcome to a new hour of americas newsroom, im ed henry. Sandra im sandra smith. 1,000 people in the u. S. Have now died from the virus in a single day. Pushing the total to now more than 5,000 deaths with the caseload now above 200,000. New york remains the hottest spot of this outbreak still. Hospitals in the city under siege and pushed to the brink scrambling for extra beds and lifesaving equipment. President trump now on whether people should be Wearing Masks when theyre in such short supply. President trump if people wanted to do it we dont want to do anything that will take masks you talk about a tremendous amount of masks when you do that. We dont want to take them away from our medical professionals. I dont se Sandra Jonathan serrie is live outside the cdc in atlanta for us. Good morning. Good morning. If you are wearing a mask outside of the medical setting federal Health Officials dont believe it will protect you from getting the virus but it may reduce your chances of spreading the virus inadvertently to others by catching droplets in coughs and sneezes and speech. If you are going to choose to wear the mask, it should be nonmedical grade or homemade. You dont want to deplete the supply of n95 masks needed by doctors and nurses on the front lines especially in places like new york which remains the epicenter of the outbreak. In los angeles the mayor is recommending everyday residents wear face kof, when they have to venture out of their homes. He says this advice comes in response to growing evidence that many contagious people dont realize they are infected with the coronavirus because they have no symptoms. Research shows even a bandana tucked in can have an effect of slowing down droplet spread. These face coverings are only effective will safe distancing. In georgia new research from the cdc is what convinced him to issue a statewide stay at home order drafting it later today. It would go into effect on friday. The cdc announced individuals can be infected and begin to spread coronavirus earlier than previously thought. Even if they have no symptoms. From a Public Health standpoint, this is a revelation and a game changer. Pennsylvania and florida have also announced stay at home orders. They are among 39 states that have either issued or are about to issue stay at home orders and advisories. Sandra, this affects roughly 89 of the entire u. S. Population. Back to you. Sandra Jonathan Serrie in atlanta for us, thank you. We believe were in a much better place by june 1 if every american will put these guidelines into practice. We really do believe that by memorial day weekend or by early summer we can be through the hardest part of this. The Vice President showing some optimism there that america will see improvement in the Coronavirus Crisis by the summer despite white house projections earlier this week the country could see between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths from the pandemic. Lets bring in seema verma from medicare and medicaid services, Senior Member of the White House Coronavirus task force. Thank you for coming in. Good morning. Ed we hear about all the grim milestones and want to balance it out and hear what you are optimistic about. Dr. Cuomo will talk about the crisis, the city and the stating is going through. The governor is also always quick to add a lot of people getting coronavirus are getting better. What are you optimistic about this morning . Well, im optimistic about watching americans and everyday life trying to adhere to 30 days to slow the spread. Thats whats going to make the difference here. We want to reduce the number of people that get sick. We want to reduce the strain on the Healthcare System. And watching americans really try to adhere and to do their parts. Neighbors helping neighbor. Thats what will make the difference here. Ed when we heard Vice President in the clip we want to be in a better place by jun 1 or memorial day after the president threw out easter as a potential reopening of the country. That had to be pushed back because of the Health Models you put together. How can americans be optimistic when they hear the goalposts moving so often . This is a changing situation. The decisions that were making are all data driven and why we put that information out there so the American People can see exactly the type of information that the president is using to make those decisions. But we are hopeful that if everybody can adhere to 30 days to slow the spread, adhere to those guidelines, that we could be through this and hopefully by june were in a different place. Ed the Vice President said Something Else about the models yesterday. I want your reaction. We think italy may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point for a variety of reasons. And so we built that modeling. Ed the images that americans have seen of italy are frankly horrifying how it has played out there and still playing out. So i want to get the full context here and be fair to you. What is the Vice President referring to when he says the best model we have for america is what is happening in italy . I think that if you look at these other countries, if you look at china and south korea, they had very different approaches. Were a free country and given recommendations to the American People and hoping they are going to adhere to those. In terms of what happened in italy, the strain on the Healthcare System, those are the things and lessons were trying to learn from. Were trying to prepare our Healthcare System. Some of the recent regulations that we pulled back from just earlier this week are going to have a really big impact on our Healthcare System. It is giving them that flexibility at the local level and empowering the local communities to figure out what capacity that they have in their existing Healthcare System and to prepare for that potential strain on the Healthcare System. Ed when you talk about the strain on the Healthcare System, we spoke to an emt here in the new york city area earlier in the program, steven reid. Here is what he said about what he is seeing on the ground. Listen. Its Disaster Management and disaster medicine. Sometimes you have to black tag people that you could save but its all about doing the greater good. Ed you said black tag people you could have saved . Triaging people. Ed yeah. Kind of like a multicasualty incident. I know i could save that guy but i need to get to the other 20 people. The same disaster. Ed he said that somebody may be in cardiac arrest and they are being instructed, the emts, you cant save that person. We have too many coronavirus patients that you could potentially save over here. Doesnt that sound like the awful life and death decisions that have been made frankly in italy when you talk about that model where these horrifying stories we heard where somebody was older and sicker and they said we cant take care of that person . Yeah. That is a horrifying situation and thats why what were doing at the federal level is trying to create a system that is prepared for a crisis. A lot of the rules and regulations that we normally have in place arent going to work in a time of crisis and strain. Thats why weve been pulling back trying to empower local communities. Basically telling hospitals you dont have to provide Services Just in your four doors. There is ambu la tory surgery centers. Those could be used as sites of service and were giving more power to the hospitals to help their Healthcare Work force in terms of paying for meals and childcare to help the front line heroes. Ed this emt is seeing a lot of people die. Some hopeful signs, dr. Oz has been talking about the use of hydroxychloroquine. Youve talked about it. The president has. Dr. Oz says he reached out to you and said since you oversee medicare and medicaid if you go through the records on who is using drugs for lupus like hydroxychloroquine. You could ask them youve been using this drug safely. Do you have coronavirus or not. It could be a game changer. Have you followed up on that . We absolutely have and working hand in hand with the fda. Medicare is a rich source of data. We can go back and look at what patients were taking what types of drugs and whether they did develop the coronavirus. And so we are in conversations with the fda how we can leverage medicares data to help inform some of these decisions and the fdas review of the safety and efficacy of these drugs. Ed seema verma, you have a big task ahead of you. Tough days ahead. We appreciate you coming in today. Sandra. Sandra meanwhile cities in the midwest starting to emerge as coronavirus hot spots including the city of chicago where the army corps of engineers is converting Mccormick Place Convention Center into a Field Hospital now. Matt finn is live in chicago with more on that. Matt. This is chicagos Mccormick Place, the largest Convention Center in north america and right now inside is being converted into a medical facility with 3,000 beds to treat covid19 patients. The makeshift hospital has three different facilities the treat people based on varying conditions. The army corps of engineers has taken on the task of transforming the wide open Convention Center into the best covid standard possible. Controlling the air pressure in a large facility and providing hundreds of selfcontained units. We spoke oneonone with the Lieutenant General as a team of engineers toward the progress here. He said 600 sites in 50 states have now been identified as possibly being converted to emergency facilities to specifically provide more bed space. I think everything is going very smooth right nou. It is an uphill battle without a dou. You have to be extremely aggressive. This is all about not finding the perfect solution. The entire United States. Not finding the perfect solution but the Mission Essential things so we can do it. In detroit a very similar medical facility being constructed inside the Convention Center down town right next to gm headquarters. Michigan is the fourth worst state in the United States just behind california with at least 9300 cases and 335 deaths. Illinois here now has 7,000 cases and 141 deaths. Here in chicago as with many other cities, including new york, the medical Examiners Office is using a refrigerated truck to store the bodies of covid19 patients. It is looking for even more storage space. Sandra. Sandra matt finn on the ground in chicago for us. Thank you, matt. Ed fox news alert. Stocks reacting to the latest weekly jobless claims showing more than 6. 6 million americans applied for Unemployment Benefits just last week. A closer look at your money, the impact of the coronavirus on the economy. Thats coming up. Plus a look at how contractors and the selfemployed who lost their job are getting muchneeded help. Help of a different kind in the coronavirus hot spot of louisiana. How medical students are making a big difference on the front lines. This is going to get much worse before it gets better and nobody should think that were out of the woods. We cant even see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. Veterans you know Mortgage Rates have fallen to 50year lows. But did you know that your va benefit lets you easily refinance to a lower rate . One call to newday can save you 2000 a year. With newdays va streamline refi theres no income verification, no home appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. Its the quickest and easiest refi theyve ever offered. Call newday now. Sandra the new England Patriots are bringing protective equipment to Healthcare Workers on the front lines. Bob craft sending a patriots plan to send n95 masks from china to boston. This comes after the Massachusetts Governor announced a shortage of those. 300,000 of the masks are expected to be sent to new york. So stepping in in a time of need. Ed thats terrific. Coronavirus taking a massive toll on the selfemployed and independent contractors. The 2 trillion dollar stimulus package makes unemployment available to them for the first time. Theyre people with deal with in daily lives. Hard working folks like a maryland air dresser unable to work not due to work. My last client walked out the door and i had a feeling was going to be my last day, i did cry. But as of now, im staying busy around the house, there is plenty to do here so it hasnt quite sunk in yet. The financial fear hasnt quite sunk in just yet. Adding to the stress her husband is also an independent contractor, piano tuner unable to work. Just trying to keep an industrious mentality of focusing on what i can do. Focusing on the opportunity i have to get some things done around the house rather than spiraling into, you know, whats been taken from us. At the end of last week there was a 2 trillion relief package. A big part is helping folks losing their income due to the shutdown and economic downturn. Ohio republican senator rob portman noting for the first time the bill expands Unemployment Insurance benefit eligibility to cover most selfemployed individuals, government workers and nonprofit employees. Many independent contractors just want to get back to work but there is some relief knowing help is on the way. Were trying to be selfsufficient but this its a very unusual circumstance and it does give us a little peace of mind knowing that weve got a little bit of a safety net. Part of the stress is not knowing when they and million else of other independent contractors will be able to return to their jobs. Ed tough times indeed. Thank you, mike emanuel. There is no reason to think that louisiana wont look like italy. And i know thats the hard, bitter pill to swallow because that picture is rather gruesome, is not what were accustomed to. Sandra louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on the dire situation. The number of covid19 cases now more than 6,000 in the state of louisiana. Now a group of tulane medical students have decided to pitch in by collecting donations of some of the most desperatelyneeded protective gear for the hospitals there. Joining us now is alex woodbridge, a student at the Tulane School of medicine leading that initiative. Good morning and thank you for being here. Of course thank you for what you are doing. How are you stepping in and helping out with the situation there . Thank you for having me today. So a lot of us tulane medical students were pulled off clinical rotations and wanted to do something to help the front line providers. Last week on monday we started collecting ppes specifically n95 masks, masks, surgical gloves and gowns among other items and distributing since last tuesday to our front line hospitals. Sandra what are you seeing are some of the most badlyneeded items . I would say the masks are the most needed. N95 specifically. Surgical masks, covered gowns and gloves of all sizes, but any ppe or personal protective equipment is badly needed on the front lines. Sandra were looking at a picture of some of the students involved. You are stepping in and also working with the cajun army which weve become familiar with after natural disasters. They step in and try to help and rescue people. What has been the collaboration like with the hospitals, tulane university, and then the suppliers and getting people to facilitate the delivery of that very important equipment . I think something im not originally from new orleans. But how quickly the community can come together. A Great Community outreach and Community Support for this endeavor. The cajun army, chinese new Orleans Association has been helping a lot among other community organizations. So i think the big thing is once we got the word out, a lot of people stepped up and reached out. And our group specifically galvanized over 100 students with the first weekend calling businesses and local industry. And it just snowballed from there. Were really fortunate we have the support of our deans office, tulane administration and hospital administration. My group has been working a lot specifically with the hospitals, like you said. Tulane Medical Center but also lcmc which includes the university Medical Center down the street from our school. Sandra having gone to college in louisiana myself, i know how those communities can rally back after going through so much. There are some grim projections of what lies ahead for the state of louisiana. You are stepping in to help. How has your help been received as a medical student there at tulane and so many of your other fellow students are stepping in as well . I think its been well received by the community. Like i said, so im a third Year Medical Student and were typically in the hospital. Since were not in the hospital at this time, the students really just wanted to help. In addition like our ppe drive allows for students not in clinical years, first and second years to participate and we received a lot of messages from providers that we know, residents that we work with and nurses we work with that its really helping. I think the idea is that this effort is really just meant to bridge the gap until were able to receive supplies being ordered as manufacturing ramps up and we get state and federal aid. Sandra as americans it is so important we see how all of us can come together and pitch in and help in any way we can. Im sure you didnt see your years as a medical student looking like this. You never could have predicted this. Thank you for what youre doing. It is a big help for all the folks on the front lines down in louisiana. Thank you. Thank you so much. Were just happy we can do something to help a little bit. Sandra its wonderful, thanks, alex. Ed meantime new reports thousands of ventilators reserved in the National Stockpile are not actually operational as hospitals continue to be slammed by a shortage of medical supplies. Well get into that. More hospitals across america may not have the capacity or resources to deal with the surge in coronavirus patients. A live report on the potentially devastating impact in Rural America next. In those small Rural Counties that have the lowest number of hospital beds but likely the most atrisk patients. vo quickbooks salutes those who work for themselves. Theyre adapting to support their communities. But many need our help. If youre a Small Business in need, or want to help a local business, go to quickbooks. Com smallbusinesshelp intuit quickbooks. Witpeople at higher riskng, must take extra precautions. You are at higher risk if you are over 65, or if you have an underlying medical condition. Please visit coronavirus. Gov for more information. President trump we have to have the flexibility of moving the ventilators to where the virus is going. So right now we have a nice pile of ventilators. We have a lot more coming in. Ed that was President Trump touting the u. S. National stockpile which he says includes thousands of ventilators. Some dont work. Doctors report a critical need amid a nationwide shortage. Lets bring in the ceo of the American Association for respiratory care. How concerned are you about the latest report the National Stockpile has ventilators that some of them are not working . Well, we are monitoring that right now. I talked to some therapists about this. Primarily what is happening some ventilators are coming in without stand. You cant necessarily put it on floor. It is important to have a stand. Or in the bed. You need to have it on a stand. The other is that some batteries are dead so they have to be charged up. But thats pretty much the only thing ive heard. I dont know to what degree its happening now. Ed lets break that down. How easy would it be to remedy that. A hospital gets 100 of these and there is a battery problem. Can they fix it relatively easily in terms of getting stands, could this be fixed . Sure. I talked to a colleague of mine at new york presbyterian brooklyn methodist today and what theyve done. Theyve been able to get stands in and had them overnighted to the hospital. As for the dead battery, i imagine they can just be charged up and then they should be good to go. If not you would have to somehow get batteries to back them up. For me the ed thats why its important to have you on. The initial headline suggests its a real problem. There can be some problems but you are suggesting given your insight and longtime knowledge that these can be fixed and can be remedied. I think so. And i dont know to the degree of which this is happening. Like i said were monitoring that. I can tell you that we as an association have been training up respiratory therapists for several years to use the ventilators for Something Like this. And we continue to train them. We have online programs and videos that we put together to train them on the three ventilators used for this. Ed got it. What about personnel . What are you hearing . Weve also heard the ventilators are sophisticated. You cant just plug them in and leave the patient with the ventilator. You have to have a medical person, whether a doctor, nurse, another technician taking care of them. And thats been a problem, a challenge at least mangeing sure there is enough personnel. How is that working out . The other technician is a respiratory therapist. It is them that manage the ventilator. We are the ones that monitor and make changes on the vents as appropriate. The team of three that are making this happen. As for the therapists, 155,000 practicing therapist efs in the country. 80 are in acute care hospitals. When you take care of patients in a ventilator you have multiple ventilators you are managing. It isnt just one. We are seeing a bit of a burden right now. Were looking at options right now. We are trying to bring back retirees and bring in students about to graduate and in discussions with physician groups to see if maybe some of their students who are about to graduate might be able to come in and team up with the respiratory therapist as well. Ed i know you arent a doctor and im not asking for your medical opinion. But what is the word in the industry, since you have this knowledge, about what we hear whether or not two or three people can be on one ventilator. What does the industry say . We think its a last ditch effort. There are a lot of things that are very concerning about it. I wish i had more than 30 seconds to explain it to you. We dont have time. It can be done but it is very little in the literature about it. Ed absolutely. Well dive deeper on that on another occasion. Great information. Tom kallstrom, we appreciate your time today. Sandra all right. Thank you, ed. We want to bring in florida Governor Ron Desantis joining us in an update on the situation with those two cruise ships set to dock in south florida. Governor, thank you for being here. What is your announcement now and what is going to happen with those passengers with so many of them having fallen hill. I think we have a plan, the county, Broward County where the port is working with the stakeholders and the cruise lines and coast guard to be able to bring both of those ships in but do it in a way that will be safe for the people of florida. There are a number of floridians on the zaandam. We want to welcome them and have them be safe. There is confusion about some of this. There is probably another 2,000 ships out there. Some of them want to come to florida. None of them have american citizens. Theyre all foreigns and weve been concerned about it as with the coast guard. The zaandam, we have a plan to get our folks home. Some of these other ships out there will be a big, big problem because it has no connection to florida or to the American People. Sandra as you know, governor, the Holland America ceo is pleading for help on bringing these ships in and getting some of those passengers who need critical help immediately. He said it is humanitarian situation and calling for compassion and reason. What are you going to do with some of those critically ill passengers on board those ships . We worked with the local hospitals and i know we have one hospital thats able to take some of the critically ill. They have the capacity to do that. I think it can be done. The numbers wont necessarily overwhelm. One of the main issues with this pandemic is people are going to get infected. Its a respiratory disease, it spreads. We want the spread to happen slower so the system doesnt get overwhelmed. We worked very hard in florida. I think we have more availability of beds than weve had in quite some time. Thats been a lot of diligence. Hospitals are working hard. Weve done executive orders to do that. Weve prepared for this surge and we want to make sure that the beds are available for the floridians who need it. On the zaandam, those folks will get into a hospital in south florida as soon as this agreement is reached. It is the humanitarian thing to do. Sandra this is a pair of cruise ships were talking about that will be coming in to dock a short time from now carrying more than 200 guests and crew with flulike symptoms. Only eight from tested positive according to the latest reports in front of me. Many of those other passengers could be Walking Around with the coronavirus. Are you going to allow those passengers to get off the ships and will they be tested . The agreement is that hopefully announced today all this is going to be controlled. For example, the foreign nationals. They will be bused to the airport but they are not going to go inside the airport. They go directly to a plane. Fly to canada and other countries. It will all be done in ways that are not going to expose the people of florida to any of the illnesses that may be on there. There has been a lot of things being discussed to do that. Obviously you have to be safe when you are doing this stuff. I think they found a way to thread that needle and if they did and that ends up the deal gets finalized everyone will be fine. We would be very concerned with a ship where this illness is circulating to just basically release people into the general public. That would be totally contrary to Everything Else were trying to do for Public Health not only in florida but throughout the country right now. Sandra im not sure what you said putting them on a plane after they get off the ship and going to canada. There are 808 guests on the rotterdam. 583 crew and 311 i was telling you what the cruise ships are proposing to do to be able to get folks safely home. Obviously there is no easy solution to this. You can just leave them on the ship forever. That is not something they want to do. You cant just release them into the general public if theyve been exposed. They are trying to figure out a way they can be safely transported to their country of origin without having interactions or contacts with the general public either in florida or anywhere else. So i think the details of that sandra in the case of the rotterdam, 311 of them are american citizens, 52 of them are floridians. Yes. Were working on a plan. Ive authorized the National Guard to support Logistics Operations as necessary to be able to help repatriate the florida citizens. It has to be done carefully with safety in mind but thats the best way to go about it. Obviously as governor i have an interest in getting floridians back to florida safely and have an interest in making sure that if a floridian has been exposed to this virus they arent in a position to expose others. All those things are being worked on. It will be done carefully and i think that is really the appropriate way to do it. At the end of the day these cruise ships are problems when you talk about a respiratory contagious virus. I know they stopped sailing. You still have some of the ones that had taken off in march and thats just the situation we find ourselves in. If i could snap my fingers and no one would be on a cruise ship now and all at home i would do that in a second. Thats not the situation we find policies going forward. A lot of stuff two weeks ago a lot of people were making decisions without having any real facts. Were starting to get more facts in and understand a little more about the virus. We tried to react accordingly. Our testing we have more negative results than almost any state. I think new york may have more. Well continue to test, test, test. Thats how you know how to combat it. Sandra okay. We would love to check back with you and get another update as cruise ships as they come in. Governor, appreciate you coming on the program today. Your population, so many of them over the age of 65. Its going to be a huge challenge going forward. Appreciate it, governor, thank you. Thanks. Ed losing your job is hard enough but applying for Unemployment Benefits can be like adding insult to injury. Up next well show you how to navigate what can be a tough process. New fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. Fixodent. And forget it. Sandra fox news alert. From wall street at this hour we are seeing the dow now on the rise up 330 points. Investors shrugging off for now news of the 6. 6 Million People that filed for unemployment claims last week alone. So there you have it, 21,285 on the dow. Cheryl casone anchor of fbn joins us now. What the leading to the latest spike in stock prices . Its President Trump actually. The tweet he just put out talking about the saudis and russians. Said he has had conversations. He said he had new conversations with saudi arabia and russian president Vladimir Putin to try to get them to pull back on production. Theyve been flooding the market especially the saudis with oil and the Oil Price War is one of the first reasons that you saw markets come under pressure even before the coronavirus really became a market worry for concerns. He said basically he is asking them to cut back 10 Million Barrels per day and maybe substantially more. Thats been hurting the energy companies, the Oil Companies in this country because theyve got a glut of oil on their balance sheet. Talk about opening up the fpr for u. S. Crude to go in. A piece of it. The 6. 6 million a horrible number. 10 million initial claims over two weeks, sandra. It will probably be another rough number next week when we get into claims next thursday. Sandra to be clear, the tweet from the president just spoke to my friend, the crown prince of saudi arabia who spoke with president putin of russia, he writes. I hope they will be cutting back 10 Million Barrels. To your point about the oil prices, oil is spiking more than 30 leading to the rally we see on the big board. Final thought . I do want to say another story were following right now. It is the rush to get the unemployment claims for those that are a little confused. Those are gig workers, uber and lyft drivers. If you have problems on the state unemployment website be patient. We know there are problems out there. Try to be patient. Well get the claims filed as soon as we can, the u. S. Government is. Tough for everybody all around right now, sandra. Sandra the dow up 300 points for now. Were watching it. Thank you. You bet. Ed the pandemic has yet to affect many rural areas across the country. There is concern that when it does there could be big problems. Thats next. Ith va loans. Thats me. By using your va streamline refi benefit, one call to newday usa can save you 2,000 a year. Thats me. Theres no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. Thats me. Put your va home loan benefits to good use. Call my team at newday usa. Ed rural hospitals may not have the resources to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. If the virus hits small towns it could be deadly and economically devastating to hospitals there. Alicia acuna is live in denver. Before covid19 landed in the United States rural hospitals were suffering. It dealt a devastating blow. I want to show you the hospital in hugo, colorado. 70 of their revenues came from nonessential procedures. Lincoln Community Like so many rural hospitals across america does not have ventilators and not equipped to handle coronavirus patients. One idea taking hold in colorado and elsewhere rural hospitals offering to relieve pressure off major metro Healthcare Facilities serving noncoronavirus related places like places like denver and places with covid19 from small towns can be transferred to larger hospitals. The National Rural Health Officials says these facilities face limited resources, geographic isolation and low population density, poverty and chronic disease rates. In colorado alone half of the rural hospitals have been operating in the red. Thats just a reflection of what were seeing around the country. Ed thank you. Well be right back. Had to pay for the device. When i go back, everything is covered. Theres so much youre missing by not having hearing aids. vo well find you a hearing aid that fits your lifestyle and your budget at one of our 1,500 locations. Call 1800miracle to start your 30day riskfree trial and schedule your free hearing evaluation at your locally owned miracle ear today. Ed fox news alert as we hit a grim milestone in america. The number of coronavirus cases exploding now and around the world. Im ed henry. Good morning. Sandra good morning, ed. Im sandra smith. The number in the u. S. Tops 215,000 and yesterday for the first time we had more than 1,000 deaths in a 24hour period. New york is still the hardest hit area with Governor Cuomo saying the state may not hit its peak until the end of this month. This virus has been ahead of us from day one. You dont win a war that way. The next battle is the apex. Thats where the enemy either overwhelms our Healthcare System or we are able to handle the onslaught. Were hopeful if everybody can adhere to 30 days to slow the spread and adhere to the guidelines that we could be through this and hopefully by june were in a different place. President trump difficult days are ahead for our nation. Even in the most challenging of times americans do not despair or give in to fear. We pull together, we persevere and we overcome. Sandra live Fox Team Coverage for you with dr. Nicole saphier on the medical angle. Benjamin hall is overseas and David Lee Miller in hardhit new york city with more. Hi, sandra. Here at the mt. Sinai hospital on new yorks east side, they are struggling like all hospitals in the city to cope with the increasing number of coronavirus patients. But here we are seeing something that we have not witnessed before. This facility is building what are called negative pressure rooms to contain the virus. Vents are installed to create lower air pressure in patient rooms and corridors which reduces airflow and the spread of the virus. The airborne infection isolation rooms are being installed systemwide. New york City Ambulance crews are told not to bring people suffering cardiac atroes a hospital if the patients heart cant be restarted on the scene. It was issued to reduce stress on hospitals already overwhelmed. An emergency medicine doctor in the city describes the scene here as a dire situation. Hospitals are running out of medication. Some hospitals dont have protective gear for staff. Or family members of patients that come to the hospital. Also hard hit by the virus is new jersey. The northern part of the state home to many commuters. Governor murphy toured a Field Hospital at the middlelands exposition center. Seven hospitals in new jersey are diverting patients to other medical facility. They have more coronavirus cases except for new york. At 7 00 p. M. Every night here in new york city there is an eruption showing support for Healthcare Workers and they bang on pots and hoot and holler and let the folks trying to keep us safe know how much their efforts are appreciated. Those accolades very well deserved especially considering that new york mayor bill deblasio says there is going to be a surge of coronavirus patients likely to take place starting on sunday. Sandra. Sandra David Lee Miller in new york city for us. Thank you. Ed thanks, stay at home orders expanding around america. 39 states and the washington, d. C. As well issueing a advisories and direct towers covering 288 Million People. 90 of the american population. Joining us now dr. Nicole saphier. Good to see you. We had seema verma on the program earlier from the president s task force. She was optimistic about social distancing and that it is working and that there is light at the end of the tunnel coming early summer. Do you share that optimism . I absolutely do. The thing that i try to continue to tell people right now is everyone is hunkered down in their own homes and doing everything were being told to do. We keep seeing the increasing numbers. Everybody has to remember that this virus has a long latent period meaning the incubation period between when theyre exposed and develop symptoms are longer than the flu or other things. The people in icu and people dying now were exposed to the virus one to three or four weeks ago. We wont know how well our efforts are doing for another few weeks. So i just hope that people are not getting caught up in these numbers and they know that we are doing the right thing right now. Ed interesting because dr. Fauci yesterday was talking about improved testing and how critical you talked about this from the beginning testing to know exactly who has it, who doesnt. Here is what he said and ill give you a chance to react. The one thing we hopefully would have in place, and i believe we will have in place, is a much more robust system to be able to identify someone who is infected, isolate them and do contact tracing. If you have a really good program of containment that prevents you from ever having to get into mitigation, were in mitigation right now. Ed talk about that balance there. Testing, mitigation and social distancing weve talked about. Right. So weve already said and acknowledged we have been delayed when it comes to testing. It didnt happen right away for multiple reasons. We have amped up the testing but already have Community Spread. So we werent able to stop it before we had Community Spread. Now that we do have Community Spread we need to make sure were testing those positives and accurately talking to the people or alerting the people theyve been in contact with. With h. I. V. If someone is diagnosed h. I. V. Positive they have to tell the people theyve been with to alert them. That is the way of mitigating that spread. The same is true with the coronavirus. If we can focus on the people that are infected and the people theyve been in recent contact with we might be able to get to back to business as usual faster. It will only come with testing and now we talk about testing for antibodies. Meaning exposure. People who exposed and asymptomatic carriers and they recovered. If we can identify those people they can get them back on the front line or people back to business. Small businesses open if we know people are immune to the virus. Ed on that issue of testing the wall street journal crossed a story saying theyve looked at data suggesting nearly one in three patients infected with coronavirus are getting negative test results. Some false negatives. Doesnt that complicate it a lot more . Let me tell you, ed, of course it does. This is the whole reason why we ended up rejecting the initial chinese test back in january because they report evidence about a 48 false negative rate meaning you got a negative test result but you actual have the infection. False negatives are not in common when it comes to these things and why our initial testing was faulty. They had similar problems. I havent seen reports showing the various testing and their reporting sensitivity and specificities but false negatives are true. Thats why a lot of people are doing presumptive positives because if it sounds like a duck, walks like a duck, treat it like a duck. Even with a negative result i still implore people to selfquarantine for 14 days, just assume you have it until you have an Antibody Test saying you have immunity it to. Ed the Vice President yesterday made a comparison between the u. S. And italy in terms of the modeling. Lets play that and ill give you a chance to react. They call it modeling models they look at what has happened around the world. We think italy may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point. Ed it is obviously hard to make a direct comparison. Our population is much different than italys. When people hear we compare most closely to italy after the horrific images weve seen out of italy help us make sense of what he is saying there. I knew this was going to cause some controversy but i understand what he is saying. Let me explain this. He is saying were comparable to italy in the sense we didnt have aggressive testing in the beginning. We started implementing social distancing measures the try to mitigate the spread. Were catching up with testing. Here is where we are not similar to italy. Italy has over a 10 fast alt rate. 10 of their patients are dying. In the United States were still under 2 . That largely has to do with our Healthcare System and our highly trained specialist doctors, nurses respiratory technicians. In my opinion we have a much stronger position than italy in that sense. What he was meaning that we just didnt do the aggressive testing in the beginning. Ed very important distinction and thats why we have you among many other reasons. Thank you. Thanks, ed. Sandra all right. There is little relief from the spread of covid19 around the world as the number of cases continues to climb worldwide to now nearly a million. The virus already killing almost 50,000 people around the globe. Benjamin hall is live from the London Bureau with more on all that. Benjamin. Good morning, sandra. Were getting sobering numbers from across the globe now. Particularly today here in the u. K. Where we saw the fastest rise in the number of deaths across europe. 30 increase here in the u. K. Total number of dead to 2900. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been heavily criticized for a slow response and lack of testing around the country. The only two drivethru testing sites opened in the u. K. Are practically empty because of major confusion of who has been invited to get the test. Across europe one of the greatest needs with so many other countries is still for icu beds for critical cases. In france the military is now having to ship patients on helicopters, high speed trains and jets to try to distribute cases around the country. Death toll in france is now at 4032. In the middle east irans death toll is the highest. Official figure is almost 3,000. Opposition group the mek says the real total is over 15,000. Now there are riots and antigovernment protests growing across the country and say a number of top commanders and politicians have caught the virus. In india where all 1. 3 billion people are in Lockdown Police have filed a criminal case against clear i cans of an islamic sect for holding a religious event. 1500 people were exposed to the coronavirus at the mosque. 441 admitted to hospital. The clerics face up to six months in jail. Now nearly three billion people across the globe are under some kind of lockdown. Thats almost 40 of the worlds population. Sandra. Sandra Benjamin Hall with an update from london. Thank you. Ed they may not be stranded at sea much longer. What the Florida Governor is telling us on americas newsroom about two cruise ships looking to dock there after a deadly outbreak of coronavirus on board. Plus well talk live with two passengers and a new kind of ventilator. How it could ease the shortage. Well talk live to the mom and pop company producing them plus the coronavirus outbreak on the uss roosevelt and what the navy is planning to do for the thousands of sailors who are still on the aircraft carrier. The situation is very dynamic and were supporting our subordinate commanders to protect our sailors and marines so they can protect the homeland and maintain readiness to the best of our ability. Ed the u. S. Navy is planning to move 3,000 sails aboard a Nuclear Aircraft carrier to slow the spread among the crew. Fewer than 100 of the 5,000 sailors assigned to the uss roosevelt have tested positive for the virus, the warship is now docked in guam where 1,000 sailors have already been removed. The others expected to be quarantined in hotel rooms by friday. Sandra a small texas shop is now making helmet ventilators and has been flooded with orders. Hospitals across the u. S. And around the world are calling in thousands of orders a day now. Researchers say the device could help clear the backlog for traditional ventilators needed for the most critically ill patients from this virus. Chris is the owner of c long medical systems. Good morning and thanks for being here. Good morning. It is my privilege. Sandra tell us about your shop. Before the pandemic hit you were getting orders for a dozen or so of these a week. What are you hearing and seeing now . Exactly, were inundated with phone calls from all over the world. India to just anywhere you can think of plus the majority of the hospitals in the u. S. And we can easily get orders for 500 to 1,000 and some individual orders 20,000. Sandra describe to us exactly what this helmet ventilator is and how it can help with the current pandemic . Okay. I just happen to have one here. Sandra great. It is similar to a type of space helmettype device. It has connections here for the same type of connections exactly as the ventilator so it is compatible with any hospital devices that they already have. And then the pressure once the neck seal is put on the patient. This comes off and put around the patients neck and seals it off at the bottom like this and then this is used to pressurize to the point where it forces the oxygen and air into the patients lungs as if it was being applied with intubation. Sandra where currently are these being used, chris . Just so many different hospitals. University of chicago, penn in pennsylvania, we have quite a few v. A. Hospitals. Just i cant even remember all of them. A lot. Sandra its a wonderful thing and obviously if this is something that can help those that are most critically ill from this thats a big win for everyone. Making enough of them will be a challenge based on the fact that you werent used to this demand. Are you hiring more people to accommodate the growing number of orders . Of those . Its a very multistep process. Some of it is done here behind you in the radio frequently welding machine. We have four more being delivered today. Those are the ones purchased by virgin galactic. Once theyre set up, well be able to produce 5,000 a week. So we have very well plans to get us to 50,000 a week within four to six weeks max. We want to do it much faster so were looking for someone who could be a benefactor that we can scale up quickly. We dont have the funds. We havent been addressed by any of the state and federal officials to give us some of the assistance so we could scale up faster and bigger and we know thats whats needed. Sandra chris, that is an amazing message and were glad we can get that message out there. If you are able to make more and these are helping with the current environment, that could be a great thing. We heard your story here and we appreciate what you are doing, chris, thank you. To all those helping you out, by the way. Thank you for getting the word out. Every little bit helps. Sandra you bet. Thank you. Well check back in with you, thanks, chris. Ed every little bit help. Thats great. Trump administration allowing hospitals to split ventilators between two patients with covid19. How does it work and is it safe . Well ask an intensive care physician next. Plus the white house facing criticism for its response to the pandemic. Guess what . Adam schiff among other democrats may be trying to investigate the president again. Your spouses va streamline refi benefit lets you easily refinance when Mortgage Rates drop. And they just dropped to the lowest in newdays history. Refinance now. Theres no income verification, no appraisal, and no out of pocket costs. One call can save you 2,000 a year. Refi now. G zpz61]nn ior anything i want to buy isk going to be on rakuten. Rakuten is easy to use, free to sign up and its in over 3,000 stores. I buy a lot of makeup. Shampoo, conditioner. Books, food. Travel. Shoes. Stuff for my backyard. Anything from clothes to electronics. Workout gear. I even recently got cash back on domain hosting. You can buy tires. To me, rakuten is a great way to get cash back on anything you buy. Rack it up with rakuten, sign up today to get cash back on everything you buy. Sandra fox news alert. The White House Coronavirus response facing new scrutiny as President Trump resists calling for a nationwide stay at home order. But the president appearing to be open to having a conversation about the crisis with joe biden. Chief White House Correspondent john roberts is live on that for the north lawn for us this morning. Good morning. Lets start with what you began with. A lot of alarm the United States unless something happens could begin to look like the disaster that italy has become. The Vice President looking toward that direction yesterday when he said we think italy may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point. Italy is what the United States was trying to avoid. At one point actually right now italy has a case fatality rate of 11 . Were still well below that. Known case fatality rate is 2. 3 . The louisiana governor said there is no reason to believe louisiana wont look like italy. New criticism from democrats today. A military person should be put in charge of production and distribution of medical supplies by Chuck Schumer and just sent a letter to the president to that effect. We need him to put in charge a czar of the whole production and distribution of these materials under the dpa. That should be a military man. The military knows how to get lots of materials and lots of different places quickly. Mr. Navarro, who was in charge, i was very disappointed. He is a good man, a professor and knows a lot about china. He knows nothing about this. The president responding to schumer on twitter that we have a military man in charge of distributing goods. New york has gotten far more than any other state include hospitals and hospital ship. No matter what always complaining. It wouldnt matter if he got 10 times not was needed it wouldnt be good enough. New york got off to a late start. You should have pushed harder. Stop complaining and find out where all the supplies are going. Cuomo working hard. The president there referring to his assistant hhs secretary, an admiral in the Public Health Service Commission corps and taking a lead role that items are getting where they need to be. 10 Million People filing for Unemployment Insurance in the past two weeks a big issue, people who are losing Health Insurance or already dont have it. The president deciding not to open obamacare insurance exchanges. Some Insurance Companies have said theyll cover the cost of copays for people who have insurance leaving millions without healthcare coverage. I asked the president if he is willing or working to address that. Listen here. Insurance, people who arent insured by the companies covering the cost of the copay, where can people go now to get Health Insurance if they get sick . Ao President Trump its something were going to look at. It doesnt seem fair. If you have it you have a big advantage. Certain income level you do. In terms of containment and mitigation the president also saying yesterday he is considering halting flights from hot spots like new york, detroit and new orleans for a time. He says its a difficult calculus. You have to way the survival of the airlines against the potential Health Impacts of people leaving those areas. The president also saying that he would be willing to take joe biden up on his offer of a phone call between the two to discuss coronavirus strategy. Bidens campaign saying well start arranging that call. Havent heard anything on that front yet. Well see if it happens. Sandra we shall await that if it does happen. John roberts at the white house for us, thanks, john. Ed the Trump Administration giving the green light to hospitals splitting ventilators only under certain conditions writing such a strategy should only be considered as an absolute last resort. Judging against the alternatives, a long term handbaging or death. They must be made on an individual level. Joining us to help explain and what through this dr. Douglas white. Thank you for coming in, doctor. How do you read that guidance from the administration . I think it is very guarded. And they are right to explain it in that way because there is quite a lot of uncertainty about the safety of ventilating two patients with one ventilator. Essentially there is a real risk that it will hurt more people than it harms if it comes to that. Ed is part of of it you have to create a certain level of an amount of air pushed in to rest prait them and if you have two people they might not be on the same level and finding that level so they can both get better is difficult, among other things. Exactly. Respirator is a box, sophisticated box that blows air out from one tube to one patient. The proposal it blows through one tube and splits into two others. You cant regulate what goes from one to the other. Whatever you set the ventilator for is what both patients get and now how we typically ventilate patients who are very sick in intensive care units. Ed a guest last hour said you have to have specific people to know how to work the sophisticated machines. Weve been hearing about shortages of personnel. Governor cuomo and others saying theyre trying to get retired medical personnel to step up. Are there enough people to operate the ventilators . Thats a great point. The way to ventilate patients really is very sophisticated and requires advanced medical training. More so if you try to split ventilators. The more patients being treated in intensive care units the more Critical Care doctors you need. At some point there does get to be a shortage of doctors rather than ventilators. Ed what about the issue of dealing with so many people sick at once and trying to figure out who might be sicker than the next . We spoke to an emt person earlier today who was saying out in the field theyre being instructed if somebody goes into cardiac arrest and you arent going to save them you have to move on. There is a wall street journal headline what is happening at a big hospital in new york. Nyu telling er doctors think more critically who gets ventilators. Emergency room staff who withhold futile intubation threatens to discipline doctors who talk to the press about this. It scares a lot of people. The idea of rationing care. Somebody who is healthier will get the ventilator and someone less healthy might not. You have studied this and gone through this issue about how you do this fairly. What is your thought on how it is playing out right now and how we deal with this . I would say that the only thing worse than having an approach to allocating ventilators is not having an approach because that will lead to many more lives being lost. And so when there is a Public Health emergency like what we are faced with the ethical goal is to save as many lives as possible and typically that means that not everyone can get the treatment they normally would under usual circumstances. We have developed a framework that prioritizes patients most likely to survive with intensive treatment and the years beyond. This is in contrast to how we normally do things, first come, first serve. Whoever gets to the icu first gets a ventilator. If were really trying to save patients the focus will need to be on finding those who are most likely to benefit, treating them first and going as far down the list of patients as possible to save as many as possible. Ed how does it happen in the real world in a crisis like this now . I know its an evolving situation. There is not a one side fits all. Emails from viewers say i watch these news reports and im older with an underlying condition. People write and say im afraid if i go into an icu and im 58 or 68 and there is somebody 45 or 35 im going to die. Right. I think whats really important is the approach that were advocating keeps as eligible for intensive care all patients normally eligible. Age and disabilities things like that are not exclusion criteria in contrast to some of the existing guidance on the topic. We estimate a persons likelihood of surviving. Not age. It is the physiological measurements. Thats what prioritizes patients. Ed we appreciate you walking us through all of that in a very considerate way and trying to figure it out. Fox news alert. Sandra update on the joint a lot of people. Remember new york youre talking on a base of 19 million so number of positive cases up to 8669. 92,000 total in the state predominantly in new york city but you see westchester and nassau, which by percentage is a troubling number. Remember new york city is so much larger than westchester and nassau or Suffolk County 1,141 new cases. Thats troubling news. Number of counties you see the entire state every county in the state now has reported a coronavirus case. We said it was going to march across the state. Ive also made the point to my colleagues on every phone call with the other governors and officials and i say it will march across the country. It is false comfort to say we are a Rural Community. We dont have the density of new york city. That is a false comfort. You have counties in new york state where you have more cows than people. New york state, dont think of just new york city. Upstate new york is a Rural Community and you see that its not just urban areas, it is suburban areas, thats westchester, nassau, suffolk. And we have Rural Communities that are comparable to Rural Communities all across this country. In many ways new york state is a microcosm of the United States. And thats why i believe it is going to be illustrative for the rest of this nation as to what is going to happen. Current hospitalizations as i said 92,000 tested positive. 13,000 currently hospitalized. 3,000 icu patients is up 300. 7400 patients discharged is up 1292. Thats good news. Number of people going to the hospital is going up. Number of people coming out of the hospital coming up. Number of deaths up to 2373 up from 1941. Looking for a trend line, the trend line is still basically up, total new hospitalizations, trend line of icu admissions is still up. Certainly a couple of small deviations but the line is up. Number of intubations is up but if you want to take an optimistic view you could start to see a plateauing in the number of intubations. The statisticians tell me thats an optimistic view. Number of daily discharged is going way up. Thats people going in and people going out. Challenges still at the apex. Thats what this has been all about for every system in this country now. Everyone is basically waging the same battle. Different time frames, different numbers, different percentages. But other he the same battle. When you hit the apex, which is the highest rate of infection, highest number of people coming to the hospital system, can you handle that number . Can you handle the height of the impact on the hospital system, which is at the apex of the curve . We call that the battle of the mountaintop. At least i call it the battle of the mountaintop. The questions people keep asking which are the right questions, well, when is the apex . It depends on what model you use, what model you follow. We follow all the models. It is anywhere from 7 to 21 to 30 days depending on what model you look at. How can you have that variable 7 to 30 days . It depends on how that model rates how effective social distancing is, right . The variable is the models that think social distancing is going to be more effective at slowing the rate have a longer time frame for the apex. Those models that discount the social distancing, they have a shorter time frame for the apex. It makes it difficult to plan, frankly, because 7 to 30 days is a long window. And we are literally planning on a daytoday basis deploying assets on a daytoday basis. We believe it is closer to the shorter end of the range with our inhouse people looking at the professional modeling that is being done. How many beds will you need at the apex . Between 70,000 and 110,000. Again, thats a broad range. Again, thats one of the frustrations trying to plan for this. Right now we have 53,000 statewide. We have only 36,000 down state. Remember that. This is primarily a down state issue. So by any estimate we dont have the number of beds but again weve taken extraordinary measures. Every hospital by mandate has to add a 50 increase. And they have all done that. Were setting up extra facilities. Which weve been talking about. Weve been shifting patients from down state hospitals to upstate hospitals and thats continuing. When does this end . You have projection models that have us hitting the apex, coming down from the apex, models vary at how quickly you come down from the apex but they all basically say you come down from the apex quickly. And then some models have it flattening out but flattening out for a period of time. Models have it flattening out and continuing through the summer. How many lives lost . Only one model that we look at that has the number of projected deaths which is the ihme model funlded by the Gates Foundation. We thank the Gates Foundation for the National Service theyve done. That is the model that suggests approximately 93,000 deaths across the country. That is the model that i believe dr. Fauci was referring to when he said about 100,000 deaths by that new york would be about 16,000 deaths. By that model. When were doing this planning and were doing our deployment, the theory is the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, right . So thats true for the hospital system. We have about, give or take, 180 hospitals that we are focusing on here in this state. The hospitals that will have the greatest issue will be those hospitals that are usually the most stressed in normal circumstances, right . So if the hospitals before this were under stress, you then add this crisis on top of that, those are the hospitals that one would expect to see struggling first. Thats also true for the entire hospital system. We talk about beds, we talk about staff, we talk about supplies. The truth is you need all three of those things to provide any care. A bed without a staff doesnt do anything. A bed and staff without supplies doesnt do anything. So you need all three of those components to work to have a situation where someone can get care. In terms of beds, those are the easiest to find and were constructing additional facilities . Were going to start at the brooklyn terminal in new york city. 750 beds. We are taking an office of Mental Health facility in Staten Island and converting it to a covid only hospital. So on beds were in relatively good shape because a bed is a bed, right . A bed is a question of a structure. Push comes to shove we can acquire dorms, we can acquire hotels, we can acquire physical structures with beds in them. Of those three components, bed, staff, supplies, i personally am least worried about bed capacity. We have 2500 beds at javits and 1,000 beds on the naval ship comfort. Beds we can find. Not easy but we can find them. The harder components are the staff and the supplies, which is what weve been talking about. On the staff, were continuing to shift staff from the upstate hospitals that are less impacted to down state hospitals. Weve requested out of state Healthcare Workers. God bless america, 21,000 people have volunteered from out of state to come into new york state. I thank them. I thank their patriotism. I thank their dedication and passion to their mission of Public Health. These are beautiful, generous people. And new yorkers will return the favor. New yorkers will return the favor. This is going to affect every place in this country. We are in some ways the first major encounter. Were learning. Well get the experience and well return the favor. When your Community Needs help, new yorkers will be there. And you have my personal word on that. And it is also the new york tradition when there has been a hurricane or there has been a flood or hurricane katrina, new yorkers are the first ones in their cars to go anywhere in this nation that needs help. And i will be the first one in my car to go wherever this nation needs help. As soon as we get past this. I will never forget how people across this country came to the aid of new yorkers when they needed it. And i deeply appreciate it. We have 85,000 volunteers now in total, which are being deployed to the hospitals so they can find staff that works for them. Supplies are an ongoing challenge. The ppe is an ongoing challenge, the gowns, the gloves, and the ventilators. First of all, for the First Time Ever a hospital by Hospital Survey that will be done on a nightly basis of exactly what they have. As i said, were coordinating the Healthcare System in a way its never been coordinated before. Rather than having all these regional systems and public systems and private systems, etc. , we have a central stockpile. We are asking all the hospitals to contribute what they have to that central stockpile and then we will disperse on a need basis. Some hospitals have more supplies than they are using. We are saying dont horde supplies, lets put all the supplies in a central stockpile and well draw down from the central stockpile and well monitor this on a daily basis. On im also asking on supplies. I dont have a new york defense production act, right . Governor cant say to a company we need you to manufacture this. But i ask businesses just to think about the situation were in and a possible opportunity. It is the cruelest irony that this nation is now dependent on china for production of many of these products. Many of these products in the normal marketplace were being produced in china. And now you have everyone shopping china for ppe gowns, ventilators. The gowns, the gloves, are not complicated components to manufacture. The gowns are tyvek or paper material. If you are a manufacturer who can convert to make these products and make them quickly, they are not complicated products. The fda lists the specifications for these products on their website. If you have the capacity to make these products, we will purchase them and we will pay a premium and we will pay to convert or transition your manufacturing facility to a facility that can do this. But we need it like now. Were not talking about two months, three months, four months. We need these materials now. Thats the stress. I understand that. But if you are in the Garment Manufacturing business, if you have machinery that can cut a pattern. A coverall, you arent making a fashionforward fitted garment, right . These are relatively straight forward components. So if you can do it, its a business opportunity, it is a state need, it is a national need. Please contact us. Well work with you. Well work with you quickly. There will be no bureaucracy and no red tape and were not asking for a favor from these businesses, well finance what you need in terms of transitioning and well buy the product and i will pay a premium because we need it. And this is the number for the Empire State Development corporation which is handling this task. In terms of ventilators, we released 400 ventilators to last night to the new York City Health and hospital corporation. We released 200 to long island and westchester. As i said, you see those growing numbers in nassau and suffolk and that is starting to stress that Healthcare System. So we released those ventilators last night. At the current burn rate, we have about six days of ventilators in our stockpile meaning if the rate of usage the rate of people coming into hospitals who need ventilators, if that rate continues, in our stockpile we have about six days. Now, if the apex happens within that time frame, if the apex increases, if the apex is longer, we have an issue with ventilators. These numbers, by the way, are also going to be compiled every night. There is a difference of opinion how many will you need . Well need what we need. I have no desire to acquire more ventilators than we need. The way we basically are acquiring ventilators is the state is buying them. They are very expensive and the state is broke so i have no desire to buy more ventilators than we need. But we need what we need. If a person comes in and needs a ventilator and you dont have a ventilator, the person dies. Thats the blunt equation here. And right now we have a burn rate that would suggest we have about six days in the stockpile. But we are taking all sorts of extraordinary measures. Ive spoken to Health People across the nation. Dr. Zucker has done all sorts of research and we have extraordinary measures in place that can make a difference if we run into a real ventilator shortage. First we know where all the ventilators are in the state of new york by hospital. If we have a problem in any hospital we are going to take the ventilators that are not needed from the upstate hospitals and transport them to down state new york or the hospitals that do need them which again more and more are going to be on long island. And then well return them or well figure out the finances of it and make those hospitals whole. Were also increasing the number of ventilators by ending all elective surgeries. If you dont need an elective surgery a hospital cannot perform it if its not critical. Thats freeing up ventilators. Were also using anesthesia machine ventilators without the ans esthesia and splitting ventilators. We put out a protocol. One ventilator, two sets of tubes can do two patients. It is not easy or ideal but better than nothing. Were also converting bipap machines. They dont have the same force as a ventilator but on an emergency basis some research has been done that says they could be suitable. We are also still in the business of looking for ventilators to buy ventilators. To late to ask a company to make them in any way that would work for our time frame. You look at our time frame 7 to 30 days. No one will be able to make a ventilator for you in that period of time. Nationwide parts of the country that have a later curve, yes, if you give a company two or three months they can ramp up production but not on our curve. So we have to find ventilators that we can buy and were still doing that. Again the main place is china. We are converting the bipap machines. This has not been done before but north well, one of our premier Healthcare Systems has developed the protocol and teaching the other hospitals how to do it. We just bought 3,000 bipap machines. And 750 came in yesterday. So yes, the burn rate of ventilators is troubling and six days of ventilators in the stockpile is troubling. But we have all these extraordinary measures that i believe, if push comes to shove, will put us in fairly good shape. I dont want to say yet im confident. And it depends on how many we need. But i can say with confidence we have researched every possibility, every idea, every measure you can possibly take to find ventilators. This state has done. That i can promise you. We are also going to open the Healthcare Exchange Enrollment Period through may 15th. We have about 96 of the people in the state are covered with Health Insurance. If you are not covered, were extending the Enrollment Period to may 15th. Please get covered. You can go to the new york state of Health Website and sign up. My brother, my little brother, i only have one brother, christopher, tested positive for coronavirus. A lot of people are concerned about him. Obviously people in my family but even beyond that. New yorkers are very compassionate and many people ask me about chris and how he is doing. Not just for himself, but we keep talking about this coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus. Im afraid of it and anxious about it. What does it actually mean . Okay, your brother has it. How is he doing . So a lot of people asked me that question. And i talk to him quite frequently. He is doing okay. I checked in with him this morning and asked him how he was feeling. And he was up and spry and much his normal self. I invited him to join us for a couple of minutes if he was up to it this morning. And i think he said that he was in a position to join us and i asked him to join us by video if he is available. There he is with his hat, say hello. I saw it, i saw it. Lets get after it. Lets get after it. I love that saying. You are looking for it and fine. Many people are asking about you. I tell you the truth, everyone i talk to is asking about you and how you are doing and how you are handling it. And how you feel. Cara is here, by the way. Shes working on supplies. So she says hello. How are you feeling