Press release and thats what it is. New york specifically though . We didnt get into the allocation but the allocation should be proportionate to the need, right . This allocation, 500 billion for the states. How do you allocate it among the states . Allocate it proportion to need. You know where the covid cases are. You can look at a map. You see the cases. You know that because you see when the president talks about reopening different states are in different places. Yes, different states have radically different situations when it comes to number of cases. So allocate the money where the problem exists. Allocate the funding to where the covid problem exists. In past bills where theyve done Health Care Funding for quote unquote covid, youve seen the numbers. Some states got about 200,000 for every covid case. New york got about 12,000 for every covid case. How do you justify that . Well, because its the senate, they wanted to give every state money so every senator had something to go home and do a press release about. I know, but if the state didnt have any covid cases, how much did you give that state of taxpayers money just so that senator could go home and do a press release . Give me a break. You can do a press release with you dont need billions of dollars to do press releases. Quickly to follow, the president said yesterday some states would start to go into phase one almost immediately. How do you think new york is from phase one or even phase two . Phase one, phase two, its what hes saying is depending on where that state is well, what the president is saying its up to the states. Its up to the governors. The governors who have states that have fewer cases can reopen faster. Yes, thats that has nothing to do with the president or fall policy or anything. All hes saying is its up to the states, and you will see states that have less of a problem opening sooner. That is undeniable and totally logical. So it depends on that state, where it is. And it depends on the numbers. And the governors rely on numbers. It has nothing to do with the federal government. On the when do we reopen . Were now. 9 on the infection rate. 1. 2 is the tipping scale where the numbers start to go up again, right . So your margin of error right now is between. 9 and 1. 2. You have many states where the infection rate is de minimis. Were at. 9. Were right up to that line of possible outbreak. So the states that will open first by the data will have much lower infection rates than we do. We were over the lane. We were in outbreak territory, right . Weve gotten that down to. 9. But your margin of error is between. 9 and 1. 2. And what the experts will tell you,. 9 to 1. 2, youre right on the line. Governor, the hospital rate seems to be stabilizing and going down. A few questions, are you therefore stopping some of the things you have done to increase capacity like the field capacity on the island . And is there any thought particularly in upstate areas of reopening hospitals and facilities to elective be procedures . There are reports workers are being laid off. Finally, we had reduced ppe standards and a bunch of requirements to increase this capacity, will any of that be now rolled back . And is there any concern reducing these standards, particularly ppe, may hasten infection or cause problems among Health Care Workers, because there are a lot of infections there. The cdc reduced the ppe guidelines. Not do alphabet soon, but it was the cdc that had federal guidelines on the personal protective equipment. And they have different guidelines apparently when youre in a crisis than normally. They went to crisis guidelines. And thats what many of the nurses, especially, are complaining about. What is the timeline for the policy, i believe . I dont know. We use the cdc guidelines on these issues. The use of masks, ppe and equipment and gowns are continuing to use but the issue is when can a Health Care Worker go back to working with a mask . So are we thinking about changing any of this . And do you have any concern this may have caused higher infection rates . I dont feel it caused higher infection rates at all. Health care workers worked extremely hard to protect themselves and make sure there wasnt any further spread. We are not first, you take all of these numbers with a grain of salt, right. Caution, you could have a surge, you could have a second wave. Look at wuhan, look at china, look at italy. Went up, went down, went back up. Be careful. But are we at a point where we are now immediately in danger of exceeding the Hospital Capacity we developed . No. Thats why were in a position to give back give away ventilators or lend ventilators to new jersey, other states, et cetera. So i dont believe we are in a place today where we are at risk of going over capacity. Governor yes . Im ann, by the way. Hello, ann. I want to talk to you about the rate of infection. Have you calculated the rate of infection for upstate new york specifically . We have not done those calibrations yet. This is all the rate of infection analysis is very difficult and there are a number of premises that theyre making in the calculation. So we dont have discreet rates of infection yet, no. It would appear you would have lower rates in upstate new york. And i actually know our area has made strides in the economy the past few years. Weve been decimating and have seen some Small Businesses go under. Is it important to find out what that rate of infection is to try and get parts of the upstate open that are not seeing those numbers . Look, its important to get the economy open wherever you can as soon as you can whenever you can. People had a nice break, and they were in their homes. I think everybody is well past i had a nice break. I want to get back to work. I have to get out of the house. I love my family, but i have to now get out of the house and i need a paycheck and i need it yesterday. So everyone is in that same position. At the same time people will say, i dont want to go out and get sick and die, right . So thats death is bad. And even though staying at home and not getting a paycheck is bad, its not as bad as death, right . Thats the ying and the yang here. So as soon as we can lower infection rate places, lower death rate places, are in a better position than places with a higher death rate, higher infection rate. So, yes, calibrating those differences is important, and balancing the economic need and the personal need with the public p health need and death, that calibration is everything. Good day. Im Andrea Mitchell in washington, continuing our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the facts at this hour. Governors across the country can lift restrictions. According to the president s new guidance to call their own shots. First thing is claimed days ago, he calls the shots, but the president is meeting the governors on their own to find the tests needed to know whether it is safe to start ending the shutdown. Where are the tests . The u. S. Is still testing fewer than i1 of the population as te death toll and number of cases continue to rise. And the economic devastation worsened across the nation. At least 22 million americans filing for unemployment benefits, food lines growing, protests from michigan to ohio to minnesota. Moment hes ago new York Governor Andrew Cuomo warning if his state moves too fast to get back to work, it could increase the number of infections and deaths. And testing remains a major problem, new york needing help from the federal government to get the chemicals from china required to process the test. Telling the president , dont pass the buck without passing the bucks. Joining us now nbc White House Correspondent and weekend today cohost kristen welker. The Washington Post columnist michael gersson, and former Obama White HouseCommunications Director jen palmieri. Plus michael osterholm, director for the Infectious Disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. Kristen, first to you, the president has been tweeting up a storm today already from state to state talking about people letting people out. He just said yesterday that the governors are in charge after reversing himself from monday. Is he now again saying he is going to tell the governors want to do . These tweets are quite confusing, andrea. Let me just walk our viewers to what hes been tweeting in the past few minutes or so, calling on several states to essentially be liberated. Liberate minnesota, he says, liberate michigan, liberate virginia. On this note he said its interesting, save your great Second Amendment. It is under siege. We know virginias governor just signed new gun Safety Measures into law. Not sure if thats a roenks reference to that and why he felt the need to invoke the Second Amendment into that. Heres what we also know about those states, andrea, there were protests in michigan yesterday with people saying that they thought that the stayathome orders were too stringent. And there are protests expected today in minnesota, with people who are going to argue the stayathome orders are too stringent. But all of those states, andrea, still have high rates of the coronavirus and presumably are not ready to move into phase one. And part of what he stressed yesterday, right, is this needs to be gradual. Yes, there are some states who may be ready to lift their stayathome orders and move into that phase one but certainly most of them are not yet ready to do that. In some senses he appears to be undercutting his own messaging here now. We have reached out to the white house, andrea, to try to get clarification, what specifically are his intentions with these tweets. So far, no response. But this does come as the white houses plan to reopen the economy is coming under scrutiny for the issue you have highlighted, testing. The fact theres still no nationwide testing in place, andrea. And Gretchen Whitmer in michigan, the governor talking to Rachel Maddow last night pointing out the very people protesting were getting out of their cars, were potentially infecting themselves, reinfecting others when they went back to their homes. This is part of what she had to say. When we see a political rally, thats what it was yesterday, a political rally like that where people arent Wearing Masks and theyre in close quarters and theyre touching one another, you know thats precisely what makes this kind of a disease drag out and expose more people. So michael osterholm, talk to me about the testing piece of this. Kristen just zeroed in on exactly the point. Hes saying, governors, its up to you. Hes backing off on im in charge. Youre the ones who are going to do this, but hes not giving them the tools to know when they can open. You know, this is the challenge weve had from the beginning is this whole idea of Global Supply chains. Remember when wuhan happened back in december, early january, the world had a need of reagents about the size of a garden hose. When it spread in china, it got to be a fire hose. Then when the whole world got on fire and everybody wanted a test, suddenly we needed a canal of reagents and infrastructure, ability to remanufacturer, just werent there. What weve seen has been a comprehensive program for how were going to bring on that additional production quickly. Same thing is going to happen with the serology, antibody tests you just said. Mark my word, in five, six weeks we will have major shortages of trying to do that test because the reagents are going to be moved quickly since the whole world wants to do antibody tests too. This needs federal action. This cannot be done state by state, simply cant be done. Dr. Fauci was making that point and indicating in an answer he gave yesterday that its going to take until the fall to have full testing. Take a look at this. Remember, theres two type of things, antibody tests and tests for the diagnosis of who has the disease. One you need for contact tracing. The other you need to find out whats in society. Were going to have both of those much, much better as we go in the next weeks and months. And by the time we get into the fall, i think were going to be in pretty good shape. The fall is a very long time to wait to be able to know whats going on because theyre talking about reopening as soon as today as far as the white house is concerned. The question that i have maybe for you, jen palmieri, is this a political timetable or scientific timetable . I think dr. Fauci is on a scientific timetable. But when trump says liberate michigan and virginia, those are states he wants to win in november. Its hard to imagine a situation thats more appalling. Not only is he passing the buck and trying to avoid blame as hes done all the time, hes actually inciting his supporters, inciting these protesters to use the disease as a wedge to his political benefit. It doesnt have to be this way. I worked for two president s. I have worked in the white house 12 years. Were the United States of america. Our federal government can do anything. Our federal government could have gone really far at this point in solving this crisis if there had been a little leadership at the top. So its all appalling particularly because its now in realtime but the abdication of leadership and not utilizing what the United States has at its disposal to save these lives and stop the spread is depraved. Well, michael gerson, you have been writing about this. It does seem as though there was a real impetus behind the scenes of political advisers telling the president , you have to get off a hook here. Its great to say youre in charge but you need a scapegoat if this doesnt work, if there are reinfections and new surges. How do you find the balance between the need to reopen the economy, because people are suffering, and the need to prevent people from infecting others, themselves, their families, and creating a new wave of this pandemic . Well, thats the balance we need and the states are going to have to make those decisions. The problem is they dont really have a part from the federal government. You have a president who really wants to maximize credit and minimize blame. And testing is the symbol of that. This is a circumstance where were going to face shortages of the chemicals, shortages of skilled technicians to do these things. We could have a major federal initiative on these questions. We should have a major federal initiative. But i think that the president is not in that frame of mind. He wants to essentially assign blame rather than to get ahead of issues. Kristen welker, the president is now going after andrew cuomo in a number of tweets. I see here Governor Cuomo should spend more time doing, less time complaining. Get out there and get the job done. Stop talking. Weve sent you thousands of hospitals beds you didnt need. Theres a blame game going on. I had the sense watching the president yesterday, and you were watching very closely, it was everything other than the Mission Accomplished poster up there, a banner behind him. He was basically saying, okay, weve done this. The federal government has done its part. Governors, its up to you. I think thats the exact right reference, andrea, and what we essentially saw is President Trump set this may 1 deadline. Yesterday he felt as though he was meeting that deadline, and as he said some states might be able to reopen even sooner than that. The reason why you have him lashing out at Governor Andrew Cuomo in the wake of that press conference yesterday is today andrew cuomo said, look, we do not have the testing to do this, and we need the federal governments help. He was very clear about it. And so this back and forth between the president and the governors continuing and intensifying, andrea, as we enter this critical new phase. I think its also worth pointing out President Trump said now is not a time for partisanship, and yet hes continued with these very partisan attacks. So the question becomes hes clearly wanting to turn the page. He wants to see the economy up and back and running, but there are a lot of questions about whether or not this is going to be successful moving forward. If you still have the governor saying we just dont have the tools we need to make this successful, andrea. And michael osterholm, there in minnesota were beginning to see protests as well. The president is beating a frustration and gentle marys pointed out theyre all in key battleground states that hes calling out today on twitter. This is a real problem for the governors because theyve got people who are unemployed and who are desperate to get back to work. I understand that. But lets he just right now set the tone for whats going to happen. Were just at the beginning of this pandemic. What were going to see in terms of more cases, more deaths, more waves of illness over the upcoming months is going to far, far, far overwhelm anything weve seen to date. People keep forgetting that. Somehow i think they have a sense were over it, spring is here, its done. Those of us in Public Health know this are saying this is just the second inning of a nineinning game. So we have to come in and out, in and out with possible major waves of illness and then have to come back and find normalcy. I worry somehow were all approaching this is how do we just get the glide path out of this, where in fact what were doing is were just starting to get into it. Remind you, we will be talking about this a year from now, andrea, talking about how were going to deal with this particular wave of infection. People need to understand that. Michael osterholm, thank you so much, jen palmieri, michael gerson, kristen welker, of course. And meanwhile coronavirus cases are spiking among the Meat Processing plant employees. From south dakota where at least 733 cases are linked to a singling plant in sioux falls, all the way to georgia, where workers are testing positive for the virus after weeks of working in close quarters. Nbcs blayne alexanders been tracking all of that and is now in atlanta. Blai what are you seeing there . Andrea, what were learning from our reporting, what im learning, the employees we have spoken to inside these plants and reps, some workers say theyre scared to go to work but, quite frankly, feel they do not have a choice. One of the plants we have been reporting on extensively is tyson foods plant in south georgia, andrea. Thats where four employees have died. Among them is Willie Martins mother, annie grant. Heres a little bit about what he told me about his mom. Take a look. Really, i dont know how im going to work. Im sick. Shes like, i know my body, im sick. Were you concerned that your mom was still going to work . She said baby, theyre telling us if we dont come, we dont get paid or we risk getting fired. And she had to go, you know. Now, tyson tells us they relaxed their attendance policy so employees will feel more comfortable calling out. Theyve taken other measures as well. Shut down 48 hours to clean. Andrea, there are some workers who say even with those precautions they will not feel coming back both at that plant and other plants around the country. Its raising real questions about what that will mean on Grocery Store shelves. Andrea . Blayne alexander tracking all of this, thank you. And new jersey is now joining six other northeastern states and extending lockdowns for another month as coronavirus continues to spread through their communities. The city of elizabeth, new jersey, is taking surveillance to a higher level to force be social distance, raising concerns about big brother watching you. Nbcs rehema ellis has that story. Please move away from each other and separate. Reporter elizabeth, new jersey, is now using drones to spread the lifesaving message. You are not immune to this virus. Mayors need to be creative. We have to figure out a way to get the people that police cars cant get to. Reporter Elizabeth City police shot this video for us to show us how drones work. The drones make it easier for police to see into certain areas where access by patrol cars is more difficult. That includes tight spaces between buildings, behind schools and in backyards. Failure to comply could lead to a summons or 1,000 fine. You think that drones watching over people is a good idea or bad idea . I think at this point, its worth a try. Joining me now is new jersey senator and former president ial candidate cory booker. Senator booker, thank you very much for being with us. Youre also, of course, former mayor of newark. How do you feel about the drones . Look, at this point we need to save lives and its really important that in public spaces, people are abiding by the directives. I was the mayor of the neighboring city to elizabeth. We put up security cameras all over our city. Residents welcomed them, celebrated them. Its very similar to that. I know mayor bowlage, hes a Pretty Amazing mayor and one of the best we have in new jersey. Lets talk about the terrible spike of deaths in new jersey this week, passing 3,000. The testing shortage. Here youve got the mayor now rather, the president telling mayors and governors its up to you. Governors are in charge. Governors dont have access to tests. They cant get tests from china the way the federal government can. Theres an old wisdom that says you do not have to attend every argument youre invited to. This is a president not assuming his moral Authority Like we need him to do, coordination and rationalizing resources in this country, not raising to this challenge. But we found out when he threatened to cut constitutional powers he does not have, governors make the decisions. I hope every single one lets science be their guide on the well being of their citizens be their guide and do the balance of what they have to do about whats best based phupon facts d data for the residents of their states. What can the senators do about this horrendous situation in andover township, nursing home deaths, people not being reported properly to officials and to their families, more importantly. God, thank you for asking about this. Its a horrific, outrageous situation. We had 17 bodies discovered and its an affront to human dignity, to the humanity that was lost as well as to the families, to the community at largele. So my team has been in touch with the mayor there and others to make sure were doing what we need to do. But it also highlights something, is there are still very vulnerable populations where this virus can have devastating effects. And we have to do a lot more, frankly, nationally than were doing now. Including having access to testing and tracing and more to make sure that we can really get a handle on this and we need resources, frankly, to be able to protect the population. Speaking of vulnerable populations, governor. Africanamericans are accounting for 20 of the deaths that we know of at least in new jersey and thats probably underreported. What can be done to help those most Vulnerable People who are often living in the most dense areas . Well, this virus is highlighted already existing disparities. Theres a deep anguish in our country thats existed for generations where africanamericans have savage disparities when it comes to disparities when it comes to health care outcomes. And we see this with mortality rates four times higher for africanamerican women than white women in a country thats already dead last when it comes to internal mortality. So this is really an indictment for these challenges that many of us have been fighting to fix for a long time. Right now i call upon this administration to collect the data so it can form our strategies. We need to be making sure that those communities that are vulnerable, that theyre getting more of the support that they need to protect themselves during this virus. And then after this, our circles of empathy must expand, our moral imagination much grow a lot greater so we have a National Urgency to address these savage inequalities. And were learning the hard way in america right now, as it is, my parents generation and civil rights generation, a threat is a injustice to everyone. This virus knows no bounds. And spreading there and elsewhere. As we see with the paid leave. We know factually before this virus not having paid sick leave forces millions of americans to go to work when they have the flu and other contagions and has spread those diseases and those challenges in the past. Now thats just been super charged. So we need as a nation to come together to fight through this, not allow the petty politics that were seeing on the National Scene undermine common sense and care and concern and then coming out of this as we have other crises. Lets grow from this, learn from this and do better by each other. Because we are the United States of america, and were stronger when we lead with love in concern to our population. Senator, i know youre working on the Small Business gaps in the loan program, but is there anything that you as a democrat can do about the Democratic Leaders and the republicans not dealing with each other in congress . Yeah, what i do is what weve done on bigger issues in the past, like criminal justice reform. For example, senator danes and i, senator from montana, have a really big bipartisan fix to a lot of problems Small Businesses and nonprofits are finding, which is they cant even get lending institutions to help them even begin the process. Small businesses is the backbone of our country. We need less partisanship, more compassion and concern. I think Chuck Schumer right now is standing in the right place. We need to make sure that, yeah, we need to reup certain programs but we also need to get Critical Resources to our states and our localities who are in financial freeall. We have hospitals right now that still dont have the resources they need. A lot of our rural hospitals as joe mentioned were talking to me just this week that are on the brink right now. We need to do the Small Business association right. I think senator danes and i have an answer to a lot of the challenges Small Businesses and nonprofits are facing. We need to reup the fund overall but we also have to act now to help cities and states, towns that are in financial freeall might have to cut services, firefighters, teachers and we must help our hospitals. We can do this all at the same time. We need to come together and be less about the partisanship and more about meeting the urgency. Massive challenges like this demand massive responses. Senator cory booker, thank you so much. Thank you for being with us today. Coming up next as President Trump washes his hands of getting tests to all of the states, some European Countries are showing how they can get it done. What we can learn from other countries, thats up next. And first, before we go to break, we have a very special pickup game to show you. These spanish sisters took to the court, well, courtyard, of a 13th century family convent in brazil for a basketball break. Fun for the nuns who are also sewing protective face masks. Heres the thing about managing multiple clouds for your business. When youve got public clouds, and private clouds, and hybrid clouds things can get a bit cloudy for you. But now, theres the Dell Technologies cloud, powered by vmware. A single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. That should clear things up. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliability, and security you need. Tools to manage your business from any device, anywhere. And a team of experts here for you 24 7. Weve always believed in the power of working together. Thats why, when every connection counts. You can count on us. German chancellor Angela Merkel is leading the way as they plan to is reemerge from the shutdown. Starting next week, allowing some shops to reopen but shes still warning progress is fragile. And they are on the testing front in europe. Italy is slowly emerging from devastation as some businesses in rome now worry about a second wave. The head of the European Commission offering a heartfelt apology to italy for the failure to support italy in the worst days of the pandemic. Meanwhile the uk is extending its lockdown for another three weeks, as Prime MinisterBoris Johnson continues to recover from the virus. At checkers, his weekend retreat. Joining us from london, willem marx. Thank you very much. Ankle merkel leading the way, very interesting a g7 Conference Call yesterday led by the president because hes this years leader of the g7 and white house saying it was blaming the w. H. O. And all of that, and berlin puts out a statement from merkel saying in fact she was praising the w. H. O. And saying how important they were. And trudeau was as well. Theres a lot of disagreement the allies were not all in agreement as the president has said. Thats right. And Angela Merkel is a trained physicist, scientist by training. Shes been wearing a huge number of policies over the past few months because of her approach to this pandemic. Weve seen yesterday at the conference in which she explained in great nittygritty detail how quite the mathematics of transmission occurs. All of the epidemiological basis for her governments decisions. When it comes to that they are going to gradually ease restrictions. In the uk, as you mentioned, Boris Johnson trying to recover from his own illness. A country thats seen more than 13,000 deaths and had that lockdown extended threw may 7th. In spain this past monday, there was a bit of easing when it comes to the lockdown measures. Weve seep workers in certain areas of the economy there returning to their workplaces. Potentially in about ten days time further easing but kids, you know, still not able to go out and play in the local parks and the Government Spending huge amounts of money for its poorest citizens with a basic income to get them through this period. Austria, though, another really interesting example. They had transmission come through from northern italy. They kept their death count down to less than 400. I had a chance to talk to one man in advisory government there, hes in vienna, marcus miller. I asked him essentially what theyve done right, what he thinks worked. He said look, we cut the reproduction rate of this virus down to less than one. Every person infected are infesting rp less than one person. That was key, he said, to opening up some of the smaller businesses. But he said theres still a huge amount of unknowns. Take a listen. I think nobody really knows where this is going to lead us and how were going to manage this in the coming months. But i think early on the measures in austria, we were in a relatively i have to emphasize, really relatively comfortable position that we could think of step wise and very careful try of reopening the country. But you can see, you know, they started very early with the lockdown in austria. People now encoloneled to wear masks, for instance, andrea. But the fact theyre communicating with other countries and looking at whats working and not working around the world, an indication of how important that international fabric is when it comes to solving this. Really important lessons there, willem. Thank you very much. Joining me now is dr. Gupta, humanologist and Public Health expert from the school of washington. One of our contributors. Dr. Gupta, what can we learn from the way they reacted . I think we can learn its okay to trouble shoot and its the rate is less than 1, meaning one person with covid is infecting less than one individual. Maybe we should see what can work in an incremental returntowork strategy. Fundamentally what europe is struggling with is what were struggling with here as well. They have a bunch of countries in the eu that want to go and do their own specific approach. Its not coordinated. And just like here, we have the governor of florida opening up beaches at 5 00 p. M. Today under certain guidelines. But what does that actually even mean . Its a patch work approach here. Its a patchwork approach there. Our focus here should be how do we scale mass testing and give kmesks. So home selfcollect options, we need fda guidance, validation studies. When we talk about contact tracing, lets get specific. We need private sector innovation, focused on using annbased technologies, not hiring lesions of individuals to become Public Health experts. We need to use out smartphones to assist us to contact trace. I can get into what i mean by that. But we need to have specifics and we need to have a coordinated approach. I will say lastly any returntowork strategy should very much, very clearly adopt mask use in public, fabric mask use in public. The guideline issued by the cdc turns out they were right and the president really needs to embrace that and strongly message on it because were seeing more and more evidence in the new england journal as of yesterday that it can protect people from droplet transmission of covid. Thank you so much, dr. Vin gupta. Meanwhile, china is dramatically revising its death toll in wuhan, the city where covid19 originated. Adding 50 more deaths. Officials now saying nearly 4,000 people died from the novel coronavirus, an increase of about 1,300. This as the u. S. Intelligence community is looking into whether the coronavirus accidently spread from a lab in wuhan that was studying the virus instead of bats in the wet market. One source telling nbc it is a likability but not the most possible likability. Joining me now, the former cia of the pentagon. We have been hearing several messages here, mike pompeo pushing different theories on the labs. He really went forward but not mike esper or chairman of the joint chiefs at the pentagon saying its less likely. What do we know about the accuracy of our own jensz intelligence . I think we have to wait to hear from the intelligence professionals, andrea. Thats not something the president often does. But its so important here because an allegation that china allowed the virus to escape from a lab through negligence or worse, perhaps because they were trying to engineer something, thats an explosive charge that can really inflame geopolitical tensions. I think the president has sent mixed messages on china. You will recall on january 24th, the president basically stood up and said the United States greatly appreciates the efforts and transparency that china has undertaken. It will all work out well, he said, on behalf of the american people, in particular i want to thank xi jinping. Right out of the gate praising xi jinping, be congratulating china, thanking them for their transparency, and in fact we know theyve been anything but. When we look at china, china is the source of chemicals we need for the tests to be processed in labs. China is the source of the masks and a lot of the other equipment that we need. So this mixed message is contributing to the supply chain as well. Thats right, andrea. I think an integrate add approach to china has to have several elements. Number one, we definitively have to be tough on them on the lack of transparency. Also, i dont think we should be running head long into rewarding them with trade deals like phase one or trays one followon trade deal. But we do have to work collaboratively with china and other countries to solve this problem. Scapegoating that the chinese virus or denigrating or zeno phobic comments about china is counterproductive. Because a virus knows no political boundaries, does not understand nation states. It can infect anyone anywhere. And the presence of the virus in china or elsewhere could ultimately and will ultimately harm america and american citizens. So we have to work globally to take on this challenge, and i think efforts to try to divide us between countries or trying to look for scapegoats is fundamentally counterproductive. Do you trust the intelligence that the president is getting from the shakeups and the firings and lack of an independent watch dog now over the Intelligence Community . I trust the intelligence professionals. I have been talking to many of them over the last separate weeks. Theyre nose down working diligently. Theyve had to shift some of their modes of operation in some cases engaging in telework, working remotely, using other methods and means to collect and analyze intelligence. I think theyre doing a very diligent job at providing as much information up the chain of command as they have with respect to china and other countries. And with respect to what other countries are doing and how theyre reacting to the coronavirus crier sisis. But i do, worry, andrea, that the president sometimes doesnt listen, doesnt heed that advice. We heard earlier on in the administration times when the president said dont tell me about what Vladimir Putin is doing. And he will go out and praise xi jinping as i mentioned january 24th, despite the intelligence warning that the Intelligence Community provides. Jeremy, one of the things i was just referencing with willem marx is the white house put out this rosy statement about the g7 Video Conference that they had yesterday. And everyone agrees and criticizes the w. H. O. And thats not what happened according to Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau and some of the other world leaders. They, in fact, pushed back against the president s criticism of the w. H. O. Thats right. This is precisely the moment, andrea, we need to have Global Leadership from washington, from the white house, to bring together countries whether its in the g7 formation or g20 or other Multi Lateral institutions. The way we have to think about this virus is its a new kind of threat, a global threat that affects every country, every person, all of humanity, in fact, and only through a global approach will we be able to confront this crisis once and for all. Jeremy bash, its always great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us today. And coming up next finding solutions. Were going to introduce you to an ohio couple whose dinnertime conversation about the shorten of n95 masks led to a major breakthrough right from their dinner table. Stay with us. Let me help. Here we go. Lift and push and push there. Its up there. Oh, boy. Hey joshie. Wrinkles send the wrong message. Help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. Hey bud. Hey, pop pop so you wont get caught with wrinkles again. [woman laughs]. Governor cuomo moments ago fire back at President Trump saying if the president is sitting home watching tv, remember the president was tweeting about cuomo, maybe he should get up and go to work and that he should pay as much attention to states as your business businesses and your ails. I dont need the president of the United States to read the constitution for me. Maybe he should have read the constitution before he said he had the power to open the states. He did a very graceful 180. And after that, well see how that goes as the day progresses. Certainly going to be a response from the president. Meanwhile, on the front lines, the shortage of medical personnel protective equipment or ppe is still one of the biggest challenges. So a Family Doctor in 40i wohio worried that the n95 masks in her hospital was in short supply. After sharing her kerr her con her husband who was an engineer, he said why dont you just clean them up and a solution was born. Now the pentagon has announced a 415 Million Contract to commission 60 decontamination systems on the masks can be reused. Joining me now is that couple, kevin who is a Research Institute at battelle and also a family physician at ohiohealth network. Thank you both. Kevin, tell me the idea you got for your wife and how you engineered it. Thanks, andrea. So when lori mentioned that the n95s were going to be a problem, both locally and nationally, i immediately recalled a study conducted by my colleagues at battelle about five years ago, you know, led by my colleagues that specifically looked at this in response to the h1n1 pandemic of several years ago to address this issue directly. And so the technology is to use a gaseous decontamination method to rid the n95 mask of the dangerous pathogens and then we show that had they could show that had they could be used at least 20 times or more after this process. And just amazing. Lori, how long did it take to get fda approval for this . It was pretty incredible. As soon as i heard about the study, concern was able to connect us with the lead author from the study and we talked and i was able to take it to ohiohealth leadership. And we were meeting with executives from both institutions and battelle dropped really everything to work 124 7 to come up with the solution for us. And it was two weeks after the first meeting between ohiohealth and battelle that battelle received fda approval for this method. Pretty incredible. That is just incredible. So kevin, lets talk about what is it actually, is it a vapor, Hydrogen Peroxide, what do you do to clean the masks . It is a process that we use for other purposes to rid equipment, surfaces and other materials from dangerous pathogens. So basically the masks are put inside this test chamber, they are positioned in such a way that the gas can free flow around them and, you know, interact with all the surfaces. And then we inject this Hydrogen Peroxide in vapor format a fairly high concentration. And the cycle they are bathed in that gas for two to three hours. And then you evacuate the chamber of the gas and then you can go in and retrieve your clean masks. Lo i hope you guys keep talking at the dinner table because youve come up with one of the Great Solutions to an important problem for the frontline workers. Thanks to you both. Thank you. It has been a team effort and we appreciate it. Congratulations. Keep it coming. And that does it for this edition of Andrea Mitchell reports. Before we go, here is a remarkable image from the front lines. Ben and mindy are married, they work as neuro anesthesiologists at tampa general. And a coworker captured this special moment at a break. And ben describes this as a symbol of hope and love. Remember that image throughout this weekend. Take care of yourselves. Starting tomorrow at 2 00 eastern, well host one world together at home. And then at 8 00 p. M. , judge j fallon, stephen colbert, the global fight to end covid19. And up next, chuck todd picks up our coverage. Take a break this weekend as well. Well so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. Along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. With chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, youll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. When you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or lifethreatening allergic and skin reactions. Decrease alcohol use. Use caution driving or operating machinery. Tell your doctor if youve had Mental Health problems. The most common side effect is nausea. Talk to your doctor about chantix. The most common since 1926, nationwide weve been there in person, during trying times. Today, being on your side means staying home. Nationwide office of customer advocacy. But we can still support you and the heroes who are with you. Were giving refunds on Auto Insurance premiums, assisting customers with financial hardships, and our foundation is contributing millions of dollars to charities helping with covid19 relief. Keeping our promise to be on your side. Good afternoon. Im chuck todd. And here are the latest facts at this hour. New york is seeing a state in overall hospitalizations and intubations, but the death toll is still on the rise with 630 new confirmed deaths up from 606 yesterday. In texas, any minute now Governor Abbott is expected to layout his plans to reopen his state. Earlier this week the governor did caution that it would be a slow process. And meanwhile President Trump a day after laying out his guidelines saying he would leave it up to the states governors is tweeting liberate minnesota. And other states. As more protests against stayathome orders are scheduled in minnesota and idaho this afternoon. Meanwhile new york Governor Cuomo just responded to another one of the president s tweets saying, quote, the states have to step up their testing. At his news conference, company know said of trump, if he is sitting home watching tv, maybe