Feeling the strain. Donald trump, a ratings and numbers obsessed president , now leads the country with the unwelcomed distinction of having the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world and its due in large part to his administrations ongoing failure to implement widespread and reliable testing and a refusal to call for a uniform nationwide lockdown. For his part today donald trump is sharpening his assault on states like new york that are asking for more medical supplies like ventilators and masks, saying they are, quote, never satisfied, and adding, quote, the complainers should have stocked up and been ready long before the crisis hit. Its important to note that what trump is implying in that tweet is at the very moment he was saying coronavirus cases would go from 15 to zero and disappear miraculously, the nations governors should have been stockpiling ventilators. The president s blame game is playing out as the shortage of ventilators in new york meets the real, imminent, life or death consequences that Governor Andrew Cuomo has been warning about. In a press conference said cuomos pleas taking on a dire sense of urgency as he says his state is on track to run out of ventilators completely in less than a week. If a person comes in and needs a ventilator and you dont have a ventilator, the person dies. Thats the blunt equation here. Right now we have a burn rate that would suggest we have about six days in the stockpile. The shortage of ventilators and masks has also become a lifethreatening crisis for the Health Care Workers on the front lines. The first emergency room doctor has died, dr. Frank gabrin from east orange hospital in new jersey and he died yesterday of covid19. In a statement the American College of Emergency Physicians mourned the loss of their colleague and added this morning, quote, Emergency Physicians understand that sometimes in our efforts to save your life, we may end up sacrificing our own. We know the risks of the job we signed up for, but we are on the front lines in this historic war against covid19 with insufficient protection. On the administrations failure to provide adequate equipment, the New York Times reports today, quote, the u. S. Government has nearly emptied its emergency stockpile of protective medical supplies like masks, gowns and gloves, a senior official said. Some states receiving desperately needed ventilators from the federal government discovered that the machines did not work. And an even more ominous sign from Vice President mike pence and dr. Anthony fauci in a pair of recent interviews about where we are heading in this country in this crisis, both men suggesting that we are on the same trajectory as italy, europes hardest hit country with more than 13,000 deaths and a National Lockdown that so far has not stopped the spread. They call it modeling, wolf, where they look at whats happened around the world. We think italy may be the most comparable area to the United States at this point for a variety of reasons and so weve built that modeling. If you look at the curves of the acceleration of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, its superimposed corrected for population. Its a really serious issue. Italy got hit very hard and its very clear that we are getting hit very hard. Right now the epicenter of it in the United States is new york city, but as you see, its not going to be confined to new york city. Were going to be seeing this kind of thing in other large cities. Its a very difficult situation. Thats where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. Ron chain, former white house Ebola Response coordinator, now an adviser to joe biden. Dr. Lena wen who previously 16d as baltimores Health Commissioner is back, and White House Correspondent yamiche alcindor. Let me start with you, dr. Wen. Talk about the ventilator shortage and how we and we think a lot of things about ourselves but we dont often think of ourselves as a country that would run out of the kind of medical equipment that could make the difference between life and death in a crisis like this. What is a shortage of ventilators meaning for people who are very sick with covid . A shortage of ventilators means that doctors and nurses and those on the front lines are going to have to make these heart wrenching choices that we never could have imagined happening in our country. If theres only one ventilator left and ten patients, then somebody has to make the decision of who gets that last ventilator. And i just cannot believe that were still discussing this. Weve seen that this is coming our way weeks ago, maybe months ago or years ago by the federal governments own projections. And look, i dont want to point fingers and talk about who should have done what sooner, but now that we know this problem is here, shouldnt we be looking for solutions . Now that we know that the stockpile, the National Stockpile is nearly empty, shouldnt we now be saying, well, heres how many ventilators we need. Heres what were going to do to get up to capacity. And we also not just need ventilators, we need personal protective equipment. We cannot build doctors and nurses if doctors and nurses are dying in large numbers. We cant just build them like a machine and thats whats going to happen. Our Health Care Workers are going to be decimated if we cant get something as basic as supplies to those on the front lines. Ron, dr. Wen doesnt want to point fingers but donald trump didnt hesitate to point fingers and call the governors asking for ventilators, quote, complainers who are, quote, never satisfied. How did we get here . We got here because the Trump Administration failed to heed the warning signs, and not just the Early Warning signs which they clearly failed to heed but middle warning signs in february when the president just a little over a month ago was still telling people this was going to go away like a miracle but evening the warning signs two or three weeks ago where people were calling on the president to invoke the defense production act and command the full force of the u. S. Manufacturing capability to start to produce these. The president demured on that. I agree with dr. Wen, its not about pointing fingers but if the conduct of the Trump Administration doesnt change, this disaster is going to get worse and worse and worse. So im not trying to point a finger but im trying to urgently wave both of my arms to say its time to do Something Different and the different thing is for the president to step up and invoke the defense production act and command the full force of the u. S. Manufacturing base to do this. Its time to really treat this like the crisis that it is as opposed to, as you say, the finger pointing thats going on from the white house to the governors. Thats ridiculous. Its insane. Yamiche, you have personally and you and the White House Press corps collectively have been pressing on this specific topic. It has invoked the rage of the president at you personally on this line of questioning about ventilators. Why do you think that is . I think the president in some ways is having to backtrack on some of the misleading information that was put out there. Dr. Wen made a great point which is that we cant build new doctors and nurses and Health Care Professionals but what the president was doing was openly questioning whether or not what they said they needed they actually needed. That goes for a tweet today where you point out, nicolle, that hes talking about insatiable appetites and some are complainers when the people were hearing from are emergency room doctors, nurses. The president has to deal with the fact that very early on he was saying this was like the flu and then yesterday and a few days ago decided to say, its worse than the flu, its vicious. I think what the president is really dealing with is the fact that he was trying to down play this virus and hope for the best and he said he was trying to be positive, his description, but at the end of the day he downplayed the Worst Health Care and economic crisis americans have faced and he has to deal with that every day as he tries to now get people to really believe that hes telling them the truth this time around. You know, dr. Wen, i dont want to let some of this slide. I mean, what possible motive would a governor speaking on behalf of his or her states hospitals have for hoarding medical supplies . This is, as you said, i think the first emergency room doctor died in new jersey yesterday as we mentioned. This is life and death for doctors, nurses, people in hospitals, people driving ambulances, people on the front lines. It seems like i remember president obama promised an end to childish things. It would seem like the buildings on fire and donald trump is still sending out mean tweets. What more can the medical community do with their state leaders to bring a sense of urgency to this shortage . There is this huge disconnect somewhere. We all see whats happening. Im hearing from my colleagues all across the country who are begging for supplies in these unimaginable positions where theyre asking relatives to cut out garbage bags so they can wear them as gowns and theyre reusing masks for days at a time. People are going into their shifts knowing that they probably have been exposed multiple times already and are likely going to be carrying coronavirus back to their families. Its just insulting to hear any political leader much less our president accuse somehow doctors and nurses of making things up or hoarding masks somewhere when actually what theyre asking for is the most reasonable thing of all which is in the duty to fulfill their obligation as Health Care Providers to save patients lives, we as a society owe them the basic protections in order to keep them safe and their patients safe. You know, ron, theres a bit of trump sound that i want to read to you to just save the step of playing it. Donald trump said last night, just in this vain of doubting and being suspicious of governors and hospitals, trump said when you look at these hospitals, the amount that they order, you almost say how could they possibly use so much, whether its masks or the protective gear, but we are supplying a tremendous amount. You ran a white house operation to address ebola and we were both in administrations that had to plan for bird flu and swine flu. Its so detached from how a normal president conducts himself in terms of supplying basic things like gowns and scrubs and masks. How do you turn these kind of accusations around in the middle of a crisis . Lets help the president with some basic math. A hospital that was using 15,000 masks a week before was using that because about 1 in 20 patients was a respiratory patient with these kinds of problems. Right now 20 out of 20 patients are that so theyre using 20 times more. Thats exactly why the weekly count in hospitals have gone from 15,000 masks to 300,000 masks. Its not because doctors are hoarding masks. Its not because doctors are stealing masks. Its because theyre using them to save lives, period, end of story. To build on something dr. Wen said, of course we should do this because we owe it to our doctors and our nurses to be with them, but we owe it to ourselves also. In the ebola epidemic in west africa, 1 out of every 10 deaths was a Health Care Worker. Thats a tragedy for the Health Care Workers but it meant that at the time we needed as many as possible, we wound up with fewer on the job because they were getting sick and killed. So even if were callous about the human toll on Health Care Workers that the president s approach is taking, we should be selfinterested enough to understand that if we dont protect Health Care Workers, they cant save our lives when we get sick. So everyone should understand the crisis behind providing these brave men and women the masks and the protective gear they need. Their lives depend eon it. Our lives depend on it. Yamiche, i want to read you something from the New York Times. Its not just a shortage of ventilators but its the condition that the ventilators that are in the stockpile are in. The times reports a ventilator stockpile with one hitch. Thousands do not work. Officials in illinois said they asked for 4,000. They got 450. New jersey sought 2300, got 300. New mexico has only 370. Virginia requested 350 but has not received any ventilators. The governor of illinois asked Vice President mike pence for 4,000 and was told the state would not need that many. Theres more reporting that some that exist havent been maintained and do not work. Is there a white house plan for addressing not just the shortage but the lack of quality in what does exist . There doesnt, at this point, seem to be a clear answer from the white house as to why theyre sending ventilators that are not operational to states in the height of their crisis and need these ventilators right now. Governors have been sounding the alarm for weeks that they need these ventilators and the governor of new york, andrew cuomo, said this isnt the time for us to be building ventilators. He says hes still trying to purchase ventilators from china and other places. There still hasnt been a national act to say, look, the federal government is going to take over this. Were going to figure out the price point and distribute ventilators. You still have governors bidding against each other as of today. But one thing i want to underscore here apart from the ventilators which of course is the big one because you have President Trump openly wondering whether or not these states actually need it. You also have the president searching for a foil. Youve seen him be able to do it with democrats or with Hillary Clinton and with governors, reporters. At this point were seeing the president focused on Health Care Workers as a foil and wondering whether or not they are kind of a villain in all of this. Thats remarkable from this president because we know that Health Care Workers are the heart of this. Theyre the people that are going to get america through this. Theyre the people that are just asking for the bare minimum to do their job and the president is wondering if theyre the problem. I cant underscore that enough. Dr. Wen, yamiche is right. Of course the president needs a foil and hes picked Health Care Workers. I just never thought id hear those words come out of someones mouth covering an american president. I mean, someone died yesterday, an er doctor treating Covid Patients died of covid. What impact if they even have time to look up and know that thats the case, the dynamic yamiche just described, what impact does that have on the morale of americas Health Care Workers . Its demoralizing. I dont know that every Health Care Worker is looking to exactly what the president is saying but they are looking to see what the president is doing. Weve barely started in our response to this pandemic and every Health Care Worker knows that if were already running low on supplies and we dont know whats coming our way, then whats going to happen next . Ive talked to so many of my colleagues who have already intubated their friends and coworkers who are already seeing their fellow nurses and doctors in the er, in the icu, and potentially being the next person who will die. And yet, theyre going out there every single day on the front lines treating patients because thats the oath that we took. It would be heartening to hear nice words from the president but i think even more important is to see what is the action thats going to be taken because we know whats needed. Whats now preventing the president and the federal government from acting to get these supplies to people who are on the front lines trying to do their job every day. Not just undersupplied and underappreciated but suspected of wrongdoing. Its unbelievable. Yamiche, before i let you go i have to say theres a debate in our industry as you know about whether or not to take these press conferences from the white house. Theres no debate anywhere about the privilege that it is to watch you question this Coronavirus Task force and this president. Keep up the good work. Youre asking the questions that we all want answers to. Thank you, my friend. I really appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. All right, dr. Wen and ron are staying put. When we come back after a very quick break, comparing whats happening here to whats happening in the hardest hit place on the planet. Why most Americans Still cant even imagine the scale of suffering ahead of us. Well go to rome when we come back for a live report. Also well check in on some of the states that have been slow to come around to those stayathome restrictions. A patchwork of quarantines but not everyone seems to be taking them seriously. Plus Congress Today announcing a new plan to hold the Trump Administration accountable. All those stories coming up. Admn accountable. L althose stories coming up. T m [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. 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Lets party people one more time we need a new tool we do not have because so far the difference between the number of patients, number of bed, is something totally new for us, okay . And not only for us, all the country will have to deal with this. But its difficult to tell people that if you are 80 you will never have the icu bed. Of course. But, so far if you have not the opportunity to build a new hospital with 1,000 bed such as in china, we need this terrible tool because this is a tool of selection. Right. Of who lives and who dies. Yeah. This is the critical situation in italy, the country our Vice President and dr. Fauci said that we are now most comparable to, italy, where more than 13,000 people have already died, italy, where 20 of the countrys Health Care Professionals have already been infected with covid. Italy where scenes of people getting taken to hospitals are described like this, on a saturday red cross volunteer found herself in the bedroom of a 90yearold man. She asked his two granddaughters if he had contact with anyone with the coronavirus. Yes, they said, their father who had died on wednesday. Their grandmother had been taken away on friday and was in critical condition. They werent crying, she said, because they didnt have any tears left. Italy, which has been on a nationwide lockdown since march 10 and just extended it to april 13. Italy, where the curve may now finally be flattening. Numbers coming in this week suggest the pace of new cases is slowing. But lastly, italy where the countrys death rate may actually be much higher because deaths outside of hospitals are not being reported. Is this what we are in for . Joining our conversation, rome bureau chief for the New York Times, jason horowitz. Ron and dr. Wen are both back. Jason, i read your stories usually in tears but did it strike you as it struck me as remarkable to hear the Vice President of the United States say that we are at this point most like italy . In a certain sense its not surprising because italy is the western democracy thats sort of been at the van guard of this. Really it broke out at the end of february, february 23 when they started closing towns, and i think it was the sort of thing that italy was also sort of guilty of this. It looked to china and thought that isnt us, thats not going to happen to us, and in a similar way the rest of europe and the United States looked at italy and thought thats not going to happen to us either. Its happening everywhere because this virus doesnt care what nationality you are. Let me read some more of your reporting which has been remarkable. You wrote this, so many people are dying so quickly, the hospital, mortuaries and funeral workers cannot keep up. We take the dead from morning until night one after the other constantly, said vonn da im going to botch the name who runs one of the last Funeral Homes to remain open. Others have closed as a result of sick funeral directors, some in insen sieve care. Usually we honor the dead. Now its like a war and we collect the victims. What is reporting this story like, jason . Its sad. Its a sad story. Its about people losing their grandparents basically the entire not the entire north but a good section of the north of italy is walloped with this and that means that and since this virus hits elderly people very hard and italy is the second Oldest Country in the world on average after japan, so youre having a lot of people die. Italians are people who feel very connected to their older generations. They really care about their grandparents and they on liftene with them. Youre just talking to people who are losing the people closest to them and they cant do anything about it. So its a sad story obviously. Its a very sad story. Ron, it jumped out at me to hear Vice President pence let it slip out that based on the spread and based on the models we hear look most like italy because if you take Donald Trumps public utterances and i dont know whats in his head or his heart, he wasnt talking like thats where he saw the country he leads heading as recently as a week ago. Yeah, nicolle, of course it would be an even more catastrophic failure if our number of fatalities matched italy because as jason alluded to, the median age is italy is ten years older than in the United States. So we would expect the death rate in italy to be significantly higher than it is in the United States. If were on a path to match italys death rate thats an even more catastrophic failure here than it was in italy. So i dont think its a good model for us. Its not where we should be. We also had more warning than italy had. We had the example of italy. So theres really even theres no excuse for the way it got in italy and even less excuse for whats happened here with that kind of heads up, that kind of warning that we should have been taking the bold action on testing, producing gear and equipment, on isolating people long before we did. Were now on a very bad track because we didnt. Dr. Wen, something that jason just said is that one of the failures in italy was that they were slow to lock the country down. We still dont have a uniform nationwide quarantine and i think one governor said today, i didnt even know that coronavirus could spread from asymptomatic people. Is it our response, our slow response and our lack of testing that makes us like italy, or is it something about the age and the preexisting conditions of our population . What makes Vice President pence and Anthony Fauci say that we are italy . I think what makes them say that were like italy is the tra joekt jektry of where were going which is sobering. Even in the best case estimates were talking 100,000 to 200,000 people dead in the u. S. In the coming months from covid19 which is the best Case Scenario if we do things exactly right which were not. Youre right, nicolle, we dont have a National Coordinated strategy. We talked earlier about the problems with our Health Care Systems and the lack of testing but we also have a huge issue that we as a country are not uniform with asking people to do the one thing, the one thing that will reduce the rate of transmission which is to stay at home. Its unbelievable to me that theres still that governor who is saying he didnt know about asymptomatic transmission. Its unbelievable that there are still governors who are looking at whats happening in new york, whats happening whats going to be happening in florida, louisiana, michigan and everywhere and not thinking thats going to happen to me too. What are we waiting for . Are we waiting for numbers to go up also in every state . Because by that point its going to be too late. It will be inevitable then but its not inevitable now and i hope thats the takeaway from it all, that there is something that we can do right now to flatten that curve. We still have an opportunity to not make us on the trajectory of italy, but that takes coordinated action by the federal government right now. Jason, i want to give you the last word. Because italy, if thats where were heading, is a few weeks ahead of us, tell me whats happening now and for the people that look to the future, how do they see the next few weeks playing out for that country . I think one thing thats really important to point out is that america is like italy in that also its like a democracy. Its not like china. You cant close everything down. Thats one of the things that italy has shown is not easy and its been an incremental closedown and in a way it would have been better if they close it down earlier and there are fights between the Central Government and the governors here too. But i think the most important thing here that everyone sort of gets now is that you have to stay home, and that if you dont stay home, you are endangering maybe not yourself, maybe youre healthy, maybe youre in your 30s but you could be a carrier. We still dont know exactly the contagion rate of people without symptoms. We still dont know what the immunity levels of people who have survived this are. Theres so many questions about the danger that people pose to their fellow citizens that really the safest thing is just to stay home. Leaders will balance the questions of economy and individual rights, but really it seems like what people here understand now and i think in the United States theyll eventually understand it as we get closer as things going on is that staying home is really the thing that you can do to stop this. Yeah. Jason, its a pleasure to have you on. I hope we can call on you often. Ron, dr. Lena wen, thank you all for spending time with us. Were grateful. After the break, coronavirus patients arriving right now in south florida. Well talk about that and what states like florida and texas are doing to impose their brand new stayathome measures. And if its not too little too late. Thome measures. And if its t notoo little too late which is the only egg good enough for my family . Only egglands best. With more farmfresh taste, more vitamins, and 25 less saturated fat . Only egglands best. Better taste, better nutrition, better eggs. [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. Grubhub. Together we can help save the restaurants we love. About being a scientist at 3m. I wanted them to know that innovation is not just about that one aha moment. Science is a process. It takes time, dedication. Its a journey. Were constantly asking ourselves, how can we do things better and better . what we make has to work. We strive to protect you. At 3m, were in pursuit of solutions that make peoples lives better. Two cruise ships arriving in florida right now, one has nine people on board who have tested positive for coronavirus and 179 others with flulike symptoms. Four on that ship have died, at least two from the virus. The ships docking comes off florida officials were reluctant to let the passengers come to their state but a deal was eventually reached. Florida having to navigate that following its governor issuing a stayathome order that will go into effect tonight. Other states are now under stricter rules as well. Today marks the very first day for texas to be under a statewide order restricting everything but essential services and activities. Joining our conversation from dallas, texas, msnbc correspondent garrett haake. Garrett, my friend, i feel like the world has changed since we last talked. You were standing on capitol hill. They were trying to pass that stimulus package. Now youre in texas where they have come around rather late to shutting down the state. Talk about the impact to that states economy and that states psyche. Reporter texas is in a unique position here. It is not among the top ten states hardest hit medically but economically its crushed by this virus. The collapse of oil prices arnold t around the world was brutal. Here in dallas, the headquarters of American Airlines hugely affected by the virus. Today you saw this statewide order. Here in dallas thats playing catchup to a countywide order thats been in place for some time. But across texas youve got more than 100 counties where they havent seen a case of coronavirus yet or at least havent been able to test for one. Now theyre under the same orders essentially that we are here in dallas county. So the state is coming to grips with this. You see some Economic Activity continue here. For example, you may be able to hear the construction site thats going on near me, another apartment complex coming up here in dallas. Of course theyre making an exception for religious services, although folks are encouraged to do those online and remotely as much as possible. But youre seeing this particularly as this sweeps into the interior of the country from the coast. A lot of these other states who have only felt the bleeding edge of this in terms of economic pain starting to catch with up with the medical pain, 100 new cases in dallas just this afternoon. People here understand this is coming. They have felt the economic pain and now the medical pain is coming. Here in texas the peak is not expected to hit until may so this is going to be a long, slow, difficult process for this state just like it has been in other parts of the country, nicolle. Garrett, lets talk about florida. We both cover politics when the news doesnt take us so far away from that conversation. Florida seems to have been treated differently at just about every level. Governor desantis is now the governor of a state with images that will live forever of people doing anything but social distancing. I dont know what the opposite of social distancing is but thats what they were doing on the beaches of bloflorida. Hes a close friend and political ally of the president and his request for medical equipment has been either met and exceeded or at a minimum met while youve got andrew cuomo saying hell be out of ventilators in a week. Whats going on in florida . They certainly have a very large at risk population. Reporter huge, a huge retiring population, an older population. You heard the governor essentially blame some of this crisis on folks from new york coming down to florida treating it like the sixth borough and getting out of new york city as the crisis got worse there. Youve got combinations of big cities that are going to be hit particularly hard by this and rural populations that wont feel it right away but will feel it acutely when rural Hospital Systems and Health Care Systems get overwhelmed. It is hard to divorce what happens in florida from the politics of this and it doesnt seem like anyones trying to. You mentioned the president s relationship with ron desantis. Even joe biden, his press releases have called out the state of florida and how theyve handled this. Everyone understands that florida is a politically vital state with an aging population whos going to want to see this crisis handled incredible ly dey here and well be paying attention to this and watching it play out in slow motion. I forget who it was, i hate to steal this thought from twitter the other night but the idea if youre the governor of florida you know youre facing a Natural Disaster at some point. Typically its a hurricane but this will be Governor Ron Desantis first hurricane experience and its going to hit his entire state all at once for the next several months. Garrett haake, coming through loud and clear and just so our viewers dont think theyre seeing things, your shot sometimes does this thing that i do by mistake when im trying to entertain my 8yearold with fun instagram filters but we heard you loud and clear and its wonderful to see your face. Thank you for spending some time with us. We are grateful. After the break, with the president ial election in just seven months, is there an urgent need for voters to find out what the administration did wrong in that last month, the early stages of the crisis. The odds of the 9 11 style commission, that conversation next. F the 9 11 style commission, that conversation next the captain of an Aircraft Carrier plagued by more than 100 Coronavirus Infections and counting is expected to be fired by the u. S. Navy. The captain made headlines earlier this week with an extraordinary plea first reported lie the San Francisco chronicle asking for relief and resources as the virus began to overtake his ship. He wrote this, quote, we are not at war, he wrote to senior military leaders. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset, our sailors. He sounded that alarm and now hes being forced from his job. Add that to the list of things House Speaker nancy pelosi might want to dig into. Today she announced the creation of a new Bipartisan Select Committee on the coronavirus. Its intended to provide oversight following the passage of that 2 trillion economic stimulus package and separately expressed support for an action review but her republican colleagues dont seem too keen on that idea. Heres doug collins this morning. Congressman, is this the time to bring up a commission . No, its not. And look, at a certain point in time there will be a look back at this. There will be a look back at what happened and how it came about but im not sure adam schiff wants to talk about this and the fact that china is rolling this. He was so wrapped up in impeachment when all this hit, im not sure there was a slow response on both sides because he was so focused on the president that we were missing chinas role and others. Joining our conversation now, democratic strategist basil smikle and former democratic congresswoman donna edwards. Donna edwards, i worked in the white house on 9 11. I worked in the white house during the iraq war, the 9 11 commission, the wmd commission and many other commissions that looked at what went wrong when the country suffered death and harm. Its going to happen. Its just whether people like doug collins and the white house go kicking and screaming or whether they cooperate and say, yes, we too want to understand what went wrong. I think that any time you have an event that is as catastrophic as this one, it really calls for us looking behind the curtain to see both what happened but also to set about a prescription for how we deal with these things in the future. I think we all remember the major structural changes that happened after the 9 11 Commission Report and how important that remains to our national security. I think the same can be said of what needs to happen here. Clearly there were failures. There were failures of commission and omission by this administration and i think for doug collins to lay that at the foot of impeachment is ridiculous. The warning signs were coming in december, in january, in february, and clearly what has happened now in march and into april. So there is no excuse for any leader to say we dont need to take a look at this, find out what happened and make sure that we put in place the kind of Public Health structure that we need to deal with a crisis like this. You know, basil, there is something so reflexive about the way that the president and his allies field any questions about what went wrong, and it almost screams culpability, guilt and knowledge of not doing the right things. If you look at all the evidence just in public, i mean, no one has successfully gotten the phone logs from tony fauci or secretary azar to Mick Mulvaney but i wonder when the first call came in from secretary azar to the white house saying, houston, we have a problem, we are not china. We cannot lock this country down. Bob woodward says the truth emerges. It absolutely does and thats all information that i think is very important to understanding how we behaved in this crisis. Look, i teach at the University Level and the one question that students have asked me since this crisis is what is our government actually supposed to do in times like this . The fact that weve had very different responses not just from the president but also from governors, you had the governor of alabama saying were not california so we dont need to do the same things that california does. While i may technically understand that those two states are very different, the fact that we didnt have the sort of unified approach to how our government should go about handling this crisis is incredibly troubling. I think theres another piece that gets underreported that i think is important to this. We have extraordinarily different differentiated access to health care in this country. How is it that some folks got tested and other people did not get tested. When you look at communities of color for example, the health and economic disparity that this virus has brought out, particularly with communities of color, you have africanamericans that have a higher incidence of things like diabetes, health care, heart problems, lung disease, asthma which ive lived with all my life. Are we being disproportionately affected by this virus relative to other populations. Those are things that a task force such as this would actually bring to light. If anyone is going to say that this is not necessary, i think fooling themfool ing themselves and stla no place in our government if they dont want to get to the bottom of this. Donna, let me give you the last word. I think here we have an administration that is in the tlo thr throes of a crisis and we dont have a unified national he response. Its shock you have to coordination of resource, of information that communities and states, governors can rely on. I think we have to look into this. I dont think its too early. After all, we also have the belief from the medical professionals that this is going to were going to get another wave of this pandemic. We cant sort of rest and say we have gotten it all right because clearly we have gotten it wrong and its going to be up to our leaders to examine what happened and make sure that another 150 to 200,000 americans are not going to die because of the failures of this administration. Donna edwards, its a pleasure to see and hear from both of you. Thank you so much. After the break, remembering to sum of the good people we have already lost. E good peoplee have already lost. [female vo] restaurants are our family. The cornerstone of our communities. And our family needs help. Right now theyre facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to help them through. Because if we dont treat restaurants like family today. They might not be around to treat us like family tomorrow. Grubhub. Together, we can help save the restaurants we love. When youyou spend lessfair, and get way more. So you can bring your vision to life and save in more ways than one. For small prices, you can build big dreams, spend less, get way more. Shop everything home at wayfair. Com you cant always stop for a fingerstick. Betes with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you dont have to. 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Now to jazz legend. Ellis marsalis. His sons, famous in their own right want people know Something Else about them. One of them branford writes my dad was a giant of a musician and teacher but an even greater father. He poured everything he had into making us the best of what we could be. Finally, a name you might not know but one you shoyou should. Frank gabron was an e. R. Doctor in new jersey. We talked about him at the beginning of the show. He was on the front lines at the beginning of coronavirus. The two time cancer survivor started showing symptoms last week and died in his husbands arms on tuesday. He was 60. He was first emergency room doctor to die with apparent covid19 symptoms. Thank you for spending time with us and letting us into your living rooms during these extraordinary times. Our coverage continues with chuck todd and todays Coronavirus Briefing right after a break. 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Every one describes the Critical Care units as war zones because thats what it looks like. How many patients will we see . Will we have enough ppe . It feels like playing dominos. Every single minute over ten hours straight feeling like any one of your patients is about to fall. Thats what this illness does. It separates people from their families at the times when they need them most. Its