That means more than 33 Million People have filed jobless claims in the last seven weeks. For perspective, that number more than the entire populations of new york and pennsylvania combined. It could provide a clue for what well see in tomorrows job report for the entire month of april. Were also keeping track of the number of coronavirus cases in this country. Right now more than 1. 2 million known cases in the united states. So far more than 74,000 americans have died. Roughly 30 minutes from now, new York Governor Andrew Cuomo will give us that daily briefing. When it starts, well take you there live. First, lets start with those new jobless numbers that just came out a few hours ago. Nbcs joling kent is in burbank california. Another week with new unemployment claims. Tomorrow well get the numbers for the entire month of april. Take us through the latest figures and what it suggests well likely see tomorrow. Reporter the good news, if there can be good news is 3. 2 jobless claims shows the continued decline of additional jobless claims over the past several weeks. 33 million is a massive number taking a huge, huge hit on the economy right now. The hardest hit states california, florida, texas and georgia. Weve been talking to unemployed workers across this country for the past couple months. Today we heard from dawn, an Animal Rescue league worker and works as a veterinarian technician. Listen to about her experience for filing unemployment. You would never think that this would happen in a million years, but it has. And unfortunately its like nobody cares. Its draining every single night, do wake up and wonder if things are going to be okay in the morning. I have to rely on a system thats so broken. Reporter now, dawn is the medical director at an Animal Rescue league in florida. Her experience is very much reflected in the experience of so many other people weve spoken to across the country, the frustration about getting unemployment, filing for the benefits that they need just to pay their rent and make those bills happen. What were starting to see is a cast kaeding downward effect of all of these economic numbers weve been reporting on coming together. You have record drops in consumer spending. You have record unemployment claims, and tomorrow, as we get that april jobs report, economists are expecting at least 15 unemployment which would put us at unemployment at the worst level since the great depression. Theres a lot of moving parts here. This picture continues to cement in the negative direction when it comes to the economy. A lot of people, craig, hurting so badly right now looking for a job. 15 unemployment, its hard to get your head around that. A number of states, 25 of the entire labor force out of work right now. Jo, stand by. I want to come back to you in a moment. Dawns story, something a lot of folks can relate to. The pandemic is being felt by many of americas farmers who cant even get their crops sold. That includes potato farmers in places Like Washington state. They are stuck with at least a billion pounds worth of potatoes. Thats billion with a b, no buyers, growing debt that theyll have no way to pay back. Nbcs dasha burns is at a potato farm in othello, washington where a pile of potatoes is unsold. I say pile. Its more like a mountain. Reporter craig, when you talk about numbers like a billion pounds of potatoes, its hard to wrap your mind around that. Let me try to give you a little bit of a sense of the scale were talking about. Im about 5. 4 inches. My camera guy is almost seven feet tall. Both of us are completely dwarfed when we stand next to this massive pile here. This is about 12 Million Pounds of potatoes. This warehouse is the size of a football field. This thing goes on forever. This red line here, i dont know if you can see it, but thats about 20 feet high. So a whole lot of po at that time potatoes here. They have to figure out what to do with this. Normally by this time of year this warehouse would be nearing empty, but right now thats just not the case. About 90 of the potatoes here in Washington State are turned into french fries and sold to restaurants, some in the u. S. , but mostly asian markets. The Global Economy is suffering. Restaurants around the world are closed and theres not really anywhere for those potatoes to go. Its a little hard to reconcile when you see those long lines at food banks and you see me standing next to this very, very large pile of food, you would think you could put those two together. But its a little more complicated than that. Its expensive and difficult to actually move this crop. These farmers here are certainly trying. Theres actually a big truck outside right now thats taking a lot of this to donate to food banks, but its hard and its expensive. And theres an effort in Washington State to move about a Million Pounds of potatoes to get them to food banks, to get them to people in need, a Million Pounds is still only a dent in this pile, craig. Dasha burns in oath ththellok you. Now to the white house. Peter alexander, whats happened . A person who appears to work in close contact with the president at least on occasion has now tested positive for coronavirus. We dont know specifically who the individual is, but a white house official, the Deputy PrincipalDeputy Press Secretary provided the following statement. We were recently notified by the white house medical department that a member of the military who works on the white house campus has tested positive for coronavirus. The president and the Vice President have since tested negative for the virus, and they remain in great health. Again, the reason we know this person must have some contact with the president is because as a function of learning this news, the president was retested. Often members of an elite military unit do serve as what they describe as valets, personal valets that would work in the white house residence. Theres some reporting to that at this point. A white house official would not tell us specifically who this individual was or what their specific role was. The president , as we have seen in recent days, as evidenced by his recent trip to arizona didnt wear a mask during that trip. He said he was told by officials on the ground that he wouldnt need to, that anybody interacting with him had tested negative. Thats been the primary process thats taken place. Anybody interacting closely with the president is tested before they are to meet with him. Im what they call the pooler today. I will go into the oval office to pose questions to the president. Members of the media are not tested in circumstances like that. Its likely that the governor of texas, who is the president s guest today, would be. Craig. Okay. Peter alexander from the white house, thank you. Going back to what all this means for business owners, this changing landscape, what it means for workers, more frustration, we want you to hear from some of americas workers in their own words. Its really hard because i dont know when ill get another job, but i also dont know if ill get unemployment. Its been a very difficult time. Were told file for employment. Thats a joke. Weve done everything on our end, but its not working. I had people tell me, you need to start letting people go, gwyneth. I guess im not a Smart Business woman in that sense. But i was brought up with morals and values oochs that you take care of people who take care of you. If you do the right thing, good things will follow. Angst and worry and confusion, uncertainty from those workers, joe. As states reopen, some americans start getting back to work. Youre hearing some new concerns over the policies that are being put into place to protect workers and customers. What are you hearing . Reporter theres tension when it comes to going back to work. Weve been talking with some restaurants. The workers inside restaurants are telling us the state and city policies are one thing and then restaurants or their retailer asking for another when it comes to personal protective equipment or when to come back to work. You also have the complicating factor, craig, of this relief provided by the federal government goes through part of the summer. So you have this amount of money thats providing relief for some workers while in certain states, especially in the southeast united states, theyre trying to reopen. Hiring back workers for the original wages sometimes may be less than what theyre making with the Unemployment Benefits and relief benefits. You have that tension as well. What we really are starting to see is that as businesses try to reopen, the key here is the comfort of the customer. How comfortable will they feel walking into gap, for example, gap is going to be reopening many of its stores come mid may. Starbucks is in very much the same position. These companies are telling us what theyre putting into place like those plexiglass sneeze guards and masks for most workers. Theyre encouraging masks for their customers as well. What will it take to get customers back in the store feeling comfortable is a big question. So many questions. Jole ling kenlen jo ling kent. Women and girls are often on the front lines, disproportionately affected by emergencies like this crisis. Theres an Organization Called care. It fights global poverty in more than 100 countries. Theyve assembled a group of powerful Women Leaders to make sure women are part of the conversation and theyre getting help as well. I want to bring in Sheryl Sandberg, coo of facebook, founder of leaned in. Shes offering her efforts to protect women and girls, and michelle nunn, the president and ceo of care usa. Cheryl, let me start with you. What inspired you . I know michelle and her leadership. Care has a 75year history of helping some of the worst people in the world in crisis situations. We know when crisis happens, when emergencies happen, the people who are most vulnerable are often hit the hardest. Thats women and girls. Care put the gender lens on all the work they do to make sure we protect the most Vulnerable People all over the world. Michelle, tell us a little bit more about how women and girls have been disproportionately affected by this pandemic. We already know that women and girls have less income. They have the fewest resources and access to health care. They also are often the last to eat. When you think of that and put on a Natural Disaster or a pandemic, it gets worse. We also know that women are the glue. Theyre the ones taking the temperatures, that are getting the water, to ensure their family has clean water for washing of hands, also the ones helping to prepare the meals. If we can support women, we can have a disproportionate positive impact on families. Michelle, for viewers watching right now and listeners on sirius satellite radio, what can they do to health care to support the organization . The good news at this time is everybody has a role. Everybody can make a difference. We have the opportunity to make a difference in our own communities through Public Health, to really working through and doing the things that are right for our communities. We also can support organizations like care, support local food banks. We can do something for our neighbors close by but also for our global neighbors. We can also lift up or voice. If people go to care. Org, they can learn how to support. For example, a care package here at home or a hygiene kit to people around the world in a community that doesnt have access. Everybody has a role. Everybody has a voice here. Sheryl, your Organization Also empowers women. What needs to be done to make sure women and girls are in a better situation in the future when there is another emergency like this . Well, its such a great question. Here is what we know. Women do the great majority of the worlds work. They earn a very small fraction of the world ooes income and they own even less of the worlds property. Women have access to less resources everywhere. It happens here with the pay gap. It happens here with the unequal amount of work women do in the home. It happens all over the world. Women have less access to education and clean water. When you think about any emergency situation, it completely exacerbates those inequalities. This is a really important moment for the world. We have so much to get right. One of the things we need to get right is to protect the most vulnerable and correct the inequalities. This is a moment for us to make sure that when health care is being people are being given access to health care, girls get as much as boys. This is a moment for us to make sure that all over the world, as kids are pulled out of school, we know from past crises, when kids go back, people send their sons faster than their daughters. Thats because of the Economic Hardship they face. So our support of families, of communities, our support of gender rights, our support of equality for women and girls is going to be more important than ever in this crisis and the aftermath. Sheryl, while i have you here, i do want to ask you about facebook and its role in fighting this pandemic. Our colleague, ben collins has a new report head lined mfrp what are we doing this for . Doctors are fed up with conspiracies. One doctor said this about an effort to counter misinformation on facebook. He said, quote, i left work and felt so deflated. I let it get to me. We want to help our front line doctors and nurses dealing with incredibly difficult circumstances right now. What is facebook doing right now. What are they doing to stop some of these Fringe Groups from spreading dangerous misinformation in the middle of a pandemic . Well, its such an important question. We were grateful for that report and any time people speak out. Those front line workers are the ones protecting us. Theres many Front Line Health Workers in my family, broth of my siblings as well. Here is what were doing. Were working as hard as we can and as quickly as possible to take down any misinformation which causes imminent harm. Weve taken down hundreds of thousands of pieces of false information. But its an ongoing fight. 3 billion people on the service. Were going to keep working hard. The other thing weve done is to make sure people get Accurate Health information. Weve now pushed Accurate Health information from credible sources. The cdc, Government Health ministries to over 2 billion people in the world. And were continuing to fight misinformation. If we think someone has seen a piece of misinformation, we pull it down or we mark it as false, and then were sending notices to people to correct that. This week whatsapp is very broadly used around the world, this week we launched a Whatsapp Chat box with a Pointer Institute and it allows anyone on whatsapp to check in an automatic way, is this true or has it been marked false on facebook. So this is an uphill battle. Every front line Health Worker deserves all the protection we can give them. Well keep working hard to make sure we get as much of it down as possible. Apple and google, as you know, are getting involved in contact tracing. Any plans for facebook to do the same, sheryl . Those are really operating system, Technology Work to build applications. Were not an operating system. We have done Something Interesting and important which is we are serving our users and asking them, purely voluntary, do you want to tell its at carnegiemellon, answer questions at carnegiemellon what symptoms you have. Again, we dont get anyones personal data, total privacy safe. We can do a symptoms map and it shows where outbreaks are happening and where outbreaks are likely to occur. Thats really important for local Health Officials in government so we can plan for hospital beds, for ventilators and were going to keep trying to do everything we can to help. Sheryl, thank you, michelle, thank you as well. Its a fantastic cause. Thank you for sharing more information about it. Do appreciate it. The website again is care. Org. We need to turn for a moment to a story that is drawing a great deal of outrage in this country and justifiably so, that newly released video of the shooting death of 25yearold ahmaud arbery. Arbery who is black was apparently jogging through a neighborhood in brunswick, georgia. He was unarmed, when he was confronted by two white men in a pickup truck. One of the men is a former police officer. He claimed that a Police Report that he and his son saw someone they thought was, quote, the suspect of recent breakins in the neighborhood. He says they were trying to, quote, intercept him. The former officer claimed arbery attacked his son, grabbed the gun, his son shot him in selfdefense. Let me warn you that the video of the shooting we are about to show you can quite graphic. [ gunshot ] [ gunshot ] [ gunshot ]. The Prosecutor Says they now plan to bring the case before a grand jury to weigh criminal charges tomorrow on this program on what would have been ahmauds criminal attorney. Were awaiting Governor Andrew Cuomo to start his daily briefing. When it starts, well bring it to you. Its the moment a lot of people are talking about today. A nurse talking about her concerns over personal protective equipment in front of president trump. This is how the president responded. Ppe has been sporadic, but its been manageable. Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other that nurse who was sharing her experience with the president , shell join me next. Dolph lundgren, youve got a onesixty i. Q. , a masters in Chemical Engineering and youre technically a genius. And it appears youre quite the investor. I like to trade. Well, Td Ameritrade has pros ready if you need help, say talking through a new strategy. Just in case things, you know, get a little rocky . Im sorry on the upside i think thats waterproof. Maybe not. 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. Across the country the hard work of so many nurses is being recognized as we continue to celebrate National Nurses week. An event held at the white house on wednesday to honor nurses is getting some attention this morning for a bit of a different reason. During that event, a reporter asked if medical workers now have the supplies they need inside hospitals. One of the people being honored, Nurse Practitioner sophie yeah thomas quickly answered. President trump not exactly happy with her response. As i talk to my colleagues around the country, certainly there are pockets of areas where ppe is not ideal, but this is an unprecedented time. Ive been reusing my n95 mask for a few weeks now. I just broke out a new one to come here in case i needed to wear it. Ppe has been sporadic, but its been manageable and we do what we have to do. Were nurses and we learn to adapt and do whatever, the best thing we can do for our patients to get the job done and get the care provided. Thats what were going to continue to do as covid19 continues. Sporadic for you, but not sporadic for a lot of other people. I agree, mr. President. Because ive heard the opposite. Ive heard theyre loaded up with gowns now. Initially we have nothing, empty cupboards, empty shelves, we had nothing because it wasnt put there by the last administration. For the most part, it was fine, but ive heard we have tremendous supply to almost all places. Fresh off that white house visit, Sophia Thomas joins me now, the president of the American Association of nurse anesthetists practitioners. Sophia, thanks so much for your time this morning. First of all, did you agree with the president s assertion after he corrected you, or were you just being polite . What i would say about the meeting in general yesterday, it was a very positive, professional and productive meeting. Its true, some areas of the country are experiencing difficulty with ppe for the front line providers. Others are finding ppe much more accessible, and that speaks to the continued need that were going to have to come together as a community to find solutions for the areas that are having trouble. I commend the president and his Coronavirus Task force for all the work that theyve done to try to improve access to ppe, for improving things like telehealth, ways theyre looking at increasing access to care for all patients, looking at Health Disparities. I think this is our new normal. This is an unprecedented time. Were all having to adapt and make adjustments in our daily practice. Certainly were following the cdc guidelines for ppe use, and those guidelines have changed as the course of the pandemic has changed. But certainly its undented times. I appreciated the opportunity to represent all Nurse Practitioners at the event. Were you surprised when he contradicted you in the oval office in front of all those cameras . You know, i actually didnt give it much thought. I was grateful to be there. I think he understands there are some areas that dont have ppe. I know he and his administration are working hard to do everything they can with the outreach. I do hear from our members we represent over 290,000 Nurse Practitioners across the country. We are getting reports from members who are having difficulty accessing p pfrmtse. I get reports from members who are not having difficulty accessing ppe. Overall, the supply chain is much improved from what it was before covid19 happened. So things are improving in a great many areas, including testing. As i said, using telehealth to improve access to care for patients. You just said something you said the president acknowledged that there are areas where there is a problem accessing ppe. He didnt acknowledge that yesterday in the oval office. Did he acknowledge that with you after the cameras stopped rolling . No, i guess i should have clarified. Im sure he and his task force recognize that there are still some areas that are very difficulty accessing ppe. Thats simply all i meant. We have a lot of great conversations yesterday. I didnt mean to cut you off. What were you saying there . We had great conversations yesterday about the pandemic. We met with dr. Birx. We met with the Vice President , secretary azar. That dassitask force is doing everything they can to improve the health care of americans. We look forward to this being an opportunity to look at the Health Care System in general and see what we can do about improving Health Disparities for all americans because we know those with Health Disparities are the ones suffering so much throughout this coronavirus pandemic. Nurses, Nurse Practitioners are working tirelessly in communities across the nation to combat this epidemic. Were committed to working with the president , with the federal and state policymakers to Institute Policies and regulations that improve access to care for patients, improve outcomes for covid19. For me there are two takeaways for this. Covid19 has cast a light on the Health Disparities in america in our underserved communities, and thats something we need to address. Also the rural communities, those who face greater challenges due to the contraction of their health care workforce, those individuals need to have access to care, and we really need to be reopening primary and Specialty Care for patients when at all possible. Amid this crisis, certainly reducing any regulatory barriers that decrease patients ability to access care is certainly something thats very important as well. Sophia thomas, thank you. Thanks for your time. Please pass along our sincere, our genuine thanks to all the nurses that you work with as well during this National Nurses week. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Were so proud that its nurses week this week. Any moment now Governor Andrew Cuomo will start his daily briefing. Well bring it to you as soon as it happens. If youve been on social media, youve probably seen a Conspiracy Theory or two or 12 about coronavirus. One doctor calling it the second most painful thing ive had to deal with. The new battle online thats frustrating a lot of front line workers. We just asked facebook ceo Sheryl Sandberg about it. The reporter behind that story is going to join me next. 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. Many of lifes moments in thare being put on hold. Are staying at home, Governor Cuomo has started his daily briefing. Lets listen in. Its a beautiful day. So beautiful, im going to go home after this, take the motorcycle out, go for a ride. Im going to wear my mask, protects from the covid virus, also keeps bugs out of your mouth. Works on both fronts. Its a time of high anxiety. I understand that. A lot of pressure across the country. But even more at times of high anxiety its important that we stay with the facts and the tru truth. John adams was defending the british at a time when the American People hated the british. Facts are stubborn things. And whatever may be our wishes, inclinations, dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. Lincoln, big believer in the American People always. Let them know the truth and the country is safe. I love lincoln and the wisdom and the economy of his language. Let them live the truth and the country is safe. Here are the facts, where we are right now. 8,600 total hospitalizations. That number is down. That is good news. Its a fairly significant drop, so that is good news. The net change in hospitalizations you see is also down. Thats good news. Intubations is down. Thats good news. The threeday rolling average of hospitalizations is also down. You see the curve. You see the outline of what we went through. You see how fast it went up, reminds you how fast the infection rate can spread. Look how fast those numbers went up. You see how, once those numbers are up, how long it takes to get them down. Were on the downside of the mountain. Downside of the mountain is a much more gentle slope than what we went through going up the mountain. We wish it was a steeper decline but its not. This is the worst number every day, the number of deaths, 231. You can see how slow that has come down and how painfully high it still is. Is a chart of the number of lives lost. Again, you can see how fast that infection took off and how many lives we lost. And once that infection rate is high and people are getting infected, you can see how long it takes to slow it down and reduce the number of deaths. Theyre coming down at a painful, slow level of decline. The top priority for us one of the Top Priorities for us has been protecting our front line and essential workers. You have to remember here, it all happened so fast that its almost hard to gain perspective on it. But the front line workers, they showed up and went to work and put their lives in danger so everyone else could stay home. I laid out the facts, laid out how dangerous this virus was, advocated and argued based on the facts that we needed to close down, close down schools, close down businesses, stay at home. People did that. In the next breath i said, by the way, we need you essential workers to go to work tomorrow, after just having explained how dangerous the virus was to justify shutting down society in a way that it had never been shut down before. Next breath, essential workers, i need you to go to work. Hospital care, i need you to go to work and help people who come in with the covid virus after we just discussed how dangerous the covid virus was and how little we knew about the virus. Look at the courage those front line workers had to show. It is still amazing to me. I want to make sure on a human level were doing everything that we can for them. So weve been aggressively testing the front line workers to find out who needs help, how many people actually have been infected, and weve been working with the police and transit workers and Health Care Workers. We tested 25 Downstate Health care facilities where the predominance of the virus was. Over 27,000 employees. Its a very large sample. What we found out is really good news and one of the few positives ive heard in a long time. When you look at the percentage of people who have the antibodies, which means they were infected at some time in the past and theyre now recovered, of the Health Care Workers in west kmes center 6. 8, new york city 12. 1, long island, 11. 1. Thats about the same or lower than the infection rate among the general population. So westchester, the infection rate among the general population is 13. 8, auft most 14, westchester Health Care Workers its about half of the rate of the general population. I mean that is amazingly good news, right . We were afraid of what was going to happen, and the Health Care Workers actually are at about the same or lower than the general population in that area. So that is makes two points to me. Number one, our Health Care Workers must be protected, must have the ppe. Weve been saying that all along. It was a mad scramble this last time to get the ppe. Internationally it was a mad scramble for all of us. That can never happen again. We have to have the ppe. We have to have the stockpiles. We did an order that said every hospital has to have a 90day supply of ppe at the covid rate of usage so well never go through this again. But it also shows everybody how important the masks and the gloves and the sanitizer are and that they work. Its not that the front line workers get anything especially more sophisticated than the masks that people wear, the n95 masks. They wear a gown, they wear a mask, they wear gloves, but they follow protocol. Those masks work. Work. If theyre working for front line workers, theyre going to work for people in their daytoday lives, and the precautions of gloves and sanitizing, they work. Also during this time, its important that we protect new yorkers who are facing financial hardships. You have people who live paycheck to paycheck, the majority of people in this state live paycheck to paycheck. All of a sudden paycheck stops. The federal government issued a onetime payment of 600 Unemployment Benefits. But its not making up the gap for many, many families, and they are struggling. We want to make sure were doing everything we can. We have a problem in upstate new york where many of the farms cant sell their product. You had a lot of farms that were literally just dumping milk that the dairy farms had produced. But at the same time you have people in downstate new york who are going hungry and cant buy, cant pay for enough food. Tremendous demand on food banks. Weve been putting the two together. It makes no sense to have upstate farmers who cant sell their product and downstate families that cant get enough to eat. So we have been funding efforts to connect the farmers to the downstate food banks. Weve done that with about 25 million to what we call our nourish new york initiative. That has worked. Were funding about 50 food banks that are have 2,100 farms that are delivering food to those food banks and about 20,000 households in the state are participating in that. The volume of food and product that is not being wasted, thats supporting upstate farms and helping downstate families is tremendous. We want to continue doing that. The state budget is very, very fight right now with whats going on with the economy. So philanthropies, foundations, there are a lot of people who want to help. This is a great cause and i would suggest that they help so we can do even more. People literally are worried about being able to pay rent. You dont work for two months, and that rent bill keeps coming in. Its not that the bill payers, bill collectors take a break. They still send the bills and you still get collection notices. We did, by executive order that i issued, a moratorium on residential or commercial evictions. You cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent related to this covid situation. That went through june. So nobody has been and nobody can be evicted through june, either residential or commercial. Were going to take additional steps of banning any late payment fees because a person couldnt pay the rent during this period of time. Also allowing people to use their Security Deposit as a payment, and they can repay it over a prolonged period of time. But also, im going to extend that moratorium an additional 60 days. It hasnt expired in june, but people are anxious, and june for many people is just next month, and the rent bill is going to come due. Were going to extend that 60 days until august 20th. So no one can be evicted for nonpayment of rent. Residence or commercial, because of covid until august 20th. Then well see what happens between now and then. Nobody can really tell you what the future is. So that will be in place. I hope it gives families a deep breath. Nothing can happen until august 20th. Then well figure out between now and august 20th what the situation is. Also at this time, principles matter. I understand the anxiety. I understand the stress, but lets remember who we are and what were all about and what principles matter to us. People are talking about we should reopen the economy, its more important than Public Health, or Public Health is more important than the economy. Thats the underlying argument and discussion that youre hearing going on right now. To me its never been a question of whether or not we reopen. Its not reopen or not reopen. You have to reopen. You dont have a choice. Its how you reopen. Its how you reopen. To say, well, we either have to have a stronger economy or protect Public Health, no. Thats a false choice. Its not one or the other. Its both. We have to reopen, get the economy running and we have to protect Public Health. This is not a situation where you can go to the American People and say, okay, how many lives are you willing to lose to reopen the economy. We dont want to lose any lives. You start to hear these to me what are absurd arguments. Well, yes, if we reopen people will die, but people are going to die anyway. Look, were all going to die at one point. The big question is when and how, right . The when and how matters. I understand that im going to die. I just dont want to die now or next week and i dont want to die because i contracted the covid virus unnecessarily. Right . So people are going to die, yes. Were all going to die. That is not a justification in my mind. It would be a novel defense. The person is before a judge charged with murder. Did you have a gun . Yes. Did you fire the gun . Yes. Did you shoot the person . Yes. Did the person die . Yes. But the person was going to die anyway. But it was the gun that killed the person and the bullet and you fired the gun. So to go down this road well, there are old people who will die. Predominantly on the numbers. By the way, old how do you define old . Not that old is a justification. But we looked at numbers yesterday, the number of people coming into the new cases, coming into hospitals, 51 years old is where the increase starts, right . 5160, 6070 is the highest, 7180. So 5160. 51 is not really old. I know its all relative and since im beyond that 51, its easy for me to say. I dont really see 51 as old when we Start Talking about the old people. I also think, and i do this for myself, any leader who makes a decision in this situation should be willing to participate in anything they authorize. So theres nothing that were going to authorize or allow in this state that i myself will not be part of. Its too easy to say, okay, you can go do this, but im going to protect myself and im going to stay behind the glass wall. No. All human life has the same value. If i Say Something is safe for new yorkers, then i will participate in it. Because if its safe for you, its safe for me. That should be our standard going forward. What weve been doing in new york is, look, make the decisions based on facts and data. Not emotion and politics. And i understand the emotion and i understand the sang sight and the stress, and i understand politics a little bit. But thats not the basis for making a decision. And that was every leader has told us that in different ways. Lincoln, that was fdr, that was teddy roosevelt. When my team comes to me and says oh, boy, we had a new prison break. Theres a flood coming. A hurricane, ebola virus and the arizona fire. Slow down, deep breath. Lets look at the facts, lets understand the situation and lets take action based on the facts. That is the way to lead, and thats the way i believe to lead ones life. Here we have a lot of information. We have a lot of facts. We know the hospitalization rate, we know the infection rate, we know the number of deaths. Were taking antibody tests. Were taking diagnostic tests. Were doing tracings. Make your decisions based on the facts and the data. It sounds simple and basic, but its more important now than ever before. And it is working for us. It is working. Thats not just me saying that because im the governor. You look at whats happening in new york, and look at whats happening in the rest of the nation. In new york the number is coming down. And its coming down dramatically. You take new york out of the rest of the nations numbers, first in the nation is going up and were coming down. So what were doing is working. And when its working, stay the course. A quote attributed to winston churchill, if youre going through hell, keep going. And thats what were doing. Were going through hell, but what were doing is working, so were going to keep going because were new york tough, smart, disciplined, united and loving. Questions . Yes, sir, yes about you began the briefing with the term like high anxiety. What seems to really increase that is when we think about a second wave later. And you look at people who are concerned maybe that theyre diehard big city people for the first time in their lives thinking maybe i want to go to the suburbs, this individual family decision. What do you tell folks like that, or someone in your own family would be like i think im going to leave the city and try something new, and if that becomes a trend, im putting it way out there. What do you think is your thoughts on possible fright . Youre right. High anxiety, emotions are high. Unfortunately when emotion is high, logic is low. Well, new york had a lot of cases. Yes, and by the way, we now know why new york had a lot of cases. It has nothing to do with new york. First of all, this was a national issue. Im going to leave new york. And go where that didnt have covid cases . Suburbs . Westchester had them, long island had them. Other cities . L. A. Had them, chicago had them. Okay, new york had more. Yes, but we know why. It had nothing to do with new york. It had to do with the fact that all the experts missed a very important fact fact, that while we were all watching china and talking about china and doing a china travel ban, the virus had already gotten on a plane in china and went to europe. And had infected people in europe and then people from europe were coming to new york because thats where the flights come. 2 Million People came from europe february, march, and nobody was stopping european travel. Nobody was screening europeans coming in through the airports. Nobody said to new yorkers, by the way, any european traveler, any person from italy, uk or germany, they may have the covid virus. Nobody said anything. So we had 2 million passengers from europe. Everybodys still talking about china. We do the china travel ban. Were screening people from china. But meanwhile it came through europe. Millions of people came through europe. And we had no idea. We had no idea. Thats why the number of cases in new york are so high. Theyre now looking at people who came from europe came into j. F. K. Or newark, but then took a connecting flight and went to another city. And they think the whole east coast may have seen cases come from europe. The china flights were going more to the west coast. But the european flights came to the east coast. Had nothing to do with new york. Now, once the virus is in new york, any place of density is where this virus takes off. Any place of density. So any place, you look at the Meat Processing plants now, right, that are in midwest parts of the country, southern parts of the country. Well, theyre a problem. No, it has nothing to do with the Meat Processing plant. Or we have a hot spot now in an agriculture facility in upstate new york. Its nothing to do with meat or agriculture, its the density. Thats what happened at westchester here in new rochelle, the first hot spot in the use. Wh in the united states. What did it have to do with new rochelle . Nothing. It was the density. In new york, any dense situation, Meat Processing plant, agriculture plant, city of chicago, city of new york, once it gets into density, its going to increase. But why here because of the flights from europe and nobody knew and nobody told us and nobody stopped it. Also post9 11 you went through this situation in new york where people asked that question. Well, maybe new york is a target. Now, we werent the only place attacked on 9 11. But it was highly impactful here. We lost a lot of lives. People say well maybe new york is a target. Yeah, but that lasted for a very short period of time. Them new york came back, downtown better than ever before. And were going to do the same thing here. Governor, you spoke about a couple initiatives to hem struggling outofnew york workers including extending rent relief. What is the message to those new yorkers . And whos hiring in the state . We get to may 15th. May 15th is when its called the p. A. U. S. E. Order, the closedown order expires. Then we will look at different regions in the state by the data to see if theyre in a position to start reopening. We will start with construction manufacturing, et cetera. You will see the start of reopening. Not a flood gate, but it will start. So we can watch whats happening and recalibrate. We dont want to see the numbers go the other way. In the interim, look, everyone is just making do and everyone has hardships, et cetera. We just want to make sure that those people who are most vulnerable are protected, right . One of the greatest vulnerabilities is im not working, i cant pay my rent, and i cant feed my family. Okay, we have to make sure those people are protected. Nobody can be evicted because of naup payme nonpayment of rent. Lets take that issue off the table. We have to make sure everybody has food to feed their family. Were doing that through a number of ways of upstate programs, et cetera. Last resort, these food banks were talking about today. But the number one issue that people talk to me about, probably is rent and fear about being able to pay their rent. And this just takes that issue off the table until august 20th. Well, what happens august 20th . You know what, i cant tell you whats going to happen two, three months down the road. But i can tell you whatever happens, we will handle it at the time. And thats what weve been doing with this situation all along. Literally in twoweek increments. This is unlike anything weve seen before. So im not going to sit here and say i have a crystal ball and im going to tell you whats going to happen in a month or two months. Anyone who els you that i think i would question that person seriously because there has been no one who has gotten this right from the time it started. I just i dont want to take too many questions, but about the rent relief and landlords who would say theyve got to pay the mortgage . I get it. I get it. But none of these none of these decisions are easy. None of these decisions are easy. And youre right. The landlord will say, okay, so now the tenant doesnt pay their rent but i still have to pay the electric bill, i still have to pay the mortgage. That is true. That is true. Were working on relief from the banks for the landlords also. There are programs the federal government is doing, the state is doing, to make sure those banks also get relief so they dont have to do any foreclosures and we stop the foreclosures on the landlords. But youre right, theres no doubt a tradeoff between the tenant and the landlord. Were helping the landlords also but on a human level, i dont want to see people and their children being evicted at this time through no fault of their own. My grandfather used to say, if you have your health, we can figure out anything else. We can fix anything else. If its about money, we will figure it out. But you have to have your health. Thats why Public Health versus the economy, i dont see the tradeoff. We have to have our health. We should