Transcripts For MSNBCW The Rachel Maddow Show 20200505

Escape from a lab. No, a it is not proven, so nobody should be saying it let alone the seth of the state or the president , but to their own political point, it is defeating. Anyway, as always, you have mastered the facts and made things make sense for me. Thank you. Appreciate that. Thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Happy to have you with us. So the american correspondence epidemic is now approaching, coronavirus epidemic is now approaching 1. 2 million confirmed cases and well over 68,000, nearly 69,000 deaths. Which means the epidemic in our country is more than five times larger than the epidemic in any other country on earth. That said, in the one state in our country where more americans have died than any other, at least thus far, there have been some sort of positive touch stones that have been hit over the past few day, some good moments, and the javi it. Z center, the gigantic con skren, Convention Center in new york city that was a geeld hospital to take overflow from new york city hospitals, they have closed it down, they have treated over a thousand patients there at the javits center, they have closed it down, the fdny and bab pipers were onsite to cheer for the closing which feels like a real blessing. The u. S. Navy hospital ship comfort has closed up its new york operations and has set sail. It has started the return trip to its home port in northern virginia. After that ship treated hundreds of overflow hospital patients while floating in new york harbor. Also, the popup hospital in central park that was built to take overflow patients from the mount sinai hospital system, as of today, that central park popup hospital is not going to be taking in any further patients. We understand that theyve apparently still got some small number of patients there, but they are not admitting any new ones anymore, with an eye toward closing down that facility as well. That was all, all three of those entities were emergency Surge Capacity for new york, right . Well, new york is passed that point, in a way that feels fairly stable, specifically in new york. Cases and hospitalizations and deaths all now declining, in what appears to be a stable way. And that is great. It gives you hope, to see those facilities, closed down, because they are not needed, because new york has the Hospital Capacity it needs to handle the remaining challenges of the epidemic. I also want to show you something that new yorks Governor Andrew Cuomo said today, when he fielded questions on Nursing Homes, where in new york, like everywhere, the case numbers and the death numbers are still staggering. Watch what he said here. Were doing everything we can. The Nursing Homes, were working very hard. We also announced an investigation with the attorney general, and the department of health, to make sure the Nursing Homes are doing what they need to do. Many of them are privately run, but the state can regulate them. They have to notify families, et cetera. So were doing an investigation on that. But remember the basic premise of the nursing home. The nursing home can only accept or keep a patient if, if they can provide adequate care for that patient. If they have a covid patient, or noncovid patient, but they cant provide adequate care for that person, it is their obligation to transfer the person. If they cant find a place to transfer the person, it is their obligation to call the state department of health, and the state department of health will transfer the person. We have facilities for covid nursing home residents. We have some facilities that are just for covidpositive nursing home residents. So we have those facilities available. If a nursing home cant care for a covid resident, call the department of health, the department of health will transfer the patient. Period. We have those facilities available. If a nursing home in new york state, cannot care for a covid19 positive resident, call the state department of health. The state department of health will transfer the patient. Period. No state has figured out yet how to focus enough resources and enough attention and enough help and enough focus on Nursing Homes and longterm care facilities, to keep those facilities from being the riskiest place in america, when it comes to american lives at risk from this virus. But what Governor Cuomo of new york is saying here today, is, its qualitatively different than some stuff you have heard in other states. It is qualitatively different than a state just declaring Nursing Homes to be a priority or a state announcing, you know, state forces that will tackle nursing home problems and also about getting testing into every nursing home and that is important but this is different. The department of state, is taking on the responsibility to get this done themselves when the Nursing Homes cant. They have set up nursing home units, specifically for people with coronavirus. If the facility, the facility out in new york state, cant care for a specific coronavirus patient, quote, the state department of health will take them. The nursing home cannot care for a covid patient, call the department of health, and the state will transfer the patient. We have those facilities available. I mean i dont know if this will be the best idea either. But this shows taking it to another level. This is another way, and another level of commitment to try to tackle this problem. Which is good. And it shows new york as a state continuing to innovate. In terms of the thorniest parts of this crisis, even as they have dealt with the largest numbers of hospitalization and death in the country, inspiration are the cure to despair and we need innovation when it comes to the issue of Nursing Homes and the number of americans who are at risk and dying in them. So seeing that at work, seeing innovation, seeing a new level of commitment, we will take responsibility. We have set up those facilities. Seeing that work in the scariest most dangerous, most risky part of this ep demdic, that is good. I found that heartening. That is good. And heres the bad. You might remember these projections. Youve seen a lot of them just in tv news, maybe in the newspaper as well, ive certainly seen them online, this is the very userfriendly very easytounderstand projection model created at the university of washington at the institute for Health Metrics and evaluation. This institute at the university of washington has been doing modeling that has been really central for weeks now to our own National Expectations of what were going through, and how long it will last, and how bad it will ultimately get. These projections from this one entity at the university of washington have been really popular, really widely used and widely cited. They do nationwide protections. They also do them state by state, and because their interface online is so easy to use, it is sort of addictive to look at individual states, to click through for all of the states where you have family and where you have friends, to see where they are in their curve and when it is going to be the worse and how theyre doing overall. This has also been a very useful tool for policy makers because this university of washington model, predicts not just how many deaths and hospitalizations and infections youre likely to have in any particular state, it predicts when thats going to happen. When the peak will happen. Peak hospitalization. Right . Peak death. Thats helpful in terms of planning for hospital utilization, right . When and weather your state might need say a popup field hospital, or a Convention Center conversion by the army corps of engineers or a visit from one of our Navy Hospital ships. Its helpful to know that stuff so you can put a date on when its going to be the worst. New york has passed its worst and sent some of the Surge Capacity back to where it came from. Helpful to have this for planning with not just numbers but projected dates this. University of washington model in particular has also had a lot of National Attention because it has been repeatedly showcased by the Trump Administration, by the white house, by the Coronavirus Task force, with its rotating cast of people who happen momentarily to be in favor with the president. In early april, this university of washington model was the projection that said that by the first week in august, the total u. S. Death toll would be 60,000 deaths. Well, it didnt take us until the first week of august to get to 60,000 dead. We hit that before the end of april. At the very end of april, april 29th, the university of washington model was revised, to project that it would now be more like 74,000 american deaths by the first week in august. Well, its only the first week in may, and were already over 68,000, nearly 69,000, so clearly, that seems wrong, too. I mean that was all of this month, and all of june, and all of july stretching out before us, we wont have to wait until the first week of august to get to 74,000 dead. But heres the thing. This model from the university of washington, its not nuts. I mean it has repeatedly projected death numbers for the United States that are too optimistic. In terms of the american epidemic. For sure. Its hard not to conclude that thats part of why the white house kept talking about this model so much. The president likes happy talk about how everything is going great, and the virus will soon magically disappear, right . So models that predict a lower death toll than what were actually experiencing, he cant resist that and apparently neither can the people who he inviting up to the podium that say things that make him happy. That model, as i said, its not nuts. Its a serious thing. The institute for Health Metrics and evaluation at the university of washington, which has been making these projection, they have been totally open and transparent about their methodology and about the underlying assumptions for their model. And it turns out one of their really important underlying assumptions for that model was that people in the United States would stay home to stop the spread of the virus, that all states would put those stay at home rules in effect, that those stay at home rules would be kept in place, as long as they needed to be in place. And that people would abide by those rules. That was the assumption that led to them projecting 60 or 70,000 deaths. That was a basic assumption baked into their projections. Well, not anymore. Today, this university of Washington Group has unveiled what they are calling the ihme, the institute for Health Metrics and evaluation, the ihme, covid19 model 2. 0. In which, among other things, they start assuming that the United States will actually do what is needed to stop the spread of the virus. They are no longer rosecolored glasses, assuming, but there will be consistent coherent leadership in this country that establishes consistent coherent stayathome orders that people are consistently coherently required to follow. They are no longer assuming therefore that americans will abide by the stay at home rules. Since were not doing that, they need to stop assuming thats what well do, or theyll never have numbers that are anywhere close to accurate. The director of the institute that does this modeling explained to reporters today that quote, the primary reason for the increase in their new projection, in terms of the american death toll, is that many states have prematurely relaxed social distancing. Quote, for the first time, dr. Murray explained, the model is factoring in data from four different cell phone providers showing a major uptick in americans going out in public. This rise in mobility in the last week or ten days is likely leading to an increase in transmission. And so bottom line, because we are screwing this up so badly, as a matter of Public Policy, because we as a country are screwing this up so badly, in terms of our political leadership, and the, you know, the hear no evil, see no evil, speak plenty of evil, encouragement, about everything needs to open back up right now, no matter what, right, because of, because of that. Because of what we are doing. Because of the political mishandling of the Public Health imperatives of this crisis. Because of what we are doing wrong. Even this optimistic forecast that the white house has liked so much over the past couple of months, now, they are nearly doubling their projection of the number of americans who will be dead from this thing by the first week in august. Their projection is no longer it will be 74,000 of us dead by the first week in august. Theyre now projecting it will be 134,000 of us dead. And again, thats by the first week in august. And forgive me, but that projection, that updated projection, that horrible almost updated projection, may still be optimistic, given what the institute explains about their revised assumptions now. They are no longer assuming that were going to have stayathome orders, and do social distancing, and abide by those things, because were not, so they shouldnt assume those things anymore, but they are now assuming that we will have, quote, rising testing and Contact Tracing, that will, in the words of the institutes director put the brakes on transmission. So theyre no longer assuming we have stayathome orders because we dont, but they are assuming that testing will ramp up and Contact Tracing will ramp up and thats the way we will stop transmission. Raise your hand if you think nationally we are going to really soon have access to easy testing for everyone. And really well organized Contact Tracing all over the country. Raise your hand if you think this white house is going to lead us to that bright future, in time to put the brakes on transmission, through shear Public Health investment and competence in government. And that will result in us only having well, i dont even want to say it. Heres something you should know. I mentioned that this university of washington projection has been a favorite of the Trump Administration. I think its impossible not to suppose that thats potentially at least related to the fact that this model has had a projected american death toll that has been much lower than some other projections and the president as i said likes happy talk about this virus. Let me show you something. Here is a screen shot from the cdcs web site as of yesterday. This is courtesy of the good folks at the internet archive, the wayback machine. This, as of yesterday, is the cdcs coronavirus resources page, where they list a whole bunch of different projections and models that they respect and you might want to look at and you can see that the university of washington model, the institute for Health Metrics and evaluation model that ive just been talking about, it is right there on the cdc web site right prominent place on top. That was yesterday. Today is the day they upped the projected death toll for the United States from 74,000 to 134,000 dead americans. Today is also presto the day the cdc dropped this model from their list of models that you should look at. For weeks now, they have been promoting this model, showcasing it, talking about it in the White House Briefing room, a prominent place on the cdc web site, now that model doesnt say we will have 74,000 deaths, now we will have more than 130,000 deaths so they have just take continue off the web site dont. Look at that anymore. Its so, its pitiful, right . And it is one thing to see the white house pulling stuff like this. But this is the cdc. Who we should be able to count on. Right . Youre supposed to be datadriven. Youre supposed to be sciencedriven. If their theres bad news in the science, youre supposed to be willing to tell us the bad news, so we can compare and try to change course. The New York Times is also first to report today, on an internal document, inside the Trump Administration, with the cdcs logo on it, a document the cdc is now apparently disavowing, which actually has a worse projection now than the new terrible university of washington projection. In that university of washington model, theyre saying, by june 1st, less than a month from right now, our daily death toll in this country will be 890 deaths a day. While the other internal projection reported today by the New York Times says that by june 1st, we wont be at 800 and something deaths per day, we will be at 3,000 deaths per day, which is nearly double what were at right now. And well be there in less than a month. This internal document that has the cdcs logo on it also says that from the 25,000 new cases were getting each day, were going to go up to 175,000 new cases a day. Which honestly is just sort of terrifying thinking about the next month. Remember, when mike pence said like last week this whole thing will be over by memorial day . He said the whole thing will be in our Rearview Mirror by memorial day which is later this month. I mean inside the Trump Administration, theyre projecting privately that well be at 3,000 deaths a day, a week after memorial day. With no decline in sight. For context, were at about 1750 deaths. Er day on average right now. That internal document for the Trump Administration says it will be 1750 deaths on average, today, to 3,000 a day, inside a month. Lori garrett, the Pulitzer Prize winning science journalist who helped sound the alarm on this crisis almost before anyone else, she said this online in terms of these new projections in terms of helping our lay folk understand what this all means. She says quote, new infection rates will soar in may and june, the new Case Projections put great increases across the prairie states, from the dakotas, down to the deep south. Much of the u. S. Covid19 crisis will shift from new york, new jersey, california, washington, urban centers, to rural counties. Quote, its quite striking how closely the cdcs projections for increased covid cases mirror the locations of americas meat packing industry, which is currently slammed by covid spread. The new cdc forecast also shows surges ahead in areas that have reported covid outbreaks in Nursing Homes. Quote, it seems that prior reckons, grossly underestimated the scale of focused outbreaks in meat packing, assisted living centers, prisons and the likelihood of Community Covid spread from these facilities. Yes. That is what it seems like to me, too. We had a huge epidemic in new york and that has led to a very big and sustained epidemic in the tristate area of new york, new jersey, connecticut. Thats for real. That has been the start of the american epidemic. But now we see large outbreaks all over the country. Close your eyes. Drink three beers and throw a dart. Anywhere in the country that has Nursing Homes, meat packing facilities, other large Processing Plants, where people have been at work, prisons and jails, theyre everywhere, and that means were seeing outbreaks in those kind of facilities, everywhere. And those outbreaks in those kinds of facilities dont stay inside those facilities. Because people go in and out of them every day, and they eventually become Community Outbreaks in all of the places where those things are. And those things are off the beaten path, in all sorts of states. And i mean the data bears it out. Heres the new update on the New York Times today, of which metro area in the country has the most new cases per capita. Most new cases in the country per capita, number one, sioux city, iowa, number two, gallup, new mexico, number three, grand island, nebraska, number four, pine bluff, arkansas. Number five, marion, ohio. Number six, waterloo, cedar falls, iowa. Thats where the american coronavirus epidemic is the worst right now. And growing the fastest. Taking off like a rocket ship. And no, thats not, those arent american metropolises. Thats just regular hometown heartland america where this thing is now growing the fastest and you can see these kind of patterns in the local press before you can necessarily see them in the confirmed data. In the texas panhandle today, local officials invited in the federal government, to please come help with a surge of coronavirus cases, tied to meat packing plants in the texas panhandle. In moore county texas, there is a huge jbs Meat Processing plant that as of a week ago had over 150 million infections but they dont stay in the plant, they dont stay in the county where the plant is, dependsing how people are traveling to and from the workplace. It turns out a lot of people who work at that big jbs Meat Processing plant in texas live over the Oklahoma State line. So even that work site crisis in moore county, texas, is becoming a problem for the state of oklahoma because thats where the worker goes home to. That said, at the same time, oklahoma has their own outbreak at their own meat packing plant in their own oklahoma panhandle. More than 100 cases confirmed among workers at a single pork Processing Plant in giymon oklahoma, just due north of amarillo texas. Seaboard foot foods, 116 cases. Plant is still up and running. 127 employees there. In missouri, in st. Joseph, missouri, where local officials have been agitating to open everything up, as soon as possible, they just tested everybody the at the local pork plant in st. Joseph, run by triumph foods, 373 workers at that plant tested positive. 373 positive. All of them asymptomatic. Which tells you why you cant just test people who have symptoms. Not at meat packing plants. Not at Nursing Homes. You cant rely on symptomdriven testing. Not if youre actually trying to find people who are infected, and stop them from going into those facilities, to keep them from being in contact with people who arent infected, who will soon get infected, either in their nursing home, where they live, or where they work, or in the plant where they work. You cant rely on symptom testing. You have to test people who havent symptomatic. Everybody tested positive at that plant in missouri is asymptomatic. But what are the odds that meat packing plants will be testing everybody . Asymptomatic or not . What are the odds that every state will be able to test everybody in every nursing home, living and working there . What are the odds. The testing is still a catastrophe in this country. And you can tell, because theyre not testing. In new mexico, i just mentioned gallup, new mexico, theyve got one of the worst emerging outbreaks on the planet in that part of new mexico. Well, the state correction system, in new mexico says publicly, at least, whoo, new mexicans dont have to worry about an outbreak in their priss prisons there, new mexico has 6,000 people in the state prison, and a terrible outbreak in the community in new mexico and the state Corrections Authority says they have zero cases among state prisoners. Well, of their 6,000plus state prisoners, new mexico has tested a grand total of eight of them. Eight. That is not a typo. Its not 80. Its not 800. Eight. So yes, it appears that theres no problem in new mexico. Theyve got no positive tests. Because theyre not testing. Because in most places in the country, theyre not testing. And even the places where theyre testing, theyre not testing enough. Because there arent enough tests. Because the federal government never got it together and they still havent. But open everything up. Sure. As the outbreak moves into a very scary and what looks to be a sustained phase, where the american case numbers and the american death numbers stay three feet high and rising, and it is not driven by one state, its not driven by new york, its not driven by the tristate area around new york, its now driven by those, i mean those numbers are, you know, fairly stable at this point. The numbers are going up. The numbers are what they are. The american epidemic is what it is right now. Because the case numbers and the death numbers and the hopization numbers, are being driven not by one place but by the whole rest of the country all over the place. Where weve got sizable outbreaks in specific kinds of facilities that are creating Community Outbreaks all over america. Nursing homes. Meat Processing Plants. Prisons and jails. And all over the place. Where weve got those things, the continued lack of access to testing, particularly for those populations, means we are nationally living in la la land when it comes to taking measures to slow this thing down. And so were not taking measures to slow this thing down. And so we are looking at doubling death rate projections, even among the models that the white house likes the best because theyve been shiny happy talk so far. Our access to testing is bad enough that the United States senate came back in session today, and the senators didnt even get tested before they all got together in the capital. Why is that . Because we still have to triage testing in this country. Well talk with democratic senator leader Chuck Schumer next. Senator leader Chuck Schumer next keep being you. And ask your doctor about biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in certain adults. Its not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. Thats when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. Research shows people who take hiv treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit hiv through sex. Serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. Rare, lifethreatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. Do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. Tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. If you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. Common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. If youre living with hiv, keep loving who you are. And ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. Show me what youre made of. So we showed it our people, sourcing and distributing more fresh food than anyone. We showed it our drivers helping grocers restock their shelves. We showed it how were donating millions of meals to those in need. We showed it how we helped thousands of restaurants convert to takeout and pop up markets. And how were encouraging all americans to take out to give back. Adversity came to town. So we looked it right in the eye. And it wont be us. That blinks first. We think its safe to be here right now . No. Im learning more about the janitors and all of the people who are coming to work, im learning about them, and i think this is pretty much what is happening right now. I wish we were back to deal with covidrelated relief. I think we need to be working on the next stimulus package. But i think we can do that by working together. Working in our own offices. Theres no need to be collectively here. For reasons that nobody has been able to explain very well, the whole United States senate returned to the capital today, the majority of senators that you saw there, Wearing Masks when they returned. Others not so much. Returning senators were encouraged but not required to wear masks at the capital. It was only delaware senator tom carper who opted to keep his mask on while delivering his floor speech today. Over the weekend, in a rare display of bipartisan bicameral unity, House Speaker nancy pelosi and the Top Republican in the senate, Mitch Mcconnell, rejected a white house offer to give on the spot Rapid Response coronavirus testing to all of the representatives and senators as they came back to the capitol. Mcconnell and pelosi rejected that offer from the white house, saying that those limited very in demand tests should be reserved for front line medical workers and not given to members of congress instead, because we still have such terrible access to testing in this country, that we have to make those kinds of decisions, we have to triage access to testing like that, even for our legislature. So no testing for the returning senators before they were summoned back to capitol hill today. Senators will only receive a test if they show symptoms, which is terrible policy, because people can be infectious without showing symptoms. But yet, theyre back today. Senator mcconnell, insists that the senate needed to reconvene today, because of the republicans agenda of confirming white house nominees and judges. As for the pandemic, you heard senator blumenthal say there, i wish we were back to deal with covidrelated relief. Thats not what theyre back to work on. And in fact, the white house told lawmakers today that members of the Coronavirus Task force will not be permitted to testify to congress this whole month unless directly cleared by the white house chief of staff which is a very weird thing. After a Quick Response from the democratic leader in the senate Chuck Schumer who said quote, President Trump should learn that by muzz ling science and the truth, it will only prolong this health and economic crisis. Joinings now for the interview tonight is the top democrat in the United States Senate New York senior senator Chuck Schumer. Thank you for taking the time to be here tonight. Good evening, rachel. Let me ask you first about what i just mentioned there. This white house notification today that members of the administrations Coronavirus Task force wont be allowed to testify at any time this entire month unless the white house chief of staff gives a permission slip. Its to me, it strikes me as a strange sort of proclamation, i wonder if this is something you expected, or if this is a surprise to you. Well, its not surprising, because donald trump and his administration, by and large, have just shied away from the truth. They dont want to admit the reality. President trump said a month ago, every american who wants a test can get a test. Well, obviously, that is not even close to true. And you know, rachel, the longer they dont admit the truth, they dont, and the longer they dont admit to, listen to the scientists, the longer this crisis is going to last. And even worse, its more likely to come back a second and third time. So frankly, this president , who only looks out for himself, is even hurting himself, by shying away, by putting his head in the sand, by not admitting the truth. We democrats, youre right, we came back today, so Mitch Mcconnell could confirm a rightwing, very divisive judge, a judge who even said that the chief justice was wrong when he didnt get rid of the aca, even at a time when people are desperate for health care, and thats why were coming back. Its unbelievable. There is nothing on the floor this week about covid. We asked mcconnell, at least to have hearings, and bring up, so they could get real questions, not, you know, when a Reporter Asks them a question, or ask the president or one of his people at the white house, the president cuts them off. In a hearing like this, a real focused hearing, you could ask question after question, and we ask that fauci and birx and mnuchin and powell and others all come forward. We dont have that here, those hearings this week. Now they say they may have fouc fauci next week but who can believe that given what mark meadows said and they pulled him away from the house. By not telling the truth, by not hearing the truth, by not listening to scientists, they are prolonging this crisis, they are prolonging how bad the economy will be, they are prolonging the agony of this country. Does it surprise me . No. Does it upset me . A lot. Senator, given what you have been called back to do, as you say youre not dealing with what the country is facing now, youre confronting controversial judge picks and things like that, given that is why youre all potentially sacrificing your health, coming back to work in aggregate at the u. S. Capitol, without actually having you and all of your staff tested before coming into that environment, which is something that does happen at the white house for anybody who comes into contact with the president. Yes. Im worried about you and your colleagues, you are, with all due respect, an older group, you have, you have to have interaction with a lot young at heart. Young at heart. It does feel scary to me though, that youre all there. Is there concern among your colleagues . Yes, and some of my, each colleague has made his or her own choice. Whether they can best serve their constituents by staying home, or coming. And that choice, i respect, in every colleague. But were here right now, to force mcconnell, and the republicans, to do the job that were supposed to do. Pass new covid legislation. We havent heard a peep out of mcconnell other than these lines in the sand for his ideological issues. We are not going to give aid to state and local governments. He first said let them go bankrupt. Now hes saying we have to exempt the corporate leadership from liability. That means if a corporate, a head of a company, said you have to sit next to someone who has all the signs of covid, without ppe, you cant sue that boss. That encourages bad bosses to do just that. Thats all he is doing. So im here to force them, as best i can, to do real oversight, thats part of congress responsibility, and to come up with things, like money for state and local governments, like heroes pay for the people who are on the front lines, like getting money for housing relief, for people who, after three months, will be kicked out of their homes. And that is something that he is not doing. Why he called us back here, given the agenda, is befud ling, even to many of my republican colleagues. Senator, in terms of the what the senate can do right now and i can hear and see your frustration with the republican leader in terms of how he is organizing the time and the priorities of senate right now, but i know that Senate Democrats for example, put together a detailed plan about trying to fix the testing disaster in this country. Yes. I know that the Senate Democrats have talked in detail about what needs to happen different in terms of the Financial Relief and how its been directed and now in some cases it has been misdirected to the kinds of companies that were not supposed to get Small Business aid, but nevertheless took the lion share of it. Do you have the opportunity to work on those things, at all . Even as a caucus . Even if senator mcconnell isnt allowing those things yes. To be driving the floor agenda . The last two bills show that. Covid 3 and covid 3. 5. Mcconnell came on the floor with a corporate bill in the first 3, and we forced him to do state and local aid, we forced him to do aid to hospital, we forced him to do aid to Small Business. On testing they resisted, but in the covid 3. 5, we forced them to put in 25 billion for testing, 11 billion to go to the states so they could do testing and could do Contact Tracing and the rest to the federal government, so they could actually provide the supply lines that are needed, and the manufacturing that are needed to make the most tests. So when we confront mcconnell, we usually win. And thats because, often though were a minority, the public is on our side, and loot t of thos republican senator, some up for reelection, some not, eventually come over to our side, and weve had success in bill three. Not everything, believe you me, but making it a lot better than when we started and i believe we will have the same success as we roll up our sleeves and get to work on covid 4, the next bill. Senator Chuck Schumer, thank you, i appreciate you making time. Thank you. We got much more ahead. Stay with us. We got much more ahead. 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Were getting a super competitive Interest Rate on our money. Were able to invest through the same exact platform. I really liked that they didnt have any hidden or extra fees. Sofi has brought me peace of mind. Truly thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. Theres only one clear cut way to monitor and track the spread of coronavirus, thats widespread testing, the problem of course is that here in the United States, we are not conducting widespread testing, nor does it appear that we will be conducting widespread testing any time soon, because our federal government botched that so badly, we are still nowhere near digging ourselves out of a hole they put us in, when this whole thing started and thats part of the reason why we have the largest epidemic on earth. By a mile. But because we do have terrible access to testing, Public Health officials are scouting around to try to come up with other ways we might try to track the virus. And they are ending up in places you might not expect. This is from the New York Times. Quote, water authorities and governments are in discussions with scientists and companies about tracking the pandemic through the detection of viruses in the sewer. Wastewater monitoring could provide Early Warnings of outbreaks. Quote, measuring viruses in wastewater in effect tests an entire city or region at once. While only some people may get tested for the coronavirus, on a given day, everyone uses the toilet. So far the results are promising. Quote after the netherlands saw the first confirmed case february 27th, researchers found the virus in the sewers of amsterdam. And researchers then went to remolt towns without any known cases of covid, and they discovered the coronavirus up to six days before the first confirmed cases were found there. The sewer told them six days in advance with proper testing data. Quote, as the confirmed cases of covid19 have gone up, in amsterdam, and tutrercht they have found more in the waste water. Similar results out of australia and france and spain and in the United States. Thats encouraging. With cities and states opening back up, now inexplicably it could be very good to have some sort of a Public Healthdriven, sciencebased Early Warning system, as to when that results in another outbreak, coming down on us. As the times reports, quote, when cities or states come out of lockdown, they could check the sewers, to follow the virus trend. And an increase, we tell them that people were in fecting each other and then you into ed to go back into quarantine. Testing in the sewer, to take a community viral load snapshot, its like a cross between science fiction, and a hilarious kids book noplot, right . But it is also working and given our particular handicap as a country, this may be one of the only way, certainly one of the only painless ways we could try to make up some distance for what our testing disaster has caused us. One of the scientists who has been working on that will join us here live next. O has been working on that will join us here live next. Aleve it. Aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. When pain happens, aleve it. All day strong. Confident financial plans, calming financial plans, complete financial plans. Theyre all possible with a cfp® professional. Find yours at letsmakeaplan. Org. Good morning, mr. Sun. Good morning, blair. [ chuckles ] whoo. Im gonna grow big and strong. Yes, you are. Im gonna get this place all clean. Ill give you a hand. And im gonna put lisa on crutches wait, what . Said shes gonna need crutches. She fell pretty hard. You might want to clean that up, girl. Excuse us. 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Well welcome back old colleagues, get to know new ones some things may change, but well still be here, right here, so you can work on the business of getting your business back. At paycom, our focus will always be you and well see you soon. The headline is irresisti e irresistible. Is it safe to come out of lockdown . Check the sewer. Thats exactly the type of data we are looking for right now with on going problems about access to testing in this country, is this an alternative that could give us the data we need to make good Public Health decisions without having to wait for our government to get it together when it comes to testing. Joining us now is ally bame a professor of civil and environmental study of the detectable prevalence in covid19 waste water. Pleasure to have you here. Thanks for taking time to be here. Thank you for having me. Let me ask you if i have mischaracterized what youre working on or looking at this the wrong way in terms of explaining this. No, youre explaining it perfectly. Our aspiration is to create a way to measure sewage to ensure prevalence in the sewer shed in the community that uses the showers in that watershed. I know this is going to sound like im jumping right to the end but im trying to figure out if this is something that we should be not thinking about, is this expensive to do, b, is it technically difficult to do . Its hard to answer that question because expensive to an environmental engineer may not be expensive to the state of california. I dont think its particularly expensive. Its relatively easy to sample the waste Water Treatment plants and the type of analysis we do are routinely done in environmental micro biology labs around the country and Environmental Engineering lab. Theoretically its not technically different and make the measurements all the time. We measure viruses in the environment. Were focused on viruses that give you diarrhea and cause you to vomit, but the types of analysis we have to do for the sars virus are similar to the ones we do for other viruses. Could we or should we imagine near term Public Health future in which this data, this approach to prevalence testing, testing at the Water Treatment plant could be focused enough that an individual state or individual county could use this kind of information to find out if Public Policy changes that theyve made have increased or decreased the prevalence in as you call it the sewer shed in their area, can it be pinpointed that well . We hope that it can. Our goal at least with our project here at stanford is to get a tool ready to use in the next six months, so thats our goal and were working very hard towards it, and i think our entire community of environmental engineers around the world actually and you mentioned some of the places earlier in the netherlands and spain and switzerland, australia, japan, china were all working together to try to get this tool so that it can be used in the very near term and i think we all recognize the urgency of getting this tool working within the next few months, if thats possible. Professor of civil and enva mental engineering at stanford university. God speed to you and your team and all of your colleagues around the world who have worked on this, if this can come to fruition, particularly as you said in a matter of months, it could be huge in terms of what we can understand and how we can better plan for what to do here. Thanks for helping us understand it this evening. Good luck. Thank you. All right. Well be right back. Stay with us. All right well be right back. Stay with us for a bit, but youre not alone. Were automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. Learn more at libertymutual. Com covid19. [ piano playing ] that family doesnt have to take out of their house. It relieves stress off of me to let me know im doing something good for the community, not just papa johns. Im doing something good for the community, puberty means personal space. So sports clothes sit around growing odors. Thats why we graduated to tide pods sport. Finally something more powerful than the funk. Tide sport removes even weekold sweat odor. Its got to be tide. And ask your doctor about biktarvy. Biktarvy is a complete, onepill, onceaday treatment used for hiv in certain adults. Its not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. Thats when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. 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Starting may 11, enjoy free access to the best shows and movies from favorites like hbo, showtime, starz and, for the first time ever, hulu and peacock catch the show someone on twitter says is omg cray, exclamation mark. Dont look at me. Or the one with the character with the eccentric name. whispers to himself oh, so thats who offred is. Hi. Even the one thats inspired all those memes. There they are everyones got a show to recommend. Get ready to watch the best for free during watchathon week. A best news thing in the world today just what you needed, and this one took root last year before all of this, before this crisis. In december, the out going governor of Kentucky Republican matt bevin gave out a huge number of pardons on what appeared to be somewhat dubious terms. Governor bevin pardoned a convicted killer whose brother hosted a Campaign Fundraiser for him. Bevin pardoned a convicted child rapist and also someone who killed his parents. The list was long and like i said, it was sort of an unusual eyebrow raising group of cases. At one point in the middle of their investigation, a funny thing happened. By then ex abogovernor matt bev called up joe. He kept the governor on the phone for an hour and dropped a juicy quote which was one of the best he had ever gotten in his whole career. Ultimately was actually cut out of the story but he kind of just couldnt stop thinking about it. What the governor said to him that quote was we learned finally thanks to joe sonka, what was said to him that day, he said he told him to quote dig into his pardons and told him quote if its done right, you could win a politzer prize. Why, yes you could. They did indeed win the poll lizzer praise for their work investigating governor bevins pardons that turned out to be an ethical catastrophe. A politzer prize best new thing in the world today, but because this is our world, i need to add between accepting congratulations on twitter,