Transcripts For MSNBCW Weekends With Alex Witt 20200329

Metro area where your care can a be provided. Its spreading virus more quickly around the United States. On capitol hill, nancy pelosi speaking out against the president s response. What the president , his denial at the beginning was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where it continues his delaying getting equipment to where it is needed is deadly. And now i think the best thing would be to do is to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up. A stark warning from dr. Fauci on just how Many Americans may die from this virus. Looking at what we are seeing now, i would say between 100,000 and 200,000 cases. But i dont want to be held to that. Excuse me, deaths. Were going to have millions of cases. But i just dont think that we really need to make a projection when its such a moving target that you could so easily be wrong and mislead people. What we do know, jake, is that we have a serious problem in new york. We have a serious problem in new orleans. Lets just look at the data of what we have and not worry about these worse case and best case scenarios. At this hour, we are awaiting the Daily Briefing from andrew cuomo. He will be in albany, new york. A look at a very empty times square. We will bring you the governor once that begins. Lets go now to monica alba at the white house with reaction to the travel advisory. Looks like its a dismal day as here in new york as well. What can you tell us . Reporter thats right. We saw this quarantine really go from proposal to reversal in just a matter of hours from the president. He first floated it and then said they would be taking a look at it and speaking to the governors of the tristate area before making decisions. They had a late Coronavirus Task force meeting here at the white house that wasnt previously on the schedule to discuss how this could work. Take a listen to how dr. Fauci put it in terms of his conversations with the president this morning. Take a listen. I think it ultimately will help stop the virus, jake. We had a very intensive discussion last night at the white house with the president. As you know, the original proposal was to consider seriously an enforceable quarantine. After discussions with the president , we made it clear and he agreed that it would be much better to do whats called a strong advisory. The reason for that is that you dont want to get to the point where you are being enforcing things that would create a big difficulty, morale and otherwise, when you could probably accomplish the same goal. Reporter that speaks to the confusion prompted when the president first expressed this as being under advisement. You heard dr. Fauci talk about how the cdc travel advisory, which will last two weeks, encourages what people are directed to do, stay at home, to not leave or travel for anything that is considered nonessential. To see that continue is a sign that that is the kind of guidance they continue to express that really anything in terms of a quarantine is more going to be up to the states. We heard from governors. You will probably hear from Governor Cuomo in this hour why thats not the best case for new york right now. As the cases continue to rise. We expect to hear from the task force. They will be briefing here later this afternoon. Lots of officials with a lot to say. Thank you. Talked about Governor Cuomo. Lets take a listen to Governor Andrew Cuomo in his Daily Briefing about new york. Rather than being reactive, be proactive, get ahead of it. Local Health Providers should be watching whats going on in different parts of the state and anticipating whats going to happen. This is going to be a phenomenon of a rolling apex. We keep talking about the apex, the top of the curve. But the top of the curve will occur at different times in different places. Right . The curve is a function of the rate of spread, the rate of density and when it started. So you will see different curves. You see it all across the country. Started in Washington State. Now you see new york, you see chicago, you see new orleans, you see parts of california. So that rolling apex is happening across the country. That rolling apex is also going to be happening across the state of new york. The current projections all say new york city will face the first high water mark, if you will, high tide mark, the high of the curve. But then you will see we westchester, long island on a delay with their curve hitting the new height. Model projectors are not sure if its westchester first or long island first. Some suggest its westchester because we had that cluster in westchester, if you remember, new rochelle. Then upstate new york. We expect a curve in upstate new york also. May not be as high, obviously, as new york city, westchester and long island, but there will be a curve. So if you are not in a highly affected health area now, that doesnt mean you are not going to have a real situation to deal with. Because these numbers are just going to continue to go up all across the state. So for a local health system, this is a new challenge. Most Health Systems have Public Hospitals and then they have private hospitals or volunteer, voluntary hospitals. They basically exist on a daytoday basis as two different systems. You will have Public Hospitals and then you have the private hospital system. For all intents and purposes, in normal operating procedures, they operate as two systems. Theres very little interaction. Theres also very little interaction among individual hospitals, sometimes even within their own system. So you have Public Hospitals that are part of a Public Hospital system, but each hospital basically operates on its own. Right . Has its own identity. Certainly true on the private side where you have individual hospitals and they operate on their own. We have to change that mentality. We have to change that mentality quickly. No hospital is an island. No hospital in this situation can exist unto themselves. We really have to have a new mentality, a new culture of hospitals working with one another. Both within the public system as well as the private system. And we need to think about the public system working with the private system in a way they never have before. There is an artificial wall almost between those two systems right now. That wall has to come down. That theory has to come down. This is going to be all hands on deck. This is everybody helping everyone else. One hospital gets overwhelmed, the other hospitals have to flex to help that hospital and vice versa. We have elmhurst hospital, for example, in new york city that is under stress. The number of cases in elmhurst hospital is high. When the number of cases is high, the stress on the staff is high. I was speaking with a doctor about this. Do you this two, three, four weeks, the level of stress is very intense. Elmhurst hospital is part of a Public Health system of about 11 hospitals in new york city. That system has to work together. Those hospitals have to work together. The 11 health and hospital in new york city, the public system. And im going to ask mayor to look at the system and figure out how we can get that system to work Better Together as a unified system. This is not going to get better soon. Right . So elmhurst is under stress now. That stress does not abate for the foreseeable shortterm future. So how do we make that system work Better Together . What recommendations do we have to improve h h . We will meet with the private hospitals in new york city that are organized through something called the Greater New York hospital association. Im going to be meeting with them tomorrow to talk about having those hospitals also organize, act as one, get out of their silos, get out of their identities to work together. And then overall, you have these local Health Systems, the states role, which we have never done before, is getting those Health Systems to work with one another. So we talked about if new york city gets overwhelmed, we will ask the upstate systems to be a relief valve for the downstate Health Systems, which has never happened before to any scale. And also vice versa. There will be a time where the upstate hospitals will be struggling. And when the upstate hospitals will be struggling, then we want the downstate hospitals to be able to take over and relieve those hospitals. Thats actually the advantage of the rolling curve that they are projecting. If it does happen that way, theoretically, i almost think of it as a high hide mark. Right . High tide comes first in new york city. Then the tide is on the way down and then its high tide in upstate new york. Okay. If the tide is dropping downstate, then you have some relief for the upstate hospitals. We put in place the new york pause program. Today i am going to extend it to april 15th, the directive that nonessential state work force continue to work from home. Were doing it in twoweek intervals because every day is say new day. We will see what happens day to day. But i think its not even questionable today but that were going to need two more weeks of nonessential workers. Good news, wadsworth has developed new York State Department of health has developed a less intrusive saliva and short nasal swap test. Im not sure what it is. My guess is, it wouldnt be applied to me. It can be administered in the presence of Health Care Workers. It requires less ppe. Health care workers can selfadminister it. Kudos to the department of health on that. It also helps them limit exposure for Health Care Workers and it should start as soon as next week. People ask, when is this over . I think the testing you tell me when they come up with an inexpensive home test or point of care test that can be brought to volume. I think thats probably when you see a real return to normalcy in the work force. In other words, were talking about this curve, flatten the curve. At what point on the other side of the curve do you go back to work . Asked this the other day. There is no answer. I think the answer is going to be in testing. Dr. Fauci, who i think is were blessed to have him here at this time. He talks about faster, easier testing. If you can test millions of people, if you could test today millions of people, you could send them to work tomorrow. Right . So the development of these tests i think are very important and instructive. Tomorrow the uss comfort is coming. Thats about 1,000 bed capacity. Its staffed by federal officials, federal medical professionals. It is not for covid patients. Its to take the backfill from hospitals. Current stockpile, were working to purchase equipment all across the globe. We have a team working seven days a week. Unfortunately, were competing against every other state in the United States for these same things. So its very hard. But were making progress. In terms of finding staff, thats going very well. The voluntaryism of new yorkers, god bless them, up to 76,000 Health Care Workers who have volunteered. 76,000. 76,000 people who volunteer to go into these hospitals at this time. Just think about that. On the total people tested, we did 16,000 last night. Total of 172,000 tested. Thats the highest in the state highest in the country, im sorry. Positive cases, 7,000 last night. Total cases, 59,000. The virus continues its march across the state of new york. Only two counties now that dont have cases. These are the overall numbers. 59,000 people tested positive, 8,000 currently hospitalized, 2,000 icu patients. 3,500 patients discharged. Nobody really points to these numbers, but this is good news. 846 people came out of hospitals yesterday, discharged. After being treated for covid. Yes, people get it, 80 have either selfresolve or have some symptoms at home, 20 go into the hospital, majority of those get treated and leave. Its the acutely ill by and large who are the vulnerable population. Thats what were seeing more and more. The deaths went from 728 to 965. Whats happening now is as i mentioned yesterday, people are on the ventilator longer and longer. The longer you are on a ventilator, the less your chance of ever getting off that ventilator. Thats what were seeing. We will continue to see the number of deaths increase. In terms of most impacted states, again, new york is still number one. Total new hospitalizations, these are the charts we look at every night. The number is up 1,175. It was 847 the night before. These bounce night to night. Any one nights data could have a number of variables in it. What hospitals actually reported. When they reported it. How accurate they were. More you look for a trend line, more than anything else. And there are trend lines. If you look early on, the hospitalization rate was doubling every two days. Then it doubled every three days, then it doubled every four days. Now its doubling every six days. So you have almost a dichotomy. The doubling rate is slowing. That is good news. But the number of cases are still going up. So you are still going up towards an apex. But the rate of the doubling is slowing. Which is good news. Change in daily icu admissions, you see a tick up in the icu admissions. But again you see you look for the trend line among those columns more than the individual columns. Change in daily intubations, we dont normally run this chart. But these are the people who are most seriously affected. Again, you see a trend line in that. You see some aberrations, march 26th, 290. You see a trend line. The trend line is what were watching. You also see a trend line in people being discharged. Okay . And this is a dramatic trend line. So people came in. They started to get treated. Only march 18th, right . So were only talking about ten days. They started to get treated. A few of them got out early. A few more, a few more, a few more, a few more. Now you are seeing the discharge number trend way up. Because thats whats going to happen. People go into the hospital. They get treated. They leave. Those that are acutely ill get put on a ventilator and then its the inverse dynamic. The longer theyre on the intubator, the longer they are interest ba intubated, the higher the mortality rate. These are the numbers from day one, since china started. Also, we should keep in mind, we lost the the First Responders, i was talking about the 76,000 people who volunteered to help medical professionals. Being a First Responder today, being a Public Health official, working in a hospital, working with senior citizens, this is really an act of love and courage. We lost detective dixon, 48 years old. 23year veteran. Could have retired. We wish him and his family peace. We lost a nurse. We lost a couple of other nurses. Kious kelly, 48 years old, the assistant nurse manager at mount sinai west. We wish his family the best. These Public People i dont even have the words to express my admiration for them. Fdr always had words. Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that Something Else is more important than fear. To me, that says it all today. Everyone is afraid. Everyone is afraid. You think these Police Officers are not afraid to leave their house . You think these nurses are not afraid to go into the hospital . Theyre afraid. But something is more important than their fear. Which is their passion, their commitment for Public Service and helping others. Thats all it is. Its just their passion and belief in helping others. And that overcomes their fear. And that makes them, in my book, just truly amazing, outstanding human beings. I wish them and their families all the best. The president and cdc ordered a travel advisory for people of new york, new jersey and connecticut. This happened last night. This is not a lockdown. Its a travel advisory. To be implemented by the states, in essence. Its nothing that we havent been doing. Right . Nonessential people should stay at home. So its totally consistent with everything were doing. I support what the president did, because it affirms what we have been doing. It also affirms what new jersey and connecticut have been doing. Rhode island issued an executive order that new york license plates would be theoretically stopped at the border for mandatory quarantine of some period. That executive order has been repealed by the state of rhode island and we thank them for their cooperation. That was repealed last night. Personal opinion, not fact, gratuitous, this is disorienting. Its frightening. Its disturbing. Your whole life is turned upside down overnight. Do the best you can. You find a way to create some joy. You try to find a Silver Lining in all of this. How do you break up the monotony. My idea for today. Sunday, i come from an Italian American family. Sunday was family day. We had the big family dinner. You would have it in the afternoon. So it was a confusing, but it was a lunch late lunch they call dinner. It was spaghetti and meatballs and sausages. My family would all get together. It was a beautiful time. I didnt appreciate it as a kid. But it was just beautiful. They all came together. The grandparents were there. They would start to eat at 2 00. It was a marathon session. The food was really just the attraction to get people together. You know, everybody talks about how the italians love the food. Thats true. But really they love bringing the family together. The food was the way that people came together. You sat at the table. It was just a two, threehour affair. My mother and father did it also. Not to the same extent my grandparents did it, but we had that same sunday dinner around the table. I tried to continue it as a father with my kids. I was divorced. So im not really the best cook, to say the least. But we would have, on sundays, i would actually go to the italian Specialty Store and i would buy the meatballs and saw sanusages buy the sauce. I would put it in a pot on the stove. It would sit there all day and simmer. You would smell it through the house. Then i would make them sit down and we would have spaghetti and meatballs and sausage on sundays. My daughter is in the back. They would never eat the sausage and the meatballs. They would pick at the pasta. They knew i didnt know how to cook. They knew that meatball and sausage was inherently suspect. I never said that i bought it in the Specialty Store, because that would have ruined the whole tradition. So they wouldnt eat it. We would go for chinese food afterwards. That convening was something special. Today, were going to have our family dinner. Were missing one daughter. We will get her on skype and grandma will be on the telephone. Were going to sit around the table and were going to have that kind of coming together. A little different skype and telephones. But you know what . With everything going on, family, were here, were together, were healthy. Thats 98 of it. So find ways to make a little joy. Also for new yorkers, i know we feel under attack. I had a lot of phone calls yesterday when the president first suggested some form of quarantine, what does that mean, quarantine . Am i going to be allowed to leave the house . Are my parents, who are supposed to be coming back and this one is here and this one is here . I know we feel under attack. The rhode island, you cant drive into rhode island, we will pull you over with the police. Yes, new york is the epicenter. These are different times. Many people are frightened. Some of the reactions you get from individuals, even from governments, are frightening and suggesting that they will take abrupt actions against new york. But look, this is new york. We are going to make it through this. We have made it through far greater things. We are going to be okay. We specialize in stamina and strength and instability. Thats just what were doing now. We are strong. We have endurance. And we have stability. We know what were doing. Were executing the plan. Any obstacle that we come across, we will manage that obstacle. And we have. I cant sit here and say to anyone, you are not going to see people pass away. You will. That is the nature of what were dealing with. And thats beyond any of our control. But new york is going to have what it needs. No one is going to attack new york unfairly and no one is going to deprive new york of what it needs. Thats why im here. Thats why we have a state full of very talented professional people. A deep breath on all of that. We are doing exactly what we need to do. There is no state in the nation that is better prepared or better mobilized than what were doing. I feel that deeply and having studied everything that every other state has done. Federal officials have even remarked to me that they are surprised how quickly a state as big as complicated as new york has actually mobilized. Feel good about that. There are two great new york expressions that i use all the time. Anything i build in new york always has two expressions on it. One, excelsior. Says it all. Eve ever upwards. Aspirational. We can be better. We will be better. Were going to aim higher. Were going to improve ourselves. Excelsior. State motto. The other e pluribus unum. Unity. You put those two things together, it says it all. Aim high, do better, believe you can do better, be optimistic and the way you get there is through unity and togetherness and cooperation and through mutuality and community. Those two expressions if you remember nothing else when im gone, if you walk up to the box and have nothing else to remember, excelsior, you can be better, it will be better, we can make it better, e pluribus unum, we make it Better Together. Thats it. Thats what were doing. Questions . When will we funnel patients into javitz . How is that going to work . When are we funneling patients into javitz . It will be coming online this week. Remember, a lot of what were doing is were building capacity and assembling supplies for the apex. People say, you dont need this today. Yeah, i know i dont need it today. Because i know where we are in the trajectory today. I have to prepare for the apex. For the curve. Thats where i need the beds. Thats where i need the supplies. Thats when i said, get ahead of this thing, right . The virus has been ahead of us. I want to get ahead of the virus. I want to get to the apex before the virus gets to the apex. The javitd z is part of that. It will come online this week. When we utilize it is when we need it. You mentioned family dinners a moment ago. Obviously, the stay at home through april 15th affects easter and passover. That means people cant go to church, cant have seder. What advice do you give . Its hard. On the flip side, look what happened in new rochelle. Those gatherings brought people together, were religious gatherings. And brought hundreds of people together, which was beautiful, but it made many, many, many people ill. Density is the enemy here. For this particular time. You worship the way you can. But the gatherings are just not a good idea. By the way, the patient zero what we call patient zero in new rochelle who was very sick for a very long time, he has actually gone home. Am i correct in that . Went out of the hospital. Out of the hospital. You have spoken to the governor of rhode island . How did you convince her to take back the travel issue . I spoke to the governor of rhode island yesterday. We had a conversation. I dont think the order was called for. I dont believe it was legal. I dont believe it was neighborly. I understood the point. But i thought there were different ways to do it. The governor of rhode island was very receptive. I thank her very much for reconsidering her position. 237 deaths in the last 24 hours in new york. 222, it seems in new york city. What are your projections showing in terms of what this apex might look like in terms of fatality stalit fatalities . Hundreds of people, thousands of people . What are you seeing . Howard, do you know . Theres many different projections that were working at. It does see that there will be were at 965. We do see in the thousands. Again, these are models. We have to plan for what the model may show but hopefully it will be less. A second question. Are we talking hundreds of deaths a day, thousands of deaths a day . It goes back to the numbers. We have always said 80 of individuals get better. We have said that of the other 20 , some end up in the hospital and a small percentage that end up, unfortunately, dieing. That percentage as were looking at it, the numbers is hovering around 1 or less than 1 . Its determined by how many people are positive. Opinion, jesse, not data driven. I dont see how you lock ok at those numbers and conclude anything less than thousands of people will pass away. Remember who it is attacking. Its attacking the vulnerable. Underlying illness. I dont see how you get past that curve without seeing thousands of people pass away. I hope its wrong. As of friday, nursing home residents, who are a fourth of the deaths in new york city, what more can the state do to tackle that issue . Nursing homes are about a fourth of the coronavirus deaths. Frankly, im we are lucky that its only one quarter. Coronavirus and a nursing home is a toxic mix. We have said that from day one. We saw that in Washington State. This virus preys on the vulnerable. It preys on seniors. It preys on people with compromised immune systems and underlying illnesses. Coronavirus in a nursing home can be like fire through dry grass. The state has put in different precautions. Were not allowing visitors into Nursing Homes now. Which is really harsh, frankly, unless what we call there are circumstances where the person is in a desperate situation and then the family comes in to see them. The staff is being tested before they go in. Were doing everything we can. This is truly a terrible virus to stop. That combination is lethal. Coronavirus in a nursing home is lethal. The only question is, how many people will die . Your order you are sending all nonessential workers and all unnecessary gatherings through april 15th . Yes. To go back to the point that the doctor was making, were testing at a large rate. Were getting more positives compared to other jurisdictions. What numbers are you actually looking at . Do you look at the rate of hospitalization, the rate of icu intubation . The data seem to be saying different things. You look at all the numbers. We look at all of this. We look at the trends. Its very important to look at the trends, as the governor mentioned. Its a trend we need to follow, whether its intubation, icu care and obviously, we look at the case fatality rate, the number of people who died, the number over the larger number of people who have tested. New york has tested many people. More than anyone else. If i can on that, the question was basically what numbers do you look at to make a projection. As the doctor said, you look at all of them. I would not look at the testing numbers. I wouldnt overweight the testing numbers, because the testing numbers are not random. The testing numbers are selfselected. These are people who you are testing because they are suspect of being positive. We dont do the projections ourselves. We have Columbia Medical Center that does projections. The cdc does projections. We have Mckenzie Company that we hired to do projections. There are a number of firms that do these projection models. They go back to studying china and south korea and everything else. They have models. The models, some of the models are all over the place. Right . So we do the best we can to pick a reasonable model. Not the highest. Not the lowest. A reasonable model, plan for that model, plan for that apex. Thats why we got from day one, 140,000 hospital beds, 40,000 icu beds. Thats from that model at the apex. At the apex. What you dont need 140,000 hospital beds today. Of course not. We need them at the apex. Thats where we got those original projections. Thenale actuality. You can see how many come in, how many go out, discharge rate, death rate. Thats what we are plotting. Then they take every day and they put it against their projection. You still only have a projection. They still cant tell you they are watching for the slowing of the number of cases. When you see the number of cases the increase in the number of cases slowing, then you are theoretically reaching the apex. Otherwise, you just watch it day to day. Stopping new york plates at the border. We hear thats happening on i95. I didnt hear that. Will you talk to them in i know there are restrictions in florida on new yorkers or people coming from new york. I dont know what florida did. I will look into it. A threepart question for you. You get two parts. Take them and put them together. Moving forward, what is your plan for what might be considered a Mental Health crisis ending. As people are cooped up together, Domestic Violence is expected to rise. Do you get crime reports in the crime rates down . Good questions. You want to comment you want to talk about the Mental Health program. We have a volunteer program. We have nearly 12,000 Mental Health experts and professionals signed up to offer services to new yorkers either via telephone or skype or other things. That program is going quite well of psychologists and psychiatrists and Mental Health exper perts to help with that. Are you expecting to do something thats more new york state centric as opposed to this National Type thing where Mental Health experts from around the country offer skype and other people are skyping because we want to limit we want people to distance from one another. Many of the volunteers i mentioned are new yorkers who are just giving their time and expertise to help new yorkers in need right now. Its very new york centric. Domestic violence question that i asked about. Howard . We have been tracking some of that data. Its tough to tell how its emerging. We have seen theres anecdotal incidence of increase Domestic Violence issues and department of health and other agencies have been trying to provide services where possible. I would defer on that. As jim said, were working with all the different agencies across the state on this issue. Obviously Mental Health and other agencies. I have reached out to some of the professionals in the private sector to ask some recommendations they may have. I appreciate it. Could you speak to there was was ample warning before coronavirus touched down on new york shores that there should be large Mass Gatherings should be banned, there should be large workplace restrictions. Why didnt you shut down the state sooner . I think we shut it down i think we were one of the first to shut it down. Shutting it down is not without criticism either. Right . You are trying to balance this. You have the conversation about when do you bring the economy back . When do you open it up . Shutting it down is a very drastic measure. I think we were one of the first. You want do it in a way that doesnt create more fear and more panic. You are fighting two things. Were fighting two things. Last night we were fighting two things. You are fighting the virus and the fear. I cant tell you how many people called all night long about the mandatory quarantine comment that the president made as he was getting into a helicopter, which was inconclusive, by the way. Even if you heard his comment, it was not conclusive in his comment. People are so on edge. I mean, it really panicked people. They were going to leave the city last night. It was really you need to manage that fear and panic. You also need to deal with the virus. We were one of the first. I never used the term shelter in place because i believe that was an inflammatory term and incorrect, by the way. They still use it. Nobody has a shelter in place policy. Shelter in place was from the nuclear war threat, go to a room in the middle of your room that has no windows, stay there until they give you the all clear sign. What . Modern times, it was for an active shooter concept or in schools. Thats not what this was. You say that, nuclear war, active shooter, you know, so its how you do it. We were one of the first to do it. People are dieing at a quick clip. Do you regret not placing more restrictions sooner . I think we were the most dramatic at basically the first point. Can you tell me do you know how many medical professionals in new york or other front line First Responders have tested positive . Are you hearing from hospitals and other folks . I dont have we dont have a statistic on how many First Responders specifically proved positive. Senator schumer says you are rejecting 5 billion in coronavirus medicaid funding for new yorkers because you are not willing to delay the medicaid reforms until the federal funding runs out. His office whats your response . What i say to senator schumer, it would be nice if he passed legislation that helped the state of new york. The piece of legislation he passed stopped the state from a process that was happening for six months, which was resigning the Medicaid Program to make it more efficient and more effective. It was called the medicaid resign team. I announced it back in january. Its the second time we did it. It take s waste and fraud and inefficiency out of the system. That was going on since january. The legislation he passed said, you cant resign medicaid. For what reason, i have no idea. So it disqualified this state from funding. He knew that when he passed it. You have a choice. You could either take the additional 6 billion and cause the mrt, worth 2. 5 million, or you could it sounds like you are not taking the 6 billion and push ahead. I have no choice. I will tell you. 2. 5 billion per year recurring is worth more than 6 billion one shot. I would rather have 2. 5, 2. 5, 2. 5 than 6 billion today. And i called every congressional representative and told them why would you want to stop a medicaid resign thats been going on since january . I dont know what their political calculus was. But thats all it was. It was a political calculus. Theres no Good Government reason to say why you would want to stop a medicaid resign headed by dennis rivera, former head of 1199, michael dowling, Top Health Care professional in the state, passed by the assembly and the senate. A statepassed medicaid resign effort. Why would you ever want to stop that . I dont know whose politics theyre playing. They didnt represent the people of the state. Maybe you could do that next year. Why not take the money they are offering now because you need it and just resign it next year . One of the numbers are important. The 6 billion number, we cant get to the 6 billion number no matter how you estimate those number. Its closer to 4 billion. That assumes that the emergency is in place for a full year. Theres nothing in that bill that says that it will last for a year. In fact, it will end seasons the president declares the emergency is over. That could happen at any time. That 4 billion number also is reduced if its half a year, its 2. Then a significant portion of that money doesnt come to the state. It went to local governments. You are left with a number thats under 2 billion potentially, if at most. Which then you are basically saying, take a one shot of these funds. Dont reform the medicaid system. Spend that money inefficiently on a system that unanimously everyone on their understood was not working properly, wasting money. The choice is really, waste the money that way or do a bill that actually provides funding to new york state. That bill doesnt even give us a fraction of the amount of money that is needed. This is one of the big Sticking Points to the budget. You can offer an its not the Sticking Point to the budget. So you have the fact, its 2 billion, take 2 billion for sure, right, door a, door b. Take door a and 2 billion for sure or door b for 2. 6 billion. I pick the door with 2. 6 billion. Not because i like the letter b because i pick 2. 6 billion. All right. Were keeping a close ear as to getting down to the nittygritty of new york state and the budget there for new york state for the medical aspects there. I want to let there. But want to let all of you know, for those of you wonder why new york Governor Andrew Cuomo is garnering the nickname americas governor, i think you saw it right there. Hes conveying incredible strength in the face of this pandemic, putting forth a positive and very unified focus on this day. And he is taking any and all questions and answering them quite directly in extraordinary detail. It is something to see, frankly, of the states leader. And also for those of you who find charm from the italianamerican side of him, i dont know about you but it would be kind of fun to be invited to his family spaghetti and meatballs dinner, this is something that garnered a chuckle from us. And i am joined by dr. Davida patel and former White House Health policy director for the obama administration. Lets talk about the numbers. First of all, a positive spin, in the number of 800 range of people discharged over a tenday period compared to those measured by yesterday, 800 discharged, about 130 discharged way back ten days ago on the 18th of march. Put that in perspective for us. Because so many more have been admitted to the hospital as the virus is taken hold of new yorkers or how do you read it . Is it a good sign . No, absolutely, alex. And it is a good sign in the sense that we are not letting people go home unless theyre actually, number one, theyre better. And number two theyre clearing the virus. Meaning theyre testing negative for the virus. So that is a good sign. And the science of how we do the Clinical Care for coronavirus, covid19 patients, is literally evolving. Meaning were learning more and more. So it is a good sign. But it does reflect the fact that we have that much more of a burden that we are anticipating. And i think you heard the governor at the top of the press conference really emphasizing he called it a Public Private type of partnership, how hospitals are going to be working across the state. And that reflects this surge that has hit new york. But it is expected to kind of go across the state. And hes talking about, when queried about the Javits Center, he said that will come online this week. He said right now i dont necessarily need all of those beds that are being set up. But were trying to get ahead of this curve, ahead of the apex that he knows is coming. It sounds wise to me but from a medical perspective, your advantage point, the setting up of the Javits Center and as he stated yesterday he wanted to do, every single borough here in new york. I think this needs to be dan across the nation, advanced warning and advanced preparation. Right. And the reason he wanted to kind of put a little bit of a caveat on the Javits Center is for exactly that reason, alex. You want for there to be excess capacity. Think about it during even like a war time. You dont want there to be only enough beds based on what your needs were for the day before or even the week before. You really do want to kind of overprepare. And youre absolutely right. By the way, i cant think of a single hospital in this country that is not thinking about this. But it does take, just like the governor said, it takes a lot of not just one hospital or one clinic that could do this. This does take a lo a lot of cooperation from local and regional and state and even federal officials. So he is right. In fact, i hope my friends that are on the ground in new york, none of us hope the Javits Center is full. Were hoping it is a last resort. What do you make of the tate of 76,000 medical professionals, First Responders who are volunteering time. I read about those in the military discharged and being called back. They are happy to do their part. It really speaks about your profession. But when you see these colleagues of yours, past and present and people coming out of retirement to help out, how does that make you feel . No, alex, it warms my heart. And if there is one thing i know in the district where i live, the reserve corp, same type of phenomenon has been so overprescribed. They have so many with medical backgrounds that want to help and people like myself who know we might not have the protective equipment we need and we just need to go and do our duty. Just like i think the Governor Cuomo gave a passionate remembrance to the detective that lost his life. This is kind of a calling of duty. And honestly it is why i think when we think about Silver Linings or positive moments, think about everybody in america stepping up to do their part, helping a neighbor and especially health care professionals. Absolutely. Dr. Patel, weve taken enough of your time for this particular hour. Well drilling down with you again. Thank you so much. So the governor addressed this everybody, and it is a sad result of the pandemic, the endless stories of heartache, trauma, tragedy. No more numerous than here in new york city. Mara of the New York Times writes about it in a piece titled my city is on the brink of disaster, here is what it looks like. Im glad to welcome mara now. It was a wonderful, wonderful article. Put so much in perspective. And brought a smile to my face which was very welcome. But lets talk about what you see thank you. As we start the passage in which you wrote, every day we worry, we wonder if our neighbors could pay our rent, we go stir crazy and we pray and we wait for help from the federal government we fear will never come. Tell me what youve witnessed that alluded to that despair . Well, funny, ironically i was writing about the sense of purpose and hope that new yorkers, my neighbors and my family and friends and colleagues have been finding in this horrible time, in this crisis. We hear ambulances at all hours of the night and the day. It is a loud city but it is very quiet right now because stores and schools are closed so all you could hear is the ambulances. We all have a friend or two or three or five that is sick. Everybody at this point knows someone or knows of someone who has died. Ive written about people, including a new york city paramedic fighting for her life, crystal cadet right now in the hospital, just praying for her. But i think what i found is that new yorkers are as other people are, humans, americans, resilient. And weve started to get into a sense of rhythm. Governor cuomo helped with that certainly. But i think we know what we need to do now. We need to stay home as much as possible for as long as we need to and we need to try to help one another. There is a lot of kick starters that are popping up for example to help bartenders out of work, paramedics and other folks who are sick, that kind of thing. But also just looking forward to picking ourselves back up on the other end because the hope is how you keep up the fight. Give me your impression of Governor Cuomo. I identified him as something i keep hearing ringing around hes americas governor right now. What is it about him and the way that hes handling this that you think would warrant that nickname . Well, you know, i think that its going to be a while before the final narrative is written. I do think there are questions for the federal government, especially. But certainly also for governors and other Public Officials about why we did wait as long as we did to shut things down and have people shelter in place so to speak. That said, were all building the plane midflight as they say and i think at this point Governor Cuomo has been very impressive in just getting the state what it needs, the resources it needs. He is somebody who knows how to use the levers of government to get his citizens the masks, the medical supplies, the personnel that were going to need. And frankly new york also has capital to do that. It is a wealthy state. It is a high poverty state as well. But other states may have an even harder time so he is a model in that sense. He has people all over the world looking for ventilators right now. It is impressive. It is impressive. Also impressive is a quote you used to illustrate your message. It comes from winston churchill, i know youre reading that eric larson book that is popular right now. But you quoted as being it would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour. It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage. Why did you include this quote, rather . You know, i tend to be an optimist and not out of a sense of naive and we are all struggling now and i do think that hope is very powerful thing. And that is what allows us to continue this fight and new yorkers have been through a lot. Weve been through 9 11. Were a family a city, excuse me, of immigrants and of people who came to make a dream come true with nothing in their pocket, it is a tough city but also a city filled with neighbors and it is my home and i have faith that were going to make it through if we help one another. Well i got to say, i think when you say inadvertently the word family i think that is true and we all feel like family today. And i so loved reading about you going across the Brooklyn Bridge and having a six foot apart breakfast and seeing each other and walking the streets of manhattan. It also brought a tear to my eye. It was beautiful. We appreciate it. Thank you. So everyone, were back at the top of the hour. 1 00 here on the east coast. Governor cuomo is still talking but just wrapping up there. So ill welcome all of you to weekends with alex witt. A lot to tell you about. Many from the sunday talk shows. Take a listen. When this virus comes to your metro area, please stay in your metro area where your care can be provided. Were asking every single governor and every single mayor to prepare like new york is preparing now. Looking at where the arc of this virus is going, were still on the upward every hospital is, public, private, know where your Surgical Centers are. Were getting help from the national stockpile. We have tens of thousands of masks and gloves. Were all stressed because we have people that are dying right now. Nowhere every piece of equipment is in the state. Know how to move that around the state based on need. And we begin this hour with details on the coronavirus pandemic. Right now as you could see there are more than 131,000 cases of coronavirus here in the United States. The National Death toll now climbing to 2,291. Today desperate plea from the administration as the white house contemplates the countrys next steps in the fight against the coronavirus. When this virus comes to your metro area, please stay in your metro area where your care can be provided because it is spreading virus more quickly around the United States. And mean while on capitol hill, nancy pelosi speaking out against the president s response. What the president , his denial at the beginning, was deadly. His delaying of getting equipment to where it continues is delaying getting equipment to where it is needed is deadly. And now i think the best thing would be to do is to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up. And a historic warning from dr. Fauci on what cities may see in an outbreak next. We have areas of the country such as the new york area, were going to see places like detroit and other cities starting to get into trouble, where the curve did exactly what i said on this show and other shows some time ago, it putters along a while and then it just goes way up. We have a team of reporters and analysts following the latest on the pandemic for us this hour. Well go first to nbc monica alba at the white house for us. Lets start with the travel advisory in the tristate area, the cdc put that out there after the president floated the idea of placing new york, new jersey and connecticut under a quarantine so what ended up happening. Reporter exactly. He floated it and walked it back within a matter of hours. The president was almost thinking out loud in words of one of the governors affected by this potential quarantine. And then he proceeded to say he was going to have discussions with his task force and officials to see whether this is possible but ultimately he walked it back and decided to say the cdc will issue new guidance issuing a twoweek travel warning to urge millions of people who are already staying at home not to leave for anything that wasnt essential. But take a listen to how dr. Fauci framed the discussions that took place here at the white house late last night. I think it ultimately will help stop the virus, jake. We had a very intensive discussions last night at the white house with the president , as you know the original proposal was to consider seriously an enforceable quarantine, after discussions with the president we made it clear and he agreed that it would be much better to do what is called a strong advisory. And the reason for that is that you dont want to get to the point where youre enforcing things that would create a big difficulty morale and otherwise which you could accomplish the same goal. Reporter you heard dr. Fauci talk about morale. That is what was echoed by Governor Cuomo in his presser today saying he didnt want to unnecessarily square new yorkers and hes worried that the president even putting this idea out there may have done that in some cases. So theyve set that aside for now. And as we look ahead to tomorrow, that is really the end of the 15day effort to slow the spread. So were awaiting the task force to give us new guidance potentially on what that will look like. But i thought it was striking that the governor extended that two weeks to new york. We wait to see what the message will be nationally. The president and his top officials will be briefing here at the white house later this afternoon, alex. Well be looking forward to that. I think it is around 5 00 if im not mistaken. Monica, alba, thank you for that. Josh letterman is joining us on capitol hill. Welcome to you. Are you on capitol hill . It looks like youre indoors as well you should be. And Speaker Pelosi gave a scathing critique of the president. What more did she say. Reporter that is right. Speaker pelosi saying as trump is fiddling, people are dying going after the president for what she said was a act of quick action on what she needed to be done with a lack of testing, lack of preparation and supplies like ventilators and personal protective equipment. But we know that there is no love lost between the president and pelosi. They havent been speaking for several months. And just today in response to the pelosi comments we saw donald trump retweet the chairman of the Republican Party who accused of mrs. Trying to rewrite history saying in january when this was starting to bubble up that democrats were consumed with the impeachment saga instead of focusing on the countrys health and well being. We have to do more. I think this bill was just a down payment. We have a house bill 200 billion, the final bill was 150. Neither amount was enough because again every single day the need grows. We have other issues that we have to deal with in the bill in terms of personal protective equipment and osha rules that protects workers, we have to do more. Family medical leave and we have to be able to make people who get tested also have their the visit to the doctor covered. We have to do more in terms of the assault on pensions that was not addressed but senator mcconnell said well do it in the next bill. We have to address what happened to the District Of Columbia which was really cruel that they call it a territory and hence they got several hundred Million Dollars less in funding. The list goes on. Reporter and you hear nancy pelosi talking about what she calls phase four, the need for an additional piece of legislation above and beyond that massive 2 trillion package already passed. She wants to focus on the recovery once we move beyond coronavirus and even though the house is not in session, pelosi has asked the chair people of the committees in the house to get to work right away with starting to put together that piece of legislation to be considered in april. Alex. Josh, ill tell you your camera freezing up a wee bit but at the risk of losing, do we know the details they would focus on for the fourth passage of the bill to be passed . Reporter yeah, we know that pelosi is focused on trying to get money to states and localities that will lose tax revenues and need that money to help their own people and focused on shoring up pensions in this as well as sending a second round of Cash Payments to americans beyond that first set of payments that will be going out within the next few weeks. Josh letterman, you made it through clearly that last part. Thank you so much, my friend. Do take care. Now to cori coffin in new york city. Outside of mt. Sinai as you were earlier in the day. You heard the Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing more than 7,000 new cases in new york state. A bit of good news. You heard him talk about the promise of a brighter day on the horizon. But again, youre outside of a Major Medical facility here in new york city, what are you hearing there . Reporter yeah, here outside of mt. Sinai west and truly the business as usual continues today. Where people are taking social distancing very seriously. But there is a somber feel outside of the hospital. And just because of the nurse who passed away this past week. It is deeply felt by the other staff who remain at the other hospital and other First Responders on the front lines. We talked about the numbers. Governor cuomo announcing the spike in numbers today. But i think something that caught people by surprise was the fact that he said the number of hospitalizations, the doubling rate of hospitalizations is slowing to doubling every six days, alex, instead of every three. I think given the past two weeks and the sharp spikes weve seen every day, people didnt expect that quite this soon, so that is a little bit of a Silver Lining on the horizon there. I want to note that deaths are still up. The reported death rate now 965 here in the state. That is up by 200, more than 200 from yesterday. But, still, the fact that we are getting a slowing of the doubling of hospitalizations is very important and starting to change that curve. And of course that required a lot of extreme action here in the state. Listen to what the governor had to say when asked why he didnt take that action sooner. The people are so on edge, i mean it really panicked people. They were going to leave the city last night. It was really so you need to manage that fear and the panic and you also need to deal with the virus. We were one of the first. I never used the term shelter in place because i believe that was an inflammatory term and incorrect, by the way. They still use it. Nobody has to shelter in place policy. Reporter take a listen to what the former take a listen to what the former fda commissioner had to say about new yorks efforts so far. New york is showing signs that the spread may be slowing in that city. They made some good decisions early and maybe in seven to ten days theyll see themselves peak but as they come down that epidemic curve, other parts of the nation are heating up. Just in closing ill say that our capacity to sustain and support multiple cities simultaneously as they go into an epidemic is going to be very difficult. Reporter all right, alex. So you heard it there. The governor defending the actions saying new york state is one of the first to take the extreme actions and the former fda commissioner saying hopefully that will result in good news here soon and why it is important for the Trump Administration to want the cdc to issue that travel advisory and hopes that it could be contained as much as possible. Were certainly hoping for positive news soon. Thank you so much. Cori coffin there in manhattan. Down south, Governor John Bel Edwards sounding off the situation in the state of louisiana. While the hot spot is around new orleans, it is statewide. If we dont flatern the curve we are on a trajectory to exceed our capacity for ventilators by april 4th and all bedded by april 10th. The number of cases is causing another city to brace for impact. Houston, texas. And joining me now from there, priscilla thompson. Welcome to you. So deep tied between the communities of houston and new orleans given their the ability to travel between the two and look for whatever each city has to offer. What about houston . What is it doing right now to prepare for a possibly significant outbreak . Reporter right. Texas is only houston in particular only a few hours drive from louisiana and, alex, you talked about those community ties. As a remainder, back when Hurricane Katrina came, some moved away and there are friends and family between the states and that is a concern as we see louisiana becoming possibly a hot spot for this virus. Im actually at Butler Stadium in houston. It is the only testing site in the city and i want you to take a look at sort of the cars going through today to get tested. There may be an increase today because the city has actually expanded on who can be tested. So previously it was only folks who had underlying conditions an symptoms that could be tested but now anyone who has those symptoms regardless of an underlying condition, as long as they get the code to come through the drivethru testing site theyll be able to be tested. This week the governor of texas issued a 14day selfquarantine order for anyone flying in from louisiana or the new york tristate area and the mayor of houston is hoping folks will take that a step further. That is what he told me. I was saying to people you should not be traveling right now outside of your state. You just shouldnt do it. Stay where you are. Whether youre in the city of houston going to someplace else or live someplace else and coming into the city of houston, this is one battle where collectively were all in it together. Reporter now, the mayor tells me hes hoping to get a second testing site opened in the city of houston as he expected the number of cases here will increase exponentially over the next few weeks. This is extraordinary where the stadiums used to house all sorts of wonderful sporting events for the masses to come and attend are turned into drivethru test centers. You may have heard that the home of the philadelphia phillies, that is turned into a testing center. The home of my favorite, the dodgers out in los angeles being used for a drivethru testing center. Multipurpose to say the least. Priscilla thompson from houston. New concern in maryland after a major outbreak there at a nursing home. Lets go to ali vitale in washington, d. C. What is going on in that region and what do you know about this nursing home . Reporter alex, you hear the Maryland Governor continuing to sound the alarm about the rapid rise in coronavirus cases in maryland in part because of stories like the one you just mentioned. I nursing home in mt. Ary saying more than 60 residents have tested positive with 11 of them hospitalized at this point. And just to paint the picture of maryland, even in the last few weeks they went from zero to over 1200 cases. The governor there larry hogan saying on the several sunday shows this will get better before it gets worse and i think the thing we keep hearing about is the idea of what this virus will look like by easter. Hogan was asked about that this morning. If it is helpful to hear people like the president say things could open things up by easter and hogan saying that is not the necessarily the most helpful thing. Listen to what he said. The messages isnt helpful because as were as the governors out there on the front lines are trying to get people to stay in their homes, and then we have messaging coming out saying that things are okay and you shouldnt should get back to normal, it does conflict and it hurts with the messaging. But i think the president is just trying to be hopeful which is good. We dont want people to be scared. But we do want them to take it seriously. Reporter and certainly just to broaden it out to other areas of the dmv, were here in the district. This is peak season. The Cherry Blossoms are in bloom typically around this time you would see the National Mall behind me flooded with tourists, people out here on the streets. Instead we know that nonessential businesses are closed. Yes there are folks behind me going on runs, walking dogs an out with kids but for the most part pretty quiet out here and this is atypical for the sunday in the spring in washington, d. C. But again seeing the economic toll as well. Tourism is way down. Millions of dollars being lost as Hotels Remain empty and people do as they should by staying home, alex. So im curious, when you see people out, are they practicing the social distancing. Last weekend we were both talking about what mayor Muriel Bowser said with the beautiful tidal basin and the trees and all that is roped off. She was upset that people were walking arm and arm and really clustering together. Do you see any of that going on today . Reporter i mean, even just comparatively from last weekend, i took a drive through the Cherry Blossoms and there were lots of people out on the mall at that point. A lot of tourists it looked like. Now we know the areas have been blocked off and there are far less people out here today so i think that people are taking this seriously. Weve seen the mayor among other local officials out here urging people to stay home. All of us got the alert on the phone earlier this week saying that people should stay home and nonessential businesses will be closed until the end of april. Weve only seen a ramping up from local officials telling people that it is imperative they stay home as a time when you need to flatten the curve and by that means not going out and enjoying the Cherry Blossoms and instead staying home. You want to be around next year to see the beautiful Cherry Blossoms next spring. Thank you ali. Good to see you. Joining me now kim shryer including king county and that was an early epicenter of the outbreak and a pediatrician and the only female medical doctor in congress so i applaud you being the daughter of a physician myself. Congresswoman, lets talk about your district and what youre hearing there. Are they getting everything they need right now . What are the biggest needs moving forward . Sure. Well, first of all, we got hard hit first in the country. Weve been really blessed by having a a phenomenal department of health, by having a government who really leads based on scientific information so they got into action right away. For that reason we put in place so many of the measures like staying at home, closing the schools, making it so nonessential businesses are closed and that has already shown some evidence of helping. Look, we still need testing. We still need personal protective equipment. We need even the elements of testing like reagents and pipets and swabs. But were in this boat with the rest of the country and i think were all having those same needs. Congress woman, you heard earlier Speaker Pelosi alleging the president s denial at the beginning when you were suffering there in king county and what we were seeing in numbers particularly at the nursing home and getting the equipment has been deadly to americans. Do you agree with that . Look, what we really need is a medically and scientificallyguided response to this pandemic. And it was absolutely counterproductive to have messaging that was confusing. Messaging downplaying the threat. Messaging comparing this to a flu. When it was a very clear, from the start, looking at what was going on in china, that this was everything but business as usual. And those delays, not taking the charge with getting tests efficiently and in abundance to states has definitely slowed and hampered our response. I want to you take a listen to washington governor jay inslees outlook on what is needed in your state. We need to make decisions based on science and reality and there are some hard realities we have to understand and that is unless we continue a very vigorous social distancing program in my state, this is going to continue to spread like wildfire to every single corner of my state. That is an inevitable scientific fact and we only have one weapon to prevent that and that is to continue our social distancing. What is your message as a doctor for your district, your state, for all americans, in fact, on ow crucial and important social distancing is. I 100 agree with our governor. He has been an incredible leader and really basing decisions on science but the big message is stay home. We know that people who dont even show symptoms can still be shedding this virus, transmitting it others. And that is why even people who are feeling good need to stay at home. Were not going to see the benefits of social distancing or physical distancing for probably another week. Each new case takes about ten days to end up in the hospital. And so we will just be beginning to see the effect of those measures in about another week. Yeah, i want you to put on your hat specifically as a pediatrician because we learned an infant in illinois who contracted covid19 has died. The cause of death is unknown at this point. There is an investigation underway. But we know that coronavirus cases have been somewhat rare among children. However, as a pediatrician, what are you your concerns for children, should kids take the same precautions as anyone else and may i anecdotally say in my neighborhood i see our kids biking together and playing together and tossing balls together. As a parent, you want those kids to be able to go outside, enjoy the fresh air. But should they be doing what i just described . So, look, it defies common sense to think that children are not being infected. What is really going on is that lots of children are infected but very few of them show signs and there are very few deaths and it breaks my heart to hear thatny an infant has died from this. And we know that infants and toddlers are more susceptible with people with compromised immune systems. So i believe that children are infected and that record numbers, that is why we closed the schools and why we have asked children to not be with grandparents and frankly having Children Together in the general sense is not a good idea right now. However, riding a bike near each other but not getting too close and not touching, sounds totally reasonable. Throwing a ball back and forth, i would not do. That ball could carry virus and kids always touch their faces. So you just have to choose those activities carefully and as a general rule of thumb it is time to stay home with your family. I know a have a bunch of neighbors listening and happy to hear your advice. Thank you so much. Beyond alert, everybody, not only for coronavirus but for scam artists and theyre now seeing bigger dollar signs as they look to swindle you. Swind to always discreet boutique. Its shapehugging threads smooth out the back. So it fits better than depend. And no one notices. Always discreet. [ one morwoo me b[ laughing ]] woo play pop music no way dude, play rock music yeah woah no matter what music you like, stream it now on pandora with xfinity. And dont forget to catch trolls world tour. Lets party people one more time the financial hit from the coronavirus pandemic has been very scary for a lot of americans, especially those who are gig or freelance workers, theyre employed via a app like lyft and uber. Joining us now jacob ward. Big welcome to you. Lets get to the relief bill that does extend unemployment to those gig workers. Tell me how that is going to work . Will it be the same as anyone else who has filed an irs return and theyll get things deposited automatically, electronically into their account. How is it going to work . This was a huge relief for the vast swath of society right now that is sub sifting on gig economy work. In the days ahead of the passage of the bill, everyone from the head of the all of the Major Companies were basically pushing for some sort of relief extended to them because gig workers, uber drivers, delivery couriers were feeling like well get passed by. It turned out the new bill will extend to them the opportunity to apply for Unemployment Benefits which would not have been possible under the regular regime prior to the pandemic, plus an additional 600 per week. And so that could add up. Here in california, it depends from state to state. But here in california it is the weekly cap you could apply for in terms of unemployment, it is about 450 and then an additional 600 and that could give you enough to live on, gig drivers are telling us here. So this is based on your last tax filed tax return. So that is 2018 probably is what most people have or if you are on it and filing your 2019 return, theyll use one. So it is an importa an import figure out how to get the most out of this possible and file that 2019 return and get into the line right now. Good to know. Those who have gotten their tax returns in early. Good. Okay. Listen, im looking at an article, it is highlighted in yellow, i have all sorts of things written up because i want to ask you to talk about what Law Enforcement is doing at looking at the uptick in the scams since the surge of the coronavirus. There are warnings of scams surrounding the soon to come stimulus checks. Lets talk about that and tick through a few other ones after that. What do you know about the stimulus check scams . The thing about these scams is that they always tick up. We were speaking to the heads some of Major Networks around the country and they were telling us that you always see an uptick in scams when there is a big break in the School Schedule typically. This is the thing. That a lot of people, hacking attacks and so forth are perpetrated not but militia or organized crime but students who are off. So under any circumstances youll see an up tick during Something Like a school break. Right now those companies are seeing an up tick of about 70 when it comes to phishing and hacking scams. So those people are out in force. And when you look at militia, organized crime still phishing attack to get Sensitive Information out of you, certainly the stimulus bill is a wonderful way to try to get at you, when people are feeling anxious and desperate for money, they are getting an incredible amount of this stuff. Theyre going to be preyed on for this so in speaking to Law Enforcement, we were speaking to the fbi just this week go ahead. I want to tick through a couple of things. Which you should not do. And this is pretty clear in this article. First of all, covid19, any sort of government relief, the irs is not going to call you and say to you on a phone call thats correct. Hey, we need information or if you want to get this processed more quickly, here is information you could make a payment and well get this to you more quickly, right . None of that is going on. Thats right. Exactly. You should be incredibly suspicious of any outreach that comes at you. That is exactly correct. And if you get a text, do not answer it back. Dont even open it up. Delete it. Same thing with an email. Anything that looks funny, dont even open that up, right. That is right. Law enforcement is telling us you should be going out to the dotgov sites that administer this. Dont be responding or god forbid clicking on anything inbound that claims to be from the irs. That is not how they do this. And for those people who think theyre getting checks right now, the stimulus checks, they are not out there yesterday, everybody. The official ones are not out there. Some people are getting them. They are fraudulent and i guess if you could try to deposit them or do whatever they ask you to do to validate them, dont do it. Okay. I just i had to make that. I have older loved ones and i dont want anyone falling prey to this. Young or old. Anyway. Jacob ward, thank you very much. It is a sensitive time. It is for sure. Thank you for going through it with us. A new headline warning. Coronavirus may hit Rural America later and harder. Lets go to depack chevron, reporting on rural hospitals bracing for the coronavirus impact. That is concerning. What did you find . How prepared are they . Reporter hi, alex. That is a great question. It is interesting. Rural america and rural hospitals have been prepared for the coronavirus differently than what youve seen in new york for example. They have a cushion time to look at hospitals and see the influx of patients and how they could prepare themselves. But they do face a couple of unique challenges. Take a listen to a nurse i spoke with in a rural hospital in wyoming about some of the challenges theyre facing right now. No sound. Okay. So what she told me is that out there in wyoming theyre in the Regional Hospital and theyre facing patients who maybe have not even sought health care their entire lives. The hospital could be 45, 75 miles away for some folks so they have to grapple with the fact that is a population this is older that may have Underlying Health conditions and that is the population that is vulnerable in this coronavirus itself. So theyre preparing for that. Another thing that she told me is that a lot of the rural facilities are shifting toward telehealth which means doctors or providers would communicate with patients through a video chat and that helps prevent patients from coming inside to the clinic and it also doctors and providers maybe work from home a little bit and stay home in this process. But i have to tell you, alex, that is another challenge that is unique to the rural areas because as you could imagine, having to video chat with your doctor requires a Strong International connection and that requires access to broadband and something that the urban hospitals and Health Facilities are not having to grapple with, they might have a tronger Internet Connection and that is something that youre seeing in the rural communities, being able to use telehealth but facing broadband charges as well. For those who have to travel 70 miles just to get to a hospital. Deepa, im glad you brought this up for those living in outer boroughs and more remote locations. Thank you so much. Deepa chiffon for. And new numbers today on the coronavirus pandemic to share with you. New york Governor Andrew Cuomo there are more than 56,000 cases and 965 deaths across the state. But he gave statistics about the rate of cases that seem a little more promising for again new yorkers here at the epicenter. If you look early on, the hospitalization rate was doubling every two days. Then it doubled every three days, then it doubled every four days. Now its doubling every six days. So, you have almost a dichotomy. The doubling rate is slowing and that is good news. Governor cuomo, and other governors across the country, could soon get the ventilators theyve been asking for, pleading for in fact. Dr. Fauci said it is finding a way to make them successful and new york will get them. There are some that say there are ventilators that are there in a certain place that is accessible, we just need to connect the dots to get them accessible. So there are two issues here. Are there ventilators there that you could use that you need better accessibility to, and, if so, get them, if not, then give them to them. One way or the other. He needs the ventilators that he needs and hopefully well get him the ventilators they need. They may be closer then they realize but if not, well get them there. And if they are, well try to help them get access to the ones that are there. Bottom line, hes got to have the ventilators. And the federal aid bill will soon be available for Small Businesses forced to close. Stephen mnuchin said help should be accessible by the end of the week. The sba is working very closely with the treasury and we expect to have a program on friday up and running that will cover half of the private work force. I encourage all Small Businesses to take out these loans because if you go and hire back your workers for eight weeks, you will have a forgivable loan and the government will pay for that. All right. Well millions of churchgoers are at home this sunday instead of in the pews because of social distancing. Lindsay riser is joining me across the street, outside of the beautiful Saint Patricks cathedral but doors are closed. What is happening since services are canceled. Reporter this is americas Parish Church and theyve been open for 140 years. Only one had to close their doors during the day in 1988 which an usher was murdered inside. Other than that, theyve been open every day up until two weeks ago and that is when they heeded some suggestions, they stopped services in person at least. For another week they tried to have the doors open for private prayer, but a week ago they said things are getting so bad, were going to cancel that too. 5 Million People walk through these doors every year. And right now nobody is walking through. It is all virtual. And there is really no starker reminder of that than the powerful image of pope francis delivering a blessing on friday to a completely empty saint peters square. So houses of worship around the country and the world are trying to get creative. There is a Catholic Priest in minnesota offering curbside confession and a church in d. C. Offering drivethru service. Not everybody is heeding the warning. There is a church in louisiana that is saying were still going to have inperson services. Even after the governor there urged against large groups. So theyre guesting a lot of flack for that. And i asked monsignor richie here at Saint Patricks cathedral about what he thought about those still doing inperson services. They say, well, were gods people and god will take care of us, which is true. But it doesnt mean he will save us from the virus. I think it is foolish because it puts in jeopardy not only the people that are coming and the people next to them and behind them, but also the families back home. Reporter and new york city mayor bill de blasio said new york will not tolerate that and nypd will be enforcing making sure nobody is having inperson service or subject to fines or other penalties. We heard in Governor Cuomos remarks earlier saying it is not smart right now even though everybody wants to be around community, they want to feel that, people turn to faith in dark times like these, right now you just have to unfortunately watch the live stream. And it is catching on, alex. Because all of this coronavirus Saint Patricks had maybe 600 people join the live stream and last weekend 26,000 people joined, alex. That is a good news for those who still want to get a Spiritual Inspiration on this sunday. Thank you so much, lindsay riser across the street from us here. A bit more on the spread of the virus. Including what is happening here in new york. And joining me now is dr. Amish adalia from John Hopkins Center for health. Lets listen to what dr. Fauci said this morning. Here is this. We have a window of opportunity there as the Speaker Pelosi said to get out there and test. And if we do testing, identification, isolation, getting people out of circulation who are infected and contact tracing, we might be able to prevent those areas from getting to that stage where we have to do mitigation, which is much more difficult and much more frustrating than trying to contain. So on the heels of that, doctor, is it too late for cities starting to see a rise in cases, too late to contain and isolate the spread . Its definitely not. We could contain this as best as we can and allow things could come back to normal and find cases and isolate them and get everything in line in order to prevent this from spreading out in the community. And i think that is an opportunity we need to take. So i know that there are different models that could be looked at and dr. Fauci was citing one model that suggested between 100,400,000 americans dead. Overwhelming numbers if you think about them, particularly if you break it down to individuals one by one, this is staggering. Do you think that number is realistic, though . I do think this is realistic because there is no Community Level immunity so some people will get sick and some proportion will die. We dont know the case fatality ratio. It could be as high as 1 or lower than 1 but the fact is many people will get sick and just by doing the math you end up with deaths coming to that range. In 2017, 2018, 80,000 people died fromm influenza but it is severe or more than a severe flu season because so many people will get infected. So i think the numbers are valid. So when you look at what the cdc did overnight, those in the tristate area, new york, new jersey, connecticut, not travel and no crossing state lines or anything unless it is absolutely necessary. The idea of that even spreading further, im looking at what dr. Birx said, part of the white house Coronavirus Task force team and said that all metro areas, people should stay home and stay put. She wasnt talking just about the tristate area here. Do you think that is where we are going as a country, that there will be a canvassing of all 50 states where you stay home because that is the only way to not spread this virus. Because this virus, it is not like it respects legal boundaries an state lines and the like, right . That is correct. This virus is a risk to everybody. And it is not going to respect a county or state line. However we do have hot spots where there are more transmission events occurring. And more prevalence in certain areas. The fact is weve been flying blind because we dont know what the prevalence rate is in different locations and you cant have different sized recommendations because we dont know what is going on. Once we get testing up, you may be able to do that type of that type of guidance, saying this place is less frequent, this place has much more frequent transmission and make those kind of gradations but we get into a dangerous position when we have people making the quarantine threat that came off of the tristate area, this is much more preferable than a full quarantine threat having the cdc issue a travel advisory is much less draconian and less restrictive. And also something you wonder how it would be enforced, something Governor Cuomo queried about yesterday when it was brought up by the president. Doctor, thank you so much for your time. Machine appreciated. Against the back drop of the pandemic, a new poll on the president ial race is out and it is probably going to surprise or maybe even stun you and joe biden. N you and joe biden. Ver here . Oven mitts oven mitts everythings stuck in the drawers im sorry oh, jeez. Hi. Kelly clarkson. Try wayfair oh, ok. Its going to help you, with all of. This yeah, here you go. Thank you oh, i like that one [ laugh ] thats a lot of storage perfect. Youre welcome i love it. How did you do all this . Wayfair speaking of dinner, whatre we eating, guys . Unlike ordinary wmemory supplementsr . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try neuriva for 30 days and see the difference. Which is why when it comes to his dentures only new poligrip cushion and comfort will do. The first and only formula with adaptagrip cushioning technology. Choose new poligrip cushion and comfort. A new poll shows President Trump and former vp joe biden in a competitive race for the white house among registered voters. Joe biden is favored by 49 and trump by 47 moving the president to a near tie with joe biden today. Joining me now, peter baker, White House Correspondent at the New York Times and nbc political analyst. So good to see you. Tell me what is driving the president s numbers. Yeah, it is interesting, isnt it. His numbers had been pretty bad until about two weeks ago when he began showing that he was taking the coronavirus pandemic more seriously. Right up until that point he had been dismissing it saying it would miraculously go away. Once he started doing Daily Briefings, once he started showing that he did think it was important, even if he kind of stutter started about whether we could go back to work or not, the poll numbers went up. Because i think democrats and dependents who have been down on the president for so long seemed that he was moving around to the part where the pandemic was important priority which they see it as. Whether theyll stay that way for a contest in november is another thing. Other polls showing there is a bigger lead for biden. This is one poll. Any one poll by itself doesnt mean all that much. But the president has daily exposure and he himself has been bragging about the ratings hes getting for these press conference whereas Vice President biden is having a hard time penetrating to get attention a challenger would get at this point in the race. So this pandemic, peter, how political might this get, when you hear nancy pelosi earlier saying that as the president fiddles, people are dying. That was a pretty profound statement there. But it shows there has to be a level of political interpretation from all of this as well. Yeah, no question. This from the beginning has been a partisan pandemic. It is hard to think of it that way but the polls have shown that republicans and democrats have looked at it differently. Democrats took it more seriously, republicans were more likely to say they would not be affected or thought it was a hoax on the part of the media or the democrats to take down the president. And so from the beginning rather than looking at this through a unified american lens, weve been looking at this through a partisan lens. A lot could be attributed to the president who himself has been partisan in his attacks on anybody criticizes him obviously, he attacked the governor of michigan and the governor of Washington State just the other day. Anybody who said something to him that he doesnt like, he will feel his wrath and you just quoted Speaker Pelosi taking a sharp shot at the president as well. So i think it is impossible to disassociate politics from it. We dont know where it is in september, october and november when people are voting. Things may look better or worse. But for the moment it is, in fact, being skewed through a partisan lens. Let me do the flip side on the point about the president. There are reports that the president wants to be appreciated and have governors and mayors of large cities show appreciation for efforts and for those who do, there is a sense, according to a Washington Post article, that the state of florida, that florida has made requests for supplies and that it got two full shipments of everything that it requested. Thats florida. That is led by Governor Ron Desantis who has been a sicko fant of donald trump and not shuttering businesses for any number of reasons. It is interesting to think that florida, now the president s home state, may be benefitting in a way that exceeds sort of the level of other states ability to benefit. What is known about that . Well, listen to what the president said himself the other day. He said he told mike pence, the Vice President , head of his Coronavirus Task force, not to call back the governor of michigan, not to call back the governor of Washington State because he didnt like what they had said. Meaning, when the governors are calling asking for equipment or supplies for their states, in his view anyway, the Vice President shouldnt even be responding but Governor Cuomo, the governor of new jersey and california gavin newsom, even though their democrats have tried to be for the most part, not always, tried to be more respectful i guess of the president to avoid a blowup blowup because they recognize they need federal help and theyre trying not to get into a spat with him thats public. They recognize that if they are too harsh publicly that might spur a backlash that works against their state. Each governor is trying to try an late and figure out the best way to handle this really volatile president as best they can. Peter baker, darned good to see you. Stay healthy and well, my friend. New comments from dr. Fauci. Does he share the president s outlook . Well take a look. Outlook . Well take a look. 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Common side effects include low red blood cell and low platelet counts, infections, tiredness, nausea, sore mouth, abnormalities in liver blood tests, diarrhea, hair thinning or loss, vomiting, rash, and loss of appetite. Be in your moment. Ask your doctor about ibrance. Be in your moment. The network has to be prepared to absorb whatever is going to come its way. Were always preparing. Make sure that the network is working all the time. We are constantly looking at it, were constantly monitoring. We take that responsibility very seriously. The most rewarding thing about the work we do is whenever we see a customer able to communicate back to their loved ones. That is why we do what we do. vo were relentlessly committed to the network. So in times like this, we can all stay connected to work, school, and most importantly, to each other. You can do it, but you absolutely must have in place the capability of going there, testing, testing in an efficient way. I think its going to depend a lot, jake, on the availability of those rapid tests that you can get really quickly 15 minutes or so, where you will know right away. So when you identify someone who is infected that person doesnt go out into society for a few days, infect a bunch of people and then you bring them back because the test is positive. Its going to be a matter of weeks. Its not going to be tomorrow. It is certainly not going to be next week. Dr. Fauci giving somewhat of a reality check this morning on how and when we can all start returning to normal. Joining me now, directors of the Yale Institute of Public Health. I apologize for the brevity of this interview. We will have you again. Your reaction to how far we see fewer restrictions. Do you have a gauge on that . Over time, we know the benchmarks. Hes exactly right. The benchmarks are dependent on how many people we are actually actively testing, isolating and quarantining. If you get to a high number of those, 85 of those we can have confidence of easing these restrictions a little bit more safely. Okay. But we have seen also a sharp rise in cases, a sharp rise in deaths across this country. So do you have an idea . I mean, youre with yale, the Global Health institute there. Is there a sense of when the apex might be reached . So we are still in the exponential phase. What we see now is based on the transmissions that happened around 7 to 12 days ago. The cases we see now are a reflection of the transmission event that happened a few weeks ago. A few days ago. Or at least a little over a week. In this kind of situation there is a bit of a lag. And we are seeing the impact of some of these interventions that have been put in place in a few weeks. I would think that the peak will be highly variable geographically. And in the northern part of the u. S. , especially the northeast, we are looking at a few weeks from now for the peak. Okay. I apologize for the brevity of this one. Thats a wrap for me this sunday. Im alex witt. My colleague Joshua Johnson is up next with the growing coronavirus hot spot in new orleans. Coronavirus hot spot in new orleans. Managing lipids, like very high triglycerides, can be tough. You diet. Exercise. But if youre also taking Fish Oil Supplements you should know they are not fda approved. They may have saturated fat and may even raise bad cholesterol. To treat very high triglycerides, discover the science of prescription vascepa. Proven in multiple clinical trials, vascepa, along with diet, is the only prescription epa treatment, approved by the fda to lower very high triglycerides by 33 , without raising bad cholesterol. Look. Its clear, theres only one prescription epa vascepa. Vascepa is not right for everyone. Do not take vascepa if you are allergic to icosapent ethyl or any inactive ingredient in vascepa. 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