And this has had a Significant Impact on africanamericans. A nation divided. What lessons have you learned throughout this . Abcs special series on how covid19 is exposing americas fault lines. And biden blunders. If you have problem figuring out whether youre for me or trump, you aint black. Under fire as the vp search ramps up. You want to have somebody who feels completely comfortable disagreeing with you. Chris christie and rahm emanuel take us inside the veepstakes process. All that, plus our powerhouse roundtable. Announcer from abc news, its this week. Here now, coanchor martha raddatz. Good morning, and welcome to this week. On memorial day weekend like no other. These are scenes from this weekend, as the country opens up presenting a major test for social distancing. While we did see thinner crowds and masks in some areas, like ocean city, maryland, we also saw dense crowds like this in texas, and while people are still heading to beaches, theyre not travel the ml y weekend brought the tsa one of its busiest travel days ever, screening roughly 2. 8 million passengers. This year, the agency screened fewer than 350,000, an 88 drop things could soon change with all 50 states gradually opening, but weve also reached a different milestone, a painful remind hear the the loss from this pandemic is with us. The flags at halfstaff at the white house as we near 100,000 deaths. The New York Times devoting its entire front page to the names of 1,000 victims of the virus, but President Trump is determined to get back to normal, golfing for the first time in more than two months as the total number of covid19 cases in the u. S. Steadily climbs past 1. 6 million. Governors are working to get back to some semblance of normal, but key questions remain. One alaskan mayor captures the dilemma so many are facing. My Worst Nightmare is with we have to go backwards. How do you do that . You already let everybody out. How do you catch them and put them back in . For more on this, White House Coronavirus response coordinator dr. Deborah birx joins us now. Good morning, dr. Birx. We have all 50 states gradually opening up, but saturday, North Carolina reported the highest oneday number of covid cases with 1s,107. 1sh 1,107. They call it a notable and concerning increase. Arkansas also reporting a second wave, and minnesota is reaching capacity in its icu. Should these states now scale back on relackixing the rules gn these statistics . I think its really important, and thank you for the question, to really understand whats driving those outbreaks, and we have been working with every county and state and local official both through the cdc and through the governors, through the governors calls to really encourage proactive testing. 4 some of this is increased testing in areas we know are at the highest risks whether its Nursing Homes, areas where people work, sleep and play together and really getting proactive testing out there to find cases before theres community spread. I think you know from the arkansas case, a lot of that was associated by a social gathering, and thats why we really made it clear that during this reopening, social gatherings should not be more than ten people. Even if theyre outside because you still need to maintain that social distancing. Right, but you said friday that people couldis, n keepingches i think its our job as Public Health officials every day to be informing the public of what puts them at risk. We made it clear theres asymptomatic spread, that means people are spreading the virus unknowingly. This is unusual in the case of respiratory diseases in many cases. So you dont know who is infected and we really want to be clear all the time that social distancing is absolutely critical, and if you cant social distance and youre outside, you must wear a mask. These are items that really critical to protect individuals. Weve learned a lot about this virus, but we now need to translate that learning into a transformed behavior. That will continue to drive down the number of cases. But i guess thats my point, youre not seeing it across the country. Youre not seeing it at those beaches. And i think thats our job to continue to communicate and i think we have to communicate through different venues, making sure that our generation sees and our millennials can help us get that message out there, of how to be together socially, yet distant. I think theres a way to do it. Americans are amazingly innovative and i think we need to have better continuous communication on how important that is and then highlighting these issues that come up like in arkansas with this pool party, thats why its really important you maintain those distance and again to speak to those who are vulnerable. Both in phase one and phase two of openings, we have asked you to continue to shelter in place because we know that those comorbidities are continue to shelter, while those who dont are going out but maintaining social distancing. Dr. Birx, the president on friday called on governors to open houses of worship right now, and yet, churches have been found to be one of the biggest superspreaders, one asymptomatic person in Washington State infected as many as 53 people in the choir. You said on friday that maybe some places should wait. What are your concerns there . I think theres two pieces that are important. Before the president made that announcement, he asked the cdc to get their guidance to churches up, so that churches could reopen safely, so that guidance is up there and available to all churches and congregants to understand how to worship together safely. Certainly worshiping outside, maintaining social distancing, and, you know, obviously not having physical contact with each other, and i know thats difficult. We all have made behavioral changes, and that needs to continue to happen. The guidance was up before the churches were asked to reopen and i think thats really important that both with opening up america again, those guidelines went out before we stopped the 30day stop the spread, again after the 15, which was 45 days total, this only works if we all follow the guidelines and protect one another. And dr. Birx, were approaching the very sad milestone of 100,000 deaths due to covid. Its a stunning figure. Do you have any reason to think that number is inflated and do you agree with dr. Fauci that the death count is almost certainly higher . Ive said from the beginning well follow the data and we provide the data thats integrated between multiple reporting sites and we have never altered the death numbers. In this country, weve been very inclusive. Ill tell you always, with any pandemic and any time people are fighting to save other peoples lives its difficult to count at the early part of the epidemic and well have time to look back and really ensure that we found all of those cases. Each of those cases and each of those deaths is very important to understand. Because were a different country than the other countries that have been infected. We want to really understand what is the risk to 30yearolds, 45yearolds. What is our risk to children . How do we prevent serious disease, and thats why all of this information together is really important to continue to get, and continue to validate. Dr. Birx, dr. Fauci said its inevitable that there will be a second wave of covid19, but President Trump says, we are not going to close the country if theres a second wave, is that the right approach . I think were trying to learn right now very carefully about how you reopen safely, you know we act like weve actually done this before and besides 1918 and 1919, we have not ever cles closed parts of america, and even then the whole country wasnt closed. Were trying to understand during this period of coming out of the closure, how do we maintain openness and safety . And i think thats what were going to be learning through may, june and july, and also, i want to be very clear to the American People were preparing for that potential fall issue, both in ppe which is protective devices both in ventilators, stockpiles and ensuring were really pushing on therapeutics and Vaccine Development so we can be ready if the virus does come back in a significant way. But you dont see the country closing down again . Its difficult to tell and i really am datadriven, so im collecting data right now about whether governors and whether states and whether communities are able to open safely, and what do i mean by that . We have to do much better with proactive testing. Not just count the number of tests weve done. Thats great, but really ensure those tests are being applied in a way that we find the asymptomatic cases. Its much easier to find symptomatic cases, because theyre stick. What im worried about is, what are we putting in place to find asymptomatic cases . Thats why weve asked for proactive, 100 testing of all residents and workers and then proactive ongoing tests of workers in Nursing Homes before Nursing Homes reopen for any kind of visitation, proactive testing where people are living together in large groups, to serve a meatpacking plant or agricultural workers. Or are transported together. We know all of these pieces are what we call risk for superspreading events. I really want to call them events rather than targeting individuals because individuals are unknowingly spreading the virus. Lets talk about events. All of this proactive testing needs to be a in place and needs to continue to be in place because that will determine safely remaining open in the fall. Okay, thanks so much for joining us this morning, dr. Birx. Thank you. Lets get more on all of this now with abc news contributor and former Homeland Security adviser tom bossert and surgeon and staff writer for the new yorker, dr. Atul gawande. Welcome to both of you, and tom bossert, i want to start with you. You and i have talked regularly over the past two months about the lessons this country is learning from this experience, and you say the big one is that staying home has worked. Thats why were able to slowly reopen, and yet there are many who believe that the country overreacted and i think you have seen a lot of them on the beaches. What would you say to them . Good morning, martha. Id say that my now biggest worry becomes that that conclusion is negative learning. The idea of believing that the shelter in place approach didnt work prevents us from again using it, and the plan from the beginning was never to enter into a nationwide lockdown, a blanket lockdown. We had to do that because we waited so long, and because we didnt have the testing. It was so late, but the idea now of getting out of that shelter in place, you know, restriction isnt to get out of it forever. Its to relax a little bit. Dr. Gawandes pillars are very important, and well come to them in a moment, but its to have the flexibility to return to them as needed in a localized fashion to prevent us from having to get into an autumn nationwide lockdown. I wished dr. Birx said its the plan so people dont view it as failure if it becomes necessary. Dr. Gawande, you had a piece outlining those four pillars of a strategy for reopening based on your experience at the hospital, hygiene, distancing, screening, masks, but you also set theres a fifth pillar thats arguably the most difficult, and that is culture. Can you ewill laborate on that . Yeah, part of this is the idea of masks were having a debate about safety versus freedom. Keep me safe, leave me alone. Masks are the idea, im going to protect you, you protect me, and further part of the four pillars is, paying attention to symptoms, screening every day in the workplace, or even when you go into stores for whether you have a fever, sore throat, even sniffles and those can be indicators of illness. Our culture has to be one that says, if i feel like im mildly sick i need to stay home. A case in missouri of the hairdresser who went to work every day, wore masks but had coronavirus symptoms for eight days and exposed a hundred people, the masks arent perfect. Our social distancing isnt perfect. Our handwashing isnt perfect. But if you put these four things together, it works. The majority of American People do feel better and safer at home. So if youre one of those people who is socially sdadistancing a doing exactly what you say, but you are out with others who are not, are you still safe . Well, theres a calculated risk going on right now. As dr. Birx said, were learning how to work with one another. Its not safe to be, you know, out en masse. She referred to the arkansas pool party, its safer outside, yet if were close together, not paying attention to doing all four parts of this, including staying at home if you are at all symptomatic, several people at that pool party have become infected. So you have to be able to put the pieces together, and you have to learn to do that, and you have to be able to gently remind one another this is what we need to do together to keep each other safe. Tom, we have about 30 seconds left here, we have cultural resistance in protests, the president encouraged them and continues to not wear a mask in public. Hes out golfing, his campaign is sending make America Great signs in beaches, this cant be helpful. You know, instead of focusing on what you cant do this weekend a couple of things you should do wear a mask, its common decency. Pray and think about those who passed in our former wars, and for fe memorial day, and those who also passed in the last three months, the 100,000 souls that have been lost in this country, and make sure you remember to wash your hands even though the shelter in place rules have been lifted. That message from both of you again and again. I thank you both. Up next, a deep dive into joe bidens Vice President search, who will he pick . Will it be someone from a crucial swing state . And how will those controversial comments about black voters affect his chances . 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