Information across the globe in just a few seconds. Its a digital Early Warning system that uses Artificial Intelligence to tracken neckious outbreaks. Should the u. S. Government be using it . This is a whole other level of sophistication and data collection. Thats our story ticking it is a secure location that we intend to operate out of in wartime. This mountain was built to withstand a Nuclear Blast, but every time a Nuclear Watch team makes this trek into the mountain, they risk bringing the virus with them. First step, you wipe down every surface, your computers, your telephone, your desk surfaces, door handles. Its a president like an obsessivecompulsive disorder, but we have to be able to make ticking im lesley stahl. Im bill whitaker. Im anderson cooper. Im norah odonnell. Im scott pelley. Those stories, tonight, on 60 minutes. ticking this portion of 60 minutes is sponsored by progressive insurance. Save when you bundle auto home, or molt cycle motorcycle insurance. Visit progressive. Com. Ndonnellis an4. Ll americans joined the unemployment line, and among the companies shedding the most workers are americas carmakers. The big two General Motors and ford built nearly four million vehicles here in america last year; today they are making exactly zero; their factories closed to prevent the coronavirus from spreading among employees. While they are no longer making cars, both gm and ford are applying their manufacturing muscle to the pandemic by turning out ventilators and personal protective equipment in huge numbers. Last week we spoke to gm c. E. O. Mary barra and ford executive chairman bill ford remotely, both of them were in michigan, and they told us theyre thinking creatively to figure out how to get their workers back on the line, and keep them there. Bill ford were shut down pretty much everywhere in the world except china right now. And then, of course, we were shut down in china earlier. And weve never had a time like this where everything has been shut. Odonnell i know that ford reports its First Quarter earnings in a few days and the projection is a loss of 2 billion. And those losses will continue to mount. Can you sustain that . Ford well, obviously, not indefinitely. Odonnell between them, ford and General Motors had nearly 300 billion in revenue last year. Today, that river of money is running dry. Mary barra the design. Odonnell mary barra is c. E. O. Of gm, the first woman to run the company in its history. Has covid19 proved to be an existential threat to gms Long Term Health . Barra between the strength of our Balance Sheet with the steps weve taken in the past, we will get through this and we will learn a lot of lessons that well apply. Odonnell i mean, whats the longterm prognosis for for General Motors if youre not making cars . Barra no one knows when things are going to get back to what i refer to as a new normal. Ive heard others refer to it as the new abnormal. Odonnell in the new abnormal, gm and ford have each tapped into about 15 billion in private lines of credit to pay their bills. One estimate is that ford is burning through 165 Million Dollars a day. Remember, it was just 11 years ago, in the last financial crisis, that gm declared bankruptcy. Ford avoided that, but did get a 6 billion government loan. So do you think youll need another loan to get through this crisis . Ford we dont think so. We think we can get through this. And we think we can get through it and get back to work. But were in an unprecedented time. And so i suppose you never say never. But thats not our plan. Odonnell part of the financial pressure is that under their contracts with the United Auto Workers union, ford and gm continue to pay millions of dollars to their idled workers. And now theres political pressure, with protests taking place in their home state of michigan, and some demonstrators demanding an economic restart. What do you think is driving those protests . Ford i think people are are understandably nervous, scared scared about the disease, but also scared about their own economic wellbeing. And so i mean i get it. I totally get it. Odonnell many people in your state want to get back to work soon. Ford well, i think wed all like to get back to work soon. But we have to do it safely. And thats not a political question. Thats really a scientific question. Odonnell as ford and gm shut down auto production in march, michigan emerged as a major covid19 hot spot. The state has the Third Largest number of deaths in the nation, and its Health Care Workers have endured shortages of protective gear. The states Largest Health system, beaumont, says that 1,500 of its employees are presumed to have covid19. What were your marching orders to your team when this crisis began . Ford my team didnt need marching orders. Right from the very start, it was from our local hospital saying, hey, we dont have any protective equipment, who can help us, our company just jumped into action. Odonnell and that began fords transformation from carmaker to medical supply manufacturer. The company has since churned out millions of face shields, masks, gowns, and portable respirators for Health Care Workers. This past week, ford began producing ventilators for patients. Ford there are companies that can make complicated things, but they make them in small numbers. There are also companies that can make lots of things, but they cant make complicated things. You know, we turn out an f150 every 52 seconds. So when we look at this crisis as a country and said, you know, which industry is positioned to help us not only in terms of sophisticated machinery, but can do a lot of them and a lot of them quickly, the Auto Industry is uniquely positioned to do that. Odonnell in midmarch, it looked as if american hospitals would quickly need thousands of ventilators that didnt exist. Can we get that here faster . Odonnell as the pandemic spread, Gms Mary Barra learned about a small innovative ventilator manufacturer in Washington State called ventec. Was putting the companys assets and people to work, to fight this pandemic an easy decision . Barra it was a very easy decision. When i got the call and we got the introduction to ventec the team just moved so quickly. And we thought if theres a way we can help, we absolutely want to do it. Phil kienle the manifold that we had before. Odonnell after one phone call with ventec, phil kienle, gms Vice President of north American Manufacturing, got on a plane with three of his engineers. Kienle when we were on the flight to seattle, i asked everybody to have a mindset of what if your parents, your wife, one of your children had this covid disease, and absolutely needed one of these ventilators . How far would you go to get this thing into production . How fast would you move . Odonnell and given the speed with which you needed to act, how did you go about sourcing 400 different parts for ventilators . Kienle our global purchasing and supply chain team really pulled off a miracle in sourcing this. We were in seattle on a friday. That same weekend, they were already sourcing the components for us. Odonnell gm and ventec began transforming gms kokomo, indiana facility virtually overnight, from one that made electronic car components to a ventilator factory. It was ideally suited because both products contain a lot of circuit boards. Then they called on a mixture of salaried gm employees and Union Workers from the u. A. W. George vandermeir has been with gm for 43 years. He used to make sure parts for pickup trucks met safety standards. Hes doing the same now for ventilators, with parts so small they need to be picked up with a set of tweezers. When were you scheduled to retire . George vandermeir yesterday. So i just extended my retirement for another month or two just to make sure this gets off the ground and everything works well so we can get these ventilators out. Odonnell tracy streeter used to move sheet metal with a forklift at his old gm job. That was before he was laid off because of covid19. Tracy streeter and just brought that plant to a standstill. Odonnell he is one of 46 laidoff workers from a gm plant in marion, indiana who got the call from kokomo. Streeter i went and asked my wife. Shes an l. P. N. And her eyes lit up and she went, you get to help. So it was a nobrainer. Odonnell your wife is a nurse and she said, this is an opportunity to help. Streeter exactly. Odonnell in just two days he was trained to assemble and test a part of the ventilator that holds oxygen and has to be airtight. Streeter theres a little tiny screw that goes into the part that i build. But even though that screw is so small, its an important part. I look at it in the scheme of things, im just probably just as insignificant as that small little screw. But i play a part in whats happening in the bigger scale. Kienle it went from a discussion t odonnell at first, gm and ventec were operating on their own. In late march, President Trump ordered them to make ventilators under the defense production act. 12 days later they signed a halfbilllion dollar contract to make 30,000 for the federal government by august. Gm says its not making any profn ntilors, but the project is teaching the company valuable lessons to help get its car factories open faster says phil kienle, head of manufacturing for north america. Kienle well, weve actually pretty much used kokomo as a beta site, if you will, for new safety protocols that well instill when General Motors restarts. Odonnell thats really interesting. So not only are you making ventilators, youre also learning about how to work safely in this new era once you reopen the car plants. Kienle absolutely. Odonnell many of those working on kokomo, mary, told us that they get their temperature taken before they go into work. Is that going to be the new normal in American Manufacturing . Barra yes it will be. And before i walked into this facility today i had my temperature scanned. I think its a very important part of the protocol. Ford good morning. How are you doing . Ford good, how are you . Bill ford in the plant im in today, were wearing face masks and were wearing face shields. Odonnell fords executive chairman bill ford says the company has also installed plastic barriers between each work station to enforce social distancing. Ford everybodys also wearing watches that buzz if you get within six feet of somebody else. Odonnell thats the first i had heard about these wristbands that buzz when you get within six feet of somebody. Ford yeah, were trying it out. Odonnell the watches that ford is testing are made by samsung and use bluetooth technology. Ford it also tells you who youve come into contact with thats also been wearing that that wristband, so that if anybody was infected, its very easy to trace who they were interacting with. Odonnell ford is testing the watches with small teams of workers now making medical equipment. And what do you do when it buzzes . Joanne ritchie back off. laugh odonnell 30 year ford employee Joanne Ritchie is on a line thats made over a million face masks. Just six weeks ago, in another clean room, she was making transmission valves. Joannes daughter andrea is a Critical Care nurse in one of the hospitals near detroit that has seen both shortages of protective gear and multiple staffers diagnosed with covid 19. And when your manager called to ask if you would come back not to make cars, but to make face masks, did you think about your daughter and helping her . Ritchie that was the first thing that came to my mind. I thought, im gonna protect her. If i can, im gonna protect her. Im gonna give her what she needs to do her job. Odonnell Joanne Ritchie goes to her job at the factory every morning at 4 30 a. M. , seven days a week. About an hour after she leaves for work, her daughter heads for her job at the hospital, to treat covid19 patients. Ritchie the first couple days that she came home, she was you couldnt even look at her in the face. She didnt want to talk. And i says, im worried about you. Im im waiting to make sure that you come home at night. Because i dont know if youre going to come home. Odonnell she really is on the frontlines. Ritchie oh yeah, she is. Sorry about that. laugh odonnell turns out, it runs in the family. During world war ii, joannes grandmother chiara worked for the Hudson Motor Car company in detroit, helping to make planes and engines for the u. S. War machine, just as millions of other women did in factories all around the country. Your grandmother chiara was a real rosie the riveter. Ritchie yes, she was. You just step up to the plate. Odonnell gms George Vandermeir also stepped up. The first shipments of ventilators he helped build went out to chicago area hospitals last week. When you first saw a ventilator built and completed, ready to ship, how did that make you feel . George vandermeir it was amazing. What we could do in such a short period of time, taking a vision and making it reality in three or four weeks. And we all got that opportunity to sign the box of the first shipments. Odonnell worth putting retirement off for . Vandermier absolutely. Hands down, no question. ticking cbs money watch, sponsored by capital one. Whats in your wallet . Good evening. The Small Business relief fund restarts monday with an infusion of new cash. Several States Reopen as virus restrictions expire. And investors hope tech earnings will shine through the gloom this week. Im leslie foster, cbs news. Bill whitaker when youre fighting a pandemic, almost nothing matters more than speed. A littleknown band of doctors and hitech wizards say they were able to find the vital speed needed to attack the coronavirus the Computing Power of Artificial Intelligence. They call their new weapon outbreak science. It could change the way we fight another contagion. Already it has led to calls for an overhaul of how the federal government does things. But first, well take you inside bluedot, a small Canadian Company with an algorithm that scours the world for outbreaks of Infectious Disease. Its a digital Early Warning system, and it was among the first to raise alarms about this lethal outbreak. It was new years eve when bluedots computer spat out an alert a Chinese Business paper had just reported 27 cases of a mysterious flu like disease in wuhan, a city of 11 million. The signs were ominous. Seven people were already in hospitals. Almost all the cases came from the citys sprawling market, where live animals are packed in cages and slaughtered onsite. Dical iv now investigating if this is where the epidemic began, when the virus made the leap from animals to us. Half a world away on the toronto waterfront, bluedots founder and c. E. O. , dr. Kamran khan, was on his way to work. An Infectious Disease physician, he had seen another coronavirus in 2003, sars, kill three colleagues. When we spoke with him remotely he told us this outbreak had him worried. Dr. Kamran khan we did not know that this would become the next pandemic. But we did know that there were echoes of the sars outbreak, and it was something that we really should be paying attention to. Whitaker covid19 soon got the worlds attention. Bluedots toronto staff now works from home, except for dr. Khan. But in december, the office kicked into highgear as they rushed to verify the alert. Chinese officials were secretive about what was happening. But bluedots computer doesnt rely on official statements. Their algorithm was already churning through data, including medical bulletins, even livestock reports, to predict where the virus would go next. It was also scanning the ticket data from 4,000 airports. Khan and just draw right over the city of wuhan, and itll reveal the locations of airports. Whitaker bluedot wasnt just tracking flights, but calculating the cities at greatest risk. On december 31, there were more than 800,000 travelers leaving wuhan, some likely carrying the disease. Khan so these yellow lines reflect the nonstop flights going out of wuhan. And then the blue circles reflect the final destinations of travelers. The larger the circle, the larger number of travelers who are going to that location. These were many of the first cities that actually received cases of covid19 as it spread out of mainland china. Whitaker you can do that in a matter of seconds . Khan we can analyze and visualize all this information across the globe in just a few seconds. Whitaker the virus wasnt just spreading to east asia. Thousands of travelers were heading to the United States too. Khan most of the travel came into california and San Francisco and los angeles. Also, into new york city. And we analyzed that way back on december 31. Our Surveillance System that picked up the outbreak of wuhan automatically talks to the system that is looking at how travelers might go to various airports around wuhan. Whitaker so when you see that map, you dont just see flight patterns . Khan if you think of an outbreak a bit like a fire and embers flying off, these are like embers flying off into different locations. Whitaker so in this case, that ember landed in dry brush in new york and started a wildfire . Khan absolutely. Whitaker dr. Khan told us he had spent the better part of a year persuading the airlines to share their flight data for Public Health. Nobody had ever asked that befor