All that and more on this pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by co moving our emy years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Consumer cellular offers no contract wireless plans. Whether you tal text, browse, photograph, whatever you do, we anare here to find a plhat fits you. American cruise lines. Fidelity investments. The john s. And james l. Kni ght foundation. And with the ongoing support of these institution and friends of the newshour. This program was madpossible by the corporation for public pbroadcasting and b contribution to your pbs station by viewers like you. Thank you. Ju the United States is officially under a National Emergency. The covid19 pandemic has now infected some 1700 americans and claimed the lives of nearly 50 people. Todays Emergency Declaration triggered a rally on wall street after yesterdays historic nosedive. The dow jones surge 1985 points to close above 23,185. The nasdaq soared 673. The s p 500 rose 230. Elys since the 2018 2008ive global financialown. As outrage intensified over the lack of available testing, states took matters inir own hands to help slow the spread. Thousands oacschools closed ss the country. Major sporting events were and one states president ial primary waen delayed. Thank you very much, everyone. Weeks into the spread of covid19 in the u. S. , president response. Up the federal im officially declaring a National Emergency. Noesource will be spared, nothing whatsoever. The move opens up up 5 t billion in federal resources for state and local governments to respond, similar to actions taken in the face of previous crises. West nile virus and president barack obama containing the h1n1 epidemic. A new website for citizens to screen symptoms and a new testing site website. More tests potentially available xt week through an expedited process. The house has been worying with treaecretary Steven Mnuchin in a sweeping aag paaimed at reducing the Economic Impact of the pandemic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pledged to move forward with the bill. Parts of this bill are testing, testing, testing. This legislation facilitates free coronavirus testing for everyone who needs a testud, ing the uninsured. Wean only defeat the outbreak if we have an accurate determination of its scale and scope. All this is covid19 cases continue to rise in the u. S. Known cases ha spread to 47 statesnd washington, d. C. , though testing remains limited. In new york, drivethrough testinwas rolled out and new rochelle under strict containment after a recent a similar Curbside Program in denver, where coloradoans waited in long lines to get tested. Across the country, mass cancellations continued at major Sports Events and large gatheringsf, as did closures schools and universities. County, virginia,chools un we have lots of twoarent workin families and many of whom dont have significt flexibility in terms of taking children and so this was aheir consideration, but we neeced to make oion based on student and staff safety. And for the first time today, a delay in the 2020 election cycle. Today, i have certified that the state of emergency exists and requested that the governore issue an execu order safe and secure elections also mean safety to the people of louisiana. That is why i signed this certification. As england announced a arong delay in its local elections, World Health Organization officials reiterated that all of europe remains at high risk. Europe has now become the epicenter of the pandemic. Eire cases are now reported every day then were reported in china at the height of its epidemic. In italy, another grim benchmark infectionsor soared by mthan 2500 cases to more than7,600 and virusrelated than 25umped by more now totaling more than 1200, the biggest single day jump since the outbreak began. Leading officials in denmark to temporarily cle the countrys borders. In brazil, the reports thatfhe first head state was infected forcefully disputed by the nesident and his son in an interview with fs. The test is negative. Concerns were raised after an aide to bolsonaro tested positive to the virusngfter accompanim to the United States and meeting President Trump. President trump has so far not been tested, but said he likely ll be. I did not say i would not be tested. O are you going . Most likely. Dr. Anthony fauci expressed administrationewest efforts would have an impact. What is going on today is going to help it tone end s than it would have. Judy across the country, it has been another day of major closings, postponements, and cancellations. At least 12 states announced that they are closing schools statewide. All of the latest seen on the map. Major School Districts announced their own closures, including the secondlargest district in the company the los angeles and San Diego Unified School district. Moreon than 21 mil students nationwide will be out by next week. Th maste golf tournament, traditionally played at the start of april, was postpon as was the boston marathon. In the world of entertainmented disney annout is halting all production of live action fis and the latenight shows on television have shut down reduction for the remainr of the month. For a closer look at the developments and the politics of the pandemic, im joined by our guests. Thege national emy the presiden declared today, what exactly does it allow to happen . President took a major stepec inring this National Emergency, saying it will have the full force of the federal government focused and targeted on a coronavirus response. It is going to provide 42. 6 billion in disaster aid that will be able to go through states, fema, the federal has been something that has happened when it comes to hurricanes. Th other thing it is going to do his food assistance, shelter, and medical response. The other thing that is going to do is unemployment, insurance, and overtimeme p focused on workers impacted by the coronavirus. Wein are sthe president trying to say we are stepping up the president himself said hes will likely be tested for coronavirus. Thereere two people at his maralago resort that have tested positive. Two people now. Two people now. The have been trying to work out a deal to help people who are out of work or sick to go to work. In the space of time it took that package to play jt now, we have learned that there is a deal between speaker pelosi, the House Democrats, and the white house. A letter was sent ou to mocrats saying they have reached an agreement. They said they have secuyd some emerge leave, two weeks of sick leave u for workers ato three weeks of paid family and medical leave. There is i suspect about 1 billion for food security, that would s includeiors who are homebound and children whose schools close and they were like on free and reduced lunch. There are a lot of questions about this. Da was a very difcult day because everyone knows the importance of dealing with these very first vulnerable populations and yet the white house and House Democrats could not reach a deal. It looks like at this minute they finally have after 24 tough hours of negotiations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi andry treasury secre mnuchin on the phone a dozen times today trying to get this done. Sthe devil i in the details and they say they have the details worked out. That means they have agreed . R, i was just rushing over from the white house and the president was questioned about sis during his press conference and d there were a number of problems and he was not fully on board, but what we have learned now is that there has been a dealeaed and the white house it see is on board with this. It means the presidee will likelygning this sometime in the next few weeks, maybe even in thnext week. The president was desperate to have something to show the American People that they were stepping up efforts and the federal government waso there help people in this critical time as people are scared and panicked. Judy he has been some reporting on resistance to permanent sick leave. I believe this is temporary related only to the coronavirus and that isdeomething that crats conceded. Judy u. S. The president to question t about National SecurityCouncil Office that dealt with pandemic and why that office was done away with. Tell us about that exchange. T white house used to have this office that dealt specifically with pandemics and in 2018 President Trump disbanded that and there were pele that left the administration very abruptly. The officials that worked in that office said tha the white house lost valuable time because the office was disbanded. What do you make of that . Ihink its a nasty question because what weve done and tony has said numerous times that we saved thousands of lives because of the quick closing and when you say me, i didnt do it. Wele have a group of pe i could perhaps ask tony about that. I dont know anything about it. So, the president is saying he did not know anything about is. It was his administration that did it, it was under the National Security advisor john bolton, but the president is saying he has no responsibility for this, which is pretty incredible. This office said they set this up after the ebo crisis and they felt like this would be something that the administration could use if there was another pandemic. Now there is another pandemic eand that offs no longer there. White house Officials Say theyme lost critical hat they could have been using to respondent. Judy the president saying it was not his decision. Of course, it was his National Security advisor, the buck people would say stops with the president , but the president saying it was not me, is people in my admin is ration. Judy very, very interesting. Thank you. The president is indeed directing more money andno he ced moves today to speed up testing and coming weeks. But there are n still aber of questions about how prepared the country is and why theti t is taking so long to provide. We examine those issues with the director of the center for disaster preparednes columbia university. He is also now an advisor to joe bidens committee on the novel coronavirus. And dr. Sherry fink of the new york times. Hello to both ofpp you. Weciate you joining us. You did hear what the president had to saybo declaring a National Emergency. How much difference do you believe this is going to make . I guess im glad finally he is doing it, but i think in most everything to do with our handling of the coronavirus threat has been way too little and too late. I was shocked many weeks ago when we could not get it right in terms of developing a lile test that could be widely distributed to the country. We tried distributing with the cdc. A test that could be widely distributed through the country. It turned out the testing materials were defective. There were some extraordinary analysis of what went wrong, but people are seeing this as an incredible incompetence of government to get this right from the beginning. Even now, i spoke this morning with several emergency medicine doctors who are still frustrated that they cant get these tests done. I think this is sort of symbolic of somwidespread failures of this government to do what needs to get done. Im not really saying this politically, im saying this is matter of Public Health we look out the front window of cle we are in and we ar looking at italy. I think this is sort of symbolic of some widespread failures of this government to do what needs to get done. And im not really saying this ipoliticalm saying this as a matter of Public Health we look at the front windowicf the v we are in and we are looking at italy and im telling you we are absolutely not prepared to deal with the medical Health System consequences of this kind of outbreak. Judy thank you. Some remarkablreporting shed a light on what happened wit test, the difficulty in getting it done. With that in the background, you look at what the administration is saying today, going to be able to do, how much closer does that get this country toward resolving this testing problem is to mark it sounds like a great solution whatd once it is in place. We have o heardr and over again that solutions are right around the corner. When the cdc test was shown not to work or have some, issue that was the first week of february and we are still in the tion where we are now f into march. Hopefully,ilhat really expand the testing capacity, particularly the approval of the first commercial test today. Judy what is your understanding dof what chann the part of the administration, the cdc, whoever s involved . I think what changed is that there was a realization that something had to be done. The first test was intended for Public Health laboratories. They can only do so much anyway, now we need a broad expansion. There seems to be aecognition. There was a real insistence on some strict rules that were throwing slowing down the process of getting t tests and the fda has relaxed some those rules. Maybe that could hae as soon as we real ied there was ue. I even wrote about some private academic labs that stepped up and wanted tohe help inrgent situation when some cases started to appear in communities. There has been a recognition that this has needed to expand. It is sad and unfortunate that we lost that time. Judy for sur in the officials ahimpresident speak today, do you have a sense that the gravity of what is going on has now taken hold and that we are going to see movement in this country as you and others have said needs to be well, of course, the public officials, including to fatty and many of the people fauci and many of the people at the cdc arm lit judah meant are legitimate worldclass heal officials. They have been pretty much telling us what should be happeningnd what has gone ong. It has been in contrast to this constant barrage of talk from the president and Vice President , reassuring us that everythings under control and obviously it wasnt. The net effect of this confusion leaves the American Public and our Public Health officials scally and in the state a on verync confused andtain about what they are hearing. We lose confidencn the federal Public Health architecture and that is really bad in terms of a situaeron we need to be helping people and guiding them and they are getting mixed messages. Judy of the 50 billion that are going to go to the states to amp up the resources available, that will make a difference . Ef well, hly it will make some difference, but to fix what is now missing in our health to respond effectively is noty going to be fixed in a hur m, no matter hh money we have. We are going to have a severe shortage of mechanical ntilator breathing machines to help people who are quite sick the federal stockpile is limited. The number of ventilatoun around the y is limited. We may need 100,000 ventilators. Otthose will clear appear magically. It is figuring out, were very tight on respiratory therapists to run these machines. Weve got a lot of work to do. The money is fantastic, im grateful for it, but i wish it judy i would like for you to answer tiot queas well. The money they are spending, we heard the president to y today, we will be buying more respirators. How reassuring is all that . In terms of thoseespirators which are actually the masks that healthcare workers need, they have a higher level of ltration for the virus, those are sometimes called respirators mech machines, i wasnthe sure which one he mea. You need not only the machines, but also the people to staff them. This has been a problem that has been recognized for years. Heard it talked about fo years and unfortunately we are in a situationhere those investments were not made earlier. It makes it hard to catch up. But it is certainly a good thing to have the funding now. Judy we thank you both. Thank you. Thanks. Disruption in america and alls around the world as many of our daily routines are being upended. Beyond the cancellations, the medical, questiond financial turmoil, there is fear and many other concerns. The thoughts are unavoidable, whether you are eager to get a test, seeing the emptyes shelv, concern for yrer chi and loved ones, watching events unfold elsewhere. Studying emotions in times of distress and trauma, he is a professor at northeastern in boston. Emotions are clearly high, knowledge arguably is low. What does that combination at up to in the behavior you are seeing now . Unfortunately, it is a perfect storm right now. Nthe rea we have emotions is to help us come to adaptive decisions rapidly. But when those emotions are miscolibrated or thext is wrong or especially now when we have clear fac that are fingertipse, th emotions will start filling in the blanks of an adoptive response that will go awry. We have a situation where the reason for fear is real, tes are hard to come by, people are getting sick, they see what is going on other countries. You are not suggesting we can or should avoid that . By no means. There is clearlyar reason for us dont think likeot of epidemiologists or have the information at hand, so that gives more reason for our fear to fill in the blanks. When you feel fear, it makes anything that seems threat more kely to happen. If i sneeze and i feel afraid one sneeze, im more likely to believe that is due to coronavirus. The more i think about it, the more opportunities there are two fill in the anks. Was i really six feet away from that guy who is in the store there is reason for concern, seek medical treatment if you have t i think we are getting into a spiral of fear that is to people to engage and responses that are not very helpful. Te make it as concs you can. Stocking up at the Grocery Store , making decisions about where r children, wheth to take them out, whether to see other people, how do you balance those kinds of fearand decisiono