Class in mexico. translated yes, it sounds difficult. And it is difficult to change something that people have been used to for years. But thats what its about, its about telling people this isnt rmal, and they shouldnt be used to it. Woodruff all that and more, on tonights pbs newshour. Newsur has been provided by on an american cruise lines journey along the ssissippi river, travelers explore classic antebellum homes, civil war battlefields, and historicow american tns. Aboard our fleet of victoria style paddlewheelers and modern riverboats, you can experiencecu locaure and cuisine, and relive american history. American cruise lines. Proud sponsor of pbs newshour. Y fidelvestments. Bnsf railway. Consumer cellular Carnegie Corporation of new york. Supporng innovations in education, democratic engagement, anthe advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possle by the corporation foric puroadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the pace of the pandemic is accelerating across the United States on this first day of spring. Health officials report more than 11,000 cases nearly at least 168 deaths. Y and as the recorded numbers surge, the state department is warning americans not to go abroad for any reason. Meanwhile, Congress Works on ano huge ec aid package, and the white house talks of making more medicines available. William brangham reports. Brangham President Trump today announced that the federal government will speed access to two drugs that might help people infected with coronavirus. We slashed red tape to esvelop vaccines and thera rene. Brangham thedent under the new rules, the food and Ug Administration will bypass its normal process and rapidly accelerate those and other medications for use. But, these treatments are not immediately available for covid 19 patients. And they are not considered cures or vaccines. Its hoped theyll ease sytoms and slow the spread of the virus in people whove already been infected. On capitol hill, meanwhile, congress is working on its third Coronavirus Relief package. Sena Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell the point is to help Small Business endure, help workers keep their jobs, and help both businesses and workers emerge from this ady to thrive. Brangham the bill will include 300 billion for small payment to adult americans,sh targeted lending to key industries, and resources for hospitals and Health Workers who are tending to sick people. For the bill to prioritizeshing workers over corporations. Minority leader Chuck Schumer we believe that whatever oposal emerges and it will be bipartisan that it must bes a workersproposal. Brangham the senate is expected to work on the bill throughout the weekend. The urgency comes as unemployment claims arngrapidly risicross the country, as industries from restaurants to camanufacturing are closintheirf americans stantly out of work. In fact, joble claims spiked to 281,000 last week, up from 211,000 the previous week. Thats the largest weektowk riseince the 2008 financial crisis back at the capitol, this pandemic is not just affecti Congress Legislative calendar. Last night, two representatives, mario diazbalart, a republican from florida, and ben mcads, a democrat from utah, said they tested positive for thvirus. Both said they began to feel ill on saturday night, just hours after they, along with 400 other members of the house of representatives, voted to approve another Coronavirus Relief bil now, more than 20 members of congress are selfisolating. About who else is falling ill. F new datam the centers for disease corol and prevention reveals that Young Americans are being sickened in large numbers. The says there have been 508 hospitalizations caused by covid19. 38 of them were between 20 and 54 years old. And then, nearly half 121 patients who were then moved to intensive care were under 65. But still, the virus is more fatal for the elderly. And, its important to note the vast majoritof infected people have been recovering. In the meantime, covid19 continues to take an enormous toll on italy. 3,405 people have died there, surpassing china as the nation s ats lost the most citiz this virus. And in china today, a major milestone officials said that for the first time, there were no new local infections in wuhan, the original epicenter of e pandemic. President trump said today he pes these chinese numbers are true, but added who knows . When you put distance between people, through a variety ofys different you can reduce transmission of the virus. Brangham Jennifer Nuzzo is an epidemiologist at thehn Hopkins Bloomberg school of public health. She believes chinas numbers are real, and theyre a result of that countrys highly aggressive measures to isolate people. Now there are questions aboua those measureswe have to address, but i think what it shows is that it is possible to at least for a short period at least to reduce transmission. Though, that this no means the end of chinas outbreak. The impact of these measures are likely to be temporary, just the fact that the virus still circulating in the world. So its noas though they can just stop on theyve reached a certain point. Brangham 5,000 miles from tina, the continent of africa is just startingrealize the scope of its outbreak. Several nations closed their borders today, and the whos egional head warned that continent is seeing extremely rapid evolution. For the pbs newshour, im william brangham. Woodruff wall street had a calmer day by recent standards, at least as investors reacted to the stimulus measures being taken by central banks. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 188 points to close at 20,187. The nasdaq rose 160 points, and the s p 500 added 11. Now, with more on how the u. S. Government is responding to the pandemic, Yamiche Alcindor is at the white house, and Lisa Desjardins is on capitol hill. Hello to both of you. And, yamiche, to you first, the president did announce todayhe food and drUg Administration is going to be fasttracking some medicines th they hope can make a difference. What do we know about that . And, alo, what do we know about testing being available to americans . L, its clear that President Trump is eager to see americans get the medicine that would be need to treat coronavirus. That being said, that medin icthe president is saying today that there was medicine, including antimalaria medicine, ediatelyld be given imm to americans. But the f. D. A. A couple of hours ago add ho clarify that and say, no, the president is wrong, there is no actual f. D. A. Ve medicine appto treat this, but doctors might use experimeal drugs on fieshts see if the coronavirus reacts to the drugs. There are some senior officialsa in the fwho are worried about that, that patients might get harmed, but President Trump is saying we have tout red tape to get people help. On test thing today e president was asked over and over again, when can every erican who needs a test get a test for the coronavirus . But the pr asident did not ha cleaanswer on that. The other thing, the white house is not clear on whethere tug ventilators to help people. But the healthcare worke are saying the system might not be able to care for as many people. E white house said theyre trying their best to get the equipment kneeled but thety n know when the equipment will be had. The equipment will be taken and be given out to states. Woodruff o lisa, we kow just within the last hour, the senate has released its proposal for next bill on th coronavirus response. What do we know about whats in it . J y, this is the third bill that we have been stating for, the big bill. Looking over the 247 pages of it quickly, i want tot pu highlights out there. One thing this would do, the Senate Republican pwould give almost every american a they will be calte recovery rebate. That would be 2,400 for families. Theres an income cap on t,a but for most americans, theyd get that. 208 billion for var industries, that includes 50 billion for the airline dustry. Judy, also in this, something yamiche has been talking about, free testing for the virus for any american. Insurers would be required to cover that. Also, judy, i read in here what looks to be a threemonth suspension, poentially, of student loan payments for federal student loans. There is a lot iner whats important is, next, what happens is these republicans will te this plan an negotiate with democrats. Demoats want more for Unemployment Insurance over the next couple of days. Well see what happens. Woodruff yamiche, whats the reactionhere to all of this . The president has been saying over and over again he wants americans to get cash fast. The white house has be pushing republicans on capitol hill and republican senators to get behind the idea of gimore than one check to americans. So i want to walk through a little bit about what the white house wants to see happen hre. Some of this is in the bill. Some of its not. They want to see20 two checks to americans, one in april, one in may. Right now this bill only has one 1,200 check as well as other things,c inluding 500 for every child for eligible americans. But othethings, they wan 300 billion for Small Businesses. Looks like that made it into the bill. Thats something they agreed on. Nhe other thing the president said today, he ted toe bouses ak buybacks. Thats something the presintde p company, we dont want to see c. E. O. S get millions of dollars in bonuses. Thats somethinghe prsident agrees with democrats on. There are prograbsives like elh warren who say we dont want to see stock buybacks. The president visited headquarters of fema today, they will issue help top states. Vewe saw governor after or like in michigan, illinois, south dakota, pld for president for help, specifically asking for medical equipment, also asking whetherr not the National Guard would be able to help them out. So what we saw was a number of t governors e phone praising President Trump saying he was doing a good job but also say weg need a lot more from the federal government. Woodruff so, lisa, coming back to y, these ideas in the bill youre describing are big ideas at breakneck speed. How much is known about whether theyll actually work . Quickly, ill summarize what people will think here. Well be talking about on the show in the coming days, the that mas a Multiplier Effect across the economy, people buy things with it. Thbut the concern is economy is shutting down, what can people buy . C thck is more targeted to help people buy necessities. Can do. Something they think it woodruff quickly, lisa, we heard in williams report two members of congress have alreadt beted positive for the coronavirus. Others are smeurese being take ton protect the members of congress and all the staff . Sh well, il you, in the last day, since the announcement of those two positive tests, the house f the capitol, weve seen signs going up on doors cleaning not required so staff could ple it if they di want a special clean or if that was a room where i believe there wasnt a special cncern, that any of the members who have tested positive have gone to. Ey have done a lot of cleaning around this side of the capitol in areas where they know those members had str iongnteractions. Theyve contacted all the members of congress or staff that had inractions that they think make them vulnerable to the virus, and, you know, the house is shut down, so thats a positive thing. These members havent been heret since eek, but they were here then. As for the senate, there iside rising concern. Reporters, we are keeping our distance from senators as much as we can when we talk to them. There are a few repters here now. The big question is how will the senate and hourase op . Will they continue to have votes even into next week . There is a big push on both sides for remote voting. But ill tell you theresd no, increasing interest in that on both sies, members of the houses special tell me they dont want to return to the bug they dont want to come to it. Woodruff very interesting. We know in some countries theyrn have adj their parliament. So we will watch that. Lisa desjardins, yamiche alcior, thanks to you boh. Thanks. Now, we turn to the u. S. Military and defense communitys role in the fight against covid 19. This afternoon, i spoke with secretary of defense mper, who was at the pentagon. Secretary mark esper, thank you very much for joining us. Lets start with covid 19. We are told the military is gearing up in a big w,ay sending hospital ships, one to each coas providing hospita beds d, lan pal. Oits a lot. Is it going to be enough . I think so, judy. Were tting all of ouefforts into this. As you noted, were providing to the states manpower, were providing medical equipment and supplies. We are going to dispatch ou hospital ships, one on the east coast, one on the west coast. We are contributing to the e fort through our military Research Labs wh are working mightily on both the vaccine and therapeutics, so were doing everything we can to help with this effort and to help protect the American People. Woodruff mr. Secretarylion the ry ships, our understanding is they would be used to handle the overflow of seriously ill patients from hospitals so that onland hospitals would work with the covid 19 patients. G is that riht . Slightly right. So the purpose of these ships, of course, are forartime use, so they are geared to handle trauma patients, so think of people with head injuries, lacerations, broken bones, those types of things. O based on the ships are configured, theyre not built to handle patients th Infectious Disease. Hair box dock, and help either pick up trauma ients from a local hospital, thus freeing up bed space fort patients h covid 19o help with the overflow who would come outhe in recovery hospital, once again, freeing up bed space to put infected patients into those rooms. Woodruff reserve forces, mr. Secretary. You said youve tried t avoid calling them up to the extent it would hu any vial role theyre playing in their community. How you thinking about that in terms of using activeduty drces versus the reserves and making the toucision whether to pull them out . Its first important to noe 29 states have activated their National Guard. The National Guard is a very capable force. I served in the nd for many years, so i know what they can do. What ivegsaid withd to reservists is this, as we look at activating whether its the hospital ships or our filled deployable hospitals, one of the challenges we face is many of the medical professionals that would staff those hocopitals d come from the reserves. So we have to be very conscious we do this to make sure were not pulling rquired medical personal, professionals out of a civilian role needed andng put them into a military role and deploying them somewhere else. Nk woodruff and as you thi of the National Guard, we are told that the head of the guard is saying they shouldnt be nationalized quickly. But could this situation bec so serious that that has to happen . E well,nt see a need to federalize the National Guard, what that means is wed end up pulling them into a national base. I think the best use of the guard righnow is doing wh they are doing, and that is working in what we call a title 32 status per the governors of their states and dealing with the challenges the goveneor s them to deal with at the state and local level. E need be,n supplement them with Federal Reserve or activeomponent uh troops, but, again, tats not on the drawing board at thiuftime. Woo what is the main role for active duty troops in the u. S. . I like to say and remind the American People if not rassur them that the United States military remains ready and capable to protect the country and defend ou interests abroad, and right now that is our primary mission. We also have l these oter capabilities i mentioned up the covid 19 effort, including everything from military research on vaccines, on therapeutics to providing military medical equipment out of our strategic stockpiles, to making available medical professionals, and toelpi out any way a state needs help. Woodruff is there a conflict, mr. Secretary, between having these Service Members do theiinjobs protethe country and keeping them safe from covy 19 . How aru doing that, number one . And we know that,hat, 81 Defense Department employees are now infected, several dozen Service Members. How do you look upon keeping them safe, at the same time theyre doing their job . Its a very good question. We took very aggressive measures several weeks ago to get ahead of this and stay ahead of it. W so, for examplstopped what we call permanent change of station moves in between overseas and the unitates. We ultimately moved that to ves within the United States. Weve also put quarantines on people traveling between bases, certainly those traveling home. Weve asked people to selfisolate as need b. Wee instituted a wide range of procedures across the force cluding here in the pentagon, where were exercising a great deal of social distancing. Were wiping down taand doorknobs. In fact, i do video teleconferences with chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and my deputy, so were talking all kinds of measu ts acro force to ensure protection of our troops and,