Years ago. What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus. Reporter very early results from trials of remdesivir suggest this hiv drug actually might treat covid19. The data shows that remdesivir has a clearcut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recover. This is really quite important. Reporter this is not a cure. In studies touted by dr. Fauci today, it lowered mortality and shortened the duration of the illness. This has not been a proven therapeutic. Physicians would probably be reluctant to, if they had other choices, to use something that protected in such a marginally valuable way. But we dont have other choices. For an antiviral to work in a positive way in these very sick patients to me is indeed very good news. Reporter many states in this country now planning to reopen, and soon, despite dire warnings from dr. Fauci for the fall. It is more likely than not that we will see this again and again until we really stick the nail in the coffin of this outbreak by a vaccine. Reporter pfizer now says it will begin testing one in the u. S. Shortly and claims it could supply millions by the end of the year. Oxford university in the uk started human trials last week of its own possible vaccine. Still, parks reopened in miami this morning. Floridas governor, who was late to close, just unveiled his plan to reopen the state. We dont see any more infections but well work on it. Reporter right now it does not appear that any state meets the vague advisory white house guidelines that call for a downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14day period before any reopening. Haircuts are already allowed in colorado and georgia. In california were told thats still months away by a governor now feeling pressure from those earlier openers. Theres no question it puts pressure. I would be lying to suggest otherwise. Im worried we can erase all the gains in a very short period of time. Reporter meanwhile, a new marist poll shows 65 of americans think its also a bad idea for people to return to work without further testing and 91 think we shouldnt be holding large sporting events yet. I hope theres some form of baseball. I mean, its for the countrys mental health. Reporter around 2,500 just attended the funeral of a popular rabbi in brooklyn. 12 summonses were issued for violating social distancing and refusing to disperse. The citys mayor called out the entire Jewish Community on twitter and was criticized. I regret if the way i said it in any way gave people a feeling of being treated the wrong way. That was not my intention. It was said with love but it was tough love. It was anger and frustration. Reporter that model often cited by the white house says 74,000 will have died by august 4. It could be sooner. Were already nearing 60,000. And as you mentioned, jake, we have in fact just passed that stunning and sad milestone, 60,000 americans dead. I just want to say one more thing about remdesivir, this drug being muchtouted today. It is worth noting that right now it is not approved anywhere in the world to treat anything. So an extraordinary use authorization from the fda would be extraordinary. But these are extraordinary times, and the fda tells us that they are in ongoing discussions with the maker of that drug to get it to patients, quote, as quickly as possible. Jake . All right, nick watt, thank you so much. Joining me now is cnn chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta. Sanjay, dr. Fauci seemed very optimistic about remdesivir. Whats your read on it . Yeah, i mean, he did. I think my read is, you know, weve been waiting for a trial that actually is a randomized trial thats of a larger group of patients. Most of the reporting thats been out there so far, most of the trials have been pretty small, retrospective, meaning looking backwards, not randomized. This was a wellconducted trial, about a thousand patients in physic68 Different Centers around the world, jake. When we talk about the significance and what this really does, its important to look at the outcomes they were looking at. They were trying to figure out survival, thats mortality rate, and then duration of illness. With regard to mortality rate, you see theres difference between the people treated with remdesivir versus place even dough. When you do the calculation, thats not a significant finding. Its hard to say that drop was due to the medication, given the sample size. But the thing on the right, the duration of illness, that is significant. The 31 faster recovery in those patients who got remdesivir. Now, that you know, that could be significant. You know, it shows a couple of things. One, its proof of concept that this seems to have an impact on this virus, jake. This has been a difficult virus, as we know, to treat. This is the first one to show that impact. Also, you know, there is this question, and i think its going to be something we want to find out, does it decrease the amount of virus in your nose and mouth. Because if it does that, as you know, jake, once youre feeling better, that might decrease the spread of this, which would be a big deal. We dont know that yet but theres enthusiasm because, as Larry Brilliant said, its the only thing we have at this point. It is the glimmer of potentially good news. The former fda commissioner under President Trump, Scott Gottlieb, said, quote, the data is enough to support an emergency use authorization from the fda. What happens after that, assuming that emergency authorization goes forward . As nick watt was just saying, they have to talk to gilead and make sure they can start to produce enough of this medication. This is a medication, again, its been around for a while. It was trialed in ebola as well. So it is an existing drug. I think its going to be a question, with gilead now, can they start to actually meet the demand that is certainly going to come. I should point this out, jake, you know this, the eua, emergency use authorization, theres been a lower bar for that recently given that were in the middle of a pandemic. So im not surprised at all it will be sort of approved under this eua sort of thing. Its a question of being sure people who need it can get it. I talked to Scott Gottlieb an hour ago as well about this, and one of the question marks is who, who should get this now. He was thinking that people who early on had the illness and are at high risk because of some sort of preexisting condition, they probably will be the ones who may be the ones most likely to benefit from this, at least early on. Do you think this is a breakthrough . I mean, fauci compared it to the feeling he had when azt was discovered during the hiv aids crisis 30 years ago. Yeah, i heard that, and i was a little surprised by that. You know, you could see the data in terms of what it does, theres at least in this early data really no impact on mortality, on saving lives. It does seem to shorten the duration of illness, and that could be significant. If you look at tamiflu, even, shortening the duration and severity of illness is important. Its not clear that it will actually decrease mortality at this point. So well have to wait and see. Its also, again, an existing drug. This is a drug that already existed, thats being repurposed for this indication now to treat coronavirus. So, you know, dr. Fauci obviously has been doing this for 40 years, he has a lot of context for these sort of things. We should look at the data, well put it up on the website so people can look at this themselves. And sanjay, projections of what a death toll will be, projections are not fact, projections are just predictions. The projection of the death toll, 60,000, a few weeks ago we were told we werent going to get there until august. Weve reached it and its april. Why . Whats going on . Jake, i think you and i had a conversation about this a couple of weeks ago. You said is it likely well get to this number before august 4. And it was pretty clear by all the trends that we were seeing. And as you know, that same model that predicted 60,000 now have the projected death toll around 74,000 people. You know, jake, these models are frankly all over the place. If you look at the numbers we put up, theyre actually part of a wide range, they give a wide range of numbers, anywhere from 30 to 140,000 in some of these ranges here. I think its difficult, theres two things i think that happened over the last couple of weeks. One is that we started to include probable infections, probable hospitalizations and probable deaths with regard to this covid infection. Obviously the plateau that were seeing is more of a plateau, thats at a high plateau, versus a curve. You know, this is not looking like a curve as much as it went up, its staying up for a while, well see what happens next, hopefully it will start to come down. Finally, jake, these stayathome orders that are getting lifted, i dont know that thats already had an impact, because i dont think a couple of, three weeks, but its certainly affected the models. Thats part of the reason the projected deaths now by august are going to go up. Look, even 74,000, which is now the august 4 model, what thats showing, that may be low based on what were seeing right now. Yeah. That seems a conservative estimate to me, at least based on todays facts. Sanjay gupta, thank you as always, we appreciate it. Tune in for a cnn town hall, coronavirus facts and fears, hosted by sanjay and anderson cooper, tomorrow at 8 00 p. M. A stunning claim Jared Kushner is now making, thats next. Plus hundreds of tsa employees, many of them who screen passengers, have been infected with coronavirus, as Airlines Start making major changes that could impact the future of air travel for a long time to come. Thats next. Stay with us. We have to transition into Virtual Learning to make sure that the education is continuing. vo verizon and the New York Times are offering 14 Million Students free Digital Access to times journalism. And even though tables are empty at the moment. Now you can be there for them. While the doors may be closed, the kitchens are open for delivery. Why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills . E else. Flonase sensimist. Nothing stronger. Nothing gentler. Nothing lasts longer. Flonase sensimist. 24 hour nondrowsy allergy relief since 1926, nationwide weve been there in person, during trying times. Today, being on your side means staying home. Nationwide office of customer advocacy. But we can still support you and the heroes who are with you. Were giving refunds on Auto Insurance premiums, assisting customers with financial hardships, and our foundation is contributing millions of dollars to charities helping with covid19 relief. Keeping our promise to be on your side. I came across sofi and it was the best decision of my life. I feel cared about as a member. Were getting a super competitive Interest Rate on our money. Were able to invest through the same exact platform. I really liked that they didnt have any hidden or extra fees. Sofi has brought me peace of mind. Truly thank you for helping me prepare for whatever the future has in store. Me too. Me too. And if youre a Small Business, were with you. Standing by you every step of the way. Bye bye. In our politics lead today, President Trump once again taking time to praise his administrations handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling soninlaw and adviser Jared Kushner brilliant after kushner touted their Coronavirus Response as a, quote, Great Success story. A claim made on the same day that the u. S. Hit 60,000 deaths from coronavirus. A death toll that had previously been projected the u. S. Would not hit until august. As Cnns Kaitlan Collins reports for us now, despite the president s praise of his administrations actions, members of his administration are still sharing information and acting in ways that are contradictory to the coronavirus guidance they tell the rest of us to follow. I dont know where it came up. Reporter after confidently predicting the u. S. Will be able to run 5 million coronavirus tests a day soon, President Trump hedged his bets today. That was a study that came out. Somebody came out with a study of 5 Million People. Do i think we will . I think we will but i never said it. Reporter the number came from the new report published by Harvard University which anticipated the u. S. Will need to be able to conduct 5 million tests a day by early june to safely reopen. Asked tuesday if hes confident that the u. S. Can hit that mark, trump said yes. Were going to be there very soon. Reporter the u. S. Is currently testing nowhere near 5 Million People a day, though. Instead averaging about 200,000 daily tests. Hours before the president made those comments, the white house testing coordinator, admiral giroir, told Time Magazine that given the current technology, there is absolutely no way on earth on this planet or any other planet that we can do 20 million tests a day or even 5 million tests a day. Thats a big number. Reporter trump and his aides have often complained the administration hasnt gotten enough credit for scaling up testing and other efforts to fight the coronavirus. He may be my soninlaw but he is a brilliant person. Reporter despite concerns if some health experts, trumps soninlaw and Senior AdviserJared Kushner said the country does have enough testing to start opening and he praised a widelycriticized testing rollout. Somebody asked me why it took so long. I actually said, you should look at how did we do this so quickly. Reporter with 1 Million People now infected and the death toll higher than the vietnam war, kushner also predicted most of the country will be back to normal by june. The government, federal government rose to the challenge and this is a Great Success story and the hope is by july, uh, the country is really rocking again. Reporter the white houses messaging on reopening the country has at times been confusing and contradictory. The president has encouraged states to reopen even if they havent met the administrations own criteria of a 14day decline in new cases. And during a visit to the mayo clinic, the Vice President flouted guidance from the centers for Disease Control and prevention about wearing a face mask or covering when in public. Im tested for the coronavirus on a regular basis and everyone who is around me is tested for the coronavirus. Reporter the first lady seemed to remind the Vice President of the cdcs guidance in a tweet today, urging people to cover their face. Now, jake, when the president first assembled the Coronavirus Task force team, they met basically every single day except easter weekend. They did not meet for three days in a row this week. But they were scheduled to have a meeting today. All right, kaitlan collins, thank you so much. President trump today with many promises but few concrete answers on how to protect workers in Meat Processing plants after he ordered all those facilities previously closed down because of coronavirus issues, to reopen. Reporter how will you protect the workers in those plants . What are you doing to protect them . Were doing that, well have a report on that this afternoon. Theyre going to be very careful. They are, as to who is going into the plant. And, uh, the quarantine is going to be very strong. And were going to make People Better when they have a member. Were going to get them better. Hopefully theyre going to get better. The executive order is also a signal that the Trump Administration will stand on the side of the meat packing plants if any employee were to sue the plant for exposure to coronavirus at work. Union leaders and workers have already told cnn that theyre extremely worried about what might happen, noting that they work in extremely close quarters and there is not enough testing to know who is sick. There also are not proper safety protocols to keep the virus from spreading, they say. Cnns omar jimenez is live with more. Omar, meat packing factories account for more than half the coronavirus cases in their towns but are still being told to reopen. Reporter thats the decision these plants are having to wrestle with. The three major meat packing plants in green bay alone, its those employees that account for more than half in this country. And part of why this county now has the highest infection rate in the entire state of wisconsin. Now, when you look at those three plants, jbs is the only one that has closed its doors over the past week, in part because of coronavirus. Theyve been most significantly affected, more than 250 employees test positive there. But the Important Note is that this is an impact were seeing across the country. That is the fourth plant that jbs has had to close. And while two others have reopened, based on President Trumps executive order, well now wait and see on whether the others will soon follow suit. Again, as weve seen, more than 20 plants closed in the past two months, jake, in the midst of this pandemic. And omar, weve been covering the Racial Disparities in who gets sick by the coronavirus, who dries from the coronavirus. Data shows the majority of workers in these plans are latino or africanamerican. Here is another example of why that might be. Reporter yeah, jake, were seeing 35 of workers at these plants are hispanic, 20 black. When you add up black, hispanic, and asian, its almost twothirds of all workers in these plants are minorities at the very least. I spoke to one hispanic worker at a plant in green bay earlier today who says that, honestly, 90 of the people he works with are hispanic, and they speak s