and they fear that there could be a second potential wave of coronavirus victims if more governments open too prematurely. right now 37,000 of fellow americans have died of coronavirus. the states down south and west have not even hit their peaks yet. dr. anthony fauci, national institute of allergy and infectious diseases says social distancing does play an important role in stopping the spread. >> if you get a test today, that does not mean that tomorrow or the next day or the next day or the next day as you get exposed perhaps from someone who may not know they are infected, that that means that are negative, which means if you take that to its extreme in order to be really sure you would almost have to test somebody either every day or other day or every week or what it is to be absolutely certain. eric: steve harrigon in atlanta with the very latest, hey, steve. steve: 6 states have held protests to try to reopen the economy, more of them happening today, the most visible effect of loosening restrictions in florida. the beaches of jacksonville florida back open for 8 hours a day. officials calling on beach visitors to maintain social distancing but not everyone listening. texas also easing restrictions on shopping with curbside pickups using the parks. the texas governor explains why. >> the situation is happening in new york is far different than what is happening in texas and other places, for example, there will be unfortunately more people who pass away in one day in new york than we will have in texas in the entirety of the whole pandemic situation. steve: other states taking a very different approach extending the stay at home period, tightening restrictions. here is the governor on michigan on why he's doing that. >> i've listened to a lot of experts across the country and i know we are doing the right thing and what we are doing is saving lives. we -- there's no one i think is more eager to start reengaging sectors of our economy than i am. the last thing i want to do is to have a second wave here and so we have to be really smart. steve: current u.s. death toll 37,079 americans, eric, back to you. eric: all right, steve, thanks so much. arthel. arthel: yeah, eric, thank you, protests against shutdown orders ramping up across the country. steve just told us a bit about that. live look at one of them. a drive-thru rally in minneapolis, maryland, this is coming as americans are concerned of the fallout of the pandemic. rich edison with more on that angle, rich. >> rich: good afternoon, arthel. if you want to stay in your car and have in-car protest probably doing it in a traffic circle is a good strategy and that's what we are doing here and the group acknowledged the tragedy that's cause bid the covid-19 virus. they appreciate the public health concern but they say the economic, social and educational disruption by the shutdowns is guarantied to cause even greater harm and protesters hearsay it is time to reopen maryland. >> we are protesting this move that our governor tried to impose on us and now like this morning, i couldn't even go to the store without a mask on. you can't buy masks anymore. this is ridiculous. it's absolutely ridiculous. people need to get back to work. >> i want the constitution respected and honored once again. there are no exceptions. >> now we need to worry about our constitutional rights and we need to also worry about the economy. >> maryland governor larry hogan, republican, he says he's also frustrated because he understands people's needs to protest but he says that this dangerous time that you can't just go ahead and open up the economy here especially when you look at the cases they've mad more than 700 additional cases. more than 12,000 cases in maryland, a woman with sign that says go home, back and forth between the two. that's about it as protests in maryland are wrapping up as they are persisted over the last few days in different spots around the country, arthel. arthel: okay, rich edison, thank you so much. eric. eric: in the epicenter of the crisis new york state. governor andrew cuomo saying that the state's efforts to ramp up testing in order to fully reopen the economy, he says that will fall short without help from the trump administration. the focus on testing becoming a major concern in the empire state and with other states governors saying that only the federal government can start a full national testing program, get it up and running and fund it, that is what they say are desperately needed right now. aisha with more. aishah: he found that they all have the equipment necessary to make the test kits, what they don't have are the chemicals necessary. >> that's the log jam that we are in. they bought the machine, they have the machine, they have the test but they need the reagents to do a higher volume of tests. aishah: cuomo worried about what is happening in new york's nursing homes, nearly 2700 people have died in those homes, 626 deaths in adult care facilities, 20% of covid-19 deaths in new york. that's more than 17,000 deaths, nearly doubled from last week, new jersey follows with more than 3800 deaths now and michigan where they are publicly protesting the stay at home orders is the third deadliest state for coronavirus, more than 2200 deaths there. new york city is also getting help from nurses across the country including the air force reserves. captain john copis is one of 6 nurses leaving niágara false tomorrow on his birthday actually and as marine he has been deployed to war zones as well. he has mixed feelings about the deployment. >> someone asked me earlier if i was scared and it would be a complete fly if i said no. this virus is really not understood yet. it's like nothing that we have ever seen or at least in our lifetime, so i have that in the back of my mind. aishah: and his help is indeed welcome as healthcare workers continue to get sick, 200 of 600 of nurses on staff in newark university hospital are out, some have covid-19, others clinical and nonclinical staff have even died because covid-19 complications. it's a strategy here on the east coast, eric. eric: yeah, the healthcare workers were not protected as they should have been. it is -- it is horrible and scandal and our hearts and prayers certainly are with them all. arthel. arthel: eric, thank you, despite warnings of potential relapse president trump encouraging his supporters to stand up to state coronavirus restrictions while at the same time giving governors the final decision on how and when to restart their economies, mark meredith live at the white house with more, mark. mark: arthel, we are expecting to hear from president trump in the 5:00 p.m. hour. he could address the rick was talking about that people are fed up from staying in and staying at home. earlier this week the administration gave governses -- governors and businesses and senior living facilities and hospitals are remained off limits, gyms could also resume with physical distancing and sanitation. >> in the coming weeks i think you are going to see some very, very dramatic steps taken and very safely for putting safety first. we may be opening but we are putting safety first. mark: latest computer model shows -- the latest computer models show fewer americans expect today die from the virus. the number projected at 60,000, that's down about 9,000 people, of course, there's still a huge number and it's going to impact so many families as well as the people that are dealing with the economic fallout from all of this. there's been a debate that's been happening on capitol hill between house speaker nancy pelosi, president trump as well as they try to figure out exactly how to provide additional funds to small businesses but make sure there's money for hospitals and local governments. the government's program to keep paychecks going for small businesses, that ran out of money a few days ago. sources tell fox chad, both sides appear to agree on principals of bill but no final agreement yet. >> we would like to have more money for small business and believe in that, entrepreneurial spirit of america is so important but it's also important for us to have more funds for those on the frontlines, the healthcare workers, the police and fire,ems folks and those who really need help as they try to save lives. we are hoping that we can come to agreement. again, we are all want the initiative to succeed. mark: but the president today on twitter has been blasting senate democrats calling them rude and nasty in conversations with the vice president. it'll be interesting to see whether the president continues to talk about that later on at the briefing, arthel, in the 5:00 o'clock hour. arthel. arthel: mark meredith, thank you. eric. eric: well, arthel, the peak in louisiana, for example, not expected to hit until the end of the month and coming up we will go to new orleans, arthel's hometown, one of the cities hardest hit by the coronavirus. one grocery store owner will tell us how the pandemic is reshaping that community and how he is trying to help those in need. by the end of my world tour i'll turn you all into rock zombies. rock and roll! 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[ screaming ] hip hop. ♪ tiny diamond is my name peace and love tiny and daddy out. and techno. -get ready for the drop. wait for it. come on man! ♪ one more time there will be parties and family gatherings. there will be parades and sporting events and concerts. to help our communities when they come back together, respond to the 2020 census now. spend a few minutes online today to impact the next 10 years of healthcare, infrastructure and education. go to 2020census.gov and respond today to make america's tomorrow brighter. it's time to shape our future. hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! he's here. he's right here. - hi! - hi. hey! - that's totally him. - it's him! that's totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. arthel: with so many americans falling on hard times food and beverage owner nationwide try to navigate their new reality during this pandemic. i want to take you to the lower ninth ward, bernel's market, his regular customers now come begging for essential goods. he says, quote, this has gone from a grocery store to a food pantry. i have 62 tabs in a book now from 0 to 62 in less a month. page after page of customers on credit. he joins us now, bernel colton. thank you for being here, if i can call you bernel, i want to start by, this is a local market, people in the neighborhood can purchase a variety of items. tell us about bernel's market in normal times and the people who patronize your store? >> first of all, thank you for reaching out to me. this means a lot for me. during normal times before the pandemic this was a normal store. we had people that were working. they would come and pay for their groceries. everything was going by fine. it's been like this since hurricane katrina, 2005. this is the only store in my neighborhood. once the coronavirus had hit and people were -- they lost their jobs and the good thing about new orleans is or -- sort of lia blessing and a curse. if you're from new orleans, the majority of the people are in the hospitality industry. they work for the hotel and restaurants industry and that's a beautiful thing about new orleans but the bad thing about it because they are working in the industries they are not making any money but they still have to eat and many, many people -- >> arthel: right, how has that changed now because you had -- you said hard-working customers who would come to your store. you knew them, you knew their kids and parents, but now things have changed. tell us what happened now under the circumstances, the coronavirus pandemic, bernel. >> well, since they are not working anymore they still have to eat. they don't have the money. they are victims to have coronavirus. before this they were working and able to pay for their bills. right now they can't do it. it changed the whole game and the majority of people here in new orleans work for the hospitality industries and there's no more hotel jobs, no more restaurants, there's no more musicians, nothing -- no money circulating but a lot of people still have to eat. arthel: you're giving food on credit, tell us about that. >> yeah, when people come down here and they don't have any money, i don't serve any alcohol here. i have no food -- if they don't have the money i can't turn them away because these are customers that i see every day and before this pandemic happened they had the money. some of them will pay and i know others won't but that's not what it's about. it's about helping each other. i'm supposed to help you and i - you help me. because of the donations that i've had, i'm able to do this. this is the third day in a row that i'm giving away stuff. fruits, vegetables, this is what i'm supposed to do. i found my purpose in life and i'm outside my store doing this and i do this every day. arthel: this is beautiful and i know that you've gotten a lot of deserved -- well deserved attention. people that could help people like you because you're helping others and i'm sure after the interview you and i are doing you will get more food coming to the store so that you can help others. i want you to, bernel, i read in the article in washington post, one of the stories that was heartbreaking. if you can share it with us. you said that a had a woman that normally calls in the store and you caught her sneaking around the aisle and putting something in her purse and you went to -- to ask her about it. tell me about that story. >> unfortunately i caught the lady, she was shop-lifting and instead of me calling the police, i have cameras everywhere, so instead of calling the police i approached her and made a deal with her. i told her if she can do a good job with cleaning up the store then i won't call the police and she did an excellent job. she did an excellent job with cleaning up the store and it worked out fine, and story after story every day where people would come in, they just don't have the money. they just don't have the money, and again, we are supposed to help each other. i found my purpose. my purpose is serving. i was very blessed to find it. i will keep helping. arthel: well, that's interesting because you know, it is burnell in times like this we find our purpose and you're rising to it, did you ever feel at some point that you couldn't do this? that you wanted to give up, you can't take anybody else in your shelters because it's too much for you? >> yeah, of course, i am human, but the military taught me to overcome your feelings. you have to be strong no matter what. it's many times, i want to break down in tears and cry because i see this, i hear this every day, but i have to let me purpose override that. you can never, ever just like at the problem. every problem has an answer and the answer to this here is to help each other. you know, i will keep on doing what i have to do. arthel: do you have enough food? how much food do you center in supplies, how many more people can you help as of right now? >> i will continue to help as many as i can. this table is in front of me, it's full of food. people have been coming all morning. this is my third day in a row doing this here and because of all the generous people that have been donating to me, i'm going to keep on doing what i have to do to help my community. arthel: all right, well, i heard you say you were in the military, we thank you for your service. thank you for the service to the community as well, burnell colton, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me and sharing my story. thank you, appreciate you. arthel: of course, of course. eric: god bless burnell and those around the country, god bless burnell and those around the country helping. it's pretty astounding when you think of generosity that burnell has and the spirit in the country, and those empty video of bourbon street, empty. astounding but so necessary at this time. the hospitals have been fighting to get their hands on the masks and gowns and personal protective equipment. many healthcare aides, well, they treat patients at home and they happen to be working without protection, we will take a look at that as part of the pandemic coverage of covid-19 as it continues. arthel: we have heard so many stories about doctors and nurses facing severe shortages of personal protective equipment in hospitals as they battle coronavirus, but home health aides who take care of some of the most vulnerable people of the country are also at risk with critical masks and gowns in short supply, jacqui heinrich live in new york city with a closer look. >> jacqui: now people who are caring for those most vulnerable are facing critical ppe shortages and also number of operational challenges themselves. while hospitals an other medical workers on distribution list, it's unclear whether home health companies are also on the lists and national survey showed 45% of household agencies have less than 10-day supplies. some are buying equipment privately at enormous cost. >> today probably my saddest one yet. i had a patient with down syndrome and his father had been caregiver for the past 30 years and no other family and the father died of covid, so and then the son had covid and he was in the hospital for a month and now he's in a new group home he's never been in. he would barely let me go near him today. >> jacquia agencies are dealing with staffing shortages, most paid minimum wage and one in five don't have health insurance themselves. many aides are abandoning their jobs over fear of contracting the virus with 42% of home care agencies are caring for covid patients at home some after being discharged from hospitals. for aides who are showing up, resources are spread thin. >> today was probably my saddest one yet. i had a patient with down syndrome and his father had been caregiver for the past 30 years and no other family and the father died of covid, so and then the son had covid and he was in the hospital for a month and now he's in a new group home he's never been in. he would barely let me go near him today. jacqui: senate democrats proposed bill to home health aides. senate minority leader chuck schumer would be $13 an hour extra, part of the phase for stimulus bill, arthel. arthel: yeah, jacqui, we cannot forget the profound impact the pandemic seems to have on so many americans, jacqui heinrich, thank you so much. eric. eric: arthel, with limited access to health care and older demographic, hundreds of native american tribes across the country facing challenges, native americans have been especially hard hit, benjamin brown visited the and a -- navao nation. >> we have a lot with underlying health issues, if it were to be here it would wipe out our community. >> this is a concern shared among tribal nations spread across america. >> from diseases like diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cardiovascular disease. we are basically like the profile for what the cdc stats, these are the most vulnerable populations. >> like most of the countries tribal nations lack personal protective equipment like masks and gloves and covid-19 tests. >> if you are trying to fight without any weapons, without any armor, what are your chances. >> despite taking recautions as early as january, the navajo nations is one of the hardest hit communities with over a thousand cases and over 40 deaths. >> i thank our healthcare professionals, our citizens heeded the warnings, but it snuck in. >> limited access with aging healthcare system creates recipe for disaster. >> the average age of healthcare facilities is 36 years. that with itself come with own challenges. again with hot spots, we are getting close to the tipping point. >> indian health service received just over a billion dollars in funding from the care's act to help in the fight against covid-19 and while the agency is pleased with the government's response some tribal leaders feel differently. >> there's been a history from broken promises by the federal government but we are not going to cry over spilled milk as they say and we will continue to do what we need to do to protect our navajo citizens. >> as native communities incur measures to prevent the spread of covid-19, tribal leaders say without testing kits it's hard to tell whether they're actually winning the fight against the deadly virus, in las vegas ben brown, fox news. arthel: meanwhile new developments amid concerns of healthcare rationing against people with certain disabilities. colorado governor signed executive order to ensure people with disabilities received equitable treatment throughout the pandemic and he says other states should follow suit. alicia acuña with more. alicia. >> alicia: and so the focus of some federal complaints against certain states in their focus on their plans for the rationing of care during pandemic. they have found appalling level of inequitable treatment for the disabled. >> i think that the nation needs to understand that there are different rules in place for different states, right, so you need to understand what's going on in your state and, again, there are some states out there right now that have -- that are putting policies in place but discriminate against people that happened to have special needs whether it's down syndrome or autism or something else. >> alicia: her parents came to find out that an adult with down syndrome living in another state with coronavirus could be considered someone with underlying condition which would change their prognosis and event of shortage of ventilators could be passed over from someone considered younger and healthier. governor signed executive order that disallows medical rationing based on disability alone and prevents discrimination. other states do have guidelines, hospitals are not bound by them. >> so the expectation for hospitals would be that a child with down syndrome would not bring in the disabilities themselves and the decision-making, but instead focus really on their acute illness and the decisions that need to be made. >> arthel, t important to note that as of right now no one has been denied a ventilator. a lot of people have been adhering to the social distancing and the numbers are lower than we anticipated, however, disability advocates say this is an urgent message that needs to be addressed, arthel. arthel: indeed, thank you for reporting that very important angle of this story, alicia acuña, thank you. eric. eric: that it is, arthel, millions of americans as you know out of work. the president throwing support behind those protesting stay at home orders across the country. even his critics say that those people are pushing a premature and dangerous motive. up next our special panel from the wall street journal editorial report will be paul paul gigot and dan henninger on the economy. the protests and what will come next i don't add up the years. and i don't count the wrinkles. but what i do count on is boost high protein. and now, introducing new boost women... with key nutrients to help support thyroid, bone, hair and skin health. all with great taste. new, boost women. designed just for you. we're returning $2 billion dollars to our auto policyholders through may 31st. because now, more than ever, being a good neighbor means everything. like a good neighbor, state farm is there. so chantix can help you quit slow turkey. along with support, chantix is proven to help you quit. with chantix you can keep smoking at first and ease into quitting so when the day arrives, you'll be more ready to kiss cigarettes goodbye. when you try to quit smoking, with or without chantix, you may have nicotine withdrawal symptoms. stop chantix and get help right away if you have changes in behavior or thinking, aggression, hostility, depressed mood, suicidal thoughts or actions, seizures, new or worse heart or blood vessel problems, sleepwalking, or life-threatening allergic and skin reactions. decrease alcohol use. use caution driving or operating machinery. tell your doctor if you've had mental health problems. the most common side effect is nausea. talk to your doctor about chantix. arthel: paul o'neil, famous secretary who broke with the president who appointed him has died. o'neil started washington career in the 70's working in the office of management and budget during the ford administration. he then served as head of the aluminum company alcoa and but often butted head with the presidents on tax policy and force today resign in lately 2002. in his retirement secretary o'neil focused on delivering clean drinking water to africa and healthcare providers as workplace safety consultant. his family says he died today at his home in pittsburgh after a year's long battle with lung cancer. paul o'neill was 84 year's old. eric: staggering 22 million filed for unemployment. he put the ultimate decision of when to reopen in the hands of state governors and many governors say they need help from the federal government to institute widespread testing follow the country, something we now do no have. this as we saw the protests erupt around the nation over the local stay at home orders as residents and business owners are growing frustrated with if lockdown. normally at this time we see my next guest here on the journal editorial report paul gigot, host of the program and editorial page editor wall street journal and dan henninger a wall street journal columnist and fox news contributor, welcome to you both. paul, let me start with you, i mean, the challenge is to get the economy up and running but safely and prevent a second dead ly wave, how do you think they can do? paul: ultimately the american people are going to decide by their actions when they feel safe enough to go, but i like the president's guidelines. i mean, i think the governors wanted that flexibility. he gave it to them, but he gave it to them with some real guidelines, requirement that is they have to make if they are going to do -- go through the 3 phases. gave behavioral guidelines for businesses, for public officials and for individuals and i think that that's a big step forward. it's in the right direction. we do have to do it safely, he listened to the health experts and it's in the best traditions for federal experts. we need more tests but we don't need tests everywhere to open up somewhere and some place where is they haven't been as hit hard as new york has. eric: paul, others will disagree that the virus doesn't obey and disregards state boundaries, they say transmission has to be controlled. it's not now. there has to be widespread testing and we don't have that right now. we can't do contact tracing, a hundred thousand tracers. democrats in washington to do just that. other countries have been successful. we don't have it. it's not there yet and this won't be solved they says in it is. paul: continental nation of 330 million people. if we wait for universal testing where everybody who wants one at any day with get it and universal contact tracing, we won't be open with the economy until the end of the year. i'm for contact tracing. i think we need it. i'm for much more testing and the president is oversold the availability of tests at times. i think that's hurt his credibility but the truth is, we want testing focused on where the hot spots are. if we have -- if you have somebody in your company who shows symptoms, flu-like disease, you want to be able to catch -- test them and see who they have been in contact with but that doesn't mean we shouldn't start in arkansas and idaho and montana and vermont and hawaii and other states which have really shown they flattened the curve and they've slowed the spread so why can't those states begin to open up? eric: some states, they haven't even reached their peak yet. dan, let me read you what you guys in the editorial board wrote this week, quote, as for a testing and paul just mentioned this, as for testing this would need to consider but testing increasing each week. the lack of test for everyone in new york shouldn't prevent other states from opening with the plan for selective testing when they see flu-like symptoms. but you know, this is a systematic in chelsea, one-third of the people were asystematic and you may not know you have it and give it to grandma and how does it play out when we don't have adequate testing? daniel: the major issue and that's the capacity of medical and hospital system to absorb people who are, in fact, becoming sick with covid. that's been the whole point of flattening the curve going up to the apex and then coming down as we are doing in many states right now as well some states never limit extension of test on capacity. eric: oops, there's a, paul, technical snafu. paul: wasn't me. eric: you can hear the frustration. i've been hearing a month plus and you understand the frustration. we have jobs thankfully, thank you, many of americans are not as fortunate as that and there's a lot of frustration out there to try to get it going and step by step but in a safe matter. paul: i think a lot of this you are seeing frustration and michigan in particular there seems to be arbitrary mandates that don't make a lot of sense. why can't you, for example, buy paint at the grocery store? why do you have to have certain things that the governor because she says are not essential, you can't buy and do? there was a line in one of our pieces. someone frustrated in michigan say let me people mow as in mo, with the lawn, right, not even able to do that. so i think there's a balance here. americans have been great about this by in large and abiding by social distancing but they'll begin to get frustrated as they look at the economic damage and as they begin to say, hey, can i do something like fishing in maryland? you know, you can't do that. if it's safe, why not let us -- you know, why not let us do that and i think -- you will see this become a public pressure to open back up at least somewhat. eric: yeah, certainly people need to do the social distancing, wear masks and be really careful especially if you're asystematic among other things. we are not done yet. in a moment we will talk about the ppp, small business relief program. ran out of money just as it was started this as democratic congressional leaders, well, they are holding out for their own spending priorities, we will take a look as the wall street journal editorial continues. eric: well, paycheck protection program that ran out of money on thursday after requests from small businesses quickly ran through the initial $350 billion that was approved by congress last month. but you know democratic congressional leaders, they continue to hold out on more funding per the ppe saying states and other programs should be included. wall street journal editorial board this week told president trump that he should not cave into those demands. back with wall street journal editorial page editor pete buttigieg and wall street columnist dan henninger. dan, let me start with you before you disappear, again, why not help the states and fund the programs that speaker pelosi and minority schumer, they are pushing for? daniel: the state did help with original ppe and $350 billion, medicaid spending was 6.2% and the federal reserve as well as set up a facility to backstop or underwrite debt for cities and states. well, they are getting funding. i think what the problem that is going on with the democrats has a lot to do with the budget crisis that some of the democratic states like new york and california are beginning to experience. they are cutting funding of their own. even bill de blasio to cut back and spending in new york city but we call that both of the states were amongst hardest hit by the state and local taxes so their tax revenue is really suffering right now and i'm certain that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are getting phone calls from gavin newsom in california and andrew cuomo in new york saying you got to hold out for more directed states allocation in places like california, illinois and new york until you sign the bill and i think the president is right not to allow them to do that or simply take off incentives to open economy and get finances under control. eric: you know, paul, they need it speaking of governor cuomo. here is this morning talking about this very issue. >> i get that we have to fund airlines, we have to fund this business, we have to fund small business, yeah, i agree 100%, but you also have to fund state governments and by the way when you're funding state government you're not funding a private business, okay, we are not in their line, so you don't have an issue of should government really be giving tax dollars to this private entity. when you fund the state government, you just are runedding a state government to perform the functions you want us to perform which is the reopening function. eric: so, paul, what would you say to governor cuomo? paul: one is he signed state budget a month ago that absolutely made no changes at all even though he could see the pandemic coming. he spent on all of his priorities, so you will have to do some of your own bell tightening and maybe make adjustments on your own if you want to handle this problem. the second point i'd make is you have an enormous amount of help. you have multiple billions as dan described and the other thing i'd say, ppp needs the money now. it's out of money. ppe will help small businesses in new york who are going to be able to pay tax revenue in new york and across the other states. the new york state if it needs money down the road can get some. there's no question that they're going to be -- the states will be a factor but the ppp needs money now and shouldn't be held hostage to other demands. eric: all right, paul and dan, speaking of, well, i guess we are out of time. that's what -- [laughter] eric: in terms of the coinage here. thank you, good to see you. we do miss a whole hour of the journal editorial report. paul and dan. good to see you, folks, we will be right back with a lot more of our coverage . . . i'm susan and i'm 52 and i live in san francisco, california. i have been a sales and sales management professional my whole career. typical day during a work week is i'm working but first always going for a run or going to the gym. i love reading. i love cooking healthy. it's super important to me. i was noticing that i was just having some memory loss. it was really bothering me. so i tried prevagen and it started to work for me. i wish i had taken prevagen five or ten years ago. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. eric: plans are now in place for some states to slowly reopen their economies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. one florida city is allowing residents to flock to their beaches, they opened them up last night. this deadly virus is still spreading across the country and many states including south dakota, iowa, and others not set to peak until the end of the month. texas, for example, not until next week. right now there are over 716,000 confirmed cases in our country. it has cost the lives of more than 37,000 of our fellow americans so far. hello, everyone. welcome to america's news headquarters. i'm eric shawn. arthel: hello, eric. hello everyone. i'm arthel neville. the beaches in jacksonville reopening yesterday, eric, but there are restrictions on when people can go there. meanwhile, protests taking place throughout the country today, calling on governors to reopen the local economy, despite warnings it could be premature to do so. steve harrigan is live outsite the cdc headquarters with the latest. steve. >> reporter: arthel, a number of protests going on today, people calling for their states to reopen the economy, already six states have had protests like that. keep in mind, the numbers keep rising, almost 38,000 americans dead, one bit of slightly bright news, that is the projection of the total deaths by the white house task force model, that was at 68,000 just one day ago. that number has been lowered to 60,000 dead, still an enormous number. arthel. arthel: steve, if you could, tell us about this new report on the cdc's early attempts at creating a coronavirus test and not following laboratory protocol. >> reporter: more details coming out from reporting by the washington post. if you remember, the cdc had weeks of delays in getting its own tests out there. the post saying that they broke lab protocols in their own making up of that test, some of the tests were created in labs instead of manufacturing plants, some of those tests contaminated. we heard from dr. fauci on this issue the other day. he said that the reason for bringing in the private sector had to do with those early failures by the cdc. here's dr. fauci. >> no doubt that early on we had a problem. i have publicly said that we had a problem early on. there was a problem that had to be corrected and it was corrected. it was a problem that was a technical problem from within that was corrected. and it was an issue of embracing the way we have now and should have the private sector. >> reporter: as for the testing level in the u.s., right now it stands at just under 150,000 americans tested each day. arthel, back to you. arthel: all right, steve harrigan, thank you very much. we're going to take it back here in new york where new york is making it mandatory to wear face coverings in public as the state sees the lowest daily death toll in two weeks. however, new york governor andrew cuomo is warning the crisis is far from over. aishah hasnie is live in new york city with more. aishah. >> reporter: arthel, it is all good news. the hospitalizations, intubations and as you said, daily deaths, they are all down in new york state. but governor cuomo extremely worried about what's happening inside the state's nursing homes. listen. >> nursing homes are the single biggest fear in all of this. vulnerable people in one place, it is the feeding frenzy for this virus. >> reporter: and the numbers are startling. nearly 2700 people have died in new york nursing homes, 626 deaths in adult care facilities. the total, almost 20% of all covid-19 covid-19 deaths acrosse state, that is now more than 17,000 deaths, nearly double from what it was just last weekend. now, some of those are probable covid-19 deaths, previously unaccounted for. new jersey follows with more than 3800 deaths and michigan where they are publicly protesting stay at home orders, the third deadliest state for coronavirus, more than 2200 deaths there. governor cuomo in new york calling on the federal government once again to help the state bring testing up to scale. he's calling the top 50 labs across the state. he found they have the equipment necessary to make those test kits but there is a lack of chemicals needed to make those test kits work. the federal government is helping with face masks right now, sending new york 1.5 million cloth masks to be distributed to the public. new york city also getting help from nurses across the country including the air force reserve, captain john copeus leaving the air force base tomorrow. he was deployed to war zones as a marine. he's afraid but ready for this deployment. >> i feel this sense of obligation and pride because i'm going to do something enormous. i'm going to be a part of something huge. this is one of the biggest things, if not the biggest thing that's happened in our lifetimes. >> reporter: and his help is welcome as healthcare workers continue to get sick. 200 out of the 600 nurses in a new jersey hospital, university hospital in newark, are out right now. some of them are sick with covid-19 and some folks in the healthcare world at that hospital, some clinical folks and some nonclinical staff have even died due to coronavirus complications. arthel. arthel: yeah, as the governor said, governor cuomo says, the crisis is far from over. we do welcome the help from everyone, though. aishah hasnie, thank you so much. eric. eric: well, arthel, we now have more on those protests that have been popping up across the country, the ones in which demonstrators are calling on some of the governors to reopen their states. in maryland this morning, hundreds of people took to the streets, the capitol, which is annapolis. they said their main goal was getting people back to work. but you know others say the protests are misguided because they fear a premature opening of the states will spark a second deadly wave even before the first is even over. rich edson is outside a church right next to the state capitol building in annapolis where the demonstrators were driving around in their cars, hey, rich. >> reporter: you want to make a loud protest in your car, you have it in a traffic circle. that's what went on for the better part of two and-a-half hours earlier this afternoon. cars circling this church and the traffic circle behind me, this is right next to the state capitol, right next to the maryland governor's house. they say that, look, we understand the tragedy by covid-19, the public health concern but they say the economic, social and educational disruption caused by the shutdown here is guaranteed to cause even greater harm and the protesters we spoke to say it is time to reopen maryland. >> i think it's a reasonable thing to do but there's also the people that are healthy that they can't work, they can't feed their families and losing their businesses and i think it's time to reopen maryland and do it safely. >> i want the constitution respected and honored once again. there are no exceptions. >> everything's a health crisis now days. look at the flu. the flu killed more people. we're hiding from this for no reason. >> reporter: governor larry hogan is a republican. he says that he's also frustrated. he says he understand their right to protest, though he also notes that a lot of the protesters, they're supporters of president trump we saw a lot of trump paraphernalia, a lot of maga hats and hogan says even the president's own plan says it's not time to reopen the economy and the state yet. there are other protests ongoing today, austin, texas, probably one of the more notable ones going on throughout the day. there are reported protests in carson city, nevada and brookfield, wisconsin. there have been protests throughout the past week where you started to see some more of the significant protesting as well as some discussion of protests in north carolina and other places around the country. back here in maryland, the governor has closed the schools until may 15t 15th. he says the team is working on a plan to gradually reopen the state here in maryland and that he hopes to divulge more details about that next week. eric. eric: yeah, rich, and the governor as you point out, a republican, saying you need to show 14 days of declining numbers. they haven't had that yet. and he points out that washington has doubled next door, so it's not over until it's over and he's saying go slow. rich, thanks. >> reporter: that's right. eric: arthel. arthel: eric, there is some good news. the trump administration planning to spend $19 billion on a relief program for the struggling farm industry. here's how that money is going to be discontribut distributed. $16 billion will be direct payment to farmers, ranchers and producers who lost money due to the pandemic. the usda will use the rest of the money to purchase fresh produce, dairy and meat products for distribution to food banks and faith-based organizations. >> having to dump milk or plow under vegetables ready to market is not only financially distressing but it's heart-breaking to those who produce them. this will provide direct financial relief to farmers and ranchers, will allow for purchase and distribution of our agricultural abundance in this country to help fellow americans in need. arthel: the usda will also use distributors like cisco to package bulk products, easing the workloads for food banks short on volunteers amid the coronavirus outbreak. eric. eric.the lack of volunteers, one reason for long lines at food banks around the country as the groups practice social distancing. the food distributors are also feeling the punch -- pinch from the lack of donations and panic buying at grocery stores. rob girienzo has more. >> reporter: food banks nationwide are scrambling after all the panic buying over the past few weeks left grocery store shelves bare. >> it goes all the way down to the manufacturers, down to the farmers, down the vendor. it's so much bigger than we are. >> reporter: from philly to atlanta -- >> it's really depleted those donations significantly. >> reporter: all the way to chattanooga, tennessee. >> stock, beans. >> reporter: the challenges are looking the same, massive lines of hungry people like this one in san antonio, texas combined with a loss of volunteers, and the supply chain that doesn't have enough food to keep up. >> we have a surge in demand unlike anything we've seen in the history of food banking. >> reporter: katie fitzgerald is the vp of feeding america, a network of 200 food banks across the country. they project a staggering 17.1 million people in the u.s. could face hunger as a result of the coronavirus. >> it's in the center of the country, it's on the coast, it's everywhere where people have lost their livelihood overnight. >> reporter: the national guard now stepping in in atlanta to fill the volunteer void, as supermarket shelves slowly come back to life, food banks are actually discouraging the donation of food at least for now, they say the best way to help is a monetary donation that they'll use to buy directly from suppliers in bulk. >> we can turn the dollar you spent on a can of food into nine cans of food and really make it go farther. right now, that's even more important. it just allows us to control the inventory much more closely. >> we wouldn't want them to go out and try to buy food for us. we want them to stay safe and not to search on empty shelves at the grocery stores right now. >> reporter: one to find a local food bank is through feedingamerica.org, whether to donate or find help for yourself during this difficult time. eric: the problems cruise ships have had, well, french authorities have blocked an italian cruise ship from disembarking more than 1,000 passengers. officials cite a nationwide ban on allowing foreign cruise ships to dock, part of measures put in place to try to stop the spread of coronavirus there. amy kellogg is live in florence, italy with the latest on what's happening on the continent. hi, amy. >> reporter: hi, eric. well, that ship set out on january 5th to sail the world and anxiously the people on-board are waiting to disembark. they set off from venice and that is where their voyage will end but in the meantime, these 2,000 passengers aboard the costas delisios have not set their feet on firm ground since march 15th. the french passengers were hoping to get off in marsaill. e but that is not to be. the president of france says he's concerned about kids getting back to school because the lockdown is aggravating inequality for poorer kids who are cooped up in small abodes. spain has the third highest death toll in the world after the u.s. and italy. here in sicily, the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis can be seen with increasing pressure on charities that hand out food. this as the coronavirus czar in italy is warning that without making health the absolute priority here as italy slowly reopens may 4th economic revival will disappear with a quote, batting of an eye lash. the northern economic powerhouse region of the country has had a death toll from coronavirus three times that of china. and speaking of china, which was quick and very public to dispense aid when the crisis hit here in italy, causing people to talk about problem began da value. -- propaganda value. 36% of italians would choose china as the country outside europe as they would most hope to develop international relations with, only 30% would choose the united states. finally, across parts of europe, and the world, tomorrow is orthodox easter and for the most part easter services are off but the holy fire arrived in greece today, said by the faithful to have been lit miraculously earlier in the day in jerusalem's church where jesus was said to have been laid out after cruis crucifixion. normally that flame would be distributed to churches across greece but instead, given the situation, there was a small ceremony upon its arrival and normally in normal times at midnight the holy flame across greece is brought out for a procession to celebrate the res resurrection of jesus. eric. eric: amy, thanks so much. so very special. just ahead on the fox news channel, just how long do you think it will be before we get back to normal or partially normal? how long will we need to wear masks, continue social distancing? we will take a look. we'll also zero in on a drug that they say is showing promising signs for people who are hospitalized with the symptoms of the virus. our coverage of coronavirus continues right after this. there will be parties again soon. there will be parades and sporting events and concerts. to help our communities when they come back together, go to 2020census.gov and respond today to make america's tomorrow brighter. arthel: a new coronavirus treatment drug called remdesivir, well, it's showing promise. new reports say patients in a clinical trial are rapidly recovering from fever and respiratory symptoms but even with that good news, a new poll from the pugh research center finds the majority of people are concerned the country will open up too quickly. joining me now is dr. mary schmidt, board certified in infectious diseases and president of a health advisory group. thanks for being here. i want to jump in. how does remdesivir attack covid-19 and why is it being touted as promising? >> thank you for having me, arthel. what i -- what i -- arthel: have you got it together, doctor? >> is there an echo? arthel: i tell you what. let me give you a chance to get this together. we'll go to eric and i'll come back to you and i'll start my questioning all over. how about that. >> sounds good. arthel: thank you. eric: you get all sorts of issues. you ever hear of zoom before this started? we're doing zoom conferences at fox news. we had skype in the past. suddenly zoom becomes the new big thing with teledistancing and telecommuting as they say. any event, we'll get back to the doctor in a minute. you're looking at vice president mike pence, there he is, there he was. he delivered the commencement address today at the u.s. air force academy's 2020 graduating class. the ceremony held of course in colorado spring. it was pared down because of coronavirus concerns. cadets marched apart. friends and family had to watch the whole event -- speaking of online -- online. >> i know we gather at a time of great challenge in the life of our nation. and you all here in the pursuit of your commission and the service of this nation have been through a lot. and while we don't quite look like the usual graduation at the air force academy, let me tell you, this is an awesome sight. eric: this year's class includes 984 senior cadets, at least 86 of them will join the ranks of the new u.s. space force. the vice president will be a guest on fox news sunday on the fox news channel. chris wallace will sit down and interview the vice president about the administration's handling of the coronavirus crisis. chris will also be interviewing the other side, democratic speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, about her thoughts on how president trump is doing in his response and the democratic plans to deal with coronavirus. you can check your local listing at your local fox station or watch fox news sunday here at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. eastern time. i think the doctor now has got the gizmos ready so we're back with arthel and the -- arthel: we'll take it back, eric. thank you very much for taking over for us. i want to bring dr. mary schmidt back, she's board certified in infectious diseases and presidenpresident of a health ay group. how does remdesivir attack covid-19 and why is it being touted as promising. >> thank you, arthel, for having me. i just want to comment that this drug has been very exciting for meshings it's something i talked -- spiting for me, it was something i talked earlier that would probably be the answer. i'm a little surprised by -- what remdesivir does is it actually goes into the cell and allows for the rna, which is the replicating part of the virus, to incorporate into its own reproduction system and then it prevents our devices that help the virus replicate into thousands of cells within our own body and prevents the progression and multiplication of the virus with the cell. arthel: so wherein lies the caution about this drug? >> a study was presented in new england journal of medicine about a week ago, there was some patients studied in france and the united states, they primarily were people on oxygen and within the 53 people they found a little bit better of a mortality rate, about 13% versus 18, there are 60% side effects. so we have concerns about what people we would be giving this to, what the dose should be, what kind of side effects we're seeing at different doses. arthel: doctor, what i'll do, i'm going to ask you another question but i will ask you to move closer to your computer. i'm not sure if that's the issue or not. but closer to your microphone. is remdesivir a panacea. as much as scientists are expediting trials as much as possible so it's not to taint the results, how soon could remdesivir be available and on the market? >> so the big hype that came out was a sneak preview of the drug doing pretty well in the trials that are starting. so we have one trial looking at people who don't need oxygen and another trial looking at people who do need oxygen. one dose at five days, one dosing at 10 days. i suspect we're going to see some nice improvements with this drug. we just don't know five days of medication or 10 days, intravenous, in the prior study some went home without the drugs. who needs help, what type of side effects we're going to see. we're going to be looking at the co-morbidities, diabetes, hypertension and liver disease. one of the greatest side effects was elevated liver, but we don't know if that's actually causes any long-term problems. so the results of the study will be really helpful. arthel: dr. mary schmidt, unfortunfortunately i don't knof the audience is having trouble hearing you but i am. i know what you said is crucial. we'll have to get you back to hear more about the new promise drug, remdesivir. >> i'm sorry. arthel: not your fault. not at all. thank you very much. we'll talk to you again. we appreciate your help. >> sorry. arthel: okay. eric. no problem. eric: there's more discouraging news on the job front, another 5 million fellow americans are out of work. coming up, we'll talk to the economist who helped lead the ford motor company out of the 2008 recession. man, remember that? on what it will take to get our country back on its feet today. be right back. hey, can i... hold on one second... sure. okay... okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that's safe drivers save 40%. it is, that's safe drivers save 40%. - he's right there. - it's him! he's here. he's right here. - hi! - hi. hey! - that's totally him. - it's him! that's totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. safeit's only human to find inspiration in nature. and also find answers. our search to transform... ...farm waste into renewable natural gas led chevron to partner with california bioenergy. working to provide an alternative source of power... ...for a cleaner way forward. doctor bob, what should i take for back pain? before you take anything, i recommend applying topical relievers first. salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, non-addictive relief. salonpas lidocaine. patch, roll-on or cream. hisamitsu. arthel: well, the unemployment numbers during the coronavirus pandemic are staggering, with many businesses closing to prevent the spread of the virus. listen to this one. this week alone, more than 5 million people filed for unemployment benefits, bringing the total number of claims to 22 million in just one month. let's bring in former ford motor company chief economist, ellen hughes cromwig, also a fellow at third way. thank you for joining us. listen, this pandemic has produced high unemployment rates, business shuttering, it's so overwhelming. where do you begin to rebirth, then stabilize the economy? is there a systematic way to do this? >> yeah, thanks for having me. it's great to be here. just an absolute shock here in terms of the pandemic. and i do want to start with that, because i think it has some economic implications. i mean, what we're seeing right now is in many ways worse than the great depression. can you imagine a million people filing for unemployment insurance here in michigan? we're already up to over 20% unemployment rate. so the health issue is number one, testing and looking at what the potential is to really start to make a difference. that's one. and i think that's absolutely critical. arthel: and if that's your advice, how do you advise maybe even the president and others working on the coronavirus task force to get the country reopened again and is there, again, a systematic way. do you see this happening, say, maybe you've got the cluster of governors in the northwest and on the west coast working together, you've got the cluster of governors in the northeast working together, is that the way to do it? because as you're saying, without proper testing and availability to testing, it's almost a lost cause to try to reopen the doors to businesses prematurely. >> yes, i mean, i think that's really important. because to get beyond the third phase, we have to have a comfort level that we can go out safely. and when i look at some of the data that we've already seen, guess what, the university of michigan confidence survey plummeted and they asked people is it your health concerns? are you worried about isolation? or is it your financial situation? overwhelmingly people responded it's the health, people are worried about their health and it just really rips out our confidence. so from an economic standpoint, i think we're going to go through some really difficult times here, even if we gradually re-enter the economy, reopen the economy. so i think we've got to brace ourselves for some real challenges ahead. arthel: oh, boy. okay. so let's -- we're america. we're going to get over this hump somehow, some way, we're going to do this and we're going to do it the right way. that in mind, ellen, what advice do you have to business, independent, small, medium, who cannot fathom how they will recover from this and resuscitate their businesses? >> yes, and, you know, having worked at ford through the financial crisis, my goodness, every single day businesses are out there trying to develop really effective contingency plans. i mean, that's the one thing about businesses. they really get down to business and the brass tacks, what do we do to physically get to a point where we can start to grow and invest again. and they recognize that policy, government policies play an absolutely critical role. i mean, we were working hand in hand with the government during that financial crisis and, you know, it took a lot of effort, a lot of energy. we can do it. i mean, we have got an incredible business sector. we've got great people. our workers are fantastic. phenomenal what they can do. but with the right policies, giving confidence and addressing the health crisis, that is really job one right here. arthel: i understand that. and finally, if i could ask, would you advise and encourage the larger companies to retain the number of -- you know what, i've got to go. we have breaking news. let me thank you there. thank you for your time and your great advice in this amount of time we had together. thank you very much. we'll see you again soon. thank you. >> thank you. eric: arthel, we want to bring you to florida, tallahassee, where governor ron de santis of florida is updating on the pandemic. he came under a lot of criticism for not moving quickly enough. this as the beaches have reopened. his state not ready to peak for two weeks. here's the governor. >> to be able to have that is going to be very, very important. so we hope to have some agreements in place very soon. the surgeon general's been working on that as well as director moskowitz. we appreciate that we think that will be good. we also -- one of the most important studies that's been done just this week came out of stanford university where they tested the antibiotics in santa clara county, california. these are people who have the antibodies from the coronavirus, many people may not have known they had the virus. they looked to see how prevalent the antibodies were in the county and they determined that between 50 and 80 times more people in santa clara had the antibodies than had actually tested positive in santa clara county. so we think that's important information and we want to see that here in florida. we're working with a company that does blood donations and they're going to screen the blood for these coronavirus antibodies. we also have a number of these antibody test kits. they're supposed to come in this coming week. but i think as we've seen in this process, you never really know how that is all going to work out. but once we get that, we're going to be able to take that and use that strategically because it is important to know, if in fact the number of people who have actually tested positive is just a really small fraction of who has actually had the virus and who currently has the antibodies. that's going to inform a lot of policy making going forward. and so we're very much working on getting some of these studies done in the state of florida. today i'm also announcing that our k-12 schools will continue with distance learning for the duration of the school year. we spoke with a lot of folks throughout the state. there is some differing opinions, some parents were not interested in their kids going back, some others it's been tough around the house. they would like to see them go back. eric: talking about being tough around the house, florida governor ron de santis there discussing the latest. one thing they did bring up, the antibodies, some governments are finding out it seems a lot more people may have been exposed to the coronavirus, he was mentioning the santa clara case. in massachusetts, the boston globe reporting they did a blind study of 200 people in chelsea, massachusetts and about one-third, more than one-third had the antibodies to the virus so some local governments thinking it may be far more widespread than we have been led to believe. meanwhile, coming up on the fox news channel, thousands of members of the military called into action during the pandemic, we'll tell you what some of them are doing now in several cities across the country to help the burden on the hospitals. stay with us. for nearly 100 years, we've worked to provide you with the financial strength, stability, and online tools you need. and now it's no different. because 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libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us. arthel: the army corps of engineers will build a large makeshift hospital at the dc convention center in our nation's capitol. however, some people say there is a surplus of military hospital beds at makeshift hospitals across the country. lucas tomlinson has more from the pentagon. >> reporter: the head of the army corps of engineers says he's ready to start building at the dc convention center as soon as next week, with 500 to 1500 hospital beds. across the u.s. many makeshift military hospitals remain nearly empty. >> we thought this would be a much steeper spike and straight down. we didn't think we would have as much time. where we see we have more time to build out we're having dialogue and there are some mayors and governors who might have thought i needed about 1,000, but maybe let's only build 500 and we are bringing some of the numbers down. >> reporter: in denver, the general says the corps of engineers are building two large makeshift hospitals including one in a horse arena. the dirt was removed and concrete was poured. these are big money makers for cities and local governments have to cough up 25% of the cost. fema takes care of the rest. >> the real decision maker is that mayor or that governor that's out there. we basically build what they ask us to build. we don't know how this is going to play out. a couple of these have had a seven-month lease. the leadership in a particular city has said we don't know whether this is coming back in the fall or not. so let's make the investment to build it and at least we have it, almost like insurance. it is a good reserve. >> reporter: the pentagon also announcing plans to extend the travel ban for the u.s. military and their families until the end of june. it was supposed to expire in mid-may. officials say it won't apply to military service members going in and out of war zone. lucas tomlinson, fox news. eric: florida may have opened up some of its beaches yesterday but in hawaii the state is shutting down all beaches to keep tourists away and try to promote social distancing. waikiki beach on monday, take a look, that's well before the announcement. the governor said too many people are out on the beaches and not staying six feet apart. he is allowing water sports and that includes surfing. so far, 553 people have been infected with the virus in hawaii and nine have died. arthel. arthel: well, a swarm of iranian ships crossing paths with the u.s. navy vessel in the persian gulf. retired four star general jack keane on where america stands in trying to keep iran in line. allergies with nasal congestion make it feel impossible to breathe. get relief behind the counter with claritin-d. claritin-d improves nasal airflow 2x more than the leading allergy spray at hour 1. claritin-d. get more airflow. this virus is testing all of us. and it's testing the people on the front lines of this fight most of all. so abbott is getting new tests into their hands, delivering the critical results they need. and until this fight is over, we...will...never...quit. because they never quit. eric: sources tell us there is a, quote, increasing confidence in the intelligence community that the coronavirus outbreak likely did originate in that government virus research laboratory in wuhan, china. that we're told in a botched attempt to try to demonstrate beijing's virus fighting cape capabilities. china and the lab itself denying the claims as another report from the associated press says that china waited six key days to warn the public that a pandemic was coming. general jack keane joins us, chairman for the institute of the study of war. general, defense secretary esper said it appears the virus was not engineered. a lot of people think it came from the lab, that the seafood market doesn't sell bats, there's reports that an intern may have had it and infected someone at the seafood market and it got out of the lab. what do you think? >> i think the circumstances points to that. the virus started in wuhan city. the lab is a couple miles from the city center. we know they store over 1,000 different types of samples of viruses that they've been working on through the years. we also know they're trying very hard to gain the status that the united states has as a global leader in infectious diseases and just two years ago the united states emissaries who were in that particular lab who have a science background found the place wanting in terms of safety standards and the danger that was inherent in that lab. so an investigation is underway. hopefully we'll be able to get to the bottom of it. but what this has fundamentally caused, eric, is that the nations of the world, they're reassessing their relationship with the ccp and china. i think the united states has it about right. but others are looking at them now through the prism, that, one, china's deception, their recklessness, gross negligence, massive disinformation campaign to create falsehoods about all of it are really taking its toll on countries and they're going to look at china in the future through a different prism. eric: do you think we can nail them, do you think we can find out or have they thrown away the evidence and done what they can to cover this up. >> i think it would be hard to nail them without an informant or without access to the doctors and scientists who are working in that laboratory to determine what happened to them. the chinese are not going to permit that to happen or they wouldn't be conducting this massive disinformation campaign and you know, this information campaign for the chinese are all about their paranoia they have about their public image, both internationally, but more important, domestically. they fear no country as much as they fear their own people. eric: that is an excellent analysis, exactly, that they don't fear a country more than their own people who are basically enslaved under that communist joke. yoke. another country, iran, those iranian naval boats, just under a dozen, harassing we're told our navy war ships and coast guard cutter, typical tehran behavior. >> we've had this before. i've never seen the iranian as much back on their heel as they have been throughout the last 18 months as they've increased the military escalation and nothing they have tried has worked from disrupting the oil in the middle east to trying to blackmail european countries by violating the jcpoa, a nuclear deal restrictions. and this is mostly posturing. our navy knows how to handle this. certainly. and if there was any imminent danger to the navy or to a navy ship, they have rules of engagement that deal with this quite appropriately. so we don't have to be concerned about that. but they're posturing here, eric, and it's largely for the allies, it's largely due to our allys in the region. they want to remind them they're a powerful nation in the region and, look, we can go out there and intimidate the united states. that's what this is mostly about. eric: yeah, sorry to interrupt you there with our back and forth had. we're up against the clock. we're expecting the president to talk any moment now. iran just doesn't behave and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of what happened in that lab in china. as you know, jack keane, general, good to see you. >> good talking to you, eric. eric: of course. arthel. arthel: we're going to hear from president trump and his coronavirus task force minutes from now. we'll bring it to you live. as some states plan to begin reopening their economies and as congress remains at an impasse over another relief bill to help small businesses and local governments. more after this. needles. essential for the sea urchin, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. because there are options. like an "unjection™". xeljanz xr, a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well enough. xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections like tb; don't start xeljanz if you have an infection. taking a higher than recommended dose of xeljanz for ra can increase risk of death. serious, sometimes fatal infections, cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. as have tears in the stomach or intestines, serious allergic reactions, and changes in lab results. tell your doctor if you've been somewhere fungal infections are common, or if you've had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. needles. fine for some. but for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™". arthel: we are waiting to hear from president trump and the coronavirus task force. they're set to hold a briefing any minute now. we'll bring you to you live. here's a live look from the white house briefing room. the president is expected to talk about the coronavirus response and pushback happening in some states in the face of warnings from health experts not to reopen local and state economies too quickly. welcome to a brand-new hour of america's news headquarters. i'm arthel neville. eric: hello, arthel, hello, everyone. thank you for joining us. i'm eric shawn. our nation has seen more than 37,000 coronavirus deaths, more than 700,000 confirmed cases of people infected. and some states like texas, arizona, kansas, they're not set to peak until next week. while other states like florida, georgia, and nebraska, that in two more weeks. some frustrated protesters who are demanding that the economy open now, but as arthel said, health experts worry that if the economy opens too quickly, and people don't social distance and take precautions, there will be a second larger, deadly wave of even more cases and perhaps more deaths. mark meredith has the very latest, he's on the north lawn of the white house with what we can expect from the president's task force briefing. >> reporter: we are waiting to see if the briefing will start on time or not. it's often these things are pushed back a few minutes. no update from the white house. the president tweeted he had a chance to speak with leaders from fema as well as the military, he had a chance to get an update with world leaders including the leaders of poland, bahrain and south korea. closer to home, the president's comments earlier this week about giving governors guidelines of what to expect over the next several weeks as they look to possibly ease restrictions in how they can slowly and safely help residents return to work. the three phases are recommended after the state sees a two week drop in the number of two cases. phase one includes numerous recommendations, among them, keeping schools closed and preventing people from visiting senior living facilities and hospitals. elective surgeries, those will be allowed to resume. and gyms will be able to open under strict physical distancing and sanitation but some places like bars, they would not be allowed to reopen. the president has not said which states he believes should reopen sooner rather than later and says it's up to the individual governors. on twitter the president did raise a few eyebrows when he mentioned the words liberate virginia, michigan, minnesota, states we've seen holding protests with residents saying they're fed up with stay at home rules and they feel business should be allowed to return to normal. a number of governors have been speaking out today. we heard from florida's governor where he said schools are not likely to go back this year, instead they're continuing to distance from home. eric: the small business administration stopped approving loans on payrolls and so far the ppp is pretty much stuck on capitol hill. they ran out of money for the program. folks who are watching now, who need that money, who want it for the small business, what can we tell them? what's congress going to do? >> reporter: eric, we had a chance to speak to a white house senior official today who said negotiations are still ongoing but there's still no clear indication when congress may decide to approve more funding for that program to help small business as well as money that would necessarily help other state as well as municipalities that are dealing with all of this. our capitol hill correspondent reported yesterday there was an agreement in principle but this was something that had to be worked out, including $150 billion in additional funds for state and local governments although it's unclear when congress may decide to get this done. the administration on friday continued to push back against the claims that the stimulus checks were taking too long to get out to people. a number of those direct deposits went out this week. people that were depending on a paper check or may not have had bank information updated, they're waiting for their money. it's unclear how fast the paper checks will get out. a lot of people are going to the irs website, some people have had issues getting anupdate from that. eric: the money is so desperately needed by so many people. arthel. arthel: that's for sure, eric. in jacksonville, florida, beaches and parks have reopened with some restrictions in place as some states begin taking steps toward getting life back to normal and fully reopening their economies. steve harrigan is live outside the cdc in atlanta. steve. >> reporter: arthel, we've seen protests in at least six states, people pushing for the economies to reopen, perhaps the most visible example in florida. jacksonville, florida, decided to reopen its beaches, although officials continue to caution visitors to the beach to keep practicing social distancing. >> we can't stress enough that how long this beach remains open is going to be 100% determined by the beach-goers. as long as everybody complies with the times, the guidelines, the social distancing, we'll be okay. >> reporter: right now, those beaches are open eight hours a day, a few hours in the early morning and once again in the late afternoon. arthel. arthel: steve, you know, despite the protests, why are some governors not ready to begin reopening? >> certainly a number of governors have said at this point, depending on the numbers in their state, they're not easing restrictions, some extending restrictions further. the governor of california saying because of the numbers in his state, because of what he says is the science, there will be no easing of restrictions at this point. here's governor newsom. >> we're going to do the right thing, not just by politics, not just by protests, but by science, by health, the facts on the ground, that will be our guiding principle. >> reporter: currently across the u.s., right now about 150,000 tests for the virus each day. arthel, back to you. arthel: steve harrigan, thank you very much. >> we all want to get back to work and we want all our people to have a good paying job, we had a strong economy going into this thing, thank goodness we did, and we want to get back to that but we've got to do it in a planned, method call me -- methodical method. eric: that's alabama's governor saying reopening the state must go slowly, as they recommend small retailers, restaurants and other businesses they can reopen if they follow the health guidelines. the state's stay at home restrictions do run for another two weeks buttal bay ma is not -- alabama is not at the peak of the infections yet. the peak is expected to come next week. the number of deaths have almost doubled in the past week, reported deaths stands at 154. montgomery, alabama mayor steven reed is with us on what his city is doing to prepare. mayor, we have people saying that we've got to reopen but do you fear it is too early to open up completely yet and what are you doing? >> well, right now we want to take a slow approach to reopening the economy. we would like to expand testing and certainly do better with our contact tracing and follow-up. and right now we don't have the capacity to do that in montgomery and most of the state of alabama. eric: what would you recommend? what do we need. >> certainly, we need more testing. we tested less than 1% of the state population and i know that in my city we have not gotten to parts of the community that really are under-served and have various access to healthcare. we need to see that, number one. two, we want to see the numbers start to decrease. we have not seen that in montgomery and the state of alabama. three, i think we need a measured approach to how we go about reopening the economy. i certainly understand the small business perspective and the retail perspective. i've been a small business owner myself. i know what it's like to sign the front of a check and the back of a check. but at the end of the day, we don't have to really compare wealth versus health of the community. we can do both of those if we do it responsibly. eric: and what would you say, mayor, to those people who have been out there protesting that government should open up now, they say there should be safe guidelines but is your message to be cautious, be careful? >> our message is to take the long-term approach on this. we're dealing with something a that we've never seen before which is 50-state natural disaster. it is something that we have to make sure we are prioritizing the health of our residents and the people who do business here versus the economy and versus those paychecks. we have to make sure that we are respecting those individuals' right to protest but also they have to respect the data and the science and that's what we're listening to and i believe that's what should guide our decisions. eric: yeah, mayor, i'm sorry, i have to cut it short because the president, the task force is about to start at the white house. mayor steven reed, thank you for joining us. >> the virus has passed its peak. arthel: we're going to pause to let our fox stations join us. >>hello, everyone. i'll arthel n neville, this is x news' coverage of president trump's white house coronavirus briefing. let's listen in. >> the united states has produced dramatically better health outcomes than any other country with the possible exception of germany and i think we're as good or better. on a per capita basis, remember that, on a per capita basis, our mortality rate is far lower than other nations of western europe, with the lone exception of possibly germany. this includes the u.k., switzerland, belgium, the netherlands, italy, france, spain, for example, has a mortality rate that is nearly four times that of the united states. but you don't hear that you hear we have more death. but we're a much bigger country than any of those countries, by far. so when the fake news gets out there and they start talking about the united states is number one, we're not number one. china's number one, just so you understand. china's number one by a lot. it's not even close. they're way ahead of us in terms of death. it's not even close. you know it. i know it. they know it. but you don't want to report it. why? you'll have to explain that. some day i'll explain it. since we released the guidelines to open up america again, and this was two days ago, a number of states led by both democrat and republican governors have announced concrete steps to begin a safe, gradual and phased opening. texas and vermont will allow certain businesses to open on monday, while still requiring appropriate social distancing precautions. and i can tell you, the governor of texas, greg abbott, he knows what he's doing. he's a great governor, knows exactly what he's doing. montana will begin lifting restrictions on friday. ohio, north dakota and idaho have advised nonessential businesses to prepare for a phased opening starting may 1st. throughout this crisis, my administration has taken unprecedented actions to rush economic relief to our citizens. as an example, you don't hear anymore about ventilators. what happened to the ventilators? and now they're giving you the other -- it's called testing. testing. but they don't want to use all of the capacity that we've created. we have tremendous capacity. dr. birx will be explaining that. they know that. the governors know that. the democrat governors know that. they're the one that's are complaining. through the paycheck protection program, we've already processed nearly $350 billion to 1.6 million small businesses across the nation to keep american workers on the payroll so we're asking the democrats to get it done. this should be bipartisan. this should be 100% vote. and it's really been incredible, the $350 billion that's been approved is so popular and it's keeping businesses open. they'll be open hopefully forever. oour swift action is directly supporting 30 million american jobs. amy wright from north carolina as an example said the program is a game-changer for her and her family. it's coffee shops and she has 120 employees. many of whom have developmental and intellectual disabilities. and now they're all staying and they're getting pain she' -- geg paid and she's got a dream and it's going to take place very quickly when she opens again. so amy, good luck. north carolina. great place. scott and julie alderink help lead a church and own a restaurant in south dakota with about 15 employees. they were already starting layoffs, layoffs were moving along rapidly but now they've hired their employees back and they can keep their restaurant open and it will be moving quickly. very quickly. as opposed to not having anybody and probably not having a place to have all of these people employed. she would have been out of business. she would have been gone. the paycheck protection program funding is now fully drained. it's out. it's gone. $350 billion to small businesses and in turn it goes to the employees of those small businesses. lawmakers must stop blocking these funds and replenish the program without delay. the democrats have to come on-board. i used to read that these were democrat programs, not republicans. seems to have switched around a lot, hasn't it, hu, switched around a lot. the republicans want it. i think the democrats probably do too but they also want other things that are unacceptable. this is about covid, this is about the plague and what it's done to us. this isn't about extraneous things they've been trying to get for years and our country doesn't want them to have. as we enter the next stage of our battle we are continuing our relentless effort to destroy the virus. my administration is taking steps to protect high risk communities by providing funds ' funding for 1 -- funding for 13,000 community health center sites and mobile medical stations in order to equip them with the most ad advanced and robust testing capabilities, these sites are incredible, what they can do is incredible. the job they do is incredible. these centers provide care to 28 million people living in medically under-served urban and rural regions including many african american and hispanic communities. we're taking care of them and it's so important because you've all been reading about the disproportionate numbers on african american and you're reading a little bit less about hispanic but likewise hispanic communities. the numbers are disproportionate. in fact, we're doing big studies on it right now. we don't like it. not right. nationwide, we've now conducted over 4 million tests and deborah will be talking about that. it's double the number conducted by any other country on earth. so that's more than two times actually the number conducted by any other country on earth. you hear so much about testing, what we've done is incredible on testing and i started with an obsolete, broken system from a previous administration or administrations. but i would really say administration, for a different reason, because testing has become so advanced over the last number of years. and we have the most advanced of all. i spoke with other nations this morning, the leaders, and they all are talking about our great testing capability and some of them want to know what to do, how can they get involved because they need it for their own countries. in louisiana, massachusetts, rhode island, new york and other hot spots, we have also tested more people per capita by far than italy, spain, germany, france, and the united kingdom and all other major countries. so think of that. in new york, for instance, per capita testing is 6% higher than in singapore. in fact, there's a typo. it's 67% higher. that's a big difference. i'd say there's a big difference between 6% and 60. i was looking, it said 6% doesn't look too good. it's 67%. good job out there. higher than singapore, 64% higher than south korea and 47% higher than australia. so it's 67% higher than singapore. which is a very advanced place in terms of what they're doing. my administration has also been speaking frequently with many of the governors to help them find and unlock the vast unused testing capacity that exists in their states. dr. birx discussed yesterday the commercial and academic laboratories in the states have tremendous unused capability which they can use, the governors should use it. tremendous unused capability. they're waiting for business from these governors, some of them complained. i must tell you, for the most part we're getting along great with them. some of them like to complain. i still go back, because the hardest thing of all by far, by factor of 20, is the ventilators and now we're the king of ventilators. we have ventilators, we're going to be helping other countries very soon. we're going to be helping mexico. i spoke with the president of mexico, he's great, great guy. and i told him we're going to be helping him. they desperately in mexico need ventilators and i told him we're going to be helping him very substantially. we're in a position to do that. we're building now thousands a week and they're coming in rapidly and they're very, very high quality. but we're also helping governors to develop strategies to smartly deploy their testing capacity to protect vulnerable and under-served populations while getting americans at lower risk safely back to work. so again, we have tremendous testing capacity. now, a lot of people like the abbott test that we came up with, abbott, it's a brand-new technology, brand-new test, it's great. it's five minutes, boom, you put it in. and we're making thousands of machines, abbott is making thousands and thousands of machines but not everybody's going to get that one but they're going to get others. we have numerous platforms which we'll talk about in a minute. unfortunately, some partisan voices are attempting to brit politicize the issue of testing which they shouldn't do because i inherited broken junk, just as they did with ventilators where we had virtually none and the hospitals were empty, for the most part the hospitals didn't have ventilators. we had to take care of the whole country and we did a job the likes of which nobody -- we assembled an army of young, brilliant people. for the most part, young. a couple of older ones. but for the most part they're young, brilliant geniuses that did a job like nobody would believe. i wish you could have seen it. around the clock, and now the rest of the world is coming to us, asking if we could help them with ventilators because they're very complicated, very expensive. they're very hard to build. and we have them coming in by the thousands. but you don't hear that from even the governors, nobody's complaining about ventilators. and if there was a surge, we could have ventilators to them within hours. because we have a stockpile almost 10,000 ventilators. you don't hear about hospital beds. when i first started, everyone was oh, hospital beds, hospital beds. the gover governor of new york correctly asked me for hospital beds and we got the army corps of engineers out and they built them. he needed them. i know he said we were projected -- we're not projecting new york. we're listening to the governors. he wanted them. he needed them and we gave him thousands of beds in javits center, we brought the ship, then the ship, we had it converted to a covid-19 and that was a big deal by the way. because of ventilation and all the things we had to do but we did. fortunately for him, and for us, all of us, they haven't used either one very much because the numbers have gone down significantly. but it was there. and it was built and it was beautiful. 2,900 beds. it was incredible what they did. they did it in a matter of a few days. but unfortunately -- and it was very good. the relationship was very good and i'm frankly glad they don't need them but they were there. louisiana the same thing, i think the governor, democrat, good guy, and he will i think tell you a story that we had more than enough and i said well, we're supposed to build one more. i told him, i said, you know, we don't have to built this hospital. it was additional from 500 to 1,000 beds, if you don't need it would it be possible we won't build it, we would like to build it some diss placplace all or nt at all and save money. he called me back the next day and said circumstance we don't need it. i said that's great you said that. i appreciated it. he didn't need it. we were ready to go. we took good care of louisiana, good care of michigan, we took good care of everyplace. we didn't miss a trick and we're in great shape on testing. we have different platforms. we actually have nine different platforms and on monday we're going to be adding one that will be nine to 10. i don't like to count on them before they're up but we'll have anywhere from nine to 10 platforms with tremendous testing capability and people can go and especially with phase one. now, at the same time, just like with ventilators, we're building now the best ventilators, just like with ventilators, our testing is getting better and better. i took the first test. the first test was not pleasant. this was not a pleasant thing. i said you got to be kidding, to the doctor. you got to be kidding. up your nose and then we hang a right and it goes down here and then wiggle it around under your eye and then we'll pull it out and we'll say -- i said no, there's no way that can happen. is a that the way it goes? are you sure? this was a very unpleasant test. and then i was tested a few weeks later with the new test that just came out, the abbott, where they just touch your nose basically and put it in a machine and literally a few minutes later they tell you if you're fine and i was lucky in both cases. because i've seen the damage that this does to people. but we have great tests. they've really gotten better and better and better as we go along but we have a tremendous lab capability, laboratory capability all over the country. and for some reason, the governors they're not -- a lot of them are, but some of the governors like to complain and they're not using it. we have tremendous capability. we're ready for them. as we go along, just like with the ventilators, we'll get better, more advanced and it will be -- we'll be able to do things that nobody would have even believed possible. but we started off with a broken system. we inherited a broken, terrible system and i always say it. our cupboards were bare. we had very little in our stockpile. now we're loaded up and we also loaded up these hospitals. and we're talking about payment. we gave billions of dollars worth of things to hospitals. and we'll have to work that out at some point. in fact, i guess they're going to be working that out with congress but we loaded up hospitals, the federal government loaded up hospitals with things to take care of people that are very desperately ill. we weren't worried about payment at that time. we said you'll take care of it at the right time. but we gave billions and billions and billions of dollars worth of medical goods and medicines and equipment to hospitals. and we'll work it out with them. but people don't like to talk about that. so we have done a job that nobody believed. this was a military and private enterprises march. we marched. and unforfortunately with the or side, because they're viewing it as an election. how did president trump do? oh, he did terribly. he did -- let's see, yeah, he did terribly. we just got them the ventilators that they didn't have that they should have had. we just got them hospital beds by the thousands. we just got them testing that they don't even know how to use. in some cases, they have machines that they're only using 5% and 10% of the machine. because they have an advanced machine and they don't know how to use it. it can do much more. so we've had people explain how to use it. so, i don't know, i don't think i would do that on the other side. i really don't. i think here we have a crisis and we have to work together and i hope we're going to work together. but we're moving along and we're moving along well. we're moving along well. this should not be a partisan witch hunt, you know, like the russia witch hunt that turned tout be a total phony deal. unfortunately, some of these voices, though, are attempting to bring this in into politics d whether it's testing or ventilators or hospital beds or other dimensions of our sweeping public health response, we have had a sweeping response. speaking to the leaders of other countries this morning, they said this is incredible the way you've done this so quickly. we're only talking about a few weeks since everybody knew this was such a big problem. and the rest of the world is watching and they respect what we've done because i don't think anybody else -- i know, nobody else could have done what we've done. and we started with garbage. as our experts said yesterday, america's testing capability and capacity is fully sufficient to begin opening up the country totally, indeed our system is by far the most robust and advanced anywhere in the world, by far. the rest of the world will tell you that. i spoke this morning to a friend of mine, president moon of south korea. he just won the election. he won it by a lot. he had a big victory which i was happy about. and he was saying what a great job we've done in this country. i told him the same thing. he said what a great job we've done here in this country. so i appreciated that. he had a great -- by the way, he a great victory and we're very happy about that from the standpoint of our country, working very well with them. south korea. as we approach and the approach that we used but as we approach hopefully the downward side of what's going on, i think you're going to see some incredible hard facts and evidence that what we did was right. there's a lot of talk about herd, the word herd. i don't want to show you charts of people that went a different way but it's scary. it's scary. we would have had i think millions of people die had we done a different way. and i think numbers are just coming out where they're estimating 60,000 people will die. that's horrible. i always say one person is too much, especially in this case when it could have been stopped in china. could have been stopped in china. before it started. and it wasn't and the whole world is suffering because of it. but this herd concept -- everybody had to think of it at the beginning because, look at us, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, better than china, better than any country in the world, better than any country's ever had, we had the highest stock market in history by far and i'm honored by the fact that it has started to go up very substantially. that's because the market is smart. the market is actually brilliant. i've seen it. and they're viewing it like we've done a good job. they view it that way. because if you would have told me that we're at 24,000 or beyond and the highest we were ever was -- we never hit 30. we were getting close to 30. so let's say around 29,000. we're at 24. we were heading down. i would start to say oh, wow, we may be heading into territory where i started. i didn't like that. now we're way up. but if you would have said to me with what we've gone through, not caused by our country or our people or any -- not caused by certainly anybody within our country, but if you would have said that after going through this horrible plague, that we would have a stock market that's much, much higher than when i started, much higher than where i started, and i think we have tremendous momentum. we have a big election coming up but i think we have tremendous momentum. first we get rid of the plague and because of what we're doingh the ppp, what we're doing with the paycheck, as we call it, i think we have a chance to have these companies get back to action quickly. but our approach to testing is based on facts, data, and very hard evidence. not partisan agendas or coordinated political talking points. mike pence who is a phenomenal guy, is making the commencement address right now at the air force academy where they're being very politically correct. everyone is standing not six feet but 10 feet apart, okay. and it's very different. i made that speech last year. i'm going to west point. i think they're changing the date to june 13th because of what's going on in new york. they're moving it to june 13t june 13th, west point. so i'm doing that commencement speech and they're going to have -- it's sad, because it's -- but it's a big start. they're going to have the cadets, they may not have the parents. but they're going to have the cadets. the parents are so proud of them. i know at the air force academy where mike is speaking right now, they don't have the parents. they have the cadets. they have very, very widespread, and you talk about social distancing, i mean, they are really -- i looked at it. they're using 10 feet. so he's doing that. but they're having it. it's very important to have it. and that's a great thing. that's a great thing. that's a big start. so he's there right now. and i will tell you, he's a gentleman, mike pence, a real gentleman. and they requested, the democrat senators, requested a phone call with him yesterday and i think they had for the most part all of them on, like approximately 47. i heard it was just about all of them, whatever it might be. i don't want to be wrong by one or two or 10. and have the press say he lied shall,he told a lie, terrible, terrible. whatever it was. but they have 47 and i guess most of them were on. i heard they were so rude. i used a term today i said rude and nasty. but i heard they were so rude. no matter what he said which was all very positive in terms of winning this battle against the invisible enemy, no matter what he said, they were fresh, they were nasty, and it was i heard just a terrible thing. and i said, mike, that's politics. that's what it is. if we came into this room today and said the battle is over, we have won, it's 100% gone, the democrats would say the president has done a horrible job. he has done a disgraceful job. it is a shame how bad he is. you know, it's -- this is the talking points. this is political and it would be nice not to have that especially when we've done the job we've done. i mean, all you have to do is look at the big -- the big v for victory or v for ventilator. take a look at it. everybody said they had us on that. they had us. they thought they had us but we got them done at numbers that nobody would have believed and we did use our act, our production act, and we used it but we didn't use it -- we didn't need it like a hammer. for the most part we used it in a number of cases but for the most part all we had to do was talk about it, all we had to do was say we're going to use it if you don't do this and everybody was for the most part good. we used it a couple times because it didn't work out the easy way but it worked out the hard way. but whether it was masks or ventilators, it was incredible what we've been able to do. so this is a very critical time for the american people and the american people deserve real information. and responsible and thoughtful dialogue from their elected leaders and from the media. the media's been -- some very honest but some very dishonest. you know that. you know that. i even read a story where mark meadows, a tough guy, he was crying. they should all give back their pulpullprizes. the crime was not committed by this side. it was committed by the other side, a bunch of bad people. you saw the reports coming out over the last two weeks. they got caught. so maggie haberman gets a pulitzer prize. new york times. we put her name up here last year, you saw that. people thought it was a commercial. it wasn't a commercial. it's like a commercial but it wasn't a commercial. it was just clips and because we exposed her, as being a bad reporter, what happened is she came out and said mark meadows was crying and they made it sound -- it's okay if he did. you know, look, but i think he was crying probably really for the wrong reason they had it down but he's not a cryer. if he was -- i can tell you people that i know that are very famous, they cry and that's okay too. but it was a nasty sorry in so many ways. it was fake news. she only did it because we exposed her for being a terrible, dishonest reporter. she is. i've known her for a long while. i made the mistake, a take a picture with her at the desk a long time ago. every time she does a story, if i say i haven't spoken to her in many, many, many months, maybe years, i don't speak to her, she's fake. a lot of people are fake. a lot of people. we've got a lot of fake people. what happens is she writes this story as retribution, puts it in the new york times and the new york times is a very dishonest newspaper. it's my opinion. it's not an opinion. it's actually from my standpoint -- the hard thing to figure, though, most people wouldn't know that but i know it because i know the facts and they make up -- i said it today. they make up words. sources say, most often used. you know what sources say means, sources say means they have nobody and they make it up, okay and they have a few other types that mean the same thing. sources say is the most often used expression in the washington posts, new york times, cnn, fake news, cnn. they should be mandatedded and i mean mandated to use a name. if there's a source, use a name. say that kaley, kaley mcininey said or somebody and you would find out that the number one the source wouldn't say it. the sources don't exist. i don't believe the sources exist and i try and tell this. the beautiful thing about doing these conferences is that we have tremendous numbers of viewers and i'm able to reach the viewers without having to go through fake news, where they make a good story into a bad story. so with all of that, it's been an incredible period of time. we've done a fantastic job. we're the talk of other nations, the leaders of other nations are calling us for help. they're calling us for equipment. they're calling us for testing capacities. now, with the testing, we are going further. deborah's going to talk about that now. with the testing we have some other tests coming up that are going to be i think phenomenal. i think they're going to blow away everything as soon as they come out. and we're going to get them out as soon as possible. which like -- i would like to ask dr. birx to come up and say a few words about where we've come, how far we've come and where we're going from this point because honestly it's quite amazing. thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. president. if we could have the first slide. wanted to give you an update on where we are as states and as counties and as cities. i know you all are watching carefully the numbers have shifted over the last few days. what happens when nations -- when states change the reporting from confirmed to probable, so now all probable cases are included, they had to add them back in, even though the cases may have been from march, they were added over 14, 15 and 16th of april. and states may continue to be adding them. eventually, we're hoping that those get accounted for on the day when the presumptive cases or the probable cases were counted. but right now, they're added in in one fell swoop. so this is new york and new jersey and i think we all know how difficult and what a difficult time both new york and new jersey have had. i call your attention to the axis. it goes up to 250,000 cases so you can get a frame of how we're talking about some of the other metro areas. next slide. this is a 25 metro areas, the top 25 metro areas and you can only see the new york metro area in this slide. again, the axis goes up to about 300,000. it includes the new jersey part of the metro area as well as part of southern connecticut. next slide. but if i take new york out and the reason i wanted to do that -- now the axis is one-tenth of the previous axis so the previous slide, 300,000, this slide, 30,000. so that will give you a frame of reference for some of these other metros. the reason i wanted to show you this, this is cumulative cases and we are still tracking very closely the issues in chicago and boston. but on this slide, i hope you can see the yellow line. that is detroit. and detroit and the mayor of detroit has really done an extraordinary job and the people of detroit have done an extraordinary job with their social distancing. the other line i want to call your attention to is the line here. this is new orleans. and i think, frankly, i was concerned about new orleans because they had a lot of pre-existing co-morbidities. they have two or three major hospitals but a large -- cover a very large area, geographic area. and that other blue line that you can see that's down right here, that's the seattle line. and you can see that -- their response, because of the nursing home alert, they were one of the first states and the first metro areas to really move to social distancing. and so they've really never had a peak like many of the other metros. next slide. then i just want to take you through some of these new case graphics. that was cumulative cases. this is daily cases. obviously, there's a lot of variability and variability in reporting but you get a sense over time when you look at daily cases, so new orleans is on the panel on your left and bat tonon rouge on your right. you can see new orleans, a month ago, very low levels, probably less than 50 cases. large peak and spike around the beginning of april and they have come down and they have it down to very few cases. again, i showed you before how the cases have come down as well as their actual case -- number of cases. next slide. this is seattle. so you can see they had a much lower peak and this is -- when we talk about flattening the curve, this is what flattening the curve looks like. it becomes a longer, slower decline but it never gets very high. and then goes back down. next slide. and then this is detroit. and we always look at the metro as a consolidated, so this is both wayne and oakland in michigan. and we really want to thank the mayor for the incredible job that they have done to really ensure that everyone is receiving the adequate healthcare and testing and they've done quite a good job with testing in michigan but all of these states, louisiana and new york have tested 30,000 per million inhab inhibitants. so the president talked about the case mortality rates and we really -- we have lost a lot of americans to this disease and we pray and hope for each one of them that are in the hospitals and the excellent care. what is this graph illustrating? the amazing work of the american people to really adhere to social distancing. this was some -- this was nothing we had ever attempted to do as a nation and the world hadn't attempted to do. but they were able to decrease the number of cases so that in general most of the metro areas never had an issue of complete crisis care of all of their hospitals in the region. and so you can see our case fatality rate is about half to a third of many of the other countries. >> does anybody really believe those numbers? does anybody really believe those numbers? >> i put china on there so you could see how basically unrealistic this could be. when highly developed healthcare delivery systems of the united kingdom and france and belgium and italy and spain with extraordinary doctors and nurses and equipment have case fatality rates in the 20s, up to 45 and belgium is extraordinarily competent healthcare delivery system and then china at 0.33, you realize that these numbers -- this includes the doubled number out of wuhan. so i want to really put it in perspective but i wanted you also to see how great the care has been for every american that has been hospitalized and the extraordinary work of doctors and nurses and lab workers on the front line who have been doing an excellent job, next slide. >> those are the numbers for iran. >> does anybody really believe that? you see what's going on there. does anybody -- put that slide back, if you would. does anybody believe this number? does anybody believe this number? these -- >> this is why the reporting is so important. and i think you remember almost six weeks ago, maybe a month ago, i was telling you what italy was showing to us. and what france was telling us. and the warnings that they gave to us and said be very careful. there's an extraordinary high mortality among people with pre-existing conditions and we used their information to bring that to the american people. that came -- that alert, that alert before we even had significant cases, came from our european colleagues on the frontline. and that's why we keep coming back to how important in a pandemic, in a new disease, it's crits call tcritical to have thf trans parentally. it changes how we work as a nation. it allowed us to make an alert about vulnerable individuals and the need to protect them and my call-out to millennials to protect their parents, protect their grandparents and get that information out to everyone that there were pre-existing conditions that put people at greater risk. that information came from our european colleagues who were in the midst of their battle themselves and so there is never an excuse to not share information. when you are the first country to have an outbreak, you really have a moral obligation to the world to not only talk about it, but provide that information that's critical to the rest of the world to really respond to this credibly and i really want to thank our european colleagues who worked so hard to get us that information even in the midst of their own tragedies and i think a that really shows how important transparency is and we go to the next slide. we can show you this really encouraging and great news. so we know that fatalities will continue to lag because people are in hospitals still and some are still in intensive care units. but these covid-like illnesses, this is our hospitalizations that are related to flu per 100,000 americans, this is this year's flu season and you can see our covid-like illnesses, and this is all of them, probable and confirmed cases, our hospitalizations are declining. now, i showed you metros that have made tremendous progress and we've been up here many times talking about it being six, 10, 15 additional cities. and now we're really just focused on chicago and boston and massachusettes and really some issues that providence is starting to improve now their relationship to the two large outbreak cities. but this is really reassuring to us, the progress we're making across the country against this disease and i'm just really want to conclude by thanking again the american people for making these type of graphics possible. thank the data team who put these together for me so they are working until about 3:30 every morning to make sure that we have the most up-to-date information. that's the data that goes to our supply chain individuals to ensure that every hospital in every state and every community has what they need based on data and to make sure that we're serving the needs of the american people as effectively as possible. thank you, mr. president. >> thank you very much. fantastic job. thank you very much. the fact is, we've been learning a lot from deborah and tony and so many of the professionals, the director. we're spending -- the united states, for that help to the best of my knowledge, mostly in africa, $6 billion a year. that's on aid. what we've done for aids in africa is unbelievable. we spend $6 billion a year. that's been going on for a long time. nobody knows that. you've never heard that. i've never heard that. $6 billion a year. millions of people are living right now and living very comfortably because of the fact that we have found the answer to that horrible, horrible plague. that was a plague. but we spend $6 billion a year. and from what i hear, it's very well spent. done by professionals including this great professional right here. that was the thing you worked hardest on and something that was very close to her heart. so it's something that i think people should start hearing. the world health organization, we are just finding more and more problems and we spend this money really well. there are other ways we can spend the $500 million, that's 500 million. this is 6 billion. but we can find other ways to spend it. where people are going to be helped we think in a much greater way. we're doing some research on certain people that take a lot of credit for what they do and nih is giving away a lot of money, a lot of money. we give away -- for years, for many years, they give away a lot of money and some people complain and some people don't. some people are extremely happy. so we're looking into that also. they're givenning away approximately, as i understand it recently more than $32 billion a year. 32 billion. and so we've been looking at that for a while and we're going to be having some statements to be made about that. $32 billion a year. it's a lot of money and we want to make sure it's being spent wisely and we've been doing that, by the way, and we'll have some statements on that. and those are much bigger numbers than what we're talking about with national. if you look at the -- with our friends from wherever they come from, you know, 500 -- 500 million is a lot of money but it's not a lot compared to the kind of money that we give out. i think over the years it's been averaging about $32 billion. 32 billion. so we've had our eye on that one for a while. we also talked about the lab in china. where i guess 3.7 million was given some time ago and we're looking at that very closely, chief of staff has that pretty much under control. but it's money that -- too bad it got spent there but that was spent -- what year was that, mark? it was four, five years ago. six years ago, approximately. so we're looking at that. and that's the lab that people are talking about. all right. so we're looking at a lot of things. this tremendous waste in our government. we found it in many different ways and in many different forms. and this is one of them. this is one of them. we can spend -- i was talking to dr. birx, we can spend $500 million, using all of it in a much more efficient matte manf we choose to do that and it will be to the good of many more people than are getting it right now. but you look at the mistakes that were made. i mean, so late. long after i said we have to close off our country. they were actually against closing off our country to china when i did that in january. they were against that. they didn't like the idea of closing off our country. they said it was a bad thing to do, actually. and they've since taken that back. but it was a very lucky thing that we did it. very lucky. we would have had numbers that were very significantly greater. tony fauci said that he said it would have been very significantly greater had we not done that. so we made a lot of moves that were good moves but it's still a very depressing subject because it's a lot of death and if it was stopped very early on at the source, before it started blowing into these proportions, you have 184 countries that would have been in a lot better shape. but our country's getting back and i expect that we're going to be bigger, better and stronger than ever before. i will take a few questions. jeff. >> mr. president, you mentioned and the doctor mentioned china a few times today that clearly suggesting that the data has not been good and -- >> you tell me. do you think that data's good. when you see that. do you think that's correct? do you honestly believe that's correct. >> pretty dramatic contrast. >> dramatic, yes. >> my question to you is -- >> didn't the press -- why didn't you people figure that out. why do we have to put up a chart? the number's, it's an impossible number to hit. why haven't you come up and said that. >> my question is, is china now cooperating with the united states to figure out what happened and what do you want from them now? >> well, they said they're doing an investigation. that they're doing an investigation. so let's see what happens with their investigation. but we're doing investigations also. yeah, go ahead, please. >> you've spoken -- we heard dr. birx saying every country has a responsibility to tell the rest of the world what's going on. you talked repeatedly about how this could have been stopped in the past. i know you don't want to telegraph what you would do, but do you think there should be some consequence if in the end china was responsible for all of this? >> well, if they were knowingly responsible, certainly. if it was a mistake, a mistake is a mistake. but if they were knowingly responsible, yes, then there should be consequences. you're talking about potentially lives like nobody's seen since 1917, and you know, the other thing, had we not done what we did in terms of closing -- because there is that concept of let's let it ride. but at some point i'm going to have to -- i don't want to embarrass countries that i like and leaders that i like, but you have to see some of these numbers. in my opinion, so we're talking about maybe 60,000 or so, that's a lot of people, but that's 100,000 was the minimum we thought that we could get to and we will be lower than that number. anywhere from 100 to 220,000 people. but i really believe it could have been millions of people had we not done what we did. we made a lot of good decisions but one of those things. go ahead. >> have you ruled out this was an unknowing situation? president trump: i want to look at the facts as they come in. >> last week you said your charge of everything. yet the american people don't understand why you are unwilling to make american companies make the ppe and also the testing equipment that you implement. the recommendations for. president trump: what? >> my name is doug christian. go ahead, keep reading your question. >> the thing is how to make companies build these testing equipment so you can do what you want dtd * we are doing it. we have ventilators, we general motors, general electric. we have countries building them for us all over the united states. we are starting to to make our own gowns. we are making incredible things. as far as the testing is concerned. most of that is done in the united states on different platforms. so i just don't think you were listening. >> the senators were complaining -- president trump: which senators? >> angus king. he says he was livid -- president trump: of course he said that, he's a democrat. he's not an independent. he uses that term for whatever rover. it's a waste of time. you haven't seen him. angus king is a democrat and that was totally staged. it was totally staged just like you read the question, he read his question. >> i want to talk to you about the tweet, let's see if the stormy is enforced in social distancing in ramadan like they did in churches during easter. president trump: i would like to see that. i just spoke with leaders and people who love mosques. and i'm all in favor of that. but i would say there could be a difference. we'll have to see what will happen. i have seen a great disparity in this country. i have seen a strong anti-israel bent in congress with democrats. it was unthinkable 7 or 8 or 10 years ago. now they are into a different thing between omar and aoc plus 3. i mean, the things they say about israel are so bad. i can't believe it. so i will be interested to see that. because they go after christian churches and they don't tend to go after mosques. i don't want them to go after mosques. go ahead, please. >> are you suggesting imams wouldn't follow the social distancing? president trump: i just had a call with imams and rabbis. i don't think that at all. i'm somebody who believes in faith. it matters not what your faith is. but politicians treat different faiths differently. i don't know what happened with our country. but the christian faith is

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