On ice infour trucks including rental trucks from u haul. The funeral director said they were put there because he had no more room in the chapel. I ran out of space, bodies are coming out of our ears. A cemetery worker in brooklyn is struggling to keep up with the on slot of bodies. Sometimes ali arrives as early as 3 00 a. M. And stays le next day. Sometimes i do 14 hours a day. Itsexcruciating. Many families have not been able to say goodbye to loved ones in person at the hospital, and they often cannot have traditional funerals or otherwise come together to collectively mourn because of physical distancing rules. Its just a horrible thing to go through. And then in come the costs. At a time when many are suddenly out of work, in new jersey, where 460 deaths were recorded today, a son could not afford the funeral bills for his parents who died three days apart. In chicago, the family of a nurse, a nurse who contracted the virus had to set up a go fund me page to cover her funeral expenses. She gave what we taught a human touch, a mothers touch and that she did for everybody. Were all just dumb founded that this happened. Here is the thing, it doesnt have to be like this. There is a very simple thing, the federal government, our government can do right now to help. They could step in and pay for burials for those who have fallen. Donald trump has not done it. He has no relet released the mo. In the past of disasters like super storm sandy and katrina, the government step in to cover funeral costs. After three hurricanes in 2017, fema paid out about 2700 per approved application. So far, weve lost more than 62,000 men and women to the virus. If the federal government wanted to provide that same amount of money, 2700 to each of the families that seized so they dont have to scrounge to cover funeral costs, it would cost the federal government around 170 million. Thats it. At a time were spending literally trillions of dollars, 500 billion for big business, tens of bills to the Airline Industry and tens of millions for the luxury Hotel Company the ritz carlton in atlanta. Two weeks ago Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and alexandria ocasiocortez were calling on the government to step up and do this very, very simple obvious thing. The least we can do is help families bury their loved ones in the most impacted communities in america. It is the very least we can do. It is the very core basic measure of Human Dignity and in the richest country in the world, we should be able to allow people to bury their loved ones in dignity. The least we can do. It is the least we can do but trump wont do it. He doesnt need to go through congress. He needs to authorize fema to release the money. As craig told propublica, fema does not have the independent ability to turn on the programs at will. It has to come from trump. Approximately 30 states and territories requested funding but trump will not free up the money. Now the president is refusing to take this very simple action as a small, small grace towards the citizens of this nation. Its unconscionable. And that small little bit of inaction of utter cold heartedness says everything you need to know about the way hes navigated this crisis from the beginning as the bodies pile up at Funeral Homes and the cemetery workers are overwhelmed and the death toll crosses that of the vietnam war, the president is rage tweeting in unhinged fashion in the middle of the night and this afternoon, saying things like this. I dont think anybody has done a better job with testing, with ventilators, with all of the things that weve done and our death totals, our numbers per Million People are really very, very strong. Were very proud of the job weve done. He just said, the president of the United States said our deaths per million are really very strong. More than 62,000 americans gone. Thousands more every day after day after day after day. Hes very proud of the job hes done. They just do not seem to think americans dying in mass as the federal government looks on is that big a deal. In fact, there is a group of president supporters that say no biggie. Many people who are dying both here and around the world were on their last legs anyway and i dont want to sound callocal callous about that. Youll get hammered for that. I dont care. A simple man tells the truth. A simple man tells the truth. Last legs anyway. On sunday the Washington Post published a story breaking down what trump said and 13 hours of his coronavirus briefings and while he spent 45 minutes of that prizing himself and his administration, he spent 4. 5 minutes out of 13 hours expressing condolences for the victims of the virus. What is happening right now in america is a catastrophe, nightmare, cause for mass grief and mourning for flags to be flown at half mast without being able to say goodbye or mourn and since the Great Depression, they are being deprived of the money many need to give some last bit of dignity to their loved ones and that is not right. For more on the lack of action from the Trump Administration on this, im joined by elizabeth zimmerman, former fema associate administrator for response and recovery. Elizabeth, can you tell me about this program that fema administers, one that i was not that aware of until recently . Sure, fema has an individual Assistance Program and within that there are several Different Things that can be provided to disaster survivors and those families of the victims that have fallen. So this Program Offers everything from housing assistance, rental assistance, disaster case management, crisis counseling, funeral benefits, medical benefits, when individual assistance is declared by the president. And the president can, again, just to make sure i have facts straight, the president can declare this amidst an emergency and fema is authorized to release that money including funeral assistance for folks if the president were to authorize it. Thats correct. So this is one of the programs when he declares a major disaster decoloration, of which all 50 states and all the territories in washington d. C. Have. This article from 2012 is actually a fema press release. Disaster relief for new yorkers which helps eligible applicants with funeral expenses caused by the disaster. For folks coping, this is before this virus, other disasters, this is oppressing need and problem for surviving family members of people who died in the disaster. So yes, this is offered up obviously if people have insurance or other means to pay for this, fema is not the first step to pay for it but they do offer the assistance for disaster surviving families to be able to cover those costs. It is a program that is cost shared with the state and the amount of assistance that can be provided to an individual family is determined by the state in their administrative plans for this program. It just seems to me that given the fact of what were all going through, given how difficult this has been on families that have lost loved ones and ive talked to many, having to face time their goodbyes, if that, and given the trillions of dollars we are spending right now. This is a drop in the bucket and just a simple action for the federal government to take, like why on earth would we not do this . So, these are as youve noted, these are unprecedented times with the states under the same situation looking at what the other resources are that could be brought to bear appropriations made but this is a program once turned on is Pretty Simple to be able to administer on behalf of the federal government. One of the things that has more broadly happened, i feel like, with fema here is many of the existing infrastructure for disaster Crisis Response in the government have not actually been fully utilized. Many institutions spend all day, 345 36 five days a year thinking about it, creating protocols. Is it a Fair Assessment to say thats not been largely fully utilized by this administration . So for this event, being the pandemic, typically fema and through the stafford act, it goes for Natural Disasters, those things that the hurricanes, the tornados that also have a lot of this individual assistance provided to them. This being a pandemic is something thats different and does fall outside of the bounds of the stafford act but not saying that the Public Health and safety is the measure here. There is a major disaster decoloration, as i said for everybody thats been made so that does open up the avenue to be able to use the programs within fema to be able to help alleviate these situations. All right. Elizabeth zimmerman, thank you for your time. Thank you. For more on the president s actions in the face of this crisis, i want to bring in democratic congressman max rose. And congressman, obviously, new york has been hit particularly hard by this and i personally know a lot of folks who have been hit by this in the city. Im sure many are constituents have. I does seem to me what your colleague alexandria ocasiocortez and Chuck Schumer called for, this seems like an obvious and simple thing the government should be doing here. Yeah, youre absolutely right. Look, fema and its not often acknowledged is an incredibly flexible vehicle by which the federal government can reimburse states to execute and address a whole host of things that happens in a Natural Disaster about a month ago, i wrote a letter to fema calling on them to basically follow up on these requests for individual assistance. Fema can also reimburse for unemployment assistance. Fema can reimburse for housing and certainly fema can reimburse for funeral costs. So this begs the question, why arent they doing it . I mean, they didnt even respond to my letter so why arent they doing it . One can only imagine that theyre not doing it because they dont know what the cost will be. Theyre worried about manager expenses or this or that. They come back to us. Tell congress what you need. Because i am certain at least i hope that they are not okay with new yorkers or any other americans dying in there. We will give it to you and if we dont, democrats or republicans that wont fund you accordingly. You and i have spoken before about your experience in afghanistan when you served in the armed forces and about experience with loss in that context and im just curious your thoughts. It strikes me there is a kind of absence from the top particularly of any expression of collective grief, collective mourning, collective honor frankly for people and compassionate empathy for people facing this, it really is essentially unprecedented situatio situation. Look, we need moral leadership right now. We need the president of the United States to be commander in chief and the uniter in chief and someone who we can see express the incredible grief that were all feeling. There is not one new yorker who hasnt in someway, shape or form experienced this crisis in truly and utterly tragic ways and this is an evil of crisis, we are forced to grieve in the confines of our home. We cant go through the normal traditions associated with losing a loved one sand we need our leader to Say Something about that. We need the president to Say Something about that. That is in my mind, just as important as allocating these resources that we just referred to. I want to ask you about a scene that played out today not in new york, in the state of michigan. Not dissimilar from scenes from other state capitols, relatively small group of people quite unrepresented of National Political and Public Opinion given the polling weve seen and marginal buzzt a striking scene. Politicians, it is their american right to assemble but armed to the teeth, you know, sometimes banging on doors, yelling at guards, inside the Michigan State house, obviously, not physically distancing at all. You know, what do you make of protests with weapons like that in an american state house . Those are scary images. I say that as someone who spends a good portion of my time in Congress Considering this issue of domestic terrorism and the rise of a far right organized movement that is actually global in nature often connected to people who have significant military training and weapons training and who are equipped accordingly. But we have to note this, okay . We are seeing numbers right now in new york that are starting slowly, not fast enough, slowly to go down, and that is not that wasnt inevitable. Okay . Its not like the projections were wrong, no. We changed the reality of the projections and we did that by all of us banding together and changing our social behavior. Were not out of the woods yet. We will all there will continue to be a deep dependence to this crisis. Of course, we have to note the economic pain that people are going through. It would be naive and even cold to just disregard that but with that being said, though, we cant just forget about the reality of this virus, which is that if we disregard advice of medical professionals, we will go right back to where we were seeing an ungodly surge of new positive cases and death. Im curious actually. Youre interestingly situated here both politically and previously held by a republican and trump in 2016. Im curious, what do your constituents think about this . This is not a liberal district not necessarily at all. Its also a district thats seen firsthand the effects of this. What are you hearing from the folks you represent . Look, its not a liberal district. Its not a conservative district. Its a patriotic district and what i hear from people in my community is very simple. This is not the time to play games. This is not the time to be unnecessarily divisive. This is a time when we have to assume an attitude one would assume during total war, which is to address the threat at hand and utilize all the resources that we have to save peoples lives because peoples lives are absolutely on the line. Now that doesnt mean that you dont hold people accountable. That doesnt mean that you dont exercise oversight. Thats my job and that certainly doesnt mean that you dont call someone out when they tell new yorkers to drop dead as Mitch Mcconnell and now his rick scott recently have. I have no problem and they have no problem openly saying that that is wrong. Ignorant, naive, cold and economically stupid but what they do not want to see is anyone getting in the way of us saving lives, getting in the way of putting people back safely to work. Thats what they deserve. Congressman max rose, thank you so much for taking time tonight. Thanks again. Up next, ill talk to the lead investigatior running trias on remdesivir, the drug showing the most promise in treatment of covid19. What his team is learning after this. Covid19 what his team is learning after this who knows where that button is . I dont have silent. Everyone does right up here. It happens to all of us. We buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. What i do is help new homeowners overcome this. What is that, an adjustable spanner . Good choice, steve. Okay, dont forget youre not assisting him. You hired him. If you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. Who else reads books about submarines . My dad. Yeah. Oh, those are progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Look at that. When you bundle with us. Hold on dont fight your war alone halo around you dont have to face it on your own we will win this fight let all souls be brave when you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. 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Anthony fauci often viewed as the most credible voice on the Trump Coronavirus Task force was very positive about a study of an experimental drug to treat coronavirus called remdesivir. The data shows that remdesivir has a clear cut significant positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery. If you look at the time to recovery being shorter in the rem remdesivir, it was 11 days compared to 15 days. Although a 31 improvement doesnt seem like a knockout 100 . It is a very important proof of concept because what it is proven is that a drug can block this virus. Now that announcement occasioned a big debate among all sorts of folks that i read and am in contact with, medical experts, clinicians, what the study shows and u how encouragi it is. I want to get to the bottom of that. I want to talk to the lead investigator at Emory University for this remdesivir trial and associate professor of infectious diseases. Doctor, first, can you take us through what the Clinical Trial was . Did you guys do and try to test . Thank you, chris. Appreciate the opportunity to talk about the trial that we have been working on. This is called the nih adaptive covid19 trial of therapeutics and as we knew in february, there were no good medications available to treat covid19 and so the scientific leaders at the nih looked through a catalog of potential medications and found that remdesivir, which had been tested for ebola seemed to have very good activity against coronaviruses so they put together this Large In