and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts. and jetblue had a beautiful idea of a way to say thank you, which is donating round trip flights to had 100,000 medical personnel and nurses to honor their efforts. isn't that a beautiful thing? 10,000 to new york medical professionals. michael dowling is not eligible for that situation, but other than that, because we need him here in new york city. but it's a nice way jetblue is saying thank you. all of us will find our own way to say thank you. but i'm sure every new yorker joins me in saying thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of our heart. to all of the nurses who are here today, god bless you and thank you for getting us through this. and thank you for being new york tough, which is not just tough, but smart and disciplined and unified and loving. god bless you. questions? >> governor, about reopening, so along the way you've rubber stamped some things that you said were common sense like golf courses. you were asked about drive-in theaters and you said hey, that might be a good idea. if a business owner right now says i have a super, creative way to do this, i can do it immediately and be safe, you're talking about smart new yorkers, intelligent new yorkers, do you trust that and do you move forward with other things piecemeal maybe? >> we have a very detailed reopening plan, very detailed steps. i touch on it and what we just talked about. we looked at different regions in the state. there are different situations in different regions. new york city is different than long island is different than the adirondacks, different than buffalo. the numbers are dramatically different. the way we talk about different nations, in this state, regions are in different places, that's how big this state is and how diverse it is. so there are specific factual data points that each region has to assess. is your infection rate going up or is it going down? are your hospitalizations going up, or are your hospitalizations going down? do you have health care capacity god forbid that infection rate takes off on you, do you have the hospital capacity to deal with that? do you have the icu beds to deal with it? do you have the ppe? if yes to those questions, then in that region working with the local officials, what businesses do we reopen? and the analysis there is businesses that are most essential and posed the lowest risk should go first. construction jobs, because construction jobs, especially exterior construction jobs, workers are basically socially distanced by the nature of the work and can wear masks, getting the construction industry up and running again. manufacturing in a manufacturing setting where you can do social distancing, right? the meat plants are a caution flag. the poultry plants are a caution flag. the agriculture farm upstate is a caution flag. not manufacturing where you have density and people three feet from each other on a factory line, because that's a problem, but manufacturing where you can socially distance. and then you can even go business by business. drive-in theater, where an employer says this is how i'm going to operate it. everybody stays in a car. nobody gets out of a car. you can make those decisions. >> you can say maybe a laundromat, no. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington, continuing our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. new york governor andrew cuomo has just updated the situation in his state saying there's still painfully slow decline in hospitalizations and the initial findings are the new cases are not people who have lest thoirmz or been traveling. here are the facts at this hour -- president trump is reversing course after a lot of backlash overnight to his plan to phase out the white house coronavirus task force while he shifts his focus to reopening the economy. the president tweeting this morning that the task force, including the nation's top public health doctors, will continue on indefinitely. out-of-state fda vaccine researcher richard bright will be testifying before the house next week after filing a whistle-blower complaint after accusing the white house of retaliating against him in his efforts to block funding over what he calls, quote, potentially dangerous drugs to combat the virus, including that anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. the house oversight committee is looking into complaints from former white house volunteers jared kushner played favorites in distributing scarce protective gear as the crisis was building. president trump will be meeting with iowa's governor just later this afternoon as meatpacking plants, nursing homes and prisons in rural areas become the new hot spots for states unable to slow the spread of the virus. and this morning secretary of state mike pompeo accused china of a cover-up that caused the death of hundreds of thousand u.s. thousands of people around the world. joining me now, kristen welker, white house correspondent peter baker, the senior scholar at johns hopkins health and security and leon panetta at the pentagon and cia. kristen, president trump backing down under pressure for the talk he was going to dismantle the white house task force. the task force that included all of those health care officials, now saying also that more lives will be lost with the reopening, but that is what we're going to have to deal with, the price we're paying i guess for reopening, for returning to normal. how does he weigh that balance, saying more people will die? >> andrea, i think it underscores the pressure the president feels as though he's under to try to get the economy and parts of the country back up and running again. this is a president who was planning to run on re-election on the economy, to tout the strong economy, and now deep concerns within this administration and within his campaign frankly that this crisis will undoubtedly undermine that argument, and that's in part why he feels so much urgency to try to turn the corner, and in part why you see the reversal that you just mapped out, andrea. first indicating they were going to wind down the coronavirus task force, and then changing course. the president saying it's going to continue indefinitely. speaking to administration officials, they're trying to downplay this shift. they're trying to say, look, this is a matter of semantics. of course the doctors are still going to be advising president trump but the task force won't be meeting as regularly. any way you say it, andrea, the bottom line is the president is very eager to turn the page and enter a new phase of this crisis, andrea. >> and peter baker, major criticism of his son-in-law jared kushner after "the washington post" and "the new york times" both had articles on alleged mismanagement by his team, a team of volunteers. "the new york times" reporting that in late march, according to emails obtained by "the times," two of the volunteers passed along procurement forms submitted by orrin pines at silicon valley saying he could provide more than a thousand ventilators. they passed the tip to federal officials, sent it to senior officials in new york who assumed this had been vetted, awarded him an eye-popping $69 million contract and not a single ventilator was ever delivered. and that's just one example. peter? >> yes e. that, that's exactly . the president put his son-in-law jared kushner in charge of trying to help out the obviously slow response to medical equipment needs around the country. having the president's son-in-law involved brings certain advantages and he can make things happen that other people can. he can block out other white house officials from interfering in the process. but he brought him in in the way their entrepreneur background would help them in the way plotting of the u.s. government couldn't. what turns out to be the case is people without experiencing in making this happen had a hard time making it happen. they turned to their own friends. they were in touch with conservative allies, even a fox news host, political people from the campaign who are offering tips or seeking contracts. and in the end other people who presumably had some ability to help were put to the side. i think you will see a lot of second guessing about that in the days and weeks to come. >> dr. adalja, we're also hearing, of course, this conflict about what the president is saying about reopening the economy at a time you have hotspots. tell me what we know about these hotspots across the plains, midwest, a lot of areas where there are prisons, meat processing plants outside of the big cities, urban areas where we've seen this earlier. >> he's hot spots occurring in meat plants and prisons are going to be basically obstacles to reopening parts of the country, where you can think about how many people can get infected because of the density of those places and that can be enough to overwhelm a hospital. that needs to be taken care of promptly. we have to have plans in place for areas to have these types of afacilities to make sure this is going safely. can you have a county or city in good shape but all it takes is one of those meat plants or prisons to have a big outbreak that can spill into a community and overwhelm a hospital. this has to be done carefully when those type of facilities are present in region that's thinking about reopening. >> and you also have, jeremy bash, this whistle-blower complaint from dr. rick bright. he was the head of the operation in the fda that was searching for a vaccine. he says he was sidelined -- retaliated against basically because he was pushing back against hydroxychloroquine and other untested drugs. let's hear part of what he told reporters in a conference call yesterday. >> time after time i was pressured to ignore or dismiss experts or scientific recommendations and instead award lucrative contracts based on political connection. in other words, i was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions. >> jeremy, what he's outlined here is more than 80 pages of this legal document, a whistle-blower complaint. he's asking for his job back basically. but he also is making allegations of a lot of cronyism and bad contracting based on the white house reaching down and telling the scientists what to do. >> yeah, dr. bright is now stepping forward. he had run bartia, the biomedical advance redevelopment agency. he was a noted expert in his field. he was going to be in charge of developing approaches for a vaccine, which is, of course, the ultimate strategic counterweight to this pandemic, andrea. here he steps forward saying i was pressured, my professional guidance was being shaded by people above me in the chain of command. i was being directed to award contracts to political cronies of the president and he's ultimately retaliated against for speaking out, for contradicting the president on hydroxychloroquine and other matters and he was pushed aside and he hasn't been paid. of course, nothing concerns the president more than a well written whistle-blower complaint because, of course, a well written whistle-blower complaint last fall is what triggered the cascade of investigations that led to the president's impeachment. i honestly think when all is said and done and congress looks into this and a national commission reviews the response here, the scandal and concern of the american people will be much deeper and much farther than anything we've ever seen before. >> of course, the president and others are looking for scapegoats. among them, some legitimate criticism of china, chiefly china, secretary of state spoke today and said china's cover-up -- let me play a quick bite of what he had to say. >> china saw then that it had a merging public health crisis on its hands. they knew. china could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. china could have spread the world dissent into global economic delays. they had a choice. but instead china kov errcoveree outbreak in wuhan. >> jeremy, as you know, there's controversy about how the intelligence may be being massaged to make china more culpable than it really was. that's still unclear. but the secretary of state is saying there's certainty about what they know and others are saying it's not at all certain about the origins. >> yeah, i think it's very legitimate to question what did china know and when did they know it. this has been i think on a bipartisan basis an area of concern. it certainly appears that it's been part of the president's daily briefings, the intelligence community's central product that they give to the white house every day and to other senior leaders across the government. so i think it's appropriate to raise these questions and hold china to account. we also in some areas have to work with china whether it's to get part of our supply chain here to the united states, for example, testing reagents. so it's not that we can go to a war with china over this right now but i do think we have to hold them to account. my only question, andrea, why was the president not listening to his intelligence? why was he praising xi in early january and february? why was he heralding the trade deal and why was he patting him on the back? i think all of those questions also need to be answered. >> indeed. thank you very much, jeremy bash, dr. adalja, kristen welker, of course, and peter baker. house speaker nancy pelosi joins me now from capitol hill. madam speaker, thank you very much for being with us today. it's good to see you. >> thank you. >> the president said there would be more deaths but the virus will pass, that it's time to reopen the economy. as we see hotspots spreading across the country, do you agree with him now that it's time to focus more on what he sees as getting back to normal? >> what i think we must do as science tells us, we must have testing, testing, testing, tracing, tracing, tracing, and have a number of an idea of how our country has been affected in all communities across the country. that's why i'm so all here working on putting again the next c.a.r.e.s. 2 bill. it's about testing, tracing, treatment and isolation, social distancing and the rest. right away, rapid and robust testing so we can see and take a measure of what's there and not to do so in a way one day they have a task force, next day they don't. one year they have a volunteer corps. the next dane it's looking like a handmade good friends of the white house. let's forget about what they're doing because they had a bad case. and what you're saying about china, yes, we want to know how this started but we want to know what the president knew and what his administration knew and did or didn't do about it. but that's for later. we cannot continue to save lives and livelihood, indeed our democracy, on the strength of what the president said last night. our bill is -- i'll tell you more about it if you wish. >> i do want to ask you about that. let me first ask you about dr. fauci. there are some indications we have not seen him and dr. birx as part of the task force front and center at the white house at least in at least a week or more. let's talk about dr. fauci and whether or not he could appear before the house. we know he's supposed to appear before the senate but the white house, mark meadows, will not let him appear before the house. donna shalala on an earlier hours here on msnbc and former hhs secretary and member of congress said it's up to you whether or not the house subpoenas dr. fauci. do you plan to subpoena dr. fauci to testify? >> well, we're in court right now, supreme court as a matter of fact on the rights of congress to have oversight over the executive branch. three coequal branches of government. and dr. fauci, i would hope dr. fauci would say things in public that we wouldn't need him to be subpoenaed to say about how he sees things going. i feel sad for him and anybody who has to stand in that task force and practically validate what's coming out of the president's mouth instead of an occasional clarification. so, again, we want the information. it's clear the administration is afraid of the truth, and the president of the united states to say that the congress, the house, is a bunch of haters is so beneath the dignity of the office that he holds and so distant from the seriousness he should bring to a matter of life and death of so many people in our country. here we are, national nurses day and week, president's going to do a proclamation but we're unworthy to praise and thanks our first sponresponders unless give them what they need. they need to have the personal protective equipment. that's why we have in addition to the testing, we have a big allocation for state and local government. these people are risking their lives to save other lives and they may lose their jobs because of the economic consequences of the coronavirus. so i think we have to really recognize science, true stats, data, will take us out of it. that's why i was talking about the testing. so we want to save the lives of the american people, we want to salute our heroes with our state and locals. that's a tribute to the caregivers, the police and fire, first responders, emergency services, transit workers, teachers, teachers, teachers and the rest, custodians, all who come in contact with this in terms of risking their lives to save other lives and now they may lose their jobs. so we would hope they would join in something like that. but we have to have a strategic plan. you have to plan, testing, testing, testing. tracing, tracing, tracing. we have to have a plan that reaches everyone in our country. the allocation of resources to do so and show there's a plan. so when you're asking people to social distance, they see it as part of a plan. we haven't seen a plan yet out of this white house exceptp -- >> speaking of some of plans that they've done already, there's reporting that there were a lot of issues with jared kushner and his volunteer force. you just referred to that, the house oversight committee is looking into political influence, favoritism, contracts being awarded improperly, ventilators not being produced, protective gear going to political favorites. what can the house do to look into any of that? >> all of the committees have their own oversight responsibilities, but our new select committee chaired by mr. clyburn is a committee that will be looking at how these dollars are spent. one of the examples from that so-called volunteer corps, whatever that thing was, is that somebody knew somebody who knew somebody who said he had x number of ventilators, referred it to the state of new york. they awarded a contract. and there were no ventilators. we hear that again and again, with masks and the rest. so we just want to make sure that the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent to the tune of trillions now, but hundreds of billions for these purposes is not waste, fraud, abuse, price gouging or profiteering off of it. so that in an overall guide assistance what the committee will -- that new committee will be doing. it's not about oversight of what the president knew when and where. that's for another day. but this committee is about how we go forward. >> what about dr. bright? he's going to be testifying. the whistle-blower whose complaint alleges a lot of mismanagement and improper science, through political insolence from the white house and pressure on him, and he says retaliation, which sidelined him. >> so sad because this is a really respected scientist doing the job, and to have political interference into science when lives are at stake, this is nothing for theoretical down the road, wouldn't it be nice if we had, it's about the here and now. so, again, congressman of the subcommittee on energy and commerce, he next week they will have haring about those allegations that have been put forth by dr. bright. but understand he is a person of the highest integrity and experience as a scientist. barda, the organization he heads, is there to be in the forefront to get science -- we anticipate things in addition to responding to them, and the white house would interfere, as interfered in this volunteer thing, is really quite tragic. look, we all want to come together. we all want to work together. we want to forget this or save that for later or what's so important about that? -o or whatever it is. the fact is if you undermine science, if you underfund testing, if you exaggerate the opportunity that it's out there for the economy at the risk of people dyeing, that's not a plan. death is not an economic motivator stimulus. so why are we going down that path? why don't we -- every wants to get out and we think to unlock the lockdown is to test, trace and treat as well as isolate and social distancing. and when the science tells us that we can do something differently or to be socially distant wearing your mask, doing things in a way that is appropriate. but not cheering people on, going with guns and swastikas to the legislature in michigan and saying these are really good people. what i don't understand about someone associated with the task force is how the concern that that happened and it's dangerous and these people can take this home with them and hurt their families and all of the rest, but they never say to the president, don't look fondly on that. that's not supposed to happen. it's in defiance of the guidelines you're asking people to honor and yet you honor those who are in violation of them. so, again, how can we find our common ground for the funding, for the testing, for honoring our heroes and for putting money in the pockets of the american people? we have to do that more effectively and with more money. we have to have the money for our democracy, for our elections. this is essential. let's compare the big -- the voter protections to vote by mail and those who want don't wo vote by mail. >> you mentioned masks. should the president role model when he's out in public -- the vice president said he made a mistake and should have worn a mask. should the president wear a face mask or some covering? >> the president, it's a vanity thing with him. it's a vanity thing. would you think as the president of the united states you would have the confidence to honor the guidance that you are giving others in the country. yes, he should have worn a face mask. but it's really another indication as we tell everyone to wash their hands 30 seconds, soap and water, top and bottom, wash your hands, hygiene and sanitation, very important in fighting this. apparently the president has washed his hands of this. he's just washed his hands. he wants the task force here today, gone tomorrow. no mask. why should i have a mask? i'm president of the united states. we have a real problem here, but forget it. let's not make that important. let's make important what we can do next working together to honor our first responders, our heroes to test, test, test, to find the true extent in all of the communities in our country and to save lives, livelihood and life of our democracy. we can do that, and we can do it working together. i'm very proud the first four bills were bipartisan. >> would you put those priorities, your priorities, you made it clear what they are, on the house floor for a vote before you have an agreement with the senate and with the white house? >> that would be an option that we have. that's up to my caucus and we're in siers of cala series of call way or another, bigger groups, committee and have a call today. i definitely will present that as an option. and what we're doing is very i think appealing. let me just say, the governors, democrats and republicans -- republicans and democrats, mayors, county executives, all support, all support the state and local, our heroes bill. scientists universally say we must be testing. so this is nothing controversial. it's science and it's honoring those who are risking their lives to save our lives but may lose their jobs. i think that's bipartisan. >> before i let you go, do you want to send a message to an 87-year-old supreme court justice who just participated in an oral argument from johns hopkins and was, you know, right in the frontlines, still in the fight? >> not only my message but the message of so many people i was on the text on since yesterday to her. we thank her for her values. we thank her for her courage. we thank her for her strength and determination. and what we do, she's just absolutely magnificent, god truly blessed america with the service and leadership of justice ruth bader ginsburg. >> thank you very much, madam speaker. it's always good to talk to you. we appreciate it. i know you're a busy, busy person. >> thank you so much. >> you bet. as we mentioned, 87-year-old supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg participated in that oral argument today from johns hopkins. pete williams, you have been reporting on this overnight. she was treated it, as you have been reporting, from an infection called by a gallstone. benign, no surgery involved, no sign of the recurrence of the cancer for which she's been treated as recently as last summer. pete, what do we know? this was an important argument about contraception and attempt to give corporations a way to opt out of providing contraception in their health care plans. >> she may hear the speaker's good wishes later today, andrea, but she's still on the phone because the supreme court is right now hearing its second oral argument of the day. ever since they went to the telephone conference calls, things last a lot longer. but she was an active questioner in the first case up this morning, which is an important issue for her. this involves a challenge to trump administration rules that currently are on hold because of court rulings that would expand the number and the type of employers who could opt out of providing contraceptive coverage for their employees. you may remember that after obamacare was passed, churches, mosques, houses of worship were allowed to opt out. but now the trump administration said that should be broader for-prof companies, schools, universities, not just religious but moral objection. today it looked like at least four justices, justice ginsburg among them, believe that was way too broad, well beyond what congress said. justice ginsburg said it would toss to the winds what congress authorized and required in obamacare, that women have seamless coverage and would force them to go elsewhere to try to find the coverage and congress wanted it to be at no cost. so she i think was clearly joined by the other liberals. at least four of the conservatives think the rules are okay. but the federal agency that opposed them has very broad authority. john roberts probably has the deciding vote here and he didn't clearly tip his hand but he did show some scepticism whether the rules went too far. so it's possible that the court may roll back what the trump administration has try dodd hie here. but she was an active question, andrea. think about it, she was on the first conference call monday when the court started hearing oral argument. then she finds out later that day she has a gallbladder but takes a part again on the second teleconference tuesday and then goes to johns hopkins, has the procedure to get the blockage out, takes antibiotics, in the hospital overnight and back on the phone this morning. and the court said she will probably be in the hospital for another day or so. >> pete, i know you've got to get back to the argument but i just want to play while you're there, a little bit just to let our listeners listen, our viewers, rather, listen to her questioning. >> sure. >> you have just tossed entirely to the wind what congress thought was essential, and that is women be provided these services with no hassle, no cost to them. >> and, pete, it just shows she was questioning the solicitor general, it shows she's still incredibly involved. it's such a show of force on her part. i know we have to leave it there. but thank you so much, pete. coming up next -- why some florida beaches are being forced to shut down just days after they reopened. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us on msnbc. it's best we stay apart for a bit, but you're not alone. we're automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. learn more at libertymutual.com/covid-19. [ piano playing ] so we're working 24/7 toected maintain a reliable network, to meet your growing internet needs. we're helping customers who are experiencing financial difficulties stay connected. we're increasing internet speeds for low income families in our internet essentials program. and delivering self-install kits to your door. nos comprometemos a mantenerte conectado. we're committed to keeping you connected. for more information on how you can stay connected, visit xfinity.com/prepare. days after florida reopened its beaches and businesses the state is marking a grim milestone. close to 1,500 lives lost. residents appear to be ignoring the governor's social distancing advice. a popular south beach park, which opened just last week, had to be shut down monday for overcrowding. police also shut down a cinco de mayo tailgate party tuesday in jacksonville. a local tv station spoke to some of the partygoers. >> i don't see same feet rule over there. >> six feet means different things to different people. >> we're ready to let our guard down and do whatever it is we feel like we need to do. >> nbc news correspondent sam brock joins us from miami beach. sam, florida's infections are down but with all of this crowding, how long will that be down? >> look, andrea, six feet may be different things to different people but six feet is six feet. over my shoulder right now you see south point park, that was open until three days ago. now clearly yellow police tape and officers behind me. it's not open right now. the mayor of miami beach was on msnbc this morning speaking with stephanie ruhle. he said look, we've got a couple dozen parks we opened in the last week or so. most are fine. the main issue here is south point park, a borderline bonanza when you had thousands of people coming out here, many not wearing masks. the mayor saying there were more than 7,000-plus warnings of people not wearing masks. most of them were right here. that's the concern, this is an attraction, if you open this up, could it be a harbinger for what beaches might look like? and that's so intricately tied to the economy in florida. 10 million visitors to miami beach alone every single year. the concern is this a microcosm of what we have to expect. the big picture point i would like to make is indications are going down here. if you look at florida's curve, it peaked about 1,200 a week and a half ago. and now we're at 38,000 for the state of florida. but governor desantis just coming out in the last hour or so saying the positivity rate, percentage of positives being tested was 2.6 a couple weeks ago and 2.8% yesterday. he touted that as being excellent compared to national averages that are around 16%. leadered heartened by what they're seeing in some areas but when you open up parks and seeing flood gates of people pouring in, that does raise eyebrows and something leaders are trying to get ahold on. andrea, back to you. >> thank you very much, sam brock. meanwhile it's a bittersweet time for the class of 2020. a graduation year without commencement exercises. one high school principal in one texas town is going the extra mile -- more than the extra mile to celebrate them. here's joe fryer. >> reporter: the senior class at wily high in texas can't go to school but principal verde montgomery quickly revised he could go to them. >> so i told my wife what i was going to do and she looked at me like i was crazy because i get these ideas every once in a while. >> reporter: montgomery hit the road and in 12 days visited every senior, 612 of them, from 6 feet away. he gave each a candy bar telling him one day they will look back and snicker along with a note. >> i'm so sorry this has happened. i can't believe i have not gotten to meet with you and watch you finish this year and all of the things you're involved in. i'm honored to get to be your principal. >> reporter: for students like valerie, there were only snickers of gratitude. >> i teared up a little bit. >> now that i've done it, it was a treasured memory i will never forget. and it was more for me than them. >> reporter: a principal's journey measured in 800 miles and 612 smiles. things can get a bit cloudy for you. but now, there's the dell technologies cloud, powered by vmware. a single hub for a consistent operating experience across all your clouds. that should clear things up. around here, nobody ever does it. i didn't do it. so when i heard they added ultra oxi to the cleaning power of tide, it was just what we needed. dad? i didn't do it. #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. it's got to be tide. ior anything i want to buy isk going to be on rakuten. rakuten is easy to use, free to sign up and it's in over 3,000 stores. i buy a lot of makeup. shampoo, conditioner. books, food. travel. shoes. stuff for my backyard. anything from clothes to electronics. workout gear. i even recently got cash back on domain hosting. you can buy tires. to me, rakuten is a great way to get cash back on anything you buy. rack it up with rakuten, sign up today to get cash back on everything you buy. the coronavirus pandemic is revealing the glaring wealth disparity in our country. as essential workers continue to be among the least protected, the least paid, the uninsured and usually those working in unsafe conditions. former top economic adviser to presidents bill clinton and barack obama pointing out that 47% of nursing and home health aides aren't offered even a single day of paid sick leave. a million front looip health care workers lack their own health coverage and the median pay is now risking their lives in hospital full of covid patients is $14.26 an hour. 4 million more americans filing jobless claims. among them larissa boetschy in north dakota. she quick her job at a wind power plant there. over 140 workers at the plant tested positive for covid-19. >> they didn't seem to care how anybody felt unsafe. a lot of people were scared, still going to work though because they need the paycheck. it's really hard because i don't know when i'll get another job, and i also don't know if i'll get unemployment. so it's been a very difficult time. . >> joining me now is jean spurling, former chief white house economic adviser to presidents clinton and obama. and his new book is titled "economic dignity." talking about the underpaid, underemployed essential workers on our frontlines. gene, this is such an important book. let's talk about what could be done to protect them rather than just signing proclamations? what can we do for these people on our frontlines? >> that's exactly, this really is our moment of truth on economic dignity. you know, the ultimate perhaps frame that was set by dr. martin luther king in 1968 at the memphis sanitation workers' strike, andrea, he said all labor has dignity and we will come to realize the sanitation worker and the physician are both essential to our health. this is the moment we realize that across the board. some of the workers we've treated the worst economically, farm workers, domestic workers, delivery dlievers, home health aides, nursing aides, they're littering on the frontline saving our well being. and as you said many being paid $12, $13 an hour. so we have kind of a momentary moment of truth and larger reckoning. the momentary moment of truth is whether i think we're going to do the kind of essential workers bill of rights? are we going to recognize hazard pay and ensure everybody is getting at least $15 or more an hour, probably much more, so they have the kind of safety that everyone, of course, has paid sick leave. it's also going to force us to ask deeper questions, which is why is it that so many workers that we rely on so much for the most important things in life, teaching our children, caring for our older loved ones and perhaps their last days, we treat so poorly economically and i think my book is meant to say our ultimate aspiration is not a gdp figure or even a jobs figure, it's about can we ensure that every person can care for their family and be there for life's most special moments? can they pursue with intent and with purpose? can they work with respect and without domination and humiliation? i think we have to ask ourselves, what is that long-term impact? it's not that hard. having a strong $15 minute mum wage, it's about health care and childcare. it's all about asking ourselves, how do we feel about ourselves as a country if, for example, the people who take care of other people's children, only less than one in ten can take a week off for the birth of their own child. is that the kind of dignified country we want to have right now in this crisis and going forward? >> and you're raising really important questions at a time when the president of the united states has talked about, yeah, we're going to have to deep with more deaths but we have to get the country back to normal. does there have to be a tradeoff between saving lives and reopening the economy? can't we do both? >> i absolutely believe we can do both. andrea, this will probably be the first time someone quotes emanuel kaunt on your show but he said dignity means you should never feel like you're being treated just as a means to someone else's end. that you are treated for your intrinsic value. and that woman you just spoke to, she was basically reflecting what i think meat workers were being ordered back to work feel like, many of the orderlies that had to wear garbage bags as opposed to having proper ppe, is that they're willing to come back in a way that recognizes their value. and when you order people back to work in a dangerous industry like meatpacking where you have hot spots and then you say let's give sweeping immunity, that is making that worker feel like they're just a means to the rest of our end. and it's not just when we reopen or what the guidelines are, but how we're going to treat those workers, are they going to feel that they are being treated with dignity and respect? i think across this country see feeling the great applause of their common citizen, from their government and employers now, they still feel like they're just being used to each other's ends. and if the president opens up, you can have common sense rules that make clear you do not have to sacrifice lives, nor make people feel their life is put on the line in order to take reasonable steps, common sense steps to open up the economy in a way that doesn't lead to community spread and another surge that will overwhelm our hospitals. >> the book is economic dignity. thank you, gene sperling, for reminding us of core values and thank you for bringing that to msnbc. thank you very much. speaking of front line workers, health care workers are the warriors in the battle against coronavirus, they work to heal the sick, while running the risk of being infected themselves or infecting their families. they absorb their patients' grief, but how are they dealing with their own? >> more stressful, harder to interact with patients you care for related to the critical nature of the covid-19 patients and the enhanced isolation that we have to put the patient in to protect everyone and ourselves. >> we have a patient that was dying. we prayed with him. i held his hand with my gloved hand, i explained to him your wife can't be here. we made sure he wasn't alone, so he did not die alone. >> joining me, dr. debra marin, director of mount sinai center for stress, resilience, growth. designed to address the impact of covid-19 on the front line of health care workers. thank you for what you're doing. tell us how you're going to tackle the problem? >> good afternoon, thanks for having me on the show. so we recognize that any given trauma of a magnitude like this, unknown to anybody actually certainly in the united states but elsewhere, workers are doing heroic efforts. we also know there's likely to be increased toll on the folks, all folks. as a consequence we built the center to address that need and try to mitigate investment of some acute responses, delayed responses like post traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, for all health care workers. beyond that, once we do that for lots of folks who we serve in our communities as well obviously. we have a large community of workers right now. >> we think of dr. lorna breen who died by suicide and that was the worst examples of the trauma the people are feeling. is there any other advice, practical advice you can give on a daily basis to those on the front line working 12 hour shifts? she spoke to her sister feeling she couldn't leave after 12 hours, others were still working and that she had to stay. >> right. the well-being of workers is definitely being stressed, not only in light of the fact that they're working very hard but described by folks which is social isolation, anxiety, changes in one's home, fear of uncertainty. so we created a collaborative with other programs, a large work force going to the floors where folks are working to meet their needs, just to know they're there. we have mental health liaisons, chaplains around the hospitals now, letting people know there are services. we developed a lot of services already, beginning with meeting basic needs to meeting psychological needs, all sorts of things. we started this a few months ago. this program is going to be very much focusing on letting people know that there's no stigma to having some of the reactions they're likely to have, and there is screening for all employees to better understand where they're at and then services offered individually, in group, virtually, in person to build folks up, make them feel well, to teach them ways to cope, and also easy ways to get treated by individuals in the industry, psychologist, social workers that we need additional resources to the program. >> doctor, there are a lot of other issues. i noticed one interview of this extraordinary doctor in iowa with lawrence o'donnell the other night. she said she deals by eating too much, tries to exercise, telling her teams of doctors not to rely on alcohol, that only makes it worse. so the other smart things we do for our own mental health in isolation. thanks again for what you're doing. we'll stay in touch. that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports on nurse appreciation day and nurse appreciation week. follow us online on facebook and on twitter @mitchell reports. we pick up coverage after a short break. before we go on nurses appreciation day, a short salute to front line medical workers we have been talking about who are doing so much, everything they can do to keep all of us safe. stay healthy. >> to all the nurses coming from multiple disciplines and working together, i have never been prouder to be part of such an incredible team. >> they keep coming back though, keep coming back because the patients need us. >> we are proud. we're proud of the work that we're doing. we're proud of the success stories. >> i thank all the doctors, the nurses, everybody. >> thank you to the doctors, the nurses, and for everybody. , and. they are the heroes, the helpers - working on the front lines, and here's one small way that you can help them in return. complete your 2020 census today. 2020 census data helps communities plan funding for hospitals, clinics, and emergency services across the country. an accurate count helps public health officials know who is at risk, and first responders identify the resources they need to protect our communities. complete your census at 2020census.gov and help shape our future. good afternoon. i'm chuck todd. here are the facts as we know them this hour. gm says some of its plants will begin to reopen may 18th, this as drop in car sales has michigan and ohio lawmakers pushing for new federal aid for the auto industry. since the march outbreak, according to jd power, retailers sold 800,000 fewer vehicles. the ridesharing company uber announced it is laying off 3700 employees, 14% of the work force, as the coronavirus pandemic keeps many americans home bound. that follows what we saw with airbnb with a 25% layoff announcement. in wuhan, china, former center of the coronavirus outbreak. 57,000 high school students returned to class today for the

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