it's 4:00 on the east coast. you just heard pleas from the governors of new york, new jersey and michigan. they're calling for more equipment and better testing. we may hear more about that in about 60 minutes. there's a white house coronavirus task force briefing scheduled for 5:00 p.m. eastern in is are we stand at this hour. there are more than 130,000 cases nation wide. more than 2200 people have died. new york city is the epicenter of the crisis. doctors are dealing with 33,000 cases of covid-19. the city saw 4,000 new positive tests this weekend and there was a stark warning this morning for other communities across the country. >> we have areas of the country such as the new york area, we'll be seeing places like detroit and other cities starting to get into trouble. where the curve did exactly what i said on this show and other shows some timing a. it putters along and it goes way up. >> new york saw the largest one day jump in deaths, 237 in just 24 hours. 1,175 more people were hospitalized. this is the rapid surge health care workers and state and federal officials are trying to combat. i'd like to welcome dr. wen. she's the former health commissioner for baltimore. others are wondering if they should look at that as foreshad foreshadowing. >> you're right. this is what could be coming their way. we're looking at new york and we know we're not even close to epidemic. the peak of the outbreak there yet. yet, supplies are already running out. health care workers are overwhelmed. we don't know how much worse it's going to get there. at the same time, all across the rest of the country because of lack of testing, we don't know how far other metropolitan areas are behind. every one should be taking this opportunity to prepare to stock up and we really need the federal government's response here. we can't just have individual areas become overwhelmed. the federal government help out these areas only after the fact while ignoring the rest of the country that's really on the precipice and could be the next area, the next epicenter for covid-19. >> dr. gupta, so much of what we heard from those on the front lines is about the need for this protective gear, what will it take to get that protective gear in the hands of those who need it most? >> i think first and foremost, i have to say just walking around seattle, i still see people who shouldn't be wearing masks in grocery stores or shouldn't be wearing them on the street. it's going to take a concerted effort on the part of all americans to follow the rules. ppe should only be dawned in certain situations. we need to preserve it for our health care work force. i see pictures of colleagues wearing trash bags in new york instead of gowns because there aren't enough gowns in these critically affected spots. this will be a whole of government, whole of nation effort to buy in to messaging we have been hammering home day in and day out. that be a key piece of it. another key piece is we're well behind in terms of implementing the defense production act. we're going to be finding more and more situations of reusing ppe, reusing gowns. it will be suboptimal before it gets getter. that's a reality we have to face. >> dr. wen, dr. fauci was on cnn talking about the possibility of loosening restrictions. take a listen. >> you can do it but you must have in place the capability of going there, testing, testing in an efficient way. i think it will depend on the vablts availability of those rapid tests you can get quickly. 15 minutes or so we'll know right away so when you identify someone who is infected, that person doesn't go out in society for few days, infect a bunch of people and you bring them back because the test is positive. it will be matter of weeks. it's not going to be tomorrow and it's not going to be next week. >> i think that question we all hear from people is how long is this going to last. how much is the answer to that question con tin jents upon the availability of this testing and this new 15-minute test that is being offered. >> testing and the capacity to do widespread testing is absolutely essential to our ability to respond and our abilities at some point to loosen these restrictions, which i think virtually everybody public health expert would agree is not right now. frankly, everything is out of control at the moment. we're seeing number of cases escalating. we're seeing the health care system that is on the point of collapse. we first have to strengthen our health care system so that patients who need treatment are able to receive it. after that and the same time that's happening we have to ramp up testi ining capacity so ever pashts who needs a test is able to receive it. we can do surveillance testing to understand what is the true spread of coronavirus in the community. only after those two things are in place and we're seeing the numbers decline instead of going up at this rapid phase can we even talk about loosening these restrictions. we really need the federal government to step up much more in this response and for every one as dr. gupta to do their part. social distancing, the physical distancing is the single most important thing that each american can be doing right now in order to reduce the rate of transmission in our communities and in the country. >> dr. gupta, just yesterday, illinois reported the first known case of a child under the age of one dying from covid-19. that story plus other stories of people who are healthy, who don't have underlying conditions dying from this virus. what does that tell you? >> it confirm what is we have known for a few weeks, even if you are young and healthy, you can still end up in the icu. the majority of people requiring hospitalization that are sick enough to require hospitalization are between 20 and 54 years of age. they are young. they don't have a preexisting condition in many cases. it's not -- being young is not any type of immunity in and of itself. the fact we had a baby dying in illinois is also confirm whagint we are learning about. young people, just like old people are especially susceptible to bad outcomes but even if you're middle age, if you're a millennial, you're likely to end up in the icu as much as somebody that is older. >> dr. wen, you're pregnant. i was pregnant with my first baby with zika with a issue. i was living in miami. what is your counsel to other women who are going through this and wondering what they are supposed to be doing to keep themselves safe? >> i was think about when i was pregnant with my son, the very different concerns. living through this myself and know so many other pregnant women will have these concerns. there's a lot we don't know. we believe covid-19 does not make pregnant women more susceptible to having severe effects. that said, guidelines are changing every day. living through this uncertainty, this is one of the sacrifices that we have to be making, that each of us has to be making. i was counsel for every one to continue to follow the guidance of their doctor and public health experts and granting each other some grace along the way because they are going to be a lot of uncertainties. a lot of things we do not anticipate. what we can do our part. we can also do our part, part of doing our part is embracing the uncertainty that comes along with this very stressful time. >> thank you. the urgent call from every governor has been vent laters. what about those that need them to survivor. they are filing complaints against multiple states. plans to ration to the most critically ill is putting those with disabilities at risk. >> thank you for having me. i would say more than anything, congress refusal to enact the priorities listed out in any of their three coronavirus packages is negly jen lligent and will c disabled people to die. >> to that point, can you be very specific with me. what did you want to see in that legislation did not make it in? >> we think it's imperative we do whatever possible to allow people with disabilities and underlying conditions to stay home. congress did not take any of our proposals into their legislation including increased funding for home and community based services. increased funding for service professionals so people who have home care workers can continue to work for them. being able to make family who is have adult children with disabilities eligible, be able to take paid medical family leave. repeatedly, pieces of legislation came out that essentially erased the existence of the disability community. since we know our folks are mull vulnerable to catch it and transmit it because of the issues we, we should be doing everything to make sure disabled people can stay home, have their needs met and access prescription drugs. we know in a number of states, if you're on medicaid, you're not eligible to get prescription drugs by mail. why would we force people with disabilities to have to go out to get services instead of staying home and get what they need at home. >> there is a fourth package that is likely on the way. what would you want to see in that piece of legislation? >> stronger language around ppe. we're hearing people that go to hospital and used ventilators on a daily basis are having those taken away from them and are being told if they bring it to the hospital it will be removed from them and repurposed by the hospital. increased funding for medicaid so states can get the services they need and live in their own homes. obviously, we don't want to see any discrimination of treatment or vaccinations when we get to that point against people with disabilities. you cannot discriminate on the basis of an individual's disability when providing medical treatment. >> rebecca, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you so much. next, there's been a spike of coronavirus cases in prison. what's being done to stop the spread behind bars? plus, business is booming at your local supermarket. what about the workers stocking your shelves and baggi inging groceries? now they are staying safe during the pandemic. staying safe durig the pandemic your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. as jails as prisons across the country brace for a possible coronavirus outbraebeak, the buu of prisons reports the first prisoner has died. 47-year-old patrick jones contracted it at a louisiana federal prison where five others have tested positive. in new york an analysis by the legal aid society finds covid-19 is spreading rapidly at rikers island and other jails endangering our correction staff and all of new york city. with me now is dr. homer. he's a former chief medical officer at riker's island. britney white is a dekacarceratn manager. when you think about the population that you once served at riker's, what is the greatest risk to their well being. >> incarceration brings health risk but it brings the risk of serious illness and death. we know we have a million people incarcerated in this nation and we have them in places where we know we cannot protect them. we must get those folks identified and out and for the people we can't get out, we have to establish how we're going to get them adequate care. that's something we have not provided to people behind bars, ever, in this nation. >> what was your experience of seeking medical treatment? >> first of all, thank you for having me join you today. i would like to educate your viewers that medical treatment does not come without a fee associated it. one action that governors can take across this country is putting a moratorium on any sick fees or copays associated with assessing medical treatment. >> can you help draw a line for me what is happening in these prisons and how it affected larger public health scenario? >> we have pretended at prisons and jails and i.c.e. detention centers aren't part of the community but they are. the people who are detained and the staff are part of the community. every jail and prison and i.c.e. detention center, the most common way the virus is moving in and out and across the facility is with staff coming three times a day, three shifts a day moving all over the facilities. we are seeing the rise of infections being identified inside these places. we know we have high risk people at risk of illness and dets in these places, we should understand these places will become reservoirs of infection. because of the setting, because of the filthy, unsanitary conditions and the unacceptable low standards of health care, these 5,000 jail, prisons, i.c.e. detention centers may drive the epidemic curve up just when wer t're trying to flatten that curve. >> britney, what is your mess a j to state and federal government officials about what you would like to see done when it comes to incarcerated people? >> my message is we don't want to see mass death within mass incar ration. because there's yet to be a pro active approach toincarceration being reactionary. there's an opportunity allocate funds to those of us who are leading grass roots movements on the ground to give us the resources that we need. we have the imagination and analysis to address this add adequately. secondly, state and local government, it's time to take bold, decisive and swift action. what we're seeing is that mass incarceration leaves people vulnerable because of the interdependence that incarcerated communities have. we're so depen dent on each other because of how we pool our resources together that we cannot leave people who are incarcerated out of this public health issue. we need to take a protective action and we're not putting more people in jail when it's not necessary. we need to release people out of jail. we need to give them reentry services so they cannot be vulnerable to resid vif and protect the populations left behind with clean protocol, giving them access to cleaning products as well as release whag is the protocol if we find out there's infection or death in those institutions. >> one of things i was most struck by when i read your book, life and death at riker's island is you come at this as a medical professiona professional but you bumped up against political will. as you're making the case for letting some of these incarcerated folks go, how do you create the political will to do that especially in a moment like this? >> well, i think that actually this moment it's not just critically important. i think it's in the front of everybody's mind that there is great danger, peril all around us. we all want to do what we can to promote survival of everybody in our society. this is a moment where if we can peel back the layers of protection from prying eyes, people can see how filthy and unsanitary these places are. how they will promote the spread of infection and potential death for people inside but also just as we know the virus won't stop at the edge of a school or a library or shopping mall, obviously, it won't stop at these places. unless we deal in an evidence based way with the virus, get people out of jail but also have every governor name a correctional coordinator to make sure people get to the hospital, if we don't do those things, i think people can see that will promote the growth of this epidemic growth curve up just when we're working so hard to flatten the curve. >> thank you both so much. up next, the president floated reopening the country by easter, but his health officials are giving some slightly different guidance. we'll talk about the response from the white house and what might come next. there's a white house coronavirus task force briefing at 5:00 p.m. eastern. we'll bring you that as it happens. you're watching nbc live. msnbc live. msnbc live even a "three-ring fender bender." 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>> you have president trump as he's going to in about 45 minutes still exploring his executive powers under the emergency declaration to see what he can do. there's a real internal debate inside the white house. he's gone from talking days ago about trying to reopen the country by easter and now he's moving more toward some dramatic measures such a quarantining or travel advisories. do you see him getting information from doctors and health professionals that there's a mounting problem in many of these states. >> do you have a sense of what is impacting his thinking as he takes those proposals into consideration? >> least lohe's considering the political impact of all of this. he has his re-election campaign ahead of him just months away. he's also talking to health professionals and he's hearing that the data coming out of new york is not entirely positive at all. while they are trying to get some more medical is supplies, y still need more tests. when i spoke to governor murphy, he is still turning to the federal government because they need a lot more and they are concerned that so much is coming out of new york and the tristate area to other states. the president is grappling with that. he's not in total control. the governors i've spoken with in recent days they say have the real eyes on the ground and they want to be the ones making the decision. >> jonathan, i'd like you to pick up where robert just left off. it was never clear that the president had the authority to issue that tristate quarantine. where are there opportunities for the federal government and for these governors to be working together to bring solutions to these states? >> the proposal the president floated and left hanging out there for seven hours panicked a lot of people in the tristate area. the governor said he knows a lot of of people tried to get out of town for that stretch, might be carrying the virus with them. it's not clear whether the government has the authority to do this. this is usually a state matter. people close to the president looked up this impossible legal justifications and they thought would fit would probably lose in the courts. a lot of it was a political calculation. the governor spoken to the governor and florida and watched his interviews with the governor who expressed concern that new yorkers and people from the tristate area, which is the epicenter were traveling to florida and bringing the virus with them. let's set aside the fact the governor was still leaving beaches open up until this weekend. beyond that, there was a thought among the president and his allies, these are blue states, they are not ones he will be competing in this election and they would send a signal he's in charge. it's probably already too late. we're seeing hot spots start to pick up in chicago, detroit and new orleans and in florida. there's a sense it will spread to other parts of the country that are less dense but won't have the health care facilities in place to be able to handle the coming onslaught. >> there's the president relationship with these governors and then there's also his relationship with members of congress. i want you to listen to some sound from speaker pelosi earlier today. >> what the president, his denial at the beginning was deadly. his delaying of getting equipment to where it continues, his delay to getting equipment to where it's needed is deadly. now i think the best thing would be to prevent more loss of life rather than open things up. >> sarah, that sounds to me like her ramping up her critique of the president. i wonder what insights you can give us into her calculus moving forward. we know congress will be looking at this fourth package. what more can congress do? >> well, what i hear from speaker pelosi is an intensifying of this con flikfl with the president that's become personal and this national crisis, while it has braugts some members of both parties together, they did ultimately negotiate this 2 trillion dollar package, the speaker did not speak with president trump once during those conversations. that is why she's been negotiating through treasury secretary mnuchin. it's the latest example of how the break down in conversation and relationships between the speaker of the house, the most powerful democrat in washington, and the president, this relationship will be further under strain. congress will be looking to coming up with another package. there's no doubt there's not enough help out there now. think about how much stress there is in next week alone. businesses will be dealing with rent, check pamtyments. individuals will be dealing with rent and congress will be looking back. democrats feel it's their role to make sure they holding the president accountable. we are going to see democrats like speaker pelosi going after the president hard because that's all they can really do right now until they do start drafting another package is calling out the president when they see faults and see him not doing now have for this response. >> robert, this crisis is happening against the backdrop of an upcoming presidential election. the biden campaign has used some of the sound from the president in a new ad. take a listen. >> don't call the woman in michigan. >> governor gretchen official claling on president trump for a my j may disaster declaration. >> the case of detroit hospitals are pleading for help. >> here's what happens. no, you know what i say. if they don't treat you right, i don't call. >> robert, this is incredibly delicate, the nation is in a moment of extreme crisis and there is the reality in a few months there's going to be a presidential election. what is the biden campaign's posture on how he can best position himself during this moment? >> when i spoke to the governor a few days ago, i asked her does she feel like she's in transactional moment with the federal government, that she needs to be nice to president trump in order to get the supplies she need. she was careful in her comments. she said i feel a sense tifrty in the white house speaking to president trump when she deals with them and when she deals directly with him. she's garnered a national profile during this entire period as someone who is trying in her state to get supplies, to have an even tempered response. you saw the detroit free press columnist write a column complimentary of her. they say the governor is on that range and the short list of vice president shl contenders as he looks ahead to who may join him on the ticket. that's not the say he's formally on the list but top democrats are telling me her performance now has gotten a lot of attention in the vice president's world. he's trying to navigate all of this from his home in delaware. not easy but he's doing his best to remain ubiquitous as possible in the media. >> all right. thank you all. home grocery delivery has become more popular than ever but the people going to the store so others don't have to are concerned and some of them are considering a strike. this is a live look at the white house. a live look at the white house. want to brain better? 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(avo female) get 0.9% apr financing on the 2020 subaru outback through march 31st. responders and working with families who are in need? we have one answer after reaching out on twitter. she received nearly $400,000 in donations to give to hundreds of nonprofits across the country to wou help those in the fight against covid-19. hallie joins me now. thank you for being here. i saw this story. i absolutely loved it. tell me, what was the motivation behind this project? >> yeah, so i think a lot of people can understand the sorrow and how harrowing everything is right now, and i was feeling that deeply and actually turned to fred rogers when he said look for the helpers. what i started doing was trying to, within all of the sad news, look for the people that were helping on the ground. that made me feel better, so i really was inspired to help the helpers. >> so let's talk about the helpers because you have helped by raising $400,000 from them. what are these organizations and what are they doing? >> so we ended up funding 36 nonprofits. and that number is growing. it really spans from the first responders, the medical providers that need the ppe and protective gear in order to safely take care of patients. it is an absolute embarrassment that we are not protecting those who are saving lives in the hospitals. so a lot of the organizations we funded like get us ppe, which is a really wonderful movement, and a million masks are actually just getting, securing, and providing this protection for our providers that are on the front lines right now. we also funded a lot of organizations that are helping the most vulnerable individuals right now. those that might have lost their job, those at risk because they are in isolation. a lot of women and children. so a variety of organizations that really need our help right now. >> how is the hashtag get me ppe helping to connect those who need these personal protective equipment with suppliers and others who might be able to provide them? sure. >> so it's a movement on behalf of doctors, nurses, any hospital worker that is out there right now. so they are trying to connect individuals and organizations that have the protective gear with the hospitals that are in most need. >> i think a lot of people right now are looking at their own financial situations. they are anxious. they are nervous. you have seen the same unemployment numbers i have seen. for a lot of people, this is not the moment when they have money to give. for those who cannot donate to an effort likes yurgs, what are some of the other ways they might be able to contribute? >> there are so many ways. so, even if you can give a little bit to your local nonprofit, it could go a long way. if we can all just give a little bit. there are other non-monetary ways to support those right now. you could donate blood. the red cross has been very vocal about needing healthy donors. you can call someone who is in isolation and might be very lonely and just cheer them up. so, you know, there are a lot of things that you can do. get really creative. think about those around you, even if it's just helping out a neighbor. i promise you will make you feel better yourself, too. >> hallie, i think that was part of what i was so moved by when i saw your twitter plea, which is that your emphasis is on the fact if you can help, if you have the capacity to help, it is imperative upon each of us not just to help, but it help right now in this moment to let time be of the essence. what is your message to someone who is watching who might feel a little dispirited about their capacity to contribute in this moment of crisis? >> just do something. don't overthink it. you can help. you can be a part of the solution. do it now. don't think twice. this is a very urgent situation that we're facing in new york city and across the united states, and you are urgently needed no matter how small you think your actions are. they will make a big difference. >> all right. hallie, thank you so much for your efforts and for your time today. that wraps it up for this hour. we will just a few minutes away from a briefing at the white house. it is scheduled for the top of the hour. the reverend al sharpton will bring it to you nokes on "politics nation." open road and telling peoplege that liberty mutual customizes your insurance, so you only pay for what you need! 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