Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Katy Tur 20200427

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minnesota, mississippi, montana, oklahoma, tennessee, and texas have all loosened restrictions in recent days. good afternoon, i'm katy tur. the guidance from the white house advise that's states can begin to reopen after 14 days of a downward trend in new cases of covid-19. but many states aren't exactly following those guidelines. tennessee saw a 5% increase in confirmed cases yesterday. but the governor is now allowing restaurants to reopen. and retail stores will follow suit this week. minnesota has yet to flatten the curve of new confirmed cases. let alone see a decrease. but up to 100,000 office workers are now able to return to work. colorado has not seen a sustained decline in the number of confirmed cases and governor jarrod polis admits he is concerned about a second spike in cases later this year. and now some business owners like mary ramirez said she feels like a test dummy. a report from harvard estimates we need to be covid-19 testing five million people every day just two months from now in order to begin thinking about reopening safely. that is roughly the entire number of americans that have been tested so far. and dr. deborah birx conceded on meet the press that the country is still waiting on a testing breakthrough to get us where we need to be. we got reporters across the country today as states adjust to the new normal. let's start in atlanta with our nbc correspondent blaine alexander. some of the businesses are reopening. i know there was some hesitation by folks to come out. but what are you seeing there today? >> katy, i'm seeing a little on both sides. plenty of hesitation from some people. plenty of enthusiasm on the other side. this will be one of the places where there is that enthusiasm. we're at jay christopher's restaurant. i'll show you over here. inside, not many customers inside. you have the sign, open for dine in. here is takeout orders. this shows just a little bit of the two worlds that they're still playing n i spoke with the managers. they told me at this restaurant typically this place is packed. there are plenty of routine customers. but they've only seen a trickle, a slow trickle coming in. people are still doing the takeout orders. but i think what is really important to point out from the restaurants that i spoke to, katy, those who decided to open their doors, it's important to note that the takeout orders or the delivery orders are not enough to sustain business. the in fact, the owner here, the manager rather told me that they have seen only about a third of the profits over the past few weeks that they've been closed. so it really is a desperate situation for them to open back up. but on the flip side, katy, time talking to a lot of business owners that say yes, they're in dire straits and concerned about the bottom line but they do not feel comfortable reopening the restaurants at this point n fact, i talked to one bar owner today. he told me that they don't anticipate opening their doors until sometime in june. he said yes, it's difficult. they are based on people coming in. but he said basically they don't feel they're safe. they don't feel it's the right time to open back up. now, of course, the big question with all of this if they open the doors will customers come? from what we've seen so far, there are some loyal ones. some customers who have come in and we were at another restaurant earlier this morning. the doors opened at 7:00 a.m. there were two people waiting essentially to come in within the first few minutes. but by and large so far, we've not seen a huge rush of customers at least from these that we've been coming to, katy. some refer to it as essentially a soft launch to get and greece the wheels and get ready to really open and hopefully welcome customers in the next few weeks. katy? >> blaine, it is such a hard decision to make that between the economic livelihood and physical livelihood. we know that some restaurants and some places are taking precautions. we just saw video of a hair -- a barbershop where the customer was wearing a mask and the hands of the barber were gloved. what are you seeing inside restaurants? are there any partitions or are tables separated farther than they normally would be? are servers wearing masks? >> absolutely. you can tell this is a very different type ofry alt inside of restaurants. sore so for this restaurant, they have blue xs on the table. they know not to seat people at those tables. there are about three dozen or so restrictions that the governor has said that restaurants must comply with before they're able to reopen. some of those include making sure that all employees do have masks on. making sure that employees get temperature checks before they come in. and not being allowed to seat tables with parties larger than six. that is the maximum size. so a number of changes that restaurants are having to essentially outfit their restaurants to be able to do. we're talking about possibly zpe disposable flatware and forks and cups and things like that to open the doors today. katy? >> looking more like what you might get on an airplane when you order in your seat. at least with the silverware, not necessarily with the physical location. blaine alexander, thank you. now to the midwest and our nbc reporter shaquille brewster. i know you're in chicago. we're talking about minnesota. 100,000 office workers, noncustomer facing workers will be allowed back to work. but they're not even flattening the curve yet. what is the thinking out there? >> well, katy, the health department just announced to day another increase in new coronavirus cases. 214 in the past 24 hours. that comes on top of what we heard from this weekend. 28 lives lost. that was announced on sunday. despite that, we're going to hear from officials later in about an hour or so. but what we heard from the governor so far is that he believes the -- he's confident that the state has increased both testing capacity and that hospital capacity to be able to handle anything and make him confident in reopening at least parts of the state in a gradual way. and that's what we're seeing today in minnesota. 20,000 businesses will now have easier restrictions. we're talking about office workers that are able to come back to work. i spoke to a toy manufacturer who is bringing half of the employees back today. manufacturer talked about his preparedness plan that he needed to create. talking about things like health screenings, daily health questionnaire, temperature checks and also physical changes on the inside. listen to what he told me about why he's confident he can safely bring about half of his workforce back. >> we're fortunate that we have this huge warehouse that we work in. and we have 30 employees working in about 30,000 square feet. so average about 1,000 square feet per employee. and just all we've done is taken all the cubicles away and say you can't work in adjacent cubicles, everybody has a 400 square foot box they have to work in. >> now in minnesota, the stay the ahome orders are still in effect until at least may fourth. you're seeing different things in different states around this region. for example, here in illinois, the stay at home order was extended to the end of may. you're seeing officials both trying to hand that will balance between wanting to reopen the economy and start that conversation but also working to stop the spread and stop the increase in numbers and positive cases in this case. katy? >> you know, i wonder how the larger organizations are going to do this because if you're in an office building that has an elevator, it's hard to social distance in an elevator if you want to get the entire workforce up to the designated work space even if you have space inside that building to separate them. so i wonder how many businesses are going to go along with minnesota's now reopening of that section of the economy. shaq, one more question for you. the you've been covering what wisconsin as well. what are we hearing about more cases potentially linked to that primary day voting? >> well, more cases related to that voting. remember, wisconsin has that april 7th election in. what milwaukee health officials are saying is that about 40 people went out and voted. the initial number is seven last week. they're tracking now 40 people who went out and participated in that election who have since tested positive for the coronavirus. the state friday said that they were tracking about 23 people. so there was some overlap there. but you can imagine that there is 50 people that voted. officials are -- vote who had are testing positive. officials are cautioning you can't make that direct correlation. we don't know how they contracted the virus, whether that was at the polls or afterwards or even before. it's definitely a concern. that's why they were cautioning wisconsin and state officials from having that in person primary or in person election back on april 7th. katy? >> shaq brewster, thank you very much. let's bring in dr. irwin redlener from colombia university. doctor, always good to see you. you have a new report out about what it's going to take to reopen safely. can you give me the lights? is there any reason to feel optimistic about where we can be in the next few months? >> i just want to say that i'm extremely in favor of opening businesses. we need to do this as soon as possible. however, governors that are instituting reopening at any level without the ability to widespread regular very frequent testing are actually playing russian roulette with their state populations. it's just not safe to go into a restaurant. i think six is too many at a table. the point is if you don't know that the kitchen staff, though the servers, the maitre d' are actually covid-19 free, you're taking a chance. even with ppe. i understand the rush to get open. the essence of my report is saying to do so before we have widespread accurate testing is really taking a chance. and that's just unfortunate. katy? >> what about the new fda approved in home test kit? what does that look like? where do we stand with our ability to start using it as a nation? >> that's a new test that's been approved under emergency use regulation. i think we need to know whether we're getting false negatives or false positives with it. it is definitely a step forward. to have a test you can do yourself at home and then mail it in and see what you have or don't have. that is a very, very good development. keep in mind that there are many such tests on the market waiting for or have received some sort of temporary approval or emergency approval from the fda. but these are good developments. what we need are tests can you do literally at the workplace. you can get the results in five minutes, the 15 minutes that you don't have to mail in samples. i think that's the next step. i think that's what we need and that will help us. you reporters were just great. i would just say that if you're an office building whether it's 30 rock or wherever you are and you don't have to be in a group at work, why do that? why not justin doing what you're doing now. do remote working. we're good at it. so if you don't have a business that depends on customers and employees being in contact with one another, i don't see any reason to rush those kinds of situations. if you do have a restaurant or a barbershop or whatever it might be, yes, we do want to make sure that we have testing done before we fully reopen. >> dr. redlener, are we aproeveniaproeve approaching an inflection period? people are venturing out further than they have in the past. i was out on the weekend. the it was a nice day in new york city. i went for a walk with my family. there were tons of people out. there were tons of people in the park. a lot of them were social distancing, staying remaining within their family units, wearing masks. but there were small pockets of people socializing within many families or a group of friends not all of whom are wearing masks. as we reach the point that the weather is better and people are tired of being home or economically they're feeling the pain, how do you convince people to stay home or how quickly does the government need to move to make sure this decision is not taken out of their hands? >> of course, we started off way, way behind the eight ball with a couple of months of delay and getting our testing up to speed. we still have a ways to go. the if we started when we should have started, we would have had widespread really available testing all over the place right now. i think the urge to get outside, to get out of our homes and apartments is important. it's strong. i'm also reminded of, you know, there is an evacuation order in the face of an on coming hurricane, there are always people that stay home anyway to watch it come in. their grandfather dz the same with the hurricane in the 30s and 40s. you're taking a chance. people are not going to get arrested for going outside. they're going to delay getting to the end of the -- so to see people in the park, i've been in the park myself. without masks on. socializing like normal is a mistake. and people are sick from it. it's a shame. we need to do a very -- a much p better job convincing people. we have to hang in there. >> only make things worse, not you in particular, doctor, but people who are not following the guidelines. dr. fauci had said in the past that if you think you're overreacting, then you're doing the right thing. dr. redlener, thank you. good advice. coming up, small business owners can apply for a second round of federal help. can americans spurned by the first round now trust they'll finally get the help they need? plus, a new investigative report that will be of interest to anyone who has a loved one in a nursing home. stay with us for that. next though, an in-depth look at sweden's hands off approach to coronavirus. they're not shutting things down. has it worked? wayfair has way more ways to renovate your home, from inspiration to installation. like way more vanities perfect for you. nice. way more unique fixtures and tiles. pairing. ♪ nice. way more top brands in sinks and faucets. way more ways to rule your renovation. nice! on any budget, with free shipping. wayfair. way more than furniture. i don't have to worry about that, do i?are irritated. harmful bacteria lurk just below the gum line. crest gum detoxify, voted product of the year. it works below the gum line to neutralize harmful plaque bacteria and help reverse early gum damage. gum detoxify, from crest. there's ground to cover and a herd to feed. so run with us on a john deere gator. because being linked to the land means the work never stops. nothing runs like a deer. most countries in europe ordered lockdowns as coronavirus spread. sweden took a different route. they issued limited restrictions and left it largely up to individual citizens whether to stay home. the results, weeks of open bars, cafes, stores, and parks and a death rate that is now much higher than sweden's scandinavian neighbors. sweden's ambassador to the u.s. claims this controversial strategy is working as designed despite the deaths. she tells npr the majority of the population in cities could become immune from infection in a matter of weeks. even though the world health organization is warning that dwoewe don't have enough information to know if that immunity actually exists. joining me from stockholm, sweden, richard engel. so, richard, are people still going out as much as they were? are they now taking it on themselves to isolate and stay home? >> oh, no. they are going out. you don't see it right now because it's just after 8:00 on a monday evening here. it got cold and rainy. and throughout downtown stockholm today, people have been out and they've been buying makeup and shoes and restaurants and cafes, bars, you name it. they are all open. not everything. maybe 75% of the shops are open. but public transport is running at a limited capacity. airlines are running at a limited capacity. schools are still open. and this is not that is just happening now as you said from the gik sweden adopted this approach. every country has had in a very revealing way a different strategy for this. china where the virus began initially denied it was a problem. silenced the whistle-blowers and then imposed a totalitarian crackdown. italy had a rolling start and tried to put in lockdowns. and then put in a total crackdown and is now trying to come out of the shadows. this country decided they were going to do something different. they were going to isolate the sick and the elderly and make sure that there was testing in in nursing homes and to try to quarantine people in nursing homes. also requiring testing at hospitals. but to leave pretty much everyone else alone. and so far according to the health officials here, they've had roughly 2,000 deaths. and have of those deaths in nursing homes. and the other half among the general population. and there are treatments. and i spoke to the equivalent of dr. fauci here. he is a very popular man in this country. he's the one who has been leading the health briefings here. he's become something of a celebrity. people are even having tattoos of his image on his bodies and t-shirts here because sweden took such a different approach and allowed society to function and allowed the economy to go forward. it suffered somewhat but not nearly like some of the other countries. i asked him, why are you doing this? he said it's about balancing costs. >> the disease builds voluntary measures. we have a voluntary vaccination program. 98% are vaccinated. we had a voluntary quarantine for the people coming back from other countries before we went for mitigation instead of trying to close it out. all of those people were in voluntary quarantine. there was no spread from them. so we have a lot of good experience with voluntary measures because people tend to follow them much better than when they're forced to do things. >> so you found people here prefer suggestions. is that about, what, treating the people like adults? treating them with respect? >> yeah. i think so a certain extent it is to understand -- get them to understand what is the goal with which we're trying to achieve. >> by and large the policies have been popular. people are happy that the schools are open. and they think that this is a sustainable policy because if there is going to have to be some sort of social distancing, some sort of requirements according to that doctor's perspective and the policy in this country, it is better to have something that you can have continuously for a year or two instead of having a lockdown opening perhaps another lockdown, another opening. they're going for the long haul. we'll see if they're right. there are critics that say it is too risky but it is approach they're adopting here. >> make nothing judgement on whether they are right or not. there are people out there who may be asking themselves why don't we do this here? i would note that the swedish population is a lot different than ours. it's a lot smaller. they have socialized health care. mainly funded by the government. and thirdly, they're a much healthier population than we have here. i believe the life expectancy is 82 years old which is quite high. richard engel wearing a mask, only mask wearer in sweden. thank you very much. we appreciate your time. >> i know. today small businesses ghana plig for the second round of federal help money that could mean economic life or death for them. with all of that cash that's been allocated by congress, there are now a lot of questions about oversight. who is watching this? arkansas republican congressman french hill is one of the lawmakers who will be keeping an eye on all that spending. he joins me next. ppp began taking applications for the second round of federal aid. the first rescue package ran out in two weeks amid revelation that's some of the loan recipients were large publicly traded companies. while countless numbers of small companies were shutout. a reminder small businesses are the enjefrifrpg of the u.s. economy. 50% are employed by a small business. and for those mom and pops can you call them were receiving a loan in the coming days could mean the difference between remaining open or closing for good. joining us now from arizona is nbc news reporter vaughn hilliard. i got an e-mail over the weekend which bumped me out. it is one of my local coffee shops saying they're shutting doors for good. permanently. and part of that is because they can't get the funding they need and even if they did, they couldn't reopen to guarantee payroll protection. i know you're hearing similar things out there. they're waiting on the money to pay the employees that they promised to pay. what are you hearing? >> just last hour we talked to share lyn. she's the owner of a boutique store just two doors down from here. she's literally packing up her track, closing down that location here. this afternoon because the funds aren't there. she hasn't received disaster relief funds. her own stimulus check hasn't come to the mail. it's impacting communities like this where we're outside of this restaurant and i want to introduce you to justin piazza. we were talking. awe plied for ppp funds. these were intended for small businesses. the did that money ever make it to you? >> i haven't seefd anything yet. first time around i was denied. i was told that to reapply. they would put me back in the que. so that's where i am. i'm in que land waiting for something, hopefully we get something. p i'm not one to beg. but i'm at the mercy of the government to help me. >> you have three restaurants? >> yes. >> you have a workforce. put a tense, you're frustrated. where does this go from here? >> i'm frustrated. i told my employees to hold off to not collect unemployment that relief was coming. i asked them to stay on. we're working abbreviated hours. we're not making any money now. i'm making barely enough money to pay the bills. i'm just hoping they come through for me. >> thanks. it's stories like this and share lyn and your cop fee shop down the road in brooklyn katy where the question is these major corporations, first come first serve, a lot of folks don't have the same connections to lawyers or the banks or have existing loans, big loans with the banks. what you're seeing from the first round of funding was just a small fraction of truly small businesses get these loans. a lot of places are still waiting hoping that round two funding comes to them. katy? >> so much bigger than that though as well when i talked to restaurant owners, even if they got that ppp to pay back or to pay the payroll for employees, they don't have employees to hire right now because they can't be open right now because there is a time frame on when you need to pay your employees so you can get it forgiven. it doesn't work for them. in three months from now or six weeks, whatever it is, they might not yet be reopened. or if they are reopened, they may not have the customer base in order to allow them to afford the employees. so it is very complicated. file that frustration that gentleman has as well. good reporting as always. thank you, my friend. joining us from california is our nbc news business correspondent. you're focusing on the larger companies, how are they faring? >> this empty parking lot tells you all you need to know. the stores are completely closed for the stay at home order here in california. but a lot of them suffering online as well. no one is really coming out to shop. when you have 26 million americans out of work, retail is going to suffer. so we are expecting to hear more from amazon this week. we expect revenue to come in at $73 billion. that will be an increase -- excuse me, katy. >> jo. hold on a second. take a second and cough. it happened to me the other day. take a second and cough. i'll talk for a second. we're waiting for amazon to find out how they have been doing. remember, a lot of people are relying heavily on amazon right now. but a lot of amazon's workers have been protestinging and they've been unhappy with the conditions. there's been some changes made. jo, i believe you're back. you have your breath again. take it away. >> you're right. what amazon expected to show is 20% growth in terms of how much they're selling. that is really good news. but it also comes as traditional retailers like target, they're still open and doing business. they're struggling with that instore shopping given the current environment. the on line shopping is doing pretty well. now we know back in march, you saw retail sales plummet by nearly 9%. that's the most esthver on reco. we expect over 15,000 stores to close in 2020. according to new estimates from the research groups. as you put all of these things together, katy, you look at the whole picture, at all of the job losses plus the retail environment in store and online, you're looking at a very difficult situation. basically this is not about stores and when they're going to reopen. >> absolutely jo kent, thank you so much for muscling through with us. we appreciate it. good luck out there. >> joining me now from little rock, arkansas, republican congressman french hill. he is one of the five makers on the committee that oversees the hundreds of billions of aid for distressed businesses and industries. congressman, thank you for being here. there is a lot of concern of oversight of the money after what happened during the bailout in 2008. what are you going to be looking for? what assurances can you make the american public that money is going to go to the right snandz. >> katy, thank you for having me. that is excellent reporting. those are all the same challenges we hear right here in little rock from our small businesses and restaurant owners. and we're glad the ppp program reopened today. we had 21,000 application that's had been submitted for about a billion dollars. just when the program ran out of funding. my job in the oversight commission, i'm looking at the strategy of treasury and fed to provide the resources for economic stability. is it working? what's best way to do that? how transparent is it? and my commissioner and fellow commissioners and i will be hard at that as soon as get a chairman. >> there are some on the km the that said they want to know how the bigger businesses have used the money that they're get. they want to know detailed reports on what is being spent. why don't you want that? you said that's not necessary. >> i never said that. i said the priority of the commission is to have a focus on the strategy of the treasury and also to talk about the transparency and conducting that strt sfr strategy which includes transaction data. when we have the functioning, we'll meet with the treasury and fed and design what that transparency should be. we can't do that in a vacuum. >> i got. are you okay with companies buying back stocks? >> no, companies are not permitted in buying back stock if they take a loan from the main street facility or one of the other facilities being set up by the treasury and the federal reserve. >> let me ask you about the big picture here. there are a lot of americans who are really worried about not their jobs in particular but the state of the economy. if they don't lose their job, great. but the neighbor may lose their job. there are estimates and unemployment could hit number we have not seen since the great depression. do you think that congress has its arms around the severity of this crisis? how much more money do you think might need to go out to make sure that the bottom doesn't fall out beneath us? >> it's a very important question, katy. and in just a few weeks congress appropriated almost $3 trillion of appropriated taxpayer money to tackle the public health challenges and preservation challenges. when you leverage that with the fed's resources, it is almost $7 trillion which is over 35% of what our economy earns in a whole year. so in my view, that's being injected here in a few short weeks. i think we'll see as we open up in state by state we'll see the impact of that money and see if they're tl are any gaps that we should consider additional federal support. >> i'm wondering how we should restructure things in the future. when you look at some statistics gathered by pugh this is a report that came out a few days ago, most americans don't have a rainy day fund to cover expenses for three months. that was before the pandemic hit. one quarter could not pay their bills in full each month. and april that number jumped to one-third after the pandemic hit. low income americans are the ones being hit hardest. we have an economy that was working well for a lot of people before this pandemic hit. people were employed but not able to save money. is that way things should continue once we're past this? >> well, katy, it is shocking to see the strength and the breadth of this economic hit to american families because we did have high-rising real wages and low unemployment before the virus hit the united states. you know, in the c.a.r.e.s. act, the congress has added coverage for coronavirus expenses for those who are uninsured as enhance savings capabilities for americans as well. but we're going to have to think about what else can we do to encourage americans to have the money they need for a rainy day fund. it's a big concern. and it's something that we should all be concerned about. >> it's scary. thinking that three months of expenses down the road, if you don't keep your job let alone a pandemic hits, if you don't keep your job, i mean, you could be out of luck in a matter of months. >> our kbhe is a just in time economy. so many americans as we've seen the statistics, 40% don't have $400 for emergency payment, you know, a blown out tire or a major car repair or broken water heater. these are all things that are concerning and so we need to have robust savings alternatives for families. that's an important thing for business, too, to recruit employees and make sure not only do they have a competitive paycheck but an opportunity to save for rainy days and for their retirement. >> congressman french hill, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate your time, sir. >> thank you. appreciate your time. >> and still ahead, we're outside a meat processing plant in colorado where 100 workers tested positive for coronavirus. several have now died. so you can understand why folks there are pretty concerned about going back to work this week. but first, several states are taking steps to protect nursing homes from lawsuits during this outbreak. why? an nbc news investigation next. how about no no uh uh, no way come on, no no n-n-n-no-no only discover has no annual fee on any card. that's why working together ist more important than ever. n-n-n-no-no at&t is committed to keeping you connected. so you can keep your patients cared for. your customers served. your students inspired. and your employees closer than ever. our network is resilient. our people are strong. our job is to keep your business connected . it's what we've always done. it's what we'll always do. 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. more than 11,000 americans died in nursing homes during the coronavirus outbreak. that number will will increase as the federal government starts tracking the deaths in those facilities. nbc news investigation found that six states have offered immune it i to nursing homes to protect them from coronavirus related lawsuits. while six other states have issued protections for health care providers which in turn could extend to nursing homes. joining me now, the nbc news investigative reporter behind that report, laura strikler. what exactly did you find? and why would they be offering this sort of protection? >> what we found is that as you said, six states have explicitly offered that immunity. and six other states have provided protection for health care providers. and this gives families who are concerned about accountability with nursing homes, it raises a lot of questions with them. a lot of nursing home advocates say there are fewer inspections going into nursing homes. families don't have any ability what is going on in there. so by removing the lawsuit option, they fear it creates a lack of accountability. the industry is pressing for this. they're telling us that they're worried about a lack of testing for their employees and a lack of personal protective gear. >> joining me now is pennsylvania senator bob casey. senator. i know you've been taking a concerted interest in what is happening in the nursing homes s it a good idea as laura is reporting to shield nursing homes from coronavirus related death lawsuits? >> katie,y, i don't think so. i think we should be focused both on the federal government and state government should be focused on the safety and quality care for residents. they should be focused as well on protection for the workers because if you're doing a good job protecting the residents and workers, you're going to be helping the community overall. they should not be the focus now. we have a lot more work to do. and i'm hoping the federal government will respond more specifically to my request already to provide information so that when there is a covid-19 case in a nursing home that the residents know about it, the families know and that workers know. the administration is committed to putting it on a rulemaking track and that could take months. >> let me ask you about when an infection breaks out or when somebody tests positive for covid-19 in a nursing home or assisted living facility, why are they kept there? why are they not immediately removed and brought to a hospital and kept in a place where quarantining is more regulated? nursing homes, there are staff that go from room to room. a lot of them are not as heavily trained as what you see in hospitals. you're among a vulnerable population. why are there not more federal regulations or why aren't governments getting involved and saying, listen, we have to separate the people out from the larger population in a nursing home because if it spreads, you could potentially see as we've seen in it other nursing homes already death after death after death after death. >> yeah. there is no question that those who have a covid-19 diagnosis should be segregated from others. and i know in some facilities they're trying do that to have a separate wing to keep folks that have a diagnosis separate from those that don't. >> but is that enough? separate wing? is that enough? >> well, i think for a lot of them at this point that may be the only option. but there's no question that there should be more support at the federal level for infection control and the kind of quality care that you need in a facility like that. i've been pressing for that as well as the transparency of providing information to families, to the community when there is an outbreak. but we have a long way to go. and part of this is going to be what happens with regard to medicaid funding? most of the facilities are heavily dependent upon medicaid. and we're going to keep pushing at the federal level for more medicaid dollars. zblfr let me ask you one other slightly off topic question. we'll be on topic eventually. that is funding for states. a number of governors around the country have said they need help. not just blue state governors but red state governors as well. the president is claiming it's a democratic state bailout that they're asking for. where do you stand on that? and how much pressure can lawmakers put on mitch mcconnell who hasn't been in favor of it or put on potentially the president in order to make sure that firefighters, cops, ems workers, first responders, teachers are paid? they're talking about the people you mentioned, first responders, public safety officers, teachers, you go down the list. and unfortunately today, on twitter president trump is taking the position of mitch mcconnell which is to have states declare bankruptcy. that is reckless and dangerous. if you want to hear local taxes to go skyrocketing, local or state taxes, then you would follow their advice. no state, no taxpayer should want their state to go bankrupt. nor the local government. so it's time for the administration and republicans in the senate to work with us as they have not done so far, to work with us on greater support for these first responders and public safety officers. they don't seem to be interested in that so far. >> pennsylvania senator bob pe casey, senator, thank you very much for joining us. we wish it was under better skrir circumstances. >> thanks, katy. >> next, we'll take you to colorado. a meat processing facility that is home to one of the state's largest outbreaks of coronavirus. several workers have already died and now the plant is reopened for business today. what's it like there? stay with us. the state of colorado is now starting the process of reopening. and among the businesses getting back to work is the jbs meat packing facility in greeley, colorado. a source of one of the state's largest outbreaks of covid-19. more than 100 employees at that plant were infected and at least five people have died. joining me now from colorado is nbc news correspondent gadi schwartz. so gadi, i understand there was hesitation among some of the workers going back inside that plant? >> yeah, there was hesitation over the weekend from some of these workers, even more hesitation now that they've learned that that fifth employee has died. what we've seen here is employees arriving at this parking lot, most of them are wearing masks as soon as they get out of this car, and then they go into this white tent here. this is where they are screened before reporting on to their shift. their temperatures are taken, they are asked if they're feeling any signs or symptoms of covid-19, and if they say "yes" or if they have a fever, they are tested for covid-19. that, however, is not what a lot of employees wanted to see. they say before this plant was temporarily shut down, they were told that everyone was going to be tested before this plant reopened and for some of them, they're scared to come back to work. in fact, we talked to one worker who said that she didn't want to come back. her dad was hospitalized, put on a ventilator, and she says they're reopening too soon. take a listen. >> it kind of scares me and it makes me angry that the company is willing to open without testing people. >> now, jbs, the company here says that the reason why they reopened is because they basically were operating under the assumption that their entire workforce had covid-19, so they stopped production for about two weeks, sanitized everything inside, reopened it, put up s e someplexy glass and they are now giving their employees protective masks. they have also increased their salaries or increased their pay per hour by about $400 and giving them $600 in addition to that as a bonus. but again these employees say their main concern right now is the asymptomatic carriers, the carriers that may make it through this screening tent and still be spreading covid-19 without even knowing it. katy, back to you. >> nbc tease gadi schwartz in colorado. thank you very much. that will do it for me this hour. everybody, stay inside, stay safe, stay healthy, wash your hands, but stay watching this network. brian williams and nicole wallace pick up our coverage after a really quick break. you should be mad your neighbor always wants to hang out. and you should be mad your smart fridge is unnecessarily complicated. make ice. making ice. but you're not mad because you have e*trade which isn't complicated. their tools make trading quicker and simpler so you can take on the markets with confidence. don't get mad get e*trade and start trading commission free today. 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. many of life's moments in thare being put on hold. are staying at home, complete your census at 2020census.gov at carvana, we understand that, for some, getting a car just can't wait. to help, we're giving our customers up to 90 days to make their first payment. shop online from the comfort of your couch, and get your car with touchless delivery to keep you safe. and for even greater peace of mind, all carvana cars come with a seven-day return policy. so, if you need to keep moving, we're here for you. at carvana-- the safer way to buy a car. good day. 3:00 p.m. here in the east, noon out west. brian williams here with you. let's get right to the facts as we know them at this hour. the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in our country about to reach 1 million with the death toll now passing north of the 55,000 mark. actual numbers are far higher, as just over 1.5% of the american population has been tested so far. according to johns hopkins university, there are now over 3 million cases that we know of worldwide. the white house scheduled a briefing for today only to cancel it. then it announced the president will hold a news conference instead, about two hours from now, to talk about testing and other steps to reopen the economy. there were no briefings this past weekend, after the president questioned their usefulness. that followed the backlash over his remarks on injecting

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