three months after the deadly
coronavirus came to us shores and on the
same day nearly a thousand Americans
died president Trump came to the podium
and finally admitted this I want every
American to be prepared for the hard
days that lie ahead we're gonna go
through a very tough two weeks having
previously dismissed Co bid 19 is a
political hoax even he couldn't look at
this graph and not acknowledge the
gravity 100 to 200,000 deaths President
Trump wants people to focus on the black
portion of this graph it shows that as
many as 2.2 million Americans would have
died had the government done nothing at
all though no one had ever proposed that
then looked down here at the shallower
curve the supposed rosier outcome where
even with the stringent mitigation
measures now in place at a minimum
100,000 to 240,000 Americans are
predicted to die Donald Trump is now
calling the bottom end of that range
very low number and without a drop of
irony last night he appeared flummoxed
by those who said Cove it was just like
a flu and think of it as the flu but
it's not the food it's vicious seemingly
forgetting he was chief among those
making the comparison in view this the
same as the flu and it is a little bit
different but in some ways it's easier
maybe sites like this at Elmhurst
Hospital in New York just up the road
from where the president was born and
raised were part of his wake-up call
Elmhurst epitomizes the desperate plight
of medics in New York staff say they're
overwhelmed and under-resourced the
wards so full to capacity that tents
outside take the overflow while
makeshift morgues on the street house
the dead this doctor from another New
York Hospital says they're fearing for
their own lives while desperately trying
to save others the acuity and volume
that we're seeing right now feels like
we are in a war zone and it feels like
honestly a third world country while
considering what we're seeing there's
patients stacked up in the hallways
there's patients who obviously have
critically low oxygen levels who need to
be intubated who need a critical care
and we just don't have obviously with
the bodies and resources that's needed
amidst this this current time and all
that taking not just a physical but an
emotional toll and initially I was
trying to pick up extra shifts obviously
just to help others out but we're
realizing more and more that it's a
marathon not a sprint but it was speed
that the captain of this US aircraft
carrier was begging for to save the
lives of more than four thousand sailors
trapped onboard after an outbreak of
koban 19 was spreading fast in a letter
he demanded that they be immediately
removed for quarantine saying we are not
at war sailors do not need to die the
Pentagon says it doesn't want to discuss
the numbers of infections but confirmed
on Tuesday that nearly 700 service
members had contracted kovat 19 100 more
than the day before
a tiny snapshot of the bigger picture
and a virus spreading with deadly speed
across America well they're now making
the comparison between 911 and the
Vietnam War the two conflicts that are
really etched on the American psyche and
they're saying the death toll from COBIT
19 will be higher just think of the
numbers on that graph in my piece there
we're now being told that the death toll
will rise from 4,000 in total today to
more
a hundred thousand people in a couple of
weeks time it's really hard to get your
head round the number of people that
will have to die on a daily basis
between now and then in order to reach
that number and the number that is a
number on the minimum it could be even
higher they're trying of course they're
saying at least to bring the levels of
death down but it's not clear how
they're gonna do that they're not
talking about putting any further
restrictions in place there was no talk
of a national lockdown for example on
the plus side though it does finally
appear that Donald Trump gets it despite
the fact that less than a week ago he
was still talking about opening up parts
of the economy for business by Easter
the big question of course though is how
will this play out for him politically
in an election year much is being made
in the last few days of the bump that
he's got in the polls that's true that
has happened but compare him to George
Bush who before 9/11 had an approval
rating of about 51% that jumped to 88%
after compare that to Donald Trump
who has gone from forty two point six
percent in the middle of March just a
couple of weeks ago to forty five point
nine percent now so he is hardly home
and dry
shevawn thank you very much for joining
me now from new york his doctor chittim
ella bache she who's an associate chair
of emergency medicine at the Long Island
Jewish Valley Stream hospital dr. Ella
Bochy if I could just ask you to perhaps
tilt your camera a little bit we're sort
of seeing the mask but not the whole of
your face at the moment if you wouldn't
mind that that's perfect thank you very
much for joining us in such a busy time
I just wonder if we could start by
asking what you have been experiencing
in your emergency room in the last 24
hours or more so really in the past one
month what we've been seeing are an
increase in cases of patients with
either confirmed or kindly suspected
cases of Kovan 19 increasingly in their
acuity has been greater meaning
there are lot sicker and they are coming
in higher and higher numbers to the
point where most of our resources are
now being allocated towards treating
kovat of 19 infected patients rather
than the general emergency medicine
population that we've been seeing in
previous times how are you and your
colleagues coping because we're looking
at the horrifying figures coming out of
New York and obviously enema every one
of those figures tells a story of
personal tragedy how are you coping with
that so this is a really remarkable time
it's relatively unprecedented there have
been pandemics before for most of us for
most of my colleagues this is the first
one you don't live personally so we are
doing our best to cope by finding
strength and one another and by finding
the resources through our larger parent
organization northwell health which has
been doing an incredible job responding
to the task at hand by providing
resources both material and personnel in
order to meet the challenges associated
with this I won't lie to you a lot of us
are nervous about the months ahead not
just for this hospital but for the rest
of the country but we're staying
optimistic we're trusting in our
training we're trusting in each other
and we're trusting in the political
institutions that have rallied around
this cause well it's good to hear that
you you're staying optimistic but given
that until very recently the president
was playing down coronavirus at every
point do you think that his delayed
reaction may have cost a lot of lives
well it's very difficult to say you know
the nature of pandemics is that they
spread remarkably fast and it was hard
for anyone whether in the federal
government or at the local level and
even in some international organizations
to recognize just how quickly and early
this virus would spread after all this
is a virus that at least by and large
the humanity has never seen before so
its behavior was largely unprecedented
and unpredictable I think to the our
governments are able they have recently
mobilized all the resources they have at
their disposal to help us I'm very very
satisfied with the response of the
governor of New York State Governor
Cuomo and I look forward to the
continued efforts of the federal state
and local governments Thomas OTG the
vanilla bocce thank you very much for
joining us