JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The threat persists.

COVID-19 infection and death rates continue to mount, as the president leaves Washington for the first time in weeks to visit a mask-making facility in Arizona.

Then: the latest view from the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus, this time from a medevac nurse practitioner.

Plus: making use of idle time -- the unique projects people are pursuing as they adapt to life under social distancing.

LAWRENCE PALINKAS, University of Southern California: When you are confined, there's less environmental stimulation to keep the mind engaged.

There's less to do, unless you exercise creative responses to your situation.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: The COVID-19 pandemic has now claimed more than 70,000 lives in the United States.

That news comes on a day when President Trump broke a long spell of confinement in Washington and traveled 2,300 miles West.

We begin with this report from John Yang.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Hello, everybody.

JOHN YANG: As President Trump left the White House today for his first cross-country trip since the pandemic gripped America, he dismissed an internal government report that projected a steep rise in deaths, even as states ease restrictions.

DONALD TRUMP: It's a report with no mitigation, so, based on no mitigation.

But we're doing a lot of mitigation.

And, frankly, when the people report back, they are going to be social distancing, and they are going to be washing their hands, and they are going to be doing the things that you're supposed to do.

JOHN YANG: In Phoenix, President Trump toured a Honeywell aerospace plant that now produces N95 masks, but did not wear a mask himself.

He said the White House Coronavirus Task Force could soon be going out of business.

DONALD TRUMP: We're now looking at a little bit of a different form, and that form is safety and opening.

And we will have a different group probably set up for that.

JOHN YANG: In Washington, lawmakers returned to the Capitol, but business was anything but normal.

A Senate confirmation hearing for Mr. Trump's pick to be director of national intelligence was held in a nearly empty room.

Senators rotated in and out to keep their distance from each other.

And in the House, lawmakers wearing masks welcomed their newest colleague, Maryland's Kweisi Mfume.

The Democrat-controlled House had hoped to hear this week from Dr. Anthony Fauci, but the White House blocked his appearance.

Today, President Trump said Fauci would be allowed to testify at a hearing in the Republican-majority Senate.

Meanwhile, states are wrestling with how to reopen their economies.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned of the cost of reopening too quickly.

The state today reported more than 1,700 previously undisclosed COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes.

GOV.

ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): In a nursing home, that coronavirus, and all it takes is one person, one staff person who doesn't have a temperature, is not symptomatic.

All it takes is one person to bring that virus in there.

JOHN YANG: In Raleigh, North Carolina, dozens gathered to rally against that state's restrictions.

WOMAN: We must protect our liberty, and it is time to reopen N.C. JOHN YANG: But similar measures appear to have paid off in places like South Korea.

Officials there logged just three new cases today, the lowest in nearly three months.

Now some South Korean students are poised to go back in school as early as next week.

And sports-starved fans were finally able to indulge, albeit from inside their homes.

Korea's professional baseball league kicked off its new season today, with no spectators in the stands.

But a similar step toward normalcy in India, where infections are still soaring, backfired.

Crowds flocked to the streets after the government took its first steps to end its lockdown, and social distancing fell by the wayside, as lines outside liquor stores stretched for blocks.

In response, the government imposed a 70 percent tax on liquor.

In Europe, new evidence that the virus may have arrived earlier than previously thought.

A Paris hospital discovered a COVID-19 case dating back to December, nearly a month before France confirmed what had been thought to be its first case.

A World Health Organization official said it was no surprise.

MAN: It's also possible that more early cases to be found as countries retest samples from patients who were sick in December, January of unspecified pneumonia or other reasons.

JOHN YANG: For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: Wall Street managed another modest rally, as more businesses began reopening.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 133 points to close at 23883.

The Nasdaq rose 98 points, and the S&P 500 added 25.

The rally came despite news that the pandemic caused the service sector in the economy to contract last month for the first time in 10 years.

The nominee to oversee federal pandemic recovery spending promised fair, impartial audits today.

Brian Miller works in the White House Counsel's Office.

As a special inspector general, he would watch over $500 billion in economic rescue funds.

President Trump has said that he would resist outside oversight of pandemic spending.

The president's pick to be director of national intelligence pledged today to steer clear of political bias.

Texas Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe is an ardent defender of Mr. Trump.

At his confirmation hearing, senators, including some Republicans, openly questioned whether he would guard the intelligence community against political pressures.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): There are some very experienced analysts within the I.C.

that are concerned that you might attempt to shade the conclusions in order to avoid alienating the president in presenting his daily brief.

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE (R-TX): I won't shade intelligence for anyone, whether we're talking about the president, members of Congress, any policy-makers.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Ratcliffe's initial nomination was pulled last year after bipartisan criticism of his closeness to the president and lack of experience in intelligence.

He was renominated in February.

In Syria, there are reports of Israeli airstrikes in two different regions of the country.

State media reports that Israeli planes hit military targets at Al-Safirah, near Aleppo.

And a war monitoring group says that separate strikes killed 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighters in Eastern Syria.

The Israelis had no immediate comment.

The president of Venezuela says two Americans took part in a failed raid aimed at toppling his government.

They were arrested Monday, a day after mercenaries attacked a coastal outpost.

President Nicolas Maduro says their papers show that they were former Green Berets.

NICOLAS MADURO, Venezuelan President (through translator): We were able to uncover this terrorist incursion of which we have been victims.

The government of the United States of America is fully and completely involved in this raid, defeated by the solid civic military police union of Venezuela.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Both President Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today the U.S. government had nothing to do with the alleged raid.

And the Philippines government ordered the country's top television network to shut down after its franchise expired.

President Rodrigo Duterte had targeted the network's news coverage of his administration.

A handful of protesters lit candles and held signs outside the network's offices, denouncing the government's move as a crackdown on free speech.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": I ask Arkansas' Governor Asa Hutchinson about the challenges of reopening his state; another dispatch from the front lines of the battle against coronavirus; the worldwide battle for personal protective equipment for medical workers; and much more.

After weeks of businesses being shuttered and unemployment claims soaring, more than half of the states are now beginning to lift restrictions and reopen local economies.

When President Trump was in Arizona earlier today, he responded to a question from ABC News about whether he accepts that more people could become sick and die as a result of the reopening.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: It's possible there will be some, because you won't be locked into an apartment or a house, or whatever it is.

But, at the same time, we're going to practice social distancing.

We're going to be washing hands.

We're going to be doing a lot of the things that we have learned to do over the last period of time.

And we have to get our country back.

You know, people are dying the other way, too.

When you look at what's happened with drugs, it goes up.

When you look at suicides, I mean, take a look at what's going on.

People are losing their jobs.

We have to bring it back, and that's what we're doing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In Arkansas, Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson has laid out his plan for a phased reopening of houses of worship, gyms, restaurants, and other large gathering spaces.

Governor Hutchinson joins me now.

Welcome back to the "NewsHour," Governor.

So, yes, you have announced the opening of a number of places, hair salon, churches.

We have talked about, in the next few days, dine-in restaurants, and, in the next week, places that are -- places like massage parlors.

Why do you think it's safe to do this?

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON (R-AR): Well, Judy, it's good to be with you again.

And I remember, the last time we were together, we were talking about the fact that Arkansas was not a shelter-in-place state.

And, of course, we got a lot of criticism as to whether that was the right strategy.

We targeted and put restrictions on many of our businesses, but we didn't shut everything down.

And now that our cases are down, our trajectory is going in the right direction, we're starting to lift some of those restrictions.

And, just like we did it differently before, now we're not doing it all at once.

We're doing it a step at a time, and so we can measure very carefully as to whether you're being disciplined, whether our cases go up, whether our -- we have any kind of a resurgence.

And so we're being cautious about it.

But our cases are down.

Our trajectory is going in the right direction.

We're doing our testing.

We have contract -- contact testing capability.

And so I feel comfortable in lifting some of these restrictions now.

The key is that we have to be individually disciplined to do the social discipline.

And it's really hard out there whenever the sun is shining.

We're cooped up.

We want to get outside.

But we have to discipline ourselves.

JUDY WOODRUFF: At the same time, Governor, you know the White House guidelines were that states were advised strongly to wait until you had 14 days of declining rates.

You're not there yet in Arkansas.

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON: No, I disagree with that.

We have had 14 days of declining caseload.

The trajectory is down.

In addition, one of the alternatives was the negative rate or the positivity rate on your testing, and ours is very, very low.

And it's been trending down.

So, we actually meet all of the criteria for entering phase one under the president's guidance.

We want to be able to stay there and to continue that trajectory, so that, in another 14 days, we can go to phase two, and we can continue to open up and lift those restrictions.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, as you know, Governor, the groups that do these projections, forecasts about ill -- the number of infections and the number of deaths, including the one -- the most prominent one at the University of Washington, they have now, in the last day, upped their projection for illnesses for infections and deaths, based on the fact that states, like Arkansas, but a number of other states, are opening up.

They're saying, people are going to be moving around, they're going to be touching places that other people are touching, and, inevitably, that is going to mean more infections.

So, are you prepared for infections and, frankly, for deaths to go up?

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON: Well, it is a concern.

And the University of Washington, even though they have missed their modeling significantly as they made projections for Arkansas and other states, it is still a good warning.

And, certainly, it is a concern to us whenever you look at -- we're relying upon individual, we're relying upon employers to do the right thing.

I think they're being very, very genuine.

We have got 60 processing plants in Arkansas.

Thank goodness we don't have any that have shut down because of positive tests.

But it's a concern.

It's a risk.

They have got to do the right thing every day.

But the key is that, sure, we're going to have incidents of a positive test in a business or in some other activity.

And we have got to be able to go in there.

We have got to be able to do the tracing, know the sources of it, and expand that, and then be able to control it.

And that's how you move through this pandemic and end it, but also be able to continue with an economy that is vital, and people need to work.

So, I think we have -- we're balancing it right.

But the key, again, is that an individual discipline.

And not everybody is going to exercise that.

And that is a worry.

But I think we're -- we're doing it the right way.

And I think, as a nation, every state is different, and every state has got -- is a different trajectory, a different peak time.

And so the governors have a lot of discretion.

We're exercising it here.

And look at the statistics.

We're -- we're going in the right direction.

I think we're one of 15 states that's moving down in our caseload.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Governor, I want to ask you.

One of the -- I watched your news conference today.

And one of the things you said, in the next couple of days, you expect there to be a spike in cases at Arkansas' correctional institutions.

You talked about having state employees who work at these facilities.

And you also mentioned nursing homes.

People who have tested positive may still be expected to show up for work if they're asymptomatic, because, in the view of the state, it's more important that they take these jobs, that these jobs are filled, than that they stay away.

Explain that reasoning.

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON: Well, let's look at the prison.

In the prison system, we had an outbreak Cummins, a maximum security unit.

And it was a large outbreak.

And so -- and some of the staff tested positive.

But -- so, we allowed some of the staff that ideally would be quarantined in their home to come back to work.

And they would only be working with those inmates that tested positive.

And so it's not going to be a spread issue.

It's going to be fulfilling the need that was there.

So, because it's a hard-to-fill job, because it's a very dangerous place to work, we needed those guards there.

In a similar way, in some nursing homes, if a staff person tested positive, you put them in the right position, because you have to have people in there to care for these positive patients as well.

And so you work for through that.

It's not ideal, but you work through it.

And that's how we have handled it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And very quickly, Governor, you said you were opening up restrictions on people coming from non-hot spots, if you will, around the country to be able to travel into Arkansas.

But my question, quickly, is, how are you going to check that?

Are you going to have checkpoints at the state border?

Are you going to have people at airports?

Just quickly, how does that work?

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON: No, we won't have those checkpoints.

But, for example, those that come here and seek lodging, if they're from one of the hot spots, then they're required to quarantine for 14 days.

That, in and of itself, probably will keep them moving, because no one wants to stay in the same hotel for 14 days.

And so it's checked by our lodging industry, and it is measured there.

And if there's a different hot spot that arises, then our Department of Health can make the changes.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, thank you very much.

Good to see you.

GOV.

ASA HUTCHINSON: Good to be with you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As we have been reporting, America's regional and rural hospitals are sometimes overwhelmed and ill-equipped to deal with the influx of more serious coronavirus cases.

William Brangham recently spoke with a woman who's part of a unique medical team that comes to help these hospitals and their patients.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right.

At the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, which is a huge hospital system that serves many different counties and states, sometimes, when critically ill patients need help, Jennifer Adamski comes and gets them via helicopter.

Adamski is a critical care nurse practitioner with the Cleveland Clinic.

And she joins me now.

Jennifer, thank you very, very much for being here.

Could you just give us a sense now, how many, would you estimate, of your patients currently are coronavirus patients?

JENNIFER ADAMSKI, Critical Care Nurse, Cleveland Clinic: I would say what I'm seeing in my role is maybe an upwards of 50 percent to 60 percent over the last month or two or so.

We're seeing very ill COVID-positive or suspected COVID-positive patients, most requiring mechanical ventilation and/or high levels of oxygen therapy and support.

You know, a little bit about what I do, before COVID, we would fly in and safely and quickly get the patient out and have really minimal interaction with the staff, and -- or develop that deep connection But in that... WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This is the staff at the local hospital?

JENNIFER ADAMSKI: Exactly.

But now what we're seeing is, when we arrive at these facilities across the state or even across the country, whether it be a freestanding E.R., a small community hospital, a big level one tertiary center ICU, we instantly become part of their COVID team.

You know, each facility has really determined a process that works best for them in this difficult time.

And we instantly are assimilated into that fold.

And what I mean by that is, we may take more thoughtful and deliberate time to interact with the nurses and the support staff, whether it be taking part in their donning and doffing buddy systems, helping them with their I.V.s outside the room, or even making sure that we FaceTime families before we go, because they may not see their loved one for a while, or at all, actually.

And for me, personally, I just really make sure that I take the time to let the staff know that they're appreciated.

There is such a sense of pride from the nurses at the bedside that I have never experienced in my 20-plus years as a nurse.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, once you have got a patient in the helicopter and you're traveling back to the Cleveland Clinic, you're doing a lot more than just transporting, right?

You're doing full medical interventions up there.

JENNIFER ADAMSKI: Oh, absolutely.

It's funny.

I teach my students that critical care is a type of care and not a place.

And this is a perfect example of that.

This is critical care in the air, with a few less resources, few less hands than what you would have at the bedside in your ICU.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: From your vantage point in Ohio -- I know you're traveling around the country, but you're based in Ohio -- have people there been listening to those stay-at-home orders for the most part?

JENNIFER ADAMSKI: I feel like that they have.

And if I could share just a quick story, I was driving home last week after a long shift of flying very sick patients, and I came upon this multi-car accident that appeared to have just happened.

And there was a body laying lifeless in the middle of the freeway.

And, immediately, I stopped, and I was the first one on the scene to assess the patient.

And he appeared to have been thrown from the car and had a bad head injury and bleeding and very shallow respirations.

And over the next two minutes, four critical care nurses stopped, one right after another, each in their scrubs, all from different area hospitals, all different specialties.

Thankfully, I had some extra gloves and masks in the car that I distributed.

I held C-spine, and we rolled the patient in unison, like a dance.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: These were all workers from different hospitals all coming off their shifts too?

JENNIFER ADAMSKI: Absolutely.

We assessed airway and pulse.

One of the nurses had this great idea to use one of her child's diapers to stop the copious head bleed.

And we waited in the middle of what was always a busy highway before COVID, and now only had essential workers on the road, and how lucky for that patient.

It was very surreal.

And I thought about it later on that night why it touched me so much.

And it wasn't that my fellow warriors in arms stopped to help, because that's what we do.

It was the sense of ownership and competence that each one of these nurses exuded and the need to keep our communities safe at all costs, even outside the four walls of a hospital.

So, despite this visceral fear that I have each day now putting on my flight suit, there is such truth in the quote that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

And, honestly, I can't remember a time when I was more proud to call myself a nurse.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's a beautiful definition of the term essential workers right there.

Jennifer Adamski of the Cleveland Clinic, thank you so much for your time, and thank you for your work.

JENNIFER ADAMSKI: Thank you so much.

And stay well.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As we have been reporting, President Trump flew to Arizona today to visit a new Honeywell factory that makes medical masks.

It is part of a massive push by the Trump administration to move more production of medical equipment to the U.S. And, as Nick Schifrin reports, it comes amid a global battle for medical equipment, after a worldwide shortage.

WOMAN: We demand that you immediately get PPE to nurses, doctors and health care workers.

MAN: We are wearing, I kid you not, white aprons.

WOMAN (through translator): Our colleagues don't have PPE, and they're being infected.

WOMAN: We have people coming and sewing things for us, sewing masks, making things out of plastics.

I mean, that would be like a soldier going to war and making a plastic gun to bring with him.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In this war, the front line has often fought without protection.

Doctors and nurses had to create their own personal protective equipment, or PPE.

The shortage killed hundreds of them.

In the U.S., Health and Human Services found widespread shortages that put staff and patients at risk.

Countries and U.S. states competed for PPE in a worldwide cutthroat competition.

GOV.

GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We have been competing against other states, other nations, our own federal government, for PPE, coveralls, masks, shields.

DR. TOM INGLESBY, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security: There is no system of allocation or distribution that takes into account the needs of various parts of the world.

It becomes kind of a marketplace to the highest bidder.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Dr. Tom Inglesby directs Johns Hopkins' Center for Health Security.

He says the pandemic has exposed a key U.S. vulnerability.

DR. TOM INGLESBY: There are many companies that are based overseas that make product that comes to the U.S., so we are dependent on overseas PPE, manufacturing and shipping.

NICK SCHIFRIN: The global center for PPE is China.

Before COVID-19, Chinese, U.S., and other companies based in China produced approximately 50 percent of the world's supply.

China is now increasing its production.

But, in January, as Chinese doctors struggled to confront the country's COVID-19 peak, they didn't have enough PPE.

So Chinese companies dispatched employees around the world to buy supplies, including in Australia, as seen in this Australian "60 Minutes" story.

MAN: If you have time, please drop by your local pharmacy to check if there are any 3M N95 or 8210 masks for sale.

WOMAN: Staff bought up what they could from pharmacies in Eastwood to Penrith, Hornsby to Mona Vale.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At the same time, the Trump administration was facilitating American PPE for China, 17.8 tons of it.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted this video in early February.

But China wasn't only accepting American PPE.

In January and February, it blocked U.S. factories in China from exporting masks and other materials back to the U.S. China effectively nationalizes some of these companies, including American companies' product inside of China.

What was the impact of that?

DEREK SCISSORS, American Enterprise Institute: When you say nationalizes, in a crisis, any country would do that.

That was unavoidable.

We didn't need the products then.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Derek Scissors focuses on China for the American Enterprise Institute.

He says the bigger problem is getting PPE out of China today.

Chinese television has promotes the export of billions of medical supplies around the world.

Senior U.S. officials say those exports slowed after countries complained about quality, and China introduced more quality control.

But there is another reason why China is slow-rolling exports to the U.S., says Scissors.

DEREK SCISSORS: I don't think the Chinese are hurrying to supply the United States.

They have countries they think they can win diplomatic points with, a lot of them ahead of us.

And so, in addition to the problem of low-quality production, in addition to the problem of bureaucracy, there's definitely an element of, we're not rushing to fix those problems for the U.S. NICK SCHIFRIN: The Chinese government says it's doing all it can to increase production and distribute supplies around the world.

LI XINGQIAN, Chinese Ministry of Commerce (through translator): China is transporting protective supplies to countries and regions that are in urgent need at the fastest speed every day.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But senior U.S. officials accuse China of using those exports for coercion.

A recent article in Global Times, a Chinese newspaper that reflects government thinking, said China should consider halting medical exports to the Netherlands because of improved ties with Taiwan.

DR. TOM INGLESBY: When you see other countries stop exporting critical materials like PPE , for whatever reason, it shows that the U.S. shouldn't be reliant on overseas production and shipping of critical material like masks and gowns and gloves.

NICK SCHIFRIN: American companies like 3M and Honeywell beefed up production in the U.S. in January.

The Trump administration has encouraged that.

And, today, President Trump visited Honeywell's new plant in Arizona.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: So we're doing something very dramatic.

And there's never been -- there hasn't been anything like what we have done since -- there's a mobilization -- since World War II.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But manufacturers want to maintain their China supply chain, says Scott Whitaker, CEO of a medical manufacturers trade association.

SCOTT WHITAKER, CEO, Advanced Medical Technology Association: But I think there is likely going to be a shift to some degree as well to more U.S. manufacturing.

But I think the reality is, you still have to recognize the global supply chain exists today.

And so you want to make sure that you're doing both.

NICK SCHIFRIN: FEMA says, since late March, the U.S. has imported from China more than 163 million masks, gloves, gowns, thermometers, and shields.

Nearly a billion of equipment, mostly gloves, have been imported from all over the world.

Senior Trump administration officials describe the air bridge of supplies to the U.S. as a massive success.

But Obama administration officials say it shouldn't have been necessary.

CHRISTOPHER KIRCHHOFF, Obama Administration Ebola Task Force: We realized the systems would collapse.

NICK SCHIFRIN: In 2015 and 2016, Christopher Kirchhoff served on the White House Ebola Task Force and led the Obama administration's lessons learned study that predicted today's PPE shortage and a way to prevent it.

CHRISTOPHER KIRCHHOFF: We didn't make a major investment in PPE that we knew we needed.

Had our testing and surveillance systems worked as they should have in the first place, we never would have ended up in a situation where we're this sort of PPE.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today's increased manufacturing in the U.S. should lead to less U.S. dependence on foreign imports.

But, even today, front-line workers are paying the price for the shortage.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the best of times, mental health and illness often are underfunded and undertreated in the American health care system.

Those concerns are especially magnified now, during this extended period of self-isolation, quarantines and shutdowns.

Experts say a surge of need is building more widely and is only going to grow in the weeks and months to come.

Amna Nawaz explores some of these issues and what people need to know.

AMNA NAWAZ: The layoffs, the financial pressure, the caregiving, they are all taking a toll on people across the country.

Numbers are hard to come by, but a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 56 percent of people said worry or stress tied to these outbreaks have led to at least one negative effect on their well-being, including things like trouble sleeping, eating, and alcohol use.

Let's turn now to two experts.

Dr. Joshua Gordon is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health at NIH, and former Congressman Patrick Kennedy is the founder of the Kennedy Forum, which focuses on these issues.

He's also a leader at the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

Gentleman, welcome to you both, and thank you for being here.

Patrick Kennedy, I want the start with you, because you have warned of what you call a coming epidemic of suicide and overdose stemming from this COVID-19 pandemic.

What have you seen so far that leads you to that conclusion?

PATRICK KENNEDY (D), Former U.S.

Congressman: Well, first, we had an underlying epidemic to begin with, record levels of increase in suicide and overdose even before COVID-19 hit.

And, as you just mentioned, COVID-19 is going to exacerbate exponentially the amount of suicide and overdose.

You know that because the science from Dr. Gordon's research shows that, with unemployment and the dislocation that is caused through unemployment, we see suicide go up.

And with this degree of unemployment, it only stands to reason that we're going to see enormous suicide rates.

And so our job now is to make sure that what happened to COVID-19, where we knew it was coming, but we didn't really quite do what we needed to do to prepare for it, that that doesn't happen again with respect to the coming epidemic and tsunami of overdose and suicide.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dr. Gordon, talk to me a little bit about what you think we will be seeing.

As Patrick Kennedy mentioned, millions of Americans pre-pandemic struggled with mental health and mental illness.

You're talking about a time of increased anxiety and isolation.

What do you think is ahead?

DR. JOSHUA GORDON, Director, National Institute of Mental Health: Well, we can anticipate over the coming weeks and months that those of us who had preexisting mental illnesses may see exacerbations of their conditions, and those of us who have been in relatively good mental health may see the onset of new mental illnesses.

And we have to prepare for that, and we also have to do what we can to prevent it.

AMNA NAWAZ: What about people who happen to be in support or seeking treatment for things like substance abuse or their mental illness?

How does this time right now complicate those efforts?

DR. JOSHUA GORDON: I would say it complicates it tremendously.

We really need to figure out how best to be able to deliver mental health care under circumstances such as social distancing that we are currently engaged in.

Fortunately, much of the mental health community has begun to make the shift from person-to-person visits to telehealth and digital health.

But we need to do more than that.

Not everyone can use these technologies.

Not everyone has access to high-speed Internet or cell phones.

So, we need to ensure that our community mental health centers and other health care providers are prepared with personal protective equipment and means of ensuring social distancing waiting rooms, et cetera, so that we can open up to everyone who needs help.

AMNA NAWAZ: Patrick Kennedy, I think it's fair to say our existing mental health infrastructure has long been under-resourced and underfunded, especially in rural areas, especially in communities of color.

When you look at the responses you have seen so from the administration, from Congress, what has been done so far to bolster any of that?

PATRICK KENNEDY: Well, as they take the tally of the dollars that are flowing from Washington today to help shore up our health care system and our economy, we're talking trillions of dollars.

And it's a real sign of the continued persistence of stigma against mental illness and addiction that a small, small, infinitesimal fraction of those dollars have gone to mental health and addiction.

And I think the big change, the paradigm shift we're going to have with COVID-19 is that, since everybody is going to be affected by some kind of mental health system, as Dr. Gordon said, I think that now mental health won't be something of us vs. them, oh, they're the ones that need mental health.

I think, after COVID-19, it's going to be all of us.

AMNA NAWAZ: Just to follow up on that, what would it take, how much money, what kind of effort?

And do you think we have the resources to do that?

PATRICK KENNEDY: Well, I believe that we could easily put some dollar numbers to changing the whole system of health care, such that we have achieved the vision of President Kennedy, when we combined the Community Mental Health Act.

Sure, we need new beds, more beds in psychiatric hospitals, but what we really need to do is get a much better prevention strategy.

That should be our mental health policy of the future.

And I think that that's affordable, when you look at the cost of us not doing that.

AMNA NAWAZ: I wanted to ask you as well, Dr. Gordon, about what's being done right now, what is being seen and endured by the front-line workers.

What's the mental health burden there?

And what's the effect and the ripple effects of that down the line?

DR. JOSHUA GORDON: I think the mental health burden on our first responders, on our health care workers and, indeed, on our grocery workers and our delivery personnel is tremendous.

First, many of them are too busy right now to seek the help and to maintain their mental well-being.

A lot of hospitals and health care organizations are reaching out to their workers and offering them discussion groups and support, et cetera, but they just don't have the time to take advantage of them.

The second thing we need to think about is those who are also hit, but don't have those resources, again, the warehouse workers, the grocery chains, the delivery people.

These are folks who are out there every day facing the COVID pandemic, not from the perspective of trying to help people, you know, deal with the medical consequences, but trying to help people live their lives.

And they're taking risks every day.

AMNA NAWAZ: You know, Patrick Kennedy, I should ask.

You have been very open talking about your and your family's own struggles with substance abuse and with mental illness.

You sought help.

I would like you now, if you don't mind, to speak to the millions of Americans who might be similarly struggling out there.

What is it you can say to them right now?

PATRICK KENNEDY: Well, that we need each other and that we're important to our family and our friends, and that, when it doesn't seem that way, often because of our disease, our disease is one that pushes people away and makes them angry with us and upset with us.

Our disease, you know, jeopardizes our jobs and our relationships with the people we love.

It's a terrible disease.

The symptoms are awful.

And those symptoms create anger and shame towards people who have these illnesses.

And Dr. Gordon can tell you, these are physical symptoms of the neurobiology of depression, anxiety, of alcoholism and addiction.

When you present with these symptoms, you are not someone that anyone wants to help.

It's kind of counterintuitive that when -- people who need the help the most are the ones that people least want to help, because the symptoms are so awful in terms of interpersonal connection.

So, all I would say to people is, there's great help in peer support.

There's also great help in the medical system.

And there needs to be a spiritual component, which I think is just really a love and connection, and wherever you can find that connection.

And that's just so important to have, and especially in turbulent times like we're living in.

AMNA NAWAZ: Dr. Gordon, I have to ask you.

We want to give people someplace they can turn if they do need help.

What are a couple of the resources you can recommend that people can turn to right now, if needed?

DR. JOSHUA GORDON: So, there are two national hot lines that people should be aware of.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has a disaster distress line.

And the Suicide Prevention Organization has a national hot line.

Please use those resources.

They're available.

AMNA NAWAZ: I can't thank you enough to both of you.

Dr. Joshua Gordon of the National Institute of Mental Health, and Patrick Kennedy of the Kennedy Forum, thanks for being here.

PATRICK KENNEDY: Thank you.

DR. JOSHUA GORDON: Thank you for having us.

JUDY WOODRUFF: New data released today shows that Britain now has the worst COVID-19 toll in Europe, at least 32,000 dead.

That's second worst per capita in the world, after the United States.

Amid the crisis, health authorities there are probing why people of color are being disproportionately infected and dying in greater numbers than whites.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant visited a community with one of the highest death rates in Britain, and he has this intimate portrait of how tragedy struck one family.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Rukshi Lee has said goodbye to her husband of 14 years.

Dave Lee was a 62-year-old martial arts instructor with a formidable reputation.

AIDAN LEE, Son of Coronavirus Victim: Just weeks before his death, Lee was sparring with men half his age.

MAN: For someone who was so fit and healthy to be a victim of this disease, it was shocking to me.

Even when he first went in, I thought he would -- at least in the initial stages, I thought he'd recover.

There was no reason or no underlying health condition.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Youngest son Aidan, also a martial arts instructor, carrying his father's mantle.

AIDAN LEE: Just to give you some context, at the start, there was only him and one other person in the ICU ward.

And then towards the end of week, before he passed, there was 21.

And at that point, they had said no more visitors.

So from that point, up until he passed, I couldn't see him.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Besides being a deeply personal tragedy for family and friends, Lee's death adds to the growing list of fatalities amongst people of color.

British health authorities have launched an urgent inquiry into the apparent disparity between races.

Latest figures show that black, Asian and minority ethnic Britons are two-and-a-half times more likely to die from the virus than whites.

Forty percent of all doctors, 20 percent of all nurses are from those backgrounds.

Organizations representing surgeons and nurses have urged Britain's National Health Service to withdraw them from front-line duties.

Conscious of the strain this would place on emergency units, the NHS has not issued a decree, but has told individual hospitals to do what they think is the right thing.

TREVOR PHILLIPS, COVID-19 Inquiry Team: You are just as likely to get this thing and indeed to die from it if you are an Indian hospital surgeon as if you are a hospital porter.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Veteran racial equality advocate Trevor Phillips is a lead member of the inquiry team, asking questions such as, why are those with Caribbean heritage most at risk?

TREVOR PHILLIPS: Caribbean Britons are way older than the average.

So we think age is part of it.

And the other thing which we think is probably very significant here is occupation.

The groups who work in customer-facing occupations, like people who work on the public transport systems or retail, are probably more vulnerable.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Slough, just west of London, a town of 160,000 people, has Britain's fourth-highest rate of COVID-19 infections.

It has 100 different ethnic minorities.

Many live in crowded accommodation and work in front-line services, such as London's nearby Heathrow Airport, which is still receiving thousands of passengers.

SABIA AKRAM, Deputy Leader, Slough Borough Council: our town demographics make us particularly vulnerable.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Sabia Akram is deputy leader of the local council.

She validates new government statistics which show the deprived zip codes are hardest hit by the pandemic.

SABIA AKRAM: The households are made up of large families, particularly those with houses of multiple occupation.

That obviously increases the chances and the likelihood of people bringing the virus back home.

We also have a high number of people that would be now classified as the key workers, but the lower end of the income thresholds.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The Lee family still doesn't know how Dave became infected.

Before the funeral, they opened their hearts to us to show the humanity behind the faceless statistics of death.

Eldest son Ryan only managed to talk to his father on phone.

RYAN LEE, Son of Coronavirus Victim: Once or twice, just before he had lost his voice due to the virus.

So, yes, just before that.

It was a very brief conversation.

It sounded like things were moving quite quickly on the ground in the hospital.

So it was a very, very brief chat, unfortunately.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Were you able to say goodbye?

RYAN LEE: No.

I seriously thought he'd make it out.

So it didn't cross my mind to even say such a thing.

MALCOLM BRABANT: By the time Aidan reached the hospital to say goodbye, it was too late.

AIDAN LEE: He was already cold to touch.

But I spent some time there, just trying to make the most of seeing him one last time.

And I guess one thing that allowed me to have some form of peace was that he was restful, he looked calm, he looked in peace, and he didn't look as in distress as he was before, when I used to see him when he was intubated and on the ventilator.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Rukshi and Dave married in Sri Lanka.

This was his second marriage.

How do you want people to remember Dave?

RUKSHI LEE, Wife of Coronavirus Victim: He's a good husband to me.

He looks after me so well.

And he loved the lord.

Those are the memories that I will have.

And the last memory I want to keep is that he said bye to me in the hospital.

That's the only memory I have, sir.

MALCOLM BRABANT: As a kickboxing trainer, Lee propelled some to national and world titles, mentored others away from crime, and empowered young women in deprived neighborhood, among them, Sabia Akram.

SABIA AKRAM: For me, it was about building my resilience, really being confident as a woman, breaking glass ceilings, reaching for the stars.

He always made us believe that, actually, anything was possible, MALCOLM BRABANT: Dave Lee's pastoral work in an evangelical church cemented his legacy as a role model and a keystone of modern Britain.

DAVE LEE, Pastor: As parents, we make many promises to our children.

But when we break them, they will grow up thinking every adult, not just their parents, every adult is the same.

They will -- they will never keep their promises.

But God is different.

Hallelujah.

MAN: May your soul rest.

RUKSHI LEE: I really love you rest of my life, I promise you.

That is the promise I give you.

I will live for you.

With all your memories, I will live.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Dave Lee, born Sri Lanka December 1958, died Wexham Park Hospital April 2020, one British life among more than 3,2000, and rising.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Slough.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In this difficult time, millions of Americans are finding themselves stuck at home.

As Jeffrey Brown reports, many have turned to new hobbies and do-it-yourself projects to pass the time and redirect their energy.

This story is part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.

JEFFREY BROWN: It's not your normal workout space.

One by one, all that was familiar in Zach Skidmore's world was suddenly out of reach, furloughed from his job, unable to see his friends and extended family.

ZACH SKIDMORE, Ohio: I have a couple nephews, and a niece, really little.

And I love them.

I can't spend time with them right now.

JEFFREY BROWN: The gym, where he spent much of his free time, was closed.

But Skidmore did something that surprised no one more than himself.

He built his own.

ZACH SKIDMORE: I just kind of got an idea that I could at least make a bench.

So, I grabbed the chain saw.

And I actually never made anything with a chain saw before.

Some days were three hours.

Some days were nine hours.

And a couple days, I actually was working from when the sun came up until the sun came down.

JEFFREY BROWN: He used big slabs of timber as weights, designed his own pulley system, constructed a treadmill from small rolling logs, good for his physical health, better, perhaps, for his psyche.

ZACH SKIDMORE: I had expected myself to fail in making this gym.

But I tried anyway, because I had the time, and it took my mind off of things.

WOMAN: Bringing this grounding, stabilizing energy.

JEFFREY BROWN: New emotions, new experiences.

People everywhere are struggling to cope.

MAN: We just finished the third and final season of "Star Trek."

JEFFREY BROWN: Watching old TV.

WOMAN: To boldly go where everyone has clearly gone before.

JEFFREY BROWN: Sometimes through new hobbies, do-it-yourself projects, a whole variety of activities that often they have never before considered.

LAWRENCE PALINKAS, University of Southern California: When you are confined, there's less environmental stimulation to keep the mind engaged.

There's less to do, unless you exercise creative responses to your situation.

JEFFREY BROWN: Astronauts in space, researchers spending long periods at the South Pole.

Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist and professor at the University of Southern California, studies the impact of extreme isolation.

We may not be at those extremes, he says, but the way people fill their time now, taking on something new, can be similar.

LAWRENCE PALINKAS: I remember one year, at the South Pole, for example, the crew decided to produce their own science fiction movie, their own variation of the classic sci-fi "The Thing," where they were chasing aliens.

Many of these projects and activities, which are designed to make use of time that they feel somewhat obligated to make use of because it's now available, can produce a great deal of positive results.

JEFFREY BROWN: Positive results from negative emotions, as with Chicago teenagers Krishita Dutta And Lauren Tapper.

KRISHITA DUTTA, Illinois: I think that it started out with us feeling sort of overwhelmed with everything.

We were just in shock, and we didn't know how -- what to turn that into.

LAUREN TAPPER, Illinois: And I also felt a bit cheated, just because we'd always learned to leave it up to the adults, I guess, to deal with this and make sure this would never happen.

JEFFREY BROWN: They also realized there was a whole world of teens who felt as they did, so Krishita and Lauren learned to code, and by the end of March launched COVID-TV, a Web site where young people around the world can share their quarantine experiences.

LAUREN TAPPER: It's really just an exciting and uniting experience, to know that someone in India is experiencing the same exact thing as me.

JEFFREY BROWN: Of course, sometimes DIY is less global, more living room.

BILL UNDERWOOD, Indiana: Yes.

JEFFREY BROWN: Sixty-two-year-old Bill Underwood of Fishers, Indiana, found himself at home and utterly bored.

BILL UNDERWOOD: When I had the carpet shampooer out, and I was shampooing the dining room, and it dawned on me that I had just done that about a week ago, that's when I realized I needed something else to do.

(LAUGHTER) JEFFREY BROWN: An avid golfer, he resolved to build his own nine-hole course.

BILL UNDERWOOD: This is the view from the tee box at the first hole.

JEFFREY BROWN: Made of old sippy cups that winds around his living room, tucks up against a piano bench and a cat scratch pad.

He even studied the work of famed designer Pete Dye, the man behind some of the world's celebrated golf courses.

BILL UNDERWOOD: I'm sort of the Pete Dye of indoor golf courses now, I think.

JEFFREY BROWN: All over the place, people taking up hobbies, painting, photography, learning to knit.

WOMAN: This is garter stitch, which is basically just we knit every row.

JEFFREY BROWN: Or fly a drone.

It's a great way to cope.

But Lawrence Palinkas also reminds us not to be too hard on ourselves in these anxious times.

He points again to researchers in long-term isolation in Antarctica.

LAWRENCE PALINKAS: People would come down to stations like the South Pole with the expectation that they were going to master a new language or study the principles of biomechanics or some other complex subject.

And after a couple of weeks, they lost interest and energy.

And we would frequently counsel them not to feel guilty about it, because it was a natural process.

Given the stress that is placed on us by isolation and confinement, we are going to feel fatigued over time.

We are going to feel less motivated.

JEFFREY BROWN: In other words, try something you have never had time to do, but also relax and be kind to yourself.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Jeffrey Brown.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now it's your turn to think of what you're going to do that nobody else can.

And tonight online, we introduce "America, Interrupted."

It's a new original podcast series that looks at all of the ways the coronavirus pandemic is changing our communities, our jobs and life as we know it.

In our latest episode, hosted by William Brangham, we hear from front-line workers who have been handling outbreaks in more rural parts of the country, where hospitals were already struggling to stay open before the crisis hit.

You can listen on our Web site.

That's PBS.org/NewsHour, or you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

And that is the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, stay safe, and we'll see you soon.