| The Briefing Today's Covid-19 briefing by from the White House, which included again key members of the task force as well as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, covered a great deal of news and developments.
Housing and Urban development will be "suspending all foreclosures and evictions until the end of April," Trump announced. HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson was not in attendance but the president said the task force is "working closely" with him on it.
It was announced by Trump and described more fully by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper that the hospital ships Mercy and Comfort are being deployed to "increase the nation's medical capacity." The ships will be to relieve pressure for non-coronavirus cases rather than treat the disease directly, thereby freeing up beds and ventilators. Esper also announced that the Department of Defense will be making available "up to 5 million n95 respirator masks and other personal protective equipment from our own strategic reserves to Health and Human Services for distribution."
"The first 1 million masks will be available immediately," he said. "We are also prepared to distribute to HHS up to 2,000 operational deployable ventilators for use as needed."
By mutual decision with Canada, the administration says, today they also announced a closing of our northern border.
The Q&A
Trump opened the briefing to questions from the socially distanced reporters in the room. NBC's Peter Alexander made a big splash when he asked the question that millions of Americans have been thinking about in the last week or two:
"“How are non-symptomatic professional athletes getting tests while others are waiting in line and can’t get them? Do the well-connected go to the front of the line?”
Trump was pushed over and over on his insistence on using the phrase "China virus", with which he today opened the briefing. ABC reporter Cecilia Vega had the first and most telling exchange.
The markets, still The Dow tumbled and rose and tumbled on Wednesday, as it has all week.
And on top of that, the NYSE has had to temporarily shut down the trading floor after two people tested positive for coronavirus.
To finish the cheerful economic news, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman stunned CNBC Wednesday with an intense doomsday economic forecast: "Hell is coming."
Believe it or not, it got considerably darker from there.
Bernie Sanders
It was reported early on Wednesday that the Sanders campaign was going to "assess" their path forward. It was erroneously reported by Axios that he was dropping out, which caused a Twitter deluge and eventually some curt responses from campaign figures.
Then Sanders was asked about it some more, and he was quite a bit more than curt in his reply.
Speaking of a change in tone
The tone from the White House has evolved considerably over the course of the outbreak. This supercut released on Monday is an amazing tour through that..."progression" let's say.
What turned things around? Well surprisingly, it may just have been this monologue from Fox's Tucker Carlson. A fascinating twist.
Still, although yesterday Trump said he's thought all along this was a serious pandemic, today he said that the whole situation "snuck up" on everyone, including the United States.
And on the subject of needing a change in tone
ABC News chief legal analyst and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams said on Wednesday that the focus by media and liberals on Trump's use of the phrase "Chinese virus" is not a winning topic.
"I think it’s a losing argument for the left to make because I think the vast majority of Americans are gonna say ‘Who cares?'” said Abrams on The View. 6.5.0 | 
