This is a rush transcript from "Tucker Carlson Tonight," March 27, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: Good evening and welcome to TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT. The President of the United States has signed the $2.2 trillion coronavirus package that the Congress has just passed.

This is the largest aid bill in the history of the country, of the world, in fact. Will it help the people who need help most? And where is all the money coming from? We'll have details on what's in it just ahead.

But first, it has been a very long week. We don't need to tell you that. But on Monday we did. We told you it would be a long week. Early that morning, the Surgeon General of the United States appeared on television to warn Americans to expect the worst.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I didn't expect that I'd be on "The Today Show" for such as somber occasion. I want America to understand. This week, it's going to get bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: This week, it's going to get bad. Sobering words from the country's top doctor. So was he right? How bad was it? This seems like a good time to assess that.

In a moment like this. Events move bewilderingly fast. It becomes very hard to keep track of where you are, relative to where you thought you'd be. Perspective becomes impossible.

But tonight, we're going to give it a try. Because we think it is important. Clear headedness is always the first casualty of crisis, and that's exactly how bad decisions get made right in the middle of it.

So here are some facts to consider as we move forward. When our show opened Monday night, there were just over 40,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States. Tonight, at the end of the same week, that number has more than doubled to over 100,000 cases.

Over the course of Monday, all day, 141 Americans died from coronavirus. Today, about twice as many died and that's awful. Every death is awful. It's also a steep and ominous curve.

But in absolute numbers, which may or may not be relevant, it is far fewer than many predicted. Most of the deaths have been concentrated, by the way, in a few places -- Seattle, Louisiana, and above all, in and around New York. In the city alone, 450 people have died so far.

One New York doctor recently described the situation in his hospital as worse than 9/11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEVE KASSAPIDIS, CRITICAL CARE PHYSICIAN: Hell. Biblical. I kid you not. People come in, they get intubated. They die. The cycle repeats.

QUESTION: You overwhelmed?

KASSAPIDIS: Yes, the system is overwhelmed. All over the place. 9/11 was nothing compared to this. We were open waiting for patients to come who never came. Okay. Now, they just keep coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: That was Dr. Steve Kassapidis. We're going to speak to him in just a minute on the show. His hospital in Queens seems pretty much completely overwhelmed by this. How is the rest of the country doing? The concern for months has been, once large numbers of people started to get sick, our system would collapse. We run out of doctors and beds and equipment and drugs, and people who otherwise might have been saved would instead die.

That could still happen. It's always something to worry about. But so far, thank God, it has not happened, at least on a large scale in the United States.

Doctors and nurses are still working, working under tremendous stress and at risk to themselves, but still saving people.

Even in New York, the scariest predictions have not yet come to pass and when they seem to have, the truth is and this is almost always the case about everything. It's turned out to be more complicated than it seemed at first.

For example, last night we told you about nurses who donned trash bags because there wasn't sufficient protective gear, a now famous picture of that has been circulating everywhere. It's shocking. But it turns out it is not new.

According to a report out of New York, nurses in the city have complained about supply shortages for at least a year. In other words, this is a problem, a bad problem, but it's a long term problem.

We've also worried on the show along with an awful lot of other people that there wouldn't be enough ventilators in hospitals, breathing machines to keep coronavirus patients alive. So far there have been instead more than enough.

Last night, we told you the Federal government had sent thousands of additional ventilators to New York, many of which remain in warehouses unused.

New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo apparently was watching our show last night when we said that, and he didn't want to hear it. His staff called the show last night to complain.

But today Cuomo conceded, in fact, it was true.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): Somebody said on one of the cable news shows, the ventilators that New York needed aren't even being deployed. They're in a stockpile.

Yes, they're in a stockpile because that's where they're supposed to be because we don't need them yet. We need them for the apex. The apex isn't here, so we're gathering them in the stockpile, so when we need them, they will be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Saving ventilators for the apex of the epidemic. We're not going to mock that. It's not crazy, actually. It may be smart in fact.

The question is, when can we expect the apex of the epidemic? And the truth is, we can only guess with that.

Three months ago, no one apart from scientists had heard of the strain of coronavirus. We still know relatively little about it, surprisingly little really. We can't say with precision, how easily it spreads from person to person. We don't know how many people have it in this or any other country.

And most importantly, we're not at all sure how many people in the end will die of it. If the week we just saw is as bad as it gets, we will be fine, essentially.

If deaths keep rising at the rate they are rising now, we're in big trouble. That would be a calamity. You could make arguments for either scenario and deeply informed people are doing just that.

The national shutdown we're living through is based in large part on fears the virus could have an overall death rate of two, three or even four percent. That's a devastating rate of fatality. It is high enough to change this country's demographics.

But not everybody buys that assumption. Again, the assumption upon which a lot of policy has been built.

In an op-ed for "The Wall Street Journal" this week, two Stanford Medical professors suggested that coronavirus infection may be far more widespread than we thought.

Using a series of formulas, they concluded that America may already have millions of cases, active cases of coronavirus, and that would be paradoxically very good news. It would mean the virus is far less deadly than we thought it was.

If true, total American death could wind up in the thousands rather than the millions. Every decent person wants to believe that's the case and it certainly may be true. The problem is it also maybe won't be true.

Outside our country, there is growing evidence that the coronavirus is very deadly. Italy for example reported 919 coronavirus deaths today. At one point not long ago, we thought deaths in Italy might be dropping. They may have reached their apex. But they haven't, and they're not dropping. Today was a new record.

And it could in fact be worse than that thanks to undercounting, which seems to be widespread.

In the Italian town of Dalmine, for example, 70 people have died in the last few weeks. Now officially, only two of them had coronavirus, and yet last year, only 18 people total died during the same span of time and that doesn't seem right statistically.

In a town called Bagnatica, 18 people have died in the last month, and yet last year, only 28 people died over 12 months. Is the difference due to coronavirus? We may never know.

And that's the problem, and it's why it's so hard for anyone to make wise decisions right now. We're operating with too little information. Informed guessing is essentially the best we can hope for.

Many of our leaders believe it or not are trying their hardest under these circumstances. Scientists, epidemiologists, doctors, nurses, even occasionally politicians. They want the best for the country even though they may be reaching different conclusions about how to get there.

Others unfortunately aren't even trying. They're getting rich manipulating the markets during a crisis. They're plotting to seize political advantage. They're wasting our times giving pompous little lectures about how great they are.

Remember their names. They ought to be punished when this is over.

Here's someone you should never forget. This is the Health Commissioner of New York City. She's one of the most criminally incompetent officials in the history of municipal government and public health.

As the plague bore down on New York, she told citizens that everything was absolutely fine, and then she urged them to spend more time in crowded public places. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. OXIRIS BARBOT, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE: The important thing for New Yorkers to know is that in the city currently, their risk is low and our city preparedness is high.

There's no risk at this point in time. We're always learning more about having it retransmitted in casual contact, right. So we're telling New Yorkers go about your lives. Take the subway. Go out. Enjoy life. but practice everyday precautions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

BARBOT: That if it were likely to be transmitted casually, we would be seeing a lot more cases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot more cases. Right. Right.

BARBOT: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Yes, you can't get it casually. It's not really contagious. Take the subway, I repeat, take the subway. Can you charge a person like that for stupidity and negligence? You ought to be able to.

There's still a lot we don't know about coronavirus. Most of the important things we still don't know. But here's what's clear. In a lot of places, we need new leadership.

Earlier, we showed you what Dr. Steve Kassapidis had to say about what's happening where he works in a hospital in a New York City. He joins us now.

Doctor, thanks so much for coming on.

KASSAPIDIS: Thank you.

CARLSON: The tape that we just played of you on the street comparing this to 9/11 got a lot of people's attention. Tell us if you will, what the conditions are right now like in your hospital.

KASSAPIDIS: Well, the system has bent, but we're surviving. The patients keep coming in in waves. We lose a lot. There is a high mortality.

I compare it to the blitzkrieg, you know, everybody gets -- you get that little calm and then the other wave comes in.

We have a lot of people on ventilators. The majority of the hospital is COVID positive. Very few people who do not have the virus and unfortunately, those people are sick, too, and you don't want anybody falling through the cracks.

CARLSON: Tell us about the ventilators. A lot of attention has been focused on these machines. How do the patients do on the ventilators? Are they an answer to this? Do they save lives?

KASSAPIDIS: Well, the difficulty with the virus is we have multiple ways of oxygenating people. Regular oxygen, 100 percent face masks, BIPAP or CPAP, high flow oxygen, and the last resort is a ventilator.

What we've noticed is that the majority of the patients will get a little bit better, and then they will decompensate. And when they decompensate, they compensate rapidly, and it's at that point that they go on the ventilators.

A lot of the patients, even though they're on the ventilators will decompensate further, and try as hard as we can with what's called ARDSnet protocol to try and treat them, but unfortunately, a majority of them don't survive. We've had a couple of successes, where we're able to extubate patients and they've improved, but for the majority of the part, we're losing a lot of our patients.

CARLSON: I don't want to put you on the spot. Well, of course, we won't hold you to this, but give us a sense of the profile of the kind of patients you're losing. Age, physical condition et cetera.

KASSAPIDIS: We've had patients from 30 to 80, no underlying conditions, if they have underlying conditions that's a strike against them. I have a very, very sad case. Unfortunately, he went to an emergency room, had some changes on chest x-ray, was sent home because his oxygen was okay -- excuse me -- and in 24 hours, he presented to our facility decompensated.

He was emergently intubated, placed on 100 percent FiO2, which is the highest you can go and he is not going to make it.

So we get patients from every walk of life, every age. The higher their comorbidities are, the higher their risk of mortality -- if that answers your question.

CARLSON: It does. Unfortunately, it does. Let me ask you one final question. Are you concerned about your own health? We keep reading about how doctors and nurses are at such high risk?

KASSAPIDIS: Well, I am. I'm more concerned about my daughter who is an intern, working in an ICU in a hospital in Brooklyn. I am concerned about her mother who is a pulmonary critical care doctor, working in the city who is working on the floors now.

I've been okay. You know, I've been one of the lucky ones who started on Plaquenil as prophylaxis. If you read the literature, there are some people who say that different blood types are a higher risk for the virus, I am O- positive which is low risk for the virus. So far, I've been lucky.

But theoretically, if there's anybody who should have been positive by now, it should have been me.

CARLSON: Yes, well, thank you for what you're doing, Doctor and Godspeed to your wife and daughter, too. Thank you for joining us tonight. We appreciate it.

KASSAPIDIS: Thank you.

CARLSON: So the health of the people trying to save our health is of real concern. So we want to pause now to read a couple of letters we received. Both of them are from nurses in New York City.

They've asked us to leave their names out. We've confirmed these are real and we want to share them with you. Here's the first.

"I'm currently in isolation because I was exposed to a COVID-positive patient 12 days ago. In my unit right now, we're just wearing a regular gown, a face mask with our eyes and head exposed. We only have one thermos scanner for entire unit. Our isolation room is very small about 10 x 12 feet without any ventilation. We do the entire procedure face-to-face with the patient with just a regular mask and gown even when they show signs and symptoms of COVID-19."

"I'm on my eighth day of isolation, experiencing coughing with a runny nose, pounding headaches and diarrhea. I've tried to call the hotlines that they're giving to the people of New York to get tested. They just turned me down since I'm not sick enough. It terrifies me that I haven't been tested because I'm turning 51 soon and suffer from asthma, diabetes and hypertension."

"What scares me the most is what will happen to my son, who has a lifelong condition, if something happens to me."

"My husband is also a healthcare worker who works for one of the biggest homecare services in New York. They are also not provided with the necessary personal protective equipment because it's still not mandated by the Department of Health for all healthcare workers to wear the proper PPE."

"New York City has a shortage of supplies and we are not yet at the peak. The situation here is only going to get worse."

Here is a selection from the second letter, "There's about triple the usual influx of patients being wheeled into the ER. Many of the patients are sent home without being tested because they do not meet all the criteria. There's always a lingering fear that someone will be send home might actually be sick."

"The hospital is restructuring to accommodate the growing number of COVID- 19 cases. Today, about 80 percent of the beds are being used for COVID-19 patients. We had 20 cases last week, and today, there are over a hundred."

"There's a lot of pressure because, we, nurses, have a responsibility to all patients. And at the same time we fear getting sick and getting our families sick. It's a very tense environment right now."

"In the past week, we've had a patient come in for non-COVID related procedures. After the procedure, the patient told us they were exposed prior to coming in. And sure enough, they tested positive."

"Things like this make all of us suspicious, on edge all the time. The nurses were angry because we weren't all given N-95 masks until this week, and we're told they're not enough."

"We put our names on our equipment because we have to keep reusing them. We were instructed to keep our N-95 masks until they are soiled. We keep the N-95 masks in bags so that we can reuse them. I'm always afraid about cross contamination, but we're conserving masks. It's not ideal."

Fox medical contributor Marc Siegel joins us to react to that after practicing Medicine in New York City for many, many years. We're happy to have you, Doctor. Now, again --

DR. MARC SIEGEL, FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Tucker.

CARLSON: We were asked not to reveal the identities of those two nurses, but we have confirmed that they are in fact nurses practicing in New York. What do you make of that?

SIEGEL: I think that we're in a situation here, where we have almost half of the cases in the United States are in New York, over 45,000 in the state. The city, a predominant amount. I don't think the hospitals were ready for this.

I think that they are overloaded and overwhelmed. I think they've had to make make-shift wards and pushed and transferred patients around.

I don't think that there's proper precautions in a lot of places. They don't have the negative ventilation they need, and I think people on the frontlines -- doctors and nurses -- are in harm's way to some extent, and it's a very, very frightening situation.

We're also hearing about mobilizing other specialties that haven't been on the frontlines in a while, graduating medical students early to get them to help out and bringing in all sorts of attending physicians who haven't been in this type of situation in a long time.

This is heroic, by the way, but it is disturbing, very disturbing. They weren't ready for this. There are way more cases than were anticipated.

CARLSON: And yet, in the face of that, at least judging by the numbers, they're doing a fine job. I mean, the total deaths have been very high, but they're not as high as a lot of us worried they would be in and that some people projected. What does that mean, do you think to the extent, you know? Does it mean that we're far from the peak of this? Does it mean, the virus itself is different from what we thought? What do you think?

SIEGEL: Tucker, they're doing an outstanding job. I'm glad you pointed that out. But they are doing it by putting their own health at risk, which is the disturbing part.

I don't think we're at the peak of this. I think we're several weeks away from that. I think it's going to start to spread to other epicenters, too, in cities that you haven't been hearing about yet, like Boston, like Chicago, like Atlanta, like Miami, like New Orleans -- cities like that, where there's a lot of mass transit I'm concerned about.

This is the negative part of this. It's going to continue to spread. We have to be vigilant about these social distancing precautions and sheltering in place in the affected areas, in the epicenters.

CARLSON: Right.

SIEGEL: Extremely important, and we've got to get the medical supplies to the people that need them the most.

There is a positive side coming out this week.

CARLSON: Doctor may I -- I'm sorry. I just have to ask you this question, and my producer is looking this up. The physician we just spoke to is practicing in the city. We just interviewed him. You probably saw it. He said that he hasn't been infected and he is grateful, but he is taking a prophylactic, a medicine to protect him from being infected. He gave a brand name. I didn't recognize it. Apparently, it's hydroxychloroquine, another name for that. Does that surprise you that he is taking that?

SIEGEL: No, the name you're talking -- the name you're talking about is Plaquenil. Well, that's another name for hydroxychloroquine.

CARLSON: Exactly.

SIEGEL: A lot of people feel that this is an extremely effective drug at decreasing the viral spread especially early in the course. What is lacking are substantial clinical trials, but a lot of people are using this and it's very promising.

I've talked to some top rheumatologists today that use it regularly in their practice. It absolutely has antiviral properties against this virus.

CARLSON: That's just -- it's just absolutely fascinating. My producer caught that, I didn't, because I didn't recognize the name. But I'm glad to know that and thank you for confirming it. Dr. Siegel, good to see you.

SIEGEL: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: So Congress has just spent $2.2 trillion to prop up the U.S. economy and to help people who desperately need it right now. So where is that money coming from?

And is there a chance -- irony of ironies -- it could empower China in the long term? Too late now, of course, but still worth knowing. We will investigate it.

But first, photographer Nathan Furniss has been exploring the streets of New York which may not be this quiet again for a long, long time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: One of the earlier outbreaks of coronavirus took place on a cruise ship, but it wasn't the last time that happened. Another ship, the Holland America has become a coronavirus deathtrap, not really an overstatement. Chief breaking news correspondent, Trace Gallagher has the very latest for us tonight. Hey, Trace.

TRACE GALLAGHER, FOX NEWS CHIEF BREAKING NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tucker. Four people have now died on board Holland America's Zaandam Cruise Ship. They are being described as older passengers though the cruise line isn't saying if they died of COVID-19.

But two other passengers have now tested positive for coronavirus and an additional 138 passengers and crew are showing flu-like symptoms, which health authorities believe might also be COVID-19.

Now, we don't know how many of them have been tested, but here is the dilemma. The Zaandam which is owned by Carnival and has 1,800 passengers left Buenos Aires on March 7th, and while it was at sea, Carnival suspended global operations for 30 days.

The Zaandam then tried to disembark passengers in Chile, but because of all the cruise ship outbreaks, the country would not allow it. So now, the ship is currently off the Coast of Panama waiting to transfer its healthy passengers to its sister ship the Rotterdam.

After that, the Zaandam is supposed to head to Fort Lauderdale, but here's the thing. With sick passengers, the ship might not be allowed to go through the Panama Canal. So for now, it appears to be stuck.

Though Panama has agreed to deliver food and medicine, but the passengers haven't been deported since March 14th. We should note, Carnival also owns the Diamond Princess that had the COVID outbreak near Japan and the Grand Princess that also had sick passengers and docked in Oakland -- Tucker.

CARLSON: Amazing. Caught in limbo. Trace Gallagher. Thanks a lot.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

CARLSON: Well, earlier today, not long ago, Congress passed and then the President signed a Coronavirus Stimulus Package, an aid package worth a total of $2.2 trillion.

So a crisis looms, Congress spent $2.2 trillion to fix it. But wait a second, where is the money coming from? And by the way, you can worry about that without disagreeing with the thrust of the aid package, which is to help people who are hurting and we ought to, but you still can have disk space to wonder, where do we get the money?

And the answer is, we're borrowing it, and thus adding to the $23 trillion in debt we already have. Here's a larger question we're thinking about now. How much of that debt will China be buying? And will it matter?

Chris Bedford is a Senior Editor at "The Federalist." He joins us tonight. Chris, thanks so much for coming on.

CHRIS BEDFORD, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE FEDERALIST": Thanks for having me.

CARLSON: So I think it's -- I just want to stipulate on this, again, I think most people watching, I think most people in the country believe there's a Federal role to help people.

The government told people not to work. It seems fair, the government would take up some of the slack there. So I think we probably agree on that.

BEDFORD: Absolutely.

CARLSON: But it's still worth wondering, like, where did this money -- where did this money come from, for this bill?

BEDFORD: That's the whole thing, isn't it? The government basically is going to put a printer to the window and they're going to hit print and that money is going to rain.

The U.S. government prints its own currency and the only limit to how much currency wants to print to the point of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren has been making is inflation.

When you put over $2 trillion into the market, though, you really do -- we are looking at absolutely having inflation in this country. So at that point, we have really entered pain, but that's it.

It's kind of -- it's a con game in the truest sense, Tucker, the old fashioned sense. It's a confidence game. Everyone looks at each other and says this will work and it's real and they just print.

CARLSON: Yes. Or they're not thinking about it. I mean, the crisis is at hand, it has to be dealt with. People need to be helped to pay the rent, buy food, and maybe that's the cost that you accept.

In the back of my mind, though, I can't help but worry that when all of this is done, when the virus burns out, or we figure out how to stop it medically, that China, which started this catastrophe will be stronger, and we will be weaker. Do you think that's a risk?

BEDFORD: It's certainly a risk, but here's the good news in that, it is that China is very nervous right now. They're looking at the world. They're looking at the United States. They're looking at the President being nice and maybe toning down some of his language, but they know that when this is over, the entire planet is going to look around them, assess the damage, and they're going to look at who was responsible for this.

They know that with a populist President and a populist Congress, this debt might be nationalized, or it might be bought from them and they are not looking. They are also knowing that our dollar is going to go down because of inflation.

So right now, they would be rather hesitant to spend money buying U.S. debt. They have no idea what's coming for them.

CARLSON: I hope you're right. I hope the rest of the world puts the blame where it belongs. I'm starting to think the rest of world is afraid of China because they understand China has ascended. I certainly hope I am wrong about it.

BEDFORD: We need their supplies. We need their supply lines right now, so we're being nice.

CARLSON: Exactly right. The cost of offshoring our entire industrial economy. Chris Bedford, thanks so much for the clarity on that. Good to see you.

BEDFORD: Thank you, Tucker.

CARLSON: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is outraged tonight, no surprise, she's always outraged. She is mad about the Coronavirus Stimulus Package and not because it's short changes Americans, just the opposite in fact.

She is mad that it doesn't give enough to foreign nationals here illegally. We've got details.

Plus, the University of Minnesota has invented a new way to build off the shelf ventilators, MacGyver style. A Professor there joins us just ahead. Great story.

But first, photojournalist Kyle Rothenberg takes you inside LAX for a glimpse of what the country's big airports look like now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: You can debate the specifics, but in general, most Americans seem pretty happy that Congress was finally able to pass an aid package that benefits ordinary people as well as companies.

In fact, the bill is so generous, it even gives aid to millions of non- American citizens as long as they're here legally, but for one member of Congress, that's not enough.

In fact, the bill isn't generous in her view, it's an insult. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the dumbest, most unhappy member of Congress. Maybe the one person out of 435, which have no influence on anything and yet still does, has now denounced the Stimulus Bill because it leaves one group out -- illegal aliens. We can't make it up. Is she really working for the R.N.C. secretly? Probably.

But in her view, people with no legal right to be here, people who are filling American jobs, crowding American hospitals, lowering American wages during a brutal unemployment crisis; good people, perhaps, but not Americans, people violating our laws.

For AOC, these people deserve aid, just like American citizens, the ones who are hurting and out of work.

So what percentage of Americans support that idea? We haven't seen polling on it, but right now, you'd think the number would be right around zero.

It was foolish to think that during our strongest period, our richest time, America could provide free everything to the rest of the world. But to demand the same thing when the economy is on the edge of collapse, when tens of billions of American citizens are in danger, that's not dumb. That's loathing for your own country, obviously.

So now, to a story we've been just waiting to do because it's such a great story and such happy news. If coronavirus continues to get worse, you've heard many people say and it's true, there could be a critical shortage of breathing machines -- ventilators -- for the most severely ill patients.

Some companies have stepped up to manufacture new ventilators and good for them. But at the University of Minnesota, they're doing something different. They've successfully designed a ventilator that can be constructed -- MacGyver style -- out of off the shelf materials. Amazing.

Dr. Steven Richardson is a cardiac anesthesiologist, the University of Minnesota and he joins us tonight. We're thrilled to have you tonight, Doctor. Thank you for coming on. Explain this in a way that we can understand.

DR. STEVEN RICHARDSON, CARDIAC ANESTHESIOLOGIST, THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: So what we did here is we have created an option when patients have no other option left.

So we are concerned about the availability of ventilators in the United States, as we've seen has been a problem throughout the world. So we know that companies are working around the clock to try and make ICU grade operating room grade ventilators, but we are trying to create an option in case that effort is not enough.

So what we did is --

CARLSON: I mean -- I'm sorry. Please go ahead. Tell us what you did.

RICHARDSON: Yes. So a couple of weeks ago, our Dean of the Medical School put out a challenge to the university asking for grant proposals for ways to -- for people to come up with solutions for the coronavirus, and then the many challenges that we face with respect to that.

As an anesthesiologist, my thought was, you know, initially, how can I help with this? I don't think I can construct an ICU ventilator. And on Saturday night, I just kind of got struck with a thought that you know what we could take basically a CPR device and miniaturize it and squeeze an ambu bag.

So the next morning, I woke up. I called my best friend, Jim McGurran, who works at MGC Diagnostics. He is a biomedical engineer and I said, I think we can build a ventilator. He said, I'll make some calls. And he got back on the phone with me a little later, rounded up some guys.

I went to the OR to try a couple things out that we talked about. I met him at his work. They tore down a machine that they had with a motor in it. And five hours later, we had a working ventilator, basically. We could squeeze an ambu bag to provide people with that last resort option, if we're about to be kind of overrun with patients, basically.

That first one started in a toolbox and is now our version of what we're calling 3.2, what you see behind me here is basically a one arm robot that squeezes an ambu bag, that will replace a medical provider or a family member that would otherwise be asked to be in a room and hand ventilate a patient if we run out of options for mechanical ventilation because of this pandemic.

CARLSON: Amazing. So that's what you guys do in the weekends. The rest of us are proud if we put together a ping pong table in the garage. I am very impressed and grateful also. Doctor, thank you to you and your friends for doing this. And I hope we don't need it. But I mean, how reassuring that it's there. We appreciate you coming on tonight. Thank you.

RICHARDSON: Thank you.

CARLSON: So it looks like this is going to be yet another weekend stuck at home for most people. Adam Carolla joins us next with advice on what to do while cooped up.

But first, here's another look at New York's eerie empty streets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CARLSON: It looks like a lot of Americans are headed forget another long weekend stuck indoors and may have to endure several more at least.

So how can we make the most of this time. For advice on that, we turn once again to Adam Carolla, host of "The Adam Carolla Show" and one of the funniest people in America.

Adam, great to see you tonight. You're in your backyard. So we asked you last week on the cusp of this shutdown, what your advice was, you gave us brilliant advice. You've had a week to refine it. What are you thinking about quarantine now?

ADAM CAROLLA, COMEDIAN: Well, I have a few thoughts. First off, everyone is worried about the American economy and all the losers in this coronavirus situation, but there is one huge winner in the coronavirus outbreak, and that's the Houston Astros.

Remember 10 minutes ago when everyone was throwing baseballs at them and all the fans were booing and everyone was screaming and that baseball season was about to begin and the Houston Astros we're going to have the worst nine months in their entire franchise life. When was the last time someone brought up the Houston Astros? They are the winners of this coronavirus.

CARLSON: That's a really good point. Yes, I bet they feel lucky right now.

CAROLLA: They're definitely -- you know, being sequestered at home is much better than having fast balls thrown at your head four days a week.

CARLSON: Good point.

CAROLLA: I had a thought which is -- and it's sort of dovetails on your Victory Garden discussion about two and a half weeks ago on your program, which I thought was pretty thought provoking.

Like what about having a garden? What about being a little self-sufficient, and for the last week, I have wanted to get a haircut, but I can't get a haircut because the place is closed, and I thought, if this was 50 years ago, my wife would cut my hair, and my wife would cut my kid's hair. And then I'd be down in the garage working on something, and we'd be much more self-sufficient.

So if we could use this time to sort of get back to those activities, and by the way, people think that's a financial thing. You know, you go, oh, let the wife cut the son's hair and someone goes, what? Pay $13.00 and let Fantastic John cut it.

And it's like, it's not about the money. It's about the story and it's about the interaction of mom cutting the hair. So think about all the great conversations that took place over mom's cutting the kid's hair going out to the patio, putting the stool down, you know, sweeping up and all the comedy that ensues from it as well.

So I thought, we're all home. We're all at home. We're all stuck. We all wish we had skills we don't possess such as cutting hair or putting up shelves in the garage for the dad or what have you, maybe this would be a nice window to learn some of those old skills and those skills that bring us together.

CARLSON: I think that's really wise. My producer just said in my ear that he is planning on cutting my hair. Thankfully, he is in New York right now. Nowhere nearby.

Are you canning food? Are you returning to a kind of pre-industrial life at your house in suburban LA?

CAROLLA: Well, I've killed a couple of coyotes with a BB gun. I'm making jerky out of them as we speak and I'm salting them away for the long winter.

You know, I came into this sort of having handy skills because I was a carpenter and that's what I did for a living, and I realized that it always kept me sane. And it's a perfect time to go out and do something visceral, cut your kid's hair, put some shelves up, bake some lasagna together because the physical activity keeps you connected and it keeps you sane.

And if we could get off of the computers and get off the internet a little and get back on to what sort of made this country great in our interactions that would be nice.

And also there's a practical side to it. You know, being able to iron your own clothes and cut your own hair and cook your own food means you don't have to rely on the outside world.

CARLSON: No, it's a completely good point. But most people are still watching television. And for those viewers of ours who are and looking for something to watch, you don't want to watch the Tiger guy anymore. The documentary "No Safe Spaces" out digitally. How do you get it? Because this is something that I think is worth watching.

CAROLLA: "No Safe Spaces" is a movie I worked on with Dennis Prager, your audience may recall, and we're putting it out on VOD -- video-on-demand, and you can go to nosafespaces.com and find it.

Watch it. Watch it with your kids. I think it's an important movie to watch with your kids. They'll enjoy it. There's a lot of comedy in it and it's also pretty thought provoking.

CARLSON: I think it is. I think it's great and I hope our viewers will watch it. Adam Carolla. Good luck with the haircut. And we'll see you soon.

CAROLLA: Thanks, Tucker.

CARLSON: A lot of Americans are anxious about a lot of things, about getting sick, about the economy. But there are a lot of Americans are also alone, and nothing makes people more anxious than that.

So in the face of all this, how do you cultivate calm and a sense of purpose? That's next. One of the wisest people we know joins us.

But first another look at the state of Los Angeles this time, the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is going away where we're going to win the battle, but we also have -- you know, we have tremendous responsibility. We have jobs. We have people get tremendous anxiety and depression and you have suicides over things like this.

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CARLSON: Well, a lot of Americans were already anxious and depressed before this pandemic arrived. Now coronavirus, has put millions out of work. A global recession almost certainly caused a surge in depression among people. How can you avoid that?

Johann Hari has thought more about sadness than maybe anyone in the world. He is the author of the fantastic book "Lost Connections," and we're happy to have him on tonight.

Johann, great to see you.

JOHANN HARI, AUTHOR: Great to see you, Tucker.

CARLSON: So, people are more isolated than ever. They have real reason to be anxious for the future. I'm sure -- it seems logical, we'd see an uptick in sadness. What should we do about it?

HARI: Well, you're totally right. For a really long time, people have been told, if they're depressed, if they're anxious, they're just kind of biologically broken. And there are some biological components for some people.

But all along, depression and anxiety have mainly been signals. Every human being has needs. And if your needs aren't met, it's actually perfectly rational to feel anxious, to feel depressed.

So to get to your question exactly, think about at this moment, financial insecurity makes people depressed, right. There is alarming evidence for that.

CARLSON: Of course.

HARI: One of the reasons of depression and anxiety were going up before this crisis was because there was the collapse of the middle class and a huge rise in financial insecurity.

Now, at the moment, obviously that is exploding and the best thing you can do with depression and anxiety, both personally and as a society is to listen to the signal, honor the signal, don't tell people, they're weak, or they're crazy if they feel this way.

Listen to the signal enough that you can deal with the underlying problem. Obviously, there are lots of problems and I go through all of them in my book "Lost Connections."

But let's look at financial insecurity, the one you absolutely raised in the intro completely rightly. There are countries that are dealing with the financial insecurity of this virus pretty well, right?

I'm in Britain. As you can tell -- as you know, from my weird Downton Abbey accent, I am British. The Conservative government in Britain have done plenty of things wrong, but they have guaranteed 80 percent of people's wages for as long as this crisis lasts.

The government of El Salvador, one of the poorest countries in the world has paid people's rent and utility bills for the duration of this crisis. Think about how many Americans you know who are currently deeply depressed and anxious? Not because they're crazy, but because -- not because they're weak, not because they're biologically broken, but because they have very good reason to be afraid.

Think about how differently they would feel if they knew that they were being guaranteed, they were being lifted up, rather than the money just going to Wall Street and kind of the wealthy.

CARLSON: So this, I mean, the Coronavirus Bill partly is a response to what you're just saying, I certainly hope that it works. But for people who are remaining, and this is probably a longer conversation, but for whom financial insecurity continues other than -- is there anything else you can do, do you think?

HARI: Yes. There's a lot of things. So there is a huge amount that we can do to deal with these deep underlying causes of depression and anxiety. So let's think about another one.

There's overwhelming evidence that the more you think life is about money and status and showing off, the more likely you are to become depressed and anxious. Just like junk food took over our diets and made us physically sick, a kind of junk values have taken over our minds and made us mentally sick.

And I think this crisis is an opportunity to really reassess this crisis in values.

For the first time, we can really see who are the people who keep us alive? Who are the people who are most valuable, right? They're not the celebrities who get applauded. They're not the super rich people.

Who are they? My grandmother was a cleaner her whole life. The people like cleaners who knows a lot. Bus drivers, the people stocking our shelves in supermarkets. I hope this can lead --

CARLSON: No, it is totally true.

HARI: If this crisis can lead to a change in values, where we value less than nonsense values of money and how many followers you have on social media and we focus more on appreciating the real and meaningful things in life, which are human connection, and be together.

CARLSON: I hope that's true. I wish we weren't out of time, but you're right. It's not just Instagram stars who are keeping the country alive. Johann Hari, thank you for joining us tonight. Good luck in this.

HARI: Thank you so much, Tucker. Cheers.

CARLSON: Thank you. Sunday night 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

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