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Texas Roadhouse CEO gives up salary to pay workers amid coronavirus crisis

Texas Roadhouse founder and CEO Kent Taylor on making sure his employees are paid during the pandemic.

This is a rush transcript from "The Story with Martha MacCallum," April 3, 2020. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Hey there, Bret, thank you very much.

So there's an expression, you may have heard it, it goes like this lead, follow or get out of the way. We're seeing stark examples of all of those options right now. We're seeing some leaders who are leading. We followers, I guess, you could call us, are staying home. We're washing our hands. We're doing all the things that we're told to do. Some folks involved in some parts of this might want to get out of the way for a little while, while all of this gets taken care of.

We're seeing cooperation between some interesting places, the White House and some of its unexpected allies at times. You've got Governor Newsom of California. Newsom has done battle many times with the President, but not so right now. They're united in this fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I'd be lying to you to say that he hasn't been responsive to our needs. He has. And so, as a question, as a sort of an offer of objectivity, I have to acknowledge that publicly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Crises, by their nature, are unexpected. Just as almost no one anticipated Pearl Harbor or September 11, the scope of COVID-19 is far worse than anyone - almost anyone I should say anticipated. Now it is our response that matters every single day the most.

So leadership looks like a lot at different cases. It also looks like this from Governor Hogan of Maryland. Today, he came out and said that in his state, there will be quote, "no evictions, repossessions of your vehicle or your mobile home or debt collection during this state of emergency."

And look at this from Kimberley Strassel, who writes in the "Wall Street Journal" that while the "White House response to the crisis", she says, "setting up alternate care facilities, explaining virus modeling, revamping regulations to keep truckers on the road", she writes that speaker Nancy Pelosi is setting up a new House Committee to investigate Donald Trump. We're going to talk about all of that tonight.

Also this evening, "The Washington Post" is now joining those who are questioning the origin story of the virus. They are now raising questions about a possible accident at the lab 300 yards from this seafood market in Wuhan, where they were testing bats or viruses, perhaps an accidental in infection, he writes, of a laboratory worker who was doing that bat research may have been where all of this started. Here's Dr. Fauci on this question earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: It boggles my mind, how when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human animal interface, that we don't just shut it down. I don't know what else has to happen to get us to appreciate that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: That's a great question. So we're going to be joined by Senator Lindsey Graham in a moment on that. Also tonight General Jack Keane is here on the relieving of a Navy Captain after he spoke out about COVID-19 sailors on his ship who needed help there. And questions, and there are a lot of them, for the Head of Testing on the White House COVID-19 Task Force. We will speak with him as well this evening.

So as promised, we're going to begin with Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham. Senator, good to see you tonight. Thank you for being here. You know, first of all, I guess, on what we spoke about in the beginning of the introduction there, thank you. The question of leadership and the question of beginning investigations at this point, you know, putting together committees, House committees to investigate the President and the response to this at this point, what do you say?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): It's probably the most tone deaf thing I've heard in this whole crisis. Most Americans are not worried about investigating. They're worried about getting back to work and staying alive. So very tone deaf by the speaker and I hope she will not issue a bunch of subpoenas to people who are working day and night to save our lives.

MACCALLUM: Do you think that it equates to other things like Pearl Harbor or like 9/11? You know, every presidency gets besieged by something that is unexpected, a crisis that lands on their doorstep that was not anticipated. Do you put this in this in that category? Or do you think that we should have been better prepared?

GRAHAM: No, this is this is a worldwide problem, just not a United States problem. But no, this is on par with 9/11, on par with World War II in terms of the world being under siege by evil, which is the virus. This virus can attack us at home, it can come from abroad. So this is a worldwide war we're engaged in. Its hit our homeland, its killed more Americans than died on 9/11. And here's what I worry about. What are the takeaways?

These wet markets in China. People eat bats and they monkeys. And bats and monkeys - at least bats for sure, carry this kind of virus. This is where Ebola came from, this is where the SARS came from. And this lab may be 300 yards away from the wet market in China where they test bats for coronavirus infection, but people literally eating bats 300 yards down the road.

And for this to continue is an outrage and Dr. Fauci said, the world should ostracize every country that allows exotic animals like monkeys and bats to be intermingled with the food supply and near humans. This will be the third pandemic come out of these wet markets in China.

MACCALLUM: I want to play something for you. This is Dr. Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization Executive Director on what he sees as - he wants everyone to be careful, he says, about profiling China as aggressive co- operative. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL RYAN, W.H.O. OFFICIAL: I think we need to be very careful also to not to be profiling certain parts of the world as being uncooperative or non-transparent. We need to be balanced in that, and we need to recognize that systems under pressure find it hard to share everything on a minute to minute basis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: What's your reaction to that? Sir?

GRAHAM: That's ridiculous when it comes to China, and they have a pattern of withholding information from their own citizens, not allowing their citizens to communicate. Look what they did in Hong Kong. No, they underreported this, China has a bad history.

And what am I asking? I'm going to have Senator Coons and Senator Booker and myself are going to write to the World Health Organization and to the Chinese Ambassador, asking them to shut down the wet markets. How many times do we have to go through this before we change our behavior?

It's just not in China, it's in Southeast Asia, it's in Africa. A talked with Lara Trump today. She's got an effort to stop people from consuming cats and dogs as a food supply. There wildlife being killed all over the world for their tusks and their ivory, and now we have wet markets were wild, exotic animals are being slaughtered and consumed on the same premises as chicken and pork. And in it gets into the stream of the animals and eventually the human being.

Some guy in China started all this and it most likely came from a wet market. Just remember what I said, some guy in China started this and we got to stop this stuff in China.

MACCALLUM: So, you want to write to the Trade Representative, you want to write this letter. What do you say to President Trump about this? And should be our other relationships be contingent upon this? Because everyone was told in the world that these were shut down and then slowly, but surely, they all started to reopen. So how many times we're going to go through this routine?

GRAHAM: Well, 16 percent of all deaths in the world were infectious diseases, and about 60 percent of them come from animal to human transmission. So what Lara Trump is trying to do is bring attention to the fact that people eat cats and dogs throughout the world as part of their diet, we need to stop that. It's the 21st Century.

What I would tell President Trump is to call up President Xi and say, listen, you just reopened the wet market in Wuhan where we believe all this came from. Crack down on bringing exotic and wild animals into these wet markets where they contaminate the food supply and human beings. Bats carry this stuff, and they literally eat bats. Stop eating bats.

MACCALLUM: Well, and they do tests on bat viruses in the lab that is not far from this area as well. And there's some speculation and reporting coming from "The Washington Post" to suggests that it could be from either one of those situations.

Before I let you go, I want to ask you one more question on a different topic. And that has to do with your call for a national shelter in place. Some of the people who watch this, epidemiologist say, we need to go that final step. We need to do a national shutdown for two weeks and it will make a big difference they believe. Why aren't we doing that?

GRAHAM: Well, the President said today it's up to Governors. My Governor here is put a long list of non-essential businesses to be closed. We stopped elective surgery, so we'll have more hospital beds for the coronavirus. But we've had 1,700 cases in South Carolina. I think 34 people vet (ph), about 1,000 cases in the last week.

So Alabama just did a shelter in place. A safer at home policy. I just think for a couple of weeks we need to be all in. We know that if we'll stay away from each other, it will slow down infections and 100,000 to 240,000 of us won't die. We're trying to buy time until we get clarity--

MACCALLUM: So do you think the President should do that?

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: --the virus.

MACCALLUM: Do you--?

GRAHAM: I think the President doesn't have the legal authority unless Congress somehow acted. But I would suggest that the President suggest that the policies in California and Washington have served us well.

So what I'm trying to do is, every day is a battle. Forget about looking backward. Let's look forward. What can we do today as a country to slow down the infection rate? Stay away from each other. Practice the guidelines. Go all in to develop the therapies in the virus that will kill this damn thing. So we're at war with this virus. Let's act like we're at war.

MACCALLUM: Yes, I've never seen anything like it. It's awful and incredible. And I think that national message is a good one for the next few weeks. Senator Lindsey Graham always good to see you sir.

GRAHAM: Well, the supply chain--

MACCALLUM: Stay well. We'll see you soon.

GRAHAM: Thank you. Thank you.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: All right, we'll see you next time. All right, coming up next. The captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt relieved of his command after sounding the alarm on COVID-19 onboard his ship. General Jack Keane is here on why the Navy removed him and whether or not it was fair.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD): Captain, Crozier! Captain Crozier!

(CLAPPING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: Tonight, Senate Democrats are calling for the Pentagon to launch an independent Inspector General's investigation into the Navy's decision to relieve the Captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt from his post.

Captain Brett Crozier, who you see here, sounded the alarm over the COVID- 19 outbreak that was onboard his aircraft carrier. He wrote a letter to Navy officials on Sunday, calling for the ship's immediate evacuation after more than 100 sailors tested positive onboard.

Now the Acting Secretary of the Navy says that the captain acted without Discussing the letter with his immediate commander and sent the letter over an unsecure, unclassified e-mail system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS MODLY, ACTING U.S. NAVY SECRETARY: But it was copied to 20 or 30 other people, OK, that that's just not acceptable. He did not take care. And what that did is, it created a panic on - a little bit of a panic on the ship.

That demonstrated extremely poor judgment in the middle of a crisis, because what it's done, it's created a firestorm. It's created doubts about the ship's ability to go to sea if it needs to. It's created doubt among the families about the health of their sailors and that was a completely unnecessary thing to do in the midst of a crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Joining me now General Jack Keane, retired four-star general and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst, General Keane, always good to see you. What's your take on this story?

GEN. JACK KEANE, FOX NEWS SENIOR STRATEGIC ANALYST: Yes, I think it's pretty unfortunate circumstance has taken place here, because everybody involved here is well intentioned. And, my first my first issue with it is the, the Secretary of the Navy.

Listen, he's completely justified and take any actions for the reasons he stated. But why is he doing that is the question I'm asking. He's, he's got at least four admirals between him and his captain. That's over 100 years of experience that are involved in Navy operations.

If you got a concern about somebody who's running the most powerful symbol of American power in this country, which is an aircraft carrier, let those admirals make that assessment and make the judgement about that. But the Navy Secretary got himself personally invested in this. I understand he may have had a conversation with the captain last week. So that's issue one for me.

And if you're doing that, if you're making those decisions and not letting the admiral make those decisions at lower levels, aren't you going around the chain of command and weakening that chain of command and doing something like that? In my judgment that's true. But I'll go back to that he has the authority to do.

Secondly, is why do it now? The Roosevelt is not operationally deployed. There is a strike command group that's on that ship that's still functioning, and they have control of the other ships. But the ship's company, by and large, are all focused on what, on sheltering, on isolation and testing the crew, and getting the now 140 who are ill taken care of. 90 something of those are symptomatic.

We all know that a Navy captain is a larger than life figure on a ship. Everybody has an opinion about that captain who serves on that ship. Most of them are very favorable, because we got great people out there serving.

And to remove that person in the middle of the of the crisis that's threatening the lives of the people on that ship, seems to me the timing is off. Let's make a judgement about the mistake he may have made, but let him continue there until the full assessment is completed and get let's get some emotional separation from this.

The third thing is the captain himself. I mean, why would he write a letter after he's had plenty of dialogue with his chain of command on a non-secure net, and then copy people on that letter who are not in his chain of command? Some of them are subordinate to him. That is absolutely a boneheaded mistake in my view, despite the fact its well-intentioned.

Obviously, he was talking to his chain of command before they got to Guam, very high in the chain of command. And they knew he had a lot of concern. They were working on trying to get him the needs. And at some point over the weekend, I'm convinced, he must have come to the conclusion. Hey, listen, they're not moving fast enough. I've got to do something about this.

MACCALLUM: Right.

KEANE: And that sparked the letter. But there are other ways to handle that. That whole chain of command, if he wanted them on a VTC to talk to them about the problem he's got to include the Chief of Naval Operations and go all the way to the top with everybody else on that VTC, he would have got that VTC without any problem whatsoever. Why do that? And that judgment call is what is what at issue here?

MACCALLUM: Well, and it may be one that he regrets. I have no idea. But as you say, he clearly got to the point or I would assume just from this sequence of events that he got to the point where he felt like nobody was listening to him and that his people were in a bad situation that he wanted to help them out of. Listen to this video. This is them cheering him on as he was leaving the ship there chanting Captain Crozier!, Captain Crozier!.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD): Captain, Crozier! Captain Crozier!

(CLAPPING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: And that's a lot of folks, General Keane, who seemed to feel like he was - he had their back.

KEANE: Well, that to my point, I mean, he's a larger than life figure on that on that ship. Everybody knows he is. And you can see the sendoff that he's getting from many of the crew members, you know, obviously who don't agree with that decision. They are emotionally invested in this themselves.

I go back to my original point. I mean, it's an unfortunate situation. I think it could have been better handled. I believe when you're dealing with issues that take place in a chain of command, those who are closest to that chain of command, they know the facts, they know the people involved, let them make the decisions and the assessment about that.

People in the Pentagon making decisions about a guy who's running the ship out in the Pacific? I think we - I think that's well intentioned, you have the authority to do it. But I think we're better served that we leave it to people much closer to the problem.

MACCALLUM: General Keane, always good to get your thoughts. Thank you, sir. Good to see you tonight.

KEANE: Yes. Good talking to you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: Me too. So coming up next, there's big news tonight on testing, both a new rapid test becoming available and possibly a test for antibodies that would allow people who've recovered from the virus and gained immunity to return back to work. This is a big health question, a big economic question. The White House Task Force testing czar Admiral Brett Giroirs joins me next

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Abbott instruments which now can perform a 15-minute test across the country have literally 18,000 of their machines across the nation today. But at the President's direction, FEMA is acquiring over 1,200 more machines to distribute to every state public health lab in America, and we're continuing on the White House Coronavirus Task Force to examine ways that we can scale up these rapid tests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: Major news tonight on both rapid testing for COVID-19 virus and possibly a new test for antibodies that would allow people who have contracted the disease and recovered to know that they are clear, that they have the antibody and that they can safely go back to work.

Here now is Admiral and Physician Brett Giroir, Whitehouse Coronavirus Task Force Testings czar, as he's referred to. Admiral thank you very much for being here tonight. We understand that this Abbott test, the one that the President took, and a lot of people who came into his office took today as well can give you a positive result in just a few minutes and a negative result in something like 13 minutes. How soon before I can call my doctor, you know, down the street and say, I'd like to have that test tomorrow?

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, WHITE HOUSE TASK FORCE TESTING CZAR: Well, thank you for having me on. Right now, this test really is revolutionary in that. As you said, you can get a positive result in four minutes a negative result in under 13 minutes. And we only have about 50,000 of those tests that can be done per day.

So right now, we don't want you being healthy and not sick to get this kind of test. It really is a precious resource that we really want to use for the most important groups of our patients like someone in the hospital that we need to make a treatment decision.

Or let's say in a nursing home. If there's someone sick in a nursing home or exposed, we don't have to wait 24 or 48 hours. We could know right there on the spot, what to do with that person, how to best treat them and how to best isolate the other people who could have a mortality rate--

MACCALLUM: Yes

GIROIR: 20 or 30 percent in a nursing home. So this is still very precious task.

MACCALLUM: Understood. And I think - yes. I think for the first month or so everyone kind of understood that. But I think it's getting to a point now and we're reading so many pieces and stories about massive, comprehensive national testing that that's the only way that we can sort of get this - get out better clarity on this where people can literally just go to their doctor and say, please test me. How far away are we from that? From these tests being very open and useful to the rest of the country?

GIROIR: Well, it's not going to be for the next few weeks, that's for sure- -

MACCALLUM: Next few weeks--

GIROIR: --because Abbott will make 250,000 tests per week. And that's not 200 or 20 million tests per week. We know we've tested 1.44 million samples already. That's up from only about 40,000 two weeks ago. So over the next few weeks, we will have tested millions of people, but not tens of millions of people. That's sort of in the next phase.

So look three, four weeks down the road, when hopefully - and it should. If we listen to the President, the Vice President of task force, the number of patients go down, then we'll be able to expand the testing dramatically, using not only these tests, but also as you referred to the antibody tests.

MACCALLUM: Yes. So that's the next thing I want to talk to you about. Because I think in order for people to get some kind of comfort level going back to work or starting to go back to their lives, it would be obviously so helpful if they could say, I think I had a month or so ago and I can get this antibody test prove to myself and to others who, you know, want to know that yes, I have antibodies I've already had it. How far away from are we from that pinprick blood test that really, you know, we need in widespread use?

GIROIR: So, this is really coming very soon. The technology for this is really well established. It's not a highly complex sort of test that we've had to develop on the fly for coronavirus. Antibody tests are really widespread, so there are a number of tests now that are entering the market and we want to be really sure though of the validity of those tests and how they perform.

Because imagine you got a note that said, you're positive, you have an antibody and you can't get infected and wonder if that's a false test. Then you can go into a situation where you can get sick.

So, over the next couple of weeks we have very specific plans with CDC, FDA, the National Cancer Institute, to evaluate the specific performance of this whole group of tests. But once that's done, we will really have them in the millions and tens of millions per month, very, very early in a systematic way that we can test tens of millions of people.

MACCALLUM: OK, so you say very soon, so that's within a matter of weeks, if I understand you correctly.

GIROIR: That's correct.

MACCALLUM: Where will I go to get it? Can I just call my doctor, or were there will be a center that I go to? Is it public, is a private? How can we all get that done?

GIROIR: Well, we're working on those concepts right now, but you can bet that there is going to be many public options. Just think of going to your pharmacy for your immunization. You're not sick, you can go in and have time with your pharmacist. You can get it at any doctor's offices, any public health there will be a sort of mass screening programs.

So, this is really a whole different situation --

MACCALLUM: Yes.

GIROIR: -- than dealing with sick people, with PPE. This is a whole different ball of wax and you will see this rolled out --

MACCALLUM: Yes.

GIROIR: -- in a very effective widespread manner.

MACCALLUM: Great. I think everybody is anxious to get that test. It's going to be very important in the coming weeks to getting things back open and going --

(CROSSTALK)

GIROIR: It really -- it really is.

MACCALLUM: -- getting the economy going again. Very important. Thank you very much, Admiral Giroir. Good to see you tonight. Thank you for being here.

GIROIR: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So, when we come back, we've got some new concerns from doctors over how much the hospital ships, the Mercy and the Comfort, are doing what they were designed to do, which is to relieve the pressure on COVID-19 facilities. This one has been in New York for five days. It's got two dozen patients on board. That doesn't seem like a lot. When we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: COVID-19 has left hospitals overwhelmed, especially here at the epicenter in New York City where healthcare workers are dealing with the massive influx every single day of patients coming through the door.

So, the USNS Comfort was supposed to alleviate that but tonight there are reports that suggest that the navy hospital ship with everybody on there, ready to go and help out remains essentially empty. About 20 of the 1,000 beds are filled, at this point.

Here now Dr. James Johnson, senior vice president for Envision Physician Services. He is an anesthesiologist who's been deployed to several New York City sites to help treat those who are suffering from COVID-19.

Doctor, first of all, thank you for everything that you are doing. These are, I'm sure, very long days and difficult ones for you and everyone in the healthcare profession, and we are so grateful to you for what you're doing.

So, this ship was supposed to sort of take the people who fell down and broke their ankle, and maybe somebody has got their appendix out, and you know, lots of things along those lines. Why is that not happening at this point in your assessment?

JAMES JOHNSON, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ENVISION PHYSICIAN SERVICES: Well, Martha, it's hard to say. Really what we are here to do is focus on the patients that we have in the hospitals. We want to provide those clinical services and non-clinic comfort services just to be with the patients that we have in the hospital. That's our focus and that's what we're here to do.

MACCALLUM: So, but in terms of alleviating the pressure on the New York City hospitals, you know, is there a better way to sort of funnel people? So, apparently as it stands right now, they have to go first to New York City hospital, and then they have to say, well, you would be a good candidate for the Comfort, were going to send you over there. Is there a better way to do that because you are a person who manages services at your facility?

JOHNSON: Sure, absolutely. It's hard to say that there is a better way to do that. Having been in similar situations in the military, what we know is that things take time. What I would fully anticipate is that when it's time and whenever they're able to start taking those patients that they will flow in that direction.

MACCALLUM: Yes, so tell me a little bit about what you're seeing there on the front lines. How bad is it, how, you know, are people getting the care they need, are there major backup and backlogs that are affecting your ability to help people?

JOHNSON: I do think somewhat. The overcrowding is the largest issue that we're facing. The hospitals are overcrowded and they -- it makes it difficult to take care of the patients. In some ways, just trying to get around between the beds on the hallways. Sometimes we are in a position where we almost have to kind of, you know, move over beds of some COVID patients to get to other ventilators change them.

So, it definitely is something that we need to work toward. Getting those hospitals off-loaded.

MACCALLUM: Yes. What about the PPEs, the masks, what are you seeing from your own personal experience in New York?

JOHNSON: My experience in New York so far has been that, we've been -- we've been able to give everything that we need, and the hospitals that are using things judiciously, but we're able to safely do what we need to do.

That said, we -- our company is also really focused on trying to back that up, and they're making their own efforts to try to acquire PPE to help us out here.

MACCALLUM: You know, in the future, you know, can we be better prepared for something like this?

JOHNSON: Undoubtedly. I think this is a wake-up call for all of us. I think that in future -- in future occurrences like this, we're going to be much better prepared both clinically and operationally to manage this.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

JOHNSON: And what we are doing out here the deployment that are enterprises doing, to get physicians out here and help out with this crisis, we're going to be prepared to do that. Not only in this city but even during this crisis in other cities.

MACCALLUM: Dr. Johnson, thank you. Best of luck to you. And stay safe out there --

JOHNSON: Thank you so much.

MACCALLUM: -- and be well. Thank you very much, sir.

So, also joining me tonight is Dr. Manny Alvarez who you know well. He is chairman of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive science at Hackensack University Medical Center and a Fox News contributor. He's also been on the front lines of this fight from the very beginning, treating COVID-19 patients, primarily who are pregnant, in his practice.

Dr. Manny, always good to see you, sir. Tell us what you're facing out there with women --

(CROSSTALK)

MANNY ALVAREZ, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: -- who are expecting babies and are worried about this and, you know, testing positive for COVID-19 as well.

ALVAREZ: Well, at the beginning of the epidemic we didn't see a lot of pregnant patients having any positive COVID testing, but as time went on and you have more infection and more penetrants of the disease here in the tri-state area we began to see more COVID positive patients.

And of course, you know, like everything else, as an obstetrician and I have a terrific team of high-risk obstetricians. Dr. Alcan (Ph) and all my -- all the great doctors that I have, they began to focus because we have two patients to take care of at the end of the day. We have the mother and the baby.

And there was not a lot of data really to understand how the virus might work in a pregnant woman. A couple of things we knew, that the likelihood of fetal infection was minimal because there's really no data to support that there were any positive viruses found in the amniotic fluid and let's say some of the things that have been published. So, we were confident that this would not be a transmission from the number to the unborn child.

However, the signs and symptoms of COVID, which, for a pregnant woman could be devastating just like the flu can be, that's why we tell all pregnant women to take the flu shot, began to show its face. And the primary problem that we had was respiratory failure and respiratory problems.

And when that happens, of course, if you have a mother that's not breathing well oxygen then is compromise to the unborn child, so obstetrical decisions needed to be made. So, this is something that we are in the forefront, you know, a lot we are really doing multiple things. Not only are we learning from the clinical scenarios, we continue to amend our clinical protocols for management, but we're doing a lot of research that is going to be very valuable in the future when it comes to understanding vital infections in pregnant women.

So, everything is going well, but of course, for the pregnant population it has become a great concern.

MACCALLUM: Of course. It's just another layer of concern to expectant moms. Dr. Manny, thank you very much. It's always good to see you, sir. And we'll see you soon. Stay well.

ALVAREZ: Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So, coming up next, a startling unemployment numbers this week. Just brutal. Warnings that the true picture could be even worse than the numbers appear right now.

Andy Puzder on that and what he says is some good news out there for our economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: So, you know well that the COVID-19 pandemic is just hitting the economy in such a way of just hammering it, really, leaving a lot of people feeling hopeless. They watched their livelihood seemingly dry up overnight as we look at a grim job support for the month of March.

More than 700,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate hits 4.4 percent. So, experts say that this could be the tip of the iceberg and that the number is likely in the end much worse.

Joining me now, Andy Puzder, former CEO of CKE Restaurants and author of "The Capitalist Comeback" which is something we're all going to be looking for. Andy, good evening. Good to have you with us.

ANDY PUZDER, FORMER CEO, CKE RESTAURANTS: Good to have be here, Martha. Thank you.

MACCALLUM: So, you know, this is an interesting quote that was published on Axios today that suggests that this could have a very large impact on this generation.

It says, "Americans who lived through the Great Depression were scarred for life by that experience and they exhibited a level of caution and frugality that only their boomer children would eventually overcome."

Is there a lasting impact on this generation from this?

PUZDER: Well, there could be if it goes on for a long time but unlike the Great Depression, this financial crisis isn't based on some flaw in the economic system, it's not that investors or businesses or financial institutions were taking risk and that risk created problems within the system that needed to be overcome.

This is really completely related to this virus. We went into this -- we went into this crisis with a very, very strong labor market. In fact, even though we lost 700,000 jobs in March, we still had 151,761,000 jobs at the end of March and that is more jobs and we had five months ago in October.

If we would've had that same number of jobs in October it would've been the highest number ever reported by the government.

So, we went into this with the strong market. We can come out of it quickly. This is the rough time right now. The numbers are going to get worse but the right -- the rough time is right now.

MACCALLUM: So, in order to get that confidence to get back to work it goes back to my prior interview with Admiral Giroir about testing. About people understanding that they had it --

PUZDER: Yes.

MACCALLUM: -- and that they have immunity. I mean, don't you feel that massive nationwide testing is a very urgent need in this country right now economically and medically.

PUZDER: Yes, it's absolutely -- absolutely. I can't speak to the medical parts. Your other -- your other guests did that and did it very articulately.

But for economic purposes, look, if we can get people tested and they believe that many, many people who were non-symptomatic had this disease and now have immunity, if we can get those people back into restaurants, back into health clubs, back out into the communities, that's going to be huge for the economy, it's going to give us back on the right track to a recovery.

And as long as the government is willing to get out of the way when this is over, we need government right now, we needed the stimulus that we got. I should call it the savior that we got. It wasn't really intended to stimulate the economy but all of the government actions that were taken recently in reaction to this crisis were necessary.

But when the crisis abates, the government needs to step back. If it does that, I think we will recover very quickly and testing is a huge part of that.

MACCALLUM: I think you just touched on a really important issue, is how to sort of get back to the capitalist, you know, sort of --

PUZDER: Yes.

MACCALLUM: -- miracle that this country is after so much government intervention. Andy, thank you. Always good to talk to you.

PUZDER: Thank you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: Good to see you tonight, sir.

PUZDER: Good to see you.

MACCALLUM: So, in the midst of all this uncertainty surrounding health and economic security, America is coming together through incredible acts of compassion.

Several executives from corporations such as General Election, Disney, Marriott have all opted to forgo their own paychecks in order to help their workforce.

My next guest is among those who is trying to help workers in need. Kent Taylor is the founder and CEO of Texas Roadhouse. He gave up his salary and his bonus for the year to help pay for the frontline employees during the COVID-19 crisis.

Kent, good to see you. I see you that you well -- you watched the White House --

KENT TAYLOR, FOUNDER AND CEO, TEXAS ROADHOUSE: Good to see you.

MACCALLUM: -- briefing tonight and you got your --

(CROSSTALK)

TAYLOR: We've been doing this --

MACCALLUM: -- you got your gloves and you've got your bandana.

TAYLOR: Yes, we've been doing this for over a week, so they just caught to it, I guess.

MACCALLUM: So, what does it say on your shirt there?

TAYLOR: Right here, it's, wash your hands, put your gloves on, put your eyewear on, and wear a mask or a bandana. So, there you go.

MACCALLUM: And at the bottom, it says service with heart.

TAYLOR: Service with heart six feet apart. Yes, I missed that part

MACCALLUM: So, tell me a little bit about why you decided to give up your salary for this year and who -- how is it directly helping your employees?

TAYLOR: Basically, we're a company, a people company that serves steaks, and so that was an easy choice for me on the salary part to help our people. And within a few days those checks started rolling to those people, our own stimulus plan, as it were.

MACCALLUM: So how do you get your restaurants back open and your people back to work? What is your forecast for when that might happen and how you might begin? You know, it's not going to open overnight. How would that -- how does that look to you as a business owner?

TAYLOR: Three weeks ago, we were barely clawing along. We maybe had 10 percent of our workforce working but we flipped on a dime, we took our dining room and put it into the parking lot. Now we do curbside, and now we do family packs, and we're actually selling ready-to-grill meat.

And so now we're back up to over 50 percent employment in our stores and we're actually trying to get people to come back to work.

MACCALLUM: That's great. That's a great plan. Now what about when it becomes possible to really put people back in the restaurants. What do you anticipate about how, you know, the mindset of people trying to get them to feel OK about going back to a restaurant, and sitting down and ordering dinner?

TAYLOR: Will probably start out I'm guessing with people in every other booth. We are actually creating, as it would be like a sneeze guards to put around the booth so people know that the air they are breathing is staying within their booth and we will still offer curbside to go and family packs at that point as well.

MACCALLUM: Wow. What's your message to sort of the other restaurant owners and CEOs out there across America, because they are in a very tough situation right now.

TAYLOR: You've just got to let your people think on their own. You've got to be entrepreneurial, and they will figure it out and we are going to serve America and we're going to also take care of our people.

MACCALLUM: Good for you. You're doing some innovative things and I'm glad it's working and hanging in there and we look forward to going to your place at some point real soon. Thank you so much, Kent Taylor.

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

MACCALLUM: Good to see you tonight.

TAYLOR: All right.

MACCALLUM: So, more of The Story right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACCALLUM: So that is The Story of Friday, April the 3rd, 2020. As we make our way through April, sometimes these days feel long and the weeks can be long but it's Friday so it's time to spend some time with your family and enjoy all of the things that that togetherness can bring.

If you're not feeling well, we hope you get better soon, and if you are feeling well, stay that way. We will see you back here when The Story continues on Monday night at seven. Have a great weekend, everybody. Take care.

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