Transcripts For CSPAN Coronavirus Task Force Briefing 20240713

Pres. Trump thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Progress is being made. And i appreciate you all joining us. Last night the fda announc pres. Trump thank you very much, everyone. Thank you. Progress is being made. And i appreciate youre all joining us. Last night, the fda announced groundbreaking new policies to further increase testing, very substantially so. All states can now authorize tests developed and used within their borders, in addition to the fda. So the states are very much involved. They have been involved from the beginning, but we are stepping it up as much as we can. And the testing procedures are going well. And within a short period of time, private labs will kick in. This has never been done before. And it is going to be something, i think it is going to be incredible if it is done properly. And these are among the greatest companies in the world, actually. So, the state is going to be dealing through themselves and would local government, local physicians, local everybody, they are also dealing with us. But we had a tremendous testing capacity. Today, we are also announcing a dramatic expansion of our medicare teleHealth Services. Medicare patients can now visit doctors through teleconference at no additional cost. Including with commonly used Services Like facetime and skype. This has not been done before, either. By doing this, the patient is not seeing the doctor per se, but they are seeing their doctor, so there is no getting close. During this time we will not enforce applicable hipaa penalties so doctors can greatly expand care for their patients using telehealth, so the penalties will not be enforced. We encourage everyone to maximize youth a telehealth limit exposure to the virus. It has been a very successful method of communication, but never used on a scale like we are going to use a telehealth. And you will be able to also better maintain Hospital Capacity by doing this. Earlier this morning i spoke with executives from americas fast food industry. Wendys, mcdonalds, all of the big ones. Burger king. And they were great. We were talking about the pickups in light of yesterdays guidance you heard, to avoid eating and drinking in bars, restaurants, or public foodcourt. We discuss the Important Role that drivethrough pickup and Delivery Service can play in the weeks ahead. So, that is happening, and they had been fantastic. They had been actually fantastic. And they have been doing it already. But they are doing it keeping it open. Smaller staffs, they are very capable people and very capable companies and they are doing pickups. Our guidance yesterday urges americans to take action for 15 days to help stem the outbreak. So it is a 15 day period. Now i would say it is a 14 day period. 15 days from yesterday. We are asking everyone to work at home if possible, and limit social gatherings to no more than 10 people. By making shared sacrifices and temporary changes, we can protect the health of our people, and we can protect our economy, because i think our economy will come back very rapidly. So it is 15 days from yesterday. We will see what happens. If we do this right, the world, and our country can be rolling again pretty quickly. Pretty quickly. We have to fight that invisible enemy. I guess unknown, but we are getting to know it a lot better. Today, the senate has taken up coronavirus legislation that includes free testing for those who need it, as well as paid sick leave and family medical leave for workers affected by the virus. We are also committed to getting Small Businesses the support they need. One of the things we talked about with the fast food operations, we spoke to the chairman and ceos of all the companies, but one of the things we discussed is exactly that, getting Small Businesses support and flexibility they need for themselves and for their workers. And that is being worked on right now. At my direction, secretary mnuchin is meeting today was senators on additional stimulus packages. I can tell you he was meeting with them late into the night last night and for a big part of the day after day. Tremendous things are happening. Tremendous spirit. I can say that for republicans and democrats. I can say that with respect to Governor Cuomo. We had a great talk this morning. We are both doing a really good job and we are coordinating it. And we agree. Different states need different things. And we agree on that 100 . We had a very good talk and i think we are right down the same track. And it is going to be very successful. New york has a pretty big problem. I guess it will be the number one hotspot. It is no fault of anybody, it is just the way it is. We are working very closely together. We are also getting fema very much involved. They have been involved, but now they are going to a different level. And we will have everything ready. We are dealing with the army corps of engineers, should that be necessary. We have them working in some cases on standby, in other cases. My conversation with andrew cuomo was very, very productive and a very good one. I appreciate that. We are giving relief to affected industries and Small Businesses and we are ensuring that we emerge from this challenge with a prosperous and growing economy, because that is what is going to happen. It is going to pop. One they we will be standing up here and we will say, we won. As sure as you are sitting there, we are going to say that. We are going to win, and we are going to win faster than people think, i hope. Later i am going to meet with leaders from the tourism industry, retailers, and others to discuss their critical roles. I met with the departments, all the big retailers including walmart and others. It was a great meeting. They are stocking up their stores like they have never stockedthem before them before. We are trying to get people to actually buy less, if that is possible. Dont take everything, just buy what you need for a while. They are going to stay open all hours of the day. They had been fantastic. We are taking aggressive action is one nation so america can rebound stronger. Frankly, stronger than ever before. And we recognize that while Many American workers can work from home, many others cannot. Many of our health care providers, men and women in the food service and manufacturing are showing, they are showing up and standing up to provide us with the goods and services we need. So we want people to stay home when they can, but in many cases when you talk about food service and manufacturing, certain items in particular, they are going in, and they are practicing all of the safety rules and regulations that we talk about. So with that, i would like to just introduce our great Vice President , mike pence. He will say a few words and then i will make some other introductions. Thank you so much. Vp pence thank you mr. President , and good morning. We should be very clear to the American People that President Trump has initiated not only a whole of government approach, but a whole of america approach. And the president s interaction today and through the course of this day, with leaders in industry around the country, reflects that we are not only bringing the full weight of the federal government to bear, but the full weight of the american economy. And i know i speak on behalf of the president when i say how inspired we are at the way the American People have stepped up, the way that american businesses large and small have stepped up. It has truly been inspiring. Our task force continues to focus on the priorities of testing, prevention, and supplies. In that category, i am pleased to report that while testing is available in all 50 states as the president just indicated, through the swift action of the fda and encouragement of governors around the country, now state Health Authorities can authorize labs in their state and expand existing testing capabilities. But also in connection with the fdas action, which we will hear him more about in a moment, we have continued to expand the public and private partnership the president forged with vast commercial laboratories around the country, increasing access to the highvolume, high throughput coronavirus testing that is greatly expanding access, even as we speak. Also, our task force received a report this morning on the progress that the u. S. Public Health Service and fema are making, working closely with state governments, and also partners in the private sector like cvs, target, walgreens, and walmart, to expand remote testing sites around the country. And we will have a full report later this week as those come online. It is important the American People understand that testing is happening all over the country. But all of our Health Experts wanted me to tell the American People, you do not need the results of testing to know what you should do. And President Trumps 15 day coronavirus guidelines are advice for every american and every committee. They are the result of best guidance of cdc and our Health Experts, and as the president said, we continue to urge every american over the next 15 days to put into practice the principles in the president s coronavirus guidelines. By every american practicing these principles we believe that we can slow the spread of the coronavirus. In fact, our experts have told our task force that every american acts on president s coronavirus guidelines, we can see it substantial reduction in the spread of the coronavirus. As the president said, it will take all of us to do it. So if you feel stick, stay home. If someone in your home tests positive, keep your entire family home. Especially if you have an Underlying Health condition, we urge you to stay home and practice social distancing from people. No social gatherings of more than 10 people. Use drivethrough. And every american should practice common sense and good hygiene. For the American People as a whole, the risk of serious illness remains low, but we are asking every american to partner with us in this effort to slow the spread of the virus, and especially to be mindful of seniors or others with serious Underlying Health conditions, for whom the threat of the coronavirus can be very significant and very real. As i said, the president has continued to push our task force to bring a whole of america approach, and we continue to be inspired by the way our nations governors and businesses are responding. We will soon be revealing a new Public Service campaign using cdc guidelines. And as we work on the issue of supply, meetings yesterday with the department of defense officials about excess supplies. The president and i will be meeting today to speak about the supply chain for hospitals. We would make one specific request and that is we would urge Construction Companies to donate their inventory of n95 masks to your local hospital and forego additional orders of those industrial masks. Because of what the president ask to be included in legislation moving through the congress today, those industrial masks they use on construction sites are perfectly acceptable for healthcare workers to be protected from a respiratory disease. But we are asking Construction Companies that our president knows very well from his background, we are asking them to donate n95 masks to local hospitals and forgo making additional orders. At the president s direction we will continue to do whatever it takes. We will continue to marshal the best of the American People, the best of all the people behind me, the people behind them, our state and local officials, and we will get through this, and we will get through this together. Thank you. Pres. Trump i want to thank chad wolf and Homeland Security for the job they did at the airports. It was really incredible. They screened thousands and thousands of people. Ohare got backed up a little bit, but they got them out. Everybody was screened and screened very carefully. They did not want to rush it. I think it was 13 airports. It was an incredible thing. They had a big surge also from the u. K. And ireland. That went very smoothly. But they did a fantastic job. They worked long hours and it did a fantastic job. I would like to introduce Steven Mnuchin and then im going to ask steve to leave, because he is going to the hill. He is working very hard with the senate and the house on a very big, bold package. It is going to be big and it is going to be bold. And the level of enthusiasm to get something done, i dont think i have ever seen anything quite like it. So, steve mnuchin, please. Sec. Mnuchin thank you. I would like to announce some very significant actions that the president has approved today. The first i would say is earlier today i sent a letter to fed chairman powell approving his request to use 13. 3. What that will do is the fed will be setting up a special purpose vehicle, which the treasury will invest 10 billion in from one of our funds. That will enable the fed to guaranteed the purchase of a1, p1 commercial paper going forward. That is a 1 trillion market, and it is critical to american workers, it is critical to american business, and it is radical to american savers, who have a lot of that money in money market funds. So we heard loud and clear there were liquidity issues. This is very significant. I do not think we will need to use it all, but we will have the ability to have the fed purchase up to 1 trillion of commercial paper as needed. That has already created significant stability in the market today. The second thing i would say is you know we previously talked about deferring irs payments. The president earlier this morning authorized me to announce this program. I announced we would defer 200 billion. We are going to do 300 billion. Let me be clear on the specifics. We encourage americans who can file taxes to continue to file their taxes on april 15. Because for Many Americans, you will get tax refunds, and we do not want you to lose out on those texts refunds tax refunds. Many people do this electronically, which is easy for them and easy for the irs. If you owe a payment to the irs, you can defer up to 1 million as an individual. The reason we are doing 1 million is that covers lots of passthroughs and Small Businesses. And 10 million to corporations, interestfree and penalty free for 90 days. All you have to do is file your taxes, you will automatically not get charged interest and penalties. Now, of course any american has the right to extend their taxes, but the president has asked us to go up to 300 billion. That is also an enormous amount of liquidity in the system. The third thing is the president and i worked on a very significant economic stimulus plan. Thank you for being available last night and throughout this morning. And i will be presenting that to the republicans in the senate this morning. And also discussing that with the house. We look forward to having bipartisan support. We are now working with the senate to pass this legislation very quickly. And these will be payments to Small Businesses. We have talked about loan guarantees to Critical Industries such as airlines and hotels. And we have also talked about a stimulus package to the american worker. You can think of this as Something Like Business Interruption payments for the american workers. Thank you. Pres. Trump do you have any questions for the secretary . Reporter you say a stimulus package for american workers, do you mean direct payments to americans or a payroll tax holiday . Sec. Mnuchin although the president likes the idea of a payroll tax holiday, what we have heard from many people, and the president said we can consider this, a payroll tax holiday would get people money over the next six to eight months. We are looking at sending checks to americans immediately. What we have heard from hardworking americans, Many Companies have now shut down, whether it is bars or restaurants. Americans need cash now. And i mean now in the next two weeks. Reporter how much . Sec. Mnuchin i will be previewing that with the republicans. The numbers may be bigger than what is in the press. Reporter what help are you going to get to airlines . Sec. Mnuchin i have had discussions with all the airline ceos this week. The airline ceos has had conversations with the senate and the house. As the president said, i was up with a subset of republican senators last night and i discussed that with them. This is worse than 9 11. For the Airline Industry, they have almost ground to a halt. The president wants to make sure that although we did not want people to travel unless it is critical, we want to maintain for critical travel the right to have civilian travel. The right to have domestic travel. I will not comment on specifics. We are focused. This is important to us and we will work with congress. Pres. Trump the Airline Industry will be in good shape. Reporter there has been talk about 1000 checks to every american with increasing support among republicans and democrats for that. Would you support that going to everyone, or would you support some kind of income restriction . Sec. Mnuchin i think it is clear we do not need to send people who make 1 million a year checks. But that is one of the ideas we like. We are going to preview that today, and then we will be talking about details afterwards. Pres. Trump i think we are going to do something that gets money to them as quickly as possible. That may not be an accurate way of doing that, because obviously some people should not be getting checks for 1000. We will have a good idea at the end of the day of what we will be doing. Reporter how does the mechanics of this work . We have been talking about a payroll tax holiday, 500 billion worth was floated to me today. How did this idea of sending a people check work . Would that be an advance . Sec. Mnuchin again, we want to make sure americans get money in their pockets quickly. We want to make sure Small Business owners have access to funds. We want to make sure that hotels, airlines. We have an entire package, we will lay out the details later. Pres. Trump there are four different ways you can do it. You can hear me well enough, i imagine. Ok. People at home, you are right, those are very important people. Especially your people. Look, we have four ways, possibly a fifth. There are some very good ways of getting the money out and getting it out quickly. Payroll tax is one way. But it does come over a period of many months. And we want to do something much faster than that. We have ways of getting money out very quickly and very accurately. Reporter can you talk about the timeline, how quickly you can think you can get this done . Sec. Mnuchin the president has instructed me we have to do this now. This is now. We are going to work with the senate. They are in session right now actively. We will continue to have conversations with the house. I have already spoken with Speaker Pelosi once today. The president has instructed me that this is no fault to american workers. For medical reasons we are shutting down parts of this economy, and we are going to use all the tools we have, and what tools we do not have we are going back to congress. Reporter [inaudible] pres. Trump it a substantial number. We are going big. We can keep going back every day or every week. We are going big. That is where Mitch Mcconnell wants to go, that is the way i want to go. I think we want to get it done, and have a big infusion as opposed to going through little meetings every couple of days. We do not want to do it that way. We want to go big, go solid. The country is strong, we have never been so strong. With this invisible enemy, we do not want airlines going out of business. We dont want people losing their jobs, not having money to live when they were doing very well just four weeks ago. So we are going big and that is the way it will be and that is how everyone seems to like it on the hill. Any other questions . Reporter was any type of Emergency Assistance discussed . A lot of restaurants have to close. Even if they are doing delivery, they are not making as much money. Sec. Mnuchin let me make two comments on the restaurants. The president understands this. First of all, we want to make sure that the states allow the drivethrough portion of these fast foods to stay open. Particularly in a time period where we are telling people do not go to restaurants. These companies feed a big part of america, and i expect they are going to feed a bigger part of america. The second thing they asked me to emphasize, i was not going to do it now but as long as you asked, many of these companies have tax apps. You can order ahead of time. That way when you get there, they have it, they can give it to you with social distancing, and it can be very fast. We expect they can feed a large part of the population. And in regards to support, i will say a lot of these businesses are Small Businesses, companies, franchisees 500 or less, and we have a specific program we will be unveiling that helps all businesses, small and mediumsized businesses of 500 or less. Reporter regarding marriott corporation, they are furloughing thousands of individuals because of the impact of the coronavirus. Will your legislation help those individuals . Sec. Mnuchin i hope so. That is one of the reasons why we have to act very quickly. Because we understand, whether it is the airlines, hotels. For good reasons, to protect the United States on medical issues, these businesses are shut down and the president wants to make sure. As i said, we will use all the powers we have. 1 trillion of potential liquidity into the market. The powers we do not have, we are going to congress. There is a lot of bipartisan support for these issues. So i am going to apologize because i have to go deal with some other things. I do want to comment on this. We absolutely believe in keeping the markets open, ok . Americans need to know they have access to their money. After september 11 the only reason the markets were closed was because the technology was disrupted. I had been on the phone with the major banks, with the new york stock exchange. Everybody wants to keep it open. We may get to a point where we shorten the hours, if that is something they need to do. But americans should know that we are going to do everything to make sure that they have access to their money in their banks to the money in their banks, 401 k s and money in their stocks. Pres. Trump and the banks are recordsetting strong. So we have that, which is a much Different Event than what we had not so long ago. Reporter you mentioned the army corps of engineers. You had a conversation with Governor Cuomo. He believes new york is going to run out of hospital beds. Are you prepared . Pres. Trump we are starting the process. It is a process we hope will not be necessary but it could be necessary. The state is working on it very hard themselves we will probably supplement what they are doing. Reporter given that many of the precursors for pharmaceuticals come from china, and there have been supply disruptions, that supply chain has been broken to some degree, do you expect we could run into a shortage of prescription drugs . Pres. Trump i do not see that at all. China has every incentive to make sure that things work well. China wants to make sure that things work very well. They have every incentive to do so. Reporter the governor of ohio has called off the election it was supposed to happen today, the primary election. Do you agree with that decision, and what steps are you taking to ensure that elections going forward, if this pandemic continues, that elections will be able to happen, including the big one in the fall . Pres. Trump the governor of ohio is doing a great job. He called it off and we will see what happens. There is a court case and it is not been fully determined yet. If he calls it off i could understand that. Because he is definitely somebody who knows what he is doing. We will be seeing very soon, they are going by the rule of 10 as opposed to 15. And that is pretty tough. I could say you could probably violate that if you want to do for an election. I just think election is a very special thing. He chose a date i think sometime in june. But that would be a decision that will be made by him. He felt it was necessary. The cords are somebody is courtsenging it so the will ultimately decide. Reporter what are you doing to ensure that if we are still in the situation months from now pres. Trump what i am doing is very simple. We are getting rid of this virus, that is what we are doing. By the way, for the markets, it is very simple. We want to get rid of it. We want to have as few deaths as possible. This is a horrible thing. You look at what is going on with italy. We do not want to be in a situation like that. Because we are a much larger country we do not want to be there. I think we have done well. I think the states have done well. The best thing we can do is get rid of the virus. Once that is gone it is going to pop back like nobody has ever seen before. That is my opinion. Pop back like nobody has ever seen before. That is my opinion. Reporter just a followup, specifically how many new hospital facilities could the army corps of engineers build . And what specific measures are you taking to try to increase the number of ventilators . Pres. Trump we have ordered massive numbers of ventilators. And we have by any normal standards. We have a lot of respirators, ventilators. We have tremendous amounts of equipment. Compared to what we are talking about here, this has never been done before. Yesterday i gave the governors the right to order directly if they weve knocked out all of the bureaucracy. Yes, mike . Vice president pence there are two ways that the d. O. D. Can be help fl in terms of expanding medical capacity. The governor of new york has asked us to look at the army corps of engineers which could perhaps renovate existing hospitals but also were inventory field or mash hospitals. That can be deployed very quickly. We spoke with governor inslee yesterday in washington state. As governors make these requests well process them, bring them to the president but there are two different lanes that d. O. D. Can provide in addition to many things we can supply. The president has asked us to make available and consider every request from governors for either field hospitals, expanding facilities or the army corps of engineers. Pres. Trump the army corps is very prepared to do as we say and look at where thats going. And they do call them mash hospitals but the field hospitals go up very quickly. We have them. We have all of this equipment in stock and were looking at different sites in a few different locations and were not going to need them in West Virginia where so far they have none. Big jim, the governor, he must be doing a good job. Reporter is that a reporting issue or is that that they have no cases . Pres. Trump i just see West Virginia is the only one that has no cases so obviously thats being treated differently than in new york or california, different parts of california. I do they this. The army corps of engineers is ready, willing, and able. We have to give them the go ahead if we find its going to be necessary. We think we can have quite a few units up very rapidly. Im going to work with Governor Cuomo and a number of the governors. Governor nuwsome has been very generous in his words and im being generous to him because i think were all working together very well. Were talking to california about different sites but we have we have we can have a lot of units up very quickly if we think he need them. I might ask sela to say a few words on health and then we can get back. Thank you. As the president announced we are doing a dramatic expansion of whats known as telehealth for our 62 million medical benefitries who are amongst the most vulnerable to the coronavirus. Were asking for an appropriations bill signed on march 6 as well as the bill the president signed last queefpblgt this is to ensure that government requirements, rules, and regulations dont get in the way of patient care during an emergency. Thanks to the significant progress the president has already made the past three telehelp services. Medicare beneficiaries across the nation, no matter where they live, will now be able to receive a wild change of range of services via telehealth without having to leave home and they can be provided in a variety of settings including nursing homes, hospital Outpatient Departments and more. Well also be trailerly relaxing certain hipa requirements so that doctors can provide telehealth with their own homes and this is a part of our larger efforts around mitigation and as we are encouraging people to stay home wherever possible, we dont want our medicare to get in the way. Perhaps an elderly patient needs a routine check up, nothing to do with coronavirus and this person, whos at risk for the coronavirus, doesnt have to venture outside their home. They can take to their doctor via skype and dont have to risk exposure to the virus and they can receive that care within the safety of their own home. It could be another medicare recipients experiencing flulike symptoms and instead of leaving the house and ing in a waiting room full of other vulnerable people, they can also receive advice from their dwro in their home. This is very important for doctors who will face considerable strain on their time and resources and now medicare patients who dont necessarily have to come into an office wont have to and this allows the Health Care System to priretize for care for those that have more needs and dire need and preserves protective equipment as well. State medicaid agencies can also provide teleHealth Services without medical improvement and were asking insurance companies. Expand telehealth as we seek to provide the balance of getting americans the care they need and limiting the spread of the virus, this the impact of this historic action cannot be overstated. In an emergency, those on the front lines shouldnt be able to worry about federal rules and red tame when they need flexibility above all else. Also wants to briefly mention that because of the president s emergency declaration, we do have the ability to provide a lot of medicine cade waivers and florida was the first state to be approved. We were able to do that in a matter of days. Thank you. Pres. Trump any questions, please . Reporter where do Senior Citizens go for for instructions on how to do the telea heavily . They should call their Doctors Office and they can tell they want also, some medicare members may not have access to equipment so were asking family members to help with this but also representing the requirements around social distancing. Broich will you be posting numbers also . Thats correct. Pres. Trump that might be the easiest way to do it. In ads. And they can also call our 1800 medicare number and also get information. Those phone lines are open. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Will you say a few words and threaten ill ask dr. Burks to say a couple of words on how the system is working. Thank you very much. As we talked about earlier this week, the commercial system is rapidly advancing in the testing capabilities. As of today, our Public Health laboratories, meaning the c. D. C. And the Public Health labs have reported out 31, 7 8 tests. So almost 32,000 tests. The Clinical Laboratories, the association of Clinical Laboratories have reported out about 27,000 tests and most importantly, of those 27,000 during the cumulative period of time, 8,200 of them were yesterday. This is showing the dramatic rampup. We dont have the numbers this morning from the American Hospital association which means all the individual hospital laboratories. Well have that upcoming in the next day or so and then ambassador burks will have this whole process fixed with the legislation that everything will roll up into a common reporting probably by the end of next week. Our drivethru laboratories are blossoming all over the country by individual states. The ones that we are heavily involved in and pushing equipment to, we expect over the next few days to begin setting up 47 of these in approximately 12 states. The term is almost being shipped to the locations. Most cities have the specific locations, some do not but its going to a Central Receiving and well be deemploying at least 140 missioned corps officers, about half of the sites that reported their requirement. About 140 officers will be going. We expect that to go up. So this is going on the way we expected. We did a trial site yesterday with a full mobile unit for drivethru with foul p. P. E. We had a lot of kinks in the system, as you can expect. Thats why we do afest before we go out into the field. Dont depment these to be 100 perfect the moment they come. Theyll be dap adaptsed so the states and situation but we expect that they will add instantly. Thank you. Pres. Trump thank you. This has never been done before. This is a great road map for the future should we have Something Like this in the future. I wope hope we dont. Were working with the states and relying on the states. We have to because its point of ale, point of site and i think were getting along really well with the states. Dr. Burks, could you say a couple of words, please . Thank you. Thank you, mr. President. I think what youve been hearing from us is define solutions that are high quality and sustainable based on the frontline workers and governors questions. Those come in on the governorss calls. Weve been immediately responsible to those responsibilitiesive to those and thats the level of red tape and bureaucracy we have ruflede. As the president says were creating a road map for a different level of functionality for future pandemics. Our flu pandemic Preparedness Plan was a plan. Now were seeing where we have to revise, create mu new avenues of research and work to really ensure that the needs of the American People can be reached. We were adamant about having a highquality test based on our commercial vendors. Over the next few months youll again begin to see that other tests that were utilized around the world were not of the same quality. Resulting in false positives and potentially false negatives. These tests were studied by the f. D. A. To ensure they were that level of quality and weve again given the states the permission to ensure that same level of quality. One minute on the testing. Testing should not be used as an assessment of your risk. Were asking every single american, no matter what your generation, from z and up to x and millennials in between to really ensure that youre following these guidelines. We hear every night of people who are not in work moving that time into bars and other areas of large gatherings. If we continue with that process, we will fail in containing this virus so every single generation has a role to play. Were asking our older generation to stay in their homes and were asking the Younger Generations to support them in social contacting through videos and other skypetype functions or just a simple telephone. Were asking the Younger Generation to stop going out in public places, to bars and restaurants and spreading asimple tamic virus onto countertops and knobs and Grocery Stores and grocery carts. I heard an innovation last night and again in morning on the news. I really want to applaud the private sector who are now creating senioronly shopping times. I think thats extraordinary. I think that shows what america brings and i think other countries will learn from us about how to really protect seniors in this type of way. Im hoping it carries through to next year when we have our flu epidemic when we can really have a very different profile of the amount of mortality we have during flu that we never talk about. Anywhere from 15,000 to 45,000 individuals are lost every year. If we learn how to do this well and sustain some of those core changes, we can change the rey way respiratory viruses, not only this but in the future affect americans. Pres. Trump thats a big thing. Reporter weve had 5,000 people test positive, 90 deaths or so. When are we going to know the datea data of who those people have . Who is most affected, what the preexisting simple conditions are . Also those who have died . Youre sing my sheet of music. Im very data oriented. I want to aapplaud a. H. S. We had this discussion several days ago. Theyve made calls into seattle and california to really understand that and also importantly to understand how many of their patients needed ventilators, how many needed oxygen support. How many of them needed and what they needed. Could we predict early someone who was going to have a more difficult course . These are all the questions were asking and answering right now. We did get an early report back from santa clara and seattle. Were digesting it. We just got it this morning. We think that road map is very important to other communities. We have not discussed this with new york yet. We do know from other countries and that all is available online, that profile. You can see that mortality under 30 is extraordinarily low. The mortality across the board outside of wuhan is now settling somewhere around. 7 but that should not be reassuring because its much high we are people in preexisting medical conditions, even if young, and people that are old we are preexisting medical conditions. So we still want every american focused on what they can do today to change the course of this pandemic. Reporter will you make that information public . Not only making it public but having a website that everyone can see in real time. Reporter youre signaling a much more aggressive posture toward at the same time mitigation now and many states have been very aggressive but there are a small number of states that have not issued public guidance to their residents. Isnt it important for the success of the effort that 100 of the states be forwardleaning on this, and if so, mr. President , what would be your message to those states that have not . Thats why the Vice President and the president yesterday issued those critical guidelines. As i said in morning on fox and friends, you can look at them as guidance, as requirements, and as the president asking every american and every state to follow those. Thats why we put them out at the federal level. We wanted to make sure every american knew what they could do today to change the course of this epidemic. I think its empowering, it says all of us have a social responsibility to each other and thats why we believe that every mayor and every governor should be instituting these guidelines that came from the white house and the president of the United States. Pres. Trump and weve been very tough on those states. I know exactly what youre talking about. Please, go ahead. Reporter youve been telling us for days now that millions of test are out. So why have fewer than 60,000 been tested . I think youll see different numbers. You heard about the 8,000. The highspeed tests were approved last thursday night and last friday night. I think if i could talk to the groups that have these platforms out there, do not rely on a pull technology. Push out those tests because we can only make them available. Groups have to order them. Weve been talking to they wereafisher, one of the key platforms to push out tests, based on need and not wait for orders. Reporter is that the big erest issue biggest issue, getting the tests out or getting the tests conducted . Thats a great question. Obviously it takes time. He is working on innovatea solutions that are creative and sustainable and will be a game changer in testing but we dont have the data yet. Can you do it yourself . Can you actually sample yourself . These are the kinds of things were working on right now and hes getting the data for us. Pres. Trump and the states are doing a lot of it. The governors and the states are doing a lot of it with even our tests. Go ahead, please. Reporter thank you. Can you give us a sense of how long these tough new restrictions will need to be in place until we start to see the rate of this virus going down . And also can you speak to this study that as many as 2. 2 Million People in the United States could die if there werent this type of action taken by the government . Models are models and theyre based on unput and based on infectiousness without any controls. I can tell you weve never seen that level of infection that modeled town that 2. 2 million in mortality. We are looking at that. Were having a particularly modeled meeting tomorrow. I think thats going to be important. Ive dealt with a lot of modelers in my time. Theyre wonderful people but they all have their favorite inputs and all have their favorite integration functions. Were trying to integrate the best model for the United States bested on the best data and that first set of recommendations you saw were based on what we could do today. If i could say one thing to the hospitals and dentists out there things that dont need to be done over the next two weeks, dont get it done. If youre a person with an elective surgery, you dont want to go into a hospital right now. Theres a lot of distraction, a lot of people doing a lot of other things to save peoples lives so lets all be responsible and cancel things that we can cancel to really free up hospital beds and space and then lets do everything that we can to ensure that we dont need the ventilators because we protect prosecute protected the people who would have immediated to use them. Reporter are you looking at the possibility of things like limiting travel in the United States . Pres. Trump its possible. Well see how it goes. Theres been great cooperation with local governments, states. Its going pretty well right now. Reporter mr. President , do you need to in vogue the defense production act to get more of those medical supplies to hospitals . Pres. Trump were able to do that if we have to. Weve studied it closely, over two weeks ago a. Well make that decision pretty quickly if we need it. We hope we dont, its a big step. Reporter do they need more help from the federal government . Pres. Trump in plarks three states need help. Some states have two people, three people, no people people, in the case of West Virginia. Were looking at it very closely, taken it parking lots 15 different ways. Its a very big stem and if we need that step, well take it. Reporters a lot of people travel to places that arent considered hot spots, the caribbean, mexico over the next few weeks. Would you recommend they canceling those plans . Pres. Trump i would say stay at home. Stay. We have to get this problem fixed and then well get back to business really quick. The world will hopefully open up. We see areas of the world that havent done well and we see areas that are doing very well and i would see us in the category of doing very well for a country so big. I think i would recommend that they just enjoy their living room. Go ahead, please. Reporter what do you say to people who are not heeding these guidelines from the white house and i also have a question on asymptomatic people. Pres. Trump im not happy with those people if theyre not. But those people are being shout the shouted down by other people. Its almost like selfpolicing. There are a couple of incidents or more where people are not doing with seeing others not do what theyre supposed to do. With coach win this war and ideally quickly. Because the longer it takes, its not a good situation and im not even talking about the economy. Im talking about the lives of a lot of people. Reporter will the white house place restrictions for corp rapt businesses that do get Like Airlines . Vice President Trump pence i think the president has made it clear to industries around the country that were going to do whatever it takes. We understand this is an extraordinary time in the life of our nation. The president has met with the Airline Industry, hell met with additional leaders today in tourism and hospital pi at the. Hes asked the secretary of the treasury to work with members of both parties to shape the kind of economic support that will allow those industries to weather the period of the coronavirus and then to come back stronger than ever before. Pres. Trump weve had such incredible i dont know, i guess the word spirit is the best word. The banks are coming in and doing things they would have never done. Working on extensions and lots of things they wouldnt have done. Coplay copays with regard to the insurance companies. They would have never done that. And they did it. They were in my office. I would say the 11 biggest in this country, i guess probably the 11 biggest of the world. All the big ones and they did things on copay that nobody would have been doing, that they wouldnt have been doing in a million years but theyre doing it. Theres a great spirit going on right now in the country. Reporter dr. Fauci, you said you like being accused of overreacting because that is an indication we may be doing things necessary to beat this, bend the curve. How long will it take for you to be confident that yes, were bending the curve or no, were not. I cant give you a firm number on that because the dynamics of outbreaks in some rments are predictable historicically. We dont know because this is really unprecedented. Of all the out of bounds ive been involved with over outbreak breaks ive been involved with weve never had an incidence where travel restrictions, internal my gays. Financial assistance, like health assistance, testing. So we dont really know but i do know that if you look at models is that when you have input into the kinds of mitigations and things that were doing, were going to see a hump instead of a peak. I would be really surprised if all the things that were doing and this is really a comprehensive approach. I was struck as i was listening to everyone make their presentations. , that you know, im a scientist, im a health person, and im a physician who sees patients so i look at it from one particular standpoint but when im being impressed by is that this is really a comprehensive thing that has multiple components to it. All of them have to succeed if were going to get to that end point that ive described multiple times from this podium so i hope that if everyone does their job, well be able to give you a number saying weve seen that inflection and were coming down. I would hesitate to do it now, to be honest with you, because it might be misleading and i dont want to be misleading. I want to say one other thing because i heard dr. Burkes say it and i think we need to say it over and over again. When i was young, a long time ago, i felt that i was invulnerable, the way i think many of us feel. And when were asking the young people to help us by staying out of the bars and restaurants, really trying to distance yourself. Dont get the attitude well, im young, im invulnerable. In some respects youre certainly less vulnerable than i am. However, what you might inadvertently do, and i know you dont want to do that. You dont want to put your loved ones at risk, particularly the ones who are elderly and the ones who have come priced compromised conditions. We cant do this without the young people courtroom rating. Please cooperate with us. Thank you. Reporters theres apparently a new study in china, found that the vast majority of people, 86 were untested with mild to no symptoms. What does that mean and should testing go beyond expectations . That question keeps coming up and im not going to evade it but i want to make a point. We tend to think that were not going to be able to mitigate or contain would you testing. They complement each other in respects but theyre separate channels. If we had no testing, we could be doing what were doing now. The question youre asking, would it be important outside of a doctor and patient coming together, with knowing whats out there, what might be on the radar screen, the answer to your question is yes. The c. D. C. Is going out there and part of their program is to get a feel for what is there that wasnt initially thought to be coronavirus, that was thought to be something else. When you do that youre also going to get a feel of what the is in society so we are heading with the high throughput things youve been hearing about to get an answer to your question. Reporter governor chromeo cuomo said this morning he believes well see a peak in terms of infection in 45 days. Would you con occur with that . Its possible. The governor has been doing a really good job of trying to stay ahead of this. 45 days is not unreasonable. You have to be careful when you get a number, you own the number and the number doesnt come out, were in trouble. Thats with the reason from our standpoint within the federal government, were talking about a range. You dont want to be wed to something and then have to back off. When reporter when is the soonest we will know that these new guidelines are actually bending the curve or actually working . And is there a point in time where in the next couple of weeks where you will be able to tell the president more draconian measures are needed . Dr. Fauci ok, what is happening, if you look at the metaphor, it is like a race against the virus, if left to its own devices will do this. And us trying to somehow blunt that. Now, you could see the virus going up and up and youre a fact, your work which you are trying to do, may actually be having an effect. But you may not see it because it will still be going up. And as you are trying to implement your interference with the virus, you may not realize that you are actually interfering. And you will say, it is still going up, whats going on, youve done nothing. But you dont know whether it would do this versus that. The answer to your question, it probably would be several weeks and maybe longer before we know whether we are having an effect. It may be at the end of the day we will see a curve that would have been way, way up. But i would not put us to task every few days. Wait a minute, its going up, is it working or not . That would be really misleading if we do that. Reporter guidelines announced yesterday, one of the guidelines was a recommendation against gatherings of 10 or more people. And today, the governor of alabama issued her own guidelines and it was a recommendation against gatherings of 25 or more people. What is your recommendation for people of alabama, people across all the country as far as the guidelines that were announced yesterday by the federal government . Dr. Fauci ok, one thing we do not want to do is get hung up on the difference between 10 and 25. I think you may agree with that. When we give guidelines, they are only guidelines. We sit down, we look at the data, we are datadriven and we say, on different models, 10 looks good. If someone wants to do 25, we are not going to fault them. But if somebody wants to come to us and ask us what we think the best is, we stand by the numbers. It isnt perfect, it isnt precise math. It is assumptions and it is data that make you to your decision. Effectivewooden it be if every state was playing by the same rules . Dr. Fauci yes, of course. This is the United States of america, people do their own thing. Quite frankly, i dont think there is a big deal difference between 10 and 25. Weve got many more important things to worry about than that difference. Reporter what about the supply chains and talking about preparedness for the future . Yesterday, larry kudlow says theres an idea of cutting taxes for companies who would be bringing their supply chains back to the United States. He said he specifically likes immediate 100 writeoffs. He said you have not endorsed about yet. Pres. Trump we have many ideas. Thats one of them. We are looking at creating incentives for companies, not only that type of company, but other companies. We are also looking to help companies such as the Airline Industry, within the Airline Industry. And we will be doing that. This is not their fault. And they have been very understanding. And we will be helping them. We will have a very powerful Airline Industry and it will start up as soon as this is over. We will have those planes ready to go. We have to help them during the short term. Reporter i wanted to know, have you taken a look at some of these models such as the Imperial College london model . It poses a very difficult choice, whether it is shutting down society or overwhelming the Health Care System. Is that something pres. Trump we look at every model. We have relied on the talented people and there is no better team than the people behind me, and i will say that all of the people that have done those models are all in constant touch with dr. Birx and tony and everybody that you have been hearing so much from over the last couple of weeks. We have looked at many different models. The model we have is we want to save a lot of lives. We want to save a lot of lives. If we get too steep on that curve, you will lose a lot of lives, perhaps unnecessarily. Everything has a risk, we will see. If people do what we are telling them to do, you are going to see the saving of a lot of lives. Boris in you the u. K. Yesterday, you saw what happened, and looked like they were going a different way and then he went a way of i dont know exactly, but i would say we had a conversation yesterday, similar to what we are doing. A lot of people seem to think this is going we are looking to save the maximum number of lives. Everything else is going. To come back. A life is not going to come back. Our economy will come roaring back. We are going to know that day. Somebody was asking about the day, when will you know . We are going to know all of a sudden we will say wow, that is looking good, thats looking good. And we will be on the other side of the curve. And that is a day we look forward to. Reporter this week, what made you decide that now is the time to implement these much more stringent social distancing measures . Pres. Trump no, i dont think so. This is the way we were going from the beginning. This is what we had in mind. We were just going stepbystep. That was the next step. The next logical step. As dr. Fauci said, and i think very importantly, one of the most important things when you write the history of this was the fact that we closed down to china and europe. But in particular, china. We closed it down from the source very early. Far earlier than the great professionals wanted to. I think in the end, that will be will have saved a tremendous number of lives. Reporter can you followup on the economy and the other on the broader picture . Just to follow up on my colleague, some people did note that your tone seemed more somber yesterday. You talked about the obvious timeline. Did you see projections of people that thought that 2 million potentially could die, may be prompted part of that . Was there a shift in tone . Pres. Trump i have seen that, where people liked it. I didnt feel different. Ive always known this is a real this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was look at other countries. I think now it is almost 120 countries. I have always viewed it it was no different yesterday from days before. I feel the tone is similar. Some people said it wasnt. Reporter on the economy, your former economic adviser said almost 100 chance of a recession. Do you see it that way . Pres. Trump i dont think in terms of recession, i think in terms of getting it out. When we are finished with the virus, we will win. We will win. When the victory takes place, our economy will go through the roof. It is so pent up, it is so builtup, it is so ready to go in an upward direction. But we have to knock out this enemy. This is a really tough enemy but we have to knock out, all of us, that is all of us. I dont think in terms of recession, not recession. We have to knock out this and we will have an economy. I think we will have an economy like weve never had before. It is all pent up. Yes . Reporter i think the question about the actions that the president has authorized beginning in january when he took the unprecedented step of suspending all travel from china, and the efforts to issue travel advisories for portions of italy and south korea and then to begin screening all the passengers, the efforts regarding suspending travel for europe and what went into effect at midnight last night, adding the u. K. And ireland to that, have all been informed by the experts that are surrounding us. What the president has asked us to do from the beginning, as dr. Birx and dr. Fauci say, lets follow the data. Bring the president the best options in response to what is actually happening on the ground. But with regard to yesterday, 15 day, slow the spread plan our team unanimously brought to the president these very strong recommendations. For every american. Because we truly believe we are at a point in this epidemic and our country when we can reduce the number of people that actually are exposed to or contract the coronavirus. But we will continue to bring the best data, the best evidence and the best recommendations frankly, the best Health Experts on the world and the president will continue to make decisions that puts the health of americans first. Pres. Trump in other words, reduce the number of people that die. That is what we are trying to do. When you do this steep curve, and a lot of people are going to die. The worst ever they say, 1918, i dont have to go into the numbers but they were unbelievable numbers. Had they known and had they done what we had now, it would have been a much different story. It would still be tragic but it would have been much different. That was the one that people write about. That was an incredible pandemic like we havent seen. We have done something that i that hopefully we will all have made the right moves. We are all in this together, including you. We want to see fair press. I tell you what, it has been, generally speaking, i think it has been a great thing to see. It has been very, very getting along with the democrats, getting along with republicans for the democrats themselves, there has been a lot of spirit, a lot of things happening that i have not seen happen in the first almost three and a half years it. Has been very nice to see. Really the good thing is we have to knock it out. We have to win. We want to keep that slope as low as possible. That is a lot of lives. Lets go back there. Somebody that didnt get one. Reporter mr. President , this has had a huge impact on chinas economy. Have you received education from any indication from officials that they will have trouble meeting the purchase agreement, part of the phase one deal, particularly the agricultural side . Pres. Trump they need our products very badly. I have not received any. We have a Good Relationship with china. I have not received anything. We have a signed agreement. They have been buying a lot of product. Reporter earlier today, dr. Birx was talking about the possibility of our Hospital System being overburdened. She talked about the certain options that are available to the United States should that happen, including the va hospitals, department of Health Medical treatment facilities, even hospital ships. At what point do you tap into those options . Pres. Trump i will know the point by speaking with Governor Cuomo and other governors, we will know the points. It will be different for new york and for iowa or from idaho, or from West Virginia, frankly. It is different. New york has got a big problem, the state of washington has a big problem. California has some big problems and everyone is doing a good job. I believe it will be more spot than i will not be the whole thing. It will be spots. There are hotspots that are in trouble. Big trouble. There are other areas that are in no trouble at all. They watch it on television, they dont know, it is not affecting them and they are lucky. That there are areas of the country that dont have much of a problem and some that dont have any problem. They will not have a problem with hospitals. Some areas like new york, california, the state of washington, they will have difficulty. When we see that coming, we will be there. We are already making preparation for it. Reporter senator marco rubio of florida and your trade advisor have been recommending an executive order that would ensure that Raw Materials for pharmaceuticals and medical devices are manufactured here in the United States. We were getting indications last week that you were close to signing this executive order. Pres. Trump we are looking at different things. I dont want to say exactly. China has been sending us everything we need. But we are looking at some alternatives, yes. We are looking for alternatives. And we have we have other places, ireland has a lot of things in that world, very tremendous producer. We are looking to bring a lot more back home. Excuse me, you know me for a long time, ive been talking about this for many years, long before i decided to run for president. We have to be able to take care of our country. That was one of the many things on the list. So we will be talking about it. But we are discussing it and marco is very much involved and peter is very much involved. A lot of people are involved. We will be discussing. Please. Reporter you said canada has closed its borders to noncitizens. Are you considering pres. Trump not to the United States. Reporter are you considering closing the land borders . Pres. Trump canada has not closed to the United States so we are working closely with canada. They have not closed it to the United States. They have closed it to the world but nothing United States. Reporter are you considering closing the u. S. Land border . Pres. Trump we are discussing things with canada and mexico, quite honestly. The relationship is outstanding with both. Outstanding. We signed our deal. Usmca. The relationship is very strong. Reporter others have criticized you using the phrase the chinese virus. How do you feel about that . Will you continue using that phrase . Pres. Trump china was putting out information which was false that our military gave this to them that was false our military gave them to them. That was false. Rather than doing that, i called it where it came from, it did come from china. I think it is an accurate term. I did not appreciate the fact that our military gave it to them. Our military did not give it to anybody. Reporter using the phrase creates the stigma. Pres. Trump i dont think so. I think saying our military gave it to them creates a stigma. Please. Reporter what specific help will you offer to them . Pres. Trump we are going to they need help. Lets face it. They go from having recordbreaking years. This is the third year of recordbreaking years travel in tourism, airlines, everything. They were doing record numbers. Ordering new planes, building new hotels, everything was really hunkydory. And then one day, we hear about this rumor and china, then we find out it is much more than a rumor. And then all of a sudden, we make a great decision to close it up early. It would be a different world, but we made a decision to close it up to china. All of a sudden, tourism, and then we close it to europe, which people never heard of this before. Im not sure that has ever been done. I know when i made the decision to closer to china, people told me it has never been done before. It was a great decision. We make good decisions. My best decision, the people behind me are total pros. All over the world theres respect for dr. Birx, anthony who has become a Major Television star for all the right reasons. He is so professional, so good. The people we have working here have been incredible. And they are totally respected. The admiral has been incredible, having to do with the testing. Incredible. And he is viewing this as testing also for the future. We are building a platform. When we took over this platform, the first thing the admiral said was, this was not designed for what we are talking about, millions of people. And it is nobodys fault. Who could have ever predicted a thing like this . We broke it down and it is going to be incredible. And it is now a great system. I just want to say, these are incredible people standing behind me. They are the most respected in the world. Every country that you have mentioned today so far has called them and they call them all the time for advice. Theres nobody better than who we have. Reporter why havent we seen dr. Redfield the last couple of days . Pres. Trump i dont know. He is doing a good job. We are happy with him. Please. Go ahead. Reporter yesterday, we were being told that the payroll tax was going to provide fiscal stimulus. We also had the markets fall quite dramatically yesterday. Pres. Trump what was it about the payroll tax. Reporter what made you make that change and when did you make that change . Pres. Trump we are looking at payroll tax and we are looking at various other forms of getting money to people. The payroll tax is something that ive always liked. It does take a period of time, months before they see something. We dont really have months in terms of people living. In a lot of these you have people that work on tips. You have people, it is a large number of people, who would think this, right, and they do nicely, they work very hard, but they work on tips. We have to take care of our people. We dont want to have people suffering during this period. It was not their fault that this thing all of a sudden was upon us. We are looking at various we are also looking at a payroll tax. We will do a percentage of payroll tax and other things possibly. We would like to be able to get money to people. We are very lucky, our country is doing so well we can do this and we can do it easily. I have to say, Mitch Mcconnell, if you look at mitch and kevin and the whole group, it has been incredible how they are reacting, how congress is reacting, how whether it is the house or senate, how they are moving. Im talking about democrats and republicans. But we have had tremendous leadership meetings and they want to see it done right and they do want to go big. I think going big is important. I dont think we want to go up there every day with a different concept lets worry, about the airlines, lets do this one. You have a big problem with the cruise ship industry. And industry that was setting all sorts of records two months ago and then all of a sudden, theres nobody on the ships. So we have to help these. These are going to be taking care of people and passengers and for years to come and paying tremendous taxes, tremendous taxes for years to come. We have to make sure that this is done. Reporter i went to bring up what you referred to a short while ago about politics. In your address to the nation, you said we have to put politics aside, stop the partisanship and unify together. This morning, you criticize the democratic governor of michigan, yesterday it was the democrat governor of new york, youve attacked biden and obama, every day since one since the address, you have lashed out at a democratic leader. Are you going to set the example . Pres. Trump i only do that when i have to respond. And i will continue to do that. If they are not going to play fair, because they have the media on their side, i dont. I just have me. If they are not going to play fair, i will do that. If they are going to play fair, there will be nobody better than donald trump in terms of bipartisanship. But if they are going to say things that are false, like the story that was written yesterday, somebody i think i know who they taped a Conference Call i had with the governors. I assume somebody will tape it. They handed it to various people and one of them was the New York Times, and the New York Times chose to write a totally inaccurately about it. They do a lot of bad journalism. We respond to that. And actually, people get it. I wanted to be bipartisan and no one will be better than me. When they attack me or the people, these incredible people behind me, im not point to let them get away with it. How about one or two more questions. Go ahead. Reporter what is the next natural step [indiscernible] a lockdown . Pres. Trump hopefully we will not need that. We think of everything. We have every idea you mentioned. It is a very big step. In one sense, it would work. It is a very big step. It is something we talked about but we have not decided to do that. Reporter what are the determining factors for you to take that action . Pres. Trump they would have to get to a level i just dont think it is going to be an action we will take. But anthony, all the people standing behind me with a get together in a room, plus some additionals and we would make a decision. I dont think that is a step we will take. One more question. You didnt have one, did you . Reporter will the u. S. Government provide airline provide assistance to airline suppliers . Pres. Trump were looking mad we are looking at that. Were looking at boeing. Boeing got hit in many different ways. Boeing didnt have a problem. For years, they were an incredible it was something unthinkable what happened with respect to boeing. Unthinkable. Probably i would consider it the greatest company in the world prior to a year ago. Now they get hit in 15 different ways. They have different management, ive met the new people running boeing and i think it will be outstanding. We have to protect boeing. We have to absolutely help boeing. They were it was coming along well, and then all of this hits. Obviously when the airlines are not doing well, boeing will not be doing well. We will be helping boeing, yes. Reporter will you respond on what john was saying . Youve called for people to leave politics. Joe biden said the World Health Organization offered testing kits that they had available to the United States. We refused it. We didnt want to buy them. But if asked as who made that offer. Can you tell us . Pres. Trump i will let tony answer that question, or whoever is best at answering that. When you talk about politics, i watched the debate. Not too exciting. But what they said about me, and weve done a great job, when you talk about not being bipartisan what they said about me, and if you look at swine flu, the whole thing, and i guess it was 2009, and the mistakes they made they were terrible. They were horrific mistake 17,000 people died. I will be honest. They should not be criticizing because we have done a fantastic job. The only thing we have not done well is to get good press. We have done a fantastic job but it has not been appreciated. Even the closing down of the borders, which had never been done, and not only did we close them, we closed them early, the press doesnt like writing about that. Id guess, i dont know who to blame. Maybe i can blame ourselves for that. I will blame ourselves. I think we have done a great job. I think we have done a poor job in terms of press relationship. Let me have somebody answer your question. I tried to cover this in the answer when i talked about quality of kits. It runs through the fda. All of these platforms, we have asked people to submit. And we have asked states to quality control. I mean, anybody could submit their test to us. We do not buy tests that have not been quality controlled and they show us the data. Either show us the data upfront or show us the data after they have been running them. Because quality testing for our American People is paramount to us. It does not help to put out a test where 50 or 47 are false positive. Imagine what that would mean to the American People. Imagine their level of concern now and telling people that they are false positive. We take the same approach to hiv, imagine telling someone they were positive to hiv and they werent. That is our bottom line. The customer, the American People first. So any of these groups can submit their testing kits through our regulatory processes. But without that, and without a plan we are not going to accept tests that have not been studied by us. Pres. Trump good answer. When i became involved in the testing world, i called as senior officials of the who as i could find it understand what the situation was. As far as i can tell from sources that should know, no one ever offered to test but we refused. This is a Research Grade to test that was never approved, not submitted to the fda. That was supplied in tens of thousands of quantities to 100 countries in the world. I think there is a lot that people are saying about this that is based on rumor and myth. Nothing was offered that we refused. It was a Research Test that was not approved. There was a small number that we have greatly surpassed in a very short time. Pres. Trump nothing was offered. Number two, it was a bad test. Otherwise, it was wonderful. Thank you very much. I assume he will apologize. Thank you all very much. Thank you all. Viewspan, your unfiltered of government, created by cable in 1979 and brought to you today by your television provider. This morning, on washington journal, we will discuss the latest on the coronavirus and the u. S. Response to the outbreak with the university of marylands center for homeland healths on the States Harris ofthen drew Thomas Jefferson university. Washington journal is next. Is next. Sweep for joe biden in tuesdays primaries in florida, illinois, and arizona. It raises the question of when Bernie Sanders might withdraw. Washington journal this is this is washington journal for march 18. We will talk about that and the latest in the coronavirus responds with a near trillion dollar package likely. For those in the eastern and central time zones, the line is 2027488000. The mountain and pacific region, 2027488001