Transcripts For CSPAN White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing 20240713

The White House Coronavirus Task Force Meeting with President Trump and Vice President pence. This is this is about one hour. President trump i would like to announce some progress on the chinese virus. War powers inthe case we needed. It can do a lot of good things have iteded and we will completed, signing it in a little while after im finished with this conference. Its prepared to go. We will be invoking the defense production act. Last week i signed an Emergency Declaration under the stafford act. We have been working with fema. They are incredible. Its always been on hurricanes or tornadoes but right now in tennessee, there is a large group working in tennessee and they have been incredible. That was a tragic event. Alabama last year and also a tornado and obviously the numerous hurricanes in different were verythat devastating in some cases in every case, fema came through. This is a different kind of work for fema but they will come through. As they always do. We have tremendous people, tremendous talent in fema. Request, theg upon two hospital ships being prepared and they are massive ships. They are big white ships with the red cross on the side and one is called the mercy and the other is called the comfort and they are in tip top shape. They are getting ready to come up to new york and i spoke with Governor Cuomo about it and he madecited and we havent the final determinations as to where will go on the west coast. The comfort is located now in san diego and its going to be we will pick the destination fairly shortly. Those two ships are being prepared to go and they can be launched over the next week or so. It depends on the need. Earlier this week, the first Clinical Trial the vaccine candidate for the virus began in washington state, as you probably know. The genetic sequence of the virus was First Published in january but thanks to the Unprecedented Partnership between the fda, nih and the private sector, we have reached human trials for the vaccine. Thats just eight weeks later which is a record by many months. It used to take years to do this now we did it in a short while. Thats the fastest development in history of what we are doing with regard to the vaccine. We are making big progress. Today i can announce further steps to expand testing capacity. We are working with several groups to determine if the selfs, much easier process than the current process that is not very nice to do, i can tell you because i did it. Process thatsnt a little bit difficult. The groups are working on determining if a selfswab test by an individual is as effective as the other. The other is very accurate and very effective but we will see if we can do a selfswab test which would be more popular, i can tell you that. That would be administered also by a Health Official but a lot easier to do. The fact is that the health professionals, it would free up, if this wealth the self you do it yourself and the other has to be issued by a health professional. Its something that is quite difficult. Work out for the self swabbing people would do what they have to do but thats probably working out. I have asked the fda to cut through the red tape and reduce regulatory barriers. We are looking at some very exciting things and i will hold a second News Conference either today where we will talk about the fda, some things are happening that are quite exciting. We will be doing that either later today or tomorrow fairly early tomorrow. We will see what happens. I have beenons is working very hard on a number of developments and we will discuss that with you later today or tomorrow. This afternoon, i will meet with nurses on the front lines of the battle against the virus. They are Truly American heroes. They want to get it done. They are incredible people so we will meet with nurses. I look forward to that. They are very brave. They are taking a lot of risk and they have done an incredible job and they never complain. That the announcing department of housing and urban development is providing immediate relief to renters and homeowners by suspending all foreclosures and evictions until the end of april. We are working very closely with dr. Ben carson and everybody from hud. Every generation of americans has been called to make sacrifices for the good of the nation. In world war ii, young people in their teenage years volunteer to fight. They wanted to fight so badly because they love our country. Workers refused to go home and slept in factory floors to keep us in the lines running. Ships they built during world war ii, to this day, has never nothing like that has ever been equaled. A dailye doing ships on basis. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. To this day, nobody has seen anything like it, what they were able to do during world war ii. Now its our time. We must sacrifice together because we are all in this together and we will come through together. Its the invisible enemy. Thats always the toughest enemy but we will defeat the invisible enemy. I think we will do it even faster than we thought. And it will be a complete victory. It will be a total victory. Conferencee a second again having to do with the fda. I think it will potentially be an exciting News Conference. And we will do it as quickly as we can. Whether its today or tomorrow i will then ask mike pence to say a few words and thank you very much. Pence thank you, mr. President , the corunna tire the Coronavirus Task force met this morning and now that we have cases in all 50 states, we are continuing to move out on the president s call to bring the full resource of the federal government, the full partnership with every state and territory, the full power of the American Economy to support businesses and families. Andhe president says, to us every day, we will do whatever it takes. We were all in this together. The president yesterday met with Tourism Industry executives and also had an engaging discussion with all the Top Companies in our industrial and medical supply chain. The president re, also announced today that by mutual consent, the northern border to canada will be closed to nonessential travel. This does not include essential travel or the transit of goods but it was through mutual discussion with which took place this morning between the president and Prime Minister trudeau and the department of homeland security. They will effectuate that decision. The president spoke with some of the top Business Leaders today to speak about the supply chain in the country. Our part, we will conduct a Conference Call later today with state and local Health Officials to renew our ongoing commitment of cooperation and collaboration. As the president said, last week and signing the stafford act, he stood up the National Coordination center and today, at the president s direction, fema has gone to level 1. To supportssion is disasters that are locally executed, state managed, and federally supported. Tomorrow, the present will host all the nations governors from a Video Conference at fema to ensure that they have a full connection to all of the activated regions for fema going forward. With regard to testing, im pleased to report that we are increasing the number of tests being performed by the thousands every day thanks to the Public Private partnership that present from fours with commercial laboratories around the country. Our Health Experts tell us to remind every american its important that people without symptoms should not get tested. We want to make sure the supply of testing is there for those that need it most or are symptomatic or in the vulnerable population. Dr. Deborah bergson will address the progress on testing in a moment. Ourmendation recommendations as well as important new findings on the impact on new data coming in from europe. It will be important to every american. On the subject of supplies, the president has our task force as he invokessed the protection act today. The ongoing about efforts that the department of defense is taking to make medical resources available. The secretary Robert Wilkie will announce decisions the v. A. Has made to expand Hospital Capacity within their system. With regard to medical personnel, at the president s direction, hhs is issuing a regulation today that will allow all doctors and medical professionals to practice across state lines. Thats to meet the need of hospitals that may arise in adjoining areas. In addition to that, we are again today asking every american and our medical Community Leaders and hospitals to partner with us in delaying elective procedures across the country in our Health Care System to ensure that medical supplies and medical capacity go where they are needed most. We will describe guidance at cms. American remind every of the president s 15 day guidance to slow the spread. We are grateful for members of the media and the general public that are adhering to these, sharing them with neighbors and friends, all of our experts continue to believe that if every american will do their part and the brace and put into practice these principles, that we can significantly limit the reach of the coronavirus in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you. Trump dr. Byrd soon. Dr. Bergson. We look at data every single day. There are concerning reports coming out of france and italy about some young people getting seriously ill and very seriously ill in the icu. We think part of this may be that people he did the early data coming out of china and coming out of south korea about the elderly or those with preexisting medical conditions who were at risk. It may have been that the millennial generation, or largest generation, our future generation that will carry us through for the next multiple decades, there may be disproportional number of infections among that group. Even if its a rare occurrence, it may be seen more frequently in that group. It may be evident now so were looking at that information carefully. We have not seen any significant mortality in the children but we are concerned about the early reports coming out of italy and france. I will call on that generation that is part of that group that brought us innovation, particularly throughout their ability to look around corners. Ialways go level by level and didnt realize you could go from level three to level seven on thats what they taught us, to look at things we cannot see. We need them to be healthy. Not only calling on you to heed whats in the guidance but to really ensure that each and every one of you are protecting each other. We cannot have these large gatherings that continue to occur throughout the country for people off work. They cannot then be socializing large groups and spreading the virus. You have the potential then to spread it to someone who has a condition that none of us know about and cause them to have a disastrous outcome. On the testing piece and what we are learning, i know you know last week in bringing the private sector, what has been exciting to me over the last 2. 5 weeks is to see the administration harness the full capacity of the private sector, understanding that our solutions that we need to confront this virus rely on the private sector. Bringing in the private sector commercial lapse was critical in this process. We are now beginning to see that they have spread out in a prioritized way. We asked them to pray to to prioritize the regions mostly affected. You still may have difficulty getting tested in areas that do not have significant cases. We have had them prioritize the regions where we need diagnosis and their diagnostic percentage remember, south korea was under 4 . Seenast report we have have about a seven plus percentage positivity rate. The capacity will dramatically increase the platform and ability to run additional tests. I appreciate everybodys attention to these numbers. Im excited that we prioritized where the need was the greatest. Guidancellow the youre talking about the president ial guidance to stop the spread of this virus, thank you. Good afternoon. I want to provide an update on the dod coronavirus efforts as we continue to focus and our three parties. We are safeguarding our capabilities and supporting the administrations whole government approach. I want to assure the American People that United States military remains ready and capable of defending the country and their interests abroad. With that, the department is moving forward in our response and have issued international and Domestic Travel restrictions to all dod personnel and families which should dramatically reduce potential exposure to the virus. Those have been in place for some time now. The department of defense will make available up to 5,000,095 respirator masks and other personal protective equipment from our own Strategic Reserves to the department of health and Human Services for distribution. The first one Million Masks will be available immediately. We are prepared to distribute up to 2000 operational deployable ventilators for use as needed. Yesterdayor dietrich which is probably the military primary Research Institute where i get updated on the incredible worker people are doing as part of the Interagency Team to work on vaccines and therapeutics. They are making great progress. Wehave announced that certified our 16th lab and will soon certify our 16th lab with processing tests across the country. From across the country. As the president mentioned, i have directed the hospital ships mercy and comfort be prepared to deploy to increase the nations medical capacity and we have also alerted a variety of field and expeditionary hospitals to be prepared to deploy as will as needed based on direction from the commanderinchief. Our leadership from the army corps of engineers is a new york meeting with Governor Cuomo and his team. I spoke with Governor Cuomo yesterday and other governors i will speak to more in the coming days to make sure they know what dod can provide through our system to address their needs. In my conversations with the governors and members of congress about the dod resources, i made it clear we will continue to support the administrations comprehensive efforts and the country every step of the way while ensuring our nations security remains a top priority. I want to conclude by thanking all of our servicemembers and their families who have been affected by this outbreak. They are all great heroes and we continue to support them throughout this, we are all in this together. Thank you very much. Yesterday, the president made an important announcement about telehealth. This allows our 62 million seniors to be able to get the medical services from the safety of their home, reducing their risk and without copays. We are also making sure that the Health Care System is prepared and those on the front line have the support they need. To stakes are high we need preserve personal protective equipment for those on the front lines of this fight. To that end, we have put out guidelines of the last two weeks to expand the type of masks that can be used in routine care for the most risky situations. Conserving personal protective equipment is also essential to combat the virus. Cms will announce today detailed recommendations to further promote needed conservation. Thats by limiting nonessential elective medical and surgical procedures. That includes dental procedures. We believe these recommendations will help surgeons, patients and hospitals prioritize what is essential while making the ultimate while leaving the ultimate decision with state and Health Officials and those who have direct responsibility to their patients. Cliniciansviders and and patients to seriously consider these recommendations. They will not only preserve equipment but also allow doctors and nurses to help those who are on the front lines. It will protect patients from unnecessary exposure to the virus. We fully appreciate that this will have a major impact on the Health Care System but the shared sacrifice is essential to help those on the front lines. I want to thank the medical society such as the American College of surgeons in the American Dental Association that took a proactive approach and already posted these recommendations. We have also talked to the American Medical Association and they have fully indicated their support for this recommendation. We now invite the entire Health Care Community to join us in this effort, thank you. Thank you, mr. President. My instructions from the president were very clear i was to do everything imaginable as aggressively as possible to protect the 9. 5 million veterans who are part of the department of veterans affairs. Last month, we established 19 Emergency Operations Centers Across the country. We began to limit the number of visitors who entered our facilities. I think we were the first system to begin triage across the country and our 170 hospitals, the entrance of anyone into our facility without being questioned or tested. We expanded those restrictions to those in our 135 Community Living centers which have about 7800 veterans who are in acute conditions, to make sure they were protected. We also took the next step and the sure that we limited dental surgeries we provided, we have cut back by 1 3 the number of routine appointment we have had and have canceled elective surgeries. These were all part of the president s directive to be as aggressive in a Public Health sense as we could be. I think we have set the pace for the entire country. Workve often said that we the most Noble Mission in the federal government. Our veterans have been on the toughest spots in the world. They have been put in conditions that are on a manageable to most americans. Clearly have responded and have responded with passion and also, the 400,000 members of our department who are out there on the front lines. The last thing i will say is that you have heard a lot about the Fourth Mission that v. A. Has. Our First Three Missions are Health Care Benefits and memorial affairs. Our Fourth Mission is to support the federal government in times of natural disasters and pandemics. We are the buttress force in case fema or hhs calls upon us to deploy medical professionals across the professionals across the country to meet crises. We plan for that every day and we are working on scenarios, and we stand ready with where the president needs us. President trump thank you. That is very nice. Any questions . Two questions. Your treasury secretary was talking about the potential for what could come and he said that unemployment could skyrocket to 20 . That could arrival of the great depression. Pres. Trump i do not agree. That is a worstcase scenario. But no, we do not look at that. We are nowhere near that. Why do you keep calling this the chinese virus . There are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against chineseamericans in this country and your own aid says he does not use the term, he says at the city cause the virus. Why do you keep using this . Pres. Trump it comes from china. It is not racist at all. It comes from china, that is why. I want to be accurate. John, please. I have great love for all of the people from our country. But as you know, china tried to say at one point, maybe they stopped now, that it was caused by american soldiers. That cannot happen. It will not happen as long as i am president. It comes from china. John, please. Two questions. The act you are invoking today. It was set on the floor it needs to urgently be put into action to produce medical supplies, particularly ventilators. Do you have targets you want to see immediately . Pres. Trump we have tremendous numbers of ventilators, but there has never been an instance like this where no matter what you have it is not enough. That is the case. It is being signed. I will sign it in a little bit. We if we need to use it, will be using it. He to head. You said urgently to be used. Pres. Trump we will know whether or not urgent. We do have targets. We have targets for certain pieces of equipment, for masks, the numbers of masks are incredible. We have millions of them. But we need millions more. A thing like this has never been requested. We never had to think in terms of these numbers. But leaning millions of masks. We need respirators. We need ventilators. That is a big thing. It is a complex piece of equipment. We have a lot of ventilators, but we will be ordering more. What size will the checks be that will be sent out . Pres. Trump to be determined. We are working with the senate and everybody on capitol hill. Tremendousy has been cooperation, with some y have been but the getting along well, very bipartisan. More than 1000 . Pres. Trump we will see. We are looking at different numbers. We are looking at timing that would be different, splitting the time and payments. We are looking at different things. It has not been determined yet. It will shortly be determined. Everybody wants to go big. And they want to get to the recovery. The big thing we can do is get rid of this horrible, i call it the unseen. The unseen enemy. It snuck up on us. And it did 128 countries, i think, Something Like that, close to that. Give that. It spreads violently. It is a very contagious virus. Should america be on a wartime footing . Pres. Trump i look at it that way, because if it got out of control the big thing we did was early stoppage of people coming in. It could have been heavily affected. So that was. A that very good move. Some professionals did not want us to do it. But that saved a lot of lives. I look at it as it is like a wartime president. That is what we are fighting. It is a very tough situation. You have to do things, you have to close parts of the economy that six weeks ago where the best they have ever been. We had the best economy we have ever had. Then one day you must close it in order to defeat this enemy. But we are doing it. And we are doing it well. The American People have been incredible. They have been really incredible. I will start with you. You said that there is a tremendous number of ventilators. Haveor weeks, hospitals warned about a critical shortage. So why did it take so long to invoke the defense production act . Pres. Trump hospitals are supposed to have ventilators. When we have thousands, it sounds like a lot, but this is an unforeseen thing. Nobody ever saw numbers like this. Normally we would not be doing testing. But they decided to do it. Very hard to ramp up. Now we are getting highly sophisticated tests and it is going well. Nobody heard of testing in the quantities you are talking about it. Why did it take so long for the ventilators . Pres. Trump it depends on how it goes. The worstcase, absolutely. In the best case, not at all. We will have to see where it goes. We are ordering thousands and thousands of ventilators. And they are complex. These are complex machines. But we are ordering them. Does anybody have a number . Please. Do you know the number . We have a specific number of ventilators in excess of 10,000. And you heard the announcement from the department of defense, we will be adding several more thousand. Even this morning and yesterday afternoon was speaking with the Largest Companies in the supply chain. We are hearing a tremendous spirit among Industry Leaders who are ready to step in and add to that volume. The stockpiles do not count all of the ventilators that exist in the marketplace and Health Care Facilities around the country, but the president has given us a directive to make sure that our stockpile, just as importantly working with Industry Leaders that we are securing the increase in ventilators, increase in masks, gloves, eye protective care, the garments on necessary to lean forward. We will be able to accomplish that with the incredible cooperation of the supply chain that exists in america today. Ventilators, the exact number . Pres. Trump we can give you the exact number, but we are ordering more. One question for the secretary. Pres. Trump one moment, we will do it in a second. Two questions. On the canadian border, what was the Tipping Point . Monday you said you were not considering it. Pres. Trump i spoke with the Prime Minister, Prime Minister trudeau, we have a very Good Relationship. A Good Relationship between our two countries. And no Tipping Point, it is just at that we want to isolate from the standpoint of we do not want people coming into contact because that is how we will win the war. That is so important. Now, it is not affecting trade. It is nonessential crossings. It will not affect trade. And it was something that we thought would be good for both countries. On trade estion, how can you be sure that trade and everything is being shipped pres. Trump they are doing it in a careful manner. You can only be vigilant and very professional. But we are not pretending. Notut at this moment it is affecting trade. The trillion dollar economic stimulus will be late 50 billion for the airlines, 150 billion for loan guarantees, a payment directly to individuals, another 250 billion payment on may 18, directly to individuals, as well as 300 billion for Small Business loan guarantees. Is that what it looks like . Pres. Trump it could be. We are playing with a lot of numbers, a a lot of big numbers and a small numbers. We have to help everybody. It was nobodys fault that this happened. Some people could say it was somebodys fault, actually. But it was nobodys fault, and certainly none of these companies who always and had no passengers on the airplanes, on the cruise ships, all the things that have happened. I will say that they cannot be blamed. We want to keep those companies vibrant because there will be a come back very quickly, as soon as this is solved. And it will be solved. We will win. There will be a come back. It will take place quickly. Give or take 300 million americans or so, do the math and it is 750 a person, a family of four would be about 3000. Which, if that was the case pres. Trump we will not say that because these are moving pieces. Every number, yes, we talked about those numbers, we are also moving the numbers in both directions. We will let you know. It is moving along quickly. Again, there is a great bipartisan effort going on that i have not really seen before to this extent. That. President , on the you mentioned, has the fda approved that test . Pres. Trump they are looking at it seriously. I think it would be a great thing, because to use a nice word it is very inconvenient from the others. You tweeted this morning about your Approval Rating amongst republicans, you say you give yourself a 10 in terms of handling the crisis. How do you reassure americans at home, who do not trust you to manage the crisis . Pres. Trump we are doing a good job. We terminated the border. Those people coming from china where they started. When i use the word calm, that does not mean im not taking it seriously, that means we should be extremely calm. But yeah, 95 within the Republican Party and over 50 have very have we great approval numbers. People like the job we are doing. And you cannot compare this to f if youidemics or i f want to use a different term, you can, but look at what has happened over the years, this is being held very professionally. We have the greatest professionals in the world. Nobody has ever been swamped like this. Nothing has been so contagious. The level of contagion has been incredible. Nobody has seen anything like this. If federal officials have shipped millions of tests, as you and your colleagues have said, why is there only 59,000 point . Rocessed to this we just heard from the Atlanta Health director saying they have fewer than 50 test kits for more than 900,000 citizens. Pres. Trump i will let mike answer that. V. That is a critical questio. Thank you for asking. The test kits we put out last week through that rapid movement, at the meeting that President Trump called, that is resolving and bringing the private sector to the table. The tests in the platform that was out there could only run between four and 12 tests per platform per day. We have now moved into platforms that can run basically tens of thousands of tests per day. The reason i am grateful for the question is because it allows me to point out that there was backlog, there were individuals who had been tested who had not had their specimen run because of the slow throughput. It is not in a highspeed platform. So we will see the number of people diagnosed dramatically increase over the next four or five days. I know that some of you will use that to raise an alarm that we rse then italy because of the slope of our curve. To every american out there, it will be five or six days worth 2448ts being run in hours. So our curve will not be stable until sometime next week. The reason i talked about Thermo Fisher yesterday is because their platform is in 2000 laboratories. They are the ones that are putting out the millions of tests this week that will solve the issue that atlanta and others have brought up. I want to be clear, we prioritized the areas. We do county by county analyses. Based on those analyses, on which counties have more than 50 cases, we prioritize the test kits we put outcome of the 400,000. That is why we are seeing a 7 plus positivity rate. We will be able to expand that platform and reprioritize based on the accessibility of the other tests. Do the wellconnected go to the front of the line . Pres. Trump you would have to ask them. We inherited a system that was obsolete or out of date. Or a system never meant to take care of this quantity. The number of people we are talking about. It is millions and millions of people. If you go back in years past, even recently with the flu, nobody had tests before, they did not test the entire nation to see whether or not they had the flu. They got the flu, they got better, hopefully they got better and that was it. All of a sudden, now we have a complex testing hwe where we have broken up the system, but it was obsolete or you could say it was a system that was not meant to handle the kind of volume that you are talking about. We rebuilt it into a system that will be a good system in the future, if you want to go this route. But this was never done before. I would imagine it will be done in the future. We built it into a good system by using private companies, the great private companies. And i have to say that roche has done a very good job. Obsolete system, not a system meant to do anything near this. John . A couple things. Is calling onion you to suspend tariffs with other countries as part of the response to the coronavirus. Pres. Trump who has that group . It is American Free trade. Pres. Trump john says there is billions and tariffs. There is no reason to do that. They have not spoken to me about it. China has not asked me to do that. We are getting billions from tariffs from china and i cannot imagine americans asking for that. But it could be that china will ask for a suspension, we will see what happens. John, they are having a bad time. They are having a very tough time. On top of it, this happened with the virus. But no, we are taking in billions and tariffs. In tariffs. This was caused by something unrelated to tariffs. Asylumseekers in people crossing the southern border illegally, are you planning to that would allow you to prohibit injury of certain people. Pres. Trump yes. When would that happen . Pres. Trump very soon, probably today. What do yourder, decide is essential travel . Pres. Trump essential travel is medical. We have military working together. We have industry working together. And it is not affecting trade. So things like that. But leisurely, lets go to a restaurant to have dinner, they come both ways and good both directions at the border, we have ended that on a temporary basis. Go ahead. We are not going to close the border, but we are invoking a certain provision that will allow us great latitude as to what we do. Go ahead. I want to clarify something. He week ago you said that unless you had sustained contact with somebody who was systematic for covid19, you did not need to worry. You took a photograph with somebody who had it. You did not need to worry. Several days later, we are in a situation where people are told not to leave their houses, there are curfews where you cannot go out at night after a certain time. Can you walk us through the dramatic swing, the dramatic disconnect from what we had before and now. We look at data all the time. I know you are looking at china and south korea data. When you look at their data and where china and south korea are, what they did, their curves are outside of wuhan. And south korea, blunted curve. If you look at their curves today, they are already on the far end of their epidemic curve. Of course, none of those countries are fully back to work, so that is what we worry about too. Secondly, there was a series of scientific articles published, i know you have seen them, about surface contamination. I think none of us understood the level of surface piece. We are working out how much of it is by human to human transmission and how much by surface. That is why these fundamental guidelines were put out that says, do not expose yourself to surfaces outside of the home. Physically what those guidelines to are dont expose yourself those who could be asymptomatic and infected. Do not expose yourself to surfaces that could have had the virus on it for which, on hard surfaces, i know we had the cardboard issue with shipping, hard surfaces not shown in fabric as much or cardboard, but hard surface transmission. These are issues we have not had to deal with before with the level of respiratory infections. That is why we have the concern, that is why the president put out those guidelines, it is the cover both of those pieces. That is new science, new models. You have the imperial study available and you have looked at the impact of those. This is the first time those have been modeled as a comprehensive approach to mitigating an epidemic. Mr. President what about money . The wall street journal is reporting that they do mr. Was an executive order with drugs against the virus, but fda Scientists Say this is taking a risk. Pres. Trump i have not seen the article. We are making a lot of progress therapeutically. I will say that. But i have not seen the article, no. Pres. Trump go ahead. We have shut down nonessential travel to canada, are you considering shutting down all travel to prevent the spread of the virus . And we have heard from the airlines, who are seeking relief. What other industries, or how exactly is your administration going to determine which industries and businesses get help . Pres. Trump there are certain industries, airlines would be number one. If you look at what is going on. You look at having the best year they have ever had, to losses because of what we have had to do to win the war. It is a war. So basically, you know what many of the industries are. We want to make sure they stay together, so that after the war is won we can immediately go back to where we were and even beyond. I think we will go beyond. Many people are saying that. We our employees to do that. We have to win the war first. Treasuries proposed 150 billion today for those industries, but the proposal does not detail which industries would get the money and how much. So aside from the airlines you mentioned, what about the cruise industry, the hotels, how much money do you see them getting . Pres. Trump we have not detailed it yet. We have detailed it to members of the house. We are coming up with numbers. We have not gotten there yet. But the hotel industry, the cruise ship industry, the airlines, they are prime candidates. What about the northern border pres. Trump which border . The northern border. When you say temporary, does that mean 30 days . Pres. Trump i would say 30 days. Hopefully by the end of that we will be in good shape. Jeff . I was struck by what the doctor said about millennials and others not taking the warnings seriously as you would like. Some of those people often tend to be your supporters, and conservatives who may be quoting what you said at the beginning of this and what is your message to them . To really follow what you have been saying so far. And are you concerned that they are still maybe listening to your earlier comments, rather than recent ones . Pres. Trump my earlier comment was to be calm. We are going to win this. It is only a question of time. Based on the fact i wanted it to go quickly, i hope they have listened to what we have been saying. We do not want to them gathering. I know they are gathering in beaches and at restaurants, young people. They do not realize it. They are feeling invincible. I bet you felt invincible when you were young. They are feeling invincible, or they are feeling that way, but they do not realize they could be carrying bad things home to their grandmother and grandfather and even their parents. So we want them to heed the advice. And i think it is getting through. I do believe it is getting through. I think they are watching. I think that these people are watching. Pres. Trump heed the advice. I just said. Thank you. Mr. President , how long do you think pres. Trump we will get to you next. Talking about china, you have been clear about you think it is the origin to blame for the virus. Pres. Trump i do not think. I do not know where it came from. I do not know if you say john is to blame. We did not get an early run on it. It wouldve been helpful if we knew about it earlier. But it comes from china. It is not a question. Nobody is questioning that. Said they should be punished for inflicting this on the American People, do you feel that way . Pres. Trump i have respect for tom cotton. And i know exactly what he has been saying. And there are those people that say that. We will see what happens. Go ahead. Please. [crosstalk] pres. Trump you have had your hand up so nicely for a long time. It is your time. We have seen the Chinese Government kick out reports in the wall street journal, the washington post, what is your message to the chinese when it comes to transparency . Pres. Trump i am not happy to see it. I have my own disputes with all three of those media groups. I think you know that well. But i do not like seeing that. I am not happy about that at all. Yes . Do you believe that china is inflicting this upon our country . Pres. Trump no, i do not believe that. I think they couldve given us earlier notice, absolutely. Please. Mr. President , your credibility ratings are low. Pres. Trump you are you asking of that question . I see that they are very high. 95 of the Republican Party. We just had a poll done by a i amreputable group where beating sleepy joe budden by a lot in florida, in the state of florida and in other states. So i do not really know who you are talking about. Jennifer, go ahead. Sir, can you give us an update on her conversation with the airline executives. Did you explain what was coming . Pres. Trump they explained to me where they are coming from. They went from full airplanes, the best year they have had by far, to boom one day empty because of what we have to do to get rid of this, to win this war, or we would have a level of death like people have not seen before. So they have been fantastic. They have been great. But they went from being extremely happy to being people Running Companies that are going to need help. And we will help them. Da, can you give us an update . We have seen reports of that counties have had difficulty getting pres. Trump there is a lot of influx to those loans. We will be increasing funding. They are well prepared to do what they have to do. And the spca is doing a fantastic job. She is doing a really good job. The administrator. It question for the doctor. Have had researchers luck with hydroxy in shortening the duration of the disease, is that something in the arsenal here in the u. S. . We are exploring all of those issues. The president asked for a briefing on that today. It is more than that single drug. There are other drugs that individuals are looking at. Just to go back to what we talked about many times, there is things that look really good against the virus in subculture, that may look good in small animals, but do not have an impact in humans. So those are the pieces we are looking at carefully. Of course, there is always anecdotal reports and we are trying to figure out how many of those reports equal real reporter are you confident of the seasonal ability of coronavirus . All we can do is look at the past to inform the future. Online,ou can get it look at the curve in china and look at the curve in south korea. Those were accomplished in the winter season. We are trying to understand what those relationships are. Very interested in the kurds in italy because of their approach and we are following every countrys approach. All we can look at his prior coronavirus and prior respiratory infection rna viruses. When you look at influenza and the other cold viruses, as well as sars, that is the way the peak normally occurs. That is november to april. We all started later. You are asking me to predict based on a later start and that is what we are trying to look at china and south korea to inform. Pres. Trump caitlin. Reporter a question for secretary wilkie. How many veterans that needed to be tested have been . Those that needed to be tested we believe we have caught most of them. Veterans we have 44 who have tested positive. Sadly what has passed in portland. We are working with state labs and private companies to make sure testing is available. Because the president had is out , we have beenarly in a better place than most Health Care Systems. I cannot predict, as dr. Birk said, when the next search will be, if it will be, but one of ise things we do at v. A. we prepare for natural disasters. We started stockpiling equipment. Our equipment is stable and i think that is in large part because of the instruction the president gave me. Reporter do you have a number of how many have been tested . We have tested several hundred. We have tested several hundred, yes. I dont know exactly. I do know that 44 veterans have the virus. Most of those are quarantined at home. Reporter a question for dr. Birk, i am trying to understand it is about the mortality rate. Yesterday we underlined we had reached 100 deaths in this morning when we wake up we are at 110. Within 12 hours, we climbed by 10 . Is this something we have to expect from now on . It can increase every 12 hours . Very early on in each case if you look at all of the countries to date, the mortality is higher at the beginning is your diagnosing the sickest. The ones that came in quite ill and i want to remind the american public, the risk for serious illness and the majority of americans are low. But that does not mean you cannot transmit it to one of those higher risk groups and that is why we are asking for all americans to take responsibility. You are seeing mortality or deaths from infections that occurred 23 weeks ago in general. The other thing you are seeing is the dramatic and very difficult impact of this virus in nursing homes. That is why very early on the president and Vice President had us come out and put those strict rules in place. Everybody thought we were being too strict in keeping left ones away from their family in nursing homes. If we are going to solve this with a lower death rate, we have to protect the elderly because there percent is much higher in mortality than any other age group. Pres. Trump go ahead. Reporter mr. President , there is reporting that the federal government has a plan that shows this coronavirus a break might last as long as 18 months. Are you seeing those numbers pres. Trump we are not seeing that at all. Reporter second, there is one white house official who used kungflu referring that it started in china. Is that acceptable . Is it wrong . That worrying pres. Trump do you know who said that . Reporter im not sure. Pres. Trump say the term again. Reporter a person at the one pres. Trump what is it . Kungflu. Khan flow do you think using that puts Asian Americans at risk . No, not at all. It comes from china. There is nothing to disagree with. One last question. Reporter switching gears to a larger question, we have seen before the pandemic there were americans already alienated. We saw death of despair increasing through suicide. In rural parts of the country self isolating, what is your message to those individuals and what do you hope individuals, communities, and churches will do to reach out . Pres. Trump find messages to all americans but those going through a lot, we love them, we are with them, and we will not let them down. Thank you all for being here. [indiscernible] do you believe this is a chinese virus . Is that ok to say . Announcer it is easy to follow the federal response to the coronavirus up rick at cspan. Org coronavirus. Track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps and charts. Watch briefings and hearings with Public Health specialists. At time, unfiltered, cspan. Org coronavirus. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Created by cable in 1979, and brought to you today by your television provider