Transcripts For CSPAN White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing 20240713

Pres. Trump thank you very much. I think this will be an important conference and i would get to that for the middle, but i have a few things to report. I want to thank you all for being here. I think with social distancing, the media has been much nicer. I dont know what it is. All of these in between shares. We probably should not have anyone sitting behind you. You should probably go back. I love it. It is so much nicer. I cannot say it because you will get me now. Thank you all for being here. Continue our relentless effort to defeat the chinese virus. Announcingegin by today we are bringing home another american citizen. This is a big thing. He is on his way back to the United States after being imprisoned in lebanon since september of 2019. He is battling late stage cancer. He will now be able to receive much needed care and treatment in the United States. Weve been working hard to get him free and he is finally able to have his entire family at his side, so i am grateful to the lebanese government that worked with us and we are proud of his family. They stood by him so strongly and they are thrilled. The United States has no high priority than the safety and wellbeing of our citizens. We have gotten a tremendous number of hostages out. I think we are 420. Robert obrien was our chief negotiator for a large part of this and did so well now we have him in a different position. I want to thank and congratulate robert and his team and i want to let everyone know that recovering americans held captive and imprisoned abroad continues to be a top priority for my administration. Gentleman, young austin tice, and we are working hard with syria to get him out. We hope the Syrian Government will do that. We are counting on them to do that. We have written a letter just recently, he has been there for a long time. He was captured long ago. His mother is probably watching. She is a great lady. We are doing the best we can. Syria, please work with us. We would appreciate you letting him out. Think about what we have done. We got rid of the isis caliphate in syria. We have done a lot for syria. We have to see if they will do this. It would be very much appreciated if they would let austin tice out immediately. As you know, my administration is working to protect American People and the American Economy from the virus. Yesterday i signed into law critical support for american workers, families and small businesses. This is a big thing. We are providing sick leave and family medical leave to those affected by the virus, and more help is on the way as we speak. Our entire team, headed by secretary mnuchin, is on the hill. We are working with democrats and republicans, and there is a lot of goodwill going on. This is something that happened that some people would say was an act of god. I do not view it as an act of god. I view it as something that surprised the whole world. If people would have known about it, we could have stopped it in place. It could have been stopped right where it came from, china. If we wouldve known about it, if they would have known about it. Now the whole world is inflicted virus. Is horrible it is too bad. It is too bad. We never had an economy as good as the economy we had just a few weeks ago. We will be back. I think we will be back stronger than ever before because we learned a lot during this time. I also just invoked the defense production act to help facilitate distribution of essential supplies if necessary. We are working with congress to provide additional relief to the workers, small businesses, and the hardest hit industries. We want to make sure everybody is able to continue on so that when we recover, all of these companies and these great businesses, both very small and very large are not going to be broken up and you have to put them back together. That would take a long time. We believe in the v curve. I believe it will go. , thishis is defeated hidden scourges defeated, i think we will go up rapidly. Our economy, and get back to where it was and beyond. I want to share exciting progress the fda is making with the private sector as we slash redtape like nobody has done before. Somebody was on one of the networks and said there is no president even close to be able to do what i have done in slashing all of the redtape and everything to get very important things to the market. We slash redtape to develop vaccines and therapies as fast as it can possibly be done. Long before anybody else was even thinking about doing this. As you know, earlier this week we began the first Clinical Trial of a vaccine candidate for the virus. That was launched in record time. It was just a few weeks. That would have taken years to do not so long ago. As we raise to develop a vaccine, we are also pursuing antiviral therapies. That is what i will be talking to you about today. That is the purpose of being here today. To me, that is even more important than the vaccine. You have to have long test because you have to make sure what goes into somebodys body is not going to do destruction, bad things. You need long test. They are doing great with the vaccines, but it is still a long process. The therapies are something we can move on much faster, potentially. The treatments that we will be able to reduce the severity of the symptoms and make people better. We are looking at things to make people better, where at the very early stages they would not know they have it. That is where i believe it will work the best. The fda commissioner, who is with us, he is fantastic. He has been working 24 hours a he has worked as hard or harder than anybody in this group other than maybe mike pence, or me. What the fda is doing is incredible. That weredone things not even thinkable. I have directed the fda to eliminate outdated rules and bureaucracy so this work can proceed rapidly, quickly, and fast. We have to remove every barrier. There were a lot of barriers that were unnecessary. Get thee done that to Rapid Deployment of safe and effective treatments and we think we have some good answers. We will find out very soon. Clinical trials are already underway for many new therapies and we are working on scaling these to allow many more americans to access different drugs that have shown good progress, really good promise. So in a way that lets us continue to collect the data to know which medicines are safe and which medicines are working the best. We have a couple we are in good shape on. That is for immediate delivery. Immediate, like as fast as we can get it. The fda has also approved compassionate use for a significant number of patients. You know what that means. Thate also reviewing drugs are approved abroad or drugs approved here for other uses, and one of the things im most proud of that i got was the right to try. That is where somebody who is very sick, terminally ill, usually. In past and ministrations, you would not be able to even think about getting any of the drugs that may be showing great promise. Theyve been trying for many decades to get this approved. It is that simple. There is liability involved in lots of other things. I was able to get it approved working with congress, the right to try. This is beyond the right to try. What we are talking about today is beyond right to try. Right to try has been a tremendous success. People are living that had no chance of living. That we take treatments would have to go through years of due process and if something was terminally ill, why would they be able to try this. They would go to asia and europe and all over the world. If they had no money, they would go home to die. They had no hope. Right to try has been an incredible success. This is beyond right to try. If treatments known to be safe in europe, japan, or other nations are effective against the virus, we will use that information to protect the health and safety of the American People. Nothing will stand in our way as we pursue any avenue to find what best works against this horrible virus. A drug, a common malaria used foris also a drug strong arthritis. If somebody has serious , also uses this in a somewhat different form. Drug known as a malaria and it has been around a long time. It is very powerful. The nice part is it has been around for a long time so we know that if things do not go as planned, it will not kill anybody. When you go with a brandnew drug, you do not know that will happen. You have to see. This is been used in different forms, very powerful drug, in different forms. It has shown encouraging early results. We are going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately. That is where the fda has been so great. They have gone through the approval process. It has been approved. They did it. They took it down from many months to immediate curate well be able to make that drug prescription. I spoke with Governor Cuomo about it at great length last night. Line. Ts to be first in i think there is tremendous promise based on the results and other test, tremendous promise. Normally the fda would take a long time to approve Something Like that. It was approved very quickly. It is now approved by prescription. Individual states will handle it. They can handle it. Doctors will handle it. Be great. Will we are quickly studying this drug. While we are continuing to study done as itdy will be is given out to large groups of people, perhaps in new york and other places, we will study it there. There are promising therapies produced by gilead. That is a drug used for other andoses that has been out had very good results for other purposes, but it seems to have a very good result having to do with this virus. Approved also has been or close to approved in that case by the fda. I cannot tell you how much we appreciate what the fda these people are incredible patriots. ,he job stephen hahn is doing one of the most respected doctors in the country. I said are you sure you want to do this . I would not know this would be in the playlist of what happened. He has stepped up to the plate. Wherever you are . I would shake his hand but im not supposed to do that. I would get in a lot of trouble if i did that. He has been fantastic. He will speak right after i am finished. Is a company that has done fantastically well with ebola and other things, a great company. They are looking at promising events also. So those are two drugs out now, essentially approved for prescribed use and i think it will be exciting. I think it could be a game changer. Maybe not. Maybe not. It could be based on what i see, it could be a game changer. Very powerful. I want every american to know we are doing everything we can and these actions are important steps. For the fda to act with this speed is an incredible thing. Normally they would say we can have it by next year or in two years from now, you understand this is the way. Years and years. They had it immediately, based on the fact it has been used for other things totally unrelated. We believe these therapeutics and others under evaluation right now will be able to provide relief to many americans. We hope that will be. This could be a tremendous breakthrough, tremendous breakthrough. We will work toward a muchneeded vaccine in the we are doinghat with the fda is so exciting. So many things are happening. It is an exciting time for medicine. We appreciate that the American Public is home together. They are staying home. There is tremendous spirit in this country. A spirit like a lot of people have not seen. People have not seen anything like it for a long time. Republican,emocrat, they are pulling together. I hope everything is going good on the hill. Maybe i should not say that until i check out what is going on. I think there is a great spirit where the democrats, the republicans, and everybody else are getting together and trying to get things done. Most importantly, the American Public has been incredible. We took the best economy weve ever had and we said stop, you cannot work. You have to stay home. There is never been a case like this. Normally you pay a lot of money to get things going. In this case we are paying a lot of money to stop things because we do not want people to be together so this virus does not continue onward. There is never been anything like this in history. There is never been, no one has ever seen anything like this. We are doing the right thing. It is not a financial war, it is a medical war. You have to win this war. With that, i would like to introduce dr. Stephen hahn. Would like to send back with stephen our thanks to all of the people working with the fda who are fantastic people. We appreciate everything youve done, especially the speed you have these two very important drugs past. Thank you very much. Dr. Hahn i want to thank you for this leadership during the coronavirus outbreak. We have doctors and others working around the clock to aid the American People in this fight against the coronavirus and those words are very much appreciated. Before the president nominated me and i was confirmed, i was a cancer doctor. I sat account from a countless number of patients and had to talk to them about their diagnosis and their treatment. One thing that was important was to provide hope. I have great hope for how we are going to come out of this situation. What is also important is not to provide false hope, but to provide hope. As a doctor, that is the way i come to this, speaking to the American People as commissioner of food and drugs. That part of me has not left. Look at how the American People have responded to our calls for mitigation, social distancing. The American People have great resiliency and i am so proud of how the American People have responded. As the president mentioned, he asked us to be aggressive, to break down barriers to innovation and accelerate the developing of lifesaving treatments. We are doing that at the fda. The fda is committed to continuing to provide dilatory flexibility and guidance. That may make one thing clear. The fdas responsibility to the American People is to ensure products are safe and effective. We are continuing to do that. Tremendous professionals are working day and night to do this. You cannot even imagine how much they are working to provide the support for the American People. I thank them. Since early january, long before the first case, the fda began working in collaboration with the cdc. I want to note we set up an instant command group and have been focused on the coronavirus since the beginning of this Public Health emergency. This is an all of government and allamerica approach and i will describe what i mean by that in terms of the element of therapeutics. An important part of that work is expanding the potential Therapeutic Options associated with the coronavirus. We have learned from our colleagues across the globe about this. I want to focus on one thing. I was a cancer researcher before all this. One thing i know about this great country as we have unbelievable innovators. We have people who every day is their job to develop treatments for all sorts of diseases. We are incredibly blessed as a country to have this. In any industry, academia, private sector, they have engaged just about the best Treatment Options. We are looking at everything coming across our desks as possible Treatment Options for coronavirus. We are extremely encouraged by the interest and promise we have seen from these Great American innovators. Again, we need the data, we need the information to make the absolute best decision for the American People. I want to assure you we have over 17,000 people at fda doing this every day. Sea of to make sure the new treatments will get the right drug to the right patient at the right dosage at the right time. As an example, we may have the right drug but it may not be in the appropriate dosage form and that may do more harm than good. Those are the things that that is our job to look at and that is why it is important we have these dedicated professionals looking at these aspects of therapeutic develop. At the same time we are working through different mechanisms to get drugs in the hands of providers and patients. One of the mechanisms is called compassionate use. If there is an experimental drug that is potentially available, a doctor could ask for that show to be used in a patient. We have criteria for that and very speedy approval for that. The important thing about compassionate use, that is what the president meant, beyond right to try, is we get to collect the information. One of the things in our promise to the American People is we will collect the data and make the right decisions based upon the data about the safety and efficacy of the treatments. We are working expeditiously and we are working to make sure these products are safe and effective as they possibly can be. Let me tell you about a few things we are currently working on. This is a plan developed with many of the people at this table , our Infectious Disease aspect our Infectious Disease experts on the task force. We are looking at drugs already approved for other indications. They are approved for other diseases. Many americans have read studies and heard media reports about this drug, and antimalarial drug. It is already approved for the treatment of malaria as well as arthritis. That is a drug the president has directed us to take a closer look at as to whether an expanded use approach that could be done to actually see that benefits patients. We want to do that in the setting of a Clinical Trial, a large Clinical Trial to actually gather that information and answer the question that needs to be answered and asked. Let me give you another example. There is a cross Agency Effort about something called convalescent plasma. This is an exciting area. This is something we have given assistance to other countries with as this crisis has developed. The fda has been working for some time on this. If youve been exposed to coronavirus and you are better, you do not have the virus in your blood, we could collect the blood, this is a possible treatment, this is not a proven treatment, collect the blood, concentrate that, and have the ability once it is virus free to be able to give that to other patients. The immune response could provide a benefit to patients. Another thing we are looking at, over the next couple of weeks we will have more information. We are pushing hard to try to accelerate that. That is in the short term. That will be a bridge to other therapies that will take us three to six months to develop. This is a continuous process. There is no beginning and end to each of this. We are pushing this through. The other great thing about the some hass of america, taken us years to develop therapies. They are looking at taking that to a month time. We are providing the flex ability as well as the oversight to make sure that gets done in the best way possible for the American People. The president mentioned there is a vaccine trial currently being performed, it is a phase one trial. We expect that to take 12 months to get to completion to a time where we could approve a vaccine. These are all things to bring to the prevention part of this. His exciting work, and the president is right. This is record time for the development of a vaccine and an impressive Public Private partnership. The fdas efforts to facilitate the developing of these products are focused on ensuring timely access as well as meeting the agencys world expected Gold Standard for relying on strong data for Clinical Trials to determine if an experimental or offtheshelf drug used for Something Else can safely and effectively treat patients. We want to ensure the American People that the fda is all hands on deck as the president mentioned. These efforts to continue to work with interested sponsors to help expedite the work. We remain steadfast in helping to foster the development of safe and effective therapies for covid19. Thank you. Pres. Trump thank you very much. Mike . V. P. Pence thank you, mr. President. The White House Coronavirus task force met this morning on this first day of spring. We continue to make steady progress toward President Trump subjective not to lead to marshal all the resources of the federal government, every state government, every local health official, but also to harness the power of the American Private sector and activities over the last day reflect all of those priorities. Yesterday the president spoke with americas top physicians and nurses and garnered helpful insights about how we can best serve those who are serving americans dealing with the coronavirus. We also had a productive call with over 5000 state and local officials explaining the federal governmentsapproach and our stg partnership with all 50 states and territories. Last night, the president signed the response act, which provides free testing, paid sick leave, family leave her caregivers and Food Assistance for the needy, among a broad range of benefits. And today we expect the senate will begin work on an Economic Relief package. Later today, the president and i will meet again in a teleconference with the nations governors, we will meet at the National Response Coordination Center at fema. Fema will take the lead in our National Coronavirus response. Throughons response fema will be locally executed, state managed and federally supported. On testing, we want the American People to know that testing is available in all 50 states and is becoming increasingly available literally every hour. Because of the public and private partnership the president initiated several weeks ago, i am pleased to receive a report today that tens of thousands of tests are being performed every day. And with the passage of last nights legislation, state and private labs are now required by law to report all coronavirus testing directly to the cdc, which will give the American Public, and also give our researchers, timely and important information. It is important for every american to remember if you do not have symptoms, you do not need a test. We want to make sure testing is available for people who are experiencing symptoms or have a genuine concern about being exposed to the coronavirus. The doctor will address the progress weve made on testing. And americans can expect to see how an increased number of cases, as our new testing system comes online, should not be a cause of concern. She will explain the importance of taking into account our new testing system as new data arrives over the next of the days. On supplies, a priority the president has given to our task force, we continue to work with Health Care Providers, businesses, state leadership to identify available supplies, not merely in the federal stockpile, but much more importantly available across the private sector. We are encouraged to seek Companies Like honeywell and 3m, i visited a few short weeks ago, that have taken advantage of the sale of industrial masks directly to hospitals. They have not greatly increased by the tens of millions their production of socalled n95 masks that will give our Health Care Workers the protection they need to minister to those dealing with symptoms, or the disease of coronavirus. And following the signing of last nights bill come all of those masks now have Liability Protection and the companies can sell the industrial masks to hospitals. It is encouraging to see Construction Companies all across america that are, as we speak, checking their supplies and donating industrial masks to their local hospitals. I speak on behalf of the president , who spent a lot of time as a builder, when we think builders for partnering with local health officials. Wit ventilatorsh, we are working with Health Care Providers around america, and suppliers, and are encouraged to learn that we have identified tens of thousands of ventilators that can be converted to treat patients. And we are increasingly confident we will have the ventilators that we need as the coronavirus makes its way across america. And as we said practiced by every american in every community. Not only to lessen the spread of the virus, but to protect the most vulnerable among us. I think americans with from their hearts are not only practicing these practices of social distancing and using drafters at restaurants to protect their own health and that of their family, they are also recognizing that no american wants to inadvertently conveyed the virus to someone for whom the consequences could be serious. Direction, wents will marshal all resources at every level, we will reiterate that Strong Partnership between the states and governors, pulling all of the private Sector Energy together, the innovation you just heard described. On this first day of spring, i know that we will get through this and it is through this together. Pres. Trump thank you. Dr. Birx thank you mr. President. I know you are e watching the da carefully. You can see the dramatic increases in the number of new cases based on our ability to test additional people. This will continue over the next two or three days as we begin to have a backlog reduced of the testing. You have heard the antidotes of people waiting five or six days for results, we are moving through all of that, as well as testing individuals. I want to applaud the frontline Health Care Workers, nurses and doctors and testers, that have prioritized and the American People who have prioritized those with symptoms. The number of tests positive is increasing, that is an important signature that everybody is doing their job. Those with mild symptoms are staying home, still face a leading. Those with serious symptoms are coming forward to get tests. We are not in the 10 or 11 range for positive tests, that means 90 of the illnesses, even the severe ones, are not covid19. I know many are looking at the same level davit data, still most of the cases come from three states. That is why we prioritize testing in those states. In addition, 50 of the cases come from 10 counties. We are a large country with many counties, andimplem their emergy opnd plans to ensure. I want to also really thank the Health Care Workers that have been asked to reduce elective surgeries, medical and dental visits. This will dramatically increase the number of ventilators available in hospitals, but also in Ambler Torrey Surgical Centers that can be converted and utilized. It also to the construction industry, we are grateful, as the Vice President said, the number of individuals who have come forward with their masks, masks tots, and their contribute them to the health care sector. The president s request to make this available in that legislation changes the ability and increases our availability rangeately in the 90 because of the amount of those elements. Pres. Trump thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. A wonderfuleard announcement from the fda and i want to give a shout out to you the doctor and folks at the fda, where my officers work, they are working tirelessly, they are doing things that have never been done before to bring the most prudent advances to the American People. But i want to talk about Something Different briefly. We know that many of you are home practicing the guidelines for social distancing. But one thing we should all consider, especially our millennials and gen z, is donating blood. As an anesthesiologist that still takes care of our Wounded Warriors and soldiers, i know that donated blood is an essential part of caring for patients, and one donation can save up to three lives. Blood centers are open and in need of donations. I want america to know that Blood Donation is safe and Blood Centers are taking extra precautions based on new cdc recommendations, including facing beds six feet apart, disinfecting surfaces between patients, temperature checking staff and encouraging donors to make appointments ahead of time so we can space at out. Social distancing does not have to mean social disengagement. So give blood today. You will feel good about it. And you will be helping your country and community during this crisis. You might even save a life. Pres. Trump thank you. President , switching to the efforts to boost the economy with the measures before congress, will you guarantee that the tens of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars that will go to these industries, will not go to executive bonuses or more stock buybacks . Pres. Trump we do not want that. Some companies did buybacks and i was never happy with that. It is hard to tell them not to, but i would tell them not to. I would say i do not like it for that reason. It would have been much better off if some of those companies didnt. In addition to the bill you could say that. Pres. Trump it takes many people in this case to tango, but as far as i am concerned conditions like that would be ok with me. I have a question for you, and a question for the doctor. Actenabled the protection yesterday, but you did not pull the trigger on it. Pres. Trump we hope we will not needed. There have been calls from democratic leadership to pull the trigger on it, what is the rationale for not doing that . Pres. Trump the government is supposed to do a lot of the sort, and they are. The federal government is not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and shipping them. The governors are supposed to be doing that. As with testing. We will help wherever we can. And we can buy in volume, in some cases great volume. The masks are an example. We have millions right now being made. But this is really for the local government, governors and people within the state, depending on the way that they dev divide it up. Were you have a problem with the ventilators, we are working hard trying to find them. Nobody would ever have thought that we would need tens of thousands of ventilators. This is something unique to this. Would you put the defense protection act into action under certain conditions . Pres. Trump if we were in desperate need of something. We will know about that shortly. We do not want to do it as it happens, but before it happens. We will do a lot over the next couple days. A lot. When wi, any idea ll be available to the market . And are there drugs in the pipeline you believe could qualify for the treatment . Question, ie first am prohibited to disclose confidential commercial information, but we are working closely with the company on this and we will have additional information, they will, relatively soon. Yes, there are drugs in the pipeline. We are looking at everybody. Everybody is called about Therapeutic Options. We are looking at every single one of them. Two questions. One on the coronavirus. But quickly, are you confirming that is still alive . Pres. Trump this is been going on for years. They have been trying to find him. He was in syria. His mother is an incredible woman. Im doing iting for his mother. She is desperate to find her son. I am not confirming alive. But if he is alive, we want to get him back quickly. Speaking of shortages of supplies, the cdc has put out guidelines for hospitals that are dealing with a shortage of masks to use them being on their then life, reuse them and use a bandana in a worstcase scenario. How is that acceptable . Pres. Trump i have not seen that. I will let the Vice President answer that question. Pence i cannot emphasize enough the incredible progress that has been made with the passage of legislation last night. I went to minnesota and met with 3m a few weeks ago. We learned of their production at that facility of 35 Million Masks a month. Less than 5 million were qualified to be sold to hospitals. So the president worked with leadership, we have extended the Liability Protection, so now the all the industrial masks that are manufactured are now available to hospitals, we are seeing a dramatic increase in production. Honeywell is repurposing a factory tested for mexico to produce another 120 Million Masks. 3m is increasing output to 340 Million Masks per year. We really put a priority up at the presents direction on making sure that there is providing Health Care Services have had the protection to keep themselves and their families safe. With legislation last night, with an incredible response among these great private sector companies, and as we mentioned repeatedly with the Construction Companies around america heeding the call to donate their industrial masks to hospitals, we know we will meet the need. But [overtalk] pence 3m is producing their output. They make 35 million per month at that facility. And we are prioritizing the distribution of those. The other thing, and we will emphasize this with the governors, we are working with governors to make sure that the Health Care Providers, the hospitals and clinics in their state are placing orders now that this tremendous increase in supply, particularly with industrial masks, is now available. We will make sure they understand the supply has greatly expanded, thanks to legislation and to legislation and the accomplishment of the president , and the response by these companies is making more available and we will make sure the Health Providers are purchasing them. And the federal government will also make sure that our stockpile properly reflects those increases as well. They be ready . They need them today. 3m told me in january that they want a full production on 35 Million Masks. The legislative change means all now beion of those will sold to hospitals. That is the distinction. It is a very important change. It is part of the way the president has been engaging the private sector, pushing the regulatory reform, and the kind of Liability Reform that has greatly expanded the availability of the masks. They are in the marketplace now, we will make it clear to the governors, as we did with the Health Care Providers yesterday, that those resources are now there. We have increased the supply of medical masks and we will continue to put priority on making sure that we are calling on industry at every level, calling on major suppliers that the president met with this week, to make sure those personal protective equipments are there. Pres. Trump it would be a liability with the company. They had a problem with liability. Much of it had to do with the liability of the company. Two for you and one for dr. Hunt. The machen Hospital Association told nbc news they need 100 billion in order to address the shortages in infrastructure. Packages. Two they say it did not directly give money to address the issue. Why not and will you commit to getting them that money . Pres. Trump that is a separate issue, but we are looking at it directly. We are looking at it directly. We are working with democrats and republicans on that. We are looking that at that specifically. When can americans expect their lives to go back to normal . Will that not happen until he vaccine . A vaccine . Pres. Trump we will see. This is uncharted territory. We think we have ideas. Does it help to tell those ideas . We hope very soon. People are doing what they are supposed to be doing for the most part. The social distancing is interesting. It is a new term that has become a hot term. People are listening and they are really doing a great job. This country is amazing. An i thinkd you are up to 141 Different Countries now, so it is uncharted territory. It could have been stopped pretty easily if we had known, if everybody had known about it, a number of months before people started reading about it. You said pres. Trump excuse me. It could have been stopped. Unfortunately, they did not decide to make a public. But the whole world is suffering because of it. You said that you did have a sense that this was a pandemic, that it was coming, so why was the was not prepared with the testing . Pres. Trump the only thing we were not prepared for was the media. The media has not treated it fairly. I will tell you how prepared it was. Peopled for a ban of coming from china long before anybody thought it was in fact, it was your network, i believe they call me racist because i did that. Many people in the room called me racist and other words because i did that, because i went so early. When you say i was not prepared i let these thousands of people come in, we would have let something in, you would not have recognized it compared to where we are. How many people have died as of this moment . You could multiply that by a factor of many, many, many. I was the first one to do the ban, now other countries are following what i did. But the media does not acknowledge that. They know it is true, but they do not want to write about it. I wanted to follow up on john and caitlins question, it is not just masks, doctors are desperate for other personal protective gear like gloves and other equipment. Governors say they do not have andt access to it and they are terrified. Pres. Trump the states are supposed to get it. For years they bought them and now they are coming to the federal government. We are working with the governors and working with everybody. The relationships are great. One thing that happened this morning, i spoke with Mickey Harrison of carnival, and he will make ships available. So in addition to the big medical ships, if we should new ts of rooms, they will be docked in different places. That is Carnival Cruise line. What about invoking the defense production act . Pres. Trump i have done it. If we find we need something, then we will do that. You do not know what we have done. You do not know if we have invoked it, what have been ordered. I can only tell you that, as an masks, nobody has ever heard of the number of masks ordered. Many of them are available now. But people in the media do not know that. Go ahead. Can you explain the gap in what you are saying today about there being tens of thousands of ares available and there masks available in what we are seeing on the ground, the opposite of that. People say they cannot get tested, even when they have symptoms. Dr. Say they do not have access to vital equipment. Can you explain that gap . Pres. Trump i cannot explain the gap. I am hearing good things on the ground. We are dealing every day to ramp up. They had a obsolete system that was not meant for this. Nobody knew that there would be a pandemic, an epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has seen anything like this before. I can tell you that what we are doing is we are working with local governments, states gover nors and mayors, on getting them to be able to get what they need. The system is working well. But we had to break the system, latebreaking an egg, because the system did not work. It is something we inherited. And now it is working good, and it will be great for the future too. Mr. President , there seems to be backlash building among Congressional Republicans and your supporters about the bailout, in particular one senator said this goes back to 2008, when we were picking winners and losers, and his colleagues are not comfortable with that. Pres. Trump we do not want to pick winners and losers. We want everybody to benefit. We want the workers to benefit. Sometimes you have to go through the company, because there are thousands of workers and if the company goes out of business, no fault of their own, those workers will not receive a check. So our ultimate goal are the people, the great people of this country. And we will have things worked out i think that will be very good. It is a complex formula. You understand that. But it is working out. I think we will have pretty uniform support for it. We are hearing the state department will put out an advisory telling americans not to travel overseas at all, are you putting in a travel ban . Pres. Trump we are speaking with the state department later. I cannot say because i have not had the meeting at. Octorwanted to ask the d about the announcement today, if i could. Can you sayask that the drug is currently approved for use on the virus . The drug has been in the press. It is in Clinical Trials currently here and around the world. We have also made it available by that approach i told you called compassionate use, where a doctor could ask the fda for that and the positive thing about that is it gives it rapidly to the patient, and allows us to collect data. We really need to understand what the data and science are in order to make the appropriate decision about the safety and its effectiveness. How do you make sure it is safe . Is there any concern at all that it will be safe, considering it andot the normal process could cause negative effects . The doctor earlier said we do not want to put out anything that could cause negative effects. Any concerns on that . I want to be clear about this. Remdesivir is going through the normal process. We are using our internal processes at fda to set up with the company, the protocol to collect the data. And you are right, we need to know about the safety and effectiveness. And that is done through Clinical Trials. So it is that data that will inform the decisions that are ultimately made about the safety and efficacy of it. This is an unprecedented situation. This is a really significant time. And one thing that the president with his leadership that the do has done is say ok, how we approach these extraordinary times, knowing we have a sacred trust with the American People about safety, and at the same time enable treatments to get to patients . That is what we are doing. Likely issident, how it that the 15 day guidance you have put through will be extended . Pres. Trump i can only say on the 14th day. We will see. The doctor indicated that there are three states and 10 counties where 50 of the cases are focused, should those areas be doing more measures, such as shelterinplace . Pres. Trump i think they are doing a lot. New york is working very diligently and strong. I assume San Francisco is one area. And los angeles. The state of washington, obviously. To they are working hard quarantine, just about the equivalent of quarantine. What about plans for government workers . Are you moving to do more teleworking . Pres. Trump we are. We are using the medical term of telemedicine. And it has been incredibly busy. Some people cannot do it anyway, they cannot go see a doctor, but we are using this and it has been telehealth. Some different names. It has been very successful and it has helped a lot of people out, where they could not or if they are positive or feeling poorly, they cannot do it. Or we do not want to anybody else. They. President , on china, reported for the First Time Since the outbreak no new cases over 24 hours. Do you have any reason to disbelieve them . The National Security council yesterday put out a tweet that was critical of the chinese government, saying the Chinese Communist party suppressed initial reports of the virus and punished doctors and journalists, causing experts to miss critical opportunities to prevent the growth of the pandemic. Pres. Trump it wouldve been better if we had known about this a number of months earlier. It could have been contained to that one area where it started. The world is paying a big price for what they did. And the world is paying a big price for not letting them come out, Everybody Knows that. As far as believing what they are putting out now, i hope it is true. Who knows . But i hope it is true. A question for you, also to the doctor. You have been talking about china quite a bit, and about the chinese virus, how the u. S. Learned about this, had they had more information we couldve stopped to this. Are you thinking about repercussions from china and are you thinking about the supply line for our Manufacturing Industry . Pres. Trump i do not want to comment on that right now. I have a question for you and a question for the doctor. American workers across the country are losing their jobs at an unprecedented rate, and your former economist said we could see the worst job loss ever. Is the government prepared to see a spike in unemployment . Pres. Trump if we can get this wrapped up and finished earlier, things will go nicely. And one of the things, as you know one of the elements that is being worked on very much so on the hill is to keep the jobs going, so that when we do get rid of the virus we will be able to really go like a rocket. I think the economy will be fantastic. When he said that, he was using that as the ultimate bad outcome. I do not think anybody believes that is going to happen. Go ahead. Beingbers of congress are tested and testing positive for coronavirus. Almost two dozen of them are quarantining. Do you have guidance for congress . Pres. Trump i know all of them. And i do not know if they are sitting like you are sitting. You are actually sitting too close. We should get rid of about another 75 or 80 of the. Just two or three that i like in this room. That is a good way to do it. But you are actually too close. You should leave immediately. Look, i know all of them. They tested positive. Hopefully they will all go better. It is one of those things. Reporter so they keep going to the hill . Pres. Trump i dont think they are going to the hill. I know somewhere they tested positive, they are in quarantine. I know lindsay and many others, they didnt test but and still they got the result, they put themselves in quarantine. And number of people in congress are in quarantine, they dont know the results. Get better. Le most people are getting better. Most, by far, the people you get better. Does it mean it is not a tough one . It is a tough one. Many people in congress have felt not perfect or they met somebody that wasnt perfect, turned out to be positive. And they have put themselves in quarantine. I think congress has behaved unbelievably well in that regard. Reporter on the stimulus, given what is happening to the economy, do you think a 1 trillion stimulus is enough . Pres. Trump we will know about that later on. It depends. So much depends on what goes on then this room in terms of the medical. If we can stop it in its tracks, the virus, it is plenty. If we cant, we will have to go talk. Nd reporter do you supportreporter the idea of the government taking an equity state instant stake in Certain Companies . Pres. Trump i do. Look, people are coming in for money. In some cases, no fault of their own. In some cases, they did certain things over the course of the years, including buying back stock. They bought back stock and they paid a high price for it. But maybe i view that as differently than somebody that didnt. And somebody that to plans all over the United States, of which there were plenty of them. Reporter airlines or boeing . Pres. Trump we will be helping the airline industry. We will be helping their crew into cruise ship industry. We will probably where jobs are created. You dont want to lose Industries Like this. You cant lose. Them we will be focused on many industries. I have to say, i cant state it strongly enough, we will be helping small businesses. That is where it is complicated. That is the engine of the country. We will be helping small business. The 2 [indiscernible] the 1 trillion stimulus package for the economy. Do you expect this to slow down the delivery of checks for American Families . Are you considering any executive action . Pres. Trump there could be, we are looking at a couple of things that it could do. Hopefully we will not need it. There is a lot of executive power. If we dont have to use it, that would be a good thing, not a bad thing. Reporter one for you and potentially one for dr. Birx. Right now, the economy has ground to a halt. Pres. Trump thanks for telling us, we appreciate it. Reporter stores have closed. Pres. Trump everybody in the room knows that. Reporter the question is, how long should those who are not working now or Business Owners who have to make critical decisions, how long should they expect the state of affairs as it stands at this moment to play out and for the doctors pres. Trump we will be able to tell you that in the near future. We will see where we are going. You have seen numbers, you have seen the graphs, you will see numbers and we will let you know. I will say the American Public has been incredible, for the most part. Not in all cases, but for the most part. You will be able to see what is happening. As we say, we had a 15 day period, you will be able to tell a lot in a week or so. We will be able to see. Reporter for all the parents that are home right now, this is a question for dr. Birx for adams who are caring for their children and curious as to when my to my kids be able to go back to school, what do you think is a realistic timeline . All of thosehink decisions are made as a state and local government level. Each state and local government has handled it differently. That is why we put out from the president , federal president ial guidance to every Single Person about what we think is important for the next two weeks. As we look at that data, we will be able to see if it is having an impact. I think you have all seen the modeling studies. Those were driven by the modeling studies showing if you add these things together, they have a bigger impact than separately. Those are part of the decisionmaking. We had a whole group of modelers in yesterday. They are compositing the data together to look at this carefully. Everyone has those same questions of what the impact will be. And what pieces could essentially be removed. And you still have the same level of impact in decreasing the spread of the virus. The absolute key to this though is every single american looking at the president guidelines and taking it seriously. The acts of selflessness i am seeing are so impressive across the board, but if even 10 or 15 of the population decides that what they are doing today is more important than the health and welfare of the rest of americans, they can spread the virus and a very strong way because you know the level of contagion. Pres. Trump and i have to say, if chloroquine or anyoxychloroquine works or of the other things were looking at, that are not quite as far out, if they work, your numbers will come down very rapidly. We will see what happens. There is real chance they might work. In the back, go ahead. Reporter what is your message for some leaders in latin america like the president of rizzo who just on sunday was taking photos with supporters in quarantine . And just yesterday, the president from brazil said we should not be surprised if we see him in the next few days in a crowded subway in sao paulo because he should be with the people. What do you think about that and what is your message . Pres. Trump is a friend of mine, number one. We had dinner the other night and everyone said he was positive and he wasnt positive. He tested negative. I was happy when i heard that. I have no message for him other than he is doing a good job in brazil. Hes doing a good job in brazil and he is very popular. Reporter how about quarantine . Pres. Trump i dont know about that. I have not heard that. Hes doing a good job. Brazil was very troubled before he got there. The people love him. And hes popular. I think hes doing a very good job. President , there are americans who are traveling abroad who were essentially stopped, unable to come home. We spoke to 10 women pres. Trump where . Reporter we spoke to 10 american women in morocco. All the flights have been canceled. Their hotel is shutting down. They literally have no place to stay and no way to get home. They are asking you, the administration, the u. S. Government for help. Pres. Trump we have groups, we have a group of young people in peru and we are working on taking care of that with the military. Reporter military evacuations pres. Trump not evacuation, we are trying to get them out. They got caught. They were late with their flights. We gave them a period of time. We are looking to get them out with military, with the military, probably through the military. I think we have young men, young people, could be women also with them from alabama. The great state of alabama. They are in peru and we are working on that now trying to get them out. It is about 300. Reporter Foreign Policy related questions. In your talk with the g7 leaders earlier this week, did you discuss together ending or postponing the olympics . Pres. Trump yeah, we did discuss it. As you know, Prime Minister abe was on the call. That is a big decision for him. We dont know what his decision is. We will live with his decision. It is a tough situation. Japan has done an incredible job, getting the venues built, you have seen so many olympic venues that have been a disaster over the years where they cost five times more than they were supposed to, they were not ready in time. Japan has been the opposite. They built it beautifully. They built it for what it was supposed to be built for. Then he got hit with the same thing the rest of the world got hit with unexpectedly. He has told us he has not made a decision as to what to do. Reporter also on Foreign Policy, have you spoken to the leaders of saudi arabia or russia and encouraged them to stop the what of oil . Pres. Trump the one thing i will tell you is from the standpoint, you always get torn. Until we became the leading producer, i was always for the person driving the car and filling up the tank of gas. You have gasoline and the prices were, if they were too high, i would raise hell with opec. I was always somebody that likes i never thought i would see 22 and 24 and 28 a barrel. But that is what we have. In one way, our consumer is very much help. Helped. That is bigger than any tax increase, decrease he could give. We could give all of these big tax cuts. But they are paying so little for gasoline. On the other hand, it hurts a great industry and a very powerful industry. I spoke with numerous people that have a lot to do with it. We have a lot of power over the situation. We are trying to find some kind of a medium ground. It is very devastating to russia because when you look, their whole economy is based on that. We have the lowest oil prices in decades. So it is very devastating to russia. I would say it is very bad for saudi arabia but they are in a fight. They are in a fight on price. They are in a fight on output. At the appropriate time, i will get involved. Reporter forgive me if i missed it, what will the Carnival Cruise ships be used for . Pres. Trump making called up and he said if you need them, and we have not said yes, i will call Governor Cuomo, i will call gavin from kevin newsom, the governor from california, i will call a few of the other governors because we are meeting through phone, telephonically as they say. Increase hospital beds . Pres. Trump we will increase places to stay. If it works. I dont know. Maybe people wont want them. He made the offer, it was a generous offer. He said he has some ships that would be ideally suited for what we are doing and certainly, they have a lot of rooms. They are big and have a lot of rooms. We appreciated from carnival. Appreciate it from carnival. Reporter at one point well any americans be able to get it get a test . Pres. Trump not needing the test . Reporter only getting tested if you are showing symptoms. Pres. Trump i didnt have any symptoms and i got a test. I got a test because you people were driving everybody crazy. Toad no symptoms, but i had test. My doctor told me dont get it, you dont need it. But i had to do it because the press was going crazy. Then after i got it, they said you should not have gotten it, you have no symptoms. Im a unique case, unfortunately. No, people that dont show symptoms in people that have doctors that say they should not get it, i would rely on that. I would rely on that. Reporter mr. President , thank you. I have two questions. Do you consider that pres. Trump oan. You treat leave treat me very nicely. Reporter do you consider the term chinese virus racist . Pres. Trump i do not think it is racist at all. Theyter on that note, have teamed up with Chinese Communist Party Narrative and they are claiming youre racist for making these claims about chinese virus. Is it alarming that major Media Players are consistently siding ,ith foreign state propaganda and they work right here and have direct access with you and your team . Pres. Trump it amazes me when i read the things i read. It amazes me when i read the wall street journal, which is always so negative. It amazes me when i read the New York Times i barely read it. We dont distribute it in the white house anymore. The same thing with the Washington Post. Because i know the truth. And people out there in the world, they dont know the truth. They dont know what it is. They use different slogans and different concepts for me almost every week trying to catch something. Last week, it was, theres no chaos, i was the one telling everybody to become. Theres no chaos to be calm. Theres no chaos in the white house. I hope i came up with the term but it is fake news. It is corrupt news. They write stories without calling anybody, they write a story today i had a couple of stories where they never call me. Ever, that i know of. At least nobody tells me. They write a story about me without even asking my opinion on something. Its totally fake. Ive never seen there was a story in the wall street journal today about how we have done. We have done a phenomenal job on this. Even gavin newsom, who im usually fighting with over the fires and i think he should do a different job, but a lot of things, we argue a lot, but a newsom has been very, very generous. Andrew cuomo has been very generous. They are saying we are doing a great job. Everybody is saying. Then you read this phony story in the wall street journal or with the Washington Post that is going wild lately. I dont know what happened to them. Something happened, like we dont call them back. The Washington Post, these are very Dishonest Media sources. Very dishonest. And you know what, someday, hopefully in five years, i wont be here. And that will be fine, i will have done, i think a great job. I dont anybody i dont think anybody has done as much as i have done in three years. This administration has done a great job. But the press is very dishonest. Reporter they are siding with state propaganda. Pres. Trump i think they do. They are siding with china. They are doing things that they should not be doing. They have sided with many others, china is the least of it. Why they are doing this, you will have to ask them. If we had an honest media in this country, our country would be an even greater place. Thank you very much. We are very excited about specifically what we talked about with the chloroquine. I think it could be something really incredible. It could totally depress the times that we had mentioned. Excuse me. Echo totally depress any time we are talking about if it works. There are a lot of reasons that i have to believe, again, dr. Hahn is the expert, but a lot of reasons that i think that it could have a very positive effect, or a positive effect, may be not very, but may be positive. I think it is very, very exciting. The beauty as i think i can say this, the beauty as these drugs have been out there, so they are really chloroquine has been out there for years. So we know it is something that can be taken safely. So it is very important. Go ahead. Reporter can you give more information about that process by which people will use these medicines . Peopleckly do you think will be able to have the medicine . Dr. Hahn the president has asked us to ask about i. T. This. Asked to expedite this. We want to make sure this is done right and well for the American People. The president is right with an offtheshelf drug, we have a lot of information with the side effects of the drug. I want to assure you we are working as quickly as we can. I dont want to speculate about a timeline at this point. With respect to vaccines, that is in phase one trial. We are expecting that to proceed moving forward. We are working with a number of different other companies about vaccine development. Possible that it can be fast tracked, that we might see a vaccine before that year . He said it could potentially be a year . Dr. Hahn this is a terrific question. We are trying hard at fda to partner with great industry, great academic partners to do that. No present no promises can be made. One thing we are doing is working hard to fasttrack as much as possible. Pres. Trump we will have other times to meet. We will meet hopefully for not very long. I would like to see this cleared up. This was a very important conference. Because i really think there is Great Potential here. A lot of people are going to be trying it soon, like literally very soon, literally in a matter of days, if not sooner in some cases. It is already being experimented with. There have been some very good results. We will see what happens. If we can be even partially right, maybe we will be fully right, but even partially right on it, this whole subject becomes a much more pleasant subject. Thank you all and we are going over to fema now. Going. Know who is but we are going to fema, we will be discussing with the governors and a lot of other people. I think thats enough. Thank you. Announcer wrapping up this coronavirus update from the white house with, you may have noticed, fewer people at the podium, and also some distance among reporters in the preceding area with everyone apparently taking care to observe the recommended social distancing. Some news regarding the effects of the pandemic. The wall street journal has an article that reads in part, the American Trucking associations Industry Group has asked the Trump Administration to exempt truckers delivering essential goods from travel and other restrictions aimed at containing the pandemic. Trucking capacity is getting tighter as demand surge from retailers and manufacturers hustling to replenish stores understood Patient Centers cleaned out by shoppers, stockpiling food and sanitizing supplies. You can read that article at wsj. Com. In political news, hawaii democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard said today she is suspending her campaign for president , and she is endorsing joe biden. You can watch her video announcement at our home, cspan. Org. In the senate, politico reports Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell is expected to release his face today,oronavirus bill laying a marker for the consensus view of Senate Republicans of what is expected to be a 1 trillion plus package. You can see the senate live on our companion network cspan 2. Relatedly, House Majority leader steny hoyer moments ago updated the house schedule in light of the guidance issued by the cdc, he says in a statement, we will be adjusting the house schedule. It is my intention the house will n