Worldwide. Who officials talk about coronavirus testing and Vaccine Development as well as response efforts in europe, africa, and the middle east. This is about one hour. Good afternoon, everyone. Delay, first. The welcome, everyone to this regular press conference on covid19. We are today in the executive boardroom of the world health organization. It is basically to give us a little bit more space so we can all follow the good practices of physical distancing. S, and iur regular guest you may leave at some point, but hopefully we will have questions for the other guests. Just to remark that we had some , we had someues meetings just a few hours ago and hopefully this will be sorted and everyone on our list including press releases and all the other communications. We will have an audio file as we always do. You. Ank good morning, good afternoon everybody. Its now more than a month since if it staysf that way, the outbreak will be declared over less than a months time. We would like to thank all our partners for their solidarity in staying the course in the service of the people of drc and my special thanks to the government and people of the democratic republic of congo. Solidaritypirit of must be at the center of our efforts to defeat covid19. Two hundred thousand cases of covid19 have been reported to who, and more than 8000 people have lost their lives. More than 80 of all cases are reasons, and we know that many countries now face epidemics and are now feeling overwhelmed. We hear you. We know the difficulties you face and the enormous burden you handle. We understand the hard ranging choices youre having to make. We understand that Different Countries and communities are in different situations with Different Levels of transmission. , who is talking to ministers of health, heads of state, Health Workers, hospital managers, industry leaders, and more, to help them prepare and prioritize according to their specific situations. Dont assume your community wont be affected. Prepare as if it will be. Dont assume you wont be infected. Prepare as if you will be. But there is hope. There are many things that all countries can do. Measuresdistancing like canceling sporting events, concerts, and other large gatherings can help to slow transmission of the virus. That can reduce the burden on the health system, and that can help to make epidemics manageable, allowing targeting and focused measures. Theto suppress and control epidemics, countries must trace. , test, treat, and if they dont, transmission changes can continue at a low level, then resurge once physical distancing measures are lifted. Thatontinues to recommit isolating, testing, and treating every suspected case, tracing every contact must be the backbone of the response in every country. This is the best hope of preventing Widespread Community transmission. Most countries with sporadic still in the position to do this. Many countries are listening to finding solutions to increase their ability to implement the full package of measures that have turned the tide in several countries. But we know that some countries are experiencing intense epidemics with Extensive Community transmission. We understand the efforts stifle transmission in these situations, but it can be done. A month ago, the republic of korea was faced with accelerating Community Transmission, but it didnt surrender. Empowered, and engaged communities. Strategyvative testing expanded capacity, he rationed the use of masks. It did exhaustive Contact Tracing and in selected areas and it isolated suspect cases in designated facilities, rather than hospitals or at home. As a result, cases have been declining for weeks. At the peak, there were more than 800 cases, and yesterday, the report was only 90 cases. Who is working in solidarity with other countries with Community Transmission to apply the Lessons Learned in korea and elsewhere and adapt them to the local context. Toewise, who continues accommodate wherever possible, confirmed mild cases should be isolated in Health Facilities were trained professionals can provide medical care and prevent clinical progression and onward transmission. If that is not possible, countries can use Community Facilities to isolate and care for mild cases and refer them for specialized care quickly, if needed. Facilities are at risk of being overwhelmed, people with mild diseases can be cared for at home. Although this is not the ideal situation, who has advised on our website for how homecare can be provided as safely as possible. Who continues to call on all countries to implement a comprehensive approach with the aim of slowing down transmission and flattening the curve. This approach is saving lives and buying time for the development of vaccines and treatments. As you know, the first vaccine trial has begun, just 60 days after the genetic sequence of the varmints was shared by china sequence of the byrons of the virus was shared by china. Around the world weve come together to systematically evaluate trials with different melody methodologies. It may not give us the clear, strong evidence we need about which treatments help to save lives. Partners have been organizing a study in many countries in which some of the untested treatments are compared with each other. Studyarge international is designed to generate the robust effort we need to show which treatments are the most effective. We have called the study the solidarity plan the solidarity trial. It provides five procedures to enable hospitals that have been overloaded to participate. Many countries have already confirmed that they will join the solidarity trial. These countries are argentina, iran,n, canada, france, andy, south africa, spain thailand. And i trust many more will join. I continue to be inspired by the many demonstrations of solidarity from all over the world. The covid19 solidarity Response Plan has now raised more than 170million from more than 3000 individuals and organizations a few days since we launched it. I would especially like to thank of 10r its contribution million. This and other efforts give me hope that together, we can, and will, prevail. This virus is presenting us with test. Recedented it is also an unprecedented opportunity to come together as one against a common enemy. An enemy against humanity. I thank you. Much for thosery remarks. Questions. Rt with i will remind you once again, its possible to have only one question per person so we can get is me questions as possible. Start. Are ready, we can us . You hear me . An you hear hello . Yes, we hear you. Go ahead. There are about 9000 deaths in a population of 38 million. Do you have any recommendation on how much testing is advisable for a country in a contained space like poland . And when can we expect a cheaper version of diagnostic test to be available in europe . I understand the question is about how much testing should be done in a country the size of poland. And when the tests would be available in poland. When a cheaper version of the diagnostic tests would be available in europe. First of all, the volume of testing is clearly determined by the number of suspect cases that you have. So i think the focus here is not how much testing needs to be done to reach a certain number. The real challenge is, are you testing every single suspect case . Every suspect case should be tested, their contacts identified. If the contacts are showing symptoms, they should be tested. That requires a scale up, because many countries have not been systematically testing all suspect cases. Its one of the reasons why we are behind in this epidemic. So we need that to happen. Secondly, there are many manufacturers producing tests. Who is contracted with the manufacture and production test mainly aimed at supporting developing countries. Im sure that poland and through the European Union, poland has access to other countries that are testing in the academic or the private sector. If there is a need, any country may contact who and we will either pointing to a manufacturer or if needed, provide them with emergency testing capacities. Thank you very much. I hope that answers the question. To simone simon from today in africa. Thank you for taking my question. I am with today news africa in washington, d. C. Coronavirus is in 30 countries and 600 people have been affected. You still have big religious gatherings. A popular pastor in nigeria has the 27thfollowers that of march. Do you think now is the time to gatherings,igious bringing people together in africa. I will repeat the question for everyone. Question is about big religious gatherings in africa. Is this a risky thing . All, congratulations to many of our Member States in africa who have reacted quickly necessaryplace the testing and equipment. In africa, they deal with epidemics every day of every year, unfortunately. At the moment, the incidence of covid19 in africa is low. It may be higher due to lack of detection but africa still has the opportunity to avoid some of the worst impacts of the epidemic and prepare itself prepare its health system. African countries are looking at all of the different options. And the what works best for them. Time, allment in countries that have disease within their borders need to , includingsures banning large Mass Gatherings. But we understand that depending on where countries are, those decisions are based on different Risk Management factors. But, in principle, whos view at this moment, is all countries with Community Transmission or clusters of cases inside the country, in order to avoid the disease amplification should be seriously considering delaying or reducing Mass Gatherings that bring people together in an intense way and have the potential to amplify and spread disease. Particularly in large religious type gatherings that bring people from very far away into a very close contact. Dr. Tedros id like to add to what mike said. As of today, the number of cases reported from Subsaharan Africa is 273 cases and four deaths. Its actually in terms of confirmed cases, its the lowest region. But as mike said, we cannot take this number as the number of cases we have in africa, probably we have undetected cases or unreported cases. In addition to that, even if we take this 233 cases are true, we have to prepare for the worst. In other countries we have seen how the virus actually accelerates after a certain tipping point. So the best advice for africa is to prepare for the worst and prepare today. Its actually better if these numbers are really true to cut it from the bud. Thats why were saying we have to do the testing, we have to do the Contact Tracing, we have to do the isolation and cut it from the bud. With regard to mass gathering and so on, it will help if we avoid that. Who recommendation is actually, Mass Gatherings should it be avoided and we should do all we can to cut if from the bud expecting that the worst could happen because we have seen how the virus really speeds up and accelerates in either continents or countries. So thats our advice and i think africa should wake up. My continent should wake up. Thank you. Tariq thank you very much, dr. Tetros and dr. Ryan. Lets try to get to musef from [speaking foreign language] tariq our friend musef is asking about sanctions to iran and how sanctions on iran have impacted the capacity of the country to respond to this outbreak. Dr. Ryan weve been working very closely with the authorities in iran and with many, many countries around the world now who have worked with us to ensure that iran gets the assistance and help that it needs. Weve again said right the way through this epidemic that we want to avoid politicization of these events and we thank those members states. There are a wide range of Member States from different political and different persuasions and ideologies who have agreed to act in solidarity together to support irans situation. We are focused as we have been on providing lab supplies and reagents in supplying ppe and in ensuring that iran has access to the markets it needs to do that. Weve been working at a very detailed level, not only through the sanctions, but through the Banking System and others to free up the necessary resources and to free up and provide the necessary assurances to companies and others that they can with comfort and without fear of any consequence, supply iran with the essential medical equipment and supplies for the purposes of the control of covid19. The dg may wish to speak on some of his political engagements that have successfully ensured that the circumstance has come to pass. Dr. Mike ryan 21 43 we are in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in iran and all over the world and will ensure that every citizen in every country has the opportunity to Access Global goods at this point in time. Dr. Tedros thank you very much. The only thing i would like to add to that is were already in contact with senior officials from iran. I had spoken to the minister of health yesterday and also had a chance to speak to secretary pompeo yesterday and we have underlined the need for solidarity. I remind all of us or the statement that the United States and especially secretary pompeo issued some weeks ago and we have discussed on how best that can be implemented. Dr. Tedros 22 40 as mike said, some of the process, especially with banking and so on, but in emergency situations, the sanctions can be addressed and this is already agreed from the u. S. Side and thats why we had the statement. We hope that we will have the needed solidarity to fight this enemy together. Dr. Tedros 23 13 at the same time, i would like to use this opportunity to tank the crown prince. He sent the second round of support to iran the day before yesterday, aircraft charters, shipping materials needed, and thats what were calling for, the whole world for the time. I think were in the most important solution and fighting an enemy like this dangerous virus is solidarity and we hope this spirit will continue. Tariq thank you very much. And really sorry, musef, well try to take your second question next time. Just to say that we all miss our geneva press corps. So speaking about, lets go to jamie. We miss jamie as well. Jamie, please go ahead and ask your question. One question. Jamie can you hear me . Tariq yes, please go ahead. Jamie okay, great. Hi, this is jamie from the associated press. Were wondering why might the death rates across europe be so variable . Italys death rate is at about 11 and they will soon overtake the Hubei Province in terms of numbers of deaths. While other countries like germany, france, spain, and the uk have reported far lower death rates, closer to one to 2 percent. What might explain that discrepancy . Thanks. Dr. Ryan hi, jamie. Yeah, i almost miss you as well. Its a good question. There are a number of factors that might explain that, but certainly one of them is testing. If you look at germany and we had some very good communication with germany today. Theyve had a very aggressive testing process. Theyve tested and confirmed over 6000 cases with just 13 deaths, but that may reflect the fact that theyre really aggressive in their testing strategy. So the number of tests and the number of confirmed cases may be detecting more mild cases as a proportion of all cases. Thats an important determination. Dr. Ryan the second issue is the evolution or the time of evolution and the outbreak. What we do see as a pattern of Long Hospital admission. So, italy, having experienced the first wave of major transmission much earlier than other European Countries is now experiencing those deaths because a lot of people reach a point where they can no longer be saved in the clinical system. So therefore the deaths occur sometimes two to three to four weeks after the infection starts. So again, you have to look at where each country is in the epidemic cycle. The other factor may be to do with the age profile of populations. For example, italy has a much older age profile and theres a higher proportion of people in the very elderly category. In some ways italy has been a poster child for Healthy People living into old age. Weve always asked ourselves the question why italians and People Living on the mediterranean are healthier and live longer lives. Unfortunately, in this case, having that older population may mean that the fatality rate appears higher because of the actual age distribution of the population underneath. There may be technical reasons as well in terms of the ability to provide standard of care. We saw this in china, we saw this in hubei, when you looked at the case fatalities inside hubei, there were significant differences in case fatality. Anyone whos ever worked in the front line of an emergency, when patient numbers begin to overwhelm, it becomes a simple factor of your ability to provide adequate care and react to every change in the patients condition in an intensive care environment. So i think there are circumstances in which the standard of care cannot be maintained when patients are being overwhelmed. I point you to the tremendously courageous and brave physicians and nurses and intensivists in italy who havent been dealing with one or two patients in intensive care, but for example, in northern italy, over 1200 patients in intensive care at the same time. Its an astonishing number. The fact that theyre saving so many is a miracle in itself. Dr. Ryan i think there are many factors, jamie and they all play into the actual numbers and maria may offer more Technical Advice on that. Maria the only thing to add is exactly where the virus is circulating in each country. You have to look at the demographics of where it is circulating. In korea, we had these clusters, these very large clusters related to a church, and that the age distribution of those cases were much younger than what were seeing in northern italy, for example. You may see outbreaks in longterm care facilities where the age is much higher and so its important where those clusters are occurring and where youre capturing your cases from. But we do need to be very careful when we look at mortality rates and we compare mortality rates. Its not right to compare them yet. What we need to do is find out why were seeing differences and what that actually means in terms of our understanding of this virus and how it impacts different populations. Weve said previously that we need to be very careful when we compare a calculation of the number of deaths over the number of cases that are reported per country. Mike has outlined the reasons why that is difficult. We have not seen the way this virus will behave in other vulnerable populations. We have not seen how this virus will behave if and when we see in vulnerable populations have high prevalence of hiv for example, or malnutrition children for example. Thats what we need to prepare for. Every death is significant regardless of where this takes place. We need to ensure that all of the measures that we take are preventing transmission because every step that we take there will prevent death. Dr. Ryan supplement here on the issue of severity. If you look at the case series that are produced and published from korea, almost 20 of their deaths have occurred in people under 60, so the idea that this is purely a disease that causes death in older people. We need to be very, very careful with, and physicians again in italy will attest to this and in korea. This isnt just a disease of the elderly. There is no question that that younger, healthier people experience a much overall less severe disease, but a significant number of otherwise healthy adults can develop a more severe form of the disease, and thats why we need to be ever vigilant and ensuring that we observe everyone, even the mild cases, for any signs of clinical progression to a more serious disease. Tariq thank you very much. We go for next question. That would be diego from brazil. Diego, can you hear us . Diego yes, i can. Can you hear me . Tariq yes, please go ahead. Diego yes, theres a lot of speculation about cases regarding children, so if you could please clarify what is the data right now about the symptoms on children and how fast the virus can spread on children . Tariq thank you, diego. Maria i can start with that. We know that children are susceptible to infection. We know that children are infected with this virus, but in terms of the reporting of cases across a large number of countries now where we have data, the number of reported cases in children is lower than adults. We know that children can develop disease, and the disease that they develop, in terms of the signs and the symptoms, are similar to what were seeing in adults, which include fever, which include dry cough, which include fatigue, and muscle pain. Overall, the majority of children that are infected will experience mild disease, but that is not universal. Theres a recent study that came out in china that showed that a number of children have developed severe disease and critical disease, and, in china, one child has died. What we need to prepare for is the possibility that children can also experience severe disease, but the evidence so far is that children have mild disease and only one death reported in china so far. Tariq thank you very much, dr. Van kerkhove. We will take one question from a journalist who are, for some reason, unable to get on the line. Heres Camilla Hodgson from Financial Times asking, is there a shortage of tests and or test Processing Centers in europe . Is that a reason that more testing isnt being done in countries like the United Kingdom . Dr. Mike ryan i think countries in europe have been scaling up their capacity to do testing over the last number of weeks. There are different options for countries. One is lab testing kits, which do a small number of tests per kit. The other are automated machines that allow you to test a number of samples at one time, and then there are high throughput and there there and then there are high throughput machines. Many European Countries are moving forward to put those high throughput mechanisms to test more cases. A scale of going on in i do not think the ability to test has not been the reason for testing. I do not think that has been the limitation. Whatnk it comes down to the strategy of an individual country is. N attempt tomake a test every suspect case, then countries in europe has the capacity to do it. After those cases it is following contacts and quarantining contacts and then leveraging a Public Health response that comes in behind the lab testing and allows you to suppress the virus through individual isolation mechanisms. Isolating individuals or quarantining contacts are about removing people who are infectious from the community. , social orh that physical distancing measures in a sense ask everyone to separate themselves from everybody else on the basis that we are not quite sure where the viruses. A combination of those two allows you to really suppress the virus. If you focus on individual people on taking them out of the general population, and you create physical separation at the population level, those two combined can be very effective at suppressing transmission of the virus. In order for that strategy to work, you must have the capacity to do more Extensive Lab Testing as you try to search for and identify the suspect cases. Countries are coming up with different strategies to meet the testing demands and maybe maria can explain a little more on what those are. Three major areas in which countries are working on, the first air are the kits. Availablenumber of tests and companies that are developing tests and countries who have developed tests are incredible, considering we are 12 weeks in. The second area is increasing the number of labs that can run these tests. In every country there are National Labs pcr and are building on a National Influenza system that has been in sit in existence for decades. Increasing the number of labs is an important part of the strategy, whether you are using public, private, or academic labs. The number of labs needs to be increased. The third area is the workforce who are going to run these tests. This threepronged approach of being able to have more labs able to run them, more people who can run this, and have more tests available are critical. Good example in korea where countries are testng innovative ways to people. Finding individuals, how can we run these tests . The drivethrough system, for example. Use the fundamentals of Public Health, but think of innovative and creative ways to find people that fit your transmission scenario. Thank you. Let us go to the next question. Helen, thank you. Thank you for taking my question. I was hoping you could give us more in predation information about the trial. What drugs have been prioritized . Hello. Ia will join us to give you the specifics. It is a multiarm trial and countries are be able to choose between five therapeutics that are being evaluated. Speak to this and give you the detail. We have five arms, the first arm is the candor standard of care in the basis in the the, the second the fifth arm includes another drug. Thatrial is an indicator this could be adjusted to drugs by level in each individual hospital at the time. Armsn include additional , which thearms Monitoring Committee advises we should do. This is a very simple trial, and we think that it is important that we conned tribute to our understanding of this disease, but this is focused on the key priority question for Public Health, do any of these drugs reduce the mentality the mortality . Or the time that the patient is in hospital or whether or not the patient is receiving drugs needed ventilation or intensive care units . Thank you very much. Provide thee will her exactf title. Now we will go to south africa. 19. Have stephen from 9 thank you very much for taking my call. We do not hear you very well. How is that . Ok. I want to ask, we have seen some schizophrenic government activity. Looking at the way our government has responded, i have the responsed that that the government has given. Thet important for government to be unified. Are on the same page. I do not know what kind of interaction the w. H. O. Has had with south africa. In terms of the communications with politicians, i would like to get in insight as to your impression. Again, as the director general has said many times, and all of government approach is absolutely underpinning the success. In this case, all the more. I think that has been the case in many countries including south africa, and another point to make is that african countries have been dealing with emergencies, climate and national disasters, and epidemics for a lot of time. They had to deal with a terrible hiv epidemic over many decades. The ability to create coherent responses to what our biologic threats is not easy for the government because these are threats you cannot see or quantify. Having been through that kind of a crisis prepares government for that leadership role when the time comes. Building trust with communities is tough at a time when many citizens have lost faith in government and around the world. This is both an opportunity for governments to rebuild trust with citizens and confidence that is needed to manage adversity, and to create a nonpartisan, all of government and Society Approach to dealing with disease. The idea here, and i say this with caution, many countries in subsaharan out africa and many countries have fragile health systems. They are not helpless. I have worked with and in africa for many years. What i see is a story of resilience and coping, and an lity to overcome adversity adversity by dealing with community. If we can match Community Participation with good governance, i believe that africa can succeed. Require strong, united governance. I think we are seeing that in africa, and i hope we continue to do so. Thank you very much. Left, can see, he has that i am sure that our speakers will be able to answer one or two more questions. Let us go to emma from reuters. I can hear you, hopefully you can hear me. I wanted to talk i had a question about the strategies for the supply crunch. Only way to achieve ventilators and ppes is for nonmedical companies to be pulled into it. On them to dog that . You are correct, there is a real question for personal protective equipment, essential medical supplies for providing care. Most countries are in reasonable shape, but there is dish theuption and distortion in market. We are working closely with governments and in our colleagues in the United Nations system with the program the World Food Program who are working closely with us. Staffe World Food Program with us, no better Logistics Organization in the world in terms of supply chain management. We are working with unicef and other agencies to maximize our ability to access those materials. We have fantastic support from governments in prioritizing supplies for us, so we can provide them to all countries for the most basic needs. In drivinge lead that approach of prioritizing our supply chains in order to do that. There is a scramble and we need order and discipline. I believe that institutions like the European Union and others are trying to bring order and coherence to the process in procurement and ordering. It is like any rush that we have seen in the supermarkets. Buyverybody brushes to everything they think they need for the foreseeable future, then many people lose out. It is the same if it is toilet roll or personal protective equipment. Afford to run out of toilet rolls but Health Workers cannot afford to run out of ppe. It is a huge responsibility to ensure that not only their Health Workers but all Health Workers have a fair opportunity to access ppe, that is a responsibility of industry, of governments, and of the u. N. System. We are doing our best to make that an easy process for governments. Governments who wish to prioritize giving health to others can use w. H. O. And the u. N. A platform to do that. We would welcome any contributions and donations to an International System to supply ppe to those in need and other essential supplies like oxygen concentrators and the rest. We have seen some positive moves, some countries in asia are looking at self production of ppe. Again, there are some companies around the world, part of our Pandemic Supply Chain Network who are working to license production capacities to local producers for masks in order to be able to produce that. That is fantastic development transfer technology so that local manufacturers can come into the game. Ventilators and other equipment is another scale of production and safety, and iso standards needed to meet that. We have to be careful in scaling up production of Sophisticated Technology like that. Countries like china and others have immense capacities for ramping up production and we are working with them to see how that can be achieved, and with other largescale producers. Maria in addition to everything that mike said, it is important that every individual knows what their role is to ensure that the supply that is needed is being used in the most appropriate way. What countries are doing in terms of what is their strategy for dealing with patients mild or severe patients. Individuals need to know how they can produce prevent overburdening a health system. If you are feeling unwell, you generally stay home, you do not rush to a health care facility. You contact the health lot the hotline number or contact your health care provider. You say these are my symptoms, do i need to come in . In most cases, you do not need to go in. If you have the symptoms that include fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, you will need to seek care. It is important that that process is in place so that people know where and when they should go. It is about the rational use of masks. We have provided guidance about using a medical mask in the community. If you are not sick, you should not be using a medical mask, but if you are, you should. Those decisions at an individual level impact the Global Supply. Know that each individual has a role to play in this Global Supply issue. Thank you very much. Next question will go to we will have two more questions and then we will let you go. The next question but before t i need to say whatana title is. Arias i will spell the name. Unit head for research and development at health emergencys program. Your question, please. Thank you for taking my question. If i can get a quick clarification. The fifth arm of the trial . And the question i wanted to ask, you keep talking about testing, and there has been a lot of discussion and there is a problem with the supply of reagent, and i am curious onther the w. H. O. Is working addressing that in some way. Policyve to enforce the of one question. It was a question and clarification. Testaria we are going to in some countries two drugs and we are looking into the two doses, and we have an independent client that helps with the process and that is how we arrived at this selection. Ok. Side, we might bring mark to the table, mark perkins leads our Lab Portfolio under marias coordination, and a lot of questions have been asked about lab supplies. As maria said there are different manufacturers producing tests on different platforms. There could be a shortage of one area and not another. It is hard to do a global evaluation. We have seen in the high throughput systems, the amount of the testing related they have not run out of testing reagents, but of supplies to support the high throughput systems. It is easy to extrapolate a single problem through the whole system, i will let mark speak to him speak for himself. Thanks to mark and the team, because they have worked hard over the last couple of weeks, and within days of this being sequenced, we were working with scientists and collaborating centers, and manufacturers to produce validated tests that have been distributed to 120 countries. They are opting operating at a high level of quality, and quality assurance. We are pleased in the way they have performed over the last couple of weeks. We thank mark and all of those in the Laborde Torrey networks who have been working on this. All of the the Laborde Torrey networks who have worked on Laboratory Networks who have worked on this. It has been a huge success and something we are proud of. We work with others to make sure that they are able to scale up. A word or two on the issues and concerns around this. Mark yes. There have been shortages of some of the materials as has been used in peace as mentioned in pcr reactions. These are sometimes important chemistries that you cannot find any place else than a diagnostic manufacturer. Some of the manufacturing, a lot of it has been done in china, and with the outbreak, it decimated the workforce and made them unable to work and made reagents difficult to procure. Of diagnosticr companies are scaling up their own capacity to generate those reagents. There are more than 200 companies working, sometimes already declared or finished working on diagnostics, so we have a plethora of choices, and sorting out which one work and which one me to his needs is something we will work meets needs is something we will work on. Can you say what exact title we should use . Mark lead of Laboratory Networks. Thank you. We will go to the last question and that will go to south China Morning post. Do we have anyone western mark do we have anyone . Try can you hear me . Try again. Thank you for taking my question. It was mentioned, the importance of international unity. I had wondered if anyone had comments about Donald Trumps continued uses usage of the chinese virus to use to covid given that there continues to be reports of racism and attacks against Ethnic Chinese people around the world. Thoughtsd if you had about if that kind of language will hamper or distract from the international communitys ability . Thank you. I think we have been very clear since the beginning. Borderss do not know and they do not care your ethnicity, color of your skin, or how much money you have. It is really important that we be careful in the language that use last it lead to lest lest it lead to profiling of individuals. It is easy in situations to summarize, or to make comments that are not intended to do that. Also, they have that outcome, and i am sure that anyone would regret profiling a virus along an ethnic line. That is not something anyone would want. We need solidarity and to work together. Differentmany origins, i have said it before, the pandemic of influenza in 2090 in 2009. We did not call it the north american flow. It is important that we have the same approach when it comes to other viruses to avoid that. And, we ask for that to be the intent that everybody has. This is a time for solidarity, and for facts, and a time to move Forward Together to fight this virus together. There is no blame in this. All that we need now is to be able to identify the things we need to do to move forward quickly, with certainty, and to ethnicny indication of or other associations. I would like to Say Something on international unity. We have seen overwhelming unity and solidarity, and i think every single instance that we can highlight that, we should. We see this in not only support for countries, verbal support for countries dealing with horrible outbreaks, we see this through donations, or children drawing pictures for healthcare workers. Every single one of those acts of kindness is an act of international unity. We see this through donations to the solidarity funds, which we are so grateful for which will be used to fighting this response. Peoplethis through helping older people by sheet grocery shopping, care package delivery, and helping grandparents and parents set up phones to talk to each other over different platforms. Every single one of us has a responsibility to contribute to that, and every reporter covering this has a responsibility to cover thattoo. A responsibility to cover that too. In a lot of countries this will get worse before better it gets better. We will get through this together. Thank you very much. We will conclude todays press briefing, we will have audio files and a transcript tomorrow. Next press conference is scheduled for friday. We wish you a nice evening. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] to follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at cspan. Org coronavirus. Track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps and