Transcripts For CSPAN White House Coronavirus Task Force Briefing 20240713

He was joined by Vice President pence as well as medical and Health Officials. Pres. Trump thank you. A lot of things going on. We are having a lot of meetings. , this is anancial medical situation, not a financial situation. Financial is moving along very nicely. Thank you for being here and update you on the progress weve made after a week of extraordinary mobilization. Its our war against the virus. Governors, mayors, businesses, charities, and citizens are working with urgency and speed toward one common goal. That is saving american lives. We are in communication with foreign countries. Now at 148 foreign countries. Can you believe that . You talk about a spread, a violent spread. 148 countries. Not even believable. There has been a week of National Action and Great National solidarity. People are getting along. Democrats, independents, liberals, conservatives. Its a very nice thing to see. We are all one beautiful american family. That is taking place right now. Last night, i approved a major disaster declaration for the state of new york. I work very closely with governor cuomo. Is the first time in our nations history that a president declared a major disaster and response to a Public Health crisis. Never happened before. Im considering other areas where we may or may not be doing that. Working very closely with gavin newsom, governor of california. We may be doing the same thing, depending on their needs, depending on what they are asking for. Its been unprecedented action in new york. Weve had a tremendous federal response. Weve reached agreements with canada and mexico. New travel rules at our northern and southern borders. It will halt the entry of the chinese virus while continuing trade and commerce. Weve had very good talks. Prime minister trudeau and president lopez. We talk about joint measures that we are taking to prevent the spread of the virus in our countries and to temporarily. Uspend nonessential travel we had a great conversation this morning, the president of mexico. Our close cooperation with mexico and canada will keep our people healthy, keep everybody safe. Yesterday i had a call with 12,000 Small Businesses, representatives of these businesses. Thats the engine of our country. People dont realize that. You think about the big ones. When you add up the Small Businesses together, it is the economic engine of our country. I assured them that my administration is doing everything within its considerable power to support them and their employees. Nobody has ever done what weve done. I had calls during the week with all sorts of representatives and systems like the hospital system. We spoke to many Hospital Systems throughout the country. Versus, doctors, representatives representing hundreds of thousands of nurses and doctors. Airlines and cruise ship companies. The Business Roundtable which was fully attended. Its all of the top ceos of our country and beyond, frankly. The businessmen of the world. These are businessmen that control the Biggest Companies in the world. Many of them have taken hits. Many of them businesses have been great. Some have been very badly affected. Some havent been affected at all. Frankly, some are doing very well. They continue to do very well. Walmart has been very hopeful to us. Doug mcmillon, really helpful to us. I assume they are doing pretty well. Even than buying more christmas. They are doing incredibly. They put on tremendous extra staff. They dont have empty shelves. A lot of things have happened that are very good. Restaurants, fast food executives, grocery stores. All retailers, literally all of them. In groups. We spoke with the g7 leaders at length, as you know. Governors,ny of the almost all of the governors had conference calls. Many of the governors individually. Most important like, the religious leaders. A great conversation yesterday with the religious leaders of our country. Many of the religious leaders. Weve had a number of them during the last two weeks. Yesterday, we had a very significant call with the religious leaders of our country. I signed legislation providing American Workers with paid sick leave and paid family medical leave. At no cost to employers. Free testing for those who need it. The testing is going very well. The admiral will speak to that along with tony. We are working quickly to pass additional legislation that will provide massive relief to Small Businesses and affected industries and give direct payments to our great workers and hardworking american families. Theres never been anything like we are doing on the hill right now. They are negotiating, mitch mcconnell, chuck schumer. They are all up there. Kevin mccarthy. Nancy pelosi. They are all negotiating. Everybody is working hard. They want to get to a solution that is the right solution. I think we are getting very close. Weve also announce that we have most tax day from april 15 to july 15 which is a big deal, giving businesses and individuals extra time to file and pay without interest or penalty. Weve moved the date. It will be july 15 instead of your traditional april 15. Very importantly, you will have a lot of time. You are not going to have interest penalties or any kind of penalties by filing at that later date. Foreclosures and evictions are suspended for singlefamily homeowners for the next 60 days. Our great head of hud who is with us today will say a few words in a moment. The department of education will not enforce standardized testing which is another big deal. Requirements for students for the Current School year. We are waving that. I would imagine its probably the First Time Ever that that has been waived. Its only fair that the students and parents. It is also waiving interest and other things that we are discussing right now on federally held Student Loans and directed that borrowers be allowed to suspend their student loan payments without penalty for at least 60 days. We will talk about Student Loans. Students are under a great burden right now. We will be talking about that further. During the 60 day time, we are waving various elements on Student Loans. Big subject. I signed an executive order invoking the defense production act, as you all know, giving us new authorities to help states, cities, and hospitals keep are needed supplies. Theres been a clear call to action to the private sector and the call is made right here. It has been amazing what has happened with the private sector. Responded in full force, helping to produce and supply muchneeded masks, swaps, sanitizers, ventilators, and everything else. Its incredible right now. Haynes, greatple, company. Great consumer cotton products. They are retrofitting their Manufacturing Capabilities in large sections of their plants to produce masks. They are in that process right now. At my direction, the fda has taken rapid steps to make these Items Available for medical use right now. Most exciting to me is what the fda has done in order to get sibly a very successful therapeutics, medicines that can help people that are already sick. Help people to not get sick. Obviously, you know about the vaccine. Tony will discuss that later. The vaccine is moving along. This is something for right now. This is incredible. And dr. Fda has done stephen hahn came as a highly respected man. Hes been fantastic. Hes only been here for a couple of months. Hes gotten thrown into this. Hes really standing up. The fda has moved mountains. They moved mountains. Thatng approvals on things maybe work. We will find out very soon. It wont take long. This is an example where we are repurpose thing alcohol. They repurpose best repurposed alcohol production capabilities to make can sanitize or. Thats a big difference. They been unbelievable. The first delivery will be on tuesday. Thats going to go to various states. It will start, i think, in new york. They will work their way around and making a tremendous amount of Hand Sanitizer at a very high level. Weve activated the National Response Coordination Center to level 1, the highest level. The nerve center of all of our government response to crises. It is coordinating very closely with our nations governors. Many of you were at the call yesterday with the governors. I think you can see the relationship. Weve had numerous calls with governors. The relationships are pretty amazing. They are loving what we are doing. The coordination between the federal government and the governors, states, and even local has been pretty incredible. Pete gainer will soon be providing you with an update on the Centers Operations and fema has been incredible. We got them involved last week. They are now involved nationwide. We dramatically expanded telehealth so americans can see a doctor without leaving home. Something which more and more people are using. Now they are really using it. Now the ones that are using it are loving it. I think we will change the way our country functions medically and probably in other ways because of whats going on right now. This will reduce the chance of infection and preserve Hospital Capacity. Its also a lot of problems. Every american has a role to play in defending our nation. Enemy. Visible, horrible, its an invisible enemy. Very much successful sooner than people would think. We say stay at home and save lives. Its a time of shared national sacrifice. Its also a time to treasurer loved ones and to take stock of what is most important. Our faith, our families, our neighbors, our great country. I want to thank all of the incredible people of our country, the citizens of our country. What youve done and the way you are responding has just been very special. Something that we will never forget, the history books will never forget. We will have a great victory. We will be celebrating a great victory in the nottoodistant future. I want to thank everybody. I will introduce our Vice President , mike pence, who has led the task force. I will tell you this. He has not slept much. Maybe a tiny bit. Not much. Hes done an incredible job. Thank you, please. Good afternoon. Thank you, mr. President. The White House Coronavirus task force met today. We briefed the president on our latest recommendations. Direction, wents continue to lead a whole of government approach, a whole of america approach. You heard the president described one spiraling story after another. The way the American People are responding, the way american businesses are responding, religious communities across this country. The American People are coming together. They are responding with common sense compassion, and generosity. People are heeding the advice of. Tate and local authorities tens of millions of americans are putting into practice, 15 days to slow the spread. We are officially at six days into our 15 days. ,s we look across the country while we strongly support the decisions that governors and states where we have significant outbreak, we encourage every american to listen to those state and local authorities for every american, this is what you can do to make a difference. Week and a few days to protect your health, protect your familys health, and slow the spread and the potential for the coronavirus to impact the most vulnerable. As the president said, weve almost been overwhelmed at the outpouring of support from american businesses. The president spoke yesterday to thousands of Small Businesses. We spoke to manufacturers yesterday. Timect, the fda, in record just approved one manufacturer to be producing millions of matter ofasks in a weeks for the American People. The pastors we spoke to, we want to thank all of the religious leaders from every community in the country. Making the hard choice to suspend services, to have online services. Even while those ministries are continuing to support food banks and come alongside the most honorable. The course of prayers coming out from communities of faith around the country is making the difference that it always has in the life of this nation. One thing we promised was to remind people that on the weekends that you are not in the idea to is still a good make that donation. All the ministries are continuing to play a vital role in our communities. We encourage your continued support. The president and i are grateful that people are listening to state and local authorities and putting into practice all of the recommendations in the coronavirus guidelines. As you will hear in a few moments, testing is expanding rapidly across the United States of america. State run drivers are expanding across the country. 195,000 americans and more who have been symptomatic have been tested. That number does not include county hospitals or health care labs around the nation. Some 15,000 in number. Among the number of the more than 195,000 that have been tested, it is important to remember that only 19,343 at this moment have tested positive for the coronavirus. Urgent to continue to state and local authorities to contact fema for all the latest developments and innovations in testing. We want to remind americans, if you dont have symptoms, dont do a test. It is another way that the American People can make sure that we are preserving the resources that are Health Care Workers need to minister and support those were dealing with the coronavirus. Moment, p gainer will be till the efforts at fema since the president s National Emergency declaration. We are working closely, hourbyhour through fema, processing requests from states most impacted like new york, washington state, and california and we will continue to work very closely with those states through the very traditional means of federal Emergency Management at fema. Secretary carson will describe decisive actions the president alluded to to bring foreclosure relief to americans. On the subject of supplies, and a moment, you will hear not only the progress were making on will bebut on monday we detailing for the American People the progress that we are making on the president s strategy of procuring more personal protective equipment and medical supplies, allocating them through the system of fema, and continuing to urge conservation by americans. In fact, im pleased to report that hhs just placed an order for hundreds of millions of n95 masks that will be made available to Health Care Providers across the country. President , wehe renew our call for americans to post bond elective medical procedures including dental services. This is another way that you were going to make sure that medical supplies are available. Postponing elective medical procedures, you are freeing up medical supplies for those dealing with the coronavirus. As the president mentioned, our team is on capitol hill working with members of congress in both political parties. They are making progress on a bipartisan bill. They worked late into the night last night, started early this morning. We are working to pass the legislation on monday in both the house and the senate. On a personal note, many of you may have been made aware that a member of my staff has tested positive for the coronavirus. We learned of that late yesterday. I am pleased to report that he is doing well. He had mild cold like symptoms for about 1. 5 days. He has not been to the white house since monday. Neither the president nor i had direct contact with that staff person. We worked immediately with the white house physician and cdc. Weve done all contact tracing. The white house doctor has indicated that he has no reason to believe that i was exposed and no need to be tested. Given the unique position that i have as Vice President and as leader of the White House Coronavirus task force, both i and my wife will be tested for the coronavirus later this afternoon. Let me say again how grateful the president and i are that every american has acted on the president s coronavirus guidelines. We are six days into 15 days. As dr. Fauci may reflect in a moment, its an opportunity for to lower the impact in our nation. We can save lives. Every american can do their part to slow the spread and we encourage you each to continue to do that. As the president says often, we are all in this together. Also remember that for most americans, the risk of serious illness from the coronavirus remains low. The reason we want to put into practice the president s coronavirus guidelines is because no american would want to inadvertently expose someone who is honorable, a senior with a serious Underlying Health condition, to the coronavirus. I heard one story this morning about a senior named jennifer woods. Shes at a Life Care Center in kirkland, washington. Shes a grandmother and a greatgreatgrandmother. 90 years young. She tested positive for the coronavirus on march 6. By all accounts, she is doing well. She wanted america to know that theres hope. Her strength and enthusiasm is truly an inspiration to the nation. As the president said many times, we will get through this and come out stronger than ever before. We will get through this has americans, together. Thank you. Pres. Trump thank you. Thank you. As i told you earlier last week, we are in the process of effectively transitioning to largescale testing by leveraging all of the components of the American Health care system. When we started it was cdc only. Then it was the state laboratories. Now we are transitioning into the mainstream of american testing. Currently, 91 Public Health laboratories, state Health Public laboratories, or up and running. In 50 states, the district of columbia, guam, and puerto rico. This is our curve. This only accounts for cdc state Public Health laboratories and the laboratories that are numbers of the American Clinical Laboratory association. These are the main reference laboratories. It does not account for the over 10,000, 15,000 hospitalbased labs, many of which are doing testing, for whom we will get data this week. As you can see, over 195,000 people in america have completed their testing. That means test plus results. This does not count people whose test is in process. This curve will continue to rise this curve will continue to rise this curve will continue to rise dramatically over the next period of time. Again, this is utilizing all of the components of the great American Health care system. The state and local health care laboratories. The hospital system, which is not represented here, and the main reference laboratories. I want to make it clear that although testing is becoming more available and dr. Fauci will definitely emphasize this more, there are priorities for testing. Clearly, everyone should understand that those hospitalized are a priority for testing. Symptomatic healthcare workers, for obvious reasons we want to make sure that their health is preserved and they are not going to spread to those who are are ill. Symptomatic people in longterm care facilities. As we have said many times, the elderly in our society have a much higher complication rate. Symptomatic individuals over 65. Symptomatic individuals who have underlying conditions like chronic Heart Disease or liver disease. Other types of chronic diseases. Patients in Public Health investigations. There are local priorities around the country, particularly healthcare workers. Dr. Fauci is going to emphasize this, about the types of people who may not need to be tested. Testing is going well. It is ramping up but we should still have priorities. I want to talk about the communitybased testing sites. They are popular now because there is an acronym. Cbts. We talked about these earlier in the week. I wanted to emphasize that these are state managed and locally executed. The federal government is there to provide support, knowhow, blueprints on how to do this, these are really springing up at dozens of sites all over the country. Adapted to the local needs. Some are drivethrough, some are mockups, some are geared to emergency responders. What weve seen in the upcoming week is this curve will continue to increase as testing becomes more available. The great American Health Care Industry continues to increase the ability availability of test and the throughput of those tests. Dr. Fauci thank you very much. What im going to do is connect some of the dots, the things that you have heard today. First, the status of the dynamics of the outbreak. You all know the numbers. We have widespread infection to varying degrees throughout the country. When you talk about the mitigation issues that we have emphasized, just as i mentioned, there are two Dynamic Forces going on. You are having the natural course of an outbreak trying to peak. And you have the mitigation strategies which are aimed at dampening that. We mentioned that multiple times. We get asked, how do you know you are having an effect . Because there are two things going on at the same time. They may be confounding. I can tell you from a Public Health standpoint, we know we are clearly having an effect, but we cannot quantitate it for you accurately now because looking forward, you will know what the impact of the rate of these steep inclines will be. That is why we are going to come back every day and keep you uptodate. With regard to the disproportionate response, everyone is here this is baseline for everyone. Throughout the country. There will be areas, washington state, california, new york city in which the dynamics are clearly different and much more robust. That is the reason why weve seen the mitigation ratcheted up in that regard. Hopefully and i have confidence that will happen you will see an impact on that. Next, getting to testing. You saw the numbers with testing. Remember, there was always an issue with testing. I think we are getting to the solution that everybody is looking for. I want to emphasize one thing that the admiral mentioned. Not every Single Person needs to get tested. He gave you the priorities. Let me tell you one of the unintended consequences of individuals who dont need to get tested. That flood the desire to get tested. Currently and i hope we will be able to change it when you going and get tested, you are consuming personal protective equipment. Masks and gowns. Those are highpriority for the Health Care Workers who are taking care of people who have coronavirus disease. What we dont want to do is to have a situation where we do have insperitys in availability of in disparity in availability of ppes. Finally, one last thing was just mentioned. Please, put off, cancel elective surgical and medical procedures. For the time being, dont do them. They also not only consume equipment, they may also consume some of the things like ventilators you might need. Thats pull in this together and we will get through it. Thank you. Thank you. Fema is leading the federal response for all operations on behalf of the white house. Hhs will continue to provide their expertise on health. Pursuant to the nationwide emergency declaration, and coordination with hhs is assisting state, local governments and other eligible entities with protective measures on behalf of the american public. As of yesterday, 50 states, the district of columbia, five territories, and one tribe are working directly with fema. In just 24 hours we have obligated 100 million to states, territories, and tribes. A bit about supplies. It is of the utmost importance that requests for assistance get routed through proper channels. We ask everyone to follow the normal procedures fema uses in a national disaster. There is no different procedure for covid19. You can still order supplies from your regular vendors and on the open market. Buy it where you can find it we will immerse you. Reimburse you. If you buy medical supplies from foreign sources, we will reimburse you. Buy american does not apply to the stafford act. If you cant buy it on the open market, make a request through the fema system. From states to the regional fema offices, then from those offices right here in d. C. We are getting requests for masks, ppe, ventilators, Hospital Capacity assessments, and more. We are lockstep with hhs to answer these requests. We will do whatever is necessary to get states, tribes, territories and others what they need. What were doing here in washington, d. C. Again, this is a whole of government response. Responses most successful when it is locally executed and federally supported. We cannot say that enough. On thursday our partners fully integrated with our National Coordination response Coordination Center. All 10 fema regions across the country have been activated. The regional administrators will continue to coordinate with governors, state emergency managers, and Health Officials to determine the support needed. Thank you, sir. Pres. Trump appreciate it. Sec. Carson you, mr. President. I also want to thank the fellow Task Force Members who have been working around the clock. A very patriotic way to serve their fellow americans. You know, part of the American Dream is having a home. Sometimes people say, what does housing have to do with health . It has everything to do with health, having a safe home. That is the reason the president has authorized the immediate cessation of foreclosure and eviction proceedings. Singlefamily mortgages, as well as reverse mortgages. As you know, fhfa has also decided to do the same thing for 60 days. The cfpb is happy with this as well. It is all about helping our people. Recognizing that they are being severely impacted by the coronavirus. We have also asked the various servicers of Mortgage Loans to exercise forbearance for anybody having difficulty. It is important if you are having difficulty to contact the people who made the loan, because it does not happen automatically. What does happen automatically is that we cover all 8. 5 Million People in terms of the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. We want to also, for the pha to be protected, hud does not have authority to mandate that evictions cant occur, but we are in contact with all of the phas across the country and are petitioning congress. We want the power to be able to actually enforce that. Most of the phas are run by people who actually care about other people. We havent seen much of a problem there. We havent seen much of a problem with forbearance and needing to try to force people to do it. They want to do it. People are stepping up and saying, what can we do to be helpful . As far as housing choice vouchers, the april vouchers will be sent out next week. May vouchers are already being worked on. We are also staying in contact with all of the stakeholders, the advocates for low income housing, as well as other stakeholders, to make sure that we are doing things that are most helpful to them. Additionally, we have extended the deadlines for health care and multifamily Financial Reporting requirements. That is for over 20,000 multifamily and health care borrowers, until april 30. That provides them with a lot more flexibility to deal with the issues they are dealing with. I also want to thank our fha commissioner, as well as the fhfa and caffe, the director of cfpb, who have all worked tirelessly to make this happen. What we are trying to do is bridge the gap. Recognizing that it is a lot easier for us to take these measures and for congress to take the measures they are taking so we dont destroy a very excellent system and have to start all over again. For those who are worried about the money that is being spent, if you dont spend the money and deal with this now, it is going to cost a whole lot more to build all this up again. As was mentioned, there has been a sense of unity that we have not seen for a long time in this country. Lets hope and pray that that unity lasts far beyond this crisis. Pres. Trump ben, thank you very much. If youve lost your job now or you are worried you were going to lose your job tomorrow, what do you want people to do immediately . You heard from the Vice President that he is going to be tested. Are you taking a test . Pres. Trump i just took one. But how are you feeling . Pres. Trump i feel great. [laughter] for those people that have lost their job already or they are worried, what do you want them to do . Pres. Trump what they do is keep receiving their paycheck. Hopefully their companies are going to be in a very strong position. We want to keep everything together. We think we will have a tremendous bounce back. Some people agree with that strongly. Some of our top economist. We once we solve the problem that we are working on, the medical problem. We want them to keep their jobs, stay where you are. If they dont, we have unemployment, have checks, we have a lot of positive things happening. This is working with democrats, there is republicans and democrats and myself working together. Nobody has ever done a package like this. It is a great package. We want them to be able to keep their jobs, keep it coming. I think thats going to happen. On your defense production act, the federal government would be able to control the output, get it to the most areas of need, and control the pricing to keep it at a market level. One of the things we are hearing from governors, it cant find supplies and prices have gone up. Youve talked about the act but you have not yet compelled any companies. Why not . Pres. Trump we have so Many Companies making so many products. Every product you mention, we have Car Companies without having to use the act. If we dont have to use it specifically we have the act to use in case we need it, but we have so many things being made right now, they have just stepped up. Weve never seen anything like it. They are volunteering. We are going to make masks, like hanes. General motors. Theyre going to go on the open market. We want them on the open market, from the standpoint of pricing. Otherwise, we could be very unfairly. How do you direct them to the places of greatest need . Pres. Trump we are directing states, and sometimes we will be competing with states, which i dont want. We will drop out of the bidding. We are helping states. Thats what we want to do. Same thing with the testing. We are helping states to get to where they want. We have made tremendous progress. For equipment today . Pres. Trump the governors are out there trying to get it. If they are competing with us, we immediately drop out. Forgive me if i heard you wrong, she said youre going to be going over to the health . Are you going yourself . Pres. Trump my people are. I will be staying here. You are asking congress to pass a series of legislation that is going to cost 2 trillion. 10 of the gdp. What do you say to members who say this is too expensive . This is too much to get done in 48 hours . Have you spoken directly with Speaker Pelosi . Pres. Trump i have spoken with im not going to say who i speak with what i have spoken with directly or indirectly everybody. We are doing very well. I think the democrats and republicans are going to come up with a package that is going to be really something special. It will help people. This is the first time there has never been a case where you want people to work. It is always you want to create incentive to work. The fact is, we are asking people not to work because of they have to stay away from each other. We are going to kill this horrible, hidden enemy. There has never been anything like this in the history of the world. Other nations are doing similar things. Some effectively, some not effectively. They are doing similar things. We are creating a package that is going to Keep Companies together, keep workers paid so they can live and sustain. We will see what the timing is. The biggest thing we can do is get rid of the problem. The problem is what we know, the medical problem. We want to have this whole situation that can start right away. Not that all of these Companies Break up, you can put them back together. It would take years to put them back together. We have the greatest economy in the history of the world until we got hit with this problem. We can be back very, very quickly. Its our intention to be back very quickly. We are doing a package the likes of which nobody has ever done before. I am obviously the one that has to approve the Different Things and recommendations of the Different Things. Buybacks is an example. Stock buybacks. I didnt like it the first time and this time im saying im a im saying, youre not doing it. I dont want money for to be used for that. I am strongly recommending a buyback exclusion. You cant take 1 billion of the money and increase the value. The Vice President announced hhs was ordering hundreds of millions of masks. How is that going to be distributed . Completed a 500 million order of masks. All of this is being coordinated through fema. We are responding specifically to state requests where the needs arrive. As dr. Fauci said, we want to make sure the people that are providing Health Care Services to people who may have contracted coronavirus have the protection to keep themselves and their families healthy. I want to emphasize that the supply of n95 masks has been vastly increased in the country because the president insisted that we extend Liability Protection to industrial masks. All of the experts told us early on that industrial masks used on construction sites are perfectly appropriate to protect Health Care Workers from respiratory illness. But they did not have the himbut they did not have the Liability Protection, because they were not created for hospitals. We worked with leaders in both parties, we added that protection. Now the industrial n95 mask can be purchased by hospitals, purchased by hhs and distributed through our system. We are making those available. Supply has been vastly increased. It is another step forward on a bipartisan accomplishment. We are continuing to use all of the creative means of american industry to make sure we are leaning into this effort and that we do whatever it takes to make sure that our Health Care Providers have the protective equipment they need. We are still hearing from doctors and nurses about the shortage. When exactly can they expect to receive these masks . Vice pres. Pence let me let pete gaynor speak to that. Fema will be hhs is now fully integrated into fema. Obviously, as im sure the administrator will say, they are being prioritized to those areas with the highest need. Within the national Coordination Center, we have a supply chain task force. We are trying to identify the universe of what is out there. Whether it is that the federal level, we hold it in the private sector, then touch that up with demand. We are asking people to be creative. This is a shared responsibility. We will prioritize those scarce resources. Every single governor is looking for the exact same thing. There is a balance. We examine the entire supply chain. Making sure. Pres. Trump when will the mask start coming in . Mr. Gaynor they are out there right now. We want to get out of the middle, i think. We are trying to match supplies with demand. They can expect them today . Mr. Gaynor there is a range of requests and we are trying to match those again, supply and demand everyday. Pres. Trump a lot have already come in. The throwing away of the masks, being in private business, the throwing away of the masks you hear 55 Million Masks im saying 55 million . How can it be such a number . They say, thats a small fraction of what we need. I said, why arent we sanitizing masks . Ive looked at all of the different masks. Some dont lend themselves to doing that, many do. I said, we have very good liquids for doing this. That is something they are starting to do more and more. Sanitizing the masks. I dont know if anybody would like to speak to that. Dr. Fauci there is cdc guidance about how you can minimize the use of masks. Different things you can do with testing. When you have masks, how you use them. You think there is a solution to this other than buying new masks . Dr. Fauci there are a couple of things. We are moving towards getting testing where you dont have to have ppe. Im not going to tell you the date will be there. It will be a swap you can stick in the nose of the infected person. The person does not need ppe. The person who is administering the test. If you could do a selfadministered test must stick it in a file, you dont need a mask. That is one of the things we are doing. Vice pres. Pence this is another story about Great American industry. The president and i heard from apple that they are donating 2 million industrial masks to this effort. And working with our administration to distribute those. It might be a Good Opportunity for us to renew our call for, as the president and i deliver this message to businesses yesterday, it is a great time to go to your storeroom and, if you have n95 masks, if youve got 100 of them, if you have 10,000 of them, is to load them up, drive them over to your local hospital. That story is happening all across the country. With more americans stepping away from elective surgery we are urging dentist to look at their supplies of n95 mask and make those available to our hospitals. The great news is, as the president said, the American People are doing this now. Allow me to say on behalf of the president , thank you for what you all are doing today. We want to encourage people in business, people in industry, look at those supplies of masks, pack up as many as you can spare, drop them off at your local hospital. It would be a Great Service to the country. I want to read you some of what the doctors on the front lines of this crisis are saying. Pres. Trump the ones that are saying good things or bad things . Doctors talking about the shortage of medical supplies they are facing. They say theres no way to protect themselves. A surgeon in california says we are at war with no ammo. In illinois says, if this is a wartime situation, now is the time to act. I know youre talking now about increasing production at these facilities to get masks out. Given that this is one of the most powerful countries in the world, should this even be happening . Shouldnt this have been resolved . Pres. Trump i will tell you the way i look at it. Many administrations proceeded me. For the most part, they did very little. In terms of what you are part talking about. This is unprecedented. You can speak to tony, you can speak to anybody. This is just about unprecedented. It is at a level that nobody would have believed. Nobody would have thought this possible. We are making much of this stuff now. Much of it is being delivered now. We have also gotten tremendous reviews. People cant believe how fast it is coming. When i hear they have an order of 55 Million Masks and that is one order out of many and that there are many millions of masks beyond that i keep saying, how is it possible to you so much . That is the way it is. Part of that is because they will use a mask and they throw it. The fact is, we are doing a tremendous amount. We started with very few masks. We had some, nothing for an event like this. Now we are making tens of millions of masks. I think it is unprecedented what we have done and what we are doing. Many doctors, they cannot believe the great job we have done. Kelly, did you have one . How did your Administration Learn about this virus . Pres. Trump if you remember, i was the one that closed the country down. You dont write that or you dont say too much. I just read an article yesterday that by closing the country down so early, we saved tens of thousands and much more than that lives. You know, you might want to report that too. I would like to address that. Im an icu physician. First of all, i want to thank everyone who was on the front line. The emergency room and the icu and the hospitals. I speak to my colleagues daily. We need to preserve our ppe to the amount we can. Cdc guidelines had that. The president has talked about it. We are making product, as the president said, but we are also responding through the fema system to distribute the National Stockpile resources according to requests for comment. That come in. Stockpile has been distributed to many states. First orders, second orders, and on a daily basis adjudicating that. If there are shortages in the hospital system, that needs to be clearly iterated to the local Emergency Management. Our hospitals talking about this . Adm. Giroir three nights ago with over 2000 Hospital Systems sharing best practices from seattle, where they have been very innovative. Pioneering some of these areas. When there is a shortage, they need to go through their Emergency Management. It goes directly up to the fema system. It works very well. Then there is a distribution of the stockpile. The stockpile isnt infinite. That is why it is being replaced by all the orders. Masks go out on a daily basis. As they are needed and requested through the fema assistance. The want to add to that . Pres. Trump just to reiterate, just to reiterate, we dont take lightly what you just read. I get the calls every night. The way you get emails. It is a serious issue. We dont want that to happen. You are not making things up. I know that. Im experience eating experiencing it myself. What you just heard about the different avenues, some of which are not even recognized about how you can get help through the fema process, in addition there are large amounts of additional ppe coming into the system. We hope that very soon we are not going to get those reallife difficulties. There is a question about the timeline here. Fema cannot answer what the timeline is. Dr. Fauci sooner than weeks, its going to be days. We are going to try to make it days. Pres. Trump we are trying to help the states get things faster. We are implementing. The magnitude of this is a tragedy, its an absolute tragedy. The magnitude is something that, no matter who you were, nobody ever thought a thing like this could happen. You read about 1917 and read about certain things but in a modern age you think Something Like that could never happen. Well, it comes back. It is genius, comes back. And it is too bad. I think people working on this have been incredible. The job they have done has been incredible. There are tremendous amounts of not only masks, of ventilators and respirators and everything you could think of. All of it is being manufactured right now. Yesterday there were questions about the use of the malaria drug. Have those questions been resolved . Pres. Trump it is going to be distributed. I know new york is getting 10,000 units and numerous other people. It could be the malaria drug. We are going to find out. I feel, as the expression goes, what do we have to lose . I feel very good about it. Tony would feel, you know, that he likes samples done in a certain way. I understand, many doctors agree. We have very sick people right now. We dont have much time. Speaking with the governor of new york, cuomo, i said how is it looking . People. Lot of sick we are delivering a lot of samples to new york and other places. We will find out shortly whether or not it will work. I feel very confident. Ive seen things that surprised me. As tony said, there were other things were looking at, too. The vaccine is incredible, that this is more immediate. Right now this would be the greatest thing that could happen. This would be a gift from heaven. It would be a gift from god if it worked. We are going to pray to god that it does work. It would be a fantastic thing. On the economic friends there are reports that the coronavirus is raining businesses . Is that true . Pres. Trump no, i would say very under levered in everything so that is good. It is hurting me and its hurting hilton and its hurting all of the great hotel chains all over the world. Its hurting everybody. There are some businesses doing good. Of the worldarts because everybody is lined up to get things and stock up their house, and things like that. Sure, it hurts my business. You or anyone in your Administration Talk about the potential effects of the coronavirus . Res. Trump i speak to my sons i talk about the coronavirus, but not as it pertains to my business. Follow the rules. When they say close them down in new york, we close them down. I have them all over the world. When they say close them down, we close them down. I have nothing planned at maralago, but right now i notk maralago i have even asked, i imagine its closed down just like other businesses in florida. Familyou expect your companies to speak government assistance . Pres. Trump i just dont know what the government assistance would be for my hotels. Everybody knew i had hotels when i got elected. They knew i was a successful person when i got elected. Its one of those things. I guess i get paid for her to 50,000 a year, i give it up. Put it back into the nation you have to designate where you wanted, so i often times give it to Opioid Research and things. As far as the hotels, i can do what everyone else is doing. I would probably decide to close things up. You dont want people getting clubs. R in hotels and them, hotels, clubs, things like that were people get together. I think it would be a Good Practice to close them up. As you know, we have been talking about masks and how not Everyone Needs to take a test. What a bout a temperature test . I do it. Mp i have temperature tests. I did not ask everybody here, but i would not be surprised if they have temperature tests. On a not they be distribution basis as well . Pres. Trump the easiest thing as the temperature. I think they are. Are you learning a lot from the temperature test . Could you maybe discuss that . There are so many ways to get around that. Every time i go into a different room i get my temperature taken. Pres. Trump i took his temperature test. There is a role for it on the certain circumstances. What i dont see is a mask of massive distribution of thermometers that will have a major impact that i show what we need to do. When tony mentions thermometers, they aim something at your forehead, they stay this far away and they tell you what your temperature is. I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot. It is incredible. This morning the Washington Post suggested that you took action late. Your reactiond could have helped america immensely. What do you say to the reaction . Pres. Trump i love whoever you are with. That is such a nice question. I think the Washington Post covers us very inaccurately. Covers me very and accurately. I saw the story, i do get is great. It is the Washington Post and i guess we have to live with it. Its a very an accurate story. From many people i get a lot of credit for having closed our country very early to a very heavily infected country. China, unfortunately china. I wish china would have told us more about what was going on in china prior to us reading about news asough the you know Washington Post kicked the news out of china and the Washington Post. I guess thats what they do and it is a terrible thing. Wheno think its terrible people write inaccurately about me. They write about me and accurately every day and every hour. Your group i think is fair. I think you do very fair reports all ofhe great job that us are doing. That this group behind me is doing. Its so insulting when they write phony stories that they know are fake news. They are not insulting me, they are insulting the incredible people that have worked so long and so hard that are thinking about nothing other than this invisible enemy. They have done such an incredible job and they will continue, we will win and there will be a lot of celebration when we win. We will win with as few lives lost as possible. Thats a game. When with as few lives lost as possible. It is a tough enemy and a tough killer. And far more vicious than every before judge ever before, but i appreciate you saying it. I was called xena phobic by sleepy joe biden. I was called a racist by democrats because i decided that i did not want to have people that could hurt our country come in. I was pretty much in a very small group of people. Most people, even that worked in the white house disagreed with me very strongly. The saving of those many weeks was a tremendous thing. Actingking talking about early, that was the ultimate act. That was the biggest act. I also closed europe early, very early. I took a lot of pizza for that as well. That was a good thing. Are doing simpler things. I did not act late, i acted early. Anybodyfar before thought i should be. I took tremendous criticism from the various papers, from many of the papers. I very much appreciate the question. It might have been more than his more of a statement in a question. Whatever it is, i appreciate it. Do you on all the states to do one uniformed thing . Pres. Trump no, they can do it they want to do. If california can get a mask we than we can get it will end up with a big oversupply at some point. At some point this is going away and we will end up with an oversupply. In this case it will be ok. But if gavin can go out and order downs faster and masks faster or other things faster, that is good. Shipsordination with the that we are sinning in, as you know, the medical ships we are sending in, and even cruise liners into some areas. In particular, california and new york. But if somebody can do something faster, if they can order that mask faster than us, i went them to be able to do it. So people cant leave their homes . Pres. Trump we have places in the country where states where they have two or three people and they are in quarantine. You cannot put on them what you are putting in new york where you have a tremendous problem. We have large portions of the country, middle america, where they have a few people. There may be a time, i hope it never happens where we have to take drastic actions, but right now its not the same ballpark. A lot of people are following your recommendations, some people are not. Do you think the American People are doing enough . Pres. Trump some people are not, but i think they are. I think it will have a profound effect and we will know more on day 14 and a 15. We have to see what the result is. We will flatten that out and see what the result is. I want to say, i will negotiate a very large transaction. I am going to take one or two more questions and then i will leave it to Vice President pence with the hill. The various elements. Are number of groups calling for the postponement or cancellation of the olympics pres. Trump we olympics. The. Trump we understand difficulty of that. He is a very good friend of mine. Shinzo abe is a great gentleman. He loves his country. We have an incredible relationship. We just finished it a 40 billion trade deal with japan. The Prime Minister has a big decision to make. The most built one of beautiful venues i have ever seen. They are ready to go. Its not late, its not over budget, it was done flawlessly and is beautiful. They are sitting back and saying i told him, i said, that is your decision, and it is his decision. I know he will make it soon, i dont know what it will be. I dont think i should influence it. The job in japan is done and that venue is beautiful. Obviously,ptions, including delay and maybe delay for next year. But that is up to them. Since the story keeps popping up, when did you first learn this would be a problem . Pres. Trump when i learned i started doing the closings. Probably around that time. We did not know much. You will ask about china responsibility. I have Great Respect for china, i like china, i think the people of china are incredible. I have a tremendous relationship with the president. I was they couldve told us earlier about what was going on. We did not know about it until it started coming out publicly. Usish they wouldve told earlier because we could have come up with a solution. And all thats how it we have would have additional time. You knew that this was going to be happening. They did not have that time. They read about it in the newspapers like everybody else. Very secretive, very, very secretive. That is unfortunate. With that i have Great Respect for the country and Great Respect for the leader of that country. And he is a friend of mine. I wish they would have told us were having ahey problem. They were having a big problem and they knew it, i wish they couldve given us an advanced warning. We couldve had a lot of things as an example. Some of the things we are talking about where we order them as quickly as we can. If we had a two or three months difference in time it would have been better. You were saying china was extremely secretive, several of your advisors have been critical of china. Secretary pompeo said he was saying so for some time. Why on generate 24th did you tweet that china has been working hard to contain the coronavirus in the United States appreciates their transparency . Pres. Trump its true. China has worked very hard and lost thousands of thousands of people. They were not transparent, they were transparent at that time. On we saw what happened they could have been more transparent. China is not a beneficiary. China has lost thousands and thousands of people. China has gone through hell over this. They have gone through hell. I have had conversations with the president. I wish they couldve told us earlier. They knew they had a problem early. Thank you for the numbers on the testing. Are you able to share any numbers on hard testing . Pres. Trump i will leave that up to dr. Fauci. I would imagine we want to share the numbers. 5 billion masks you said are million,elivery 500 half a billion masks. Ou said do for a delivery the last number we had was 13,000. Is a trump a ventilator machine, it is a very complex machine. We have to order hundreds of thousands, nobody has ever heard of a thing like this. In the stockpile, we have thousands ready to go. That is a lot. All of a sudden we need hundreds and the mask is whether its plastic or material. You are talking about a very sophisticated, heavily computerized machine and delicate. You need hundreds of thousands of them. Nobody has ever heard of a thing like that. General motors, ford, so Many Companies. I have three calls directly yesterday. Without having to implement you are do this, Companies Making them. To think of these numbers, it is pretty mindboggling. Do you have numbers to share with us right now . We have spoken a lot about masks. The president has given a task force a priority of assessing the availability and expanding the availability of ventilators. We will detail some very encouraging news for americans. 13,000k about the number , it is a little more than that that we have in the National Stockpile. Its important to remember that that does not include the more than 100,000 ventilators that are in Health Care Facilities and hospitals around america today. That does not include what will be produced, as the president said, we are seeing company step forward. Ventilator,s of the it is not a complicated piece of equipment and many of them are surging forward to create more ventilators. One of the more exciting developments in the last few that, in the president s engagement in our Health Care Community we learn ventilators that are currently used by anesthesiologists, that are used in Outpatient Clinics and other procedures can be converted to forsed as ventilators people struggling with the effects of the coronavirus. A have confirmed that particular screen and that device can be changed readily. We are working with the fda to approve that. It is a great testament of the American People and our Health Care Professionals that are stepping forward. Thatringing ideas forward will increase the supply of ventilators by tens of thousands. Clear,sident has made it we want to make sure that all of those incredible and courageous men and women who are serving in health care around america have the support they need, there are patients struggling from coronavirus and they have the equipment they need. We will have more as we continue to assess. We will have 1. 4 million tests on board. I will answer your question and try to persuade you to stop asking about a specific number. To march 14. We have put over 10 Million Laboratory tests into the u. S. Commercial market. We expect that by march 28 to be well over 27 million into the market. That answers your question. Let me tell you why its not the right question. Not every lab can run every test. Not every test is completely selfcontained. The more important question is not how many tests are in the market, its to make sure every segment of the market has the kind of test that they can use. To find out ifg the things you have promised are happening . They are happening. We promised one or 4 million, there are 10 million tests in the market. Are the masks being deployed . The masks in the strategic National Stockpile would that be fair to say . The respirators. Understand ifo the things we have been told for these briefings for many days are happening and getting into the hands of the Health Care Providers . You understand it. You are an intelligent woman kelly. You understand exactly what he is saying. What he is saying is rather incredible. We inherited an obsolete, broken system. When you hear the number of steps that we are providing, it is incredible. Say theeard governors same thing. We took over a broken testing system that would not have worked for even a small problem, let alone one of the biggest pandemics in history. What these gentlemen have done is incredible. I am going to negotiate a great deal for our workers and citizens. Iwill be back tomorrow and would like Vice President pence to take over and thank you. Thank you. President , the is going to pick up americans and bring them home. There are still a lot of other americans that are stranded. When will be when will they be going . Received a we briefing this morning from the state department about their efforts. Clear. To be very while the president has suspended all travel from europe, including the u. K. And ireland. Suspended travel from china since january, any american that can get home can come home. They will go through additional screening that has all been implemented, and is working in a number ofay at airports around the country. But there are instances, morocco being among them where there are not flights to get home. Our state department has been working very closely with our embassies in those relevant countries. I was told this morning that all the way going back to bringing americans back to china that we have made individual efforts to bring home about 3000 americans. I think there is an ongoing effort to address that with chartered commercial flights that the government is providing. Obviously also military transport is available, but our task force received a briefing this morning and we would overseas any american to contact the local u. S. Embassies. Let them know about your circumstances and no we will continue to work diligently to get our americans home. Last question. To questions on education and medication. Thatuys have announced standardized testing is essentially canceled. To the tens of millions of students out there, the teachers and their parents that are scratching your head and wondering what does that mean, obviously it is driven by local School Districts in the state, is there any federal guidance on this . And if not today, could you have secretary devos or someone explain to the millions sitting at home exactly what that means . V. P. Pence that is a terrific question. We will bring secretary betsy devos here tomorrow or on monday to address our efforts. The objective here is that, as embracing the president s 15 days to slow the spread, we have decisions by local School Boards and local and state officials that have canceled school or suspended school for a time. We want the federal department of education to make it clear that the burden of standardizing back in my dayh, as governor, it takes a number of days and sometimes up to a week to administer, is not going to be placed on schools. We will have the secretary here to address that very specifically. It is a very good point on your part. I have a medication question and i wanted to ask while the president is here. Earlier he tweeted that there certain medications, that when taken together, every real have a real chance to be a game changer in the history of medicine and they should be put in use immediately. Since he is not here i cannot ask him what he meant, but i am wondering if it can be clarified of what he was talking about, his 74. 5 million twitter followers should take medical advice from him or someone else. The president brought together the Top Pharmaceutical Companies in america and in the world a number of weeks ago. In toormed a consortium ,ork on a range of responses beginning with therapeutics, which, for a layman like me, that just means medicine to make you feel better. They are already going to work on that. I think there is some sense that our great pharmaceutical Companies May also be producing therapeutics that be released to american struggling with coronavirus. As soon as this spring. We also challenge them to Work Together as rapidly as possible to develop a vaccine going froward. And as dr. Fauci as indicated, we brought vaccine could Clinical Trials the better part of one week ago. The fastest time in history. Now its the first days of the trials and people should understand, as our Health Experts have described, that there will be as much as a year and a half before we can make those vaccines available. As the president said at this podium, there is some anecdotal evidence that several existing medicines may have brought relief to patients struggling in china and in europe. The fdaident has tasked to work rapidly to allow whats called false label use. One is a malaria medicine. This morning i think the president reiterated that the hopefulness that he feels about this, that because these are arecations that timehonored and tested, they have been taken for many years, that we want to pursue, number one, making those available of someones doctor believes its appropriate and then a doctor would be able to prescribe that medicine, even though that is not indicated. That is called an off label use. The other piece is, as dr. Fauci said, in the playing those medicines we are working specifically with one state to do so in a way that represents a clinical trial. Not just be compassionate use, which, the medicines are already being used for in some jurisdictions today, but also we could study it and determine the viability of it. We are working diligently right now at that supply chain to make sure that those medicines are available. It is essentially what i said multiple times on this podium. Of all, have first we are trying to develop arrive that is not yet out there and not yet approved that would ultimately be effective. The way you do that is to approve safety and efficacy. I am not totally sure what the president was referring to, but i believe he was referring to a report that used these two medications together to have some possibility of having an effect. Many of the things that you hear hadthere are when i anecdotal reports, they may be true, but they are anecdotal. The only thing i was saying was that if you really wanted to definitively know something works you have to make sure you get the information. The president is talking about hope for people. It is not an unreasonable thing to hope for people. When you have drugs and physicians have the option and a decision between a physician and the patient, are you going to use the drug that someone says, from an anecdotal standpoint, is not completely proven but my have some affect . There are those that need the hope and saying give that person the option of having access to the drug. Then you have the other group, which is my job as a scientist. My job is to ultimately prove, without a doubt that a drug is not only safe, but that it actually works. Those two things are not incompatible when you think about it. Particularly when you are in an arena where you dont have anything proven. We went through the same sort of thing with a little bit of a twist during the hiv aid epidemic until we finally develop drugs that were absolutely knockout drugs that were safe and were effective. So in the beginning there was that tension about that. You really have to have a balance. I have to do my job as a scientist. Let me just say, i hope this morning has been informative. E will be back again tomorrow i hope the American People are encouraged because of the government approach, because of our collaborations with states. You are seeing testing expanding across the country. Incredible public, private partnership with commercial labs is now making Testing Available by the tens of thousands. We are working very diligently with incredible response from the american industry to make sure the personal protective equipment, ventilators and all the things that our Health Care Providers need can be at this moment have varied. Let me just say what every american can do today. That is, first and foremost, hed your local state authorities. California, washington state, and especially new york, they have issued guidance to their citizens. As the president said, we wholly support the leadership that those governors are providing in their states. Secondly, every single american can put into practice the principles of our 15 days to slow the spread. The president s coronavirus guideline, as i said, we are six days in, and the purpose of these is not because every american is at risk of serious illness. We said before, all of our experts tell us, all the data shows that the risk of serious illness to the average american remains low. But because the coronavirus is three times more contagious than spread, to slow the literally lower that curve and spare americans around the country with being exposed or contracting the coronavirus, or worse, every single one of us can put these principles into practice. I recommend that you go to coronavirus. Gov, fit your family down, call a neighbor and a friend, support efforts in your local community to put these principles into practice. All across this country continue to do just that, i know we will get through this and we will get through this together. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Its easy 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 charts. Watch briefings and hearings with Public Health specialists anytime, unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Next, speeches on the Coronavirus Relief package, totaling over 1 trillion. Here is minority leader Charles Schumer then majority leader mitch mcconnell. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer now, mr. President , negotiations on the third phase of the coronavirus legislation went late into the night last night and continues through the day today. Ive spoken