Transcripts For CSPAN President Trump Holds Coronavirus Task Force Briefing 20240713

Pres. Trump thank you very much, and we have fewer people because of the virus problem, and we appreciate you being here. This is getting to be more and more social distancing, and that is fine, so it should be. It is too bad and we extend our best wishes to the person thatted, and we feel sure he or she will be better very soon. Thank you for being here. To mobilizeinues every segment of our society to turn the tide in the battle against the virus. I want americans to know that we will get through this challenge. Soon,rdship will end and and normal life will return and our economy will rebound strongly. In the midst of this rate national trial, americans must remain united. Pleaseingle american know that the sacrifice you are making is saving lives, many lives. It is important that we protect our asianamerican community in the United States and all around the world. They are amazing people and the spreading of the virus is not their fault in any way, shape, or form. There were killing they are working closely to get rid of it. From the beginning we have been working closely with scientists and medical professionals and we will do so until we have defeated the virus. Our Public Health experts are terrific, and they are studying the variation in the disease, and we will be using data to recommend new protocols to allow local economies to cautiously resume activity at the appropriate time. We also have a large team working on what the next steps will be once the medical Community Gives a region the ok, meaning the ok to get going and get back, let us go to work. Our country was not tilt to be shut down. That isnt this is not a country that was built for this. Continues totion work with democrats and up and republicans on an urgent relief bill for american workers, small, and Large Businesses that were affected by the medical difficulty that we have had. Inyou had a viable business january, we are committed to ensuring that the same is true. We want to make it even better than it was before, we are doing things to help. America will again and soon be open for business, very soon, a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. We will not let the cure be worse than the problem. At the end of the 15 day period, we will make a decision on which way we want to go, and we are referring to the timing of the opening of our country. Pretty wellhave it shut down in order to get rid of this invisible enemy. Two weeks ago we moved at record speed to pass paid sick and family medical leave and approve eight 8 billion including in the development of treatments and vaccines and we are doing tremendous work on both fronts. The vaccines are coming along quickly. Congress must demonstrate the same bipartisanship to pass the senate bill as written and avoid playing anymore partisan games. They have to just stop with the partisan politics and i think that is happening. I got a call, and i guess they are getting closer to going quickly. They do not have a choice, they have to make a deal. This should not be a time for political agendas, but one for focusing on the needs of the American People. We are going to save american going tond, we are save them quickly. And, we will save our Great American companies, small and large. This was a medical problem and we are not going to let it turn into a longlasting financial problem. It started out as a purely medical problem and it will not go beyond that. It will not allow that to happen. Our country was at its strongest financial point, we never had an economy like we had a few weeks ago, and then it got hit with something nobody could have thought possible. It, andare fixing quickly. I want to thank the American People for what they are doing. Our country will be stronger than ever before, and we fully anticipate that. Let me provide you with an update on critical supplies. Fema is distributing 8 million and 13. 3spirator masks surgical masks. The country right now focusing on the areas with the greatest need. We shipped 73 pallets of personal protective equipment to new york city and 36 to the state of washington. Fema has received donations of approximately 6. 5 million masks. We are having millions of masks made as we speak, and other personal protective equipment which we will be distributing to medical hotspots, and we are focused on some of the hotspots. We are seeing an outpouring of creativity and innovative ideas shared between the governors and mayors, the scientific community, and members of the private sector. Together,rking everybody is working together. I am pleased to report that Clinical Trials in new york will begin for existing drugs that may prove effective against the virus. Federal tion, the the federal government is working to obtain large quantities of chloroquine. You can look from any standpoint tomorrow, in new york, we think the theoxychloroquine and combination is looking good. It will be distributed. Going, and000 units it will be distributed tomorrow, and theye available, will distribute it to a lot of people in new york city and new york. We are watching it very closely. You saw a couple of articles came out where a gentleman thought he was not going to make hisnd he said goodbye to family, and they had given him a drug a little while before. His family thought that he was going to die. He, a number of hours later woke up, felt good, and then he woke up again and felt good. He is in good shape and is happy for this particular drug that we got approved in recordsetting time. There has never been anything close to it. Fda,ld like to thank the which has been incredible, and dr. Steven hahn, a highly respected man. They are increasing production and the available supply of not only this drug and others that are coming. From regeneron and a couple of a couple of others are under study. Im excited about the one i just mentioned, and there is a real chance, again we do not know, but there is a chance that it could have a tremendous impact. It would be a gift from god if that worked. That would be a big game changer. Distribution starts tomorrow morning, early, and a lot of people will hopefully be happy with the result, but we will be watching closely. It is something that we have to try. It has been successful on malaria. Countries with malaria have had a interesting thing happened. They take this particular drug, it is powerful, and there is very little semblance of the violent virus in those countries. And there are those that say it is because this drug is prevalent because of the malaria. I am also announcing that we are postponing the deadline for compliance with real id requirements. At a time where we are asking americans to maintain social distancing, we want to require people to go with their local dmv, we will be announcing the new deadline very soon. It will be announced in a very short moment. Overnight we successfully brought home 103 american citizens after they had been stranded in brazil following a cruise. We want to thank the brazilian government and their president. Most of those return were Senior Citizens. In cooperation with Governor Greg Abbott of texas, and the private sector coordinated their safe return, so thank you to governor abbott, a terrific governor and man. Earlier today i signed invective an executive order invoking president ial authority to vitalit the hoarding of medical equipment and supplies such as hand sanitizer, facemasks, and personal protective equipment. We have a lot of equipment coming in and we have people hoarding, and attorney general barr will speak about that in a second. We want to prevent price gouging health and medical resources will be protected every form under this directive. The department of health and Human Services has designated essential health and medical supplies as scarce, so they will designate certain supplies and medical elements as scarce, and that means it will be a crime to stockpile these items in excessive quantities, which is happening. To a relatively small degree, we think, but nevertheless we cannot let it happen nor can we let them resell them at excessive prices. We will not allow everyone anyone to exploit the suffering of american citizens for their own profit. We will be watching that closely. The department of justice will be aggressively prosecuting fraudulent schemes related to the pandemic. Action prosecutors took in their first case, shutting down a website shutting down a totally fake vaccine, if you can believe that one. As president i will always fight to protect americans from being exploited. Thankfully, we are witnessing extraordinary acts of compassion, benevolence, and unity. Construction companies are donating masks, manufacturing theirs are transforming assembly lines, citizens are volunteering to transport food and medicine to the elderly. We are seeing things that people thought could never happen. Frankly, we never thought this could happen. The way that most americans are working toward getting it solved and doing what they have to do to make this go away has been incredible. It has been incredible. I want to take a moment to thank the everyday heroes who are making our effort against the virus possible, and thank you to the Health Care Workers and first responders. Thank you to the hardworking men and women of federal express, ups, the United States Postal Service and the truckers maintaining our supply chains and lines, we thank you very much. Great job. We also wants to give our regards and thanks to everyone at our Grocery Stores working the night shift so that shelves can be restocked in the restaurant workers and delivery drivers keeping families fed. So many of these restaurants, it is incredible. They are doing service where people come and they pick it up. Delivery, it has been incredible what they are doing. Totally different business, food, but they cook other than that it is different. I want to thank the American People for showing incredible courage, determination, patients grace, and grit. From new york to seattle, your acts of selflessness, sacrifice, and ingenuity a powerful testament to the american character. It is being shown and showing up at a level that people are really respecting all over the world. The world has problems. Byare 148 countries affected the invisible scourge. Of the uplifting reflections of the american spirit are out there for everyone to see. Together we will care for our father fellow citizens and we will win this war, and when and we will win it sooner than people think. We will be back in business as a country pretty soon. You will be hearing about that also pretty soon. I would like to ask attorney general bill barr to say a few worlds words and we will take questions in a little while. Ag barr let me start by thanking you, mr. President and mr. Vice president for your decisive leadership in this unprecedented battle to save american lives. At the department of justice we are working hard to protect the health and safety of our personnel while keeping our enforcement efforts at full throttle. So, i would like to thank all of my colleagues in law enforcement, not just those at the federal level, but state and local partners. The Police Officers and sheriffs deputies that are protecting and serving their local communities often at great risk to themselves. Here, would like to do, is start with a few remarks about the order that the president mentioned to ensure the availability of critical medical and Health Supplies from hoarding and price gouging. 18, the president issued executive order 13 909 invoking the defense production act with respect to medical theurces needed to stop spread of covid19 including ppe, and ventilators. We have started to see evidence of potential hoarding and price gouging. President day the signed a second executive order providing the authority to address, if it becomes necessary, hoarding that threatens the supply of those Necessary Health and medical resources. 102 of the defense production act, the president is authorized prohibit the hoarding of needed resources by designated those designating those materials as scarce or who supply would be threatened by persons accumulating this excessive amounts. Materials are so designated, persons are prohibited from accumulating those items in excess of reasonable personal or business needs, or for the purpose of selling them in excess of prevailing market prices. To engage in prohibited activity. Executive order, the president is delegating to the secretary of hhs to protect against hoarding by designating these critical items. No items have been designated yet in the department of justice will be working with hhs to identify cases where hoarding may be impeding the supply of health and medical resources needed to respond to the covid19 pandemic. Our firstconvened task force meeting, our National Task force that will be working on supply chain issues and specifically on the problem of hoarding and price gouging. We are designating in each of our 93 United States attorneys offices a lead prosecutor who will be responsible in that district for pursuing these cases. Haveo want to say that we not waited for this order to be signed, as we have received evidence we have initiated investigations of activities that are disrupting the supply chain and suggestive of of hoarding. Notnt to stress that we are talking about consumers or businesses stockpiling supplies for their for our own operations, we are talking about people hoarding these goods and materials on an industrial scale for the purpose of manipulating the market and driving windfall profit deriving windfall profits. If you have a big supply of toilet paper in your house this is not something you have to worry about. If you are sitting on a , surgicalwith masks masks, you will be hearing a knock on your door. With that, mr. President , i turn it back to you. Thank you mr. Vice president. To start, i want to thank all of the ministers of health who have been sending us their data despite the fight they are in themselves, particularly our european colleagues. They continue to send us their mortality data which is critical, because when you were in the midst of this level of data, following mortality will give you the best insight on how the epidemic is proceeding in those countries, because they cannot be testing at the level to really understand the depth and breadth of their new cases. In the mortality data that has been provided to us there has been no child under 15 has succumbed to the virus in europe. There was the 114yearold in china, so there was the one 14yearold in china, so there is less severity in children. And myration z millennial colleagues at the forefront of many of these responses, less than 1 of the mortality is less than 50. This is an important point. That does not mean that individuals will not have severe disease. Of all mortality out of europe in general 99 of all mortality of all mortality of europe is preexisting conditions. I think this is reassuring to all of us, but it does not change the need to continue to protect the elderly. We all need to continue to do the president s directives and guidance for the next week of the 15 day challenge. 250,000 tests have been run in the last seven days. This happened because these large commercial laboratories are doing roundtheclock runs and remember, all of them are being exposed to the virus in the same way. From the swabs. Yet tirelessly they have worked on and on to get those results available. They are still getting more test tests than they can run per day. That is because we were primarily expanded into a certain machine. Those results have been getting to the clients and we have been asking them to prioritize hospitalized patients. There was a breakthrough today i think you will see this from the fda. For all of you waiting for self swabbing options, they will be available sometime this week. You will be able to do your own test. That said, remember, these platforms are keeping up with those that need to be diagnosed in the hospitals and those that come to the emergency room quite ill. So hospital beds can be freed up for those that do not have covid. That will be critical. If you dont need a test, do not come in to be tested. That mortality data i gave you should be very reassuring. Finally, to conclude, new york city. The new york metro area, new jersey, new york city, and parts of long island, have an attack rate of close to one in 1000. Five times what the other areas are seeing. Through their lab investigations, were finding 28 of the submitted specimens are positive from that area. It is less than 8 in the rest of the country. To my friends and colleagues in new york, this is the group that needs to absolutely social distance and self isolate at this time. The virus had been circulating there for a number of weeks have this level of penetrance into the general community. Vice president pence the White House Coronavirus task force met today but we also convened at the president s direction a Conference Call with the nations governors. We focused on efforts toward mitigation, testing, and supply. We discussed the president s recent approval of the disaster declarations for washington, california, and new york. We also have assured the other governors that have submitted requests that we will review them in an expeditious manner to make sure the full resources of the federal government are brought to bear. The president wanted us to make it clear that the federal government will do whatever it takes to support an effort locally executed, state managed, and federally supported. We reiterated that to our governors today. We listened to their specific. Specific needs. Frankly, made it clear to them that while the president has ,ublished at coronavirus. Gov the 15 days to slow the spread for every american and millions are addressing these commonsense guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the days ahead, we made it clear that this president and Administration Fully supports decisions made by the governors in states particularly impacted by the coronavirus. We are grateful for their efforts. We also spoke to them about the importance of the legislation currently being negotiated on capitol hill. And asked them to encourage members of the house and senate to move quickly the bill currently being negotiated. The president said he believes it will be resolved soon and we are encouraged by that. We will speed direct payments to families. The average family of four will receive 3000. There will be payroll subsidies for Small Business is around Small Businesses around america to keep people on the payroll while they may be required to stay home. Unemployment benefits, assistance to major industries. We continue to urge congress to act and ask the governors to engage their delegations. On the subject of testing, we reiterate reiterated our thanks to states rapidly expanding testing at drivethrough sites and community sites. As the doctor just reflected, because of the unprecedented privatepublic partnership that the president initiated with our commercial labs, we stand here today with 313,000 tests having been completed with test results delivered to americans. Somewhat more than 41,000 have contracted the virus. The state run effort is continuing to receive the full support of our team at fema and the u. S. Public health service. We are deploying personnel and resources and testing is expanding around the country by the hour. The doctor also mentioned, the fda has been in the process of reviewing less invasive methods of testing. The president and i both reflected on the fact that we have been tested and we have been working with the fda to make it possible for self collected nasal swabs where individuals could at the end of their nasal passage, collect a sample and i am pleased to report that self collected swabs can be collected at clinics at a drivethrough testing site. This will expedite the Testing Process but it will also reduce the risk to Health Care Providers for exposure to the coronavirus. It will also minimize the drain on personal protective equipment. With the current test that goes pretty significantly up the nasal passage, people have to wear gear and then change. This is all part of our effort as the admiral will discuss in a few minutes to meet the supply needs we have across the country. But meet them with efforts of conservation as well. On the subject of testing, it is important to remember as the old book says it is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. If you dont have symptoms, you dont need a test. We encourage every american to adhere to that so the testing resources are available for people that are symptomatic. We also will be issuing today from health and Human Services new guidance to direct all commercial labs to prioritize testing for hospitalized patients. That guidance will be going out tonight. We also reminded the governors today that all state laboratories, hospital laboratories are required by law to report the results of coronavirus tests to the cdc. On the subject of supplies, at our meeting at fema today, we received a report of the new supply Chain Stabilization Task force. The rear admiral is leading that up at fema and the task force is working to identify medical supplies that exist in the marketplace today to evaluate the National Stockpile and also working with industries around the country to reduce even more to produce even more of the critical medical supplies. As the president said, businesses across america are stepping up, and may be as never before. 3m has diverted 500,000 n95 masks from commercial customers and they are being delivered today to new york and seattle. Facebook has donated their emergency reserve of over 700,000 masks to Health Care Workers. These are just a few examples of the generosity of businesses. We have also seen Companies Step forward to repurpose their manufacturing facilities to create ventilators and equipment. I know i speak for the president when i say how grateful and proud we are of that. We also discussed with the governors a real breakthrough on the availability of ventilators. We called on the governors to survey all Outpatient Surgical Centers and hospital operating rooms because surgical ventilators that anesthesiologists use can be converted to ventilators for people struggling with severe illness from the coronavirus. We called on our governors in conversations with state leaders to survey all of their Surgical Centers and hospital operating rooms to identify the equipment with that new fda guideline. They will be able to convert those two help meet the need for ventilators across the country. We are now eight days into the president s 15 day slow the spread. The American People are rising to the challenge. We are doing this. But in the days that remain between now and the end of the 15 days, we will need every american to take this seriously. Listen to your state and local Health Authorities where there may be a additional guidelines. In areas where the Coronavirus Spread has been more severe. For every american, know that the part that you do, your family does and that you do in your community to put into practice these principles of social distancing, using a drivethrough at the local restaurant will make an enormous theerence in lowering trajectory of the Coronavirus Spreading across our country. It will take all of us. With the ongoing cooperation of the American People, with compassion, ingenuity of american industry, with dedicated leadership at the state and federal level, i know we can slow the spread and protect our most vulnerable and we will heal our land. Thank you, mr. Vice president. I am the supply Chain Task Force lead at fema. My task is to increase the supply of critical equipment. Which includes personal protective equipment and vellum and ventilators. I want to take a few moments to explain the organization that we have stood up this week, in the last few days and our approach. There is a chart behind me. I have two focus leads, one on personal protective equipment, medical supplies and a focus lead on ventilators. Operating under four lines of effort first line, preservation. The leaders tonight have talked about the ability to make our stuff last longer. Acceleration. We have a team of people searching the globe for personal protective equipment and figuring out where it is. Figuring out if we need to buy it or transfer it and get it here faster. We have a line of effort called reallocation. We are working with our Industry Partners to illuminate the supply chain. There are many vendors. Many distributors. All on separate systems. No one has one site picture for that supply chain. We have brought in our Industry Partners. We are weaving that together to make better allocation decisions and understand where it is and where it needs to go. We have a line called expansion. You heard some of that today. If those that have wanted to convert plants or get into the business, we have the tools to help them do that. The two focus areas right now are ppe and ventilators. Four lines of effort working the to get more here and increase the supplies. Reporter the total deaths today crossed 100 for the first time. Your Surgeon General on the today show said he wanted americans to understand this was going to get really bad. Do you share that prognosis . President trump of course i do. We have a lot of people dying from the flu. We have had a bad flu season on top of everything else. Over 50,000. This is going to be bad and we are trying to make it so it is much, much less bad and that is what we are doing and i think we are doing a good job of that. When you look at other countries and compare their numbers, the numbers are Pretty Amazing and it started with the fact that we stopped people from coming in from highly infected areas. It was a good thing to do. It is bad and the numbers are going to increase with time and then they will decrease. We are going to be opening our country up for business because our country was meant to be open and working with others. Especially for our workers and the engine for the whole system is we have to have companies and these companies are loved by our workers because they are paying big salaries and big dollars to our workers. We are going to get it all going again very soon. Reporter im trying to reconcile what youre saying. One that things are going to be very bad and number two, that you want to get the country opened back up as quickly as possible. Hashe week where dr. Fauci been telling you we need to keep these measures because of the vulnerable populations in our are you going to say that the economy is too important . President trump i understand the question very well. A great question. We can do two things at one time. Our country has learned a lot. We have learned about social distancing. We have learned about the hands. We have learned about staying away at least during the time this is a little bit around. This disease or whatever you want to call it. Many different names. You could call it any different things. But, the virus, while it is around. We can start thinking about it as an example, parts of our likely lightly affected. Small numbers. Nebraska, they have a great governor, pete ricketts. They have one of the great hospitals there relative to what we are talking about. Look at nebraska. Look at idaho. Look at iowa. I could name many countries that are handling it very well and are not affected to the same extent or nearly to the same extent as new york. I am dealing with Governor Cuomo and we are working well together. We will be sending that ship up. We have a ship going to los angeles. Another ship is coming out of a large repair. It will soon be ready to go. Repair. Over the next three or four weeks, a ship will be going to new york harbor fully supplied. They are working on that right now. Reporter do you share the president s optimism that we might have a situation where we can say that there are a few hotspots . President trump i did not say a week. I said soon. Not 34 months like some people are saying. Reporter [indiscernible] you have raised two important issues. I think you know that a lot of our test have had to go to i think you know that a lot of our tests have had to go to hospitals so we can diagnose people who are at risk to give them options to get the new Therapeutic Options. None of these Therapeutic Options are available if you dont know your diagnosis. With adding abbott, Thermo Fisher and another lab it is a platform now that we have all of the platforms moving simultaneously, we can go back to doing case surveillance in the areas that have the lower numbers as well as doing mitigation more aggressively. In the places that have higher numbers. We went out with a very blunt force. We have to be honest. We had to do that because we werent sure where the virus was and where it is going. Over this week, we concentrated on knowing where the virus is and making projections about where it is going and the impact of our mitigation efforts. We learned this in tackling epidemics around the world. You have to focus the resources and the intervention in the areas where the virus is circulating. Otherwise, people never understand why you are doing this. It has to be very tailored geographically. And it may also have to be tailored by age group. Really understanding who was at the greatest risk and understanding how to protect them. Reporter [indiscernible] the only data that we all have and i think you all know what it is the two areas that have moved through their curve is china and south korea. Those are the two countries that we are learning from. Those were 810 week curves. Each state and hotspot in the United States will be its own curve because the seeds came in at different times. Washington state is on their curve and is about two weeks ahead of new york. Each of these have to be done in a very granular way to really understand where we are. The charge the president has given us is to use all of our Data Analytics and our data input to define those issues about where the virus is, where it is going, and what predictions we can make about where we are in that bell shaped curve. President trump that is a great definition. We will be watching our seniors very closely. As well as hot spots like new york. Within new york, you have troubling areas. We will be working with the governor and mayor on those spots. At the same time, at a certain point, we have to get open and we have to get moving. We dont want to lose these companies or workers. We want to take care of our workers. We will be doing something relatively quickly but we have learned a lot. This was a very necessary period. Tremendous information was gained, but we can do two things at one time. We have had a very difficult flu season as well. With 50,000 deaths. Not cases,deaths, but deaths. That is a lot. Look at automobile accidents which are far greater than any of the numbers we are talking about. That does not mean we will tell everyone no more driving of cars. We have to do things to get our country open but this has been an incredible period of learning. We will have announcements over the next fairly short period as to the timing. Reporter just asking about the guidelines of testing. Senator rand paul has tested positive. He was not in contact with anyone that was known to be positive and had no major symptoms. Under your guidelines, he would not have gotten a test. He got one anyway. What do you say to him . He has pointed out that if he had not been tested in defiance of these guidelines, he would still be showing up to the senate and infecting others. That is why the recommendation is important. We have been saying there is a level of asymptomatic or mild spread. That is why each person has to be responsible. Each person has to be responsible in the way they decrease their interaction with others. The six feet. You are all very social distanced, so, thank you. Also assuming that everyone you are interacting with could be positive. That goes into the handwashing piece and the other piece we talked about which is surfaces. We figure out the respiratory transmission versus the surface transmission and hard surface transmission, not fabric, will be really critical. That is the way that the virus could spread on subways or metros where people will be Holding Onto Things that other people have recently held on to. That is the real question. Reporter if we could keep with the exam all of senator rand paul if he had not gotten that test, he would still be showing up to the senate every day, to his place of work. If he had been following these guidelines, he would not be infecting others because of social distancing and washing his hands. Doing everything we talked about. We also have talked about people making choices because of their jobs. You will notice i was not here over the weekend. This is the part that we need to take personal responsibility for. Saturday, i had a low grade fever. President trump uh oh. So, probably a g. I. Thing but i am meticulous. I am a physician. I looked it up. I got a test late saturday night and i am negative. I stayed home another day just President Trump thank you for saying that. Just to make sure. That is how we protect each other. Unless everyone is taking their cantature every day, we say he did not have any victims. This is the personal responsibility on talking about that we all have to practice. Reporter when you say you dont re to be worse than the problem itself are you saying if we kept the measures in place for a couple of months trump we are going to be opening up our country. We will be watching certain areas and we will be practicing everything that we have referred to. We cannot keep a closed for years. Ok . This is going away. We will win the battle but we also we have tremendous responsibility. We have jobs. People get tremendous anxiety and depression. You have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies. You have debt. Definitely, that would be in far greater numbers than the numbers we are talking about regarding the virus. We have a double obligation. We have a great country. There is no country like it in the world and there is no economy like it in the world. We were just blazing. Coming out with numbers some numbers were not even reported. That numbers about myself were meaningless because by the time they came in, it was a whole different world. I will tell you that we can do both things. We can do them both at the same time. It is ok. What we have gone through is a tremendous learning process and we have solved a lot of problems. We have gone through a tremendous learning situation. We are building hospitals in new and in thelifornia state of washington. We have been in touch with the governors. Man that ioke with a happen to like. I spoke with phil in new jersey and we will be doing something very meaningful in new jersey. Whooke with jb pritzker called me today and we will be helping them out in illinois. We are doing a lot of things in florida. We are doing a lot of things. Between fema and the army corps of engineers and the admiral in the group in terms of the purchasing that is what he does. Purchasing. Hes supposed to be great. I will tell you in two days. He will do a fantastic job. We have an incredibly talented group of people. We will be doing two things and three things at the same time. We will be watching very closely the hotspots. We will be taking care of and watching closely our Senior Citizens as ashley those with a problem or illness. We will be watching them closely and we can do that and have an open economy and country. We have to do that because that closes other causes other problems. Reporter following up on the same topic best day you think the cure so far has been worse than the problem . Blem i think the cure President Trump i think the cure has been very tough. It is like going to the doctor and he says we need an operation. It is been tough. Look at the situation this administration inherited. It was not meant for this. It was meant for a small group of people. Programave a testing that will hopefully be able to be used for many years into the future should we have another event like this. I dont think he will have another event like this. This is unique. You look back decades and decades, you can name them all. You go back to 2009, that was not like this as it turns out that they lost a lot of people. We were early. Because wely, jeff, closed early. That was the big move. Reporter you said previously from the podium that the virus could still be with us through july or august. By suggesting now that the government might change the standards of these recommendations President Trump it is not changing. This is a learning experience for the people of the country. The july, august timeframe changed . President trump we have learned a lot. There is so much discipline. No one ever said dont shake hands. Once i became a politician, it is hard to get used to not doing it. You do it with everybody. Thousands of people a week. Is we have learned a lot. There is a great discipline that this whole country has learned having to do with distancing and shaking hands. I think a lot of it will stay long after the virus is gone. I think it is a Good Practice anyway. I think it will stay with us long after the virus has gone. We have to open the country because that causes problems that in my opinion could be far bigger problems. Look, this is a medical a severe medical situation that could cause problems far beyond the medical and increase the medical problems that things that had nothing to do with the original medical problem. We cannot let that happen to our country. We are the greatest country in the world. Im not going to let that happen. These two weeks we will have spent have has been an incredible learning time. Have any of the doctors on your team told you that is the right path to pursue . President trump we spoke to them today dont forget come if it were up to the doctors, they would say keep it shut down. Shut down the entire world. You have almost 150 countries. Shut down the entire world. And keep it shut for a couple of years. We cant do that. You cant do that with a country, especially the number one economy in the world by far. You cant do that. It causes bigger problems than the original. That is why i talk about the cure being worse than the problem. We cant let the cure be bigger than the problem. This is not retracing. We have done this really well. This twoweek period has been good. Im not saying it will end at that time. Maybe another seven days. But it has been this incredible learning process that will go into the future. It will go even as we open up our country. We will be watching new york and california and the state of washington and other places, illinois is becoming a hot spot, and we can do both. Wee may quarantine would be quarantining many people in these areas but there are other areas that are not affected or affected very little. Why would we close down the country . There are areas within new york that new york has the New York Stock Exchange, the nasdaq and the exchanges. To close the New York Stock Exchange and nasdaq with all of the great work they are doing they have gone largely to computer. When you look at the floor, it is incredible what they can do. We dont want to be doing that. What im saying basically is we can do two things simultaneously and we have had an incredible learning period. Oge will not be calling because i have many people coming to me and saying we get it. We think we can do it now and do it while we are open. We will be setting guidelines and datelines and we will be announcing those in the nottoodistant future. Reporter [indiscernible] we talkedrump together and i think they are ok with that and i am ok with that. But this could create a much bigger problem than the problem you start off with. Other nations are going to have to do what they will do what they will have to do something very similar. Thanr case, much more so anywhere else because of the magnitude of our economy. You have 160, almost 160 million jobs in this country now. The most ever by far. By far the most ever, the number of jobs. Almost 160 million. We cant turn that off and think its going to be wonderful. There will be tremendous repercussions. There will be tremendous death from that. Youre talking about death. Probably more death from that than anything that were talking about with respect to the virus. Its more deaths if we continue with the strict guidelines than if we ease them . Pres. Trump no, well do them both. Thats what im saying. Do them both. We havent announced a date. Were getting close to coming up with a date. Its a much shorter period of time than ive been hearing it news report. I think everybody should be happy with that. Great knowledge was gained. I have two questions for you. My second one on what your Economic Advisor larry kudlow said today. He said theres difficult tradeoffs. Ease these guidelines. Pres. Trump you mean with the democrats . Reporter he was talking about than thebeing worse problem, and getting the economy again. True. Its i didnt hear him say that. If he said difficult tradeoffs. Convenient. Before you walk on the subway handle and go down to wherever and going to wall street. You do all sorts of things and you go in and open the doors and into the exchanges, now youre not going to have to think about doing that. You will think about doing it different way. There are many tradeoffs. Its a different life. Maybe it will remain that way iser the invisible scourge gone. Question tradeoffs, no about that. Uphink in the end well end being bigger, better and stronger. We have learned a lot. Were seeing an increase in cases in latin america. Are you considering a new round of travel bans . Pres. Trump no. Were not really. Something like that could happen, i guess. Were not really. They thought we would have bans within the United States. We didnt do that. Were not going to have that. Hopefully that will take care of itself. In latin america, theres been uptick. Please . What prompted you to say at the beginning of your comments that youre going to take care of the asianamericans. Has there been something in particular . Pres. Trump yes, it seems there could be a little bit of nasty language toward the asianamericans in our country. I dont like that at all. These are incredible people. They love our country. Im not going to let it happen. I wanted to make that point. Because theyre blaming china. People are blaming china. They are making statements to Great American citizens that happen to be of asian heritage. Im not going to let that happen. Most schools across the country are closed. Two states now are closed for the rest of the school year. How are parents supposed to go back to work and educate their now . Ren right pres. Trump the governors of the various states will have lot of leeway. If we open up, when we open up, the governors in certain states, for instance, you go to some of the states just mentioned. Those schools will be open. Many cases theyre open now. But the schools will be open. In other cases, Governor Cuomo, gavin newsom of california, certain governors will have a decision to make. They may make a decision to keep open in a certain part of new york or maybe in westchester be,ty, wherever it may theyll keep them closed. Theyre going to have leeway. Were giving the governors leeway. Do you agree with the decision close it several months out at this point . Governors saying theyre expecting it to peak. Pres. Trump the governors will decisions, thats up to the governors. Theyre very capable to make decisions. Can you explain why 2 trillion economic stimulus is needed if you going to reopen the country in a period of weeks, not months . Pres. Trump because the virus has had a big impact on our country. So were going to give a stimulus so that the workers can live their life. It was not their fault. Fault. t the workers we are going to give a kick. Kick. This way, we think the workers can get a fair start. The Small Businesses, were taking very good care of them. Of smalling care businesses. They really are the engine of this country. A lot of people dont know that. Everyone thinks of these great big beautiful businesses. Who by the way, have been very badly hurt also. But the Small Businesses have really historically been the engine. They still are the engine of the country. Youd be amazed. The workers love those businesses and the workers contact us and they want us to help those businesses because thats where theyve made their living. Thats where theyve been paid lot of money over the years. Youve seen whats happening over the years. Salaries and wages have gone up substantially for those workers. Then we got caught by this sudden craziness coming into our country and coming all over the world. So we need to make sure that the companies are strong and the workers are strong. Thats what were doing. Hopefully, the republicans and democrats will make a deal. Theyre fairly close. Well see what happens. [indiscernible] pres. Trump one of the things, to Save Companies that have been shattered. You have to save various you know a lot of the other the companies yourself. We have a company that was i think the greatest company in the world, named boeing. Boeings going to need some help. Boeing had difficulty before. We had other companies that didnt have a problem coming in. Boeing had the obvious problem that everybody know about from little more than a year ago. A double problem and it was a big one and then on top of it, as theyre getting ready to really show their stuff on top of it, we all get hit by this. Obviously, the airlines are going to have a problem. But the airlines arent going to be buying from boeing or from anybody else now because of this difficulty. We have to work with the airlines. We have to work with the cruise lines, we have to work with the Companies Like boeing because boeing is a potentially again, Great Company. Had very rough period of 13 months. A very rough period, a horrible period. Unbelievable period. If you would have told me this have happened to boeing, i wouldnt have believed it. To me it was truly one of the great. One the truly great probably almost one point of gdp. Its hard to be that a company could have that kind of impact. Boeing, we have to work with it. For two reasons, its a Great Company that we have to save. Two, it produces unbelievable numbers of jobs. The numbers have to be reflective of that kind of a thing. You know what im going to do. We have wonderful people behind us that are working very hard. We want bill to get back to the department of justice. We want the admiral to start doing his job and the same thing with debbie. If anybody would have any questions. Ill ask mike to stay around. If anyone would have any questions for the group. Otherwise ill let them go back work. We seem to be talking about different geographical slopes on the curve would be changing. 20 numbers the coming out of new york gives us an indication we dont know when metaphor, to use your were planted. How confident are you on the start date of each Geographic Area . Thats a very good question. What we do know is that now we can backtrack from people who get seriously ill to when they probably got infected. This is when they were exposed. So when you start backing out each of those pieces. When you start seeing hospitalized patients, you know that the virus has probably been there for three to four weeks substantially circulating within the population. Thats what were looking for. As all of our testing is improved and we want to applaud the group who worked on it, if you look at the pandemic flu preparedness, all of this was built on a flu platform. It was never ever thought that youd a simultaneous respiratory disease hitting exactly the same time as your flu hits in the country. So when youre doing all of your flu surveillance, you could have flul cases of pneumonia and likeillnesses. When we get through this, well be looking at the pandemic preparedness plans. Way of saying we know Washington State is a little bit ahead of new york because of the record. Ization what we will get to as a country of testing that will be available is being able to do what the president talked simultaneously. Simultaneously, doing containment Contract Tracing at the same time youre doing mitigation. Right now we put everything into mitigation. Yet if we geographically get specific data by zip codes and counties, well be able to approach this in a laser focused way. Making sure that what were doing in each of those areas is absolutely appropriate for where they are in their own little bell shaped curve. When will the government have the Antibody Test so people will know if theyve been exposed . Several of them have come to the fda. I believe. Obviously thats something im very interested in for two reasons. One, it will give us a retrospective. On where these infections were. Infected andlly versuslly asymptomatic mild versus all of that comes into factor. With highpeople toyotaers of those antibodies, with can be our solution plasmaphereses for those in need, making hyperimmunoglobulin. Knowing who they are becomes really critical. I think were still couple of weeks out. I have to go back and talk to the fda where each of these are. This is what saved us when you throatswabs and strep swabs and now an hiv test. These are the kinds of tests that are critical in the future. One other thing, you see lot of numbers out there about 70 of the population is going to get infected or 60 of the Population Based on the models. Understand that the way you get to that number, is you do nothing and it goes through three cycles. Theyre talking about this cycle that were currently in. Another cycle in 2021 and a third cycle in 2021 and 2022. In order to get that level of infected. You know well have vaccines by the 2021 and 2022 season. And were going to hopefully have therapy ticks in the fall of the next season. The reason were so much focused on blunting the curve for this piece is if the virus comes back, well have much more facility both for diagnosis monoclonal antibodies, treatments and then the vaccine. Reporter a question about the serology blood tests which some people hold promise here. When will those be fda approved and when they will be widely available . Thats what she was just asking about. Care. Oint of i can tell you, it will be no today. Making it up then youre drawing blood, youre processing blood, youre running placed. Thats what we did in the past. We really want a finger prediction type assay where you can put a finger prediction on i. G. M. Your a. G. A. And whats what were looking at now. How long is that approved . I cant answer because you have to look where each of the companies are that are in the development processes. Sound like a while then. There are some that are developed now that they were using in singapore. Were looking at those to see how those work. So were looking at those. Were very quality oriented. We want to make sure we dont give people false negatives or false positives. Pres. Trump i have a question for you. We have lot of very angry media all around this room. And they want one of these seats. Because of social distancing were keeping them empty. They are keeping them empty. Will there ever been a time when all of those angry people who dont like me much, will there when these seats are full to the brim like it used to be . Where people are almost sitting on each others lap . Here is whole row over packed and now theyre outside wanting to get in and theyre of thesef all reporters. Will we ever have that again . Is that something it will look like this forever . Were learning lot about social distancing and respiratory diseases. I think those are the discussions we have to have in the future. Its what youre talking about changing our whole behavior patterns of what we touch and constant of that. I remember when i was worried saturday morning, i was trying think, what all did i touch on friday, did i touch a door i touch my face by accident . I think this awareness that we all now have that we didnt before where we would have pushed through that door or that knob because we were in such a hurry. I think all of us think twice. I think all of you think twice. Pres. Trump when the virus is gone, will the people be allowed to sit next to each other again in your opinion . In a tight room . I dont know. You have to look and see if we have a new respiratory piece. Certainly this is the way we set clinic all around the world when we worried about t. B. Transmission. Im wondering if you can comment on the new measures that britain has put in place. Also germany said it doesnt want to have crowds, less than except for families, which is a pretty restrictive numbers. Does that inform your thinking as you are coming up with this advice for in the next period for the president and Vice President . The president and Vice President asked us to look at every single scenario in every single country. Because the more data that we have, the more our decisions can be completely data informed. Whateally understanding impact that has. Were interested right now italy obviously waited until about march 7th. The virus have been circulating for almost four weeks before actually going into that methodology. But for the first time it looks like their mortality rates are decline. To which would be an illustration and things they did two three weeks ago may actually have an impact. Those are kind of data were looking at carefully. As well as very careful data within the United States. Of exactly where the virus is, attack rate, has it moved out of its more confined looking atnd really each of those pieces of information. Its a lot of data to go through. [indiscernible] i think if you remember just a week ago, britain had a very different approach. Everybody is adapting to their data. I havent looked at the data decision. Med that i cant comment on how they got to that decision there or in germany. Just to be clear, do you with the president s push to reopen the country . Some of the doctors are ok with it. Are you okay with that . What the president asked us to do is assemble all the data and give him our best medical recommendation based on all the data. Thats what hes ask us to do. Thats well be doing this week. We were going to have to do it this week because we had to make a decision come monday about the 15 days to reduce social spread. This is consistent with our mandate to use every piece of information that we can in order to give the president our opinion backed up by data. Not our perception but our opinion thats backed up by data. You think you could in a week . What would your assessment be now . Were pulling all the data pieces in now. Thats really critical. I will never speculate on data. I will have to see the data in order to really understand it. The morality rate, were talking about the morality rate, when we first started, people were thinking about three or four percent. Now were talking about much lower number than that. I think its a number that will be lot different. The morality rate is driven almost exclusively as we have talked about by people with preexisting conditions and older. Has become, from the very beginning, that was our emphasis. When we started two or three weeks ago talking with one our focus was how to protect those with preexisting elderly. S and the and i think these steps were with protecting preexisting conditions. The whole key to changing the morality rate is not just the hospital care but preventing them from going into the hospital to begin with because you dont want them to be infected. Pres. Trump much lower than we originally thought, frankly. Lower. Lot a lot the number . The estimate from wuhan originally was just over 3 . When they look outside wuhan, it was about. 7 . It depends very much in south korea, it was about. 7 or. 8 . But i dont want thats like a tyranny of averages. Having thats probably missing 50 or 60 of the data because no one was testing asystematics. In every country you had to be to get a test. Were making case fatality rates when were missing a significant part of the data. If anything it will go lower. People thatt should not be reassuring, escalatehe death rates with age and preexisting conditions. I really want to be clear. It maybe very low if under 40 or very lower under 50 or 70, theres an inflection curve, the average age of the persons dying in italy is in the mid80s. There is really a significant issue in our older generation that we feel strongly about protecting. Pres. Trump its just very thing. Ting, the whole its an incredible subject. When somebody is very sick they go to a hospital. They are recorded and they are sick. They live, or dont live. See what happens. When somebody isnt very sick at all. I heard people didnt know they it and theyre healing. And i heard people had a cold or running noses or people that stay home they think they have the flu or they have a really bad case of the flu. All of those people, that vast majority of beyond vast majority of people, theyre not reporting. Theyre not calling the doctor. Theyre not calling them. Theyre getting better. You would think it would have to be. Arepeople that are sick going to a doctor or going theyre saying make me better. The people that are just short of that. Many people literally dont know they have it. Now you building up the number of cases that were talking about before and yet you dont know how many there are. It could be a vast number. What you do know is all the sick. That are really all the people that are really sick are going to a doctor in some form. It the doctor is reporting in all cases. Thats why the question about the Antibody Test is so critical a much that will give us better baseline to really understand. You talked about you talked higher deaths. Are you talking about suicides . Pres. Trump im talking about many forms. Is it risk of depression . Is that what youre getting at . Number one, its the country itself. Youre talking about tremendous disruption economically. Youre talking about massive depression, massive number of suicide. Economic depression . Talkingump im not about economic although you could be talking about that, too. Talking about people suffering massive depression because they had a fantastic job and now they have no idea whats going on. Heres the good news, if they get the bill passed, were taking care of those people. Well take good care of those people. Beyond what any country has done for people. Theres never been anything like this. Im talking about where people suffer massive depression, where people commit suicide. Where tremendous death happens. In addition to that, were talking about economic where you really hurt a country that can take years and years to recover. The longer you stay out, the harder it is to recover. I happen to think they call it the v. I think youll have a very big bounceback. Its going to be very big. Itthe bill should pass, should pass quickly, take care of our workers, take care of the thoseies that pay workers, help those companies over this rough patch. It takes, the harder it is to come back. Id like to bounce back to where ultimately i think well be further than that. Im saying, whats happening when i say the cure and the cure can be worse than the problem itself. Right . Thats what we cant let that happen. Happen. Let that weve learned so much and so many good things will happen for our country. We cant let this continue to go on. What were doing is were meeting with the doctors. Dr. Fauci, dr. Birx and others. Were already started the discussion. I can say that im a student like youre students, were all learning this together. I learned a lot from deborah and tony and learned a lot from lot of people. This has been their life work. I learned a lot. Were going to come up with a date and were going to do two things. We can do two things at one time. At the same time, well be vigilant. Well be so vigilant in terms all of the things that we have to do that weve been talking about for the last two weeks. Ad nauseam. I think its going to be far better solution for our country. [inaudible]. Gos. Trump we want her to back to work immediately. Thank you, deborah. One more question. Pres. Trump they wont let you go. Thank you. Theres one week left to go in the 15 days to slow the spread. Doesnt talk of reopening the government quickly undermine that . Socialld anyone today go distance or not go outside . We enforce it. People know that were considering and understand the impact that the good work that think it done, i reinforces them to do good work for the next whatever it is future. Eks, in the it says to them, were looking very carefully at the impact that the work that you did, the selflessness that you brought to this. The ability to stay home with your fabulous children. Your ability to social distance. The ability to give up ongoing to restaurants and just having takeout. All of those sacrifices, the ability of youre protecting elder generation. The greatest generation in making sure they are safe in nursing homes. Not seeing them. All of us have made sacrifice. I havent seen my grandchildren in three weeks. I know other people are like that. They have made those personal sacrifices. What were asking every american to do is to the make those personal sacrifices for these next week and now so we can evaluate the impact of that sacrifice. I think if anything, it the well power to say yes, i can do this. You. Trump thank mr. President. Pres. Trump one second, please. One thing that will be helpful is to open back up the exchanges so people worried about getting treatment can sign up for insurance now. Even though the open Enrollment Period is closed. Pres. Trump its something talking to a lot of people about. Well see what happens. [indiscernible] pres. Trump i was just with him for a long time. We have a test. Youoes he agree with [indiscernible] pres. Trump he doesnt not agree. We had a long talk. He understands. Theres a tremendous cause to our country both this terms of lives and in terms of economics and in terms of many years of rebuilding something that was a fine tuned machine. It was nobodys fault. It just happened. This horrible virus came from wherever and it just happened. Understands. Hes a good man. I like dr. Fauci a lot. Just so you understand. Hes not here because we werent discussing what hes best at. Hell be back up very soon. Well be discussing this. We are talking about i dont want to use the word abbreviated. So much has been gained by what done. Were talking about not during the period. During the 14 or 15 days. But not too long after that. I think its going to make lot of people happy and make lot of workers happy. When you take dr. Faucis recommendation on this or are you thinking hes just looking pres. Trump i would certainly hes very important to me. I will be listening to him. Ill be listening to deborah. Ill be listening to other experts. We have lot of people that are very good at this. Ultimately, its a balancing act. You know, the expression we can do two things at one time. Weve got an incredible country. We have to keep it that way. That includes not Just Economics that also includes life and death. We have to keep it that way. You talk about social distancing amongst us reporters. You mention that one of our own has come down or potentially come down. Even if someone does come down, would you pledge to the American People that youll keep this room open . Were clearly six feet apart. Pres. Trump well, ive gotten to like this room. Convenient. Very from the standpoint of being president of the United States, this has been a very convenient room for all of us. You people have set up. I never thought of closing until you asking me question. Can you give me a good reason to close it . I dont want to make commitments. Its not something i thought about. There are certain people that would like to see a larger room built. We need a larger room. Other president s didnt need such a large room. We need a larger room. There are some people. Its not something that is really on my mind to be honest with you. Yes, please. Quarantine, we know its going to be brutal. Who are you listening to . Where is the brain trust to help get us through that period . Also, has your opinion pres. Trump which period . Second quarter. Morgan stanley, Goldman Sachs theyre predicting pretty dire 2nd quarter. Who are you listening to . Trust is the brain pres. Trump i think were people. G to many that was my world. I know many of those people. I have many people that are friends of mine, some enemies also, by the way. Its been a good world for me. I like that world. I like those people. They are tough and smart. I listen to many of them. Ultimately they all go into that computer and i say this is what were going to do. I have to make a decision. This is a very important man, right here to my right. Great Vice President because hes got great instinct about things, too. Im going to be listening to mike. Hes headed up the task force i think brilliantly. Athink its going to go down that. Hes done a job. Not only hes been good, hes been soothing and great for the American Public to watch. I mean that in the most positive way. Solidity with mike that you dont find in many people. Hes been soothing. Been good for the American Public. They have confidence in him. I think hes done an incredible job. His advice is very, very important to me. Hes going to be making he didnt come from that world. The world of finance. But he understands the world of finance. He was a great governor in indiana. They did very well financially too. [inaudible]. Pres. Trump i can give you a whole list. Well probably set up committees. Id rather not give you one. I have spoken to so many people. Are you happy with the fed now that hes turned on the spigot . Pres. Trump i am happy with yes. I really think hes caught up. Hes done the right thing. I think ultimately, we will be rewarded because of the decision he made over the last hes really stepped up over the last week. I have to tell you, i called him today. I said, jerome, good job. He was a little bit slower than i would have liked in the sense doing. He was other people might have liked it. But today, you called up jerome pell, i said, jerome, youve done a really good job. I was proud of him. That took courage. Ultimately, you will see the hes not finished. Hes got other arrows in the quiver. Or whatever they say, i will you. Hes got plenty of arrows. No, im very happy with the job did. Reporter you said youd bring the secretary of education here today. Ay or why isnt she here today . Yesterday, you said you had guidance for us on people who have been exposed to the virus and returning to work sooner. V. P. Pence thank you for the question. I spoke to the secretary of education today. Were going to have her at the podium very soon. The department of education has created a very easy waiver application for every state. Its virtually an automatic application for states that want to be excused from National Standardized testing requirements. We reviewed that with all of the governors today. Also, whats called Distance Learning, the Accreditation Process for higher education, the secretary of education has loosened the rules around Distance Learning. Youre seeing many colleges and universities embracing Distance Learning now, putting it into practice. Weve allowed for that. But also the department of education is setting up a website and best practices information for k through 12 Distance Learning. She told me that the state of florida and New Hampshire are really setting the pace on Distance Learning for k12. My wife is an Elementary School teacher. Obviously, theres different challenges for Distance Learning for k through 12 students, kids. Ularly younger but the department of education is determined to continue to make those best practices available. We talked about the website thats being built and shell be coming and making a presentation on that. As the president reflected dr. Birxbit ago, as did, we understand theres a lot of kids out of school. Parents are anxious. A lot of kid out of college and university. Like my daughter, whos been dismissed from what remains of this semester of grad school the work anddoing the department of education is working earn evaluately to make a reality. Will you see her this week . V. P. Pence yes. Here here this week. Given the issues that we were dealing with today with the attorney general, we thought it might be just as timely in a few days. With regard to the guidance that you asked about, the president s Coronavirus Task force is in the process of reviewing recommendations from cdc. Were working with the department of Homeland Security. Well be bringing those the president as recommendations of approval. Were specifically looking at people that work in Critical Infrastructure. People in law enforcement. People in critical transportation. You can go to department of Homeland Security website for a definition of Critical Infrastructure. If you look at the second page of 15 days to slow the spread, youll see the president s recommendation of 15 days is for people to stay home from work whenever possible. Except for people working in Critical Infrastructure. The guidance that were looking forward to unpacking is how people who may have come into contact with someone that tests positive for coronavirus, would be able to, if they have no symptoms, would be able to return to work, wear a mask for a certain period of time or otherwise go back to business. Its a focus on Critical Infrastructure jobs. We should have that guidance before the president and before the public tomorrow. Question]ible pres. Trump i just want to say, it. E im thinking about china has very much stepped up as you probably know, the agricultural purchases from our farmers and some other purchases too. They have a difficult time also right now. They very much stepped up their purchases and significantly. That. Very happy about other thing, im standing here with our Vice President , trying to let you ask anything you want. Having to do with the subject, which frankly is pretty much all now. E cares about right i think its very important. I dont want to stand here for two hours and do this. I think its important that i call it get it out of your system. Give us any question about it. I think its important for the public to know. We dont want to answer two questions. We want to answer your questions. Thats why were doing this for long. I think it gives our country confidence and it gives were all gaining knowledge. An unbelievable process. I want to stay here. Sometimes here for two hours. And were answering questions. At least youll say im transparent. Youll have a hard time saying transparent. We take a lot of questions from you, unfortunately some of them are repetitive. Some of them are fantastic questions. Some of these questions are great. Some of the questions lead to us solving a problem. You bring up problems that people didnt know existed. I want to let you know, so we can be transparent so we can get everything out. Ahead mr. President , are you according a response with the leaders of the g7 . Pres. Trump yeah. We had couple of great talks. I spoken to a number of them individually. Were very closely aligned. Reporter can i ask a question. Thee talking about selfswab tests. When will they be available . Do you know which day and where they are going . V. P. Pence the fab just decision. That fab Just Announced that decision. F. D. A. My understanding theyll be going directly to market. Ill have a good estimate for you on timeline. What the president has charged us to do at the task force is to promote as much creativity and as much innovation as possible and frankly, dr. Hahn, at the fda, has done a remarkable job through the review and newoval process for these methodologies really in record time. We reflected about the fact that were pretty sure we set a record. I think it was 62 days to be in the phase one Clinical Trials of a vaccine. Its actually in Clinical Trials today. This new approval from a study done by United Health group and the gates group means that now selfcollected nasal swabs would become available. Were going to be working through fema with governors around the country to make sure distribute those methods as well as the swabs or any other supporting material and get those into this vast array of stood up are now around the country. Pres. Trump thats really going difference. G thats a process thats easy as opposed to the current process not pleasant. If we get to next week, youre deciding what to do with the guidelines, whether to ease or reinstate them, will you follow the advice of dr. Birx and dr. Fauci . Pres. Trump i have to make a decision. I certainly listen to them. I listen to a number of people. I have lot of respect for dr. Fauci and dr. Birx. Ill be listening to them and others that we have are doing a good job. Are you worried that if you do this too quickly, if you lift these restrictions too quickly, the virus will start spreading unabated . How can you be sure that wont happen . Pres. Trump we have now a and the systems in place. Very, very powerful alternatives that we have to take into consideration. As i said, one of things that has really gotten me thinking about this, one, im looking at whats going on. Life is fragile. Are fragile. One of the things is the morality rate. We first started this, nobody knew anything about this particular virus, very, very little. We started we were hearing numbers of 5 . Thats an astronomical number. 2 andhe flu is. 001 and 3. 5 would be an astronomical number. Now were seeing numbers maybe less than one. Thats not including the exercise that i just went through where many people dont report. Everybody getting very sick is reporting. But nobody getting not very sick and that should be part of that equation. That just keeps reducing the numbers. The morality rate, thats a big factor. When we were hearing three and four percent, we had one day thought it was 5 and we were getting a lot of bad numbers from countries, i dont know why. Were getting a lot of bad numbers. I do wish our relationships very good with china. I wish they could have told us about this sooner. The mortality rate is a big thing for me. I think were very substantially under 1 . Its still terrible. The whole concept of death is terrible. But theres a tremendous something between under 1 and 4 or 5 or even 3 . Thats something that were learning now. I think the number maybe lower than people think because of what ive been saying. Please. [indiscernible] we had amp i thought deal last night. The democrats changed the deal. We had deal last night. That was going to be phenomenal for the workers. Which is my number one thing. I want to take care of the workers. We had a deal. I was pretty sure we had a deal last night. If you would have told me at a certain time, like about 9 00, i would have told you, we pretty much have a deal. Then it changed. It changed rapidly. It would have been bad for our country. They were asking for things that would have not been good, things that bore no relationship to what were talking about. Thats not the game. We cant play that game. Well see. Democrats do want to make a deal. Jeff, i thought we had a deal last night. If you come further in the process and decide that further stimulus is needed, will you be able to work with Speaker Pelosi on that . Pres. Trump ill work with anybody to help the American People. I will. I dont care who it is. If i feelwith anybody im going to help the American People and the american worker. Please. Mr. President , some states reporting shortage of materials needed to process the test. What the administration doing to get all the materials they need . Pres. Trump you just saw the fema people and saw army corps of engineers. Were building hospitals in new york and california, state of washington and new jersey. I just made a commitment to phil that well help him out with some of the areas in new jersey. Which is very important. A great state. Were doing a great job. With that help of the governors. Governors are on the front line. They can do some of themselves. Governor cuomo, hes been working very hard. He worked with me on the hospitals and medical centers. Hospitals. St another is medical centers of which were building numerous for new york. We have it all laid out. We have javits center. We have other locations throughout the state. I think its really a great plan. To have fema and the army corps of engineers involved. Ive worked with them. Were building a wall. Were building up 150 miles of wall on our southern border. Which is turning out to be even more important than we originally thought. Always thought it was really important, having borders. Im working with the army corps of engineers. I see what they do and how they do it. It used to be my business. I know it very well. Theyre very professional, good. E really you will see lot of good things happening in many states. Beyond the states that i just mentioned. In many states were working with Governor Ron Desantis in florida. Were working with governor mcmaster in South Carolina where they have a little bit of breakout. Not by comparison but a little bit. Were working with many governors in many states. Actually states where you almost would think that they have it under pretty good control. Theyre done great job. Were working with many states. Thats primarily fema and the army corps of engineers. And theyre capable of doing it. Back to the stimulus, you mentioned theres some things that were unacceptable that would have been bad for the country that bringing intowere the stimulus conversation. What provisions would you absolutely not support in this plan now . Pres. Trump lot of the provisions that they wanted like stock buybacks, i agree with that. Thats good with me. I dont like them buying back stocks. I like them spending money on airplanes and on their employees and real business. Not buying back stock. I dont know if that provision way or the in one other but im all for it. Many republicans are for it. Many democrats are for it. They were putting that out like its a problem last night. Its not a problem for me. I can tell you that. How much do you want cash released for americans . What numbers would you like to see . Pres. Trump the numbers theyre talking about now is at least 3000 for family of four. Isnt that correct . 3000 for a family of four. Which is bold. If this continued we have to build this up and if this continued well do Something Else and more at a later date. Thats a big number. If you remember, they were talking about 500 and 600 and we are all for that. As of this moment its 3,000 for a family of four. Ahead. Go [indiscernible question] pres. Trump we have a very strong dollar. Strong dollar is good in many ways but its also tough in many ways because it makes trade much harder. It makes it much harder for caterpillar tractor and other companies to sell their goods to europe or china. Having a strong dollar is good. It really sounds good but the truth is, it makes certain things like trade much tougher. Youve i dont know if seen but our is very strong, especially against other currencies, very, very, strong. Which again, makes that trading more difficult. Theres something nice about having a strong dollar. No matter what. Im president , its nice to have a strong dollar. It does make trading more difficult. Just to go back, youre confident youre going to get a deal . Think thep i democrats want a deal and i think we want a deal. It will be very foolish if they didnt make a deal. The American Public is demanding it. The republicans want to make a deal. We want to make a deal thats good for the workers, good for the country. I really believe that the democrats want to make a deal. They have to stop asking for things that bare no relationship to what were talking about. They are not good for the country. You mentioned Governor Cuomo, you mentioned others. If you get this stimulus bill, i wonder if you extend this bipartisan good will to Speaker Pelosi and invite her here for a signing ceremony . Pres. Trump well see what happens. Right now we dont have a deal. I think were very close. When i left, which was quite a while ago now, because, again, everytrying to answer question. It would be nice if you were and said thats it. But theres always hands up and maybe one of those questions is and unique. I want whats good for the country. If that means meeting, i think thats great. I just want whats good for the country, great for the citizens of the United States. [indiscernible question] pres. Trump its been a little while. Both you and the Vice President have been tested for virus and mrs. Pence. Has the first lady been tested . Yes. And . Pres. Trump shes great. Shes fine. Negative . Pres. Trump negative. Whos Holding Treasury accountable for this 500 billion corporate rescue fund . Pres. Trump we need to help all these companies that have a chance not to be companies. Thats going to be a good thing for the country. Deals will be made. Were talking to certain people. Some of the greatest people in the history of wall street frankly. Where when they do a deal, well have stock for america. Well take back stock for the United States. At the same time, most important, well keep those companies healthy. We can also make incredible deals for the country. So that number will increase exponentially. Lack of oversight, unilateral authority to dole out this money. Pres. Trump ill be the oversight. Ill be the oversight. Were going to make good deals. Deals. Good these Companies Need it. Even if its just a simple loan, but we can do better. Companies are willing to do better than that. They got hit. Most of these companies, it was through no fault of their own. There were a couple that were troubled before we came in. About one, it was troubled. But these companies, through no have of their own, they difficulty. Two weeks ago, these companies were among the most solid institutions in the world. Youd want to buy their bonds. Their bonds were rated aaa or rating ishe highest today. Now all of a sudden, they have difficulty because theyve been closed up. You need something to keep them going. That money is not going to be wasted money. That money is going to be seen. We could multiply that number by many times coming back to the American Public. That could be a phenomenal thing. Going tortantly, its keep these great engines of jobs and ingenuity going. Important. There things you regret in the way you handled the crisis so far . Are there words you regret . Pres. Trump i dont think so. Im looking forward. I dont look back. We all regret things. Forward. Like to look im a person that looks a forwardthinker. I think that weve handled it really well. It seems to be the American Public thinks that weve handled it well. If you look at polling data. Im not interested in myself. Im interested in the American People. We have to get this going. We have millions and millions of jobs that were solid as a rock three weeks ago. And today, there could be questions. The faster we get it going, the more likely it is those stores, little businesses, big businesses, medium size businesses, open up. Were going to go very fast. I believe this is a pent up demand. I think as soon as we say, lets go. Its going to be pretty soon. Its going to be sooner than people would think. Were in position to take care of our country but at the same time, to have the country really go up like a rocket ship economically. And thats great for jobs, great for everything. Id like to ask a question for a colleague who cant be in the room because of social distancing. Whom . Trump for reporter a colleague who cant be in the room because of social florida. G, about he wanted to ask if Governor Desantis should have closed the beaches . Pres. Trump thats really up to the governor. Done a great job. On the beaches, i guess hes decision. Ade a you do have a lot of room on the beaches. Originallyecision and refined it. Hes done a lot of things right. He cares so much about healthcare. He cares so much about the cost of prescription drugs. Hes been a fantastic governor for florida. Theyre very happy with him. The whole concept of the beach, its a very interesting issue. There are a lot of open spaces that includes parks and other things. But rather than relying on social distancing, theyre probably going to do that one a different way. I would imagine when we make our decision, things like that would be opened up and then people will remember what theyre supposed to be doing. To thank everybody very much and well see you tomorrow some time. Well get this going i think really well. Thank you very much, appreciate it. 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