Transcripts For CSPAN President Trump Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240713

Our country is in the midst of a Great National trial unlike any we have faced before. You see it probably better than most. We are at war with a deadly virus, success in this fight will require the full absolute measure of our collective strength, love and devotion. Each of us has the power for our own choices and actions to save american lives and res pres. Trump thank you, everyone. Our country is in the midst of a Great National trial unlike any we have faced before. You see it probably better than most. We are at war with a deadly virus, success in this fight will require the full absolute measure of our collective strength, love and devotion. Each of us has the power for our own choices and actions to save american lives and rescue the most vulnerable among us. It is why we really have to do what we all know is right. Every citizen is being called upon to make sacrifices. Every business is being asked to fulfill its patriotic duty. Every community is making fundamental changes to how we live, work and interact. Each and every day. See this going long, long into the future when this virus is gone and defeated. Some of the things we are doing now will be very Good Practice for the future, including for not getting the flu, which is very devastating also. Some of what we are learning now will live into the future, i really believe that. Shaking hands or not shaking hands. Washing hands all the time. Staying a little apart. 15 days ago we published our nationwide guidelines to slow the spread of the virus. On sunday, i announced this campaign will be extended until april 30. In a few moments, dr. Birx will explain the data that formed the basis for our decision to extend the guidelines and a dr. Fauci will explain why it is absolutely critical for the American People to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days. It is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of life and death. I numerous citizens will rise to the occasion. They already have sacrificed a lot. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country, we have the greatest economy in the world. We have the best unemployment numbers and employment numbers we have ever had by far. And in one instant, lee said, we have no choice but to close it up. Just as americans have always done, they will do a job like few have seen before, and they are proud to do it. There is a great pride going on right now. Before we hear from our experts, we have other announcements. Today, the Treasury Department and Small Business administration announced further details on the protection program, which was made possible by the 2 trillion really build that i signed into law last week. Nearly 350 million will soon be available through Lending Partners to help Small Businesses meet payroll and other expenses for up to two months. These loans will be forgiven as long as businesses keep paying their workers, this includes sole proprietors and independent contractors. Applications will be accepted starting this friday, april 3. So on friday, that is when it begins. Earlier today, i spoke with a leading internet and phone providers, who are doing a tremendous job of keeping our internet and lines of communication flowing under very strongly increased strain. The businesses more than anybody has seen before because everybody is inside. They are all making calls. Among the leaders i spoke to were Hans Westberg of verizon, Randall Stephenson of at t, mike seaver of tmobile, Thomas Rutledge of charter communications, Brian Roberts of comcast, john malone of liberty media, dexter goi, michael combs of sprint. Also, pat esper of cox communications, and jeffrey story of centurylink. They are doing an incredible job. If you look at other continents, if you look at europe, they went a different route a much different route, we were talking about that you little bit ago, and they are having tremendous problems. Other countries are having problems. Other continents are having problems. But with business at a level that nobody has seen before, on the internet, it is holding up incredibly well. And they expect that to continue no matter what happens. No matter how much more it gains. They are setting records. Let me update you on the distribution of needed resources and supplies. We have a lot of numbers. I will let mike pence speak to that, but we are giving massive amounts of medical equipment and supplies to the 50 states. We also are holding back quite a bit. We have almost 10,000 ventilators at that we have ready to go. We have to hold them because the surge is coming and is coming pretty strong. And we want to be able to immediately move it into place, so we are ready to go and we have also distributed, i just spoke with the governor of michigan. We had a great conversation and we said sent a large number of ventilators to michigan. We are sending them to louisiana. Additional ventilators to new york, to new jersey. And i will say in new york, fema is supplying 250 ambulances and 500 emts to help respond to the increasing caseload. That is a lot of ambulances. In california, the army corps of engineers is developing eight facilities to expand Hospital Capacity up to 50,000 beds. 50,000. And i had a great conversation last night with gavin newsom, he is doing a really good job. We are in constant communication. The hospital ship mercy is now operational. It is in los angeles and receiving patients. And in new york, the comfort, everybody watched that, it is in place and it will be very shortly receiving large numbers of patients with over 1000 rooms and 12 operating rooms. Fema is also providing 100 travel trailers to assist with Housing Needs and we are ordering hundreds more. In michigan, fema wilson deliver in addition to the ventilators, a two hundred 50 bed hospital with army corps of engineers. They are evaluating locations to build alternate care facilities. So we are doing a Field Hospital in michigan of 250 beds in we may be doubling that soon, depending on the need. They are doing a good job with the beds in michigan, but they may need more than 250. So fema and the army corps of engineers are prepared to go there quickly and get it done. In louisiana, we are delivering to Field Hospitals to provide 500 new beds. I have been talking with the governor, john bel edwards, and it army corps of engineers has been really doing incredible work, establishing 3000 bed alternate care sites at the new Orleans Convention center. Which will be operational, believe it or not, this week. So we are doing 3000 bed alternate care site and a 500 bed new hospital. That is in louisiana, which really got hit. It started very late. It was looking good, then all of a sudden it reared up. It came from nowhere. In addition to the supplies we are delivering, we are also giving hospitals the flexibility to use their facilities to care for hospital patients who are not infected. For example, i know that many expectant mothers are understandably concerned about exposing their newborn babies to the virus. And they should be. With our action yesterday, hospitals have the authority to create special areas for mothers to deliver their babies in a safe and healthy environment that is totally separate. Over the past two months, the state department has organized one of the largest and most complex International Evacuation operations in american history. Mike pompeo has been working around the clock, along with ambassador obrien. Since january 29, we have successfully repatriated all but 25,000 americans from more than 50 countries, where they were literally stuck, in some cases locked in. I salute the incredible Public Servants at the department of state as well as their counterparts at dhs and hhs, who have played such an Important Role in doing this. You probably read about the young people in peru, and young people in brazil. They were absolutely stuck. And we got them out. Almost everybody is out now, back home with their parents, wives, husbands. I want every american to be prepared for the hard days ahead. We are going to go through a very tough two weeks. And then hopefully come as the experts are predicting, as i think a lot of us are predicting, having studied it so hard, we will start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. But this will be a very painful and very painful two weeks. When you look and see at night the kind of death that has been caused by this invisible enemy, it is incredible. I was watching last night governor murphy of new jersey saying 29 people died today, meaning yesterday. Others talking about numbers for greater. I know new jersey well. 29 people, and hundreds in other locations in other states. This is going to be a rough two weeks. As a nation, we face a difficult few weeks as we approach that really important day when we will see things get better. All of a sudden. And it will be like a first light. I really think and i hope. Our strength will be tested and our endurance will be tried. But america will answer with love, courage and ironclad resolve. This is the time for all americans to come together and do our part. I appreciate the media. We have had a lot of good things said. I think only good things can be said when you look at the job that has been done. I spoke with Franklin Graham, an extraordinary person, and the samaritans purse has become i like so many others, has just been amazing. They did it so fast. He has been doing that for a long time. I think that people are really seeing what they have done. Franklin, a special family. Loads of masks, gloves and supplies to the communities battling the plague. That is what it is, it is a plague. We pray for the doctors and nurses, for the paramedics and to Truck Drivers and the Police Officers and sanitation workers, and above all, the people fighting for their lives in new york and all across our land. I watched as doctors and nurses went into a certain hospital in elmhurst this morning, i know elmhurst, queens, because i grew up right next to it. I know the hospital very well. I have seen it all my life, only young life. And i will tell you that to see the scenes of trailers out there, and what they are doing with those trailers, they are freezers. Nobody can even believe it. And i spoke to some of my friends, they cannot believe what they are seeing. And i watched the doctors and nurses walking into the hospital this morning. It is like military people going into battle, going into war. The bravery is incredible. And i have to take my hat and i would take my hat, i would rip that hat off so fast and i would say, people are just incredible. They really are, they are very brave. They are going in and they do not know. You have lots of things flying around in the air. What you are touching, is it safe . You see where you have friends that go into the hospital and you say, how is he doing . They say he is in a coma or unconscious. So things are happening that we have never seen before in this country. And with all of that being said, the country has come together like i have never seen it before. And we will prevail, we will win, and hopefully it will be in a relatively short period of time. At would like to ask dr. Birx to come up and show you the data that has been, i think my brilliantly put together. And right after that i will ask dr. Fauci to speak. And mike pence will give you some of the recent events that have taken place, and some of the statistics we have that i think will be interesting. Thank you very much. Dr. Birx thank you, mr. President. If i could have the first slide, please. Goals of community mitigation. Really highlighting that this begins in the middle and end with community, the community of the American People. They will have to do these things for the next 30 days to make a difference. I think you know from that large ballooned mountain behind me, and i want to thank the Six International and domestic modelers from harvard, columbia, from northeastern and imperial that helped us tremendously, it was their models that created the ability to see what these medications could do. How steeply they could depress the curve from that giant Blue Mountain down to that more lined area. In their estimates, they had between 1. 5 million and 2. 2 Million People in the u. S. Succumbing to the virus without mitigation. Yet, through their detailed studies and showing us what social distancing would do, what would happen if people stayed at home, what would happen if people were careful every day to wash their hands and worry about touching their faces, what an extraordinary think this could be if every american follow these. It takes is to that stippled mountain that is lower, a hill, down to 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, which is still way too much. Simultaneously, there was a modeler out of the university of washington that modeled from cases up, utilizing the experience around the globe to really understand how this information that we have from italy and spain and south korea and china could really help us get insight into the hospital needs, the ventilator needs, and really the number of people who potentially could succumb to this illness. It is this model that we are looking at now that provides us the most detail of a time course of that is possible. But this model assumes full mitigation. It is informed every morning or every night by the reality on the ground coming in from new york, new jersey and around the United States. And it is a model that is informed every morning, so it is adjusted, so that it is uptodate every day. This is the model of the predictive vitalitys and mortality in the United States. As the president said, it is very much focused on the next two weeks and the stark reality of what this virus will do as it moves through communities. This is a slide that gives us great hope and understanding about what is possible. On the bottom of the slide, where you can barely see that blue line at the bottom, that is the current cases in california, the cumulative cases in california, where they are doing significant testing. Next line up is connecticut, the orange line is new jersey, the blue line is new york. The yellow line is washington. We all remember Washington State, it was a month ago when they started to have the issues in Washington State, but the brought together their communities and Health Care Providers and they put in strong mitigation methods and testing, and you can see the resultant Washington State and california. But without the continuation for the next 30 days, anything could change. Next slide. I am sure you are interested in seeing all of the states, though on this slide is all 50 states and the district of columbia, but i think it shows a stark reality, the difference between new york and new jersey and other states with similar populations and urban areas. Our goal over the next 30 days is to ensure the states that you see, the 48 across the bottom, maintain this lower level of new cases, with the hope that we do not have significant outbreaks in other states and other metro areas. As the Community Comes together to Work Together and ensure that the Health Care Providers around the globe and in the United States are strengthened by our resolve to continue to mitigate community by community. This is done community by community. We know people are in their communities. And we are very dependent on each person in the United States doing the same thing, following the president ial guidelines to a t. I know it is a lot to ask because you have done it for 15 days, but if you can show the next slide, this is what gives us a lot of hope. This is the case finding in italy. You can see that they are beginning to turn the corner in new cases. They are entering their fourth week of full mitigation. And showing what is possible when we were together as a community, as a country, to change the course of this pandemic together. It is this graphic, and the graphic of many of the states, that gives us hope of what is possible by continuing for another 30 days. Amidst all the hope, i must say that like we warned about detroit in chicago, we start to see changes in massachusetts. New orleans continues to be a problem of new cases, although they are stabilizing. And i think it really shows the depth of dedication of the American People to the health, care providers because they can see the strain this puts on every nurse, respiratory therapist, dr. , pharmacist and Lab Technician working together to stem this tide of sick people coming to their doors. Nobody has been turned away, nobody who has needed ventilation has not received ventilation, but you can see how stressful it is for each of them. So i know it is stressful to follow the guidelines, but it is more stressful and difficult to the soldiers on the front lines. As we started and we will end with the communities that will do this. There is no magic bullet. No magic vaccine or therapy. It is just behavior. Each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days. Thank you. Dr. Fauci thank you very much. What she has really said very simply is that there are really two Dynamic Forces that are opposing each other here. As i have mentioned it several times in our briefings, the virus, if left to its own devices, will do that dark curve that dr. Birx showed you. The other forces what we are doing, what we are trying to do and what we will do in the form of mitigation. Now, these are very revealing, the data, because it you saw what happened in italy. Where you make the turn around the curve and you go. That does not happen all at once, it is a stepbystep fashion. And if i explain the steps, which i will, you will see why we are convinced that mitigation is going to be doing the trick for us. Because what you have is you have increases in new cases at a certain rate, but the increase in new cases begins to level off. The secondary effect is less hospitalizations. The next is less intensive care. And the next effect is less death. The deaths and intensive care only lag behind the early indication that there are less new cases per day. The way that we saw in italy, the way that we are likely seeing little inklings of this in new york. So now we have to brace ourselves. And next several days to a week or so, we will continue to see things go up. You cannot be discouraged by that, because mitigation is actually working and it will work. The slide we showed where you saw new york and new jersey and then the cluster of other areas, our goal, which i believe we can accomplish, is to get the hotspot places, new york, new jersey, and help them to get around the curve. But as importantly, to prevent clusters of areas that have not yet gone to that spike, to prevent them from getting that spike. The answer to that is mitigation. Now, the 15 days that we had of mitigation clearly have had an effect, although it is tough to quantitate it because of the two opposing forces. But the reason why we feel so strongly about the necessity of the additional 30 days is that now is the time, whenever you are having an effect, not to take your foot off the accelerator and on the break, but to just press it down on the accelerator. That is what i hope, and i know that we can do over the next 30 days. And as i said the other day on one of the interviews, we are a very strong and resilient nation. If you look at our history, we have been through some terrible ordeals. This is tough. People are suffering. People are dying. It is inconvenient from a societal standpoint and an economic standpoint to go through this, but this is going to be the answer to our problems. So lets all pull together and make sure that as we look forward to the next 30 days, we do it with all the intensity is a force that we can. Thank you. V. P. Pence thank you, mr. President. I know i speak on behalf of the president , people all across this country, when i express our great admiration and appreciation to both of you for helping to steer our nation through this challenging time. They market people have seen the American People have seen what the president saw when he made the decision at the end of 15 days to slow the spread, to ask of the American People to give us 30 more days to continue to put into practice the president s coronavirus guidelines for america. And as you heard from the experts, we have reason to believe that it is working. Dr. Fauci just said, there are difficulties ahead. Our hearts go out to the families that have lost loved ones, and those who we know are struggling at this hour in hospitals across the nation. But to each and every one of us, do not be discouraged, because what you can do to protect your health and the health of your family, what you can do to ensure that our Health Care Providers have the resources and have hospitals have the capacity to meet this moment, is put into practice, the guidelines for america. It really is what every american can do. 30 days to slow the spread. Along 30 days to make a difference in the lives of the American People, american families, and in the life of our nation. Allow me to give you some updates before the president takes questions. First and foremost, we continue to work closely with governors around the nation. The president and i spoke with all the governors yesterday, and since we were last together the present and i have spoken directly to several governors, including the governor of illinois, louisiana, michigan, new york and other states. At the present moment, the president has declared 29 major disaster declarations and has authorized 10 different states to use full federal funding, title 32 funding to pay for their National Guard. And as of this afternoon, fema reports a 70,000 National Guard have been activated in states around the country to provide support for the coronavirus response. On the subject of testing, we have have now completed more than 1. 1 million tests around the country. We are working closely with governors around america to assist them in drivethrough and Community Testing centers. I spoke with the governor of illinois today about a Testing Center they have established in cooperation with the u. S. Public health service. We remind every governor and every laboratory and hospital that it is imperative that you continue to report daily to the cdc, the results of the tests, to give us visibility on the best informed resource decisions. We reiterated today to governors in person and also through correspondence to every governor, the importance of using their National Guard, if need be, to move medical supplies. Fema is very busy delivering millions of supplies to states around the country. But we are urging every governor to make sure to work with their state Emergency Management team and may be used the National Guard to move the supplies from warehouses to hospitals. The present moment, we have distributive more than 11. 6 million n95 masks, more than 8800 ventilators around the nation, millions of surgical masks and gloves. We initiated an air bridge. Flights have arrived in new york, one arrived in illinois yesterday. A flight will arrive in ohio in the next 24 hours. Fema is literally working and contracting around the world with now more than 51 flights bringing vital supplies. On the subject of ventilators, fema is currently delivering 400 ventilators to michigan, 302 in new jersey, 150 in louisiana, 50 in connecticut, and in the last week and in the week ahead, more than 450 to illinois. This is in addition to more than 4400 ventilators the president and fema directed to the state of new york. We just want people who are working on the front lines, the president just spoke about it, we want you to know that help is on the way. We are going to leave no stone unturned anywhere in america or anywhere in the world, to make sure you have the resources and equipment to do your job. So again, i want to say thank you, america. Thank you for stepping up and putting into practice the 15 days to slow the spread. And thank you for the response of tens of millions for the 30 days to slow the spread. We encourage each one of you to spread the word about the guidelines. Listen to your state and local authorities in areas more greatly impacted. We continue to urge people, in the areas of new york, new jersey, and connecticut, to refrain from travel around the country. And people who have traveled from that area, check your temperature. A selfquarantine for 14 days. You can see from the chart the unique challenges that the people in the Greater New York city area are facing with the coronavirus. We want to do everything we can to protect your health, focus resources, and prevent unnecessary spread. As the president highlighted yesterday, businesses around america are stepping up as never before. Tomorrow, i will travel with secretary sonny perdue to virginia, to the walmart distribution center, so the American People can see how the food supply is continuing to roll on 18 wheels and airfreight all over america. We thank Grocery Store operators around america, everybody working on the highways and byways every day to keep the food supply rolling and rolling strong. To the American People, we want to assure you that we will continue to work our hearts out to make sure our Health Care Providers have everything they need. That anybody struggling with coronavirus has the support and health care they need. I am absolutely confident, seeing the way the governors are responding, seeing the way the team that the president has assembled on the White House Coronavirus task force, confident of the prayers of the American People that we will get through this, but it will take all of us doing our part and we will get through this together. What is the projected death toll should people be reasonably good at following these measures . Pres. Trump i would like to have dr. Fauci or deb come up and say. I have the numbers, but i would rather have them say the numbers. It is a big question. This is a protection based on using whats happening in italy and using all of the models. As you saw on that slide, that was our real number, 100,000 to 200,000. We think that that is the range. We really hope every day that we can do better than that, because that is not assuming 100 of every american does everything that they are supposed to be doing. But i think that that is possible. Over the next two weeks, you said the next two weeks will be painful, is the bulk of what will happen going to happen over the next couple weeks . You have in uppsala. Upslope. Ve an the mortality will increase. Then it will come back down. It will come back down slower than the rate at which it went up. So that is really the issue, how much we can push the mortality down. Dr. Fauci our hope is to get that down as far as we possibly can. The modeling that we showed predicts that number that you saw. We do not accept that number. We are going to do everything we can to get it even significantly below that. So i do not wanted to be a mixed i dont want it to be a mixed message. It is something we have to anticipate, but it doesnt mean we will accept it. We have to do much better than that. When you look at the curve, it goes much further in time. Caseswould have death and for much longer. Dr. Birx that is a generic sorry, go back. What i showed you was a generic picture of what happens in an epidemic when you mitigate. No mitigation, mitigate. This is based on the experience around the globe at this particular virus. So it does have a tail. But the peak, you can see by this projection, and this is the ihme data, the peak is over the next two weeks. This is tracking mortality, so the number of fatalities from this virus. So that is the part we think we can still blunt through the superb medical care every client is receiving, but also more stringent with people following the guidelines. Are we seeing this until june . I cannot really see. So we would still see problems and deaths in june . Dr. Fauci getting back to what i said about the stepwise thing. Death always lag. You will be seeing deaths at the time when we are doing really well, because the deaths will lag. Should americans prepare for the likelihood that therell be 100,000 americans that will die from the virus . Dr. Fauci the answer is yes. As sobering as that is, we should be prepared. Is it going to be that much . I hope not. I think the more we push on the mitigation, the less likely it would be that number, but being realistic we need to prepare ourselves that that is a possibility that we will face that. Can the country handle that in such a short period of time, within a couple of months . That is like 8000 a month . Dr. Fauci it would be difficult. Nobody is denying the fact we are going through a difficult time right now. We are seeing what is happening in new york. That is really tough. If you extrapolate that to the nation, that will be really tough, but that is what it is. We will have to prepare for that. Dr. Birx that model, that is based and heavily laden by the data that has come from new york and new jersey and connecticut. So that can skew to a higher peak and more significant mortality. If all of the other states are able, and all the other metro areas, are able to hold that case number down, then it is a very different picture. But you have to predict on the data that you have, which is heavily skewed to new york and new jersey. Dr. Fauci getting back to that slide, the important slide dr. Birx showed, the cluster of other cities that are not new york and new jersey. If we can suppress that from any kind of a spike, the numbers could be significantly lower. So this is about them not following the guidelines . Dr. Fauci that has been my plea, that now is the time to put your foot on the accelerator. That is the only thing that will stop this. Pres. Trump many of the cities are doing well. But the number, the doctor has a has said 100,000, between 100000 and 200,000, may be more, but we would hope we could keep it below that. Dr. Birx go one more slide. Perfect. Would you tell cities that are not doing what new york and new jersey, washington, the cities that have been taking charge of all this, would you urge the cities at that have not been doing this to get with the program . Pres. Trump new york, i, believe blue is new york they are having a harder time than other cities. Certain cities, if you look at it, they are doing an incredible job. They work early and they were very firm and they have done an incredible job. This is new york. Dr. Birx remember, california and Washington State were down here and they had the earlier cases. But we are seeing places in florida not doing what new york and new jersey have been doing. Maybe i could direct the question to you and to dr. Fauci as well, we you told us yesterday that the u. S. Is accomplishing 100,000 tests per day, but we are still hearing difficult stories from the frontlines of the First Responders that you praised, that they cannot test on the people that they need to test. Do you have a projection as to when everyone who needs a test will be able to receive it . Pres. Trump we are doing more than anybody in the world, by far. We are testing with highly accurate tests. As you know, many tests are being sent to countries. Well, the word is exponential. We are getting more and more, and that we have the new tests you saw yesterday. They will be rolled out tomorrow or the next day. That will take it literally a few minutes to see the result. And it is a highly accurate result. The tests that were given out by other countries, where there was a 5050 chance they were wrong. What kind of a test is that . These are highly accurate. But the new tests coming out are very quick. They were just developed. Abbott labs did them yesterday. We are doing more than anybody in the world so far. They are very accurate tests, and we are getting a lot of from those tests. The test the president unveiled yesterday, the Abbott Laboratories test, which is a 15minute test, our team is working closely with fema to make sure that those are distributed around the country. Earlier this week, Abbott Laboratories actually said they would produce 50,000 tests a day and distributing those around america. There is already the machines in some 18,000 different locations around the country. They told us they have several thousand on the shelves right now. What we are doing is trying to identify the areas where we may yet have pockets, or where we want to do more immediate testing, so we can do what is called surveillance testing to identify where there may be coronavirus cases, where there has been very little incident. If i could just amplify one other point, that is when you look at this chart, go back 15 days and the reality is, this is me speaking as a layperson, but as i have listened to our experts, new york and the Greater New York city area have unique challenges. It is a city that we believe may have had exposure to the coronavirus much earlier on than we could have known and had its own challenges. New york, connecticut, new jersey are leaning into this effort. But when we look at this chart, for all the other states, including Washington State and california, it really does give evidence that at least it begins to give evidence that the 15 days to slow the spread is working. And in fact, the American People are putting these things into practice across the country, including in new york and new jersey, even though they have faced a greater magnitude of cases for certain circumstances that are related to International Travel and those communities. [indiscernible] shelterinplace. V. P. Pence the American People can look at these numbers and see in the last 15 days, the president s guidelines for working, that is precisely why President Trump is asking every american to continue to put these guidelines into practice for 30 more days. [crosstalk] can i follow up . Right now, we have 4000 deaths in the u. S. And you are suggesting a spike of more than 90,000 deaths over the next few weeks. Do you have a demographic breakdown of the areas that are most at risk and where most of those deaths may occur . I think if you ask chris murray, he would say he is using the information coming out of new york and new jersey, and applying that to potentially other states having the same outcome. I want to say again, this yellow line, and this is corrected for 100,000 residents. It is normalized, so we can compare apples to apples. This is still Washington State. This yellow line. So they have been able to, for a long time of measuring cases, not have a spike. So it is possible, and we are watching closely to make sure it does not have a spike, but that is what the people in Washington State are doing. This is what every community so Washington State early, about two weeks before new york or new jersey. California, a week before new york or new jersey. They really talked to their communities and decided to mitigate before they started seeing this number of cases. Now we know that that makes a big difference. Early, as dr. Fauci said, if you wait until you see it, it is too late. What about the demographic breakdown about where the deaths will occur . Dr. Birx it is the demographic breakdown we have discussed before, related to mortality. It is what we are seeing in new york, exactly what we saw in italy. Very low mortality, not to say that young people under 40 are not getting ill, they are, but most of them are recovering. So the profile looks identical to italy with increasing mortality with age and preexisting medical conditions. So that is holding in the same way. But what we are hoping is that through the work of communities, and it comes down to communities, this is not this is communities deciding this is important to them to not have the experience of new york and new jersey. And i think, we are worried about groups all around the globe. I do not know if you heard the report, there are 8000 ventilators in the u. K. If you translate that to United States, that would be like the United States having less than 40,000 ventilators. We have five times that amount. So these are the things that everybody is having to face. And i think the United States is in an excellent position from our medical care position, but we do not want to have to test that system. We want this to be a much smaller epidemic with much smaller mortality. Can i follow up on the testing question . The testing numbers, one million tests done, but we were told that there would be 27 million tests available by the end of the month. Can you outline where in the supply chain, where in the logistics chain are the other 26 million tests . V. P. Pence just for purposes of clarification, there is a difference between sending a test that can be administered to a test being done. And because a month ago, or more, the president brought together the top commercial labs in america and said, we need you to partner with us to create a brandnew system that would rapidly process tests, we are now at one million tests and we believe it is a fair estimate that we are testing about 100,000 americans a day. That will continue to grow, and it will continue to accelerate. But i think the misunderstanding early on was, there were many tests being distributed and many test kits being sent, but under the old system, the antiquated system, those were being processed in state labs or at cdc or in private labs on a very slow, methodical system that could only produce maybe 30 to 50 tests a day. But the new partnership we have with commercial laboratories allows the progress we are making, but the breakthrough with Abbott Laboratories. Now the point of care, which means you will have devices and tests that people can literally take other dr. s office, at a at their doctors office, at a nursing home and have the results in 15 minutes. 26 million tests, were those under the old system . Vice pres. Pence yes. Are we still using those 27 million tests or have we moved on . Vice pres. Pence yes, thats the new system. Dr. Birx even today, coming out of laboratories, working on vaccines and going to the field to combat epidemics, it is disappointing to me right now that we have about 500,000 capacity of abbott tests that are not being utilized. So they are in the states, they are not being run or utilized. Now we have to figure out, how do we create awareness . Because sometimes when you put an early platform out, like our first platform out was roche, so you get that out, people get dependent on that and dont see there is availability of other tests. So right now there is over half a million tests sitting in capacity that are not being utilized, so we are trying to figure out, how do we inform state about where they are, how do we work through every Laboratory Association so they are aware, and how do we raise awareness so people know that there is pointed care, there is thermo fisher, abbott testing, and roche . And if you added them together, that is millions of tests a week. And so those are or they are not being used. That is what we are working on. Whats the reason they arent being used . Dr. Birx when people get used to a certain platform, they keep sending it back to that lab, so it is getting in a queue to wait to get on a roche machine rather than moving to another lab that may have abbott capacity, because they are all in different laboratories. I think that, actually, the admiral is figuring it out to really create some kind of visual so that every governor and every Health Commissioner can see all of their capacity in their counties, i mean in their states, county by county, so that they know where the tests are. We pushed a lot of tests out, but they are not being utilized. Pres. Trump they use them, they do not send them back. Octor, go ahead. Dr. Fauci she explained it very well. I want to go back to your question. It is a logical question. When you look at the number, you want to know the demography. This is a number that we need to anticipate, but we do not necessarily have to accept it as being inevitable. That is getting back to what i am saying about, we can influence this to varying degrees. And if we influence it to the maximum, we do not have to accept that. That is something we need to anticipate, but all of us want to do much better than that. On that front, what did the models suggest is on the lower end if you have full mitigation . Pres. Trump it says between 100,000 to 200,000. That is a lot of people. Right . You do not ask the other question. What wouldve happened this is the question i have been dr. Fauci and dr. Birx for a long time, and they have been working on this for a long time what would have happened if we did nothing . Because there was a group that said, lets just ride it out. That comes up to 1. 5 million, 1. 6 Million People, up to 2. 2 million and beyond. That is 2. 2 Million People who wouldve died if we had done nothing. Now, i do not think that wouldve been possible because you would have had people dying all over the place. It would not have been a normal life. How many people have even seen anybody die . You wouldve seen people dying on airplanes, you wouldve seen people dying in hotel lobbies, you wouldve seen death all over. So i think from a practical standpoint, that could not have been carried out too far. But if you did nothing, on the higher side, the number would be 2. 2 million, maybe more, then on the lower side, 1. 6 Million People. 100,000 is the number with a full mitigation. How do you push that lower . Dr. Birx whats go together. Weve been at this for a long time. You go first. Dr. Fauci it is an obvious and very good question. If is full mitigation, 100,000, why am i standing here saying i want to make it better . That is what the model tells you its going to do. Every time we get more data, you feed it back in and relook at the model. Is the model telling you what is actually going on . Again, i know my modeling critics will not be happy with me, but models are as good as the assumptions of that you put into them. As you get more data, then you put it in, and that might change. Even though it says, according to the model, which is a good model, this is full mitigation. As we get more data as the weeks go by, that could be modified. Why is the top line on the lowball estimate, i think its a 240,000, not 200,000. Is that a change . Dr. Birx it just has to do with if you had more new yorks and new jerseys. Chicago, detroit, l. A. , dallas, houston. All of our major cities modeled like new york, that is what got us into trouble. But i am reassured by looking at the seattle line, by looking at the l. A. Line, by looking at what california has been able to do, that that is not something that i do not believe that is going to happen. That is the outside case of having 10, 15 metros like new york and the new jersey metro area. It spread pretty early undetected, so dont more states, arent they likely to see the same spike . Dr. Birx california and Washington State reacted very early to this. Washington state had some of the earliest infections but have kept it low and steady, and for a month, they have been tracking it with a small increase in the number of cases, but not this logarithmic form of the virus. So that is, that is the piece that we are trying to prevent, that is the piece that we are trying to prevent in new orleans, chicago, detroit and in boston right now. And trying to make sure that each of those cities work more like california than the new york metro area. I want to get your thoughts on facemasks. We asked you about it yesterday and you signaled you were thinking about it. Pres. Trump i think i can say this because i spoke to dr. Birx and dr. Fauci, for whatever reason new york got to a very late start. And you see what happens when you get off to a late start. New jersey got off to i think both governors are doing an excellent job, but they got off to a late start. When you look at Washington State, you remember that all started in a very confined nursing home. And you had 20 some odd people dying in one home. That does not mean it escaped that home. So they have a very different statistic than other states. But, i remember vividly the nursing home in Washington State where you had many people dying every day, people were dying in that one exact location. So they were able to keep that, relatively speaking, at that location. We surprised when you saw these projections . The numbers are very sobering. Pres. Trump they are very sobering, yeah. When you see 100,000 people, yeah, that is the lower number. But what we are looking at, whatever we can do under that number, substantially under that number, we have done that three great mitigation, through a lot of very dedicated American People, that 100,000 is, according to the modeling, a very low number. When i first saw the number and i asked this a while ago, they said it is unlikely you will be able to attain that. I think we are doing better than that. We have to see, but i think we are doing better than that because as john said, that would be a lot of lives taken over a relatively short amount of time. But think what wouldve happened if we did not do anything. I have had many friends, people with common sense who said, why dont we ride it out . Do not do anything, just ride it out and think of it as the flu. But it is not the flu. It is vicious. When you send a friend to the hospital and you call to find out how is he doing, it happened to me, where you go to the hospital and he says goodbye, he is sort of a tough guy. And a little older, a little heavier than he would like to be, frankly, and you call the next day, how is he doing . He is in a coma. This is not the flu. We would have seen things had we done nothing, but for a long while, people were asking that question. I was asking it also. People were saying, lets just ride it out. Riddenas not to be out because you wouldve been looking at potentially 2. 2 Million People in a relatively short amount of time. If you remember, they were looking at that concept, a concept, i guess, it is a lot of death, but they were looking at that in the u. K. , remember . They were very much looking at it. And all of a sudden they went hard the other way because they started seeing things that were not good, so, you know, they put themselves in a little bit of a problem. Now boris tested positive. I hope he is going to be fine. But in the u. K. They were looking at it, and they had a name for it, but we wont go about the name, but it would have been very catastrophic if that would have happened. But that is something everybody was talking about. Just dont do anything. Forget about everything. Just ride it out. They used the expression ride it out. We would have had at a minimum, 1. 5, but perhaps more than 2. 2 Million People dying in a very short time, and that would have been a number the likes of which weve never seen. So now, when we look at our package that we just approved for 2 trillion, all of a sudden, it seems very reasonable, right, when you talk about 2 million lives. It seems very reasonable. A lot of people have been seeing the more advanced numbers. These are much more advanced numbers. We didnt know. This was a different kind of virus. Nobody knew that much about it, even the experts. You dont really know where it is going. But then they see what goes on in italy and spain. And you see france is having a very hard time and other countries having a very hard time, but once they see what is going on, they start making projections. So i hope they are going to be high projections. But based on everything else, that would be the number. Lets see if we can do much better than that. What is your recommendation pres. Trump you can use a scarf. A lot of people have scarves. A scarf would be very good. My feeling is that if people want to do it, theres no harm to it. I would say do it, but use a scarf if you want, rather than going out and getting a mask or whatever. We are making millions of masks, but we want them to go to the hospitals. One of the things dr. Fauci told me today is, we dont want them competing with the hospitals. So you can use scarves. You can use Something Else over your face. Doesnt have to be a mask. But it is not a bad idea, at lease for a period of time. Eventually you are not going to want to do that. You are not going to have to do that. This will be gone. Hopefully gone for a long time. The mitigation steps on your 30day plan, is that enough or is more needed . Pres. Trump we hope it is enough. We hope we are at a level where we can say, lets go, because our country wants to get back to work. Everybody wants to get back to work. I could ask the doctors to answer that question. But we discussed that all the time. Are they recommending harsher mitigation . Pres. Trump i think weve been very harsh. I looked at 5th avenue today and i didnt see anybody walking on the street and im used to, you cant see the asphalt, the concrete. And you look and there is nobody. There was one car. Looked like it might have been a taxicab. It was a time in the morning where normally there would be a lot of people. Mr. President , will you confirm your plans to defer payments for 90 days . Pres. Trump i didnt do anything about tariff payments. I dont know who is talking about tariff payments. They keep talking about tariff payments. We havent done that. We made a deal with china. They are paying us 25 on 250 million. I spoke with president xi the other day. He did not mention that. We had a great conversation, a really productive conversation having to do with many things. Most of it was on the virus. But we are not talking who are you with . Wall street journal. There is a report that there is a plan in motion pres. Trump there might be, but i have to approve the plan. One thing i will tell you, i approve everything, and they havent presented it to me. Therefore it is false reporting. Therefore, dont do the story. If we are going to do something, i would be glad to let you know. Theres nothing wrong with doing it. Yeah, please. Thank you. Real clear politics. I wanted to ask you about individual states issuing stayathome orders. What do you think about, for instance, in florida, ron resisted urges to issue those, but if the task force recommended one, that would weigh on you heavily. What sort of circumstances need to be in place for you to make that call . Pres. Trump great governor, knows exactly what hes doing, has a very strong view on it. We have spoken to ron. You want to just tell them a little bit about that . Vice pres. Pence let me echo our appreciation for Governor Desantis leadership. Hes been taking decisive steps early on and working closely with our team at the federal level. But let me be very clear. The recommendation of our Health Experts was to take the 15 days to slow the spread, and have the president extend that to 30 days for every american. That being said, we recognize that when you are dealing with a Health Crisis in the country, it is locally executed by healthcare workers, but it is state managed. So we continue to flow information to state governors. We continue to hear about the data they are analyzing and consult with them. But at the president s direction, the White House Coronavirus task force will continue to take the posture that we will defer to state and local Health Authorities on any measures they deem appropriate. But for the next 30 days, this is what we believe every american should be doing at a minimum to slow the spread. Pres. Trump if it is obviously wrong, i mean they can make a decision that we think is so far out that it is wrong, we will stop that. But in the case of Governor Desantis, theres two thoughts to it, and hes been doing a great job in every respect, so we will see what happens. But we will only exercise that if your turn. I had a question while you are at the podium i wanted to ask about your call with president putin a couple days ago. I know a big concern for a lot of people is the state of oil prices right now. I wonder if you raised that with president putin. Pres. Trump the oil prices, as you know, russia and saudi arabia are going at it. And by going at it to the extent that they are, the oil has dropped to a point where, the greatest tax cut weve ever given, if you look at it that way, because people are going to be paying . 99 a gallon of gasoline. It is going to help the airlines. But at the same time, it is hurtful to one of our biggest industries, the oil industry. It is not even feasible what is going on. I spoke to president putin about that. I also spoke to the crown prince about that, saudi arabia, and we are all going to get together and see what we can do. You dont want to lose an industry. You are going to lose an , thousands andt thousands of jobs. Theres oil all over the oceans right now. The boats are all filled. They are renting ships that were dying and werent doing well. See cash t out to out to sea and they sit there for a long time. In some cases it is probably less valuable than water. But the two countries are joining,g it, and i am at the appropriate time if need be. We had a great talk with president putin. We had a great talk with the crown prince. We also discussed the virus. Russia is being hit pretty hard. And we discussed many things. In the case of the oil prices, it is 22, but it is really much cheaper than that if you want to negotiate. Nobody has seen that. That is like from the 1950s. It really is. To think it was 50, 60, 70, 80, and now it is 22, but if you put a bid in at nine, you could probably get what you wanted. John, please. You tweeted earlier today that now would be a good time to start looking for if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and work on the infrastructure bill. You suggested it should be 2 trillion, twice what the last one was. Are you anticipating that like after the economic crisis of 2008, america will need to have socalled shovelready jobs ready to go to get people back to work . Pres. Trump the problem with that one is they never used it for the purpose of infrastructure. So far, nobody has been able to find any money that was spent on infrastructure. I want to use it for infrastructure. One of the reasons im suggesting it is we are playing zero interest. The United States is paying almost zero interest. The Federal Reserve lowered the rate. That and a combination of the fact that everybody wants to be in the United States. We have a dollar that is very strong. I know that sounds good, but it does make it hard to manufacture and sell outside because other currencies are falling. Our currency is strong, very strong. Proportionately, it is through the roof. So we have a strong dollar. People want to invest in the United States. They are looking at safety. They have all the problems plus the virus. They all want to come into the United States. So we have a zero Interest Rate , essentially. And i said, wouldnt this be a great time to borrow at zero Interest Rate and really build our infrastructure . The republicans had a plan of about 750. The democrats were a little less than 1 trillion. The republicans were a little less than that. Im suggesting 2 trillion. We redo our roads, our highways, our bridges. We fix up our tunnels, which are many of them in bad shape, like coming into new york, as you know. And we would really do a job on our infrastructure. That doesnt mean we are going to do the Green New Deal. I wont approve it. We are not going to do the Green New Deal and spend 40 of the money on things that people just have fun with. How would you pay for it, sir . Trump idea borrow the money at 0 interest, so our Interest Payments would be almost zero. We could borrow long term. People want to be in the United States. They want to be invested in the United States. You were saying at the beginning of the press conference that you are looking at holding back 10,000 ventilators. Is that because you need to pick and choose where these ventilators go because of the nature of the pandemic . And also, i wanted to ask if it is possible, is that part of the reason why you are projecting 100,000 to 200,000 deaths, that there are some people that arent going to be able to get ventilators . Pres. Trump actually, its the opposite. We have almost 10000 and we are holding because we are going to need them over the next couple weeks. We havent hit the top yet. We have to be able to move them immediately. We cant take them because it is going to be very hard to do that. We cant take them to places that arent needing them. Plus, we have requests for ventilators in hospitals and in states and cities that dont need them. They dont need them at the top. So we are holding it back for flexibility. We just took 600 and sent them to different locations today. But we have close to 10,000 and we are all set to march. We have the National Guards and we have fema and we are set to move them to the places. For your second question, we are going to save lives because of it. And we dont know is there a ventilator shortage right now . Pres. Trump in some areas, we might, but we did a great job with ventilators and we have 11 Companies Making ventilators. They will be starting to arrive in the next week. We also grabbed a lot of them. Some hospitals had more than they were saying or at least more than we know about, but we want to have, i guess the word would be flexibility. So if the surge turns out to be much stronger in louisiana, which it could, then we could immediately bring 1000 or 2000 to louisiana. Otherwise we would not be able to get them. ,e would not be able to say listen, governor cuomo, we want to take ventilators away from new york. They would say, we cant do that, it would be a disaster. So we have great flexibility. So when the surge occurs, we will be able to distribute them quickly, before they need them, but we have a reserve right now. It is like having oil reserves, except more valuable, frankly. We have a reserve right now. We also have a great team of people. They can move them fast. So when we see it going up in a certain state, and louisiana could be one, and michigan could be another, with detroit, because detroit is having a lot of hard time right now. Detroit came out of nowhere. That is what happens with this. It comes out of nowhere. So we are ready, depending on what happens, and we have a stockpile. And that is why it is called a stockpile. A lot of the ventilators and other equipment, we had it sent directly to a hospital, to a location, to a place. So we didnt have the cumbersome nature of having it come in, unboxed, then generally speaking, they dont do that. Weve had tremendous success. Other items including ventilators. But we have a good supply of ventilators, and we are ready to go. We have trucks ready. We have everything ready. As we are saying, this could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This could be a bad two or maybe even three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we havent seen before. Should the hospitals be prepared for that . They are facing what looks like a medical war zone. Pres. Trump yeah, they are going to be facing a war zone. That is what it is. Ive heard some of the paramedics and doctors, they say theyve been in war zones, theyve never seen anything like this. You look at elmhurst hospital, a hospital that is near where i grew up, it is a war zone. On the ventilators, weve been hearing from governors who say they are fighting amongst themselves pres. Trump if that happens, they should be calling us. We have ventilators but weve distributed thousands of ventilators. But they shouldnt be doing that. If they need them that badly, we have pretty good ideas of where they need them. Some people frankly think they need them and they dont need them. But theres some people that want them and it is really not the right thing. Then you have some people that i guess want to have more than they think they need. But a ventilator is a very precious piece of equipment right now. It is hard to make. It is complex. Some of them are like the dashboard of an airplane. They are very complicated and expensive machines. But we are ready to go depending on what happens. We have some hospitals and states that think they need ventilators. If they do need them, we will have them. What about hydroxychloroquine . Is there any early data on these trials . Pres. Trump not that ive heard. We have 1100 in new york right now and we have other locations where patients, people are taking them. The good news is, it is only three days. We havent heard anything bad. There have been no catastrophic events. But it is a little too soon to talk about it. It would be a total game changer if that happened. If that happened, it would be a game changer. And i think in all cases, the zpak, you know what the zpak is. So we are going to see what happens with the hydroxychloroquine. Are there other antiviral drugs that have some promise . Pres. Trump we are looking at a lot of them. Some show promise. I think the doctor might want to speak about the vaccines. A lot of Johnson Johnson is very advanced. We will see what happens. The one thing with the vaccine is, it doesnt help this group, because this group, you need to test the vaccine. The one thing with the drug you just mentioned, it is a malaria drug and also an arthritis drug, very powerful drug, but it has been out there for a long time. So it is tested in the sense that you know it doesnt kill you, but you may want to discuss the vaccines for a moment, doctor. Just for a second, to answer your question, there are a number of candidates. The drugs that are now being looked at in various ways, either compassionate use, Clinical Trials, are generally drugs that already exist for other things. Theres a whole menu of drugs and interventions that are going into Clinical Trials that are not approved for anything yet. Things like convalescent plasma or hyper immunoglobulin or antibodies. A variety of other things. Right now, theres a lot of activity going on behind the scenes in the design and the kinds of Clinical Trials that will give us an answer. So there are a lot of things. How long does that normally take . Weeks, months . Dr. Fauci it takes at least months. At least. So that is the reason why you are seeing a lot of activity with drugs that already exist for other purposes. They are already there. But the drugs that you want to show in a Clinical Trial, at very best it will take months. Just one word on the vaccine. We hope that as we get into the summer, if, in fact, there are cases out there, when you are in a phase ii or phase three trial, we might get an early efficacy signal. That means even though we havent definitively proven that a vaccine works, you get enough information that if it were an emergency, you might have emergency use authorization. Pres. Trump and i have to say this. Hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin, which you take with it, maybe, if you want, i think some medical workers are using it, maybe, or getting it prescribed for another use. But the word is that some are and some arent. I think it is not a bad idea, but that is up to the doctors. But there is a theory that people are taking it at that work in hospitals and work with patients because there is some evidence again, it has to be proven. It is very early. This was supposed to take a long time to be approved. I prevailed upon the fda to get it approved immediately. It was on the market for years. We will see what happens. But there is a theory that it may work. It has been out there for a long time. Back to a general question about the national stockpile. The governor of connecticut today said he was disturbed to learn that the stockpile is now empty, his words, and he said pres. Trump it is not empty. What we are doing, i thought i said it accurately, rather than having it brought into the stockpile, where appropriate, other than certain things like ventilators, which is not a lot when you look at the whole country it sounds like a lot, almost 10,000, but we are trying to have supply sent directly to the states. We dont want medical supplies coming into where houses all over the place and then we take them and bring them to another warehouse. So we are having them brought from the manufacturer directly to the hospital or the state where it is going. We are trying to keep it that way as much as possible. In some cases, we are having it brought. Remember this we also took over a virtually empty, just like we had no ammunition in the military, we had very little in medical supplies in our stockpile. For the most part, we are trying very hard to have it delivered to the site where they need it. In the United States, we can practice social distancing, but some of our sailors, particularly on the uss roosevelt, they are not able to. They are in confined spaces. What are your thoughts on that . Should it be offloaded, and are you concerned about u. S. Military readiness during this pandemic . For instance, what would happen if china was to increase patrols in the South China Sea . Pres. Trump dont worry about our military. You saw the military put up a hospital in three and a half days with 2900 beds. A lot of beds. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. And that wasnt the only one. It was at other locations. And now it is louisiana and new jersey and other places. One thing that i think is indisputable is, when i watch the army corps of engineers and fema throw up these hospitals, and they are complex, incredible buildings, essentially, tents, various things, but they did it in such a short period of time, and our military is ready like you havent seen. And you know, we watch the shows at night, and i think the best guests that ive seen in a long time are the military people, and theyve never done it before. I watched a general who i deal with a lot, i say, general, you have to give us two hospitals in louisiana. Yes, sir. The next morning, they are building them and they are up in three days. I think they are the best guests you have. I guess im tired of the other guests, in all fairness. This may be an uncomfortable question, but what would the models look like if we had started the social distancing guidelines sooner, in february or january, when china and south korea were doing those . If we had started these practices sooner, could these models be different right now . Pres. Trump remember this, and everybody says it, you know who says it better than anybody is dr. Fauci, i had a decision to make. Maybe it was my biggest decision. China was heavily infected and thousands and thousands of people were coming from china to the United States. And against the wishes, not even wishes, but they disagreed with the decision, i made a decision to stop china from coming in. Took a lot of heat, even from china. I just made a trade deal, a big one. And im shortly thereafter saying you cant come into our country. That was a big decision. That was earlier than the dates you are talking about. That was probably, and not because i did it, that was probably the biggest decision we made so far. But if you look at the graph, the problem new york has is new york started late, but the other ones didnt start so late, and new york is also more complicated for obvious reasons, but it got a late start, but you want to maybe answer this question . Go back to slide two. I want to explain to things that i think is important. We had a lot of questions about mortality and what it meant. See this, heres the line. This is the confidence interval. This is where we have the ability to push it down. So you have a large confidence interval around the line. So we are trying to move that gray down tighter and below the dotted line. So i think that is really important. And if you could go to the next slide. So we really cant answer your question until we can get Antibody Testing out there. Because what we cant tell you is, and we can always do this, theres always samples in hospitals and other things. It is the way we really defined the hiv epidemic in the United States. We were able to go to lead samples and tests, defined where what was going on. We really need to look here. And really see, was there a virus significantly circulating in early march and late february, and what did it look like, and where was it, and was it all in the metro areas, and i think that is what dr. Fauci and i are very focused on, getting serology testing out there to really figure out when it came and really have those samples to be able to do that. The painful part of my question, and i dont mean to put you on the spot, if we had started this sooner, we might not have 100,000 to 200,000 americans dying. Dr. Birx well, that makes an assumption. There was a lot back here that we didnt see. And until we have the antibody tests, i cant really answer that. Dr. Fauci just to underscore what dr. Birx is saying, if there was no virus in the background, there was nothing to mitigate. If there was virus that we didnt know about, then probably yes. The only trouble is that whenever you come out and Say Something like that, it becomes almost a soundbite that gets taken out of context. But i think it is very important that if there was covert infection here that we didnt know about and we didnt mitigate if there was virtually nothing there, then there is to mitigate. And i dont know the answer. We were watching south korea and china and italy and we werent taking action when those countries were spiking. Dr. Fauci in a perfect world, it would have been nice to know what was going on. We didnt. But i believe we acted very early. Vice pres. Pence [inaudible] pres. Trump we inherited obsolete tests. Vice pres. Pence can i speak to that as well . The president made reference to the fact that january 31, he suspended all travel from china. Strongrd, we issued travel advisories for the areas of italy implicated and south korea, and we made arrangements for those countries to screen all passengers coming in. The president s original efforts were designed at preventing the coronavirus from coming into the United States. What our experts have told us over and over again is that those actions bought us a significant amount of time on to respond with mitigation efforts, standing up resources, testing and supplies. But we went from a prevention strategy the president acted on before the month of january was over to a mitigation strategy, which continues to this day. If i can also say, just to every american, all the questions about resources are very important, and i can assure you that the president and our task force are preoccupied with these issues and working with governors hourbyhour to meet those needs. But if americans put into practice these guidelines for another 30 days, they will do their part to lower the curve, and save lives, most importantly, and limit the burden on our hospitals and Health Care System in the country significantly. So, make no mistake about it, while we will work our hearts out, leave no stone unturned to find the resources, the masks, the ventilators that we need, and we are going to meet that moment with the full energy of the American Economy and the whole of the american government, the American People have a role to play in preserving that medical capacity in a way that will ensure the people who are caught up in the coronavirus, particularly those who are vulnerable for serious outcomes, which are seniors with serious Underlying Health conditions or anyone with immunodeficiency, to have the support every American Family would want their loved one to have. Pres. Trump it is very early, but i also think we were very smart, because we stopped china. We had never done that before. We had never closed our borders before, as i read. Maybe thats not right. Dr. Fauci also said, i think it was maybe the biggest moment, because we were stopping the source. We were stopping the infection. We also stopped europe, very shortly thereafter. That was a big decision. That was not an easy decision, either. I stopped them a long time before people started stopping anyone. We stopped china. We stopped all of europe. And ultimately we stopped u. K. , ireland. Yes . Reporter mr. President , going back to hydroxychloroquine, how many Clinical Trials would you like to see before you put a stamp of approval on it . There are Clinical Trials taking place around the world right now. Is there a number, how many cases would you like to see . Dr. Fauci that is an fda decision. It really depends on a variety of factors. I would like to see a Clinical Trial has a comparison to something thats comparable to what it means without the drug. I keep saying it all the time, and i will say it again. Its a controlled trial that compares it to something meaningful. Reporter are these the trials that you are watching take place around the world . Dr. Fauci there are a number of trials not only in the United States but across the world. Right now it is too early to make any determination, but i want to get back to what i say all the time, the definitive way you get an answer is by doing a randomized, controlled Clinical Trial. Pres. Trump you are talking about chloroquine . Reporter hydroxychloroquine. Pres. Trump there are trials going on. But there also trials going on, we are trying them on people who are now sick. Reporter around the world. So my question was really pres. Trump we are watching those trials very closely. Reporter mr. President , Mitch Mcconnell said impeachment diverted the attention of the government. Did it divert your attention or your teams attention . Pres. Trump well, i dont like to think i did. I think i handled it very well. But i guess it probably did. I mean, i got impeached. I certainly devoted a little time to thinking about it, right . It was a hoax. It was a total hoax. And when you think i got impeached only because they had a majority in the house, they didnt get one republican vote, 1960, not one republican. I dont think thats ever happened. The republicans stuck together, and they stuck together in the senate, 52 to a half, a half. So when you say that, yeah, i see them saying about speed. They probably illegally impeached me, in the sense that if you look at the fbi today, the horrible things, nobody cares about that now because all they are thinking about is the virus, and thats ok. But you look at the report that came out from ig horowitz, it is disgraceful, what went on, a total disgrace. They got caught in the act. But you know what . We wont talk about that now. Did it divert my attention . I think im getting apluses for the way i handled myself during a phony impeachment, ok . It was a hoax. But certainly i guess i thought of it. And i think i probably acted, i dont think i would have done any better had i not been impeached, ok . I think thats a tribute to something. Maybe its a tribute to me. But i dont think i would have acted any differently, or any faster. But the democrats, their whole life, whole being, whole existence was to try to get me out of office any way they can, even if it was a phony deal, a phony deal. It turned out, and all you have to do is look at the fbi reports. Take a look at what the fbi did. Take a look at comeys report, 78 pages. Total kyl. Take a look at that. Take a look at the report on mccabe. Read it, and you will see how horrible it was. And you know what . I dont think this countrys going to take it, if you want to know the truth. Reporter what are you offering florida, when it comes to the american cruise ships seeking to dock here . Pres. Trump we will be speaking to the governor, and we will be speaking to him soon. But theres a case, we have two ships. There are people who are sick on the ship. And we dont want them to be ghost ships. You know, people turned those ships away. There was a ship in a certain part of asia, from port to port, nobody would take it, but in the meantime you have people who are dying on the ship, or at least very sick, but they are dying on the ship. So im going to, you know, im going to do whats right, not only for us, but for humanity. These are two big ships and they have a lot of sick people. I will be speaking to the governor. Reporter thank you. I was hoping pres. Trump do you ever run out of questions . I have nothing else to do. I mean if you want should we keep going . Reporter andrew cuomo today said the system you have were governors are trying to get ventilators is like being on ebay with 50 other states bidding, plus fema. You just said tonight pres. Trump he was complaining . What did he say, exactly . Reporter he said when you have states competing for ventilators and medical care, it is like being on ebay, with 50 other states. Pres. Trump he shouldnt be complaining. We gave him a lot of ventilators. When you take a look at the chart, i wish he got going sooner. But we gave him a lot of ventilators, and you know what . He has a lot of ventilators. The problem is, with some people, no matter what you give it is never enough, never enough. They will say, how is trump doing, and you are a democrat. Some said really good. I tell you, gavin newsom from california, who is doing a good job, by the way, and others said really good. But generally, your natural reflex, how is trump doing . You asked that to a democrat. Well, we dont like it. Really, you dont like it . Were getting very high marks. But im not doing this for marks. I am doing this to say lives. When john saw the numbers and jim saw those numbers, shocking numbers, talking about deaths, even at the low end you were shocked when you see 120,000, 200,000 people over a very short time. I want to save lives. Im not doing this for any other reason. I want to save lives. But the governor of new york has gotten, i think hes probably gotten more than anybody, has gotten four hospitals, four medical tents. Hes gotten a ship, the likes of which nobody has ever seen before, other than los angeles which has the twin. I mean, weve done a lot. But many ventilators were sent but many ventilators were sent to new york. Mayor de blasio i talked to mayor de blasio a lot, and he was satisfied with the number of ventilators. He had an interesting request. He wanted people. A lot of states are not having a problem with ventilators. They are having a problem getting medical people, and we are sending a lot of people in. Military, very talented people. Your response to the question earlier was that they should not be doing that. They should not be doing what . Governors should not be competing. They should not be competing. All they are going to do is drive up the price. They should be calling us and we can work it so they get the ventilators and they get shipped directly. If they are competing, even if there is only two of them calling, they are going to just drive up the price. Who makee for people ventilators. They do want to make money. It is a hard option to take because it is a lot of money and who would think you need 16,000 ventilators . But this is a very unique time in life, and i think you know, im dealing with new york and we are having a very good relationship. You see what just happened with central park and the tents. We are having a really good relationship. Go ahead. You mentioned gavin newsom in the job he is doing. Im interesting you think california has the has done they are doing a good job, california. They could have a spike where suddenly it spikes upward. We had a couple, like, louisiana i think theyre doing a good had mardi gras, and all of a sudden after mardi gras, which tells you about distancing, i guess i was really surprised. Was looking at louisiana im saying theyre in great shape, then they have mardi gras. It was a big success, and suddenly, it went like a rocket ship. That tells you about distancing. Are you concerned about the Homeless Population in california . Theres the homelessness crisis in california. They are obviously concerned it could spread like wildfire in that community. We are looking at that very strongly. I know it bothers gavin. I dont know if it bothered nancy pelosi, but she has it in her district at a very high level. They have to be careful. They had a very big Homeless Population in an area which a few years ago did not have anybody in those areas. I know that some people in california are working on that very hard. Week,the end of last president macron talked about an Important Initiative that you and him would launch. Any news on that . Is talking about something that will be very positive for the world if we do it. Its a private thing, but it will become public if we decide to do it, but positive. Our relationship with the president , our relationship with france is, i think, extraordinary, very good. Your comments about what could have happen and the actions that you took. Is there any fairness to the criticism you may have lulled americans into a false sense of security when you were saying it was going to go away and that sort of thing . Its going away. Hopefully, at the end of the month. If not, hopefully it will be soon after that. Hasnt the thinking on this evolve . I think from the beginning, my attitude was that we have to get this country all you have to do is look at what was going on in china. It was devastation. You look at the numbers from china. Those initial numbers coming out from china, but, you know, i which wasticle today very interesting. They say, we wish President Trump would give more bad news. Give bad news. Im not about bad news. I want to give people hope. I want to give people a feeling that we all have a chance. Numbers and the when john and all of you saw those numbers, and you saw 120 thousand people, you mean thats good . Dead people within a short period of time. I want to give people a feeling of hope. I could be very negative. I could say with a minute, those numbers are terrible. This is going to be horrible. This is a horrible thing. Lets go to the beach, lets go to the airport, lets go down to mardi gras there were a lot of people i could have said that. We did not say that. That was an alternative. We talked about that. That was always an alternative. Thats where i said, let it ride. Do nothing. We would have to. 2 million dead people. More than that. Because i did not do that and we did catch it early and we stopped china really early and we stopped europe really early because i saw what was happening. What happened is i stopped italy. Italy was really heavily infected. We started out with parts of italy, then all of italy, then spain. Then i said stop europe. We have to stop them from coming here. Europe. We love europe, but they were having problems. I dont think anybody did a better job than that, especially when you see the 2. 2 million number. And i hope we will be substantially under the numbers you are looking at on the minimum side. You were not just hoping that it would dissipate . Lets i want to be positive. I dont want to be negative. Im a positive person. Somebody said, oh, i wish he would be more negative. To bethis is really easy negative about, but i want to get people hope. You know, im a cheerleader for the country. We are going through the worst thing the country has probably ever seen. Over we had the civil war, 600,000 people, right . Had we not done anything, we would have lost many times that, but we did something, so its going to be hopefully way under that, but we lose more here potentially than you lose in world wars as a country. Theres nothing positive theres nothing great about it, but i want to give people in this country hope. I think it is very important. Knew everything. I knew it could be horrible and i knew it could be maybe good. At that time, people did not know that much about it. Even the experts were not talking about it. We did not know where it was going. We saw china. That was it. Maybe it would have stopped in china. We wish we could have killed it in china. With did not happen. It started spreading in europe. It started spreading all over. Im not blaming anybody. Im just saying we have an incredible thing i think the professionals,ur military, governors, politicians i think theyve done an incredible job. With few exceptions, i think they have done an incredible job, but i dont want to be a negative person. I did start off by saying today before this question, they said this is going to be a rough two or three weeks. This is going to be one of the worst two or three weeks weve ever had in our country. When i see 28, 29 people from the governor of new jersey 29 people. When you see 170 three people died in new york yesterday or whatever the number was, when you see the kind of numbers that we are witnessing, we have never seen numbers like that. It is easy to be negative. And then everybody can be negative, but im a cheerleader for our country, and i want us to do a great job so the number can be kept and im very flattered. I want as few as number of people to die as possible, and that is all we are working on. I know you dont like the question, but are you now i dont mind your question. I dont mind your question. I think it is actually its not meant to be a fair question, but it is a fair question. I think we have done a fantastic job ok, fine, i will accept your word. I think we have done a great job. We are going to see how it comes out, but when you look at minimum numbers of 120,000 people, when you look at it could have been 2. 2 Million People died and more if we did nothing if we had just done nothing, it would have gone up, it would have come down. As for your statement, it would have been confined, it would have been violent like we have never seen in this country before. We had great professionals, great military, really great governors and politicians. I cannot say enough about what is going on, and as for what you said, i think we are way ahead of schedule in terms of numbers. I think i hope, but if we can keep it under the minimum numbers the country has done a great job, but i think ive done a really good job of mobilizing. I think mike pence has been fantastic. I put him in charge of the task force. We have wonderful people on the task force. Wonderful people. This man was working literally he had days where he did not go to bed. He did not go to sleep. He called, he went 24 hours and then started the next day. People dont know the job he did. I did not even know he was that good of a manager, to be honest with you. You never know that about somebody until they are tested under fire, but he started very early. They saw it very early. They probably knew sooner than everybody because that is what they study, that is what they do. Business,depressing right . Must be a little bit depressing, but they have seen it all. I want to ask about a question about a headline running all day, to get dr. Faucis perspective. A professor from m. I. T. Suggests coronavirus could be carried on droplets a distance of 27 feet. Do you buy into that . If that is the case, does that suggest the current social distancing guidelines may need to be extended . This could be terribly misleading. It was looking at the distance droplets fly by speaking, coughing, sneezing. You go way back and go, 27, eight, might get when you see someone do that, get out of the way. That is not practical. That is misleading. That means that all of a sudden, the sixfoot thing does not work. That is a very, very robust, rigorous sneeze. Thats what that is. Keep going . Nt to one more. Grahammentioned franklin. As you know, his father, billy graham, was a trusted spiritual advisor and friend of many residents. A lot of your predecessors in times of National Emergency reached out to pastors and other spiritual counselors. Have you done that . Frankly comp Franklin Graham is someone who is really special. I have many special people, very many special people in the evangelical christian community. You can talk rabbis. You can talk you know, i have a lot of tremendous support from religious leaders. Franklin graham i just spoke to him today for a true for trumans period of time and told him what a great job he is doing, and he loves it doing it. He loves helping people, and he loves jesus. That i can tell you. He loves jesus. On the maps, is the reason why there is no cdc recommendation for the public to wear masks because they are meant to preserve and save the masks for medical workers or is it because the virus is not primarily transmitted through the air . Does have recommendations on their website about that. Forceame to the task several weeks ago about if you are infected, wearing a mask to protect others, and if you cannot, youre working with someone who is sick and you have to be that worker in the household because remember, we want people in the household being taken care of that they should wear a mask. I know your question is broader than that, and it is just being considered by the task force now about if the recommendation that already exists relevant to Wearing Masks should be altered in any way, so it is still under discussion. Just about masks you can get a mask, but you can also i mean, most people have scarves, and scarves are very good. They can use a scarf. Were only talking about a limited period of time, but it says in the recommendations you can use you can substitute a scarf for a mask. If people feel that i think you know, some people disagree with the mask for various reasons and some people do not, but you can wear a scarf, you can do the masks if it makes you feel better. We have no objection to it, and some people recommend it. Lets go. , dopeople never get tired you . Mr. President , again, im looking at the cases around the italy,and latin america, and brazil, for instance, he keeps on being proactive with groups. Are you afraid that what we are ng here i mean, you are pretty spread out already. I mean the United States. We are very careful. Im very careful personally. But the travel ban, are you afraid we are looking at numerous countries as they get in a position brazil, as an example. Brazil had no problem until just a short time ago, and now they are starting to get inflamed, and, yes, we are absolutely looking at a ban. There are two other countries you mention. Iran already has a ban. We are looking at certain countries as they become hot. What are your plans . Are you going to stay in the white house . Oh wanted to go to the opening of the hospital in new york. Even believeld not it, that i said it, but i did. I wanted to go. They did not want me to do it. The secret service did not what me to do it, you know, for reasons. I wanted to go to the boat sailing into new york harbor, but the governor did a good job of that and the mayor of new york. No,uld love to go out, but, i will be in the white house. It is sort of like the nerve center, the control center, and i think it is important. You see what happened with boris johnson. You see what happened with others. I think it is important that i remain healthy, so for the most part, we are staying here. Eventsled many different and we will be staying here for the most part. Of the cdc wrote an article the other day in which he said what is really is an Incident Commander to really take command of where everything is going and how things are being coordinated. That is something that could be useful in this particular instance. Is pete gaynor, he is the administrator of fema, and when the president signed the National Emergency declaration, he stood up the National Response center at fema, and now i can tell you when the White House Coronavirus task force meets, im at one end of the table and pete and the are byart of the team videoconference at the other end of the table. If its by air bridge and literally bringing in millions of supplies from around the world, the thoughtful deployment of those supplies to hospitals, particularly with regard to ventilators, we are working very closely hhs is fully integrated with fema now, but because of the president s decision to stand up with fema in the lead, we have a Coronavirus Task force in the white house that is bringing the president the very best Health Experts and recommendations from every agency. All the limitation as we tell governors literally every day is happening through fema. State requests are coming up through regional administrators for fema and back to the white house. Ventilators that are parked in a warehouse in new jersey. We also have [indiscernible] had them a long time ago but did not need them. The question is this happen. We also have people not knowing about the new abbott testing facility or testing system. If there were an Incident Commander who was in charge of all of that, getting the word out, would that be him . Nobody knew. It was just brought to light two weeks ago. It was an invention. Nobody knew about it. They did an incredible job. Their scientists came up with the idea. Showed it to you yesterday i dont think you can do much better than that. If i may, your point is well taken. The abbott laboratorys point of contact was announced in the rose garden on sunday. We are socializing that all across the country, to every governor, to lavatories, elsewhere, and i have to tell you that this team that the president has assembled, advisors on the White House Coronavirus task force, and then this team at fema, if its hhs deputy secretary who is coordinating all supplies, the admiral who is literally working with every state on a county by county basis to deploy testing, it is impressive, and i think it has given great encouragement to governors. I spoke to governors and all the states and territories again yesterday because governors i can tell you from my own experience as a governor in indiana, we had tornadoes and flooding. Governors know how to deal with fema. As soon as the president stood up fema, declare that National Emergency, what i will call a certain amount of muscle memory kicked in and states around the country and we are seeing tremendous efficiency in communication, and that is how we will go forward. The president s vision is femas vision which is in response to a Health Crisis, locally executed, state managed, federally supported, and i have to tell you, we are seeing that whole process spinning up every day, and i hope americans looking on are encouraged by that system. I know they are hearing from governors around the country about the flow of resources and testing and supplies, and we will continue to keep that what you call an incident command, what we call the federal Emergency Management Agency Working 24 7. I have to say this. I have had in the last less than a week three governors call that truly have disliked me over the years, even before i decided to run for president , and they said , we have to tell you, youve done a great job. You and your team have done a great job. These are three governors, respected very respected in said, likend they or not like, you and your team have done an incredible job, and i think they have. My first question is on modeling. Modeling any kind of based on lockdowns . All of the modelers who presented this i just want to thank them again because they assembled from around the globe very quickly about two or three weeks ago before we announced the first 15 days to show all the implications of closing the schools, having people stay in their homes, and that is how this models. Stay in your homes, social distancing of six feet. No one actually termed it and locked down as far as i remember. It was more about staying in your home, and i think the difference was and these were in the models. When you talk about could we have known something different, you know, i think all of us i mean, i was overseas when this happened in africa, and i think when you look at the china data originally, and you said there is 80 Million People or 20 and 80 people in wuhan Million People in hubei and they come up with a number of 50,000, you start thinking of this more like sars than you do this kind of global pandemic. I will just be frank. When i looked at it, i was like this is not as close as those quarters are you know, i think the medical community made interpreted the chinese data smallerwas serious, but than anyone expected because i think probably we were missing a significant amount of the data. Now that we see what happened to italy and we see what happened to spain, so what was modeled is not a lock down two countries did remove people from homes that were positive and put them in separate spaces. That also was not modeled, but it could be modeled, so we could go back and ask modelers about lockdown versus not lockdown, but what they modeled was people staying at home. Isi guess what im asking for best Case Scenarios, is best Case Scenario every state basically having lockdown behavior . Not maybe actual lockdown, but maybe everybody staying in their homes . If that is true, why not tell every state to do that . It is everybody social distancing by six feet when they are outside. That is probably absolutely the key more than anything else, is if you are never within six feet of any single individual, then you have controlled the virus. There are different methods to get you to that point, and i think what ive heard from our president and Vice President is they trust the American People can berstand that they outside, take walks, be six feet away from anywhere else from anyone else and be in their homes, and we trust them to do that without having to lock down. In the midst of an epidemic, a question on ventilators i just want to add, i think the one thing nobody really knew about this virus is how contagious it was. It is so incredibly contagious, and nobody knew that. I dont know that anybody has ever seen anything like this. Normally, you would have to get close and touch, and they say a lot of things have to happen. This is, like, it is truly invisible and so contagious. I dont think any doctor knew it at the time. I dont think anybody could have known it. People have not seen anything like this. A question about ventilators. Theout the fact governor of new york said there should be a federal system where the federal government sets the price, the federal government distributes the ventilators. Why not have that . Essentially we do. We have distributed thousands of ventilators and we have now thousands of ventilators and we are buying them at a good price, and we are actually making them by the thousands. To have ang tremendous number. They are looking to make 100,000 ventilators. Florida has been great. General electric health care has been great. General motors has come a long way. I have to be honest, they are working very hard. We are making thousands and thousands of ventilators. At the end of this, and there will be dont say im optimistic because i dont want to do that, but i am optimistic. Im a very optimistic person. Let me tell you, we will have thousands of ventilators. What i want to do is make sure we always have plenty for the future, but then we want to help italy and france and other countries that you dont even know about yet with all of the problems they have because ventilators are very tough to come by. They are very hard to make. They are very complicated. They are very expensive. Yes . [inaudible] i dont know. I dont know exactly what he said. I can take your word for it. He has been generous to me. He is a democrat. Probably thinking of running for president. I got him ships, i got him hospitals. He probably things he hit pay dirt. Ive been very generous on ventilators. If you look, they have thousands of ventilators in their warehouse waiting to be picked up. , iy never picked them up, so would have to hear it from him facetoface. More and we will see you tomorrow . Is that ok . Dont say that i cut it short. In the meantime, im sure people are enjoying it. This, it is an incredibly dark topic, an incredibly horrible topic, and it is incredibly interesting. Itshy everybody is they are going crazy. They cannot get enough of it, they are studying it for themselves. A lot of people have it and they hope for the best. When this gets the wrong person, it isn that ravaging. It is horrible. Go ahead. Is there any data to suggest you will reach a second wave of the point of which the stayathome order stash we will be very well prepared and the second wave will not be like the first wave. With that, i better let him give you a little more because i dont want to have him upset with me. Come on, doctor. When you talk about second wave, i think you are talking about two different things. For example, after the 30 days, if we get the mitigation that we hope will get us to the suppression that dr. Birx was talking about, there is a danger if we do not continue to maintain that that we will have a resurgence right within the recurrent outbreak. That is still the second wave, but it is really an exacerbation of the current wave. We hope that does not happen, and that is why we are really pushing and why i was so emphatic about making sure we abide by those mitigation strategies. The other aspect of the second wave is something that just the nature of the virus, as the president said, highly transmissible, and it is going to be circulating in other parts of the world as we are going down, which i think we will and i feel certain that we will. Then we have to worry about the next season, and that was just mentioned. Thats when you use the experience you have, the interventions that you have developed and, hopefully, a vaccine that you will be able to deploy as quickly as you can. That is that second wave that will be more seasonable than an exacerbation of something that you pull back on. A lot of very positive things are happening with the therapeutics and drugs of different kinds and the vaccines. I think a lot of very positive things are happening. Ok, one more. Please, go ahead. The worstCase Scenarios, there is a real scarcity problem. Im just curious who signs off on those lifeanddeath decisions . Would say mike pence, the head of fema, some of our generals that are working, that are doing a number we have. Enerals that are working i think we are very well honor to and it is an be here tonight. I appreciate it. I appreciate your interest. I think there is a great interest in it, and we will see you tomorrow. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] if you miss any of our live coverage of the governments response to the coronavirus out right, watch at any time at fromspan. Org coronavirus daily briefings by the present and White House Task force to governors in the hardest hit states. Its all there, use the charts and maps to track the global spread and confirm cases in the u. S. County by county. Our coronavirus webpages your fast and easy way to watch cspans unfiltered coverage of this pandemic. All month on cspan, we are featuring the winners of our studentcam documentary competitions